is at the point to die even from my youth up Thy terrors have I suffered with a troubled mind. 16. Thy wrathful displeasure goeth over me and the fear of Thee hath undone me. The curse of sin was laid upon the Saviour, though He were sinless; and the face of God was turned from Him at the last, and He was left in darkness Who was the Light of Light. In the last day of His passion Christ bore the Cross upon His shoulders, but all His life long He had borne it in His heart. His life in this world of death had been a living death. Like the children of Israel suffered terror and misery in the brick-kilns and the prisons of Egypt, so had He, even from His youth, when Herod sought to slay Him, been surrounded with hatred and danger; so that the word of the prophet, which was spoken of Israel, was fulfilled in Him-'Out of Egypt have I called My Son.' But in the last hours of His life on earth the sense of the displeasure and wrath of God against sin and evil, which had all through His life oppressed His soul, came with doubled weight, and pierced His sinless spirit with sharper agony and suffering. : 17. They came round about me daily like water and compassed me together on every side. 18. My lovers and friends hast Thou put away from me and hid mine acquaintance out of my sight. The sins of all mankind came round Him like the waves of a dark and boundless ocean, and on this side and on that there was no escape but through the gate of death. He was left alone in that deep of woe, for none could, if they would, have come near Him to aid Him or to bear His passion with Him; and none would, if they could; for even His disciples, whom He had loved unto the end, forsook Him. We men for whom He was dying, hid, as it were, our faces from Him. All around Him was darkness,-the darkness of the hidden sun before His eyes, and the darkness of sin and the gloom of death before His soul. His body hung on the cross between heaven and earth, as though He were an outcast of both. For us men and for our salvation He suffered and was buried.' scended into hell.' 'He de The title of this awful and mournful Psalm is "A Song or Psalm of the sons of Korah, to the chief Musician upon Mahalath Leannoth, a Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite." There are several persons of the name of Heman mentioned in Holy Scripture. This Psalm has been sometimes ascribed to Heman the Levite, who is called also a Seer, and is spoken of as being the chief musician of a choir with Asaph and Jeduthun in the time of David, (1 Chron. xxv. 5, 6). But the Heman to whom the title ascribes this Psalm was an Ezrahite, or a descendant of Zerah, the son of Judah. "The sons of Zerah were Zimri, and Ethan, and Heman, and Calcol, and Dara," (1 Chron. ii. 6); and these grandsons of Judah appear to have been renowned for their wisdom and mental power, for it is said of Solomon, (1 Kings iv. 31,) "He was wiser than all men; than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol." If, therefore, the Heman of this Psalm were Heman the son of Zerah,—and this was the opinion of St. Athanasius and Eusebius among the ancients, and of Lightfoot and other moderns,—it was written by him during the captivity of the Israelites in Egypt. Both the expressions of the Psalm and its general tone, which is full of sorrow and misery of heart, agree with its being written at that time. The words "Maha lath Leannoth," though they have been interpreted to signify "singing in alternate choirs," or "to be sung to the flute," yet, as their most probable meaning is "the sickness or misery of the oppressions," fall in with this view. We may suppose, then, that this Instruction of Heman the son of Zerah, the son of Judah, was written in the time of the sufferings of Israel in Egypt, that it was preserved among the hymns of the sons of Korah, and that previous to or during the reign of Hezekiah, it was adapted by them to the public service of the Temple. It is appointed by the Church for Good Friday, and has been generally interpreted as spiritually prophetic of the passion and death and descent into hell of our blessed Redeemer. The word which in verse 2 is rendered "Hell" in the Prayer-book translation, and "the grave" in the Bible version, and which is usually translated either as Hell or the grave, is in the Hebrew "Sheol," and in the Greek "Hades." Hades signifies "the unseen world." The word Sheol is literally "the Devouring, or the Insatiable." (Compare Habak. ii. 5, "who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied;" and also Prov. xxx. 15, 16.) Sheol seems to have presented itself to the thoughts of the ancient Hebrews as a gloomy, silent, inevitable, and mysterious abode, situated within the earth, whither the souls of the departed were compelled to repair and to dwell, upon their being separated from the body. (Isa. xiv. 9—20.) They believed that the spirits of all human kind were contained there in a state of waiting, and there especially dwelt the souls of the giants before the flood, (1 Pet. iii. 19, 20,) and of the great ones of old, the Rephaim, whom they pictured to themselves as fearful and gigantic spectres. (Compare Prov. ii. 18.) These ideas became modified and developed with the increasing clearness of divine teaching; and they divided the abode of the dead into different states of hope and comfort, which they called Abraham's bosom and Paradise, (St. Luke xvi. 22, 23; xxiii. 43); and of misery and suffering, (Wisdom iii. 1). Life and immortality were brought to light by the Saviour, and also judg ment and Hell—the Gehenna of everlasting punishment, as distinguished from the Unseen World. (Compare Rev. xx. 13, 14.) From these speculations of Jewish Rabbis respecting Sheol the Church of Rome appears to have developed the doctrine of Purgatory. It should be added that it was a received opinion among the followers of Rabbinical teaching, that all of the seed of Abraham, though they would be dwellers in Sheol before the general resurrection, would finally escape the Gehenna of everlasting fire. The Rich man (St. Luke xvi. 23) is in Hades in torments when he calls to Abraham his father. Evening Prayer. FOR CHRISTMAS-DAY. PSALM 1xxxix. Misericordias Domini. 1. My song shall be alway of the lovingkindness of the Lord with my mouth will I ever be shewing Thy truth from one generation to another. The love of God in the incarnation of His Son is that which must always call forth our praise and thankfulness. His truth revealed in Christ will be the theme of our songs not only in this world, but in the world hereafter. 2. For I have said, Mercy shall be set up for ever Thy truth shalt Thou stablish in the heavens. 3. I have made a covenant with My chosen : I have sworn unto David My servant; 4. Thy seed will I stablish for ever and set up thy throne from one generation to another. He has told us, and through faith in Him we know and are sure, that His mercy will never fail; we can plead before Him that His promises are like the heavens which He has built, wide and lofty, but enduring and strong. In this stedfast mercy and eternal truth did He make a covenant with His chosen servant David, and promised that his seed should sit upon his throne, not merely for a few generations, but for ever, in a kingdom which should never end. His voice of consolation to His people is, 'I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.' 5. O Lord, the very heavens shall praise Thy wondrous works and Thy truth in the congregation of the saints. Heb. And the saints Thy faithfulness in the congregation. 6. For who is he among the clouds: that shall be compared unto the Lord? : 7. And what is he among the gods that shall be like unto the Lord? This covenant was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the son of David, at whose birth the heavens burst into music, and the multitude of the heavenly host praised God for that Christ the Lord was incarnate in Bethlehem, the city of David; while His saints, from Simeon and Anna down unto the time when the number of His elect shall be accomplished, confess their trust in His truth and faithfulness, and repeat on earth the songs of heaven. He came into this lower world veiling the glory of the Godhead in mortal flesh, but yet even in His humiliation above all. None among created beings are to be compared to the Son of God, whether prophets, or apostles, or saints, though they be His 'great cloud of witnesses;' none of the angels, or virtues, or powers of heaven, however bright or high, are like unto Him, |