to-day of the present, the to-morrow of the futurethat we may not look in folly to ourselves and our vain and empty devices, but to Him Who has made us, and Whose we are,-Whose dealings with us, whether of mercy or chastisement, are ever wise and holy. Number we our days by our daily prayers— number we them by our daily obedience and daily acts of love-number we them by the memories that they bring of holy men who have entered into their Saviour's peace, and by the hopes which are woven with them of glory and of grace won for us! So best can we win the wisdom of salvation. Life is a lesson, the learning which aright in Christ alone can make us wise. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; but fools despise knowledge and instruction.' 13. Turn Thee again, O Lord, at the last : and be gracious unto Thy servants. 14. O satisfy us with Thy mercy, and that soon so shall we rejoice and be glad all the days of our life. The spirit of this wisdom will lead us to turn our hearts and hopes up from this sinful, transitory world of chance and change, to that high and unchangeable God Who would bring us to Himself. Turn we to Him at last in prayer, and He will turn to us both now and at the last in grace. Earth and mortality cannot satisfy us, however we may crave to hold them. His mercy is more than satisfying, His grace is more than sufficient for all our wants, and needs, and longings. In this world of death and of the dying, we can do little but mourn; in His better world all tears are wiped from all faces; there is no more death, there is only unfailing joy and immortal gladness for all the days of immortal life. 15. Comfort us again now after the time that Thou hast plagued us and for the years wherein we have suffered adversity. : 16. Shew Thy servants Thy work and their children Thy glory. 17. And the glorious Majesty of the Lord our God be upon us prosper Thou the work of our hands upon us, O prosper Thou our handy-work. Then shall be heard and answered the prayer of the second Moses, the Son of God, for His people. He will give them rest for their labour, comfort for trial, life after death, ages of immortality for years of mortality. Then the fully accomplished work of the Father and of the Son in our redemption is made plain in its completeness and its perfection to them who have served Him. Mercy is seen to be His work, and glory that which He has prepared. The children of men then see that brightness of love and truth which the veil of earthly things had so long hidden from their eyes. Death is swallowed up in life; the punishment of sin is made by the Almighty Majesty of our God the entrance into holi ness and joy. We take refuge from the sadness and poverty of this life, not in the gloom of the grave, but in the light of our God. There He will be over us, with us, in us, in all our works and ways. Let us, therefore, pray that He will be with us here. So whether we live, live we unto Him; whether we die, die we unto Him; that in our life we may work His works; and for our death-Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord: even so saith the Spirit; for they rest from their labours: and their works do follow them.' This Psalm is "A Prayer of Moses, the Man of God." It was certainly written by the aged lawgiver of Israel, during the latter years of the wanderings of the people in the wilderness. The sight of death carrying off those tribes of Israel who had come out of Egypt, one after another, until they all perished in their weary journeyings of forty years, and the prophetic knowledge that he himself would die, and not be suffered to enter into the land of rest, must have stirred his mind, and carried him for rest and refuge to that eternal God in whose long-enduring purposes our puny lives and doings seem like things of nought. The name of "Man of God" is also given to Moses in Deut. xxxiii. 1: "This is the blessing wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death ;" and this Psalm presents many points of resemblance to the thoughts and expressions of the Books of Moses. Its ancientness, its sublimity, and the solemn grandeur of its poetry, have won for it the admiration of all readers of the Book of Psalms. It is appointed by the Church to be used in the Office for the Burial of the Dead. PSALM Xci. Qui habitat. 1. WHOSO dwelleth under the defence of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Heb. He who sitteth in the secret place of the most High. 2. I will say unto the Lord, Thou art my hope, and my strong hold my God, in Him will I trust. care. Like the priest who, ministering in the holy place, sat him down to rest with the glory of the Almighty's presence above him like a sheltering screen; so he who has in prayer made God his hope and his refuge shall be able to repose securely upon His love and Or as in the Holy of Holies the wings of the Cherubim overshadowed the Mercy-seat, so does the fostering providence and grace of God defend His righteous servants. 'We dwell in Him, and He in us.' This all may do by faith in Him; but He did so above all, Who was the great High Priest, and Whose human nature was the Ark of the better covenant; Who was always-whether as baptized in Jordan, with the Holy Ghost visibly descending upon Him, or as fasting in the wilderness among the wild beasts,-under the shadow of the Eternal Father. 3. For He shall deliver thee from the snare of the hunter and from the noisome pestilence. : LXX. For He shall deliver thee from the snare of the hunters, And from the sharp word. 4. He shall defend thee under His wings, and thou shalt be safe under His feathers: His faithfulness and truth shall be thy shield and buckler. The righteous may well trust in his God; for He can and will deliver him, both from the snare of the tempter who hunts for souls, and from that infection of sin which is more deadly than any pestilence. Like a hen gathering her chickens under her wings, so will He gather His own, and they shall be eternally safe; or 'like an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings,' so shall the Lord bear aloft His saints: for the Son of Man, Who gathered His people like a hen in the time of His mortality, after His resurrection soared with them to the throne of God like an eagle. The shield of faith,' in His faithfulness and truth, shall quench the fiery darts which the wicked one ever is aiming against God's people. 5. Thou shalt not be afraid for any terror by night nor for the arrow that flieth by day; 6. For the pestilence that walketh in darkness nor for the sickness that destroyeth in the noon-day. LXX. The demon that is in the noontide 7. A thousand shall fall beside thee, and ten thousand at thy right hand but it shall not come nigh thee. 8. Yea, with thine eyes shalt thou behold: and see the reward of the ungodly. To him who is ever placing himself in the presence of God, who abideth under the shadow of the Al |