Our Jerusalem is the Church of the living God; her builder is Christ, the eternal Son, and she is founded by Him here in earth, and reared up and made perfect unto Him in heaven. She is built with living stones, even each one of His redeemed-stones cut from the hills of earth by the hands which were stretched upon the cross, and squared by the Holy Ghost, that they may be placed in order in that everlasting structure. Those spiritual stones are built into a spiritual city,-changeless like Him Who changeth not, and in unity with itself, like Him Who is ever One. The law of her being, the measure of her walls, the height of her battlements, the beauty of her courts, is oneness, and unity, and self-agreement. To her the tribes of the true Israel, the redeemed of God have ever gone, are ever going, and shall ever go. She does not descend to them, but they ascend to her, bearing witness to their brethren in the world by their guileless walk, and thanking their God continually as wayfarers, until they thank Him perfectly before His throne. In that high city is the throne of God, for heaven is His throne,the throne of wisdom, the throne of mercy, the throne of judgment; and there, too, are the twelve thrones, upon which the apostles of the Son of David shall sit when their King shall come at last to judge the world.

6. O pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.

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7. Peace be within thy walls and plenteousness within thy palaces.

Therefore should the citizens of that city in the fulness of aspiring love call upon each other in turn to pray for the peace of the Jerusalem above, the Church which is the mother of us all,'-to ask peace for her whose name is peace. To pray for her is to pray for ourselves; to love her prosperity is to love our own. In her truth are we taught truth; in her grace are we made rich. Therefore must we daily pray that there may be unity and peace, even the peace of God, within her walls; and that there may be ever the assurance of faith and the rich gifts of grace, and the comfortings of sacraments abounding in her houses and palaces of prayer.

8. For my brethren and companions' sakes : I will wish thee prosperity.

9. Yea, because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek to do thee good.

And not for our selves' sake only, but for our brethren's sake in the faith, and for the salvation of the companions of our pilgrimage, should we pray that these blessings may ever abound within the Church. Yea, we must seek her good because she is the Church of the living God, the temple in which Jesus Christ is built and joined together with His elect in an eternal and changeless union. Therefore to Him in His Church do we ascribe all good, because from Him, through His Church, do all good things proceed to us.

This is a "pilgrim-song" by David. Its object, perhaps, was to attract the tribes of Israel to Jerusalem, and to teach them to look upon Jerusalem not only as the seat of civil government (verse 5),

but also as the spiritual and religious capital of the nation, because there the ark of God abode in the tabernacle which David had reared for it on Sion (verse 9). It is probably one of the earliest of this series of pilgrim-songs; as before the time of David the people would have gone to Shiloh, and perhaps, during his reign, many might have kept their feast at Gibeon, where the tabernacle of Moses was, though the ark had long been separated from it. He wished gradually to lead them to visit and love Jerusalem, then newly established as a royal city and a holy place. The spiritual meaning of Jerusalem is obvious. There is in the latter verses in the Hebrew a beautiful allusion to the meaning of the word Shalom, i. e. " peace," in the name of Jerusalem, which the Fathers interpret "The vision of peace."

PSALM CXxiii. Ad Te levavi oculos meos.

1. UNTO Thee lift I up mine eyes: O Thou that dwellest in the heavens.

This is the sigh of the pilgrim who ascendeth and loveth, and ascendeth because he loveth. He is ascending from earth to heaven, and while he is ascending, unto whom should he lift his eyes, but unto Him that dwelleth in heaven? We ascend to heaven each time we think of God. In that ascent lies all goodness: if we would repent, we must look not on ourselves, but on Him; if we would be humble, we must look not on ourselves, but on Him; if we would truly love, we must look not on ourselves, but on Him Who dwelleth in the heavens. If we would have Him turn His eyes from our sins, we must turn our eyes unto His mercy and truth.

2. Behold, even as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress :

even so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until He have mercy upon us.

Like servants depend upon their master, in whose power they are, and like a handmaid depends upon her mistress, both for reward and for punishment, so do we, the servants of the Lord God Almighty, depend upon Him for all we have in this life, and that which is to come. Yea, like a faithful servant watches attentively the slightest motions and pointings out of the wishes of his lord, so do we wait and watch for the indications of our Master's will, hoping through His love and power to gain the full assurance of His mercy. Each holy soul will in its degree share in the humility and the patience of the Blessed among women, who said, 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to Thy word.'

3. Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us for we are utterly despised. 4. Our soul is filled with the scornful reproof of the wealthy and with the despitefulness of the proud.

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We must needs look to heaven if we would obtain mercy, for if we look to earth, there is great fear lest we find it not. It is not from those who are puffed with false riches, or that are proud of earthly power, that the meek and the faithful in heart will meet with esteem or reverence. Christ, the first Wayfarer Who ascended from earth to heaven, found but shame, reproof, and spite from the mighty of the

earth; and they who follow in His steps must be ready for the same, and must therefore ever look for their defence, not to the great ones who dwell on earth, but to the greater than all, Who dwelleth in the heavens.

This "pilgrim-song" has no date contained in its title. It is probably an early one, but would be very appropriate, in later times, to the journey through Samaria, for those who travelled to Jerusalem by that route. It was, however, more usual for those who lived in Galilee to cross the Jordan and journey southward through Peræa, and then to cross the Jordan a second time, and so to arrive at Jerusalem without passing through the hostile country of Samaria. Verse 2 probably alludes to the Eastern custom of masters and mistresses summoning their servants by clapping the hands, and then giving them directions by signs and movements of the hands, without speaking-the effect of which is to make the servant watch attentively every motion of his master's hands. It may, however, merely mean that the hand of a master dispenses both reward and punishment to his servants.

PSALM CXXIV. Nisi quia Dominus.

1. IF the Lord Himself had not been on our side, now may Israel say if the Lord Himself had not been on our side, when men rose up against us;

2. They had swallowed us up quick when they were so wrathfully displeased at us.

3. Yea, the waters had drowned us and the stream had gone over our soul.

4. The deep waters of the proud : had gone even over our soul.

Not only each soul, but the whole Church and Israel of God is, during her pilgrimage of this passing life, forced to confess her Lord alone to be her de