all our desolation; Whose soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, that we might feel sure of His Father's mercy, and confide in His salvation. He Who is the Lord most Highest suffered and overcame, that we in Him might suffer, and in Him conquer too.

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This Psalm of David bears the usual title "to the Chief Musician." It was, no doubt, written by David in some deep perplexity and danger, spiritual rather than temporal; most probably in his early life, while he was under persecution from Saul. But we must remember that it was a peculiar feature of the first covenant, that temporal blessings were made conditional on obedience and righteous conduct; and misfortunes and unhappinesses were expressly the consequences of disobedience and wrong-doing and so to an Israelite the thoughts of misery, and loneliness, and pain were immediately suggestive of wickedness and unholiness. The temporal dealings of God with him were always significant of His spiritual government. In the case of David, therefore, the sorrows and distresses of his early life must often have made him examine his own conduct, and repent of his sins; and have led him on, as his years increased, to see that earthly troubles are not always the burdens they seem to be, and that the sorrow that sin brings is far less bearable than the sorrow that misfortune brings. By some this Psalm has been looked upon as the complaint of the Israelitish Church in her bondage and darkness, praying for the coming of the true Light-the Messiah; and the fourfold cry of "How long?" has seemed to have reference to the fourfold captivity of the Jewish people-the Egyptian, the Babylonian, the Grecian, and the Roman.

PSALM XIV. Dixit insipiens.

1. THE fool hath said in his heart: There is no God.

The one eternal fact that God is, and that He is a righteous King, which is the ground of all hope to the repenting sinner, and of all trust and comfort to

him who is striving to obey Him, is, on the other hand, a source of confusion and constant perplexity to the careless and unbelieving. The thought of a righteous King always over them and close to them, judging their conduct, and condemning their folly and self-will, is unbearable to them. In their own secret souls they will prefer anything to such a thought. They will not, indeed, in words maintain that there is no such God; but in their lives and deeds they plainly shew what the secret wish and impression of their hearts is. In works they deny Him.' Yet 'I am the Lord thy God: thou shalt have none other gods but Me,' is the root of all truth, the spring of all knowledge, and the founIdation of all law. For there is no wisdom like the belief in God, and no folly like the unbelief in Him.

2. They are corrupt, and become abominable in their doings: there is none that doeth good, no not one.

Heb. They are corrupt, they are abominable in their doings: There is none that doeth good.

Where there is no belief in a righteous God, there can only be one result-the loss of all that is righteous and all that is good. It ever has been so where the law of all laws, There is a God, has been forgotten or denied. It was so with the sinners before the flood, when all flesh had corrupted His way upon the earth.' It was so in those evil days when Israel rebelled against David,

and followed Absalom. It was so in a still higher degree when the Prince of Life came into the world, and was 'by wicked hands crucified and slain.' And it will be so in those latter times, of which the Spirit speaketh, when 'that man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.'

3. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that would understand, and seek after God.

It is at those very seasons when the fools are trusting in their hearts, that there is no righteous King of the world; when men generally are becoming corrupt in their principles and abominable in their doings; when there seems nothing right or true left anywhere, it is then that God manifests Himself. He is not unmindful, though He is longsuffering. It is in times like those that He searches, as it were, the world, and then, if there be any that understand His all-continuing holiness, and seek after Him and His ways, they are manifested before Him. So it was at Christ's first coming, when He came down from heaven to seek and to save a fast-perishing world. So it will be, we seem to learn from prophecy, before He comes again: there will be a falling away from truth and right; there will be a searching time of trial for His Church.

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4. But they are all gone out of the way, they are altogether become abominable: there is none that doeth good, no not one.

This is the punishment of unbelief. They who have an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God,' go on to more ungodliness. There is a law which prevails in evil-doing, as in rightdoing, that they who have begun must, unless grace stop them, go on. Sin draws on sin; each step they take is one step more away from the living God, until they become reprobate and altogether lost, for who can save them who will not be saved by God?—and that sentence of most fearful judgment goes forth against them, 'He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still.'

5. Their throat is an open sepulchre, with their tongues have they deceived: the poison of asps is under their lips.

This verse, and the two following, are not in the Hebrew, but are found only in the LXX., and in Romans iii. 13-18. But the first portion of this verse is from Ps. v. 10.

6. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood.

7. Destruction and unhappiness is in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known there is no fear of God before their eyes.

This is the history of men apart from grace. They are utterly lost to truth, and love, and peace, and reverence. The unbelief in which they are sunk is death and corruption to their soul, even as the grave is to the body. Their words and thoughts are more fatal to each other than the speediest and most subtle poison. They make themselves to be the adopted children of the evil one, a generation of vipers;' and their mouth is filled with revilings and with malice, even as the serpent's with the dust on which he feeds. They become murderers in hatred and malice, if not in deed; and they join themselves in spirit to them who crucified the Son of God, and pierce Him with their sins afresh. Their ways of sin are ways of misery, and their ending is perdition. The repose of an untroubled conscience and a quiet mind is utterly unknown to them; and why? Because they are void of that wisdom, whose paths are peace, and the beginning of which is the fear of the all-righteous God.

8. Have they no knowledge, that they are all such workers of mischief: eating up my people as it were bread, and call not upon the Lord?

It is not that they cannot know, but that they will not know their eyes are blinded and their hearts are darkened by the multitude of their sins. Their pleasure is in leading others, not to good, but to evil; and the perversion of souls is as it