were unwilling to part with, even when, by the destruction of their temple and their own dispersion, ages afterwards, other nations perceived that their temporary distinction was to be lost in a more general dispensation. But let us not too harshly blame the Jew for feeling thus; at least while the temple stood, and while his religious privileges were peculiar and exclusive. Would that there were no exclusiveness of spirit among those who can shew no such charter of precedence! Let us rather sympathize in the religious spirit of social good-will, which spread as wide as the nation, and identified all as brethren under the covenanted blessing of Jehovah. Let us join in their song of thanksgiving as they return from captivity in Babylon and come at length within view of the holy city:

"I was glad when they said unto me,
Let us go into the house of the Lord.
Our feet shall stand

Within thy gates, O Jerusalem!"

"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!
They shall prosper that love thee!
Peace be within thy walls!

And prosperity within thy palaces!
For my brethren and companions' sakes
I will now say, Peace be within thee!
Because of the house of the Lord our God
I will seek thy good!"

(cxxii.)

Let us sympathize with them, too, when, from their own recovered land, they look back upon their captivity, and pray for those who are still left in the land of the strangers:

"When the Lord turned back the captivity of Zion,

We were like them that dream.

Then was our mouth filled with laughter,

And our tongue with singing.

Then said they among the heathen,

The Lord hath done great things for them.
The Lord hath done great things for us,

Whereof we are glad.

Turn again our captivity, O Lord! [our remaining captives]

As the streams in the south.

They that sow in tears

Shall reap in joy.

He that goeth forth and weepeth,

Bearing precious seed,

Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
Bringing his sheaves with him.”

(cxxvi.)

And we may well admire the social and patriotic spirit of that other hymn on occasion of their restoration to their own land,-that other " song of degrees," or "song of going up," or "song of going back," as the Psalms so intitled might be interpreted:

"Behold how good and how pleasant it is

For brethren to dwell together in unity!

It is like the precious ointment upon the head,

That ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard,
That went down to the skirts of his garments.

As the dew of Hermon,

And as that which descended upon the mountains of Zion.
For there the Lord commandeth his blessing,

And, in the same sympathizing spirit, let us notice how tenderly the dearest reminiscences of their history awaken again as soon as they tread their country's soil; and how earnestly their national hopes reach forward to the now brightening future,-a future about to enlarge itself, beyond all that they had imagined, into a more comprehensive system of divine revelation and divine providence :

"Lord, remember David!

And all his afflictions:

How he sware unto the LORD,

And vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob:

Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of mine house,

Nor go up into my bed;

I will not give sleep to mine eyes,

Or slumber to mine eyelids,

Until I find out a place for the Lord,

A habitation for the Mighty One of Jacob,"

"The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David;

He will not turn from it:

Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne:
If thy children will keep my covenant,

And my testimony that I shall teach them,
Their children shall also sit

Upon thy throne for evermore.

For the Lord hath chosen Zion;

He hath desired it for his habitation, and said:

This is my rest for ever;

Here will I dwell, for I have desired it.

I will abundantly bless her provision;

I will satisfy her poor with bread.

I will also clothe her priests with salvation,
And her saints shall shout aloud for joy.

There will I make the horn of David to bud;

I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed." (cxxxii.)

And, in the fulness of time, salvation was "of the Jews," for all the world, when he that proclaimed it taught that men need no longer worship their Almighty Father in Jerusalem alone; but that "the true worshipers should worship Him who is a Spirit, in spirit and in truth." Judaism, as developed practically and devotionally in the Psalms, was truly a "guardian to bring men to Christ.”*

* Translations of the Psalms have been published by Geddes, 1807; Bishop Mant (Metrical), 1824; Wellbeloved (Bible, Part III., Devotional and Didactic Books); Noyes, Boston, U. S., 1831; Bishop Horsley, 1815.

THE WRITINGS ASCRIBED TO SOLOMON.

THE PROVERBS.

(THE MORALITY OF JUDAISM ILLUSTRATED.)

As the Psalms give us an insight into the devotional influence of Judaism, the Proverbs exhibit a fair sample of its practical morality. The former illustration is, indeed, afforded on a wider scale than the latter, as the Psalms are the work, apparently, of a larger number of authors, and extend over a wider space of time. But the Proverbs, too, are by various hands, though ascribed chiefly to king Solomon; and if he formed the chief part of the collection (as there is no reason to doubt), we must receive it as a collection of sayings, old and new, rather than as an original work intirely of his own.

The mode of teaching by proverbs, in the wide sense of the Hebrew term so rendered, is very ancient, and is especially congenial to Eastern ideas and habits. By a proverb, in the scriptural sense, we are to understand either a weighty, dignified, impressive saying, or one that is conveyed in figurative language. It denotes, in short, either a proverb or a parable;—a maxim or precept forcibly and tersely expressed, or the comparison that illustrates and adorns it;-and very frequently it means both the one and the other combined.

Proverbial lore is everywhere impressive and striking. Even among ourselves, what ready currency and wide influence have popular proverbs! We may imagine, then, what power they must have had over the popular mind where writing was unknown or not in general use. The sages of antiquity commonly framed their instructions in the shape of pithy aphorisms, striking to the

fancy and not burdensome to the memory. To each of the seven sages of Greece, tradition assigned the origin of one or more mottos or maxims; and some of the finest proverbs of antiquity have been handed down in connection with their venerated names.

This kind of utterance was particularly cultivated in the East, whence, indeed, it was probably derived by the Greeks. The Eastern sage does not reason or discuss, but propounds his doctrines or precepts in carefullycompacted language, so that they seem to carry their own authority in the completeness of their structure. A command balanced by a prohibition of the opposite; a promise pointed by the alternative warning; a sententious precept; an acute but casual glance at men and manners; shrewd mother-wit condensed into an apophthegm; a prudential maxim purposely framed so as to be remembered; a moral principle adorned by a striking comparison or sharpened by an antithesis;—such always was, and still is, the style of Eastern philosophizing.

The book of Proverbs distributes itself into certain obvious divisions, some of which, there can be no doubt, mark the progressive growth of the book into its present shape.

Thus, the first nine chapters are very different from all the rest. They consist of ten or eleven fine compositions of moderate length, each on a continuous subject of great dignity and importance, set forth in terse sentences, usually parallel or antithetic, in couplets or triplets, but not changing from one subject to another with each new couplet or triplet, as is the case in most of the subsequent chapters. The introduction declares the general purpose of the book:

"The proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel; For knowing wisdom and instruction;

For perceiving the words of understanding;