Proverbs, there are seven Psalms formed after this method; but so little has it produced any stiffness, that (with the exception of the cxixth, which is known to have been so written) an English reader would not recognize which they are. They are, indeed, rather remarkable, for their gentle, easy flow, and for the simple energy of their words, on the very ground that each verse, though connected with the preceding, forms a whole in itself. And yet Psalms xxv. xxxiv. and xxxvii. (which are of this sort) do form wonderful wholes; Ps. xxv., God's leading on through chastisements, and Ps. xxxiv. and xxxvii., His unfailing mercies towards those who trust Him, and the punishment of the wicked. Ps. cxi. and cxii. again, are wonderful counterparts of God's mercy to man, and His grace in him. Ps. cxlv. might almost be singled out, as one beautiful simple strain of praise. And what could any say of the cxixth Psalm? The whole Church of Christ gives answer, which has prayed, commented, meditated on this Psalm, more perhaps than on any other. St. Ambrose' speaks of it as the "sun with its full light glowing with the meridian heat ;" and St. Hilary as “containing all the precepts of living, believing, pleasing God," "the perfection of teaching and our instruction; and Theodoret, that "this Psalm sufficeth to perfect in virtue those who long for perfect virtue, and to rouse to zeal those who were living

7 The following are from the Prefaces to the several Comments.

in sloth, to refresh the dispirited and set in order the relaxed, and, in a word, to apply an all-containing medicine to the varied diseases of men." St. Augustine delayed to comment on it, until he had finished the whole Psalter, and then yielded only to the

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long and vehement urgency" of his friends, "because," he says, "as often soever as I essayed to think thereon, it always exceeded the powers of my intent thought."

But, apart from its deeper depths, none can have used that Psalm, with the thought of speaking in every verse after the three first, face to face to God, and not have felt how wondrous a Psalm it is.

8

Again, it may not be artificial, that in Psalm lxii., out of twelve verses, eight begin with the same letter, and two more with a similar sound; but it is remarkable that half the verses begin with the same word, signifying "only," "nothing but ." It would be thought artificial to lay down such a law for composition, that six verses should begin with the word 'only." And yet this Psalm might be singled out by an English reader, as one of simple trust in God. Yet the empasis deepens through this repetition. One trust only has the righteous, in God; one aim only, the wicked, to overthrow him; one only result there is, the wicked are only vanity.

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A mechanical structure, then, is no chain to those who understand it. As well might one think that

8 Ver. 1, Only unto God; 2, Only He; 4, Only-thy counsel; 5, Only to God; 6, Only He; 9, Only vanity.

the measured tread of the soldier was an hindrance to his march; that all the laws of melody were a restraint to the soul of music; that irregularity was the only rule; whereas most probably all which is according to the law of God, does move, in the order of His Providence or His Grace, according to fixed rules, and that only is irregular which is unruled and unattuned by His Spirit. All things are stiff to those unused to them. The rudiments of all things are slowly learnt. We learn but slowly to use what, when learnt, is used with almost lightning's speed. One inexperienced cannot understand how what he knows not should be so like nature to one wellpractised. Music is to the unskilful like a miraculous unearthly gift. Mathematical combinations become almost intuitive. We recognize this mistake very readily in things which we ourselves know. We can see that objections to "forms of prayer" as formal, are like thinking that the body must hinder the operations of the embodied soul.

It has commonly been thought that one eminent object of this peculiarity in these Psalms was to fix them the more upon the memory. They are not easier to learn than other Psalms, except for the fewness of the words; nor would this apply to the Lamentations. But as far as their structure does aid the mind to recollect whether it have repeated all the verses, it is precisely the same sort of help as a rosary. Any how it is a witness that God, who disdains not to speak to man's heart after the manner

of men, who used alike the simple beauty of history, or the glowing richness of Isaiah, or the tenderness of Jeremiah, to find access to the heart of man, did not disdain the use of this simple, and, as it seems, arbitrary mechanism, for the service of man. It is as condescending on the part of God to use the eloquence of the most fervid prophet as the mechanism of the acrostic.

There is yet another ground which may be mentioned. No one can observe the use of numbers in Holy Scripture, especially in the Old Testament; how the use of certain numbers pervades the Hebrew ritual, without being convinced that they have some special meaning. Not to enter further now into so large a subject (which I have naturally been called upon to study), the numbers 3 and 7, 10 and 12, are obviously, on the surface, symbolical in the Old Testament. All, I cannot doubt, have a mysterious meaning of their own. This is recognized alike by Jewish, Christian, Heathen, Antiquity. In Heathenism, although corrupted by Pantheism, or idolatry of nature, it still, in its basis, expresses a principle of our nature, or is a relic of Paradise. It has not been enough observed how, in parts of the Hebrew Scriptures, especially the Psalter, the words in each half sentence are often gathered into certain numbers, especially that of three, which is, in a varied way, the symbol of the Holy Trinity.

This, however, which is facilitated by the structure of the sacred language, and was peculiar to it, was

but a further expression of what lay upon the surface, and had been appointed by God Himself. In the Old Testament, from its very object of inculcating the Unity of God, the doctrine of the Trinity was necessarily veiled. But God Himself, in that He directed that, day by day, the Priest should bless in His Name by a threefold repetition of It, and yet Himself calls it the placing of His own Name upon them, while He taught them His Unity, prepared them to believe in the Trinity. The words occupied the same place as, in the Christian Church, the express blessing in the Name of the Three Persons, in all our services'; it was a calling Their Name upon them, as upon us in Holy Baptism; it conveyed, day by day, Their blessing, in fact, though not in distinct words. As soon as the light of the Gospel is cast upon it, it shines back with the full effulgence of the Trinity. On the Jews, it impressed that there was some mystery in the Divine Nature, as they them

9 "The Lord bless thee, and keep thee;

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The Lord make His face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee;

The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give

thee peace.

And they shall put My Name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them."-Numb. vi. 24-27.

In the words of the New Testament, in the Daily and the Burial Service, in other forms in the Holy Communion and in Confirmation, in the Marriage Service. In the Commination Service, perhaps, as taken out of the Law, nearly the Old Testament form is used; in the Visitation of the Sick, a blessing is prefixed, premising the doctrine of the Unity.