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believe that we are so at present. He does not tell us how we may think ourselves wiser, for that we are ready enough to do it at all times; but he gives us from his own experience an infallible rule, by which we are sure to advance rapidly—“I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts."

Now, let us see what "the ancients" understood. The word has two meanings; it may apply to the old persons of our own, or of any other time; and it may refer to those who lived long ago, whether they were young or old.

In some versions of the Bible, the word is translated aged. “I understand more than the aged." Old men are not necessarily wiser than others. But days should speak, and the multitude of years should teach wisdom, and so they often do. Experientia docet. It is only experience that tries the truth of things. We speak of facts, and certainties to-day; but the experience of to-morrow proves them to be no truths at all. We are commanded by the Bible, no less than by worldly prudence, to "prove all things;" and this requires experience. Old men have read more than others, and "book openeth book." The child or youth who has read but one book upon a subject, is apt not only to form one-sided views of that subject, but to imagine he knows more about it than those who have read more. Ignorance was always a tyrant. Party is always positive. Age melts down differences, and overgrows prejudice; and for these reasons we should attach some weight to the authority of the "aged." Old men have seen more; and facts explain facts. Young people, therefore, who have not so many facts to compare together, are not likely to draw such correct conclusions from them. Old men have passed through more; and "circumstances alter cases." With few books, few facts, and few circumstances in the varying light of which they can place their arguments, the young are not so likely to be well-informed as the old; and hence we see why the psalmist is inclined to pay such deference to the aged.

But it is more than probable that the psalmist is here referring to "the ancients," properly so called: the wise men, or reputed wise men of old time. Here again we may suppose him to use the word in a double sense; there were ancient heathens, and ancient Christians. For you will see by and bye that the name and character of Christian belong to the saints of Old Testament times.

We still think a great deal of the ancient heathens-the old philosophers, as they are often called. There is no reason to find fault with the latter term, for it does not describe wise men, but simply lovers of wisdom; and such it is very likely many of them may have been. We must not, however, forget, that David lived nearly three thousand years ago, and that even the very names of those who were "ancients" in his day have long ago perished. Our ancients are all of them more modern than the age of the psalmist; and if from them we may judge of the others, we should not be inclined to think very highly of their knowledge and acquirements. Perhaps the sweet singer of Israel is only taking up the popular notion on the subject, as if he should say, "You think the ancients to have been very wise; but I can satisfy you that I understand more than they did." He might well say so, for the simplest child, even, who keeps God's precepts, does so-he “understands" more. To understand, is to " comprehend fully;" to comprehend, is to lay hold of every part of a question, and to bring all these parts together to look at it in all its bearings; to know the why and wherefore of all its elements; to sift it thoroughly; to be satisfied about it. Now, in this sense, the ancients understood very little; and indeed, how could they, without knowing God's verdict, for that alone is decisive. They guessed a great deal; they supposed a great deal; they thought a great deal; but they “understood" very little. On the great questions as to how the world was made, whether there was a God, what he might be like, how he was to be worshipped, and others of equal importance, they were undecided; they did not understand; they did not know these things. Well then might the Psalmist say, "I understand more than the ancients."

There may, however, be a reference to the ancient christians, such as Adam and Enoch, and Noah and Job, and Abraham. These knew much. Adam looked to Christ as "the seed of the Enoch prophesied

woman," who was to bruise the serpent's head. of His coming to judgment. Noah was expressly called "a preacher of righteousness." Job knew that his Redeemer lived, and that he should see him in the latter days. Abraham believed in the Lord. But none of these had such large disclosures of the gospel-scheme as were extant in the days of David. None of them had any written records of God's dealings with his people; for the books of

Moses, even, were not penned; and therefore it might well be said that the Psalmist understood more.

But now let us see what was the secret of David's greater knowledge; he tells us in very few words—"because I keep thy precepts." The Psalmist gives many names to the Bible. Sometimes it is called God's law. Human law is a very doubtful thing. First, we enact; then we explain; then we revise; then we amend ; then we indemnify from infringements; and lastly, we repeal, abrogate, and annul! But it is not so with God. He legislates for eternity, and the very laws which he made for a peculiar, a distant, a differently-circumstanced people, are still the foundation of all right and justice. Can we ask a stronger proof of the Divine authority of the scriptures? In our text, however, the Bible is described as God's "precepts." Precepts are teachings; and the term supposes ignorance on our part. This is what we do not like, and it explains to us why we so often read God's word to little profit. We do not come to be taught, but to teach; we make up our minds, and then go to the Bible to make it think as we do. This is not "desiring, as new-born babes, the sincere milk of God's word."

Now, what do these precepts teach us? They teach us first, what God is. That he is infinitely holy; that the heavens are unclean in his sight; that he charges his angels with folly; that he is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. The ancients knew none of these things; they thought God such an one as themselves, and altered their opinions as they changed their country or their circumstances. This was one of the points upor which David understood more than the ancients.

God's precepts teach us what man is. And is this worth knowing? Does the knowledge of it make us wiser than the ancients? Yes; it lies at the very root of all right notions on a subject of no less importance than the salvation of the soul. No disease is so dangerous as that of which the patient knows nothing; no ignorance is so fatal as that of our lost and ruined state by nature. Yet the ancients knew it not; they exalted human nature; they actually "worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator;" they made men their gods, and asked their ruined and condemned fellow-creatures for deliverance and salvation. How different was the Psalmist's conduct, "Create in me a clean heart," said he, "and renew a right spirit within me." "I have heard of thee,"

said Job, to his Creator, "by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore I repent and abhor myself in dust and ashes."

God's precepts teach us how God and man are to be brought together the one all purity, the other, all sin. The other points of revelation are astounding; but this still more so. And yet these opposites must meet. Well might it be asked with astonishment and awe, "How can a man be just with God? Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ?" Could the ancients answer this? No; but they could ask it. Balak did-" Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the most high God?” But it was reserved for God's precepts to answer it; "He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good,"

The Psalmist understood all these points. He knew how he stood with God, both by nature and by the imputed righteousness of Christ. "I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." He has no wish to dissemble; but he looks to Jesus, and sees his transgression 'forgiven,' his sin covered,' his iniquity not imputed.' Could any confession of sin have been clearer, or less reserved; could any declaration of faith in the righteousness of another, be stronger or more explicit? Thus it was that by the light of God's precepts, he understood more than the ancients.

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God's precepts

"I keep thy precepts." This is a

David's wisdom was personal; it was not a reflected acquirement. He would not have been satisfied with living amongst a wise people, or associating with the learned of his day. "I understand more." Let every reader say, "Is this my case? have come to my house; have they come to my heart?" David's wisdom was lasting. fine conclusion for our remarks. You are just about to finish the reading of this paper. Do not be like the man who after beholding his face in a glass, forgets his own features. What a fine old expression is that in another part of this very psalm, "I have stuck unto thy testimonies." Do not be shaken off, but say, as has been well said before

"Should all the forms that men devise,
Assault my faith with treacherous art,
I'll call them vanities and lies,

And bind the Bible to my heart."

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WHO SHALL GIVE WAY?

It is the property of all created things to change and vary-to be one thing one day, and another, the next. We find our bestbeloved friends more kind at one time than at another, and even the strongest of all instincts, the love of a mother for her infant is subject to fluctuation, as other cares or pleasures press upon her mind. Being only natural, it will not bear a comparison with that which is divine-with that which our heavenly Father feels for those whom he has redeemed. "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, she may forget, yet will not I forget thee." Thus, the love which proceeds from God to his creatures is unchangeable as the divine nature itself; but the kindness of the creature is never to be depended upon unless that creature is influenced by the Spirit of God.

It is the Divine Spirit, which entering into the breast of man, sanctifies the natural instincts, and renders them effectual, not only in producing that which is good in this life, but that which is beneficial as it regards the interest of the life which is to come. These truths are well illustrated by the story which follows, and which is founded on an occurrence that happened in a small village not far from the little town of Pershore, in Worcestershire.

There was a certain poor labouring man who lived with his wife and four small children in a cottage by the road side, not very far from the church. His cottage was old and thatched, and stood in a garden, which he kept very neat, and which was often noticed by travellers on account of the borders of bright flowers which ran along on each side the narrow path leading to the wicket, and also for a row of bee hives which made a very fair show under the eaves of the thatch in front of the cottage. John Helmly was the name of the man; his wife's name was Dinah. They were industrious people, and would have done very well if now and then the man did not turn into the ale-house in the village, when coming home on Saturday night, with his week's wages. Whenever he did this, his wife received him with an angry face, neither did she spare her reproaches; nor can her displeasure be wondered at, though she might sometimes have taken a gentler way of shewing it.

John and Dinah were beginning to think that the worst troubles of their married life were over, when their youngest boy, Harry,

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