fo fimply and effectually described by the tenderhearted Disciple in this one brief fentence," God is Love." Such a subject will naturally be found of frequent recurrence in the Lyra Sacra, as the never-failing theme on which the disciple of Christ in all ages has loved to tune his lyre, when seeking to pour forth ftrains fweet as the melody of Heaven itself. Plato's definition of this Divine Principle, that "it takes away one's living in himself and transfers it to the party loved;" is neceffarily true in the highest degree. with regard to our knowledge of Him, "whom having not feen we love; in whom though now we see Him not, yet believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." If this thought be confoling during our pilgrim state, that the faithful will take nothing with them into their everlasting home above, fave that "love which never faileth ; " how bleffed to fee its effect in the daily intercourse of life amidst all the trials and forrows with which we are profitably encompaffed here, and to find it, as the faintly Bishop Wilson of Sodor and Man has fo truly described it, "fpeaking kindly, dealing tenderly, grieving not the hearts of the living, and treading foftly upon the graves of the dead!" In conclufion, the Editor cannot omit to invite attention to a choice felection of Pfalms, which have been purposely introduced into this collection and particularly to that one, to which allufion has been already made, of unsurpassed grandeur and beauty, terminating with a chorus to the praise of Jehovah, in which the Pfalmift* invokes men and angels, fun, moon, and stars, and all the elements and calls upon them to join in one united Hallelujah to Him who hath made them all. Oh, what mighty power hath not poetry, when the heart and intellect combine to constrain the foul into making known its wants unto God, and neceffarily in a far higher degree when directly infpired, like David, and the facred fingers of Ifrael, by God Himself! To use the language of a distinguished Poet of the present day: "In the closing Pfalms of David we see the almost inarticulate enthusiasm of the lyric poet; fo rapidly do the words prefs to his lips, floating upwards to God their fource, like the smoke of a great fire of the foul, wafted by the tempeft. Here we fee David, or rather the human heart itself, with all its God-given notes of grief, joy, tears, and adoration - poetry fanctified to its highest expreffion; a vase of perfume broken on the step of the Temple, and shedding * We avoid naming David as the author of the 148th Pfalm. It has no title in the Hebrew; and in the Syriac verfion it is attributed to Haggai and Zachariah. The LXX. and the Ethiopic fay the fame. As a hymn of praise, it is the mosft fublime in the whole book. abroad its odours from the heart of David to the heart of all humanity! Hebrew, Chriftian, or even Mohammedan, every religion, every complaint, every prayer has taken something from this vase shed on the heights of Jerufalem, wherewith to give forth their accents. The little shepherd has become the Mafter of the facred choir of the Universe. There is not a worship on earth which prays not with his words, or fings not with his voice. A chord of his harp is to be found in all choirs, refounding everywhere and for ever in unison with the echoes of Horeb and Engedi! David is the Pfalmist of Eternity. In the Book of Pfalms, there are words which feem to iffue from the foul of all ages, and which penetrate even to the heart of all generations. Happy the bard who has thus become the eternal hymn, the perfonified prayer and complaint of all humanity! If we look back to that remote age when fuch fongs refounded over the world; if we confider that while the lyric poetry of all the most cultivated nations only fang of wine, love, blood, and the victories of the courfers at the Olympic games, we are feized with profound aftonishment at the myftic fongs of the Shepherdking, who talks to God the Creator as one friend to another, who understands and praises His great works, admires His justice, implores His mercy, and becomes as it were, an anticipative |