Psalms 112

1. PRAISE ye the LORD. Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, That delighteth greatly in his command- ments. 2 His seed shall be mighty upon earth : The generation of the upright shall be blessed. 3 Wealth and riches are in his house : And his righteousness endureth for ever. 4 Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness : He is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous. 5 Well is it with the man that dealeth gra- ciously and lendeth ; He shall maintain his cause in judgment.

6. For he shall never be moved ; The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance. 7 He shall not be afraid of evil tidings : His heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD. 8 His heart is established, he shall not be afraid, Until he see his desire upon his adversaries. 9 He hath dispersed, he hath given to the needy ; His righteousness endureth for ever : His horn shall be exalted with honour. 10 The wicked shall see it, and be grieved ; He shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away : The desire of the wicked shall perish.

ANOTHER alphabetical Psalm of precisely the same character, coinciding with the one before it, even in the number of verses and the num- ber of clauses in each verse. This Psalm be- gins precisely where the one before it ends, i.e., with the happiness arising from the fear of God (v. 1), the blessed effects of which are then re- counted under several particulars (vs. 2-9), and finally contrasted with the fate of the ungodly (v. 10). A.—As in the preceding Psalm, so here also v. 1 sets forth the theme of what fol- lows. What v. 3 there said of the righteous- ness of God, v. 3 says here of the righteousness of him who fears God ; this also endureth for- ever ; it is indeed the copy of the Divine right- eousness, it is an operation and a gift of God, inasmuch as God’s redemptive doing and be- havior, when apprehended in faith, works a similar doing and behavior in man, the essen- tial character of which, as v. 9 says, is love. D.—This Psalm is a praising of God for blessing the believer, and the whole Psalm doth prove that the believer is blessed ; which propo- sition is set down in v. 1, and confirmed with as many reasons as there are verses following. Dickson.

1. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, because this duty of fearing of God is an act of the mind, and may be done by the man that is destitute of all things but that holy and blessed mind. Blessed, therefore, is that man ; for God hath not laid the comfort of His people in the doing of external duties, nor the salvation of their souls, but in believing, loving, and fearing God. Bunyan.

The fear, which is thus the parent of true felicity, is not the dread of personal evil conse- quences coming from the object of fear, but is simply the reverence of love, that looks up and knows no deeper joy than to gaze upon and be near Him whom it fears. That attitude of the mind, the lowly bowing in the contemplation of transcendent excellence and supreme and perfect sweetness, brings with it necessarily an elevation, a calm, an aspiration, which are con- ditions of all true joy. No blessedness that earth can bring is worthy for a moment of comparison with the blessedness of sitting quietly at the foot of the Throne, and looking upward to so much of the light as we can dis- cern. The mighty spirits that stand there have triple pairs of wings. “With twain they cover their faces,” and yet through the white plumes they can catch glimpses of the glory. “With twain they cover their feet,” in reverently hid- ing their own corporeal inferiority ; and there- fore “with twain they do fly” in joyous activ- ity of energetic obedience to the commandment of Him whom they fear. This is blessedness, to blend together in one inseparable band the faith that trusts and the fear that adores and submits. And such fear brings blessedness, because it brings with it the armor against dread, and he that thus fears the Lord without terror is delivered from the possibility of being afraid of anything besides. All earth’s threat- enings and dangers become dim and shadowy and contemptible to him whose happy eye is fixed on the infinite goodness, greatness, and sweetness of his Father God. If you would walk in the world with courage, dauntless and noble, fear Him with the fear that knits you to Him, and nothing else shall be your dread. A. M.

That delighteth greatly in His commandments — defining what constitutes the true “fear of the Lord,” which was termed “the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm 111 : 10). He who hath this true “fear” delights (Psalm 111 : 2) not merely in the theory, but in the practise of all “the Lord’s commandments.” Such fear, so far from being a “hard” service, is the only “blessed” one. True obedience is not task-work, as formalists regard religion, but a “delight” (Psalm 1 : 2). Worldly delights, which made piety irksome, are supplanted by the new-born delight in and taste for the will and ways of God. Fausse. — When we cheerfully practise all that the Lord requireth of us, love sweeteneth all things, and it becomes our meat and drink to do His will. The thing commanded is excellent, but it is sweeter because commanded by Him—“His commandments.” A man is never thoroughly converted till he delighteth in God and His service, and his heart is overpowered by the sweetness of Divine love. A slavish kind of religiousness, when we had rather not do than do our work, is no fruit of grace, and cannot evidence a sincere love. Manton.

1-3. The fact that “fearing the Lord” and “delighting greatly in His commandments” are common elements in the same character, suffices to show that this fear is not servile, but filial—is not that of the driven slave, but that of the loving child. The real slave never has “great delight” in his master’s commandments. Let the reader note that this Psalm aims to show that fearing the Lord is true wisdom, and to show it by the absolute success of a life so ordered. Wisdom being the best adjustment of means to secure the desired end, the truest test of wisdom is success. That life is a wisely ordered one which brings the best results of blessedness. Hence the scope of this Psalm. The first points made here are : That the wise man is blessed in his children and his children’s children ; in the wealth of his house, made sure under the ancient economy by his abiding integrity and beneficence (“righteousness”). Noticeably the very same words affirm the enduring righteousness of this just man that were used of God in v. 3 of the previous Psalm, suggesting that the good man becomes a follower of God as a dutiful child follows his father. C.

2. His seed shall be mighty upon earth.** That is to say, successive generations of God-fearing men shall be strong and influential in society, and in the latter days they shall have dominion. The true seed of the righteous are those who follow them in their virtues, even as believers are the seed of Abraham because they imitate his faith ; and these are the real heroes of their era, the truly great men among the sons of Adam. The generation of the upright shall be blessed. The race of sincere, devout, righteous men is kept up from age to age, and ever abides under the blessing of God. Their children also are under the special care of heaven, and as a rule it shall be found that they inherit the Divine blessing. S.

3. His righteousness endureth.** It seems a bold thing to say this of anything human, and yet it is true ; for all human righteousness has its root in the righteousness of God. It is not merely man striving to copy God. It is God’s gift and God’s work. There is a living connection between the righteousness of God and the righteousness of man, and therefore the imperishableness of the one appertains to the other also. Hence the same thing is affirmed here of the human righteousness which, in Psalm 111 : 3, is affirmed of the Divine. P. —His character stands the test of examination, overcomes the temptations of wealth, survives the assaults of slander, outlives the afflictions of time, and endures the trial of the last great day. The righteousness of a true saint endureth forever, because it springs from the same root as the righteousness of God, and is, indeed, the reflection of it. So long as the Lord abideth righteous He will maintain by His grace the righteousness of His people. They shall hold on their way and wax stronger and stronger. S.

4. Light. Darkness.** While we are on earth we are subject to a threefold “darkness ;” the darkness of error, the darkness of sorrow, and the darkness of death. To dispel these God visiteth us, by His Word, with a threefold “light ;” the light of truth, the light of comfort, and the light of life. G. Horne.

Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness. The great lesson taught by this simile is the connection which obtains between integrity of purpose and clearness of perception, inasmuch that a loyal conformity to what is right is generally followed up by a ready and luminous discernment of what is true. It tells us that if we have but grace to do as we ought, we shall be made to see as we ought. It is a lesson repeatedly affirmed in Scripture, and that in various places both of the Old and New

Testament: “The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day;” “The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them;” “Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart;” or still more specifically, “To him that ordereth his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God.” Chalmers.

Every Christ-like effort, every Christian grace resolutely carried into practice, not only emits light, but multiplies the light at every point where it touches. Faith nerves itself for a timid venture and throws out its one feeble ray toward a hard task or a hard trial or a hard problem; and behold the thing brightens, and in its own brightening throws light on some other duty or trial, on some great snowfield of lonely sacrifice and patience. Success in the first venture of faith has robbed the larger venture of some of its darkness, and thus the pilgrim of faith walks in ever-growing light. In short, the more faithfully and persistently one addresses himself to doing God’s will, the more points his experience affords from which the goodness and love and faithfulness and power of God are reflected. And these points enlighten each other. One part of Christian experience illuminates another part. Each experience takes up the light furnished by the smallest, and reflects and helps to distribute it over the whole area. Thus “light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart.” V.

Sincerity, an honest desire to know the truth, readiness to make any sacrifice in order to the knowledge, obedience to the truth so far as it is known already—these will bring the light when nothing else will bring it. Outward human authority utterly fails; can never make light arise in the darkness. Reason cannot—reason, which is the inward authority. It is a very powerful, and it is a very feeble, instrument. Within its own sphere, when favorably conditioned, it can do much. In the pure discovery of truth, and especially of the truth we most need to know, it can, of itself, do very little. But when you put all your mind and heart into the truth you know, and resolve in the strength of the grace you already believe in, to be true to that truth in all its requirements, and to seek the higher and further truth until you find it—then you turn your face eastward, and, erelong, the morning you look for will be on your face. When intellectual acuteness, and philosophic thought, and all the wisdom of this world can do little or nothing to make things which are obscure, or almost unknown, plain and clear, moral honesty and moral earnestness will sometimes shoot like beams of light through dark clouds, and the day breaks and the shadows flee away. “Unto the upright light ariseth.” “He that doeth the will of God shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God.” Inward loyalty to truth, the fine, pure temper of sincerity, the habit of obedience—these are wonderful revealers. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” A pure heart is better to a man than prophet’s message or apostle’s miracle, or even outward word of Christ; for this is Christ within; and where “the light of the world” is, where “the truth” is, at least no death-darkness can settle. There may be still some darkness left. But the same inward integrity which helps so much in the discovery of truth, consoles and compensates for truth as yet undiscovered and unknown. The upright man can be content to wait. He, of all men, has the least need to work his heart into the fever of haste and impatience. He has done all that lies in his power; the unattained, the unknown, he can leave trustfully with God. Raleigh.

Let what will happen to him, the upright man is full of peace and joy; for he hath met with no disappointment of his designs. His great aim was to please God; and his conscience, from God’s Word, assures him that he has done it; and he hath nothing to do further but to wait for the happy time when the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed, and every man’s counsels and actions shall be made manifest, and then he doubts not to receive approbation and praise, and a great reward in that day of the Lord Jesus. Archbishop Sharp.

Human life is a mixed and checkered scene, a variation of light and shade, an interchange of bitter and sweet, of joy and sorrow. The storms of adversity do not prevail through the whole period of the most afflicted life; they are relieved by intervals of calm and sunshine. With regard to individuals, it will be found that their sufferings are not uninterrupted, not continuous. Often, amid the darkest dispensations, suddenly the sun arises, dispels the clouds, and the light of joy returns. R. Hall.

Whenever God engages in afflicting, He commonly pursues His work until He has prevailed, and His design on the afflicted party be accomplished. He will not cease to thresh and break the bread-corn until it be meet for His use. Give up yourselves, then, to His will; let go everything about which He contends with you; follow after that which He calls you unto; and you will find light arising unto you in the midst of darkness. Has He a cup of affliction in one hand?—lift up your eyes, and you will see a cup of consolation in the other. And if all stars withdraw their light while you are in the way of God, assure yourselves that the sun is ready to rise. Owen.—You are not called on to believe till you are fully able to do so; but you are called on to trust. To trust is in your power. To resign yourself lovingly to God in the full confidence that His love will do all that you need, and that out of darkness He will be sure to bring light; to walk to the utmost of your power by the light that you already have; to hold fast by God’s hand, and to trust the promises that He whispers in your conscience—that you can do, and that you ought to do. Norton.

The sense of the vastness of the universe, and of the imperfection of our own knowledge, may help us in some degree to understand—not, indeed, the origin of evil and of suffering, but, at any rate, something of its possible uses and purposes. We look around the world and we see cruel perplexities: the useless spared, the useful taken; the young and happy removed, the old and miserable lingering on; happy households broken up under our feet, disappointed hopes, and the failure of those to whom we looked up with reverence and respect. We go through these trials with wonder and fear; and we ask whereunto this will grow. But has nothing been gained? Yes, that has been gained which nothing else, humanly speaking, could give. We may have gained a deeper knowledge of the mind of God and a deeper insight into ourselves. Truths which once seemed mere words, received without heed and uttered without understanding, may have become part of ourselves. Humility for ourselves, charity for others, self-abasement before the Judge of all mankind, these are the gifts that men, the best men, and even the worst men, may gain by distrust, by doubt, and by difficulty. The perplexity, the danger, the grief often brings with it its own remedy. On each bursting wave of disappointment and vexation there is a crown of heavenly light which reveals the peril, and shows the way, and guides us through the roaring storm. Out of doubt comes faith; out of grief comes hope; and “to the upright there ariseth up light in the darkness.” With each new temptation comes a way to escape; with each new difficulty comes some new explanation. As life advances, it does indeed seem to be as a vessel going to pieces, as though we were on the broken fragments of a ship, or in a solitary skiff on the waste of waters; out as long as our existence lasts we must not give up the duty of cheerfulness and hope. He who has guided us through the day may guide us through the night also. The pillar of darkness often turns into a pillar of fire. Let us hold on though the land be miles away; let us hold on till the morning break. That speck on the distant horizon may be the vessel for which we must shape our course. Forward, not backward, must we steer—forward and forward, till the speck becomes a friendly ship. Have patience and perseverance; believe that there is still a future before us; and we shall at last reach the haven where we would be. Stanley.

Righteousness is light and gladness though its way lie through sorrow and sacrifice, and you who are pursuing that road in faith and hope may take this for your comfort that you are going forward to inevitable gladness. God has already wrought out great goodness before your eyes; but that is nothing to the goodness which He has laid up for them that fear Him. If there is assurance of harvest in the buried seed, there is even firmer assurance in the temporary hiding of God’s light. If the promise of nature is sure, the promise of faith is no less sure; for “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.” V.

Gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous—attributes usually applied to God, but here said of “the upright.” The children of God, knowing in their own experience that God our Father is “gracious, full of compassion, and righteous,” seek themselves to be the same toward their fellow-men from instinctive imitation of Him. Fausset.

5. Dealeth graciously.** Giving means growth. Giving cultivates the faith and love which it manifests. Receiving is passive. A stagnant pool can receive, but a fountain is always giving. True, the fountain is not self-existent and independent. It must be filled by rain from heaven. It must be always receiving, but it gives as freely as it receives. As fast as it is filled it overflows. It is a type and symbol of a true life. God is giving all the time. He gives freely and abundantly. We who receive His gifts are His stewards. We are to use them for Him. That which we have gathered beyond our personal need is not ours. It is given to us in trust. We are to distribute it. The calls upon us for that surplus are many. They are pressing. They are not the calls of our fellow-men merely, but the calls of

God through them. If we respond cheerfully, and if we give according to our ability, God will bless us. He credits us on the books before the throne with all our donations. He accepts them as loans to Him, to be repaid in heavenly treasures. Babb.

6. What doth the text say? “The righteous (that is, the bountiful) shall be in everlasting remembrance.” God remembers our good deeds, when He rewards them (as He does our prayers, when He hears them). If to remember, then, be to reward, an everlasting reward is our everlasting remembrance. Now in those who are to be partakers of mercy, the Divine wisdom requires that they be such as have been ready to show mercy to others. Mede.—Those who by patient continuance in well-doing, those who by persuasive eloquence turned men from sin to righteousness, those who taught no lessons but in toil and suffering, unrequited perhaps then, and those who made it the great object of their lives to visit the sick and the prisoner—all who in any form conspicuously exhibited the spirit of Christ do never die even on earth. The fragrance of their memories shall never be exhaled. B. B. E.

A true Christian may travel in life under troubles and contempts; but mark his end, and you shall find (as peace, so) honor. Life is death’s seed-time; death life’s harvest. As here we sow, so there we reap. He that spends himself upon God and man shall at last have all the honor that heaven and earth can cast upon him. R. Harris.—In the Christian life men are not influenced so much by abstract precepts as by living models. And in some respects goodness is more vital and influential when the grave has covered its defects, and time has mellowed its features. Tender and sweetly hallowed influences come from the past. Qualities that might have injured or neutralized the benign effects of the example when the subject of them was living, fade from the memory, while the virtues endure and are in everlasting remembrance. B. B. E.

The good never die. Influence, like the soul itself, is immortal. Example continues to preach when the tongue is silent. Even nature furnishes examples of this truth. The cedar is most useful when dead. There is no timber like it. Firm in the grain, and capable of the finest polish, the tooth of no insect will touch it, and time itself can hardly destroy it. It will diffuse a perpetual fragrance through the chambers which it cells. The worm will not corrode the book which it protects, nor the moth eat the garment which it guards. Every true Christian is useful in his life; but the goodly cedars are most useful when cut down and cut up. Luther is dead; but the Reformation he begun lives four hundred years after him, and was never more vital. Calvin is dead; but his vindication of God’s free and sovereign grace will never die. Knox, Melville, and Chalmers are dead; but Scotland still retain a Sabbath and a Christian peasantry, a Bible in every house, and a school in every parish. Bunyan is dead; but his bright spirit still walks the earth in his “Pilgrim’s Progress.” Baxter is dead; but souls are still quickened by his “Saint’s Rest” and “Call to the Unconverted.” Cowper is dead; but his “Olney Hymns” go on their way rejoicing. Eliot, Carey, Brainerd, Judson, are all dead; but the missionary cause is going forward to victory. Henry Martyn, Mrs. Judson, and Harriet Newell are dead; but who can count the apostolic spirits who have risen up to call them blessed? Anon.

7,8. The epithets “established,” “trusting,” “upheld,” are all strikingly descriptive of the true attitude of faith, as that which leans upon and is supported by God. P.

7. Not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. A man that puts his confidence in God, if he hears bad news of mischief coming toward him, as suppose a bad debt, a loss at sea, accidents by fire, tempests, or earthquakes, as Job had his messengers of evil tidings, which came thick and threefold upon him, yet he is not afraid, for his heart is fixed on God; he hath laid up his confidence in God, therefore his heart is kept in an equal poise; he can say, as Job, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: blessed be the name of the Lord.” His comforts did not ebb and flow with the creature, but his heart was fixed, trusting in the Lord. Manton.—His heart is fixed, or prepared, ready, and in arms for all services; resolved not to give back, able to meet all adventures and stand its ground. God is unchangeable; and therefore faith is invincible, for it sets the heart on Him; fastens it there on the rock of eternity; then let winds blow and storms arise, it cares not. Leighton.

Times of trouble should be times of confidence; fixedness of heart on God would prevent fears of heart. How? “Trusting in the Lord, His heart is established, he shall not be afraid.” Providence would seem to sleep unless faith and prayer awaken it. The disciples had but little faith in their Master’s accounts, yet that little faith awakened Him in a storm, and He relieved them. Unbelief doth only discourage

God from showing His power in taking our part. Charnoek.

Anxiety is all vain. After all your careful watching for the corner of the heaven where the cloud is to come from, there will be a cloud, and it will rise somewhere, but you never know in what quarter. To-morrow will have its cares, spite of anything that anxiety and foreboding can do. It is God’s law of providence that a man shall be disciplined by sorrow; and to try to escape from that law by any forecasting prudence is utterly hopeless and madness. And what does your anxiety do? It does not empty to-morrow, brother, of its sorrows; but, ah! it empties to-day of its strength. It does not make you escape the evil, it makes you unfit to cope with it when it comes. It does not bless to-morrow, and it robs to-day. For every day has its own burden. Sufficient for each day is the evil which properly belongs to it. Do not add to-morrow’s to to-day’s. Do not drag the future into the present. The present has enough to do with its own proper concerns. We have always strength to bear the evil when it comes. We have not strength to bear the foreboding of it. As thy day, thy strength shall be. Then fill the present with quiet faith, with patient waiting, with honest work, with wise reading of God’s lessons of nature, of providence, and of grace, all of which say to us, Live in God’s future, that the present may be bright; work in the present, that the future may be certain! They may well look around in expectation, sunny and unclouded, of a blessed time to come, whose hearts are already “fixed, trusting in the Lord.” He to whom there is a present Christ, and a present Spirit, and a present Father, and a present forgiveness, and a present redemption, may well live expatiating in all the glorious distance of the unknown to come, sending out (if I may use such a figure)—sending out from his placid heart over all the weltering waters of this lower world, the peaceful, seeking dove, his meek hope, that shall come back again from its flight with some palm-branch broken from the trees of Paradise. And he that has no such present, has a future, dark, chaotic, heaving with its destructive ocean; and over it there goes forever—black-pinioned, winging its solitary and hopeless flight, the raven of his anxious thoughts, and finds no place to rest, and comes back again to the desolate ark with its foreboding croak of evil in the present and evil in the future. Live in Christ, “the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever,” and His presence shall make all your past, present, and future—memory, enjoyment, and hope—to be bright and beautiful, because all are centred in Him! A. M.

9. Kindness, benevolence, and generosity are essential to the perfect character; to be strictly just is not enough, for God is love, and we must love our neighbor as ourselves; to give every one his due is not sufficient, we must act upon those same principles of grace which reign in the heart of God. The promises of establishment and prosperity are to bountiful souls who have proved their fitness to be stewards of the Lord by the right way in which they use their substance. S.

Where were the Greek or Latin words for “charity” till Christianity created them, and stamped them with her own Divine image, and made them current amid the coins of a debased mintage, like pure and solid gold? Eros, indeed, and amor were words which Greek and Latin did possess, but they so reeked with heathen associations that Christianity could not rescue them from the mire in which they lay; but agapa and caritas, with all the mighty revolution which they have effected, and all the angelic utterances which they have inspired, are the glory of Christianity alone. Farrar.

Charity is a noble, Divine virtue, the reflex image of our Maker on the soul, and, beyond any other, shadows forth that likeness to God in which man was originally created. It is beautiful and perfect, because it is free from selfishness; for all virtues are more or less excellent in proportion as they are distinguished by self-denial and disinterestedness. “True charity,” says Barrow, “is the imitation and copy of that immense love which is the fountain of all being and all good; which made all things, which preserveth the world, which sustaineth every creature. Nothing is more admirable, more venerable, even in the common eye and opinion of men; it hath in it a beauty and a majesty to ravish every heart; even a spark of it, in generosity of dealing, breedeth admiration; a glimpse of it, in formal courtesy of behavior, procureth much esteem, being deemed to accomplish and adorn a man.” It is the overflowing of the innate goodness of the soul, and, when genuine and sincere, its loftiest aspirations are for the well-being of man. It is not displayed only in giving to the poor, in relieving distress, or in any of all its manifold functions, with regard to the miseries of our fellow-creatures; but it breathes the sigh of sympathy and compassion, of love and tenderness, to every living thing; and turns not away because man is criminal, or an outcast, or of a different creed from ourselves. It is a philanthropic, and therefore a universal virtue. No object is too abject or too mean for its capacious bounty; no human being, however bad, is beneath its notice; none beyond the limits of its love and sympathy. Book of Symbols.—It is heaven upon earth to have a man’s mind move in charity, rest in Providence, and turn upon the poles of truth. Bacon.

10. The desire of the wicked shall perish.** By the silent laws of God working out surely and silently their deep and awful issues, the consequences of indulgence will become plain to experience. If reason, Scripture, the Spirit’s testimony, companions, history, the holy dead did not teach us, time shall. For then, as habit grows obstinate, as the abused spirit begins to turn and prey upon itself, as a perverted imagination wreaks its revengeful retribution, as age or an opening eternity shall displace fleeting fancies with everlasting realities—then will not all these illusions pass away, and the sternest self-denial appear our happiest wisdom? Then we shall look back on every familiar tampering with vice with infinite disgust and unavailing remorse. F. D. H.

The character which the Psalmist here gives of good men is, that they fear the Lord; that they take great delight in His commandments; that they are just and sincere; that they conduct all their affairs with uprightness; that they are kind and full of compassion, and love to give alms to the poor. He teaches us that those who live thus are happy; that God blesses them in their persons, in their posterity, and in their possessions; that they enjoy peace of conscience; that they fear no evil, always trusting in the Lord; and that their righteousness and their memory shall remain forever. Ostervald.—It is they who glorify, who shall enjoy Him; they who deny themselves, who shall not be denied; they who labor on earth who shall rest in heaven; they who bear the cross, who shall wear the crown; they who seek to bless others, who shall be blessed. Guthrie.

Some doubts are sinful. They are so when born of irrational prejudices, or bred of an unregulated life. But doubt, of its own nature, cannot be sinful. For what is it? It is a certain fluctuation of the mind, this way and that way, while as yet, in the matter in question, it has no convincing evidence. Until such evidence is in the possession of the hesitating individual, the continuance of doubt in him is altogether inevitable, and can therefore be no sin. Do not, then, be afraid to doubt, i.e., to think, to compare, to question, to search, to hesitate, to wait—to wait until the question is honestly settled, and the thing appears as it is. And this is said as a part of religious teaching. We do not need to ask leave of “free thought,” or “rational religion,” to entertain doubts and questionings, even on the highest subjects, if they are honestly entertained. If the doubt is purely intellectual, then there must be applied to it an expressly intellectual solvent. There are questionings and uncertainties which will yield to nothing else. You cannot believe them down; the very question is, What to believe? You cannot pray them down; you can pray only for truth and light. You cannot force them down by acts of will; such “violence” is not sanctioned in the kingdom. You cannot go round about them and pass on your way. There they are, waiting the honest consideration of your thought, and that settlement which true thinking, sufficient knowledge, and right judgment alone can bring. And if that settlement does not soon come, or does not come easily and all at once, then do not say that the doubts are resolved, or make believe even to your own mind as if they were. But just let them stand, and, meantime, go along the path of duty and obedience as far as it lies plainly before you, not doubting that, soon or late, there will be to you also a fulfilment of the promise, “unto the upright light ariseth in the darkness.” A. R.