all men are called on to acknowledge, and the celebration of which should awaken the heartfelt thankfulness and confidence of the whole human

race.

This Psalm, even with the aid of the humblest vocal powers, and in congregations of the lowliest worshippers, is always felt to have a tranquillizing and happy influence.-In temples where it is performed with all the aids which rich instrumental harmony, and many excellently trained voices--conjoined with the spontaneous notes of assembled multitudes the effect is often of the most overpowering kind. In Jerusalem, with all the assistance of music more peculiarly adapted to the original metres-and when it was sung by "a whole nation of worshippers," in one united voice of praise, the effect must have been prodigiously, indeed indescribably enhanced. But great as the effect of all these magnificent yet accessory circumstances might be, there is an idea suggested by the simple words themselves of the Psalm, which in the mind of a truly thoughtful and pious worshipper will, in its effect, go beyond all that we have already suggested-it is the idea of "the whole human race" raising one united voice of praise-and that a voice, not of fear or of doubt, but of joy, of gratitude, of confidence, of exultationto him, whose " goodness and mercy" are over all his works-and whose "truth endureth to all generations." This is the key-note-the emotional strain of music-the right apprehension of which leads to the understanding of the meaning, and true appreciation of the surpassing grandeur of the whole composition.

There is yet one other Hymn of "the Monarch Minstrel," which has always seemed to us peculiarly striking and full of interesting meaning -we mean, the Seventy-first-in which "the sweet singer of Israel," now grown old and grey-headed, looks back thoughtfully but yet confidingly, on the wonderful series of events that had marked and characterised his varied and deeply significant history. He recollects his boyhood and earlier years-the wonderful tokens of divine approbation which he then witnessed-he proceeds to recollect the darker shadows that soon passed over the brightness of his path-he is smitten with the secret consciousness of great failures, followed by great chastisements, which had chequered his lot in life-but still the cheering conviction arises within him, that "the covenant of his peace" with his Creator and Guide was never entirely broken-he is afflicted by the recollection of the taunts of his enemies, who in his distresses considered him as altogether "abandoned by God," though he had all along a secret consciousness, that these taunts and artifices of his enemies would issue in their disappointment, and in the subsequent glory and honour of his own person and family-he repeatedly prays, that as God had been so friendly to him during all the past varieties of his earthly experience, the same kind providence might be manifested towards him during the dark evening of his days, when he was now become "old and grey-headed;"-and confident that this would be the result-that he was, indeed, bound in a merciful "covenant" with God, which would not be disregarded-he concludes by expressing his determination to make the praise of God the

favourite subject of his meditations-and the chief theme for the utterance of his sacred Hymns.

The Poem is rather longer than most of those which occur in the same collection-but this repetition, and prolongation, and variation of the topics, is exactly in accordance with the practice of all musicians when their fundamental note is such as admits of a great variety of cadences-and with the practice of all poets who are employed on a subject in which the heart is deeply interested, and which presents a large and wide scope to their powers of delineation.

The whole Poem is in beautiful accordance with the tone of sentiment and of recollection which, on a review of the varied and wonderfully chequered scene of life, almost necessarily bursts on the minds of all rightly-disposed men when the last years of life are darkening around them-when the head is become old and grey-and when life itself presents rather a subject of past thought, than a scene of actual exertion or of prophetic impulse.

The Hymn begins, as usual, with a prelude, in which the Psalmist represents God as his "rock and tower of defence"-an image very likely to be suggested by his own princely situation, and by the peculiarities of his native country. After noticing that he was even in his old age still surrounded by enemies, and involved in perplexed circumstances-he proceeds to open up the grounds of his trust in the continued care of God in these striking words:

"Thou, Lord, hast been my trust from my youth-
By thee have I been holden up from the womb-
Thou art he that took me out of my mother's bowels;
My praise shall be continually of thee."

The same topic is again reverted to in a subsequent part of the Poem:"O God, thou hast taught me from my youth,

And hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works

Now also, when I am old and grey-headed, O God, forsake me not." He next adverts to the mistaken triumph of his enemies in the following passages, which triumph he controverts by very striking state

ments:

"Mine enemies speak against me,

Saying, God hath forsaken him-persecute and take him,

For there is none to deliver him.'

But, continues he, in the language of pious and beautifully reflective thoughtfulness

:-

"Thou, which hast shewed me great and sore troubles,
Shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again
From the depths of the earth."

In conclusion, he is satisfied that, notwithstanding his failures, his distresses, and the taunts of his enemies, "his covenant" with God is still unbroken"--and that his harp should still find a suitable theme in the celebration of the loving-kindness and continued favour of God.

Without prolonging these observations, we may only remark, that the same tone of healthful confidence in the continued favour of God to the person and family of David, is expressed with great beauty and variety of imagery, in what the sacred historian has recorded as the last words" -or final testimony of this distinguished monarch and most delightful minstrel.-See 2 Sam. xxiii. 1-5.

There is considerable obscurity in the meaning of several of the clauses of this remarkable declaration of the aged monarch-but the general and pervading meaning, we apprehend to be quite obvious. It is the declaration of a solemn and heart-cheering conviction, on his part, that the covenant which God had made with him personally, and as the head of a family, was still perpetuated-and on looking back upon the various events of his mortal career, with all its alternations of joy and of sorrow, of confidence and of perplexity--he'sees the coming scenes of his history, as the rising of a cloudless morn after a dark and stormy night-- as "the clear shining" of the sun upon the tender grass after a mid-day tempest --as "the bow in the cloud," portending happier hours, while one part of the heaven is shrouded in darkness-and as "the root of a healthful plant" in the field, when its leaves have been torn by the hurricane or withered by the blasts of winter, but in which there was still the vigorous principle of life-and which, in due time, would again send up its stalk green and healthful--and be richly crowned with leaves and with blossoms.

"Now these be the last words of David," says the historian,--David the son of Jesse said, the man who was lifted up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the Sweet Singer of Israel said,

"The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue. The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, There shall be a ruler over the righteous and he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, a morning without clouds: as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain.

"Although my house be not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure-and this is all my salvation and all my desire, although he maketh it not to grow."

Whatever may be the difficulty of explaining particular phrases or references in this declaration, there can be none in perceiving the beautiful spirit of confidence in the continued providence of God amidst all the future and undeveloped events of the monarch's history, founded on the never-failing experience which he had enjoyed of the courses of providence in all their past manifestations ;-and something similar to this we humbly believe to be the privilege of all right-hearted men, when the course of their earthly pilgrimage is advancing to its close.

We have thus gone over a few of the Psalms, chiefly with the view of shewing that each of them is a regularly constructed ode,-that it is by the prevailing emotion or feeling intended to be elucidated in each, that its unity and meaning are to be ascertained--and that when this pervading note is seized, the whole appears to be clothed, not only with a beautiful regularity of meaning, but with a spiritual and captivating de

liciousness of sentiment, which has never been matched by any other poetry that has yet attracted the attention of men.

We have a vast deal more, however, to say of the same kind, but that must be left to some future opportunity.

Meanwhile, the passages already quoted may be considered, in lan guage quoted by Dr. Lowth, as

"A drop from Helicon-a flower

Cull'd from the Muses' favourite bower."

Or, as we should rather say,—

"A draught

From Siloa's brook, that flow'd
Fast by the oracle of God."

Or, if the reader chooses,

A handful of roses from Sharon-a branch from the palm-groves of Engadi."

THE FREE CHURCH TRIED BY HER OWN ARGUMENTS; OR, THOUGHTS ON THE SECESSION, PUSEYISM, AND POPERY.

BY A COUNTRY MINISTER.

CONCLUDING ARTICLE.

Having disposed, in our past articles, of all the known conditions in which restrictive authority can be a violation of conscience, we now return to the course of our argument with the Free Church, founded on this issue. If it be true, as the positions which have been demonstrated must clearly shew to be the case, that the exercise of restrictive authority by the civil magistrate on the Church, in reference to religion, neither violates the word of God nor the obligations of conscience, then such authority cannot be held to be a wrong done to the Church. The assertion that it is so, is an assertion without proof,-the conclusion which makes it so, is not logical, it is fallacious. In having attained this position, a vantage-ground of no small importance is now secured for the Church of Scotland, with reference to the argument of her opponents.

Dr. Buchanan charges against us, the concession to the State of authority over the Church in spiritual matters. We have shown, however, that in the questions at issue, there was no exercise of preceptive authority, (against which only his argument is levelled,) and that restrictive authority, which may have been exercised, was not wrong. Where then is his ground of charge against us? Or rather, to turn the attack against himself, if he hold a wrong in the matter of authority to have been committed, how dares he vindicate the position of his own Church without inferring principles which compel him to fraternize with Rome, by

C

asserting the fundamental doctrine of this great apostacy, viz. the infallibi lity of the Church. That this is the final step in the argument by which the Free Church has been defended, Dr. B. does not see; and this is our complaint against his work, as we early intimated, that he has drawn his conclusions rashly, and without the discussion of questions of the highest moment toasound judgment on the points at issue. Assuming, as he has done, that the authority he finds fault with is a simple and not a compound principle, and treating it as such in the argument adduced by him, he comes at once, and by a short process of reasoning, to the finding, that it was against Scripture and in violation of conscience, and thus with an apparent truthfulness vindicates the proceedings of his party. But had he adopted the more logical way of discussing separately the questions before him, he would have seen the fallacy whereof he has been guilty. In place of establishing the conclusion, which he persuades himself he has done, and which conclusion is the foundation of his whole system, "That the Church must be independent of all human authority," the real conclusion established by his reasoning is a very different one, namely this, "That because Christ, the Head of the Church, has excluded the Civil Magistrate from the exercise of preceptive authority in religious or spiritual matters, therefore the latter is not entitled in such matters to exercise restrictive authority." Let any one take up the Claim of Right, or Protest, where the exercises of civil authority reclaimed against are formally stated, let him apply the reasoning of the volumes before us, to any or to all of the acts mentioned, and if done fairly, we venture to assert, that the above is the only conclusion which he will find to be proved. Can it be wondered then, if by such reasoning, so plainly and logically fallacious, the Members of the Church of Scotland have hitherto refused to be convinced; or if they should be led to say still, as they did formerly, that principles had been regarded by their opponents as involved in the controversy, which had never been mooted, and that the great foundations of our Church were untouched?

It is, however, but fair to Dr. Buchanan to say, that he is not singular in making the omission noticed by us, which vitiates his conclusions. The writer of the Article in the North British Review, on "The Ten Years Conflict," exhibits a remarkable instance of misconception of the true idea involved in the conflict. That idea was, the right of the State to exercise on the Church restrictive authority, while the article referred to is from beginning to end an essay against preceptive authority. In the other article from the same Review to which we have already referred, we find the same error, if indeed the error be not universal among Free Church authors. The author, of whom we may say in passing, that he furnishes us with one of the most elaborate arguments in favour of Free Church principles which we have read, says, in answer to the charges of the Duke of Argyle, that all the power claimed by the Free Church party, and which has been entirely taken away by the State, was "the power and right of self-government," (N. B. Review, p. 450.) Now this assertion plainly implies that, as the author believed, preceptive authority (the only authority which involves the right of self-government,) had been exercised against the Church in the recent collision, or