when I saw M. Rousseau hasten down the ladder and fall at my feet. I thought he was mad, and said, "Rousseau, Rousseau, what is the matter?" He replied, "Is it possible, madam, that you still recollect our psalms and sing them? May God bless you, and keep you in this good mind." He had tears in his eyes.' It is interesting to know that Louis XIV., broken-hearted in his old age by defeats and disappointments, recognised her worth, and leaned on her for comfort. Another woman, of our own time, with trials in a different position, and yet like in kind to those of Elizabeth Charlotte, has put her heart into some of the words. The wife of Thomas Carlyle inserts verses 2-4 in her Journal, 1855, when in sore trouble of body and mind, amid weakness and weariness, sleepless nights and wounded feelings. 'Oh, dear! I wish this Grange business were well over. It occupies me (the mere preparation for it) to the exclusion of all quiet thought and placid occupation. To have to care for my dress, this time of day, more than I ever did when young and pretty and happy (God bless me, to think I was once all that!), on penalty of being regarded as a blot on the Grange gold and azure, is really too bad. Ach Gott! if we had been left in the sphere of life we belong to, how much better it would have been for us in many ways! Ah, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak as water. To-day I walked with effort one little mile, and thought it a great feat. Sleep has come to look to me the highest virtue and the greatest happiness; that is, good sleep, untroubled, beautiful, like a child's. Ah me! "Have mercy upon me, O Lord; for I am weak: O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed. My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O Lord, how long?", This same verse 3 was the common expression of Calvin when he was in trouble, Tu Domine usque quo?' 'Thou, O Lord, how long?' and parts of the psalm, with the last verse of Psalm 70th, were among the dying words of Robert Rollock, the first Principal of the University of Edinburgh, a man remarkable for power of administration and deep piety. Psalm 9. Five scholars of Lausanne, devoted to the Reformation, were taken in France, A.D. 1553, and burned in the Place des Terreaux at Lyons. As they were being carried to execution, they sang with a loud voice this psalm, De tout mon cœur, t'exalterai, Seigneur.' 'I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart. . . . When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them he forgetteth not the cry of the humble.' At this time, by a decree of Pope Paul IV., began that reign of terror, under the treacherous and cruel. Guises, which lasted nearly till a different terror, its daughter and Nemesis, took its place. Psalm 11. When John Welsh and his fellow-captives were summoned from their prison in Blackness, on the Firth of Forth, to appear before the Court at Linlithgow, they sang this psalm as they walked by night under guard to their trial. version, which they used, it stands : I trust in God, how dare ye then In the old " Behold, the wicked bend their bowes, To shoot in secret, and to hurt The sound and harmless breast. 'But he that in his temple is Most holy and most hie, 'The poor and simple man's estate While they were lying in their dungeon, deep and dark, below the level of the sea, they received a letter from Lady Melville, of Culross, one of the best women of her time, bidding them be thankful that they were only in the darkness of Blackness, and not in the blackness of darkness.' They were at length banished 'forth the kingdom,' under the arbitrary government of James VI., who was bent upon the establishment of Episcopacy. Calderwood says: Upon the 6th of Nov. 1606, about the evening, when they were ready to embark, Mr. John Welsh conceived a fervent prayer, on the shore of Leith, and they took good-night of their friends, wives, and acquaintances, and entered in the boat; and after they had waited a good space upon the skipper, because he was not ready, they returned by two hours in the morning, at which time many were present. After prayer, they entered in the boat, with singing the 23rd Psalm. The people were much moved, and prayed heartily for them.' Psalm 12. An old writer tells that a ship, with exiles for religion, was driven on the coast of Barbary, in a night of fearful storm, when they had nothing before them but death among the waves, or captivity among the Moors. They sang together the 12th Psalm, and when they reached the 5th verse, the ship went to pieces, most of them perishing in the sea, or rather passing through it to life and liberty. The 5th verse was the text of the sermon preached by Dr. Fabricius before Gustavus Adolphus, when he took Augsburg after a severe fight, in which the honour of the day was given by the king to the Scottish Brigade under Colonel Hepburn. A solemn thanksgiving was held in the principal church, and religious liberty was proclaimed in the city of the famous Confession, while the ferocious Tilly, after his defeat, retired breathing out threatenings and slaughter. Ver. 5. For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.' Psalm 15. John Wilson (Christopher North), in his Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life, chooses this psalm to be sung at the elder's death-bed,' for 'it was an old custom in Scotland that the ransomed of the Lord returned and came to Zion with songs.' It is a description of a class of men who, for centuries, and in every rank of life, have been an honour and strength to their Church and country. Within thy tabernacle, Lord, Who shall abide with thee? |