§ 1. The Manner of using the Psalms in Divine Service. WHETHER or not the Psalms were all primarily composed for use in Divine Service, it is certain that many of them were so; that all were collected together for that purpose by those who had charge of the services offered up to God in the Temple; and that they were taken into public devotional use by the early Christian Church after the example of the Jewish.

Psalms were composed and sung by Moses, Miriam, Deborah, and Hannah; but it may be reasonably supposed that the constant use of them in Divine Service originated with David, the "sweet singer of Israel," whose pre-eminence as an inspired Psalmist has caused the whole collection to be called after his name, "the Psalms of David." To him was assigned the work and honour of preparing the materials out of which the Temple was to be built; and to him also the honour of preparing the materials of that Divine Psalmody which was henceforth ever to mingle with the worship of Sacrifice, and form the substance of the praises offered to God throughout the world. It seems even as if the very earliest Liturgical use of Psalms was recorded in the statement, "Then on that day David delivered first this psalm to thank the Lord into the hand of Asaph and his brethren," on occasion of the Ark of God being brought to its home of ages on Mount Zion. [1 Chron. xvi. 7.] It is true that the words "this psalm" are not in the original, and that the psalm afterwards given is a cento of the 105th, the 96th, and other Psalms, which are considered by modern critics to belong to a much later date than that indicated; but there can be no doubt that David had been inspired to compose some of his psalms long before, and that when "he appointed certain of the Levites to... thank and praise the Lord God of Israel . . . to give thanks to the Lord, because His mercy endureth for ever" [1 Chron. xvi. 4, 41], he was initiating on Mount Zion that system of liturgical Psalmody, which (even if it had existed in any form previously) was now to continue there until it was taken up by the Christian Church. The establishment of this system in the Temple is recorded with similar exactness in 2 Chron. vii. 6, "And the priests waited on their offices: the Levites also with instruments of musick of the Lord, which David the king had made to praise the Lord, because His mercy endureth for ever, when David praised by their ministry.' And in a previous chapter the advent of the Divine Presence is connected in a remarkable manner with the first offering of such praises in the Temple: "It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of musick, and praised the Lord, saying, For He is good; for His mercy endureth for ever that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord: so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God." [2 Chron. v. 13, 14.] Thus in the dedication of the Temple we see the final settlement of the system of praise originated (as it seems) by David at the triumphal entry of the Ark of God to Mount Zion; and in "the Levites which were the singers, all of them of Asaph, of Heman, of Jeduthun, with their sons and their brethren, arrayed in white linen," we see the Jewish original of those surpliced choirs by which the same Psalins of David have been sung in every age of the Christian Church.

The hundred and fifty Psalms of the Christian Psalter were, however, the growth of perhaps six centuries, extending from David to Ezra and Nehemiah; and hence only a portion of those we now sing were used in the Temple of Solomon, although all were so used in the four centuries which preceded the Advent of our Lord, and the supersession of the Jewish by the Christian Church. This gradual growth of the Psalter led to that division into five parts which is so evident in its structure, and which is also noticed by some

of the Fathers who lived near to the time of its use in the Temple. Doxologies are found at the end of the 41st, 72nd, 89th, and 106th Psalms, and these are considered to point out the division of the Psalter into five books, partly according to the date of their composition, and partly with reference to some system of Liturgical use. But notwithstanding these divisions, there is an equally evident union of all the books into one by means of the first Psalm, which forms a general introduction or Antiphon, and the last, which forms a general Doxology, to the whole number.1

The mode in which the Psalter was used in the Services of the Primitive Church is not known, but it seems clear that the division into books was disregarded, and the whole Psalter treated as a collection of one hundred and fifty separate Psalms distinguished by titles and numbers; and it is hardly probable that any definite separation of these into diurnal or weekly portions was adopted in the earliest age of the Church. There has, in fact, always been a great variety in the mode of appropriating the Psalms to hours and days in all those times of which any such method is recorded, and this would not have been the case if any definite system had been originated in early times. We must, therefore, suppose that the Church was left quite at liberty in this respect, and that each Diocese or Province adopted or originated such a division of the Psalter for use in Divine Offices as was considered most expedient for the time in which it was to be used, and for the persons who were to use it.

The most ancient systems of the Psalter known to us are the Oriental, the Ambrosian, and the Mozarabic; all three of which are of so extremely complicated a character that it is hardly possible to give any clear notion of them without Occupying many pages. Some account of them will be found in NEALE'S Introduction to the History of the Holy Eastern Church, and in his Commentary on the Psalms; and Archdeacon Freeman has traced out some analogies between the Eastern and Western systems in his Principles of Divine Service; to which works the reader is referred for further information. In the Latin Church generally the Psalter was used according to the plan laid down by St. Gregory in the sixth century, and this was almost identical with the ordinary use of the English Church up to the time of the Reformation. The characteristics of this system will be seen in the annexed Table, which shews the manner in which the whole of the hundred and fifty Psalms were appointed to be sung in the course of every seven days. A general principle underlies the whole arrangement, viz. that of appropriating the first half of the Psalms to the earlier, and the second half to the latter part

of the day; but this general principle (for which there is no ground in the character of the Psalms themselves) is associated with a principle of selection, by which certain Psalms

are set aside for particular hours, as the 51st for Ferial Lauds, the Compline Psalms, and the three last, which were appointed for constant use at Lauds, whether Ferial or Festival."

3

This system was little more, however, than a paper system, as it was broken in upon by the frequent occurrence of Festivals, when the ordinary or Ferial Psalms were set aside; and Festivals were so numerous that, in practice, less than one-half of the Psalms, instead of the whole number, were sung through weekly, as is the case in the Latin Church at the present day. This deviation from the appointed order is referred to in the Preface to the Prayer Book of 1549: "... Notwithstanding that the ancient Fathers have divided the Psalms into seven portions, whereof every one was called a Nocturn now of late time, a few of them have been daily said, and the rest utterly omitted." The weekly recitation of the Psalter, however beautiful in theory, was not, therefore, the real practice of the Church; although it was doubtless adopted by many devout persons in their private devotions.

There is reason to think that the ancient system was being set aside also in another way, before any attempt had been made to construct an English Prayer Book out of the ancient Offices. Psalters exist which bear on their title-page "ad usum insignis ecclesiæ Sarum et Eboracensis," in which a much more simple arrangement is adopted, and one out of which our modern use evidently took its rise. Fifteen such Psalters have been examined by the writer in the Bodleian Library, and in the British Museum, in all of which the Psalms are arranged in a numerical order, according to the following plan, instead of on the elaborate system shewn in the preceding Table :

§ Table of the Ordinary Course appointed for the Psalms in Psalters of 1480-1516.

1 In Lent Psalms li. and cxviii. were used instead of xciii, and c. These eight Psalms were also those of Lauds on all Feasts of Saints. The abuse has even increased in modern times, and Mr. Neale says that "according to the practice of the modern Roman Church, a Priest is in the habit of reciting about fifty Psalms, and no more; these fifty being, on the whole, the shortest of the Psalter." [Comm. on Psalms, p. 20.]

4 In King Edward VI's Injunctions of 1547 there is one to this effect: "Item, when any Sermon or Homily shall be had, the Prime and houres shall be omitted." This omission seems to have represented a much earlier practice, as there are no Psalms provided for the little hours of Sunday in the above arrangement of the Psalter. See also the fourth of the Injunc tions at p. 12.

Vespers, and no notice is taken of Compline; the proportion assigned to Mattins being more than four times that assigned to Vespers, and more than ten times that given to the four intermediate hours."

How far this new plan of reciting the Psalter was introduced into the Church of England it is impossible to say; but it is plainly a link of transition between the ancient system, adapted for the Clergy and religious bodies, and the modern one adapted for parochial use. It is far from improbable that it was introduced with a view to parochial use; and that for the private recitation of the Clergy and the use of monastic bodies the old system was still retained. The arrangement of the Psalter made by Cardinal Quignonez in his Reformed Breviary had no influence whatever on that adopted in the Prayer Book. The latter was settled in 1549, and has never since been altered. If we could read the experience of previous ages, as well as we can those of the times that have elapsed since this monthly system of recitation was introduced, we should probably come to the conclusion that it is the best one that could be adopted for general use, according to the ordinary measure of devotional attention of which ordinary persons are capable.

Three principal ways of singing or saying the Psalms have been generally recognized in the Christian Church. [1] The Cantus Directus, in which the whole Psalm is sung straight through by the whole choir. [2] The Cantus Antiphonalis, in which the Choir is divided into two sides, the Cantoris and Decani, each singing alternate verses. [3] The Cantus Responsarius, in which the Precentor sings the verses with uneven numbers, and the Choir or Congregation those with even numbers. All three methods have always been in use in the Church of England, but the second and third most commonly so; and all three have the sanction of ancient custom. The second is the method which the Christian Church inherited directly from the Jewish, the one which is most in accordance with the heavenly pattern of praise revealed to us through Isaiah and St. John; and the third may be looked upon rather as a modification of it than as a separate system. There was always also some variation in the posture adopted during the singing of the Psalms. "In Psalmody," says the author of Our Lady's Mirror, "some. times ye stand, for ye ought to be ready and strong to do

5 The Psalters examined are as follows: Bodleian Library, Douce, 9 (1480), 70 (1504); A. 2, 18, Line. (1506), Douce, 26, 141; C. 4, 10, Linc. (all 1516), Douce, 8 (1530); Rawl. 990 (n. d.); C. 42, Linc. (1555). British Museum Library, Harl. MSS. 2856, 2888, C. 35, g. (1516); C. 35, b. (1524); C. 35, a. (1529). It is quite evident that some of these Psalters were intended for use in the choir; and this is expressly stated in the title of the sixth (Douce, 8), dated 1530, which is as follows: "Psalterium ad decantanda in choro officia ecclesiastica accommodatissimum cum sexpertita litania, hymnis quoque, ac vigiliis defunctorum, una cum kalendario et tabulis ex diversis orthodoxorum practicis patrum collectis: ad simplicium sacerdotum cleri corumque instructionem nunc quidem impressum: et a quodam erudito castigatum et auctum. 1530. Venundantur Londonii in cimiterio divi Pauli apud Johannem renis sub intersignio Sancti Georgii."

The same arrangement of the Psalter is also found in an Augsburg Psalter in the Bodleian [Douce, 268), and in a Psalter in the British Museum, which is marked "in usum eccle Augusten" in the Catalogue. The Bodleian copy begins, "In nomine Dni nostri Jhesu xri amen. Incipit psalterium cum suis ptinentibus quemadmodum ecclesiæ Augustěn ordinatum Dominicis diebus. Invitatorium. Adoremus dominum qui fecit nos."

good deeds. And sometimes ye sit, for ye ought to see that all your deeds be done restfully, with peace of other as far as is in you." [Mirror of Our Lady, p. 96, Blunt's ed., E. E. T. Soc.]

§ 2. Versions of the Psalter used in Divine Service. It is not probable that the Psalms were ever sung in Hebrew in the Christian Church, although they were doubtless so used in the Temple to the last. Our Lord and His Apostles sanctioned their use in the vernacular by frequently quoting them from the Septuagint version; and it is from that version they are principally quoted even in the Epistle to the Hebrews. The instinct of the Church which has always made it cling to the Septuagint Psalms for use in Divine Service may, therefore, be regarded as growing out of its most primitive usages; and, in some degree, out of our Blessed Lord's own example.

But although a Greek Psalter was thus ready to hand for the Church to use in its services at their first institution, a Latin version was almost equally necessary for that large portion of the Western world, in which the Septuagint Psalms would have been almost as unintelligible as the Hebrew. How soon, or by whom, this Latin translation of the Psalter was made, is not on record. Probably it was made at the same time that other portions of Holy Scripture were translated; although it seems almost impossible but that it should have preceded the writing down of the Gospels in Greek, since otherwise the Psalmody of Divine Worship would have been unintelligible to large numbers of Latin Christians.

Portions of such a primitive Latin version of the Holy Scriptures, and more especially the Psalms, are still extant in the works of the Latin fathers who preceded St. Jerome, and in ancient Psalters. The Psalms were so generally used in private as well as for Divine Worship, that St. Augustine says every one who knew a little of Greek as well as Latin was accustomed to dabble in the work of translation. But there appears to have been one principal and recognized Latin version of the whole Bible, of very early date, which was called the Italic version by St. Augustine [De Doct. Christ. ii. 15]; and to which St. Jerome gave the name of the Vulgate, a name afterwards applied to his own translation. Of this ancient Vulgate, or "old Italic," the Psalter is still extant (although, perhaps, with some corrections of a later date), and it was used in Divine Service long after the rest of the translation had been superseded by the labours of St. Jerome.

St. Jerome left three versions of the Psalter, which have acquired the names of the Roman, the Gallican, and the Hebrew. The latter was so called because it was translated directly from the original; but it has never been used in Divine Service, and has rarely appeared in volumes of the Holy Scriptures, and need not, therefore, be further mentioned here. The Roman Psalter of St. Jerome is simply the old Italic sparingly corrected by him, at the request of St. Damasus, during his residence at Rome about A.D. 383. This version was used in the churches of the city of Rome down to the sixteenth century, and is even still used in the Church of the Vatican and in St. Mark's at Venice; but it was never extensively used in Divine Service, and where it is found in Psalters meant for use in Divine Service, the older version is mostly written in a parallel column or interlineated, shewing the hold which it retained upon the affections of the Church.2 The Gallican version of St. Jerome has, on the other hand, been the Psalter of the whole Western Church for many centuries, although it was a long time before it entirely superseded the ancient Italic, or Vetus Vulgata. It was translated from Origen's edition of the Septuagint by St. Jerome while he was living at Bethlehem, A.D. 389, and was introduced into Germany and Gaul either by St. Gregory of Tours in the end of the sixth century, or by the English Apostle of Germany, St. Boniface, in the early part of the eighth century. From France it was brought over to England, and eventually superseded the older Italic version in Divine Service throughout the Church of England on the revision of its offices by St. Osmund in the twelfth century. The same version (slightly altered at the last revision of the Vulgate) is in use throughout the Latin Church, both in Divine Service and in complete volumes of the Holy Bible. 3

1 Tertullian, in his Apology [c. xviii.], seems to say that the Jews of Egypt used the LXX in their synagogues.

The same thing is found in some Bibles of Queen Elizabeth's reign, în which the old version is placed side by side with that of 1568. In some, the old version supersedes the authorized one altogether.

3 See Epp. Damas. Hieron. et Hieron. Damaso De Psalmorum emendatione. [HIERON. Opp. xi, 275, Bened. ed. 1734-42] The three versions are

Our English Psalter grew out of this long-used "Psalterium Davidicum ad usum Ecclesiæ Sarisburiensis," that is, out of the Gallican version of St. Jerome. It was frequently translated into Anglo-Saxon and medieval English; and the fifty. two Psalms of the Prymer were of course so translated and revised at the various periods at which the Prymer was reedited. The translations made from the Vulgate by William de Schorham and Richard Rolle, the hermit of Hampole, early in the fourteenth century, as also that of the Wickliffe Bible of A. D. 1388, are well known and these versions (in common with other books of Scripture) formed the basis of subsequent translations. Thus, when it was found necessary to restrain the growth of private English versions of the Bible, and to issue one standard and authorized edition, which was in 1540, the edition so issued was a gradual growth, springing originally from the Latin Vulgate of St. Jerome, and corrected (after his example) by comparison with the Septuagint version and the Hebrew original.

:

From this first authorized edition of the English Bible our Prayer Book Psalms are taken, as is stated in a note which follows the Preface to the Prayer Book, respecting the Order in which the Psalter is appointed to be read. The paragraph referred to is as follows: "Note, That the Psalter followeth the Division of the Hebrews, and the Translation of the Great English Bible, set forth and used in the time of King Henry the Eighth and Edward the Sixth." But until recent times the printers were allowed to do much as they, and uncritical delegates of the press, pleased with the text of the Bible and the Prayer Book, and this "note" has been, and is still, so entirely disregarded by them that the italics of "the Great English Bible are never represented. In the manuscript of the Prayer Book the italics are represented by "large script" letters. In the following pages they are carefully reproduced from the manuscript collated with editions of the Great Bible" in the British Museum. [See pp. v, vi.] The only change made since 1540 has been the numbering of the verses, which was first done in the Latin Prayer Book of 1572, and then in the English of 1620.

Thus the English Psalter, which we now use in Divine Service, may be said to speak the continuous and enduring language of the Church, after the example of our Lord and His Apostles when they spoke truths out of Holy Scripture not in the original Hebrew language, but in the venerable Greek version of the Septuagint. And the peculiar manner in which the English Psalter has grown out of the Psalters of ancient days, may entitle us to say, without extravagance or irreverence, that it represents, by a sort of Catholic condensation into one modern tongue, the three ecclesiastical languages in which the Psalter has chiefly been used, the "Hebrew, Greek, and Latin" of the Cross; and that it thus represents also the original and the continuous Inspiration by which God the Holy Spirit guides the Church into all truth.

§ 3. The Meaning of the Psalms as used in Divine Service. No part of Holy Scripture possesses greater capacity than the Psalter for that many-sided application which is a chief characteristic of inspired writings. We may regard it as a book of history, for it contains a large store of materials for filling up the details of the personal life of David and of the national life of Israel. It is a book of spiritual experiences; for in it the man after God's own heart, and other godly souls, have recorded the love, the joy, the penitence, the sorrow with which they opened out their innermost selves to their God. If we look for moral teaching there, we may hear God Himself speaking to us precepts of Divine wisdom through His servants, shewing what are His ways towards men, and what the relation in which they stand to Him. If we ask for words of prayer, in the Psalter we find the very Prayer Book which was used by Christ and His saints; and may use the privilege of sending up to the Throne of Grace the very aspirations that have been consecrated a second time by passing thither from the lips of the Son of Man. From one end to the other it is full of the praises of the Lord,

such as the soul need never tire of uttering, and the Lord will never tire of receiving. It is a book of prophecy, speaking of things that were to be in distant ages with words that shew how deeply they were inspired by Him to Whom all things are a continual present. And it is, above all, a book in which Christ and His Church are prefigured, so that David speaks in the Person of his Lord, and Israel personifies that New Jerusalem which is the Mother of us all.

Of these manifold tones in which the Psalter speaks, some are adapted for the pulpit, some for private meditation, some for the confession of the penitent when he is upon his knees in self-abasement. But when it is used in Divine Service there is one tone with which the Psalter ever rings; and that is the one which speaks to the praise and glory of God concerning the relations which exist between the Divine Nature, the Son of Man, and the Mystical Body of Christ. All other aspects in which the Psalter can be viewed ought to come within the range of Christian study and practice; and we cannot afford to undervalue any one of them. But as a Psalter for use in Divine Service all other views and meanings ought to be subordinated to this, which sees chiefly God, and Christ, and the Church in the Psalms. Thus the Christian finds the Psalter a living word for every generation; and if he sings concerning the City of God, the voice of his understanding and love dwells little on the historical Jerusalem of the past, but soars upward either to the allegory under which lies hidden the Church Militant of the present, to the figurative representation of the soul in which Christ dwells, or to the exalted Image which reveals to his faith that Celestial City, wherein will be the eternal home of the saints.1

This spiritual mode of viewing the Psalms was the principal if not the only one adopted by the early Church. All the Psalms," says St. Jerome," appertain to the Person of Christ." "David more than all the rest of the prophets," says St. Ambrose, "spake of the marriage between the Divine and Human nature." Tertullian had declared that nearly all the Psalms represent the Son speaking to the Father; and St. Hilary leaves his opinion on record, that all which is in the Psalms refers to the knowledge of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, His Incarnation, Passion, and Resurrection, and to the glory also and power of our own life in Him. Such habits of thought were partly inherited from the Jews, who could see the Messiah in their ancient prophecies, though the generation in which He came failed to recognise His actual Person. But without going back to the Jews, we may trace this clear vision of Christ in the Psalms to the Apostles themselves, and from them to the teaching of His own lips and example. In the earliest dawn of the Church after the Ascension, the Apostles began to find in the Psalms an explanation of the events which were occurring around them. They recognized in the fall of an Apostle a fulfilment of that "which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus.

For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick let another take." [Acts i. 16, 20.] And in the Resurrection of their Lord they found the one full interpretation of what the "patriarch David. . . being a prophet," and "seeing before of that which was to be, "spake of the Resurrection of Christ, that His soul was not left in hell, neither His flesh did see corruption.' [Acts ii. 29-31.] Such a use of the Psalms was not by way of adaptation or mere illustration, but as clear, unimpeachable evidence; infallible truth, coming from the Fountain of Truth.

Nor is it to be wondered at that the Apostles should thus immediately, and as a matter of course, go to the Psalms for light about Christ and the Church; for their Divine Master had often shewn them the way during the time of His ministrations among them; while the last hours which He and they had spent together seem to have been wonderfully connected by Him with "the things that were spoken in the Psalms concerning Him." It seems, indeed, as if our Blessed Lord took every opportunity at that time of shewing how the meaning of the Psalter was to be seen clearly only when viewed in the light of the Gospel. When the Pharisees remonstrated with Him for permitting the children to sing These four meanings of Holy Scripture are thus expressed in an ancient couplet:"Litera scripta docet: quod credas Allegoria: Quid speres, Anagoge: quid agas, Tropologia." The LITERAL sense is thus said to teach the historical meaning; the ALLEGORICAL sense that which is to he believed, and so concerns the Christian life on earth; the MORAL or TROPOLOGICAL sense that which is to be done in the Church Militant; and the ANAGOGICAL. Sense that which is to be hoped for in the Church Triumphant,

Hosanna to Him as the Son of David coming in the Name of the Lord, it is out of David that He answers them, reminding them of the 8th Psalm, and saying, "Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise?" [Matt. xxi. 16.] In the same manner, shortly after, He foretold them of His own glory (notwithstanding their rejection of Him) by quoting words that seemed from a human point of view to have had no such application, "The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner." [Matt. xxi. 42.] And from their own confession that Christ was the Son of David spoken of in the Psalms, He convicted them of folly in not acknowledging Him, the Son of David, for their Lord. [Matt. xxii. 45.]

After these final hours of Christ's public ministrations came those which ended the time of His humiliation. When, during that sad and solemn period, He would reveal to the Apostles that the traitor was to come from among themselves, He shews them how this had been already predicted in the Psalms, and that what is to happen will be in fulfilment of the Scripture, "He that eateth bread with Me hath lifted up his heel against Me." [John xiii. 18.] When He speaks of the feelings which the Jews entertained towards Him, again He goes to the Psalms, "But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated Me without a cause." [John xv. 25.] His last act of common worship with them was when He and they sung the latter half of the great Hallelujah Hymn of the Passover [Psalms exvi-cxviii.] as they went forth to Gethsemane. And when He was on the Cross the words of the Psalmist form such an atmosphere of fulfilled prophecy around the Throne of His suffering, as to make a thoughtful Christian receive with respect the old tradition, that He recited the 22nd and following Psalms as far as the sixth verse of the 31st, before commending His soul into the hands of His Father, not in new words, but in those with which His Spirit had inspired David many ages before. [Luke xxiii. 46.]

When the Apostles, then, began immediately to look for the Gospel in the Psalter, they followed with loving faith in the path which their Master had opened out to them by His words and example. And that this pathway was not opened out for a temporary object, only as one by which the Jews might be led through their own Scriptures to conviction, may be seen by the frequency with which St. Paul (who received his Gospel by direct revelation from his ascended Lord, and chiefly for ministrations among those who were not Jews) deals with the Psalms in the same manner. He writes to the Romans concerning the privileges which Christ brought home to Gentiles as well as Jews, and finds God's olden declaration of this truth in the words of the 18th Psalm, "For this cause I will confess to Thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto Thy Name;" and again in the 117th Psalm, "Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles; and laud Him, all ye people.' [Rom. xv. 9, 11.] Where we should otherwise least expect it he finds an allegorical allusion to the first spread of the Gospel; and fixes the 19th as one of our Easter Psalms by shewing that "their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world," refers to the Apostles of the Sun of Righteousness, Who Himself, and Himself in them, was running His course to extend the Light of salvation through all nations. How remarkably the Apostle draws out the depth of meaning contained in the Psalms to throw light on the argument of his Epistle to the Hebrews, is familiar to every thoughtful reader of the New Testament; and some notes will be found under several Psalms in the following pages, connected with the meaning which he has given to them in that Epistle.

This principle of interpretation has been adopted by the Church in the selection of Proper Psalms for days which com. memorate special epochs of our Lord's life and work; and a careful consideration of these Proper Psalms will shew that the principle is recognized as one whose application is by no means intended to be limited to the most self-evident allegories and spiritual interpretations. In the choice of such Psalms as the 19th, 89th, and 132nd for Christmas Day, of the 40th and 88th for Good Friday, of those appointed for Ascension Day, and of the 68th, 104th, and 145th for Whitsunday, we see the Church penetrating far below the surface into the mystical depths of the Psalter; and finding there reasons why these rather than other Psalms should be taken on the lips of Christians to celebrate the Incarnation, Death, and Ascension of our Lord, and the marvellous operations of the Holy Spirit in carrying on the work of God's glory in man's redemption.