glad tidings of salvation-this is the "grace" which is poured over the "lips" of the Son of God. Horsley's Serm. on Ps. xlv.

v. 3.

Word. Horne.

v. 5.

The "sword" of Messiah is his

Heb. iv. 12. Rev. i. 16.

Rev. vi. 2.

v. 7. "Thy throne, O God, is for ever

and ever therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee" (even as Man) " with the oil of gladness, above thy fellows." Applied by St. Paul to Christ. Heb. i. Orthodox Churchman's Magazine, vol. 15. ·

The Gospel mentions Christ's turning water into wine, by which he manifested both his glory by the miracle, and his goodness in ministering to the necessities of others. Sparrow.

Hail, Son of God! Saviour of men! Thy Name
Shall be the copious matter of my song

Henceforth and never shall my harp thy praise
Forget, nor from thy Father's praise disjoin.

MILTON.

Ps. cvii. p. 18. Israel led to Canaan, and Christians to heaven.

v. 7. God's providence over travellers. The redeemed of the Lord are exhorted in this Psalm to praise him for his goodness in redeeming, and gathering them from the four quarters of the world. Their danger and their deliverance are represented under the four striking images of travellers lost in a wilderness, but directed and conducted home; of prisoners rescued from captivity; of sick and dying men restored to health; of mariners pre

served in a storm at sea, and brought safe into port. Horne.

v. 3. "Many," saith our Lord to the Jews, "shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God." Matt. viii. 11. Luke xiii. 29. We converted Gentiles are the happy people, and we are taught in this Psalm to celebrate that mercy which made us so.

v. 8, 9. The former of these two verses is á chorus, repeated after the celebration of each of the four mercies here related. Literally it is, "Let them acknowledge to Jehovah his mercy, and his wonders for the children of Adam." And what can better deserve our acknowledgment than the provision made for the bodies and souls of Christian travellers, in the way to that heavenly country and city, where "they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat; for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." Rev. vii. 17.

p. 19.

Correction for sin.

v. 14. Release by prayer.

To a state of corporal servitude, the Israelites, for their transgressions, were frequently reduced, and many times experienced, upon their repentance, the goodness of Jehovah in rescuing them from it. But the grand and universal captivity is that of sin and death; the grand and universal deliverance, for which all the

redeemed of the Lord ought to praise his mercy, is that by Jesus Christ.

doned.

p. 20. Intemperance punished and par

v. 20.

The providence of God. The Israelites in the wilderness, " because of their transgressions, and because of their iniquities, were often afflicted" with a plague. But when they repented, and atonement was made, the plague ceased. They were stung by fiery serpents; but when they "cried unto Jehovah, he sent his Word, and healed them." See Wisd. xvi. 6, 7. Is. xxxviii.

The Gospel is concerning our Lord's healing of the Leper that believed in him. Sparrow.

The healing of the Leper signifies, that Christ will heal us from the leprosy of sin, if we believe in him, and come to him for cure as the Leper did.

us.

The Collect prays to God through Christ to heal

xxxviii. 9.

shipwreck.

v. 19. James v. 14, 15, 16. Ecclus.

p. 21.

Deliverance from storms and

v. 29. The mariner's psalm.

The Gospel treats of Christ's miraculous stilling of the waves and the wind. By the tempest on the sea, may be signified the tumultuous madness of the people; which endangers the peace of the church, Christ's ship: so the Psalmist expounds it, "Thou stillest the raging of the sea," and the madness of the people, which would never be quiet unless Christ by

his word and power should command it to be still: and because he does now rule the people's madness by ministers of his vengeance, to whom he gives his power; therefore the Epistle teaches and exhorts us to submit conscientiously to that power of Christ, that so the ship of the church may be still and safe. The Collect prays to God to keep the church safe amidst the many storms and waves that shake it.

v. 29, 30. This is the consummation so devoutly wished and requested by the church for all her children, at the time of their baptism, that they "being delivered from God's wrath may be received into the Ark of Christ's Church; and being stedfast in faith, joyful through hope, and rooted in charity, may so pass the waves of this troublesome world, that finally they may come to the land of everlasting life." Horne.

Ps. lxxxix. p. 22.

v. 8.

The faithfulness of God. The power and majesty of God. p. 23. God's wonderful power, jus

tice, mercy, and truth.

v. 15. The happiness and security

of God's people.

5. Did not "the heavens praise the wonders of Jehovah," when a choir of angels descended from above to sing an anthem at the birth of Christ? And how must the celestial courts have resounded with the hallelujahs of those blessed spirits, when they again received their King, returning in triumph from the conquest of his enemies? Nor do

"the saints" omit to celebrate God's "faithfulness in the congregation" upon earth, while "with angels and archangels, and all the company of heaven, they laud and magnify his glorious name, evermore praising him, and saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, Heaven and earth are full of thy glory. Glory be to thee, O Lord Most High."

v. 9. The extent of the ocean, the multitude of its waves, and their fury, when excited by a storm, render it, in that state, the most tremendous object in nature; nor doth any thing which man beholds, give him so just an idea of human impotence, and of that divine power, which can excite and calm so boisterous an element at pleasure. God himself, therefore, frequently appeals to this instance of his omnipotence; See Job xxxviii. 11. Jer. v. 22; an attribute of which our Lord shewed himself to have been possessed, when, being with his disciples in the ship, he arose and rebuked a tempestuous wind and a raging sea, and there was instantly a calm.

v. 10. Rahab, i. e. Egypt. The dragon, i. e. Pharaoh. Is. li. 9.

v. 11.

The "heavens" and all the glorious bodies there ranged in beautiful order; the

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earth,” with its rich furniture, and the unnumbered tribes of its inhabitants, through its whole extent, from "north to south," and from east to west; all these are so many evidences of that wisdom and power, which at the beginning contrived and formed them ; all in their respective ways declare the glory, and speak the praises, of their great Creator.