Man is settled, as the margin has it, and by divine decree it is settled that he shall not be settled. He is constant only in inconstancy. His vanity is his only verity; his best, of which he is vain, is but vain; and this is verily true of every man, that everything about him is every way fleeting. This is sad news for those whose treasures are beneath the moon; those whose glorying is in themselves may well hang the flag half-mast; but those whose best estate is settled upon them in Christ Jesus in the land of unfading flowers, may rejoice that it is no vain thing in which they trust.

6. "Surely every man walketh in a vain shew." Life is but a passing pageant. This alone is sure, that nothing is sure. All around us shadows mock us; we walk among them, and too many live for them as if the mocking images were substantial; acting their borrowed parts with zeal fit only to be spent on realities, and lost upon the phantoms of this passing scene. Worldly men walk like travellers in a mirage, deluded, duped, deceived, soon to be filled with disappointment and despair. "Surely they are disquieted in vain." Men fret, and fume, and worry, and all for mere nothing. They are shadows pursuing shadows, while death pursues them. He who toils and contrives, and wearies himself for gold, for fame, for rank, even if he wins his desire, finds at the end his labour lost; for like the treasure of the miser's dream, it all vanishes when the man awakes in the world of reality. Read well this text, and then listen to the clamour of the market, the hum of the exchange, the din of the city streets, and remember that all this noise (for so the word means), this breach of quiet, is made about unsubstantial, fleeting vanities. Broken rest, anxious fear, over-worked brain, failing mind, lunacy, these are steps in the process of disquieting with many, and all to be rich, or, in other words, to load one's self with the thick clay; clay, too, which a man must leave so soon. "He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them." He misses often the result of his ventures, for there are many slips between the cup and the lips. His wheat is sheaved, but an interloping robber bears it away-as often happens with the poor Eastern husbandman; or, the wheat is even stored, but the invader feasts thereon. Many work for others all unknown to them. Especially does this verse refer to those all-gathering muckrakes, who in due time are succeeded by all-scattering forks, which scatter riches as profusely as their sires gathered them parsimoniously. We know not our heirs, for our children die, and strangers fill the old ancestral halls; estates change hands, and entail, though riveted with a thousand bonds, yields to the corroding power of time. Men rise up early and sit up late to build a house, and then the stranger tramps along its passages, laughs in its chambers, and forgetful of its first builder, calls it all his own. Here is one of the evils under the sun for which no remedy can be prescribed.

7

And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.

8 Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me not the reproach of the foolish.

9 I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it. 10 Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand.

11 When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity.

Selah.

12 Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.

13 O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.

7. "And now, Lord, what wait I for?" to enchant me? Why should I linger wher

What is there in these phantoms the prospect is so uninviting,

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and the present so trying? abodes of sorrow to gain a heritage of emptiness. The psalmist, therefore, It were worse than vanity to linger in the turns to his God, in disgust of all things else; he has thought on the world and all things in it, and is relieved by knowing that such vain things are all passing away; he has cut all cords which bound him to earth, and is ready to sound "Boot and saddle, up and away." thee." The Lord is self-existent and true, and therefore worthy of the confidence of men; he will live when all the creatures die, and his fulness My hope is in will abide when all second causes are exhausted; to him, therefore, let us direct our expectation, and on him let us rest our confidence. Away from sand to rock let all wise builders turn themselves, for if not to-day, yet surely ere long, a storm will rise before which nothing will be able to stand but that which has the lasting element of faith in God to cement it. and that hope entered within the veil, hence he brought his vessel to safe David had but one hope, anchorage, and after a little drifting all was peace.

8. "Deliver me from all my transgressions." How fair a sign it is when the psalmist no longer harps upon his sorrows, but begs freedom from his sins! What is sorrow when compared with sin! Let but the poison of sin be gone from the cup, and we need not fear its gall, for the bitter will act medicinally. None can deliver a man from his transgressions but the blessed One who is called Jesus, because he saves his people from their sins; and when he once works this great deliverance for a man from the cause, the consequences are sure to disappear too. The thorough cleansing desired is well worthy of note: to be saved from some transgressions would be of small benefit; total and perfect deliverance is needed. are the foolish here meant: such are always on the watch for the faults of "Make me not the reproach of the foolish." The wicked saints, and at once make them the theme of ridicule. It is a wretched thing

for a man to be suffered to make himself the butt of unholy scorn by apostacy from the right way. Alas, how many have thus exposed themselves to welldeserved reproach! Sin and shame go together, and from both David would fain be preserved.

9. "I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it." This had been far clearer if it had been rendered, mouth." Here we have a nobler silence, purged of all sullenness, and sweetened "I ain silenced, I will not open my with submission. Nature failed to muzzle the mouth, but grace achieved the work in the worthiest manner. things appear: silence is ever silence, but it may be sinful in one case and saintly How like in appearance may two very different in another. What a reason for hushing every murmuring thought is the reflection, "because thou didst it"! It is his right to do as he wills, and he always wills to do that which is wisest and kindest; why should I then arraign his dealings? Nay, if it be indeed the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good.

10. "Remove thy stroke away from me." Silence from all repining did not prevent the voice of prayer, which must never cease. Lord would grant the psalmist's petition, for he usually removes affliction when In all probability the we are resigned to it; if we kiss the rod, our Father always burns it. When we are still, the rod is soon still. It is quite consistent with resignation to pray for the removal of a trial. David was fully acquiescent in the divine will, and yet found it in his heart to pray for deliverance; indeed, it was while he was rebellious that he was prayerless about his trial, and only when he became submissive did he plead for mercy. 66 pleas may be found in our weakness and distress. It is well to show our Father "I am consumed by the blow of thine hand." Good the bruises which his scourge has made, for peradventure his fatherly pity will bind his hands, and move him to comfort us in his bosom. It is not to consume us, but to consume our sins, that the Lord aims at in his chastisements.

11. "When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity." God does not trifle with his rod; he uses it because of sin, and with a view to whip us from it; hence he means his strokes to be felt, and felt they are. beauty to consume away like a moth." As the moth frets the substance of the "Thou makest his

fabric, mars all its beauty, and leaves it worn out and worthless, so do the chastisements of God discover to us our folly, weakness, and nothingness, and make us feel ourselves to be as worn-out vestures, worthless and useless. Beauty must be a poor thing when a moth can consume it and a rebuke can mar it. All our desires and delights are wretched moth-eaten things when the Lord visits us in his anger. Surely every man is vanity. He is as Trapp wittily says "a curious picture of nothing." He is unsubstantial as his own breath, a vapour which appeareth for a little while, and then vanisheth away. Selah. Well may this truth bring us to a pause, like the dead body of Amasa, which, lying in the way, stopped the hosts of Joab.

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12. "Hear my prayer, O Lord." Drown not my pleadings with the sound of thy strokes. Thou hast heard the clamour of my sins, Lord, hear the laments of my prayers. "And give ear unto my cry." Here is an advance in intensity: a cry is more vehement, pathetic, and impassioned, than a prayer. The main thing was to have the Lord's ear and heart. "Hold not thy peace at my tears." This is a yet higher degree of importunate pleading. Who can withstand tears, which are the irresistible weapons of weakness? How often women, children, beggars, and sinners, have betaken themselves to tears as their last resort, and therewith have won the desire of their hearts! This shower, blown up by tempest of the soul," falls not in vain. Tears speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues; they act as keys upon the wards of tender hearts, and mercy denies them nothing, if through them the weeper looks to richer drops, even to the blood of Jesus. When our sorrows pull up the sluices of our eyes, God will ere long interpose and turn our mourning into joy. Long may he be quiet as though he regarded not, but the hour of deliverance will come, and come like the morning when the dewdrops are plentiful. "For I am a stranger with thee." Not to thee, but with thee. Like thee, my Lord, a stranger among the sons of men, an alien from my mother's children. God made the world, sustains it, and owns it, and yet men treat him as though he were a foreign intruder; and as they treat the Master, so do they deal with the servants. "Tis no surprising thing that we should be unknown." These words may also mean, "I share the hospitality of God," like a stranger entertained by a generous host. Israel was bidden to deal tenderly with the stranger, and the God of Israel has in much compassion treated us poor aliens with unbounded liberality. "And a sojourner, as all my fathers were." They knew that this was not their rest; they passed through life in pilgrim guise, they used the world as travellers use an inn, and even so do I. Why should we dream of rest on earth when our fathers' sepulchres are before our eyes? If they had been immortal, their sons would have had an abiding city this side the tomb; but as the sires were mortal so must their offspring pass away. All of our lineage, without exception, were passing pilgrims, and such are we. David uses the fleeting nature of our life as an argument for the Lord's mercy, and it is such a one as God will regard. We show pity to poor pilgrims, and so will the Lord.

13. "O spare me." Put by thy rod. Turn away thine angry face. Give me breathing time. Do not kill me. "That I may recover strength." Let me have sufficient cessation from pain, to be able to take repose and nourishment, and so recruit my wasted frame. He expects to die soon, but begs a little respite from sorrow, so as to be able to rally and once more enjoy life before its close. "Before I go hence, and be no more." So far as this world is concerned, death is a being no more; such a state awaits us, we are hurrying onward towards it. May the short interval which divides us from it be gilded with the sunlight of our heavenly Father's love. It is sad to be an invalid from the cradle to the grave, far worse to be under the Lord's chastisements by the month together, but what are these compared with the endurance of the endless punish ment threatened to those who die in their sins!

Our Scriptures.

We have received the two following letters on this important subject:—

MY DEAR SIR,-As Mr. Ehrenzeller has written again to the Sword and Trowel," in vindication of" his "former statements," one of which was that mine in the paper, Our Scriptures, were "absolutely untrue," I must beg for a little space to say

1. That, with the exception of one trifling inaccuracy, every statement in that paper is perfectly true and utterly incapable of disproof.

2. The inaccuracy to which I refer is, that I said the British and Foreign Bible Society was at that time printing the Roman Catholic Version of the Scriptures in Portuguese; if I had said it had previously printed, and was at that time circulating it, or had it ready for circulation, I should have been strictly correct. Every candid reader will see at a glance that the main question is not, in the slightest degree, affected by the mistake.

It is then, undeniably true, that the British and Foreign Bible Society has circulated, and is still circulating, in the various European languages, versions of the Scriptures, in which it puts into the mouth of the God of Truth the popish lie his soul abhors, " Except ye do penance ye shall all likewise perishin which Jacob, dying in the faith, is said to have "adored the top of his staff" -in which the sinner reads, "Address yourself to some one of the saints," etc., etc.; and as in doing this, the Society, according to Mr. Ehrenzeller's last letter, only acts upon its unalterable and “ acknowledged principles," the two questions with which I concluded my paper in the November Sword and Trowel become increasingly important; and I repeat them to your thousands of godly readers, ministers and disciples of Christ, zealous for his truth. "First.-To

what extent is it desirable that we, as servants of Christ, should, by contributions or otherwise, co-operate with the British and Foreign Bible Society? Secondly. Can anything be done towards providing pure and complete versions of the Scriptures, in the languages of the heathen nations of Europe?

March 10th, 1869.

I am, dear Sir, yours very sincerely,

THOMAS D. MARSHALL.

SIR,-On behalf of Count Wengierski, I beg you will allow me to make the following brief statement, which will effectually dispel the erroneous impression likely to be produced from the letters of Mr. Ehrenzeller.

1. Count Wengierski did write in the name of a Committee of Polish Christians for sending the Gospel to Poland. This is recognised by the Rev. S. B. Bergne, the Secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society. In his reply he says, "I have read the printed appeal which you were good enough to enclose. I object to your appeal, because it assumes that your Society is the only agency in Poland for the circulation of the Scriptures."

2. Count Wengierski formed only one of the deputation (whose names I can give) from this Polish Committee to the British and Foreign Bible Society. They were received by Mr. Henry Knolleke, the assistant foreign secretary, and authorised to send their request.

3. Count Wengierski recommended the Dantzig Polish Version as being the most faithful of all the Protestant versions, but entreated them at the same time to alter the word "pokuta"-penance, which had been introduced by the Jesuits.

I trust, Sir, you will not allow the mis-statements of Mr. Ehrenzeller to pass without this correction.

I am, Sir, your obedient Servant,

March 15, 1869.

To Editor of the Sword and Trowel.

E. W. BULLINGER.