“The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof;The world, and they that dwell therein.”“The Lord is good to all:And his tender mercies are over all his works.The eyes of all wait upon him;And he giveth them their meat in due season.He openeth his hand,And satisfieth the desire of every living thing.My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord:And let all flesh bless his holy name, for ever and ever.”
“The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof;The world, and they that dwell therein.”“The Lord is good to all:And his tender mercies are over all his works.The eyes of all wait upon him;And he giveth them their meat in due season.He openeth his hand,And satisfieth the desire of every living thing.My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord:And let all flesh bless his holy name, for ever and ever.”
“The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof;The world, and they that dwell therein.”“The Lord is good to all:And his tender mercies are over all his works.The eyes of all wait upon him;And he giveth them their meat in due season.He openeth his hand,And satisfieth the desire of every living thing.My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord:And let all flesh bless his holy name, for ever and ever.”
“The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof;
The world, and they that dwell therein.”
“The Lord is good to all:
And his tender mercies are over all his works.
The eyes of all wait upon him;
And he giveth them their meat in due season.
He openeth his hand,
And satisfieth the desire of every living thing.
My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord:
And let all flesh bless his holy name, for ever and ever.”
PART II.INFERENTIAL.
So far we have been employed in elucidating the principles which are involved in the terms of the inscription—which is enthroned in the front of the Royal Exchange,—The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof. These words, taken alone, distinctly recognise the existence of God, Creation, and Providence. They express, or imply, through their own inherent and independent force, the acknowledgment of these great primary truths. In the course of our remarks, we have glanced at one or two of the clauses of the psalm immediately succeeding the words of the inscription; rather, however, as illustrative of the extent of its significance, than as bringing to it any additional thought. We now propose to take the acknowledgment,“The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof,” in connexionwith the whole psalm of which it is the commencement, and the psalm itself in connexion with the whole revelation of which it is a part; and thus to bring out those additional forms of both truth and duty, which thescripturalrecognition of God’s existence and government, and his general relations to the world and man, may come to suggest to a devout and reflective Christian observer.
Immediately after the assertion of God’s proprietorship of the world and man, the psalmist inquires, “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?” Language this, which refers to the locality and the uses of the temple, as the appointed place of Divine service. The existence of God and the obligation to worship him, would seem to be associated by an indissoluble necessity. The two ideas, indeed, mutually involve and illustrate each other. Admit the Divine existence; it isfelt to extend downwards into the domain of human duty, and to suggest and enforce the obligation of worship: admit the reality of the religious instinct, and mark its universal and irrepressible force,—it swells upwards and amounts to a proof of the existence of God. The Divine Being has not only set his glory above the heavens, and spoken of himself by the myriads of voices that are perpetually issuing from the earth and the sky; he has not only stamped his image and superscription on the personal and intellectual attributes of the race; but he has provided an unimpeachable witness for himself, in the religious constitution of human nature. If there is one thing more than another which forms the peculiar distinction of man, and which places him in secluded and solitary grandeur apart from all the tribes of sentient existence by which he is surrounded, it is his possession and consciousness of a religious capacity. It may show itself in grotesque or disgusting forms,—it may blunder in its search, and babble in its utterances,—it may even become ferocious and malignant in its character; butthereit is,inman, and in him alone,manifested everywhere, active always, forming a palpable andimpassabledistinction between his nature and that of all other creatures. The lower animals have senses and appetites similar to his; they can see and hear—they hunger and thirst; in many of them, indeed, some of the things that he and they possess in common, exist in greater acuteness and perfection inthemthan they do in him; while others make approaches to thought and reason, memory and will, affection and passion; but none of them share with him the capacity to adore,—none of them can pray,—none but he can entertain the conception of an invisible power,—engage in individual, or unite in acts of social, devotion. It is the prerogative of man to be able to say either, “Our Father,” or “I believe.” Even if it were admitted that specimens of humanity have been found, or could be produced, utterly destitute of the religious capacity, and with nothing about them, when they gaze on the universe, beyond the vacant stare of unintelligent natures; and even if it were further asserted and acknowledged, that it was utterly impossible to awaken in them a sense or perception of anything Divine,—yet itwould be found thattheir childrencould be taught to comprehend and feel religious ideas,—thattheyhad within them the spiritual capacity,—from which it would be evident thattheir fathers had originally possessed it too. The religious instinct, then, or susceptibility, or faculty, or whatever it may be called, is inherent in human nature—divides and distinguishes it from all else in the wide world, though it may express itself in the grossnesses of superstition and idolatry, or may have sunk into dormancy in extraordinary cases; but neither old, nor young, of all the tribes of the inferior races,—the most sagacious or the most domesticated,—can be found to display, or be taught to comprehend, religion at all!
It is a simple fact, then, beyond all question, that humanity possesses this distinguishing attribute. All things beneath and around him seem to be made for man; but he is the subject of a strong, active, predominating impulse, that appears like a consciousness, on his own part, thatheis made for something else. This impulse finds utterance and embodiment in religious ideas and religious service. Now, it would be a strangeanomaly in a world like this, in which every faculty of every creature finds its corresponding and appropriate object,—in which wing and hoof, scent and speed, eye and ear, hand and horn, powers and passions, appetites and attributes of all sorts, are fitted exactly to something that seems to be made forthem, or for whichtheyare made,—it would be a strange thing, that the only exception to this law, should be in the Lord and Master of the world himself!—and that it should occur, too, just in that one faculty that at once distinguishes and dignifies him more than any other! The existence and actings of the religious instinct in man thus constitute a proof of the existence of God, just as the admitted existence of God involves the obligation to religion in man. The tendency in humanity “to feel after God if haply it may find him,”—and tohavesomething it may call God,—whether it succeed in finding him or not,—is demonstrative of a Divine objective reality answerable to itself, in the same way as the half-formed wings of a bird in the shell are proof of the existence of an external atmosphere, and of the ultimate destiny of the bird itself.
It is worth observing, too, that this duty of worship, which results from the truth professed in the acknowledgment that “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof,” like the other things already mentioned, involves or illustrates the Divinepersonality. Worship, at the very least, is adoration and gratitude,—the utterance, generally in words, of thought and affection towards the Supreme Nature, as the subject of high attributes and the source of universal good;—exercises these, that can have no meaning, if that nature has no consciousness of its own perfections, and no knowledge of the language addressed to it. For man “to ascend into the hill of the Lord, and to stand and worship in his holy place,” He, to whom he approaches, must be a personal intelligence. Worship is the communion of mind with mind,—not only the sympathy of worshipper with worshipper, but the communion of each and of all with the worshipped. There can be no communion or sympathy witha force;—no intelligent adoration of a law; no affections can be warmed and excited, and drawn forth in psalm and song, towards a mere senselessphysical power,—an unintelligent, mechanical necessity! Without a personal God, everything like worship is a mockery and a lie; the whole service is nothing but a masquerade. If worship could be conceived to be honestly attempted in connexion with the denial of God’s personal existence, it would be an attempt on the part of the worshippers to produce subjective states of mind by the conscious temporary assumption of a falsehood, and the employment upon themselves of a system of direct deception and imposture. The thing is impossible,—or impossible to be continued. There must either be the admission of a personal God as the object of worship, or worship itself will soon cease.Ourbelief and persuasion as a people are recorded in the front of our Royal Exchange. We may adapt to the fact the beautiful words of the Book of Proverbs: “Wisdom criethwithout; she uttereth her voicein the streets. She criethin the chief place of concourse; in theCITYshe uttereth her words, saying, ‘The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.’” And this publicly recorded persuasion,—this proclamation of our faith inthe ears of all men, and our meaning it for the proclamation of the common and universal faith of humanity,—thisinvolves in it the corresponding duty,—the duty ofworshippingHim who is acknowledged as God,—the God of the whole earth,—and the duty of “allthat dwell therein.” “O thou that hearest prayer,unto thee shall all flesh come.” “The Lord reigneth,let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof.” “Sing unto the Lord a new song, sing unto the Lord,all the earth.” “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord,all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.” “Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works tothe children of men.” “Praise the Lord,all ye nations; praise him,all ye people. For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever.Praise ye the Lord.”
What stands next to the idea of worship, is a description of the moral character of the worshippers. “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?” “He that hath clean hands and a pure heart: who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.” This description is very brief, but it is very comprehensive. Each clause may be considered as representing a distinct and large department of duty; and the whole, taken together, as demanding or enforcing universal virtue. “Clean hands” stand as a figure for all outward and visible excellence. Every thing that the mandoes, is done in consistency with the rule of rectitude. He is a just, equitable, fair-dealing man. Confidence may be placed in his honour and uprightness, his incorruptible integrity, his contempt of meanness, and intolerance of wrong. Everything that belongs to a sound, solid, practical worth,—a pure, and even a fastidious, virtue,—a virtue beyond doubt or suspicion,—may be supposed toattach to the man who is said, by emphasis, to have “clean hands.” “Not to swear deceitfully,”—whatever may be its precise shade of meaning in the psalm,—may fairly be interpreted, in a discussion like this, as standing for honest and sincere speech, and as the type of the virtuous use of the tongue. It excludes from the idea of the character, deceit and falsehood, concealment and equivocation, with everything approaching to thedesignedconveyance of a wrong impression by word or look. In buying and selling, in barter or bargain, in converse or correspondence,—in respect to whatever business he transacts, and in relation to every medium for thought—there is supposed to be, in the man before us, scrupulous propriety of language,—the utmost transparency of meaning and purpose. He is simple, straightforward, without the shadow of deceit or guile. Then, “a pure heart,” in addition to habitual “cleanness of hands,” and the maintenance of entire integrity of tongue, is intended to express, the co-existence of an uprightinwardlife, with the outward appearances of practical goodness. It would not only imply, however,the harmony of a man’s thoughts with his words,—and the correctness of the motives of his visible acts,—it would include in it, in its scriptural import, the government of the passions,—the control of the imagination,—sincerity and depth of religious feeling;—every thing not only chaste but devout, the whole soul liberated from gross and corrupting affections,—free from the drag and degradation of the flesh,—and fairly detached from the adhesions of earth, in all senses in which they would imply bondage to the sensual or the secular. “Not to lift up the soul unto vanity,” is intended to express the freedom of the man from idol-worship. The “vanities” of the heathen were the idols or deities whom the heathen adored; to whom they “lifted up their souls,”—or, in other words, to whom they rendered religious reverence, and before whom they appeared in worship. “Cleanness of hands,” then, “sincerity of speech,” “purity of heart,” with all that they include, in their seminal comprehensiveness, of outward and inward practical virtue, are thus connected with regard tothe true God. The man has not only bothmorality and religion, but his religion is of the right kind. It is as proper as to its object, as it is sincere in itself. The man neither worships idolsasGods,—nor idolswithGod,—nor Godthroughidols. “He has not lifted up his soul unto vanity.” He has not been seduced by the sun in his splendour, nor by the moon in her brightness; he has not “kissed his hand,” nor “offered sacrifices,” to “the queen of heaven:” he has not “bowed his knee to the image of Baal,” nor “fallen down to the stock of a tree.” The language descriptive of his feeling and practice would be that of David in relation to himself,—“UntoTHEE, O Lord, doI lift up my soul.”
It is easy to see, how this demand of character in his worshippers adds to the proof of the personality of God. Worship of any kind, to have any meaning, implies personality;—but the demand for worshippers of a certain sort, implies, along with this, the possession, by Him whom they are to approach and please, of personal properties the same in kind with those of the worshippers. Where there is virtue, there must be thought;—where there are moral attributes,there must be personal intelligence; and where there is the necessity for these, as a pre-requisite for worship,—the Being worshipped must be supposed to be distinguished by moral attributes as well as by intelligence, as thus, only, could he properly appreciate, or consistently demand, them. A God may be imagined to bebetterthan his worshippers,—he cannot rationally be supposed to be worse. To have a perception of goodness, and a sympathy with the good, and to permit none but the latter to stand before him, or to come into his presence, God must not only be a person, but one whoseowncharacter, mustitselfbe pre-eminently distinguished by goodness. It may be worth observing, that moral ideas associated with worship, operate in more ways than one. They take a direction both upwards and downwards, each action illustrating the other. The character regarded with complacency in the worshippers, indicates that of the God they worship;—the character associated with the God they worship, moulds and fashions that of the worshippers. The deities of a people will naturally influence their moral notions andtheir moral behaviour. The object of worship becomes the standard of virtue;—men will imitate what they are taught to adore. If there benoGod, there need be no worship;—if worship is rendered to unintelligent force, it can be of no consequence, so far asitis concerned, what the moral character of the worshippers is;—if the God be conceived of as sensual or malignant, lascivious or bloody, his image may be expected to be mirrored in his worshippers;—but if in all that approach him, he peremptorily demands “clean hands” and “a pure heart,”—with all that these include of universal virtue,—he must of necessity be considered to be holy Himself, while the habitual worship of such a being must be regarded as conducive to holiness in his servants. These latter ideas are precisely those which the Biblical idea of Deity illustrates. He is always described, in the loftiest terms, as invested with every attribute of excellence; as infinitely removed from evil; as looking on the good with delight; as permitting such only to approach him; as bidding the bad far from his presence; as detecting and denouncing hypocrisyand formality; and as exposing the uselessness of ritual acts and external observances taken by themselves, and insisting on an inward and earnest sympathy with his own love of the holy and the pure.
In consistency with the course which more than once we have already followed, we shall here introduce a series of passages from the Holy Scriptures illustrative of the statements which have just been made.
“The holy one of Israel.” “He is the Rock, his work is perfect;—a God of truth, and without iniquity; just and right is he.” “The Lord is in his holy temple;”—“worship him in the beauty of holiness.” “For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.” “Unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth?—Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee and set them (thy doings) in order before thine eyes.” “Thou art not a God that hast pleasure in wickedness; neither shall evil dwell with thee.” “Confounded be all they that serve gravenimages, that boast themselves of idols. For thou Lord art high above all the earth; thou art exalted far above all gods. Ye that love the Lord, hate evil. Rejoice in the Lord ye righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.” “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth,—but their heart is far from me;” “Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, seek ye me, and ye shall live;—seek good and not evil, that ye may live.” “Hate the evil and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate that ye may live.” “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?” “When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.” “When ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well.” “Judge me, O Lord,for I have walked in mine integrity. Examine me, prove me, try my reins and my heart. I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers. I have hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not sit with the wicked. I will wash mine hands in innocency, and so will I compass thine altar, O Lord.” “Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour. In whose eyes a vile person is contemned, but he honoureth them that fear the Lord. He that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not. He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved.”
These representations lead to the consideration of a third and last thing, which is essential to the complete illustration of the subject.
“The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.” There is a God; God is to be worshipped; none but the good can acceptably worship him. So far all is plain. But men are not good. Throughout the race there is a consciousness to the contrary. In spite of the operation of many amiable instincts, and in spite of a large amount of passable virtue, it is quite understood that there is a terrible mass of iniquity in the world;—that there are the grossnesses of brutal lust, and the refinements of a fastidious licentiousness;—that there are falsehood, and fraud, and lying, and theft,—all the modes of open or secret dishonesty by which men attempt, or contrive, to overreach each other;—that there is the stupid animalism of rural ignorance, and the arts, and appliances, and accomplishments of crime, that abound in the recesses of great cities;—it is well known that corruption and depravity, in all these forms, have made terrible havoc in all lands; and, what is still more to the purpose, that among the classes the freest from crime, there is so much moral defect, and so many things having the character of sin,—so much, especially, of thewant of religious faith, and of indifference to God, if not of conscious and positive enmity against him,—so much, in fact, of what constitutes theoppositeof all that must be meant by the term “holiness,” and of what is demanded in those who can calmly “ascend into the hill of the Lord,” and acceptably “stand in his holy place;” that it would almost seem, on the admission of the statements and principles advanced, as if the worship of God must be given up as hopeless, in a world like this, from the utter impossibility of finding a sufficient number to make up for him an assembly of fitting worshippers.
There is a difference between worship considered asthe habitual service of the good,—the appearing before God of those of “clean hands” and “pure hearts,” who are living in moral sympathy with him,—andthe approach to his footstool, in shame and tears,of the guilty and the penitent. It is the worship and character ofthe former classthat are contemplated in the description of the psalm before us; which description, with the demand involved in it, to be fully and theologically understood, must be looked atin connexion with the entire service of the Hebrew Institute, and the whole teaching of the sacred volume. If a holy God can only be approached by holy worshippers,—and that, too, in a world of which holiness isnotthe natural and characteristic attribute,—it is very obvious, that he must either remain without ever being worshipped at all, or some mode must exist by which the inhabitants of such a world maybe madeholy. Now this is just the thing which the Jewish dispensation illustrated by a figure, and which the Christian redemption is given to the world torealizein fact.
The Jewish dispensation approached men, in the first instance, as sinful and polluted, and it established a system adapted to their necessities. It set up its altar,—prescribed its sacrifices,—appointed its institutions,—consecrated its priesthood;—had its days of atonement, and its ark of propitiation,—its paschal lamb, and its burnt offering, and its scape-goat, and its sprinkling of blood;—with everything else that could either significantly presuppose sin, or point to the necessity and the mode of its removal. The Hebrew worshipper, inappearing before God, was first required to come into contact with the sacrifice and the priest;—he confessed offence, acknowledged his just exposure to punishment, brought his propitiation, andthen, being purified from his ceremonial transgressions and the consequent disqualifications he had contracted, by this appointed method of approach to God, he was regarded as in a state of fitness for his worship, and could thus draw nigh as an accepted worshipper.
Now, there was a moral meaning in this ritual arrangement. It was intended to teach that, as ceremonial impurity needed to be removed in order to acceptable outward service,—so, spiritual guilt needed to be removed in order to acceptablespiritualworship. When the psalm before us, therefore, or any other, expatiates on the virtues and excellences of the man who is permitted “to ascend into the hill of the Lord,” or allowed “to stand in his holy place,” it is always implied, that he has come to the attainment of the character described, by a process of pardon and of purification through the previous exercise of the Divine mercy.
But, it is to be remarked, that the Levitical Institute, while so fully set forth and impressively taught the two great truths of the sinfulness of man, and the necessity for some Divinely appointed mode both for his reconciliation with God and the renewal or sanctification of his nature, did not reveal, completely and explicitly, what that mode was, or what it was to be. It dimly foreshadowed it;—it indicated the principle on which it would proceed, and the parts of which it would consist;—but it did this by type and symbol,—anticipating, in a picture, the substance and reality that were one day to be revealed. It was very evident, from the Hebrew Institute, considered as a Divine and intelligible appointment, that men were to learn from it that their approach to God was to be marked by solemn and affecting peculiarities. They were distinctly taught that they needed to be redeemed, reconciled, pardoned, purified, in order that they might be able to rejoice at the remembrance of God’s holiness, or to appear before him as acceptable worshippers; and they were further taught, that in order to this,—that is, to their attainment of pardon and its attendant advantages,—it wasincumbent that atonement should be made by sacrifice, and that the priest should pass into the Divine presence with the blood of the victim, to bring thence, and through it, the blessings needed by sinful humanity.
St. Paul tells us, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, that the Levitical Institute taught this, and that it wasintendedto teach it; that is, that it taught what it was that humanityneeded. But he tells us more than that; he tells us that italsotaught that this thing that was so needed, and so wished for,was not yet revealed, that it was not provided by the Institute itself, in its own altar, victim, or priesthood,—and would not be manifestedso long as itself stood; or, at least, that the coming of it, as it would be the fulfilment of what the Institute foreshadowed or foretold, would be the signal and means of its dissolution and departure. By the fact of sacrifice, and the sprinkling of blood, and the washings and purifications of their own ceremonial, the apostle says it was evidently taught, that there existed a necessity for the removal of sin and the cleansing of the conscience; but then, by therepetitionof the sacrifices, the annual return of the dayof atonement, and the mysterious darkness of the holy of holies,—excluded from sight by the awful veil, and permitted to be approached only once a year, and that only by one individual,—by all this, he says, it wasequallytaught, that Judaism did not accomplish for man,what it informed him needed to be done. The first covenant had ordinances of divine service,—a sanctuary—a veil—the tabernacle which is the holiest of all. Now, into this, the high priest alone went, “once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the errors of the people.The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not made manifest, while the first tabernacle was yet standing: which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfectas pertaining to the conscience: which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on themuntil the time of reformation.”
Now, this typical and temporary character sustained by the Jewish Institute,—this parabolicand preparatory office which it had to fulfil,—this suggesting merely, or setting forth in a figure, of the wants of humanity and of theprinciplewhich must pervade, underlie, and distinguish the provision that must meet them,—this prophetic announcement that priest and sacrifice were yetfuture, but were certain to come,—all this, while it shows the importance of attending to the connexion between the Old and the New Testaments, and of mutually interpreting each by the other, gives, of necessity, to the more spiritual portions of the Hebrew records a far-stretching and comprehensive meaning, which can only be understood by looking at it in the light of the Christian revelation. “Coming eventscast their shadowsbefore.” The whole of the fabric and furniture of the tabernacle were constructed and arranged upon this principle. This principle was recognised and embodied in the utterances of the prophets;—it often pervaded the entire texture, or appeared in parts, of one or other ofthe psalms and songs of the ancient church. In looking at the intention and significancy of Judaism, we should imagine ourselves gazing on the floor of thetemple and the front of the veil,—observing them covered with flickering shadows falling from objects which are unseen. There they lie,—the distinct outlines of thing and person,—theshadowsof substances which are existing somewhere, but which only, as yet, give notice that they are, by this insubstantial intimation of themselves. In the holy of holies, there is the mysterious light of the glory of God seated between the cherubims;—between that and the hanging veil and the sacred floor,some one must be standing, whom, as yet, we see not,—for his shadow can be discerned on the veil itself, and even on the floor, as we mark minutely the appearances before us of light and shade.Some one is preparing to appear, and to be revealed, and manifested, in whose hands will be found the substance of those other objects whose shadows seem to be lying around us!—The approaching events are thus prophetically announced by these dim outlines; and, while they are being so, voices are heard from the great congregation, utteringan equally prophetic song,—celebrating the glories of what theysee, but doing it in language which onlyfinds its intended significance when applied to and associated with what they seenot.
On this principle it is, then, that we have prophetic psalms;—psalms that are termed Messianic, from their referring to the Messiah, and anticipating his appearance, his sufferings and death, his resurrection and ascension, his kingdom and glory. Some of these refer, in their primary application, to other individuals and to mundane events;—they express the feelings and anticipations of the writers in relation to themselves, and they describe matters of immediate concern or recent occurrence; but they do this in language that admits of a deeper meaning and a larger range;—the import of which they that employed it might not know, and whichweonly learn from the New Testament expositors of the Hebrew text. When Jesus “opened the understandings of the apostles, that they might understand the Scriptures;” and when he condescended to show them the true meaning of their ancient books, he expounded to them, it is said, “What was written in the law, in the prophets, and inthe Psalmsconcerninghimself.” The evangelists and the apostles, in their future writingsfor the instruction and use of the Christian church, used this knowledge, or similar knowledge from the same source; and thus it is, that we find quotations from so many of the psalms,—some in the Gospels, some in the Acts, others in the Epistles of Peter and Paul. From one psalm the apostle takes the expression of man being made “a little lower than the angels,” to express the fact of Christ’s coming in the flesh, with the objects and results of it;—that “hewas made a little lower than the angelsfor the suffering of death, that he might taste death for every man.” From another psalm, he applies language still stronger, to the same purpose. “Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not,but a body hast thou prepared me: lo! I come to do thy will, O God.” The apostle’s comment upon this is very remarkable. Having quoted the passage, he proceeds to reason upon it after this manner:—When he says, “Sacrifice and offering, which are offered by the law, thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein, and then says, ‘Lo! I come to do thy will;’ he takes away the first that he may establish the second.” That is, he removes and puts asidethe mere symbolsof the preparatorydispensation, which were inefficient and typical, and revealsthe reality, which they were meant to announce, and which they prophetically foreshadowed.That realitywas the Divine “will” in its ultimate object, namely, “The offering of the body of Christ” “once for all,” “through the eternal Spirit,” “without spot;”by the which offering, we are saved and sanctified;—for it can do thatfor the heart and consciencewhich the others only showed to be necessary by what they did “for the purifying of the flesh.” From another psalm may be collected the physical circumstances of the crucifixion,—the “cruel mockings,” the “piercing of the hands and the feet,” the “parting of the garments and casting lots;” together with the anticipated mysterious utterances of the great sufferer, in his “bloody sweat,” and his mighty anguish! In another psalm, we find the resurrection;—the soul of Messiah is “not left in Hades,” the place of the dead, nor does “his body” in the grave, “see corruption;” and in other psalms, we find the foreshadowing ofsubsequentevents:—his ascension into heaven; his official position, and mediatorial glories and functions, there; withmuch that relates to the corresponding effect of all this on earth:—“Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee”:—“The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” “The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedek.” “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed:—Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.” “Thou hast ascended on high,thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them.” Now, this latter passage is to be particularly observed. It is a passage taken from one of the psalms,—a psalm sung at the removal of the ark, like the twenty-fourth, and which, like it, is taken up in the celebration of battle and war, victory and conquest. It is to be noticed, then, that the passage just quoted, is applied by the apostle Paul, in the Epistle to the Ephesians,to the ascension of Christ, and is connected by him with the work which he came from heaven to accomplish,and the blessings which he returned to heaven to dispense. “Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith,When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended, is the same also as he that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things). And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come, in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”
These last remarks will have revealed the drift of this long discussion, and will enable us now rapidly to bring it to a close. By “reasoning out of the Scriptures,” we have shown how the Levitical dispensation was, in its rites and usages, preparatory and prophetic of something to come;—by distinct passagesfrom the Book of Psalms, as quoted and explained in the New Testament, we have shown how the hymns of the ancient church anticipated, by their recondite and profounder meaning, the same things that were foreshadowed in the ritual;—and, in the concluding remarks on this point, we have shown, how the apostle illustratesthe ascension of Messiah, after successful battle and war—returning from conquest and crowned with victory—by referring to the words of a Hebrew Psalm. In the same way, then, we think ourselves entitled to connect the 24th Psalm with the mission of the Messiah, and to consider that the close of it, if not an intended prophecy of his ascension, is yet capable of being regardedas illustrative of it; and that it should suggest therefore the propriety of adding to whatever truths of a general nature the first verses of the psalm may embody, the specific peculiarities of the Christian revelation,—that revelation to which all previous discoveries were preparatory, and without which they cannot be complete. There is an emphatic sense, in whichChristis “the King of glory;” in which heis to be regarded as having being engaged in mortal combat,—contending with the enemy of God and man,—overcoming him in a way as mysterious as it was successful—by yielding himself to be “bruised for our iniquities,” and “stricken for our sins;” and that, “after having by himself purged our sins,”—after having, in the nature he had assumed, “presented himself an offering and a sacrifice,” that we might obtain “eternal redemption through his blood,”—he rose again from the dead, proclaiming his triumph over sin and Satan, by showing that it was “not possible for him to be holden” of Death; and further, that “he ascended up on high,”—entered into heaven, whose “everlasting gates” opened to receive him, as one who was “leading captivity captive,” and who came to ask and “to receive gifts for men.” All this we are warranted in connecting with the ideas which have already passed before us, of the supremacy of God, the duty of worship and the character of his worshippers, and of finding in it the evangelical element in which such ideas need to be baptized. God is; God is to be worshipped; Godis holy;theymust be holy who habitually approach him;—but “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God:” “every mouth must be stopped, for the whole world is guilty before Him.” “Who, then, shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in his holy place?”—They, certainly, who have “clean hands” and “a pure heart,” but—who havefirst“made a covenant with Godby sacrifice;”—who have acceptedHim, whom he hath “set forth as a propitiation,” and “whose blood cleanseth from all sin;”—who, as sinners, draw nigh inhisname, who is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” and without whom “no man cometh unto the Father;”—they who, believing in Him “who died, rose again, and continues to live,” and “who hath ascended up on high that he might fill all things,” have “received out of his fulness even grace for grace”;—have obtained the pardon of actual sin, and have received the gift of the sanctifying Spirit which the Redeemer is emphatically exalted to bestow;—they who, by the subjective operation of the truth, are “washed, and justified, and sanctified, in the name of the LordJesus and by the spirit of our God;” and who know, by experience, that “the grace of God which bringeth salvation, teaching them, that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, they should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the world.” “Thisis the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face O God of Jacob.” “These receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of their salvation.” “They that do these things, shall never be moved.”
In this way, then, by taking the first verse of the psalm before us, which constitutes the inscription on the Royal Exchange, and looking at it in connexion with the whole composition of which it is a part, and by looking at that, also, in connexion with the religious institution it belonged to, and the entire revelation of both Testaments, as gradually developing the great system of mercy and mediation,—in this way, we are taught to associate withthe general truths of an elementary Theism,—which is all that at first appear to be proclaimed,—the specific truths of an Evangelical Christianity. “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof;”—this simpledeclaration of the primary principle of all religion, when placed in the light emanating from the whole constellation of discoveries which surround it in the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, is seen to involve in it, not only the existence, the government, and the worship, of a personal God, but the reality and the functions, the work and the presidency, of a personal Redeemer. They that “ascend into the hill of the Lord, and that stand with acceptance in his holy place,” mustbeholy because God is holy; but it were terrible to make this demand upon humanity, which is altogether deformed and dislocated, and that manifests everywhere, when it thinks of God, that its next thought is that God isagainstit,—it were terrible, we say, to make this demand,if there came not along with it, the proclamation of the offer, and the announcement of the Divine method, of forgiveness,—the “reconciliation” effected by him who triumphed over sin by the death of the cross, and who ascended up on high in the might of his achievement, to be at once the medium of our access to God, and the Divine Distributor of the blessings of his salvation. Men, as men—that is, as sinners—areto believe the gospel, and to accept of Christ, that, by faith and repentance, spiritually “entering into the holiest of all, through the way he has consecrated for them by his blood,” they may be constituted the church; and then,beingthe church,—that is, sinful men justified and sanctifiedthrough him,—they are “to bring forth the fruits of the spirit” in their lives, and habitually to worship “in the beauty of holiness.” The virtue that we demand in the worshippers of God, under the rule of the Christian dispensation, is the virtue that flows from religious faith; that faith being, the exercise of trust in the redemption of the gospel. To have “clean hands” and “a pure heart,”—to be sincere and upright in lip and life—we exact ofall menas their daily duty; but in order to possess these in a proper manner, so that they shall be vital, Christian holiness, and not a superficial and secular virtue, there is apreviousduty which behoves to be attended to,—the submission of the mind to the faith of Christ,—penitent approach to an offended God through the one divinely-appointed Mediator, “in whom we have redemption, through his blood, the forgivenessof sins according to the riches of his grace.” Being “made partakers of the Divine nature,” through the influence of the quickening and sanctifying Spirit, they will then not only have “their fruit unto holiness,” and cultivate, from the force of a necessary law, and as impelled by a regal and irrepressible instinct, “whatsoever things are just, and whatsoever things are pure, and whatsoever things are true, and whatsoever things are lovely and of good report,” but they will be a part of “the priesthood of God,” endowed and consecrated by an unction from himself, that, in the various acts and exercises of the Church, they may constantly offer up “spiritual sacrifices acceptable to him by Jesus Christ.” These engagements, again, will re-act on their personal character, and have a constant tendency to advance and elevate it, and help their attainment of a practical perfection. In this way, men,first“having obtained like precious faith” with the Apostles, “in the righteousness of God, and of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ;” will be divinely taught the secret of a real and accumulative excellence. “Having escaped from the corruption that is in the world through lust,”they will “give all diligence to add to their faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity.”
An intelligent adherent of the Scriptural, Protestant, and Evangelical faith of the living Christianity of this realm of England, associates all we have endeavoured to illustrate in the whole of our discussion with the simple inscription on the Royal Exchange. It is a text from the Bible. It recognises the Divine authority of the book; and the recognition of that authority in one of its sayings, carries with it the admission of the whole of its utterances. “The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof.” The association of this, in a devout mind, is easy and natural with the exaltation and glory of the Redeemer of the world, whose last words when he left it were, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth,” and who, upon this, based the command which he gave to the Apostles, “Go ye, therefore, into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.” The government ofthe earth is in the hands of Christ; it is mediatorial; it is not only that of goodness and beneficence, but it is that also of revealed mercy. God “will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth,” for his son “gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.” There isanother“fulness,” besides that of the teeming earth, and the annual redundance and prodigality of nature. There is “The fulness of Christ,—the fulness of him who filleth all in all;” the complete development of “his body the Church;” and the full-orbed display of his perfections and glory, when “to him every knee shall bow of things in heaven and things in earth; and every tongue shall confess thatheis Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” All this, the thoughtful observer associates with the sentence that daily meets the eyes of the citizens of this great metropolis. All this is being ceaselessly uttered in the hearing of the assembled congress of nations;—it is held up in the sight of the many and multitudinous representatives of the various tribes and peoples of the earth!What would be the future of Europe and the world,—moral, political, social, andreligious,—if England and its visitors alike learnt, and fully carried out, all that is involved in what the one is proclaiming in the ears of the others?
In the succeeding pages of this book, we shall endeavour to reply to this question.
PART III.PROPHETIC.
We began this book by referring to the circumstance, that the same illustrious individual who originated the idea of “the Great Exhibition,” and who has done so much to extend and realize it, suggested as an inscription for the Royal Exchange, a single sentence from our English Bible—“The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof.” It is the first verse of the 24th Psalm. The suggestion was adopted;—and hence, on the front of the building referredto,—in very plain letters,—rather rude if any thing,—without adornment,—or figure or flourish of any sort—but conspicuous and legible, in our own homely, honest, Saxon tongue, stands, open to all the world, the public proclamation of our faith as a people—“The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof.” It stands there, on the front of the edifice, which is the commercial centre of this great city,—the place of meeting for the men of different lands and of many languages, who, as the representatives of every clime and country upon earth, constitute, daily, a sort of typical gathering of all nations,—men connected with the “industry,” by being connected with the trade and traffic, of the world.
We proposed to put the two things together,—the inscription on the Exchange, with the anticipated gathering in the Palace of Industry,—and to consider the first as announcing to the second certain great truths, and these again as involving universal duties; and we further proposed to consider, in conclusion, what would be the result, to Europe and the world, if, by ourselves and our many visitors,with the aggregate of nationalities whom they will represent, these truths were all to be acknowledged, and the duties resulting from them were all to be done.
We then proceeded—taking in connexion with the first verse of the psalm, which constitutes the inscription on the Exchange, the entire sacred composition of which it is a part,—and viewingthat, too, in connexion with the whole volume of Divine Revelation to which it belongs—we proceeded, on this principle, to develope and illustrate the truths and the duties to which we referred. Thus expounded, we found the confession, that “the earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof,” to include the following things. It involved, in the first place,the existence of God;—the acknowledgment of this,—and the acknowledgment of it in connexion with the idea ofpersonality. In the second place, it involved God’s proprietorship of the world and man, and the recognition of this as carrying with it the acknowledgment of his beingthe Creator, since, immediately after the statement that “the earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof,”the Psalm goes on to say, “the world, andthey that dwell therein;—for he hath founded it upon the seas and established it upon the floods.” In the third place, we educed from the confession that the “fulness” of the earth is God’s, the doctrine ofProvidence, including in that, the original disposition of materials for the service of man in the construction of the globe,—the whole arrangement of things, animate and inanimate, on its surface,—the establishment of all the laws of production,—the continualadministrationof these laws, by God’s personal supremacy and presidency over nature,—the gifts which he confers, on nations and individuals, of contrivance and skill, taste and genius,—with whatever else belongs to the constant communication of good, and the progressive advance and improvement of society. All these ideas were largely illustrated by various striking passages of Scripture; and the acknowledgment of the truths ofCreationandProvidence, were both shown to involve in them further evidence of the previous truth of the Divine personality.
We next advanced to some additional ideas ofboth truth and duty, which the acknowledgment of all this involved,—especially as this acknowledgment was illustrated by the whole psalm that was supposed to be before us, and asthatwas illustrated by the whole scheme of Divine discovery developed in the Bible, and the connexion between the Jewish and Christian revelations. We found the following things to be thus brought out. In the first place, the duty ofworship:—this was suggested by the question, which immediately follows the acknowledgment of God, of creation, providence, and the Divine proprietorship of the earth and the world,—“Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, who shall stand in his holy place?” Next, there was the answer to this question, which involved the obligation ofuniversal virtuein God’s worshippers—that is, upon all men, sinceallmen are alike bound to worship him: “He that hath clean hands and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.” This was expounded as a demand for inward and outward purity—purity of soul, lip, and life—in all who habitually approached God in the solemnities of worship. But this demandfor universal virtue ineachworshipper,—associated with the obligation ofallmen to worship,—viewed in connexion with the general consciousness of defect and sin, and the proof and prevalence of ungodliness in the world,—led, in the third place, to the discussion of the great question—how humanity was to come to the attainment of that character, which was essential to the fulfilment of its religious obligations? To be in a proper moral and spiritual state for the discharge of habitual, acceptable worship, considered as a duty, we found, by a process of scriptural reasoning, to involveanotheranda previousduty; that, namely,of accepting the gospel as a system of mercy, and of submitting to Christ as the Redeemer of the world. We argued this, from looking at the lessons taught by the principle that pervaded the appointments of the Jewish ritual, and the prophetic bearing on the promised Messiah, of some of the hymns used by the people in the Hebrew worship. We showed how the whole of the ancient Institute taught the necessity of atonement and sacrifice,—pardon through a propitiation, and purity and holiness as divine effects; we saw how it intimatedthat it did notitselfprovide these, but, by typical rites, significant ceremonies, and prophetic songs, anticipated their coming in “the fulness of time,” when they should be procured and dispensed by one who was regarded as the hope and “the desire of all nations.” Without positively saying that the latter part of the twenty-fourth psalm was a distinct andintendedprophecy of Christ, we showed, from the language of those psalms that are so, as quoted and expounded in the New Testament, that it might consistently be regarded asillustrativeof Christ—of his return in triumph to the heavenly world, when, after having “overcome the sharpness of death,” “he ascended up on high, to receive gifts for men, even for the rebellious, that the Lord God might dwell among them,” and thattheymight become the holy and spiritual “priesthood” of God. In this way, we endeavoured to show how an intelligent Christian might associate with the first verse of the twenty-fourth psalm, all the scriptural revelations respectingHim, who, in theTe Deum,—one of the noblest of ancient Christian hymns,—is invoked in language borrowed from the close of it: “Thouartthe King of Glory,O Christ!” and that thus, the simple words on our Exchange, which at first sight appear to announce only the general principles of Theism, would come to utter in the ear of instructed reason and enlarged faith, the specific truths of an Evangelical Christianity. It thus comes to pass, that we are taught ourselves, by the inscription referred to, and shall teach the nations to whom we exhibit it, that, for men “to ascend into the hill of the Lord, and habitually to worship in his holy place;” appearing there in “the beauty of holiness,” and everywhere exemplifying universal virtue; they mustfirstcome to him as sinners, through Christ, and that, then, being cleansed from their sins, by being “washed, justified, and sanctified, in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God,” they can constitute a holy,worshippingChurch; and with “clean hands,” and “pure hearts,” offer up “spiritual sacrifices,” fragrant and acceptable to Him whom they approach,—such approach, again, ever re-acting on their further attainment of personal righteousness.
It now only remains for us to conclude and complete our originally projected course ofobservation, by setting forth what would be the future condition of the nations,supposing that all the world learned and practised the truths and duties which have thus been enumerated.
It is not unnatural to look at the subject in this way. Philosophers, and politicians, and social economists, are all regarding the great event which is just at hand,[1]as constituting the beginning of a new era and of better times; and as embodying in itself something like a prophecy of a brightened and improved future for the nations. For the first time in the history of the world, there is to be a flowing of the peoples of all lands to one spot. They are not summoned together by blast of trumpet; they come not inflamed by mutual animosities, nor with souls bent on conquest and carnage. Nor do they come for the purpose of witnessing games and tourneys,—feats of strength or speed,—the rude contests of muscular athletæ,—theskill of charioteers,—the sanguinary spectacle of gladiatorial shows,—or the combat of plumed knights, with their glittering armour and gallant bearing, their caparisoned steeds and gay attendants, making war look like a holiday entertainment. The gathering of the nations about to be held is to be altogether of another sort. The crowds that move to it, are not to move as a thunderbolt or a whirlwind, carrying in their course havock and desolation; they are to bring with them, in their tranquil march, the useful products of their respective countries, and the bloodless trophies of their industry and their skill. These are to be all collected and arranged in one great and extraordinary edifice, where they are to enter into a sort of peaceful contest and amicable rivalry, while the people themselves of every region are to mingle together, and to look on, and to observe, and compare, and wonder, and rejoice:—and it is expected to come to pass, that however unable the most of them may be to understand the spoken languages of the rest, all will be able to read and to interpret what will be written everywhere on the whole scene, and to comprehend the import of thecommon voice that shall seem to be issuing from the objects around them. The products of the different regions of the earth will recognise each other as belonging to one and the same world; the multitudes of things that will illustrate the achievements of skill and industry, though constructed or fabricated by the hands of men of many languages, will have among themselves a common dialect—a language of their own—but which all the different national workers shall alike understand. Everything will speak of oneness, brotherhood,—the same nature, the same faculties, the same Father,—the folly and wickedness of mennot“living together in unity,”—of their degrading powers that are so wonderful, and so prolific of wonders, and desolating a world which they have such vast ability to beautify and adorn! From such a lesson it is hoped and expected that the crowds will disperse wiser and better,—more loving and more fraternal; and that a basis will be laid for such future peaceful and profitable intercourse, as shall render war an utter impossibility. It may be supposed, also, that the approaching event will only prove the first of a long series of similarexhibitions, which shall successively occur in all coming time, and which shall take place in different cities of Europe and America, till at length they may be fixed in some distant region of those lands that witnessed the birth or were honoured by being the cradle of the race, or in those which are at present the nurseries of nations as yet without a name. The whole thing, to some minds, is thus shaping itself into a prophetic type of a new aspect of the civilized world. But it is easy to see, that this prophecy is one which includes many others; for it could not be fulfilled, to the extent of its grand and comprehensive meaning, without a variety and number of important social and political changes being supposed as the necessary conditions of such a spectacle inotherlands, as that which is possible and prepared for in our own.
We are merely adding then, to the calculations of philosophy, the higher thoughts suggested by the principles of our national faith, when we take the truths included in that faith, and, supposing them to be received by the nations of the earth, as we have drawn them out from the words that are enthronedin the midst of our city and in the sight of all men, proceed to inquire what would be the result of their being universally learned and embraced, and the duties they impose being universally obeyed. The inscription on the Exchange, if appropriate forit, is appropriate for the Palace of Industry too.[2]It is a glorious thing to think that we are living at such a time as this, and are about to witness such a festival as that projected by the Consort of our Sovereign;—not the banquet of a vain and idolatrous voluptuary, making “a feast for a thousand of his lords,” ready to desecrate what is sacred to religion, and to pour out libations of wine and strong drink, that “he and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, may lift up themselves against the God of heaven,”blaspheming his name and abusing his gifts, and “praising the gods of gold and of silver, of brass and of iron, of wood and of stone;”—it is not this, or we might expect the appearance of a mysterious hand, once more, with its “MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN,” to pronounce the doom of a voluptuous court and a devoted country;—it is not this, but a vast banquet for the eye and the intellect, the heart and the reason;—and one, too, projected on such a principle of recognising in all things the dominion of Him “who liveth for ever and ever,”—and “who ruleth alike over the hosts of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth,”—“in whose hand our breath is, and whose are all our ways,”—and “from whom comeththe gold and the silver, the brass, the iron, the wood and the stone;” the fruits of the earth and the abundance of the seas;—with every power and faculty of man—ability to accomplish and capacity to enjoy;—the whole thing so proceeds, we trust, on the acknowledgment of Him,—that, instead of a vision to strike terror and to scatter in confusion, we should rather imagine that we seewritten,—in radiant letters, by the hand of love and not of vengeance, to kindle devotion and strengthen faith,—on the crystal walls of the Palace of Industry, giving a glory to all its contents—“THE EARTH IS THE LORD’S, AND THE FULNESS THEREOF;—THE WORLD, AND THEY THAT DWELL THEREIN.”
Supposing this, then, to become the creed of the world, enlarged and illustrated by Christian associations, and for all its personal and practical lessons to be fully carried out, let us see what would be the condition of human society.