for the service of believers, who, while they are accomplishing their pilgrimage and warfare upon earth, should continually solace themselves with the cxixth Psalm, and repair to it as to a fountain, which can never be exhausted. Between the verses of each portion, a connexion is frequently to be traced; but it doth not often seem to extend from one portion to another. The many words employed to express the revelations of God's will have distinct significations, denoting different parts or portions of the Scriptures, which it hath sometimes been found of great use to take into considetion, while at others the terms appear to be used promiscuously, in a general sense, and for the sake of variety.

ALEPH.-PART I.

"The

1. Blessed are the undefiled, Heb. perfect, or, sincere, in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD. By sin, misery entered into the world; holiness alone, therefore, can lead us to happiness. "law of Jehovah" is the path of life, and by "walk"ing in the way" we shall attain to the end. But, alas! we are out of the way; we have walked in the law of sin, after the lusts of the flesh; who will direct and strengthen us to walk in the law of God, after the desire of the Spirit? We are fallen from our integrity; who will raise us again? The Gospel, which was preached to Abraham before the Mosaic

dispensation, and which was prefigured and believed under it, returneth us, to all these questions, answers of peace. The Redeemer hath prevailed for the pardon of our errors; the Redeemer hath raised us. from our fallen state; he hath reconducted us to the path of life; in his name we arise and walk; he maketh us righteous, and, consequently, he maketh us "blessed." For," Blessed are the sincere in the "way, who walk in the law of Jehovah."

2. Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with their whole heart.

The divine revelations and institutions, whether of the old or the new law, are called God's "testi"monies;" they are the witnesses of his will, and the pledges of his love. They are committed to the church, as a precious deposit, or trust, to be by her children "kept," and observed. In and by these God is to be sought; "they that seek him with their "whole heart," with ardent and undivided affection, fail not to find him, as an instructor and a comforter; and they who find him, find all things, and are "blessed" indeed.

3. They also that do no iniquity, they that walk in his ways.

O blissful state of those, who are redeemed from the earth, and all earthly desires; who are delivered from the dominion of sin; who "follow the Lamb "whithersoever he goeth," and, like Zacharias and Elizabeth, "walk in the statutes and ordinances of "the Lord blameless:" Luke i. 6. Enrol us, O Lord, in the happy number of these thy servants; pardon our offences; give us a new nature, and new

desires, averse from sin, and inclined to sanctity: and guard us, that the wicked one touch us not.

4. Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently!

He who made us, and redeemed us, hath a double right to our service. We are not our own, having been bought with the blood of our Lord; his will, therefore, and not our own, is to be done by us. And his will is, that we should "keep his precepts σε diligently," because in "keeping" them, and in keeping them "diligently," so as not to halt between God and the world, but to serve one master only, doth our happiness consist. Now, when the commands of our Superior, and our greatest Benefactor, of our Friend, our Father, and our God, coincide with our own interests, temporal and eternal, what pretext can there be for disobedience and rebellion ? 5. O that my ways were directed, or, prepared and established, to keep thy statutes!

The faithful soul, enraptured with the contemplation of that blessedness which is the consequence of serving God, but conscious, at the same time, of an inability to attain it, sighs after the refreshing and strengthening influences of divine grace. She beholdeth her Saviour afar off; she beholdeth the beauty and glorious majesty of his heavenly kingdom; she beholdeth the way which leads to it; but she hath not power to walk therein. This consideration caused her to groan earnestly within herself, and at length to breathe forth a wish that the Spirit of truth and love would fix and establish her in a holy course of thinking, speaking, and acting, upon

all occasions, and would prevent her from turning aside out of it, to the right hand or to the left.

6. Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments.

All the commandments have the same author, and the same sanction. He who thinketh to atone for the breach of one, by the observation of another; he who reserveth to himself a licence of indulging any favourite, darling lust, while, in general, he preserveth the appearance of an exemplary conduct, is a hypocrite, and, unless he repent, will be brought to “shame,” if not before men here, yet before men and angels hereafter. "Shame" is the fruit of sin; confidence is the effect of righteousness. Wherefore, in all our proceedings, let us "have respect," not to the opinions of men, to the corrupt customs of the world, or to the deceitful suggestions of our own hearts, but " to the commandments, to all "the commandments of God;" let us, as St. John exhorteth, "abide in Christ;" that when he shall " appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed "before him at his coming." 1 John ii. 28.

7. I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgements. Confidence in God will always be productive of joy, and undissembled "praise" will accompany true conversion. The Scriptures are styled God's “righ

teous judgements," as containing an account of his decrees and determinations concerning us, with a history of cases and precedents, entered upon record for our admonition. By these we are to form our opinions, and to regulate our conduct. And when

we shall have so "learned" these, as to walk according to them, we shall praise God with an " up"right heart;" our tongues will utter what our hearts feel.

8. I will keep thy statutes: O forsake me not utterly.

The result of our meditations on God's word, and on the advantages of studying, in order to observe its directions, should always be a resolution so to do, and a prayer for grace to execute that resolution. Lord, we "will keep thy statutes;" for love can do all things, when thou hast shed it abroad in our hearts. "Love worketh no ill; therefore love is "the fulfilling of the law," Rom. xiii. 10. ; and mercy will accept what grace enableth us to perform. Be thou, therefore, ever with us, and "forsake us not;" or if, at any time, to try our faith, and to exercise our patience, thou shouldest depart from us and leave us to ourselves for a time, short be thy absence, and speedy thy return: "O forsake us not utterly!"

BETH.-PART II.

9. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word.

Youth enters upon the journey of life, headstrong and inexperienced, with a bias of original corruption, and all the passions awake. In such circumstances, how shall a young man direct his steps, so as to

escape the pollution that is in the world through "lust?" 2 Pet. i. 4. He must, for this purpose, take with him the directions to be found in the Scriptures