able, still for them to die is gain,-unbounded, endless gain. And when around their cold remains the voice of wailing is high, and plentifully flow the burning tears, the ear of faith can perceive the tones of a recognised but unearthly voice, whispering amidst the gloom, "Weep not for me. Oh! think not,-call not me that faded form; but as ye bear it to darkness and to dust, think rather of that which was, which is myself,-the undying, the ascended soul, and comfort yourselves to know that for the change which ye deplore I am giving thanks before the throne." Yea, by a mightier and more benignant voice than that of any human, though glorified and blessed spirit, she hears the same abounding consolation poured down through the sorrow,-the voice which "he who saw the Apocalypse," heard commanding, "Write, Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord; yea, saith the Spirit, for they rest from their labours, and their works do follow them."

"Mark the perfect, and behold the upright; for the latter end of such an one is peace."

DISCOURSE IX.

PSALM CXix. 96.-"I have seen an end of all perfection: but thy commandment is exceeding broad."

WHAT the Psalmist here terms "all perfection," is plainly just worldly good in all its forms; and when he says that he had "seen an end of it” all, he intimates that he had found it limited both in degree and in duration,-finite at once and temporal. Again, by making the remark, as he obviously does, in the tone of complaint and of disparagement, he plainly intimates that any good of which this can be said, that it is finite and temporal, is for that reason insufficient for a being such as man. He takes for granted that the human spirit requires for its appropriate and sufficient portion a perfection which has no end, no limit of degree, no limit of duration, -which is boundless, and which is eternal. that the principle thus assumed is just and true, will appear from a moment's consideration. The soul of man is, indeed, and must ever remain a finite and limited being, and therefore it never can fully grasp an object of enjoyment which is infinite; but

Now,

then, it is at the same time capable of indefinite expansion. As far as we can judge, either from experience or from reasoning, both its desires and its capacities are made to stretch themselves continually wider and farther towards the infinite, which, because it is infinite, never can be reached by a nature finite at first, even through an eternity of growth. But if the capacities of enjoyment in the soul be thus made for indefinite enlargement, it is obvious that what is in itself limited, and not capable of the like enlargement, must, at one point or other of the soul's unlimited progress, leave it void, unsatisfied, and disappointed. On the other hand, the soul is not only made for indefinite enlargement of capacity, but destined to an absolute eternity of existence; and therefore not only will what is finite fail it at some point or other, but what is temporal will fail it at some period or other. Whatever, therefore, that is called perfection is limited in either way, is, for that reason, and from the nature of the case, unfit to be the portion of an ever-enlarging and ever-enduring essence such as the soul of man. But such is in fact the perfection of the world,— very limited in the power of conferring enjoyment, and very limited in the period during which it yields such enjoyment as it can bestow, and therefore doubly fitted to produce that tone of disappointment in which the language of the text is uttered," I have seen an end of all perfection."

But in this expression the Psalmist intimates, that he had learned the truth which it expresses, not simply from reflection, but from experience,-“I have seen an end of all perfection,”—the word "to see" being continually used in the language of the Sacred Hymns in the sense of "experimentally to know." He had not simply gathered his conviction from an abstract comparison of the nature of the soul with the nature of worldly perfection, but he had an intimate sense and feeling of its truth, as what had been verified in fact, and in a thousand cases of the actual history, both of his own soul and of others, to the record of whose experience he had access; and therefore he says, in the text, not generally," I know it," but specially," I have seen it."

But while thus disappointed from the world, the Psalmist goes on to inform us, on the other hand, of a quarter in which he had discovered that no such disappointment need be apprehended. With the narrowness of worldly perfection he contrasts the exceeding breadth of the Divine commandment, -speaking of the latter with a tone of exultation as distinct as that of vexation in which he had characterized the former. The "commandment" in this verse, as throughout the psalm, signifies the whole revealed word of God, and, in the connexion in which it occurs, plainly means, not simply the revelation itself, but the happiness and the enjoyment

of which that word or revelation treats,-the portion for the soul which in it is unfolded, offered, bestowed. In this way, those who are familiar with the language of Scripture are well aware that such expressions are frequently employed. For example, "the promise" for the subject of the promise; as when the Holy Spirit is called "the promise of the Father,"-the word for the subject of the word; as when it is said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God,"-by any instrument of Divine appointment. What the Psalmist says, therefore, is this, that, while he had experimentally found that the portion offered by the world was too narrow for the spirit, he knew that the portion offered by the word had no such defect,-it was "exceeding broad,"-in it he was well assured he should find no end, but a felicity large as his advancing soul's capacities,lasting as his immortal soul's existence.

The sentiment of the Psalmist is the sentiment,the experience of the Psalmist is in a great measure the experience, of all reflecting men, on the one hand, in regard to the present world, and of all genuine Christians, on the other, in regard to Jehovah's word.

First, In regard to the world every considerate person, especially every Christian, must surely, like him, from the recollection of his own experience, be convinced that it is all too limited and all too short