have noticed the punctuation in various early copies, and in the ritualists, especially Nicholls, who professes to have printed the text of the Prayer-Book, "according to the Sealed-books, and mended the faults which had crept into the common editions." Not that we would trust implicitly even to Nicholls for collation. For example, in the Absolution in the Morning and Evening Service, the printer had printed in the Sealed-books, "Wherefore let us beseech him;" but the commissioners have altered this with a pen in the Evening Service, but not in the Morning, to "Wherefore beseech we him." Why it was altered at all, or in one place and not the other, no man can say ; but so altered it is; yet Nicholls professing to copy the Sealed-books, and mending the common editions, does not follow the alteration, nor does any Prayer-Book that we ever examined. But there was another question; for, as we remarked in our reply to Surriensis (page 229) the Service for January 30 was first introduced at the last revision, and therefore not revised in the same manner as the old offices; so that, in the haste, mistakes in the punctuation, or even greater oversights, might easily occur; nor could we clearly make out from the dates how the new offices could have been in time to be printed with the Sealed-books. Accordingly we have referred to the copy in the Tower of London, and there we find added with a pen at the end, and authenticated by the commissioners: "The forms of prayer for the 5th of November, the 30th of January, and the 31st of May, are to be printed at the end of this book." But printed they are not; so that there is no sealed text of these offices in this book. So much for the supposed sealed comma. Not however that the sealed books are accurate. We have already mentioned several errors or anomalies; and there is a notable one, the substitution of the particle "yea" for the name of Jehovah Psalm lxviii. 4, "Praise him in his name, yea and rejoice before him." In reference to our remarks on the nomenclature of ships, a correspondent says that the cheers to the academical crews of the boats belonging to some of the colleges at Cambridge, as "Trinity," "Christ's," "Jesus," and "Emmanuel," are painful though not intentionally irreverent. Another remarks upon what is called "the consecration of military colours ;" a third animadverts upon some of the oaths and formulæ in use in municipal corporations; and a fourth upon certain ancient ceremonials in installations and other honorary investitures. We do not think it would minister to profit to discuss all such details. A Christian does not intend any irreverence in saying Trinity Street, or Christ's Hospital, or a Jesus' man; our ancestors meant to apply such names religiously; and it were well if we had more of their simplicity. But still, the light or equivocal use of sacred words should be avoided. We both hope and believe that many things objectionable in ancient customs are being silently, but effectually, corrected, in consequence of increased scriptural knowledge. Why should R. N. doubt our statement, that Laud, then Bishop of London, admitted the Elector Palatine to be one of the sponsors at the baptism of Charles the Second? True, it is not so mentioned in Lawson or Le Bas' Life of Laud, or in the popular histories; but we could find proof of the fact, if it were worth while to make search, among the records of the day in some of the public libraries; or, as Laud officiated on the occasion as Dean of the Chapel Royal-having, by his intrigues, supplanted the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Abbot-our correspondent may inquire if the original register is in existence. But if he will accept a testimony, not, indeed, of the day, but sufficient for the purpose, we will present him with a catalogue of the sponsors, from "The Life and Death of Henrietta Maria de Bourbon, Queen to that blessed King and Martyr, Charles the First, Mother to his late glorious Majesty of happy memory, King Charles the Second, and to our present most gracious Sovereign, James II.," printed in London, 1685. "On the 29th of May, 1630, she was brought to bed at St. James's of her second son, King Charles the Second," who "was christened at St. James's, by Bishop Laud, June 27; the King of France, and the Prince Elector of Palatine (represented by the Duke of Lenox and Marquis Hamilton) being godfathers, and the Queen Mother of France (represented by the Duchess of Richmond) godmother." We wish that those of our correspondents, who are so sensitive when we happen to mention anything they do not like about Laud, would study his proceedings largely and impartially, instead of in meagre onesided histories. We were put to some trouble several years ago in referring back to authentic sources of information, written and printed, when we were accused of retailing false statements respecting him, from popular historians, as, for instance, regarding his cruelty to Leighton, and his Papistry at St. Catherine Cree Church. We made good our assertions; but our opponents had not the candour to acknowledge that they had charged us incorrectly. THE HE twenty-fourth Psalm, which I propose, in this paper, to make the subject of a brief and familiar exposition, is said to have been composed by David, on the occasion of his bringing back the ark to Jerusalem from its captivity among the Philistines. Its character, in point of style, is that of dignified and sublime yet animated dialogue, well adapted to the occasion on which it was composed, and the circumstances under which it was first used. The great body of the Jewish nation are led on by their king, attended by a multitude of priests and Levites, and a band of singers and other musicians. Surrounded with all that pomp and retinue to which the Jews were so devotedly attached, and which the letter at least of their dispensation furnished them so much opportunity of indulging, they bear the recovered ark of the covenant, in solemn yet joyous procession, to its destined abode on Mount Zion: and, when arrived at the gates of the royal city, hold with the priests and Levites, who remained within, in order to receive it, the dialogue of which this psalm is the subject. The psalm naturally resolves itself into three parts. I. The first, which is introductory to the dialogue, is a solemn assertion of sovereignty over the earth and its inhabitants, and a declaration of the grounds on which this sovereignty was claimed, by the Great Jehovah, for whose type, or symbol, admission was now demanded within the gates of the city. "1. The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world. and they that dwell therein : "2. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods." II. The second part, including the four succeeding verses, contains a question proposed by the one party, and answered by the other, with respect to the character of those persons who should be deemed the true servants and people of Jehovah, and, as such, permitted to accompany Him within the walls of the city, where He was about to establish His throne, and to dwell, by a visible presence, as in the centre and metropolis of His kingdom. CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 53. 2 L "3. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? and who shall stand in his holy place? "4. He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. "5. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. 6. This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob." III. The third part, which concludes the psalm, is a sublime and animated dialogue between the procession and the party within. The former, in a bold apostrophe, as though the Great Jehovah would not condescend to make use of the instrumentality of man, but, by His command, would animate even material nature in His service, cry out, " 7. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in ;"-when the priests within twice demand, Who is this King of glory?" and are twice answered by the voice of a multitude, "The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle,-the Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory." Here the psalm closes: but every imagination may picture to itself the scene, and every mind may taste something of that enthusiastic glow of sublime feeling with which Jehovah's people saw the gates sink before the symbol of Deity, and "the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filling the temple,—and one crying unto another and saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts; and the whole earth is full of his glory." But grand and sublime as must, doubtless, have been this typical spectacle of the ceremonial dispensation, the field of view which it opens upon the imagination, and the objects to which it directs the mind, of the Christian, are infinitely more sublime and glorious. The ascent of the ark on Mount Zion, and the whole scene which this psalm so graphically, and in so lively a manner, depicts, is generally considered as typical of the ascension of our Blessed Lord into the heavenly Jerusalem and our Church, in selecting this as one of the psalms proper for Ascension Day, is evidently guided by this opinion, and considers it as a triumphal song, celebrating, by prophetic anticipation, the ascension of Christ. In this more practical, as well as spiritual and evangelical view of it, we must transfer the mind from the country of the Philistines, in which the ark was captive, to the domains of Satan and to the grave, from which "the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle," victorious for Himself and for His people over Satan, death, and sin, has risen triumphant. In the character of those "who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord," and "stand in his holy place," we read the character of those whose citizenship is in heaven; who are children of God and of the resurrection: who are washed, and sanctified, and justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God whom free grace has called, and educated for heaven, and thus rendered "meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." And from the triumphal procession of king and people, priests and Levites, bearing the ark up the hill of Zion, the mind must strive to soar to the contemplation of the risen and glorified Saviour, ascending to the throne of His glory, followed by a bright array of heaven's marshalled hosts, of Cherubim and Seraphim, of Thrones and Dominions, Principalities and Powers, of Angels and Archangels, who, in the deepest degradations of His humanity, attended upon every mandate of His sovereign will with humble adoration and fervent love; who when man contemptuously reviled, and spit upon, and buffeted, and scourged Him, in awe and amazement bowed the knee, and when he hung upon the cross adored Him: who prophetically heralded His incarnation : who, in hymns of praise, announced to the shepherds His birth at Bethlehem who ministered to Him in the wilderness: who strengthened Him in the garden who watched over Him in the sepulchre: and who now crowd around Him, to predict to His mourning and amazed apostles His coming again in glory, and to adorn and to share His triumph. I. "1. The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein : "2. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods." The best preparation of the soul for cultivating and maturing those several virtues of the Christian character, and graces of the Divine life, which all must realize who would "ascend into the hill of the Lord, and stand in his holy place," is the frequent and devout contemplation of God, in His sovereignty, and in His love. : When we look abroad throughout creation, and see "how beautiful is all this visible world:" when we consider this solid earth upon which we tread, with all its various accommodations, and, even in its ruins, exhibiting all that is "pleasant to the sight and good for food." when we "consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained," well may we cry, from the depths of the profoundest self-abasement, What is man that Thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that Thou visitest him :" When we view God, not only as the Creator of universal nature, but as sitting upon the circle of the heavens, to preserve and watch over this work of His own hands with the eye of an unsleeping providence when we reflect not only that it was "He who made us, and not we ourselves," but that "in Him we momentarily live, and move, and have our being," and that it is he who bestows upon us "life, and breath, and all things:" when we remember that "the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof," because He hath called it into existence by His word; and again, a second time, called it to emerge from the waters of a general deluge, and "founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods," and renewed, and replenished, and daily upholds it: when we think that His dominion, as Creator and Preserver, is "from the flood to the world's end," and "his kingdom ruleth over all:" when we remember that, as a gracious Benefactor, He has delegated to man a dominion over this work of His own hands, and put all things in subjection under his feet, well may such contemplations enkindle in the heart a flame of gratitude and love, and inspire the same song of thankfulness as they taught to the Psalmist, "O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth." But there is a still deeper debt of love, whose profound abysses no finite intelligence can fathom, which the ransomed of the Lord owe to God their Saviour; and compared with which all His gifts of nature and of providence are just as time to eternity. Creation, continued existence, could have been but the heaviest curse to fallen man, had not Christ appeared as his Omnipotent Deliverer, and redeemed us from the curse of the violated law, by being made a curse for us by fulfilling, in their widest extent and deepest spirituality, the demands of the eternal law of righteousness: by satisfying to the full the sanctions of immutable justice: by purchasing for his people that Spirit which is the seed and principle of a new and immortal life, and without which we could be none of His: well may such contemplations lead us to the conclusion which the Apostle would press upon us, "Ye are not your own, ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." If then God has created us, and all around us for our sanctified use and enjoyment: if God momentarily protects us from every danger, and preserves us "from fear of the terror by night, and the arrow that flieth by day; of the pestilence that walketh in darkness, and of the destruction that wasteth at noon-day:" if God "hath visited and redeemed his people," and shall judge, and awfully destroy his enemies, "what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness?" "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? 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." In a word, he whose aim it is to serve and please the Lord, in action, thought, and word. : II. It were superfluous to argue, at any length, that the visible life and conduct of the aspirant after immortality must be moral and exemplary that the candidate for heaven must possess hands (which, in the figurative language of Scripture, denote the whole outward man) undefiled, and innocent from violence and blood, covetousness and dishonesty, intemperance and impurity that he must keep his vessel, the body, in sanctification and honour, not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God; not only unpolluted by those grosser sins which the world itself discountenances, but also unspotted by that world. : But our subject leads us much farther than the outward man. The law, we here see, as well as the Gospel, claims to regulate not only the action, but the springs of action; not only the conduct, but the motives of conduct. It is not satisfied with the "clean hands" of the prudent man of the world, or of the ambitious and self-justifying moralist, while he curbs in action, and sacrifices to his temporal interest or his unmortified pride, an indulgence of the inordinate desires, and unholy passions, and ungoverned tempers, which daily spring up in his unsanctified mind, and thus unmortified and unopposed defile the man. Here we learn that the law, as does the Gospel, required of its disciple not only "clean hands" but "a pure heart." Still more, that he " hath not lift up his soul unto vanity:" or, as this is also translated, and must certainly be understood to mean, hath not placed his trust in idols, or in the creature; but that God is the regulating principle of this moral conduct, the admitted sovereign of this "pure heart." "Nor sworn deceitfully." This, so far as it expresses the duty towards our neighbour, we have already, in part, anticipated under the Psalmist's general head of "clean hands.' But we may also consider it, not merely as forbidding perjury, but as expressing the |