THE PSALMS.
[To ens EDITOR or THE " SPECTATOR.")
810,—May I express the amassment that I feel at your confession: The Psalms leave us cold "! If we ourselves are cold, the Psalms Roiling us so will probably so leave us. If we have ever known the ilhnminnatimu aud the irradiated warmth of Christ; if He ever was to us a Living Power and not merely a dead philosopher; if we once saw Him, however dimly, as the expression of the Divine in human form; if, in fact, He ever was to us the Author and Finisher of Faith, however feeble may have been cur told thereon, then surely such a confession shows that our anchor has ported, and that our visions has been darkened. It shows that He for Whose glonies and perfections the faithful men of old searched gropingly and longed for hopefully forms no present part of life for us: yes, even though they saw Him through the dreamy eyes of inspiration and of prophecy, while we behold Him mirrored in the holy page of Gospel history. And to us it is also given to hear His voice, reading His very words. Are His words then dead, and does the mirror reflect nothing more than a great man turned to dust ?
Even as in the day of the men who expressed their con, munings and Godward yearnings in the Psalms the greater part of them that read, or even sang, were "cold" to God and them, so one fears it is to-day. But for all that Christ still lives and still inspires; and there are some from whose hearts wells out the prayer of David's being:—
" My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my exneetation is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation He is my defence; I shall not be moved. In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength and my refuge is in God. Trust in Him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before Him. God is a refuge for us."
If we are cold of heart, then let us cry to Him Who was our fathers' God, anal Who alone can tern a heart of stone into a
tender heart "of flesh."—I am, Sir, de., L. L. (Author of "The Sacrament" [We had in mind, when we wrote about "National Song," only the average effect produced on us by the singing of the Psalms in church. But we certainly ought not to have seemed to forget the many sublimities of the Psalms. No one acknowledges these more readily than wo do. We apologize and withdraw. We cannot continue this correspondence.—En. Spectator.]
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