BY THE WAY-SIDE, OR, THOUGHTS ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS; BEING THE SUBSTANCE OF A SERIES OF LECTURES DELIVERED AT ST. THOMAS' ENGLISH EPISCOPAL CHAPEL, EDINBURGH, BY THE LATE REV. D. T. K. DRUMMOND, B.A. WORCESTER COLLEGE, Oxford, TO HIS BELOVED CONGREGATION AT HIS WEEKLY PRAYER MEETING. EDITED BY MRS. DRUMMOND. BIBLIOTHER JAN 80 BODLEIAN London: JAMES NISBET AND CO. 21 BERNERS STREET. M DCCC LXXIX. 100. Aa 25 10131. d. 12. PREFATORY NOTE. It is perhaps almost unnecessary to say that these Lectures were never intended for the press, nor were they meant as critical expositions of the Psalms. The subject was chosen in preference to any other as suggesting many practical and refreshing thoughts to God's people meeting together for the study of His Word and for prayer. As the notes were not taken in short-hand, there was necessarily much left out of the precious words which memory could but feebly restore, but such as they are we send them forth, earnestly praying the Great Head of the Church to bless them to the refreshment and comfort of many souls. To those who heard them they will recall with thrilling interest the happy hours spent in that blessed room of prayer under St. Thomas's Chapel, and it is hoped that even those who were not present may be glad to read them and derive comfort from their perusal. PREFACE. 'SPARKLING RILLS,'-may they not justly be so called; refreshing, comforting, and precious words, given to us in this blessed portion of God's Word? Do they not murmur sweetly, and tell us of the source from whence they spring, the land of Light, and Life, and Peace; welling up from the depths of the everlasting hills? Do they not sparkle with celestial brightness, reflecting the clear sunshine of Heaven's own light? Does not their sound, as they ripple over the rough stones in the pathway of life, refresh the weary wanderer on his way, and make him long to stoop down and drink? Do they not tell us of the Fountain Head, the River of the Water of Life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb? Do they not hold out to us the promise of refreshment by the way, these rills from the Rock of Ages? The remembrance of the past, too, will be sweet to many hearts; the memory of those precious seasons, which they so long enjoyed, when they met together for the study of God's Word, so fully brought out by one who himself drank deeply of those living and life-giving streams. Many a season of refreshing did they afford to the weary soul, many a word of comfort to the afflicted and sorrowful, and many a blessed season of joyful anticipation to the bereaved, anticipation of a land where |