mony of his Church, exclaimed, "It is finished!" Having said this, the Saviour of the world bowed his head, and of his own accord gave up that life which no man could take from him, John x. 18; for, breathing out his soul, he said, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit," Luke xxiii. 46.

It

This psalm depicts the Saviour's condition, and unfolds his mental history, from the period of the first loud cry to that of the second. opens with sorrow, and concludes with joy. Its time is but those few minutes which its meditative and de

liberate perusal would occupy. It commences with that most severe of all his trials, the hiding of his Father's face, and terminates with a vision of his everlasting felicity in his Church. The change in the middle of the psalm

is most important and consolatory. It teaches that the Redeemer did not die under darkness. It assures us that his latest moments were those of peace and communion, not of perturbation and estrangement. The Christian's heart rejoices to know that his adorable and gracious Lord departed not out of this life in bitter anguish of spirit, complaining that his Father had forsaken him, but in gratitude and exultation of soul, testifying that he had not hid his face from him, but had heard and answered his petition,

verse 24.

The Saviour's address to each of us is, "Look unto me, and be ye saved." Let us never turn away from the contemplation. By "looking unto Jesus," the Christian rises, like the nautilus,

from his dark and native depths to the pure atmosphere and warm sunshine of an upper world, spreads forth his tiny sails of faith, and hope, and love, and is gently wafted over the waters of life by the balmy gales of grace. Onward he glides, beautiful in movement, and joyful in his new existence, so long as the heavy waters of this world are excluded; that moment he imbibes them he sinks. Be not conformed, then, dear Christian readers, to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, Rom. xii. 2. Seek the things that are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God, Col. iii. 1. That the Spirit of Christ may rest upon you, that the blessing of the Father of mercies may descend on you, and that when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, ye also

may all appear with him in glory, Col. iii. 4, is the earnest prayer of your

grateful and humble servant in the

gospel,

THE AUTHOR.

THE IMPORTUNITY.

VERSES 19-21.—But be not thou far from me, O Lord: O my strength, haste thee to help me. Deliver my soul from the sword: my darling from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth; for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. [Or, Save me from the lion's mouth, and from the horns of the unicorns. Thou hast heard me.*]

THE intensity of the Saviour's anguish, and earnestness of his spirit, in the garden of Gethsemane, are as strikingly denoted by his actions as by his

* See note to verse 21 at page 11.