without works;" and closes all, with calling on such to be glad in the Lord and rejoice. Just as, by the Apostle, he says, "Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say rejoice," There is a time coming when "all lands will be called upon to be joyful in the Lord," even after He shall have made known His salvation, and after His righteousness shall have been openly shewn to the heathen. But we wait not for circumstances. Knowing the Lord, we can and ought to rejoice. And wherefore is it that others judge, through us, of the Gospel, as though it were a system of privation and renunciation, instead of one of the richest acquirements? Is it not that we try to be glad in ourselves, or in circumstances, instead of in the Lord?-and thus are subject to much variableness, instead of living by faith in the Son of God; learning what He is of God made unto us, and what we are and what we have in Him. In the most truthful confession before God of what we are, we can still rejoice in the Lord." Before He shews Himself publicly-before He manifests in glory to the eyes of all what the Sons of God really are-believing, we can rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory. And wherefore our deplorable lack of such joy? Is it not that we fail in discerning and carrying out the blessedness of "righteousness without works?" We do not know it experimentally; we do not see its moral beauty; it does not shine with increasing lustre on our souls;because they are not exercised as they should be before God. We are, somehow or other, more occupied with that which displays us before men, than with that which displays God to us. Hence, we drink not at the springhead of joy. O that we could practically tell out to others that God himself had made us happy, and that we are happy in God.

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And the upright in heart are again connected with the blessedness declared in the first verses of this Psalm. We read of one whose "heart was not right with God." He had the base thought "that the gift of God might be purchased with money." Now, no real Christian can entertain the thought that such a gift as Simon coveted is purchaseable by money. But the base thought is in

our hearts, to earn something from God, and this hinders uprightness of heart. Surely, uprightness of heart is to maintain our character before God as sinners saved by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, and to carry with us that character before men. If we forget what we are in ourselves, or what grace has made us to be in Christ, we are not upright in heart. It is blessed, indeed, not to have a part to act before God (for such is human religion), but to go before Him in the character which He has given to us, in the righteousness with which He himself hath clothed us. To be upright in heart is not to draw a line between religious and other duties, but to come to the light to learn ourselves, and learn the glory of God in His grace. Where there is human sincerity and human uprightness and conscientiousness, it cannot, perhaps, well be said that there is hypocrisy; but such natural uprightness is apart from God, and may exist, and has existed, where God has not been known or revealed. But now light is come into the world. Men may know their real character in the estimate of God. And the condemnation is, that "he cometh not to the light." And before God all will be found hypocrites-that is, acting a character— save those who, coming to the light, and learning what they are in God's judgment, have sheltered themselves under the blessedness of "righteousness without works." Such are upright in heart; in their spirit is no guile. They may shout for joy.

A Psalm of David, Maschil.

PSALM XXXII.

1 BLESSED is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

2 Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.

3 When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. 4 For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.

5 I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

6 For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of

PRESBUTES.

great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.

7 Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.

8 I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.

9 Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.

10 Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the LORD, mercy shall compass him about..

11 Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.

THE SIN OF ZIPPORAH.

"A bloody husband art thou to me.

because of the circumcision."Exod. iv. 25, 26.

WHEN the man by whose hand God would deliver Israel out of the Land of Egypt, had received his authority and commission for that great work, and was on his way from the Land of Midian, where he had been a stranger we are told, he took with him his wife and his sons. An incidental occurrence during the journey gives us an insight into the condition of the family-its responsibility before God, and the light in which that painful rite which God had imposed as the outward mark of His relationship with the seed of Abraham, was viewed by its different members.

Circumcision had not been performed upon Gershon their firstborn, though years had elapsed since the reception of Moses into this Gentile family, and the birth of the child who is mentioned in a previous chapter (Ex.ii). Zipporah it seems had long been averse to it;it was a painful, if not a dangerous operation, and distressing to her feelings as a mother. Why should her child be made to suffer in this way? Why should her husband require that which was so severe and bloody? Nothing of the kind was thought necessary in her own familyit was quite contrary to the universal practice around her, and had better at the least be deferred to the time when Moses should again rejoin his own nation. Thus would human nature reason. Moses apparently had yielded, and God was forgotten, and the mother pacified at the expense of obedience to Him.

Such was her foolish tenderness towards her child, which well nigh became, as is here related to us, the destruction of Moses, her husband. "And it came to pass, by the way in the inn, that the Lord met him, and sought to kill him." The Lord did not hold him guiltless for his negligence of His word, and foolish compliance with the wishes of his wife. And Zipporah having

quitted her own country, to accompany him, was on the point of being left desolate by the loss of her protector, for the anger of the Lord was kindled against him. "Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me." The rite she so much disliked, and in which she saw so much cruelty, she has herself to perform, at a time, and under circumstances, which must greatly have added to the distress she felt, and increased the suffering of her son. And with a heart still inexperienced in and rebellious against the dealings and requirements of the Lord toward those whom He has set apart as His own, she vents her indignation against her husband in language and in an action such as this. The circumcision was compelled at last, she was forced to it by the hand of God, but Moses was "a bloody husband"!!

Thus he escapes we are told. "So He let him [Moses] go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision." Her heart is untouched, though the trial is over; and she cannot restrain her anger from breaking forth against the most apparent author of this grievance. As yet there is no feeling of what was due to the Lord, who had imposed this as a sign of separation to Himself. And though she is forced by the threatening attitude which the Lord had assumed, to perform the rite, and that even with her own hand, she has not learnt the meaning of it, nor ceased to dislike it. In the end she has to return to her own country, sent back by Moses (Ex. xviii. 2). Her self-will and ignorance of the ways of the Lord, made her ill-suited to be his companion, while accomplishing under the hand of God, the rescue of His people out of the land of Egypt.

Such was her sin and folly; and such has been our own. God has been dealing with us that He may separate us to Himself. He has found fleshly evils allowed among us-subtle and refined errors of the human

The meaning of the Hebrew word in which is disputed will not affect the use here made of the passage. Ps. xix. 6. and Is. lxii. 5, as well as verse 20, seem to bear out the ordinary translation.

mind, leading us in the end to heresy, sectarianism, and clericalism—a turning back to establish and to lean upon what He had shewn to us as evil, and called us out from -desiring somewhat of that position and respectability which natural men can look upon and value. As Israel with the nations of old, we have too much learned the ways of those around us. If our unbelief has not gone so far as theirs when they desired a king, there has been much of a similar character in our want of practical confidence in the presence, power and guidance of the Spirit of God, and the distribution of His gifts. We have failed individually and collectively in condemning the world as that which crucified the Lord of Glory,we have not been as those who are crucified to it, and know nothing but Christ risen, and in heaven, and who, united to Him, have done with all that is properly earthly. Thus Satan has found principles to act on among us, and means to introduce leaven which might corrupt in different ways. As in the instance before us, the hand of God has been raised against this fleshly evil, this unheavenly condition, so unsuitable for Himself, into which we have relapsed. And have we been ready to act in purging it out when discovered? Have we not rather, in foolish tenderness, shrunk back, thinking more of the pain we should inflict, than the honour of our God, or of His jealousy, which required this prompt and decisive action? Surely God is to be thought of first, and what he looks for, however dear, and justly so, the object may be, on whom the suffering has to be inflicted. When God came out to meet Moses there was no alternative then. It was to ask why He had been slighted, why His word had been neglected, His wishes and feelings disregarded? Is not God making this demand of us now, if we are inclined to tolerate what He has openly shewed his judgment of, and what we found so corrupting in its nature, will not that provoke Him? Shall we stir Him to jealousy, are we stronger than He? Are we to tamper with evil when God has made manifest its true character, and when His hand has been stretched out against us all on account of it? Surely it must be clean cut off and rejected, whatever suffering we cause our