upon them in the midst of sorrow with new joy, as in the case of Job, when his heart was broken, passing before him in the splendour of His glory. By such unveiling He compels worship. I take the Psalter, and read it at any point, and discover something of God's activity, constraining man to worship. The first note of a psalm is that of praise. You follow the singer, and enquire why he sings, and the answer is always of something that God is, that God has wrought, of some way in which God has revealed Himself. The first activity in worship is always that of God's self-revelation.

Then follow the activities of man. In answer to the approach of God in love, man lays bare his soul. The thirty-second psalm gives the story of how a man failed in worship, and of how he was restored to worship. It opens with an exclamation, "Oh, the blessedness of transgression forgiven," and proceeds to declare that man blessed in whose spirit there is no guile—that is, no de ceit, no cloking. The psalmist then tells of dayɩ . when it was different.

"When I kept silence, my bones waxed old

Through my roaring all the day long.

For day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me:
My moisture was changed as with the drought of summer."

Then he turned back to God:

"I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid."

That is the soul baring itself in the presence of God. The song was the outcome of the answer of God. "Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." There was no song while he was keeping silence in an attempt to hide his sin. The activities of man in worship are the laying bare of the soul, the reception of gifts, and ultimately the offering of praise.

The final activity of worship is that of God, Who is true and faithful in His dealing with the worshipping soul, becoming to that soul what ever is needed.

The supreme message of the Psalter is, Wor ship God. Make all circumstances opportunities of worship. Are you in sorrow? Worship! Are you in joy? Worship! Are you in darkness? Worship! Are you in the light? Wor ship!

I turn to my New Testament, and find the message of the Psalter: "Rejoice in the Lord alway again I will say, Rejoice." "In everything by prayer and supplication with thanks

giving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus."

a. The First Sphere. Home. Father and Mother. b. The Second Sphere. Companions.

c. The Third Sphere. The City symbolizing Life.
1. The First Call. Warnings. Promise.

2. The Call from Home. ii.-vii. "My Son."
3. The Second Call. viii.

4. A Contrast. ix.

III. The Fina! Applications

i. First Collection of Proverbs.

ii. Second Collection of Proverbs.

Statements.
Pictures.

iii. Words of Agur and Oracles of Lemuel.

(viii. 32-36.)

The Life of Wisdom.

III. Power

(James i. 5.)

The Lord of Wisdom.

THE MESSAGE OF PROVERBS

T

HE book of Proverbs is essentially didactic, and consequently its content

constitutes its message. There are certain peculiarities about the books of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. While it is true that the peculiarly Hebrew titles of God are found in them, yet all the references to the law and ritual, the sacrifices and ceremony with which the other Old Testament books abound, are absent from these. While preeminently religious, they are yet primarily philosophic. They are the only three books of the wisdom literature of the Hebrew people in the Bible. The meaning of wisdom as applied to these writings is exactly what is intended to-day by the common use of the word philosophy. That common use is not strictly warranted by the real meaning of the word. Philosophy does not mean wisdom, but the love of wisdom. A philosopher is not necessarily a wise man. He is a lover of wisdom-that is, one seeking after wisdom.