Nor shall silver be weighed out as the price thereof. For wisdom is more precious than pearls. Nor can it be purchased with the purest gold. Whence then cometh wisdom? We have heard of its fame with our ears. Behold! the fear of the Lord, that is thy wisdom, THE JUSTICE AND THE POWER OF GOD. FROM CHAPTER XXXVI. VERSE 22, THROUGH CHAPTER XXXVIII. BEHOLD, God is exalted by his power; What potentate is like him? Who hath prescribed to him his way? Forget not to magnify his work, Which men celebrate with songs. All mankind gaze upon it; Mortals behold it from afar. Behold, God is great; we cannot know him, Nor search out the number of his years. Which form rain from his vapour; The clouds pour it down, And distil it upon man in abundance. Who can understand the spreading of his clouds, Behold, he spreadeth around himself his light, At this my heart trembleth, He thundereth with the voice of his majesty, And abide in their caverns. Out of the South cometh the whirlwind, And cold out of the North. By the breath of God ice is formed, And the broad waters are made solid. He causeth the clouds to descend in rain, And his lightning scattereth the mists. He leadeth them about by his wisdom, That they may execute his commands throughout the world; Whether he cause them to come for punishment, Give ear unto this, O Job! Stand still, and consider the wond'rous works of God. Dost thou know when God ordained them, And caused the lightning of his cloud to flash? Dost thou understand the balancing of the clouds, How thy garments become warm, When he maketh the earth sultry by his south wind? Canst thou like him spread out the sky, Firm like a molten mirror? Teach us what we shall say to him, For we cannot address him by reason of darkness. Verily if a man speak to him, he will be consumed. Men cannot look upon the light, When it is bright in the skies, When the wind hath passed over them, and made them clear, And a golden splendour cometh from the firmament, But with God is terrible majesty! The Almighty, we cannot find him out; He is excellent in power and justice, Perfect in righteousness, but he giveth no account of his doings. Therefore let men fear him, Whom none of the men of wisdom can behold. Then spake Jehovah to Job out of the whirlwind, and said: Who is this, that darkeneth my counsels by words without knowledge? Gird up thy loins like a man; I will ask thee, and answer thou me. Where wast thou, when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, since thou hast such knowledge! Who fixed its dimensions, since thou knowest! Or who stretched out the line upon it! And who laid its corner stone, When the morning stars sang together, Hast thou ever commanded the morning, It is changed as wax by the seal; And all things stand forth as in rich apparel./ Hast thou penetrated to the springs of the sea, Where is the way to the abode of light? Hast thou entered the storehouses of the snow, Where is the way, by which light is distributed, To the wilderness, where is no man; To satisfy the desolate and waste ground, And cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth? Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades, Or loosen the bands of Orion ? Canst thou lead forth Mazzaroth in its season, Or guide Arcturus with his sons? So that abundance of waters will cover thee? Canst thou hunt prey for the lioness, THE WAR-HORSE. CHAPTER XXXIX. VERSES 19-25. HAST thou given the horse strength? He paweth in the valley; he exulteth in his strength, He laugheth at fear; he trembleth not, The glittering spear, and the lance. The thunder of the captains, and the shouting. TRANSLATIONS FROM THE PSALMS. PERHAPS there is no book in the sacred volume, which is so much read as the Psalms of David. The peculiar characteristics of their poetical merit have been already briefly noticed; their devotional beauty and fervour can never be felt with too much intensity, nor admired with too much veneration. The variety and contrast in the feelings of the Royal Psalmist, at different periods of his eventful life, and in different circumstances of prosperity or trial, render his productions beautifully adapted to every frame of mind, min to which the believer can be subject; while the extreme tenderness and pathos of his supplications is often sufficient, one would think, to subdue and soften even the hard heart of the infidel. His compositions are a storehouse from whence almost all characters of men may derive something suitable to their own condition and peculiarities of mind. Their elevated intellectual and contemplative oharacter, and the admiration of the beauty and glory of the created universe, which they express in such inimitable language, inimitable both for its sweetness and sublimity, will always render them delightful to the man of genius and cultivated taste; but it is their touching adaptation to all the varieties of religious feeling, which gives them such an endurable hold upon the heart. Here the grateful worshipper will find such irrepressible and ardent strains of thanksgiving, as might elevate his soul even to the holy adoration of the world above; Oh come let us sing unto the Lord! let us heartily rejoice in the Rock of our salvation.-I will sing to Jehovah as long as I live, I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. - Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together! For the true penitent they afford the most humble and heartfelt expressions of sorrow for sin, and the most earnest prayers for restoration and forgiveness; Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done evil in thy sight. -Cast me not away from thy presence, and lake not thy Holy Spirit from me. For those that mourn in Zion there is consolation in the sympathy of one, whose tears were his food day and night, when God had hidden his face from him. For the bereaved there are the most instructive pictures of calm and submissive affliction; I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because thou didst it. Here the desponding may learn that others have been in the com |