and friendliness in God's mind towards us, which we value most in His gifts to us or in any other gifts.

This is a part of the meaning of the word 'bless,' but it is not the whole. If you look at some of the passages in the earlier books of the Bible where the word occurs, you will see that it is generally used respecting words pronounced by God, rather than actual gifts sent by Him. Thus, in Gen. i. 21, 22, we read, "And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, 'Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.""

You will see the force of this meaning better by remembering the opposite word 'curse.' When we speak of a curse, we think more of the actual uttering of the words of the curse, and of the fierce and destroying mind of which they are the utterance, than of any actual evil results produced. We should shun one whom we believed to be under a curse, even though he should be as prosperous as any of his neighbours. Just so it is with a blessing. When we give a friend joy, as we call it, we believe and know that, if he cares for us, our words themselves are a real joy to him; they bring us more closely into each other's presence, so that we can more entirely rejoice together; and the pith and substance of our friend's delight consists in this, that something of our warmth and friendliness towards him seems to go out of us to him in the very words.

It is the same when God blesses us. We cannot hear Him speaking to us with our outward ears, as we can hear our human friends speaking to us. But yet He does speak to us and give us joy in all the gifts which He sends us. They too, like the words of a friend, seem to come out of Him and to be a part of Him, and to bring us near to the tenderness and love which He feels for us, and which He wishes us to see and rejoice. And thus the heartiest greeting that we can give to a friend is "God bless you!" We do not merely wish that God will shower upon him all good things, though this may be included in the wish; but we pray that God's own heart may be open to him in love and favour. We bless him ourselves, tell him of our love, but more than this we pray that God will greet him as we are greeting him, nay, a thousand times more; that all that which we now feel for him may be felt for him by God, only with all the infinite strength and depth of God's nature. We bless him all we can, but we feel that our heart is too feeble for our wishes, and we pray God to make up our shortcomings and bless him as only God can bless. psalmist has therefore gone a step beyond his first prayer. He prays that God will not only overlook our sinful state but greet us as His friends, and send forth words and acts which may express His welcome and approval.

The

"God

In the next clause he goes still further. be merciful unto us, and bless us; and show us the light of his countenance," or, as the Bible translation expresses it, "cause his face to shine upon us."

This prayer springs from a strong faith indeed. The psalmist knows most securely what look will be on God's face when He turns it towards us. He has no fears that God may, like man, be fitful and moody. He knows that it will not be turned in anger, that the tenderness of His love cannot pass away from His face, even when He is punishing sinners with the sharpest judgments. Even in the severest wrath, that face will still fill him with such a joy and gladness as no other vision can. When Adam and Eve had sinned, and then heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. Not so the psalmist. He seeks the face of the Lord God, although he knew himself to be a sinner, although he had begun by craving mercy as a sinner, whereas Adam and Eve strove only to justify themselves. And this, dear brethren, is, after all, the truest test whether we are in the right way or not. When we have committed sin, our conscience accuses us; we feel and know that we are

guilty in God's sight. The devil tells us to flee away from our offended Lord, to hide ourselves if possible from His dreadful presence. We are only too well disposed to listen to the tempter's voice. We dread nothing so much as to meet God's eyes and see His lips opening to speak to us. But if we will listen to His Spirit whispering within our hearts, we shall thrust from us the cruel and deceitful advice. We shall go forward eagerly to meet our God and say, "God be merciful to us, and bless us; and make his

face to shine upon us." There may be stern reproofs in store for us, and sharp stripes after them; but, if we are not wilfully blind, we shall see and know that the light of that countenance is the light of love, and that only that searching, all-conquering light can set us free from the bondage of our sins. That He may deliver us from sin, He will smite us still; but not the less does He greet us and bless us as His own, for He has forgiven us long ago, even before our sins were committed.

But it is not the mere turning of God's face once towards us that we want. We have need to gaze at it for ever and ever, that we may know it well. And to us, brethren, is it given to gaze upon it as no Jewish psalmist ever could. In the hymn of Simeon which goes in our prayer-book along with this 67th Psalm, uttered by him when he took the infant Jesus in his arms, he blessed God and said, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation (thy saving health). "He that hath seen me," said Christ Himself, when He had grown to full manhood, "hath seen the Father." All the love that He showed to sinful man in taking human flesh and dying on the cross was in very deed the love of the Father. Every time that a chapter of the Gospels is read in church, a vision is set before every Christian man such as prophets desired in vain to see. God grant us strength to pray with willing hearts the prayer of David, "Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us."

III

THE LIGHT OF GOD'S FACE AND THE

KNOWLEDGE OF HIS WAY

"GOD be merciful unto us, and bless us; and show us the light of his countenance. That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations."—Psalm lxvii. 1, 2.

LAST Sunday I tried to explain something of the meaning of the first verse of this psalm, and at the same time to give greater clearness to the vague language in which we are apt to speak both of this and of other psalms. To-day I wish to dwell rather more fully on the last clause of the first verse, and then go on to consider the second verse, and the manner in which it is founded on the first verse. The psalmist begins with a prayer for mercy, thereby confessing himself to be one who needed mercy, and asking God to overlook his offences and listen to him not according to his deserts but according to God's own lovingkindness. He then prays that the merciful God would bless him and his people, that is, would greet them as His own, and send forth gifts and messages as tokens to show how dear they still