f.m% &#■$* ■ ■ • w., ■*" X JL JLj SACRED POETRY OF EARLY RELIGIONS DEAN CHURCH F 46.?0ll (HT5 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. SERMONS PREACHED BEFORE THE UNI- VERSITY OF OXFORD. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 4s. 6d. ST. ANSELM. Second Edition. Crown. 8vo. ON SOME INFLUENCES OF CHRISTIANITY UPON NATIONAL CHARACTER. Three Lectures delivered in St. Paul's Cathedral, Feb. 1873. Crown 8vo. 4s. 6d. CIVILIZATION BEFORE AND AFTER CHRIS- TIANITY. Two Lectures delivered in St. Paul's Cathe- dral at the Tuesday Evening Services, Jan. 23 and 30, .1872. Crown 8vo. I*. THE PURPOSE OF THE CHRISTIAN MINIS- TRY. A Sermon preached at the Ordination held by the Bishop of London in St. Paul's Cathedral, on Trinity Sunday, May 26, 1872. 8vo. 6d. MACMILLAN AND CO. LONDON. FROM THE LIBRARY OF REV. LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON, D. D. BEQUEATHED BY HIM TO THE LIBRARY OF PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY THE SACRED POETRY OF EARLY RELIGIONS. Division Section LONDON: K. CI. AY, iOMS, AND TAYI.OK, PRINTERS. THE SACRED POE EARLY RELIGIONS. Jin ^32 TWO LECTURES $t(ttmb in St. Usui's (Katfce&al, 7^. 27 &•> Feb. 3, 1874. BY R. W. CHURCH, M.A. DEAN OF ST. PAUL S. 3£oiibow : MACMILLAN AND CO. 1874. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013 http://archive.org/details/sacreaOOchur NOTICE. My excuse for venturing to speak in these lectures on matters about which I have no knowledge at first hand, is that tiiese matters have lately been brought very fully before English readers in a popular form by those who have. In essays of great interest, from time to time inserted in the Times and other widely read periodicals, one of the chief living masters of Oriental scholarship, Mr. Max Miiller, has made us familiar with some of its most important achievements. My authorities are his "History of Sanscrit Literature," i860; his Essays on the, Vedas, the Zendavesta, and u Semitic Monotheism/' republished in the first volume of " Chips from a German Workshop," 1868 ; his trans- lation, of which one volume has appeared, of the viii NOTICE. Rig-Yeda-Sanhita, 1869; his "Lectures on the Science of Religion/'' 1872; the first volume of Bunsen's " God in History/' translated by Miss Winkworth, 1868; and Barthelemy St. Hilaire, " Le Bouddha et sa Religion," 1862. R. W. C. LECTURE I. THE VEDAS. EARLY SACRED POETRY. LECTURE L THE VEDAS. The subject on which I propose to speak to you is the sacred poetry of early religions. I need hardly tell you that the subject is a very wide one, and that we have not much time at our disposal. In what I have to say I can but deal with it very generally, and by way of specimens and examples. The sacred poetry of a religion is the expression of feeling, in its more elevated and intense forms, to- wards the object of its worship. A creed expresses belief. Prayers set forth needs, present requests, ask for blessings, deprecate evils. Psalms and hymns are the voice of the religious emotions, the religious affec- tions, it may be the religious passions. They assume what a creed asserts. They urge what a prayer urges, but they do it under more vivid impressions of the power addressed, from the larger and more inspiring 1 2 EARL Y SA CRED FOE TR Y. [lect. aspect given by an awakened imagination or a heart deeply stirred. They carry to the highest point what- ever there is in a religion ; they mark the level to which in idea and faith, in aspiration and hope, it can rise. The heart of a religion passes into its poetry ; — all its joy, its tenderness and sweetness, if it has any, its deepest sighs, its longings and Teachings after the eternal and unseen, whatever is most pathetic in its sorrow or boldest in its convictions. Its sacred songs give the measure of what it loves, what it imagines, what it trusts to, in that world out of sight, of which religion is the acknowledgment, and which it connects with this one. With the sacred poetry of one ancient religion, the religion which as a matter of history enshrined and handed on from primitive times the faith and worship of the One Living God, we are familiar. The Psalms of those far distant days, the early utterances of their faith and love, still form the staple of the worship and devotion of the Christian Church. But side by side in the course of the centuries with this religion were other religions of unknown antiquity, the religions of great tribes and races and multitudes, forefathers of nations which have come down, from the days before history, into the days when history began to be written, and at length to our own. With the earliest forms of these religions, all of them religions of Asia, with their ideas of the divine, with their ways of worship, we have only of late years become even partially acquainted. But Oriental learning, in the L] THE VEDAS. 13 hands of great scholars of this century, from Sir \V. Jones, whose monument faces me under this dome, to Burnouf and Max Miiller, has opened to us a glimpse of that primeval and mysterious world. They believe themselves to have succeeded in disengaging the earlier and primitive documents from those of later date, and in reproducing with approximate ac- curacy the religious language and ideas of ancient races in China, in India, in Persia. The early religions of China, the great Indian reform of Buddhism, are full of a strange and melancholy interest; but they are mostly didactic in form and expression, and there seems to be little in them which can be called poetical. In the case of the primitive religions of India and Persia their earliest language is poetry, and speaks in the form of hymns. This primeval poetry is, we are assured, perfectly distinct, — in its natural freshness and comparative simplicity, in its apparent effort really to recognize and express the mystery of what is seen in nature and believed beyond it — from the coarse mythologies and gross idolatry of subsequent ages. It is to this early poetry that I venture to invite your attention this evening ; and it is of this, viewed in comparison with the sacred poetry of another early age, the collection which we call the Psalms, that I propose to speak in the lecture of next Tuesday. You will understand that I have no pretence to speak about it from first-hand study. But we have in our hands the results of the work of most patient and 14 EARL Y SA CRED FOE TR Y. [lect. sagacious scholars ; and we may be assured that, under their guidance, we know as much as anyone can know in the present state of our knowledge. I take for granted — and we may feel pretty safe in doing so — the general accuracy of their statements as to the character and meaning of what they cite and translate. The most ancient relics of primitive Indian religion are the hymns of the Vedas, the sacred books of Brah- man religion. The age of these hymns can only be guessed at, but by those who know best it is carried back some 3.000 years, to the centuries between 1200 and 1 500 before our era. They are over a thousand in num- ber, and they represent the early religious thoughts and feelings of a great race in Central Asia, the Aryan branch of the human family, the stock which was to people not only India and Persia, but the greater part of Europe — the fathers of Greeks and Italians, of the Teutonic, the Celtic, the Slavonic nations, as well as of those who crossed the Himalayas to the banks of the Indus and the Ganges. The language of these Vedic hymns is the oldest form of that which is often spoken of as the oldest of languages, the sacred language of the Brahmans, the Sanscrit. They are too old to have anything of a history besides what can be gathered from their language and matter. We know next to nothing of their authors, or the condition under which they were first uttered : in reading them, " we stand in the presence of a veiled life," on which nothing ex- ternal of record or monument throws light. It is only of late years that scholars have been able successfully i.] THE VEDAS. 15 to decipher what Mr. Max Mliller calls " the dark and helpless utterances of the ancient poets of India." The clue, however, has been found. The difficulties of interpretation have, we are assured, yielded in great degree to the skill and patience which have been ex- pended on them ; and the exceeding interest of the knowledge thus for the first time opened of these early thoughts of men has been an ample reward. And certainly it is most remarkable and most im- pressive that though, as I have said, they have no history, though there is not the slenderest thread of surrounding or accompanying record to connect them with the men who must have lived and the events which must have happened before they could be com- posed, though they stand out like constellations, pro- jected, singly and in isolation, against an impenetrable depth of dark sky behind them, yet the poems bear in themselves the evidence of a very high advance in men's mastery of the faculties of their own mind and the arts of speech. When they were composed, the interval had already become a long one, from the rudeness and grossness of savage existence. Thought had learned to grasp and express feeling, and lan- guage had found out some of its subtlest expedients. They are the foundation of the later forms of Indian religion ; but they are, we are told, absolutely dis- tinct in ideas and spirit from the ceremonial and the mythologies afterwards built on them. The common and prominent element in these hymns is their sense of the greatness and wonder and 16 EARLY SACRED POETRY, [lect. mystery of external nature. The composers of them were profoundly impressed by the conviction that in its familiar but overpowering magnificence and behind its screen there was a living presence and power greater than itself and its master, to which, though out of sight and beyond reach, man could have access : — 11 A presence that disturbed them with the joy Of elevated thoughts : a sense sublime Of something far more deeply interfused, Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, And the round ocean and the living air, And the blue sky, and in the mind of man ; A motion and a spirit, that impels All thinking things, all objects of all thought, And rolls through all things." And what they so keenly felt and so awfully acknow- ledged, they had attained an adequate instrument to body forth in words. Whence their religious ideas came must still be counted among the unsolved, if not the hopeless, problems of human history. Indeed, what these ideas distinctly were must always be imperfectly known, for this reason, if for no other — that the thoughts and the words of men living in times so far apart as ours from theirs are practically incommensurable. The great wastes of time lie between us and them. We cannot, with the utmost helps of scholarship, with the highest effort of imagination, see things as they saw them, and think with their thoughts, with their knowledge, their habits, their associations. What we and. the centuries before us have passed through, what we know, what I.] THE VEDAS. i 7 we have become, prevents us. But we can know something, though not all. The most elaborate inves- tigations, the most indefatigable and refined compari- sons, have sorted out and approximately arranged for us these ancient hymns. Many of them have been translated : in the last instance by one who moves with ease under an accumulation and weight of the most varied and minute knowledge sufficient to crush most minds, but who brings to it a power and ver- satility of genius and interpreting imagination which invests his learning with the grace of poetry, and who, a German, has gained a command over the resources of English which an Englishman may envy. In Mr. Max Miillers translations of the Vedic Hymns we may feel confident that we come, as near as we can come, to an authentic representation of these earliest utter- ances of Indian religion. What then do these hymns of the Veda show us of that which is the foundation of all religion ? They are the language of fervent, enthusiastic worshippers. What do they tell us of the worshippers' thoughts about God ? The hymns of the Veda are addressed to various names of divine beings, which may be in the first instance described as personifications of the phe- nomena of external nature. It is not unreasonable to call this, as it has been called, a worship of nature. But we are cautioned that this may not be an adequate representation of what was really meant, and that it would be more justly called a worship of God B EARL Y SA CRED FOE TR Y. [lect. in nature, " of God appearing behind its veil, rather than as hidden in the sanctuary of the human heart and conscience." At any rate, in a great number of these hymns, such as those which compose the first volume of Mr. Max Miiller's translation of the Rigveda, the Hymns to the Maruts, the Storm Gods (attendants on the Sun and the Dawn), we may watch, -to use his words, " the almost imperceptible transition by which the phenomena of nature, if reflected in the mind of the poet, assume the character of divine beings." In these hymns it seems to me that the effort to employ imagination to the utmost in order to express and do justice to the wonders of the Wind and the Storm is much more distinct and characteristic than the reli- gious sense of divinity. So, again, with the hymns to the Dawn, on which Mr. Max Miiller comments. We, he reminds us, on whom the ends of the world are come, have mostly lost that early feeling of surprise and admiration of the daily wonder of sunrise. The feeling was strong when minds were fresher and life more simple. "The Dawn," he says, " is frequently described in the Veda as it might be described by a modern poet. She is the friend of men, she smiles like a young wife, she is the daughter of the sky. She goes to every house ; she thinks of the dwellings of men ; she does not despise the small or the great ; she brings wealth ; she is always the same, immortal, divine ; age cannot touch her j she is the young god- dess, but she makes men grow old. All this may be simply allegorical language. But the transition is so [.] THE VEDAS. 19 easy from Devi, the Bright, to Devi, the Goddess ; the daughter of the Sky assumes so readily the personality given to the Sky (Dyaus), her father, that we can only guess whether in each passage the poet is speaking of a bright apparition, or a bright goddess \ of a natural vision, or of a visible deity": — "She shines on us like a young wife, rousing every living being to go to his work. The fire had to be kindled by men \ she brought light by striking down the darkness. " She rose up, spreading far and wide, and moving towards every one. She grew in bright- ness, wearing her brilliant garment. The mother of the morning clouds, the leader of the rays, she shone gold-coloured, lovely to behold. " She, the fortunate, who brings the eye of the gods, who leads the white and lovely steed [of the Sun], the Dawn was seen, revealed by her rays, with brilliant treasures she follows every one, " Thou who art a blessing where thou art near, drive far away the unfriendly ; make the pastures wide, give us safety ! Remove the haters, bring treasures ! Raise up wealth to the worshipper, thou mighty Dawn. " Shine for us with thy best rays, thou bright Dawn, thou who lengthenest our life, thou the love of all, who givest us food, who givest us wealth in cattle, horses, and chariots. "Thou, daughter of the Sky, thou high-born B 2 20 EA RL Y SA CRED FOE TR Y. [ lect. Dawn, whom the Vasishthas magnify with songs, give us riches high and wide : all ye gods, protect us always with your blessings." This hymn, we are told, is an example of " the original simple poetry of the Veda. It has no refer- ence to any special sacrifice. It contains no technical expressions ; it can hardly be called a hymn in our sense of the word. It is simply a poem, expressing without any effort, without any display of far-fetched thought or brilliant imagery, the feelings of a man who has watched the approach of dawn with mingled delight and awe, and who was moved to give utterance to what he felt in measured language." It is, in fact, the poetical counterpart of Guido's Aurora. Hymns such as these make up a great portion of the collection. But there are others more distinctly intended as expressive of worship, invocations of beings regarded as divine, the objects of religious faith and reverence and hope. They are described in language applicable only to the Highest of all Beings. They are addressed in words fittingly spoken by man only to his Maker and Almighty Ruler. Do we find here the worship of one or of many gods? Now the remarkable feature about these early hymns is the absolutely indeterminate character of the object of worship and praise. Different names appear of the divine powers addressed in them. They are names, as I have said, denoting, or taken from, the primary phenomena or powers of the natural world — the Sky, i j THE VEDAS. the Lights the Sun, the Dawn, the Winds, the Fire. The divinity, who is in the sky or the fire, or whom they veil, or whom they symbolize, is separately invoked adored, magnified. But yet it seems that it is impos- sible to tell whether these names are thought of as names of really separate powers • whether they are the same essential power, invoked under separate names, according as the manifestation of his marvellous doings impresses the mind of the worshipper ; whether, if they are different, or different aspects of the Supreme and Infinite, there is gradation or subordination be- tween the divine powers, or the several phases of the one; whether they do not pass into one another, and now one of them, now another, does not take the place in the composer's thoughts of the one Most High. The distinctness of the later Hindu pantheon, with the definitely assigned characters and names and functions of its gods and goddesses, is not here ; certainly not at least as regards the highest names. The pictures given of the doings and the glories of the Being celebrated in each hymn are drawn with the most vivid and brilliant imagery, freshly derived from sights of nature, watched and gazed on and remembered with admiration and delight : but who is the unknown reality behind the name ? In the worshipper's mind apparently, certainly in the minds of those who after centuries attempt to under- stand it, the idea dissolves into a luminous mist, baffling all attempt to make it assume shape and sub- stance. " When the individual gods,'' says Mr. Max 22 EARL Y SA CRED POE TR Y. [lect. Miiller, " are invoked, Varuna (the Heaven), Agni (Fire), the Maruts (the Storm Gods or the Winds), Ushas (the Dawn), they are not conceived as limited by the power of others, as superior or inferior in rank. Each god is to the mind of the suppliant as good as all the gods.". ... "It would be easy to find, in the numerous hymns of the Veda, passages in which almost every single god is represented as supreme and absolute." "What more could human language achieve in trying to express the idea of a divine and supreme power, than what the poet says of Varuna? 'Thou art Lord of all, of heaven and earth;' or, in another hymn, ' Thou art King of all, of those who are gods and those who are men.' He knows all the order of nature and upholds it ; he looks not only into the past, but the future. But, more than this, Varuna watches also over the order of the moral world." Sin is the breaking of his laws ; but he can be approached in prayer for his mercy, and in his mercy he pardons sinners. Can there be any other god who can be thus thought of and spoken of ? Yes, a whole brotherhood of gods (the Adityas) are addressed in the same way. Indra, called the greatest of gods, is addressed in the same way as the pardoner of sin. "We can hardly understand," says Mr. Max Miiller, "how a people who had formed so exalted a notion of the Supreme God, and embodied it in the person of Indra, could at the same time invoke other gods with equal praise. When Agni, the Lord of Fire, is addressed by the poet, he is spoken of as the first god, not inferior even to I] THE VEDAS. 23 Indra. While Agni is invoked, Indra is forgotten ; there is no competition between the two, nor any rivalry between them or any other god." Explain it as we will, the poets and psalmists of this early religion looked with a dizzy and uncertain eye upon that marvellous spectacle of man and nature, in which undoubtedly they believed that they saw manifest tokens of the Divine and Eternal, signs of a Presence at which their hearts kindled, and their heads bowed, and their humble offerings were pre- sented. They recognized the " witness'' of what was greater and higher than all things seen and known, tokens of the "Eternal Power and Godhead;" they recognized the Hand "which did them good, and gave them rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness." But they looked with unsteady and wavering vision ; they saw, and they saw not ; one impression came and was chased away by another ; all was full of confusing appearances and fitful glimpses and interfering lights : they spoke in words of stammering enthusiasm of wonders which only raised in them inconsistent and contradictory images. They seem like men striving after a great truth apparently within their reach, but really just beyond it. Serious questioners, I do not doubt that many of them were, of what they saw, of their own souls, of what had been handed down from their fathers; seekers after God, and of "the invisible things of Him," they may have been. But who will say that they were finders ? 24 EARL Y SA CRED POETR Y. [LECT. This " feeling after God " among the works of His hands — this anxious and perplexed, yet resolute groping in the light for Him Who is equally above the light and the darkness, is expressed in a remarkable hymn of early date. It has been often cited by recent writers. " This yearning after a nameless deity," says Baron Bunsen, "who nowhere manifests himself in the Indian Pantheon of the Yedas, this voice of humanity groping after God, has nowhere found so sublime and touching an expression " : — "i, In the beginning there arose the Source of Golden Light — He was the only born Lord of all that is. He stablished the earth and this sky ; — " Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice ? " 2. He who gives life, He who gives strength ; Whose blessing all the bright gods desire; Whose shadow is immortality ; Whose shadow is deatli ; — " Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice ? " 3. He who through His power is the only King of the breathing and awakening world ; He who governs all, man and beast : — " Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice ? "4. He whose power these snowy mountains, whose power the sua proclaims, with the distant I.] THE FED AS. 25 liver — He whose these regions are, as it were, His two arms ; — "Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice ? " 5. He through whom the sky is bright and the earth firm — He through whom the heaven w T as stab- lished — nay, the highest heaven — He who measured out the light in the air ; — " Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice ? " 6. He to whom heaven and earth, standing firm by His will, look up trembling inwardly — He over whom the rising sun shines forth ; — " Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice ? " 7. Wherever the mighty water-clouds went, where they placed the seed and lit the fire, thence arose He who is the only life of the bright gods • — " Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice ? " 8. He who by His might looked even over the water-clouds, the clouds which gave strength and lit the sacrifice, He who is God above all gods;— " Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice ? " 9. May He not destroy us — He the Creator of 26 EARL Y SA CRED FOE TR Y. [lect. the earth ; or He the righteous, who created the heaven ; He who also created the bright and mighty waters ; — " Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice ? There was the question, the misgiving : but where was the answer? Instead of the one only answer, firmly given and never let go, there were the multi- plied, hesitating, varying alternatives, in which the true answer was but one among many, and the one finally abandoned. " They call him Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Agni, the Light, the Sun, the Sky, the Fire ; that which is One, the wise call it many ways." Just that which He was, separate from all things, and above all things, beyond compare, unique, alone, — if they confessed it one moment, the next they had lost it. They looked — we are told apologetically — they saw, they thought, they spoke, as children ; it was the childhood of the world, and the childhood of religion, seeking as it could by inadequate instruments to give body to impressions themselves imperfect. " The spirit was willing, but the language weak. It was a first attempt at defining the indefinite impression of deity by a name that should approximately or meta- phorically render at least one of its most prominent features " — infinity, brightness, awfulness, beneficence. 11 And this is not all. The very imperfection of all the names which had been chosen, their very inade- quacy to express the fulness and infinity of the Divine, I.] THE VEDAS. would keep up the search for new names, till at last every part of nature in which an approach to the Divine could be discovered was chosen as a name of the Omnipresent. If the presence of the Divine was perceived in the strong wind, the strong wind became its name ; if its presence was perceived in the earth- quake and the fire, the earthquake and the fire became its names." It was the "infantile prattle " of that early world on the deepest of all subjects. Thus, in eloquent pages, does a great scholar plead for " charitable interpretation" of this " childish" faith. But we must not confound the manner of expression with the substance of the thing expressed. The man- ner of expression may be strange, rude, indicative of a primitive and imperfect state of thought and language : the thing itself, the idea, may be clear, distinct beyond mistake, steadily held without wavering or confusion. Doubtless, we must make allowances for all ancient language, its metaphors, its modes of expressing the unseen by the seen, the divine by the natural. But this is a question not of language, but of substance — of the central substance of an idea, upon which the whole meaning, and fate, and history of a religion depend. There is no bridging over the interval be- tween the one Supreme, Almighty, Most J Holy God, and any idea of divinity or of divine powers, many or few, which comes short of it. The belief is there, or it is not ; and if it is there, no weakness or imperfections, of language will stand in the way of its expression. Language which belongs to a very 28 EARL Y SA CRED POE TR Y. [lec t. early period of the world's history did not prevent the thought of the one living God, " I am that I am," from being grasped and held fast by another Asiatic people, did not for a moment cloud or per- plex it — that thought which the poets of the Veda just saw, without recognizing its value, its final and supreme truth. The analogy of childish thought and speech applied to periods of human history is partly just, but partly misleading. The Aryan singers in Central Asia or by the rivers of the Punjab were in mind and mental outfit at least as much men as the Hebrews ; the Hebrews in the imperfection and immaturity of lan- guage and intellect, just as much children as their Aryan contemporaries. But the Hebrews, limited as they might be in speech, had and kept the one ade- quate idea of God ; no imagery about voice, and hands, and mouth, and countenance, for a moment obscured or disguised it. The Vedic poets, with all the genius and enthusiasm of which we seem to dis- cern the traces, missed the way. They lost the great central truth, of which from time to time they seem to have had glimpses. They took the wrong turn in the eventful road along which their people and their religion were to travel. Their poetic names were con- densed, dulled, petrified, debased into the increasingly grotesque and evil idolatry of Brahmanism, from which there was no return, no recovery, except in the mourn- ful reform of Buddha, which swept away ancient idols by extinguishing the idea of God. The religion of I.] THE VEDAS. 29 the Vedas could not save itself or India : whatever may have been its beginnings, it led by irresistible steps to what Bunsen calls the "great tragedy of India and of humanity," and to the " tragic catastrophe" which saw in annihilation the only refuge, the single hope of man ; which raised the great Oriental faculty of resignation to the power of absolute, universal, passionless despair. I will pass from the object of faith and worship in these hymns to their moral views. What do they show of the relations of man to God, and to the law of right and wrong? We find in them un- questionably the idea of righteousness and sin ; we find, also, less distinctly, the idea of a life after death. " The keynote of all religion, we are assured, natural as well as revealed, is present in the hymns of the Veda, and is never completely drowned by the strange music which generally deafens our ears, when we first listen to the wild echoes of the heathen worship." Doubtless it is "a mistake to deny the presence of moral truths in the so-called nature worship of the Aryans." But it is also true, and very observable, that the expressions of these moral ideas occupy but a very small space, com- pared with the prolonged and sometimes gorgeous descriptions of natural phenomena, uttered with enthusiasm in praise of the Being whom the poem celebrates. And further, the moral ideas them- selves are rudimentary, general, vague, to the last degree. 30 EARL Y SA CKED FOE TRY. ■ [ LEC1\ The value of moral terms must depend on what is involved in them, on the standard that governs them, on the power of conscience, on the earnestness of will and purpose, which they presuppose. Children divide the world easily into good people and bad people : such divisions do not tell us much of the characters or the qualities thus rudely classified. And though in these ancient hymns sin is confessed and its consequences deprecated, though they praise the righteous and denounce the deceitful and the wicked, there is but little to show what was the sin, and what con- stituted the righteousness. Of that moral convic- tion, that moral enthusiasm for goodness and justice, that moral hatred of wrong and evil, that zeal for righteousness, that anguish of penitence, which has elsewhere marked religious poetry, there is singularly little trace. Here is a hymn addressed to Varuna, " the Greek obpai'og, an ancient name of the sky and of the god who resides in the sky " : — " Let me not yet, O Varuna, enter into the house of clay \ have mercy, Almighty, have mercy. " If I go trembling, like a cloud driven by the wind ; have mercy, Almighty, have mercy. " Through want of strength, thou strong and high God, I have gone on the wrong shore ; have mercy, Almighty, have mercy. " Thirst came upon the worshipper, though he stood in the midst of the waters j have mercy, Almighty, have mercy. I.] THE VEDAS. 31 " Whenever we men, O Varuna, commit an offence before the heavenly host ; whenever we break Thy law through thoughtlessness ; have mercy, Almighty, have mercy." I will take as another example a hymn specially commended to our notice by men who from know- ledge and learning are most competent to do so. " The presence," says Bunsen, "of a moral and spiritual apprehension of God is most vividly brought out in Vasishta's magnificent hymn to Varuna, which will even remind our readers of the 51st Psalm." Let me read it. The hymn is a striking one. But I think that you will say, when you hear it, that only un- conscious prepossession could blind a sagacious and religious mind to the immeasurable interval between it and such a Psalm as the 51st. Here is Mr. Max Miiller's translation of the hymn : — "Wise and mighty are the works of Him who stemmed asunder the wide firmaments. He lifted on high the bright and glorious heavens : he stretched out apart the starry sky and the earth. "Do I say this to my own self? How can I get near to Varuna? Will he accept my offering without displeasure? When shall I, with quiet mind, see him propitiated ? " I ask Varuna, wishing to know this my sin : I go to ask the wise. The wise all tell me the same : Varuna it is who is angry with thee. " Was it for an old sin, O Varuna, that thou 32 EARL V SA CRED ROE TR Y. [lect. wishest to destroy thy friend, who always praises thee? Tell me, thou unconquerable Lord, and I will quickly turn to Thee with praise, freed from sin. " Absolve us from the sins of our fathers, and from those which we have committed with our own bodies. ... It was not our own doing, O Varuna, it was a slip ; an intoxicating draught, passion, vice, thoughtlessness. The old is there to mislead the young ; even sleep is not free from mischief. " Let me without sin give satisfaction to the angry God, like a slave to his bounteous lord. The Lord God enlighteneth the foolish \ He, the Most Wise, leads his worshippers to wealth. " O Lord Varuna, may this song go well to thine heart ! May we prosper m keeping and acquiring. Protect us, O God, always with your blessings." I have dwelt upon what seem to me the most impressive features of this ancient religious poetry of India. There is much besides, which to us, after the utmost allowances made for immense differences of time and thought, for "mental parallax," must appear unintelligible, grotesque, repulsive. But I wanted here to do justice to the higher and better side of it. And I have confined myself to this Vedic poetry, partly because my space is limited, and next because this poetry is, on the whole, the most remarkable of what the stage of the heathen world has left us. In no others that I am acquainted with does the i.] THE VEDAS. 33 poetical element hold so large a place. I could refer no doubt, to wonderful passages — wonderful both in their religious feeling and their moral earnestness and depth, from the lyric and tragic poetry of Greece, and even from its epic poetry ; but this is the poetry, not of an early stage of human society and thought, but of a very advanced and mature one ; and I am concerned only with the earliest. Fragments have come down to us from the old religions of China ; but they are rather moral reflections, or simply prayers, than what we call hymns. The Buddhist books, again, as many of you last year heard in a singularly interest- ing historical survey of Buddhism given from this place, are full of thoughts and words that astonish us, by the awful sense of duty, the moral insight and power which they express, and by the tremendous daring with which Buddhism faced the vanity and evil of the world, and met it with the completeness of religious despair. But I do not see that these passages can be called hymns. In the Zendavesta, on the other hand, the ancient book of the disciples of Zoroaster, the teacher and prophet of Persia, who is described like Elijah, calling on his King and people to choose for good between truth and falsehood, there have been deciphered what from their form and manner of expression may be better termed hymns. In these compositions we come upon a moral force and purpose which is but little apparent in the hymns of the Veda. The religion of Zoroaster is regarded as a reaction against that of the c 34 EARL Y SA CRED FOE TR Y. [lect. Vedas, and there is a seriousness about its language which is very significant. The hymns — they are but few and hard to interpret — attributed to Zoroaster are marked by a solemn earnestness, an awe-struck sense of the deep issues of right and wrong, which contrasts with the delight in nature, the vivid imagina- tiveness, the playful fancy of the Ved ; c poems. There is a profound reverence for an All-wise and Living God : there is a terrible consciousness of the conflict going on between good and evil, and of the power of both. Under the pressure of that consciousness, Zoroaster took refuge in that fatal theory which was to develop in a f ter ages into such portentous and obstinate mischiefs ; the theory of two eternal and co-ordinate principles. He believed in an eternal God of Goodness ; but he taught also, uncreated and everlasting, a co-equal "Twin" Principle and Power of Evil. He taught men to take their side with truth a^d right in the great battle; he taught them to trust to the God of Goodness, and to nourish a high con- fidence that the victory must be His. But at the bottom of his religion was the poison-root of a Dual Divinity ; o f a divided idea, framed of moral oppo- sites, of the divine government of the world, and of the law which ruled it. It is not surprising that these mysterious utterances, breaking on us by surprise from the dawn of time, should have awakened a very deep interest. They seemed to require us to revise our judgments and widen our thoughts, about what we vaguely call i.) THE FED AS. 35 heathen religion. It was obvious that, even if they were the words of those " who worshipped what they knew not," and worshipped under divers names and forms, still there was the greatest difference between their ideas of the Divine, and the mythology of Brahma. Vishnu, and Siva ; between their hymns to the Storm Gods and the Sky, and the Homeric mythology and hymns to Apollo and Aphrodite — the mythology of any of the countries or ages by which we commonly know heathenism. These utterances have been read to mean, not a worship of nature or natural objects, but of God, un- known but yet iv / i< lively and irresistibly believed in, behind the veil of Nature. They have been pointed to as consoling proofs that there was more religion in the world than we knew of, even if it was but a religion of children : " praise from the weak lips of babes and sucklings," who knew not the great- ness of which they spoke. They rebuke us at once, and they encourage us, by showing that heathenism, so multitudinous and so ancient, was not all the base superstition and wild idolatry which it seemed ; but under it, as under a true dispensation, the Gentiles had much that was needful, perhaps as much as was possible ; that they had deeper thoughts in reality and more earnest longings after their hidden yet present Father than we knew before, and drew nigh to Him, if not yet to see behind the veil, yet at least to show that in wish and intention they sought to know and honour Him. c 1 36 EARL V SA CRED FOE TR Y. [lect. I for my part am only too glad to believe all that can be shown of what is unexpectedly noble and hope- ful in these ancient remains. Prophets and Apostles, face to face with the gross darkness of idolatry, appeal beyond it to man's deeper faith in God ; and here we have marks of it. If that was all, we are but acknowledging what they have taught us. But there is besides this a dis- position to place these remains on a level with what Christians consider as the authenticated re- cords of God's inspiring guidance, to merge in one common category, differing endlessly in degree, but at bottom and essentially the same in kind, at least in origin and authority, the words, the documents, the ideas of all religions. But if there is one rule to be kept in view in the pursuit of truth it is this : that differences are as important as points of likeness, and that we must never give way to tempting and se- ductive analogies till we have thoroughly investigated the perhaps obscure and intractable distinctions which so inconveniently interfere with our generali- zations. Are there any such differences, do any such broad and undeniable distinctions present themselves be- tween these earliest utterances of heathen religion and the early religious poetry of the Old Testament as to make it impossible to confound the one with the other, as expressions of religious thought and faith and trust ? Surely the differences are obvious and enormous. There are two things, which, apart from !.] THE VEDAS. 37 their substance, deprive these Indian and Persian hymns of the value which is sometimes put upon them. 1. They are and have been for ages dead relics. No one pretends that they are now used as they were when they were composed, and as a living part of worship. Those who actually felt and meant them in their real sense have passed away long ago ; and " then all their thoughts perished." The poems have been enshrined as sacred foundations and originals in systems unsympathetic and at variance with them ; and the life that is in them is drawn out by antiquarian and philosophic labour in the West, and has long ceased to breathe in the worship of the East. 2. Whatever these religions were at first, and I am quite ready to see in them "grains of truth," — to believe that there were in them often honest, earnest attempts to " feel after" and win " Him who is not far from any one of us " — they all have a common and an unvarying history. They end in hopeless and ignoble decay. Their singers sought Him, it may be ; but it was in fein. In all cases, among all races, it is only at t^eir first beginning that their words command our reverence. In all instances, in all races, Aryan, Semitic, Tura- nian, as far as we see, the original religion, or the re- ligious reform, failed, dwindled, passed into a formal and pedantic ceremonial — passed into coarser and yet coarser forms of undisguised idolatry, monstrous, 38 EARL V SA CRED POETR Y. [lec r. impure, or cruel. In the stir and changes of life from generation to generation, the old spirit could not hold its own ; new necessities, new appearances, new feelings clamorously exacted a place for new creations of the restless mind, new ventures of worship, new ways of dealing with the problems of the world. In the uncertainty of decaying traditions and altering points of view, the process of interpretation hardened into a prosaic literalness and formality the play of imagina- tion, the enthusiasms, the raptures, the sportive audaci- ties of fresher and simpler times. " Who is the God to whom we shall offer sacrifice ? " was the refrain of the early Vedic Hymn : the ingenuity of Brahman commentators turned the interrogative pronoun into the name of a god, and the interrogative sentence into a command to sacrifice to a god whose proper name was " W Vio." It is impossible, it seems to me, to overlook, to over-estimate the contrast. There is a collection of sacred poetry, not so old, it may be, certainly not in parts, as the Vedic arfd Zend hymns, but belonging to very early times-belonging certain 1 }' to what we now call the childhoocT of fhe race.' -The Vedic hymns are dead remains, known fn their real spirit and meaning to a few students. The Psalms are as living as when they were written ; and they have never ceased to be, what we may be quite certain they have been to- i/(?v, this very day which is just ending, to hundreds and thousands of the most earnest of souls now alive. They were composed in an age at least as im- I.] THE VEDAS. 39 mature as that of the singers of the Veda ; but they are now what they have been for thirty centuries, the very life of spiritual religion — they suit the needs, they express, as nothing else can express, the deepest religious ideas of "the foremost in the files of time." The Vedic hymns, whatever they have meant origi- nally, stand at the head of a history not yet over — and never once broken, except by atheism — of irre- trievable idolatry. The Psalms too, stand, in a very important sense, at the head of a great religious history, as the first great outburst of the religious affections and emotions in the people of Israel. But what they once proclaimed, as the truth of truths, about God and righteousness, that they kept alive, unquenched, unmis- taken, undoubted to this hour. The Jewish religion, of which they were the soul and the guardian, passed through as many disasters, as many dangers, as any other. Its tendencies to degenerate were as obstinate ; none ever sunk at last under a more tremendous catastrophe. But the faith which was at its heart never was utterly lost in the darkest days and the foulest apostasies. It went on from one step to another, of higher thought and clearer light. It had risen from the Law to the Psalms ; it went on from the Psalms to the Prophet, from the Prophets to the Gospel. And the Psalms, which had expressed, in so many strains and in so many keys, the one unwavering belief of the people of Israel, — that belief which 4 o EARL Y SA CRED FOE TR V. [lect. neither idolatry, nor its punishment, the captivity, nor the scepticism of Sadducees, nor the blindness of Pharisees, had impaired or shaken,— passed on, un- changed but transfigured, to be the perpetual language of the highest truth, of the deepest devotion, in the Christian Church, LECTURE II. THE PSALMS. LECTURE II. THE PSALMS. There is one book of sacred poetry which is unique oi its kind, which has nothing like it or second to it. It expresses the ideas and the feelings of a religion of which the central and absorbing object of faith is One who is believed to be the absolute, universal, Living God, the one God of the world and all things, Almighty, All-Holy, Supreme. It not only expresses this religion, but, as a matter of fact, it has been one of the most certain means of maintaining unbroken the tradition and fullest conviction of it. From age to age this book has been its companion and its minister. And there is this to be observed about it. It has been equally and in equal measure the prayer-book of public and common worship, and the chosen treasury of medita- tion, guidance, comfort to the individual soul. To each of these two purposes, in many respects widely different, it has lent itself with equal suitableness ; and it has been to men of the most widely different times and ideas what no other book has been. Whenever the Book of Psalms began to be put together, and 44 EARL Y SA CRED ROE TR Y. [lect. whenever it was completed, from that time in the history of the world, the religious affections and the religious emotions, the object of which was the One Living God of all, found their final, their deepest, their unsurpassed expression. From that time to this there never has been a momentary pause, when somewhere or other the praises of His glory and the prayers of His worshippers have not been rehearsed in its words. There are other collections of ancient religious poetry, venerable for their age, for which our interest and respect are bespoken. In the preceding lecture I glanced at two examples of them, the primitive utter- ances of two great religions of Asia — the Indian hymns of the Veda, the Persian hymns of the Zendavesta. Separated as we are from these by great chasms of time and still greater differences of ideas, we have been taught, rightly I think, to see in them the words of men " feeling after " Him whom they could not see but could not help believing, and expressing, as best they could, their thoughts of his footsteps and his tokens. But put at the highest what they were in religious significance to their own age, they were so to their own age alone. They were the seeds of no spiritual truth to the ages after them or to mankind ; whatever there was of it in them, though they were themselves preserved with jealous reverence, was overlaid and perished. There were, I am ready to believe, in the ancient world many attempts to know God, to learn His mind, to rest under His shadow, to lay hold on His hope. There was only one which as a religion attained its end; only one ii.] THE PSALMS. 45 acknowledged by God, by the blessing of vitality and fruitfulness. Compared with the Psalms of that religion which was going on, side by side with them, in a little corner of the world, the preparation for the " fulness of time " — these remains of early heathen religion are like the appearance of the illuminated but dead surface of the moon, with its burnt-out and extinct volcanoes, contrasted with the abounding light and splendour of the unexhausted sun, still, age after age, the source of life and warmth and joy to the world, still waking up new energies and developing new wonders. We find in these hymns a high imaginative sense of divine power and goodness to man • an acknowledg- ment of human weakness and dependence ; a sense of sin and wrong-doing, childish and vague, yet sincere, and leading men to throw themselves on Divine com- passion for forgiveness ; — and a growing sense, more observable in the Zend hymns ascribed to Zoroaster than in the songs of the Veda, of the greatness of the moral law, of truth, of righteousness, of duty. But that of which, as it seems to me, we do not find the faintest trace, is the meeting and, so to speak, the contact of the spirit of man with the God whom he worships and celebrates. The position of the wor- shipper and the singer is absolutely an external one \ and he thinks of no other. He gazes up with wonder and it may be hope at the Sky, the Sun, the Fire, the Storm ) he invokes That of which they are the garment, the manifestation or the disguise ; he urges the fulfil- 46 EARLY SACRED POETRY. [lect. ment of the Divine moral rule of right and wrong ; he loses sometimes the thought of power shown in the fire or in the sky, in the deeper and all-embracing thought of the Father in heaven. But to approach Him with the full affections of a human soul — to draw nigh in communion with Him, heart to heart — to rejoice in Him, to delight in Him, to love Him — all these inward movements of the unseen spirit of man to the one unseen source and centre of all good ; — this, as far as my knowledge goes, is an unknown experience, an undiscovered sphere, to the poets of the Veda or the Zendavesta. When in later times Nature ceased to satisfy, and the riddles of the world became importunate and overwhelming in their hope- lessness, the religious feeling which worshipped God, hidden and veiled in nature, could not endure the strain : it passed away, and the refuge was Pantheism or Annihilation. To pass from the Veda to the Psalms is to pass at one bound from poetry, heightened certainly by a religious sentiment, to religion itself, in its most serious mood and most absorbing form ; tasking, indeed, all that poetry can furnish to meet its imperious and diversified demands for an instrument of expression j but in its essence far beyond poetry. It is passing at one bound from ideas, at best vague, wavering, uncertain of themselves, to the highest ideas which can be formed by the profoundest and most cultivated reason, about God and the soul, its law, its end, its good. ii.] THE PSALMS. 47 The contrast is absolute as to the object of worship. I am ready to see in the early Indian hymns some- thing very different from the idolatry and the Pan- theism of later times — a genuine feeling after the Unseen and the Almighty Father, a glimpse caught from time to time of His glory, an awful belief, not unnatural though mistaken, that He, a God that hideth Himself, was in the wind, and in the fire, and in the storm, rather than in the still small voice. But the best that can be said is that " they did not know what they worshipped." They failed to seize firmly the central truth, without which religion cannot live : if ever they saw it, it fi ded immediately; it melted away into endless changes. What a gap between that and the steady, clear, unwavering thought of the Psalms : — He, and He only, the One Living God, from first to last the burden and the worship of each successive Psalm — He and He only, addressed with- out doubt, confounded with nothing else, invoked without misgiving or possibility of the thought of another : He, the foundation and maker and hope of all things, recognized in His glorious works, yet never for a moment identified with them ; worshipped without fear under various names, spoken of without fear in His mighty doings in such phrases as human language in its weakness could supply, surrounded without fear in thought by powers awful in their unseen and un- known greatness to human imagination — " God stand- ing as a Judge among gods " — without fear, I say, because there was no risk of the supreme, central 48 EA RL Y SA CRED POE TR Y. [lect. immoveable idea of the Godhead being disturbed or impaired — the Lord of Hosts, the God of .Gods, the King of Glory. This one marvellous belief (assump- tion, tradition, revelation, according to our point of view) runs through the Psalms, clearly, naturally, with the freedom and steady force of the stream of a great river; do those who are for putting all ancient religious poetry on the same general level take in the significance of this characteristic of the Psalms ? The first volume of Mr. Max Midlers translation of the Rig- Veda is composed of Hymns to the Storm - Gods, or the Winds, awful in their might and terror, and yet the givers of rain and fruitfulness. Under this aspect, veiled under these natural wonders, the Infinite, it is slrpposed, was worshipped. The fre- quent power and beauty of these songs, in the midst of passages to us unintelligible and grotesque, is undeniable. The Storm-Gods are invoked along with Tndra, "Him who created light when there was no light, and form when there was no form, and who was born together with the dawns : " along with Agni, the Fire-God, whose might no god or mortal with- stands. They are the " wild ones who sing their song, unconquerable by might," companions of those " who in heaven are enthroned as gods, who toss the clouds across the surging sea." They are pictured as an " exulting and sportive host," riding in their chariots, with swift steeds, with their spears and bright ornaments, driving furiously, rejoicing in their fierce career, darkening the earth under the storm- II.] THE PSALMS. 49 cloud, dealing the thunderbolt and the abundance of rain : — " I hear their whips (the thunder peals), almost close by, as they crack them in their hands \ they gain splendour on their way. " Who is the oldest among you here, ye shakers of heaven and earth, when ye shake them like the hem of a garment ? " At your approach the son of man holds himself down ; the wreathed cloud fled at your fierce anger. .... They at whose racings the earth, like a hoary King, trembles for fear on their ways. "From the shout of the Storm-Gods ever the whole space of the earth men reeled forward. "They make the rocks to tremble, they tear asunder the trees of the forest. Come on, ye Storm-Gods, like madmen, ye gods with your whole tribe." And their blessings are invoked, their anger depre- cated ; wielders of the lightning, they are besought to aim their bolts at the enemy and the wicked : — " What now, then ? When will you take us as a dear father takes his son by both hands ? Whither now? On what errand of yours are you going in heaven, not on earth; where are your newest favours, O ye Storm-Gods \ where the blessings ? Where all the delights? "Let not one sin after another, difficult to be 5o EARLY SACRED POETRY. [lect. conquered, overcome us : let it depart, together with evil desire Give to the worshippers strength, glorious, invincible in battle, brilliant, wealth-giving, known to all men. Grant unto us wealth, durable, rich in men, defying all onslaughts — wealth, a hundred and a thousand-fold, ever in- creasing. . . . I add an extract given by Mr. Max Miiller from the Zendavesta ; — " I ask thee, tell me the truth, O Ahura (the Living One) ! who was from the beginning the father of the pure world ? Who made a path for the sun and for the stars? Who but thou makest the moon to increase and decrease ! That, O Mazda (the Wise), and other things, I wish to know. " I ask thee, tell me the truth, O Ahura ! Who holds the earth and the clouds that they do n@t fall ? Who holds the sea and the trees ? Who has given swiftness to the wind and the clouds ? Who is the creator of the good spirit ? "I ask thee, tell me the truth, O Ahura! Who has made the kindly light and the darkness ? Who has made the kindly light and the awaking ? Who has made the mornings, the noons, and the nights, they who remind the wise of his duty ? " The Psalms are full of the glory of God in the " heaven and earth and sea and all that is therein." Their writers are not insensible to those wonders, so II.] THE PSALMS. 51 familiar, yet so amazing, which woke up a "fearful joy " in the singers of the far East : — "The day is Thine, and the night is Thine; Thou hast prepared the light and the sun. " The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handy-work. One day telleth another, and one night certifieth another .... Their sound is gone out into all lands-, and their words to the ends of the world. " Thou hast set all the borders of the earth. Thou hast made summer and winter. Who covereth the heaven with clouds, and prepareth rain for the earth ; and maketh the grass to grow upon the mountains, and herb for the use of men. " Praise the Lord upon earth, ye dragons and all deeps : fire and hail, snow and vapour, wind and storm, fulfilling His word." But there is one Psalm where the awful might and grandeur of the storm fills the writer's mind, the Psalm, as it has been called, of the " Seven Thunders ; " of the seven times repeated " Voices of God," over the sea and the mountains, the forest and the wilder- ness, as the storm travels onward ; " beginning with Gloria in Excelsis and ending with In t err is Pax " — the 29th : — " Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, give unto the Lord glory and strength. " Give the Lord the honour due unto His name ; worship the Lord with holy worship. d 2 5 2 EARL Y SA CRED FOE TR Y. [htcr. " The voice of the Lord is upon the waters ; it is the glorious God that maketh the thunder. " The voice of the Lord is upon many waters. " The voice of the Lord is mighty in operation. " The voice of the Lord is a glorious voice. " The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedar trees ; yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Libanus. "He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Libanus also and Sirion like a young unicorn. "The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness ; yea, the Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kades. " The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve, and discovereth the forests ; in His temple doth every one speak of His glory. "The Lord sitteth above the waterflood ; the Lord remaineth a King for ever. " The Lord shall give strength unto His people ; the Lord shall give His people the blessing of peace." Am I not justified in saying that, in passing from the hymns of the Veda to the Psalms, we pass from poetry to serious and grave religion ? And yet it is in the fresh and bold expression of an indefinite religious sentiment, of indefinite yet real religious awe and delight and admiration in the presence of the glories and wonders of nature, an expression not troubling itself about logical con- sistency, and not yet stiffened and cramped by the II.] THE PSALMS. 53 rules and forms of definite superstitions, that the charm and interest of the Vedic hymns chiefly con- sist. If the contrast is great between them and the Psalms, in respect to the way in which each sees God in Nature, it is immeasurably greater between what each understood by religion, both as regards God and as regards man ; in what each thought of God, in what each desired of Him and trusted Him for ; in what each thought of man's relation to God, of the meaning and the law of man's life, of man's capacities, of his sin, his hope, his blessedness. The following is not from the Rig-Veda, but from the Zendavesta, in which a moral earnestness is more observable. It is part of what is supposed to be a hymn of Zoroaster. I give it in Mr. Max Miiller's translation : — " 1. Now I shall proclaim to all who have come to listen, the praises of Thee, the all-wise Lord, and the hymns of Yohumano (the good spirit). Wise Asha ! I ask that (thy) grace may appear in the lights of heaven. "2. Hear with your ears what is best, perceive with your minds what is pure, so that every man may for himself choose his tenets before the great doom ! May the wise be on our side ! "3. Those old Spirits who are twins, made known what is good and what is evil in thoughts, words, and deeds. Those who are good distinguished between the two, not those who are evil-doers. 54 EARLY SACRED POETRY. [lect. u 4. When these two Spirits came together, they made first life and death, so that there should be at last the most wretched life for the bad, but for the good blessedness. " 5. Of these two Spirits the evil one chose the worst deeds ; the kind Spirit, he whose garment is the immovable sky, chose what is right ; and they also who faithfully please Ahuramazda by good works. " 6. Those who worshipped the Devas and were deceived, did not rightly distinguish between the two j those who had chosen the worst Spirit came to hold counsel together, and ran to Aeshma in order to afflict the life of man. " 7. And to him (the good) came might, and with wisdom virtue ; and the everlasting Armaiti herself made his body vigorous ; it fell to thee to be rich by her gifts. " 8, But when the punishment of their crimes will come, and, oh Mazda, thy power will be known as the reward of piety for those who delivered (Druj) falsehood into the hand of Asha (truth), "9. Let us then be of $jTose who further this world; oh Ahuramazda, ofr 1)1 iss-conferring Asha! Let our mind be there where wisdom abides. u 10. Then indeed there will be the foil of the pernicious Druj, but in the beautiful abode of Vohumano, of Mazda, and Asha, will be gathered for ever those who dwell in good report. "11. Oh men, if you cling to these command- ii.] THE PSALMS, merits, which Mazda has given, .... which are a torment to the wicked, and a blessing to the righteous, then there will be victory through them." Beyond this these hymns do not go ; above this they do not lise. Compare with their meagreness on these points, the fulness of the Psalms : compare these hesitating though deeply touching essays at religion, halting in the outer courts of the Temple, with the majestic and strong confidence of the Psalms, leading the soul through the manifold experiences of the spiritual life to the inmost shrines. Compare the idea of God. He is not only the One, and the Everlasting, and the Most Highest, the living God, but He has what in default of a fitter phrase we call a character. He is not only the Maker, the wonder worker of the world ; He is its Holy Ruler and King ; " its righteous Judge, strong and patient," " set in the throne that judgest right ;" the Hand that feeds all its creatures ; the Eye that watches all its revolutions, and pierces to all its lowliest corners ; its Joy, its Hope, its Refuge. He is " the God of Truth," " the God that hath no pleasure in wickedness, neither shall any evil dwell with Him." He is the " Lord that hath never failed them that seek Him." He is the " Helper of the friendless," "the Father of the fatherless," "the Hearer of the complaint and the desire of the poor ;" He is "the God that maketh men to be of one mind m an house." "Who is like to Him, who hath His dwelling so high, and yet humbleth Himself to behold 56 EA RL Y SA CRED FOE TR Y [lect. the things in heaven and earth ? " And so, from end to end of the Psalms, we have the clear, varied, unstudied recognition of a moral character. In the certainty and consciousness of this most holy sove- reignty, the trust and joy of the Psalmists are without restraint. The enthusiasm and imagination of the Vedic poets were kindled at the greatness of nature ; the enthusiasm and imagination of the Psalmists, not insensible to that greatness, were far more inspired by the everlasting righteousness of the Kingdom of God. " O come, let us sing unto the Lord, let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation . . . for the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In His hand are all the corners of the earth, and the strength of the hills is His also. . . . O come, let us worship and fall down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is the Lord our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand." " Thou didst cause thy judgment to be heard from heaven : the earth trembled, and was still. When God arose to judgment, and to help all the meek upon earth.'' " Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad ; let the sea make a noise, and all that therein is. Let the field be joyful and all that is in it ; then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord. For He cometh, for He cometh to judge the earth ; and with righteousness to judge the earth, and the people with His truth." II.] THE PSALMS. 57 The deep, insisting faith in God's righteousness cannot find strength enough in language for its tri- umphant conviction, and never tires of reiteration : — " The Lord is King, the earth may be glad there- of: yea, the multitude of the isles may be glad thereof. Clouds and darkness are round about Him ; righteousness and judgment are the habita- tion of His seat. The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord ; at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth."' Great as is the earth, great as is nature, its magnificence, its fearful and tremendous powers, One is still seen a King above them, to Whom they are but part of the adornment of His royalty : — " The Lord is King, and hath put on glorious apparel ; the Lord hath put on His apparel and girded Himself with strength. Ever since the world began hath Thy seat been prepared : Thou art from everlasting. The floods are risen, O Lord, the floods have lift up their voice ; the floods lift up their waves. The waves of the sea are mighty, and rage horribly \ but yet the Lord who dwelleth on high is mightier." Great, too, are the uprisings and storms of the moral world, the shock of nations, the breaking up of empires, the madness of raging peoples, the fury of 58 EARL Y SA CRED FOE TR Y. [lect. tyrants ; but — "the Lord is King, be the people never so impatient : He sitteth between the cherubim s, be the earth never so unquiet. The Lord is great in Sion, and high above all people." And it is not in power that the Psalmist finds the matchless prerogative of this kingdom — it is in power, thought of always with absolute moral goodness, power with a yet higher greatness belonging to it, the greatness of righteous- ness and holiness : — " They (all nations) shall give thanks unto Thy name, which is great, wonderful, and holy. O magnify the Lord our God, and fall down before His footstool, for He is holy." " Thy testimonies are very sure ; holiness becometh Thine house for ever." " Thou, Lord, art higher than all that are in the earth. Thou art exalted far above all gods. O ye that love the Lord, see that ye hate the thing that is evil. . . . There is sprung up light for the righteous, and joyful gladness, for such as are true- hearted. Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous, and give thanks for a remembrance of His holiness." The God of the Psalms is the gracious God of the Present, "whose mercy endureth for ever;" the God not only of Sion and His chosen people Israel, but of all the heathen, of all the nations, of all the islands of the sea and the ends of the earth : the God of the Future, from generation to generation ; the God of the future to them that love Him, their THE PSALMS. 59 certain hope and Saviour, in some unexplained way, in spite of the visible ruin and vanishing of death • the God of the future, also to the mighty, the cruel, and the proud, their certain judge and avenger. Over all human power, however irresistible, over all human pride, however beyond rebuke, over all human wrong- fulness and oppression, however unchecked, there is ever present the all-seeing God of judgment, ever beholding, ever trying the hearts and reins, ever wait- ing His time of deliverance and retribution, ever pre- paring the refuge which shall at last shelter the inno- cent, the doom which must at last smite down the proud : — " For the sin of their mouth, and for the words of their lips, they shall be taken in their pride. ' The Lord also is a defence for the oppressed, even a refuge in due time of trouble.' His eyes consider the poor, and his eyelids try the children of men. O put your trust in Him always, ye people ; pour out your hearts before Him, for God is our hope. trust not in wrong and robbery, give not yourselves unto vanity ; if riches increase, set not your heart upon them. God spake once, and twice I have also heard the same ; that power belongeth unto God. And that Thou, Lord, art merciful : for Thou rewardest every man according to his work." 1 say nothing here of the prophetic element in the Psalms. It is most characteristic — the way in which they look onward, the way in which they dare to be 60 EARL Y SA CRED FOE TR K [lect. prophetic — to tell of one, in whom, through suffering and through glory, the world should find its redemp- tion and its peace — " Desire of me, and I shall give the heathen for thine inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession.*' It is characteristic, unique. But I do not dwell on it here. What I wish to point out is, that all that what is called natural religion, even in its highest speculation, has concluded, of the power, the justice, the goodness of God, is found, clothed with life and recognized in actual deed, with joy and love, in the Psalms, centuries before natural religion was heard of. The Psalm of Creation (civ.) sets forth the magnificence of His bounty over all His works, from the light with which He " decks Himself as with a garment," to the rivers running among the hills, from which the wild asses quench their thirst, the grass for the cattle, and the green herb for the service of men, the wine that maketh glad, the bread that strengtheneth his heart, the lions roar- ing after their prey, man going forth to his work and his labour till the evening, the great and wide sea also, with its creatures great and small innumerable, "the ships, and that leviathan" whom Thou hast made "to play and take his pastime there." The Psalm of Mercy (ciii.) — mercy, as high as the heaven is in comparison with the earth, forgiveness, putting away sins as far as the west is from the east, — sets forth His dispensations of compassion and remedy, — forgiving all our sins, healing all our infirmities, satisfy- ing our mouth with good things, making us young and THE PSALMS. 61 lusty as an eagle, executing righteousness and judg- ment for all them that are oppressed with wrong, long- suffering, and of great goodness — " Like as a father pitieth his own children, even so is the Lord merciful to them that fear Him." I will only call attention to one other feature of these expressions of awful joy and exultation at feeling encompassed by the mercy and perfect righteousness of God ; and that is the way in which, as in the 65th Psalm, the thought of His power and His overflowing bounty in Nature — " Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to praise Thee — Thou visitest the earth and blessest it — Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness — the valleys laugh and sing" — how this is entwined and enwreathed with the thought of His moral empire, providing for the cravings, overruling the turmoil, of the world of souls : — " Thou that hearest the prayer, to Thee shall all flesh come. Thou shalt show us wonderful things in Thy righteousness, O God of our salvation ; Thou that art the hope of all the ends of the earth and of them that remain in the broad sea. . . . Who stilleth the raging of the sea, and the noise of His waves, and the madness of the people." Or, again, as in the 147th Psalm, the supreme won- ders of the universe are strung and linked together in successive verses with His sympathy for the daily sorrows of mankind. " He healeth those that are broken in heart, and giveth medicine to heal their 62 EA RL Y SA CRED FOE TR Y. [lect. sickness. He telleth the number of the stars, and calleth all by their names." Compare again in the Psalms their idea of man ; there is nothing even approaching to it in that early religious poetry which is sometimes classed along with them. Take, for instance, the view which pervades them of the unity of mankind. The horizon of the Vedic hymns, e.g., is confined to the worshipper who sings them. The Psalms, the songs of that chosen people which God "led like sheep by the hand of Moses and Aaron," and expressing in every form the glory and the blessing involved in that wondrous election — " In Jewry is God known, His name is great in Israel, at Salem is His tabernacle, and His dwelling in Sion" — yet claim as the subjects of their King, and the sharers in their worship, every nation, every family of mankind. No feature is more striking in the Psalms than the unquestioning and natural directness with which they embrace the heathen, the nations, as equally included with Israel, in the purposes and the Kingdom of God. The question asked by the Apostle in a degenerate age of Judaism, " Is He the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles?" was never a question to the writers of the Psalms, even under the bitterness of heathen oppression, even under the keenest sense of the prerogative of God's people, whether in triumph or in punishment. There is no lack of sorrowful sighing to the God of Israel against the heathen that "do not know Him"— no lack of the stern joy of victory and vengeance, when the day ii.] THE PSALMS. 63 of the heathen came. But this does not interfere with the primary belief that the whole human race belongs to God now, and has to do with Him now; that it is destined for Him more completely hereafter. " He Who is praised in Sion is also the hope of all the ends of the earth, and of them that remain in the broad sea " :— " I will give thanks unto Thee, O Lord, among the people ; I will sing praises unto Thee, among the nations." " The Lord's name is praised from the rising up of the sun unto the going down thereof. The Lord is high above all nations, and His glory above the heavens." " All nations which Thou hast made shall come and worship Thee, O Lord, and shall glorify Thy name." " God reigneth over the heathen. God sitteth upon His holy seat. The princes of the people are joined unto the people of the God of Abraham. God is very high exalted ; all the shields of the earth are His." And with this universal idea of human nature and its relation to God, there is joined an equally charac- teristic view of its depths and heights, of its greatness, of its vanity. Nothing is more easy than to take a high view of it, alo?ie, or a low view, alone : there are facts and appearances in abundance to account for and justify either. But the view of the Psalms com- bines them ; man's littleness and insignificance, in relation to the immense universe about him, and .to its infinite and everlasting God ; man's littleness in 64 EARL Y SA CRED FOE TR Y. [lect. his relation to time, to his own short passage between its vast before and after, his feebleness, his misery, his sin : — on the other side, man's greatness, as the con- summate work of God's hands, thought worthy of his care, his choice, his provident and watchful regard ; man's greatness and responsibility, as capable of knowing God and loving Plim, of winning his bless- ing and perishing under his judgment : man's great- ness even as a sinner able to sink so low, and yet to rise by repentance out of the deepest degradation and most hopeless ruin. The riddle of man's existence could be no unfamiliar subject, wherever men reflected at all : it certainly was not in India, in China, in Greece. Those deep and awful strains of the 88th and 90th Psalms have their counterpart in the profound despair of the sacred books of Buddhism, in the solemn, measured truth, in the plaintive per- plexities of the choruses of Greek tragedy. But they painted it to the life, and there they stopped short. The Psalms confessed it and laid it up in the bosom of God, confident, rejoicing that though they saw not yet the light, "all would at last be well." And then think of the high moral ideal of what they look for in those whom God approves ; the hunger and thirst after righteousness which they reveal : — " ' Lord, who shall dwell in Thy Tabernacle, and who shall rest upon Thy holy hill ? Even he that leadeth an uncorrupt life, and doeth the thing that is right, and speaketh the truth from his heart. He n.l THE PSALMS. that hath not slandered his neighbour — he that sitteth not by himself, but is lowly in his own eyes — he that sweareth unto his neighbour and disap- pointed him not, though it be to his own hindrance.' ' Examine me, O Lord, and prove me ; try out my reins and my heart' 'Who can tell how oft he orTendeth — O cleanse thou me from my secret faults.'" Think of the boldness with which they take hold of the great depths and problems of man's existence, the triumph of evil, the oppression of the poor, the sufferings of the good : the fearless way in which these enigmas are faced, the reverent and trustful answer given to them : — • " ' Fret not thyself because of the ungodly, neither be thou envious against the evil-doers.' . . . . ■ Put thy trust in the Lord and be doing good.' .... • Commit thy way unto the Lord, and put thy trust in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. He shall make thy righteousness as clear as the light, and thy just dealing as the noonday. Hold thee still in the Lord and abide patiently on Him ; but grieve not thyself at him whose way doth prosper, against the man that doeth after evil counsels.' " Think of that high faith in the unseen Goodness, of that high desire after His love and His unseen reward, which animate the Psalms : — E 66 EARL Y SA CRED FOE TR Y. [lect. " i The Lord is my Light and my Salvation ; whom then shall I fear ? The Lord is the strength of my salvation ; of whom then shall I be afraid ? ' . . . . 1 My heart hath talked of Thee. Seek ye my face : Thy face, Lord, will I seek.' .... * O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my God, my goods are nothing unto Thee.' .... 'The Lord himself is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup.' " Where, except in the Psalms, did ancient religion think of placing the blessedness of man, whether in this life or beyond it, not in the outward good things which we know on earth, not in knowledge, not in power, but in the exercise of the affectiojis ? To take one point more. There is one feature about the Psalms which it requires an effort to dis- engage, because it is so universal in them, and has become so familiar to us, and which yet is in that age of the world peculiar to them — the assumption that pervades every one of them, the vivid sense which shows itself in every conceivable form, of the relation, the direct, close, immediate relation of the soul of man to God. To us Christians this has become the first axiom of religous truth, the first element of our reli- gious feeling : to the ancient thought of the world, God, because of His unapproachable greatness, was, to each single man, whatever he might be to the com- munity, a distant God. Who would think of pouring out his heart to the Indra of the Vedas ; who would II.] THE PSALMS. 67 dream of being athirst for the Father Zeus of Homer, or longing after the Jupiter, though styled the Best and Greatest, of later times? It never occurred to those worshippers, that besides the sacrifices and praises, besides the prayer for protection, for de- liverance, for benefits, to powers supreme but far off, and still further removed from the sympathies and the troubles of mankind, — besides these outward ways of religion, the soul could have secret yet real access, everywhere, every moment, to Infinite compassion, Infinite loving-kindness, Infinite and all-sufficing good- ness, to Whom, as into the heart of the tenderest of friends, it could pour out its distresses, before whom, as before the feet of a faithful Comforter and Guide, it could lay down the burden of its care, and commit its way. But this, I need not remind you, is the idea of religion which appears on the face of every single Psalm. It is the idea of the unfailing tenderness of God, His understanding of every honest prayer, the certainty that in the vastness and the catastrophes of the world the soul in its own singleness has a refuge, is linked at the throne of the worlds to its own reward and strength, is held by the hand, is guided by the eye, of One who cares for the weakest as much as He is greater than the greatest of His creatures. And there is no mood of mixed and varied feeling, no form of deep and yearning affection, no tone of absorb- ng emotion, in which this sense of what God is to the soul does not express itself. It allies itself to the most poignant grief, to the bitterest self-reproach and E 2 68 EA RL ) r S. I CRED POE TR Y. [lect. shame ; even a despair, which, like in the 88th Psalm, will allow itself to mention no word of hope, betrays the hope which yet lurks under it in its passionate appeals to God, in its unquenchable confidence in prayer : — " O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before Thee : O let my prayer enter into Thy presence, incline thine ear unto my calling." Sometimes it puts into words its belief — " O Thou that hearest the prayer, unto Thee shall all flesh come ; " sometimes it delights in the briefest and most emphatic word that implies it — " O God, Thou art my God, early will I seek Thee ;" "I said unto the Lord, Thou art my God, hear the voice of my prayer, O Lord." There is a fearless freedom, a kind of buoyancy and elasticity in the way in which human feeling and affection expand and unfold themselves in the Psalms, and press upwards in eager and manifold desire. They are winged with joy and inexpressible delight : or the soul brings before itself with unrelenting keen- ness how it is seen and pierced through and through, from the first instant of existence, and in depths in- accessible to itself, by the eye of wisdom and holiness which goes through the world ; or it looks up to that eye, meeting it in return and guiding it ; looks up with tender and waiting confidence — "As the eyes of a maiden to the hand of her mistress, even so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, till He have mercy upon us ; " — or, " Out of the deeps it calls to Him," "fleeing to Him for refuge," waiting for Him "more than they that watch for the morning, yea, more than 7 HE PSALMS. ' 69 they that watch for the morning; " or it refrains itself and keeps itself still, " like as a child that is weaned resteth on his mother ; " or it throws itself blindly on His mercy, in affectionate, all-surrendering trust — • " Into Thy hands I commend my spirit, for Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, Thou God of truth ; " or it rebukes itself for its impatience — " Why art thou so vexed, O my soul, and why art thou so disquieted within me ? put thy trust in God, which is the help of my countenance, and my God ; " — or, without the faintest hesitation of doubt in His marvellous loving- kindness, it makes sure of His answering sympathy, "for Thou shalt hear me; — keep me as the apple of an eye, hide me under the shadow of Thy wings ; " or it confides to Him its entreaty for a little respite as the end draws near — " O spare me a little that I may recover my strength, before I go hence and be no more seen." Or, the helpless creature, it appeals beseechingly to the Creator's mind- fulness of that which He thought it worth His while to call into being — " Thy mercy endureth for ever : despise not then the work of Thine own hands;" or it exults in the security of its retreat — " O how plenti- ful is Thy goodness which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee Thou shalt hide them privily by Thine own presence from the provoking of all men ; Thou shalt keep them secretly in Thy taber- nacle from the strife of tongues;" or it gives utter- ance to its deep longings, and finds their full satisfac- tion in the unseen object of its love— "Like as the 7 o EA RL Y SA CRED FOE TR Y. [lect. hart desireth the water-brooks, even so longeth my soul after Thee, O God. My soul is athirst for God, even for the living God : when shall I come to appear before the presence of God " — " O God, Thou art my God : early will I seek Thee ; my soul thirsteth after Thee, my flesh also longeth after Thee, in a barren and dry land where no water is For Thy loving-kindness is better than the life itself. . . , My soul shall be satisfied even as it were with marrow and fatness, when my mouth praiseth Thee with joy- ful lips. Because Thou hast been my helper, there- fore under the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice." What was there anywhere else, like this intensely human outpouring of affection, in its most diversified and purest forms, affection fastening itself with the most natural freshness and simplicity on things unseen; so exulting, yet so reverent ; so tender, yet so strong, and manly, and severe ; so frank and unconstrained in its fears and griefs and anxieties ; so alive to its weakness, yet so willing to accept the discipline of affliction, and so confident of the love behind it; so keenly and painfully sensitive to the present ravages of evil and sin and death, so joyfully hopeful, and sure of the victory of good. There is an awful yet transport- ing intuition which opens upon the Christian soul in some supreme moment of silence or of trial. " We feel " — so do they tell us, on whom that experience has come — " we feel that while the world changes, we are one and the same. We are led to understand the nothingness of things around us and we begin, by ii.] THE PSALMS. 71 degrees, to perceive that there are but two beings in the whole universe, — our own souls and the God who made us." "We rest in the thought of two, and two only, supreme and luminously self-evident beings— myself, and my Creator." We stand face to face with the certainty of our Maker's existence. We become conscious of being alone with the Eternal. This great experience had been the Psalmist's. In this the Psalmist took refuge from the perplexities of life. " His treadings had well-nigh slipped," when he saw " the prosperity of the wicked " — not thinking of their "fearful end." But at once the thought comes on him, in whose hands he was : — " ' Nevertheless I am alway by Thee; for Thou hast holden me by Thy right hand. Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and after that receive me with glory ; whom have I in heaven but Thee ? and there is none upon earth that I desire in com- parison with Thee. My flesh and my heart faileth ; but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.' . . . . ' I have set God always before me ; for He is on my right hand, therefore I shall not fall. Therefore my heart was glad and my glory rejoiced ; my flesh also shall rest in hope.' .... 'Thou shalt shew me the path of life; in Thy presence is the fulness of joy; in Thy right hand there is pleasure for evermore/ . . . . ' When I wake up after Thy likeness, I shall be satisfied with it/ " 72 EARLY SACRED POETRY. [lect. I am surely not saying too much in asserting that nothing in kind like this, nothing in any way com- parable to it, is to be found in the noblest and highest examples of any other ancient religious language. We know what there was in the world besides ; where do we look for its counterpart? The Psalms stand up like a pillar of fire and light in the history of the early world. They lift us at once into an atmosphere of religious thought, which is the highest that man has ever reached ; they come with all the characteristic affections and emotions of humanity, everything that is deepest, tenderest, most pathetic, most aspiring along with all the plain realities of man's condition and destiny, into the presence of the living God. I am justified in saying that in that stage of the world's history this is absolutely unique. I z-.a now only stating it as a fact, however to be acco u lA ted for. Christians account for it from the history in which the Psalms are embedded, and by the light and guidance from above, implied in that history ; and what other account can be given I find it hard to imagine. That such thoughts, such words, so steady and uniform in their central idea, so infinitely varied in fir ir forms of expressing it, should have been produced in any of the nations which we call heathen, is to me absolutely inconceivable. That they should have been produced among the Hebrews, if the Hebrews were only as other nations, is equally inconceivable. But I want only to impress the fact, one of the most certain and eventful in the history of the world. It is idle to talk it.] THE PSALMS. of Semitic Monotheism, even if such tendency at that time can be proved. There is Monotheism and Monotheism : the Monotheism even of the Koran is not the Monotheism of the Psalms; and Mono- theism is a poor and scanty word to express the con- tinued flow of affectionateness, and joy and mourning, and hope and love, of every tone, every strain, high and low, in the human soul, which we find in the Psalms. Nor does it avail to say that they are more modern than the songs of the Veda, or the Zendavesta. Chronology is a very uncertain measure of national development and culture, and the men who sung the Vedic hymns had a language, and therefore had had a training of thought and experience, as advanced as the Hebrew Psalmists. The Psalms are certainly no product oi civilization and philosophy; the differences of date umong them, which are considerable, from the days of David, perhaps of Moses, to the " Pilgrim Songs" of the returning exiles in the days of Zerub- babel, make no difference in this respect. Nor is it relevant to point out alleged imperfections in the morality of some of the Psalms. This is not the occasion to go into the allegation itself; but were it sustainable, it would only make the wonder of the whole phenomenon more surprising. Here is a nation certainly rude and fierce, certainly behind its neigh- bours in the arts of life, in the activity and enterprise of intelligence which lead to knowledge, to subtlety or width of thought, or to the sense and creation of beauty, described in its own records as beset with 74 EA RL V SA CRED POE TR V. [lecy. incorrigible tendencies to the coarsest irreligion and degeneracy. Are we not constantly told that the songs of a people reflect its character ; that a religion in its idea of God, reflects its worshippers? What sort of character is reflected in the Psalms? They come to us from a people like their neighbours, merciless and bloody, yet they are full of love and innocence and nlercy. They come from a people whose deep sins and wrong-doing are recorded by their own writers \ yet the Psalms breathe the hunger and thirst of the soul after righteousness. They come from a race still in the rude childhood of the world : yet they express the thoughts about God and duty, and about the purpose and reward of human life, which are those of the most refined, the gentlest, the most saintly, the most exalted, whom the ages of the world have ever seen, down to its latest. The question is asked in these days, is God know- able ? The answer depends on a further question. Whether God can be known by man depends on whether we have the faculties for knowing. We have faculties which enable us to know the phenomena of sense and of the outward world. We have faculties different from them, which enable us to know the truths of mathematics. Have we anything else? By whatever name we call them, we have powers very unlike both, in their subjects and in their mode of working, to the knowledge of sense or the processes of mathematical science. There is a wonderful art, connected on the one hand with the senses, on the ii ] THE PSALMS. 75 other hand with mathematical truth, yet in itself having that which belongs to neither, and which we call music. There is another, closely connected also with the senses, but, except in the most general way, beyond the domain of mathematical precision, which -we call painting. There is yet a third — the art, or the power, or the gift, of calling into existence out of the imagination and the feelings and the language of men, by means of choice words and their measured rhythm, new creations of beauty and grandeur, which keep their hold on the minds and history of men for ages — the wondrous art of poetry. In music, in painting, in poetry, we say that we know. There are powers in human nature and in the human mind of dealing with these subjects, powers of the greatest activity and energy, most subtle and most delicate, yet most real, undoubting of themselves and un- doubted in their effects, of which no one makes any question ; certain within limits of what they know and do, but which yet in their tests of certainty are abso- lutely different from mathematical or physical know- ledge, and absolutely impatient of the verifications which are indispensable in sensible and mathematical proof. As a man might be the greatest physicist and the greatest mathematician while all their marvellous regions were to him absolutely a blank ; though his mind was one to which, say music, its meaning and its laws, were absolutely incomprehensible, the most impossible of puzzles. He might not know a false note in music from a true one ; he might be utterly 76 EA RL Y SA CKED POE TR V. LECT. unable to see the difference between what is noble and base in it, or to distinguish the greatest work of Handel or Beethoven from any other collection of sounds. And yet the musician knows : he knows the glory and the truth, and the ordered perfection of which he speaks ; he knows that this perfection is governed by the exactest laws ; he knows that, like all perfection, it depends on infinitesimal differences, which yet are most real ones : his faculty of knowing and his knowledge, however he has got to them, and although other men or other races have them not, and he knows not the channel of communication between his own knowledge and their minds, are their own warrant and witness. The musical unbeliever might question the possibility of knowing anything about what to him would be so vague and misty, full of arbitrary definitions and unintelligible rules, and, if he was obstinate, might vainly seek to be con- vinced. Yet the world of music is a most real world ; man has faculties for reaching it and judging of it ; and the evidences of its reality are in the domain of fact and history. Is there in human nature such a faculty, separate from the faculties by which we judge of the things of sense and the abstractions of the pure intellect, but yet a true and trustworthy faculty, for knowing God — for knowing God, in some such way as we know the spirits and souls, half disclosed, half concealed under the mask and garment of the flesh, among whom we have been brought up, among whom we live? Can we ii] THE PSALMS. 77 know Him in such a true sense as we know those whom we love and those whom we dislike ; those whom we venerate and trust, and those whom w r e fear and shrink from ? The course of the world, its history, its literature, our every-day life, presuppose such knowledge of men and character; they confirm its existence and general trustworthiness, by the infinitely varied and continuous evidence of results. The question whether there is such a faculty in the human soul for knowing its Maker and God — knowing Him, though behind the veil, — knowing Him, though flesh and blood can never see Him, — knowing Him, though the questioning intellect loses itself in the thought of Him, — this question finds here its answer. In the Psalms is the evidence of that faculty, and that with it man has not worked in vain. The Book of Psalms is like the fact of the production, by the existence and exercise of a faculty in man's nature, of vast results, such as a great literature, a great school of painting, a great body of music. If it is not a proof and example of this power of knowing, I cannot imagine what a proof can be. The proof that the living God can be known by man is that He can be loved and longed for with all the freedom and naturalness and hope of human affection. The answer whether God has given to man the faculty to know Him might be sought in vain in the Vedas or the Zendavesta. It is found in the Book of Psalms. LONDON : R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS, BREAD STREET HILL. «m SOUBlSrOE T>JEO:i!s&J3ttS„ TORY. ■ , ., H ,\ - G. E ■ AMENT HISTORY. IN THE PRINCIPLES 01 iDY BARKER, 1 MACMILLAN & CO,