"The Song of Moses, Ex. xv., and also Psalms cxlv.-cl., are repeated at Morning-Prayer every day all the year round. The cxlv. is repeated thrice daily, and he who never fails to do so may be sure to inherit eternal life" ("Berachoth," fol. 4b).

"The voice of a woman is an obscenity" ("Kiddushin," fol. 70a); "hence when men sing assisted by women, it is impudence; and when women sing assisted by men, it is as fire applied to tow" ("Sotah," fol. 48a).

"No

Tradition has much to say about musical instruments, but now only one or two quotations must suffice. man could hear the voice of his neighbour in the Temple at Jerusalem when the Magreypha (organ) played" ("Tamid," fol. 33a).

"A ram has but one voice when alive but seven after he is dead. How so? His horns make two trumpets, his hip-bones two pipes, his skin makes a drum, his larger intestines make strings for the lyre, and the smaller chords for the harp" ("Kinnim," Chap. III. m. 6).

The later history naturally tells only of the special occasions in which the people broke into song, but these serve to confirm the idea that worship through song had become a habit among the people. "There is the song of Jehoshaphat and his army, the chant of victory sung in faith before the battle, and itself doing battles in that the Lord fought for those who trusted Him, and they had nothing to do but divide the spoil and return to Jerusalem, with psalteries and harps and trumpets, into the house of the Lord. There is the song of Hezekiah, when he recovered from his sickness, and the Psalm of Jonah from the depths of the sea, made up from the memory of other Psalms sung in

happier hours. There was many a song by the waters of Babylon, whispered low that the oppressors might not hear. There was the song of liberated Israel, at the dedication of the wall of the Holy City (another witness to the customs of the past), when the singers sang aloud and they all rejoiced; so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off " all these serve to show how the lyric spirit prevailed among the people, ready, when touched by any deep emotion, to give rhythmic utterance to their prayer and praise.

It is with David, the minstrel King, however, that the stream of song suddenly grows broad and deep. Around him the chorus begins to gather, which has now grown to such a glorious multitude.

Ewald truly says: "His harp was full-stringed, and every angel of joy and of sorrow swept over the chords as he passed. For the hearts of a hundred men strove and struggled together within the narrow continent of his single heart. The Lord allowed him not to curtail his being by treading the round of one function. He cultivated his whole being, and filled his soul with wisdom and feeling. He brought him up in the sheep-pastures, that the groundwork of his character might be laid amongst the simple and universal forms of feeling. He took him to the camp and made him a conquerer, that he might be filled with nobleness of soul and ideas of glory. He placed him in a palace, that he might be filled with ideas of majesty and Sovereign might. He carried him to the wilderness and placed him in solitude, that his soul might dwell alone in the sublime conceptions of God and His mighty works; and He kept him there for years, with only one

step between him and death, that he might be schooled to trust and depend upon the providence of God." The Psalms formed at once the justification and inspiration of all the noble songs of the later history of Israel, to say nothing of lyric notes which are heard sounding through the pages of the Prophets. But most remarkable it is, that when we reach the New Testament we find no lyric book corresponding to the Psalter. There are distinct psalms, like the "Magnificat" and "Nunc Dimittis," kindled from the lyric fire of the Hebrew Psalter; and hints which indicate the presence of the lyric gift in the Apostolic Church, but there is no Christian Psalter in the New Testament, and the reason is not far to seek. It is not that the lyric fire has departed, but that the Old Testament Psalter has so sounded the deepest notes of the soul in joy and sorrow, in dark-· ness and light, that it is adequate to the needs, not only of Jewish, but Christian hearts. Thus it was not for an age, but for all time. Just as the octave in music can express the loftiest conceptions of the composers of every age, from the simple Gregorian chant to the intricate music of Beethoven, so the Psalter, meeting the deepest needs of the soul, becomes the fitting vehicle through which Christian as well as Jewish feeling can find expression.

And so we find, as a matter of fact, that through by far the greater part of the history of the Church the Psalms have formed its worship-song; they have had a place in the services of every Church of Christendom where praise has been offered. They have been said or sung in grand cathedral or lowly meeting-house, by white-robed priests and plain-clad Puritans. The hearts

of Roman and Greek, Armenian and Anglican, no less than Puritan and Nonconformist, have been kindled into praise by the Psalms of David and his company. Edward Irving says: "From whatever point of view any Church hath contemplated the scheme of its doctrine, by whatever name they have thought good to designate themselves, and however bitterly opposed to each other in Church government or observance of rules, you will find them all, by harmonious consent, adopting the Psalms as the outward form by which they shall express the inward feelings of the Christian life."

And even those who refused to sing the Psalms in the form in which they are found in Scripture-who deemed it dangerous and even heretical so to do, have sung them in metrical versions from which much of their glory had departed. Until quite recently there were churches whose only hymnal consisted of these versions. Thus the Psalms have been at once an inspiration and a bondage: an inspiration, in that they have kindled the fire which has produced the hymnody of the entire Church; a bondage, because by stereotyping religious expression they robbed the heart of the right to express in its own words the fears, the joys, the hopes that the Divine spirit had kindled in their souls. Had there been no Psalter in the Canon of Scripture, the Church would have had no model for its song-no place at which to kindle its worship fire; but, on the other hand, its worshipping instinct would have compelled it to create a Psalter of its own, and so there would have been an earlier and fuller development of hymnody in the Church. The very glory and perfection of the Psalter made the Church for long ages content with

the provision thus made for its worship, and so it discouraged all who else would have joined the company of the singers. And even those who at last ventured to join their company, did so timidly, and chiefly as adapters of the Psalms for public worship. George Wither, Sir Philip Sidney and his sister belong to this class. Even when Dr. Watts began to write, his hymns were used only as supplemental to the Versions; indeed, a large part of his compositions are themselves metrical renderings of the Psalms, though some of them are so alive with his peculiar genius as to deserve rank as original compositions.

Mighty indeed was the spell the Psalter exercised over the Church, and rightly so, for it is the heartutterance of the noble men whose mission it was to give the world religion. And as we have not outgrown the art of Greece or the laws of Rome, so neither have we out-grown the worship-song of Israel. This is so deep and true that it expresses the longings and praise even of those who have sat at the feet of Christ and learnt of Him. And as in the most sacred moment of His life one of these Psalms served to express His deepest feelings, so they have inspired and expressed the feelings of His followers in all aftertime. It has been well said, "the Church has been singing these Psalms ever since, and has not yet sung them dry," and she will go on singing them until she takes up the new song in the heavenly city. It should be frankly admitted that there are elements in the Psalms distinctly Jewish, and expressive of the feeling of earlier days. There are imprecatory notes that are out of harmony with the gentler melody of Christ. These ought to be