begins with one of each letter, wherein I think the mystery of the Resurrection and of true Circumcision is shown forth. Josephus in his books of Antiquities states that this Psalm, and the 144th (145) and the Song of Deuteronomy, were composed in elegiac metre: no doubt because the former verse consists of six feet, and the latter, less by one, ends in a pentameter. Throughout the whole Psalm the universal choir of the Saints speaks, whether they be those who were from the beginning of the world, who are now, or are expected to be hereafter; amongst whom are found Apostles, Prophets, Martyrs, Confessors, those of the ecclesiastical order, and all who serve the LORD in holy chastity. Because then under each letter the things which follow should be understood according to its meaning, therefore the first letter Aleph is rightly interpreted Doctrine, wherein eternal blessedness is promised to the undefiled in the way of the LORD. Blessed are those that are undefiled in the way, &c.

SYRIAC PSALTER. Anonymous. A principal meditation upon the excellency that is in GOD.

EUSEBIUS OF CÆSAREA. The rudiments of primary instruction according to God.

S. ATHANASIUS. A Psalm proclaiming blessedness. Also, Describing a life endowed with holy virtue.

:

VARIOUS USES.

Gregorian. Daily Prime (vv. 1-32;) Terce (vv. 33-80 ;) Sext (vv. 81-128;) None (vv. 129—176.)

Monastic. Sunday: Prime (vv. 1-32;) Terce (vv. 33-56 ;) Sext (vv. 57-80;) None (vv. 81-104.) Monday: Terce (vv. 105 -128;) Sext (vv. 129—152;) None (vv. 153—176.)

Ambrosian. Daily, as Gregorian. Saturday of Second Week: II. Nocturn (vv. 89-128,) III. Nocturn (vv. 129-176.) [Maundy Thursday, vv. 121-128. Easter Eve, vv. 153-160, vv. 25 -32.]

Eastern Church. Midnight, in three portions, vv. 1-72; 73131; 132-176.

ANTIPHONS.

The Antiphons vary for all festivals, and the ferial ones have no special features. The only noteworthy ones are the two Ambrosian for Holy Week. [Maundy Thursday: O give Me not over unto Mine oppressors. K. K. K. Easter Eve: I. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is dumb, so He opened not His mouth in lowliness. II. JESUS bowing His head, gave up the ghost, and the earth quaked.]

This "Psalm of the Saints," as it is especially called, most probably belongs to the very latest period of inspired Hebrew poetry. It is Post-Captivity in date and tone, and marks that period of the religious development of the Jewish nation when the spiritual cha

racter of their Law, apart from and above its ceremonial precepts, began to be recognised by the devouter believers as the chief glory of the chosen people. The Masoretic editors have pointed out that in every verse save one (122) there is a direct reference to the Law under some one of the ten names which stand in English as law, word, saying, statute, testimonies, way, precept, commandment, judgment, faithfulness, and are supposed to have a mystical reference to the Decalogue. It would seem that the Jewish editors ought rather to have fixed on verse 132 as the single exception to their rule, for it is perhaps possible to see an indirect allusion to the Law in verse 122, but none such is discoverable in 132. These terms are not altogether interchangeable (though some of them are doubtless nearly synonymous) and the most obvious classification is as follows. Law is the generic phrase, including all the others, and taken for the whole scope of Divine revelation; Testimonies, are such precepts as are prohibitory, attesting GOD's holiness, protesting against man's sinfulness; Statutes, are positive enactments, ceremonial ordinances, and the like; Commandments, moral enactments; Judgments, formal decisions of duties as laid down in the Law; Precepts, are counsels recommended to individuals for their guidance and profit; Word is any verbal revelation of GOD's will; Saying, or rather promise, the declaration of blessings to follow on obedience; Way, the prescribed rule of conduct; Faithfulness, the abiding character and permanence of the Law.

There is not perfect uniformity in the two English renderings, either with the Hebrew or with one another, nor are the LXX. and Vulgate more precise. But in all there is a general adherence to the rule, and the deviations from the more discriminating terms are few and not important.

Cardinal Bellarmine suggests, not improbably, and in accordance with a Rabbinical tradition, that the great length of the Psalm was intended to fit it for use as a processional hymn for the caravans going up thrice a year to the great festivals in Jerusalem, followed as it is by those Gradual Psalms which marked the nearer approach of the pilgrims to the Temple. As to its profound spiritual import, which has made it the daily delight of Saints for so many ages, it will be enough to cite a few of the words in which the Gloss sums up the prefatory remarks of various Fathers: "This Psalm is the Teacher of the faithful, a paradise of all fruits, the storehouse of the HOLY GHOST, and just in proportion as it seems easier on the surface, so is it deeper in the abyss of its mysteries. Other Psalms shine a little, as lesser stars, but this one like the sun, glowing with the noonday heat of his full blaze, and glows with every kind of moral sweetness. And it has been compared to a tree of two and twenty branches, each with eight boughs, from which drops of sweetness continually fall. They observe further that the alphabetical arrangement, as noting the very rudiments of knowledge, implies that moral teaching in the first principles of life which the perfect need to give the unlearned that they may attain the palm of blessedness at last. And the grouping into octonaries of verses signifies on the one hand this blessedness, summed up in the eight beatitudes, while the day of the new creation is itself counted as the eighth, coming as it does after the recurring seven days of this present world."

H.

S. John xiv. 6.

א

ALEPH.

Here we have Aleph, the first letter. And some of the mediæval commentators, following S. Jerome, explain the meaning of this word to be doctrine,' bidding us observe that we have in the various letters as it were a concise summary of the intent of the entire Psalm, divided under its two and twenty heads, and that doctrine, as the leading idea of the whole poem, is thus fitly placed at the very beginning. In truth, the meaning of Aleph now most widely accepted, is that it signifies Ox, an interpretation given by Plutarch as the Phoenician one of his day. But this, in its recognised mystical sense, brings us back to the same idea, for the ox is the received type of laborious preachers, engaged in tilling the soil of the world for the reception of the Word, and in separating the grain from the straw. Wherefore fitly in Solomon's temple the great sea of brass, foreshadowing the laver of baptism, was borne up by twelve oxen, types of the Apostolic college.

1 Blessed are those that are undefiled in the way: and walk in the law of the LORD.

They are blessed who are in the way, not a way, any Theodoret. chance or uncertain road, but "the King's Highway," that path which the LORD Himself has declared to us, saying, "I am the Way." Nor is it enough to be in the way, unless we also walk in it, for a way is meant to lead us somewhither, not to stand still in; and so long as we are only on the way, we do not attain that which we seek. Wherefore the Apostle saith, "Not as though I had already attained, either were Phil. iii. 12. already perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of CHRIST JESUS. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended; but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of GOD in CHRIST JESUS." They who are truly in this way are undefiled, not by natural and inherent innocency, but by the remission of their sins, washed away in the Blood of the Lamb, Who is alone the Undefiled. It is part of the duty of Christians, as the royal priesthood of GOD, to keep themselves S. Macarius. pure; as is well said by an Egyptian Father, "Every one is consecrated priest over his own body; not to exercise authority in matters of order and jurisdiction over others, but that ruling his passions, he may make his body the shrine and temple of chastity." The blessedness is twofold, for all

C. Haymo.

xix. 17.

those who during their pilgrimage on earth have been undefiled by sin as they go towards their country, first the gladness of hope and then that of fruition. And on the connec- Ric. Hamp. tion of this latter and greater blessedness with the duty of Bellarmine. walking in the Law of the LORD, the best comment is the S. Matt. LORD's own saying, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the H. commandments." Nor are the words of the Lord at the close Rom. vii. of the verse superfluous, for there is another law, that of sin Hugo Card. in our members, wherein too many walk, whereas the law of the Lord, while embracing all His commandments, is especially the law of love to Himself and to our neighbour, of which is written, "Walk in love, as CHRIST also hath loved us.'

2 Blessed are they that keep his testimonies: and seek him with their whole heart.

For keep the Vulgate reads search out.

66

Ob

Eph. v. 2.

How wonderful and beautiful, exclaims a Saint, is the S. Ambros. order of the words, how full of teaching and grace! serve that it is not said first that they are blessed who search out His testimonies, but they who are undefiled in the way, because life should be sought before doctrine. For a good life, even though without any doctrinal learning, comes of grace; but learning without the life has no soundness. And therefore, to make it clear that no blessedness attaches to unspiritual study of Holy Writ, such as that of the scribes and lawyers in the days of CHRIST, or that of the sectaries and heretics who have since troubled His Church, it is added, and seek Him with their whole heart. They who seek otherwise shall fail in their quest, for it is written, They shall Prov. i. 28. seek Me early, but they shall not find Me." Here too we G. see the order of spiritual progress; first the active life, and Bp. Cowper. then the contemplative, with GOD as the final goal of each. And the word Blessed is doubled, in order to assure us of the absolute certainty of GOD's promise to His servants. The English version keep, which is also that of Aquila and Symmachus, is closer to the Hebrew, and teaches that there is a higher grade of spiritual advance than even walking in the law of the LORD, namely, the treasuring up every Divine precept as a precious deposit in the heart, and being ready to contend even to death for its safe retention. And in saying Bp. Cowper. seek Him, the Psalmist warns us that man has lost sight of GOD through sin, for we do not seek for that which is not lost. How we are to seek Him is easily learnt; in repentance, in truth, in His own Word, for Himself only, and through His Only-Begotten SON.

3 For they who do no wickedness: walk in his

ways.

The verse ought to run as an expansion of the idea in the

Cocceius.

S. Bruno
Carth.

A.

previous ones, thus: who do no wickedness, and walk in His ways; and not appear as a fresh statement. And if it be Bp. Cowper. asked how such a character can be assigned to any living C. man, the answer is that to the doing of wickedness three things must unite the purpose of sin, delight in sin, and continuance in it, whereas these three are not found united in GOD's Saints, since their higher will resists the lower, and neither purposes sin, delights in it, nor abides in it. But the LXX. and Vulgate read conversely, For they who work wickedness, walk not in His ways. It is not said, "They who have worked" wickedness, and have repented, since then no man would be excepted, but they who are working it, and continue therein. Nor is it said, "They who are without sin," for sin abideth in their mortal body, but they who do not actively set that natural sin in motion, rather saying with the Apostle: "It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." In His ways. In the first verse there was but one way named, here there are many. But all these many are but paths into that one high road. Wherefore the Jer. vi. 16. prophet Jeremiah saith: "Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein." And these are all the Prophets, Apostles, and preachers, who tell of CHRIST and lead us on to Him, and thus to that FATHER to Whom He is the only Way. Every precept of Holy Writ is also one of these ways of GOD, leading us, if we follow it to the end, into the King's highway of eternal life. And there is the force of the word walk, for the Jews, though they are in the right way, stop short at Moses, and go not on to the end, which is CHRIST.

Rom. vii.

17.

H.

S. John xiv.

Ay.

Hugo Card.

S. Ambros.

4 Thou hast charged that we shall diligently keep thy commandments.

Not merely to keep them, but to keep them diligently; or, as the Vulgate has it, extremely (nimis). When was this command given? In Paradise GOD commanded Adam to keep the commandments, but it may be that there was no injunction added to keep them diligently; and that in this wise Adam fell, swayed by his wife's voice and deceived by the serpent, supposing that if he departed from the commandment in some one particular he would not be going altogether wrong; but in once quitting the path of the commandments, he abandoned the way entirely, stripped himself of everything, and left himself naked. Therefore the LORD, since he that was in Paradise fell, hath warned thee since that time by the Law, the Prophets, the Gospel, and the Apostles, to keep diligently the commandments of the LORD thy GOD. Of every idle word, saith He, that thou speakest, thou must give account. Do not try to hide the truth, not one jot nor one tittle passeth away from My commandment. Beware of quitting the way. If when walking in the way