PSALM civ. VER. 29, 30. "THOU HIDEST THY FACE, THEY "ARE TROUBLED: THOU TAKEST "AWAY THEIR BREATH, THEY "DIE, AND RETURN TO THEIR "DUST. THOU SENDEST FORTH 66 THY SPIRIT, THEY ARE CREA TED; AND THOU RENEWEST THE "FACE OF THE EARTH." T HIS Pfalm is a most devout and exalted meditation upon the nature and attributes of God, as they are illustriously displayed in his works of Creation, Providence, and Redemption. All the peculiar excellencies of the several species of eloquence, the descriptive, the fublime, and the pathetic, are happily exhibited in this finished compofition. It It opens with a folemn recognition of the Power and Majesty of GOD, which at once fets forth the wisdom and piety of its author: "Bless the LORD, O my "foul! O LORD MY GOD, thou art ex"ceeding glorious; thou art clothed "with majesty and honour!" The noblest objects of the material universe are then felected to form a description of this Majesty: "Who coverest thyself " with Light, as with a garment; who "stretchest out the heavens like a cur"tain; who layeth the beams of his "chambers in the waters ; who mak"eth the clouds his chariot, who "walketh upon the wings of the "wind." He then proceeds to enumerate the wonders of creating power, throughout the vast scale of being, from the highest order of intellectual life, to the lowest part or portion of inanimate matter. He reprefents all these as originally proceeding from the invisible Source of Being, and perpetually tually depending upon the same Source for the fupport and continuation of their existence. From the whole tenor of the Pfalm, and particularly from the two verses I have selected for my text, we learn this great and instructive lesson : that the life-giving, life-preserving Prefence and Energy of the CREATOR, is as necessary to the vegetation of the smallest blade of grafs, as to the intellectual growth of the highest Archangel; that was this Energy with-held a fingle moment, the fairest flower, in the material, as well as spiritual world, would wither and die; that the Spirit of the Highest pervades, sustains, and actuates the whole system of being; that if any of his creatures, who were originally living Images of Himself, formed with his own essential freedom of will, should abuse this liberty, and thereby lose his Divine Image, and forfeit that state of bliss in which he created |