Praise is an essential part of the worship of God. However it may be with the imaginary deities of the heathen, we know of the one true God that he is infinitely great and infinitely good; and that it therefore becomes his creatures to be his worshippers, and that it becomes his worshippers to utter forth his praise - the memory of his great goodness. In the Jewish economy praise occupied a very important part in Divine service, especially during and after the time of David, the sweet singer of Israel. There were persons, gifted by nature and trained by art, who were set apart for the purpose of expressing the nation's gratitude and devotion, by performing "the service of song in the house of the Lord." These had their appointed place in the worship of the temple, and their appointed dwelling-places in its precincts. Their vocation and ministry symbolize the service of praise ever offered both by the Church militant on earth and by the Church triumphant in heaven.

I. IN ORDER TO PSALMODY, THERE MUST BE AN INTELLIGENT NATURE CAPABLE OF APPREHENDING GOD'S GLORIOUS ATTRIBUTES AND ESPECIALLY HIS GREAT GOODNESS. By a figure of speech we represent the heavens, the earth, and the sea, the living creatures which people the globe, the wells that spring into the light of day, the trees of the forests, as all rendering their tribute of praise to the Creator. But this is to project our human feelings upon the world around us. It is absurd to suppose the most sagacious of quadrupeds as even conceiving of God, far less as consciously speaking or singing his praise. But it is the glory of man's nature that his apprehensions are not limited to God's works. He "looks, through nature, up to nature's God." He discerns the tokens of the Divine presence, and finds reasons for believing in the Divine goodness. If he offers praise, his is a reasonable service.

II. IN ORDER TO PSALMODY, THERE MUST BE AN EMOTIONAL NATURE CAPABLE OF FEELING THE KINDNESS AND RESPONDING TO THE LOVE OF GOD. Music is the vehicle of emotion.

"Why should feeling ever speak,
When thou canst breathe her tones so well?" A being with no emotion would be without song. Spontaneous is the outflow of feeling - of joy, of sorrow, of love - in the notes of melody. What so fitted to call forth the purest and most exalted strains of music as the loving-kindness of the Lord? As a matter of fact, much of the most exquisite music produced by the great and gifted masters of song has been inspired by religion and religious themes. The oratorios, the anthems, the chorales, of Christian composers, rendered with all the resources of musical art, may be regarded as endeavors to express the tenderest, the most pathetic, the sublimest feelings which the mind of man has ever experienced.

III. IN ORDER TO PSALMODY, THERE MUST BE AN ARTISTIC NATURE CAPABLE OF CONSTRUCTING APPROPRIATE FORMS OF MUSICAL EXPRESSIVENESS. These forms vary with the varying states of human society, of culture, and of civilization. What is adapted to a ruder age may be ill suited to an epoch of refinement. It is a tradition that the music composed by David, and preserved for centuries among the Jews, was taken over by the Christian Church, and so survives in archaic forms of psalmody still used amongst ourselves. However this may be, it is certain that there has never been, in the history of the Jewish or the Christian Church, a period when silence has reigned in the sacred assemblies, when speech has not been accompanied by song. Like all good things, sacred music has been abused, and attention has been given to the artistic qualities rather than to the spiritual import and impression. Yet this is an art which deserves cultivation, and which will repay for cultivation. Without psalmody, how would our religious sentiments and aspirations be repressed!

IV. IN ORDER TO PSALMODY, THERE MUST BE A PHYSICAL, VOCAL CONSTITUTION, CAPABLE OF GIVING EXPRESSION TO DEVOTIONAL FEELINGS. Instrumental music has taxed the mental powers of the composer and the artistic faculty of the performer to so high a degree that a cultivated and honorable profession has found here abundant scope for study and for skill. But the art of vocal minstrelsy is more glorious and delightful still. There is no music like the human voice; and if this is so when other themes inspire the song, how much more when the high praises of God are poured forth, whether with the enchanting sweetness of a solitary voice, or with the loud and joyful burst of the chorus in which the many blend in one! - T.

I. THE PURPOSE OF GOD TO STAIN THE PRIDE OF THE GLORY OF ALL FLESH. We may gather some instruction upon this from the 4th chapter of Daniel. The testimony that Nebuchadnezzar himself bore at the last, seems to me to be very expressive, and may be, as it were, put into the mouth of everyone that God has humbled. It is truth that we all do need humbling by the power of God. Happy man you will be if you are brought to nothing. It is one of the hardest things in the world to be nothing — to be nothing but a sinner; not a good thought, not a good word, not a good work, not a single grain or atom of goodness, but a thing of nought altogether. Now God has purposed this; He has purposed to stain the pride of the glory of all flesh; and He has purposed to do so first in mercy, and then He will do so in wrath; that is, those that He does not deal so with in their lifetime as to humble them down that they may receive His truth, He will deal with in wrath at that last great, that tremendous day. Every man's natural spirit is a spirit of ignorance, a spirit of unbelief, a spirit of enmity against God. Wherever true conviction enters, the soul is divided from the spirit of ignorance, and the soul comes into the knowledge of its own condition; the soul is divided from the spirit of unbelief, and comes into the faith of the Gospel; the soul of the man, his immortal soul, is divided from the native enmity of the spirit; for the natural spirit that is in us lusteth to envy, desireth to envy; it is the very desire of it, the very essence of it. Now when God begins His work it severs the soul from this spirit.

II. THE PURPOSE OF THE LORD IN BRINGING HIS PEOPLE TO RECEIVE THE TRUTH. If the Lord has thus brought you down far enough, then I will name now the truths that you will be glad to receive. The man that is from his own experience prepared to receive that testimony certainly is not far from the kingdom of God; the man that is prepared from his heart and soul to receive that testimony in the understanding of it, in the love of it, and to abide thereby — there never was one so poor in spirit, there never was one so humbled, there never was one so led, and at the same time lost. If we are really brought down and know our nothingness, our hearts are prepared to receive the testimony in the 1st chapter of Second Timothy. The apostle knew the tendency; he knew that Timothy would get no worldly honour; he knew it would make Timothy rather what they call narrow-minded; he knew it would be offensive to many professors, but he says, "Be not thou ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, His prisoner," as I am a prisoner for that testimony. Now comes what the testimony is. "Who hath saved us" — that is the first thing He did. Believest thou this? Art thou brought down low enough to trace up thy salvation to this Divines this pure and heavenly source? "And called us with an holy calling not according to our works" — no — "but according to His own purpose and grace," etc. There is a clear epitome of the Gospel itself. Doth this offend you, or doth it please you? Are you sorry such testimonies are on record? or can you set your seal to it, that unless you are saved after that Divine order you never can be saved at all? Then, if so, I may apply to you the words here, which the Lord spake to Ezekiel, — "Son of man, behold with thine eyes." So I say to you, — Behold with your eyes; see after what a Divine, see after what a righteous, what a lovely, what a gracious, what a merciful, what a glorious way God hath saved thee. "And hear with thine ears, and set thine heart upon all that I shall shew thee; for to the intent that I might shew them unto thee art thou brought hither." So, poor sinner, you may set your heart upon these truths, and you will never have to take it away again.

III. THE SPECIAL PURPOSE OF BRINGING EZEKIEL TO WHERE HE WAS BROUGHT, AS MEANT IN OUR TEXT. Ezekiel was brought to the river of God. First, its source — it came from under the threshold, just the same as we read in the last chapter of the Revelation of a river proceeding from the throne of God and the Lamb. That river I take to represent the Gospel in the life and blessedness thereof. That is one thing, then — its source. The second is its increase — it went on increasing. And just so the Gospel, in direct contrast, as we sometimes say to this life. For soma of us are getting into the shades a Lit; and this is narrowing and that is .narrowing, and the time is drawing nigh when we shall say we have no pleasure in this life. But, then, there is pleasure there — the river of God's pleasure — and those who drink of that river, "they shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing"! Bless the Lord for this. And then mark also the power of this river. There is a lake on the southeastern side of Judea, about forty-five miles long, and from perhaps twelve to fifteen wide; that lake has nothing in it in a way of life. Nothing can live in it; it is so bituminous, so nauseous, and so deadly, that nothing can live in it. Now this river was to turn this lake into a fresh-water lake; for the river was to come down into this Dead Sea, and the waters were to be healed. You can see what that means, can you not? that the souls of men are in a state of death and bitterness. And this water of the Dead Sea, all travellers tell us, is nasty to the last degree to drink; you could hardly be put to a greater punishment than to be obliged to drink half a pint of it; you would not forget it for a twelvemonth. And just so the mind — the soul. Ah, could we see ourselves as God sees us, could we see sin as He sees it, we should indeed stand aghast; for "the heart is," even beyond angelic comprehension, "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" Yet these waters were to heal this Dead Sea, turn it into a fresh-water lake. Just so the Gospel comes, destroys the bitterness, destroys all that is unpleasant, and turns the soul into that that is pleasant, to holiness, to righteousness, as pleasant to God as it was before unpleasant. There is another view of the river that I may just name, and that is that on its banks were trees whose leaves faded not, and that brought forth new fruit "according to their months." Let these trees all of them represent Jesus Christ, and let their leaves that never fade represent His promises; and let the fruits that are perennial and immortal represent the blessings that come to us by those promises.

(J. Wells.)