THE OIL OF GLADNESS

IT is true, as Lord Bacon said, that " if you Listen to David's Harpe, you shall heare as many Herselike Ayres, as Carols,"1 yet in the Book of Psalms carols -are to be found in striking abundance. Such expressions as " Praise the Lord," " Rejoice in the Lord," " Sing ye merrily," " Take the psalm, bring hither the tabret, the merry harp, with the lute," " Serve the Lord with gladness, and come before his presence with a song," "Let the righteous be glad, and rejoice before God, let them also be merry and joyful," — are characteristic of the Psalter. " They express," said Dean Stanley,2 " the sacred duty of being happy. Be happy, cheerful, and thankful as ever we can, we cannot go beyond the Psalms. They laugh, they shout, they cry, they scream for joy."

This is an aspect of the Jewish Psalter on which it is well sometimes to dwell. The condition of mind of the first disciples, when, in the earliest record, we are told that " they did take their food with gladness and single ness of heart,"3 can no longer be said to be characteristic of Christian people. This age is rather one of hurry and excitement, of discontent and pessimism. The sweet virtues of cheerfulness and simplicity are becoming rarer among us. We have forfeited our " ancient English dower of inward happiness."

It will not of course be denied that there is an appalling amount of sin and suffering in the world, and no true disciple of the " Man of Sorrows " will ever close his ears to " the still sad music of humanity." But to regard only the darker side of existence, to walk through the world with downcast eyes and gloomy countenance, to dwell on the thorns and briars of the wilderness, and never to notice the roses and lilies of life, is surely ingratitude to Him, who, as Charles Kingsley said, "made love, and marriage, and little children, the wings of butterflies, and the songs of birds, who rejoices in his own works, and bids those who truly reverence him, rejoice likewise." It is to incur the punishment of those whom the divine Dante, in his immortal poem, places in the darkness of the Stygian pool, where he hears them sighing —

" Once we were sad

In the sweet air made gladsome by the sun; Now in this murky darkness are we sad."4

1 THE JUBILANT NOTE.

When we turn to the Psalter, the hymnbook of the Jewish Church — and psalms and hymns and spiritual songs often reveal the prevailing complexion of religion more than canons and articles, more even than prayers and discourses — we can hardly fail to be struck with the note of exultant gladness which runs throughout it. It is not the note of the present generation which rather finds expression in the wail of the poet, " Behind the veil, Behind the veil "; it is a note of passionate exultation. Listen to the opening words of Psalm 47 : " O clap your hands together, all ye people; O sing unto God with a voice of melody." Or this verse (2) from the jubilant anthem we call Psalm 149, "Let Israel rejoice in him that made him : let the children of Zion be joyful in their king." The 68th Psalm, dear to the heart of Oliver Cromwell, which sup plied him with his famous exclamation as the sun rose above the hills of Dunbar, is also noticeable for the stress laid upon that joyful aspect of religion not always associated with the ethics of Puritanism : " Let the righteous be glad and rejoice before God : let them also be merry and joyful " (verse 3).

2. IN PUBLIC WORSHIP.

Very often this spirit of exultation is closely connected with the services of the sanctuary. Hence from early times the 95th Psalm —

" O come, let us sing unto the Lord;

Let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation,"

has been used as an introduction to the Psalms for the day. " Before the beginning of their prayers," wrote St. Athanasius of the practice of the Church of Constantinople, " Christians invite and exhort one another in the words of this psalm." The custom has been followed in the Church of England; and it is worth noticing that, at Matins and Evensong, the psalms chosen as alternatives to the New Testament canticles are of a like joyous character. As an alternative to the Benedictus we have the Jubilate, " O be joyful in the Lord, all ye lands, serve the Lord with gladness, and come before his presence with a song," which in its metrical version is universally known and loved as the "Old Hundredth "; while, at the evening service, as alternatives to the Magnificat and the Nunc Dimtttis, Psalms 98 and 67 are appointed, in both of which we are called upon to shew ourselves joyful before the Lord.

Or let us take Psalms 42-43, beginning —

"As the hart panteth after the water brooks,

So longeth my soul after thee, O God,"

which is " a monument of the spirituality and the joyousness of the religion of Israel." The writer is in exile, and as Calvin truly says, his longing for God is a longing for His sanctuary and its ordinances. His heart is heavy with " sorrow's crown of sorrows," which the poet tells us is " remembering happier things," when he " went with the multitude, and brought them forth into the House of God." But listen to the splendid prayer with which he concludes his lamentation —

"O send out thy light and thy truth, that

     they may lead me, and bring me unto thy

     holy hill, and to thy dwelling,

And that I may go unto the altar of God,

     even unto the God of my joy and

     gladness; and upon the harp will I

     give thanks unto thee, O God, my God."

So with that exquisite little collection of psalms (120-134) known as "Songs of Degrees " (A.V.), or " Songs of Ascents " (R.V.) which, in all probability, represents the Pilgrims' Psalter — the collection of hymns used by the caravans of pilgrims " going up " to keep the yearly feasts at Jerusalem. How many of them breathe the spirit of quiet gladness in the Lord. It is specially so with Psalms 121 and 122. Like the pious pilgrims, in mediaeval England, to the shrine of St. Swithun at Winchester or of St. Thomas at Canterbury, the Hebrew poet was glad when they said unto him, " Let us go into the House of the Lord." Even in the Psalter, the 121st Psalm is remarkable for the power and beauty of its simple trust in God. It has been called the pilgrims' or the travellers' psalm, and many good Christians, John Hooper the martyred Bishop of Gloucester, David Livingstone the greatest of modern missionaries, and James Hannington the first Bishop of Equatorial Africa, have used it in this connection. It was specially dear to the sweet Silurian poet, Henry Vaughan, who rendered it into verse —

"Up to those bright and gladsome hills,

     Whence flows my weal and mirth,

I look and sigh for Him who fills,

     Unseen, both heaven and earth."

3. THE NOTE OF CONFIDENCE IN GOD.

In the same collection of Pilgrim Psalms we meet with several pieces which breathe the spirit of calm and trustful happiness, the outcome of entire dependence upon God. They seem to be almost an anticipation of the Master's teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, when He called upon the weary and heavy-laden not to be over anxious about the morrow, for that morrow was in a Father's keeping. We have already referred in a former section to Psalm 127, which has been well called the Hebrew " Cottar's Saturday Night," beginning, " Except the Lord build the house, their labour is but lost that build it," on which Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett Browning has written one of her most touching poems. We may be permitted to quote the first verse of it —

" Of all the thoughts of God that are

Borne inward into souls afar,

Along the Psalmist's music deep,

Now tell me if that any is

For gift or grace surpassing this —

'He giveth His beloved sleep '? "

It is the same with Psalm 128, the " Home, sweet Home " of the Hebrew race as Dr. Samuel Cox beautifully calls it. Luther terms it an Epithalamium or marriage song, and it is appropriately used in the marriage service of the Church of England. The happiness and peace of domestic life passed in the nurture and admonition of the Lord is nowhere more exquisitely portrayed. All through the Psalter we meet with illustrations of this gladness in religion, this condition of inward happiness which comes from the friendship of the soul with God. The author of the evening hymn, which we call Psalm 4, is evidently in circumstances of difficulty, if not of actual peril, but he knows a joy with which the joy of harvest cannot be compared. " I will lay me down in peace," he says, " and take my rest; for it is thou, Lord, only, that makest me dwell in safety " (verse 9). The calm serenity and peace that runs through every line of the 23rd Psalm is such that a great writer has declared it to be the most complete picture of happiness that ever was or can be drawn. In the practice of the presence of God, the writer of Psalm 16 has found the secret of happiness : " In thy presence is the fulness of joy; at thy right hand there is pleasure for evermore." The 32nd Psalm is one of the seven penitential psalms, and is appointed for use on Ash-Wednesday, but the writer has passed through the water-floods, and is compassed about with songs of deliverance, and he would have others share his joy —

"Be glad, O ye righteous, and rejoice in the Lord,

And be joyful, all ye that are true of heart" (ver. 12).

4. THE DUTY OF CHEERFULNESS.

The motto of good Bishop Racket, " Serve God, and be cheerful," is one eminently in keeping with the spirit of the Psalter. And so is that patriarchal prayer, which Robert Louis Stevenson composed, and read aloud to his family on the evening before his death : — " Be with our friends; be with our selves. Go with each one of us to rest; if any awake, temper to them the dark hours of watching; and when the day returns to us, our sun and comforter, call us with morning faces and with morning hearts — eager to labour — eager to be happy, if happiness shall be our portion; and if the day be marked to sorrow — strong to endure it. We thank Thee and praise Thee; and in the words of Him to whom this day is sacred, close our oblation." Yes, " eager to be happy, if happiness shall be our portion " — how many of us have need to pray that prayer. For, as Stevenson says elsewhere,5 there is perhaps no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy.

"The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;

Little we see in Nature that is ours;

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!"

We need more of the spirit of the Hebrew Psalmists who, in the fulness and buoyancy of their gladness, would offer us " beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." So, like the early disciples, should we serve God " with gladness and singleness of heart." So should we "add sunshine to daylight by making the happy happier." So should we "travel on life's common way in cheerful godliness."

1 Essays, "Of Adversitie."

2 The Jewish Church, vol. ii. p. 129.

3 Acts ii. 46. 80

4 Inferno, Canto vii.

5 Virginibus Puerisque, p. 122. 8 9