SERMON XX.

THE TESTIMONIES OF GOD WONDERFUL.

PSALM CXIX. 129.

Thy testimonies are wonderful.”

THE hundred and ninteenth Psalm may be regarded as an inspired poem in honour of revealed truth. It is well nigh filled with the praises of the word of God. In almost every sentence the sacred writer celebrates the various excellences of the Divine law, and under different names proclaims it as of surpassing value. The subject of his holy strain is one which he cannot exhaust, and one of which he cannot be wearied; and the noble composition in which it is treated, is at once the longest and the most elaborate among the songs of Zion. The feelings he has expressed are those which

ever prevail in the heart of the believer. Every individual of that "great multitude which no man can number, that, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands, stand before the throne, and before the Lamb," has regarded the book of God just as the Psalmist regarded it; has delighted himself in his commandments, has loved his precepts, and looked upon his testimonies as wonderful.

It does not seem at all necessary to prove, that by the word "testimonies," in the text, the Psalmist means the revealed will of God. Among the many names by which the book of Revelation is distinguished in this Psalm, this is one of the most frequent. It is employed in this sense upwards of twenty times; and it is by no means exclusively in this Psalm that the word is thus employed. The words

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testimony" and "testimonies," occur repeatedly in other parts of Scripture with the same signification. They originally applied, as the word does in the text, to that most important communication of the will of God, which was made to Moses.

But all Scripture is most appropriately distinguished by the same description; and I would invite you to regard the title in its most extensive application, as including the whole Bible, while we examine the expressive words, "Thy testimonies are wonderful."

And this is by no means to do violence to the word. A title that is applied to a part of the word of God may well be applied to all; and that not only because all proceeds from the same Author, and is given with the same object, but because all treats of the same matter, and sets forth the same eternal truth. May the Holy Spirit be with us, while we meditate upon the inspired words, "Thy testimonies are wonderful!"

Now of the various particulars in which we trace the correctness of the description of the Psalmist, there is one which stands greatly prominent :-the Scriptures are surpassingly "wonderful," as coming from God. They are the testimonies of Jehovah, the communication that has been made to the human race by the high and lofty One,

that inhabiteth eternity. They "came not in old time, by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." There cannot surely well be any thing more wonderful, than that the Creator should hold converse with his creatures. That the infinite Being should condescend to communicate the truth to children of the dust; weak in their original constitution, and fallen from the state in which He placed them. Well might the Israelites, who witnessed the transactions of Sinai, say, in astonishment, "We have seen this day, that God doth talk with man, and he liveth." For it might well have been expected, that he would never "shew his glory and his greatness," but to vindicate his power and justice in the destruction of a disobedient race. The more we reflect on the perfections of God, the more we must be disposed to regard it as astonishing, that he should have made to a man a written communication of his will; and when we think of the Divine origin of the Scriptures, we cannot but exclaim with

the Psalmist "Thy testimonies are wonderful."

It would naturally be expected, that a communication made by God would bear strong internal evidence of its origin. The face of Moses, when he came down from the Mount, was still irradiated with the splendour which prevails in the presence of the Father of lights. The book of God might be expected to be illumined with the glory of its Almighty Author, and to bear about it visible tokens of having descended from heaven; and such is really the case. God's testimonies are wonderful. There is a sacredness, and a selfevidence about them, which nothing but wilful blindness can overlook. They are wonderful, from the subjects of which they treat they make known to us truths with which we could never have become acquainted, had not God himself revealed them. They set before us the perfections of God, and they make known to us what it is necessary for us to know of the nature of God. They tell us of the creation of the visible world; of the state in which