The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1902-05-18


ton and enjoyment of the Psalms if we
will picture to
A FEW WORDS ourselves h Q
ABOUT THE PSALMS. circumsta n S
un er which
David wrote them.
David sees some old 1sraelite reading
in absorbed attention a roll which had
been an heirloom in his family for many
genera tons. 1t tells of the call Of Abra-
ham. the deliverance from Egypt, Gods
constant care of his people, the passage
Of the Jordan the coming Messiah, and
the Psalmist sees his delight in the law
OF the Lord and compares him to tree
planted beside the rivers Of water that
"Lringeth forth fruit in his season.
psalm y, and with all his heart pro-
nounces him blessed"
Again, he sees devout worshipper, as
he looks on the sun flooding the land with
it's strong light, or the moon pushing up
her modest face and throwing her silver
mantle over the darkness, and the rapt
worshipper, his heart elevated by the
sight, breaks out in praise and alteration
to that God whose handiwork they are,
who ''spake and it was done; who COM
n,aIlded and it stood fast
But the Psalnist is at his best when
he sees God in the sanctuary: THY way,
O God, is in the sanctuary psalm eiNxVil,
13); the Lord Ioveth the gates of Zion
mere than all the dwellings of Jacob
psalm lxxxvii, y. God gets nearer then.
and his blessing is bestowed on large
number. There is much, much OF brother
illness in sanctuary blessings. Others
share them with US, and the joy in our
brothers eye and heart is responded to
by our own and thus doubled. The bro
therliness Of Peter and John has a beau
titul illustration in the fact that they
vent up into the temple to pray together
Let us read together the 10Th Psalm,
especially those bursts of praise and con-
fdence in the 9Th and 18th verses; also
the 4Sth Psalm especially the 18th and
18th verses. If we do not get a blessing,
pressed down, heaped up, running over,
then our hearts must be sadly unrespon-
sive-badly out Of tune.-Religious Her
aid.
Speaking of the work of bishops in the
Episcopal Church, the Southern Church
man says:
Our attention has
fOvERWORKED been called specifically
BISHOPS. to this fact by the
statement in the papers
n few days ago that during a service
Bishop Potter had tainted in the chancel
from the effects of overworlz. And the
wonder is not that one man has tempo
raliiy fallen in the traces from the strain
that is laid on him and the demands that
he has to meet, but that many men go
Oh, year after year, standing this strain
and meeting these requirements and still
keeping up under their work. The can
ons require that every bishop shall visit
every church in his jurisdiction at least
once in every three years; but a law far
stronger than any canon-the law of pop
rlar demand and working necessity-has
made the demand upon the bishops that
they shall visit practically every charge
in their dioceses at least once a year.
ara in some cases even oftener than, this.
This too, IS only one of a dozen or more
demands on their time and energy. But
consider what this demand alone signi-1
fies in certain cases. The bishop of New
York has two hundred and forty four par
ishes in, his diocese, not counting chari-
table and other institutions and mission
stations. So that, at a low estimate, he
must make some three, hundred vista
tons a year The bishop Of Pennsylvania
haa one hunderd and ninety-six parishes
and missions in. his diocese. The bishop
of Massachusetts has two hunderd and
twenty-five. But these are comparative
II compact dioceses. and there are much
worse cases. The bishop of Southern Vir-
g;nia, for instance, has a diocese some
six funderd miles long by two hundred
wide, and over this territory he has
scattered some two hundred and eighteen
parishes and missions; and many of these
are off all railroad lines and have to be
reached by private conveyance.