Fatherhood. The "Lord our Governor" of the PrayerBook entirely loses the meaning. How admirable is Thy Name! OavμaσTóv, "wonderful," as in Isaiah, "His name shall be called Wonderful, the Counsellor." Again our translation "excellent" loses the meaning. 1 Verse 2.-Thy magnificence. Literally, "thy greatness in working" (Gk. μeуаλожρéτeia-splendour in aspect), distinguished from mere "glory" or greatness in fame. Verse 3.-Sidney has it : "From sucklings hath thy honour sprung, Thy force hath flowed from babies' tongue." 2 The meaning of this difficult verse is given by implication in Matt. xxi. 16.3 And again, that verse, like all the other great teachings of Christ, is open to a terrific misinterpretation; *—namely, the popular evangelical one, that children should be teachers and preachers,-(" cheering mother, cheering father, from the Bible true"). The lovely meaning of the words of Christ, which this vile error hides, is that children, remaining children, and uttering, out of their own hearts, such things as their Maker puts there, are pure in sight, and perfect in praise.* Verse 4.-The moon and the stars which thou hast founded-" fundasti "-e0eueλiwo as. ”ἐθεμελίωσας. It is much more than "ordained": the idea of stable placing in space being the main one in David's mind. And it remains to this day the wonder of wonders in all wise men's minds. The earth * Compare the Crown of Wild Olive, § 47 [Vol. XVIII. p. 428]. 1 [Isaiah ix. 6.] 3 [See Rock Honeycomb for Ruskin's notes on Sidney's version.] ["And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?"] [See above, pp. 99, 323; and below, p. 667.] [See Letter 50, § 8 (p. 260).] swings round the sun,-yes, but what holds the sun? The sun swings round something else. Be it so, then, what else? 66 "When I upon the heavens do look, Which all from thee their essence took, When moon and stars my thought beholdeth, Verse 5.-That thou lookest on him; TIOKÉTTY AUTÓν, art a bishop to him." The Greek word is the same in the verse "I was sick and ye visited me."1 Verse 6.-Thou hast lessened him ;-perhaps better, thou hast made him, but by a little, less than the angels: ἠλάττωσας αὐτὸν βραχύ τι. The inferiority is not of present position merely, but of scale in being. Verse 7.-Sheep, and all oxen, and the flocks of the plain: κτήνη τοῦ πεδίου, Beasts for service in the plain traversing great spaces,-camel and horse. "Pecora," in Vulgate, includes all "pecunia," or property in animals.2 Verse 8. In the Greek, "that walk the paths of the seas " is only an added description of fish, but the meaning of it is without doubt to give an expanded sensea generalization of fish, so as to include the whale, seal, tortoise, and their like. Neither whales nor seals, however, from what I hear of modern fishing, are likely to walk the paths of the sea much longer; and Sidney's verse becomes mere satire: "The bird, free burgesse of the aire, Oh Lord, that rul'st our mortal lyne, How through the world thy name doth shine!" 1 [Matthew xxv. 36.] 2 [Compare Vol. XIX. p. 323.] 3 [τὰ διαπορευόμενα τρίβους θαλασσών. In the Vulgate, "pisces maris qui perambulant semitas maris.' In the version on p. 325 Ruskin substitutes "in" for the "through" in the English version.] 11. These being, as far as I can trace them, the literal meanings of each verse, the entire purport of the psalm is that the Name, or knowledge, of God was admirable to David, and the power and kingship of God recognizable to him, through the power and kingship of man, His vicegerent on the earth, as the angels are in heavenly places.1 And that final purport of the psalm is evermore infallibly true,—namely, that when men rule the earth rightly, and feel the power of their own souls over it, and its creatures, as a beneficent and authoritative one, they recognize the power of higher spirits also; and the Name of God becomes "hallowed "hallowed" to them, admirable and wonderful; but if they abuse the earth and its creatures, and become mere contentious brutes upon it, instead of order-commanding kings, the Name of God ceases to be admirable to them, and His power to be felt; and gradually, license and ignorance prevailing together, even what memories of law or Deity remain to them become intolerable; and in the exact contrary to David's-"My soul thirsteth for God, for the Living God; when shall I come and appear before God?" 2 -you have the consummated desire and conclusive utterance of the modern republican: "S'il y avait un Dieu, il faudrait le fusiller." 8 12. Now, whatever chemical or anatomical facts may appear, to our present scientific intelligences, inconsistent with the Life of God, the historical fact is that no happiness nor power has ever been attained by human creatures unless in that thirst for the presence of a Divine King; and that nothing but weakness, misery, and death have ever resulted from the desire to destroy their King, and to have thieves and murderers released to them instead. Also this fact is historically certain, that the Life of God is [See Letter 75, § 4 (Vol. XXIX. p. 57), where Ruskin refers to this summary of the Eighth Psalm and relates it to the Nineteenth.] 2 [Psalms xlii. 2.] [An adaptation of the well-known saying of Voltaire (Epîtres, 96): "Si Dieu n'existait pas, il faudrait l'inventer." Compare, below, pp. 735-736.] [Matthew xxvii.] not to be discovered by reasoning, but by obeying;1 that on doing what is plainly ordered, the wisdom and presence of the Orderer become manifest; that only so His way can be known on earth, and His saving health among all nations; and that on disobedience always follows darkness, the forerunner of death. 2 3 13. And now for corollary on the eighth Psalm, read the first and second of Hebrews, and to the twelfth verse of the third, slowly; fitting the verse of the psalm"lunam et stellas quæ tu fundasti," with "Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundations of the earth"; and then noting how the subjection which is merely of the lower creature, in the psalm, becomes the subjection of all things, and at last of death itself, in the victory foretold to those who are faithful to their Captain, made perfect through sufferings; their Faith, observe, consisting primarily in closer and more constant obedience than the Mosaic law required," For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received its just recompense of reward, how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" The full argument is: "Moses, with but a little salvation, saved you from earthly bondage, and brought you to an earthly land of life; Christ, with a great salvation, saves you from soul bondage, and brings you to an eternal land of life; but, if he who despised the little salvation, and its lax law (left lax because of the hardness of your hearts), died without mercy, how shall we escape, if now, with hearts of flesh, we despise so great salvation, refuse the Eternal Land of Promise, and break the stricter and relaxless law of Christian desert-pilgrimage?" And if these threatenings and promises still remain obscure to us, it is only because we have resolutely refused to obey the orders which were not obscure, and quenched the Spirit which was already given. How far the world [See "Readings in Modern Painters," § 77 (Vol. XXII. pp. 535-536). Compare also pp. 156, 343.] [Psalms lxvii. 2.] [Hebrews i. 10; later references in § 13 are to ibid., ii. 10, 2, 3.] around us may be yet beyond our control, only because a curse has been brought upon it by our sloth and infidelity, none of us can tell; still less may we dare either to praise or accuse our Master, for the state of the creation over which He appointed us kings, and in which we have chosen to live as swine. One thing we know, or may know, if we will, that the heart and conscience of man are divine; that in his perception of evil, in his recognition of good, he is himself a God manifest in the flesh; that his joy in love, his agony in anger, his indignation at injustice, his glory in self-sacrifice, are all eternal, indisputable proofs of his unity with a great Spiritual Head; that in these, and not merely in his more availing form, or manifold instinct, he is king over the lower animate world;' that, so far as he denies or forfeits these, he dishonours the Name of his Father, and makes it unholy and unadmirable in the earth; that so far as he confesses, and rules by, these, he hallows and makes admirable the Name of his Father, and receives, in his sonship, fulness of power with Him, whose are the kingdom, the power, and the glory, world without end." 3 14. And now we may go back to our bees' nests, and to our school-benches, in peace; able to assure our little Agnes, and the like of her, that, whatever hornets and locusts and serpents may have been made for, this at least is true, that we may set, and are commanded to set, an eternal difference between ourselves and them, by neither carrying daggers at our sides, nor poison in our mouths: and that the choice for us is stern, between being kings over all these creatures, by innocence to which they cannot be exalted, or more weak, miserable and detestable than they, in resolute guilt to which they cannot fall. 15. Of their instincts, I believe we have rather held too high than too low estimate, because we have not enough 1 [Compare Ruskin's explanation of an inscription on the mosaics of St. Mark's, Vol. XXIV. pp. 302-304.] 2 [Matthew vi. 13, and Ephesians iii. 21.] 3 [See above, p. 308.] |