it expresses a single thought or sentiment, as that (Psalm cxxxiii.) describing the beauty of brotherly union, or as that (Psalm xxiii.) which paints trust in God like that of a sheep in his shepherd.  Of the same sort is the fifteenth Psalm, “Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle?” the twenty-ninth, a description of a thunderstorm; the sixty-seventh, “O God, be merciful to us and bless us”; the eighty-fourth, “How lovely are thy tabernacles”; and the last Psalm, calling on mankind to praise God in all ways.

It is a striking fact that these Hebrew lyrics, written long before the foundation of Rome, and before the time of Homer, should be used to-day in Christian worship and for private devotion all over the world.

In speaking of the Vedas and the Avesta we said that in such hymns and liturgies the truest belief of a nation can be found.  What men say to God in their prayers may be assumed to express their practical convictions.  The Jewish religion is not to be found so surely in its Levitical code as in these national lyrics, which were the liturgy of the people.[358]

What then do they say concerning God?  They teach his universal dominion.  They declare that none in the heaven can be compared to him (Psalm lxxxix.); that he is to be feared above all gods (Psalm xcvi.).  They teach his eternity; declaring that he is God from everlasting to everlasting; that a thousand years in his sight are as yesterday; that he laid the foundations of the earth and made the heavens, and that when these perish he will endure; that at some period they shall be changed like a garment, but that God will always be the same (Psalm xc., cii.).  They teach in numerous places that God is the Creator of all things.  They adore and bless his fatherly love and kindness, which heals all our diseases and redeems our life, crowning us with loving-kindness, pitying us, and forgiving our sins (Psalm ciii.).  They teach that he is in all nature (Psalm civ.), that he searches and knows all our thoughts, and that we can go nowhere from his presence (Psalm cxxxix.).  They declare that he protects all who trust in him (Psalm xci., cxxi.), and that he purifies the heart and life (Psalm cxix.), creating in us a clean heart, and not asking for sacrifice, but for a broken spirit (Psalm li.).

These Psalms express the highest and best moments of Jewish life, and rise in certain points to the level of Christianity.  They do not contain the Christian spirit of forgiveness, nor that of love to one’s enemy.  They are still narrowed to the range of the Jewish land and nation, and do not embrace humanity.  They are mountain summits of faith, rising into the pure air and light of day from hidden depths, and appearing as islands in the ocean.  They reach, here and there, the level of the vast continent, though not broad enough themselves to become the home of all races and nations.

There is nothing in the Vedas, nothing in the Avesta, nothing in the sacred books of Egypt, or the philosophy of Greece and Rome, which so unites the grandeur of omnipotence with the tenderness of a father toward his child.