Page:The spirit of the Hebrew poetry 1861.djvu/50

 herein embodied has given proof, millions of times repeated, of its reality, and of its efficacy, as a formula of tranquil trust in God, and of a grateful sense of His goodness, which all who do trust in Him may use for themselves, and use it until it has become assimilated to their own habitual feelings. But this process of assimilation can take place only on the ground of certain assumptions, such as these—It is not enough that we read, and often repeat this composition approvingly; or that we regard it as an utterance of proper religious sentiments: this is quite true; but this is not enough: this Psalm will not be available for its intended purpose unless these expressions of trust in the divine beneficence be accepted as warrantable. May not this confident belief in God as the gracious Shepherd of souls be a vain presumption, never realized?—May it not be an illusion of self love? Not so—for we have already accepted the Psalms, of which this is one, as portions of that authentic Holy Scripture which has been given us from above. Thus it is, therefore, that throughout all time past, and all time to come, this Psalm has possessed, and will possess, a life-giving virtue toward those who receive it, and whose own path in life is such as life's path most often is.

Whoever has attained to, or has acquired this thorough persuasion of the reality of Holy Scripture, as given of God, in a sense absolutely peculiar to itself, will stand exempt—or he may so stand exempt, from alarms and suspicions, as if criticism,