You cannot but have noticed how often in those parts of the Bible which are likely to be oftenest opened when people look for guidance, comfort, or help in the affairs of daily life, namely, the Psalms and Proverbs, mention is made of the guilt attaching to the _Oppression_ of the poor. Observe: not the neglect of them, but the _Oppression_ of them: the word is as frequent as it is strange. You can hardly open either of those books, but somewhere in their pages you will find a description of the wicked man's attempts against the poor: such as--"He doth ravish the poor when he getteth him into his net." "He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages; his eyes are privily set against the poor." "In his pride he doth persecute the poor, and blesseth the covetous, whom God abhorreth." "His mouth is full of deceit and fraud; in the secret places doth he murder the innocent. Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread? They have drawn out the sword, and bent the bow, to cast down the poor and needy." "They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression." "Pride compasseth them about as a chain, and violence as a garment." "Their poison is like the poison of a serpent. Ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth." Yes: "Ye weigh the violence of your hands:"--weigh these words as well. The last things we ever usually think of weighing are Bible words. We like to dream and dispute over them; but to weigh them, and see what their true contents are--anything but that. Yet, weigh these; for I have purposely taken all these verses, perhaps more striking to you read in this connection, than separately in their places, out of the Psalms, because, for all people belonging to the Established Church of this country these Psalms are appointed lessons, portioned out to them by their clergy to be read once through every month. Presumably, therefore, whatever portions of Scripture we may pass by or forget, these at all events, must be brought continually to our observance as useful for direction of daily life. Now, do we ever ask ourselves what the real meaning of these passages may be, and who these wicked people are, who are "murdering the innocent?" You know it is rather singular language this!--rather strong language, we might, perhaps, call it-- hearing it for the first time. Murder! and murder of innocent people!-- nay, even a sort of cannibalism. Eating people,--yes, and God's people, too--eating _My_ people as if they were bread! swords drawn, bows bent, poison of serpents mixed! violence of hands weighed, measured, and trafficked with as so much coin! where is all this going on? Do you suppose it was only going on in the time of David, and that nobody but Jews ever murder the poor? If so, it would surely be wiser not to mutter and mumble for our daily lessons what does not concern us; but if there be any chance that it may concern us, and if this description,