V

The royal Psalmist alludes to both circumstances in one of his triumphant odes: "He maketh my feet like hind's feet, and setteth me upon my high places." He might also refer, in the first clause, to the uncommon solidity and hardness of its hoof, which Virgil compares to brass, which enables it to tread, with ease, the pointed rocks." It may seem, from the words of David, that the female possesses a surer foot and a harder hoof than the male, for he ascribes to himself the feet of the hind; but since natural historians have not remarked any difference between them, it is probable he was led to the choice from some other cause, which it may not be easy to discover. The prophet Habbakuk, in the close of his prayer, has the same allusion, and nearly in the same words: "He will make my feet like hind's feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places." While the Psalmist contents himself with referring merely to the firmness and security of his position," he setteth me upon my high places,” the prophet encourages himself with the persuasion, that his God would conduct him through every dan. ger, with the same ease and safety as the hind walks among the cliffs of the rock.

X

To sureness of foot, the hind adds extraordinary swiftness. It bounds, with surprising agility, more than fifty feet; it is therefore with admirable propriety and force, the spouse compares the sudden manifestations of her Saviour's love and power, to the bounding of the hart on the summits of the mountains: "The voice of my beloved! behold he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping

Psa. xviii, 33.

* Hab. iii, 19.

w Æneid. lib. vi, 1. 802.

y Bochart. Hieroz. lib. iii, p. 879. Varro de Re Rust, lib. ii, cap. 3.

upon the hills."* To give us some idea of the joy and triumph which his appearance in human nature, his resurection from the dead, and the establishment of his kingdom in all its glory, should produce in the hearts of perishing sinners, the prophet Isaiah borrows the same figure: "Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing."

b ײ

The swiftness of this animal in running, is not less remarkable. Xenophon says, that the celerity of the young hart, when it is alarmed by the absence of its mother, is incomparable :

τότε ταχος υδενι εικος εςι των τηλικέτων νεύρων.

The rapidity with which the stag flies before the hunter, furnishes Virgil with this figure:

alia de parte patentes

Transmittunt cursu campos atque agmina cervi

Pulverulenta fuga glomerant, montesque relinquunt."

Æneid. lib. iv. I. 153.

"On the other side, the stags scour along the open plains, and flying, thicken their mingled troops involved in clouds of dust, and forsake the mountains."

This circumstance has not escaped the notice of the spouse, who addresses our Lord in these terms: "Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or a young hart, upon the mountains of spices."

The hart, naturally of a hot and arid constitution, suffers much from thirst in the oriental regions. He therefore seeks the fountain or the stream with intense desire, particularly when his natural thirst has been aggravated by the pursuit of the hunter. Panting and braying, with eagerness he precipitates himself into the

a Song ii, 8.

b Isa. xxxv, 6.

C

Song viii, 14.

d

river, that he may quench at once the burning fever which consumes his vitals, in its cooling waters. No circumstance can display more forcibly the ardent breathings of divine love in the soul of a true believer; and the holy Psalmist has availed himself of it with admirable propriety and effect, in the description of his religious feelings, when exiled from the house of God, and a dejected wanderer near the sources of the Jordan : "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?" Thus importunate are the desires of the genuine saint, thus earnestly he longs after communion with his God; he feels impatient at a distance from the sanctuary, and finds it impossible to be satisfied with any enjoyment beneath the sensible manifestations of his Redeemer's favour.

The name of the female is inscribed in the title of the twenty-second Psalm : " To the chief musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, or the hind of the morning." These word have greatly divided the sentiments of commentators; and will probably continue to do so, till we obtain a deeper insight into the mysteries of revelation, than is intended for the present state of our being. The Jewish writers, who have been followed by many of the Greek fathers, consider them as a metaphor intended to express the early assistance which the circumstances of our Saviour required: and render them, "For obtaining speedy assistance." But, in the Sacred Scriptures, the original term Aijeleth and its plural, is so uniformly employed to denote the hind or female deer, that the literal meaning of the phrase ough undoubtedly to be preferred. Bochart, interpreting the

a Bochart. Hieroz. lib. iii, cap. 4, p. 885.

words literally, seems inclined to the opinion, that this psalm is entitled, The hind of the morning; because it is composed in the measure of a sacred ode, then well known among the Jews, which began with these words, and was meant to be sung to the same tune. Besides, the character in the text is properly given to the hind, because she starts with the dawn, suckles her young, and prepares their place where they are to rest through the day, after which, she takes her station at a little distance, and watches over their slumbers. Others, with more probability, think the royal Psalmist refers to his Son and Lord, whose sufferings he describes; who, in the eighth chapter of the Song, is compared to the swift hind upon the mountains of spices, as Naphtali had been long before, to a hind let loose. Like the hind of the morning, that shakes off her slumbers with the earliest dawn, to suckle and guard her young one at the risk of her life,—the Saviour appointed from eternity the deliverer of his people, came forth immediately after the fall, to commence the work of our salvation; and when the fulness of time was come, appeared in our nature to finish it in his sufferings and death: " Then the dogs compassed him, the assembly of the wicked inclosed him; they pierced his hands and his feet.”

It is well known that the hind goes with young eight months, and brings forth her fawn in the beginning of autumn. Why then does Jehovah address these interrogations to Job: "Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? Or canst thou mark when the hinds do calve? Canst thou number the months that they fulfil? Or knowest thou the time when they bring forth." Could Job be ignorant of circumstances Buffon's Nat. Hist. vol. iv, p. 86. Job xxxix, 1.

which were obvious to all the shepherds in the east, who had numerous opportunities of observing the habits and manners of these creatures? It is obvious, that Jehovah could not refer to the mere speculative knowledge of these facts, but to that which is proper to himself, by which he not only knows, but also directs and governs all things. This is confirmed by the use of the verb (w) shamar, which signifies to observe, to keep, or to guard: Knowest thou the time when the wild goats bring forth, the parturition of the hinds dost thou guard? Without the protecting care of God, who upholds all his works by the word of his power, the whole race of these timid creatures would soon be destroyed by the violence of wild beasts, or the arts of the hunter. It is with great propriety, says one of the ancients, that Jehovah demands, "The birth of the hinds dost thou guard ?" for, since this animal is always in flight, and with fear and terror always leaping and skipping about, she could never bring her young to maturity without such a special protection. The providence of God, therefore, is equally conspicuous in the preservation of the mother and the fawn; both are the objects of his compassion and tender care; and consequently, that afflicted man had no reason to charge his Maker with unkindness, who condescends to watch over the goats and the hinds.

It seems to be generally admitted, that the hind brings forth her young with great difficulty; and, so much appears to be suggested in the third verse of the same chapter: "They bow themselves, they bring forth their young ones, they cast out their sorrows." But if Pliny, and other natural historians, are worthy of credit, divine providence has been graciously pleased to provide certain