of mind and attitude, a
change which does not come by education only, nor by any natural
process. There is a hidden wisdom in the Church which to the natural
man is {34} "foolishness" (1 Cor. ii. 14); it can only be learned by
those who humbly set themselves to be taught by the Spirit. This
change, come it suddenly or very slowly, must have its effect upon the
whole man, his intellect, as well as his heart and will. "There is
nothing hid from the heat thereof." Especially will it rule our
attitude towards Holy Scripture. Without such a change neither
historical nor grammatical explanations can make the Scripture sweet or
even intelligible. Not least will our comprehension of the Psalter be
influenced by it. How impossible is it really to say, "Lord, what love
have I unto Thy law," if one has never realised that there is a law of
God, supreme and absolute, to be read in the Scriptures and in the
witness of the Church; and that only in obedience to this law can man
find his true self and "walk at liberty." It is vain to seek to be
critics before we are disciples. And the Psalter is clearly meant for
the initiated, not for him who merely follows the crowd. The Divine
Office, which the Psalter fills and dominates, is the means whereby the
instructed faithful express their unchanging delight in, and loyalty
to, what they have received freely from God. It is not the Church's
message to the unconverted world, nor the voice of man's natural
desires and sympathies, {35} undisciplined by grace. The Catholic
temper, the mind of the Church, is an absolute first principle in the
right use of the Church's book of praise, and the key to its chief
difficulties.

Bearing this in mind, let us endeavour to face, in conclusion, this
moral difficulty of some parts of the Psalter--a difficulty which
undoubtedly causes pain and uncertainty to some who are really devout,
and which has led many to ask for a revised or expurgated Psalter for
the public services. First, there is what appears to be the
self-righteousness of the Psalter. Side by side with the most perfect
expressions of humility and penitence, there are found protestations of
innocence and purity which, if they were merely personal, we should
rightly hesitate to make our own. But the "I" of the Psalter is not
merely personal; it is the collective voice of the Church, and of the
Church in her ideal aspect, such as we confess her in the Creed--"one,
holy, Catholic."