hetic; they suggest supernatural dealings and a heavenly calling.
She is "Israel," heiress of him who "persevered with God" and won the
blessing; she is the "seed of Abraham," in which it was promised that
"all the nations of {76} the earth should be blessed"; she is "Sion,"
the "stronghold," "Jerusalem," name of ideals, "vision" or "possession"
or "foundation"--"of peace"! It is as this sacred congregation, this
_ecclesia_, that the nation rejoices in the Psalms in her calling and
illumination, sorrows over her failures, prays in her warfare, waits
for her glory.

It is not surprising that the Catholic Church recognised here her own
portrait, or that the outlines sketched in the Psalter have been filled
with light and colour and detail during the Christian centuries. The
Catholic Church instinctively felt herself to be the true successor of
the Israel of the Psalms. The ancient titles were retained, but in a
fuller meaning. To S. Paul the Church is the "Israel of God" (Gal. vi.
16) in contrast to the "Israel after the flesh." The author of the
Epistle to the Hebrews tells his Christian readers that they are "come
unto Mount Sion" (xii. 22). S. Peter applies to the Church the old
titles given to Israel in the Law, "an elect race, a royal priesthood,
a holy nation" (1 Peter ii. 9). S. John in the Apocalypse sees the new
Jerusalem, having not only the names of "the twelve apostles of the
Lamb" on her jewelled foundations, but the names of the "twelve tribes
of the children of Israel" on {77} her gates of pearl (Rev. xxi. 12,
14). Old things had passed away, the sacred people of God remained,
but no longer confined to the narrow boundaries of Palestine, nor to
the dispersed descendants of Abraham: her children were "princes in all
lands," all who were "of faith" were counted her seed. The Church knew
herself to be the Israel of the future, custodian of a greater
treasure, called to a grander work.

The Psalter indeed demands this higher interpretation. Just as the
portrait of the Righteous One would have been an unfulfilled ideal had
not Christ made it His own, so the glowing descriptions of Israel would
have been but pious dreamings had not the Catholic Church risen up out
of the fallen tabernacle of David. As the songs of the Temple falter
and die away, the new spirit of praise clothes itself in the ancient
forms. "From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs,
Glory to the Righteous" (Is. xxiv. 1