Early Church Fathers 1. The Psalm which has just been sung is
short, if we look to the number of its words, but of deep
interest in its thoughts. ...The subject of song and praise in
that Psalm is a city, whose citizens are we, as far as we are
Christians: whence we are absent, as long as we are mortal:
whither we are tending: through whose approaches, undiscoverable
among the brakes and thorns that entangle them, the Sovereign of
the city made Himself a path for us to reach it. Walking thus in
Christ, and pilgrims till we arrive, and sighing as we long for
a certain ineffable repose that dwells within that city, a
repose of which it is promised, that "the eye of man hath never
seen" such, "nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into his heart
to conceive;" let us chant the song of a longing heart: for he
who truly longs, thus sings within his soul, though his tongue
be silent: he who does not, however he may resound in human
ears, is voiceless to God. See what ardent lovers of that city
were they by whom these w