Last evening Professor Fay addressed the Christian Association on the "History of the Psalms." It is remarkable that a book written by an alien people several thousand years ago should be adopted by the churches today as the fullest expression of their religious life. The book of Psalms stands forth among similar books of the world, as a national hymn book which contains to a great extent the record of the life of the people.

The exile changed the tone of the Jewish people. Their country was in the main peaceful and they had a cheerfulness that came from feeling that God was on their side. After their exile they were scattered and as aliens were isolated and made to feel the strangeness of their situation. In some cases they were persecuted but not so much as we are apt to think. These persecutions were especially bitter about the second century.

One of the notable things in history is the love of the Jews for Jerusalem. Their longings in exile for their native city run all through the Psalms. In their absence from the temple, they met and talked together; from these meetings arose the services of the synagogues at which it was the custom to have music. Different men were engaged in collecting the songs and finally about the second century all these collections were combined in the book as we have it today. So it contains poetry of all sorts. The Paslter is a record of emotions pressed out of a people under varied experiences.