only to the inspiration of All Scripture is the miracle of its preservation. The reference to

`the epistle from Laodicea' mentioned in Col. 4: 16 belongs to a different category,

the Colossians were simply advised to interchange epistles but no argument rests upon

this advice as it does in Eph. 3:  Added to this could be the many references in the

O.T. to books not incorporated in the Canon such as "The book of the acts of Solomon"

(I Kings 11: 41), and "the book of Nathan" (II Chron. 9: 29). The reference by Paul to

what he had written afore however is crucial. If we cannot find it and do not possess it,

we can proceed no further with him in his argument. Whatever it was that Paul had

written afore in a few words,  the Ephesians were able to read  for he continued

`whereby when ye read'.  Now Paul had already written seven epistles, namely,

Galatians, I & II Thessalonians, I & II Corinthians, Hebrews and Romans. It is not

very likely that the Ephesians would at that time have seen the epistle to the Hebrews;

they may or may not have seen one or more of the others. But there is no necessity to

look further than Ephesians itself. Occasionally an author will refer his reader back to

some earlier paragraph; he may say `see above' or `c.f. page so and so'. Paul says `as I

wrote afore in a few words'. His subject is "The mystery of Christ", a mystery shared

with other ministers of the truth in other ages but which had been revealed in a

superlative degree to the Apostles and Prophets.  What is this "Mystery of Christ"?

As an initial contribution to the subject, we use the remainder of our space to present

the reader with an interpretation of Psa. 8:, and the heading of Psa. 9: ("Upon

Muth-labben") and with the knowledge thus gained, we will pursue the matter further in

a subsequent article.

These words, so full of suggestion and meaning for the believer, we hope to show

belong to the eighth Psalm, and associate the Mystery of Christ (Eph. 3: 4) with Adam,

the figure of Him that was to come (Rom. 5: 14). Our enquiry relates particularly to the

words that, in the A.V., stand at the head of Psalm 9: and read "Upon Muth-labben",

words which have received a variety of interpretations. We will subdivide our material

under a series of sub-headings, thus:

(1) The place that the words Muth-labben occupy.

The ordinary reader may express some surprise at this heading, for his Bible, whether

he read the A.V. or the R.V. places it at the head of Psalm 9: We believe, however, that

many of our readers (who evidently are not "ordinary readers"!) are already in possession

of the findings of Dr. J. W. Thirtle, of which the following is a summary: He observed

that in the third chapter of Habakkuk and Isa. 38: 10-20, we have two complete

Psalms.  The Psalm falls under three heads: (1) The Superscription; (2) The Psalm

itself; (3) The subscription thus: