THE

SCATTERED NATION;

PAST, PRESENT, AND IFUTURE.

EDITED BY C. SCII V A R T Z, D.D.,

MINISTER OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, HARROW KOAD.

VOLUME III.

1868.

LONDON:

ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW.

YATES AND ALEXANDER, SYMONDS INN AND CHURCH PASSAGE,
CHANCERY LANE.

THE KING.

The Lord reigneth, He is clothed with Majesty.

The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice.

The Lord reigneth, let the people tremble.

Lift

up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come
in. Who is the King of glory?

"The Prince of Peace" His name shall be called. Of the increase of government and peace no end upon
the throne of David and upon the Kingdom, to order it and to establish it with judgment and with
justice, from henceforth even for ever.

At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow

to the glory of God the Father.

THE kingship of the Messiah is an important, a vast, an inexhaustible subject, for it is everywhere in the Scriptures, especially in those of the Old Testament, plainly and emphatically described. I do not intend to say anything at present on the nature and extent of the kingdom, the struggles it has encountered, the victories it achieves. I pass by in silence the duties resting on its subjects, and the privileges enjoyed by them. I shall limit my observations to one single truth, the appointment of the Christ of God as the King of Kings. But such is the richness of God's testimony to the Messiah, that even this one special part of the vast subject would far exceed the limits of a few articles in this magazine, and we must therefore content ourselves with what is said in a single psalm.

Much might now be written on the particular character of the Psalms, for every book in the Bible has features which distinguish it from all others, the Psalms being the answer of the confessing Church to the revelations given her by her God. The Messianic predictions rest on the prophecies contained in the Pentateuch tered by the dying Jacob (Gen. xlix. 8-12) and the false Balaam (Numb. xxiv. 17—19) ; at the same time they more fully develop these general promises, and add single traits in order to complete the picture of Him who is the bright image of the Invisible.

VOL. III.-NO. xxv.

as ut

and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord

Then, again, it would be very interesting to point out, were it only briefly, how David in his state of humiliation and exaltation, in his troubles and achievements, was a type of Christ-yea, was so led by the God of Israel that he quite loses sight of his own person, and so identifies himself with his son and Lord, that he not only prefigures Him, but speaks and acts in His name. Hence the Messiah is not only called " son of David," but "David," He being the true Israel (Isa. xlix. 3), and the real David in whom all will be realised what was shadowed forth in David his ancestor (Ezek. xxxvii. 24, and Hosea iii. 5), which two prophecies have never yet been fulfilled.

All this, and much more, legitimately falls within the range of this subject, even when narrowed to the teaching of the Psalms; but I must call attention to the seventh chapter of the second Book of Samuel, inasmuch as it is the fundamental promise, the foundation on which all the utterances of David rest. You recollect that David, struck with the contrast between his own palace of cedars, and the tent of curtains where the ark of God resided, proposed to build a temple to the honour of Jehovah. Nathan, the prophet, approved of the king's desire, but was commanded by Jehovah to tell the king that he was not allowed to carry into execution the desire of his heart, and the prophet was ready to acknowledge his mistake, and the king to accept

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