egotistic of all races, what wonder that the increasing glories of the kingdom under his son should have developed that hope to such an extent as to make it ever after the centre of their national thought? For the reign of Solomon was literally an age of gold. There was silver in Jerusalem, as stones, and cedars as sycamores. We note the confident tone of Psalm ii., which was probably written in consequence of insurrectionary cabals at the time of his accession. How must this conviction of the immeasurable superiority of the theocratic king over all possible combinations have been strengthened by each succeeding year of a reign so rich in the enjoyment of the fruits of past - victory and the hope of future exaltation! On account of its triumphant tone, this psalm was at one time claimed by the Jews for their Messiah. But such interpretation became distasteful to them, in proportion as the followers of Jesus applied it to the Jewish cabals against their Master.

When we consider in what relation to Jehovah the Hebrew nation always imagined itself, we at once perceive an antecedent probability in favor of such expectations as marked its history. And a prosperous period, like that just now spoken of, would almost inevitably bring such thoughts to the surface. And, consequently, while from one end to the other of the book of Psalms there is not a single reference to a specific Messiah, the whole collection is marked by the most confident expectation of the ultimate and complete triumph. of their national institutions, their extension throughout all lands, and their continuance till the end of time; and this expectation was the joint offspring of their theocratic constitution, and the fact of its astonishing though temporary success. For temporary it was and must have been, from the very nature of the political connection of the Hebrew tribes. They were not a union, but a confederacy, in which there was an unlimited right of secession; and so this wondrous hope which had been born in the home of luxury was nurtured in the dwelling of utter poverty and abasement. Internal dissensions arose, public spirit declined. The sources of Solomon's wealth were cut off, and the kingdoms of Judah

and Israel were hopelessly divided. But this hope remained. It was like a tree, planted by rivers of water, already so stout and strongly fixed that the rushing winds of disappointment and adversity did but make its roots strike deeper and its boughs extend. Everywhere disappointed in the present, what more natural than that the minds of these people should turn to the past, and, consoling themselves with the things which Moses prayed for and David realized, they should look to the future for a time that should eclipse all the hopes of the one and all of the attainments of the other? "Sheer madness," do we say? Not if Jehovah was the God of all the earth, and they his chosen people. As surely as these things were so, so surely he would deliver his people in the end and make their dominion coextensive with his own. This hope, which had been born of prosperity, "increased in fervor in proportion to the misfortunes of the people, and as the successive insults of Assyrian, Macedonian, or Roman, seemed to laugh to scorn all human probability of its accomplishment. The fund of Hebrew hope was as immeasurable as the power of the invisible Sovereign."

It is in the writings of the prophets that we first meet with references to a specific Messiah, through whose instrumentality, when the day of the Lord had passed, the kingdom of blessedness and prosperity should be ushered in. Extending, as these writings do, over a period of four or five hundred years, we should expect to find the views of their authors concerning that kingdom varying widely as determined by the circumstances under which they wrote, and by their particular cast of thought. With all, indeed, it was to be Jehovah's work; but this is the only point on which there is universal agreement, beyond the conviction of its certain coming and its wonderful grandeur and extent. Often it appears that the consummation is to be reached through the ministrations of the priest, judge, or prophet, acting in regular and ordinary ways. In many of the prophets there is no reference whatever to the accomplishment of the hope by a special Saviour. Neither Joel, Obadiah, Zephaniah, Nahum nor Habakkuk, connects that accomplishment with any dis

tinct personality. The same might also be said of the last twenty-seven chapters in Isaiah, which might be called Messianic, as having reference to a triumphant future, though none whatever to an individual helper of their own people; and, of course, no other could be regarded as identical with the generally expected Messiah.

But it was in those degenerate days when Ahaz ruled over Judah, and, the Assyrians having swept away many of the Israelitish people, the remainder banded with the Syrians, and menaced the Holy City, that Isaiah and Micah uttered forth most clearly the promise of a definite deliverer. Even supposing that the famous passage in the ninth chapter of Isaiah, "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder," — allowing this to refer to Hezekiah rather than to the Messiah, in accordance with the opinion of many learned critics,* still the passage in the eleventh chapter is so remarkable, that it must at once have become the centre of Messianic thought, as now of criticism, in regard to this question. "Then shall spring forth a shoot from the stem of Jesse, and a sprout from his roots shall bear fruit. The spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon him; the spirit of wisdom and understanding; the spirit of counsel and might; the spirit of knowledge, and the fear of Jehovah."

As the remembrances of the glory of David's reign contributed more than any thing else to foster the hope which was born of the prosperity of that period and those immediately succeeding, it was most natural that the eyes of the prophet should be turned in the direction of his family, for the deliverer who was to restore, and grace with added splendor, the departed majesty of the state. In the whole circle of Messianic hopes, no feature recurs more constantly than this. From one passage in Ezekiel,† it has been inferred that the prophet expected David himself to return. "And David my

servant shall be king over them, and they shall have one

* Noyes, Ewald, Knobel, and Hitzig hold the contrary opinion.

† xxvii. 24.

shepherd; they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes to do them." So in other places;* so in Hosea iii. 5. But no doubt the meaning is simply a Messiah of the Davidical type. The prophet Nathan had, in the most emphatic way, announced that God would assume a paternal relationship towards David and his seed. "My mercy shall not depart from him as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. And thy house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee thy throne shall be established for ever."+ Again and again this oracle is referred to in the Old Testament, which evidences how much importance was attached to it. Not only the writings of the prophets, but also the apocalyptic and talmudic writings witness that the thought of David and his family was bound up with the Messianic hopes. And to this, also, nearly every page of the Gospels furnishes some evidence.

Let us now briefly gather into one the various threads of prophetic thought as to the distinguishing traits of the Messianic kingdom. The children of Israel, wherever they may be wandering, shall be gathered into one joyful nation in the land of their fathers, and shall no more go out for ever; and there shall no longer be division and enmity between Judah and Israel, no longer a North and South; but the twelve tribes shall be one people, and Jerusalem shall be the centre of their life, and shall stand for ever in the pride of her conscious beauty. Hither every year shall all nations come to the feast of tabernacles, and join in the grand temple worship and in solemn prayer. There shall no longer be idols or idol-worship in all the land. All men shall worship Jehovah; nor that only with fasting and sacrifice, but with the worship of the heart; and at length there shall be universal peace, and this shall extend even to the animal world. "Then ‡ shall the wolf dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid. The calf and the young lion and the fatling shall be together, and a little child shall lead them." Nor would nature remain unchanged through all these changes, nor

*Ezek. xxxiv. 22, 23.

† 2 Sam. vii. 15, 16.

Isa. xi. 6.

would the heavens be still. The stars would shine with fairer ray; the light of the moon should be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun should be sevenfold. And in these times, if ever, should the Christ appear, and, sitting on the throne of David, should "rule the earth with ancestral virtues." * "He shall not judge by the sight of his eyes, nor decide by the hearing of his ears; but with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and decide with equity for the afflicted of the people. He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked."

When we come to details, there is of course much variety, and sometimes contradiction, between the different prophets and different parts of the same. The Messiah is sometimes spoken of as the conqueror of Edom and Philistia, and sometimes of Assyria, but oftener as a Prince of Peace. But here we seem to have simply an earlier and later phase of his character. There was to be world-wide peace when the prowess of Judah had subdued all nations. Many of the prophecies represent his reign as undisturbed by foreign invasion; in Ezekiel we have the invasion of Gog and Magog. According to some, his reign shall be eternal; others speak of his successors. As to the time of the Messianic kingdom, the different writers are any thing but definite or concordant. With most, it is to follow a captivity which is not far in the future. In the captive prophets, it is to follow the return; and the representations of it have a direct moral bearing, being intended to discourage the willingness to remain in captivity generally manifested. No doubt the marvellous insight of the earlier prophets had much to do with the predictions of bondage and restoration; but farther than this the maxim of the preacher, "There is nothing new under the sun," was never a stranger to the Jewish philosophy. With the Rabbins it became a formal doctrine; and they imagined that the future would be but a repetition of the past. It may be that this is characteristic of most prophetic writing. Thus Virgil in the Fourth Eclogue sings,—

* Isa. xi.