triumphant over her enemies, and a world-wide recognition of Jehovah's sole divinity, all peoples thronging to his holy city;' universal peace on earth following storm;' the presence of Jehovah among his redeemed.'

Israel shall become holy and secure. Her saved must indeed have become so, for only those who walk righteously shall endure Jehovah's fires.' The source and means of Israel's righteousness as declared through Jeremiah is Jehovah's new covenant, when he shall write his law on his people's hearts. The same thought is in Ezekiel; when Jehovah shall have gathered his people he will give them a new spirit, and a new heart of flesh, in the place of their heart of stone, that they may keep his statutes; "And they shall be my people, and I will be their God." Zion's sun shall no more go down; Jehovah will be her everlasting light; her people shall be all righteous, they shall inherit the land forever."

Israel's restoration is part of Jehovah's purpose to make her his witness unto all nations. This thought, Israel's when not expressed, is implicit in all the promMediatorial ises of restoration; not for herself alone, but Restora- for all mankind, was she led back to Jerusalem; tion. and this thought forms part of the pictures of her Messianic salvation. In the forty-fifth chapter of Isaiah, Jehovah calls his people to assemble themselves from all the nations of their captivity; then the vision broadens beyond Israel: "Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there

1 Amos ix; Zech. x, 12; viii; Zeph. iii; Jer. iii, 14-18; Is. xi, 10–16; xix, 16-25; xxiv-xxvii; xxxiii; xlix, 14-26; lii, 7-12; lvi, 6, 7; lx; lxvi, 1-8.

Micah iv; Is. ii, 4; xiii, 1-13; xxxiv; lxiii, 1-6; Zeph. i; Hab. iii; Ezek, xxxviii-xxxix; Zech. xii; xiv.

3 Ezek. xxxvii, 26–28; xl-xlviii, see Hab. iii.

4 Is. iv, cf. Zech. xiv, 20, 21.

5 Is. xxxiii, 14, 15.

"Jer. xxxi, 31-34.

↑ Ezek. xi, 17-20; xxxvi, 26, 27. 8 Is. lx, 20, 21.

9 See ante passim, also Is. xxv, 6; li, 1-8; Jer. iii, 14, 17; Zech. viii ; Zeph. iii, 9.

is none else. By myself have I sworn, the word is gone forth from my mouth in righteousness and shall not return, that unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. And at last Israel restored, propheticor speaking in the personality of her servantship-beholds her mission: "The spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon me; because Jehovah hath anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted; hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to the bound; to proclaim an acceptable year of Jehovah, and a day of vengeance of our God; to comfort the mournful ones of Zion, to give them a coronet instead of ashes, oil of joy for the raiment of mourning, a song of praise for a failing spirit, so that men shall call them oaks of righteousness, the plantation of Jehovah for showing himself glorious. And they shall build up the ruins of antiquity, the desolations of the forefathers shall they raise up, and shall renew the ruined cities, the desolations of past generations. And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and aliens shall be your ploughmen and your vine-dressers; but ye-the priests of Jehovah shall ye be called; men shall name you the ministers of our God; the riches of the nations shall ye eat, and of their glory shall ye make your boast. In this final writing of the Exile, the thought is of Israel -now Israel redeemed-all priests, priests unto mankind.

In the desolate days of punishment which were to come and came on Israel for her sins, there would be enough of death and tribulation, mourning and sackcloth, in the land; but the depths of desolation lay not in famine-hunger for food, nor of Jehovah. famine-thirst for drink, but in the famine-want

The Presence

of the words of Jehovah, people running from east to west and not finding them, youths and maidens fainting for the restoring pity of Jehovah which had forsaken land and people.' The absence of Jehovah's 1 Is. xlv, 22, 23. 2 Ib., lxi, Cheyne.

3 See Amos viii, 11.

word, the all-covering desolation, God's face turned from his people, abandonment to unrighteousness and ruin, instead of his protecting arms, this was the bitterest woe of Israel in exile. But hope was to return. After tribulation Jehovah would restore his people, bring them back from captivity and dispersion; and as the thoughts of Israel's restoration brought mingling thoughts of Messianic blessedness, the crowning thought of all was that of Jehovah's guidance, his word returning to his people,' his presence among them once more, in his city and in his people's hearts, as never in their unregenerate times. Jehovah was righteous, only the righteous could seek and find him, could know him; for knowledge of him was righteousness. Only among a wholly righteous people could Jehovah veritably dwell.'

3

Israel had ever thought of her God as with her, most nearly with his servants the prophets. Her iniquities were the only severance. Had she but remained obedient, there had been perennial fulfilment of the promise: "I will walk about in your midst." But this would come in the Messianic time: "Sing and rejoice, O daughters of Zion; for lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith Jehovah. In his majesty will Jehovah be there; "Jehovah is there" shall be the city's name." "Hark, thy watchmen! They lift up their voice; they cry together, for they see eye to eye the return of Jehovah to Zion.'

997

Lines of Messianic thought end in the vision of Jehovah's presence with his people, and as that vision becomes clearer, the thoughts of the human side of Messianic bringing to fulfilment fade or merge in the sense of divine presence working out the salvation of Israel and all mankind. Even before the Exile, the Messiah-King has 2 Cf. Is. lx, 19-22. 3 Lev. xxvi, 12. 5 Is. xxxiii, 21. Through the last chapters of his book, Ezekiel con

1 See Joel ii, 28.

4 Zech. ii, 10.

Ezek. xlviii, 35.

ceives of Jehovah as filling his temple. See e.g., Ez. xliii, 1–7; and cƒ.

xxxvii, 26-28.

7 Is. lii, 7-8.

ceased to embody the divine effecting power, but is rather one among many objects of the divine grace.' In the Exile he has passed from the prophetic mind. There is Jehovah, supreme in righteousness and in the power of righteousness on earth. Beneath the shadow of his arms is Israel, his servant, serving him in a service no longer kingly, but priestly and prophetic, till the thought of service rises to suffering made perfect, and the attributes wherein the servant resembles Jehovah are no longer attributes of kingly power, but of martyr-love. Here again is human agency, corresponding with Jehovah's purpose. Perhaps the thought reverts to the first conception of Immanuel and the Prince of the four names; but the course of thought which clothed that Prince of God with divine power, is replaced by the conception of Jehovah's attributes as divinely present in a perfect, loving, self-sacrificing, atoning Sufferer for men.' Not the power, but the suffering love of God is here brought down to earth. But again and again, with thoughts of perfect regenerate blessedness, there comes the vision of Jehovah's presence in the hearts of men and in his temple, now become a house of prayer for all peoples. The spirit of Jehovah is in his temple and upon the earth, and where so fully as in that Servant whom the prophet's eye beheld in partial vision, that Servant who, through reflecting Jehovah's suffering love, should, as the Messiah-King, but in a way as yet undisclosed to Israel, reflect Jehovah's power of righteousness? Thus should the human spirit, perfect in love, perfect in power from God, take to itself Jehovah's attributes, his love, his wisdom, and his power of righteousness, till on earth there should be realized Israel's furthest dim beholden hope in the Word made flesh.

See Jer. xxiii, 5-8; xxxiii, 14-22; and cf. Jer. xxx, xxxi, and ante. Possibly Ezekiel xxxiv, 11-31, speaking of "My servant David" and Zechariah iii, 8, speaking of "my servant Branch" connect the servant of Jehovah with the Messiah-King.

CHAPTER XX.

G

THE PSALTER.

REECE was the land of man in his full range of attribute foolish and sublime. Yet the greatest

Artist Qualities of

Greek sculpture was for the most part religious; and the highest modes of Greek poetry declared the greatness of the gods, or set forth deep problems and principles of human conduct never unrelated to retributive fate and divine punishment. But principles of human conduct had their clear Greece and source in the reflection of man; qualities of the gods were ever ideal images of human traits, and the relations of Greek gods to men had a dramatic interest like that inherent in the more intense situations among mankind.

Israel.

While the Greek beheld gods, nay, created them from the standpoint of man, the Hebrew looked on man from the standpoint of God. God created man in his own image; man's highest qualities were resemblances to God. Rules of human conduct sprang not from human reflection, but were set by God, and stood for principles of his ways. In Palestine as well as Greece man's life was a short span; but in Greece man might be great and wise and noble in himself while life lasted; in Palestine even while he lived, yea, though he live forever, man was nothing in himself, but was all that he was from God. Jehovah was his strength, fear and knowledge of Jehovah was the sum of human wisdom and righteousness. The Hebrew character gathered greatness from its sense of