us.

more of high principle and strict justice in the judgmentseats of our kingdom than has been exhibited in any nation of the earth. Bribery, legal persecution, deliberate unrighteousness are things which dare not lift up their heads among And doubtless for this we are favoured of Him who loves righteous judgment. But still the general characteristic of government in our world is such as we have described above. And so it will be till the Lord come. Reformation of abuses, change of constitutions, the force of public opinion, are much insisted on as quite sufficient to accomplish all that is needed. But in vain. Man's selfishness remains the same, and no reforms can reach the real seat of the disease. Yet mark how calmly these words of the Psalm are spoken, and how simple and unexaggerated they are. They have not known, neither will they understand." There is no angry outburst against the unrighteous judges; no furious utterance of vengeance; no bitter execration such as fills men's lips, or breathes through all the journals of our day, selfstyled "liberal." No; the language is that of august and solemn dignity; nay, it is that of mild forbearance and tender pity. They know not, neither will they understand." How like the words of Him who said in the sorrowing language of disappointed affection,-" Ye will not come to me that ye might have life." How like the words of Him who wept over doomed Jerusalem, longing to gather her that would not be gathered; to bless her that would not be blest!

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V. THE CONSEQUENCES.

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Verse 5. All the foundations of the earth shall be moved.

Failing in the discharge of their high trust they bring on the world's day of confusion and disaster. Their abuse of power ends in the ruin of all things. God set them up in order to consolidate and cement and clasp together the different parts of this world. But they fulfil not their office, and the earth becomes clean dissolved, that state of things is introduced which is described by the Prophet Isaiah in his twenty-fourth chapter. The roots of government are torn up; the foundations of the earth are shaken; society is disorganized, decomposed, dissolved! This terrible derangement is here traced by God himself to its true cause, and declared to be the fruit of misgovernment and unrighteous judgment. It is vain for rulers to blame a rebellious and headstrong people; it is vain to ascribe the evils of the day to

the wide-sown seeds of infidelity and anarchy among the nations. God will not allow rulers to forget that they themselves are first of all guilty. Had they discharged aright their office and ruled in the fear of God, would there have been now a revolting people, or would there have been heard the cry of nations breathing vengeance? Is it not the misgovernment and oppression of rulers that has generated the explosive force that is now tearing empires asunder, and splitting into a hundred fragments the solid rocks of ancient constitutions and dynasties? This may be a most unwelcome truth, and they who proclaim it may be ranked among the abettors of anarchy. Be it so. It is the truth of God; not the less needed because unwelcome; and it is a truth which in faithfulness we are bound to proclaim, even when most urgently enforcing subjection to the powers that be. That which is dissolving society, which is levelling ranks, which is unknitting communities, which is undermining thrones, which is corroding the strong pillars of empires, which is pouring out defiance against law, is an agency called into being and ripened into strength by the princes of the earth themselves. It is they to whom the world is indebted for the spirit of lawlessness which has infected the very air of earth, and is preparing the way for the Lawless One himself! Every act of misgovernment tells upon the world. It does not end with the wrong inflicted, but spreads itself on every side, and gives birth to an endless train of mighty results. Every act of misrule eats into the very core of social life, snapping some vital tie, dissolving some part of the cement which gives compactness and solid strength to the structure. Not one unrighteous sentence but goes to a future account, and tells ultimately upon the condition of the earth. The oppressor may say, "Oh, it is but a widow, it is but an orphan that is injured; it will go no farther." Ah, but was not the command "defend the poor and fatherless," and therefore not to comply with it is helping to tear up the foundations of the earth. Or the misruler may say, "Oh, it is but a saint that is wronged, or it is but a sect of Christians that will suffer; what matters it?” Ah, but all such deeds are telling fearfully upon the constitution of the kingdom, destroying the social structure, digging a mine not only under the thrones of kings, but under the very foundations of the earth. And shall we hesitate to lay our finger upon the world's fretting sore and trace its present evils to their source? The people are not guiltless. Far from it. Who but a fiend or an atheist would defend the wild outbursts of anarchy such as

France has witnessed? But the rulers are at fault. They have not been a terror to evil-doers, nor a praise to them that do well. They have either perpetrated or winked at enormities. They have hated and proscribed the Bible. They have not taught the people. They have not given the nation a Sabbath. They have exalted Antichrist and done homage to Rome. They have cherished the false Church and frowned upon the true. They have sown the wind, and they are now reaping the whirlwind. With one hand they have torn up the foundation, and with the other they have plucked out the keystone. Need they wonder that the whole arch is falling to pieces above them, and that they find it so vain to endeavour, by scaffolding and underpropping, to prevent the total ruin of a fabric which they themselves had so recklessly undermined?

VI. THE SENTENCE.

Verse 6. I said, Gods are ye,

And sons of the Most High all of you; 8. Surely as man ye shall die,

And as one of the princes shall ye fall,

Such is God's sentence against earth's rulers for their unfaithfulness in office. It is a sentence which has been long on its way to them; its execution has been long deferred d; for with its execution stand connected all the terrors of the day of infinite vengeance to the world. God lingers long, loving to spare, reluctant to smite; not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But long-suffering has its bounds, and righteousness must at length have free course. The higher the elevation the deeper will be the shame and ruin; the greater the trust reposed in them, the more terrible will be the judgment that overtakes them for its non-fulfilment or betrayal. Their station screens them no longer. Their names of honour are no pleas for leniency or respite. Their thrones are no bulwarks, no battlements for defence in the day of evil, but surer marks for the thunderbolts of wrath. "The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down." (Isaiah ii. 10-22. See there the whole picture of ruin; see also Rev. vi. 15, 17.) Let us observe here:

:

He called them Gods,

(1.) The honour conferred by God. and Sons of the Most High, and in so naming them He implies the vast honour put upon them as well as the source of their

dignity and authority. They are God's representatives, on whom He has bestowed His own name. They are made partakers of God's authority, dignity, power on earth. It is He, not themselves,-He, not the people, who has bestowed the honour and delegated the power. These honours and titles are not usurped or self-assumed, nor are they indicative of lordly pride or contemptuous arrogance on the part of the possessor. They are given by God, and as such are to be recognised and reverenced by us. Hence the sin of “speaking evil of dignities," or of uttering contempt against those whom God has set over us, unworthy though they be. Moses was commanded to say to Israel, "Thou shalt not revile the gods nor curse the ruler of thy people; " and Paul thus expressed himself, "I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest, for it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people." (Acts xxiii. 5.) Let us not then scorn the name of kings, yielding to the infidel clamour of these last days. It is God who has given them their seat and name. Let us not fret and chafe at the thought of rank and title and regal state. It is God's will that it should be so; and, did we but see into the nature of things and comprehend the divine ideal of a well-ruled world, we should see that such a state of things is unspeakably the best. Let us not murmur against the rulers of the earth, nor envy them their lofty thrones, nor their purple raiment, nor their jewelled crowns. These are God's giving, not man's usurpation. They are, moreover, types of the dignity and honour yet in store for the redeemed. Kings and priests," a "royal priesthood," such are our names even now; and the glory which they imply is that with which we are to be invested when the true King shall be revealed and the great kingdom shall come.

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(2.) The sentence pronounced. "As man ye shall die; as one of the princes shall ye fall." Ye shall die as other men die, -undistinguished, unheeded, unhonoured, perhaps unwept,not buried in the sepulchres of kings. Ye shall fall like Lucifer, son of the morning, cast out like an abominable branch, (Isaiah xiv. 12,) like Egypt, or Asshur, or Elam, or Meshech, or Tubal (Ezek. xxxii. 17-32); their "graves are set in the sides of the pit, they are slain, fallen with the sword, going down uncircumcised into the nether parts of the earth, bearing their shame with them that go down to the pit."

Who is it then that is shaking the thrones of Europe? God himself! God has risen to call rulers to account, and He is making them feel that it is He who is speaking,

speaking to them in that wild roar of anarchy that is gathering round their palaces. It is not man that is wielding the sword of vengeance. It is not man's might or fury that is accomplishing these scenes of terror and of wonder, that are unfolding themselves. It is God. He has summoned his legions. He has marshalled his hosts. He has unsheathed his glittering sword "bathed in leaven," and is now bringing it down for judgment upon Christendom; nor shall it again be sheathed or cease its work of death till his own right hand and his holy arm have gotten him the victory. There is now no safety, either for rulers or ruled, save by taking the side of God, and ranging under His banner. There is no refuge from the world-wasting tempest save in the clefts of the rock. There is no security from being crushed under the weight of falling thrones, or swept away with crumbling kingdoms, like the chaff of the summer threshing-floor, save by being found in Him who is our shield, our shelter, our hiding-place, our pavilion in the day of storm and battle.

VII. THE CRY.

Verse 8. Arise, O God,

Judge the earth!

For thou shalt inherit all nations.

These words may be the utterance either of a command or a prayer. If they are a command, they are the utterance of the Father addressing the Son; if they are a prayer they are the words of the Church calling on the Son to arise and take to himself his great power and reign.

(1.) Take them as the Father's words. It was He who said, "Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." (Psalm ex. 1.) It is in obedience to the Father's will and in fulfilment of the Father's purpose that he continues to sit there until the time appointed. Then He who said to him "sit" shall say "Arise. The Father calls him by the name of GOD, just as in the 45th Psalm, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever." He is the GOD mentioned in the beginning of our Psalm; it is his name that is given to princes and judges; and when they dishonour that name, then He to whom it belongs arises and vindicates its honour. How soon the Father's voice may be heard saying, "Arise!" and in answer to it, how soon may the Son arise and judge! "The end of all things is at hand." We may daily be expecting "terrible things in righteousness," "the punishing of the host of the high ones that are on