high and the kings of the earth upon the earth." (Isaiah xxiv. 21.)

(2.) Take them as the Church's cry. The saints have been specially made to feel the oppression of the evil judges, "wearing out the saints of the Most High." They see the increasing misrule over the earth, and they cry, ARISE. They see the needy and the orphan suffering, and they cry, ARISE! They hear the groans of creation, and they cry, ARISE! They feel the universal shakings, all things out of course, and they cry, ARISE! They mark the growth of Antichrist, and they cry, ARISE! They long to see a peaceful, happy, holy, well-governed world, and they cry, ARISE! (See Ps. vii. 6; xliv. 26; lxviii. 1; cii. 13.) Thus it resembles the closing prayer of the Apocalypse, "the Spirit and the Bride say, COME; and it resembles the longing of the spouse, "Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of spices." (Cant. viii. 14.) As if they would say, "O thou whose name is truly GOD, who alone art worthy of the name, who alone can be Jehovah's representative and vicegerent, arise, judge the earth, for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory."

For eighteen hundred years He has been sitting: He is afar off: He interferes not. Only once has He arisen, and that was when his martyr Stephen was falling under the stones of his enemies (Acts vii. 56); just as He shall yet arise when his little band of believing witnesses are falling under the sword of their persecutors. But, since then, He has not arisen. He allows matters to take their course. Sentence against an evil work is not speedily executed. He lingers still; for it is the mercy-seat which He now occupies, and that to which He comes is the throne of judgment. His lingering is in love,-deep, vast, unutterable love,-love that survives many a rejection,-love that coldness, hatred, rebellion, have not quenched,-love that leans down in sad fondness over its unworthy objects, and yearns with more than parental tenderness over this vile, but still well-beloved earth. What a message does this lingering bring to this unprepared world, that rejects his grace and refuses to be blest,-that lingers on in its Sodom-plains in spite of warning and entreaty. He lingers in love; man lingers in hatred. His lingering is the expression of his willingness to bless; man's lingering is the expression of his determination not to be blest. Everything on earth-each object, each event, each passing day-has a voice which says, Arise: yet He lingers. The world's long misery and misrule say, Arise: yet He lingers. The groans of creation say, Arise: yet He lingers. The cruelty and

selfishness of earth's mighty ones say, Arise: yet He lingers. The tears of his suffering Church say, Arise: yet He lingers. The sighing of scattered Israel says, Arise: yet He lingers. Each sad sick-bed, each cold death-bed, each bitter parting, each opening grave, says, Arise: yet He lingers. Each new tumult, each war, each revolution, says, Arise: yet He lingers. Each wasting pestilence or famine, each dark storm or wasteful earthquake, each smoking battle-field or dreary dungeon, says, Arise: yet He lingers. Each swoln river, each tossing wave, each frost-bound plain, each snow-wrapt mountain, each heavy cloud, each leafless tree, says, Arise: yet He lingers.

Not that He heeds not the groans of creation or the voice of his turtle-dove that sits lonely in her olive-grove, cowering beneath the wintry blast and sighing for spring; Not that He has not "respect to his covenant," or loves to see the dark places of the earth full of the habitations of cruelty. No; it is in love that He lingers. It is because He has no pleasure in the death of the sinner, no desire to hasten on the last withering curse, no delight in pouring out the viols of his wrath upon a heedless world,-a world that has had the curse and the blessing presented, yet has chosen the curse; a world that, rather than have God for its governor and Christ for its king, will risk the devouring fire and brave the horrors of the darkest night that has ever fallen upon earth, and encounter the eternal ruin which must be its irreversible and unendurable doom.

But the cry proceeds, "Judge the earth!" These rulers have failed to judge it, though thou hast tried them long. Judge thou it. Nothing but this will do. A change of law will not do; reforms will not do; remodelling of constitutions will not do; republics will not do. Only one thing will do a change of dynasty! Thou must come and displace all these rulers. There is no remedy for a ruined and misgoverned earth but one. THOU must ascend its throne: THOU, its own true king, long-expected, long-desired. Thou must take the sceptres from the hands of these misruling monarchs, and reign thyself in righteousness.*

*To judge, according to Scripture usage, means four things:-1. To hold a judicial court for the trial of the accused: Exod. xviii 13, 16, 22; Dan. vii. 10; Ps. cix. 7; Isa. xvi. 5; Rom. xiv. 10. 2. To execute vengeance. 1 Sam. iii. 13; 2 Chron. xx. 12; Ps. cxlix. 9; Ezek. vii. 3; viii. 27; Rev. xviii. 8; xix. 2, 11. 3. To vindicate the righteous: Deut. x. 18; Judg. ii. 16-18; Ps. vii. 11; x. 18; lxxii. 2; ciii. 6; Prov. xxix. 14; Isa. i. 17; Jer. xxii. 16. 4. To rule, or reign: Judg. iv. 4; x. 2; xii. 7.

This, then, is our poor world's only hope, its one resource; all else is vain. There is nothing to fall back upon but this, in the midst of that anarchy that is unknitting the communities of earth: this is the only anchor that can hold us fast in the midst of the storm that is at hand. We have a Judge, we have a King. Though the world's judges and kings should all be found unfaithful, we have One whose faithfulness has been proved, and to whom we look forward as the great successor of them all. They have been proved and tried, but it is found that they cannot be trusted with the world's rule. It has been a long trial, a patient one on the part of God: He has given them every advantage, every conceivable opportunity of doing well and fulfilling their stewardship. But it has been demonstrated by ages of history that they are not fit for rule; they have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; their trial is just about to close. The great demonstration of ages as to man's total incapacity to rule is now nearly consummated; the evidence is summing up, and the decision will soon be given. Then shall the handwriting be seen upon every palace, "Mene, tekel;" and the whole world shall read it, written legibly by the finger of God.

What are the thoughts of our statesmen and men of the world in these days? They are thoughts of bewilderment, perplexity, and trouble. The wisest of them are utterly confounded. They see no hope. Nothing seems to lie before them but an era of war, bloodshed, anarchy, wretchedness, calamity. Of anything better they have no real expectation. The evil, they think, may be repressed and restrained for a few years; but, ere long, it must take its unobstructed course. And they tremble while they strive to calculate or conjecture what that course may be, for they see no dawn beyond the night, no calm beyond the storm; the evil is too great and too wide to be ultimately crushed by any resources that they are acquainted with. It may not be quite ripe for the outburst, but that is all that they can say. They know of no balm for the world's bruises, no binding up for its running sores, nothing wherewith to staunch its ever-bleeding wounds. In all their State policy and diplomatic wisdom, they know nothing that can re-knit its broken members, nothing to heal the sickness under (See the Book of Judges throughout, in which book we have the best illustration of what the meaning of judging really is); 1 Sam. ii. 10; Ps. ix. 8; xcvi. 13; cx. 6; Isa. ii. 4; xi. 3; xxxii. 1, 16; xlii. 1–4; Jer. xxiii. 5; xxxiii. 15.

which it is wasting away; they can devise nothing for bringing back its lost peace or order or obedience or prosperity. These seem gone for ever. Their hearts fail them for fear, and for looking after the things that are coming on the earth. It is a sad and thankless thing now to hold the reins of government, for the foundations of the earth are out of

course.

But the thoughts of the saint are those of hope and cheering anticipation; he sees, indeed, a world falling to pieces, but he sees a hand ready to reconstruct and reconstitute and bless it with peace and order and stability far greater than it has yet enjoyed. For he has promise of a glorious era still to come; and he can plead, "Arise, and judge the earth, for thou shalt inherit all nations;" that is, There is a promise to thee that it shall be so, and on this promise I rest, expecting the day when the inheritance of the earth shall be thine. (Ps. ii. 8.) He sees unrighteousness and oppression on the one hand, and anarchy, sedition, insubordination on the other but he looks peacefully beyond all these to the day of order and obedience and holiness and universal joy. He knows the remedy that shall, ere long, be applied to the world's festering wounds, and he pleads for its speedy application. He sees, and that not afar off, the coming of Him who is to deliver creation from its bondage of corruption, who is to break in pieces the oppressor, who is to set up a righteous throne on earth, and, with his risen saints, reign over a restored creation, a holy world.* And in taking up

* In a work entitled, "Short Meditations on the Psalms," the following remarks occur:-"We may add, on this Psalm, that it helps us to see the contrast between the past and present dispensations. Then it was that God constituted earthly gods, or judges, representatives of his power and government, among his own people. But now it is the Son sent forth from heaven, full of grace and truth; not again the representative of judgment in the world, but the minister of grace to the world. A judge, or earthly god, was the expression of the time then; the Son of the Father, full of grace to sinners, is the expression of the time now. But judges, or earthly gods, are still owned as of God. This Psalm assumes that, for it exhibits their removal when the Lord takes the kingdom in the latter day. But they do not form the character of this dispensation. Grace to sinners does that." (P. 103.) If “judges, or earthly gods, are still owned as of God," how can the present dispensation be contrasted with the former in this respect? If they had ceased when Christ came, it might have been so. They do not form the character of the dispensation." Nor did they ever do so. What! Did the existence of kings "form the character" of the Jewish dispensation? What idea can the author have of the Jewish dispensation? Or are kings and rulers mere "representatives of judgment," and not of mercy? Has rule or kingship

66

these closing words of a Psalm, he is at once carried back to that other which celebrates the coming reign:

O God, give thy judgments to the king,
And thy righteousness to the son of the king.
He will judge thy nation with righteousness,
And thy poor ones with judgment.

The mountains shall bring peace to the nation,
And the hills, with righteousness.

He shall judge the poor of the nation,
He shall save the sons of the needy one,
And shall crush the oppressor.

They shall fear thee along with the sun
And before the moon,

Generations without end.

He shall descend like rain upon

As showers that water the earth.

the mown grass:

In his days shall flourish the righteous one;

And abundance of peace shall be till the moon be not.
And he shall rule from sea to sea,

And from the river unto the ends of the earth.

Before him shall bow down the dwellers in the wilderness; And his enemies shall lick the dust.

The kings of Tarshish and of the sea-coasts shall bring an offering:

The kings of Sheba and Seba shall bring a gift.

Yea, all kings shall bow down to him:

All the Gentiles shall serve him.

For he shall deliver the needy one who cries;

And the poor one, and him for whom there is no helper. He shall have pity upon the poor one and the needy one, And the souls of the needy will he save.

From fraud and from violence he will redeem their soul: And precious shall be their blood in his eyes.

nothing to do with grace? What idea can the author have of rule or judgment? Certainly not a scriptural one, else he would never have made such a statement. And lastly, how is it possible to bring out a contrast between these two things, kingship and grace; saying, kingship marked the one dispensation, grace the other! How incongruous! Just as if one were to say, "The early history of Britain is marked by the rule of kings, but the history of the world now is marked by the circulation of Bibles." Besides, this Psalm has special reference to the present dispensation, not to the Jewish one. The volume contains much precious truth and many valuable hints on the Psalms; but there is a continual overrefinement and over-straining, both in comparisons and contrasts, that darkens instead of clearing up the Word of God.