254 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1870- 



acteristic shape and substance. The most notable example 

 of this is, of course, the idea of the rr&ttD. The Messiah 

 of the prophets and the psalms is the ideal Davidic King, 

 and he appears as swaying a visible monarchy over the 

 Jews and the dependent nations (Amos ix. n, 12). His 

 throne is obviously conceived as set up on Mount Sion 

 (Is. xi., cf. Is. ii. 2 sqq.). The nations bring tribute to him 

 (Ps. Ixxii.). He goes out to battle, and the Lord at his 

 right hand smites hostile kings before him (Ps. xlv., ex.), 

 although from another point of view he appears as the 

 Prince of Peace. In short, his features are those of 

 David or Solomon, cleansed from all stain of imperfec 

 tion, elevated into ideal majesty and illuminated by the 

 unchanging light of God s presence. We are so accustomed 

 to apply one by one the prophetic lineaments of the 

 Messiah to the person of Christ, that we seldom ask 

 ourselves what picture of the Messiah as a whole the Old 

 Testament saints were able to put together from the 

 scattered hints of prophecy. No doubt the fragmentary 

 character of the old revelation which the New Testament 

 so distinctly recognises (n-oXvpiepus) , left much to be filled 

 up by every one according to his own spiritual insight, 

 or (it might be) his own carnal fancy ; but the slowness 

 of the apostles to adjust their preconceived notion to the 

 reality revealed in Christ Jesus, surely shows something 

 more than a merely personal dulness of heart. It proves 

 that the whole dispensation in which they had been 

 brought up was so framed, that the idea of the Messiah 

 necessarily appeared in it in a shape by no means obviously 

 coincident with the historical figure of Christ. It is not a 

 sufficient, taken alone it is not even an accurate, repre 

 sentation of our Saviour to view Him as the idealised 

 David. But it is true that all that a second David could 

 have done for Israel, Christianity has done, and continues 

 to do, in a higher and wider sense. Our Lord Himself, if 

 we may judge from the scanty specimens of His exegesis 

 of the Old Testament which the evangelists have preserved 



