xv. A POTTERY MOUND. 277 



the stone of the pottery-crusher falling upon the broken 

 earthenware falling as from the height of heaven with 

 fearful momentum, and by a mighty hand rolled back- 

 wards and forwards over the fragments, grinding them to 

 powder, so that there could be no possibility of restora- 

 tion. To reject Christ would ruin them as a nation ; but 

 to be rejected by Him would destroy them utterly and 

 for ever. 



The last allusion to this peculiar image is in the pro- 

 mise given to the Church of Thyatira " And he shall 

 rule them with a rod of iron ; as the vessels of a potter 

 shall they be broken to shivers, even as I received of my 

 Father." The reference here is obviously to the second 

 Psalm. The power conferred upon the Messiah will be 

 delegated to all His victorious saints. When the true 

 David is shepherd-king over all the earth, His people 

 shall share His pastoral rule. They shall shepherd the 

 nations with the shepherd's club that is, treat the 

 nations who refuse to acknowledge the gentle sway of 

 Jesus as the shepherd deals with the wild beasts or the 

 robbers who seek to injure his flock. Not with an iron 

 rod of oppression, after the manner of the tyrants of the 

 earth, but with the sceptre of righteousness shall they 

 exercise a sovereign and irresistible sway. Their rod 

 shall only be upon ill-men, to resist and destroy evil. 

 Too often, indeed, has the Church grasped at the pro- 

 mise, " And he shall rule them with a rod of iron," and 

 forgotten the redeeming clause, " as I have received of 

 my Father " which prescribes the spirit of meekness 

 and righteousness and the method of justice and mercy 



