66 



REV. JOHN URQUHAKl, ON 



on the part of the Christian Church. For almost nineteen 

 centuries it has been the Church militant nearly everywhere ; 

 the Church triumphant nowhere. 



(3) Those touched by the sceptre of power will be separated. 

 They are described (verse 3) as " thy people." The Psalmist's 

 " Lord " becomes their King. The converts are gathered around 

 Him. The Church will be an iniperium in imperio, acknow- 

 ledging a Law to whicli every other must be subordinated. 

 How that finds its fulfilment in Christianity I need not say. 



(4) But the subjects of the Kingdom will be marked by 

 intense devotion : " Thy people shall be willing in the day 

 of Thy power " (verse 3) — literally, " Thy people shall be 

 free-will offerings," etc. The phrase is peculiar and, indeed, 

 unparalleled in the Old Testament. We read (Exodus xxxv, 

 29, etc.) of the Israelites bringing a free-will offering (the 

 same word) ; but here the people themselves are to be free-will 

 offerings. 



(5) They will be marked by uprightness and purity. It 

 seems preferable to take these words — "in the beauties of 

 holiness " — as an additional characterization. The people of the 

 Messiah will be distinguished by character. They will be 

 apparelled in " the beauties of holiness." It does not seem to 

 me to be possible to furnish more distinguishing marks of the 

 genuine Christian than this and the preceding. Christianity 

 has been advanced and been served by limitless devotion, while 

 its life and thought have been a revelation and an astonishment 

 to humanity. 



(6) The new people will form a countless multitude : " More 

 than the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy youth." 

 Those pregnant words invite larger comment ; but it is enough 

 to indicate the leading thought. This people will be more 

 numerous than the dewdrops. 



The fact which we have to consider here is that, since the 

 disappearance of " the Lord " from the earth, a work in just 

 such circumstances and with just such results has been carried 

 on. It spread from Jerusalem. Everywhere it has been 

 surrounded by hostility. Those brought under subjection have 

 been separated. They have been marked by deep devotion to 

 their unseen Lord, and by purity, uprightness and moral 

 beauty ; and the hosts which have been drawn from among the 

 nations during these nineteen centuries may be fairly said to be 

 innumerable. The genuineness of that prediction (guarded to 

 the present hour as a sacred deposit by a race determinedly 

 ihostile to Christianity) cannot be questioned. Its fulfilment by 



