RESISTANCE TO GOD.

against his Anointed; being stirred up and inflamed as with wine, by the spirits of devils working mitacles, who go forth unto the kings of the earth, and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. They shall imagine a vain thing, viz:-that by a combined and simultaneous effort, they will be able to throw off entirely and for ever, their allegiance to God: they will set their face against the heavens, and will assert their independence of God and his. Anointed, saying, "Let us break their bands asunder, let us cast away their cords from us." Of oldthey sent a message after him, saying, "We will not have this man to reign over us!" now that he is about to "take to him his great power and reign," they determine not to yield up the earth to him, nor submit to his government. The great moving spirit is the dragon, that old serpent called the Devil and Satan-cast out of heaven, after obstinate resis-tance, and now about to be expelled from this fair world, in which he has been the presiding genius for six thousand years; he will strain his utmost efforts to retain his hold, for which purpose he has assembled all the powers on earth to his aid. "The floods have lifted up, O Lord: the floods have lifted up their voice, the floods lift up their waves. The Lord on high is. mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea." This is the tumultuous assemblage referred to in Isaiah, "The Lord of hosts mustereth the host of the battle: his determination is to gather the nations that he may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them his indignation, even all his fierce anger; for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of his jealousy." This great and final controversy with the nations is frequently referred to in the scriptures, because the

HE IS A DEVOURING FIRE.

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issue of this conflict will form the commencement of Messiah's reign. The mystery of God will then be finished and time shall be no longer. Woe to the multitude of many people who make a noise like the noise of the seas, and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters: the nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters, but God shall rebuke them; and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind, as the moth rushes into the flame, so shall they rush upon their fate; they press against the thick bosses of Jehovah's buckler; but in vain do they set the briars and thorns against him in battle, he will go through them and will burn them up together. They imagine a mischievousdevice which thy are not able to perform; therefore thou shalt make them turn their back when thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings. against the face of them."

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"He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision."

But thou, O Lord, shalt laugh at them, thou shalt have all the heathen in derision." When God shall look down on the rebellious multitudes he will despise their image. He that made them will not have mercy on them: he that formed them will shew them no favour.

"Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure."

"His lips are full of indignation; and his tongue as a devouring fire." The Lord shall cause his glorious

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THE COMING KING.

voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger; and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering and tempest, and hailstones; thus will he "speak unto them in his anger, and vex them in his sore displeasure."

"Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion."

Christ is God's King of old, "to this end was he born, and for this cause came he into the world." The kingdoms of this world shall now become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ, and he shall reign in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem and before. his ancients gloriously.

"I will declare the decree; the Lord hath said unto me Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee."

As in the 89th and 102nd so this psalm partakes of the colloquial; it was God the Father who spake in the last verse; in this, it is the Son who declares the decree made in the councils of eternity, that the word should be made flesh: "the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee, therefore, also that holy (one) which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."—"thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee." Jesus Christ is the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth; and at his resurrection declared to be the Son of God with When God said, "Let power. us make man in our image, after our likeness," it was not his moral but his visible image which in the fulness of time he

purposed to assume by an alliance with humanity. Let us make man in that form or likeness in which it is our purpose to be revealed to our creatures through all eternity. Thus did God make man in his own intended likeness; that likeness in which he now appears, and shall for ever appear to the whole universe. God is in Christ; in him only is he seen or can be for in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

"Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession."

"Ask of me." When he was in the form of God, and counted it no robbery to be equal with God, he could not be a recipient, because all things belonged to him; but when he took upon him the form of a servant, he humbled himself to ask of God; not for a temporary period, and so resume his original position, but as an eternal arrangement; and thus he is declared to be "an high priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek," which is an inferior position to God, as he himself says, "my Father is greater than I." Hence the words addressed here to him, "Ask of me." He who giveth holds a more exalted position than he who receiveth; nevertheless, he does not himself cease to be God, nor does he cease to be recognized as God; for this is the will of the Father who sent him, that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father, the "Father and the Son are one."

"I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritThe Father giveth the Son the lands or territories of the heathen for his inheritance, because he is the rightful heir, and therefore he says,

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HIS ENEMIES BECOME HIS FOOTSTOOL.

"I will overturn, overturn, overturn, until he come whose right it is, and I will give it him." This right he has acquired by purchase; hence the earth is called the purchased possession. When he obtained eternal redemption for us, he received for us the inheritance which we had forfeited; which when received he distributes to his saints, saying, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.". "the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." The kingdom and the greatness of the kingdom, under the whole heaven is given to the people of the saints of the Most High. It will no longer be a divided kingdom, for the Lord shall be king over all the earth in that day there shall be one Lord and his name one. When Jesus said to Pilate, "my kingdom is not of this world," he qualified that statement by adding, "but now is my kingdom not from hence:" the time is coming when his kingdom will be of this world, and the whole earth shall be under his sway; for "his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the rivers to the ends of the earth."

"Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron : thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel."

When he comes the second time, he comes to reign; but first, he must make his enemies his footstool-" he will tread them in his anger, and trample them in his fury ;" and inasmuch as he finds the whole earth combined to resist his authority, he will strike through kings, and wound the heads over many countries. The cities of the nations shall fall, and the slain of the Lord shall be many in the day of his fierce anger.