Let us a little further survey and improve the glorious truth here taught, and thus "looking for our blessed hope," have fellowship with the angels in their glorious expectations.

Who will come again? The first-begotten, even the firstbegotten from the dead. He, who conquered death in his own person, and came to swallow up death in victory. Having become "the first-fruits of them that slept," he will rob death of his harvest, and gather his sheaves of glorified ones into his Father's garner. He will thus realize to the full God's great idea which lay from eternity in his mind, that all his people shall be "conformed to the image of his Son, and he be the first-born among many brethren." (Rom. viii. 29.) As "the first-begotten from the dead," Christ is the founder of a new family; the head of a spiritual relationship, whose basis is resurrection life, and so beyond the reach of death and change. This idea of relationship shall be consummated in the resurrection, and the glorious state which shall follow; which is, therefore, called "the adoption, viz., the redemption of the body." Then will that text be fulfilled, "He that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son." (Rev. xxi. 7.) "Heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ." Their God "will make Christ his first-born higher than the kings of the earth," (Ps. lxxxix. 27,) and all contained in the covenant made with David shall be realized. For he who is "the bright and morning Star," "the Sun of Righteousness," "shall be as the light of the morning, even a morning without clouds;" then "the Just One shall rule over man; and he who is "the first-born of every creature," shall be the restorer of creation, and its eternal sustainer, in being, beauty, and blessedness.

Yes, he, the rejected one, shall come again into the world. His Second Advent shall be as real as his first, and much more enduring. Then he was rejected, but hereafter he shall be welcomed; then he was despised, but at his second coming "all kings shall fall down before him, all nations shall obey him." True, he will first have to make room for himself and his people, by acts of terrible judgment. His fire shall devour, his sword shall slay, his earthquakes shall rock, his reapers shall gather, his chain shall bind, his breath shall and then his voice shall be heard, saying, "Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth." He comes to reckon, and a fearful account many will have to give; he

consume;

comes to reward, and blessed are they whom he accounts faithful; he comes to renovate and regenerate man and nature, and his voice shall hush discord, and tune all to sweetest harmony. He comes to reign, and his kingdom shall be high, glorious, and eternal. He comes to receive homage from creation and honour from his Father, and all shall be plentifully showered upon his worthy head. Angels shall praise him in loudest, sweetest strains; but above their harmonious chorus, above the louder strains of a renewed world and a ransomed Church, shall be heard the voice of his Father," Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows."

Yes, it is the Father who brings him again into the world. The hand of the Father is to be traced in all Christ is and all he has done; it shall also bring to pass all he is ordained to be. It was God's wisdom that provided Christ, his love bestowed him; his grace accepted him in the sinner's stead, when his justice bruised him on account of the sinner's guilt. When man slew him, and cast him in a sepulchre, the Father raised him, and seated him at his right hand; and though kings combine and set themselves against him, "he will set his King upon the holy hill of Zion," and though Antichrist usurp the high places of the earth," he will smite down his foes, and plague them that hate him," and will bring him to his rightful inheritance, even that world so tenderly loved, so dearly purchased. All God's power shall be put forth for him, because of his unbounded delight in him. The glorious night vision which Daniel saw, and to which so many allusions are made in the New Testament, shall be realized to the full. "I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.

"And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.' (Dan. vii. 13, 14.)

Then shall all things be subdued unto Him, and "God shall be all in all." Then shall "the angels of God worship Him." It is meet and right that they should do so. From Him they derived their being, for "all things were created by Him, and for Him, whether they be thrones, or dominions,

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or principalities, or powers. (Colos. i. 16.) He is infinitely their superior, their acknowledged, their everlasting Lord. Then shall the type of Jacob's ladder, with its mysterious occupants, be fulfilled; then shall our Lord's words to Nathanael be made good, "Hereafter ye shall see Heaven open, and the angels of God ascending from the Son of man, and descending upon him."* What great things shall then be seen-what glorious themes shall then be sung, no mind of man can conceive. All things shall be gathered into Christ. He shall be the centre of order and harmony, and the soul and source of happiness.

Many reasons may be assigned for the delight which angels will feel in worshipping Christ. They saw Him in his sorrows on earth, and ministered to Him in his bitter agony. They have likewise from age to age attended on his people, and guided and guarded the heirs of salvation safe through the wilderness. They have executed God's fierce wrath against wickedness, and wondered much at his forbearance with such a world as this. They have longed to see holiness triumph on earth, and this world become the suburb of heaven. They have been very jealous for the Lord of Hosts, and desired to see his enemy, the prince of darkness, cast out; and now all is accomplished, Satan is bound, holiness fills the world, nature's groans are over, a new era has dawned, the rights of God are acknowledged, and man has taken his true place as an adorer and servant at the footstool of the Most High. God's kingdom is come, and "God's will is done on earth as it is done in heaven; and Jesus is the great author of this glorious change. Therefore the angels praise Him, and sing, with hearts glowing with adoring love," Thou art the King of glory, O Christ." Then shall responsive choirs of burning seraphs cry to each other, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory."

It may be well before leaving this subject, just to inquire what was the apostle's design in introducing this testimony concerning angelic worship of the Mediator. There can be no doubt but that his one single and sublime object was to demonstrate the greatness and glory of Christ. We have a Saviour who is infinitely greater than the angels-one to whom they owe their being and blessedness, and unto whom they render spotless worship and willing service. It has been observed that the seventh verse, "Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire," should be * Campbell's translation.

read in a parenthesis, and then the sixth and eighth verses present a contrast, and one very glorifying to Jesus. God bids the angels worship Him; He salutes his Son with, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.' Jesus is God-the angels are ministers. Jesus is reigning upon an eternal throne-they are adorers before it.

ART. V.-FUTURE RETURN OF THE LORD TO ISRAEL, AS SET FORTH IN THE SIXTY-EIGHTH PSALM.

THE scope and structure of this Psalm have been well indicated by another. He remarks, "For grandeur and compass this Psalm stands, perhaps, unequalled. It was sung, most probably, as the ark was moving from the house of Obededom to Mount Zion. It begins, therefore, with the words of Moses, on the ark moving through the wilderness. (Numb. x.) And we learn that at the carriage of the ark by David, singers accompanied it. (1 Chron. xv.) Here, therefore, we have accordingly the song they sung. And as the ark itself was a mystery, so was this journey of it. It was the expression of the return of the Lord to his Israel in the latter day. For then, through trials, they will be brought to the joy of God's presence again, as here the ark, the symbol of that presence, is brought from its distant exile, and seated in the heights of Zion."

Following the arrangement already pointed out by his friend and Christian brother, the writer here presents a literal version of the Psalm, accompanied by some brief notes and observations.

FIRST STAGE IN THE JOURNEY. "As the ark begins its journey, the singers celebrate, in a general way, the different power of the presence of God-of which, as has been said, the ark was the symbol-both on the wicked and the righteous.

* "Short Meditations on the Psalms, chiefly in their prophetic character."-Nisbet.

Fry, also, in his work on the Psalms, considers this Psalm as prophetic of the restoration of Israel in the last days;" and remarks thus," The restorer of Israel is to be considered as marching his people through the desert to take possession of the land of promise, and we have reason to think that, in some respects, the second exodus will answer to the first, as the antitype to the type." So we read in Hosea xi. 14, 15.