preyail against any believer. — ^Their acquittal at the last day is secured by promise. They shall not come into condemnation^ but shall be presented spotless before the Father's throne. — ^Their final glory is secured by promise. Their Saviour shall come again the second time, as surely as He came the first, — ^to gather His saints together and to give them a crown of righteousness. — ^Let us be per- suaded of these promises. Let us embrace them and not let them go. They will never fail us. God's word is never broken. He is not a man that He should lie. We have a seal on every promise which Zacharias never saw. We have the seal of Christ's blood to assure us, that what God has promised God will perform.
We should notice, thirdly, in this hymn, what clear views of Christ* 8 kingdom Zacharias possessed. He speaks of being ''saved and delivered from the hands of enemies,'' as if he had in view a temporal kingdom and a temporal deliverer from Gentile power. But^he does not stop here. He declares that the kingdom of Messiah, is a kingdom in which His people are to '' serve TWm, without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him." This kingdom. He proclaimed, was drawing nigh. Prophets had long foretold that it would one day be set up. In the birth of his son John the Baptist, and the near approach, of Christ, Zacharias saw this kingdom close at hand.
The foundation of this kingdom of Messiah was laid by the preaching of the Gospel. From that time the Lord Jesus has been continually gathering out subjects from an evil world. The full completion of the kingdom is an event yet to come. The saints of the Most High shall one day have entire dominion. The little stone of the