far Greater than David is he (see homily on eh. :nxiv. 23, 24). He will have no rival in the day of the Lord, when all the Churches of Christ shall know and love the truth, and exalt him in the eyes of the world. II. ITS UNITY. (Vers. 21, 22.) The time will come when the Divine Head of the Church will look down upon a united people. There may be a great variety of organizations, but there will be no discord or disunion; none, because, while there will be no uniformity of method, but every order of spiritual life, there will be everywhere prevalent the spirit of a benignant charity, of Christ-like confidence, and love; all Churches and all hearts owuing one Saviour, teaching one redeeming truth, breathing one spirit, living one life, moving towards one goal, and looking for one prize. III. lTs HOLINESS. (Ver. 23.) There shall be nothing to defile. What the entire absence of idolatry signified in the case of Israel is realized by the Church in the absence of all worldliness and iniquity of every kind from its pale. It is" cleansed" by the truth and power of God, so that vice and violence, oppression and injustice, covetousneas and selfishness, uncharitableness and inconsiderateness, are banished from its midst. IV. 1TB GLORIOUS MAGNITUDE. "I will multiply them." If the largest promises made to Israel had been fulfilled to the letter, that fulfilment would have been small and slight indeed when compared with the realization they have had in the establish- ment and the growth of the Church of Christ. And it is extending its borders still, indeed much more rapidly now than in any century but the first. It has attained to a noble magnitude, and will "multiply and still increase," until that little stone of Nebuchadnezzar's dream shall have rolled and grown till it "fills the whole earth." V. lTs JOY nr Goo. God's "sanctuary is to be in the midst." His "tabernacle shall be with them." He will "be their God, and they shall be his people" (vers. 26, 27). The picture is one of happy, holy converse between God and man. It is a great thing for a nation to rejoice because the Holy One is near, is known and felt to be near. In the "glorious future time," when the kingdom of Christ shall be established on the earth, it will be the very near presence of God that will be Colt to be the source of the deepest satisfaction, of the largest and truest enrichment. To be with him, coming into his nenrer presence in all the ordinances of religion, to live iu the spirit and habitude of devotion, to walk with God all the day long, to be guests at his table, to lift up the face unto him as unto the heavenly Father, to lean on Christ as on the unfailing Friend of the heart and life,-this is the heritage of the good in the blessed kingdom of our Lord.-C.
EXPOSITION. which, throughout subsequent centuries, the OBAPTER XXXVIII. restored and united Isruol should ho. ve to The present and the following chapters, maintain against the heathen world; or it aomprising the next oracle, or "word of God," was intended, as Hii¥ernick, Keil, and others delivered by the prophet, relate to the expe- believe, to point to one closing struggle, in tlition (oh. :nxviii. 1-18), overthrow (vers. which the world's hostility to the Churnh of 14---23), and destruction of Gog (eh. mix. God should culwiuo.te, and in which it 1-20), with the results of the same to the should be utterly and fiaally broken. Iu heathen world and to Israel (vers. 21-29). favour of this lu.tter view stand the fncta that .A ltempts to identify Gog and his armies with by the prophet tho uprising of Gog is loou.tetl particular nations, as e.g. with the ChalJeans in "the latter dnys," and by tho author of (Ewald), the Soythians (Knobel, Hitzig), the Apocalypse, who seems to allude to the the Greeks under Antiochus EpiphllDes same event, the last battle between tile (Grotius), and even the Turks (Luther), powers of evil and the Church of Gotl is have not been ancl o.re not likely to be suc- placed immediately before tho final judg- cessful. Either the highly idealized picture ment and the emergence of the new heavens the prophet sketches was designed, as and the new earth (Rev. u. 8). Heugstenberg thinks, to sum up and present Vers.1-13.-The announoerneut of Gog'11 in one great batUe-pieoe all the confilots expedition against Israel. THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. toH. xxxvtII.1-28,