The Pulpit Commentary — Zechariah — Section 115

thwu§':h E~·pt and Assyria. It does not say that all Jews shall return, but a f!:reat multitude i~ implied. 3. The scene at whwh the regathering will take place. "I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon." This describes the whole of Palestine, with its two boundaries-the eastern, Gilead beyond Jordan; and the northern, that is, Lebanon. Large as that district is, there will not be room for all. "Place shall not be found for them." 4:. Tlte national catastrophes which the regatheri'flf} wi!l involve. "And he shall pass through the sea with affliction, and shall smite the waves in the sea, and all the deeps of the river shall dry up." There is evidently an allusion here to their first deliverance from Egypt; and it means that something similar to that event will occur in the course of their regathering (see Exod, xiv. 4--14). "And the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart away." The idea probably is that o.s "the haughty boastings of Sennacherib and the sceptred power of Pharaoh proved alike feeble and unavailing against the might of Jehovah in former days, so should all the combined opposition of the most inveterate enemies prove in days to come, Before him-when he had a. purpose to fulfil or promise to his people to accomplish-all pride should be abased, all power baffled, all counsel turned to foolishness." Now there is a unification, of which this is but a faint emblem-the unification of the good of all ages. "They shall come from the east, and from the west, aud from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down with Isa.a.c and with Jacob." What a blessed union is this I What countless millions will it include, and what overturning of the kingdoms of the world will its full realization involve l • III. BLESSEDNESS. Here is the highest strength. "And I will strengthen them in the Lord." 1. Whether this refers to their national strength, their security in their own country, or moral strength-strength of faith in him-or all, one thing is clear, that to be strengthened in the Lord is the highest strength we can have. The greatest blessing of life is strength : physical strength, to do with ease and to endure with patience; inteUectual, strength-strength to master with ease all the great problems of life, and to reach a theory of being in which the understanding can repose free from all disturbing doubt. These strengths are blessings ; but moral strength- strength to resist the wrong, to pursue the right, to serve Almighty God with accept- ance, and to bless the race of man with beneficent influences-this, indeed, is the per- fection of our blessedness. This strength, which implies unbounded confidence in the procedure and an unconquerable love for the character of God, is the strength we all need. •• Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might," says Paul. "He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseth strength." 2. Here is the highest exercure. "They shall walk up and down in his Name, saith the Lord." (1) All living men must walk the road that is" up and down." Human life is made up of "ups" and "downs;" the road is not smooth and level, but rugged and hilly, some- times up and sometimes down; up to-day and down to-morrow. (2) 'l'his road can only be walked happily by walking it in the "Name " of the Lord. A practical recognition of his presence, and of his claims to our supreme reverence and worship. Alas I how few walk: this road in the Name of the Lord! 'l'hey walk it in the name of pleasure, of greed, or of ambition, or, it may be, of intellectual research. Dreary and dangerous is this road without God. CoNCLUBION. Let us battle for this vwtory, cease not a stroke until the foe ie beneath our feet; let us hail this grand f//Tl,ijication of souls, hail the time when God shall meot and mingle with all noble and Heaven-born spirits. Meanwhile, let us walk this "up-and-down" road of life in the Name of the Lord. "For all people will walk every one in the name of hia god, but we will walk in the Name of the Lord• (Micah iv. 5).-D. T. Olt, XI, l-17.] THE BOOK OF ZECHARIAH. 117