CHAPTER VI.

THE REIGN OF PEACE.

"Behold a King shall reign in righteousness, and Princes shall rule in judgment."-ISAIAH xxxii. 1.

WE have now to look upon the Tribulation of the "Latter Days," as past; the dominance of Iniquity, Bloodshed, and Perplexity, at an end: Antichrist consigned to the eternal flames; the Wicked of the earth destroyed; the Remnant brought to the acknowledgment of Christ as Lord and Saviour; Satan no longer able to deceive; and, visibly among mankind and angels, the self-same JESUS who was crucified, standing on the Mount of Olives, unopposed by any voice throughout the earth; and there establishing His right to reign as King of kings and Lord of lords. Thus will the Almighty God fulfil His ancient word against the reign of wickedness-"And thou profane wicked prince of Israel whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end, Thus saith the Lord God, Remove the diadem, and take off the crown; this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more, until He come, whose right it is; and I will give it him.* And thus

* Ezekiel xxi. 25—27.

the kingdom of the Lord of Hosts will come,-wherein His holy will shall be performed in earth as it is done in heaven.

This REIGN OF CHRIST,-the reign of RIGHTEOUSNESS and PEACE, will form the subject of this chapter.

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Among the Remnant of Israel-some inhabiting the Holy Land, and some dispersed among the Countries,—will tries, will no doubt be found a company from EVERY TRIBE. For God has promised that "He will be the God of ALL the families of Israel."* And so not only will MOUNT ZION rejoice, but MOUNT EPHRAIM also, as the Lord graciously declared by JEREMIAH in the thirty-first chapter of his prophecy,—“Behold I will bring them from the North country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, . . . . a great company shall return thither. They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble; for I am a Father to ISRAEL, and EPHRAIM is my firstborn. Hear ye the Word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the Isles afar off, and say, He that scattered ISRAEL will gather him, and keep him as a shepherd doth his flock. . . . . Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a New Covenant with the house of ISRAEL and with the house of JUDAH."

So, too, did EZEKIEL prophesy in the thirty-seventh chapter. God had told him to take two sticks, and to "join them one to another into one stick," and

*Jeremiah xxxi. 1.

when the people should ask him what this meant, he was to answer them,-"Thus saith the Lord God, behold I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: and I will make them ONE NATION in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and ONE KING shall be king to them all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all."

Thus then shall ALL THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL be gathered from among the countries, and brought safely to the land of their inheritance. ISAIAH prophesied, the "RooT OF JESSE . stand for an ensign of the people . . . . and

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I shall

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Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the Islands of the Sea. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim."* The "ROOT OF JESSE' shall stand up to gather Israel His people;-not like the wicked Antichrist had partly gathered them in unbelief, but in the full assurance of a holy faith, and yet bewailing their rejection of the great Messiah.

*Isaiah xi. 10-13.

But let me add a word of explanation upon this. Antichrist will be, as we have seen, professedly the friend of Israel, and under his protection many will be brought again to the possessions of their forefathers. But he will not bring all Israel back. It appears that he will only have to do with the tribes of JUDAH and BENJAMIN, and part of LEVI. If we refer to the Prophet ZECHARIAH, we shall find, in the twelfth chapter, a statement which will afford ground for this conclusion, which is not to be despised. He says, "Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem. The Lord also shall save the tents of Judah FIRST, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah.

. . And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications; and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of DAVID apart, and their wives apart; (here we have the representatives of the tribe of Judah:) the family of NATHAN apart, and their wives apart; (here, the representatives of the PROPHETS:) the family of the house of LEVI apart, and their wives apart; (here, the representatives of the tribe of LEVI and the PRIESTHOOD which pertained thereto :) the

family of SHIMEI apart, and their wives apart; (here, the representatives of the tribe of Benjamin.*) ALL THE FAMILIES THAT REMAIN, every family apart, and their wives apart;" (here, the representatives, probably, of certain families of other tribes, which shall have returned and taken up their residence in Palestine, but shall not be found there in such numbers as to be worthy of especial note.) Now we know that the tribes of Israel, which at the present time inhabit those parts of the world with which Europeans and the western Asiatics have more especially to do, are necessarily (with a small exception, which is not easily discernible,) Judah, Benjamin, and Levi;-the three tribes which were taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar, restored under Zerubbabel, and dispersed under Titus. It is easy to understand the probability that these will be restored under THE LAST HEAD OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE-and that when at last the KING shall come "whose right it is to reign,"-He will take up the cause of Israel's tribes in all the earth, and will "set up an ensign for the nations," and "a sign among them, . and they shall bring all" the "brethren of the house of Judah" "for an offering unto the Lord out of all nations, upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to" God's "Holy Mountain Jerusalem."† And moreover-that the Lord will "have mercy on" the people of His scattered tribes, and fulfil to them His word, which said, "I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted. Behold these shall come from far; and lo! Isaiah lxvi. 19, 20.

*2 Samuel xix. 16.