Thirty-ninth Sunday.

ROD AND ROOT OF JESSE. ROOT OF DAVID. RULER IN ISRAEL. RICH UNTO ALL THAT CALL UPON HIM.

We observed, last Sunday, that Nature offers some contribution to the great doctrine of the Resurrection, and affords some help to feeble thought in its efforts to realize it. And so does History. But, only to name the one great fact round which all other facts cluster, as molehills round a mountain,-Why should it be thought a thing incredible that God should raise the dead, when, from such a degraded race as ours there has sprung such a wonderful Being as Jesus Christ; and out of such an impoverished stock as the fallen family of David, which had been in the dust for ages, there hath arisen so illustrious a Descendant to be Ruler in Israel?

During a thousand years, and through a thousand perils arising from exterminating wars, treacherous massacres, and cruel captivities, this one family was preserved for the fulfilment of God's purposes. At a date so early in its history as a hundred and fifty years after the death of David, it was only saved from utter extinction by a marked interposition of Providence. The strands of the cord on which hung the hopes of the world, were sundered, all but one little thread which the relentless sword failed to reach. Queen Athaliah, a human panther like her mother Jezebel, arose and destroyed all the seed royal." 2 Kings xi. 1. That is, she issued her mandate to that effect.

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The purposes of God are not murderous intention reach the

But the atrocious scheme failed. so easily set aside. Tidings of the ears of Jehosheba, wife of the High Priest, who instantly contrives a plan by which to snatch from the terrible fate, one, at least, of the victims. A little babe, hardly a year old, is 66 stolen from among the doomed ones, and hidden in the temple. Six years pass away before Jehoiada the High Priest reveals the secret; and immediately arrangements are made by stealth for a public recognition of the secreted prince. Levites, princes, officers, have their parts assigned, and the people are called together to the temple. The little boy is set up on high beside the central pillar, and they crown him with the royal crown, and anoint him with the sacred oil. Then "they clap their hands and cry, God save the king!" The blast of trumpets and the loud crash of martial music mingle with the shouts of the people, till the noise rises and swells like

the sound of many waters, and reaches the ears of the queen. Forthwith she comes into the temple with all haste to see what can be the matter. And beholding the stranger boy, with the crown upon his head, standing in the place of royal authority, she cries, Treason! treason! But none side with the wretched murderess. She is immediately hurried "beyond the ranges," and put to death; while the young king is uplifted into the golden throne within "the king's gateway."

Thus wonderfully was David's family secured from utter extinction on that occasion. And that one small Rod out of the Stem of Jesse, the sole survivor of all his co-descendants, was preserved to carry on the royal lineage. For four hundred years longer the family maintained its position, and then, without losing its identity, gradually sank into poverty and obscurity. It seems to be with some allusion to this depression of the royal race, that the prophet connects Jesus Christ with Jesse the private person, rather than with David the King, when he calls Him a

ROD OUT OF THE STEM OF JESSE, and a ROOT OF JESSE. Isa. xi. 1 and 10. They both mean the same thing. Jesse was the father of David. He was a man of no rank in Israel, though, very likely, the chief man of the village of Bethlehem, where he lived. He might have been a sort of "Sheikh," occupying the lands of Boaz, his grandfather, who, it will be remembered, was the husband of Ruth the Moabitess. But this humble 66 STEM shot up to a great height of worldly grandeur in the person of David. It grew like a thriving forest tree, grew into a "great cedar"; for thus Ezekiel describes the royal family of Judea, four hundred years after the death of its founder. But the glory of the family passed away at last. The stately STEM OF JESSE was smitten by desolating storms. Rude winds rent its goodliest branches into fragments, and scattered its leafy crown upon the earth. It was hewn down, and its dishonoured trunk levelled with the dust. Not rooted up, however, for still the stump remained; and there was life in it too.

Job says, "There is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease, though the root thereof wax old in the earth." This was the

condition of the family RooT OF JESSE, when the long-looked-for Illustrious ROD OUT OF THE STEM was born. A thousand years had passed away, and the wonder was, not that the family had fallen from its high position, but that after the lapse of so long a period, and amidst so many narrow escapes from utter destruction, there was any trace of it left at all. But it was preserved for a special end, even the fulfilment of God's purpose to raise up a Horn of Salvation for us in the house of His servant David. And having answered this end, the family quickly disappeared from history, with all its records and genealogies. Jesus Christ

is called also by a similar name, expressive of the same idea, but identifying Him with the royal Patriarch himself,

ROOT OF DAVID. Rev. v. 5. Rudely trodden down, and scarcely distinguishable from other decayed stems of the forest, this Root at the time appointed sent out a "Tender Plant," a · Branch," destined to become a "goodly Cedar, under the shadow of whose branches there should dwell all fowl of every wing." Ezek. xvii. 23. "It shall stand as an Ensign to the people; to it the Gentiles shall seek, and His rest shall be glorious." But to the outward eye there was no indication of this. "A Roor out of a dry ground" was all that was to be seen a trunk so withered, that from it nothing could be hoped for of beauty or strength. All parties seemed to be agreed that such meanness and poverty were no signs of the true Messiah. But never were human calculations more at fault.

A little African boy, who had been taught to read at a missionary school, going some distance into the country, took with him his book to read in the fields. There, as Dr. Moffat relates, he met a shepherd boy, to whom he read out of his book the story of the angel's annunciation of the birth of Christ to the shepherds of Bethlehem. The young shepherd was much delighted with what he heard, and eagerly asked where this interesting Babe was to be seen. "Was He at the missionary station?" The boy with the book told him that "He was certainly there, for they prayed to Him, and sang hymns to Him." Whereupon the other resolved he would go as soon as he could in quest of the wonderful Child. Well, he set out on a journey of some days to the station. Poor boy! there was no star to guide him on his way. No bright light to go before, and show him where he might hear things which would make him wise unto salvation. But God guided him, and on the third day he arrived at the station.

It was Saturday evening. A converted native lodged him for the night; and in the morning, when the bell was rung for service, he went with the rest to the chapel. Strange to say, the missionary read from the pulpit the very birth-day story which he had heard from the Sunday-school boy. And he looked round eagerly for the Babe. And seeing a white child in the arms of the missionary's wife, so unlike the swarthy infants he was used to, he concluded at once, That surely is He! And he gazed at the unconscious babe till he was ready to fall down and worship it. After the service he was taken to the missionary, who explained the sacred story to him; how that, though once the Lord Jesus had been a Babe, carried about in His mother's arms, yet having become a Man, He died for our sins and rose again. This was his first lesson in the Gospel. But he soon learned more, and became a disciple of Christ.

Now, though this African lad was too late, by many centuries, to see with his mortal eyes the Blessed Babe whose birth had so

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interested him, there was a time when it might have been said, Yonder, in that little village, you may actually see that great sight, the Holy Child Jesus! Let us imagine ourselves ascending the little hilly street at Bethlehem, and asking every one, Where is the Holy Child? Very likely we should gain no information. No one knows, or no one cares. But pursuing our search, at last we stand in the entrance of a rock-hewn stable; and we peer into the dim recess till, behind that pair of camels with their ungainly humps, we discover the wonder of wonders we came so far to see. Yonder, sure enough, is the lovely Infant folded in His mother's arms, and asleep on her bosom.

May we enter? But will it not be thought an intrusion? We hope not. The highly favoured virgin whom all generations will call "Blessed" as long as the world stands, though she would exclaim with the utmost horror if we were to offer our worship to her, will approve the reverential homage which we pay to her Great Saviour Son. Let us kneel before Him and raise our psalm of praise, for this is He of whom it is written, " Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder. And His Name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." Lo, the Roor OF DAVID, which had waxed old in the earth, has "sprouted again; and the "TENDER PLANT is He of whom it is written in ancient prophecy, "Out of thee (Bethlehem) shall He come forth unto Me that is to be RULER IN ISRAEL; Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting."

RULER IN ISRAEL. Micah v. 2. Happy, honoured Bethlehem! to have been the chosen birth-place of the Great Saviour of our race. But alas! the highest honour is closely allied with the greatest peril. Poor sorrowing Bethlehem! we say, when we remember thy mothers weeping for their children; this very prophecy being the occasion of a murderous outrage upon thy innocent babes! You all know the story. It is shocking enough, without being made worse by the exaggerations of monkish writers, who have reckoned those honoured little martyrs at a thousand or two. But the whole population of Bethlehem scarcely reached a thousand altogether; and "all the coasts thereof" might furnish five hundred more. The male infants "under two years of age could not therefore exceed fifteen or twenty. But whether many or few, He Whom they sought to destroy was far away. For God had provided a faithful, kind-hearted guardian for the Divine Infant, in the person of Joseph the husband of Mary, who, warned by a dream, had conveyed Him in safety to Egypt.

RULER IN ISRAEL! Our Lord was not the first RULER who came out of little Bethlehem. A thousand years before it had been the birth-place of David, whom "God took from the sheepfolds and brought him to rule Jacob His people." But his goings forth were not from everlasting. David was a Typical Ruler, and his people

RULER IN ISRAEL.

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were a typical people. Both he and they were figures of something far more grand and glorious. The first was a type of Christ, and the second of the Church of Christ. For Christ is often called by the name David; and the Church is spoken of as Israel, Jerusalem, Zion. And authority over the Church is described by sitting on David's throne," or having "the key of the House of David." For ancient Israel was a Theocracy, that is, a government presided over by Jehovah Himself. Just consider what a beautiful form of government that was! Their laws were to be made by Him, and all their difficulties were to be referred to Him. Whatever enemies assailed, they were to rely on Him for help; whatever supplies they required, they were to seek them from the same Source. Whoever was their king for the time being, was to rule over them as God's Viceroy, and according to His commands. What a hopeful plan! Talk about forms of government, what could equal that?

Supposing the people and their princes had been obedient, what then? Why that ancient Theocracy, the kingdom of Israel, would have been an exemplary picture and figure of the inward and spiritual Kingdom of Christ in the latter day. It would have stood out as a lighthouse amidst surrounding darkness for the guidance of the nations; a morning star, " blazing on the forehead of the dawn" as a harbinger of the bright day that was at hand. But how different was the fact! Neither princes nor people were faithful to the covenant. They rebelled and vexed His Holy Spirit, and left God to complain, "Ŏ that thou hadst hearkened to My commandments! I would soon have subdued thine enemies, but thy time should have endured for ever."

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There was once in the British Museum a vase of wondrous worth and rare beauty. One day a miscreant shivered it into fragments with his cane. Everybody mourned it as quite lost. But a clever artist was employed to put it together again. He succeeded to admiration. And there it stands, a thing of beauty still, though in ruins; a monument of wicked recklessness on the part of its destroyer, and a triumph of skill on the part of its restorer.

Just thus the beautiful delicate fabric of Israel's holy Theocracy, by which was to have been represented the Kingdom of God, was shattered even before it was nigh finished. And we can only get at the original idea by picking up one piece here and another there, and putting them together as best we may. One primitive fragment we discover in Moses's time, another in David's reign; another piece turns up under Hezekiah, and another in the days of that Eliakim who had the keys of the house of David laid upon his shoulder.

But who shall imitate the skilled workman by whom the Portland vase was reconstructed? and, out of the shivered atoms of the still unmoulded materials, describe what that Divine Theocracy was fitted to become? Alas! it must ever remain in its effaced beauty and glory, a monument alike of God's marvellous patience, and man's appalling wickedness.