throughout all the world, need be in no trepidation-giving way like Israel in Egypt to precipitate panic; for in front and in rereward they have an Almighty guardian. And especially His ministers,' the armour-bearers of Jehovah,' need never fear the ultimate success of their proclamation of the good tidings; for the battle is the Lord's, and with His own glorious arm. made bare, He will surely 'bring Zion home.' To the individual believer, and especially to the mourner in Zion, how cheering the assurance, that all which concerns him and his, is under the control and sovereignty of the Lord who died for him! On those gloomy, sterile mountains of trial, on which "every tree is burnt up, and all the green grass burnt up," glad is this announcement, borne by the messengers of consolation. Other "good tidings of good" there are,—grander and more glorious gospel promises, embracing the hopes "full of immortality;" but how the soul, amid the ruins of its joy, the dust of its desolation, clings to this elementary truth, that it was no capricious accident or chance which overturned its fondest fabric, and made "the city sit solitary that was full of people;" but that every form of outer calamity-fever and disease, lightning and tempest, plague, pestilence, and famine, are so many arrows in the quiver of God. "Zion! thy God reigneth!" We may not now see the wisdom and faithfulness of many of His dealings. We may even, at times, lose the presence and footsteps of the great Sovereign Ruler, and amid baffling and mysterious dispensations, the cry of the smitten heart may be, "Verily Thou art a God that hidest Thyself." But the arm now slumbering will in due time "awake;" the arm now concealed will in due time be "made bare;" the purposes now hidden will be unfolded; and each of the children of Zion will come to join in that mighty pæan, whose ever-augmenting echoes are likened, in the Book of Revelation, to "the sound of many waters and the noise of mighty thunderings "-" ALLELUIA, FOR THE LORD GOD OMNIPOTENT REIGNETH!" "Know well, my soul, God's hand controls Whate'er thou fearest ; Round Him in calmest music rolls Whate'er thou hearest. And that cloud itself, which now before thee Lies dark in view, Shall, with beams of light from the inner glory, "Up, up! the day is breaking. Say to thy cares, Good-night! Thy troubles from thee shaking, Thou wearest not the crown, God sitteth on the throne, In thy right hand to-morrow, How glad will be thy psalms!" IN THE MULTITUDE OF MY THOUGHTS WITHIN ME THY COMFORTS DELIGHT MY SOUL." "Behold, my Servant shall prosper, Shall rise, and be exalted and high exceedingly. As many were shocked at Him (Barnes) (So disfigured, His appearance was not human (Delitzsch), And His form not like that of the sons of men): So shall He sprinkle many nations. Who hath believed our report (our hearing,' Septuagint and Vulgate)? And the arm of JEHOVAH, to whom has it been revealed? For He groweth up in their sight like a slender sucker, And like a root from a thirsty soil (Lowth): He hath no form nor comeliness; and we looked, And there was no appearance such that we would find pleasure in Him (Delitzsch). Despised, and the most abject of men ; Full of sufferings, and recognised only by His wounds (Michalis); And like one from whom men hide their faces: He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely our sicknesses He bore, and our griefs He carried: Yet we thought Him plagued, marked out by the stroke of God, and thrown down (Michalis). But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities : And JEHOVAH hath made to fall (rush) upon Him the iniqui ties of us all." -ISAIAH lii. 13-15; liii. 1-4 XX. 46 Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.” "The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." -ISAIAH liii. 6. The Great OUR translators have unquestionably been unfortunate in severing the last three verses of the 52d chapter from chapter 53d. The two combined, form one unique and perfect prophecy, which should be preserved in its entireness. The passage, thus considered, may be said, without qualification, to be the most interesting in Old Testament scripture. It is an epitomised gospel-a touching Story of THE PASSION—a faithful prehistoric record of "the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." No wonder it should be spoken of, by one great |