construction? Read the next verse: "Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron: thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." Remember the nations and their kings are in revolt, and they are broken with an iron sceptre, dashed into fragments like a potter's vessel that cannot be mended. (Jer. xix. 11; Matt. xxiv. 51; Rev. ii. 27; xii. 5; xix. 15.) And what is the conclusion? The Psalmist counsels immediate and universal submission; seeing the resistless power of Jehovah and of His anointed, and the impotency of human rage, He appeals to rebels to lay down their weapons, and, instead of kicking against the rule of Messiah, kiss Him in homage and serve Him with holy trembling and trust.

This psalm may be regarded as the key to a large part of both New and Old Testament truth, and we have followed it, verse by verse, that this key might be in our hands with which to unlock the prophecies and open the real inner meaning of the promises. Christ, when He rose from the dead, ascended to the throne, and assumed the sceptre. He had already been secretly anointed for kingship far back in the ages of eternity. Now a second time anointed by the Holy Ghost, He took the throne with the concurrence of His chosen Church. The time is coming when, by the consent of a converted humanity, He will be once more anointed universal King, and reign over a regenerate earth. Meanwhile the sevenfold period

now.

of resistance must pass, and in that period we are When Christ, risen from the dead and about to take another step upward to the throne, said, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and disciple all nations, and lo, I am with you alway," He knew that hundreds and thousands of years lay before Him and His Church, during which that rule was to be disputed and antagonized; He was sending disciples forth as sheep among wolves; they would be persecuted, imprisoned, slain; His witnesses would be martyrs-death would be the end of their service and suffering-instead of seeming victory, apparent defeat. And so He held out no false hopes-no assurance that the time had come to restore again the kingdom to Israel, or to begin His millennial reign. He knew that, while two tribes might acknowledge Him, ten would be in revolt. Century after century would pass and still the world would not have Him to reign over them; and even the Church would fall into apostasy and a form of godliness take the place of its power. But He says, "I go to my Father and yours, my God and yours," "I go to take my sceptre," "All power is mine in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore—make disciples from all nations-everywhere preach-bear witness. You shall be hated of all men for my name's sake; you shall be scourged, put in prison, put to death, but all this shall turn to you for a testimony-a part of your witness

bearing. You will find the heathen raging, the peoples plotting, kings and rulers conspiring; let them try to demolish my throne and break the bands of my rule! Their efforts shall be met with derisive scorn." The wrath of man shall praise Him, and the remainder of wrath will He restrain. When crises come which can in no other way be met, and violence reaches its height of daring and defiance, the Messianic King vindicates Himself and His servants; He stretches out His hand and with His iron sceptre breaks into pieces His foes.

Here is the hope of missions in the darkest days -this Psalm, so often applied to the Church Triumphant, was meant for the Church Militant; and never was it needed more than now, when, in so many parts of the field of missions, we seem met, as among the Brahmans of India and the Mohammedans of Persia, by persistent resistance. Christ has all power and is on the throne, "Go ye," missionaries-He is "with you alway," even to the end of this age of organized and violent opposition. When you find yourselves driven to the wall and the cause seems hopeless, appeal to Him, and He will appear for you: it may be in the conquest of grace, it may be in the awful conquest of wrath, but rejoice, He is King!

An example or two of this interposition should be put on permanent record. The year 1839 was the great pivotal year of Turkish missions. Per

secution bared her red right arm. The bitter hostility of the Armenian Church broke out in a storm. The despotic head of the Turkish government, Sultan Mahmoud, united his civil power with their ecclesiastical, to extirpate the Christian heretics. The work, begun in 1831 by William Goodell, seemed likely, after twenty years, to fall in a crash into ruins. Mr. Sahakian, an evangelical Armenian and teacher, was thrown into prison without trial, or even knowledge of the charges made against him. He and Boghos Fizika, another of like character, were sent four hundred miles into exile. Der Kevork, a pious priest, was put in a cell. The Greek patriarch thundered out a bull of excommunication, and nothing less than the banishment of all the missionaries was determined upon. The persecution waxed hotter and fiercer, and the missionaries were formally accused before the Sublime Porte, and Messrs. Hamlin and Goodell, who were the only ones at that time in the country, expected summary orders to leave. An order was obtained from Mahmûd for their expulsion, and that of all missionaries. Commodore Porter could not interpose, as the treaty with the United States was only commercial, and there seemed no human hope. In that darkest hour of Turkish missions, the pioneer Goodell, in his peculiar way, said: "The Great Sultan of the Universe can change all this." The missionaries, sorely beset, took refuge in the 91st Psalm. They

besought the Lord to come down as in the days of old, and make the mountains flow down at His presence. While their hands were yet lifted in prayer, on July 1, 1839, Sultan Mahmûd died. Not only did God interpose, but by a series of the most striking providences on record in history, the power of their foes was broken. Six days before, the Turkish forces had been routed near Aleppo; an exhausted treasury absorbed governmental attention; a fearful conflagration visited Constantinople, August 9th, and from 3,000 to 4,000 houses were reduced to ashes. God's hand was laid heavily on the Armenians who led in the persecution. And so marked was the evidence of a divine interposition that it was a common saying that God was taking the side of the persecuted and vindicating their cause. In fact, a council was called and the exiles were recalled, and all rigorous measures suspended. The leaders were unchanged in spirit, but they were not unawed. They saw an Almighty Hand uplifted to arrest the arm of intolerance, and they dared not go forward.

Abdul Medjid, at sixteen, succeeded his father. God's work took a fresh start, and four months later, before a grand imperial Diet, he caused to be read to the august assemblage the first formal Bill of Rights, the Magna Charta of Turkey, the Hatti Sherif of Gûl Hané, the primary charter of liberty which was the first of a series of constitu