fectly natural that a people with such a past should long for a happier future, when there would be an end to their sufferings. Thus, when Moses appeared as a redeemer, he found a ready welcome.' As this ideal, conceived in trying hours, grew and developed in the consciousness of the people, it assumed various phases, depending on internal conditions and on environment, but it never entirely departed from the Jewish people.

The promise made to the patriarchs was at last fulfilled, and Israel, after vanquishing the original inhabitants of Palestine, entered upon its coveted inheritance. But here also its national peace was constantly disturbed by the onslaughts of the neighboring tribes. In its distress, Israel, it is related, prayed to its God, and He sent a "judge," a redeemer, who, for a time, drove away the enemy, and established peace in the land. But the attacks of the foreign tribes became so constant and persistent that the temporary "judges," or generals, proved insufficient and unsatis

factory, and there arose among the people the hope that a nation united under one head might be able to withstand the surrounding foes.

At the request of the leaders of the people, Samuel, as a temporary provision, as a concession to the popular will, reluctantly appointed Saul as king over Israel. Although he was designated in the Bible as the "Messiah of God" (1 Sam. 24:7), Saul lacked the essential characteristics of the true Messiah. At the very beginning of his reign he was scorned by some, who said, "How shall this man save us?" (1 Sam. 10:27).

It was not until the appointment of David that the popular longing for a redeemer was completely satisfied. David became the type and the ideal of a Jewish king, the model, for all time, of the person of the Messiah, indeed, by some prophets and sages identified with the Messiah. He was not only the ideal hero who braved the enemy undaunted, who conquered nations, and extended the do

minion of Israel, but he was also the sweet singer, the man of God, the moulder of the solidarity of the nation of God. The popular belief, that the state of prosperity inaugurated by him would last forever, was strengthened by Nathan's prophecy, that the throne of David would be established forever (11 Sam. 7: 12-16), an assurance which David himself is represented as offering to his son Solomon (1 Kings 2:4). Thus, a Psalmist reflects the hopes of the people and their memories of the reign of Solomon, when he sings:

In his days let the righteous flourish, and let abundant peace continue till the moon be no more. May he have dominion from sea to sea, from the river unto the ends of the earth. Let them that dwell in the wilderness kneel down before him, and his enemies lick the dust. Let kings of Tarshish pay tribute, kings of Sheba and Saba offer gifts. Yes, let all kings bow down before him, and all nations do service unto him. . . . May his name endure forever, may his name shine as long as the sun, may men be blessed in him, and all nations call him happy (Ps. 72:7-11, 17).

The age of David and Solomon may be regarded as the time when the Messianic

ideal took a more definite shape in the minds of the Jewish people. From the material desire for relief from an oppressing enemy, the hope extended to the ideal of a stable, national government, based on the principles of a pure morality and lofty ideals, a hope which was intensified by the division of the kingdom and through the efforts of the prophets, who now begin to make their appearance. The prophets not only kept the flame ablaze in the hearts of the people, but they broadened the conception of the Messiah and of the Messianic period so as to include in its blessings not only Israel, but all the nations of the earth. Only a few generations after Solomon's death, the treasured ideal of poet and seer, and of those of the people who were still loyal to the old traditions, was a future in which an united Israel would be supreme in a world established on righteousness, recognizing the glory of the God of Israel and the beauty of His Law. The personal Messiah, through whom God

would bless the world, was present in the minds of most of the prophets, although not always placed by them in the foreground, when they described the glories of the future era. It was during this period that the Messiah idea was developed, and became an established principle of the Jewish religion, and a component part of Jewish conscious

The hope for a reunion of Israel under one king must have been very keen after the division of the kingdom, when the memory of the happy reigns of David and Solomon were still fresh in the minds of the people, and must have been the theme of the preachers and the moralists. Unfortunately, we have no prophecies written at that early period. It was not until about one hundred and fifty years after the division that the prophets began to make their appearance. The Messianic conceptions of the early prophets were local and material in their nature, referring only to Israel and to the physical