Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the Lord, that doeth this. Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reapers, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed: and the mountains shall drop sweet wine and all the hills shall melt. And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land, which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God." Zephaniah says, "Behold, at that time I will undo all that afflict thee; and I will save her that halteth, and gather her that was driven out; and I will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame. At that time will I bring you again, even in the time that I gather you; for I will make you a name and a praise among all the people of the earth, when I turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith the Lord" (chap. iii. 19, 20). And again, "Thus saith the Lord, I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand. for very age. And the streets of the city shall be full

of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, If it be marvellous in the eyes. of the remnant of this people in these days, should it also be marvellous in mine eyes? saith the Lord of hosts. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country; and I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness" (Zech. viii. 3-8).

Now surely these prophetic portions of God's word do most clearly and distinctly teach that dead Israel, represented by the dry bones, shall be restored to life; shall be brought up out of their graves, and brought into their own land; and that dispersed, wandering, bleeding, God-afflicted Israel, shall be gathered from the four winds of heaven and brought into that same land of covenant and promise. When these prophetic declarations, almost universally admitted to be yet unfulfilled, are fulfilled; when all these people are gathered into the land of Israel, they will form the house of Israel, or, according to the angel Gabriel, the house of Jacob, and David, the servant of God the Father, "will be king over them all;" or he shall reign over them all as the house of Jacob.

The word David, the name generally given to the sweet singer of Israel, the son of Jesse, does not, in the prophecy under consideration, refer to that individual. The word David signifies, Beloved, my Beloved; and

here, as elsewhere, denotes or means Jesus Christ, as is admitted by commentators. And the precious truth taught is, that he, the Father's Beloved, is to reign over the united nation of Israel, signified by the house of Jacob gathered into their own land; and consequently, in this respect, the territorial extent of Messiah's kingdom will be the whole land of Israel, or Canaan, "a large land."

What will be the actual number of the house of Jacob, when fully gathered from the grave and the lands of their dispersion, and brought by the mighty hand and the glorious power of the God of the covenant, it is impossible to say, calculate, or even in any degree conjecture. But when we think on the resurrection, and changed glorified saints, which will be a multitude which no man can number, and the mortal saints converted at that period, and their ever increasing numbers, we must see and feel persuaded that the house of Jacob, the heirs of the land, the subjects of Messiah, will form a multitude great and glorious beyond all computation. Then will the children of the covenant, the seed of Abraham, of Jacob, be as the stars of the sky, as the sand upon the sea-shore; and if these cannot be numbered, neither can the gathered house of Jacob, neither can the subjects of Prince Messiah's kingdom. And whatever may be the number of the subjects of this divine and glorious kingdom at its commencement, they are destined perpetually to increase. As ages roll on they will perpetually mul

tiply, for the sure word of prophecy affirms, "of the increase of His government there shall be no end."

And while the number of the house of Jacob over whom the Prince is to reign will be very great, so also will be the territorial kingdom. It will not be that small portion of land extending from the shores of the Mediterranean sea to a little beyond the river Jordan, and from the southernmost point of the Dead sea to a little north of the lake of Genezareth, including a territory of about nine thousand square miles, which the tribes occupied after their return from Egypt. It is a far greater territory than that, and is truly, in the emphatic language of Scripture, "a good and a large land, including many other kingdoms or countries beyond the territory occupied by Israel in the days of Joshua and David, and its boundaries are clearly and distinctly marked out in Scripture. In the covenant with Abraham, the Lord defined the western and eastern boundaries of that land, when he said, "Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt" (the Nile) "unto the great river, the river Euphrates." This points out the width of the land, concerning which the greatest mistakes have been made. Instead of extending from the Mediterranean sea to a little beyond the river Jordan, it extends from the Nile over many other kingdoms and countries, till it reaches the far remote Persian gulf and the river Euphrates, which pours its flood of waters gathered from the vast regions of Armenia, Assyria, Mesopotamia, and Shinar into it.

Ezekiel thus points out the boundaries of the land (chap. xlvii. 13-23): "Thus saith the Lord God, This shall be the border whereby ye shall inherit the land, according to the twelve tribes of Israel: Joseph shall have two portions; and ye shall inherit it, one as well as another; concerning the which I lifted up mine hand to give it unto your fathers. And this land shall fall unto you for inheritance. And this shall be the border of the land toward the north side, from the great sea, the way of Hethlon, as men go to Zedab; Hamath, Berothah, Sebraim, which is between the border of Damascus and the border of Hamath; Hazarhatticon, which is by the coast of Hauran. And the border from the sea shall be Hazar-enan, the border of Damascus, and the north northward, and the border of Hamath. And this is the north side. And the east side ye shall measure from Hauran, and from Damascus, and from Gilead, and from the land of Israel by Jordan, from the border unto the east sea (Persian gulf). And this is the east side...... So shall ye divide this land unto you, according unto the tribes of Israel." Or, in other words, the land of promise, or the land of Israel, is bounded on the west by the great or Mediterranean sea; on the north by the great and extensive range of the mountains of Amanus, running directly to the Euphrates; on the east by the great river Euphrates, flowing into the Persian gulf; and on the south by the Arabian desert; starting from the north side of Kazma bay, in the Persian gulf, running across