September 13

1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots;

2 And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom, and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;

3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD; and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears.

4 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall write the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.

5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.

6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fattening together; and a little child shall lead them.

7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the rockatrice's den.

9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountains; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

That this chapter refers to the times of the Messiah there can be no question. It is also evident that the time here spoken of has not yet fully come, and the mind is still directed onward, as was that of the prophet, to a future period when this shall be accomplished.

The prophecy has been, indeed, in part fulfilled. Wherever the gospel has spread, its effect has been just that which is predicted here. It has calmed and subdued the angry passions of men; it has mitigated laws that were cruel and bloody; it has produced mildness and love in the domestic circle; and wherever it has spread in truth and not in form merely, it has shed a mild, calming and subduing influence over the passions, laws and customs of men.

And Christ's kingdom is going forward from age to age. All the might of the world is now on the side of Christianity. Yes, Christ is a light to lighten the Gentiles; and the glory of the upper heavens shall yet scatter and chase away the darkness which still broods sullenly over the earth, and new, Divine life, long repressed, shall yet reveal itself in fair and wonderful and lavish fertility; the very deserts of the world shall be covered with a moral wealth and beauty, of which the brightest spring time and the richest autumn are poor and pale symbols, and of which the loveliness of Paradise was only a dim and imperfect promise.

Closet Promise.—Unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings.—Mal. iv. 2.

My mind was full of troubles wild, And all my heart was hiled with sorrow, When, by my side, a little child Pointed toward the sky and smiled, And said, "The sun will shine tomorrow."

Out in the paling golden West The rosy clouds were slowly fading, And a fiv, in her hidden nest, The mother-bird, beneath her breast, Her callow young from ill was shading.

I looked, and all my pain had flown; Would He, who even takes thought of sparrows, Give me, instead of bread, a stone?

Or never heed my weary moan? Or pierce my soul with many arrows? Ah, no! I felt that could not be; He would not leave my soul in sorrow. But though the present dark may be, And filled with fear and misery, He'll send the sunshine on the morrow. O, weary souls! however black Your lives may be, this comfort borrow; Look ever forward, look not back, But keep upon the homeward track, And look for sunshine on the morrow. —Edith Helena Cooke.