August 30

AUGUST 30.—“He shall sit and rule upon his throne.”—Zechariah 6:13.

A THRONE is literally the seat of a king, and therefore the emblem of royalty. Solomon’s throne was made of ivory and gold; it was six steps high; and had the same number of lions on each side of it; so “that there was none like it in any kingdom.” But a greater than Solomon is here. And a greater than angels—“Of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire: but unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” In the year that Uzziah died, says the Prophet, “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple”—And the Evangelist makes no scruple to add, “These things said Isaiah when he saw his glory and spake of him.”

Yet however sublime and unrivalled, it is his throne. He has dearly earned it; and he sees in it the travail of his soul—Because his soul was made an offering for sin, he sees his seed, and prolongs his days, and the pleasure of the Lord prospers in his hand—Because he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name above every name. But it is his, not only by Divine ordination, but by the suffrage of his people. They are all made willing in the day of his power. They all acknowledge with shame and sorrow, “O Lord, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us:” but they can all avow, “Henceforth by thee only will we make mention of thy name”—

“Jesus is worthy to receive Honour and power divine; And blessings more than we can give, Be, Lord, for ever thine.”

Faith is our amen to God’s testimony, especially as it concerns the record that he hath given to us eternal life, and that this life is in his Son. It brings us into his views and designs: and by enabling us to adopt them it makes them our own acts and deeds—and hence we are considered as doing what he himself does: “The children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and appoint them one head, and they shall come up out of the land.”

Many, if they ascend a throne, can hardly be said to sit and rule there. They are soon hurled from it by violence, or drop from it by weakness. And if they continue awhile in it, they have little pleasure or repose: they are filled with cares and fears, and cannot do the things that they would. The sovereign of a hundred and twenty-seven provinces labours hard till the going down of the sun to save his prime minister, but in spite of him Daniel is thrown into the lion’s den. What a wretch is Ahab, who, though King of Israel, is sick, and can neither eat or drink, because he cannot get a few feet of garden ground from a faithful subject whose principle he ought to have admired—But Jesus “shall sit and rule upon his throne.” This intimates successful government, established