king over thee; thou mayest not set a stranger over thee which is not thy brother." The sin of Israel, in this matter, lay in the spirit which dictated the request, and the design with which it was preferred. And this cannot be better expressed than in the words of the sacred history, 1 Sam. viii. 7: "And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people, in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them." The request of the people was accordingly granted: no new thing in the dealings of God with that people; for on more than one occasion he had allowed them the desires of their hearts, and yet chastened them for the iniquity which they had committed in choosing them. He caused Samuel to anoint Saul, the son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, to be king over Israel: an event which seemed to run counter to the plan marked out in prophecy; for Judah had been distinguished as he whom his brethren should praise. But the discrepancy is only apparent, for the reign of Saul was not of long continuance; and as the kingdom had begun, so it ended with him, for he was not succeeded by one of his family or tribe, but by David, the son of Jesse, of the tribe of Judah. To this the following words may be referred, Hos. xiii. 11: "I gave you a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath."

We cannot pass from the short reign of Saul without noticing the fulfilment, by his means, of the prophecy which had been uttered by Moses, and repeated by Balaam, concerning Amalek, Numb. xxiv. 20: "Amalek," says Balaam, "was the first of the nations; but his latter end shall be that he perish for ever." Nearly four hundred years had passed away since this prophetic doom was uttered, and Amalek remained. But the word of the Lord endureth for ever; for thus do we read, 1 Sam. xx. 7. "And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest to Shur, that is over against Egypt; and he took Agag, the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword."

Judges v. 31: "So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord, but let them that love Him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might."

We have said that the reign of Saul soon terminated, and that he had no successor in his own family. The individual who did succeed him was marked out by Divine appointment, for thus did Samuel address Saul, 1 Sam. xiii. 14: "But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the Lord hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee." The person to whom this prophecy refers is David, the son of Jesse, one of the most distinguished characters in the Jewish history. The illustrations of the Divine character, and the purpose of his covenant love, which may be drawn from his person, life, and reign, are so numerous, and rich, and varied, that it is difficult to condense them within manageable limits, and scarcely less difficult to make a selection of particulars.

In his elevation to the throne of Israel, as has already been hinted, we see a fulfilment of the prophecy, that the tribe of Judah should have the dominion. And what was thus begun, in his person, was continued in the line of his successors: so that "the sceptre did not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh came."Gen. xlix. 10. In the successful wars which David carried on, and the extensive conquests which he made, we see great progress made towards the complete subjugation of the land of promise. The people of Israel, it is true, had, under the conduct of Joshua, and in the face of all opposition, been settled in Canaan; and had acquired territories sufficiently ample for the accommodation of their several tribes. But the important work of driving out the idolaters, who had polluted the land-so that, in the expressive language of Scripture, "it vomited them out"-which had been so nobly begun in the taking of Jericho and other cities, had been suspended, through the unholy leniency of those to whom it had been committed;

and, from that time till the days of David, very little had been done towards the complete conquest of the lot of their inheritance. But, under that brave and devoted prince, a vast accession of territory was obtained, and a corresponding advancement made towards the accomplishment of the Divine prediction: for so early as the days of Abraham, the Lord had said, Gen. xiii. 14: "Lift up now thine eyes and look from the place where thou art, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever:" a promise which was all but accomplished in the days of David.

But besides all this, the grand subject of the system of prophecy was, by the history of David, placed in a clearer and stronger light than in any former period; and received a more eminent typical fulfilment than it ever had received before. The Messiah, it was expressly declared, should spring from his loins; and thus was the fact of the Redeemer's advent rendered more specific, and better defined, than it had been in preceding times. But if we read the history of this prince aright, we shall see in it a very full and remarkably clear delineation, in type, of the life of our blessed Lord in his state of humiliation; and thus does he become a witness to the faithfulness of God, that at the time appointed, he would certainly fulfil that great event, for which all things, from the beginning, had been preparing, and to which they all steadily tended. The Psalms of David, accordingly, are, many of them, descriptive of the humiliation, sufferings, and death, of the Lord Jesus Christ, his consequent exaltation to glory, the triumphs of his power, the extent of his kingdom, and the blessings of his reign. And even where they are expressive of David's personal feelings, and designed to describe his personal sufferings, it is wonderful how admirably they adapt themselves to Him, who was at once David's son and David's Lord; and hence Jesus expounded to his disciples, out of the Psalms, the things concerning himself: Luke xxiv. 44.

The state of prosperity and power, to which he raised the kingdom of Israel, also presents a lively picture of the greatness which should belong to the spiritual reign of Messiah the Prince. In all previous times, the people of Israel had been in a very unsettled condition. In the times of the Judges, there were seasons when we read, Judges xvii. 6, "In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did that which was right in his own eyes." But, in the days of David, they were firmly secured in the possessions they had acquired; and made rapid progress towards the full enjoyment of their inheritance. The ark of the covenant, which, like the people themselves, had been removed from place to place, and, on one occasion, as we have seen, had been captured by the Philistines, was, in David's time, brought up to Jerusalem, with great solemnity and joy, and placed on Mount Zion, in the tabernacle which he had prepared for it. The services of the sanctuary were celebrated in a very orderly manner, and with great magnificence; the priests and Levites arranged into orders, that they might, in succession, wait upon the worship of God; and the whole kingdom presented a spectacle, at once fitted to delight the hearts of the saints of God, and to fill their enemies with terror and dismay. But in all this, we see a faint representation of the glory of that time when the incarnate Word sat upon the throne of his father David, and reigned over the house of Jacob; and, therefore, an encouraging pledge, that He who provided the type would, in his season, raise up the antitype.

But if the reign of David was glorious, that of Solomon his successor was yet more glorious. The sons of David were very numerous, but, by the will of Him who ruleth Supreme over all, he was chosen to be his successor; and, notwithstanding the attempt to supplant him, was securely established on the throne of Israel. The great work by which the reign of Solomon is distinguished, is the building of the temple to the Lord of Hosts-the most magnificent edifice that perhaps ever was raised by the hand

of man. His father David, in his zeal for the honour of his Covenant-God, had designed to rear this wonderful fabric; but Nathan the prophet was sent to tell him that his design was accepted, but that it should be reserved for his son and successor to carry it into execution. "Thus saith the Lord, Thou shalt not build me an house to dwell in."......." And it shall come to pass when thy days be expired, that thou must go to be with thy fathers, that I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build me an house, and I will establish his throne for ever"2 Sam. vii. 12, 13. But though David was not honoured to build the temple, yet with the greatest liberality and zeal, he set himself to provide an ample store of materials for the work. He was also furnished, by Divine inspiration, with the plan on which it should be built, and this he gave to his son Solomon; for, like the tabernacle in the wilderness, it was meet that every thing should be done according to the pattern formed by Divine wisdom. The extent of David's dominion, and the number of nations that were tributary to him, furnished him with abundant supplies of gold and silver and brass and iron and timber, for the erection of the temple.

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His son Solomon was endowed from on high with an extraordinary degree of wisdom; and thus qualified and firmly seated on the throne, he set about the construction of the temple, according to the instructions which he had received from his father. work was accordingly begun, and, in consequence of the vast treasure which he possessed, and the multitude of people which he employed, it was at length completed, on a scale of magnificence which it is impossible to describe or even rightly to conceive. A day was set apart for its solemn consecration; and nothing can be more impressive than the description given by the sacred historian of the proceedings of that day; when Solomon and his ministers and people assembled to offer their homage to the King of kings, that sitteth between the cherubim. The Lord