Given at the New York Thanksgiving day Meeting, by S. R.

PSALM X CVII.

This psalm and others before and after it are a great Millennial group, which celebrate the kingdom of God set up in power on earth; set up in the second Man, in contrast with the first. In the 90th psalm is the declaration that nothing abiding comes from the failed first man; and in the 91st all is changed, and the titles of God speak of Millennial glory and blessing; it speaks also of the resurrection of our Lord. The 97th psalm celebrates the kingdom of the Lord; it is the Lord that reigneth.

The key to this psalm, as to all Scripture, is Christ; and we are not left in doubt as to who it is that reigneth. In Hebrews we have a direct quotation from this psalm, as applying to the Son set over all:"and let all the angels of God worship Him"-that is, those who are associated with God as servants and executors of His will recognize Him as no other than the Son of God who became man, and whose path here was lowly devotedness to God. God, who has highly exalted Him, now brings Him in as the rightful Ruler of the earth. So the key here is Christ, who unlocks the doors of blessing for a groaning earth, and makes the desert to blossom as the rose. This has been a groaning earth, by reason of he Fall made subject to vanity, and waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God.

Today men's minds are largely turned to questions of rule and government, and we should unfeignedly thank our God for casting our lot where we can go on in simplicity, without molestation. The powers that be are ordained of God-whoever takes it ; the power is here for the glory of God and the blessing of His creatures. We probably fail in estimating how great these privileges are, in peace and safety to meet as we do now, in a world where the blessed Son of God found only rejection and a cross, and where thousands of His people have been put to death for holding less truth than we have to-day. As we see the confusion and disorder in other parts of the world, we need to remember that it is only mercy that spares us from being subjected to the same; and that, left without God, man's will must sooner or later develop into anarchy.

Man listening to Satan's lie-"ye shall be as God " -was where it came in at the beginning. Under the impulse of that awful suggestion, but incompetent, for he seeks his own glory. So we need not be surprised at hearing of disorder, anarchy and cruelty as we see the foundations of thrones being shaken.

What is the remedy ? Not looking for something set up by man-his culture, his liberty. We look for no relief to a groaning earth in that way-no hope for things to get better. Our "thanksgiving" is for the coming of the true King-the Lord, who reigneth. Christ is the true King, and He is the key. We were reminded this morning how He saved the one hanging at His side; the appeal was made to Him as King-"Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom." His accusation was that He was " King of the Jews," but it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin, suggesting His worldwide kingdom. He alone could make the earth rejoice, for He alone could banish sin and rebellion against God. The cross was the only throne the Son of God got here, but such a throne-where He could dispense salvation to the one dying at His side -not that it was peculiar to that sinner alone, but that sinner a type of our own selves! We have abused more privileges than he who hung there ever had. That blessed King, in rejection, opened the gates of Paradise to him; and associated with Jesus, he went in there to the kingdom of eternal glory and blessing.

So we can glory in Him, and all the grace that brought Him down to the cross, when, at the moment that men were glorying over Him, saying "Aha," we can bow and say, Jesus, Thou art the King.

In the time of this psalm we have the Lord brought into the Millennial earth as the one who has already by His Cross laid the foundation of His throne, which is to abide forever.

Were God to deal with us apart from the cross of Christ, what would it be ? Righteousness would demand righteousness on our part, and judgment would call for execution and our banishment forever from His presence. God dealt with Him as our Substitute, and the foundations of the throne of righteousness were eternally laid, and He now comes forth with all His power and glory to be the King-the Man after God's own heart, who is to rule in righteousness and extend God's kingdom to the ends of the earth. There are two ways of looking at it; 1st, as the rejected One; secondly, from God's side, how He wrought salvation, and makes the solitary place to rejoice and the desert to blossom as the rose.

Then this government and righteousness must be according to all that God is in His nature. He is a God of righteousness, and His throne must ever express all that God is.

"No man hath seen God at anytime; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." He had come, then, to declare the acceptable year of the Lord, and all divine mercy was shown by Him up to the cross, and since then the gospel of grace goes out to guilty sinners.

But, for the world that has rejected and refused God and served graven images, etc., the coming of the true King must be the setting aside in judgment of all that is contrary to Him. He is setting up His kingdom, and so "clouds and darkness are round about Him, righteousness and judgment are the foundation of His throne." The world that refuses His grace must bow under His awful judgment.

What has the believer before him in connection with this earth ? He knows that the Lord is coming for Him, and that judgment is waiting for the world, that it is going on to judgment. What are the moral effects of that-what should it produce in our souls ? We look to Calvary, and our-hearts are bowed. As to the world, we are to separate from that which belongs to the world-"they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world;" and this separation is from within outward; it is not the giving up of this or that, but the being separated in heart from the spirit and ways of the world, which is under judgment. Will not that solemnize the heart, and will it not produce an effort to win souls to Christ by His grace ? ' So it is a personal separation to the crucified Christ on one side, and a going out in love to souls on the other side.

Then we get, as to the personal side of things, not now the kingdom and glory, but the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. He has delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. As subjects, we are to be constrained by His love, to be held fast in simple love to Him, producing subjection to the authority of the Son as really as if He were personally reigning in Millennial glory. That is what should be produced in the heart-the love of Christ in constraining power producing in us a spirit of subjection that delights to bow to and own His authority.

The time in which we live is characterized by the rejection of authority, and the people of God themselves may, alas, partake of the same spirit. Unless kept by His grace, there may be a spirit of independence of the Father's will. May we so enter into what the kingdom is now, "righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost," and be set at liberty to bow now to the King, to own His blessed authority now, and have no confidence in ourselves, but keep our eyes fixed on that blessed Savior, to know whom is fulness of joy.