dramatic force, a single voice from within the barred gates asks, like
some suspicious warder, "Who then is the King of glory?" With what a
shout of proud confidence and triumphant memories of a hundred fields
comes, ready and full, the crash of many voices in the answer, "Jehovah
strong and mighty, Jehovah mighty in battle!" How vividly the reluctance
of an antagonistic world to yield to Israel and Israel's King, is
represented in the repetition of the question in a form slightly more
expressive of ignorance and doubt, in answer to the reiterated summons,
"Who is He, then, the King of glory?" With what deepened intensity of
triumph there peals, hoarse and deep, the choral shout, "The Lord of
Hosts, He is the King of glory." That name which sets Him forth as
Sovereign of the personal and impersonal forces of the universe--angels,
and stars, and terrene creatures, all gathered in ordered ranks,
embattled for His service--was a comparatively new name in Israel,[T]
and brought with it thoughts of irresistible might in earth and heaven.
It crashes like a catapult against the ancient gates; and at that
proclamation of the omnipotent name of the God who dwells with men, they
grate back on their brazen hinges, and the ark of the Lord enters into
its rest.

[S] "And she named the child I-chabod (Where is the glory?) saying, The
glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken."--1
_Sam._ iv. 21.

[T] It has been asserted that this is the first introduction of the
name. ("Psalms Chronologically Arranged by Four Friends," p. 14). But it
occurs in Hannah's vow (1 Sam. i. 11); in Samuel's words to Saul (xv.
2); in David's reply to Goliath (xvii. 45). We have it also in Psalm
lix. 5, which we regard as his earliest during his exile. Do the authors
referred to consider these speeches in 1 Sam. as not authentic?

XII.--THE KING--_CONTINUED_.

The second event recorded as important in the bright early years is the
great promise of the perpetuity of the kingdom in David's house. As soon
as the king was firmly established and free from war, he remembered the
ancient word which said, "When He giveth you rest from all your enemies
round about, so that ye dwell in safety, then there shall be a place
which the Lord your God shall choose to cause His name to dwell there"
(Deut. xii. 10, 11). His own ease rebukes him; he regards his
tranquillity not as a season for selfish indolence, but as a call to new
forms of s