nted one who should represent the Most High to the people, the
majority looked for a Son of David to sit upon his father's throne. Even
so, however, there were wide differences in the nature of the hope which
was set on the coming of this Son of David. The Zealots were looking for a
victory, which should set Israel on high over all his foes. To the rest of
the people, however, the method of the consummation was not so clear, and
they were ready to leave God to work out his purpose in his own way,
longing meanwhile for the fulfilment of his promise. One class in
particular gave themselves to visionary representations of the promised
redemption. They differed from the Zealots in that they saw with unwelcome
clearness the futility of physical attack upon their enemies; but their
faith was strong, and at the moment when outward conditions seemed most
disheartening they looked for a revelation of God's power from heaven,
destroying all sinners in his wrath, and delivering and comforting his
people, giving them their lot in a veritable Canaan situated in a renewed
earth. Such visions are recorded in the Book of Daniel and the Revelation
of John. They are found in many other apocalypses not included in our
Bible, and indicate how persistently the minds of the people turned
towards the promises spoken by the prophets, and meditated on their
fulfilment. The Devout were midway between the Zealots and the
Apocalyptists. The songs of Zachariah and Mary and the thanksgiving of
Simeon express their faith. They hoped for a kingdom as tangible as the
Zealots sought, yet they preferred to _wait_ for the consolation of
Israel. They believed that God was still in his heaven, that he was not
disregardful of his people, and that in his own time he would raise up
unto them their king. They looked for a Son of David, yet his reign was to
be as remarkable for its purification of his own people as for its
victories over their foes. These victories indeed were to be largely
spiritual, for their Messiah was to conquer in the strength of the Spirit
of God and "by the word of his mouth." Such as these were ready for a
ministry like John's, and not unready for the new ideal which Jesus was
about to offer them, though their highest spiritualization of the
Messianic hope was but a shadow of the reality which Jesus asked them to
accept.

18. This last conception of the Messiah is found in a group of psalms
written in the first century before Christ, dur