1. So thoroughly has Christianity filled the modern mind with the love of peace, that the older associations of Jehovah with times and scenes of war have become positively painful to us. Taking advantage of this feeling - perhaps we should say this weakness of feeling - the infidel makes easy attacks upon the Old Testament Jehovah as an altogether unlovely and even bloodthirsty conception. Are we to be unduly alarmed, and to attempt explanations and excuses? or are we to take a firm stand, and say that, as the experience of war is one of the commonplaces of humanity, the association of Jehovah with war is inevitable; it must be made in every nation and in every generation, and according to the idea a nation has of war must be its notion of God as associated with war. In the last hundred years there have been a great variety of wars, right ones and wrong. Men cannot help it; they must associate their God with their wars. The thing to seek is a right association. Wars are dreadful things; but it is not possible to read history intelligently, and say that they have always been wrong. But if they have ever been just and right, God cannot be dishonored by being thought of as connected with them, and working out his purposes by means of them.

2. Then, again, wars belong to that liberty with which God has entrusted his creatures. It is a liberty over which he watches, and which he holds in due restraints. But he would not be fair to men unless he gave them a good length of tether. Man must have liberty enough to fight for his ends.

3. Again, if the self-defense of an individual man be right, and even aggressive action under some conditions, - self-defense in an aggregate of individuals, in a nation, need not be wrong. We must distinguish between the misery of it and the sin of it. A nation has no way of aggressive or defensive action, in relation to the aggressive or defensive action of another nation, save by war.

4. And lastly, God may use nations, as well as natural forces, for the execution of his judgments. Natural forces are pestilence, famine, and convulsions, as we call them, of nature. The only national executive force is war. Reasonably, as well as poetically, God may be called a "Man of war." - R.T.

We may suppose these words to be addressed to the sacred sentinels by the head of their course, or by the captain of the guard, or even by the high priest. We can imagine the captain of the guard coming in during the night watches, and saying to the priests who were guarding the temple (ver. 1). Or we could imagine the high priest, when the watch was set for the first part of the alight, going to the priests who were under his control, and addressing to them these same soul-stirring words. Now our text is the response of these sacred sentinels. As they listened to the captain of the guard, or to the high priest, telling them to worship by night in the courts of the Lord — to lift up their hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord — they answered him, "The Lord that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion." So that here you have brought before you the interesting and instructive subject of mutual benediction — the saints blessing each other.

I. JEHOVAH — THE FOUNTAIN OF BLESSING. There is in the Divine nature an infinite and everlasting disposition to do us good; and connected with that infinite and everlasting disposition to do us good are all power, all knowledge, all wisdom, absolute independence and eternity of being. And we find actual blessings on God's part according to that capacity. He does not bless as His creatures bless — often unwisely, often insufficiently, often half-heartedly — but when God blesses, He blesses with all that is within Him; with all that can be employed in that particular act and work of blessing.

II. THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH, EVIDENCE OF DIVINE CAPACITY TO BLESS. While we, of course, look chiefly and supremely to the manifestation of God's goodness in our Lord and Saviour, we ought not to overlook the expressions of His care and kindness which we find in the grass of the field, and in the very dust which we tread beneath our feet.

III. THE CHURCH A CHANNEL OF BLESSING. The Church is the conservator of Divine revelation, — the Church is the offerer on earth of true worship — it consists of a company of priests, a royal priesthood, part of whose mission is "to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." The Church is the heritor of the covenants. God's covenants are made with His Church, and His promises are addressed chiefly to His Church. The Church is the scene of special Divine ministrations, God shows Himself to His Church as He does not to that which is called the world. It is also the scene of special heavenly influences: and in a sense next to that in which God is said to reside in heaven, the Church is the dwelling-place of the Most High. Now, what is it to be blessed out of Zion? It is surely to be blessed with Zion's blessings, and to have Zion's endowments and gifts rendered sources of advantage and profit to us.

IV. THE SAINTS AS THE MEANS OF SPREADING THE BLESSING, AND THAT, TOO, BY THE SPIRIT OF BLESSING. "The Lord that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion." "Bless thee!" You know where this was first said, and when. The Fountain of Blessing first said it. He said it in Paradise to our first father and mother when, beautiful in holiness, and glorious in uprightness and goodness, they came fresh from His hand. As their Creator, He said to them both, "Bless thee"; and we have learned to say, "Bless thee," from our Father in heaven, the Fountain of Blessing. We never should have said to each other, "Bless thee," had not God taught us; and when we say it, we but echo His voice. "Bless you," said the Son of God to the multitude around Him. And, "Bless you," said He emphatically to His apostles when He was about to leave them — when He was about to ascend from Olivet, and depart out of their sight. "He lifted up His hands, and blessed them." "Bless you," said the apostles to the Churches. How full of benedictions are these glorious epistles! "Grace, mercy, and peace be with all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity." "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all." And what has this to do with spreading the Divine blessing? Much every way. Such benediction, when sincere, and when not a mere form of words, is prayer. And every promise that is made to prayer is made to benediction. So that he who is possessed by the spirit of blessing, and who expresses it in his behaviour, and in his deportment, is constantly supplicating the throne of the heavenly grace on behalf of others.

V. THE RICHES INVOLVED IN THE DIVINE BENEDICTION. It means, The Lord speak comfortably to thee. It means, The Lord keep thee; the Lord be thy shepherd; the Lord restore thy soul when thy spirit wanders; the Lord keep thee in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake; the Lord hold up thy goings in His paths, that thy footsteps slip not; the Lord be thy light and thy salvation; God be thy refuge and strength, thy present help in trouble. May morning follow the night, and the night be driven away by the lifting up of the light of the countenance of the loving God — by expressions of His love adapted to the time of sorrow, and to the state of depression and despondency." "The Lord give thee peace," — that is, prosperity, well-being, health in the soul, comfort in the heart, rest, joy, quiet in the spirit.

(S. Martin.)