'The Lord mighty in battle.' A true warrior-God, who went out in no
metaphorical sense, but in prose reality, fought for His people and
subdued the nations under them, in order that His name might be spread
and His glory be known in the earth.

And then, still further, 'the Lord of Hosts,' the Captain of all the
armies of heaven and earth. In that name is the thought to which the
modern world is coming so slowly by scientific paths, that all being is
one ordered whole, subject to the authority of one Lord. And in addition
to that, the grander thought, that the unity of nature is the will of
God; and that as the Commander issues His orders over all the field, so
He speaks and it is done. The hosts are the angels of whom it is said:
'Bless the Lord all ye His hosts; ye ministers of His that do His
pleasure.' The hosts are the stars that fill the nightly heavens, of
whom it is said, 'He bringeth out their host by number.' The hosts are
all creatures that live and are; and all are the soldiers and servants
of this conquering King. Such is the name of the Lord that dwelt with
Israel, the great conception that rises before this Psalmist.

II. Now turn to the second application of these great words, that speak
to us not only of the God that dwelt in Zion in outward and symbolical
form, by means of a material Presence which was an emblem of the true
nearness of Israel's God, but yet more distinctly, as I take it, of the
Christ that dwells with men.

The devout hearts in Israel felt that there was something more needed
than this dwelling of Jehovah within an earthly Temple, and the process
of revelation familiarised them with the thought that there was to be in
the future a 'coming of the Lord' in some special manner unknown to