He overcame all the infestations of man's spiritual enemies, was conqueror in every temptation to which He was exposed, gradually put off every principle of the frail humanity which He had derived from his mother, and as gradually put on every principle of Divinity from His Divine essence within; until, having suffered the last temptation, the power of His truth enabled Him to rise in all the majesty of a mighty conqueror, and, in His glorified body, to ascend high above all heavens. King of kings, and Lord of lords. The sword of the Lord, therefore, is the Divine truth of His Word; it is the sword of the Spirit; and the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. This is the sword which He came to send upon earth. Evil is the direst enemy we have, and truth always opposes it; it must ever be at war with it: and forasmuch as the Lord is Divine truth itself, therefore Divine truth is the sword of the Lord, bestowed upon man that he may be endowed with power to overcome his spiritual enemies.
July Twelfth.
THE SWORD OF THE LORD.
"O thou sword of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet?"—Jer xlvii. 6.
MOSES calls God the sword of Israel's excellency: "Happy art thou. O Israel! who is like unto thee, O people, saved by the Lord? the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency!" (Deut. xxxiii. 29.) He is indeed the pure Divine truth, by which alone His Israel, His true
