“Mark the perfect man; and behold the upright: for the latter end of that man is peace. As for transgressors, they shall be destroyed together; the latter end of the wicked shall be cut off” (Ibid. 37, 38). In these and similar passages the pious and enthusiastic singer has in his mind something more durable and permanent than this short life, or otherwise the conflict between his hopes and the reality would have shaken his faith. Twelfth Principle.—“I firmly believe in the coming of Messiah; and although he may tarry, I daily hope for his coming.” When Abraham was chosen by God to be the founder of a nation proclaiming the Unity of God, when he was commanded to separate from his relatives and friends and to travel a stranger in a foreign land, the blessing promised to him was not to be enjoyed by him in the present, but by his descendants in remote future: “All the families of the earth shall be blessed in thee” (Gen. xii. 3). The same promise was repeated when Abraham stood the trial, and was ready to bring any sacrifice in obedience to the Will of the Supreme Being: “All the nations of the earth shall bless themselves in thee” (Ibid. xxii. 18). The conviction that the seed of Abraham have the distinction and the mission to become a source of a blessing to all mankind was transmitted from generation to generation; from Abraham through Isaac to Jacob or Israel, whose descendants, the Israelites, guarded the inherited charge, as their peculiar treasure. Before receiving the Decalogue on Mount Sinai, the Israelites were reminded of this their mission in the words, “And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exod. xix. 6). It was not by force of arms or by persuasion that they were to influence the whole earth, but by setting an example of noble, pure, and holy conduct. A special spot was selected for them where they should, in seclusion from the rest of the world, be trained in the true worship of God and in the practice of virtue. Zion and Jerusalem became in course of time the religious centre from which “instruction came forth and the word of the Lord.” The Israelites became negligent in their mission and faithless to their holy charge. Instead of leading other nations to the true worship of God, they allowed themselves to be misled by them to idolatry; instead of living a pure life of justice and righteousness, they yielded to luxury and lust, and committed acts of injustice and oppression. They were punished. Troubles followed troubles; they lost their independence and their religious centre. The men of God, the prophets, from Moses to the last of the prophets, Malachi, foretold the catastrophe, but at the same time added words of comfort and encouragement, pointing to a distant future, when “her appointed time of trouble will be complete, and her guilt atoned for;” when Israel will be restored to his land, and under the guidance of Messiah, “the Anointed of the Lord,” he will be filled with the fear of