of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths:  for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.  And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks:  nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.  But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree; and none shall make them afraid:  for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it.”  Micah 4:1-4, compared with Isa. 2:2-4.  The temple at Jerusalem, with its altar and priesthood, was the central point of the old theocracy.  There all the sacrifices were to be offered, there was the seat of royal authority, and consequently of public justice, and thither all the males among the people were required to repair three times a year at the great national festivals.  Deut. 16:16.  A Jew could conceive of the conversion of all nations only in the form of their subjecting themselves to the theocracy, and coming up to Jerusalem for worship and the administration of justice.  Accordingly the Spirit of prophecy here represents the mountain of the Lord’s house as “established in the top of the mountains,” a conspicuous object to all nations, who resort thither for worship, submit themselves to the authority of the great king who reigns there, and thus have universal peace and happiness.  To insist on the literal interpretation of these words is contrary to the general analogy of prophecy.  It is an attempt to bring back the outward sensuous form of the kingdom of heaven which the gospel dispensation has abolished.

There is another celebrated passage in Zechariah (14:16-21) which is intensely Jewish in its costume.  After describing the judgments of God upon the nations that have fought against Jerusalem, the prophet goes on to say:  “And it shall come to pass that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem, shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.  And it shall be, that whoso will not come up, of all the families of the earth, unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.  And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.  This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.  In that day there shall be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar.  Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts; and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them and seethe therein:  and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite