and just authority, and on it worships a resplendent
host. Every sound and sight of glory and honor, that language can
express, or the finest imagination picture, is ascribed to that eternal
royalty.

Next to the throne, the crown became a sign of authority, although it
was applied, at first, to other ornaments for the head, properly called
coronets, garlands, tiaras, bands, mitres, etc.

The idea of a kingly crown was suggested by the diadem, which was a
fillet--a mere band like that used to bind the long hair worn by the
people--but richer and of a different color. It was natural and easy,
with the increase of power and wealth, to make the crown a more costly
and showy symbol of kingly sway.

David wore a crown of gold set with jewels, he took from the king of the
Ammonites.

The more modern crowns of Asia, where all the kings reigned, of whom we
have read in these pages, are of different shapes, and some of them very
rich and expensive, ornamented with precious stones and plumes of the
rarest kind.

Crowns are also often mentioned in the Bible as an emblem of power; and
the Christian conqueror of his sins and the world, it is written, shall
have "a crown of life."

The sceptre was the third token of sovereignty. The word originally
signified a staff of wood of the length of a man's height. Later, it was
smaller in form, and often plated with gold, and enriched with various
decorations. Inclining, or holding out the sceptre was a mark of royal
favor; and kissing it by another, a sign of submission.

Jehovah's rule is mentioned frequently in the inspired record, under
this figure. "His sceptre is a right sceptre," in one of the
declarations, which even the wicked and most wretched on account of
transgression, dare not deny.

Under its wide dominion are Heaven, Earth, and Hell, not only, but a
universe whose boundaries neither man nor angel can ever reach.

"He is God over all, and blessed forever!"

How amazing the truth of such a king and kingdom! Under the unsleeping
eye of the Sovereign, the planet wheels on its axis with startling
velocity, and the insect creeps on the grain of sand. A Russian poet
beautifully sung:

Oh, thou Eternal One! whose presence bright,
All space doth occupy, all motion guide!
Unchanged through time's all devastating flight,
Thou only God, there is no God beside!

Being above all beings! mighty one,
Whom none can comprehend, and none explore!
Who filled