further comment to the special interpretations which our inquiry has already attached to the Apocalyptic figures. The signs of the desolation having been announced, the character of the desolation itself next follows, and is thus described in terms embraced by the Apocalyptic earthquake: Immediately after the tribulation of those days. shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."

The extinction or darkening of the firmamental luminaries being the ordinary metaphors adopted by the ancient prophets to denote the fall of ruling powers, of principalities, or of kingdoms, the disciples might readily recognise the intention of their Master to foretell on this occasion the consummation of the judgments denounced against the Jewish nation, and the utter subversion of the Jewish polity both in church and state; and as the prophetic language of scripture also proclaims the establishment of kingdoms and any signal interposition of divine providence by the sound of trumpets and by the great Jehovah himself coming in the clouds of heaven, so were the disciples instructed to understand by the succeeding figures, that the Jewish desolation would be accompanied by such a remarkable manifestation of their Master's kingdom that the weeping and wailing of the Jewish tribes would be aggravated not only by their plainly recognising the power and glory of him whom they had crucified, but also by their realising the certainty of their rejection from his kingdom as they beheld his heralds sent forth in great numbers to proclaim its establishment to the Gentiles, and to gather his subjects together in one spirit of allegiance to himself throughout the world. And for the same reasons we may readily adopt these interpretations, but we must not, nevertheless, omit

to observe the Apocalyptic confirmation disclosed by the result of a previous investigation. It will be remembered that the prefigurations following the opening of the sixth seal are described in very much the same terms as those under notice, and, when before us, were found to be historically illustrated by the subversion of Paganism by Christianity; and as the language of this prophecy was referred to in support of the interpretations then affixed to the language of the sixth seal, so we may now refer to the latter and see an interesting confirmation in the analogy of interpretation as well as of terms, which exalts Christianity, in the one case, on the ruins of Judaism, and in the other case, on the ruins of Paganism.

Neither must we omit to observe the comment on our subject thus recorded by Matthew, xii. 38-42:-"Then certain of the Scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. But Jesus answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign: and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth;" from which we may gather, that whilst Jesus, as we have seen, fully instructed his disciples as to the signs which should precede the Jewish desolation, and which should warn them to flee from Jerusalem in the greatest haste, so the resurrection of Jesus from the dead would be the only sign given to the Jews, and that those who were not thereby warned to flee with the disciples would reap the fruits of their unbelief amidst "great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be."

Whilst, therefore, we may see in the foretold experience of the Jews, a fulfilment also of the words of Jesus to the multitude, Luke xiii. 25-29, "When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are; then shall ye

begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and ye yourselves thrust out. And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God;" and whilst we may also see, in the display of the Lord's power and his sending forth his gospel heralds, the commencement of the fulfilment of his word, Matthew xvi. 18, "Upon this rock will I build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it;"-and finding in Matthew's gospel, xvi. 27, 28, "For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works," and that these words are followed by, "Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom;" and that Jesus, speaking of John, says, John xxi. 22, “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee;" and finding again, on returning to Matthew xxiv., that our text "And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other," is followed by "Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away;" so, and from that which precedes, it will be seen, the conclusions follow: -That the several prophecies agree in character with and are embraced by the Apocalyptic "lightnings, voices, thunderings, earthquake, and great hail," and include the same events; That the fulfilment of those events must precede the death of John; that on history being found to be in

a

accordance with the interpretations enforced, the several prophetic declarations will be found to have received every fulfilment necessarily demanded by the terms in which they are conveyed and the contexts by which they are qualified; That the words of Jesus, Matthew xi. 13, "For all the law and the prophets prophesied until John," are invested with an instructive as well as an interesting signification by the concentration of fulfilment of so many important prophecies (others will readily recur to the Bible student) in the period ever memorable as terminating the Jewish dispensation ; That those who are looking for a second personal coming of the Lord are called upon seriously to examine the basis of their expectation; That much force is added to the relative evidences set forth in vol. i., p. 9, resulting in the remarks, "All afforded ample grounds for just expectations of revelation from Heaven; and also suggest an interesting subject for serious thought and inquiry as to the extent to which those expectations were fulfilled by the revelation now under consideration;" That those persons are especially admonished of their responsibility who ignore the prescience of God and the glory of the Lord's kingdom of grace and truth, by teaching that the Jews, not having accepted Jesus as their King, compelled a change in the purposes of the divine mind, the consequence being, that we now live in a parenthetical period not originally contemplated, and that the foretold glorious revelation of Jesus Christ as King, together with a publication of a more glorious gospel are postponed until a change in the will of man permits the pre-determined counsel of the Almighty to be accomplished; and lastly, That we might now at once pass to our historical illustrations, were it not that the sequence of the Apocalyptic figures exhibit "the great hail" as subsequent to "the earthquake," and therefore requiring a more specific solution than that which has been attached to the terms generally during our investigation.

A key to such solution and a further interesting elucidation of our subject are found by referring to Isaiah xxviii. 14-18, where the prophet says, Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people

which is in Jerusalem. Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then shall ye be trodden down by it." In addition, therefore, to the general interpretation -that destructive forces, remarkable for number and for universality of effect, would continue to oppress the Jews after the loss of their city and temple, the prophet instructs us to attach to the "great hail" the more specific interpretation-that the Jews would be utterly trodden down and driven to seek elsewhere the shelter which their own land would no longer afford them; and as Isaiah connects the desolating scourge of hail with laying the foundation stone in Zion on which judgment and righteousness would be set up, so the perfect harmony of the prophecy with our subject will readily be seen, as also the propriety of applying its fulfilment to the Apocalyptic period represented by "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ."

Having now ascertained the character of the events embraced by the Apocalyptic "lightnings, voices, thunderings, earthquake, and great hail," we may proceed to see how far the records of history agree therewith, and confirm the specific interpretations which we have been instructed to affix to those figures. The requirements from history may be thus briefly recapitulated :-That in Judæa and between the years 33 and 96, quick, diffusive and powerful religious manifestations, disputings, and uproarious commotions extensively prevailed; that some of those whom Christ, when