Our

unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men" (1 Pet. For these and similar admissions we are thankful, and ii. 4). By and bye he will arise from off the Father's we are confident that they will not stop there. throne, and receive to himself the co-heirs who are now adversaries had long treated Christ's coming unworthily. being called; the power of the throne will then be They confounded it with the mission of the Holy Ghost, exercised in vindication of his long-despised and re- with the destruction of Jerusalem, with the departure jected Name; and when all things are prepared for the of the spirit at death, with the judgment of the dead solemn event, he and his saints will return, and this before the great white throne. They are now compelled earth shall be subdued to his sway. Of these things to own that "Premillennialists have done the Church a the prophecies of the New Testament bear witness; the real service, by calling attention to the place which the more they are studied, and the better they are under-second advent holds in the Word of God and the scheme stood, the more evident will it be, that no contrariety of divine truth." exists between the Old Testament and the New. The More than this: the immense practical importance of prophecies of the Old Testament leave room for the the question is frankly avowed. It was passing strange revelations and mysteries of the New; the latter fill and most trying to hear men of God, not combatting up, but do not contradict, the former; they both ex- Pre-millennialism because of a supposed lack of Scriphibit the purposes and ways of God for the glorifying tural proof, but neglecting it as a mere secondary, of himself in Christ, as one vast harmonious whole; trivial notion, even if true. Such sentiments are deand in their combined light, grace and righteousness, plorable: better to be "cold" than thus "lukewarm.” mercy and truth, Jew and Gentile, heaven and earth, Here, again, Dr. Brown confesses the untenable ground are all seen to be to the praise of the glory of him, of of such of his partisans." Some may think it of small whom, and through whom, and to whom, are all consequence whether this system be true or false; but things to whom, indeed, be glory for ever. Amen. no one who intelligently surveys its nature and bearings can be of that opinion. Premillennialism is no barren THE HOPE OF CHRIST'S COMING AGAIN, AND speculation, useless though true, and innocuous though ITS RELATION TO THE QUESTION OF TIME.* false. It is a school of Scripture interpretation; it impinges upon and affects some of the most commanding points of the Christian faith; and when suffered to work its unimpeded way, it stops not till it has pervaded with its own genius the entire system of one's theology, and the whole tone of his spiritual character, constructing, I had almost said, a world of its own; so

No. I.

SO

fundamental hopes as other Christians, he yet sees things through a medium of his own, and finds everything instinct with the life which this doctrine has generated within him :" (p. 8.) This witness is true. Evidence may be asked and weighed before the Lord; but the incalculable moment of the doctrine ought to be immediately and universally felt. An event which at once and definitively disposes of the saints who have slept in Jesus, or who may be then alive; an event which subsequently deals with all mankind, Jew or Gentile, must obviously be one of the most solemn and impressive transactions which the world can behold, or the mind contemplate. To say, then, that it can be an immaterial consideration, really proves that those who so speak have never thought seriously about the matter.

THE battle-field is somewhat changed. The champion of post-millennialism proclaims the second advent to be "THE VERY POLESTAR OF THE CHURCH." "That it is held forth in the New Testament, is beyond dispute. Let any one do himself the justice to collect and arrange the evidence on the subject, and he will be sur-that, holding the same faith, and cherishing the same prised-if the study be new to him-at once at the copiousness, the variety and the conclusiveness of it." (Brown, p. 15.) "Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me'; is a sound dear to all that love His name. They love His appearing' because they love Himself. To put anything in the place of it is not good. Nor will it succeed; for those who preach Him bringing His reward with Him will prevail, as indeed they ought. Nor is it in regard to the personal appearing of the Saviour that only premillennialists will and ought to prevail against all who keep it out of sight. There is range of truth connected with it, which necessarily sinks out of its scriptural position and influence, whenever the coming of Christ is put out of its due place. I refer to the RESURRECTION as a co-ordinate object of the Church's hope, and to all the truths which circle around it, in which there is a power to stir and to elevate, which nothing else, substituted for it, can ever possess. The resurrection-life of the Head, as now animating all his members, and at length quickening them from the tomb, to be for ever with Him; these, and such like, are truths, in the presentation of which premillennialists are cast in the mould of Scripture, from which it is as vain as it were undesirable to dislodge them." (Brown, p. 455.)

a

It is also, perhaps, worthy of note, that in speaking of prejudices for and against premillennialism, our opponent puts in the first class of those ready to embrace it almost immediately,―would the reader believe, who? The curious and marvel-loving? the materializing? No, but "souls that burn with love to Christ, who, with the mother of Sisera, cry through the lattice Why is his chariot so long in coming? why tarry the wheels of his chariot?' and with the spouse, 'make haste, my Beloved, and be thou like to a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of spices."" It is indeed sinto the evident desire of the Lord, should predispose in gular that a state of heart so healthful and so according favour of a scheme at variance with the Word of God,

crude in its principles, defective as a system, and peril

ous in its results: (p. 454) Nearly as strange, considering his own views, is Dr. Brown's acknowledgment of the anti-premillennial tendencies, which require to be guarded against. "Under the influence of such tendencies, the inspired text, as such, presents no rich. and exhaustless field of prayerful and delighted investigation; exegetical inquiries and discoveries are an uncongenial element; and whatever Scripture intimations regarding the future destinies of the Church and of the world involve events out of the usual range of human occurrences, or exceeding the anticipations of enlightened Christian sagacity, are almost instinctively overlooked or softened down. Such minds turn away from premillennialism :" (p. 10.) Undoubtedly true, but surely unaccountable, if, as Dr. B. thinks, premillennialism be false: unaccountable, that the vigorous and spiritual who burn with love to Christ, should be ready to embrace the doctrine, while the meagre and sapless souls who search little into and expect less from God's Word, "have hardly patience to listen to it." Let the dispassionate judge.

Original Contributions.

THE DAWNING LIGHT OF PROPHECY.- No. III. THE Condition of Judah and Israel in Isaiah's day, was low and sorrowful indeed. The "whole head was sick and the whole heart was faint." The people were "laden with iniquity;" they had "forsaken the Lord, and provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger." And Isaiah's first prophetic mission seems to have been one denouncing lengthened period of heaviest woe against the nation.

"Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send And he said, Go, and tell this people,

me.

Hear ye indeed, but understand not;-and see ye indeed, but perceive not.

Make the heart of this people fat,-and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes;

Lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears,

And understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.
Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered,

Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant,-and the
houses without man,

And the land be utterly desolate,

And the Lord have removed men far away,

"And it shall come to pass in the last days,
That the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established
in the top of the mountains

And shall be exalted above the hills;-and all nations shall
flow unto it.

And many people shall go and say,

Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,-to the house of the God of Jacob;

And he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his
paths:

For out of Zion shall go forth the law,-and the word of the
Lord from Jerusalem.

And he shall judge among the nations,-and shall rebuke
many people :

And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks;

Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,-neither shall
they learn war any more." (Is. ii. 2—4.)

Jerusalem" shall, "in the last days," constitute Mount
The procession of the "word of the Lord from
Zion the most honoured and exalted of all the sites of
cities. The religion of the God of Israel shall thence
spread throughout all nations. Yet "judgment" and
"rebuke " must be inflicted. Then shall the nations
learn the art of war no more. The character of the
predicted judgment is more definitely revealed thus:-
"Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust,
For fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty.
The lofty looks of man shall be humbled,-and the haughti-
ness of men shall be bowed down,

And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
For the day of the Lord of Hosts shall be upon every one
that is proud and lofty,

And upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought

low."

And the idols he shall utterly abolish.

And they shall go into the holes of the rocks,-and into the
caves of the earth,

For fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty,
When he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.

In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols
of gold,

Which they made each one for himself to worship,-to the moles and to the bats;

To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the
ragged rocks,

For fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty,
When he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.

(Is. ii. 10-12; 18-21.) Such is the introduction of the "good time" of the future. And there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land." None, we presume, will allege any previous fulfilment (Is. vi. 8-12.) of such prophecies as this. "The great and terrible day Here then we have a definite revelation of the judicial of the Lord," then, is already placed in fullest promiblindness, and the prolonged dispersion of the nation. nence between us and the reign of the Messiah. It is But we have also a ray of hope, even here. "As a not the quiet progress of the gathering out of the nations teil-tree and an oak, whose substance is in them when of a little flock, which, whilst little, shall be taken up they cast their leaves, so the holy seed shall be the sub-into heaven, as a whole. It is not an ecclesia-a church stance thereof." The destruction shall not be an utter one. The stock of the nation shall be preserved to germinate again when all the judgments shall be overpast. Such is one of the earliest of Isaiah's revelations. 2. In Isaiah ii. (which it would appear was of a date subsequent to the vision of chapter vi.) we have the day of future blessedness, with the great and terrible day which shall introduce it, depicted in most express and

called out-from amongst the nations. It is a subjugation of the nations themselves. When the nations are subdued, there will be needed no ecclesia, no out-calling of the saints. The ecclesia will have been glorified and transferred to heaven at the commencement of this period. The revelations of the New Testament enable us to say this. But the prediction before us is not one of calling out, but of universal subjugation. The two

things are distinct. The one cannot synchronize with the other. Let us discern the things which differ, and seek to give to each scripture we consider its genuine interpretation.

And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth,
And with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked."

(Is. xi. 4.) Here, once more, is the execution of an introductory 3. We now present the bright light of the revelation pronounce a sentence of smiting upon the earth, and judgment. He, with whom "a word is a work," shall

of ISAIAH IX.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this." (Is. ix. 6, 7.) The light dawns apace. We fear to weaken, by any comments on this passage, the impression of the whole.

the earth shall be smitten. Yea; thus shall he slay a
certain one-a certain person-here emphatically termed
"the wicked one"; the adjective "wicked" being here
in the singular number. A further element of light is
here thrown upon the future. The destruction of some
one grand, special opponent, shall signalise the setting
of the Messiah's reign.
shall prove to be is not further, in this prophecy,
Who this "wicked one
disclosed.

up

The second portion is as follows:— "And it shall come to pass in that day,

That the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to
recover the remnant of his people,

Which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt,
And from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam,
And from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of
the sea.

And he shall set up an ensign for the nations,—and shall
assemble the outcasts of Israel,

And gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth." (Is. xi. 11, 12.)

We remark, however, the perpetuity of the "throne of David." There shall be One who shall occupy it "thenceforth and ever." It is not a headship of the church; in which church there is "neither Jew nor Gentile." Such a place was never occupied by David. David was the sovereign of the Jewish nation. To rule over that nation is to sit on David's throne. To contend respecting any literal material throne, is but to trifle, and Here, then, is a future deliverance of the whole to degrade this theme. Even the place of the Sove-nation, which shall be as complete and wondrous as the reign's presence is no essential of the question. Other exodus from Egypt. The return of a few tributaries revelations may determine that; but the thought here to Cyrus from Babylon-a few from one only of the two expressed is, that the very sovereignty which David grand divisions of the nation-cannot have been the exercised-the sovereignty over that very nation which fulfilment of this majestic prediction. Let the remainhad David for its king, shall come, in perpetuity, into Messiah's hands. Where his royal residence shall be is not in this prediction brought into question. The grand thought is, that the Wondrous One, whose names of majesty and glory are here given, shall exercise the very Sovereignty that David held so long ago. Not until the nation be reconstituted, by the restoration of its scattered members, can this take place. Not until the nation, as a nation, has submitted to the true Messiah's sway, will "David's throne be occupied as this prophecy reveals. The birth of the Sovereign is not necessarily his accession to the throne. The actual assumption of the reins of power-the actual exercise of such power-is not necessarily coeval with that which constitutes heirship and title to such power. Whatever Christ may be, or may not be, now unto the church; he surely does not now "sit on the throne of David"-he does not now exercise sovereignty over the nation of

Jews.

The nation is not yet subjected unto him. 4. The eleventh chapter of this prophecy is known to all. The earth is to be "filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.' The wolf is to dwell with the lamb, and the leopard to lie down with the kid. There is to be neither hurting nor destruction in all Jehovah's holy mountain. But there are two portions of this chapter which are greatly overlooked by many. These we must present, yet as briefly as possible. The first is as follows:

"But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, And reprove with equity for the meek of the earth:

der of the chapter be read. The return here announced is to take place in the day of the destruction of the future "wicked one." It is to take place in the day when all the ferocity of the earth shall be brought to a close. It must be a yet future restoration that is here announced. And how affecting is the song of triumph which shall then be sung. "And in that day thou shalt say, 0 Lord, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry, &c. Let this song be perused, in view of this, its legitimate connexion. Read chapter xii. as connected with what immediately precedes it.

5. We have, in the next place, "The burden of Babylon," followed by a vast series of such "burdens,” and consummated by a most solemn representation of an universal judgment.

But here a difficulty at once presents itself. The doom of Babylon is announced in terms which embrace the whole earth, and which, though the formal empire of Babylon, as well as its metropolitan city, have

long since passed away, can scarcely be regarded, on
fulfilled.
any sound principle of interpretation, as having been

"Behold, the day of the Lord cometh,

Cruel both with wrath and fierce anger,-to lay the land desolate;

And he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.

For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light:

The sun shall be darkened in his going forth,-and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.

And I will punish the world for their evil,-and the wicked for their iniquity;

And come to Zion with songs—and everlasting joy upon their

heads:

They shall obtain joy and gladness,—and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." (Is. xxxv. 8-10.)

absolute necessity for our investigating the condition of the text of the Old Testament, before the time of our Lord and His apostles. After all, we have only to Such is the dawning light of prophecy-such the arrive at a knowledge of what the text was in the days bright beams which shine forth beyond all the terrible of the first promulgation of Christianity. For we have and darkening clouds of impending judgment. After their, and especially His, infallible mark of approbation and darkening clouds of impending judgment. After fixed on the Scriptures as then existing; and it is clear the well-known historical portion, which, in this pro- that no possible evidence could be stronger. phetic book, follows the revelations now glanced at, we have, in the 40th to the 66th chapters, a further prophecy of vast comprehensiveness and importance. But the way in which prophetic light is gradually afforded, is the point which is sought to be exemplified in these hasty sketches. We purpose, therefore, only to adduce some few instances of predictions in the subsequent prophets, which afford particulars of special interest, in the one or two further papers which will close this series, on the "dawning light of prophecy." The midday splendour of revelation opens upon us in the New Testament, and from its brightness we are reluctant for any length of time to detain attention.

HISTORY OF THE TEXT OF THE BIBLE.

Ꮎ

MOST of the books of the Old Testament were committed to writing before the Babylonish captivity, when we have no contemporary literature: for profane history had not properly begun. The grounds for receiving them are, however, of the very strongest possible kind. For the original delivery of them was from men to whom Jehovah Himself had given their commission. They were delivered by prophets and seers, who spoke the Lord's message, and were regarded as those whose authority might not be questioned. Their books also, we doubt not, were held in scrupulous veneration, whenever there remained among the people a sense of the true religion.

There were, indeed, seasons, when God and His servants, and therefore their writings also, were despised and forsaken. But even then, there were faithful people who held fast to their Scriptures, and who could always restore the books, when the nation returned to its proper allegiance. The longest revolt from Jehovah was that which occurred in the reigns of Manasseh and Amon, when the nation seemed to have quite given up His service. Yet when Josiah commenced a great reform, and search was made for copies of the sacred books; there was found in the recesses of the temple, an authentic copy of the law, whose injunctions the king immediately proceeded to obey.

At the return from Babylon, a new era commences. Ezra, assisted by competent scribes, undertook the task of placing the sacred writings upon so sure a footing, that there should be no room for any loss hereafter. Situated as he was, there were ample means at hand, for securing correct copies of the several books, and of forming them into a canon, or authorised volume. The prophets who lived at that time-Zechariah and Haggai -and who received their messages direct from Jehovah, were quite sufficient to establish the authority he required.

.

We have, moreover, to remember that there is no

several separate and independent channels. In addiNow we arrive at a knowledge of that text, through tion to the original Scriptures themselves, in the Hebrew; we have many very ancient translations, some made before the time of Christ; and these reach us quite independently of the original text; so that in any point where they all concur, we have, it is plain, a proof of the most convincing nature, that we have the text, as it existed, before the separation of these several witnesses. And where they differ, as they do in unimportant respects, we have all the more reason for being persuaded of their value. We are quite sure that there has been no collusion or deceit. Joined to this evidence, we have also that which is furnished by these books being quoted in ancient writers. They supply us with an additional testimony to the words which they have used. Thus we know that the Old Testament is very frequently quoted in the New. We receive the New Testament through altogether a different source from that whereby the Old comes to us; and we therefore feel sure that if the christian books report Moses or Isaiah to have said such and such words; and we find the books of Moses and Isaiah, which have been in possession of the Jews, (the avowed enemies of christianity), saying the same words, we have no hesitation in perceiving that we could have no better proof of the fact that those words were actually used.

We leave for the present these sources of evidence, and confine ourselves to a consideration of the Hebrew text itself, which has come down to us, almost entirely from the Jews.

We spoke, in our last article, of the division of Jews into two great classes :-the Hebrews, who spoke or used Aramaic; and the Grecians who spoke and used Greek. The latter seem to have disappeared soon after the publication of christianity. Those who were not absorbed into the church, gave up all their differences with other Jews, and were in no way distinguished from them. There were two centres about which they chiefly congregated. The one was at Tiberias in Galilee, within the Roman Empire; the other at Babylon, without it. At each of these places, schools of theology and literature flourished for many generations. Tiberias there issued the Mishna, or second law; being in fact those very traditions, reduced to writing, against which our Lord had inveighed. This Mishna being regarded as itself a book to be reverenced; the doctors of Tiberias by degrees collected many notes and comments upon it, which form what is called the Gemara, i. e., supplement. And the Mishna and this gemara together, make up the first talmud (or doctrine) called the Jerusalem talmud, which was completed about the year A.D., 300.

From

About this time the school at Tiberias was losing its