it would be inconsistent with our present object to introduce.*

The prophets predict great sufferings as to be endured by the children of Israel after their Restoration to Palestine, from the attack of confederated nations. In their time of affliction and necessity, the Lord promises to manifest Himself for their succour. This is briefly but distinctly declared by the prophet Zechariah: "Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. THEN shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And HIS FEET shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof, toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain

* Moses thus concludes his prophecy of their dispersion and sufferings: "And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spoke unto thee; (thou shalt see it no more again :) and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bond-men and bond-women, and no man shall buy you." Deut. xxviii. 68. Although well aware that this is supposed to have been fulfilled when many of the Jews were carried into Egypt by Titus, still we apprehend the prediction refers to future times. It stands in order posterior to all the threatnings of their being scattered into all nationsthey are to be brought to Egypt in ships, a mode of conveyance not adopted by Titus, so far as we remember to have noticed-they are to be sold, until men refuse to buy them; but although, after their captivity by Titus, they were employed in Egypt at the public works of the Roman government, we do not know that they were "sold" at all. There are many of the Jews still in Egypt, near eighteen hundred years after that captivity, but from a parenthetical clause in the prophecy of Moses we are led to conclude that when thus brought thither in ships they shall not long continue: "Thou shalt see it no more again."And that there is some connection between Israel and Egypt, at the restoration of the former, appears from many prophecies. On the consideration of these, however, we do not enter. If we believe that the Lord has really been pleased to declare his purpose of coming to Egypt, in preference to anywhere else, His wisdom being infinite, his sovereignty is not to be questioned, although we may not know fully His more particular designs.

shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal; yea, ye shall flee like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah; and the Lord my God shall come, and ALL THE SAINTS with thee. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear nor dark; but it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day nor night; but it shall come to pass that at evening-time it shall be light." Zech. xiv. Η7.

This prediction is not more remarkable for the importance of its statements than for the particularity with which they are given. It has more the appearance of a narrative of past events than of a prophecy of things to come. It is really vexatious to be under a necessity of endeavouring to elucidate the meaning of language already as distinct as words can make it. It is mortifying to be compelled to insist that the Jerusalem here spoken of is the literal city of that name— that it is a real attack it shall sustain, and a real capture it shall endure-that "the Mount of Olives which is before Jerusalem on the east" is the literal mount of that name that it is a natural or more properly speaking a miraculous earthquake by which it shall be cleft, and a real flight by which it is followed. All this appears so obvious, that we feel puzzled how to attempt to prove it; for, if its own internal evidence cannot be received as sufficient, we should despair of ever finding any other more satisfactory. Is not that a literal city which contains "people," and "women," and "houses," and against which "nations" are gathered "to battle?" And if this be the literal "Jerusalem," can that be any thing else than the literal "Mount of Olives" which is, and always has been, "before Jerusalem on the east ;" If this be the literal mount, then is not that also a literal "earthquake" by which it is rent,* resembling that

At the close of next Section, we shall advert to the purpose probably designed to be served by this earthquake. It may remove a prejudice from the minds of some who cannot allow themselves to believe the Word of God in its plain and obvious meaning, unless they

which took place in the days of Uzziah? And if all these be literal, What can we understand by the Lord's feet standing upon the literal Mount of Olives, but the fact of His Personal presence, His premillennial appearance to take into His own hands the government of the world?" And the Lord shall be King over all the earth; in that day shall there be one Lord, and His name one." ver. 9. Nor does he come alone, but having "all the saints with thee"-the very truth declared in almost every passage in the New Testament concerning the Saviour's Return. It is no spiritual, no figurative advent which has such an accompaniment, but the real personal coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.*

Referring to the restoration of Israel, the Lord says, "I will set up one Shepherd over them and he shall feed them, even my servant THE BELOVED; he shall feed them, and he shall be their Shepherd. And I the Lord will be their God, and my servant THE Beloved a PRINCE among them: I the Lord have spoken it." Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 24. "Then the moon shall be confounded and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of Hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously." Is. xxiv. 23. Such quotations might easily be multiplied, in proof of Christ's presence on earth during the Millennium; but we shall now allude to only one other point of evidence: The prophet Ezekiel having seen the measurement taken of

are previously enabled to see the utility of the designs declared, to show that, from the situation of this hill, it is necessary that through it a channel be prepared for the New River which shall flow from Jerusalem into the Dead Sea.

*In his "Fall of Babylon," (p. 44,) Mr. Mason quotes the above passage as the account of a literal, or "natural earthquake;" bu' in his Gentiles' Fulness, (p. 201,) combating the opinion that this coming of the Lord with all His saints is His personal advent, he unhesitatingly rejects the interpretation he had himself thus given, and denies that the earthquake is to be "literally understood." This way of explaining the ancient predictions, he there says, (forgetting his own recorded explanation,) "must be rejected as a very false interpretation of Scripture, and as an unwarrantable and dangerous way of exhibiting Divine operations." Putting consistency out of the question, is there not, we would ask, something both "unwarrantable and dangerous," in thus moulding Divine predictions to our taste or convenience?

the temple to be erected at Jerusalem, and which forms the subject of more immediate inquiry in the following Section, he was afterwards brought to "the gate that looketh towards the east: and, behold, the Glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east; and His voice was like a noise of many waters; and the earth shined with His glory.... And the Glory of the Lord came into the House, by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east.... And He said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and my holy name shall the house of Israel no more defile, neither they nor their kings.... Now let them put away their whoredom and the carcases of their kings far from me, and I will dwell in the midst of them for ever." Ezek. xliii. 1-9. "Then he brought me back the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary which looketh toward the east, and it was shut. Then said the Lord unto me, This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and NO MAN shall enter in by it; BECAUSE the Lord the God of Israel hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut." Ezek. xliv. 1, 2. An altar of wood was also shown to the prophet in the temple, when it was said to him, "This the table that is before the Lord." Ezek. xli. 22.

SECTION XIII.

THE TEMPLE REBUILT.

In the prophecies, allusion is often made to, and predictions given concerning, a splendid temple which is yet to be erected in Jerusalem, and to the worship to be offered in it. We offer no conjecture on the probable design for which the institution of sacrifice is again to be restored during the Millennial age, which must have a retro-spective view to the death of Him who "has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God,"

as those under the former dispensation were pro-spective. Of this nature is the Lord's Supper, and it is in remembrance of Christ only till He come; but whether it is then to be superseded by the institution of sacrifice, we pretend not to determine. It may be remarked, that for the Gentile dispensation, during which the Church has been in an obscure and oppressed state, the simple institution of the Supper may have been better adapted; while at the Saviour's Return, when "the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the Saints of the Most High," the more splendid institution may be the most befitting as a record of the Saviour's triumph. But whatever be the precise design, that sacrifice shall yet be offered to the Lord is so unequivocally foretold, as leaves no doubt on our mind of its truth. Part of this evidence we shall endeavour to submit, unrestrained by the tide of prejudice which is known to exist upon the subject. Believing the word of God to be of supreme authority, we unhesitatingly appeal to its statements as evidence the value of which the opinions of men will never diminish, and our faith in which their opposition should never induce us to forego. "Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace with them, and I will place them, and multiply them, and I will set MY SANCTUARY in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them; yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And the heathen shall know that 1 the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my SANCTUARY shall be in the midst of them for evermore." Ezek xxxvii. 26-28. This is the conclusion of the prophecy in which the future union of the two kingdoms of the literal Israel and Judah is symbolically represented by the joining of the "two sticks," after which "they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols" from which time THE BELOVED "shall be their Prince for ever." ver. 22, 23, 25. That it relates to future times is therefore obvious; while it also explicitly declares the re-erection of God's Sanctuary among them. And when thus rebuilt, it shall not

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