Matt. xxv. 10, 11; but when the first-fruits are completed, there will soon be a glorious harvest. It may be said that there can, properly speaking, be no faith in the gospel, or salvation by faith in glad tidings of reconciliation, if the object of faith is present. Why not? Did not the Lord himself attest that Thomas believed, because he saw? But mark, he pronounced a special blessing on those who though they saw not yet believed; and we are told that believers under this present dispensation will enjoy a blessedness superior to those of the next. It is also worthy of remark, that the two generations of people who stand out beyond all others as specimens of unbelief were both favoured with personal manifestations of Deity and surrounded with stupendous miracles. We allude to Israel in the wilderness, and those among whom our Lord lived and laboured. If those circumstances admitted of unbelief, so did they of faith, and we are sure that the miracles which Christ wrought when on earth, as also his personal presence, were not intended to do away with faith, but to promote it. But while we think that the above is the true view of the passage, and that our Lord, in John xvii. 21-23, prays for the complete oneness of the whole Church in glory, and the submission of the world in the age to come, and that this view would be confirmed by a more minute and extensive examination of the whole passage from 22 to 26; and while we rejoice in hope of this glorious period, we would seek and expect the earnest of it now. We would try by all Scriptural means to promote the unity of the Church now, and that with a view to her own peace, and also that she might put forth more power in her testimony to a lost and dying world. Still we think that there is no reason to conclude from this passage, or, indeed, from any other, that there will be universal conversion before the coming of the Lord. The prayer of the Saviour does not contradict his preaching, his parables, his promises, and precepts; they all teach one great and solemn truth, that until he shall come again in glory, his people will be comparatively few, will be tried and tempted sorely, that wickedness will prevail and come at last to a fearful height, exhibiting a threefold form of apostasy, rebellion, and sensuality; and that he will come to crush this wickedness, deliver his people, and establish the reign of truth and righteousness. We believe that such is the unanimous testimony of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and that it cannot be overturned by objecting particular texts, or starting objections on the ground of apparent difficulties and improbabilities. Those who embrace this doctrine with all their hearts, have a conviction of its truth, beauty, and power, which no ingenious quibbling or eloquent declamations can shake. A devoted minister, lately gone to his rest, who once objected to and suspected this doctrine, was at length brought to receive it; and his biographer says of him, "So mighty a motive power did the doctrine of the pre-millennial advent become, that he used to speak of it ever afterwards as bringing with it a kind of second conversion." This holy man himself says, "Old Adam in our hearts puts away from him with fear and dislike the thought of Christ's coming. But the spirit which is in us, which is born of the Holy Spirit, bounds with joy like the unborn Baptist in his mother's womb at the hope of the Lord's appearing." This ought to be the case with all his people, and would be, if our faith in his cross was strong, our love to his person supreme, and our views of the objects of his coming clear and Scriptural. The believer in the pre-millennial coming of the Saviour feels himself very differently circumstanced as regards prooftexts from his opponents. The passages which he can adduce as the ground of his faith and hope are neither few nor equivocal. He can bring forward largely texts which either plainly assert in the strongest terms that the Saviour's advent will precede the universal reign of righteousness, or which so arrange events as to demonstrate that there can be no millennium before the coming of Christ and the resurrection of the saints. These passages are not isolated fragments taken out of their connexion, but large portions of Scripture all teaching the same truth as that proclaimed by the royal psalmist, “He cometh to judge the earth; he shall judge (govern, Psalm lxvii. 4) the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth" (Psalm xcvi. 13). In interpreting these unfulfilled predictions, we ask for no other principle of interpretation, and will have no other, than that provided by God himself in the fulfilment of the prophecies relating to the birth, character, death, and glory of Christ. We believe that the 45th and 72d Psalms will be fulfilled as literally as the 22d and 69th have been; that Isaiah lxvi., and Zech. xiv. will be fulfilled as literally as Isaiah liii. and Zech. ix. 9; and why should we not thus believe? We know that human systems forbid it, and that human prophecies of the advancement of man in greatness contradict it; but we fear not to break through the one, and we dare not give the least heed to the other. We *Hewitson's Memoir. would follow only where God leads, and he directs all our hopes to the coming of the Just One (2 Sam. xxiii. 3, 4; Titus ii. 13), and to the manifestations of the sons of God (Romans viii. 19-23). It seems very saddening, that, with such a body of plain straightforward Scripture proof before us, and with the literal fulfilment of prophecy behind and around us, shewing us how we should interpret what yet remains to be fulfilled, good men should still ask the question, "Christ's second coming, will it be pre-millennial?" and then answer in the negative. To us it seems as easy to say what the answer should be, as when our Lord asked the question, "The baptism of John, whence was it, from heaven, or of man?" Prepossessions, human opinions, and circumstances strangely and almost insensibly influence better men than those to whom our Lord addressed his question. What will not the influence of human systems and the power of prejudice lead even good men to say and do! In some respects, a decision against the pre-millennial coming by those who have really gone into the testimony of Scripture upon the subject, seems more painful than to see the intelligent sceptic writing a huge book against the Bible, or an apostolic evangelical writing heaps of books against Protestantism. It is grievous to hear Christian brethren boldly asserting that the Lord will not come till after the millennium, saying not only in the heart, but with tongue and pen-"You may be quite sure that the Saviour will tarry yet some hundreds or thousands of years before he comes in glory." Many are thus acting, and it is to be feared will continue to do so, for few persons change their views after they have committed themselves and their credit to a system, and have been praised by their fellows for so doing. Let no one be stumbled at this, or any other displays of opposition to the simple Word of God. Let it rather stir us up to pray for their enlightenment, and make us more zealous to spread abroad a truth so dear to all who really receive it. It is, as Mr Bickersteth observed, "the generation truth," a truth much needed, but one which is sure to be violently opposed. Let us earnestly contend for it; giving it its own proper place in our creed, our affections, and testimony. Let us be careful that it does not put any other truths out of their right position, and that other truths do not supplant or obscure it; and above all, let us see to it, that we are told it in connexion with all truth, not as mere opinions, but as "the true sayings of God," full of stupendous facts, glorious doctrines, and rich blessings, designed mightily to influence, strengthen, and comfort all who really "receive the truth in the love of it.” 175 Notes on Scripture. NOTES ON THE PSALMS. PSALM LXV. EVERY note in this song tells the feeling of a happy soul, reviewing the past, and seeing mercy abounding then and now. It is Messiah and his redeemed ones- -the Lamb and his 144,000. The Head leads the choir, and this is the substance of the song― "O God, praise is thine!"-such praise as leaves the worshipper 66 silent," because the theme is too great for his harp to handle. "Now is the vow performed to thee!" for now the mystery is finished. "O Hearer of Prayer, to thee (yes, even as far as to Thee, TV, the Holiest of all) all flesh are coming now." Our iniquities (iniquities imputed to our Head) once prevailed against us (as Gen. vii. 24, 7) like the waters of the deluge, surmounting the highest hills: but thou purgest them away, and we sing, "Blessed is the man whom thou causest to approach unto thee as a priest " (Num. xvi. 8); ay, blessed indeed, for he shall dwell in thy courts, and there be satisfied with good; thy house, thy holy place, yielding him its heavenly stores. When we cried, terrible things, things of such surpassing glory and majesty as spread awe around, were thine answer. Thou wert God of salvation, displaying thy grace, well fitted to be the confidence of all ends of earth. Creator, too, setting fast the mountains! and God of providence, stilling the raging waves of the most tumultuous sea, and by thy wonderful signs ("tokens," iлix) causing distant lands to fear, the lands of the setting and rising sun. And now let us sing together of the crowning act of all, displaying grace, creation, and providence in one-thy dealings with this earth to renew it into paradise. Once we sang, "What is man that thou visitest him?" and now we sing, "Thou visitest his dwelling-place, and makest it teem with plenty!" Yes, "The fountain of God has plenty of waters. (Heng.) Thou preparest their corn, for lo! thus hast thou prepared!" (V. 9.) What a table spread with abundance is that once barren earth! It is "thus (as in Ps. lxiii. 3) thou dealest as God, with infinite liberality." "Thou layest down its ploughed fields; Thou dost moisten it with showers; Thou blessest the springing thereof. Thou hast crowned the year, so as to make it a year of Thy chariot-wheels drop fatness. They drop on the wilderness which has pastures now The hills are girded with gladness." What a changed world! The yearly return of spring and summer after winter was but a faint emblem of all this. This is truly earth's summer day. "The pastures are clad with flocks; The valleys are covered over with corn! They shout for joy! they break out into song!" Who does not seem, in reading this majestic Psalm, to hear the very melody that issues from the happy people of that new earth? Originally, it may have been sung as a "Psalm of David, a lively song," at a Feast of Tabernacles, when Israel's happy land and prosperous tribes furnished a scene that naturally suggested the future days of a renewed earth-earth's golden age returned. It is, however, on a much higher key than this; it is a Song of the Lamb, while He leads his glorified ones to fountains of living water, and shews them their old world presenting at length a counterpart to heaven-all paradise again, and better than paradise. Is it not then The Righteous One's prayers exchanged for praises in the New Earth? PSALM LXVI. Another i, (as lxv. 1), at once a solemn Psalm, and a lively Temple song. It is specially the song of Messiah and the Church of Israel—a kind of Red Sea song, sung, however, in Canaan. "Raise the shout of joy! All the earth to God! Shew forth the glory of his name! Give glory (to him) as his praise." (Heng.) Then, leading us to such scenes as were spoken of in Psalm lxv. 5— 66 Say unto God, how awful these works of thine!" There is a Bethel-solemnity in these scenes, though they bring us to the very gate of heaven "All the earth shall worship Thee. They sing they sing thy name!" |