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.'

“In Is. c. 34, similar woes and judgments are proclaimed against Idumea; see vv. 5, 6. The prophet in v. 2 describes 'the indignation of the Lord upon all nations, ... he hath utterly destroyed them;' and in v. 4 he continues: 'And all the host of heaven (Sept. δυνάμεις τῶν οὐρανῶν) shall be dissolved; and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll; and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as the withered leaf from the fig-tree.'

"In Ez. c. 32, the prophet takes up a lamentation for Pharaoh, v. 2; in the succeeding verses his destruction is foretold; and then the prophet proceeds in v. 7, as follows: ' And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord God.'

“In Joel 2: 30, 31 (3: 3, 4, Heb.) the very same phenomena are described as appearing before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.' In Acts 2: 19, 20, this passage is quoted by the Apostle Peter, and applied directly to the great events which were to accompany the introduction of the new dispensation,- including obviously the signs and wonders attendant upon the death and resurrection of our Lord; the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost and upon the churches afterwards; the spread and establishment of Christianity; and the final termination of the Mosaic dispensation in the subversion of the temple-worship and the irretrievable ruin of the Jewish nation.

"These examples are enough to show, that the language of the verse under consideration may well be in like manner understood as symbolic of the commotions and revolutions of states and kingdoms. In respect to the other two Evange

lists, the words of Mark are entirely parallel to those of Matthew; while Luke interweaves a further allusion to terrestrial phenomena, and to the distress and faintness of heart among men, for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.'

"Verse 30. After the phenomena described in the preceding verse, is to appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven.' This, of course, is not the Messiah himself, as some assume; but it would seem to be something immediately connected with his personal appearance, perhaps the dark clouds and tempest, the thunders and lightnings, which are ascribed as the usual accompaniment of a Theophania [appearance of God], and in which the Redeemer is at first shrouded. (See Ps. 18: 11-14.) Then the Son of man himself is seen 'coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.' Can this magnificent and awful representation have reference merely to events in the world's past history?

"Let this question also be answered by an appeal to the Old Testament. There Jehovah is represented as appearing in a similar manner, both for the judgment of the wicked and the protection of the righteous.

"Thus in Ps. 97: 2 sq.

'Clouds and darkness are round about him,... a fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about,' etc.

"Ps. 50: 3 sq. 'Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people.'

"So too in respect to particular nations. In Is. 19: 1 it is said: 'Behold, the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt; and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence,' etc.

“In like manner, Ps. 68 is the description of a continued Theophania, in behalf of the people of Israel; see vv. 1, 2; 7, 8; 17, 18; 33, 35.

"The same sublime imagery is likewise employed in Ps. 18 (see also 2 Sam. c. 22) in describing God's appearance for the deliverance of an individual, — his chosen servant David. A passage more full of poetic sublimity and overpowering grandeur can hardly be found in the sacred writings, than is contained in vv. 7-15 of that Psalm. The application of it to David follows immediately in v. 16: He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters,' etc. The whole passage is too long to be inserted here, but the reader will not fail to turn to it and peruse it.

"If then language of this kind relating to Jehovah is employed in the Old Testament, with reference both to nations and to individuals, we are surely authorized to apply the like representations of the New Testament to an event so important in the Divine economy as the overthrow of God's own peculiar people, and the chosen seat of their national worship.

"The source of the particular form of representation in v. 30 is doubtless the seventh chapter of Daniel. There in vv. 13, 14, the prophet says: 'I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away; and his kingdom, that which shall not be destroyed.' Here then is the Messiah, coming not for the day of judgment, but to introduce his spiritual kingdom upon earth. Analogically, therefore, the like language of our Lord in the verse before us must be understood in the same way, and not made to refer to the day of judgment.

"Verse 31. Hosts of angels and the sound of the trumpet belong to the Christophania [appearance of Christ] here and elsewhere, as also to the Theophania (Ex. 19: 16, 19, 1 Cor. 15: 52,1 Thess. 4: 16; comp. Rev. 8 : 2, etc.). Here

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too it is said: He shall send his angels... and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds;' and the same is said in the corresponding verse of Mark. This gathering,' it has been thought, can refer only to the assembling of all nations for the final judgment, as more fully depicted in Matt. 25: 31 sq. and also as implied in the explanation of the parable of the tares in Matt. 13: 40 sq. But on comparing the modes of expression in the two cases, they do not appear to be parallel. Here the angels simply gather together the elect; there (in 25: 32) all nations are gathered before him, and the wicked are then separated from the righteous. The representation is the same in Matt. 13: 41, 43. The idea of such a separation before the judgment-seat is indeed essentially connected with every representation of the day of judgment; and indeed cannot be separated from it. Why then are only the elect here said (in v. 31) to be gathered together? For judgment ? Nothing of the kind is expressed or implied in the passage itself; nor is it elsewhere ever said of the elect, that they alone will be gathered together' to the judgment of the great day.

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"But the idea of gathering together' those widely dispersed, sometimes includes also the accessory notion of deliverance and protection, as the end and purpose of the act. Thus it is said of Jehovah, that he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel' (Ps. 147 : 2, Deut. 30: 3); he will gather them out of all lands whither they are scattered, will deliver them from all dangers, and secure to them his protection. So too our Lord, in his touching lament over Jerusalem, exclaims: How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!' Here the idea of deliverance and protection is strongly prominent. Now this idea we may apply in the verse under consideration. In the commotions and distress antecedent to our Lord's coming for the

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destruction of the Jewish state, he will send his angels 'to gather together his elect,' so that they may be delivered and protected from the dangers which threaten them. Indeed, precisely this idea is strongly expressed by Luke, in the parallel verse: And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; FOR YOUR REDEMPTION DRAWETH NIGH.'

"We come then to the general result, that the language of the three verses under consideration does not necessarily in itself apply to the general judgment; while the nature of the context shows that such an application is inadmissible. On the other hand, there is nothing in the language itself to hinder our referring it to the downfall of Judaism and the Jewish people; but rather both the context and the attendant circumstances require it to be understood of these events.

"In further illustrating the language of our Lord as thus applied, I would remark, that his coming,' as here foretold, includes as its object not only the overthrow of the Jewish nation, but also the establishment and spread of his own spiritual kingdom upon earth. This is clearly indicated in the words of Daniel, as above cited; and also in those of Joel, as cited and applied by the Apostle Peter (Dan. 7: 13, 14, Acts 2: 16 sq.). The latter prophecy began to have its fulfilment in the signs and wonders attendant upon our Lord's death and resurrection, and in the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost; but it was fully accomplished only in the later catastrophe of Jerusalem and Judaism. The tenacity with which that people clave to the outward rites and ceremonies of the Mosaic dispensation, to the worship of the temple, and to their hopes of restoration and exaltation under a temporal Messiah; as also their fierce and unrelenting opposition to the claims of the lowly Jesus; —all this was the first great and prominent obstacle to the introduction and prevalence of his spiritual reign. This was at that moment the great enemy to be vanquished; and the