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the word resurrection, as if it did not denote the restoring of life to the dead.

IV. The limitation of the reign to 1000 years is no difficulty. Rev. xxii shows that the book recognizes His nine arguments admit of distinct and con- the reigning for ever and ever, while Rev. xx takes up clusive refutation.

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I. Dr. B. reasons that "this is the first resurrection,' seems to be figurative, because contrasted with the 'second death.' Why, it is hard even to imagine. The first death is the wages of sin in this world, the second death is the full and final wages hereafter. Dr. B. has overlooked the fact that both are explanations, and not the symbols to be explained. If the two deaths are literal, though they may differ, the two resurrections may differ, but are equally literal.

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the reigning for a special purpose which has an end. V. The next difficulty, viz., that the rest of the dead do not rise immediately on the expiry of the thousand years, but after the little season beyond, is weaker still. It is nowhere tied to that moment; it could not be before-that is all. On the other hand, there is a difference in the way Satan's period is spoken of-μerà Tavra d. å. X. μ. X. This formula does connect the loosing of Satan with the close of the thousand years, but it is nowhere used of the resurrection of the rest of the dead. The truth, therefore, is against Dr. B. and his colleague in the British Quarterly.

II. We are almost ashamed to speak of the objection to the clause, " on such the second death hath no VI, VII. These are merely the arguments employed power," taking for granted that the first resurrection by Mr. Gipps, on the opening of the book of life, and is literal. "Is it likely," says Dr. B., "that the Spirit on the sea, death, and hades delivering up their dead, of God means nothing more here than such a truism ?" only in connexion with the great white throne, not Such hypercriticism would make fearful carnage of with the first resurrection. But we have already rethe living word of God. It is the habitual way, plied enough on these heads to show that they are especially in the psalms and prophets, of causing the appropriate where they are, rather than elsewhere, on reader to pause and ponder well their comforts or the literal scheme. Beside, a book is not like a seal their warnings. Dr. B. will scarcely deny the paral- which can be opened but once; and here, say what Dr. lelistic structure which pervades the scripture, and B. will, it is connected solely with those not found in not least the Apocalypse. Nor is anything more com-it. The other images are not of blessedness, but of mon than to mark doubly what was meant to impress trouble, sorrow, &c., and therefore are fitly joined with the soul, i.e. both positively and negatively, as here. the wicked. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power." The second death is so awful a reality as to make God's gracious assurance of exemption from it anything but a needless repetition. "Indeed, (says Mr. Birks, p. 116,) the words are a distinct proof that the resurrection is literal. For the second death is never named except with reference to a first death which has gone before it. The church of Smyrna is the only one which receives the command, 'Be thou faithful unto death;' and hence it receives the special promise, he that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.' It is not to saints as living, but as having suffered death, or about to suffer it, that exemption from the second death is promised. This character does not apply to millennial believers, who are exempt from the first death during its continuance, but applies fully to the martyrs, and indeed to all believers who have died in the faith before the Lord comes."

VIII. The next objection to the literal sense is that it is exclusively a martyr scene. But this is simply to repeat the mistake of the third presumption. Dr. B. objects to Mr. Elliott's way of stating the case, that he makes St. John to specify particularly, as conspicuous among those seen seated on thrones, the martyrs and confessors; whereas, according to his own interpretation, they only are seen. The fact is, that Mr. E. has understated the matter. For the beheaded saints, and those who escaped the beast's overtures, are two classes added to those who were already seen enthroned. The apostle saw certain thrones filled, and judgment committed to those who sat there. Besides, he sees souls of slaughtered saints; and, moreover, there were such as had rejected all connexion with the beast; and these two classes, who for the time seemed to have lost all, are reunited to their bodies, and reign with Christ no less than the rest. Dr. B. speaks of the verb ěkáliσav ("sat ") as a virtual impersonal. This is not doubted; but it in no way III. There are but two alternatives in this pro- connects the clause with what follows, which is his phecy, says Dr. B.,-the first resurrection, or the desire. If it had been put in the sentence after the second death. In which are we to put the millennial other clauses, there would be ground for such a supmyriads? Into neither, as far as the millennial saints position. As it is, there is none. The first clause are concerned, who, not dying, will not rise, but be leaves room for all the heavenly saints, save the added changed doubtless. The rest, dying before, or des- Apocalyptic sufferers and faithful, which the next troyed in the Gog and Magog insurrection, will be clauses distinguish and subjoin. Christ and these cast into the lake of fire. On Dr. B.'s view, the heavenly saints quitted heaven together, in Rev. xix; blessing is reduced to the character of the millennium Christ and they reign together over the earth in Rev. as one of prevailing spiritual life: but thus, as an-xx; and all those who suffered from, but who really other remarks, all the emphasis is lost, since believers in any age are blessed and holy, and are equally exempted from the power of the second death.

overcame, the beast, are there too, not as Israel reigned over, but reigning with Christ, as those who had gone before them. On the figurative view, what can be

more absurd than a revival of martyr-spirit, when it is least needed, and all is unprecedently happy and prosperous for the Church?

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There is no position that I can be in, no trial whatever that I can endure, but Christ has passed through all and overcome. Thus I have got one who presents HimIX. The last objection is, that our view can offer self in that character which I need; and I find in Him no consistent explanation of the "judgment" that one who knows what grace is wanted, and will supply was given unto" the enthroned saints. We must it; for He has overcome, and says to me, "Be of good be forgiven for pronouncing such a remark somewhat cheer: I have overcome the world"-not, you shall perverse. It is not expressly connected with the slain overcome; but, I have overcome. It was so in the martyrs, though no doubt they had it as well as the case of the blind man (John ix, 31, &c.) who was cast rest; and this, therefore, dissolves the narrow limits out of the synagogue; and why? Because Jesus had which Dr. B. seeks to borrow from Rev. vi, 10. We do been cast out before him. And now we learn, that not deny that there may be a link, but we affirm that however rough the storm may be, it does but throw us the the Lord God's judging and avenging the blood of His more thoroughly on Christ, and thus that which would slain ones is a very distinct thing from judgment being have been a sore trial, does but chase us closer to Him. given to others seated on thrones, nay, to themselves Whatever turns our eye away from Christ is but a there. Dr. B.'s object is to bind together, in the judg-hindrance to our running the race that is set before us. ment given, both the slain and their slayers, so that If Christ has become the object of the soul, let us lay if the saints be personally present, their persecutors aside every weight. If I am running a race, a cloak, must be also in the same personal way; and if the however comfortable, would only hinder and must be latter be spiritually understood, so the former. But, got rid of: it is a weight, and would prevent my runas we have seen, this is not the force of judgment ning. I do not want anything to entangle my feet. being given to men. In his sense, God had already If I am looking to Jesus in the appointed race, 1 avenged the blood of saints and prophets in Babylon, must throw the cloak aside: otherwise it would seem and the beast and the false prophet, with their instru- strange to throw away so useful a garment. Nay, ments, had met their terrible doom from the Lord, more; however much encouragement the history of before the enthroned saints had judgment given to antecedent faithful witnesses in Heb. xi may give, our them, or began to reign with Christ. eye must be fixed on Jesus, the true and faithful One. There is not a trial or difficulty that He has not passed through before me, and found His resources in God the Father. He will supply the needed grace to my heart.

Are we mistaken in affirming that our ingenious opponent has wasted his time, his research, his labour, in vainly assaulting the impregnable fortress of a first resurrection-as true for all saints who suffer with Christ, as the second death is sure for all sinners who despise Him?

Original Contributions.

NOTES ON SCRIPTURE.
No. III.

JESUS, THE AUTHOR AND FINISHER of faith.

HEB. XII,

2.

ALL the witnesses for God spoken of in Heb. xi, are for our encouragement in the path of faith; but then there is a difference between them and Jesus. Accordingly the apostle here singles Him out of all. If I see Abraham, who by faith sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country, or Isaac, who blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come, or Jacob on his dying bed of blessing and worship, they have all run their race before; but in Jesus we have a far higher witness. Besides, in Him there is the grace to sustain us in the race. Therefore in looking unto Jesus we get a motive and an unfailing source of strength. We see in Jesus the love which led Him to take this place for us, who, "when he putteth forth his own sheep, goeth before them." For, if a race is to be run, we need a fore-runner. And in Jesus we have got one who did run before us, and has become the Captain and Completer of faith, in looking to whom we draw strength into our souls. While Abraham and the rest filled up, in their little measure, their several places, Christ has filled up the whole course of faith.

There were these two features in the life of Christ down here. First, He exercised constant dependence on His Father: as He said, "I live by the Father." The new man is ever a dependent man. The moment we get out of dependence, we get into the flesh. It is not through our own life (for, indeed, we have but death) that we really live, but by Christ, through feeding on Him. In the highest possible sense, He walked in dependence on the Father, and for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame. Secondly, His affections were undivided. You never find Christ having any new object revealed to Him so as to induce Him to go on in His path of faithfulness. Paul and Stephen, on the other hand, had the glory revealed to them, which enabled them to endure. For when the heaven was opened to Stephen, the Lord appeared in glory to him, as, afterwards, to Saul of Tarsus. But when the heavens opened on Jesus, there was no object presented to Him, but, on the contrary, He was the object of heaven; the Holy Ghost descends upon Him, and the voice of the Father declares, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." Thus, the divine person of the Lord is always being witnessed to. The apostle here gets hold of the preciousness of Christ in the lowliness into which He has come; but he never loses sight of the glory of Him who has come there. So when I get Christ at the baptism of John, I see Him at the lowest point; (save in another way on the cross ;) and finding Him there, I find all the divine compassion of His heart.

(Continued from page 131.)

In some cases there is brutish insensibility, or cold indifference; in others, a paramount love for, or fear of, the world. All this may, in the natural man, be owing to, or at least aggravated by, constitutional or educational differences; but in all cases, without the preparation of the heart by the Holy Ghost to receive the word, there would be unfruitfulness.

THOUGHTS ON THE PARABLES IN MATT. XIII. to the world. Only those inside, in the house, can know them. Before the multitude our Lord proceeds to give an account of the kingdom, a parabolic and THE question may be asked, Why are the hearts of prophetic description of it, right on to the end, some compared to good ground, when the scripture when the mysteries will cease, and there will be the teaches, that all hearts are " deceitful and desperately open and visible establishment of it in power. The wicked ?" Not because there is anything naturally Lord does not speak of the Father's purpose in pergood therein. Facts only are presented here; the mitting such an anomalous state of the kingdom to operating cause is not; simply the fact of the preach- exist. Of this He spoke to His disciples in the house, ing of the word, and the reception of it. when the multitude were sent away. There He speaks to them anticipatively of their future position and calling while yet on the earth, viz., destined for heavenly places. They were told of their existence in the purpose of God before the world was, that they in their corporate capacity were a treasure to Him, yea, "one pearl of great price." It is only when we are in the house with Jesus, that we can enter into the views of the kingdom unfolded in the last three parables contained in this chapter. But previously (verses 1-33) the Lord sits by the sea-side, outside for the multitude, and He gives them three distinct pictures of the kingdom of heaven, the first of them terminating with the end. It is worthy of notice that the Lord gives us the plain teaching of three of His parables, which is a divine assistance to a right understanding of the others. In the parable of the tares and the wheat, the distinction between the real and the merely nominal professor is preserved. There are real disciples in the marred kingdom, as well as in the field there is wheat. Their entire separation takes place only in the end. In the parables of the tree and of the leaven, this distinction is not noticed: it is the general character of the kingdom; it would seem as if the wheat, the children of the kingdom, bear so small a proportion to the tares, that they fail to give a general character to it: they are apparently lost sight of. In fact the tree exhibits the kingdom of heaven as a great earthly power, and the leaven presents us with its doctrinal character. The position of the children, even their existence, is not noticed in these two.

While, then, on the one hand, there is no intimation of the grace which prepares the heart (which is quite outside of man's exertion or intelligence) so that it becomes like the good ground, on the other, nothing is said as to the cause of the rejection of the word. Our Lord does say, "They had no root," but even this is matter of fact rather than the cause. Man is responsible for the reception of the word; and his responsibility comes out prominently here. (ver. 9.) That which the Spirit of God does present, is, first, the preaching of the word, then its reception, or rejection, as the case may be; and this quite distinct from the secret spring which operates to produce reception.

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(Ver. 24.) Another parable," &c. In the preceding parable we have the word of the kingdom; the good seed has been sown, the gospel has been preached. The kingdom of heaven is now begun. We are carried forward in advance of the moment when the Lord was speaking. The kingdom commenced when Jesus had ascended: i.e. the mysteries of the kingdom; it will only be when He comes again, that the kingdom will be established in power. We have now presented to us three pictures of the kingdom under three different aspects, but all of them external; the stand-point whence we view it is the earth. We have had a parabolic description of the introduction of Christianity into the world. A new order of things was then about to take place, a new dispensation, where the visible glory of God would not be manifested as it had been in the holy of holies within the veil of the temple, but the establishment of a kingdom on the earth to be under the rule of Christ, Himself dwelling in heaven. But this kingdom would be marred and spoiled by the enemy; yet would men profess to have Christ for their King. MYSTERIES truly!-man, calling himself a Christian, in league with the world that rejected and crucified the King, condemning the world that did it, yet loving the world, and denying the right and the truth of the King coming again to take what is His own. "Why speakest thou.... in parables?" Because it is not given to the multitude, to those outside, to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. And in the present hour the kingdom of heaven is a mystery

Let us look a little at the tare-field. The good seed is sown by the Son of man, and the field is the world, i.e., it is the place where the kingdom is established. All that is good is the work of the Son of man; all that is evil is the work of the enemy. The tares do not represent all the evil that is in the world, but all the evil in connexion with the kingdom. They have been brought into the field (the world) among the wheat, by the arch-foe, for the very purpose of marring the work of the Lord. But although the outward aspect of the kingdom be spoiled, yet the purpose of God in permitting it,-nay, strange, but sweet truth, the very purpose of God which was (to speak as men) contingent upon the rejection of the King, and the mysteries of the kingdom,-was entirely beyond the reach, if not the ken, of the enemy; for the word of God cannot fail," he shall see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied." Let the external character of the kingdom be ruined, yet in it, though hidden, there shall be found those who are in

Is not this same care for his people seen in the long respite vouchsafed to the antediluvians? Not only is the long-suffering of God seen, who bore long with the sinners before the flood, and gave them space for repentance, when even every day that Noah worked at the ark, and every plank, and every nail, and every stroke of his hammer, was a warning, and a threatening of the impending judgment. But God could do nothing till Noah was safe in the ark, after He Himself had shut him in: even then there was a respite of seven days (perfect forbearance.) But if Noah had been as long again, so long as he was not shut up safe in the ark, so long would judgment have been delayed.

reality "the children of the kingdom." But it is act in judgment.* Let the tares alone. The children a solemn truth that the character which the kingdom of God now stand in grace, and only grace must they takes is from those "who profess and call themselves exhibit; they have nothing at all to do with judgChristians ;" and of these professors so outnumbering ment. Let the tares alone. If they could not keep are the tares, that the entire aspect of the kingdom the tares out, when the field was free from them, is spoiled, and no longer exhibits that which it ought much less can they root them out now. "Lest ye to have exhibited, viz., that which would correspond root up also the wheat." to the Sower and to the seed. The term professor is used in its most extensive application. The true disciple is symbolized by wheat, evil men by tares. These evil men are not at first visible, but by and by they are developed-" when the blade sprung up, then appeared the tares also;" and this state of things is to continue, for the tares are not to be gathered up, they are to grow with the wheat, until the harvest. So long as the present dispensation lasts, so long will there be evil and wicked men found in connexion with Christianity, enjoying the outward blessings and privileges which it confers, and even in some instances professing actual discipleship to Christ. How very soon the tares appeared, even during the lives of the apostles. What a character is theirs, as portrayed by Peter, So also in the case of the five cities of the plain. by Jude, and by Paul, who tells us that the mystery of Lot must be provided for, before the fiery storm iniquity was working in his time. In the end there could descend. The Lord said He could do nothing will be the full development of it, after the hindrance till Lot was gone out of the city, and the little city is removed. (2 Thess. ii.) It is not intended to assert Zoar was spared for his sake and at his entreaty. For that "that wicked" will arise out of the professing the sake of the righteous the wicked are spared. church, although it may be so, but out of that con- "Ye are the salt of the earth." Had there been ten fused and heterogeneous mass, resulting from the un-righteous men found in those five cities, they had holy union which now subsists between the world and the professing church.

True, there is a company of real disciples-the children of the kingdom. They are warned of the tares; the doom of Christendom is made known to them, a doom far more fearful than that of apostate man in any other dispensation. The tares will be bound in bundles for the fire. But there is a hope for the children of God, the good seed. They shall escape, and be out of the great tribulation.

been spared. And the world is now preserved because the children of God are in it, for "he is not willing that any should perish," and all these, the true Church, must and will be taken out of it before judgment descends upon it. Then will the tares be bound in bundles to be burnt; but the wheat will be secured in the barn.

We have, then, this fact, that whatever phase the kingdom may present to the world, there will be some good in it. Nothing is here said as to the amount of good or evil-simply that there are the two; that they are really distinct the one from the other; but that this distinction will be made fully manifest only in the harvest.

"When I see the blood, I will pass over."-It is not said, when you see it, but when I see it. The soul of an awakened person often rests, not on its own righteousness, but on the way in which it sees the blood. Now, precious as it is to have the heart deeply impressed seeing it. He cannot fail to estimate it at its full and perfect_value with it, this is not the ground of peace. Peace is founded on God's as putting away sin. It is He that abhors and has been offended by sin; He sees the value of the blood as putting it away. It may be said, But must I not have faith in its value? This is faith in value for it looks at it as a question of the measure of your feelings. its value-seeing that God looks at it as putting away sin: your Faith looks at God's thoughts.

These, however, as distinct from the mere professor, are not under consideration in this parable. The territory embraced within the limits of the kingdom, is that which is called Christendom, and it is those dwelling within those limits that give character to the kingdom. It is a mixed character, and such it must remain. The servants to whom the keeping of the field was entrusted fell asleep, and meanwhile the enemy sows tares; when they awake, they essay at once to remedy the evil which had crept in by their unwatchfulness. Nay, says the Lord, "lest ye root up also the wheat." Behold, here, the tender care that the Lord takes of His own! Rather than one single ear of wheat should be injured, or pulled up before it was ripe, let the tares grow; rather than the little body of true believers should be broken up in its infancy, ere the Bride be ready for the Bridegroom, let the judg-character before the world. They are His epistle to the world. ment upon the wicked be suspended. The true sons of the kingdom must be perfected, whose names were written in the book of life before the world was. The Lord could not come in judgment before these are all secured. Therefore the servants are not allowed to

It is the Christian, or the Church, which gives Christ His

sentation; but the world, the infidel, judges of what Christianity We may know how to distinguish and understand the repreis, by what Christians are.

"Why do ye not judge them that are within?" God judgeth those without.

If it were a question of the Church, as such, discipline would be obligatory

THE TRIBE OF BENJAMIN.

Rachel, on giving birth to her youngest son, resigned her own breath, and as her soul was departing she called his name Benoni, son of my sorrow, but his father called him Benjamin, son of his right hand; last, but not least, should be the child of his beloved Rachel. Unwittingly they both spake oracles; for when the spirit of prophecy came upon Jacob dying, he said,

Benjamin is a ravening wolf;

In the morning he devoureth the prey,

And in the evening he divideth the spoil.

This prophecy was conspicuously fulfilled by that bloody war about the Levite's concubine which was waged by the Benjamites against the united force of all Israel. Then did this evening wolf correspond with the name his mother gave him, Benoni. But, again, when the spirit of prophecy came upon Moses before his death, he said of Benjamin,

The hand, the hand of Jehovah,*
Shall dwell in safety upon him;
It covers him all the day long
And dwells upon his shoulders.

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pattern of the long-suffering of the Lord. (1 Tim. i, 16.) And it has long since been conceived that his conversion is intended for a type of the future conversion of the Jews. A collation of the prophecies relative to the latter days, will justify this expectation. From these it should seem that to the last the character of the nation will correspond with his while he was a zealot of the law, and a persecutor of the gospel. Yet we find them suddenly in the battle on the Lord's side, and therefore may infer that their conversion, like his, will be sudden. At his conversion, the companions of his journey heard, indeed, a voice, but Paul was lost to them in lightning and in storm. And that glorious form which met and dazzled the of in like manner, when on the very eve of the second advent, there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth, for the power of heaven shall be shaken; that may, probably, be the critical moment when those tribes which shall be assembled in the land shall look on Him whom they have pierced, and shall mourn for Him-every family apart. (Zech. xii, 10— This is Durell's version, formed on critical grounds, would then soon succeed. 14; Luke xxi, 25-27.) His advent, visible to others, and without any reference whatever to the name of the consequences will be similar? Paul, the last of And who can doubt that the tribe, at least he does not mention it. What he all the apostles, as one born out of due time, yet lasays is, that “it cannot be doubted but that Jerusalem boured more abundantly than they all, and with what belonged originally to this tribe; and though in pro- success among the Gentiles. And the testimony of cess of time it came to be generally considered as one of the cities of Judah, yet it is not improbable that a whole nation, so converted, cannot but verify the words of Paul himself, "if the casting away of them when the temple was built, the spot on which it was erected, and the environs, were still regarded as a part ceiving of them be, but life from the dead." (Rom. xi.) was the reconciling of the world, what shall the reof Benjamin's portion. However, it is certain that God intended that these two tribes (Judah and Benjamin) should share in the same fortunes, and continue to enjoy their privileges longer than any of the other tribes." Then did the fate of this tribe correspond with the name his father gave him, Benjamin. Like the two names, these two oracles seemed to be contradictory, yet both were true and came to pass. It came to pass, also, that two of the most remarkable men of the tribe were, Saul, the first king of Israel, who was a true Benoni, and Saul of Tarsus, the last of her worthies, who was a true Benjamin. It is still more remarkable that this last, like the first father of his tribe had two names. When Saul of Tarsus went on, breathing only threatenings and slaughter, ravening like an evening wolf, Benoni is his name. But when the wolf became a lamb, and Paul the apostle became that great master builder of the spiritual temple of the Lord, was it not Benjamin ?

H. G.

People and Land of Israel.

THE Jewish Chronicle (Feb. 13) announces the speedy departure of Sir M. Montefiore, &c. for Palestine. Not long since the cry of distress there drew them to the Syrian shores. Now it appears to be the success of certain plans laid down for ameliorating the state of the Palestinian Jews which demands their presence. It is distressing to read the terms with which the party are wafted away on a mission, which we know, is only laying down a road which directly leads to the last Antichrist. Another sad symptom of the fallen and falling condition of modern Judaism is, that the same organ which speaks of their holy calling as God's elect nation, contends for a share of the honours of Gentiles, nay covets to sit in a professedly Christian legislature! Is this to dwell alone, and not to be They may point to Daniel the prophet, &c. But Daniel sought not the gate of King Nebuchadnezzar.

Now, if the seeds of such oracles may be wrapt up even in the proper names of holy writ, how much more are types to be expected in its more re-reckoned among the nations ? markable events? As all parts of the universe, so all events of providence are connected. Paul the apostle has long been exhibited to the Gentiles for a

[* No really substantial reason appears against the usual reading, which means, as in the English Bible, "the beloved." Durell must sever the word in twain, and either neglect the points, or conjecture others. The general sense is unaffected, as far as our correspondent's thought is concerned.-ED.]

The preaching of the gospel to those without made no part of the Jewish system, which was the shadow, but not the perfect image, of the present state of things. The gospel is the expression of grace inviting sinners.

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