understood till after their fulfilment. So that the metaphor of the apostle has been reversed. Christians have learnt to describe the word of prophecy, not as the beacon-light, but as the trackless and dangerous ocean. They have ventured to be wise above what is written, and have warned their brethren against that very study, on which the Holy Spirit has pronounced a solemn and repeated blessing.

"I will stand upon

What, then, in this state of the Church, is the duty of Christ's ministers, the appointed stewards of the mysteries of God? The text supplies us with an answer. The prophet had just given the Jews warning of the Chaldean invasion. The Spirit of God taught him to fear, that however plainly the message was given, they "would in no wise believe it." He prepares himself for sceptical doubts and contentious opposition. He seeks for wisdom from above. my watch, and set me on my tower, and watch what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am argued with." And he receives a gracious answer. He is to write the message in clearer characters, and expose it on tablets to the public view, that even the most careless might have no excuse for ignorance. "The Lord answered and said unto me, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.”

The spirit of this command applies clearly to

the ministers of Christ in the present day. The importance of a knowledge of God's prophecies to the Church has not ceased, and cannot cease, till her Lord's return. The prophecy teaches this in the next verse, as explained by the apostle. "The vision," we are told, "is for an appointed time," even "until he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry." (Hab. ii. 3; Heb. x. 37). Till then the same duty rests on his messengers. If the word of prophecy have been covered with the mist of false glosses, or cankered by the rust of neglect, they must clear away the doubts that obscure it, they must restore the engraving in fuller and broader relief; and so present it to a careless world, with the stamp of God's veracity, and the bright and clear impress of heavenly and everlasting truth. To fulfil this command, in humble dependence on the blessing of God, is our present aim. May the Holy Spirit himself open our eyes to understand his word. Our object is to make the vision plain, as on tablets, to the most casual observer; and with this view, first to EXPLAIN THE LITERAL INTERPRETATION OF OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY, and then ToO CONFIRM IT BY SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENTS. The subject may seem, at first, dry and abstract. But our attention will be amply repaid, if we are led to a simpler faith in the oracles of God, and to a closer and deeper search into their treasures of heavenly wisdom.

WHAT IS THE MEANING, then, OF THE LITERAL SENSE OF PROPHECY? False notions on this point have been very general, and absurd consequences have been grafted upon these, to justify a system of glosses and allegories, and transfer all the Jewish promises to the Gentile Church. The definition may be given in two forms, which agree in their result, and help to explain each other. First, "the literal sense is that in which we adhere to the common usage of terms, and the natural scope of the passage, as inferred from the context alone." Secondly, it is "when we attach to a prophecy that same sense which we should naturally assign to it, if it were a history of past events, and not a prediction of the future."

Let us explain by a few examples. The prophet Isaiah, in chap. iv., has the following words, " And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. And the Lord shall create upon every dwelling-place of Mount Zion, and upon all her assemblies, a cloud and a smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire

D

by night, for upon all the glory shall be a defence."

Here the context will determine the literal meaning. The Jerusalem spoken of is the same of which it was said just before," Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen; because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of his glory."* The daughters of Zion are the same class who have just been so sternly reproved for their haughtiness and pride-the daughters of Israel dwelling at Jerusalem. The assemblies of Mount Zion are the same of which it had been declared, "The calling of assemblies I cannot away with: it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting: "+ they are the assemblies of Israel for worship in the holy city. The literal sense is, therefore, that Jerusalem, then fallen so low, should rise from her ruin; that her daughters shall be as glorious for purity and meekness, as once they were detestable for their pride; that the judgments of God, and the power of his Spirit, shall effect this mighty change; that all the dwellers in Jerusalem shall then be holy, without any mixture of the profane; and that a glory, like the pillar of cloud and of fire in the desert, shall then rest, as a sacred token of God's holy presence, upon all the assemblies for solemn worship in Jerusalem.

* Isaiah iii. 8.

+ Isaiah i. 13.

One passage

Again, let us compare Isaiah i. 7-10 with the opening of chap. lxii., and, on applying the second definition, the sense of the prophecy will be clear. is historical, the other prophetic; one speaks of Zion's glory, the other of her shame; but in other respects they entirely correspond. If we expound the prophecy as the history must be expounded, no doubt can arise upon its meaning. The country which is to receive the name of Beulah, in token of God's peculiar favour, is the same which before had been "desolate and burned with fire," the land of Israel. The daughter of Zion, to whom the high surname is to be given, Hephzibah, "my delight is in her"-the Zion for whose brightness and salvation Messiah pleads with unceasing fervour-is the same that was left" as a cottage in a vineyard, and as a besieged city," while the Assyrian invaders were overspreading the land. The figures used in the second place to express the glory of Zion, are scarcely stronger than those in the first to express her degradation. Is it said, in imagery of striking beauty, "Thou shalt be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God"? A metaphor not less vivid has been used to describe her corruption: "Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear to the law of

* Isaiah i. 7.