tion to that spoken of at the end of the previous chapter, and occupied with a very different work. It speaks of what He was, and what he suffered for Israel, for men, the foundation of all blessing, the source of all hope,His death on the cross and His portion in resurrection. Jehovah of hosts, the Son of God, the arm of the Lord, He was also the sinner's substitute. He died, cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of God's people. It pleased the Lord to bruise Him, and on Him our sins were laid. And now, atonement effected, "he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand." What a passage from the throne to the cross, from the manifested glory of Jehovah to the insults and rejection of sinners! And as lii. states what effect His future appearance will have on the kings when they see Him, this chapter tells us what was thought of Him by the remnant when on earth before. "He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted." He died: but death, to man the extinction of all hopes for this world, death, which separates him from all that concerns the things of earth, was the appointed path for Him to tread that He should take His kingdom and reign; for us having died and risen He will sit on David's throne, see of the travail of His soul, and be satisfied, when surrounded by the countless myriads of the heavenly saints, and make secure to Israel then on earth the sure mercies of David (lv. 3 compared with Acts xiii. 34). A sketch of His life on earth as the servant of God would be incomplete without a summary of what He taught. This we get in lxi., in a passage He quoted, applying it to Himself as the fulfiller of it, when He sat down with the eyes of all on Him in the synagogue at Nazareth. But then He stopped in the middle of the second verse. He preached the acceptable year of the Lord, but not then the day of vengeance of our God. Yet that He was to speak of. The prophets have predicted it; the Revelation is full of it; and this last, be it remembered, is the "Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel to his servant John." There we get described the day of vengeance which will come, and the signs which shall precede it, with the judgments to be poured out previously, and the messengers to be sent (Rev. vi. -xviii., xi. 3, xiv. 6). Then shall be comforted all that mourn, the signs of sorrow be removed, and Israel take her place as head of the nations, and everlasting joy be her portion (lxi. 2-7). His birth, His lowliness, the treatment He received, His devoted service, the good news He declared, His rejection and death having been brought forward, and His resurrection intimated (liii. 11, 12), what remains, it might be thought, but to take vengeance on His enemies. He will surely in God's own time; but first He has another work to perform, which He is now carrying on, He intercedes for Jerusalem. Absent from earth where He was crucified, He does not forget the place where God dwelt, and where He will dwell for ever. He intercedes for Zion. "For Zion's sake I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof shall go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth" (lxii. 1). Nor does He rest with this. He raises up intercessors on earth to pray for this (ver. 6, 7). How He intercedes above is not revealed, but what they say is (see lxiii. 7; lxiv. 12). He is asked to return from heaven (lxiv. 1). He will. And in lxiii. 1-6, we have a description of Him having returned and having executed judgment on Edom. From the throne to the manger, from the manger to the cross, from the cross to heaven, from heaven to earth as conqueror and vindicator of God, and deliverer of His people, such is the path of the Lord as set before us in Isaiah. "What hath God wrought," we may well exclaim. Many have been the instruments God has used to carry out His purposes on earth, feeble oftentimes have they been, that the power of God should be more fully displayed in them. But here we see something else. We see an instrument, a mighty instrument in the Lord's hand accomplishing His purposes, filling every position His servants could fill, and some they never couldJehovah's throne and the cross on Calvary; and that instrument is Jehovah Himself. God has often wrought by others. Here He works by His Son. He has accomplished redemption from everlasting death for all who will accept it; He will effect the final deliverance of His people Israel on earth. He stooped to death, and Satan appeared to have gained the victory. He rose from the dead, and went to heaven, where He intercedes for Jerusalem. Satan's conqueror, the sinner's Saviour, the faithful witness, the suffering servant, these are the characters which He appears in, these are the works he performs. He does them all Himself, for by Him and Him alone can all these be effectually accomplished. C. E. S. HOME. OH! bright and blessed scenes, And can I call my home My Father's house on high; The rest of God my rest, to come, My place of liberty? Yes, in that light unstained, My stainless soul shall live; My heart's deep longings more than gained, His presence-there my soul, Shall find, when endless ages roll, My God the centre is, My God, whom I have known, Glory supreme is there, Glory that shines through all, Like Jesus in that place Heaven's blest and endless theme. Like Him, O grace supreme! Like Him, before Thy face, Oh! love supreme and bright, That gives me now as heavenly light Be not to me, my God, With me as light divine, Those glad'ning scenes e'en now as mine, Soon my eternal rest. The above lines on "Home" are borrowed, with permission of the Editor, from "A Voice to the Faithful," No. 5. May, 1867. 24, Warwick-lane, E.C., London. 161 N°. X. THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. THERE is nothing new under the sun. The Jewish Mystics and Cabbalists, and the Gnostics of the second and third centuries (against which last Paul warns us, and who, though beginning earlier, were in those centuries fully developed) held the doctrine of the non-immortality of the soul and its end, just as heretics on these points do now. They were divided even into the same two classes as now, i. e., some held the soul died with the body, others that it would be cast into the fire afterwards, on being judged, and then consumed. Not only so, but they founded their teaching on the same reasonings as to nephesh, psuche, chaia, and ruach, etc. It may be well, therefore, after showing the facts to be so, to examine the various words and ascertain their use in Scripture, as well as that of some others sought to be employed to the same end. The doctrine of Jewish Rabbis was not, as is evident, that of Jesus Christ being eternal life, or they would not have been Jewish Rabbis. But, wherever they found it, basing it on the merit of works and keeping the law, as we may suppose, they taught that the higher spiritual life was a distinct thing from the animal life, and received at a distinct time. Their system is not uniform; more scriptural, but in many parts the same as our modern doctors, and the Gnostics completely so. The records of Jewish mysticism are comparatively of late date, but they record early opinions, many of which are found in early Christian fathers, such as Origen, Jerome, and others, and in Philo, and even Josephus. The Gnostics formed their systems in the same countries, Syria, and particularly Alexandria, the great seat of all VOL. I.-New Series. 8 |