God and the Lamb in the new Jerusalem, the fruit of which is to render those who partake it immortal. Genesis iii. 22. That that tree is to yield twelve fruits: that is twelve growths in a year, a fruit every month, indicates that there will be stated seasons when such of the mortal as have become fitted will receive it, and experience the change by which they became unobnoxious to, and incapable of dying. The first who are to be distinguished by this gift, there is reason to believe, are those represented by the hundred and fortyfour thousand of the sealed: Rev. vii. 7, 8; xiv. 1-5, as they are said to be "redeemed from among men, the first fruit unto God and to the Lamb." They are the first, therefore, of a special class, who are to be redeemed unto God, and to the Lamb, and of a class to which the harvest that is to follow, that is the whole body of those who are thereafter to be redeemed, is to belong. They undoubtedly then represent the living who are first to be changed from mortal to immortal; as that is the only class to which all the saved that follow are to pertain. There is no intimation that any of the mortal are to be directly glorified, like the holy dead. The change from mortal to immortal, is no doubt to be the lot of all the holy who are in life at Christ's coming, and al of the generations that follow during the thousand years. In this respect the effect of Christ's work as the second Adam, will correspond to that which would have resulted from the first Adam's, had he maintained his allegiance.

Happy are they then, who receive and appreciate the purpose Christ has thus foreshown, of removing the curse in a mode so consonant to the necessities of the race, and reinstating them in a condition so like that in which they would have been placed had the first Adam, by a perfect obedience, secured confirmation to them in holiness and immortality. They who reject this element of the administration Christ is to institute at his coming, seem equally regardless of the principle on which Adam acted as the head of the race. As a perfect obedience by Adam would have carried perfect holiness and immortality to all whom he represented, so the obedience of Christ carries immortality to all for whom he died, even though they perish, and holiness and immortality to all whom he saves: and why, when this system of trial has closed, and a dispensation is introduced by which the

evils of the present are to be excluded, should not his obedience carry holiness to all immediately; and immortality, as soon as it would have been conferred on the posterity of the first pair, had they begun their existence in innocence? But that great feature of the future, is lost to those who overlook or discredit this purpose of the Redeemer. They know nothing of a redemption of men from sin except in the form it now takes place, after a period of rebellion; and they know nothing of an immortal life, except that which is to be reached through death and a resurrection. There is to be, according to them, no restoration that is a true counterpart to the fall; but sin and death are to reign as they now do, as long as the race is perpetuated by births, and subsists in the natural life. They thus detract immeasurably from the greatness and grandeur of Christ's designs, and the beauty and blessedness of his kingdom during his millennial reign.

9. And finally, after the thousand years shall have passed, and the unholy shall have been raised from death and judged, Christ is still to reign here in glory, the race is to be perpetuated, and in an endless series of generations their exemption from the effects of the fall is to be absolute. There is to be no more death, no more pain, no more toil, no more sin, but all are to commence and continue their existence in spotlessness, and be crowned with immortality, as they would had our first parents not fallen. The dominion Christ is to receive at his second coming, is to be an everlasting dominion, Dan. vii. 13. The reign on which he is to enter at the sound of the seventh trumpet, when the kingdom of this world is to become his, is to continue for ever and ever, Rev. xi. 15. And the risen and glorified saints also are to reign with him for ever and ever, Rev. xxii. 5. And that implies that the race over whom they are to reign are for ever to continue in the natural life, and therefore are to be perpetuated in an endless series of generations, as is expressly taught, Eph. iii. 21, where all the generations of the race are exhibited as extending through the age of ages; and Luke i. 32, 33, where it is foretold. that he shall reign for ever over the house of Jacob, which supposes that the descendants of Jacob will continue in an unending series of generations.

Happy are they, therefore, who receive this great announcement of the prophecy. Without it there can be no just view of the greatness and glory of the effects Christ came to achieve; there can be no appreciation of the riches of his love; there can be no solution of the past and present dispensations. Those who reject it assume that the race, instead of perpetuating itself, as it would had the first pair not fallen, is, after a few more centuries have passed, to reach its limits, and infinite millions be precluded from existence, who would have had a being had Adam maintained his allegiance. They imply, therefore, that there was no correlation between the representative offices of the first and second Adam; that the first Adam stood for an infinitely greater number than were represented by the second; and that that greater number were mere hypothetical beings instead of real, which is contradictious to the principle of representation, and to the most specific teachings of the Scriptures. Paul's language, "As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive," shows that their representative offices were exactly coincident.

Such are some of the great futurities revealed in this prophecy, the knowledge and contemplation of which are suited to give joy and peace to the believer; impress him with a sense of Christ's infinite power, wisdom, and love, the vastness and resplendence of his designs, and the bliss to which he is to exalt the race under his eternal reign! Who can look forward to it without awe, wonder, gratitude, adoration. How astonishing that the Protestant as well as the Catholic church, instead of receiving these gracious assurances, should lose sight of them; should turn from them, indeed, with a blind unbelief, and substitute in their place a mere human theory of the future, that limits Christ's work and purpose to the narrow dimensions of man's instrumentality; invent a millennium from which he is wholly to be excluded, but that Satan, sin, and death are to occupy, and mar, and disfigure, much as they do the world now; and finally, choose a redemption that, after a brief term, is to end, and leave the crowds that perish immeasurably more numerous than the saved. And this, not only without any semblance of authority from the Scriptures, but against their clear and oft-repeated teachings.

How great a change must be wrought in the faith and spirit of the church before it can be prepared for Christ's coming? All the false views in respect to his kingdom in which it is now enthralled, are to be abandoned; all the misjudgments cherished with so much passion respecting the office it is to fill in the conversion of the world, are to be rejected; and the far higher and more gracious purposes of God received as they are presented in his word, with submission and joy. This change, greater and more momentous than has taken place since the Reformation, will be wrought by the avenging judgments with which the nations are to be smitten; by revolutions in the civil governments, by which a chief will rise into imperial power, and give supremacy to the Catholic church; by the persecution of the witnesses, and other events foreshown in this prophecy; and by the power of the Spirit removing blindness, prejudice, and pride, and exciting a desire to know and receive the purposes of God in respect to the future, as he has foreshown them. And when they reach that point, their cherished theories will fade away in the light of truth, and they will accept the reign of Christ and the redemption he is to accomplish, as they are depicted in his word.

ART. VI.-PONTIUS PILATE. By REV. E. POND, D.D.

Or the early life of Pontius Pilate we have no reliable account. The probability is that he was an Italian nobleman, born and educated at Rome, or the vicinity.

At the time of our Saviour's birth, Palestine was a kingdom, dependent on Rome, and tributary to it, and was governed by Herod the Great. About ten years subsequent to this, Judea ceased to be a kingdom, and became a province, under the jurisdiction of a Procurator or governor sent from Rome. Pilate was the fifth governor who had been sent into Judea in the course of twenty years. He came into office just before the commencement of our Saviour's personal ministry, and continued in office for the next seven or eight years.

The Jews represent him as a tyrannical and oppressive ruler, who at the same time was lacking in courage and firmness to execute his nefarious designs. He took pleasure in thwarting the religious customs and prejudices of the Jews. In repeated instances he attempted innovations having this object in view; but in the excitement and tumult which invariably followed, he would become frightened and relinquish his design. In these ways the Jews learned that they could carry their purposes with him by show of violence, if by no other means; a method to which they had resort, during the trial of our Saviour. Philo, a contemporary Jewish writer, sums up the character of Pilate in the following words: "He was a man who made it his business to sell justice, and would give any sentence for money. He laid himself out to commit rapines, and horrible injuries, and murders. He would frequently, and without cause, put men to excessive tortures, and condemn others to death; and was intolerably cruel throughout the whole of his administration."

Of the cruelty of Pilate, we have an incidental notice in one of the gospels. Some one came to Jesus and told him. of certain "Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices," Luke xiii. 1. These Galileans had in some way displeased Pilate; and, while they were offering their sacrifices in the temple, Pilate ordered his soldiers to fall upon them and put them to death; thus literally mingling their blood with their sacrifices.

In philosophy Pilate was probably a sceptic-a species of philosophy at that time very prevalent in Rome. This appears from an incident which occurred during the trial of our Saviour. When Jesus had said: "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I might bear witness to the truth;" Pilate retorted the question, "What is truth?" John xviii. 38; meaning perhaps, to say, "There is no such thing as truth. Everything is uncertain, doubtful. No wise man will pretend to be sure of anything." This, at least, is the interpretation which we put upon Pilate's question-a question to which our Saviour returned no answer.

Such, then, was the man before whom our blessed Saviour was arraigned-the man who had an opportunity of perpe