events described some hundred years before they took place, with a specification so strict, and an accuracy so remarkable, that nothing short of obstinate blindness can withstand it. The prophetical notice and the historical fact are different parts of the same scheme, and placed, side by side, they mutually confront and support each other. Messiah was to be cut off at the expiration of an appointed period, and a man, professing and proving himself to be sent from God in that character, did then actually suffer. The Jewish nation was to be exterminated soon after this catastrophe, and the Jews were accordingly broken up and dispersed into all nations, where they have remained to this very day.

III. A Third prediction relating to the advent of Messiah is that which we find in the prophet Haggai.

"Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land, and I will shake all nations, and the Desire of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of Hosts. The silver is mine and the gold is mine saith the Lord of Hosts. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of Hosts."

In order that we may rightly understand this prophecy, it is important to remark, that the occasion of it was to comfort the Jews under the mean

appearance of the new Temple they were building, in comparison with the magnificent and costly structure raised by King Solomon. In the old Temple, beside all its array of silver and gold and cunning workmanship, its noble columns and its beautiful drapery, it had the glory of God, or symbol of the divine presence, shining between the Cherubims. The new edifice was destitute of all this attractive grandeur, and the Israelites sighed in contemplating its meanness. God, in order to comfort and encourage them in their work, says, "I will fill this house with glory." Whereas, in the former Temple one part only was irradiated by my presence, but the whole of this Temple shall partake of the honour I design it. "The silver is mine and the gold is mine.” If external magnificence were all that it required, I could easily have rebuilt it with such ornamental riches. But destitute as it is of all such splendour and advantage, "the glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former."-Now in what sense could this be effected, how could this humble edifice surpass the splendour of Solomon's Temple, except in that one sense in which the Jews themselves and all commentators interpret the expression, namely, in the Lord himself being personally present in it, and honouring and sanctifying it by his visible appearance ? In no other sense could it well be conceived that the new edifice had a glory superior to the old. If, then, this interpretation be the right one, it marks very clearly the time of Messiah's advent, for as the second Temple was destroyed soon

after the crucifixion of Jesus and is now desolate, it is impossible for "the Desire of all nations" to come to it; and even supposing with the Jews, that another was hereafter to be raised, it is evident that he could not be said to come to that same Temple which had been for ages in ruins. Jesus, therefore, by going to the Temple as he several times did, and, in his visits to Jerusalem, making the holy place the chief theatre of his ministrations, plainly fulfilled the prophecy of Haggai, by conferring in his personal presence more honour on the edifice which was then standing, than was conferred on Solomon's structure, either by the splendid magnificence of its architectural ornaments, or even by the glory between the Cherubims, the symbol of the divine presence.

IV. The last of those prophecies, specifying the time of the advent of Messiah, which I shall notice, is that of Malachi, and it is one that is very striking and very much to our purpose. "Behold I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me; and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his Temple, even the Messenger of the Covenant whom ye delight in. Behold he shall come saith the Lord of Hosts."

Now, between three and four years prior to the commencement of Christ's public ministry, John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, and declaring himself to be the messenger or forerunner of Messiah. To show how

much his appearance at this particular juncture fell in with the expectation of the world with respect to Christ, it is very observable, that the great Jewish Council, the Sanhedrim, sent a deputation to ascertain from John himself, whether he were the Christ or not. In that deputation we may fairly consider the Jewish nation to be represented, and John's answer is, in substance, a message to them of the actual birth and speedy ministry of Christ. He appropriated to himself, in the first instance, the very words of Isaiah, which had described his office, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias." He then went on to announce the arrival of Him whose way he was preparing. "But there standeth one among you whom ye know not; he it is, who coming after me, is preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose." -Here, then, the messenger of Christ, who was predicted by Malachi, is found in a person whose singular life and habits bespoke him to be a very extraordinary character, and whose conduct gained him the confidence of the people, who all counted him for a prophet. At this time there was no disposition on the part of the Rulers to throw discredit upon John's ministry. They seem to have admitted, most fully, all that he had affirmed, both of himself and of Christ. Jesus was unknown to them as the Lord whom they sought, and those prejudices, which his lowly and unassuming appearance excited afterwards, could not then blind or disturb them. The admis

sion, therefore, of the truth of John's statement by this public deputation, is evidence that the time of the Messiah was then at hand. The forerunner could not precede his Master by any long intervening space. But what marks the period with still greater precision, as being the very one in which Messiah was to come, is the assertion of Malachi, that "the Lord shall suddenly come to his Temple.' The Temple, therefore, is a kind of landmark in the fulfilment of this prophecy as it was in the last. It must be standing when the Lord of it should come to it. It was standing at the time of John's ministry and for about forty years afterwards, but since that period, it has been totally destroyed, and no attempt to rebuild it has ever been successful. The life of Jesus, therefore, corresponds most exactly, as to time, with this prophecy of Malachi, and his history is so remarkable in all other respects as to point him out to have been the promised Messiah.

The consideration of these four prophecies, having shown the wonderful agreement between the inspired words of Scripture and the time of our blessed Saviour's advent, cannot but tend to increase our faith in him. In the study of the prophetical writings and their fulfilment as recorded in the New Testament, the mind derives great advantage; its convictions are strengthened, its principles are confirmed, and its hopes are better grounded, from more enlarged and comprehensive views of God's providence. They mark the connection of all the parts