a prediction of his doom. The unwillingly associate nations will be his destruction.

The prophet then interposes a prediction of what is to happen more than a thousand years after this invasion :-"After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them. Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm; thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou and all thy bands, and many people with thee. Thus saith the Lord God, It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought: and thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, to take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.”

"After many days shalt thou be visited," is exactly parallel with Isaiah xxiv. 22: "They shall be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited." These are the thousand years of Revelation xx., when Satan deceives Gog and Magog, and leads them up against the Holy Land.

Although the fulness of this part of the prediction belongs to the close of the millennium, yet so far as concerns Gog's invasion of Judea, that subject is contained in it. When there are two parallel events, a less and a greater, the details of the less are not separately given. We have another example in Joel ii., where the prophet predicts a former rain and a latter rain (ver. 23). He goes on to describe the outpouring of the Spirit, and its results, in language applicable in fulness only to the latter rain; yet St Peter teaches us to apply it in measure to the former rain (Acts ii. 16-21).

With this example before us, we are enabled to apply in a similar manner this prediction to the first invasion by Gog, although in two important matters the circumstances will be materially different :-The last invasion is solely by Gog and Magog; this first one is to be against Judea, still under Gentile power. Gog rushes down with the purpose similarly described in Isaiah x. 6.

While thus engaged "Sheba and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?"

These are the tidings out of the east and out of the north of Daniel xi. 44.

Sheba and Dedan settled about the north of the Persian Gulf. England is in alliance with the people around there. She is Tarshish, and her young lions are Canada, the United States, the British West Indies, New

Zealand, Australia, South Africa—a truly magnificent confederacy. Thus, separating themselves from Gog, their ships will be honoured in bringing the Jews to the place appointed for them, that they may be prepared for their own land.

And now follows the description of Gog's invasion and destruction: Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord God, In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it? And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army: and thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a crowd to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes. Thus saith the Lord God, Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years, that I would bring thee against them? And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord God, that my fury shall come up in my face. For in my jealousy, and in the fire of my wrath, have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; so that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence; and the mountains shall be

thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground. And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord God: every man's sword shall be against his brother. And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations; and they shall know that I am the Lord."

In ver. 17, Gog is declared to be the invader so often predicted of by the prophets under other names; e.g., the Assyrian in Isaiah xxx.; "the northern army" in

Joel ii.

The Lord will indeed be magnified in so awful a destruction. The description of it is carried on in chap. xxxix., but I shall defer its consideration to the next part on the manner of the restoration of the Jews. This closes the Old Testament predictions of the times of the Gentiles, except the brief statement that the Lord would hide his face from the house of Jacob, and bind up the testimony, and seal the law amongst His [Gentile] disciples (Isa. viii. 16, 17; cf. chap. xlii. 1-4).

We must seek in the New Testament for the other predictions of the same times.

THE NEW TESTAMENT PREDICTIONS OF THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES.

IN one sense almost the whole of the New Testament belongs to the times of the Gentiles. For our present purpose, however, we have only to consider the predictive portions. In the Gospels these are confined to a few notices, such as "the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof;" and the allusions to the harvest in the parables in St Matthew xiii. In the prophecy on the Mount there are others, and especially the remarkable one in St Luke xxi. 24. All, however, are substantially included in what is given ex professo in "the man of sin" in 2 Thessalonians ii., and in the Apocalypse.

In this predictive aspect let us consider the times of the Gentiles as presented in Romans xi.

THE GRAFFED WILD OLIVE.

THE apostle speaks of the whole Gentile Christendom, as a wild olive graffed into "the [Abrahamic] good olive." He warns Gentile Christendom, "Thou standest by faith.""If thou continue not in His goodness, thou also shalt be cut off." He ends with "God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all.". This standing of the Gentile Christian Church, illustrates the declaration that "the vine of the