that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." To carry this forward, and interpret it of the times of the Messiah, and of course to give it a spiritual meaning, seems to be wresting Scripture, rather than interpreting it. The new temple was just built, and the worship of God by sacrifice was just reëstablished, and the people had not yet become accustomed to pay the tythes ordained in the Mosaic institute, which were necessary to maintain divine service. The priests, too, had lately returned from captivity, and had brought with them wives, which they, in violation of an express law, had married from among the heathen, as we learn from the preceding chapter. "Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the Lord which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god. The Lord will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the Lord of hosts," meaning of course the priests. It was the duty of the priest, not only to offer sacrifice, but to study the law, and honestly to interpret it to the people. In this duty the priests had failed. "But ye have departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the Lord of hosts. For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of

the Lord of hosts." In the midst of all this complaint of the degeneracy of the priesthood, and the irregularities of the temple service, God promises, or rather threatens, to bring about a reformation. "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me." As the priest is called, just before, the "messenger of God," so, I am inclined to think, messenger means the same here; that God is about to bring about reform, by introducing into the temple a pious, resolute, and energetic priest. "And the Lord whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in, behold he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts." The Lord and the messenger of the covenant, not even, as our translators have given it. Such I believe to be the meaning of this passage, so of Christ.

often quoted as prophetic

There is a passage in the prophecy of Zechariah, in which Jehovah is thought to identify himself with Christ upon the cross, from the fact that he represents himself as having been pierced. I shall show the connection in which it stands, and then leave every one to judge of the probability of such an original reference. "And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplication; and they shall look on one whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first born."

The first consideration which suggests itself in determining whether Jehovah identifies himself with Christ

upon the cross, is the fact, that Christ was not pierced, in the sense here obviously intended, till the spirit had left the body, and the body of Jesus was no more than any other body forsaken of life and sensation. The spirit, whether human or divine, had left it, and could no longer be concerned in anything that was done to it. To pierce, in the phraseology of ancient warfare, was to penetrate the body by spear or sword. The only way in which Christ was pierced in this sense, was with the spear after he was dead. His spiritual part had no concern in that. Nor could Jehovah have had, supposing him ever to have animated that body. Such an interpretation then, of this passage, is obviously strained and forced. The only way in which Jehovah could be pierced, is in a figurative sense, in the sense of being grieved, just as it is said of men, when their feelings are injured, that they are wounded. God was pleased in the Old Testament often to represent himself with human sensibilities. (6 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said; It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways." The passage we are considering seems to be a parallel case. God represents himself in this chapter, as visiting the people of Jerusalem with a siege, in punishment of their sins, and for a while paralyzing their means of defence. But afterwards he

turns to be their helper. "And it shall come to pass, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem." This is the verse immediately preceding the passage we are considering. In it we perceive the reason why he will turn and defend his people,

because they will repent. "And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplications, and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and he shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first born."

To me, it seems to be doing great violence to language, to mix up a siege of Jerusalem, in the time of the prophets, with the death of Christ, which took place four hundred years after. It has been thought to favor the application of this passage to Christ, that Jehovah speaks of himself in the first person, and then in the third "They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and mourn for him.” But the difficulty is no greater in the one case than in the other.

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There

is no more reason for a change of persons, if he speaks of himself as the Messiah, than if he speaks of himself absolutely. The obvious meaning is, "They shall mourn for him whom they have pierced." This is not applicable to the Jews concerning Christ. His murderers did not relent.

Another passage is found in the fifth chapter of Micah. "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been of old, from everlasting." The pertinency of this passage turns upon the meaning of two words, the word translated "goings forth," and the word translated "everlasting." Now both of these are equivocal in their meaning. The word translated

"goings forth," may mean

"descent." The verb

from which it originates, is thus translated in the seventeenth chapter of Genesis: "and kings shall come out of thee," that is, descend from thee. The passage may mean therefore, "whose descent is from an ancient family," or a family long distinguished.

Then the word rendered "everlasting," is very far from meaning eternity. It generally means a long time, but not a time without beginning. It is the same word which is used by Isaiah when speaking of the antiquity of Tyre. "Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days." It is the same word which is found in the last verse of this very book of Micah. "Thou shalt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers, from the days of old." The meaning of the passage we are considering, then, is very likely to be this: "A Ruler shall come from Bethlehem, whose descent is from high antiquity, even from the earliest periods of the world."

Deity of Christ is seventh verse of the "Awake, O sword, the man that is my

Strong corroboration of the thought to be derived from the thirteenth chapter of Zechariah. against my Shepherd, and against fellow, saith the Lord of hosts. Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered, and I will turn my hand upon the little ones." This is said to be an address of the first Person of the Trinity to the second, as is shown by the significant phraseology, "the man that is my fellow." This includes both the divine and the human natures of Christ, "man" standing