bled, had conspired to put Him to death, expressly withdrawing the offer, and postponing the kingdom to a future period; as, for instance, when, "because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear," He spoke the parable of a certain nobleman going into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return, and who, having received the kingdom, did return. Wherein, the revival of the Theocracy was fixed for the time of his Second Advent. Meanwhile, by reason of this postponement, the predictions of the prophets concerning the disasters of the Jews had their opportunity of fulfilment. How perfectly the great plan is preserved, and yet how it lengthens and widens under this increase of light. Sixthly, Paul predicting that all Israel should be saved, and rehearsing the old promise that Abraham should be the heir of the world (Rom. iv. 13; xi. 26). Also announcing the Gospel principle of the grafting of Gentile believers into the Jewish olive-tree, and of their adoption as children of Abraham (Rom. xi. 17; Gal. iii. 29). And so, in the long development of the plan, was at length explained how it could be, that, while the kingdom is Abrahamic, and is exclusively appropriated to the children of Abraham, all the nations of the earth should come to be equal sharers in the same kingdom. The whole evangelized world, by means of faith in Christ, should become incorporated with the family of Abraham. Seventhly, John's prophecy of "the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David"; of "the New Jerusalem "; of "the tabernacle of God with men." The same plan to the very end. And now it stands complete. The Christ, at length the Lion conqueror for Abraham's people. The Root of the Davidic covenant-having caused that covenant to grow, till, in the end, it shall have blossomed into David's own Messianic ideal, "The Just One ruling over men, arising upon the world as the light of the morning, of a morning without clouds." The New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven-a bride adorned for her Davidic husband. The tabernacle of God with men: God in personal residence on the earth, the Theocracy re-established, all tears wiped away, no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, no more pain; and when, in the words of Jesus, the Father's will shall be done on earth, as it is done in heaven. Such is a meagre outline of the unity of the prophets in their teachings of the kingdom. A large proportion of their predictions are as yet unfulfilled. The government from the throne of David is not now being exercised. The Theocracy is not in existence. The universal religious prosperity, spoken of by the prophets, has not come to pass. Infidels have seen that these things are connected with the prophetic kingdom most expressly, most positively, most inseparably, and have taken occasion, because of their not being fulfilled, to deny the truth of all prophecy. But they have confounded the publication of Christianity with the kingdom; neglecting the fact that Jesus himself has expressly postponed the kingdom. The Church is not the kingdom. But do not these unfulfilled predictions vindicate their own truth? Is not their eventual accomplishment already casting its shadow before? For what sort of a fact is this unity of the prophetic teachings? Was there ever anything like it? Fancy the wise men of Greece, all along the successive centuries of its history, writing on one and the same subject, thinking the same thoughts of it, maintaining and developing the same plan of it. Fancy them,-whether they be a Solon, a Socrates, an Aristotle, poets, orators, tillers of the soil, herdsmen-whether they write from among the cultured newsmongers of Athens, or from lonely dell or mountain -whether in adverse or in prosperous circumstances, in the early dewy morning of their national life, or when the lassitude of the nation's evening is settling upon them,fancy them as joining voices across the ages, and encircling their country's history with a chorus of sweetness and sublimity. Would not that be a phenomenon, at which the philosophers would bow down and worship? And yet, just this is what has been done by the Hebrew prophets. How shall it be accounted for? In view of the differences of minds, and of the different influences of successive times, how was it that one dominant plan, one dominant hope, ran throughout 1,500 years? that the Abrahamic covenant was the one golden thread on which the prophets, from Moses to John, strung their pearls? that each one brought his contribution to the ever-growing architecture of so long a period, and fitted it to its place, as beveled edge is mortised into its socket? See yonder gorgeous palace. What a multitude of workmen have been connected with it from first to last. The diggers with their mattocks; then they that carry the hod, and they that lay the stone; next, the carpenters, with plane and saw; and last, the painters, the carvers, the upholsterers. Through several years the building has continued to grow, till now, from foundation to pinnacle, it stands before us in finished beauty and grandeur. How was it that there was no confusion among the workmen How came it that each stone lay in its proper place, and each timber filled the space waiting for it? that each stroke of the decorator's art is just where it should be? How could so many ever-changing hands have combined to create a work, whose effect upon us, as a whole, is as though it were a piece of music in wood and stone? Only because all the operations, from beginning to end, have been under the control of one master Mind. Look now at this plan of the kingdom. What relays of prophets. What various tasks. What changes of epochs and surroundings. Through fifty generations they wrought, and they died. On and up the vast structure grew. Each thought of each writer was built into one grand scheme. And now it stands in the pages of John a perfected whole -a vision of the glory of God. How was it that fifty generations of writers so wrought in unison? Only because they were all presided over by one master Mind-God the Holy Ghost. Yea, "the goodly fellowship of the prophets praise Thee, O God"! They all spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Aye, spake as well as thought. If any workman on yonder palace had not actually placed the stone and the timber just where the architect had planned for it to go, what derangement would have supervened, notwithstanding the architect had given his instructions. Hence the appointment of a master-workman to watch and make sure. Now the using of words was the prophet's actual placing of the instructions of the Spirit. If His words had been wrong, the instructions had been wrongly placed, and the plan had been damaged. Hence the Spirit's supervision of his words. The workman, however, although watched and guarded, exerted his own. strength in placing the stone; and the prophet, although secured against error in his words, did yet use his own words in writing out the thoughts of the Spirit. If, therefore, the inspiration of the Spirit, like an aureole, encircled his speech, yet within that circle of light were the sparkles of his own individuality. I have done. We have but glanced at our subject. But could I have arrayed before you the whole mighty mass of the argument from prophecy, it would have been only one of the many lines of proof of the full inspiration of the Bible. What greater assurance could we desire? When, therefore, the Bible tells me, that man was not evolved from the brute, but directly created of God, I believe it for thus saith the Lord. When it tells me, that I can know God's will concerning me, and that Agnosticism is false, I believe it; for thus saith the Lord. When it tells me, that I am a sinner and helpless; that God will fearfully punish sin, yet that He loves me and would save me; that Christ hath redeemed me from the curse of the law, being made a curse for me; that whosoever trusts in Christ hath everlasting life;-all of it I believe, for thus saith the Lord. And when, on whatever subject, it teaches me God's thoughts, that I may have the honor and the felicity of thinking with God; when, especially, it opens up to my view enchanting visions of goodness and glory in the kingdom of the Christ;-all its teachings, most reverently, most thankfully, I welcome to my heart of hearts. For the Book is itself God's own voice out of the heavens; and "just as the thunder of heaven is eventoned, and is always like itself in awful grandeur, and is unlike other sounds of earth," so God's voice in the Scriptures is always majestic and commanding, always true and trustworthy, always unlike the babbling voices of men. "Each word of Thine a gem From the celestial mines, A sunbeam from that holy heaven A thousand hammers keen, With fiery force and strain, Brought down on it in rage and hate, Without or change or age, The word of majesty and light, |