power." Oh, come Holy Ghost, oh, come thou kingdom of the Father, and embrace the whole world. I must extract these verses to show what the elements of the kingdom of God are, and to show how the name JEHOVAH represented God all things to men, and guaranteed all that He could be to them.

"And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My Spirit.

"The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the JEHOVAH come."

This was figurative language, and the sun and moon referred to the Church and kingdom of Judah; the one was to pass away, or to be turned into darkness; and the other was to be a scene of martyrdom and blood before the Messiah came, and so it was.

"And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the JEHOVAH shall be delivered: for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the JEHOVAH hath said, and in the remnant whom the JEHOVAH shall call."

Was there not deliverance in Jerusalem, and in the little remnant, the twelve apostles, the seventy, in the little band in the upper chamber, in the five hundred whom Christ the JEHOVAH called? Yes, they were delivered to sow the Seed of Life over the world; the kingdom of God was within them, and they were to bring all within the kingdom.

"Beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.

"Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe : come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow.

"The JEHOVAH also shall roar out of Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the JEHOVAH will be the hope of His people, and the strength of the children of Israel.

"So shall ye know that I am the JEHOVAH your GOD dwelling in Zion" (chap. iii).

The Prophet Amos lived in the reign of Jeroboam, the second king of Israel, and of Uzziah, king of Judah. The principal feature of the book is, JEHOVAH, the supreme Ruler and Governor over all people and nations. In the first chapters He proclaims judgments against many nations in His own great name. It is not idolatry that is alone condemned, but also luxuriousness and excess. I shall only extract a few passages to show the tenor of the prophecy. It has not in it the spiritual sublimity of the book of Joel.

"Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in the city, and the JEHOVAH hath not done it ?

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Surely the JEHOVAH GOD will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets.

"The lion hath roared, who will not fear? The

JEHOVAH GOD hath spoken, who can but prophesy?" (Amos iii. 6, 7, 8.)

This lion was again a reference to the Assyrian power, that was then even at the door, to devour Israel.

Amos iv. 9, 10, 11, 12, is striking language. The JEHOVAH complained of His people, that although He had visited them with affliction, with the plagues of Egypt, with mercy and with grace, yet they had not returned unto Him. "Therefore, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel."

"Woe unto you that desire the day of the JEHOVAH! to what end is it for you? The day of the JEHOVAH is darkness, and not light" (Amos v. 18).

In the sixth chapter we read that worldliness and luxury had become so prevalent that one said to another: "Hold thy tongue: for we may not make mention of the name of the JEHOVAH." This presents itself for our reflection.

CHAPTER XXIII.

GOD IN CHRIST, IN THE NAME JEHOVAH.

"Salvation is of the JEHOVAH.”—JONAH ii. 9.

"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.”—Matt. v. 17.

THINK that we may safely place the book of Jonah at the head of all the prophets, and say that it is the oldest of them all. From the mention of him in 2 Kings xiv. 25, some have thought that he lived in the reign of Jeroboam, the second king of Israel, but I do not think we at all gather this from the passage. He may have prophesied concerning Israel to the time of that reign, and beyond, and even have proclaimed messages from JEHOVAH that we have not in this book; but I think he prophesied earlier than any of the other prophets, and that He was peculiarly called of the JEHOVAH GOD of Israel to inaugurate the prophets. The dynasty of the kings was to pass away, and the government of the JEHOVAH was not only to be seen parallel with it, but supreme above all. Thus the book of Jonah is one of the most remarkable in the Bible. The prophet was not only a witness of JEHOVAH for that age in which he lived, but the truth is

broadly taught: "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" (Rev. xix. 10).

Christ, after quoting from the Psalms (xli. 9), said: "Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I AM" (John xiii. 19).

In our translation it is added, that I am He; but it is not the mind of the Spirit. His meaning was, that I am the great I AM, the JEHOVAH, as in John viii. 58: "Before Abraham was, I am."

In the book of Jonah we see this mysterious link of all ages, the great I AM of a past and a future eternity. The book is historic and prophetic. The Jewish Church had been sent a missionary into the world, the world represented here by the great Nineveh; but she swerved to a temporal kingdom, fled to Tarshish; and her Head called the prophets, ruled, and reigned in them.

But this prophecy takes a larger range, divides itself into three parts; the Jewish Church before Christ; Christ in His day; and the Christian Church after Him. Or rather, I should say, the history of Jonah does this. The name JEHOVAH governs the history; He sent alike His Son, and the Church upon His work of love. "Last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son" (Matt. xxi. 27). "As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.' Let us look at the history, and perhaps we shall find the solution of the seeming discrepancy in the two passages that head this chapter.

"Now the word of the JEHOVAH came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying." This little now seems to