spirit of the Lord outpoured upon their sin-bound hearts. But I will not dwell further upon this interesting question at the present point of the chapter, because it will necessarily come before us again as we proceed. ! But now another subject for inquiry of no slight importance comes before us with regard to Israel's return. WHO SHALL BE THEIR LEADER? UNder WHOSE AUSPICES WILL THEIR RETURN TO PALESTINE BE BROUGHT ABOUT? BY WHOM WILL The Land of THE COVENANT BE PLACED IN THEIR POSSESSION? WHAT POTENTATE WILL INTEREST HIMSELF IN THEIR RESTORATION, And take their CASE IN HAND? We have the answer ready-ANTICHRIST. The ANTICHRIST will restore Israel!!! The GREAT OPPONENT of the God of Israel will fulfil the Lord's most holy word, and carry out His hallowed covenant. To suit his own wicked purposes he will make a league with the peculiar people, adhere thereto for a short time, then break it in the midst and be the instrument of a tribulation, in which Israel shall be sufferers indeed,-a tribulation such as has not been since this world was. For awhile now I shall speak no more of Israel, but give attention to this ANTICHRIST. Afterwards the case of Israel will come again before our notice. In the twelfth chapter of REVELATION, on which we dwelt in our last chapter, we read of "WAR IN HEAVEN."-"And there was War in Heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the Dragon, and the Dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in Heaven. And the great Dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world; he was cast out into the Earth and his angels were cast out with him." This Prophecy concerning "War in Heaven" is introduced indeed in the midst of an allegory, and may in a certain measure be itself allegorical.-Most likely it is so.-But this is clear; Satan, the devil which deceives the world, is declared to contest some point of serious import, in which the interests of mankind have intimate concern, the Angels of God being his opponents. He is overcome, and cast down upon the earth, and may no longer interfere except upon its surface. Whether the contest will be (as it were) army against army,-spiritual beings in array against spiritual beings; or whether it will be, so to speak, the moral force of Heaven against the immoral force of Hell; we cannot know. But a contest a war-there will be in some form or other, and Satan will thenceforth be cast down and confined to earth until the day shall come for his more trying bondage in the pit prepared for his millennial imprisonment. It would appear from many parts of Scripture, that the great Arch-Adversary carries on his work among the sons of men in our day, chiefly through the agency of his unholy Angels, but in that day he will be forced to make this world his seat; and here, among mankind, will all his hellish force be concentrated. THUS LIMITED, THE EVIL ONE WILL NOT BE IDLE. He will have great wrath because he will know that he hath but a short time.t * Ephesians vi. 12. † Revelations xii. 12. What this conquered, but still wrathful one will do we have now to discover. We venture an assertion before proof.-He will in the first place REVEAL THE ANTICHRIST; and then USE HIM AS A MIGHTY INSTRUMENT FOR RAISING UP A FEARFUL POWER OF EVIL. He will reveal the Antichrist;—that is, he will TAKE POSSESSION OF AND ENERGIZE A MAN, COMMUNICATING TO HIM ALL HE CAN BESTOW ON OUR MORTALITY, OF FIENDISH POWER AND CRAFT. "Ye have heard," said St. John, "that Antichrist (THE Antichrist '0' Avtexpotos) shall come; even now there are many Antichrists;" but this shall be THE ANTICHRIST. This is a full title; it means the CONTRARY OF CHRIST. The one set over against Christ, as it were in mimic correspondence, bearing out the peculiar details of Christ's position and offices in such a manner as to deceive and overthrow the faith of men. So at least the teaching of the Bible leads us to expound the word. For we find there, that as CHRIST was a man in-dwelt by the Eternal God; as ANTICHRIST will be a man in dwelt by Satan; as CHRIST is the second person in the Trinity in Heaven, (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost;) so ANTICHRIST will be the second person in the Trinity of Hell, (the Devil, the Beast, and the False Prophet,)—as the Father gave not His Spirit by measure unto Christ; so will not Satan give his spirit by measure unto Antichrist. Thus A MANthe CONTRARY OF CHRIST,-shall practice and prosper in the world. But so astounding and terrible an assertion must not go unproved. However there is ample Scripture proof at hand. I will first ask for your attention to a passage from the Second Chapter of the Second Epistle to the THESSALONIANS. The Apostle there tells us of a certain "MAN OF SIN" who must be revealed before the end shall come, and whom he calls "THE SON OF PERDITION." He speaks of him as one, "WHO OPPOSETH, AND EXALTETH HIMSELF ABOVE ALL THAT IS CALLED God, or THAT IS WORSHIPPED; SO THAT HE, AS God, SITTETH IN THE TEMPLE OF GOD, SHOWING HIMSELF THAT HE IS GOD." Now we cannot fail to observe, that this proud opposer must be a man yet to be revealed; for since St. Paul's day there has been no Temple of God, wherein such an one should sit. The Temple at Jerusalem is not: and no other Temple has succeeded it, to which we have received a sanction to apply so honored a distinction. ST. PETER'S AT ROME most certainly can lay no claim to such a title with the feeblest ray of justice. Nor can we point to any church or other building in the world which might be singled out amongst its fellows as meriting the name. The Temple of God, therefore, which is spoken of by Paul, must be a temple yet to be erected. Now the only temple of which we read in Scripture as a temple for God's worship to be reared again, is that of which the full particulars are given by EZEKIEL.* But evidently no man of sin will sit in that Temple. It is the temple of God pertaining to Jerusalem which will adorn Judea in the happy age of the * Ezekiel xl. to xlviii. Millennium, when righteousness and peace will reign triumphantly beneath the sway of our Emmanuel's sceptre. But when Israel are restored to their own land, we cannot doubt that their first act will be to build their House for worship. Their occupation of the Covenant land would be as nothing, if their Temple, their ritual, and their sacrifices, were not present. Now, if-upon the old foundations-the children of the Covenant should rear the Temple and restore the old Mosaic ritual;-if there, the God of Abraham, (although not acceptably, because without the faith of Jesus) should be praised; if the Word of God, (although in part only) should be the word directing all the services and ceremonies; What could that Temple be with justice called, except the "TEMPLE OF GOD"? Nay, we remember how that even when the ancient temple reared by Herod on the old foundation laid by Ezra, was defiled by usury and hypocrisy, the Lord declared it was "HIS FATHER'S HOUSE."* And when the Lord was crucified and had been preached to, and rejected by, the Jews; the Apostles, (being Jews themselves) did not cast off their reverence for the temple worship. To the Temple went up Peter and John at the appointed hour of prayer." There was Paul found in obedience to the Law:‡ and thither he repaired from time to time "to worship" God.§ To the Apostles, (though the Temple service did not recognize the Saviour Jesus as the Son of the Most High,) the Temple was no less THE TEMPLE OF THEIR GOD *John ii-16. † Acts iii. 1. ? Acts xxiv. 11. |