January 1, 1865.

Galilee are asleep, the man concerning whom they had been speaking on the previous day-some scornfully, some angrily, some with a halfdoubting hope that He might be the Messiah, and a few with deep love and joy knowing that He was the Christ-is strengthening his soul at the fount of life and love for the terrible conflict which lay before Him, in the issue of which was involved the destiny of humanity, the honour of God, and the very existence of the universe. And whilst the bacchanalians of Jerusalem are making merry over their wine-cups, and sportively relating current anecdotes about the poor Nazarene that a few ignorant people take for the royal Son of David, He is making intercession for transgressors, and laying broad and deep the foundations of a kingdom that shall never be moved.

How little the great world, busy with its commerce and pleasures, and kings and statesmen engaged in the affairs of empires, know what is going on at the very centre of righteous power and influence. At this time the infamous Tiberius, the third of the Roman emperors, had, by his luxuries, cruelties, and manifold atrocities, brought the empire to such a state of frightful disorder, that he wished that heaven and earth might perish with him when he died. Little dreamt the odious tyrant that a very different prayer was frequently ascending from a solitary worshipper in his troublesome province of Judea, the answer to which has already secured the stability of both heaven and earth, and will in due time supersede the bad government of all the Cæsars and their royal copyists, great and small, by a glorious rule under which all nations shall be blessed, while with thankful hearts they adore their beneficent Sovereign. Unheard, unseen, unthought of by men, there is an irresistible but perfectly silent influence at work which is shaping and moulding the future, without taking counsel either of cabinets or churches; and that omnipotent influence dwells with Him who chose. a mountain for His closet and midnight as the time of His communion with God. The great Intercessor's prayers must not be considered as appeals to a reluctant Ruler with the view of inducing a change of mind, but as the actual expression of the Father's will through the lips of Him who is appointed Head of humanity and heir of all things. With that profound and inexpressibly important truth before us we indulge no trembling solicitude, and give way to no paralyzing fear with regard to the future, although the majority is Christless, the Church powerless, and the world ripe for judgment. The vision of Christ at prayer assures us that all will be divinely arranged, which should give us entire satisfaction, although it will be, both essentially and circumstantially, very different from our humanly arranged solution of the difficulty. We see and hear things every day which send keen pain to the heart; but we remember in the midst of our mental anguish, Him who, having compassion on the multitude, healed their sick, and satisfied their hunger; and who, having given these specimen miracles of what He will yet do on a far greater scale, "went up into a mountain apart to pray.'

"

If we look at the circumstances under which our Lord is found praying, we shall find them all exceedingly instructive and suggestive. In the first chapter of Mark we find Him casting out an unclean spirit, who had said, "Art thou come to destroy us? I know who thou art, the Holy One of God." He then healed Simon's wife's mother; "and at eve, when the sun did set, they brought unto Him all that were diseased,

January 1, 1865.

and them that were possessed with devils." He restored health to many that were sick, and cast out many demons. "And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, He went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed." (Mark i. 35.) Matthew and Mark both state that after the miracle of the five loaves and two fishes He went up into a mountain to pray. Prayer seems to have been His rest after labour.

"And it came to pass in those days that He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God." (Luke vi. 12.) On the following morning He chose His twelve apostles," and came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of His disciples, and a great multitude of people ont of all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him, and to be healed of their diseases; and they that were vexed with unclean spirits; and they were healed. And the whole multitude sought to touch Him; for there went virtue out of Him and healed them all."

The prayer on the mount of transfiguration is associated with circumstances peculiarly interesting to those who look upon that event as a glimpse of the glory to be revealed when the kingdom of God is manifested. Speaking of that time, Jesus says, "For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when He shall come in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels. But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here who shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God. And it came to pass," adds the historian, "about an eight days after these sayings, He took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. And as He prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistening." (Luke ix. 26-29.)

He tells His sorrowing disciples that as He was about to leave them He would pray the Father, and He should give them another Comforter ; and He tells Peter that He had prayed for him that his faith might not fail; instances in which the answer is assured as absolutely certain. As on another occasion, at the grave of Lazarus, He said, speaking to the Father, "I know that thou hearest me always." Glorious revelation, this, and one to be pressed to the believer's heart with exceeding joy!

And then there is the wonderful prayer recorded at length in the seventeenth of John-a prayer which absolutely proves that it is what it professes to be, the very words of Jesus spoken to the Father, from the simple and obvious fact that neither Galilean fisherman, nor learned scribe, nor any other mere man, could possibly have conceived either its thoughts or its expressions. Far away in the immeasurable distance does this golden gem put all attempts at imposture. We will believe that Jesus never uttered these words, and that John put them into His lips, when we believe that the sun sprang into being, took his place in the firmament, and flung his brilliant robe around him, purely of his own accord; but not till then. And it is a most Christ-like circumstance that the prayer expands in widening circles as it proceeds: first, He prays for His apostles; secondly, for all who should believe on Him through their word, which includes all believers down to the present moment; and then for "the world," that seeing the unity of the

January 1, 1865.

faithful it "may believe that thou hast sent me." It is also worthy of special notice that this reference to the world is repeated: "I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou has sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. The unity of the redeemed has not yet become a visible fact, and will not until "the manifestation"-the revelation, disclosure, discovery-" of the sons of God" (Rom. viii. 19); and as that will not be until the Lord comes and brings them with Him, it follows that the prayer before us includes the whole Christian dispensation, and stretches beyond it to the period of the glorification of His people, which the world will witness, and witnessing, believe in Jesus, and believing, be blessed in Him and call Him blessed.

But oh! the agony and bloody sweat, the fearful conflict and terrible baptism, just before Him when this divinely sublime prayer rose to heaven from His lips! From the place where they were spoken He went to Gethsemane, and again He prays. It is the hour and

power of darkness. The relentless foe of God and man has resolved on victory now. He conquered the first Adam in a garden. He tried to overcome the second in the wilderness temptation at the beginning of His public ministry, but failed, and departed from Him "for a season." Deeply suggestive words! But we may not, dare not enter this thick darkness. It is appallingly, inconceivably awful, and we must hold imagination with a firm hand. Let us simply note that the blessed, loving Master says to Peter, James, and John-the three who were honoured to see a glimpse of the glorious kingdom-" My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death; tarry ye here and watch with me." They sleep! and the unrevealed conflict of our Surety with the terrible being who covets the throne of the universe goes on. Three times during this appalling agony He prays, saying the same words. The fearful foe did not succeed. In a garden the world was lost; in a garden it is won back, and heaven with it. Once more we hear a petition. It is after the petitioner is nailed to the accursed cross. What is it? "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Adoring silence, instead of remark, is the best commentary here; but this is Jesus, "who makes intercession for us ; " and we pray that the world may soon be filled with His glory!

THE NEW JERUSALEM.

BY R. A. PURDON, M.A., TORQUAY.

In the last number of the RAINBOW I ventured to speak of the millennial climate as being the result of the mixture of heavenly light with the ordinary or natural light of the sun or of the moon. That new and heavenly light, I believe, as before, to be the immediate light from the face of God, and from the heavenly city in which the God-man will reign during the millennial period. The purity, beauty, and perfection o this celestial light must of necessity be such as no imagination

January 1, 1865.

can conceive. It will be the revelation of the Deity in a visible form. All inequalities of climate will give way before it; and all the weakness, and disease, and deformity, and physical degradation of the present earth will be overpowered, and vanish away before its beams. We all know the immense effect of sunlight, and how far its effects exceed those of moonlight. We know that climate affects not only the human form, but the mind-not only the vegetation on the surface of the globe, but even the minerals beneath the surface. The finest jewels, the finest marbles are only to be found in those tropic countries where the sun shines down vertically with his most powerful influence. Carry out this truth to its utmost limit. For the light of the sun substitute the light from the immediate face of God. It warms one's heart only to think of it- how much more will it revive the world to see it. How will all creation rejoice in that IMMORTALIZING light! When the sun appears, moonlight becomes invisible. When the Sun of Righteousness shall send down the light of His countenance, the light of common day will appear despicable in comparison. "Lord, lift thou up the light of THY countenance upon us," has long been the exclamation of the spiritual mind. But the day will come when "Lord, lift thou up the light of THY Countenance upon us;" will be the cry of all the globeof man, and beast, and of vegetation itself. Let us suppose that we were living in the millennial time. We should see above our heads the New Jerusalem, with its perfect light, pure as the Deity from whom it would proceed. Were it in the night, the light of the heavenly city would be toned down to suit the moment, and would fill the air with an amber twilight. Were it by day, the same celestial light would melt into the atmosphere, and mix with the sunbeams. We should breathe it in the air, and feel it in every pore. It would enter the eye, penetrate to the brain and diffuse itself through all the organs, both of intellect and of life. This celestial light would fill the whole human frame, just as the sunlight acts upon the vegetable world. The human frame, pervaded by this light, would grow day by day in beauty, health, symmetry, and strength; and as the light through the eye would penetrate the brain, the mind itself would become luminous and refined. All the animal world would become gradually elevated by the action of this NEW light, and the vegetable world would be equally improved. But its effect upon mankind would be the most conspicuous of all; since not only his body, but his intellect would be renewed by it. Can this be doubted for a moment? Can we observe the immense differences in the animal and vegetable world, produced by the presence or absence of the sun, and yet doubt that still greater results will be produced by the presence of the heavenly light? It will be, emphatically, an IMMORTALIZING light; for as it will issue from the fountain of life, it will bring life with it where it shall penetrate. It is then, indeed, in its most comprehensive sense that we shall see the fulfilment of those Scripture texts-"He was the true light;" "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." Till that great light shall shine down from heaven, all the promises, the hopes, the glories of Scripture are undeveloped and unrealized. Till that great physical light shall shine, all progress and improvement are impossible, and all talk of happiness a jest. Place your philosophers and your spiritualizers up to their neck in snow or ice, and they will then begin to suspect that

January 1, 1865.

the "march of intellect," and even religious meditation, are not suff cient for a being of flesh and blood, and that the renovation of the world depends in a formidable degree on the state of the weather and the climate. The earth is never to be inhabited by purely spiritual beings, but by men in flesh and blood; and, therefore, the hopes, the promises, the happiness set forth in Scripture with reference to the EARTH, are all of them dependent on the renovation of the CLIMATE; and we have shown mathematically in the last number that no change in the earth's position can produce a millennial climate or a climate worthy of the millennial reign. Nothing can do this but the infusion of a divine light from the face of God-that " uncreated" light of which Milton speaks, and which, as it issues from the Author of Light, must possess every element of perfection inconceivable— purity, beauty, softness, and immortality.

age.

This also explains one or two difficult texts which we meet with in the prophets. In Isaiah xxiv. we find these words, "Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously." Again, in Isaiah lx., a still more remarkable passage, Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light." Oh, how many pages of well-meant absurdity have been written to reduce these passages to the level of mere empty spiritualism-to take them from the Jews, and to hand them over, diluted or emasculated, to the Christian Church! They have no spiritual meaning whatsoever. There is no mystery concealed under them. They are as plain and as literal as the first chapter of St. Matthew. They describe the land of Israel in the millennial The sun and moon shall be ashamed of their own feebleness when they shall see the brightness of the heavenly light, and compare the beams. which issue from the heavenly city with the light which issues from themselves. Such is the meaning of the former text. As for the other, it is obvious. The light of the heavenly city will be the daylight and the moonlight of the land of Israel. It will exceed the brightness of the sun or moon; and as the heavenly city will be suspended permanently over Jerusalem, it follows most literally that the sun and moon of Israel shall never more go down, for the heavenly city which shall give them light shall be fixed permanently over their heads. This equally explains another text which says that the sun should no more give light to Israel by day, nor the moon by night. Meaning, of course, that the light of the Holy Land would be derived from a new and distinct source-namely, from the divine light of the heavenly city. Not that the sun and moon are to be extinguished for a moment, but they will be reduced to comparative insignificance in the immediate neighbourhood of the heavenly city; that is to say, in the land of Israel. But in other quarters of the globe the sun and moon will still retain their use and their importance, for the heavenly city will be suspended directly over the millennial Jerusalem, but will be remote and invisible in many parts of the world--for example, in Europe. It is only in the land of Israel that the sun and moon will be put to shame in the presence of a nobler luminary. This also explains that puzzling text in Isaiah lxv.: "Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be