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النشر الإلكتروني

July 1, 1865.

THE DIVINE RULE FOR THE STUDY OF PROPHECY.

It is an important and encouraging fact, and shows the wisdom and goodness of God, that everything needful to the right interpretation of the word of God is to be found within the limits of the word itself Human rules and systems are as needless as they are often mischievous. The word of God shines best by its own light. This is important to keep in mind in connection with the "sure word of prophecy." The divine method and objects of prophetic inquiry are brought before us plainly and fully in 1 Peter i. 11. Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, did signify when it testified beforehand unto Christ the sufferings, and after these the glories. (Kelly's translation.) From this we learn that the writings of the prophets were the subject of their own meditations, and that they inquired and searched after the subject of the Spirit's testimony, and the time or season He referred to. These, then, are the two great elements of prophecy: the subject or theme, and the time in which it is placed; the event, and the period of its accomplishment. But it must be the Spirit's subject, and not one that we substitute for it. In all our inquiries into the living oracles of God it is our wisdom and blessing to discern that which the Holy Ghost is speaking about, and to keep this distinct from any application of it to other things. The non-observance of this has led the Church, real or false, to misappropriate a multitude of Scriptures to the present dispensation which belong to Israel and the Gentile nations as nations in the future; and this has been done in such a way as to leave no room for their future accomplishment in connection with the parties to whom they belong.

No;

To the same source may be traced the confusion arising from calling Zion the Church, and similar misinterpretations of Scripture. It is admitted that certain principles may be obtained from such Scripture and applied to this dispensation. This, indeed, is done in the writings of the apostles to a large extent. But the application of Scripture must not be confounded with its interpretation. For example, if it should be shown that there are principles of truth connected with the earthly Zion of Israel which could be applied to the Church, it would not prove that Zion is the Church; on the contrary, the fact that it could be so applied to the Church, proves that it is not the Church. it is to miss the Spirit's subject, and wrongly "to divide the word of truth," thus to use Scripture. To get the Spirit's subject it is necessary to take the context. The habit which has prevailed throughout Christendom for centuries, of taking a verse out of its connection with the context, and building a discourse upon it totally foreign to its connected parts, has been most fatal in its effect both upon the Church and the world. This wholesale dislocation of Scripture from its vital union with the whole system of revealed truth, has robbed the God-inspired word of much of its value, deprived souls of much blessing through a false presentation of truth, and blinded them alike to the solemn prospects of the world and professing Christianity, and the proper hope of the Church, the coming of the Lord to gather His saints to Himself in the air. Through

July 1, 1865.

this torture of Scripture it has been made to falsify itself, because presented in false relations. But to see things in the light which Scripture sheds upon itself does not suit the pride which clings to us all more or less. It requires a spirit of subjection, and docility, and dependence, from which man has been receding more and more from the hour when Satan whispered, "Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Independence of God and His revealed truth is stamped, or rather burned into the forehead of thousands who are professedly searching after truth, while actually their backs are turned upon the only light that can infallibly lead them to it. It is the meek whom God guides in judgment, and teaches His way. The Holy Ghost does not teach mere reasoners, but tells them to become fools, that they may be wise. Again, prophecy being connected with the earth, and God's rights-to be made good in Christ-over it, the times and seasons form an essential element in it." Though even here we are not to look for "the day or the hour." The use of prophecy is altogether apart from such a thought. It is rather the season (the Kapos, not the Xpovos*) in the order of God's dispensed ways with man we are concerned to know. In the field of prophecy the advent of Christ as Israel's Messiah, and God's king over all the earth, forms the central object, and all events are grouped round this, and take their character according as they precede or follow that event. Lastly, it was the Spirit of Christ which was in the prophets. But prophecy is occupied with the Christ as the Messiah of Israel and King of all the earth. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Hence prophecy and politics have no relation to each other. Politics are altogether outside the word of God. They are a foreign and corrupting element. There must needs be a large measure of error in all politico-prophetic attempts at exposition. It is impossible that they should be a true witness of God and His ways, seeing that God's object is Christ and His rights over creation.

God's object in the word of prophecy is Christ, and the establishment and maintenance of His rights over the earth, in and by His Son, to be made good in their season. The present is an interval during the suspension of the course of prophetic fulfilment although events are ripening, yet not that prophecy is strictly being fulfilled-an interval between the "sufferings" and "the glories" that are to follow, during which God is occupied with a building of which prophecy does not strictly speak, a building which stands in the same relation to Christ as Adam's rib, builded+ into a woman, stood to him.

This building is the Lamb's wife, the Church, which is His body, the complement, the filling out of Christ; and Christ and His body, the Church, are called the Christ, & Xploтos (1 Cor. xii. 12); just as Adam and his wife were called Adam, and God called their name Adam. (Gen. v. 2.)

Kennington.

καιρος.

R. STENT.

* In 1 Peter i. 11, it is This word carries with it the idea of fitnesstime in its suitability to the event; while xpovos implies time rather in its duration, or a point in its lapse-time in the abstract; though both words may in some aspects be identical in meaning. The force of the distinction may be seen by comparing Matt. xiii, 30 with Matt. ii. 7.

+ See the marginal rendering.

July 1, 1865.

HEART-HEED.

"We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed (as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise)-in your hearts.''-2 Peter i. 19.

SUCH is the reading suggested by S. P. Tregelles. Connecting the heed, the truths of prophecy demand, with the expression "in your hearts," and regarding the preceding words as parenthetical, he conceives the passage to mean that having the more sure word of prophecy, it behoves us to give it heart-heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise.

Until Jesus, the bright and morning star, come FOR His Churchblessed Harbinger of the bright and beautiful millennial day-all is dark. Yet, beaming brightly through the darkness, the sure word of prophecy brightens up our pathway. Pre-eminently it is a "lamp to our feet and a light to our path," and to it, says Peter, ye do well that ye give heartheed.

"Heed in your hearts"-an expression full of meaning, for such is the fascination of the study of prophecy that there is a danger of our becoming speculative and Christless even while bending over the pages of God's own book. It is possible to be mentally occupied with the investigation of truth while the heart is unexercised.

I cannot but feel that there is great present danger, amid the light that Christ is vouchsafing us and the wonderful and beautiful truths that are being brought to our notice, of our hearts being drawn somewhat from Christ Himself.

The entrance of truth-God's truth even-apart from much personal intercourse with the living Saviour, will do our hearts but little good.

Am I uncharitable in fancying that I see indications of this in the writings of some of my brethren? Too often papers on prophecy lack unction," and fail in drawing the hearts of those who peruse them nearer to Christ.

"Speak to our hearts, Lord Jesus, about thy second coming," was the prayer of Stephenson Blackwood at the Newington Conference last yearwords that have been greatly blessed to my soul since. Oh, that we might all feel much of the power of prophetical testimony; that the truths to which we have yielded our assent might be more and more enshrined in our hearts as a living, purifying, sanctifying, consecrating, and Christexalting principle, affecting our lives and actions in everything!

An intelligent believer who has been led into the truth advocated in the RAINBOW has an amount of light that it is wonderful to contemplate. Things that were hidden from our Puritan forefathers, well taught in doctrines as they were, but almost uninformed as regards dispensational truth, are comparatively plain to many of us. The blessed hope, the heavenly calling of the Church, the restoration of Israel, the reign of the Messiah, are matters on which they were all but ignorant, but which are as familiar as the doctrine of justification by faith to us. 'Tis marvellous to think that we intelligently appreciate a whole range of truth concerning which Baxter, Flavel, Owen, or Goodwin knew nothing.

Well-thank God for it—but are we not correspondinlgy responsible for this great influx of spiritual light? And how is this responsibility discharged? Let our hearts answer.

Does our increased light affect our lives? We possess truth. Are we "walking in the truth?" Are we subject to it and holier for it ? We profess to believe that "the Lord is at hand." Has the entrance of this truth caused us to purify ourselves even as He is pure? We call His coming FOR us our blessed hope. But do we love His appearing? Do we look for it longingly with yearning heart? for such is the force of the word in Heb. ix. 28, and Phil. iii. 20. In other words, does our professed belief cause our hearts to be exercised on the point?

We say, many of us, with William Kelly (Notes on the Revelation, p. 97), that, after the coming of Christ FOR His Church, "judgments will befall these favoured lands where the Gospel is preached"-that there will then be no hope for their inhabitants, but "that God will give up to blind hardness those who have now despised His mercy." This is our creed, but does our conduct harmonize? Are we diligent in seeking the souls of those who are in such awful and hourly-increasing danger? Oh, let us see to it that with all our light the blood of souls be not found in our skirts!

Is my life, is yours, my reader, a practical comment on the truth we believe? Have we given heart-heed to the "sure word of prophecy?" Brethren who desire the extension of prophetical truth will pardon me for saying that it is HERE that too many of us fail.

Our logic is sound. None, I believe, can gainsay it, but it too often fails to convince, because the logic of our lives is wanting. Godly, gracious people who have not been led to see with us, doubt if that can be truth which apparently has so little power in purifying our hearts and rectifying our lives.

Let

Brethren, we owe much to Christ for the light He has given us. us seek to live in the conscious realization of those weighty truths which are the subjects of prophetical testimony. Our lives are helping or hindering the cause of truth, which is it? Oh, to live in the spirit of the prayer, "Come, Lord Jesus!"

High Wycombe.

WILLIAM JEYES STYLES.

HUMILITY.

MEN standing in the shade of humble valleys, look up and wonder at the height of hills, and think it goodly living there, as Peter thought Tabor (Luke ix. 33); but when with weary limbs they have ascended, and find the beams of the sun melting their spirits, or the cold blasts of wind making their sinews stark, flashes of lightning or cracks of thunder soonest endangering their advanced heads, then they confess, checking their proud conceit, the low valley is safest; for the fruitful dews that fall first on the hills stay least while there, but run down to the valleys. And though on such a promontory a man farther sees, and is farther seen, yet in the valley, where he sees less, he enjoys more.-Adams.

July 1, 1865.

SCRIPTURE EMENDATIONS AND ELUCIDATIONS.

2 JOHN 9: "Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of the Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of the Christ, he hath both the Father and Son,"

The article before "Christ" is important. It distinguishes between the doctrine that Jesus is the Messiah, and the teaching of, and concerning, that anointed One. A warranty is deduced from this Scripture to cut off or withdraw from some who have been reproached with unsoundness. "Receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed; for he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds." Yes; if he hold not the doctrine of the Messiah. And what is this doctrine? Pre-eminently that "Jesus Christ is come in the flesh." It is evidently a recurrence to the great test laid down in 1 John iv., by which to detect the spirits "every spirit that confesseth not Jesus Christ come in the flesh is not cf God." This the unclean spirits never did. “I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God," said they; and "thou art Christ, the Son of God;" but never acknowledging Him to be the Son of man. If any say the greater is involved in the less, the answer is the greater is, "God manifest in the flesh." This is one of the greatest features in "the great mystery of godliness." Now, if any deny this-" bring not this doctrine"-he is not of God.

Oh, this cutting off! Where should the erring, wayward child be, but in the midst of the loving family, whose godly habits, and holy conversation, and fervent prayers may win the wandering one? Readiness to cut off suggests an imminence of fall; for there has been a forgetting of that word "considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted." The pride of goodness is ever a sore hindrance in the restoration of the fallen; and the old reproach of having "gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner," has often widened the gulf between "him that thinketh he standeth" and him that "is turned out of the way." The greater the evil, the greater need is there for the exercise of love. An evil doctrine is not to be thought lightly of, nor so treated; but severance of the one holding such unsound doctrine has its origin either in pride or cowardice. We may be puffed up against such a one, and would have him stand by. We may consider him unworthy of our fellowship. "Ah! what hast thou that thou has not received ? " "Who made thee to differ?" The Lord has said that "He hateth putting away." But if not pride, it is cowardice-a fear to face a difficult case; and thus, in both aspects, a blessing is lost through a shrinking from the discipline wherewith the great Head of the Church thinks fit to exercise faith and love.

2 Peter ii. 5: "And spared not the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth preacher of righteousness," &c.

This is another instance of the heedless filling up of a supposed blank. There is no reason whatever for the supply; the two words have the required grammatical agreement, oydoov Kýpuка. It is in accordance with the grace of God when He is stating the persistency of His justice, to set before us also His long-suffering. Ere He "brought in the flood. upon the world of the ungodly" He warned the successive generations concern

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