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النشر الإلكتروني

Sept. 1, 1865.

"have sold themselves to work evil in the sight of the Lord." Nevertheless, where admonition is disregarded, judgments will follow. Therefore, the Lord declares, prophetically, "Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death," &c. As the sins of this Jezebel resembled those of Jezebel of old, so was the punishment similar. And this will be the punishment of the anti-Christian Jezebel, with her daughters, or the apostate so-called Church of Christ, spoken of in chap. xvii. of this book. "The ten horns or kings, who will exist at the time of the beast with whom she committed fornication, they will hate her, and make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire." (Rev. xvii. 16.) In the execution of these judgments, says the Lord, "All the churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the reins and hearts." Truly awful will be the final judgment of this mystic Babylon. No wonder that the Lord exhorts His own to come out from her, that they may not be partakers of her sins, and receive none of her plagues." (Comp. xiv. 8-11.) Our Saviour commends those in Thyatira who "have not this doctrine, and who have not known the depths of Satan," saying, "I will put upon you none other burden, but that which ye have already hold fast till I come."

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III. The promise-" He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations. Even as I

received of my Father, and I will give him the morning star."

We read twice in this book that "Christ hath made us (whom he washed from our sins) kings and priests unto God and His Father," which implies that we shall exercise these functions at last. Here He promises those that overcome in Thyatira, or in the Jezebel state, "power over the nations." This indicates a glorious change in their situation. During this probationary state, they were ruled over-now they will rule or reign for ever.

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Therefore, St. John says, "It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." Christ was born to be a king. He is called, "King of Kings, and Lord of Lords." To be like Him, therefore, implies the highest dignity and glory that we can imagine. The Saviour could not have given a more powerful motive to Thyatira to be faithful unto the end than this; and this promise is given to all who, in the Jezebel state, shall persevere and continue faithful unto the end. This, however, we shall not be able to do in our own strength, but through Christ alone, who is our strength.

There is another promise which the Lord holds out to Thyatira: "And I will give thee the morning star." In chapter xxii. 16, our blessed Lord calls Himself "the bright and the morning star." The morning star is always the herald of the day. This morning star is the herald of a day which will not be succeeded by night. When once this star arises, either in the heart of an individual or in the horizon of

It is remarkable, the Gnosticks called their doctrines depths of God, which Christ called depths of Satan.

Sept. 1, 1965.

the Church, then the watchman may raise his voice and prophesy that the conflict is over, the victory won; and that "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever." What a blessed termination is this of the conflict of the Christian! Well may the Lord add, "Whosoever hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches."

THYATIRA AS IT IS AT PRESENT.

We anticipated something in the introductory remarks on this head. Alas! the present Church of Thyatira is in a very depressed state! Their teachers are ignorant of the truth, and ignorant of the very first principles of the Christian religion. What, then, can we expect of the people? Preaching there is none; and the liturgy and the portions of Scripture interspersed in it are in ancient Greek, while the common language in use is Turkish. And the service is generally performed in an irreverend and hurried manner, so that even those who understand a little ancient Greek cannot comprehend what their clergy utter.

Then, they are much oppressed by the Turks as well as by their higher clergy. The same bishop who acted so tyrannically at Pergamos treated the poor people at Thyatira with similar severity. Because they would not pay his high demands on them he ordered them to be taken up by the Turks, by fifties, and kept in prison till they should pay! And how could they pay? They had to sell what little they possessed, and thus pay their archbishop. Thus these poor people are kept in abject misery and ignorance. The only hope is from the rising generation and the somewhat altered state of the Turkish Government. The Armenians are more accessible by missionaries. They receive the Scriptures, which have been blessed to a small number, and have left their Church and formed themselves into a Protestant community.

THE MEMORIAL NAME.

BY MAJOR GENERAL HENRY GOODWYN.

THIS is my name for ever, and THIS is my memorial unto all generations." Exodus iii. 15.

"THIS is my name FOR EVER!" what name is this that bears the impress of eternity as to the future, carrying with it at the same time the person of Him who spoke those words, but from whom that name as a "memorial" cannot be separated? The previous verse says "I AM THAT I AM" was the name by which the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was henceforth to be known, or rather understood, as to its prospective significance in regard to His ways. This we gather from chap. vi. 2, 4, wherein announcing the name "JEHOVAH” God associates it with His future purposes concerning Israel. The patriarchs had known God as the God of promises of future blessing,

Sept. 1, 1865.

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but they had not comprehended the mighty link, which through the Abrahamic covenant concerning the seed," "bound the present promise to the future realization, by a name manifesting a Oneness or Identity in Him how made the promise with Him who should literally, in His own Person, fulfil it.

The name "I AM THAT I AM," though it declares the ever existent God, and a fulness of power that can never be exhausted, seems more appropriately connected with Eloheem, as a name of God, than with Jehovah. The former is the name of the Creator, the initiator of all history and revelation, the mighty and inexhaustible source of all life, standing ever I AM in the immensity of superiority, above all limitation. Whilst the name Jehovah, if we trace it throughout the history of Israel, is ever associated with development, always in connection with, and ever pointing to, a goal of future glory, which the then present manifestation of the name could never satisfy. Every scene, every event in that history, though literal in itself at the time, was a pictorially typical index of a higher but fuller experience of the purposes of Him who gave a Memorial Name "unto all tions."

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I have been led into the above thought from a close study of the Old Testament history, in the course of which I have had brought to my notice a paper published in the Bibliotheca Sacra,t bearing the title I have given to this article, and written by Alexander McWhorter. He very rightly commences his subject by the following words :-" If there is any one word which God has adopted and declared to be His memorial to all generations, that word should be the theme of earnest inquiry. If any uncertainty hang over the true significance of its ancient forms, the uncertainty should be dispelled by diligent research. God has given us a name and a memorial."

He goes on to say that under the circumstances in which the name "I AM" was given to Moses as that which should convey an assurance of deliverance yet future, it was not appropriate. "If," he says, "the fact of God's power to accomplish what He promised was the fact He wished to impress on Israel, the name of 'El Shaddai' (God Almighty) was sufficient." In substituting the name "I AM" in reply to Moses from verses 6-8 of chapter iv., it will indeed be perceived to be fraught with little meaning or comfort to those who were so bitterly suffering in bondage.

The writer says that we have not the true rendering of the memorial word, not that which responds in our hearts to the exclamation of David, 'Extol Him by the name YAH.'" Who now remembers God by that name? It is not His memorial to this generation. "What has become of that ancient name revealed for all time?" He asks :

"Have we the true rendering of the word? What is its history?" Modern scholarship has thrown light upon it if the conclusions of the writer are correct. He says:

*Gen. xxii. 18. Gal. iii. 16.

A quarterly journal, edited in America, to be had of Messrs. Trubuer and Co., 12, Paternoster-row. The above article is in the Number for January, 1857.

Sept. 1, 1865.

"It came to our translators simply as an 'ineffable' name; a name of superstition of the Jews unlawful to utter, or even to write with its true vowel points, and this name, thus unpronounced, and now falsely written, had a traditional rendering made out under the shadow of the Septua gint. The platonizing school of Alexandria gave in the Septuagint, God's declaration in Exod. iii. 14, the rendering Eyó eiu o "Qv, which the Vulgate follows with 'Ego sum qui sum;' so our translators give us 'I am that I am' as the interpreting synonym for Jehovah.' But with respect to the proper pointing and literal rendering of the term 'Jehovah,' there is now no difference of opinion among scholars."

Now this is just the object I have in writing this. It is of deep importance, and I do hope that "scholars" will search diligently to see if confirmation can be added to this statement, for the testimony of two or three witnesses is, I think, necessary, on such a point. To aid the research, I will continue the writer's evidence. He adds, "The Hebrew had originally no vowel points. These were supplied by the Masorites, who, in accordance with Jewish superstition, gave to the name ' the vowel points taken from another name of God (78) Adonai. These vowel points have given the pronunciation of, or Jehovah."

The writer then goes on to cite a change of opinion in that eminent philologist, Gesenius, noted in Robinson's translation (1850) from that of (1836); in the latter edition he (Gesenius) says, "The true derivation of the name is from HAVAH, the old root of the verb 'to be'-a root-form so ancient as to have dropped from the prose of the Pentateuch, and retained only in the poetic form of the imperative, as in Gen. xxvii. 29, in the benediction of Isaac, ‘HEVEH,' 'be lord over thy brethren.' This old root HAVAH found its equivalent in HAYAH, 'to be,' and it is in the third person singular, future of this later verb, HAYAH, 'to be,' viz., in the form of its old future YAHVEH, that we find the true place and pointing of the word rendered 'Jehovah,' by our translators. It is this form Yahveh, lit., who will be' turned into the noun or name which God adopts as His name unto all generations."

The writer in question quotes other good authorities who correspond in opinion with the above. Hengstenberg, Tholuck, Lutz, and Ewald. Now transport this name Yahveh, to the passages in Exodus iii. 14, and Chapter vi. 2-8, and it presents indeed a power of deliverance, and a ground of confidence.

The word thus rendered, "who will be," or, "He who will be," gives great emphasis and meaning to many Old Testament passages, presenting a hope and an assurance of eventual blessing to those to whom the name of Yahveh was addressed. For instance, substitute it for "Lord," (Sept. for Jehovah), in Is. xl. 2—11, where the coming of Messiah is answered. In Jer. xxiii. 5-8, proclaiming deliverance in the future. Zech. xi. 12, 13, declaring the reception of Yahveh. Again Chapter xii. 8--10. Yahveh-"ME whom they pierced." So also Mal. iii. 1. There is however one more passage which unites the Yahveh of the Old Testament with the Christ of the New. I allude to Matt. xxiii. 39, where the Lord Jesus, referring to the prophetic Psalm cxviii,

Sept. 1, 1865.

26, wherein is foreshadowed the joy and praise that shall attend "the day which (Yahveh) hath made," the day of Israel's prosperity, blessing, and light, says to the Jewish rejectors of Himself as their Messiah, "Ye shall not see ME henceforth till ye shall say, 'Blessed is He that cometh in the name of (the Lord) Yahveh," or, he who comes to establish in your memories the Person, who of old, through all your ancient history of wanderings and mercies, was known to you by a memorial name, Yahveh, "He who will be," which was always a name of promise to you, and who ever will be your Messiah, King, and Saviour!

Besides these passages, there are many others which, if that name of Yahveh be substituted where Jehovah is found in the Hebrew, will tend to identify the deliverer of the past with the deliverer of the future, and would prove of incalculable good in laying the truths of Christianity before the minds of the Jews.

Those passages, in fact, constitute, as Mr. McWhorter says, "the prophecies of the Old Testament." The minds of the prophets seem filled with the conception of Yahveh, as upon the throne of the universe, dwelling in the immensity of his glory. Then as interfering in the deliverance of His people, with a mighty arm of salvation, afterwards as "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief," "stricken,"" making His grave with the wicked." Agan, he is shown as, "The king of glory," the God-man, mighty in battle and victory, to whom the everlasting gates of Jerusalem lift up their heads. HE enters and takes His for-ordained place on the throne of His father, David, the Messianic king of righteousness and peace, the universal character of whose reign of glory will be manifested even on the bells of the horses,

"HOLINESS TO YAHVEH."

This is in the main the subject of the paper I have alluded to, and I trust, as I have said before, that some of the readers of THE RAINBOW may be able and willing to throw more light on this deeply important name, which it is thus sought to place before Bible students, in the power of a meaning which, if correct, will tend to enhance the value of Scripture history.

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