Oct. 1, 1865. my Father me on My thone, even as I overcame, and am set down with "And shall the world, which frowned on Him, Through His wondrous grace when He reigns He will not forget us. We shall reign with Him then. Let us not forget now for love's sake to follow Him in His rejection. I believe the truth connected with the Lord's coming not only to be of deep interest, but of the most practical character, seeing our walk flows out of our position. The Lord bless the pages of the RAINBOW to the leading souls to discern the truth connected with His coming! J. T. M. W. *T-c great White Throne of Rev. xx. 11 must also be distinguished from these. That, to, is after the Millennium. Oct. 1, 1865. SCRIPTURE EMENDATIONS AND ELUCIDATIONS. 2 THESS. ii. 1-11. 1. "Now we beseech you, brethren, concerning the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto Him. 2. "That ye be not readily shaken from your judgment, or troubled, neither by spirit, nor by rumour, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of the Lord hath set in. 3. "Let no man deceive you by any means: for (that day shall not come) except there come the apostacy first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. 4. "Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or is worshipped: so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. 5. "Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things. 6. "And now ye know what represseth, that he (viz., the man of sin) may be revealed in the time of himself (viz., the repressor). 7. "For the mystery of lawlessness doth already energize, only he who now represseth (will do so) until he be out of the midst. 8. "And then the lawless one shall be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His presence. 9. "(Even him) whose presence is in the energy of Satan, in all power, and signs, and wonders of a lie. 10. "And in all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11. "And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie." This scripture has been, in part, placed before the readers of the RAINBOW in the Number for February, 1864, among the correspondence; it is brought forward again now for a more formal and extended notice. Respecting up being translated "concerning," it may be sufficient to mention Rom. ix. 27, "Esaias also crieth concerning Israel," and 2 Cor. i. 8., "ignorant of our trouble," where "of" is clearly equal to concerning. Of rapovoia it may be said that it never involves a coming, but it may, and does often suggest it, as particularly Philip. i. 26. ȧrò Tоu voòs, from your judgment, which they had already come to through the teaching of the apostle, verse 5. διὰ λόγου, rumour; a rumour, with no opportunity of debating its genuineness, is generally more successful with the popular mind than a demonstrative truth. évéσrŋkev, hath set in; this is undoubtedly a translation more faithful than the common version; the delusion was a serious blow at their peace. The words "that day shall not come," seem well supplied, not only because the connection warrants, but on the known fact that or often supplies the place of a sentence, or indicates an ellipse. But the especial points to be noticed in this Scripture are in verses 6, 7, and 9. The word karéxw is, I hold down, &c.; represseth is then a good rendering; and év Tổ kavтou kaip is strictly "in the time of himself,” and nothing else; "his time," is ambiguous, and it may apply either to the repressor, or the repressed. The pronoun, however, is reflective, it always reflects the action back on the actor; so that the time spoken of here is not the time of the one repressed-the Antichrist, or the man of sinbut the repressor. Who is he?" He who now represseth." Why does he now repress? Because his time is not yet come. When will his time be come? Synchronous with when "he is out of the midst." The rendering "until he be taken out of the way," cannot be sustained. 1st. Because there is no word for "taken;" and 2ndly. Because éx μéoov is never "out of the way." What midst then? Is it not of the heavenly places where Satan and his crew still are, and will be till driven thence by a mightier arm? Satan, then, is the repressor; but when "cast out into the earth, and his angels with him," he roams about there in "great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time." See Rev. xii. He first seeks to intercept the flight of the woman, to destroy her and her seed-evidently not the church; for how would "the remnant of her seed” apply to the church? Then the thirteenth of Rev., which so specifically brings before us "the beast," opens (according to Tregelles and others), with the reading orábŋ, “he stood upon the sand of the sea, and I saw a beast rise up out of the sea." Yes, although fallen man is a poor thing, even for mischief, without the devil to energize him; yet the devil cannot bring about his most devilish scheme at last without a man, and this man one risen from the dead, "whose wound of his death was healed," xiii. 3, 12; "which had the wound by a sword, and lived-" ver. 14—a mere platitude, if he did not die with the wound, and live afterwards ;— "the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit," xi. 7; that "was, and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit." This is the devil's Christ; an awful parody of God's Christ: "if another shall come in his own name him ye will receive." Retributive delusion will seal up the understanding; men will worship their destroyer; he will attest his mission by "signs and wonders of a lie ;" and, as if these were not sufficient, "God shall send them strong delusion." If men hesitate to believe in this risen one, he will be able to say, as did the True One, “if ye believe not me believe the works;" i.e. let the works which I do sustain and advocate all I profess. Yes, "then the lawless one shall be revealed," and not till then. It is not one standing in his way, as the childish speculations of some have brought before us, the Roman emperors, &c., but a firm, decisive energy that controls all and everything, not fenced by the blood of Christ; a power not to be despised, but a foe that none need fear when armed with "the whole armour of God." This is the only event to be counted on as certainly to take place before "the meeting in the air." This expulsion of Satan and his angels is the last act in our Lord's work of preparing a place for His bride. "The heavens are not clean in His sight." He would have no unclean place for His beloved. There must be the best of everything. His heart longs for the time; and will He delay when the place is prepared? Is love thus indifferent? What is there to delay? Grace will say at that time, "His wife hath made herself ready." Oh! let us contemplate this love that many waters cannot quench; the rolling tide of unbelief, envies, strifes, jealousies evil-speakings, dashing against but cannot supplant; nay, cannot move. He, loving ever loves-withstanding all. 2. Cor. i. 11: "Ye also helping together by prayer for us, that by means of many persons the gift to us on account of many, may be given thanks for on our behalf." There is a strange dislocation in the common version; and an ambiguity which gives choice of a very unorthodox statement viz.: that Paul received his gifts "by means of many persons," whereas he tells us in Gal i. 12, "I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ." On examination we find that one copy (Bagster's) removes the ambiguity, and fixes the debateable meaning given above, by putting a comma at "persons." But supposing a comma placed at " upon us," "then we have a pleonasm scarcely pardonable in the commonest composition; and to extract a meaning is a difficult matter. "Now consider how great this man was," this Paul, and yet he makes much account of the helping by prayer and thanksgiving of his weak brethren. Many of the Lord's people may truly say, "Silver and gold have I none," but the poorest has far greater wealth than silver and gold can represent. All have the ear of God; all have the heart of God; all have the wealth of God; for has he not said, "All things are yours?" Let no one, however strong, underrate the prayers of the weak; let no one, however weak, say, "What can I do, how can my prayers help those so strong?" God hath set the one over against the other; the strong needs the weak, the weak needs the strong; "nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary.' The prayers of the Corinthian saints were to sustain and develop the gift, that many might be profited thereby; and then the many would render thanksgiving on the behalf of Paul as well as on their own account, so both he who soweth and they who reap rejoice together. If there were a fuller apprehension of the power of prayer in the closet, not for ourselves only, but for others, envies and jealousies, and wrath, and such like, would cease to vex the Church of God. But there must be deep heart-searching and rigid self-judgment ere true-hearted concern for others will occupy us daily at the throne of grace. As selfjudgment grows in us, so in proportion will be our tenderness towards others. Those who make much of their own faults before God, make little of the faults of others before men. 1 Tim. v. 17. "Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine." Whatever may be the usual apprehension of this passage, is it not practically resolved into an empty show of outward civility and respect? That such is not the primary meaning is manifest from the next verse. The instruction is broadly stated in Prov. iii. 9, "Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the first-fruits of all thy increase." Such also is the plain meaning in the above text. It is not evidently a mere question of supplying need, but of acknowledging merit. It is a recognized principle, that "if any one will not work, neither let him eat; it is an equally obvious principle, if any work well, let him be paid E E well. God makes it a question of common right, and would measure the wages by the labour. Let all remember, too, that if a minister of Christ is a servant to the Church, the members thereof are not his masters. They do not confer an obligation, but simply discharge a duty; and thus they carry out, with a somewhat different appropriation, the command, "Honour the Lord with thy substance." Rom. viii. 37. "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us." "More than conquerors," how can that be? In no way, unless we can accomplish more than they can. But they conquer, can we do more? Yes; the conqueror sings when he has fought and conquered; the soldier of Christ may sing as soon as he begins to fight, and sing all through the battle. The warrior of this world contends with a foe much of his own standing in power, courage, and skill; his victory is doubtful; the soldier of Christ contends with focs very greatly his superior in these endowments for fight, but with the whole armour of God he fears not, yea, he sings of victory assured to him "through the blood of the everlasting covenant." This is to be more than conquerors. We surely must seek to explain this passage by considering the very thing which distinguishes the conqueror from the conquered-he is victorious; now, as to the issue of the contest, he could not be more; then it must be in the virtual conquest even whi'st the enemy is in full strength. Even then he sings, "Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy; when I fall, I shall arise." It is not faith that sings when the victory is won. Now as we walk by faith, we ought to sing in faith. The greatness of the contest will make us wary; but the might of the foe should not make us quail, seeing that "greater is He that is in us, than he that is in the world." "Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ." Gen. iv. 7: "If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, a sin offering lieth at the door." Prov. xiv. 9: "Fools scoff at the sin offering, but to the righteous it is a delight."* 66 These scriptures are coupled for mutual elucidation. The words are different in the Hebrew. In the first passage the word is either “sin," or "a sin offering;" in the latter the meaning is strictly a "sin offering," or offering for sin," as in Isaiah liii. 10. The translation of the passage in Proverbs given above, has a beautiful significancy, in the common text there is none. Respecting the expression in the former scripture' lie h at the door," illustration is found in such passages as Lev. iv. 4. "He shall bring the bullock unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord." And why was the sin offering to be "at the door"? "When the lord seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you." (Exodus xii. 23.) "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep he feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." * On the authority of Mr. Henry Craik of Bristol. |