January 1, 1865. the Christian public in England was, in the most comprehensive sense of the word, an extraordinary man." His was a life of high spirituality, strong faith, and most abundant labours. By the blessing of the Master he served, he was rendered eminently useful; and that he was also a partaker of the sufferings of the Gospel, no one who reads this romantic book can fail to see. That this apostolic man should have remained nominally a Roman Catholic priest till an advanced period of his life, is one of those curious anomalies with which we sometimes meet. What one earnest man can do, with the Divine blessing, under adverse circumstances, this memoir shows. The Holy War. By JOHN BUNYAN. HERE is John Bunyan's famous "Holy Our Bible Woman's Knock. pure style. We have no space even to name the various wonderfully life-like characters in Thornycroft Hall, but we have met with one whom we knew in his venerable old age, and with whom we had the privilege to co-operate for a short time in benevolent work-the late Rev. W. Carus Wilson. Miss Worboise draws a picture of this estimable man, for the correctness of which we vouch. If all the other characters are equally true to the original, this tale is "no fiction." The First Woe. By ENOCH GREGOR LEA. THIS is an able, thoughtful, and carefully written pamphlet, which we cordially recommend to the study of thoughtful men. It is a dissertation on the scope and meaning of the prophecy under the fifth trumpet of the Apocalypse, which results in the rise of the king of the locusts-the Antichrist. We do not of course hold ourselves responsible for the author's Price opinions; but we are very sure he is a close thinker, and it is quite likely he will be heard of again. His style of writing pleases us much. The price of the pamphlet is two shillings. A Short History of the Jews, in connection with God's future purposes respecting them. London: W. Yapp, Welbeck-street. A WELL written and most instructive sixpenny book, which shows the writer's close acquaintance both with history and prophecy. The Soul and Its Difficulties. A Word to the Anxious. By HENRY WILLIAM SOLTAU. Second Edition. Yapp. VERY admirable. Clear as a sunbeam in its teachings; and as the price is only sixpence, it should be given away by thousands. Thornycroft Hall; its Owners and its A MORE accomplished writer than this The Tree of Life; or, Redemption and its HERE are twenty chapters of most The Brook in the Way. Original Hymns and Poems By ANNA SHIPTON. WELL named! Most refreshing to the soul are these musical gems of Christian poetry. Charnock's Works, vol. i. and ii.; and THESE selections of the grand puritan the council of publication and the care of the editors continue to be manifested. What an enormous distance there is between the golden thoughts of these princes of a past generation and those of the carping but superficial religious sceptics of the present day! We bespeak for Mr. Nichol's noble enterprise the good will and co-operation of all the friends of rich evangelical truth. In the way of commentaries, too, he has just issued Airay on Philippians, and Cartwright on Colossians, in one volume; and King on Jonah, and Rainold on Obadiah in another. These fine volumes-full of the choice thoughts of great men of the seventeenth century-are published in crown 4to, strongly bound, at 7s. each, a price that cannot pay without a large sale. January 1, 1865. knew him. Mr. Richard's admirable The Coming Day, and other Poems. By MR. DOOGOOD was for twenty years engaged in literary pursuits in connection with the public press, a conclusive proof of his ability, even if no publication Poems on Select Passages of Scripture. bearing his name had appeared to certify By AMY ANN WATSON. Sixpence. the fact. In 1854 he met with an acciLondon Jackson, 27, Paternoster-dent, which resulted in the double calamity of loss of sight and the power SWEET and tender lines, breathings of a of walking. The case is one which Christian heart. row. Jesus and John; or, the Loving and the Memoirs of Joseph Sturge. By HENRY appeals to the sympathy of every benevolent heart, a sympathy which we trust many readers of this notice will evince by sending forty-four penny stamps to him, North Hill, Highgate, London, N., in return for which they will receive by post a copy of this beautiful volume of very superior poems. The poetical merit of these pieces is great, and we are highly gratified to find that the author is a devout Christian, waiting in humble faith for the coming of his Lord. The extensive circulation of his healthy book will do good, and his brother Christians should, for the Master's sake, see that it secures such a circulation. THE RAINBOW: A Magazine of Christian Literature, with Special Reference to the Rebealed Future of the Church and the World. SE FEBRUARY 1, 1865. THE FOREWARNING. EVERAL correspondents who are beginning to feel that the doctrine of the pre-millennial return of the Lord Jesus may be true, although, very naturally, they find it hard to think that the contrary teaching, to which they have been accustomed from childhood, must be false, have very earnestly asked us to devote more space to the elucidation of this doctrine. They are right. Certainty here, if certainty is possible, will clear away many obscurities, as the risen sun scatters the fog that conceals the beautiful landscape, and impart to the book of God a freshness, a light, and a glory peculiarly attractive. They are right. The doctrine of the pre-millennial advent is fundamental. If we fail in proving this, every collateral topic which assumes it as certain fails too. Our scheme of interpretation, both with regard to the Church and the world, rests upon this. We confess it, avow it, rejoice in it. Take this from us, and our incapacity as teachers is manifest. Our honesty remains, because we think what we say, but the capture of our stronghold will show that we were mistaken. The correspondents to whom we allude have said substantially, and some of them in so many words— "We have derived much instruction, profit, and pleasure from what you have written, and if your view be scriptural, it casts light on much which has hitherto appeared to us obscure and mysterious. You have opened the meaning of many passages, and shown a beauty in them which we had not seen before. There is much valuable writing in the RAINBOW for advanced students of prophecy; but you will oblige us, and many others, by a series of elementary papers, for all is so new and startling, that we wish to begin at the beginning." We reply: Pity it is that the doctrine of the Lord and His apostles, and that of the first ages of the Church, should be new and startling in the latter half of the nineteenth century! But be assured that though it is easy to understand many prophecies and promises, many E 1, 1865 doctrines and precepts on the assumption of the pre-millennial advent, and impossible to understand them on the post-millennial hypothesis, we shall not be satisfied with such assumption. The true interpreter of Scripture takes nothing for granted. He inquires what is written in the book of the law of the Lord, and bows his head gratefully to every utterance of the holy oracle. "Thus it is written," is his answer to every objection, and his reply to every cavil. In former numbers of the magazine there are arguments in the light of Scripture which we think unanswerable, in support of the doctrine we teach; but as the request of our readers coincides with our settled purpose from the very first, we hereby undertake to PROVE, in reliance on that holy help for which we believingly look, that the RETURN OF THE LORD JESUS IN PERSON TO OUR WORLD will take place BEFORE the millennium, and that the millennium, in all its peace, and light, and love, and happiness, will be one of the many splendid consequences of that return. We say, we undertake to prove this; but it is on the simple condition that we be allowed to understand the Scriptures to mean just what they say. We demand the very same canon of interpretation for prophecy which we apply to history, the literal, and for the most conclusive of all reasons, namely, because prophecy is nothing more than history anticipated. It is God placing the future before men, exactly as it will one day appear in the past. There is no difficulty in recognizing metaphor, image, or illustration, as being simply metaphor, image, or illustration; but we must be allowed to accept literally every statement of the divine word which does not of necessity resolve itself into a grammatical figure of speech. This is our reply to those who have written on the subject, and we shall proceed at once to the discharge of our pleasant duty; but will our friends kindly remember that anxiety about the prosperity of a journal which teaches unfashionable doctrine is by no means a pleasant companion in the study where articles in defence of that doctrine are prepared? Will they relieve us from the pressure of this anxiety by securing a large circle of subscribers ? and we shall fulfil our part of the contract, under a deep sense of responsibility, and with the solemnizing consciousness that momentous issues are involved in the testimony of revelation, whether we receive or reject it. If the reader will turn to the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew he will find these most significant words, uttered by our Lord, "Behold, I have told you before." It is upon these words that we found the title of this paper: THE FOREWARNING. Mark (xiii, 23) records the Lord's expression more fully: "But take February 1, 1865. ye heed: behold, I have told you before." The context in both cases is the Lord's prophecy of His return. Peter, referring to the same glorious event, and replying to the scoffers of the last days who sneeringly ask, "Where is the promise of His coming ?" says, "Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness." (2 Peter iii. 17.) Now to what does this forewarning point? The answer to this question is amply given by the Lord Jesus Himself. It is simply inconceivable, on the theory that the preaching of the Gospel is to subdue all nations to Christ before His return in great power and glory, that He should give such earnest notes of warning, and repeatedly urge the duty of watchfulness. Upon that theory the twenty-fourth of Matthew is utterly unintelligible; for it describes fearful troubles, false prophets, abounding unbelief, worldliness, carelessness, evil servants, intemperance, licentiousness, great calamities, and sudden judgment by the unexpected return of the Son of man. The alternative left, therefore, for Christians to choose is either the abandonment of the theory or the rejection of the chapter. The same mind cannot receive both, for they cannot by any process of logic be reconciled to each other. Had it been consistent with the divine design that the Church should convert the world—that the world should be brought to a grateful reception of the doctrine of reconciliation through the preaching of Christ crucified-one can easily imagine what joy it would have been to Jesus to assure His disciples of the fact. Forewarning in that case would have been the farthest thing from His mind. Always full of tender care for His poor disciples, and ever anxious to comfort them, He would have placed before them, by a few of His grandly comprehensive words, the most animating picture of the results of their apostolic testimony. Their hearts would have exulted in the anticipated triumphs that awaited them. They would have seen Jew and Gentile bending before the truth, hailing it as the glad message of heaven, and yielding grateful homage to the Lord. They would have seen the stern prejudices of Judea against the crucified One giving way before the matchless story of redeeming love, as melts the snow beneath the warm sunbeam; and the nations of the great globe of every tongue casting away their idols with the energy of emancipated slaves hastening to enjoy their marvellous freedom, and without exception glorying in the Lord their Saviour. What a victory theirs was to be! What a triumph! What a magnificent achievement! Instrumentally they were to recover a WORLD from the foul tyranny of a mighty usurper, who hated their Master with all the malignity of which his powerful satanic will is capable, to the love and obedience of that Master |