The glad tidings were preached to the poor. The eternal Son of God, who "clothes the heavens with blackness, and makes sackcloth their covering," "gave his back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; he hid not his face from shame and spitting." The King came unto Zion, "meek and lowly, sitting on an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass."+ "His own familiar friend, who did eat of his bread, "+ laid wait for him, and betrayed him to his enemies. The shepherd was smitten, and the sheep were scattered abroad.§ They pierced his hands and his feet; they gave him gall to eat; and in his thirst they gave him vinegar to drink; they parted his garments among them, and cast lots upon his vesture. || He was brought to the grave with the wicked, and was with the rich man in his death, and was numbered with the transgressors. But the Holy One of God saw no corruption. He rose from the dead, and the path of life was open before him into the presence of his heavenly Father. He ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and received gifts for men.**

And when

Ps. xli. 9.

|| Ps. lxix. 21, xxii. 16, 18.

** Ps. xvi. 10, 11, lxviii. 18.

the work of atonement was complete, and the heavenly Intercessor provided, and the Spirit poured from on high, the promise of his Father was at length fulfilled: "I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be salvation unto the ends of the earth.” *

my

But this proof, drawn from the literal accomplishment of so many prophecies in the person of our Saviour, becomes still more impressive from the manner in which our Lord himself, time after time, alludes to that fulfilment. He seeks earnestly to show us that his obedience was to magnify, not only the law, but also the prophecies of God. It is in the most solemn scenes of his history that these passages occur. At the transfiguration "he answered and told them, how it is written of the Son of man, that he must suffer many things and be set at nought."+ At his last approach to Jerusalem he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, "Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all the things that are written in the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished." At the last supper he repeats the allusion with a solemn addition-"The Son of man goeth indeed, as it is written of him, but woe unto that man by whom he is betrayed."§ + Mark ix. 12. Mark xii. 32. § Mark xiv. 21.

* Isaiah lxix. 6.

On the verge of his bitter agony the statement is repeated with a fuller emphasis than ever: "For I say unto you, that this which is written must yet be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors; for even the things which concern me have their fulfilment." * This, too, is the cause why, in the hour of treachery and darkness, he refuses to summon the willing legions to his aid-" Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?"+ Nay, even on the cross itself, the Holy Spirit reveals to us the thoughts of the Saviour in his latest agony, and they are still occupied with the same truth: "Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst."+

What a solemn lesson do these various passages convey! Sooner than the literal sense of the prophecies should fail, the Eternal Son of God stoops cheerfully to shame, to bitter agony, to the death of the cross! His awful sufferings are endured, not more to accomplish our redemption, than to fulfil in the letter the predictions of God's word, and to maintain unsullied and spotless the + Matt. xxvi. 54.

* Luke xxii. 37, comp. Greek text.

John xix. 28,

veracity of his heavenly Father. Well might St. Paul declare, that "Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers."* And can we, or even dare we, any longer doubt the literal accomplishment, in due season, of all God's prophecies, when it is thus solemnly assured to us by the blood of that Divine and glorious sacrifice, which seals to us the covenant of our own salvation?

These arguments for the literal interpretation of prophecy might easily be multiplied and enlarged. But it may be more useful to expose shortly those objections arising from false methods of exposition, which have hindered the reception of its true and simple meaning.

There are two main schools, then, of interpretation flatly opposed to each other, and which both diverge from the truth-the neological, and the mystical or allegorical. The first is based on the type of the Cerinthian heresy; the second, on that of the Gnostic delusion. The first robs the Divine prophecies of their heavenly, the other of their earthly element. The one debases them from their high dignity, to crush them within the passing events of a day; the other unmoors them from all the anchor-hold of time

and place, and changes their intense and visible reality into a vague and mysterious dream. On the first of these it is not needful to dwell, but as the second still prevails in the Church, it may be well to notice some of the objections to which it has given rise.

It is alleged then, first, on the presumed warrant of some passages in the New Testament, that the title of Jew and the name of Israel belong properly only to true believers in Christ. Thus St. Paul tells us, that "he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly;"* that "all are not Israel, which are of Israel;"+ and applies the title of "the Israel of God" to those which walk according to the rule of Christ. ‡

A close attention to the scope and context of these passages will dissolve the whole objection. The apostle proves to the unbelieving Jews that their descent from Abraham cannot alone avail them for salvation without faith in Jesus Christ. He admits a hidden and higher sense in the name of Jew-one who receives praise from God (Rom. ii. 29), and offers praise to God (Gen. xxix. 35). He argues, that their natural descent cannot profit them without this inward character † Rom. ix. 6.

*Rom. ii. 28.

Gal, vi. 16.