Harbinger, Jan. 1, '67.

He omits the article but once, and by so doing gives "the breaking of bread" instead of "the breaking of the bread." That the allusion to the Lord's table can be understood by all readers is not doubted, but "the breaking of the bread" is the exact statement of Luke, and, even in English, a better and more expressive formula. We talk of the Church

breaking bread every first day, but it is better to speak of breaking the bread. Breaking bread will do for any common household partaking of bread, as in Acts ii. 46, but the Church rejoices in THE appointed, that is, in the weekly breaking of THE monumental and commemorative bread.

D. K.

MIRACLES, including prophecy, were essential to the establishment of Christianity. Faith in miracles is also essential to its perpetuity. We have now no healing power, but we have the prophetic word as a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. But some there are who seek to extinguish this light. They are children of darkness-they talk of death as a leap in the dark, and they determine to put out our light that we may share their darkness. On the other hand the children of the day desire to throw the beams of light divine into their dark places, that they too may become sons of light. Consequently there is conflict-each side seeking to maintain its own. As the Bible is our golden lampstand, whose seven golden lamps are ever filled with the pure oil of truth, and ever burning, they seek to extinguish its light, and consequently the quotations and references in the New Testament are subject to pretty constant attack. In one respect this is as it should be, because if the Christian cannot safely intrench himself here, I know not where he can find security. We may rest satisfied that the quotations from the Old Testament, including the prophecies cited as fulfilled, demonstrate that God has spoken by the prophets and by his Son from heaven. But though this

is certainly so, yet things, formidable, in appearance, can be said in connection with attempts to prove that the cited predictions were not written in allusion to the events to which they are applied, or that they do not exist in the form in which they are quoted, or that they are not found where they are said to be, or that they do not exist at all, or that they have not been fulfilled and cannot be. Infidel lectures abound with allegations of this class, including a large number of most barefaced attempts to create something out of nothing.

Now there are two methods of meeting this kind of thing-1. By taking up the cases one by one-2. By setting forth some general principles which cover the whole ground, so that each disciple may apply them to particular instances as they arise. The former method is only fitted for a lengthened discussion, and we might have it if Mr. Bradlaugh could overcome his disinclination to deal with Primitive Christianity. The latter course alone is open in a single lecture. This, however, I do not regret, because it may prove the more useful to those present.

There are cited in the New Testament about two hundred texts which can be found in the Old Testament. But it is said, that as the men who made the quotations professed to be

But

inspired, every text ought to be, word for word, like the original. This would be true did the said inspired writers profess to have been called to give a word for word translation or application of said texts. this is nowhere professed. They quote as we quote-sometimes word for word, at other times giving the sense with little regard to the mere external form, sometimes quoting from the Hebrew, and at others from the Greek text of the same book. At other times they are led by the Spirit to give a fuller or clearer expression of the substance of the passage cited than the original expressed. То these causes of variation may be added a few instances in which there is reason to suspect that the Hebrew, in the process of transmission, may have been corrupted. These instances, however, are not in sufficient number to weaken the mass of testimony, but on the other hand are only what might be naturally expected in the transmission of ancient books, and which could not have been prevented, save by a standing miracle, which not being necessary has not been given, and the design of God has been abundantly answered without it, inasmuch as the evidence of our holy religion is superabundant, so that he who seeks shall most certainly find.

These two hundred quotations contain instances under each of the following divisions

1. Citations agreeing completely with the Hebrews.

differing from the Hebrew but agreeing with the Septuagint.

agreeing with the Hebrew in meaning but not in words. taken from two or more texts of the Old Testament. from texts where the Hebrew seems to have suffered some deviation in copying.

agreeing with the Septuagint in sense but not in words.

Harbinger, Jan. 1, '67.

There are a few quotations which will not range in any one of these sections, but they are not numerous. The main causes of the existing differences may be reduced to—1. Corruption of the Hebrew texts2. Various readings-3. Our ignorance of the full meaning of particular texts-4. The different designs with which they are quoted.

The cases of corruption of the original are few, and critics, by comparison of manuscripts, are gradually getting the true reading. Discrepancies arising from our ignorance of Hebrew texts, or words, are fewer than they were. Time clears them up, one by one, and enlarged scholarship will do much to complete the work.

In this general view of the subject very much might be advanced which time will not admit, I shall then restrict the enquiry to quotations which are considered to have been cited as instances of fulfilment of prophecy.

Various classifications of these prophecies have been given as results of much labour, one of which, with slight modification, shall now come into view. The apostles and evangelists, when citing the Old Testament, apply the phrases, "That it might be fulfilled," "As it is written," &c., &c., to passages in the New Testament.

1.

When the prophecy is literally fulfilled.

2. When the fulfilment is not literal but spiritual.

3. When the text referred to is neither literally nor spiritually fulfilled but cited by way of illustration.

Let us give some little attention to these three classes, taking the last named first

MATT. ii. 17. "Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying: In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and would not be comforted, beeause they are not."

Harbinger, Jan. 1, '67.

This text has been improperly quoted as though the events to which it was applied by Matthew were a literal fulfilment of the words of Jeremiah, whereas by reference to Jer. xxxi. 15, it is at once seen that the slaughter of the infants by Herod was not at all before the prophet, but that the lamentation has reference to the captivity, which the Lord promised to terminate, saying, "Refrain thine eyes from tears; for. thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy." When, then, texts of this class have been cited as evidence of the verification of prophecy, infidels have urged, and rightly so, that such evidence is not worth a straw-that the parties are merely making a case. They charge the persons who produce the so-called evidence with being themselves ignorant or else with intending to deceive. They go a step beyond and say, that Matthew could not have been inspired or he would not have applied to Herod and the babes what was evidently not written concerning them. Though right in the first point, they are wrong in the second, and they expose, not Matthew's want of inspiration, but their partnership in the ignorance they charge upon certain Christians. Like them, they have failed to observe, that many passages from the Old Testament are cited as adaptations to the circumstances of the time when they are cited-that is to say they are applied on account of their correspondence, and thus said to be fulfilled, as any saying may be said to be fulfilled, when thus pertinently applied.

should be recollected that the writings of the Jewish prophets, which abound in fine descriptions, poetical images, and sublime diction, were the classics of the later Jews; and in subsequent ages, all their writers affected allusions to them, borrowed their images and descriptions, and very often cited their identical words when recording any event or circumstance that happened in the history of the persons whose lives they were recording, provided it was similar and parallel to one that occurred in the times, and was described in the books of the ancient prophets.

It

was a familiar idiom of the Jews, when quoting the writings of the Old Testament, to say, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by such and such a prophet; not intending to be understood that such a particular passage in one of the sacred books was ever designed to be a prediction of what they were then relating, but signifying only that the words of the Old Testament might be properly adapted to express their meaning and illustrate their ideas. And thus the apostles who were Jews by birth, and wrote and spoke in the Jewish idiom, have very frequently alluded to the sacred books, after the customary style of their nation; intending no more by this mode of speaking, than that the words of such an ancient writer are happily descriptive of what was transacted in their time, and might with equal propriety, be adapted to characterize such a particular circumstance as happened in their days; that there was a con-similarity of case and incidents; and that the expressive style and diction of the old inspired prophets were as justly applicable to the occurences recorded by the apostles, as they were suitable to denote those events and facts in their times which they had commemorated. *

*

*

of the prophet (Isaiah xlix. 8.), "I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation I have succoured thee." In this passage the apostle does not mean to declare that the prophet had the Corinthians in view, but he cites it as a parallel case, intimating that they might collect from that saying that there was a certain accepted time, in which God would hear them, and which, therefore, it concerned them not to let pass without carefully improving it."

We may further add a few instances of this kind of illustrationDeut. vi. 16, cited Matt. iv. 7-Luke iv. 8. Deut. viii. 3, cited Matt. iv. 4-Luke iv. 4. Deut. xxv. 4, cited 1 Cor ix. 9-1 Tim. v. 18. Hosea xi. 1, cited Matt. ii. 15.

Isa. xxix. 13, cited Matt. xv. 8-9.
Isa. lvi. 7,

Jer. vii. 11, cited Matt. xxi. 13.

Psalm xliv. 22 cited Rom. viii. 36.
Isa. xlix. 8, cited 2 Cor. vi. 2.
Isa. lii. 11-12 cited 2 Cor. vi. 17.
Lev. xxvi. 12 cited 2 Cor. vi. 16.
Gen. xxviii 15 cited Heb. xiii. 5.

These instances suffice as illustration. It remains that each for himself complete the classification by adding, all the references to the Old Testament which properly belong to this section.

We have next to notice quotations of the second class-those not literally fulfilled-such as have a spiritual or typical fulfilment, as in John xix. 36, "These things were done that the Scripture might be fulfilled, a bone of Him shall not be broken." As all know, these words are applied to Jesus. But where in the Old Testament can they be found connected with the Messiah? Not anywhere! But in Ex. xii. 46 and Num. ix. 12 they are used in connection with the Pascal Lamb, of which Christ, our passover, is the antitype. The usual custom of breaking the legs of the crucified was in an extraordinary way set aside in his case, though the legs of the men crucified with him were broken, and thus was fulfilled, in the antitype, what was written of the type. Each of you may complete, for his own use,

tion :

John ii. 17, from Psalm lxix. 9. John xv. 25, from Psalm xxxv. 19. 1 Peter ii. 9, from Ex. xix. 6. There remains our first-named class-in which the fulfilment is literal. It would be well for every Bible student to collate every instance of this kind, and have the whole at hand when wanted. Frequently a single chapter supplies a rich cluster for this department, as in the case of Isaiah liii., where we have an extraordinary description of Christ as, in his life, death, and resurrection, he was seen centuries afterward.

1. Despised and rejected of men.
2. A man of sorrows and acquainted with
grief.

3. Esteemed as smitten of God.
4. Stricken, bruised, wounded.

5. Cut off out of the land of the living.
6. Made his grave with the rich.

7. Yet to prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord to prosper in his hands.

8. To see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied.

9.

By knowledge to justify many and to bear their iniquities.

10. To divide the portion with the great and the spoil with the strong.

Here, we have statements most

contradictory, which could not, by any possibility, be realised by any one man unless that man were put to death, as was Jesus of Nazareth, and raised from the dead and exalted to sovereign rule, as, according to gospel history, he was. Yet in this outline we have not all the points of fulfilment apparent in the common version, not to speak of others which a revised translation presents.

It perhaps only remains to give a few examples of this class of quotations, leaving you to complete the list

a

Harbinger, Jan. 1, '67.

Let me here observe that I would that every student of the Bible, who can command the time, examine the whole of the references to the Old Testament found in the New, with a view to ranging them under the above headings. The immediate results, to those who accomplish the task, I take to be-1. The having always ready for use ample prophetic evidence that Christ and Christianity are from God-2. Ample means to refute attacks upon the prophetic evidence-3. Such an insight into the apostolic application of Old Testament predictions and promises as shall be ample protection against the gross literalism of certain Millenarians, who interpret the apostles by the prophets instead of the prophets by the apostles.

A few words upon apparent contradictions between prophecy and fulfilment shall conclude our lesson. 1. Seeming contradiction some

times proceeds from the figurative language of the prophets.

2. From the prophecy relating to one part only of a complete subject. In which case the

wanted harmony will often be gained by taking into view other predictions relating to the same subject, and considering the whole in connection.

3. From promises intended for families or nations being seemingly addressed to the head of the family or nation, intended, as in the case of Isaac blessing Jacob. 4. From some of the prophetic declarations not being actual predictions but commands relative to things to be done, or from their being conditional. In some instances the condition, not expressed at the time, is found in another place.

I say not that this enumeration embraces all the causes of seeming discrepancy, for certainly there are several others, but that these play their part. I have no intention, either on this point or any other, to exhaust the subject. Let the effort be deemed suggestive, and, as you have opportunity, follow on to master this branch of Christian learning.

to

Oct. 12th, 1866.

Dear Bro. King,-I would have replied your kind favour of July 30th ere this, but for the time it has taken to get definite instructions respecting Harbinger, and other items of business that I wished to forward to you.

It is encouraging to us here, in this faroff Isle of the Ocean, to get words of cheer from dear brethren in more favoured lands, and to know that they remember us in their prayers and sympathize with us in our joys and sorrows. The reports that come to us every month from your side of the big water, and also from America, and incidentally from other portions of the world, are read with avidity, and we are happy, through the same channels, to contribute our mite to the joy of our brethren.

Since my letter to you in May there have been added to our several churches-by baptism, 16; from other churches, 23; by

restoration, 13; total, 52. Transfer of two native Baptist churches, comprising 130 members, makes our total additions 182; our present membership is 653; allowing for deaths and exclusions, our nett increase since May is 174. Three new Sunday Schools have been established, and in that department 12 teachers and 130 scholars have been added to our numbers. Two new Day Schools have been commenced, which promise well. In the way of prayer meetings and pastoral visitation, there has been a marked improvement, and a little more "laid by in store on the first day of the week."

By the transfer of the two native Baptist churches a new field has been opened to us in a distant parish, the particulars, I presume, have been given by Brother Maddix, who, in the Providence of God, seemed specially designated for the work there. This has occasioned a change in our plan of labour from what was stated in my last.