selves, even more widely than those whom they condemn. But the subject is worthy of our deepest thought and most protracted study. The mine is deep and rich; let us not abandon it in despair. It will most abundantly repay us for all our toil and cost. Each new exposition is contributing something to the work, either in exploding old errors, or turning up new truth. And the day is advancing when God himself shall lift the veil, and pour light down into the deepest recesses of that book of mystery, till every verse shall not only sparkle like a new-polished gem, but give forth its radiance like a new-lighted star. For thus one in our day has spoken,—" As it was at the Reformation with the Pauline Epistles; as it is now with the Gospels, so, I cannot doubt, a day will come when all the significance of the Apocalypse for the Church of God will be apparent, which hitherto it can scarcely be said to have been; that a time will arrive when it will be plainly shown how costly a gift, yea, rather, how necessary an armour was this for the Church of the Redeemed. Then, when the last things are about to be, and the trumpet of the last angel to sound; when the great drama is hastening with even briefer pauses to its catastrophe, then, in one unlooked-for way 194 DISTRILUTION OF TIMES AND EVENTS. or another, the veil will be lifted from this wondrous book, and it will be to the Church collectively, what, even partially understood, it has been already to thousands and thousands of her children,-strength in the fires, giving her songs in the night, songs of joy and deliverance in the darkest night of her trial, which shall precede the breaking of her everlasting day, and enable her, even when the triumph of Antichrist is at the highest, to look serenely on to his near doom, and her own perfect victory."* * Trench's "Hulsean Lectures," a work, like the author's other works, rich in thought, though rugged in style,fresh and original, even in research. CHAPTER XI. THE PROPHETIC STYLE. WERE we to set ourselves down to frame conjectures as to what subjects we might expect to find in prophecy, we should be led into a thousand extravagances. Each one would view the matter in a different light, and according to the relative importance of different events in his estimation, he would sketch his conjectural outline of what topics he thought likely to fill up the page of prophecy. If set to compile a history of the past, from the beginning of the world, according to our notions of what such a narrative ought to deal with, we should each have formed a different history, a different selection of facts, a different line of narrative. So, in prophecy, our ideas of what ought to be found there, would be as widely diverse from each other, and as different from what we actually have in Scripture, as from each other. Suppose that we were commencing the study of the prophetic oracles, as a new and un known book, it is of importance, before entering fairly upon it, to obtain some general idea, or even some loose hint, regarding the nature of the book before us, and the line of argument or narrative we might expect, as a sort of guide to enable us to make good some footing upon the yet untrodden and unknown territory. As we reject all conjectural guidance which depends upon our own fancies, we must turn to something else for assistance here. We turn, then, to the analogy of the past, as a more sober and trustworthy guide in this conjectural path. Taking our stand upon the scriptural narrative of the past, we may soberly endeavour to shape out a somewhat similar course in the history of the future, though in a very general way. Here we are upon lawful ground. If asked, then, to form a conjecture as to the probable subject of the prophetic oracles, we should say, the likelihood is, that between the history of the future and of the past, there will be a strong general analogy, a likeness between the subjects of both,-between the selection of events, between the line of narrative, and between the style and language. We rise from sacred history, and we go to prophecy, expecting to find just a different part of the same general narrative,-another page of the same volume. What, then, do we find in Scripture history? Its grand subject is, the corporate history of the Church of Christ. We say corporate history, or history of the Church as a body, because although we are presented with many individual characters, yet these are generally set before us, as representatives of the Church at that period to which they belong; and the whole bearing of the narrative is upon the history of the Church as a body, its origin and progress, its different stages and dispensations, its straitenings and enlargings, and, above all, its connexion with one mighty Personage, who is most mysteriously brought in at every turn, as the centre-point round which all seems to revolve. This is the main stream of Scripture history; but it is not the only one. We have, likewise, the history of the Church's enemies, or rather, in conformity with Scripture language, we should say "enemy," as "the seed of the serpent," however numerous, is generally personified, and alluded to under the name of that nation or king who at any particular period happened to be the head of the enemies of the Lord. Turning, then, to prophecy, we should expect to find these same two streams flowing on through its pages, the history of the Church as a body, and the history of the world as a body, in so far |