hath not flesh and bones as we have," needs not, so far as we can understand the requirements of spirits, a material abode, or at least, not such as this earth is; but a being who consists, in part at least, of these, as we do now and shall do hereafter, necessarily requires such an one on which to dwell.

These reflections may serve to show what we ought to expect in reference to the future condition both of the earth, as the abode of the righteous, and of the righteous themselves. From all we know of nature both in the Past and the Present, we have every reason to believe that the future condition of the globe will be an essentially physical one, as physical as the present. And the declarations of Revelation in no way contravene this; but, on the contrary, are in perfect harmony with it. They speak of wondrous things, and tell of "consummations devoutly to be wished," but they tell us of nothing which is not in perfect harmony with physical law and a physical condition of the earth. But they tell us much that necessarily implies this; and seeing that we have reason to believe the " new heavens and the new earth" will not be new creations out of nothing, but a renewal of the present earth and heavens, we may

fairly argue, that this will hold true throughout eternity, that a physical condition of things will prevail for ever. Of this various proofs will be afforded in the course of our succeeding remarks, especially in the next section, in which it will be shown that great and mighty changes will, in many respects, be wrought in the condition of our globe, yet we have no intimation of any thing that will, in the slightest degree, affect its materiality or true physical character.

The following passages all bear upon the general question which is now engaging our attention:

“And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it." Isai. ii. 2.

"Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east; and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward

the south. And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, King of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee." Zech. xiv. 3—5.

Again: "All the land shall be turned" (margin, compassed)" as a plain from Geba to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem; and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited" (margin, abide) "in her place, from Benjamin's gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the king's wine-presses." ver. 10.

It is by no means necessary for our present purpose to attempt to determine with certainty the time, or times, to which these passages relate; though we may remark, that the first from Zechariah (xiv. 3-5) seems clearly to refer to the time of the second advent, as proved by the concluding words: "And the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee." (ver. 5.) And I suppose it will be very generally admitted, by all literal interpreters at least, that Isaiah ii. 2 also relates to the same period, for the close of the chapter undoubtedly does so, as, for in

stance when it is said: "And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of His majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols. of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of His majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.” (ver. 19-21.) This, I conceive, distinctly relates to the second advent; the time, however, in which the things predicted will take place is not what we have now to consider, so much as their nature and character.

Neither will it be necessary to enter into the question as to whether these passages are to be understood literally, or allegorically, for to do this we should have to repeat again the remarks and arguments which were employed before when discussing the same question in reference to those passages which have already come under our notice. It will be sufficient to remark here, that there is nothing whatever to favour an allegorical interpretation, but everything to support a

I

literal one. And especially is this the case in reference to the first quotation from Zechariah, where, it will be observed, reference is made (ver. 5) to a literal fact, an "earthquake," namely1, which had actually occurred in the days of Uzziah, and to the alarm which that, like every phenomenon of the kind, had naturally created; and where, moreover, it is declared that the same alarm and attempts to flee from danger shall occur again, when the things now foretold shall take place. This is abundantly sufficient to prove that the two events, the past and the future, are of exactly the same literal and physical character. The same may be said of what is foretold in the tenth

verse.

Assuming, then, the literality of these passages, it will be seen that they all point to some great changes as about to be wrought hereafter in the land of Palestine, and seeing that, in all probability, they relate to the same period, they may be regarded as all

1 We have a notice of this earthquake in Amos, i. 1. "The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah King of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash King of Israel, two years before the earthquake."

Palestine is one of those countries which are much subject to earthquakes. See a striking account of one that occurred in 1837, and caused fearful ravages in Safed and elsewhere, in The Land and the Book, by W. M. Thompson, D.D. London: Nelson and Sons, 1859, p. 276, et seq.