on death, as the great revealing event, and diverted from the coming of Christ, which they come to look upon as a sort of profitless and even questionable doctrine. In fact, the great majority of religious people go the length of rejecting it altogether, as a carnal conceit, and interpret all references to it in the New Testament as meaning the occurrence of death. What a mighty perversion! What fatal unbelief! Yet the natural fruit of the corrupt tree on which it grows. If popular belief as to the death-state be correct, then the other is the logical result, and " orthodox " people who go to that extreme, are only consistent. But take away the doctrine of the immortality of the soul-the root of all evil in a theological sense-and harmony is restored. We see the righteous dead asleep in corruption, and perceive the necessity of the Redeemer's advent to wake them to incorruptibility and life, and the essential importance of that event as the object of hope during their lifetime.

We were endeavouring to show that the second coming of Christ was the hope of Christians converted by the preaching of the apostles. We shall now follow up the arguments advanced by quoting a number of passages from the epistles addressed to them in which the doctrine is set forth with a plainness which must carry conviction to every ingenuous mind—

"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present world, looking for that blessed hope and THE GLORIOUS APPEARING OF THE GREAT GOD AND SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST" (Titus ii. 11, 12),

"For our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body" (Phil. iii. 20, 21).

"Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him SHALL HE APPEAR THE SECOND TIME, without sin unto salvation" (Heb. ix. 28).

"When Christ, who is our life, SHALL APPEAR, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory" (Col. iii. 4).

"It doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that WHEN HE SHALL APPEAR, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is" (1 John iii. 2).

"Ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son FROM HEAVEN, whom He raised from the dead" (1 Thess. i. 9, 10).

"Ye come behind in no gift, waiting for THE COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST" (1 Cor. i. 7).

"Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord stablish your hearts, for THE COMING OF THE LORD draweth nigh" (James v. 7, 8).

"That the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise, and honour, and glory, AT THE APPEARING OF JESUS CHRIST Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind; be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you AT THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST" (1 Peter i. 7-13). 罪

"The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ" (2 Thess. iii. 5).

"And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love, one toward another, and toward all men; even as we do toward you; to the end he may stablish your hearts unblamable in holiness before God, even our Father, AT THE COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST with all his saints" (1 Thess. iii. 12, 13).

"Keep this commandment without spot unrebukable, until THE APPEARING of the Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Tim. vi. 14).

"And now, little children, abide in him, that when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his COMING (1 John ii. 28).

"It is a righteous thing with God, to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels" (2 Thess. i. 6, 7).

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"The Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead, at HIS APPEARHenceforth, and his kingdom, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me AT THAT DAY; and not to me only, but unto all them also who love his APPEARING" (2 Tim. iv. 1-8).

It is superfluous to comment upon Their these eloquent testimonies. scrupulous explicitness leaves no room for argument. They show that the hope of the early Christians was different from that of modern

professors; that it laid hold of the coming of the Lord as an object of personal solicitude. Jesus himself had exhorted them to be watchful: "Behold I come as a thief; blessed is he that watcheth" (Rev. xvi. 15). He had also said

"Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares Watch ye, therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things, and to stand before the Son of Man" (Luke xxi. 34-36).

Now, in the professing Christian world of the present day, we see none of this anxiety about the second coming of Christ. There is an universal indifference to it. One is reminded of the statement in the parable "Whilst the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept." Very few care about the approach of the bridegroom; very few believe in it. When spoken to about it, their language is practically that of the scoffers of whom Peter wrote, "Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." Ah, but the day comes when this apathy shall be rudely dispelled. As a snare shall it

come upon all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth," said Jesus (Luke xxi. 35).

How is it that men are so blinded to the most obvious doctrine of the New Testament? Because, under the guidance of a false theory, they look upon death as the eternal settlement of every man for weal and woe, whereas death settles nothing. It consigns us to darkness and silence, to await the coming of Christ. That is the great settling time "when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ (Rom. ii. 16). Blessed are all they who are prepared for its arrival. Happy are they who "look for his appearing ;" thrice happy they who "love it; for it is only to such that he is to appear the second time unto salvation.

O reader! repent thee of thy worldly follies! Give heed to the good message that speaks to thee out of thy Bible! Learn the truth from its neglected pages, and casting thine errors and thy thoughtlessness behind thee, give obedience to the heavenly requirements; and then wait with hope for the coming of the Son of Man, that thou mayest be His in the day when he maketh up his jewels.

T will seem a strange suggestion

to most in these days, that there is any connection between the gospel hope and an event so local in its character as the restoration of the Jews to their own land (Palestine). Nevertheless, such a connection exists, if we are to be guided by the Scriptures, rather than by learned opinion or venerable tradition.

The interest taken by "Christians,' as a body, in the Jews, is purely sentimental in character, and it is very weak and purely retrospective. It arises from the history of the Jews-from their national relation to the Deity in former times; from their ancient mediumship as the channel of revelation; and from their flesh-and-blood connection with the Messiah. It does not stretch into the future, except in the form of professed solicitation for the spiritual interests of the nation, in common with those of mankind in general. It recognises no connection between their future and the salvation to be manifested in the earth, but is rather in a mood to thank God for a future in which the Jew has no place as such.

Now, we shall see, before we get through this lecture, that the truth of God justifies an interest of a much more practical kind than this. We shall find that in the purpose of God, the salvation of the world is bound up in the destiny of the Jews; that apart from their national glorification, such salvation is a dream, to be realised neither by nations nor

individuals, spiritually nor temporally, and that the man who is either ignorant or sceptical of this coming future development, is darkened in his understanding on one of the essential features of Christian teaching.

Jesus

We look at the evidence. said to his disciples "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matt. xv. 24). That he meant the Jews is evident from another statement-" Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." He further declared to the woman of Samaria, at Jacob's well "SALVATION IS OF THE JEWS" (John iv. 22). These passages alone show the national restrictedness of the salvation proclaimed by Jesus and his apostles. Jesus was a Jew, born in the house of David as the David's of God-appointed heir throne, and the apostles who laboured with him were also Jews. They proclaimed a message which came from the God of the Jews, and which according to the original instructions of Christ, was only intended for the Jews. Therefore, Paul could emphatically characterize the gospel as "THE HOPE OF ISRAEL," which he did in the words recorded in Acts xxviii. 20, "FOR THE HOPE OF ISRAEL I am bound with this chain." He could also make the following statement with peculiar emphasis, in defending himself before Agrippa—

66 And now I stand and am judged for THE HOPE OF THE PROMISE made of God unto our fathers; unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, HOPE TO COME; FOR WHICH HOPE'S SAKE KING AGRIPPA, I AM ACCUSED OF THE JEWS" (Acts xxvi. 6, 7).

He could also say with a truthfulness not generally appreciated—

"My kinsmen, according to the flesh, who are Israelites, and to whom pertain the ADOPTION, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, AND THE PROMISES (Rom. ix. 3-4).

Thus it is evident that the salvation proclaimed for acceptance in the gospel is intensely Jewish in its origin, its application, and its future bearing; and it is equally evident that this was the light in which it was regarded by the disciples after the day of Pentecost; for we read in Acts xi. 19, that "They which were scattered abroad

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lled as far as Phenice and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to NONE BUT UNTO THE JEWS ONLY." The reader will also remember that Peter required a special revelation to instruct him as to God's proposed admission of the Gentiles into the blessings of Israel, and even then he threw the onus of it upon God. He did not attempt to justify it himself, but apologised to his brethren for preaching to the Gentiles, saying "What was I that I could withstand God" (Acts xi. 17). The fact is, the admission of the Gentiles was one of the "mysteries of the gospel." This is evident from the statement of Paul, in Ephesians iii. 5, 6—

"Ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men as it is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be jellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partales of his promise in Christ by the Gospel."

But this opening the way for the admission of the Gentiles did not destroy the Israelitish character of "THE HOPE." The effect was just the other way. Instead of the Gentiles converting the hope into Gentilism by their reception of it, the hope converted them into Jews,

conforming them to its essentially Israelitish character. Hence, says Paul, to those Ephesians who received it, "Ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise

Now, therefore, ye are NO MORE STRANGERS AND FOREIGNERS, but fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God" (Eph. ii. 12, 19). He further said to the Romans," HE IS A JEW which is one inwardly" (Rom. ii. 29), that is, he who, being a Gentile by birth, has become a Jew in heart, and taste, and hope, is more of a real Jew than the reprobate natural son of Abraham. Referring to the admission of the Gentiles, he speaks of it as a cutting out of the olive tree, which is wild by nature, and a grafting contrary to nature, into the good olive tree (Rom. xi. 24). Hence the Gentiles are "wild olive branches," without hope-without birthright-without promises-without a future portion of any kind; and if they would become heirs of the inheritance to come, they must cast off "the old man of their Gentilism, and put on "the new

man

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of true Jewism, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him' (Col. iii. 10).

"

But to come to a closer consideration of the subject: Paul says he was bound "for the hope of Israel," which is equivalent to saying that he preached it, seeing that it was for his preaching that he was put in bonds. Now, if Paul proclaimed "the hope of Israel," it is clear that he did not preach the set of ideas which now passes current in the popular churches as the gospel; for in what sense can these ideas be said to be "the hope of Israel?" What hope has the gospel of orthodoxy for them? It promises them no special blessings in connection with its final development. On the contrary, it takes from them what hope they have. It tells them that their Messiah is not coming, and that

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their hopes of national reconstitution and aggrandisement under him, in their own land, are carnal and delusive. This alone shows it cannot be the gospel which Paul preached, for the one which he preached was "the hope of Israel." Its essential feature was to recognised in a Jewish national hope, founded upon certain promises made of God to the progenitors of the nation. Those promises on which that hope was founded, constitute glad tidings, or gospel proclaimed by Jesus and the apostles for belief, and those who believed it derived a specific hope from the things so proclaimed. Now, as the one truly Christian hope arises from a reception of the doctrinal teaching of the gospel, and since that is the basis of a Jewish national hope, it must be very evident that there is an intimate connection between the Christian hope and the hope of Israel. It is the purpose of this lecture to point out that connection, and, in the doing thereof, to introduce certain matters relevant thereto, which are essential to be known by all who desire to attain to a true knowledge of what the Scriptures teach.

The Jews are a people whose origin and history are pretty well known to intelligent Scripture readers. Abraham, the member of a Chaldean family, was commanded to separate himself from his people, and go into a land "which he should afterwards receive for an inheritance (Heb. xi. 8). He obeyed, and went out, "not knowing whither he went." He was afterwards informed that his descendants would become a great nation, with whom God should have special dealings, and who should be the special objects of His care. In the course of time, Abraham's household went down into Egypt, and settled in that country as a friendly colony. In the course of events, the Pharaohs enslaved them, and subjected them to a bitter rule for more than two centuries. At the end of that time, they were delivered through divine

interposition by the hand of Moses; and after various vicissitudes, they settled in the land of promise, under a divine constitution, which provided that so long as the nation was obedient to its requirements, they would remain in the land in prosperity, but that so soon as they departed from the statutes of the God who had called and constituted them, adversity would overtake them. The subsequent part of their history is summed up in a sentence; they failed to observe the conditions of this national covenant, and were expelled from the national territory in disgrace, and scattered among the nations as fugitives, where they remain to this day. Now, the intelligence of ordinary professing Christians does not go beyond this general outline of the history of the Jews. They look upon Jewish national history as consummated, and the national destiny as irrevocably sealed. They take no cognisance of any future in store for them, as affecting the world's interest in any form. They think that if the Jews turn orthodox Christians, and become the disciples of the missionaries sent to convert them, well, they may return to their land; but whether they do or not, it is no matter. "The Anglo-Saxons are the people leading the van-and destined to become the civilisers and enlighteners of the whole world. The Jews are nowhere; they are behind the age, and will very likely be absorbed by the dominant people, who are rapidly filling the world with fruit." This is a prevalent sentiment; and to suggest (as is done in the subject of this lecture) that the salvation of the world is in any way beholden to the contemptible race of the Jews, is to incur the displeasure of patriotism, and the patronising pity of the wise of this generation. However, an intelligent regard for the Scriptures of truth enables a man to endure these

unpleasant results. He is able to see the futility of human proposings when they come into collision with