day, and in the sight of all the people, upon an altar of brass outsidé the holy temple, even before the porch thereof. Not so the offering of incense, which had to be done in the holy place within the temple, straight before the veil at the footstool of the throne of God, in the light of the holy lamp, and out of sight of all the people, who meanwhile were engaged in prayer beyond the porch of the temple; all to signify that, with every outward act which we are not ashamed to do for God in the presence of the world, there is an inward, unseen, spiritual God-acknowledging act, which constitutes the chief excellency and all the religion of the outward act; for religion standeth altogether in the acknowledgment of God, and is a transaction between God and the soul, with which man may not intermeddle."—Ib.

The Early Fathers on the Lord's Advent and Reign.

"After the lapse of the appointed time which the prophet Daniel bad prophesied, Justin expected the visible 1eturn of Christ to earth. The prophets, he affirms, foretold two advents (apovσíaı). One had already taken place. In that Christ appeared as a sufferer, in a mean and despised form, dishonoured, and at last crucified. The elders and priests of the Jewish people treated him like the goat, on the day of atonement, which was driven into the wilderness. They laid hands on Him, wounded and killed Him. It will be otherwise at His second appearing. Christ will come to the earth in splendour and glory, on the clouds of heaven, and surrounded by the angelic hosts, as the judge of mankind. In the very place where He was crucified, His murderers will recognise Him whom they pierced, and all the tribes shall mourn, tribe by tribe, the women apart, and the men apart. But before this advent takes place, Elias will come, agreeably to the prophecy in Mal. iv. 5; also the man of apostasy and iniquity, who will utter blasphemies against the Most High, and commit outrages against the Christians, must precede the reappearance of the Son of Man. This will soon happen, for already the adversary is at the door.

The immediate object of this return of Christ is the erection of the millennial kingdom. Christ, Justin says, will come again in order to make a new heaven and a new earth, to reign as king over Salem, and to shine in Jerusalem as an unchangeable light. The fallen city will be restored, enlarged, and beautified; all the saints, that is, believing Christians, whether slaves or free, with the patriarchs, prophets, and other pious Jews and proselytes, will rise from the dead and be assembled in Jerusalem and the Holy Land, in order to take possession of it, there to receive the eternal and unchangeable blessings promised to them, and to rejoice in communion with Christ. Justin dwells with deep emotion on this hope. It was, in his esteem, a sacred fire, at which he kindled afresh his Christian faith and practice. That this hope, in its pure millenarian character and extent, might possibly be vain, never entered his thoughts. He believed that it was supported by Scripture. He expressly appealed to the New Testament Apoca

lypse, and such passages in the Old Testament as Isaiah lxv. 17, in evidence of the personal reign of Christ in Jerusalem. From the Apocalypse, and Isaiah lxv. 22 (in connection with Genesis ii. 17, and v. 5, and Ps. xc. 4), he deduced the millennial period. How could he doubt it?"—Semisch, vol. ii. 370–4.

The Redeemed.

"Such, then, are the additions made to our knowledge of the living creatures and the elders, by the new symbols of the harps, and the golden bowls full of incense. We learn thereby that they are the prophets and the priests, and the princes of creation, who body forth in every way the fulness of Godhead and the perfection of manhood in Jesus Christ. They are the image of Him who is the image of the invisible God, to declare Him, to speak of Him, to celebrate His praise, and to tell of all His mighty acts. In His service they strung those harps, which yet are no material instrument, however perfect, but verily the harmonious and many-toned instrument of human nature, all attuned to speak the praises and do the service of God in the sight of the myriads of His creatures. And not only so, but likewise to receive the grateful returns which the blessed creation renders back unto its Creator, and to present them through the intercession of the great Mediator, through whom, and by whom, and for whom, are all things. This middle place, between the Redeemer and the redeemed world, is the church destined to occupy for ever. And when the number of the elect shall have been accomplished, I do believe that the body of Christ, the bride of the Lamb, the New-Jerusalem tabernacle of God, shall be completed, and a new era in the history of creation shall begin to unfold itself. I cannot tell exactly how it is to be with those who are found faithful in the days of the kingdom,-whether they stand in the same relation unto Christ as those gathered during this the day of His humiliation on the earth. I am inclined to think they do so. But this is a small matter to us, whom it chiefly concerneth to know, that in these elders, and living creatures, and in their glorious state, is set forth that passing prerogative, which pertains to every one who overcometh, and keepeth unto the end the stedfast testimony of Jesus. Then, O Lord, strengthen me, and strengthen every one who readeth and believeth these things, to stand fast, and quit us like men, to be strong, and to suffer no man to take our crown."-Irving.

Correspondence.

To the Editor of the Quarterly Journal of Prophecy.

MY DEAR SIR,-I have to entreat, that in the next Number, you will insert the following correction of a mistake into which I was inadvertently betrayed in the last part of "Is Rome the Babylon of the Apocalypse?"

In it, I observed that the rider on the red horse wore the romphaia, not the

machaera. I wrote with the memory fresh that the former word is that generally used by the Apostle. At the moment I had mislaid my Greek Testament; I did not therefore verify it. I find, on consulting the "Hexapla," I was wrong. I frankly acknowledge, that for once I have been misled by trusting to memory.

At the same time, the error does not affect the reasoning. The difference between the machaera megale and the romphaia, being one of length, a machaera megale becomes a romphaia, just as a crooked sword becomes a sabre.

In all other quotations and remarks I had my authority at hand, and grieve only that the accidental absence of the original version should have imparted to my remarks on this point the appearance of haste.-Believe me, my dear sir, very truly yours, H. J. J.

Poetry.

LEFT BEHIND.

LOOK at this starbeam! From its place of birth,
It has come down to greet us here below;

Now it alights unwearied on this earth,

Nor storm nor night have quench'd its heavenly glow.

Unbent before the winter's rugged blast,

Unsoiled by this sad planet's tainted air,

It sparkles out from yon unmeasured vast,
Bright 'mid the brightest, 'mid the fairest fair.

Undimm'd it reaches me; but yet alone :

The thousand gay companions that took wing
Along with it have perish'd one by one,

Scatter'd o'er space like blossoms of the spring.
Some to yon nearer orbs have sped their course,

Yon city's smoke has quench'd a thousand more;
Myriads in yon dark cloud have spent their force;
A few stray gleams are all that reach our shore.
And so with us! How many, who began

Life's race with us, are dropping by the way;
Losing themselves in darkness one by one,
From the glad goal departing wide astray !

When we shall reach the kingdom of the blest,
How few who started with us shall we find
Arriving or arrived, for glorious rest!

How many shall we mourn as left behind!

NOTICE.

All readers of the Journal are most earnestly besought to give it room in their prayers; that by means of it God may be honoured and His truth advanced; also, that it may be conducted in faith and love, with sobriety of judgment and discernment of the truth, in nothing carried away into error, or hasty speech, or sharp unbrotherly disputation.

BALLANTYNE, PRINTER, EDINBURGH,

THE QUARTERLY

JOURNAL OF PROPHECY

APRIL 1853.

ART. I.-HENGSTENBERG ON THE APOCALYPSE.*

We reviewed some time ago the first volume of Hengstenberg's Commentary on the Apocalypse, and intimated our intention of returning to the subject on the publication of the second volume. In redeeming this pledge, we are sorry to feel ourselves compelled very considerably to modify the favourable opinion which we expressed, although guardedly, in noticing the former volume. The author's principles are brought out more distinctly in that portion of his commentary which is now before us, and appear to us to be in themselves most unsound and pernicious, and to have led him to results which, to say the least, are very equivocal. We do not deny that something may be found in this volume to instruct the careful reader, and that light is thrown on some passages of this obscure prophecy; but we think that Hengstenberg's principles of interpretation are demonstrably false, and that the meaning, as a whole, which he gives to the Apocalypse, falls lamentably short of what the Spirit intended to convey by it to the Church.

It will be remembered, perhaps, that in our former article we reserved for future consideration what seemed to us to be the main position of the author, namely, that the Apocalypse is not susceptible of an historical exposition. (See vol. i. p. 284.) We were curious to learn how, upon this hypothesis, he would expound the symbols of the Dragon and the Beasts; and especially how he would reconcile a non-historical exposition of these with a historical exposition of the book of Daniel. This question, however, is much more easily settled than we expected. In the

*The Revelation of St John Expounded for those who Search the Scriptures. By E. W. HENGSTENBERG, Doctor and Professor of Theology at Berlin. Vol. II. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark.

"Retrospect," which closes the commentary, we find him saying, "that there are very important reasons for holding that the older view, which held the Apocalypse to be a prophetical history of the Church in its chief epochs, even to the consummation, has truth at bottom, and only erred in not distinguishing between the general-and the special parts of the Apocalypse, and in forcing its historical interpretations on the two groups of the seven seals and the seven trumpets" (p. 379). This view of the matter, however, scarcely justifies the strictures which in his first volume he passed upon those commentators who have adopted the historising method; for if the fact, that their expositions could be intelligible only to the learned, ought, as he then alleged, to have made them doubt the correctness of their scheme, why should not a writer who interprets historically the narrative of the Dragon, the Beast, and the False Prophet, and thereby exposes himself to the same objection of expounding for the learned-why should not he also, for this very reason, entertain the same doubts regarding his method of exposition? Besides, we can see no grounds for assuming, as Hengstenberg does, that the seals and the trumpets are "preparatory groups which ought to be interpreted upon a different principle from the "narrative of the three enemies of God." The whole book seems to us to bear a homogeneous character. There are many

cross references from the seals and trumpets to the history of the beasts, and vice versâ; and the series of vials, which must surely fall under the same law of interpretation as the seals and trumpets, is, nevertheless, connected indissolubly with the fall of the great enemy of the Church. However, to do Hengstenberg justice, he appears chiefly to aim at opposing that view of the Apocalypse which regards it as one piece of regularly progressive symbolical history. In this we agree with him, and differ only in assigning to all the visions equally an historical character; while, with him, we believe that the same portions of history are more than once presented under different aspects in the Revelation of St John.

Having disposed of these preliminary matters, we propose to examine the accuracy of our author's views regarding that portion of the prophecy which contains the history of the three enemies of God. We must first give a summary of his interpretation. He regards the history of the woman and the child to whom she gives birth, and of the great red dragon and his fall from heaven, as only introductory, referring to things past, and not to things to come. According to him, it is the birth of Christ which is spoken of in this passage, and the breaking of Satan's power consequent upon the ascension of our Lord. The woman's flight