xxi, 20. Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains: let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: [lest being hindered in your flight, you should fail to escape, and suffer in the common calamity.] For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. Matt. xxiv, 16-22. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! For there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. Luke xxi, 22-24.

Then [during the continuance of these woes] if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there, believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore, if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. [For in no such manner or place will the Son of man make his appearance.] For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Matt. xxiv, 23-27. [And .compared with this event, the destruction of Jerusalem will be an exceedingly trivial affair; not relatively more important than the fall of a beast in the desert, which would be wholly unnoticed but for the vultures gathering around the dead carcass, as the Roman eagles shall gather around this expiring city.] For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together. Matt. xxiv, 28.

But in those days, after that tribulation, (Mark xiii, 24,) [predicted, how long after it is not for you to know,] there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; (Luke

xxi, 25;) the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, (Matt. xxiv, 29;) and upon the earth [shall be] distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. (Luke xxi, 25, 26.) And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Now, [before we entirely lose sight of the subject concerning which you intended to inquire, and to which the first part of your question actually refers; and that being properly forewarned you may escape the miseries impending over this people,] learn a parable of the fig tree: When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things-[the abomination of desolation standing where it ought not; the Roman armies gathering about the city, like vultures around a dead carcass, and the like, then]-know that it [the destruction of this city and temple] is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things [of which I spake at the beginning] be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Matt. xxiv, 30-35. [I shall now proceed to speak of my coming, and the end of the world; when, the entire plan of redemption being wrought out, I shall proceed to wind up the affairs of this world by a general judgment. But, concerning the time of that event, it is useless for you to inquire. I have already given you the signs that indicate its coming.] But of THAT DAY AND HOUR knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. Matt. xxiv, 36.

意

ART. III. THE TWENTY-SECOND PSALM,

AS ILLUSTRATING THE SUBJECTIVE METHOD OF PROPHETIC CHRISTOLOGICAL REVELATION.

[SECOND PAPER.]

IN our former article (Quarterly Review, January, 1870) we brought to view the agonistic portion of the Twenty-second Psalm, not for the purpose of exhaustive commentary, but so far only as might serve as a preparation for our argument. We now proceed to consider this Psalm as illustrative of the higher method whereby divine wisdom communicates to man supernatural truths. In approaching the subject we must premise the distinction between revelation and inspiration, and between objective and subjective revelation, and the bodily and mental conditions of the recipient to whom the revelation is made. The difficulty we experience in grappling with the two great thoughts--inspiration and revelation-lies in the method of adjusting the combined agencies of the divine and human elements in each. A revelation must be something in itself absolutely above the natural reach of the human faculties-a direct emanation from God-otherwise it would be a deduction of reason, or a discovery. It must be supernatural, and yet in the mode of its communication not unnatural; above the plane and scope of human reason, and yet, as to the manner of its communication and reception strictly conformable to the laws by which the human mind acquires its ideas. Inspiration is that degree of divine agency exerted upon the human mind necessary to enable it to discern, understand, and record truth. without mixture of error, and agreeably to the divine plan of revelation. As the revelation, on the one hand, communicates ideas conformably to the laws of the understanding, inspiration, on the other, operates in harmony with the freedom of the will. In neither case are the human faculties ever lifted out of themselves, or turned aside from the natural and orderly methods of their operation. It does not require supernatural faculties to perceive supernatural truths, but only supernatural aid afforded to human faculties. All miracles are supernatural, yet, phenomenally, they may be brought within the notice of the senses or the mental cognitions. Thus, as Bishop Sherlock

says, a stone falling to the earth and a stone rising into the atmosphere without physical cause are alike objects of sense, but the one is a miracle, the other not. A man dying and a man rising from the dead are objects equally cognizable by the senses; but the one is a miracle, the other a natural effect. All the miracles of Christ on the bodies of men were as perceptible by the senses as the previous diseases had been. But in spiritual truths the case is not quite parallel. The mind may need assistance to distinguish and comprehend, especially in a class of truths which have but imperfect parallels and resemblances in nature, such as all subjective revelations are. Hence the previous spiritual discipline and experience requisite; and hence, also, inspiration, which is at once an enlightenment and an invigoration of the mind.

In revealing divine truths to man two methods, and from the nature of the case only two, could be adopted. Either the human mind must be lifted out of its sphere and elevated to the plane of the divine mind, or the divine mind must condescend to human infirmity so far as to come within the human orbit, employ human language, and proceed in all respects conformably to human laws of acquiring and expressing impressions and ideas. The former mode is physically impossible; the latter, divine wisdom has adopted. In this method no violence is offered to the human recipient, no dishonor to the divine agent. The human element is purely and intensely human, while the divine is clearly and transcendently divine. Like the mystery of the incarnation, the two natures co-exist in harmonious union in one personality. The "letter" and the "spirit" constitute the revealed word: the divine idea is incarnated in the letter.

In assuming that the mind is always in a state of active selfconsciousness while receiving a divine revelation, and that such ideas are received according to the laws by which all ideas are acquired, we do not detract from the supernaturalness of the revelation itself, but only assert the necessary conditions of the human agent in receiving it. And on no other ground could it be a revelation. A revelation is something made known to the human mind; and, as the word in its Greek and Latin derivation denotes, something unvailed, uncovered; and in the Hebrew, something seen, perceived; and is sometimes, also,

To the mind of the holy

derived from the verb to uncover. man of old, who wrote as he was moved by the Holy Ghost, was the subject first uncovered, made manifest, that through the medium of his understanding others, also, might be instructed. There is nothing mysterious in this, any more than in the influence of one human mind upon another in communicating ideas; nor more than in what Dugald Stewart calls "the inexplicable phenomena of perception and of thought."

Different states, as to the outward senses, were required at different times, according to the nature of the subject to be revealed. In receiving some revelations the senses were closed to all outward objects, as in dreams during natural sleep. Thus, in Gen. xx, 3-6; Num. xii, 6; 1 Sam. xxviii, 6, 15; 1 Kings 3-5. The senses remained closed, also, during the trance or preternatural sleep, (, tardemah, "deep sleep,") though this "deep sleep" was not always for the purpose of divine revelation, as in Gen. ii, 21; 1 Sam. xxvi, 12; Isa. xxix, 10. This trance state, called in Ezekiel the ecstacy, (EKOтaois, Acts x, 11; xi, 5; xxii, 17,) when made a condition of receiving divine revelations, seems to have been simply a closing of the senses to all outward objects, and the suspension of the action of the voluntary muscles, in order that the mind might act more freely and effectively in its undivided attention to supernatural things. Instances of this state in the New Testament, besides those above referred to, are found in 2 Cor. ii, 1-4; Rev. i, 10; iv, 2; xvii, 3; xxi, 10. In these and all other states of the body, while the mind became the subject of divine communications, the perceptive faculties, and often the sensibilities, were under an inspiration which enabled them to operate with accuracy and great intensity. It was hence the mental cognitions were denominated the most absolute of all human knowledge, as a seeing, vision, (i,) and the person who received them was in earlier times called a seer, (ri and n.) A trance, deep sleep, There was no rule as

might continue a longer or shorter time. to time but what resulted from the nature of the vision. Peter's continued an hour, perhaps, (Acts x, 10) Paul's, (Acts xxii, 17,) it would seem, a less time; while John the Revelator probably continued thus "in the Spirit" for days at a time. The mind must have time for the succession of events, and for distinct impressions and ideas. In all cases, however, the