the poles are asunder. The true Church of God is in the heart of man, where, free from formularies and doctrinal teachings, he can worship his Creator in the beauty of holiness. As St. Stephen and St. Paul both testify "The most High dwelleth not in temples Acts vii. 48. "made with hands." In obedience, however, to Acts xvii. 24. Divine injunction, the godly man does not neglect his Church, but, in accordance with the law laid down first under the Mosaic dispensation, and never since repealed, he observes the Sabbath day to keep it holy, and does not neglect to assemble with others on that day to render thanks to his Divine Creator, and to offer up his prayers and supplications according to the ritual of his selected religious ordinances.

It is not the purpose of the present work to attack any form of Religion; but, as will be shown in subsequent pages, the Divine Author of our existence has, from early ages, ordained the ministers of His own Gospel; and amongst them, therefore, we must expect to find the most perfect oracles of God. Differences on what are called "doctrinal teachings "-whereby attempts are made to explain what is incomprehensible, to define mysteries, and to limit infinity-emanate certainly more from the author of evil than from any other source. Divest Christianity of all doctrine, and there remains simply "love"-love to God and love to our neighbour; for on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Whichever Religion, then, approaches most closely to the pure love of scripture must, of necessity, be the chosen one by selection. It will be seen, however, that a special race has aforetime been chosen to conserve the true oracles of God, and to make them known to the heathen, and to all apostate nations, amongst whom must the purest faith be found; and it is, perhaps, not to be wondered at if, whilst searching for the one, we have found the other, and the light of everlasting truth has, at last, shed its rays over a benighted world, and the light of prophecy, so long

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withheld from those whose eyes were darkened that they could not see, and whose ears were stopped that they could not hear, has again, in His own appointed time, begun to shed the first streaks of its effulgent rays over the earth, and will doubtlessly continue to increase in brightness until it reaches the meridian of perfect day. Then shall the true Church of Christ exclaim with the enraptured king, "Lord, whom have "I in heaven but thee, and what is there in earth that "I can desire in comparison with thee?"

The prophecy of Isaiah, quoted in a preceding page, was referred to by our Saviour himself as being fulfilled in His days. This is a somewhat remarkable, but very important, fact, which must be made more clear before we proceed further; for only upon a full comprehension of this fact can we understand how certain apparent errors should present themselves to the readers of apostolic writings. These errors are not, however, in the writings themselves, but have arisen in the interpretation of them in consequence of an omission to read them with their context, which is the Old Testament.

It will not be denied that the Israelites were God's chosen people, and the history contained in the earlier part of the Bible refers principally to them. Then we have the Prophets, whose writings are directed almost exclusively to Israel and Judah. Next comes the New Testament, which records Christ's errand to earth amongst His own people; the establishment of churches abroad by His apostles; and, finally, the mysterious Apocalypse in which is connected, in a marvellous manner, the churches of the apostles, the ultimate fate of the several tribes of Israel, and events that shall prelude the end of this world's coursethus, we see, that, taken as a whole, the Bible contains a history, past, present, and future, of the chosen-or elected-people of God, and it is our intention to analyse that history in the following pages.

As has been before stated, the true light of prophecy —that is, the understanding of the revealed purposes

of God-was vouchsafed to Abraham; subsequently it was revealed to Moses; David understood clearly the decreed will of the Almighty, and the prophets who followed after him appear to have had an especial calling to make known God's will to His people. Our Saviour Himself of course fully comprehended the Scriptures of His day, and in carrying out the decree ordained from on high, Christ faithfully enacted all for which He came into the world. For a hidden, but, no doubt, supremely wise purpose, which it is not given to man to comprehend, He did not permit His disciples, to whom the truths of scripture were clearly revealed, to show to the world all the knowledge on the subject which they themselves possessed. No doubt their mission, which was to spread the Christian religion, established by Christ himself, over the earth in supercession of the Mosaic dispensation, was sufficient work for them to perform. Of all the Apostles St. Paul, from his writings, appears to have been the only one who attempted to go further than this, but even his few observations relative to God's hidden purposes give but a dim foreshadowing of the revelations vouchsafed to the prophets of earlier days.

To return to the question of the intellectual darkness which overshadowed the earth in our Saviour's time. We care not to search for information beyond the pages of the Bible itself, in which will be found sufficient evidence of the truth of what has been above stated. In the remarkable prophecy by Isaiah, quoted at page 14, the want of intelligence in things scriptural was clearly foretold, and so also was the return to intellectual light at some future time. There are also other passages in the writings of Isaiah wherein the falling away from true spiritual knowledge was clearly predicted, as where the prophet exclaimed, "Thy first father hath sinned, and thy teachers have Isaiah xliii. transgressed against me;" for, "they have not known Isaiah xliv. nor understood; for he hath shut their eyes that they 18. cannot see, and their hearts that they cannot understand." This This passage is clearly a repetition of the

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27.

Isaiah lvi. 10, 11.

former warning; but by reading the two together we perceive that the return of darkness after light was to be a punishment for sin, and a judgment on the people for forsaking the law and the God of their fathers. And at the time of this falling away the prophet exclaims, "Their watchmen are blind; they "are all ignorant," "and they are shepherds that cannot understand," and, as a natural consequence, the people, being without leaders, "wandered as blind men. "in the streets." How exactly these predictions were fulfilled will be made clear in the following pages.

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Turning now to the other side of this sad picture of spiritual destitution, let us learn what is to be the end thereof? As in temporal and material things, so also in the intellectual state of man, light follows darkness, even as darkness, light. It is not necessary at present to pause for a consideration as to whom the predictions of wrath and of the removal of a knowledge of the truth were addressed; but following up the prophecies further, a new light breaks upon the senses. God hideth his anger, and will not always show displeasure. "In that day," says the Prophet, "shall the deaf hear "the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind "shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness. "They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doc"trine." Again, in opposition to what has before been Isaiah xxxii. threatened, we read, "The eyes of them that see shall "not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall "hearken." "Then the eyes of the blind shall be "opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped."

Isaiah xxix. 18, 24.

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Isaiah XXXV.

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From the words of prophecy it does not appear clear when the return of sight and hearing is to take place. For reasons hard to be understood, prophecy is often vague in many points, but in none so much as in the exact period of its fulfilment. In the first passage, quoted at page 14, we are told that the blindness foretold was to last "Until the cities be wasted without "inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the

"land be utterly desolate, and the Lord have removed "men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the "midst of the land." Again we read in the 29th chapter of Isaiah the following remarkable passage, "Foras"much as this people draw near me with their mouth and "with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men; therefore, behold I "will proceed to do a marvellous thing among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder; for the "wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the under"standing of their prudent men shall be hid." "Is it

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not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be "turned into a fruitful field, and a fruitful field shall "be esteemed as a forest? And in that day shall the "deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the "blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness. "The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, "and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy "One of Israel."

In these and in similarly obscure terms the signs of the time for the accomplishment of the promised return of light are generally described in prophecy, from which but little clue can be obtained for a discovery of the appointed season. This, however, is not our object at the present moment, but an attempt will be made to unravel some of these prophecies in a subsequent chapter; but the principal object now is to show that both a season of darkness and a future return of light have been predicted in unmistakeable terms by the prophets of old.

When Christ propounded his parable of the "Sower" to the multitudes, his disciples inquired of him his reason for speaking at all in parables. In reply our Saviour stated that it was "because they seeing, see not, "and hearing, they hear not, neither do they under"stand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Matt. xiii. 13. "Esaias, which saith, 'By hearing ye shall hear and Mark iv. 11. "shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see, and John xii. 40.

Luke viii. 10.