some have attacked what I do not hold and have not written; and, of course, they have gained an easy victory; whilst the aim of others has been to show, if possible, that certain texts cannot mean what they appear to mean. Our orthodox opponents take this course, but it is not for us who believe in the literal inspired Word to follow their example.

I have often felt much grief, and even consternation, when I have seen the tendency of some of our brethren to views which, if they prevail, must destroy our holy cause -that of defending the unjustly maligned character of our God and Father, and of maintaining that immortality can come to fallen creatures only from the atonement by a vital union with Jesus.

Believe me, yours very truly in the Lord.

SIR,-Allow me to offer the following remarks in reply to "J. W.'s" letter alluding to my paper on the above-mentioned subject in the RAINBOW for June.

1. There is surely a difference between the words of Moses addressed to God, and the words of God addressed to Moses; between God calling himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses calling him "the God of the spirits of all flesh." While the greatest importance is rightly attached to the words of God about

himself, no great importance is, in my opinion, to be attached to the words in which Moses addressed God in prayer. He may have used an unwarranted expression-There are many of "the spirits of all flesh," concerning whom, I think we may say, God would be " ashamed to be called their God."

2. What objection can "J. W." have to any words proving the resurrection of all? Surely he believes in the resurrection of all the dead? If he does not, he ought, for it is a plainly revealed truth. There will be a "resurrection unto damnation" as well as a "resurrection unto life," an "awakening to shame and everlasting contempt" as well as "to everlasting life." Universal resurrection is not therefore universal salvation.

3. As to the words "all live unto him," I would quote the following from Professor C. F. Hudson, saying, at the same time, that I am strongly inclined to agree with him in his exegesis of them :

"But it is said, 'for all live unto him.' This expression is important in the Universalist argument. But it proves nothing; for the context naturally refers the all' to the subjects of discourse, either the patriarchs just mentioned, or those 'accounted worthy to obtain that world' in ver. 35. Then it will be perfectly proper to read, For they all live unto him.' The Greek always allows this whenever the context can suggest it; for the pronoun is implied, or rather contained in the verb, and is never separately expressed when the context does suggest it. And in the Syriac, as given us by Dr. Murdock, we actually have the translation I offer: For they all live unto him.'”

4. I would specially remark that the resurrection of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as proved by our Lord

from the words of God to Moses at the bush, depends essentially on the fact alluded to and implied in those words, of God having made a promise to them, which required their resurrection from the dead for its fulfilment (see p. 284 of RAINBOW). "God is not ashamed to be called the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, for he hath prepared for them a city." It cannot be said that there is any such promise made to "all flesh that could be alluded to or implied in the title, "the God of the spirits of all flesh" even if that title had been applied by God to himself, instead of by Moses to him in prayer.

I trust these few remarks may be helpful to "J. W." in discountenancing what I fully believe with him is "the error of Universalism." W. T. HOBSON.

St. Barnabas' Parsonage,
Douglas.

DEAR SIR,-An error having been made in the article on "The Seventy Heptads," &c. (p. 324), to which my attention has been called, I shall be much obliged by your printing the following correction.

In the table which is given, contrasting the powers in Daniel and their fulfilment, No. 5 should read thus (the upright strokes answer to the columnar arrangement) :

(5.) Legs of iron and clay. | Divided Roman Empire. | Now in existence. Toes of the feet-Ten Kingdoms. | Resulting in Ten Kings. | To be.

If the reader will turn to p. 327 first paragraph, this position is stated in similar terms.

Permit me also to point again to the historical fact, that, from the time of Nebuchadnezzar to the present, whatever power has held possession of Babylon has also held possession of Jerusalem. Yours sincerely,

Birmingham.

H. BRITTAIN,

Biblical Outlines; or the Distinctive Characteristics, and Mutual Relations of the Books of the Bible. By Burlington B. Wale. Vol. I. The Pentateuch and the Gospels. Elliott Stock; Partridge and Co.

THIS is a very valuable work for students, as the following extract will show :

THE EIGHTH DAY SERVICE.

"And it came to pass on the eighth day that Moses called Aaron and his sons, and he said unto Aaron, Take thee a young calf for a sin-offering, and a ram for a burnt-offering, without blemish, and

offer them before the Lord; for to-day the Lord will appear unto you." (Lev. ix. 1-5.)

"Now it must be carefully noted that what we call the first day of the week was the eighth day to the Jews. The Sabbath (Saturday) ended their week, as the Lord'sday begins ours. Consequently, the "eighth day," the "Lord'sday," and the "first-day" of the week are the same; i.e., the day on which the Saviour rose from the dead-the High Priest and his sons, Christ and his Church viewed as standing in resurrection-life. The seven days of the week represent, or are commemorative of the

six days of Creation, and the Sabbath, on which the Lord rested, and which he sanctified, or hallowed, But sin came in; the curse fell upon creation ; Cursed is the ground for thy sake;' and if I am to be blest with all spiritual blessings in Christ, I must be taken by him, with him, and in him, outside of and beyond this creation on which the curse has fallen, and sit down with him in resurrection-life. If any man be in Christ Jesus there is a new creation, i.e., that man is a constituent in that new creation, and for him there is a new world. In confirmation and illustration of this thought, we find that some of the most important and suggestive acts of the Mosaic ritual were to be performed on the eighth day. On this day, (the seven days of creation being put aside,) we see Aaron and his sons permitted for the first time to enter the Tabernacle the dwelling place of God! Aaron and his sons entered at the same time. We are said to be crucified with Christ, risen with Christ, and to be seated in Christ in heavenly places.

"It is sometimes called the morrow after the sabbath,' i.e., the Jewish Sabbath, for that was a memorial of creation; and man, as a creature of the first creation, is ruined, and has forfeited his title to life, and thus to everything that is really worth preserving. All his blessings now must spring from something apart from and beyond the material creation. There is not a blessing that the believer receives now, that does not come to him from the morrow after the Sabbath. The curse has passed though and permeated all this fallen world,

the trail of the serpent is over it all,' and for us, as Christians, the Jewish Sabbath, the seventh day, can no longer be a memorial of blessing. On the morrow after the

Sabbath, Jesus rose from the dead; on the same day he ascended to the Father (as we shall show further on); and in the evening of the same day he came back, and, entering the room where his disciples were assembled, said, 'Peace be unto you;' and, breathing on them, said, 'Receive ye a holy spirit,' i.e., a new life, for the Holy Ghost was not given till the day of Pentecost. The Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified.

"2. On the eighth day circumcision was to take place. (Lev. xii. 3.) Hence, says the Apostle Paul, 'circumcised the eighth day;' intimating morally the subjugation and crucifixion of the flesh; but representing typically the cutting off from the old Adamic headship, from the old sinful genealogy and corrupt stock, on the crucifixion and cutting off of Christ. In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, or putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ." (Col. ii. 11.)

They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts.' But how do we do this? Buried with him in baptism, wherein also we are risen with him (on the morrow after the Sabbath) in resurrection-life. For it is through the Spirit we mortify the deeds of the body, and the Spirit is given because Christ is risen and glorified.

"3. On the eighth day, the leper was to be cleansed from his leprosy. (Lev. xiv. 10.) Leprosy was a type of sin in its pollution and hideousness. It was an incurable disease. The leper was taken not to the physician, but to the priest; and he was to be presented at the door of the tabernacle before the Lord. The blood of the victim (which had been offered in his be

half) was placed on his ear, his hand, and his foot; and then the oil was by the priest to be placed on the ear, the hand, the foot-upon the blood; i.e., redemption and regeneration, the sacrificial work of Christ, and the bestowment of the new life in him by the power of the Holy Ghost. The two birds-the one slain, and the other dipped in its blood, and let go free towards heaven-suggests the two aspects of Christ's work,* death, resurrection, and ascension-and that by virtue of union to him or his death and resurrection, I am cleansed from the pollution and the power of sin.

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4. On the eighth day the person suffering from an issue' was to be brought to the door of the tabernacle to be cleansed by sacrifice (Lev. xv. 14). As leprosy represented the sin that is in me, the issue' represents the sin that, in word and act, issues from me.

"5. The typical sacrifice could only be accepted on the eighth day (Lev. xxii. 27). This was to direct the perpetual attention of the worshipper to that great sacrifice that was to be offered upon Calvary, and to the resurrection of him through whom our offerings or our persons can alone be acceptable to God.

"6. On the eighth day the sheaf of the firstfruits was to be waved before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle (Lev. xxiii. 11). 'On the morrow after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.' What did this symbolise ? Now is Christ

risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.' We have intimated our belief that the Lord Jesus ascended to the

* But, perhaps, more probably, the living bird answered to the scape-goat, and was simply declarative of what was already accomplished.

Father on the very day that he rose. Our reasons for so thinking are, (a) that the type seemed to prefigure this. When the high priest had slain the victim, he took the blood in a bowl, and went in the same day before God, into the throneroom of Jehovah, the holy of holies, and produced the blood in court; the evidence that what the law demanded had been given, and that the life had been poured out. Thus the type seemed to point to the immediate ascension of the Lord Jesus

after his resurrection. (b) The language of the Lord himself, on the day that he rose from the dead, seems to render this certain. To Mary at the sepulchre he said,

Touch (detain) me not; I have not yet ascended to my Father;* but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ASCEND unto my Father and your Father; to my God and your God.'

But in the after part of the

same day, when he appeared to his disciples, and some of them were afraid, thinking that they had seen a spirit, he said, 'Handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.' In the interim he had ascended and presented himself to the Father, with the marks of crucifixion and sacrifice upon his hands, and feet, and side. And if so, he must have been presenting himself before God the very day and hour that the high priest was waving the sheaf of firstfruits before the Lord in the temple of Jerusalem; for he was to wave it on the morrow after the Sabbath that followed the Passover. The sheaf of firstfruits thus presented before the Lord was a pledge, on the part of God, that the whole harvest, of which that was the first

The Lord here refers to what he had previously said in John xiv. 12, 28, 29, and xvi. 16-22.

fruits, should be gathered in. Christ ascending as the firstfruits of the sleepers (of his Church), is the pledge that they shall follow, and be with him where he is.

"7. On the eighth day, the morrow after the Sabbath,' fifty days after the feast of firstfruits, they were to hold the feast of Pentecost (Lev. xxiii. 16), and bring out of their habitations two wave loaves, baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the Lord.' Corresponding with this was the constitution of the assembly on the day of Pentecost, by the descent of the Holy Ghost fifty days after the Lord had risen from the dead, 'on the morrow after the Sabbath,' when the apostles and disciples were made manifest as the firstfruits of Christ's resurrection, ascension, and glorification; and having come down from the upper room (out of their own habitation), proclaimed, beneath the power of the Spirit, salvation through the crucified Nazarene.*

"8. On the eighth day the Jews were to hold the feast of Tabernacles (Lev. xxiii. 36-39), commemorative of their dwelling in tents in the wilderness, of their march through it, preceded by the * This particular will be more fully considered in the sequel.

Tent or Tabernacle of the Pilgrim God; suggestive of the fact that the Christian life is a pilgrimage, the terminus of which lies on the other side of the dark valley, and the goal of which is heaven's own land of promise. But the pilgrimage of the Israelite of old, and of the Christian now, is based on redemption. The pilgrimage of the Israelites did not commence till they were redeemed; but it was based upon, and was the immediate result of, redemption. And thus it is that the Christian man becomes a pilgrim, separated from this world, and journeying to another, because he has been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ.

"The Hebrew verb from which the eighth day is derived, means to superabound. It was a day of grace and acceptance, in which (typically) where sin abounded grace did much more abound. It pointed to that new spiritual creation, which is the moral glory of God in the forgiveness of sin, and the manifold wisdom of God in solving the problem, how God could be just and yet the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus; and in the grace of God in Jesus Christ superabounded beyond all the revelation of his character and attributes visible in the material universe."

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