I.

The Advent of the Lord.

BY THE REV. W. WILSON, D.D.

ISAIAH lix. 20.

"And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord."

It was the solemn declaration of the Redeemer Himself, when in personal manifestation He sojourned for a short period on this earth, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." How fully does this confirm the truth of the necessity of a personal interest in that Saviour whom we have known in a state of humiliation! And if that short sojourn was but the prelude to a glorious manifestation, when, and not till then,

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He will be seen in His own proper character, to be admired and to be glorified as He ought, how abundantly and powerfully does this sentence, which is the polar star of true Christians in their passage through this dark world, warrant the earnest hope of seeing Him as He

is.

There is great need in the present day to urge this personal regard to the Saviour, as lying at the foundation of all personal religion. Amidst the distractions and divisions, the zeal and the profession, of those who bear the Christian name, it is not too much to say, that the knowledge of Him in whom our life is hid is no characteristic feature of the common standard of religion. We have need to be recalled to this individually necessary experience; and nothing is so powerful to do so as the doctrine of the second personal advent of the Lord of glory. It is all important to the Gentile Church, to test the sincerity of their faith and hope of salvation: it is, I believe, the hinge on which depends the conversion of the Jews. The prophecy-" Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall

fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days," Hos. iii. 5-will not be fully accomplished till they see Him coming in the cloud of heaven; and they shall mourn for Him whom they have pierced, Zech. xii. 10. Their conversion will be the antitype of the conversion of Saul, by the sight of the Lord, and their Prince, coming from heaven. And I doubt not, many souls will be awakened to know the Lord by the testimony which His ministers are now bearing to His second advent. It was the hope of the Apostolic Church; and it will be, in an especial sense, the feature of the faith of those "who are alive, and remain," to His appearing and His kingdom.

Men are accustomed to take refuge against this expectation in its scriptural form, in their view of a spiritual presence of the Redeemer with His Church. Now, we fully admit and rejoice in this privilege of the faithful; but does it follow, that no other presence is ever to be expected? Do those who entrench themselves in this scriptural truth, against the doctrine of His future personal Advent to reign in glory, cultivate fully their own theory as they ought, when they regard this theory as the

only ground on which to look for the future blessedness of the Church on earth?

Many have been long dissatisfied with the spiritualizing system, as it has been termed, of interpreting the prophetic events announced in the Old Testament. It has tended-I have no hesitation in saying (and is now applied by rationalists and others)—to the obscuring of all the truths of revealed knowledge under former dispensations. The first and second advent of our Lord are intimately wrapped up with every truth, then made known, for the salvation of the soul.

Throughout the whole of the Old Testament there is, perhaps, no passage which more clearly refers to the second Advent than the words of my text-whether we take the connection in which it is found, the order of events in which it is involved, or the appeal to it, and the interpretation given of it, by the Apostle Paul, all these circumstances concur to lead us to the same conclusion.

My position is, that it refers to an event yet future; that it has not been fulfilled, except very partially; and that it fully warrants the doctrine (as it is now designated) of the second

Advent. Let us, in humble and prayerful dependence on the teaching of the Holy Spirit, apply ourselves to the consideration of this subject. And I am sure, my Christian hearers, and brethren in the ministry, you will bear with me if I express my earnest hope that your prayers will go up before the throne on which Christ is now seated, that nothing may be said in the course of these lectures (which I have been requested to commence) which shall be found contrary to the written Word.

CONNECTION.

Our first object must be to EXAMINE THE And this, I think, will be found to shew, that this prophecy has not yet been fulfilled, and that the whole context implies a course of events that is not yet run out. In chapters lviii. and lix. we find severe reproofs of the nation of the Jews, for their hypocrisy and ungodliness. And if those warnings are to be confined to no period of their history, so are the counterbalancing promises to be viewed as stretched out to the time when they shall finally turn away from all ungodliness. In Is. lix. 16-18, the Messiah is confessedly introduced: "And he saw that there was no man, and won