originally foreknown in the counsels of God will come, and as Jesus declared of him after the slaughter of John by King Herod, Matt. xvii. 10, 11, shall restore all things, and be, in the full sense of the word, the prophet of the Highest. Yes, he will assuredly come taking up the burden once uttered by John, he will really be what John ought to have been-the messenger of the covenant, the establishment of which will depend not on the will of the Jews, but on the power and grace of Jehovah himself.

The two

weeks com

the two periods of Ja

to Laban.

Then, again, another analogy strikes me, namely, between these two weeks and the two periods that Jacob served Laban pared with for Rachel. He served seven years as we read, and then at the end of that time got Leah to wife; finding, like our blessed cob's service Lord at the close of his mission, that he had laboured in vain, and spent his strength for nought, and in vain, so that he had to serve seven years more for her whom he loved. Observe, though Leah it is true was given him as his reward, he never served Laban for her his beloved Rachel all the while was his object. So with our Lord. The true children of Abraham, and not merely his seed after the flesh-the poor of the flock, were those whom he came to redeem and to bless. And such in the end will be his crown in the day of his glory.

Then there is another point. Rachel, not Leah, was in reality the reward of his first, not his second, seven years' service; just as the redeemed nation hereafter will be the reward of the past work of Jesus on earth. Whatever service he may render hereafter will not be service paid to his Father in order to purchase a people, seeing that this has already been done, but the service of love to his suffering remnant. And these, while the nations are bowing down to the beast through the whole of the week, the Lord will cheer and bless with his presence; he will own them as his from the outset. Just as Rachel was given to Jacob at the beginning, not at the end of the second period. A blessed illustration this of the principles of that kingdom to which Jacob belonged, namely, blessing bestowed in the first place, and the willing obedience resulting from thence. The case of Leah, the type of the nation in the flesh, under law, was totally different. Jacob served seven years for Rachel, as he thought, and after all, received, in the person of Leah, his unwelcome

Matthew

xxiv. shown

the history

of Daniel's

reward; quite in character with the principles of a legal economy such alone as Laban, who contrived the whole plot, was capable of understanding, namely, service rendered at first, and then wages paid at the end.

The next thing which I shall speak of is Matthew xxiv., a to comprise chapter which we shall find to be closely linked with our subject. Many, supposing this chapter to relate to the destruction by last week. Titus, say that it has been fulfilled. Others again regard it as future, believing, at the same time, that some of the things there foretold will occur before, and others after the Antichrist rises. The former, namely, wars, famines, earthquakes, &c., being precursory judgments, such as may have already begun; the latter being those which will follow in the train of this wilful deceiver. Now I confess that I take a different view of this passage from either of these, believing that all this will occur after this dispensation as we stand at present has ended, and not only so, but strictly within the limits of Daniel's last week.

In answer to those who take the first of the above views, I reply, that the moment when Jesus uttered this prophecy was one of the deepest solemnity. Darkness had now begun to close in on the nation, and not only so, but on the spirit of Jesus himself. His hour of suffering was near; the week of grace had now nearly expired; he had given up the city and temple as defiled and desolate for a season; therefore to suppose that at such a moment as this he meant to predict the invasion of Titus, or anything short of those judgments which await the children of Israel hereafter, (the fully ripened fruit of their sin in rejecting himself,) seems to me to be by no means in harmony with a crisis like this. The Lord's word at the close of the foregoing chapter, may, I am aware, be pleaded on the opposite side. "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate," said he, as he went out from the temple, not to enter it again till they should own him as blessed. Now these words, though seemingly favourable to the thought that the destruction here spoken of, occurred comparatively soon after this juncture, namely, under Titus, do not really do so. The phrases "left desolate" and "thrown down" as here applied to the temple, do not mean the same, and therefore should not be confounded. The moment he left it in the solemn way here described, it became desolate. The words imply this, "Behold, your home is left unto you

desolate, for I say unto you, ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord;" so that, notwithstanding all its magnificence up to the time when it was burnt by Titus, so great as to lead the conqueror to strive to hinder its being burnt by his soldiers, still it was desolate, and when rebuilt hereafter by the Jews, under Antichrist, it will be desolate still, simply because he, the Lord of the temple, will not be there.

Observe, I speak of the temple as one temple all through, without reference to its ceasing to exist for the present. In this light the Lord views it himself, and in this we should carry our thoughts onward in association with his; let me observe, however, that while I do not regard the destruction of Titus to be the fulfilment of the Lord's word in this chapter, I do believe this was allowed to occur in the interim, as a terrible sample of far heavier judgments hereafter. The ninth chapter of Daniel takes especial notice thereof, where it is written, "The people of the prince that shall come, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary," which, just following the announcement of the solemn fact that the Messiah should be cut off, shows that there was something very especial therein. The truth is, the destruction by Titus so closely resembles that yet to come, the full judgment which awaits the betrayers and murderers of Jesus, that it is no wonder that they should have been often confounded.

Then, in answer to those who take these judgments, some of them as preceding the week, I reply that neither the Church of God, nor apostate Christendom, seem to have had place in the Lord's thoughts at this moment. He exposes the sin of the nation, denouncing desolation and judgment on the city and temple alone. The Lord, in fact, is here shown as the Messiah of Israel, addressing Jewish disciples cognizant of the affairs of their nation, and exclusively so. This we gather especially from what he says to them at the beginning of the 23rd chapter, "The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat; all, therefore, whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do," words which could be addressed to Jews only, and to no other. Then as to this enquiry of him in the 3rd verse of this xxiv. chapter, "Tell us," say they, "when shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the age?"

"These things," what things do they mean ? The answer surely is simple,-those of which he had just spoken. The destruction of the very temple of which they had been boasting. "Thy coming,"-what coming? surely his coming to Israelthat of which he had spoken at the close of the 23rd chapter; they, as yet, knew nothing beside. Then as to the "end of the age,❞—what age," what age do they mean? Surely this also is Jewish; they knew of no other, neither do we, seeing that ages belong in no sense to this dispensation, but only to Israel. "The age" then, I believe to be nothing less than the Seventy weeks of Daniel; and if so, "the end of the age" must mean the last week of this period, within which all that is here foretold will take place.

And now, let us turn to consider what the disciples meant by "the end of the age." They were in full expectation that the kingdom of God was at hand. From the knowledge they had of the time of Nehemiah's return, with which, as I have shown, the seventy weeks began, as well as of their perception of the signs of the times, they judged that this period was now near its end, as indeed, according to what I have said, in one sense it was. The truth is, the setting up of the kingdom of Christ at the very time that he came, was an event of which the Jews were then in full expectation, so that then those in Jerusalem, such as Simeon and Anna, who were waiting for the consolation of Israel, and even the woman of Samaria, half Gentile as she was, could say, "we know that Messiah cometh," which expectation was founded alone on this very prophecy. Nothing else do we know within the whole range of scripture, which could have served as a guide to the Jews, as to the time of his coming. And to this I believe his disciples referred, when they spoke of "the age" and its "end."

The time, as I have said, in a sense was well nigh fulfilled ; and this being the case, they believed, that though hidden for a time, their rejected Master was now about to appear in his glory as the expected Messiah. Such were their thoughts at this moment; and the Lord's answer, though not exactly meeting their thoughts, was a reply to their question, inasmuch as, leaving unnoticed what they meant by the end of the age, namely, the week of grace which had now nearly expired, he passes that over, as well as the whole course of this dispensation, this period of Israel's rejection,

and bears them onward in spirit into that week with which it will really close.

And now let us briefly look at this 24th chapter of Matthew. It coincides, I believe, with the book of Revelation, from the 4th chapter nearly down to the end of the 19th, this also containing a prophetical history of the very same week. And not only so, but in it we may, with wonderful accuracy, trace the twofold division thereof. For instance, from the 4th verse to the 8th, we have "the beginning of sorrows," a time of deceit, when one shall "come in his own name," saying, "I am Christ." This I believe to be the earlier part of the week before the great deceiver throws off the mask, and discovers himself-the 1260 days of Revelation xi.

Then from the 9th verse to the 14th, we have the other division, a time of hatred and violence, when the violent man, the great deceiver above named, having fully discovered himself, the saints shall be afflicted and killed, "worn out," as Daniel foretells, the time times and a half, or 42 months of the beast. "Then comes the end," not "the end of the age,” which, as I have said, means the whole of our week, but the termination thereof.

Then, as to what we find from the 15th to the 28th verse, this is not an advance on the foregoing subject, but merely a more detailed account of the actings of Antichrist through the fortytwo months of his tyranny. In the foregoing verses false Christs and false prophets are seen in a general way, all aiming at power -each seeking to gain the ascendancy. But here we have something more definite still; namely, the false Christ, in the plenitude of his power, at the time when he and the false prophet of Rev. xiii. will join in a blasphemous league both to deceive and destroy. The chief object here seems to be to mark the great "sign" of the end of the age, and this I take to be "the abomination of desolation," namely, (Rev. xiii. 15.) "the image of the beast" set up in the holy place, which all will be called on to worship or perish. This will be the sign, I believe; and when this comes to pass, then the remnant are to know that evil has come to its height-that God has been wholly cast off by his people-and are counselled to fly.

Then in verses 29-31, we have that which especially marks "the end" above named of the week—I mean the Lord's