is to fulfill these imprecations even to the dashing of babes against the rocks. Quite as frank is the editor of the Sunday School Times, C. G. Trumbull: "The imprecations upon enemies spoken by the prophet-psalmist were inspired by God.... The imprecations do not belong to us; they do belong... to the dispensation of law and judgment.... In that day the imprecatory psalms again shall have a literal meaning, their true fulfillment. ...These imprecatory psalms are great prophecies. But, like all of the prophecies, they will be literally fulfilled." Similar is the position taken by Brookes.6

There is, of course, no need of arguing against the contention of these writers. The common Christian mind not deluded by a theory revolts in horror against such teaching. What is important for us to see is that such conclusions stamp as false the theory of verbal inspiration which makes them necessary and on which premillennialism rests. Nothing could more surely undermine the position of Christianity than such teaching as this. Our greatest need to-day is to lift the world above militarism, with its spirit of bitterness and vengeance, with its doctrine of force and national selfishness; and at such a time as this these teachers are exalting that doctrine as Christian, are declaring that that spirit and method shall usher in the new age. For the faith of honest and earnest young men and women no current infidelity is more dangerous. And this, indeed, is infidelity in the truest sense. These men in clinging to their theory of the Bible with all its consequences are denying the authority of the spirit of Jesus. The theory of verbal inspira'Editorial, February 3, 1917.

The Lord Cometh, pp. 401, 402.

tion and the defense of these passages in particular must fall before the teachings of Jesus. Clearly and definitely he set his higher ideal of grace and good will. Specifically he mentioned the principle of retaliation as given in these passages and repudiated it. In similar manner he opposed his own teaching to other Old Testament passages (see Matt. 5. 21-48; compare 5. 38-48 with Exod. 21. 24; Lev. 24. 20; Deut. 19. 21. Note Mark 10. 2-12 as against Deut. 24. 1; Mark 7. 14-23 as against Lev., chaps. 11-15). The theory of verbal inspiration, so far from being the mark of high orthodoxy, is the refusal of the authority of Jesus and the denial of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

What is true in the field of ethics is true also in point of religious ideas. The theory of verbal inspiration makes all parts of the Old Testament equally true and valid. The result is that Judaistic character which so strongly marks premillennialism. Christian thought sees in the Old Testament a noble preparation for the New, but it knows that there is lower as well as higher, husk as well as kernel. So it is selective; it drops the former and keeps the latter; it tests the old by the new, that is, by the spirit of Christ. Premillennialism, with its verbal inspiration, must keep both, and as a result the lower once more dominates the higher. Only a few illustrations can here be given of this Judaism which is so fatal to the claim of premillennialism as an interpretation of Christianity.

Take first the Jewish nationalism and its hope. We know that there are two distinct tendencies in the Old Testament. One is nobly universal. It sees a God whose judgments fall on all nations (Amos, Chaps. 1 and

2), and whose purpose of mercy extends likewise to all (Jonah). He led Israel out of Egypt, but so also the Philistines from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir (Amos 9. 7). And in the coming day of his rule Israel and her foes shall be joined in common blessing and in mutual service (Isa. 19. 19-25). The other tendency is nationalistic and selfish, and this lower tendency survives and is dominant in premillennialism. All its details may be found in the Adventist millennium. The coming rule of God becomes simply the rule of Israel. Her enemies are to be slain, her territories enlarged. In keeping with the old imperialism she compels conquered kings to bow in the dust and subject peoples to bring annual tribute. Political subjection is not enough; once a year, under threat of divine punishment by famine and pestilence, these people must come to Jerusalem to worship. They will not, however, be allowed to enter the house of worship itself. In numerous passages that might be cited modern premillennialists affirm all these features as belonging to the coming millennium. As one of them remarks, the Jews of Jesus' day (his foes) had the right idea of the kingdom, their only error being one of date; they made the mistake of looking for this kingdom at the first instead of at the second advent.

A second place where this Judaism appears is in the religious picture of the future. The central feature in the Adventist millennium is a restoration of the old Jewish religion; with the old Jewish state there return the old Jewish ritual and sacrifice. To many premillennialists this idea is clearly unwelcome; it follows, however, necessarily from their ideas of verbal inspiration and

infallibility. Many Old Testament passages beyond question picture the restored temple and its sacrifices as the central glory of the coming age, the elaborate plan of Ezekiel, chapters 40-48, being the notable example. The premillennial principle of absolute and literal fulfillment leaves them no option. For these men know that if they stop here they have repudiated the literalism with which their system stands or falls. So one after another such leaders as R. A. Torrey, C. I. Scofield, Professor Russell of Moody, A. C. Gaebelein, and W. E. Blackstone declare that the provisions of Ezekiel, chapters 40-48, are to be carried out in the millennium. Dr. Scofield, writing in the official journal of the Moody Bible Institute and upon special invitation, predicts "the restoration of all the fundamental institutions of Israel," including the Jewish Sabbath.

The average premillennial disciple has certainly not faced the meaning of this. The whole ancient system of Sabbaths and new moons and feast-days and sacrifices is to come back, and on a scale more elaborate than in any previous day (see Ezekiel). Again the blood is to flow in the continual slaughter of bullocks and rams and lambs. In sin offerings and trespass offerings atonement is to be made for the people by the priests, and these are to be the condition upon which Jehovah will accept the people (Ezek. 43. 27; 45. 17, 20). None but Jews will be allowed to enter the temple, except by becoming Jewish proselytes and being circumcised (Ezek. 44. 9; compare Joel 3. 17 and Zech. 14. 21); but once a year every inhabitant of the non-Jewish nations, under threat of severe penalty, is to go to Jerusalem for a week and keep the feast of the tabernacles. The fulfillment of

this prophecy (Zech. 14. 16–19) is particularly insisted upon by premillennialists. Temple, priest, ritual, and sacrifice, this in the premillennial scheme is to be the center of the world's religious life, and the one religious event for which the whole world is to be summoned together each year is to be an ancient Jewish feast whose outstanding feature is the daily slaying of innumerable beasts.

THE PREMILLENNIAL USE OF THE BIBLE

We turn now to consider the way in which premillennialists use the Bible in support of their theories. We begin with the central idea, that of the millennium itself, the theory of a reign of Christ here on earth to last a thousand years and to precede the eternal and heavenly kingdom.

The historical origin of this theory is known to us. The common Old Testament hope was simply that of such an earthly kingdom; of a future life and a heavenly kingdom the earlier writers knew nothing. Such a hope could not permanently satisfy, and the centuries just before Christ saw the rise of new ideas. Men wanted individual immortality and saw the need of individual judgment and reward. But while the thought of the heavenly kingdom thus arose, that of the earthly kingdom remained, and in the Jewish apocalyptic writings of this time these ideas were often strangely and confusingly mingled. Then came at length some writers who united them as follows: first there was to come an earthly kingdom for a limited period, then the eternal heavenly kingdom. Though various periods were first put forth, the idea prevailed that this kingdom was to last a thou