world." As it is written, "Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." James iv. 4. Better as the world may grow, this charge will stand true till the fall of the prince of this world and the restitution of all things. The world that crucified our Lord hated him. John xv. 18-25. Its temper

is not changed.

This world is no fit place for Christ's kingdom, or for the inheritance of his covenant promises, or for any but his enemies and their prince, that reject his laws while they affect to bear his sceptre and his name. The world is not a friend to grace or to Christ or to his people; it pretends to be, and, more, to be a rewarder. It promises this Jerusalem and Canaan for a possession of inheritance. But now the Jews themselves will not have that land, neither the city; they might, if they would, take possession, with ample protection. Were it given them, they could neither live by its soil nor by its merchandise. Jerusalem, Palestine, is the world—the world in epitome-a cheat, with the grand sultan for its prince and a mosque for its temple, a heap of ruins for the capital, and a desolate country from sea to sea for wandering Arabs, whose hand is against every man. Such is Palestine, however it may be with the world.

"ALL THIS IS TO BE CHANGED."

Exactly so; that is our position. In the promised restitution of all things, these old heavens and this old earth will give place to the promised new heavens and new earth, in which the chosen seed of faith shall have their eternal inheritance together with Christ. "All is to be changed" from this sinful kingdom to the kingdom of God, from the dominion of death and of him that had the power of death, that is the devil, to Christ in life eternal. Heb. ii. 14. "And the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom and possess the kingdom for ever and ever." Dan. vii. 18. It is a painful thing to see eminent Christians among us under the delusion that our Lord Jesus Christ is about to take

up the falling sceptre of the prince of this world, and to establish his throne on the sands of time-on this ground under the curse. I find no promise that the world which hated and crucified the Lord will ever turn to love and obey him; that this world will ever forsake its idols and turn to serve the living God. It will die, as it lives, fighting against God and his Christ. Fallen with its prince under the condemnation of death, the day not of release, but of execution in righteous judgment, approaches. While the world stands, it changes neither its fallen state, nor sinful nature, nor evil prince, nor obedience to death. The world will go on, as it has done from the days of Noah, buying and selling, planting and building, marrying and giving in marriage, till the day when the Son of man shall be revealed. Luke xxi. 30. The judgment under which this world and its prince now lie (John xii. 31), having been executed in righteousness, and Rachel's children being brought back "again from the land of the enemy to their own border" (Jer. xxxi. 16, 17), the earth will lay off these worn-out and blood-stained garments and clothe herself in bridal attire with new and beautiful ornaments, such as eye hath not seen, but "of which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began." Acts iii. 21. Possibly such interpretations reduce the army of saints in Israel from myriads to thousands, but it is better to go to victory with three hundred who lap with the tongue and blow the trumpet of the Lord and of Gideon, while holding up the lamp of God's truth, than, distrusting the counsel of the Highest, to retire to the enjoyments of this world and its fleeting pleasures.

THE COMING OF THE LORD.

Palestine, "thy earth, O Emmanuel," even all this world, shall be changed-not for the honor and supremacy of the carnal Jews, neither for the glory of the visible church, but for the everlasting inheritance of the saints. This world comes to its end in the time appointed-an end, like that of man, in death and corrup

tion, when its heavens shall be dissolved, "and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up." 2 Pet. iii. 10-13. "The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world and all that dwell therein." Nah. i. 5. Temporal cares and joys, hopes and fears sink into shadows. Even the restoration of the Jews of the flesh to Jerusalem is nothing compared with this coming of the Lord, compared with the fullness of Christ's coming in glory.

"YOU CAN PROVE ANYTHING BY SCRIPTURE." Try it now if you can prove by Scripture that these things have already come to pass. You must give that up. Then be sure they will, "when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." 2 Thess. i. 7. So sure as these things have not come to pass, they will hereafter come with "the Prince of the kings of the earth." "For behold he cometh, and every eye shall see him." "You can prove anything by Scripture?" Try it now and see if the sharp point of your argument does not rather pierce the side of the blessed Jesus on the cross than slay the truth of his coming again in the end of the world to "destroy them that destroy the earth." "Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." You can, my brother, prove by Scripture that yourself, with Caiaphas and the chief priests and the whole council of the Jews in Jerusalem, "hereafter shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." Matt. xxvi. 64. But I know not by what process you can prove that you have thus seen him already. Therefore "seek those things which are above. And when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory."

CHAPTER VIII.

THE TWO HORIZONS.

Trinity Church, Little Queen st., London. Horizons of the earth, and of the Bible. The sensible in sight, the rational in faith of Christ. The natural Israel restored from Babylon not promised another return in this world. Objections from Jer. xxxi., Ezek. xxxvii., and Rom. xi. Both the sensible and rational returns of Israel are true, but in different worlds. Prophecies contrary to the restoration of Israel of the flesh. Harmony of the two horizons, and of the two testaments. The second advent and the millennium, by Bishop McIlvaine. Literal fulfillment of the prophecies. Open-air preachers and John MacGregor, Esq., Christian World."

TRINITY CHURCH, LITTLE QUEEN ST., LONDON.

Jan. 21, 1871.—I attended in Trinity Church, Little Queen st., London, the twenty-ninth anniversary of the consecration of the Anglican Jews' Church in Jerusalem. All the services from first to last were earnest and devout and faultless throughout, though conducted on the near-sighted supposition of the future return of the circumcision of the flesh to this Jerusalem. At

first this surprised and puzzled me. While walking away I

mused on the exact fitness of the visible Israel and of their return in this world, to describe the Israel of faith and their promised restoration to the possession of the eternal world to come, and it occurred to me that as this world, so likewise holy Scripture, has two horizons in the same firmament, one called sensible by astronomers, the other rational. God that made the firmament made also the Scriptures. We perceive not a star in the rational horizon, except through the sensible horizon. We can obtain no comprehension of the invisible glories of the redeemed, and of the world, and of the kingdom of God to come, except through the visible forms and patterns of heavenly things exhibited in the covenant dealings and rela

tions of God with Israel. For practical purposes the two horizons are one, but for him that searches into the mystery of the heavens and the laws which govern the sun, earth, moon and stars in their courses, the distinction between the sensible and the rational horizons is essential. In like manner, for the practical duties of daily life, the two horizons in the Scripture firmament are both one; to walk by the guidance of the sensible horizon leads to no mistake. But for every commentator, preacher or "scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven, and which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old" (Matt. xiii. 52), it is important to recognize the two horizons in the Scripture firmament-the Jewish or sensible, and the Christian or rational-and to distinguish between them-between the visible or Judaic horizon on the one hand, and the spiritual or Christian horizon on the other hand. The idea was new to me, and seemed to clear the atmosphere of prophecy from the fog of Judaism in a Christian sky.

The humble believer intently looks on the letter of the word, and through it sees and beholds and feels the spirit which giveth life. He searches through the sensible horizon of Scripture, and finds opening to his heart in the rational horizon the incomprehensible glories of Emmanuel and of his saints in the coming kingdom of God. Scholars will manipulate this great idea better than I can, but for beginners I will enlarge upon it a moment. For to the experienced observer of the heavens their hosts shine with the same resplendent light as to a little child, but with a display of the power and majesty of God, and of his goodness and glory, infinitely beyond the conceptions of childhood and above the comprehension of the highest intellect of educated

men.

THE ISRAEL OF THE FLESH AND THE ISRAEL OF GOD.

The one steadfastly seeks the kingdom of this world, the other seeks for the kingdom of God "in the habitable word of which