his angels, "and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire." Matt. xiii. 41. Whatever is sowed in this world bears fruit both bad and good, but the unjust, with all them that do iniquity, shall be cast to the flames; "then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father." Matt. xiii. 43.

LAWS OF INTERPRETATION ACCORDING TO THE MEASURE

OF FAITH.

To understand all holy Scripture, one must first learn the covenant promises and the far-reaching prophecies, both which come under the same law of interpretation, viz.: "The testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy." Rev. xix. 10. "All the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen." 2 Cor. i. 20. The Scriptures are laden with prophecies, and so with the testimony of Jesus; they are also rich with covenant promises, of which Jesus is the surety, and is coming in the end of the world to be the executor.

The Lord Jesus said: "Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of me." John v. 39. Searching them, we find (Tit. ii. 1): "the hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began." One asks, Where is that life, and how shall I obtain it?

Ans. In Jesus, in whom this and every other covenant promise of God is yea, and in him Amen. He said, "I am the way, the truth and the life." "I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." The Scriptures bear witness to that light that they who come to that light may find that life, and in the resurrection possess the inheritance for ever. They show the true way; they offer eternal life to dying men in all their pages, whether in the promise of the seed of the woman, of the seed of Abra

ham, of the Son of David, of the Son of the Virgin, of the Son of God, and of his everlasting kingdom over all the earth; or whether in the prophecies of the building up of Jerusalem, and of the city of foundations, and of the holy temple; whether the bondage of Israel in Egypt, slaying them in the wilderness, bringing them into Canaan, raising them ap David their king, scattering them among all nations, and finally restoring them again to move no more; or whether in the promise to make their land like the garden of Eden, to fill their waste cities with flocks of men who shall have new hearts, and the law of God written on them, who shall have one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them; and David my servant shall be their prince for ever;-in all these, the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. His name and kingdom and people and city and temple and land, which are the substance of the prophecies, all having types in this world, belong to the heavenly places with Jesus, and they will be accomplished by Jesus in the eternal world to come of which the Spirit prophesies. Neither he nor his belong to this world, nor will be gathered in it. On the contrary, gathered they are with him out of this world into the coming kingdom of eternal life.

THE LAND AND THE LIFE LOST REMAIN YET TO BE

RECOVERED.

Searching the Scriptures, one may be surprised to find how uniformly and firmly the covenant promises and the holy prophecies lay hold on these two things-eternal life, and the inheritance of the earth for ever. These two things Adam lost both for himself and his seed, and these same things the seed of the woman recovers in his own person, both for himself and for his seed, " born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." John i. 13. We see the loss of these two things with our eyes; in our heart we believe that Jesus Emmanuel recovers them, with the restitution of all

things, when every eye shall see him, "and all flesh shall see the salvation of God." But only they shall inherit the kingdom for whom it is prepared, even such as prepare for it. The one promise implies the two things, obedience and its eternal reward. The life sought and promised implies a habitable world in which to enjoy it, as the promise of the land for an everlasting possession to the Patriarchs implies their eternal life to enjoy it. The two promises are reciprocal terms, and convertible; each implies the other. This is true not only of the patriarchs personally, but of their seed collectively, whose restoration to their fatherland from their captivity and dispersion is under the covenant of an everlasting possession. "They shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt, and they shall dwell therein, even they and their children, and their children's children, for ever; and my servant David shall be their prince for ever." Therefore, the fulfillment of this promise is with Jesus, in that world where they neither marry nor are given in marriage, and the successive generations are of the race of the faith born subsequent to the prophecy, and restored in immortality to their fatherland, the new earth, together under the sceptre of Emmanuel.

CONSUMMATION OF EDEN AND OF THIS WORLD IN THE

EXPULSION OF MAN.

The ruin and expulsion of man was the consummation of things in Eden. The redemption and restoration of man will be the consummation of things in the end of this world. The expulsion of Adam from Paradise and from the face of this earth in death followed upon his sin, and his redemption will be in the resurrection, from the dead unto "new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness." The work of ruin by death proceeds through all generations; the work of redemption proceeds likewise through all generations from Eden to the restitution of all things by faith in the Saviour, coming, having come

and yet coming a second time, "without sin unto salvation, to judge the quick and the dead." The enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent continues to the end of time. A ceaseless conflict is carried on with sin and death, in which every child of Adam is doomed to fall, and is certain to rise again in Jesus and the resurrection. We see the heel of the seed of the woman bruised by the serpent in the death of this body of flesh, and we shall see the serpent's head crushed (ovvTpißw, to shatter, shiver; to make a jelly of; to crush) "under your feet shortly." Rom. xvi. 20. LIDDELL and SCOTT. The loss of life and dominion of earth we feel in captivity to death the recovery of endless life and dominion, with glorious liberty, in the heavenly country we shall enjoy under the sceptre of Emmanuel "throughout all ages, world without end." Eph. iii. 21.

After the consummation of this world, begins a new and eternal world better than the first, in which there will be no more pain, nor death, neither any more curse. But the people shall be all righteous and immortal-shall see eye to eye and inherit all things with the liberty of the children of God. The Old and the New covenant is filled with this testimony of Jesus. "Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days;" Acts iii. 24; Luke xxiv. 27, 44;-even of the restitution of all things by the hand of the Saviour whom God hath raised up" for us in the house of his servant David, as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets which have been since the world began." Luke i. 69. This again completes the grand cycle, when all creation returns to its first position as things stood when God pronounced them "very good."

THE FUTURE SUBJECTION AND THE THRONE OF THIS EARTH.

There is neither subtilty nor mysticism in this interpretation. A child can understand it. It cannot be denied that the Saviour,

with his victory over the world, over death and him that had the power of death, taking to himself the kingdom of the whole earth and ruling the nations in righteousness and peace and glory for ever, is the great theme of promise and of prophecy in all the Old Testament, and that his "kingdom is at hand,” constitutes the "tidings of great joy" which the New Testament proclaims to all people, when "the blessed hope of the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ," shall be realized in taking the possession of his purchased inheritance. "For he cometh, for he cometh," to cast out of his kingdom everything that defiles, that is abominable, that loveth or maketh a lie, and to restore all things, to raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, to bring back his people from their captivity in the land of Hades and to plague and destroy death. Hos. xiii. 14. Then dashing with the rod of his power his enemies in pieces like a potter's vessel," he shall have dominion from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth," even "under the whole heaven," and "the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever." Dan. vii. 18. For God "now commandeth all men everywhere to repent, because he hath appointed a day (the dispensation of the fullness of times) in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." Acts xvii. 30.

God hath spoken this, and he will do it. The serpent, sin and death belong to this world; salvation, the resurrection and eternal life belong to the world to come. Both worlds belong to the earth, but they do not possess the earth together. Satan will be trodden down and cast out and the restitution be perfect, when the saints take the kingdom. After this manner the holy truth, that "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy," shines on every page of the Scriptures and in no other apparent

way.