Peace on earth. Called out of Egypt. witness. He was to be delivered very promptly, and the prophet, professing to be assured of his command of the divine resources, desired to keep up the king's courage by some outward demonstration in support of his word. Could it be that for this end he pointed to something to be enacted only after a lapse of more than seven hundred years? And how is Jesus, born at that date, to be associated with the two kings. who were to be cut off before he should be old enough to know how to refuse the evil and choose the good?" Or how could the action of Assyria, which long before had ceased to be, be brought to bear upon the matter? (29). The angels who exhibited themselves to the shepherds at the birth of Jesus, in their invocation, said, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men" (Luke ii. 14). The mission of Jesus, even to this day, has worked no such results. "Think not," he said, "that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughterin-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household" (Matt. x. 34-36). The angels prophesied the reverse of what has ensued. The Christian dogmas have ever been a source of vehement discord, expressed, too often, in oppression and bloodshed; nor is it likely that on grounds so debateable independent minds will ever be brought, over the face of the earth, to stand together in true and unreserved accord. Jesus is made to foresee such working of the doctrine, but this was so written at a time when the effects of the doctrine had become sufficiently apparent. It was a prognostication in conflict with the earlier one, put forward, as in other instances, after the event. (30). The life of Jesus being threatened by Herod, he is removed to Egypt, and after the death of Herod, when the danger is supposed to be over, he is brought back, "that it might be fulfilled," we are told, "which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son." (Matt. ii. 15). It would be easy to sustain the prophetic gift in this manner, namely to see what was written and then go and do it. Nevertheless, unfortunately, the application will not stand examination. The passage appealed to is this. "When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. As they called them, so they went from them they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images. I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them." (Hos. xi. 1-3). The reference is of course to the exodus of the Israelites. How in view of the declared idolatrous practices of this progeny called out of Egypt Jesus can have been intended, it would be difficult to explain. for her (31). To ensure the death of Jesus, Herod is said to have Rachel slaughtered the infants round about. Then," it is declared, weeping was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, children. saying, In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not." (Matt. ii. 17, 18). Jeremiah appears to have had a vision in his sleep, in the course of which comes the utterance thus made use of. "At the same time," he tells us, "saith the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.-Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth.-And they shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them.For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob. And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord; a voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not. Thus saith the Lord; refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord; and they shall come again to their own border. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself.-Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord.-Turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities.- -As yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity. For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul. Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my To be called a Nazarene. Elijah the forerunner. sleep was sweet unto me." (Jer. xxxi. 1-26). The "lamentation" was that cry of repentance, that "coming with weeping and with supplications," which was to end in God's acceptance of the people and their national deliverance;―a deliverance, as it is expressly said, from "captivity." The evangelist has not hesitated in this, as in other instances, to wrest the passage he makes use of from its context, and to apply it to his own purposes, inapprehensive, or regardless, of its real import. (32). "And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene." (Matt. ii. 23). Here is another unfortunate effort at propping up the narrative with prophecy. No particular prophet is cited for the saying advanced. The prophets in general are referred to, the fact however being that there are none who make any such announcement. The Messiah was to be derived from Bethlehem, but there is nothing to associate him with Nazareth, the true city of Jesus. In the desire to support the gospel statement a solution is however sometimes offered. It has been observed that in speaking of the Branch to come out of Jesse, Isaiah (xi. 1) has used the term Nezer, which is supposed to convey "a mysterious allusion to Nazareth as the future home of the scion of David." But that the word has been here employed fortuitously, is apparent, as elsewhere, in describing this same Branch, the synonymous term Zemach has been resorted to (Jer. xxiii. 5; xxxiii. 15; Zech. iii. 8 ; vi. xii).1 (33). John the Baptist is said to have been the forerunner of Jesus the Messiah, "As it is written in the prophets, Behold I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee." (Mark i. 2). The prophecy itself has more particulars, and these of considerable precision. "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's sope; and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of : 1 Strauss' New Life of Jesus, II. 86, 87. : silver and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years.-Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest "I come and smite the earth with a curse." (Mal. iii. 1-4; iv. 4-6). It was a bold declaration to make that the wellknown prophet Elijah should himself re-appear on earth and resume his ministrations preparatory to the advent of the Messiah, but it remains still unrealized. There was an attempt to pass off John as representing Elijah; "If ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come," (Matt. xi. 14); but John himself, when appealed to, was unaware that he was fulfilling such type. They asked him, "Art thou Elias?" and his answer was, "I am not." (John i. 21). Still the association of Elias with the Messiah remains a fixed necessity. Two advents of the Messiah are insisted on, and with him was to be Elias. But there is assuredly only one advent of Elias spoken of. And its concomitants are all dissimilar from what characterize the career of Jesus. When he came, he was not accepted with delight" as the "messenger of the covenant," but rejected. and put an end to. He was no purifier of the sons of Levi" and renovator of the sacrificial offerings of Judah and Jerusalem, as in the days of old, as in the former years, but introduced himself as a priest of another order, "of which," hitherto, no man gave attendance at the altar," and for a sacrifice offered up himself." (Heb. vii. 11-28). The old system was done away with "for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof" (ver. 18). He introduced no "great and dreadful day,' but himself fell under the power of his adversaries and "was crucified through weakness," (2 Cor. xiii. 4); and his dispensation has set aside that "law of Moses commanded in Horeb," with all its "statutes and judgments," which, according to the exigency of the prophecy, were to be renovated in purity. (34). Another passage is also applied to John as prophesy The voice ing of him. the wilder crying in ness. The land &c. "This is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight" (Matt. iii. 3). It stands in the writings of Isaiah thus. "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it" (Isa. xl. 1-5). This application to John is another instance of a passage taken from its context, and applied in a sense at variance with its proper meaning. The voice in the wilderness is in association with the triumphant, not the suffering Messiah. It is raised when the dealings of God with the Jews are closed in their final acceptance and re-establishment in their own land. To say that John's utterance is a realisation of this voice when all the surrounding and ensuing circumstances were of a totally different character, is to treat the text with evident violation of its import. (35). "Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into of Zabulon, prison, he departed into Galilee; and leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; the people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up" (Matt. iv. 12-16). The object of the evangelist is to show that every act of the subject of his narrative was a fulfilment of ancient prophecy. Even so inevitable a circumstance in the life of a peripatetic teacher as his moving about from place to place had been foretold. But the process of application is, as usual, effected by extracting a passage to the exclusion of those parts attaching to it which give it a signification differing |