Jehovah, the Ruler of heaven and earth, who knoweth the end from the beginning, and whose high prerogative it is to declare the things which shall be hereafter. Time is without progress before Him. Eternity past, and eternity to come, with all their teeming incidents, stand in his view as one great, fixed, unchanged, and unchangeable picture, inscribed with this one word,-Now!

With what infinite facility can God tell the future to us, as well as the past! He not only sees things in their order, in His foreknowledge of what is to be, but He sets them in their order, in His predestinating purpose of what shall be. He alone can prophesy, because He alone can predestinate.

Now suppose that God had revealed to one of His faithful servants, fifty years ago, and had caused him to write in a book the historical events of this or any other country for a hundred years; at this time, it is evident, the first half would be history, the other half prophecy. It was all prophecy fifty years ago; the events of those fifty years have turned one-half into history, the rest remains prophecy. But we have an advantage in reading it,—an advantage of confidence and of interpretation; of confidence, because seeing that fifty years have fallen out according to its predictions, we have an assurance that the remainder speaks the coming events of the next fifty;-of interpretation, because by comparing the events of the past fifty years with the language of the first half of the book, we should see how the prophetic

statement was adapted to the event, and learn in that manner to interpret the remainder.

This communicates something of our position as regards the Word of God; and amongst other passages the one I have just read.-Eighteen hundred years ago, the Lord, speaking to His disciples concerning the Jewish nation, said, "They shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations." When He said this, it was prophecy, and it remained prophecy for some few years. Then it became history. While it was prophecy there was some little difficulty in the interpretation. An objector might have said, How is it, that if they are to fall by the edge of the sword, they are also to be led away captive? The event explained. Some of them-nay, a large proportion-did fall by the edge of the sword, and the remainder were driven away captives among all nations in a state of degradation and persecution, in which they yet remain. Thus both branches of the prophecy found their fulfilment. "And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles." This, when spoken, was also prophecy, but has long since become history. Jerusalem has been trodden down. The Romans, the Saracens, the Turks, and now in our days the Egyptians, have, one after another, held the Holy City in a degrading bondage: but mark the language, "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, UNTIL the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." Now Jerusalem is still trodden down: here, therefore, we pass from history to prophecy, upon that

word "until;" for the times of the Gentiles are not yet fulfilled. Thus the period of the world in which we live is ascertained; it is the time of the Gentiles, during which Jerusalem is trodden down, -the days of Israel's tribulation. Those days will end and when the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled, then Jerusalem will no longer be trodden down; the Jews will be delivered from their captivity and tribulation, and the Holy City will rise and shine, for her light shall have come, and the glory of her Lord shall have risen upon her.* Immediately upon the expiration of the times of the Gentiles, there will be signs in the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress of nations, and the Son of Man shall be seen coming in a cloud, with power and great glory.

This view is confirmed in the 24th chapter of St Matthew, where our Lord, having described the tribulation of the Jews, says, in the 29th verse, Immediately after the tribulation of those days, shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the power of the heavens shall be shaken." This statement is somewhat more precise than the one in the text. St Luke tells us, "There shall be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars." St Matthew says, "The sun shall be darkened, the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven." These signs are to be followed by the personal appearing of the Son of Man:

* Isaiah lx. See Sermon IV.

"Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn; and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." In the concluding verse of our text, the experience of the Christian Church is most touchingly connected with the gathering signs of her Lord's return. "When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." Your redemption ! your deliverance from all enemies, from all the evils which the craft or subtilty of the devil, or man, or both, have been working against you,your deliverance from the corruption and boncage of mortal flesh-your perfected deliverance from the last enemy that shall be destroyed-even Death; your transformation into the likeness of your Lord! This draweth nigh, when these things begin to come to pass, these awful things which shall make all around you to quail with terror, but in the midst of which you may sing the 46th Psalm. Oh what things?

Let us examine what these signs are; and to do so in the safest and best mode, let us endeavour to make the Bible its own interpreter.

First, then, on referring to the creation of the sun, moon, and stars, as recorded in the first chapter of Genesis, we have this account: "And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years." We see plainly how these lights

serve for seasons, and for days, and for years, marking the progress of our duration by the alternation of seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night. But of what were they to be signs?

Of the way in which they were used as signs, we have a specimen in the 37th chapter of Genesis, at the 9th verse, where it is written that Joseph "dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and behold, the sun, and the moon, and the eleven stars, made obeisance to me. (Ver. 10.) "And he told it to his father, and to his brethren and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed ? Shall I, and thy mother, and thy brethren, indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth ?" Here, then, the sun is used as a sign for the head of the patriarchal family,—the ruler,—the source of authority in things civil and religious: he was both king and priest in his own house, and thus was a type of Christ, the head of all authorities. For this reason, the sun is used as an emblem of majesty,-supplying, indeed, in the natural world a sublime picture of dignity in the glory and splendour of his career, from day to day. All authority on earth is but a shadowing forth of that which is given to Christ. Christ is the SUN of Righteousness: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of His kingdom. The powers that be are ordained of Christ in heaven and earth rulers are appointed by Him: they are