Olympas. The return of Elijah from heaven to earth was promised through Malachi to the Jewish people, and that prediction is verified in sending one of his spirit and power.

William. But did not Elijah literally visit Judea before the last end of that nation?

Olympas. Yes, he appeared on Mount Tabor, at the transfiguration, in company with Moses, when Peter, James, and John had a glimpse of these two greatest of men.

Susan. What means the word inspiration?

Olympas. Adam was literally inspired by the breath of the Almighty. This is the origin of the term. Every one who received the Spirit of God as the Spirit of Revelation, was said to be inspired in the figurative sense of that word. But this is not said of any but the holy men of God, who spake and wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

Thomas. Might not those who now receive the Spirit be said to be inspired as well as they?

Olympas. They might, indeed; but not with the Spirit as the Spirit of a new revelation; but as furnishing them with the principles of divine life. God has promised the influences and consolations of his Spirit to those believers who ask him for this splendid gift. Christians need it as much as they need breath. A man can as readily live without breath, as a Christian without God's Holy Spirit, animating and sustaining him with continual aids and comforts. What a mercy it is then, that, as without the Spirit of Christ we can do nothing, this unspeakable gift is tendered to all his disciples who ask for it sincerely and in faith. But here we must pause for the present.

A. CAMPBELL.

How noble is the triumph of the Christian! Although exposed to manifold difficulties and persecution, yea, even though death is before him, and he fall a martyr to truth, he can rejoice.

JERUSALEM.

THE RESTORATION OF THE FLESHLY SEED, OR CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, TO THEIR FORMER CITY (JERUSALEM) AND LANDS, CONSIDERED.

THE following passages are quoted for the consideration of the reader, that we may arrive at a correct judgment of the subject, as upon these the expectation is founded:

Ezekiel xxviii. 25, "Thus saith the Lord God, when I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, then shall they dwell in the land that I have given to my servant Jacob." Again, chapter xxxvi. 6, Prophecy, therefore, concerning the land of Israel," (verse 24) "for I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land:" (verse 26)" a new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit; and take away the stony heart, and give you a heart of flesh" (verse 27) " I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes;" "and you shall dwell in the land (verse 28) that I gave your fathers." Also, xxxvii. 11, "Son of man, these bones are the whole house

of Israel;" (verse 14) I shall put my spirit in you, and you shall live, and I shall place you in your own land." Verse 21, "Behold I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, and bring them into their own land, (22) and will make them one nation in the land, and one king shall be king to them all;" (24) " and David my servant shall be king over them, and they all shall have one shepherd; (25) and they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob their father." And also, xxxvi. 21, "And I will set my glory among the heathen, and they shall see my judgment, (22) so the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God, from that day forward."

Isaiah lxvi. 10, "Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her all ye that love her ; (12) for thus saith the Lord, behold I will extend peace unto her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream: (13) so will I comfort you, and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. 22, And they shall bring all your brethren out of all nations, to my holy mountain Jerusalem.”

Zechariah i. 17, "Thus saith the Lord: the Lord shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem." Also, xii. 10, " And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced." And again, xiv. 8, " And it shall be in that day, that living nations shall go out from Jerusalem; (9) and the Lord shall be king over all the earth; (11) and men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no

Spirit, and began to speak as the Spirit gave them utterance." This is the Jerusalem, or the church which has taken the place of the Jerusalem of Palestine, where the glory of God was witnessed by the children of Israel. Moreover, the coming down of the Holy Spirit to instruct the apostles as to the ordinances of the Jerusalem from heaven, was in accordance with the declaration of the Lord Jesus in Mat. xvi. 18, " Verily I say unto you, some of those who are here present, shall not taste death until they see the Son of Man enter upon his reign."* The 20th chapter of Revelation has generally been regarded as referring to an extraordinary era in the Christian dispensation called the Millennium, when the devil will be bound, and the disciples reign with Christ, and be priests of God and of Christ for one thousand years; after which Satan shall be loosed, and go out deceiving the nations in the four quarters of the earth, and afterwards fire from heaven would destroy them! To attempt to refute all the fanciful events which have been held forth to arise, founded on the expected millennium, and what is set forth by the numerous expounders of this highly-figurative portion of the word of God, I deem useless. I will at once give my views, with the source whence I draw them. But I must state the 4th verse to show the figurative view: "And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them; and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were finished: this is the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no power." The whole of this mysterious chapter is brought to a simple view, if we keep in mind that this book was given to John "to show to the servants of God

* Dr. G. Campbell's translation.

The

things which must shortly come to pass" (Rev. i. 1.) And such events alone throughout are referred to, as were to take place in the church, or New Jerusalem on earth. I turn to Gen. viii. 22, where God has declared that "while the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease." In Mark xiv. 7, and John xii. 8, the blessed Saviour says to his disciples, “Ye will always have the poor among you." How do these declarations comport with this xxth chapter? When we turn to chapter xxi. keeping in view what was declared in chap. i. 1, that all referred to what should take place in the church, and see here it is declared by John, that in his vision he saw, after the events exhibited to him in the xxth chapter after the thousand years, the binding and loosing of Satan," the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from heaven: God himself shall be with them, and wipe away all tears from their eyes. And there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, nor any more pain; and I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son; but the fearful, and unbelieving, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake that burneth fire and brimstone, which is the second death. And he carried me away in the spirit, and showed me the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God, like unto a stone most precious: and the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb; and I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it: and the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And there shal in no wise enter into it anything tha

Before I venture further as to the term New Jerusalem coming down from heaven; also as to the language used by the angel who spake to John, I will submit the following from a note of the celebrated Bishop Louth, in reference to chapters xx. and xxi.: "These seem to be general images, to express beauty, magnificence, purity, strength, and stability, agreeable to the ideas of Eastern nations, and never intended to be minutely or accurately explained, as if they had each a precise meaning. It has also been observed of the foundations of the New Jerusalem, that nothing more is intended than to afford some lofty and sublime notion of the splendour of the superb and heavenly mansion, as being composed of the richest and most costly materials; yet such as few can imagine." Before I offer my solution of these subjects, I wish to make a further reference as to the terms "New Jerusalem," ," "new heavens and new earth," "coming down from heaven;" also, as to the terms "one thousand years" and "first resurrection." That the New Jerusalem, kingdom of heaven, or reign of Messiah, was applied to the church in addition to what is set forth, I refer to Heb. xii. The apostle, in order to sustain the believing Jews, whom he addresses (chap. iii.) as "holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faith ful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant; but Christ as a

be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I do exceedingly fear and quake. But you are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and an innumerable company of angels; to the general assembly and church of the first-born, who are written in heaven, and to the spirits of just men made perfect; and to Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, &c. wherefore we, receiving a kingdom that cannot be moved, (like that under the law) let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear." I am aware that many eminent writers refer this teaching of the apostle to a future state; but, viewing the church as the kingdom or reign of the Messiah, consider again the passages above referred to. The apostle says to the brethren, "Whose house (Christ's) are we, if we hold fast the hope firm unto the end." This is not referring to any future period, but to that time. He also states, "We, receiving a kingdom,' kingdom," &c. "let us serve God"-now, and not hereafter. Their "names being written in heaven," is figurative that all who become the children of God, through faith in Christ, their names are written, or known of God leges are from above. "Coming to an innumerable company of angels, general assembly," &c.-surely these believing Hebrews, upon becoming members of Christ's house, thereby became united to the spirits of just men who had passed into glory, as every sinner converted to Christ, or born from above, thereby partaking of the first resurrection. All become members of the heavenly host, whom they will join in passing from this life; for the redeemed who have passed into the heavens, and the redeemed believers on earth, all become

their privi

members of the same house, whose head is Christ. As to the church or "New Jerusalem, coming down from heaven," I find from James i. 17, that 66 Every good gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights, with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning." The baptism of John came from heaven. In fact, if any act of worship or sentiment in relation to the church is of the earth, the church is polluted-all should be from heaven.

66

I now offer some reflections on the term " new earth," inasmuch as a new earth is looked for. I find the term "earth" is mentioned above seventy times in Scripture, and refers to the people so that a new earth may and does apply to a new, an altered, a converted, or changed people. I find the term "land" used thirty-two times referring to the inhabitants. I also find the term "thousand" fortysix times definite, and ten times indefinite. The phrases "resurrection," "risen from the dead," "born again," new creature, regenerated, passing from death unto life," and "born from above," all refer to becoming children of God, members of the church, Christ's house, the New Jerusalem; and we are assured that on such the second death hath no power.* There is nothing revealed to us of the future state, but that they neither marry nor are given in marriage. If then the closest earthly connection has no place, all fleshly connection must certainly cease. The Saviour said, "I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am there you may be also". "Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me before the foundation of the world." "For we know that

* See the following passages :-John i. 12, iii. 3; Rom. vi. to the end; John v. 24-5;

Col. ii. 12 and iii. 1; Eph. ii. 4; 1 Peter, iv.

6, &c.

if this earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens :" "for we walk by faith, and not by sight:" are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and present with the Lord."

66

we

The conclusion, therefore, after examining all the Scriptures which bear on the subject of the New Jerusalem, the heavenly Zion, the children of Israel and of Abraham, is, all that is written or referred to is for the guidance and comfort of the disciples of the Lord Jesus in this earthly state; and until the commission of the Lord Jesus is attended to, (Mat. xxviii. 19-20) so that "all things are observed, so as to have his presence with the church, the distractions, dissensions, and the state of the church on earth will continue without his presence to bless them, and be subject to divisions and distractions, and be in want of the love, peace, and joy which he has promised. If I could draw a picture from the New Testament of what a church of Christ should be, might we not, under the gracious promise of Christ, if we obeyed, with confidence look for the realization of the peace and joy promised even while here on earth? As the members of Christ's body, whatever afflictions or sufferings such might be subject to, yet they would be sustained now as of old-" greatly rejoice, though for a season they might be in heaviness through manifold temptations and trials” (1 Peter i.) I shall now endeavour to set forth and submit for examination, from the Scriptures, the walk and conversation of a faithful Christian. Wherein I come short, I trust such will be supplied and upheld by the Scriptures. I merely throw out the idea. I refer first to the apostolic commission, Mat. xxviii. 19-20, from which I infer that all whom they would teach and baptize, such were to teach whom they taught, to observe all things whatso