the night of his betrayal, when his own body and blood took the place of the covenant sacrifice of bullocks.' The blood was presented in the form of the cup of wine, and the flesh in the form of bread, to unite the members of the new covenant to their Lord. The New Covenant was instituted, and the new law was written on the hearts of his disciples in the loving word of the gospel to be preached to all nations. The covenant embraces all the blessings of redemption. It began its wondrous course on the night of its institution, but its fruition will not be attained until the second Advent.

12. The Second Advent.

The eleven ideals of the Old Testament lead us on by their partial fulfilment during the earthly life of Jesus to a second Advent in which, according to his predictions, they will be gloriously fulfilled.

Jesus predicted the three great events, his death, resurrection, and glory, in a number of prophecies extending from the beginning of his public ministry until its end. (a) The prophecies are at first in the predicting of signs to those who demanded them. These all point to his resurrection as the great sign of his Messiahship.

(1) The temple destroyed and rising on the third day; (2) the covenant sacrifice of his flesh and blood as the food of life; (3) his burial like Jonah and rising again on the third day. None of these signs could be understood until Jesus died as a victim on the cross, was buried, remained in the grave till the third day and then rose from the dead. When he rose, he rose to provide his people with the flesh and blood of the new covenant sacrifice, under the forms of the Lord's supper. He

: See p. 120.

2 See p. 259.

3 See p. 277.

4 See p. 186.

rose to be and remain the everlasting temple of God to all God's people. He rose that the gospel of his redemption might be preached to the whole creation.

(b) The prediction of his rejection is based on several prophecies of the Old Testament: (1) The rejected and suffering prophet of the great prophet of the exile is in the mind of Jesus in his discourse at Nazareth, and in his reply to the message of the Baptist.' (2) The rejected shepherd of Zechariah is in the mind of Jesus in his description of the Good Shepherd and in his word. to his disciples in Gethsemane.' (3) The rejected corner-stone of the Psalter is used by Jesus in his conflict with the Pharisees during his last week in Jerusalem. These predictions of the Old Testament as interpreted and applied by Jesus set forth his death, his resurrection, and his exaltation as servant, shepherd, and

corner-stone.

(c) Jesus on several occasions taught the redemptive significance of his death and resurrection in figurative language. According to the synoptists, the Son of Man came to give himself a ransom for many. According to the Gospel of John, the Good Shepherd interposes between his flock and the robbers, and layeth down his life for the sheep. Like a grain of wheat he will fall into the earth and die, and then spring up and bear much fruit."

(d) Jesus also sets forth his death and resurrection in plain discourse. He told his disciples on three different occasions that he would be rejected by the rulers, cruelly abused, put to death on the cross, and that he would rise again on the third day.' This experience of

1 See p. 178.

• See p. 107.

▾ See p. 94.

2 See p. 125. • See p. 284.

• See p. 114. • See p. 287.

But the

the Master is a prelude to the experience of his disciples. They will have an experience of suffering before they gain their reward of glory.' The resurrection is not to establish the kingdom of glory. That is postponed till the Advent from heaven with the angels for judgment. The Messiah comes in his kingdom to establish it in the lifetime of his hearers. kingdom as thus established will be a kingdom of crossbearing, of suffering, a kingdom of grace and service. The faithful disciples will gain their reward in the kingdom of glory in accordance with the devotion of their service, the highest places being assigned by the Father.

There is in the representation of the death and resurrection of the Messiah, a line of thought parallel to that which we have seen in our study of the kingdom of God. The main features of these are in striking harmony. Jesus predicts (a) the rejection of the Messiah, his death and burial. This corresponds with the time of the invisible kingdom, its seed-time.

(b) The resurrection of the Messiah has the same relative place in the doctrine of the Messiah, as the enthronement has in the development of the kingdom of God. The resurrection and enthronement are in order to inaugurate the king in heaven and to establish the kingdom in the world.

(c) The period of cross-bearing and baptism of suffering on the part of the disciples during the absence of the Messiah in heaven, corresponds with the period of growth of the kingdom of grace in the world in the midst of enemies, apostasies, unfaithfulness, and difficulties of every kind.

1 See p. 108.

(d) The glory of the Messiah and his faithful servants corresponds with the kingdom of glory in the Advent of the Son of Man from heaven at the End of the Age.

We have gone rapidly over the eleven Messianic ideals of the Old Testament, and have found that only a single one of them, the suffering prophet, was entirely fulfilled by the earthly life of Jesus. The predictions of the Kingdom of God, the Advent of Yahweh, Yahweh as Husband and Father, were only fulfilled in small part. The Day of Yahweh, the Holy Land and the Holy Priesthood, had no fulfilment until after the enthronement of our Lord. The prediction of the Messianic King was fulfilled only so far as his birth, anointing, and rejection are concerned, but not in his enthronement and victorious reign of Glory. The predictions of the Ideal Man, the Conflict with Evil, and the New Covenant, began to be fulfilled in important stages of initiation and advancement, but these also point forward to the future. It is clear, therefore, that the vast majority of the predictions of the Old Testament prophets and the great mass of their ideals were taken up by Jesus. into his predictive prophecy and projected into the future.

We are not surprised therefore that the Jews, in the time of our Lord, and even his own disciples, were so slow to accept him as the Messiah. They did not see in him the realization of the Messianic ideals of the Old Testament prophets. He did not fulfil the most striking features of these Messianic ideals, but only those which were in shadow and which had very naturally been thrown into the background in the anticipation of the Jews. Those whose hopes were fixed upon a kingdom of glory, and an advent to judge the world and to reward Israel for his sufferings, would not be inclined to

look favorably upon a Messiah who appeared in the humble guise of the suffering prophet and preacher of righteousness. They demanded the Messianic sign from heaven, and were not satisfied with a miracle-working and preaching, which seemed to them less marvellous than that of Moses and Elijah, and altogether insufficient to prove that Jesus was that unique person, the Messiah. They did not see that the cross was the gate to the throne, or that the sufferings were necessary in order to the glory. The cross was to the Jew a stumbling block. It became a power of God unto salvation only to those who learned by divine grace that the Messiah of the cross was also the Messiah of the throne, and that he would ere long prove himself to be the Messiah of the day of judgment.

The last word of Jesus to his disciples was, "Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in Judæa and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." Even the apostles could not give their testimony to the world until the enthroned Messiah had bestowed upon them his coronation gift of the Holy Spirit. They could not preach the life of Christ, his crucifixion and his resurrection, until they had received the witness of his enthronement also. It was necessary that the Messiah of the Gospels should become the Messiah of the Apostles.