smiting of the Judge of Israel on the cheek, the Jews should be given up for dispersion until the travailing woman should bring forth--that is, until the number of believers should be completed. And when this point is taken up in the Book of Revelation, we are further instructed that, as soon as the man-child is born, he shall be caught up to God and to His throne; so that the way will then be cleared for the resumption of dealings with the Jews. Precisely similar is the teaching of Paul: for he affirms that "blindness-or rather, a hardening-in part has befallen Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in;" and that afterwards all Israel shall be saved.

Thus the first sign of the end of this age will be the sudden translation of all waiting saints: and until that event has happened, there is no place for calculation. For, as we have before observed, the times of the Church are not properly a part of the fifth dispensation, but a parenthesis fixed in it on account of the perversity of the Jews; an inserted period, unknown to Old Testament prophecy, and set apart for the preparation of a heavenly, and not of an earthly people.

It was, as we are told, "at the end of the world,' or rather, "of the ages," that Christ appeared, and put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. For when the Son of man bowed His head in death upon the cross, there remained but seven short years for the course of this world. Mercy had been rejected; the time of forbearance was exhausted; and the terrific agents described in the book of Revelation were

awaiting the command to speed forth upon their deadly missions, and execute the last indignation. But the wrath which had been gathering burst upon the Lord Jesus; the righteous sword of the Almighty was turned against the Man Who was His Fellow and then God granted a respite to the world for which Christ died: then He checked the rapid flight of events, and, as it were, stayed the wings of the fleeting age, until a time shall have passed, the duration of which is known only to Himself.

For if the Church inquires when her Lord will return, she receives but the answers ;-" At an hour when ye think not;" " Surely I come quickly;" 66 Be ye therefore ready." The great apostle of the Gentiles warned her of the futility of attempting to compute the length of her stay upon earth. "But of the times and seasons, brethren," he said, " “ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night." The duty of the Church is to keep herself in readiness and to watch, not to reckon times. But, as soon as she is removed, all will be changed. The fifth age will finish its intercepted course; the seven years will quickly commence; there will be the time, times, and half a time, the three years and a half, the forty and two months, the twelve hundred and sixty days; all periods will then be capable of exact calculation.

But, if we cannot accurately compute the times of the Church, we are by no means without intimation of the present nearness of Christ's coming. For we

see Christendom beginning to assume its last form, and the mystery of lawlessness daily gaining strength; while the Jewish prophecies seem to be on the point of fulfilment. Since, therefore, the Church must be taken away before any of these things is consummated, we may be well assured that the Lord is at hand, and should exhort one another so much the more as we see the day approaching.

Moreover, besides other revelations in the New Testament, there are two great prophecies from the mouth of Christ Himself, the interpretation of which appears to intimate that the acceptable year of the Lord is almost ended. These prophecies are the seven parables in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew, and the seven epistles in the second and third chapters of the Apocalypse, both of which we propose

now to examine.

The number of parables and of epistles is seven, that number being significant of dispensational completeness; and, in each of the two prophecies, we apparently have set before us seven successive phases, or characteristic epochs, of the Church, which embrace the whole of her career upon earth. These epochs commence in the order in which they are given; but any of them may overlap that which succeeds it, or even extend its influence, in a greater or less degree, to the end of the age.

THE SEVEN PARABLES.

It is usual to treat these parables as if they merely contained matter for what is called practical applica

tion. This, however, as we hope to show, is by no means the case: they are a continuous prediction of the whole career of the Church between the two advents. Undoubtedly they will also yield an abundant supply of more general instruction; but in this context, at least, the prophetic is the primary meaning.

We have previously sketched the plan of the earlier chapters of Matthew, and pointed out the manner in which they lead up to and introduce the parables as a revelation of a new order of things then about to be brought in. For, on the one hand, they relate the repeated offers of the Kingdom to the Jews, the proclamation of its laws by the King, and the exhibition of His marvellous credentials; on the other, the ever-increasing hatred of the Jewish leaders, and their refusal to recognize the Lord's authority-a refusal prompted by so bitter a spirit that, when they are unable to deny His mighty works, they even dare to accuse Him of doing them by the aid of infernal power. By this blasphemous assertion their true condition is revealed: their immediate salvation is proved to be impossible; and, at the end of the twelfth chapter, the Lord intimates that they are about to be rejected of God, and delivered into the hands of Satan for a season.

A crisis in the history of the nation had arrived, similar in some points to the time when Jerusalem was given up to Nebuchadnezzar, but involving a far deeper degradation.

For the earlier chastisement merely deprived the

Jews for a while of their right to be "the kings of the earth upon the earth." God still retained them as His people, though He sent them into captivity, and caused them to be bound in affliction and iron. Consequently, at that time it was only necessary to appoint temporary world-rulers until the Kingdom could be restored to Israel; and this was done by the transfer of the sovereignty to the Gentiles. And, since the secret of the Lord is always revealed to them that fear Him, His purposes in regard to the change were disclosed to the godly Jews by the pen of Daniel.

Such were the circumstances connected with the assumption of the supremacy by Nebuchadnezzar, and the plan of the Gospel of Matthew is in strict analogy with them. But, in this second crisis, the Jews, by the rejection and murder of the Son of God, brought upon themselves a far more grievous punishment than the mere loss of their earthly dominion; for the covenant of Jehovah was now altogether suspended, and they were no longer recognized as His people. Yet it was necessary, during the interval which followed, that some witnesses should be chosen to maintain a testimony for Him upon the earth -without, however, infringing the power already granted to the Gentiles-and, accordingly, from that time He began to raise up a new band of believers who received a heavenly calling. And since the Father would again, as in the days of Daniel, have some knowledge of His purpose revealed for the guidance of the humble, the Lord Jesus proceeded,