Page images
PDF
EPUB

implies that they shall be in their own land when they shall thus repent. "The land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart"-implying that they are settled in cities and sections of their own Palestine, enjoying political power and government in the midst of it; and that then and there Christ shall be revealed to them-the Gospel accepted by them—and where once they shouted, "Crucify him!" they shall shout "Hosanna!" till the echoes of their songs reverberate from west to east, and from earth to heaven, and the whole earth shall be filled with the glory of the God of Israel.

The Jew is now a reluctant witness to the truth of the New Testament. Their long resistance of its claims is one of its credentials. But one day, probably very soon, they will appear its glad advocates. The only thing wanting to complete the Jew's testimony to the inspiration of evangelists and apostles is his conversion. When that earnestly prayed-for era comes, the grandest sign of the times will startle the world, as of the striking of one of the great epochal hours of time.

II.

NOAH, HIS AGE AND OURS.

WE enter here on one of the great parallelisms of time. The coincidences we discover between the age of Noah and the nineteenth century are significant signs. They are proofs of the earth's old age, and yet foretokens of its predicted youth. Our Lord says, "As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all." Luke xvii. 26-29.

History, whether sacred or profane, seems always to repeat itself. One great era in the

world appears, when narrowly examined, to be simply the reflection of another; and a deed done in the day that now is, to be the echo of a deed done hundreds or thousands of years ago. Time seems to move in circles, history constantly to repeat itself, and so far to illustrate the maxim of the wise man, "There is nothing new under the sun." When we examine great and startling epochs in the history of the world, we find points of contact, analogies, and coincidences most suggestive. The deluge, the destruction of Jerusalem, the end of this age, all seem to have coincident points, running, like sea and land, into each other.

The age of Noah is a prefiguration of the age that now is, the last great epoch of this world's life. History is never obsolete. He that knows best the history of the past, humanly speaking, will be the truest prophet of the character of the future. Some one made the remark in scorn, "History is an old almanack:" he stated a great truth, though he did not intend it. How does the almanack of this year differ from the almanack of the last? The dates differ slightly, but the acts are the same, the tides the same, the same rising and setting of the sun, summer, and winter, spring and autumn. History is an old almanack; it is the same great drama, only with different actors, and slight

changes in the parts that they play. If you take the events of the last two thousand years, and compare them with the events of the four thousand that preceded, you will be struck by the number of beautiful and interesting coincidences. The study of Genesis is a preparation for the study of the Apocalypse. Acquaintance with Leviticus is a ground-work for acquaintance with the Gospel according to St. John. The history of humanity in the desert is a type and prefiguration of humanity in the age in which our lot is now cast.

Human nature, as far as disconnected with the Gospel, and uninfluenced by its elements, is the same in the days of Napoleon that it was in the days of Noah. The nineteenth century from creation, and the nineteenth century from redemption, in which we live, are very much facsimiles the one of the other; and where the difference is visible, that difference is the result of the touch of transforming grace, not the inherent attainment or development of original excellence in human nature.

Jesus, in his assertion of parallelism, recognises Genesis as Scripture. It is worth while to notice these points: because, admit the New Testament to be divine, and you cannot escape the conclusion that the Old is equally so; because the writers and speakers in the New quote

is no evidence that it is. Sins as grievous, crimes as flagrant, emanate from the unsanctified and unregenerate heart now as ever emanated from it in the days of Noah. We may be more civilized than they were in Noah's days, but not more sanctified: we may have more science, but we may not have more grace. If God's Word speaks intelligibly it speaks pointedly, that out of the heart proceed all evil thoughts, appetites and desires, until that heart is sanctified by the Holy Spirit of God. It is a great mistake to think that education without religion makes man's heart one whit holier. We do not fear education in science; we only contend that it is not sufficient to make man holy, or to make him happy hereafter. In fact, education without religion does man so far good-that it tends to civilize him; but it does not one whit sanctify him it needs the element of religion to accomplish that; and because we say mere secular education is not sufficient, we do not say it is not in itself good; however, all it can do is to improve man as an inhabitant of this world; it cannot fit man for being an inhabitant of a higher. If I carry filings of steel from a muddy street to a beautiful walk, or to a lovely garden, I make an improvement in their condition; but if I take a magnet and apply it to them, I give them another motion altogether,

« PreviousContinue »