The light (is) short because of darkness.

If I wait, the grave (is) my house :

I have made my bed in the darkness.

I have said to corruption, Thou art my father?
To the worm, My mother and my sister."
And where (is) now my hope?

As for my hope, who shall see it?

They shall go down to the bars of the pit,

When (our) rest together (is) in the dust."

All these expressions-even taken together-are scarcely adequate to exhibit the utter hopelessness of Job, as to any improvement in his condition in this life; and thus they exemplify the manner in which the highly wrought feelings of the sacred writers influence the form of the metre.

(3.) A similar instance may be found in Ps. vi. 1-5, in which the grief of the Psalmist leads him to repeat again and again— if not the same, yet-a like expression.

"O Lord, rebuke me not in Thine anger,

Neither chasten me in Thy hot displeasure.

Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak;

O Lord, heal me, for my bones are vexed.

My soul also is sore vexed:

But Thou, O Lord, how long?

Return, O Lord, deliver my soul:
:-

O save me, for Thy mercies' sake."

Throughout all these lines there is one great leading thought; deep sorrow drawing forth lamentation and prayer.

(4) In Ps. xiii. 1. 2, repetition follows repetition, as the outward manifestation of the earnest longings of the poet for God's presence and help :—

"How long wilt Thou forget me, O Lord? for ever?

How long wilt Thou hide Thy face from me?

How long shall I take counsel in my soul,

(Having) sorrow in my heart daily?

How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?"

(5.) In Ps. xcv. 1, 2, we see the feeling of admiration of God and His goodness exercising the same influence as the examples already quoted.

"O come, let us sing unto the Lord :

Let us make a joyful noise unto the rock of our salvation.
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving,

And make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms."

(6.) In Ps. cxviii. 15, 16, is another instance of the repetition of even the same words from the emotions of the poet. In v. 13 is a brief history of his dangers and of his deliverance.

"Thou hast thrust sore at me, that I might fall :—

But the Lord helped me."

In v. 14 is a general acknowledgment of what he owes to the goodness of the Lord.

"The Lord (is) my strength and song,

And is become my salvation."

He next describes the blessedness of the righteous thus :

"That the voice of rejoicing and salvation (is) in the

tabernacles of the righteous."

And then, calling to mind the source of all good and safety both to himself and others, his heart is stirred up with wonder and thankfulness; and thence he gives expression to his feelings in the following triplet :

"The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly.

The right hand of the Lord is exalted:

The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly."

(7.) One more example; the influence of care and dread. This we shall find in Isa. xxiv. 1, in which the prophet describes the fearful desolations which the sins of the people would bring upon the land:

"Behold the Lord maketh the earth empty,

And maketh it waste,

And turneth it upside down,

And scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof."

And yet more fully in vv. 19, 20, in which he pursues the same subject:

"The earth is utterly broken down ;

The earth is clean dissolved,—

The earth is moved exceedingly;

The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard,

And shall be removed like a cottage:

And the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it;

And it shall fall and not rise again."

The review of these passages leaves, then, but little doubt that the strong feelings of the poet-his deep sense of the reality of the truths presented to his mind-exercised in, these and like instances, a powerful influence upon the outward form and structure of the metre.

I cannot better sum up our consideration of this portion of our subject, than in the words of Herder on the spirit of the Poetry of the Hebrews. Speaking of parallelism and its advantages, he says, "The divisions of their chorus," that is, those who in singing take up alternately the contrasted members of each verse, "confirm, elevate, and strengthen each other in their convictions and in their rejoicings. In the song of Jubilee this is obvious; and in those of lamentation it results from the very nature of the feelings that occasion them. The drawing of the breath confirms, and, as it were, comforts the soul; while the other division of the chorus takes part in our affections, and its response is the echo of our sorrow. In didactic poetry-such as Proverbs and Ecclesiastes - one precept confirms the other; as if the father were giving instruction, and the mother repeated it. Poetry is not addressed to the understanding alone, but primarily and chiefly to the feelings. And are not these friendly to the parallelism? For so soon as the heart gives way to its emotions, wave follows upon wave, and that in fact is parallelism. The heart is never exhausted, it has for ever something new to say. So soon as the first wave has passed away or broken itself upon the rocks, the second swells again, and returns as before. And even when poetry professes to be the language of the understanding, it changes the figure of the first line, and exhibits the thought in another light. It varies the precept and explains it, or impresses it upon the heart. Thus, even here the parallelism returns again and so the two parts of the same division of the poem correspond as word and deed, as heart and hand."

This, then, is sufficient to illustrate the manner in which the nature of the subjects contained in the sacred poems, and the feelings excited by them in the hearts of the inspired writers, exercised each a powerful influence in moulding and changing the character of the metre and framework of the Poetry of the Bible.

ON THE APOCALYPSE.

THE book of "The Revelation of Jesus Christ" has been spoken. of as a sealed book. This is without authority; that is, it has no authority that a wary and prayerful student will regard. To such the word of God alone is authoritative.

That there will be something new in the following studies is not announced in a vain-glorious spirit: in the presence of God we have His word (πpòs ov nμiv ó λóyos, Heb. iv. 13). Any careless or irreverent handling of this word must bring rebuke and failure. It has been said of a certain book, "what is new is not true, and what is true is not new." This would be a just censure on any production that professes to bring forward something absolutely new, for "there is nothing new under the sun." In a blessed sense, however, the New Covenant is both new and true. It is new in contrast with the Old Covenant, and it is true having God for its Author. Again, we must distinguish between what is newly invented and what is newly discovered. Justification by faith was newly discovered by Luther, America by Columbus. Jesus as only a Pattern was an invention. The pre-millenial and the post-millenial schemes are both discoveries: one of these, at least, loomed up in a fog; and, as with the labourer who mistook his own cottage for a lordly mansion, a near view dissipates the illusion.

The Apocalypse has been characterized as a book of symbols. This is only in part true. There are symbols, but the arbitrariness of more than one commentator must be treated with caution. That the river Euphrates prefigures the Turkish empire should have more support than mere assertion. Such assertions and prelections on them effect much in breeding the sneers of hearers.

Perhaps no one will object to the thought that the Apocalypse presents a series of tableaux vivants from chap. iv. I to xxii. 2. If this is so we must then interpret them as we should any other representative pictures. When we read these words, "we are fully committed to the historical scheme," we feel that it is hopeless to attempt for some any other exposition. Nor is this meant to be an elaborate and exhaustive effort. The following principles will be observed in our inquiries:

X

1. The Scriptures are self-explanatory, if not they are incomplete.

2. Nothing should be admitted as a symbol, or as figurative, without divine sanction.

3. Prophecy fulfilled, and prophecy unfulfilled have definite boundaries separated by "the dispensation of the grace of God."

4. This dispensation being "the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ" is not one in which God openly works.

5. The finishing of this mystery will be the period when God will resume His open rectorship of the world.

6. There is no thought that these studies will do more than yield the supply of one little joint of the body, under the care of the great Head.

7. A different translation is presented only when it seems to be demanded: no various reading unless quite affecting the general sense will be regarded.

Chap. i. 1. A revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He showed them by signs, sending by His angel to His servant John.

2. Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, whatsoever he saw (Tè is rejected).

10. I was in spirit on the Lord's day, &c.

"A revelation of Jesus Christ." Why have the translators put the definite article? Were this the only revelation, or had there been no previous one, then it might be justified although there is no article in the Greek. But there had been several previous revelations of Himself by Jesus. This is assuming that a revelation of Himself is meant here. When revelation is predicated of a person, and even sometimes of a thing, the actual appearing is meant, for which see Gal. i. 12; Eph. iii. 3; 2 Thess. i. 7; 1 Pet. i. 7; iv. 13. In Galatians above Paul tells us that he went into Arabia, where it seems that not only was Jesus revealed to him, but also in him, (èv èpoí), verse 16. The translation of Eph. iii. 3 should be "in a revelation," as Matt. i. 20; xxvii. 19, "in a dream," et alia. Have I not seen Jesus

Christ our Lord?" says the Apostle.

Now when was this?

Not when he was struck to the earth on going to Damascus, for