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the ancient foundations and to define the real boundaries of the land of Israel as now-a-day. Nations and kingdoms seem to vie with one another which should do most towards bringing that land under a cognisance of the world. There is not a prince,-Imperial or Royal,our own princes not excepted,-there is not an heir-apparent to a throne, our own Prince of Wales not excepted,-whose education is considered finished unless he had visited the Holy Land.

Looking, therefore, upon the ominously disturbed condition of the political globe in connection with the extraordinary and almost universal interest in every thing that appertaineth to the past, present, and future of the land of Israel, we cannot help but believe that HAGGAI's and MALACHI's prophecies, respecting the coming of the Lord of Hosts to His Temple are about beginning to be fulfilled in their more ample import:"For thus saith the Lord of Hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come; and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of Hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of Hosts. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of Hosts; and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of Hosts."* "Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me; and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His Temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in behold, He shall come, saith the Lord of Hosts. But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? for He is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's sope; and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering of righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years. And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not Me, saith the Lord of Hosts. For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed."t So much introductory.

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THE

THE TIMES OF REFRESHING,

ACCORDING TO THE VISION OF ISAIAH.

HE SON OF AMoz, in the first chapter of his glorious book, treats of Judah's apostasy and Jerusalem's desolation. The following are his terrible descriptions :-" Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire; your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers."* Having depicted the condition of Judah and Jerusalem in which the present dispensation finds them, the Almighty directs the Evangelical Prophet to describe the better things in store for the beloved city and people in the coming dispensation. We read thus in the twenty-fifth and two following verses :-" And I will turn My hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin: and I will restore thy judges as at the first. and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shall be called The city of righteousness, The faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her captives with righteousness."t The second chapter furnishes a description of Jerusalem's future triumph, and the effect of that triumph upon the world at large. In fact, it is a bird's-eye view of the world during the Millennium, after Christ's Second Advent.

That second appearance is aptly described by St. Peter in his animated address to his brethren, after the miracle at the "Beautiful Gate," as "THE TIMES OF REFRESHING," and "the times of restitution of all things." "Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you whom the heavens must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His prophets since the world began."‡ We deem the Apostle's definition at once graphic and comprehensive of the coming dispensations; so manifold in stupendous events.

The fourth verse of the second chapter of Isaiah is not an inaccurate interpretation of "The Times of Refreshing," which the Father hath purposed in His divine will. "And HE shall judge among the nations." Isaiah himself tells us, in the third verse of the same chapter, to whom the Divine Pronoun HE refers, even to "the God of Jacob." And Jacob himself, on his death-bed, tells us that that Divine Being is the Second Person in the "Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.' Even, God the Redeemer. The dying benediction of that patriarch with which he blessed Joseph and his sons :"God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long, unto this day, the Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads,"§ distinctly points to Him. The God of Jacob, and the Angel the Redeemer, we have already demonstrated in this our Magazine, was none else than the Divine Conqueror,|| the God

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* Isaiah i. 7.
Acts iii. 19-21.

† More literal.
§ Gen. xlviii. 15, 16.

See also The Haidad: A Harvest Thanksgiving Sermon, pp. 23, 51.

manifest in the flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is HE that shall judge, or rule, among the nations. The peace of the habitable world shall not be left to the arbitration of conquerors and conferences composed of contentious princes and potentates, but HE, the God of Jacob, the Prince of Peace, shall be the sole Umpire and Arbiter. Hence the rapturous outburst -at the birth of the Redeemer-of "the heavenly host, praising God, saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men." For HE shall judge among the nations! Oh, what a time of refreshing shall not the realisation of the predicted advent prove! "And HE shall rebuke many people." More literally, "And He shall decide amongst the multitudes of peoples;" a rendering which bears out the construction put upon the preceding clause. "And they " [the nations and the peoples] "shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks." What a speaking portrait of universal peace and happiness! No more immense standing armies; no more monstrous arsenals; no more tremendous armouries. Men's ingenuity no more prostituted to the contrivances of infernal machinery for the enormous destruction of human life. "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." Who-on contrasting the present actual state of things with that which the predicted new dispensation is to usher in-can fail to recognise in Isaiah's "last days" the "times of refreshing" spoken of by St. Peter !

The accuracy of the Apostle's definition will appear more and more patent and palpable as we proceed. Christian readers, follow us whilst we enter into a brief exposition of the passage already several times alluded to in St. Peter's sermon: "Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus Christ which before was preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of His holy prophets since the world began."* You perceive how "the times of refreshing" stand closely associated with the blotting out of Israel's sin; the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the restitution of all things. All this "God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began." The exposition which we mean to furnish of that part of St. Peter's exhortation, is in the form of a synopsis of what God hath spoken on the various subjects broached in the exhortation, by the mouth of all His holy prophets, since the world began. How fully did St. Peter realise the accomplishment of that gracious promise, "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you !"t

First then, what has God said, by the mouth of all His holy prophets, respecting the blotting out of Israel's sins, in connection with "the times of refreshing ?" Our reply is, " To the law and to the testimony." Moses, in one of his majestic recapitulations of Israel's sins, and sorrows for the same, records the following:-"Go thou near, and hear † John xiv. 26.

*Acts iii. 19-21.

all that the Lord our God shall say: and speak thou unto us all that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee; and we will hear it, and do it. And the Lord heard the voice of your words, when ye spake unto me; and the Lord said unto me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken unto thee: they have well said all that they have spoken. Oh that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!"*

Here then have we a prayer, on the part of the LORD the Redeemer, for a new heart, in behalf of Israel. It would be arrant blasphemy to suppose that that prayer will not, in fulness of time, be granted in its most literal import. Read the sequel :-" Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God, I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God."† Ezekiel, who witnessed the fulfilment of some of the denunciations made in the Pentateuch against Israel's sins, was inspired to furnish the divine answer to the divine prayer which Moses recorded.

man.

That Gentile Christians might not be misled to misapply Ezekiel's promise to themselves-the Redeemer endorsed the prayer on the very cross to which the sinful and guilty nation delivered Him:-" Father, forgive them for they know not what they do," was the pathetic intercessory petition, on the part of the only Mediator between God and This intercessory supplication will, in fulness of time, cause the blotting out the hand-writing of sins that was against Israel. This blotting out of Israel's sin; this gift of a new heart, is to bring perpetual weal to the house of Israel. This is the tenor of the prayer uttered by God the Redeemer:-"O that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments ALWAYS, that it might be well with them, and with their children FOR EVER."

But how do we connect this blotting out of Israel's sin-this gift of a new heart to Israel-this perpetual weal of Israel-with "the times of refreshing," in which creation at large is interested? In the same way that St. Paul connected them. Note the inspired logic of the great Apostle to the Gentiles :-" Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how Luke xxiii, 34.

Deut. v. 27-29.

† Ezek. xxxvi. 22-28.

much more their fulness? For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office: if by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them. For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead."* One of the great events which stands indissolubly associated with "the times of refreshing," is Israel's restoration. The subject will be treated more fully, at some future period.

Secondly, what has God spoken by the mouth of all His prophets, respecting the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, in connection with "the times of refreshing ?" By way of reply, let us refer, in the first instance to Enoch's prophecy :-"Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints." The Lord has never yet manifested Himself, according to the antediluvian patriarch's prediction. The prophecy shall then be fulfilled, "when the Son of Man shall come in His glory." Zechariah, in his last chapter, has the following prophecy :-" The Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with Thee. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark: but it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light. And it shall be

in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jesusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be. And the Lord shall be King over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and His name one."t "The Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with Thee." Well might St. Peter have thus worded his exhortation :"When the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you." For then shall Isaiah's description receive its amplest fulfilment. "And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." But that the subject may have some justice done to it, it must be itself the theme for a separate article. Thirdly, what hath God spoken, by the mouth of all His holy prophets, respecting "the restitution of all things," in connection with "the times of refreshing ?" The greatest of losses which Adam and his fallen posterity sustained, consequent on the dire Adamic apostasy, was the forfeiture of "the tree of life," and the blessings which its fruits were intended to confer. It is not improbable that their restoration was a frequent theme of prophecy. It must however be admitted that we have no recorded allusion to "the tree of life" between the third chapter of the Book of Genesis, and the third chapter of Proverbs. In that extraordinary Book "the tree of life" is mentioned several times. Each reference to it justifies our considering it as symbolising the second person in the TRIUNE LORD OF HOSTS. It is identified with WISDOM :"Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious Isaiah ii. 4.

Rom, xi. 12-15.

† Zech, xiv. 5-9.

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