mystery which Paul was especially chosen to reveal, "that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel." (Eph. iii. 6.) Through the sin of the Jews in rejecting their King, salvation has come to the Gentiles. The Jews, as a nation, are no longer recognized as the people of God. (Lo Ammi.) Individual Jews accepted Jesus as a Saviour, and we labor in faith for their conversion at this time; but in entering the body of Christ they cease to be Jews; "for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." The distinctive characteristic of the present dispensation, however, is that God visits the Gentiles, " to take out of them a people for his name."

III. The Duration and Extent of this Kingdom.

The kingdom shall never be destroyed, and shall not be left to other people. This language seems to teach that this earth will be, throughout eternity, the abode of the subjects of the Messiah. We do not regard this, however, as a necessary inference. In 1 Corinthians xv, a time is spoken of when Christ will yield up the authority committed to him, that "God may be all in all." We speak of certan things as being everlasting in relation to the earth, when we do not mean to assert that they are infinite in duration. The hills are everlasting, because as long as the earth exists in its present form they remain. So in regard to the kingdom established on the earth by the Saviour; it is to have no successor. "It will not be left to other people." As long as a kingdom exists on the earth this is to be the kingdom. It supersedes all earthly monarchies.

The same remark may be made as to its extent. All that we can establish from the text itself is that as to this earth it is universal, and occupies the territory of which the Gentile powers were dispossessed. From other Scriptures, however, we learn that Christ must reign until he has put down all authority and power.

We are now prepared to notice-

IV. Some of the characteristic Features of this Kingdom.

We cannot enter upon a full discussion of this division of the subject. It is too wide, and comprehends particular features that are revealed throughout all the prophecies of the Word of God. We will confine ourselves to the hints given in the interpretation of these visions.

In this kingdom the Son of Man, the adorable Redeemer, will be the acknowledged head. But we are taught that he associates with himself the redeemed in the administration of the government. "And judgment was given to the saints of the Most High [places],

and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom." The phrase, "the saints of the Most High [places]," (in the use of which we adopt the translation of the distinguished scholar, S. P. Tregelles), is the Old Testament designation of the heavenly saints of the New Testament (see Eph. i. 3), and includes all the redeemed until the coming of Jesus. The "one body"-the bride of Christ, those who suffer with him now and who will reign with him hereafter They are to reign with Christ over the earth. We are by no means to infer from the expressions used that those redeemed ones whose home is now with Christ if they sleep in Jesus, and whose hope is to be with Christ if they are still on earth, will take up their abode with men in the flesh, during the period of Christ's millennial reign. The intercourse between earth and heaven will no doubt be vastly different from what we now experience. We employ the concise statement

of another:

Before sin entered our world, the heavenly and the earthly were not severed, as they now are. Angels hovered over the earth or descended to it on their ministries of love. The Lord God himself walked and talked with man in Eden's bowers. And so will it be again. The dark clouds of sin will be swept away by the Saviour's coming, and heaven and earth, the dwelling-place of God and the dwelling-place of man, not commingled, but conjoined. Just what the relation of the heavenly to the earthly will be, we cannot tell. The fact of relationship is revealed, but not its nature. That Christ will appear from time to time as the earth's acknowledged ruler; that he will appear especially at Jerusalem; that through the ministry of his saints in the heavenly sphere and the ministry of restored and repentant Israel in the earthly sphere, he will rule the world in righteousness; all this [we may affirm] is clearly revealed.

In Daniel vii. 27, it is said that the kingdom, etc., under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High [places]. On this verse Mr. Tregelles' remarks: "This appears to me to be a different statement, informing us that a certain

"

1 The circumstances under which this exposition was written seemed to render unnecessary any attempt to cite authorities, or to trace the origin of thoughts expressed. It is the result of the study of several years-if a busy pastor's efforts are worthy of the name-and while the author lays no claim to originality, it would be impossible for him to give credit to the writers to whom he is indebted. We wish, however, to make one exception, and acknowledge our indebtedness and direct attention to one author and his work, viz., REMARKS ON THE PROPHETIC VISIONS OF THE BOOK OF DANIEL, BY S. P. TRAGELLES, LL. D. Fifth Edition. Samuel Bagster and Sons. London: 1864." If this paper leads anyone to consult this able production, or if it should by any means lead some publisher to issue an American edition of a work which first appeared in printed form over a quarter of a century ago, and has had the advantage of several revisions by its learned and pious author, so that it could be ob tained at a reasonable price, we could not feel that the publication of this paper was useless.

kingdom not co-extensive with that of the Son of Man, will be given to a certain nation." I think the distinction referred to by this able critic is important. A certain people are referred to, sustaining such relations to the heavenly saints as to be called the people of the saints of the Most High. The people referred to in this prophecy are Daniel's people—the Jews. We are taught in this place, and more in detail by other prophets, that the Jewish remnant who survive the calamities of the last days, having looked upon Him whom they have pierced and accepted the Messiah, will occupy again a preéminent position in the earth, and that the spared Gentiles will be blessed through and with them. These are the "elect," for whose sake the days of tribulation will be shortened. Men in the flesh will inhabit the earth as the subjects of Messiah's kingdom. Our Gentile pride leads us to overlook the lessons of prophecy and the teachings of Paul in Romans as to the "olive-tree." We forget that in the first ages, it was regarded even by apostles as wonderful that Gentiles should be admitted to the fellowship of the "one body" on equal terms with the Jews.

As to the blessedness of Christ's reign, we need only to divest our minds of the spiritualizing tendency of the present age, and read in the prophets, in language far more sublime than any uninspired composition, of the righteousness and peace and plenty of that period when "the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea."

Finally. We will not occupy time with practical reflections. Our Father has taken us into his confidence, and makes known to us what he is about to perform in the earth and what is to be the final issue of all things, in order that the hearts of his children may be cheered by the glorious prospect, and that they, being instructed, may find their proper place and work in the midst of present things; and we do well to take heed to these lessons of prophecy "as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day-star arise in [our] hearts."

ALLEGHENY CITY, PA.

B. F. WOODBURN.

A BIOGRAPHICAL AND BIBLIOGRAPHICAL

ACCOUNT OF DR. H. A. W. MEYER.

ΟΝ

N the twenty-first day of June, 1873, the world lost a man the like of whom does not, perhaps, now exist. Doctor H. A. W. Meyer, who has been for many years the recognized head of New Testament exegesis, was on that day called from his life of toil on earth to his heavenly rest. When a man distinguished for piety or for talent or for extraordinary learning passes away, we delight to read the story of his life. Doctor Meyer was distinguished for all of these together, as well as also for a force of character not always found in pious, talented and learned men. I am convinced that to most people who are given to the reading of fiction, the biographies of great and good men, properly written, were they placed within their reach, would be full as interesting, a thousand times more profitable. It is not an occasion for discussing at length the great importance of biographical literature. Biography is a department of history-history as far as it goes-the history of individuals directly, and for the most part indirectly of the time, in so far as it reflects the genius, the institutions, the thought of the time. Whatever importance, then, attaches to history in general, attaches to biography, or the history of prominent and representative individuals. But apart from the importance and interest that attach to history as such, I do not hesitate to affirm that biography is the most inspiring

of all literature. It stimulates to exertion as can nothing else. What youth that has read biographies of Niebuhr and Bunsen, of Edwards and Stuart, has not felt within him a quickening of all his energies? "What these men have done, under great difficulties for the most part, surely I too can do, if I will only work as they worked. Could they live in the world without stooping to vice or dishonesty, maintain within themselves the integrity which was their birthright? So can I, if I will but conduct myself as they conducted themselves. By patient and long-continued study did they arrive at eminence and usefulness? Nothing hinders me from pursuing the same course, with the same result." Such is the influence of the stories of good men's lives upon boys and men-upon all who are are capable of being aroused to exertion.

The life of a great Biblical scholar cannot but exert a salutary influence upon the student of theology. Happily for us, Doctor Meyer's own son has given us a sketch of his sainted father. Nobody else was, it is probable, so well fitted for this labor of love. His sketch is brief. It was incompatible with his design to extend it. It omits much that we would gladly know; but it reveals to us in its briefness much more than we could otherwise have known-much that deserves the thanks of every admirer of the works and the person of Doctor Meyer. "Admirers of the person," did I say? Most of those who are familiar with the works of Doctor Meyer know scarcely anything of the incidents of his life. How can they be designated as admirers of his person? Let me suggest. There are two kinds of books, personal and impersonal. The latter might as well have been written by the king of the Sandwich Islands as by the German scholar or the French savant; they are without individuality; they merely embody the thought of the time in the form of the time. The former, while they embody the results of other men's investigations, while they fully express the condition of the world's knowledge in the particular sphere of inquiry, express also the firmly-grasped, sharply-defined opinions of individual men. Everything about a work of this kind makes you think that the author is a man of thought and feeling, that his work is not that of an automaton, but of a living spirit. Such are the works of Doctor Meyer. No one can study them without being impressed with the individuality of the author. All of us who have made use of his commentaries must have been filled with admiration, not for the commentaries simply, but for the commentator. We love the person of him who has contributed so much to the right understanding of the word of God. Whoever reveals to us something of the inner life of so worthy a man, does for us a very great