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questions and the Lord's answer, as designating the temporal troubles of the downfall of Jerusalem and the Jews, and thereby marking a clear distinction throughout between that downfall and the second advent. Mr. Nagler endeavors, in divers sharp ways, to spoil this our nice fix. He quotes Mark, and he might have quoted Luke, as giving the question, not about the " coming," but about "these things" solely, asking what should be "the sign" of their completion. That is, as we interpret, they furnish the question only about the troubles, and not about the advent. Matthew, on the other hand, furnishes the question about "the sign" of the advent alone; yet he really gives "the sign" (xxiv, 15) of the crisis when they shall take their flight from the city's destruction. Our conclusion, then, is, that each evangelist makes an omission. Matthew omits the word "sign" in reference to the destruction, Mark and Luke omit the inquiry as to the advent. "These things," therefore, is still without contradiction, limited to the temporal troubles.

Again, Mr. Nagler quotes Luke xxi, 28, "When these things begin to come to pass, lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh," and questions whether the city's destruction furnished any such ground of jubilation. We understand our Lord as bidding them not hang their heads in fear and despondency as Jews bound to destruction, but to lift up their brows at the moment of their deliverance from both the despotism and doom of Jerusalem and Judaism, and their escape to their refuge in Pella.

But Mr. Nagler thinks our limitation of "these things" to the troubles is contradicted by Luke xxi, 36, "Watch ye, therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man." A proper paraphrase of Luke xxi, 36, we think, would be: Watch and pray, that you, my disciples, may escape all these tribulations through which you will be called to pass without apostasy, and may stand uncondemned before Christ's judgment bar. Compare Matt. xxiv, 13.

To those who doubt whether so relative a phrase as these things should have so substantive a meaning as our interpretation assumes, we suggest: 1. This phrase, as applied to predicted events, occurs in the three reports of these discourses no less than seventeen times, and must have been actually spoken eight times. The fact that all three evangelists report the phrase with such unanimity implies their strong impression of its prominence; and the fact of its repeated use by our Lord implies a definite and

substantial import. 2. In all these eight instances at least five clearly designate the troubles of the Jews, and not the second advent. First, in the question of the disciples, as given by Matthew, there is an obvious antithesis between these things and coming. That this antithesis is real is demonstrated by the repetition of the antithesis in the answer, "these things (so Luke) must be, but the end is not yet." Here even Mr. Nagler will admit that these things and end, the troubles and the advent, are opposites, and exclude each other. Second, (Matt. xxiv, 8,) “All these are the beginning of sorrows," where, clearly, the troubles are meant. Third, (Luke xxi, 12,) Before all these things; where these things refers to the earthquakes and commotions of the previous verse; and so must designate the troubles, and not the advent. Fourth, (Luke xxi, 36,) "Ye may escape all these things, and stand before the Son of man ;" where these things are first to be escaped before and antithetical to the advent. Fifth, (Matt. xxiii, 36,) "All these things," namely, the temporal punishments for their ancestral sins, "shall come upon this generation." Now these five cases inductively prove that the other three cases must have this meaning, if they will possibly bear it. And then the sixth, (Luke xxi, 28,) "When these things shall begin to come to pass," and, seventh, (verse 31,) applying the parable of the fig-tree, "When ye see these things come to pass," must not refer to the advent, because that event was not, like the blossom of the fig-tree, a gradually appearing process, but a sudden and unwarned event, "like a thief in the night." We think, then, we fairly prove that seven of the eight cases refer to the temporal troubles, and, therefore, so must the eighth; namely, Matt. xxiv, 34, "Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass away until all these things be fulfilled." This celebrated passage does not declare that the advent should take place in that generation, but that the troubles should. And if this argument is valid, our interpretation of that discourse must stand uninvalidated.

We still decline a solution of the difficulties of this discourse by a false definition of "generation." For, 1. The meaning race is without, or nearly without, precedent. Delitzsch is indeed quoted as having found a few instances in the Septuagint; but that, if true, does not justify our rejecting its sense in all other Greek literature and fixing it here. 2. Our admission, quoted by Mr. Nagler, that the word in Luke xii, 8 means "kind, class, species," means only "kind, class, species," viewed contemporaneously, not as in a line of descent through time. 3. Even were the meaning

"race" admissible the parallel passage, (xxiii, 36,) “Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation," decides that a contemporaneous generation is meant. The antithesis is between the sins of previous generations and the concentrated penalty upon "this generation." 4. The meaning "race" gives an inane sense to the words. The meaning, then, is, The Jewish race shall not pass away until the destruction of Jerusalem and the judgment-day are completed! That perverts the passage from telling how soon "these things" shall take place, answering the question "when," to telling us how long the Jewish race shall endure. We may add that, according to Robinson's "New Testament Lexicon," a generation was, Hebraically, understood to include a hundred years, so that the destruction of the city would be included within the period.

We cordially commend the work of Mr. Nagler, especially to the attention of our German brethren, who bring from the dear old "Fatherland" some dreamy Chiliastic theories, which the free, fresh air of our America should blow away.

Faith and Character. By MARVIN R. VINCENT, D.D. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1880.

It is long since we opened a volume of sermons so real and wholesome as these. Many pulpit utterances are pervaded by an air of unreality such that the hearers find nothing in them which touches upon their own duties or experience. The terms are conventional and meaningless, or the statements are strained until they become false. In fact, we would not expose a thoughtful child to the utterances of many pulpits whereof we know, for any consideration, because of the artificial and unreal nature of the ministrations. The pulpit in general has not yet got fully clear of the notion that the aim of Christ is to get men into a physical paradise, instead of saving them from sin and sinning. The Universalist pulpit of the last generation was almost entirely possessed with the notion that hell is the only thing to be dreaded. Dr. Vincent has a more Christian conception. Holy character is made the great aim of life; and each sermon deals either with the relations and bearings of character, or with the principle of faith in the unseen as its only permanent basis. The right of God to our lives, and the power of Christ to save and sanctify all who will accept him, are dwelt upon and emphasized in the most earnest and tender manner. The piety of our time needs nothing more than to learn the Christian way FOURTH SERIES, VOL. XXXII.-25

of looking at our earthly life. It is not a prison, not an exile, not an accident, but a divine order in which God gives himself to us for our discipline and development. The daily duty, the dreary routine, the unhonored lot-all these express the divine will concerning us; and by accepting them as such we can exalt and glorify them by our faithfulness and courage and honor. Christ redeems the present life no less than the future, and reconciles us to it. We commend the work in hand as a help to the realization of this thought.

Commentary on the New Testament.

B.

Intended for Popular Use. By D. D. WHEDON, LL.D. Vol. V. Titus-Revelation. 12mo., pp. 483. New York: Phillips & Hunt. Cincinnati: Hitchcock & Walden. We have some hope that about the time this Quarterly is in the hands of its readers the fifth and last volume of our Commentary on the New Testament will be upon the salesman's counter. In the slender train of our life's history, our readers will excuse us for saying, this completion is an epoch. Gratitude to a gracious Providence that has spared and strengthened us to this end, gladness that it is beyond contingency, solemnity as if at the loss of a dear friend who has vacated his place, are very natural and excusable feelings. The favor with which the work has been received has cheered us in the labor. And we shall be greatly disappointed if our closing volume be not as favorably received as either of its predecessors, and the closing book, the apocalypse, as favorably as any book we have touched in the canon.

Not much later we hope our publishers will be able to furnish forth two more of the volumes of the Old Testament Commentary. The one is by Drs. Burr, Hunter, and Hyde; and the other, on the Psalms, by Dr. Hibbard. We doubt not that both these books will be highly acceptable to the Church. We much regret that, by circumstances beyond our own control, the Old Testament series has been so long delayed. We did expect, at the last General Conference, that the close of the present quadrennium would see the entire work, both Old Testament and New, completed. We can only now say that it is only delayed, not abandoned.

The Doctrine of Man. The Seventh Series of the Cunningham Lectures. By JOHN LAIDLAW, M.A., Minister of Free West Church, Aberdeen. 8vo., pp. 397. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. 1879.

This work consists of six lectures, delivered in 1878 at the Free Church College of Edinburgh. They discuss the idea of Man as presented in the Bible, with ample erudition, ancient and modern,

with no little insight, and in a fresh and copious style. The development of the subject opens a series of important and interesting topics, discussed in a vigorous spirit, if not always with a satisfactory result. Lecture First analyzes the biblical account of man's creation, in which the two narratives of man's creation, given in Genesis, are critically examined and pronounced to be varying, yet consistent, and supplementing each other. This is compared with the evolutionary theories, the evidences of which, together with those adduced in behalf of pre-Adamic man, are pronounced to be, as yet, insufficient. Lecture Second examines the nature of man as biblically presented, introducing an ample discussion of the trinality of man's constitution. Lecture Third inquires into the import of the divine image in which man was created, with a discussion of the true nature of man unfallen. Lecture Fifth contemplates man as fallen, and Sixth the psychologic nature of the new life, which brings up the nature of regen'eration and sanctification. Lecture Sixth surveys man's future destiny, including his immortality and resurrection. There are many points on which we differ with the author in his conclusions. His theology is, of course, Calvinistic. We do not think his views of the threefoldness of man's constitution to be clear or conclusive. His doctrine of man's future affirms a "resurrection" verbally only, and really maintains not a resurrection of the body, but a substitution of a new body. Yet his volume is well worth the attention of the theological student.

The Typology of Scripture. Viewed in Connection with the whole Series of the Divine Dispensations. By PATRICK FAIRBAIRN, D.D. 8vo., vol. i, pp. 420; vol. ii, pp. 484. New York: N. Tibbals & Sons.

For the biblical student, specially interested in the study of the Old Testament and its relations to the New, these volumes are of priceless value. Dr. Fairbairn was a fresh and penetrative thinker-modern without being revolutionary, and rational without being rationalistic. The types of Scripture in former times had been handled in a most wild and lawless spirit. With a fine mastery of the erudition of the subject, and a clear insight into its principles, he traced the laws by which types are regulated, and drew out the true methods of interpretation with great truth and beauty. The result greatly elucidates the connection between the two great volumes of Revelation. The two divine dispensations are revealed as one great whole, and the two testaments appear as one great organic Book. Let our theological scholars master the contents of this biblical master-piece.

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