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of time; the only-begotten Son, he remains the same forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end.* The prophets foresaw him by the Spirit, and waited for him as their teacher, and expected him as their Lord and Saviour, saying, " He will come and save us." But he was truly man. as well as truly God. He possessed all the faculties of a human being. He ate, and drank, and slept. He was born of a virgin, baptized by John, and crucified by Pilate. He lived a

Holy life, and healed every kind of sickness and disease among the people, and wrought signs and wonders for the benefit of men; and to those who had fallen into the error of polytheism he made known the one and only true God, his Father, and underwent the passion, and endured the cross at the hands of the Christ-killing Jews, under Pontius Pilate the governor and Herod the king. He also died, and rose again, and ascended into the heavens to him that sent him, and is sat down at his right hand, and shall come at the end of the world, with his Father's glory, to judge the living and the dead, and to render to every one according to bis works.§

2. The Church. The teaching of the letters regarding the Church, the bishop, and the sacraments, is exhibited in the following extract:

See that ye all follow the bishop, even as Christ does the Father, and the presbytery as ye would the apostles. Do ye also reverence the deacons, as those that carry out [through their office] the appointment of God. Let no man do any thing connected with the Church without the bishop. Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist which is [administered] either by the bishop or by one to whom he has intrusted it. Wherever the bishop shall appear there let the multitude [of the people] also be; even as where Christ is, there does all the heavenly host stand by, waiting upon him as the chief captain of the Lord's might, and the governor of every intelligent nature. It is not lawful without the bishop either to baptize or to offer, or to present sacrifice, or to celebrate a love-feast. But that which seems good to him is also well-pleasing to God, that every thing ye do may be secure and valid. ¶

In conclusion, it only remains to present a brief review of the Ignatian controversy. Since the publication of the longer Greek recension by Pacæus in 1557 and by Gessner in 1559, and of the shorter Greek by Archbishop Usher in 1644, down + Mag., ix; Isa. XXXV, 4. § Mag., xi.

* Mag., vi; Dan. ii, 44; vii, 14, 27.
Tral., x.

Some refer this to the Lord's Supper.

¶ Smyr., viii.

to the discovery of the Syriac version, criticism vacillated in its adherence to these two texts. The longer Greek was defended by Whiston (1710-11) and by C. Meier, (1836.) Daillé (Dallæus) (1666) refused to acknowledge the authenticity of either version; but the Vindicia of Bishop Pearson, (1672,) in reply to Daillé, inclined critical opinion toward the acceptance of the shorter Greek. In 1743 Lardner, (“Credibility of Gospel History,") though favoring the views of Pearson, acknowledged that, "whatever positiveness some may have shown on either side," he had "found it a very difficult question." Similar expressions of doubt were made by Justin, (1751,) Mosheim, (1765,) Griesbach, (1768,) Rosenmüller, (1795,) Neander, (1826,) and by other scholars. The discovery of the Syriac MSS. reopened the discussion. In 1846 Dr. Cureton published his Vindicia Ignatiana, and three years later his Corpus Ignatianum, defending the Syriac version. His view was accepted by Lee, (1846,) Chev. Bunsen, (1847,) Ritschl, (1851, and later in 1857,) Weiss, (1852,) and by Lipsius, (1856;) and rejected by Jacobson, by Hefele in his third edition of the "Apostolic Fathers," by Dewzinger, (1849,) Petermann, (1849,) Uhlhorn, (1851 and 1856,) Rothe, (1837,) Huther, (1841,) and by Düsterdieck, (1843.) Dorner, (1845,) before the publication of the Syriac MSS., accepted the shorter Greek recension.

ART. III.-ISAIAH'S VISION OF THE CROSS.

PRE-EMINENT among all Messianic prophecies, unsurpassed in the grandeur and solemnity of its poetic diction, profound in its divine teachings beyond most other Scriptures, and full of inimitable pathos, stands the inexhaustible Fifty-third of Isaiah. It is the ancient Ecce Homo of an inspired man of God, an Old Testament Psalm of the Cross, setting forth in rhythmic form a prophetic picture of Vicarious Atonement. To be appreciated by the English reader it should be presented to his eye in poetic form, and our language affords no better measure than that of the heroic blank verse in which to set this matchless jewel of Hebrew poetry.

RHYTHMIC VERSION OF ISAIAH LII, 13—LIII,

13 Behold, with wisdom shall my servant act;
He shall rise, and be lifted and become
Exceeding high. (14) As wonderstruck on thee
Multitudes gazed, (so marred from man his form,
And his appearance from the sons of men,)
15 So shall he sprinkle nations, multitudes.

12.

O'er him shut kings their mouths; for what was not
Told them they saw, and what they had not heard
(LIII.) They have been meditating. (1) Who believed
What we heard? And Jehovah's arm, on whom
Was it uncovered? (2) And he shall grow up
Like a young shoot before him; like a root
From the dry earth. No graceful form was his,
Nor ornamental splendor; and we looked,
And not a sight that we could wish for him!
3 Dishonored and forsaken of mankind,

A man of sorrows, knowing sickness well,
He was like one who hides the face from us,
Dishonored, and we valued not his worth.

4 Surely, our sicknesses he lifted up;

Our sorrows, he bore them; and we supposed
That he was stricken with a penal curse,

Smitten of God, and pained! (5) And he was pierced
For our transgressions; crushed down for our sins;
The chastisement of our peace upon him,

And by his stripes came healing unto us!

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; each man
To his own way we turned us, and Jehovah
Mediated in him the sin of all of us.

7 Harassed was he, and he was sunken low
In anguish, but he opened not his mouth.
As a sheep to the slaughter he was led,
And as a ewe before her shearers, dumb
With silence, and he opened not his mouth.

8 From suffering and from judgment he was seized,
And in his generation who will tell

That he was cut off from the land of life

Because of the transgression of my people,

A curse for them? (9) And he shall give the unjust
His sepulcher, and the rich man in his death,

Although no act of violence wrought he,
And there was no deception in his mouth.

10 Thus was Jehovah pleased to crush him down;
He made him sick. If thou set forth his soul.

An offering for sin, he shall see seed;

He shall prolong his days, and in his hand
The pleasure of Jehovah shall prevail.

11 Of the laborious travail of his soul

Shall he see; he shall be well satisfied.
In his superior knowledge will he bring,
The righteous one, my servant, righteousness
To multitudes, and their sins he will bear.
12 Therefore will I apportion him a lot

With many, and among the mighty ones
Will he divide the spoil. Because he bared

To death his soul, and was with sinners numbered.
And he the sin of many took away,

And for the sinners ever intercedes.

CRITICAL NOTES.

Chap. lii, 13. In harmony with all the ancient versions, (Chaldee excepted,) we translate p, shall act with wisdom. Deut. xxix, 8; Josh. i, 7, 8; Prov. xvii, 8; and Jer. x, 21, are cited by some scholars as instances where the word is equivalent to , to prosper, which is the reading of the Chaldee; but in all these cases the primary and acknowledged meaning, to act wisely, suits the context as well, if not better. Nor does Hebrew parallelism require, as some critics have assumed, that the several members must closely correspond in thought. It is the wise action of Jehovah's servant that contributes as a means to his great exaltation. And be lifted-Not extolled, as the common version here renders . It is doubtful if sw ever has that meaning. The literal and common signification of the passive form, (Niphal,) to be lifted, best conveys the thought, which Jesus also utters in John xii, 32; and Paul in Phil. ii, 9. See a thorough and exhaustive discussion of this word, especially in its relation to the doctrine of Atonement, in the Bibliotheca Sacra for July, 1873; pp. 422-464.

T.

Verse 14. Wonderstruck-The word app includes in its signification mingled surprise, horror, astonishment, and awe.

- :

It often requires several English words to present the full force of a single Oriental term. To gaze in wondering astonishment is all implied in the single Hebrew word here used. Marred-The word nn is really a noun meaning defacement or deformity; from , to destroy. But in this construction it is best rendered as a passive participle. Marred from manhere has the meaning and force of separation and distinction from; which makes it more specific than a mere comparative, more than any man." His form was so marred as to be different from the ordinary appearance of a man.

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Verse 15. Sprinkle-Such is elsewhere the only meaning of the word. But it is usually construed with y, or s, and with mention of that which was sprinkled. Hence several eminent scholars have suspected a corruption of the text, and proposed other readings. The Septuagint has davμáoovrat, wonder at; and Le Clerc, Rosenmüller, Maurer, Hitzig and Knobel adopt in substance this meaning, though with various slight modifications. Gesenius (Lex.) renders, So shall he cause many nations to rejoice in himself. But we may safely dismiss the proposed emendations as far-fetched and needless, and the Septuagint version, with all its modifications by these later critics, as unsustained by any thing analogous in the language. The absence of the particle or is no sufficient

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reason for giving the word an entirely new and different meaning, and it is reasonable to assume that the prophet purposely avoided a direct and particular specification of the substance to be sprinkled. He uses an incomplete but pregnant. expression, and leaves his readers to gather his meaning from the ordinary hallowed associations of the word. See an able exposition of this passage by Professor Tayler Lewis, Bibliotheca Sacra for January, 1873. O'er him kings shut their mouths—vy, over him; that is, on account of him; or, more precisely, as they look upon him and ponder over him. Nägelsbach well observes, "On account of his surprisingly imposing appearance, they are dumb." Gesenius, after the Septuagint, construes with what precedes, but contrary to the Masoretic pointing and the better meaning of the passage.

TT

Chap. liii, 1. What we heard-Heb., any. Eng. ver., our

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