Thus, the argument in connexion with these three There is the full, clear, express declaration of vicarious propositions entirely fails. For it does not follow that expiation. It is the first formal revelation of the wonwhen Christ and the church appear in glory, the work drous fact, that a certain one from amongst the sons of of salvation will terminate. Nor is it Scriptural, nor men-a sinless man-should be the victim of atonement even logical, to assert that none will be saved when the between Jehovah and his people. Who this sinless one New Testament "sealing ordinances" disappear; for should be is not revealed; but the fact that such an beyond doubt many were saved before these ordinances one should suffer is announced with the utmost definiteappeared. All the objects of the Scripture will not be ness. Would that we might quote the chapter, as a exhausted, because the special design of this dispensation whole. But who knows it not? Who that has ever is accomplished. Finally, Christ will still be Priest, known the sinfulness of sin, has not turned hopefully and the Spirit be more than ever poured out after and with comfort to this wondrous prophecy! the completion of the church, and of this age. In Grounded on this announcement of atonement and every part, therefore, Dr. B. is singularly and hope-justification, by the sufferings of one for all, we have in lessly astray; and some of his arguments go far to chapter 55, an invitation full of evangelical light and strengthen the system which he desires to oppose and overthrow, in particular the peculiarity of the church and present dispensation, and a millennium governed by different principles, and characterized by mercies of

another order.

Original Contributions.

THE DAWNING LIGHT OF PROPHECY.-No. IV. THERE are several special portions of the grand course of prophecy comprised in chapters 40 to 66 of Isaiah, which, though we cannot quote them, we must at least point attention to, in a glance, however brief, at the dawning light of prohpecy.

grace. There are living waters, wine and milk, offered without money and without price. The future day of judgment is not the sole topic which is connected with the introduction of the better age. It is, alas, very solemnly prominent; but grace, and penitence, and conversion are all to be vouchsafed. An "everlasting covenant" is to be made with Jehovah's people; "even the sure mercies of David." The term of that covenant is, "Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live." There is more than the mere dawn of prophetic light here also.

We have already before us, indeed, almost every element of prophetic light, concerning the Messiah in his future earthly relationship. Heavenly things remained a mystery still; but very full revelation is afforded in the remaining prophetic books of the Old Testament, as to the earthly things of the future kingdom.

The marvellous tenderness, and the persevering and sovereign grace, by which Israel shall yet be converted and won back to Jehovah-hardened, degraded, cold, and insensate as the Jew has notoriously become, dur- JEREMIAH presents formally the making of a new coing so many dreary ages of dispersion and unbelief-venant with the house of Judah and Israel, in connexion are features of this vast course of prophetic dealing, with full and solemn announcements of most of the which must not be overlooked. How does Jehovah, in grand events already seen in previous scriptures. See these chapters, seek to gain the ear, to soften the heart, for example chapters 30 and 31. to comfort the spirit, to win the confidence of this despised and down-trodden people! Let chapters 40, 44, 45, 48, 49, 54 and 55, be read with this thought in view. The burthen is this:

For the mountains shall depart,-and the hills be removed;
But my kindness shall not depart from thee,

Neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed,
Saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee."
Well, Gentile reader, this Jehovah of the Jew will
have mercy upon the Gentile also. In the full light of
subsequent revelations, there is hope, yea, full assurance,
both of faith, hope, and understanding, even for the
Gentile dog that approaches Jehovah in the way of his
own provision.

See how that way is set forth even in this prophecy of Isaiah. There is more than merely dawning light thereon, afforded in the well-known 53rd chapter.

EZEKIEL sets forth the departure of the glory from its earthly habitation, and then its future return; shewing the actings of a grand confederacy, of eastern nations chiefly, against the land and nation of Israel, at the period when the people shall have returned and settled in the land. This confederacy is quite distinct from that western one, which, under Antichrist, shall seize upon Jerusalem, and for a time oppress the Jews. This one, of Gog and Magog, will transpire somewhat later than that of Antichrist. Composed of Magog, Rosh, Meshech and Tubal, and apparently of the remains of the nations, which at the first are headed by Antichrist, it assaults the land, after a season of quiet repose in the land, has been enjoyed by the nation. It seems to be a Russian aggression that is here predicted. It is judged of God, and then all the earth is quiet, and all commotions at an end. As to the glory, see Ezekiel xi. 23, and xlii. 1 to 7; and respecting the confederacy, see chapters 37 to 39.

DANIEL reveals the great facts of the times of the Gentiles. Four empires should successively rule over and oppress the rebellious nation of the Jews. Yet but one grand idea is seen throughout the course of all these empires. It is man's unity of power, having its rise from Babylon, in opposition to God's unity, which

personal coming? This prophecy does not reveal the mode of the coming which is predicted. We could not from this Scripture only, determine it. But surely, in the light of subsequent predictions, we may be assured that it is none other than the second personal return of the Lord Jesus that is here foretold.

MALACHI, too, furnishes testimony to the great events of the future; we can furnish one brief quotation only :—

"For behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven;

And all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be

stubble:

And the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord

of hosts,

That it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

But unto you that fear my name

Shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his
wings;

And ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes
under the soles of your feet

ing to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the
effectual working of his power. Unto me, who am less
than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I
should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable
riches of Christ; and to make all men see, what is the
fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of
the world hath been hid in God, who created all things
by Jesus Christ: to the intent that now unto the
principalities and powers in heavenly places might be
known, by the church, the manifold wisdom of God."
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly
above all that we ask or think, according to the power
that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by
Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end.
Amen.
Ꮎ .

SOME ACCOUNT OF MANUSCRIPTS. No doubt the most ancient writing material was stone. This was the substance that most readily presented itself, when men were rather anxious to preserve indeIn the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts. structible records than to multiply copies. Probably Such is the tenor of the predictions of the Old Tes- the account of altars being built, and of a name being tament. The introduction, by a crisis of mingled mercy solemnly imposed upon them-as when Laban and and judgment, of the universal reign of a king ap- Jacob parted in mount Gilead-may refer to the inpointed by Jehovah, is the grand feature of them all. scriptions then cut on the stone, which was to serve as But there is a mystery yet behind. This king is to a memorial. At any rate we have positive information have a heavenly bride, as well as earthly subjects. This that in the oldest known documents that were intended the Old Testament does not reveal. For this wondrous as books, viz., the commandments received by Moses thought we must proceed to the New. The church-from Jehovah, were engraved on stone.

the body of the saints of the present interval, between No material could have been more durable. But it the departure and the return of the Lord Jesus-was was, at the same time, costly and cumbrous. There not the subject of Old Testament predictions. The are inscriptions in Egypt of a very hoar antiquity insaints of that past dispensation shall sit down in the deed, reaching up perhaps to the very dawn of human heavenly places of the future kingdom in the presence of postdiluvian history; but then they are on the tombs of the king as his friends, the "friends" of the bridegroom, kings, demanding a royal treasury for their execution, and they shall rejoice to see him take his bride; but and a royal sepulchre for their place. Where stone was they shall not be of the bride. The saints of the future lacking, as in the plains of the Tigris and Euphrates, period shall be reigned over by the king, but they shall men were driven to adopt other expedients, and we not reign with him, as the bride shall. There are find at Nineveh and Babylon, no longer inscriptions spheres of glory; there are gradations in the kingdom. carved in rock, but impressions stamped in clay. The "heavenly things" were a subsequent revelation. Earthly things shall be the portion of Israel, and the nations. Heavenly things, as well as royalty over earthly things, are the portion of the bridegroom, of the bride, and of their "friends." "That in the dispensation of the fulness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in him."

:

The day succeeds the dawn. The dawning light brightens into noon-day splendour. We direct attention onwards to that "completion" of the word of God which was vouchsafed to the apostles, especially to Paul. And we conclude these very hasty sketches of a few leading features only, of God's progressive revelation, in the words of that highly favoured apostle :"Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ; which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel; whereof I was made a minister, accord

From a very early period-we cannot say whenleather must have come into use, as making books at least more portable than the stone or the clay. Nothing was more likely to suggest itself; and in all probability the rolls occasionally mentioned in the Bible were made of leather. Bark of trees is said to have served for books; and it is affirmed that the Latin word Liber -whence we derive many words in our own language— was originally this inner bark. Allied to this last was the better-known and more widely-used papyrus, furnished by a kind of reed that is almost peculiar to the Nile, and which certainly came into very early use. For, however fragile the papyrus books may appear, there are some in the British Museum, to which is assigned an age that reaches back to the time of the Exodus.

The export of papyrus seems to have formed a considerable item in the trade of Egypt. And the Ptolemæan dynasty boasted of being at once the patrons of literature, and the owners of the most convenient material for writing. Papyrus was probably cheap and readily obtained. But a new, a more expensive,

and a far more valuable material had come to be known a few generations before the Christian era, destined to preserve some of the most precious documents of that era. Without parchment, it may be questioned whether the Scriptures would have come to us in the abundant quantity of copies that we possess. Probably on a less expensive sheet the same pains would not have been taken to make those copies accurate.

ment instead. Now also arose the custom of erasing what was written on old parchment, and of re-writing something on it of more immediate interest. In this way, doubtless, many relics of antiquity have disappeared. While, from the imperfect manner in which the old writing was sometimes effaced, it has occasionally been recovered. A manuscript thus restored, from under the second writing above it, is called a palimpsest, and a codex rescriptus. There is, for instance, in the British Museum, one of the oldest known manuscripts of Homer's poems thus resuscitated. Recently Carlinal Angelo Mai discovered in the Vatican Library of Rome a lost treatise of Cicero de Republicâ, over which had Psalms. And one of the most precious existing MSS. of the New Testament is now in Paris, over which had been written the works of the Syrian father Ephraim. The want of something cheaper than parchment was soon met by the discovery of paper; which seems to have come gradually, and as it were imperceptibly, into use. There is no evidence that cotton paper was used in Europe earlier than the 9th century; while that The kings who ruled there imitated the Ptolemies in made from linen was not known before the 12th. In patronising learning, and founding a library. They this case, as in many other European discoveries, the excited, in consequence, the jealousy of the Egyptian Chinese are said to have preceded us, though without sovereigns; one of whom, Ptolemy Epiphanes, about ever making their inventions very extensively useful. 190 B.C., in order to arrest the growth of a library that It must be also clearly recollected that the newly-disbade fair to rival that of Alexandria, prohibited the ex-covered material was supposed to be in the place of the portation of papyrus. Thereupon, the king of Perga-papyrus which was gone: as the name of the ancient mos, driven to his own resources, encouraged the inven- reed-made papyrus was quickly applied to the paper tion of a new writing material. And a peculiar made from the cotton or the linen. preparation of skins became known, called, from Pergamos, Charta Pergamene, or parchment.

About the early half of the second century before Christ, when the Romans were engaged in contesting the empire of Eastern Europe with the kings of Macedonia, there arose out of the ruins of some of the larger fragments of Alexander's dominions, a small kingdom in the north-west of Asia Minor, that owed much of been written a commentary of St. Augustin on the its fortune to the favour of the Romans, and perhaps for that reason incurred the suspicion and dislike of its neighbours. It was called the kingdom of Pergamos, from the city of that name, afterwards immortalised as the seat of one of the seven churches which the apostle addressed in the beginning of his apocalypse. A town still stands on or near the ancient site, preserving in the name of Bergamo the recollection of Pergamos.

a corroborating testimony to the age of a document.

The quality of the material upon which any manuscript may be written, goes of course a considerable way This is the story, which has been sometimes doubted. in determining its age. The parchment of one century But at any rate, it was in Pergamos that the parchment is not the same as that of another. Nothing written attained its greatest celebrity, and from that city it on cotton paper can be older than Charlemagne; and certainly took its name. Parchment, and its finer kind, nothing on linen paper, than William the Conqueror. vellum, have ever since retained the renown of uniting Moreover the quality of the material decided most una convenient form and surface with a tolerably imperish-erringly the kind of characters traced, and so gives us able nature. Nothing but the cost, ever prevented this becoming the one material for books. The story of papyrus being no longer exported from Egypt may be true. But if so, the prohibition could only have been temporary; for papyrus was certainly used in Italy, and without doubt, elsewhere also. At a later epoch, as we know from the discoveries at Pompeii and Herculaneum, and indeed down to the Arabian occupation of Egypt in the seventh century, papyrus still seems to have been the ordinary substance for writing in most parts of Europe.

The characters of every branch of the three great languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, were all originally much the same. Many of our own printed capital letters approach most nearly to the oldest known types of the Phoenician and the Greek alphabets. They were generally hard, and composed of straight lines, indicating that they had first been cut upon stone; just as the cuneiform characters of Nineveh and Babylon are precisely such as would be stamped on clay with the blunt end of a style.

The seizure of Egypt, however, by the Mahommedans, From the ancient Phoenician type, two chief branches is said to have stopped the use of papyrus thenceforward divided: the ancient Greek and the ancient Hebrew for ever. It is not likely that it was known at any time character. The former are represented almost exactly afterwards. Soon there came in the dark ages, when by the capital Greek letters now in use; while the almost all records of the ancient civilization seemed latter have no living representatives, but are known by about to perish; and only the monasteries still pre-inscriptions on coins of the Maccabæan dynasties, and served some few valued treasures of literature. Parch- on the ruins of Palmyra: for the Greek small letters, ment became now the only material for writing, and, and the Hebrew square characters, are comparatively little as it was required, it rose in price: so that it was modern. considered a great possession. We are told of a certain Gui, count of Nevers, presenting to the Chartreux of Paris, a service of plate, and of the monks asking for parch

All the ancient Greek manuscripts are therefore written only with the capital, or, as they are called, the uncial letters; being those which would naturally

be formed by any one writing carefully on a valuable gave up their own letters and adopted those of their parchment. But with the use of paper, a new letter masters. And so the square characters came to be became known, viz., what we call the small letter, or called Chaldean. The improbability and the basewhich is also called the cursive character. This small lessness of the story, never seem to have struck any Greek letter was absolutely unknown before the use of one. But as soon as it was discovered that the Babypaper was discovered. Therefore every manuscript so lonians never used this letter, the story was given written is certainly of a date posterior to the age of Charlemagne.

That age was one of considerable activity, and of vigorous effort to escape from the gloom that was settling about Europe. One sign of that activity was the use of paper for the quicker and cheaper writing then demanded. Whether from the use of a cheaper material, or because of the need of quickness, it is certain that men then began to write more rapidly and carelessly, and could no longer wait to form the careful uncial or capital letter, but, by making them quickly, contracted them. into the cursive or small characters, which bore about the same relation to the uncials as our hand-writing now does to our printing. And these small letters were not the well-formed elegant things turned out by our modern type foundries: they were irregular, and ugly, and illegible, differing very much in different manuscripts; so that, even when they came to be printed, it was some time before the printers made them otherwise than had been exhibited in the scrawls of the 13th and 14th centuries. We have begun to make them more regularly and carefully, and have eschewed all those abominable contractions in which the early printers delighted. But still it ought to be borne in mind, as a fact not very generally known, that our small Greek letters, now printed, are really more carefully formed from the bad writing of the manuscripts just anterior to the discovery of printing; and that this bad writing was only a hurried way of dashing through the uncial or capital letters, such as we see on the classical monuments, and in the parchment MSS.

In the case of the Hebrew letters, we have an entirely new mode of proceeding. There are no Hebrew MSS. in existence older than the 10th century, that same age which saw the discovery of paper and the use of small cursive letters. The only ancient monuments of the old Hebrew letter-such as the coins of the Maccabees a coin of Bar Cochab-and the inscriptions at Palmyra-are not the same as the present beautiful square Hebrew character.

up. So likewise, when it is known that these square
characters had no existence before what is also called
the Captivity-in that period when the Babylonian
Jews were governed, under the Sassanians and the
Caliphs, by their own Prince of the Captivity—there
can be little doubt that this period saw the invention
of the square characters; and that the story of the
adoption of them in the time of Ezra, really arose from
confounding together the first and the second captivities
at Babylon.
W. H. J.

"In digging out the foundations of a house which is being built in this city for the Austrian Catholic clergy, the workmen discovered at a depth of about fifteen feet from the surface several subterranean rooms, the walls of which are of hewn discovery is, however, a grotto cut out in the rock, and supstone, and the floor of mosaic. The most important part of the ported by five columns. There are certain indications which lead to the belief that this grotto had served as a church for the early Christians; but the grotto, it is supposed, was formed before the advent of Christianity. Several capitals of Corinthian columns and fragments of antique marbles have also been found. The Austrian, French, and Prussian consuls, accompanied by the architect Endlicher, who is superintending the building, have visited these subterranean galleries, and have had photographic drawings made. The Mussulman authorities throw no obstacles in the way of those archæological researches."

The Abbé J. H. Michon has just published a pamphlet entitled, "La Papauté à Jerusalem." He thinks that the influence of modern ideas having produced no effect on the Administration of affairs at Rome, the progressive element of the nation has become a formidable enemy to the stationary element of the Pontifical Government; that the old machine may, it is We are, therefore, irresistibly driven to the conclusion true, go on, well or ill, so long as it is aided by foreign that these elegant letters come from the schools of diplomacy or foreign occupation; but that the moment Babylon and Tiberias, where the doctors of the post- these are withdrawn, the Papacy will be helplessly Christian dispersion so long congregated, and which exposed to revolution, and that the danger is imminent. were broken up about the 10th century—that is, about The solution of this question is not to be found, he the time of the oldest document in which these square thinks, in political, administrative, or civil reform, nor letters are found. They are precisely of the form which in the secularisation of clerical power. It is to be found pains-taking scrupulous men, like the masoretic doctors only in the abdication of temporal power. He is of of Babylon, would make out of the harder and more opinion that, in such a case, the capital of the spiritual irregular letters hitherto used. And, indeed, the rise Papacy could not be Rome. This power would lose in of these specimens of calligraphy is almost contemporary dignity, and would still suffer from political compliwith the rise of the ecclesiastical or black letter in cations. He believes that there is but one city in the Europe, in the more valuable MSS. which the hard-world which presents conditions indispensable to its working Monks painted, rather than wrote. Formerly independence and grandeur, and where a new era would there was a current opinion that the Jews at the arise for the mission of a true apostle; and that city is Babylonish captivity, in Daniel's and Ezra's time, Jerusalem!