good things, in the best part of Galilee, yet they did not give themselves up to sloth and laziness, but were a warlike and valiant people." Yes; and should not plenty and prosperity always make us active and abounding in the work of the Lord? Is not this the lesson that "the grace which bringeth salvation" teaches us?

Much remains to be discovered as to the use of these genealogical fragments; but it is often pleasant to come into contact with names even of men once renowned, and many of whom we expect to meet among the saints in glory-among the elders who obtained a good report by faith. And one lesson of a general nature we may surely learn-viz., the singular interest shewn by our God in the affairs of men. See how He records, in these genealogies, the curious, and often capricious, names by which fathers called their children. See how our God condescended to copy over the family genealogical records of so many families! Does not this tell His singular pav Oрwπía, (Titus iii. 4,)—the love to man-which is characteristic of our God? In the very dryness of these carefully-detailed pedigrees we may, in this manner, see a real exhibition of that feature of Divine love spoken of in Proverbs viii. 31, “Rejoicing in the habitable parts of the earth." As we, on our part, find a strange pleasure in every minute detail regarding the habits of the Son of man, and even in fancying what they were, so that His seamless garment, the napkin that was wrapt about His head, the names of His brethren-James, and Joses, and Juda, and Simon-are all interesting to us; so it would seem as if our God, in His yearning over men, took delight in the very dust and stones of their decayed dwellings and families. And not least in all that concerns the house of Israel; for it is on the land of Israel that His eye rests with peculiar fondness. Indeed, we cannot but think that these very genealogies furnish us with a pledge that He will yet build up Zion; and we almost feel as if our attempt, in these pages, to gather out what may be precious from these fragments of Zion's walls, were adding to the many other signs, that the time for favour is near. Her saints are taking pleasure in her stones, broken as they are, and in her dust, dry as it is, because her God and King puts that delight into their hearts. And in this we will rejoice, that resuscitation awaits all Israel, and shall ere long be realised-resuscitation awaits the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob their nation, their tribes, their land, their cities, ("For God will build the cities of Judah," Ps. lxix. 35,) their families-ay, and the house of David, the house of Nathan, the house of Levi, the house of Shimei-all the seed of His servants.

Note on Scripture.

MATT. XXV. 31.

"This advent of the Son of Man (mentioned in Matt. xxv. 31) will be only for the judgment of all the nations living on the earth at that time; not including the generations of the dead. For observe, it is in His Adamic character, or as the Son of Man, He sits upon His throne and exercises judgment. In the preceding notes the attention of the reader has been frequently called to the different relations our Lord sustains to Israel, to the Church, and to the world. (See the note on Matt. xii. 8, vol. xi. p. 23; also, see notes on Matt. viii. 23-27,28-32, ix. 2, xiv. 17, xvi. 13, 14, 27, xviii. 22, 23, xxii. 41-45.) As Messiah, He has a kingdom of kings and priests," a multitude which no man can number, collected out of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues,' (Rev. vi. 4-9.) These He will glorify and exalt to a partnership in His throne, (Rev. iii. 21; and see notes on Matt. xxi. 43, xxii. 14). It is to that small portion of this immensely great and glorious body, who shall be living unglorified in the flesh at the end of this dispensation, that the parable of the ten virgins (Matt. xxv. 1-12) is designed to be applied. These were all given to Him by covenant (πрò kataßoλĥs kóσμov, Eph. i. 4; 1 Pet. i. 20; and see John xvii. 24) before the foundation of the world. In an especial sense they are His purchased possession, (Eph. i. 14.) They constitute an accession of accumulated glory to Him, in compensation, so to speak, for the immense cost of the Divine achievement of redemption, (Isa. liii. 11.) Their inheritance is a co-heirship of all things with Christ, (1 Cor. iii. 21, 23; Rev. xxi. 7; Rom. viii. 17, 29, 30.)

Different widely from these are those of the judged nations, whom, at the day of His coming, He shall set at His right hand. They are called to inherit a kingdom prepared for them in this world (añò kataßodĥs kóσμov) from (not before) the foundation thereof.*—The Theological and Literary Journal, edited by Mr Lord.

*The attention of the critical reader is called to the distinction between these two phrases, aдò катαßоλîs кóσμov (found in Matt. xiii. 35, xxv. 34; Luke xi. 50; Heb. iv. 3, ix. 26; Rev. xiii. 8, xvii. 8,) and πρò кaтaßoλĥs kóσμov (found in John xvii. 24; Eph, i. 4; 1 Pet. i. 20.) That they are not equivalent, no scholar can doubt, That the latter expression is applied in these places only to the elect Church, or that kingdom of kings and priests, whom it is the purpose of God to substitute in the place of Israel according to the flesh, under the covenant of Horeb, will be obvious to any one who reads these passages, while the former, in the place now under consideration, may be regarded as exegetical of Ps. cxv. 16, (latter clause) and of Dan. vii. 27. And the aptness of the expression consists in this: that the designed use of the world, even in the mind of the Creator, may be properly said to concur in point of time with its origin or foundation.

Reviews.

The Atonement: its Nature, Reality, and Efficacy. By D. DEWAR, D.D., LL.D. London: James Nisbet & Co.

This is an excellent edition of an important work. We do not, however, criticise it; we refer to it for the sake of an extract on the subject of the vicariousness of Christ's life. Dr Dewar holds the ancient and Scriptural view of the vicariousness of Christ from His birth to His death. Mr Darby's followers not only deny to our great Substitute the possession of our common nature, but they almost strip Him of His priestly character. Biting and devouring one another, as they do, it is no wonder that they should depart from the faith and adopt the Socinian view of His life. Here is Dr Dewar's statement:

"The mediation of Christ is here referred to the obedience, not only of His death but of His life. His righteousness and obedience are contrasted with the offence and disobedience of Adam; and as by the latter, sin and death are entailed upon mankind, so by the former, justification and life are procured. This willing obedience of a Divine and independent Being, commensurate as it was with the perfect purity of the commandment, was in itself highly meritorious and acceptable to God. He was always conformed in heart and in will, in his love to God and man, to the high and unalterable standard of moral excellence. He discharged all the duties which it imposed, observed its rites of instituted worship, and subjected Himself to its penal sanctions.",

"In accomplishing this end, the obedience of the life was required no less than the suffering of death, because both were due by us to the law, and because both were necessary to procure the remission of sins, and a title to life."

"Are we, then, to understand that the sufferings by which He made atonement for our iniquity, and purchased our redemption, were those only which He endured on the cross, or are we to regard as propitiatory the whole course of His humiliation? The latter view is that which we are taught by Scripture to entertain, in which the sufferings of Christ are usually mentioned without any limitation as to time. It teaches us to consider Him in all that He endured as wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities; and as bearing, during the period of His abasement, the chastisement by which our peace with God was effected. In this chastisement were included the many things which He suffered from the elders and chief priests and scribes, as well as the subsequent agonies of Gethsemane and Calvary: all the while that He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.

"Nor is this view at all at variance with the declarations, that Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree,-that by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified, that He was once offered to bear the sins of many. These expressions denote, not that His previous sufferings were not included in His atonement, but that the satisfaction which He rendered to Divine justice was then consummated, and that the sins of His people were perfectly expiated. His death, as it was the crowning act of His obedience, so was it the completion of His atoning sufferings, without which all that had preceded it would have been insufficient for our redemption. From His first entrance into our world, until He said, 'It is finished,' He acted as our

Surety, and Saviour, and all the privations to which he submitted, and the sufferings which He endured, were borne for our sake. It became Him as our Substitute to place Himself fully in our room, that He might bear all the parts of the penalty of man's disobedience, appear in the form of a servant, lead a life of sorrow, and suffer the wrath of God by the painful and ignominious death of the cross. While all His sufferings, therefore, formed a satisfaction for sin, the agonies of His death are to be regarded as completing and consummating His great atonement. Hence the significancy of the language-' We were reconciled to God by the death of his Son; in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. Having therefore boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;'--language which clearly teaches that the death of Christ formed the principal part of His atonement. As death was the prominent part of the curse of the law, the death of the Surety is often spoken of as if it constituted the whole expiation for sin.

"But it is obvious, from the testimony of Scripture, that all the sufferings which He endured were necessary to the completion of that great expiation. Mankind had been directed to look for a suffering as well as a mighty and victorious Deliverer-a Saviour whose introduction into our world is represented as a tender plant, and as a root springing out of a dry ground, having no form or comeliness, nor any beauty that we should desire Him; and concerning whom it was affirmed, that while the foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, the Son of man had not where to lay His head. Intimately acquainted from the beginning with the whole of that course of trial and of humiliation through which He had to pass, and with all that was included in the atonement which He was to make for sin, the prospect was of itself calculated to inflict much suffering. His condition through life, and during His public ministry, accorded with His character as the Surety of sinners; the Lamb of God bearing away the sin of the world."

"The whole work of Christ, then, including His perfect obedience, and His atoning sufferings, is to be viewed as expiating the penalty of man's transgression, and meriting for Him eternal life. The second of these purposes was, in regard to Christ, involved in the first; because that while giving the satisfaction which the law required, His obedience was infinitely meritorious. Though, in the abstract, satisfaction to a violated law is properly to be distinguished from merit, yet, in the case of One who gave infinite worth to whatever He did or suffered, the latter is necessarily included in the former. All that He did and suffered in the nature which He had assumed, was done and suffered in the character of a Saviour: He lived and died, not for Himself, but for His people: and though, as God, He could neither obey nor suffer, yet His Divine nature being united to the human, and both in one person, gave infinite excellency to every part of His mediatorial work."

The Sixty-Eighth Psalm as Prophetic of the Messiah and His Church. A Translation from the Hebrew. With Explanatory Notes. By A SEPTUAGENARIAN. London Samuel Bagster & Son.

One may differ from the Septuagenarian on some points of Hebrew criticism or prophetic interpretation, but no one will look into this little work without interest. It is worth the notice of our readers. We give a few of the notes on the first verses of the Psalm :

As a

a particle,

« TITLE— Concerning the Victory. from to be over. noun it signifies, mastery, victory. Da formative of the noun. concerning.

"Concerning the Beloved. 17 from 77, as a noun. The Beloved One. This word is found above thirty times in the Book of Canticles, Solomon there standing as a type of Christ. By the ancient Jews, as well as by Christian writers, the Psalms were acknowledged to be prophetic of the Messiah; and as David was an eminent type of Him, the titles seem to have been prefixed in order to throw spiritual light upon the Psalm. The victory here celebrated is that over sin and death, and all the powers of darkness. And the great Conqueror by whom it is achieved is the Messiah, the beloved Son, in whom the Father is well pleased. It was for us men, and for our salvation, that He came down from heaven, and took our nature upon Him, that He might, for us, encounter these deadly foes, and, in the human nature, triumph over them. And, blessed be God, He has done so. And we may now say, in the words of St Paul, (1 Cor. xv. 55,) O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ.' And in additional proof of the titles being prophetic of the Messiah, we read in the ninety-eighth Psalm, With his own right hand, and with his holy arm, hath he gotten himself the victory!'

"Ver. 1. The verbs here are all in the future tense indicative mood, and not in the imperative.

"Ver. 2. So will the wicked perish, 17N" from TN, to perish. Future tense, third person plural.

"To the wicked, the holiness of God is as a consuming fire. We are all by nature sinful, and are only safe by being united to Christ in faith and love. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him,' (2 Cor. v. 17, 21.) The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord,' (Rom vi. 23.)

"Ver. 3. But the righteous shall be glad, DW from D, to move briskly, as the heart with joy. Future tense, third person plural.

"Can we doubt that the persons here more especially pointed at are the same mentioned in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, where we read, And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness, and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the people,' (Acts ii. 16.)

"Of the Church in its infant state, no doubt, were these words prophetically spoken, that in the midst of great tribulation they might have comfort. But not exclusively do they belong to the Church of old. They are the portion of all believers, who, although they may often be sorrowful in regard to earthly circumstances, yet, as concerning heavenly things, are alway rejoicing.' "Ver. 4. Praise Him in his Name Jah. from, to be, to exist. As a noun. One of the Divine names. 1, a particle, In.

6

"Ver. 5. Of his Holy One. P from P, to separate or set apart for holy purposes. As a noun, holiness, and it is particularly used for the sanctu ary, or holy place. This, together with its furniture, and the services performed in it, was an eminent type of the true tabernacle, which God pitched and not man, even of the body of Christ, the Holy One of God, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, and of what He was to be and to perform on earth.'-Parkhurst's Hebrew Lexicon.

"Ver. 6. The united ones. ', a noun in the plural number, from T, to unite, to make one.

"It seems here to signify the Church, or all true believers, all who are made one with Christ by faith, who is the Head of His faithful people. This union of all the members of the Mystical Body is much dwelt upon in Scripture. And the care and love of Christ for His Church, soon to be so greatly