even more grand and terrific? Accordingly the Scriptures forewarn us that the great Ancient of days will, in due season, display Himself from His throne of fiery flame, whose wheels are burning fire, before whose presence a fiery stream shall issue and come forth, while thousand thousands minister unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stand before Him. Dan. vii. 9, 10. The Lord, in allusion to this, saith the prophet Nahum, hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet; i. 3. And our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ has assured us that all the tribes of the earth shall mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory. Matt. xxiv. 30; xxvi. 64.

This description of His coming to judge the nations, as given by Himself, corresponds exactly with the account as given in this verse; and if one is symbolical, to be spiritually and allegorically interpreted, so must the other be. Indeed, if the scriptural account of Christ's coming to judge the world, as given in this and kindred passages, is to be taken symbolically, then is there no evidence whatever in the Bible that there will ever be a day or period of His miraculous interposition and visible coming. We have thus far considered the language of the text as that of John, but it may be, and most probably is, that of Jesus Christ Himself, which was addressed to John, at the commencement of the Revelation, and which first arrested his attention, and apprised him of the great and leading theme; for the following verse coming in such close connection, and being undeniably the words of Christ, would render it highly probable: "I am Alpha and Omega." These are the names of the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, and this form of speech was common among the Hebrews, to express the idea of first and last. The Lord God here speaking is

Jesus Christ, for Rev. i. 17, and xxii. 13 leave the matter beyond a doubt, that these things are truly said of Him. The words "which is," etc., are but a translation of the Hebrew word Jehovah, which was the term employed emphatically and exclusively, to denote the eternal self-existent God. The Jews never uttered it; such was the reverence they had for it. No stronger language could possibly be employed. No titles more grand, and lofty, and exclusive, to denote the eternal, self-existent Supreme Deity, can be imagined than those which our Lord Jesus Christ here appropriates to Himself, as descriptive of His person. The double "Amen," which follows the announcement of His coming, gives it all the solemnity and assurance of an oath; and as coming from the lips of Christ, if the language be regarded as His, or as coming from John, it denotes the certainty of the event beyond all possibility of failure or of doubt.

In the next context the Apostle describes the person of Christ as He appeared to him. This will form the subject of another Lecture. In the mean time let us learn

1. The true and undeniable Deity of Jesus Christ-He is called the Lord God-Eternal self-existence is affirmed of Him.

2. Let us learn the reality and certainty of His future coming. Acts i. 9.

3. His second coming will be an event which will be fraught with terror and distress to the whole world.

4. The coming of Christ will be an event of universal notoriety and observation.

5. The sight of Christ at His coming will cause anguish to all that have neglected and maltreated Him here.

JESUS AS A WORKER OF MIRACLES.

THE gospels, as we have elsewhere remarked, cannot be understood as forming a complete biography of Jesus. We find in them rather a grouping together of His words and works in such a way as to illustrate some aspect of His personal or official character, or to prove some truth in subserviency to the specific object of the writer, though without overlooking the unfolding of the nature and purpose of the life of Jesus, from His birth at Bethlehem to His ascent from the Mount of Olives. In accordance with the object of the several writers, important incidents are omitted by one which are narrated with much minuteness of detail by another, and each presents the incidents he records in an aspect suited to the design he has in view, or according to the point from which he views them.

In the gospel according to Matthew, for example, we trace through the whole book the design to present Jesus to the Jews as their Messiah. He states the legal proof of His claims to the throne of David; cites the facts of His supernatural attestation, and points out the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy in the circumstances of His life, in the peculiar features of His character and mission, in the words He speaks, in the deeds he performs, and in all that befalls Him from His birth to His ascension. Still it is not a mere formal argument or proof that He is the Messiah, but, at the same time, an exhibition of what he is as the Messiah.

For men might form a conception of the Messiah erroneous in every particular, and the proof that Jesus is the Messiah would leave these vain dreamers to conclude that He is the Messiah of their erroneous imagination. This is no hypothesis, but a case that has often occurred: for example, in the case of those who are said to have "believed in His name, when they saw the miracles which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself unto them, because He knew all men." We find Matthew, therefore, grouping the doctrines taught and the works performed by Jesus and the things which happened to Him, in such a way as to present distinct aspects of His character, until he stands before us the Messiah, the Saviour, completely revealed.

Thus omitting many incidents in the earlier days of the Lord's public ministry, this evangelist at once shows us what He is as a Teacher, in that Divine Sermon on the Mount, which occupies the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of this gospel. He next shows what He was as a worker of miracles; so grouping the miracles together as to show, not only that He "did among them the works which none other man did," but also the significance of these mighty works in relation to the great mission of the Saviour. If we regarded Matthew as a biographer, we might wonder why he omitted "the beginning of miracles which Jesus did in Cana of Galilee and manifested forth His glory," an omission which, in any case, is the more remarkable because Matthew, as Alford remarks, "in relating His ministry, discourses, and miracles, confines himself exclusively to the events which took place in Galilee until the last journey to Jerusalem;" while the Gospel of John, in which that beginning of miracles is recorded, is almost wholly occupied with the Lord's ministry in Judea. But when we observe that the design of Matthew is not to give a complete narrative

of events in chronological order, but to exhibit Jesus in distinct aspects of His character and offices, then, among other things, it is instructive to observe the order-first, the Teacher, then, the worker of miracles - the reverse of what we might expect if His miracles were the credentials on the ground of which His doctrine was to be received as Divine.

This of itself would not warrant us to conclude that the miracles of Jesus were not the mere credentials or attestation of a Divine mission. The conclusion, however, is forced on us by many other considerations. Miracles were the natural and every-day works of Jesus; virtue was continually going out of Him to meet all the needs of man, so far as men were prepared to receive His help. Yet there were occasions when miraculous cures of the most imposing character were multiplied; and there were occasions when the exercise of His grace seemed to be restrained. Now if these mighty works were designed merely as attestations of His mission to convince unbelievers, we would expect them to be multiplied where He was unknown or where unbelief was most prevalent, and to be withheld where a prevailing faith rendered farther evidence unnecessary. The fact is the very reverse of this, for they were multiplied when faith was called into most lively exercise, and, on the other hand, we find it recorded of a certain place, that "He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief."

The Lord, speaking of the reception of His doctrine, says: "He that is of God, heareth God's word." He was always on His guard against false disciples who might be attracted by the fame of His power, while their hearts were untouched by the truth. On this account He frequently charged those whom He cured that they should not publish it abroad; and He uses great plainness of speech in undeceiving those who