a later hand, the suffering and at last the triumph of the Messiah are announced; with Christian profoundness the holy virtue and peace of sorrow are portrayed, whilst with the Hebrew fire the great triumph is proclaimed. What range of feeling herein :

"Who hath believed our report ?

And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?

All we, like sheep, have gone astray;

We have turned every one to his own way;
And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,

Yet he opened not his mouth:

He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter,

And as a sheep before her shearers is dumb,

So he openeth not his mouth."— Isaiah liii. 1, 6, 7.

What jubilee in the words that follow :
"Arise! shine! for thy light is come,

And the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.

Violence shall no more be heard in thy land,
Wasting nor destruction within thy borders;
But thou shalt call thy walls Salvation,
And thy gates Praise.

The sun shall be no more thy light by day;

Neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee:
But the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light,

And thy God thy glory." - Isaiah lx. 1, 3, 18, 19.

Such was the prophet, teacher of duty, oracle of hope. The lesson of his life and mission is the spirit of the man. Powerfully indeed has its influence been felt. It cheered the fainting hearts of his own people in their sad years of captivity; it cherished in many

yearning minds the germs of spiritual faith, and prepared the way for Him heralded by the preacher of the wilderness, who in the language of Isaiah called on the people to prepare the way of the Lord. It was a passage of the evangelical prophet that our Saviour read in his first recorded visit to the synagogue, after the commencement of his ministry. The language of Isaiah lent itself readily to the Christian disciples in illustration of their Master's humiliation and triumph. Those inspired strains have been the music of hope in all ages since.

How powerful is hope, how mighty in educating an individual or a nation! The Jews owed all their

greatness to their enthusiastic hope. Their golden age was not the past, but in the future. Their error was in misinterpreting the ground of confidence, and rejecting Him who came to be their salvation. Yet that exalted hope did not die, but was rather quickened and enlarged as the husk in which it was wrapped fell off and perished. It still remains in the world, and still kindles noble confidence in hearts and homes and nations. Who of us does not cherish a hope beyond aught we have ever realized, a hope for ourselves, for all humanity. The sacred torch so brightly burning in the hand of the evangelical prophet has not fallen to the ground, but has been passed from hand to hand, and to all noble visions never flamed up so brightly as now. Blessed are they who in all ages enliven its flame, the comforters of humanity, — the orators, preachers, statesmen, bards, sages, who breathe the spirit of encouragement whilst they urge the sacredness of duty and assert the inviolableness of right. Who can name them all or

half, who portray those goodly sons of the morning, at whose head stands the noble Isaiah ?

Honor to them who educate the nations by exalting and brightening their hope! They have ever been the wisest teachers. Enough of the good in which they have trusted has been realized, to warrant us to hope and strive for the rest. Shrink not from the teachers who combine conscience with confidence, and hold up the everlasting right as the security of the everlasting good. Brighter, brighter burn the torch fed by the prophet minds of ages! Higher, higher be it lifted, till the benighted corners of the earth and dark dens of the nations glory in its radiance and walk in its light. Let Christendom still glow with the trust of Judah, and the hopes of the chosen nation be consummated in the hopes of humanity, — the triumph of the kingdom of God. Earth heaves with portentous throes, old things are passing away. Not in forebodings altogether gloomy let us contemplate the future. Let Christian faith repeat the prophet's trust:

"For, behold! I create new heavens and a new earth. For behold! I create Jerusalem a rejoicing,

And her people a joy.

And the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her,

Nor the voice of crying.

And they shall build houses, and inhabit them;

And they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.

They shall not labor in vain,

Nor bring forth for trouble.

Before they call I will answer;

And while they are yet speaking I will hear."

Isaiah lxv. 17-24.

"The time cometh to gather all nations and tongues together; They shall come and behold my glory.” — Isaiah lxvi. 18.

Let us hope devoutly for our race here in the world and our souls in the realm eternal.

Farewell now to the Hebrew fathers, as we close this hasty survey of their chiefs. Truly the goodly fellowship of the prophets praise God. Our joy confirms their hope. Let our hearts join in the honor paid to their names by one no stranger to

their mind:

"My inmost soul your sainted spirit greets,

Ye true and faithful messengers of God!
Take now, amidst your palmy groves, that rest,
Which Horeb, Zion, Carmel, never gave.

Again I greet you with exulting voice,
Ye guileless souls, that in the hands of God
Like harps responded and expressed his will,
Revealed the future and his laws enforced.” *

*Herder's Spirit of Hebrew Poetry.

VIII.

JOHN THE BAPTIST AND THE PRECURSORS OF THE MESSIAH.

"PREPARE ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." Thus, after an interval of more than four centuries, the last of the prophets finds an echo in the first of the Evangelists, and the New Testament begins as the Old ends. Of that interval let us now speak. The topic is surely a fitting continuation of our general subject, and very properly introduces us to the leading characters of the New Testament, or Christianity in its choice exemplars. More distinctly stated, our subject is the providential preparation for the coming of the Messiah after the close of the Hebrew Scriptures. Malachi is the last of the goodly fellowship of the prophets, and in words caught from Isaiah and repeated by John the Baptist, he hails the Messiah's coming and all that prepares the way.

"Behold! I will send my messenger,

And he shall prepare the way before me."

I. Consider first the meaning of these words from the prophet's own point of view. He wrote at a time not far distant from the year 420 before Christ, — a time when Socrates was enlightening the Greeks by his moral wisdom, and Rome was advancing towards