The Last Memory of the Mount

“and his feet shall stand in that DAT UPON THE MOUNT OF OLIYES, WHICH IS BEFORE JERUSALEM ON THE EAST; AND THE MOUNT OF OLIYXS SHALL CLEAVE IN THE MIDST THEREOF TOWARD THE EAST AND TOWARD THE WEST, AND THERE SHALL BE A VERT GREAT VALLET; AND HALF Of THE MOUNTAIN SHALL REMOVE TOWARD THE NORTH, AND HALF OF IT TOWARD THE SOUTH. AND TE SHALL FLEE TO THE VAIXET OF TBI MOUNTAINS; FOR THE VALLET OF THE MOUNTAINS SHALI. BEACH UNTO A2AL: TEA, TE SHALL FLEE, LIKE AS TE FLED FROM BEFORE THE EARTH-QUAKE IN THE DATS OF UZZIAH KING OF JUDAH: AND THE LORD ICT GOD SHALL COME, AND ALL THE SAINTS WITH THEE. AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS IN THAT DAT, THAT THE LIGHT SHALL NOT BE CLEAR, NOB dark: but it shall be one DAT which SHALL BE KNOWN TO TBI LORD, NOT DAT, NOR NIGHT I BUT IT SHALL COME TO PASS, THAT AT EVENING TIME IT SHALL BE LIGHT. AND IT SHALL BE IN THAT DAT THAT LIVING WATERS SHALL GO OUT FROM JERUSALEM; HALF OF THEM TO-WARD THE FORMER SEA, AND HALF OF THEM TOWARD THE HINDER SEA: IN SUMMER AND IN WINTER SHALL IT BE. AND THE LORD SHALL Bl KING OVER ALL THE EARTH: IN THAT DAT SHALL THERE BE AND HIS NAME ONE. ALL THE LAND SHALL BE TURNED AS A PLAIN FROM GEBA TO RIMMOn, SOUTH OF JERUSALEM: AND IT SHALL BE LIFTED UP AND INHABITEl IN HER PLACE, FROM BENJAMIN*S GATE UNTO THE PLACE OF THE FIRST GATE, UNTO THE CORNER GATE, AND FROM THE TOWER OF HANANEEL UNTO THE KING*S WINEPRESSES. AND MEN SHALL DWELL IS IT, AND THERE SHALL BE NO MORE UTTER DESTRUCTION; BUT JERUSALEM SHALL BE SAFELT INHABITED.... AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS, THAT EVERT ONE THAT IS LEFT OP ALL THE NATIONS WHICH CAME AGAINST JERUSALEM, SHALL EVEN GO UP FROM TEAR TO TEAR TO WORSHIP TBI KING, THE LORD OF HOSTS, AND TO KEEP THE FE.VST OF TABERNACLES.” — ZECH. XIV. 4-11, 16.

EZEKIEL XLVIL

We have now reached the concluding Memory of Olivet: an olden “memory” indeed, so far as the words themselves contain a prophecy uttered in a distant age by a Hebrew seer; but, viewed in another sense, as an unfulfilled prediction, not entitled, perhaps, strictly speaking, to a place in this volume. These sublime foreshadowings of Zechariah, however, stand alone in sacred story, in thus linking a glorious past with a yet glorious future. As such, we cannot omit what are alike so interesting in themselves, and so appropriate as a closing chapter to these Memorials, encircling as they do ’ the Mount * with the halo of prophetic anticipation.,

The verses themselves — confessedly diflBcult and enigmatical — contain, in highly poetical imagery, a delineation of the Church of the future. We shall view them, in their twofold application, to the Gospel and the Millennial

AGE.

Let us look at their primary meaning and interpretation with reference to the Gospel age. The Prophet’s eye is directed onwards to the most memorable, or rather, the most terrible crisis in the Jewish History, (with which, in the previous chapters of this volume we are now so familiar,) when the Roman armies — like the Assyrian and Chaldean in his own time — would be gathered around the walls of thrice-doomed Jerusalem. It was “the day of the Lord,” — the day of His vengeance and recompense, — “the day of battle.” The miseries of the fated city, dwelt upon circumstantially in other predictions, are here only touched upon: the horrors of siege and capture, of plunder and massacre and captivity. It is but a momentary glimpse of the dark background, to bring into impressive relief the future bright and “glorious things spoken” of the city of God. The fall of Jerusalem, — the fall of the Jewish state, and the destruction of their Temple and worship, was to be the rise and riches of the Gentiles. It was to inaugurate a new era in the Church and in the world. From its dust and ashes a saved remnant is to go forth — the germ of a new kingdom which is to increase and spread until it become co-ertensive with the globe. Accordingly, in the bold and impressive symbolism of the words before us, at that hour when the old city of solemnities is sacked and pillaged, — when the cries of her perishing thousands are ascending, apparently unsuccoured, to heaven, — lo! the Redeemer of mankind is suddenly seen to appear on His old and oft-frequented haunt. Thirty-seven years previously, He had ascended from its heights. His hands extended in blessing; and once more, in vision. He manifests Himself on that same Mount, whereon He had wept tears in anticipation of the doom which He now returns to witness. As the Divine spectator gazes from these heights, there is a still further ficmration unfolded to the Prophet. By the heaving of an earthquake, Olivet seems to cleave in twain. One-half of the ountain removes toward the north, the other half toward the south; and it is not a mere cleft or narrow gorge that is formed between the disjointed portions, but “a very great valley.”

Again, a new scene is unfolded in this moral Diorama. While havoc and death rage within the devoted walls of the city, — while thousands on thousands, as we have previously described, are there perishing, without making any eflfort to escape; — some ending their misery by mutual massacre, some purchasing death, however dearly, that they may close their eyes within sight of their Temple;’ there is a remnant — the types and representatives of the saved — God’s true Israel in every age, and, perhaps, very specially of future restored Israel — who are seen bursting through the breaches in the eastern walls. Beholding this mighty valley, like a gate of safety, opened to them by the earthquake, they rush along it, with the speed of despairing men, as far as “Azal.” “Ye shall flee to (or rather, by) the valley of the mountains,” (ver. 5.) The Prophet gazes again — and yet a new figuration. This “very great valley” has hitherto been without river or stream flowing through it, and, consequently, without sign of luxuriance or vegetation; but, lo! suddenly — catching up the similar picture and vision of an earlier seer, (Ezek. xlvii. 1) — living waters leap from the Temple-Rock, flowing down the eastern terraces to the dry channel of the Kedron. They are seen to divide or bifurcate, — one-half pursues its way through the newly-opened gorge in the direction of the Dead Sea, carrying life and happiness to that desolate region — that “valley of the shadow of death;” the other, wends its course towards the Western Sea, mingling with the blue waves of the Mediterranean; and, unlike other earthly rivers, — unlike, especially, that Kedron brook, a dry channel all summer, and only an occasional winter torrent, — this will be a perennial stream — no ice will freeze it — no drought will dry it — “in summer and in winter shall it be,” (ver. 8.)

What is all this — taking the passage in its primary sense — but a vivid delineation of the power and progress of the Gospel, on the breaking up and abrogation of the Jewish economy. Christ stands in vision on His favourite mountain. His glorified feet press the very sod that had been bedewed once with His tears and His blood. As we see upheaving from its old foundations, the triple eminence which for ages had been the sacred guardian of the Mosaic and Levitical ritual, — the silent sentinel of Zion’s solemnities, — as we see this “hill of God” rending in twain — its mighty masses of rock removed out of their places, and a wide opening made as far as the Jordan wilderness — have we not an expressive picture and type of the displacement of the older economy by the new. The mountain barriers, the walls of separation, which hitherto had excluded the Gentiles, are demolished; the waste places of the earth, the deserts of heathenism, are opened up; — “Who art thou, great mountain? — thou shalt become a plain,” (Zech. iv. 7.) The figure is a strong one — the disruption of a mountain as by an earthquake-shock; but not too strong to depict the mightiest epoch and revolution which had yet occurred in

the Church of God, by the admission of the outer world

the “uncovenanted nations” — to the privileges of the Jew. Nor is it a solitary or exceptional figure, peculiar to Zechariah. Isaiah had employed it before him, when thus he describes the commencement of that same Gospel era, “Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low: the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together,” (Isa. xl. 4, 5.) The valley, as we have noted, is a hroad one — “a very great valley” — wide enough for all to tread it — Jew and Greek, Barbarian, Scythian, bond and free. It reaches to Azal, a word which means “separation*” Those once separated, Gentiles living hitherto in this ‘Azal’ — this separate place — “aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise,” have now the intervening mountain removed — “no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God,” And then, how strikingly are the results of this earthquake depicted. The living waters gushing forth from Jerusalem, were a beautiful emblem of the Gospel’s progress through the world. Christ’s original commission to His disciples was, to “preach the Gospel to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” From Jerusalem, accordingly, these waters emerged, and by the grace and energy of the Holy Spirit, outpoured especially at Pentecost, they became truly life-giving, carrying healing and joy wherever they went, even amid the wastes of the howling wilderness, and the desolations of the sea of Death. The old material temple of Jerusalem is destroyed; but Christ, the great antitypical Temple, takes its place. It is from Him all Gospel blessings flow, and the power of the Cross makoe them “living waters.”

Ezekiel’s parallel picture is fuller, and more graphic still in its details, (xlvii. 1-6.) He sees the same vision of holy waters issuing from under the threshold of the house eastward, at the south side of the altar j’’ these getting deeper and deeper, until, at first reaching only to the ankles, they become a huge torrent, an impassable river. In accordance with the speedy upspringing of luxuriance and vegetation, wherever water is found in the east he sees the banks of this river lined with verdant trees, and the river itself, like Zechariah’s, flowing through the most barren portions of the Judah wilderness — from Engedi to Eneglaim. In regions of cheerless solitude, where scarce a blade of vegetation is to be seen, or sound heard of bird, or beast, or man — lo, the very fishermen are now spreading their nets along the shores of the new sea, formed by the Temple-ri?er. The Asphaltite Lake itself suddenly swarms with “a great multitude of fish, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many:” “and,” it is added, “it shall come to pass that everything that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live,” (Ezek. xlvii. 6-11.) What picture could be more expressive of the spread of the Gospel, the triumphs of Christianity? The apostolic band tarried, in accordance with their Master’s latest injunction, in Jerusalem, to receive “the promise of the Father,” (Luke xxiv. 49.) That promised Spirit descended; the “fountain” was “opened in the house of David,” (Zech. xiii. 1.) The living waters burst forth from Jerusalem; and at the divine sign, forth these accredited ambassadors issued on their high embassy. At first, it was a small rill, a feeble river — ‘* the number of the names together were an hundred and twenty.” But no longer pent up within ancient channel, the new stream rolled along, in ever augmented volume, through the opened valley, carrying life, and refreshment, and healing to the abodes of death. Yes! even in a secular and subordinate fsense, that river has carried countless blessings in its course. Where Christianity has not converted and regenerated, it has civilised. It has been the world’s ameliorator. It has done what the arms of martial Rome and the refinement of eesthetic Greece never did, and never could do. It has tamed the savage, and elevated the civilised. It has dried the “widow’s tears, given a home to the orphan, an asylum to the poor, and struck the fetter from the slave. Wherever Paganism has reigned, there has been cruelty, licentiousness, ignorance, and slavery: its river has rolled torrents of blood. But wherever Christianity has permeated, its streams carry with them life and health, healing and joy. Without it, many a nation would at this moment have been like the barren rocks of Engedi and Enegkim, or like the hills of Gilboa, on which there rests no dew of blessing. So that even in the secondary sense of a gigaptic civiliser, most true is it, “Everything shall live whither the river cometh.”

Truer far is all this, regarding its saving, regenerating and transforming influences on the heart of man, and on th Church of God. What countless blessings that flowing river has brought to the soul, overwhelmed with a sense of sin, or bowed with a load of sorrow, — the parched spirit, in a dry and thirsty land where no water is! What glorious promises to sustain; what glorious hopes to cheer! In the words of Ezekiel, “By the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed,” (Ezek. xlvii, 12.) Onwards this river is represented as flowing, — nothing stems it nothing impedes its course, until “the Lord shall be king over all the earth, (Zech. xiv. 9;) until “the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea,” and the world become, like primeval paradise, a well-watered garden with “the river of God, which is full of water.” It is elsewhere prophetically said of the Redeemer, “He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied.” Revert once more to the Prophet’s figuration. Behold this Messiah-Saviour, as if standing on the heights of Olivet, looking across — as He oft did in person in the days of His flesh, and as He now does in vision in the hour of His glory — towards the desolate wastes of southern Judah: with a truer and keener gaze than that of the Prophet — the gaze of His own omniscience. He sees the symbolic river carrying health and life to a doomed and dying world. Can He fail to enjoy this divine predicted satisfaction, when He remembers that it is through “the decease He accomplished at Jerusalem” the wilderness and solitary places of earth are glad, and its deserts made to rejoice and blossom as the rose! What makes this first view which we have taken of the scope and meaning of Zechariah’s prophetic chapter more probable (viz., that it is primarily a history of the introduction and progress of Christianity under the present dispensation) is, that the verses which immediately follow, and which are strictly connected with those to which we have just adverted, cannot be made to apply to Millennial times; while they do apply, truthfully and graphically, to the existing epoch, from the commencement of the Christian era to the present age. Verses 6, 7 — “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark: but it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.” This is surely a faithful and vivid picture of the Church during these last eighteen hundred years. The light “neither clear nor dark,” Her glorious light of truth obscured by error, schism, superstition, idolatry, will-worship, human reason — the blots and blemishes and inconsistencies of her own members. It is a mixed, mingled, imperfect state. “Dark,” yet — blessed be God — never a total eclipse; ever and anon “bright light in the clouds.” Moreover, the one murky, troubled day is “known to the Lord.” He who stands on Mount Olivet watches (ay, controls) these varying and apparently capricious clouds. Nor is that strange, fitful alternation of light and darkness to last for ever. The sky is yet to clear; the wading sun is yet to have a glorious setting; “at evening time it shall be light.” The Church, though oft “cast down,” shall not be “destroyed;” but shall] come forth yet from all her troubles, “looking forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners,” (Solomon’s Song, vi 10.)

But this leads to the second view which this prophetic memory suggests. Let us regard it as a picture of the MILLENNIAL AGE; — the world’s evening-time — when all shall be undimmed — unclouded light. “Evening-time!” when the curfew bell shall toll and the fires shall be put out, — the fires of guilt and sin, of war and slavery, of persecution and tyranny, and the defiled fires on every idol shrine.

The literalist school of prophetic interpreters are able to draw an attractive and striking picture from this chapter of Zechariah. The premillennial theory at once regards all ihat is here described, not as types and figures, bat as realities. That descent of Christ to the Mount of Olives is a literal descent, in His glorified humanity, with all His saints with Him. That rending of the mount, and the opening thereby formed, is considered a literal valley — the river flowing from the olden sanctuary a literal river — the Dead Sea waters literally revivified and sweetened — and Hebrew fishermen, like those of the olden time at the Sea of Gennesaret, casting their nets into the deep. With all deference to the many excellcDt and devoted students of Scripture who have espoused these views, we are unable to adopt the glowing picture, and prefer adhering to the old spiritual interpretation.* But yet,

* While in Jerusalem, in the house of an esteemed cleiman of the Church of England, previously referred to, and looking from the window of his sitting-room across the crumbling walls and buildings of the city on a full view of the ever beautiful Mount of OliveSy I could not resist saying I envied him in his confident belief, that the day was coming (and that perhaps ere long) when he might gaze on the literal clt and valley, and the still more glorious literal accompaniments of Zechariah’s prophecy. I felt that it would have invested, with a new and surpassing interest, a spot which I had learned already to associate with so much that was holy and hallowed, if I could employ, in a literal sense, and specially with regard to the Prince of Peace,’ the language of another evangelical prophet,” How beautiful upon the mountains (the mountain) are the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! *’

It may be, in the study and interpretation of prophecy, as in other things, that the churches of Christ and their members will, in due time, be brought nearer one another; and when the words following those just quoted will be fulfilled: “Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion,” (Isa. 111. 8.) Meanwhile let us breathe the apostle’s aspiratioDi even in this, there is much surely of deep interest in the delineation here given us of millennial blessedness. We are told that Christ’s sovereignty over the world, if not in visible Person, at least in visible power, vrill be complete: “The Lord shall be King over all the earth; in that day shall there be one Lord, and His name one,” (ver. 9.) As yet, how partial this sovereignty is! How many nations yet refuse Him allegiance! How many false gods still usurp His sway! How vast the kingdoms which are still paying their loyalty to the god of this world! But every crown will then be cast at the Redeemer’s feet: “The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.” As a consequence of His acknowledged sovereignty, peace and prospeiHty will reign in the Church: Vers, 10, 11, “All the land shall be turned into a plain.”.. “And men shall dwell in Jerusalem, and there shall be no more utter destruction: but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.” There will be a universal love for God’s ordinances: “The families of the earth” will go up “unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts,” (ver. 16.) The old Psalm of the Church’s universal minstrel, will receive then its truest interpretation from the lips of these festal throngs, “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go to the house of the Lord.” Joy will reign predominant among the members of the Millennial Church: the feast specially spoken of, is the Feast of Tabernacles — the feast of harvest — the national emblemfeast of joy — the harvest-home of the world, (ver. 16.) The very enemies of Christ and His gospel will he ranged among

“Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.”” And if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, Qod shall reveal even ttds unto you,’’ (Phil. iii. 15, 16.)

H%8 friends: countries for ages blighted and cursed with superstition and idolatry, will now, in the name of the Lord, set up their banners: the very leaders in the anti-Christian confederacy will sheathe their swords, and, owning the soyereignty of the Lord of all the earth, enrol themselves among the number of those who, year by year, join the jubilant band in keeping the feast, (ver. 1 6.) And, once more, it will be a season of perfect holiness; a time of national and undivided consecration to God’s service: “In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, Holiness unto the Lord; and the pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar,” (ver. 20.) The humblest oflSces — the most secular work will be sanctified: “Holiness unto the Lobd” will be the universal superscription — the motto and watchword alike of individuals and families: the conmionest flagons in the private homes will be sacred as the bowls of the sanctuary; and the cooking-vessels of the priest will be as owed as the jars holding the sacrificial blood, (ver. 21.) And, to complete these sequences, in connexion with Olivet, let us note the traditionary belief of Jews to this day, (suggested probably by their prophet Joel,) that Christ will come on ‘the Mount’ to judge the world, and that the valley of Jehoshaphat will be the scene of the great assize.* We may reject the literal tradition; but we may retain the solemn truth it represents. We have been speaking of a figurative earthquake which rent the sacred mount, and converted the fairest spot of earth into an Aceldama of ruin. The fugitives from Jerusalem escaped up the rent gorge to Azal. Let us flee, as from an

* The etymological meaning of the word Jehoshaphat is Jehovah judges!’ earthquake — (oh let this be the closing memory — the closing lesson of Olivet) — let us flee, through the one only way of escape, to the one only Place of “Separation,” from destruction and eternal death! “Yet a little while, and He that shall come, will come and will not tarry,” “Put ye in the sickle,” are the words of judgment in the lips of Joel, “for the harvest is ripe: multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining: the Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of His people and the strength of the children of Israel.” The childken op Iskael! The name suggests yet one other thought in the light of Zechariah’s prophecy. Indeed, we would eliminate from the passage one of its distinctive and chief glories, — if we omitted to note the special blessings there spoken of, in reserve for God’s own ancient people. Though these living waters are spiritually to gladden and refresh all the nations, we are warranted to think of them more particularly with reference to Israel; the barren and blasted land of Palestine, for eighteen hundred years under the curse, again “growing as the lily, and casting forth its roots as Lebanon,” (Hos. xiv. 5.) We believe the day is coming (and, though the fig-tree be not yet apparently “putting forth its tender leaves,” may God speed it!) when these scattered outcasts will be gathered in — restored first to their own covenant land, and then led, in penitence and tears, to embrace Him whom their fathers crucified. So that, figuratively,

will (ver. 10) be fulfilled —” All the land shall be turned as a

2a plain from Gkba to Bimmon south of Jerasalem: and it shall be lifted up and inhabited in her place, from Benjarmin’s gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the comer gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the king’s winepresses.” Prophecy teems with declarations of the blessings God has yet in reserve for those, still “beloved for their fathers’ sakes,” We need go no further, for examples, than these three closing chapters of Zechariah, supposed to form a distinct prophecy: (Chap, xii 8,) “In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them.” Ver. 10, “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.” Yes! more especially true will it be of Jerusalem and ingathered Israel, that “at evening time it shall be light.” Theirs has indeed been a murky day — more clouds by far than sunshine — ‘* a day of darkness and gloominess — a day of clouds and thick darkness.” But the hour will arrive, when “the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.” Christ, as we have seen, appeared in vision to the prophet, on ’ the Mount, at the fall of Jerusalem; as if to testify His love for the Jews, even when they were His enemies — when their hands had been but recently stained with His blooi Wiih what joy will His feet stand again on that Mount of Olives, — when these same children of Zion will be now joyful in their King; — when across the Eedron ravine shall float hymns to His praise; — the Hebrew Hallelujah responded to by the Gentile Hosannah — and myriad voices wake every echo around with the ascription, “Cbown Him Lord of all!” “He will rest in His love. He will joy over them with singing.” Jerusalem — yes, the literal Jerusalem — has thus, we believe, a glorious future in reversion. She will yet become the spiritual metropolis of the nations of the saved, and of the converted children of Abrar ham, — the High Priests in earth’s new consecrated Temple. The living waters, flowing to the world’s remotest lands, will go out from her rebuilt sanctuary. Restored and regenerated Israel, we have reason to suppose, will form the great missionary Church of the millennial era: (Isa. Ix. 1-3, 13,)” Arise, shine: for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.... The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir-tree, the pine-tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will

MAKE THE PLACE OF MY FEET GLORIOUS.” “In that day,”

when “His feet shall stand upon the (again made glorious) Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east,”” it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it

And many people shall go and say, (may it not be of Olivet as of Zion?) Come ye, and let ns go up to the mountain of the Lord,** (Isa. il 2, 3.) The former is, at all events, without doubt, included in the divine promises uttered by the lips of another seer; — (Ezek. xxxvL 1-4,) “Also, thou son of man, prophesy unto the mountains of Israel, and say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord: Thus saith the Lord God, Because the enemy hath said against yon, Aha, even the ancient high places are ours in possession: therefore prophesy and say. Thus saith the Lord GU)d I Because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you upon every side, that ye might be a possession unto the residue of the heathen, and ye are taken up in the lips of talkers and are an infamy of the people: therefore, ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God; Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains, and to the hills;.. O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come;... And I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bring fruit: and I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings: and ye shall know that I am the Lord;... And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by. And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden,” (vers. 8, 11, 34, 35.) ‘’Thus saith the Lord, I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called, A city of truth; and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, The holy mountain,” (Zech. viiL 3.)

May the Lord speedily ‘* make the place of His feet glorious.” May He hasten the day, when a diadem of beauty shall once more encircle the brow of Olivet; — when the Saviour’s most hallowed ‘abiding-place* in the days of His flesh, will be served heir to new “memories” of millennial happiness and peace, unmingled, like the former ones, with sadness and tears; — and when the glowing prophetic words will be fulfilled — “Behold, the days come, saith the

LOKD, THAT THE CITY SHALL BE BUILT TO THE LOKD, FEOM THE TOWER OF HaNANEEL UNTO THE GATE OF THE CORNER.

And the measuring line shall yet go forth over
against it upon the hill gareb, and shall compass

ABOUT TO GOATH. AnD THE WHOLE VALLEY OF THE DEAD
BODIES, AND OF THE ASHES, AND ALL THE FIELDS UNTO
THE BROOK OF KIDRON, UNTO THE CORNER OF THE HORSE
GATE TOWARD THE EAST, SHALL BE HOLY UNTO THE LORD;
IT SHALL NOT BE PLUCKED UP, NOR THROWN DOWN, ANY
MORE FOR tlVER.”

Jeb. xxxl 38- 40.