in terms denoting their resplendent majesty and power. Thus Daniel, in his 10th chapter, says,

“I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude. And I Daniel alone saw the vision; for the men that were with me saw not the vision; but a great quaking fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves. Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength.” (ver. 5—8.)

So also Ezekiel, in his 1st chapter, says,“As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps : it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning. And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning." (ver. 13, 14.)

"And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise of an host.”* (ver. 24.)

St. John speaks of two such visions. In his 10th chapter he says,

“I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud : and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire : and he had in his hand a little book open : and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices." (ver. 1-3.)

And in the 18th, he says,“I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.” (ver. 1.) · Nor are these wondrous beings few in number. Elisha asked the Lord to open his servant's eyes, that he might see;

“And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.” (2 Kings vi. 17.)

And in the hour of Christ's extremity, he said, “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he

shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels," (i.e., more than seventy thousands.) (Matt. xxvi. 53.)

Such, then, was this wondrous Person, who was seized in the garden, dragged away to Caiaphas, then to Pilate, and at last to Calvary. He was one

“Whose lightest whispered word

The Seraphim had heard, And adamantine arms from all the heavens broke out.” Estimated by His servants, His attendants, His messengers, we gain some insight into that “ brightness" which, for a time, Christ gave up,-of that height of power and glory which He relinquished.

He was “the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth.” “He created the heavens, and stretched them out.” So vast, so inconceivable, is this mighty universe, that the human mind faints and fails in the attempt to reach an adequate idea of it. The distances of the heavenly bodies surpass our calculation,-their numbers defy our puny arithmetic. Yet, “He commanded, and they were created: He established them for ever and ever; He hath made a decree which shall not pass.” “His greatness is unsearchable.”

So also is His goodness, “the bounties of His hand.” A human life spent in the study of the infinite variety of ways in which “the excellency of His loving-kindness” is shown,how He “crowneth the year with His goodness ;" how He "openeth His hand, and filleth all things living with plenteousness;" how “He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry,”—would only leave a man, at last, at the close of such an enquiry, “like one who had spent his time in admiring the pebbles on the shore, while the ocean of Divine goodness lay unfathomed before him.” The numberless forms of beauty, too, which fill the ocean, the forest, the air, and the land, all declare the same fact, that "God is good to all, His tender mercies are over all His works," -"in wisdom hast Thou made them all; the earth is full of Thy riches." Nor can we fall into the least error in applying all these words to Him who died on Calvary, for we have the apostle's plain declaration, that "by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth : visible, and invisible; whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by Him, and for Him; and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.” (Col. i. 16.) Angels in all their various orders; angels whose faces are “as the appearance of lightning, and the voice of their words like the voice of a multitude;" "the noise of whose wings is like the noise of great waters,” are his obedient messengers. “The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them that work iniquity.” “I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand.” Such are some of the outlines of the nature and extent of the heavenly dominion; such were some of the features of that “ brightness of His Father's glory," which Christ voluntarily resigned. A just and right understanding of the whole fact is beyond our reach, the mind of a human being would be crushed and overthrown by any full appreciation of the entire reality. We have but touched the outer skirt, the fringe of the garment. When the Redeemer prays, “And now, O Father, glorify Thou me with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was,” what can we know, what can we conceive, of the nature of that glory? Nothing! We have but laboured and striven,we hope lawfully,-to raise our minds, by the help of certain revealed facts, above the blank emptiness, the grovelling poverty, which many readers of the Bible are content to abide in.

Of the other side of this vast subject, the Depth to which He condescended, we must try to say something on a future occasion.

ON THE INTERPRETATION OF ISAIAH IX. 1–8. The most cursory review of the conflicting interpretations assigned by distinguished German critics to this prophecy, considered in connexion with that contained in ch. vii. 14-17, will suffice to enable every Biblical student to determine for himself how far it behoves him to forsake the old paths in which his fathers have walked, for that new “pathway streaming with light” into which, with a considerate allowance for our previous darkness, our modern guides have invited us to enter.

It is true, indeed, that the difficulties attending the rejection of the Messianic interpretation are so much greater in regard to this prophecy than to the former, that many critics who explain the “Immanuel ” of ch. vii., of a son of Ahaz or Isaiah, are constrained to admit an ultimate, if not an exclusive, reference in this chapter to the Christ of God.

But, when the intimate connexion of the two prophecies, or rather, the essential unity of the whole, is duly considered, it is scarcely possible to adduce any stronger argument against the soundness of the interpretation proposed in the one case,

than an admission on the part of its defenders, that it is incapable of application in the other.

Irrespectively, however, of those who dispute what, as we conceive, St. Matthew has determined to be the true interpretation of this, as of the preceding portion of the prophecy, there are many of a widely different class, who, whilst implicitly accepting the consentient interpretation of the early Jewish Church, and of the Christian Church of sixteen centuries, * are unable to assign any distinct and consistent meaning to the successive portions of the prophecy, or to gather out of it any further confirmation of their faith than a firm and unshaken conviction that that same mysterious Being who is therein foretold as the “ Child” who should be « born," and the “Son” that should be “given," is yet none other than the self-existent Jehovah “ whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”

With the design of removing, if practicable, some of the obscurities which belong to this momentous prophecy, more especially in the form in which it is presented to the English reader, and of establishing more clearly its direct Messianic interpretation, we propose (1) to give a translation of the text, in which some of the presumed defects of the authorized version are removed, and (2) to offer some remarks, both critical and exegetical, upon its general import.

Translation from the Hebrew Text of Is. ix. 1–8. “For there shall not be (perpetual) darkness on the land which suffered distress, seeing that, as at the first He lightly esteemed, (or brought into contempt), the land of Zebulon and the land of Naphtali, so afterwards He has made it honourable (or glorious); by the way of the Sea, beyond (or along the banks of) the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who were walking in darkness have seen a great light; those who were dwelling in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light dawned. Thou hast multiplied the nation, Thou hast increased its joy (or, Thou hast multiplied the nation whose joy Thou hadst not increased, i.e. in former days); they joy before thee as the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, (i.e. with which the shoulders of the people were smitten by their invaders), the rod of his oppressor, Thou hast broken in pieces, as in the day of Midian. For, as to every war-boot of the greaved warrior in the din of battle, and every garment rolled in blood, it shall even be for burning, as fuel for the fire. For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is

* Grotius appears to have been the first Christian expositor who rejected the Messianic interpretation.

tuinea arginal the 8th upon the As.

given, and the government is upon His shoulder, and they shall call His name Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

“To the increase of His government, and to peace, there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom, to order it and to establish it, in judgment and in righteousness, from henceforth and for ever : the zeal of Jehovah of Hosts shall do this,”

The continuity of the prophecy will appear from the following considerations :

The 7th chapter ends with a picture of that utter desolation of the land which followed upon the Assyrian invasion.

The beginning of the 8th chapter contain (as appears from the marginal reference) a re-iteration of the prediction contained in ch. vii. 16, that before a child conceived at that time should exceed the age of discernment between good and evil, the two hostile kingdoms of Syria and of Israel should be despoiled by the king of Assyria. The extent of the Assyrian invasion is foretold in verses 7 and 8, and the invaded land is claimed by the prophet, with an evident allusion to ch. vii. 14, as the heritage of Immanuel.

The security of the faithful remnant is guaranteed by the assurance of the presence and indwelling of their Head ; an assurance couched in the very words which constitute the name. of the predicted child, Immanuel, “God with us,” ver. 10.

And, once more, after a declaration on the part of the prophet, applicable alike to Shear-jashub, (ch. vii. 3,) and to Maher-shalal-hash-baz, (ch. viii. 3,) that he and his children were for signs and for wonders in Israel, the 8th chapter ends with a renewed prophecy of the distress which should follow upon the Assyrian invasion, and the curses which should be uttered in the name of “their king and their God” (probably their idol), by the victims of famine and desolation.

The curtain which falls upon a scene of unbroken darkness and distress, (viii, 21, 22,) is raised in the beginning of the following chapter upon one of joy and gladness. The same lands which suffered most severely from the invasions of the Assyrian kings are represented as the first to be enlightened in the latter days by the light of the promised salvation.

And here it behoves us to observe that the history of the desolation, and the history of the deliverance are recorded with equal clearness and precision. With regard to the former, we learn from 2 Kings xv. 29, that Galilee, and all the land of Naphtali," suffered from the invasion of Tiglath-Pileser, and besides the towns within the tribe of Naphtali distinctly specified in that place, we read of the land of Gilead, the western boundary of which was formed by the river Jordan, as