WE cannot miss the meaning of any prophecy of the Old Testament if we adopt the inspired application of it in the New. Without, then, pausing to consider the improbabilities of the quotation from Isaiah, and its immediate connection, referring, either to the people of Israel as a whole, or to the prophet Isaiah himself, or to the collective body of the prophets-for each of which opinions there have not been wanting learned and zealous advocates-it is enough for us that the Apostle Paul quotes the passage as applicable to the Messiah, and to the Messiah alone.

It therefore presents to every Christian mind a most attractive theme, a theme in the discussion of

VOL. III.-NEW SERIES, No. 9.

which one might easily be tempted to step beyond the limits assigned to the introduction of the solemn and impressive services of this day. We shall, however, very zealously guard against that temptation, and content ourselves with shaddowing forth, in a very hasty way, some of those thoughts which it awakens; and especially as there is a certain question suggested by our second text to which we may appropriately devote a moment or two by way of reply.

The words of the prophecy before us obviously allude to the two great

passed at the missionary meeting held in *Printed in compliance with the vote the evening.

divisions of the Redeemer's work, and describe the main features of both. They foretell the limitation of the personal ministry of Christ. They also foretell the breadth and grandeur of His mediatorial work.—It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.

That the personal ministry of Christ should be confined to a limited sphere is not only predicted in the words just quoted. It is also reiterated in many other passages in the Old Testament. Indeed, whatever the name or title under which the Messiah is foretold, all the predictions point to His primary work as limited to the raising of Jacob and the restoring of Israel.

Such limitation was also demanded by the very nature of the case. If God be localised in human form-if God become man-His presence must, humanly speaking, be necessarily circumscribed. Incarnation, from its very nature, is limitation. It pertains also to the human body that it dwell in one place at one time. It therefore seems a fair supposition, that if the Word were made flesh, that very region would be the scene of His labours in which the people dwelt whose nationality he had apparently assumed.

Furthermore, the idea of a Messiah was inherent in the whole structure of the national worship and history of the Jews. It was the climax of their dispensation. Say, rather, it was the focus towards which all the scattered rays of Divine glory in Judaism converged and centred.

from the nations of the earth. A national degradation was the chief bondage under which they groaned. Anational deliverer was the supreme wish of their carnal and worldly heart. God's truth was encrusted with fatal error, which the Jews were then perpetuating in various ways. One party, the largest and in some respects the most influential, added so many traditions to the pure Word of God as to make the commandments void, and elevated mere ceremonies above morality and truth. Another party, a reaction from the first, took away from the Inspired Oracles by far the larger portion. They grew deistical in their opinions, denied a resurrection and superintending Providence, and worshipped mere uprightness in society as their God. A third party, while claiming prophetic powers and pretending to a knowledge of the names of angels, forbad the ordinance of matrimony, refused to offer sacrifices at the temple, and even venerated the sun. A fourth party, bringing the principles of a pagan philosophy and the spirit of a pagan criticism to the Old Testament, entirely rejected the idea of a personal Messiah.

Here, then, were errors, very flagrant and very mischievous, which the preserved of Israel were doing their very best to promulgate. Need we wonder, therefore, when all these things were naked and open to the eye of Christ that He should reaffirm by His own lips what He had already inspired prophets to declare-the limitation of His personal ministry? Need we wonder that there should be such limitation when by it the errors, not of one age only, but of all ages, would be rebuked and

Need we wonder that He should send out the twelve apostles on their first errand of mercy, with the words, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel?* Need we wonder,

* Matt. x. 5, 6.