modified or they must be explained away. Its range is too narrow for the infinite compass of Scripture. It has not a little of truth in it; some of its leading ideas are scriptural; but it is sa sadly imperfect in many points that it gives way when brought to expound Scripture. It is not the mere shape and mould of the system that is defective. That would be of less importance. But some of the ideas which it embodies are inconsistent, not only with special texts, but with God's great pervading idea and purpose, self-manifestation. It utterly fails to express this mighty idea. It stammers grievously and incurably in attempting to utter this grand, original, eternal purpose of the Triune Jehovah.

But, rise to a loftier level still. Look at Calvinism. It is, in its connected shape, man's system, yet we believe it to be a system containing and giving utterance to more of the great ideas of the Bible than any other that has ever been chiselled out by the hand of man. In its leading ideas it is divine; in its formulæ for expressing these, it is human. In the former respect we may call it complete; in the latter we may safely admit its imperfection, an imperfection necessarily arising from man's efforts to express in his own words, and develop in his intellectual forms, the thoughts and purposes of the eternal Jehovah. With the former

we believe no text will ever really be found at variance; with the latter not a few, peradventure, may be so found. The former we would carry with us every where in our researches into Scripture, assured that thus there will be light shed upon our path; the latter we require to apply more cautiously. For we may with all confidence say, that while we believe that no passage of the Bible will be found at strife with Calvinism, some passages may be discovered not perfectly harmonizing with Calvinistic formulæ.

There is no system ever promulgated that gives so free and rich an utterance to that grand purpose -that mighty idea of God-self-manifestation-as what is called Calvinism. Every part of it is built upon this and brings forth this into conspicuous view. And it is just because this system never loses sight of God's great original idea, that it is so useful and so invaluable as our guide to the exposition of the Word of God. Whatever part of Scripture you are seeking to expound, historical, preceptive, doctrinal, or prophetic, take it with you, and you will find the calm, steady, accurate light which it casts even upon hard passages, as well as the satisfactory way in which it furnishes us with links for connecting together what appears sometimes isolated and disordered.

Prophecy no less than doctrine receives light

from this system. The future as well as the past bears its impress in every part. From the beginning to the end of God's workings in his universe, the same principles are acted on, the same idea is developed, the same purpose is unfolding itself, self-manifestation. In the ages to

come, God is the same, ALL AND IN ALL, and man the same nothing, that they have been in the generations that are past.

CHAPTER IV.

THE TWO CENTRES.

It is in Christ, as we have already said, that Jehovah's purpose of self-manifestation centres. Its origin, its progress, its consummation, are all directly linked with him. "He is the brightness of the glory of Jehovah, and the express image of his person." He is the WORD,-the utterance of Jehovah's mind, the witness of his character, the exponent of his purposes. Godhead is in Him represented and revealed.

It is, however, round two great centres that this manifestation is made to revolve. The two Advents of Christ are the two periods, or events, or stages in which the Divine purpose is specially displayed. And it will be found that all historic truth bears in some way or measure upon the First Advent; so all prophetic truth is connected with the Second. The thoughts of God seem to gather themselves round these magnificent centres. For the thoughts of God, like the orbs which he has lighted up and hung in the firmament, have

their centres and their orbits, their revolutions and their periods. Or rather, we should say, that the outer and visible world, with all its movements, and with all the laws which regulate these movements, is but the image of an inner and invisible world, even as the earthly tabernacle was formed after the pattern of heavenly things, which the Lord showed to Moses in the Mount.

These two Advents, then, are the two foci of that vast ellipse round which all things are revolving. To the Church of Christ at first, these two events seemed but as one undivided event; for she stood at the extreme end of the axis, looking along the line. But as she advanced onwards, a distinction became more visible. At length she reached the first of them, and then, beyond it, she saw the second, quite separate from the first; but how far, she could not say. Many events seemed to cluster round; but the order in which they were to occur was somewhat uncertain. But as she travelled onward, and as century after century elapsed, events began to spread themselves out, and to marshal themselves more exactly than before. And as we near the consummation, we may expect yet clearer light, and more accurate insight into the order, as well as the nature of those mighty events that are coming on the earth, and for which, whatever may be the slumber or