expended in the attempt merely to restore that happy condition. which had passed away, the theocratical and Messianic sense or consciousness could not be further unfolded and make progress in light and power. But when that hope gradually died away, and the efforts of Prophecy to effect a thorough reformation of a generation whose degeneracy rapidly proceeded, were found to be fruitless, Prophecy itself was at last compelled to despair; it abandoned the belief that such a restoration or such an improvement of the present condition of affairs could possibly be developed from its own resources -and this is the point at which we have now arrived.

2. Nevertheless, the covenant which God had made with the fathers continued to be of force. If an organic development proceeding from the present times, cannot furnish the desired results, these may be obtained by means of the catastrophe of a judgment, and be realized through a development that is commenced anew. Hence Prophecy abandons the present times, in a certain sense, and directs its view to the future. The first object which it now perceives is the inevitable judgment prepared for Israel and Judah. Since the people of God conform to the practices of pagans, and, forgetful of their own vocation, form connections with the kingdoms of the world, the latter become the source from which that judgment proceeds. But as the covenant of God continues to be of force, this judgment appears in the light of a salutary chastisement, and this peculiar character of the judgment which Israel is taught to expect, distinguishes it from the judgment which is to overtake other nations. There is a deliverance from the judgment prepared for Israel- a restoration shall succeed their fall. A new David, far more glorious and exalted than the former, is appointed to restore, renew, glorify and perfect the kingdom of God. In consequence of this new character which Prophecy assumes, the conception of the Messiah, which had, during several centuries (since the days of David), receded from the view, resumed its prominent position, and acquired all that fulness and distinctness during its further development which it was intended to possess under the old covenant. This change in the position and the task assigned to prophecy now produced the conviction that a certain want existed, which prophecy could

not experience at an earlier period, when its view was directed to the present time exclusively, that is, the necessity was now felt that the predictions which were pronounced should be preserved in a written form. Prophecy was compelled to withdraw its attention from the generation of the present day, and direct its view to the generations of future times.

OBS.-The writings of the Prophets in the Bible are chronologically arranged in the two divisions of the greater and the minor prophets, as the latter have been termed. The times in which they flourished, are referred to the following three periods:-1. Before the Babylonian Captivity; the prophets who died before that judgment overtook the people of the covenant, are Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah and Isaiah. 2. Near to, and during the Captivity; those who uttered predictions during its continuance, or immediately before or after it, are Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. 3. After the return of the people from Babylon; those who then labored, are Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

§ 100. The Prophets who preceded the Captivity. (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah.)

1. The labors of Hosea, which commenced during the reign of Jeroboam II. or of Uzziah, had a particular reference to the kingdom of Israel. The prophet rebuked the apostasy of the people from Jehovah, both by his words and by his acts, announced the impending divine judgments, and also proclaimed that Israel should be restored to divine favor, after sincere repentance had been manifested.

OBS.-The following prediction occurs in ch. 3, ver. 4, 5: “The children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days." (See 2 118. 2, and 2 119.)

2. Joel, who probably dwelt in the kingdom of Judah, announces the judgments of God, under the image of destructive locusts (in the valley of Jehoshaphat, § 75. 2), exhorts the people to repent, and foretells the outpouring of the Holy Ghost.

OBS. The following prediction occurs in ch. 2: "It shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my Spirit. And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth

before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered."

3. Amos, a herdman of Tekoah in Judah, who was commanded by the Lord to prophesy, as he followed the flock (7: 15), shows God's judgments upon the neighboring pagan nations, and in prophetic visions sees Israel's ripeness for judgment, but also announces a future deliverance.

OBS.

The following prediction occurs in ch. 9, v. 11: "In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old."

4. Obadiah briefly but sternly rebukes the Edomites.

5. Jonah, the son of Amittai, dwelt in Israel. He had given Jeroboam II. assurances of success in his contests with the Syrians (2 Kings 14: 25). He is next commanded to preach the Word of God in Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, for a testimony against Israel. For the purpose of evading this divine commission, which did not accord with his views of the particular election of his people, and which also seemed to be attended with danger, he hastened to Joppa and engaged a passage on board a ship bound to Tarshish. During the prevalence of a violent tempest, the mariners, who acknowledge the righteous judgment of Jehovah and fear his name, cast Jonah forth into the sea, after the lot had designated him. He was swallowed by a great fish (which was probably a carcharias,* but certainly not a whale), and, on the third day, was vomited out alive upon the dry land.

The Carcharias (canis carcharias, sea-dog, &c.), a shark of gigantic size, has a throat so large as to be able to swallow not only a man, but even a horse. On one occasion, a monster of this class swallowed a sailor, but immediately disgorged him, on being struck by a cannon-ball. (See Winer's Reallex. art. "Fische.")

He now announces to the people of Nineveh that their city shall be overthrown in forty days; but the king (Pul?) and the people repent, and God spares them. Jonah is exceedingly displeased, but God convinces him of his folly and his sin, by means of the gourd (kikajon, ricinus), which came up in a night, and perished in a night.

OBS.. Jonah's carnal sentiments respecting the particular election of his people constitute him an image or type of Israel; like him, the people declined to fulfil the divine commission to preach to the heathen; like him, they were constrained to obey (8 112), and like him, they returned at a late day to the Lord in humility and penitence. But Jonah is also a type of the Redeemer, who executed in the most perfect manner the plan (to which Jonah conformed only with reluctance) according to which the preaching of repentance and faith, as well as of the great salvation which was connected with these, should proceed from the impenitent Jews and be thence brought to the penitent heathen. The preaching of Jonah among pagans was introduced and facilitated by the circumstance that he had been three days in the belly of the fish; the preaching of the Gospel among heathens, in the same manner, derived power from the circumstance that the Redeemer abode three days in the heart of the earth, that is, that he died and that he rose again, which are the two points on which the work of redemption hinges.—The penitent people of Nineveh constitute the antitype of Israel; they will rise in judgment and condemn all those who despised the preaching of Him who is a greater than Jonah (Matt. 12: 39–41; see also Matt. 16: 4, "the sign of the prophet Jonas").— Nineveh, lying on the eastern side of the Tigris, was, according to Diodorus, 480 stadia or 60 miles in circumference, and contained 120,000 children (who could not "discern between their right hand and their left hand," Jonah 4: 11), which implies that the population amounted to two millions.

§ 101. Continuation. (Isaiah, Micah.)

1. Isaiah, the son of Amoz, in Judah, connected with the royal family (a nephew of Amaziah), according to tradition, began to prophesy during the last year of the reign of Uzziah. The book of Isaiah consists of two parts which are easily distinguished. The theme of the former part is the Messiah, described as Immanuel (that is, God with us), or as a king and a judge.

The prophet also rebukes the people on account of their obdurate ingratitude, exhorts them to repent, announces the calling of the Gentiles and God's judgments upon Judah, describes the Lord's vineyard which brought forth wild grapes, &c.

OBS.-"In that day," the prophet declares, 4: 2, "shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel." 'Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel" (7: 14)." Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace" (9: 6).— "The thickets of the forests" of Assyria shall be cut down (10: 34), but "there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots; and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord" (11: 1, 2), and he will introduce a period of universal peace on earth. "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea" (11: 6–9).

2. In the second part of the predictions of Isaiah, ch. 40-66, the expectation or hope of salvation is seen in another aspect. The conception of sufferings which are vicarious and expiatory, now acquires prominence, and is embodied in the servant of Jehovah. He is described as an expiatory sacrifice, bearing the sins of the people; he is vile and despised; he suffers and atones; he is humbled, and afterwards made glorious. This conception of the servant of God, who suffers for the sins of the people, and by his sufferings makes atonement for them, acquires, particularly in the fifty-third chapter, almost the same clearness and distinctness in which it appears in the New Testament.

OBS.-In ch. 53 : 4-7, for instance, the prophet says: "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem