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ii Thessalonians, and judge for himself whether or not that incarnation of evil presented throughout Scripture from Genesis to Revelation is not foreshadowed. I forbear to press the subject, for fear of repeating what has been so fully discussed in these discursive notes.

JOSHUA, XVIII, 1.

"And the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of the congregation there, and the land was subdued before them."

In Genesis, xlix, 10, Jacob, speaking by the spirit of God says "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come, and unto him shall the gathering of the people be." The first part of this prophecy has been fulfilled to the letter: the sceptre remained with Judah till Messiah or Shiloh was born. Herod was the last independent king of Judea, and he died soon after the murder of the innocents at Bethlehem; from that time to the present, the children of Israel have been without a king, and without a prince, and without sacrifice, image, or ephod, or teraphim (Hab. iii, 4), and in this state must they remain, peeled, scattered, and dispersed, till the last part of Jacob's prophecy shall find its realization in the gathering of the people unto Shiloh, the Prince of Peace, who at his second coming shall restore His people to their land, bring in everlasting peace, and reign over his ancients gloriously in the New Jerusalem (Isa., xxiv, 23).

Shiloh means "place of rest," "peace." peace." In Isaiah, ix, 6, the promised Messiah is called the Prince of Peace; He came first as the lowly one, "to guide our feet into the ways of peace" (Luke, i, 79), and to proclaim to all flesh" glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men" (Lu., ii, 14). The Jews not accepting the proffered peace, Jesus, by the mouth of Hosea (vi, 15), says "I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face; in their affliction they will seek me early." But they were not to see him till they should say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord (Mat.

xxiii, 39); and this will be when at the second advent the long-promised Prince of Peace, the antitypical Solomon, shall redeem his people, and then the song commenced on earth in all the full ardour of seraphic praise, shall resound through every region of the world. "Blessed be the king that cometh in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest" (Luke xix, 38).

Having thus briefly shown that Shiloh is the promised Messiah who eventually will reign over this earth as Prince of Peace, let us turn to the text heading this note, wherein we see the Israelites having overcome all their enemies set up the tabernacle at Shiloh, a place contignous to Bethel: it is here first mentioned as the name of a place, and nothing to my mind more forcibly demonstrates the verbal inspiration of the Bible than to find names incidentally mentioned illustrative of events predicted centuries before.

Shiloh designates in Jacob's prophecy a reign of peace. Solomon, whose name is derived from the same root, and is almost equivalent in its meaning, is the imperfect type of Emanuel, the Prince of Peace, and there can exist no doubt but that the eternity of dominion (2nd Sam., vii) promised to Judah was renewed to David, and that in his line the real Shiloh, foreshadowed by David's son Solomon, was to reach its culminating eminence. David was doubtless inspired to give the name of Solomon to his son (2nd Sam., xii, 24). He was also called Jedidiah, "beloved of Jehovah," so that in both names there was the assurance that from his loins should spring up Him whose coming had been declared from the commencement, and to whom all nations were to look as their King and Saviour.

It is remarkable that in the passage under review we find in the Hebrew tongue the complete phrase "Thaanath Shilo," that is "the future or the advent of Shiloh." The people in setting up the tabernacle therein evidenced a belief that the Lord, having subdued all their enemies under them, would inaugurate the reign of peace promised in the forthcoming Shiloh. Jacob had foretold that all nations should gather themselves to him—that is, acknowledge him as their king; and what more flattering to their pride than to imagine that Joshua, whose name was equivalent to Jesus, and who represented the coming Saviour should now give rest to his people.

Shiloh and Solomon, as before stated, are identical, and prophetically type and antitype, in confirmation of which see 1st Chron., xxii, 9, where Nathan says to David, "Behold, a son is born to thee, who will be a man of rest. I will give him rest from all his enemies round about, for his name will be Solomon, and peace and quietness will I give to Israel in his days." Compare with this the announcement made by Is., ix, 6, 7, "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his head, and his name shall be-PRINCE OF PEACE." And see what a wonderful similarity and correspondence there exists in the two passages; see also 1st Kings, v, 4, where Solomon says to Hiram, "the Lord my God has given me rest on every side;" and if we turn to 1st Kings, iv, 24, we read that "Solomon had peace on all sides round about, and that every one in Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and fig tree, from Dan to Beersheba."

Supposing, as we have every right to do, that the Israelites under Joshua believed in the significant title of Shiloh, they were fully justified in expecting that the Prince of Peace was about to appear, and would reign with them as their king over the new possessions so miraculously delivered into their hands, the more especially that the tabernacle of Jehovah was set up in a place bearing His name. Their subsequent conduct, however, evinced how little fit they were to have the Holy Shiloh as their king. It would appear that during the life of Joshua they remained steadfast in uprightness, but on his death some seventeen years after they grievously departed from the living God, intermarried with the heathen, worshipped their idols, and forgot the Lord who had brought them out of the land of bondage, led them safely through the howling wilderness, and planted them in the land promised to their forefathers; and the house which was called by the name of Shiloh, the house of peace, became a den of robbers. "Go ye now," says God, "unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel; therefore will I cast you out." See Mat., xxi, 13; Jer., vii, 11—15. And He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He had placed among men, and delivered Israel into captivity, and His glory into the enemy's hand. He gave His

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people over to the sword, and was wrath with his inheritance (Ps., lxxviii, 60-64). But as through Scripture chastisement is ever followed by mercy, so here in the same Psalm we see that when Israel repents Adonai arises as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine, smites his enemies and puts them to a perpetual reproach. And so will it ever be. Men may sin, rebel, and fall, but God remains unchangeable. Nothing man can do ever sways the unflinching justice of Jehovah. Shiloh, the place of the tabernacle, was deserted by God. He permitted the ark to be removed into the hands of his enemies; he allows Sion, the place he had chosen and desired for his habitation, whose gates he loved more than all the dwellings of Jacob, and of which glorious things were spoken (Ps., cxxxii, 13; lxxxvii, 2, 3) to be defiled by the abominations of desolation, to be destroyed by the Gentiles, and to be trodden down under foot for centuries by an apostate race: yet for all this God loves the stones of Zion, and will there set up the holy king, and when he builds up the ruin again on its own heap (Jer. xxx, 18), then shall he appear in his glory (Ps., cii, 16), &c., &c.

We thus see that though the Israelites, when they set up the tabernacle in Shiloh, were justified in expecting the promised Messiah. and that though through their sins the tribes were left, as they are to this moment, to learn by bitter trials that it is an awful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, for He is a consuming fire, and who can stand in his sight when once he is angry (Ps., lxxvi, 7); yet the true Solomon, the king of peace and righteousness, will come at the appointed time, restore his people and reign in Mount Zion, the real Shiloh. Even so come Lord Jesus!

ROMANS, XVI, 25, 26.

"According to the revelation of the mystery, which hath been kept in silence during eternal ages, but is now made manifest by the scriptures of tbs prophets," &c.

The mystery here mentioned is that spoken of in Eph. iii, 2-12, "That the Gentiles are joint heirs and joined in the same body and joint partakers of the promise

in Christ Jesus through the gospel." See also 1st Pet. i, 12; Acts, xx 27; Col. i, 26; Rev. x. 7. Which mystery had from the commencement of the world been hid in God. Angels and prophets had desired to look into it, but it was sealed up till God revealed it unto Paul, when it was said, he is a vessel of my choice to bear my name before Gentiles and kings (Acts, ix, 15), we may call to mind the astonishment of Peter when figuratively informed that nothing God made was unclean, and was directed to baptise the Gentile Centurion and his household. And the astonishment of the Jewish disciples when they heard that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts, x, 45). It was not till the Jews rejected the word of God and judged themselves unworthy of everlasting life that Paul turned to the Gentiles; and again did he rebuke his countrymen warning them that their blood be on their own heads; and that henceforth with a pure conscience he could go unto the Gentiles (Acts, xiii, 46; xviii, 6).

This was the mystery revealed to the prophets of the New Testament. The Old Testament prophecies are in the main occupied with earthly events connected chiefly with the history of the chosen race, of their present dispensation, and of their future return under the banner of Christ to reign with him in the New Jerusalem. If other subjects are referred to, such as heathen nations, their history, doom and punishment, it is only in such measure as their dealings or connection are interwoven will those of Israel.

The great mystery of the Church founded on Peter (Mat., xvi, 18), the raising up out of the world a heavenly bride built up of Jew and Gentile, to be joint heirs with God of all the glory wherewith the Father had invested him, and to reign with the glorified bride in the holy Jerusalem which descends out of Heaven from God (Rev. xxi, 10), the rapture of the saints (1st Corinthians, xv, 51, 51; 2nd Thessalonians, iv, 13—18), prior to the coming of Christ in judgment, the blessings of the first resurrection, and the power given to the saints to rule all nations with a rod of iron (1st Corinthians, vi, 2, 3, compared with Luke, xxii, 29; 2nd Peter, ii, 4; Jude, 6; and Revelations, ii, 27; xii, 5, &c.) All this and much more. connected with the elect church, was not revealed to the prophets of old, nor, with the exception of a few remote

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