treat of the same time and the same subject, come to his end, none being able to help him.*

"V. When, at the pouring out of the sixth vial, Turkey shall have fallen, the kings of the whole Roman world, we are told, will be gathered to the war of that great day of God Almighty.

Thus, plainly, the downfall of Turkey will be, at once, both the signal and the cause of this terrible war.

"The confederation will be formed by the joint intrigues of what are called Three Unclean Spirits: and, by noting the sources whence they had proceeded, we may form no unreasonable conjecture as to their character. Be they what they may, they are spirits of evil. Whence we may be sure, that the gathering of the Roman kings infers no good purpose.

"A general war may clearly, I think, be set down as the consequence of the downfall of Turkey: and, in the course of its evolutions, Israel will be restored.

"As to particulars, we must not venture further than Scripture doth, as it were, take us by the hand. Of this, however, we may be sure, that THE DOWNFALL OF TURKEY WILL BE THE HARBINGER OF THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL."

Of the prospects of the Ottoman empire we do not venture to speak. It may not be so near its downfall as Mr Faber thinks. God may have a people to gather out of it yet, and may now be proceeding to do so, even as he is doing out of Popery. The toleration enjoyed now in it seems a way opened for missionaries and Bibles.

Nor is Russia so sure of her prey as many think. She is kept in reserve by God for the latter day, to be used by him as the "hail" out of the north, and also, as Gog and Magog, to pour her armies into the unwalled villages of restored Israel (Ezek. xxxviii. 9-12). There is nothing in Scripture to indicate that till that time she is to take any conspicuous part in the movements of the kingdoms. It is easy to form conjectures, and to give forth exciting speculations as to the prospects of Europe; but it is not so easy to go to the Word of God, and to learn the Divine purpose there respecting the events of the latter day. The rashness, the folly, the ignorance, that have of late been exhibited in such pieces of quackery as the Coming Struggle," are sufficient to make one hesitate and ponder, before coming to a very decided conclusion as to the order of coming events, or the nations that are to be arrayed upon the coming field. A closer adherence to what is written, and a more strenuous avoidance of what is not written, will be our only safety in these feverish days.

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* Dan. xi. 40-45. Compare Isaiah xi. 10-16; lix. 16-21; lxvi. 5-24; Joel ii.; Zech. xii.-xiv.; Rev. xix. 11-21.

ART. V.-THE SONG OF SONGS.

Ir there is one book in the Bible more fitted than another to excite us to fervent longings after the return of Jesus, it is the Song of Solomon; and for this reason, it is wholly occupied with the person of Christ; and it is in proportion as He in his own person is loved, that his personal presence will be ardently desired. It is a book that treats pre-eminently of communion; and if communion but imperfectly realised by faith be so rapturous now, how much more when it is realised in full and eternal perfection by sight at his appearing! It is a book of mutual communings of the interchange of thought and feeling between Jesus and his Bride. It is an unfolding of the "fellowship" that John wrote of when he said, “Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ" (1 John i. 3). There is no other book in the Bible like it. It speaks much of that joy with which the "stranger" intermeddleth not (Prov. xiv. 10). It breathes the language of those, and of those only, who "love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity" (Eph. iv. 24).

Foolish virgins, who carry lamps, but take no oil with them, are like the daughters of Jerusalem who inquire, “What is thy Beloved more than another beloved?" But the wise virgins are ready, when the Bridegroom comes, to go in with him to the marriage; for though, through the infirmity of the flesh, they do sometimes slumber and sleep, they have the oil in their vessels, with their lamps, and they speedily arise and trim them. They are full of burning love.

These seasons of slumber form the only interruption in this book to the hallowed seasons of communion otherwise enjoyed. They are the only cause of grief and sadness. So emphatically, indeed, is the intercourse of Jesus with his Bride that of intense enjoyment, that it is viewed as singing rather than as speaking! The whole book is called, "The Song of Songs" -as, on the one hand, in Zeph. iii. 17, it is written, "He will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love: he will joy over thee with singing;" and as, on the other, it is written, in Eph. v. 19, "singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord." And how beautifully it is called "The Song of Songs which is Solomon's"! The Bride is content though no ear should hear but His. She sings not for the world. sings not for the ear of strangers. Enough for her that she may "sing unto Him" (Psa. cv. 2). How blessed this single

She

ness of heart! It is as a foretaste of that

new song" which none but the hundred and forty-four thousand redeemed ones. could learn the "virgins"-" those which were not defiled with women -" the pure in heart" (Rev. xiv. 3, 4).

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And have we not learned, by bitter experience, for ourselves, how impossible it is to "sing the Lord's song" in a land of spiritual captivity, "in the land of a stranger"? (Ps. cxxxvii. 4, marg.) Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for thou hast gone a-whoring from thy God" (Hos. ix. 1). the true-hearted Bride of Jesus can sing "the Lord's song." O for hearts that are ever in tune for singing the song which is Solomon's! "I will sing unto the Lord."

But

There is in it an intensity of delight which no words can adequately express. The figure chosen in this book goes farther to intimate to us something of what it is, than any human language could have done. For as there is no affection so strong, so deep, as that between the husband and the wife, so there is nothing too choice, too costly, too fragrant, to set forth the untold and unutterable happiness of Jesus and his Bride in each other. "As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee" (Is. lxii. 5).

The Bride is the first to speak. And how remarkable the language she uses! It is the outgoing of unsatisfied love, from a heart athirst for the Lord of life; panting after fresh discoveries of Himself to her, even as the hart panting after the water-brooks (see chap. i. 2-7).

"Let him kiss me!" The intimacy cannot be too close. "Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee," is the burden of her cry, the summing up, so to speak, of her desires. Oh! it is this ardent longing of the soul for close, unfettered fellowship with Jesus, that bespeaks the sincerity of love, that tells of intercourse the world knows nothing of. Would that this cry were daily, momentarily ascending to the ear of Jesus from ten thousand times ten thousand hearts" Let him kiss me." Then we should hear less of the grievous complainings of Christians over the deadness and coldness of their hearts; and Jesus would be refreshed by the love of his Bride, and would delight to manifest Himself to her in ways that even his own people have scarcely an idea of. For we know little of the depth of his heart of love; yet that little is unutterably sweet, for how often is the language on the lips of believers— "How sweet the name of Jesus sounds," &c. !

How often in the house of God do they feel that the house is so filled with the odour of the ointment (as his name is

preached), that they "love" him and rejoice in him with a joy unspeakable and full of glory! And this one thing they do feeling that as yet they have attained to almost nothing of what may be attained, they press onwards, crying out, “Draw me!" It is beautiful to see the importunity of love: it would not tarry behind-it would run after its object, even as Peter, unable to restrain his eagerness to be at his Master's feet, cast himself into the sea," while the rest drew the ship to land.

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And this vehement love gets its reward. While the many are lingering about the threshold of the King's palace, thinking it almost too vast a privilege to be objects of his regard at all, the Bride is admitted into his very chambers, to learn the innermost recesses of his heart of love! And who shall tell the intensity of delight experienced there? "We will be glad, and rejoice in thee." Like David, in Psa. xliii. 3, 4, led into the tabernacles of his God by the light and truth of his Word and Spirit, he goes direct to the altar, where the sprinkled blood proclaims him forgiven, even unto God, his "EXCEEDING

JOY."

It is the presence, the felt presence of her Beloved that thus fills the Bride with "joy unspeakable." As long as He is the one alone object of her thoughts, all is peace and joy. But in ver. 5, 6, thoughts of self flash across her mind. "HE " is changed for "I." What wonder, then, if shadows flit across the scene! "I am black, but comely." None are so ready to own their vileness as those who know most of their completeness in Jesus. But the recollection of self fills the soul with a sense of its shortcomings: "Mine own vineyard have I not kept." How like Rom. vii., where self is so much dwelt upon! What wretchedness it produces! (ver. 25). One thing alone remains for the soul to do when it is brought into this state, viz., to turn again to Jesus. "Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest," &c. (ver. 7).

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In ver. 8-11 we have Christ's answer. And how full of tenderness it is! If thou know not," &c. (ver. 8). He compares her to the horses in Pharaoh's chariots-doubtless, in allusion to their costliness, speed, and rarity, arrayed, too, in trappings of no ordinary beauty, decked with gold and silver. Possibly it might be with a view of calling to mind whence she had been redeemed, that Jesus thus reminds her of Egypt (Isa. li. 1). Or it may be simply his recognition of her earnest swiftness in running after him (ver. 4). He takes no notice of her complaint of turning aside, but rather fixes attention on her alacrity and swiftness in following him.

"A

In ver. 12-14 we have her reply. There is no vaunting of herself on his admiration of her. She rather intimates that it is his presence at the table that calls forth all the fragrance (ver. 12). And she soon returns to speak of Him—“ A bundle of myrrh is my Well-beloved unto me," &c. bundle"-there is no scarcity in Jesus. "All fulness dwells in Him," for in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." He is "a cluster of camphire" too. He gives himself richly to us to enjoy. Ah! why do we not enjoy his fragrance more? Too often we use him only as a bitter herb for medicine; but here he is set before us as a delicious plant for our actual enjoyment. Oh, how sweet to know Jesus as cluster of camphire! To you who believe, he is precious, so precious that you desire no other object to share his place. "He shall lie all night betwixt my breasts." "There is none upon earth I desire beside thee."

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a

In ver. 15 Jesus speaks, and they are wondrous words. Twice over he tells her she is "fair!" He has so covered our vileness, that even at this moment, conscious as we are of our hideous deformity, He is saying to each believer, "Thou art fair!" The little moment of our brief existence here is as nothing to him, looking at us, as he does, in the everlasting covenant, chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blame before him in love, and in the fulness of time to be presented faultless before the presence of his glory" (Eph. i. 4; Jude 24).

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În ver. 16, 17, the Bride returns his commendations of her, as it were, upon Himself "Behold, thou art fair, my beloved." It is mutual delight. She shuts Him out of nothing, but rather looks all she has as his "our bed," upon our house," our rafters." All is pleasant, full of exquisite freshness, fragrant, and enduring; for he is in it all. O the preciousness of communion such as this with the Beloved of our souls! Does it not excite within us the fervent cry, "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth"?

Commentators are not agreed whether to ascribe the language of chap. ii. 1 to Christ, or to the Bride; but it is generally used as spoken by the Lord, and it is like Him to identify himself with his Bride, calling himself "the lily of the valleys," and calling her "the lily among thorns" (ver. 42).

And she immediately takes up his language; and as He compared her to a "lily among thorns," she compares him to "the apple-tree among the trees (lit. 'the wild trees') of the wood." And then she tells of the ecstacy of delight with which she sat down under the shadow of that tree, plucking