in the house or temple of God, which, continually increasing in its depth as it runs along, shall soon become a river not to be forded, running eastward into the Dead or East Sea, whose salt and nauseous waters shall be rendered sweet and wholesome by it, and abound with great multitudes of fish of various sorts; and that on the banks of this river there shall grow trees which shall produce new fruit every month for food, while their leaves shall be used as medicine to cure the disorders of the body (Ezek. xlvii. 1-13).

"These particulars are so very different from the past or present state of this land, that they must plainly relate to a future period, when the twelve tribes of Israel will be restored to this country again. For since Ezekiel's time, the Glory of God has never resided in their temple; neither have the twelve tribes ever inhabited the land, according to this division of it, nor has the city of Jerusalem ever been built in this form, neither has the holy oblation yet been laid out, as is here directed, nor has this river ever yet risen in the temple, or healed the Dead or East Sea, whose waters are still salt to the highest degree, and extremely bitter and nauseous, so that few or no fish can live in it."

Ertracts.

Desiring the Lord's Coming.

when

The Christian

Oh that thou

"'Twas the character of believers of the Old Testament they waited for the consolation of Israel. 'Tis the description of the saints in the New they love the appearance of Christ. : If they longed for His coming in the flesh, though it was attended with all the circumstances of meanness and dishonour, the effects of our sins, with what ardent and impatient desires should we hasten His coming in glory, He shall appear the second time to them that look for Him, without sin, unto salvation'! (Heb. ix. 28). Then He will put an end to all the disorders of the world, and begin the glorious state wherein holiness and righteousness shall be crowned and reign for ever. Church joins in that ardent address to our Saviour wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at Thy presence! As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil; to make Thy name known to Thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at Thy presence!' (Isa. Ixiv. 1, 2). Although the beauty and frame of this visible world shall be destroyed, yet that dreadful day shall be joyful to the saints. For then all the preparations of infinite wisdom and goodness; the things that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, shall be the everlasting portion of those who love God. Come, Lord Jesus."-Bates.-Harmony of the Divine Attributes.

Come, Lord Jesus.

"The godly have great cause continually to be waiting and looking for that glorious appearing of Christ; and happy art thou, who art ever waiting for it; for at that glorious appearing thou shalt be partaker of glory with him."—Rollock, a.d. 1616.

The Rebuilded Jerusalem-Absurdity of Spiritualising.

"As a proof how even the strong and masculine intellect of Calvin was misled by the taste for spiritualising, I may notice the way in which he gets rid of the passage I have selected from Jeremiah (xxxi. 38), so as to avoid referring it to an earthly Jerusalem yet to be built. He is quite satisfied that the description given of the city cannot be accommodated to that which was built after the return from Babylon-for neither in magnitude, nor in holiness, nor in perpetuity, could it be said to verify the language of the prophet Therefore he says, we must think, not of that Jerusalem which was ultimately destroyed by the Romans, and in the outward structure of which God afforded to the Jews only some foretaste of that favour which was intimated by the prophet, but of the heavenly Jerusalem, which was prepared in Christ, and in which all that was of an outward and earthly nature in the Old Testament Church received its proper meaning and fulfilment. It seems strange it should not have occurred to so acute a mind, that to put such a construction upon the prophet's words, however good divinity it might make, derives from them a sense which can be justified by no principles of sound interpretation, and might be applied, indeed, to extract from other portions of Scripture the wildest extravagances. When we read of a city to be built, which has not merely a name familiarly known to us, but also a local habitation with well-defined boundaries, which, if not all precisely ascertained, are yet certainly known to belong to a particular region—it is impossible, in fairness, to think of any city as designed, but one which is of material and earthly formation. And when it is said of this city that it should never be plucked up or thrown down any more, as contrasted with a pre-existing one of the same name and in the same locality, which was plucked up and thrown down, the inference is unavoidable, that a city must have been intended, which was to be of a like nature with the one which had preceded it. It would surely have been preposterous to say of the heavenly Jerusalem, that it should not be plucked up or thrown down any more-as if it had already shared that fate. A thing from its very nature incapable of sharing the fate spoken of by the prophet, could not possibly be that to which his language referred; and consequently there is a terrestrial city yet to occupy the site, and be resplendent with the glory here described-described without the appearance of either type or figure.”— The Rev. Patrick Fairbairn. Lecture on the Jews.

Correspondence.

To the Editor of the Quarterly Journal of Prophecy.

DEAR SIR,-It may be well that the attention of your readers should be called to the following statement made by Lord Palmerston, in a speech in August last, regarding Turkey :

"I do not agree with him that the Turkish empire is in the state of decay

INDEX.

ABSTRACT of New Testament, by Rev. Ch. | Extracts from-

Is Rome the Babylon of the Apocalypse? 103. Heidelberg Catechism, Commentary on, 95.

Notes of Mission among the Dens of London, Popery and Infidelity, by Douglas of Cavers,

'vii. 13, Son of Man, comes to Ancient Tabernacle, The, 201.

Tales and Sketches of Christian Life in Dif-
ferent Lands and Ages, 95.

Ezekiel i. 4, "Whirlwind out of the North" Ten Horns of the Beast, 281.

he represents, or that the integrity and independence of Turkey are nct worth maintaining or contending for with success. The hon. gentleman is wholly misinformed as to the state of Turkey for the last thirty years. I assert, without fear of contradiction from any man who knows anything of the subject, that Turkey, so far from having gone back during the last thirty years, has made a greater progress in improvements in every possible way than any other country. If we compare Turkey with what it was in the reign of the Sultan Mahmoud--if you look to the state of the government, to the various interests of the inhabitants connected with the defences of the country, to the army and navy, to the administration of justice, to the operations of agriculture, and to the diffusion of such manufactures as Turkey has —if you take its commercial system or its religion-I venture to say that in all these respects Turkey has made immense progress within the period I have mentioned. And so far from thinking with the hon. gentleman-in that sort of political slang which it is the fashion of those who would partition or devour Turkey to use-so far from looking at it as a dead body, or as a body that cannot be kept alive, I am convinced that if it is only kept out of the hands of those who wish to get into it, and if those who are in it are allowed to deal with it as they are now dealing with it, then, as far as the seeds of internal improvement are concerned, there are not many countries that will bear more favourable comparison than Turkey. If we can only keep other people's hands off, Turkey is as likely to improve as other countries to which the hon. gentleman has referred."-I am yours, &c.

A DISBELIEVER IN THE IMMEDIATE FALL OF TURKEY.

To the Editor of The Quarterly Journal of Prophecy.

DEAR SIR,-I approve of your intimation against admitting further correspondence into your Journal on the subject of Edward Irving's Theology; and may the SPIRIT of Love and Truth enable you to keep your legitimate province, and bless you within it.

I thank you for admission of my communication, rejoicing that the only periodical in which I take interest, proves (on all but one point) worthy of my prayerful support.

With regard to the term "malicious," allow me to remind you that I carefully qualified it with the parenthesis, "I fear;" and if any apology is needed for the use of such an obnoxious term, you must be referred to the enormous mass of criticism (so called), religious and profane, which, on all the subjects of the Irving controversies, proved itself alike "false and malicious," without any parenthesis.

I have often witnessed the suffering of Edward Irving, even to tears, under these "vile and rude buffetings of the licentious press" (as described by Dr Chalmers), and I honour him for denouncing it (the said licentious press) as the chief obstacle to the knowledge of divine truth, and to the progress of spiritual life.*

As you (with the turning-table adroitness of an editor) call upon me to answer questions respecting Mr Henry Drummond's parliamentary conduct, I have no objection (beyond that of "lugging in a member of parliament by the ears," as it were) to declare my full approval of that conduct from that gentleman's studied and varied efforts to economise the national expenditure,

* Here we omit a paragraph in the letter, as it refers to the controversy on Christ's nature; and were we to insert it, we could not refuse insertion to a letter which we have received upon the subject. For that letter we thank the writer, while declining his communication. Its insertion would carry us into the very heart of a discussion which is not suited to our pages.