chosen thee, saith Jehovah of hosts." Zerubbabel was the person whom God in His grace, had appointed to be the head and leader of this remnant of Israel in this day of their weakness-this "day of small things." His place, though apparently very different from that of those who had led and directed Israel in former periods of their unity and strength, was in reality not less honourable nor less blessed. As he stood at the head of a despised and feeble people, with the plummet and measuring line in his hand, laying the foundations of a despised Temple, there was nothing that indicated to the outward eye, honour, or strength, or glory. Yet God's power and presence were there-His favour and His blessing. The stone which Zerubbabel had laid for a foundation represented in the estimate of God, and in the estimate of faith, ONE, who, when He came, was to be despised more than Zerubbabel-ONE who was to be even to Israel itself, "a stumbling stone and rock of offence," and yet to be that "tried foundation-stone, elect, precious," whence salvation and glory were to flow. In the Temple which that feeble remnant were building, was to be concentrated the typical testimony to Truth: there the children of faith were to wait for, and there at last to behold God's salvation. "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." Such were the words of praise and thanksgiving uttered in that Temple, when in a manner men expected not and understood not, it was indeed entered by the Lord of Glory.

Yet whatever the honour put upon that house by God; however precious the typical lessons taught by its various Courts and services to the eye of faith; those lessons were to be given, and those lessons were to be learnt in the midst of a scene in which evil was to advance with giant strides, trampling down Truth, and destroying, or else entrammeling its servants till the hour shall come for this last promise of Haggai to be fulfilled. It is a promise for which we still wait. We have not yet seen the proud power of the Gentiles cast down. Indeed, as yet it has not attained the height of its appointed greatness. It is yet to be raised up to the pinnacle of its glory, and then is suddenly to be cast down for ever.

Do our labours class with those of Zerubbabel? Are we, as guided by the voice of God's holy Apostles and Prophets, seeking to give our energies to the Truth and people of God in the day of their weakness, or do we refuse to come without the gate of man's city, devoting ourselves to those things in which men find the tokens of their advancing

greatness? They who follow in the steps of Zerubbabel are precious in the sight of God; their struggles and sufferings are remembered, and an hour is drawing nigh when they, and the truths and principles for which they have laboured, will by him be established in strength and in glory for evermore. But the hour of their glory will be the hour of the nations' fall. It will be the hour when that still rising fabric of human greatness, whose strength each day augments and consolidates, will sink beneath the stroke of His righteous hand, before whom at last, the earth "shall tremble and be still."

On the force of the present tense in Greek and Hebrew.

THE most obvious use of the present tense is to denote an action in process of being performed in time present to the speaker, as I am walking; I am striking. It is sometimes very important to mark this force of the present in Scripture. Thus in Hebrews iv. 3. "We who believed are entering into the rest," i.e., we are now engaged in entering; we are going on into it, just as Israel was when they were journeying through the wilderness towards Canaan.*εισερχόμεθα γαρ εις την καταπαυσιν οἱ πιστευσαντες. See also 1 Tim. iv. 10. "For in reference to this, or looking unto this (the promise) we both toil and suffer reproach, &c., i.e., we are, from day to day, toiling and being reproached εις τουτο γαρ και κοπιωμεν και ονειδιζόμεθα, And Luke xiv. 18. "I bought a field, and I am under the present necessity (exw avaуkv) of going out to see it, &c."

But the present is also used when we wish to ascribe to any person

* The aspect in which the fourth of the Hebrows presents the believer, is not that of one who has entered into rest, either in virtue of the realising power of faith, or because of Christ being his risen Head and Representative in Heaven: although both these aspects of a believer's condition are true, and fully recognised in other parts of Scripture. In Heb. iv. the believer is represented as one, who, the moment he believed, began to set out on a toilsome journey like Israel when they left Egypt-a journey not yet concluded. Hence the exhortation, "let us therefore be diligent to enter into that rest”σπουδάσωμεν ουν εισελθείν εις εκείνην την καταπαυσιν. When we have actually reached our rest, there will be no more toil, no more suffering. He that hath entered into his rest, hath ceased from all his labours. The very fact, therefore, that we have not ceased from our labours, proves that we are yet engaged in entering into our rest. To cease from our "works" or "labours" does not here mean that we cease from resting in them as the ground of our justification. It is assumed that every believer has done that; but it means that when we enter our final rest, we cease from all those labours which commence when first we believe; for at that moment we quit Egypt, and enter on the struggles of the wilderness,

or thing, powers, qualities, habits, or offices, which, though they may not be in process of actual development just at the moment we are speaking, are nevertheless regarded as present, because they are so firedly connected with the person or thing spoken of, that they may be looked on as virtually always present. Thus if it be said to me, "Do you walk or ride ?" I may reply,-"I walk," even though at the moment I may be sitting still: my reply meaning that it is my habit to walk-not to ride. Thus also we say, the bird flies; fishes swim ; the serpent creeps; the brave fight; the coward flies. "The king

who conquers," or "the king the conquering one," (ó vikov) are expressions that do not convey the same thought as, "the king who is conquering."

The present tense is used in this abstract sense to denote:

I. Essential attributes, such as omnipotence or eternity of existence as ascribed to God. Thus the Son of Man, even whilst on earth, speaks of Himself as the o wv, "the Being-one in heaven." John iii. 13. "Before Abraham was, I AM." See also 1 Tim. vi. 16. where it is said of God that He is the One "who only hath immortality" (ó μovos exwv alavaoiav) that is, who alone hath it essentially: for God has conferred it on angels and on men. Also John i. 18. μονογενης Θεος Ο ΩΝ εις τον κολπον του πατρος, εκείνος εξηγήσατο. See also Rev. i. 17. "I am the first and the last and the living one" εγω ειμι ὁ πρωτος και ο έσχατος και ο ζων. In Hebrew this use of the present participle is very frequent. See for example, Is. xl. 3, 7. "I the one that formeth (7) light, and the one that createth () darkness; I the maker (y) of peace, and the creator of (N) calamity."

II. It is used to denote relations fixed in the unchangeable purpose of God, although not at the present manifested. Thus He is pleased, again and again in the Old Testament, to call Himself, "Jehovah the dwelling-one in Mount Zion."(n) even though Zion is left for ages desolate. See Isaiah viii. 18. and Joel iii. 21. See also Is. lxv. 17. "Behold I the creating-one () of new heavens and a new earth." We know Him by faith in this character, although the promise will not be accomplished till the end of the millennium. Examples of this kind abound in passages that speak of the Lord in relation to those holy principles of His righteous government which he may refrain, for the present, from enforcing, but which are to be enforced when the Day of His glory comes.

III. It is used to denote office, as when the Lord Jesus is said to be

N

"the Lamb of God, o aipwv, (the taking-away-one) of the sins of the world." It is not said that Christ does take away, or that He has taken away the sin of the world. The office to which He is appointed becomes efficacious to those who by faith become connected with it. See also 2 Cor. ν. Θεος ην εν χριστῳ κόσμον καταλλάσσων . μη λογιζόμενος αυτοις τα παραπτωματα

reconciling, &c.

God was in Christ

IV. Habitual practice, as when it is said, "Are not two sparrows sold (TwλEITα) for one farthing?" Or, habitual qualities, whether good or evil. Thus the qualities which marked Herod and the others who conspired against the life of the child Jesus, are described as attaching to them even after death. "They, the seekers of the young child's life, are dead.” (τεθνηκασι γαρ οἱ ζητοῦντες την ψυχην του Taidion) So also 1 Peter iii. 5. "For thus of old time the holy women also, the hopers in God, adorned themselves"-ovтw yap ποτε και αἱ ἅγιαι γυναικες αἱ ελπίζουσαι επι τον θεον, &c. See also Acts ii. 44. All the believing aνtes oi tiotevovtes, indicating their fixed characteristic condition, used to meet at the same place (noav ET TO AUTO) where we see the same connexion of a present participle and past verb.

It is very obvious, therefore, that this use of the present participle must be very abundant whenever God is spoken of, either as He is in Himself in respect of any of His essential attributes, or in respect of any of His relations or offices that He is pleased to establish as unchangeable. It is especially used also in describing man both in respect of his own fixed natural condition of evil, and also when described in those new and fixed relations of blessing into which redemption brings.

This use of the present tense is especially found in the present participle both in Hebrew and Greek. Indeed the present participle*

* In Hebrew commonly the present participle of Kal, but not exclusively. See, for example, Haggai ii. 6. Yet once a little while, and I (am or become) the One who shaketh, or the One causing to be convulsed (y) the heavens, &c. In the Greek the perf. middle part. is sometimes used, as Rev. xi. 4. ai λuxviai ai EOTWTES, where the abstract force is peculiarly to be marked. There are, however, frequent instances of the present participle being used to indicate an act in process of being performed. Thus, Rev. xxi. 3. ŋkovoa wvns λeyovons. And Rev. xxi. 10. την πολιν την ἁγιαν ειδον καταβαινουσαν. And Mark xv. 21. Σίμωνα ερχόμενον απ' αγρου, &c.,-Simon when in the act of coming from the country.