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strangers on his coast; and could have recorded thus any mere objects of sight; but a further effort to record abstract ideas-such as strength, superiority, time, age-would force the halfcivilized author upon the use of symbols, which suggested these ideas, as qualities conspicuous in the real objects so represented. A lion, for example, would express strength; or again, a symbol would be adopted because of some analogy; as a circle, to denote eternity; or from some accidental association, as a star for destiny, and the like. Thus we recognize in Joseph's dream of the stars which made obeisance to him', an indication of the existence amongst the Patriarch's tribe of a mode of expression founded on this custom, before the family of Jacob went down into Egypt; at least if we allow the dream to be in accordance with the usual images of Joseph's mind.

It is not indeed that such figurative language is in the first instance derived from hieroglyphic writing, any more than that this latter is caused by a figurative mode of expression. They are both alike the result of a natural effort to express

1 Genesis xxxvii. 9.

ideas which have no exact counterparts in the material world. In the formation of the vehicle of thought, suppose the idea to be expressed was

strength," for instance. If it was required to give utterance to this idea first by word of mouth, the word uttered would be that which denoted a lion, perhaps, or any other very powerful animal or natural agent. If again the idea" strength" was first required to be expressed in writing, the painted or sculptured image of the animal most noted for strength would be the written word. Many abstract terms, in a more polished stage of expression, betray this boldly figurative origin, which must have belonged to all; although time has destroyed their power of suggesting the parent image, as it has in other cases wholly obscured and obliterated it. Take as instances two common words of very different import, connected with the same class of sensible objects, consideration and disaster. No one can doubt, that in their original formation they were both an emblematic or hieroglyphic use of the stars. Milton has happily recalled the primitive character of the latter in the following lines.

as when the sun, new risen,

Looks through the horizontal misty air
Shorn of his beams; or from behind the moon
In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds".

One point however is to be observed in the case of the Jewish Scriptures, that the use of this hieroglyphic writing, or rather of language the hieroglyphic characters of which were still apparent, was adopted only when the subject of the inspired writer was either poetry, or a description of some prophetic scene, which, by its nature, required to be shadowed out, and not distinctly described. Perhaps too, by this appropriation of style to certain prophecies, the attention of the people was fixed to them as prophecies; and then it will have answered a similar purpose with some of the methods of instruction adopted by Christ -that of rousing curiosity and impressing the lesson. However this may be, with the Jews this kind of writing from the earliest times characterized prophecy as distinguished from historical relation; and especially those predictions which involved great and important changes in the civil or religious state of the world. To mention one. The vision of the beasts, in which

" Paradise Lost, book i. 594.

Daniel declares the succession of the four great empires, whether it be the language in which the revelation was made by God to him, or by him to others, is plainly of this description. So too the older prediction of the Gentile prophet Balaam ".

That our Lord, who taught by symbol and in parables, as if to excite attention by reviving forms of expression nearly obsolete in his day, should also revive this language in his prophecy, is not to be wondered at. By doing so, indeed, he attained a further object of great importance— the obvious connection between his own clearer predictions, and the former hints and obscure revelations of the Old-Testament-prophets. Accordingly, if we compare the images of the prophecy in question with the Old-Testament-Scriptures, we shall find, that they are all derived from thence; from one ancient prophecy especially, which has for its subject the very event predicted by our Lord. He collected, as it were, the detached portions of a great prophetic group of figures found in the Old Testament; and by additions of his own, fitted them into one piece; as the modern artist cements the scattered fragments of ancient

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sculpture, giving a meaning by combination to that which before was only a disjointed heap-an object of surmise and wonder.

The superior fitness of such terms in our Lord's prophecies over any newly-invented ones of a like character, or over the exclusive use of ordinary language, is so far sufficiently obvious. It remains for us to inquire whether within the period specified-that is, within the date of the generation addressed-events came to pass, which corresponded with these images, and with the rest of the prophecy; and whether these events were of sufficient importance to allow us without hesitation to pronounce that the prophecy has been fulfilled in them.

WHETHER HISTORY BEARS US OUT IN THE APPLICATION OF ALL THE PROPHECY, ACCORDING TO THIS METHOD OF INTERPRETATION.

DESTRUCTION OF THE TEMPLE.
Ver. 1-4.

And as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto him, Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here! And Jesus answering said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat upon the mount of Olives over against the temple, Peter and

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