ment that was thus threatened. The duality of the mountains, is probably not significant, or if so has essentially the same meaning with the two olive trees of vision fifth. But it probably refers only to the locality of the temple, which being on Moriah, a chariot could only approach it by coming between two mountains. The chariots, or winds had been stationed at the temple, awaiting the commands of God, and having received their commands the prophet sees them going forth to obey them. The colors of the horses are significant. Red, the color of blood indicates carnage; black, sorrow and death; white, victory; and piebald, a combination of them all, with the additional epithet of strong or fleet, to show the nature of the judgments to be inflicted. The angel declares these chariots to be the four winds of heaven, that are often in Scripture the symbols of the means employed by God to execute his will. Two of the chariots go toward the north, the country of Babylon; one toward the south, Egypt, (these being the two greatest enemies of Israel at that period ;) and one, the red probably, here also called fleet, went through all the earth, so as to include all possible enemies. More chariots are sent against Babylon than Egypt because of her greater cruelty and guilt. God explains the vision by declaring that the chariots that went forth against Babylon had appeased his wrath by inflicting punishment on that country, and it follows that the same is true of the other chariots, although the fact is not specifically mentioned. Such is the vision. The general meaning of it is very clear. The enemies of the church shall be punished, is the motto of the picture, and the purport of the vision. The immediate application of the truth was to the existing circumstances of the Jewish church, but it contains a general proposition or law of the divine procedure that is now in fulfilment, and will so continue until the restitution of all things spoken of by the holy prophets since the world began. Following the preceding vision, which denounced wrath on the Jews, it declares that after the Jews have been punished, God will destroy their enemies, who will VOL. VII.-15 also be the enemies of the church. Now, as the threatened punishment of the Jews is not yet completed, so this punishment which was to follow that completion is also incomplete, and the main fulfilment yet to come. We have therefore in this vision an instance of what has been called the continuous fulfilment of prophecy. This takes place when the prophecy is not so much a simple prediction of facts, as the annunciation of a great principle of divine procedure, in the garb of existing and well known facts, but yet equally applicable to other facts all along the history of God's dealings with man. Thus the most abstract and formulated statement of the essence of this vision is, the enemies of the church shall be punished. Its immediate application was to Babylon and Egypt, the existing representatives of the ancient enmity of the serpent's seed, but this application is of course but a single one, that does not exclude the future examples of this principle of the divine government, that may and must arise. This is wholly different from the old double sense of prophecy, and is a most obvious and reasonable canon of interpretation. And how striking the fulfilment of this threatening, when we remember the circumstances under which it was made. Could the haughty nobles of Babylon, in the gorgeousness of its magnificence, and the pride of its power, have heard the threatening of this obscure Jew, amidst the ruins of Jerusalem, with what derision and contempt would they have treated the threat! The anathema that was so feebly uttered against the mightiest and richest city of the world, to the eye of sense, seemed like the ravings of lunacy. Yet that feeble whisper was the uttered voice of Jehovah, and the elements of ruin in their remotest lurking place heard the summons, and began to come forth. Slowly and silently did they come up to this dread work, and yet surely and resistlessly, until the glory of these high palaces was dimmed, and the magnificence of these gardens and temples was covered, and now the winds whistle through the reeds of the Euphrates, where Babylon then sat in her pride; and loneliness, desolation and death are stationed there the sentinel witnesses of the truth. that His word returns not to him void, that His spirit is quieted in the land of the north. Egypt also was yet proud and powerful, Memphis still sat in her queenly pride by the old and solemn Nile, and Thebes still retained the glory of that wonderful architecture that yet amazes the world. They had stood thus from the hoariest antiquity, and how should it be thought that at the bidding of the descendant of an Egyptian slave, this ancient magnificence would depart. Yet this bidding was obeyed, and wave after wave of desolation swept over this haughty land, until now the pyramids, the sphinxes and the temples of the mighty past, but mock the degenerate baseness of the mournful present. Thus was it later in history with Greece and Rome, thus shall it be with guilty and godless Europe, thus shall it be with every enemy of the church, who attempts to thwart the designs of God in the world. But as the final development of this vision of judgment was to be subsequent to the completion of the threatened punishment of the Jews, we know that it has not yet received its last and mightiest fulfilment. That shall take place only when the Lord descends from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, and when he shall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire taking vengeance on all his enemies. Then, and not until then, shall this vision receive its last, its most terrible, and complete fulfilment, in the dread scenes of that day for which all other days were made. VISION IX. Ch. 6:9-15. The crown on Joshua's head. 9. 10. And the word of Jehovah came unto me saying: Take of (them of) the captivity of Heldai, of Tobijah, of Jedaiah, and go thou in that day, and go to the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah, who (all) 11. have come from Babylon: and take thou silver and gold, and make crowns, and place them on the head of Joshua the son of Josedech, the 12. high priest. And speak to him saying, Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts: Behold a man whose name is BRANCH, 13. From his place shall he grow up, And he shall build the temple of Jehovah. And he sits and reigns upon his throne, And is a priest upon his throne, And the council of peace shall be between them both. 14. And the crowns shall be to Helem and to Tobijah, and to Jedaiah, and to Hen the son of Zephaniah, for a memorial in the temple of Je15. hovah. And the far off shall come and build in the temple of Jehovah, and ye shall know that Jehovah of Hosts hath sent me unto you, and it shall be thus (to you) if ye will listen to the voice of Jehovah your God. This vision concludes the revelations of that memorable night, and they end as they began, like other revelations of God, in Christ. In this closing vision, or rather living tableau, which he was commanded to have made in concluding the visions of the night, two things demand investigation: (1,) the symbolic action, and (2,) the meaning of it, as explained by God himself. (1). The symbolic action. A deputation of Jews had brought gold and silver from Babylon to Jerusalem to aid in the erection of the temple. This deputation consisted of four men, who represented those by whom they were sent. This representative character appears in their names, which are significant, and which, in two cases, are changed, to call attention as it would seem to their significant character. Heldai, which means robust, is changed for Helem, which means strong; Tobijah means the goodness of God; Jedaiah is, God knows; and Josiah, which signifies God founds, is changed for the kindred name Hen, grace, whilst the name of his father Zephaniah means God protects. In consequence of the peculiar grammatical construction of one clause (asher bau mibbabel,) it has been supposed that Josiah was not of the deputation, but a resident of Jerusalem at whose house they lodged, and this would seem to have been the interpretation of our English translators, by their transposition of this clause to another part of the verse. But the position of it after the name of Josiah seems to be designed to indicate him as one of the number, and giving the relative (asher) its usual meaning, we have a clear and consistent sense. It is only necessary to suppose that Josiah was the treasurer of the deputation, and that the gold and silver were at his house, to see why it was necessary to go there to obtain it for this symbolic purpose. The prophet was commanded to take the other members of the deputation, and obtain from the whole of them, a portion of the precious metals they had brought with them from Babylon. Of this metal he was to make crowns, or perhaps one crown compounded of two or more parts, such as Christ is represented as wearing, Rev. 19: 12, (many crowns or diadems). The verb is singular. This diadem, or combined crown was to be placed on the head of Joshua the high priest, to set forth a great fact in the future, which is explained in the succeeding verses. The symbolic action then was, to take the gold and silver of the deputation, and make a crown which was first to be placed on the head of Joshua, and afterwards hung up as a memorial in the temple. (2). The explanation of this symbolic action. There are two points involved in this explanation, 1st., what is meant by putting the crown on Joshua; and 2d., why the material was taken from the treasure brought by the deputation. 1st. What did the crowning of Joshua signify? Joshua, as high priest, we have seen in Vision IV., to be himself a typical person, and hence was fitted to receive this symbolical act, which was significant of an investiture with kingly authority. This kingly authority could not be promised to Joshua individually, for the office was limited to the family of David. It must then have referred to him in his typical character, as the representative type of the Messiah. This is put beyond doubt by the epithet Branch, which is really one of the appellations of the Messiah, as may be seen in Jer. 23: 5, 33: 15, and Zech. 3:8. Hence the crowning of Joshua was a typical representation of the conferring of kingly power on the Messiah. |