Mature in years, to ready honours move, See! lab'ring nature calls thee to sus- The nodding frame of heaven, and earth, and main ! See, to their base restored, earth, seas, and air, And joyful ages, from behind, in crowding ranks appear. To sing thy praise, would heaven my breath prolong, Infusing spirits worthy such a song, Not Thracian Orpheus should transcend my lays, Nor Linus, crowned with never-fading bays; Though each his heavenly parent should inspire, The Muse instruct the voice, and Phobus tune the lyre." The remarkable likeness which this glowing description bears to some of the Old Testament prophecies may perhaps be accounted for on the supposition entertained by some writers, that the sybils were acquainted with the prophecies. But whatever may have been the origin of these predictions, the fact remains that, owing to them, the heathen world was, at the time when Christ came, anxiously expecting the advent of the coming deliverer. But it was amongst the Jews that this expectation was most clearly defined. The Messiah was foreshadowed by their temple service, and was the theme of all their prophets; and their Scriptures contain several prophecies which refer to the time of his coming. Four of the principal of these claim a brief notice here. The first of these prophecies we find in Genesis xl. 10:"The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be." Several years before the coming of Jesus Christ, a Roman army, under Pompey, invaded Judea, and reduced it to the condition of a province of the Roman empire. But the sceptre and the lawgiver remained. The Jews were still recognised by their conquerors as an embodied people, and "there remained amongst them some person, or body of persons, who ruled, or professed to rule, according to the law of Moses," until the time when Jerusalem was taken and destroyed by Titus. After that event the sceptre and the lawgiver departed from them. Now, as the Messiah had not come when Pompey reduced Judea, he must have come between that time and the final disruption of the nation; and it was within that period that Christ-the Messiahdid come. In him the first clause of the prophecy received its fulfilment, and to no other could the last clause be appropriately applied. Around him the Jewish people often gathered to hear his word, and on several Occasions were willing to receive him as their Messiah, if he would but comply with their desires, and set up a temporal kingdom. how much more emphatically does it apply to him, as the light of eighteen centuries falls upon it, and reveals its full significance! How truly we may exclaim in the words of the dying patriarch, as we look upon the world and behold the development of his kingdom, as, in every succeeding age, it extends its boundaries, until whole nations are included in its limits, and millions of men from every clime bow at the feet of the Crucified One, and acknowledge him as their King and Saviour "And unto him shall, the gathering of the people be." But The second prophecy is contained in Haggai ii. 7 and 9: "And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts." "And the glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts." In the chapter which contains this prediction the prophet informs the people, that though the former temple far exceeded the restored one in magnificence, yet the "glory of the latter house" should transcend that of the former, for to it the Messiah-the "desire of all nations "should come. Though this prophecy did not announce the precise time of the Messiah's coming, it defined the period in which he should come. His appearing was not to be immediate (verse 6), but he was to come during the existence of the temple which was then being built in Jerusalem. When the desire of the Jews had become the "desire of all nations,” and when the days of the temple were drawing to a close, this prophecy was fulfilled by the Saviour's coming to proclaim, within that temple, glad tidings of great joy," and his presence there as the incarnate Jehovah filled it with glory-with a personal glory-and which as much surpassed the former glory as the personal presence of the Deity surpassed the mere symbol of his presence. 66 The third prediction is recorded in Malachi iii. 1: " Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts." This prophecy, uttered later than the one last quoted, more clearly defines the circumstances of the Messiah's advent. He was to be preceded by a messenger, who should proclaim his coming, and prepare the way before him, and he, the messenger of the covenant, was suddenly to come to his temple. Before Christ commenced his ministry, John the Baptist began to proclaim, from the wilderness of Judea, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, "for the king dom of heaven is at hand;" and whilst the Baptist's voice was still ringing in the people's ears, in tones of mingled exhortation and reproof, Jesus came forward in the character of a "teacher sent from God." Suddenly, and when he was not expected, he appeared in the temple, proclaimed himself the "Son of God," and, with words of stern rebuke, drove from its sacred precincts the traders who defiled it by their usurious and deceitful dealings. "My Father's house is called a house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves!" Forty years later, and the temple and the city were ruined and desolate. The fourth and the principal prophecy relating to the time of the Messiah's advent, is contained in Daniel ix. 24-27: "(24) Weeks seventy are the precise period upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to complete the apostacy, and to perfect the sin-offerings, and to make atonement for iniquity, and to cause him who is the righteousness of the eternal ages to come, and to seal the vision and the prophet, and to anoint the Most Holy One. (25) But know and understand, from the going forth of an edict to rebuild Jerusalem, unto the Anointed One, the Prince, shall be weeks seven, and weeks sixty and two: it shall be rebuilt with perpetual increase and firm decision, even in the short space of the times. (26) And after the weeks seven, and the weeks sixty and two, the Anointed One shall cut off by divorce, so that they shall be no more his, both the city and the sanctuary. For the people of the Prince that shall come shall act corruptly: but the end thereof shall be with a flood; and unto the end of a war, firmly decided upon, shall be desolations. (27) Yet he shall make a firm covenant with many for one week. And in half a week he shall cause the sacrifice and meat-offering to cease (for upon the border shall be the abomination that maketh desolate), even until an utter end, and that firmly decided upon, shall be poured upon the desolator." This prediction fixes the exact time of the Messiah's appearance. He was to come and complete his mission in the space of seventy prophetical weeks, or four hundred and ninety years, commencing from the date of a decree issued by one of the Persian kings, authorizing the rebuilding of Jerusalem. In the seventh year of the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus, a decree was issued, which gave authority to Ezra the scribe to go up to Jerusalem and restore the temple service, and re-establish the Jewish polity; and from that edict the time of the prophecy must be computed. The work of restoration, commenced by Ezra, was carried on with great firmness and determination, in the face of numerous attempts which were made to stay its progress, unto its completion by Nehemiah, about the close of the seventh week of the prophecy, or forty-nine years after the issuing of the decree. Four hundred and thirty-four years later (at the end of the sixty-ninth week), John the Baptist appeared as the forerunner of the Messiah. His In teaching prepared the way for the introduction of a more spiritual religion, and marked the end of the Jewish dispensation, and the virtual divorcement of Judaism. The following seven years (the seventieth week) were occupied by the united ministries of John and Jesus. that period the new and better covenant was introduced and "confirmed with many ;" and precisely at the end of the four hundred and ninety years, Christ was crucified. By his death he "perfected the sinofferings," and made atonement for iniquity;" and the Jews, by putting him to death, completed their " apostacy," by rejecting, insulting, and slaying their King. About thirty years after his death, the Jews, by attempting to free themselves from the Roman yoke, brought about their own destruction; for in consequence of that attempt the Roman legions entered Judea, and marching upon Jerusalem, invested it at the time of the Passover, when the Jews from every part of the country were assembled within the walls; and after a lengthened siege, during which the unhappy Jews suffered the most dreadful torments from famine, and pestilence, and factious disputes; the city and the temple were stormed and sacked by Titus, exactly three years and a-half (half of a prophetic week) after he commenced hostilities; and with the destruction of the temple, and the scattering of the Jews, "the sacrifice and the meatoffering" ceased.* From this brief and very imperfect sketch of this important prophecy it is evident that it met its fulfilment in Jesus Christ, and in him alone. A more extended notice would have shown this fact more clearly, but our limits would not allow more than a passing glance at the subject. "THE Lord reigneth." There is no truth more consolatory and soul-supporting than this. In times of darkness and difficulty-when tyrants oppress, and unbelievers deride, and scoffers scoff; when pestilence desolates or a panic afflicts; when health fails and friends depart hence—how cheering the thought that over all, and stronger than all, is One whose wisdom guides and whose power subordinates everything to a great and good and glorious end! But the end is not yet. God reigns, but men everywhere do not recognize, reverence, and, with enlightened submission and loving obedience, bow to His authority. Those, however, who are already His loyal and loving subjects cannot help but long and pray and labour for the period to arrive when God's reign will be as palpable and universal on earth as For the translation of the passage here given, and for a full exposition of this view of the prophecy, see Faber's "Dissertation on the Seventy Weeks of Daniel." in heaven. This is the burden of their prayer, the anxiety of their heart, and the labour of their life. For this glorious consummation they are ready to make any reasonable sacrifice, and undertake any proper, though it may be perilous, labour. To such the Mirror of Missions must be welcome, because showing what has been done in this great enterprise, and what yet remains to be done. Though, for labours which we could not postpone, the work which we began with the entrance of last year has for a few months stood still, the mission work, with it, has not stood still. Besides a pleasing increase of converts in the old stations, new fields are opened on all sides. China, Japan, Africa, not to speak of India and Turkey, are now open to us, and in those countries, where the populations resemble the sands of the seashore or the stars of an October sky for multitude, the Bible may be freely circulated, and the missionary, in the prosecution of his holy work, authoritatively protected. The conquests of Alexander, spreading all over the Greek language, and the empire of the Romans, bringing the whole world into political unity, did not more effectually subserve the spread of the gospel in the first ages of Christianity, than modern openings facilitate the work of modern missions. By discovery, by commerce, by martial conquest, above all, by the God of heaven, the door of the world is thrown open, and now with mightier force than ever the command is given to the church to go upon her heaven-commissioned and soul-saving work into "all the world." Of all countries those of the east are the most precious to us on the ground of past relationships and pleasant recollections. There the human race took its rise; there age after age the seeds of revealed truth were deposited by inspired hands; there the Son of God lived, and laboured, and died to redeem and uplift the world; and there the first and most brilliant conquests of the gospel were achieved. Yet, melan choly to reflect, those very lands are at present the principal seats of a false religion and a corrupted form of Christianity. Yes, in lands where the Bible was written, the Koran prevails, and where Christ ransomed the world Mohammed rules. But recent events have opened the way to the reconquest of those territories for Christ, and significant indications are not wanting to inspire the belief that the reconquest may be more speedy and complete than many imagine. Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, a nobleman who has represented the British sovereign at Constantinople for many years, in a recent farewell visit was congratulated by fourteen American missionaries in that capital as the instrument which God had honoured and employed to effect great and promising changes in the Turkish empire. In their address to him they thus speak:-"The suppression of the Janissary militia in 1826, the abolition by firman, at a subsequent period, of torture as a means of extorting confession, the Sultan's promise to your lordship personally in 1844, that proselytes to Islamism should be allowed to return to their former religion without forfeiture of life, the permission which was given two years later by the Porte to erect the first Protestant church at Jerusalem, the recognition also by firman of Protestantism as one of the established religions of the country, and entitled to all their privileges, the introduction of sounder principles of procedure in the courts of justice, the prohibition of the African slave trade, as previously allowed to Mohammedan subjects, the happy results of the late war relative to religious freedom completed by the late imperial charter proclaiming unrestricted liberty of conscience, and a variety of improvements accompanying these prominent stages of progress, are all so many providential interpositions in favour of truth and right. But with all these measures of reform your lordship has been connected directly or indirectly, either as their originator or as their efficient promoter. Indeed, we can truly say that your influence has been strongly felt in connexion with every improvement, while it has ever been tempered by a wise moderation, and a constant appreciation of the magnitude of the evils to be overcome. But especially has this influence been invaluable, as all the Protestant world knows and acknowledges, in the defence of those who sought and loved Bible truth, and whose right to follow that Divine guide your lordship has perseveringly and effectually maintained. Their recognition as a Christian denomination in Turkey has raised for your name a monument more lasting than those of granite and of marble." This nobleman, on the same visit, laid the foundation stone of the Memorial Church to be erected in Constantinople to commemorate the late war. When completed our hope is that its pulpit may be occupied by those who will preach the gospel in all its charming simplicity and di vine energy. The site it occupies, and the ceremonial connected with the laying of the corner stone, are thus described:-"The greatest wonder of this wonderful age in Turkey, connected with this affair, is, that such a position should have been accorded for a Christian church by the Sultan, and the thing quietly submitted to by the people. It is in a most conspicuous place on the side of the Pera hill that slopes down towards the water, and the building will be a most prominent object for all vessels coming in from the sea; but more than all, it is in the very midst of a thickly populated Turkish quarter, and on the very borders of the lot rises the minaret of a small Turkish mosque! As the ceremonies were proceeding, it became the hour for Turkish prayer, and the Imam mounted the minaret as usual to give notice to his people, by crying out, "There is no God but God, and Mohammed is the prophet of God." He was observed, however, by the Turkish kavasses of the embassy (guards of honour) below, who, by putting their fingers to their mouths, beckoned to him to be still. He did not dare to disobey, and for an hour he stood leaning over the gallery of the minaret, watching with sad countenance the proceedings below. Groups of Turkish women were standing around, some of whom, on observing him, said, 'See how our Imam is weeping at this scene!"" And in this very city, the seat and stronghold of Mohammedan power, the circulation of the Bible is immense. Will it be believed that in 1857 there were issued there 25,280 copies of the Scriptures? Yet such is the fact. "Of these 10,355, in thirty-four dialects, were disseminated in Turkey in Europe and Asia. Orders have reached us," says Mr. Barker, the agent there, "for 3,000 Armeno-Turkish Testaments, of which 10,000 are now in the press; 2,761 copies were sold in Bulgaria." Nor is this Bible circulation in vain. "At the Porte it was one day remarked, 'that there was some apprehension lest there should some of these days be a spontaneous bursting forth of Christianity among the Turks."" Already there are Turkish evangelists. A "Selim Aga" from Salonica, now baptized as "Edward Williams," is one so engaged. "He preaches everywhere at Constantinople, to attentive and respectful Moslems, in their shops, in their caiques, in his own house. The Turks take great pleasure in talking with him. He places before them the great truths of salvation with singular skill." In India, although hostilities unhappily still prevail, the work of missions is progressing. The success of our soldiers, the proclamation of the transference of power from the East India Company to her Majesty, and the spirit of inquiry and anxiety recently created promise to inaugurate a better and brighter day for that vast territory and its multitudinous peoples. "The work of the missions in Lucknow," says Judge Wylie, "has fairly commenced, both by the Church and American Methodist societies; but it is too apparent that, after all that has been said at home of the duty of striving more |