eration has been shown those for whose special benefit this kind should be performed. Accordingly from thi mine all scientific refinements are excluded, together critical investigations; likewise the weighing of anta views is omitted, as being confusing rather than helpf unlearned reader. What the author aims at is not con

but instruction.

To pr

The following is not an entirely new work. write one, would be to say that most that hitherto has be ten was wrong. It presupposes much that has been plished by industry, insight and faith; but upon the much had to be done in the way of research, discriminat further up-building. An almost incredible number of has been written on the subject, representing the grea riety of views, scarcely one of which, however erroned interpretation, failed to contribute something toward a understanding of the book,

The most obscure portion of the Revelation is′ found eighth and ninth chapters. Enigmatical though the pi are, by means of a typical method of interpretation th come intelligible. The key to the explanation is found falling torch-like star. This star is no sun, no clear, light. It is a torch; light it is true, but not clear and but a dull and borrowed light. This torch-like star is h reason, in its independence of God, which apart from Go by its own light pretends to illuminate the world. dom, culture and philosophy, it takes its rise in classical quity, thus from heathenism; renewed and strengthene stolen Christian learning, it reappears in recent centuries. Christianity there is no room for independent human rea We have Christian knowledge and science, as the conten reason, but these do not originate from reason, but from rev tion. Reason, as such, like the will, is under the power of How can it be the fountain whence proceeds that pure kno edge which is spiritual light? All science issuing from rea and constructed according to the laws of human thought is

fective.

Introduction to a Commentary on the Apocalypse.

329

The chapters in question exhibit Christianity in the closing stage of its history, as it is, under the influence of human reason, repudiating revelation.* Like devouring locusts,

*"Now, Rev. xi. 8, for the first time the great city is mentioned which afterwards repeatedly occurs under the name of Babylon. Here and there it must be the same city; not here Jerusalem, there Rome. Views of this kind could be held at the time of the composition of the Book and long afterwards; but Christians of the present day should entertain no doubt that the spirit of prophecy here points to a third and still greater one. Another civitas is to make its appearance, which will unite in itself all the characteristic features of rebellious Jerusalem and heathen Rome, as well as of the Old Testament, Babylon and Tyre. In it Christ will be spiritually crucified, in it the two witnesses will be slain, just as Peter and Paul died in Rome after they had finished their testimony, and just as in Jerusalem, the martyrdom of James preceded its destruction. It is the Christian Church in its extreme degeneracy. This terrible mystery was sealed for Christian antiquity. When it first dawned upon the minds of Biblestudents it was misused to the prejudice of the Roman Church. Not the Roman Church in distinction from the denominations of Protestantism, but Christianity as a whole, the great divine establishment; in so far as it has broken covenant with Christ, comes to be what in the text is called the great Babylon (wird zur grossen Babylon)." Thiersch's Apost. Zeitalter, p. 235.

"There is something true in the doctrine of the Irvingites concerning a great apostasy of the original Church, the 'catastrophe of a second Fall;' but the fanatical error which has caricatured this historical truth, and perverted its meaning into sad extravagances, is plain in the words themselves. Where does the Lord speak of the loss of spiritual gifts, of the disruption of ecclesiastical order, of the abandonment of obedience to official dignities and all those other matters in which these strange people beheld at once the guilt and the punishment of the first Church? The Lord rests His charge upon very differ. ent grounds; He rebukes the angel with the Church; He does not merely refer the congregation back to the discipline and form of a forsaken constitution, but to their first love; He does not teach, in the Corinthian manner, the distinguishing value of miraculous gifts, which are not even mentioned here, any more than in the whole Epistle to the Ephesians (although there were such great miracles performed there, there is no mention, even in Chap. iv. 11, of workers of miracles!); He preaches, simply, a renewed REPENTANCE, as in the beginning. This preaching of repentance, indeed, with which Christianity began, as did the Reformation, and which is evermore preached on every relapse of churches or souls, is something very different from those means of grace which, in our days, even Lutherans, like the Irvingites, appoint in the Church as false physicians. Not from without inwardly, and from above downwardly, but from within outwardly, through return to first love, the hurt of souls is healed; this cannot be too dilgently remembered, and earnestly enforced." Rudolph Stier, on Rev. ii. 1-7.

human scientific systems rise up with the smoke from and at last, like cavalry troops, march and destroy comes in their way.

For many members of the Church this book wil somewhat strange, and thus perhaps somewhat hard stand. This I trust is ascribable rather to the conte to the style in which it is written. The manner sh bear the blame, when the matter is unfamiliar. Let th make the latter familiar by repeated perusal of th Then, after a general survey and insight into the cor has been gained, by degrees all becomes intelligible and The importance of the subject lays this obligation upo Christian.

What prompted me to write it was the necessity of i ing members of the Church some insight into the Apo and clearer views concerning the last things and times, c ing to remove the obscurity which veils the people's mi garding the heavenly world; and of counteracting, by m a correct view of our times, the all-destructive worldly-m ness, which is making such terrible inroads both upon our and ecclesiastical life. That God may richly bless the by making it in some measure the means of advancin Kingdom and promoting His glory is the prayer of THE AUTH

FOGELSVILLE, PA., May, 1891.

"Those only suffer the misery of guessing as to the meaning of the lypse, who voluntarily incur it.”—(HENGSTENBERG). Lord Bacon (A Learning, Book II. Sec. III. 3.) tells us he thinks this “misery may be avo God's secret will is so obscure as for the most part it is not legible to the ral man, no, nor many times to those that behold it from the Tabernacle.'

III.

ST. PAUL AND THE CLASSIC ORATORS.

BY REV. A. R. KREMER, A.M.

MORE than thirty years ago I happened to be at a Dunkard meeting, the first of the kind I ever attended. I was impressed by the patriarchal appearance of the older men, the sober neatness of the women in their plain attire, and the decorous behavior of the young people in the congregation. The simple worship was also impressive, the singing and praying evidently most sincere and earnest.

All this was well calculated to prepare the mind of a stranger for the pastoral instruction that was to follow, and to excite his expectation in regard to it. The praying and singing were good, and it was reasonable to expect a good sermon, or exhortation. In this, however, I was somewhat disappointed. A rather bright-looking and nervous sort of a man, with a sharp, penetrating voice, stood up and read the second chapter of St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians; after which a very solemn old gentleman began to speak (as the Spirit gave him utterance, it was supposed) on the Scripture lesson just read. He said it was perfectly plain, according to that Scripture, that Paul and the other apostles were not learned men ; were only common men, like himself, with perhaps no more education; knew nothing about "excellency of speech," and depended entirely on the Holy Spirit to teach them what and how to preach. That, spun out in bad English, was the whole bill of fare, so far as the preaching was concerned. The services closed with the beautiful hymn,

"O for a heart to praise my God,"

and I wondered what those good people would say o they were told that the hymn they sang with so much fervor had been composed by a learned man, a gradu renowned University of Oxford. It was well for thei peace of mind, perhaps, that they were ignorant of tha as of some other things. It may be well to say here Dunkard brethren are to-day far removed from such ignorance, and that many of them believe in an educa istry.

And yet there are a good many people whose lot 1 cast in Christian denominations having a learned mini corresponding conditions who are of opinion that St. P speaks disparagingly of human eloquence and learning. I came unto you, I came not with excellency of speed wisdom, proclaiming to you the mystery of God." Her that we hear so much about lay preaching and lay evar and schools for the training of men for such work; sch which only such studies are pursued which are consid absolute practical necessity for the preacher's work; in no time is lost in digging for classic roots, or in searchi deep places in science and philosophy; and in which the course may be traversed in about the same period that is ly required in a "Business College" or "Commercial tute." It would not be passing strange if, in time, a ne would be organized whose priests were graduates of schools, for already we hear such proclaiming, that they not with the eloquence and useless learning of the grea leges and seminaries, declaring unto men the pure and si Gospel of Christ.

But it is sufficient to know that St. Paul's proposition. was, that the wonderful truth and power of the gospel, a forth in the doctrine of Christ crucified, in no way depen for accomplishing its design, on the merely human and arti means that were employed by heathen orators and philosop to amuse and captivate their hearers. Then, too, it must be forgotten, that the wisdom of the Greeks, especially at