trying duties, against the successful issue of which reason reclaims. Even at the grave of Lazarus the reviving message is to be declared, and over the moral cemetery of sin, in which so many souls are entombed, the minister of life is to proclaim his vivific mandate.

And as I prophesied, there was a noise. Heb. bip. Gr. zai ¿yevέto porn, and there was a voice. This voice, or noise, considered as a part of the mystic scenery, is variously explained by commentators. Vatablus understands it of a peal of thunder, which Ezekiel heard at that moment, while the shaking he interprets of an earthquake that simultaneously occurred. This may perhaps be admitted, provided we give the principal prominence to the symbolic import of these phenomena, though the interpretation is still uncertain. A Lapide regards it as referring to the sound made by the meeting and colliding bones. But this effect is expressed rather by the shaking immediately afterwards spoken of. As nothing is expressly said in the text of the source or nature of the sound, the circumstance is probably to be viewed rather in connexion with the events of the fulfilment than of the representing emblems. In the absence of any definite intimation on the subject, it may be sufficient to understand it as indicating some aerial agitation which conveyed to the ear of the prophet a vague sensation of sound, without any distinct vocal intonation or utterance. The gloss of Grotius upon the words is one that arises naturally from his view of the dominant scope of the vision. Conceiving it to refer directly and exclusively to the deliverance from Babylon, he subjoins, by way of explanation, the words-"significans Čyri edictum." The voice of the royal decree empowering the captive tribes to return and rebuild their temple, he supposes to be the voice which here salutes the ear of the entranced prophet. But as we are constrained to regard the symbolic scenery as having a vastly more extended reach of import, so are we forced to seek for a different solution of this circumstance of the mystic transactions. A process is here described which was to result in the moral quickening of the Jewish race. This was to be effected mainly by the agency of prophesying, i. e., by explaining the prophecies which relate to that event. The sound of the mystic voice is heard in intimate connexion with the prophetic utterance. The strict reading of the original is, " And there was a voice in my prophesying." This does not refer to his own voice, but to some voice which was rather awakened as an echo to hissome voice that was the natural result of the oracular proclamations which he was called to put forth. Regarded in this light, what are we to recognize in it but the loud and spontaneous response, which shall be heard throughout the bounds of Christendom when the burden of this prophetic announcement begins to seize upon and command the attention of the churches? When the light of a

clear and convincing exegesis begins to be poured upon the Scriptural predictions of the speedy restoration of Israel, will there not be" a voice?" Will not the subject awaken a universal interest? Will it not become a topic which will dwell upon every tongue? Will it not enter the themes of a thousand pulpits? Will it not form the matter of innumerable discussions through the press? In a word, will not a prospective event of such a signal character be everywhere bruited throughout the length and breadth of the Christian world?

But while we are disposed to consider this as one sense of the voice or noise which the inditing Spirit had prominently in view in the words before us, we are still inclined to recognize another drift in the symbol as here employed. We have already adverted to the comment of Grotius, who makes the "voice" to signify the decree of Cyrus for the Jews' return to Canaan. We believe he is in error in making that event the fulfilment of the visionary presage; but we may still grant that the prophecy is constructed with an allusion to that sovereign edict, just as the process of vivification described alludes all along to the original creation of Adam. And in this view it is certainly not a little remarkable, that the term bip is employed in reference to a royal proclamation. Thus Ezra, 1. 1, “The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, that he made a proclamation (p, caused a voice pass), and put it also in writing, saying," etc. So also Ezra, 10.7, "And they made a proclamation (p, and they made a voice to pass) throughout Judah and Jerusalem unto all the children of the captivity, etc. Ex. 36. 6, "And Moses gave commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed (ip, caused a voice to pass) throughout the camp, saying," etc. 2 Chron. 30. 5, (6), “So they established a decree to make proclamation (p, to cause a voice to pass) throughout all Israel." The usage disclosed in these instances indicates a sense of the term peculiarly appropriate to the present connexion. It affords an ample ground for interpreting the term "voice," when used in prophetic relations, of governmental edicts, decrees, or proclamations. And one of the ancient Oneirocritics, or dream-expounders, remarks that "if a king dreams of uttering a clear voice, it signifies that he shall proclaim a new law." In like manner, when it is said in the Apocalypse that voices were heard issuing from the throne, the import is that of authoritative decrees promulged by the ruling powers for the establishment of the church. So, again, the seven thunders uttering their voices is interpreted by Daubuz of the enactments and rescripts of the various European monarchs in favor of the Reformation under Luther, as these symbolical voices denote, according to him, "the laws or constitutions of the supreme powers." With these explanations, then,

as a key to the present passage, we may properly understand the "voice" now heard by the prophet of those edicts, statutes, and royal ordinances, which will be issued by the different Christian governments in favor of the Jews, removing the civil disabilities under which they have labored, promoting, in various ways, their restoration from the thraldom and oppression which has so long ground them to the dust, and elevating them to a rank of honorable repute among the nations of the earth. This process is already in train. The legislation of Christian lands is beginning to undo the heavy burdens which they have bound upon the necks of Jewish subjects, and to recognize their claims to the rights of men and of citizens. In England especially, the oppressive restrictions which formerly existed towards them are essentially relaxed, and their example is being followed by the governments of other nations. It is well known that large concessions of Jewish privilege have been made within a few years by the Sultan of the Turkish empire, where their political thraldom has ever been most signally onerous and grinding. These are events full of hopeful presage to the outcast Israelite, and it cannot be doubted that in proportion as the prophetic destiny of this people is better understood, these ameliorating ordinances in their behalf will continue to be multiplied more

and more.

And behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. Heb. concussion, commotion. In its primary purport, the term denotes the noise that would be made by the rattling of the bones, as they began to be stirred from their long quiescence, and by the collision of one against another as they came together each to its fellow. The uniting process is expressively rendered in the Greek and Syriac, "the bones came together, each to his fitting or juncture." A somewhat violent and sonorous clashing would accompany such a movement, and this idea is perhaps more obviously conveyed by a precise rendering of the Hebrew, which does not exhibit even the slight distinction of a comma between the members of the clause," And there was a shaking (or commotion) as the bones came together, bone to his bone." The original term y is indeed frequently used to denote an earthquake, as 1 Kings 19. 11, Am. 1. 1, Zech. 14. 5; but an earthquake, in its symbolical sense, denotes a political or ecclesiastical revolution, and if such a sense be recognized here, it still points to a grand national movement among the Jews at the period of the occurrences here predicted. This will be the natural, as it is clearly the purposed, result of the prophetic agency here shadowed forth. The first effect, indicated by the "voice," is probably to be witnessed among Christians. The valid and elaborate exposition of the Scriptural predictions relative to the destiny of Israel, will powerfully awaken the

interest, and work upon the sympathies, of Christendom. They will begin earnestly to inquire into the duties which may devolve upon them in reference to the sublime consummation that is to be brought about, and courts and cabinets will set their diplomacy at work to favor the designs of Providence. Crowned heads will ponder the burdens of the prophets, and their sovereign decretals will realize the thunders from the throne, whose mystic "voices" second and give efficacy to the inspired declarations.

The "shaking," on the other hand, indicates the effect produced upon the Jews. After ages of unbelieving apathy, they will begin to be roused by the prophetic utterances that salute their ears. More effective than any direct appeals from the pulpit—from which they for the most part obstinately estrange themselves-the expositions of their own prophetic Scriptures will come upon them with a power which they can neither gainsay nor resist. However much the Jews may be wedded to tradition, and however grievously the books of Moses and the prophets may have been neglected for the idle rhapsodies of the Talmud, yet who can doubt that the lively oracles, forming their canonical Scriptures, and flowing from an inspired source, will become the honored instrumentality by which their national regeneration shall be effected? If the burden of these announcements were menacing and afflictive-if they contained a "flying roll" of curses and wrath-we might more properly doubt of their gaining the audience or credence of the covenant people. But when they are in fact freighted with the promise of goodwhen their whole drift is to assure the Jews, upon the high authority of Jehovah himself, of the bestowment of the very blessings after which they have been so long blindly seeking-can the intelligent pondering of these prophecies fail to rouse them to an attitude of the most heedful regard to what is thus infallibly secured to them? Will it not cause a "shaking?" Will it not produce a concussion that shall agitate the whole mass as with the throes of a moral earthquake? Such unquestionably will be the result. Nor do we see room to doubt that the prominent men, the best informed of the body, will be among the leaders of the movement. Being the most familiar with the Hebrew language, they will be the best qualified to judge of the soundness of the proposed interpretations. And they can be reached by the press when there would be no hope of their coming within the sound of the voice of the living preacher. Tracts will be read where sermons would not be heard. In this way the truth will be propagated ab intra, among themselves, though the first impulse may be given from without. Christian interpreters, drawn to the more elaborate investigation of the Holy Scriptures, and delving into the depths of prophecy, will bring forth to the astonished eyes of their Jewish brethren, the treasures of an

nouncement which they have for ages overlooked, disclosing their future prospects as a people. They will then perceive how infinitely superior are the riches of Revelation to the contemptible triflings of the Talmud, and how madly they have forsaken the crystal fountains of truth for the muddy streams of tradition. Asserting the prerogatives of men, they will dare to think for themselves. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty," and under the promptings of the free spirit of inquiry, they will institute a most rigid inquest into the grounds of that authority which has been claimed for those Rabbinical dogmas which have set aside the teachings of Moses and the prophets. This awakened impulse of reason will spread from synagogue to synagogue, agitating the entire mass with a commotion hitherto unknown to it. Rents and schisms will ensue, sundering party from party, eliminating the liberal from the bigoted, and drawing down the thunders of Rabbinic denunciation upon the so-called innovators on the unity of the Jewish faith. Indeed, it is not too much to say that this "shaking" has already commenced. From different quarters of the Jewish world we hear the din of division. In the congregations of England, Germany, and Hungary, new schools are forming, and the adherents of the law arraying themselves, in growing numbers, in opposition to the blind sticklers for the traditions of the Elders. Even Judaism itself, the very type of every thing sacred and steadfast, is giving way before the liberalizing spirit of the age, like a mighty bulwark which at last yields to the unceasing action of the billows of the ocean. In the midst of this inevitable ferment of the Jewish mind the exposition of prophecy will undoubtedly come in as a new element of disturbance, and tend still more to precipitate the Karaites from the Pharisees. The result inust unquestionably be a revolution throughout the great body of Israel, which shall in the end elevate the Scriptures and depress the Talmud. And the Scriptures, the more they are studied, the more will they excite. A new sensation will thrill the universal mass, and the prophetic announcements will be the grand means of their own fulfilment.

We can scarcely fail, from this view of the subject, to perceive the direction which all efforts for the conversion of the Jews should mainly take. It must be by the study, the exposition, and the application of their own prophecies, that their minds are to be arrested and their moral captivity brought to a close. It is in this form that an appeal is to be made directly to the governing intelligence of the nation. The time has gone by when the Christian world ought to be satisfied with individual conversions, here and there occurring, from among the obscurer members of the community. We are called upon to challenge the collective wisdom of the fathers of Israel to enter with us upon the calm investigation of the holy writings.