be the ruler under Him. In the prophetic future He stands under Jehovah the chief and central figure. No vision of the restoration is complete that does not behold Him sitting upon His throne, and His majesty corresponds to the majesty of the kingdom. (Mic. v. 4.)

CHAPTER XV.

THE NATIONAL OVERTHROW AND THE REMNANT.

THAT a time might come, when, through unfaithfulness to their covenant, the Jews would cease to exist as a nation, and be scattered over the earth, was distinctly spoken of by Moses. There was a point in national transgression beyond which Divine forbearance would not go. After threatening many heavy chastisements, God says, "And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me; then I will walk contrary unto you in fury. . . . And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste." "And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude." "The Lord God shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen." (Lev. xxvi.; Deut. xxviii.)

It was very hard for the elect people, who knew not the greatness of their sins, and whose pride in their election increased as the years passed by, to believe that God would thus give them up into the hands of their enemies, and scatter them among the nations. He would, therefore, have this His last judgment upon them repeatedly and distinctly announced by the prophets, that they might know whither their disobedience. was leading them. Long before the time of actual

captivity came, prophetic warnings began to be given. But in these, as in all announcements of coming judgments, there are increasing fullness and distinctness of utterance as the time draws near.

In Joel, the earliest of the prophets whose prophecies were committed to writing (870-850 B.C.), we find the national captivity foretold, but in indirect terms. Here we meet for the first time the phrase to "bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem." The fact of such captivity is implied, also, in the words that follow: "I will also gather all nations; . . . and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land." (iii. 1, 2.) In this is foretold the national dispersion and the distribution of their land to heathen inhabitants, words which cannot be applied to a temporary invasion. We have thus in the very beginning of written prophecy, and probably more than two centuries before its fulfillment, a prediction of national overthrow.

In Amos and Hosea, the prophets next in chronological order (800-725 B.C.), and whose mission was chiefly to the Northern kingdom, there are many distinct and positive declarations of the coming overthrow and captivity. In Hosea: "I will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel. . . I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away." (i. 4, 6.) "The children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince." (iii. 4.) My God will cast them away, and they shall be wanderers among the nations." (ix. 17.) In Amos: "I will cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus." (v. 27.) "The high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste." (vii. 9.) “Israel shall surely go into captivity

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forth of his land." (vii. 17.) "The eyes of the Lord are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth." (ix. 8.)

Both these prophets refer also to Judah as ultimately to be punished in like manner as Israel, but as spared for the present. Hosea: "Israel and Ephraim shall fall in their iniquity; Judah also shall fall with them." (v. 5.) Amos: "I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem." (ii. 5.)

It is not necessary to cite from the later prophets. In most express terms by Micah and Isaiah and Jeremiah, and all the prophets before the exile, did God foretell that His last and heaviest chastisement was about to come upon His people in both their kingdoms. Both would be overthrown, and all the tribes go into captivity.

It is necessary that we carefully consider here the elements that enter into the conception of "the captivity "as God's last and highest act of judgment. Primarily it refers to the deportation of the people from their land, and their subjection to the heathen nations. But the term has a larger meaning. It has already been stated, that, in establishing the Theocracy Jehovah entered into two new relations: first, that of King to the people; second, that of Proprietor to the land; and as consequent upon them, and subordinate to them, was established the relation of the people to the land as His tenants. The first two of these relations were co-existent: so long as He was their King, He dwelt in the land as His own, and His Presence was their national preservation. Even if, for a time, He permitted their enemies to invade the land, and overcome them, it was for their punishment and reformation. But to permit His people to be carried away captive to another land, and His temple to be destroyed, and His worship to

cease, this was not compatible with His honor as their King, dwelling among them. When the sins of His people had reached that degree that He must cast them out from their land, and put them under the yoke of the heathen, and give up His temple to be burned, He Himself must first depart: the land, so long as hallowed by His Presence, could not be defiled by heathen possession.

The chief and essential element in the conception. of the captivity, is, therefore, the cessation for a time of the theocratic relation, the sign of which was the withdrawal of Jehovah from the holy city and temple. Before the destruction by the Babylonians, when Jerusalem was taken, and the temple burned, and all the holy vessels taken away to Babylon, the prophet Ezekiel, an earlier exile, saw in vision the departure of "The Glory," the symbol of Jehovah's Presence, first from the temple to the midst of the city, and then from the midst of the city to the Mount of Olives. (Ezek. x. xi.) His habitation among them had been the crowning proof of His love: "I will walk among you, and I will be your God." "I the Lord dwell among the children of Israel." When the temple was dedicated, Solomon said: "I have surely built Thee an house to dwell in, a settled place for Thee to abide in for ever." It was His Presence that consecrated the land, and made it holy; and it could not be given up to the heathen to dwell in till He had departed from it.

This departure of Jehovah from His temple and land was the determining condition of the captivity, since it marked a change in His theocratic relation to His people, a change that continues even to this day. They did not cease to be His covenant people. (Lev. xxvi. 44.) His purpose in them was still unfulfilled, His promises respecting the Messiah and His kingdom