tion of the lusts of the flesh, was all; but one who, in the world, was not of it-one who presents character so perfect that even the most violent opponents of Christianity have not dared to touch it; and Rousseau, the sceptic, has given the most beautiful portrait of him whom he denied to be the only Saviour of the world. In this respect Christ answers and meets the desire of all nations.

He meets the desire of all nations in that he is the perfect Sacrifice. Jew and Gentile were constantly offering up sacrifices; and I do not know a more impressive proof of the universal consciousness of man that some great curse had intervened between God and mankind, than the fact that in every nation that we know, sacrifices and sacrifices approaching in value to the greatness of the sin that had been perpetrated-were universally practised; and among the ancients even human sacrifices were offered, in the hope that human sins might be forgiven. The sacrificial rites of Levi, which sceptics complain of as so cumbersome, and unwortny of God, are simplicity itself when compared with the cumbersome and shocking rites of the polished Greeks and the civilized Romans; and all these sacrifices, which existed in every land, were nature seeking after the grand sacrifice-was humanity, conscious of a disruption, seeking restoration again-was nature, feeling after our Father, if peradventure it might find him.

But whilst we have spoken of this text as illustrated in the first advent of Christ-and rightly so

-it is impossible to conclude that the prediction is exhausted by the Saviour's advent and birth in Bethlehem. The language has no adequate fulfilment in the past, and must in a great extent await the future. For instance, "I will shake all nations." "I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the Desire of all nations shall come." Christ so far their desire I have shown him to be; but there is a desire even in the hearts of God's people that is not yet met; when Christ comes the second time without sin unto salvation, that desire will be met. The language employed by the prophet evidently indicates the close of this dispensation; for he says, in another verse: "I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of kingdoms of the heathen; and I will overthrow the chariots, and those that ride in them; and the horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother." Now, it cannot be said that when Christ was born there was any shaking of the heavens and the earth. The Temple of Janus was shut; universal peace predominated from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same. It cannot be said that when Christ was born the kingdoms of the heathen were overthrown; for we read that Judea had been overthrown, but the kingdoms of the heathen remained still. It was the Jews that suffered, not the heathen, at the destruction of Jerusalem; and therefore I think that the commentary of those

who suppose that this shaking of the heavens and the earth, this destruction of the heathen, was all accomplished by the dissolution of the Jewish polity and the destruction of Jerusalem, really does not explain the text: it seems to intimate a futurity in which all these things will come to pass. But the best proof of it is not the conjecture of a commentator, but the opinion of an inspired writer. For what does the Apostle say, in the Epistle to the Hebrews? He tell us: "whose voice"-speaking of the giving of the Law-" whose voice then shook the earth”—that is, at the giving of the Law -"but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain." The Apostle Paul, sixty years after the birth of Christ, quotes this very text as not then fulfilled; and shows that that shaking or convulsion has to come in the lapse of the years that were before him, which should fulfil the prophecy of Haggai: "I will shake not the earth only, but the heavens, and the sea, and the dry land." And this shaking is explained by Peter, when he says that all these things shall be dissolved-that "the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat: the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up.

Seeing, then, that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness; looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." That is the removal of the old earth and the old heavens as of the things that are shaken, in order that the new earth and the new heaven, as of things that cannot be shaken, may remain. If, then, the text is not yet fulfilled — if the Desire of all nations came to bear the cross, in order that the earth may be renovated warranted from this and other texts to entertain

we are

still of all the people bear the cross, but to

* the opinion that the Desire of God will come, not to wear the crown, that the earth may at length be restored, and all things be made new. That Christ's second advent is still the desire of the Christian, is obvious from this-that no sooner had ne left the world than his people began to pray, what has been continued as their prayer still, "Come, Lord Jesus;" and the promise was given to that people, "Unto you that look for him, he will come as ye have prayed, the second time, without sin, unto salvation. Now, the reason why we should wish for Christ's second advent as the real fulfilment of all is, that when he comes there will be times of refreshing, as says the Apostle, from

the presence of the Lord. If we desire this refreshment to the weary, this rest for the exile, we should long and pray for that advent of Him who is the desire of both and the satisfaction of all. We read, also, that when Christ comes there will be the times of the restitution of all things. Everything that sin has stained will be put right; every tie that death has snapped will be restored; the grave shall yield up its deposit, Death shall let go his prisoners; all that we lost in Paradise shall be regained when Christ comes; there shall be no more tears, nor crying, nor sin, nor grief, nor sorrow; but all former things will have passed away, all things will have become new. Therefore, to every believer, Christ's second advent is the deepest desire and the yearning of his heart.

He comes the second time without sin unto salvation, our desire-our deepening desire. We pray for his coming because all that now shades his glory, grieves his people, or oppresses mankind, will then utterly pass away. The Crescent in the East will have waned and disappeared with the things that have been shaken; the tiara, that inflicts its tyranny in the West, will be utterly broken and put away, and mingled with the things that have been, no more to be restored again. Humanity, oppressed by the tyranny of the one, slain and depressed by the superstition of the other, will be emancipated; and there will be no more error to mislead, no more oppression to grind down; but a free, a holy, and a happy people,