Heb. xii. 28, 29. Wherefore we receiving a Jcingdom lohich cannot he moved, let us have grace, zvherehy ive may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear : for our God is a consuming fire.
THE Christian world are little aw^are how^ much we are indebted to the holy Apostles, or rather to God, by whose inspiration they wrote, for the light which they have thrown upon the prophecies of the Old Testament. To this hour should we have been almost as much in the dark respecting the import of them as the Ethiopian Eunuch was, if God had not sent us persons authorized and empowered to unfold their true meaning. The passage which that Gentile proselyte was reading when Philip joined himself to his chariot, was as clear as any part of Isaiah's pro- phecies : yet, when asked by Philip, " Understandest thou what thou readest ?" he replied, '^ How can I, except some man should guide me^?" So we should have still been at a loss to know of whom the pro- phets spake in numberless passages^ if God had not raised up holy men to give us the desired informa- tion. Let us take for instance, the prophecy which is cited by the Apostle in the verses before our text. It is taken from the Prophet Haggai, and is adduced by St. Paul in order to confirm his preceding decla- rations respecting the superiority of the Christian dispensation above that of the Jews. And we may well suppose that an uninspired Jew, if conversant with the Scriptures, would have understood the pas- sage as referring to the Messiahs The construction which he would have put upon it would probably have been to this effect : * God shook the earth when he established the Mosaic dispensation : but, when he shall introduce the Messiah himself, he will do it with far greater convulsions of universal nature.' But
'-' Acts viii. 28—31. ^ Acts viii. 34. = Hag. ii. G, 7.