ae11uming that the prophet used incongrnoue acoeeeories in order to com- plete hie picture. 8. As to the morality of the agent, proof of which the objectors find in its being called ( oh. i. 6) "a nation" (goi), and being said to have " done great things" ( oh. ii. 20 ), we may remark that the locusts are figuratively repre- sented as an army invading a land, marshalled in due order, and acting in concert. So in Prov. xxx. 25, 26 the ante and the conies are called" a people" (am), and Homer(' Iliad,' ii. 87) talks of" the nations of bees." In assigning, as the cause of their destruction, their exultation at the great rnin they had caueed, Joel is using the language of poetry, and does not formally attri- bute responsibility to these irrational instruments of punishment. By the Mosaic Law, irrational creatures had to pay the penalty for injuries inflicted by them (Exod. xxi. 28, etc.), and it is no great effort of imagination to represent the locusts as boasting of their evil achievements, and suffering accordingly. 4. It is not true that this pest came only from the south. AIJ.y wind might bring it. Locusts are found in the Syrian desert above Galilee, and a north wind would spread them over Palestine; the same wind, continuing, would drive them into the wilderness of Arabia, "a land desolate and barren;" while, with a little variation of direction, part might be carrie,1 into the Dead Sea and part into the Mediterranean. If" the northerner," or "the northern army,'' could be taken to mean the .ABsyrians, because they usually attacked from that quarter, the rest of the description is wholly inapplicable. No Assyrian army was ever driven into the Arabian desert, with its van in the eastern sea and its rear in the western, and left to perish in the waters, tainting the air around. 5. The expression, " the day of the Lord," is not applied merely to the plague of locusts. The prophet speaks of it as" at hand," not as yet actually present. He sees in the existing calamity a token and a presage of a greater judgment, when all sin should be punished and all wrong righted-a fore- taste of that fearful day of which Isaiah (ii. 12-17) speaks, to culminate some time in a final award given to all the world. Looking thus beyond the present affliction to what it portended and imaged, well might the prophet cry, "Alas for the day I" and mingle with the details of the scourge which lay upon the land the terrors that shall accompany the final consummation. In Messianic prophecy we have generally to distingui9h two ideas-the coming of Jehovah, and the coming of the Son of David. If we except the doubtful expression in oh. ii. 23, where for" the former rain" of the Authorized Version some render" a teacher of righteousness" ( which translation does not suit the immediate context), we have in Joel no plain allusion to the personal Uedeemer; but he is very copious on the advent of Jehovah and the day of the Lord. This theopha.ny brings with it a large outpouring of grace and a display of avenging judgment. Both these aspects a.re rep1·esentecl iu tlti.~ propheoy. 'l'he promise of the plentiful effusion of the Holy Spirit ""s l,eld by St. Peter (Act.s ii.) to have been fulfi.lleJ. on the Jay of Pentec:oot, lNTRODUCTION TO
when i.he Holy Ghost 0&me doWl'I to dwell in tho Churchi and hie gracious influence wru; not confined to one nation or one class of people, but was ponred alike on Jew &nd Gentile, and on the highest and hum bleat members of society. DoubtleBB there had beon partial fulfilments of this prediction hefore St. Peter'e time, as doubtlees there have been further fulfilments 1,ince; but the aooomplishment, whioh was to continue unto the en.d, began to be soon in la.rger measure then, and forcibly vindicated the apostle's not.ioe. The appea.mnoe of Jehovah in judgment is described in awful terms, which are reproduced in our Saviour'e delineation of the judgment- day and in the Apocalypse of St. John. All nations are assembled before the Lord ; the great contest between good and evil is .being decided;, ,all nature sympathizes in the unimaginable strife ; the etrnggle ende; the enemies of the Lord are wasted and consumed, while God's ,people l!,re victorious a,nd largely blessed, their holy influence eprea.de widely around, for the Lord dwells among them and fills them with hie grace.