that the Lord descends, the archangel marshals his innumerable host, giving the shout of command with the living voice. Havino- marshalled his hosts to move in harmony with the descending Lord, he at a subsequ~nt stage gives nnother shout of command, this time not with the living voice, but with the trump of God. At the trumpet-call the dead arise. 'l'hc Christian dead, raised with reconstituted bodies, join the Chri~t.inn living, whose bodies are transformed, making one company, and, caught up in the enveloping, upbearing clouds, they meet their descending Lord with the marshalled army of angels in the air. The Lord descends to earth; before him are gat.hered all nations, and, as Judge, he separates them one from another, as the shepherd separnteth the sheep from the goats. The wicked receive their desert; the righteous ascend in the triumphant retinue to heaven, to be for ever with the Lord. (2) On account ef its certainty we are to take heed to it. "\Vhereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a lamp shining in a dark place, uutil the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts." We do well to take heed to what the Bible says about the issues of life as connected with the coming of Christ. The prophetic Word is here compared to a lamp, on account of the clear light it sheds. It is true of the Bible as a whole that it is as a lamp. "This lamp from off the everlasting throne mercy took down.n The dark place in which it shines is the world. How dark would the world be but for the light it casts upon God and upon the future! It is to continue to shine until the day dawn, and the day-star arise. This bringing in or the full day is to be regarded as Christ's coming. Then the Bible, in its earthly form, will have served its purpose; it will give place to the great Teacher himself. The relation of all to that coming is not to be joy- ful; to some it will only be the time of exposure, the time of discomfiture and of consignment to darkness. But it is to come with a blessed certainty in the hearts of Christ's people. It is the beginning of a long bright day to them in the presence of their Lord. (3) The ground ef the certainty on account of which we are to take heed to it. "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation. For no prophecy ever came by the will of man : but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost." The statement, declared to be of prime importance, that no prophecy or Scripture is of private interpretation, was long obscure; and Roman Catholic theologians took advantage of the obscurity to assert that its meaning is that Scripture can only be interpreted by the Church, and not by private Christians. 'l'here is now clearness as to its meaning, which is that the prophet did not pror.eed on his own private interpretation of tM11gs. For, it is added, no prophecy ever came by the will of man, i.e. originated in mere human determination. Men indeed spoke (and not always holy men, as in the case of Balaam); there was thus the exercise of the human mind to a certain extent, there was the human form in what they spoke, there were even individual characteristics broucrht 0 out; but the higher causal account of it was that they spoke from God, and because they were borne along unresistingly by the Holy Ghost. There was thus, which is the point here, secured certainty, infallibility in what they spoke. We do well, then, to take heed to what they say to u11, "He that hat.h an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith."-R. F
EXPOSITION. word ,f,e111i01rpo,P~Ta1 seems principally to CHAPTER II. imply the absence of o. Divine mission. By Ver. 1.-:But there were false prophets "the people" (>-a&s) is meant the peoplo of a~o among the people; rather, as in the Israel, as in Rom.· xv. 11; Jude 5, eto. It Revised Version, but there aroae false propheta is plain from these words that St. Peter, o.t a/Jio among tM 'People. The transition is the end of the last chapter, was epeuking of simple and natural. Besides the true pro- the prophets of the Oltl Testament. Even vliets mentioned iu the last chapter, who aa there shall be false teaohers among you, spake as they were moved by the Holy who privily shall bring in damnable heresies. C host, there aro~e false prophets, men who By tho false teachers, again (the word ,f,Ev8o- '".~re "a rough garment to deceive" (Zeeb. 3,oao-,ca>,.o, is peculiar lo St. Peter), may be x111. 4), o.nd assumed without warrant the meant men whose teaching was fBlsc, or prophetic character. Such pretenders would men who falsely claimed the teacher's office. commonly prophesy false things ; but the St. Peter describes them e.e such ee (o1nl'u) 011. n. 1-22.J THE SECOND EPISTLE GENERAL OF PETER. 43