the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?"

Such are the events revealed as characterising "THE DAY OF THE LORD." It would be fearful temerity to seek to weaken the force of this most solemn testimony, or to take from the language one jot or tittle of its proper power. And if in the second chapter of Isaiah the day of the Lord be future, is it not future also in the thirteenth chapter? The characteristics are the same: "Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the LAND desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. And I will punish the WORLD for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. I will make a man more precious than fine gold, even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place in the wrath of the Lord of hosts and in the day of his fierce anger."

The testimony of this passage is not less dis

tinct, not less solemn, than that of the second chapter. The two chapters are in strict accordance indeed there is almost a verbal similarity of expression. Both speak of that day as being THE DAY of the Lord: both speak of the loftiness of man being bowed down and the haughtiness of men laid low: both describe the visitation as affecting all human life: both say that the earth shall be shaken, and the thirteenth chapter adds, "the heavens also." "I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place. The stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine." Those who expect the second appearing of the great God our Saviour, Jesus Christ; who believe that His feet shall indeed stand (according to the words of Zechariah) upon the Mount of Olives; that He "shall come and all His saints with Him," will casily recognise what period is designated, whenever the heavens and earth are mentioned as being shaken, or when the sun, moon, and stars are described as ceasing to shine. But if such words do not mean what they seem to mean; if when it is said in Matthew xxiv., "Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken"; if all that is meant by this is

that Jerusalem should be taken by the Romans; and if the similar expressions before us are intended to denote the taking of Babylon by Cyrus ; if on that night of revelry, when an almost bloodless victory caused the sceptre of Babylon quietly to pass from one monarch to another; when the heavens continued to shine on in their tranquillity; when the earth remained unshaken; when no wasting destruction fell even upon Babylon, none upon its Land, none upon the world; when human pride, instead of being abased, flourished even more abundantly than before — if we are to be told that such events as these (events peaceful rather than destructive, at any rate as regards the world) fulfil the predictions of Isaiah respecting the Day of the Lord, then we may as well renounce as hopeless the interpretation of Holy Writ; we may say that there are no rules to guide us in understanding its language, and we may at once resign the field of Scripture exposition to the speculations and scepticism of neologian infidelity.

But I trust that it shall not be so. I trust that we will steadily refuse to believe that the Day of the Lord has come. We will neither believe that the world has as yet been punished for its iniquity, nor that such desolation has visited either the Land of Babylon, or any other land, as for a man to be made more rare than fine gold-nor that the heavens and earth have

our ears.

been shaken-nor that the sun, the moon, and stars have been darkened-nor that the haughtiness of man has been laid low. Strange that we should be asked to believe this just at a moment when the proud voice of man's self-complacency is sounding more loudly than ever in our But we believe it not. We wait for the accomplishment of these things, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed in His glory. We remember the words of the Apostle: "Now hath he promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven." (Heb. xii. 26.) Thus then, even if we were confined to the testimony of the thirteenth of Isaiah alone, we should sufficiently know that there is an hour of yet future visitation awaiting Babylon, and the world also.

And how on any other supposition could we explain such words as these which occur in other parts of the prophetic writings: "At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth is moved, and the cry is heard among the nations?" (Jer. 1. 46.) Was it so when Babylon was formerly captured, and the kingdom quietly passed on to Darius the Mede? And have the following words been fulfilled: "Therefore, behold the days come that I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon, and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her. Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein shall sing for Babylon. As Babylon hath caused the slain of

Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth"? (Jer. li. 47-49.) Have the slain of all the earth thus fallen at Babylon? Have the heavens and the earth, and all that is therein, rejoiced over her? When Babylon passed into the hand of the Medes there was little occasion

for such joy. It made little difference to the earth whether Babylon was reigned over by Chaldeans, or by Persians, or Greeks, or Romans. There was little cause for thanksgiving in such transfer of authority from one proud hand to another. But if there be a fall of Babylon that is to be immediately succeeded by the kingdom of Him, of whom it is said, "All nations shall call Him blessed" (Psalm lxxii. 17): if the joy of deliverance from Babylon is to be accompanied by the joy of God's manifested salvation, when "the floods shall clap their hands, and the hills shall be joyful together before the Lord; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the peoples with equity" (Psalm xcviii. 8, 9)—if such, I say, be the sequence of Babylon's destruction, then there is, indeed, sufficient reason why heaven and earth, and all that is therein should sing for Babylon. Then we can understand why in the Revelation also it should be said, "Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets, for God hath avenged you on her." (Rev. xviii. 20.) We can understand also how it may be said of such an event, "This is the