standing. So in respect to 2 Peter, in a degree; if we bear in mind that it was written but a few years before the Apostle's death, and but a short time prior to the destruction of the Hebrew nation, we shall discover the pertinency of many of his remarks. of his remarks. But there is another matter in regard to the interpretation of our chapter, which it is still more important to bear in mind; and that is, the poetical character of many of the expressions. It must be remembered that the Scriptures were written centuries ago, and by men of a different nation from our Every nation, every age almost, has its peculiar literature; and there is a world-wide difference between the taste of the Orientals and that of the Occidentals. It has been complained of us, that we are phlegmatic, coldly critical, aiming at extreme exactness of expression, and condemning every extreme flight of fancy as violating the canons of good taste. In our turn, we complain of the extravagances of eastern literature; the bold hyperboles, the frequent personifications, the catachresis of oriental writers, especially of former ages, bespeak in our judgement a delirium of fancy, a wildness of conceit, which we can hardly tolerate. Now, if we were going to construct a new language, or to settle the canons of good taste for our own generation, or for our successors, might do for us to sit in judgement on the style of our predecessors. But such criticisms are out of place, when we are simply inquiring what they meant by a certain phraseology. They employed the language which they had, to express their ideas; it may be that it was not so exact and precise as our own, but it was all they had. Living, especially as the Hebrews did, in an eastern clime, where the sky was for months cloudless, and where at night the stars shone with a brilliancy far surpassing the display we witness; seeing from day to day the gushes of sunlight tinging with a deeper radiance and an intenser brightness the scenery around; dwelling, too, as they did in the plastic period of their language, in tents, and journeying from mountain to valley, in intimate communion with nature under all her varied moods, it is not surprising that their dialect became exceedingly poetical. Every young and comparatively uncultivated people has an unpolished dialect; critical exactness is the offspring of long

it

cultivation; and before the invention of the art of printing, when books were both scarce and dear, the few books that were in existence would exert a powerful influence on the style of all who perused them. Especially would the sacred books of the Jews have a mighty effect on the literary taste of that nation; and we find everywhere in the compositions of the New Testament writers, writing though they were in another language, that the peculiar idioms of the Hebrew dialect, and, still more, the symbols and imagery of the Old Testament writers, constantly reappear. We therefore must guard against straining their meaning, especially in rhetorical passages. interpreter must remember that he is explaining the language, not of cold-blooded Englishmen, not of critical philosophers, but of lively Orientals, who are striving to express in startling terms facts that ought to move the hearts and quicken the consciences of those to whom they write. Had the apostles employed such terms as we might, in deference to popular taste, use in our day, to set forth precisely the same facts, their words would have seemed tame and cold, and perhaps almost soothed their brethren to sleep.

The

In interpreting this chapter, therefore, we shall endeavor to recollect that it is the language of a Hebrew we are explaining,―a Hebrew familiar with the glowing imagery of Isaiah, Joel, and David, and writing to Orientals of lively intellects and warm imaginations. We have often thought that the interpreter, who would go to the poetry of the Scriptures prepared to understand its spirit, might profitably read some of the speeches of the Indians of our own forests. One pithy address, made by an aged chief who was smitten with blindness, occurs to our mind. Said he to some visitors, "I am an aged hemlock; the winds of a hundred winters have whistled through my branches; I am dead at the top. Why I am spared, the Great Spirit only knows." We need not say that there is beauty in such language, coming from such a source; but it would sound overstrained, did it proceed from the lips of a European. The fact that the genius of the Indian's language tolerates such figures renders that proper for him which in our own tongue would seem affected or puerile. And when one is tempted to attach undue stress 31

VOL. IX.

to the language of the New Testament writers, let him ask, not how should I express a certain idea, but how would a fervid Oriental, accustomed to the language of passion, set it forth?

The second Epistle of Peter is generally admitted to have been written about the year 66 of the Christian era. Its main object was, as indeed that of the first Epistle had been, to stir up the minds of the brethren, and bring to their remembrances the words spoken before by the holy prophets, and the commandment or teachings of the apostles of the Lord and Saviour. (Verses 1, 2.)

"Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, [in Greek, shameless scoffers,] walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? [that is, either his promised coming, or the fulfilment of this promise?] for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. (Verses 3, 4.)

The phrase "last days" reminds us of one expression in 1 John, ii. 18. "Little children, it is the last time; and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time." John has doubtless reference here to a prophecy which the Saviour had uttered, when speaking of events that should precede his coming. "Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there, be, lieve it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." (Matt. xxiv. 23, 24.) Now, whatever Peter meant by the phrase "last days," it is evident that it was a period which had already come, or was on the eve of coming, when he wrote. Scoffers had already begun to ask, Where is the promised coming of Christ? There were among those who were enrolled as Christians many who had no deep faith in Jesus. Hearing the apostles preach that ere that generation should pass away, their Lord would come again to inflict terrible judgements on the Hebrew race, and being convinced by the miraculous power of the disciples that God was with them, they banded themselves with the believers, in order to escape destruction. Time, however, rolled away; year after

Some of the

year passed, and yet the Saviour came not. disciples had already been slain; James had been executed by Herod, Stephen stoned by a mob, and others, worn out with sufferings and toil, or hunted down by persecution, seemed about to find in the grave the rest denied them on earth. These irreligious converts would naturally begin to doubt as to the truth of what the apostles had taught. They knew that the disciples affirmed that Christ had said, "For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father, and then shall he reward every man according to his works. Verily, verily, I say unto you, There be some standing here who shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." It was not unnatural, therefore, for men who had endured with impatience the restraints of the gospel, and whose passions were clamoring for gratification, to reason in this manner: "The disciples are fast dying; those who listened, as is pretended, to the words of Christ, on that occasion, are almost all gone. If the events they foretell are going to take place in their lifetime, we ought soon to witness them. But no sign of them appears; matters move on in their wonted order, and neither heaven nor earth gives evidence of the coming of the Lord. We have been deluded; let us therefore return to our old course. This coming of Christ that you have been telling of, as to happen before this generation shall pass away,we have no faith in it."

The apostle proceeds to meet the objections of this class of men. The case of the antediluvians presents an instance of similar delusion. Perhaps the reference Christ had made to that instance suggests the illustration. Said he, when foretelling his coming, after having remarked, "This generation shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled," "But of that day and hour [that is, of the precise time] knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not, until the flood came and took them all away, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." (Matt. xxiv. 36–39.)

That fatal security of the antediluvians had its counterpart in the contemporaries of Peter. And the apostle proceeds to remind them of this fact. "For this they are willingly ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: [that is, existing thus, a part above, a part beneath the billows:] whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished. But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgement and perdition of ungodly men." (Verses 5-7.)

Peter recollects the promise that no flood should again sweep over the face of the earth, and extinguish human life. Hence he speaks of the coming judgements, which were to destroy the ungodly men of his own day, under the symbol of fire. We need not tell any one who is conversant with the Scriptures, that by the phrase “a day of judgement," is meant any period of time when any particular race or city received the chastisement of its crimes. Although our version inserts the definite article before the word "day," it is lacking in the original. Any period, therefore, when God should inflict on the unbelieving Jews and faithless Christians the terrible punishments which both Christ and the apostles so often speak of, as to be sent before that generation should pass away, might be styled, according to Hebraistic usage, “a day of judgement and destruction for ungodly men." And nothing more seems intended in these verses, than that as the contemporaries of Noah were swept away in their careless security by the flood, so the contemporaries of Peter, who had been so long offending heaven, should be overwhelmed equally suddenly by judgements of a different character. The same almighty hand that had rolled a flood over the earth could send other evils on the obstinate, unbelieving, and reckless of Peter's day. And the fact that such evils had not already begun was no excuse for doubt; for "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." (Verse 8.) Events may seem long in ripening; but a single electric spark from the divine battery may kindle the magazine, and scatter death and dismay around. So clear is the