forbids at present. My dear fellow servants of Christ, I conclude as I began. Pray, watch and work for the restoration of God's Ancient People to their land of promise as a prelude to "life from the dead." "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee." FRANCIS D. MOTT.

142, Evering Road, Stoke Newington. 17th April, 1882.

ENCOURAGING LETTERS.

DEAR DR. LEASK,-You will be pleased to hear that the paper you so kindly allowed to go out with the April number of your truly valuable periodical, the RAINBOW, has done good work. This is, as you know, an attempt to unite all who love God's ancient people. My heart rejoices in thinking of the hundreds, and perhaps thousands, who are earnestly praying for the peace of Jerusalem, and who are longing to see the coming of their Lord and Master in power and glory.

I beg to enclose a copy of my paper on "The Restoration of the Jews," which you have kindly proposed to insert into your next number. Please allow it to be our first response to the many friends who have sent in their names and addresses with most encouraging and welcome letters. There are a few of us, amongst these I must especially name Mr. Mott, who are willing to help those Jews who wish to return to the land of their fathers; we are acting, and hope very shortly to be able to send you further information on this most important subject.

During the last few months I have been three times to the Continent, and have made careful enquiries into all that concerns the Jews. I have visited Paris, Basel, St. Chrischona, Constanz, Baden-Baden, Carlsruhe, Stuttgart, Leipzig, Berlin, Cöln, and discussed the Jewish Question with some of the leading men, both Jews and Christians.

A general feeling prevails everywhere that we are on the verge of most momentous events; men's hearts are "failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth."

Many Jews are humbled by the afflictions they see coming upon them, and are confessing their own sins and those of their people, as their prophet Daniel was wont to do of old. They are earnestly praying that the Lord would turn away His anger and fury from them. I venture to think that there is a shaking going on among the dry bones, and that they are coming together, as depicted by the prophet Ezekiel (xxxvii.). Oh that breath-the Spirit of God-might soon enter into them, and the veil be removed from before their eyes!

Sure I am, that the solemn Passover Service has this year been more of a reality to hundreds of Jews than it ever was before. From the very depths of their hearts have they been praying:

"This is the bread of affliction, which our ancestors ate in the land

of Egypt: let all that are hungry enter and eat.

"This year we celebrate it here; but we hope next year to celebrate it in the land of Israel; this year we are bondsmen (in captivity), but next year we hope to be freemen.

"May we rejoice in the building of Thy city, and exult in Thy holy service. Then shall we, with a new hymn, give thanks to Thee for our deliverance, and for the redemption of our souls.

"Have compassion, we beseech Thee, O Eternal, our God! on Thy people Israel, and on Jerusalem Thy city, on Zion the residence of Thy glory, on the kingdom of the house of David Thine anointed.

"Enlarge us speedily, O Eternal, our God! from all our troubles : and let us not, we pray Thee, O Eternal, our God! stand in need either of the gifts of mankind, or of their loans; but let us depend only on Thy hand which is ever full, open, holy, and liberal, so that we may never be put to shame nor confounded.

"And do Thou rebuild Jerusalem, the holy city, speedily, in our days. Blessed art Thou, the Eternal, who in His mercy will rebuild Jerusalem. Amen.

"May the All-merciful send us an abundant blessing on this house, and on the table at which we have eaten! May the All-merciful send as Elijah the prophet (of happy memory) that he may announce to us tidings of happiness, salvation, and consolation!

"May the All-merciful render us worthy to behold the days of Messiah, and of the eternal life of a future state. May He, who maketh peace in His high heavens, in His mercy, grant peace unto us and unto all Israel, and say ye, Amen."—(From the Passover Service Prayers.)

These are words which may well make us all pause and think! Oh! let our prayers ascend with theirs for their deliverance and restoration to their own land!

There is a growing conviction here, and on the continent, that the day of the national and territorial Restoration of the Jews to Palestine is very near. Oh! then let us help those who are praying and longing to return to the land of their fathers, -the land which belongs to them by promise and by prophecy !

Those of us who are prayerfully watching the rapid course of events which are taking place in our own days, must be convinced, that the immediate future is of the greatest importance to all, to Jew and Gentile alike.

God grant that we may be found watching and ready at His coming! Thanking you again for your kind help in forwarding our great cause, -I remain, ever faithfully yours,

Temple Chambers, 32, Fleet Street,

London, E.C., April 19, 1882.

WILLIAM H. HECHLER.

SAMSON'S RIDDLE.

"the natural man," unenlightened by "the Spirit of God," the Bibleis a riddle. The key to the riddle is found only in "the mystery of God."

Samson, like nearly all the Old Testament characters, was a striking type of Christ, as "God the mighty man."

Judges xiii. gives us an account of his divinely arranged birth, and in the record there is some implicit teaching on the "Philosophy of here

ditary trait." We often hear the question raised as to when the thirst for stimulants is first imbued. The Angel's message to Manoah and his wife goes to the root of the matter. "The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge" (Jer. xxxi. 29), was not to be applicable to the God-born son of Manoah. And may we not also learn something as to whether " strong drinks" are really strengthgiving beverages? While we recognise the might of God in Samson's extraordinary muscular power, we must not overlook God's preparatory injunctions as to total abstinence.

Judges xiv. is pregnant with Gospel teaching. It enwraps the mission of Christ from heaven in search of His bride, and is a riddle of the ministry of evil, and the doom of the Evil One. Let us imagine that Prince Leopold had set his heart on some daughter of "Seven Dials," and we should have a human picture of the choice and stoop of "Jesus the Mighty Man" to this "Timnath" world of ours for His Church. "From heaven He came and sought her

To be His Holy Bride,

With His own blood He bought her,

And for her life He died."

The

The conflict of Samson with the lion finds its antitype in the wilderness struggle of our Samson Jesus with, and his approaching final victory over, "the God of this world." When Samson's conflict with "the lion by the way" was over "he went down and talked with the woman." So after our Lord's temptation in the wilderness "He began to teach and to preach." Samson "had nothing in his hand." Hereby we are reminded that "though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh; for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds" (2 Cor. x. 3, 4). Are we not all too prone to excuse ourselves in some mission of truthbearing for our Lord by saying "there is a lion in the way". . . (Prov. xxvi. 13)? This episode in Samson's life gives us the panacea. Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand." Let us never forget the Master's telegram, "Without Me ye can do nothing." And what followed? After a time Samson feasted upon sweetness out of the carcase of his slain enemy, and his loved ones shared in the feast. Can we all say this? Have we "put off the old man " in "the strength of the Lord, and in the power of His might?" Have we presented our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, as our reasonable service?" If so, we can echo Samson's riddle from the ground of the heart: "Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness." This riddle is also a splendid epitaph for the grave of those sins that brought us to "the blood of the Lamb," through which we passed from death unto life," "from the power of Satan unto God." But to follow Samson. "After a time he returned to take her." Christian, "look up, and lift up your head." Do not look down to the grave; "we shall not all sleep." "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh." And note that Samson halted by the way: "He turned aside to see the carcase of the lion: and, behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcase." What a marvellous type! LIFE out of DEATH!! "0 death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory ?" One

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would have naturally expected to find "worms" and "corruption," and not winged creatures and sweetness. Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." Beloved reader," Summer is now nigh at hand," and the King's bees are ready to swarm to the hiving in our Noah's Ark-the Father's House-at the music of the Bridegroom's voice. "For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air." "Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity" (Isa. xxvi. 20, 21.) "Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away" (Cant. ii. 10). Picture to yourself a gigantic dovecot elevated at a great height from the ground. See an innumerable company of doves on the ground. Suddenly a clap of thunder is heard, or a wild beast appears, or a voice is raised to alarm, and in an instant the doves rise up to the cot. Well may the Prophet Isaiah ask (chap. lx. 8), "Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as doves to their windows ?"

"From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast,
Through gates of pearl stream in the countless host."

"He

"And Samson made there a feast." So will our Samson Jesus. brought me to the banqueting house, and His banner over me was love (Cant. ii. 4). "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to Him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come " (Rev. xix. 7). "O my dove, in the clefts of the rock (Rev. xxi. 12), in the secret of the stairs (Gen. xxviii. 12), let me see Thy countenance, let me hear Thy voice" (Cant. ii. 14).

But we must descend the ladder, and view the dark, dark groundwork of our picture. The enemies of Israel plowed with Samson's heifer. The woman betrays her lord's secret into the hands of the Philistines, through loving and fearing her kinsfolk more than her lord. "Entice thy husband, that he may declare unto us the riddle, lest we burn thee and thy father's house with fire." So our Beloved has had "written for our learning:" "I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." "I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth." "A man's foes shall be those of his own household." So Cæsar plowed with Christ's heifer. Behold the woman! "And upon her forehead a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abomination of the earth (Rev. xvii. 5).

But follow Samson. "He went up to his father's house, and returned within a while after-in the time of harvest," and executed fiery judgment on the Philistines. Jesus said: "I go unto my Father, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again." He that shall come will come and will not tarry."

"Yet a little, and Judges xv. tells of

(Cant.

Samson's return as the judge and avenger. "He caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails," so using a present evil to work judgment. So our Beloved writes, "Take us the foxes, the little foxes ii. 15). But did Samson execute direct judgment on his apostate bride? No; her own enraged people did that. "The Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire." So the antitype: "These shall hate the whore, and burn her with fire" (Rev. xvii. 16). "The harvest is the end of the age" (Matt. xiii. 39, 40). "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah ?" (Isa. lxiii. 1-3). They burnt up the standing corn." "There shall be on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity" (Luke xxi. 25).

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But let us keep our eye on Samson as the central figure. On the one side we find the apostate bride. Later on Delilah will take her place on the other side. Now let us sit at the feet of Samson. Here we will watch the treatment of the men of Judah (Judges xv. 9-14). Surely they will rally round their mighty kinsman and deliverer. No, they impatiently own, "the Philistines are rulers over us." We know the sequel (John xix.). "We have no King but Cæsar." "And they bound him with two new cords." So the band and captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus and bound Him." Behold Samson's victory over death, "The Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire." So with "Jesus of Nazareth whom God hath raised up, having loosed the bonds of death, because it was not possible that He should be holden of it" (Acts ii. 22, 24). But look further on in our chapter. Samson was 66 sore athirst, and called on the name of the Lord." "God clave a hollow place and there came water there

.

out." So" when Pentecost was fully come they were filled with the Holy Ghost." "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink," and "whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."

Judges xvi. closes the career of Samson's judging of Israel. In the harlot of Gaza, and the midnight judgment of Samson on the city's stronghold, the destruction of " the Son of Man" on "the Harlot city (Isa. i. 21) of Jerusalem is portrayed. In passing, let us notice the fulfilled aspect of Isaiah i. 10-24: The condemnation of Pharisaism, the call to repentance, the invitation of the then present Saviour to cleansing, the refusal of the offer, and the subsequent devouring of the harlot city by the sword. Now look again at our picture of Samson. Behold him in the midst. "Delilah of Sorek" takes her place on the side opposite to that occupied by the "apostate" of Timnath. There stands the mighty man between two robbers. Delilah is the type of Revolutionary Atheism, "the mystery of iniquity," the probable destined mother of "the man of sin." Thirst for place, power and "pieces of silver" induces corrupt Delilah to use every artifice to seduce the mighty man to sleep in her lap. "The seven locks of his head are removed." So with the Christ once adorning" seven Churches of Asia," which if now in existence and in purity would identify her Samson to the world. But Samson though shorn of power and blinded, lived on in captivity. "And