the Holy Scriptures to their own destruction. The sun is aptly called the King of Day, and the moon, the Queen of Night. God said that these luminaries of heaven were to rule over the day and night, and also to divide the light from the darkness. Now we will furnish illustrations of these truths. Joseph dreamed and said to his brethren (Gen. 37:9-10), "I have dreamed a dream more; and behold, the sun, and the moon, and the eleven stars, made obeisance to me." This his father immediately interpreted, for this dream was from the Lord. "And he told it to his father, and to his brethren and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren inIdeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?" But so it came to pass; but it is said (verse 11), "His brethren envied him, but his father observed the saying." Here is an early example where the luminaries of the heavens are employed to illustrate things which transpire on the earth among the children of men. The sun represents the head of a house or family, and therefore comes naturally to stand for a king. The moon symbolizes a woman, and a woman is employed to represent Christ's bride, the church; and in the religious service of the sanctuary much of the temple service was governed by the moon's phases. And so Paul, writing to the Colossians who were not under the law, said to them, "Let no man judge you in meat or drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath, which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ (2:16-17).

The first act in the drama of creation when God said, "Let there be light," is employed by Paul to represent the light of the glorious gospel of Christ which lightens all who will be saved out of the darkness of this world, for he says, "God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (II Cor. 4:6).

Again, another notable example of the employment of these luminaries and the heavens in which they are placed as signs of things spiritual is found in the nineteenth Psalm, where David, speaking by inspiration of God, says, "The heavens declare the glory of God: and the firmament showeth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun; which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof " (verses 1-6).

The natural man who reads this gracious language and supposes that he can, without the aid of God's revelation, read in the natural heavens and their hosts all that is here affirmed that they declare and teach, is egregiously deceived. He may multiply to himself the most scientific inventions, and the most powerful magnifying glasses that ingenious and skilful men have ever invented, by which the wonders of the natural heavens are immensely increased, yet from the poor Indian, of whom the poet says, whose untutored mind sees God in clouds, and sees him in the winds," to the most intelligent and learned astronomer that has ever lived, they never could learn the things

from these sources that the Psalmist says that the heavens and firmament that he speaks of show and teach. We will take another and better way to show what the glory of God is, that the heavens declare, and what his handywork is, that the firmament shows. The key to the correct interpretation of this subject is found in the fourth verse which says, "Their line is gone through all the earth and their words to the end of the world." When Paul wrote his letter to the Romans, he shows in the tenth chapter how Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, and also the righteousness which is of faith, showing what the word of faith was which they preached, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart men believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed "; again, "For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved."

Upon these quotations Paul remarks and says, "How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things." But says Paul, "They have not all obeyed the gospel, for Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Then the Apostle asks this important question, and says, "Have they not heard?" He replies emphatically, "Yes," and what is his proof? He finds it in the fourth verse of the nineteenth Psalm which says, Their sound went into all the earth and their words unto the end of the world."

Here is the solution of the whole matter. The heavens which declared the glory of God were the apostles, and those who, with them, preached the gospel of peace and brought glad tidings of good things, for in so doing they declared the glory of God, and showed his handywork. Their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world, for Jesus commanded them, after his resurrection from the dead and just before he ascended into heaven, saying, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matt. 28: 18-20). Mark adds, "In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay their hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So then, after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven and sat on the right hand of God, and they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, confirming the word with signs following. Amen." The apostles of Christ, therefore, went throughout the world preaching the gospel, and Paul says of his labors and travels, in his letter to the Colossians, that he had preached the gospel throughout the world, and to every creature under heaven, whereof he, Paul, was made a minister (1:23).

Now from the above premises, it follows that the heavens which declared the glory of God, and the firmament which showed his handywork, were the apostles of Christ, and those which went with them throughout the world declaring the gospel, constituting what we might call the apostolic heavens; that the sun of these heavens, whose effulgent light illuminated every part thereof, was Christ, who went everywhere with them confirming the word with signs, wonders, and miracles; that the heat of the sun is apparent from what the two disciples said after Christ had journeyed with them on the way to Emmaus. After he had left them they said, "Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures?"- that the glory of God that these heavens declared, was the glory and immortality which comes by the resurrection of the righteous dead, who are sown in weakness, and raised in glory; for says Paul, "Christ was crucified through weakness," but Peter adds, "God raised him up from the dead and gave him glory," and Jesus himself said to the disciples on the way to Emmaus, "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?" Again Paul says in his letter to the Romans, "Unto them who, by patient continuance in well doing, seek for glory, honor and immortality, God will render eternal life."

The apostolic firmament showed God's handywork in this way: Paul to the Ephesians speaks of "the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places" (1:20); Paul says again in his letter to the Philippians (3:21), "He shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself." This is God's handiwork which the firmament showeth. Again the Psalmist says, "There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard." To fulfil this part of the prophecy, Christ, after his ascension into heaven, sent down on the day of Pentecost and after, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, by which the apostles were empowered to speak in all the languages of the earth the wonderful works of God, for said David, "There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard." Again, in the eighth Psalm, David says, "O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth, who hast set thy glory above the heavens." Who is the glory of God? and what constitutes the heavens that he has been set above? Paul answers the first question in his letter to the Hebrews, where in explaining this Scripture, he shows that Christ is the glory of God, of whom he says, Thou madest him a little lower than the angels," and then by resurrection from the dead, he crowned him with glory and honor, and did set him at his right hand, and put all things in subjection under his feet (2:7-8).

With reference to the second question, that when Christ was raised from the dead he ascended up far above all heavens, to the Hebrews (7:26) Paul

"For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens." Now as to what these heavens are, Paul shows plainly in Ephesians (1:20-22) where he says that when he was raised from the dead, God set him at his right hand, far

above all principalities, and power, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and hath put all things under his feet.

Here, then, this principle of interpretation is fully established, namely, that principalities, powers, and governments, whether among men or angels, are in figurative language in the Scriptures called heavens, and that this manner of teaching by figures pervades the Holy Scriptures from the beginning to the end. Consequently, in the kingdom of Israel the men whom God exalted to rule in the kingdom, including the kings, judges, princes, priests and prophets, are called heavens, and the people that were placed under their power were called the earth. Accordingly, when Moses summoned into his presence all the elders of their tribes, and officers, "he spake in the ears of all the congregation the words of this song, until they were ended, saying, Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth" (Deut. 32:1). And in the vision of Isaiah which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, addressing himself to this people, he says, "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken" (Isa. 1:2).

Again, in the dispersion of his people among all the nations of the earth. for their wickedness, the Lord says with reference to their gathering again. in the latter days (Deut. 30: 4), "If any of thine be driven out unto the utmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee." Now the utmost parts of heaven referred to here have reference to the nations and kingdoms of the earth most distant from the land of Israel, where his people might be dispersed, and this proves that all the kingdoms of the earth are spoken of as heavens and earth, as well as the kingdom and people of Israel.

Anyone, therefore, who is instructed in these things, will be in a position to understand many things, which without this knowledge it would be impossible to comprehend. For instance, the Lord says by the hand of Isaiah (34:3-4), in his judgments upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies, that the mountains shall be melted with their blood, and all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll, and all their host shall fall down as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree. The heavens here spoken of are the governments of the countries that are to be punished in the day of the Lord's anger, and when their armies are destroyed their heavens will be rolled up as a scroll, and pass away.

Peter said that our beloved brother Paul also in all his epistles had spoken of these things; let us therefore turn to Paul, the aged, and hearken to his words of wisdom on this subject. In writing to the Hebrews, he says that Christ was made so much better than the angels, as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. And among the things that he quotes from the Old Testament Scriptures to prove this, is a Scripture contained in the hundred and second Psalm, which says of Christ before he was born into the world as follows: And thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine

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hands: they shall perish, but thou remainest: and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same and thy years shall not fail."

The earth spoken of here, the foundations of which Christ the Lord laid, and the heavens that are the works of his hands, are the old Mosaic heavens and earth which were created at Mount Sinai after Israel came up out of Egypt, and were established by what is now known as the old covenant, or constitution of the kingdom of Israel, by which the house of Israel was erected into a kingdom, composed, as we have shown before, of heavens and earth. The people which composed this heaven and earth were mortal men, and could not continue by reason of death; and this covenant was to be succeeded by another, these things were to perish, to wax old as doth a garment and as a vesture they were to be folded up and laid away, whereas Christ being raised from the dead, death had no more dominion over him; and so when this old order of things passed away, Christ's years failed not; he continues to live, and his years have no end. And speaking of the two covenants in another place, in his letter to the Hebrews (chapter 8), he uses the same form of words concerning the passing away of the old covenant as he does when he speaks of the passing away of the old heavens and earth as follows (verses 7-8): "If that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah." From these words by the hand of Jeremiah (31:31-34), Paul draws the following conclusions and says (Heb. 8: 13), "In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away"; the same as he said before of the old heavens and earth (Heb. 1:11-12), “They all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed."

We will now adduce one more example from Paul's letter to the Hebrews (12:25-28) where he speaks of the same things which Peter says are hard to be understood: "See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying (by Haggai [2:6]), Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we, receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptibly with reverence and godly fear." Here it should be noted that heavens and earth are put in apposition to a kingdom; the rulers in a kingdom constituting the heavens, and the people over whom they rule, constituting the earth.

We inquire, When did he speak on earth? and what was the earth that shook at his voice? and what are the heavens and earth that are to be shaken the second time and removed? We reply, He spake the ten commandments at Mount Sinai that burned with fire dreadful and terrible, so that the people shook and quaked with fear, and they entreated that the word should not