ople, and the strength of the children of
Israel. So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in
Zion, my holy mountain; then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there
shall no strangers pass through her any more." Chap. 3:14-17.

Many more examples might be adduced from the other prophets, but
the above will be sufficient.

6. But let no one infer, from this absence of dates and of the exact
succession of events, that the view which the prophet gives of the
future is loose and confused. Times and successions belong rather to the
outward machinery of God's providential government. They are, so to
speak, the wheels and bands and shafts which connect the different
movements. But the _perpetual living power_ that dwells in the church is
above all time and succession. In this lies the guarantee of her final
triumph, and with this the prophets are mainly occupied. They take the
deepest view of the progress of God's kingdom, for they unfold to our
view the indestructible divine life and power which animate it
throughout, and which are steadily bearing it onward towards its final
destiny--victory complete and eternal over all the powers of darkness.
If we examine more particularly the manner in which the prophets of the
Old Testament represent the future of the kingdom of heaven, we shall
find that it has its foundation in the _unity_ of the plan of
redemption, the _end_ towards which it is tending, the _indications_ of
that end which are perpetually given in its progress, and the fact that
_the end itself is the chief object of interest_ in prophetic vision.

(1.) The _unity_ of the plan of redemption lies not in its times and
seasons, but in the higher connections of cause and effect, which, under
God's supernatural presence and agency, bind the whole together
laterally, so to speak, as well as backward and forward. It may be
compared to the unity of a web, in which each thread of the warp extends
from its beginning to its end, and each thread of the woof from one
margin to the other; so that every part of the texture is connected with
every other part without respect to nearness or distance. So in the plan
of redemption, events thousands of years apart and taking place in
regions thousands of miles from each other, are as really connected as
if they belonged to the same year and country. And since they are thus
connected in God's plan, it is natural that prophecy should exhibit them
in this connecti