mple, and flows down eastward to
the Dead sea, growing broader and deeper in its course, and
imparting life to everything which comes within its influence.
Ezek. 47:1-12, and compare Psa. 46:4; Joel 3:18; Zech. 14:8.

13. The same representative use is made by the prophets of the
_institutions of the Mosaic economy_. One of their offices was, to
foretell the extension of the true religion over all the earth; the
conversion of all nations to the faith of the covenant people, and their
peaceful subjection to Jehovah who reigned in Zion. _In what form_
should this be done while the theocracy was yet in full force? The
disclosure of God's purpose to abolish this theocracy in the interest of
a simpler and more spiritual dispensation, which should know no
distinction between Jews and Gentiles, would have been a premature act.
It would, so far as we can judge, have led to much error and
misapprehension; and it must have had the effect of disparaging the
existing economy before the world was prepared to receive any thing
better in its place. God, therefore, allowed his prophets to portray the
glories of the latter day, when all nations should come to the knowledge
and obedience of the truth, _under the forms of the Jewish
dispensation_, with its temple, sacrifices, and solemn festivals.

A striking example is the bright portraiture of two contemporary
prophets: "But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain
of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the
mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people [Hebrew
_peoples_, that is, as Isaiah, _all the nations_] shall flow unto it.
And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the
mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will
teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall
go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall
judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they
shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into
pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither
shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his
vine and under his fig-tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the
mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it." Micah 4:1-4, compared with
Isa. 2:2-4. The temple at Jerusalem, with its altar and priesthood, was
the central point of the old theocr