e last days" that awaited Zion in the distant future.
When Isaiah began his prophecies, the kingdom of Israel was tottering to
its fall, and before he had finished them it had suffered an utter
overthrow. The invasion of Judah by the allied kings of Israel and
Syria, in the reign of Ahaz, and by Sennacherib king of Assyria, in the
reign of Hezekiah, furnished an occasion for predicting not only the
present deliverance of God's people, but also the future triumph of Zion
over all her enemies, and the extension of her dominion over all the
earth. In his present interpositions in behalf of Zion, God mirrored
forth his purpose to give her a final and universal victory. And so it
was with all the other prophets. With their backs towards the gloom and
distraction of the present, and their faces steadfastly turned towards
the glory of the latter days, they uttered words of promise and comfort
that can have their fulfilment only in Christ's kingdom, which is the
true heir to all the promises made to the ancient Zion. Out of Christ
these promises are vain and delusory. In Christ their fulfilment has
been begun, and shall be completed in the appointed time. Out of Christ
no amount of learning will enable a man to understand the Hebrew
prophets; for the veil is on his face, which can be done away only in
Christ. What if more than eighteen centuries have elapsed since our
Lord's advent, and the domain of his kingdom is yet very limited? In the
divine reckoning, "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a
thousand years as one day." If it took four of these days to prepare the
world for Christ's advent, can we not allow two days and more for the
complete establishment of his kingdom?

We add a notice of each separate book of the Greater prophets.

I. ISAIAH.

5. According to the Hebrew arrangement already noticed (No. 1, above),
the book of Isaiah, as the first of those belonging to the greater
prophets, stands at the head of the whole collection of prophetical
books; although Hosea, Amos, and Jonah, and in all probability Joel
also, entered upon their prophetical office before him. Micah was
contemporary with him. Of the private history of Isaiah we know almost
nothing, except that he was the son of Amoz (chap. 1:1), and that he was
married and had sons (chap. 8:1-4). The Jewish tradition is that he was
sawn asunder under the reign of Manasseh, to which it has been supposed
that there is a reference in the epistle to t