We now approach the consideration of the important passage in chapter ii. It may be well first to present it in English, as nearly as possible in a literal translation from the original.

'But we beseech you, brethren, touching the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto Him, that ye be not soon shaken from your mind, nor yet be troubled, neither by spirit nor by word, nor by letter as if by us [i. e., with pretence of our authority], to the effect that the day of the Lord is come. Let no man deceive you in any way: for[' that day shall not come,' or 'it shall not be so nothing answering to these words is expressed in the original] unless there shall have come the apostasy first, and the man of sin [our two most ancient MSS. have of lawlessness'] shall have been revealed, the son of perdition; he that opposeth, and exalteth himself above every one called God, or an object of worship: so that he sitteth down in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember ye not that when I was yet with you, I used to tell you these things? And now ye know what hindereth, that he may be revealed in his own time.. For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work, only until he that now hindereth be taken out of the way. And

then shall the Lawless One be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus shall consume with the breath of his mouth, and shall destroy with the appearance of his coming: whose coming is after the power of Satan in all power and signs and wonders of falsehood, and in all deceit of unrighteousness for them that are perishing: because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause doth God send them the working of delusion, that they should believe the falsehood: that they may all be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.'

Now the first matter to be settled respecting this passage is as to its character, in the mind and intention of the Apostle. Did he intend it for a prophetic declaration of that which should hereafter be, or merely for an expression of his own feelings and apprehensions regarding the course of unbelief? We should not have put the question at all, had not this latter alternative been propounded by some among ourselves, whose names command respect. We will only say, that if we are to adopt it, then, it seems to us, we also adopt a rule of interpretation which will deprive Scripture of any categorical meaning whatever. If

ever language was solemn, and declaratory of divine purpose, this is so. We are told to compare, by way of corroborating the view that St. Paul was merely speaking his own feelings and apprehensions, his language in Acts xx. 29, "For I know that after my departure grievous wolves. shall enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Yea, of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them; and that in 2 Tim. i. 15, 'This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me.' Surely a more unfortunate reference could not be made. For what two modes of speaking could be more different than that of those places where he is speaking his own convictions and sad experiences, and that adopted here? The reference itself is a refutation. He is clearly, to any unbiassed reader, speaking here in the fulness of apostolic power; as when, in the former Epistle, he said, 'This we declare unto you by the word of the Lord.' That about which they had gone wrong, was an event of world-wide import, even the second advent of the Lord. And his correction of their error was of course made 'in like material,' or it would have been no correction at

all. He informs them of matters hidden in the divine counsels, but revealed to him by the Spirit, --matters which might tend to convince them, and through them the Church in all time, that the day of the Lord is not yet manifested, nor shall be until certain appointed developments of evil shall have taken place. We lay it down then for our readers fearlessly, that the passage is prophetic : is the language of the Holy Ghost to the Church, to us, respecting that which is to be gone through before the day of the Lord.

This, then, being laid down, what is it which is declared?

Let the reader carefully observe that there are three things, or rather, perhaps, two, which require to be interpreted:-1. The apostasy; 2. The man of sin, or of lawlessness; and 3. That which,' and 'he which,' 'hinders' the manifestation of this man of sin. I said 'rather perhaps two,' because the former two, the apostasy, and the man of sin, are so closely connected, that they may almost be regarded as one. The man of sin is some great concentration of the principle of the apostasy, be he official, or be he individual.

First, then, what is the apostasy'? The ques

tion must be answered, not by preconceived views, nor by traditional prejudices, but simply by fair consideration of the passage before us. The apo

stasy must be judged by the place which it here occupies, and by the characteristics in which it. culminates. The place which it occupies is immediately before the coming of the Lord: and it is pointed out as the apostasy, because it will be the greatest of all apostasies; that one to which all others will converge, and in which they will be absorbed. Now we may fearlessly say, that such an apostasy, in its full development, the world has not yet seen. There have been many 'fallings away' since the Lord was received into heaven. There were the partial revivals of paganism under Julian and others: there was the great Mahommedan imposture, drawing after it the greater portion of the East. Churches have left their faith and been extinguished: heresies have sprung up and run their course. In the Eastern and Western churches, corruption of doctrine and practice has set in. In the latter especially a monstrous caricature of Christianity has put itself in the place of the faith once delivered to the Church: a local bishop has set himself over churches and king