[2] I saw the earth, and behold it was empty and void; and towards the heavens, and their light was not. . . . I saw, when, behold, Carmel* was a desert, and all the cities were desolated at the presence of Jehovah. . . . For thus hath Jehovah said, The whole land shall be wasteness, yet will I not make a consummation. For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be blackened. Thou, therefore, that art vastated, what wilt thou do? (Jer. iv 23-31; v 10, 18). The lion bath come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of nations . . . bath gone forth from his place, to reduce the land to a waste. . . . In that day . . . the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be astonished (Jer. iv 7, 9). In that day, every place where there were a thousand vines shall be . . . for thorns and briars, . . . because all the land shall be thorns and briars (Isa. vii 23, 24). A voice of the cry of the shepherds and . . . of the powerful ones of the flock, for Jehovah layeth waste their pastures: whence the sheepfolds of peace were devastated. Jehovah bath forsaken His tabernacle, for their land was reduced to a desolation (Jer. xxv 36-38). This house shall be like Shiloh, and Jerusalem shall be a devastation (Jer. xxvi 9; xxvii 17). Jerusalem, and all the cities of Judah, shall be a desolation and a devastation in this day, because of the wickedness of your works; your land is become a desolation, an astonishment and a curse (Jer. xliv 2, 6, 22). I will give the land to devastation, because they have committed transgression (Ezek. xv 8). They shall be devastated in the midst of the devastated lands, and her cities in the midst of the desolated cities. . . . Then I will make the rivers drought, . . . the land into the hand of the evil, and I will vastate the land and the fulness thereof (Ezek. xxx 7, 12). When I shall extinguish thee, I will cover the heavens, and will make the stars thereof black. I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine; . . . and I will set darkness upon the land . . . when I shall bring on thy breaking up (Ezek. xxxii 7-9);

in like manner as the Lord foretold concerning the consummation of the present Christian Church (Matt. xxiv 29).

[3] I will give Mount Seir to wasteness and to devastation. . . . I will make thee the wastes of eternity . . . (Ezek. xxxv 3, 4, 7, 9, 12, 14, 15). In that day they shall bring up a proverb against you . . . and say, In vastating we are vastated (Micah ii 4). Fear and the pit have taken hold of us, devastation and breaking up (Lam. iii 47). The mountain of Zion is vastated (Lam. v 18). Thine iniquity is consummated, O daughter of Zion (Lam. iv 22). Woe to the sinful nation, heavy with iniquity; . . . they have provoked the Holy One of Israel. . . . From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness; . . . your land is a solitude. . . . The daughter of Zion is left as a tent in a vineyard, as a besieged city (Isa. i 4-8, and following verses). What will ye do in the day of visitation and devastation? Consummation is finished, justice is overwhelmed; for the Lord Jehovih is making a consummation and decision in the whole land (Isa. x 3, etc., 22, 23). I have heard a consummation and decision from the Lord Jehovih of hosts in the whole land (Isa. xxviii 22). The prophet fell upon his face, and said, Lord Jehovih! Thou art making a consummation with the remnants of Israel (Ezek. xi 13). My sanctuary was profaned, and the land of Israel was devastated (Ezek. xxv 3). Were even Noah, Daniel and Job in the midst of it, . . . they only shall be delivered, but the land shall become a desolation (Ezek. xiv 14, 16).

[4] The completion of the consummation of the Israelitish and Jewish Church was accomplished when the Lord our Saviour, after receiving the sponge of vinegar, cried out upon the cross,

It is consummated (John xix 29, 30);

for it is said in David:

They gave gall for My meat, and in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink: . . . let their habitation be devastated (Psalm lxix 21, 25).

And in another place:

Without cause have they hid for Me the pit of the net; without cause have they digged for My soul. Let devastation come upon him before he is aware; . . . let him fall into devastation. Rescue My soul from their devastators, and My only one,-that is. the Church-from the lions' whelps (Psalm xxxv 7, 8, 17).

I will make Jerusalem heaps, a habitation of dragons; I will reduce the cities of Judah to a waste; . . . behold, I am feeding them, even this people, with wormwood, and I will give them waters of gall to drink (Jer. ix 11-15).

Full consummation, after this, is described in Hosea thus:

The sons of Israel shall sit many days: no king, no prince, no sacrifice, no image, no ephod, and no teraphim (Hosea iii 4).

Such is their state at the present day. There is no need to adduce more passages. The passages in which the vastation, desolation and consummation of this Church are further mentioned, shall be only named: as, for example, Isa. ix 13-21; xxii 4-14: Jer. vii 31-34; xxv 33; xlvii 4: Ezek. xiii 14, 15; xiv 8, 15; xix 7; xxv 12, 13; xxvi 2; xxix 9, 10, 12; xxxii 12, 15: Joel 15-20; ii 3; iii 19: Nahum i 8, 9: Zeph. i 15; ii 9: Lam. i 16: Psalm lxxiii 17-19; lxxiv 3. The devastated are also called "thrust through"** (Ezek. xi 6, 7; xxi 30, 34; xxvi 6; xxviii 8, 23; xxxi 17, 18; xxxii 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32;

xxv 8: Zeph. ii 12: Lam. iv 9: Psalm lxix 27: and in other places). They are said to be "thrust through" because a "sword," by which this is done, signifies falsity destroying truth. * See R.V. margin. ** In most of these passages our ordinary Bibles have "slain"; but Young's Literal Translation of the Bible has "pierced," which, of course, is the same as "thrust through."