intercedes in the first vision " the Kingdom of Christ "? And is not the third vision, as already shown, the ex pansion and sequel of the good and comfortable words which are God's answer to that intercession?
It is beside the mark to argue that it can be no earthly city, because " to be inhabited as villages would be weakness, not strength a peril, not a blessing." So it would in ordinary circumstances, but surely the words which immediately follow make all the difference: " For I, saith Jehovah, will be unto her a wall of fire round about "; and this is more than all visible walls and literal bulwarks.
It is true that at the time this prophecy was uttered, and all along till now, " so long as Jerusalem remained unwalled it was in continual fear and weakness," because it was encompassed by enemies on every side, and its inhabitants had not yet learned that it was Jehovah who was in truth their refuge and strength, and that " Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman watcheth but in vain "; but prophecy points to a time when, after " Jehovah will have mercy on Jacob and choose Israel again, and set them in their own land," their enemies shall no more be permitted to afflict or molest them, and they shall have rest from their sorrow and their fear, and from the hard bondage wherein they were made to serve (Isa. xiv. 13). Then also Jehovah, in the Person of their Messiah Jesus, shall, from Jerusalem as the centre, "judge among the nations, and rebuke many peoples: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more "; and it will be quite safe for even the earthly Jerusalem, with " the King,"
"the Lord of hosts," in its midst, to be inhabited as villages in an open plain, without visible walls or forti fications.
Then, secondly, in reference to those who tell us that there is no need to suppose that there is any reference in this prophecy to a future period, I would repeat my remarks at the close of the exposition of the first chapter,
