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 LI E) RARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
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 Of ILLINOIS 
 
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 PRICE SIXPENCE. 
 
 THE PARABLE 
 
 OF 
 
 THE LOCK AND KEY 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. EDWARD HUNTINGFORD, D.C.L. 
 
 YICAR OF ST. saviour's, VALLEY END, CHOBHAM, 
 
 LaU Fellow of New College, Oxford, and Head Master of Eagle 
 
 House ScJiool,' TFimhledon. Author of " The A^wcabjpse 
 
 with a Commentary," and other Works. 
 
 To him give all the prophets -witness." — Acts x, 43. 
 
 LONDON : 
 BICKERS & SON, 1, LEICESTER SQUARE, W.C. 
 
 d Cheap Edition of this Pamphlet isjuoOlishedfor general circulation at '2d.
 
 THE PARABLE 
 
 OF 
 
 THE LOCK AND KEY. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. EDWARD HUNTINGFORD, D.C.L. 
 
 VICAR OF ST. saviour's, VALLEY END, CHOBHAM, 
 
 Late Bellow of New College, Oxford, and Head Master of Eagle 
 
 House School, Wimhledon. Author of " The Apocalypse 
 
 idth a Commentary,^' and other Worlis. 
 
 "To him give all the prophets witness." — Acts x, 43. 
 
 LONDON : 
 BICKERS & SON, 1, LEICESTER SQUARE, W.C. 
 
 Price of cheap Editio)i 2d. for a single copy, and 10s. a liundred for distribution 
 hy the Clergy, Beligious Societies, dc.
 
 DRYDEN PRESS: 
 J. DAVY &: SOXS, 137, LONG ACRE, LONDON, W.C.
 
 PREFACE 
 
 r I IHEEE is a tendency jnst now to undervalue tlie 
 importance of fulfilled prophecies as evidences 
 of the truth of Holy Scrij)ture. The following pages 
 ^re written to counteract this. The writer has en- 
 deavoured, by means of a familiar illustration, to ex- 
 plain what seems to have been the Divine plan of Old 
 Testament Prophecy ; that its aim was to create in tlie 
 minds of men the expectation of a Great Saviour, and 
 at the same time to point out many very distinctive 
 but very opposite characteristics by which He miglit 
 be recognized when He appeared. Our Lord Himself 
 declares that this was the object of Prophecy. " Search 
 the Scriptures ; for in them ye think ye have eternal 
 life : and they are they which testify of me." (St. John, 
 V. 39). When we read the Old Testament and compare 
 it with the narratives of Christ's life, death, and resur- 
 rection, we observe an exact fulfilment in Him, and in 
 Him alone of those born of woman, of a vast number
 
 IV 
 
 of real predictions uttered by many different persons^ 
 ill many different ages of the world, under many very 
 different circumstances, and in many different ways ; 
 while some of the plainest of these are so contradictory 
 to others equally plain that it must have been impos- 
 sil)le to have imagined beforehand how they could ever 
 l>e fulfilled in any one Person. 
 
 There are also many Christians who attach great im- 
 portance to the general argument from prophecy, and yet 
 find it difficult to believe in the reality of the prediction 
 in any detail of future historical events. The following 
 illustration is intended to meet this difficulty ; and to 
 direct attention to the fact that such predictions came 
 not from the Prophets' own conceptions or anticipations, 
 but from the suggesting or directing Spirit of the Omni- 
 scient. " No prophecy ever came by the will of man : 
 but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy 
 Ghost." (2 Pet. i. 21.) 
 
 Many of the passages quoted are taken from the 
 family Bible of the Jews ; not as being nearer to the 
 Hebrew, but as giving the translation of the opponents 
 of Christianity. 
 
 Valley End, Chobham, 
 January^ 1884. 

 
 Clje Parable of tlje lock anli J^ep. 
 
 TTTE have the highest authority for teaching by 
 ^ ' parables; and few things bring an argument 
 more home to the mind than a well chosen parable. 
 
 Now there was a certain man who wished to make a 
 lock which it should be quite impossible to open with 
 any other than the right key. He was also particularly 
 anxious that the mystery of his lock should not become 
 known, until he had produced the key. But he could 
 not make the whole with his own hands. He was 
 obliged to employ workmen. How then was he to keep 
 his secret? If he gave a plan of the whole to his 
 workmen, and if they, working together with a full 
 knowledge of what they were about, made all the wards 
 and also put the lock together, they would be able to 
 make a key to fit them. And then they might make any 
 number of keys, or they might betray their master's secret, 
 and so render the lock useless for its intended purpose. 
 
 He avoided this difficulty by employing several diffe- 
 rent workmen in different parts of the country. Having 
 several factories he gave a drawing or a model of some 
 single ward to some single workman in each factory, 
 and told him to execute it in brass or iron. When the 
 wards were all sent home he put them together with his 
 own hands according to the plan which he had before
 
 2 THE PARABLE OF THE LOCK AND KEY. 
 
 designed, adjusting them so skilfully that they exactly 
 corresponded with the key which he had prepared. The 
 result was that only his own key could open the lock. 
 
 He then placed the lock in his window, and challenged 
 the world to produce a key which would open it. 
 
 Many were the attempts made, but none succeeded. 
 Picks and skeleton keys were tried, but none would 
 answer ; and many even doubted whether it was a lock 
 at all. The secret was well kept. But when the time 
 liad fully come for the mystery to be revealed, the 
 master himself produced the key. It looked just like 
 any other key, but it was the true key : the key long 
 ago designed and prepared ; the key for which the lock 
 was made. It was applied to the lock, and the lock 
 was opened. 
 
 Such is our Parable, now for the interpretation. 
 
 He who designs the whole plan is God. The key is 
 Christ. The lock is Prophecy. The individual wards 
 are individual types or predictions. The workmen who 
 made the wards to pattern are the Prophets. 
 
 Each Prophet in his own age and in his own country 
 contributed his share towards the construction of the 
 great enigma of Prophecy, to be eventually solved by 
 the Appearance of Christ, and so to bear witness of 
 Him. " The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of 
 prophecy." " We have found him, of whom Moses in 
 the law, and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth." 
 (S. John i. 45.) 
 
 The Prophets, therefore, were simply the workmen 
 employed in forming the separate wards of the lock of
 
 THE PARABLE OF THE LOCK AND KEY. o 
 
 prophecy. The model given them was either a vision 
 impressed upon their imagination in sleep or in a trance, 
 or some person, or the actions or circumstances of some 
 person before them at the time, and not seldom some 
 circumstances connected with themselves, their children 
 or their country. This was, as it were, the drawing or 
 the model in wood or clay, which they had to copy in 
 brass or iron. In plainer words the enthusiasm of 
 inspiration, the overwhelming and irresistible impulse 
 of the Spirit of God, constrained them to describe the 
 type or pattern before them in language which would 
 often have been regarded by their contemporaries as 
 profane and blasphemous, had it not been well under- 
 stood that they were commisioned prophets, and that 
 their words were intended to point out some character- 
 istic of the Great Expected Messiah, the future deliverer 
 of His people. 
 
 Indeed, the inspired language of the Prophets was not 
 seldom derided by their profane contemporaries who 
 regarded them as madmen. "Who hath believed our 
 report.?" says Isaiah, when describing the future sufferer 
 who was to make atonement for His people. And the 
 complaint of Ezekiel is to the same effect: "Then said 
 I, Ah Lord God ! they say of me. Doth he not speak 
 parables?" (Ezek. xx. 49.) 
 
 They did not prophesy, therefore, out of their own 
 minds, or from their own foreknowledge, but because 
 they spoke under the irresistible influence of the Spirit 
 of God. They confess themselves distinctly conscious 
 of this. They declare that they are not speaking in
 
 4 THE PARABLE OF THE LOOK AND KEY. 
 
 their own name. The Prediction is introduced by the 
 words "Thus saith the Lord," or some similar phrase. 
 They do not pretend to know the full meaning of their 
 words. In some cases they distinctly disclaim any 
 knowledge whatever of the meaning of the vision they 
 describe. '' I heard, but I understood not : then said I, 
 O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things ? and 
 He said, Go thy way, Daniel : for the words are closed 
 up and sealed (locked) till the time of the end." (Dan. 
 xii. 8, 9.) " No prophecy of Scripture is of private 
 interpretation {i. c. as the next verse shows 'is to be 
 regarded as coming from the prophet's own unaided 
 mind'). For no prophecy ever came by the will of 
 man : but men spake from God, being moved (literally 
 'borne along') by the Holy Spirit." (II Pet. i. 20, 21.) 
 The prophets, therefore, were often perplexed in their 
 own minds at the strangeness and apparent contra- 
 dictions of their prophetic utterances. They could not 
 conjecture how any key could ever be found to open 
 a lock containing wards of such very opposite shapes. 
 Nay, the Apostles represent not only the prophets, 
 but even the Angels of heaven as studying with wonder- 
 ing interest the descriptions of the Coming Saviour. 
 "Of which Salvation the Prophets have enquired, and 
 searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that 
 should come unto you, searching what, or what manner of 
 time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, 
 when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, 
 
 Jind the glory that should follow which things 
 
 the Angels desire to look into." (I Pet. i. 10-12.)
 
 THE PARABLE OF THE LOCK AND KEY. 
 
 The workmen, then, employed by God to make the 
 separate parts of this wonderful lock were the prophets; 
 and of these Moses was the first. 
 
 Let the unbeliever take any view he pleases of the 
 story of Eden. Let him call it a tradition handed down 
 to Moses, let him call it a myth or an allegory invented 
 by Moses, or whatever else he pleases : the fact is un- 
 deniable that this ancient story contains the three 
 primary wards of the great lock of prophecy. 
 
 It is a most distinct, though figurative prediction of an 
 event to take place at some future time. It represents 
 man as tempted and deceived by a power external to 
 himself ; and it predicts that one born of a woman would 
 at some future time destroy the power of this Tempter. 
 
 These, then, are the three primary wards of the lock 
 of prophecy, and the true key must combine in Himself 
 that which corresponds to each of them. 
 
 1. The true Champion of Man must be born of a 
 woman; must be one of the descendants of Eve. 
 
 2. He must destroy him who has been the cause of man's 
 sin and death ; He must crush the head of the Tempter. 
 
 3. He must Himself suffer; He must receive a painful 
 but not a fatal wound in the process. He must be bitten 
 in the heel while in the act of crushing the Serpent's head. 
 
 " I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and 
 between thy seed and her seed ; it shall bruise thy head, 
 and thou shalt bruise his heel." (Gen. iii. 15.)* 
 
 If subsequent workmen had added nothing to these 
 
 * It is of some importance to observe here that the word 
 rendered "it" in the above passage is the common Hebrew
 
 b THE PARABLE OF THE LOCK AND KEY. 
 
 three primary wards of the lock of prophecy, the history 
 of the whole human race could not have shown any 
 other key except Christ capable of opening it. No other 
 child of woman has ever so effectually resisted the 
 power of the Tempter, or suffered more in the process. 
 No other man has shown so much Divine power over 
 evil in His own person or imparted so much spiritual 
 strength to His Disciples. No other has ever even 
 claimed to be the Destroyer of the Evil One. No other 
 has crushed the Serpent's head and been at the same 
 time bitten by him in the heel. 
 
 But these wards have been elaborated in a most 
 remarkable manner by subsequent workmen. We will 
 pass on to another : " God so loved the world, that he 
 gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in 
 him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (St. 
 John iii. 16.) Christ was to die, not, as the scoffing 
 infidel misrepresents the matter, " to satisfy the anger of 
 an infuriated Despot in heaven ;" but as the evidence of 
 the extreme hatefulness and misery of sin and the- 
 inconceivable love of the Father for the sinner. Who 
 was to prefigure this profound truth ? What was to be 
 the model from which this ward of the lock was to be 
 
 pronoun of the third person singular, commonly translated "He." 
 So that we may fauiy translate the passage, "He shall bruise 
 thy head." The word " seed " may also mean either the human 
 race or one special child of the woman. The context only can 
 determine in what sense the word " seed " is to be taken in any 
 passage where it occurs. Thus Gen. iv, 25, it is used of one 
 individual, Seth ; " God hath appointed me another seed instead 
 of AbeL"
 
 THE PAKABLE OF THE LOCK AND KEY. 7 
 
 made? One whose name was High Father; and whose 
 Son should submit to die in obedience to the command 
 of his Father. 
 
 The name Abram means "High Father." What a 
 significant name ! Take any view you please of the book 
 of Genesis or of the narrative of this most remarkable 
 transaction; there stands the fact, the written narrative, 
 the significant name, the account of this extraordinary 
 strain, so to speak, upon filial obedience and paternal 
 love. Why the name itself is suggestive and typical of 
 the "Heaven Father" of wliich name Max Miiller makes 
 so much as appearing in the religions of all the most 
 ancient races as the earliest name of God. 
 
 It is almost literally the Father of Heaven, for it 
 means the " Father of Altitude," the " Father of the 
 height" a Hebraism for the "High Father." It was 
 changed afterwards, purposely that it might be significant 
 of another great truth, that, although God designed to 
 make the seed of Abram, through Isaac, a chosen people. 
 He did not do so as a respecter of persons, but because 
 He purposed to bring a blessing upon all nations by 
 means of this chosen seed. And so his name was 
 changed from " High Father," to Abraham, Father of a 
 multitude of nations. "Neither shall thy name any 
 more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham, 
 for a father of a multitude of nations have I made 
 thee." (Gen. xvii. 5.) 
 
 And to point out still more plainly the Divine purpose 
 of all this ; to make this ward of the lock appear at the 
 time still more intricate and yet to suit more exactly the
 
 8 TEE PARABLE OF THE LOCK AND KEY. 
 
 true key when produced, these words of promise are 
 added. "And all the nations of the earth shall bless 
 themselves by thy seed." (Gen. xxii. 18.) These words 
 occur with slight variations five times in the book of 
 Genesis, and should be compared with two other passages, 
 one in Isaiah and the other in the Psalms, each mani- 
 festly referring to the future Messiah. The words are 
 the same as those of Genesis. "He that blesseth himself 
 in the land, shall bless himself by the true God." 
 (Isai. Ixv. 16.) " His name shall endure for ever .... 
 by him shall all nations bless themselves." (Ps. Ixxii. 17.) 
 Here is another ward of the lock with something added 
 on to make it still more difficult for any key except the 
 right one to pass over it. The future Champion of Man 
 is to be the only and well-beloved Son of the High Father; 
 He is to submit to be sacrificed in obedience to that 
 Father; and yet He is to be One Whom all nations are 
 to worship, in Whom all the families of the earth are to 
 bless themselves. And in Isaac's deliverance from this 
 willing death the Apostle recognizes and has a right to 
 recognize a dim foreshadowing of the Eesurrection of 
 Christ. " By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered 
 up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered 
 up his only begotten Son. Of whom it was said, That 
 in Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting that God 
 was able to raise him up, even from the dead: from whence 
 also he received him in a figure {literally in or by a 
 parable.)" (Heb. xi. 17-19.) That is to say the act of the 
 substitution of the ram for Isaac was when narrated a 
 Parable indicating both the Eesurrection of Christ and
 
 THE PARABLE OF THE LOCK AND KEY. \) 
 
 of all who die in Christ, and the substitution of a Victim 
 for the whole seed of Abraham. 
 
 We may regard this, I think, as a very important 
 addition to tlie third of those wards of the lock 
 mentioned at the beginning; the suffering of Man's 
 Champion; the wounding of the heel. And, as we 
 cannot describe all the wards of this wonderfully 
 intricate lock without giving an analysis of the contents 
 of the whole Bible, it will be better to confine ourselves 
 to the lines laid down for us in the story of Eden. 
 
 It will be sufficient for our present purpose, and will 
 give us a keener appreciation of this wonderful work, if 
 we trace out these three leading ideas, if we observe the 
 gradual perfecting by the hands of separate workmen of 
 these three principal wards of the lock of prophecy; 
 that the Future Champion is to be — 1. Born of Woman. 
 2. The Conqueror of the Tempter. 3. One wounded in 
 the battle with him. 
 
 In the seemingly inhuman command given to Abraham, 
 his anguish of soul, his ready obedience, and still more 
 in the mental agony but willing submission of Isaac, we 
 have an enigma which demands solution, a very secret 
 detail added to that portion of the lock which requires a 
 suffering Champion as the only key to open it. 
 
 To this we may add the institution of Sacrifice, the 
 Divine but very strange command so often repeated 
 to shed innocent blood to cover the guilt of those who 
 have listened to the Tempter, and so broken the Divine 
 law; the principle laid down apparently from the 
 beginning, but if not from the beginning, certainly from
 
 10 THE PAEABLE OF THE LOCK AND KEY. 
 
 the time of Moses, that " without shedding of blood is no 
 remission " of sins. (Heb. ix. 22.) 
 
 In connection with this, then, we pass on to another 
 most remarkable story. 
 
 The people of God are in the wilderness. They 
 murmur and sin against God. He punishes them by 
 sending among them a number of venomous serpents. 
 Then Moses, at God's command — the same God, be it 
 observed, who had so strictly forbidden the making of 
 any molten image, or attaching any kind of Divine 
 influence to it ; who had so repeatedly condemned any 
 imitation of the Idolatries of Egypt — sets up on a pole 
 a Serpent of brass, and at once the poison of the serpents 
 is harmless to all who look upon the brazen image 
 on the pole. What a very extraordinary story! We 
 Christians believe that it is a true story, and that it 
 happened just as Moses describes it. But if the un- 
 believer denies this — What does he gain by the denial ? 
 He cannot deny that there is the story, whether it be a 
 true narrative, or a tradition, or an allegory, in any case 
 there it is written down in that book which professes to 
 come from God and to predict long beforehand the 
 nature, work, and suffering of the future Champion of 
 man. Here then we have again the Serpent, the 
 wounding of the heel, the crushing of the head ; the 
 venom of the Serpent rendered harmless by the lifting 
 up before the eyes of the serpent-bitten people of One 
 made in the likeness of the Serpent. What a mystery 
 is here ? The Israelites thought a great deal of this 
 brazen figure, and no wonder. They preserved it for
 
 THE PARABLE OF THE LOCK AND KEY. 11 
 
 many centuries. They regarded it as a sacred relic. 
 They made a sort of fetish of it. So much so that the 
 pious King Hezekiah wisely determined to destroy it. 
 He did so because the people were foolish, not because 
 he doubted the story or failed to recognize that it was a 
 mysterious sign awaiting solution. 
 
 They were right in regarding it as a mysterious 
 sign, an enigma awaiting solution in the future. They 
 doubtless saw that the transaction would have been 
 childish in the extreme, and the miracle most idle and 
 unmeaning, were not this brass copy of the Serpent 
 lifted up on high a mystery, a symbol veiling some great 
 truth not yet made known to them. Modern experience 
 proves how easily an object associated with some great 
 event becomes a fetish, and then the sooner it is des- 
 troyed the better. But this deep veneration for a relic 
 proves that those who venerate it believe the story of its 
 origin and the fact that it represents a mysterious truth. 
 
 A piece of wood, supposed to have been part of the 
 true Cross, would not be worshipped, if men did not 
 believe the narrative of the Crucifixion. Pilgrims would 
 not flock in thousands to see the Holy Coat if they did 
 not profoundly believe in Him who, as they are told, had 
 worn it. Neither would the JSTations of Europe have 
 gone in a body to rescue the Holy Sepulchre out of the 
 hands of infidels had they not profoundly believed in 
 the mystery of Kedemption and in the story of Him, 
 who died upon the Cross, was buried, and rose again 
 from the dead. 
 
 The fact, therefore, that this Serpent was so ong
 
 12 THE PARABLE OF THE LOCK AND KEY. 
 
 preserved and so deeply venerated adds considerably to 
 the importance of the story connected with it as a ward, 
 and an important ward, in the lock of prophecy. Alone 
 it would not count for much. A single ward never 
 counts for much in a lock. Any key, or, at any rate, 
 many keys will open a lock that contains only one or 
 two simple wards ; but only one key will answer when 
 the wards are many, intricate, contradictory, and skilfully 
 combined. 
 
 As Christians we have the highest authority for 
 attaching importance to this extraordinary transaction, 
 for Our Saviour appeals to it as a symbol significant of 
 His Crucifixion. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the 
 wilderness : even so must the Son of Man be lifted up : 
 that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but 
 have eternal life," (St. John iii. 14, 15.) 
 
 But why, it may be asked, should the form of a 
 serpent have been chosen as the symbol of man's future 
 Saviour, born of a woman, wounded by the Serpent, but 
 victorious over him ? We answer. Because it sym- 
 bolizes two most fundamental articles of our Christian 
 faith, two truths connected with the nature and work of 
 Christ, so apparently contradictory to one another, that 
 no creature could possibly have imagined beforehand 
 how they could be both realized in the person of one 
 Saviour. What figure could better represent at one and 
 the same time the deep humiliation and the triumphant 
 victory of the Great Conqueror of the Serpent, and 
 especially of this victory gained by the act of humili- 
 ation ! He took not on Himself the nature of a spotless
 
 THE PARABLE OF THE LOCK AND KEY. 13 
 
 angel or of imfallen Adam, but " sinful flesh." He was 
 born of a woman ; of a pure virgin, indeed, yet one who 
 like all before her, was tainted with the blood poison of 
 the Serpent, and herself needed a Saviour. He was sent 
 " in the likeness of sinful flesh." (Rom. viii. 3.) Contact 
 with the Divine indeed cleansed the human ; just as the 
 touch of Christ healed the leper without defiling the 
 Healer. But by His Incarnation, and Birth, and es- 
 pecially by His Crucifixion, the Son of God willingly 
 subjected Himself to the full burthen and curse resulting 
 from the original venom of the Serpent, and by that act 
 of submission conquered the Serpent, and held him up 
 in triumph to the eye of faith. 
 
 Both these aspects of the Cross are made of great 
 importance by the Apostles. Jesus on the Cross is held 
 up to the eye of faith as He who was the cursed one> 
 and also as He who conquered the cursed one ; the 
 Serpent, and the Serpent's Conqueror. What a mystery 
 of contradiction we have here ! What a strangely in- 
 tricate ward of the lock of prophecy was made by the 
 workman Moses when at God's command he fashioned 
 and set up that brazen Serpent, and wrote down the 
 description of the healing of the serpent-bitten people ! 
 
 Here then is the description of that part of the true 
 key which exactly fits this very perplexing part of the 
 lock. " As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilder- 
 ness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up : that 
 whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have 
 eternal life." (St. John iii, 14, 15). " He hath made 
 him to be sin for us, who knew no sin ; that we might
 
 14 THE PARABLE OF THE LOCK AND KEY. 
 
 be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Cor. v, 21). 
 " Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, 
 being made a curse for us : for it is written, " Cursed of 
 God is every one that hangeth on a tree." (Gal. iii, 13.) 
 But in taking the likeness of the cursed one He trium- 
 phed over him, and held him up as the trophy of victory. 
 " My God ! my God ! why hast thou forsaken me ?" were 
 the words of Him who made Himself accursed for us. 
 The loud cry out of the darkness, which shook the 
 earth to its centre, and wrung the words of conviction 
 from the lips of the Eoman soldier, was the triumphant 
 shout of victory. " It is finished." The heel has been 
 sorely wounded, but the head of the Great Enemy has 
 been crushed. Henceforth Jesus, once hanging upon the 
 cross, is the Healer of His serpent-bitten brethren, the 
 great Champion who has conquered by suffering, who has 
 overcome death by death, evil by good ; and who calls 
 upon all men to walk in His steps to victory, to take up 
 His cross and follow Him. For He has " blotted out 
 the hand-writing of ordinances that was against us, 
 which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, 
 nailing it to His cross ; and having spoiled principali- 
 ties and powers, he made a show of them openly, 
 triumphing over them iu it." {i. e. in His cross) (Col. ii, 
 14, 15.) 
 
 We cannot imagine that Moses, when he was making 
 to pattern this most remarkable ward of the lock, 
 when he was describing this strange miracle, had any 
 conception of the corresponding part of the key which 
 was to answer to it ; there is no reason for believing that
 
 THE PARABLE OF THE LOCK AND KEY. 15 
 
 he attached any prophetic meaning at all to it. He " 
 simply did what God had commanded, and described 
 what he had done. Jnst as individual workmen in a 
 great factory make their own appointed portion of some 
 elaborate machine, without any knowledge whatever of 
 the inventor's whole plan. 
 
 The close connexion of shame and victory symbolized 
 by this story of the Serpent on a pole, is dwelt upon 
 frequently by the Psalmist. The words of the twenty- 
 second Psalm seem made, as it were, to express the 
 anguish of the Sufferer on the Cross, whatever may have 
 been the model, if any, immediately before the eyes of 
 the writer. He is forsaken by God and yet is full of 
 trust in Him. He is derided by all who see Him on 
 the cross as one cursed of God as an impostor. And 
 yet He declares that He is not an impostor, and pre- 
 dicts that the result of His rejection by God and man 
 will be the salvation of the world. *' I am a worm and 
 no man : a reproach of men, and scorned by the people. 
 All they that see me laugh me to scorn ; they distort 
 the lips, they nod the head, saying. Trust on the Eternal, 
 let him rescue him ; let him deliver him, seeing he de- 
 lighted in him They gaped upon me with their 
 
 mouths, as a tearing and roaring lion. I am poured 
 out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. . . . 
 Dogs have compassed me: 'an assembly of wicked ones 
 beset me round ; like the lion, my hands and my feet. 
 I may tell all my bones ; behold, they look and stare 
 upon me. They divide my garments among them and 
 cast lots upon my vesture."
 
 16 THE PARABLE OF THE LOCK AND KEY. 
 
 The foregoing is the rendering of the Psalm in the Jews' 
 family Bible. That translation, therefore, must be above 
 suspicion ; and it proves the faithfulness of the Jews in 
 the preservation of the Hebrew text of their Scriptures. 
 The reader will observe that this literal translation of 
 verse 16 does not materially lessen the significance of 
 the prophecy, as pointing to Jesus on the Cross. The 
 sentence " As a lion, my hands and my feet," requires 
 the insertion of a verb supplied by the context in order 
 to make sense. The words evidently mean " as a lion 
 (they rend) my hands and my feet." Our translation 
 corresponds with the Septuagint ; and it is impossible to 
 determine whether the translators of the Septuagint 
 had before them a text differing from the present Hebrew ; 
 or whether they omitted the words " as a lion " and gave 
 what they conceived to be the meaning of the passage. 
 Take the passage as we will, we have in this Psalm the 
 addition of an important detail to that ward of the lock 
 of prophecy constructed in the beginning : " Thou shalt 
 bruise his heel." This Psalm certainly holds up to the 
 eye of faith a Mighty Sufferer, forsaken by God and 
 despised by men ; yet One who is confident of final 
 victory, and sees before Him the salvation of the whole 
 world as the result of His suffering. " I will declare 
 thy name unto my brethren ; in the midst of the con- 
 gregation will I praise Thee All the ends of the 
 
 world shall remember and turn unto the Lord ; and all 
 the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee." 
 
 We must not dwell much longer on the construction 
 of this ward, "Thou shalt bruise his heel." It was
 
 THE PARABLE OF THE LOCK AND KEY. 17 
 
 completed by later prophets, especially by Isaiah and 
 Daniel. 
 
 It is impossible to determine whether Isaiah had any 
 type or pattern before him, when he described under the 
 enthusiasm of inspiration the Servant of Jehovah, who 
 was to " be exalted, and extolled, and be very high : " 
 and yet whose " visage was marred more than any man, 
 and his form more than the sons of men." (Isai. Hi, 13, 14). 
 It must have been a strange model, if he had any. And 
 at any rate his description fully answers to One, and 
 only One Person in the history of the whole world, — a 
 Conqueror, victorious after being rejected by God and 
 man ; and One by whose stripes and death His people 
 were pardoned for their sins. We search in vain for 
 such a Conqueror in all History Ancient and Modern. 
 We find such a One described in the simple writings 
 of some Galilc^an fishermen ; and nowhere else. Of 
 what other could the Prophet say these words ? 
 *' He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows : 
 yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and 
 
 afflicted All we like sheep have gone astray ; we 
 
 have turned every one to his own way ; and the Lord 
 hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." Yet it is He 
 who is to make men righteous, and to be rewarded as a 
 Conqueror : " By his knowledge shall my righteous ser- 
 vant justify many ; for he shall bear their iniquities. 
 Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the gTcat, 
 and He shall divide the spoil with the strong." (Isai. liii, 
 3-12.) 
 
 Daniel certainly had something to copy. He faith-
 
 18 THE PARABLE OF THE LOCK AND KEY. 
 
 fully described the patterns before him, but acknow- 
 ledged, as we have observed, that he did not understand 
 the meaning of his miraculous visions. 
 
 We believe that Daniel lived during and just after 
 the Babylonish Captivity, and that he saw and described 
 his visions at that time. His drawings, from which he 
 was to finish the wards of the lock assigned to him, 
 were certain miraculous and allegorical visions which 
 he saw in his sleep, or in a trance, and described after- 
 wards. And during the exhibition of these visions he 
 saw angels, and asked them questions and heard their 
 answers. These also he faithfully recorded, though he 
 confessed that he could not understand them. 
 
 There was an obvious reason why this workman should 
 have patterns of a very peculiar character to work from. 
 He was to give, as it were, the finishing touches, and to 
 add very delicate details to several of the most intricate 
 wards of this wonderful lock. And so, instead of a type 
 or pattern, lie had, as it were, some very elaborate and 
 carefully finished drawings given him. These were im- 
 pressed upon his imagination during sleep, or when he 
 was entranced, and a few words of explanation were 
 occasionally added. The result was the composition of 
 a number of symbolical pictures of the future of God's 
 people, and of the kingdoms connected with them up to 
 the very end of the Christian dispensation and the 
 second Advent of Christ, which have been verified by 
 history so far as it has yet gone, and are being verified 
 more and more clearly in every succeeding age of the 
 world.
 
 THE PARABLE OF THE LOCK AND KEY. 19 
 
 It is only natural that the thieves and robbers of 
 every age who want to prove either that prophecy is no 
 lock, or one which can easily be picked by a false key, 
 should hate this workman who gives them so much 
 trouble. If Daniel lived and wrote in the sixth century 
 before Christ, unbelievers must admit the reality of pre- 
 diction, and so the very strongest evidence of the truth 
 of the Bible. They have therefore left no stone unturned 
 in their efforts to prove that Daniel's prophecies were 
 after-prophecies or impostures, written at the time of 
 Antiochus Epiphanes, about 170 years before Christ. 
 Their arguments have been completely refuted by that 
 learned Hebraist and profound theologian who has so 
 lately gone to his rest. But after all what do they gain 
 by calling Daniel an impostor and accusing him of false- 
 hood when he gives the exact date of his writings in his 
 own book ? Their argument is a very simple one. There 
 cannot be, they say, such a thing as a real prediction in 
 any detail of historical events in the remote future. But 
 if we admit that Daniel saw and described his visions 
 at the time when he distinctly tells us he did so ; then, 
 since his prophecies about Antiochus Epiphanes were 
 certainly fulfilled, we must admit that he was a true 
 prophet, that he was an inspired writer, that the Bible 
 is true, that Christianity is true, and that we incur grave 
 responsibility in denying its truth. Bather than do this 
 we will beg the whole question and assume at once that 
 the close correspondence which can be observed between 
 some of Daniel's visions and the events preceding the 
 Age of Antiochus proves that he lived at that time and
 
 20 THE PARABLE OF THE LOCK AND KEY. 
 
 described them in the allegorical language of pretended 
 visions. Such is really their argument, and, as Dr. Pusey 
 clearly shows, their unbelief precedes their criticism, 
 and is not its result. They disbelieve the fact of real 
 prediction first, and then criticise the book to support 
 their unbelief. 
 
 But what do they gain by it ? Literally nothing. 
 Nothing suffers except the character of Daniel as a 
 speaker of the truth when he gives the date of his own 
 writings. These critics admit quite enough for the 
 Christian's purpose. They admit that Daniel's pro- 
 phecies were written at least 170 years before Christ, 
 and that many of them were intended by the writer to 
 be predictions of events long subsequent to the age of 
 Antiochus, extending as they do to the overthrow of all 
 earthly kingdoms by the kingdom of One, whom he 
 calls the Son of Man ; to the Day of Judgment, and of 
 the resurrection of the dead. 
 
 We Christians believe that Daniel was a true Prophet. 
 And it is remarkable that Jesus Himself calls him a 
 prophet, and speaks of some of his prophecies as awaiting 
 fulfilment in the future (S. Matt, xxiv, 15). We also 
 believe that he was a truth-speaking man, and that, 
 therefore, what he distinctly tells us about the date of 
 his writings must be true. But for the sake of argument 
 we may grant that he may have written, or rather that 
 someone assuming his name may have written, what we 
 call the book of Daniel 170 years before Christ, instead 
 of about B.C. 540. 
 
 This is quite enough for our present purpose, for
 
 THE PARABLE OF THE LOCK AXD KEY. 21 
 
 Daniel speaks of " an Anointed One " who is " to be cut 
 off with none to help him." (We give the Jews' trans- 
 lation of Daniel in their English family Bible). The 
 unbeliever may say that this refers to some anointed 
 priest or king known to the writer although unknown 
 to us. But we answer, Daniel does not merely say that 
 an Anointed One is to be cut off. He foretells that this 
 is to happen at an appointed time, and at a very remark- 
 able time. Two most contradictory things, he says, are 
 to happen simultaneously, or nearly so. The greatest of 
 blessings is to be conferred upon God's people and City 
 and Sanctuary ; and yet this Anointed Leader is to be 
 cut off with none to help Him, and then a Leader is 
 to come in with a mighty people like a flood, and to 
 destroy both City and Sanctuary, and to render them 
 desolate for ever. How could both these things happen 
 at the same time ? 
 
 The answer of the Christian is simple and satisfactory. 
 Jesus is proved to be the true key by the facility with 
 which He opens the lock. The prophecy contained in 
 Dan. ix, 24-27, is hopelessly contradictory until it is 
 applied to Christ, and then it is almost like a contem- 
 porary narrative, far closer to history than anything 
 Daniel says about events before or at the time of 
 Antiochus. It is a very providential circumstance that 
 the Jews, the open enemies of Christ, have preserved 
 this prophecy and borne witness to its composition ages 
 before Christ came into the world. It is no less provi- 
 dential that learned imbelievers and half-believing 
 Christians of the present day are unanimous in affirming
 
 22 THE PARABLE OF THE LOCK AND KEY. 
 
 that it cannot possibly have been written later than 
 about 170 years before Christ. 
 
 This is certainly most providential, for, if it were not 
 the case, these words of Daniel would certainly be 
 regarded as the clearest proof that the writer was a 
 Christian impostor. No prophecies of Daniel about the 
 events of the age of Antiochus are anything like so 
 close to history as these words are to the doctrines of 
 Christianity, and the judgments which fell upon the 
 Jews for cutting off their Messiah. 
 
 The Jews faithfully preserving the Hebrew text have 
 yet done their best, in their English translation, to make 
 the application of these words to Christian times less 
 obvious ; and yet the following, which is their own 
 translation, is quite sufficient for the Christian argu- 
 ment. The words in brackets express the legitimate 
 sense of the Hebrew. 
 
 " Seventy weeks (periods of seven) are determined 
 upon thy people and upon the city of thy holiness 
 (Hebraism for thy holy city), to restrain the trans- 
 gression and to make an end of sins, and to make an 
 expiation for iniquity, and to bring in perpetuity 
 righteousness (eternal righteousness), and to seal up 
 vision and prophecy, and to anoint the holy of holies." 
 (This expression generally means the most holy place, 
 but Chron. xx. 3, 13, it is used of Aaron, as translated 
 by the Jews, " Aaron was separated to sanctify him as 
 most holy," literally " holy of holies.") " Know therefore 
 and understand, that from the going forth of a sentence 
 to restore and to build Jerusalem unto an Anointed One,
 
 THE PAKABLE OF THE LOCK AND KEY. 23 
 
 a leader, shall be seven weeks ; and in threescore and 
 two weeks shall street and ditch be built again, even in 
 troublous times." Here the reader will observe how 
 the punctuation is altered, and the word " in " inserted 
 before 62 weeks. The following passage shows that 
 the 62 weeks terminate with the cutting off of the 
 Anointed Leader, and not with the completion of the 
 city, which is to coincide with the end of first period of 
 seven weeks. The whole period given is 70 weeks. 
 This is then subdivided into three periods of 7, 62 
 and 1. 
 
 Tliree events are also mentioned in the same order: 
 the completion of the city, the cutting off of Messiah, 
 and the final desolation of the Jews' city and sanctuary 
 by a leader and people who should come upon them 
 like a flood. The first period of seven clearly refers to 
 the first event, the completion of the street and ditch of 
 the city, which had been destroyed by the Babylonians, 
 and this dates from a decree of the Persian king, 
 authorizing the rebuilding of the city; then 62 weeks 
 elapse and the Anointed Prince is cut off; then the 
 covenant is confirmed with many in the last single 
 week of the seventy, in the midst of which sacrifice 
 and oblation are put an end to ; then up to the consum- 
 mation war and desolation are to be poured upon the 
 desolate. The Jews' translation of the next verse shows 
 that this cutting off of the Anointed One occurs at the 
 end of the 62 weeks, not of the 7 weeks. " And after 
 the three score and two weeks shall an Anointed One be 
 cut off, and there is none to help him" {literally none with
 
 24 THE PAEABLE OF THE LOCK AND KEY. 
 
 him). " And a people of the coming leader " {literally of a 
 leader who shall come) " shall destroy the city and the 
 sanctuary; and his end" (or the end of it, i.e. of the 
 sanctuary) " shall be with a flood, and unto the end of 
 the war desolations are determined. And he shall make 
 a powerful covenant with many for one week : and half 
 a week " (or in the midst of the week) " he shall cause 
 sacrifice and oblation to cease ; and upon the skirt of the 
 abominations" (or to the extremity of abomination) 
 "there shall be a desolator, even until the consum- 
 mation, and that determined shall be poured upon the 
 desolate " {i.e. upon the Apostate Jews). 
 
 Now let us carefully observe what is stated in this 
 chapter, even according to the Jews' rendering. 
 
 The captivity of Judah in Babylon was to last 70 
 years. Daniel knew that the predicted time of resto- 
 ration was drawing near. In common with the other 
 prophets he anticipated a full and final restoration of 
 Israel's glory at that time under their predicted king 
 of the line of David. But the actual return of the 
 exiles, and the literal rebuilding of the city and temple 
 at the end of 70 years was to be only the beginning 
 and the earnest of the final restoration of his people and 
 the glory of the Great Son of David. Much was to be 
 done and suffered before that time. While Daniel, 
 therefore, is praying for the literal restoration of Israel, 
 a miraculous vision is revealed to him, probably while 
 he is in a trance. The Angel Gabriel comes to explain 
 the matter to him. The 70 years, he shows him, 
 refer only to the literal rebuilding of the city and
 
 THE PARABLE OF THE LOCK AND KEY. 25 
 
 temple. They must be multiplied by seven before 
 the Great David comes. There must elapse not 70 
 years but 70 sevens of years. And when He comes, 
 He will not come for any purpose such as men think ; 
 but he will come to make an expiation for iniquity, and 
 to introduce a principle of everlasting righteousness and 
 to be anointed as most Holy. And this Anointed One, 
 instead of being a great earthly king as men expect, 
 will " be cut off with none to help him." And this His 
 cutting off will make the expiation for sin, and will put 
 an end to all other sacrifice and oblation. And as far 
 as concerns that literal city and temple, about which 
 you think so much, know, says the Angel, that these 
 shall be utterly destroyed after the Anointed One has 
 been cut off, for a very different kind of leader and a 
 mighty nation shall come down upon them with the 
 suddenness and violence of a flood, and make them 
 waste and desolate for ever. 
 
 Daniel, we know, professes not to understand his 
 prophecies. These words of Gabriel, heard during his 
 trance, must indeed have sorely perplexed him. Sin is 
 expiated, everlasting righteousness introduced, the Most 
 Holy to be anointed. And yet this Anointed Prince is 
 to be cut off with none to help him, sacrifice and 
 oblation are to be abolished, and the city and sanctuary 
 are to be destroyed by war and to remain desolate until 
 the end. With such sayings as these before them, well 
 might our Lord say to the two Disciples at Emmaus : 
 " fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the 
 prophets have spoken ; ought not Christ to have suffered
 
 26 THE PARABLE OF THE LOCK AND KEY. 
 
 these things (to have been cut off, with none to help 
 him) and to enter into his glory ? " (St. Luke xxiv. 
 25, 26.) 
 
 There are other minute details connected with the 
 Crucifixion, foreseen by God and therefore added by 
 His direction to that ward of the lock, which belongs 
 to the wounding of the heel. Besides the rending of 
 the hands and feet, the gall and vinegar, the casting 
 lots upon the vesture, &c. of the Psalmists, St. John 
 recognizes in the circumstance that the soldiers " brake 
 not His legs " but pierced Him with a spear, the fulfil- 
 ment of the words of Zechariah xii. 10, " They shall 
 look unto me whom they pierced " ; and the singular 
 command given to the Israelites to kill the paschal 
 Lamb without breaking any of its bones (St. John, xix. 
 32-37.) 
 
 Such, then, is the completion of that ward of the 
 great lock of Prophecy, which was constructed, as it 
 were, in the rough by Moses when he wrote the words, 
 " Thou shalt bruise his heel." 
 
 The future Champion of man was to be given as an 
 only Son in sacrifice by the High Father, but rescued 
 from death. He was to be lifted up before His people 
 as one cursed of God. He was to be scourged, despised 
 and rejected by God and man, yet by His stripes man 
 was to be healed of sin. He was to be cut off with 
 none to help Him, when there was to be made an 
 expiation for sin, when sacrifice was to be abolished^ 
 and the holy city and temple destroyed and made deso- 
 late for ever. Not a bone of Him was to be broken.
 
 THE PARABLE OF THE LOCK AND KEY. Z7 
 
 but His hands and feet were to be torn ; He was to be 
 stabbed with a spear ; He was to be gazed upon, mocked 
 and derided ; lots were to be cast upon His vesture ; 
 vinegar was to be given Him to drink. These and many 
 others were strange predictions, incomprehensibly mys- 
 terious utterances, intricate details of the ward, " Thou 
 shalt bruise his heel." Moreover the very title over 
 His cross proclaimed Him the promised Saviour and 
 King of the Jews, the predicted Scion of David, the 
 Branch which should grow out of the root of Jesse. 
 (Isai. xi. 1, Jer. xxiii. 5, xxxiii. 15, Zech. iii. 8, vi. 12, 
 S. Matt. ii. 23.) As written in Hebrew this title would 
 be, " Joshua the Branch, the King of the Jews." No 
 wonder that the Pharisees did not like it. They felt 
 ill at ease when they read it. So much so that they 
 begged Pilate to have it changed. But he was in no 
 humour to gratify men who had persuaded him to 
 commit such a judicial murder against the goads of 
 conscience and his own convictions. " What I have 
 written, I have written," was his suUen and peremptory 
 answer. (See Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, under the 
 word " Nazarene.") 
 
 Such, then, is the lock of Prophecy. 
 
 By no other key except Christ, even by the confession 
 of unbelievers, has any one yet, with any appearance 
 of success, attempted to open it. But Jesus on the 
 cross solves all its most perplexing contradictions. " O 
 fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets 
 have spoken ; ought not the Anointed to have suffered 
 these things, and to enter into his glory ? "
 
 28 THE PARABLE OF THE LOCK AND KEY. 
 
 Such, especially, is that ward of the lock given in the 
 story of Eden, " Thou shalt bruise his heel," which 
 requires, as the only key which can fit it, a Champion 
 severely but not fatally wounded in His deadly en- 
 counter with man's Great Enemy. 
 
 But was Jesus man's deliverer? Though like him 
 born of a woman, was He unlike him in His power and 
 in His work ? Though suffering like him by the wound 
 of the Serpent, did He crush that Serpent beneath His 
 wounded heel ? 
 
 It is admitted that Jesus was born of a woman, in 
 the city of David, a scion or branch out of His roots. 
 It is an historical fact that He was bruised in the heel, 
 that " He was crucified under Pontius Pilate." But has 
 He crushed the Serpent's head ? Has He proved Him- 
 self the true key by passing smoothly over this most 
 important ward of the lock, and thereby opening the 
 treasure house of everlasting life ? Has He conquered 
 sin and death ? By the admission of His bitterest 
 enemies He conquered the Tempter, at any rate in 
 His own person. Alone of men He lived and died 
 without sin. Alone of those born of woman He could 
 say in the presence of those who hated Him, " Which 
 of you convinceth me of sin ?" (S. John viii. 46.) We 
 have the recorded sentence of the Ptoman Judge. "I 
 find no fault in this man .... No, nor yet Herod." 
 (S. Luke xxiii. 4, 15.) And we know that He was 
 crucified not because He was proved guilty of any 
 crime, but because He claimed to be the true Messiah, 
 the Son of God, and the King of Heaven. Micah fore-
 
 THE PAKABLE OF THE LOCK AND KEY. 29 
 
 told that the Jews' Messiah should be born in Bethlehem, 
 but should be an Eternal Being. The following is the 
 Jewish translation of his words : " Thou Bethlehem 
 Ephratah, destined to be little among the thousands of 
 Judah, out of thee shalt he go forth unto me, to be a 
 ruler in Israel ; whose goings forth (origin or descent) 
 have been from of old, from the days of antiquity {literally 
 Eternity) (Micah v. 2.) Daniel prophesied that He, 
 though a Son of Man, should be an everlasting king. 
 " I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like a Son 
 of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to 
 the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before 
 him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, 
 and a kingdom, that all people, nations and languages, 
 should serve him : his dominion is an everlasting do- 
 minion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom 
 that which shall not be destroyed." (Dan. vii. 13, 14.) 
 
 Such a King Jesus could not be unless He conquered 
 death. It was therefore predicted of Him that He 
 should overcome death for Himself and for His people 
 by rising from the grave. " Thy dead men shall live, 
 together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake 
 and sing, ye that dweU in the dust." (Isai. xxvi. 19.) 
 
 We believe that Jesus rose again from the dead, and 
 thereby conquered death. We believe the w^ord which 
 He has spoken. " The hour is coming in the which all 
 that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall 
 come forth." (S. John v. 28, 29.) We believe that He 
 is the King of heaven, and that " He must reign, till he 
 hath put all enemies under his feet "... and that " the
 
 30 THE PARABLE OF THE LOCK AND KEY. 
 
 last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." (1 Cor. 
 XV. 25, 26.) 
 
 The language of prophecy is distinct as to the Royalty 
 and Divinity of man's great predicted Champion ; that 
 son of a woman who was to crush the powers of evil. 
 " Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given : and 
 the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his 
 name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty 
 God, the everlasting Father (Heb. Father of eternity, 
 i. e. one who should be eternal), the Prince of peace." 
 (Isai. ix. 6.) 
 
 He was to be a Divine King. As such He was to 
 receive the worship of all men. That which is impious 
 in earthly kings, deceived by their flatterers, was to be 
 given as His due to the predicted Son of David. These 
 are the words of Psalm Ixxii., as translated in the 
 family Bible of the Jews. ''• In his day shall the right- 
 eous flourish ; and abundance of peace, until there be 
 no moon. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, 
 and from the river unto the ends of the earth. Before 
 him the tenants of deserts shall kneel down; and his 
 enemies shall lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish and 
 of maritime settlements shall bring gifts : the kings of 
 Sheba and Seba shall offer presents. Yea, all kings shall 
 prostrate themselves before him : all nations shall serve 
 him. For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth 
 for help ; the poor also, and him that hath no helper." 
 
 The model here was probably Solomon. The enthu- 
 siasm of inspiration hurries on the prophet to descrilje 
 the dignity of One " greater than Solomon."
 
 THE PAKABLE OF THE LOCK AND KEY. 31 
 
 He was also to be a priest as well as a king. What 
 a strange confusion of offices usually kept so distinct in 
 the Law of Moses ! Zechariah prophesied at a time when 
 there was no king in Israel ; but when all were looking 
 for the promised Scion of David. These are his words 
 as translated by the Jews. " Thus saith the Eternal as 
 follows, Behold a man, his name is Tsemach (Branch, 
 i. e. the Branch of David) and he shall grow up out of 
 his place, and he shall build the temple of the Eternal : 
 even he shall build the temple of the Eternal ; and he 
 shall receive majesty, and shall sit and rule upon his 
 throne ; and he shall be a priest upon his throne." 
 (Zech. vi. 12, 13.) 
 
 The model here was "Joshua, the son of Josedech, 
 the high priest." He was indeed a priest, and he helped 
 at the rebuilding of the literal temple. But he was not 
 " The Branch," for he was not a son of David, nor even 
 of David's tribe ; he was not a king ; he had no royalty, 
 no throne on which to sit and rule. The workman had 
 before him a base model, a mere man, a model of clay. 
 But the spirit guided him in the execution of the work. 
 He fashioned a ward for the lock of costly metal. His 
 language suits only but completely the true Joshua, the 
 true Josedech ; Jesus, the Lord our Eighteousness.* 
 
 * Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua, and Josedech is Jehovah 
 Zedech, or the Lord our righteousness, which became a Jewish 
 name after the utterance of Jeremiah's prophecy. In Jer, xxiii. 6, 
 " The Lord our righteousness" is written as the name "Josedech'"' 
 in the Septuagint ; which proves that it was regarded as a name 
 of the future Messiah by the Jews of that day, nearly 300 years 
 before Christ.
 
 62 THE PAYABLE OF THE LOCK AND KEY. 
 
 No other son of a woman except Jesus of Nazareth, 
 the village of branches, ever even claimed this Eternal 
 Priesthood after the order of Melchizedech, the King of 
 Righteousness ; this heavenly throne ; this universal and 
 unending dominion ; these attributes of Deity. But it 
 is an historical fact that Jesus has been worshipped as 
 Lord, obeyed as King, and approached as Priest for more 
 than eighteen centuries. 
 
 He is King by lineal descent, as the Scion of David. 
 King by divine appointment; though the kings and rulers 
 of the earth take counsel together against Him. (Ps.ii. 2, 6.) 
 King by right of conquest ; going forth " conquering and 
 to conquer." (Ptev. vi. 2, xix. 16.) Above all He is a King, 
 the pillars of whose throne are the love of His subjects 
 and the free choice of millions of loving hearts. 
 
 No other founder of a religion has ever even claimed, 
 much less received, such homage. 
 
 Can we count His subjects ? Those who have loved 
 Him, adored Him, obeyed Him as their King, and wor- 
 shipped Him as their God ? Those who have willingly 
 suffered for Him the loss of all things ; have loved Him 
 to the end ; and died for Him, exulting in the sacrifice ? 
 
 It is a simple fact which cannot be denied, that it was 
 plainly predicted that the Champion of Man should be 
 a King and Divine, the conqueror of sin and death ; 
 and also that He should win His throne by suffering. 
 
 Let the unbeliever take any view he pleases of Jesus of 
 Nazareth, he cannot deny that He, who was crucified in 
 the reign of Tiberius, has been a real King in all that 
 constitutes royalty ever since, for He has been loved,
 
 THE PARABLE OF THE LOCK AND KEY. ob 
 
 obeyed and worshipped by millions of subjects. As 
 such, therefore, He is the true Key, the only Key, 
 which opened, without violence, the locked door of pro- 
 phecy, and now throws wide open to all believers the 
 treasure house of Eternal Life, the gates of the King- 
 dom of Heaven. 
 
 His work is not yet finished. Scripture tells us that 
 it is not to be finished yet ; not until all man's enemies 
 have been destroyed ; not until the number of the elect 
 is filled up. Judah is not yet saved. Israel does not 
 yet dwell safely. The heathen have not yet been all 
 given to Him as His inheritance, nor the uttermost parts 
 of the earth as his possession. (Ps. ii. 8.) But the' 
 mighty stream of conquest is daily gathering strength, 
 in spite of all the opposition of the wicked and the un- 
 believing: and soon "the earth shall be full of the know- 
 ledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." (Isai.xi. 9.) 
 
 Whatever they may think of Christ, none can deny, 
 that His religion is the best of all religions, and has 
 been and still is a conquering religion. According ta 
 the Scriptures it has been opposed and persecuted, but 
 it has overcome all opposition. According to the 
 Scriptures it has been fearfully cori'upted; but it has 
 conquered in spite of corruptions. According to the 
 Scriptures it is again in these latter days beginning to be 
 rejected with contempt by the wise of this Avorld, who 
 allow themselves to be deceived by the old Deceiver, 
 dressing up in modern form the old original falsehood, 
 " Ye shall not surely die." 
 
 Meanwhile we have for our support the sure words of
 
 o4 THE FARABLE OF THE LOCK AND KEY. 
 
 prophecy: though " the kings of the earth set themselves, 
 -and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, 
 and against his Christ, saying, 'Let us break their bands 
 asunder, and cast away their cords from us.' " Nevertheless, 
 " He that sitteth in heaven shall laugh, the Lord shall 
 have them in derision," and then, when the time is come, 
 " He shall speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them 
 in his sore displeasure," and say, " Yet have I set my 
 king upon my holy hill of Zion." (Ps. ii. 2-6.) 
 
 And so He, who, in the vision of Patmos, went forth 
 at the first alonCj sitting upon a white horse, " conquering 
 and to conquer," shall come again " with clouds, and 
 every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced 
 him." (Ptev. i. 1.) 
 
 When the warfare of Jerusalem is accomplished; when 
 the dispersion of the Holy people shall be finished; 
 (Dan. xii. 7.) " When the times of the Gentiles," during 
 which "Jerusalem shall be trodden down" by them, 
 "shall be fulfilled;" (St. Luke xxi. 24). When all the 
 powers of evil shall be subdued ; when Christ shall have 
 " put all enemies under his feet ;" (1 Cor. xv. 25 ). When 
 the great Serpent, and the Wild-beast and the False Pro- 
 phet have been defeated; then shall He come again, 
 followed by all the armies of heaven, " riding upon 
 white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean;" 
 liaving on His head "many crowns," and "upon his 
 vesture and on his thigh a name written King of Kings 
 AND Lord of Lords." (Rev. vi. 2, xix. 11-21.)