these mysteries shall become manifest together in their fulness of display, and burst unexpectedly upon an astonished world; when "the Lord shall rise up as in mount Perazim, and be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act;" when every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles; and when a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues, shall stand before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and having palms in their hands. For the tabernacle of God shall be with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God: "and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying; neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away."

Three mysteries here meet, and are contemporaneously exhibited. First, The Jewish people, gathered from all lands and restored to the favour of God, shall enjoy that blessedness which the feast of tabernacles, prophetically considered, typifies. This is the highest blessedness of which man in flesh is capable; a blessedness equal to that of Adam before the fall, and only exceeded by that of the glorified saints who are one with Christ, sons of God, heirs of all things. Secondly, will be exhibited the mystery of the universal promulgation of the Gospel, by means of the Jewish people, and its universal reception; when "the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea; when there shall be one Lord, and his name One;" and when " every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles." Thirdly, will be exhibited the highest mystery of all, in the descent of the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband: these are the glorified saints in the mansions of his Father's house, where Christ is gone to prepare them a place, to which at his coming he receives them (John xiv.): this is the general assembly and church of the first-born, consisting both of such as sleep in Jesus, whom the Lord will bring with him, and of such as are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord, who shall then be changed and caught up in the clouds to meet him. All these three mysteries shall come into full manifestation together at the end of that season of preparation which is now beginning, if not begun: the season typified by the reaping of the earth-at or immediately before which the saints are trans

lated-to be followed by the shaking of the olive trees and the gathering of the clusters of the vine, to cast them into the vats and the presses of unmingled wrath, from whence no single grape or berry shall escape unbroken; but whence, in a changed form, glory shall redound to the Lord, as the first-fruits of oil and wine were offered in the temple at the feast of tabernacles. These three conditions, into which the whole world shall then be brought, were typified in the three divisions of the tabernacle shewn to Moses in the mount. First, The holy of holies, the throne of God, and the mercy-seat overshadowed by the cherubim-whereinto none but the high priest entered, and he only one day in the year-typified the heavenly Jerusalem, wherein shall be planted the eternal throne of God, and which none shall enter but those who are priests unto God, one with the great High Priest Christ Jesus, washed in the blood of the Lamb during this only accepted time, this all-important now, which is the day of salvation. Secondly, The holy place, into which the priests went daily to offer incense on the golden altar, and where the candlestick shed perpetual light and the table of shew-bread held perpetual nourishment, typified the future earthly Jerusalem, with its rebuilt temple, served by the priests of the tribe of Levi, and the whole of Canaan possessed by the restored tribes of Israel, then constituted by God into a royal priesthood; the Levites offering the incense of praise and thanksgiving for the world, the nation of Israel dispensing to all other nations the light of heavenly knowledge, the food of heavenly instruction. Thirdly, The court of the congregation, with its brazen altar for sacrifices and its laver of purification, where the people continually assembled to worship, typified the future condition of the earth in its renewed state, become one great congregation of worshippers, and taken into covenant with God; but not by the same covenant as the people of Israel.

Till we are enabled to see these three degrees of glory and blessedness as predicted in the word of God, and as about to co-exist in the glorified church, the restored Israel, and the renewed creation, all shewing forth the glory of God in the degree of perfection of which each state is capable, we cannot enter fully into the harmony, beauty, and glory disclosed in the prophecies. And as we cannot know the mind of God, but by perceiving this contemporaneous exhibition of three degrees of glory as the end of His purpose, towards which all things are now in progress; so must we observe the simultaneous working of the means towards that end, that we may know our several places of standing, and not be found fighting against God. The events also which immediately prepare for the end, and which occur at that period called in Scripture the time of the end, are clearly revealed; and we need only observe the bearings

of the predictions upon the three classes above referred to, for finding perfect consistency in the Scriptures, and full directions for every emergency that can arise. We will mention but a few of these events, as our readers will be at no loss in supplying the rest from the word of God, studied in connection with the operations of his providence.

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The preaching of the Gospel among all nations, is the sign most frequently mentioned in Scripture as immediately preceding the end. The Gospel has always been preached wherever there has been a church; and therefore the fulfilment of this sign must be sought, not in the mere fact of preaching, but in its universality, and in the character of the Gospel preached: it must be preached to all the world, and it must be the Gospel of the kingdom (Matt. xxiv. 14). How far this has been fulfilled, and is fulfilling, every one must judge for himself; but we believe it to be in a great measure accomplished, both in the extent to which the Scriptures have been circulated, and the zeal with which the Second Advent of our Lord has been proclaimed-a zeal which has been quickened by opposition, and has the more widely been diffused by the hostility it has excited. By the exertions of the various societies, seconded by the activity of individuals who appear to have been raised up for the purposethe Bible has been carried into almost every port where a British prow could enter, and the Gospel preached on almost every shore where a missionary could find a footing. So true is this, that many have thought the societies have done their work; since in scores, and hundreds probably, of places, where Bibles were a few years ago only known to be eagerly sought after, cases of Bibles are now lying in the warehouses undemanded, because the most pressing wants have been supplied. There are now in London converts from the Eastern and the Western extremities of the earth, natives of Hindoostan and America; and the enterprising Wolff is now on his journey to the heart of Northern Asia, to proclaim the Gospel of the kingdom in regions where European foot has never trod before. How diligently the Gospel of the kingdom has been proclaimed, both from the pulpit and the press, within the last seven years, is matter of notoriety to every one; and the fierce opposition it has met with has only tended to make it more generally known. "Some have preached" it" of envy and strife, and some also of good will. What then? Notwithstanding every way, Christ is preached; and we therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice." The Gospel is now preached almost every where, not merely as doctrines embodied in creeds, articles, and confessions; not merely practically, for the regulation of life and conduct; but as the living word animating the members of his church, giving them the mind of Christ, and laying open to them all the mysteries of the kingdom

of heaven.

Christ the KING is made known as well as Christ the Prophet and the Priest; and a witness is borne, both to the church and to the world, that HE is about to come, to set up his throne upon the earth; and that "the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him." (Dan. vii.) Thus is fulfilling the word of our Lord, saying, "This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come" (Matt. xxiv.): and thus is accomplished, or accomplishing, the vision of "the angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation and kindred and tongue and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters" (Rev. xiv. 6, 7).

This sign of proclamation has ushered in "the time of the end." We pass over the intermediate signs occurring during the period so named, and only notice the concluding sign, the end of this dispensation, the introduction of the next,-the shaking of the heavens and the earth which now are, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. This great event has had its premonitory sign, its typical fulfilment, in the French Revolution and its consequences; so gracious has our Heavenly Father been in giving us timely warning, and bearing with our provocations for these forty years. So exactly did the events of the French Revolution coincide, both in order and character, with the events of the time of the end, that many interpreters, and we ourselves were at first of that opinion, thought the typical to be the real fulfilment. This anticipation had its advantage, in concentrating so much of our attention upon those events that we have thoroughly learned from the type what shall be fulfilled to the letter in the antitype; have witnessed as spectators, in the first earthquake, the rehearsal of scenes in which we shall be actors during the second. The first earthquake has now lost its effect as a warning upon all but the students of prophecy: the rest stand prepared to rush again on the same mad career; all better armed, as they think, for the conflict; and all with perfect desperation, each deeming that the last struggle is now to be made, determined to hazard all, and to admit of no neutrality or compromise. The students of prophecy, at first so small a band that when called together for combined operation only seven assembled! now find fellowstudents in every corner of the land, and correspondents in

every quarter of the world; and all these have learned from the word of God, unfolded by the workings of his providence, that the time of the end is come; and that the second earthquake, now about to shake the heavens and the earth, is the final one, which shall involve in its issues the gathering of three distinct parties to their final places of abode. And this earthquake, this shaking, this gathering, shall be real, as well as spiritual; shall be physical, as well as moral; shall become the anti-typical fact of every thing foreshadowed in the type. The saints, who by the first earthquake have been taught to expect their Lord; who are one with him in spirit now, and desiring his advent; shall, at the second earthquake, be gathered to him in the clouds, to meet their risen brethren in the tabernacle of God, where they shall be hidden till the calamity be overpast, and then shall descend with their glorified bodies in the heavenly Jerusalem to reign with Christ. The scattered Jews and the outcasts of Israel shall during the same earthquake be gathered to the earthly Jerusalem, never more to be cast out. And the evil angels, cast out of heaven at the beginning of the earthquake (Rev. xii. 9, 12), shall gather Antichrist and his followers to the war of Armageddon, all to be cast together into the lake of fire at the end.

The "wonders in the heavens above, and the signs in the earth beneath," which shall accompany this once more shaking of the heavens and earth (Heb. xii. 26; Joel ii. 30; Hag. ii. 6, 21), are to be found in all those Scriptures which concern the time of the end. Our Lord gives them briefly Matt. xxiv.: "The sun shall be darkened; the moon shall not give her light; the stars shall fall from heaven; and the powers of the heaven shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven" (this is the cloud of glory to which the saints are translated): "and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn; and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (this is the actual_advent). These signs are manifestly the same as those given in Isai. xiii. at the destruction of Babylon, and in Rev. vi. at the opening of the sixth seal; and being thus fixed to these two events, we may find passages of Scripture almost innumerable illustrative of these events, to instruct us in all the details implied in the brief narration of our Lord. Eleven whole chapters of Isaiah (xxiv.-xxxv.) refer to nothing else; beginning with the first shocks of the final earthquake (xxiv.), by which the captives of Babylon are freed, and led back to the land of their fathers to build Jerusalem (xxvi.); after which, Antichrist is punished (xxvii.); and under this general description of iniquity, various specific forms of wickedness are included, which are severally