moral pestilence which avaricious and ungodly men, in pursuit of gain, now inflict upon society, will not then be left to the feeble resistance of moral suasion, as they now urge it should be. This is the plea of those whose occcupation multiplies and spreads the curse of drunkenness, with all its horrid train of fearful and destructive evils upon the land. "Leave "it," they say, "to the force of moral suasion to correct the habits of man," while at the same time they seek and obtain the sanction of law for the support and protection of their traffic, which furnishes the aliment of existence to those habits. This will not be the case when government directs its laws to the maintenance of virtue and religion. The great sources of crime wherever they may lie, or however respectable they may now claim to be, will then be laid hold on, and the great chain of inexorable law and stern authority will be put around them, and they will find their appropriate place in the bottomless pit.

This summary and decisive method of dealing with the great parent vices which now defy or elude the power of the law, will characterise the exercise of the civil power in the judgment day; and we have an illustration of the manner of its proceeding in the opening scene of the next chapter.

CHAPTER XX.

SATAN BOUND AND CAST INTO THE BOTTOMLESS PIT.

1. And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

2. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,

3. And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him ир, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

This vision represents the proceeding of the judgment day. It shows the exercise of unrelenting authority, enforcing law against all workers of evil. Its operations will allow of no indulgence to vice-the great chain is expressive of its inexorable nature.

This angel is represented as descending from heaven, as are all those angels whose work promotes righteousness. It follows the gospel dispensation, and deals with men and their crimes in the most summary manner. It lays hold on the dragon, that old serpent, &c. There will be no parleying with crime in that day; no mild moral suasion-beseeching men to desist from their vicious practices. The workers of iniquity will be laid hold on, and will be dealt with promptly and vigorously by the law.

We have seen, in the preceding chapter, the overthrow of the institutions opposed to the doctrines and spirit of Christianity; and we have seen, to a considerable extent, the conversion of the kingdoms of this world by the power of the

gospel, under the similitude of being slain by the sword of him that sat upon the horse. But still the great multitude of men upon the earth join hand-in-hand in serving the cause of Satan, although their ungodly systems have been overthrown and rendered no longer either influential or respectable.

Civil governments will then become, in the strongest sense of the term, Christian governments. The kingdoms of this world will then become the kingdoms of God and of Christ. In whatever form these earthly powers will then exist, their great aim will be the-suppression of crime and the maintenance of virtue. Their laws will all tend to that end, and by prompt and ample punishments, they will bind down the perpetrators of wickedness-men will not then roam at large paying no regard to the laws of God or man. But then, as well as now, there will be many acts of transgression perpetrated so secretly, and in various ways, that human law cannot reach; all such will then be visited by the direct visitation of God, in a way not now understood; probably by the vial poured out into the air; and the hail, or judgments, of that time will be exceeding great.

When the arm of human authority is uplifted to strike down the crimes of men, and the invisible rod of the Almighty is employed in punishing the secret transgressor, men will be afraid, and the power and influence of the devil, leading and instigating them to acts of wickedness, will be bound with the great chain, and this great spirit of evil will be cast into the bottomless pit and shut up. no agents in that day, when the wrath revealed against all unrighteousness, who will undertake to support his cause? He will then be compelled to cease his

The devil will find of God will be thus

work of deceiving and destroying the nations.

How long this process of binding the devil will continue we are not told, but it will be the peculiar work of the day of judgment, and will end in the banishment of all wickedness from the earth. All tares will be gathered up, and all

that offends against the purity and righteousness of God's law will be taken out of the kingdom of Christ, and nothing will be left to disturb the peace, or mar the happiness of men, when the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil, and satan, is bound with the great chain and shut up in the bottomless pit.

men.

These different appellations given to the great spirit of evil, comprehend the various operations of his power over At one time he throws whole nations into the horrors of sanguinary war; at another time he shakes the kingdoms of earth by fearful rebellion and anarchy; and on other occasions he has shaken churches and broken the ties of Christian brotherhood, by discord and schisms. Then again he directs the sword of persecution in the hands of civil power, to the destruction of whole religious communities.

Under another form, he employs his subtilty in alluring and tempting men to vice in a thousand different forms, by which the peace and harmony of societies and communities are converted into strife and hatred. But the vision represents all this as now brought to an end by the angel taking hold on the grand instigator of them, and binding him with the great chain, and casting him into the bottomless pit, and shutting him up.

This closes the judgment dispensation; and this is the happy result which the fiery ordeal of that day will bring about. In short, this closes the probationary state of man on the earth. The power of evil is destroyed-peace and order have succeeded to the discord and strife which formerly reigned, and the righteous are now for ever freed from the presence and influence of evil, and placed beyond the reach of sin and temptation.

In the nervous language of the text: Laying hold of the dragon, that old serpent, binding him with the great chain, and shutting him up in the bottomless pit, so that he can no longer deceive the nations; strikingly illustrate the proceeding and final result of the judgment day.

But the moral and intellectual powers of man do not find their limit with the close of this trying dispensation. The ending of this day opens the way for a higher and nobler exercise of his powers, in a state where man will be freed from all that obstructs and defeats his higher progress in the present life; the circle of this life has been filled up, and a higher and wider circle will be thrown open for the greater development of his immortal powers. But more of this in its proper place.

rectitude, the tenBut, after he fell

So long as man retained his original dency of his whole nature was to God. from that state and became involved in transgression, his moral gravitation was changed, and he fell off from God. To recover man from this great apostasy, has ever been the design of the various dispensations through which he has passed, and is still passing, each succeeding dispensation raising him higher, and showing him more of God, and of himself too, than the preceding one did.

Leaving the patriarchal times, which may be called the starlight age of revelation, we next ascend to the Mosaic dispensation, in which the religion that taught men the knowledge and the worship of the true God, first became embodied in the form of divine institutions, and God was better known in this dispensation than he was in the patriarchal age. His purity and holiness were represented by the washings and purifications of the ceremonial services, and his justice was heard in the denunciation of his law, while his glory and majesty were seen in the sublime and awful spectacle of the mount that burned with fire. So terribly sublime was that representation of the august presence of God, that Moses, while he looked upon it, said—I exceedingly fear and quake.

Passing from this dispensation of mingled terror and hope, we next behold God made manifest in the flesh. Christ, reflecting the glory and attributes of the Father, and pouring upon the world, in the grace and mercy of his mission, the VOL. II.-9