that believeth on me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." Satisfied himself, he should be a channel whereby others should be satisfied too. The epoch to which this feast refers had not, nor has it yet, arrived. Creation still groans, and will groan till the manifestation of the children of God. Millennial rest cannot be entered upon till the kingdom is established in power. Creation, bowed down as it is under the consequences of man's sin, knows no rest as yet; but any one, every one, who comes to Him and drinks may get refreshed now. We enter now by faith into the results of redemption, which creation cannot yet do: we can enjoy now in some degree what the feast of Tabernacles will bring to it; for in the kingdom now through grace, and joined to the risen Head, blessings connected with the kingdom are ours already before the king has appeared, and before the earth has welcomed the commencement of His reign.

No. XXV.

THINGS AS THEY ARE, AND "THE TIME OF THE END."

WHATEVER the character of the respective governments in Christendom may be, the constituent elements which mark the masses to be acted upon, even though separated off into nationalities, are the same.

Indeed, these apparent diversities, by geographical boundaries of mountains and rivers, which divide one kingdom from another, have more to do, in distinguishing a throne, or form of government from its neighbour, than as affecting the generic character of their popu

lations.

The diverse languages of Europe do much more in this respect to break up the masses, and so prevent a general confusion, by one great moving crowd swayed this side or that, as powerful agencies may act on human

passions, or enterprise. In truth, these great continental distinctions are now viewed as little more than deepercuttings of our home-method of dividing a kingdom into counties or of the varying dialects, which meet the ordinary traveller in an extended provincial tour. Passing by these considerations, which mark differences of an external order—what are the constituent and common elements of the people who are to be governed?

These cannot be more in number than each man naturally possesses as his birthright, and they are soon told. He may be viewed (in these relations) physically, mentally, and morally, and it is in this way that each government treats its subjects practically. Physically, man becomes the care of the State from his birth, and is thus registered; his health is in a great degree its concern too, and therefore sanitary measures are instituted; poverty is also considered and provided for, hence its poor-law unions.

The paternal kindness of the State, in those needing this care, raises no opposition on the part of those receiving it; but the danger and difficulty begin, when these governments take up their subjects, as mental and moral beings, to be instructed and controlled.

The schoolmaster, and an education which was first purely elementary, and met by national schools, presented no fear to the State-reading and writing were good, and useful for every-day life; but can any government say to development "hitherto but no further"? A population, made conscious of a power put into its hands, different to the wealth, which is seen all around (and only seen to be coveted), asserts its own rights, by calling in question the rights of others. What is now to be done? The State will patronise the Church and its clergy by the enforcement of duties and obligations, and seek to counteract this one-sided liberation of mind and will. Religion and conscience are added, as checks to what has become rank and luxuriant.

Moral means are also in abundance, and man is a moral being, and can be thus acted on-but the discontent is wide-spread, and ingenuity is prolific in the assertion that all outside is not what it should be for the

general good of society. What is to be done with a new born power, which the State is impotent to guide, and unable from the nature of its constitution to satisfy? If the disaffection cannot be suppressed, because of free institutions and liberty, it will find an opportunity from this state of things, to help itself forward, and by means of agitation and public meetings, make its threatening voice to be heard by the rulers in a popular outcry.

is

The pressure from without is felt and yielded to-the franchise is extended, and a further grant of power thus put into the hands of the people," the iron mixes itself with the miry clay," before the downfall of the image.

When a throne or government forbids such assemblages for such objects, and enforces its authority by the sword, the discontent changes its character to a growl, and in its enmity waits the hour for a bite. Barricades, and a revolution at length break out, like a volcano from its hidden depths, and these are the reliefs, and the resources, alas! But is bloodshed a remedy? Let history answer. Mankind goes on repeating itself in these forms, only in new latitudes and longitudes, and what is there magnanimous, or great in this? Modern history is but a new volume of an old and disgraceful series. Egypt with its Pharaohs-Babylon and its Nebuchadnezzars, have given place to the Medes and Persians, and they in their turn to the Greeks and Romans. What are these ten kingdoms of modern Europe compared with the empires and dynasties of ancient times? A man who thinks he would be content with a freehold plot of ground, and another who counts up his acreage by hundreds and thousands, cannot understand what the Imperial monarch feels as he looks around the vast enclosures by which his kingdom is hedged in, and sighs for a base of operations large enough for the unlimited conquests of neighbouring states. An Alexander may regret there is not another world to conquer-a Cæsar may find enough to do in this-and a Napoleon may covet a reconstruction of the Roman earth. Every one upon his own line of things, great or small, mistrusts his fellow, and is mistrusted. Restrictions by diplomatic

arrangement must be put around the great potentates, and a holy alliance" will be mutually formed and signed. When this has been broken through, and war has exhausted the resources of the combatants by blood and by wealth, "a balance of power" will be accepted, as a common term of honourable compromise. By such means an Autocrat, an Emperor, or a President, may agree upon certain conditions of expediency; but essentially each means to be what he was. More recent com

pacts have made us acquainted with the principle of "non-intervention" (if such it may be called), as an accepted proposition by the allied powers. But what is this in result, if it be not leaving might to overcome right a state of things which every man of common sense shrinks from, and repudiates emphatically the nearer it fastens on his home circle and family interests.

A mere glance such as this, at governments, peoples, and tongues, must show the gravity of an enquiry whether the prophetic image of gold, as interpreted by Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar, the head of Gentilism, remains true, and is fulfilling the course of predicted declension? Has the boasted progress from Babylon to Rome, and from Rome to these ten kingdoms, reversed the doom and fall of the image-or, are men bold enough to change the gradation of the symbolic metals, and affirm that the progress has been from iron to brass, and from brass to silver, and from silver to gold?

What a relief to any student of Scripture, and much more to the man of God throughly furnished thereinto open that book, and step into the vast arena of human enterprise, and Satan's seat, boldly saying "Let God be true, but every man a liar." There are few lessons so solemn to such an one, as the discovery that God allows evil to grow, and come to its maturity, before He deals with men in the midst of it, and then puts all aside by judgment. If we confirm this statement by Scripture, we may call to mind the early record in Gen. xv., "for the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full;" and again, the words of Jesus, "in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares and bind them;" and further, of the time when "iniquity

shall abound." The closing scenes of this dispensation, as described in the Revelation, will confirm the fact of the growth of evil to its climax, by the judgment which is poured out on the seat of the beast, and the binding of Satan.

There is, however, another way of learning according to truth, besides that which makes all plain by judgment, at the close, when every eye must see and own "there is a God by whom actions are weighed." This same God who judges in crisis, teaches those who are simple, in the beginning-and none else can tell the mercy of being saved the disappointment of a longer or a shorter life, spent in the schools of science, falsely so called, where our lessons have been accepted according to the course of the world.

First, we may learn by the man who fell, what man was at his best, or we may learn by Cain, what man is at his worst—or we may learn an end of perfection, as we look at Job; and after these examples, who can find a ground of confidence, or a door of escape? But further, God passes outside the mass of mankind, and calls out a people and judges all other nations, by that sample nation! God judges a king, when at his brightest, for He magnified Solomon exceedingly-and then put him to the proof. If we step outside the nation and its king into Gentilism, and see power and majesty transferred in righteous judgment from Jerusalem to Babylon, and from Solomon to Nebuchadnezzar, we shall find this new head, forfeits as speedily as His predecessors, his place and dominion, " for he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws."

There is nothing left to be proved. "Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting," is the handwriting on the wall, and the threatened consequences follow. History gets its place, after God has tried the creature upon the original ground of responsibility, where He placed it in sovereign goodness. And what is history but a filling up of the dark interval of ripening iniquity by successive generations, till men, carried away