by the busy and ever active machinery of the periodical press. We no longer look at it in merely iso

. lated and individual examples, but behold it combining its energies, and putting forth its aggregate power to delude and curse mankind in the societies and clubs of Socialists, Chartists, and Agrarians, both in the old world, and in the new.

Do you ask what are its practical fruits? Behold them in the sundering of the nuptial tie—the trampling upon all natural affections and relationships, the disruption of all the sacred links which bind society together! Behold them in the multiplied breaches of contracts and trusts; in the acts of forgery, and theft, and fraud,-in the midnight assassinations, and brutal murders, which are becoming so common that they almost cease to shock us: Behold them in the mobs, and riots, and outbreaks of popular violence—which show an impatience of restraint, and a reckless contempt of the laws, both of God and man.

Would it be possible for the pen of history, in recording the fearful iniquities of this guilty and hardened generation, to give a more faithful portraiture than the pen of prophecy has done in this chapter, in predicting the evils of “the last days?"

O! what would be the condition of this sinful world if the pure light and restraining influence of the Gospel of Christ were to be withdrawn from it?

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But “when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him." That standard still floats in the van of the sacramental host. Soon victory will be seen perching upon it. In the contemplation of themes, such as have now demanded our attention, and in the midst of antichristian influences so powerfully working around us, we may be tempted despondingly to ask—Lord, how long? how long shall the ungodly triumph? We know not how long these opposing evils may exist, nor to what fierceness and power they may grow. "Satan may come down in yet greater wrath, knowing that his time is short.' There may be yet more formidable revelations of Antichrist than any of which we have spoken. But of the issue there can be no doubt. The way of the Lord is preparing. His Gospel is being preached for a witness to all nations. He is taking from among the Gentiles a people prepared for his name. Soon he will send forth his angels to gather his elect from the four quarters of the earth : from the one part under heaven to the other.' The world is rapidly ripening for the harvest. The wheat for the harvest of mercy, the tares for the harvest of wrath. Soon the command will be given—“Thrust in the sickle and reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” “What though the Heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? the kings of the earth stand up, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and against his anointed ? He that sitteth in the heavens, shall laugh them to scorn: the Lord shall have them in derision.” “I will tread them in my wrath, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall stain all my raiment: for the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.”* Yes, the year of his redeemed will have come! The Jews shall be brought in, together with the fulness of the Gentiles : and the Lord shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth !

To these glorious events, connected with the coming of the Son of Man in the clouds, we shall next direct our attention. O! let us meditate upon these things, and pray over them Amidst all the darkness, and sorrows, and conflicts that now surround us, let us be “looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the Great God our Saviour Jesus Christ,” to whom, with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, one living and true God, be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.

LECTURE FIFTH.

JUDGMENTS UPON GUILTY NATIONS:

THE CONVERSION AND RESTORATION OF THE JEWS.

ISAIAH, CHAPTER LIX. VERSES 17-20.

"For he put on righteousness as a breast-plate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak. According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay; fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies; to the Islands he will repay recompense. So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord."

It is generally admitted that some parts of the prophecies have been fulfilled,-that others are now in a course of fulfilment, while others are to be fulfilled at some future time. It is of the highest importance in the interpretation of Scripture to discriminate between these different classes of prophecies.

In supporting the doctrine advocated in the present course of Lectures, we wish to be considered as occupying the station of an inquirer for the truth, rather than as pledged champions of any human theory. Our desire is to ascertain, so far as may be permitted to our weakness, what is the doctrine of the Holy Scriptures in reference to those momentous themes to which we have presumed to invite your attention.

While we hold it to be a sound principle that any doctrine is true which is clearly and unequivocally taught even in one passage of Scripture, yet we would not build a theory upon that one passage in

a consistent with other portions of the Sacred Volume. Far less would we adduce in support of the views now advocated, any prophecy which has already been fulfilled-or any text which we deem to be of doubtful interpretation.

What then is the meaning of the text? To what period of the Church's history does it relate? Is it a fulfilled or an unfulfilled prophecy ?

The text declares that when “the enemy” comes in like a raging “flood, the Spirit of the Lord would lift up a standard against him :" that the Lord will “repay fury to his adversaries, and recompense to his enemies;" and that, in immediate connexion with this coming to punish his enemies--men shall 'fear his name from the west, and his glory from the rising