and ample gifts; his aim being the exemplification rather than the demonstrative establishment of doctrine; an exhibition of the various relations in which a proposition considered as announcing a general truth is verified, in place of simply unfolding and establishing it in the individual relation in which it is employed in the sacred word. Thus the proposition, John iii. 2: "It doth not yet appear what we shall be," he generalizes, and treats as applicable not only to the condition of the redeemed in the existence to which they are to be exalted at their resurrection, in reference to which exclusively it was uttered by the apostle, but to various future conditions of the impenitent as well as the renewed in this life; and of the lost as well as the saved in the next. So also of the second, the third, the seventh, the ninth discourse, and others. The first sermon we heard from him was framed on that plan, and the number and diversity of the applications of his generalized truth much greater than in any of these. He delivered on the last Sabbath we heard him, the discourse on Phil. iii. 13, 14, of the close of which, on the progress of the believer in the future life, it seems no manuscript is found. Though pronounced precisely like the preceding part of the sermon, and transcending in splendor of thought and beauty of expression any other strain we ever heard from his lips, it very probably was never written, as his powers of memory, it is said, enabled him to recall with the greatest ease whatever he had arranged by previous meditation, and to clothe it in the identical language he had chosen as its vehicle.

In his Twenty-first Sermon on Matt. xxiv. 6, "The end is not yet," he not only treats the proposition as a maxim that is susceptive of more than one application, but represents the event or epoch denoted by the term "end" as uncertain, and the meaning indeed of the whole prophecy as in a measure indeterminable. He says:

"The prophetical discourse of which this sentence forms a part, has been the subject of conflicting explanation ever since it was originally uttered. The grand difficulty lies in the appropriateness of its terms to two distinct and distant events, the end of the world and the destruction of Jerusalem.

"But whether we assume with some interpreters, that the

one catastrophe was meant to typify the other; or, with another class, that the discourse may be mechanically divided, by assuming a transition at a certain point, from one of these great subjects to the other; or, with a third, that it describes a sequence of events to be repeated more than once; a prediction to be verified, not once for all, nor yet by a continuous progressive series of events, but in stages, and at intervals, like repeated flashes of lightning, or the periodical germination of the fig-tree, or the reassembling of the birds of prey whenever and wherever a new carcass tempts them; upon any of these various suppositions, it is still true that the primary fulfilment of the prophecy was in the downfall of the Jewish state, with the previous or accompanying change of dispensations; and yet, that it was so framed, as to leave it doubtful, until the event, whether a still more terrible catastrophe was not intended. However clear the contrary may now seem to us, there was nothing absurd in the opinion which so many entertained, that the end of the world and of the old economy might be coincident. This ambiguity is not accidental but designed, as in many other prophecies of Scripture.

"Another striking feature in the form of this discourse is, the precision with which several stages or degrees of the fulfilment are distinguished from each other, each affording the occasion and the premonition of the next, until the close of the whole series. Of these successive periods or scenes of the great drama, each might, if considered in itself, have seemed to be the last. And no doubt each as it occurred was so regarded, even by some who had been forewarned by Christ himself. To correct this error and prepare the minds of true believers for the whole that was to come upon them, he says at the close of the first scene: See that ye be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet,' or as Luke expresses it, the end is not by and by,' i.e. immediately. And again at the close of the next stage of this great revolution, all these are the beginning of sorrows.'

"The same intimation, though not expressed, may be supplied throughout the prophecy. At every solemn pause, until the last, a kind of echo seems to say again, the end is not yet.' When the prediction was fulfilled, we may easily imagine the impression this well-remembered formula would make upon the minds of the disciples. As each new sign appeared, they were no doubt ready to exclaim, the end cometh, and as each gave way to another, the end is not yet. And what was thus true

of the several stages of this great catastrophe, was also true of the whole. The impression made on many by the very structure of the prophecy, that the Jewish state and the world would come to an end together, was no sooner rectified by the event, than multitudes who had been breathlessly awaiting the result, as they again respired freely, cried out to themselves or others, the end is not yet. The need of this caution has not ceased. Men have ever since been, and are still too much disposed to precipitate the fulfilment of God's purposes, and to confound the 'beginning of sorrows' with the end . . . .

"The self-love which forbids some men to look upon themselves as mortal, makes them equally unwilling, when this truth is forced upon them, to allow a longer term to others. If they must die, let humanity die with them. Something of this selfish feeling, no doubt, enters into the strong disposition of some good men in all ages to regard their own times as the last, and to fix the winding up of the great drama as near as may be to their own disappearance from the stage.

....

"This pardonable vanity, if such it may be called, seeks of course to justify itself by the authority of Scripture. Hence the prophecies are tortured into confirmation of the fact assumed, and every art of calculation and construction is employed to bring the end of the world as near as may be into coincidence with that of the interpreter. Nor have these been barren and inoperative speculations. Their effect has been immense, and sometimes long-continued, both on individuals and whole communities. The most remarkable exemplification of the general statement, is afforded by the memorable panic which diffused itself through Christendom at the approach of the year 1000. The belief had been gradually gaining ground that the close of this millennium, or first period of a thousand years, was to be the final close of human history. As the fatal term drew near, the superstitious dread associated with it grew continually more intense and powerful in its effects. These, as disclosed by the historical research of modern times, have more the aspect of romance than of true history. They might indeed be thought incredible, but for the like effects of the same causes in our own times, on a smaller scale and in less imposing circumstances.

"However improbable the actual recurrence of such scenes may now appear, the principle from which they spring has been too often manifested to be looked upon as temporary or accidental. It continues to exist and exert its power, not always with the same effect, or to the same extent, but so far con

stantly and uniformly, as to make it an interesting subject of inquiry what we ought to think, and how we ought to feel and act in reference to it, as connected with our own times and circumstances. What I believe to be the true solution of this question may be reduced to two propositions.

"1. So far as we have any means of judging, the end is not yet.

"2. So far as it remains a matter of doubt, it is better to assume that the end is not yet, than to assume the contrary.

"So far as we have any means of judging, the end is not yet. This may be argued negatively and positively. The negative argument is this, that there are no conclusive indications of a speedy end, afforded either by the word of God or the condition of the world. Such indications are indeed alleged, and that with confidence, but they have no conclusive force, because in the first place they rest upon gratuitous assumptions. It is assumed, for instance, that a certain form or pitch of moral depravation is incompatible with the continued existence of society. But it does not follow that the present condition of the world is such. Such a conclusion is not warranted by the mere degree of actual corruption, however great, because we do not know how much is necessary to the end in question, and every attempt to determine it must rest on a gratuitous assumption.

"The same thing is true as to the real or supposed predictions of the final consummation in the word of God. That these were meant not merely to assert the general fact, and in some cases to describe the attendant circumstances, but to afford specific indications of the very time of its occurrence, so that it may be distinctly known beforehand; all this is assumed in the usual reasoning on the subject, but assumed without proof. It is not more easy to affirm than to deny it. Whatever plausibility there may be in the sense thus put upon the passage in question, there can be no certainty. It is not necessary to maintain that this cannot be the meaning. It is enough to know that it may not be. The position taken is not that the proofs alleged are manifestly false, but that they are inconclusive; they prove nothing, because they rest upon gratuitous assumptions. This by itself would be enough to justify the negative position, that we have no sufficient reason to believe that the end is at hand.

"But the same thing is still clearer from experience. These signs have all been misapplied before. There is, perhaps,

not a single indication now made use of for this purpose, that has not been so employed in former ages. Every striking coincidence, every verbal allusion, has been weighed already in this balance, and found wanting. Nay, arithmetic itself, of which it has been said the figures cannot lie, has here misled its thousands. The most positive numerical specifications may be varied indefinitely by the variation of the term from which they are computed. The millennium of the Book of Revelation has by turns been proved to be present, past, and future. All this argues no defect or error in the Scriptures, but only something wrong in the interpretation. When anything can thus be made to mean anything, we have reason to believe it was not intended to reveal so much as we imagine. In other words, the passages of Scripture thus appealed to, having been applied before in the same way, and with equal plausibility, and the application falsified by the event, we are naturally brought to the conclusion, that they never were intended to disclose so much as some are able to perceive in them.

"We may reason in the same way from experience with respect to the condition of society and the degree of actual corruption. The extraordinary abounding of iniquity at any one time, in itself considered, might well lead us to believe that such depravation must be preparatory to the final dissolution of society. But when we find analogous appearances insisted on, from age to age, with equal confidence, in proof of the same thing, and the proof as constantly annulled by the event, we may not unreasonably hesitate to rest upon such evidence in this case, and conclude that tests that have always led to false results before, must be at least defective, and their testimony inconclusive. Whether we look, then, at the word of God, or at the world around us, or compare the condition of the one with the predictions of the other, we have no satisfactory or adequate ground for the conclusion that the end of all things is at hand in this sense.

"Let us now look for a moment at the positive argument in favor of the same position, which may be conveniently reduced to this form, that the fulfilment of the Scriptures is still incomplete, and will require a long time for its completion.

"In support of this we may appeal in general to the grand and comprehensive scale on which the divine purposes are projected in the Scriptures. The natural impression made, perhaps, on all unbiassed readers is, that in the Bible there are vast beginnings which require proportionate conclusions even in the present life.