observed, with the exception of the seventy years in Babylon, foretold by Jeremiah. Nor do we anywhere find the period determined for the greatest event predicted in their history up to their dispersion, that is, the coming of their Messiah, except in Daniel's prophecy of the seventy weeks. The promise of a Redeemer we trace back to the very scene of the first transgression; but nearly fifty recorded generations, more than a hundred such as we reckon now, or about three thousand five hundred years, followed the transgressors before the time of his first coming could be even conjectured. The same uncertainty of course pertained to all those fortunes of the Jewish people, which were to be connected with that event. And the same may in general be said of the predictions of our Savior and his apostles. It will not be denied that such has been the ordinary method of God in his communications to mankind, to make known great events before their occurrence, yet conceal their times and seasons. Though exceptions may be found in the case of individuals who could not properly avail themselves of a prediction without knowing the season of its fulfilment, yet his ordinary method is plainly such as I have stated. And hence we would expect a similar procedure as to the end of the present dispensation, or of the world.

But a more striking analogy is found in the event of death. In some respects it is indeed a very different thing from Christ's glorious coming or reign, but to every individual who has been or will be subjected to it, the one may be said to anticipate the other, as being the end of probation, and the entrance on an unchangeable career of bliss or woe. Now of all events that can befall mankind, none is more certain than this, if the world continues as it has been; yet none is more uncertain as to its date. As in diseases that are known to be fatal, it is yet impossible to foretell the hour of their termination, so, in the midst of health, mortality is an unavoidable, unquestionable fact in every man's natural condition, while God only can predict the hour or year of its occurrence. Why is it that every man knows he must die, yet no man can tell when? For wise reasons God has ordained it thus, in respect to the end of human life? Whatever those reasons may have been, why may they not hold good as to the end of the world? The fact that mankind have always been kept ignorant of the time of an event to them as certain and momentous as any other, would naturally lead us to expect a like uncertainty as to the time of the event we are considering.

Such analogies as these are worthy of our notice. Though they could never be alleged against a clear declaration, if there were one, in the Bible on this subject; yet they ought to be regarded as of weight in bringing us to a right position for ascertaining the truth by the aid of the Bible, especially when its testimony is capable of more than one interpretation. Let us remember, therefore, when men presume to tell us the date of the end, as a thing revealed to their eyes, that such has not been the way of God in his providence, or in his

word.

II. From the fact that such knowledge, on the part of men, does not seem desirable.

Of course I admit that this consideration, like the last, could not stand against any clear declaration of the Bible; but it has its place on a question which the Bible does not explicitly determine beyond all suspense or doubt. It is a kind of argument which the uninspired "minor prophets" of our day are willing to employ when it suits their purpose. It will have an influence in our decision on many questions. And it has a legitimate influence to this extent, that if a proposed doctrine is in itself repugnant to our sober convictions of what is on the whole desirable, we have a right to insist the more on clear testimony in its behalf, before consenting to receive it; on something better than plausible conjectures and shadowy probabilities. Consider then whether, so far as we can judge, it would be for the best that men should foreknow the time when the present course of things will end. The inquiry is not as to the event itself, whenever it may take place; but as to the foreknowledge of its time: whether, desirable as the con summation must be on the whole, it would have been pleasant to good men, and salutary to the world, that its date should be disclosed.

Supposing the event in question to be the commencement of Christ's spiritual reign on the earth, or the universal prevalence of holiness; does it seem desirable that the date of it should have been revealed to mankind? If, on the one hand, that time be yet remote, it could not gratify nor animate us to know how long the world must wait for such a blessing; and, whenever the time may come, to the successive generations before us it was remote, inasmuch as it has not come yet, and to foreknow that it would be deferred so long, we cannot think would have been to them either a pleasure or a benefit. Yet if it is really indicated, as some contend, in the prophetic numbers, it has been discoverable there, in all its remoteness, for many centuries. If, on the other hand, it be near, the prospect might indeed be to us delightful; but we are only a small part of all who have lived, and we cannot pronounce that knowledge on the whole desirable, which must have deferred their hope, merely because it would hasten ours. There is reason also to fear that such a prospect, however pleasing, might now enervate instead of invigorating the hearts of good men; as the near prospect of success in any enterprise, where men have a part, often relaxes their vigilance and activity, more than all the difficulties and delays they have encountered.

Supposing, however, the time in question to be not merely the commencement of prevailing holiness on earth, but Christ's personal coming to raise the righteous dead and destroy his foes-which is the view of those who are most confident on this subject;-the foreknowledge of it must then appear still less desirable. Make the supposition, that God has purposed the event shall take place in the next century. Would it be best for the world to know that it will not come before? Yet if God had revealed it in his word, then, wherever that word has been read in ages past, the righteous might have been made to des

pond, and the wicked to exult, in the prospect. Or make the supposition, that God has purposed the event shall take place the next year. Do you rejoice in believing that probation will cease while not more than a fragment of the whole adult human family will have been saved, rather than in believing that it will continue for an indefinite period, during which, by the greater spread and prevalence of the Gospel, the number of the saved may, on the whole scale of time, come to exceed that of the lost? If indeed this were known to be God's plan, his people would acquiesce; but if there is room for hesitating whether he has revealed it, benevolence would naturally dictate, at least while many things related to it remain obscure as now, that we leave the matter in suspense. But, looking at the supposed event by itself, and not as compared with universal holiness preceding it, would the foreknowledge of it, as so soon to arrive, be pleasant and profitable to good men? "It must be pleasant to a Christian," say some, "because he will so soon see his Savior." But this may be said of death also, and this was the reason Paul gave for desiring death—not for desiring the end of the world,-" having a desire to depart and to be with Christ," counting it "gain to die," though to him "to live" was "Christ." Yet surely every Christian is not of course eager to die. On the contrary, this world is desirable for him during his allotted time, and Christ's intercession for his followers was, "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." Because the vision of Christ itself appears inviting, whether by means of death or of his personal coming, we cannot infer that either event would make his people happy at any other than the appointed time, and still less that it would be desirable for them to foreknow that time. Again, we are told, "it must be pleasant to be among the living when Christ appears, and thus escape corruption.” But says Paul," We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed;" and you know not what violence there may be in this "change," since it must in some way answer to that death which has "passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." But if, so far as you are concerned, the prospect were all pleasure, would it overcome all your regard for others whom it threatens with imminent destruction? When Paul says it would be far better for him to depart and be with Christ than to live, he adds, "nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you ;" and if you have his spirit, you will not care less for those who are to be destroyed when you are saved, than he cared for those whom he would leave in a world of mercy if he were taken away. And apart from your pleasure, would the prospect be, on the whole, an advantage to you, or an injury, in the work of doing good? And would it have a salutary influence on the minds and habits and interests of mankind? Remember that the same revealed fact, if it should prove an advantage to the present generation by nearly concerning them, would have operated unfavorably on past generations by concerning them remotely. But waiving that point; in answering this question, turn

again to the illustration drawn from death. That arrangement of Providence by which all men are made certain of the fact, yet ignorant of its date, we cannot doubt is a beneficent arrangement. And one reason for it, is doubtless this; that while men obviously need the restraint imposed by the certainty of the event, if they knew it to be remote, they would disregard it far more than now; and if, on the other hand, they knew it to be very near, it would unfit them for the common duties of life, and make even their preparation for eternity more confused and precarious than now. Let a man become possessed with the notion that he has but a little while to live: and we find, that though not yet disabled by sickness, he is in a great measure disqualified for his ordinary worldly duties, for the industry and enterprise that are proper to his condition in this world; and his attention is likely to be diverted from the interests of others, public and private, to his own personal fears. In the affairs of religion, too, he is exposed to an undue predominance of selfish alarm among his governing motives, and hence to hasty and delusive impressions; so that cases of conviction and conversion on what is supposed to be the bed of death, are regarded by all experienced observers with great distrust, not only from their general knowledge of human infirmity, but from the too frequent issue of like appearances in cases of unexpected recovery. Hence, when such an expectation extensively prevails, as under the approach of some fatal pestilence, the religious impressions witnessed are far less relied on than at other times. It is not from terror pervading the public mind, that we ever look for revivals of religion, if even for a solitary conversion. Now would we not apprehend the same questionable influence, in a community that should know themselves to be living in the last month or year of the world? If the prospect of impending death incapaci tates a man for the common business of life, even though he expects that others, dependent on him, will reap benefit from his present exertions, much more would he be affected by the approach of a catastrophe that should overwhelm all alike. And if, besides merely physical causes, the fear of death is apt to make those religious appearances that begin in the last hours of life, delusive, the fear of an event still more awful must tend to similar delusion. The conversions that might seem to be wrought under the power of such an expectation, would be for that reason, to say the least, liable to a just suspicion. At various periods men have been made to believe that the day of judgment was at hand, and some were seemingly brought to repentance; but are those the seasons most distinguished by the "fruits meet for repentance?" If now the same belief is said to multiply conversions, wise men will doubt it till time tests both the cause and the effect. That very influence on account of which some might choose this expectation should prevailits effect on careless men of the world-might bring more evil than good. And a still more obvious effect would be, to divert the activity and to derange the common business and interests of mankind. As we can see it to be best for man that he should not foreknow the time of his death, though the event is certain, so it would appear to be best for

him, and for similar reasons, that he should not foreknow the time of the end of the world. And as God has left him ignorant in the one case, so it might be presumed God would leave him ignorant in the other. But the Christian philanthropist might suffer an injury from foreseeing the end of the world at hand, which he would not suffer from foreseeing his own. Would he pray and exert himself, as many have done, for the diffusion of the gospel, or for the salvation of mankind, if he knew that before it can be carried round the globe, the globe itself, with its whole unconverted population, will be wrapt in flames? We need not ask how it would be; for is it not found, that they who now cherish such an expectation, abandon that which they before cherished of the conversion of the heathen, and withhold from them accordingly their prayers and charities? They wait now for God to give his Son "the heathen for his inheritance"-not, as in the consecrated petition of the church, for his "portion," as "his people" are, but that he may "dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel!" Might we not presume that a foreknowledge which would bring to an end all the beneficent operations of God's people in behalf of a surrounding world, God in his mercy, not only to the world but to his people, would withhold? The great interests of benevolence between man and man, seem thus to make such knowledge undesirable, as being rather pernicious than salutary in its tendency.

So far, therefore, as we can judge, it does not appear desirable that men should foreknow when the present state of things will end, whether we suppose that event to be near or remote; not even if it be only the commencement of a reign of holiness, and far less if it be the end of probation. I do not speak now of the more unhappy consequences of believing the end of all things to be near, through a mistaken interpretation of the Bible, and then finding the expectation vain-though I fear much mischief of that kind will yet be witnessed, as it has been before: but supposing the event to be really near, we find reasons why its date should be hidden from mortal eyes. And these reasons, like the analogy before pointed out in respect to other events made known by God, though they could not stand against the clear declarations of his word, if such there were, do naturally affect us, and ought to affect us, in the view we take of those times and seasons which he has not there clearly revealed. Bearing these things in mind, we are brought to the question of fact, whether God has clearly revealed the time when this present dispensation will end. That we do not foreknow it, I argue

III. From the uncertainty attending the interpretation of the Scriptures on this subject.

Of course, within my present limits, I cannot minutely comment on the passages which have been the occasion of so much controversy. My object now is to remind you of what I should think no candid and enlightened student of the Bible could refuse to confess, the manifold difficulty of ascertaining the time in question, from the passages that are supposed to reveal it, if it is anywhere revealed.