and twenty elders which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, saying, We give Thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art and wast and art to come, because Thou hast taken to Thee Thy great power and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that Thou shouldest give reward unto Thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear Thy name, small and great, and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth. And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his covenant, and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

The seventh, or last trumpet, is thus inseparably connected with the time of the judgment of the dead, and so with the return of our Lord himself from heaven, the raising of the dead, and the reward of his saints. So we are assured by St. Paul-In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed-1 Cor. xv. 52. He also tells us (1 Thess. iv. 16.) The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God. He elsewhere assures us, The Lord shall judge the quick and dead at his appearing and kingdom. In correspondence with the type of the Divine presence in the siege of Jericho, where we have the ark of the Lord (Joshua vi. 9.), we have here also

the ark of the covenant (Rev. xi. 19), in which was the Law, and on which was the mercy-seat, denoting the full manifestations of the Divine grace and righteousness then to be made—Psa. xcviii. 2, 3,9; Rev. xv. 4.

Such testimonies of Holy Scripture show us the vast and unspeakable importance of the seventh trumpet, and how it affects the whole human race. To this I desire more fully to call the attention of my brethren.

The whole of this vision of the trumpets is full of important practical lessons for ourselves. It shows us most distinctly that the Lord has a real controversy with all sinners, under whatever name or outward form they may appear. We see that the sins of the heathen, of Jews and of Christians, of Saracens and of Turks, have in all and each class, been hateful to God, and offensive in his sight, and have, from time to time, called forth his righteous wrath. We may learn also, that there has ever been great long-suffering on the part of God towards sinners, but that abused forbearance will be at length followed by signal vengeance. God has in every age of his Church been wonderful in the manifestation of his long-suffering patience with the rebellious, but where men become more hardened under all this grace, and sin becomes fully ripe, judgments will assuredly at length be inflicted on persevering transgressors. How wonderful also were the riches of Divine grace in the gift of the glorious light of the Reformation! In the midst of merited judgments, in the midst of universal

idolatry, as if God would himself, in his own conduct, give his Church a splendid and beautiful pattern of mercy rejoicing against judgment and grace abounding over sin, he called, he raised up, he endowed, he blessed men of admirable qualifications, filled them with faith, zeal, love, and devotedness, prospered their labours, and spread abroad in all lands the everlasting Gospel. Glory be to his name. We We may farther learn, that righteousness shall finally prevail. The Gospel still goes forth as it at first went forth, conquering and to conquer. This is the very aim of the Redeemer. He shall not fail, nor be discouraged till he have set judgment in the earth, and the isles shall wait for his law. Everything is more and more preparing the way for this happy issue, and the seventh trumpet before us brings the now near approach of that full triumph, when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.

CHAP. II.

THE PRESENT STATE OF THE WORLD; BETWEEN THE CLOSE OF THE SIXTH TRUMPET, AND THE SOUNDING OF THE SEVENTH.

My object in this Chapter will be to illustrate the prediction, the second woe is past, and behold the third woe cometh quickly, and to show its application to the present time.

Let us first notice, the passing away of the second woe. It has long been known, and universally acknowledged, that the Mahomedan empire has been for many years in the course of decay. This fact is one visible in the face of all men, and particularly since the French revolution in 1793. This has been still more marked since the year 1822, since which time some of its largest and fairest provinces have been wrested from it by conquest or by treaty. Its population and its inward resources have been continually wasting.*

Another series of visions, the seven vials, illustrates this, in connection with the type to which we have already referred, the siege of Jericho. In the memorable siege of that city by the children of Israel, on the last

*See the Author's Divine Warning. The following information is given in Dec. 1844, by the correspondent of the Times.

'Tebrez, (Persia) Oct. 26, 1844. 'Hadji Mirza Agasi governs the sickly Shah of Persia in the same manner as Risa Pasha, at Constantinople, leads the feeble Sultan Abdul Medjib. There is a singular coincidence between the position of the two great Mahometan empires of the East, both in the decay of their population, in the increasing misery of the people, and in their fruitless attempts at reform. These two empires have this analogy-that their thrones are filled by two young men, who are already impotent both in mind and body from excesses, whilst they are governed by their ministers, like the former Caliphs of Bagdad. They remain insensible, whilst their empires are advancing to destruction.' Syria, Egypt, Affghanistan and Morocco, have partaken of the same wasting influence.

day, they compassed the city seven times in silence ; and, at the seventh time, the priests blew with the trumpets. The vials seem to correspond to this silent surrounding of the city, and the interval between the sixth and seventh trumpet. At the seventh vial, there is a great voice out of the temple from the throne, saying, It is done, and voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and events, corresponding to those of the seventh trumpet. Compare Rev. xi. 15; xvi. 18–21. The sixth

vial, in its more visible and open application, relates to the Turkish empire, and corresponds with the close of the sixth trumpet, and the interval between the sixth and seventh trumpets. The description of it begins thusThe sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates, and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the East might be prepared. The pouring out of the seventh vial, and the sounding of the seventh trumpet, relate to the same period.

The expression, the second woe is past, is a characteristic feature, which would naturally lead us to expect that its power to afflict Christendom had been removed. It regards the power and dominion of the Turkish empire, as having been a lengthened woe to Christendom in the East. That empire has power for a limited period to slay the third part of men, the Christian subjects of the third empire of Daniel. When the Mahommedan rulers then, under the dictation of Christian powers, solemnly and officially relinquish the power of perse