and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, serving Him day and night in His temple: and He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.'

We complain that even these words have become so familiar to us that they have lost much of their power, No! my friends; it is not familiarity which deprives them of their power. They are not familiar enough; the picture has been too much a mere fancy one in our eyes. We have thought of it as belonging to some distant region, altogether separated from this earth. Let us rise to it as St. John rose to it. Let us think first of our own nation, sealed and set apart by the living God as a witness for Him. Let us think of the brave and true men who in other days have borne that witness, who have not counted their lives dear to them, that we might know Him better, and that their land might be a witness of Him, and might be a better inheritance for their sons. Let us think of those whom we have seen attling and suffering in the midst of us, fainting, yet victorious: caring, above all things, that they might

they

lave unvered is te vie comes and mole young un vin save accomplished line of Greaned the ender vi have left menus kind then of what they migin have become. Then tik a the nation is immoral a must host who have lived in it immoral These did men, these young men, inst elites, must know me bener that they it on eacì.. wawe tuer kuow God better; must her is beter because they are more fifting His commands. Then that mucher will expand contionally: those of oder lands where we have read of and heard of will be mingled with them. Westall be all retking of their multitude, yea, w na Church, or nation, or person will be lost it Yath will chile forth, all will shine forth in the Egils of H'a vender love, who gave His only-begotten Son to take our Beth upon Him, and to die. Above all. beneath all, for all, will rise the Good Friday prayer:

We beseech Thee, Almighty God, graciously to behold this thy family, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was con. tented to be betrayed and given up into the hands of wicked men, and to suffer death upon the cross, who now liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end.

* Preached on the Sunday before Easter.

LECTURE VIII.

THE SEVEN TRUMPETS.

REV. VIII.

And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven

And I saw the seven angels which were given seven trumpets. And

about the space of half an hour. stood before God; and to them another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer ; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth and there were voices, and thunderings and lightnings, and an earthquake. And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea; and the third part of the sea became blood; and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed. And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter. And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars ; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise. And I beheld, and heard an

angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!

THERE was an earthquake when the last seal was broken. Then self-willed power having passed through its different stages, and having exhausted itself, was reaching its natural consummation. There would be a judgment. It might end and a new circle begin. But a doom is now awaiting not the world's city, but God's city; that which has been set as a witness to the world against its idolatries, for the dominion of the righteous King. Such a downfall, comparatively insignificant in the eyes of the rulers of the earth, though not quite insignificant to them, is nothing less to the prophet than the end of an age or dispensation. It is the greatest catastrophe that has yet befallen the universe. There is silence in Heaven in the contemplation of it.

I. 'And I saw the seven angels that stood before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.'

In no part of the Apocalypse are the allusions to the Old Testament so numerous as here. You must turn to the sixth chapter of Joshua for the meaning of these trumpets: Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel; none went out, and none came in. And the Lord said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thy hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men

of valour. And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go about the city oncé. Thus shalt thou do six days. And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams' horns. And the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets. And it shall come to pass that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout. And the walls of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.'

The story preserved in that sacred book which told of the conquest of Canaan by the little band of slaves that had come out of Egypt must have fixed itself strongly in the imagination of every Jewish child. A strange sense of invisible, mysterious power, which could overcome the strength of walls and the force of armed men, will have been mixed with a feeling that their fathers were a set of righteous men, favourites of Heaven, who punished the wicked and accursed people. of Canaan. The rabbinical education will have done little to distinguish what was right from what was wrong in these early impressions. It will have confirmed the wonder at the events that happened in the old time into a superstition; the exultation in the glories of the one nation into pride and contempt of other nations.