TEKEL, thou art found wanting.

the 1260 years have expired. The drying up of the waters of the great river Euphrates, and the passage of the Jews through the bed of the river "dryshod," will be indeed a sign and a wonder! It will be to the Pope what "the fingers of a man's hand" which "wrote upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace" were to Belshazzar ! The writing will be plainly written, as it were, "over against the candlestick; MENE MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. And the interpretation will be, "MENE, God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it. weighed in the balances, and art PERES, thy kingdom is divided and given to the" JEWS. The interpretation will be the same as that given by Daniel; only, instead of "the Medes and Persians," we must read "the Jews." The writing will be so plain, that the Pope must see it. The word MENE will denote that the 1260 years are numbered and finished: the word TEKEL that the Pope is weighed in the balances of Scripture, and is found wanting: the word UPHARSIN that his kingdom is come to an end, is divided and given to the Jews. Surely, if the king of the modern Babylon had not the power of dispensing with Scripture, and therefore with the Prophecies altogether, he must in that fatal year 1987 resemble Belshazzar, whose "countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another." If the Pope tremble not, when he hears that "the waters of the great river Euphrates are dried up," and that "the Kings of the East"

....

have crossed over-if he will still maintain "the lie" that he is the Vicar of Christ, and the Romish Church the Mother and Mistress of all Churches-then let him remember the words, "In that night was Belshazzar the King of the Chaldeans slain." (Dan. v. 30.) What an awful day was that! In the morning the Euphrates flowed deep and strong, and Babylon was all life and animation. . . . in the evening the bed of the river was dry, and “one post ran to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew the King of Babylon that his city was taken at one end; and that the passages were stopped," "in that night the King of the Chaldeans was slain." It is not improbable that in the year 1987 the Pope will be slain. The parallel between Rome and Babylon will be thus complete. The river Euphrates will have been dried up, and the King of Babylon slain. Thus much is certain, that in that year there will be a great revolution at Rome. "And the seventh Angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell; and great Babylon came in remembrance. before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath."

What a comment have we here on the words MENE MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN! The tremendous

and desolating judgments which follow are described in strong figurative language. "And every island fled away and the mountains were not found. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail: for the plague thereof was exceeding great." It is probable that this plague of hail will be literal as well as figurative, and that the seventh vial will be accompanied with a most grievous tempest, resembling in fury that which accompanied the first. The hail-stones are to be of enormous size, and are represented in hyperbolical language as being of the weight of a talent. When once the Euphrates is crossed by "the Kings of the East," the mystery of God will be finished, the words of God will be fulfilled, "the forty and two months," "the time, times and a half," the 1260 years assigned to the Papal dominion will have expired; and, however the infidel and sceptic may scoff, the true Church of Christ will recal to mind the words of her Lord, "Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame." (xvi. 15.) The battle of Armageddon will then begin-the battle of that great day of GOD ALMIGHTY. And it is worthy of special notice, that these dreadful judgments befal the Papacy at the very time when the witnesses are slain; so that the last and sorest vial of God's wrath will be poured out upon the Pope, when he himself is pouring the highest contempt on God's Book in open defiance of its Author, and in

most daring rebellion against heaven. The conspiracy of the Papacy to destroy the Scriptures will end in signal defeat and bitter disappointment, and will only serve to verify the passage—" The WRATH of man shall PRAISE THEE."

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE THIRD WOE. INFATUATION OF THE POPE. SIEGE OF JERUSALEM. DESTRUCTION OF ROME BY FIRE.

AND POWER WAS GIVEN UNTO HIM TO CONTI

NUE (PRACTISE) FORTY AND TWO MONTHS.”Verse 5.

IN the year 1987 the 1260 years expire and the Witnesses are slain. In the year 1990-1 the witnesses are raised. The second woe is then past, and behold, the third woe cometh quickly. The third woe is the Infidel woe. It is the last attempt of the Beast and the Kings of the earth to oppose the spread of the Gospel. And their malice will be in a special manner exerted against the Jews, inasmuch as the Jews will be the chief instruments in evangelizing the world.

If the fall of" the Jews "be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? If the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be but life from the