depart. Mistress of all cunning wiles, wielder of the potent spell, she is now throwing herself upon the democracy, winning them with smiles and flatteries, that she may rise to a more daring height and secure for herself a wider sway than heretofore. Popery and Infidelity, superstition and Deism, Jesuitism and Atheism, have coalesced, or are preparing to do so. A concordat is set on foot between them, as once there was effected between Napoleon and the Pope. They are openly fraternizing. Their apparently discordant elements will soon commingle as the heat of human passions augments, passions without rule or law; and as the whirl of wild events waxes fiercer and more rapid-events which God is allowing to take their unhindered way, that it may be seen what a hell man himself can make of a fair world like this,— out of this strange dark fiery mixture the last Antichrist will arise, incorporating into himself every form of wickedness, from that of Cain and Nimrod down to that of Hildebrand and Napoleon; yet at the same time drawing round himself every fashion of external religion that superstition has devised in her most fertile ages. The bigotry of Spain and the Communism of France will unite in brotherhood as owning one paternity. Communism will become Popish and Popery Communistic. Communism and Atheism will become the body-guard and champion, or more properly the battle-axe of Popery, and Popery in loving return will bless its trees of liberty, wreathe the tricolor around the crucifix, and chant the Te Deum in honour of some wretched harlot, seated in the temple of nature as the Goddess of Liberty or Reason!

Hitherto Popery has flourished only upon the soil of superstition; the subsoil of Infidelity has repelled her roots and threatened to wither up her whole stem. Now, through Satan's wondrous art, that unkindly subsoil is affording her nourishment and strength. Her roots have pierced it, and through the vitality with which it is pervading her she is sending up new shoots, and stretching forth yet broader, greener branches. She is fast ripening as the last Antichrist, -the darkest concentration of human wickedness, the boldest mimicry of Christ, the truest personification of the Evil One which the world has ever seen! "Rejoice not, whole Palestina," says the prophet, "because the rod of him that smote thee is broken, for out of the serpent's root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent." (Isa. xiv. 29.) So say we to those who are now exulting because they conceive that Popery has received its last stroke, under the deadliness of which it must speedily come to

nought. Rejoice not yet, lest your joy be premature,rejoice not yet as if the rod of him that smote thee were broken for ever; the serpent's root seemed destroyed when Rome Pagan, the persecutor, passed away; but out of that serpent's root came forth the adder; and now the adder may seem crushed, but the fruit of the crushed adder is to be a fiery flying serpent,-a serpent no longer creeping, but winged for wide flight throughout the nations of the earth, ―a serpent no longer merely armed with poison, but breathing flame,-flame from that abyss out of which it has arisen, and into which it shall ere long return.

Besides the passages already referred to there are many others that predict the same condition of evil for the world, and tribulation for the Church during this present dispensation. We do not cite Old Testament prophecies, for we admit that there is greater indefiniteness as to periods or age in these. The expression, " last days," for instance, which Jacob used upon his death-bed when making known the destinies of his sons, is indefinite as to time or era. So are other passages which merely mean "hereafter." But we confine ourselves to New Testament predictions, in which the field is necessarily narrowed, and the age becomes consequently more definite and specific.

Let us take up our Lord's own prophecy. It begins with the ruin of Jerusalem, and ends with his second coming. The whole of it is a picture of storm and gloom. It is written all over with lamentation and mourning and woe. The time which it describes is one of evil throughout, a time of sin, a time of calamity, a time of the prevalence of Antichrists. No gleam of sunshine, no interval of calm relieves the heavy scene in any part, still less towards the close of the era there defined. Clouds thicken, and darkness deepens, as the ages roll away. The burden of the chapter might be given in the words of the apostle, "Little children, it is the last time; and as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now are there many Antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time." He answers fully and explicitly the questions of his disciples, "What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the age;" yet he says not one word of anything but sorrow and disaster, crowding on each other like billow upon billow, without intermission. He gives

many minute and most palpable signs of his coming,—yet they are all dark and fearful,-wars, famines, earthquakes, pestilences, the uprise of false Christs, tribulation, persecution, martyrdom! No turning of the sword into the plough

share, and the spear into the pruning-hook; no days of prosperous gladness for a weary earth, and a harassed Church, as the forerunners of his Advent; not a word respecting a whole Millennium of blessedness before his coming, which would, beyond all question, be the brightest and most vivid sign, a sign which could occur but once, and not, like the others, be repeated, a sign beyond the possibility of mistake,-a sign, therefore, which could not have been concealed or passed over without misleading the Church, and leaving totally unanswered the very question to which he undertook to reply. Is it conceivable, that he could have failed to mention this as one of the signs, if it were really to occur before the Advent? and can there be a more obvious or natural reason assigned for his silence as to this, than that it was to take place after, and not before that great day of the Lord? In answering the question, "What shall be the sign of thy coming," could he mention a few years' famine, and yet omit a thousand years of gladsome plenty, when the earth would yield her increase? Could he mention a few months' pestilence, and yet be silent as to the thousand years' removal of all blight and curse? Could he mention the momentary earthquake, and yet take no note of a whole Millennium of calm and peace? Could he speak of the sorrow, and yet be silent as to the joy, especially when that joy was to be such, as that all former sorrow should not once come into mind? Besides, how could these evils-the famine, the pestilence, the earthquake, the tribulation-be signs of his coming, if they were all to pass utterly away and be forgotten, for a thousand years before he arrived? They might be set down as simple historical events; but signs, forerunners, they could not be. Thus, according to the Lord's own words, the period or era, from the day he uttered the prediction concerning it, up to his second coming, was to be a period of evil, not of good, of darkness, not of light throughout.

This argument as to the uninterrupted evil of the last times, founded upon our Lord's prophecy, derives both illustration and force from a peculiar statement in it, which is mentioned by Luke alone. "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." (Luke xxi. 24.) And then it is added, "then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory." (Ver. 27.) From this we learn, that one special characteristic of the present age, was to be the treading down of Jerusalem, during the times of the Gentiles, and that this treading down of Jerusalem, and these times of the Gentiles,

were to be terminated by the coming of the Son of man in glory. Gentile sovereignty and tyranny, as symbolized by the fourth beast, or Roman empire, were to continue until the coming of the Lord; but how could this be, if that beast was to be destroyed, and that tyranny to end a thousand years before the Advent? Jewish degradation and dispersion, the down-treading of Jerusalem,-such as we see at this day, were to continue, until brought to an end by the Lord's coming, as it is elsewhere written, "The Redeemer shall come to Zion, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob." But how could this be, if that degradation and scattering were to end, and be exchanged for glory and restoration, a thousand years before that Redeemer came?

This argument is confirmed, by reference to the fourteenth chapter of Zechariah, where the future and final siege of Jerusalem is described at large. This siege, with all its accompanying horrors, described in the first two verses, is the last stroke of judgment upon Israel, the last drop in the vials of wrath. For ages, these inflictions have been descending upon them, but that is the last. For ages, their Gentile enemies have been persecuting and assailing them; but that is the last act of oppression which they are permitted to perpetrate. How then is this last Gentile assault to be met and overthrown? By the Lord himself, at his coming, with all his saints; as it is written, "Then shall the Lord fight against these nations, as when he fought in the day of battle; and his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, AND THE LORD MY GOD SHALL COME, AND ALL THE SAINTS WITH THEE." Is not this a direct commentary upon the passage we have been adverting to, "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled; and then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory?" If the desolation of Jerusalem, and the calamities of the people at the hand of their Gentile oppressors, are only to be ended by the coming of the Lord, with all his saints,-by his descending upon that very Olivet from which he ascended, then how is it possible that a whole Millennium of rest to Israel and holiness to the earth can intervene between the day of their suffering and the day of the Lord's appearing? It is expressly declared that he will come with all his saints to destroy their Gentile downtreaders, to deliver them from the long yoke under which

they have been bending; and is not the inference from this most obvious, that it is not till after he has come that Israel has rest, and Jerusalem becomes Jehovah-Shammah,-Salem, the city of peace, the seat of the true Solomon-the true Melchizedec, under whose blessed sway she will lift her head once more among the nations, and become the centre and fountain-head of blessing to a renewed and holy earth? It would assuredly require strong proof, and proof of the most direct and positive kind, to lead us, in the face of all this, to conclude that there really was an intervening period of a thousand years, or, as many maintain, 360,000 years.

In further proof and illustration of the characteristics of the present dispensation, let us next refer to the parables of our Lord. In several of these, the condition of the world and the Church during the present age or dispensation is set forth under figure, or parable; and in each of these, the characteristics of the age are given as evil,—evil throughout, -evil to the last; evil augmenting, not diminishing with the progress of the ages. Evil, and its development during this dispensation, may be said to be the main burden of these parables. It might have been expected by the Church, that by the incarnation of the Eternal Son, and his sin-bearing work upon the cross, evil had been now arrested in the earth, and was forthwith to dry up from off its surface; the Lord teaches them that his coming would call up new forms of evil,-that instead of the good obtaining a speedy triumph over the evil, it would be trodden down, and that no amelioration in the world was to be expected, till he himself should return. His absence would leave room for new manifestations, new developments of evil; and by his personal presence were these to be brought to an end. In the parable of the Sower, we are taught that three at least, out of four classes of Gospel-hearers, reject the word proclaimed to them. This is to be the characteristic of the present dispensation, but not of the Millennial one. From the parable of the Tares, we learn that the false and the true are to be inseparably intermingled in this age; intermingled till "the Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them that work iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." (Matt. xiii. 41, 42.) Where is there room for a Millennium here before the Advent? In the parable of the Net, we find the same statements as to the unbroken evil of the present age until the Lord come. From the parable of the afflicted widow, we