same rays of light falling on a picture, when viewed from the proper position, will enable us clearly to discern the beauties which the canvass pourtrays; but if viewed from another point the whole scene is rendered indistinct, so that that which was before clear becomes undistinguishable. So is it in bringing true light to the word of God -in the one case the most perfect beauty and harmony is seen, whilst the other presents a confused mass of apparent inconsistencies and contradictions. It is perfectly true that when the Lord Jesus Christ actually comes to this earth, and His feet stand in that day on the Mount of Olives, that it is the closing of the Gentile dispensation; but it is also equally true that this act of touching the earth is at the termination of the seventh Vial, and is the last consummating act of judgment by which the apostate Gentile Church shall be swept from the face of the earth; and, correctly and critically speaking, ought only to be called His coming. It is that act of the God Man when he shall rend the heavens and come down; when the mountain that receives Him shall cleave in two; and when He shall consume the infidel Antichrist with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy him with the brightness of His coming. This is the final and consummating act in the drama of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, of which the first is-His appear ance in vision at the commencement of the seventh Vial, in the act of witnessing which the living saints are enraptured into the air. But we must restrain ourselves, though with much difficulty, from entering upon a subject of such deep and solemn interest; but we cannot refrain from adding, at the close of this Number, that if this vast and countless multitude are gathered out of "the great tribulation," and that "great tribulation" is the seventh and last Vial, the conclusion is incontrovertible that the Gospel dispensation DOES extend through the gloomy horrors of that day; for it is expressly declared that "they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb;" and, if not gathered out of the Gentile dispensation, under what dispensation can they possibly stand? We abstain, however, from anticipating the subject of our next Number; but we were unwilling to allow any of our readers, in the interim, to perplex their minds and disturb their faith with objections that are only apparent, and which supposed difficulties, on close examination, so far from disturbing the theory we advocate will be found to furnish us with the strongest arguments in its favour, and will fix and confirm it in every essential point, stamping upon it the impress of truth itself. We have sufficient evidence before us that the present publication has touched a string in the heart of the Church; and we have most earnestly to entreat our readers, should any of the truths we seek to lay before them present, by their arrangement, the appearance of novelty, that they will judge of their accuracy by the word of God itself, and by the analogy of His dealings with man, rather than by testing them with any preconceived notions already formed for we may be assured that the greatest hindrance to the entrance of truth into the heart of man is presented by its pre-occupation in another form. When the High Priest came out from the holiest of all, in the day of Jubilee, in his glorious apparel, the joyful news was communicated to the whole nation, that the Jubilee year had commenced, by trumpeters stationed for the purpose upon the top of every high hill. We call on every one, whose heart these tidings thrill, to send the joyful sound throughout the land, that our glorious High Priest is coming out from the Heaven of Heavens, and that we, with Him, shall shortly rejoice in that Jubilee of which all others were but the feeble type. Let the joyful news gladden every heart and let our watchword to each other be-"THE LORD AT HAND!" (To be continued.) PRELIMINARY REMARKS ΤΟ THE APPENDIX. It is one of the most interesting features accompanying the study of prophecy, if only regarded as a mere scientific research, that the student is enabled to observe the variegated light which sheds its rays upon the unfulfilled purposes of God, and to watch the remodelling by more modern commentators of the interpretations of earlier writers. When the general principles upon which such anticipative interpretations are suggested are well established, it frequently happens that the event predicted corresponds with remarkable precision to the prophecy itself, which ought, however, to be put forth in the argumentative rather than the dogmatical style, since it is impossible for the most judicious and intelligent interpreter of prophecy to foresee the exact manner of the fulfilment. Dr. Gill expressly foretold a revolution in France, that should take place at the latter end of the last century, many years before there was the slightest expectation of such an event and Bicheno predicted, long before the rise of Napoleon, that a powerful king or emperor should spring up, as head of one of the principal kingdoms in Europe, whose commission should be to scourge the Papal nations of the earth as the sun of the fourth Vial of wrath; and so little prospect existed at the time that this power should arise in France, that that kingdom was only mentioned in connection with other powerful European States as likely to produce this mighty conqueror. It is probable that Dr. Gill followed the interpretation of the celebrated M. Jurieu, who wrote a work entitled "The Accomplishment of the Scripture Prophecies," about the middle of the seventeenth century, and which was subsequently translated into English in the 1687. The following extracts from that translation would appear rather to be written with the precision of history, than as a conjectural fulfilment of a prophecy nearly one hundred and fifty years before its occurrence :-"It is known by all who are versed in the prophets, that, in the prophetic style, an earthquake signifies a great commotion of nations that must change the face of the world. It being supposed, and proved, that the city is the whole Babylonian, and Antichristian empire, it must be remembered that this empire year |