that Napoleon was designated in the prophecy as the seventh head of the beast, to instance another individual who ever lived, or who may still live, who can possibly with equal exactness meet all the requirements of the original prophecy.

The author is quite aware that there are many, and among them some of the most learned and the soundest interpreters of prophecy who have been raised up in the Church during the last quarter of a century, who have arrived at the same conclusions from the study of the various prophecies concerning the last Antichrist; and the public must not suppose, therefore, though this announcement may now possibly appear in print for the first time, that it is the rash and indefensible conjecture of a nameless writer, who shields himself from the consequences of his temerity under his incognito. Startling as such a declaration may appear to many who may have pursued the study of the unfulfilled prophecies more as an abstract science than as solemn verities, there is nothing really difficult of credence in such a supposition; for, if a firm faith is professed in the resurrection of every saint's body for good, it surely does not require any extension of a man's belief to suppose that others may be raised for evil, without attempting any argument in this place in support of the assertion that the Scripture prophecies expressly declare the fact. The author, however, has no

thing to do with other men's faith: the truth is seldom found with the majority, and he is not writing for the purpose of gathering votes in the Church in support of a favourite system, which, by the absorbing concentration of all his faculties, has at length become to him as a prostituted idol, drawing by its outward attractions the heart and affections from God. He writes as between the living and the dead-he writes as one deeply impressed himself with the tremendous responsibility of one who treats of such a momentous subject, and expects the almost instant realization of the events he portrays-in short, he writes under the solemn conviction that, ere the pen be dry which inscribes these words, the angels of God may summon him into the immediate presence-chamber of the King himself. The imperishable glories of the supernatural world, with which even now we are surrounded, are only hidden from our consciousness by the tabernacle of that flesh in which we now dwell; and who can tell that that glorious array is not now marshalling in the heavens, which shall burst at once upon the enraptured gaze of those saints of God, who are watching with breathless anticipation the summons of Him at whose voice this mortal shall put on immortality, and this corruption be clothed with the incorruptible? With such avoved expectations, therefore, let us not sleep as do others;

C

but watch and pray, lest that day come upon us

unawares.

In the early part of the current year, whilst talking to a friend upon the subject of the present work, the author said "If the interpretation of the unfulfilled prophecies, as contained in the Retrospect, be true, then some manifest token of God's approaching judgment will take place this year, and of such a marked and distinguished character as to leave little doubt of its origin.” These words were penned in the month of October, and he now points to the whole of Europe, suffering from a blight upon the fruits of the earth, and to the various comments in the common newspapers, in confirmation of the fact that the prediction has been fulfilled. What is in store for the nations of Christendom during the approaching winter he does not venture to predict; but he reminds the faithful in the Church, and those who have not suffered OTHER THINGS to induce them to regard the coming and kingdom of our Lord as a cunningly devised fable, that they are urged "when these things BEGIN to come to pass, then to look up, and lift up their heads; for their redemption draweth nigh."

There is almost a universal reluctance in mankind to recognize the interference of God's hand in mundane affairs. Men eagerly seek, and as readily adopt, any suggestion of human ingenuity

as to the operative cause of any phenomena in the natural world, rather than admit the alarming suspicion that God Himself has any direct hand in their production. It is this repugnance in man to acknowledge God in the way of judgment, and especially in reference to the judgments of the last day, that gives point to the inspired prophet's declaration" LORD, WHEN THY HAND IS LIFTED UP, THEY WILL NOT SEE: BUT THEY SHALL SEE, AND BE ASHAMED FOR THEIR ENVY AT THE

PEOPLE. It is as the instinct of the ox, which doggedly resists the hand that goads him to the slaughter-house. Men do not desire to acknowledge that the judgments which are even now abroad upon the earth are the direct visitation of God's displeasure; and, therefore, they will persist in shutting their eyes as long as they can to the palpable fact. It is as the resistance of stubborn and rebellious children, who steel their hearts, and will not be exercised by the chastening of the Lord.

Let any man attentively peruse, in the public papers, the discussions to which the present fearful calamity in Ireland has given rise, and he will see every variety of conjecture advanced as to the operative cause of this national disaster, and almost every form of human remedy suggested for its future prevention, and scarcely an indication of the existence of a remote suspicion that God

Himself has aught to do with the matter: and almost the only exceptions to the truth of this remark are found in those whose business it is to investigate facts, or whose relative interests in the country which is more immediately the scene of this judgment of God forces the appalling truth upon their notice, and wrings from them some acknowledgment that such a sudden infliction of human woe can only be attributed to the immediate hand of God: nor do the loose and indefinite admissions which occasionally occur in the popular organs of the day supply any adequate exception to the general rule.

Surely the time for warnings and predictions has ceased, and the time of fulfilment has at last arrived; and the Church has little now to do but to point to the several acts of judgments as they roll in fearful succession upon the doomed earth. And though fearfulness hath come upon the hypocrites in Zion, yet the day of redemption of Christ's faithful ones is at hand; and every fresh burst of the coming storm, and every renewed peal of the approaching thunder, whisper peace to the soul and spirit of him who hath the witness within himself that his redemption draweth nigh. The same acts which are the announcement of woe to others are to such an one as the accents of melting love that wooes the bride to the arms of her beloved.