father David. He shall reign from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. Under his sceptre shall the twelve tribes of Israel be again united; all the nations of the earth shall share in this peace and glory, and bow together in submission to that sceptre of justice, truth, and love. The whole earth shall be covered with the knowledge of God and the light of his glory; the wicked and all the powers of wickedness shall be destroyed, and the prince of this world cast out. Jerusalem shall rise covered with glory from her state of humiliation, as the dead who have believed in Christ come forth from their graves. The last book of the Bible sums up all these blessings in its closing words,' I Jesus am the root and offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. Behold, I come quickly.'

"Never till our days has the attention of men been so forcibly drawn to the Scripture prophecies of the Old and New Testaments, nor the hearts of Christians so prepared to look for their accomplishment. This diligent search, this waking up of attention, forms the characteristic of a new era in the Christian Church; and the period from which we may date its commencement is the latter part of the eighteenth century, at precisely the same period when the epoch of revolutions began in the history of the world. This coincidence is the more worthy of remark, because at the moment when infidelity is shaking the very foundation of the Papacy, and under the guise of philosophy and rationalism threatening to undermine and endanger the Protestant Churches, behold at once a fresh banner raised, and a new rallying-point marked out, to direct the faith, the zeal, and the exertions of the Christian. On all sides voices are heard calling to a deeper and more careful investigation of the Revelation of St John, and to more literal and faithful interpretations of the prophecies of Israel, which promise not only individual conversion and future bliss, but also the visible glory of Christ and his reign upon earth over Israel and all the nations."Da Costa.

Luther's Longing for the Lord's Coming.

"I am utterly weary of life; I pray the Lord will come forthwith and carry me hence; let him come, above all, with his last judgment; I will stretch out my neck; the thunder will burst forth, and I shall be at rest. May the Lord come at once! Let him cut the whole matter short with the day of judgment; for there is no amendment (of the world) to be expected. You will see that, before long, such wickedness will prevail, life will become so terrible to bear, that in every quarter the cry will be raised, 'God! come with thy last judgment.' . . . . O God, grant that it may come without delay. I would readily eat up this necklace (one of white agates which he had in his hand) to-day, for the judgment to come to-morrow."-Table Talk.

"The empire is falling, kings are falling, princes are falling, the whole world totters, and like a great house about to tumble down, mani

fests its coming destruction by wide gaps and crevices on its surface. The world approaches its end, and it often comes into my thoughts that perhaps the day of judgment will arrive before I have finished my translation of the Bible. All the temporal events we find predicted therein have been accomplished. . . . . The hour of midnight approaches, when the cry will be heard, 'Behold, the Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him.""Ibid.

The Lord's Coming an Argument for Unity.

Let

"Consider and remember that the Judge stands at the door. this moderate your spirits, that the Lord is at hand. What a sad account will they have to make, when he comes, that shall be found to smite their fellow-servants and to make the way to the kingdom more narrow than ever he made it !”—Bunyan.

The Infidelity of the Age.

"The struggle of our English Christianity will not be with bodies of men, whether Romish or infidel, but with that ominous tendency of the human mind, too clearly indicated as it is at this moment, from end to end of Europe, which, while it relieves us from anxiety regarding the mischievous agency of individuals or of parties, inspires a deep awe, if not alarm, as it announces the final conflict of First Principles, touching religious belief."-Isaac Taylor.

The Lord's Coming.

"We are here told of a man of sin, against whose delusions we are called upon to guard, and by whose authority we must not be enthralled, else we shall be deceived into all unrighteousness. Save us, O Lord, from falling away, lest we share in the perdition that waiteth upon the great apostasy. We hold the usurpation of Rome to be evidently pointed at, and therefore let us maintain our distance, and keep up our resolute protest against its abominations. But may we not forget that there are other usurpations in the Church of Christ; and let us not be led away by the spell of great names in theology, even though on the side of Protestantism. We do very strongly feel that the controversies and confessions of the reformed Churches have given a cast to the doctrine of Scripture which has to a great extent transformed it from the pure and original model. Deliver us, O Lord, from the magic power of Antichrist in all its forms, and give us the love of the truth that we may be saved. Meanwhile let us wait the coming of our Lord, who will destroy all adversaries, and will dissipate every darkening influence by the brightness of His appearance. In His light

we shall clearly see light. And I desire to cherish a more habitual and practical faith than heretofore in that coming which even the first Christians were called to hope for with all earnestness, even though many centuries were to elapse ere the hope could be realised: and how much

more we, who are so much nearer to this great fulfilment than at the time when they believed! And whatever obscurity may rest on the prophetic matter of this chapter, there is much of clear principle bearing upon present duty. Let me especially remark that the unbelief of the truth is brought in as a counterpart to pleasure in unrighteousness; and that, on the other hand, the belief of the truth is bound together in indissoluble alliance with the sanctification of the Spirit-both, in fact, being essential constituents of our salvation, and wanting either of which we shall have no part or lot in that glory which is to be revealed. Let us stand fast, therefore, by the word of the apostles, and not by the corrupt traditions of after ages; neither let us stop short at the Bible, but hold converse with the living realities which are set forth there. May the Father and the Son take up their abode with us, and may the fruit of their blessed manifestations be our establishment in all truth, and in the practice of all righteousness! "-Dr Chalmers.

Thy Kingdom Come.

-

"Christ teacheth us in this prayer (thy kingdom come) to ask the dreadful time of doom, in which the kingdom of God shall fully come, that men may know it behoves them not to live idly or negligentlythat this time may not make ready flames and vengeance for them, but to live justly and soberly, that this time bring a crown to them."Wickliff on the Lord's Prayer.

Our World.

"It is not uninstructive to remark, from facts and feelings such as these and the instances on record are very great-how much more permanently good connects itself with matter, in the associations of the human mind, than evil. The wickedness of the wicked cannot so infeoff itself, if one may so speak, in even their contrivances of most diabolical design-screws, and boots, and thumbkins, dolorous dungeons, and scaffolds hung round with the insignia of disgrace-but that the virtues of their victims seize hold upon them, and so entirely appropriate them in the recollection of future generations, that the claim of the original possessors is lost. What a striking comment on the sacred text, 'The memory of the just is blessed; but the name of the wicked shall rot!' It seems to throw a gleam of light, too, athwart a deeply mysterious subject. It was a greatly worse time than the present in this country, when the dungeons of yonder rock were crowded with the country's most conscientious men. And yet how intense the interest with which we look back upon these times, and on the rock itself, as a sort of stepping-stone by which to ascend to their scenes of ready sacrifice, firm endurance, and high resolve! and how very poor would not the national history become, were all its records of resembling purport and character to be blotted out! The evil of the past has served but to enhance its good. May there not be a time

coming when the just made perfect shall look back upon all ill, moral and physical, with a similar feeling; when the tree of the knowledge of good and evil shall grow once more beside the tree of life, in the paradise of God, but when its fruit, rendered wholesome by the transmutative power, shall be the subject of no punitive prohibition; and when the world which we inhabit, wrapped round with holiest associations, as once the dungeon-house and scaffold of a Divine Sufferer, shall be regarded-disreputable as we may now deem its annals—with reverence and respect, as the Bass of the universe, and its history be deemed perhaps the most precious records in the archives of heaven?”*

The New Creation.

"Thus men, when a son is to appear at his coming to the estate and dignity, clothe even the servants with a new and bright garment, to glorify the heir,-so will God also clothe the creature with incorruption for the glorious liberty of the children.”—Chrysostom, Homil. on Rom. viii.

The Jews.

"Oh! shall we not lament the long rejection of the ancient people of God! Their seventy years in Babylon was nothing to this; yea, their four hundred and thirty years' bondage in Egypt was nothing to this. Alas! how long, how long shall God's anger last against that people! How long shall they lie under the guilt of the blood of Christ, which they imprecated upon themselves and their posterity, saying, 'His blood be upon us and our children!' Oh! pray, pray for that ancient people of God. Oh! pray that the blood of Shiloh may cleanse them from blood-guiltiness. When they were in favour with God, the believers among them had mind of us poor Gentiles, when we were the little sister that had no breasts; and now when we are sucking at the breasts of gospel ordinances and sacramental solemnities, oh! shall we not mind them when their breasts are cut off,' and we that were of 'the wild-olive tree, are grafted in to partake of the root and fatness of the good olive tree'? Oh! let us not boast against the branches; 'for if thou boastest thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.' Let us not boast, but let us beg that they may be grafted in; for if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead?' The day of the return and conversion of the Jews will be a day of greater gathering to Shiloh, even among the Gentiles, than we have yet seen, and it would fare better with us if we were more employed in praying for them."-Ralph Erskine.

*The above extract is from a most valuable and interesting volume, published two or three years ago, entitled The Bass Rock, giving a full account of that small rock in the Frith of Forth, which was used in the middle of the seventeenth century as a state-prison in which many godly ministers were confined.

Correspondence.

To the Editor of the Journal of Prophecy.

SIR,-I consider your Journal the most appropriate record for the enclosed extract from a beloved relative, who has been upwards of twenty years employed in missionary labours in distant parts of Africa; by which extract you will be rejoiced to learn, that, whilst some of our missionaries are carrying on their Lord's command-" Go, teach all nations they are preserved from disappointment and discouragement, by "waiting for the Lord's coming," instead of expecting the world's conversion.

....

You have frequently referred to certain objections to pre-millenarianism as inimical to missions! I know many missionaries, but none more zealous, faithful, or useful, than those connected with the writer from whose letter I make the extract. If required, I would send the original.*

I take this opportunity of expressing "God speed" to your Journal, to which I have subscribed since its commencement (sending copies to Africa, Russia, &c.); though one feature of your work, in my poor opinion, mars its spirit and lessens its benefits. I refer to your accusations, "after the manner of Paul," when touching the ministry (the well-tuned, high-toned harp) of Edward Irving!

You, sir, and your colleagues, may, under God, slay your thousands of the

*Extract.

"BEERSHEBA (AFRICA), "16th Sept. 1852.

"How wonderfully have your views of prophecy been developed and confirmed! How have the events which have rushed by us these last twenty years illustrated the all but prophetic warnings of our revered Irving, perpetuated, as they have been, by many who little intended to follow in the bright path he opened before them! Is he not still speaking'? 'Did not our hearts burn within us, when we walked to the house of God in company?' Ah! how delightful would it be to renew once more that intercourse to which I owe so much! I count it one of my greatest mercies, that my hopes of the Saviour's second coming have been sustained and strengthened, so as to take the shadow of all doubt away-shedding on my desert path a freshness and a solace more than enough to sustain me under all the horrors of surrounding heathenism.

"Dear R [a French missionary] has lately been enabled to see the 'glorious appearing' as a very prominent Scripture doctrine, and is preaching the same with beautiful simplicity and sanctified effect to our native Christians. A goodly number are travelling towards the Kingdom with us; knowledge is increased; and, as we do not expect to convert the world, we have no reason to regret the lot we have been assigned in the vineyard.

"Let me hear once more the name of our common friend [Edward Irving +] -the strong bond of union betwixt us! Tell me, how you are 'hasting unto the coming of the Son of God-how bright your prospects-and how strong your hopes.'

The writer, as well as the person addressed, formed part of "the thousands (of whom Dr Chalmers speaks) the thousands who knew the worth and were awakened by the ministry" of Edward Irving.