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the sword, saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, evil shall go from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground." Jer. xxv, 30-33. Dear reader, this is a different vision of futurity from that which is before most men's minds. But this is what is really coming. Behold, the whirlwind of the Lord goeth forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind; it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked. The fierce anger of the Lord shall not return, until he have done it, and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it." Jer. xxx, 23, 24. Observe these last words: "in the latter days ye shall consider it." Whatever foreshadowings there may have been of this terrible intervention of God's power in judgment, the fact itself has its accomplishment " in the latter days." Many a cup may have passed from one king to another, and from one nation to another; but never yet this cup which is to pass round to all, and of which none may refuse to drink. Would that even now, in these latter days, men might be warned, and led to consider these solemn and impending visitations of God's wrath.

Ezekiel had a roll presented to him, by a hand which spread it before him. What were its contents? "It was written within and without; and there was written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe.' Ezek. ii, 10. Fit emblem of the testimony he was called to bear! True, indeed, that like that of Jeremiah it was addressed very chiefly to the nation of Israel, and a great part of it in reference to circumstances at that time transpiring, or calamities at that time about to visit them. But in the latter part of the book, he looks out beyond Israel, and beyond any circumstances either passing or impending at the time he wrote. He prophesies of judgments upon all the surrounding, and even all the more distant nations: not only Ammon, and Moab, and Edom and the Philistines, but Tyre, Sidon, Egypt, the isles of Chittim, Persia, Lud, and Phut, Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, and numbers moretoo many to enumerate. It is in Ezekiel we read of a huge assembly of God's adversaries, whose overthrow is to be so terrible, that their weapons are to furnish fuel to a whole nation for seven years; and seven months are to be

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employed in burying the dead! The fowls of heaven are invited that they may eat flesh and drink blood. They are to eat the flesh of the mighty, and to drink the blood of the princes of the earth. And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord God. And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them." Ez. xxxix, 19—21. Who anticipates such an interposition of divine power and righteousness as this?

The minor prophets do not contradict, but corroborate the testimony of the others. Daniel prophesies of a mighty image, emblem of the great monarchies of this world, and of a destruction overtaking it, in which "the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, are broken to pieces together, and become like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors; and the wind carries them away, so that no place is found for them." He sets forth the same great monarchies in another chapter, by the symbol of four great beasts, the last of the four being most terrible of all. He beholds till the thrones are set, and the Ancient of days sits, a fiery stream issuing from before him, while thousands minister to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stand before him; the judgment is set, and the books are opened. He still beholds till the beast is slain and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame. See Dan. vii. I need not stop to discuss the meaning of these symbols. As far as our present subject is concerned, their language is sufficiently clear. It speaks of judgments yet to come, such as we have found foretold by all the prophets, to whose predictions we have as yet referred.

Joel testifies of a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness; a day ushered in by wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke, the sun turned into darkness, and the moon into blood. He speaks of God sitting in the valley of Jehoshaphat to judge all the heathen round about. "Multitudes," he says, "multitudes in the valley of decision; for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision." In Micah's prophecy we hear God saying, "I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen, such as they have not heard." Zephaniah witnesses of the

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great day of the Lord, a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness." He speaks of God bringing distress upon men, so "that they shall walk like blind men, and their blood be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung." Haggai's voice to us is, "For thus saith the Lord of hosts, Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations." And again, “I will shake the heavens and the earth; and I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen; and I will overthrow the chariots, and those that ride in them; and the horses and their riders shall come down,every one by the sword of his brother." Passing over Zechariah, who nevertheless does testify most distinctly to these approaching judgments, we come to Malachi, the last of the prophets of the Old Testament. And what is the message he bears? "Behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts." With such anticipations of "the great and dreadful day of the Lord," does the Old Testament close. Its very earliest intimations of that future which awaits this poor, giddy, thoughtless, proud, and boasting world, are in perfect and solemn harmony with the warnings which terminate the book. God grant, that this passing glance at the solemn depositions, made by these many witnesses at various times during a period of thousands of years, may not be lost upon the consciences of those who read these pages.

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In turning to the New Testament, we must bear in mind that its grand subject is not judgment, but grace. "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth, came by Jesus Christ." "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." Nor is it the testimony of mere prophets to which we listen in the New Testament. "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son." But while the grace of the message, and the divine dignity of the messenger, thus wondrously comport

with each other, what shall be said to the guilt of those who reject the message, and despise the messenger? And this is the guilt under which the world lies. A few in each successive generation, have had their hearts opened by almighty grace, to receive the one and welcome the other. These, if left to their own inclinations would, like all the rest, have continued to reject both. But as to the mass of mankind, yea, even in those countries where Christ is nominally owned, they join with one consent to slight, to neglect, to despise God's embassy of peace. Nay, worse than this, in nominally christian countries, the name, and the ostensible authority of Christ, are used to consecrate the sins from which he came to deliver us,-to bind more firmly on men's souls, the chains and shackles from which he came to release us. Christianity, instead of converting the world, as is the boast of our day, has itself been corrupted, and is the means in this corrupted state, of plunging men (with fairer appearances) into deeper moral debasement than that in which it found them. It is for this, that judgment is at the door. God has long patience, and we know that his long-suffering is salvation. He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But ere long, he who once came in humiliation, will come in glory. He who once came to suffer and to save, will come to judge. First, must the co-heirs of his glory be quickened to know and to confess him; and when these have been all brought in by grace, the One who has been owned by them in his rejection, will come, as we saw in a previous paper, to receive them to himself. This is the first stage in his return to the earth. But when he has thus taken away the true church, wickedness on the earth will come to its full head, and he will descend, accompanied or followed by his glorified saints, to execute the judgments of which we have been hearing in the Old Testament, and of which we have abundant warning in the numerous and explicit predictions of the New Testament as well. I do not now refer to them as proofs of Christ's speedy coming. We shall, if the Lord will, consider them thus, ere long. I now adduce them, as following on in the train of those already cited from the Old Testament, as premonitory of those approaching judgments, which will shortly burst upon an astonished and affrighted world.

What can be more solemn than the testimony of our Lord himself? Does he not tell us of tares mingled with

the wheat and continuing till the time of harvest? Does he not declare that at the time of harvest the tares shall be gathered into bundles to be burned, and the wheat gathered into the barn? And does he not in explanation of this parable assure us, that at the end of the age (see the Greek) "the Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth?" Does he not apply to himself the Psalmist's words as to the rejected stone becoming the head of the corner? And while he intimates that any, during this whole period, who fall on this stone, or stumble over it, shall be broken, does he not also warn us, that the stone itself is yet to fall, and that on whomsoever it does fall, it will grind him to powder? Does he not tell us of a time of tribulation to which there has been, and shall be, no parallel, and which is immediately succeeded by signs in the heavens, the sun darkened, the moon not giving her light, the stars falling, and the powers of the heavens being shaken?" And then," he adds, "shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory." Does not our Lord in another gospel utter the words quoted at the commencement of this paper?" And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Ever thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed." Does he not set forth to us the whole subject of his rejection, and absence, and return, in the parable of the nobleman, who went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return? "His citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us." His servants were left to occupy in his absence. Among these, when he returns, he distributes the tokens of his approval or displeasure; but what becomes of the citizens who hated him, and would not submit to his reign? "But those mine enemies, which