waters of the" figurative "Euphrates" will be completely "dried up," and thus "the way be prepared for the Kings of the East."

The remarks of Dr. CUMMING relative to the Seventh Vial, which he regards as, in all probability, poured out in 1848-and his idea that its being "poured into the air" is fulfilled in the morbific miasma prevalent during the last ten years-shows its force in the potato, the vine disease, and in altered normal condition of health and disease, are really hardly deserving of notice. How any intelligent christian man can read that awful prophecy contained in Rev. xvi. 17-21, and see its fulfilment in such petty troubles as these, we are at a loss to understand. As this Vial forms the subject of a subsequent chapter, it will be unnecessary to dwell upon it here.

If the views advocated in this chapter, as to the Vials being still future, be correct, it is obvious we are furnished with another powerful argument against the theory of Dr. CUMMING, relative to the rapid approach, and extreme proximity of the end of the present dispensation. The infliction of a succession of judgments such as these must, in the very nature of things occupy some years, yet they have not yet commenced. Still more, there

is nothing to indicate that their effusion is near at hand. Nay, prophecies which must receive their accomplishment before the era of the effusion of these Seven Vials, are not yet fulfilled-the death of the witnesses, their ascension into heaven, the earthquake in which "seven thousand. names of men [margin] are slain" (xi. 13) and "a third part of the city falls," the restoration of the Jews, &c. &c. Taking all these considerations into account, then, we think,

the sober student of Prophecy will be disposed to think many years must yet intervene before the word of our blessed Lord are applicable-" when these things begin to come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh" (Luke xxi. 28).

CHAPTER IV.

The Year One Thousand Gight Hundred and Sixty Six.

WE have no sympathy with those who discourage the study of unfulfilled Prophecy. This is, as we think, to defeat the very object for which Prophecy was given to the church-" to shew unto us things which must shortly come to pass." Prophecy is in fact "a light shining in a dark place" whereunto we shall "do well to take heed," instead of leaving it, as so many Christian men of the present day, would have us do, until it has been fulfilled. If a torch is given to a traveller to carry with him in journeying along a dark and dangerous road, he does not consider its principal use to be by holding it behind him, to shew the dangers he has passed, but he thrusts it before him into the darkness to ascertain those which loom ahead. So, we maintain that Prophecy is not given to the church that after its fulfilment we may compare the prediction with the event, and thus derive fresh evidence of the truth of religion. This is undoubtedly one end. But a far higher object, we believe, is contemplated by the blessed God, in conferring this vast boon upon the church. It is given to cheer, to encourage,

and support the people of God in their passage through the wilderness of this world-by showing that "the triumphing of the wicked is but short," and that a period is rapidly approaching for the downfall of the enemies of God, when the church shall at length come forth from her hiding-place -and "Gentiles shall come to her light, and kings to the brightness of her rising."

We do not find that Daniel waited thus for the accomplishment of the prophecy respecting the captivity of his people, the Jews. On the contrary, he tells us, that he studied the import of this prediction whilst it was yet unfulfilled Prophecy, and as the result we are informed that "he understood by books the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet," &c. (Dan. ix. 2.) Why, too, we would ask, should such special blessings be pronounced on the students of the Apocalypse by the Spirit of God, even when that book was first given to the church if unfulfilled prophecy be, as many would tell us, forbidden ground? "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein, for the time is at hand." Such is the opening passage to this sublime and mysterious book (Rev. i., 3). And the close is very similar :- "Blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book" (Rev. xxii. 7). How is it possible to reconcile these repeated statements in the book itself, if it be true that unfulfilled prophecy should be carefully avoided by Christian men ?

In the previous pages we have attempted to show that the opinion of Dr. CUMMING, as to the "coming of the Son of man" and close of the world happening in the

course of the next eight or ten years, is altogether devoid of any Scriptural foundation. It must not be supposed, however, that there is no truth in his statements about the year 1867. On the contrary, we are fully prepared to admit, that the year specially referred to by him, will, very probably, constitute a great crisis in the history of Europe and of the world. It seems to be the turning point in the career of the two Apocalyptic monsters,-Civil and Ecclesiastical Despotism. It is also the commencement of a bright period in the history of the Church. In short, there is abundant reason to believe that the great period of "twelve hundred and sixty years"-the era of oppression and violence-persecution and woe to God's people-will about then come to a close, and judgments, in quick succession, begin to fall on the two great enemies of Christ, the world-power, represented by the 'ten-horned beast,' and the Apostate church, in alliance with her-the 'two-horned beast' of Chapter 13th.

It would be difficult, within the whole range of human inquiry, to name a more important and deeply interesting question than that which forms the subject of the present chapter-viz., When does the great period of "twelve hundred and sixty days" come to a close ? To the Christian-to the philanthropist to the mere worldly politician,-what can equal in importance the inquiry,— How near are we to that great crisis of Military and Ecclesiastical Absolutism and Tyranny predicted in the Apocalypse? Let us attempt, then, with all seriousness and soberness to place before the reader the solid evidence on which rests our firm belief—a belief not lightly taken up, but one held for the last twenty years-that we are now on the