The first chapter of the book is full of promise. It is on "The Glorious Deliverance." The text of Scripture selected as the motto is," And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book" (Dan. xii. 1).

"I accept," thus commences the author, "the generally received opinion of commentators, that Michael, the prince that standeth for the ancient people of God, is not a created angel, but our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The prophecy seems to imply that having long been seated on his throne as Mediator, interceding in behalf of his own, that man's extremity will become his opportunity; and that he will stand up towards the close of this present Christian economy, amid miracles, and stupendous phenomena, and great and startling issues in behalf of his cast-off, but not finally cast-out people, the remnants of the house of Judah and of Israel. It is plain from the language, thy people,' addressed to Daniel, an inspired prophet, and yet an enthusiastic and patriotic Jew, that the interposition of Christ on this occasion will be primarily in behalf of that remarkable race still preserved, often assailed, but never crushed; like their own burning bush, always blazing, and not consumed; and that the time will come when they, so long cast out, shall at length be grafted in, and restored to their own land; for a Deliverer, as quoted by the Apostle in the Epistle to the Romans, shall come out of Sion, and shall turn away unworldliness from all the children of Jacob. "Thy people,' therefore are primarily the Jews."

Then follows, after a long digression, about the dispersion of the Jews, and the abduction of the Jewish boy Mortara, and the residence of the Prince of Wales in Rome, and so forth :

66

At this period of trouble Christ interposes; having no sympathy with him that assumes to represent him, and stands up amidst stupendous miracles of mercy and of unobliterated love, in

behalf of a people persecuted, a by-word, a scoff and a hissing among all nations; restores them to their land; replaces them in their ancient and illustrious capital.

"But when this takes place, there will be a time of great trouble. At that time there will be a time of such trouble as has not been on the earth since there was a nation;' and which is stated in the New Testament to be a time of such trouble that there never will be any trouble equal to it. We have that time of trouble delineated in St. Matthew, where, after some portraits of the judgments upon Jerusalem, he gives a reference, clear and unmistakeable, to the close of this present economy. The great time of trouble began in 1848 in other words, it synchronises with the pouring out of the seventh vial; at which the first shock of the great European earthquake occurred: its succeeding shocks still steadily occur, year after year. Review at your leisure the events that have transpired since that time. Why we are no sooner out of one trouble-I mean the world-than we are plunged into another. In 1849, Europe, Asia, America, were desolated by an overwhelming pestilence; in 1850, Rome, anticipating its ruin, made its last spasmodic grasp or clutch at the sceptre of England, if perchance it might retain a last footing before it goes down into the depths of ruin. In 1851, we had a bright glimpse, by way of symbol, earnest, or type of millennial peace. Then, after that we had the first hint of the complications in the East; then, from 1854, a war which has sent streams of bitterness into many a happy English home, and left cold shadows upon many a once-bounding English heart. The dead that sleep in the distant Crimea will not soon be forgotten; and I trust the memories of the brave that fell there will never come before us without thanks and gratitude for those that so heroically fought, and many of them so hopefully and piously fell. No sooner had the Russian war been closed, than the great Indian storm burst upon Asia; an Empire was in peril; and again how many homes have lost their brightest lights in consequence of that cruel, atrocious, and murderous outburst of a deceived, infatuated, and misguided native population! No sooner had that been lulled, by God's blessing on the heroism of our troops, and the sagacious diplomacy of those who had to rule the storm, than, like a thunder-cloud, we saw all Europe mustering to battle; and upon the beautiful plains of Italy half a million of men met in deadly conflict, and thousands are numbered with the dead. I stated before, what many thought, was impossible, that Russia's destiny

was the East. We read in some of the papers, on what authority I don't know, but I infer from the quarter it must be right, that Russia now combines with France; and two such powerful autocrats would seem to be a match for the whole world."

"I believe that our own land, whatever be the combination that girdles it even as if it should girdle it with fire-is destined to emerge comparatively unscathed from the conflict; and old England's sun will not set till it mingles with the splendour of that sun that shall have no cloud and no western declension. We separated from the great Apostacy at the Reformation, and God has blessed us ever since, and God will bless us still; and I believe, with all our faults—and we dare not deny them, and we would not conceal them-there is in the depth of our nation a piety, a living religion, unprecedented in its history, and with which no other nation in its spiritual condition can for one moment be compared."

After mentioning the occurrence for the first time of a Hebrew word in Rev. xix., as a proof that the restoration of the Jews is referred to in that striking prophecy, we read :

"Now at this very time, mark you, when the judgments come upon the great apostacy, where you hear the voice of the Jew clear and unmistakeable in the great anthem peal, you will find at the close of the chapter a picture of the tribulation which Daniel makes synchronous with these two grand events. 'I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood :' the language of awful conflict. 'And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; and he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.' And then mark what takes place And I saw the beast'-the wild beast, the symbol of the great western apostacy—‘and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.' And what was the issue? 'And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet'-the exponent of his voice, the priesthood—that wrought miracles before him. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.' The word brimstone is derived from the German,

and means simply burning stone.

'And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth.' Now, that chapter seems evidently to synchronise with the verse on which I have now been commenting in Daniel xii. Well, then, 'All thy people shall be delivered; ' that is, in the midst of the judgments which I have delineated, or rather, which I have read, God's ancient people, if this refers to the Jews, as I think it does, as well as the first clause, 'shall be delivered.' And the apostle, speaking of this very event, makes the striking remark, 'If the casting away of the Jews has been the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead?' All Israel, he says, shall be saved; and God shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. The branches that were broken off shall be grafted in, and God's goodness as well as severity shall be exhibited in their case."

But

The author then goes back 1800 years, and gives us, by way of variety a lecture on the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, under the title of "The Doomed City." Then comes Lecture 3rd, "The Great Convulsion, or Shaking of Nations." Surely, we said, here at last we have some real prophetical exposition, about the future of Europe. we were mistaken. The whole lecture is upon the existing condition of the missionary cause-the present state of Europe and the world generally. Not half a dozen sentences are occupied with prophetical exigesis. Still worse in this particular is Lecture 4th, on "Things Coming on the Earth." This being the very subject of the bookwhich bears the title of "THE GREAT TRIBULATION: OR, THE THINGS COMING ON THE EARTH❞—it was natural to suppose, that here at last we should certainly find the views of Dr. CUMMING fully set forth, supported by the statements of Holy Writ. But no such thing: it is a disquisition on the declension of religion in the churches of Christ generally, mixed up with a description of the famine of

Ireland, the cholera of 1854, and the earthquake that took place in 1857 in Italy. To illustrate this last, two long letters from the Times' correspondent are inserted verbatim, reaching through nearly six closely-printed pages!

Then follow lectures on "Evening Clouds," "The Last Witness"—that is, the preaching of the Gospel throughout the world; and many other poetical and romantic-sounding titles, such as "Evening Light," "The Standing Miracle," "Nearing Deliverance," "The Day and the Hour," "The Glory-filled Earth," &c. At last we get (at page 240) a lecture on 66 "1867," and here we find something more befitting a work professedly on Prophecy. The motto of the lecture is Dan. xii. 11, 12,—"And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five-and-thirty days."

The following is the substance of the author's remarks on these very important dates of Daniel :—

"What I shall endeavour to show now is this, that whatever theories of the fulfilment of these dates are held, whether they fix the commencement at this period, or at that period, or at some other period, nearly all concur in one remarkable conclusion, namely, that 1867 is to be the great crisis, the testing crisis in the events of history, in the fulfilment of prophecy, and in the experience of mankind. What I wish to show is, that the best, the wisest, and the most thoughtful of writers on the subject of prophecy, however much they may differ in certain details—and they do differ-nearly all coincide in this, that 1867 is to be a great crisis; and that if all that some expect to occur at that period do not occur, we are at least on the eve of events, as Lord Carlisle has expressed it in his work upon Daniel, the most stupendous, if not ushering in the very close of this present Christian