many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them. Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm: thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee. Thus saith the Lord God, It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought: And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which

have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land" (Ezekiel xxxviii. 1-12).

In the following chapter we have the terrible overthrow of this vast host described :-" Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel: And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand. Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured. Thou shalt fall upon the open field; for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God. And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that

dwell carelessly in the isles; and they shall know that I am the Lord. So will I make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel; and I will not let them pollute My holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel. Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord God; this is the day whereof I have spoken. And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the hand-staves, and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years" (Ezekiel xxxix. 1-9).

There is another Prophecy, referring to a period just after the Millenium, in Rev. xx. 8, which introduces Gog and Magog, a circumstance that has led many to refer this Prophecy of Ezekiel to the same period. But the attack described by Ezekiel must occur before the Millennium, as the slightest examination of the two chapters will prove. It is distinctly stated that the conversion of the Jews takes place as the result of, and after, the battle: "The house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day and forward”—(xxxix. 22); "So will I make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel; and I will not let them pollute My holy name any more" (7). Besides, other passages plainly intimate that the issue of the battle will be instrumental in diffusing the knowledge and glory of God throughout the world; which is a plain proof that it takes place before the Millennium. —(See xxxviii. 23, and xxxix. 7—21).

If the above be the true Scriptural account of the "Great Tribulation" of the latter days, it will be obvious that Dr.

CUMMING is altogether mistaken in his recent work on that subject. He is in error as regards the people who experience this visitation—as regards the period of its occurrence- and as regards the nature of the Tribulation.

There is another inference, also, which we are justified in drawing from the foregoing remarks. If this account of the Great Tribulation be the Scriptural one, then Dr. CUMMING'S theory as to the year 1867 being the coming of the Son of man, and the end of the world, is simply IMPOSSIBLE. The Jews are not yet restored to their own land. There are no immediate signs of such an event being near. If it should commence next year, even, it must, in the very nature of things, occupy some considerable time. If to this delay we add the time consumed in organising a confederation against Jerusalem, and the period occupied in the siege of the city, it is certain that at the very least some two or three years, from the present time, must elapse before the Great Tribulation occurs. Now, as we are expressly told, that after all is over, seven years more will be occupied in burning the weapons of war belonging to the invading army (Ezek. xxxix, 9), it is certain that the coming of Christ cannot take place, as Dr. CUMMING "is satisfied" it will, in 1867, because, as he himself states, that coming will be attended with a conflagration which will consume all terrestrial things.

E

CHAPTER VI.

The Future of Europe.

On the pouring out of the SEVENTH VIAL, a great voice is heard from the throne of God-proclaiming the ominous words "IT IS DONE!" As regards this terrific judgment, Dr. CUMMING gives us his views of it, in the Preface to his "Great Tribulation." He says, "I stated in Apocalyptic Sketches,' that the last Vial-that is the symbol which denotes the source and measure and duration of the Great Tribulation'-was, in all probability, poured out in 1848, from which time to 1867 we may expect to feel its intensest effects" (p. 1). He afterwards proceeds to mention what he considers to have been the results of this Vial, up to the present time. These are the potato and vine blight-cholera and diptheria-the Continental revolutions of 1848-the Russian war-the earthquake at Naples the commercial panic of 1857-the present universal derangement of social and national life—“ and if one might enumerate the incessant murders, and suicides, and poisonings with which the papers teem, of moral life also"-the Italian war, just over-and the present unsettled state of Europe and Asia.

In opposition to this theory, we will now, with the reader's permission, endeavour to show what is the Scriptural account of this last and closing judgment of the Most High; believing as we do that the statements of Dr. CUMMING are altogether erroneous, and that the fearful judgment of the Seventh Vial is wholly FUTURE. We begin by observing-what the attentive student of the Apocalypse has probably observed that the grand catastrophe of this Seventh Vial has already been twice pourtrayed in this mysterious book. First, under the Sixth Seal, and then again under the Seventh Trumpet. Indeed, each of the great series of visions, which the Apocalypse contains—the Seals, Trumpets, and Vials-all end in the grand finale. (See Rev. vi. 12—17. xi. 17—19 and xvi. 18-21). So that the Apocalypse resembles some work on history, for instance, in which the author goes over the same ground again in two or three successive chapters, in order to contemplate the same period from different stand-points. Thus, as we view the prophecy, the Seals sketch the successive phases of the Church, from the times of Apostolic purity ("a white horse"), down to those of Papal corruption ("a pale or livid-green horse"): and close with the long-delayed vengeance on the Apostate Church, under the Sixth Seal. The Seventh Seal introduces the Seven Trumpets, under which the political history of Christendom seems to be sketched during the same period of time as that embraced in the Seals. The Seventh Trumpet— though perhaps of wider import-describes substantially the same great event as the Sixth Seal-the final vengeance of God on the persecutors of His people. The Seven Vials again seem to be chiefly an expansion of this