and clearly of glory, honour, and immortality. The business proceeds. Men are pledged and busy on every side: and the end,—yes, the end— the day of the Lord's reckoning, the coming of Jesus Christ draweth nigh.

With what marvellous variety of feelings do we await the crisis! To every dishonest mind, to every plausible hypocrite, to every flatterer and backbiter, to every secret cheat, and thief, and liar, and drunkard, to every fornicator, idolater, adulterer, extortioner, to ever self-righteous formalist, every self-deceived sentimentalist, every heady high-minded Antinomian, to every unbeliever of every class and every character, the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ will prove the thunderclap of death-eternal death! The brightness of it will strike the ungodly into hell, and the awful sound of it will roll in unabated fury over them throughout eternity! But to the children of God, to the believer in Jesus crucified and risen from the dead, to the self-condemning penitent, humbly weeping at the foot of the cross, and reposing in holy peace upon the precious blood of sprinkling; to every new creature quickened by the Holy Ghost, groaning after deliverance from this body of death, and thirsting for higher and nearer conformity to the character of God's dear Son-to every such child of God who has fallen asleep in Jesus since the beginning of the world, and to every such child of God who shall be then alive upon the earth, the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ will be light, and life, and joy; de

liverance from every danger, every sorrow, every sin; the birthday of admission to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away; unmingled gladness, because unmingled holiness; perfect conformity to the image of Jesus! Hallelujah! O Lord Jesus! when shall it be? Hasten it in its time! Even so come!

SERMON II.

SIGNS OF THE SECOND ADVENT OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.

“And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud, with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh."-ST LUKE xxi. 24–28.

THESE

HESE are words of high solemnity in themselves, and to ascertain the right meaning of them must needs be a matter of lively interest to every true disciple of Christ. Of affectionate and practical interest; for, my dear brethren, an inquiry into the unfulfilled prophecies of the Word of the Lord, so far from being a mark of carnal inquisitiveness, and curious unsanctified speculation, as it has been rashly represented to be, is in truth an exercise of that sincere love towards an absent brother, which should make his family, who have

SER. II. SIGNS OF THE SECOND ADVENT, ETC.

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received a communication from him, burn with shame for having left it so long unexamined; nay, at having avowed (and boasted of their spirituality and genuine love for their absent brother in avowing) that they could do without understanding so much of its contents.

What is prophecy? A simple answer to this simple question will materially assist us in the investigation of the passage now before us. Here we are assembled on the 30th of November, in the year of our Lord 1834, and in the year of the world, as we believe, 5838. Now let us consider time as a great chain, and every year a link. At this moment we are fastened to one link of this chain. If we look back, we can trace several links. First, and simplest by the exercise of our own memory we can get into the link next behind us, (that is, last year,) and to the link next behind that; and there are probably persons here present who in this way can retrace fifty, or sixty, or seventy links. So ends individual experience. But then, by means of authentic history we can get still further back. For example, we can contemplate the year 1760, when George III. ascended the throne of England; or tracing back a hundred links more through the Restoration, we can go to the year 1660, when Cromwell usurped the government of this kingdom; or tracing another hundred links, we can go to the reign of Mary, in 1560, when the Protestant Reformers were persecuted and burned as heretics; or retracing above a thousand links more, and turning our attention

to Italy instead of England, we may behold the imperial armies of Vespasian and Titus; and following them to the land of Judea, we may contemplate the execution of the predicted ruin upon the Jewish nation, and Jerusalem, the Holy City. Or, looking still further back, we may reach the days of Cæsar Augustus, when Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea. Or, stretching backward again, through six hundred links, we may discern the magnificence of Babylon, under Nebuchadnezzar the king. And thus going back, we might find Moses upon the chain of time, and Abraham, and Noah, and Enoch, and Adam.

We perceive, then, how wide a field is open to our contemplation when we look backward, and thus we become prepared to appreciate an intelligent answer to the question, What is prophecy?

To prophesy is to look forward, and tell the events of years to come, even as history tells the events of years that are past. Who then can proenter into the next

phesy? Who on this day can

link of time, and tell us what shall be in 1835 ? Nay, who can trace even this expiring link to its close, arrive with precision at the 31st December, and tell us what shall be at its junction with the 1st of January? Nay, more-who can tell what a day, or an hour, may bring forth ?

Here we stand! If we look back, we have a bright stream of light and knowledge: if we look forward, we look into darkness impenetrable by man. Who then can prophesy? Only the living God, with whom is no darkness at all,-the great