with the utmost freedom, dissented from his views of the Apocalyptic arrangement, yet I have read, with delight and thankfulness to God for raising up such an able witness to the truth, those passages where he paints, with the hand of a master, the present moral state and impending prospects of the earth. From one of these, I shall now give a short citation: "Oh, who that hath an eye to behold "the signs and causes of events, can fail to ob"serve what a storm is brewing in the heavens and "is ready to burst over all the earth! And the "calm which even now reigns, is the surest pre"lude of the deluge which is about to be poured "out, and the exact fulfilment of the prophecy "which, with one consent, saith that men shall be saying, Peace, Peace! when it shall come burst'ing upon them in fury; they shall be marrying, "and giving in marriage, as in Noah's time, when "the windows of heaven were opened. The wars, "and rumours of wars, which were to arise before "the end have come; and, lo, they are past; and "all Europe is pleasing itself with the imagination "of peace. But let every traveller who hath looked "into the veins and arteries of the constitution of "every kingdom thereof, say whether they are not "throbbing with the fever of passion, and every "nerve vibrating convulsively under the weight "which is oppressing it. Hear the exiles who "have fled from the face of the tyrannies to the "arms of our sheltering capital, tell of the ferment

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"which is stifled in the bosoms of their several "nations. And if you would know how ungodly "and unchristian a ferment it is, take these exiles "as an example who have ruled the short ascen"dant of popular feeling in their several lands, and, "amidst all their zeal for liberty and hatred of tyranny, hear how ignorant they are of all princi

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ples of religion and sound statesmanship, how "full their breasts are of the boiling lava of ha"tred and revenge against the authors of their wrongs."

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Such are the materials which are preparing that mighty overthrow which is coming, and I shall close this tract by adopting a short sentiment from another eminent writer of the present day, descriptive of the frame of mind which Christians should now sedulously cherish: "For the approach of "this period of unexampled tribulation, the sud"denness also of whose bursting forth is declared "as emphatically as the tremendousness of its perils and its inflictions, may the servants of "God prove themselves effectually prepared! May they be supported throughout its continuance by "the strength and the consolations of his Holy Spirit!"*

* Gisborne's Essays, p. 323.

THE END.