viour's presence, the same imperishable body now as ever; and we who have our faith, hope, and comfort grounded on no other assurance, must regard her as the instrument at once, and the object of all our endeavours for promoting the knowledge of Christ, and extending his kingdom; in all things acting in obedience to her authority, desirous of drawing all men by the cords of love within her pale.

And is there nothing in these eventful times, when earthly kingdoms are crumbling to their foundations, which should turn our thoughts and devotion more strongly to that heavenly kingdom, the kingdom of God and of Christ, which shall never be moved, and which imparts something of its own permanence and stability to whatever nation or people shall be loyal to its interests? Surely the circumstances under which we are now living from day to day, press upon a reflecting mind with a weight, to which the oldest amongst us can remember nothing parallel. Whether we lie down or rise up, in the business of life, or in the solitude of our secret chamber, the thought lies heavy on our souls, that days of darkness and sorrow are at hand; that a storm is gathering over our Church and country, which, although suspended hitherto by the merciful interposition of God only, must yet burst, sooner or later, and subject us to the severest trials. The sense of safety and security with which we have been accustomed to form schemes for future years, has given place to doubt and apprehension of what each day may bring forth. The father trembles for his children; what may be the nature of that society in which their lot shall be cast; with what privations, what violence, what spiritual destitution, what new and dreadful forms of temptation they may be doomed to struggle. I cannot be so faithless and ungrateful as to forget the signal mercies and deli

verances of the three last perilous years; that we meet together to-day, hurt by no persecutions, to consult and pray for the welfare of Christ's Church; what an instance is this common and little regarded privilege of God's especial favour and protection! To how many parts of what once was Christendom may we look in vain for such a spectacle of sacred order and peace? Still, a note of fear must mingle with the voice of praise; we have had many severe but salutary lessons, which have scattered the vain delusions of prosperity. One humble but useful root was smitten, and they were gone. The unutterable woes and pangs of famine desolated our sister island; and at home our manufacturers were idle-our looms were still. Our boasted wealthso reproductive, so inexhaustible-ran quickly to the lees; our merchant princes, the pride and glory of the earth, one by one sunk in poverty and dishonour; whilst surrounding nations looked on her whom they envied, and were only withheld by their own troubles from profiting by her hour of weakness. But of God, justly incensed by our sins, did we ask for succour, and He heard us, and has granted us this mercy in the midst of judgment-this breathing time-this space for repentance this moment of comparative peace and rest, in which we may examine the meaning of God's inflictions, see what they might have been, what they may even now be, and how far our sins may have contributed to His provocation, or our penitence to His forgiveness. Who can look with indifference on that eastern plague, which even now is smouldering as it were through the torpid months of winter in this sinful country? Will he awake in the spring, and pursue his mission of vengeance? and may not provinces suffer now, which escaped his former visitation? We of this city and district had health in our dwellings, whilst in

others there was scarcely a house where there was not one dead. But shall we be so exempt again? Are the habitations of our hearts so washed by the blood of Christ, so marked with his sign, so tenanted by his Spirit, as that we may hope to survive, and celebrate here on earth, with praise and thanksgiving, a double passover our temporal deliverance, and our eternal redemption? "He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." He who shall keep the faith of Christ inviolate, and resist the contagion of an evil world, whether he live or die, shall find security and peace. But we may fear that the warning of that first judgment has been generally disregarded; that the second will find this nation unconverted, unreclaimed ; there is the same heaving of discontent and rebellion now as then; the same hatred and opposition to the true faith and Church, although they are less embodied in a systematic scheme of attack than at the time of which I speak; the same forgetfulness of God's presence and goodness; the same lukewarmness in His cause; the same general carelessness for the sending abroad of His truth and His word; and for the salvation of His people.

If such be the state of our own country, alone upright amid the ruin of thrones, and principalities, and powers, whither shall we look for hope? "Woe unto the world, because of iniquity." Heaven appears the alone scene of triumph, and this present life a period of sorrow, and temptation, and persecution. But it shall be well with the righteous, that we know; the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church; the hosts of the redeemed shall be glorious and innumerable-"ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands." Let faith anchor on this certainty, and await with calm determination the stormy and, it may be,

adverse conflicts which she must endure on carth. "The sea and the waves roaring;" evil men and evil spirits becoming every day more powerful in their malice, because" the time is short," and "our redemption draweth nigh." The words of our Lord Himself lead uniformly to this conclusion, rather than to the brighter and more popular view of the earlier prophecies. His are plain expressions, which it is impossible to misinterpret, and they serve to elucidate all the rest. When faith and love shall be on the wane, when sin shall become more exceeding sinful than ever, and at the same time the Gospel shall be preached in all the world, then shall the end be.

When we turn from the sacred page to the actual state of the world, who can resist the conviction that we are at this moment living in those awful times of which our Lord spake? I do not mean to affirm that the end of all things is near, as men count distance; but that last striking point of coincidence in our Saviour's prophecy (St. Matt. 24), and in the present era, may assure us that we are in the last days, in that current of principles and motives and events, which shall flow on unto the end, without any material, or at least universal change in the spiritual fortunes of mankind. "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness to all nations ;" and it is preached, "Their sound is gone out into all lands, and their words unto the ends of the world." This wonderful message goes forth in its purity, and is heard with more or less distinctness in every quarter of the globe; but it goes forth not so much to convert the world, as to condemn it-to witness against the coldness of those who send, and the unthankfulness of those who receive it. Look around on what ought to be Christendom, divided for the most part between two dark extremes of Popish superstition and corruption,

and a cold and God-despising infidelity; in one instance, in Switzerland, they have met in conflict, and the worst of the two has been triumphant; the antagonist forces have since evinced a disposition to unite, and may proceed to the extermination of whatever remains of truth and loyalty on the earth. The man of sin may be revealed in all his hateful proportions. An anti-Christ may arise, denying the Father and the Son, far more terrible than even that corrupted form of Christianity, which so many contemplate with an almost exclusive fear. The kingdoms of the earth are already shaken by his approach. Listen to the voice of nations, of peoples, of languages, deifying man, the popular will, the sublimity of human nature, even whilst exhibited in the most revolting features of selfishness, and rapine, and almost raving madness-deposing Almighty God from His throne. In private life, new forms and intensities of crime are every day presenting themselves. None can turn their eyes from this spectacle, although the ungodly eagerness and excitement with which such accounts are read, may escape their notice ; and this in the nineteenth century since the Son of God descended upon earth to redeem and renew mankind. Has then the blessed Gospel been tried and found wanting? This is no unnatural thought, nor will it be without the aid of a false philosophy to promote and encourage it. But no-not one jot or tittle shall pass of all that God intended by the Gospel. Jesus "Christ gave himself for us, that he might purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." That sacred number has been ever since our Lord's Advent, and will be to the end of time, in the process of being accomplished. They are taken, sometimes out of great tribulation, sometimes from peaceful and happy homes, as God shall have ordered their trial, and added daily to