upon earth, and his saving health among all nations. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. These are truths that are so plain in the Old Testament that no one could possibly even superficially read its predictions and not see that it was foretold that Gentiles should be brought to the true faith of Christ, to the saving knowledge of God. But that is not what is peculiarly meant by the times of the Gentiles. The ancient Jews believed that the Gentiles should be joined with themselves in the worship of God; but that of which they were ignorant was this, that the Jews were to be cast out and the Gentiles brought in; that there is to be a Gentile dispensation distinct from, and in place of, the Jewish dispensation. This is that mystery of which the Apostle speaks, that it was unknown in former ages; that the Jew did not know that he was to be cast out and the Gentile brought in, in his place. It was taught in the Old Testament Scriptures, but it was taught so as to have been then obscure, and even to be still but little attended to by those who have studied the prophetic word. It is referred to in that remarkable first council at Jerusalem where the question of the salvation of the Gentiles was debated-whether Gentiles could be saved without being circumcised and submitting to the law of Moses. Here was the first time that the question was really debated, and St. James alleges the prophets as having declared that they could he says in the 13th and following verses, "After they had held their peace, James answered saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me; Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name: and to this agree the words of the prophets, as it is

written, after this I will return and will build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen down, and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up, that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things." Here St. James quotes the prophet Amos, in proof that there was to be a Gentile dispensation instead of a Jewish one, but the passage which he quotes appears to teach rather the opposite, for it predicts the re-building of Jerusalem, the setting up again of David's tabernacle, the restoration of David's throne, the making Jerusalem the centre of the world's blessing. Now this does not at first sight seem to imply the casting out of the Jews and the bringing in of the Gentiles, but if we look at it more carefully it will. appear that at the time of the restoration of David's tabernacle there should be found two classes of Gentiles; there were to be the residue of men, and there were also to be those Gentiles that were called by the Lord's name. Therefore at whatever time the tabernacle of David was to be set up, according to the prophet Amos, there were to be found in the world two classes of Gentiles, the residue of men and those upon whom the Lord's name is called. Now the residue of men are plainly the unconverted, idolatrous nations; and who are those Gentiles upon whom the Lord's name is called but the Christian Gentiles? If the Lord's name be Christ, those who are called by his name are Christians: therefore the prophet Amos teaches that there were to be found, at this time of the restoration of David's tabernacle, Christian Gentiles. In order to that there must have been a Gentile Christian religion, and if there were a Gentile Christian religion, Jerusalem was to be a desolated city, and

David's tabernacle in ruins, and David's throne not standing. There were to be Christianized Gentiles while the Jews were yet in captivity, and cast off from the favour of God. Here then we have in this inspired comment upon the prophet Amos, that very period alluded to by our blessed Saviour, the times of the Gentiles : "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."

If we take again our Lord's words, the times or seasons, it would imply various harvests in the Gentile dispensation, while if we are to look at the history of the Christian Church we are to expect various seasons of God's dealings with the Chris tian Church and indeed we cannot look at the page of ecclesiastical history without feeling that there were awful seasons, that spring time, summer time, harvest time, were portions of the Gentile dispensation. Let us look at the Roman empire as it stood at its then time, and then look at that Roman empire as it stood in its Christianized state, and see how did God deal with it in its seasons. Why was it that when Constantine made the Roman world nominally Christian, that so soon after did the desolating hand of God's judgments come down upon the Roman empire? Why did not the adoption of the Christian religion save the empire from this ruin? We have the mystery explained to us in the 6th chap. of Revelation: there was a cry came up from that empire, as John declares in the 9th verse, "And when he had opened the fifth seal I saw under the altar the souls of those that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held, and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on those that dwell

on the earth?" What is this altar? No altar in heaven, for there is but one altar there, and there is but one blood there, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is an altar on earth; it is the martyrs' stake, and the souls that are there are the life blood of the martyrs; as the apostle says, I am ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand; and the cry of the martyrs' blood was that which brought down the judgments of God upon the nominally Christian but really unconverted Roman empire, for we read here that when he had opened the sixth seal "There was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sack-cloth of hair, and the moon became as blood, and the stars of heaven, fell unto the earth." There we have the same symbol as you will find explained in the 34th chap. of Isaiah, where he describes the symbols of the fall of an empire. Is the prediction of the fall of the Roman empire, unrepentant for the blood of Christ's witnesses that were slain within her. Another time of the Gentiles was very remarkable,-the rise of Mahomet in the eastern church. There we have again, the scorpion power that is spoken of in this same book as we have it described in the 9th chap. and 18th verse, as killing the third part of men by the fire and by the smoke and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouths and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads and with them they do hurt. The prophet that teacheth lies, says Isaiah, he is the tail, the men that belonged to the false prophet, the Mahometan power which arose to slay the third part of men when the Roman empire in its eastern and western and southern divisions was divided into three parts, Europe in

one part, Asia in the second, and Africa in the other. The Asiatic power is here described, the Mahome tan power triumphing over the nominally christian, but really degraded churches of the east, they who were false prophets triumphing over those who were but false Christians; the crescent triumphing over the crucifix. And then he says the rest of the men which were not killed of these plagues, but yet repented not of the works of their hands, "that they should not worship devils and idols of gold and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood, which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk, and neither repented them of their murders, their sorceries, nor of their fornications, nor of their thefts." There we have the third part of men, and the rest of the men,— the other christian churches, remaining still in their idolatrous corruptions, worshipping demons instead of Christ, worshipping idols instead of the God that made heaven and earth;-they repented not. Did the western church cast off its superstitions when the eastern church was tyrranized over by the Mahometan power? Here then is another remarkable time of the Gentiles,-a season when God was dealing with them in great mercy, in great long-suffering, but finally in judgment, while another portion of his church, the African, has long ago perished from off the face of the earth.

There is one part here-the rest of the men, which refers especially to the western churches, those Romanist churches which are awaiting the fearful judgment of God. We have that third part in the 12th chap. of Revelations, where we have the vision given to us of a woman clothed with the sun; a great wonder in heaven, the church of Christ clothed with her Saviour, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars, the apostles those ministers of Christ who