were indeed a glorious crown to her, and yet of them we find in the 4th verse the tail of the dragon-the same thing as in the former case-the false prophets, "the tail of the dragon drew the third part of the stars of heaven and did cast them to the earth." The fall from heaven to earth of the ministers of Christ is a symbolical fall— losing heavenly principles and becoming earthly minded, poisoned by Satan's power. And then the dragon takes that third part and makes them persecutors. There was war in heaven, there is Michael and his angels and the dragon and his angels, and that lasts until the coming of the power of the Kingdom of Christ. And we have in the 10th verse, I heard a loud voice saying in heaven now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ, for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night, and they overcame him by the blood of the lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death." Here we have that other third part then which are the Latin churches, as we have them here described, for indeed the Romish priesthood is poisoned by the venom of Satan, declaring a false gospel and a false Christ, instead of the true gospel and the true Christ who is alone worthy of faith and worship. Unless we are to believe a consecrated host to be the Saviour of the world the church of Rome has given a false Christ. Unless we are to believe the traditions of erring sinful men to be a true gospel, the church of Rome has given a false gospel instead of the true gospel of the grace of God. No other church that ever existed, from the foundation of the christian church to the present hour, has dared to put forth so blasphemous an article of faith as has the church

of Rome, for she declares in her own language in the Council of Trent, that if any one shall say that justifying faith is nothing else than a confidence in the divine mercy, pardoning sins for Christ's sake, let him be accursed. There is the creed of the church of Rome at this moment, and has been for three hundred years; and it is this which brands her as coming under the stigma here given, as being poisoned by the tail of Satan's malignity. Now it said that those who are to overcome that power are those who contend with the blood of the Lamb, while Rome comes with her awful curse and says that man is to be damned who will believe alone in the blood of Christ, the witnesses for Jesus come with that blessed declaration, "they are to overcome with the blood of the Lamb." The Romanist will come and strike the bible out of the hands of men, but the witnesses of Christ overcome by the word of their testimony, and they love not their lives unto the death.

These times of the Gentiles are now hastening on; they are indeed solemn times, for we have in the papal aggression that is at present attempted in this kingdom, and in the more successful aggressions in other kingdoms, the darkening of that cloud which is hastening on the final contest of which our blessed Saviour speaks in this very prediction.

IV. Succeeding to his declaration of the times of the Gentiles, the fourth subject brought before us by our Lord is, the fall of the nations and the accompaniments of that fall. The very word times or seasons infers the ripening of the harvest. Then if we have christianized nations dealt with in grace and in mercy, a true church, a ministry, the sacraments and revelation of God committed to the nations, they are standing upon their

"the

probation. "Behold therefore," says St. Paul, goodness and severity of God, on them which fell, severity; but towards thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness; otherwise thou also shall be cut off" But we have not continued in Christ's goodness, the platform of Christendom has not continued in the goodness of the grace of God, as revealed in the gospel of his dear Son. And therefore Christ speaks here of the awful fall of nations which is to take place, "Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in 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." In the 12th chap. of Hebrews the apostle reminds us that this is an unfulfilled prophecy, where in speaking of an earthquake he says in the 26th and 27th verses, "Whose voice then shook the earth, but now he hath promised saying, yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven; and this word, once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain." Here we have then a shaking of things in heaven and things on earth: in the symbolic language of scripture, the casting down of national thrones and national constitutions of the people of the world. That passage is quoted from the 2nd chap. of Haggai, where he declares of the then existing powers that they were not to last long; that the time was coming when the Lord of hosts would once more shake the heavens and the earth, and the sea and the dry land, and all nations. Now if we turn again to the book of Revelation, we have that shak

ing of the nations brought before us in very solemn and awful language. We find there in the 16th chap. and the 12th verse, the great river, the Euphrates, dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. And here is the prediction of the withering away of the Mahometan power, that power which was to be marked out by the river Euphrates. And where is the Mahometan power that has not been withered up? Indeed, at this very moment the great capital, the centre of Mahometanism in India is about being made the centre of our Indian possessions. There is just that much said about it here, and the subject is then left in comparative darkness; but immediately follows three unclean spirits like frogs, coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet; for they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth, and of the whole world, and gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Now here is a pretence to superhuman power from three sources, the beast, that is the secular power,-the dragon, satanic power, the false prophet, pretended religious power. And do we find no indications of attempts at supernatural power at this moment? Have we no claims to false miracles by the false prophet? or why is it that an apostate minister of our own church, now unhappily seceded to the church of Rome, could stand forward and defend all its absurdities that are called miracles in the

And why is it

church of Rome as if they were truths? that we have so many men of science, yet but sciolists in science, infidel men, pretending to be able by the perfection of science to do miracles, as much as our blessed Saviour did of old; pretending, by the discoveries of

human science, to be able to equal the things that the blessed Jesus did. And the bible warns us here that these are not mere pretences, but though now indeed but pretences, they are like the full ripening of the harvest of wickedness. They will not be always so, for that which appears in man's sight to be of men is in heaven's sight demoniacal. They are the spirits of devils, they are unclean creatures like frogs, coming out of the shrine of this world instead of coming with the purity of heavenly power, and yet they are coming with real supernatural power, as we find it said in the 13th chap of the same book of Revelation, in the 13th verse, of the image of the beast, "And he doeth great wonders so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by means of those miracles which he has power to do in the sight of the beast, saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast which had the wound by the sword and did live.”

Now what were these demoniacal miracles to denote? They were to make great conversions to those that were to gather men together, by the battle of that great day of God Almighty. It is an awful sign of the times to see, on the continent of Europe, so great a religious power of Popery, so great a democratic power as is now spread over the surface of the European continent. But, perhaps a more dangerous sign, is the great attempt by foreign sovereigns who will not stand fast in the liberty of Christ, and hope for peace by other means than by the diffusion of the principles and the laws of peace, to screw down by tyrannical laws that spirit that has risen up against them. Here is the prediction that we have respecting the foolishness of such attempts