the Lamb's wife. When the Bridegroom comes the church will be the prepared bride "adorned for her husband." In the parable of Christ, where a king is represented as preparing a feast for the marriage of his son, we learn that it was expected of all the guests to appear in a suitable dress, as a token of respect to the married couple; and that after the procession in the evening from the bride's house was concluded, the guests were all examined before they were permitted to enter the apartment of entertainment. If any person was found not having on a garment suitable to the occasion, he was expelled from the house. At the great marriage supper of the Lamb, the company of the redeemed will be prepared for the occasion, not one will be found there who has not on the "wedding garment." This garment must be secured before the appointed time arrives—then it will be too late. "At a marriage, the procession of which I saw some years ago, says Mr. Ward, (View of Hist. of Hindoos, vol. 3, p. 171,) the bridegroom came from a distance, and the bride lived at Serampore, to which place the bridegroom was to come by water. After waiting two or three hours, at length, near midnight, it was announced, as if in the very words of Scripture— Behold! the bride

groom cometh, go ye out to meet him." All the persons employed now lighted their lamps and ran with them in their hands to fill up their stations in the procession; some of them had lost their lights, and were unprepared, but it was then too late to seek them, and the cavalcade moved forward to the house of the bride, at which place the company entered a large and splendidly illuminated area, before the house, covered with an awning, where a great multitude of friends, dressed in their best apparel, were seated on mats. The bridegroom was carried in the arms of a friend, and placed in a superb seat in the midst of the company, where he sat for a short time, and then went into the house, the door of which was immediately closee and guarded by Lepoys, I and others expostulated with the door-keepers, but in vain. Never was I so struck with our Lord's beautiful parable, as at this moment—and the door was shut!"

There is consolation in the thought that the door of mercy is not yet shut. There is a short space of time left in which we may all prepare for the coming and kingdom of our Lord. But when the "Marriage Supper of the Lamb is come, and the bride hath made herself ready" for the occasion, it will be too late for repent

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ance—too late to secure the wedding garment. They that were ready went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut! The door of salvation will be closed,—

"Time gone, the righteous saved, the wicked damned, And God's eternal government approved."

That the Marriage Supper of the Lamb will soon be announced, is evident from the circumstances in which the text stands. The previous chapter describes the fall of the papal beast, and accords with the same event in chap. x, which is an inspired comment on Daniel's prediction of the rise and fall of the papal power in the last days—and its destruction by the stone cut out of the mountain without hands.

"The angel came down from heaven having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a loud voice, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen." Rev. xviii. 1, 2. A similar text is found in Isa. xxi. 9. "Babylon is fallen, is fallen, and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground." The second angel gives the same event in Rev. xiv. 8. And then followed

another angel (next after the missionary angel now flying,) saying, "Babylon is fallen, is fall

en.

In the same chapter the event is given under the figure of the harvest and vintage. v. 14. "And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle." v. 15. "And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap, for the time is come for thee to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe." See v. 16 to 19. All this indicates that Christ will be near in the time of trouble previous to the marriage supper, to defend Jerusalem—"In that day sing unto her, A vineyard of red wine. I the Lord do keep it, I will water it every moment. I will keep it night and day." Christ here appears in the cloud with the golden crown upon his head—emblem of his exaltation and kingly power—and in his hand a sharp sickle, (the implement for gathering in the harvest and vintage) to defend his chosen and sealed ones. This text corresponds to the prophecy of lsa. lxiii. 1—6, respecting the "treading of the wine press" and the harvest and vintage of the same event in Joel iii. In answer to the prayers of his people, the Son of man destroys the anti-christian powers as with a rod of iron, in

Lest any hurt it,

the great day of battle.

"Shall not God avenge

his own elect, who cry unto him day and night, though he bear long with them?"

"When in

the Lord shall build up Zion he will appear his glory, he will regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer."

This same event corresponds with that under the seventh trumpet—with the destruction of the beast and the false prophet—with the kings of the earth being cast into the lake of fireRev. xix. 20. Here, then, we have the great and notable day of the Lord—the harvest and vintage, towards which the world is tending, and the nations fast ripening.

That this beast has marks of some of the most notable scenes in the history of the French revolution, no one will question, who has a knowledge of that history. The abominations of the papal power have been exhibited to the world, in crimson colors, ever since it was established. But when infidelity raised its head, in, and after the French revolution, the horrors of the Papal See made the hearts of men fail them for fear. Well may the voice from heaven be heard, saying, Come out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues: For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God