CONTENTS. "And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, see that ye be not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows."-S. Matt. xxiv. 6-8 . . .. 1 Preached on the Second Sunday in Advent. MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SIGNS OF THE TIMES. "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold."-S. Matt. xxiv. 12 ECCLESIASTICAL SIGNS OF THE TIMES. "And this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached 18 SERMON IV. Preached on the Fourth Sunday in Advent. THE CHRISTIAN'S ATTITUDE IN REFERENCE TO THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. "And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh."-S. Luke xxi. 28 PAGE 52 A SERMON Preached on Passion Sunday, April 9, 1848. THE REVELATION OF THE MAN OF SIN. "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called GOD, or that is worshipped; so that he as GOD sitteth in the temple of GOD, showing himself that he is GOD. Remember ye not, that when I was yet with you I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the LORD shall consume with the Spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming."-2 Thess. ii. 3-8.. 69 SERMON I. Preached on Advent Sunday. POLITICAL SIGNS OF THE TIMES. S. MATT. XXIV. 6-8. "AND WHEN YE SHALL HEAR OF WARS AND RU MOURS OF WARS, SEE THAT YE BE NOT TROU- SHALL RISE AGAINST NATION, AND KINGDOM Ir is a general feature in Divine prophecy, that it is delivered in language more or less obscure, which only becomes plain and obvious when the prophecy itself is fulfilled. The language is indeed plain enough to show forth the general character of the events predicted; plain enough to raise our hopes or excite our fears, B and to sustain a spirit of watchfulness in earnest-minded Christians; but not sufficiently plain to enable us beforehand to read the history of the very events themselves. Take the very first prophecy of Scripture as an instance of this: "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." The meaning of this prediction was from the first plain enough up to a certain point. It clearly predicted a deadly conflict between the powers of good and evil, and final victory to the good; and this through the woman's seed. So plain indeed was this to our first parents themselves, that when Cain was born, it seems that Eve supposed that the promised seed had come, and said, "I have gotten the man from the LORD." So plain was this prediction that on it was fixed the eye of all successive generations to whom the word of GOD came, whose hope it sustained, and whose faith it carried forward to the great Deliverer that was to come. And yet how obscure was the prophecy as to the details of its fulfil ment! Who beforehand could tell how it was to be fulfilled? Who could read in its language the history of coming events! And yet again, when the fulfilment actually took place; when the Virgin's Son came, and died, and rose again, the events so tallied with the prophecy, so accurately fitted on to its words, as to fix the character of utter inexcusableness on unbelief. Another feature in Divine prophecy is, that it most commonly predicts more than one, oftentimes several successive and analogous events; which events are themselves predictive or typical of those which are to follow them. Thus the first prediction of Scripture already referred to, may with the utmost probability be applied, not only in its fullest sense to the person of MESSIAH, but in a secondary sense, to the fortunes of the national Israel now trodden under foot, but ultimately to be restored; and again, to the fortunes of the Christian Church, the spiritual Israel, now oppressed by the world, but hereafter to be triumphant over it. So, again, when the prophet says, "Out of |