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so signally rested. These are still, small, and musical voices amid the thunders, the voices, and the lightnings of the world.

And now, my dear friends, let me ask, How stands it with you? Be not satisfied with beholding the panorama which I have endeavoured to explain, or with hearing the voices and witnessing the lightnings to which I have alluded. Are your feet upon the Rock of ages? Is your trust and confidence in the Lamb of God? Be not clever to utter the last new shibboleth, or to wear the favourite ecclesiastical face; but able to sing the song of Moses, of God, and of the Lamb. We are in the midst of judgments that are abroad upon the earth-let us learn wisdom while all is convulsed around us; let us remember there is one spot that cannot be shaken, and standing on which, like the harpers by the glassy sea, we may praise our God, and glorify him amid the fire-that spot is the Rock of ages. Are we upon the Lord's side? Whether we go to Christ, or Christ comes to us, is immaterial to our everlasting state: if we are prepared for the one, we are ready for the other; and if you are the Lord's, and if the Lord be yours, then what is death to you? A mere transfer from the scene of thunderings, and voices, and lightnings, and a great earthquake, to that bright sunshine, and to that sweet river whose streams make glad the city of God.

"An heir of heaven," said Coleridge, very beautifully, in speaking of his own death

"An heir of heaven, I fear not death;

In Christ I live, in Christ I draw the breath
Of the true life; let the earth, sea, and sky
Make war against me; on my head I show
Their mighty Master's scal; in vain they try
To end my life, that can but end my wo.
Is that a death-bed where a Christian lies?
Yes-but not his: 'tis Death itself that dies."

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LECTURE XXXIV.

THE CONSUMPTION OF BABYLON.

"He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly; Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus."-Revelation xxii. 20.

"And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done." Revelation xvi. 17.

I HAVE been unfolding in successive lectures the various scenes that are to precede the advent of our blessed Lord: I have endeavoured also to prove that the Millennium, as far as the light of Scripture leads us to conclude, is not to precede but to succeed the advent of the Lord, and the manifestation of the sons of God. Last Lord's-day evening I showed you that one of the great premonitory signs of the near advent of that great epoch of which I have spoken so much, is the pouring out of the seventh vial. It is the last of the judgments in the hand of the

angel. Before it, the warning cry is lifted up, "Behold I come as a thief." After it, great Babylon comes into remembrance, and the Bride makes herself ready.

I endeavoured last Lord's-day evening to identify what I had preached as prophecy in 1847 with what I believe to be its performance in 1848. We saw it then in the prospect, not knowing that it was at our doors: we see it now, I believe, in its performance; and we are about to enter an epoch, I solemnly believe, the most testing, the most searching, the most startling that ever fell upon the experience of the Christian church, or of mankind at large. I gathered from the fact, that the seventh angel poured out his vial, i. e. the symbol of judgment, into the air—that, whatever was the nature of this judgment, it would be universal, in other words, spread over the ten kingdoms that constitute the empire constantly exhibited in the Apocalypse as that

in which the progress of Antichrist was to be developed. We may expect, therefore, that this vial will have an universal effect upon these kingdoms, and probably upon all the kingdoms of the earth. The air is that which every man breathes, which rises to the highest throne and descends to the lowest cellar, without which none can live, and which, tainted by miasma or not, all must breathe. This vial, then, was to affect the air; probably at this moment it is physically disorganized and deranged, and malaria and seeds of disease, as attested by medical opinion, are at this moment kept in solution in it: but surely we see on all hands the evidence of its terrible moral and political derangement. There is not a nation in Europe that has not felt the shock; not one is spared; even we ourselves were slightly affected with the remote contagion of the day—as if to indicate to us by feeling, as well as from prophecy, that the seventh vial is now being poured out into the air.

The second great event that is to arise from it, is "a voice out of the temple of heaven, and from the throne of God, saying, It is done." You recollect I explained in my first lectures, that wherever there was an intimation indicating a new phasis coming from heaven, there was always in the history of the past a response given from below responding to it. This I showed you at great length. Then, I said it was our duty to show that, while a voice in heaven cried, "It is done," i. e. the last vial is emptied and its action has begun, there would be gathered from the vehicles of public opinion, the reflectors of public events, some evidence that will prove to us a conviction in the human heart corresponding to the intimation from the heavenly throne that this great event has taken place. One great characteristic of it is, that there shall be "voices, and thunders, and lightnings, and a great earthquake, such as never was since men were upon the earth." I quoted from newspapers the evidences of these. There is nothing necessarily unholy in reading an extract from a newspaper in the pulpit. The apostle Paul quoted from heathen poets in his Epistles, because they helped him to illustrate a great truth. And why should it be regarded as an invasion of the most sensitive sense of decorum, that one should quote from the collectors of public sentiment without, illustrations and evidences

of the fulfilments of divine prophecy within? On the contrary, J think it is a duty to do so. I think the ministers of the gospel are placed as watchmen on the towers of Zion, not only to reiterate and repeat to all the saving truths of the gospel, but to look around them, and to state whatever they see that will explain the providential dealings or prophetic intimations of God, or instruct mankind with more intimate acquaintance with his blessed will.

I showed you, from various papers, that the epithet all but universally bestowed upon the recent explosion in Paris, the vibrations of which have been borne forth in successive concentric circles over Europe-or the very language used by secular writers who have no theory of the Apocalypse, is, "this great earthquake." I showed you that they not only called it an earthquake repeatedly, but they said that it never had a parallel. I quoted such instances as these:-The Times newspaper, speaking of what had taken place in June, said, "Such a scene of slaughter has not been witnessed since the days of St. Bartholomew." The Standard said, "Nothing in the revolution of 1789 was at all comparable to the revolution that has taken place in 1848." This is the very language of the Apocalypse used by political and newspaper writers. And extracts which I gave at still greater length, confirm how truly, when God cried from heaven, “It is done," every reflector of public opinion echoed the sentiment, and said also, "It is done."

I then alluded to the other sign, "voices, and thunders, and lightnings." These may be regarded as revolutions too-disturbances, émeutes, as they are called, agitations, convulsions among the people; though, perhaps, "voices" may have a distinct meaning. Let any one now listen to the cries of the revolution: "Liberty, equality, fraternity!"-here is one voice; "The sovereignty of the people!"-here is another voice; and I could quote hundreds of similar cries uttered from Paris to Berlin, and some in our land; all showing that, while the earthquake thunders from beneath, and God witnesses from the skies, men also are speaking in unison with the prediction of the Spirit, and proving God's word to be truth.

I then referred to the tripartite division of "the great city." The great city is the Church of Rome; the great city in which

the witnesses were slain, "spiritually, Sodom and Egypt, was divided into three parts," i. e. its decem-regal division, or its division into ten kingdoms; which, I have explained before, shall cease after this great earthquake, and the whole of the ten kingdoms, France and Germany, with all the other kingdoms, Spain, Belgium, Portugal, &c., shall be divided into three great sections. This is the next thing that we look for.

Notice, however, what must take place first of all-disorganization, chaos, desolation; and do you not see, in the midst of all this disorganization which now goes on, certain polarities beginning to show themselves? The Germans insist upon German unity, as if they were to constitute one great division; the French, again, insist upon their national integrity; and the Italians are shouting in the ears of the pope and of the Austrians, ❝Italy for the Italians." It seems, therefore, extremely probable that we shall have France, and Germany, and Italy, the three great divisions of Europe, with their respective clustering dependencies, Spain, Portugal, and Belgium, forming that grand tripartite division of Europe which precedes the destruction of Babylon, and is the preparation for the bright advent of the Lord of glory. I only ask you to watch and read God's providential dealings in the light of God's revealed and inspired word.

Then it is added, "the cities of the nations fell." I showed you that the word city, "the great city," was taken in its politicoecclesiastical sense; and we must understand by it the churches established in the various kingdoms of the earth. I said they would fall. The fact that it is prophesied they shall fall, is not an intimation that they are either sinful or excellent in themselves. It is simple prophecy: it is neither to lessen the affections of those that love them, nor to nerve the hand of those who would throw them down. When God pronounces a prophecy, he will take care to fulfil it. It is our business to cleave to duties, never to attempt to fulfil prophecy: we have nothing to do with the fulfilment of the prophecy; God himself takes that into his own hands; we have only to do with the discharge of the duty and responsibilities that are laid upon us. I need not say that the evidence of this taking place is visible in our own land. Who does not know that each of the ecclesiastical establishments

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