count on being transferred from earth to heaven; but each, like the one before it, came to an end, without bringing that more notable end on which our eyes are ever to be fixed. The Reformation, with the revival of the primitive faith, revived the primitive hope, that the great day must needs be very close at hand; but the days of the Reformers passed, and all the days which they designated as those beyond which the day of judgment could not be delayed; and yet the momentous period had not arrived. Many times within the past hundred years the attention of men has been called to particular dates as the times when this present world should end; but they have all come and gone, as innocent of the great consummation as any that went before them. And although the Saviour may come any day, and our duty is to be looking for Him every day, it is still possible that all present prognostications on the subject may fail, as they have always failed; that years and years of earnest and confident expectation may go by without bringing the Lord from heaven; and that delay after delay, and ever-repeating prolongations of the time of waiting may intervene, till it becomes necessary for the preservation of the faith of God's people to hear the fresh edict from the lips of their Lord, that "there shall be no more delay."

(4.) Though the coming of the final consummation be slow, it will come. There is not another truth in God's word that is so peculiarly authenti

cated. All the holy prophets since the world began have foretold it. All the evangelists and apostles have inwrought it in all their writings as one of the central and fixed things in the Divine purpose. Jesus himself has given us parable on parable, precept upon precept, and promise upon promise, all directed to this one thing. And God hath certified it to all men, in that He hath raised up Christ from the dead. But after all the rest of the canon of Inspiration was finished, another book was indited, making this its particular and specific theme; and in that book is a particular vision, in which the mighty Judge himself appears, and gives forth the most intense and awful asseveration on the subject. With clouds for his garments and the rainbow for his crown-with his face shining as the sun and his feet glowing like pillars of fire-with a roll in his hand, lifted by his merit from the throne of infinite majesty, he stretches up his right hand into the sky, and swears, swears by the Eternal-swears by the power which has given birth and being to all things,—that, in spite of all the mistakes, disappointments, delays, and consequent doubts upon the subject, what was made known to the prophets shall be, and that the time shall come when there shall be no more delay!

Shall we then have any doubt upon the subject? Shall we allow the failure of men's figures and prognostications to shake our confidence or obscure our hope? Shall we suffer the many and long delays that have occurred, or that ever may

occur, to drive us into the scoffer's ranks? True as the life of God-certain as the Divine eternity -unfailing as the Power which made the worlds -immutable as the oath of Jesus-the great consummating day will come, when the whole Mystery of God shall be fulfilled. Unbelief, away! Misgiving, be thou buried in the depths of the sea! Doubt, be shamed into everlasting confusion! "Behold, He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him, and they which pierced Him. Even so, Amen."

Holy One of heaven, have mercy upon us, and help us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; for He is faithful that promised!

LECTURE TWENTY-SECOND.

DIFFICULTIES OF THE CURRENT METHOD OF INTERPRETING APOCALYPSE-CONNECTION OF THIS CHAPTER WITH

THE

THE PRECEDING-THE SAINTS IN HEAVEN MUST PROPHESY AGAIN-MEASURING OF THE TEMPLE "THE HOLY CITY"THE JEWS AGAIN IN THE FOREGROUND-A NEW ORDER AND CANON-CASTING OUT OF THE GENTILES-ZION REDEEMED WITH JUDGMENT-THE FORTY-TWO MONTHS.

REV. 11:1, 2. (Revised Text.) And there was given to me a reed like to a rod, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and those who worship in it. And the court which is outside the temple, cast out, and measure it not; for it is given to the Gentiles; and they shall trample the holy city forty and two months.

WE here come upon ground which has been

very trying to expositors-the great battleground of conflicting systems, and the burialground of many a fond conceit and learned fancy. Alford has given it as his opinion that the chapter on which we now enter "is undoubtedly one of the most difficult in the whole Apocalypse." On all the prevalent theories for interpreting this Book, he is certainly right in this opinion, and the difficulties of which he complains must remain till those theories are abandoned, and another departure taken.

If we were to take a description of a horse-mill, and insist on expounding it as a description of a

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mill-horse, no matter what qualifications we might bring to the task, we would find ourselves continually beset with difficulties and embarrassments which we never could fully overcome. And just so it is with nearly all our commentaries on the Apocalypse. It is not learning, ability, research or ingenuity that is at fault, but an underlying misapprehension of the nature and intention of the record. It is a description of one thing, and they are all the while trying to make it quite another thing. It is an account of the wonders of "The Lord's Day"-the day of Judgment, and they propose to explain it of "man's day"-the day of the present dispensation. God gave it as "The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ," and they seek to interpret it as an apocalypse of human history. This is the great trouble. Nor is it to be wondered that the skin of the lion will not fit the ass, and that the ears of the inferior animal will stick out notwithstanding the most ingenious efforts to cover them.

It would, indeed, be affectation to pretend that there are no difficulties in the way of a satisfactory exposition of this Book, but I am well persuaded that the most of those encountered by our commentators, and which hinder thinking readers from seriously embracing their theories, are imported by themselves, in the primary mistake which wrests the record from its own proper subject, and applies it to another which is at best only remotely and inchoately embraced. Let it be fixed and settled that we here have to do with