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a country. The historian Alison, remarking upon the astonishing ease with which the small Jacobin faction tyrannized over France in the Reign of Terror, says, in 1794, in chap. xv. p. 87:

The facility with which a faction, composed of a few of the most audacious and reckless of the nation, triumphed over the immense majority of all the holders of property in the kingdom, and led them forth like victims to the sacrifice, is not the least extraordinary or memorable fact of that eventful period. The active part of the faction at Paris never exceeded a few thousand men; their talents were by no means of the highest order, nor their weight in society considerable; yet they trampled under foot all the influential classes, ruled mighty armies with absolute sway, kept two hundred thousand of their fellow-citizens in captivity, and daily led out several hundred, and at last perhaps, taking the whole country together, some thousand persons, of the best blood in France, to execution. Such is the effect of the unity of action which atrocious wickedness produces-such the consequence of rousing the cupidity of the lower orders-such the ascendancy which, in periods of anarchy, is acquired by the most savage and lawless of the people. The peaceable and inoffensive citizens lived and wept in silence; terror crushed every attempt at combination; the extremity of grief subdued even the firmest hearts. In despair at effecting any alleviation of the general sufferings, apathy universally prevailed, the people sought to forget their sorrows in the delirium of present enjoyments, and the theatres were never fuller than during the whole duration of the Reign of Terror. Ignorance of human nature can alone lead us to ascribe this to any peculiarity in the French character; the same effects have been observed in all parts and ages of the world, as invariably attending a state of extreme and long-continued distress.

"How, then, did a faction, whose leaders were so extremely contemptible in point of numbers, obtain the power to rule France with such absolute sway? The answer is simple. It was by an expedient of the plainest kind, and by steadily following out one principle, so obvious, that few have sought for the cause of such terrible phenomena in its application. This was by promoting, and to a great extent actually giving, to the working-classes the influence and the possessions of all the other orders in the State. Egestas cupida novarum rerum

(Indigence covetous of a change) was the maxim on which they acted; it was to this point, the cupidity and ambition of those to whom fortune had proved adverse, that all their measures were directed. Their principle was to keep the revolutionary passions of the people constantly awake by the display of fresh objects of desire to represent all the present misery which the system of innovation had occasioned, as the consequence of the resistance which the holders of property had opposed to its progress-and to dazzle the populace by the prospect of boundless felicity, when the revolutionary equality and spoliation for which they contended was fully established. By this means they effectually secured, over the greater part of France, the co-operation of the multitude; and it was by their physical strength, guided and called forth by the revolutionary clubs and committees universally established, and everywhere composed of the most ardent of the Jacobin faction, that the extraordinary power of the Terrorists was upheld."

HENCE, just as the Jacobin faction gained supremacy over France, so may the Fenians acquire predominance over the United States, notwithstanding their only being numerically a small part of its inhabitants; and it is easy to see how, in such a case, Protestant freedom and toleration would at once be overthrown. To this result also the ceaseless encroachments of Roman propagandism and Jesuitism-the third of the three spirits are materially tending.

The impossibility of Protestant America escaping the predicted persecution is further shown by the fact that "that hour of temptation is to come upon ALL the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth;"" and the great tribulation is to be so universal, that except it were shortened, "no flesh (not a single human being) should be saved "-plainly implying, as Daniel has foretold,3 a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time.

* Rev. iii. 10.

Matt. xxiv. 21.

* Dan. xii. L

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SIXTEENTH WONDER.

(About three years after the Covenant, and probably continu ing for a month or two.)

THE SECOND TRUMPET CAUSING A GREAT FIERY MOUNTAIN TO BE CAST INTO THE SEA, AND THE THIRD PART OF THIE SEA TO BECOME BLOOD, AND THE THIRD PART OF FISH TO DIE, AND THE THIRD PART OF SHIPS TO BE DESTROYED.

"And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea and the third part of the sea became blood; and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed."-Rev. viii. 8, 9.

The FIRST TRUMPET is principally a severe blow upon those who follow the inland pursuits of husbandry and agriculture, such as farmers, graziers, proprietors of landed estates, and cultivators of the soil; but the Second Trumpet chiefly afflicts the fishing population, and those "that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters, that see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep." While the inhabitants of the seacoast are congratulating themselves that however much the fruits of the earth may be destroyed, at any rate the fish, which constitute their chief source of support, remain untouched, they will suddenly find themselves bereft of this, their accustomed means of subsistence.

There seems every reason to believe that the sea, one-third of which is here to be sanguinefied, is the entire aggregate mass of salt water in general, including the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic, Antarctic, Indian Ocean, as well as the Mediterranean, although the latter, being in the very heart of the Roman Empire, and being called in Scripture "The Great Sea," has been thought to be more especially intended as the scene of this calamity. But as the preternatural eclipse and subsequent scorching of the sun at the fourth trumpet and vial must necessarily affect the whole of the earth, and not merely the Roman Empire, therefore it is fair to infer that the other trumpets and vials will similarly afflict the whole globe, although Christendom and the Roman Empire may suffer more

severely than other regions. This second trumpet plague is similar to one of the Egyptian plagues.

;

"And the Lord spake unto Moses, say unto Aaron, take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt. ... And Moses and Aaron did so, as the Lord commanded, and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood. And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt' (Ex. vii. 19-21). The only difference between the plague thus recited and that before us, is in regard to the department of creation affected and the instrumentality employed. In Egypt they were the inland waters that underwent this appalling change. Here it is the sea. The rod of Moses was then used; now it is the injection of a burning mountain. J. Kelly remarks:-"As to the great mountain burning with fire, marvellous though it be, what forbids but that we should suppose it to be some combustible material body condensed in the laboratory of the atmosphere by Divine power, or some real local mountain dislocated from its place and precipitated into the ocean. To favour this latter conjecture we have a remarkable allusion in the book of the Psalms-' God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof' (Ps. xlvi. 1-3). This whole Psalm is evidently the prepared utterance of a remnant of the faithful in the latter day, triumphing in Jehovah as their refuge, amidst the most terrifying phenomena going on around them. May we not then identify them with that proportion of true witnesses to God who, by and bye, will stand unharmed and unintimidated by the Divine demonstrations against the guilty. Sympathizing with the two illustrious witnesses for God, who will then be occupied in Jerusalem with their miraculous testimony, may not these faithful ones participate in the administration of this very judgment, thus fulfilling the strik

ing intimation of our Lord, when on the occasion of his performing himself a significant miracle of judgment directed against the unbelieving nation, he said to his disciples, ' Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also, if ye shall say unto this mountain, "Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, it shall be done." And all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive' (Matt. xxi. 21, 22).

"It may here occur to some readers, concerning what is said of a proportion of the sea becoming blood, that, perhaps this may be the natural result of the miraculous agency just rehearsed. And, indeed, such a combination of convulsion by sea and land, accompanied by conflagration, in the maritime regions, may easily be conceived to produce extensive loss of life, in which, also, blood may be shed, so as to ensanguine the surrounding ocean, like to what has been recorded as the result of some naval engagements. Still, with the precedent referred to, of what occurred in Egypt, wherein the similar plague of blood was certainly not the issue of any sanguinary destruction of life, we ought to be slow to speculate upon the operation of such cause here; especially as there is no mention made of it in the vision, beyond what occurs in the next clause, which merely speaks of mortality ensuing amongst all the marine

tribes.

"And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died. This may be regarded as a natural consequence of the shock and derangement, which shall have been sustained by their native element. Thus, the judgment ascends nearer and nearer as from the extremities of nature, according to the order of its creation, towards man, the guilty head. Vegetable life had suffered first, now it is the sea and its tribes of occupants. The same thing is recorded to have happened among the plagues of Egypt, when the waters that were in the river were turned to blood, it is added--and the fish that was in the river died' (Ex. vii. 21).

"And the third part of the ships were destroyed. That is, the shipping, we may conceive, in and about the harbours in the part of the sea alluded to. No doubt, with the general revival of the East, its commerce will receive a mighty impulse; and reoccupied Palestine-its resources now developing under the energy of its Antichristian rulers-will not be unvisited