of the Church, and the experience of our own souls, confirm this beyond all doubt.

We may go further than this, and say that, generally speaking, all consistent efforts made by the believer for his own prosperity in this world, and that of those connected with him, will be prospered to their object. We say generally, because we must admit exceptions, even on the ground of the sovereignty of God, when He is pleased, for wise and deep-sealed purposes, as in the case of Job, to baffle a man's honest plans for wealth and comfort. And we cautiously use the word consistent,-all consistent efforts, because in the human mind there is such a criminal readiness to catch at false encouragements, and then, in the hour of disappointment, to throw the blame on the government of God, rather than on our own ignorance, worldly-mindedness, or presumption. But still we are warranted by many passages of Scripture to affirm, that a blessing does attend honest and industrious effort made in

dependence upon God. The man who labours prayerfully to occupy his station in life, and rightly and not presumptuously to use his opportunities, will generally find the blessing of God upon his endeavours. Hundreds of such instances can be pointed

objects to shake our conviction of the truth of the promise, "Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." Much, in such cases, must be attributed to the want of more entire consistency of character in him. If the prosperity which is promised is made to depend upon the Divine nutrition of the soul by the word of God, then all and every practical failure to apply to that word fully, will tell upon the heart and conduct; and in many cases the man will get into error, entanglement, and disappointment, just because he had not, by diligent application to the word and meditation upon it, obtained precisely that wisdom, that knowledge of himself, that submissive reference to God, and that practical direction which he might have had, and which would have steered him through his difficulties. How shall he hope to make his way safely through rocks and quicksands to his port, who leaves his compass and his chart behind him? And even if he takes them with him, and uses them frequently, yet, if in a critical position he has neglected to obtain the proper knowledge, to whom must his failure be referred, if he strikes upon a rock? There is this close connexion of cause and effect in the Christian's case. We must not force the promise beyond its original terms. If a man delights to meditate on God's word by day and night, then whatso ever he doth by day or night shall prosper; but if he turns aside from that source and channel of preparative blessing, he puts himself out of the line of the promise, and has no reason to calculate on anything but failure. If we did but see this as a reality in the providential dealings of God with our souls, what different men in practice we should be, and

how dearly we should cherish our half-neglected Bibles !

Then, again, many of the apparent misfortunes of pious men, are only apparently so; and it often appears that what men at the moment might be led to call a disappointment, is one of the most prosperous events of life. So, when Jacob said "All these things are against me," the way was preparing for years of prosperity and peace. It is not necessary to that prosperity which is the fulfilment of the promise, that a man should always gain his own end, or realize the precise object of his speculation. If his covenant God and Father watches over his way, and directs his wellmeant efforts to the accomplishment of that which is ultimately best for him; if he guides him through unseen and unapprehended dangers, and orders him necessary and salutary trials, so that he deepens in experience, increases in the knowledge and love of God, and brings forth richer and more abundant fruit;-then, although for a time the storm may gather round, and obscure the direct connexion between the wishes of his heart and the sanctification of his soul, it may still be said in truth, "Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." Every thing that he does, under the guidance of the word, accomplishes a good purpose; works together to a good end. And even those benevolent or other efforts which seem most completely to fail, fill up their respective niches in the great building of God's providence.

As professing Christians, let us now take a view of the practical use of this subject. These are the words of Eternal Truth. We regard them as written with the finger of the Spirit of God. He who guides the stars in their courses; who called this material

universe into being, and gives to the forms of matter their invariable laws: He has declared a positive rule of His providential government, That if a man's "delight is in the law of the Lord," and he meditates in it by day and night, then "whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." The assertion must be taken with the limitations which we have endeavoured to mark out. But, granting these, let us ask, Have we, or have we not, in our own experience, a practical realization of the truth of this Scripture? Do we trace this blessing of God upon our way? Can we affirm, with certain limitations, that with us this is a practical truth? Can we trace the direct connexion between our delight in the word of God, and the substantial prosperity of our doings? Do we feel as a child dealing with, and under the care of a reconciled Father; and that a Father's blessing is manifestly hastening us prosperously onward to the attainment of the great object of our being? Are we sensible in its effects, and in our own convictions, that the providence of God is kindly and carefully with us, and that the grace of God supplies all our spiritual necessities? Do we awake to the feeling, that the blessing of God is on us, in love and in mercy, as His redeemed children? Do we lie down, satisfied of His protection for both worlds? If not, then can we explain why it is not so with us? There must be some reasons, consistently with the declaration of the word of God, which go to explain why it is not so with us; and, generally speaking, these reasons are within the individual's reach, if he will look for them. Either we are yet unreconciled to God, and the providence of God is directly against us,-and then our habits with respect

to the word of His grace will plainly and palpably shew us that we are not the characters here spoken of;-or, if we are really believers, and relying upon the grace of God in Christ Jesus, then our disappointments, improvidences, and the want of prosperity of our souls, are in strict connexion with habits of neglect towards the word of God; and our consciences bear testimony to the fact. We want life, and vigour, and fruitfulness, because we have not drawn upon the living stream. Either case is a very serious one. It is bad to be an unforgiven enemy. It is bad to be a careless, ungrateful, and backsliding child; to be so negligent of a child's privileges, that for our souls' sake, the tide of God's providence must run against us. Let us lay this to heart. Let us think of God's love to the souls of His people evidenced by the death of His Son.

Oh, how willingly would He give us strength according to our day, and make our way to prosper! "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Let us, then, never be satisfied, till we practically realize the adoption of sons, and all the fulness of a Father's blessing. In this there is no presumption. There is a sunshine in the soul, which is the saint's privilege. There is a multiplied joy, which is the legitimate fruit of the Spirit. There is a practical prosperity, security, and happiness, to which we are invited, and which follow the right use of the revealed charter of our mercies. Till we possess these things, we fall short of that position of privilege and blessing, in which the love of our heavenly Father and Redeemer warrants us to stand.

Φωνη τεθνηκοτος.

By this very remarkable symbol, there is evidently intended some most extraordinarily rapid, wide spread, and influential diffusion throughout the whole Roman, or perhaps rather the whole habitable world, of three several unclean or unholy principles, suited in character to the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, from whom respectively they appeared to

emanate, but all alike directed and speeded on their course by spirits of hell; and all alike in respect of the earthly agencies employed to propagate them, resembling frogs, the wellknown type of vain loquacious talkers and agitators, deluding and seducing the minds of men.

The following table will serve to illustrate the symbols used by the

The prophecy intimates that these spirits would act with unity of effect, if not of purpose, viz., so as to gather the powers of the world, (just as Ahab was seduced by a lying spirit to Ramoth-gilead,) whether altogether as antagonists to Christ and His cause, or, in part as antagonists, in part spectators only, to the coming great day of conflict.

The rising of each of these spirits may be dated somewhat earlier than the year 1830; but in taking a retrospective view of events, we will fix upon that year, because about that time the signs of the drying up of the mystic Euphrates became evident, and also because there occurred certain momentous political changes in France and England, the two most influential powers of western ( hristendom;-in France that of its second democratic revolution, in England those of the Roman Catholic Emancipation Act and the Reform Bill, whereby the issuing forth of the three unclean spirits (already spawned) in a new relationship to each other, was eminently accelerated and helped forward.

Let us especially mark their actings in our own country, because it being the chief asylum of true religion, and central point whence the actings for the evangelization of the world had for some time previous been proceeding, we might almost a priori have expected that the dragon would mark it out as, above all other countries, that, in which it would need that he should exert his deepest subtlety and mightiest energies.

As to the first spirit, that of democratic infidel lawlessness and rebellion, -when it had crossed the channel, after overthrowing the Bourbons in France, and the Dutch dynasty in Belgium, can we forget its sudden outbreak as exhibited at the mooting and during the progress of the Reform Bill? How the public mind in England was agitated and blindly impelled by it, almost like the herd that the legion of spirits impelled into the Lake of Gennesareth; and rank and property, Church and State, were alike endangered by it,-till the Premier himself, the ostensible author of the bill, quailed and fell before the tempest. Now the too frequent conjunction of the radical and the infidel (the joint characteristics of the spirit from the dragon) was both within parliament and without it, under the falsely assumed appellative of liberal, marked prominently; and their incessant croaking cry, like that of the frogs from the Stygian pool of the Greek dramatist, heard addressing itself to the masses, Agitate, Agitate! -how legislators, and even peers, as men infatuated, stood in their places in parliament, advising passive resistance to the law; and others, with yet clearer token of the spirit speaking in them, suggested recourse to physical force, and even murder: how our Church-a Church in its scriptural Articles and Liturgy surely the very pillar and ground of the faith-was marked as the special object of enmity and attack; its property saved with difficulty,-its prelates insulted, and, even within the House of Lords itself, admonished to set their house in order: how the general mass of the dissenting body was infected with the spirit;† and many dissenting ministers (not of the Socinians only, but even of the more orthodox sects) instead of confining themselves, like the most illustrious of their predecessors, to the work of evangelists at home, and the promotion of evangelic missions abroad, became strangely known as political

There were some notable exceptions.

+ The Wesleyans, at least their leaders, were an honourable exception; and respectable individuals amongst other dissenters.