and make war," then, as the prophet declares, Isaiah, xi. 4, "shall He smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked." This conflict shall be different from any other; for as the same prophet says, ix. 5, "Every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire." And when it takes place the two little horns shall vanish away, the ten horns of the fourth Beast shall disappear, and the four notable horns of the third beast shall be no more seen. All that remains will be the horn of David, which will then bud and blossom, and fill the world with fruit. The mystery of iniquity, in its two leading branches being overthrown, the mystery of godliness will have an unobstructed development, and Christ's reign of truth, and righteousness, and peace will be established over all the earth; while the Church's prayer, so long offered, will be at last answered-" Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,"

LECTURE VII.

THE CALAMITIES OF THE LAST DAYS.

"For thus saith the Lord God of Israel unto me, Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations to whom I send thee, to drink it, and they shall drink and be moved, and be mad because of the sword that I will send among them. And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thy hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, ye shall certainly drink, for lo, I begin to bring evil upon the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished ? Ye shall not be unpunished, for I will call for a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the Lord of Hosts. Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words, and say unto them, The Lord shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar upon his habitation; he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the Lord hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the Lord, Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Behold evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be as dung upon the ground."-JEREMIAH, XXV. 15-33.

THE royal prophet who exclaims in one place, "I will sing of mercy and of judgment; unto thee, O Lord, will I sing," in another place says, "Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations He hath made in the earth." The subject which is before us, and now claims our attention, is the calamities and distresses which will

befall the nations of the earth just before the close of 'this dispensation. This unpleasant theme we would gladly avoid, could we do so without keeping back part of the whole counsel of God, or without hiding from you the evil as well as the good which is in the future; but it presses itself upon our attention because it is held up by the prophets as one of those momentous events in which the whole human family have a most painful interest.

As a part of the duty of an historian is to record the great calamities by fire and sword, and pestilence and earthquake, which have swept away whole cities, and depopulated vast provinces, as well as the political events which have overthrown reigning dynasties and advanced others to power, so do the prophets in describing the course of empire, from its first rise down to its final dissolution, foretell the fearful events which shall accompany the wreck of nations, and the dissolution of empires just before the establishment of the kingdom of the Son of Man. As all the great empires which are spoken of in Prophecy have been built upon the ruins of those which preceded them, and have advanced their way to supremacy over the prostrate necks of subjugated foes, and amidst desolations of countries and the slaughter of their inhabitants, so when the last overturning comes, the time spoken of when the "stone cut out of the mountain without hands shall smite the image on the feet, and the iron and the clay, the brass, and the silver, and the gold shall be broken to pieces together, and shall become like the dust of the summer threshing floor, and the wind shall carry them away so that no place shall be found for them;" such scenes of desolation shall be

spread over the globe as all past disasters are only faint types of.

In unfolding this subject, therefore, sad and mournful are the tidings we have to bear; dark and gloomy is the picture which truth compels us to draw of a future scene which earth has yet to realize before that good time coming of which poets and philanthropists delight to speak; "a time of trouble such as never was before, nor ever after shall be," which the prophets foretell with the certainty of a divine foreknowledge. This period, which is alluded to by almost all the sacred writers from Moses to Malachi in the Old Testament, and by our Saviour and the Evangelists and Apostles in the New Testament, is presented by the Prophet Jeremiah in our text under an image of maddening rage and fury which has scarce a parallel anywhere else.

It has from time immemorial, been the practice when men of violence and blood would excite themselves to the commission of desperate acts of lawlessness, first to resort to the intoxicating bowl, and there drown reason and inflame passion, until regardless of every consideration of justice, or mercy, or humanity, they plunged headlong into their career of cruelty, and perpetrated the most horrid barbarities. In allusion to such a practice, the Prophet Jeremiah informs us in the text, that he received the following message: "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel unto me, take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations to whom I send thee, to drink it, and they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them.' All war and violence proceed from an intoxication of the

وو

passions. The sober-minded eschew such outbursts of rage. But war is often sent as a scourge by God upon the wicked, a judgment for sin; and not only war, but also pestilence, famine, inundations and insurrections. "Shall there be evil in the city and the Lord hath not done it ?" the Lord asks by the mouth of the Prophet Amos, iii. 6. "Behold I make peace and create evil, saith the Lord," Isaiah, xlv. 7. All the elements are but His messengers, and go and come at His command; therefore He says in the text, "Drink ye and be drunken, and spue and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword. which I will send among you." And if they refuse to take the cup at His hand, he should say unto them, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, ye shall certainly drink, for lo, I begin to bring evil upon the city which is called by my name,” viz., Jerusalem, "and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished, for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the Lord of hosts." Has this ever been fulfilled? We know that Jerusalem has been punished, sorely punished, and is to this day lying under the rod of His displeasure. The holy city is trodden under foot of the Gentiles, and sits desolate and solitary like a weeping widow, her children exiled, while the cities of the nations are reveling in magnificence and splendor, and their inhabitants are joyous and prosperous. But the tables are to be turned, the afflicted are to be made joyful, and the joyous sad.

The Prophet Isaiah, li. 17, expresses the truth if possible still clearer than the Prophet Jeremiah. He is directed to say, "Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem,