and purified,

There is no

by water. The world then is to be changed but not annihilated by this avenging fire. proof from Scripture, and certainly none from philosophy, that the world will ever be annihilated.

But I must glance at one or two other events, and then conclude my discourse. I have spoken to you of the judg ment of the quick and dead, which takes place on the morning of the great day of judgment, in other words, near the beginning of the thousand years. There is also a judgment at the close of this great day. Christ and the saints who have a part in the first resurrection, are represented as reigning for a thousand years; after the expiration of which Satan is loosed for a little season, and goes forth to deceive the nations. A short conflict ensues, which is immediately terminated by the power of God. Then follows the second resurrection, which includes the wicked who were left in their graves at the time of the first resurrection, and also those righteous persons, and such too as are called "sinners," (Is. lxv. 20,) who have lived and died in the flesh during the millennium. All of these, both good and bad, small and great, stand before God, and are judged according to their works; and whosoever is not found written in the book of life is cast into the lake of fire. (Rev. xx. 12, 13, 15.) This takes place in the evening of the great day of judgment; in other words, after the close of the thousand years. Such, my brethren, is the final consummation. Let me then exhort you to take heed to the admonition of St. Peter-"Ye

* Peter uses the word "perish," with reference to the destruction of the world by the deluge; (2 Pet. iii. 6;) which shews that he means change, not annihilation, when in the same connexion he speaks of the world as being destroyed by fire. Compare Heb. i. 10, where Paul, speaking of the heavens and the earth, says-" they shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed." The destruction therefore, is for change, not for annihilation.

therefore beloved, seeing ye know these things before, be ware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked," and what that error was, he mentions in the beginning of the chapter, denying and disbelieving in the personal and pre-millennial advent of our Lord, saying, "Where is the promise of his coming," etc.; beware, he says, brethren, "lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." (2 Pet. iii. 17, 18.) Remember my friends the admonition of the Savior himself, "And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them, that dwell on the face of the earth." (Luke xxi. 34-36.) It is to come as a snare and a thief to the wicked; but Paul says to the Thessalonian Christians, while that day comes as a thief to the wicked who walk in darkness, and when they are saying "peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, and they shall not escape," he adds, "But ye brethren are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are the children of the light," etc. (1 Thess. v. 1-5.) But on all the wicked it shall come as a snare. "Watch ye, therefore," continues the Savior, "“and pray always, that ye may be counted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man." (Luke xxi. 36.) "Watch therefore," dear brethren, "for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come." (Matt. xxiv. 42.) But I must hasten to a conclusion. My christian friend, do the wicked trouble you; do they sneer at you, and persecute you with ridicule, and scorn, and contempt,-and perhaps say all manner of things against you falsely, calling you, it may be, a poor fanatical enthusiast, because you

believe in the good old primitive doctrine of the premillennial personal advent, and personal millennial reign of Christ and his saints?-bear it with patience; leave your cause in the hands of him who hath said, "Vengeance is mine." It is but a short time, and you will be delivered from this state of humiliation and depression, and then you shall be enrolled in that glorious army of Messiah, which is described by David and St. John, as executing on the wicked the fierce judgments of the Lord. "The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous; verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth." (Ps. lviii. 10, 11.) The hour of your deliverance is near. Be patient, therefore, for the coming of Christ. He is now preparing a highway among the nations for the wheels of his chariot. It is but a little while, and the grand crisis shall arrive. It will be an awful struggle, but the Lord shall be the strength of his people, and the destruction of their enemies. It would seem from what is said in Rev. 19th, as we have already hinted, and also from several of the parables of our Savior, that to many of the wicked in that day there is not even a respite from bodily suffering; but that they are cast alive, body and soul, into the lake of fire. Oh my impenitent friends, that will be a dreadful day for you, dreadful beyond all conception, unless you repent. It will be a signal time of vengeance, God have mercy on you now. unless you repent, in vain will you call on the rocks and mountains to hide you from the fierce wrath of the Lord Jesus Christ, when he comes not as a suffering Savior, but as a terrible avenger. In that day when "the

For

inhabitants of the earth are burned and few men left," there is no reason to believe that you will be

See Part II., Lecture VII. † Part II., Lectures 1. and VII. ‡ Is. xxiv. 6,

among the few. You have enjoyed too many privileges in the meridian splendor of the gospel light, to escape the fierce vengeance in that great and terrible day. Like Sodom and Gomorrah you will, in all probability, perish in its flames. Repent, therefore, before that day come upon you as a thief. Prepare to meet thy God, for the day of judgment is at hand. It may be much nearer than you apprehend. Sinner, are you prepared to meet him in that day?—that dreadful day when all your unbelief will be given to the winds. You will indeed believe and tremble when ten thousand times ten thousand angels line the sky, and the Icud peal of the trumpet summons to the judgment. How much better to believe now! Alas, it will then be too late. Now is the accepted time. A short period is added to your probation. I entreat you, therefore, by the mercies of God, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ; take your station on the watch tower, and note carefully the signs of his approach, for "unto them that look for him, shall he appear the second time, without sin unto salvation." (Heb. ix. 28.) May God have mercy upon you, and enable you to say from the heart, "I know whom I have believed;" "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course; I have kept the faith, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me in that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." (2 Tim. i. 12; iv. 7, 8.)

SUPPLEMENT I.

CUNINGHAME'S VIEWS ON THE ORDER OF

EVENTS.

Since the delivery of the preceding lecture, I have received from England the third edition of Mr. Cuninghame's very able work on the Apocalypse, from which, for the gratification and instruction of the reader, I have transcribed the following eloquent remarks on the order of events. It will be seen that he advocates substantially the same views as those maintained in the preceding lecture.

After quoting from a writer who says that "the first French revolution was but the beginning of woes"—that "it was an earthquake, and Europe has too easily flattered herself that its effects had spent themselves in the overthrow of Napoleon,"* Mr. Cuninghame proceeds as follows

"Amidst this commixture of dread and alarm, and these groanings of distressed nations, and fond whisperings of "peace, peace," suddenly as the blaze of forked lightning, unexpectedly as the fall of the trap upon the ensnared animal, and as the dark and concealed approach of the midnight thief, a voice like that of ten thousand thunders, shall burst on the ears of the astonished inhabitants

•“Yes, Europe has so flattered itself,—but not so the writers on prophecy." (Cuninghame.)