we have been by GoD's good Providence entrusted ?'

And this will be found to be a far more profitable style of inquiry than any discussion of our collective shortcomings. Whether we are or are not, as a nation, fulfilling our high responsibility, (we, whom Commerce carries into every corner of the globe,)-this, we shall be in good time to discuss afterwards.

Will none of you go away intending to make more of your Bible in future than you have in time past? Must it be all in vain that regularly as Advent comes round, you are reminded that in His Word, CHRIST makes His periodical approaches to each of us,—is for ever "coming?" ... O how do we at our peril neglect so great a treasure! And it is to neglect it to read it hurriedly, or coldly, or carelessly, or as a mere matter of form. What must be the blessedness of the Christian Church in inheriting both Testaments, if the Jews' advantage, "much every way," was 'chiefly,-because that unto them were committed the Oracles of GOD!"

Third Sunday in Advent.

THE MAN OF SIN.

2 THESSALONIANS ii. 3.

That Day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that Man of Sin be revealed, the Son of Perdition.

VERY solemn, to the ear of Faith, are all those deep notes of Prophecy which foretel what shall be in the last Days. Solemn in every age of the Church, the words of prophetic warning seem to increase in solemnity as the ages roll by. Twenty-six centuries have elapsed since the Prophet Joel told of the sun to be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and terrible Day of the LORD come: eighteen, since Our LORD Himself described the signs of His final Advent in very nearly the same terms. And the end is not yet! Nearer however by all that mighty space of years, is the Last Day: and surely the analogy of Holy Writ suggests

that the sands of Time have no such very protracted period yet to run!

It is not however to portents of this class that your attention is now invited. Whether such expressions are to be literally, or only figuratively taken; or (as I firmly believe) both literally and figuratively, it is not my present purpose to inquire. I ask your attention rather to what Holy Scripture delivers concerning the great Apostacy which shall usher in the End; and especially concerning the Man of Sin, the Son of Perdition, who is to be revealed before the final Advent of CHRIST to judge the World.

S. Paul in his 1st Epistle to the Thessalonians had used an expression which had been misunderstood by the believers of that Church. "We which are alive and remain unto the Coming of the LORD" (he had said,) "shall not prevent them which are asleep." From this, the Thessalonians had inferred that the last Day was coming very soon. Accordingly, in his Second Epistle, he takes pains to do away this impression. "Now, we beseech you, Brethren, as touching the Coming of our LORD JESUS CHRIST and our gathering together unto Him, that ye be not soon shaken from your sober mind, nor be troubled, either by prophetic utterance, or

by oral teaching, or by letter, (as if we had ever taught such a doctrine,)—with groundless apprehensions that the Day of CHRIST is already at hand. Let no man deceive you in any way: for that Day will not come, except there come the falling away first,"-(the Apostacy, the great falling away of which he had often discoursed to them :)" and the Man of Sin be revealed, the Son of Perdition."

S. Paul speaks (you see) not only of a great Apostacy, but of some wicked One, whom he calls "the Man of Sin," "the Son of Perdition,' "the Lawless One," to be revealed in the last days. The two things clearly go together. There will be in the last days a great falling away, or declension, from the true faith; and this will be a preparing of the way for the discovery of the Man of Sin.

I invite your attention to the context in which this astonishing prophecy is found. "He it is " (S. Paul says) "who opposeth and exalteth himself against everyone that is called GOD, or an object of worship; insomuch that he sitteth down in the Temple of GoD, displaying himself that he is GOD." There will be a persistence, it is implied, in this developed outcoming of his intolerable selfishness, and altogether frightful im

these

piety. "Remember ye not" (asks the Apostle) "that when I was yet with you, I told you things? And now, ye know what restraineth, that he may be revealed in his own time.". (Where, by the way, we have an example of an article of definite knowledge which hath long since passed away from the Church's memory, -a distinct tradition which she once held, but which she hath long since clean forgotten.) "For the mystery of Lawlessness is already working: yet only until he who now restraineth is taken out of the way."

All this is very difficult. Note, that "what restraineth" is now explained to be a person, "he who now restraineth." The rest admits of an easy explanation. The Apostle declares that all that mass of uncombined, and (so to say) unorganized Lawlessness, which is even now aggregating and energizing, will hereafter in its own proper season find its complete development and organization in the person and power of Antichrist. "And then shall the Lawless One be revealed-whom the LORD shall consume with the breath of His mouth, and shall destroy with the manifestation of His Coming."

But, having told us of the manner of the overthrow of Antichrist, S. Paul now goes back to the