there was to be a deeper celebration of the mystery of evil. The spirit which had filled and tortured every limb of France with rebellion to man, now put forth a fiercer malice, and blasphemed. Hostility was declared against all that bore the name of religion. By an act of which history, in all its depths and recesses of national guilt, had never found an example —a crime too blind for the blindest ages of barbarism, and too atrocious for the hottest corruptions of the pagan world, France, the leader of civilized Europe, publicly pronounced that there was no God. The decree was rapidly followed by every measure which could make the blasphemy practical and national. The municipality of Paris, the virtual government, proclaimed, that as they had defied earthly monarchy, they would now dethrone the monarchy of heaven.' On the 7th of November, 1793, Gobet, the Bishop of Paris, attended by his vicars general, entered the hall of the legislature, tore off his ecclesiastical robes, and abjured Christianity, declaring that the only religion thenceforth should be the religion of liberty, equality, and morality. His language was echoed with acclamation. A still more consummate blasphemy was to follow. Within a few days after, the municipality presented a veiled female to the assembly as the Goddess of Reason, with the fearful words, 'There is no God; the worship of Reason shall exist in his stead.' The assembly bowed before her and worshipped. She was then borne in triumph to the cathedral of Paris, placed on the high altar, and worshipped by the public authorities and the people. The name of the cathedral was thenceforth the Temple of Reason. Atheism was enthroned. Treason to the majesty of God had reached its height. No more gigantic insult could be hurled against heaven.

"But persecution had still its work. All the churches of the republic were closed. All the rites of religion were forbidden. Baptism and the communion were to be administered no more. The seventh day was to be no longer sacred, but a tenth was substituted,

and on that day a public orator was appointed to read a discourse on the wisdom of Atheism. The reign of the demon was now resistless. While Voltaire and Marat (infidelity and massacre personified) were raised to the honors of idolatry, the tombs of the kings, warriors, and statesmen of France were torn open, and the relics of men, whose names were a national glory, tossed about in the licentious sport of the populace. Immortality was publicly pronounced a dream; and on the gates of the cemeteries was written, Death is an eternal sleep!' In this general outburst of frenzy, all the forms and feelings of religion, true or false, were alike trodden under the feet of the multitude. The Scriptures, the lamps of the holy place, had fallen in the general fall of the temple. But they were not without their peculiar indignity. The copies of the Bible were publicly insulted; they were contemptuously burned in the havoc of the reli gious libraries. In Lyons, the capital of the south, where Protestanism had once erected her especial church, and where still a remnant worshipped in its ruins, an ass was actually made to drink the wine out of the communion cup, and was afterwards led in public procession through the streets, dragging the Bible at its heels. The example of these horrors stimulated the daring of infidelity in every part of the continent. France, always modelling the mind of Europe, now still more powerfully impressed her image, while every nation was beginning to glow with fires like her own. Recklessness, licentiousness, and blasphemy were the characters and credentials by which the leaders of overthrow, in every land, ostentatiously proceeded to make good their claims to French regeneration. The Scriptures, long lost to the people in the whole extent of Romish Christendom, were now still more decisively undone. No effort was made to reinstate them, by the Romish Church. Thus spake the prophecy, 'They shall lie in the street of the great city.'

Now let me ask my reader, Have we made a right

application of this portion of the word of the Lord? If so, where are we now in prophetic history? Mark. The tremendous scenes in France close up the second wo. Verse 14: "The second wo is past." That is, the second wo trumpet, which was the sixth trumpet in the series. If we are correct in the interpretation of this chapter, we are past the sixth trumpet and second wo! What follows-"BEHOLD." Mark it—be not deceived—O hear—see—listen, all ye ends of the earth—" Behold, the third wo [the last] cometh QUICKLY."

Where are we now? Looking for a "temporal millennium!!!" a thousand years of "peace and safety!!" O that the thunder of the midnight cry might wake up such souls. Once more let me utter the angel's cry, "Behold, the third wo cometh quickly."

Verses 15 to 18: "And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever. And the four and twenty elders which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy [margin'corrupt'] the earth."

The seventh angel, then, will " quickly "soundthen the wicked will be "destroyed," not " converted" -then the dead are to be "judged "—then the "saints" are to be "rewarded"—then will the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our Lord, and his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever. Then will the stone have smitten the "image upon his feel," and all the kingdoms of this earth will be dashed in

pieces. Then will the saints of the Most High take the kingdom and possess it forever, even FOREVER AND EVER.

O my fellow-men, I beseech you awake, awake, AWAKE, before that glorious day to saints, but dreadful, awfully dreadful day to sinners overtake you. In the name of the Lord, I beseech you, awake. O ye ministers of Christ, awake. Souls are looking up to you for direction at this hour. If you by a word, a look, or a gesture, seem but to say, "it is all moonshine, humbuggery;" or anything by which your hearers can infer that you think they have no cause of alarm, you may peril their souls, and their blood may be required at your hands. You do not know that it will not come this year. Many of you say, yourselves, "No man knoweth the day nor the hour." Then you do not know that it will not come this year. I pray you, then, don't strengthen the hands of the wicked. O remember" the third wo cometh quickly."

Sinner, Ay to Christ—the storm will soon fall—a storm before which you will be as incapable of standing as "stubble" before the devouring fire. May the Lord incline your heart to heed the warning.

Exposition of Matthew, 24th Chapter.

In contemplating this chapter our minds are apt to be biased by our previous modes of thinking. We seem to suppose that the disciples, in their inquiry, in the third verse, understood that Jerusalem was to be destroyed before the end of the world, as much as though it was an historical fact at the time. To my mind, it is clear that they had no idea that "the temple was to be destroyed prior to the coming of Christ at the end of the world. The previous chapter closes by our Saviour proclaiming his future coming; and as he departed out of the temple, his disciples called his attention to the buildings of the temple. He tells them

"There shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." This expression could convey no idea to the minds of the disciples of what we call the destruction of Jerusalem," as an event disconnected with his second coming. Let us considerhe had, just before leaving the temple, spoken of his coming; as he leaves the temple, he speaks of its utter demolition. The most natural idea to the minds of the disciples, must be that their Master spoke of the overthrow of those buildings at the end of the world, when he would come again. In this view, it appears to me, the question (for I consider the question one) was asked, "When shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?"

"These things"—what things? Christ's coming and the end of the world; to which time, it seems to me, they supposed our Saviour referred, in speaking of the destruction of the temple.

The point, therefore, on which they wanted information was about their Lord's coming and the end of the world. Our Saviour commences a connected chain of events which were to reach from that generation to his coming in the clouds of heaven. From the fourth to the fourteenth verse, he gives them a kind of general description, or synopsis, of events to take place at no very distant period after his leaving them.

Verse 4: Jesus said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you." He would have them on their guard against deception: knowing the temptations they would have, from the tribulations they were to pass through, to accept of some deliverer who might profess to come in Christ's name, to lead them out of their troubles.

Verse 5: "For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many." Many such did arise.

Verses 6 and 7: Here our Lord tells his followers of wars, &c., and cautions them against being "troubled." These wars did come- -Jerusalem was destroyed in one of the first, if not the very first of those wars; and