by the Spirit in searching for truth, you must be in a state of entire consecration to God.

Let all your powers be completely submitted to the guidance of the Holy Ghost, in promoting Jehovah's interests, having no will and no interests of your own, of any sort, to consult or to think of in admitting and avowing the truth. The simple, honest, cheerful language of your heart must be, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to believe and do?" while you are so satisfied with the service and the favor of God, that you will count it all joy should you be made a partaker of Christ's sufferings, in having your name cast out as evil and deluded, by all the wise, and learned, and reputedly pious, in the church and out of it. Without this state of mind, you have no promise of being guided by the Spirit to the knowledge of any truth contained in the Bible; and without it you will be very unlikely to apprehend the truth in relation to this subject, which summons you directly, as it were, before the tribunal, and into the immediate presence of that God, who says, "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." You may expect to find it emphatically true here, that "If thine eye be evil thy whole body shall be full of darkness," as it evidently is with the vast majority of professors and ministers of religion, at the present time; for they know, and are constantly affirming, that they always come short of perfect obedience, and this is the

same as to say that they are all the time sinning against God, while those only who "do the will of the Lord," have the promise that they shall "know of the doctrine whether it be of God."

Come, then, immediately to Jesus, with the spirit of entire consecration, confiding implicitly in him, as your "wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption;" expecting that, as your "Horn of Salvation," he will perform this mercy promised, that you, being delivered from your enemies, may serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of your life." And be not stumbled should you find some individuals professing to be in a state of entire consecration, who do not believe in the pre-millennial advent of Christ in 1843. It is, doubtless, yet to be determined in the case of many such persons, whether they are so baptized with the Holy Ghost, as to be wholly uninfluenced. by any worldly and selfish considerations. It is evident, also, from my own experience, as already related, that persons who have the witness in themselves that they are altogether right in the sight of God, may long be deterred from gaining a correct knowledge of the truth on this subject, by certain early imbibed, and long cherished, though erroneous opinions, and methods of interpreting Scripture. Many such persons, especially ministers, and theological professors, will undoubtedly be left,

under some such influences, to remain in ignorance respecting the time of Christ's coming, till very near the day of his appearing; that the wisdom of God may be more conspicuously manifested, as it was at his first appearing, and as it is now being manifested in every part of the land, in causing the "foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and things that are not, to bring to nought things that are."

8. Having consecrated yourself entirely to God, begin immediately to search the Scriptures without note or comment; comparing spiritual things with spiritual, relying with expecting confidence on the teachings of the Holy Ghost, and determined to continue your search, till you are satisfied that you have gained the precise views of this whole subject which God intended we should entertain.

Let all the passages pertaining to each point of inquiry be brought together and compared, remembering that only that view is correct, with which all these passages, or the greater number of them, can most easily and naturally be made to harmonize.

1. In respect to the future everlasting abode of the saints with Christ in his kingdom. Examine and compare all the passages here referred to, noticing particularly the nature and duration of the promise made to Abraham and his seed. Has the promise ever yet been

fulfilled? Can an "everlasting inheritance" be taken possession of in this mortal state? Gen. xii. 6, 7; xiii. 14, 15; xv. 7, 18; xvii. 8; xxvi. 3, 4; xxviii. 13; xlviii. 4; Heb. xi. 8, 9, 13, 39, 40; Acts vii. 5.

Who are Abraham's seed and heirs with him to this promised inheritance? Rom. ii. 28, 29; iv. 13—16; x. 12, 13; Gal. iii. 7, 8, 9. Compare John viii. 39, 40; Rom. ix. 6, 7, 8; Gal. vi. 15; Rev. ii. 9.

How do the heirs become such? Gal. iii. 14—29.

Is Christ now on his own proper throne where he is to reign forever with his saints? Matt. xi. 27; xxviii. 18; John iii. 35; Eph. i. 20, 21, 22; Ps. ex. 1; Heb. i. 3, 13.

Com

pare 1 Cor. xv. 24—28; Rev. iii. 21; Ps. cxxxii. 11, 13, 14; Luke i. 32, 33; Isa. ix. 6, 7; xxiv. 23; Ps. ii. 6. Now, with reference, still further, to the future abode of the saints, compare Ps. xxxvii. 11, 29; Matt. v. 5; Dan. vii. 13, 14, 17, 18, 27; Rev. v. 10; xi. 15.

Is it anywhere intimated in the Bible, that Christ will ever leave the earth again, after he comes to it personally the second time? You may here be reminded of what is recorded in John xiv. 2, 3. But where is "his Father's house?" Compare the passages last referred to above, with Matt. xiii. 43, and Gal. iv. 26 with Rev. xxi. 2, 3.

What is Christ now doing to prepare a place for his disciples? Rom. viii. 34; Heb.

ix. 24—28; 1 Cor. xv. 24, last clause 25; compare Heb. xi. 39, 40.

2. Is "the Kingdom of God," "the Kingdom of Heaven," or "the Kingdom of Christ," so often spoken of by the sacred writers, already set up, or is it yet to be established? Consider what is generally understood by a kingdom among the "common people," for whom the Bible was written. Can they conceive of two kingdoms existing on the same territory at the same time? Then notice that John the Baptist, Christ, and his Apostles, all speak of "the kingdom of God" as something which their hearers, the Jews, had often heard of. But how could they have known anything about it, unless "the kingdom" thus spoken of were the same as that spoken of by Daniel, and alluded to by the rest of the prophets, where they refer to the future throne and reign of the Messiah? Now what ideas of the nature of this kingdom, and of the time of its commencement, would be gained, by an unprejudiced mind, from reading the visions in the 2d and 7th chapters of Daniel?

Let them be examined in the following manner. (1.) Read chap. ii. 1—31,36, with chap. vii. 1, 2, 3, 15, 16, 17. (2.) Chap. ii. 32, 37, 38, 39, with chap. vii. 4, 5, 6. (3.) Chap. ii. 33, 40, with chap. vii. 7, omitting the last clause; read also verse 19. (4.) Chap. it. 41, with chap. vii. 7, last clause; verse 20, first clause, and verse 24, first