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is, "Where the Lord will declare his precious fruit." This gathering is the same spoken of in Matt. xxv. 32, "And before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats." In the place Armageddon, the Lord will manifest who are his; he will separate the chaff from the wheat, the wicked from the just. The wheat he will gather into his garner; they will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, while the chaff will be burnt with unquenchable fire. His own right hand shall save us while his last plague shall be poured out upon the head of his enemies. "And the

seventh angel poured his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven from the throne, saying, It is done." The seventh and last vial of God's wrath will be poured into the air about the year 1840, if my former calculations are correct, when this judgment will have a quick and rapid circulation over the whole globe. Like the air, it will pervade every kingdom, circulate into every nation, sow the seeds of anarchy in every society, and disorganize every bond of union among men, except the gospel. "And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings, and a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great." Voices, political strife. Thunders is an emblem of divisions. Lightning is a representation of anger and war. Great earthquake denotes a great revolution. And there will be, when this vial is poured out, political strife among all nations, divisions among all sects, societies, and associations of men upon earth. Anger, war, and bloodshed will fill the countries with horror and dismay; and a great revolution, such as was not since men were upon earth, so mighty a revolution and so great. "And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell; and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath." The great city is the woman which reigneth over the kings of the earth, says the angel, Rev. xvii. 18. And the woman is Papacy. Papacy must also be divided into three parties, to show

her dissolution. And the cities of the nations fell. As city denoted the papal power and religion, so does cities represent the power and religion of all other nations. Therefore all the power, and all national religion, will fall in and under this vial, and the anti-Christian power will be judged; all their sins, cruel persecutions, and bloody deeds, will be brought into judgment into remembrance before God, and he will fill to her the cup which she has made others drink, and she in her turn must drink the dregs. "And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found." Islands and mountains are figures of great and, small kingdoms and governments. This text alludes to the same time and circumstances which Nebuchadnezzar's dream does, Daniel ii. 35, 45- when the stone cut out without hands shall smite the image upon his feet, and all the kingdoms of the earth be carried away, that no place shall be found for them. In this verse it is, the " mountains were not found." "And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent, and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great." This closes the history of the seven last plagues, and this storm of hail is the last part of the seventh vial; it is the closing up of the judgments of God on an ungodly world. Whether we are to understand this hail figuratively or literally, I am not able to say ; but my prevailing opinion is, that we are to understand it literally, for this reason— - I have never been able in the word of God to find any figurative explanation, although it is used in a number of places with particular reference to the last day. Isa. xxviii. 17, "Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet, and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-places." Xxx. 30, "And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones." Ezek. xiii. 11, 13, "Say unto them which daub it with untempered mortar, that it shall fall; there

shall be an overflowing shower; and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall rend it. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, I will even rend it with a stormy wind in my fury; and there shall be an overflowing shower in mine anger, and great hail-stones in my fury, to consume it." Ezek. xxxviii. 22, “And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hail-stones, fire and brimstone." Also, Rev. xi. 19, "And there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail."

By reading the connection of these texts, you cannot but be struck with the agreement of the prophets in their descriptions of this last and dreadful judgment of God upon the world. All of them evidently fix it on the last day; all call it apparently a rain of great hail-stones, like those which fell upon Egypt in the days of Moses. Exodus ix. 23-25, "And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven; and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt, all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field." This, it is evident, is the type of the last part of the seventh plague.

And now, my friends, will you believe? Six of these plagues have been accomplished in as literal a manner as we could expect, after a fair and scriptural explanation of the figures and metaphors used. And again I ask, Do you believe? You think, perhaps, you will wait until you see the hail come, and then you will believe. But will you not recollect that our text says, " And they blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail"? Will you thus tempt God through six successive judg ments, and wait for the last before you will believe? What hope or prospect have you that the seventh will do what the six preceding could not do—that is, make

you believe? Is there one rational conviction that you will be then convinced? No, not one. Then will you not see and learn wisdom by what is gone before? Pharaoh had no space for repentance under, or even just before the last plague. And so it will be with you; the door will have been shut before any part of the seventh vial will be poured out, for then will be heard a great voice reverberating through the upper vault of heaven, and, sounding even to the dark cells of the pit of woe, shaking the middle air with its deep-toned thunder, and, like the lightning, darting its vivid flash of fire from east to west, will pierce the deafest ear, and make the hardest heart to break, although a thousand fold more hard than the adamantine rock, saying, "It is done." This brings me to show,

II. What we may understand by "It is done."

The first question which naturally arises on the mind is, What is done? When Christ was about expiating for the sins of the world; when he was closing up the work which his Father gave him to do on earth in the flesh; when the spirit was about leaving the tenement of clay which it had inhabited through a life of thirtythree years of pain, sufferings, deprivations, sorrows, groans, and tears, made more acute by temptations trying as the arch-demon of hell could invent; suffering reproach from the haughty Pharisee, and the more obstinate Sadducee, and contempt and ridicule from the base rabble of his own people; persecuted even until death by the envy, malice, and hatred of those who had received boons and blessings of life at his hands,— he had saved them from disease, death, and the rage of demons; yet, in this moment of great need, he was forsaken of all; they stood afar off; and when he was about giving up the ghost, he cried, "It is finished!" and bowed his head, and died. The fratricide man could do no more; he had followed him to death; beyond that the envy of his brother could not reach him. The rabble, who a few days before had cried, Hosannas to the Son of David! this day were crying, Crucify him! crucify him! now could cry no more, but with downcast looks, returned into the city. The Pharisees and rulers could do no more; they had plotted his death, and obtained

their object; but into the dark recess of the tomb they dare not, they would not, follow. The great red dragon (the Roman power) had sought his life when a child, but the hour had not come. Herod sought his life when a man, but he could not succeed until the last day of the seventy weeks should be accomplished. Then the powers of earth, wicked men, and devils, could combine to take the life of the Lord of glory. Then, while these powers had control, the heavens hid their face; nature stood back aghast, and the material world shuddered with a groan. Then, at that awful, fitful period, he who had been the object of all this malice, cried with a loud voice, "It is finished!" The work on earth in the flesh is finished; the temptations of Satan are finished; the persecution of his brethren are finished; envy, malice, and hatred towards the person of Christ are finished; the power of earth, hell, and wicked men to do any thing with him, is finished; death has no more terrors over him. It is finished.

Although Christ had finished his work, and had endured all the sufferings which he was to finish; yet in his spiritual body, the church, the measure of his sufferings was to be filled up. His people must pass through the same scenes in the world as their divine Master had experienced from satanic temptations and the hatred of the world. "The world will hate you and persecute you for my name's sake, even as they hated me before they hated you," says our blessed Redeemer. Therefore the same manifestations of cruelty, contempt, persecution, and death, were to be acted over again in the church until the 2300 years should be accomplished, when Christ would come again, receive home his weary, persecuted people, conquer death, and him that had the power of death, which is the devil. "And there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven from the throne, saying, It is done." The power of earth, hell, and wicked men over the dear people of God, is done. Their temptation in the flesh is done; their trials, persecutions, sufferings, darkness, fears, and death itself, are done. As the sufferings of the head was finished in Christ, so will all the pains of the body be completed when the seventh and last vial shall be poured into the air, and

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