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Powers," in a hypothetic form,* exhibits to us their future exercise. "Yea, all kings shall fall down before Him." "All the kings of the earth shall praise Thee, O Lord, when they hear the words of thy mouth. Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord." It is promised that their influence shall be employed on behalf of the Church: "Kings shall minister unto thee." "Kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers." Who can anticipate the revolutions that these predictions comprehend?

Omnipotence shall shine in each achievement. "I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth." "The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this." "I will work, and who shall let it ?"

There shall be a large amount of Good in the prevention of the most common misery. There will be "nations of families!" When luxury is repressed, and want is unknown, what fell diseases will be destroyed or unspeakably mitigated! When "the motions of sins which work in our members are conquered, what external tranquillity will obtain! When "the peace which passeth all understanding" lightens every heart, what bodily health will be subserved! When "in whatsoever state we are we have learnt to be content," what deep and festering anxieties will be shunned! When detraction, envy, and suspicion, yield to complacency, good will, and confidence, what a * 2 Sam. xxiii. 1, &c.; Rom. xiii. 1, &c.

What happiness

cheerful aspect will society assume! is always in our own power; and then there will be the full disposition to improve it! Easy will death come, gently will it fall! Even then, to die will be gain! Nothing will be worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us! To depart and be with Christ must be far better!

It will be Simultaneous: "All flesh shall see it together." "They shall serve the Lord with one consent. "And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear nor dark," (not clear in some countries and dark in others): "but it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day nor night but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light;" a splendour unmixed, progressive, universal.

But this is not the whole; still our expectations rise. It will be the Jubilee of the world. Principle in its strength, piety in its ardour, charity in its blandness, the contemplative mood, the ready service, religion all-penetrating and all-subduing,— purity shuddering at every stain,-consistency sensitive of the minutest deflection, great grace upon them all, love to Christ the ruling motive, - His Cross the magnet-centre,- His Church the common home, -these are the features which consecrate the scenes of prophecy and the ages of peace!

There is, doubtless, a perfect harmony in the predictions of Scripture. They are bound together in a system. A few of the principal threads of the tissue we can follow: some luminous points break

through the haze. We must explain each of these oracles according to the bearing of their combined purpose: we must refer them to the whole. We shall then easily derive from them, not merely isolated passages, but the stress of a system, to certify the future. There will not fall upon that dark profound, feeble and dubious glimmerings, but a volume and mass of illumination. This has been the goal of all. Empires have been taken up by Prophecy in its way. It rapidly depicts their changes and their fates. They then are left like reeds by the river-side, frail in their position as in their nature,-undermined by the ebb, and swept away by the flood. Still the Awful Scroll flies onward. "The days are at hand, and the effect of every vision." "Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days."

Some of the preceding quotations may be disputed as having the application which we have given them. They involve, it is conceded, the principle of interspersion. This principle, instead of being unreasonable or unnatural, is capable of a clear defence. It supplies to Scripture a beautiful relief, an analogous character, and a uniform tendency. The law of interpretation, when it is not fixed by the connection, must look to simple, necessary, exegesis. To this we have been compelled to resort. But we do

not feel that we ought to apologise for it. The Bible is but one. Written by "the self-same Spirit," one hope pervades the whole. Amidst convulsion and tribulation, it still encourages the Church by the pros

pect of her destinies. The river, which makes her glad, often disappears but only to emerge again; until, as it approaches its termination, it rolls a steady course and with an enlarging current.

One more principle presses for notice. We have remarked Prophecy in its announcements: these are often signified by pictures. There is given to us, so

to speak, the very scenery. The future lives to our view. "The harvest" waves: "the new Jerusalem" descends: "the waters of the sea" roll to represent the universal diffusion of Divine knowledge: "many crowns" sparkle to reflect the conquests of Christian truth. If we have desired to see that "Day," see it in sensible image and action, "we see it and are glad." The Most High thus stoops to instruct our ignorance and encourage our faith. "If it be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, should it also be marvellous in mine eyes? saith the Lord of hosts."

When we turn from these investigations to Missionary labour, do we not feel that we have stood on the Holy Mount? Are we not encouraged, and more determined? Have we not descried the Promised World? And does not Prophecy become the harp which soothes and calms the troubled spirit of doubt and disappointment, -the trumpet calling us to arms, -the timbrel leading on our triumphs?

MISSIONS

URGED BY OUR PARTICULAR CIRCUMSTANCES.

THERE is a Historical consideration which should affect a Briton, when seeking the conversion of the heathen, in the strongest degree. A pagan, ready to perish, was his father. These islands were the seats of an elaborate polytheism. Here was its lore formally taught. Here was its high place of sacrifice. Its monuments of unhewn grandeur yet strew our land, and their hoary pomp survives "the desolations of many generations." Nor are the Druidical piles and circles all that remind us of idolatry. Invaders the most cruel brought their own. Still we dig out the Roman altar in our excavations. The Norman

has engraved his superstition on our hills. The Runic inscription tells of the literature which insinuated a newer legend of delusion. The Scald sang his Edda where the Bards of Esus had chanted their lays before. Yet from these complicated chains have we been released. Christianity early arrived on our shores. "The idols were utterly abolished." Sacred edifices quickly arose,-a native pastorate was established, a simple faith and discipline long prevailed. It is not for us to relate how "false brethren, unawares brought in, came in privily to spy out our