be so at the end. Then "the sume day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all: even THUS SHALL IT BE in the day WHEN THE SON OF MAN IS REVEALED."

No language can be more explicit. There will be such circumstances developed in connection with the close of this dispensation, and it is left to us to choose the position which we will occupy. Warnings have been given. While the godless world and a slothful church are gazing forward to scenes of worldly prosperity, aggrandisement, and peacewhile many are putting away indefinitely that evil day because they wish it far off-while others strangely regard the declaration, ፡፡ no man knoweth the day and hour," as precluding the possibility of knowing "when it is nigh, even at the door"-while the world sleep on and dream on, the day breaketh, the morning cometh. The foretold tokens of redemption at hand, are before our gaze, and the weary eyes of the anxious watcher on Zion's walls, are greeted by the lustre of the ascending day-star, that portends the speedy rising of the King of Light. Signs of this description thicken on every hand. They cloud the heavens, they fill the earth, and we are bound to heed them. If we do it, it is our safety; if we neglect them it is at our peril.

upon us.

We are to look, then, and wait for the Son of God. We are not to be "in darkness." We are to anticipate and prepare for that day. Ere we are aware it shall come Like the stealthy thief prowling in the midnight darkness, like the travail of a woman with child, like the sudden snare, entrapping the unwary feet, yea, like the brilliant lightning as it rends the cloud and gleams athwart the midnight sky, so sudden, so unexpected, so startling, shall the coming of the Son of Man be. Hence the necessity of dilligence that we may "be found of him in peace'

Reader, are you saying peace and safety? Are you fancying that your Lord delayeth his coming? Are you saying in mockery and incredulity, Where is the promise of his coming? Oh, friend, remember where you are. Heed the word of God. Heed the revelations of his holy prophets. Heed the prophetic warnings of his Son who died for thee. Forget not the sayings of holy men of old. Study God's word. Discern the signs of the times, and prepare to meet thy God. While all the elements of strife are let loose, while the whirlwind speeds from land to land, while the tempest sweeps wildly along and will soon burst heavily upon the earth, while nations are in their death struggles, and while others are hastening toward the outer circles of the awful whirlpool which shall speedily engult them in destruction and perdition, while the notes of pleading entreaty and solemn warning fall upon thine ear, while mercy yet lingers to call you, and waits to receive you, I pray you flee from the impending storm. A little while, and it may be too late. "Sudden destruction cometh," and the unprepared "shall not escape." Heed, then, the voice of God. Repent! Why live on in sin? Why court ruin and wrath? Why earn death? Why crucify afresh the Son of God? Why despise his outpoured blood? Why rush madly on to perdition? Why grieve the heart of him who died for thee? Why reject a salvation that is free and boundless as the unmeasured love of God? WHY WILL YOU DIE?

Reader, are you a Christian? a watchful observer and discerner of the signs of the times? Then you are not in darkness. But are you where and what you should be? Are you serving God with all your heart? Are you laying up treasures in heaven? Are you taking heed lest at any time your heart be overcharged, and that day come

upon you as a thief? Are you faithful to God? to yourself? to the world? to the church of Christ? to sinners around you? Do you confess Christ? Do you bear his C8S? Do you obey his commands? Are you alive or Jead? Are you in Christ Jesus, or out? Are you hot or cold? Are you lukewarm? Are you watchful? Are you prayerful and laborious? Are you pure from the blood of all men? Take time to consider these questions. Ponder them: you had better settle them now than at the judgment-seat of Christ. Let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breast-plate of faith and love, and for an helmet the hope of salvation. Your duty is before you. Will you do it? WILL YOU DO IT? Spirit of the living God, fasten this question on the reader's heart!

Christian pilgrim, rejoice! Lift up thy head. Lo. heaven is radiant with the promise of the hastening day. You "are not in darkness," why need you be in tears? The morning cometh-the morning that shall end thy The morning that shall chase away thy sorrows, that shall waken with its rising glory thy loved ones that sleep in Jesus, and that shall throw the vigor of immortality througnout thy wan and weary form.

woes.

Ah, yes, in the nearing distance gleam the crystal tow ers and the glittering palaces of the city of God. A little while, and the swelling anthem of the redeemed shall burst sublimely on thy ravished ear, the crown of glory shall sparkle on thy brow, the palm of triumph shall wave. above thy head, the spotless raiment of the blest shall be thy fair adorning, the angels of God shall be thy joyful company, the marriage supper of the Lamb shall be thy feast, the voice of Jesus shall pronounce thy blessed wel. come, the peaceful paradise of God shall be thine everlasting home, and thou shalt be forever with the Lord.

THE past, the present, and the future.

These are the

three all-embracing divisions of events and things, through which human imagination and human research pursue their course. The past dim, shadowy, and obscure; the present-restless, changeful, and inconstant: and the futurevast, portentous, and uncertain; these furnish a field for the widest wanderings of those thoughts that roam throughout eternity-for the farthest stretch of human imaginations.

But whether we inquire concerning the past, the present, or the future, we find ourselves surrounded by numberless perplexities. History is brief in its extent, meagre in its details, and often contradictory in its declarations. Opin. ion, as it regards the present condition of earthly affairs, is vague, various, and conflicting. And the veil of futurity hangs its gloomy folds over the obscure, the mysterious, the unknown hereafter.

Surrounded then, as we are, by uncertainty and anxiety, longing for a more definite apprehension of human history

:

and of human destiny, we invoke external aids to assist us in pursuing the object of our desires. Navigating this stormy and tempestuous sea, we desire a chart to inform us of our locality, and look forth for some guiding star ✦ direct our course. Groping in a dark and devious pathray, we seek anxiously for some lamp which shall illumi nate our footsteps, and conduct us to a peaceful termination of our weary journey.

see!

That chart is granted us ! That star we can That lamp is placed within our hand! It is the Word of God the transcript of the divine will and mind-the certified and attested copy of the things "noted in" those awful" Scriptures of Truth" which mortal eye has never gazed upon, and upon which the hand of mortal was never laid. By this, alone, we thread the mazes of the intricate past. By this we correctly estimate the inconstant present. By this, too, we behold as through a glass the dim and shadowy future, revealed in bold and striking outline, thrilling us by its terror, cheering us by its beauty, or entrancing us with its sublime and resplendent majesty.

The Word of God, in its historical records, its declarations, and its prophetic delineations, brings to our view three worlds, with which human destiny has been, is, and is to be connected. These worlds, existing in successive and consecutive chronological periods, distinctly separated from each other by unmistakable periods and processes of transition, are termed "The World that then was,' "The Heavens and Earth that now are,' and "The World to come," or "The new Heavens and the new Earth." To sketch, briefly, these worlds in their origin, progress, and course, is the object of the present writing

99.66

What occurred prior to "the beginning," an account of