the good Word of God and the powers of the world to come"that is, who have felt the yearning after and a partial subjection of soul to the principles and spirit of "the world to come."

Now in what sense the Apostle uses the phrase "world to come," is not very hard to find out. It is the messianic kingdom, complete and victorious over all enemies. It is the place and state into which the people of God shall enter through the gates of the Resurrection. It is the new Heaven and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.

All doubt respecting this interpretation, would seem to be removed by the stress which Paul constantly places upon the fact, that the work of Christ in the salvation of believers will not have been completed until the redemption of their bodies from the grave has been effected, as well as their souls from the guilt and dominion of sin.

The Resurrection is the end and object of his hopes and desires, He counts everything tributary to his securement of a part in the Resurrection of the just, and with the Resurrection, we need not say that he connects the final judgment, the destruction of the earth, and the glorious establishment of "the world to come." Having described the Resurrection in the 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians, he exclaims, "We shall not all sleep," the mighty change shall pass over creation, before all die; "but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed."

Now in connection with this consummate event, there will occur another of fearful grandeur, described in the 1st chapter of the 2d Epistle to the Thessalonians, " And to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, when he shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe." And to cover all authority, and to put an end to all argument, we have the declaration of the Lord Jesus himself "That the sign of the Son of Man shall appear in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, and he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." Matt., ch. 24.

From these quotations, we see not how it is possible to avoid the conclusion, that the general judgment and the resurrection of

the dead, and the flaming fire of the world, burning up to make place for a new earth, will occur in immediate succession. The awful and sublime drama of time, will then reach its final close. Death conquered, Jesus exalted, the Church saved, and a new heavens and a new earth secured to all who have been redeemed by the atoning blood of Calvary.

It is among these majestic scenes that the visions of the Apocalypse reach their end.

"And I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth; for the first Heaven and the first Earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, "Behold, the Tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God." Then follows a symbolic description of the Holy City, and it is added, "And there shall in nowise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsover worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but THEY which are written in the Lamb's Book of Life."

As a climax to this series of inspired declarations respecting the close of the present and the beginning of the new and glorious economy, we think the following passage may be well introduced to throw light upon the certainty of the things already affirmed. It occurs in the 15th chapter of Ist Corinthians. The subject is the resurrection, and the time when it will take place, and the immediate consequence to ensue,

Every man in his own order. Christ the first fruits. Afterwards they who were Christ's-at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God. Even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule, and all authority and power. For He must reign until He hath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death.. And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto Him, that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all."

When that point in the unfoldings of God's scheme of mercy shall have been reached, then all these grand events described in the several preceding quotations, will have taken place the dead raised the wicked judged-and the signal majesty of Christ displayed; the meditational work will have been all accomplished, and the old earth having groaned through its ages of accumulating misery and crime, will dissolve and give place to another, which may be the happy abode of these whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

III. It remains now to add a few confirmatory illustrations, drawn from the Divine administration of the affairs of the world.

Providence is a Divine Commentary upon the Book of Revelation. And in so far as we are able to discern the real meaning of the commentary, are we moved to trust and reverence the sacred

texts.

In the most general way it may be affirmed as certain, that God's plans, as they come within the scope of our vision, are all progressive. Nothing that we can see is finished. Everything is in process of growth and development, and waits for fulness. All is yet on earth spring-time or summer-the autumnal harvest is neither ripened, nor gathered. And this is true both of the earth itself and of its inhabitants.

There is hardly a single reason to doubt the former existence of a pre-adamite earth, or world inferior to this, and fit only for the habitation of organized beings, far beneath man in structure and in purpose.

The history in the rocks proves the crust of the present earth to be composed in part of the wrecks and ruins of an earth that far ante-dated the appearance of man upon the threshold of time. Of that history we need say nothing here more than this, that it proves an order of progression in the material arrangements of our globe.

Since the creation of Adam, there have been vast and innumerable physical changes in the condition of the earth, and in its relation to the heavenly bodies. The scoffers in the time of Peter, like the scoffers of our day, deified law, and believed in an impersonal God. They argued from the uniformity of the operations of the laws of nature, that matter must be eternal and the world perpetual. The Apostle replied that there had been great physical changes, and there was yet to be another and a greater; and he argued, moreover, that all these physical changes were part of the methods by which the Almighty Sovereign was unfolding the principles of His moral administration, and vindicating His Justice and Holiness. And, in like manner, we argue now, that as God hath worked hitherto, so he works also now. We study our dry sciences, and speculate about countless themes; but Revelation tells us that He who made the world, rules it still. The earthquake shock, and volcanic flame, and watery deluge, and lightning bolt, and all the innumerable agencies of nature, whether fierce or gentle, fulfil His word, and carry forward His grand designs, toward the period when the Archangel's trump shall sound and the dead awake, and the dust yield its long-treasured spoils, and the sea give up its garnered trophies-and the tribes and kindreds of the earth shall hear with dismay that "time shall be no longer."

There is not hardihood enough in any of the sciences to enter a protest against either the possibility or probability of this climax in human affairs.

Astronomy tells us that there have been worlds which have changed their places, or have ceased to shine. Chemistry declares that a slight modification in the composition of our atmosphere would plunge the world into an instantaneous conflagration; and geology, watching every footprint in the sands of time, proclaims it to be likely that again the mountains will grieve with resounding moans, and the valleys be tossed about once more in the wild commotion of disturbed powers, and that the sea will forsake its bed, and rush in terror before the fury of a fiery tempest, that shall submerge the world in ruin.

I say science cannot protest, on the contrary it intimates these things; but it has been reserved for Revelation to make the disclosure sure in language to shake the soul. "Seeing, then, that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless, we according to His promise, look for a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."

To this conclusion all the dispensations have been converging. We live in the last dispensation of grace. How long it may continue we cannot tell. But we know that amid wars and tumults, turnings and overturnings, He is coming whose right it is to rule. And when his final rule shall be established, there will be an earth resplendent with beauty, and a sky illumined by the light of the Divine countenance.

I have aimed, in this discourse, simply to collate and arrange passages of Scripture, so that they may illumine and interpret each other, and thereby show that there are three grand events which the Holy Word connects together-namely, the general resurrection, the general judgment, and the final destruction of the earth by fire-and that all these are essential to the completion of the plan of salvation.

It is needless to say that the views presented differ essentially from the ones insisted on by those writers who regard the text as requiring a purely figurative and spiritual interpretation, and so, too, they differ also very widely from the opinions put forth by the Second Adventists, who hold that Christ will return to earth at the beginning of the Millenium, raise a portion of his people, restore the Jews, and create a new monarchy which shall exercise judgment over all the nations of the earth, and finally rehabilitate Jerusalem, and make it the city of the great King forever. We have nothing

to do with these theories. The sublime facts of Revelation are enough for us.

The grand combination of argument and appeal in favour of holy living, and of solemn waiting for the august tribunal of Christ which the whole tenor of the Bible supplies, needs no strengthening from our inventions and special theories.

Before us is the certainty of Death-and of Judgment-and it is our duty to work while the day lasts, knowing that we shall surely give account of all the deeds done here, and that we shall share either in the final glory, or in the bitter and endless shame. We are living-we are dwelling

In a grand eventful time,
In an age-on ages telling-
To be living is sublime.

Hark! the waking up of nations,
Truth and error to the fray;
Hark! what soundeth? 'tis creation
Groaning for its latter day.

Will ye play, then? will ye dally
With your music and your wine?
Up! it is Jehovah's rally!

God's own arm hath need of thine.

Hark! the onset! will ye fold your
Faith-clad arms in lazy lock?
Up! oh up! thou drowsy soldier;
Worlds are charging to the shock.

Worlds are charging, Heaven beholding,
Thou hast but an hour to fight,

AND the blazoned cross unfolding,
ON! right ONWARD-for the night.

A. C. Cox.

THE PRAYER-MEETING.

For the Prayer-Meeting.

He art Watching. THE heart is the citidal of the soul. In all ages and countries it has been found necessary to watch against the approach of enemies. Night and day the

watchful sentinel walks on the walls to give the alarm when an enemy comes in sight. Nor less important is it to watch against the inroads of enemies to the soul.

Perhaps no Christian duty is more neglected than heart watch