and the Du Tartres excited much commotion in South Carolina about 1724 by the like denunciation. Paul Felgenhaver, in his Chrondogie, on Efficacité des Années du Monde, 1620, predicted that the world would end in 1765. Other cases are specified by those curions in such investigations. Herodotus foretold that the world would last 10,500 years. Dion, that it would endure 13,984 years; Cassander, 1,800,000. It would be prudent,' says the writer whom we cite, 'to give credit to those gentry whose predictions have not yet bee falsified, than to a crowd of prophets now demonstrated to have been fools. Such was Ararchus, who announced the universal wreck in the year of the world, 3,484; Arnold of Villanova, in the year of our Lord, 1395; John Hilten, a German, in 1651. The 18th July, 1816, was fixed for the last day. Mme. Krudener postponed it to 1819; M. de Libenstein to 1823; M. de Sallmard-Montfort to 1836; and other prophets, with as litttle success, to 6th January, 1840.' After 1840 came Miller, with his convenient system of continual postponements of a day definitely pre-ordained from the commencement of prophecy; then Beale, Bickersteth, Baldwin, Baxter, and multitudes of other busy B.'s, etc., repeated the fallacious quest, and many of them suffered themselves to be led away by the fascination of Louis Napoleon's sudden exaltation. Since his equally sudden downfall, comets, that fail to appear according to public announcement, or other forms of disaster, are foretold as the harbingers of the speedy doom.

Accepting the authenticity of the prophes relied upon, and admitting, accordingly, the certainty of their fulfillment, we deny the possibility of ascertaining in advance the period and circumstances of their accomplishment, and we deny also the propriety of any attempt to discover these points.

There seems to be a special duty at this moment to resist and discourage all speculations of this character, because the aspect of the times, the character of contemporaneous intellect, the present and the prospective condition of the world, the tendencies of society, and many recent conclusions of science, are calculated to give a peculiar plausibility to such inferences. In previous periods there has, perhaps, been a

more portentous and palpable conjunction of menacing phenomena to suggest or to sustain the expectation of the near consummation of all things, but never before have the signs which appear to point in this direction been more various.

It would be interesting to dwell upon these topics, and upon others connected with them, but there is no space for the extension of remarks already too much extended. It would be instructive to show how every department of human activity threaten early explosion or a sudden collapse. If no means of escape from such portents, and from the calamities portended by them, is discernible, it is natural, though irrational, conclusion, that the roll of the ages is coming to an end, and that the volume of time must soon be closed. Yet just in proportion to the provocation thus offered to credulity should be the effort to resist it. The purposes of Providence are inscrutable, and His ways are past finding out.' We may not detect His plans for the continuance of the order of humanity, but we may not employ our blindness, and our ignorance of those plans, as evidences that the mighty scheme of creation can endure no longer. In the crises of human history, in the convulsions which result from the collision of an expiring and of a nascent form of civilization, there is always credulity alongside of skepticism, rash confidence by the side of despair, indifference to everything but material satisfactions in contrast with the hourly expectation of the crash of worlds. Greater commotions and more alarming omens marked other times, yet the world emerged from its obscuration with increased energy and glory and power. It may be again darkening to its eclipse, but the sun and the moon will not be struck from heaven by the darkening of their light. Man cannot tell what God will determine. A patient endurance of the woes that may arrive, an humble submission to the order of things prescribed by the Supreme Governor, abstinence from all unsanctified speculation about the future(scire nefas)- obedience to the behests of religion, and readiness to accept any decree of the Almighty; such is the only temper suited to these times, or appropriate in any time. To each of us death must come, and after death the judgment.'

Whenever death does come, it is the end of earth to us the final consummation, so far as we are concerned. It matters not, for future weal or woe, whether death overtake us in the midst of weeping relatives and friends, in solitude, in the battle, or in the tempest, in the presence of the last day, or in the anguish of the final conflagration. We have only to do our duty here, and to be ready to depart whenever summoned hence. It is no part of our duty to torture the mysterious utterances of Scripture, with the hope of ascertaini when the Second Advent will occur, when or how the Millennium will arrive.

In conclusion (ande are obliged to come to an abrupt conclusion, omitting much of what we had written), we would direct reverential attention to our Savior's reply to St. Peter, when that Apostle inquired in regard to St. John, in accordance with the then prevalent expectation that a few years would bring the destruction of the world:

'If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me.'1

1 No reader will, we hope, consider the above interesting and timely article as a dissuasive from the study of the Apocalypse. For, if devoutly studied, this Revelation of Jesus Christ' is full of consolation to every real Christian. Among the books of the New Testament, it is not only unique in kind, but it also sheds broad streams of light, clear and unmistakable, on great topics relating to the future destiny of mankind, in regard to which the rest of the volume is either silent, or else affords only the most obscure and unsatisfactory information. It was given for our instruction, warning, and consolation. Hence, if read with the devout, reverential, and humble spirit which is due to so awful and subime a production, it cannot fail to be of great service to our faith, hope, and charity; especially if we take for our guide, in this study, some such work as Wordsworth's Commentary on the Apocalypse, or his learned and eloquent Lectures on the same portion of Scripture.

The above writer has alluded to the fact, that the authenticity of the Apocalypse has, at times, been much questioned, but he nowhere explains this phenomenon of Church history. It is well explained by Wordsworth. There is scarcely a book in the whole Bible,' says he, in his first Lecture, 'whose genuineness and inspiration were more strongly attested on its first appearance than the Apocalypse.' How, then, did it happen that they were afterward so seriously called in question by a few eminent men?

After discussing this question in his first Lecture, the author opens the second with the following statement of what he had there proved and estab

lished: 'In pursuing our argument on the authority of Holy Scriptures, we are led in our first Discourse to commence an inquiry into the genuineness and inspiration of the APOCALYPSE. It was stated, on that occasion, that in the age in which it was written the Book of Revelation was received as an inspired work of the Apostle and Evangelist St. John The question was then proposed, How came it to pass that in the third and fourth centuries doubts were entertained by some concerning its divine authority? To this a reply was found in the fact, that a portion of this book - the Twentieth Chapter-was misinterpreted, and made to bear a sense repugnant to the general tenor of Holy Scripture; and that this misinterpretation owed its origin to Judaizing prepossessions and to oral traditions, and to an incorrect view of the plan of the Apocalypse; that it consisted in imputing to that chapter the doctrine commonly called the doctrine of a Millennium — that is, of a personal reign of our Savior Christ, togethe with his saints, on earth, for a period of a thousand years before the General Resurrection and the day of Judgment.

'It was observed, that no sooner was this doctrine imputed to the Apoca lypse, than the Apocalypse itself declined in repute, and that, unhappily, some persons, instead of refuting the human misinterpretation, rejected the divine book; but that in course of time the misinterpretation was refuted, the doctrine of a Millennium was exploded, and that no sooner was this the case, than the Apocalypse arose to its former position. You were reminded, also, that for a period of ten centuries- that is, from the middle of the fifth to that of the fifteenth- there was scarcely a Church or person of any note in Christendom who did not receive the Apocalypse, or did not reject the Millennium; and that by our own Church the former is acknowledged to be inspired, and the latter condemned as heretical.

This doctrine, however, it is well known, has been revived in our own time, and is now propagated with industrious zeal, and appears to have laid a strong hold upon the public mind; and for this reason also, as well as from its intimate connection with our present subject, the Apocalypse, we are led to bring the doctrine of the Millennium to the test of Holy Writ; and we found (to adopt the language of our own Church) that it "is repugnant to Scripture."

In like manner, in his generally admirable Essay on the Interpretation of Scripture, Dr. Ellicott says:

The subject of Prophecy and Typology is, undoubtedly, one of difficulty, and in its practical bearings and expansions still more so. It is extremely difficult to lay down any rules, and yet it is very precarious to attempt such methods of applying Scripture without some external guidance. In the case of unfulfille prophecy, especially, the temptation to indulge in unauthorized speculation is often excessive. Uneducated and undisciplined minds are completely carried away by it, and even the more devout and self-restrained frequently give themselves up to sad extravagances in this form of the application of God's Word. The result is, only too often, that better educated and more logical minds, in recoiling from what they justly deem unlicensed and preposterous, pass over too much into the other extreme, and deem pro

phecy in every form as a subject far too doubtful and debatable ever to fall within the province of Scripture application. It is, we fear, by no means too much to say that a great part of the present melancholy scepticism as to Messianic prophecy is due to the almost indignant reaction which has been brought about by the excesses of apocalyptic interpretation. The utmost caution, then, is justly called for. Nay, it would perhaps be well if unfulfilled prophecy were never to be applied to any other purposes than those of general encouragement and consolation. We may often be thus made to feel that we are in the midst of a providential dispensation, that though our eyes may be holden as to the relations of contemporaneous events to the future, whether of the Church or of the world, we may yet descry certain bold and broad outlines, certain tendencies and developments, which may make us wend our way onward, thoughtfully and circumspectly—wayfarers who gaze with everdeepening interest on the ntour of the distant hills, even though we cannot clearly distinguish the clustered details of the nearer and separating plain. But though it may thus be wise only to notice unfulfilled prophecy in the broadest and most general way, it is far otherwise with applications or illustrations derived from what has either obviously received its fulfilment, or, like Deut. xxviii., is so plainly still receiving it, that doubt becomes unreasonable and impossible.'-EDITOR.

ART. VI.-1. Jesus. By Charles F. Deems, Pastor of the 'Church of the Strangers,' New York. New York: United States Publishing Company. 1872. pp. 756.

2. The Jesus of the Evangelists: his historical character indicated; or, an examination of the internal evidence for our Lord's divine mission, with reference to modern controversy. By the Rev. C. A. Row, M. A., of Pembroke College, Oxford, etc., etc. London: Williams & Norgate. 1868. pp. 425.

We have already noticed, briefly, the two works whose titles stand at the head of this article. The first is purely historical, the second is controversial; and, though widely different in nature and design, both are excellent of their several kinds. Both relate, as their titles import, to the character and mission of Jesus. The press has, indeed, teemed of late with works of great learning, and varied ability, on the all-important and the inexhaustible subject of the life and character of Jesus. Neander, Dorner, Lange, Tulloch,