vanguard of the Lord's host, myriads on myriads | Though God has been at the pains to tell us much more are being deceived and betrayed to bitter dis-about what is yet to come, many would warn us away appointments and helpless miseries in this world, if not to eternal discomfiture in the world to come. In how many instances do we find the very high priests of God's temple sacrificing its holiest treasures to win the favours of the treacherous and insatiable horn of the world's power, selling themselves to the highest bidder, and their most sacred trusts for THE EMOLUMENTS OF THE GREAT DESTROYER! In how many instances do we find them cajoled into the taking of his side and the espousing of his cause over against the Mattathiases and Eleazers and Maccabæuses, who would recall the bewitched multitude to their proper senses and rally them around the old and everlasting standards! And how can it be otherwise but that the devil-inspired world which they have courted, and to which they thus give over the heritage of God, shall eventually assert and enforce its right to command, even to the seating of itself in the temple of God, the magnifying of itself over all gods, and the dictation of infamies for its worship as the only God, under whom no true saints can live except as they remain secreted in the desolate mountains and wildernesses of the earth, till the Lord's indignation is satisfied, iniquity is perfected, and the great and unspeakably terrible day of God Almighty breaks in with its riving thunders! Daniel, it will be observed, was greatly affected by these visions and the explanations made of them, as he well might be. He fainted, and was sick for days. Some take this as a sort of special visitation upon the prophet, that he might not be unduly exalted through the abundance of his revelations; but there is no ground whatever for such a thought. It was an unprecedented scene of calamity to his people, his country and his religion that he thus beheld; and this it was that affected him. It likewise serves to show how wide is the difference between the way in which the holy men of old regarded sacred prophecy and the manner in which it is treated by the great mass of professed believers in our day. Nothing so interested the prophets as the foreshowing of things to come. Peter tells us that they "inquired and searched diligently, searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." Daniel's whole soul was almost drawn out of him by the intensity of his interest, study, fasting, and prayers with regard to what was here foreshown. But what s the temper of our modern theologians on the subject? The common idea is that a man is a little beside himself, if he ventures to give any SERIOUS ATTENTION TO UNFULFILLED PROPHECY. from it as dangerous ground, and tell us that we unwarrantably intrude into the secrets of the Almighty if we undertake to read it or entertain any definite expectations with regard to it. The popular doctrine is, that prophecy is not meant to be understood until after it is fulfilled-that to found any faith upon it is fanaticism-that none but crazed brains ever bother themselves about it one way or another. According to these sober people, the prophets were the silliest of men to concern themselves about what they were commissioned to foretell, and Daniel was a particular fool to let his soul be troubled concerning these zoologic visions of things in the distant ages. But this is just the difference between the true and acknowledged servants of God and those who claim to be their brethren, successors, and representatives in our day. By the Fathers whatever the Holy Ghost made known concerning the future was treasured and studied as the most precious of communications, dwelt upon with the most special interest, and heeded as the guiding light of God amid this world's abounding darkness. But with most of our modern teachers to ignore and avoid what is written about the future is the higher wisdom and the better piety. And if perchance they are pushed into the subject, the sum of their teaching is that it may perhaps mean this, or perhaps that, or perhaps nothing that we can at present decipher. And thus a vast and vitally interesting part of God's revelation is emasculated and practically turned into a useless encumbrance of the sacred pages. Jehovah says, "Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it," even though it be a vision which is yet for an appointed time unknown to us. But men have become wiser than their Maker, and know better what becomes a sober theologian and a right preacher; and we must shut the Book and close our mouths about it, or consent to be accounted mad! Alas, alas for the reigning religion of our day! Brethren, if we would be like the holy prophets and prove ourselves their followers, we must have an eye, an ear, and a heart for their sacred word concerning what must shortly come to pass. Every utterance of the Lord is precious, and especially every word which tells what we are to look for and expect. And as you value your safety in these ominous and perplexing times, and would be ready for what is about to come upon the earth, beware how you ignore or neglect what God has caused to be written for our learning, lest, being in darkness, the great day should overtake you as a thief! THE SIGNS OF THE PRESENT TIMES: DO THEY ACTUALLY INDICATE THE NEAR APPROACH OF THE SECOND ADVENT? BY REV. R. CHESTER, A.B., Treasurer of the Cathedral of Cloyne, and Rector of Midleton. Authorised Signs of Christ's Speedy Coming-Their Special Characteristics-The Earliest Forerunners of the Event-Their Distinguishing Features-Wars and Earthquakes-The World-wide Diffusion of the Gospel-The Gathering and Completing of the Church-What if Christ's Coming be delayed PLawlessness, Iniquity, and Infide.ity-The Present Position and Circumstances of the Jews-The Fig-tree" Nearly Full of Leaves. To the above question there are not a few who are | position of the sceptic and the infidel, rather than ready to give a decided and a joyful response in the that of the professing and progressing Christian. affirmative. There are, however, a much larger THEIR SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS. number from whom a scoffing negative is the only reply to be expected; if, indeed, they can be induced to regard the question as one worthy of being replied to at all. But between these two classes there are, it is to be believed, very many who, without any actual desire to ignore or to evade the subject of the possible or probable nearness of the Advent, look dubiously upon the present aspect of affairs as affording any indication of such nearness, or as having any connection with it whatsoever. It appears to them that those signs of the present times, which some are regarding as thus significant, have been of not unfrequent occurrence in the years gone by, and have been, some of them, always more or less occurrent throughout many generations. Yet the event which they are thus supposed to indicate has not as yet taken place. AUTHORISED SIGNS OF CHRIST'S SPEEDY ADVENT. In entering upon some inquiry concerning this important subject, we must be careful to remember (1) that both our blessed Lord's own words, and also those of His inspired Apostles, have supplied us with signs which, when they do occur, are positively and assuredly to be regarded as indicating the absolute nearness of His Advent. No one can question this who receives as authentic the language, for instance, of Luke xxi. 28, " And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh." And further, the immediately added parable of the fig-tree, "Behold the fig-tree, and all the trees, when they now shoot forth ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand." In the face of language such as this, to accuse of being visionary and fanatical-as some are at present doing-those who expect that there will be positive premonitions of the Advent to be discerned in the signs of the times which shall shortly, or immediately, precedej it, is assuredly to assume the But we must further remember (2), that while such signs, in order to meet the requirements of this language of our blessed Lord, must be in no small degree peculiar and significant, and must differ in some not unimportant respects from any similar events that may have gone before-they nevertheless must not be so very peculiar, so strikingly significant in their character, as to render doubt, or question, or even unbelief, as to the positive nearness of the Advent, impossible, unless to the actual infidel. Otherwise there could be no room for the fulfilment of the prediction of 1 Thess. v. 1-1, or of several similar passages." But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you, for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say when nominal, ungodly, professing Christians shall say "peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief." In order to meet the requirements thus indicated, it is evident that the premonitory signs of the Saviour's coming must not, on the one hand, differ so totally from all events which have preceded them as to enforce attention and conviction upon the world at large; while, on the other hand, they must needs have sufficiently peculiar features observant, at all events upon some of them, as fully to attract the attention, and to ensure the conviction of such of the Lord's people as view them in the light of His prophetic word, that "He is near, even at the doors." (Matt. xxiv. 33.) Bearing these facts in mind, let us endeavour, in accordance with them, to give a satisfactory answer to the question which I have prefixed to this article. THE EARLIEST FORERUNNERS OF THE EVENT. The first in order of the signs which our blessed Lord predicts (Matt. xxiv. 6-7) after having warned His disciples against the danger of being deceived by false Christs and false prophets, verses 4 and 5, are With regard to "earthquakes in divers places," it is difficult to suppose that any person old enough and sufficiently observant to compare in such respects the present with the past, can fail to have been impressed by their modern frequency. It is, however, when viewed in conjunction with other predicted signs of a more definite character, that such events as these become truly significant. THE WORLD-WIDE PREACHING OF THE GOSPEL. In Matt. xxiv. 14, we meet with a very noteworthy sign of this more definite description; "And this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come." And, in Mark xiii. 10, " And the Gospel must first be published among all nations." wars and rumours of wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places." With regard to these, however, He expressly affirms that they are to be regarded but as the earliest fore-runners of the approaching event. "All these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet." (Verse 6.) They are but the beginning of sorrows." (Verse 8.) And when we remember that these have been events of more or less perpetual occurrence in almost all periods of the world's history, both before and since He has thus spoken of them as premonitious of His coming, we may, I think, regard them as continual warnings vouchsafed to each successive generation of the children of men, to remind them that "the night," although "far spent," still continues, and that "the day," although" at hand," has not as yet begun to There is still, it will be observed, a certain amount dawn. We may look upon such signs as these as of vagueness as to its actual accomplishment desigconstantly suggestive of the still future, but ever nedly attaching to this, as to the predictions preapproximating time, when darkness shall give place | viously referred to. Were it not so, the actual time to light, tumult to quietude, disease to health, and of the occurrence of the Advent would, contrary to sorrow to joy, in the "restitution of all things." the Lord's emphatic declaration on this subject, be capable of being accurately fore-known. This vagueness, in this instance, belongs especially to the words" for a witness," it being impossible for us to determine when such a result of the " preaching," THEIR DISTINGUISHING Features. But if, as our Lord's words would seem evidently to imply, we are at some particular time to regard such events as indications of a then more definitely and nearly approaching end, it is specially worthy of note that we must necessarily look for something peculiar in them, something which will at that particular time distinguish them from similar events in their more usual and ordinary occurrence. And, further, that such would seem to be manifestly the case just at present with respect to, at all events, two of the classes of events which are thus presented to our notice, namely," wars and rumours of wars," and "earthquakes in divers places." WARS AND EARTHQUAKES. It is as follows. We are distinctly taught in Isaiah lxvi. 19, compared with its preceding context, especially verse 15, that, at the actual occurrence of As regards the former, "wars and rumours of the Advent, there will be very many people among wars," it will be remembered that it was immediately the then existing nations of the earth, who shall not after that unusually protracted period of profound have ever "heard of the Lord's fame, or seen His quietude among the nations which succeeded the glory." The publishing of the Gospel previous stormy times of the Peninsular War, the memorable to the Advent "for a witness to the nations," does Battle of Waterloo, in 1815, and the overthrow of not by any means necessarily involve or require such Napoleon I., and after the first great National a diffusion of it as shall reach every existing indiExhibition in London, in 1851, which was con-vidual, or family, or locality, among these nations. fidently hailed by many as the forerunner of a universal and long-enduring peace-that the Crimean War commenced that series of commotions by which, with scarcely any intermission, the civilised world has been ever since more or less convulsed; thus giving to the last thirty years of its history the special character of an era of warfare. While rumours of wars," as distinguished from their actual outbreak—and the words of our Lord would seem designedly so to distinguish them--have been in recent times all but incessant. On the contrary, it will not, we are expressly taught, be at all diffused to any such extent among them, until after the Advent shall have taken place. And this is in exact accordance with what we learn from other portions of the Holy Scriptures, such for instance, as Acts xv. 17, Rev. v. 8-10, concerning the object of the sending forth of the Gospel for a witness among the nations during this present dispensation-namely, that its object is not, as some so mistakenly imagine, the conversion to Christ of all these nations, but "the taking out from among them of a people," the gathering and completing of that Church" the Bride the Lamb's wife," which is, subsequent to His Advent, to "reign" with Him over these nations, who shall then, by another, and altogether different, diffusion amongst them of His Gospel, through the instrumentality of converted Israel, be converted unto Him, and shall become the subjects of His kingdom. See also and compare Isaiah lxvi. 15-24, and Romans xi. 15. Now, if this be so, a most important consideration arises in immediate connection with our question. WHAT IF CHRIST'S COMING BE DELAYED ? Let us just suppose that the Redeemer's Advent should be postponed for some, not many, years, from the present time. Let us suppose that during these years the British and Foreign Bible Society were to carry on, as it is doing now, its glorious work of translating into every known language and dialect the blessed Word of God, the best of all preachers and publishers of the Gospel, inasmuch as it is the only one which always publishes it abroad in all its fulness without any taint of human error or impediment of human infirmity, and of circulating this Word as it is at present doing, from end tɔ end of all the habitable earth. Let us further suppose that the various noble missionary societies at present labouring so arduously in the publishing and preaching of the same Gospel in every region of the globe, were, during this brief period of postponement, to continue, and to increase year by year their efforts, as they are doing now. Does not the conclusion seem to force itself upon us as all but inevitable, that, at the end of these years, even supposing them to have been few, there would, as far as we can judge, be no nations, no families, scarcely any, if any, individuals, existing upon the earth who should not, ere then, have "heard the fame and seen the glory" of Christ in the light of His blessed Gospel, none who should not ere then, either by the reception of that Gospel, have become incorporated with His Church, or else who, by its rejection, should not have come under the awful judgments upon the unbelieving, with which He shall then be revealed. In such case there would, therefore, be none to be the subjects of that extensive and completely successful mission of the remnant of Israel spoken of (Isaiah lxvi. 19), to which we have already referred. LAWLESSNESS, INIQUITY, AND INFIDELITY. There are other by no means unimportant or uncertain signs to which, did time and space permit, I should willingly advert. Such are the abounding lawlessness and iniquity and infidelity of the present time, the working of the leaven more or less at present among all the nations, which in one nation in the last century, fermented into such appalling results. These, however, are the signs directly of the approaching Advent of the Antichrist, rather than of Christ, while in signifying the former they necessarily become most sure indications of the latter. My desire, in this article, is to confine myself to such signs as are specially designed to comfort and to cheer the hearts of His believing people with the assurance that the coming of their Lord is indeed drawing nigh. And, therefore, with brief reference to one more of such, and that to my mind the most significant of all, I shall conclude. It is THE POSITION AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE JEWS. The able and interesting articles entitled "The Budding of the Fig-tree," by W. Maude, in the January and February numbers of THE PROPHETIC NEWS, have left little to be said in addition upon this very interesting subject. I would only say that, having read the work entitled "The Land of Gilead," by W. Oliphant, which forms the topic of the second of these articles, I cannot but regard the book in itself as a most remarkable sign of the times: all the more so that its author undertook and accomplished his exploratory tour under the semi-official sanction of the British and French Governments-himself, all the while, an ignorer of the restoration of Israel as a fulfilment of prophecy, and yet looking upon it, and working with singular ardour and ability for its accomplishment, as a political necessity of the present time. The only obstacle to its being speedily effected, or at all events to the accomplishment of a large and speedy instalment of it immediately taking place, would seem to have been, at the time of the publication of this book, the want of consent upon the part of the Sultan, which Mr. Oliphant had failed to obtain. But, if we are to believe recent statements in some of our leading newspapers, all unwillingness upon the Sultan's part towards the Colonization of Palestine by Jews is at an end. The Record of November 9th, has an article entitled "The Colonization of Palestine by Jews," in which it gives a copy of a communication published in the Jewish Chronicle from a Jewish Society formed at Galatz for that purpose, which speaks of "English notabilities as willing to come forward with the support and permission of the Government to give to the Jews possession of fields and vineyards in a land now not sown, and where there was not a man to till it and keep it." The article goes on to state that the Sultan has expressed to Mr. Bourke his willingness to grant a tract of land in Syria for that purpose in consideration of a loan, as stated in the daily journals, and notably in a leader in the Times; and that England would exercise a kind of protectorate, and they would abide under its shadow 66 66 When we compare all this, and much besides this, which has occurred in recent years with regard to the land and the people, with the time, not many years ago, when Palestine was a land that no man cared for," and the Jewish people were a scorn and a bye-word" among the nations, and when the comparatively few who entertained a thought of their future restoration were regarded by those who considered themselves "men of sense as fanciful and visionary in the extreme, it seems to me as though "the fig-tree" had well-nigh ceased to be a "budding" one, by reason of its manifestly becoming ALMOST FULL OF LEAVES. Upon the whole, then, I submit that the only answer which can consistently be given to our question by those who read the prophetic Scriptures, and who without prejudice consider the subject in the light which they shed upon it, must be an answer in the affirmative. I submit that the signs of the present times are such as to speak to the hearts of the Lord's believing people in words of most encouraging assurance that at the longest it can be but " a very little while, and He that cometh shall come, and shall not tarry." (Hebrews x. 37, Revised Version.) If so, do they not also speak to one and all, in words of very solemn warning, against any tendency towards that attitude of mind in which it is Satan's special object and endeavour to place and to keep them, the attitude of " the evil servant, who says in his heart, My Lord delayeth his coming?" NOTE. Upon the subject of the Gospel being preached to all nations for a witness, I wish to ask the attention of my readers to an article, entitled "The Gospel as a Universal Witness," by Rev. S. Duffield, D.D., in the June No. of 1881 of THE PROPHETIC NEWS, in which he states that there is still one, and only one country, in which the Gospel of the kingdom has not been openly proclaimed-viz., the peninsula of the Corea. Even should this state ment be not altogether correct, the fact that it can be made is surely most significant as to the extent to which the Gospel has been and is being proclaimed. PROGRESS TOWARDS THE FORMATION OF THE TEN KINGDOMS DURING THE LAST THIRTY YEARS. BY B. WILLS NEWTON. Being the Appended Conclusion to the Second Edition, in 1873, of his Book, "Prospects of the Ten Kingdoms.' REMARKS ON THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR OF 1870-71 AND ITS RESULTS. The Career of the Approaching Decem-regal Confederacy-Progress Made in Twenty-five Years-The Issue not Doubtful-France and Germany-The Immediate Cause of the Franco-Prussian WarThe Future of Germany - The Daring Infidelity of France-The Battle of Waterloo in 1815-The Position, Responsibilities, and Peril of England-A Most Appalling Spectacle-A Uniform Sacerdotalism Impossib.e-The Triumph of Latitudinarianism. reign of Latitudinarian Antichristianism, until at last, wearied and harassed by the confusion and strife which Latitudinarianism must necessarily engender, and desiring also a more complete annihilation of the truth than Latitudinarianism can, in consistency with its principles effect, the Monarchs of the Ten Kingdoms will give themselves over to an organised system of atheistic infidelity, and will avowedly reject both Jehovah and Christ (see Psalm ii.), and, being of one mind, will "give their power and authority to the Beast"—Antichrist. THE first edition of my work "Prospects of the Ten | united, inaugurate, and, for a season, sustain the Kingdoms," was prepared in 1848-a period when democratic violence seemed to threaten the stability of almost every throne in Western Europe-and published in 1849. Many changes have since been effected, and many are in progress. Nevertheless the anticipations then expressed have not been falsified. Monarchic absolutism has not in any portion of the Roman world succeeded in extirpating "the clay," nor has democratic violence succeeded in ridding itself of "the iron." There may, possibly, yet be many wars, many convulsions, involving vast national and individual suffering; but the end is certain. THE CAREER OF THE DECEM-REGAL CONFEDERACY. Ten democratic monarchies will divide between them the Roman world (TMπ oìkovuevπ), and will, federally Then, throughout the whole Roman world all whose names are not written in the Lamb's Book of Life will glorify and worship him; for "the Dragon will give him his power, and his throne, and |