redeemed by Christ, will continue to roll on its tragic course, suffering under all the ills of time, and under the manifold disabilities and injustices of a civilisation only varnished instead of interpenetrated with the principles of the Gospel. To such an age Elias shall come to preach the kingdom of heaven upon earth, to preach a material regeneration as a demonstration and result of a spiritual, to proclaim that the human race is not to end as a failure, a history reflecting an inscrutable shadow upon the character of God, in which the victories remain with Satan and the overthrows with Christ; the harvests with the Destroyer, and the gleanings with the Saviour; but that its triumphant and blest career as a lung-breathing species standing at the head of creation has yet to commence, and will start from the day when Christ shall sit upon the throne of David the Shepherd King; when, through the establishment of the sermon on the mount, as the law of His kingdom, government and politics and trade shall be entirely transformed, and wars shall cease. When, as a consequence, men shall be led into green pastures and beside still waters, while every year will see that kingdom broaden until the ends of the earth shall be knit together in the bonds of one fond fed family. But judgments must inaugurate this reign. Mary speaks of it in her inspired Psalm: "He hath shewed strength with His arm: He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent empty away. He hath holpen His servant Israel in remembrance of His mercy, as He spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever."

Israel will certainly be restored in that day. We see then the Forerunner in the first Advent had to uproot false carnal notions of an earthly kingdom, which it was not possible to establish in the glory of righteousness until a foundation had been laid for it in the regeneration of man's spiritual being: and this, which was the greatest, as it was the first work essential to the redemption of the world, was accomplished by Christ at His first coming, by His life. and truth and sacrificial death. When also He won for man admittance to a world beyond the grave, to an "inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away." But the conquest over sin and evil is not complete which appoints to human life sin, misery, and degradation, and only beyond the grave its path of honour, peace, and plenty. The history of humanity as a distinct department of creation, appointed a career upon this earth, would remain, we repeat, a dark and tragic failure, a reproach to its Creator, were it not destined to run through cycles of triumphant bliss under the reign of Christ and His saints, a period of honour and dignity and happiness to human beings, in the enjoyment of which the story of past degradation will appear as incredible, as we know it to be too true.

It is this period, this kingship, this kingdom of heaven, when God's will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven, that Elias shall proclaim when preparing for the Advent of the King. The foundations laid in the truth and the faith which purifies, behold the day approaches when the lovely edifice of a society of men living together after the example and according to the laws, and under the Shepherd-rule of Christ shall arise to gladden the face of the universe of God. Then will an answer be given to the sneering question, "Can the maxims of Christianity become operative principles in the stern battle of life?" Then will be vindicated the creation and the career of the family of man, as age after age it continues to be a delightsome history, and the whole earth a garden of the Lord. And yet perfection will lie beyond, for the seeds of sin still lurk, and the Shepherd King is also ruler with a rod of iron. Another king still reigns, although with crippled power, man's life being lengthy as a trees'. The dayspring in those days shoots not high enough to kill that shadow, though it will deepen the peace of every "God's acre." But the perfect day succeeds when after the final struggle and subjection Satan and next the "last enemy," Death, shall be destroyed. Then, and then only, can God wipe away all tears from off all faces. Bristol.

HENRY DEACON.

A VISION OF THE MILLENNIUM.

THE groans of nature in this nether world,

THE

Which heaven has heard for ages, have an end.
Foretold by prophets, and by poets sung,
Whose fire was kindled at the prophets' lamp,
The time of rest, the promised Sabbath, comes.
Six thousand years of sorrow have well nigh
Fulfill'd their tardy and disastrous course
Over a sinful world; and what remains
Of this tempestuous state of human things
Is merely as the working of a sea
Before a calm, that rocks itself to rest:

For He, whose car the winds are, and the clouds
The dust that waits upon his sultry march,

When sin hath moved Him, and His wrath is hot,
Shall visit earth in mercy; shall descend
Propitious in its chariot paved with love:
And what his storms have blasted and defaced
For man's revolt, shall with a smile repair.
Sweet is the harp of prophecy; too sweet
Not to be wrong'd by a mere mortal touch:
Nor can the wonders it records be sung
To meaner music, and not suffer loss.

But when a poet, or when one like me,
Happy to rove among poetic flowers,

Though poor in skill to rear them, lights at last
On some fair theme, some theme divinely fair,
Such is the impulse and the spur he feels,
To give it praise proportion'd to its worth,
That not to attempt it, arduous as he deems
The labour, were a task more arduous still.

O scenes surpassing fable, and yet true,
Scenes of accomplish'd bliss! which who can see,
Though but in distant prospect, and not feel
His soul refresh'd with foretaste of the joy?
Rivers of gladness water all the earth,

And clothe all climes with beauty; the reproach
Of barrenness is past. The fruitful field
Laughs with abundance; and the land, once lean,
Or fertile only in its own disgrace,
Exults to see its thistly curse repeal'd.
The various seasons woven into one,
And that one season an eternal spring,

The garden fears no blight, and needs no fence,
For there is none to covet, all are full.
The lion, and the libbard, and the bear
Graze with the fearless flocks; all bask at noon
Together, or all gambol in the shade

Of the same grove, and drink one common stream.
Antipathies are none. No foe to man

Lurks in the serpent now: the mother sees,
And smiles to see, her infant's playful hand
Stretch'd forth to dally with the crested worm,
To stroke his azure neck, or to receive
The lambent homage of his arrowy tongue.
All creatures worship man, and all mankind
One Lord, one Father. Error has no place;
That creeping pestilence is driven away;

The breath of heaven has chased it. In the heart
No passion touches a discordant string,
But all is harmony and love. Disease

:

Is not the pure and uncontaminate blood
Holds its due course, nor fears the frost of age.
One song employs all nations and all cry,
"Worthy the Lamb, for He was slain for us!"
The dwellers in the vales and on the rocks
Shout to each other, and the mountain tops
From distant mountains catch the flying joy;
Till, nation after nation taught the strain,
Earth rolls the rapturous hosanna round.
Behold the measure of the promise fill'd;

See Salem built, the labour of a God!
Bright as a sun the sacred city shines;
All kingdoms and all princes of the earth
Flock to that light; the glory of all lands
Flows into her; unbounded is her joy,
And endless her increase. Thy rams are there,
Nebaioth, and the flocks of Kedar there ;*
The looms of Ormus, and the mines of Ind,
And Saba's spicy groves, pay tribute there.
Praise is in all her gates: upon her walls,
And in her streets and in her spacious courts,
Is heard salvation. Eastern Java there
Kneels with the native of the farthest west;
And Ethiopia spreads abroad the hand,
And worships. Her report has travell'd forth
Into all lands. From every clime they come
To see thy beauty and to share thy joy,

O Sion! an assembly such as earth

Saw never, such as heaven stoops down to see.

Thus heavenward all things tend. For all were once
Perfect, and all must be at length restored.
So God has greatly purposed; who would else
In His dishonour'd works Himself endure
Dishonour, and be wronged without redress.
Haste, then, and wheel away a shatter'd world,
Ye slow-revolving seasons! we would see
(A sight to which our eyes are strangers yet)
A world that does not dread and hate His laws,
And suffer for its crime; would learn how fair
The creature is that God pronounces good,
How pleasant in itself what pleases Him.
Here every drop of honey hides a sting;

Worms wind themselves into our sweetest flowers;
And e'en the joy that haply some poor heart
Derives from heaven, pure as the fountain is,
Is sullied in the stream, taking a taint
From touch of human lips, at best impure.
O for a world in principle as chaste
As this is gross and selfish! over which
Custom and prejudice shall bear no sway,
That govern all things here, shouldering aside
The meek and modest truth, and forcing her
To seek a refuge from the tongue of strife
In nooks obscure, far from the ways of men:

* Nebaioth and Kedar, the sons of Ishmael, and progenitors of the Arabs, in the prophetic Scripture here alluded to, may be reasonably considered as representatives of the Gentiles at large.

Where violence shall never lift the sword,
Nor cunning justify the proud man's wrong,
Leaving the poor no remedy but tears:
Where he that fills an office shall esteem
The occasion it presents of doing good

More than the perquisite: where law shall speak
Seldom, and never but as wisdom prompts
And equity; not jealous more to guard
A worthless form, than to decide aright :-
Where fashion shall not sanctify abuse,
Nor smooth good breeding (supplemental grace)
With lean performance ape the work of love!
Come, then, and, added to Thy many crowns,
Receive yet one, the crown of all the earth,
Thou who alone art worthy! It was Thine
By ancient covenant ere nature's birth;
And Thou hast made it Thine by purchase since,
And overpaid its value with Thy blood.

Thy saints proclaim Thee King; and in their hearts
Thy title is engraven with a pen

Dipp'd in the fountain of eternal love.

Thy saints proclaim Thee King; and Thy delay
Gives courage to their foes, who, could they see
The dawn of Thy last advent, long desired,
Would creep into the bowels of the hills,
And flee for safety to the falling rocks.
The very spirit of the world is tired

Of its own taunting question, ask'd so long,
"Where is the promise of your Lord's approach ?"
The infidel has shot his bolts away,

Till, his exhausted quiver yielding none,
He gleans the blunted shafts that have recoil'd,
And aims them at the shield of truth again.
The veil is rent, rent too by priestly hands,
That hides divinity from mortal eyes;
And all the mysteries to faith proposed,
Insulted and traduced are cast aside,
As useless, to the moles and to the bats.

They now are deem'd the faithful, and are praised,
Who, constant only in rejecting Thee,
Deny Thy Godhead with a martyr's zeal,
And quit their office for their error's sake.
Blind, and in love with darkness! yet e'en these
Worthy, compared with sycophants, who kneel,
Thy name adoring, and then preach Thee man!
So fares Thy Church. But how Thy Church may fare
The world takes little thought. Who will may preach,
And what they will. All pastors are alike