Heaven against the immoral force of Hell; we cannot know. But a contest-a war-there will be in some form or other, and Satan will thenceforth be cast down and confined to earth, until the day shall come for his more trying bondage in the pit prepared for his millennial imprisonment. It would appear from many parts of Scripture, that the great Arch-Adversary carries on his work among the sons of men in our day, chiefly through the agency of his unholy Angels,1 "the power of the air" having liberty to abide "in high (or heavenly) places," he being their acknowledged "Prince." But in the day of the Lord's descent, the Church with its great Head will occupy these heights, and Satan will be cast from their dominion, and descending thence, deprived of all authority, be forced to make this world his seat. Here, then, among mankind, will all his hellish force be concentrated: but although thus limited, THE EVIL ONE WILI. NOT BE IDLE. He will have great wrath knowing that he hath but a short time.2

What this conquered, but still wrathful, one will do, we have now to discover.

I venture an assertion before proof. He will, in the first place REVEAL THE ANTICHRIST; and then USE

HIM AS A MIGHTY INSTRUMENT FOR RAISING UP A He will reveal the Anti

FEARFUL POWER OF EVIL.

christ; that is, he will take possession of and energize A MAN, communicating to him all he can bestow on our mortality of fiendish power and craft.

"Ye have heard," said the apostle John, "that Antichrist (THE Antichrist 'O 'AVTIXPIOTOS) shall come; even now there are many Antichrists:" but this shall be THE ANTICHRIST. This is a full title; it means, the CONTRARY OF CHRIST. The one set over against Christ, as it were in mimic correspondence, bearing out the peculiar details of Christ's position and offices in such a manner as to deceive and overthrow the faith of men. So at least the teaching of the Bible leads us to expound the word. For we find there, that—as CHRIST was a man in-dwelt by the Eternal God, so ANTICHRIST will be a man in-dwelt by Satan; as CHRIST is the Second Person in the Trinity of Heaven (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost), so ANTICHRIST will be the second person in the Trinity of Hell (the Devil, the Beast, and the False Prophet); as the Father gave not His Spirit by measure unto Christ, so will not Satan give his spirit by measure unto Antichrist. Thus A MAN-the CONTRARY OF CHRIST shall practise and prosper in the world.

But so astounding and terrible an assertion must not go unproved. What, then, saith the Scripture?

In the second chapter of the Second Epistle to the

THESSALONIANS, the Apostle tells us of a certain "MAN OF SIN," who must be revealed before "the day of Christ" shall come, and whom he calls "THE SON OF PERDITION." He speaks of him as one "who opposeth, and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he, as God, sitteth in the Temple of God, showing himself that he is God." Now we cannot fail to observe, that this proud opposer must be a man yet to be revealed; for since St. Paul's day there has been no Temple of God, wherein such an one should sit. The Temple at Jerusalem is not: and no other temple has succeeded it, to which we have received a sanction to apply so honoured a distinction. ST. PETER'S at ROME most certainly can lay no claim to such a title with the feeblest ray of justice. Nor can we point to any church or other building in the world which might be singled out amongst its fellows as meriting the name. The Temple of God, therefore, which is spoken of by Paul, must be a temple yet to be erected, unless indeed the Church of Christ be intended. But this cannot be, because that Church-the body of the Lord-is the Temple of the Holy Ghost. Wherefore Satan and the man he will energize cannot dwell in that. The only temple of which we read in Scripture as a temple for God's worship to be reared again, is that of which the full particulars are given by the Prophet

EZEKIEL.1 But evidently no Man of Sin will sit therein. That will be the Temple of God pertaining to Jerusalem which will adorn Judea in the happy age of the Millennium, when righteousness and peace will reign triumphantly beneath the sway of our Emmanuel's sceptre. But when Israel are restored to their own land, we cannot doubt that their first act will be to build their House for Worship. Their occupation of the Covenantland would be as nothing, if their Temple, their ritual, and their sacrifices, were not present. Now, if, upon the old foundations, the Children of the Covenant should rear the Temple and restore the old Mosaic ritual-if there, the God of Abraham (although not acceptably, because without the faith of Jesus) should be praised; if the Word of God (although in part only) should be the word directing all the services and ceremonies, what could that temple be with justice called except the "TEMPLE OF GOD?" Nay, we remember how that even when the ancient Temple, reared by the wicked Herod on the old foundation laid by Zerubbabel, was defiled by usury and hypocrisy, the Lord declared it was "HIS FATHER'S HOUSE."2 And when the Lord was crucified, and had been preached to, and rejected by, the Jews, the Apostles (being Jews themselves) did not cast off their reverence for the Temple worship. To the 1 Ezek. xl.-xlviii.

2 John ii. 16.

Temple went up Peter and John at the appointed hour of prayer.1 There was Paul found in obedience to the Law: 2 and thither he repaired from time to time "to worship" God. To the Apostles (though the Temple service did not recognise the Saviour Jesus as the Son of the Most High) the Temple was no less THE TEMPLE OF THEIR GOD AND FATHER. Indeed how could it have been otherwise? And how can any future building standing in its place, erected after the pattern shown to Moses in the Mount, erected by Israel for the service of the God of Israel, be otherwise? For did not God say -when the first house was reared by Solomon-"I have hallowed this house. . . to put My name there for ever; and Mine eyes and My heart shall be there PERPETUALLY ?" 4 There can be, then, I think, no doubt whatever, that when Paul spoke of "the Man of Sin sitting in the Temple of God," he meant, that he should sit in a Temple to be reared and dedicated unto God, the God of Israel, in Jerusalem, where the Temple built by HEROD was then standing, and where that by SOLOMON had stood in days of old; the Temple in which

God had put His name FOR EVER. This proud

opposer then must be a man YET TO BE REVEALED.

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Again, He will ASSUME THE POSITION OF GOD. He, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that HE IS GOD." And this he will do by a power not his 1 Acts iii. 1. 2 Acts xxi. 26. 3 Acts xxiv. 11. 4 1 Kings ix. 3.