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on one of the feet of Nebuchadnezzar's image. By that date the Rhine provinces will be ceded to him. Bavaria, with the Austrian possessions in the Tyrol, will be tributary to him. Venetia will be his; and before he is revealed as Antichrist, Spain, Portugal, and Italy, and perhaps Belgium also will acknowledge him as their Suzerain. The western division of the Roman empire being also divided into five kingdoms, probably France, Spain, Italy, Bavaria, and Belgium. In this case the two kingdoms of Spain and Portugal will necessarily become one, but this is a point we may well leave to the future; we know that there will be five, and only five kingdoms in the western division, what the boundary lines of each will be is immaterial," p. 192.

"We must now leave Louis Napoleon to settle these boundaries according to his own liking, whilst we turn our attention to three most important events which occur in quick succession, after the power of Napoleon is consolidated, but before his appearance as Antichrist. These events are 1st, The resurrection of the Just, immediately on the expiration of the 6,000 years of the world. 2nd. The destruction of Rome. 3rd. The translation of the Saints. According to my chronology, the 6,000 years will expire on the 6th December, 1874; the Resurrection, therefore, of the dead Just, will take place on that day," p. 192, 193.

Now, is all this, or any part of it true? Are the royal personages whose names are so confidently mentioned by our fearless author, really destined to take part in, and witness the scenes described, with such vivid clearness and military precision? We can only ask these questions. It is impossible for us to say, No; for certainly kings and queens, and a busy world shall some day witness the restoration of Israel and Judah, the terrible deeds of the last supreme head of the Gentile monarchy, the advent of the eternally-appointed Ruler of humanity, the resurrection of the Just, the destruction of the works of the devil, and the inauguration of that joyful era, when all nations shall be blessed in Jesus, and call Him blessed; and who shall venture to say that this present generation is not the foreordained witness of the imposing transition of our globe, from the accursed tyranny of Satan to the liberty and glory promised it under the loving sceptre of our beloved Lord? The proof of the negative in this case, is absolutely impossible. We trust in the great mercy of God that the end of the present deplorable, and woefully prolonged state of things in our world,—our Redeemer's world, His native land, His much-loved birth-place, His prized inheritance--is at hand. The King sent His only Son to take possession, and we cast Him out, and killed Him, but is all further claim to the inheritance therefore abandoned? No! God raised Him from the dead, and has thereby given assurance to all men, that He shall be Universal Ruler. Meantime He is hidden from us, waiting "the day and the hour," and all who receive, by faith, as their Saviour, Him whom the world rejected, He means to honour as His fellow heirs, when he returns to take possession of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven. Let us beseech the King to return, in the very words he has put in our mouths-"Come, Lord Jesus!"-for there is no evangelization of the world, no conversion of the seed of Abraham, no checking the growing carcer of horrible iniquity, war,

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tyranny, murder-no stilling the groans of creation, no casting down of Satan, no resurrection of the Just, no kingdom of God upon earth, and no possible fulfilment of the sublimest predictions of heaven's prophets in both Testaments, till then. The time is at hand! Servants of Jesus, believe it. "Look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemp tion draweth nigh."

SCRIPTURE VISIONS OF THE TIME OF THE END.

BY W. FARRAR, M.A., CASTLESIDE.

"THE Lord answered me and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tablets, that he may run that readeth it, for the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it shall speak and not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come. It will not tarry."-Habakkuk ii. 2, 3.

"Yet a little while, and he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry."— Heb. x. 37.

Ar sundry times and in divers manners did Jehovah speak unto the fathers by the prophets. Sometimes, when deep sleep had fallen upon man, the vision would break upon his rest, and pourtray in vivid perspective things that should be hereafter.

In the third year of his reign, had the mighty Nebuchadnezzar, monarch of Babylonia, a troublous dream. Having forgotten its details, he summons his magi, and in his capricious tyranny, orders them, not merely to declare the forgotten dream, but to interpret its mystic meaning. In vain are rewards held out to success, in vain is death threatened as the doom of failure. These magi try their sorceries in vain. Death is imminent, when lo! four captive youths present themselves to divulge the dream. Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah, and Daniel, refer the matter to their God; and Daniel, their spokesman, thus unfolds and interprets the forgotten vision.

A bright, a terrible image arose before the astonished monarch, 'twas an image of the world in its four successive estates of universal kingdoms, and the glory thereof presented at one view. The head of gold represents the glories of the Chaldees' excellency, even Mighty Babylon. The image rises on the view, and lo! breast and arms of silver. These typify the Medo-Persian dynasty, with its kings of united nations, like unto two arms, potentates of inferior glory in their native strength, even as the silver is inferior to the gold, but still sustaining the head of gold, and shewing that this second empire should absorb the former, and that its bounds should be conterminous with those of its predecessor added to its own.

The image rises higher still from the mists of future being, and behold its belly and (sides) thighs are of brass. These pourtray the still inferior kingdom of Græcia, yet under the mighty Alexander, conquering and destroying, until his empire is bounded by the sway of Persia and of Babylonia too.

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The image rises higher still; its legs are of iron, telling of the iron rule of Rome, absorbing Rome, Greece, Persia, Babylonia, all in one mighty empire, conterminous with the limits of the known world. It rises to its full proportions, and lo! its feet are of iron mixed with clay, denoting its latter stage, partly strong as iron, but partly weak as the potter's clay. Nor must those ten toes be forgotten. These are ten adjunct kings, that shall unite their lesser power to lend it to the last mighty potentate.

A stone cut out of the mountains, but not by human hands, rolls onwards and smites this stupendous image, dashes it into atoms numberless, yea, even until it is as the chaff of the summer threshingfloor, scattered by the breeze. This stone, disallowed of men, is elect and precious indeed; 'tis the kingdom of our God and His Christ, and is destined to fill the world.

It is not, it cannot be, the Christ at His first advent, for then He did not strive, or cry, or cause His voice to be heard in the streets. . . then neither the feet nor the toes were as yet in existence... then Rome was in the zenith of its glory-had culminated into the imperial glories of Augustus Cæsar... then the image stood on its legs of iron, its feet as yet unseen. It is not the Christ at His first advent of humiliation and suffering, for then was no deathly blow inflicted on the empire of Rome. This image is smitten suddenly and most completely is it shattered, yea, scattered even to the four winds of heaven. Hence, as this empire hath not yet been smitten, this image must still be standing, awaiting its uttermost destruction in the last times. In the days of these kings (the ten toes) shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed. (Dan. ii. 44.) These ten minor royalties, which shall not cleave one to another, (this with this, margin) even as iron is not mixed with clay. (ii. 43.) These ten kingdoms were not in being at the era of Augustus Caesar, the æra of the Incarnation, hence this conquering kingdom, which is to stand for ever, cannot denote the gospel dispensation, which can never be said to have been so triumphant. This triumph is still future, and is to be gloriously enacted in these our last times.

But now let us turn to the vision as it appeared to Daniel. That which appeared to the worldly Nebuchadnezzar as an image luminous with glory, and as a disallowed stone, bursts upon the view of the prophet, the man of a wise, of an understanding heart, as ravening beasts, and the Ancient of everlasting days-the Great I AM.

'Tis

The mighty ocean is stirred up from its depths, and from its billowing surges ariseth the lion of Babylon, with its wings of an eagle, its heart of a man. The bear of Persia follows with three ribs between its tearing teeth. The leopard of Græcia swiftly follows, with its four heads and four wings. But upon that last, that fourth beast, as it ariseth out of the surging billows all attention is rivetted. diverse from all the rest; it hath teeth of iron, and ten horns. stampeth furiously in the fierceness of its wrath; it devoureth exceedingly. To the greatly beloved, the Daniel of the New Testament, did this same portentous monster arise yet once again out of the surging sea. Though diverse from all the rest, it is a compound of all the former beasts, even as the empire of which it is the representative, is

It

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commensurate with the extent of its three predecessors. To St. John in the Isle of Patmos, it ariseth more defined in form and hideous to the view. In shape it is like the leopard of ancient Græcia; its feet are those of Persia's bear; he hath seven heads, his seven mouths, are as of devouring lions, telling us of Babylonia; names of blasphemy are on his brows, and lo! those ten horns, crowned as kings, ten lesser royalties, amongst themselves divided, yet in firm alliance with the beast. Would you know the meaning of those seven heads? The angel, the wonderful revelator, shall explain. I will tell thee the mystery of the wild beast which hath the seven heads, and ten horns. Here is the mind that hath wisdom. The seven heads are the seven mountains (of the city of Rome) upon which the mother of harlots sitteth. And they are seven kings or forms of government; kings, consuls, tribunes, decemviri, dictators, emperors, and another the seventh, to be amalgamated with all the former, for the seven heads are all the property of this portentous monster. The first five aro fallen; the sixth is (in the time of St. John), the seventh is not yet come. This last monster is to continue till the time of the end, for he is to be cast ALIVE into the abyss, a lake of fire burning with brimstore.* And yet, saith the revealing angel, this seven-headed monster, when he ariseth, is to continue but a short space.

If the whole Roman empire in the entire duration of its power were intended, it could not be said to last "but a short space," for it has lasted from B.C. 753, or more than twenty-six centuries already; 2,617 years = 753 +1864.

Moreover, Satan, who is the great red dragon of this vision (Rev. xii. 9; xx. 2.) is to give unto this portentous wild beast his seat, his great authority; so that all the world should "wonder after the beast." Did not this arch fiend say to the Divine Son of man in His mysterious temptation, "All this power will I give Thee, and the glory of them, for that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will I give it. If therefore Thou wilt fall down before me, all shall be Thine." Is he not called the prince of this world?

Who then is this wondrous Potentate, who is to fulfil all these conditions, and to continue but a short space previously to the end? Who is to be the Representative of Imperial Rome in these last times?

It is an utter misapprehension of the facts of history to suppose that the Roman Emperorship ceased with Augustulus, A.D. 471. He was indeed the last Emperor of its western division, of which Rome was the metropolis, but in the East as well as the West the Roman empire was represented. You will remember that at Tarsus, the metropolis of Cicilia, St. Paul was a free citizen of Rome. When the empire ceased in the West, it flourished in the East. Dr. Herbelot in his "Bibliotheque Orientale," tells us that the East and the West were called Roum, and the province in which Constantinople-the scat of government, after Rome had ceased to be such-is situated, still bears the name of Romania. On the fall of Constantinople, A.D. 1453, the title of Emperor of the Romans became the prerogative of the Emperors of

*This can only be spoken of an individual, a living person-a man who shall wield the sceptre of Roman empire as the seven-headed monster of the vision.

RAINBOW

Germany, and this Imperial title remained as an heir loom in their line for three centuries and a half, until A.D. 1806, when it was abdicated by the Emperor Francis, and usurped by the first Napoleon. He, in fact, had assumed the title two years earlier. Let me refer you for this important fact to "Alison's History of Europe." Who does not know the confederation of European nationalities to have been the favourite scheme of the first Napoleon? This is none other than an attempt at the unity of the ancient Roman empire, and we have only to refer to "Les Idées Napoleonnes," to learn that such is the grand idea of his successor, his antitype, Napoleon III. For eleven brief years was this important title worn by the First Napoleon, when its honours were stripped away, and in the never-to-be-forgotten battle of Waterloo, this head was as it were wounded to the death. The sires of those who shall see the end have seen this deadly wound inflicted. We see this mortal wound in process of being healed in the reviving Emperorship of the Third Napoleon. I take it that this deathly wound is not yet fully healed; for the visions of Daniel and St. John are not yet to be fully realized. Not until that most momentous hebdomad, or week of years, that seventieth hebdomad determined on God's people, Israel, shall this seventh head be healed. Although the world is even now beginning to wonder after the wild beast rising out of the sea, yet the Emperorship is still in embryo. Notes of preparation for these stirring times are already sounding. Even the cursory reader of the journalism of the day will be convinced of this. Already out of every sixteen of the able-bodied men in France, even 400,000 men, are under arms, not as raw recruits, but as best disciplined troops; in addition to these, as a body of reserve, is a force of 100,000 more, a force equal to the whole equipment of the British Army. A recent number of the Times, an indisputable authority, has called attention to this fact, as an item of current news rather than as a preparation for coming woes. Of French naval preparations little is known, save that dockyards and arsenals are alive with formidable preparedness; and through the espionage of the inscrutable man of mysteries, the Press tells not, and most probably is ignorant of their progress. We do know, however, that in the ports of Spain a gigantic steam fleet is in progress, paid for by French money, directed by French skill, mortgaged to the Man of Destiny, the man of the coming future. Morocco is being most mysteriously fortified. Egypt is occupied by troops from France, engaged in the chimerical project of the Suez Canal; its viceroy is inextricably the creature of France, through being hopelessly involved in this speculation. M. Billault, until his death the mouth-piece of His Imperial Master, told the world, that if French troops be withdrawn from Syria, the ships bearing the tricolor, shall hover o'er that coast, and on the least emergency Imperial troops shall land yet once again, and unfettered by any treaty, will occupy the fastnesses of Syria, and thus this coveted land shall become the vassal of the growing empire. Who shall say what this Vindicator of oppressed nationalities is about to do for Venetia, for Hungary, for Poland?

The Italian kingdom, now that Cavour is no more, is but the dependent of a yet more extended empire, and its monarch but the puppet of