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whilst He is absent in the heavens. By the truth which they preached, every form of error was to be met, encountered, and overthrown; every strongly rooted despotism, which stood between humanity and God, was to be shaken to its foundations; and every richly endowed priesthood, by ministering to whose necessities or luxuries the chief men of many a splendid city lived, was to be convicted of imposture. All nations were to be brought into a state of spiritual loyalty to God; and the human race, restored from depravity, corruption, and the curse, was to exhibit the power of the Gospel preached in all lands by the messengers of the Cross.

Now if this was the foreseen issue, why is there no intimation of it to cheer the apostles when 'sent forth as their Lord's witnesses "in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth?" Why are not these charming pictures of "the triumphs of the Gospel," with which the modern Church pleases and deludes herself, found in any of our Lord's discourses to His disciples ? How is it that the New Testament is silent upon that which constitutes the burden of modern eloquence touching missionary labour? It is a suspicious circumstance, to say the least of it, that the argument for devotion to the service of Christ so earnestly urged now, namely, the probability, the certainty, of success, is not found in the only book that could stamp it as infallibly true. Nor is it enough to say that the New Testament is silent regarding this imaginary argument. If there were nothing said either way we might speak thus ; but the fact is that there is very much said which directly contradicts the argument in question. And it is just here that Christian brethren open their eyes in perfect amazement at our daring heresy, and exclaim as if the very exclamation were enough to annihilate us— "Ah! so, then, the Gospel is a failure! the Gospel a failure! eh?" But this amazed exclamation does not annihilate us, does not even put us to our wit's end to' find a reply which shall have the double merit of sustaining our doctrine and affirming our gratitude for the wonderful achievements of the glorious Gospel, which is nothing less than the power of God to the salvation of them that believe. If the Gospel is, accomplishing the purpose for which it was intended it is not a failure; but on the hypothesis that it was intended to "convert" or "evangelize" the entire world it is a failure the most complete. This is so obvious to every man that the mere statement of the fact is sufficient. It rests with our opponents, therefore, to prove that their hypothesis is scriptural. Let them show us, we do not say chapter and verse, for we can well afford far greater generosity than that, but let them show us chapter, verse, promise, prophecy, parable, doctrine, or even fair logical inference from any Scripture or cluster of Scriptures in support of their theory, and then

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we shall grapple with the tremendous charge brought against us that we have pronounced "the Gospel a failure."

Let us then return to the positive side of the question, and we affirm that the Lord's forewarning contemplates not a converted world at the time of His advent, but a world full of disorder and wickedness, and ripe for judgment. Having spoken of the great tribulation, of the sign of the Son of man, of the mourning of all the tribes of the earth, and of angels with a great sound of a trumpet, our Lord adds :-" But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." Nevertheless, He characterizes the time by reference to a great historical event, the most appalling hitherto in the annals of mankind. In its elements of dismay, terror, confusion, despair, and overwhelming destruction, there is nothing in the history of the race at all comparable to the flood in the days of Noah. Imagination cannot conceive the awful agonies of that awful judgment, when God "brought in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;" yet this hitherto unparalleled visitation is actually selected by Jesus to illustrate His advent! "But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." The antediluvians would not believe the preacher of righteousness, but laughed at the fanatical prophet who talked about the destruction of the world by a deluge. The thing was absurd, ridiculous, impossible. The end of the world, indeed! Was it not still young and beautiful, richly stored with everything that could minister to the wants and luxuries of thousands of unborn generations, vast regions whose resources were yet untouched, and, in all probability, great continents and countless islands yet undiscovered? So let the old man and his sons build their monster ship, and enjoy their gigantic hobby, although it certainly is a strange delusion for men who are otherwise sensible to fall into. And reasoning and scorning thus, "they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away." There is the dire issue of unbelief, there is the historical catastrophe, from the lips of Incarnate Truth! Now mark the declared parallel: "So shall also the coming of the Son of man be." Similar unbelief respecting the great event will prevail, similar reasoning and scorning when assured that the end of the present dispensation is very near, similar grasping worldliness and great enterprises, similar suddenness in the coming of the Lord, and similar swift destruction from His presence on them that obey not His Gospel. "Watch, therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the good man of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of

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man cometh. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder-cut him off-and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Impressively solemn are these words. They affirm a doctrine of the very utmost moment both to Church and world. The very thought entering the mind of any servant, "My lord delayeth his coming," is fraught with peril. It may not be entertained without jeopardy. The conviction that at least a thousand years, a millennium, of spiritual light and terrestrial happiness, will intervene before the return of Jesus, makes his forewarning useless, and renders watchfulness for that sublime event impossible. It is the obviousness of this fact that has taxed the ingenuity of post-millennial theorists for the discovery of some harmonizing mode of interpretation; and the most notable one is that the coming of the Lord here spoken of means His coming to individuals at the time of their death. It is really a waste of precious time to examine and refute this transparent subterfuge. The Son of man visibly coming in the heavens with great power and glory, the death of an individual! The death of an individual as tremendous a catastrophe as the deluge that destroyed the old world! That the metaphorical system-or rather mockery-of interpretation has created an enormous capacity of credulity, we know well; but that it should ever have asked its disciples to believe this is inconceivably marvellous! But you have only to introduce figure or metaphor, and piously call it "spiritualizing," into the Lord's plain statements, which He intended you to accept literally, to open the door to any amount of folly, and pave the way for any pestilent extravagance. The greater the absurdity the better, as it illustrates the resources of your genius and the profundity of your thoughts. "The coming of the Lord," death! Why, the very contrary is the animating and joyful fact. His coming will be life to His people. We long for His coming that we may not die. Peter seeing John-at that memorable interview between the risen Lord and His disciples, recorded in John's last chapter-said to Jesus, "Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me. Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die."

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Precisely! This is the meaning of the coming of the Lord. When He comes His sleeping saints shall be raised, and those who are alive shall be clothed with immortality. He is " our life," and we wait for Him that mortality may come to an end. "The brethren" were quite right in their belief that the coming of the Lord and death are incompatible; their simple error consisted in supposing that Jesus had affirmed that which He had only put hypothetically-"If I will."

To resume the argument. The forewarning of our Lord embraces the entire time of His absence, as a time of trouble, danger, sorrow, grief, disappointment, incompleteness-the moral chaos which precedes the blessed Sabbatism of promise—and therefore proves that there can be no chiliad of human happiness until the Head of humanity returns to His inheritance. Everywhere throughout His discourses, whether in the form of parable or otherwise, the thought runs that evil in many forms will continue in the world until His return. There are stony places and thorns around the sower; there are tares among the wheat, but they must not be pulled up until the time of harvest; the small mustard seed becomes a tree, but birds of prey lodge in its branches; there is pure meal, but corrupting leaven is placed in it; and there is a dragnet gathering fish, but there are bad as well as good brought to shore. "As therefore," says the Lord in explanation of two of these parables, "the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world"—that is to say, age, the Christian dispensa tion. Again, with regard to the dragnet: "So shall it be at the end of the world"-the same word again, meaning the present scene and order of things-" the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire." But this end of the world, or close of the present order of things, is the time of Christ's coming; hence another order of things, or a period of universal truth and purity effected by Church agency before He comes, is absolutely impossible. Hence the disciples ask, "What shall be the sign of thy coming, and the end of the world?" The return of Christ and the close of the present dispensation take place together. If, therefore, there is to be a chiliad, or thousand years, during which the knowledge of the glory of the Lord is to fill the earth as the waters cover the sea, it must be after His return from heaven. Paul gives the idea in a remarkably complete form in his letter to Titus. "The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, even the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." Observe here how,

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through the grace of God, Christians are to comport themselves during the continuance of this present age or dispensation; observe also that ungodliness and worldly lusts will continue to its close; and that the blessed hope set before believers is not the triumph of the Gospel over surrounding iniquity, but, as it should be translated, "the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ." The return of the Saviour, then, is the end of this age, and the introduction of another in which the wonderful predictions of millennial felicity will be fulfilled. We have much more to say on this sublime and glorious subject, if life and health be granted, but as we do not approve of long papers, where it is possible to avoid them, we here close the first of this specific series on the pre-millennial advent of our ever blessed LORD.

THE DISEASE WITHOUT THE REMEDY.

"OUR Times and our Churches,"* is the title of a remarkable pamphlet which we have read with the care which such a theme demands. Not as a literary production-though it is written with marked ability and transparent clearness-but as an ecclesiastical utterance does this paper concern us; and in this light it concerns all professing Christians most deeply. It is a sorrowful complaint, a sad confession, a book of lamentations. If its picture of the state of religion be not too deeply shaded, there is the most urgent necessity for an examination of the causes of this sombre fact, and for their instant removal, if such removal be possible by human instrumentality. In his prefatory note, Mr. Hebditch lays down, in a very few words, what may with strict propriety be called the text of his discourse: Here it is::

"Although this paper was read by request at the autumnal meeting of the Congregational Union at Hull, the writer wishes it to be understood that he alone is responsible for the contents. Further inquiry and reflection have confirmed his conviction of the general accuracy of his statements. In our churches there is much activity of religious thought and life, and, generally, very much good to be acknowledged, but there is also much evil to deplore. In calling the latter declension, the writer does not mean that those who now compose our churches have declined, but that the present generation of Christians is, in the respects indicated, inferior to the generation just passed away. Speaking of the Church, it is declension. Speaking of individuals, it is nonattainment."

Declension of the Church, non-attainment of individuals! These

A paper read at the autumnal meeting of the Congregational Union of England and Wales, held at Hull, October, 1864. By the Rev. Samuel Hebditch.