on themselves condemnation. Thus, too, has it been with the mighty nations of the world, which have played their part in the great drama, and passed away from the scene, because, like the monarch of Babylon, they were weighed in the balance and found wanting. They might also lament over lost opportunities, and mercies neglected or despised. Our space will not permit us to enter at length into this interesting subject, but the history of those nations will prove that at one period of their existence, generally at the zenith of their power, they were brought into intimate connection with the only visible Church of God then on earth. From the captive and despised children of Israel, they received the Word, which taught them of the existence of a God, Almighty, Omnipresent, before whom all their heathen deities must perish as a thing of nought, even as Dagon fell before the ark. The Assyrian, the Persian, the Greek, the Roman, all heard the truth proclaimed, not only in their streets and by-ways, but even in their kings' palaces. They heard it; but they heeded not. It brought no thought of repentance, no conviction to their souls. If, like Felix, they trembled for an instant at the voice which spoke of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, the impression soon faded away, the day of grace had passed; and they who, like Amalek, were the first of the nations, met with a similar fate. Their latter end was, that they perished for ever.

Let us now consider the particular circumstances in the history of those individuals whom we have designated as the types of Antichrist; and thus endeavour to describe, as it were, though imperfectly, the probable career of that Wicked One, whom the Lord shall destroy at His coming.

In the history of Pharaoh, we remark, that having been a ruler over the children of Israel, who at that time were under his jurisdiction in Egypt, he became their most cruel oppressor, and persecuted them even to death. When Moses demanded their release, he endeavoured by means of his magicians to counteract or discredit the proofs of miraculous power. His heart was more hardened by the divine chastisement, his hatred to God's people more intense, until, utterly reckless and impenitent, he came to his end, and none could help him. In the final catastrophe, when Pharaoh and his host were overthrown in the sea, the same pillar which brought light and deliverance to the Israelites, was a cloud and darkness to the Egyptians. Thus, in the conflict with the hosts of Antichrist, the Messiah will slay the wicked with the breath of His mouth, but He will keep the righteous in perfect peace; for “in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength."

In some respects, we would consider Saul to be even a greater type than Pharaoh of the Wilful King. Chosen especially and anointed by God as the leader of His people, he wilfully transgressed the Divine commands in the destruction of the Amalekites. Through a mistaken clemency, he spared the chief, and did not utterly exterminate a race who were the hereditary and most bitter enemies of Israel. It is worthy

of remark that this act of disobedience of Saul was almost the cause many centuries afterwards of the most imminent danger to the whole Jewish nation. In the reign of Ahasuerus, they were plotted against by Haman, the Agagite, who, after such a lapse of time, preserved the hereditary enmity of his race. Truly, God sees not as man seeth, and it is Omniscience alone that can discern the far distant results of actions which we, in our short-sightedness, consider to be trivial and unimportant.

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After his first act of disobedience, Saul seems to have rapidly advanced in his course of evil. Sin had dominion over him," and at the latter period of his life it would appear that he was actually possessed by an evil spirit. Thus influenced, he was guilty of the greatest acts of oppression. He slew the priests of God, and persecuted David with unrelenting hatred; and his end was a fearful warning to all those who neglect the offered means of grace, who grieve the Spirit of God, and follow their own heart's lusts and wild ambition. Forsaken by God, who answered him not, either by Urim or by prophets, he turned to those who seem, to a certain extent, at least, to have held intercourse with the spirits which peep and mutter. It was, however, no power of wizard or demon, but God Himself, who sent His faithful prophet to announce to Saul his impending fate. Thus perished the first anointed king of Israel. No history is recorded in the divine volume more sad, more impressive, than that of Saul. Endowed with generous impulses, born, like the great apostle of the Gentiles, an Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin, and subject at first to all the good influences by which he was surrounded, he yet despised God's demands, neglected the solemn warning of His prophet, rushed on madly in the career of wickedness as the horse rushes into the battle, until at last there remained no more sacrifice for sin, no room for repentance; and he who had been almost as the vicegerent of Jehovah, exalted to heaven, was cast down into hell.

Ahab, the wicked king of Israel, stands out in the sacred record as one pre-eminent in all evil deeds. He did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel than all the kings that were before him. He polluted the land with his idolatrous abomi

nations, and connived at, if he did not directly sanction, the persecution even unto death of the Lord's prophets by the wicked Jezebel. But the most remarkable circumstance in his career was his connection with Elijah the prophet. That stern uncompromising messenger of God, who was commissioned to declare His wrath and to seal up heaven, exercised an influence over Ahab similar to that which Moses had over Pharaoh. Both were instruments of the Divine vengeance, the stern opponents of a selfish, unprincipled tyrant. But though they fearlessly discharged their mission and denounced the wickedness of the monarch, yet on them no man laid his hand. They bore a charmed life, for their trust was in the Lord Jehovah, and they abode "under the shadow of the Almighty." Elijah opposed Ahab not only with the courage of the martyr, but with the authority of a judge. On meeting with him, Ahab exclaimed, like a conscience-striken culprit, "Hast thou found me, O my enemy!" Thus, also, did John the Baptist reprove Herod. He came in the spirit and power of Elias, and Herod feared him, even when he was a captive in his chains.

We look upon this connection of Elijah with Ahab, the most idolatrous and wicked of all the kings of Israel, to be a fact of peculiar significance. It may be the foreshadowing of future events when that Wilful King, of whom Ahab was the type, shall appear upon earth. We cannot affirm positively that those things will happen, which have not been clearly revealed by the Spirit of God, but we are entitled to draw our conclusions from what has been revealed. Now, if we interpret rightly the last prophecy of the Old Testament, "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord," we are persuaded that before the end of this dispensation the great prophet of Israel will appear to preach righteousness, and turn the hearts of the people towards their God, and thus to prepare the way for the advent of the Messiah. And then, if we follow out the analogy of our type, we may believe that he will occupy the same position with Antichrist, and perform the same mission as he did in the days of Ahab. When the Man of Sin is fully revealed, then he may be brought into contact with the prophet, who, by virtue of the high commission entrusted to him from God, will openly denounce his guilt and predict the coming judgments. Like the impious King of Israel, he will not heed the warning of his "enemy," but reject with scorn the offered grace, and thus confirm the just award of God, and seal his own destruction.

Of Sennacherib we shall only remark that the language used by the prophet Isaiah concerning him, "Whom hast thou re

proached and blasphemed, and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice," seems to be applicable not alone to the King of Assyria, but to a future persecutor of God's people. Indeed, the latter part of the prophecy seems rather to refer to the time of the future Antichrist, when "the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward and bear fruit upwards." The destruction of the army of Sennacherib is evidently typical of the overthrow of the Antichristian host by the Lord himself at the final consummation.

Nebuchadnezzar, the great king of kings, the monarch of that imperial city Babylon which has been especially designated as the mother of harlots, the centre of all abominations, he who was appointed by God to be the hammer and scourge of the nations, and especially of the degenerate race of Israel, seems to have been an especial type of the Wilful King. He, like the other types of Antichrist, was intimately connected with the Jewish people, who were his captives in Babylon. There, too, was a prophet of the Lord; for Daniel, the man greatly beloved, to whom the Spirit revealed the future, was an inmate of his palace, and chief ruler over the province of Babylon. Though occasionally it would seem that he was convicted of his errors, and capable of good impressions, yet, probably as it was with Saul, the transient feeling soon passed away. The seed was choked by the cares of this life. If it is hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God, how much more difficult must it be for an absolute irresponsible monarch like Nebuchadnezzar. The setting up of his golden image on the plains of Dura may be typical of a future idol worship, when the abomination which maketh desolate is set up by Antichrist in the temple at Jerusalem.

In the history of Antiochus Epiphanes we might, perhaps, trace out more fully the career of the last impious opponent of the Messiah and the persecutor of the Jewish people. Like him, Herod, the last of our Scripture types, was smitten by a heaven-sent disease, which seized him at the moment when he claimed Divine honours, and received the homage of a fawning multitude.

We have now briefly reviewed the history of the great types of the Antichrist. Can we gather from them what will be the probable career of him who, having surpassed all in the height of his wickedness, shall surpass them also in his utter degradation and his fall? Like them, the Man of Sin will be one who has sinned against light, rejected God's offers of mercy, and hardened his heart until, callous and impenitent, he defies, like the Assyrian, the wrath of the Almighty. Warned by the

faithful prophet, as Ahab and Nebuchadnezzar were by Elijah and Daniel, he yet pauses not in his career of wickedness, until the cup of iniquity is full. At the latter end of his career, he becomes more intimately connected with the children of the covenant. Possibly, he may be employed as an agent to restore the Jewish people to their own land. Thus puffed up with pride, he will claim to be their Messiah, to receive Divine honours, and sit upon the throne of David. Like Antiochus, he will persecute those who oppose his authority, and do not recognise his claims. But in the supreme moment of his triumph, when the abomination is set up and the temple profaned by idolatrous worship, when he is exalted into the seat of the Incarnate God, and sits on Messiah's throne,—even when the adulatory shouts of multitudes proclaim, "It is the voice of a god, not of a man, then shall swift destruction come upon him unawares; he shall come to his end, and none shall help him."

It may not be long now before the Man of Sin is revealed. Those who mark the signs of the times, and are watching for the Lord's coming, believe that there are certain indications which warn them that the time is at hand. And even to those who regard not the monition and plain teaching of Scripture, there is a kind of instinctive apprehension of some approaching catastrophe, a social and political as well as a physical earthquake which will test the stability of our earth, and of all human institutions. We literally seem to be standing upon a mine which may explode at any moment, and no one knows what a day may bring forth. The thought of this coming tribulation, this distress of nations, might well cause those to tremble who have no hope, and are without God in the world; but to the Christian the fear of present evil is diminished by the sure hope of a future deliverance. He watches, indeed, with anxiety the gathering clouds, the premonitory symptoms of the storm; but he knows that God has prepared an ark for His own. He sees beyond the drifting wreck a glimmering of light, a streak on the far horizon. The day-spring will burst forth, the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing on His wings. The shout of triumph, the song of His redeemed people, will yet be raised. Let God arise, and His enemies be scattered; and Messiah will claim His kingdom, the throne of David, and reign on Mount Zion before His ancients gloriously. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Amen.