at once, and make a short work upon the earth. No, the promise was given; but the performance of the thing promised was delayed. Meanwhile, however, some few of the families of the earth were blessed: they believed the promise; through faith they became interested in the benefit of its yet future accomplishment; and being influenced by the blessing," they walked with God:" but the bulk of the inhabitants of the earth were still under the curse, led captives by the devil at his will, and working uncleanness, with greediness. This state of things continued, till the iniquity of man abounding in the earth, so moved Almighty God to anger, that he destroyed the guilty race, saving only the small family of his servant Noah. At that time the promise to Adam, instead of being fulfilled, or in apparently progressive fulfilment, seemed to be forgotten: nay more, it seemed to be contradicted. But God's ways are not as our ways; neither is God's mode of proceeding to be judged of by what seems suitable to us.

Again, when God called Abraham, and told him, that in his seed all the families of the earth should be blessed, he did not make Sarah the mother of the promised seed. Here, as before, the promise was given-but the performance delayed. In the meantime, God separated to him

self a people-a peculiar nation-and gave them in types and prophecies more and more clear instruction respecting the execution of his plan. Some believed; through faith they became interested in the benefit of the yet future accomplishment of the promise; and influenced by the same faith, they too "walked with God:" but the bulk of even that favoured nation, and all the rest of mankind, were still under the curse.

Israel rebelled against the Lord, rejected his counsel, despised and persecuted his messengers, and in the end crucified his Son; they so moved him to anger, that he cut them off from their privileges; destroyed their temple and city; and dispersed them, in disgrace and degradation, among the heathen. At that time the promise to Abraham, instead of being fulfilled, or even in apparent fulfilment, seemed to be forgotten; for the families of the earth, instead of being blessed, were still under the wrath and curse of God. But God's ways are not as our ways.

The promised seed was now indeed come: but so unlike what had been expected-so unlike the powerful One, who could bruise the serpent's head, and bless all the families upon the earth, that few, very few, recognized him as the seed: few, therefore, derived any benefit from his coming; the nation rejected him; and thus the

accomplishment of the promise made to Abraham was partly brought to pass, and partly delayed. The seed was come: the families of the earth were not blessed in him.

Then it was, that in the wisdom of God, true religion was extended to other people and nations. Another portion of the divine plan was dispensed. Another dispensation was introduced. The glad tidings of salvation, by the long predicted seed of the woman, were preached to the Greeks and Romans, and other heathen nations, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; and then it seemed as though the whole of the great promises made to Adam and Abraham, and repeated by all the prophets, were about to be fulfilled: the head of the serpent bruised; all the families of the earth blessed; and the whole world covered with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea;

But experience should teach us, that God's mode of proceeding is not to be judged of by what seems right or probable to us. We see that the antediluvian dispensation held out a prospect of the glorious promise of universal blessedness being fulfilled. But the time was not yet. That dispensation fell short of the accomplishment. We see that in like manner

the patriarchal and Levitical dispensations held out, with increasing clearness, a prospect of the great promise being fulfilled. But still the time was not yet fully come. Those dispensations fell short of it. Now we see this dispensation holding out a still more animating prospect of the final promise being fulfilled. But let us take instruction from what is past. Our dispensation also may fall short of the glorious consummation, and another change may take place, similar to the destruction of the world,-similar to the rejection of the Jews.

This is possible, to say no more; and whether it is the revealed purpose of God or not, deserves at least a fair inquiry. Is this dispensation, under which we are living, the final dispensation, which will issue in the full performance of the divine plan of mercy to the whole world? or is it another introductory dispensation, such as those which have preceded it?

The more common opinion is, that this is the final dispensation, and that, by a more copious outpouring of the Holy Spirit, it will magnify itself, and swell into the universal blessedness predicted by the prophets, carrying with it Jews and Gentiles, even the whole world, in one glorious flock, under one shepherd, Jesus Christ the Lord. This is reiterated from pulpit, press, and

platform. It is the usual climax of missionary exhortation, or rather missionary prophecy.*

On the supposition that this is the truth, it must be admitted that the accomplishment of the promise has advanced, and is still advancing, very slowly; and that even now, after eighteen centuries, comparatively little has been done; for, although Christianity established itself on the downfall of the most cultivated Paganism, with sufficient rapidity to convince every candid mind, that it was from God; yet, in reference to the great promise affecting the whole world, its progress has hitherto been slow indeed. This, however, would of itself be no argument against our dispensation being the final one; because

*It is curious and instructive to remark how this view of the subject may be stated, and amplified with all the glowing enlargement of impassioned eloquence, without exciting any feeling that the speaker is at all interfering with the subject of unfulfilled prophecy. He is, indeed, prophecying, and in his own words, and from his own fancy; but the strain is in harmony with the popular impressson, and is accordingly hailed as a strain of love, and greeted with instinctive approbation.

But no sooner is a different view of the future announced, though it should be in the very language of inspiration, than a jar is felt, and resented, and the intruder is blamed (if not denounced) as a troubler of the peace and unity of the religious world.

The writer is happy to observe that this evil, though much to be lamented still, is much abated.