the means by which God would build up His Church-though nothing can be true which is at variance with the doctrines therein contained; but that her instruction must also flow through the channels ordained by God for this purpose; and that the Bible, to be effectual for the ends for which it was given, must be accompanied by the authoritative ministrations of living men, standing in the ordinances so distinctly announced by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Ephesians :some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers;" for what purpose?"for the perfecting of the saints-for the work of the ministry-for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."

"He

gave

In the absence, therefore, of those high and adequate ordinances in the Church, as they were originally constituted, and under the substitution, in place of their catholic and effectual operations, of that low and meagre teaching to which we have referred, it ought not to be matter of astonishment that the effort to lift Christians out of the contemplation of their own personal experiences, into that of the unfulfilled purposes of God, should have been met, at first, with the

most resolute resistance and the most unmitigated hostility. But truth never suffers by controversy; and the men whom God put forward in this arduous struggle were not such as to yield to ignorance and clamour: they contended-as men can alone contend-as themselves feeling the realities for which they were struggling; and, moreover, under a deep conviction of the importance of their establishment to the Church of Christ. They possessed also this advantage over their opponents-that, in proportion as they studied the divine record, their convictions became more firmly rooted; the acquisition of one truth was only the prelude to others; each one, as it gradually emerged from its dark abode, strengthened and confirmed them in those which had gone before; till at length such a blaze of light was shed upon the prophetic Scriptures that those who studied the subject most deeply were lost in astonishment that truths which seemed so obvious should have lain concealed and neglected so long. There were also many who, under the influence of prejudice and ignorance, were at first opposed; but who, being sincerely desirous of knowing the truth, became, like Paul, the most zealous advocates of the doctrines they formerly resisted; so that, whilst the opposers grew weaker, the advocates of the truths of God acquired fresh

energy and strength, by continual accessions from the opposite party. The controversy for a succession of years rent the land: it was not confined to any denomination of Christians-there was scarcely a section of the Church that did not enrol amongst its acknowledged ministers advocates as well as opponents: the press teemed with pamphlets, emanating from all grades, from the noble of the land down to the quiet artizan: so that the history of the Church scarcely presents such an extraordinary phenomenon as exhibited itself at the period we refer to.

In less than ten years a complete revolution took place in the faith and expectations of the Church. Were it not for the well-known fact it could scarcely be credited, that opinions so extremely opposite could be entertained, in so short a space, by the same parties. Before the light to which we allude burst upon the Church, the most extravagant suppositions were cherished of her flourishing condition, and that she possessed in herself the power, without any additional aid, of converting the nations of the earth to God. With such lofty pretensions, it was indeed a humiliating lesson for her to learn, that, instead of her being the instrument for achieving this glorious result, she was herself doomed to destruction for her apostasy from God-a remnant only

being found worthy to escape those things which were coming upon the earth; and to discover that the high distinction on which she was priding herself was spoken of in all Scripture as belonging, after her doom was sealed, to the cast-off and neglected Jewish nation, then restored to the everlasting possession of their own land.

The deep-rooted prejudices of centuries, imbedded as they were in a soil so congenial to the growth of every selfish and presumptuous principle in man, could not be eradicated without involving a fierce and terrible struggle; and those only can fully appreciate its intensity who were themselves engaged in the conflict. The battle, however, was fought and won-the controversy has passed away-a lull has succeeded the stormand the truth of the speedy coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, with all its important accompaniments and results, is deposited in the archives of the Church.

Before drawing the reader's attention to the leading features of that controversy, we would desire to impress deeply upon his mind the following considerations. It is a fundamental principle in the interpretation of unfulfilled prophecy, that the more recent interpretation must take precedence, in point of accuracy, of that which may have been given at an earlier period; for the ob

vious reason, that, as the passing events develop the purposes of God, additional light is thereby thrown upon the manner in which their ultimate fulfilment will be accomplished; and it can only be the argument of an ignorant mind to urge, that because certain details, which may have been strongly insisted upon at an earlier period of the Church's history, have failed of accomplishment, other interpretations, which may have been closely associated with them, shall also fail.

The interpretations of unfulfilled prophecy do not all stand or fall together. The result can alone establish the truth of any prediction of events still future. We do not, in this remark, refer to the prophecies themselves, for, being all based upon the word of God, we know that every one shall assuredly meet with its full and complete accomplishment in God's own time and manner; but we refer more particularly to the Church's anticipation of the nature and character of coming events, which it is almost impossible-and we question whether it would be right, even if it were possible-to disconnect with that vivid impress of their approach which a minute and patient study of prophecy never fails to convey to the mind.

The spirit of our Lord's censure of the Pharisees, that they did not discern the signs of the times, consisted in their not so observing them as to