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on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth because they will not hear and believe His word of warning—not because that warning is not given. The witness to the anti-diluvian world was during the whole period "while the ark was a preparing" and yet, there was a precise period fixed when God should inflict the judgment of the Deluge and, be it remarked, that this limited period was given to faithful Noah, as it is written -"for yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights." The captivity of the children of Israel was to last exactly four hundred years, during which period they were to be "afflicted;" and yet we have no record that, at the expiration of the four hundred years, any of the children of Israel, except Moses, knew that the time had expired. The captivity of the children of Israel in Babylon it was declared by the prophet Jeremiah should be exactly seventy years; and yet, although the prophecy was so plain and so recent, there is reason to suppose that Daniel only knew that the termination of that period was at hand, and that, he himself declares, he "understood by books." The mission of Jonah to Nineveh was no indefinite warning, for he was commissioned to declare, "yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown."

Our Lord warned His disciples that in that

generation Jerusalem and its temple should be destroyed, and accompanied the warning with a prediction of such palpable signs and wonders as tokens of the approach of that destruction, that the Christians were able to take advantage of the prophecy; and it is a notorious fact in history that not a single individual perished in the ruin which overwhelmed that devoted city.

And is it to be supposed, that God will be inconsistent with Himself, and deal differently with Christendom than he has dealt with every city and nation in the times of old? Shall God have warned every city and nation of the time of their visitation when purposing to visit them with judgment, and shall He not warn us? "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" It is the proximity of the event which we cannot realize we have no objection to believe in the coming of the Lord for another and different generation; but we will not believe that this generation shall not pass before all these things shall be fulfilled. Wherefore this reluctance for His appearing, whose smile shall gladden creation? Whence this coldness to welcome Him, who wipeth the tears from off all faces? Why this desire for postponement, when "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together," and none can relieve or sustain but He who shall

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appear for "the redemption of our body," arising as the Sun of Righteousness with healing in His wings?

Ye sons of God, shout for joy! Ye who are oppressed, lift up your heads and rejoice, for your redemption draweth nigh! "Cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward: for ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith: but, if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul."

(To be continued).

LONDON:

W. E. PAINTER, 342, STRAND, PRINTER.

THE RETROSPECT.

No. II.

BEFORE proceeding further with our subject, we will answer the only objection that has hitherto reached us against the publication of the "Retrospect." It has been suggested that there is contained in the constitution of the Church the prophetic office for the revelation of mysteries; and, consequently, that it is not the legitimate mode of arriving at the future purposes of God, as contained in the prophetic Scriptures, to attempt thus their exposition through the understanding; but, on the contrary, that the Church should rather seek the revival of that ordinance through which alone it is alleged such mysteries ought to be opened.

We cannot refrain from expressing our conviction that the argument itself is defective, from

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a misapprehension of the nature and character of such an office in the Church. But, even if the position could be maintained upon sound principles, we have yet to learn that, because the Church, by her unfaithfulness, may have lost the higher ordinance, she is, therefore, debarred from the full exercise of those powers she still possesses, though they may not rank in dignity or authority with those she failed to retain. But the primary office of the prophet is not interpretation it is rather for the conveyance of fresh revelations, whether by visions or in the uttering forth the word of the Lord, as conveyed to him by inspiration; and we have every reason to conclude that the prophets, who were themselves the channels through which the prophecies were given, did not understand the purport of the words they were instrumental in pronouncing.

Daniel, though he often sought the meaning of his visions, repeatedly assures us "he understood them not:" and the only instance where he declares he did understand, he informs us, it was "by books," and not by any light supernaturally conveyed to him by revelation. We will not insist upon the innumerable instances which occur in the inspired volume, wherein men are invited by its Divine Author to exercise their intelligence upon that which is pur