this actually done? The Son did receive a spiritual kingdom. "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.".

"His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed;" as in the eleventh verse the kingdoms of the beasts are said to be destroyed.

Daniel asked for an explanation of the vision, and it was said to him: "These great beasts, which are four, are four kings"-powers, or dynasties of kings -"which shall arise out of the earth.

"But the saints of the most high shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever and ever." Still the prophet inquired the meaning of the fourth beast, which was so different from all the others; of the ten horns, and of the little horn. The ten powers were without doubt powers subject to imperial Rome; but as the page of history seems to come down to a later period, I think they may also represent countries that became Roman Catholic under the Romish pontiffs; and the little horn may represent Romish France under some of her Romish and despotic kings, that which is so marvellously identified and delineated in Rev. xiii. 15-17.

"I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them;

"Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom." This brings us down to the time of our glorious Reforma

tion. Let us not think the JEHOVAH, the Eternal Trinity, has left our earth. He is here, as He has ever been throughout our world's history. "Lo, I am with you alway." But the time of the Reformation was one of those days of judgment and of change at the close of 666 years, which periods I have shown our dispensation days of 2000 years are divided into (Rev. xiii. 18). He then came, and the saints possessed the kingdom.

But it is very remarkable that another description was given concerning this fourth beast, whose kingdom was to be so diverse from all kingdoms. "And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into His hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

"But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away His dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.

"And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him." This seems to bring us down to the same period of time as the seventh trumpet in Revelation xi. 15: "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our JEHOVAH and of His Christ." But whether that second relation of the history of the fourth beast did point on to a triumph of His yet in the future, I do not know; it all depends upon the purity, and holiness, and steadfast

ness of the Christian Church during the next 127 years. The enemy of souls is still incarnate in the flesh, and "I charge her before God and the JEHOVAH Jesus Christ, and the elect angels," to keep herself from that seducing spirit, from all communion with the Church of Rome; te separate herself from her in form, in likeness, in externals, and in spirit; and to imitate as much as possible Christ Himself, and His immediate followers, St. Paul, St. John, all the martyr throng now before the throne. If her constitution be preserved in the simplicity of the early Church, victory will be hers.

I am not here going through the eleventh chapter of Daniel, a long line of prophetic history is again there gone through. Probably the Syrian dynasty of kings, Antiochus Epiphanes, whom the Maccabees bravely resisted one hundred and sixty years before Christ; but I think a later enemy is there revealed, even "the man of sin" foretold by St. Paul: the features are the same. It is one of the remarkable characteristics of prophecy, that events have a double and a triple meaning. If Daniel said, "My countenance changed in me ; but I kept the matter in my heart," ought we not to be reverential, holy, solemn, and severe, before the reality revealed to us?

We may now return to the revelation by St. Paul, and we shall find that the spiritual enemy in imperial Rome did migrate into a church, the better to deceive, and to clutch within his claw, the body he was standing ready to devour (Rev. xii. 3). Nero himself, with all his absolute and despotic power, was neither as subtle or as great a foe.

It is "the son of perdition," the son of "the old man," whose history we have to trace. Christ called Judas "the son of perdition." God had appointed him to destruction because of his covetousness and heinous sin. And so Antichrist is divinely appointed to destruction because of his usurpation of power, even of the throne of God, to deceive (Rev. xvii. 5-11).

"That day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.

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Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God."

The same was said by the prophet Daniel: "He shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god" (Dan. xi. 36). There has never been but one body of men in the world who have entirely done this, and that is the Roman pontiffs. We know their impious pretensions, how they exacted worship; and how from fear and superstition they were worshipped. But there is one point in this man's usurpation of the throne of God, that we should notice above all others.

We have seen Christ Jesus Himself, the ascended Lord of life and glory, to be the Head, the great spiritual Head of the Church. St. Paul said he was not meet to be called even an apostle, but Rome assumes the functions of our great High Priest, of the Almighty, of "the righteous Judge; " declaring he has power to forgive sin, power to condemn, power to

excommunicate from the Church, and to anathematize whom he will. In short, he impiously asserts, "All power is given unto me." The Fountain of light and life is unacknowledged, unknown; consequently the Holy Ghost unreceived; and hence the darkness, the heresies, and the murderous spirit of that dead system. "He as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." This is the damning point of the impious pretension, that which makes Antichrist the son of perdition, and assigns to him perdition.

"Now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time." I suppose it was the imperial element that was here meant: it must pass away before the incarnation of the apostate spirit in a Church could take place. Whether regal or ecclesiastical, it was still the same fallen and false spirit.

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For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he that now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way." That was the imperial power that was then hindering the cause of Christ, would hinder, until it was taken out of the way. St. Paul had learned this from Daniel: "I beheld till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame." Thus do we see what a certain thing Scripture is.

"And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the JEHOVAH shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming." This was the prophecy of our glorious Reformation, as in Daniel. The popish Antichrist was then consumed by "the Spirit of truth," and