the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south"-a convulsion of nature, occasioned, as it would seem, from the intense heat of that "fire," that the Psalmist assures us, will then "go before Him and burn up His enemies round about; " when "the hills" will "melt like wax at the presence of Jehovah, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth," i.e., Christ Jesus Himself, as we here see. Several of the other prophets also refer to the same period, and tell us exactly the same thing. Thus Micah speaks, "For, behold, Jehovah cometh forth out of His place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth "-a phrase which is used over and over again for the mountains round about Jerusalem." "And the mountains shall be molten under Him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place. For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel ”3. because, as we have seen, the nation will then be found in league with Antichrist.

And then the prophecy proceeds, " And ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah King of Judah"-which some suppose to have taken place, when Uzziah impiously entered into the temple at Jerusalem, "to burn incense," and was "thrust out from thence; yea, himself also hasted to go out, because Jehovah had smitten him "-a pregnant proof, however, that the earthquake here referred to is to be a literal one, or it could not of course have been compared to another, unless it had been of the same character. Indeed this very earthquake is also referred to in the Book of the Revelation, which relates to the same period of time. "And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were

1 Psalm xcvii. 3, 4. 3 Micah i. 3-5.

Deut. xxxii. 13; Isaiah lviii. 14; Ezek. xxxvi. 2. 4 2 Chron. xxvi. 18-21.

upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake and so great.” And as further evidence of the literality of this earthquake, the prophet tells us, that "all the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin's gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the Tower of Hananeel unto the king's winepresses"-a circumstance which is also referred to even more particularly by the prophet Jeremiah, when speaking of the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem, as we have before seen, "upon her own heap."

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And then after having described the earthquake, the prophet adds, "And Jehovah my God shall come, and all the saints with Thee." And having now, therefore, reached the second coming of the Lord in the prophecy, and of the gathering of the saints together unto Him; I shall pass over the rest of the prophecy, until we come to that time in our history; and will conclude this Section with a brief notice of the seven characteristics which the prophet here gives of "the day of Jehovah."

1. "His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east." 2. "And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark"-a miraculous interposition which I shall afterwards have to notice more particularly. 3. “And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem "-a circumstance which I shall also have again to refer to. 4. "And Jehovah shall be King over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Jehovah, and His Name one"-a glorious result of "His appearing and His kingdom," which we see is here placed in the very centre of the seven characteristics of "that day." 5. "And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from Jehovah shall be among" "all the people that have fought against Jerusalem." 6. "In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses HOLINESS UNTO JEHOVAH," &c.-in other words,

1 Rev. xvi. 17, 18.

2 Jer. xxx. 18; xxxi. 38-40.

everything shall be wholly dedicated to the Lord, and shall be used in His service; New Testament precepts such as, “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do ALL to the glory of God"-" And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do ALL in the name of the Lord Jesus "2being then fully carried out by the redeemed people. 7. "And in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite," rather, the trafficker-for Canaan also means merchant-" in the house of Jehovah of Hosts"-such as Jesus drave out of His "Father's house," the "Temple," at His first coming3 —or, in other words, there shall be none ministering therein, who are "uncircumcised in heart:" for then the life-giving words of Jehovah Jesus will have been spoken to His "brethren after the flesh," "Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come unto thee the uncircumcised and the unclean."5 For then, as we have seen, "Thy people shall be all righteous: "6 "And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, know Jehovah for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith Jehovah: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."

And having now, therefore, sufficiently opened out the subject, and shewn what the New Testament saints must have been taught by the Apostles from the Old Testament Scriptures, of the character and doings of the Antichrist, which seem to be so completely hidden from the generality of Christians in these days, I shall, in my next Section, set forth from the Scriptures, the rise and progress of the Antichrist himself to universal dominion in the earth, and his connexion more particularly with the Gentile nations.

11 Cor. x. 31.

3 Mat. xxi. 12, 13;

4 Ezek. xliv. 7, 9.

7 Jer. xxxi. 34.

2 Col. iii. 17.

8

Mark xi. 15-17; Luke xix. 45, 46; John ii. 13-17.

8 Mr. B. W. Newton has shewn, in his "Prospects of the Ten Kingdoms," that many of the early Christian fathers clearly saw the Personality

SECTION II.

The rise and progress of the Antichrist to Universal Supremacy in the earth-His connexion with the Gentile nations.

Those who have read my former Volume will remember that, in considering the several prophecies relating to the four Great World powers, in the Book of Daniel, I brought down the history to the time when the old Roman Empire would be divided into ten kingdoms; answering to the ten toes on the feet of the prophetic image seen by Nebuchadnezzar in his dream; five upon each foot, or division of that Empire, Eastern and Western; and that the feet of the image having been composed partly of iron and partly of clay, indicated an attempted union in these kingdoms of Imperialism with democracy, in the form of so-called Constitutional Monarchies; in which the people had a large share in the Government-a circumstance which clearly indicates (as indeed every other circumstantial detail of the prophecy also does), that this disposition of the Empire will not take place until the close of the Dispensation; and that it could not, therefore, have taken place at the rise of the Papacy, when the Imperial element alone prevailed. This prophecy, therefore, necessitates a complete remodelling of the Map of Europe: for such a division of the Old Roman Empire does not exist at present. When, however, it comes to pass, it will be the very alarum bell that "the time of the end" will be near. As to the kingdoms themselves, as some only of them are referred to in the Prophetic Word, I shall mention these only, and shall indulge in no speculations of my own as to the others. As the prophecy mentions "the King of the North," and "the King of the

of Antichrist in the Scriptures—as for instance Justin Martyr, Irenæus, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Origen, Victorinus, Lactantius, Hilary of Poictiers, Ambrose, Gregory Nazianzen, Cyril, Chrysostom, and Jerome: which is in itself a sufficient refutation of the assertion, believed in by so many, on the authority of some Expositors of prophecy, that this was an invention of a Jesuit named Ribiera, to turn away the force of the prophecies from Rome!

South," as well as "a King of Grecia" existing at the time of the end; it is quite clear that kingdoms answering to those of ancient Syria, Egypt, and Greece, will form three of the toes on the foot of the Eastern leg.

We know that "the Eastern question," is now the question of the day; and that Russia will some day make an attempt to advance on Constantinople, with a view of ultimately obtaining possession of the Holy Land. At present she is checkmated by Austria, whose astute rulers are striving to form an independent Balkan Confederation, in which they will probably succeed. If Russia be foiled in her attempt in this quarter, as I think she will be, in consequence of the triple alliance, she may then seek to advance through Armenia, by way of Erzeroum and the valley of the Euphrates, into the Province of Aleppo, the road to which lies open to her. She would thus, as a writer dwelling in the East points out in "The Christian" of December 27 last, cut Turkey in Asia in two, and suddenly plant herself on the Levant, and take possession of North Syria. But whether she will attempt to do this, or not; it is certain in the end, that she will not succeed in retaining possession of these provinces: because they form part of the Old Roman Empire, which must be divided in the manner indicated in the Prophetic word. It is quite possible, however, nay indeed highly probable, that it will be in consequence of Russia's attempted further conquests and encroachments, that all the nations now inhabiting the platform of the Old Roman earth will be driven to form an alliance for the purpose of opposing her, and repelling her aggressions; in which they will ultimately succeed. This tenfold division, likewise, will necessitate the restoration to France of the Rhine provinces, as these formed part of the Old Roman Empire; and this circumstance might prove the inducement to France to join in the coalition. England also must, I think, lose Ireland; as Ireland never formed any part of that Empire.1

1 I am strongly inclined also to think that England will be greatly shorn of her strength, and that she will lose most of her Colonies: not merely because the ten-fold division of the Old Roman Empire would almost seem