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prophets, have not yet been fulfilled; nor will they be until the seventh vial of God's wrath is poured out, and Great Babylon comes into remembrance before him, to give her the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. The chronology of Nahum's prophecy is, when the mountains quake at him, and the hills melt; and the earth is burned at HIS PRESENCE, the world and all that dwell therein." Verse 5. Has this taken place? Was it fulfilled at the destruction of Jerusalem? Again, in the 15th verse, the wicked is no more to pass through Judah, when the prophecy is realized, but is to be utterly cut off. Is this done? The feet of him that publisheth these good tidings, is to be seen upon the mountains before it is fulfilled. Rev. Mr. Nicolayison, a missionary at Jerusalem, is a firm believer in the speedy appearing of Christ at hand. A friend of the cause was at Jerusalem last spring, and had several most interesting conversations with him on the subject, and supplied him with our books and publications. So that upon the mountains of Jerusalem, stand the feet of him that bringeth glad tidings, that publisheth peace.

Chap. ii. 3, 4: The CHARIOTS shall be with FLAMING TORCHES IN THE DAY OF HIS PREPARATION; and the fir-trees shall be terribly shaken. The CHARIOTS shall rage in the streets, they shall justle one against another in the broad ways; they shall seem like torches and run like

the lightnings." Do we have any chariots,

wheeled carriages, at this day, propelled with fire, or a flaming torch? Do those chariots seem, when at full speed, in the night, like torches? Do they rage in the streets and justle one against an

other? And finally, "DO THEY RUN LIKE THE LIGHTNINGS?" If so, then it is the day of GOD'S PREPARATION " to burn the earth and the world, and all that is therein." Reader, look at this point carefully, and see if the prophecy does not have a literal fulfilment in our own day. Put Isaiah 40th chapter, and Nahum ii. 3, 4, together.

CHAPTER VI.

THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUES.

THE first question to be settled, in reference to the seven last plagues, is, are they, any or all of them, past, or are they all future? It is the opinion of most expositors of the Apocalypse, that there are at least six of them already executed. The time has been when I was disposed to fall in with the prevailing opinion; but more recently have been constrained to dissent from that view, and consider them what they are emphatically said to be "THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUES," in which "Is FILLED UP THE WRATH OF GOD." The chronology of their execution seems to me to be in the future, and after the second advent. Some of the reasons for this opinion are the following:

1. They are introduced after the Son of man comes on a white cloud to "reap the harvest of the earth," the saints, for they are the wheat. Then the vintage will come, and the vine be cast into the great wine-press of the wrath of God. Rev. xiv. 14-20.

2. The redeemed are represented as standing on the sea of glass, having the harps of God, and

singing the song of Moses and the Lamb, before the vials are poured out. But the song of Moses is the song of triumph and deliverance. See Ex. xv. So also is the song of the Lamb. "Thy judgments are made manifest." See Rev.

XV.

3. Another reason for considering them all future, is analogy. In the destruction of the old world, God secured Noah in the ark, before the flood came on the ungodly. Before the storm of fire came on Sodom, God, by a special interposition, and the ministry of his angels, brought righteous Lot out of the devoted city, to a place of safety.

When destruction was to come on Jerusalem, the Saviour took care to deliver those that trusted in him, and they were led to a place of safety before the dreadful siege began, and not a Christian perished there.

4. Yet again, the very first vial, when it is poured out upon the earth, will affect the men who have the mark of the beast, and them that have WORSHIPPED HIS IMAGE. Rev. xvi. 2. The image of the beast did not exist until the present century, (see Chapter III. of this book,) and could not be worshipped before it existed. And also those who gain the victory over the IMAGE of the beast are to stand on the sea of glass before the vials are poured out.

Although the saints are to stand on the sea of glass, as it were mingled with fire, before the vials are poured out, no man can enter the temple of heaven until all the plagues are fulfilled. Rev. xv. 5-8. The saints will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, to be forever with

him, in a moment, at the last trump. But the New Jerusalem will not come down and the saints enter it, until the earth is desolated, and the new heavens and earth appear, and the New Jerusalem comes down. Then the saints shall have right to the tree of life, and enter in through the gates into the city.

The vials, I must regard, as producing the same literal effects ascribed to them in the 16th chapter of Revelation. The plagues are almost identical with those which came on Egypt when God delivered his people, and I can see no reason why

these will not be as literal as those.

THE VIALS AND THEIR EFFECTS.

Rev. xvi. 2: "The first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men who had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image." Some of those will be alive who HAD the mark of the beast in his day; and those will be alive who "worshipped his image." The beast will have passed and the image be alive.

"Noisome and grievous sore." This will be best illustrated by referring to Ex. ix. 8-11: "And the Lord said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh. And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt. And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before