THE

RETROSPECT.

No. III.

In the days of Eli, when the wickedness of the priesthood had come to its full, and God contemplated a change in that order, it is recorded; "The word of the Lord was precious in those days -there was no open vision "—there was no indication of the presence of God by the Shekinah in the second temple; and it is, moreover, generally believed that, after the old canon of Scripture was closed by the prophet Malachi, about four hundred and twenty years before the birth of Christ, that there was an entire absence from that time of any direct communication from God to the Jewish nation, until a short period before that

event.

The object of all God's dispensations to man is the revelation of himself, and the elevation of the creature into communion with God; because God

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himself is the head and fountain of all blessing; and the creature can only partake of the blessedness which is in God, just in proportion as he is enabled to approach and hold intercourse with Him. Accordingly, we find in Scripture that the most favoured of His servants were distinguished by a degree of personal communion with God, which was not extended to the rest of mankind.

Now, the Church of Christ has been for many centuries without any open vision, or scarcely any of those supernatural workings of the Holy Ghost which are indicative of the immediate presence of God; and the consequence is, she exhibits such an utter absence of all faith, in reference to the supernatural and invisible, as to excite a doubt whether, if a belief in their existence is maintained at all, it is not held more as a theory than as applicable to any practical purpose, so that the highest standard of the religion of the present day is reduced to a refined system of ethics, and scarcely seeks a flight beyond that which is practical and visible.

It is quite possible for the Church to quench the Holy Ghost, and we may be assured that the absence of spiritual life, in her bosom, is solely to be attributed to her own unfaithfulness; and the evidences of her departure from God are found, in the eagerness with which she avails herself of every excuse, in justification of such a

meagre state of things; but it is not the purpose of God to suffer His Church to fall back into the condition of the natural: she has been baptized into a spiritual hope, and for that hope she is responsible-God will deal with her as a spiritual body, and hold her accountable to Him for all the gifts of the world to come.

There are two remarkable phenomena spoken of in Scripture, as presenting themselves in the last days-the more extraordinary, because they exhibit the extreme points of a condition of things totally opposite the one from the other: the one is immediately preceding the end, and describes man in such a state of infidelity and unbelief, as almost to deny the existence of the supernatural; and the other is at the end, when all men shall come under its power. Because they received not the love of the truth, God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie. Now, taking these two facts into consideration, it becomes a deeply interesting enquiry, how such a singular change is produced upon mankind, and by what mighty revolution or event men shall become familiarised with those supernatural agencies, the existence of which they now almost universally deny; for the credence which men shall give in those days to false Christs and false prophets, sufficiently proves the general credulity

which will then exist; and, having rejected the truth, with what eager haste they will adopt every false pretension. Man is a spiritual as well as an immortal being, and there is implanted in him a thirst after communion with the spiritual world, which nothing but its possession can satisfy; nor does it require a very reflective mind to trace the cravings of such a spirit, in every state and condition in which he has been found since his creation.

We venture to ask the wise men of this generation, how such a sudden change in men's minds can be effected?-by what process of induction? Whence the mighty teachers, and by whose power endowed? For, surely, there was never such a thing known, since the creation of the world, that a people's faith should be changed in a day—that whole nations should eagerly receive that which neither they nor their fathers knew before-that disbelief should be suddenly transformed into universal credulity-that the denial of all supernatural agency among men should thus be succeeded by a precipitate adoption of every pretension to its possession. The three unclean spirits, which go forth under the sixth Vial, have been insidiously preparing the way; and, in that day, when the saints of God shall be changed in the winkling of an eye, the whole visible Church, in Christendom, shall be as suddenly plunged into

conflict with Satan and his hosts, for the devil then shall be cast out of heaven, and will come down upon the earth, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

Now, inasmuch as we have reason to think that the casting out of Satan from the heavens to the earth, and the translation of the living saints into the region of the heavens, and their consequent deliverance from that great time of trouble which Satan and his angels shall bring upon the earth, are the next events in order which the Church has reason to expect-we shall, instead of resuming our argument of the Second Number of "The Retrospect," first devote some attention to a distinct statement of our views of the several acts,

which, it appears to us, are to take place during that period denominated in Scripture "the day of the Lord." If we can succeed in defining and placing in their true position the grand leading events of that day, we think we shall make other interpretations more intelligible to our readers; and we shall find, in handling this subject in consecutive order, that the thread of that argument will be resumed at its proper time and place.

We cannot refrain from again repeating our conviction, that the confusion and apparent disagreement among modern commentators, is chiefly attributable to the want of a proper dissection