federacy." Ezek. xxxviii. 5, 6. "Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya, with them; all of them with shield and helmet; Gomer and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands; and many people with thee." Dan. xi. 43. "The Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps." A confederacy of this kind is frequently alluded to in Scripture, with a deeper. meaning than the invasion of Israel by the Arabian tribes would seem to warrant. In Psa. lxxxiii. such would seem to be the case. In Psa. cx., admitted by all to be prophetic, "The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath." Psa. xlviii. 4, "Lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together," &c. &c. In Isa. viii., where the Assyrian is described as rushing like a river, (according to Daniel like a whirlwind, according to Ezekiel like a storm and a cloud,) through Emanuel's land, the prophet says (verse 9), "Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces." See also the following verses. In short, the confederacies of Oreb and Zeeb, Zeba and Zalmunna, and the Canaanitish kings, with their defeat and destruction, appear to have been types of this great confederacy which is to occur in the latter days.

Observe 3rdly, the scene of Gog's invasion, and the object of his attack. Re-settled Canaan, reinhabited Judæa (verse 14), " Thus saith the Lord God, in that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it ?" Verses 10-12, "It shall also come to pass, that, at the same time, shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought, and thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled

villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, to take a spoil, and to take a prey, to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land." So Daniel; "He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries also shall be overthrown." Dan. xi. 41. So also Isaiah, "And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow, and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, oh! Immanuel." This passing through like a whirlwind and a storm, does not seem to imply possession of a country; and accordingly, though not apparently mentioned by Ezekiel, we find from Dan. xi., that Gog passes through Palestine to invade Egypt. He soon, however, returns, for tidings out of the East and the North trouble him. ch. xi. 44. Perhaps this passage fits in with Ezek. xxxviii. 13; "Sheba and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey, to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?" From this passage it appears, that Great Britain, with her Cushite dependencies, will thwart the ultimate design of Gog in erecting a universal monarchy, by joining the South to the North. With what success to themselves I cannot find recorded: Gog is however compelled to retrace his steps; and, whether enraged by a Jewish insurrection or not, we are not told, but the weight of his fury falls upon that devoted people. And now observe 4thly, his apparent success. "He shall plant the tabernacles of his palace, between

All the horrors

the seas, in the glorious holy mountain." Dan. xi. 45. This is the day of Israel's extremity. Throughout the land, according to Zech. xiii. 8, 9, two parts are to be cut off and die, and the third part is to be brought through the fire, refined and purified. Jerusalem (see Zech. xiv. 2) is to be taken, its houses rifled, and half of its inhabitants taken into captivity. of a city delivered into the hands of a lawless soldiery are again to be enacted there. "Then shall the children of Israel call loudly on their God, when they shall see the abomination of desolation once more stand in the holy place." And this leads us to the 5th observation on the miraculous defeat of Gog, and the destruction of his army. We are led to believe from Zech. xiv. 3, that at this terrible crisis in the history of his still beloved people, the Lord himself will descend from heaven. His feet standing on the Mount of Olives, (that Mount from which he ascended, and where his disciples were informed by an angel, that he should so come again in like manner as they had seen him go into heaven, (Acts i. 11) indicate a personal appearance; and, although from the reference to the great battle fought by Joshua against the Canaanites, a personal appearance may not necessarily be inferred, yet a comparison of Zech. xii. 10 with Rev. i. 7, appears to me to determine the point. Even before the great battle alluded to, and many centuries before his incarnation, our Lord did appear in human form to Joshua, as Captain of the Lord's Host, an appearance typical of a far greater coming to war. The instruments used in the destruction of Gog's army are numerous, and are foreshadowed by several of the battles of Israel. They consist, first, of Jewish valour, miraculously imparted: "He that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David

shall be as God; as the angel of the Lord before them." Zech. xii. 8. "Thou art my battle-axe and weapons of war, for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with thee will I break in pieces the chariot and his rider" (Jer. li. 20, 21), and many similar passages.

2nd. Of convulsions of nature-a mighty earthquake seems to open the scene. "The Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof towards the East and towards the West, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove towards the North, and half of it toward the South. And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains, (that is to the valley made by the earthquake) for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah." (Zech. xiv. 4. 5.) "The Lord

also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem, (probably mighty thunderings; see the grand description of a thunder-storm in the twenty-ninth Psalm;) and the heavens and the earth shall shake." (Joel iii. 16.) "He stood and measured the earth; he beheld and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered; the perpetual hills did bow-the mountains saw thee and they trembled." (Hab. iii. 6, 10; see also Isa. xxiv. 19.) An awfully destructive hail-storm is also mentioned,-"I will rain upon him and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hail-stones, fire and brimstone." (Ezek. xxxviii. 22.) "And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame

of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempests, and hail-stones." (Isa. xxx. 30.) My readers will remember that in the great battle of the five kings mentioned in Joshua x, it is stated, that "the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon then unto Azekah, and they died; they were more which died with hailstones, than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword." (Joshua x. 11.)

3rd. Dissensions among the troops of Gog themselves : "And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them; and they shall lay hold, every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour." (Zech. xiv. 13.) "And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountain, saith the Lord God; every man's sword shall be against his brother." (Ezek. xxxviii. 21). This was the case in several of the battles won in early days by the children of Israel, see Judges vii. 22; 2 Chron. xx. 23.

But 4thly. The most destructive agent in this great battle of the last day is the Pestilence, so often spoken of in Scripture as the word of the Lord. Before him, says the prophet Habakkuk, "went the pestilence," an awful description of its effects upon the human frame, is given in Zech. xiv. 12. It is needless to multiply quotations on this head, as many passages will occur to every reader. Of this the destruction of Sennacherib's host was a type. The mortality will be so great, that though the birds and beasts of prey are bidden to the banquet, yet will it take seven months to bury the dead bodies of Gog's enormous army, and thus amidst convulsions of nature, tremendous earthquakes, prodigies in the sky, pestilence and blood; this tremendous invasion shall terminate, and nothing shall remain to mark the