the Lord, according as the state of the Church, the situation of our relatives, and our own personal condition do demand.

6. The Church enjoys the greatest purity and happiness, when she is favored with the brightest displays of the divine glory. The Church of the latterday will behold the Divine glory, by his works of judgment, and of mercy, in an extraordinary manner. The manifestations of that glory, and their spiritual discernment of it, will be principal causes, both of their holiness and comfort. They will have an experimental enjoyment of that apostolic privilege,"But we all with open face, beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." The appearance of God's glory, is the greatest good that can exist among his creatures, and their perception of it, is their highest privilege. In those days, therefore, when God gives to the Church bright discoveries of his glory by his Spirit, his word and his works among them, the assembly of his saints will be highly privileged with consolation in the Lord, and with conformity to him. As it is with the Church as a body, so will it be with individual believers. When He who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, shines into their heart by the Spirit's application of the word to their souls, to give them the light of the knowledge of his glory, in the face of Jesus Christ, they act faith in him for their salvation; they see the beauty of the Lord; they love him with all their heart, and they have a blessed enlargement in holiness and comfort. All this glory is seen in the person and through the mediation of Christ; discerned by the Christian's knowledge; applied by the Christian's faith, and inwardly felt by

the Christian's spiritual experience. Let us, therefore, improve the Divine word, the ordinances of Divine grace, and the duties of religion, that by them, as means prepared by himself, we may behold the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.

7. Christians have need to be prepared for the coming of those glorious days. The first vision that John had of the Millennial Church-chap. 7: 9was introduced by a vision which he had of another company, consisting of one hundred and forty-four thousand, who were sealed with the seal of the living God. This privilege consists in the powerful operations of the Spirit by the word, conveying to believers sanctifying, comforting, and establishing grace. By this privilege they are enabled to continue in the exercise of faith and the practice of holiness; to adhere to his truths, and to wait for his coming; to suffer for his name's sake, and to reverence his judgment; to rejoice in the hope of the coming of his kingdom, and to observe the signs of its approach. As those who have the mark of the beast in their right hand, or on their forehead, belong to him, and are devoted to wrath and destruction; so those who are sealed by the angel ascending from the East, belong to God, and are marked out for preservation and safety, whether in a time of calamity, or in the season of prosperity and rest. "The sun shall not smite them by day, nor the moon by night." If we are among the company of true believers, we belong to the one hundred and forty-four thousand who are sealed for the season of judgments, in the effusion of the vials; and are also prepared for the coming of the Church's glory and purity. If the vision that John had, at the beginning of that chapter, of four angels holding the winds, that they should not blow on the

earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree, be now fulfilled in that providential dispensation, by which the four great powers in Europe, by their military occupation of France, are preserving national tranquillity; if this application of the providence to the prediction, which has lately been made by one of the most able writers on Prophecy in modern times, be correct,and indeed on the side of it there is high probability, what reason have we, at this time, to be seeking the application of the seal of the living God to our souls, that if we live to see the end of those wonders, we may joyfully mingle among the innumerable company, and join them in their triumphant song! And if this is denied to us, we may anticipate the song, by praising God for the revelation of the predictions and promises concerning those glorious days, in the faith and desire that he will accomplish his own word, "The Lord will hasten it in his time."

AN INQUIRY

INTO THE SIGNS WHICH INDICATE THE CHURCH'S HAPPY CONDITION TO BE AT HAND.

DISCOURSE THIRD.

"The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the Gospel."-Mark 1: 15.

WHEN the Lord is about to accomplish any extraordinary dispensation among men, he often gives them those providential warnings which indicate its approach, By Christians, who have the direction of his word, those intimations of his sovereign designs ought to be carefully considered, and clearly understood. It is recorded to the honor of the men of Issachar, that they, on a very trying occasion, "had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do:" 1 Chron. 12: 32. When the Redeemer dwelt among men, it is stated to the disgrace of the Jews, that though they could discern the face of the sky, they were not able to discern the signs of the times. A proper attention to those signs, therefore, is an important duty, and a just view of them, is a great spiritual attainment. As God hath appointed many natural signs as premonitions of the approach of occurrences in nature, so he has established moral signs which no less clearly indicate to us, that some

great spiritual change is at hand. When God exercises his condescension, by favoring us with those signs of his coming, it is most criminal to neglect or despise them, and most reasonable to observe and receive instruction from them. It becomes us, therefore, with deep humility, to investigate those Divine operations, and to cry to him, by fervent prayer, that he may enlighten our minds in the knowledge of his ways. When Christ informed his disciples of the destruction of the temple and city of Jesusalem, they said to him, "What shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled?" To their inquiry, Jesus made a particular reply; and, as he often does to his people above what they can ask or think, he added a variety of important directions how they were to act at that interesting crisis. From those things it is evident, that the members of the Church are abundantly warranted to observe the events that are coming to pass in their day, that they may so understand and apply those signs, either of mercy or of judg ment, as will enable them to know if their Lord is delaying his coming for their deliverance, or is on his way to bestow the kingdom on his chosen people.

Some of those times which shall be fulfilled at Antichrist's fall, and some of the parts of the Church's blessedness in her Millennial state, having been mentioned, that which was proposed next for consideration, is

III. To mention some of those signs which indicate this blessed condition of the Church to be at hand.

1. The exertions that are made to translate the Holy Scriptures into all languages, to print and to publish them throughout the world, are a sign that