can blind the intellect, and prejudice darken it; till a man sunk in depravity can neither see nor appreciate moral excellence at all. We well know how diffcult it is to convince a mere natural man of many of those simple truths which to a Christian appear so plain. And the reason is, that just as a shilling over the eyeball will shut out the grandest panorama from the sight, so a single passion, avarice, hate, revenge, any other evil, or stormy, or tempestuous passion, will so darken man's intellect that he will not see the simplest truths nor recognise the plainest duties. Orthodoxy in its brighest sense is as much the product of a pure heart as of an enlightened mind. By force of intellect we may master mathematics; but only by sanctity and regeneration of heart can we master, and appreciate, and live by the living truths of the Gospel of Christ.

In which category are we-in the category of them that are made righteous by the righteousness of Christ; who, while passing through many a stormy and tempestuous sea, are being made fit for heaven, and will ultimately reach that happy haven into which the surf of this world's troubles will not break, and whose waters shall never be disturbed by a tempest; or are we in the list and category of the wicked, who will not understand, and therefore do not understand; who do wickedly, and glory in their wickedness, who have no fear of God before their eyes? Magnificent privilege! we have the choice. Choose ye this day on which side you will stand. Oh, may many a humble heart say, Blessed Jesus, where thou goest I will go; where thou lodgest I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God shall be my God! Amen.

LECTURE XXVII.

THE GLORIOUS LOT.

"But go thou thy way till the end be; for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days."— DANIEL xii. 13.

I HAVE tried in a previous lecture to show what is the precise chronological significance of those remarkable words, "From the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away," that daily sacrifice the burden of the prophet's prophecy, that "incense and a pure offering shall be presented among the Gentiles," from the cessation of the Jewish polity to the consummation of the present age; "and an abomination that maketh desolate," (for it is not the in the original, to distinguish it from that of the Roman eagles upon the walls of Jerusalem, when Titus and Vespasian utterly subverted and destroyed it); from that time "there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days; 1260 prophetic days ending, I said, in 1793; when the papacy began to be subverted, undermined, and destroyed; 30 additional such days, ending synchronically with the 2300 years of Daniel, in 1823 or 1821, when the great eastern delusion began to wane, as it wanes at this moment, and is almost extinct in the east of Europe; that there should be an additional

45 years, making in all 1335; and then, "Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days," which end the age, on the supposition that the dates of commencement are right. There, mind you, the whole difficulty lies; and if I were to assert that 532 or 533 is absolutely certain as the commencing date, then we could absolutely predict the close of this present Christian economy; but that we cannot do. But I showed, by collecting the opinions— not opinions, but inferences and conclusions come to by the best and the wisest commentators, not only of this century, but also of the last—that 1867, which is a great closing epoch, whatever be the events that are to transpire, is an era fraught with gigantic issues the one way or the other. If the theory of certain divines of the present day, who are very able and very pious, be correct, then 1867 terminates finally and fully the Mahometan and Papal apostacies, the reign of wickedness upon earth, and the commencement of at least a new, a brighter, and a better era. If the conclusion of Elliot, and Newton, Meade, and Bickersteth, and others who have written upon the subject, be correct, then 1867 would close, in the words of Lord Carlisle, this present economy, and be the end of this present Christian dispensation. The difficulty felt by many is how I begin this era at 532; what is the nature of that system which the 1260 years mete out? and is the church of Rome (which looks very uncharitable, but we can never be uncharitable when we speak what is true, I mean true in the word of God) that dreadful apostacy thus meted out by the days here specified?

But at all events whatever be the eras or the dates, whatever be the commencing or the terminating epochs, here is the grand practical lesson deducible from all, addressed to every Daniel in Christendom, every preacher and every student of prophecy, every Christian in this age, "Go thou thy way till the end be; for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days." There seems to me three great lessons to be gathered from this prescription; first of all, that present duty is not the least diluted by contingent results; "Go thy way till the end be." The meaning of "Go thy way" is, Mind your business, mind your work, attend to your duty. Secondly, there is the prophecy, which we are sure will be fulfilled; "Thou shalt rest; there remaineth a rest for the people of God;" and lastly there is the assurance, personal, specific, and cheering: "Thou shalt stand in thy lot at the end of the days.'

First of all, there is the call to attend to present duty, altogether irrespective of future contingency. No revelation of the future that God has given or that man can make plain is for one moment to interfere with our obvious unmistakable duties. In all persons who make real or pretended knowledge of the future a reason for neglecting the duties or violating the claims of the present, there is fanaticism, the fanaticism of monks and recluses; not what the Bible is, inspired common sense for Christian men. Let us remember that the prophecies do not repeal the precepts; and if any man were to make his belief of a prophecy of the future a reason for breaking or ignoring a precept obligatory in the present, that man would not rightly divide the word of truth. He would

most grievously misinterpret and misapply it. Whatever be in the future, and whatever we expect in the future, this is our duty in the present; "Be steadfast, immoveable; fight the good fight; hold fast thy crown, that no man take it from thee; occupy till I come; work while it is day, for the night cometh when no man can work." And therefore it appears to me that any man who makes the bright prospects of the future a reason for neglecting the very last duty of the present, altogether misinterprets and misdivides the word of God. Moral duties are not affect

ed by anything upon earth. In the flame that wraps the globe, in the intense fire that calcines it to dust, this remains unscathed, undiluted, unaffected, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself." A material universe may go to ruin; but moral obligations outlast the stars and all created things. We have instances constantly of God over-riding and reversing physical laws; but there is not an instance in the Bible of God over-riding, reversing, or dispensing with a moral law. We have found that some physical laws have been altered; the fire has failed to burn in the case of the three Hebrew youths; poison has ceased to destroy; the floods have failed to drown these are instances of physical laws reversed. But God has never reversed the law, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself." Let me adduce an illustration :— were a mother to be so captivated and charmed with the study of the Apocalypse, and it is right to be charmed and captivated with the bright prospect before us, that she neglects her infant, or her children, or her husband, she is acting a most unchristian part; and she is making the