Pagans, Jews, and Christians; because six days were employed by Almighty God in the creation of the globe, after which he rested on the seventh; and as with him. one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day, it was concluded by the Cabalists and Jews, that the world was to continue 6000 years; and on the conclusion of this period there would succeed a Sabbath of a thousand years of corresponding length, a millennium of rest and of peace. This idea has been traced in the Sybilline oracles, in the poems of Hesiod, in Plato, and prevailed long before the birth of Christ, relative to a momentous change which is supposed to await the earth after a period not exceeding 6000 years. We find this expectation expressed by the Chaldeans, the Persians, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans; orators, poets, philosophers; and the only difficulty we experience in the examination of the records collected from the literature of ages is to account for so great unanimity of sentiment, where we cannot discover any source of information or any authority which so many different writers would consent to acknowledge for a conclusion so remarkable." And he adds, "Whatever might be the origin of this anticipation so fondly cherished by Jew and Pagan, before the advent of our Savior, in regard to a happy change in the constitution of things, it is manifest that the hope of such a consummation was not superseded by Christ's residence upon the earth, and the many promises which he made to his disciples in relation to a more perfect state of existence hereafter: on the contrary, the first Christians looked with a more earnest desire for the new heavens and the new earth promised to their

fathers; and connected this expectation too with the ancient hope that this globe was to undergo a material change at the end of 6000 years, throwing off all its imperfections, which had arisen from the guilt of its inhabitants, and being then made to be the habitation of justice, benevolence, and purity, during a millennium of a thousand years, the Sabbath of this terrestrial world." I may just add that a poet-if one may take a poet's testimony for anything, and sometimes the deep insight of the poet is truer than the logic of the philosopherthe poet of our firesides, the most beautiful and instructive of all, I mean Cowper, says,

"The groans of nature in this nether world,
Which heaven has heard for ages have an end,
Foretold by prophets, and by poets sung,
Whose fire was kindled at the prophet's lamp,
The time of rest, the promised Sabbath comes.
Six thousand years of sorrow have well nigh
Fulfilled their tardy and disastrous course
Over a sinful world; and what remains,
Of this tempestuous state of human things,
Is merely as the working of the sea
Before a calm, that rocks itself to rest:

For He, whose car the winds are, and the clouds
The dust that waits upon His sultry march,

When sin hath moved Him, and His wrath is hot,
Shall visit earth in mercy; shall descend
Propitious in His chariot paved with love;
And what His storms have blasted and defaced,
For man's revolt, shall with a smile repair."

Mr. Scott, a very able writer upon prophecy, states, in his "Outlines of Prophecy,"-" The whole six days' work of creation typifies the whole six thousand years of the

work of redemption; and the seventh day, or Sabbath of God, is the type of that seventh thousand year of redemption, the millennium or sabbatism, that first day, as it were, of universal joy and praise to Christ. Almost all writers on prophecy agree that the prophetical dates given us terminate between this present time and the year 1867."

I have given these extracts from competent authorities, all coming to one conclusion,-that the seventh thousand year of the world is to be its millennial rest; and I have shown you that, if the chronology of Mr. Fines Clinton be correct, and I am satisfied it is correct, we are at this very moment within eight years of the close of the sixth thousand year, and therefore, if our dates be right, within eight years of the commencement of what all these writers hope is the everlasting rest, the dawn of heaven, the millennial blessedness of the people of God; when all tears shall be dried-when all sorrows shall ceasewhen death shall die-and when Christ shall shine before his ancients gloriously; and this world shall enjoy that rest which has been foretold by prophets, celebrated by poets, anticipated by saints, and declared by an apostle to be the Sabbath-rest that remaineth for the people of God.

These are the data, on which each can form his own conclusions. I do not venture to dogmatise-I do not attempt to dictate-I do not presume to decide. I have shown that the best and ablest Christian students are all agreed that 1867 is an era fraught with gigantic issues, that some think it is the commencement of the millennial rest; others think it is the destruction of all the

errors whose roots are struck deep into our world, and the universal spread of the empire of the Prince of Peace. Then, if these things be so, we look at Europe, at this moment, with intense and awful interest. No one can reflect upon the last ten years without seeing that they have been ten years of unprecedented events in the history of the world and of mankind. No one can look upon Europe at this moment without feeling that it is scarcely a sleeping volcano: Russia coming from its snows; Germany aroused to its very heart; the proud and victorious Napoleon, so far alive to the cause of righteousness, and liberty, and peace; our own country employing all the genius of its statesmen, of every side and every party, to stave off the tides of war from touching our own peaceful shores;—and yet all things leading us to fear that we shall not finally (though for a season we may) escape the terrible conflict, but all prophecy leading us to hope that England will be spared in the wreck of nations. Her banners may be torn; but she will we hope survive, for she separated at the great Reformation, from the Ten Kingdoms of the Papacy that are now coming under the judgments of Heaven; and I believe, therefore and I am refreshed and delighted while I express the belief that old England's sun will have no western setting in the horizon till its beams mingle with the beams of that Sun, beneath whose wings is healing, and in whose presence there is light and liberty for the nations of the earth. But what does all this teach us now? Suppose I had proved to you, to demonstration, that 1867 was to close this present era. Some will say,

Oh! then we had better not insure our liv s-we had

better not take leases we had better do nothing; but fling everything off, and let society go to ruin. I say, No. What is the Lord's command? "Occupy till I come." What is the condition of the people when he comes? "Two shall be grinding in a mill; the one shall be taken," that is, one a Christian, "and the other left." What does that teach us? That our duties are determined by God's plain precepts; they are not to be modified by any of his prophecies, however clear. The prophecy I read for comfort-the precept I read for direction. And, therefore, when people say, we act inconsistently— as it was said not very long ago by caricaturists and others in the papers-that, because I took the lease of a house, therefore I did not believe these conclusions, I answer that if I thought it would be for my interest or advantage, or the advantage of my family, I would take a house for a hundred years' lease to-morrow. I have nothing to do with prophecy in determining my duties— they are to be determined by God's precepts and by common sense; and if I believed that 1867 were to end the present economy of things, I should have my hand equally busy in my work. I would bid the soldier appear in the ranks, the merchant in his counting-house, the senator in the parliament-every man at his post; for the post of duty is always the place of safety before God and in the sight of all mankind. But whilst our hands should be at duty, our hearts should be more than ever in heaven. Some people say, Oh! how shocking, how terrible, that the world is to end! Why, how shocking, how terrible, that you may die to-morrow! I might say, how shocking, that the aged of sixty has only some