For the stars of heaven, and the constellations thereof shall not give their light, the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity, and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man, than the golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore will I shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger. ""*

"Thus saith the Lord, Take the wine-cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations to whom I send thee, to drink it. And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword, that I will send among them. (Then took I the cup at the Lord's hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the Lord had sent me.) All the kings of the north far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth, and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them. Therefore thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Drink ye, and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword, which I will send among you. And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Ye shall certainly drink. Therefore prophecy thou against them all these words, and say unto them, The Lord shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar upon his ha

* Isaiah xiii. 9.

bitation; he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the Lord hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth; and the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from the one end of the earth, even unto the other end of the earth; they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground. Howl ye shepherds, and cry, and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal of the flock, for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersion are accomplished, and ye shall fall like a pleasant vessel."*

"Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles, Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men-of-war draw near, let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves and come all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about; thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord. Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat, for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe; come get you down, for the press is full, the fats overflow, for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision, for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon

Jer. xxv. 15.

shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake, but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel."*

All these prophecies refer to the fulfilling of the times of the Gentiles,―a period which has either already arrived, or is just at the door. At that period the rightful owner of the world is coming to claim it, the Lord's anointed is coming,-He has been absent, having gone to a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return-and now is the time of his return-and now will he take account of his servants, and will say of his enemies who would not have him to reign over them, bring them hither and slay them before me. He will take account of his servants-those to whom he had committed the charge of his house and of his cause, during his absence—the stewards of his mysteries, he will reckon with them. At his first coming those stewards were the very men who rejected him. They were the builders who set at nought the true corner-stone. They were the husbandmen who cast the heir out of the vineyard, and slew him.

Let our pastors take this history as a voice saying, "Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat ;” for assuredly his chief effort will be against them, that through them he may delude the people. Let them remember that the history of Jerusalem is the prophetic history of the Gentile church. Let them read the history of the chief priests and the

* Joel iii. 9.

scribes, as the history of a work which Satan desires to accomplish in them. And may the Lord now give them, at this awful crisis, hearts according to his own heart, that they may deliver their own souls, and the souls of their people in the day of recompence. May he put into their hearts a holy love for souls and a holy jealousy for his great name, that they may indeed travail in birth for souls, and blow the trumpet in Zion; and that they may be like Ezekiel," signs of sighing," warning the people of "the tidings, for it cometh,” and that they may weep between the temple and the altar, and say, spare thy people, O Lord. "Who knoweth if he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him?" The command left to them, and to all, was, 66 watch, for ye know not when the master cometh, lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping." God is even now looking for intercessors, for it is written, "He wondered that there was no intercessor," and he thus reproaches the foolish prophets, "ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge, for the house of Israel, to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord."

This is the dark cloud which is even now hanging over the world. And now is the time, the set time, for the pouring out of the Spirit on all flesh, and the sealing of the servants of God. Now is the time for prayer, and for humiliation, and for witnessing. On the other side of the cloud is the glorious kingdom. But the cloud must be passed through-and the cloud is to be a time of darkness, and desolation, and woe, such as never was upon the earth. It is the treading of the wine-press of the wrath and fierceness of Almighty God. It might be expected that the signs, and the forebodings, and the warning voices, would prepare

the world for the event, but it is not to be so. It is to come as a snare on all the inhabitants of the earth, except the children of the kingdom. "As it was in the days of Noah, so it shall be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day, when the Son of man is revealed."

Are

Are

Are you

Reader, are you prepared for these things? you on the Lord's side? Are you born again? you watching for the return of your Lord? of those who will cry to the mountains to cover them -or of those who will lift up their heads with joy, knowing that the time of their redemption is come? Don't let these questions be unanswered now, very soon they must be answered, at the bar of Jesus.

Yes, brethren-the signs of the times are running out, and the day of the Lord is at hand. And there probably never was a period, when there was a more decided unpreparedness for it. In the times of intellectual darkness, man's rebellion takes the form of superstition and idolatry-in the times of intellectual light, it takes the forms of atheism, which is the more daring sin. And that is the character of our period and of our religion. Even of our religion, I say, although in saying it, I may seem to speak an absurdity. Men have always imagined false things concerning God. But we find that in the earlier ages and amongst uncivilized men, there has always been a more real recognition of a personal power in God-a present, acting, controlling, personal power. Their doctrines were lies, and therefore had a poisonous influence, but still there was a sense and recognition of an unseen