nations of the earth shall yield to the sceptre of Immanuel. Deluded pagans shall dethrone their deities, break down their altars, abolish their corrupt and cruel ceremonies, and reduce their temples to ashes, or dedicate them to the only true God. The disciples of the false prophet shall trample on the deceptive fables of the Koran. The Jew, overpowered with the evidence of christian truth, shall gaze with devout mournfulness on him whom he hath pierced, and hail the glorified Nazarene as the promised Messiah. The papist, roused from his dreams, shall give his fantastic vestments, his images, and pictures, and relics, and shrines, and religious orders, to the wind. The infidel shall relent, and drop a penitential tear over his unhallowed speculations, and yield with humble joy to the authority of the Scriptures. And all lands, and tongues, and people, shall unite in acknowledging him, "whose right it is to reign." Then there, shall be one fold under one Shepherd, one kingdom under one gracious and omnipotent Sovereign.

At what period this kingdom, or universal reign, will commence, has long been a subject of anxious inquiry. This, indeed, is not a question of the first importance; nevertheless, it may be prompted by motives so far removed from vain curiosity, as to render an humble

endeavour to ascertain the point highly commendable; especially as the prophetic parts of Scripture, by numerous, though to us rather indistinct, notices, seem to invite us to the investigation.

For several ages past, many persons, eminent for learning and acuteness, have applied themselves with great diligence to the examination of this subject, and in some instances have evinced no small ingenuity in the theories which they have presented to the world. It is not my intention to hazard any fresh conjecture on so difficult a point, but merely to state, as briefly as possible, those opinions on it which have on their side the greatest share of probability.

The Prophet Daniel, in his interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, has the following words:" In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed." This passage alludes primarily to the commencement of the Messiah's kingdom at the time in which the Roman empire was in the zenith of its glory. As the governments referred to did not all exist at the same period, but succeeded each other, according to the order of those materials of which the image in the vision was composed, the kingdom of the God of heaven must have been set up while the last of them was in being.

Each of the former empires was then extinct; but that of Rome, by maintaining the same system of universal monarchy which had distinguished them, included all their essential properties; hence they are all represented as existing at one time, in the complete form of the image; and as being broken to pieces by the stone cut out of the mountain. By this act of demolishing the image, we may understand the utter extinction of universal sovereignty, so far as it relates to earthly rulers, and the exercise of that high prerogative by the Messiah, who will reign for the most glorious and beneficent purposes over all the nations of the earth.

It would be improper, however, to limit this prediction to the period in which Christianity first made its appearance in the world, since it seems to relate chiefly to events which have not yet transpired. The vision of Nebuchadnezzar comprehends the outlines of Asiatic and European history, from the commencement of the Babylonian empire to the end of time. The universal monarchies, as we have just observed, ended with Rome; but that empire, at its decline, was divided into ten kingdoms, as represented by the clay toes of the mystic image. Now these kingdoms were not in existence at the commencement of the christian

dispensation; consequently, the entire demolition of the image, or, in other words, the subjugation of those powers which were represented by it, to the authority of Christ, must refer to a period subsequent to the establishment of Christianity; and, as "the remains" of those kingdoms are still in being, and are still, for the most part, opposed to pure religion, we may conclude, that the æra of their great change, and of the utmost extent of the Messiah's reign, has not yet arrived.

The conjectures of the learned on this subject are chiefly regulated by the one thousand, two hundred, and sixty days, said to be occupied by the prophesying of the witnesses, and the agreement of this period with that in which the church abode in the wilderness; with that also in which antichrist will maintain its direful authority; namely, "A time, and times, and the dividing of time," or three years and a half, according to Daniel; and forty-two months according to St. John. These prophetic days, times, and months, perfectly coincide, and express precisely the same number of years, (viz. one thousand, two hundred, and sixty,) which, agreeably to the general strain of prophecy, comprehends the whole duration of the papal dominion. The great difficulty, with respect to the termination of this period, lies in fixing

on the exact year from which it is to be reckoned.

Some authors begin their calculation from A. D. 606, when the pope became a universal bishop; others, from A. D. 756, when he united in himself the civil and ecclesiastical authorities. If the duration of the papacy is to be reckoned from the former of these dates, it will terminate in the year 1866; if from the latter, in 2016. But, according to another mode of computation, (making each year to consist of three hundred and sixty days,) that great event will take place, if either of the above dates be correct, in the year 1848, or in 1998. Since, however, opinions on this subject are so various, (for many others might be adduced,) it would savour of rashness to pronounce decidedly in favour of any one of them; especially, when it is recollected, that many writers of past ages fixed the period much earlier even than the present day, and that the most learned and diligent inquirers of our own time have spoken of it with great modesty and hesitation.

This desirable event, whenever it shall arrive, will be an undoubted signal for the triumph of truth, and the commencement of Immanuel's universal dominion; for the author of the Apocalypse, after describing the exultation of heaven over the fallen power of antichrist, intro