under our feet, shortly, and to come in his kingdom quickly, and to rule over all nations, living and dead, for his everlasting inheritance. "I will praise thee with my whole heart; before the Gods will I sing praise unto thee; I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy loving kindness, and FOR THY TRUTH; for thou hast magnified THY WORD, above all, thy name." (Ps. 138: 1, 2.)

This is his word, first preached, uttered with carnestness, and repeated with care, and persisted in to the end of the Gospel : "The kingdom of heaven is come nigh unto you; the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Therefore, is it come? Then the word "at hand" is not true. But is it come since this word was first spoken? Then it came before the word was written; and its epoch should be noted in the record, that men might know its era. But it has not come; for thus saith the Lord: It is at hand; it is drawing near: and, therefore, he taught us to pray: "Thy kingdom come;" which would be a delusive word in our mouths, if the kingdom had already come. It has not come; because Satan's kingdom is not destroyed nor ended, nor is the curse yet removed from off the earth; and the gospel is our glad tidings, that these things will shortly be done.

"Amen! the covenant is secure,.

"In all things ordered well and sure;,
"The promises confirmed remain,

"In Christ they're yea, in him Amen!"

Dutch Reformed.

There is a baneful tendency of the learned, to forsake the plain letter of divine Revelation, in eager pursuit of its spirit. This is in some degree wrought by the natural love of system in the enlightened mind, which meets with exceeding great obstacles to perfection in any scheme of divinity, keeping in steady view the literal sense of the scripture page. It is next to impossible to cut and square and shape the

letter, so as perfectly to accord with any system of school theology and, therefore, in order to make the word manageable, men are compelled to fly occasionally quite away from the form of words, for the sake of the etherial spirit. Then, having quit the letter, they easily complete their system, whether it is confusion or not; for any supposed deficiency in the etherial form is naturally supplied out of a fruitful fancy.

Then men can have a temporal millennium in this present evil world, before the great day of the Lord, in which state of carnal felicity, will be united much of the heavenly glory. Endless difficulties exist in the theory, but none in the happy state; for Satan is to be confined, Antichrist to be cut off, the heathen converted, the Jews restored, and the world made ten fold more captivating than ever, while yet the gospel is to be preached; and all men are to be under the influence of its laws. A large class of texts will be of no more use in that day, than the Mosaic ritual is to us. They will serve, however, to show posterity some of their father's trials: such as, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you." "Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil: for we wrestle not against flesh and blood; but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." (Eph. 6: 11.) Seek first the kingdom of heaven; press into it; strive to enter in at the straight gate, for many I say unto you shall seek to enter in and shall not be able. For straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there be that find it; while broad is the way and wide is the gate that leads to death, and many there be that go in thereat. "Through much tribulation we enter into the kingdom," ever since Paul's day: but in the day that is expected, tribulation is to cease. A host of difficulties arise out of the scriptures against this wily scheme; but when once men are

quit of the hard letter, and fast hold of the airy theory, they easily mount over all obstacles, on the Pegasus of fancy, seated firmly and gracefully in the saddle of a figurative interpretation. It is sweet thus to soar away from earth, and to abide with angelic spirits, and to taste their spiritualmeat, and to quaff at the perennial fountains of the airy realm. One comes back from such a heavenly flight, to the rugged and indomitable letter of the word, with the feeling of sore disappointment that comes over the mind of him, who wakes out of a placid dream of social delight around the family hearth, and finds himself a prisoner still in a heathen land. Oh, what a pang is in his heart; what a burden are his chains! He would dream again; and in the fatuity of his mind he would dream always. But dreaming is fatal to his hopes. He will never see the land of his birth, while he indulges this spirit; no, never gladden his heart with the embrace of his father, and with the kiss of his brother; never see the face of his own native land, and hear the welcome shout of his friends at the return of the captive, at the coming of the ransomed, from the prison of the strong man, armed in the pagan country. To eat opium and dream, to drink wine and forget himself, will not regain him his inestimable liberty. He must toil for it. Though an angel unloose his fetters, and open the prison doors, and set him free, he has many a rugged mile to walk, many a difficult mountain to climb, many a fearful river to cross, many a foe to meet, and either to avoid or to subdue, before he can sing the jubilee of freedom, in the bosom of his family, with his anxious father, and his brethren that would have died to rescue him. The good Lord keep him from the intoxicating cup of dreamy pleasure, keep him amidst all the dangers of the way through the enemy's country, and bring him with joy and gladness to the embrace of his father and of his kindred in the land of his birth.

So with him who leaves the letter of prophecy and delights in the spirit, in the figurative sense, in the metaphorical

meaning, in the philosophical interpretation: he will hardly reach the heavenly city. He may delight himself and others, but he will not much profit either. He may discover wonders, he may see heavenly beauties, he may discourse of unutterable glories, but all must of necessity be, like his rule of interpretation, figurative and unprofitable, without any substantial benefit to the life, or lasting consolation to the soul.

To my own mind, the spiritual meaning of the literal word is in the word so combined, as to be essential to the soul's nourishment, and safe, and grateful, and salutary; but, if any one undertake to extract it, by putting the literal prophecy into the alembic; and, after due heat and proper treatment of alchymy applied, casts out the letter as refuse, and drinks the distillation for his daily delight; he is no less certain to come to a miserable and painful end, than the wretched man, who thinks to live, not by the bread of the wheat, but by the decoction of the worm of the still. Let every one beware of intoxicating spirits, lest he come before God with strange fire, and be consumed of Him; as it befell Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, in the tabernacle of the Lord. For myself, I make the letter of the word my daily bread, without the shadow of a doubt that it is all good, and well prepared for the soul, as the Lord has given it. I neither turn, nor scruple its value, or weight or measure; and I find it, in this way, meat indeed, and I also find in it a spirit which is drink indeed, without any intoxication, or unwholesome excitement.

I have now set forth the word which in these last days God hath spoken to us by his Son; how in all the gospel he urges men every where to repent, for the kingdom of Messiah is at hand: and I have explained the strict propriety of the use of this word "at hand," though it cover a period of centuries to come, for it is connected with eternal things, and by that connection receives in common use an illimitable

extent of meaning. And I have humbly maintained the honor of God's word, as I would the word of honor of a righteous man, my friend, whose faithfulness I might defend, though with very inadequate powers: and I insist that his holy word of promise should be taken, as the word of an honorable man, in the simplicity of the letter, and in the plainest sense. In this honest view, the rainbow in the East is not more distinctly portrayed on the dark clouds of a past shower, than the Son of Man coming in his kingdom is, on the sunny page of Scripture, portrayed at hand and his near coming with clouds is drawn in colors so vivid, strong, and glorious; so mingled in splendor, and in beauty various, that, as the reflected bow of heavenly promise in the skies, Scripture does, in a reflected sense, speak of the kingdom as among us, in the heart of flesh; and poor, dim-sighted mortals, have been led to mistake the beautiful, but reflected bow, which has no foundations, for that splendid arch of promise, which spans in beauty the whole heavens, and rests its broad pillars of glorious light on the solid earth.

Such is the token of the covenant, which Jehovah in the Scriptures has made with man, that the seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent under his feet shortly, and shall come quickly to make all things new in the resurrection of the dead, and the promised kingdom of heaven.