In the progress of talents thus directed, would to God that religion had only to weep over their useless employment! but it has had to sustain their wanton and determined attacks. From the boldness of infidelity, that would dispute the authority of the holy writings, to the cavils of sophistry that would weaken their sanctions, every thing has been attempted that the vigour or acuteness of the human mind could atchieve; and Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever, has been stigmatized as an impostor, ridiculed as an enthusiast, denied the evidence of miracles, and robbed of every ornament and of every pre-eminence of character.

It seems, indeed, to have been reserved for this enlightened age to oppose with more decided malignity the revelation of Jesus Christ; with an awful warning to the wisdom of this world, we have seen men plunge from doubts, which questioned the validity of God's word, to the madness of impiety that denies his existence. But the judgments which have followed, and the crimes and horrors which now desolate the earth, bring the most indisputable

marks of the hand that directs the moral like the natural hurricane to its ordained purpose; of the hand of Him who is pledged to maintain the cause of righteousness, who has ever avenged his violated laws, and who, to punish and correct mankind, is now making an apostate world the engine of its own destruction.

To the maturing scheme of prophecy preordained and foretold by the faithful witness, the christian looks with confidence, but rests in hope. Waiting, like the patriarch, for the fullness of consummation and the promised rest, he may mistake the increasing light for the brightness of the perfect day; yet in its progress onwards, as it must shine with clearer lustre, he will follow it as a guide amidst the darkness of events, and as the day-star that is to lead him to the God of his salvation. Whatever seal may now be opened, whatever vial of wrath may now be pouring forth, he will not rashly decide; but directed by the word of Him who was, and is, and is to come, he will discover in the signs of the times something like the approach. of that dreadful period, when the measure of iniquity is to be full, and when the Son of

Man at his second advent shall hardly find faith upon the earth. He may, perhaps, so far presume to remove the veil that hangs between him and futurity, as to disclose, under the symbol of the beast that was to ascend out of the bottomless pit, the spirit of antichrist under its last terrific form; that was not only to speak as a dragon, to change times and laws, to have its mouth full of cursing and bitterness, and its feet swift to shed blood, but was to trample under foot the two witnesses of Jesus, to insult their memories, and to rejoice in their destruction. Whether or not this part of the prophetic vision be now realised, and a tyrannical and ferocious government be allowed to identify the features of the hideous monster;-whether or not a rejection of the Old and New Testament, (the witnesses of Jesus) a change of times and ordinances, and the senseless admiration of deluded nations, be admitted as an interpretation of the symbolic language, and explain the apostolic picture of all men wondering after the beast, and worshipping his power;-certain it is, that new scenes are unfolding themselves in the great system of Providence, and that they are acting

upon the theatre of man's redemption. Certain it is, that He who is the way, and the truth, and the life, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever, is hastening to its accomplishment that promised period, when the seed of the woman shall finally bruise the serpent's head, and all the kingdoms of the earth shall become the kingdom of our Christ.

From corruptions which polluted, and from superstition which disgraced, the altars of religion, from the purgatory of priestcraft, and from the intercession of saints, it was natural for the reflecting mind to revolt; and the pointed ridicule that exposed, as well as the serious argu ment that refuted, found admirers and patrons among all who felt for the dignity of God's sanctuary, and for the simplicity of his holy worship. But a confutation of error which alone engaged the hearts and thoughts of the wise and good, soon became a mischievous weapon against the truth in the hands of the infidel and profligate. The removal of prejudices masked their hostility to all belief, the defects of one part of Christ's church disguised their plan of compleating its total destruction, and

under the pretence of purifying the stream of Christianity, they were in reality employed in efforts to cut off its source, and dry up the fountain head.

Wise in their generation, they knew that the instrument must be fitted to its work; that man's social duties were interwoven in his very nature; and that to overturn and to destroy, would not be effected by a momentary delirium, or through a series of unconnected acts. They knew, that human reason must first shake off all dependance upon religion, and human weakness be deprived of its support and consolation; and then, as it has too fatally proved, the rampart opposed to his passions being broken down, that man would be ready to enter at the breach, with a ferocity suited to his frightful transformation.

What might have been matter of opinion, is in these our days confirmed by facts. A systematic conspiracy against the religion of Christ, subtle in its operations, and determined in its object, has been unfolded to us with all its horrid testimony. And when we behold a ci

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