and death to the other, was during that age. And now for further proof that the Romans were the angels, or messengers, who were to destroy Christ's enemies, the Jews, see 2 Thess. 1: 7, 8, "And it to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." See, also, Matt. 22: 7, "But when the king heard thereof he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city." It is clear that these passages allude to the destruction of the Jews and their city, by the Romans. They were the messengers of God's wrath, to administer a just retribution to that untoward generation. A close observer of the Bible is aware that the term angel signifies not only good, but evil messengers; or those who execute both good and evil. The word angel is not only applied to human beings, but even to inanimate objects; as in the case of Paul, when he says "There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger (aggelos) of satan to buffet me," 2 Cor, 12: 7. They are also sometimes called holy, not because they are se of themselves, but because they execute God's holy commands. See remarks on angels, in this work.

The same time and end is expressed in Matt. 24: 3, where we are informed that the disciples asked the Saviour what should be the sign of his coming, and of the conclusion of the age (sunteleias tou aionos). He speaks of the end of that age, in verses 6, 13, 14, of the same chapter; and, after pointing them to such signs as would infallibly enable them to discern its approach, he adds, verse 34, "Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled." On the strength of this testimony -plain, clear, and incontrovertible we say that the "harvest" took place at the conclusion of the Mosaic age; and we further state that there is not an instance in the New Testament in which the Greek phrase, rendered "end of the world," as in the passage on which we are remarking, has any other signification. It should never be forgotten that "the end of the world" (verses 39, 40), at which the harvest was to take place, was not the end of kosmos. the world, said to be the field, but the end of aion, the age, which signifies the conclusion of the Jewish state.

The apostle Paul plainly tells us when the end of the world

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aionon was. He says that it happened in his day. "Upon whom the ends of the ages (ta tete ton aionon) are come." 1 Cor. 10: 11. And Christ told his disciples, in Matt. 28: 20, that he would be with them alway," even unto the end of the aionos" (age). He was with them, by word and in spirit, until the full or complete end had come. And as Christianity may be said to have begun when the Jewish religion ended, so Christ is said to have appeared at the end of the Jewish age. Paul says, in Heb. 9: 26, “ But now once in the end of the world (sunteleia ton aionon) hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." Paul says, "Now once in the end of the world hath he appeared," &c. He here represents the appearance of Christ, and the end of the world, as having already taken place; though the final scene was not then closed. And as the plural is sometimes used, "the ends of the ages," it is evident that they included the period and end of the apostolic age of miracles with the conclusion of the Jewish age.

We have now seen that all which is said in the Bible of the end of the world transpired about eighteen hundred years since, and in exact accordance with the time predicted that it should take place. And, lo! even yet do we see people gazing after some dire omen in the heavens, as betokening the sudden ruin of nations, the crashing wreck of empires and kingdoms, in connection with the immediate conflagration of our terraqueous globe. Yea, how many, in this eventful year of our Lord 1843, are trembling, Belshazzar-like, at the most common freaks of nature; as though their last expiring breath was about to take its final leap, and their earthly portions, in common with all terrestrial matter, about to be consigned to one eternal night! Yes, are there not thousands, in these (ought to be) happy United States, whose minds (in consequence of one fanatic brain) are now being wrecked in chaos, on the dreadful thought of the immediate sound of the trumpet's blast, and their consignment to one eternal, lasting doom? Ought these things so to be? Christ said to his disciples, "Watch, therefore; for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come." But it was certain that he would come in their day, in that generation. And yet people are so palpably blind to daylight facts, that they either will not, or cannot, hear nor understand. Hundreds of years have passed away since the destined period, and yet some in every age are looking, watching, and expecting the sudden end of the universe.

There are other passages in the Bible, not connected with the phrase end of the world, which, by some, are supposed to teach the end of the material universe. Some of them we have referred to in rat our remarks on the judgment, and also on the phrase last days. But we will now present a few more passages, the first of which is in Rev. 6: 12—17. "And I beheld, when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair; and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind: and the heaven departed as a scroll, when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places; and the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bond man, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of the mountains: and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" This language is similar to that in the third chapter of 2 Peter, which we have already explained as relating in particular to the end of the aion, or the passing away of the Jewish heavens and earth. Now we, in the first place, make the inquiry, Is this language used in a literal or in a figurative sense? If we consider it literal, then we have the following conclusions: First, the earth must have been shaken, at least in some parts of it; for "there was a great earthquake." Second, the earth must have been deprived of light; for "the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood." And, in the third place, the earth must have accomplished the greatest miracle ever known; for "the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind." We can conceive the appearance of figs falling to or upon the earth, when furiously driven by the wind; but how to understand the furious beating of the mighty stars of heaven against the (comparatively) small earth, is more than we can conceive of. For it is a fact that the earth still kept her balance and motion. It is not said that the earth was destroyed, or that it departed. The mountains or islands were not destroyed, or removed from the earth; they were only moved out of their places; while the kings of the earth, with the

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many others, hid themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of the mountains, calling upon the same to hide them from the face of him that sat upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. It is said the heavens departed, but not the earth; she still stood, notwithstanding her burden of stars, and made a foothold for the four angels, which John soon after saw standing upon her four corners, holding the four winds, that they should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor any green tree. Another difficulty is to be considered. "The heaven departed as a scroll, when it is rolled together." And where was it? The previous verse tells us that the stars (which constitute the literal heavens) had fallen to the earth. Of course the conclusion must be this: all the mighty hosts of the starry heavens rolled together in one confused mass (having lost the power of gravitation), and, finally, lit upon the earth as a resting-place! This conclusion must, of itself, be perfectly ridiculous. Even one of the stars, on a common average, is much larger than the earth, which fact would literally render it impossible!

But, in viewing these passages, and all others of the like kind, in a figurative sense, we have no great difficulty in understanding them. We have before referred to the language of Joel, as quoted by Peter, and applied to the times in which he lived. See Acts 2: 16, 19, 20, "But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. .. I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke: the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come." Peter assures us that this language was fulfilled in his days; yet the earth, the sun and the moon, still remain. Isaiah uses the same language in describing the judgment about to fall upon Idumea. Isa. 34: 4, 5, "And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll; and all their hosts shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as the falling fig from the fig-tree. For sword shall be bathed in heaven; behold, it shall come down my upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment." The events here described have long since been numbered with the past; yet the heavens and the earth remain. In the text it is said, they called for the rocks and mountains to fall upon them, to hide them, &c. But Jesus uses the same language in allusion to the same horrors which should attend the destruction of Jerusalem.

Luke 23: 30, "Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us, and to the hills, Cover us." In Luke 21: 22, he says, "For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled." The great day of wrath, in the text, is answered by the days of vengeance, which fell upon the Jewish nation. It is not at all strange that either Christ or John should use such highly figurative language in the above descriptions; for, as we have seen, it was the style of the Eastern nations, in describing the revolutions in civil or ecclesiastical governments, to use bold and metaphorical expressions. Peter has made use of similar language in his second epistle, chap. 3: 7-13, which we have noticed in another place. David also tells us, "The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted." Whatever else David might, have meant by the melting of the earth, he could not have alluded to its literal destruction, for he represents it as already past. In Ps. 97: 5, he says, "The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord." In Joel 1: 19, 20, it is said, "O Lord, to thee will I cry for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field. The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness." See, also, Deut. 32: 22-25, "For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn to the lowest hell (sheol), and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains." That the above language is figurative, and equally as strong as any in the New Testament, will not be disputed.

There is also another class of texts, which may be supposed to imply the literal destruction of heaven and earth; some of which we will briefly notice. In Isa. 51: 6, it is-said, "Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished." Ps. 102: 25-27, "Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shall thou change them, and