such topics, the impression uppermost in my mind-an impression gathered from prophecythat Russia will not be finally, if now temporarily, beaten back within her own limits. She will yet wickedly but surely sweep Continental Europe, and be crushed in Judea. In all probability the autocrat is the battle-axe, as Cyrus of old-not less guilty on that account-in the hand of God, for punishing, if not destroying, the "Beast" and the "False Prophet,” and for hastening on the exhaustion of Mahometanism, or drying up of the great river Euphrates; and judging from the prophetic intimations of Scripture, to which I have more than once turned your attention on previous occasions, my strong conviction is, that sooner or later that formidable power from the east and the north, symbolised by the great northern hail, that is to light upon the nations and upon Antichrist, during the last or seventh vial, will close its career where the reasons of that career at first originated,—and its very existence also-by the shrines of Jerusalem, or in the land of Palestine. Russia, according to prophecy, is not only condemned. in her present career, but is to be signally and terribly punished for it. It is no discouragement to a single soldier to hear that the Autocrat will

yet cleave his way to Palestine. It is no justification to the Czar. God predicts what He does not approve. We are to do our duty, and not attempt to fulfil prophecy. Russia is wrong—her career is wrong-her ruin is certain. Our cause is right-our course is right, and victory is sure. We pray for it, and we war for it. God and our consciences acquit us.

approves,

But that the war on which we are now entering is no ordinary one, we may learn from the impressions felt respecting it in every quarter to which we look for information, for guidance, and for a just estimate. If not the beginning of the last war, as I believe it to be, it is a war unprecedented in its nature, and in all probability of no ordinary duration. This is what men, most competent to pronounce upon the subject, almost universally believe. It is a predicted war," not "battle." Some commentators on prophecy have fallen into a mistake in interpreting the 14th verse of the 16th chapter of Revelation, where we read, “They are the spirits of devils working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them "—that is, the whole world, the people of the whole world-" to the battle of that great day of God Almighty;

and he gathered them together into a place, called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon."

Most commentators have assumed that there is to be one great battle fought on the eve of the last day, that decides at a blow the destinies, the hopes, and prospects of Christendom. Now, the word "battle" is not the right translation here. The Greek word, if it had been battle, would have been payn, which means "a battle;" but the word employed by the sacred penman here is Tóλepov, which denotes continuous war, as the "ten years' war." So that this conflict is not to be a battle waged and settled in a day, but a conflict, a warfare, a struggle that may last for years, the commencement of which we have seen, but the last boom of whose cannon none here may possibly be spared to hear.

That this is no ordinary warfare appears, as I have said, not only from the impressions formed of it by those who are competent to judge, but also from looking at the preparations long made for it. I have been told by both soldiers and sailors, that the new and terrible engines that are now brought into the field, the dread apparatus stored between decks, the tremendous energies, the vastly altered and

improved weapons that are now placed in the soldier's hand, are such that the coming warfare must be, seen from every point, a terrific one. During the last forty years, in which we have enjoyed peace so long, and it may be so undeservedly-it seems as if all our schools, and our colleges, and our scientific men, had been mustering their resources to make preparation for a warfare unprecedented in its scope, and unparalleled in the powers and the resources which will be brought into action. The inspection of that fleet that has gone to the Baltic, which many had the pleasure of seeing at a gala holiday at Spithead, is proof that no ordinary preparation is made; and on speaking to the officers on board of the Duke of Wellington, they said-when they were not expecting war,—that, come war when it may please God to permit it, there will never have been a war like it in the whole history of the world before. It will be carried on by such skill, and with such resources, that even the hearts of brave sailors and soldiers fail as they look forward to it.

We may turn to another and a very intelligent source of information, the newspaper press of this country. I have often made the remark,

which I think is most just, that one of the best commentators upon prophecy is a daily newspaper; and that if you want to see prophecy in the process of translation into history-if you want to see men that probably have never studied the Book of Revelation, that certainly have no theory to uphold, acting as the amanuenses, and unintentionally recording the fulfilment of a prediction—just take up one of the daily newspapers. I read a newspaper now as I never read it before. It has a providential mission; it is the record of prophecy fulfilling, of Providence coming forth into the earth, and audibly proclaiming, "It is done."

I may here mention a remarkable proof of the drying up of the Euphrates, which appeared in the "Times about a month ago. Their correspondent says, the Sheik-ul-Islam was deposed, or had resigned his office; that all the property of the mosques was now confiscated to the state; that Mahometanism, in fact, has given up almost its last surviving peculiarity; and that the Turks themselves were saying, "We must now leave Europe, where we have been encamped." Recollect, their original invasion from the banks of the Euphrates-from Bagdad on the Euphrates-was a military one;