Their frontiers are ha

ing into confusion and decay. rassed by the Kirghis and Kokanzis, the city of Yarkena has thrown off their yoke, and a Chinese army that was despatched with incredible labour through the passes of the Thian Shan to reduce it to obedience has, we are informed, been repulsed from its walls, and forced to retreat with immense loss. In the mean time the country around Lakes Balkash and Issik-kool has been taken possession of by Russia, and a flotilla of steamers launched upon their waters; the Boginges and other tribes of trans-Siberia, heretofore subject to the Emperor of China, have acknowledged the sovereignty of the White Tsar, and the newly acquired territory has been secured by the erection of the two fortresses of Kopal and Viravy, which are garrisoned by strong bodies of troops and form the nucleus of a whole cluster of small Russian colonies. In this manner the Russian outposts have gradually advanced to the ridges of the Thian Shan, whence they look down upon the fruitful oases of Scosson. If China could be induced to relinquish her claim upon territories that are already escaping from her grasp, and to retire beyond the desert of Gobi, which would form an insurmountable barrier between the two empires, it would be no difficult matter to establish the suzeraineté of Russia over Chinese Tartary in the same way it has been done in Kokand and Khiva, and thus extend her frontier, or at least her influence, as far as Thibet and the Himalayas."

The Northern, Autocrat will lay his hand on Turkey, Persia, Libya, and Egypt, but his entrance into Palestine is the signal of his overwhelming ruin. The northern hail of the seventh vial sweeps over the sunny East desolating and unchecked, but when it falls on the Holy Land it melts and disappears.

THE SOUTH.

The King of the South is probably the French Imperial Head, whose present power is gigantic. His

shadow seems to be on every cabinet and capital. He is disliked and feared-denounced and dreaded. The disquiet of Europe has its centre and its source in Paris. He may be misinterpreted. But there must be somewhere apparent no small risk of mischief from this quarter when we find the Premier of our country, with all his sense of responsibility, plainly declaring his reasons for laying out large sums on fortifications to be the attitude and armaments of France. I do not believe, with the author of " Armageddon," or with Faber, that Napoleon is the eighth and last imperial head; or, with others, that he is the Antichrist of the last days. But it does seem plain that he is inaugurating the "Great Tribulation," and is destined to inflict or bequeath no common complications on the European ten kingdoms.

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It can surely have been no imaginary or fanciful condition of affairs that forced the Prime Minister of England to express himself as he did in relation to France, and to demand 9,000,000l. to be expended in fortifying the country. His lordship said: "It was impossible for any one to cast his eyes over the face of Europe, and see and hear what is passing, and not be convinced that the future is not free from danger. It is difficult to say where the storm may burst, but the horizon is charged with clouds which betoken the possibility of a tempest." What used to be denounced as the visionary dreams of prophets is now turning out the solemn facts of the age, the calm statements of men who have "understanding of the times."

REDEMPTION DRAWETH NIGH.

LECTURE I.

WHERE IS THE PROMISE OF HIS COMING?

THE nearer the day of the Lord the more frequent and bitter the opposition of the scoffer. It is a pity it should be so. The prospect, however, is glorious-its certainty is beyond dispute-its advent approaches every day.

"This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: knowing this first, that there shall come in the last day scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation."-2 PETER iii. 1-4.

I HAVE been lately turning my mind with some intensity to the leading thoughts embodied in the chapter of which I have given the opening prefatory verses. I intend to call attention-first of all to the words here prefixed, afterwards to these words, "For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: whereby the

B

world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished;" and next in contrast to this, "But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men ;" and then to the words, "But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." After these

the inspired apostle adds more comforting words: "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." But out of the smoke and embers we are taught to look for the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

The words on which I will dwell in this lecture are prefatory. They constitute the commencement of the apostle's reply to some who are predicted to appear in the last days of this present Christian economy, and to indulge in scoffing. The object of their scoff, or subject of their special contempt, is what is announced in the fourth verse, the promise of "his coming," and the dissolution of the world; and the ground on which they object to the possibility of a change is what they think the highly philosophical one, but though highly philosophical no less grossly wrong-"All things continue exactly as they were;" therefore, argue these sciolists, all things will continue as they are for ever and ever. The apostle seeks to deepen the impression which he has made in his previous Epistle, and to prepare those who have read the first to enter into the higher and sublimer truths which he seeks to teach in the second. It is perfectly plain that he desires to convey to their minds no ordinary theme, and to impress upon their hearts no common and every-day lesson; for he says it is necessary to stir up

of remem

their minds, and to stir them up also "by way brance." In such words we are taught a most precious lesson, that great truths need to be reiterated, reimpressed, and retaught. The eloquent and excellent Dr. Chalmers was asked to what he attributed the great suc cess of his preaching. His answer was, "To repetition." His way was to hammer one truth upon the people's hearts, and memories, and intellects, and never leave off till he was thoroughly satisfied he had convinced, or converted, or impressed them. The apostle says here, he would try to stir up their pure minds by way of remembrance. But to stir up their minds respecting a truth implies that they were believers,-though fainting, and cold, and languishing believers. We do not stir up cold ashes, we let them alone; we stir up embers in which a few sparks remain that may be fanned into a flame, and give warmth to those that sit around them. Christians do not need lighting, they only need stirring; sickly they may be,-but dead, if Christians, they never can be. Therefore the great function the apostle here calls upon us to fulfil, is to stir up those that know, but too faintly feel, those magnificent verities which he is going to teach in this chapter; and which are calculated to wean from the excessive love of the world that now is, and to win to the more enthusiastic love of those grander and more glorious things that are to evolve in the future. First of all, then, he calls upon them to be mindful of the words which were spoken by the holy prophets, and as he adds, the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. If so the Old Testament is inspired; for here is a New Testament writer, inspired by the Spirit of God, bearing witness to the authority of the Old Testament writers, the holy prophets. This is only in harmony with another Divine testimony: "Holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." ancient prophets were simply the registers of communicated truth, the amanuenses of the Holy Ghost, whose words have not been left to drift along the ages on the currents of tradition, and to coalesce with all that is co

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