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Conclusion

IF the general views embodied in this work be well-founded, it cannot be said that they are unimportant, that it is of small moment, whether Christians be aware of them or no. If so great a catastrophe as the slaying of the witnesses be near, it cannot be a matter of in difference to be ignorant of it. To be saying peace and safety, when the last and most tremendous struggle between the Church and the world is at the doors, must have the most disastrous effects. Supposing the reader convinced by the reasonings I have employed, let me endeavour to point out in a few words some of the practical lessons which the subject in hand is fitted to teach.

I. It ought to arouse and quicken all the professing disciples of Christ. "Perilous times" are approaching, when seduction on hand, and power on the other, will be employed to make them fall from their stedfastness. Who are those who shall stand in the trying hour; and pass in safety through all the spiritual dangers that shall soon so thickly beset their path? None but those who in heart and soul are devoted to the Lord. "All that dwell upon the earth shall wonder after the beast that was and is not, and yet is, whose names were not written in the Book of Life, from before the foundation of the world." Now is the time then for men to be trying their foundation; to be making their calling and election sure; to be building themselves up on their most holy faith, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. A time of peace and tranquillity, with out the distracting influence of fear and anxiety, is the most favourable for this. This is clearly intimated in the Acts, where the period of peace is described which followed the conversion of Paul: "Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea, and Galilee, and Samaria, are edified; and walking in fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Ghost were multiplied." If nominal Christians halt between two opinions now; if they cannot attain to well-grounded peace with God, and settled assurance of his love in their present favourable circumstandes, what is it that henders? It is the love of sirs, or the love of the world. And if they cannot overcome the smaller temptations that beset them now, how will they overcome the greater? If they cannot sacrifice their own will, or their own worldly inclinations, when the sacrifice required is so slight, how will they be prepared for the sacrifice, when life itself play have to be surrendered for Christ's sake? Let the words of the prophet be pondered, "If thou hast run with the footmen and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if, in the land of peace wherein thou trustedst, they have wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?" No! Christ forewarns his church of coming danger, that before it come, his people May be quickened, that, knowing their own weakness, they may lay hold more firmly of his almighty strength, that they may take to themselves the whole armour of God that they may stand in the evil day, and having done all, that they may stand. Those who take the warning, shall come off more than conquerors. Those who think it time enough to prepare when the conflict comes, shall miserably fail, and, like the foolish virgins, find their lamps go out when most they stand in need of them.

2. The subject ought to excite every true christian to activity and zeal in promoting the cause of Christ. Now is the time for labour, for sowing broad-cast the good seed of the word over the field of the world. The door of entrance to idolatrous heathen and unbelieving Jews still stands open. As yet, the heralds of the cross may go forth to the ends of the earth, to make known the unsearchable riches of Christ. Yea, new doors have recently been thrown open, that had been hermetically sealed for centuries. What is the meaning of the late movement in favour of religious liberty on the continent? Doubtless it is so ordered by God; in his goodness, that the last blast of the silver trumpet may be heard through every street of the great city, that the elect may be gathered out of the doomed Babylon before her fall, that hearing, they may obey the heavenly voice, "Come out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of thier sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." The opportunities now enjoyed, are not likely to last long. It is infidelity, for its own ends, preaching universal toleration, that has, in the mean time, set open the door for the gospel in the popish countries of Europe. The toleration that springs from such a source is precarious, and little to be trusted. And even moonb the heathen, there is reason to fear that the liberty of Christ's faithful servants may soon be abridged. The "unclean spirits" that have gone, or are yet to go forth, "to the kings of the earth and the whole world" may prevail to shut many a door against them at present standing open. The conduct of the British government in aiding and abetting the persecution of Christianity at Nagpore, is full of evil opento the cause of evangelcal missions. While therefore, the door still stands open, let the friends of Christ zealously enter in. The night cometh. Whatsoever their hands find to do, let them do it with all their might. But if we ought to labour for the cause of Christ abroad, surely much more ought we to do so for his cause at home. In this point of view, the subject ought to come home to the heart especially of every Christian parent, and every christian minister. Can parents that love the Lord, and that love their children's souls, think of the prospect before them without the most solemnizing concern? These children are to grow up in a world, where the light of the gospel may be expected every day to grow more and more dim, and where error will appear in such plausible shapes as to deceive, if it were possible, the very elect. What labour their, what pains ought to be employed, In teaching them the good word of the Lord, in fortifying thier minds against the seductions of error, in commending them to God, and the word of his grace, that alone can keep them from falling and preserve tehm to his heavenly kingdom! How watchful, how circumspect ought they to be themselves, in all respects to walk before them according to the truth and simplicity of the gospel! The errors of parents are often reproduced with large and fatal additions in their children. Look at William Wilberforce. He was an eminent man, and doubtless a holy. But he had faults and imperfections; he leaned in some things too much to the acceticism of Rome. To remind him of things unseen and eternal, he wore a pebble in his shoe; and bad recourse to other means not sanctioned in Scripture. This might have seemed a trifling or insignificant thing; but it was not so to his family. His sons foucd it easier to copy their father's defects than to emulate his excellencies; and now the whole three of them are among the most zealous promoters of the movement, whose object it is to give a death-blow to the Protestantism of England. Can there be a doubt, that the pebble in the father's shoe had an essential connection with the Puseyism of the sons? And ought not a fact like this to speak loudly to Christian parents, not only to teach their children the truth with all diligence, but to take care, lest by their own example in countenanding any thing evil, or any thing unscriptural, they neutralize the effects of their own instruction. Let the ministers of Christ too arouse themselves to the greatness of the emergency. Let them feel called upon, more than ever, to be instant in season and out of season, to preach the word, to reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long suffering and doctrine. The time may come, and come soon, when they may seem to labour in vain, and spend their strength for nought, when the more faithful they arc, the less success may appear to attend them, when the people who now listen to them so devoutly may have itching ears, and will not endure sound doctrine. The plentiful rain that ten years ago descended so copiously at liilsytand Dundee, and many other parts of our land is plainly very much restrained. If there come not soon some season of refreshing, what can we expect but that positive declension may soon be apparent, and that the hearts of faithful ministers may be abundantly tried. But even should this be the case, should it discourage them, should it lead them to faint in the discharge of their liibh calling? No; success is no rule of duty. Let them remember Noah; he was an upright man; he walked with God. He faithfully delivered the message the Lord had given him. He warned the world of approaching wrath. But God's Spirit had ceased to strive. Not one soul was converted, so far as we know, except in his own family. But he did in no wise lose his reward. And the very faithfulness he displayed, though useless to the old world, has not been in vain. Who can tell tow many thousands in all generations since have had their souls strengthened, their faith enlivened, by contemplating the sublime example of that .holy man, who, when. all flesh was corrupting its way, in the face of the greatest discouragemcnts, with no token of success to cheer him, still stood forth as a witness for the Lord, and a "preacher of righteousness?" And should it be the will of God as apostacy spreads, that faithful ministers even in Scotland should have some share of alike trial, they have no reason to despond. Let them go forth, though in tears, bearing precious seed, acid though no sooner, yet in the resurrection of the just, they shall doubtless come again arid their sheaves with their. Their labour shall not be iii vain in the Lord. The seed they sow will not be lost. It may be like the winter wheat; it amy be buried for a time under the snows of persecution; but when the winter is past, the very seed that may have been sown in apparently the most ungenial soils, it may spring up and "shake with prosperous fruit like Lebanon," may be the means of preparing for the season when, God's judgments being manifest, the remnant of the tenth part of the city who escape them "shall give glory to the God of heaven."

3. Lastly, The fiery trial itself, in the circumstandes attending it, to which the people of God are yet to be called, is full of the most heart-cheering encouragement to all who have grace to be faithful. Not only do we know in general, that those who suffer for Christ shall also reign with him; and that as their day is so shall their strength be; but the great Head of the Church has encircled this dark hour with a glory peculiarly its own. In Rev. 14 we read first of the reaping of the harvest, arid then of the gathering in of the vintage. According to the views at present most generally prevalent, the former is supposed to refer to the judgment upon the apostate empire, the latter to the wrath poured out on the apostate church; the one being thought to take place at the distande of many ycars from the other. But for such an opinion there is not the least foundation. We have seen already that both the Roman empire and the Roman Church are simultaneously involved in the same ruin.

The apostate empire is to the apostate church, what the body is to the soul,---the instrument of its sin; and therefore "both" under the symbols of the beast and the false prophet, are represented as together "cast into the lake of fire and brimstone". But why should the reaping of the harvest be thought to signify the inflicting of judgment upon the enemies of God? The harvest is the usual symbol for the gathering in of souls into the kingdom of God. "The harvest truly is plenteous; but the labourers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into his harvest." In this case, the harvest is gathered in by conversion into the church on earth. In the case before us, it is the gathering 1n of souls into the general assembly and church of the first-born in heaven; for the instrument of ingathering is a "sharp sickle" in the hand of Christ, who hath the keys of hell and of death, who openeth, and no man shutteth, and who shutteth and no man openeth. Rev. xiv. 14. "I looked," says John, "and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand: a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle and reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped:" Now what can this reaping of the harvest of the earth, this gathering in of saints into the garner of God, by the "sharp sickle" of death, immediately before the treading of the wine press of Jehovah's wrath, be, but just that very slaying of the witnesses, which has already occupied so much of our attention? To the eyes of the flesh, this might seen, a dark and most gloomy dispensation. But observe what is contained in the verse immediately preceding those I have quoted, and it will be seen, that light shines into the midst of the darkness from the excellent glory; verse 13. "I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord FROM HENCEFORTH." In all ages, blessed have been the people who have died in the Lord, who have fallen asleep in Jesus. But now, when the last persecution begins, When the malice of earth and hell rages with exterminating fury against the saints, whenthe furnace is heated one seven times more than ever it was, then from that time forward does a sevenfold blessedness fill the souls of the martyrs; the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon; them in all the amplitude of his heavenly comfort; the Son of God walks familiar with them in the very midst of the furnace.

With such hopes, with such prospects, even in the time of trial, and a crown of glory everlasting beyond it, who would not rather choose affliction with the people of God, than the pleasures of sin, which are but for a season. Let not the weakest believer be dismayed at the thought of the great tribulation that is approaching. Let him look up to the bright cloud, and the Son of man who sits upon it, and his fears will vanish. "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me on my throne, even as I also overcame, and any set down with my Father on his throne."

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