and territory of the empire of the Moslems. The process in our own day is still going on with signal and uninterrupted rapidity. Scarcely an arrival from an European port but brings the intelligence of another and a farther stage in her irretrievably downward career. Whether it be by the ravages of the cholera or the plague, of fire or tornadoes, of foreign invasion or internal revolt, the work of ruin is still advancing. Hosts of evil angels seem leagued together for its overthrow. Every succeeding report is a report of disasters, proclaiming the waning glories of the Crescent, and tolling afresh the knell of the dynasty of the Ottomans. "The spider has wove his web in the imperial palace, and the owl hath sung her watch-song in the towers of Afrasiab."

CHAPTER VI.

CONCLUSION.

Correct Views of the Millennium attainable only from a right Interpretation of the Prophetic Symbols-Whatever Difficulties attend the Theory broached in the present Treatise, the common Doctrine embarrassed by equal or greaterSome of them stated-Hints respecting the predicted Conflagration of the Heavens and the Earth-True Character of the Prophetic Intimations of the future Prospects of the Church and the World.

THE foregoing pages have been devoted to the statement and confirmation of that view of the Apocalyptic Millennium which, and which only, we deem to be supported by a fair and unforced exegesis of the sacred text. This view, we are well aware, is widely at variance with the prevailing sentiments of the Christian world in relation to the grand period thus denominated. We have arrayed ourselves in opposition to the popular theory, which regards the Millennium as yet future, and in so doing are conscious of having incurred all that responsibility, not to say odium, which attaches to the attempt to assail and undermine a long-established and seldom-questioned opinion. But that we have not enlisted unadvisedly in the defence of the position which the reader will find advocated, however feebly, in the preceding chapters, we trust will be evident from the careful, candid, and plausible, if not conclusive, train

of investigation into which we have entered. It is hoped that the show of sound reasoning, sustained by philological and historical induction, will redeem the theory from the charge of wild extravagance, though it should fail to win an unwavering assent.

Of one thing, at least, we may venture to assure ourselves without hesitation; that is, that the genuine doctrine of the Millennium, if we have not succeeded in establishing it, must be determined, whenever it shall be done, by a method similar to that adopted in the present work. The import of the prophetic symbols must be definitively settled before a single step can be taken towards a satisfactory solution of the great problem. The notion of a future era of blessedness appointed in the benignity of the Divine counsels to dawn upon our world in the latter ages of its duration, is indeed one peculiarly congenial to the human mind, and in support of which many plausible reasons may be adduced from the general hints and intimations dispersed through the oracles of the prophets. And we doubt not that such an expectation receives the decided countenance of an enlightened reason, apart from the express assurances of Scripture. But as to the anticipation of a period so strictly defined and so characteristically marked as the Millennium of the Apocalypse, an intelligent anticipation needs to be based upon grounds less vague and equivocal. The precise meaning of the inspired annunciations must be understood. Faith, hope, and charity may combine to excite the sanguine expectation of a blissful state of the world, and an ardent fancy may be invoked to throw the hues of the

primitive paradise over the scene; when at the same time, if brought to the test of rigid exegesis, it may be nothing more than a brilliant illusion, destined to be ruthlessly dispelled by the onward course of time and Providence.

The present belongs to man, the future to God. As coming events are in themselves utterly veiled from human foresight, the prospects of the church and the world are matters of pure revelation. They can enter no farther into the scope of our limited vision than as the curtain of concealment is lifted from before them by the hand of inspiration. Now, although the predictions of holy writ are designed to acquaint us in great measure with the arcana of futurity, yet these predictions are delivered in a style dark and enigmatical, without the proper key to which they still remain enveloped in impenetrable obscurity. The language of symbols is the vehicle of prophecy. If we would explore the labyrinth, we must guide our footsteps by the only clew which will conduct us through its recesses. As it respects, then, the popular doctrine of a future Millennium, if we would not embrace a shadow for a substance, the very first question to be resolved is, What is the genuine import of the figurative and symbolical terms in which this period is announced, and by which it is described? Nothing that can properly be called knowledge is attainable on the subject without settling this matter in the outset. It is accordingly in this department of our inquiry that we have laid out the beginning of our strength;' and unless the truth and justice of our symbolical interpretations be first disproved,

we have little fear that our main position can be over thrown. Here then we intrench ourselves; behind this munition we take refuge from the missiles of prejudice, and the shafts of imputed heresy.

Now if it may be fairly assumed that we have, in our foregoing discussions, established the grand position, that the Millennium, strictly so called, is past, we beg leave to request, that no inferential or hypothetical difficulties arising from the apprehended relation of this to other doctrines of the Scriptures may be allowed to invalidate or vacate the above conclusion. It may perhaps be said that, as the resurrection of the dead, the day of judgment, the second coming of Christ, and the end of the world, are, at least, in the prevailing consent of Christians, intimately associated with the close of the Millennium, if that period be already past, inextricable confusion rests upon all the cognate doctrines now mentioned. The mass of the Christian world is, on this supposition, utterly thrown out of its reckonings, and is reduced to the condition of a vessel in midocean which has lost its charts, journals, and instruments, and which a clouded sky in addition prevents from taking any kind of celestial observation. Its course and bearings, therefore, its distances and dangers, are all matters of vague conjecture and fearful anxiety.

In answer to this, we have only to say, that we cannot see the justice of being held responsible for consequences having relation to other truths, provided our main point, the proof of which is conducted independently of all correlate tenets, is solidly and conclusively made out. It must be obvious to the reader that we