And I the servants of our God in their foreheads. heard the number of them that were sealed; and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel. Rev. vii. 1-4. or universal war, is held back for a season, is, that the work of destruction may be suspended till the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads. Its period is therefore prior to that event, which itself takes precedence of others, before the seventh vial be poured out, and yet under the sixth it is said,-Behold I come quickly. It is one of the first precursors of the last and great catastrophe. Its immediate object is to stay a general or universal war, not in one country only, but in all. And is it not possible, that instead of looking for its coming, we may see it already, and hear its voice in every land, as Europe has been appalled by its ascent from the east,-marked before it came, and, though walking in darkness, tracked by destruction,-and Paris, which escaped unscathed by Cossacks, and many other cities as well as countries have been smitten by it,-till rumours of war have already been drowned by the voice of the war-suspending messenger, the pestilence,'' the new disease,'- the Asiatic cholera, the destroying angel,' or the angel of death,' as it has often been termed, which has ascended from the east. • Coming events cast their shadows before them.' If it yet shall prove, when the commissioned work is fully done, and the vision shall have spoken at the end, that such is the significancy of the symbol, a farther illustration may then be given, as has frequently heretofore been manifest, that the immediate judgment is often accompanied by a herald of the next. We have already seen how, in ascending from the east, and with no doubtful application, the pestilence, which has since reached to Europe, and whose voice has been heard on the sea, was none of the least effective of the agents in depopulating some of the cities and provinces of Turkey, or in drying up the waters of the Euphrates. Even on the banks of that river, if such be its charge, its farther object began to be fulfilled. It terminated the war between Persia and Turkey. "The Persian army, after having been attacked by the disease, was forced to retreat, and to make peace with the Turks." * The seat of its origin was the east, from whence it was seen to ascend. "In the month of August 1817, at Jessore, about a hundred miles to the north-east of Calcutta, the pestilence AROSE; * Quarterly Review, No. xci. p. 186. Passing from scripture to scripture, of obvious similarity of import, we read distinctly the order and succession of events from the sealing of the witnesses to the treading of the wine-press. spreading from village to village, and destroying thousands of the inhabitants, it reached Calcutta early in September. It extended thence into Behar, depopulating many large cities, until the inhabitants fled to other spots, Benares, Attahabad, Goruckpore, Lucknow, Cawnpore, Delhi, Agra, Muttra, Meerat, and Bareilly, all suffered in succession; and it is remarkable, that it did not appear in these districts at the same time, but, leaving one, it soon showed itself in another."* "The partial irruptions of cholera in the principal towns of the presidency of Bengal, amount to two hundred in fourteen years, namely, from 1817 to 1830; in that of Madras, the number is one hundred and seventy-eight in the same period; in the presidency of Bombay, it amounts to fifty-five, thus making a total of four hundred and thirty-three visitations of the cholera in the cities of Hindostan in fourteen years. During this short period, Calcutta has been attacked fourteen times, or once every year, Madras nine times, Bombay twelve times."-" The cholera traversed the peninsula, east to west, from the bay of Bengal to the bay of Cambay, a distance of four hundred and fifty leagues, in less than a year; from north to south, three hundred leagues in nine months. It took less than two years to travel from the Persian Gulph to the shores of the Mediterranean.-The cholera attacked Astracan on the 20th of July; it ASCENDED the Volga to Twer, a distance of five hundred and fifty leagues, in little more than two months. Its progress was equally rapid at the very same time along the Don to Woronetz; and no less so on the banks of the Dnieper; so that in six months the disease had traversed Russia from the Caucasian provinces to the government of Twer and Yarastaf, a distance of seven hundred leagues."‡ Thus, by a marked "rate of progression," was the cholera seen ascending from the east. Having thus ascended from the east, it occupied the whole extent of the regions to the east of Europe, and its ravages have already spread from thence over a large portion of the continent. In the space of little more than a single year, it came, in a direct line from the east to the west in 1831, for the space of two thousand miles, from Moscow to Riga, Dantzic, and Hamburgh,§ reaching to the sea, and passing Hawkin's Hist. of the Cholera, p. 168. And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their fore the ocean, touched the shores of Britain. The full extent of its ravages over Europe, it is to be feared, have yet to be seen. A sparrow cannot fall unto the ground without the Father. And ranking in the midst of judgments, that fearful messenger of destruction, ascending from the east, is not without the seal of the living God, of which it has been said, "We have witnessed in our days the birth of a new pestilence, which, in the short space of fourteen years, has desolated the fairest portions of the globe, and swept off at least fifty millions of our race. It has mastered every variety of climate, surmounted every natural barrier, conquered every people."* The war between Persia and Turkey was stayed by the cholera, as it was ascending from the east. And already, perhaps, it may not, in some measure, have been without its effect in suspending a general or universal war. It reached Moscow in 1830, at a period when Europe, as described by the Premier of Great Britain, was 66 a magazine of combustibles, which the slightest spark might set into a blaze from one end to the other." The efficacy of the cholera in quenching, for a time, the threatened or incepient conflagration, may not yet be determined. But it reached Poland at an hour, when the eyes of all Europe were fixed on that country as the probable arena for deciding the controversy between liberty and despotism. The western nations were inspired with a greater terror than that of the Russian arms. And instead of armies rushing to the contest, all intercourse was restricted, or cautiously regulated, with the infected spot. The cholera first touched Britain at a perilous hour of political commotion. And when Russia denationalized Poland, and converted it into a subjugated province, the tidings reached Paris simultaneously with the cholera, and the French Chambers were dispersed without a word of remonstrance. The commission of the destroying angel-if such it be-is yet but in progress of fulfilment. And if it bear the seal of the living God, who shall let it ? But who may not hear his voice and profit by the warning, when such a messenger has come for the suspension of weightier judgments, till the servants of the living God be first sealed in their foreheads? The angel, or messenger, having the seal of the living God, ascended from the east, to stay the universal war till the servants of God should be sealed in their foreheads. And they that were * Quarterly Review, No. xci. p. 170. + Speech of Earl Grey on the Belgium Treaty, 26th January, 1832. heads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder; and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song, but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God. And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying, with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. And the third angel sealed were of all the tribes of the children of Israel. To those who despise not the day of small things, and who look to that which the Lord is doing on the earth, the following information -a new thing since the days of the apostles,-may not be deemed uninteresting or unimportant. "Hebrew-Christian Church.-Under this appellation a few Jews, who have embraced Christianity, have, for some time, formed themselves into a distinct community, conceiving that their brethren after the flesh will more readily unite with such a body than with those who were born Christians. They assembled first, upwards of three years since, in a weekly prayer meeting; after a short time they met for worship on the Lord's day, first in a room, and afterwards in a small chapel, hired for the purpose; and are now seeking assistance to establish themselves in a more commodious place of worship."-Missionary Register, March 1832, p. 239. followed them, saying, with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever; and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, from henceforth and for ever: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and their works do follow them. And I looked, 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 time is come for thee to 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. And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire ; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great wine-press of the wrath of God. And the wine-press was trodden |