"None of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall un-
derstand."-Dan. xii. 10.

"Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of
this prophecy; and keep the things that are written therein, for the
time is at hand."-Rev. i. 3.

ACHILL:

PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR AT THE "6 MISSION PRESS."

PREFACE.

THE following exposition of the Apocalypse appeared from month to month in a series of chapters in the "Achill Missionary Herald." The views which are put forth in these chapters were submitted, before publication, to discussion, in a monthly meeting of several ministers of the Church of England; and, with few exceptions, were unanimously approved as the true interpretation of the great prophetical book of the New Testament. This circumstance greatly encouraged the writer in printing this little commentary at first, and it now encourages him in re-publishing it in what he trusts will be found to be an improved form.

As brevity and simplicity were aimed at, it seemed unadvisable to encumber the Exposition with any notice of the various fanciful interpretations which have tended more than any other cause to bring the study of this Divine book into disrepute. But there is a system of interpretation which sets aside every application of this prophecy to past events, by the bold assertion that the whole of it yet remains to be fulfilled; and as this system, which the writer regards as deeply and most mischievously erroneous, is making. many disciples, it seemed desirable to make a few remarks upon it in this preliminary discourse.

The Reformers of the sixteenth century, in common with many of their predecessors, recognized Popery as the great subject of Scripture prophecy. Those faithful servants of Christ, both in our own country and throughout the Continent, were unanimous in the persuasion that Popery was. the great foretold n ichrist; that Daniel's prophecy of the Little Horn (Dan. vii.), and St. Paul's prophecy of the Man of Sin (2 Thess. ii.), pointed directly to the Pope; and that the system and Church of which he is the head are distinctly exhibited in the prophecy of the apostasy of the. latter times, 1 Tim. iv., and in the symbolical harlot described by St. John, Rev. xvii., and other portions of Scripture. These views, which we may designate as the Protestant interpretation of prophecy, were part of a system which