jealousy." Then, also, shall come to pass the words of the Lord by Haggai: "I will shake the heavens and the earth; and I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen; and I will overthrow the chariots and those that ride in them; and the horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother." Then, as by Zechariah foretold, "This shall be the plague wherewith the Lord shall smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem, (i. e., all who have persisted in their opposition to Christ,) their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongues shall consume away in their mouths." That will be the day, foretold by Malachi, "that shall burn as an oven, and the proud, and all that do wickedly, shall be as stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch."

Thus I have found in every one of the prophets except Jonah, an express declaration respecting the destruction of the wicked from off the earth. Nearly all the prophets speak of fire as the agent of that destruction.

My object has been to cite a single passage only from each writer of sacred prophecy. Those who will search the prophets, will find their declarations on this fearful subject ex

ceedingly numerous. Moses, and the writers of the Psalms, speak of the same dreadful day. Thus God speaks by Moses in Deut. xxxii. : "For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them. They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction." The same destruction is several times repeated in the same chapter. So also in Psalm xxiv. 16: "The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth." Ps. 1. 22: "Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver." Ps. xcvii. 3: "A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about." A single passage from Job xxi. 30: "The wicked is reserved to the day of destruction; they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath." This also is the time foretold by Christ, in his interpretation of the parable of the tares of the field. Matt. xiii. 40, 41, 42, 43: "As, therefore, the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of the world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire;

there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear let him hear." This, let it be remembered, is not a parable, but the interpretation of a parable; and, therefore, will be literally fulfilled. At that time, as Paul declared to the Thessalonians, "will the Lord Jesus be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." This is the overthrow of Babylon, set forth in the Revelation of John. Thus will be fulfilled what is written in Isaiah xiii. 9: "Behold the day of the Lord cometh, cruel, both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate, and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it."

Thus, my brother, I believe that when Christ shall come, he will raise the righteous dead, and change the righteous living from corruption to incorruption, and that then all the righteous will be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and be evermore with the Lord. I believe that when Christ has gathered his elect from the four corners of the earth, all the wicked will be destroyed by fire, as the wicked of old by a flood; and thus, according to Ps. xxxvii.

20, "the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs; they shall consume, into smoke shall they consume away." That thus, according to Prov. ii. 22, "the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it."

III. What will Christ do with the world, when he shall have caught up the righteous to himself in the air, and burned up the wicked?

I believe, according to Peter, that then "the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up." 2 Pet. iii. 10. That, according to Isaiah xxxiv. 9, "the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch." I shall not cite other passages on this point, because all who profess to believe the Bible, admit that this earth is to be destroyed by fire.

IV. What are we to expect after the destruction of the earth by fire? Peter tells us, in his second epistle, (iii. 13,) what to expect: "Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." The promise to which Peter here refers, is in Isa. Îxv. 17: "For behold I create new heavens, and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.' Also Isa. lxvi. 22: "For as the new heavens and

the new earth which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain.”

I believe that in this new earth will be fulfilled the promises which God made respecting Christ. Luke i. 30-33: "And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David; and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end." God said to. David, by Nathan, (2 Sam. 7-16,) "Thine house, and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee; thy throne shall be established forever." In Jer. xxxiii. 17, we read, "For thus saith the Lord, David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel." So also in Isa. ix. 6, 7: "For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.'

Christ cannot have an endless dominion