oftentimes a pleasing, and frequently a presumptuous and unauthorized task, to administer admonitions to others; simply because the position assumed presupposes some degree of superiority in him who arrogates its exercise to himself, flattering enough to the self-love and spiritual pride of most men; but we venture to urge no self-examination upon our readers which we are not ready to admit we need, perhaps, more ourselves: yet, nevertheless, the exhortation may be wholesome to all, and can be useless to none, to enquire-whether our hearts are fixed upon the world or upon God?-a question which may prove advantageous to all now to anticipate, since its solution is so near at hand. Should we have nothing to adjust if the summons were issued this night? We leave the answer to the question, and the application of the moral, to the reader's own conscience. FAREWell.

APPENDIX.

It is now exactly a twelvemonth ago that the first number of the "Retrospect " issued from the press; and, ere the eye of any reader can peruse these lines, the eventful year 1847 will have begun its ominous career! Let us contemplate, at the present epoch, the natural and political exigencies which have developed themselves since that period, in order to ascertain if events have corroborated the prediction then made, that the prophecies pointed to that year as the commencing period of the seventh and last vial of the wrath of God. Doubtless many of our readers, who nevertheless might not have possessed the inclination, even had they the power, of controverting our position, that the impending judgments of the last day were imminent, were still struck, if not staggered, with the uncompromising boldness with which we avowed our belief that they were so immediately at hand: whilst the proximity of time fixed for the occurrence of the events themselves could not fail to furnish the best pledge of the sincerity of such a conviction. It must be admitted that, at that time, there was nothing apparent in the

general aspect of affairs that would appear to sanction such unequivocal and decided conclusions. At the close of the year 1845, the natural or political world did not present any aspect materially different from that which had been exhibited for many preceding years. Our friendly intercourse with foreign potentates was of such a close and cementing character, that it seemed scarcely possible to admit the suspicion that it could ever be disturbed. Monarchs met-not as they were wont in days of yore, surrounded with the pomp of circumstance and the paraphernalia of kingly state, or jealously encompassed with warlike attendants-but they met as one friend ordinarily meets another, as if solely for the purpose of exchanging tokens of amity and friendship; and monarchs, whose personal appearance in other lands in former times would have been the sign for the springing up of hosts of opposing warriors, have driven in their chariots from one royal palace to another, without even a guard, and scarcely with the exhibition of any of the usual appendages of royalty. It has been truly a time for the familiar interchanges of kingly courtesy, and mutual assurances of enduring confidence. The political phenomenon was hailed as the certain pledge of interminable peace, and war was spoken of as an exploded theory of bygone ages-the relics of barbarism which it was absurd to imagine would ever be revived again, to disturb the harmony of the civilized nations of Europe. It was anticipated that it was only needful to remove unnecessary restrictions upon our commercial intercourse, so as to produce a greater intercommunion between the nations of the earth, and then, behold, halcyon days of more than Arcadian peace and blessedness were sure to dawn upon the world! But

men have scarcely ceased to congratulate each other upon their brightening prospects, when lo! a change comes o'er the spirit of the dream, and the glowing picture has become suddenly obscured; and now, what do we behold? The tale is briefly told. The boasted political amity of all Europe is disturbed by a manifestation among the kings of the earth of one of the strongest characteristics of the last times; for the chief among her nations stand exposed before the world as avowed trucebreakers; and the political acts which are committed are of that character as almost to forbid the possibility of allaying the burning jealousies they have awakened. The prospects of an immediate war with France are absorbed in the expectation of a more extensive and important conflict which threatens to separate the chief of the European nations into two great divisions, each impelled by one of those spirits proceeding out of the mouth of the dragon and the beast. The seeds of interminable discord are already sown in Spain--the inevitable precursor of a bloody struggle. The soil of Portugal is already red with the blood of her sons, and her throne is tottering to its base under the throes of the final earthquake; as if the people were impatient for the advent of the Archfiend himself, and could not abide his time. The Vatican has witnessed the phenomenon of a revolutionary Pope, whose rapid progress has been checked even by a revolutionary king. The deficiency of the harvest over Europe has caused her statesmen's ears to become familiar with the cry of want; whilst the pestilence that walketh in darkness is hovering around her borders like a hungry wolf, and leaving behind its previous track whole cities and provinces decimated by its ravages. Ireland, oppressed by gaunt famine and distracted with

political and religious dissensions-exasperated by despair at the prospect of an extinction of the national food-madly neglects the cultivation of her soil; and, whilst she throws herself upon an ill-regulated bounty, is rapidly arming her famished hosts-not for open conflict but for a servile midnight war-the poor against the rich. And, amidst all these gloomy and portentous omens, our rulers are harrassed with perplexity and doubts; and, abandoning all right principles of government, legislate with the avowed object of selecting the least out of the many evils with which their path is encompassed.

We conclude, therefore, upon a review of such a change in the general aspect of affairs, that there can exist little doubt in the minds of those who are watching the manifestation of God's hand among the nations of Christendom, but that the events now developing themselves, and which already occasion such ominous forebodings for the future, are the preparatory overt acts of the seventh Vial of wrath.

Now, the first effects of that Vial upon the nations of the earth are described in symbolic language as a great earthquake, and the true nature and character of the reality can always be learnt by a careful study of the symbol by which it is represented. The natural phenomenon is produced by disorganization in the bowels of the earth, increasing in intensity until the commotion attains a certain point, when it bursts forth, and the internal conflict manifests itself in an open rupture visible upon the outward surface of the earth. The political earthquake of the seventh Vial is the concomitant effect of similar causes to those which produce the natural earthquake. The preparatory actions of this political