earthquake among the nations of Christendom have been long at work, though their nature and character as well as their ultimate effect may have been hidden from the observation of most men; but, nevertheless, this state and condition of mankind only awaits the action of some external operating cause to develope openly the disorganization which has, for so long a period, been insensibly progressing to a consummation. We point to Ireland, and indeed to all Europe, as now exhibiting the first manifestation of one of those operating causes which shall bring on the final convulsion-when the restless tumults of the people, occasioned by the pressure of distress, shall produce that spread of lawless violence and insubordination which shall prepare mankind for the more immediate energizing of Satan himself, when he shall be driven from heaven to the earth. Famine, pestilence, and the sword, are the three chief instruments which God is represented in Scripture as using for the destruction of the apostate Church in Christendom, of which we should expect famine to be the first in order of manifestation, because this infliction bears stamped upon its front the hand of God more distinctly than any other, and is, moreover, the usual precursor of pestilence.

As we progress in the development of our general subject (which we think will be found, ultimately, to be of a more comprehensive character than our readers may at present imagine), it will appear evident, that a very considerable portion of the early part of the seventh Vial is occupied in the pleadings of God with man in the way of judgment; and that those preliminary judgments are different, both in character and object, from those which occur at its close: the former being of that class usually denominated providential, by which we un

derstand those phenomena, both in the natural and political world, which are produced by secondary causes, and whose action will be moreover accompanied with offers and conditions of mercy; and it is to this time that the prophet Isaiah alludes, when he says-" For when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness:" whereas the latter are the direct and immediate acts of God himself as a man

of war, when the door of mercy is closed upon those who are referred to by the same prophet, when he declares that though "favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness;" and, consequently, all such must be consigned as impenitent and irreclaimable to devouring and consuming judgments-even that lake of fire which is the second death.

It is a remarkable fact that the failure of the produce of the earth in the past year has occurred during one of the most splendid seasons within recollection; by which anomaly in nature God would disengage man's thoughts from any investigation of secondary causes, and direct them to Himself as the first operative cause. This blight upon one of our most important articles of food has been placed by many popular writers in the same category as that pestilence which walketh in darkness, and which has already once visited Western Europe; so that, in each case, the operating causes have been so palpably hidden in obscurity that natural philosophers now concur in the conclusion that it is in vain attempting to account for their existence by any known laws of Nature; and, consequently, that they originate from some undiscovered source in the invisible world. The boasted philosophers, and the vaunted wisdom of the creature who ever seeks with such ingenuity to attribute any

earthly calamity to the ordinary operations of Nature, have been baffled; and the arrogance and self-sufficiency of man is turned into more than infantine imbecility. The wisdom of their wise men has perished, and the understanding of their prudent men is hidden; and, as they cannot trace the cause of the evil, neither can their wisdom provide any adequate remedy for its present disastrous consequences, or devise a preventive against its future recurrence. The measures which the Legislature have adopted to alleviate the anticipated misery—as if impelled by a judicial blindness—have already produced discontent and murmurings, and they still bid fair by their unpopularity to create dissatisfaction among the people, and foster the very spirit they were intended to allay. But so it is-and so it will be. God has at last plucked His hand from His bosom, and who shall stay His outstretched arm? Who can hinder or circumvent Him? And whose wisdom can supply remedies, or counteract the evils that the Lord God Almighty bringeth upon the earth? Ye kings and princes-ye nobles!—ye great men and judges of the land!-call ye an assembly! summon your counsellors and your wise men! Saycan ye, by your wisdom and your counsels, stay the blight of the coming year? Or can ye, by your cordons, arrest the pestilence that walketh in darkness? Can ye bid the sword abide in its scabbard, or turn the spear into a pruning hook? Can ye by legislation feed the hungry, or still the tumults of the people? Can ye speak peace to the troubled waves, and bid the blowing winds be still? Ye cannot-Ichabod is written upon your walls-your glory is departed! The counsel of Ahithophel is gone! How art thou

fallen, O Tyre! God

has blown upon thy boasted strength and wisdom.

Thy rowers have brought thee into deep waters, and the thing has become too hard for thee. O, thou who wast perfect in beauty, glorious in power, and excellent in wisdom, thy beauty is spoiled, and thy brightness has become defiled; for iniquity has been found in thee, and thou shalt be cast down to the ground, and be brought to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee!

The people have asked a sign!—and God hath spoken by a sign! Yea, by more than one sign from the shores of Ireland! But the people's ears are dull of hearing,

and their eyes see or hear.

have waxed dim, so that they can neither Become blind, that ye may see; and deaf, that ye may hear: and he that hath an ear, let him hear; for surely God cometh out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the world for their iniquity. Let all the people tremble!

THE RETROSPECT.

NO. VIII.

SYMBOLICAL prophecies possess this peculiar advantage above all others conveyed in ordinary language that they are less liable to misinterpretation, because symbols, being the language of nature, are, when explained, more generally and plainly understood. They may be said to contain a self-protecting power against the encroachment of fanciful theories, provided the interpreter brings into operation an ordinary share of sound judgment and spiritual discernment; and if this observation be true of simple symbols, it is more especially so when applied to their combination; inasmuch as liability to error must necessarily be diminished, just in proportion to their multiplication-independently of the consideration that their combined use in one vision requires a perfect consistency in the whole interpretation; so that if an interpreter were to deviate from the right course, he must, of necessity, sooner or

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