bloody and deadly conflict with that which is sen sible and palpable.

We believe this is the truth conveyed in the parable of the ten virgins, wherein the five foolish are described as returning with oil in their lamps after the door is shut; but, as the oil was only useful to sustain the light in the lamp (and the parable has sole reference to the Church's condition as watchers for the appearance of the bridegroom), it was not then available for the original purpose for which it was designed; and, consequently, these foolish virgins, though they are supposed to have supplied themselves with oil, are represented in the parable as being refused admittance into the marriage supper of the Lamb indicating that their faith had come too late.

We consider, moreover, that there is good ground for the expectation that after the Church, who are thus left, are perfected through the sufferings of the flesh, they also will be translated into immortality, and that the whole united Church of the first resurrection will then witness the final destruction of the infidel Antichrist, and the armies that are gathered under his banner; as well as the feats of power which Christ and the first believers will perform in that day even as the children of Israel witnessed of old the discomfiture of Pharaoh and his hosts in the Red

Sea, though they took no part in the act by which this type of Antichrist was overthrown: the translation of the first-fruits being typified by Enoch, whose supernatural removal was invisible to the natural eye; whilst that of the latter was prefigured in the visible and glorious ascent to heaven of Elijah; and, as we conceive, is distinctly referred to in this book under the symbol of the two witnesses-that two-fold form of witness which the Church will then exhibit on the earth, who, at the close of their day of persecution and trial, shall hear "a great voice from heaven, saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies beheld them."

We cannot, however, now stop to enumerate the many glorious visions of the future which the study of this divine book of the Revelation has brought before our view: we find the chief diffi culty to consist in their proper arrangement, so as to give our readers a connected idea of the whole. Nor is this difficulty lessened from the fact that our future interpretations (though they will be found to resemble in character others which have preceded, thereby authenticating their truth), yet, when viewed as historical actions, are entirely new.*

The author takes this occasion to observe, that a note intended to have been inserted in No. VI, was accidentally omit

We now request our readers' attention to the seventh and fourteenth chapters of the Apocalypse.

ted. Its purport was to admit, and at the same time to account for, a manifest discrepancy in this publication, which commenced with the disavowal of any intention to introduce new interpretations, but which purpose the author is quite conscious has been long since abandoned. The simple statement of the facts will, perhaps, furnish the most satisfactory, as well as the most intel ligible reason why the original intention has been gradually relinquished, and already so much new ground has been traversed. It was first intended to have confined this publication to the simple proposition that there existed sufficient evidence in Scripture for the conclusion that the seventh and last Vial of wrath might be expected to commence A.D. 1847 : in which year, as it is now generally supposed, Daniel's prophetic period of two thousand three hundred years will terminate. But, in searching the prophetic record, and especially the Book of the Revelation, in corroboration of such a conclusion, additional expositions gradually developed themselves of some of the most important symbolical representations contained in the apocalyptic vision, accompanied with such evidences of their truth, as well as with such exactness and consistency as a whole, that, notwithstanding the author's original purpose, he found himself almost insensibly introduced into a much larger field of interpretation than he contemplated. He was, moreover, encouraged to deviate from the original plan, from the consideration that, whilst every fresh ray of light shed renewed lustre upon preceding interpretations, it exhibited also to view an enlarged and consistent development of the prophetical phenomena of the seventh Vial, having especial reference to the condition of the risen and translated saints-the Church then on the earth, and the whole of Christendom. Indeed, the expositions alluded to (and which will appear in order in succeeding numbers) are pregnant with such momentous import, that he felt it to be his duty to submit them to the consideration of the Church. Ordinary works are often found to enlarge themselves under an author's hand, and the truth of this observation must be more obvious when applied to such an inexhaustible subject as that of the unfulfilled prophecies; and the reader is requested therefore, to conclude that this has been the case in the present instance,

The former of these chapters exhibits to the seer's view two companies; the first being represented under the figure of twelve thousand sealed from out of the twelve tribes of Israel; and the other as a great multitude which no man could "number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues." It has been conjectured, that because the former company are described in symbolical, and the latter in plain and intelligible language, that the description of this second company is only to be regarded as explanatory of that body which had just preceded in the vision; so that the elder is thereby supposed to be acting the part of an interpreting angel of the symbolical representation of the hundred and forty and four thousand. A careful study, however, of the chapter, and a comparison of the expressions used in the descriptions of these two companies, will preclude the possibility of supposing that they are one and the same; but that, on the contrary, they are distinct, and also gathered at two separate periods of the history of the Church, and each under different circumstances.

The introduction of this countless multitude commences at the ninth verse, and the apostle expressly declares that it was " AFTER" he beheld the vision of the hundred and forty and four thousand, that this new company presented themselves to his view. This expression appears to be intro

duced for the purpose of intimating that the vision which was about to succeed did, in fact, represent another body of the redeemed; and was not an enlargement in the way of description or interpretation of that which had just preceded: so that the simple narration of the vision itself would naturally prepare the mind for the introduction of a new and distinct revelation. But, without laying too great stress on this sequence in point of time, and thereby concluding that these two are distinct companies because introduced in consecutive order, we contend that interpretation cannot possibly contain anything directly contrary to the symbol, inasmuch as interpretation is only a development to the understanding of man of the truths in the figure itself; and, consequently, if such discrepancy and contradictions are discernible between the supposed interpretation and the symbol, we are justified, upon such grounds, in its total rejection. If our readers will bear in recollection the interpretation for which we contend-viz., that the hundred and forty and four thousand describe the risen and translated saints, who are gathered at the first appearance of Christ in the air; and that the second company represent those who shall be the fruits of the ministry of the three angels described as flying in the midst of heaven, in the fourteenth chapter (and