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abhorrence. This era will add to the contrasts of God's kingdom, and glorify it beyond all our conceptions.

585. MILLENNIUM, HOW INTRODUCED.

Chalmers. The next coming of Christ, whether in person or not, I forbear to say, will be a coming, not to the final judgment, but to precede and usher in the millennium. I utterly despair of the universal prevalence of Christianity, as the result of a pacific missionary process under the guidance of human wisdom and principle. But without slacking in the least our obligation [efforts] to help forward this great cause, I look for its conclusive establishment through a widening passage of desolating judgments, with the utter demolition of our present civil and ecclesiastical structures.

Em. The common notions respecting the introduction of the millennium, do not accord with the prophecies of Scripture. The millennium will be brought about by the sword.

Ib. God will be morally obliged to employ his Almighty power and awful vengeance in binding Satan and subduing his zealous and combined subjects. He must 'overturn, and overturn, and overturn' kings and kingdoms, and shake all the inhabitants of the earth, in order to break the civil and religious fetters of the captives of Satan, and deliver them from their cruel, but chosen bondage. In these great and terrible revolutions and convulsions, the meek and harmless followers of Christ will undoubtedly have to suffer many great and distressing calamities. But when Christ, with his great and strong sword, shall punish Leviathan, that crooked serpent, which has crept into his vineyard, even then he says, "I the Lord do keep it, I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day."

Ib. Perhaps greater evils are yet to fall upon Zion, than have ever fallen upon it. If we look into the Revelation by John, we shall there find predictions, which threaten tremendous evils upon the Christian world. It is to be expected, that the last opposition to Zion will be the greatest: and the aspects of Providence coincide with the predictions of Scripture.

:

Spring. The representations given of the millennium in the

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* *

Apocalypse are preceded by the representations of most exemplary and fearful judgments inflicted upon wicked men, and upon the powers of antichrist in every form. How long before the seventh and last phial will begin to be poured out, we are not warranted in determining, any farther than to say that this last series of judgments is yet to visit the earth. There is little doubt that the spirit of wickedness is yet to become rampant, in all its forms of arbitrary power, vile hypocrisy, giddy worldliness, bold infidelity, and filthy crime. Nor is there any doubt that they will combine their counsels and their power against the Son of God and his struggling church, and that in this last battle, which is to precede the millennium, the kingdom of darkness will be made to tremble

From turret to foundation stone.

These judgments upon antichristian nations will neither be few nor light. Revolution will succeed revolution both in the political and moral world; convulsion will come upon the back of convulsion; and God will pour upon the nations "his indignation, even all his fierce anger." (Vide Glory of Christ, vol. 2, pp. 152, 3.)

Ed. The declensions at the close of the patriarchal and Christian dispensations may be typical of the predicted and alarming declensions at the winding-up of Satan's career, before the Millennium, who has or will "come down with great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short time." The success of Christianity during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries will be sufficient to give the world a general warning before the “battle of that great day of God Almighty." The Jews will return to Palestine, and their national unity be restored as it was. God has much for them to do, in the introduction of the Millennium. The chief scene in the battle of the great day, will be in Palestine. Papal Babylon is now losing its power and influence; for the nations that united in giving their kingdoms to the Beast, and have experienced her oppressions, are gradually awaking to her manifold impositions, and have begun to "hate the whore and make her desolate." The lingering remnants of this master device of the adversary will go into perdition during the battle

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of the great day. The Beast that is yet to slay the faithful witnesses for God and his truth, and take the lead in the falling away before the Millennium, is to "rise out of the bottomless pit," and will probably assume the form of bold, scoffing, and open infidelity. The popular evangelists and evangelism that will carry the Bible and a general idea of the Gospel throughout the earth, to give it the predicted warning, will perhaps become less and less orthodox and evangelical, and more and more lax, skeptical, and unbelieving, forming a protestant catholicism, that will aid, directly or indirectly, in the slaying of the true witnesses. This view of things accords with the plain and abundant predictions of Scripture. Vide Scott's Commentary on the Slaying of the Witnesses; Ethan Smith's "Key to the Revelation;" Hopkins on the Millennium; Spring's Glory of Christ, vol. 2, chap. 16; Weeks on the Introduction of the Millennium, U. C. Rep. vols. 4 and 5; and Scripture Manual, under Christ's Kingdom, Jews, and Millennium. So things are now evidently tending, and moving with astonishing rapidity. [See 77, 211, 468, 752, 875.]

586. MIND, MINDS.

A mind with much sail, requires much ballast.

Many persons live tolerably well, like their dog and cat, and compare well in other respects, the care they take of their

minds.

Little men with little minds, are great dwarfs.

The mind's the standard of the man.

Intelligence, capacity, and goodness, are the most valuable articles in a man's intellectual inventory.

The mind's strength and character depends upon the aliment it feeds upon. [See 485, 922.]

587. MINISTRY OF THE WORD.

Newton. The Christian ministry is the worst of all trades, but the best of all professions.

Em. We ought to judge of preachers, not only from what they do say, but from what they do not say.

Colton. In pulpit eloquence, the grand difficulty lies here:

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to give the subject all the dignity it deserves, without attaching any importance to ourselves.

Cecil. It requires as much reflection and wisdom to know what is not to be put into a sermon, as what is.

Ib. If a minister takes one step into the world, his hearers will take two.

Ib. A minister is to be "in season and out of season," and therefore everywhere a minister.

When clergymen err, it is like the town-clock going wrong, which misleads a multitude.

Whelpley. It is with clergymen as with all other men: some of them are very good men, and some are quite the other way. Ed. As runs the adage, "Some men are wise, and some are other-wise."

Ed. When people drive away faithful ministers, the Lord will provide for them. When they run away from their people, he leaves them to provide for themselves.

Luther. Three things make a divine · prayer, meditation, and trials. Ed. These make a Christian. A Christian minister needs three more talent, application, and acquirements. Ib. He must be of a high and great spirit, that undertakes to serve the people in body and soul; for he must suffer the utmost danger and unthankfulness.

Wms., T. A clerical philosopher once said, "there are three kinds of lightning, flash, zigzag, and slant. But neither flash nor zigzag ever does any execution; it is only slant that strikes." Just so, there are three kinds of preaching, flash, zigzag, and slant. The ecclesiastical lightning of New England, originally, was slant, almost without exception. The zigzag and flash, however, have frequently made their appearance. The dealers in zigzag claim all the showers: and some of them say they can produce showers whenever they please. Nor can it be denied that they often have high winds and violent tempests. They have clouds in abundance, and great sounds of rain. But it is questioned whether they make the earth more fruitful. However this may be, it is believed that the people of New England very generally have lost either the faculty or the disposition to

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distinguish between the zigzag and the slant. And there are many persons who say, that lightning is lightning, thunder is thunder, and rain is rain; and they wonder that any should ever dispute and contend about such things.

Ib. A preacher can never be exhausted in subjects for discourse, who, after the example of Emmons, takes a single point to illustrate in each discourse.

Fuller. It was said of one who preached very well, and lived very ill, “that when he was out of the pulpit, it was pity he should ever go into it: and when he was in the pulpit, it was pity he should ever come out of it.”

Secker. How shall the blind see, when the seers are blind? Some clergymen are like a finger-post, that points you the right way without walking in it.

588. MINISTERIAL OFFICE.

Ed. This office, founded in the general need of theological instruction and moral impression, is rendered still more imperative by the universal depravity of mankind. They need such an example before them of piety, righteousness, knowledge, and dignity, as the clerical office is suited to create. They need an expounder of the sacred oracles, who can command his time to acquire and impart theological knowledge, and carry forward the science. They need a competent watchman, to guard them from dangerous errors, companions, and vices; a faithful reprover, to correct their faults, and restrain them from wickedness; an able lecturer, to bring the aid of moral and religious motives to the support of law and order; and a living herald, often to remind them of the vanity of the world, the shortness and uncertainty of life, and the importance of making a good preparation for the life to come. No other office has such deNo other has such temp

mands upon it, as the clerical office. tations to unfaithfulness; for its support is drawn from the donations of those whom it is appointed to reprove for all manner of errors, faults, and vices. If faithful, no other servants have a stronger claim upon men for sympathy and support; if unfaithful, none have such reason to expect the frowns of Heaven, and the ultimate execration of earth and hell.