world has never left himself without a witness, in his works, to his existence, to his power, to his wisdom, and other of his attributes, before the children of men. The heavens, the earth, and all that is therein, declare his glory, and show his handy-work. But fallen man required other testimony. Benighted in his understanding, and alienated in his heart, he could not find his way back to God and happiness without a guide from the source of light itself. God, therefore, gave him his word. In this word he has revealed to us as much concerning his nature and his dispensations as is needful for the well-being of our present life, and a preparation for that which is to come. Its great object is to reveal the Saviour of a lost world, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. This glorious personage, long before his coming to our earth, instructed his prophets to foretell, in the pages of his word, the events that should both precede and follow after that grand era in the history of our world. Theirs is that "sure word of prophecy whereunto we do well to take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place."

Many of their predictions are, of course, already fulfilled; many yet await their accomplishment. But our own times abound with demonstrations of prophetic truth, so full, so clear, "that he that runneth may read." Those very features in the aspect of the present times, which we have just specified, are, in all their lamentable forms, the evident fulfilment of sacred prophecy; for it assures us, that "in the last days there shall come scoffers walking after their own lusts, speaking great swelling words of vanity; foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever." Thus are gainsayers and unbelievers themselves so many living testimonies to the truth of our holy religion. Their appearance, in such days as ours, was predicted, that they who are taught of the Spirit might have their faith confirmed.

The present times, however, are marked also with many cheering features. Compared with the times of pagan idolatry, with the dark ages of popish superstition, and the days of fiery persecution, ours is a season of light, and li

berty, and delightful promise. If, with the aid of history, we look up the stream of time, and contemplate the divinely-inspired prophecies, from the fall of man to the coming of the Saviour, and continue to trace them down to our own times, we cannot but be struck with the identity of spirit and object in them all. Each prediction we find to be a link in a long chain of prophecies which have been fulfilling, are fulfilling, and will yet be fulfilled, until the grand consummation of human redemption. The stream of time that is now passing by us, is bringing on the fulfilment of those prophecies that had respect to our own day. The church of Christ is now being awakened; the spiritual Zion is now putting on her strength, even her beautiful garments; and she is now sending forth the heralds of her Lord's everlasting truth, and offering his salvation to the ends of the earth. The prophet had said, "The isles shall wait for his law," and they are now receiving it. He had said, "The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea ;" and the word of the Lord is now

distributed through the earth, in all the languages and dialects of the human tongue. He had said, "In that day a man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made, each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats ;" and now, whole nations and tribes are casting the idols of their own making away from them as an abomination. The prophet, speaking the language of the Messiah, had said, "The Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted; to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;" and is not the glad song of the newly-ransomed and liberated slave being wafted across the ocean to our delighted ears at this very day? Brethren, look at the movements of the present times—whether those of the nations at large, or of the church in particular, and you will say, "The Lord hath not utterly taken his loving-kindness from us, nor suffered his faithfulness to fail; his covenant hath he not broken, nor altered the thing that is gone out of his lips." We come now

II. To consider THE NATURE AND EXCEL

LENCE OF THE UNDERSTANDING ATTRIBUTED TO THE CHILDREN OF ISSACHAR. It was understanding of the times, and it denotes their serious attention to the signs of the times, and their devout recognition of the Divine hand in the affairs of men. Brethren, to live altogether indifferent to the events that are passing before us, to be utterly heedless of what Providence is doing in our own day, were to live in brute unconsciousness of our individual concern with the world and society. We should be holding our rational faculties, as it were, in abeyance, and maintaining a dullness under the lessons of mature experience, which would leave us still in the ignorance of little children. True, all minds are not of equal capacity; nor is it given to many to penetrate deeply into the designs of Providence and the characters of men, so as to elicit conclusions for the guidance of a nation; but it is the duty of all of us to give attentive and prayerful heed to the more obvious signs of the times, for purposes practically beneficial to ourselves and others. "The works of the Lord are

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