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something of discussion here. If Christ hath shown us that periods exist when the divine counsels are made more manifest to the world, and that, in those periods, unless we consider the "signs of the times," we are guilty of sin; and when so many Christians, wise and good, in various parts of Christendom, are deeming themselves not presumptuous in proclaiming sings" now, I could not but feel myself sufficiently called upon to speak upon these things here; and it is my earnest wish and prayer so to speak of them, that I may not justly incur censure, either from the careless and sinful livers of this world, that I needlessly alarmed their fears; or from the really awakened servants of Christ, that I unwarrantably excited their hopes.

We are now again arrived at the season of Advent. This sacred day, the first of that hallowed period, once more calls upon us to consider signs of the Redeemer's advent past, prophetic assurances of his second advent yet to come to consider, in all its solemn consequences, WHO came once, and why he came; to remember who will come again, and for what he will come. Matter full of the deepest interest is again brought collectedly before us,

that we may acknowledge, in saving faith, the Redeemer's first advent, that so we may be ready to receive him, with shouts of praise and thanksgiving, at his awful second advent. The duty, therefore, of considering "the signs "of the times," all of which point and are designed to lead us to Christ, will furnish, I trust, matter of profitable thought for spiritual application of what this holy season brings more especially before us. It is a subject, which, I am quite aware, needs the utmost circumspection in the handling of it; and as a preliminary caution against what may be an

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erroneous inference from the consideration of it at all, I would venture to express my own opinion that it seems safer to regard “the signs," if we think we live among them, than to say much, precisely, upon what we may suppose to be the thing signified. "The finger "of God" may be, and oftentimes is, seen, when his ultimate counsels are entirely hidden, as to the particular issue of passing events, whether in public or in private life; and if, therefore, we would be really guided by the "wisdom which cometh from above," we shall be slower in the interpretation of what is, in the expectation of what may be, than active and

conscientious in the personal application of it to ourselves.

It seems also apparent in the history of the past, that it would not be well for us to be too minute in applying what may really be "signs "of the times," to something still future, and not perfectly made out to be the thing signified.

In his first Epistle to the Thessalonians, St. Paul had used these words: "For this we say "unto you by the word of the Lord, that we “which are alive, and remain unto the coming "of the Lord, shall not prevent them which

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are asleep For the Lord himself shall "descend from heaven with a shout, with the "voice of the Archangel, and with the trump "of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise "first: Then we which are alive and remain shall "be caught up together with them in the clouds, "to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall

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we ever be with the Lord." (C. iv. 15—17.) “Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but "let us watch and be sober." (C. v. 6.)

When these words were read by the Thessalonians, it was not to be wondered at that they deduced the immediate expectation from them, that Christ was upon the point of coming in his second advent to the Judgment. But

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they were deceived herein; and the holy Apostle, in a second Epistle, put them right: "Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming”—or as it is supposed better translated, "as to the coming"-" of our Lord “Jesus Christ, and (by) our gathering together "unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in "mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as from us, as that "the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man "deceive you by any means: for that day shall "not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the "son of perdition." (C. ii. 1-3.)

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It was also the strong and general expectation, in a later period of the Church of Christ, that the end of all things was at hand. Towards the close of the eleventh century the minds of men were so much acted upon by this feeling, that the nearest and dearest ties of life were broken and forgotten, amid the general ferment which excited thousands to join the Crusades for the rescue of Christ's sepulchre from infidels, and so manifest, what in those days. was deemed, a holy waiting and preparation for the immediate coming of their Lord.

It is possible, then, for sincere believers to

let love, or fear, or ardent hope, so influence their minds, as to cause them to transgress the bounds which mark a line betwixt Almighty God's intention, and man's over-hasty construction; and it is under the full force of this reflection, that I venture upon the consideration of a subject, which I think we are called upon to consider, and to put such thoughts before you as shall be suggested to myself upon matter momentous in its application to us all. It is always an awful portion of a Minister's duty to watch for himself, and to watch for others too; not the substitute for his hearers' watchfulness for themselves; but to rouse them to this great and essential Christian duty, at the peril of his own soul. The Minister's commission is"O son of man, I have set thee a watchman "unto the house of Israel" (Ezek. xxxiii. 7); the people's warning is-" Can ye not discern "the signs of the times?"

It is not, my brethren, that we absolutely need other "signs of the times," than those of all times in which mankind have lived, to put before us the awful consequences appended to the present state of our being in reference to an eternity to come. But, in private, as in public life, if Almighty God plainly shows