sea.

INTRODUCTION.

THE answer given by the messengers to the angel of the Lord that stood among the myrtle trees, in the vision of Zechariah the prophet, does not apply to our times: "We have walked to and fro through the earth, and behold all the earth sitteth still and is at rest." Politically and morally, in the sphere of things sacred and in the sphere of things civil, Europe, in the middle of the nineteenth century, is a troubled Numerous and mighty agencies, both for good and evil, are abroad and at work. These agencies may embody the same great principles that have been opposing and struggling with each other from the beginning. Light and darkness strove on the face of the deep before this goodly universe rose out of chaos, and they have their strivings still. Error is not of yesterday any more than truth. They encountered each other in Paradise, they have had many encounters since, and they are yet in the field. But periods arise which become exalted into

epochs, when these ancient forces, on the one side or on both, display more than usual vigor, appear in new or revived forms, change their modes of attack and defence, and come off with honors. Such a period was the beginning of the Gospel when truth in her fairest form descended from heaven, sustained the combined attack of all the powers of evil, and by her own inherent vigor spoiled principalities and powers and went on conquering and to conquer. Such a period was the dark or middle ages, which, like a long and dreary night, succeeded a short but bright day, when it seemed as if truth had been driven from the field, and the world had been given up to the reign of ignorance and terror. Such a period was the Reformation of the sixteenth century, which, with a voice whose sound was like the sea, awoke Europe from the sleep of ages, mustered in fierce and vigorous conflict all the powers of good and evil, and sent throughout the heart of ransomed humanity a thrill of joyous liberty that has echoed over the earth and down the stream of time. Such a period, (to contract our view within our own England,) was that august and earnest century when an oppressed people rose up, resolute and majestic, against their faithless oppressors-when the Puritans sounded the Gospel trumpet against the formalism and irreligion of the age, and men awoke at once to civil freedom

and that yet higher liberty wherewith the truth makes men free. And to leap over the bridge that spanned the dark and boisterous waters that rolled between, one of those dreary intervals that ever and anon occur in history, and which constituted in itself a dark age, when the foe was permitted to advance and stretch his sceptre over the church and the world, and, in a great measure, corrupt the form and stifle the voice of truth itself, such a period was the latter half of the last century, when an awakening evangelism, big, and feeling-hearted, counteracted the materialistic tendencies which a sceptical soulless philosophy had given to the age, and blew upon the cold earthly morality that had usurped the place of the Gospel in the college chair and in the church pulpit.

The fruits of this latter age, fruits both good and evil, we are now reaping. There is more reason, however, to be thankful for its legacy of good, than to deplore the inheritance of its evil. Its shining light has shined more and more unto our own day, but masses of dark clouds envious and portentous have followed it. We are not so moodishly disposed as to call to remembrance the former days and say that they were better than the present. No, the age, carrying along with it much of the rich good of the past is, in spite of many drawbacks, advancing onward in the right path. There is in the heart of

humanity a much larger amount of the leaven of heavenly truth than could be found at any preceding period, and, notwithstanding all opposing tendencies, it is spreading, and will spread. Despotism, which robs man of his rights, and obstructs the progress of God's truth, is losing its ground, and truth and freedom are advancing. The Bible, the schoolmaster, the evangelist, and the missionary, are abroad. The church at home is becoming more and more alive to the call of her Lord, arise, shine,'-her voice is becoming more loud and earnest in the pulpit, her instruction agencies among our home population are strengthening, and thickly multiplying, and she is lengthening her cords so as to embrace within her pale the abundance of the sea and the forces of the Gentiles. But if it is unwise to brood over the maladies of an age as if it were only evil and that continually, it is not less so to glory in its fair forms and healthy activities as if oblivious of its wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. The sun is in the heavens bright and beaming, but the clouds have gathered surcharged with the elements of strife, and they are ever and anon darkening and troubling the sky. Our age is one of intense earnestness and action both for good and evil. The old truth and the old error which have struggled throughout the past, are in the field. But neither is slumbering, both