the ooming of Messiah, and that Messiah Himself must be in the midst of them, The sceptre had departed from Judah, and the lawgiver from between his feet. The seventy weeks of Daniel were fulfilled. (Gen. xlix. 10. Dan. ix. 24.) The ministry of John the Baptist had excited attention from one end of the land to the other. The miracles of Christ were great, undeniable, and noto- rious. But still the eyes of the Jewd were blinded. They still obstinately refused to believe that Jesus was the Christ. And hence they drew from our Lord the question, — "How is it that ye do not discern this time ? "
It becomes the servants of God, in every age, to observe the public events of their own day, and .to compare thenoL with the predictions of unfulfilled prophecy. There is nothing commendable in an ignorant indiflference to co- temporary history. The true Christian should rather watch the career of governments and nations with a jealous watchfulness, and hail with gladness the slightest indication of the day of the Lord being at hand. The Christian who cannot see the hand of God in history, and does not believe in the gradual movement of all kingdoms towards the final subjection of all things to Christ, is as blind as the Jew.
Have we no signs of the times to observe? The question is soon answered. The history of the last seventy years is full of events which demand the prayerful attention of every servant of Christ. The things that have happened within these seventy years ought to send us to our watch towers, and raise in us great searchings of heart. The rise and progress of