that any mortal king may rule, or parliament of mortal men may legislate, without an oppressed people having right to interfere, and work out for themselves a redress of their grievances. Government is an ordinance of God, but his ordinance, for his country at least, is, that the people, with the fear of him before their eyes, elect rulers for themselves; and if thus elected they rule not so as to be ministers of God to them for good, (Rom. xiii. 4.) that they dismiss them and try others with their place. What I principally find fault with in the spirit which is at present abroad in our land is not the demand for redress, but that there is no acknowledgment made in it of the Supreme God as the Ruler of the universe, and no account taken of the necessity for His blessing, ere any measures be successful for the redemption of our commonwealth. No one is found in their assemblies to give testimony for Jehovah, when even the Romans would have expressed their trust in such gods as they knew. They have made an Idol of Reform, and assured they may be that He who is jealous of his glory will avenge himself on the idolatry. But even although devotional acknowledgment were made in this agitating question of the presiding government of the Most High, still would I condemn the feeling for being excited so strongly, as if something great were dependent on it, and as if it concerned the prosperity of many future generations. Let the men be told that what they are so zealous to have rectified has not long to stand, before the Stone of Heaven shall smite it, and disperse it for ever. Up to the moment when the Lord shall come let us perform whatsoever is our duty, so that we shall be found at our post; but let us proportion our attention and zeal according to what He has revealed concerning the duration of the works of our hands.

Observe, therefore, in the second place, the glory of the Church, and the nobility of her membership. Here is that kingdom which when all others are desolated shall remain unmoved; yea which shall rise from its present state of lowliness and far and wide around the globe shall it carry its conquests. The Romans in their vanity applied "orbis" to their empire, when not more than a third part of the world was even known by them to exist. But in the time of the flourishing of the Church there shall be no land which Geography may include where he will not find her rule established. Her empire shall be identified with the universe; nor shall it ever know decline. -Although then the christian had no hope that he himself would enjoy this triumph, yet how ennobled would he feel as a member of that institution whose destiny is so glorious! But

no faithful follower of the Lamb shall be denied the sunshine of the Millennial summer. The dead shall be raised from their graves to participate the victory. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the First Resurrection!

THY KINGDOM COME!

THE

POLITICAL DESTINY

OF THE

EARTH,

AS REVEALED IN THE BIBLE.

"I saw in the night visions, and behold one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of Heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion and glory, and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages, should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.

"But the saints of the Most High shall take the Kingdom, and possess the Kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever."-Dan. vii. 13, 14, 18.

BY WILLIAM CUNINGHAME, Esquire,

Of Lainshaw in the county of Ayr.

PHILADELPHIA:

ORRIN ROGERS, 67 SOUTH SECOND STREET.

E. G. Dorsey, Printer.

PREFACE.

THE object of the present Tract is to furnish to plain readers, who have not the means of consulting many books, a short view of the purposes of God towards the World, as they were revealed to Daniel about 2,400 years ago-to give an outline of their accomplishment hitherto, and to show, from the events of our own times, that the day is not remote when the kingdoms of this world shall be broken to shivers, and that glorious kingdom shall be set up by God himself, which shall fill the whole earth, and shall stand for ever.*

Some persons may probably be offended at the title of the Tract; for an idea has widely gone forth, in the present day, that Religion has nothing to do with Politics. In a limited and qualified sense, this may be at once admitted. It certainly becomes not the Ministers of Christ, or even private Christians, to busy themselves with the heats, and animosities, and contests of party; and when they permit themselves to be entangled therein, they are as the salt which hath lost its savour. But as the disciples of Christ are now members of the kingdoms of this world, they have political rights to exercise, and obligations to perform; even as being fellow-citizens with the Saints, they have exalted spiritual privileges to improve, and duties towards God to fulfil. And our Lord himself, in his memorable words "Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and to God the things that are God's," has taught us, that neither class of duties is to be neglected. It would be an easy matter to enlarge these remarks, by applying the principle included in our Lord's words, to many of the circumstances of

* Dan. ii. 44.