I endeavoured in the last lecture to bring before you the blessed hope of our Lord’s return, and to show, from the great outlines of prophecy, that there is enough to justify the expectations of those who humbly trust that we shall not have much longer to wait. I purposely avoided any reference to what are called the ‘signs of the times,’ and confined your attention exclusively to what may be called the great backbone of prophecy, _i.e._, to the prophetic history of the four mighty kingdoms which were foretold as holding the empire of the world. From that outline I endeavoured to show that these four great kingdoms were to arise in succession, one after the other, and that they would fill up the interval between the time of the prophecy and the sitting of the Ancient of Days. I hope, also, I made it plain from history that three of those kingdoms have long since fallen, and that, as far as the predicted periods enable us to judge, we must be drawing near to the close of the fourth. The great outline, therefore, leads to the hope that the time of the glorious kingdom of our blessed Lord may be near. But, though we did not study the signs of the times then, I do not think we should undervalue them, for our blessed Saviour foretold certain things that should take place, and added, ‘When ye shall see all these things, know that it {19} is near, even at the doors.’ If, therefore, any of these things are now taking place, it is clear that we ought to study them; and that we should not be really carrying out the teaching of the Lord Jesus if we were to neglect them. I propose, therefore, in obedience to His words, to bring before you in this lecture what has long appeared to me one of the most conclusive signs that the time is not very far distant. I allude to the present position of the Church of Rome, and I earnestly hope that God has directed my thoughts in the study of it, and that whatever in what I may now say is according to His word, may be written in all our hearts and minds by the teaching of the Holy Ghost. There are three great historical prophecies, which, in the opinion of the majority of our best expositors, predict the rise, the progress, and the fall of the Church of Rome. The first of these we briefly noticed last Sunday. It is the prophecy of the little horn rising amidst the ten horns of the beast, or the Papacy rising in the midst of that cluster of European kingdoms which succeeded the power of the undivided Roman Empire.