Dear brethren, these events are rapidly rolling in the fiery wheels down the descent of time; and although the nations must first drink the vials of divine wrath and the battle of God Almighty must first be fought, yet the time is at hand when we shall no more hear the sound of war, and of garments rolled in blood, for man will cease to be the enemy of man, and every one will sit quietly under his own vine and under his own fig tree; and there will be nothing to hurt or destroy in all God's holy mountain, and the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the channels of the mighty deep. Dear brethren, is it not "high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light." And let us pray with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit for all men, not only for ourselves, our families, and our friends, and the church of God, but for a dying world, that God would in infinite compassion cut short these days of dreadful calamity for his elect's sake; and in the midst of deserved wrath remember mercy. "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." FOOTNOTES: [4] The earth, in symbolical language, is supposed by the writer to denote civilized nations, in distinction from uncivilized, which are symbolized by the agitated sea. Civilized nations will no longer cover the blood of the slain, under the specious idea of defending their rights and liberties. [5] If the kingdoms of this world do not belong to Satan, then it was no temptation to our Lord when he offered them to him. It is expressly said that he was "tempted of Satan." [6] The writer has for a length of time been of opinion that no event has ever yet happened to the church which answers to slaying the witnesses. It has been given as a reason by some that the witnesses have been slain, that so much light has been diffused since the art of printing was discovered, and since the Reformation, that no reason can ever again be found sufficiently plausible to satisfy the consciences of mankind in again taking the lives of their fellow-men in matters of conscience. If our country was invaded and a law should be passed that every man capable of bearing arms should equip himself for its defense, on penalty of being considered as an enemy and to be publicly executed accordingly in case of refusal for conscience' sake, there would not probably be wanting patriots sufficient to execute the laws; if they could not be found in our land of liberty, they might be found amongst the tyrants of the Old World.