WE CLOSED our remarks on last night at the close of the seventh verse of the tenth chapter of Revelation, where the Lord made known to John that when the seventh angel should begin to sound, the mystery of the prophets that God has declared to them should be finished. He said John need not then write the meaning of the Vision as made known by the seven thunders, but it should be delayed no longer than until the seventh angel began to sound.

"And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go, and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey; and I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my bowels were bitter."

The little book that John ate up was, doubtless, this whole book of prophecy, that was at first sealed with seven seals, but at the time of the fighting with firearms, in our day, it was to be open, and all the prophecy made plain by the time the great battle ended. John had the meaning of the Vision, but was forbidden to write it. And it is so natural for him to say it was sweet to the taste!/160/

Information on any subject of importance is very sweet. We speak of men eating books, but we do not mean that they literally masticate and swallow down the paper and leather of which the book is made; that is not the manner of eating books: we mean, they get the contents in their mouths. We speak sometimes of book-worms: we mean men that are studying books. John ate up the book only in this sense of the meaning; there can be no other way of eating a book than to get all its contents in the mind, and understand them. And it was sweet to John to have the whole matter made plain to him. But when it was made plain, there were so many bad things, so much bad news concerning the Lord's people and the Lord's cause, that it made his bowels bitter. And then he was forbidden to write it; and to keep the secret from all the people of the Lord, made it still more bitter. Some years since, I was in a northern city, and had made arrangements with my son that he should write to me by the time I reached that city; as I had been from home a week or ten days before I went to the city, I expected a letter as soon as I reached it. I went to the post-office, but there was no letter for me. The next day it was the same thing, "No letter for you," and the third day, the very same--no letter yet. On the fourth day that I was in the city, I went to the post-office again, as uneasy as I well could be, and the postmaster said, "there was a letter came for Elder J. L. Martin the first day you came to town, but one of the students at the college took it out." Said I, "was he an elder?" "No, sir; he was a young man." "Was his name J. L. Martin?" "No, sir; it was William Martin." "What right had you to let him have my letter?--I would rather have that letter than twenty dollars." O, how sweet it was to me to get news from home! It was sweeter than honey to my taste; and it may be said of the letter of the Lord' that it was sweeter than honey. That is the/161/sense in which the book was sweet to John; he got the meaning of all the prophetic vision. But when I got my letter at last, there was some bad news in it that made me feel bitter in soul. When John had got the Lord's book all in his mind, had eaten it up, there was so much bad news for the Lord's cause that it was bitter to him. And then the angel forbade him to write it. The bitterness is partly removed when we can have some one to share it with us; but John had to bear it all alone. But the angel offered him a word of consolation.

"And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings." You must prophesy again, John; you will tell the whole matter after a while. To a few choice friends? O, no! John must preach before many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings. It makes no difference how much poor, weak mortals may say this book is of no use. John will make kings hear it, and nations tremble before his preaching. He is not going to preach in person, brother; the old man was nearly a hundred years old when he was in Patmos, and never saw a king with his natural eyes after he saw the Vision; but here are his works, and it will go and make kings listen to it yet, or else the God of heaven has made a mistake. Tongues, every language, must hear it; nations must hear and listen to it, or else the Lord told John something that is not true. He can only preach in this book; he is not here in person to do it.

But there nas something more to be accomplished in tho sound of the sixth angel's trumpet. We have not done with the sixth trumpet yet. We have revealed to us already, that all nations will be let loose to fight; that seven thunders will make known the meaning of the prophecy, and that John is to go preaching in this world before kings, and tongues, and peoples, and nations, while this sixth trumpet is sounding./162/

"And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein."

This is to be accomplished during the sound of the sixth angel's trumpet. There is to be given to the Lord's people a measuring reed to measure the temple of God. Do you know what the temple of God is? Paul said to the Corinthians, You are the temple of God--the Church. That is not a matter in controversy. The temple of God is a spiritual house, not made of timber, or brick, or stone, but of living materiels--living men and women. Rise up, John, the angel said; here is a measuring reed to measure the Church of God; and that measuring reed was to be in the hands of the Lord's people, as John represented them. And not only measure the temple, or Church of God, but measure the altar, or the worship; because the altar stands for the worship: it is so used in the scripture by Paul. He said, in speaking of the Jewish priests, They that wait in the temple are partakers of the altar; or they that wait at the altar, live of the altar; but he did not mean that they ate the altar,--it was the offerings that they dived by. And he uses the same style in his letter to the Hebrews, when he says, We have an altar of which they have no right to partake who serve in the tabernacle, the Jewish tabernacle. On that altar, he says, "we offer the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving continually; the fruit of our lips." He calls the offering the altar in both places; and so it is here. It is the offering or the worship, the sacrifice we offer, that he calls the altar. Then we have, measure the Church, measure the worship, and measure the worshipers.

In the days of this fighting with fire, smoke and brimstone, that same building of the Lord was to be reared that old Ezekiel spoke of in the fortieth chapter of his prophecy. He said he saw an angel with a reed six full/163/cubits long; and the Lord God of heaven called his attention to what he was about to show him--the measuring of the Lord's house. The old prophet said he saw the angel measure the whole building on the outside wall of it, and it was a reed long and a reed high, just the length of his measuring reed and just as high, the outside wall of the whole building. And then he measured a little chamber in the building, and that was a reed long and a reed broad, just one reed square. And then he measured eleven more on the four sides, and each of the little rooms was just a reed long, a reed broad, and a reed high. And he went on measuring little chambers in the building, and each of them was just a reed square, and the whole building on the outside wall of it, was just one reed square. And he kept on measuring, and he said that the building, as it went up, room after room, w as each one just a reed square, and yet the whole building on its outside wall was just one reed square. What a saving that would be for builders! A brother said to me, some time since, "Bro. Martin, that is a physical impossibility. To have so many rooms, each one a reed square, about twelve feet square, within an outside wall that is only that large itself, only as large as one of the rooms." But the Lord said, "Set thy heart on it." Lord grant that we may! We know that the old prophet is speaking of this very building of the Lord, that John was to measure; as the representative of the Lord's people, in the day of the fighting with firearms. Come up and measure now--the time has come--while the sixth angel sounds his trumpet.

But is it possible to rear such a building? Do we know how to get it up so as to have the whole building just a reed square, and each room in it a reed square, and hundreds of them? We will see. I thank the Lord for one thing, and that is, that we have the measuring reed. While the fighting with ignited gunpowder is going on,/164/along comes God's missionary angel, with the measuring reed, the Bible. And the whole building, the whole Church of God on earth, must be measured by it. It will not do to have the outside wall--I mean the whole family of God on earth--any wider, longer, or higher than the Bible measure. The whole family must just fill the measure, if they are right. Can you see it? And then if we have a little chamber here at Unity, and another at Cloverdale, and one more at Greencastle, and another at Bloomington, another at Millgrove, and another somewhere else, they must be just as large as the Bible measure, if they are right. And it matters not, my brother, if there are only a dozen, they must fill the Bible measure--be as large as the whole building on the outside wall. Ten thousand must be no larger than ten; ten millions of the Lord's people must not fill the measure any more than one hundred; every chamber or little congregation must be just as large as to fill the Bible measure, just as full, as the whole family of the Lord, though it may be all over the earth. And he tells us what the measuring reed is, directly; does not leave me to guess at it.

This precious old volume, that has been laid aside so long! And, sure enough, according to prediction, it comes along, side by side with the introduction of firearms. But we are to measure what, with the Bible? Why, the Church of God, and every little congregation in that Church. Not measure other measures, not try our sticks and strings that we measure with by it, but measure the building itself. It has, for a long time, been used as a kind of try-measure, to try other measures by, but that is not the use to put it to.

But does the building, as we now have it, and as men claim the building of God to be, fill John's description? Does it fill Ezekiel's description? Does every little congregation just fill one measure, take the world over? We measure .me congregation, it may he the Friend Quakers,/165/in their rules and their order, their officers and their manners; and then try another congregation, it may be the Presbyterians, the Methodists, or the Baptists--and lo! the measure does not fit them. From Mormons to Campbellites, if there are any, and there may be some, we have every shape you could possibly imagine, there are no squares, they are of every shape, nearly, that the human mind could imagine. And I a m right certain, and I will say it with the deepest solemnity, that if all the congregations in all the denominations in Christendom, have been measured with one measuring reed, it !gas been made of gum-elastic, and will stretch and bend to any shape. It has not been the one that John described; that is, like a reed, straight, and will not bend or stretch. We have the measuring reed, the Bible, given to us; and the Lord grant we may up and measure the Church, measure all its officers, measure all their duties, measure all their titles, measure just what they shall be called; and away go all the reverends. There would not be a Rev. J. L. Martin, nor a Rev. Wm. Black, or Rev. James Blankenship, or Rev. Anybody Else, beneath the sun. When we measure the Church by the measuring reed God has given us, the reverends are not in it. We would not have one arch-deacon, nor one archbishop, in all the building of God, from one end of it to the other; they are not in reach of the measure; it does not reach that far. We would not have one doctor of divinity in the whole building of our heavenly Father; the rule does not reach that far--it is not in it at all. These are mere human appendages, put in by some fallible rule that men have made. They will not be in the Church of God when it is measured by this blessed old measuring reed. Do you not think there will be a wonderful trimming and lopping off, and, it may be, a wonderful stretching out for all of us to get up to the measuring reed of every congregation? And there is no other/166/

chance for the building to go up in its beauty without the sound of the hammer, but to measure every congregation by the one measuring reed. Not measure their measures, by it, because they may be a little careless, and get up the differences that we have; but measure all with the same measuring reed, the Bible. Could uninspired men make a better? Is it too long? Is it too short? Could they arrange it any better? And when we are all measured by the Bible, and measured correctly, we will all be just alike; then the building can go up in its glory, without the sound of so much hammering.

But we have to measure not only the Church, but the altar, the worship. And when we do that, the preachers will all preach alike, the singers will all sing alike, exhorters will all exhort alike, and prayers will all be alike, and go up as sweet incense before the God of heaven. We will not have one preacher preaching a certain doctrine, and another coming along and preaching one contrary to it, while all the worship is measured by the same reed. We will not have exhortations then that come in contact and in conflict with the Word of the Lord. We will not have old fables, and animal-exciting stories, to exhort men and women to worship the Lord, by working upon their animal passions. Measure all the sermons, measure all the exhortations, measure all the songs, all the worship, and then we will not sing a thousand errors while all the songs are measured by the Bible. No; we sometimes sing conflicting doctrines now (I mean the religious world). We used to sing, and if it is right, let us sing it yet,--

"Come, thou Fount of every blessing."

Now, who is the Fount of every blessing? Every one answers, "God is the fount of every blessing." Then substitute the meaning, and say, Come God. But do what, when you come?/167/

Now, in the name of my Master, by his measuring reed, have we ever been authorized to ask the Lord to come and teach a singing-school? To sing a melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above! John said they sung a new song there, that no man on earth could learn. Better measure up a little with our singing, brother) uninspired mortals made our songs. Better try our songs by the old measuring reed, as well as our sermons and exhortations. We used to sing--

"Tis a point I long to know,
Oft it causes anxious thought:
Do I love the Lord, or no?
Am I His, or am I not?

"Lord, decide the doubtful case,
Thou who art thy people's Sun;
Shine upon thy work of grace,
If it be indeed begun."

If that fits the measuring reed, sing it; but if not, for heaven's sake, drop it. If the Lord has not decided the case, will he come to do it? Can we sing him up to make the matter any plainer than he has? We are to measure all our songs and worship by the measuring reed. But that is not all: We are to measure our prayers by it; and if we would measure every prayer by the Bible, we would not have so many strange expressions. I have never in my life read in the Bible any direction or instruction for a man to pray for the Lord to "come down just now;" but I have heard men pray it. I never, in all the measuring reed, saw the notch that would justify a man in saying, "Lord, take the congregation off to heaven to-night;" but I heard a man pray it in a large congregation. I have never found, in all the measuring reed--the Bible--any/168/thing that would, in my estimation, justify a man in prayer, saying, "Lord, take sinners by the hair of the head, and shake them over the mouth of that awful world of darkness, hell;" but I heard a man pray it. And I am not right certain, I may add, that men are justifiable in trying to flatter the God of heaven, or to influence him, by saying, "Lord, come and work for us, and get a great name for thyself,"--as though the God of heaven could be moved on to work for the sake of a distinguished name among them! I am not right certain, brethren and sisters--in the fear of my God I must say it--that we always pray according to rule. I am afraid we are selfish, that we do not pray for the things the Lord has commanded. Measure up, for heaven's sake; let us be about the work; let us measure all our worship in the Lord's house, and at our homes.

Is there anything more to be measured by the reed? Yes; it is said, measure the worshipers. It is the blessed old measuring reed that measures the congregation and the worship in ail the house of the Lord, and then measures the man that worships; tells him precisely how he has to live; tells the king his duty while on the throne--how to rule in the fear of God; tells the President of the United States precisely what he ought to do, and tells every congressman his duty. It tells the Governor of the State his obligations to God, and what his duty is; and tells every officer of the land, from the highest to the lowest, just precisely how he ought to act and how he ought to live. It tells the husband his duty to his wife and family, and tells the wife her duty to her husband and children. It tells the neighbor his duty to his neighbor; tells every man his duty--the servant to the master, and the master to the servant. It tells the child his duty to his parents, and parents their duty to their children. It leaves no one out. It measures and gives the rule by/169/which every mortal man that has an intellect may measure himself. It is a perfect rule. It is like a reed--it will not bend for our prejudices, it will not stretch for our little fancies. We have to stand up by it; and the God of heaven grant we may get to work soon. It tells when to be kind, and how to be kind; and how to bestow the fruits of our labors, and that we must condescend to persons low down in the valley of humility; and when we are fully measured up, and all that is wrong is taken away, we are ready then for lively stones in the building; and every material is fitted up by the same rule, and the worship is all as the voice of one man, and the building of God goes up in its grandeur all over the earth. And we are in that day now, when we have to begin to measure. But the Lord have mercy on us! We have not yet learned that this measuring reed is to try us; at least, some of us will make little sticks, and cut them off, only partly the length. We think this one is a little too long--one not quite as long would be handier. That will not do, for it at last will be too short at the judgment-day. Some think it is hardly long enough, and add a little to it. Then they will be unsuited for the great building at last. Some think the figures are arranged a little wrong, and that they can arrange them better; hence they make one that they acknowledge is imperfect; but they would rather measure by an imperfect rule that they have made themselves, than by one that is to try the great building of God in heaven at last. Is it not a pity? Will they not quit it?

The old measuring reed is before us. We have it as it was given to us in the days of the sounding of the sixth angel's trumpet--just as John says. "Well, you said it was the Bible." Yes; I did.

"But the court"--here is another matter I wish you to notice--"but the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles:/170/(or those that are not the Lord's people) and the holy city (he here calls the temple a city) shall they tread under foot forty and two months."

John tells us that this measuring reed that is to be used in the days of the fighting with fire-arms, shall have been out of use for forty-two months; the building is to lie in a kind of outer-court condition for forty-two months, and not to be measured by this reed. How long a time is forty-two months? In prophetic count, 1260 years. Do you not know that the Jewish month is thirty days, and thirty times forty-two make just 1260? A day stands for a year in the Book of Revelation and the prophecies. The Lord said unto Daniel, "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people," "from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince;" and we find, from Bible chronology, that it was seventy weeks of years--490 years. The Lord said to Ezekiel, "I have given you a day for a year;" and Ezekiel and John work on the same prophetic rule. There is no sense in the Book of Revelation to take a day literally, from the very fact that it would wind up the whole matter in a few short years, instead of being a revelation of the whole Christian dispensation.

That length of time--forty-two months, or 1260 years-- John tells us the Church was to be unmeasured, trampled down, and the Bible not used as a measuring reed at all. And, sure enough, history tells us it is literally true. For 1230 years of papal usurpation and tyranny, the Bible was kept in the dead languages, in the cloisters of monks and friars, and the people were not permitted to read it. It was thrown aside as a measuring reed to measure the Church; and those that professed to be Christians, but really were Gentiles, trampled down the holy city, or the Church of the living God, and they said, The voice of the Church is above the voice of the Almighty. They said more than/171/that. They said the Church was infallible, and they made their own rules, they made their own laws, and threw the old measuring reed out of the way. It is as John foretold. It was put out of the way for 1260 years, and then it was to come into use in the days of the fighting with fire and smoke and brimstone; and it is so.

"And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and three-score days, (1260 days) clothed in sackcloth." John just tells us that at the time of the sounding of the sixth angel's trumpet, when all nations are loosed to fight with firearms, that the Bible, that had been clothed in sackcloth 1260 years, is to be handed to them to measure with. How do I know the two witnesses are the measuring reed--the Bible? The Lord told me. That is all the way I know anything about it. What did he say? In Zechariah (chap. iv)--I saw two olive trees pouring the golden oil into the golden candlestick. And the old prophet said, What are these, my lord? Says one, Why do you say two olive trees? Because these two witnesses are called two olive trees in the next sentence. "And the angel answered and said, This is the word of the Lord," "not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." It was the Lord's spirit.

What are the two witnesses? The two olive trees, the two candlesticks standing before the God of all the earth. Do you not all know that the Old Testament and the New are the two witnesses for Jesus? They are his two witnesses to testify of him that every man may know that Jesus is the Lord. Take either of them out of court, and the evidence is incomplete. The prophets foretold his coming, and the apostles told of his coming. Jesus said to the Jews, "Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, (the Jewish scriptures he meant,) and they are they which testify of me."--One of the witnesses./172/

John said, The things that are written in this book, the New Testament, are written that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ. Here are these two witnesses, tho measuring reed, clothed in sackcloth, and prophecying in sackcloth, unused as a measure for 1260 years. We are living in a day when the measuring reed is in our hands; it has done with prophecying in sackcloth--the old, ugly dress is taken off it. It was clothed in a bad translation, an ugly, unsightly dress, for 1260 years, and not used as a measure at all.

"These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in like manner be killed."

If any man will hurt the Word of the Lord, the fire of God's Word is to kill him; his part will be taken out of the Book of Life, and out of the Holy City. If a man adds a word to them, the plagues written in this book will be added to him, and into the lake of fire he will go. No wonder John said, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, or from the Word of the Lord, that is to hurt the man that hurts the two witnesses. Hands off, then, from the Word of the Lord! Let me not change or mar it in the least, but measure by it.

"These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy." While these two witnesses are prophesying in sackcloth for 1260 years, there is no rain. He did not, surely, mean to say there should be a dearth of 1260 years. Rain makes the earth fruitful, makes it bring forth that which is for man's good, for man's support, literally. But John meant here, that while the Word of the Lord is lying in a sackcloth dress, unused as a measuring reed, tho earth was in this barren, famine state, religiously; that there were none of those refreshing/173/showers of God's favor upon a ruined world that would have been if the witnesses had not been cast down. The putting down of the witnesses brought on a miserable long famine of the Word of the Lord.

"And these have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will."

No man could do this. Some writers think these witnesses are Moses and Elijah. Good Lord, save us from such errors! Moses and Elijah are dead, and will never walk on this earth 1260 years again. No fire will ever proceed out of their mouths. If we make the witnesses literal, we must make the dearth literal. This is to be fulfilled and done with in the days of the fighting with fire, smoke and brimstone; the witnesses are to be alive and in the hands of the Lord's people then. There has been no literal dearth of rain from the clouds for 1260 years in any time past; but there has been a famine of the favor and grace of God, and of the knowledge of the Lord.

"And when they shall have finished their testimony," (these two witnesses) "the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit" (the king of those locusts he was speaking of) "shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies shall lie in the streets of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. And they of the peoples and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and a half and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth." They told the sinners of their sins too plainly.

But when was this slaying, this three days and a half? Not after they have finished prophesying in sackcloth./174/That were impossible; if the Bible has dropped its sackcloth dress and is given to the people in their plain mother tongue, they could not kill it then. Some think it was the French Revolution, in the days of Robespierre; some think it is yet in the future. Some think that Paris is the great city where lay the dead bodies; some think Jerusalem is the place. But the Book of God says, "In the streets of Mystery Babylon. The Papal hierarchy, which, for her great iniquity, is called "Mystery Babylon, the Great."

This Mystery Babylon the Great rules over the kingdoms of the earth, and the three days and a half that the Bible lies dead is the whole 1260 years that they were prophecying in a dead language. Why say three days and a half? Because it is necessary in order to make the picture look complete. To say they were lying dead 1260 days, would look out of order; hence he calls a whole year and a day, three years and a half--called in the next chapter, time, times and a half A parallel explains it in the next chapter--that a time and times and a half is the same length of time that 1260 days are. In the seventh chapter of Daniel's prophecy w e have the very same style-- that a time and times and a half mean 1260 days, because three years and a half are just 1260 days. And they did lie dead; they had the Bible in a dead language for 1260 years, and war was made against it from the time the testimony was complete, when they had finished giving in their evidence; and they had not finished their testimony until the last word was written, and the whole book brought together in one volume. Then the penny merchants commenced their work--commenced taking the Bible from the people, making war against it, and finally said, it shall not live; we will give it to them in a dead language: and it lay in the streets of Mystery Babylon, in the hands of her monks and friars, where her religious/175/commerce was carried on for 1260 years, and the world rejoiced over it; the people of the world were glad, because the Bible told them of their sins and their obligations to God; and now they are clear from it, now they have no restraint--all nations rejoice. They of the kindreds, tongues, peoples, and nations, rejoice over the dead witnesses, to see them lying there. But that is all. They are in ;` dead language; they will not suffer them burned. It was not the French Revolution when they buried the Bible; for in John's vision it is said they let them lie in the street; they did not bury or burn them. They never can be killed in Jerusalem, in any time to come, more completely than they have been for the past 1260 years; but at the end of the 1260 years that they lie unused' end out in the street of the great city, they come to life again. At the end of the three days and a half they rise up in the sight of their enemies, and stand upon their feet once more. And they hear a great voice from heaven, from the Lord's people, saying, "Come up"--from the Lord's Church, for the Church is called heaven, or a heavenly place. "Come up!"

When did they come to life, my brother? In the days of Luther, when Luther said, "I will go to Worms if there is a wall of fire two miles thick around it, and as many devils there as there are tiles on their housetops!" When Luther said, "The Germans shall have the scriptures in their living language," and gave it to them, it stood up once more. In the days of Luther it came to life; the spirit of life, a living language entered it, and it has been rising since, slowly mounting up in the sight of its enemies. Tho powers of darkness can not put it down. Up it goes, still rising, and the wondering world looking on, and its enemies trembling at its upward flight. The voice is still crying, "Come up;" the measure of the Lord is in/176/the hands of the Lord's people. And John said, the same hour the witnesses came to life, the tenth part of the city fell--one-tenth part of the papal power the day the Bible stood up before the people in a living language, in Germany. And since that the city has been crumbling; and seven thousand titles of men fell. That many reverends, right reverends, doctors of divinity, arch-deacons and arch-bishops, gave up their titles. They are giving them up, and will have to give them up. The witnesses are still rising; we have now the Bible to measure the church, the worship, and the worshipers. I would not barter off this blessed measure of the Lord, alive in our hands once more, for all the crooked sticks ever made by mortals; for all the stretchy measures human ingenuity ever invented, if I were certain they could make a better rule; because I would have to be judged by this and tried by it at last. If such a thing were possible, it would be a vain work, while this is the one we must be tried by at last. These did not all give up their titles at once, but finally became affrighted and gave the glory to the God of heaven

The second woe to the opposers of the Truth is past, and the third woe comes.

"And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever." The very next blast from the God of heaven upon the angel's trumpet will be, "The kingdoms of this world are the kingdoms of Christ." How long it will be, I know not. I may not live to hear the seventh angel begin to sound. I do not expect to, but I will fight for it--fight to have the building measured up with the same old measuring reed. I will tell the people it is sufficient, and that they must be/177/tried by it and judged by it at last. I will plead for tho Bible, that the building may go up in its beauty, and each chamber be just as large as the whole house.

O! for such a saving of material as this! May the God of heaven grant we may work!