and so great”. And let any person read the account of the great convulsion of 1848, and he would ask them if any more fitting description could be given of those mighty movements than that of a great earthquake? They would find there had not been such a convulsion for many hundred years, and that its effects spread deeper and wider than that of 1793. They read that “the seventh vial was poured out into the air”. One of the vials was poured out upon the earth, another upon the sea, and a third upon the rivers, etc. But this in the air was suggestive of its universality; and, looking at the facts, they would find that during the last ten years they had the cholera in its most fearful form. He would say that the visitation in 1848 and 1849 of that horrible disease was not exceeded in force and fury by the worst epidemic of the middle ages. And since the great “earthquake” in 1848 there had been a series of vibrations and visitations, among which, in addition to the cholera, were the potato blight and the new disease known as diptheria. If they would look around they would see abundant evidence that the 7th vial was being poured out.
The reverend gentleman next expressed his belief that our established churches would be destroyed; he did not wish it, but he believed it would be, and he intimated that the abolition of church rates and tithes, the throwing open of cathedrals and the extempore preaching of a Bishop in Exeter Hall might be regarded as a sign of the times. The Scotch Church had already broken up; and so far from being deplored, immense good had resulted from it. He regretted that the limits of a lecture prevented his entering more largely into an explanation of the Apocalypse, but as he had been invited to lecture in Hastings, he would there have an opportunity of stating his views more fully.
Referring to the position of the Pope, Dr. Cumming observed that there were more curses on those who meddled with St. Peter’s patrimony – the Pope’s temporal power, than with his dogmas; and yet a great shock had been given by the French Emperor to the Pope’s temporalities, and the cardinals were seriously discussing the propriety of his Holiness taking up his See in Jerusalem, Rome being too hot for him. He believed that the French Emperor, so far as his own wishes were concerned, would willingly see the Pope at the bottom of the sea; but he was compelled to conciliate the priesthood of France. Before closing his lecture Dr. Cum-
