"Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it."- "Despise not prophesyings."-1 THESS. v. 20. "The way to profit by reading Scripture, is to apply to ourselves that which is spoken EDINBURGH: JOHNSTONE AND HUNTER. LONDON: ROBERT THEOBALD. M. DCCC. LII. 101. c. 36.37 N.B.-Our work is twofold: The Sketch, and the several Introduc- For the sake of easy reference, we have numbered the paragraphs PREFACE. THE accompanying Sketch forms the introduction to a work which the author has prepared, and purposed to publish in two volumes. But the public ear is at present wellnigh closed to prophecy, and this divine subject is one of the least popular1 of the day. Many have written thereon, but no two writers agree, and no two readers 1 We have letters from the most experienced publishers showing the utter unpopularity of the subject. "Scarcely one of the numerous works on Prophecy published in the last two years, has paid its own expenses-nearly all have been losing concerns. On the other hand, we read in the Bloomsbury Lectures, that "the Weekly Despatch and the Northern Star, two blasphemous and revolutionary newspapers, have attained the enormous circulation of 150,000 weekly.. These, however, are exceeded in atrocity by one hundred and sixty-three different unstamped newspapers." "In Paris, during the seven years ending 1824, upwards of two millions of volumes of the works of Voltaire and Rousseau were printed. In Germany, a work appeared some time ago by H. Haire, a writer of great reputation, which the Quarterly Review informs us has created an extraordinary sensation in France and Germany. Its doctrine is, that there is no divinity but man, and that all men are gods." The Apocalypse not only explains this and all kindred mysteries, but carries with it the best and truest antidote. The Edinburgh Review for July 1850 states, "The total annual issue |