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Ulcfcfcfo. HANES YR EGLWYS GRISTIONOGOL. Gan David Morgan. 2 gyf., Splyg.—[History of the Christian Church. By David illoi-gctit-I ESBONIAD AR LYFR Y DADGUDDIAD A RHANAU 0 LYFR DANIEL. Gan David Morgan, Gweinidog yr Efengyl, yn Llanfyllin. Dolgellau: Evan Jones, 1844. 1 gyf., Splyg. [An Exposition of the book of Revelation, and portions of the book of Daniel. By David Morgan, Minister of the Gospel, Llanfyllin IIANES YMNEILLDUAETH Lq HEGWYDDORION A'I HARFER- IADAU EI DEeilREXJAD .1 CHYNYDD EI IillWYSTRAU A'I SEFYLLFA BRESNOL, YN ENWEDIG YN NGHYMRU. Gan D. Morgan, Llanfyllin. Dolgellau: Evan Jones, 1848. Hhan IL-[Ilistory of Dissent: its Essential Prin- ciples and Forms its Origin and Sitecess: its Difficulties and Present Position. By D. Morgan, Llanfyllin. Part II. 8 co.] The literature of Wales! Does it exist or not P Is it an echo of byegonc days, or is it a voice that speaks to us from the past and the present ? Have we any works that will fur- nish exercise for the head and food for the mind ? Are there any treasures in our mountain cottages, and on the shelves, or in the neat bookcases, in our farmers' houses-any works that the present and generations to come will not willingly let die ? Where are our standard works that will bear comparison with those of our neighbours over the Se- vern ? Have we any exponent's of great principles and his- torians of the greatest events that have transpired in, and have startled our world since the dawn of the Christian era ? Reader, if thou wishest for a full and satisfactory reply to these questions, go not to tsen, who indeed speak our lan- guage, but who have never explored its literature, men who are Welsh by accident, and who are ever quarrelling -with fate for being so,—go not to the wretched evidence given by skeleton patriots to hireling spies, but go and read, pon- der and think over the solid, substantial, and massive pro- duction of that old, laborious, indefatigable, and honoured Welsh minister, David Morgan, of Llanfyllin! Say then if we have no literature worthy of the name! Most of our readers are aware that Mr. Morgan has held the foremost rank in the ministry among the Independents for about forty years. He yet rcmaineth with us, and is now engaged in publishing his long promised History of Dissent, a work, for which, perhaps, no living Welshman is better adapted, so far as laborious research, fidelity, sincerity, and attached de- votion to principles are concerned. With very few exceptions, the companions of his early life" are gone, the brethren who welcomed the entrance of a giant to the ministry are de- parted but he remains to declare unto us the wonderful works of God in the mighty change which the last forty years have witnessed in the principality. The History of the Christian Church was Mr. Morgan's first great work. Just at the commencement of the IJysq- edi/dd, in 181-22, he commenced a series of papers on Church Historv, which were continued almost without interruption till 1:;28. A few years afterwards these volumes were pub- lished, and have had, we believe, an extensive sale, so that the number of the unsold copies arc not numerous. From the examination we have been able to bestow on other Church histories, we have no hesitation in saying that a better, more comprehensive, and useful work does not exist in the English language than these Welsh volumes. There is, perhaps, no branch of study that the young men-of our congregations should cultivate with greater assiduity than Church history. A thorough acquaintance with the events that have befallen the Church from the days of Christ to the present hour, would spare us many hours of anxious thought on doctrines that have long since been exploded, and about forms and ceremonies that re-appear with great pomp and majesty. The silent but sure monitions of history would teach us that there is no new thing under the sun. History, in the days of Solomon, was not so well cultivated as in our time; for by its aid there is a remembrance of former things;" and it bids fair to perpetuate the things that are, to those that are to come after. We arc now enabled to de- tect things that have been already of old time, which was before us." o It must ever be a source of satisfaction and de- light to Mr. Morgan that his divine master has so highly honoured him as to order his becoming the historian of his own Church through the long period of eighteen centuries. He has executed his work with credit to himself and so long as our language will remain, it also will remain a mo- nument of patient research, unwearied diligence, and un- quenchable devotion to right principles. The exposition on the book of Revelation, and such por- tions of the book of Daniel as are supposed by the author to have reference to the present time, is a work of great merit. In saying this we do not, of course, pledge ourselves to all the doctrines it contains, and do not expect our readers to do so. Mr. Morgan is a thorough-going Independent, and is not over-complimentary to other forms of Church govern- ment." His theory is, that the Revelation is a history of Christ and his Church. It is the counterpart of Church his- tory from the days of John to the millennium. He does not consider that it lias so much to do with civil as with ecelesi- astical matters. In expounding it he always bears in mirid the declaration of our Divine Redeemer before Pilate, My kingdom is not of this world." State Churches, therefore, as such, are not considered Churches of Christ. He will not acknowledge as Christianity those systems which are worldly and temporal in their nature. Popery he does not confine to that ecclesiastical system, the leader of which re- sides in the Vatican. It is with him not a mere name, but the incarnation of certain principles. Wherever those prin- ciples arc found embodied in an ecclesiastical form, there he finds Popery. No matter where, whether in. the Church of England or Scotland, or any other Church connected with the State, or any how demonstrating a worldly, oppressive spirit; wherever these things exist he discovers the Man of Sin," and the Mystery of Iniquity." The application of the book is not local and temporal; the principles are general and applicable in every land and every country where Christianity lives, and where the opposite principles prevail. The development of principles is with him the key of in- terpretation. He is thus enabled to fix dates in accordance with his own theory. He conceives the end of the 1260 days will take place in 1866. Then there will follow thirty days or years when the seventh angel will pour his vial unto the air, and there will come a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done;" and then, too, there will be "voices and thunders and lightnings, and there will be a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake and so great." A fearful combination of opposing powers will be formed against the Church, as well as against Civil and Religious Freedom. This will be the period when the phial will be poured, into the air," which will occasion tri- bulations, disturbances, and revolutions without parallel in the preceding history of civil and etch siastical systems. These will continue more or less for thirty years, at the end of which the beast and the false prophet, which have de- stroyed religion, and prevented every reform f, r the sake of upholding their greatness, their vorldllncss, and tyrannical power, will "be overthrown. After these things Satan will be bound in the commencement of the 4;3 years, or about the year 1890. These periods, in Mr. Morgan's opinion, coincide with the dates given in Daniel xii. 11, 12,—" And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, end the abomination that maketh desolation shall be set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is lie that waiteth and cometh to thousand three hundred and thirty-five days." Now, if we understand Mr. Morgan correctly, he divideth these dates into three periods. The 1890 days are divided into two-1260, and 30 days. The commencement of the former period he fixes at 606, when the "Man of Sin," or 13onifacc II., was actually made the head: of the Church by Phocas. These,, therefore, will carry us down to the year 18GG, and the second period must com- men.ee consequently in the same year, and extend to 1896. In this period" the seventh vial will be poured, when, accord- iac to Mr. Morgan, those kingdoms which have usurped the z, n mediatorial offices of Christ, will suffer extraordinary tribu- lation. "It is not," he says (p. 358), "improbable that troublesome times should take place, and that an unpre- cedented commotion should occur; because what power, what court, what cabinet, what throne, what kingdom, or what civil and ecclesiastical institution throughout Europe in these days, that are not preparing and exerting themselves to the utmost to withstand every measure of reform beailng the slightest indication of justice, and the religion of the New Testament. Either God must yield to the proud and stubborn world, or he must subject it by his judgments. Every moral means have failed to answer the purpose." The i forty-five years will commence, as we stated before', in the last ten years of the present century, and will extend to the year 1935, ov thereabouts1, when the glories of the millen- nium are expected to dawn. We are sorry that we cannot bestow on this excellent work the attention it deserves. It has, however, our cordial recommendation, if we may be pardoned the presumption of recommending the work of such a man as Mr. Morgan. We believe, however, that his remaining days on earth may be considerably cheered, and his descent to that bourn whence no traveller returneth be made more easy, if his friends would buy up what copies he has on hand of these two works, and give him their cordial support in the com- pletion of his History of Dissent." To the latter work we shall return again as it proceeds. Meanwhile we trust every Welsh Dissenter will endeavour to have it, as well as Mr. Morgan's other works, in his possession.

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