The Voice of Inspiration
ON THE
Seven Last Things of Prophecy;
OR, WHAT SAITH THE SCRIPTURES ON
Coming of
Eort f>e dto Resurrection
Satan's "iUttle @ea0oit"
of t|je 33ean Ci)e
Cf)e dFinal State*
LECTURES BY
REV. JOSEPH WILKINS,
Queen Square, Brighton.
HE THAT HATH AN EAR, LET HIM HEAR WHAT THE SPIRIT SAITH
UNTO THE CHURCHES." .
LONDON :
HAMILTON, ADAMS AND CO.
BRIGHTON W. J. SMITH, 42, NORTH STREET
1872.
BRIGHTON I
PRINTED BY JOHN FARNCOMBE,
EASTERN ROAD.
PREFACE.
USTICE demands a line or two of preface.
The author felt a necessity laid upon
him to lift up a scriptural standard against
the extraordinary vagaries which pre-millen-
arians are so zealous in circulating ; and,
if possible, to hinder in some degree their
pernicious effects. Hence these Lectures; which
were given in the ordinary course of the ministry of
the Word, and were commenced without the least
intention of their being re-produced; but, at the
earnest request of many Christian friends who heard
them, and of others who read reports of them in the
local papers, they are now printed from the original
. manuscripts, with little alterations beyond some verbal
corrections.
The reader will find here no great pretensions to
novelty, or originality of thought ; much of the reason-
ing by which the views here enunciated are sustained
may be found in the works of worthy authors who
have gone over the ground before, and to these
authors a respectful acknowledgment is here made
of the help which has been received from them.
The popular form in which productions of this kind
must of necessity be given, will preclude the expeeta-
VI. PREFACE.
tion of anything like the protracted 'and exhaustive
arguments of a large treatise. Any one who wishes
to become acquainted with such arguments, will find
them in the excellent works of Dr. Brown on "The
Second Advent," "Short arguments on the Millen-
nium," by the Rev. B. C. Young, and in the "Bampton
Lectures" for 1854 ; and much that is valuable in the,
history of the controversy may be found in the " End
of all things," by James Grant, and in the introduction
to "Thoughts on the Apocalypse," by Rev. John
Mills. To have attempted anything like an exhaustive
investigation would have rendered these lectures too
tedious for the majority of the hearers who listened to
them.
The author is glad to have the opportunity as this
Preface is going to press of expressing his pleasure
on hearing the Rev. Dr. Thomas, the Chairman of the
Baptist Union for the present year, in his opening
address call attention to the unscriptural dogmas of
pre-millennialism, and sincerely trusts that it may
help to awaken the concern of the thoughtful to the
evils with which they are fraught.
With fervent prayer that the divine blessing may
attend these few and imperfect pages, they are now
sent forth with the earnest desire that they may be
made conducive in some humblef degree to the vin-
dication of truth, and thereby to the advancement of
the Redeemer's kingdom and glory.
Queen Square, Brighton,
May, 1872.
INDEX.
Lecture I.
THE COMING OF THE LORD - - - i.
Lecture IL
THE FIRST RESURRECTION - - - 25.
t
Lecture III.
THE MILLENNIAL GLORY - - - 4 2 -
Lecture IV.
THE LITTLE SEASON OF SATAN'S LIBERTY - 63.
Lecture V.
THE RESURRECTION - - - -83.
Lecture VI.
THE JUDGMENT - - - - - 10.2.
Lecture VIL
THE FINAL STATE - - - - 124.
Lecture VIIL
CONCLUSION *47-
ERRATA.
Page 20, nth line from top, read "respecting," for "representing."
32, 3rd line from top, read "who had," for ''who has."
44, isth line from bottom, read " have," for " has."
91, isth line from top, omit " by."
96, ist line, read " accounted worthy."
102, isth line from top, read " life " for " live."
141, i4th and igth lines irom bottom, omit parenthetical signs.
LECTURE I.
"THE COMING OF THE LORD."
Delivered on. Sunday Evening, Dec. 17, 1871.
" For the Son of man shall come in the glory of His
Father with His angels; and then He shall reward
every man according to his works.
Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here,
which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of
man coming in His kingdom."
Matt xvl 27, 28.
T is well known to all persons who are ac-
quainted with the religious world, that the
Second Advent of our Lord has claimed
considerable, and, I may add, increasing
attention, during the past few years ; and that a
variety of doctrines of the most novel and extra-
ordinary character have been advocated in connection
therewith, -whilst the widest diversity of opinion that
could possibly be imagined still exists upon this
subject among the people of God. Hence it becomes
the duty of every Christian to study carefully the
word of truth that he may know the mind of the Spirit
upon the points in question, and thereby be guided in
his aspirations and service in the Kingdom of our
Lord Jesus Christ ; especially as this controversy is
constantly cropping up in lectures, sermons, and in
private conversation, on every hand, and the simple
and unwary are easily caught in the meshes of sad
2 IMPORTANT STUDY.
delusion, from which many of them never get released.
With a view of leading your minds to this study, and
of trying to guide you in your conclusions therein, I
enter upon the Course of Lectures I have announced.
I have no doubt but some of my hearers will think
it very undesirable to" devote these precious Sabbath
evenings to such a study of controversy; but let
them not forget that the subjects we are about to
discuss are of the most sacred character, and of the
deepest moment, and are such as Paul, and the rest
of the Apostles, were ever ready to argue, and fear-
lessly to defend. Besides, it is not my intention to
fill up these sacred hours with bare controversy, but
I rather hope to make these seasons special occasions
for presenting the solemnities of the Gospel, and the
claims of the Lord Jesus, to every man who hears
me ; and let it be remembered, that if we are
silent upon these questions, those who hold views
directly opposed to the New Testament are not silent,
but are constantly sowing seeds, which are yielding
the most prolific and painful harvest. As I conscien-
tiously believe that pre-millennialism is a dangerous
delusion, I am bound, as a minister of Christ, to set
forth the truth in opposition thereto, which I conceive
to be a sufficient apology for the work I have under-
taken. It will be readily admitted that some truths
are more important than others, as some are vital and
saving, whilst, in point of salvation, some are non-
essential. Still, all truth is precious, and that Chris-
tian is not " thoroughly furnished " who neglects any
part of it. I hold, however, that the present question
is not simply whether these doctrines are essential or
non-essential, but rather, what is the effect of .these
pre-millennial novelties upon the Church of God.
Every one who has been initiated into the subtleties
of this controversy knows well that an entirely new
method of interpretation of Scripture is involved
therein, and an utter abandonment of the hope in-
spired by the great commission and promise of Christ.
The word of God and the honor of our Divine Lord
both demand, that, by the preaching of the Gospel, the
PRE-MILLENARIAN ASSUMPTION. 3
earth shall be filled with the knowledge ,of truth and
righteousness, so that thereby all the world may see
the salvation of our God. But pre-millenarians re-
pudiate this gracious design, and tell us that the
Gospel has done all, or nearly all, it can do, 1 and that
"the Church forgets her own calling" when "she
proposes indeed to convert the world/' 2 Any system
of exposition which demands such fearful and God
dishonouring sentiments as these, deserves to be
classed with the most advanced infidelity, and ought
to be repudiated by every mind that has ever heard of
the love of Jesus, and of the triumphs of the Cross.
I have no doubt but that in attempting to .expose
the unsoundness of these views I shall lay myself
open to the charge of ignorance, which is usually
brought against post-millenarians. There can be no
question but that a great amount of ignorance still
prevails among professing Christians upon bible truth
in general, and, perhaps, specially upon the subjects
before us j but that a refusal to receive the dogmas of
pre-millenarians is any sign of ignorance I utterly
deny j and to use this charge, as is often done, as a
weapon against us, is an assumption on the part of
our opponents, which neither gives dignity to the men
who make it, nor support to the cause they have es-
poused, as it is quite as weak in argument on one
side as on the other. Whether there be anything in
the system we. are about to review to entitle its advo-
cates to any special claim to intellectual greatness, we
shall probably be better able to judge at the conclu-
sion of our labours. I simply make the allusion to
the assumption I have mentioned, to intimate that I
am fully prepared for anything in .this direction.
I am also fully aware that the task I have assigned
to myself has nothing of the sensational, nor of novelty
in it, as I have nothing new to bring to excite the
credulous, nor to draw upon the unbridled imagina-
tion of visionary minds. Indeed, we do not desire
any new thing; for if we can receive the truth taught
by Scripture, the truth upon which the Church of
(i) Rev. C. Molyneux. (2) Plain Papers.
4 MEANING OF WORDS.
God has lived, and by which it has been stimulated
these eighteen hundred years, we shall find no need of,
as we shall find no room for, the vain notions of our
fellow-men.
In speaking of some of the sentiments I have to
combat as " novel," I do not wish to convey the idea
that pre-millennialism is a new thing. From the days
of Papias, who flourished at the end of the first and
the beginning of the second centuries, there have been
a few here and there who have believed in the " per-
sonal reign " of Christ on the earth, but the belief has
often been connected with intellectual weakness and
fanaticism, and, till within modern times, has never
embraced a large portion of the vagaries now main-
tained. Therefore, though some features of these
views are old, we are perfectly justified in representing
much which surround them as the novel inventions of
modern years.
Perhaps, in this introduction, I ought to make a re-
mark or two upon the meaning of certain words which
are frequently used in this controversy ; and I do this
the more freely, as I have found several persons during
the past few days, who, though they perfectly under-
stood the prefixes pre and post, did not know to what
they specially alluded. "Millennium," as most persons
know, means a thousand years, and in theology is
applied to that period mentioned in the twentieth
chapter of Revelation, when Satan is to be bound,
and righteousness to prevail in the earth. Any person,
then, who believes in that thousand years, is a
millenarian, whatever may be his views concerning
the method by which its happiness shall be secured.
It becomes necessary, therefore, to use some other
definition to distinguish the two classes of Christians
who are divided upon this subject, and, as the great
question upon which they divide is whether the Lord
will come personally BEFORE the millennium or AFTER
it, these two prefixes are all that are required to mark
the distinction. A pre-millenarian, then, is one who
believes that Christ will come bodily, or personally,
before the thousand years, and will indeed so reign
THE TOPIC. 5
throughout that period ; whilst a post-millenarian
believes that Christ will not come personally till after
those days of righteousness, which he believes will be
brought about by the spiritual reign of Christ, that is,
by the present dispensation of preaching and gospel
ordinances. It is not uncommon to speak of pre-
rnillenarians as " millenarians " simply, and post-
millenarians as " ###-millenarians ; but this is not
just, as the latter, as strongly as the former, believe in
the thousand years.
I shall earnestly endeavour in these Lectures to
speak the truth in love, though I speak frankly and
decidedly, as I feel strongly ; and if any one differs
from me, whilst I shall be sorry that he is entangled
in the opposite theories, I shall freely allow him the
same privilege that I claim for myself, that is, to
believe what he conscientiously thinks before God and
men.
THE TOPIC FOR THIS FIRST LECTURE is
"THE COMING OF THE LORD."
And what a wonderful thought does this unfold to us
for contemplation. Surely nothing could exceed it in
grandeur and importance', whether we consider the
majesty of the Lord Himself, or the objects He has in
view in visiting us. When we remember how the in-
habitants of the earth have generally despised and
rejected the Most High, we see sufficient reason for
His coming to judgment; but that any other idea
than vengeance could be connected with His visits to
men is indeed a wonder of wonders ; and yet the
brightest hopes of tens of thousands of Adam's sons
and daughters ,have, for many generations, been
gathering around " the coming of the Lord."
This fact applies to both dispensations to that of
the Old Testament, and to this of the New ; for it is
the burden of each, though differing widely in its
character, according to the promises of grace upon
which these aspirations have been based. It is deeply
interesting to observe that this one thought, " the
6 LORD'S COMING, THE
coming of the Lord," has always been held up to the
eye of faith by the hand of a loving and gracious God.
No sooner was the curse let in by man's disobedience
than the great Jehovah promised the Strong Deliverer,
who should come and roll back the curse, and bruise
the Usurper's head; and this one divine hope was
never allowed to die out until it was accomplished by
the Incarnate Saviour. There were seasons of dark-
ness and, humanly speaking, seasons of despair ; but,
amid the deepest gloom, the finger of promise pointed
to the Morning Star. How beautifully this was seen in
connection with the captivity in Babylon. The ten tribes
of Israel had been completely swept away, and for about
one hundred and forty years had been scattered as chaff
before the wind, and now Nebuchadnezzar comes to
clear the Land of Promise of the remaining two tribes of
the Holy Seed. For hundreds of years, yea, for more
than a thousand years, the Great Promise had been
deposited with Abraham and his heirs, and had been
limited to Isaac, to Jacob, and then to Judah ; and
for more than three hundred years it had been further
limited to the house of David. But now all is dark,
and apparently hopeless ; the last of David's repre-
sentatives on the throne is driven from his palace and
city, and dragged to Riblah, where, after seeing his
children slain, his own eyes are put out, and he is
sent a blind vassal to Babylon, and his city is
destroyed, and all his people are captives and slaves.
Was it any wonder that, at such a time, the old enemy
should triumph, and prompt his emissaries to taunt
the children of Judah with the sceptical question
" Where is your God ? " or, " Where is the promise of
His coming ? " Nor was it to be wondered at that
the poor captives should hang their harps upon the
willows, and weep in bitterness as they remembered
Zion. But had the Lord forgotten His promise ? and
would He be gracious no more ? Far be it from Him.
For more than a hundred years before the trial came
He had directed Isaiah to prepare the sweetest words
of comfort, and to assure the people, that walked in
darkness and the shadow of death, that they should
HOPE OF ALL SAINTS. 7
yet see a great Light For though they were grie-
vously afflicted, the Child of Promise should yet be
born, and the Son of Consolation be yet given, whose
Name should be called the Wonderful, the Counsellor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prime of
Peace; and whose Government upon the Throne of
David should be one of righteousness and. peace which
should never end. Could anything be more assuring
and confirming than this promise amid the tears and
reproaches of that cruel bondage ? Surely nothing ;
though its fulfilment was yet five hundred years
distant. But the fulness of time was at length com-
pleted, and the Lord came to His temple, and the
long promised redemption was accomplished; and
, devils and men united in their testimony that He was
the Son of God.
But again He is about to withdraw, and the very-
announcement of His departure fills His disciples with
woe, some of whom even say one to another, " Let us
go and die with Him ; " as though the world would
be but a hopeless chaos if He were gone. Yet once
more how assuring is the promise, " The Son of man
shall come again, and He will receive you to Himself. "
Yea, He will come in His kingdom, He will come and
even dwell with the disciple that loves Him; yea,
still more, He will come and punish this nation, and
at length will finally come to judgment amid the glory
of His Father and His holy angels. What wonderful
words are these ! words upon which the eye of faith
should ever look, and upon which the heart of the
believer should ever rest ; and, indeed, are the words
upon which the Church has lived, more or less, from
that day till this. So that, like that of the old testa-
ment Church, our hope is in the coming of the Lord ;
and thus, from Adam till now, the watch-word of faith
has been, " The Lord shall come, and blessed are all
they that wait for Him."
So far, few, if any, pre-millenarians would demur to
my statements. It is only when we come to analyse
the words and meaning of our Lord that we begin to
diverge.
8 DOUBLE MEANING.
I have selected this text, made up of two consecutive
verses, to show that we have to be careful not to
confound scripture by making it bend to one line of
interpretation. How do you suppose our mod'ern
teachers would have explained these two verses had
they have been in Judea after our Lord's Ascension ?
I have no hesitation in believing that they would have
assured their hearers that the Lord would come in the
glory of His Father and of His holy angels, before all of
the men then living would be called away. For in both
verses the "Son of man" is promised to come; and in
the latter, He is promised to come during the life-time
of some of the Lord's audience. Yet, supposing this
line of argument to have been adopted, could any-
thing have been more unsafe or unsound ? As a fact,
we know that the Lord has not yet come according to
the twenty-seventh verse ; and, as a fact, we equally
know that He has come according to the twenty-eighth
verse, for all who heard Jesus speak have been in
their graves for at least seventeen-hundred years.
What, then, are we to understand by the " Coming of
the Son of man " ? I shall presume that no one will
doubt that the Lord Jesus is alike meant in both
verses by "THE SON OF MAN." Taking that for
granted, I answer : These two comings are as diverse the
one from the other as any two events can possibly be; and
not only so, but you have to follow two different lines
of interpretation to make anything of them. The
first the twenty-seventh verse is to be understood
literally, The Lord's coming in person. The second
twenty-eighth verse is to be understood figuratively,
The Lord's coming in some way during the first
century of the Christian era. Now if this be so, then
we have here a key to unlock many mysteries about
the use of this sentence, "The coming of the Lord!'
And I may safely assert, that no one can disturb the
proposition I have here laid down concerning this
two-fold passage of God's Word.
With the light of this double meaning, it remains for
us now to try and read the book of God so as to guide
our hopes and expectations concerning the Lord's
PERSONAL COMING. 9
promises, whether they relate to our present life, or
future glory.
Let me observe
I. That there is hanging over this dispensation, as
there was over the past, a glorious promise of the personal
coming of the Lord and Saviour. From Eden to
Bethlehem the promise of the Lord's coming was the
glory of the prophets, and the beauty of the sacrifices ;
as it was also the joy of Patriarchs, Priests, and Kings,
who by faith saw His day and were glad. Yet in many
respects how uncertain and indefinite did that promise
appear. Sometimes His coming was described as that
of a Priest, sometimes as that of a King. Here He is
set forth as a reigning Lord, there as a suffering man.
This prophet says, " He is the desire of the nations."
That one says, " He shall grow up as a tender plant,
and as a root out of a dry ground in which there is no
comeliness." In this passage He cries out, " My God,
my God, why hast Thou forsaken me ? " In another,
He exclaims, " The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me t
because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings
to the meek, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim
liberty to the captive, and the opening of the prison to
them that are bound" Now with all these apparently
contradictory descriptions it was no wonder if some of
the Old Testament saints exclaimed, like the Eunuch,
"Of whom spake the prophets these things?" Yet
though they were then very difficult to be under-
stood, it is now clear that they related to the first
coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And
since His coming, all are easily explained.
So also from Bethany, where Jesus parted with His
disciples, to the last great day, we have the promise of
a personal coming graciously hanging over us ; and
here, as in the former case, there may be much that is
hard, and difficult ; yet even where we cannot unravel
the mystery, we can firmly believe in the promise that
" He shall come the second time without sin unto salva-
tion" and then, what appeared difficult before will be
made as plain as were the apparent contradictions in
His first coming.
10 TWO ADVENTS.
Now these two comings of our Lord are set forth as
the first and second coming, and both are personal, and
there is never a third coming mentioned, as the
appearing of the great God and our Saviour. Person-
ally, then, the world had the promise of two advents of
the Lord, and the fulfilment of the first is a sure
pledge of the fulfilment of the second. Did any
sceptical Jew say, " How can a Virgin bear a Son ? "
the only answer would have been " The day shall de-
clare it." Did another doubter enquire, " How can a
child be the Mighty God?" the same answer would
have sufficed. And now, as we see how all these
mysteries were made plain, can we doubt the truth of
His promise, " The Son of man shall come in the
glory of His Father and with His angels" 1 ! The
mystery was greater for God to be manifested in the
flesh, than it will be for the Man Christ Jesus to be
manifested in the clouds of heaven with power and
great glory. The last time when He came it was
Deity veiled, and men scorned Him ; the next time
it will be Humanity glorified, and before Him
the scoffers shall tremble, and the sceptic shall
quail. The first time when Christ came, He came the
Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, bearing our
infirmities, and being wounded for our transgressions,
and, by the Divine Father, was made an offering for
sin. The second time when He comes, He will come
without a sin-offering, to perfect the complete salva-
tion of God's whole elect. Do you, look back with
faith on what He was, and what He did ? Then you.
may look forward with joy to what He will be, and
what He will do at the day of His coming. Do you
treat His first visit with contempt and discredit ? You
will not so treat His second. Judas, and Herod, and
Pilate, and the Counsel of the Jews, all played false
when last He was here ; but none of them will play
false when He comes with His Father's glory
and His holy angels. Does the Church go back to
the Cross for the open fountain to cleanse from sin
and uncleanness? She also looks forward to the
glory-cloud and the heavenly throng for the con-
FERVENT ASPIRATIONS II
summation of her hope and the fulness of her bliss.
Did Abraham, one thousand eight hundred and
seventy years before the Incarnation, look with joyful
eyes to Immanuel's day? We, with tenfold more
delight, can look forward to His second day, when by
all the redeemed He shall be welcomed and adored,
no longer as the despised Nazarene, but as the "Judge
of quick and dead," and as the glorious Redeemer of
His Body the Church. Are any ashamed of Him
now, whilst His Name is every day blasphemed, and
His Kingdom is slow in its triumphs, and often para-
lyzed in its progress ? Of such He will be ashamed,
when, before His Father, He will confess the names of
His faithful and loving disciples !
Let it not be supposed that/^-millenarians are cold
and indifferent about our Lord's coming, or that our
knowledge that we shall not remain in the body to see it
diminishes our interest therein. Was Abraham disinter-
ested in the Seed in which the world should be blessed
because he knew that he should not live on the earth
to behold It ? Was David cold and indifferent about
the coming of Him who was to be his Son 'and Lord
because a thousand years were lying between him and
that event ? Far from it. Though he knew he was going
to the grave without the sight, yet by faith he leaped
over, all the intervening distance, and with glowing
fervour he addresses Him as though He were near.
Listen to his adoring language. "THOU ART FAIRER
THAN THE CHILDREN OF MEN ; GRACE IS POURED INTO
THY LIPS : THEREFORE GOD HATH BLESSED THEE FOR
EVER. GIRD THY SWORD UPON THY THIGH, MOST
MIGHTY, WITH THY GLORY AND THY MAJESTY. AND
IN THY MAJESTY RIDE PROSPEROUSLY, BECAUSE OF
TRUTH AND MEEKNESS AND RIGHTEOUSNESS; AND
THY RIGHT HAND SHALL TEACH THEE TERRIBLE
THINGS." These fervid words were not the utterance
of an unintelligible inspiration ; but they were words
that came boiling from the heart of David, and yet he
knew he should never live to see the Christ-king of
whom he spake. Now, mark you, that was a thousand
years before the Saviour came. We, to-day, are at
12 OF POST-MILLENARIANS.
least a thousand years before He will come the second
time, and yet, with the same ardour and glow of heart
as David felt, we can leap over the distance and sing
" Put Thy bright robes of triumph on,
And bless our eyes, and bless our ears j
Thou absent love, Thou dear unknown,
Thou fairest of ten thousand fairs.
Hark ! how Thy saints unite their cries,
And pray, and wait the general doom ;
Come Thou, the soul of all our joys !
Thou, the desire of nations, come ! "
Should any person suppose that this language is
inconsistent with our views of a post-millennial advent,
we reply, the author did not think so, for he was a
post-millenarian, nor are these words more unnatural
than were those of David a thousand years before the
Incarnation. Was Isaiah cold or indifferent when
he called upon the people thus, "Arise, shine;
for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen
upon thee?" or when he said, "How beautiful upon
the mountains are the feet of Him that bringeth good
tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tid-
ings of good, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto
Zion, Thy God reigneth ? " Was not the Prophet, in
his heart of hearts, realizing the thing as near, though
he knew from other prophecies he had uttered that
long distances lay between him and the time when
these things should be ? and if he could feel all that
inspiriting joy seven hundred years before the event,
may not we feel a like joy, though hundreds of years
may yet pass before our anticipations are realized?
The fact is, we look down the future ages as upon a
beautiful landscape, in which is seen the rising ground,
the hillock, and the mountain heights, the highest peak
of which is the farthest off; yet that is so bathed with
light, and gilded with noon-day beams, that the eye is
instinctively drawn to it, and the admiration of the
heart is won by its splendour. Still that does not
destroy the fact, that many a hill and dale are lying
between that peak of glory and the spot upon which
we stand. We stand here to-day, and taking the map
IMPATIENCE. v 13
of inspiration, and spreading it out before us, we get a
"bird's-eye" view of the future. We see many a hill
and vale yet between us and the end; but yonder,
rising above all, is "the coming of our Lord," and that
is the most glorious point of attraction to which our
aspiration burns, for there we see the grand climax of
our redemption, which is ready to be revealed in the
last times. Still we dare not forget that we and the
Church of Christ have yet to tread the path that leads
to that consummation ; and, in so doing, there are yet
some steeps to climb, some valleys to pass, and,
thanks be unto the Lord, some healthful and pleasant
high lands to enjoy, surpassing in beauty anything the
pilgrim-church has yet met with; and much as we long
for the final summit, we must not repine at the way
that leads thereto.
This hope is the great question of controversy
between the two classes of millenarians, to which we
have alluded this evening. There is a kind of Eve-
like impatience about our brethren on the other side
which is most unhealthy and deceiving. You will
remember that the mother of us all had no sooner
given birth to a son than she exclaimed, "/ have
gotten a man, the Lord; " meaning, that the promise
was fulfilled, and that the Deliverer who should bruise
the serpent's head had come, and that the curse -should
now be stayed. Poor woman ! how great was her
delusion, as she bitterly proved, when the lifeless
corpse of her second son lay stretched upon the cold
ground by the cruel hand of that very Cain. The
like impatience seems to have possessed the breasts of
some other antediluvians ; but there was some excuse
for .them, as the pen of inspiration had not at that
time sketched the intervening distance. The same
excuse cannot be pleaded since the revelation of God
has been completed. For now we not only know .
that Jesus shall come again, but we also' know that
much has to be done to prepare the way of His
coming ; and it is neither ignorance nor indifference
that teaches us "to work, and to wait, till these things
be accomplished.
14 VARIOUS COMINGS.
Having thus briefly given an idea of our faith and
hope in the personal and visible coming of our Lord,
I come to notice
II. That the final Advent of our Lord does not com-
pass all the promises made of His coming.
From what I have already said, no one can doubt
our warm appreciation of the Second Advent. Yet
that is the consummation only. And our text shows,
that when He speaks of His coming, our Lord does not
always mean that final appearing, nor does He even
mean a personal or visible coming in any sense in
which these terms are generally understood. These
terms, " The coming of the Son of man," and " The
coming of the Lord," are most comprehensive, in-
deed, they are concrete terms, embodying in them-
selves the whole of Christ's visits to the sons of men,
whether those visits are in judgment or in mercy,
whether they are spiritual, figurative, or personal. To
take them, therefore, and to apply them exclusively to
the last of these, is to destroy the teaching of the
Holy Spirit, and to throw the scriptures into the
greatest confusion.
In respect to the Divine promise, we resemble the
former dispensation. It has been shown that over
the Old Testament saints the one promise of the
personal coming of the Lord hung for four thousand
years ; yet that promise of an incarnate coming was
but one among a hundred comings with which they
were threatened, or of which they had the promise.
The Old Testament is full of illustration of this fact.
The Israelites in Egypt were justified in expecting the
Lord's coming to them, for promise had long been
made to them to that effect ; and, at length, in the
midst of their cruel bondage, Jehovah sends the mess-
age, "I AM COME down to deliver you" and He came ;
but the great promise of Immanuel was certainly not
included or fulfilled in that coming. Again, Jehovah
threatened Babylon (Is. xiii.) with His coming, declar-
ing that the sun, moon and stars should be darkened at
that time, and at length He came, and the political
heavens of Chaldea were clothed with night, and all
AT PENTECOST. 1 5
her great men fell to the ground. But that visitation
had nothing directly to do with the gracious promise of a
coming Redeemer ; nor could the birth of Jesus have
fulfilled that prediction to Babylon. It would be
utterly impossible to instance the numerous passages
in which the Lord announces His coming to Israel
and Judah, which comings were altogether distinct
from, and were not fulfilled by, the Saviour's incarna-
tion and life on earth. Among the grandest poetry
of the Hebrew bards are those psalms which speak
of the Lord's coming at different periods of Israel's
history. Perhaps the prayer of Habakkuk and the
eighteenth Psalm are sufficient proof of this. Nothing
could be more majestic, and overwhelmingly grand,
than those descriptions of the coming of Jehovah to
His people, and yet there was no intention to describe
in these either \hefirst or second Advent of our Lord.
And this. is exactly what we find in the new dispensa-
tion. There are numberless events mentioned in the
New Testament, in which the coming of the Lord is
the great acting power, or the attractive centre, and
yet the events to which I' allude are altogether prior
to the return of the Redeemer from heaven, and have
nothing whatever to do with it. Does anyone ques-
tion this ? Look
(1) At our text, the twenty-eighth verse " There be
some standing here which shall not taste of death till
they see the Son of man coming in His kingdom? For
our present purpose it will matter but little what in-
terpretation is here adopted, whether the day of
Pentecost is supposed to fulfil this prediction, which,
however, seems too near to answer to the implied
distance of time as it evidently implies that most of
those who heard Jesus would be in their graves before
the event, or whether the coming of Christ in judg-
ment against Jerusalem is accepted as the meaning.
One thing is certain, it was a different coming from
the personal advent, which we know is yet future, and
hence that future coming could not fulfil this. But
(2) Look at the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew,
and the corresponding chapters in Mark and Luke, in
1 6 TO JERUSALEM.
which the " Son of man" is seen coming in the clouds
of heaven with power and great glory, and the sun is
darkened, and the moon withholds her light, and the
stars fall from heaven. Surely this must be the
second advent ! Verily it is not; for our Lord assured
the people who heard him, that the generation then
living should not pass away till all these things had
taken place. Read His own words, "Verily, I say
unto you, this generation shall not pass away till all
these things be fulfilled." "This, on the face of it,"
says Dr. Brown in his critical commentary, "is so
decisive, that those who think the prophecy refers to
the second coming of Christ, and the final Judgment,
are obliged to translate the words ' This (Jewish)
nation] or ' This (human) race, shall not pass away,'
&c. But besides that, this is quite contrary to the
usage of the word. Just think how inept a sense is
brought out by translating ' this race/ for who could
require to be told that the human family would not
have passed away before certain events occurred
which were to befall the human race? And how
pointless is the other sense, that the Jewish nation
would not be extinct before those events ! Whereas,
if we understand the words in their natural sense
that the generation then running should see all those
predictions fulfilled, all is intelligible, deeply impor-
tant, and according to literal fact."
The language is very strong here, but it is not
stronger than some of the older descriptions of the
Lord's .coming in vengeance upon Babylon, 1 Egypt, 2
Idumea, &c. ; 8 and, therefore, as the plan and general
use of language demands that it should be fulfilled
within the first century of the Christian era, we have
no escape from the conclusion but that it was so ful-
filled, without, however, the glorified humanity of our
Lord being visible, and without His coming in any
other way than in judgment against the Jews, and for
which coming He specially prepared His followers, that
they might escape the vengeance in that terrible hour.
(i) Isaiah xiii. Isaiah xxxiv. (2) Ezekiel xxxii.
(3) Psalm xviii.
SECRET VISITS. 17
And so well did they understand it as applying to
themselves, that they literally fled from the danger as
their Lord had bidden them. 1 But
(3) Our Lord promised another kind of coming, in
which He would secretly manifest Himself to His
loving disciples amid the care and anxiety of this
present life. Hear what He says, " If any man love
Me, he will keep My words ; and My Father will love
him, and We will come unto him, and make our abode
with him." 3 These words are very emphatic and full
of importance, and they help us to see what a depth
of meaning there is in " the coming of the Lord/'
Indeed, had we a full conception of His coming, we
should be ever on the alert for Him, not in His second
advent simply, but in the many ways in which He has
promised to visit us. He is constantly coming like the
light of day, cheering and blessing the children of men.
Does any one say the sun does not visit us because it
is ninety-five millions of miles distant? Let him, it
won't deprive you of the enjoyment. You sit in your
room ; 'tis dark, for the morning has not yet come ;
but you watch and wait for it; and gradually the
light breaks upon your eyes, and as gradually
the sun rises over the eastern hills, and over your
neighbouring housetops, and kindly smiles in at
your window, and you feel and know that the
sun has verily and truly come to you, and all
the scientific arguments of astronomers could not
rob you of that visit. Just so is it with the
Christian mind : it is dark and dreary, but the soul
waits on God yea, "more than those that wait for the
morning." Nor does the believer wait in vain. The
loving Redeemer responds to the cry, and leaping
over all the mountains which have been piled between
He again comes, and His presence brings light, and
joy, and/m^f, and that man knows that the Lord has
come, yes, has verily and truly. come to him; nor
could all the arguments of men dissuade him from the
(i) " There is reason, "-says Mr. Barnes, "for believing that not one Chris-
tian perished in the destruction of Jerusalem They 'fled to
Pella, where they dwelt when the city was destroyed."
(a) John xiv. 23.
1 8 AT DEATH.
fact that the Sun of Righteousness had arisen with
healing in His wings. Would you shut off this visit of
mercy as not included in "the coming of the Lord"?
In doing so, you would deny the Saviour's own words,
and cheat your soul of real joy. But
(4) The Lord promised to come and receive His
followers at death. "And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself;
that where I am, there ye may be also" And did not
these disciples expect the coming as here promised ?
They were told that they should be hated for Christ's
sake, and should be KILLED in His cause by cruel per-
secutors; therefore they did not expect that His coming
would save them from dying : when, then, did they
expect Him to fetch them home ? There can be but
one answer to this question : they expected Him at the
time of their departure to conduct them to the man-
sions which He had prepared, nor were they deceived.
Take the case of Stephen as an illustration. This first
Deacon of the Christian Church was full of the Holy
Ghost and of faith, and was honoured as the first
martyr for Christ. In his defence he declared that he
saw the heavens opened, and "the Son of man" stand-
ing on the right hand of God. This so enraged his
persecutors that they ran upon him with one accord,
and cast him out of the city, and stoned him. But is
he alone amid the pelting storm and wicked blasphemies
of the populace ? No ! he is not alone. Jesus, who
had before promised to come and to receive His
disciples, is there ; and confidently the martyr commits
himself to Him, in these ever-memorable words, ''Lord
Jesus, receive my spirit" Can any Christian call this
in question as being one among the tens of thousands
of cases in which the promise of Jesus has been ful-
filled ? and has it not always furnished the faithful with
a proof of the fulness and integrity of that consoling
promise of our departing Lord, amid the last moments
of this earthly frailty, and the first scenes of the invisible
world ? To deny this would be to run counter to the
spiritual instincts of the Church of God, and to quench
the light which cheers the saint in prospect of the
TO CHASTISE. 19
valley of the shadow of death ; for are not thousands
to-day living in the joyful hope of being thus visited
and received ? But
(5) In the Epistles to the Churches in the second and
third chapters of Revelation we have another view of
our Lord's coming. The Saviour, several times in these
two chapters, threatened to come to those churches who
were declining or disobedient, unless they repented
and did their first works. That He came to them,
and removed their candlestick out of its place, no one
can doubt, as he looks upon the ruins of the cities in
which these churches dwelt. Now in all these several
instances which might have been greatly multiplied
we have abundant proof of the Lord's coming in Gospel
times, without, however, coming in what is understood as
a personal or visible form; and with these indisputable
facts before us, we must be careful not to lay down any
arbitrary rules which would limit "the coming of the
Lord" to any one favourite visitation. I have tried to
show that we have one, and only one, more personal
coming hanging over this 'dispensation ; and I think we
shall see, in this course of lectures, that that Advent
cannot take place for more than a millennium yet to
come ; and, therefore, with earnest and holy affections
do I entreat you, in the language of Paul upon this
very subject not to be led away by any false teaching,
"Now we beseech you brethren, by the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto
Him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled,
neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us,
as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive
you by .any means"^ Now if it was right for the
Thessalonians to feel sure after this that the day of the
Lord could not come until certain foretold events had
taken place, it is just as right for us to feel assured
that He will not come till other events which have since
been revealed, as intervening, have also occurred; and
hence we ought not to expect that day till after these
events have come and gone.
(i) 2 Thessalonians ii. i 3.
20 POST-MILLENNIAL VIEWS
But I shall be asked, Will not this view of such great
distance lead men to carelessness, and the old cry, "The
Lord delayeth His coming" ? Never, if His truth is
faithfully stated. Which, I ask, is the most likely to
do evil in the world, and to lead to scepticism, and
carelessness, to make false representations, and to be
always crying "the Lord is coming" when He is not, or
to state the truth, though that should place Him ever
so distant ? " It is worthy of remark," says Dr. Urwick,
" that the only errors mentioned in the New Testament
representing the time of our Lord's coming all consist in
dating it too early" The Dr. then gives us several
examples ; here is one, " The case of the servant,
represented as saying, ' My lord delayeth his coming.'
The servant had taken up a wrong impression of the
date when his master was to be looked for, and, as his
master did not show himself according to that false
date, the servant, instead of distrusting his own under-
standing, memory, or calculation, as the case might
be, acted on the assumption that his master would not
come as had been promised, and so acted to his ruin." 1
I have tried to prevent you who hear me from making
any such fatal mistakes as this wicked servant made,
whilst, at the same time, I have endeavoured to impress
upon you the certainty that the Lord will come as the
Judge, and awful, indeed, will be the day of His
coming. Nor is it, for any practical purpose, far dis-
tant from any of us, seeing that when we die, time
with us will for ever cease. I have also shown you that
we are encompassed about with many promises and
threats of His coming in other senses; and concerning
these other visits, He bids us to watch, and to watch
always. The Saviour never bade His disciples to
expect His final coming in their day ; but whenever
He cautioned them to watch and to be ready it was
for some other coming which was near at hand. Nor
does He bid us to watch for His immediate coming in
the clouds of heaven ; for to us it is certain that that
event will not happen for at least a thousand years after
(i) Second Advent, pp. 46 47.
NO ARGUMENT FOR INDIFFERENCE. 21
we are in our graves. May I not become indifferent,
then? Not for a moment, for He tells me He is
coming in other ways, and I know not a moment but
He may be here.
" So I am watching quietly every day,
And looking unto the gates of His high palace
Beyond the sky ;
For I know He is coming shortly
To summon me.
And when the shadows fall across the window
Of the room
Where I am working my appointed task,
I lift my head to watch, and ask
If He is come,
And the Spirit answers softly
In my room
Only a few more shadows, and
HE WILL COME."
And, with the full knowledge that He may come and
summon me any moment, how can I be careless, or do
other than watch for His coming? How oft, indeed,
does He come, and His visits cheer us on our weary
way ! In this congregation there may be some troubled
heart longing for a glimpse of His face ; and, it may
be, whilst I am speaking, He may come to that
mourner, and turn his sorrow into joy. There may be
another here, careless and impenitent,- who has never
really been moved by judgment, nor mercy; the threats
of Jesus awake no fear, and the promise of Jesus stirs
no emotion in that heart ; and does that man say, " the
day of the Lord is far away, and to-morrow shall be as
to-day, and more abundant" Thou fool, it may be
that this night thy Lord may come.
" When the moonless night draws close,
And the lights are out in the house,
When the fire burns low and red,
And the watch is ticking loudly
Beside thy bed :
This very night, it may be,
He may come."
And oh, if He should thus come, what, careless
sinner, would then be your doom ?
22 PRE-MILLENNIAL NOTIONS
There are, also, many cold Ephesian and Laodicean
churches in Christendom. Can they grow hardened
because the Lord will not personally come for yet
awhile? Hear what He says to Sardis, " If therefore
thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief; and
thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee"
And what the Lord meant by His coming, the terrible
overthrow of that church and city must testify; the
ruins and desolation of which should ever make all
false churches tremble and fear before Him.
But will not our views of the Lord's coming deprive
the Christian of much stimulus and motive power?
Never ! It did not deprive Paul or Peter of any,
though they both knew that the Lord would not
personally come in their day. The former, in his last
letter, 1 says, " I am ready to be offered, and the time
of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good
fight, I have kept the faith ; henceforth there is laid
up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord,
the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day ; and
not to me only, but unto all them also that love His
appearing." Paul knew, therefore, that he should die,
nor did the expectation terrify or disappoint him.
Peter, too, writes in a similar strain, " Knowing that
shortly I must put oif this my tabernacle, even as our
Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me." 2 So that it is
evident that this apostle never once expected to see
the Lord's advent during his life time, though he was
behind none of the apostles in encouraging the saints
to look for the coming of the Lord. Hence it is
evident he did not mean by any of his representations
to convey the idea, that the great day of the Lord was
at hand. We may be told of the sanctifying power of
an immediate expectation of Christ's appearing ; but
this kind of talk is of very little importance in the face
of facts which may any day be given, for there are
those who hold post-millennial views who live as holy
lives as any persons have ever lived since the apostle
John, whilst there are others who talk about the day
(i) 2 Tim. iv. 68. (2) 2 Pet. i. 14.
NO ADVANTAGE. 23
of the Lord, and the probability of speedily going up
into the clouds, whose lives will not bear the test of
scripture, or the light of human scrutiny; hence, no
bare doctrines will produce holy living apart from
sanctifying grace. What can be more sanctifying and
stimulating to the Christian than to know that he is not
alone, but that the Lord Jesus is ever with him, or that
he is ever expecting to meet Him in His house, at His
mercy-seat, or at His table; by faith to see Him, and feel
Him near; and beside, not knowing a moment but that
He may come to release the earth-bound prisoner from
his cell, and call him to inherit the mansions prepared
for him before the foundations of the world. He is
constantly making such visits ; and there is no doubt
that whilst our minds have been engaged in this exercise,
He has come to more than one redeemed spirit, to
deliver it from the earthly tabernacle, and to carry
it above.
And now, in conclusion, let me press upon every
heart the solemnity of the topic upon which we have
been dwelling this evening, not to terrify ypu with a
visionary and unscriptural representation, but to lead
you to feel the vast importance of those visits of our
divine Lord, one of which was to make an offering
for sin ; another will be to render to every man the
reward of his deeds done in the body, whether good
or evil. And then, amid the solemnities of that day,
will it be seen who has hearkened to His voice, and
who has despised and rejected His message of mercy
and love. And oh, my dear hearer, watch for the
Lord, and wait for Him. He is coming every day, and
every hour, to comfort the weak, to bind up the broken
in heart, and to take His loved ones to His home in
the skies. Seek ye His face, call ye upon Him whilst
He is near, for "blessed are all they that wait for Him."
And you shall then know the sweetness of His visits
to His meek disciples here, and at length shall be
honoured with a place among "the spirits of the just
made perfect"; and, finally, after your body has long
been slumbering in the tomb, it shall be awakened by
the last trump at the final coming of the Lord, who
shall welcome you, body and soul, into the kingdom
of His Father ; whilst the scoffer and impenitent shall
be cast into outer darkness, where there will be weeping
and gnashing of teeth.
" Mark that face of solemn beauty,
See that pure majestic brow,
Now the scoffing world beholds Him,
Every knee to Him must bow ;
See the strongest hearts all fail,
Hear, hear the nations' wail.
Yet above the pealing thunder,
From the splendours of His throne,
Loud His voice, like trumpet sounding,
Gathers all His children home.
great Lord, to Thee I flee !
In that day, shelter me ! "
LECTURE II.
"THE FIRST RESURRECTION."
Delivered Lord's Day, December ii,th, 1871.
" This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is
he that hath part in the first resurrection."
Rev. xx. 5, 6.
the purpose of giving distinctness and
perspicuity to- the views I am about this
evening to advocate, allow me to state
clearly at this early moment, that I am
fully persuaded that the righteous and the wicked wi
rise from their graves together in the same hotir at
the last day of time; and that until the very last
trump of God shall sound there is not a single line in
scripture to ,lead us to expect that any one body will
literally arise from the dead. And hence, whatever
may be the meaning of the text I have just read, it is
to me perfectly certain that it has nothing whatever to
do with a corporeal resurrection.
It may be an advantage to my hearers to have thus
early before their minds this negative proposition,
which I purpose to maintain and illustrate in the
present lecture, as it will help them the better to see
from the onset the point to which my remarks tend.
Should any inquirer desire to know by what law of
interpretation we have arrived at this strong convic-
tion, there is no better answer than the well-recognized
B
26 THE FIRST RESURRECTION
canon 1 ". That in settling of controversy ', those passages
of God's Word which are literal, dogmatic, and clear,
take precedence of those which are figurative, mysterious,
and obscure? Now, as the "literal, dogmatic, and clear"
portions of God's word state that the righteous and
wicked shall be raised at the same hour, their universal
testimony must be accepted, and this one passage,
which is full of figure and found, too, in the most
figurative book which God has given to us, must be
made to harmonize with those plain and positive texts;
and especially, too, as this is the only place in all the
scriptures, in which any mention is made of a first
resurrection, except it be in passages which relate to
the resurrection of our Lord, which no one could con-
found with this. 2
Still, though this is the only place in which mention
is made of such an event, that does not deprive it of
its importance. Here it is plainly recorded ; and we
are not to look about to see what meaning we can
bring to it, but we have to seek to know what is the
meaning which the Divine Spirit intended.
In doing this, I do not intend to lead you through
all the labyrinths of controversy, but I shall lay down
as plainly and definitely the affirmative proposition,
declarative of its meaning, as I have laid down the nega-
tive one, which shuts out from it the literal rising
of any portion of the human family from the tomb.
What I submit then is this, That those symbols
which portray what is here declared to be the " first
resurrection," are intended to set forth the grand
triumph of the Gospel, and of the Church of Christ,
which for so long a time has hen persecuted and crushed
by Antichrist. Whenever, then, the doctrines and
disciples of Jesus shall gain a universal victory the
" first resurrection " will be realized. This proposi-
tion may doubtless seem reasonable enough to most
minds ; yet to some others the questions will arise,
(i) Bamptpn Lectures, 1854, p. 8.
<2) Acts xxvi. 23" That Christ should suffer and that He should be the
first that should rise from the dead, and should show light unto the
people and to the Gentiles. Also i Cor. xv. 20^-" But now is
Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that
slept."
CANNOT BE LITERAL, 27
" Will that triumph ever come ? " and, if so, in what
sense can that be the " first resurrection ?" I hope
these questions will meet with a satisfactory answer
this evening. 1
It will readily occur to most persons that the idea
of a resurrection has frequently been used as a figure
in earlier pages of inspiration to set forth the resusci-
tation of life, both in a national and spiritual sense.
Ezekiel's vision of dry bones (to which we shall pre-
sently more fully allude), is a case in point, as are also
the words of our Lord (John v. 25), "Verily, verily \I
say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the
dead shall hear the mice of the Son of God, and they
that hear shall live^ It is not therefore surprising
that the victorious life of the church should thus be
shadowed forth, seeing it is a figure with which all
scripture readers are familiar ; and since it is certain
that the language cannot have a literal meaning here,
there is no difficulty whatever in thus interpreting it.
To give a literal sense to the passage would not
only be in direct opposition to the plain statements of
God's word in other texts, but it would involve the
whole vision in a literality most absurd and ridiculous.
In establishing the proposition, That the "first
resurrection " is the triumph of the followers of the
Lamb in the world, I will call your attention to the
"REST OF THE DEAD," mentioned in the fifth verse,
which " lived not again until the thousand years were
finished." Now the plain meaning of these words is
this : that at the end of the thousand years the persons
spoken of would " live again," and to live again is a
resurrection ; and so it happens ; for at the end of the
time mentioned we find the enemies of Jesus coming
forth to battle against the saints, in whom we recognize
the resuscitation of the old opponents of Christ and
(1) I am fully aware of the grave doubts which pre-millennialists cast upon the
possibility of this triumph ever coming, though it be set forth more
or less in the whole scriptures ; whilst, on the other hand, they paint
a millennium which is not only without a shadow of bible support,
but has ten thousand more difficulties in the way of its realization.
(2) This passage, the reader will see, does not refer o the final resurrection,
but to the awaking and raising to spiritual life those that are dead
in trespasses and sins.
28 BUT SPIRITUAL;
His church, who had been slain for one thousand
years. If, then, we get the coming to life of two parties
that had been slain during the apocalyptic struggles,
we get & first and second resurrection, both of which
are figurative, and both occurring some time before
the final trumpet which shall awake the literal dead.
That this is just what we do find to be the case will
be seen as we proceed ; and as the first of these risings
stands inseparably connected with the lifting of the
world into moral life, and the delivering of souls from
the second death, this great event may most emphatic-
ally be called " THE FIRST RESURRECTION."
It will be seen by all who are acquainted with this
study, that in taking this broad and high ground we
are -not stopping to discuss the interesting question so
often raised about the " souls " which John saw, though
even here, logically, there is enough to overturn the
literal idea, for nothing is said about bodies, but simply
" the souls of the beheaded " lived and reigned ; nor
do we stop to show that, if the passage was literally
understood, only the martyrs could be raised, and
hence the great bulk of the righteous dead would still
remain in their graves; 1 but the view we hold of
the first resurrection will, I hope, render any argument
of this kind unnecessary, and lead us earnestly to long
for a part in that great triumph of truth and righteous-
ness which is here so beautifully symbolized.
In coming more closely to our subject, let me
intreat you to fix your mind very distinctly upon
that grand display of truth and righteousness, so vividly
shadowed forth upon the inspired page, and which we
are anticipating in the world, when the pure religion
of the cross, shall sway kings, and councils, and com-
munities, and Christ be honored in every land ; when
the Jew and the Gentile shall vie with each other in
rendering Him homage ; and when Antichrist shall be
cast down, and all false religions be done away. I do
not tarry here to prove that such will be the glory
of ajuture day ; that proof will be given in its proper
(i) Rev. C. Molyneux, an extreme pre-millenarian, admits that the passage
speaks exclusively of Martyrs.
LIFTING THE LONG 29
place. I simply ask you now to let this bright picture
rise to your view, and, when you have done so, you
will have nothing less than the scene which was figura-
tively portrayed before the prophet in Patmos, when he
saw what was declared to be " the first resurrection."
Having got that prophetic day of light and holiness
clearly delineated before your mental vision,! shall seek
to conduct you up to it by different paths, each path
leading you in the end to exclaim in the words of the
text, " This is the first resurrection." In attempting
this, I observe
I. THAT THIS BRIGHT SCENE OF CHRISTIAN
TRIUMPH IS. THE RESUSCITATION OF THE LONG PER-
SECUTED AND CRUSHED FOLLOWERS OF JESUS. The
history of truth and godliness in the world, is the history
of a continuous warfare from the days of Cain and Abel
till now, and so will it continue to be, until the events
we are now studying have passed over from the prophet
to the historian. And this struggle has more than once
been set forth in figures like to those surrounding our
text. Both the Old and the New Testament contain
vivid illustrations of this fact. We constantly 'see two
parties in the field, the children of God, and the
children of the world, and these are striving for the
mastery ; and, as is usually the case, one day this party
gets the advantage, another day that; and so the war-
fare goes on, until some decisive stroke is made, which
for a while determines the victory, and often the holy
seed seem to be the greatest sufferers; yet, after they
have been slain and put into their graves, we see them
rise again, and " the upright have dominion in the
morning."
A more apt illustration to this eifect could scarcely
be found than in the case of the Hebrews in Babylon.
I need only to remind you of Ezekiel's vision of the
dry bones, to call up all the imagery of death and the
resurrection ; without, however, implying the coming
back to- life of any one of the Jews who died in
captivity. Let us turn to the twenty-sixth chapter of
Isaiah, and see how the Holy Spirit has interwoven
this imagery into the triumphal song of Judah, as he
30 PERSECUTED CHURCH
returns from Chaldea. Here we have the two parties
God's friends and God's foes. Here we have two
deaths the death of the friends and the death of the
foes ; and then we have the resurrection of the former,
whilst the latter, their old enemies, still lie in their
graves. Just look at the chapter I have cited, and
taking the events in their historical order you will see
the Jews as a nation slain and put into their political
graves in Babylon ; and, in alluding to that sad con-
dition, the Church says, in the thirteenth verse, "
Lord our God, other lords beside Thee have had do-
minion over us." Which dominion was unto death,
as is seen in Ezekiel's vision, where the same people,
speaking of the same calamity, exclaim, " Our bones
are dried, and our hope is lost; we are cut off from our
farts." This was the feeling of the whole house of
Israel (Ezekiel xxxvii. ii ). .
But the wheel of Providence moves round, and, in
turn, these Chaldean lords have to die ; and in the
fourteenth verse of the same chapter of Isaiah their
death is recorded. " They are dead, they shall not live;
they are deceased, they shall not rise; therefore hast Thou
visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to
perish." Here the enemies, then, are in their graves,
which was seen in the utter fall of Babylon and the
succession to power of the Medes and Persians. But
what becomes of the people of God ? Coming down
to the nineteenth verse, we have a glowing account of
their resurrection. I give the prophet's words in another
than the authorized version, " Thy dead shall live, my
dead body shall arise, awake and sing, ye inhabitants of
the dust, for thy dew is as the dew upon herbs, and the
earth shall cast out the dead" Here we have the rising
again of the captives, and their return to national life
and prosperity, precisely corresponding to Ezekiel's
version of the same deliverance. " Thus saith the
Lord, Behold, my people, I will open your graves, and
cause you to come up oiit of your graves ', and bring you
into the land of Israel, and ye shall know that I am the
Lord when I have opened your graves, my people, and
brought you ^tp out of your graves" It would be
INTO TRIUMPH, 31
n
almost impossible for any one to mistake the meaning
of all this, as no one would be so foolish as to suppose
that this resurrection was a literal rising of the dead
Jews from their graves, spread over the lands of
Nebuchadnezzar, or that it meant anything more than
their release by Cyrus, and their coming again to the
land and privileges of their fathers. Here, then, we
have an unmistakeable rule of interpretation to guide
us in the exposition of our text.
Coming into the New Testament with these same
ideas, of the two great parties their conflicts, their
deaths, and their resurrection how do we find them to
apply ? The Apocalypse is full of illustration. We
no sooner open the book than we find the warfare
between the friends and foes of Jesus waging, and,
though they change their names, their appearance, and
their tactics, their identity is unmistakeable. The
friends are introduced to us as " companions in
tribulation," "the church," "the servants of God,"
" the saints," " the woman clothed with the sun,"
and "the bride of the , Lamb." The foes are "the
Roman horse," "the red dragon," "the ten-horned
beast," " the star from heaven," " the whore of Baby-
lon," and " the old serpent, the Devil." Whether the
foe is clothed in the old Pagan dress, or the Papal
scarlet, or whether he comes from the political heaven
like Mahomet, or rises out of the ground like the two-
horned beast, the Woman and the Man-child are the
objects of his implacable hate ; and, alas, how greatly
does he prevail, as the souls under the altar, the slain
witnesses, and the blood of the martyred saints fully
testify. And thus, with little relief, the panoramic
strife passes before our minds. Here we see a mighty
angel arising from the east, to bid the winds to with-
hold their destructive power till the elect of God are
sealed ; there we see another good angel with a
little book in his hand ; and yonder we ' behold a
slain witness or two coming to life. But what are
these glimpses of Augustine or Lutherian brightness
amid the long and gloomy triumphs of the great whore
upon the scarlet beast, and the terrible ravages of
the dragon and the false prophet ?
32 WITHOUT THE RESURRECTION
Is there no change ? Will not God avenge His own
elect? Verily He will; for He tells those who cry from
the altar, who has been slain for the word of God
" That they should rest yet for a little season, until their
fellow servants also, and their brethren that should be
killed as they were, should be fulfilled;"^- clearly inti-
mating, that at that time He would certainly avenge the
blood of His saints. 3 With this intimation the
canvas passes along, and war and woe follow each
other as the trumpet is sounded, or the vials poured
forth. At length the nineteenth chapter comes in sight,
and the Heavenly Rider, whose name is the Word of
God, goes forth. His eyes are as a flame of fire, His
vesture is dyed with blood, out of His mouth goeth a
sharp sword, whilst He bears the name of KING of kings,
and LORD of lords. And all the fowls of heaven are
summoned to feed on the slaughter He is about to
make. Meanwhile, the old enemies have once more
gathered to battle, under the leadership of the beast
and the false prophet. But speedily the Captain of the
long crushed saints, conquers and destroys these hellish
leaders, and the remnant of their armies are slain with
the sword, and immediately the old serpent, the Devil,
is bound and cast into prison, that he should deceive
the nations no more for a thousand years. And at once
the saints of God come forth (as the Jews out of
Babylon) from their graves of oppression, persecution,
and adversity, and they live ; and He who came forth,
and gave them the victory, still abides with them, and
they reign with Him ; whilst the other party, like the
old Chaldeans are put into their graves, only with this
difference, that they will live yet again at the end of the
thousand years.
Now I ask you, my dear hearers, when you have wit-
nessed all these scenes, which the hand of inspiration
unrolls before your eyes, in which for hundreds of years
(i) Rev. vi. ii.
(2) Those "slain for the word of God," and those "beheaded for the witness
of Jesus," (as in chapte^xx.), are supposed by Dr. Brown to mean
the martyrs who were slain under Pagan Rome : and their brethren
and "fellow-servants," who were yet to be killed, to mean those
who would die under Papal Rome. Brown, OK Second Advent,
f. 232. Fifth Edition.
OF ANY DEAD SAINTS. 33
the church of Christ is represented as persecuted,
depressed and slain; when at length her enemies
are silenced, no more to persecute nor oppose for
a thousand years ; and when you behold that church
rising up with new vigour and life from her long and
painful death ; I ask you, if, when you see her thus
inspired with the light, love, and zeal of the very
best of her long list of members, if you. will not in-
stinctively, and exultingly, exclaim, This is life from
the dead." And supposing you knew that the "slain
enemies would arise again, though not for a thousand
years to come, would you have any difficulty in
recognizing in all this godly victory the FIRST resur-
rection ? I feel assured you would not ! Nor would
you expect literally to find in this resurrection-company
any of the martyrs, not Paul nor Polycarp, not
Peter nor John ffuss, not even Ridley or Latimer,
no more than you would have expected in the restored
temple, in the days of Zerubbabel, any of the thou-
sands of Hebrews who died, and were buried on the
banks of the Euphrates; Nor could you expect to
find Christ personally or visibly among them, more
than you could expect Him literally to ride a white
horse, or literally to carry a sharp sabre proceeding out .
of His mouth. Let, then, all these figures have their
proper meaning, and all are beautiful and congruous,
and the whole picture presents us with the brightest
hopes for the church's earthly ^future, all of which is in
perfect harmony with the general triumph of the cross
and with eyery part of God's revelation. Seeing, there-
fore, that the bible everywhere leads us yet to expect this
glorious triumph of Christianity in the world, in which
triumphs all the figures of this happy vision will be
fulfilled, and as that blissful state is to be introduced
by the rising of the church from her long endured
adversity and depression, just at the time when her
old enemies are crushed and cast into their graves, no
more to live till the millennium shall end, we are
bound to accept this triumph as the first resurrection.
It is very interesting to see how this history of the
two armies corresponds to the history of the two great
34 THE FIRST RESURRECTION,
leaders the Seed of the Woman and the old serpent.
Both are bruised ; both cast into their graves. Christ
is slain during the supremacy of Satan : Satan is crushed
during the supremacy of Christ. The death of Christ
is the time of Satan's triumph : the bruising of Satan is
the time of Christ's triumph. And so is it with their
seed. The church, the seed of Christ, dies now ; the
enemies, the seed of Satan, live. But the church must
live; and, as certainly, the seed of the serpent must die,
and at the time contended for in this lecture, which will
form the grand prelude to the reign of the saints, the
commencement of which, I am fully persuaded, is de-
scribed in the text. And as this spiritual victory of the
church is contrasted with the "living again" of the seed
of the serpent that is, the " rest of the dead " at
the end of the thousand years, I purpose to show you
a second reason why this event should be called the
first resurrection, and why it should be pronounced to
be so blessed and desirable. I, therefore, observe
II. THAT AS THE WORLD is STILL LYING UNDER
TWO DEATHS SPIRITUAL AND PHYSICAL, AND HAS
TO BE DELIVERED FROM BOTH, THE TRIUMPH OF
RIGHTEOUSNESS IN THE EARTH MAY EMPHATICALLY
BE CALLED THE FIRST RESURRECTION.
I hope I need not spend much time to argue the
existence of "two deaths" amongst us, their proof
must be evident to every thinking mind, and
both resulting from the same cause sin. The first
threat to man was, " The day thou eatest thereof thou
shalt surely die? Our parents ate, and two deaths
entered. The body became in a moment subject to
death ; and, as the result, physical death has been
reigning, not simply from Adam to Moses, but from
Adam till now, as the myriads in the tenements of the
cold tomb bear evident witness.
But painful as is this ghastly sight of universal
mortality, the other death is still more so that
spiritual death of utter corruption of heart, and aliena-
tion of affection from God, which is seen in the uni-
versal prevalence of iniquity, and which inevitably
finds its doom in eternal banishment from happiness
A RISING FROM 35
and life, and, in the language of this chapter, is " the
second death."
These two deaths, though entering our world by
the same door, and at the same moment, are never-
theless so distinct, that two resurrections are needed
to deliver us from their grasp. Conversion to God is
repeatedly spoken of in scripture under the figure of
a resurrection, because therein the soul rises from the
curse and dominion of sin, into the life and fellowship
of Christ, and on such a man the second death hath
no power, for he is literally delivered from condemna-
tion ; yet that marvellous resurrection does not free
him from the other death, for men even " die in the
Lord." Just so, on the other hand, there will be a
resurrection of thousands from physical death, which
resurrection will not however save them from the
deeper destruction, for they will be cast into the lake of
fire, which is the " second death." It follows, then,
that if the curse is ever to be done away, two resurrec-
tions from death must be enjoyed. It would be im-
possible to find clearer illustration and stronger proof
of this fact than in the case of our Divine Lord.
Strange as the statement may sound at first, every
Christian will presently admit that our suffering
Saviour died two deaths. Each mind that is open to
scriptural teaching will readily conceive that the
" Man of Sorrows " passed through a death far more
terrible than all fa& physical suffering that He endured.
There was a solemn and awful moment when our
Lord began to experience the loss of the light and
joy of His Holy Father's countenance, and His spotless
soul became "sorrowful even unto DEATH." That
moment was, when He was made a sin for us, when,
by a real transfer, our iniquities were laid upon Him.
Then all our " sin was there by that transfer, and all
the misery and death accompanied it ; and even as it
issued in the death of the body, so did it effect the
death of the soul." For that soul of the ever-blessed
"Redeemer was separated from God, and shut up
amid the terrors and torments which are inseparable
from sin." And thus, without any refined criticism,
3 6 SPIRITUAL DEATH,
" He descended into hell," not the locality of de-
mons, but the state of separation from God ; where
hell, not with its pollutions, but with all its agonies,
rushed into His holy soul. These unfathomed agonies
find expression in the piercing cry that comes forth
amid the dense darkness of Golgotha " Eloi, Eloi,
lama-sabachthani." believer ! sinner ! ! can you
doubt the soul-travail that gave birth to this utterance,
or can you sound the depth of these wondrous words,
"My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me" ?
And do you ask the reason of all this ?
'"Twas not the insulting voice of scorn
So deeply wrung His heart ;
The piercing nail, the pointed thorn,
Caused not the saddest smart.
But every struggling sigh betray'd
A heavier grief within ;
How on His burdened soul was laid
The weight of human sin."
But the cup of wrath is emptied, the last pang of
mental death is over, and the darkness, which for three
long hours has buried the Crucified, clears away, and
the Glorious Sufferer, ere He physically dies, spiritually
rises into the light and enjoyment of Divine favour,
when the " My God " gives place to the more endear-
ing appellation, " My Father;" and once more seeing
the "path of life," with a fulness of joy He enters into
His presence, at Whose right hand there are pleasures
for evermore. Now this emerging from the curse we
deem to be Christ's first, and most glorious, resurrec-
tion, and was His deliverance from the second death,
just as His rising from the tomb, three days after-
wards, was His triumphant resurrection from physical
death ; and in both, He is the grand prototype of that
new creation, which shall enjoy the " glorious liberty
of the children of God." Having thus established the
existence of two deaths in the world, requiring two
resurrections, let us now see how this will help us in
the understanding of the subject, in hand.
From what we have seen in the foregoing remarks,
it is certain that the resurrection here must mean a
spiritual rising, as it is that which exempts those who
INDIVIDUALLY, 37
have a real part in it from the "second death."
When, therefore, we shall see the world governed by
holiness, and led by regenerated men, we shall see the
world's " first resurrection," and as that will not be until
Satan is bound it will be one and the same thing with
this vision of John, and will invest this wonderful
sentence " the first resurrection," with a power and
comprehension, which will show how divinely it had
been chosen to include within itself every marked
feature of those gracious times.
(1) Viewed in its individual aspect the triumph of
Christianity may justly be called " the first resurrec-
tion." We have just seen how all men are involved
in two deaths, and we have also seen how our
glorious Leader rose from both. Now, as He rose, so
must we rise, if we are ever to be like Him, and the first
of these resurrections must be our passport into the
kingdom of Christ, which can only be realized by a
living faith in Him ; and all such as thus believe are
said to be quickened together with Christ, and are raised
in the likeness of His resurrection, and over these the
second death can have no power. Theirs is already a
life of holiness, of light, and love; and, in the powerful
words of Paul Gerhardt, each one of them may con-
fidently sing
" There is no condemnation, there is no hell for me,
The torment and the fire my eyes shall never see ;
For me there is no sentence, for me death has no sting,
Since He, who died to save me, protects me with His wing."
Now when the earth shall be blessed with a race of
men thus alive unto God by faith in Jesus Christ, will
not all intelligences unite in calling it the first resur-
rection ? It would be impossible to imagine any other
than an affirmative reply to this question. But,
(2) Viewed in its Church aspect, the triumph of
Christianity may as justly be called the first resurrec-
tion.
Since the church of Christ received her life at Pen-
tecost, what vicissitudes has she been called to endure.
She has been persecuted, corrupted, slain. For twelve
hundred and sixty years Antichrist has been trying to
38 CORPORATELY,
quench every spark of truth, and to stamp out every
pulse of her spiritual vitality. Let it be remembered, that
even Rome has never, since the establishment of Christi-
anity, sought to get rid of the NAME, but only the power
of godliness. And in all the slaughters and blood
of martyrs, the extinction of spiritual, rather than the
destruction of human, life has been the aim. And too
far, alas, has Antichrist been successful, nor till this
day has the church returned to her Pentecostal vigour.
There has been, it is true, some token of vitality, as
there was in the sneezing child at Shunem, but we
need the life-giving Spirit to stretch Himself yet again
and again upon us, warming and reviving our hearts,
till, under His influence, the church shall awake, and
arise, and stand up, a living power, to reign with
Christ on the earth. Yet even then she will not be
free from corruption, for. her members will be still in
the body, and one by one will pass away to the tomb,
awaiting, with all the rest of mankind, the last trump
which shall awake the dead; for this spiritual rising
does not free from physical death, though it is a
.certain pledge that such as thus live shall also arise
in the end in the likeness of Christ's glorious body.
Now this new life will be so great as to lead both angels
and men to recognize in it the unmistakeable signs of
"the first resurrection;" and as it will also synchro-
nize with the vision before us, we see this additional
reason for the words of our text. But
(3) Viewed in its world-wide aspect, the triumph of
Christianity may emphatically be called "the first resur-
rection/'
" We know that the whole creation groaneth and
travaileth in pain together till now," and the deepest
groans are those arising from the moral degeneracy of
the human race, for it is too true that " only man is
vile." But this terrible incubus is to be thrown off, and
" truth is to spring out of the earth," and " righteous-
ness to look down from heaven," and the people shall
praise the name of our God, and all the ends of the
earth shall fear Him. But when shall these things be ?
The answer is nigh at hand : When Satan shall be bound;
AND UNIVERSALLY, 39
when infidelity shall be cast down; when the Jew shall
look on Jesus and mourn, and his reception into the
family of Christ shall be " life from the dead ; " when
" the heathen shall stretch out his hand unto God;"
and when the name of Christ shall be blessed from the
rising to the going down of the sun; and though thorns
and briers may still infest the ground, and though the
mother-earth may still be burdened with the dust of
the mouldering dead, yet this wonderful change, this
moral life, will assuredly be "the first resurrection"
of our world, and will also be a pledge of the second,
when all corruption shall be done away, and the last
vestiges of the curse be removed ; and this earth, fully
refined, shall rise into its pristine purity, to stand for
ever as the monument of Divine power and redeeming
grace.
And now, beloved hearers, as you take all these
thoughts together, fix your mind upon that blessed
period, to which the finger of inspiration everywhere
points, the period when the enemies of the .Lord
shall be trodden down, when the church shall lift her
head with joy, when truth shall reign, and when the
world generally shall rise from the moral grave of
unholiness in which it is yet buried, and the Jews
shall be gathered in with the fulness of the Gentiles.
Fixing your mind upon that period, can you find any
figures, or phraseology, more fitting and appropriate to
represent it, than those you find in the first six verses
of the chapter from which our text is taken ? In that
day we shall have a rising of the long-depressed church
to universal power; a rising of truth and righteousness,
yea, a rising of the great heart of the world to God ;
and as that will precede the rising of the enemies, who
shall once more come forth to oppose the kingdom of
Christ, and as it also precedes the rising of the bodies
of men, and will be first in importance, as well as in
order, it will most assuredly be "the first resurrection."
And yet in all this there will be no return of any dead
saint to our earth, or any bodily appearance of the
great Captain of our salvation, but all will be purely
spiritual, differing only in degree from the true church
40 ACCOMPLISHED BY
of these times. What this degree of advantage will be,
we may easily gather from this vision; for as the spirit
and power of Elijah were alive in John the Baptist,
and as John Huss, and Jerome of Prague, were said
to live again in Martin Luther and the other Re-
formers, so the power and spirit of the. martyred and
undefiled hosts shall live and reign, for a thousand
years.
And now, in conclusion, let us not forget, that this
gospel, which we hold in our hands, and love in our
hearts, and are trying to preach to our fellow men, is
the mighty instrument which, by the power of God,
is to effect this change. Let us not dream of anything
else; God has never promised anything else; and we
need nothing else ; for this is " the power of God to
salvation." He might make His dispensations of pro-
vidence accessory, as probably He will; for we are
taught to expect that He will overturn, and overturn,
till He shall come, whose right it is to reign. Still it will
be by the spirit of all grace that His kingdom will come,
the proof and nature of which will more fully be seen
in our next lecture.
Meanwhile, let us not overlook the personal bearing
of this whole subject : " Blessed and holy is he that
hath part in the first resurrection;" " on such, the second
death hath no power" For though we may not live to
that period of earthly happiness, which I have been
describing, yet we may even now have a part in that
blessedness which will, even then, be the best feature
of that " first resurrection." We have seen what the
second death means, in the unutterable anguish of our
blessed Lord when He took the sinner's place ; that
death we all must die, unless we escape it by virtue of
His enduring it in our stead. Dear hearer, reject His
salvation, and that second death is the inevitable result!
Flee to His cross, make Him your surety and saviour,
and immediately you will have part in " the first resur-
rection;" and whatever else may come, this one thing
is certain, that on you " the second death shall have no
power."
And you, ye saints, who oft have prayed, and
THE GOSPEL. 41
laboured amid tears and disappointments, be not dis-
mayed, deliverance will yet come, and your cause will
yet prevail ; and though ye have long lain in the dust,
and often are insulted by your foes, the morning of
triumph shall change the whole scene, and the church
shall hear the summons
"Daughter of Zion, awake from thy sadness ;
Awake, for thy foes shall oppress thee no niore ;
Bright o'er the hills dawns the day-star of gladness !
Arise, for the night of thy sorrow is o'er.
"Strong were thy foes, but the arm that subdued them,
And scattered their legions, was mightier far ;
They fled like the chaff from the scourge that pursued
them,
Vain were their steeds and their chariots of war.
" Daughter of Zion ! the power that hath saved thee,
Extoll'd with the harp and the timbrel should be.
Shout ! for the foe is destroyed that enslaved thee,
The oppressor is vanquished, and Zion is free ! "
And then shall all the world know the true meaning
of " The First Resurrection."
LECTURE III.
"THE MILLENNIAL GLORY."
Delivered Lord's Day, Dec. 31, 1871.
" They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy
mountain : for the earth shall be full of the knowledge
of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea/'
Isaiah xi. 9.
E shall be all the better prepared to proceed
with our present investigation if I detain
you a minute or two in giving a resume of
the topics already discussed, and the con-
clusions at which we have arrived.
In our first lecture, we saw that "the coming of the
Lord" has a very wide meaning in the scriptures,
and in the New Testament too, where it is certainly
applied in four or five different senses, such as to
His coming to judgment on Jerusalem to His coming
at Pentecost to His visits of grace to those who love
Him to His coming to welcome home the redeemed
at death to His coming to comfort or chastise
churches, as Philadelphia, Ephesus, Sardis, &c. and
to His final coming to judgment; all of which comings,
with the exception of the last, are without any visible
appearance of the Saviour among men. And for
several of these, early Christians were exhorted to
watch ; whilst they were never led to expect the last
of them commonly known as the Second Advent
RESUME OF 43
during their life-time. Indeed, it was made certain
to them, that they would not continue in the flesh to
witness that event. Paul and Peter both speak with
confidence about their own deaths ; and the former
besought the Thessalonians not to expect the day of
the Lord as at hand ; and the earnest way in which
he put this entreaty, or warning, before them, indicated
how much he feared the consequences of a false theory
upon the subject. We further saw that on the same
grounds on which the Thessalonians were forbidden
to expect the Second Advent, we are forbidden to
expect it for at least a thousand years to come, that
is, until the millennium ends; consequently no man on
earth is admonished to look for that second coining
in his life-time, for the Word of God does not resort to
delusions to keep the world in awe.
Finally we saw, that, though it is positively certain
that every person now living will die before the Advent,
yet this does not destroy the force of any scripture
that speaks of the Lord's comingj nor the cheerful
hope of the church in His final visit to our world,
seeing that it is as positively certain that He is coming
every day to many, both in mercy and in judgment,
which renders it necessary that all men should watch
and wait for Him. And, furthur, as at death time will
cease with us all, and as the intervening years between
that event and the judgment will be but a short night,
the salvation that shall be brought unto the godly
at the appearing of our Lord may, in this sense, be
anticipated as nigh at hand, as may also the heavy
judgments which shall fall upon the wicked and im-
penitent in that day. Hence, let no one say that
the post-millennial view undervalues the importance
of the Second Advent, or that it gives men a license
to indifference or vice, seeing that it teaches us scrip-
turally to indulge in this blessed hope (as did Paul
and the rest of the apostles, when, according to the
present date, it was nearly two thousand years off),
whilst, at the same time, it presents to the ungodly a
most powerful view of the Lord's coming, which all
must feel to be near at hand.
44 PREVIOUS LECTURES.
In our second lecture, " The First Resurrection,"
we saw that that resurrection had nothing whatever
to do with the coming back to life of any one person
from the grave, not even of the martyred saints j but
that the one passage (which indeed is the only one in
all God's book which speaks of a first resurrection)
is so full of figure, and surrounded with such symbolic
representations, that it cannot be explained except on
figurative grounds, without rendering the whole incon-
gruous and ridiculous. It is, therefore, as certain as
any symbols can teach it, that this first resurrection is
intended to represent the glorious triumphs of the
church of Christ in the world, when the doctrines of
the Cross, and the disciples of the Lamb shall govern
the earth, and the enemies which for hundreds of years
have been raging against our God and against His
Christ shall be universally subdued, and the zeal and
devotion of the martyrs and confessors of earlier times
shall live again, and the church and the world shall be
as if those honoured saints had sprung once more
into being, no more to be opposed by their foes for a
thousand years.
It has struck me as quite possible, that some
persons will imagine that Christianity at present is not
suffering oppression, and hence has no such victory to
obtain. Many will be ready to say, " All religions
are now on an equal footing, and has nothing more to
hope for in this direction." Perhaps a more gross
mistake than this could not be made, and I am urged
on to show its fallacy by the newspaper reports of the
pantomimic performances of certain churches during
the Christmas festival of the past few days.
It seems as if many persons never recognise opposi-
tion to the truth, or persecution and oppression to the
church of God, except in flames, or tortures on the
rack; whereas these form but a small part of the
sufferings of the godly. I would that every hearer saw
the evil which is done to Christ, and His Gospel, by
the wretched formality and superstition with which
we are surrounded. Humanly speaking, what oppor-
tunity is there for a pure gospel church in our day ?
A PURE CHURCH 45
In speaking thus I am not desponding, but simply
wish to call attention to the outward aspect of the
religious world. Conceive, if you can, for a moment,
what would be the status of a pure New Testa-
ment Church in these times : a church whose doc-
trines, ordinances, members, and officers, all accorded
with the spirit and purity of the primitive age of ,
Christianity. How would such a band of believers be
looked upon by the pompous professors of to-day?
A clear idea upon this question would go far to show
how the gospel of Christ is disadvantaged by the
various forms of Antichrist on every hand, and how
the fellowship of the godly is condemned and despised
by the great bulk of religionists, who hold a kind of
sway in the world.
A pure church is one that seeks to worship God in
the spirit; hence, she has no gorgeous drapery to
please the eye, and no professional choir to charm the
ear. She has no robed processions, no gilded crosses,
no burning candles, to create and sustain sensational
admiration. She has no pictures, images, Bethlehem-
stars, nor baby-Christs ; no passion plays, no crucifixes
to attract the populace ; not even flowers nor perfumes
to gratify the senses. Is it, therefore, any wonder,
whilst such baits as these are offered in carnal churches,
that the multitude are led away by them, and that
only here and there 'a few persons are satisfied with
the true worship, which the sanctified offer, in the
spiritual house of our God ?
That true church has no State arm to lift her into
popular favor with the world, no power to palm her
minister upon the support and the reverence of the
community. She has no surplices or gowns to magnify
her teachers. She has no sacraments to satisfy the
credulous and weak. No ! for she preaches Christ
crucified, and leans wholly on God for success, and
dares not wear such armour to fight the battles of the
Lord. Is it any wonder, then, that the formal and the
vain pass her by with scorn and contempt, and please
themselves with the bewitching vanities of an empty
name ?
46 STILL SUFFERS.
That pure church must maintain her purity. She
must separate the precious from the vile, and the
chaff from the wheat ; which discrimination will offend
the formal and arouse the ire of the unholy. She has
no open door to welcome to her communion the pro-
fane and ungodly, nor even the disobedient ; therefore,
she suffers as being uncharitable and . selfish ; but
fidelity to her Lord demands all this at her hands, and
His constraining love prompts her to obey at any
cost.
Now, religiously and socially, what locus standi has
that pure church even to-day ? There is not one of
her ministers but has to suffer for his purity, nor even
a domestic servant of her members but is at a dis-
count, and that, too, among a professedly religious
community. Does she desire then to share the State
patronage and the carnal admiration of those of whom
we speak? Far, far be it from her. She wants no such
a resurrection to power and carnal advantage, for she
stands on firmer, because on scriptural, ground, and
covets neither the money nor the influence that these
associations bring ; but rather prays and waits for the
time when the religion of Jesus shall be freed from all
worldly and fleshly appendages, when form shall give
place to power, and superstition to gospel simplicity,
thereby producing that wondrous change which shall
be inferior only to the final resurrection of the church
into the glorious image and likeness of Christ. For,
then the beast and the false prophet will be no more,
and Satan's power, restrained, shall no longer keep
back the kingdom of God in the world; but the mil-
lennium, with all its blessedness, shall be developed
and enjoyed.
I should not be surprised to find some of my
hearers wishing to know "when these things shall
be." Now, in turning aside for a moment to look at
this question, I am not about to commit the folly of
predicting the day, nor even the year, which shall pro-
claim their advent. There has been mistake enough
already on this head. All that we can safely hope to
do, is to learn what the Word of God says about the
THE TIME OF 47
times and the seasons, which the Father hath put into
His own power.
There is one remarkable fact we might mention.
Almost all students of prophecy, who have paid any
attention to dates, have been brought to fix upon the
times in which we are living as the period when the
great changes in the church and in the world should
come, so that this data has the advantage of the
sympathies of both pre and post-millenariahs. There
are some few features of prophecy which have led to
this harmonious conclusion.
The most superficial reader of the books of Daniel
and the Revelation will scarcely fail to notice that a
certain prophetical period is marked out for the Anti-
christ, for though it be differently described, the length
is precisely the same ; hence, whether it is stated
as " time, times, and a half-time" or as ''''forty and two
months '/'or as "one thousand two hundred and sixty days"
itwill be seen that "three years anda-half" is the uniform
length of these figures ; and as a prophetical day is a
literal year, one thousand two hundred and sixty years
are assigned to the reign of the Papacy ; so that if
we could with certainty fix upon the date of its com-
mencement, we could with certainty say when it would
fall. But as there is an uncertainty about the be-
ginning, there must be an uncertainty about the end.
It is not at all unlikely that, as the "man of sin" did
not develop himself at once, there may be two or
more dates to commence from ; and then it would
follow that there must be two or more terminations,
just as was the case with the captivity of the Jews.
Seventy years was the allotted time; but as there were
three dates to commence from, extending over eighteen
years, so was the restoration gradual ; and from the
release and return of Zerubbabel with the first band,
to the rebuilding of the Temple, just about the same
number of years elapsed as from the carrying away of
Daniel and the first company, to the burning of
Solomon's Temple, so that the seventy years may be
made . out from two dates. The same thing may
probably be seen in the fulfilment of this prophetic
48 THE PAPACY..
period in Daniel and the Apocalypse; and if this
should be the case, it would follow that these figures
would fit into different events, which may be separated
in their termination from each other by several years.
Thus, if the year five hundred and thirty-three, when
Justinian made the Roman Pontiff head of all the
apostolic churches, be reckoned as the commence-
ment, the slaying of the witnesses, in one thousand
seven hundred and ninety-three, would exactly corre-
spond to that date, and would allow the one thousand
two hundred and sixty years for the prophesying of
those witnesses in sackcloth. Or if the year six
hundred and six be taken as the commencement, the
year when the Emperor Phocas confirmed the su-
premacy of the Pope, then the one thousand two
hundred and sixty prophetical years, upon the calcula-
tion of Rev. R. Fleming, 1 would bring us to eighteen
hundred and forty-eight, when the Pope was driven
from Rome, and a popular government was set up in
the very seat of the Papal power. But if we go to
the later date of seven hundred and fifty-two, when
the Pope began his temporal dominion, this will carry
us on to the year nineteen hundred and ninety-four,
according to prophetical time. Now, with these several
events before us, each of which seem to claim attention,
it is quite impossible to fix the final end of Papal rule;
yet as the Pope has lost his temporal power, and is con-
suming away in his influence, we may safely expect
his full end within the latest of these periods ; and
hence we are living in the transitional times when
popery is to fall and truth to gain the ascendancy,
which shall no sooner come to pass than the " first
(i) Mr. Fleming published his "Rise and Fall of Rome Papal" about one
hundred and forty-seven years before the year eighteen hundred and
forty-eight It was certainly remarkable that these events occurred at
the very date he had fixed upon so long before. His plan of calcula-
tion was that of making a year to consist of three hundred and sixty
days only, which, upon the one thousand two hundred and sixty,
would be eighteen years less than ordinary Julian years. If any critic
should complain of the two modes of reckoning in the above paragraph,
he has only to remember that the witnesses "did not begin their pro-
phesying in sackcloth immediately after Justinian's edict. It is said
to be about twenty years after this, before the Roman Pontiff ordered
heretics to be burnt, which would make the period of humiliation to
agree as nearly as possible with Mr. Fleming's calculation.
GOOD SIGNS. 49
resurrection" shall be realized, and the millennium
ushered in. The great movements in the religious
and the political worlds seem plainly to indicate that
these calculations are not far wrong. Never, perhaps,
has there been so much attention attracted to the
" Man Christ Jesus" as now. " Ecce Homo" is but
an expression of one type of the many minds who are
led to "Behold the Man." The bible was never
known as it is to-day. We are beginning truthfully to
say of the scriptures, " every man hears them speak
in his own language." Education is fast uprooting
the superstitions of the heathen, and church establish-
ments are all tumbling to the ground. These things,
apart from prophecy, make us stand and look on, won-
dering what will be the next turn in the world's events ;
and in these days of sudden and gigantic changes,
when the providences of God move round so rapidly,
we might well exclaim with inspired words, "Oh,
wheel!" The past few years have done more toward
the great revolution of the world than anything since
the Pentecost Sunday 'Schools, Missionary Societies,
Bible and Tract Societies, all owe their origin to one
generation ; and the effects are seen in the one million
of sabbath school teachers, and the ninety thousand
preachers of the gospel of the present day. It seems
as though we must be deaf indeed, did we not hear in
all this the harbinger's voice, "Prepare ye the way
of the Lord!" These signs are surely contradicting
the gloomy prophesyings of those pre-millenarians, who
are constantly declaring that the world will get worse
and worse, till the Lord comes in person to the earth.
In trying to describe the scriptural teaching on the
millennial glory, I shall begin by laying down this great
proposition, That the millennium will usher in no new
dispensation : the church, the world, nature, and
grace will be much the same then as now ; Christ will
be still where He is at the right hand of God ; the
church will as much live by faith then, and be just as
dependent on the Spirit of all Grace as she has ever
been. Human nature will be depraved; and regenera-
tion, and the Open Fountain, as needful as ever. The
50 THE MILLENNIUM
ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper will hold
their place, as in the days of apostles ; and commerce,
trade, and social life be as to-day, except that the
law of righteousness will rule and influence all classes
for the purity of society and the honor of Jesus. I
make these remarks to correct certain wrong notions
which may have been instilled into some minds by
erroneous teachers upon these subjects. It is evident
that there will be no new dispensation till the final
end, when eternity shall succeed to time, and glory to
grace ; for we are living in the last times ; so that
we have in the church all that is requisite to make a
millennium, except that we need more of the grace of
the Holy Ghost, which has been kept so long from us
by our unholiness and unbelief. Yet, though often
grieved, the Spirit has not left us, but is still waiting
to be gracious, and at the fitting hour He will
" Come as the dove, and spread His wings
The wings of peaceful love ;
And make the church on earth become
Blest as the church above."
If, then, the millennium ushers in no new dispensa-
tion, wherein will its glory appear ?
I. THE GLORY OF THE MILLENNIUM WILL BE SEEN
IN THE UNIVERSAL HOMAGE WHICH SHALL BE RENDERED
TO CHRIST. When He had finished the great work
of redemption below He ascended up on high, and
sat down on the right hand of God, " from hence-
forth expecting till all His enemies be made His foot-
stool." And shall He expect in vain ? Never ! Shall
He die, conquer death, subdue Satan, and then re-
turn to the Father, and send down His Holy Spirit to
convince the world of sin, righteousness, %&& judgment;
and after all, secure no wider conquest than what we see
to-day? Never ! It would be a dishonor to Him to sup-
pose this, as it would be a flat contradiction to His re-
vealed truth to say so. There can scarcely be a greater
error in all Christendom than that whichpre-millenarians
hold upon the kingship of Christ. They emphatically
tell us, that our Lord is not yet a king, and will not be
so, till He conies and sets up a temporal throne in
CHARACTERIZED BY 51
Jerusalem. To me, the man who would deny that
Christ is a Saviour would be quite as near the truth ;
for Jesus is exalted by the right hand of God a Prince
and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and for-
giveness of sins ] and it is as wicked to deny one
character of our Lord, as the other. Besides, He con-
stantly spoke of the gospel rule in the world as His
kingdom, and the kingdom of heaven. And it is
beyond dispute, that the apostles ever understood that
those prophecies, which spake of the Messiah as sitting
on the throne of His Father David, were fulfilled as
He rose from the dead, and ascended to the right hand
of the Majesty on high. Hear the words of Peter in
his Pentecostal sermon. " Men and brethren, let me
freely speak unto you of the patriarch David Being
a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an
oath to him, that of the fruit, of his loins, according to
the flesh, He would raise up Christ to sit on his (David's)
throne He seeing this before, spake of the resurrec-
tion of Christ This Jesus hath God raised up, where-
of we all are witnesses ; therefore, being by the right
hand of God exalted, and 'having received of the
Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed
forth this. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know
assuredly that God hath made this same Jesus, whom
ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ." In these
words, as explicitly as language can do so, it is stated
that the promise to David was now fulfilled, the proof of
which was the exercise of regal authority in the sending
down of the Holy Spirit, as had that day been done.
In this same way all the inspired writers spake of Him.
And, in His own epistle to the church in Philadelphia,
Jesus speaks in like manner. " These things saith He
that is holy, He that is true, He that HATH THE KEY
OF DAVID, He that openeth and no man can shut, and
shutteth and no man openeth." If these words do not
positively assert that He is David's successor, exercis-
ing kingly and uncontrollable power, then language
has no meaning. But we need not argue ; we know
from His own lips that all power is in His hand, and
He must REIGN till all His enemies be put under Him ;
52 UNIVERSAL HOMAGE
and though Jews and pre-millenarians may unite, as
indeed they do, to rob Him of His kingly glory
" His kingdom cannot fail ;
He rules o'er earth and heaven ;
The keys of death and hell
Are to our Saviour given."
And this dominion has ever been, and still will be,
the church's only hope and confidence in her warfare
here ; and had she nothing to stimulate her but the
blessed prospect of witnessing universal homage and
adoration to Him, she would find in that enough to
constrain her to endure the greatest sufferings that
He may be glorified. Beloved brethren, what a bright
and happy day will that be, when prophecy shall be-
comehistory, and the church's prayer shallbe exchanged
for praise ; when " He shall have dominion from sea
to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth/'
When
"Kings shall fall down before Him,
And gold and incense bring;
All nations shall adore Him,
His praise all people sing ! "
Cantherebe any anticipation more glorious than this?
this bright and beautiful vision, which inspiration
paints on a thousand pages as the just reward of our
once suffering, but now exalted, Lord ! Then He was
clothed in frailty, crowned with thorns, shamefully
mocked with mimic robes, sceptre and homage; but now
He has put His "bright robes of triumph on," is crowned
with majesty and glory, whilst myriads in earth and
heaven adore and magnify His precious name, and He
will yet see of the travail of His soul ; for the day
must come when, alike in the palaces of kings and
around the camp fires of Ishmael's sons, His name
shall be as sweetest incense ; when "they in the
wilderness shall bow down before Him, and His
enemies shall lick, the dust ; " when the proud and
haughty Brahmin shall own His law, and the low and
degraded Bushman shall rise up to call Him blessed ;
when " Jesus ;; shall be substituted for Mahomet, and
"Christ" for Buddha; when every prayer shall be
offered in His name, and every song shall be to His
TO CHRIST, BY 53
praise. blessed ! ever blessed day ! "dawn on these
realms of woe and sin;" and then shall the heavenly
and earthly choirs unite in the song " The kingdoms
of this world are become the kingdoms of our God and
of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever."
I would fain linger on this one delightful aspect of
the millennial glory, for the honour of Christ is that
which lies nearest the Christian's heart. But I must
pass on.
II. To notice THAT THE MILLENNIAL GLORY WILL
BE SEEN IN THE PURITY OF THE CHURCH. Not that
there will be any new law given, or new ordinances
established, but the church will return to her first
purity of faith and practise - } the innovations of Rome,
and the superstitions of the dark ages, will be cast out,
and the teaching of Jesus and Paul will be supreme.
How our pre-millenarian advocates can maintain, as
they do, that the old Jewish sacrifices and festivals are
yet to be revived, is beyond our power to solve, except
it be, that on this class of subjects they have. so grieved
the Holy Spirit, that He has given them up "to wander,
in endless mazes lost.'" Nothing is clearer in the
scriptures of truth, than that the carnal ordinances of
the Jews were designed to be done away, and were
" done away in Christ." Indeed, they were sacrifices in
which God " had no pleasure," and such as could never
"make the comers thereunto perfect; "but were typical
of the great sacrifice, and were among the things that
' were shaken, and were removed, that this gospel "king-
-dom, which cannot be shaken," may take their place,
and remain for ever. To go back to these sacrifices and
ceremonial observances wouldbe in direct opposition to
all the laws of God's government from Adam till now, for
His law has been one of progression, whilst this would
be the reverse. It can easily be imagined how severely
Paul would deal with these pre-millennial believers were
he here ; we may be sure, from the undivided testimony
of God's word, that he would be as much against these
notions of reviving the sacrifices as ever he was against
the Galatian heresies ; indeed, these heresies of to-day
are very similar to those, and the same inspired con-
54 THE PURITY OF
demnation maybe used of their teachers and adherents
as of the old Judaizing leaders and followers, " ye
foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you ? Are ye
so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are ye now
made perfect by the flesh?" "How turn ye
again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto
ye desire again to be in bondage ? " These are im-
passioned words, but not too strong for the circum-
stances, either then or now. It would be as consistent
to believe that Noah would again enter the long-
decayed ark, and that Abraham would once more
attempt the offering of Isaac, as that the Jewish
sacrifices will ever again be offered by Divine sanction.
"Neither in this mountain of Samaria, nor yet in
Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father," said Jesus ;
" but the hour cometh, and now is, when the true wor-
shippers, "shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth,
for the Father seeketh such to worship Him ; " which
words entirely sweep away all the old ideas of Jewish
and ceremonial observances. The great evil of the
church for many generations has been the incorporat-
ing of the Jewish spirit into it, which has always cor-
rupted the faith and weakened the kingdom of Christ.
The tithes, festivals, ^& priestly class, and vestments, are
full proof of this, and are all antagonistic to the spirit
of the gospel, and will have to disappear in the clearer
light of millennial grace.
It may be safely concluded from the unity of the
Spirit's teachings, that in proportion as we have that
Spirit as our guide, we shall come back, as churches, to
His doctrines and precepts, as found in the epistle to
early Christians. Let anyone read those doctrines
and precepts, and conceive of their being studied when
popery shall be gone, and the great deceiver bound,
and he will instinctively come to the conclusion that the
one body of Christ shall then come to the "one Lord,
one faith, and one baptism," and shall abound in love,
keeping the "unity of the Spirit," and practising the
things that are honest, pure, and lovely, as there incul-
cated. And then, if ever, the Lord's own prayer shall be
answered, " That they all may be one ; that the world
THE CHURCH, 55
may know that Thou, Father, hast sent me." There
have been a thousand attempts to bring the church
into universal conformity; t^ut all have failed, which
has been a great mercy for the world ; for the creeds,
beliefs, and confessions, have been human and car-
nal, and to have brought Christendom to them,
would have been to have brought it down to the cold
level of death; but when the Spirit of all Grace shall
come, like the tide that rises over the little pud-
dles and ponds on the sea shore, the churches shall be
taken out of their stagnant impurities, and be brought
into the living ocean of truth and love. Then there
will be no human heads recognised in Zion. Kings
and queens, who shall be her nursing fathers and
mothers, shall never usurp the place of the Head of
the church; and statesmen shall come to her to
learn righteousness and judgment, and shall no more
attempt, to control her faith by their acts and state
force.
And this purity of the body of Christ will be mani-
fested in the purity of the individual members ; the
holy admonitions to present our bodies as living sacri-
fices to God will be more perfectly complied with ;
and the littleness and selfishness, which now disturb
and cramp the energies of the church, will be forgotten
when each man shall present himself to the Lord an
offering in righteousness, and shall submit himself to
His service with "pieces of silver." Then shall the light
of one day be as the light of seven ; and, in the gar-
dens of Zion, " instead of the thorn shall come up the
fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the
myrtle tree ; and it shall be to the Lord for a name,
for an everlasting sign that cannot be cut off." If the
scriptures teach anything at all, they teach us, that
though the gospel church would have much warfare
and conflict with Antichrist and the world, yet the -day
would come when her enemies should come bending
down to her, and her purity and peace should be such
as to draw forth the admiration and praise, of the
whole earth. Since this has never yet been the case,
and since we are not to expect it till the stone cut
56 BY THE CONVERSION
from the mountain side has smitten the great image on
its feet of iron and clay and broken them in pieces,
we are certain that these happy days are to fall in the
millennium, and for this should every Christian work
and pray ; for, through the effects of the godly, by the
agency of the Divine Spirit, will these things come to
pass. Nor are they now any great way off, for
" The prophecies must be fulfilled,
Though earth and hell should dare oppose ;
The stone, cut from the mountain's side,
Though unobserved, to empire grows.
Soon shall the mingled image fall
(Brass, silver, iron, gold, and clay);
And superstition's gloomy reign
To light and liberty give way.
In one vast symphony of praise,
Gentile and Jew shall then unite ;
And Infidelity, ashamed,
Sink in the abyss of endless night."
III. The third aspect of the millennial glory will
be the conversion of the Jews. I am not aboutto enter at
large upon the question of the restoration of the sons of
Israel to their native land. The pre-millenarians write
and talk about this subject as though it was the chief
idea of the scriptures. I do not say that the Jews will
not go back to Judea ; but I simply say, I do not know.
I have read so much of the confused arguments of the
restorationist, until I am in doubt concerning it;
but what I have to present to you is infinitely better. It
is very remarkable, if the restoration of the literal king-
dom of Israel is to be looked for, that we should find
nothing concerning it in the teachings of the New
Testament. So far as I know, there is not one single
text in all the gospels or epistles that legitimately implies
even that this will be the case. But we are there taught
that the Gospel Church is the Jerusalem now ; and
even in writing to the Hebrews, Paul assured them
that they were come to " Mount Zion, to the city of
the living God, and to the Heavenly Jerusalem, by
which language he evidently intended to show them
the better realities they had found than what their fa-
thers possessed who held the literal city.
OF THE JEWS, 57
We are further taught, that the Tabernacle of David
was restored in the spiritual reign of Christ. In Acts
xv., 13-17, when the apostles were consulting about
the conversion of the Gentiles, James, quoting the
prophecies from Amos, Isaiah, and others, showed the
assembled church that what was then coming to pass in
the gathering in of the heathen was justwhat they might
have expected, for the Lord having returned, and built
again the Tabernacle of David, the Gentiles seeking
after the Lord was the very next thing in order. Here,
then, as the Gentiles had begun to come into the church,
the apostles accepted it as the fulfilment of prophecy.
In doing so, they fully accepted the idea, that David's
house and throne had been restored in Christ. So that
we have Jerusalem and David's throne throughout the
whole gospel dispensation. And we are further taught,
that "he is not a Jew who is one outwardly " but that
the heathen, on becoming Christ's, are "Abraham's seed,
and heirs according to promise." And in these we have
the true Israel who worship God in thespirit, and to whom
the old promises are made ; so that there really is no
necessity for a literal restoration to enjoy the 1 promises
of God, for we have them all now in Christ the Lord.
Still we are led to believe that the literal Jews will be
grafted again into the true Olive Tree if they "continue
not in unbelief/' That they will not continue in un-
belief is certain from Rom. xi., 26, where it is said that
" all Israel shall be saved ;" and when that grand and
glorious day shall come when, with the fulness of
the Gentiles, they shall come into the spiritual Zion, to
bow before Him, Whom so long they have scorn-
fully rejected, the great breach in the human family
shall be healed, and the vail being taken away from
their hearts, the glory of their literal dreams shall be
forgotten in the blessing of the gospel which "excels in
glory."
But let it not be supposed that their turning to the
Lord will give them any special advantage over the
Gentiles, or that they will set up a separate form of
worship, or church organization. In Christ Jesus Who is '
our peace the wall of partition has been broken down,
58 BY POLITICAL
never again to be built ; and in Him, Greek and Jew,
barbarian and Sythian, bond and free, are perfectly
one, washed by the same blood, sanctified by the
same grace, bowing to the same law, they are, and
ever will be, fellow-citizens in all the privileges and
blessings of the household of faith ; and whosoever
would rebuild the wall of separation denies the faith,
and does despite to the Spirit of Grace.
IV. I observe, the millennial glory will be seen in
the powerful eifects of truth and righteousness on the
nations of the earth. It requires no words of mine to
prove the wide-spread misery which covers our globe.
For nearly six thousand years the leading features of
our world have been those of strife, hatred, malice,
selfishness, and death, until the earth has been drenched
with blood, and the air poisoned with pestilential
breath. Everywhere God has been blasphemed ! and
in every place Satan has triumphed ! The question
now is, Will there be any change ? Pre-millenarians
say, "No ; there will be no change, except it be that men
will wax worse and worse." To believe this statement
we must blot out a great portion of the Word of God,
and forget the promises of peace and good-will to men,
and we must also throw away the hope of the saints in
every age, and refuse to listen to the sweetest music of
the inspired singers in Israel. But no ! we dare not
do this ; every word of God is true ! and
" The cause of righteousness,
And truth, and holy peace,
Designed our world to bless,
SHALL spread and never cease.
Till God the Son shall come again
It must go on. Amen ! Amen ! "
We admit all that can be said of the darkness and woe
of our race, and of the comparatively slow progress
of the gospel for ages past ; but all these things agree
perfectly with the prophecies that went before concern-
ing them, which prophecies also open out the brighter
day at hand. And already, as .we have seen in this
lecture, the dawn breaketh, for the light of inspiration
is sending its cheering rays into the dark places of the
PEACE, AND 59
earth, and the morning song of Bethlehem is echoed
back to the skies with increasing energy every year;
whilst the peaceful feet of Christ's heralds tread every
land, and the heaven-sent leaven of gospel truth is
silently permeating all classes of men. These signs
of the times, together with the trumpet-notes of pro-
phecy sounded by David, Isaiah, and John, awake us
from our slumbers, and call us to the mountain top
to wait for the coming day ; and here the faithful and
wakeful believer may sweetly sing,
"I am watching for the morning
Of a bright and glorious day,
That shall hush the world's deep groaning,
And wipe her tears away."
Nor shall he watch in vain ; for, hour by hour, shall
the light continue to increase, until the perfect day ;
and what is now confusion, discord, and mourning, shall
be turned into peace ; and intemperance, slavery, and
vice, shall hide their heads ; and the millennial, pic-
tures of inspiration shall find their fulfilment in the
harmony and righteousness of the inhabitants of our
earth. For
" No strife shall rage, nor hostile feuds
Disturb those peaceful years.
To ploughshares men shall beat their swords,
To pruning hooks their spears.
The happy child, in dragon's way,
Shall frolic with delight ;
The lamb shall round the leopard play,
And all in love unite."
Now if these prophecies, which so abound in scrip-
ture, which seem to labor to bring in every emblem of
peace and happiness, do not get a literal fulfilment,
as indeed we do not expect them, yet there will be
such a state of things in the earth as fittingly to corre-
spond to these figurative descriptions.
It is also evident, that not only will men's minds be
affected by the reign of righteousness, but even phy-
sical nature will receive peculiar blessing from God.
It would seem that man will attain to a much greater
longevity than he now enjoys, which would be a very
60 PHYSICAL PROSPERITY ;
natural result of temperance, and purity of life, as more
than half the diseases, and affliction, and poverty, and
want around us, arise from drunkenness and vicious
habits, which will then be diminished a thousandfold.
"Then shall they plant vineyards, and eat the fruit
thereof; and build houses and inhabit them ; for as
the days of a tree shall be their days, and they shall
long enjoy the work of their hands." There are many
scriptures which clearly indicate this aspect of the
golden age, as there are not a few which show also
that even the earth shall yield a more fruitful increase
than it has hitherto done, though we have no idea of the
wild dreams of some pre-millenarians, whose writings
indicate the strongest signs of insanity. Lest anyone
should think me uncharitable, I will repeat one short
paragraph, which is a fair sample of much that is written
in more modem days. The writer, speaking of the
blessings which the saints shall enjoy during the millen-
nium, says, " The days shall come, in which vines shall
grow, each having ten thousand boughs ; and on each
bough, ten thousand branches ; and on each branch,
ten thousand switches ; and on each switch, ten thou-
sand clusters ; and on each cluster, ten thousand
grapes. And when one of the saints shall take hold of
a cluster, another shall cry out, ' I am a better cluster,
take me; through me, bless the Lord.'" 1 This
quotation, no doubt, would be considered a most
extravagant one ; but there are others equal to it, in
which corn and other fruits are spoken of; as there
are also many, quite as unreasonable on other points,
which I might have given from living authors, pas-
sages which are more fitting to adorn the pages of the
" Arabian Nights," than to find a place in Christian
literature. Still, all this extravagancy does not turn us
away from the true glory of the millennium, but it rather
makes us the more anxious to sift to the very bottom,
to know and to hold fast the truth as revealed in the
Book of God, that our aspirations and our hopes may
be so guided as to have real fellowship with Christ in
the aims and intentions of His gospel.
(i) These are the words ofPapias, the father of pre-millennialism.
ALL RESULTING 6 1
And now, in conclusion, if any critic shall think me
wanting in scripture quotation this evening, I would
remind such, that all I have said is so much in harmony
with the general tenor of the bible, and said so much in
scripture language, that it was simply impossible to
turn up the endless number of passages which have
been, as it were, speaking to us in this lecture. If any-
one should consider my remarks to be wanting in fresh-
ness, that will arise very much from the fact, that the
subject we have had under discussion is one with which
most gospel hearers are familiar, seeing that in our
songs, and sermons, and prayers, we are constantly led
to it ; yet, though an old subject, there is in it so much
to cheer and animate the church of God, that we can-
not study it in vain. And oh ! that every hearer this
evening would gather lessons from this perusal. We
all find ourselves in a world of woe, and nothing but
this gospel of the blessed God can remedy the evil.
Men have tried all their remedies, -philosophy, civiliza-
tion, and education, but all have failed to conquer the
monster sin, or chain the, lustful passions of our nature.
But Jesus comes, and His grace transforms the creature
man, and
"Lions, and beasts of savage name,
Put on the nature of the lamb."
Yet the world hates and despises His renovating
truth, and substitutes forms and rites in its stead. Oh !
brethren, if you want your 'own hearts sanctified, and
your mind filled with peace, submit entirely to Him
Who came to bring peace, Who died to secure it for
us, and Who now reigns to give peace and triumph to
all who believe. Believe in Him, and millennial peace
will be yours now ; and so far will ye antedate the golden
age and will learn the truth of prophecy, that "in His
day shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace
so long as the moon endureth." And if ye would that
the world should be blessed, turn away from every
form of false religion, distrust priestcraft, ceremonies,
Heirarchies, and State-Establishments, they have been
tried long enough, and have brought little but
corruption, tyranny, and destruction, where'er they
62 FROM THE GOSPEL.
have come ; therefore, distrust them, and turn to that
gospel of Jesus, as it came pure from His lips, and the
lips of His inspired teachers; and with confidence
grasp it, and do all you can to carry it to the regions
beyond you. Nor stand ye, like thousands of mis-
guided men and women of our day, gazing up into
heaven, expecting the Saviour to come, to convert the
world by His bodily presence ! He has given you His
gospel; He has given you His Spirit ; and He has pro-
mised to be with you until the end of the world. By
these, or not at all, the millennium is to come; by these,
or not at all, the latter-day glory shall be secured;
for God has no other remedy for man's woes,
and no design of sending Jesus again till the final
judgment. Oh ! ye churches of the true saints, know
ye not what your gospel has done? and can ye
doubt it now ? Your Saviour and Lord is now seeing
how ye are fulfilling His mission in the world. Let
His command arouse you, let the histories of His
conquests stimulate your faith, let the prospect of His
universal glory inspire and inflame your love, and let
His unchanging promise arm you to the fight ; and
thus going forth, the world shall yet see the salvation
of our God, and all the ends of the earth shall fear
Him. Then, amid the homage of nations to His
government and law, the earth shall be gilded with the
millennial glory, and angels once more be tempted to
sing their celestial song, " PEACE ON EARTH, GOOD-
WILL TOWARD MEN; GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST."
The Lord hasten it in His time. Amen !
LECTURE IV.
"THE LITTLE SEASON OF SATAN'S
LIBERTY."
Delivered on Sunday Evening, January jf/t, 1872.
" And after that he must be loosed a little season.
And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall
be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive
the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth,
Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle : the
number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they
went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed
the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city :
and fire came down from God out of heaven, and
devoured them."
Rev. xx. 3, 7-9.
|N giving these lectures, I am very anxious
that all who hear them shall have a distinct
view of the whole series of subjects discussed,
but I am greatly afraid I shall not succeed in
securing 'this end ; partly from the fact that many of
our friends have paid but little attention previously
t o this class of study, and partly from the necessity
I am under of compressing too much into each lecture.
It would have been more for the profit of those who
wish to examine all the bearings of the questions
involved, if some of these lectures had been divided
into two or three ; but the fear of protracting this
64 THE ORDER
investigation too greatly, led me to confine their num-
ber to the limited space announced. If anyone should
think that on some points I labor too much to be
plain, it arises from my great fear that some persons
may fail to catch the truths presented ; and if there has
been room for this anxiety before, there is special room
for it this evening, for the subject is one that very few
Christians think of, or converse upon. If I had been
desirous of a sensational title, I might have named the
present lecture, "The resurrection of Satan and his
hosts," but as I am more concerned to edify than to
excite, the Apocalyptic phraseology has been retained,
which, however, we shall not be able to understand un-
less we get right views of the scenes which precede that
which is here represented. Among these are the binding
of Satan, the nature of the millennium, and the character
of the people who enjoy it. As perfectly as I can in
a few words, let me first of all give you the order of these
events as they occur in the visions. In attempting this,
I must ask you to call to mind what was said concern-
ing the long straggle between the Church of Christ and
Satan's Seed, which struggle commenced under the
rule of Pagan Rome, and has ran through the length
of Papal Rome till the present time ; nor is it yet ended,
nor will it be, until the whole prophetical period of the
papacy shall have been completed, which, happily, we
are justified in believing is now drawing to a close.
That struggle will then end, not, however, by the
visible appearance of our Lord, but by the complete
triumph of His gospel.
The next feature of the times is the millennium (to
which we drew attention last Lord's Day), which, in
prophetical language, is stated to be a thousand. years.
What that period means I have not attempted to deter-
mine, though, in honesty, it must be confessed, that
there is no more reason for taking this in a literal
sense than there is for taking the other stated periods
literally ; and, hence, if this is prophetical time, as we
take the others to be, a day for a year, the millen-
nium may be three hundred and sixty thousand years.
But I do not insist upon this, as it might simply be in-
OF EVENTS. 65
tended to convey the idea of a very long period, as doubt-
less it will be, the character of which we described in the
last lecture ; in which we maintained that there will be
no difference in the general nature of the church
and of the world to what they are to-day, except that
truth and righteousness will everywhere prevail. In
turning to Daniel's visions, you will find this same
period of universal righteousness setforthin two ways,
in chapter ii., as the stone cut from the mountain, and
silently increasing till it has filled the whole earth with
its glory, which, in the forty-fourth verse, is explained
as a kingdom which the God of Heaven should set up,
which should break in pieces and consume the king-
dom of iron and clay. In chapter vii., the same days
of happiness are explained by one of the angels to
mean a fifth kingdom, which should arise after the
Roman power, viz., "The saints of the Most High
shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for
ever, even for ever and ever." From these explanations,
two things are certain about the millennium. First, it
will immediately succeed the rule of the papacy ; and
secondly, the whole world' will be under its control.
The next thing in order, following this long season
of universal peace and purity, is the loosing of Satan,
and the sad decline of religion, to which we have now to
turn our attention.
In the second verse of the chapter whence our text
is taken, Satan is said to be laid hold of, bound, and
cast into the bottomless pit, that he should deceive the
nations no more for a whole millennium, after which he
must be loosed a " little season." So that after the thou-
sand years of righteousness Satan will be once more
abroad in the world, and will again deceive multitudes
of men, as he has been deceiving them hitherto, and
will make a final effort to destroy the church of God.
He will not, however, succeed, for not only will he be
hindered, but his destruction will be sudden and com-
plete. Having thus the order of the events before us, we
will try to understand what this last period means,
and in doing so, let us examine
I. The nature of Satan's bondage, and the reason
66 SATAN'S BONDAGE
for which he is bound. To see these, will help us
better than anything else to know what meaning we are
to attach to his loosing. I believe the majority of
Christians, who are orthodox upon the general outline
of these prophecies, have failed clearly to discern the
intention of the language and symbols here, and hence
have a wrong impression concerning the state of the
world during the millennium. To correct this, I lay
down the following proposition, that the binding of
Satan does not mean an entire cessation of his presence
and influence in the world. I have no doubt but some
persons will feel a disappointment at this statement,
but a little attention to the symbols, and the general
sentiment of scripture, will show the truth of my
proposition. In 2 Peter ii. 4, we are told that the
sinning angels were cast down to hell, and are in chains
of darkness, reserved unto judgment. Yet in i Peter
v. 8, we learn that the devil goeth about as a roaring
lion. Now it is certain from these texts that the chains
by which Satan and his host are held in reserve for judg-
ment do not at the same time prevent them working
mischief in the world. But we shall find fuller illustra-
tion in the Apocalypse itself. In the ninth chapter of
Revelation we have an awful representation of Satan's
loosing, which will fully prove what I am saying. In the
first verse of that chapter a star falls to the earth, and to
him is given the key of the bottomless pit, which he
opens, and at once there issues forth such a dense
smoke, as to darken the sun, and in this smoke are
hosts of scorpion-locusts, which plague and torment
men, till they seek death. rather than life. In the
eleventh verse we are told of their king, who is no
other than the destroying Apollyon. Now, are we to
suppose that before Mahomet opened the pit of dark-
ness, and let out his hellish lies and delusions, that the
devil was not on the earth? Verily not ; for in 629
A.D., when the false prophet led forth his armies in
their first warfare against Christendom, Satan had
already rather fully developed his great master-piece
Popery in the the western kingdom ; therefore, since
the letting of Satan out of the pit does not imply that
NOT ABSOLUTE, 67
prior to this act he had no influence in the world, the
symbols before us cannot mean an entire cessation of his
influence, though he be figuratively cast into the pit. In
the twelfth chapter of this prophecy we have a still
fuller illustration of the proposition I am submitting
to you. In the seventh verse we learn that there
was war in heaven : Michael and his angels fought
the dragon, which is the old serpent the devil, and
conquered him, and cast him out into the earth,
and all the church sang songs of triumph over him.
This scene, without doubt, represented the struggle
that the church had with Pagan Rome, when the
red dragon the devil in the pagan dress was cast
out, and had no longer a place in the rule and
government of the nation, for the whole was changed
and Christianized, and the persecuting pagan form
was brought to an end. But are we to suppose
that when all the places of state were given to pro-
fessed Christians that literally Satan was no longer in
the Roman government? Certainly not But we are
rather to understand, that when the Emperor enthroned
Christianity the devil's old pagan trade was cast out,
and that he should no longer in that form practise his
works of darkness. So here, when Satan is bound, that
he shall deceive the nations no more for a thousand years,
that power of deception which he has been practising
these manygenerations in Christendom shall be entirely
taken away, and for that period no new form of deceit
shall arise amongst the children of men. In this univer-
sal withholding, we see the difference to the scene we
have just described from the twelfth chapter. There,
when he was cast out from the government and rule,
which we are to under stand ly the heavens in this book,
he went into the earth among the populace, to corrupt
the world by every form of evil; but here, in the verse
preceding our text, we see him cast away, so as to find
no place in the earth, but is shut up in the pit of dark-
ness for this whole period. Still, from all the symbolic
representations that we have, we are justified in saying,
that the binding of Satan is not an entire cessation of
his presence and influence in the world during the
millennium.
68 NOR MIRACULOUS,
I think we may now venture a step further, and say,
That the binding of Satan will be no direct miracle,
that is, it will not be done by any sovereign act of God
apart from the grace exercised by the church. I am
again afraid that some hearers will begin to feel that we
are reducing the millennial glory to a very low estimate;
still, at the risk of disappointing pious minds, I dare
not paint an unscriptural, or a fool's paradise. It was
stated last Lord's Day, that nature and grace will be the
same during the millennium as now j and as there is no
passage in scripture but the one before us that says a
word about Satan being entirely banished from the earth,
we must apprehend its meaning to be in harmony with
other portions, and we find the figurative representa-
tions before us all beautifully adapted to sustain this
view. No one would be so foolish as to suppose the
chain to be a, literal one, or that any material fetters
could bind a spirit ; but the figure represents that, by
some means from God, the great enemy would be hin-
dered in his deceitful work among men, so that he should
not lift up another Antichrist, nor, by change of tactics,
lead the church and the world away from the gospel.
But we must not forget that it will be as true during
the thousand years as it is to-day, " that this is the
victory that overcometh even our faith!' When Paul
was concluding his salutations to the Romans he told
them, that the God of peace would braise Satan under
their feet shortly, by which he comforted them with
the full assurance, that they would get the complete vic-
tory over all their trials and oppositions. Yet we know
that Satan was not destroyed by this crashing. In the
great war between Michael and the dragon, to which we
just now alluded, it is stated that " he was cast into the
earth" That is the symbol. In a verse afterward it is
said, "they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and
by the word of their testimony" That is the plain and
divinely explicit interpretation. So that the great victory
over the red dragon that is, the casting out of the devil
from Rome pagan that it might be Christianized -was
no bare sovereign act of God apart from the grace of
His church, but literally Satan lost his seat and rule
BUT BY THE AGENCY 69
in Rome by the mighty triumphs of the cross. The
Christians held up the Lamb slain; and their holy
lives, together with their doctrines, prevailed, till the
whole scene was changed. The same will be the case
in the binding of Satan. The great conqueror going
forth on the white horse, in chapter nineteen, is
nothing more nor less than the victorious march of the
gospel, treading down and conquering all opposition,
and chasing every destructive delusion of the papacy,
of Islamism, and all other false religions from the world;
and the saints having thus got the dominion over
Satan will hold it fast, so as literally to prevent him
regaining a footing till the end of the reign of peace.
Now this explanation perfectly accords with every part
of God's Word. The conquest is Christ's ; but it is the
same conquest that Christ gained at Pentecost, in
Rome, and in many other bright spots of our earth,
a conquest by His Spirit through the agency of His
disciples. The bruising of Satan is God's ; but it is God's
bruising by the foot of the church. The binding of the
devil is by a messenger from heaven ; but it is by the
faithful that this heavenly grace will perform its powers.
If I have said enough to make this scriptural truth
clear to you, you will at once be able to see how,
during the whole of the millennium, the ground is held
for Christ by the church through the abundant measure
of grace given her from on high. And this at once
shows us that the Apocalypse is in perfect harmony
with all the precepts and commands of Christ elsewhere,
which bid the faithful to go into all the world, and
disciple all nations, not by any new agency, but by the
simple gospel, which was &i first, and which ever will be,
the power of God unto salvation. The gospel thus
sets before the church the great work that is - to be
done, and furnishes her with the means of doing it; the
Apocalypse gives her a visionary glimpse of her work
accomplished. This vision should be most stimulat-
ing to us in our own toil and warfare, as we here learn,
that although the difficulties are great and numerous,
we shall, by faithful service, come off more than con-
querors through Him that loved us.
70 OF THE CHURCH.
I would not for a moment have you. to abate the
ardour and glow of your aspirations toward the millen-
nium because there is no new element in it, or because
it is to be won by the church in the ordinary way of
spiritual conquest. To me it seems all the more bright
and glowing, that all which we described last week
shall be attained by the old and ever-blessed story of
Bethlehem and Calvary. Will that Divine conquest
be too great for the dignity and grandeur of the means
employed ? It will not ; nor will it be more than the
gracious Author designed when He gave up His life
that He might redeem the souls of meo and destroy
the works of the devil. When He ascended He armed
His soldiers with the weapons of their warfare ; the
whole earth was to be the battle field, which they were
to win, and all the nations to be trophies of their con-
quest. To assure them of success He said, " Lo, I
am with you always, even to the end ; " and to inspire
them with confidence amid all their conscious weakness
He gave them the Holy Spirit, with the promise that
He should convince the world of sin, of righteousness,
and of judgment. Within twelve hours after they
were clad in their heavenly armour three thousand
captives were bound in the chains of love to the gospel
car, and soon the fame of Jesus had spread through-
out all the world, and it appeared as though the battle
would be both short and certain. In little more than
three hundred years the heathen dragon of Rome was
under the church's feet ; and had the Christian church
remained pure she would have held the ground taken ;
but she was ignorant of Satan's devices; and he, trans-
forming himself to an angel of light, got his place
among the saints, and, under a new name, retook the
field, and, more or less, has held it till now. But we
shall yet overcome him, regain our lost possessions,
cast him out, and by grace keep the ground; for, from
henceforth, "when he cometh in like a flood, the Spirit
of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him ; " for
though the conquering work has been impeded by this
Antichrist, the commission is still as it was at Pentecost,
with all the promise of Divine success, and the world
SATAN'S RELEASE 71
must yet be won. Now I ask every candid hearer, if this
view is not in perfect keeping with the whole spirit of
the gospel, and the tenor and precept of the Word of
God ; and, further, if this millennium is not more God-
like and Christ-honoring than the wild visions of pre-
millenarians, who talk about Christ coming bodily
and setting up a temporal throne at Jerusalem, re-in-
stituting the sacrifices, sending the old prophets and
saints to look after and educate the boys, teaching them
trades, arts, &c., and Sarah, Miriam, and the female
saints, to nurse and tend the babies? Which looks most
like the bible, or which is most in harmony with the grace
of the Spirit and the doctrines of the apostles ? Bre-
thren, let none of these unholy dreams possess you ; but
grasp the old standard of the cross, and by grace carry
it forward, and never falter in your onward march
until you have planted it on the strongest citadel of
the Prince of Darkness, and by faith, and prayer,
and truth, and righteousness, have destroyed his evil
work in the kingdoms of the earth, and have laid the
world you were sent to conquer as a peaceful trophy
at your Sovereign's feet. But, remember, that even
then, though all shall own the sway of Christ, and
shall be morally influenced by the gospel, Satan will not
have ceased, nor have done tempting the sons of men,
though he will be unable during those blessed times
to rally, by his delusion, an organization against the
Lord Jesus. Having in these arguments seen the
nature of Satan's bondage, we shall now be able to
understand his loosing. This leads me, then, to
examine the next branch of my subject.
II. The nature of Satan's release, and the result of
the same on the church and the world.
This part of our investigation reveals a painful
aspect of human nature, and the general tendency of
even the sanctified to degenerate. In a word, it is one
more illustration of the utter depravity of our hearts,
and of the ready progress which sin makes in a slum-
bering church ; for I hold that the loosing of Satan
will be no arbitrary act of God, but that just as the
faithful got the conquest over this terrible foe, so the
72 NOT SUDDEN.
faithless will lose their hold upon him, whereby he
will regain his influence, and gather together a party
against the Lord and His anointed.
(1) I remark, the loosing of Satan will introduce no
new element into the world; but rather the evil element,
which has been controlled andkept down for a thousand
years, will find opportunity to work, and again to con-
trol men. Just as the church was not really dead dur-
ing the twelve hundred and sixty years of the deviFs
power by Antichrist, but was rather lingering out an
existence till " the first resurrection," so Satan will not
be dead, nor his seed, during the one thousand years
of holiness, but will linger on, tempting and annoying
the individual Christian, and holding the unbeliever in
bondage of " the fear of death," until the time shall
come when he shall succeed once more to band his
party together in open rebellion against the beloved city.
And this will be his resurrection in the world, just as
the triumph of the church makes the first resurrection
a thousand years before, so that there will be no new
or strange thing happen at his loosing ; but the same
old power which once ruled the world, but which for
many generations will have been wasted and crushed,
will again revive and grow strong, and make the last
attempt for victory.
(2) I remark, that it is more than likely that the
loosing of Satan will be no sudden surprise, the way
for his coming will be gradually prepared by the
gradual decline of the church. This has always been
the manner in which he has gained dominion among
the professed disciples of the Lamb. The decline of
the churches in Asia Minor was gradual, and the rising
of the papacy in Rome was also gradual. Just as the
true church let go her truth and her purity the deviFs
deceptions prevailed, and saints and relics took the
place of Christ, and form and outward show were sub-
stituted for spiritual life. Thus men were deceived by
Satan ; and there is no reason to doubt but he will
pursue the same method again, gilding his baits as
the times may demand, and making his advances as
the professed church ceases her watchfulness and
NOR HIS HOSTS NOVEL; 73
fidelity, and thereby gives up the ground to him. Now,
as in the Old Testament church, and in the gospel
church hitherto, and in the individual experience of
God's children, this has been the general way of Satan's
ascending to power, there is no reason to suppose that
any new plans will be introduced in this final decline
of pure religion.
(3) I remark, Satan's hosts will be no newly-raised,
or created subjects, to join in this work of opposing the
cause of Christ. Pre-millenarians maintaining, as they
do, that Christ will visibly and personally reign for a
thousand years on this earth have been driven to a
variety of shifts to account for this large host of
enemies at the end. According to some of these
writers, the earth will have passed its burning and
purifying process at the beginning of the period, and,
after thus refined and made pure, will be the home
for one thousand years of the glorified saints, who, in
their immortalized bodies, will superintend all the
affairs of our world, both educating the young, and
ruling in the numerous states and kingdoms of men.
Well might they be driven to vain inventions to find
such a race of enemies under these circumstances
as the vision sets forth. One author describes these foes
as coming up from the slime of the earth by the
influence of the sun, 1 like a pestilential swarm of vermin,
which, as it seems, will, by a kind of rapid Darwinism,
develop into this formidable host. What kind of slime
the refined earth will have I am unable to say ; one
would be ready to conclude that it would be better
not to refine it if such terrible swarms may be hatched
therein. But, as the bible knows nothing about this
peculiar notion, we need not blush to confess our
ignorance of it, nor to acknowledge our inability to
grapple therewith. Another class of writers tell us,
that these enemies will be the heathen nations who
never heard the gospel^but whom God will raise to
life at the end of the millennium, in order to give
them an opportunity of fighting against Christ, that
His justice might appear in condemning them. 2 Others
believe in the raising of the wicked generally.. But all
(i) Burnet. (2) Gill and others.
D
74 BUT THE RESULT OF DECLINE.
these are miserable inventions to escape a difficulty into
which their system has driven these authors ; and not
only " miserable inventions," but such as are without the
least shadow of God's Word in their favour, and are
entirely opposed to the honour of God, and to the
dignity of Christ. We, on the other hand, have no
difficulty either to find the people, or to account for
their rebellion. We have maintained throughout
these lectures that the millennial state will not be
a perfect one : men will need conversion, and faith,
and love, and godly fear, as now ; and as now there
will be black sheep in the fold, and many will be
kept under restraint by fear rather than by love.
The unregenerate will as easily be led astray, and as
glad to throw off the yoke of restraint, as in former
times. The church, too, will decline in spiritual life
and power ; the virgins will be given to slumber, and
the tares will rapidly grow. The fathers and elders
who will be giants in faith during the millennium
having passed away, will be succeeded by a less
vigorous race of followers, who will be too much
satisfied with form without the power, and (as others
in former days) will glory in the faith of ancestors,
rather than in personal devotion to holiness, so that
the old inspired question may be again asked, "When
the Son of man. cometh, shall He find faith on the
earth?" In such a state of things, it will be easy
to see how Satan may again deceive the nations, and
induce multitudes to declare against the faith of the
saints and the city of God. This Gog and Magog,
whom we find introduced into the vision, carry us
back to Ezekiel xxxviii. and xxxix., where an unpro-
voked and formidable enemy comes up to attack Israel
in his peaceful settlements ; and these names are used
here for avowed enemies, just as were those people men-
tioned by the prophet. The statement that these
enemies are in the four quarters of the earth is a kind
of figurative representation. The beloved city is here
represented as located in the centre, like the taber-
nacle in the desert, or like Jerusalem in Palestine, and
the enemies living on the outskirts, and at a distance
THE LAST REBELLION, INFIDELITY. 75
from it, are easily stirred up against the holy city.
The order of Satan's progress is first deception, then
open rebellion. It would be vain to speculate very
minutely upon the exact form of his last delusions; but
it can scarcely be imagined that they will assume the
shape of the papal Antichrist. What light we gather
from the scriptures leads us rather to believe that the
last opposition will be in the form of open infidelity,
in which human passions will break forth in their vilest
form; for Paul says, "Yourselves know perfectly
that the day of the Lord so Cometh as a thief in the
night ; for when they shall say peace and safety, then
sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon
a woman with child; and they shall not escape."
And Peter says, " The"re shall come in the last day
scoffers, walking after their own lust, and saying,
Where is the promise of His coming." So that
it appears very plainly from these scriptures that the
deception of Satan will be that of denying the truth,
and leading men to grow bold in presumption and
profanity under the power of unbelief, like the heathen
form of infidelity, that said, " Let us eat and drink, for
to-morrow shall be as to-day, and much more abun-
dant." And then shall it be as when Noah entered
the ark, and as when Christ came with judgment on the
city of Jerusalem. The people, as on those occasions,
will be blinded by Satan, till the vengeance comes and
sweeps them away, the terribleness of which is beyond
our conception, for
" Woe, woe to the sinners !
To what shall they trust
In the day of God's vengeance,
The Holy and Just P
How meet all the terrors
That flame in His path,
When the mountains shall melt
At the glance of His wrath.
x The formal professor,
The saint but in name,
Where now will he cover
His guilt and his shame ;
When his sin, long concealed,
Shall be blazoned abroad,
And his conscience shall echo
The sentence of God ? "
7 6 THE LITTLE SEASON NOT SHORT.
The time which shall be occupied by Satan is called
here "a little season." Most likely this "little" is in
comparison to the long period just mentioned " the
thousand years." In the seventh chapter of this same
prophecy we have the mention of " a little season " as
the period during which the souls under the altar were
to rest before God would avenge their blood on the
earth. Now, if that " little season " is to be understood
to mean the whole time during which martyrs under
papal persecution were to be slain, as it seems to indicate}
then it extends from the commencement of the papacy
to the beginning of the millennium, and at least will
be more than twelve centuries. We cannot, however,
build any definite theory upon this, but it may serve
to illustrate two points : first, that since twelve hundred
and sixty years is but a little season in this book, the
millennium may be very much longer than is generally
expected ; and secondly, that Satan's years at the end
may be far from being a few.
I think we have now gone over the most of the out-
line of this prophecy. We have seen how, in apocalyp-
tic language, the old serpent, the devil, has before now
been overcome and cast out by the preaching of the
cross, and the living testimony of the godly ; from
which we have argued, that his future dethronement
will be in like manner. We have seen, too, that the
restraint for a thousand years will be through the
instrumentality of the church, who will not only
defeat the Antichrist, but (as Dr. Brown has said) for
that long period will " never permit the devil to gain
an inch of ground to plant his foot on over the wide
world." We have further seen, that the loosing of
Satan will be no arbitrary act of God, but that it will .
come about by the decline of the Church, and the want
of watchfulness on the part of the saints, who will
slumber whilst the busy enemy will be doing his work
of destruction.
The great question which will here present itself to
most minds is this, "How can those things be?"
Can the gospel bring about a state of things worthy of
(i) See page 32.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE 77
these strong figures ? and, if so, can that world ever
.after such happiness and holiness thus sadly decline ?
Happily, and unhappily, we have abundant illustration
to favour an affirmative reply to both of these questions.
In the first years of Christianity it was charged with
turning the world upside down, and it is as full of
energy now as then. What thousands of hearts and
homes it has completely changed ; from the dens of
vice and darkness Satan has been cast out; and
though, like a lion, he has growled at the door, yet
faith and prayer have chained him outside, and thereby
the goods have been kept in peace. And, on larger
scales, what towns and villages the gospel has regener-
ated, and has not failed to sway the mightiest empires
on earth. Richard Baxter gives us a glowing descrip-
tion of the gospel in Kidderminster, when the godless
clergy of James I. and Charles I. were purged out,
-and the ministers of Christ had freedom to preach the
living word. All kinds of vice and immorality hid their
heads ; every house rang with the songs of Zion ; and
the whole town lived under the controlling sway of truth.
Nor was that an isolated case. Others so much resem-
bled it, that not a few enthusiasts believed and pro-
claimed the millennial reign. The same effects, in less
exciting times, have occurred under our own notice,
and scenes of revelling and sin have given way to the
power of Christian light and purity. But perhaps one
of the best accounts of such marvellous effects of the
,gospel is given by President Edwards of his town,
Northampton, in New England. Referring to a gracious
revival of religion there he says :
" Presently, upon this, a great and earnest concern
.about the things of religion and the eternal world
became universal in all parts of the town, and among
persons of all degrees and ages. The noise among
the dry bones waxed louder and louder ; all other talk,
but about spiritual and eternal things, was soon thrown
by ; the only thing in their view was to get the king-
dom of heaven, and everyone appeared pressing into
it. The eagerness of their hearts in this great concern
could not be hid ; it appeared in their very counten-
78 BINDING AND LOOSING
naces. The work of conversion was carried on in a most
astonishing manner. Souls did, as it were, come by
flocks to Jesus Christ, so that in the spring of 1735 the
town seemed to be full of the presence of God. There
were remarkable tokens of God's presence in almost
every house. The goings of God were then seen in
His sanctuary God's day was a delight, and His Tab-
ernacles were amiable; our public assemblies were then
beautiful, and the congregations were alive in God's
service. In all companies, on other days, Christ was
to be heard and seen in the midst of them ; our young
people, when they met, were wont to spend the time
in talking of the excellency and dying love of Jesus
Christ, the gloriousness of the way of salvation,
the wonderful, free, and sovereign grace of God, and
the truth and certainty of the great things of His Word.
Those amongst us that had been formerly con-
verted, were greatly enlivened and renewed by fresh
and extraordinary visitations of the Spirit of God. ... .
The work in this town, and some others about us, has
been extraordinary, on account of the universality of
it, affecting all sorts of persons sober and vicious-
high and low rich and poor wise and unwise.,.. A
loose, careless person could scarcely find another in
the whole neighbourhood ; and if there was any one
that seemed to remain senseless or unconcerned, it
would be spoken of as a strange thing." 1
The gospel, by the power of the Holy Ghost, did all
this ; and let such a scene be renewed, not only in
New England, but in Old England and throughout the
world, and there will be no further dispute about the
binding of Satan, or the victory of Christ over him. For
as Hengstenberg says on this subject of the binding of
Satan, " What is said of the operations of Christ, even
now repeats itself anew in the case of every individual
who stands in faith, watches, and prays. ' Resist the
devil, and he will flee from you/ If the earth were to
watch and pray for a thousand years, Satan should ham
nothing on it"
It is then, dear hearers, within the power of the
church, by the grace of God, to bind the old dragon,
(i) Pres. Edwards' " Faithful Narrative," pp. 14-20, vol. Ill;, complete works.
OF SATAN. 79
and cast him down, and thereby to usher in the blessed
days of heaven on earth.
Unhappily, in the next place, we have full proof of
the possibility of decline after such bright days of peace
and righteousness. If it were possible to draw aside
original innocence into the meshes of Satan, it will be
no wonder if fallen humanity in any earthly condition
gives way. The ardent love of the Ephesians, which
rilled Paul with such thanksgiving, declined within a
few years, and the candlestick was -removed out of its
place. The bright vision at Northampton had an end,
and the great and good Edwards lived long enough to
see sad discord and strife, and even to be driven from
the once peaceful paradise- of his labour. The unregen-
erated outside of the church, who had been held spell-
bound for a season, returned to their former habits
when the day of visitation had passed away ; and the
unsanctified in the church, who had. taken excitement
for grace, were a source of spiritual weakness and world-
ly power j and hence, when the excitement was gone,
and the church had become less watchful and faithful,
the enemy had an easy time of it in bringing about a
painful state of discord and trouble. 1 And you too,
Christian, who more than once have got the chain
upon your foe, and have cast him out, have by your
own sins and failings, repeatedly cut the chain and let
him loose upon yourself; and when the like conduct
shall be pursued by the universal church, Satan shall
be loosed for " a little season." There is, therefore,
nothing beyond the reign of grace, and the experience
of the church in the binding and loosing of the dragon,
in this wonderful vision before us.
It only now remains for me to make some personal
use of the whole, and
(i) We have a frightful lesson of the terribleness of
Satan's character and work in the world. A list of his
devices would make heaven weep and earth tremble.
He turned Paradise into tears, and man into a demon.
He has led the world a captive in chains, and triumphed
over its groaning and blood. He has set all nations
against God, and has Deified himself in ten thousand
(i) Hopkins' " Life of Edwards," pp. 55, 56, vol. I. complete works.
80 THE TERRIBLE FOE
forms. He breathed the black smoke of Mahomed,
wielded the persecuting sword of the pagan, and
kindled the fires of papal Rome. He tried to kill the
Infant Saviour ; but failing in the attempt, he offered
Him the world for a moment's adoration. He used
every effort to corrupt the Pure Fountain of our glorious
redemption ; but not succeeding, he has poured out
his impurities upon its life-giving streams. He aimed
his shaft at the Head of the church ; but missing his
mark, he has been firing ever since at the members of
the body ; and there has been no spot whither they
have come, but there he also has gained a footing to
hinder their work. But he must not always triumph !
Defeated by our glorious Captain in the wilderness
and in the tomb, he shall be defeated and abashed by
the weakest of His saints. Yet let us not be ignorant
or unmindful of his wicked devices. There is no crevice
but he is ready to rush through to break in upon us,
and no heart but he fain would worry ; therefore, "be
vigilant, be sober, for your adversary the devil goeth
about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour."
(2) Let me remark, we have the only means of con-
quest in the blood of the Lamb. The doctrine of the
cross is the chief obj ect of his malicious rage. Defeated
by it at the first, he never can withstand its power. As
surely as our Divine Lord came to destroy the work of
the devil, so surely shall all His members obtain the
victory by faith in Him. They have tried it, and
Judaism quailed at the beginning, and shall yet finally
yield to its power. They tried it, and pagan Europe
bowed to its sway, and the red dragon lost his seat.
Luther and theReformers tried it, and all the kingdoms
of the beast shook and trembled, and many of them fell
to the earth. The faithful are trying it now, and every
day some new trophy is made for Christ, and some
wound from the adversary Apollyon is effectually
healed. We shall go on trying it, till its healing virtues
shall turn our lazar-house of suffering into a world of
praise, and the spiritual desert into the garden of the
Lord. ye children of God, never forget, "they over-
came him by the blood of the Lamb." Does he accuse
CONQUERED BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB. 8 1
you ? The blood shall wash away the leperous stain to>
which he points ! Does he tempt you? Hide behind the
cross, and no shafts can hit you there. Are you already
wounded ? Resort to this sovereign balm ! and your
pain shall be assuaged, and your lost strength be once
more regained. Have you been defeated in your work ?
Try again this never-failing weapon, and souls shall bow
before it, and the weak and the weeping .shall soon
rejoice. Be persuaded at all times, and under all cir-
cumstances, that your great foe can never be quelled .
by any other means, and that your daily and hourly
standing as Christians can only be one of peace and
prosperity as you keep your ground by this powerful
weapon !
And as for those of my hearers who are still led
captive by this prince of the powers of the air, oh !
dear hearers, could you but see the fiend that is guid-
ing your steps, could you remember the havoc he
has made, could you but realize the object at which
he aims in you, viz., your eternal destruction,
would you not at once throw off his slavish yoke, and
break loose from his terrible grasp? Ah! perhaps
you have purposed, and vowed, but have failed again
and again ; yes, and ever must fail, until you overcome
him by faith in Jesus, that is, until you conquer him
through the blood of the Lamb.
"His cross a sinking world upholds,
Its power subdues death, hell, and sin ;
High heaven's bright gates it wide unfolds,
And ushers happy millions in.
Thou precious Cross ! oh I may my heart
Feel Thine attractive power,
"Amid the flattering smiles of earth,
And in hell's fiercest hour.
And when around Death's well-strung bow
My feeble heart-strings play,
Thou bleeding Cross ! Thou dying Lamb !
Be Thou my only stay."
But whilst some here shall be thinking of the
triumphs of faith over this ruthless foe, let not the care-
less forget the end of those who are deluded by him to
82 REBELS DESTROYED.
the last, " Fire came down from God out of heaven
and devoured them." Then oh ! .surely there is no
escape for the rebel host, however numerous or strong
they may be, for the hour cometh when
"No more shall atheist mock His long delay ;
His vengeance sleeps no more : behold the day !
Behold the Judge descends ! His guards are nigh,
Tempests and fire attend Him down the sky.
When God appears, all nations shall adore Him ;
While sinners tremble, saints rejoice before Him."
And now, fellow Christians, as we take our places
once more around the table of the Lord, 1 let us again
unite to admire the grace by which we have been
delivered from Satan's kingdom, and brought into
the kingdom of God's dear Son; and let us never
forget, that Calvary is our only tower of safety and
defence. Leave this city of refuge, and the fierce
avenger will smite us down with hellish triumph.
Close shelter here, and then, though Satan may be at
large, and for a season may be rejoicing in his mastery
over others, we shall be still safe, for not even the
gates of hell shall prevail against us.
(i) This lecture was delivered on the evening of Communion.
LECTURE V.
"THE RESURRECTION." ,
Delivered Lord's Day, January 14, 1872.
" Marvel not at this : for the hour is coming, in the
which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice,
and shall come forth ; they that have done good, unto
the resurrection of life ; and they that have done evil,
unto the resurrection of damnation." John Y. 28, 29.
HE doctrine of the resurrection is one of the
most grand and glorious doctrines of the
gospel of Christ ; and so important a place
does it fill in the gospel scheme, that Paul
takes it as the fundamental truth upon which all others
rest. For he says, " If the dead rise not, then is not
Christ raised j and if Christ be not raised, your faith is
vain; ye are yet in your sins." Thus, this great
apostle was willing to risk the whole gospel with all
its blessedness in this life, and its anticipated joys in
the life to come upon the resurrection of the body
from the dead ; for if one was a delusion, so was the
other. Therefore, if there was no resurrection, Christ
was not risen, his preaching was vain, faith was vain,
and they also who have fallen asleep in Christ have
perished.
With these strong views of this doctrine, it was no
wonder that the first preachers of the gospel so strenu-
84 THE TWO THEORIES.
ously and constantly maintained it in all their dis-
courses. Nor was it surprising that the great enemy
of souls should aim some of his earliest shafts at Jhis
vital question. It was well for the church that he did
this before the day of inspiration closed, as probably
the fifteenth chapter to the Corinthians, with all its
charming blessedness and unanswerable argument,
owes its existence to that opposition.
Happily I am not called upon this evening to de-
fend the abstract doctrine of the resurrection, as both
classes of millenarians equally "believe in the resurrec-
tion of the dead ; " therefore, it would be altogether
out of place here to give any account of the disbelief
which, from time to time, has manifested itself in
Christendom concerning this truth. But the great
question at issue between us is this, " When, and in
what order, will the righteous and wicked rise ? " We
can no sooner present this question than we are com-
pelled to enter the strife between our brethren and
ourselves, for their answers are altogether irreconcilable
with ours and with the Word of God.
They maintain that the righteous who will have
been converted before the Lord's coming will rise a
thousand years before the wicked, and that during that
time, in some way or other, they will dwell here on the
earth, or in a city just over the earth, and communicat-
ing with it by a kind of Jacob's ladder, and in their
risen and immoital bodies will be in constant com-
munication with the Jews, and the nations which Christ
will have spared at His coming and the burning of
the world.
'We, on the other hand, say that no one will rise
from the dead till the last day, when the righteous and
wicked will be raised together, and immediately be
summoned to the final judgment.
Now the simplest mind in this congregation will at
once see that the contention between us is no small
matter, but is one of the deepest moment, and, we
maintain, is one that every Christian ought to hold
distinct and intelligent views upon ; therefore, we can
have no sympathy with any one's indifference or in-
THE. RIGHTEOUS WILL NOT RISE 85
attention to the subjects we are just now discussing.
Indeed, to us it is beyond all conception how any
intelligent Christian can be indifferent to them.
Having, for many years, been deeply concerned to
know the mind of the Spirit upon these questions, I
have often mourned over the rapid spread of the
heresies of pre-millennialism, and have sometimes
tried to arouse the concern of my brethren to the
danger connected therewith. But as no one during
the past fifteen or sixteen years has lifted up an open
banner in Brighton against these wild dreams, I have
felt it my duty to God, and to His Church, to do so
now ; and I ask you all solemnly to weigh the whole
series of truths, and not think, as many do, that it
matters not which side we take, for be assured that
both sides cannot be true; therefore, if one is of God,
the other is not of Him.
My work this evening will be to show that the pre-
millennial view upon the resurrection of the dead
has not only no scripture to support it, but that
it is directly opposed to its plainest teachings, and
that the old and generally received belief is the
only one in harmony with the Divine Spirit. If any one
should think my propositions dogmatic, I am ready to
admit the charge, and to say, further, that I intended
them to be so, that no one might misunderstand my
meaning.
If I can establish the truth, that the resurrection of
all parties will take place together, all the vagaries of
pre-millenarians will be completely overthrown ; and
this I shall now do, by several propositions, which no
argument will ever overturn or destroy.
I. THE RIGHTEOUS WILL NOT BE RAISED A SINGLE
DAY BEFORE THE WICKED, FOR ALL THE DEAD IN
CHRIST WILL BE RAISED AT THE LAST. DAY. In the
N sixth chapter of the gospel by John, our Divine Lord
puts this proposition beyond all dispute. Four times,
within the range of twenty-five verses, does the In-
fallible Teacher declare that He will raise up His own
on that given day. Now I believe that there is not a
single mind in all Christendom which would come to
86 TILL THE LAST DAY,
any other conclusion than ours upon these passages, un-
less it had previously been warped by an unnatural sys-
tem. Nor will the hackneyed phrase, which is generally
the last covert of the modern prophets, avail them here,
(I allude to the oft-repeated, and, in many instances,
the ludicrous sentence, which you find in all Plymouth
Brother and pre-millenarian works.) " See the Greek"
Could the Greek help the cause of these advocates, we
might expect Dean Alford to give them the advantage.
But no ! His translation fixes the resurrection of the
saints to the last day as firmly as -does our common
version. Even pre-millennial writers, who for a moment
forget their theory, admit the plain meaning of the
texts in question. Dr. Gill who believed in the
personal reign says on this oft-repeated promise, "'I
will raise him up at the last day/ This will be at the
last of the last days at the end of all things ; and is
mentioned," he continues, "to show that length of
time will not hinder the resurrection of the dead."
Now, with solemn earnestness, and Christian affection,
I ask every reasonable disciple of Jesus, if there
can be a thousand years after the last day ? Yea, I ask
more, If the righteous were intended to be raised one
thousand years before the wicked, would, or could, our
glorious Redeemer have uttered these words? With
gravity and reverence, I answer, He would not,
He could not. Then, in all honesty, whatever may be
the disappointment, whatever the sacrifice of fond
theories, or whatever the plausible gloss of deluded
guides, each follower of Christ ought at once to
abandon every notion which is opposed to this im-
movable doctrine of our Lord and Master. For if it is
certain and indeed it is so that the righteous will be
raised, from the deaddtf the end of all time, on the very
lastdayofit, there cannot be another day of time
after that, and hence there can be no millennium, or
" little season" or any day of resurrection for the wicked
after these arise from the dead. This conclusion is so
divine and inspired, that the inspiration of the passages
must be questioned before the conclusion can be
altered. I therefore entreat my hearers not to resist
NOR TILL THE CHURCH 87
this evidence, but to make all symbol and figure to bend
to it ; otherwise, they will be found to fight against
God.
II. NONE OF THE RIGHTEOUS WILL BE RAISED UN-
TIL CONVERSION WORK IS ENDED j FOR ALL THAT ARE
CHRIST'S WILL BE MADE ALIVE AT His COMING. It
will not be necessary for me to make any distinction
here between those whose bodies will be raised and
those who will be living and be changed, for they all
will be made immortal at that day, that is, all the
sons of men, that ever will have any interest in Christ,
will be immortalized at His appearing. This may
appear a bare truism to those not initiated into this
controversy, but to others it will suggest an important
distinction. The position of pre-millenarians is
this. They maintain that the resurrection of the
righteous will take place before the millennium ; and
that, during that long period, the nations will be con-
verted to God, under the personal reign of Christ on
the earth, and the ministry of immortal saints ; so
that the larger number of Christ's redeemed ones will,
upon this theory, not only not be raised at His coming,
but will not even be born much less be converted
at that time. There are, therefore, two grave difficulties
here. First, the theory leaves no room for the resur-
rection of millennial converts, so that the myriads of
saints who, during that time, shall live, believe on
Christ, and die, will have no resurrection from the
grave whatever ; indeed, the writers on that side are
utterly at a loss to know how these are to get glorified
at all. But there is the graver objection embodied in
my proposition, viz., that all that are Christ's :must be
made alive at His coming. In the fifteenth chapter
to the Corinthians, and at the twenty-second and
twenty-third verses, we are taught, as plainly as words
can teach us, that all that are His will then put on
immortality. The apostle is here showing the com-
parison between Adam and Christ as federal Heads,
"for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall
all be made alive/' That is, as all Adam's seed
died in him, so all Christ's seed shall be made
88 IS COMPLETED IN NUMBERS,
alive in Him. But the question may naturally arise,.
When ? That question Paul anticipates, and
answers in the twenty-third verse, " But every man
in his own order : Christ the firstfraits ; afterward
they that are Christ's at His coming." As long,
then, as language has any meaning, the Church of
Christ will be taught here, that, as surely as all men
died in Adam, and as surely as Christ was raised
up from the dead, so surely every single mem-
ber of Christ's seed will be absolutely and eternally
freed from death at the moment when He shall come.
Therefore it is certain that there will be no single soul
converted after His coming, and no- single member of
His family missing from the glorious scenes of that
resurrection ; for every one of them shall then be
made alive. The incoherent and baseless notion that
the Church that is, all believers gathered out before the
millennium stand in a different relation to Christ to
those who will be converted during the thousand years,
has not a shadow of evidence in God's Word, and
cannot help this monstrous error out of its difficulty.
I have been repeatedly told by the defenders of these
doctrines, that the church which is now being gathered
is to make up the Bride, and that those converted after
this dispensation will be the children of the Church.
All I have to say to this confusion of ideas is this :
The New Testament knows nothing of any distinctions
in Christ, neither Jew nor Greek, bond not free, male
nor female. All who ever will see the Son, believe on
the Son, or have been given to the Son, are equally dear
to Him ; and every one of them will find a place in
His body, the Church; and all together will constitute
His Bride, and at His coming, or never, every ONE
such will be perfected. Therefore, there can be no
resurrection of the righteous until all the elect are
gathered in, for our Lord positively says in the texts
just quoted, that He will raise every one of them up on
the SAME day.
III. THERE WILL BE NO RESURRECTION OF THE
RIGHTEOUS BEFORE THE END OF ALL THINGS, FOR
THE RIGHTEOUS ARE TO BE CHANGED, OR RAISED,
NOR TILL THE LAST TRUMP. 89
AT THE LAST TRUMP. In the fifty-first and fifty-
second verses of the fifteenth chapter to the Corinthians
the apostle says, " Behold, I show you a mystery; We
shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the LAST
TRUMP : for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead
shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed."
Now I believe that the unanimous voice of the
Church has ever been, till very lately, in favour of the
belief, that the resurrection will be ushered in by some
thrilling and terrible noise, -Paul calls it the sound of
the trumpet in the present text. In his first epistle
to Thessalonians, fourth chapter and sixteenth verse,
he calls it the shout of the Lord, the voice of the
archangel, and the trump of God. And Peter calls
it a great noise, whilst our Lord speaks of it as the
"voice" of the "Son of man." It is not necessary
that we should stop to discuss what kind of a sound
that alarm shall be. We do not imagine that any
literal trumpet will be needed, though the sound may
assume that character, as it did amid the awful scenes
of Mount Sinai. All that is required is, that there
shall be such an alarm as shall fill every human ear,
'and accompanied by such a divine power as to awake
even the dead. Now, whatever that may be, whether
the thunders of the elements shall be engaged or not,
we cannot tell; but this we know, that whatever it may
be, the righteous will be raised from their slumbers by
it, nor will it be repeated to raise the wicked, for this
will be the LAST TRUMP, that is, it will be the last
summons by which God will call men from the grave ;
therefore, no one will be raised from the dead after
the righteous. How does this grand and inexpressible
scene fit with the arrogant and vain assertions of pre-
millenarians. Take an author 1 (quoted by Mr. Baxter,
who, together with a phalanx of pre-millermial advo-
cates, has so often held forth in this town, and whose
books have sold by thousands.) He says, " Let us not
forget the important words, ' I come as a thief! The
object of a thief is to steal suddenly and secretly.
Suddenly and secretly the Lord will descend into the
(i) The author of "The Last Vials."
90 ABSURDITY AND PRESUMPTION
air from the highest heavens, .. .from that distance He
will send forth His summons to the living saints and
to the dead. ...He will steal the Church away both
suddenly and secretly.... When the morning comes,
tens of thousands will be missing vanished altogether,
without leaving a trace behind. The disappearance of
the Church will occupy every mind; the public journals
will be filled with intelligence of this miraculous
vanishing of thousands. Error, misunderstanding, and
dismay, will fill the hearts of those who are left behind ;
yet a glimmering suspicion of the real fact will arise in a
few. No doubt the removal of the Church will be a
most powerful means for awakening those who con-
stitute the woman's seed. No exhortation, no miracle,
has ever been so effectual as the rapture of the living
saints will prove, in turning the hearts of the dis-
obedient to the wisdom of the just." 1 As I read this
paragraph I am led to wonder whence the writer could
have gathered his ideas, or whether he had ever
studied the same bible as that I read. The whole of
this representation is not only a burlesque upon the
solemn scenes of the great day of the Lord's coming,
but it contradicts it in almost every point. When the
Lord shall come, and the last trump shall sound, and
the archangel's voice shall thrill every heart, changing
the living and raising the dead, will . there be any
secrecy in the matter, and will editors and com-
positors keep at their writing and setting-up of type
while the heavens shall wrap together as a scroll, and
the earth quake and stagger to and fro as a drunken
man ? And will it be a time for conversion when the
Lord the Redeemer shall have left His mediatorial
throne? Nay, my dear hearers, never. Then the
present state of things shall be at an .end, and he that
is unjust shall remain unjust -for ever. The last hour of
time will have struck, and eternity, with all its unutter-
able solemnities, will be ushered in. No one will be in
doubt of the facts before him, and the foolish will
find no time nor opportunity to secure a drop of oil,
or to trim a worthless lamp.
(i) Via, pp. 10 and n, " The Coming Battle."
OF PRE-MILLENARIANS. 91
-The same writer that I have just quoted calls in
question the changing of some even of the living
saints at the coming of the Lord. He says, " Can
those who obstinately deny. . .the personal reign, expect
to have a share in its glories, without first passing
through the great tribulation?... That such men preach
the true gospel we utterly deny.... They preach only
half a gospel, and only half a Christ... We must doubt
whether they shall have any part in the first rapture." 1
Brethren, this is a heavy charge, and a bold conclu-
sion. But we are not moved by either. The gospel
we have preached unto you is that by which ye shall be
saved by, if ye believe it. Christ and Him crucified is
the theme you hear, and you shall find Him no half
Christ, though we preach none of those wild visions
which Satan and foolish minds have concocted con-
cerning a supposed coming which will never be. The
coming of which we tell you is this : The Lord Him-
self shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the
voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God ;
and then every dead body will arise, and every living
one be changed in a moment, and not one of Christ's
redeemed flock shall be left behind. And you, who
keep in mind what we have preached unto you, shall
hail with joy the great appearing of God and our
Saviour, despite all these false prophets may say. We
readily admit that we are verily imperfect ; but we hide
our guilty heads beneath the sheltering wings of Jesus,
and, with humility and reverence, we bow to the teach-
ings of His Holy Word; and, with faith and hope,
look forward to His coming, when He shall change
our vile body, and fashion it like unto His own glorious
body. And it ill becomes poor, deluded, mortal men,
who have started theories more in harmony with
the Koran than the truth of God, to place their mad
reveries between us and our glorious hope, and to
threaten us because we believe not their delusions
with being left behind when the righteous Lord . shall
gather His ransomed to Himself. Still, we are not
alarmed by their threats, though we pity their folly.
(i) Via p. 10, "The Coming Battle."
92 ALL THE DEAD
They have not the keys of the Kingdom; we, therefore,
appeal against their decision to our Sovereign Lord,
and are certain that, until He has recalled the bible,
or until the revelation we have has been proved a
fabrication of falsehoods, the righteous will not arise
from the dead till the last day, nor till the last vessel
of mercy has been brought to the Saviour's feet,
nor till the last trump of God shall sound, at which
moment the eternal destiny of every son of Adam
will be decided beyond the possibility of a change ;
and whosoever denies these solemn facts, denies the
teaching of the infallible Word of the living God.
IV. THERE WILL BE NO RESURRECTION OF THE
RIGHTEOUS BEFORE THE RESURRECTION OF THE
WICKED, FOR BOTH PARTIES WILL RISE TOGETHER.
I believe some /^-millenarians have expressed an
opinion, that probably the righteous will come forth
first, and that the wicked will then immediately follow.
But for even this distinction there is no foundation in
the Word of God.
In our text we hear the Saviour saying, " Marvel
not at this : for an hour cometh, in which all
that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall
come forth; they that have done good, unto the
resurrection of life; and they that have done evil,
unto the resurrection of judgment." I quote this pas-
sage from Dean Alford's version that we may be sure
that there is no escape in an appeal to the Greek.
Here, then, the parties named, both come forth to-
gether, for they hear the voice together, at the same
time. I am aware that, in the twenty-fifth verse, the
whole gospel period is spoken of as " an hour? in
which sinners, dead in sin, shall hear the voice of
Christ and live. But this will not help the theory of
two resurrections; for the dead will hear the one voice,
which, as we have seen, is the last tramp of God.
During the gospel hour the voice of Christ is heard in
every gospel sermon, in every whisper of the Holy
Ghost, and here the voice continues to speak through-
out the whole period. In the resurrection hour the
voice will be heard, but it will not be a long blast of a
WILL RISE TOGETHER; 93
thousand years, nor will it sound at the beginning, and
again at the end, for it will be one shout, the last trump,
which will awake the dead ; and as it will be hit one,
the parties will both hear it, and loth come forth at
the same time, some to everlasting life, and some to
everlasting shame and contempt. It would be much
easier to argue if one party must rise before the
other that the wicked would be first, for the resurrec-
tion of the righteous is so inseparable from the last
trump, and the last day, that it is utterly impossible to.
give them the least priority. But I doubt not but
some of you will still be thinking of those passages
which speak of the "first resurrection," the "resurrec-
tion of the just," and " the dead in Christ shall rise
first." Let me say, however, that all these passages
together do not even imply that one party of the
dead will rise before the other, which will be seen as
we examine them. I need not, I hope, spend much
time on the first of these Revelation xx., 5, "This
is the first resurrection ; " for I have showed you more
than once during these lectures that that passage does
not refer to the resurrection of the dead at all, but is
figurative language, setting forth the rising of the
Church of Christ in power and influence in the
world, when, according to Daniel, the saints of the
Most High shall take the kingdom, and reign for a
thousand years, at the end of which time, Satan shall
rise again in influence for a " little season ; " both of
which (the millennium and little season) will be
before a single dead body will be raised from the
grave. This literal resurrection, which we are now
discussing, comes in afterwards, in the twelfth and
thirteenth verses, where the sea and the grave deliver
up their prey, and all the righteous and the wicked
stand together before the judgment-throne, to receive
every man according to the deeds done in his body,
whether good or bad. Here will be seen, by every
honest eye, the general resurrection both of those in
the Lamb's hook of life, and of those who will be cast
into the second death. And I may say that no other
opinion has been held upon this part of the chapter,
94 THE LIVING SHALL NOT " PREVENT " THE DEAD.
except by those whose system would not permit
them to receive its plain teaching. Some pre-
millenarians are honest enough to confess that this
twentieth chapter of Revelation is the only text upon
which the doctrine of a prior resurrection of the
righteous can fairly rest ; and that if this one passage
should be taken away, the theory must go with it. I
think every unbiassed mind will see that all the plain
statements of God's word are utterly opposed to any
but & figurative meaning to that scripture, and that no
other rule of interpretation can consist with the repre-
sentations given. And we may feel assured, that if it
had been the design of the Holy Ghost to teach the
doctrine in question, He would not only have made
the one passage a plain one, but would have taught no
contradictory doctrine in other parts of His revealed
will. Since, therefore, the whole scriptures demand
the world-wide triumphs of the gospel by the spiritual
church (such as are fairly set forth by the symbols
here), and since all the scriptures are dead against
any literal interpretation of these symbols, we may
confidently assert that there is no literal resurrection
taught in these verses.
We come now to Thessalonians, first epistle, fourth
chapter and sixteenth verse, "The dead in Christ
shall rise first." This passage is flippantly used by
unwise advocates of a prior resurrection, as though
it put the matter beyond dispute, whereas it does not
say a syllable about it, The idea of two resurrections
is nowhere to be found in the text, indeed the wicked
are not mentioned in the paragraph. The two things
spoken of are these, The ascending of the living saints
to meet the Lord, and the rising of the dead ones from
their graves; and the way in which the passage came
about was thus : the believers at Thessalonica had
lost some of their friends by death, and were in
trouble concerning them, fearing that they would be
at a disadvantage when the Lord should come, for by
some means these believers had been misled, and had been
imagining that the day of the Lord was at hand. Paul
tries to correct both wrongs in his epistles to them.
THE RESURRECTION " OF THE DEAD" 95
In the present text he tries to comfort them concerning
their dead ; and he does this by giving them two assur-
ances : first, that all who sleep in Jesus, God will
bring with Him ; secondly, that their bodies will be
raised up before the living ones shall ascend, for "we
which are alive and remain unto the coming of the
Lord shall not prevent that is, go before them
which are asleep," for he further adds, "the dead in
Christ shall rise first ; " l so that there is not the shadow
of evidence here that the righteous dead will rise
before the wicked, but simply that they will rise before
the transformation and ascending of the living saints to
meet the Lord in the air.
But there is one other class of texts to which great
importance is atached by our opponents, such, for
instance, as Luke xiv., 13, 14, " But when thou
makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame,
the blind, and thou shalt be blessed ; for they cannot
recompense thee : for thou shalt be recompensed at
the resurrection of the just." Now we ask, What has
this to do with time ? Is priority the grand recompense
which Jesus holds out? We answer, "No !"' for He
elsewhere teaches that the wicked and righteous shall
rise together! What, then, can be the recompense ?
Will it not be in the privileges and honours then
conferred upon the righteous ? The just will rise to
everlasting life, and to hear the "Well done, enter
thou into the joy of thy Lord;" and will not that be
a recompense, far beyond the bare rising a few (or even
many) years before the wicked? To this question I
believe the whole Church will be ready to give an
affirmative reply. There is nothing here, then, to
demand, or to favour, a prior resurrection for the
godly, and nothing to lead them to expect it.
Before I pass away from this branch of our subject
I ought, perhaps, to quote Philippians iii., n, "If by
any means I might attain to the resurrection of the
dead." And, also, Luke xx., 35, "But they which.
(i) It is just to admit that most pre-millennial writers acknowledge this to be
the meaning of the passage. Even the author of " The Last Vials,"
page 12, vol. I., gives this meaning. It is, therefore, to be lamented
that anyone should now contend otherwise.
96 NOTHING TO DO WITH PRIORITY.
shall be accounted to obtain that world, and the
resurrection from the dead." From these passages it
is argued that the general resurrection cannot be
meant, but that some other must be intended some
resurrection peculiar to the righteous; and much stress
is laid upon the formula, "from the dead" and "from
among the dead; " the design of which argument is
to show that the persons spoken of will come forth,
leaving the dead that is, the wicked dead behind
in the grave. But these arguments are without any
foundation, and the best critics have shown that they
are useless in the controversy. And what is very
decisive on this point is the fact, that when Paul was
speaking exclusively of the resurrection of those in
Christ, in the fifteenth chapter to the Corinthians, in
every place he used the formula " of the dead" and
not "from the dead" All, therefore, that can be
made of "from the dead" is "from death" and has
no reference to leaving others behind, or bringing
them with us, but simply resurrection "from death"
in which form the words are translated in the ancient
English versions." 1 Was it then a common resurrec-
tion which Paul strove to attain, barely and simply the
resurrection of the body ? Certainly not ! far from this,
for all men will bodily rise without any striving for it.
What then could it be ? Dear hearer, will there not
be a mighty difference between rising from the grave
and rising in the likeness of Christ ? That will indeed
be rising " from death " to die no more, and to aim
at this was worthy of the highest aspirations of even
Paul, who, counting not that he had apprehended, but
had left the things that were behind, and was pressing-
forward toward the mark of his high calling of God in
Christ Jesus, that he might fully realize all the blessed-
ness of being in Him, and like Him, for ever.
I think I have now taken up enough of your time
with the controversy before us. I have accepted the
text as an infallible guide, which, in connection with
other texts, has led us to the immovable conclusion,
that there will be no two resurrections as to time,
(i) Waldegrave, 576 (vi). See also Brown, pp. 182-7.
THE GRAND SCENE. 97
but that both righteous and wicked will be raised
together at the last day, and at the sound of the last
tramp the trump of God, at which moment the
whole body of Christ will be rendered complete, and
all the affairs of time be finally and eternally brought
to a close.
It remains for me now to try to improve the whole.
.But where can I begin? It is so overwhelming,
so vast, so unlike anything that we have ever yet
seen or heard. We have heard the thunders roll,
and we have seen the lightning flash, as leaden clouds
have hung like the pall of night over us, and all
nature has stood trembling beneath the majestic scene.
But what are all past storms and tempests in com-
parison to that awful moment, when suddenly His
sounding chariot shall shake the sky, and the thrilling
blast of the archangel shall pierce every tomb, and
reach to the deepest caverns of the dead ; when monu-
ments of costly marble and granite shall crumble to
pieces, and every sepulchre shall be empty and gaping
wide; when the before, inanimate earth shall become
like a living, moving sea, as the millions of Adam's
sons come forth from its bosom; when every field and
valley and mountain top shall present their long-held
tenants to the Lord, when the millions who have been
slain in war, and hurried together to an untimely grave,
shall stand upon their feet, and when the mighty
ocean, shall be covered with its now-engulphed multi-
tudes, and all shall wait the bidding of their Sovereign
on the clouds to stand before His dreadful bar ?
What, I ask, are all our conceptions to those terrible
realities which shall then await us ? when earth and
heaven shall unite to unfold every secret, and each
rock and mountain shall refuse to shelter a single soul ;
when every heart and every thought shall lie exposed
to the glance of the visible Judge ; and when every
conscience shall be a faithful witness in that final
assize. That wonderful day is better conceived than
explained, and is fitter for solemn meditation than
public discourse ; still, duty calls me to say a word or
two upon it, in its relation to ourselves, and
E
98 ALL WILL BE THERE
(i) The solemnities of that day concern us all. Every
member of our race will be connected therewith ! The
ages of the. past, the ages that are, and the ages that are
to come, will all share the awful grandeur of that day.
The venerable sire who went to the grave with fleecy
locks of age, and the babe who only just peeped into our
world to retire from it; the man, ripe with intelligence
and full of all knowledge, and the infant who never
gained a consciousness here ; the loving Christian who
lived for God and for Christ, and the scowling sceptic
who scorned his Maker and despised His Law, they
all will be there. The martyrs, too, whose ashes have
been scattered to the winds or strewed upon the
waters, and the bitter tyrants, who mocked their pains
and gloated over their blood, they all will be
there ! Oh, what a terrible meeting ! The accusers
and the accused, the oppressors and the slaves, the
guilty and the avenger will all be there ! But most
of all, we shall lie there. Long may our dust sleep in
yon grave-yard, and our names be forgotten by all on
the earth, yet we shall be there; and though thousands
of years may pass away ere the trumpet shall sound,
it will be but as a night to us, and then we all shall
meet again. One by one we may melt away from
this assembly, and our. places be occupied by other
worshippers, but we shall surely meet again. Yes,
though these ears be long closed in the deafness of
death, we shall then all hear the summons of God, and
hearing shall obey. You who have heard that voice
here, and with faith and fear have responded thereto,
and you who have paid a deaf ear alike to the warnings
and entreaties of mercy and love, you all will hear then.
The preacher who has watched for your souls, and
you whom he has sought to save, will be there. The
teacher who has striven to lead the young to the
Cross, and the scholars who have too often heard but in
vain, will be there. Oh, what a meeting ! and what a
trumpet blast will that be which shall call us together !
and how different will be its effect upon the multitudes
that shall hear !
11 Horrors, past imagination,
Will surprise the trembling heart ; "
AT THE BIDDING OF CHRIST, 99
whilst the sincere disciples of Jesus will meekly say
amid the crash of nature and the fright of sinners,
" Lo, this is our God, we have waited for Him." But
(2) How suggestive is this imposing scene of the
power and glory of Christ ! By what mighty hand,
or omnipotent word, shall all these things be?
How cheering is the reply ! They shall all be accom-
plished by the voice of the " Son of man." Yes, by
that voice, whose first human accents were heard
beneath the humble roof of a stable in Bethlehem,
and amid the weakness of infancy, and, perhaps, of
pain ; the voice which astonished the doctors of the
law, and whose withering authority drove the buyers
and sellers from the Father's House ; the voice that
asked water of the daughter of Samaria, and bade the
widow of Nain dry her tears ; the voice that awoke
Lazarus from the dead, and hushed the tempest on
the lake of Galilee. But more ! the voice that made
supplication to God amid strong crying and tears in
Gethsemane, and the voice whose "It is finished"
has already rent the rocks and opened the graves of
the dead. Yea, that is the voice which all nature
shall honour, and all the heavens shall obey. Ye
Jews, well might ye declare, " Never man spake like
this Man;" and thou, Centurion, wast just in exclaiming
" This is the Son of God ; " and ye keepers of the
sepulchre did well to tremble, for the mighty Conqueror
of death passed near, and He whom ye came to hold in
the tomb will yet summon you from your graves to
render your account. Yea, this is the voice by which
all these things shall be accomplished, and then, ye
hardened sons of Jacob, shall once more confess to
its divine superiority, and thou, 'Roman soldier, shalt
repeat thy eulogy, and ye loving Galileans, amid the
tempest that shall roll from pole to pole, shall ye once
more hear the comforting words, "It is I, be not
afraid," and with cheerful confidence shall respond,
"It is the Lord."
Oh, ye believers in the Lord Jesus, be not ashamed
to own Him now, neither be ye afraid of all the roar
of your adversaries. His voice is omnipotent. He
100 WHOSE VOICE CHEERS
speaketh, and it is done; He commandeth, antf it
standeth fast : yea, His word endureth to a thousand
generations ! You know His voice now ; it is to you
like that of many waters, rising high above all your
fears and accusations, and drowning every tongue
which riseth against you ; and it shall speak yet
again on your behalf. It has already brought pardon
and forgiveness to your sin-stricken heart, and it shall
yet bring you a final release from the chains of the
flesh and the bondage of corruption. Listen much to
it now, as it bids you bear your cross, and as it cheers
you with the promise of eternal life ; and then at last,
in the resurrection morn, you, with all the redeemed
millions, once more will hear Him say, " Rise up, My
love, My fair one, and come away."
Yes, brethren, the same voice which cheers and
animates us now shall call the nations to Jesus' feet,
and make the vast creation tremble before Him. How
sweet and powerful is that voice. that it may now
be heard. "Speak, Lord! Thy servant heareth." But,
ah ! there are those who despise His voice; to them
there is no music in His sweet accents, and no charm
in His words of love. They neither fear His frown, nor
covet His approving smile. He speaks by His provi-
dence, in His gospel, and through the conscience
within, but they fear Him not ; and though others hear
Him, and leave their sins and follies, and rally to His
standard, they regard it not, nor lay it to heart. But the
Sovereign Judge will not always speak in vain. When
His voice shall rend the heavens, and shake the earth,
and wake the dead, then those who are now hardened
shall hear the summons to their everlasting shame and
contempt.
"But ere that trumpet shakes
The mansions of the dead,
Hark, from the gospel's cheering sound,
What joyful tidings spread.
Ye sinners, seek His grace,
Whose wrath ye cannot bear,
Fly to the shelter of His cross,
And find salvation there."
THE SAINTS NOW, .IOI
. And then, with all the righteous, ye shall awake and
come forth at the last day, with joy and not with
shame, whilst everlasting life will be your recompense,
.and your likeness to Christ your eternal glory.
I cannot close these remarks without once more
asking you to admire the love and grace of our God,
.as displayed in Christ Jesus. When sin, like a sweeping
flood of death, had broken in upon us, and all the race
was being carried along upon its bosom, and nothing
but everlasting ruin awaited us, God, who is rich in
mercy, so loved our world as to give His only be-
.gotten Son to stem the overwhelming curse, and to
pluck us from the terrible destruction. And although,
in accomplishing this task, He sank for a moment
beneath the wrathful waves, He quickly arose and
asserted the truth of His own words, "I am the
Resurrection and the Life, and whosoever believeth
in Me shall not perish, but have everlasting life."
And as we by grace have believed in Him, we
have now the witness within that eternal life is ours ;
and though the physical _ consequences of sin go on,
.and our bodies return to the dust, yet, after skin
worms have devoured them, we know that in our
flesh we shall yet see our living Redeemer, whose
coming shall change our vile body, and fashion it
-according to His glorious body, in which we shall
serve Him for ever and ever in that heavenly home,
where sickness and sorrow, pain and death, are felt
and feared no more.
Thus, beloved hearers, we have passed under review
the general and common belief of the Church of Christ,
from the days of the apostles till now, upon this great
doctrine of the resurrection of the dead ; and it seems
to us to accord most perfectly with the representations
of holy scripture, and to be all that is required to fulfil
the predictions of the prophets, and the expectations
of the godly. It will, we believe, be found to harmonize
with the general testimony of inspiration without doing
any violence to a single text. It calls for no unnatural
exegesis, nor does it offer the speculations of men in the
room of revealed truth. It leaves no scope for wild
102 WHO WAIT FOR HIS COMING.
imaginations, nor creates difficulties not found in the
Book of God ', whilst it answers all the important ends
which are designed in the bringing back of the righteous
and the wicked to life, without affecting in the least de-
gree the character of God, or impairing the awful realities
of that great day, which cannot be said of the system
we are opposing. It also presents a definite and all-ab-
sorbing event to the eye of faith, as it unfolds to the
world the solemnities of a day, which, by the power of
God, at the blast of His trumpet, shall be ushered in,
when every son and daughter of Adam shall simultane-
ously return to live, to receive in the presence of each
other the just reward of punishment or praise at the
bar of Christ. And since this has ever been, and ever
must be, the teaching of the Word of God, we shall
firmly hold it to the end, and await the scenes of that
day to justify our belief. Nor are we afraid of the
results when the Lord shall come.
Blessed, ever blessed Lord, we adore and worship
Thee, Whom having not seen we love ; for whom
have we in heaven but Thee, and there is none on
earth we can compare unto Thee, Thou chiefest
among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely. Even
now Thou art all our salvation, and all our desire ;
and when we shall see Thee, encircled with Thy rain-
bow, and crowned with the glory of the Father and
angels, O Holy Redeemer, remember not our follies
against us, but rather let us still shelter in Thy riven
side, and then, Judge and Saviour, we will be satis-
fied, whilst with the ransomed Thou shalt give us a
greeting, and before all worlds shalt publicly own our
worthless name.
LECTURE VI.
"THE JUDGMENT."
Delivered Lord's Day, January 21, 1872.
" Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to re-
compense tribulation to them that trouble you; and
to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord
Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty
angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that
know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ : who shall be punished with ever-
lasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and
from the glory of His power ; when He shall come to
be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all
them that believe (because our testimony among you
was believed) in that day." 2 Thess. i., 6-10.
HERE is no department of divine truth,"
says Dr. Brown, " more deeply and dan-
gerously affected by the pre-millennial
scheme, than that which relates to the
Judgment."
I feel so deeply the truthfulness of this remark,
and so much the vastness of the subject we have
before us this evening, that I scarcely know how to
adjust my thoughts, so as to give a due alarm con-
cerning the errors upon this doctrine, and to guide
every enquirer to the infallible conclusion of God's
104 PRE-MILLENNIAL CONTRADICTIONS.
Word. The violation which is rendered to that Word
by the unnatural and contradictory representations of
this august scene is such as no Christian mind could
tolerate for one moment, unless it were under the
most bewildering infatuations. Indeed, it seems to
me that pre-millennial writers are led along by the
wildest imagination, and are all at sea without a
compass, pilot, or chart. And, hence, as we may be
sure when the Word of God ceases to be the guide,
the greatest confusion and contradiction must be the
result. I have tried hard to get something like a
definite view of the theories advocated by pre-millen-
arians that I may not misrepresent the advocates, but
may fairly discuss their sentiments ; but, alas ! after
nearly a week's re-reading of their leader's views, I
am bound to say that a greater chaos of theological
confusion and illogical statement could not be found ;
and if, therefore, I fail to give you any correct 'idea of
what is held on that side you need not be surprised,
for, like the false witnesses at our Lord's crucifixion,
these pre-millenarian teachers do not agree. One
class says that only the righteous will be judged at
the day of the Lord ; another says, only the wicked.
One says the judgment will be at the beginning of the
millennium; another, that it will be at the end; whilst
a third party contends that it will continue throughout
the whole period of one thousand years. One man
maintains that the conflagration will be only in the
papal states ; another, that it will include all Europe ;
whilst a third believes that it will be universal. And
thus upon every point there is contradiction, error,
and injustice. Bishop Waldegrave, in his Hampton
Lectures, 1 says that pre-millenarians are generally
agreed upon three points, " First, that the last day,
the day of judgment, is a period of time extending
over more than one thousand years. Secondly, that
the great assize is divided into two portions : the
former, the judgment of part of mankind in 'the
morning dawn; the later, the judgment of the re-
mainder in the evening shades of that great day of the
(i) "Bampton Lectures/' 1854, p. 213.
POST-MILLENNIAL HARMONY.
Lord, the two being disjointed from each other by
the intervening mid-day reign of the Messiah. Thirdly,
that whilst the righteous enter upon their recompense
at the beginning, the wicked do not receive their
doom till the end of this protracted period, of one
thousand, one, two, or three hundred years more."
The lecture, from which this quotation is made, was
delivered seventeen or eighteen years ago, since which
time the diversity has so largely increased, that I
should fear to say that these three points would be
admitted by a majority now; indeed, I scarcely know
any point upon which there is any real agreement
among pre-millenarians, except it be that Christ will
come visibly before the millennium, which, as we have
proved in these lectures, is an utter delusion.
We, on this side of the question, believe that at the
end of time, the Lord will come to judge the world,
when the dead and the living will all be summoned to
His bar, and every man will receive according to the
deeds done in the body ; that this judgment will be
one grand assize, and will be the immediate prelude
to the joys of heaven for the righteous, and to the
pangs of hell for the wicked ; that time will then
be no more, the earth, and all things therein, being
burnt up. This, I may be bold to say, has ever been
the prevailing belief of the true Church of God, and
its proof is unmistakeably plain in the revelation of
truth; and it does so appeal to our ( moral and
spiritual consciousness, that we ought to be exceed-
ingly careful not to weaken its power, or reduce its
solemn importance in the estimation of men. A
glance at the passages, which we may have occasion
to quote, will fully bear out these remarks, and I
hope will make us jealous of God's honour as
connected therewith.
It will be seen, from what has been stated, that
we are upon this point, as on nearly all others connected
with the present series of lectures, at the very antipodes
from pre-millenarians, and hence the reason why
truth should be investigated, and a standard lifted
against the heresies by which we are surrounded. In
106 THE JUDGMENT
attempting to do this, I am exceedingly anxious not
to destroy the feeling of deep solemnity which gathers
around the subject by the spirit of controversy, which,
more or less, must enter into our examination of it.
This I find to be a difficult task ; for as the honour of
Christ, and some of the most solemn truths of God
are at stake in the controversy, one's whole spiritual
indignation cannot but be aroused. Nevertheless, I
shall strive more to convince by truth than to repel
by hard speeches, for " the wrath of man worketh not
the righteous of God."
"The Judgment !" How significant these two words !
how deep their meaning ! and yet how universally
understood ! What wonderful associations gather
around them, and what a deep consciousness they
awaken within us ! How they make our moral sensi-
bility vibrate; and how they echo through the deepest
recesses of our mental being !
"The Judgment!" Ah! that short sentence carries
with it the " power of the world to come," and exerts
an influence over millions who are moved by nothing
else ; therefore, let us, with becoming candour, seek
its real meaning, and maintain, in all their integrity,
the vital truths which it presents.
As on former occasions, I shall try to put the
teaching of God's Word upon this subject into a
few plain and definite propositions, that the simplest
child may be able to carry the truth with him, even
though he may not be able to remember the arguments
by which it is sustained. And
I. The Judgment will be ushered in by the coming
of the Lord. Now, before I go farther, let us have a
clear understanding upon the word "judgment," for
though I said a minute ago " how universally under-
stood," I am sorry that pre-millenarians have tried to
attach a meaning to it which is altogether foreign to
the thing intended. Mr. Brooks says that the idea
generally entertained of judgment that it will be a
great assize, at which the Lord Jesus will preside, and
all mankind be put upon their trial is a mistake ; for
he says, "The characteristics of a judge as given in
NOTHING LESS THAN 107
scripture are to rule and govern as a king, to deliver
and avenge his people, and to protect and defend
them from their enemies .The chief prophecies
which relate to Christ as Judge will further demon-
strate that PRINCELY RULE AND GOVERNMENT ARE TO
BE THE SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF HlS JUDGMENT,
and that it will be a continued office among, or over,
the nations." 1 If these sentiments had been advanced
by German neologists, or Bishop Colenso, one would
not have wondered so greatly but when the solemn
verities of the final day of decision are thus reduced
to the general rule of a princely government among the
nations, by men, too, who hold in many respects the
evangelical truths of the gospel, it is impossible to find
language to express our amazement and sorrow, and
only in inspired words such as these, "who hath
bewitched you" do we feel safe in uttering our horror
at the indignity thus done to the whole economy of
law and gospel.
" There can be no doubt," says Dr. Brown, " that
the " words judge and judgment are used in scripture
both in the sense of exercising kingly rule, and in the
sense of inflicting public vengeance. But," he justly
continues, " are these the senses in which Christ will
come to judge at the last day? I say emphatically,
No ! and nothing but the most violent distortion of
all the passages which announce that coming to judg-
ment, can bring these senses of the terms into the
procedure of that day." 2 Let any person of the lowest
average of intellect read our text, and see if he will
mistake the great truths here taught. Here we have
& certain day fixed ; " that day," the day when the
Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His
mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on
them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. These persons are punished
with " everlasting destruction " at the same time when
the Lord shall be glorified in His saints, and be
admired in all them that believe. Let, I say, the
(1) " Elem. of Prophecy Interp.," pp. 207, 208.
(2) " Brown on the Second Advent," pp. 24, 25.
Io8 A GREAT ASSIZE.
simplest mind read this passage, and see if he will err
upon it ; and then let the most accomplished scholar
do the same thing, and if he has no end to serve but
truth he will come to the same meaning, and both
will unite to reject the unnatural and ill-conceived
idea, that the day of judgment is one of princely
government among the nations of the earth. Or, let any
person put all the passages of the New Testament
together that speak of the day of judgment, and let
him carefully see if there is any sign of a continued
office of this supposed princely rule and government.
We read about tares bound in bundles for the fire,
and the wheat gathered into the barn ; we read about
its being more tolerable for Sodom and Gommorroh
in the day of judgment than for such as heard the
gospel but despised it; we read about the Son of
man coining in His Father's glory, and rewarding
every man according to his work ; we read about the
Bridegroom coming when it is too late for a single
virgin to get a drop of oil ; we read, that when the
Lord shall come, "all nations" shall be gathered be-
fore Him, and He shall separate them one from an-
other, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats,
one party going away into everlasting punishment,
the other the righteous into life eternal. Is there
anything here like a continuous office of government
among nations ? Nothing ! But here both parties are
fixed in their eternal state, and the judgment is nothing
more, nothing /ess, than a " great assize," at which the
Lord Jesus presides, and all mankind are put upon
their last trial, and everyone receives a just reward.
It is therefore certain, that, as plainly as words can
do so, the New Testament teaches that " the day of
judgment" is to be understood in no secondary sense,
but that it will be the day in which God shall literally
judge the secrets of all men by Jesus Christ; nor
can any argument of angels, or men, give any other
legitimate meaning to those definite and numerous
passages which speak of that terrible day of the Lord.
That day, we have said, will be ushered in by " the
coming of the Lord," and this leads me again to
POST-MILLENARIANS. 109
pause. Post-millenarians are often represented as
being sceptical upon this " coming of the Lord," as
though we did not believe in it, or hope for it,
whereas nothing is farther from the truth. We hold
the day of the Lord much more perfectly than any .
pre-millenarians can do; we are looking forward to
it with the greatest joy ; associated with it is our
brightest hope ; to it we refer the solution of a thou-
sand mysteries ; and from it we are expecting the
fullest release from death, and the clearest vindication
of our faith and obedience as disciples of Christ.
Here the bitterest aspersions are often cast upon us,
as children of God, and we have to lie under cruel
calumny and reproach, but the thought of "that day"
gives us courage to bear our cross, knowing it shall
all be well when the Master calls. Here God's truth
and Christ's servants are often belied and wrongfully
used; but "that day" will shame the persecutor of
every kind, and make the wicked tremble in, the
presence of those they have wronged. And, hence,
with ardour, and even vehemence of feeling, do we
long for the day when our'Lord shall come, yea, we
long to see Him receive the homage of all creation,
when every knee shall bow to Him, and every tongue
shall confess to His glory ; when our own mortality
shall be swallowed up of life, and all the redeemed
shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption,
and be given to enjoy the glorious liberty of the sons
of God. ' Say not that we are indifferent or unbelieving
on this grand theme. Oft have we sang, and oftener
sighed forth the sentiment,
" When shall Thy lovely face be seen ?
When shall our eyes behold our God ?
What lengths of distance lie between,
And hills of guilt, a heavy load !
Our months are ages of delay,
And slowly every minute wears ;
Fly, winged time, and roll away
These tedious rounds of sluggish years."
Then again we open the sacred records, and reading
once more our Lord's words, " Thy will, not Mine, be
110 ANTICIPATIONS.
done," we learn the spirit of submission, and chide
our undue longings, because
" Impatience, not grace, is their source,
While He, Who redeemed us with blood,
Still says to us, ' Carry the cross.' "
And thus we turn back again to our work and our
suffering, willing gladly so to do, that Jesus by us may,
in the meantime, gather in some of His chosen, and
secure to Himself a part of that universal homage
which He must receive. In this spirit the godly
will continue to help on the purposes of His
grace, so that when the great day shall come,
millions yet unborn, or in heathen night, may share
with us the glory which now so joyfully we antici-
pate, and which shall be brought unto us at the
appearing of the great God and our Saviour. Let
none, therefore, belie us on this important point, for
all our preaching, praying, and working, have this
great end in view ; and we are not only anxious to
be accepted in that great day ourselves, but we are
anxious also to present every man who hears us
perfect in Christ Jesus.
At that great appearing, then, the day of judgment
will be ushered in, and at a moment when men are
little prepared to expect it ; for one of the terrible
aspects of the imposing scene will be the suddenness
with which it will burst upon our world. In putting
the several scriptures together which speak of that
day, it seems as though the church will be found
slumbering, rather than awake; Jhat the tares will
still be in the field of Zion ; and that Satan's last
army will be most active in mocking the truth of
God, and in endeavouring to lay waste the spiritual
Jerusalem. Then, as a thief in the night, when men ; s
hearts have grown hard in vice and iniquity; when
the apostasy shall be ripe for the sickle; when the
mockers shall be saying, "Where is the promise of
His coming; whilst, it may be, that the drunkard
shall be at his cups, and the thief and murderer
planning their deeds of darkness ; whilst the bold
blasphemer shall be taking God's name in vain, and
THE COMING OF THE LORD III
the scoffer daring the preacher of the cross; just
then ; whilst the fool shall be filling his audience with
laughter, and the profane, jester shall be sporting at
sacred things ; whilst the glitter of the ball-room shall
appear most fascinating, and the mirth of those who
join in the dance be at its climax ; yes, it may be, it
probably will be, just then, without another moment's
warning, that the lurid fire will dart from the blackened
sky, and all nature become lit with the burning flame ;
whilst the earth and ' all that are therein shall rend
and quake, and the mansions of the living and the
sepulchres of the dead alike shall tumble to utter
ruin, as the archangel's blast will be heard giving the
distinctive and universal command, "Awake, ye dead,
and come to judgment." What a terrible moment
will that be ! Thousands, who a moment before were
singing the songs of the drunkard, or hastening to
shed innocent blood, or making merry in revelling
and sensuality, will, by .the first crash of our world, be
buried in the universal wreck, yet not to sleep beneath
the awful debris ; for before they shall scarcely have
had time to "shuffle off this mortal coil," the summons
shall be heard to hasten them to the bar ; and whilst
the world is burning, the unnumbered tribes of Adam's
race shall be found standing at the judgment-seat, not
in bodies subject to the present law of life and death,
of want and physical supply, but bodies " changed,"
the righteous into the likeness of Christ's body, and
the wicked into such as can be consistent with living
where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
Such, then, we conceive to be the sudden aspect of the
day of the Lord. But I notice
II. That the coming of the Lord that is, the Judg-
ment Day will terminate the affairs of time. One
would have thought that, after the sweeping language
of the New Testament concerning- this day, that no
one would have called in question the truth embodied
in this proposition. But, alas ! alas ! Though the
sacred lips of Jehovah have declared that "the day of
the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the
which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise,
112 PUTS AN END TO TIME,
and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the
earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be
burnt up," yet we are told by persons, whom I
dare not to call true prophets, that all this does not
mean an end of time, or the destruction of the Jews,
or of. the heathen nations, but only of such parts
of the earth as will be found to be inhabited by
professing Christians. If the universality of the
conflagration is not taught in the New Testament,
and if the " all nations " which Christ shall summons
before Him do not mean all mankind, and if the
" every eye " which shall see Him in the clouds do
not mean every human eye, then all discussion is at
an end, and there is not a statement of God, or man,
that henceforth can be relied upon as true. But there
can be no doubt upon these great truths to the man
who honestly accepts the teaching of the Divine Spirit,
for every representation of the scenes shows the same
truths, that the righteous and the wicked will stand
together before the judgment-seat of Christ;
that that judgment will be when He comes in the
clouds the "second time," "taking vengeance on them
that know not God," whilst at the same time He will be
"admired in all them that believe," which will be at
the last day, when the dead and the living will be
summoned together, without one missing ; and when
that righteous judgment of God shall be revealed,
"and He will render to every man according to his
deeds, to them who, by patient continuance in well-
doing, seek for glory and honour and immortality
eternal life ; but unto them that are contentious, and
do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness
indignation and wrath." 1 And then, lest there should
after this statement be any question upon the point,
Paul further adds, "tribulation and anguish upon
every soul of man that doeth evil but glory, honour,
and peace to every man that worketh good." Nor is
there any respect of persons with God, for Jew and
Gentile are seen together, and rewarded together, or
punished together, as the case may be. "For as many
(i) Romans ii. 6, 7, 8.
CLOSES THE WORK OF GRACE 113
as have sinned without law, shall also perish without
law, and as many as have sinned in the law, shall be
judged by the law ; " all which shall come to pass "in.
the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by
Jesus Christ." 1 There is nothing more clearly taught
in the New Testament than the doctrine we are now
contending for, that at the second coming of Christ all
the affairs of time will be brought to an end, and
the final judgment be ushered in. A few considerations
will show the truth of this statement.
(1) Intercession work will then have ended. "When
pur glorious Redeemer had offered up Himself a
sacrifice for sin, as the High Priest of His church,
He entered in once into the holy place, having
obtained eternal redemption for us, and there "He
ever liveth to make intercession." And there, and
nowhere else, are the functions of His priestly office to
be carried on, "for Christ is not entered into the
holy places made with hands, which are the figures of
the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the
presence of God for us." And as long as He is there,
guilty sinners may hopefully come to God by Him, but
the moment He leaves the "presence of God," the inter-
cession for sinners will end, and never another will
feel the drawings of the Holy Spirit, or find his way
to the. Divine Father. Indeed, the moment that
Christ Jesus lays aside the intercessory work, He
assumes the character of the Judge, and vain will
be the cries of an affrighted world, and the pleas of
formal professors, for no longer will Mercy's door
be open to the hardened, nor hypocrites be longer
suffered, but he that is unholy will be unholy still, with-
out the least shadow of any hope for a change. Hence
the coming of Christ will be the final termination of
the dispensation of grace.
(2) All gospel ordinances will end at the Second
Advent, for we are put in possession of these " until "
Christ comes. "Occupy till I come," is the tenure
upon which we hold them, so that the moment He
appears they will be given up as of no further service.
(r) Romans ii. 9 16.
114 AND GOSPEL ORDINANCES.
No longer shall the church of God show forth the
Saviour's death in the sacramental cup ; and no
longer will the preacher point to the Cross for a
refuge; no more will the glad tidings of salvation
be proclaimed to a perishing world; and no longer
will the promise of grace to the unconverted be in
force. When we hear pre-millenarians talk about
missionaries carrying the news of the conflagration
to the heathen, and of the wonderful success attending
their preaching of vengeance and judgment, and of
the thousands of Jews and Gentiles converted to
Christ thereby, our very soul is filled with the deepest
astonishment, and we tremble for the men who can
dare thus to turn the awful day of judgment into one
of mercy and grace to the ungodly world. Or when
we hear another class of these deluded brethren talking
about a "fire-proof" ark, in which the heathen and the
Jews are to be saved amid the deluge of flame, as was
Noah amid the deluge of water, we stand aghast, and
scarcely know which to call in question the most,
their sanctity or sanity, their reason or religion. There
is the most unmistakeable evidence in inspiration,
that the burning of the world and all things therein,
the gathering of all the nations before the Judge of
quick and dead, the melting of the elements, and
the eternal award to the righteous and the wicked at
the same time, will put an end to all earthly affairs,
finally stay the progress of our race, and at once
terminate the probation of every child of Adam. And
to assert anything to the contrary, is to put the human
in the stead of the divine, and to leave a loop-hole for
a false Hope, the consequences of which are fearful to
contemplate.
Now all this insult to God and to truth which we have
mentioned, is designed to save and bolster up a pet, but
unholy theory, the gist of which is the coming of Christ
before the millennium, and the temporal grandeur of the
Jews. And having set up this theory,/^ which there is
110 shadow of evidence in the New Testament, rather than
retract, it seems as though many pre-millenarians would
pull the whole temple of grace to the ground, and de-
THE JEWS HAVE NO SPECIAL CLAIM. 11$
stroy both the earthly and heavenly hope of the church.
of Christ. This may appear strong language to persons
who are not acquainted with the writings in question, but
it would be easy to show how every syllable in these
lectures, spoken against the theories we are examining,
fall far below the censure they richly deserve from the
faithful servants of God. What claim, I ask, has the Jew
upon the clemency of Christ at His coming, more than the
masses of unconverted men and women around about
us ? Has the worst infidel in our land more bitterly
blasphemed the Holy Name we love than he ? Has
any other nation under heaven so wilfully sinned against
light and goodness as the nation of the Jews ? Why
then, I ask again, are Jews to be put into a " patent
safety," and tided over the sea of fire, when the
nations of Christendom are to be burnt up ? . Are
there not tens of thousands in our midst, who, though
they are not really saved, would not, could not, curse^
the Saviour, or speak lightly of His gospel? yet these
are to be buried in the flames, whilst the hardened
Jew, whose bitter invective is hurled against the Son
of God, and in whose skirts' the blood of the Crucified
Nazarene is found, is to be the Noah of righteousness in
the coming fury-deluge. Yea, more ! not only are our
moral, and in many respects upright neighbours, to
be destroyed, whilst the Jew is to be petted and
saved, but even the righteous who love Christ, and
live for Christ, and are ready to die for Christ, even
those, as we saw in our last lecture, are not to be
exempt from the terrible calamity, unless they believe
these unscriptural dogmas of pre-millenarians ; whilst
the Jew, who has hated Christ, whose whole life has
been against Christ, and who, if he had the opportunity,
would again crucify Christ, is assured against all harm,
for no other reason than because he is a Jew.
Now we are not contending against the right or
sovereignty of God, for we know He cannot do
wrong, and if He had revealed this doctrine of respect
of persons it would be ours to wait for clearer light to
make it plain; but since He has not revealed a word con-
cerning it, but has given us truths in direct opposition
Il6 PRE-MILLENNIAL VAGARIES
to it, we are bound in honour to Him to say, the doctrine
is not from heaven, nor can any one receive it without
doing despite to the Spirit of Grace, and putting the
truth of Christ to an open shame.
I used a strong word last week when speaking of
the representations of these men. I then called their
sad perversions a burlesque. I am almost sorry I did so,
for I want that word now, as it is the most fitting one
that I know to apply to the statements that are made
upon this part of our enquiry. Let any godly man or
woman take the bible and read every passage which
relates to the judgment day, and thereby get clearly
before the mind, the glorious appearing of the " Son
of man " in the clouds of heaven ; the thrilling shout
by which all nature trembles before Him; the con-
suming fire which extends to everything upon this
globe; and the final "depart ye cursed," and "come
ye blessed/' I say, let any serious mind get the whole
scriptural scene before it, and then let the same reader
turn to the ludicrous caricatures which pre-millen-
nialism draws, and assuredly such a mind will
be both pained and disgusted at the sight. What do
we here find ? These things ! The coming is a secret
thing, to take up a few of the choice souls into the
clouds, where for a while they are to be suspended
like Mahomed's coffins, while the marriage supper
of the Lamb is literally celebrated. The fire is only
a local judgment in Europe; or, if wider, Jews and
heathens, (and according to Mr. Molyneux, the cattle
too, 1 ) are to be huddled together during the conflagra-
tion into a huge ark. The judgment is, Christ ruling
among the nations, or rewarding heathens for having,
'without knowing it, given a cup of cold water to some
strayed disciple, and for which they are to have such
dominion over all things as Adam had before fallen. 2
These, together with a thousand other vagaries, are
the things which pious men entertain their audience
with in the present day, and about which they write
no end of books, and deliver no end of lectures and
(i) "World to Come," pp. 71-76.
(2) Mr. Dallas' " Bloomsbury Lectures," 1843, p. 306.
WIDELY RECEIVED. 117
sermons. But, perhaps, you will say, Who believes
them? I wish I could assure you that the number of such
was small, but I fear it is far otherwise. There are whole
congregations in this and other towns, who, if they do
not believe all the nonsense I have intimated, believe
the theory out of which all this comes ; and many of
them have unwittingly been committed to a system,
the danger and consequences of which, at present,
they are little aware of. Scores of clergymen in the
Church of England, and some in the Churches of
Scotland, must be ranked among the advocates of
these delusions; and I am pained to have to add,
that in almost all denominations of Christians, hands
are upheld in favour of them, whilst every Plymouth
Brother, and nearly all "Revivalists," or, as they prefer
to be called, " Evangelists," are scattering broadcast
the pernicious seeds of these heresies on every side.
In speaking as I have done of the Jews, let no one
think me unkind towards the seed of Abraham ! I long
as much as any man for the day when the vail shall be
taken away from them ; but what I contend for is
this, that it is unscrupulously wicked to cry down
Christianity as is done by the advocates of the system
in question ; and also, that for Jew and Gentile there
is but one door of mercy, and that is Jesus Christ, for
no man cometh to the Father but by Him. A Jew,
therefore, has no special privilege of grace or glory.
He must come to God by the one consecrated way, or
not at all; and when he has come he has no privilege
of grace or glory above us. If we are Christians, he and
we alike are " fellow-citizens with the saints, and of
the same household of God;" and neither in time,
nor in eternity, will there be any distinction again
between us ; nor is he nearer to the heart of Jesus than
the poorest negro that comes to Him with a loving
and believing soul, for " henceforth know we no man
after the flesh; yea, though we have known Christ
after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no
more." Nor shall the coming day of judgment show
any respect to nationality or blood; for the "tribulation
and anguish " which are to come upon every soul of
Il8 THE JUDGMENT NOT
man that doeth evil, are to fall alike upon the Jew
and Gentile, as described by Paul in Romans ii., 9.
From all that we have seen in the Word of infallible
truth, we are compelled then to believe that the judg-
ment will bring all the events of time to a final end; for if
the earth is destroyed, the elements melted, all the
race of mankind judged and that, too, at the coming
of the Lord to judgment, there can be nothing
beyond that period but the endless eternity, in which
is to be found the final state of the righteous and of
the wicked. Believing these facts to be beyond the
possibility of a doubt, we hasten to the next thought
III. The Judgment will lie of a PERSONAL, and .
not a NATIONAL character. According to most pre-
millenarians, the judgment at Christ's coming will be
of a national, and not an individual kind. Indeed,
according to the least objectional theory, that of
Joseph Medes, many of the race of Adam will never
come into judgment at all. It is distressing in the
last degree to behold the sad descriptions which
carnal vanity has substituted for the truth of God
upon this momentous subject. When we read that
the Prince of Israel, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and of the angels engaging in military warfare, and the
saints 1 possessing "caustic and destructive" properties,
of newly-won Jews shewing their first allegiance to
Christ by fighting in the "dreadful carnage," "so
dreadful," we are told, "that even the Holy Ghost
Himself seems to have laboured for expression and
imagery to describe it," when the Lamb of God is
to " begin " the fight, 2 and when " there will be lakes
and rivers of blood as deep as from the ground to the
bridle of a mounted horseman," and that for two
hundred miles long, 3 in which the saints just fresh
from the banquet of wine in the clouds 4 are to " wash
their feet." I say, when we read such profane things
as these, and find them represented as a part and
(i) See Brook's "Abdiel's Essays," p. 97. Fourth Edition,
(2) Danbuz, Lancaster's Abridgment, p. 348.
(3) Govett, " Treatise on Apocalypse," p. 320.
(4) "When this wondrous feast has ended, another scene of a far different
kind shall follow The feast being ended, the saints go forth to
BATTLE."^ the author " The Last Vials."
. MILITARY CARNAGE. 119
parcel of the judgment day, we are compelled boldly
to say that they are not gathered from the Spirit of
Christ, the record of God, or the teaching of the Holy
Ghost ; they accord with neither, and, therefore, we
reject them as the offspring of a vitiated imagination,
and an unseated judgment. Hence we turn away
from them once more to hear the " THUS SAITH THE
LORD."
It is a generally received opinion that nations are
punished in the present state, as there can be no
corporate bodies in the world to come; and the
history of God's providence fully bears out the belief.
We have only to look at Babylon, Judaea, Rome, and
France, to find ample illustration of its truthfulness,
without turning further to the universal testimony of
sacred and profane history. Here, then, the fate of
nations is decided, whilst the fate of individuals will
be deliberated upon at the judgment-seat of Christ
It is impossible to give a full description of that
scene, or to put in order the events as they shall
occur, this we must leave, till "that day;" but we are
certain of a few things, and these we may mention for
our profit.
. (i) Every INDIVIDUAL child of Adam will be there.
I hope no one here doubts this solemn truth, for be
assured that " He hath appointed a day in which He
will judge the world in righteousness, by that' Man
whom He hath ordained ; wherefore He hath given
assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him
from the dead." "The world," then, will be there, which
does not exclude the Church ; for in writing to saints,
Paul declares, " We must all appear before the judg-
ment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the
deeds done in the body, according to that he hath
done, whether good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the
terrors of the Lord, we persuade men'." And that they
will be all there together is evident in that the Judge
shall " SEPARATE " the righteous from the wicked, even
as a shepherd doth the sheep from the goats. Here,
then, we have the infallible truth stated, that every
man, woman, and child will be there, without the
120 ALL MEN AT THE BAR.
possibility of an exception. What a mighty throng,
to which the one thousand, two hundred and eighty-
eight millions of the present day will be but as a
handful, and yet in all that unprecedented crowd no
individuality will be concealed. All the righteous
will be there all the wicked all the ages of the world,
and all the grades of men. The men who mocked
Noah, and those who vexed the righteous soul of Lot;
Esau, who sold his .birth-right for a mess of pottage,
and Pharoah who hardened his heart against God;
Judas who betrayed the Lord with a kiss, and Pilate
who gave Him to be crucified ; these all will be there.
The long list, too, of the persecutors of the saints, both
in heathen and papal days, will respond to the call; nor
will protestant persecutors escape from the throng, or
the notice of the Judge. Those, also, who here denied
the revelation of God, such as Paine and Voltaire,
Hume and Owen, with all their followers, who think
it manly to defy their Maker, and reject the message
of His Son, these all will come to His bar. Let us
solemnly think of them, with all the millions who
know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and let us try to depict the scene as
they shall stand before the Judgment-seat. Is it hard
to know the just from the unjust? the pure from
the ungodly? Is it a matter of doubt in any mind
whether he be a child of God or not ? Nay, there is
no room for any question upon these points now. The
righteous hail the Saviour as their living Lord, whilst
the wicked are ashamed and confounded before Him.
And now, ye scoffers, why hang down your heads ?
and ye despiser of truth, why are ye afraid ? If the
doctrines ye propounded in your life-time be true, why
not face them out ? If there is no God, why do 'ye
tremble before HIM upon the glory-cloud? and if.
there be no hereafter, why do ye fear the awful
sentence ? Judas ! why not again enrich thy coffer
with the price of God's own Son? Here are the
scribes and chief priests all close at hand ; offer now
thy service for a given price ! Dost thou not know
Him now ? Look up, guilty man ; see if He be not
OLD COMPANIONS MEETING 121
the same Jesus, yea, the very same, Whom thou
wast not afraid to kiss when covered with His
crimsom sweat ! Art thou afraid before Him now ?
Where is now thy Roman band ? Canst thou not l^id
thy soldiers yet again to hold Him fast ? Ah, Judas !
Judas ! thou traitorous wretch ! dost thou not know
that "this is He?" the very Christ? Yea, verily; and
gladly wouldst thou shun His glance ; but now, alas !
there can be no escape ; no suicidal hands can give
the least relief; but thou before all worlds must stand
exposed, till every thought of thy base heart has been
revealed, and thy just sentence passed by those most
righteous lips once pressed by thine. Ah, brethren,
how changed the scene ! Poor puny, guilty men are
bold enough in this vain life, and dare defy both
God and man ; but not so then,
" When shrivelling like a parched scroll,
The flaming heavens together roll ;
When louder yet, and yet more dread,
Swells the high trump that wakes the dead. "
Then the stoutest heart shall tremble with fear, and
the boldest sceptic shall confess to the justice of God,
and the glory of His Christ ; whilst the feeblest saint
shall rejoice in his Saviour, and stand clothed in
spotless purity before the Father's face. And though
the wood, hay, and stubble of many builders in Zion
will be consumed, and the vail be rent from much that
is concealed and hidden, still, for all to whom Jesus
was the foundation in life, there will be joyful hope ;
and these builders shall be saved, even though as by
fire, and shall give special thanks to the great Master
Who, amid so much impurity and unholiness,
rendered their salvation secure, and gave them
an inheritance among the saints in light.
(2) It will be a time of final meeting and parting
with many of the sons of men. Old associates, who
from the day of death shall have been separated by the
gulph which lies between the endless joy and endless
woe, will for the last time come together -parents
and children teachers and scholars pastors and people;
but not as they have met before. Then the parent
F
122 FOR THE LAST TIME j
will offer no more prayers for godless sons or
daughters, nor will the teacher any more speak words
of salvation to the heedless class; the preacher will no
more stand as an ambassador to his unsaved hearers,
nor point again to the Lamb of God ; but our relations
will all be changed, and our work will all be new. We
shall then be witnesses against some whom we sought
to save, and even swift witnesses against many that
we tried to lead to the saving Cross. How the sight
of the men who faithfully set forth the way of life will
terrify the ungodly, and the warnings and tears of
the messengers of Christ come fresh to the sinner's
mind. What a meeting will that be, when, not even
in a whisper, shall one say to another, "Believe, and.be
saved," nor the most compassionate offer a suppliant
word for the guilty throng. No ! the die will be cast,
and the destiny fixed, and the meeting will be one of
justice and judgment, and not of mercy and grace.
Therefore, whilst upon the door of Mercy it is still
written, "Ask, and it shall be given; seek, and
ye shall find," may many of you hasten to enter, for
our living High Priest is still interceding, and the
day of mercy is not ended. But when once He riseth
from His intercessory throne, the hours of salvation
will have closed, and the moments of grace have passed
away ; or, which to us is the same thing, when the
hand of death shall lay us low in the dust, and we
are numbered with the dead, our condition will be
unalterable, as our final state will be eternally fixed; for,
" There is no repentance in the grave,
Nor pardons offered to the dead."
Therefore, if before then we have not sheltered in
the cleft of the Rock of Ages, our naked souls must
be exposed to the fierce and eternal storm of wrath,
which especially will be ushered in at the judgment
day, when the judgment shall be set, and the books be
opened.
Oh, those books ! those terrible books of God's
remembrance ! and, doubtless of human consciences
too ; between whose hidden folds the deeds of men,
. AND THE BOOKS OPEN. 123
written as with iron pen and unfading ink, now lie
concealed. Oh, who shall bear to have them opened,
when every act shall be revealed before angels and
men, before friends and foes ?
Then that other book too, the Book of Life, the
register of the living, the roll of all who have found
life in the risen Lord, so many, no more; so that those
not found therein shall be cast into outer darkness,
which is the "second death;" whilst everyone who has
fled to Jesus shall be counted among the Redeemer's,
loved ones, and with them shall be presented before
the Father, without wrinkle or spot, and shall enter
at once into the joy of the Lord. Then, dear
Redeemer,
" In Thy fair book of life and grace,
may I find my name
. Recorded in some humble place,
Beneath my Lord, the Lamb."
LECTURE VII.
"THE FINAL STATE."
Delivered Lord's Day, January z^th, 1872.
"And these shall go away into everlasting punish-
ment : but the righteous into life eternal."
Matt, xxv., 46.
HERE .is no other system of theology
that proposes such an entire revolution in
the interpretation of scripture as does pre-
millenmalism. Almost every doctrine of
the gospel is more or less seriously affected by it,
Avhilst some of the old landmarks are entirely removed.
It would not be too much to say that these novel
expositions of the Word of God are as revolutionary,
when compared with those of the apostles, as was
the apostles' teaching in contrast with the literal ideas
of the Jews ; without, however, being able to lay any
claim to inspiration, or to show any advantage by the
change. When Peter and Paul laid their hands on
old scriptures, the object generally was to turn upon
them the light of the new dispensation, and thereby
to give them a breadth and fulness of spiritual mean-
ing which Jews never before dreamt of. But the
effect of the system in question is to rob those
passages of this inspired depth, and to shut them up to
THE DANGER OF VIOLATING TRUTH. 125
the old carnal limits of scribes and Pharisees. There-
fore, instead of leading the children of God on from
one degree of glory to another, this takes them back
to the fleshly ordinance of Judaism, and localizes them
within the boundaries of the Promised Land. We
have already got some glimpses of those proposed
changes of interpretation, and this evening we shall
see that even the final state of man is not allowed to
remain intact. We do not mean to say that pre-
millenarians have no heaven or hell in their system,
but these are generally so thrown into the shade by
the prominence given to pavilion clouds, the literal
Canaan, and military carnage, that we can scarcely
get even a faint sight of anything beyond ; and when
we do, it is so unlike what we have been in the habit
of looking upon, that it is almost impossible in many
writers to recognize it as the same; which will be
seen as we proceed with our investigation, and which
I hope will lead everyone present to see the violence
thereby done to truth, and at the same time will give
us an opportunity of turning once more, with fitting
solemnity, to the scrip tural'representations of our final
destiny, with the sacred resolve to hold fast the truth
in the face of any gloss which angels or men may
attempt to put upon it. We took occasion, a little
while ago, to criticise and to condemn the sentimental
nonsense of the " Gates Ajar ;" but in comparison to
much which is said in connection with the present
controversy, even that would be far preferable, pro-
vided it made no farther advances into the region of
foggjj carnality. But there is a great law of divine
retribution connected with the handling of the Word
of God deceitfully, so that we cannot violate that
Word without enslaving ourselves in a terrible bond-
age ; and if we are not honest enough to beat a speedy
retreat, we shall surely find it necessary to add error
to error, in order to make our system consistent ; and
hence it is that error never remains stationary. Perhaps
a fuller illustration of this could not be found than in
the system we are now examining. The cardinal ideas
having been advanced, the filling up became necessary,
126 THE FUTURE STATE A NECESSITY.
and so the work has gone on, until we have the huge
mass of contradiction before us.
We need not spend our time to prove that the
thoughts of the final state have ever entered largely
into the influences by which men have been governed
or sustained amid the scenes of this present life. A
few minds there may be, who have grown sufficiently
hardened not to dread, or desire, aught beyond what
they see ; but these are the exception, and not the
rule. Even heathens live and act one toward an-
other very much in harmony with the ideas they
entertain of the world to come, and of the gods whom
they adore or dread. This universal consciousness
of the future state, and its powerful effect upon the
human mind, ought to- make us very jealous to know
the precise truth which God has graciously revealed
to us concerning that future, so that every aspiration
and feeling may be guided aright, that at the end
we may sustain neither damage nor loss. It shall be
my prayerful aim so to guide your minds in the
present lecture.
Before we go further, it will not be unseasonable to
notice the necessity for future rewards and punish-
ments, which seems to arise out of the present nature
of things. Here the righteous and wicked live to-
gether, and in many respects one common lot happens
to them both; in some other cases the righteous seem
to have the heaviest burdens, and in general there is
an unequal distribution of the comforts and blessings
of this present life, all of which make another state
not only desirable, but really necessary. Some of the
most godly men the world ever saw have had to wade
through seas of trouble, without scarcely a ray of
external sunshine ; whilst some of the most reckless
and profane persons have had little else than worldly
prosperity from the beginning to the end of their lives.
Nor is this inequality observable in extreme classes
only, but we may see it even among the righteous
themselves, and, indeed, among the ungodly too.
How often do we see some of the most devoted
servants of Christ labouring with transparent purity
IT HAS EVER BEEN 127
to advance His kingdom, and yet their path is strewn
with briars and thorns; whilst time-servers get the
. ease, and roses of apparent prosperity. These things
in righteousness must be adjusted, and in the end will
be adjusted. "Therefore, judge nothing before the
time, until the Lord come, Who both will bring to
light the hidden things of darkness, and will make
manifest the counsels of the heart ; ;>1 "And then," as
Doddridge paraphrases it, "shall everyone have in
the most public manner that praise from God, before
the assembled world, which is proportionable to his
real character and conduct." Any other view. than
this is most injurious to the godly mind, as was seen
in the case of Asaph. Untilhe went into the sanctuary
and considered the end, he rebelled at the unequal
distribution exhibited in his days, and even said,
"Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed
my hands in innocency. For all the day long have I
been plagued, and chastened every morning." 2 But
no sooner does he refer to the grand future, than his
whole heart is changed, and he exclaims, " Thou shalt
guide me by Thy counsel, and afterward receive me
to glory. Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and
there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee."
Thus the thought of the future state hushes the
murmurings of the godly, and offers a solution of
the dark, and otherwise inextricable ways of divine
providence.
But coming more specially to the subject of this
lecture, I observe
I. THAT THE FUTURE STATE HAS EVER BEEN THE
HOPE OF THE RIGHTEOUS. Pre-millenarians have set
up a contradiction to this fact, and have gone so far
as to state that Jews had no promise of any inheritance
beyond the literal Canaan. We do not wish to be too
sweeping in this remark. There are a few exceptions.
The author of " Plain Papers " labours to free himself
from this charge, and deplores the sad representations
of the future state by some of his brethren. " No-
thing," he says, " makes Christians so instantly recoil
(i) i Corinthians iv., 5. (2) Psalm Ixxiii., 13, 14.
128 THE HOPE OF THE GODLY j
from prophetic studies, as the idea to which too many
writers on prophecy have given sanction, viz., that the
future portion of the Church is one of blessedness on.
earth, renovated and purified^ but still earth." " The
hope of the Church," he continues, "is a heavenly, not
an earthly hope." 1 From these remarks you would
suppose that this writer was quite orthodox upon the
heavenly state; but in reading further on you find
that all the emphasis of this passage is on the word
" Church," and that after all the seed of Abraham has
no heaven. He says, " Israel's calling and that of the
Church being so different, it follows of necessity that
their hopes also differ?- Israel," he says in another
place, "and the nations will be happy, Israel pre-
eminently so, under the reign of Christ and His
glorified saints; but no distinction can be more marked,
no contrast more striking, than that which exists be-
tween the Bride of the Lamb and the nations over
which she, with her Lord and Bridegroom, is to reign.
Israel's distinctive calling is to earthly blessings ;" 3 so
then, after all, Israel and all nations saved after the
millennium begins, are deprived of the hope of heaven,
earthly blessing alone being their inheritance. Thus this
author
" Keeps the word of promise to the ear,
But breaks it to the hope."
Last week I had to contend against the ungodlike
preference which this system shows for Jews in the
fiery deluge; now I have to quarrel with the same
system for shutting a believing Jew out of heaven.
What, I ask, is there in the condition of a penitent
Jew, or what in the whole bible, to prevent him from
indulging in the same hope as any other man ? This
dreadful spirit of caste, which pre-millennialism has
introduced into the Church, is a monstrous libel upon
the gospel of Christ, and is fitting only for the be-
nighted tribes of India, and the haughty lips of the
ostentatious Brahmin ! I am aware that I should be
answered with the plea, that Jews who believe now will
(i) "Plain Papers," p. 7. (2) Ditto, p. 323. (3) Ditto, p. 322,
THE PATRIARCHS LOOKED 129
constitute a part of the Church, and only the Jews that
believe after the millennium commences will enter upon
the distinctive line of earthly blessedness. To me,
however, this is a most unsatisfactory reply, for the
New Testament, I again assert, knows no distinction
between Jew and Gentile, nor will any distinction
ever again be set up, for "of a truth God is no
respecter of persons, but in every nation he that
feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted
with Him." 1 And thus the wall of partition is gone,
no more to be built and faith in Jesus before His
incarnation, or faith in Jesus now, or faith in Jesus in
the millennium, alike gives union to Him, and privilege
in all that ever He will bestow upon His Church, for
all who ever believe on Him will share the answer of
His prayer, and be with Him, beholding His glory,
not one class seeing Him afar off in His glory, and
the other 'with Him, but altogether in one body they
will be partakers of His heavenly inheritance; and
any system that denies this is not from Him, and
deserves to be banished from the society of all men
who have any regard for the honour of truth' or trje
glory of God. Had Abraham no promise of a better
Canaan than the literal ? If not, he and Isaac and
Jacob were miserably deceived when they desired the
" better country, that is an heavenly." And Paul was
guilty of falsehood when he said, "Wherefore God is
not ashamed to be called their God : for He hath
prepared for them a city." 2 And why,, we may ask, is
not God ashamed? Why! because, though they never
possessed the great promises made to them of Canaan,
yet they had the better country they desired, and
therefore God was not ashamed to be called their
God, for He had fully satisfied them, though four
hundred years may roll away before their seed enter
upon the earthly inheritance.
And yet after all this inspired explanation, we are
gravely told that good old Abraham must be raised,
be deprived once more of the " better country," and
must literally be the landowner of Canaan, or God's
(i) Acts x., 34, 35. - (a) Heb. xi., 16.
130 FOR IT, AND NOT FOR PALESTINE,
promise cannot be verified. The Holy Ghost, however, ,
in the passage quoted, says, that both Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob on the one side, and their God on the
other, consider the matter fully settled, wherefore God
is not ashamed of the promise made, or the way in
which it has been fulfilled; for these patriarchs never
expected personally to receive the earthly inheritance,
but saw by faith their children enjoying it, whilst for
themselves they looked for that inheritance which,
unlike the earthly, fadeth not away ; and for that " city
which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is
God." Seeing that this divine contract is fully carried
out, and the holy .fathers resting in that better country,
what will sincere and intelligent Christians think of
the pious verbiage that represents these glorified
saints coming back to claim, hold, and cultivate the
soil of Palestine ? I have read such descriptions of
the new heaven and new earth, in which resurrection
saints are to find their future glory, as to justify me in
saying, that if they are true, then Elisha and many of
his heavenly companions will yet follow at the plough-
tail, Boaz and Jesse will yet drive a thriving business
in the growing of corn and the grazing of flocks, the
artizans of ancient times will again ply their celestial
fingers in making jewels, bells for horses, &c., and
David, pleased with the sight of the luscious juice from
the grape, shall literally, as we are told, take the cup
of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord,
whilst some more humble brother may be crying his
wares through the streets of Jerusalem. Dr. Gumming,
speaking of this paradise restored, says, " In that
day there may be all that we have now : the sower
may still sow, but in sure hope; the reaper may
still reap, but in ecstacy of joy. We must not," he
says, " etherealize the future : we are to have bodies,
though resurrection bodies ; we are to live upon this
orb, though a re-baptized and regenerated orb ; we
shall be men as we are now. In that day, every house
and dwelling shall no more be cornmon and profane ;
the head of the house shall be the high priest, to offer
up the prayers and the praises of the group that is
NOR SCOTCH GLENS, 131
around him. Wherever smoke ascends, or hearts beat,
or a family congregates, shall be holiness to the Lord.
. Daily bread shall be eaten like sacramental bread, the
table of God's providence shall be holy as the table of
the Lord. The church shall be in the house, and
the house shall be in the church, and the humblest
furniture within shall be holy as the ark, beautiful as
the cherubim, and the glory that was between." If '
anyone should think this bewitching quotation in-
applicable, , I would remind him, that the enchanting .
scene here described is after the earth has passed its
baptism of fire, and when the inhabitants are the
resurrection saints; and to justify the idea of glory on
this "regenerated orb" we are told, on another page,
that the Doctor has seen glens in the highlands oif
Scotland so beautiful, that were there no sin or
sorrow, "he could consent to live in them for ever;" 1
so that I hope I have done this popular author no
wrong in giving his incongruous picture in this con-
nection, a picture, in which bodies, fashioned like
unto the glorious body of, our divine Lord (for such
will resurrection bodies be), are seen living in houses
with smoking chimneys, congregating in families with
parental head, enjoying the comforts of fire, food,
and shelter, where the hand of Providence is seen
supplying the daily wants of the inmates, who, being
as we are now, will cook, bake, and serve in those
cottages, where the " humble furniture will be holy as
the ark." Were it not that we feared being misunder-
stood, we should certainly dismiss this carnal and
baseless caricature with words of strong indignation ; 2
(i) "Signs of the Times," pp. 130,' 131.
(2) A shrewd writer says, "Can Dr. Gumming really believe this? Then he
may imagine Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob whistling at the plough-
tail, churning butter, or stewing in a bakery ; then he may imagine
Paul with a dustman's cart, or Peter crying ' Sweep.' For it there
will be smoking chimneys, as the Doctor suggests, of course there
will be sooty ones, and the soot will want removing, the chimneys
will want sweeping, and who must sweep them? There are none
but glorified saints on earth, and who then but glorified saints to be
chimney sweepers ?.... Will .servants be allowed? If so, were are
they to come from, and who will they be ? If some of the redeemed
are to be servants to others, that might suit those served, but how
.would it suit the servants, especially if they had been servants
before ? It is true they would be used to it, which might make
them valuable as servants, but how would it accord with the hope
that had been set before them in the gospel." Plain Paper on the
Millennium, pp. 143, 144. Houlston and Wright.
132 NOR THE MEDITERRANEAN.
but instead of this, we will rather, with a solemn grief,
ask you, you who read and love your bibles, if you
have ever found a single line in them to suggest any
such a mad reverie as is here indulged in? or did
you ever suppose, with another writer, (the author of
" The Even-Tide"} that the literal Jerusalem was
the "fulness of joy" to which David alluded, and
that by "the pleasures for ever more" at the "right
hand " of God, Europe is to be understood, whilst the
Mediterranean Sea is the " River of Life," and Adam
and Noah the trees of life upon its shores? 1 I say, did
such a theory ever cross your imagination ? and can
you suppose that these were the things of which holy
men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost ? I do not profess to divine, but I feel assured
that most of you will wonder with me how any sane
men can descend to such folly, or how pious people
can tolerate such violation of God's sacred Word.
Yet, sad to relate, these are the things which
simple-minded Christians read, admire, and circulate.
The books, with these worse than worthless representa-
tions within their covers, are bought and presented as
birth-day gifts and tokens of Christian affection, in
this land of bibles, and in this year of grace ; and
woe to the man who dares to call in question the
wisdom of the donor, or the truthfulness of the volume
given, as our own experience can testify.
But to return to our proposition. Is there a single
person in this congregation that could ever believe
that these repelling vagaries entered in the slightest
degree into the hope of Abraham or David, Isaiah
or Paul? Did these things compose the rest which
remained for the people of God? Was it for these
that the three great patriarchs so much desired? Were
these the things David expected to be satisfied with
when he awoke up in his Lord's likeness, or was it to
participate in such a paradise that Paul so earnestly
strove ? I hope these important questions will carry
with them the most emphatic "No!" and that no one
here will ever allow himself to be persuaded by any
(i) "The Even-Tide," p. 354. Vol 2.
ALL RIGHT-MINDED CHRISTIANS 133
silvery speeches, or fascinating representation, to take
the first step into these pre-millennial delusions, even
though enticed by the speeches and representations of
the most holy men ; for though the bait may be gilded,
and the argument plausible, be assured you are never
safe when once you have crossed the line ; and you
cannot divine what incongruities and inconsistencies
you will not believe, if once you depart from the old
paths of sacred truth, Let nothing, therefore, to your
view lower the glory of the future, nor make divisions
and castes in the world to come ; neither allow any-
thing to give to your Lord's character a spirit of
partiality, nor to deprive one of His loved ones, Jew
or Gentile, of his proper place in the ONE BODY.
Let but the heavenly hope be affected by error, and
in proportion thereto the dread of the wicked will also
be abated, and thereby the whole power of the world
to come will be weakened and changed, if not entirely-
destroyed.
The Old Testament saints, and the New, alike, held
that the wicked was driven away in his wickedness,
whilst the righteous had hope in his death ; and as
David, under loss and bereavement, found consolation
in the thought of going to those who had gone to glory
and as Paul reckoned that the sufferings of this present
life were not worthy to be compared to the glory
that is to be revealed in us, let us with them look
forward with joy to the house not made with hands,
eternal, and in the heavens. And as the whole Jewish
economy is not only shaken, but removed^ that the
kingdom we now have which cannot be moved may
take its place, let us hold fast the profession of our
faith, without wavering, and never again be led back
to the things that were both carnal and temporal, for
"we are come to Mount Sion, and unto the city of
the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an in-
numerable company of angels, to the general assembly
and the church of the first-born which are written in
heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits
of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator
of the new covenant. See, therefore, that ye refuse
134 ARDENTLY DESIRE IT.
not Him that speaketh ; for if they escaped not who
refused Him that spake on earth, much more shall
not we escape if we turn away from Him that speaketh
from heaven." But we will not refuse Him, His voice
attracts us upwards, He calls us, " it is the voice of
our beloved \" He called to saints of old ; and amid
suffering and reproach they "endured, as seeing Him
Who is in visible," having respect unto the recompense of
the reward. He called to apostles ; and they fought the
good fight in the Christian warfare, knowing there was
laid up for them IN HEAVEN the crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, the righteous Judge, so freely bestows.
He called to the confessors and martyrs ; and under
the inspiring voice, they "took joyfully the spoiling
of their goods," and " loved not their lives unto the
death," feeling that their light afflictions, which were
but for a moment, worked for them a far more exceed-
ing and ETERNAL WEIGHT OF GLORY. He IS Still
calling; and often our eyes are upward to OUR IN-
HERITANCE, and as one dear friend after the other
climbs the walls of the celestial city, and amid its
bright effulgence is lost to our sight, and as the
piercing winds of this hollow and selfish world cut us
to the quick, we almost instinctively exclaim,
"Break off, then, these bonds that detain
My soul from her portion in Thee ;
strike off this adamant chain,
And make me eternally free."
Still willing yet to wait till the Master bids us "come
up higher," we manfully fill our post of service, neither
beating a coward's retreat from duty, nor lending a
hand with fleshly motives, but with singleness of eye
serving the Lord.
" Thus Faith doth take a pleasing view;
Hope waits ; Love sits and sings ;
Desire flutters to be gone;
But Patience clips her wings."
Having thus tried to show you how the future has
ever been the hope of the righteous, I come to a
second thought, viz.,
THE JUDGMENT WILL FINALLY 135
II. That the state to which the judgment intro-
duces us is the final one, EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT,
LIFE ETERNAL ; by which I mean, that as near as it
is. possible for two acts which are successive to be
together, the righteous and the wicked will be awarded
with their eternal destiny, not one a thousand
years before the other, but, as it would seem in the
presence of each other, the decision on both is given,
and immediately carried into effect. But for the
outrageous notions which we shall have occasion to
mention under this head, I should not have troubled
you with this division, for I suppose there are but few
here that have any misgivings on this subject; still, as
there is an opposite theory, we must allude to it, and
endeavour to show our reasons for its rejection : and
(i) The final disposing of all the race seems to put
the matter beyond a doubt. If the two classes the
just and unjust are disposed of at the same time, it
certainly would argue that all time must then end, and
the world become empty, especially as it is completely
enveloped in flames before this, without any intimation
of even Dr. Burnett's race from the slime. Not so, how-
ever, Mr. Bickersteth, Mr. Birks, and others. Mr. Birks
says, " Does the Word of God distinctly reveal to us a
time when the number of mankind shall be complete,
and a close put for ever to the course of human
generations ? or, does it unfold the prospect of siicces-
sive generations of the redeemed throughout the course of
the ages to come?" 1 That these questions imply the
author's sentiments is clear enough, but we are not left
to mere conjecture, for he presently tells us that no
one could infer from the scriptures " that there was
any final bound assigned to the course of human
generations." Mr. Bickersteth is still more explicit, if
possible. After speaking of the millennium and the
judgment, he says, " But no change is then mentioned
as passing on the Jewish nation, or on the living
righteous who continue faithful to God The living
righteous, then, after the millennium, may yet continue
a seed to serve God in successive generations^ It
(i) "The Four Prophetic Empires," p. 310.
(2) "Lent Lectures," 1843, p. 331. Second Edition.
136 DISPOSE OF ALL THE RACE.
would be possible to produce a number of other
authors to the same effect, but I think these quota-
tions are quite enough to show that the writers have
no finality in their system. What are we to make of
these endless generations, the successive generations
of the redeemed, who are to go on propagating through-
out the course of the ages to come ? What kind of
beings will these celestial babies be ? Will they be
very handsome ? Will they be fretful, or good ? Will
they be subject to the ailments of the present infants?
Perhaps I was wrong in calling them "celestial babies !"
Still they must be very different to our little things
that are born in sin and shapen in iniquity, or this
successive race of living righteous will be little better
off than we, and preaching and conversion will have
to go on throughout the course of endless ages. How
does this unmanageable theory agree with God's
revelation ? Does it strike you that this looks at all
harmonious with our text? In our simplicity we frankly
acknowledge that we have never seen a word of all this
in the bible, and until we get a new revelation we are
compelled to disown it, and to tell our brethren that it
is not from heaven, but is utterly opposed to the spirit
and genius of the gospel. How are these endless
generations of successive ages to be dealt with ? Will
they ever be judged? Will they die? These questions
we must leave to the authors of the system to solve ;
for as God has nothing to do witli them, He has given
us no light upon them, nor need we trouble ourselves
to know; for when all mankind shall be changed from
natural to spiritual bodies, the good received up into
glory, the bad cast into outer darkness, there will be
no more " successive generations" for there will be no
beings in the flesh, and the delusion we have noticed
will vanish, like a baseless vision, at the break of day,
for the children of the resurrection and the changed will
both be like the angels of God, who neither marry
nor are given in marriage.
(2) The nature of the sentence leads to the same con-
clusion, viz., that the state into which the judgment
introduces all mankind is the final one. I hope I do
y^. THE SON DELIVERS UP 'THE 137
impugn the intelligence, or Christian belief of my
hearers, when I conclude, that they have ever under-
stood that this awfully solemn sentence of the Holy
and Universal Judge means just what it says. But
pre-millennialism tells us it means nothing of the kind.
Mr. Dallas says that, " Come, ye blessed, inherit the
kingdom prepared for you," simply means, "Inherit
the dominion intended for the children of Adam,
when the world was made," 1 that is, inherit the
sovereignty described in the first chapter of Genesis,
in a word, have dominion over the beast, and fowls,
and fishes ; so that these righteous are freed from the
effects of the Fall, as is elsewhere explained, and will
begin the world afresh, and be likely again to fall as
Adam did. Will you turn again to the whole paragraph
whence our text is taken, and see all nations at the bar
of God, the sheep and goats eternally separated, and
eternally disposed of, and see if there is the shadow of
such a theory, or the possibility of ever making such
human inventions fit into this divine and majestic
scene ! How could Adamic dominion be eternal life ?
especially as there is the possibility of another Fall,
and according to some the certainty of it. 2 And how
can the judgment day be decisive, if the race is in-
complete, and the world just started on a new lease ?
It cannot be, and the theory which suggests such solu-
tions of self-made difficulties, is an unholy libel upon
the word and veracity of the eternal God. But
(3) Immediately at the close of the events contin-
gent on Christ's coming, He delivers up the kingdom
to the Father, " that God may be all in all." The
wonderful passage from which we gather this state-
ment is introduced by the plain and definite words,
" THEN COMETH THE END ;" and it goes on to describe
the entire subjection of all things to Christ, the utter
and last destruction of death, and of the SON also
being subject to the Father, "that God may be all in
all." Is there anything less than finality here ? Can
there be any change after this ? Has it not only the
(i) " Bloomsbury Lectures," 1843, p. 306.
(2) " Outlines of Prophecy," by James Scott. '
138 KINGDOM, THEN THE END.
appearance, but the most positive proof of being the
end ? Taking the lowest view of the passage, it cer-
tainly conveys to us the idea of the Mediator giving
an account of His Stewardship. 1 Then how can any
succeeding generations be saved by Him ? According
to this repugnant notion of endless generations there
will be eternal millions who have no personal interest
in Christ, nor be 1 under His rule, for they will not
be born until He has given up the kingdom! Does
this comport with the unanimous voice of inspiration,
and with the dignity of our glorious Lord, in Whom
are to be gathered together in one all things both
which are in heaven and in earth ? It does not ! and
never can be made to harmonize with either. Hence,
therefore, we reject it, and turn once more to our old
bible, without note or comment, to gather from its
intelligible pages the solemn truth concerning that
final state to which we all are coming, and in which
endless joy, or endless pain, must be our eternal
portion.
Dismissing, then, from our minds the inhuman con-
tortions we have been looking at, let us fix our thoughts
upon the reality before us.
The final state. How solemn the associations which
gather around it ! and what weighty considerations
it involves ! The last sentence past, without the
possibility of being revoked, the last condition
reached, without the possibility of a change, the
last companions formed, never to be parted! And
who are they? or what are these?
"After the joys of earth,
After its songs of mirth,
After its hours of light,
After its dreams so bright,
What then?"
Or, to you believers !
" After the Christian's tears,
After his fights and fears,
After his weary cross,
All things below but loss,
What then?"
i) Brown, p. 149.
THE GREAT QUESTION. 139
Let each try to. answer these questions according to
his present standing before God. To the man out
of Christ the sentence must be, " I know you not ;
depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, pre-
pared for the devil and his angels." Here, then, we
have the condition and companions of the lost. Oh,
dear hearer, think of these awful words of our blessed
Lord, and think of the dreadful company to which
they consign the soul ; and I will not ask you, " who
among you can dwell with devouring flames ? " but,
rather, "who among you would like eternally to dwell
with unclean spirits?" Here, in this life, you have com-
panions who keep holy day, who sing God's praises, and
who reflect around you something of the light of heaven ;
and these often cheer and comfort you, and, by
example, give you a little insight into goodness and
purity ; but then there will be nothing of this to shed
one ray of light upon your darkness, nothing but
hatred, rage, unckanness, and unmixed evil, for ever
and ever. Oh, who can contemplate such fearful
society as this without at once fleeing from the wrath
to come, or without desiring most fervently to be
numbered with the pure and the holy?
But what a blessed end does the final sentence
unfold to the Christian man. It introduces him to an
inheritance undefiled, and makes him a companion of
the redeemed and holy, in a condition of perfect joy,
all of which is to endure for ever and ever, where
" No gnawing grief, no sad heart-rending pain.
In that blest country can admission gain ;
No sorrow there, no soul-tormenting fear,
For God's own hand shall wipe the falling tear.
Here our Redeemer is all bright and glorious,
O'er sin, and death, and hell, He reigns victorious."
And this is the portion of the children of God, and
their inheritance is for ever, which can only harmonise
with the orthodox belief, that the judgment day intro-
duces mankind into their final, or unalterable condition;
a belief inspired by revelation, confirmed by all the
teachings of Christ, made known and expatiated upon
by the apostles, received by the true Church of all
140 THE FINAL STATE OF THE SAVED,
ages, and will still survive all the attacks made upon
it, and will be fully justified by and bye in the world
without end. Amen.'
III. I remark, the final state of the saved will be
one of perfect harmony and concord.
Even that of the wicked will be congruous in itself,
for all being enemies to God, there will be con-
sistency in their being together. But we shall not
dwell upon that awful scene, but at once turn to the
righteous; and I again suppose that we all agree upon
the proposition just now submitted, yet a very contrary
belief will presently come before us, which will explain
the reason for referring to this aspect of the kingdom
of glory. The Vicar of Brading, 1 sheltering under the
authority of those who had written before him, writes
very explicitly on this head, and in order that we
might not misunderstand him, the Vicar honestly
tells us that he alludes to "a state of things after the
general resurrection, and the destroying of the last
<enemy," 2 that is, as we should say, to the final state.
"In that state," the reverend author making a
distinction between the "nations that are saved"
and the Bride of Christ says, " the MASS of men
are not to be glorified, they are to be saved,
that is, saved from sin ; and as it is revealed there are
gradations of reward, and we know there are an
infinite number of gradations of works and characters,
according to which these stripes and rewards will be
given, can we be very wrong in believing that... these
nations will fill up with an infinite number of grada-
tions the huge interval between the glorified and the
damned?" 3 Then, in more detail, the Vicar adds, " If
a good living man therefore expects salvation simply
by his moral works, he may attain it indeed, perhaps,
as he wishes, without Christ's immediate presence, and
among subject nations ; but Christ will not peculiarly
profit him, he will only share in Christ's general work
of redemption for all mankind." 4 So that there is no
(i) Author of "The Future Human Kingdom of Christ." Vide "Plain
Papers." by W. Palmer.
(2) Ib., p. 82. (3) Ib., p. 34-41. (4) Ib. p. 72.
ONE OF PERFECT HARMONY. 141
4
ground for supposing " that all who shall hereafter be
saved shall be pleasing to Christ, so as to move
Him to love them and permit them to have com-
munion with Him." 1 According to this profane
talk many of the saved will never be glorified,
indeed, Mr. Dallas argues that SALVATION does
not involve glorification 2 and some of them are
to be so far off as to be within the shortest distance ot
the lost, where there is weeping and wailing for ever ;
for the whole distance between glory and eternal
misery is to be filled up by circles of saved, but still
unglorified men ; so that it would appear that the gulf
between the saved and lost is much narrowed since our
Lord's parable was given, if not, indeed, entirely filled
up, making it very possible that the righteous and wicked
may after all be able even to hold converse in their
eternal homes. We suppose this being saved would at
least mean " life." But how anyone can get life apart
from faith in Christ we are not informed. We know,
however, what the Word saith, " He that believeth
not is condemned already." But "no," says this Vicar j
" if he does not wish to have aught to do with Christ,
he may be saved, though not glorified " hence what
a discordant song among the saved, and what dissen-
sion there must be there (the nearest circle of one
hundred and forty-four thousand 3 according to the
system before us will sing to Christ with apocalyptic
praise, " Unto Him that loved us and washed us from
our sins in His own blood, to Him be glory and
honour and blessing for ever and ever. Amen.") But
the next circle will damp the enthusiasm of this
chorus, and the next still more so ; and so on until a
counter song will be heard in the more distant circles,
where moralist and Pharisees who do not love, but
literally refuse the Saviour, will sing to their own
honour, and glorify their own wisdom and goodness
by which they delivered themselves from death. Hence
the heaven of these authors is earth over again, with
(i) Author of " The Future Human Kingdom of Christ." Vide " Plain
Papers," by W. Palmer, p. 67.
(2) Dallas' Introduction, paragraph 32, also p. 118.
(3) This is the Vicar's number.
142 ALL CREATION
all the contentions of free grace and human merit,
which is certainly anything but inviting, especially
after the long-entertained doctrines and promises of
the written Word. There it is written, " Whom He
did foreknow, them He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be
the first-born among many brethren. Moreover, whom
He did predestinate, them He also called and whom
He called, them He also justified ; and whom He
JUSTIFIED, them He also GLORIFIED;" which certainly
indicates that all that are in the purpose of God will
both be conformed to Christ and be glorified by Him,
and together will make up the whole family in heaven;
" Who all strike their harps, and one chorus they raise,
Salvation by grace is their theme ;
Thanksgiving, and honour, and blessing, and praise,
And glory to God and the Lamb."
The heaven of pre-millennialism may look well
enough to beclouded visions, but to anyone who loves
the prospect of the glory which Christ had with the
Father before all worlds, and to which He will intro-
duce all the Father hath given Him, it will not do.
To such it is nothing but a painful caricature, for it
is not the heaven He is gone to prepare, and therefore
we reject it with holy disdain, and once more turn to
the revealed descriptions of the mansions in the skies.
I need not detain you by any lengthened remarks on
the locality of heaven, or on the destiny of our globe.
A few words will embody all that is necessary to be
said here. Peter tells us that he, with others in his
day, expected that after the earth had passed through
the universal burning, there would be a new heaven
and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Two
or three considerations of this subject will be sufficient
to set our minds at rest for the present. And first it is
certain that glorified bodies will not need material
support, consequently the locality of the redeemed
need not be productive of earthly fruits for their sub-
sistence, hence the new earth will be very unlike ours.
Secondly, it would be no more inconsistent for this earth
to continue after the Curse is removed from it, and all
DELIVERED FROM GROANING : 143
creation is brought into the glorious liberty of which
Paul speaks, than it was for it and other works of
creation, such as stars and planets to be in existence
before the Curse entered. All God's works will praise
Him, and the existence of this globe, after creation's
groaning has been done away, may be among the
brightest tokens of God's handy-work, and also of His
redeeming grace. Associated with this will be more
than the Fall and the Curse j if there was not, it might
well be put for ever out of sight ; but here the Deity
became incarnate, here the Brightness of the Father's
glory revealed the unmerited love of the Father's heart,
here the great redemption price was paid in tears,
and sweat, and blood, and the enemy of God and man
overcome, and here the triumphs of grace in every
saved one commence and are perfected. Here, there-
fore, the greater works of God are memorialized, and,
for aught we know, the removing of the Curse from
this globe may take away the one discordant note
from creation, and lift the whole into the sweetest
harmony of its pristine glory, and constitute this long-
abused orb one of the brightest palaces, which shall
display throughout eternity the wisdom and honour
of the Eternal King. And if so, may not its very
existence be a means of everlasting praise to the
glorified ? Who, of all the redeemed, shall look upon it
without remembering the grace and the love which
delivered him from the Curse, and brought him to his
rest ? Who shall recognise it without admiring afresh
the goodness and mercy of our redeeming God ? So
that, as inhabitants of the city not made with hands,
may we not
" From the sparkling turrets there,
Often trace our pilgrim way ;
Often bless that guardian care,
Of fire by night, and cloud by day ;
While our triumphs
At our Leader's feet we lay."
This, I think, is not unlikely, whilst we still hold to
the unanimous testimony of scripture, that our inheri-
tance is " laid up for us in heaven? where our inter-
ceding Lord is preparing our mansion, and "where
144 AND THE SAVED WITH CHRIST,
the spirits of the just made perfect "now are, even
" the saints in light," whom we hope to join when the
earthly house of our tabernacle is dissolved ; for we
know that there we have a building, a house not made
with hands, eternal in the heavens.
. It is a real relief to turn away from the unrestrained
fancies of men, to contemplate the rest that remaineth
for the people of God, though we cannot do more at
present than glance at a few features of that glory
which gathers around the central fact, that THE FINAL
STATE OF THE RIGHTEOUS WILL BE ONE WITH CHRIST.
Amid the suffering here, the great apostle had a desire
to depart that he might be with Him which was far
better ; and our Lord Himself, in His last prayer with
His sorrowful disciples, prayed that they and all whom
the Father had given Him may be with Him, to behold
His glory which He had with the Father before the
foundation of the world ; so that we are safe in con-
cluding that our heaven will be in His presence, where
there is fulness of joy, and at whose right hand there
are pleasures for evermore. This one thought is
enough to fire our every passion, and to fill us with
the most ardent longings to be there. He once came
down to be with us, with us in suffering, with us in
nature, with us in our weakness, and with us in our
poverty and want, but, above all, with us in our
curse ; yea, with us, that He might take our infirmi-
ties, bear our sorrows, and deliver us from death, and
finally bring us to be WITH HIM. His presence, when
here, stilled the tempest and allayed the billows of the
sea, it scattered death and devils, and brought comfort
and joy to the stricken and sad; it turned Tabor into a
holy mount, and the hill-slopes of Galilee into Temples
for God ; it dried the tears of many that wept, and
chased the doubts of His trembling few, all this, and
much more, when He was here. But what will it be
there with Him, where darkness can never enter,
because God and the Lamb are the light of the place?
with Him ! where sorrow and sighing flee away,
for all who walk there are saved and forgiven ; with
Him ! where sin and Satan can never annoy, for
WHERE THERE WILL BE 145
through the pearly gates they cannot pass; with
Him ! where strife and contention can never disturb,
for pride and self are left behind ; with Him ! where
darkness is made light, and hidden things revealed,
for
" Mysteries there are all explained,
And not one doubt remains. "
And ever with Him, no more to be exposed to the
cross and the shame of a sneering world, no more to
be tried and crushed with temporal care and woe,
no more to be wounded and pierced with the thorns'
of reproach and contempt, no more to weep over
personal sins, nor to grieve over sins in others, no
more to carry the burden of the earthly Church, nor
to sigh for the perfectness of the Church above, no
more ! for the cross laid down at the portals will be
exchanged for the crown, and the 'soft hand of the
King will wipe the last tear, and the Lamb in the midst
will lead His followers to the fountains of living waters.
But more still ! With Him, ever with Him, and with all
those that are His; for at His coming we shall gather
together to Him. What 'a meeting !
" With patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and those
Who sealed the truth with their blood j
Whose unsubdued courage astonished their foes,
And forced them to glorify God."
And with those also we have known in the flesh. We
have seen them here, some in deep waters, some in
fiery trials, some in tears, some in gladness, some
striving to climb up Zion's hill, some lagging behind,
some undeviating in their Christian course, some un-
certain in their devious way, some with living zeal
bound with strong cords to God's altar, some with
selfishness and reserve shunning the cross ; but every-
one who loves Christ will be there, and we shall gather
together with all that are His. The carnal and the
worldly will suffer loss in the fire, and the faithful and
devoted have an abundant entrance into His heaVenly
kingdom; but still all there; and we shall gather
together to Him. And the shy looks and the envious
hearts will be missing,- and the errors and wrongs
G
146 PLEASURES FOR EVERMORE.
be wanting ; the systems of men will have vanished,
and the theories of a vain imagination be exploded ;
the creature will be nothing, the Creator and Redeem-
er be all ; and every face will reflect His image, for
we shall be like Him, and every tongue resound His
praise, the feeble will be as David, and David as the
angel of God. . This, dear hearer, is the heaven of the
bible, and the heaven to which we are looking, the
heaven that has cheered untold thousands along their
pilgrim-way, and the heaven in which the dead in
Christ are now resting, the heaven which Jesus is
gone to prepare, and the heaven to which He will
bring all those who look for Him, when He shall
come the second time without sin unto salvation.
Therefore, let no one rob you of the hope of this bright
inheritance, where awaiteth the crown of life which is
laid up on high for you who love His appearing ; nor
be ye content with any representation which deprives
that inheritance of its perfection and glory in the
presence of God and the Lamb : but rather " stand
and rejoice in the hope of that glory," knowing, as you
do, that nothing less than this can answer your Lord's
prayer, or satisfy the longings His grace has inspired.
Still, after all, we know but little comparatively of the
glory which shall then be revealed in us, nor of the
perfect felicity which we then shall share. But this
we know,
" There is a heaven of perfect peace,
The eternal throne is there ;
But what that tearless region is,
It doth not yet appear.
And there are ransomed spirits too,
"Who once were pilgrims here ;
But how the Saviour's face they view,
It doth not yet appear.
Then, my soul, with patience wait,
The happy hour is near,
When thou wilt pass the pearly gate,
Where it will all appear."
LECTURE VIII.
THE CONCLUSION.
Delivered Lord's Day, Felmary tfth, 1872.
" Occupy till I come." Luke xix., 13.
|S my purpose this evening is to make a practi-
cal use of the truths we have arrived at in
the previous lectures, it will not be expected
that I shall take up the time by giving an
exposition of the parable whence our text is taken,
further than to shew its general bearing upon the
Christian Church. At the time these words were
spoken, the Jews that followed Christ were expecting
that He would immediately, on His reaching Jerusalem,
assume His regal authority, set up for Himself a tem-
poral kingdom, and deliver His nation from the
Roman yoke. To correct this error, as we learn
from the eleventh verse, our Lord spake this parable,
in which He shows His disciples how greatly they
had been mistaken respecting His motives and inten-
tions. It was true that He was the Messiah-King, but
the nature of His kingdom was far from the ideal king-
dom which floated in their minds. He was not about
to rally any military forces, nor to establish an earthly
throne with its princely pomp and grandeur, either
then or at any subsequent period; but was, in
fact, going away to a far country, where He should
148 THE CHURCH'S
receive His investiture, and exercise "His universal
authority, though in a spiritual and invisible manner,
for all power in heaven and in earth would be in
His hands. At length, however, He should return in
His own glory, and in that of His Father, and of the
holy angels; when He should award every man accord-
ing to his works, and " inaugurate, in presence of the
assembled universe, an eternal and glorious kingdom." 1
In the meantime a solemn and holy trust would be in
the hands of His servants, and their zeal and fidelity
be proved ; and then on His return, to receive back
the trust committed to them, He would award to each
his proper measure of praise or punishment as his case
deserved.
The command which embodies all this is found in
the words "occupy till I come," and was no doubt
intended as much for the whole Church, from the day
of Ascension to the final coming of the Lord, as for the
faithful few who really received the commission at the
parting over against Bethany ; and, therefore, is bind-
ing upon us of this age, and to it we ought to give the
most earnest heed. It is not for us to busy ourselves
so much about the time of the Saviour's return, as it is
to know and do what He has bidden us to accomplish
in His absence. We have the gospel, as a solemn
trust, put into our hands; it is using the figure of the
parable our Lord's money, for which we shall have to
give an account ; and if faithfully applied, we shall
then be ready to meet Him with joy, whensoever He
comes.
We could scarcely alight on a passage more practi-
cal and impressive, in connection with our present
study, than the one before us ; and I am very anxious
that no false views should turn us away from the zeal
and fidelity it demands. Hundreds of pious people
at the present day seem to labour for nothing else
than to get Christians simply to wait for the Lord's
coming, and these persons can even sneer at the zeal
and energy of those who are striving to use the Lord's
money as He has commanded, as though nothing
(i) Bampton Lectures, p. 55, 1854.
POSITION IS THAT 149
more was to be done than to " gaze up into heaven/'
(as did the disciples, till censured by the two men in
white apparel.) Does the parable before us inculcate
any such spirit of pious indolence and want of faith in
the Lord's mission ? It does not, but just the reverse.
It calls upon the servants to labour with the most fer-
vent zeal during the time they hold this sacred gospel
trust, that they might bring the largest amount possible
of revenue to the divine Master. How do pre-millen-
arians attempt this? As a rule, they disbelieve the.
designs of the Master in His commission, and use all
the influence in their power to teach others to lose
heart in the Church's efforts to convert the world to
God. A more subtle and fallacious passage to this
effect could scarcely be found than the following.
The writer proposes the question, " What is the
Church's place ? " and then answers it in his own way,
thus :
"How the Holy Ghost provides an answer to this ques-
tion, in the yearnings of the heart of the apostle over the
saints at Corinth For I am jealous over you with
godlyjealousy ; for I have espoused you to one 1 husband
that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. 2 Cor.
xi., 2. Could any language more touchingly express the
deep, devoted, single-hearted affection for Christ, and
weanedness from all else, which constitute the only
fitting response to the love wherewith He has loved the
Church in espousing her thus to Himself ? Ought even a
converted world, if He were not personally present in it,
to satisfy one who is thus espoused as a chaste virgin to
Christ ? How do the laborious efforts even of sincere,
devoted Christians, to shew that what is before us, is a
spiritual millennium, without Christ's personal presence,
make manifest the condition into which the Church has
sunk See the effect of this our departure in heart from
the true scriptural hope of the Church as the spouse or
bride of Christ. Adopting for our object, as the Church
at large has done, the rectification of the world in the
absence of its rightful ruler, and our Lord and Bridegroom,
we naturally avail ourselves of all the means and influences
within reach to bear upon our object ; and hence the
strange, the anomalous sight of the professed bride of an
earth-rejected Lord, possessing, using, and seeking still
further to possess and use the appliances of worldly rank
and authority and wealth and learning and popular influ-
ence, to hasten on, as is affirmed, the epoch of the world's
150 OF ACTIVE SERVICE,
regeneration. The Church forgets her own calling, to
wait as a desolate, widowed stranger in the world whence
her Lord has been rejected, and where He is still dishon-
oured She proposes indeed to convert the world ; but
it is the world that has converted her." 1
When I read this page, twelve or fourteen years ago,
I wrote thus on the margin : "the sentiment here is
little less than blasphemy." The language was, per-
haps, almost too strong; but after all I have read
and seen of the effect of such sentiments from that
time till now, I am not prepared to strike my pen
through it. With all gravity I ask, Is this the
Church's place ? Is she to wait as a desolate, widow-
ed stranger in the world? Is this her calling ? Did
the inspired apostles so understand it? If so, why
did they not wait in Jerusalem, and never attempt to
do the work which this modern teacher sneeringly calls
the " rectification of the world ? " Or, why did Paul
subject himself to all the hardships which he suffered
to make the gospel of Christ known in the regions of
darkness ? Would it not have been much easier for
him to have done, as is too often done now by a cer-
tain class of professed Christians, who gather a few
pious souls together, and talk of the Lord's coming,
and wait as " widowed strangers, in patient suffering
grace towards the world ? " l Why should he care to
see that the Word of God was sounded out into all the
world ? He' and his brother apostle (if the above
paragraph is true) might have had an easy time of it,
luxuriating in all the rich things of God revealed to
them, and saving themselves from all the persecution
of the Jews and heathens, and so have left .Asia and
Europe alone, not proposing to convert either;
and then we in Britain might have been revelling to-
day in the savage dance of the Druids, and the writer
above quoted would have been spared the pain of
seeing the Church going out of her way to bring
the heathen to Christ ; nor would he have heard the
thousands of English Sunday Scholars sing as they now
do, -
(i) Plain Paper, pp. 114, 115. (2) Plain Paper, p. 118.
DEMANDING THE CONSECRATION 151
" I thank the goodness and the grace
Which on my birth have smiled ; "
as he among the rest, if born at all, would have been
-born, as thousands are,
Where God was never known."
Now, if heathenism would not have been good for the
author of " Plain Papers," it certainly is not good for
anyone else; and if the Master's command justified
certain Christians in seeking the conversion of this
island, the same command binds the Church of Christ
to-day to seek the conversion of the heathen to God,
whatever may be their colour or tribe. To some minds
the sentiments of this class of writers' are nothing better
than selfish indolence, and sentimental twaddle, calcu-
lated to deceive the ignorant, and to bring the glorious
mission of the Church into strong contempt. Does the
parable, whence our text is taken, encourage any desolate
waiting ? any inactivity ? Does " occupy till I come "
look like this ? Does the activity, which was so richly
rewarded in the faithful servants, look like it ? The
only likeness I can see in the parable to this state of
things, is in the wicked servant who laid up the Lord's
money in a napkin, whom the Church will resemble
when she gives up her mission to " teach all nations."
But is it true that the Church is a " waiting widow" ?
There was a time when she appeared so, but it was only
for ten days,' the period between the Ascension and
the Pentecost. She then waited with fervent prayer
and supplication ; but no sooner did the Spirit come
with His rushing, mighty power, than she gave up the
waiting for work, and work is still her mission, and
will be
" Till each remotest nation
Has learn'd Messiah's name."
Nor is there any anomaly in " seeking still further to
possess and use wealth, learning and influence, to
hasten on the world's regeneration." These, indeed,
are what we are to expect as consecrated gifts to the
Church ; for even kings shall " bring presents," and
" offer gifts"; nor shall the " gold of Sheba " be missing
152 OF HER BEST TALENTS.
to further her cause. Is either wealth, learning, or
influence an unacceptable sacrifice when laid upon the
Redeemer's altar ; or is the Church wrong in seeking
to get men to devote their highest and best talents to
the cause of Christ ? Pre-millenarians do not forget
to serve their own interest by these gifts and advan-
tages; and is their advancement in position, or their
wealth, so precious in the sight of our Lord, that all
this is legitimate for them to seek after ; whilst for the
Church to seek for the same, to advance the honor of
Christ, is a sign of her degeneracy ? Rather did we not
ought to seek for the grace which shall lay every gift
of God under tribute to the glory of Jesus ? This, at
least, is the spirit inculcated by the constraining love
of Christ; and is what all right-minded Christians
will ever seek for their Lord. Is it true that the activ-
ity of the Church in modern years, to convert the
heathen, and to bring about a spiritual millennium,
makes "manifest the condition to which the Church has
sunk? " Taking the legitimate teaching of the above
paragraph, one would think so. To most Christians
these efforts to make the Redeemer known throughout
the world carry with them the signs of an awakening
to Christian obligation and heaven-directed service ;'
for we totally deny that the Church ever made the
proposition to convert the world, that proposition
was made by our all-loving and glorious Lord ; and if
there is a mistake in it, it is a pity that the above
writer had not been present on Olivet, and pointed it
out to Him, Whom the Divine Father wishes us ever
to obey \ as it is certain He there gave the command,
" Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to
every creature," and all nations were commanded by
Him to be discipled. When, then, does the Church sink
into a condition to be deplored ? When she misinter-
prets the Divine command, and waits with folded
arms ? Or when she goes, as did the primitive disciples,
" turning the world upside down " or, as one has said,
turning it right side upwards ? The answer is obvious.
After all this, we venture to ask the same question,
" What is the Church's place?" and we answer, It is one
THE CHURCH ENCOURAGED; 153
of earnest activity, extending 'over the whole length of
years between the two great Advents ; and she has for
this period the gospel of Christ to preach, and the
laws and ordinances of Christ to proclaim and admin-
ister in the world ; nor till He comes must she expect
to resign labour for rest, or service for reward ; for she
is to occupy till then. This absence, then, is the time
of the world's probation, and the Church's struggles
and victories ; and how much she has to cheer and
animate her in her work, as she looks backward to
Bethlehem and the Cross, and onward to the coming
and glory, in both of which she sees her Saviour and
Lord. For a description of His person and character she
ponders the Incarnation and Life, the miracles and
transfiguration, the death and resurrection, the appear-
ings and "taking up into glory," and she is ravished with
the sight ; for her pardon and cleansing, too, she looks
back to the" Open Fountain and the dark Gethsemane ;
and for her law and obligation she also looks back to
the commands and teachings of her King and His
inspired apostles. Having looked here, she then
turns to the future, and there she sees the glory,
the reward, the ultimate triumph, and the crown;
and between these wonderful Advents, and with these
advantages, she can afford to labour, suffer, and wait,
not- as a desolate weeper, but as a loving, active,
cheerful, hopeful servant, doing her Lord's commands,
and expecting her Lord's reward. Is the Church con-
scious of her weakness to accomplish her task?
.She looks back to the promise of the Holy Ghost, and
to its fulfilment on Pentecost ; and thence is assured
of His power and grace to be with her throughout her
state of warfare, so long as she is faithful to her high
trust, and zealous in her sacred mission. Or does
she want a glimpse at the result of all her labours ?
She looks to the time, when the earth shall own her
rightful Lord, when all the nations shall be blessed in
Him, and His name honoured and praised through
her ministrations among men. And these reflections
of light from the past and the future, are far from fos-
tering a spirit of morbid indifference to the world's
154 HER LORD IS WITH HER,
claims, or of disobedience and despondency respecting
her work. Is it not an injustice andaninsult to represent
the Church thus surrounded with grace as a desolate
widow? and is it not a dishonour to Christ so to
speak of His spouse ? Is He not LIVING and REIGNING
for her as the " Head over all things to the Church" ?
and has He not addressed words of counsel and love
to her, "that His joy might remain in her, and that
her joy might be full? " And has she not the faithful
promise, " Lo I am with you always, even unto the
end of the world?" In what sense, then, is she a
widow ? and what cause, concerning her Maker, who is
her LIVING Husband, has she to repine in sorrow ?
To talk of the true Church of Christ, as being content,
either now, or in a spiritual millennium, without the
personal presence of her Lord, is to practice a kind of
pious fraud upon the minds of simple Christians, and
to misrepresent the piety of the faithful in Christ Jesus.
Are post-millenarians so carnal and indifferent about
their Lord as to want a millennium without Him?
Were Paul and Peter, James and John, carnally
minded? They certainly did not expect any visible
presence of Christ with them in their work ; yet, were
they alone ? Were they in a widowhood state ? To
hear Paul, as he tells of living in Christ, and of Christ
living in him, of sitting with Him in the heavenly
places, and of doing all things through Christ, seems
far from this \ and to hear John speak of his fellowship
with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ, and of
the perfect love which casteth out fear, does not sound
like the language of desolation. The fact is, the
Church is not desolate; she is not left comfortless; her
Lord is faithful to her ; and only when she forsakes
Him, and grieves His Holy Spirit, need she put on
her mourning attire, or sit down in dust and ashes.
"What, then," we again ask, "is the Church's place"?
Our answer is simple and definite. It is one of active-
service and obedience to Christ. He gave to the
eleven the word of command, and it has never been
revoked ; nor will it be, till the world is full of the
knowledge of the Lord, and the kingdom of heaven
HE WAS NEVER DISCOURAGED. 155
has extended to the four quarters of the globe. The
difficulties may be great, but the arm of the Lord is
greater ; nor shall He be discouraged, till He has set
righteousness in the earth. If there was room for
discouragement, it was when the commission was first
given. What a scene must this world have presented
to the ascending Redeemer's eye ; yet, even then, He
was not discouraged. There was the Jewish nation
in sworn rebellion against Him and His gospel ; there
was Greece, with all its boasted wisdom and philosophy,
enslaved in the most debasing bonds of vice, and
iniquity ; there was. Rome glorying in her military
grandeur, and fettered in chains of heathen filthiness ;
there were Egypt, Arabia, India, and the Isles of the.
Sea all in darkness and the shadow of death ; and to
roll back the tide of unrighteousness, and to establish
truth in the earth, Christ had before Him a few poor
unpolished fishermen. Yet He was not discouraged,
but bade them arise and go forth, for His Spirit through
them should convince the world of sin and righteous-
ness and judgment to come. Pown the ages that same
Omnisciency looked, and saw all the struggles which
His followers should encounter with heathen, papal,
and other forms of cruelty and superstition - } yet He
was not discouraged, but gave them- His word and
promise, bidding them to be of good cheer, for they
should overcome the world ; and
"Thus armed, He sent His champions forth,
From east to west, from south to north :
Go, and assert your Saviour's cause !
Go, spread the mysteries of His cross ! "
And in obedience thereto, they went forth, and the
Lord was with them, confirming their word with signs
following. Thus they believed the Lord, and so they
prospered. And in this same manner we have to fol-
low up the work so gloriously begun, and though a
thousand difficulties are yet in the way, the conquest
is certain, for greater is He that is for us than all that
can be against us. And as we have seen in these lec-
tures, the prospect of conquest has never been brighter
THE BRIGHT FUTURE. 156
than to-day, the agencies have never been so numerous,
nor the way ever so well prepared as now; we only need
the Spirit of Grace to be copiously poured out, and the
harvest shall be reaped for the Lord. The days of the
papacy are coming to a close, and the first resurrection
the living again of the true Spirit of devotion to Christ,
and the coming forth of the long-crushed Church, in
full vigor shall soon be seen; and the flying angel with
the everlasting gospel shall spread his wings over every
land, and. the "millennial glory ;; will dawn, and
the days of heaven on earth be realised, " and all the
world shall see the salvation of our God, for the
mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Then truth shall
spring out of the earth, and righteousness shall look
down from heaven, and the Redeemer will see of the
travail of His soul, and the long-desired age of peace
be enjoyed. For this, let the hopeful Christian work
and pray; then if he lives not to see his wishes
realized here, he will have the satisfaction in another
world of knowing that he laboured not in vain ; for
though he rests from his toil his works will follow him.
And then when the final assize shall come, and every
son of Adam be summoned to the bar of God, and the
great ends of time be answered, and the race brought
to a final close, this obedient disciple shall hear the
"Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into
the joy of thy Lord," whilst the visionary superstruc-
tors of pre-millennial hands will vanish as a dream be-
fore the light of that most glorious appearing of the
great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.
EVEN so, COME, LORD JESUS!
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
48 429 290
B.T
821
,W68
^ilkins, Joseph
The voice of inspiration
the seven last things of
prophecy
2456
i i 'S^L5^.^C^^K
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
