Recently Published,
The Great Tribulation^
FIRST SERIES.
FORMING BOOK I. OF THIS WORK
One Vol 12mo. Price, $1,00.
THE
Great Tribulation;
OR,
THINGS COMING ON THE EARTH.
BY
THE REV. JOHN GUMMING, D.D., F.R.S.E.
MINISTER OF THE SCOTTISH NATIONAL CHURCH,
CROWN COURT, COVENT GARDEN.
SECOND SERIES.
u A time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation/'-DAN. xiL 1. ,
" There shall be great tribulation." i
NEW YORK:
RuDD & Carleton, 130 Grand Street,
LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY. ^
M DCCC LX. '
24875R
-R. CKAIGUEAD,
Printer, S:eieoiyper, and Klectrotyper,
ffaiton JSuiTbing,
81, S3, and 85 Centre Street.
PUBLISHER'S ADVERTISEMENT.
This volume of "The Great Tribulation" contains
Dr. Cumming's second and concluding series of lectures
on this momentous subject. These lectures, which in
the opinion of the best theological critics rank among
the most important of recent contributions to the Lite-
rature of the Prophecies, differ somewhat from those
that precede them ; for while the former, in the words
of the author, " deal with the nature and marks of The
Great Tribulation," the latter relate to the character
and condition, the hopes, happiness, and destiny of the
People of God — the Blessed to whom belong the pro-
mises of Scripture, and who will come out of The Great
Tribulation, like gold from the furnace, refined and
purified. There will be found in this part much to
cheer, animate, and sustain them, in circumstances of
unprecedented trouble.
89X460
CONTENTS
LECTURE XXL P^gk
1867 . Dan.xn. 11, 12 9
LECTURE XXn.
The Harvest of the Earth . . Dan. xii. 2 25
LECTURE XXIII.
The Shining Throng .... Dan. xii. 3 41
LECTURE XXiy.
Locomotion and Learning . . . Dan. xii. 4 56
LECTURE XXy.
No More Sea Rev. xxi. 1 74
LECTURE XXVI.
The Purifying Process . . . Dan. xii. 10 94
LECTURE XXVII.
The Glorious Lot Dan. xii. 13 105
LECTURE XXVIII.
The Enduring Word .... Matt. xxiv. 35 122
LECTURE XXIX.
A Thousand Years as One Day 2 Peter iii. 8 133
Vi) CONTEXTS.
LECTURE XXX.
The Heart's Desire .... 2 Cor. v. 2—4 149
LECTURE XXXL
The First Resurrection . * . . * Phil, iii, 11 166
LECTURE XXXn.
The Blessed and Holy Part . Rev. xx. 6 185
LECTURE XXXni.
Degrees of Happiness .... 2 Cor. ix, 6 199
LECTURE XXXiy.
Recognition in the Age to Come. Rev. xx. 6 216
LECTURE XXXY.
The Throned Priest and King. Zcch. vi. 13 238
LECTURE XXXYI.
Our Refuge in the Great Tribu-
lation Psahn. xlvi. 12 27
LECTURE XXXVn.
Be Still Psahn xlvi. 10 267
GllEAT TRIBULATION
OR, ,
THINGS COMING ON THE EARTH.
LECTURE XXI.
1867.
'' And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be
taken away^ and the abomination that maketh deso-
late set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred
and ninety days. Blessed is he that waiteth^ and
com,eth to the thousand tliree hundred and five and
thirty days.^^ — Daniel xii. 11, 12.
This is a very difficult passage, but we have no right to
pass it by ; and if the discussion should seem uninterest-
ing we must pardon the necessity of it, while we accept
conclusions only in as far as they seem borne out by
data. But my discussion will be less the expression of
opinions of my own, and rather what I have been col-
lecting during many years — the opinions and the inter-
pretations of some of the best, and wisest, and most
laborious men who have given their attention to this very
important subject. What I shall endeavor to show now
1* (9)
10 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
is this, that whatever theories of the fulfihnent of these
dates are held, whether ihey fix the commencement at
this period, or at that period, or at some other period,
nearly all concur in one remarkable conclusion, namely,
that 1867 is to be the great crisis, the testing crisis in
the events of history, in the fulfilment of prophecy, and
in the experience of mankind. What I wish to show is
that the best, the wisest, and the most thoughtful of
writers on the subject of prophecy, however much they
may differ in certain details — and they do differ — nearly
all coincide in this, that 1867 is to be a great crisis;
and that if all that some expect to occur at that period
do not occur, we are at least on the eve of events, as
Lord Carlisle has expressed it in his work upon Daniel,
the most stupendous, if not ushering in the very close of
this present Christian economy, we must carefully weigh
the quotations, that thus we may be able to judge whether
the data on which these writers have come to their con-
clusions be correct or not.
Elliot and Mede have shown that the 2300 years,
w^hich Daniel gives as one of the great chronological
epochs, terminate about the year 1821 or 1822 ; that is,
dating them from the march of Xerxes, and the meridian
splendor of the Persian Empire. But a very learned
and able clergyman of the Church of England, who has
written a work called "The Terminal Synchronism of
Daniel's Two Periods," differs from Mr. Elliot. He
thinks that the 2300 years, one of Daniel's great epochs,
after which, as I showed you, the Eastern Apostacy, or
the waters of the river Euphrate.3 that s^hould overflow
1867. 11 :
Europe, that is, the power of Mahomet, should begin :
to subside, began at the autumnal equinox of 438 B. c. ;
and if the 2300 years began at the autumnal equinox '
of 433 B. c, then that great period would terminate in j
the autumnal equinox of 1867. Elliot's opinion was !
that the 2300 years measure out the taking away of j
the d^jily sacrifice, and the exhaustion of that great
eastern eclipse which was to overshadow the light and |
the sunshine of heaven in the eastern world, and that
they end in 1821; at which date Mahometanism as a
power in Europe was shaken to its centre, and began to \
cross the Bosphorus, and to fall back upon its ancient i
channels in Asia, and to cease to be a dominant, trium-
phant, and advancing fanaticism. But this writer thinks i
that the proper date is 433 b. c. ; and if so, then they i
would terminate in 1867, when, according to him. Ma- '
hometanism will be utterly expunged, and the cross will ]
shine where the crescent now waves in triumph. But j
more than this ; this writer thinks also that the expres- j
sion " time, times, and half a time," which all commentators |
admit to be 360 years, twice 360 years, and 180 years, i
making altogether 1260 years, called in the Apocalypse
42 prophetic months, which is the same thing — called ;
also 1260 prophetic days — start from A. D. 607. Mr. j
Elliot, and Newton, and Mede, think that the 1260 I
years, descriptive of the great Vv^estern Apostacy, began \
at the year 532, at which era Justinian constituted the
Bishop of Rome to have supreme civil, ecclesiastical, j
and spiritual jurisdiction ; they consider that at that pe- i
riod the Apostacy was invested with Supreme civil and \
12 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
ecclesiastical power, and therefore with its permaneRt
form as a politico-sacerdotal system. But this writer
differs from them ; he says that the 1260 years do not
))egin at 532 after Christ, but that they begin at the year
GOT, when the Emperor Phocas constituted Pope Boni-
face III. the universal head of the universal Church,
and the supreme and chief bishop, priest, and prelate
of Christendom. If you take this latter opinion, then
you add the 1260 years to the year 607, and it brings
you down to the same period at which his 2300 years
terminate, namely, 1867 ; and according, therefore, to
this theory, not only will Mahometanism totally cease
at that period, but the Papacy also, with its pope and
its cardinals, and its whole ecclesiastical despotism, will
sink like a millstone into the depths of the ocean ; and
the world east and west, emancipated from the incubus
that has crushed and darkened it, shall reflect the beams
of an unsetting sun, and form a portion of that great
empire which constitutes the kingdom of our God and
of his Christ. I must say I prefer Elliot's ; but what
I wish to impress is the remarkable fact that both in-
terpretations land us in 1867, as a great dominant era,
characterized by stupendous events, and involving mighty
changes in the present constitution of things. The
theory adopted by the interpreters I prefer is that the
1260 years which were to mete out the dominant power
of the great Western Apostacy began in A. D. 682, when
Justinian in his ' Pandects' gave the supreme authority
to the Bishop of Rome. If you add 1260 years to
532 it brings you down to 1792. Accordingly, at the
1867. 13
exhaustion of the 1260 years, in 1792, the Papacy,
according to the description in the word of God, was
to come under the judgment of Heaven, and gradually
to be exhausted. Read "Alison's History," or any
other authentic history, and you will find that the great
outburst of the French Revolution in 1792 commenced
so overwhelming an onslaught on the Papal power, with
all its dependencies, that from that day to this Roman-
ism has been a dying system, exhausted of its chiefest
vitality, and struggling for a foothold in any land to
which it can have access ; so much so, that I have re-
peated again and again the conviction, that I have no
more fear of Popery gaining the upper hand, than I
have of Mahometanism or Hindooism gaining supremacy.
The Pope is on his last legs, struggling for existence ;
and the only unhappy feature, and the most unhappy
one, I must candidly confess, is that the only nation
upon earth where it is gaining power amid the popula-
tion is in this land of ours. Among the lowest classes,
I know, from statistics which I could quote did time
permit, the Roman Catholic religion is losing every day.
Among the middle classes it never had a footing ; but
among the higher classes it is at this moment daily gain-
ing converts. They serve their apprenticeship to gaudi-
ly decorated churches, some of which have been recently
opened ; and after they have been saturated with homce-
pathic doses there, they finally hand themselves over
to the allopathic treatment of Pio Nono, and become
members of the Roman Catholic Church. It does seem
the most inexplicable thing that the peers of England,
14 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
illustrious manj of them for their genius, their elo-
quence, their brilliant antecedents, their resistance of
tyranny in every form, and their vindication of the
noblest rights of our noble land, should any of them be-
lieve the monstrous fables, and accept the loud and inso-
lent pretensions of a system that is indeed found in the
word of God, but with a brand upon its brow, and its
doom pronounced before even it came into existence. But
so it is. We rejoice that the feet of our nation are in
the right way ; the head, or the upper classes, is bewil-
dered; but the heart of old England beats sound and
true, and you must not judge by the wavering pulse at
the wrist of the few that the beat of England's heart
is in any other condition than its normal, its Protest-
ant and Christian one.
Assuming that 532 began the 1260 years, what is next
to take place, Daniel tells us in this passage, to which I
specially ask attention, as confirmatory of the theory I
am trying to uphold, that first of all there shall be time,
times, and half a time, or 1260 years, and then there
shall be 1290 years. In other words, Daniel says that
1260 years shall be augmented by 30 years more ; at the
end of which 30 years there shall be some great event,
which we have to ascertain. Now if we add to 1792,
wdien the 1260 years terminated, an additional 30 years,
it brings us down to 1822. But 1822 is the terminating
period of the 2300 years also, according to Elliot's inter-
pretation. Well, did anything take place in 1822 that
would justify that period as a terminating epoch ? We
find that Turkey, in the language of Lamartine, began
1867. 15
to die for want of Turks ; the whole force of ihat great
system of propagandism then began its rapid exhaustion ;
and from that day to this even our efforts to keep back
Russia have not kept up Turkey ; it is at this moment in
the pangs of dissolution. I stated four or five years ago
that it would be so ; and however justified we were, and
we were justified in trying to prevent Russia from dis-
turbing the balance of the power of Europe ; yet, as I
then said, our efforts to preserve Turkey would be vain.
Russia has still a sign-board near Petersburg, on which
is written, "The way to Constantinople," and in the
lapse of years Constantinople will be hers, and Russia
,will yet play a part in the history of the world probably
precedented for a thousand years.
But Daniel says, "Blessed is he that waiteth, and
Cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty
days." Here is still an additional period. He adds 75
years to the 1260, or 45 years to the 1290. He men-
tions three periods, you observe, all beginning, we here
assume, at 532; first 1260, ending in 1792; then 1290,
ending in 1822; and then 1335, ending in 1867; so
that, according to this theory, Daniel's period, when he
shall be blessed or happy that waiteth and cometh to the
close of the 1335 years, that period, assumed by Elliot
to be the millennial rest, would begin in the year 1867,
and last for a thousand years of uninterrupted felicity,
and blessedness, and peace. But what I wish to impress
is that, according to both theories, 1867 again evolves
as the year of stupendous changes. And it is very re-
markable, too, what will confirm this and what I shall quote
passages to prove that Fines Clinton, the ablest chronol-
16 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
ogist of the age, lias shown, and I think with irresistible
force, that our era at present, namelj, 1859, is not tlie
correct and real era in the chronology of the world. His
idea is that Christ oame about the year of the world
4138 ; and that in the course of a few years more we
shall have arrived at the close of the sixth thousand, and
at the commencement of the seventh thousand year of
the world. What it is interesting to show in connection
with this is the universal belief among Jews and Gen-
tiles, Rabbinists, Talmudists, and Fathers, that the sev-
enth thousand year of the world is to correspond to the
seventh day of the week ; six days the working week,
and the seventh day the Sabbath-day rest : 6000 years
for the working world week, and the 7000th year to be
what the apostle describes as the rest, or the uuS^ajiaubg
that remaineth for the people of God.
Several extracts so far seem to authenticate and vindi-
cate this conclusion, and you will take them of course
for what they are worth : First. Lady Hester Stanhope,
in a letter from Syria to her physician, in the year 1827,
says, " All those who come may go back in the Turkish
year, 1245." And the physician adds, in a note, " It
would appear from this, that Lady Hester Stanhope ex-
pected the accomplishment of some great event in the
year of -the Hegira, 1245." The Hegira dates our year
622, add 1245 to 622, and we have the year when she
expected some stupendous event, 1867. The late Mr.
Living, deeply deceived in many things, extravagant in
more, but a man of splendid genius, of unquestionable
piety, the victim of a belief that everybody was good
and great, and incapable of a suspicion that anybody
1867. 17
could deceive — said, " Not only amongst the Turks in
Europe, but all over the E-ast, the Mahometan power is
wasting awaj ; and like all doomed things begins to be
conscious of its approaching end ; insomuch that they say
the Ottoman Porte is paralysed with prophecies of its
speedy ruin. Is it not so written, the Turks say, in your
Christian book, that our religion is to come to an end
within forty years ? And what is very remarkable, a
friend of mine, who travelled lately into central Africa,
and stood on the Himalaya mountains in India, by the
holy pool, where never Christian had dwelt before, found
there also an expectation of a religion from the west
which in the space of forty years was to possess the earth,
remarks which they made to me with their own lips."
Now the African traveller or friend to whom he refers,
was Major Denham or Captain Clapperton; they were
in Africa in the year 1823 ; and 40 years added to this
would bring us down to 1863. Again in another part
of this book he says, " At the end of the 1335 day of
Daniel, or in the year 1867, which is 42 years from the
time when I now write, the period of blessedness fshall
begin, and the resurrection of the righteous shall then
take place." Mr. Cunningham, of Lainsbaw, a man of
profound research into prophecy, writing in the year
1837, says, that if the whole of the evidence which he
adduces be considered, and carefully weighed, he thinks
it will be impossible to doubt the accuracy of his dates ;
and he believes that we were at that time, a little more
than 29 years and two months from the end of Daniel's
1335 years ; that is, they Avould expire in the year 1867.
The author of a very able and elaborate treatise, called
18 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
^' The Seventh Vial," writes thus upon the same sub-
ject; ''No sooner had the period of judgment passed
over Europe from 1789 to 1815 ended, than the ancient
landmarks were restored. Where is the promise of his
coming? came to be the universal cry. He points to
the year 1865, " when, according to Daniel, a blessed
era shall begin, the millennium be ushered in, and the
complete destruction of Antichrist shall then take place.
We are, says that writer, " on the eve of the long anti-
cipated Sabbath of rest and blessedness." And the late
Keverend Edward Bickersteth, one of the most able,
pious, and spiritually-minded men I ever knew ; and I
have listened to him as a pupil with profit and delight
many a time, and derived from his works some of my
best and most precious information — the uncle of the
present Bishop of Kipon — says, " If we reckon the 2300
days in Daniel from Ezra's commission, b. c. 457, they
would expire in 1843 ; but if we reckon them as we
should, from the last cleansing of Nehemiah in B. c. 433,
then they expire in 1867, which I conceive to be the pe-
riod of the restoration of the Jewish nation, the cleans-
ing of the sanctuary, and the preparations for the mil-
lennial dawn and sunshine." I shall quote lastly, from
one with whose sentiments in some things I do not agree.
Bishop Russell, a Scottish Bishop ; he writes especially
upon the idea, that the 7000th year, would be the seventh
millenary, or millennial rest of the world ; and he
makes the following most important and valuable remark :
" The tradition that the earth, as well as the religious
state of its inhabitants, is to undergo a great change at
the end of 6000 years, has been found in the writings of
186T. 19
Pagans, Jews, and Christians ; because six days were em-
ployed by Almighty God in the creation of the globe,
after which he rested on the seventh ; and as with him
one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as
one day, it was concluded by the Cabalists and Jews,
that the world was to continue 6000 years ; and on the
conclusion of this period there would succeed a Sabbath
of a thousand years of corresponding length, a millen-
nium of rest and of peace. This idea has been traced in
the Sybilline oracles, in the poems of Hesiod, in Plato,
and prevailed long before the birth of Christ, relative to
a momentous change which is supposed to await the earth
after a period not exceeding 6000 years. We find this
expectation expressed by the Chaldeans, the Persians,
the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans; orators, poets,
philosophers; and the only difficulty we experience in
the examination of the records collected from the litera-
ture of ages is to account for so great unanimity of sen-
timent, where we cannot discover any source of informa-
tion or any authority which so many different writers
would consent to acknowledge for a conclusion so remark-
able." And he adds, "Whatever might be the origin
of this anticipation so fondly cherished by Jew and Pa-
gan, before the advent of our Savior, in regard to a hap-
py change in the constitution of things, it is manifest
that the hope of such a consummation was not supersed-
ed by Christ's residence upon the earth, and the many
promises which he made to his disciples in relation to a
more perfect state of existence hereafter : on the contra-
ry, the first Christians looked with a more earnest desire
for the new heavens and the new earth promised to their
20 THE GREAT TRIBULATIOX.
fathers ; and connected this expectation too with the an-
cient hope that this globe was to undergo a material
change at the end of 6000 years, throwing off all its
imperfections, which had arisen from the guilt of its in-
habitants, and being then made to be the habitation of
justice, benevolence, and purity, during a millennium of
a thousand years, the Sabbath of this terrestrial world."
I. may just add that a poet — if one may take a poet's
testimony for anything, and sometimes the deep insight
of the poet is truer than the logic of the philosopher —
the poet of our firesides, the most beautiful and instruc-
tive of all, I mean Cowper, says, —
" The gro.ans of nature in this nethei- -world,
Which heaven has heard for ages have an end,
Foretold by prophets, and by poets sung,
Whose fire "vvas kindled at the prophet's lamp.
The time of rest, the promised Sabbath comes.
Six thousand years of sorrow have well nigh
Fulfilled their tardy and disastrous course
Over a sinful world; and what remains.
Of this tempestuous state of human things,
Is merely as the working of the sea
Before a calm, that rocks itself to rest :
For He, whose car the winds are, and the clouds
The dust that waits upon His sultry march.
When sin hath moved Him, and His wrath is hot.
Shall visit earth in mercy; shall descend
Propitioiis in His chariot paved with love;
And what His storms have blasted and defaced,
For man's revolt, shall with a smile repair."
Mr. Scott, a very able writer upon prophecy, states, in
his '' Outlines of Prophecy," — " The whole six days' work
of creation typifies the whole six thousand years of the
186T. 21
*
work of redemption : and the seventh day, or Sabbath of
God, is the type of that seventh thousand year of re-
demption, the millennium or sabbatism, that first day, as
it were, of universal joy and praise to Christ. Almost
all writers on prophecy agree that the prophetical dates
given us terminate between this present time and the
year 1867."
I have given these extracts from competent authorities,
all comino; to one conclusion, — that the seventh thousand
year of the world is to be its millennial rest ; and I have
shown you that, if the chronology of Mr. Fines Clinton
be correct, and I am satisfied it is correct, we are at this
very moment within eight years of the close of the sixth
thousand year, and therefore, if our dates be right, within
eight years of the commencement of what all these writers
hope is the everlasting rest, the dawn of heaven, the
millennial blessedness of the people of God ; when all
tears shall be dried — when all sorrows shall cease —
when death shall die — and Vy'hen Christ shall shine before
his ancients gloriously ; and this world shall enjoy that
rest which has been foretold by prophets, celebrated by
poets, anticipated by saints, and declared by an apostle
to be the Sabbath-rest that remaineth for the people of
God.
These are the data, on which each can form his own
conclusions. I do not venture to dogmatise — I do not
attempt to dictate — I do not presume to decide. I have
shown that the best and ablest Christian students are all
agreed that 1867 is an era fraught with gigantic issues ,
that some think it is the commencement of the millen-
nial rest; others think it is the destruction of all the
22 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
errors whose roots are struck deep into our world, and
the universal spread of the empire of the Prince of
Peace. Then, if these things be so, we look at Europe,
at this moment, with intense and awful interest. No
one can reflect upon the last ten years without seeing
that they have been ten years of unprecedented events
in the history of the world and of mankind. No one
can look upon Europe at this moment without feeling that
it is scarcely a sleeping volcano : Russia coming from its
snows ; Germany aroused to its very heart ; the proud
and victorious Napoleon, so far alive to the cause of
righteousness, and liberty, and peace ; our own country
employing all the genius of its statesmen, of every side
and every party, to stave off the tides of war from touch-
ing our own peaceful shores : — and yet all things lead-
ing us to fear that we shall not finally (though for a
season we may) escape the terrible conflict, but all
prophecy leading us to hope that England will be spared
in the wreck of nations. Her banners may be torn ; but
she will we hope survive, for she separated at the greal
Reformation, from the Ten Kingdoms of the Papacy that
are now coming under the judgments of Heaven ; and
I believe, therefore — and I am refreshed and delighted
while I express the belief — that old England's sun will
have no western setting in the horizon till its beams min-
gle with the beams of that Sun, beneath whose wings is
healing, and in whose presence there is light and liberty
for the nations of the earth. But what does all this teach us
now? Suppose I had proved to you, to demonstration,
that 1867 was to close this present era. Some will say.
Oh ! then we had better not ins'iire our liv.s — we had
1867. 23
better not take leases — we had better do nothing ; but
fling everything off, and let society go to ruin. I say,
No. What is the Lord's command? "Occupy till I
come." What is the condition of the people when he
comes? " Two shall be grinding in a mill ; the one shall
be taken," that is, one a Christian, " and the other left."
What does that teach us ? That our duties are deter-
mined by God's plain precepts ; they are not to be modi-
fied by any of his prophecies, however clear. The pro-
phecy I read for comfort — the precept I read for direction.
And, therefore, when people say, we act inconsistently —
as it was said not very long ago by caricaturists and others
in the papers — that, because I took the lease of a house,
therefore I did not believe these conclusions, I answer
that if I thought it would be for my interest or advan-
tage, or the advantage of my family, I would take a
house for a hundred years' lease to-morrow. I have
nothing to do with prophecy in determining my duties —
they are to be determined by God's precepts and by
common sense ; and if I believed that 1867 were to end
the present economy of things, I should have my hand
equally busy in my work. I would bid the soldier ap-
pear in the ranks, the merchant in his counting-house,
the senator in the parliament — every man at his post ;
for the post of duty is always the place of safety before
God and in the sight of all mankind. But whilst our
hands should be at duty, our hearts should be more than
ever in heaven. Some people say, Oh ! how shocking,
liow terrible, that the world is to end ! Why, how shock-
ing, how terrible, that you may die to-morrow ! I might
say, how shocking, that the aged of sixty has only some
24 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
fifteen years to live, on an average. Death, to the indi-
vidual, is just as solemn as the close of this economy to
the whole world : but there is nothing shocking in it. Our
Savior does not so construe it ; for what does he say ?
" V\lien ye see these things begin to come to pass,"
What ! be terrified — be alarmed — resign your duties ?
No. no, no. The Bible is too rich in common-sense :
" Lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh."
And who can possibly regret the probable nearness of
3uch a consummation? What will it be? The end of
gin — the emancipation of the oppressed — the extinction
(jf ^Y&Y — the return of earth's ancient glory — the resto-
ration of all the blessedness we have lost — a peace that
passeth understanding — no more quarrels, no more mis-
apprehensions, no more sins, no more sorrows. Instead
of dreading the advent of so glorious an epoch, with all
our hearts we should pray, as from the hei< ' I do, " Come,
Lord Jesus ; yea, come quickly."
LECTURE XXII.
THE HARVEST OF THE EARTH.
The Germans call a burial-ground " God's Acre." The
prophet describes its harvest in these words —
*' A7id many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth
shall awake^ some to everlasting Ufe^ and some to
shame and everlasting contempt. — Daniel xii. 2.
This is one of the things coming on the earth. The
resurrection of the dead is the corollary of the resurrec-
tion of Christ ; the first fruits of them that sleep. I
need scarcely add., the resurrection of the dead was never
dreamed of ^j;,tlie heathen. Even those who believed in
the immortality of the soul never ventured to anticipate
the restoration of the body. When Paul preached at
Athens to the most enlightened and cultivated audience
that ever listened to a sermon, the idea of the resurrec-
tion of the dead seemed so utterly untenable, that they,
like philosophers, laughed to scorn the eloquent but fear-
less preacher of it. This being so, it is evident that the
doctrine is not the discovery of man, nor the guess of
transcendent genius ; but simply and wholly the revela-
tion of God. We are indebted to the disclosures of the
New Testament and the prophecies of the Old for this
great truth, that the body is immortal just as truly as the
soul.
2 (25)
■Zb THE HARVEST OF THE EARTH.
We are very prone to lose sight of this doctrine : and
justly impressed with the importance and magnificence
of the soul's safety, we give up the body as if Satan had
justly earned it, and had an indefeasible right to its pos-
session. But that is not so. If it be true that the dead
in Christ shall rise, then we may look forward to that
blessed hope just as truly, and with as rich consolation,
as that with which we look upward to the assurance that
" absent from the body we shall be present with the Lord."
And certainly there is a feeling in human nature that
makes one wonder the heathen never guessed it. The
thought is most withering, if it be true, that the face that
gladdened our home with its sunS'hine has gone into the
shadow of the grave for ever ; that the accents that
were music to our ear are hushed for ever; that the dear
friend that we took counsel and walked to the house of
God toorether with we shall never see ao;ain : or if we
come into contact with him, it will be in a spiritual, dis-
embodied state, of which we have now no just or real con-
ception. But when we read in the Bible that the body is
merely resting like raiment folded up in the great ward-
robe of humanity, the grave ; that it is there superintend-
ed by Him that made it, just as the soul is superintended
in heaven, and that there is not an atom of its dust that
shall not again rise : new light is cast upon the grave, new
splendors upon the hopes of the Christian ; and he foels
that those snatched from him on this side the grave he
shall meet again, and know even as he is known.
Now in trying to illustrate a subject by some few re-
marks on which I have often spoken and written, let me
THE IIARVEVI OF THE EARTH. 27
sllO^Y first of all that the resurrection of the body is pos-
sible ; secondly, that the resurrection of the body is prob-
able ; and thirdly, that the resurrection of the body, as
the last step, is absolutely certain ; and then I will turn
your attention to the time of it, the nature of it, and the
results of it.
The resurrection of the body is possible. It seems at
first altogether absurd to expect that the dust that is
deposited in the depths of the silent sea : or that has
been scattered by the winds, and incorporated into the
grass that grows in the field, and the heath that blossoms
in the desert ; or that has gone into other organisms, and
going into them has constituted part and parcel of a
wholly different and almost antagonistic nature ; can
really be re-collected, re-organised, re-constituted in
boauty, in glory, and perfection. This demands, the
sceptic would say, very great credulity; the scientific
man would add the abjuration of the first principles of
science ; but the Christian says, I can see the shadow
of its possibility; and if I see that, I may be able to
take a step farther, and admit its probability ; and if I
ascertain that, I may take a step farther, and say it is
absolutely certain. What is the evidence of this possi-
bility ? God is omnipotent ; I do not dwell upon that
fact now — a fact, admitting which, we must admit all
that is pledged and promised to follow. But is there now
greater impossibility, if you will allow such a strange
expression, in calling those shining orbs in the sky out of
nothing into brightness, beauty, harmony, and order;
or in lighting up the sun with his inexhaustible splen-
dor, or in giving the laws that regulate all his depend-
28 THE GREAT TRIBULATIOX.
eiit satellites and servants, while tlie capital to draw on
is nothing ; and yet the result is magnificent and gor-
geous beyond all power of description and language to
express. It does seem not at least more difficult to col-
lect atoms that are only disintegrated, than it is to make
orbs where there are none; it is surely not more difficult
to gather the scattered fragments of humanity each out
of its hiding-place than it is to create worlds, and angels,
and souls, and bodies out of nothing. I cannot see that
there is required a greater amount of power to collect the
broken fragments on the battle-field, and rebuild them
into beauty and perfection, than to create these bodies of
ours, so exquisitely and artistically made, out of nothing
at all. So far then it does seem at least possilde. It
is possible on this ground ; that we see individual instan-
ces by way of facts, precedents, and prefigurations. Laz-
arus was dead three days, and buried : the fingers of
decay were beginning to draw their outlines upon every
part of his dead and cold organization. Jesus said,
•'Lazarus, come forth." Instantly the warm tide of life
circulated through every vein and artery, and he came
forth and mingled with the ranks of living men. So
with the son of the widow of Nain. So at the Redeem-
er's own death, we read as a fact, that the buried dead
of a thousand years burst from the grave that imprisoned
them, and arose and ascended into heaven. And, there-
fore, if we have one instance of a resurrection, I do not
see why we may not have ten thousand ; and the possi-
bility is established by one instance just as much as by
the countless harvest of the resurrection morn itself
But grant that the capital we draw on to accomplish the
THE HARVEST OF THE EARTH. 29
result is Omnipotence, th:re are no difficulties at all;
it not only becomes possible, but it amounts to certainty,
if God has said it. For what is Omnipotence ? It can
do anything tliat is merely physical. There are some
things that Omnipotence cannot do : it is said Omnipo-
tence cannot lie ; it is impossible for God to lie. But
there is nothing physical, however difficult, that cannot
be done, if the capital on which you draw for the accom-
plishment be the Omnipotence of God. For what is the
very definition of Omnipotence ? Power to do anything
in the world, anything in the universe, except what con-
tradicts the moral laws that holiness has laid down.
Having seen that it is possible, let me show that it is
highly probable. First, if the soul is to be rewarded
as washed in a Savior's blood, and believing in a Savior's
sacrifice, it does seem highly probable that the body
that shared in its sorrows and its joys, its sunshine and
its shadow, its tears and its smiles, so fearfully and won-
derfully made, should, having shared in the sorrow, be
made partaker of the joy into which the soul enters
throughout everlasting ages. It would be a very sad
thing that this body of ours, this wonderful mechanism,
should be yielded to the devil ; and that though Christ
has redeemed the soul, Satan should have ruined the
body, and be able to quote it forever as a trophy of his
success in Paradise. I do not believe that such a result
is consistent with God's great law. I do not believe
that a single soul in the realms of the lost will be there
because Satan succeeded in Paradise : or that a soul will
be lost because of Adam's sin : the v/hole ruin of the
lost is a rejected or neglected Savior ; and the whole
30 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
salvation of the saved is Christ, and Christ alone, all
their salvation and all. their desire. Judging, first of
all, from the fact that the body has shared with the soul
in its troubles, and naturally expecting that it should
share with the soul in its triumphs — judging from the
fact that man is soul and body, and that the redemption
of the one without the redemption of the other would
be but a half salvation — recollecting, too, God's own de-
scription of this exquisite shrine, the temple of humani-
ty ; and believing that Satan will not be able to quote
for ever one single trophy of his success — I hold that
it is highly probable from these considerations alone
that the body will be raised just as the soul will be re-
deemed.
But to strengthen this probability, we find analogies
in our world that are very striking. I do not say that
any or all of these analogies prove the resurrection ;
for if analogies would have proved it, the disciples in
the midst of the garden of Arimathea, in an eastern
country, where spi'ing does not come in as in our cold
climate — slight sunshine to-day, a shower of hail to-mor-
row,— but where spring bursts upon the earth with all
its beauty and in all its blossom ; would have gathered
from this that Christ would rise, if analogies were valid
and competent reasons, but they did not. Yet these
analogies, while they are not reasons, may constitute
prefigurations, and may strengthen the probability that
I am now trying to establish. For instance, spring break-
ing forth from the depths of w^inter, and the flowers
bursting from the cold and repulsive roots and stems ;
the seeds cast into the earth, germinating and growing
THE HARVEST OE THE EARTH. 31
up into leaf and beautiful blossom; the silk-worm en-
tering its prison, and emerging again a different creature ;
the butterfly in its chrysalis state so repulsive, when it'
floats like a flower upon the air so truly beautiful, are
all surely in their way prefigurations of the possibility,
prefigurations and shadows of the probability, that a
change such as we are speaking of from the contents of
the grave to a body no longer corruptible, but incorrupti-
ble ; no longer mortal, but immortal, is highly probable,
to say the very least. The swallow returning by an
instinct so exquisite as if it heard the footfall of the
approaching summer ; all creation seeming anxious to
burst forth into leaf and blossom, as if under some mys-
terious touch ; furnish a contrast between the winter
that precedes and the summer that follows, not greater
than the contrast between the body in the grave and
the body in the kingdom of glory ; and therefore that
these analogies, so true, to a great extent strengthen and
confirm what I am trying to establish — the probability of
the resurrection of the body.
But I add what settles all disputes, it is absolutely
certain. To a humble Christian, " Thus saith the Lord,"
is worth all the fine similes, the beautiful figures, and
the most exquisite analogies that poet can weave into
song, or preacher can quote in his sermon. For what
do we read ? — "The hour is coming," and this is from
the lips of the Resurrection and the Life, " when all
that are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son
of man, and shall come forth ; they that have done good
to the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil
to the resurrection of condemnation." And in that beau-
32 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
tiful passage in Thessalonians, '• For if we believe that
Jesus died and rose again, so them that sleep in Jesus
vvill God bring with him ; for the Lord shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the arch-
angel and the trump of God, and the dead in Christ
shall rise first." Thus faithfulness has promised it, om-
nipotence waits on faithfulness to execute its promise ;
and it is not only probable but absolutely certain that
this mortal shall put on immortality, this corruptible in-
corruption, and death shall be swallowed up in victory.
Having thus tried to show these three points, let U3
inquire what are some of the lessons that are taught by
this event coming on the earth. First of all, the great
end of the resurrection is to complete the triumphs pur-
chased on the cross. That cross has ransomed every
soul that rests upon it for forgiveness ; and that resur-
rection has guaranteed that along with that ransomed
soul the body shall rise from the dead and reign with
Christ in glory. I have therefore not the least doubt
that every eye of every believer shall see Christ, the
Son of God ; that every tongue that chants his praise
from the heart upon earth shall chant it in heaven;
and that every ear that listens to the preached word here
shall listen to all the triumphant songs of praise in that
better world ; and that we shall enter into heaven not a
maimed humanity, but soul and body, and so be for ever
with the Lord. In the second place, I look upon the
resurrection of the body as designed to perpetuate the
human race. If souls only are admitted into heaven,
they would be angels ; but soul and body, as I have told
you, constitute man ; and tlierefore there will be in
THE HARVEST OF THE EARTH. 33
heaven not angels only, but glorified humanity. If the
body were not raised, this remarkable creature man would
cease ; after the lapse of a few thousand years he would
finally disappear. But believing in the resurrection of
the body as well as the redemption of the soul, there
will be in heaven and throughout the endless dges of
eternity eyes to see, tongues to sing, ears to hear, hearts
to throb, reasons to discuss, memories to recollect, and
imaginations to body forth in all their magnificence, the
glories of everlasting day.
This resurrection of the body will be intended to show
forth the glory and the greatness of the victory obtained
over death by our blessed Lord ; when the grave received
him, as it supposed, as a prisoner, it found it had received
into its bosom its vanquisher and conqueror. The great-
est glory shall be devolved upon Christ, the completest
blow will be struck at death, and sin, and Satan, and
the grave, when the trumpet shall sound, and the dead in
Christ shall rise. What a grand spectacle ! Some day
we shall be startled by a royal sound that will ring from
earth to heaven, and reverberate from heaven to earth,
and penetrate all graves, and pierce the stony pyramids,
and waken its echoes in the most sequestered cells of the
weeping and the hopeless captives ; and the moment that
sound shall be heard the green sod shall roll itself away
from covering its sacred contents ; monuments of bronze
and mausoleums of marble shall rend and split as beneath
a mysterious stroke ; the ancient pyramids shall open
their stony chambers, and the proud Pharaohs shall come
forth as humbly and obediently as the meanest slaves
from the canals in which they perished ; and not one
2*
34 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
human being, whether good or bad. shall fail to hear that
sound. And the stormy ocean, whose waves have sung
the requiem of many a gallant sailor ; and battle-fields ;
and sand-drifts in the desert, shall all open and disclose
their dead ; and the very dust beneath our feet shall be-
come animate ; and a sight will be witnessed at that day,
I solemnly believe, more magnificent, stupendous, and
impressive, than when God called worlds out of nothing
into being, and said, ''Let there be light, and there was
light." I have a strong presentiment or impression, that
each individual called at that day will hear his name.
When Jesus raised Lazarus, he said "Lazarus, come
forth." And there is something very beautiful in the
thought, that the name that was given you in baptism
shall be heard as an under-tone in the sound of the re-
surrection-trumpet ; and that you personally will be ad-
dressed, and that you personally will feel this mortal put
on immortality, and this corruptible incorruptibility;
leaving behind you in the grave only what contaminated
and defiled : and appearing no more in the clinging gar-
ments of corruption, but in bridal robes, in coronation
dress, in the shining white raiment, washed and made
clean in the blood of the Lamb.
When is the time of this resurrection ? We are told
Christ shall descend with a shout, and the dead in Christ
shall rise first. The time of it is when Christ comes.
When that shall be, the day and the hour knoweth no
man. But we are told by the blessed Saviour that we
are not to overlook, nor to be insensible to the signs of
the age in which we live. Most people feel — you cannot
fail reading it in every journal, hearing it in o^ ery con-
THE HARVEST OF THE EARTH. 35
versation, noticing it in books — that we live in an a^^e
unprecedented for its intensity, its triumphs, its energy,
and in some respects for its disintegration and dislocation
in all its moral, political, and social aspects. Now I do
not exaggerate, I am sure, when I say that there has
been compressed into the last ten years more than has
been compressed into the last two hundred years : and
that things that used to take centuries to ripen in, are
now developed, and ripened, and finished in a week, a
month, or a single year. Wars, rumors of wars, arc the
features of the day. Ask the most thinking men — do
not believe a preacher, who knows nothing of political
and national topics — but ask the most thinking men, an<!
they will tell you, that all Europe at this moment heaves
with hidden fires ; that soon, and I have no doubt sooner
than most think, the next shock of the great earthquake
of 1848 will be felt, and the soil of Europe trembles be-
neath the beat of the feet of millions ; and men's hearts lit-
erally fail them for fear of the things that are coming on
the earth. Take the last few years — dislocation of com-
merce, dislocation of party, disorganization of churches ;
kings seated, munj of them on the continent of Europe,
on their thrones, and doubting how long they will be the
occupants of them ; the nations, as if stored with com-
bustible matter, and men afraid to tread too harshly, lest
the spark be struck that will explode them ; everything
indicating just that very portrait which I sketched to you
in 1847 and 1848 in lectures in Exeter Hall which [
have often tried to tell you since ; and every one of the
statements of which you will find, if you will look over
them, are being fulfilled in what is passing before jo\\.
36 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
But what should all this be to us ? Suppose the earth be
convulsed ; suppose kingdoms like ships on a tempestu-
ous ocean be dashed against each other, or scattered like
drift-wood upon its waves ; suppose the kings of the earth
tremble ; suppose wars and rumors of wars multiply, till
England's firesides become each a scene of weeping and
of sorrow, we can yet fall back on the magnificent convic-
tion, '' The Lord reigneth." The severest storm is near-
est the everlasting calm ; and the time of greatest trouble
nearest the resurrection, and the restoration of all that
believe in and love the Lord Jesus Christ. The prophet,
from whom I have taken the subject of these thoughts,
tells us in fact, that at this very time when those that
sleep in their graves shall awake — " shall Michael stand
up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy
people : and there shall be a time of trouble, such as
never w^as since there was a nation even to that same time ;
and at that time thy people" — that is, the Jews — '^ shall
be delivered, every one that shall be found wTitten in the
book." And then at that time " many of them that sleep
in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting
life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." If
w^e be Christians, however much we may grieve over the
sorrows and the sufferings of others, we have only for our-
selves the blessed hope, the glorious prospect of immor-
tality and happiness ; where there shall be no more sin,
nor shame, nor sorrow, nor disappointment, nor grief, nor
sickness, nor disease; but all things shall be made new.
AVhat shall be the character of these bodies that shall be
raised at that day ? They will be as they are now — im-
perfection, the traces of disease and sin excepted. I be-
THE HARVEST OF THE EARTH. 37
Ijeve that all that constitutes individuality, all that con-
stitutes idiosyncrasy, all that we know as that which is
the man, will be raised. I admit what physiologists state
— that every seven years every particle in our body is
dislodged ; I admit that fully — but yet they must admit,
what common sense sees, that the man that you knew
twenty years ago looks the same man still. His hair may
be whitened, the Avrinkles on his face may be multiplied ;
the furrows on his brow as if they were trying to crowd
his history into that forehead, may seem closer and com-
pacter together — but still, some way or another, there is
the man ; there remains something that is his idiosyncrasy,
and that constitutes identity. Well ! that shall be raised ;
all imperfection, all disease, all sin, all traces of decay,
eliminated and left behind ; and all that is requisite to
constitute identity so complete, that the mother shall
know the babe she lost in infancy, the father the child,
the child the parent, the brother the sister, and the sister
the brother ; all shall know each other. Is there not
also some suggestive analogy here ? Do we not see every-
thing in this world striving after perfection ? AYe con-
stantly see, as we look around us, that our earth, just
like ourselves, is under a repressive curse. What does
the apostle say ? " All creation groaneth and travaileth
in pain, waiting to be delivered ; waiting for the adoption
of the sons of God; to wit, the redemption of the body."
Here is his statement that all creation groans and travails.
Why ? It is under a repressive curse ; and I believe that
what we see now in this earth, in ourselves, in flower, in
tree, a fruit, is only a dim earnest of the beauty and
magnificence that will be when that repressive curse shall
oo THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
be withdrawn. God sometimes gives to man comforting
prefigurations of what will be. For instance, who would
believe that the exquisite rose in the garden, the loveliest
and the most fragrant flower in it, is simply the common
wild hedge-rose, cultivated by man till it attains that ex-
cellence ! What does that prove ? That there are in
that wild hedge-rose possibilities of beauty repressed, that
man can in some slight degree bring out, but which under
millennial suns will burst into a beauty and magnificence
that eye hath not seen, and that man has never before
conceived. So we see in this world of ours everything
at this moment striving after perfection ; the rock seeking
to culminate in the exquisite and beautiful crystal ; the
tree bursting into the fragrant and beautiful blossom ; all
things striving after and stretching up to a perfection — as
if nature had in her heart, some strong presentiment of a
coming restoration, and tried to anticipate the era by now
and then letting forth signs of the buried treasures that
are in her bosom. And what a beautiful orb will this be,
and how blest its inhabitants, when all sin shall flee like a
shadow, and the light of an unsetting sun shall shine on
it, or rather the light of that world which has no need of
the sun, but where the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb
are the glory of it ! What a bright and glorious orb,
and what a happy and blessed tenantry will occupy it for
ever ! I need not tell you that all this points to a con-
clusion I have tried before to establish — that the earth is
redeemed just as well as man's body. I believe in a re-
surrection of this globe of ours just as I do in the resur-
rection of the body ; and it is on the same ground that
we have no more reason to s- ppose that the devil shall get
THE HARVEST OF THE EARTH. 39
this earth as his prize, than that he will get our bodies as
his property. We can well conceive what a fair orb this
will be. At this moment it has glens, and mountains,
and valleys, and landscapes, that show how much remains
of its Eden magnificence ; and that give token what it
may become when all things are made new. And I have
no doubt, when this earth is restored, and resurrection
bodies shall be its tenantry, that the rest of the orbs of
the sky that never fell, as they gaze down upon their re-
covered, once fallen but now restored sister, will not only
say, but shout and sing — " It is meet tliat we should re-
joice, for this our lost sister orb is found, this our dead
sister world at length is made alive."
We are now in this world, I believe, laying the out-
lines of our resurrection bodies. Did it ever strike you
that a man can almost be deciphered from his fice ? I
believe very much with Socrates of old, that the face
is to the inner moral and mental economy very much
what the dial is to the clock. Is a man sensual, depraved,
debased ? You can read it on his countenance. Take a
man of ambitious passions. You can trace the shadows
of them on his face. Take a Christian ; and you can see
on his brow that is w^ithout wrinkle, in the expression that
is without hesitation — in the whole mannerism of the man
— that he is on his journey to the everlasting home ; and
ripening for a place amid the redeemed in glory. May
it not be then that we are in this world laying the out-
lines and the framework of the body that is to clothe us
for ever ; and that we deposit in the grave the germ of
that body that shall rise to everlasting shame and con-
tempt, or that sliall rise to everlasting life, and shine like
40 THE GREAT TIlIBrLATlON.
the firmament, and as the brightness of the stars for ever
and ever ? If so, may we ^eek the Holy Spirit to inlay
our hearts with that inner character which will shine in
our outer life, and outlive the grave, and reach its culmi-
nating perfection when time shall be no more.
LECTURE XXIII.
THE SHINING THRONG.
Emerging from the sleep of ages shall appear a holy
lustre, those of Avhom it is written —
'' A7id tJicy that he v-ise shall shine as the brightness
of the firmament ; and they that turn m,any to right-
eousness as the stars for ever and evcr.^^ — Daniel
xii. 3.
FntST of all there is set before us here a personal char-
acteristic, " They that be wise ;" secondly, there is prom-
ised to such the blessed distinction, that " they shall shine
as the brightness of the firmament ;" then, thirdly, we
have a missionary feature, " they that turn many to
righteousness;" and we have a missionary reAvard, " they
shall shine as the stars for ever and ever."
Let us first study the perso?inel, '' they that be wise."
What is meant by this ? What is wisdom ? First of all,
it is not the wisdom of the world which regards progress,
riches, greatness, as the main thing in life, and bends all
its energies towards the attainment of these ; that is not
wisdom : to seek as the end of life that which cannot give
happiness when we have it, and cannot go with us when
life terminates in the £rrave. is folly, not wisdom. In the
(41)
42 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
second place, it is not the wisdom of the schools that is
here meant. Splendid eloquence, subtle syllogisms, beau-
tiful and keen dialectics, questions that do not edify, dis-
cussions that do not profit, this was the wisdom of the
schools ; and of that wisdom we have a verdict we are sure
cannot be wrong. "The world, " says the apostle, "by
wisdom knew not God;'' and again, says the same apostle,
" God has made foolish the wisdom of this world." The
whole wisdom of the schools was to find out what they
called the to nosnop^ or that which becomes us, and the
TO xaXovj that which is good : and the longer they
searched, the less was their success ; and thus the judg-
ment pronounced upon it by Him that cannot err is, " The
world by wisdom knew not God." The word philosopher
means one that loves wisdom ; but such wisdom never re-
vealed God our Father.
Wisdom, the mark of those that are here spoken of, is
something totally distinct from cunning. We often meet
with a cunning man who is anything but a wise man.
The tiger is cunning, the cat is cunning, even the dog
has some particle of cunning, but that is not wisdom : it
is the mark of the brutes of the field. Wisdom is the
choice of the noblest end ; the pursuit of it by the holiest
measures, and the belief of certain success in attaining it
by the promise of Him who cannot err. Let us there-
fore see what are the elements of wisdom. First, they
tliat be wise study and settle in their minds primarily the
great question, "What must I do to be saved?" Now
there is no question that comes home to the human heart
with a greater and a more enduring emphasis than this;
what am I ? what is the end of me ? Is this world my
THE SIIINIXa THRONG. 43
all, is its most magnificent hall mj only home ; and Avhen
I am laid in that house which is only six feet long by
three feet broad, is that the end of me ? If such be the
end of me and you, the Being that made us must be a
cruel monster; but if such be not the end of us, he that
ignores the question, What lies beyond? cannot belong
to those who are wise, and who shall shine as the bright-
ness of the firmament. " The fool hath said in his heart,
There is no God ;" and he is only second in his folly who
supposes that the immortality and responsibility of the
soul are questions he may adjourn till the judgment day.
They that are wise in the highest sense of the word will
never make a subordinate, but always a supreme question,
" What must I do to be saved?" Would you call that
man wise who risks his life in the pursuit of a transient
pleasure ? Would you call him wise who, when his house
is dissolvino; into ashes amid the burnino; flame, saves his
gold but forgets the infant that sleeps in the cradle ?
Would you call him wise who in a sinking ship, being a
strong swimmer, loads himself with gold, instead of leav-
ing himself free, in order to save his life from the de-
vouring waves ? In the same manner, can you call that
:!: an wise wh'o gives his whole soul to this question. How
shall I be rich ? how shall I be great ? how shall I be-
come renowned ? but who ignores or despises, or totally
neglects the great question, What is to become of me
when time ceases, and where shall I be when the great
white throne shall be the only sight, and the Judge upon
the throne shall summon me to give an account of all
the deeds done in the body, whether they be good or-
whether they be evil ? You may determine whether you
44 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
bo wise or not by this simple test — "what is supreme in
your thoughts ? I do not ask you to think of eternity as
the exclusive thing, or of the soul as the exclusive con-
cern, but as the supreme thing. I do not ask you to
dcsj)ise riches, honor, learning ; the very reverse. It is
proper that you should study and contemplate these
things. But if you so loQk to the things that perish
that you utterly ignore the momentous realities that
stretch into everlasting ages, then surely I do not speak
uncharitably — I speak in the very words of God — when
I say you are not among the wise, that shall shine as the
brightness of the firmament.
Those that be wise, and look to this great end, will
as wise men ask for an explanation and a solution of
their difficulties only where an infallible solution can be
found — in the word of God. Were a sailor who has lost
his path upon the ocean to look for guidance to the phos-
phorescent lights upon the waves, you would say he Avas
a fool. And so if a man is seeking the way to heaven,
and wanting to know how he can be saved, you would
say tliat man cannot be wise wlio neglects an infallible
oracle, and has recourse to oracles that are human and
fallible, and many of them deceptive. If you appeal to
the Fathers, they contradict each himself and each the
other, and none of them are inspired ; if you appeal to
the Church, tlie Seven Churches of Asia erred, every
Church upon earth has erred, and the Church is only
correct when its words are the echoes of the oracles of
God. If you appeal to tradition, it is only refracted and
misty moonlight ; if you appeal to reason, it is only the
dim and dying twilight of a once splendid and glorious
THE SIIININCi THRONG. 45
nooa • but if } OLi are wise, you will open tlie book that
God has sent to be a light to your feet and a lamp to
your path; and you will discover there that "from a
child thou hast known the Scriptures, which are able to
make thee wise unto everlasting life." ,
He that is wise will be in all his decisions in this res-
pect eminently practical. There is no greater mark of
•wisdom than its being practical. How many do we meet
with who are always dreaming, but never doing ; who
are constantly striking out splendid theories, and
dying for want of daily bread ! The wisdom of God
is eminently practical ; it selects an object, it seizes that
object with all its might ; it bends its energies to the at-
tainment of it, by prayer, by painstaking, by the study
of the word, by thought, by reflection, by inquiry. It
seeks the grandest ends by the best measures, and in
humble reliance upon the promise, " They that seek me
shall assuredly find me." "The wisdom that is from
above is pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated,
full of good fruits, without partiality and without hy-
pocrisy:" and they that be wise are the exponents of a
wisdom thus scripturally and justly defined.
It is said that they that be thus wise " shall shine as
the brightness of the firmament;" or as it is expressed
by Solomon, " like the shining light, that shineth more
and more unto the perfect day." Hence the course of
a Christian man is progressive. Have you ever noticed
the grey and misty twilight as it tinges with its first
beams the mountain tops or the church spires ? It seems
so feeble that the least intercepting object threatens to
extinguish and quench it for ever. But by a lavr that
46 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
no power of man can repeal, the grey dawn gathers
strength, and brilliancy, and force, till the tiny ray that
seemed glimmering on the very verge of extinction blazes
and burns in all the splendor and glory of summer noon.
It is so with the Christian. At first it is gi'ace strug-
gling for existence, but it increases and spreads, and
turns obstructions into aids. Did you ever notice the
sun rise ? — how first of all the great black banks of
clouds seem to threaten total extinction : then the moun-
tain crags intervene between you and the sun; then
the very trees of the forest seem to intercept his rays ;
and if you take cloud, and crag, and forest, and moun-
tain top into your thoughts, the impression would be, if
your experience did not teach otherwise, that that grey,
struggling twilight never could burst into day. But wait
a while, and you will find the very crags w^ill become
tinged with rosy light ; the great clouds will be dissolved
into rains that feed the violet that faints for want of re-
freshment, in the glen below, and add to the volume of
the streams that are rushing onward to the main ; you
will find the very trees become shafts of flame, reflecting
the splendors that they seemed at first to arrest ; and
onward the grey dawn w^ill go, until it melts into beauty
and glory. It is so with them that be wise : they shall
advance from grace to grace, turning obstructions into
impulses, out of evil educing good, shining more and
more until they reach the noon of perfect and enduring
day. Take the history of a Christian anywhere or at
any epoch, and you will find this is his character. For
instance, Bunyan was cast into prison at Bedford ; the
-v^alls were thick, the windows small, the darkness dense
THE HARVEST OF THE EARTH. 47
as night ; but out of that lonely prison burst a ray that
has cast its light upon many an English fireside, and
made the Pilgrim's Progress not only a household word,
but the admiration and study of all Christian mankind.
St. John was banished by Domitian to a solitary isle in
the ^gean Sea : it was thought by the world and by
this world's rulers that John's light was quenched for
ever. But in that desert isle, in that solitary Patmos,
an apocalypse of glory swept before the mind of the
apostle, that has been a light to the feet and a lamp to
the church in all ages ; and if Domitian had never ban-
ished John to Patmos, as far as we can see, the Bible had
ended with the Epistle of Jude, and the Church been
without the magnificent and conforting book of Revela-
tion. Paul when he visited Rome was cast into the
Mamertine prison, or tied to a soldier by a chain, in a
miserable room in the midst of that great capital. Jews
and Gentiles came to hear him; and from Rome as an
echoing centre the words of Paul shot forth until Britain
heard their echoes, and the whole world now reverbe-
rates with their glorious and conquering music. So true
is it that the wise shall advance from light to light, each
footstep luminous, until at last the light of grace is lost
in the noon of glory. But it is no less true that even
now the wise, that is the Christian man, influences and
shines. It is a great mistake to suppose that any man
can, by any possibility, be a blank. There is not a man
on earth, however humble, who is a blank ; there is not
one man in society who is not either a blot or a blessing ;
you cannot be a blank, do as you like you cannot be neu-
tral ; neutrality in moral character is absolutely impossi-
48 TUE IffcllCAT TRIBULATION.
h\e. You have, therefore, to take your choice, and you
cannot choose otherwise, whether you shall be a blessing,
limited it may be, small it may be; or a blot, limited it
may be, in an obscure sphere it may be ; but still, blot
or blessing, by no possibility a blank, must each of us be.
AVhat says our Lord, of Christians? "Ye are the lights
of the world;" not, as some of us would have it, the
lifjlLtninfj of the world ; we would all rather be the light-
ning flash that illuminates the world with its transient
splendor, and makes the wide earth echo with the thun-
der at its heels, than be, what is a nobler, a more im-
pressive and magnificent thing, the quiet and gentle light
that opens by its touch the sleeping rosebuds, and covers
the earth in June with all its riches of beauty and of
blossom. But if you be Christians, if you be wise, you
are now shining in some degree as the brightness of the
firmament; you are now the lights of the world, leaving
in your path a trail of beneficent and moral splendor
which thousands feel the warmth of, or are guided by in
their arduous and struggling roads. This light which
Christians are is not a polar light, cold and icy ; nor is
it a meteor li^ht, leaving: denser darkness beliind it; nor
is it a phosporescent light, the light of decay and death ;
but it is a clear, warm, genial, heavenly light, making
firesides brighter, human hearts happier, leaving the
world a better, a greater, and a wiser world because we
have passed through it, the lights of time to be fixed as
stars in the firmament, there to shine with imperishable
brio;htness for ever and ever. Such is the character of
the wise, and such is their destiny. This destiny of
grace will be complete when the dust you have left in
THE SHINING THRONG. 49
the grave, quickened and renovated by the breath of God,
shall again become the companion of the soul that has
entered into heaven ; and this mortal shall put on its im-
mortality, and this corruptible its incorruptibility; and
the whole company of the redeemed shall be presented
to Christ, a glorious Church, without spot or blemish, or
wrinkle, or any such thing. Then shall the righteous
shine forth in the kingdom of heaven.
Such is personal character, and such is personal re-
ward. I ask, are you wise in the highest, holiest, most
practical sense of that word ? Is the safety of your soul
not the exclusive, but the supreme thing ? Do you live
chiefly for the future, or is your Avhole heart buried in
the pursuits of this present world ? I do not ask you to
be sepulchral or ascetic ; but so to pass through the things
that are seen and temporal, that you forget not the things
that are unseen and eternal ; and whilst you sip the pleas-
ures as you pass along which God presents you in the
cup of his providence, never forget you are travellers and
sojourners, looking for a city that hath foundations, and
for a home that never shall be removed.
Let me turn to the second half of this interesting sub-
ject, " They that turn many to rightenousness shall shine
as the stars for ever and ever." What does this mean,
''Turn many to Righteousness?" It implies, first of
all, they that turn many to the knowledge of righteous-
ness. But what righteousness ? That righteousness,
we are told, which is unto all and upon all that believe.
If the great question be the safety of the soul, the next,
and only the next, must be how and by what process
shall that soul be entitled to enter into the kingdom of
3
50 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
heaven? Well, they that turn many to righteousness
turn them, first of all, to the knowledge of this, — that
no sufferings which man can endure are expiatory or
atoning ; that no good deeds that man can do are meri-
torious ; and that no effort that man can make is recupe-
rative of his lost glory, or can reinstate him in the
paradise that he forfeited by sin. Christ's righteousness
alone is our title, Christ's atonement alone is expiatory ;
by what He suffered our sins are all washed away ; by
what He did we are entitled to a crown of glory that
fadeth not away. Let us never let go our grasp of that
cardinal truth in the Christian faith — that we are already,
this very moment, if we be Christians, just as entitled
to heaven as Christ himself is ; that we shall never be
more and that we can never be less so ; in other words,
that our right to heaven is not something in us, nor
something done by us, nor something purchased by us ;
but entirely, exclusively, something that Christ did for
us, that faith receives, and God imputes. In other words,
my right to heaven is something external to myself.
Vi.e see this from the contrast between Christ and us.
When Jesus died upon the cross, there was nothing in
him worthy of that death;- when I shall be admitted
into the realms of glory, there will be nothing in me
Avorthy of an atom of that glory. jNIy sins laid on him
and accepted by him dragged him to a grave ; his righte-
ousness laid on me and accepted by me shall lift me to
a crown of glory. Therefore when priests come to me
and offer to forgive me, I thank them, and tell them I
need it not — I am complete in Christ ; when priests come
to me and bid me do penance, I tell them, Christ fin-
THE SHINING THRONG. 61
ished that eighteen centuries ago ; when prie;its come
to me and offer me all tlie absolutions, and all the good
works, and all the merits in the treasury of the Church,
I thank them, but tell them I do not Avant them, because
I am complete in Christ, and want nothing more. There
is no defence against Romanism except in holding fjist
this great truth, that mj title to heaven is what priests
cannot give, what I cannot buy, what no efforts of mine
can work out, what no church can bestow and no church
can take away ; that He who knew no sin was made sin
for me, that I, who have done nothing but sin, might
be made the righteousness of God by Him. If I can
turn you to the knowledge of that, I have led you to
the most precious truth contained in the Bible ; that
truth on which you can always fall back as something
that you are sure will not give way. When your own
heart smites you, when your own conscience torments
you ; when memory, as you turn over its leaves reproach-
es you with past transgressions ; when you are cast down,
depressed, overwhelmed by a sense of personal demerit ;
oh, blessed thought ! can each fall back upon this, that
my righteousness is not what memory, or conscience, or
heart can suggest to me, but what the Bible tells me —
that Jesus my righteousness is all my salvation and all
my desire. There is no comfort but in this. Try to
extract comfort from memory, and you will be most bitter-
ly disappointed ; review your best and your most splendid
deeds, and you will find them no comfort to you : but fall
back upon this, — let conscience condemn me. let memoiy
condemn, let the law condemn, let the whole past of my
life condemn, here is my trust, here is my rest — Jesus
52 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
Christ my righteousness, the onlj and the all-sufficient
ground of mj acceptance ; that He bore my sins, and I
shall never bear them ; and that He obeyed the law for
me, and I shall be entitled to all its reward. And they
that turn many to this righteousness shall shine as the
stars for ever and ever.
I do not mean to say that this righteousness as our
title excludes or renders unnecessary what are called
good works ; but if you will only make sure of the first,
you may be perfectly satisfied that you will have the last.
" Whom God justifies, them He also sanctifies." Where
Christ gives us a righteousness external to us, the Holy
Spirit works within us a righteousness personal and in-
ternal. In other words, our blessed Lord gives us a
title to heaven, and the Holy Spirit gives us fitness for
heaven : and the fruits we bear, the character we sustain,
or the conduct that the world can take cognizance of; all
vindicates our claim of being found in Him, to be found
in whom is to have no condemnation. By what process
do they turn many to righteousness ? First, I answer,
not by coercion. No force ever made a man a Christian.
No threat or penal law ever made a single human being
a Christian. Conviction is the child of argument ; im-
pression that lasts is produced by truth ; but never did
Satan perpetrate a greater blunder, never did the church
fall into a greater mistake, than when- either thought
that burning men's bodies could burn out their convic-
tions ; or that any patronage can build up a lie, or any
persecution destroy God's eternal and inspired truth.
Nor, in the second place, are we to seek to turn many to
righteousness by a bribe. This is just as bad. A con-
THE SHINING THRONG. 53
vert secured bj a bribe to any cause upon earth is far
more dangerous as an ally than if he were an open and
undisguised enemy. Besides, people are not to be seduced
into truth by a bribe, nor are they to be terrified into
righteousness by a threat. There is something in man's
soul too noble to be coerced into religion by a threat, or
to be seduced by a bribe. Then how are we to turn
many to righteousness ? I answer, by the majesty of
truth, by the force of argument, by the earnestness of
appeal, by eloquent persuasion. " The weapons of our
warfare," says the apostle, " are not carnal, but mighty
through God to the pulling down of ^ the strongholds of
Satan and of sin." We are to turn many to righteousness
by prayer, by painstaking, by the blessing of the Holy
Spirit of God ; ' ' not by might, nor by power, but by my
Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts."
Who are they that thus turn many to righteousness ?
First of all I will mention, as the chiefest and foremost
of the catalogue, the preachers of the Gospel of Christ.
No ofiice is possessed of loftier importance, no function
is characterized by richer dignity than that of an am-
bassador of Christ. But because an ambassador, how
dutiful is faithfulness ; because a steward, how obligatory
is honesty, in bringing forth things both new and old !
A painter who fails destroys a piece of canvas ; a sculp-
tor who fails injures only a block of Carrara marble ; but
a preacher who trifles with his duties, and says " Peace,
peace," when there is no peace at all. imbrues his hands
in the blood of immortal souls, and will be called to ac-
count for the abuse and misuse and perversion of so sub-
lime a function as his. Then, secondly, among those that
54 TnE GREAT TRIBULATION.
turn many to righteousness are the missionaries who go
forth to China, and preach the Gospel to bigoted Chinese ;
who visit the burning sands of India, where so many
a faithful missionary has sealed his testimony with his
blood ; or who wander, like the Moravians, to the steppes
of Russia, or to the snows of Greenland and of Labrador ;
or who, like the missionaries in our own land, go into the
scenes of pestilence, breathe the air of infection, come
into contact with all that is debasing, and all that is dis-
gusting to exquisite and cultivated taste, in order to
preach the Gospel, and fulfil the mission of turning many
to righteousness. Next to him is the Bible distributor.
I know not an office more important than this ; for after
all. the sermon has in it the alloy of the preacher, but the
Bible has in it purely the word of its author, God. The
Bible is the granary ; our sermons are the winds that
carry on their wings the living seeds, and scatter them
broadcast over waiting and receptive hearts. TJie Bible
is the fountain, our sermons are but the streamlets that
flow from it. Luther became a Christian the instant that
the monk became acquainted with the word of God. And
how remarkable is it that in France, during the last ten
years, more Bibles have been distributed and received
than during a hundred years before. How delightful is
it that the colporteurs were seen following the French
army across the Alps : and a^ they descended into the
plains of Piedmont, the Waldensian /)«5/e?^r5 followed in
their wake, carrying to thousands to whom the field of
conflict was then a grave, the unsearchable riches of
Christ ! I have such love to that church that Sardinia
has nursed in her bosom — the Waldensian church, the
THE SHINING THRONG. 55
witnesses during the middle ages ; the bones of whose
fathers are bleaching on the Cottian Alps, the sufferings
of whose predecessors are unparalleled by the sufferings
of any martyrs in the world beside ; that I cannot help —
I hope it is not meddling with this world's politics — I can-
not help often lifting up a prayer to God that he would
save Sardinia, that he would shelter beneath his wings
that bright lamp that has burnt in the middle ages,
the church of the Waldensians'; and that the darkness,
and the damp, and the chill of an Austrian dungeon may
never quench that sacred light, which extended its beams
across the Cottian Alps, and has served in no small degree
to light up Europe Avith the glories and the splendors of
the Gospel.
Thus then they that turn many to righteousness shall
shine as the stars ; their splendor borrowed from an un-
setting sun ; their position high above the tides and the
transformations of time ; and finally they shall reign on
earth w^ith Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, in whose
presence there is fullness of joy, and at whose right hand
are pleasures for evermore.
These come out of all tribulation, and appear on the
earth, and live and reign with Christ on the earth.
LECTURE XXIV.
LOCOMOTION AND LEARNING.
A predicted sign of the approach of that glory that is
to be revealed is thus set forth —
" Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall he
increased.^' — Daniel, xii. 4.
So far these -words have been illustrated and fulfilled in
every age of the world, and on every acre of the earth.
There has always been locomotion in the world ; there
has always been increase of the great capital of sacred
and of secular knowledge. But the words of the prophecy
seem to imply that this shall be intensely, singularly, and
unprecedentedly the characteristic fact ; and that as the
world grows older, and the twilight of its setting sun grows
dimmer, its progress over the world's area, and its in-
crease in knowledge of all kinds, shall be greater, and
richer, and more ample than it ever was before. Let me
take the simplest facts of the age, and show you how ex-
actly they seem to be the fulfilment of this prediction.
The first part of the prediction is that " many shall run
to and fro." Now if were not to specify a single par-
ticular, let me ask the most superficial observer if there
ever was an age more marked by ceaseless, boundless
locomotion; or in the words of the prophet, a greater
(56)
LOCOMOTION AND LEARNING. 57
amount of " running to and fro." And the more that
man wants to run, and the further he wants to go, the
more rapidly science brings up from its wondrous depths
the provisions and arrangements that meet his insatiable
thirst, and enable him to develop this remarkable propen-
sity. Take, for instance, the ocean steamer : not t^renty
years old in its highest and mightiest sense ; slie lifts her
anchor in the Mersey, or in the Clyde, or it may be in
the Thames, on the Monday ; and ploughs right against
the teeth of the gale ; seeming in her majesty — for she
looks like a thing of life — to spurn the waters, and to
tread them down, and to laugh at or play with the winds
and waves ; and in ten days she drops her anchor upon the
shores of another world ; and the living freight in that
steamer has in its transit all the comforts of a home, all
the luxury of a library, all the pleasures of a promenade.
What a strange provision and remarkable fact is this !
And when the Great Eastern shall begin its mission, you
will then have another addition to our proof, and an-
other illustration of the fulfilment of prophecy ; when a
whole village shall be taken on board, and carried at a
speed that shall compete almost with our railways ; and,
as some venture to say. New York and London will only
be five or six days' distance from each other. Count now,
if you can, in addition to this, the steamships that leave
the Mersey, the Thames, the Clyde for all parts of the
world, and set out from all the sea-gates of our emj^ire ,
count, if you can, the white sails that like the doves of
peace whiten with their wings the length and breadth of
the desert ocean ; and, then see what is literally true, the
striking fact that the sea is almost as populous as the land ;
58 THE GREAT TRIBULATIOX.
that multitudes at this moment are on the broad ocean that
might almost be compared with the multitudes that rush
along the streets, and that cover the broad fields of Europe
itself. Let us turn to another evidence ; and I quote
simply facts to show the fulfilment of the prediction :
take that wondrous fact of the age. also not above thirty
years old. the locomotive engine. Its speed is something
wonderful. "When its first great discoverer stated to the
House of Commons that he hoped one day to travel
with his engine at the rate of fifteen miles an hour ; that
House, which, like other people, grows wiser, and is not
always filled with Solons, with few exceptions, laughed
at him in blind incredulity ; and they had scarcely done
with laughing before they were travelling at the rate of
thirty, forty, and as some trains have even reached sixty
miles an hour. And then that very provision for travel-
ling, by a strange law, has increased vastly the number
that travel and the passion for locomotion. The calcula-
lation originally was that the travellers between two towns
are so many, or so many ; and the provision made, there-
fore, must be so much. It 'has been found that travellers
have been multij^lied by facilities of travelling ; and that
the provision for the thirst has stimulated the thirst ; and
the greater the fa.cilities, the greater the numbers run to
and fro.
Turn again to that wonderful instance of the fulfilment
of this passage, the electric telegraph. Were an old monk
to rise from beneath his tomb in some of the old cathedrals,
and to see what is taking place, he would think he had
come into a world totally different from that in which he
lived, and ate, and drank, and read his Breviary. And if
LOCOMOTION AND LEARXING. 59
jou had told a person thirty years ago that people could
talk by lightning, he would have smiled at you, and set
you down as an enthusiast or a foolish and ignorant fa-
natic. And yet, what is the fact ? That this mysterious
whispering wire, as it Las been called, is covering the
bottom of the ocean, spreading over Europe, Asia, and
America ; penetrating even that centre of obscurantism,
the dominions of the pope himself: and at this moment
Paris, Petersburg, Vienna, and Berlin, can carry on a
fireside correspondence with London. And the day is,
perhaps, not far distant when New York and Calcutta
shall be able to talk with London as one talks with his
friend on the opposite corner of the chimney. There is
something in this that so transcends the expectations of
the past, and so completely responds to the prediction of
the prophet, that I think no man can be warranted in
passing it by who ventures to illustrate this text. " Many
shall run to and fro." The lio-htnino;s are become man's
messengers ; land, and sea, and mountains, are no longer
obstructions to man ; space and time are very much an-
nihilated now-a-days ; the sea is practically dried up ;
distant capitals are neighbors ; and great continents are
bound together into a sisterhood of knowledge, one day to
be a sisterhood of sympathy and of love. And families
scattered over the whole world not only communicate with
each other now in days by steam, but in seconds and min-
utes by lightning. The action of the cabinets of Europe
is controlled, modified, directed, by lightning also, that is
shot from one to the other; and reveals the wish or the
will of the one to the understanding of the other. Now
is it any forced construction of the facts of history when
60 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
I say they are the fulfilment of the prediction in this pas-
sage— " Many shall run to and fro?" So rapidly is this
increasing that if you open that wonderful disclosure of
man's Avants, a morning newspaper; that wonderful dis-
closure of temptations to launch out into expense, or spec-
ulation, or charity ; you will find summer tours advertised
for Egypt and Palestine ; friendly visits are spoken of to
New York and Philadelphia ; excursions are talked of to
Athens, Constantinople, and Rome. Why, to have talked
of such things thirty years ago, as to be done in the time
in w^hich they are now advertised to be quietly achieved,
would have laid you open to the imputation of the ex-
tremest and veriest folly. So that in all these respects this
nineteenth century is characterized by an extent and an
intensity of running to and fro unprecedented in any other
century of the world. Besides, by a singular reaction,
the very knowledge that is to be increased, of which I
shall speak presently, is the cause in some degree of the
running to and fro ; and the running to and fro is the
cause of the increase of the knowledge. What was the
railway once? A thought in a student's mind. What
was the electric telegraph ? A thought in the mind of an
American. What was the ocean steamer ? A thought in
the mind of James Watt. Thoughts have thus been
launched into facts ; and what were at first the dreams of
students have become the actions and the profits of the
commercial w^orld. What an encouragement to study !
I do not believe any knowledge is w^orthless ; all know-
ledge, all study, is worthy of our attention. A cause of all
this running to and fro may be that man is restless ; and
that is quite true. Ever since man left Paradise, he has
LOCOMOTION AND LEARNING. Gl
wandered about seeking a home ; he lost his home there ;
and he never since has got rid of the impression that he
is not at home. To satisfy that yearning after a home he
has recourse to all sorts of experiments. The very words
of this prophecy, " Many shall run to and fro" may be
translated, "Many shall run for refuge," "Many shall
run to and fro, and seek earnestly or eagerly for shelter ;"
the word will bear that. " And knowledge shall be in-
creased." There are two Hebrew verbs, and it has been
a question not about the interpretation, but which is the
true. reading ; the one verb differs from the other only in
a letter ; the one ends with the letter B and the other
ends with the letter H. Well, it has been disputed whioh
is the correct reading : if it be the one reading, then it
means, " Knowledge shall be multiplied, increased, or
augmented;" and if it be the other, then it would be,
"Knowledge shall be flashed like the liditninor flame;"
and if this latter, it would be a striking prediction, meet-
ing with a most brilliant fulfilment in the age in Avhieh
Vv'e live. This leads me, therefore, to the second division
of my subject, that " Knowledge shall be increased."
Look around you anywhere, and at any department of
knowledge, and see if this be not fulfilled. Take for in-
stance geology. It has laid bare what has been called the
stony page ; it has shown upon the stratified rocks of the
earth the foot-prints of God. We find that five successive
times God has interposed in the exercise of his creative
power ; we find a dynasty of creatures destroyed ; we find
masses of rock laid over them, once sand and now solidified,
we find above that rock, without any connection with the
previous race, deep down below, a new race introduced,
t>- THE GREAT TPtlBULATION.
and fitted to the new temperature, created at its perfection,
and plainly bj the hand of God. Well, now, it is in-
teresting that geology should discover what the Bible on
the highest authority has said ; not to confirm the Bible,
but to be to those that deny the Bible a presumptive proof
that the Bible is- true ; that '^ in the beginning God cre-
ated the heavens and the earth." And very remarkabls
too, geology, once thought by some to be hostile to reve-
lation, has in its maturity been shown to be in perfect
harmony with revelation ; so much so that though Moses
was not inspired to teac'i science, yet wherever Moses
touches on the confines of science, you find that he either
knew the geology of 1859, or he was inspired by God.
He did not know the former, but we are perfectly satisfied
that he spoke as he was moved by the Holy Ghost. Take
again astronomy. It has risen on soaring wings, and with
its eye inspected, and in its balance it has weighed the
stars ; it has calculated with an accuracy that is unim-
peachable their distances. We can upset the whole the-
ology of the Hindoo by predicting an eclipse : the very
hour and the very minute when it will occur ; the Hindoo
stupidly believing it to be an interposition of one of his
great deities. We can now shov/ that those stars in the
sky, that the poor ignorant peasant b3lieves to be merely
the gas-lamps on the ceiling of his bright home, are orbs
grander, vaster, more magnificent than our ow^n ; and
teeming with populations that probably never fell, and
retain all their first and primal innocency. And we can
show to demonstration that the remiOtjst of these stars,
stars for instance that Herschel has recently shown, have
just been able to send the missionary beam that comes
LOCOMOTION AND LEARNING. 63
from them to this world. Stars have been discovered that
have been sending light at a speed so tremendous that that
light only takes eight minutes to come from the sun : yet
such is the distance of these orbs that rays have just in-
fringed upon the eye of Herscliel which have been travel-
ling for millions of years from the source from which they
set out. What a remarkable fact is that. And yet these
most distant stars are what ? The mere thin. sentinels of
that vast host that is spread out like shining dust upon
the plains of infinitude ;
For ever singing r.s tliey shine,
The hand tkit made us is disine.' \
Again, what knowledge, for instance, of lands referred
to in the Bible has been recently brought out ! Ninevah
has responded — shall I call it ? — to the magic touch of
Layard ; and has lately come up from the grave in which
God says in Nahum he would bury it ; it has come up
from its grave ; and in the British Museum it tells us at
this moment, ''Thy word, 0 God, is truth !" Babylon
has been explored ; and the minutest prediction of Isaiah
has been proved to have its exact fulfilment. Jerusalem,
long a mere picture in the pages of visitors who could not
embody it, has been by that wondrous discovery of the day,
which makes knowledge more palpable — photography —
been set fully before us here. It has been made a pho-
tograph ; so that you can see the v^ery stones the old Rab-
bis kissed ; you can see the very dust on which they .trod ;
the Dead Sea, the springs, the Jordan, the mountains of
L'jbanon, all portrayed by the sunbeams with a faithfulness
so exact that it is almost as good as if you exactly beheld
them on the spot. And again, Egypt, that land of his-
64 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
toric greatness, that land of majesty and of mystery, of
meanness and magnificence, has been explored in a most
remarkable way ; the prisons, the palaces, and the tombs
of the Pharaohs have been laid open ; and very recently
a tomb was discovered in one of the pyramids, on the walls
of which are described the exploits of that very Pharaoh
of whom we have been reading in the book of Exodus ;
the stony interior of the Pyramids thus testifying to the
accuracy, the historic accuracy, not I admit to the inspi-
ration, but, so far as it goes, to the historic accuracy of
Moses as the writer. Geology shows that when he touches
science he is right ; astronomy shows that when he ascends
to the heavens he is right ; and that those who have ob-
jected to him as deceived have been always in the wrong.
If I may deviate for one moment I would refer briefly to
that remarkable passage where it is said, '• God made two
great lights ; the sun to rule the day, and the moon to
rule the night." Well, it used to be said, This implies
that Moses believed and thought that God made these orbs
six thousand years ago. But when you come to examine
the passage, you find it very different. It is not in that
passage, " He made two great lights, the sun and the
moon ;" but it is, " He made two great light-carriers, or
lamp-bearers." The Hebrew word for light is oivr^ as,
for instance, when it says, " God said. Let there be light,
and there was light," it is Yehu owr ; but when it says,
" He made two great lights, the sun and the moon," it is
maowrath. a different word. Our translators, I think by
an unhappy oversight, have rendered the word " lights;"
they ought to have rendered it, " He made two great
light-carriers, the sun and the moon." And therefore the
LOCOMOTION AND LEARNING. 65
words do not mean that God made them ; hxxt that he
gave them a new and definite mission towards this world ;
and made the sun and the moon to hold out lights, in order
that the inha-bitants of this world might see. So that
wherever Moses touches upon the truths of science, 1t£ is,
on critical investigation, found always right, and tliose who
have objected to him have rashly and ignorantly done so.
Again, we notice another evidence of the increase of
knowledge ; namely, the discoveries made respecting the
human race in eyery land. You recollect the old predic-
tion in Genesis, that " Japheth shall dwell in the tents
of Shem; and Ham shall be a bondsman of bondsmen."
That was a curse mingled with a blessing pronounced
upon three races. Now it is not a doubtful question at
all what these represent. Shem represents the Asiatic ;
Japheth the European; and Ham, or Canaan, the Afri-
can ; I do not now enter into the proofs. But if jou
turn to the facts of the case as set before us at this mo-
ment, Japheth now dwells in thje tents of Shem. Eng-
land is at this moment the mistress of all India ; the
most magnificent of the tents of Shem. And it is from
this prediction that I believe England will not lose In-
dia ; for the prediction is that it is to be hers. And
again, we read in another passage that Ham is to be a
bondsman of bondsmen. Now what is the existing fact ?
The African is a slave still. I am not justifying the
people that make him a slave ; but it is the fact in the
Southern States of America, it is the fact too in other
districts of the tropical climates ; and a fact that we can-
not get rid of, and that even all efibrts to prevent have
only ended in promoting; that the children of Canaan or
Q^ THE GREAT TRI3ULATI0X.
of Ham are bondsmen of bondsmen. You have there-
fore the predictions of old being fulfilled ; and the more
you become acquainted with the world, the more ex-
actly you reach the evidence of the fulfilment of the
prophecy, " Knowledge shall be increased." It used to
be said of the Hindoos, I remember reading in books on
the subject, that they were such a mild, amiable, and
gentle race, that many of the newspapers of twenty and
thirty years ago, and some, I believe, of the Directors of
that day used to say, they were far better without Chris-
tianity than with it ; and that when they became Chris-
tians it only made them worse. But what is the dis-
closure ? That greater liars do not exist in the world
than the Hindoos ; that you cannot always trust them out
of sight ; that they are deceptive ; and we have seen by
recent events such outbursts of fanaticism, cruelty, blood-
shed, and crime, that we wonder how any that knew
them thirty years ago could give them such and so splen-
did a character ; and we have learned that Scripture has
not exaggerated its portrait of human nature when it
tells us it is " deceitful above all things, and desperately
wicked." And you will find" that man is the same in all
places, as our knowledge increases. Let him dwell in
the kraal of the Hottentot; in the snow-cave of the
Greenlander : in the cabin of the Irish, in the sheilin of
the Scottish Highlander ; in the palaces of kings, in the
halls of nobles ; wherever you find him, and under what-
ever color, and in whatever clime, and in whatever com-
plications of political and social circumstances — he is
manifested as the creature that fell in Paradise, has re-
duced himself to moral and physical ruin ; but will one day
LOCOMOTION AND LEARNING. 67
be reinstated in the lost glory, and in happiness greater
than that which he originally possessed.
I may mention another instance of the increase of
knowledge, in respect to languages. It has been a long
discussion, are all languages any way connected ? Any-
body that will read Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, will see
satisfactory proof there that they are connected ; and if
you trace certain familiar words, you will find they run
througlT all. For instance, the word ic'ine is the same
in almost, I think, all languages under the sun ; and the
word sack is the same in Greek, Hebrew, Latin, French,
Spanish, Italian, English, and almost all languages ; and
many other words might be specified. And Dr. Wise-
man, who is a very learned scholar, I mean learned in
languages, has stated in his book, entitled ''The Con-
nection between Science and Revealed Religion," a book
of great research and talent — because while v/e deplore
and condemn his superstition, it would not be fiir to
deny him what is good, and right, and true: we may ad-
mire the eyes and spots of the viper, while we admits its
poison and dread its sting, a.nd call it a viper still — that
it has been discovered as the result of the most exact
investigation that all languages have affinities enough to
indicate a common source; but certain dislocations that
prove that some time in their history there have occurred
in them a great fracture. Just go back to what sceptics
make m.erry with, the confusion of tongues at Babel, and
you have the great fracture which science has concluded
must have one day taken place.
If we look at knowledge in all shapes and forms, we
shall find that in all respects it has been vastly increased.
68 THE GKEAT TRIBULATION.
The folio read by the few is now the tract that is read by
the many. You will get as much information now in a
penny newspaper as you would have got for a guinea
and a half before, and that not very many years age.
A Bible, that now costs tenpence, once would have cost
as much as the building of one of the arches of London
Bridge ; so much has knowledge in that respect been in-
creased. Discoveries, it took years to make known, are
literally flashed upon your minds like lightning. Knowl-
edge that used to be thought too sacred or grand to be
committed to living languages is now on every man's
tongue. I will venture to say that the Young Men's
Christian Association in London knows more and is better
instructed, and wiser, than some of the old cathedral
chapters or ecclesiastical rulers some three or four hun-
dred years ago. And why is it so ? Because knowledge
has so rapidly increased. The embankments of learning
are all broken down ; rivers rush forth in the desert ;
and where aristocrats sipped deliciously, millions novf
slake their thirst, and are refreshed and satisfied. Then
see, in the next place, as an evidence of the increase
of knowledge, the increase of it in depth and in breadth.
Sciences known long ago are now more completely mas-
tered and understood. And then if you apply this to
sacred learning, the reformers of the sixteenth century
were better divines than the fathers of the third, fourth,
and fifth centuries ; and I venture to assert that the
best divines of the present day know more of the Bible
than the fathers and the reformers together. There is
a great mistake about that ecclesiastical word " father;"
when you hear of certain fathers, Chrysostom, Angus-
LOCOMOTION AND LEARNING. 69
tine, Tertullian, and others, you think of antiquity ;
but the true fathers of the Christian Church are the di-
vines of the present day ; and the babes and children
of the church were the so-called fathers of the first five
centuries ; because we have all that they wrote, and our
own researches in addition ; w^e have the lights of science,
the fruits of criticism, the discoveries of travellers, the
disclosures of investigation. And their errors are of
importance to us. When a wreck sinks in the Channel,
they put a buoy over it, to let other ships know they are
not to sail over that spot. The very errors of the fath-
ers have buoys over them in the great channels of
thought and knowledge ; and they let us know, while we
take the good that is in them, what and where are the
errors that we are to avoid. So that, as I have observed,
knowledge is increased in depth ; and it is increased
exceedingly in area or surfiice. Many ^^ears ago the sub-
terranean population of London, those called the Arabs
and the Bedouins of our streets, were the greater part
sunk in utter darkness ; but now, in consequence of t e
action of ragged schools, they are becoming more and
more enlightened. I heard from the treasurer of the
Field Lane Ragged School, that twenty of these children,
once wicked^ and worthless, have been drafted into Her
Majesty's navy, and promise to be good sailors ; they
have been rescued from the streets, preserved from be-
coming thieves, and are now entering the navy, where I
have not the least doubt, that these boys, so acute in
intellect, so quick in perception, so intelligent, and hav-
ing now received a thorough Christian education, will
prove as fine sailors in the day of trial as ever trod a
70 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
British deck. I remember in 1848 that class of our pop-
ulation was looked upon with perfect terror : and I be-
lieve that, up to that period, there was growing a sub-
terranean force under the population of London, that, if
left alone, like gunpowder ignited, would have blown the
Avhoje edifice to atoms. But by the efforts of Lord
Shaftesbury — a name that ought to be dear wherever
there is a Christian, or Englishman, or indeed a man — •
by his efforts specially, I do not say alone, and the efforts
of others ; and ; bove all, the self-denying efforts of rag-
ged-school teachers ; I venture to assert that a change
has been made in tlie mass of that population that has
raised it to a level we never could have anticipated as pos-
sible, or that would have occurred so soon ; and is evi-
dence in its place that knowledge is not only spreading,
but it is descending, it is rising up ; and the higher
classes will have to make haste, or the lower classes at
their heels will very soon overtake them ; and we are
glad of it : the more that the poorer classes know, the
more the rich will feel it their duty to know. All
prestige now sinks in comparison of that knoAvledge
that is power, exceeded only by that knowledge of God
in Christ which is peace. And now-a-days, too, the
Sible distributor follows the nmrch of armies : the Wal-
densian pastews at this moment in the neighborhood
of Turin, Alessandria, and the other great fortifications
in Italy, and are so far in Austria, are preaching the
Gospel where war has launched its thunders, and show-
ing the way that leads to heaven and to happiness, to
thousands i .norant of it. We can see, therefore, in al
these aspects, how knowledge is increasing — rapidly and
LOCOMOTION AXD LEARNING. 71
deeply — and Low it goes where it formerly would not
have dared to look. The walls of China are levelled
with the dust ; its countless gates are opened to the
access of the missionary ; and the Gospel is at this mo-
ment being preached in its heretofore impenetrable
tongue by a young man, who, fifteen years ago, was in
our schools, or, at least, took an active part in them, and
sat, and was baptized, where I now minister. I need
not tell you, that, in India, where Christianity is deep-
est, there peace is greatest. I was talking with one wor-
shipping here, who is the greatest authority in every
sense of the word as to what religion has done in India ;
and that great and distinguished man told me, that in
every instance where there was' most of the Christian
religion in Hindostan there was least of disaffection ;
and that Christianity had nothing to do with the mutiny
of the Hindoos ; and where it seemed to have anything
to do with it, it w^as t- e indiscretion of the missionaries,
not the Christianity that they were charged to teach. And
I am only sorry that ome great in power are advocating
in the schools in India what they call a neutrality ; that
is the policy of keeping the Bible out of them. I asked
that most competent judge, Avhat he thought the effect
would be of saying to the schools in India, You may
have every book, but you shall not have the Bible ?
He said, instead of securing peace for India, it would
rather bring on trouble. But, mark you, throughout
the Punjaub, he took a deep interest in everything con-
nected with it ; he said that he never found that lije Bible
in the school in tlie least degiree created disaffection. If
you force it upon the people, that is persecution ; this
72 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
must not be : if you insist upon their reading it when
they do not belong to your religion, that is intolerance ;
that must not be : but because you will not force them
to read it, nor thrust it on them, why should despatches
be issued stating that in India there is to be no Bible in
the schools ? Cannot you let the Bible lie upon the
table? Is it persecution that the master should say,
Now here is the book of God ; if you will let me read
it, I will do so ; and if you will read it yourselves, you
may do so ? That seems to be a duty ; and I do hope
that, whoever may direct the affairs of India, he will not
succeed (and this is not a political question, but a high,
spiritual, and Christian question) in introducing into the
schools of that land a neutrality which, in other words,
is absolute atheism. We would not thrust our religion
upon them, we would not compel them to read our Bible:
but surely it is the duty of a great Christian land like
this to let the Bible lie on the school table, and to give
all that will an opportunity of drinking of its living
waters; a privilege we ought not to deny; a duty, I
think, that we ought most faithfully and fully to dis-
charge.
I think I have shown from facts that this prochecy is
not only fulfilling, but almost fiulfilled in the present
day We draw from all this encouragement to sov^ the
seeds of truth, to diffuse real religion, and to spread the
Bible. In doing so we are moving in the groove in
which God himself has proceeded and gone before. En-
com-agement is given us to pray, " Thy kingdom come :"
for, what do we pray for ? That God would translate
promise into enjoyment, and prophecy into fact. And
LOCOMOTION AND LEARNING. 73
we may live, or our children may live, it may be that
some aged persons that read these Avords may live, to
hear in the eastern gale the sweet songs of Zion ; and
in the western winds the voice of reclaimed and redeemed
nations. Methinks, standing on the Alps, I" can already
see Italy casting off the shroud from its face, and the
grave-clothes from its limbs ; and feeling the warm and
genial beams of that Sun that has long been a stranger
to that beautiful land; methinks, standing upon the
Andes, I can see South America and the isles of the
Pacific recognizing the approach of Him whose right it
is to reign ; and, standing upon the mountains of Thibet,
I can see in the jungles of India, and amidst the plains
of China, multitudes joining in the praises of our God.
Let us take heart ; the Star of Bethlehem shall be the
glory of the universe ; long-crushed Palastine shall yet
echo with the hum of happy millions ; and the last linger-
ing Arab shall embrace the Gospel of Christ,
" Till o'er our ransomed nature.
The Lamb for sinners slain,
Redeemer, King, Creator,
In bliss returns to reign."
LECTUKE XXV.
NO MORE SEA.
A great transformation awaits the earth, of which in-
stalments are daily multiplying ; one of these is thus in-
timated—
" Thej^e was no more sea.^'' — Revelation xxi. 1.
Prophecy often states in the past what really relates to
and is to be fulfilled in the future. The Apocalypse
passes before the eyes of John as a brilliant panorama ;
he sees the whole sweep past, while he records what he
saw as it swept past him. But the whole of it, at the
same time, or at least the last half of it, is the prediction
of things that are to be, and not the historic statement of
things that were.
What is meant by the strange, we would almost say
startling, prediction, "There shall be no more sea?"
Does it mean that God is literally to annihilate the ocean,
to dry up its waste and wilderness of waterr, and to turn
it into dry land ? There is no proof of this : we believe
that all God has made is to endure for ever, all that sin
has originated as its progeny is to be cut off and cease for
ever. We find on referring to the original record in the
book of Genesis, at the 9th verse of the 1st chapter, that
God said, " Let the waters under the heaven be gathered
(74)
NO MORE SEA. 7^
together unto one place, and let the dry land appear :
and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth ; and
the gathering together of the waters called the Seas."
So again in the 104th Psalm we find God spoken of in
this way, in language most magnificent — poetry that,
were it contained in Shakspeare or Byron, would be
quoted as a perfect masterpiece of beauty ; but because
it is contained in the Bible, literary men have no appre-
ciation of its beauties. He says, speaking of the earth,
" Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment:''
what a beautiful idea — the earth covered with a shining
mantle, that mantle the broad expanse of the crystal
ocean! " Thou coveredst it with the deep as* with a gar-
ment ; the waters stood above the mountains. At thy
rebuke they fled ; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted
away. They go up by the mountains ; they go down by
the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for
them. Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass
over; that they turn not again to cover the earth." All
this indicates that God made the ocean ; and as God, in
the very beautiful and happy language of a Collect of the
Church of England, ^' hateth nothing that he hath made,"
but hates only the defiling taint that has spread over the
beautiful garment, and stained it with hues that were not
originally on it, we have no reason to expect that he will
destroy the sea or anything that he has made ; on the
contrary, that the regenesis of the future will be the res^
toration of more than the genesis of the past ; that what-
ever sin has done shall be repaired; whatever disease,
decay, and death, have wasted shall be restored : in other
words, Christ will come to our world not the destroyer
76 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
of what he made, but the redeemer of what sin has made
its slave, its thrall, and its victim. But if this be the
case, still you ask, how can the prediction be fulfilled,
" There shall be no more sea?" I will show you just
by a parallel passage in the 22nd chapter what must be
its meaning. We read in another passage in the 22nd
chapter, at the 5th verse, " And there shall be no night
there."' What does that mean ? If the earth in the day
of its restoration, as ^ye expect and believe, shall revolve
round its axis, and if the sun shall occupy his central
throne in our system, it is quite plain that there must be
the alternation of day and night. We cannot conceive
that those alternations will cease as long as the main
laws of our existing economy continue. It is obvious
then, that by the prediction, "There shall be no night
there," it must be meant that all the damp, the clouds,
the danger, the uncertainty, the precariousness, that are
the accompaniments of night, shall not exist under the
regime in which the earth shall be placed at that day ;
but that a glory shall rise upon the ocean and upon the
earth, so great, that there shall be no need comparatively
of the sun and the moon to shine on it ; for the Lord
God Almighty and the Lamb are the light thereof. And
in the 21st chapter, where he says, " The city had no
need, of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it ;" it
does not mean that the sun will sink and be destroyed ;
but it means that there will he a compensatory glory that
w^ill render sunlight as dim amid its effulgence, as a can-
dle light is dim amid the beams of the noonday sun. Thus
when we read, " There shall be no night there," it means
that whatever ni.ht has now, of uncertainty, or danger,
NO MORE SEA. 77
or disturbance, slrall altogether be put away. "Wherever
there are the fruits of sin, mark you. such as tears, and
grief, and sorrow, and suffering, there shall be absolute
annihilation on this earth ; but wherever there is what
God made, there shall be reconsecration, purification, and
adjustment. The prediction, '• There shall be no more
sea," is exactly the same as '' No more night ;" namely,
whatever are the perils, whatever the evils, whatever the
disturbances, represented by night and sea, shall cease in
that blessed and happy day. For instance, in northern
latitudes, in the extreme north of Scotland, I have heard
people say, "There is no night here." You ask. How
can that be ? The answer is, when the sun sets, the Au-
rora Borealis — supposed by the most recent discoveries
of astronomy to be connected with a ring round our earth,
as Saturn has a bright ring round him; certainly not
derived from the sun — shines with a brilliancy and a
beauty that will enable you in its mysterious light to read
even the smallest type. So in the age to come, when
the seer says, ' ' There shall be no need of the sun, nor of
the moon," the explanation of it is given ; " for the glory
of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof."
Therefore we understand, that as "No more night," does
not mean the extinction of the physical arrangements of
our system or economy; so, "No more sea does not
mean the drying up of the ocean, or the annihilation of
its waters, but its regeneration and restoration to that
state in which it was when God looked upon that shining
Robe, and saw no flaw on it, and pronounced it very good.
It is a just impression that religion is not a thing for
the sanctuary only, but for everywhere ; and that one
78 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
should associate all providence throughout its varied
chapters with all grace throughout its successive king-
doms. The subject of this lecture was suggested by
reading in the newspapers, that the two worlds, new and
old, were connected by the electric wire; and by the
strange remark of a secualr newspaper, " There is no
more Atlantic Oeean." That expression instantly sug-
gested, perhaps from previous reading, this beautiful pre-
diction, " There shall be no more sea." Not that I sup-
pose the electric telegraph is to fulfil this ; not that its
accomplishment, when it shall be completed, and the two
great continents shall talk together, will exhaust this ;
though one rejoices to see in it something like the fulfil-
ment of the prophecy in Malachi, "He shall turn the
hearts of the children to the fathers, and the fathers to
the children, lest I smite the earth with a curse." Our
children are the great Republic across the Atlantic ; we
are their fathers and mothers ; and one sees in this beau-
tiful bond of union and communion, as soon as it shall
be achieved, if not, as I do not venture to say, the ful-
filment of Malachi' s prediction, at least a happy illus-
tration of it that we do well to take notice of But
that the accomplishment of this great feat of science is
not the fulfilment, I mean the perfect fulfilment of this
text, is plain enough ; because, alas ! if we look at the
Atlantic Ocean, that separates England from America,
we see there indeed incipient bonds of sisterhood and
brotherhood, and union and communion ; but without
imputing anything — we see other signs if we look across
a nearer and narrower sea. We see the ocean imprison-
ed within the excavated rock ; that imprisoned ocean
NO MORE SEA. 79
made to bear upon its reluctant breast great ships, teethtd
"with cannon, and laden with shot and all the apparatus
of war ; we see the ocean compelled to look up to the
great heights bristling with guns, looking, no doubt not
intended, as if it were a frown of defiance to this isle,
which is our country and our home. Cherbourg has to
mj eye no charm ; it is the exponent of war ; it is the
memorial of Avhat has been ; it is the awful prophecy
of what Avill be till the Prince of Peace come. But
I confess the electric telegraph has to me an ineffable
charm ; it is the symbol of peace ; it is the type of union,
communion, and brotherhood ; it has almost a mediatorial
beauty; and it seems to speak from the mysterious
depths of ocean, where it will one day sleep I trust
securely —
" From either beach
The voice of love shall reach,
More audible than speech,
We are one."
I regard all the discoveries of science as instalments
of what will be, a grand regenesis, as gleams and flashes
vouchsafed from heaven to let us know that the great
Light is not extinct, and that God has neither forgotten
us nor forsaken his own promises. I look upon it that
this earth, in the beautiful language of the apostle Paul,
groans and travails in pain, waiting for deliverance.
Groans and travails in pain, what an expression ! — in
other words, our earth and our ocean are under a repres-
sive curse ; and the reason why it is not Paradise, is
that the curse keeps down all the beauty that is in its
80 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
bosom, and that it has not yet felt the consecrating foot-
step of Him who will bring forth all its latent glorj.
But in the meanwhile these discoveries, so wonderful and
accumulating, like star leaping upon star in a wintry
night, are to me evidences of those latent possibilities of
good that are hidden in the economy of things which wait
for God to say, " Come forth," and they will come forth
in all their grandeur. For instance, winter under its
snoAvy mantle, in the months of December and January
has under it, sleeping it is true, but not dead, all the
glories and the splendors of June. So this earth, this
world, is now in its winter season, frost-bitten and sin-
covered : but yet it has under it all the beauties and
the glories of ancient Paradise ; and as soon as that sum-
mer sun that we expect shall rise and shine upon our
world, there shall be no more killing frosts, nor chilling
fogs, nor damps ; nothing that defileth ; nothing that can
cause tears : no spring or source of pain ; but every gar-
den shall be as Eden, and every desert shall smile and
blossom like the rose. I look upon the wire that will
one day connect these two great continents into one
brotherhood as an earnest vouchsafed from heaven that
God has not forgotten what a wreck and dislocation sin
has made ; nor has He forgotten what a grand promise
of a perfect restoration yet awaits us. I look upon the
incidental discoveries of science, steam, and electricity,
and all that we are familiar with, and that it would be
needless for me to recapitulate here, as provisionally con-
necting the two Paradises. Did this thought ever strike
you, while walking in your gardens in winter, and look-
ing at the laurel and the great sisterhood of ever-
NO MORE SEA. 81
greens — these evergreens are perpetuated through the
winter as it were to keep open the path of the summer
that has gone for its return again ? So I look upon
these discoveries of science as a sort of keeping open the
pathway from Paradise that is gone, to Paradise that is
to come again ; showing that God has not forgotten us,
and that this world is not forsaken by Him. I must say
I dislike seeing everything in the light of politics, in the
light of pounds, shillings and pence. I like sometimes
to look at things in that high and beautiful light in which
they will all shine and sparkle in a brighter and a better
day.
Having thu:; explained my meaning, let me show you
what are the blessings that I have said we may expect
to come, and what are the evils that I have said we may
expect to be removed, when there shall be no more sea.
First of all there shall be no more war in its depths be-
tween the tribes that God originally placed there. God
made the youngest and the smallest minnow as well as
the tallest and the greatest angel ; and the one has on it
as many traces of God as the other. For what did He
say? — " Let the waters bring forth abundantly the mov-
ing creatures that hath life, and let man have dominion
over the fish of the sea." But the instant sin came in,
it struck down into the very depths of the ocean as well
as rose to the very lioights of the air ; and the moment
it reached the depths, the calm depths of the ocean, it
^ kindled an internecine war, so that the caves of the sea
have become camps, the sparkling sands have become the
dust of battle-fields, and the spacious floor of the ocean
is strewn with wrecks and covered with the remains of
4*
82 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
war. But He that said once, " Peace, be still," and its
waves became like infants, and lay down by bis holy feet,
will say again, " Peace, be still," as he waves his priest-
ly hand over all creation ; and then what shall take
place ? It is not my conjecture nor your guess, but pos-
itive prediction in the 8th psalm, "All things shall be
under his feet," that is, Christ's feet; the fowl of the air,
and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through
the paths of the sea." Here is the very first blessing
that will be — that the fish in the deep made by God, set
against each other by sin, meant to be under the domin-
ion of man, shall be restored to peace, and shall again
be subject to man : and the trout and the minnow, and
the whale, and the leviathan of the deep, the moment
that they see man will recognize their lord, and hear his
voice and obey his behests, for God has said it, and it is
not a poet's dream, or an uninspired man's reverie :
" Thou wilt put all things under his feet ; the fowl of
the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth
through the paths of the sea." I do not stop to mar the
thought I am considering by suggestions that will spring
up about the sea being over-peopled ; just as certain peo-
ple, some eighty or a hundred years ago, talked of the
world being over-peopled. It is all nonsense. It will be
time enough to consider such inconveniences when the
event comes ; it has not come in any sense yet. "What-
ever God has said shall be, I thoroughly and heartily be-
lieve ; and the difficulties that are about it never trouble
me in the least. The God that gave the promise will
take care to arrange a-nd solve the difficulties.
When there shall be no more sea, I hold there will be
NO MORE SEA. 83
no more tempest and storm ; and wreck and ruin, the
consequence of tempest and storm. What heart has not
often quaked when the wind whistled at our doors on a
winter night, howled down the dreary chimney, and
rushed with its outspread wings careering in the skies,
as you recollected that you had a son, a daughter, a
father, a mother, a sister or a brother on the ocean, with
only an inch of oak between life and a watery grave !
Who has not read, and felt his sympathy stirred, by what
David tells us in the Psalms, in language equally sub-
lime as that I have quoted before, " They that go down
to the sea in ships, that do business in the great waters ;
these see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the
deep ! For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind,
which lifteth up the waves thereof" What an idea, as
as if the winds outstretched their great palms or hands,
and lifted up the great waves upon them ! " They mount
up to the heavens, they go down again to the depths ;
their soul is melted because of trouble." Who has not
felt the sensation at sea of the royal Psalmist, v,dien the
ship lifts her bows as if she was about to ascend to the
stars, and then rushes down again as if she were descend-
ing into the very depths of the sea ; and who does not
understand what is here stated, " their soul is melted be-
cause of trouble?" Again he says, " They reel to and
fro. and stagorer like a drunken man, and are at their
wits' end. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble,
and he bringeth them out of their distresses. He mak-
eth the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still."
How just is the picture ! Nature must have been in
David's days as it is now ; the same troubled, and dis-
84 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
turbed, and fretful thing that sin has made it. Or if I
may quote an uninspired poet's picture of a stonn, if not
like the inspired one, yet it is more expressive than any-
thing I can say, —
" 'Tis a dreary tiling to be
Tossing on the wide, wide sea ;
When the sun has set in clouds,
And the wind sighs through the shrouds,
With a voice and with a tone
Like an evil creature's moan."
When there shall be no more sea, and these the pro-
phet's words shall have become the historian's record, what
shall take place ? Not the sea shall be annihilated, but
the winds shall be in sweet harmony with the waves ; the
ocean and the atmosphere shall embrace each other like
loving sisters ; both shall hear again the same voice that
they heard in Galilee, and wind and wave shall render,
not the obedience of an hour, but the obedience of a thou-
sand years ; then there will be beauty upon its bosom, there
will be only music in its chimes ; the gems upon its floor
will sparkle in a new light ; it will cease to seek to muster
forces and rise to the mountain tops ; and the Psalmist
will no more describe it as a prison, as he now does, but
will see in it a department of the palace of the great
King ; for there shall be no more storm, or tempest, or
anything to hurt, or convulse, or destroy.
'' No more sea," conveys to every reflecting mind an-
other thought, and a very refreshing one ; it will no more
be the grave of nations. What is the sea now ? The
great grave-yard of the Avorld itself Many a family have
some one nearly related to them sleeping in that sepulchre.
We know that its waves sweep over and toll the knell
NO MORE SEA. 85
every day of millions of the iincoffined dead. The fiirest
forms are there wrapped in the dank sea-weeds, and brave
hearts that once were full of life now heave only Avith the
restless waves ; and whole crews of great ships sleep there
the sleep that knows no wakening ; and the very pine
woods that grow on its steeps seem to me to join in the
ceaseless funeral anthem chanted there by the waves over
millions of the dead. Now what an awful deformity of
the ocean is this ! Endearment it is in one respect, for
we have an interest in the ocean as well as in the villao;e
church-yard ; yet deformity in another respect, that the
shining robe that God stretched over the earth should be
made the shroud of so much of the dear and the dead.
But a day comes, w^e read, when the trumpet shall sound,
and a voice, to use the beautiful language of the Psalmist,
mightier than the noise of the waves, yea, than the mighty
waves of the sea, shall sound ; and the oldest dead mariner
in the depths of the ocean shall come forth when he hears
that voice, as well as the greatest monarch from his sarco-
phagus, and shall join that august and sublime procession
emerging from the depths of the deep, deep sea, and rush-
ing up and grouping round the great white throne to hear
unchangeable and eternal- retributions. If I may quote
the words of a poet again, I do so simply because they
express what I cannot so well express. They are the
words of a female poet, and she says, speaking of this
trumpet and this sound —
" What wealth untold
Far down and shining through thy stillness lies !
Thou hast the starry gems, the burnished gold,
Won from ten thousand royal ai'gosies;
Sweep o'er thy spoils, thou wild and wrathful Main,
Earth cairns not these afrain.
86 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
" Give back the lost and lovely, those for ■whom
The place was kept at hearth and board so long;
The prayer went up through midnight's breathless gloom.
And the vain yearning woke ' mid festal song;
Hold fast thy buried isles, thy towers o'erthrown —
But all is not thine own.
" To thee the love of woman has gone down,
Dark flow thy tides o'er manhood's noble head,
O'er youth's bright locks and beauty's flowing crown;
Yet must thou hear a voice, Restore thy dead !
God shall reclaim thy precious things from thee .
Restore thy dead, thou Sea !"
And then there shall be no more sea as the burial-place,
the grave-yard, of the nations of the earth.
By this prediction, " There shall be no more sea," I
understand that there shall be no more obstruction to the
intercourse of nations ; for we read that during the future
rest there will be nations, and tongues, and peoples, and
kindreds. Now we know well at this moment that by the
sea (one might quote constant classic allusions if this were
the place) the brotherhood of nations is disturbed ; and we
mistake each other's meaning, because it is so long before
we can get each other's mutual explanation. This will
cease when the electric wire unites the opposite shores.
England and America, or rather I might say London and
New York, will talk together just as Mary and Martha
did at their own fireside ; and I hope the funds will not
be the only subject of their interesting and sisterly con-
versation.
When there shall be no more sea, France — a little like
the sulky elder brother in the parable, who did not like
to see his sisters and his brothers happy together — will
NO MORE SEA. 87
cast away the cloud from her bright face, dismantle her
giant fortresses, fill up her basin into which the ocean has
been entrapped, and join also in the fire-side conversation
between other great nations ; and one happj, holy sister-
hood be the blessed result, not indeed of the electric wire,
for that cannot be, but of the pouring out of that blessed
Spirit who shall weld all hearts into one, and make all
nations one family ; and Asia, the cradle of our race, and
Africa, polluted by slaves ; all the nations, all the conti-
nents, will no longer
" Stand aloof, the scars remaining,
Like cliffs that have been rent asunder;"
but shall constitute what they once were — one happy
family, without the contingencies that overtook that family
after Ham, Shem, and Japheth, the world's three fathers,
met in the ancient ark.
Then there will be no more naval battles to deplore, no
more naval victories to commemorate and to applaud. A
battle field is a very awful and a very humbling sight ;
but who does not know that war is not satisfied with smok-
ing hamlets, with fields waiting for the sickle turned into
barrenness ? It has occurred upon the ocean also ; and
with the noise of its waves and the roar of its winds is
mingled the more terrible sound or boom of cannon, and
the shrieks of the wounded and the dying : so that some-
times when one reads the history of naval battles one is
tempted to think that man seems anxious only to fulfil the
terrible apocalyptic saying, where the angel poured out
his vial upon the sea, and it became as the blood of a dead
man. If ships shall last to that period, if there shall be
ships when this prediction shall be fulfilled, they will be
0:.> THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
no more -what many of them are now ; tliej will be the
white doves of happy social intercourse ; or in the words
of James Montgomery, the Moravian poet, who predicts
the millennial glory in these lines —
" With autlieras of devotion
Ships fi-om the isles shall meet,
And pour the wealth of ocean
In tribute tit his feet;
For He shall have dominion
O'er river, sea, and shore,
Far as the eagle's pinion
Or dove's light wing can soar."
I understand by the fulfilment of this prophecy, that
there shall be the removal of those obstructions that have
hindered the entrance of the missionaries into the dark
and benighted parts of the Avorld. How long has the
missionary to spend upon the barren ocean before he reaches
his destination ; and how frequently does he find a watery
grave before he finds a mission-field to labor in ! Steam
has brought it to pass that there shall be no more land to
a very great extent ; but this greater power will seize the
ocean, and bring it to pass that there shall be no more sea.
And may not all this be the preparation for that angel
who spreads his wing, and hastens with the everlasting
GosjDcl with a speed unprecedented, and with a success
hitherto unknown, to preach it to every tribe and kindred
and tongue ? And when there shall be this happy inter-
course ; when " no more sea" shall be a historic fact, and
not a mere prophecy, oh, blessed vision, bright and holy
apocalypse that opens upon one's eye ! — every star shall
tlien suggest only the morning star, every tree the tree of
life, every flower the rose of Sharon, every wind of the
NO MORE SEA. 89
air and every wave of the sea shall only speak music ;
pagan tribes that never heard of a Savior, jungles that
the sun of nature and the Sun of righteousness never en-
tered ; deserts where all is desolate ; oceans on which the
mariner sings no hymn, offers no prayer, recognizes no
God, and reads no Bible; homes in Avhich there is no
worship, and hearts in which there is no love, shall all
be transformed at that day, as sure as there is a God in
heaven: and one song overflow all nations, " Worthy is
the Lamb, for he was slain for us." The crescent that is
still the symbol of so much that is evil shall wane into a
thin recollection : the darkness of India shall pass away ;
Austria shall cease to be a dungeon ; Italy shall no more
be a grave ; for in the heart of Christianity is the germ,
and on the brow of Christianity is the prophecy, of a univer-
sal, a never-ending; an ever-widening empire. The harps
of Sion then and the hymns of her joy shall rise to the
listening sky, and be reflected from the ocean and from
the earth. All lands shall accept the name and glory in
the cross of Christ, and the baptism of the crucified shall
be on every brow, and the palm of the glorified shall be in
every hand ; and not a spot, nor a river, nor a sea, nor a
shore, that shall not reflect the very glory of heaven.
Such are what I conceive to be the unfolding and am-
plification of the magnificent prediction, " There shall
be no more sea." Noav I know it will occur to some
minds that we have no idea of the possibility of any-
thing occurring that can produce this, except what they
believe will be — the regenesis and the restoration of the
new heavens and the new earth. But before that take
place — before millennial suns shall shine upon our world
90 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
— there will be, and we have reason from prophecy to
believe there will be, vast changes, facilitating the inter-
course of nations and of worlds. God may have — nay,
God has — in the depths of his own inexhaustible wisdom,
means and elements of accomplishing these results of
which we have no idea at this moment. To give some
explanation, suppose I should have told you twenty years
ago, that a day would come when a merchant on the Ex-
change in London should talk to a merchant on the
Broadway at New- York, and should receive answers in
the course of half-an-hour ; and that positively the mes-
sage sent from New- York at two o'clock in the day
should reach London an hour or two before ; if I had
said such a thing, you would have set me down as one
of the wildest dreamers that ever lived, if not altogether
a helpless and hopeless lunatic. And yet that has be-
come certain. And may there not be then in the future,
just as in our world, possibilities yet more magnificent
than even the electric telegraph that connects worlds;
and may not this very last discovery be but a feeble spe-
cimen of crowds that will come within the horizon, so
brilliant that we have not ventured even to conceive, still
less to comprehend them ?
What lessons do we learn from all this ? See in all
the discoveries of science, in all the events of Providence,
not chance, not man, but God. Here is a very wrong
tendency in us all : we are all so apt to confine God to
the sanctuary, to the sacrament- table, and to the Bible ;
but the instant we go out of the church or out of the
place of prayer, then no more we see God ; no God in
the counting-house, no God in tlie warehouse, no God in
NO MORE SEA. 91
the senate ; no God, in short, in things worldly. Reli-
gion for Sunday and the church ; secular work altogether
for the six week days. This is a gross misinterpretation :
it is a disastrous mistake. I believe that God is in
Cheapside just as much as he is in St. Paul's Cathedral ;
I believe God is in your counting-houses just as much as
he is in the sanctuary. You never get out of the church ;
because the church is not a thing of bricks and mortar,
and stones and timbers ; it is the company of God's peo-
ple ; and wherever a churchman is — that is, a Christian,
for all Christians are churchmen — there he is on holy
ground ; and what he does, if sin, is sacrilege ; and what
he does, if crime, is done in the sanctuary of God. God
is just as much in the facts of history as he is in the
texts of the Bible. Merle D'Aubigne said his beau-
tiful history was written to show what he has assumed as
his text, God in history. Now I believe that God in-
spired the man that discovered printing, the man that
discovered steam, the man that discovered the electric
telegraph, just as truly as, though differently, he inspired
the man John the Evangelist, or Paul or Peter, to write
the texts in the Bible. That is my first lesson. My
second lesson is, be ready, always stand ready — speaking
as I do to Christian men — to avail yourselves of every
vehicle of power, and to sanctify and consecrate it to be
a vehicle of beneficence and of grace. Do not let the
Exchange make a monopoly of the intercourse between
America or India and England; see if the Christian
Church cannot make use of the mysterious wire. If the
merchants of this country keep one wire for themselves,
why should not all the Missionary Societies unite togeth-
92 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
er and have a wire for themselves? Thus they could
correspond with their mission stations, and with their
missionaries ; thus America could tell us what its won-
drous Pentecostal shower is doing at this moment there ;
and we could tell, at least that if we have not it, we are
praying that God would give his Holy Spirit, and water his
church till its desert places shall rejoice and blossom as
the rose.
And lastly, let me urge, or rather hint, another lesson.
Let this new fact, this new medium uniting distant con-
tinents, or it may be a new world and an old, remind us
of an infinitely more glorious medium of intercourse be-
tween that continent of heaven from which we were dis-
located by sin, and this island of ours restored, and out
of twain made one. It is fact that God sends down
blessings through this medium upon us ; it is fact that
God hears messages that we send up by this medium to
him. It seems as if the whole idea of this were em-
bodied in the beautiful and striking words of the prophet
Isaiah, where he tells us in the 65th chapter, at the 24th
verse, in words that have often suggested to me that very
topic to which I have already alluded — it is God that is
speaking: " It shall come to pass that before they call I
will answer ; and while they are yet speaking I will
hear."' What a beautiful portrait of prayer that is!
Now, what is the fact ? That we have communion with
heaven: that the separated realms are now reunited.
And. grand thought ! you have not to wait at the throne
of grace till others are served ■; there is no possible inter-
ruption in this divine medium ; there is no misapprehen-
sion of our meaning or misinterpretation of our words.
so MORE SEA. •'"
OW
How ehall you escape, what shall be your guilt, h
grave your responsibility, if, ^vith such a medium of in-
tercourse with heaven, you fail to avail yourselves of it
now, and with all your might? Then, my dear breth-
ren ask and ye shall obtain, seek and ye shall find ;
" For all these things will I be inquired of, saith the
Lord, in order to do it for them;" and it shall come to
pa^s that before you call, God will answer; and w-hile
you are yet speaking, God will hear; and the proof of
this is, " Thus saith the Lord."
y
LECTURE XXVI.
THE PURIFYING PROCESS.
^^ Many shall be purified^ and made white^ and tried;
but the icicked shall do wickedly : and none of the
wicked shall understand ; but the loise shall under-
standP — Daniel xii. 10.
Having endeavored to shew the fulfilment of various
predictions, let me here notice one moral and instructive
lesson for all. First, we are told that "many shall be
purified, and made white, and tried." These are the re-
deemed out of every kindred, and people, and tongue.
How delightful to believe many shall be so ! The saved
are not a tiny and a microscopic few, but a magnificent
multitude that no man can number, with palms in their
hands, and clothed in white robes, praising God and the
Lamb for ever and ever. Every allusion in the Bible
leads us to the conclusion that the overwhelming major-
ity of etir race shall be saved. Infants dying shall all be
saved. Then an age comes to w^hose perfection all past
ages have been contributing, and in whose glory all past
ages will be crowned, when all shall be righteous, and
they shall no more teach every man his neighbor, saying,
"Know the Lord," but "all shall know him from the
least to the greatest." It is a most refreshing thought
(94)
THE PURIFYING PROCESS. 95
that Satan will not be able at the judgment day to show
one solitary proof of the success of his dreadful experi-
ment in Paradise; not one soul will be lost because Adam
fell ; if lost it will be because he rejects the second Adam,
who is the Lord from heaven. All Scripture leads us to
feel that they that are lost within reach of the Gospel are
not slain, but are suicides ; they perish because, dreadful
criminality ! they will not be saved. The language of
the Saviour is, "Ye will not come unto me;" there-
monstrance of God is, " Why will ye die?" the magnifi-
cent embassy for all nations is, " Him that cometh unto
me," whatever nation, kindred, tribe, or tongue, or what-
ever degree of guilt, or sin, or ruin ; ' ' Him that cometh
unto me I will in no wise cast out." ^ Then if every in-
dividual that hears the gospel is not among the many
that shall be saved and that are saved, it is not because
God is unwilling, nor because he is unwelcome, it is not
because there is not efficacy in the Saviour's work, nor
because the Holy Spirit will not sanctify him, but be-
cause he puts it off, or puts something between it and
him, or makes an excuse which has no foundation in
truth, but satisfies his willingly satisfied heart in the
mean time. Does not the Bible tell us that we have no
power, and that unless God give us power we never can
believe ? I perfectly agree with that ; but if that want of
power upon your part be a want of physical power, then
you have a valid excuse. God will not condemn a man
at the judgment-seat who has a valid excuse for not be-
lieving the Gospel ; that is equity, that is common jus-
tice. If you be physically unable to believe, you have a
valid excuse. You would not think of blaming a stone,
96 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
or a dog, or a horse, because they do not understand or
do not believe ; they are physically incapable of it. 'But
you forget that your inability to believe the Gospel is
not physical, but purely moral ; it is not *vant of physi-
cal power, it is want of moral will. There are two can-
not s that people very much confound with each other.
For instance, a thief in prison cannot steal; an honest
man cannot steal. Both these are perfectly true, but the
distinction is tremendous ; the thief cannot steal because
he cannot get out of the prison; the honest man cannot
steal because it is not his nature, or disposition, or will
to do so. So you cannot believe is not the cannot of
physical impossibility ; if so it would be a valid excuse ;
but it is the cannot of moral wilfulness. The lost in
misery will never blame any one in the heights or in the
depths but themselves for their everlasting ruin; they
will feel, in all the tremendous force of that conviction,
we might have been in heaven, and we would not go ; and
we are now in ruin because we set our faces thither.
There are words I have already illustrated that seem to
me most striking and suggestive ; " Come, ye blessed of
my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from
the foundation of the world." " Come ;" the olden invi-
tation; " ye blessed of my father;" God the Father the
fountain of all blessing ; " inherit ;" one inherits the title
of his father not by his personal worth, but because he
is the son; "inherit the kingdom prepared for you;''
heaven the prepared place for a prepared people. But
notice the obverse, ^vhere he addresses the lost. "De-
part from me;" that is, continue the course you began.
" Come unto me," is, continue the course you began.
THE PURIFYING PROCESS. 97
''Depart from me," prosecute the course you have chos-
en : as if heaven were a centripetal force, by which the
Christian is carried nearer and nearer for ever to Christ,
and made happier the nearer that he comes ; as if hell
were a centrifugal force, the unbeliever departing farther
and farther, and his misery increasing in the ratio of the
speed and distance of his departure. "Depart, ye curs-
ed," not of my Father, but " depart, ye cursed, into ever-
lasting fire, prepared," not for you, but "for the devil
and his angels." In other words, hell is not meant for
any human being ; it was never meant or prepared for
you ; and if any man goes there, he will have the awful
reflection for ever, I did it all myself; and nobody is to
blame but myself : Avhereas the saved in heaven will have
the thrilling reminiscence, We did none of it, we deserv-
ed none of it ; grace, sovereign grace did it all. Such
then is the distinction.
NoAV it is said, " many shall be made white." This
passage in Daniel seems to be the original of what we find
in Revelation vii., where one of the elders asked, " What
are these which are arrayed in white robes ? And whence
came they?" And his answer is, " These are they which
came out of great tribulation" " they shall be tried and
purified," " and have washed their robes, and made them
white in the blood of the Lamb." I understand, there-
fore, by '' Many shall be made white," many shall be jus-
tified. ''As by one man's disobedience many Avere made
sinners, so by one man's obedience shall many be made
righteous," or made white. I understand, therefore, by
this expression, " Many shall be made white," many shall
be justified, that is, acquitted, absolved from all sin ; first
5
98 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
a change of state, by transferrence from Adam, in -whom
"we stand by nature, into union with Christ, in whom we
stand by grace. Each of us at this moment by nature is
born in the eclipse ; we do not need to perpetrate some
great crime to be guilty in God's sight ; we are born sin-
ners, we inherit a fallen nature, it is our connection with
Adam that gives us that nature, and we aggravate our
guilt by our own personal transgressions. But we are wel-
come and invited at this moment to step by faith from Adam,
in whom nature leaves us, into Christ and his righteous-
ness, in which grace and glory will always keep us. You
are invited every one to leave the wrecks of ancient Par-
adise, where the. flaming cherubim and the guarded gates,
are, and to put on, without money and without price, that
raiment which you have not to weave, which you have not
to make, which you have not to pay for, but which you
have to accept as a free gift, and justified through faith
before God, to have peace with him in Christ Jesus. Such
is the change of state. But there is more than that.
There is not only a change of state ; but it is said that
those who are thus justified, these who are thus made
white, shall be "tried." Tried; this is the lot of all
God's people ; and you will find it one of the marks of
the people of God that they come through much tribula-
tion. In the beautiful language of the Apocalypse,
" They came out of great tribulation." We sometimes
try to flatter ourselves that we shall get through the world
easier and more softly than our fathers passed through it ;
all that is deceptive ; you may depend upon it, as sure as
you are living, if you be Christians, you will have some-
thing to try you, some care to vex you, some troubh to
1
THE PURIFYING PROCESS. 99
dog jour steps, some reminiscence that you cannot get
rid of, some vexation that you cannot throw off, some
uneasiness on the pillow, some uncertainty in the hopes,
some precariousness in the possession ; some sore disap-
pointment, some unexpected tribulation. As sure as you
are a Christian, so sure God will try you, the world will
try you, your own hearts will try you, and you will find
that tribulation is our lot, but triumph over it is our des-
tiny by God's almighty and assisting grace. Now, to
show how Christians will be tried in the great tribulation,
let me adduce two or three illustrations. First of all,
some of you will be tried by adversity. We do not like
the cold shadow ; we would all bask in the sweet and beau-
tiful sunshine. We do not like the valley of Achor ; we
would 'all like to be upon the mountain heights of Pisgah,
or upon the beautiful table land, above the storm and the
cloud, and all the ills that irritate and vex in this world
below. But it cannot be. Some will be tried by adver-
sity. It is a heavy trial to the poor man to learn this
lesson : " Take no thought for the morrow : for the mor-
row will take thought for itself" It is easy for a rich
man to take this text, and literally observe it ; but it is a
very hard matter, and goes against the grain, for a poor
man, who does not know where he will find to-morrow's
breakfast, to take this text and to believe and act on it.
It is also a very easy lesson to learn to say of other peo-
ple's dead, " The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken
away;" but for a mother to look upon the cold pale face
of the infant that she bore, and to see it consigned to the
dark and silent grave, and to say then and there, " Our
Father, thy will be done ;" that is a very heavy trial, that
24875«
100 THE GREAT TRIBI'LATION.
will test and try her faith to the uttermost. It is very
difficult too to feel, and it tries our faith strongly, that
God loves us when he smites us ; that the blow of the
hand may be very heavy ; but that " as a father pitieth
his children, so doth the Lord pity them that fear him."
But if you are not tried by adversity you will be tried
by prosperity ; and I am not sure which is the hardest.
If I had it in my power to give the option to many whether
they will take the trial of their Christian character by
being kept a very poor, dependent man ; or being made
very rich, or very great ; most would of course choose the
latter ; I fear flesh and blood would choose without a mo-
ment's hesitation the latter. And yet if it be very dif-
ficult to hold an empty cup, out of which you can drink
no sweetness, it is much more difficult to hold a full cup
without letting it run over ; and manv a man who has
been raised from the low and obscure levels of ordinary
life, to the high and bright spots of the world, has found
that he has multiplied his enemies in the ratio in which he
rose ; and that his happiness has not increased with the
degree and height of his social elevation. Prosperity will
try us. How prone are the prosperous to become proud !
When and what were the moments when you first sought
out God ; when you had the deepest and the most pene-
trating sense of the vanity of all below, and the mag-
nificence of all that is above ? When some great billow
of tribulation has swept over you, and laid you low upon
the ground. When did you forget God ; when did you
care nothing about God ? when did you feel as if there
were no God ? Just when the world's ball was at your
foot, and all was prosperity above, and all was smoothness
THE PUrvIFYING PROCESS. 101
beneath, and all was happiness and sunshine around.
These chiefly were your atheistic and ungodly moments,
and experience also. Prosperity will try you ; often pros-
perity is sent, not as a proof that God loves, but as a test
by which God would try us. And it is a very happy
thing too that we have not the choice whether we shall be
tested by the shadow of adversity or the sunshine of pros-
perity. If we be God's people, made righteous, clad in
the white robes, accepted in his sight, He will send us
just the test that is most expedient for us. That test
may be very painful, but will not be so painful as the
devil would have it, nor so protracted, nor so heavy ; and
it will not be so short, and so soft, and so light as you
would have it ; but it will be exactly what God sees fit
for you ; and the trouble, whatever it be, will not last
one moment longer than it has done its work. An illus-
tration is the story of the goldsmith melting the gold in
the fining-pot ; he was asked why he always kept gazing
upon the molten gold ; his answer was that he skimmed
off the dross always as it rose to the surface ; and when-
ever he could see his face reflected on the bright metal, he
then ceased to keep it on the fire, and withdrew it for its
great purposes of currency and use. God keeps us till
he sees his own face reflected from our nature ; and as
soon as we are like him, then he withdraws the ordeal
tests, and tries us no more, and makes us ready as we are
found right for the kingdom of heaven. Thus you will
be tried by adversity, you will be tried by prosperity ; but
there is one blessed thought, that if you be a Christian,
you will not be overwhelmed by it. Recollect the words,
"These are they that came out of great tribulation;"
102 ^ THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
they were in it, but not one was left to be overwlielmed by
it ; and however much, therefore, you may be tested and
tried, you will not be left to perish in the trouble ; but the
trial will be removed by Him who watches over you with
parental sympathy, with an omniscient eye, with an om-
nipresent power, when you reflect the likeness of Him who
hath called us to glory and virtue. It is a precious
thought that the trial, whatever it be, is never sent unless
it be needed. How beautiful are the words of Peter, who
was very much tried! — "Wherein we greatly rejoice;
though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness
through manifold temptations;" and then what is to be
the result of them ? ' ' That the trial of your faith, being
more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be
tried with fire, may be found unto praise and honor, and
glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ; whom having
- not seen we love ; in whom though now we see him not,
yet believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of
glory."
Thus we have seen first the change of state, — made
white; or transferred from connection with Adam, in
whom we died, and placed in Christ, in whom we live
for ever; secondly, the ordeal through which believers
must pass, in order to be made fit for the kingdom of
heaven. The result of it all is, we are told, they shall
be purified ; they shall be tried, and they shall be puri-
fied. There is a great deal of dross in every one of us ;
and he that knows his own heart best, tnows how much
evil there is in it. Some one said we should never pray,
"0 Lord show us ourselves to ourselves;" and it is
most just; for the most awful sight that would over-
THE PURIFYING PROCESS. 103
whelm and crush us would be an apocalypse of our own
heart, exactly as it appears in the sight of a holy and a
heart-searching God. The more we know ourselves, the
less confidence we shall have in our own excellence, and
the more we shall be led to appeal to Him who is ready
every moment to pardon, and through whose intercession
we have an advocate at the Father's right hand, able to
save to the uttermost all that come to God through Him.
Then we shall be purified from unbelief, purified from the
alloy of sin, purified from all the remains of corruption ;
purified more and more, till the king's daughter becomes
all glorious within ; and the church shines bright like the
sun, and fair as the moon, and glorious as an army with
banners. "We shall be made what we seem ; the heart
shall be pure, the fountain holy, the tree good, and all
the fruits shall be good, and all the streams shall be pure,
and all our works and ways shall be the fragrant fruit
of a new character and a new heart, and made new by
the Holy Spirit of God.
Such is the prediction of the destiny of the saints.
The reverse of this is the doom of the lost. " The
wicked shall do wickedly." It is their nature. "He
that is unjust, let him be unjust still." There are two
great forces in our world that seem destined to last for
ever ; the force of holiness and the force of sin ; hell the
culminating depth of the one, heaven the culminating
glory and perfection of the other. And the wicked, we
are told, " shall not understand." There is needed to
understand the Bible, and to understsnd many great
moral and scriptural truths, not so much a sharp intel-
lect as a sanctified heart. It is most strange how passion
104 THE GREAT TRIULLATIOX.
can blind the intellect, and prejudice darken it ; till a
man sunk in depravity can neither see nor appreciate
moral excellence at all. We well know how diffcult it is
to convince a mere natural man of many of those simple
truths which to a Christian appear so plain. And the
reason is, that just as a shilling over the eyeball will
shut out the grandest panorama from the sight, so a sin-
gle passion, avarice, hate, revenge, any other evil, or
stormy, or tempestuous passion, will so darken man's in-
tellect that he Avill not see the simplest truths nor recog-
nise the plainest duties. Orthodoxy in its brighest sense
is as much the product of a pure heart as of an enlight-
ened mind. By force of intellect we may master ma|he-
matics ; but only by sanctity and regeneration of heart
can we master, and appreciate, and live by the living
truths of the Gospel of Christ.
In which category are we — in the category of them
that are made righteous by the righteousness of Christ ;
who, while passing through many a stormy and tempestu-
ous sea, are being made fit for heaven, and will ultimately
reach that happy haven into wdiich the surf of this
world's troubles will not break, and whose waters shall
never be disturbed by a tempest ; or are we in the list
and category of the wicked, who will not understand,
and therefore do not understand ; who do wickedly, and
glory in their wickedness, who have no fear of God before
their eyes ? Magnificent privilege ! we have the choice.
Choose ye this day on which side you will stand. Oh,
may many a humble heart say, Blessed Jesus, where
thou goest I will go : where thou lodgest I will lodge ;
thy. people shall be my people, and thy God shall be my
God ! Amen.
LECTURE XXVII.
THE GLORIOUS LOT.
" But go thou thy way till the end be ; for thou shalt
rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.^' —
Daniel xii. 13.
I HAVE tried in a previous lecture to show what is the
precise chronological significance of those remarkable
words, " From the time that the daily sacrifice shall be
taken away," that daily sacrifice the burden of the
prophet's prophecy, that " incense and a pure offering
shall be presented among the Gentiles," from the cessa-
tion of the Jewish polity to the consummation of the
present age ; " and an abomination that maketh desolate,"
(for it is not the in the original, to distinguish it from
that of the Roman eagles upon the walls of Jerusalem,
when Titus and Vespasian utterly subverted and destroy-
ed it) ; from that time " there shall be a thousand two
hundred and ninety days ; 1260 prophetic days ending,
I said, in 1T93 ; when the papacy began to be subverted,
undermined, and destroyed; 30 additional such days,
ending synchronically with the 2300 years of Daniel, in
1823 or 1821, when the great eastern delusion began to
^vane, as it wanes at this moment, and is almost extinct
in the east of Europe ; that there should be an additional
5* (105)
106 TUE GREAT TRIBULATION.
45 years, making in all 1335; and then, "Blessed is
lie that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hun-
dred and five and thirty days," -which end the age, on
the supposition that the dates of commencement are right.
There, mind you, the Avhole difficulty lies ; and if I
were to assert that 532 or 533 is absolutely certain as
the commencing date, then we could absolutely predict
the close of this present Christian economy ; but that we
cannot do. But I showed, by collecting the opinions —
not opinions, but inferences and conclusions come to by
the best and the wisest commentators, not only of this
century, but also of the last — that 1867, which is a great
closing epoch, whatever be the events that are to trans-
pire, is an era fraught with gigantic issues the one way
or the other. If the theory of certain divines of the
present day, who are very able and very pious, be correct,
then 1867 terminates finally and fully the Mahometan
and Papal apostacies, the reign of wickedness upon earth,
and the commencement of at least a new, a brighter, and
a better era. If the conclusion of Elliot, and Newton,
Meade, and Bickersteth, and others who have written
upon the subject, be correct, then 1867 would close, in
the words of Lord Carlisle, this present economy, and
be the end of this present Christian dispensation. The
difficulty felt by many is how I begin this era at 532 ;
what is the nature of that system which the 1260 years
mete out ? and is the church of Rome (which looks very
uncharitable, but we can never be uncharitable when we
apeak vhat is true, I mean true in the word of God ) that
dreadful apostacy thus meted out by the days here speci-
fied ?
THE GLORIOUS LOT. 107
But at all events whatever be the eras or the dates,
whatever be the commencing or the terminating epochs,
here is the grand practical lesson deducible from all, ad-
dressed to every Daniel in Christendom, every preacher
and every student of prophecy, every Christian in this
age, " Go thou thy way till the end be ; for thou shalt rest,
and stand in thy lot at the end of the days." There seems
to me three great lessons to be gathered from this pre-
scription ; first of all, that present duty is not the least
diluted by contingent results ; "Go thy way till the end
be." The meaning of "Go thy way" is. Mind your bu-
siness, mind your work, attend to your duty. Secondly,
there is the prophecy, which we are sure will be fulfilled ;
" Thou shalt rest ; there remaineth a rest for the people
of God;" and lastly there is the assurance, personal, spe-
cific, and cheering : " Thou shalt stand in thy lot at the
end of the days."
First of all, there is the call to attend to present duty,
altogether irrespective of future contingency. No reve-
lation of the future that God has given or that man can
make plain is for one moment to interfere with our obvi-
ous unmistakable duties. In all persons who make real
or pretended knowledge of the future a reason for neg-
lecting the duties or violating the claims of the present,
there is fanaticism, the fanaticism of monks and recluses ;
not what the Bible is, inspired common sense for Chris-
tian men. Let us remember that the prophecies do not
repeal the precepts ; and if any man were to make his be-
lief of a prophecy of the future a reason for breaking or
ignoring a precept obligatory in the present, that man
would not rightly divide the word of truth. He would
108 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
most grievously misinterpret and misapply it. Whatever
be in the future, and whatever we expect in the future,
this is our duty in the present ; "Be steadfast, immovea-
ble ; fight the good fight ; hold fast thy crown, that no man
take it from thee ; occupy till I come ; work while it is
day, for the night cometh when no man can work." And
therefore it appears to me that any man who makes the
bright prospects of the future a reason for neglecting the
very last duty of the present, altogether misinterprets and
misdivides the word of God. Moral duties are not affect-
ed by anything upon earth. In the flame that wraps the
globe, in the intense fire that calcines it to dust, this re-
mains unscathed, undiluted, unaffected, " Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as
thyself" A material universe may go to ruin ; but moral
obligations outlast the stars and all created things. We
have instances constantly of God over-riding and revers-
ing physical laws ; but there is not an instance in the Bible
of God over-riding, reversing, or dispensing with a moral
law. We have found that some physical laws have been
altered ; the fire has failed to burn in the case of the three
Hebrew youths ; poison has ceased to destroy ; the floods
have failed to drown : these are instances of physical laws
reversed. But God has never reversed the law, " Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy
neighbor as thyself" Let me adduce an illustration : —
were a mother to be so captivated and charmed with the
study of the Apocalypse, and it is right to be charmed
and captivated with the bright prospect before us. that she
neglects her infant, or her children, or her husband, she
is acting a most unchristian part ; and she is making the
THE GLORIOUS LOT. 109
prospects of the future glorj, and her admiration of them,
a reason, a most erroneous reason, for neglecting present
and instant duties. Because you are not a Martha, ab-
sorbed in the duties of your household, and careful about
many things, you need not be a Mary, careful about
nothing, and absorbed in gratifying her intellectual and
imaginative contemplations. In the "words of a poet,
" Thine to Work as well as pray,
Clearing thorny wrongs away;
Plucking up the weeds of sin,
■Letting heaven's sweet sunshine in."
Here is the combination of the duties of the present
with the enjoyment of the prospects that lie before us.
Because our hearts are in the bright glory of the future,
our feet need not be idle ; because our affections rise above
the world, we are not called upon to go out of the world.
It is as much a duty to do the commands of your employer
or your sovereign, for a soldier to obey his superior, a
sailor his officer, and a servant his master, as it is to love
God, to fear God, to study his word, and to look forward
to the fulfilment of all the prophecies ; and if any man
makes any anticipations, or any settlement of dates, or any
opinion about the fulfilment of prophecy, a pretext for
neglecting any one duty that devolves upon him, he per-
verts and dishonors the word of God, and acts himself
most inconsistently. You must not suppose that you are
not Christians because you are not preaching ; or that you
are not acting under the influence of Christianity because
you are not studying the prophecies. On many an occa-
sion more heavenly thoughts have risen Avith the sparks
from the blacksmith's anvil, than from the swinging censer
110 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
and the ascending incense at a cathedral altar. It is not
the place, it is not the work, but the spirit in which we oc-
cupy the one and fulfil the obligations of the other that
makes it Christian. In fact, our idea of division into sa-
cred and secular is a very questionable one. I agree with
the late admirable and enlightened Dr. Arnold that all
things are sacred, because all things are from God ; all
things are to be rescued and reclaimed for God, and all
things ought to be done to honor and to serve God. And
therefore we say to every one who is absorbed with these
studies, or who gives his attention to them, '' Go thy
way," mind your business ; attend to your present duties ;
and if the world end, or if your life end, or if God step
in and call you, if you be at your duty, in the House of
Lords, in the House of Commons, in the counting-house,
in the shop, in the streets, in the country, walking in the
fields, or sailing on the sea ; wherever you are for duty
and in the way of duty, if God finds you there, he finds
you just where a good man wishes to be found — at your
post and in your place. Therefore you are never to forget
that all things are sacred to a Christian, and all situations
holy. Go then thy way. The mount of transfiguration,
is the splendid vision of an hour ; the valley, or the low
level of common duties, is the obligation of a life-time.
The glimpse of the glory as it sweeps past is given to
cheer, not that you may dispense with duties, but that you
may be strengthened to go into duties. God sees that we
need refreshment and strength, we need health and com-
fort, and he is always ready to give and allow it ; but he
requires this, that we shall still feel duties and obligations
arc ours. And, after all, better wear out than rust out ;
THE GLORIOUS LOT. Ill
better be worn out by our work than rust by indolence
and apathy. If every man will only go his way, he will
always find there is a way for him. God has a way or
race-course for every man. You have only to look round
to find it. Is your gift speech ? Then go and speak a
word to those that need to be instructed. Is your gift in-
fluence? Exert it accordingly. Is your gift wealth?
Expend it accordingly. God does not make you answer-
able for what he has not given you ; but only for the sa-
cred use of what he has given you. I have no manner of
sympathy with the sentiments of those who think that
when men become Christians they ought to bid farewell to
the world ; in other words, translated into plain speech,
they ought to hand it over to the devil, and go and enjoy
themselves out of it. That is not God's way. We are
here as soldiers to fight in God's ranks, to protest against
the devil's usurpation of the world ; and every man at his
own door-step to reclaim some little portion of that world,
that it may enjoy the sunshine and the dews of heaven, and
blossom like the rose, and be for a memorial to our God,
and for the praise and the honor of his great name. Be-
cause God makes you a Christian, he does not say, Come
mechanically out of the world ; but he bids you, while in
the world, in His strength, overcome the world. There-
fore if I became a Christian soldier in the army, I would
not sell my commission, I would be a Christian soldier ;
if I became a Christian in the parliament, I would not re-
sign my seat, bat I would act, and vote,* and speak as a
Christian senator in the parliament ; and if I became a
Christian, as a tradesman I would not shut my shop and
sell my goods by auction, but I would act as a Christian
112 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
tradesman, doing justly, cheating no man, speaking truth,
and acting honorably and consistently with my professions
and my principles. We are not to be like the monk, who
leaves the world, as he calls it, because he dreads its temp-
tations ; nor are we to imitate the suicide, who leaves the
world because he dreads its troubles ; but we are to be
what the master has prayed that we may be — " I pray
not that thou wouldst take them out of the world, but that
thou wouldst keep them from the evil of the world." That
is our position, these our marching orders, this our duty
in the midst of the world. And thefefore, Go thou thy
way. Daniel the prophet must be Daniel the preacher ;
and Daniel the preacher must be also Daniel the practi-
tioner. Go thy way, for there is sin to be swept aw^ay ;
there are broken hearts to be comforted ; there are sorrow-
ing ones to be cheered ; there are ignorant ones to be en-
lightened ; there is plenty to do in this world of ours
alone ; plenty to do. I do not ask you to do the thing
that I prefer ; I do not ask you to engage in the specific
mission that my sympathies may be with ; let every man
select for himself something to do, and let him do it with
all his might. I have a strong conviction that if we could
only treat ourselves and the world in our Christian duties
as people at Birmingham and Sheffield treat pins, we should
do a vast deal more good. In making a pin, for instance,
there are some seven men required ; that is to say, each
man has his own part ; and that part, however minute, he
does thoroughly. If every person takes some specific thing,
one a ragged school, another a day school, another a Sun-
day School, another the circulation of useful books and
tracts, another the visiting of the poor ; and others, who
THE GLORIOUS LOT. 113
have not time for that, give something to enable their
proxies to do it, for proxies are permissible where there is
no personal ability or opportunity ; were each to take up
some one thing, and give his whole heart to that, I am
quite sure that greater good would be done. The late Dr.
Chalmers used to say that success is only to be obtained by
being a man of one thing. If it is to preach - and spread
the glorious Gospel, give your whole heart, and soul, and
strength to it, and you will do some good ; but if you
combine with the preacher the schoolmaster, or if you have
labors that interfere with it, or duties incompatible with it,
your preaching will not be successful, and your labor will
not have a blessing. Go thy way ; mind thy business,
fulfil thy mission ; occupy till I come ; and then when
the end arrives, you will hear the words, " Well done,
thou good and faithful servant. I gave thee one talent,
and thou hast made it five ; I gave to another a talent, and
he has made it ten;" each different degrees of success,
but all, because Christians, doing something to make them-
selves more useful, the world wiser and happier also. So
much for the first prescription ; " Go thy way."
There is in the second place the comforting and as-
suring promise, " Thou shalt rest." The first the pre-
scription of duty; the second the cheering promise, to
enable you to fulfil that duty. '' Thou shalt rest."
How full is the Bible of that word "rest!" "Come
unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I
will give you rest." And again, "There remaineth a
rest for the people of God." Let me explain the mean-
ing of tlie word " rest" in that passage in Hebrews iv. ;
it is the translation of the Greek word ou^^aTiajuug,
114 THE GREAT TRIBULATUX.
which means ''a sabbath-keeping;" there remaineth a
sabbath-keeping for the people of God." The very
phrase that denotes the millennial rest is "sabbath-
keeping." Every sabbath, therefore, that we spend is
in its measure, very imperfect it is true, a type and
earnest of the everlasting sabbath ; and every sabbath
that we come to is a sabbath nearer the everlastinor rest
that remaineth for the people of God. \Vliat a beauti-
ful day is the sabbath ! I do not mean the Jewish sab-
bath ; I do not mean the extreme Puritanic sabbath ; I
mean the Christian and the evangelical sabbath. It looks
to me as if on that day the sun rose with a freshness in-
dicating his design to begin a new and more glorious
march ; as if the sanctuary, wherever it be, and however
humble, stood out from amidst the houses with sharper
and more beautiful relief; as if there were a burst of
heaven's sunshine once a week, to let us know what a
bright and blessed state that will be ; when all the mills
stand still; the shops are shut; the noise, and bustle,
and excitement of life seem laid , and it seems as if there
were what in the Apocalypse is called a half-hour's si-
lence ; when man may listen and hear ringing unspent in
their transit from home the blessed accents of his father
and his God. That sabbath, with its privileges, its les-
sons, its sanctuaries, is a type, an imperfect type, but
still a type of the rest, the sabbath-keeping, that re-
maineth for the people of God. " Thou shalt rest."
Now what will be the nature of that rest — that future ?
For I confess I look oftener forward than I look upward.
We are more prone to look upward than to look forward.
It is remarkable that all promises of glad things, and
THE GLORIOUS LOT. 115
bright things, and blessed things are in the future ; and
that the most common direction of the Bible is to look
forward for our heaven, rather than to look upward. If
death takes us, then it is God's will; but if we are
spared, and so are introduced into that rest, that is what
the New Testament points out. I do not think there is a
text in the Bible warning man by the prospect of death,
or bidding man look to death, or directing him to think
of death. One will be very much struck on reading the
Epistles by finding how constantly we are enjoined, '' By
the coming of the Lord;" by what is in the future; by
the inheritance laid up for us ; by what we are taught to
anticipate. We are constantly encouraged to dul;ies by
the reward not that is above us, but the reward that
gleams in the distance far beyond and before us. It is
promised, " Thou shalt rest." What will be the nature
of this rest ? First, it will not be a mere scene of sen-
suous enjoyment ; — I use the word senstious in contra-
distinction to the word sensual ; — it will be the enjoy-
ment of sense, but of sense sanctified. The future rest
will not be spiritual only ; we shall have bodies, but re-
surrection and glorified bodies, made after the image of
our Lord's glorious body. There will be all that can
charm the ear ; can we suppose music is unfit for heav-
en ? On the contrary. There will be all that will gra-
tify the eye ; a panorama of splendor, beauty, and mag-
nificence, such as eye never saw, and such as poet never
delineated. It is true all this will not be heaven, nor
the chief joy in heaven ; but on one ledge at least of our
ceaseless ascent, ear, and eye, and taste, and imagination
116 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
■will be gratified hj things such as eye has not yet seen,
and ear has not yet heard. That blessed rest will not be
exclusively intellectual. There will be the gratification
of the intellect ; questions that perplex philosophers now
will be axioms then ; the difficulties of the most culii-
vated intellects here will be the perfect knowledge and
possession of the humblest in the kingdom of heaven.
What we know not now we shall know hereafter. The
desire of knowledge becomes knowledge, just as the de-
sire of grace becomes grace. How many things do we
want to know ; what heights, and depths, and mysteries,
and perplexities, and obscurities, constantly beset our
path ; and how do we long for some (Edipus to solve the
riddle, some Solomon to teach us more than we dream
of! how earnestly, therefore, should we anticipate that
day when ''what thou knowest not now, thou shalt know
hereafter," shall no longer be a promise in the future,
but a reality in the present : and when we shall know
even as we are known. But this is not all ; the fu-
ture rest will not be a Pagan Elysium, nor a Mahometan
Paradise, nor a great intellectual school, a higher uni-
versity; it will be all this, but it will be something
greater still. It will be that perfection to which all past
ages have contributed, and in whose glory all past ages
shall be crowned. It will be to the world what the
flower is to the stem and to the root ; its culminating
beauty and perfection. It is a thought I would not give
up for the world that this earth of ours is not doomed to
annihilation, nor to be made a present of to him who has
corrupted it; every inch of it is to be purified, every
THE GLORIOUS LOT. 117
atom of it is to be rebaptizecl ; it is to be the loveliest
orb in the sisterhood of stars ; on which all orbs will
look, and from which lessons will leap up soaring into
distant worlds, and making the universe wiser, and hap-
pier, and more thankful, because one sister orb fell, and
has been reclaimed, restored, and introduced again into
the communion of the happy, the holj, and the unfallen.
Imagination will find its rest : intellect its rest ; prophet,
and patriarch, and evangelist, will find their rest: we
shall have all the heart's yearnings gratified, all the
mind's desires met; and as we enter into that blessed
rest, and taste of its joy, and find all broken circles re-
stored, and all those that we called lost waiting for us,
we shall be astonished that we groped, and Joved to grope
in this dark, damp crypt that we call the present world,
and that we did not long to go up into that glorious sun-
lit cathedral, the high altar of which is the Son of God,
in which the song never ceases, in which there shines the
light of an everlasting sabbath ; in which there is no need
of the sun, nor of the moon, for the glory of God and of
the Lamb are the light thereof Such then is the rest
that remaineth for the people of God. It will be rest
from all toil, official and political. Daniel was a prime
minister in Babylon ; he met with persecution ; he was
maligned and misrepresented. When God told Daniel
this, he said, Daniel, you will cease to be a minister of
the earthly sovereign, you must now come up higher,
and become a minister of the heavenly : your work in
Babylon is done, your enjojancnt in heaven begins, and
in the rest that remaineth for the people of God will be
118 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
augmented day by day. This expression, " Thou shalt
rest," means also. Thou shalt be free from all trouble,
and grief, and aches, and ills, that flesh is heir to. These
are the progeny of sin ; but in that blessed sabbath, that
glorious rest, we shall be free from all these. There
will be a sky whose sunshine will not scorch, nor be in-
terrupted by a transient cloud, nor know a western de-
clension ; there will be that river that maketh glad the
city of our God ; there will be rest, enjoyment, peace,
immunity from all that disturbs ; for the gates of glory
that let the Christian in shut out all the cares, ills, and
aches that the Christian has long been heir to. No wave
of trouble will fall into that beautiful and peaceful bay ;
the unspent and remote sound of it from far off only
will be heard ; and the sense of past trouble will only add
to the intensity of present enjoyment. The promise to
Daniel, " Thou shalt rest," implies, Thou shalt rest
from all sickness, from disease, from death, from sin;
thou shalt rest for ever. In the language of the prophet,
"The inhabitant shall not say any more, I am sick."
Headaches and heartaches will be unknown. Those of
us who have health, oh how thankful we should be ! I
do not believe that any one knows the blessings of health
except those that, like Job, say in the morning, " Would
God it were the evening," and in the evening, " Would
God it were the morning." There will be health, un-
interrupted health, perfect freedom from all sickness,
from tears, from death. You will rest, finally, from all
the assaults of Satan, all the temptations of the Wicked
One ; from all that can lead you to diverge or to go
THE GLORIOUS LOT. 119
astray, or to do what is sinful and unholy in the sight of
God. What a grand thought, that every sabbath brings
us nearer to this rest ! Each sabbath is like the wave of
the advancing tides of the sea, kissing the shore, prelim-
inary to the approach of the whole weight and grandeur
of the ocean. Every year that we spend, every sabbath
that we enjoy, is so much of this world gone, and we are
so much nearer that rest that remaineth for the people
of God. Such is the rest before us. Broken-hearted
ones, there is healing for you. Rachel, weeping for
your children, because they are not, there is the restora-
tion of them for you. Ye who are weary and heavy
laden with this world's burdens, there is rest for you.
Ye who are sick and suffering, and know not what health
is, be patient ; there is an issue out of it, a glorious de-
liverance, a blessed rest. Let us draw on the future for
a little sunshine in the present. You may draw from
that inexhaustible capital and you will find that the pres-
ent will be lightened in its load as the future comes in to
cheer and to comfort you.
" Thou shalt stand in thy lot." What does this mean?
I answer, first of all, that the individual Christian is
here recognised as individually seen of God. This is a
thought I wish each of us could realise, that God's ej^e,
his loving eye, his careful eye, is as much upon me as if
there was nobody else in the whole of Europe he cared
for. There is not a sorrow in your inmost heart that
has not its resounding echo in the heart of your Father ;
there is not an anxiety you feel, however trivial it may
seem to others, that God regards as unworthy of notice.
120 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
Maornificent tbouojht. "we move in the midst of a cease-
less guardianship ; all heaven encompasses us ; our Fath-
er's eye is ever on us. •' Go thou thy way ; for thou
shalt rest, and stand in thy lot." What is this lot? It
is described in that passage which the poet Burns said
he never could read without weeping. " Who are these,
and whence came they ? These are they that came out
of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and
made them white in the blood of tlie Lamb. Therefore
are they before the throne of God, and serve him day
and night in his temple; and he that sitteth on the
throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no
more, neither thirst any more ; neither shall the sun
light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in
the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead
them unto living fountains of waters ; and God shall
wipe away all tears from their eyes." That is the lot;
in that lot. in that shining lot. Daniel and we shall stand.
But perhaps there is something more specific still in the
promise, " Thou shalt stand in thy lot." There are de-
grees of glory ; the right of entrance into heaven is for
all Christians ; but there are heights in heaven, there
are thrones, and degrees of glory. If I were to put a
vessel that holds a pint, and a vessel that holds a quart,
and a vessel that holds a gallon, into the ocean, they
would all be full ; but the one that holds a gallon would
contain more than the one that holds only a pint. So
when all Christians go to heaven, they will all be full of
happiness, but one has a larger capacity than another,
and is capable of a greater amount of felicity. Daniel
himself says, " They that turn many to righteousness
THE GLORIOUS LOT. 121
shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and as
the stars for ever and ever." Daniel was to be numbered
in that lot. He had been a successful preacher, a faith-
ful martyr, and he will therefore be in the goodly fellow-
ship of the prophets ; others in the noble army of martyrs ;
others in the glorious company of the apostles ; and
others in thy holy church throughout all the world.
LECTURE XXVIII.
THE ENDURING WORD.
" Heaven and earth shall pass away^ hut my words
shall not pass aicay?^ — Matthew xxiv. 35.
I HAVE explained these words, '' This generation shall
not pass away, till all these things bo fulfilled." I
showed, first, by references to the usage of the words ;
secondly, by facts that are legible along the whole path of
history for eighteen hundred years, that one great na-
tionality, which is the meaning of the word, has not
passed away ; and gives token still by its existence, its
influence, its insulation from the mass, and yet its com-
mand of all the- wealth almost of the world ; that the
Jewish race, so ill treated, insulted, and reproached, but
so mistakenly so, shall exist until the close of this dis-
pensation ; and then, like a streamlet that has pursued
its course for eighteen hundred years, shall mingle and
mix with the endless main of a redeemed and regene-
rated people. The word rendered " pass away," here
used to describe the duration of the Jewish race, is also
applied to the word of God, Christ's word ; heaven and
earth shall pass away, but it shall not pass away. We
have seen that various physical phenomena, moral calam-
(122)
THE ENDURING WORD. 123
ities, great changes and convulsions in the physical con-
stitution of things, will precede the winding up of that
magnificent drama of which angels are the spectators,
and men the solemn and responsible actors. All these
earthquakes, famines, darkening of the sun, shakino- of
the heavens, distress of nations, perplexity, the sea and
the waves roaring, are the tokens of nature's sickness,
the evidences of her increasino- disease, and advancing de-
cay, foretokens, according to their depth and multiplica-
tion, that her death is near ; when the old earth, weary
with the sobs of her children, sick of being a grave for
her offspring, torn and ploughed by war, convulsed by
earthquake, shall at last die, but only to rise again a new
and more beautiful earth. But, says our Lord, this
heaven and this earth may pass away, but something
shall outlive them all ; and draw its nutriment, and the
elements and growth of its victory from all ; that word
which lasts forever : the most magnificent of created
things being transient ; the least word that Christ has
spoken eternal and enduring for ever. What word is
this? The answer is, "My word." Who spoke this
word ? Jesus Christ the Savior. Must not He be God
who could fling upon the winds such a prophecy as this,
and be sure of its everlasting success ? The man of sor-
rows. He who was acquainted with grief. He who accom-
plished that mysterious tragedy which ended in a cross
on earth, but culminates in a crown in heaven ; He who
had nowhere to lay his head. He who was marching to a
grave, says, seated on the Mount of Olives in the midst
of a few fishermen, " My word shall never pass away."
He thftt said so was either a fanatic, or He was the living
124 THE GREAT TKIBULATlUX.
God ; that He was the latter we know : that the pro-
phecy, therefore, is truth, we are sure: "'heaven and
earth may all pass away, but my word shall not pass
away.*' But I have said it is Christ's word : do we not
however, when we open this book, think it is the word ct
Jeremiah, of Moses, of Isaiah, of John, and of James ?
They were the instruments, but Christ's word is neverthe-
theless audible in all. In all the songs of Moses is heard
the sono; of the Lamb ; in the Lamentations of Jeremiah,
in the rushing strains of Isaiah, in the plaintive hymns
and melodies of David, in the awful magnificence of Ha-
bakuk, when he speaks of the perpetual hills bowing
themselves, and the everlasting mountains being scatter-
ed ; in the dying prophecies of Malachi, in the startling
accents of the Baptist ; in the gentle speech of John, in
the rushing logic of Paul, in the gorgeous eloquence of
the seer of Patmos ; in all their varied strains we can
hear ringing clear, sweet, pervading all, audible in all,
the word and voice of the Son of God ; their words are
the mere echoes and reflections of Christ's mind.
What are some of the marks and characteristics of
Christ's word ? I will quote one or two as given in the
Bible. First, it was said of him, "He speaks with au-
thority." Now open a page of an ancient philosopher;
it is full of guesses, of hopes, of dim imaginations. Open
a page of the gospel : "I say unto you ;" '• It is writ-
ten;" ^'- This is the truth ;" " I am the way, the truth,
; nd the life ;" an unfaltering utterance of truths that
never came within the horizon before, a decisive expres-
sion of magnificent words, never guessed in Grecian
school, never dreamed of in Jewish synagogue. !\ here
THE ENDURING WORD. 125
is a glorj on the inspired page that you cannot mistake ;
it has a kingly stamp and majesty about it ; it bears the
very impress of the authority and the superscription of a
king. There is a simplicity and a grandeur in that book,
an acquaintance with the past and the future, an inspec-
tion and a revelation of heaven and hell ; and what is
greater than all, an analysis of my heart and my con-
science ; so that when I read this book it looks as if there
was a mirror before my heart that reflects all its most
fugitive lights and shadows, as if there were a hand touch-
ing my conscience that lays bare all its innermost doubts,
fears, hopes, perplexities ; so truly that He who wrote
this book was none else than He that made my heart,
and gave me all my mental and moral organism. Christ
speaks in this word with authority : we hear men in the
present day saying. We want an authority, here it is ;
they want a speaking authority, here it is ; " Hear what
the Spirit saith unto the churches." The peculiarity of
the Bible is. it is not so much written as lived and spoken.
Even Milton's majestic poem palls upon the taste : even
the most magnificent passages in the great dramas of the
master of human speech and knowledge we get tired of
reading; but there is about this book a freshness, so real
that it makes us feel as if we heard those beautiful ac-
cents, such as never fell from man's lips, upon the banks
of the Jordan — that awful and piercing wail from the
cross, which rent the grave and entered heaven — those
congratulatory strains when He rose from the d'ad, those
sweet encouragements, those gentle rebukes, tliose musi-
cal promises. There is about the Bible a freshness that
makes us feel, whilst it speaks with authority, it speaks
126 ^ THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
in such a way as makes it, like the song in the Apoca-
lypse, ever old and yet ever new. If Christ speaks in
this word with authority, let me ask, what have critics to
do ? Not to amend the Bible, but to ascertain what are
the very words of the Bible. What have preachers to
do ? Not to adorn the Bible : for to adorn its glorious
truths is to try to paint the lily, to gild refined gold, or
to add fresh perfume to the violet ; but simply to unfold
them. What has reason to do ? To bow before an au-
thority which is the author, and the inspirer, and the
maker of reason. What have all of us to do ? To receive
God's truth ; to lay it up in our hearts, to exemplify it
in our lives, to spread it abroad, at home, and amid the
heathen in distant lands ; and not to cease to do so till
the accents uttered by the Man of Sorrows ring in glo-
rious reverberations from east, and west, and north, and
south, and from heaven and earth, and the whole earth is
filled with his glory.
I turn to another characteristic of his word ; and it is
one which He gave himself, his testimony is true. " I
am the truth :" '•' Thy word is truth." Christ's word is
truth. So, you say, is Euclid ; so is mathematics ; so is
sunrise and the sunset. But there is a distinction among
truths ; some truths are useless, other truths are instruc-
tive, other truths are interesting ; but the truths in this
book are saving, essential, vital. As in the human econ-
omy, you may lose an arm, and yet be healthy and live
long; you may lose a foot, and yet be healthy and live
long; but if you lose the heart, or the brain, or the
lungs, there is an end of you for this world. In our
body there are some organs that are essential, there are
THE ENDURING WORD. 127
other organs that are very useful; and there are a few
that are merely ornamental. It is the same Y>ith this
blessed book ; there are certain truths in it essential ;
there are other truths that are most valuable, and there
are some that are ornamental; but none that are not
true, and of importance to the conversion, the comfort,
happiness, or progress of the human soul. Our blessed
Lord says his word is truth ; truth without the least al-
loy ; light reflected from words in which there is no de-
flection whatever. We need not only to see an object,
but we need to have a pure medium through which to see
it ; and to find the Avay to heaven as inspired by the
Spirit of God, it needs the pure medium of pure words,
that we may see the way, the truth, and the life, in all
its pristine purity and glory.
His word is spirit and life. " The words that I speak
unto you, they are spirit and life." Milton's " Paradise
Lost" is poetry ; Cicero's writings are eloquence, but
Christ's word is life. One other characteristic I must
give. It is the admission of his enemies; " Never man
spake like this man." What proud spirits has a single
sentence from the Scripture humbled ; what broken hearts
has it bound up ; what sorrows has it diluted or washed
away ; what tears has it dried up ! Other voices leave
echoes behind them ; this voice leaves a deep and perma-
nent impression wherever it strikes ; it is the savor of
life, the incorruptible seed, through which we are born
again. Now such is the character of Christ's word,
drawn from itself
What does Christ say of this word? "Heaven and
earth shall pass away ; but my word shall not pass away."
128 THE GKEAT TRIBULATION.
The empire of Caesar is gone ; the legions of Rome are
mouldering in the dust ; the avalanches of Napoleon
liurled upon Europe have melted awaj ; the pride of the
Pharaohs is fallen ; the pyramids thej raised to be their
tombs are sinking every day in the desert sands ; Tyre is
a rock for bleaching fishermen's nets ; Sidon has scarcely
left a wreck behind ; but the word of Christ still sur-
vives ; it speaks with undiluted emphasis, it spreads
with uninterupted speed. All things that threatened to
extinguish it have only aided it ; and it proves every day
how transient is the noblest monument that man can
build, how enduring is the least word that the Son of
God has spoken. Tradition has dug for it many a grave,
intolerance has lighted for it many a fagot ; many a
Judas has betrayed it with a kiss ; many a Peter has de-
nied it with an oath ; many a Demas has forsaken it ;
but heaven and earth may pass away, but my word shall
not pass away till all be fulfilled. Those things that
once seemed to rise like mountain obstructions to its
march are day by day dissolving like wreaths of snow in
the sunshine, in contrast to the advancing and triumphant
word of the Lord. The scepticism of Hume, and Rous-
seau, and Paine, is now laughed at even by disbelievers
in Christianity ; the objections of Strauss, urged a few
years ago with great power and in the most plausible lan-
guage, are now regarded as untenable even by those who
are opposed to the Gospel. And the last and the only
form of scepticism that we have now, if we exclude mere
practical sceptism, is that of Emerson, and some who
have arisen in the continent of America, who seem to
triumph in pulling down everything, but who have lost
THE ENDURING WORD. 129
all idea of building up anything ; and their objections
are so metaphysical, so fanciful, so transcendental, that
they have only had effect with a few speculative minds ;
they have made no impression upon the masses of man-
kind. If we turn to other forms of error, Mahometan-
ism is dying out ; Romanism is losing its influence ; and
the hour is almost at hand when a voice shall ring from
heaven to earth, and from earth to heaven, " Babylon the
great is fallen, is fallen, and shall rise no more at all."
We see on every side evidence of the progress of the
Bible ; and of the fulfilment of this prophecy ; and of
the decadence or disappearance of all that stands in its
way. And after heaven and earth have passed away, and
a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth right-
eousness, are come, will Christ's word cease then? No;
the only change will be — all its promises will be enjoy-
ments, all its prophecies history, all its invitations expe-
rience ; and what is now inscribed upon the parchment,
or upon the frail paper, shall be inscribed upon all space
as its glorious page, — the stars will be its magnificent
letters, constellations will be its magnificent sentences ;
the winds will whisper its sweet sounds, the Avaves in their
chimes will give utterance to its glorious truths ; and that
word so long persecuted, then enthroned and enshrined,
will be the reference book of the redeemed in glory ; and
ever as a Christian wants to trace and retread all the
way through which God led him upon earth, he will take
the chart in his hand with the experience in his heart ;
and ever as he discovers a new place where he raised an
Ebenezer here below, he will lift up a fresh song unto
Him that loved him, and washed him from his sins in his
6*
130 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
own blood, and liatli made bim a king and a priest unto
bis God. But tbis sentence sball be felt in bell, as well
as enjoyed and realized in beaven. Tbe lost in misery
will be constrained to say, Heaven and earth bave passed
away, 0 God ; but tby word bas not passed away. Tbou
didst say, He tbat believeth not sball be damned ; 0
God, it is true, bppelessly, terribly, witbout mitigation,
witbout measure, witbout end, it is true. And tbe saved
in beaven sball be able to say, He tbat believetb sball be
saved ; 0 Lord, it is true, gloriously true. It will be
discovered tben tbat wbat we tbougbt adjuncts were es-
sentials, and wbat we tbougbt exaggerated metapbors
were literal trutbs ; and tbat tbe least promise, or bless-
ing, or mercy, tbat Christ spoke or tbat tbe Spirit taught
was never couched in exaggerated language, but rather
in words not vast and magnificent enough to embody the
glorious living truth.
Christian believer, here is comfort, in tbe great tribu-
lation to you. Of the least promise that you choose to
select you may say, Heaven and earth shall pass away,
but tbis promise sball not pass away. " I will never
leave thee ; I will never forsake thee ;" tbis is not a ran-
dom expression ; nor language that needs to be diluted ;
it is literally and strictly true, applicable to you, may
be enjoyed by you, wherever you are, and under what-
ever circumstances you are placed. Hesitating, trembling
one, who would be a Christian, and yet fears ; who be-
lieves that the Gospel is true, and yet says, I wish I felt
its power ; I wish I could believe ; I wish I could see
my way as clearly to Christ and to happiness as you do.
The way is plain ; -'Him that cometh unto me," says
THE ENDURING WORD. 131
Christ, " I will in no wise cast out." Heaven and earth
may pass away, but I will not cast him out. Do I ad-
dress those who sigh and grieve over all they see around
them ; heathen at home, darkness at our doors, vice in
public places, sin everywhere? There is a promise
which will cheer you; and what is it? '"The whole
earth shall be filled with my glory, saith the Lord of
hosts." Then remember you are on- the winning side;
ft Christian is in a Phalanx that never can be permanently
if it be temporarily beaten ; for the whole earth shall be
covered with the glory of the Lord, as the waters of the
ocean cover the channels of the great deep. If these
words reach a preacher of the Gospel, there is comfort
here for him also. One sometimes feels depressed to be
doomed to ceaseless sowing, and never, or at all events
rarely, reaping; but we are wrong. Ours is to fulfil
the Master's commission ; it is his to evolve the appropriate
issue; and he himself has made the distinction; ''One
soweth, and another reapeth." Some ministers excel in
ploughing, harrowing, tearing up, and preparing the
heart's rugged soil, taking out its gnarled roots of wick-
edness, in order that a second may come and sow the seed.
He that sows the seed amid the tears of weeping eyes, as
martyrs have sown it amid the blood of warm hearts, may
never see the harvest ; but another will come in, and he
will bring home the sheaves with joy rejoicing. We
can therefore fall back upon this promise, and I must say
• it is enough, " My word shall not return unto me void."
If, therefore, we speak Christ's truth, it is hardening
some, it is softening others ; and where we can see no
immediate issue at all, it is going forth upon the wings of
132 THE GllEAT TRIBULATION.
the wind to accomplish promised, pledged, and magnifi-
cent results. We take therefore the words of advice of
the poet, —
" Drop it where thorns and thistles grow,
Scatter it on the rock ;
Then when the glorious day.
The day of God is come.
The reapers shall descend,
And heaven cry, Harvest home."
These are words of promise, and therefore of encour-
agement. A greater than the poet has said, " My word
shall not return to me void.' This is the foundation of
our hopes of success.
LECTURE XXIX.
A THOUSAND YEARS AS ONE DAY.
" Biit^ beloved^ be not ignorant of this one thing, that
one day is with the Lord as a thousand years^ and a
thousand years as one day.^^ — 2 Peter iii. 8.
It is the obvious drift of the apostle, in these words, to
vindicate God from the charge of wliat seems delay in
fulfilling his promises to them that f^ar Him, and in exe-
cuting judgments upon them that dishonor and disobey
Him. You must not, says Peter, measure the greatness
of God by a rule of human construction ; you must recol-
lect that eternity is the measure of his existence ; three-
score and ten mete out ours ; and that on the great scale
of an everlasting Being, a thousand years is less, rela-
tively, than a single day is when measured and estimated
in relation to the few and weary years that bound the pil-
grimage of man. The idea that, the sacred penman
teaches us is, that our days are fleet and few ; that God's
days are endless and enduring ; and the practical infer-
ence we are to draw from it is our duty to use the days,
few or many, that God has given us, for those great and
magnificent ends which will involve at once our highest
happiness and God"s greatest glory. Man's life since he
sinned and fell, and still more since the Flood, has been
(138)
134 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
likened to the most evanescent of created things. We
read, " Man spends his days as a tale that is told."
When you hear an interesting story, the echoes of which
continue to ring in the cells of memory, it seems as if
the time spent in telling it had been moments and not
hours. So when you look back upon the past period of
life, how rapidly it has rushed away ! Let the man wdio
has crossed the keystone of life's arch, and instead of
ascending begins at length to descend, take a retrospect
of the past period of his life ; does it not seem almost
like a dream ? We can scarcely realize the thought that
ten, fifteen, twenty, or thirty years have passed away ;
but we find the thought meetly and happily expressed by
the inspired penman, " we spend our days as a tale that
is told." Again, it is likened to a flower of the field; it
is likened to the mountain torrent that rushes for a few
hours full, or overflowing its banks, and then disappears
and leaves only dry rocks in its channel. All nature
seems exhausted of her choicest imagery to persuade us
— how strange that we should need to be persuaded ! —
that our days are few, and in many a weeping case full
of sorrow. But so it is ; we admit the fact ; but of all
facts it is one we least feel. A poet said in scorn —
" All men think all men mortal but themselves."
We believe abstractedly what we read ; but the difficulty
is to treat a grand truth as men sometimes treat a sinful
feeling, to give it hospitality, and to cherish it, until that
which was an applicant outside at the door, is received to
the warm fireside of the heart, and is there wrought into
the very woof and warp and tissue of our every-day life
and -feeling. Take home this varied imagery, so expres-
A THOUSAND YEARS A3 OXE DAY. 135
sive of the brevity of man's life ; and when you feel it,
do not say with the sensualist, We must soon die ; let us
eat, and drink, and be merry : do not say w^ith the monk,
We must soon die ; let us leave the world and go into a
convent: but let us say with the Christian, " The time
is short ; it remains, therefore, that they that weep be as
th'ough they wept not ; and they that rejoice as though they
rejoiced not ; and they that buy, as though they possessed
not ; and they that use the world, as not abusing it ; for
the fashion of it speedily passeth away." While speak-
ing of years, and of our experience of what the years
are, let me notice a very interesting truth that we are
disposed sometimes to forget ; that not a minute, nor an
hour, nor a day, nor a year sweeps over us without leav-
ing influences, and impressions, and giving impulses that
may never end. There is not a cloud that sweeps
through the sky, and casts its shadow on the green field,
that does not leave an influence and an impression upon
the grass over which it has swept. Whether this be
true or not, it is certainly true that there is not a year
passes over us that docs not alter the aspect of home,
leave grey hairs to some, broken hearts to others, and
testify its transit by gaps, and losses, and crosses, and
bitter disappointments, and heavy trials, and heart-quakes
worse than earthquakes : time as it sweeps over us leaves
traces and footprints eternity will scarcely be able to
efface. Let us notice some of these. Every section of
time, however small it may be, alters the body itself
There is not a year that passes over the head which does
not whiten some hair that w^as not whitened before, or
leave on the outward physical system traces of its rough
136 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
flood rushing through its many channels to the deep. I
do not believe that we are physically at any one moment
the same in all respects, however microscopic the changes
may be, that we were a few hours or months before.
It seems as if, in youth, time amused himself by decking
every part of the body with beauty and with blossom,
and it seems as if, after forty, time spent all his attention
in picking off each flower and blossom, till all becomes
sere, and withered, and old. During the first half of
our life time is constantly giving ; during the last half
time seems continually abstracting ; during the first
building up and making more beautiful and strong ; dur-
ing the last breaking down and making more feeble and
frail : of a certainty not one of us is physically to-day
what we were twelve months ago. I mean, of course, in
outward condition ; some are older, others frailer ; the
prints of the crow's feet are multiplying above one's eye ;
the wrinkles of the retreating tide of life begin to appear
upon the brow of another ; the heart has a more muffled
beat, and the limbs feel less strong, the muscles are less
elastic, and what is worse than all, the buoyancy of the
heart is not what it was before. We are changed ; the
times change, and in the current we are changed also.
But each minute, day, and year, as they pass, leave an
impression on the mind or the intellect just as truly as
on the body. From infancy to maturer years intellect
is developed, powerfully and unmistakeably developed ;
but it does not follow that during the decline of life,
when the body decays, the intellect decays proportiona-
bly also. On the contrary, you will find in the old man,
not indeed the same buoyant and soaring imagination
A THOUSAND YEARS AS ONE DAY. 137
that was in his youth, but what is better, a ripeness of
judgment, a maturity of experience, and a capacity of
discriminating and distinguishing, altogether strange to
the season of youth.
I have long thought there is a great deal of nonsense
talked and written in the newspapers, alleging the inca-
pacity of old age. If I wished to have the mind that one
could most rely on, and most defer to in the greatest crisis,
it would just be an old man with good health and an ex-
perienced and ripened judgment. True, he could not lead
the forlorn hope as he used to do : he could not mix in the
fray with all the energy with which a young soldier Avars ;
but then he compensates for the absence of these by other
attributes. I do not believe that the mind decays with
the body. But you say. Do we not see old men sometimes
get very stupid ? I admit it. But what goes wrong ? It
is not the mind ; it is only the machinery through which
it acts that will not act as it once did. There is in mind
more or less ceaseless development. Who can doubt that
the mind of an adult at thirty years of age, and the mind
of a child of seven or eight years of age, are totally
dissimilar ? The chasm between the intellect of Sir Isaac
Newton, a baby on his mother's knee, and the intellect of
Sir Isaac Newton when it weighed in scales the orbs of
the sky, and defined with majestic precision the density,
the distance, and the velocity of every ^tar, is very great.
And should the future be, what we have reason to expect
it will be. the ceaseless expansion and development of man's
intellect, I can in some degree anticipate what a grand
home, what a blessed estate, what a glorious reward, will
be the eternal heaven that is before every true and believ-
138 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
ing Christian. Our intellects change for the better as we
grow older. I am quite sure, to take a more humble
illustration, when we think of what we said and did when
we were young, we are ashamed. However little im-
proved may be what I preach now, yet when I look back
twenty years upon the notes of what I preached then, I am
amazed that any one listened ^ith patience to the very
small talk I then uttered. One feels growth in one's mind ;
and it is a most delightful thought that one is growing
wiser and more experienced, and more able to be useful
and to instruct ; instead of feeling, what would be a great
calamity, that one's intellect decays, and one's mental
powers lose their elasticity, and one's stores of instruction
and reading become useless.
Our feelings also are affected by the lapse and current
of years. Experience modifies the exercise of feelings of
one class, and resists the action of others that belonor to
another class. Time has dried up the springs of some
feelings, but he has opened new springs and swelled the
currents of other and of better feelings. Feelings to
which we are now stran2:ers were most familiar to us once :
and feelings that we now cherish will be very much stran-
gers to us by and by. But above all in importance, the
years as they sweep past are affecting our spiritual and
moral condition. Our moral and spiritual nature is in a
state of constant development and growth. This growth
may not always be good ; it may possibly be evil ; but
growth there is ; stagnation in moral and spiritual devel-
opment I believe there never is, and there never can be.
Every act of liberality, every deed of goodness, every
feeling and affection that we cherish, is becoming a habit,
A THOUSAND YEARS AS ONE DAY. 189
and that habit is becoming a nature ; and every one is
consolidating by the lapse of years a moral and a spiritual
character that will only be developed more and more
through endless ages, either in eternal misery or in eter-
nal blessedness. And though it may be very true that
the influenco is noiseless as the flight of an angel's wing,
yet it is not the less mighty on that account. The cease-
less falling of one drop of water will hollow a stone ; the
ceaseless application of slight blows in continuous suc-
cession Avill shake the strongest foundation. In the same
manner thoughts become words, words become acts, acts
become habits, habits become life ; and that life lasts and
endures for ever and ever. What a solemn thought then,
we are builders for eternity ; and the yesterdays, the to-
days, and the to-morrows, are the materials with which
we are building up a superstructure that shall either glow
amid the splendors of unsetting suns, or reflect the lurid
glare of that fire that is not quenched, and of that
mingled day and night which is for ever and ever. Well
and justly, therefore, has the poet said —
" BuiM to-day then strong and stout,
On a firm and ample base;
And ascending and secure
Shall to-morrow find its place."
The years also alter our relations and relationships in
life. Let any one look back a few years ; what changes
have taken place ! I was one day trying to count the
students with whom I sat at college on the same bench.
I found so many dead, so many gone to distant lands, so
many sunk weary with the march on the road to succe^,
and such changes, that when I review and ponder them
140 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
all, I cannot help feeling somewhat melancholy and dis-
tressed. But if you will not look back on a public field,
but take your nearer one — the friends of your youth,
where are they? Echo can only answer, Where are
they ? Some of them turned into rivals, others into bitter
foes ; some of their familiar faces passed into the shadow
of the grave ; and voices that once were musical in your
ears, hushed in the silence of the tomb ! And if you will
go home this day, and look at your family at the close of
the year ; the family that meets to-day under the same
roof and at the same board, in a very few years, even in
the case of the youngest mother, will be all scattered ;
some dead and buried, some in distant lands, some strug-
gling w^ith or succumbing under the waves they cannot
swim or wade through ; and so great changes in a few
years will take place that when you visit the old home-
stead it will look to you such an altered, changed thing,
that you cannot believe that it once was home, or that
there you spent many a merry Christmas, and wished
many a happy new year. Such changes will speedily
occur : and if nothing else does it, they will constrain you
to detach your affections from seeking a home below, and
will lead you to lift them up, and seek where there is the
true home — a place synonymous with the heaven of our
Father.
The flight of years will affect not only your relation-
shipi; but very materially your fortunes ; as they have
affected the fortunes, and the whole condition of thousands.
x^Ien rich at the close of one year, are penniless at the
close of another. The master of yesterday is the servant
of to-day ; the statesman who one year leads the nation in
A THOUSAXL* YEARS AS OXE DAY. 141
its march, another year is at the boitoni of the ladder, de-
pressed, and almost forgotten. The writer celebrated to-
day, is cast aside for another to-morrow. The soldier
whose name is synonymous with victory, and whose praises
are on the nation's lips, is forgotten too soon. Everythinor
seems to have a date and a time, an entrance and an exit ;
and all of them — oh ! with what impressive and thrilling
eloquence — teach. Arise, and let us depart ; this is not
your rest ; there remaineth a rest for the people of God.
Such is the influence of the years as they pass by ; such
the impressions they have left : and the sum total is, that
more and more they are lessening the links and ties that
knit us to this world. The great question is, are we mul-
tiplying the bonds, and bands, and ties that bind us to a
better world ? Time clearly is detaching the world from
us, and us from the world. Is eternity enlisting our sym-
pathies, our hopes, our thoughts, and our prospects with
it?
Having thus looked at the year in its individual influ-
ence, let me now look at it in its social — I might almost
say — national influence. Look at the sweep of past years.
"What a year of commercial hurricane is one ! — houses of
business, supposed to be built upon the rock, have yielded
like straw huts to the overwhelming mountain torrent.
Merchants that started in 1857, like strong men ready to
run a race, have scarcely enough to maintain them decent-
ly with bread, as far as they can see, during the remain-
der of a life-time : and, what is worse, widows and orphans,
that trusted their all where they ought not to have trusted
any, are deprived of the little amount bequeathed ])y a
husband, or the little savings which they had accumulated
142 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
by their industry ; and are left dependent upon tlie charity,
it may be of the uncharitable, during the remainder of
their weary life. Battle fields have awful spectacles of
shattered limbs : but there must be, after a commercial
hurricane, broken hearts — not so visible, but more terrible
and av,'ful still. May it not be, that every such great con-
vulsion has a meaning ? I think it is all very well to say,
it was speculation, over-trading, want of caution. It is
wonderful ijow wise we are after — not before ; and how
prone we are always to find out causes, and excuses, and
palliations. These secondary causes may be plausible ;
but I believe there are higher causes at Avork that alone
explain all. "Trust not in uncertain riches." We see
with what force that single adjective comes up — " uncer-
tain riches." Many a man believes that epithet to-day,
who laughed at it as an exaggerated hyperbole lately.
Do not these things also teach us another lesson ? If
riches increase, which is not sinful ; on the contrary, I
like to se^ a man industrious, and getting rich by his in-
dustry— but, if riches increase, set not your heart upon
them. Now, I will tell you why : if you be a Christian,
if God see you setting your heart upon any one thing
beneath Himself, that is the one thing that God will sweep
away. And, therefore, I w^arn every man, upon the au-
thority of God's word, that whatever be the thing that he
is setting his mind upon so much that it dislodges God,
and displaces the homage that he owes to Him, — as sure
as any are living Christians, God will smite the idol in
its niche, and create in the chasm it leaves behind a thirst
for God, the living God. May there not be another
lesson taught us by these commercial convulsions — namely.
A THOUSAND YEARS AS ONE DAY. 143
what Christ said 1800 years ago — " Riches make to them-
selves wings, and flee away ?' ' Let us mark well the
words : it does not say that you make wings for them ;
this you could easily understand ; but, by some myste-
rious law under the control of God, riches that you have
accumulated and have worshipped, make to themselves
wings, and flee away. And may we not also learn from
all this, that the loss of earthly riches has been to some
the gain of riches that never fade ? — that they who were
rich in money yesterday, are poor in it to-day, but rich in
faith ? And, at all events, there is one lesson passing times
do most deeply impress ; and that is, the old lesson, — " Set
not your afiections upon things that are beneath, but upon
things that are above." Should great losses dislodge from
our country's heart, that growing, miserable, contemptible
worship of Mammon, which was beginning to be substi-
tuted for the worship of the living God, its painful disci-
pline will be matter of thankfulness for ever. I think
of all pride, purse pride is the most detestably. I can
understand a man being proud of his lineage ; sinful as
that is, there is something noble in it : I can understand
a man being proud of his learning ; I can understand a
woman being proud of her beauty ; sinful as it is, wrong
as it is, yet there is something magnanimous or real in
these. But for a man to be proud that he has made
thousands by chicanery, or by cheating, or, if you like,
by honest industry : to be proud that he has been able to
scrape together so much trash that we call gold, is a
detestable sin ; and if God has opened our eyes to see its
meanness and its detestable nature, apart from its sin-
144 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
fulness, we will- thank God in after 3^ears for the com-
mercial earthquake of recent days.
But if we cast our eyes abroad, there have been, as I
have often alluded to, yet more terrible scenes. You
remember how we all felt during the Russian war, when
the brave, the strong, the wise, that could defy the Rus-
sian foe, fell before pestilence, and plague, and hunger,
and nakedness, and cold ; you remember what an awful
impression it made upon the country ; and what vows of
reformation, what great changes for the better were to
take place ; and men certainly felt solemnized as they
had never been solemnized before. The Russian war has
ceased ; at least a lull has taken place ; we just begin
to get as purse-proud, as forgetful, as grasping, as world-
ly, as we were before. And the strange fact is, that ve
never look at these things, such is our nature, as God's
judgments ; I will not say that, but as God's chastise-
ment for special sins : we are always sure to select a
scapegoat. It is wonderful to see how man likes the
idea of atonement when it suits his selfishness ; hov?
little he likes it in its own grand and spiritual beauty.
If anything goes wrong, it is some statesman ; if a bat-
tle is lost, it is some commander-in-chief; all that, I be-
lieve, we are not competent judges of: but we are very
competent in our opinions of ourselves, and we fancy that
whoever is to blame we are not ; whereas it is God wak-
ing us to a sense of responsibilities we never felt before,
and teaching us at the cannon's mouth lessons we would
not learn from the lips of his consecrated preachers. Af-
ter the Russian war had ceased, and all its scenes had
passed away, a war ten times more severe, more disas-
A THOUSAND YEARS AS ONE DAY. 145
trous. more terrible, without the moral grandeur of the
Russian war, because it was a mutiny of revolted soldiers
and subjects, absorbed the thoughts and anxieties of the
nation. I am sure I do not exaggerate when I say there
is scarcely a family in England that has not been in some
way affected by the scenes that transpired in India;
scarcely a parsonage in England — I am sure there is
scarcely a manse Jn Scotland — that has not its dead on
Indian plains to weep over, and forebodings about the
living exposed to perils greater than those encountered by
the dead, over which to pray, and ponder, and meditate.
Our brilliant and our rapid victories have not been with-
out bitter and terrible losses ; and I have not the least
doubt that the gloomiest Christmas spent in England for
half a century, if not for a whole one, was Friday, the
25th of December, 1857. Many who were strong,
young, and hopeful are now numbered with the dead ;
many left behind who Avith heroism, and hope, and
courage, long struggled amidst tremendous difficulties,
encountering terrible resistance ; some wounded, others
starved, others injured in health, so that when they come
home they will be but the shattered wrecks of what they
once were. Nothing I think can lead one to tolerate
war except a deep sense that it is an awful and inevitable
duty. But when Ave review that Indian Avar, the cruelties
inflicted, the sufferings endured, the hairbreadth escapes,
one is constrained to feel there cannot be chance in it;
it cannot be accident : it is God teaching our country a les-
son. Do not blame the government ; do not blame the East
India Company ; blame ourselves, blame our sins, blame
our selfishness, our avarice, our loA^e of Avealth, all that
7
146 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
■we have done that we ought not to have done, and all
that we have left undone that we ought to have done.
But even this sore calamity was not without interming-
ling lights that are of most precious value to us. For in-
stance, we may see in the Indian war that some lessons
have come out that we would not learn before, which it
has most emphatically taught us. We have learnt, for
instance, first of all, that our Indian empire is to be re-
tained not by the prestige of a grand name, nor at the
point of the bayonet, nor by the fear and terror that Ave
can strike to the hearts of a very susceptible and sensi-
tive race; the only hope of India's being continued as
an appanage of our grand empire is the thorough Chris-
tianization of it from its one end to the other. We re-
member how often we tried to teach this at our mission-
ary meetings, but it fell powerless and cold. It has now
been taught in the most impressive and unmistakable
way. In Bengal Christianity had no hold ; the Brah-
min was absolute in his power ; the Christian missionary
dare not hint to a Sepoy that there was a Savior, Christ
the Lord. What is the history of Bengal ? There the
revolt had its focus : from thence it radiated over India ;
and it is the Bengalese Sepoys who have murdered
women, tossed infants on their bayonets, and left hun-
dreds of women in India at this moment, I am told, who
prefer (what an awful fact !) to be registered at home as
dead, than to present themselves mutilated, as these
fiends in human shape have left them. But, mark the
contrast. Go to Madras, where Christianity has struck
its roots the deepest, where its light has spread the
widest, where there are hundreds. I m.ean in the sur-
A THOUSAND YEARS AS ONE DAY. 147
rounding districts, of Christian temples, and where mis-
sions have been most successful ; the territory of Madras
has been comparatively peaceful. Is it possible to es-
cape the conviction that the revolt has been great, cruel,
and barbarous, just where Christianity was least known ?
and that peace and loyalty have abounded most, just
where the seeds of Christianity had been most widely
scattered, and had grown up into the largest and most
luxuriant harvests ? This lesson thus taught us, I hope,
will never be foro-otten. Another lesson has been tauo-ht
us — that education without Christianity may be a curse,
it never can be a blessing. Nana Sahib, the instigator
of those cruel and barbarous murders, was educated at a
secular school ; he never was infected by the presence of
a Bible, he never had his mind modified by a lesson from
it; he was educated at an out-and-out secular Indian
school; he knows mathematics, and sciences, and litera-
ture, and politics, just as well as we do. Education
without religion can give you a Nana Sahib ; it is educa-
tion, saturated by the word of the living God, that will
make a nation what it has made us — a land of subjects
whose obedience is mingled loyalty and love; presided
over by a Sovereign whose mightiest bulwarks, and best
bayonets and defence, are the affections of her people ; a
land on whose wide domains the sun never sets ; a land,
the roll of whose conquering drum is still the warning
to the oppressor that vengeance is at his heels, and to the
oppressed that deliverance is at hand.
As the last lesson, I would say, Redeem the time.
You cannot recall the past, you cannot ret;iin the pres-
ent; you may charge the liours of tb:^ future with new
148 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
and intenser duties and sacrifices. And also " seek
first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and
all other things will be added unto you." And finally,
'' Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do," of goodness, of
love, of charity, "do it with all thy might, for there is
no device nor work in the grave, whither we are all
hasting."
LECTURE XXX.
THE heart's desire.
Man as we find him is not at home : he cannot domes-
ticate himself here. Dissatisfied, he lono;s to 2:0 where
all is perfection without alloj. This grand issue is com-
ing on the earth.
^^ For in this ice groan ^ earnestly desiring to he cloth-
ed npon with our house tchich is from heaven ; if
so be that being clothed we shall not he found naked.
For we that are in this tabernacle do groan ^ being
burdened : not for that we icould he unclothed^ hut
clothed upon, that tnortality might he sicalloited tip
of life. — 2 Corinthians v. 2 — 4.
We at once perceive, from the imagery emplo^^ed in this
passage, that the soul is regarded as the inhabitant, per-
fect and complete in all its functions ; and that the body,
that body which the -soul lives in, is likened to a gar-
ment, which may be put off without the soul being scath-
ed, or put on again without the soul being intrinsically
altered ; less a part of itself, more a clothing for its pro-
gress and communication upon earth. If this be so, then
death is simply the putting off of that outward garment
which is here employed to describe the body, and has no
(149)
150 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
more effect upon the integritj and grandeur of the im-
mortal inhabitant within than my undressing at night
has upon the integritj and perfection of the bodj that
wears the clothes to defend it from the cold. If this idea
be correct, then at death we merely disrobe; or put off
the frail earthly garment that we have long worn. It
may pine and waste by disease ; it may be shattered by
shell or shot upon the field of battle : it may be sunk into
the depths of the desert sea ; but all we do at death is
simply to disrobe ourselves of that which is not part of
ourselves, but the mere garment that shelters and pro-
tects the soul, until that soul is ready to lay aside the
robes in which it ministered as a Levite in the temple
below, and to ascend and minister where it needs no such
robe, in the presence of God and of the Lamb forever.
Now then, if this idea be the correct one, that the body
is the simple garment in which the soul is wrapped, ^v(i
learn very important lessons, lessons that will be comfort-
ing to many that are bereaved.
Man is still man, whether clothed in fur. or purple, or
fine linen, or clad in miserable rags. The outer dress
may be elegant, or it may be mean : it may be rich or it
may be the reverse ; but the wearer is the same. Man
is man in rags, or in purple and fine linen. So the soul
is not touched nor altered in its value, in its intrinsic
excellence and glory, by the weakness nor the frailty of
the body ; and still less when the body is put off and laid
in the grave, to wait for that day when the roll of the
resurrection trumpet shall penetrate the homes of the
living, and the sepulchres of the dead ; and the dead
shall come forth, no more arrayed in the frail and cling-
THE heart's desire. 151
ing garments of decaj, but in coronation robes ; the
bride having made herself ready to enter with the bride-
groom into the palace of the Great King. The existence
of ihc soul, therefore, is not bound up with the existence
of the bod J ; it may be an advantage to the soul ; we
know it will be so in the future ; it is necessary now ;
but in the future, after the resurrection, it will not only
be necessary, but useful and ornamental. But we can
conceive, what we are sure of from the assertion of Scrip-
ture, that the soul can exist separate from the body;
that it is not mutilated in its functions, or in its prerog-
atives, or in its powers, by the laying down of the body.
The house is not the inhabitant, the clothing is not the
wearer, the body is not the man ; it is merely an append-
age, something added to the man ; and soul and body may
be disintegrated and divorced, and yet life not destroyed ;
their connection is a contingency, not an absolute and in-
evitable necessity. It is very true, and there is no doubt
of this, that our present existence is such that we cannot
feel the possibility of the soul existing separate from the
body ; they are so linked together, and the powers of the
one so interpenetrate the functions of the other, that w^e
cannot from present experience realize the possibility of
the soul existing separate from the body. And yet there
are moments when we can almost gather an idea of the
possibility. We are immersed in thought ; we are busy
examining or working out, a profound, a deep, an abstract
problem. How often — I appeal to every thinker — when
seated in your study, has the clock struck, have bells
chimed, servants gone out and come in ; and yet you have
heard nothing, a-nd recoUect nothing, though you may
152 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
have been seated three or four hours : all sorts of noises,
from children up to visitors, have been going on, and yet
you are utterly unconscious of any. What does that
show ? That the soul needs to disentangle itself from its
earthly tenement in order to be capable of its noblest ef-
forts ; and that there are moments when the soul seems
not to lay aside, but in some degree to disburden itself of
its earthly clothing, in order to rise to its loftiest flights,
and think most deeply, feel most keenly, and act in all
it does with greatest power. Now what is all this ? A
sort of dim type and prefiguration of what we are when
absent from the body, but, in the language of the apostle,
present with the Lord.
I proceed to bring these ideas before you, under a
three-fold shape. First, let us consider man as clothed
upon — that is, as having a body in this present life ;
secondly, let us think of man as unclothed, when he is
absent from the body, and present with the Lord ; and
then let us, in the next place, view man in his last and
perfect state, when he shall be reclothed with his resur-
rection and his glorified body. The three great divisions,
then, of man's history are, — man clothed upt)n, man un-
clothed, and man reclothed with his robes of glory and of
beauty. I have said the body is the garment of the soul :
and you will mark another thought — the body has no life
in itself, as far as we know ; its life is derived from its
connection with the soul. In man, at least, the moment
that the soul goes, that moment the body ceases to live,
but because the body ceases to live, it does not follow —
and we are sure it does not follow— that the soul also
ceases to live. In fiict, the soul is quite independent of,
THE heart's desire. 153
and distinct from the body ; and indicates it is so in many
things. The brain is not the soul ; how absurd in any
one to maintain that man's soul is what is called the
pineal gland ; that is, a part of the brain, which has been
analyzed by chemists, and shown to be made up of phos-
phate of lime ! Now phosphate of lime could not write
Shakspeare's dramas : phosphate of lime could not com-
pose Milton's Paradise Lost. And the same phosphate
of lime is found in animals ; and yet they do not write,
nor think, nor indicate the intellectual powers that man
has. The truth is, the brain is to the soul precisely what
the hand is to the body ; that is all. And when the brain
is hurt, you say, Is not the mind — identifying the mind
with the soul — aifected ? I answer, No ; I do not believe
it : some may doubt the thought, but I can see clearly its
foundation, that iii the most thorough lunatic the soul
retains its integrity, as completely as in Sir Isaac New-
ton or John Locke. You ask. Then why is it that every-
thing is wrong ? that he cannot exhibit the ideas, or utter
the words, or do the actions of a rational and intelligent
man ? I answer, The defect is not in the soul, but in
the instrument through aAd with which it works. You
see the first musician of the age placed at a piano or at
a harp ; he tries to play, but there is notliing but discord.
Why ? Not that the minstrel's fingers have lost their
cunning, but that the instrument through which he acts
is out of tune. So in the case of the lunatic ; it is not
the soul within that has lost its miglity functions, but it
is the instrument through which it makes music in the
ear of a listening world that will not respond, and exe-
cute its high behests. The brain influences the nerve,
1\
154 THE GREAT TRIBULATIONS.
the nerve influences the muscle ; but all this is but the
complicated machinery through which the soul acts on
this world. In a higher sphere, the machinery may be
dissolved, the garment thrown off, and the soul will then
and there be able to act without a medium of matter or
of flesh at all. While this is true, it cannot be doubted
that, in our present state, the body, though an instrument,
does color all the decisions, the feelings, the thoughts, the
actions of the soul. In the resurrection state, the body
will be the exact exponent of inner thought, inner desire,
inner feeling ; because the body then will be perfect : but
in our present state, the body is so far the exponent of
what the mind thinks, what the will resolves, what the
heart feels ; but then, sin having crept into this outer
garment of clay — the moth having fretted and injured
this exquisitely woven texture — you find now that the
body gives its coloring to your thoughts : in the languager
of Saint Paul, you find a lav/ in the members warring
against, instead of carrying out the law of the mind ; so
that an apostle, under a deep sense of that disastrous in-
fluence, exclaimed in his agony, " Wretched man that I
am ! who shall deliver me from this body of death ?"'
Now. in the resurrection state, as I shall show, the body
will be the exact expression of what is in the mind, the
heart, and the will ; and in this world it would be so,
were it not that the bo'ly is crippled, diseased, defiled :
but when all this defilement shall be removed — Av'hen all its
imperfections shall be taken away — when the dim mists
that now cover the eye shall be dissolved — when the grey
hairs shall again be restored to their original color — when
strength, and vigor, and beauty, and immortality shall
THE heart's desire. 165
all be together the resplendent prerogatives of the resus-
citated raiment ; then man's mind will find a meet chan-
nel for its expressions, and we shall then think no more,
nor think any more through a glass darklj, hut face to face.
So much for our first condition — " clothed upon." Let
me now look at the second — unclothed. Now this con-
dition, unclothed, comes — who can possibly doubt or deny
it — nearer and nearer every day. Every ache that you
feel, every feebleness of which you are conscious, all shovf
that the vital force is being exhausted by wear and tear ;
and that the tide of life is ebbing from the shores of the
senses on which it has so long, and so divinely beaten.
Disease touches the springs of one ; old age wears out the
vigor and exhausts the energy of another ; and by-and-by
we drop the garment no longer fit for us to wear, and ^fe
do not follow it, but leave it in the grave, and ascend to
the presence of our Father and Christ's Father, of our
God and Christ's God. This idea then shows, in the sec-
ond place, that when a Christian dies he merely takes off
his garment. When you lie down at night to sleep, and
undress, you do not leave with your dress any portion of
the body ; the body retains its perfection and integrity.
And when you lay doAvn your dress in the last wardrobe
of all, the grave, the soul does not go with the body, but
leaves it there in the hope of the resurrection from the
dead, and goes unclothed into the presence of Him who
is a Spirit, and who is worshipped in spirit and in truth.
Hence, those who we say in human language die. merely
throw off the outer robe in which thqy have ministered in
the world ; they lay aside not life, but its restraints ; they
do not cease to be, they only cease from being seen : they
156 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
do not leave life, they only leave us ; they retain con-
science, memory, "svith all its sweet and its hallowed recol-
lections, sensibility, intellect, thought : they may sje us,
thouo-h we cannot see them ; we are said to be surrounded
with a great cloud of v/itnesses, and that cloud of wit-
nesses are said to be the spectators of the race ; and there
is in this one incentive to whatsoever things are pure,
and just, and lovely, that not only love to Him that has
redeemed us, but the recollection of those that harve left
us, should stimulate our hearts to run the race set before
us with patience, looking unto Jesus, the author and the
finisher of our faith. Of those then that have laid the
garment of the body in the grave, these are the thoughts
and the only descriptions we need. "Absent from the
body, present with the Lord." " I desire," says Paul,
" to depart, and be with Christ." No purgatorial tor-
ment between ; no insensibility, as some are trying to
show, between ; but the instant the garment is laid in the
grave, that instant the wearer has entered into the con-
scious glory of iiis blessed Lord. And this very thought
should teach us that it is not so terrible a thing after all
to die. True, we have worn the robe long that has well
fitted us, and v>^e should like to wear it still, if it will
only hang together ; true, we have lived in a house,
every nook, and corner, and room of which we are fami-
liar with, and we would like to live in it still; but the
rains enter here, and the winds blow in there, and the
walls are decaying elsewhere ; and we must leave i:.
whether we like it or not. And so when we die, it
is simply the last time we undress upon earth, that is
all; and the indestructible thought goes with me, almost
THE heart's ];ESIRE. 157
like a note of the resurrection voice, tliat I do not wSufftT,
I do not become insensible, I do not go down to the grave ;
on the contrary, I am more conscious of my powers, feel
loftier and grander capabilities than ever : and when I
have laid down the garment of the body, I have but laid
down the limits and restrictions on my actions, and shall
never feel so free as when I am unclothed upon, and death
is swallowed up of life.
This leads me, therefore, in the third place, to notice
the fact that one day, a day the distance or the nearness
of which no arithmetic of" ours can calculate, we shall bo
reclothed. We are here clothed, but with bodies that sin
has defiled, and w^eakened, and rendered imperfect vehi-
cles of our volition ; we are, till the resurrection, uncloth-
ed ; that is to say, we are present with Christ, but we
have no body ; but wdien the resurrection comes, then we
are told here, in the language of the apostle, we shall be
clothed upon. What a glorious thought is that ! we
leave the frail, tainted garment ujDon earth, every thread
of which is tinged with sin ; we leave it in the grave,
where it lies the pledge and the prophecy that we shall
return with Christ, and resume it, not another, but a
new body ; this mortal having put on immortality. It
matters not v>here the body is deposited, for every atom
of its dust is in the keeping of the Son of God ; whetlier
it lie under a marble mausoleum, or beneath a monument
of bronze, or in the depths of the largest Pyramid, or be
sunk in the desert sea, the grave of empires and of indi-
viduals ; or if it be shattered, and torn, and buried where
it fell upon the battle-field, it matters not ; every atom
is in the keeping of Christ ; as closely watched, as thor-
158 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
ougbly tiken care of, as if it Avere already glorified, and
amid the splendors and the glories of the beatific vision.
'•This very mortal shall put on immortality; this very
corruptible shall put on incorruptibility." The apostle's
reasoning is most remarkable ; he was himself, as every-
body knows, a diminutive and a deformed man ; and when
he uttered these words — for he preached them as well as
wrote them — he laid his hand upon his breast, so unpro-
phetic of aught that was grand, and he said, " This very
mortal shall put on immortality; this very corruptible
shall put on incorruptibility, and death sb.ali be swallowed
up in victory ; it is sown in corruption, it is raised in
incorruption ; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a
spiritual body ;" not a spirit, but a spiritual body. And
therefore we see the resurrection is not the elimination
fi'om the great mass of the earth of a body of some sort
for each ; it is not the extraction of indefinite humanity
for each individual soul ; but it is the resurrection of that
very body that you laid in the grave ; and its reinvest-
ment with a glory, a perfection, and a beauty, which
Adam and Eve, when they came forth from the plastic
hands of God, never realized. So real is this, that there
is not one feature that lies hidden in the shadow of death
that shall not come out, and be reproduced in the living
countenance in all its perfection at the resurrection morn ;
there is not one tone that has been like music beneath
your roof tree, tluit peculiar tone in each man's voice by
w^hich I can distinguish individuals better than by tlie
features that I look on, that shall not be resuscitated,
only in more musical and beautiful reverl.erations ; there
shall be nothing in those you c ill dead peculiar to them as
THE heart's desire. 159
indiviuuals, constituting what "\ve call their idiosyncrasy,
that shall not be resuscitated, purified, beautified, glori-
fied ; so that the mother shall know her infant then
better than she knew it on earth, and the sister shall
know her sister, and the fiither shall know his child, and
the child shall know his fixther, fiir more perfectly than
before. There is something wrong in our present state,
that prevents the countenance from being the full expres-
sion of what is going on within. I have noticed, as I
have gazed on Ihe fice of the dead, that five or six or
twelve hours after death the features resume a calm and
composure that tempts the nearest and the dearest to say,
" He is more like himself than he ever was before."
What is that ? The battle is finished, the struggle is
done ; the conflict between an imperfect body that imper-
fectly reflects the volitions of the mind, and the mind
ever anxious to speak out its true thoughts, is ended ;
and it drops into that soft and beautiful repose of victory
that is a dim prefiguration of that day Avhen it shall rise
in unknown beauty and perfection, and be the bright
clothing for the immortal and the glorified soul.
This thought is so precious in the mind of the apostle,
that throughout the whole New Testament the Christian
is represented as longiu": for his resurrection. "Not,"
he says, " that we would be unclothed, but clothed
upon ;" not that we have any pleasure in dying ; a person
can have no pleasure in feeling a prick in his finger, a
sting in his hand ; and so death is pain ; death is unnatu-
ral ; it is superinduced by sin. And therefore the npostlc
says, " Not that we would be unclothed upon ;" but we
are willing to go tlirough the painful process, for tlie sake
160 THE GREAT TRIBrLATION.
of the splendid glorj that shall be revealed ; we are
willing to wade the deep, cold, and chilling stream for
the sake of the sweet sunshine that lies npon the moun-
tain beyond ; we are willing to be unclothed, that we may
get rid of this impediment to our best and holiest purpo-
ses : and that we may be clothed upon with that glorious .
exponent of all we think and feel, which will be perfect.
And, hence, throughout the New Testament, we read
that God's people groan within themselveSj waiting for
the redemption of the body — not the creation of a body —
but the redemption of the body.
From these three ficts, man clothed in this mortal life,
as he is ; secondly, man unclothed, when he leaves it, and
enters into the presence of God ; and thirdly, man re-
clothed upon, we gather some useful and comforting les-
sons. First, what you intrust to the grave is not your
f^her, nor your mother, nor your sister, nor your son ;
you intrust to its keeping only the no longer useful gar-
ment that your son, your daughter, your sister, your
mother, your father, have left behind them. The grave
has not them in its keeping ; it has only this garment
'y^hich they have cast away, to wait in heaven for that
better and more beautiful apparel which Christ, the re-
surrection and the life will provide. In the second place,
those we call dead are really and truly more alive, if I
may so speak, than we. The Christian that we call dead,
truly and nobly lives. Then what is the change that
takes place ? Our dead may at this moment be nearer
us than our friends across the Tweed, or across the Chan-
nel, _or in India, or in America ; they may be nearer to
us than our next-door neighbors. But what is the reason
THE heart's desire. 161
that we cannot communicate with them ? Two friends
are corresponding between different lands ; some mis-
chievous person, or some accident snaps the working wire ;
there is the machinery at the one end, there is the ma-
chinery at the other ; there are the waiting friends, but
there is no communication. Why ? The medium of the
communication has been interrupted, that is all ; and the
minute that it is restored, the communication that was sus-
pended is restored also. Well, the difference betwen our
dead and us is just this : we cannot now speak to them,
and tliey cannot speak to us : we cannot communicate with
them — Why ? Because the body is essential to commun-
ion between spirit and spirit in this present state of life.
All that has been interrupted is the medium of commu-
nication. But your dead son, your dead sister, lives as
truly as you do ; only the body, that is necessary in our
present condition as a medium of communication, has
been dissolved and laid in the grave ; and, therefore,
communion cannot be maintained ; sweet words of friend-
ship cannot be reciprocated ; kind looks of welcome can-
not be transmitted ; you must wait till both are reclothed
upon with that body that is from heaven. How injurious
is it in this life to dwell only upon what we see and what
we hear ! You do not estimate a friend's excellence by
the richness of the clothes she wears, or the jewels by
which she is adorned : these are not the person. And
so you must not estimate a friend, or those with whom
you are associated in life, by the beauty or the perfection
of the material garment that they wear. There is attrac-
tion in beauty ; there must be whilst sense and sight gaze
upon these things : but the true Christian must look be-
162 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
yond or penetrate these, and see an adorning far more
beautiful than gold, and silver, and pearls, and precious
stones : namely, the hidden man of the heart, which is
not corruptible ; even the ornament of a meek and cjuiet
spirit, which, in the sight of God, is of great price. Su-
preme devotion to what relates to the body, ministers to
and gratifies its tastes, should never be the dominant
thought of man. In other words, we must think what we
shall eat and what we shall drink ; but the sin is in think-
in o; with too absorbincr a thouo-ht what we shall eat and
what we shall drink. We must think, and we must pre-
meditate wherewithal we shall be clothed ; but the sin lies
in thinking too much about it. And hence an enliglitened
man looks down with contemptuous pity upon those who
seem to regard their raiment as their chief ornament : and
whose only worth seems to be that of the cinnamon tree,
the excellence of which is in the bark, not in the vrood or
fruit ; and whose personality seems to be absorbed in what
they stand upright in. But if you look down with con-
temptuous pity upon such, it is only one stage higher, if
indeed it be higher, if the w^hole of your thought is ab-
sorbed about what shall adorn the body, what shall min-
ister to its tastes. When all these things, which are
necessary in their place, are made predominant and ab-
sorbing, then man falls from his grandeur as an imm,ortal,
and sinks doAvn to the level of the very brutes that perish.
Do we not learn from all this the vast importance of
seeking to adorn the soul ? I do not believe what is
called physical plainness of face ; let there be an illu-
minated mind, let there be a meek, gentle, holy heart ;
let there be contentment within ; and the countenance •
THE heart's DEoIRE. 163
mil he irradiated with a beauty that no arrangement of
flesh and blood can possibly communicate. Let me remind
you, all you lay out upon the body is a bad investment ;
it must all be consigned to the worm and the grave. Not
one atom of what you lay out in pampering its appetites,
in ministering to its tastes, in clothing and beautifyino- it
— not one particle of that w^ll ever be raised again at the
resurrection day. But, on the other hand, what you lay out
upon the soul — if I speak to merchants I touch a chord
that must vibrate in your hearts — what you lay out upon
the soul is a thoroughly sure, ever increasing, ever grow-
ing investment : all that you have shed upon it of beauty,
all that you have trained in it of excellence ; all that
you have added to that soul of embellishment : every
holy bias you have given it ; every holy affection you have
kindled in it, will all appear again in perfection. Oh !
miserable men, who are investing their all in the flesh
that must be laid aside in the grave ; and investing
nothing, where investment is eternal, in that soul that
liveth for ever and ever. " What shall it profit a man if
he gain" — which is not certain — '"the whole world, and
lose his own soul ?" These thoughts mitigate, in the case
of mourners, all the painful thoughts that they often feel
about the grave. The heart of the weeper longs to know
where and what their departed are. They know the fact
that they live : they do not know how they live. And what
a picture gallery is the memory of many a Christian upon
earth, stored with the images of them that have gone —
images that they value more than all the master-pieces of
Europe — but, blessed thought, images in the memory that
are prophets of the restoration of their holy and beloved
164 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
originals. What therefore we know about those that are
gone is this — that, at least, thej are happy, in glory, safe
in Christ here ; they are with Christ, which is perfect
happiness in heaven. And how delightful then that the
seeds we have cast into the earth shall grow again ; that
the voices whose tones linger in our ears shall be heard
again, and that every atom of dust shall come forth the
instant that Christ's voice penetrates the recesses of the
grave, "Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment!" All
that pain has wrestled with, all that disease has disfigured,
all that decay has transmuted, shall emerge again in
beauty and perfection. Death has gleaned the treasure,
transplanted the flower, reaped the wheat ; but not one
portion of the treasure shall be lost, not one flower that
death has laid in the grave shall be withered or faded ;
not one thing you call your own but shall appear again.
Happy thought, blessed expectancy for the people of God !
Earth's palaces part with their glory every day ; earth's
riches take wings and flee away ; but all the good that we
do, still more all the good that, by the inspiration of the
Spirit, we accumulate within — faith, patience, gentleness,
meekness, charity, love, hope — shall all be resuscitated ;
and once clothed upon on earth, weeping because of its
imperfections ; unclothed upon in heaven, and waiting and
hoping for the resurrection day ; we shall be reclothed again
in that glorious garment which shall never be laid aside,
but worn as a trophy of what Christ has purchased, and
what his word has promised — the meet companion of a
holy, a happy, and a glorified soul.
Let us then be less concerned about the cares of time ;
more deeply and solemnly ponder the realities of a world
THE heart's desire. 165
to come. Dav bj day, one after another is dropping into
the tomb ; whose turn will it be next ? What is it that
keeps ever beating that thing we call the heart ? I have
often told you it cannot be explained except by this ; God
gives it its every pulse ; God's finger keeps it going.
When He shall bid it stop, when He shall withdraw his
touch, He only knows ; but this lesson is ever for us,
'' Be ye ready, for in such an hour as ye think not, the
Master cometh."
LECTURE XXXI.
THE FIRST RESURRECTION.
^'' If by cmy means I niiglit attain unto the resurrection
of the dead.'' — Phillippiaxs iii. 11.
Paul states in the previous part of the chapter, as we
have seen, the great distinctions he enjoyed as a Jew : —
" Circumcised the eighth daj ;" and therefore no ceremony
was wanting; "of the tribe of Benjamin," — the noblest
of the twelve ; an Hebrew of the Hebrews," — without the
least admixture of Gentile blood : "as touching the law,"
one of the most popular and dignified sects, " a Pharisee."
As to conduct, it Avas perfectly consistent with these proud
pretensions. My zeal was displayed in persecuting the
detested Christians ; and as to the righteousness which
has come from fasting, paying titlies, observing the feasts,
the rubric, and the rituals of tlie law, — in that respect,
I was perfectly blameless. But how altered ! " What
things were gain to me," those things I thought to be
aids and impulses to my course to heaven ; those things
which I thought would weigh so heavily in the scale in
my favor, I have now learned by the teaching of the
Spirit of God to count — what Paul counted the cargo
in his vessel when it was tossed in the storm — to be loss ;
so that I fling all overboard, a.nd regard it as truly worth-
less in comparison of the excellency of Christ Jesus my
Lord.
(16G^
THE FIRST KESURRECTION. 167
This conclusion, he says, is not a rash one, rashly taken
up to be rashly laid down; for I have experience of the
cross, I have suifcred the loss of all things," — honor,
rank, dignity, prospect, preferment — I have suffered the
loss of all. Do I regret it? Just the reverse. In-
stead of wishing I had never made the exchange, I re-
joice in it. Did you ever hear any man regret that
he had sacrificed that which he loved most in order that
he might love, and know, and obey the Savior, "'and be
found in Him," — as a branch is in the vine, as a living
member is in the body ? " Not having mine own right-
eousness," whether it be the righteousness that preceded
his conversion, in Avhich he was blameless, or the right-
eousness which succeeded his conversion, in his sanctifi-
cation and conformity to God's law ; not having that
— it is what I cannot trust in — " avhich is of the law ;
but that righteousness which is through the faith of
Christ," — a righteousness not produced by me, but re-
ceived by me ; a righteousness perfect on its reception,
incapable of increase, and proof against decrease ; " the
righteousness which is of God by faith : that I may know
Him," — as if his past knowledge of Him was but the
twilight of a brighter knowledge that was to come. A
Christian's progress in the knowledge of Christ is end-
less; "and the power of his resurrection, and even the
fellowship of his sufferings," I am willing to take part in
all respects. In short, I am willing to be conformed to
his death, to be crucified, if it be for his glory, and for
the good of his people. And then he adds, "If by any
means" — any amount of suffering, any amount of trial,
168 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
any amount of toil — *• I might attain unto the resurrec-
tion of the dead."
Let me notice the three great resurrections, — first, the
resurrection of Christ; next, the resurrection of his
people ; and thirdly, the peculiar and emphatic resurrec-
tion which Paul labored that he might attain to: and
I should just like to add how large a portion of Scrijj-
ture the resurrection of Christ occupies, as well as our
own.
The resurrection of Christ was foretold by the ancient
prophets. Psalm xvi. 10 : " Thou wilt not leave my soul
in hades; neither wilt thou suSer thine Holy One to see
corruption.'' Isaiah xxvi. 19: '"Thy dead men shall
live, together with my dead body shall they arise.
Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust : for thy dew is as
the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead."
His resurrection was foretold by himself. Matliew xx.
19 : '* They shall deliver the Son of man to the
Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him :
and the third day he shall rise again.*' The Pharisees
themselves admitted that Christ predicted his own resur-
rection; for they came to Pilate, and said, "That de-
ceiver said while he was yet alive, '* After three days I
will rise again." You have, therefore, our Lord's pre-
diction of it most explicit.
This resurrection of Christ is said to have taken place
by the power of God the Father. Acts ii. 24 : '' Whom
God hath raised up. having loosed the pains of death :
because it was not possible that he should be holden of
it." Romans viii. 11 : ' But if the Spirit of him that
raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you. he that raised
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 1G9
up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal
bodies by his Spirit that dwclleth in jou."
It is said, in the next place, to have taken place by
Christ's own power : " Destroy this temple, and in three
days I will raise it up. I have power to lay doAvn my
life, and power to take it again." Now, this is the
most wonderful statement of all. One can understand
that <a dead man should be raised by an Omnipotent
God external to him ; but one cannot understand, in the
common knowledge and experience of life, that ji dead
man should raise himself The fact that he is dead im-
plies inability. The fact that Christ raised himself from
the dead is one of the grand evidences of his own Deity.
He is said, in the next place, to have been raised by
the Holy Ghost : " Being put to deatlj in the flcsli, l)ut
quickened by the Spirit."
The resurrection of Christ was attested by angels :
" Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not
dead, but risen."
His resurrection was attested hy the apostles : Acts
i. 22 : " One must be ordained to be a witness with us
of Christ's resurrection." Acts ii. 32: ''This Jesus
hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses."
The same resurrection too is attested by his very ene-
mies ; for you will observe, the chief priests and scribes
admitted the fact that He was gone, that the tomb w;is
empty, and that the dead one laid in it was removed ;
])ut they tried to explain the fact on principles which
look at the first blush extremely satisfactory, but which
needed only to be analyzed in order to demonstrate how
untenable they were. There was |)la(^oil around the
'8
170 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
grave of Jesus a battalion of Roman soldiers. The night
on which Christ is said to have risen from the dead, was
a moonlight night, as it can be demonstrated alike from
Jewish customs and from historical facts. -Not only so,
but that night was one of the great festivals of Jerusa-
lem, when the whole heart of that mighty metropolis
heaved, as it were, with joy; and the teeming crowds
that came into it were so overwhelming that they had to
spread tents and booths in the streets and lanes and fields
for miles about the capital, in order to have room for the
gigantic population that rushed into Jerusalem at one of
its grandest festivals. Noav it was alleged by the Phari-
sees, the scribes, and the high priests, that Christ's body
was stolen by his disciples, who entered into a conspiracy
for the purpose. It was alleged that they called the sol-
diers, and they bade the soldiers say that Christ's body
was stolen by his disciples.
To show you how strong, for here we can only give
you a specimen, are the proofs and credentials of this
great flict in our common Christianity, first observe the
impossibility that the soldiers could have slept, as they
were bribed to say, and yet escape the punishment of
death, which by the martial law of Rome, was instantly
inflicted on the soldier who slept at his post. If the sol-
diers had slept, as they were made to say, they confessed
their crime. Why were they not punished ?
Again, if the soldiers slept, is it not miraculous that
some twenty, or thirty, or forty, or fifty men should all
have slept exactly at the same moment ? And is it not
equally remarkable that all these fifty men, who hap-
pened to sleep exactly at the same moment, were not
THE FIRST RESURRECTIO :. 171
punished when they told their offence ? That the apos-
tles should have come — men of no experience, of no
great tact, as their past history shows — and should have
rolled away a massive stone, that would have taken some
dozen of men to move, and should have rolled it away
without some machinery, or at least without noise, and
should have done it so deliberately that they descended
into the empty tomb, after lifting the body out of it, and
rolled the linen clothes aside, wrapped them up, and
laid them quietly in a corner ; should have carried that
body out in a bright moonlight night, when all the streets
were lined with men, on foot, in tents or in booths ;
should have carried it throus^h the streets, teemincr and
heaving with a vast population ; and in a bright moon-
light night have so cleverly concealed it that no witness
saw it ; and should have defied the police, who were in-
structed to make the most rigid inquiry where it was, —
I say, to suppose all these things to occur at that very
time, requires the sceptic to suppose a miracle almost
equal to the miracle of the resurrection. We are, there-
fore satisfied that the evidence adduced by the scribes
and Pharisees is most untenable ; not that we need it to
be disproved, but only that we should always be able to
render a reason for the faith that is in us.
This great fact of the resurrection of Clirist was the
doctrine of the Old Testament Scriptures tliemselves.
I have shown that it was the doctrine of the Old Testa-
ment Scriptures, foretold by the prophets, foretold by
himself, attested by angels, attested by the apostles, at-
tested by his enemies. He was raised by his own power,
raised by the Spirit, raised ])y the Father.
172 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
What doctrines, or what truths are established by the
fact of Christ's resurrection ? Again I take you to the
Scriptures. It is declared to be a proof of his Deity.
Declared to be the Son of God with power by the resur-
rection from the dead."
He was raised, we are told, for our justification. Ro-
mans iv. 25 : " Who was delivered for our oifences, and
was raised again for our justification." Again, Romans
viii. 34: " Who is he that condemneth ? It is Christ
that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at
the rio^ht hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us."
The resurrection of Christ is stated as an emblem of
our reo-eneration. Romans vi. 4. "As Christ was raised
o
up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so v/^e
also should walk in newness of life."
It is alleged, in the next place, to be the first-fruits of
our resurrection. Acts xxvi. 23 : " That Christ should
suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise
from the dead." 1 Corinthians xv. 13, 20 : " If there
be no resurrection from the dead, then is Christ not
risen : but now is Christ risen from the dead, and become
the first-fruits of them that slept."
It is also associated with our hope. 1 Peter i. 3 :
" Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath be
gotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead."
We are told also in Acts i. 3, and by John, that by
many conclusive proofs He was known to have risen, and
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 173
that to many "he showed himself alive after his passion
bj many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days."
We have then the fact of Christ's resurrection, and
the doctrines which the Scriptures make to lean on and
derive their nutriment from that fact.
Let me notice, in the next place, the resurrection of
believers as the result of Christ's resurrection. We are
told clearly in Scripture, that because Clirist died and
rose again, so we shall rise again. There are some who,
in most learned and most able notes, deny, like the Ger-
man rationalist divines, that there is to be literally and
strictly a resurrection. They say that it is all figurative,
and that it does not mean literally the resurrection of the
body. Now, the language of Scripture is very explicit.
" The hour is coming when all that are in their graves
shall hear the voice of the Son of man, and shall come
forth : they that have done good to the resurrection of
heaven ; they that have done evil to the resurrection of
condemnation." Here is a positive assertion of the res-
urrection of the body. Again, that it is tlie very same
bodies that are to rise is plain from the word " resurrec-
tion." It comes from " resurgo," to rise again. If the
bodies of all believers are not all raised, but new bodies
are created, then the language is misapplied : it would
not be a resurrection ; it would be a new creation. The
apostle calls it in the first epistle to the Corinthians a
•' mystery." It would be no mystery at all to give us
new bodies ; but it is a mystery that our dead dust should
become quickened with new life, and that that dust
sLould be reconstructed in more than its pristine beauty
174 THE GREAT THIBULATION.
and glorj, and made a resplendent dAvelling-place for the
redeemed and regenerated soul.
But it is objected, all science leads us to a contrary
conclusion ; that we have no experience of such a thing,
and that we have no reason to anticipate such a result.
It seems to me the reverse ; all science leads to the con-
clusion that the resurrection is possible. I am about to
give an illustrative analogy, not an evidence of the resur-
rection. Take the discovery that is now universally
admitted, that there is no such thing as annihilation.
When the wood or the coal is cast into your grate, it is
not annihilated, it has only changed its structure ; it has
assumed- the shape of a gaseous body, and it exists in all
its completeness only under other names, and with other
appearances, in another shape, and probably incorporated
into ot'ier elements. We know of no such thing as anni-
hilation. A seed is cast into the earth, that seed grows
up into flax, that flax ripens into flowers or fruit ; that
again is prepared, and made into linen; that linen is
worn out ; it is torn into rags, it is turned into paper ;
that paper is written upon — it is thrown into the fire ;
and that first seed of the flax has changed itself over and
over again ; but all its constituent elements are all there,
with other elements added ; it is not annihilated, it has
only changed its form ; so that science shows that change
of structure is the great law, not annihilation. All this
supports, not opposes, the doctrine of the resurrection.
All things are possible with God, except to lie ; but
there is no lie here, no deception. He tells us literally
that it will be so. If a chemist living in the prese^it
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 175
day can take any substance, submit it to his tests, resolve
that substance into its pristine elements ; and if he be in
pursuit of any particular element, be it arsenic, or prus-
sic acid, or other deadly poison, he can hunt it out of all
its retreats and combinations, even after it has entered
into the animal tissues, and can bring the element out
in all its integrity just as it was before, shall we think it
impossible that the great Maker, the Architect, the Chem-
ist, if I may use the expression reverently, of the whole
universe, will be able to trace out the constituent ele-
ments of my body, and bring those elements, dust to dust,
atom to atom, bone to bone, till the whole earth is covered
with an army of resurrection, living, and responsible men.
He will speak to the distant streams of the earth, and
each stream will send forth its dead. His voice will be
heard in the silent caverns of the Pyramids of Egypt,
and the Pharaohs that are sleeping there will come forth.
His word will sound in the remotest deserts of Africa
and Asia, and they that have the sands for their winding-
sheet, and solitude as their only companion, shall come
forth. He will call to those that are beneath the green
sod, and that sod will lift itself aside and let God's priso-
ners of hope come forth. The very dust on which we
now tread will become instinct Avith vitality ; and the
awful fact will then be seen, as we now admit, that on
the very ground on which w^e now tread — every inch of
this great metropolis — the numbers that are below it far
outnumber those that are above it ; and the mighty popu-
lation that shall come forth from these spots on which we
now are, will prove at that day alike the truth of the
resurrection from the dead, and the faithfulness and
176 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
po'\ver of Him, -whose voice tliej shall hear, aod come
forth. Tims, the resurrection of the dead seems not at
all improbable in -whatever light we look at it.
But let us notice the lacts connected with it, and the
evidence of it drawn from Scripture.
First, this resurrection will consist of two great classes.
The J are called the just and the unjust ; they that liave
done good, and thej that have done evil. And there will
then be but two great characters. All the drapery of
outward circumstance will be left behind ; there will be
but two vast classes, they that have done good, and thej
that have done evil. Every other distinction will be
lost ; every other accidental characteristic will have van-
ished ; every discrimination, ecclesiastical, national, so-
cial, will be merged and lost in that one which was first,
and shall be last, and for ever, the just, and the unjust.
The kino- cannot carry his crown with him : the beo:orar
will not take his rags with him ; both shrJl appear, each
in his category, among the just that live and rejoice, or
the unjust, that suifer for ever and for ever. The patri-
archs of ancient times, and the babes of yesterday ; Adam
and all his mighty family shall then and there hear the
voice of the Son of man, and come forth. They that
have done good to the resurrection of life, and they that
have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation.
This v\-as the doctrine of the Old Testament. Job
said, " I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that in my
flesh I shall see God." In Psalm xlix. 15: '^ God will
redeem my soul from the power of the grave : for he
shall receive me." Daniel says, "Many that sleep in
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 177
the dust shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some
to everlasting shame and contempt."
It was expected, too, bj the most enlightened Jews.
There was Martha, who had heard little of the resurrec-
tion, but who said, " I know that my brother shall rise
again in the resurrection at the last day." The great
doctrine w^hich the Sadducees objected to, and the preach-
ing at which they gnashed their teeth, was the resurrec-
tion of the dead. We have in Scripture, too, individ-
ual instances of it, — Christ the first-fruits, the son of the
widow of Nain, and the raising of Lazarus. All these
prove that this truth is a doctrine of Scripture, and a
truth taught by our blessed Lord.
But the language of Paul in this present verse is very
emphatic, and very peculiar. He says, ''If by any
means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead."
Why, how could he escape it ? We have just heard that
all shall rise. The just and the unjust, the greatest
criminal and the greatest saint, shall equally rise from
the dead in resurrection bodies. Then what does the
apostle mean w^hen he says, " If by any means I might
attain unto the resurrection of the dead ?" The only
way in which we can explain it is by that supposition, or
rather historical statement, impugned by some, but, I
think, unequivocally established by others, that the res-
urrection, while it is of the just and of the unjust, yet
implies an interval between the resurrection of the just
and the resurrection of the unjust. In other words, it
can only be explained, I conceive, by admitting what I
cannot escape on impartially reading the Scriptures, that
there is a first resurrection, consisting exclusively qf the
8*
178 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
just ; and that there is a second resurrection, consisting
exclusively of the unjust. Let me refer to the passage
contained in the 20th chapter of the book of Revelation,
and see if it cast any light upon the subject on which I
am now commenting. It says, " I saw an angel come
down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit
and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the
dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan,
and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the
bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him,
that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thou-
sand years should be fulfilled : and after that he must be
loosed a little season. And I saw thrones, and they sat
upon them, and judgment was given unto them ; and I
saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness
of Jesus, and for the word of God, and wh.ich had not
worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had re-
ceived his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands ;
and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
But the rest of the dead lived not p.gain until the thou-
sand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resur-
rection : on such the second death hath no power, but
they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign
with him a thousand years." The reply to this may be,
" but all this is figurative." " You do not mean," it is
argued by those who do not hold a distinction in the res-
urrection of the dead, '' You do not mean to assert that
there will be literally a key, and literally a great chain,
and literally Satan bound with its links for a thousand
years. And if you do not literally interpret the first
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 179
verse" — and the imagery I have read is figurative — " you
are bound to interpret the sequel, namely, the first and
second resurrections, figuratively also." If it Avas stated
similarly, as the imagery in which the first verse is given,
without any explanation, then perhaps their construction
would be the most probable. But you will observe, that
when the whole thing is stated, and when it has been said
that the rest of the dead lived not again, but that the first
section of the dead reigned with Christ a thousand years,
it is added, " This is the first resurrection." Is not this
the explanatory literal remark upon the figurative ima-
gery employed in the preceding part of the chapter ? Just
as, " I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst
of the seven golden candlesticks one like unto the Son
of man." Now, what is added ? '-The seven candle-
sticks which thou sawest are the seven churches." That
is the literal clause thrown in to explain the figurative
language that has been employed. So, by parity of rea-
soning, this clause, " This is the first resurrection," is
the literal clause thrown in to explain the imagery that
has been employed in the previous part of the chapter ;
and, therefore, that the first resurrection is literal, and
that the rest of the dead shall not rise again until the
thousand years have been finished. It has been argued
by those who oppose this view, that all this is to be re-
garded as figurative. But at the close of the chapter
there is an account of the resurrection which the very op-
ponents of my vie.w of the first resurrection allow to be
literal, namely, at the 12th verse of this 20th chapter of
the book of Revelation : " And I saw the dead, small and
great, stand before God ; and the books were opened : and
180 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
another book was opened, which is the book of life ; and
the dead were judged out of those things which were writ-
ten in the books, according to their works." Now, they
all say, This is literal. But is it not very fair to say,
if the first be figurative, the second must be figurative
too ; if the first be literal, the last must be literal too ?
You must not say, This is figurative^ just when it suits
a previous conclusion : and, That is literal, just because
it suits another previous conclusion. Take the parts that
are avowedly literal, as I conceive, in the chapter, and ac-
cept the whole as such ; or admit that both are figurative,
and then you must conclude with the German rationalist
divines, that there is not a literal resurrection of the dead
at all. If the first is literal, the last is literal too.
But the original language is extremely peculiar. When
the apostles, or our Lord, speak of the resurrection of
the dead, the words that are used are (ifdorao-^c yexoibv^
" the resurrection of the dead." But in all those pas-
sages, which by their very context are proved to refer to
a special resurrection, the words are as follow : Luke
xiv. 14, it' TT] di'uaTdasi z&p dtxuiMv^ " the resurrection of
the just," a distinct one. Luke xx. 35, t^c livuaruaebig
7v^; iy. vby.fmv^ " they which shall be accounted worthy to
obtain the resurrection from the dead;" but it is, lite-
rally translated, "that distinctive resurrection from the
dead," 7 7], arufTTuafio/c, — ttjj, '' that emphatic one," —
ix re.y.oCiv "that resurrection," "that special or distinc-
tive one from among the dead." Again, in John v. 29,
6ig dcvfjcaTucnv toj^c, " unto the resurrection of life." And
in the very passage on which I am commenting, the
same remarkable distinction is observed, " If by any
THE FIRST IlESURRECTION. 181
means I might attain, ei; li^t' t^diuaiucnt' rwr ptxowy, hav-
ing the very samo 65. If this be the common resurrec-
ion of all. there is no reason for the apostle having any
doubt at all about its certainty ; but if it be the first
1 esurrection -which is at the commencement of the Mil-
lennium, and just when Christ comes, and not the resur-
rection which is at the close of the Millennium, then
there is meaning in the language of the apostle, ''If by
any means I might attain," not unto the resurrection at
the close of the Millennium, but unto the resurrection of
those w^ho are raised at the commencement of the Mil-
lennium. So, in Revelation xx. 5, the same words are
used, yivTi] 1] ('ivixaraaig i^ nQibir] "this is that resurrec-
tion, that first resurrection, that chief or distinctive one."
Now, wherever the context shows that the resurrection
was an object of hope, of desire, of ambition, invariably
the preposition i^ occurs, and denotes a resurrection out
of the dead, the rest of the dead living not till after the
thousand years.
If you say the interval between the two resurrections
of the dead seems long in 1 Cor. xv. 23, I answer, it is
said, "Everyman in his own order: Christ the first-
fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming."
Well, He who was the first-fruits rose 1800 years ago;
they that are his will be raised very soon, when the Lord
comes. "Then cometh the end," that is, the end of the
thousand years. And as there is an interval of 1800
years between " Christ the first-fruits," and the resur-
rection of them "that are Christ's at his coming;" so
there may be an interval between " they that are Christ's
at his coming," and those that did not live until the
thousand years wore finished.
182 TIIF GREAT TRIBULATION-
It thus appears irresistibly evident that there are two
distinct resurrections; the first, the resurrection of the
saints, those that believe ; the second, the resurrection
of the unjust, or those that believe not. It may be that
in ten, in twenty, in thirty, — we know not in how many
years, the Lord shall come ; but the instant He comes,
" we which are alive," says the apostle in another pas-
sage I might have quoted, ''and remain, shall be caught
up to meet the Lord in the air : the dead in Christ shall
rise first." The instant Christ comes, every dead saint,
wherever buried, shall hear his voice, and come forth ;
every living saint, wherever he is, shall recognize that
royal sound, and go out to meet Him. What an awful
separation will there be ! One grave, in which there are
twain, will throw up one, and the other will remain.
One family will see one, drawn by a mysterious attrac-
tion, go forth to meet the Lord, and the rest remain be-
hind. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in this first
resurrection ; sad and sorrowful is the state of him who
has no lot, nor share, nor part in it. Then our bodies,
as the bodies of the just, will be made meet for the glo-
rious spirits that have been redeemed by the Savior's
blood ; and when every eye shall see Him, and they that
pierced Him, we can say, " Whom, having not seen, we
love ; in whom, though at present we see him not ; yet
then we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is."
No wonder then that the apostle Paul prizes this attain-
ment, " If by any means I might attain;" I am willing
to sacrifice wealth, honor, credit, health, life, "If by
anv means I midit attain unto the resurrection from
among the dead."
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 183
Do we thus anticipate it ? Do we thus desire it ? Do
we look forward to it as the coronal of our hopes, as the
great object of our ambition, for which, and on account
of which, we are ready to sacrifice all things ? The way
to it is Christ ; the means to it are prayer, painstaking,
sacrifice, toil. And if you feel that prospect magnificent,
even as the apostle felt it, you will long and pray that by
any means God in his wisdom may appoint, you may at-
tain unto the resurrection from among the dead. Then
shall we behold Him as He is, then shall we be satisfied
with his likeness, then shall we be as the angels in heav-
en, then shall we know no more sorrow, nor tears, nor
cares, nor mourning ; then shall we meet those that have
fallen asleep in Christ, recognizing them, and they re-
cognizing us, and both rejoicing as an holy and happy
flimily to be ever with the Lord ; then shall we be able,
even now are we able, to say,
•* Grave, the guardian of our dust,
Grave, the treasury of the skies;
Every atom of thy dust
Rests in hope agiin to rise.
"Hark! the judgment trumpet calls,
Soul, rebuild thy house of clay;
Immortality its walls,
And eternity its day."
Is this your hope ? If it be your faith that Christ
died for you — that your sins are washed away in his
blood — that you have been accepted in his name — then
you prove his acceptance by imitating his holy and his
blessed example. This glorious hope is based upon liv-
ing faith. There can be no Easter Sabbath without a
184 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
previous Friday of sorrow and of suffering. There is
no way to the crown, but the way of the cross. There
is no really founded hope of everlasting life, except on
the blood, the death, and sacrifice of Christ Jesus. Have
you then believed on Him ? Have you committed your
souls to Him ? Are you living under a sense of real,
vital, influential, constraining religion ? Christianity is
not a Sabbath-day profession, but a week-day life. It is
not a form, but power ; it is not a name, but life. And
that man who has no well-founded hope for believing that
his sins have been forgiven, through Christ's blood, has
no well-founded evidence that he shall be found in that
resurrection, — that resurrection from among the dead,
of which it is said, " Blessed and holy is he that hath
part in it."
LECTURE XXXII.
THE BLESSED AND HOLY PART.
" Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first
resurrection : on such the second death hath no
power^ hut they shall he priests of God and of
Christy and shall rei<jn with liini a thousand years.^^
— Revelation xx. 6.
There is in the minds of us all a lurking notion, eyen in
those who do not accept it, that there is something in
matter, in our corporeal nature, in the earth, in all the
things connected with the earth, essentially and intrinsi-
cally sinful. When you hear of dwelling in a literal
world, or of the body being raised and your living in it,
and that body being admitted into a state of perfect hap-
piness; the question docs occur to you, whether you like
or not, how can this vile body be admitted into that holy,
holy, holy presence ? All of us have the remains of the
old gnostic, Gentile, or rather heathen philosophy, that
spirit was made by God, that matter was made by the
devil ; that the two are antagonists, and never can dwell
together ; and that the body is the prison of the soul, and
must be annihilated in order that the glorious inhabitant
within may emerge, and enjoy the full blessedness of them
that are forever with God. The consequence is, that in
many minds the state of the happy dead is so utlicroalizcd
(185
186 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
that they cannot appreciate or compreliend it. I know
that in the preaching of some most excellent ministers,
^vhose preaching of the Gospel is powerful, and full, and
faithful, this thought is implied. But I must ask all not
to accept what doctors say, nor what rabbis believe ; but
to read this doom book, for we are Protestants : what is
here is everlasting truth, if the whole world should de-
nounce it ; what is not here is not necessary for any man
to believe in order to salvation. Now let me show you,
in the first place, that your idea ajbout matter cannot be
correct ; for matter, in all its multitudinous developments,
is as much the creature of God as the holiest seraph that
wings his flight and sings beside the throne of Deity.
God made the stars of the sky, the flowers of the earth,
the waters of the deep sea, and the streams of all earth's
rivers. And if God made all things visible and material
that we see, that we touch, that we handle, will you believe
that a holy God made matter originally tainted, poisoned,
polluted ; with disease and decay, with disorder and dis-
cord, and finally with death — can you believe that ? If
God made matter so. He made sin ; and if he made sin,
how can you reconcile his constant denunciation of it;
his declaration that he will extirpate and banish it from
his world for ever ? Does He hate what He himself made ?
Does He war against what He himself introduced? The
idea is absurd ; the contradiction is too gross to be for one
moment entertained. Does not all the teaching of Scrip-
ture, on the contrary, demonstrate that all creation, this
orb, and that sky, and those stars, and those flowers, and
that great sea, were all made originally holy, perfect, harmo-
nious, pure ; and that sin is a subsequent interpolation ; that
THE BLESSED AXD HOLY PART. 187
it is an after-creation intrusion ? Whence it came, why it
came, are questions I cannot solve, and need not discuss; but
the fact that sin was introduced after the earth was made
is a fact that appears upon every page of God's blessed
book. If sin was introduced after creation, and if sin be
not part and parcel of the original constitution of creation,
then sin is not part of God's creation. Do you think dis-
ease is part of my body? that blindness, deafness, pa-
ralysis, decay, death, were ever made originally as part
and parcel of my nature ? They are imperfections, the
fruits oi sin, and subsequently introduced, and were not
made by God. I was no more made to die than the angels
in glory ; I was made immortal, holy, happy ; and what-
ever of disease, whatever of ache, whatever of decay are
felt in me, are not from God, and Him I cannot blame :
they are simply from myself; that is, from the creature.
But, blessed thought ! they are destined to be expunged ;
God will purify the creature He made once so holy ; and
earth restored will be a grander spectacle than earth as,
originally created, and its last Paradise will be a more
brilliaat scene than the first with which time dawned and
in which Adam dwelt. Now then, if this be true, that
sin is an interpolation, let me ask, is there any difiiculty
in supposing that God will eliminate from my nature that
which has infected it ? Is man, for instance, able to purify
the infected dwelling ; is he able to detach decay, and
arrest it ; is he able, by the most sifting and exquisite
analysis, to trace the retreats and the hiding-places of the
subtle poison that has been introduced into the body ; and
literally to bring up from the grave the evidences of the
poisoner's guilt and criminality ? Is man able to do all
188 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
this; and shall Omnipotence be unable to extract the
poison from the work it made ? Shall Omniscience fail
in tracking through all its windings the evil that has been
introduced? Shall He who expelled the leprosy, who
opened the blind eye, who arrested the corruption of the
grave, and brought forth the dead, living and happy, to
minofle ao^ain wuth livinor men ; — shall He be unable to
purify a world He had made? — to eliminate from this
body the sin, and the decay, and the diseases that have
entered ; and to reconstruct and to constitute me a crea-
ture far nobler and better than when he gazed upon the
new made Adam, and behold, all was very good ? But \7e
are not left to a mere conjecture ; there are express de-
clarations in Scripture to that eifect : for what does it
say? "We look for the Savior, who shall change our
vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious
body." That one text settles the matter. What was his
glorious body ? That body with which He rose from the
mount. But our vile bodies shall be fashioned like unto
his glorious body. And, says Paul, " the trumpet shall
sound, and the dead shall be raised ; and we shall be
changed ; for this mortal must put on immortality," And
therefore we believe, that out of the dust the fallen shrine
of human nature shall be rebuilt, and consecrated afresh
^by God himself: on its cold altar a new vestal fire shall
be kindled ; and the second temple of humanity will be
grander than the first ; and there will be heard over it, in
its beauty and in its perfection, a shout — an anthem peal
of praise, richer, greater, more lasting than when the
morning stars sang together for joy over a new born
world.
THE BLESSED AND HOLY PART. 189
Throughout Scripture itself there is the intimation of
man longing, yearning, and desiring this very resurrection
of the body. What does the apostle say in that mag-
nificent chapter, Romans viii. ? '• We ourselves, which
have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan within ourselves :"
that is, are in trouble. Why ? " Looking for the adop-
tion, to wit, the redemption" — that is, the resurrection —
" of the body." And in the book of Revelation, the souls
below the altar cry with a loud voice, " How long, 0
Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge
our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" And Rev.
XX. is the response. Now then, this thought is forced
upon- my mind ; the soul at this moment in the realms of
glory, conscious, living, unspeakably happy, feels related
to an absent body ; in other words, amid all the felicity of
heaven, there is remaining still a sense of incompleteness.
For what does the apostle say? "I long to be absent
from the body, and present w^ith the Lord:" well, he is
present with the Lord, but he is absent from the body.
And the very sense of enjoyment that consists in presence
with the Lord has the relieving sense — the deep recollec-
tion— that he is still absent from what is not a house se-
parate from myself, but part and parcel of myself; for the
definition of man is not spirit — is not animal, but soul and
body joined together ; and those that God united shall
aizain be re-knit, and so shall man thus be for ever with the
Lord. If these things be so, I think the language that
we sometimes hear men use, in reference to the body, is
most unscriptural. We ought not to speak of the body with
contempt ; we ought not to regard it and denounce it
as incapable of joy. The body is not an enemy, to
190 TUE GREAT TRIBULATION.
be destroyed with death ; but a sorrowing partner in
our fall, that needs to be comforted, and that will be
restored. Mj blessed Lord sanctified my nature when
He took a handful of the dust of which it was made, and
knit it to himself, and filled it with all the splendor and
glory of the shechinah upon earth. My blessed Lord
speaks through my lips, looks through human eyes ; has
in heaven with Him a human heart ; can sympathise with
us in all our griefs.
The Savior therefore, having my nature in heaven, is
to me an earnest, proof, and prophecy, that man can and
shall be there also. But then you meet with this, Do
we not see, what you must admit, that when death comes
you must take this body, lay it in the dust, even as Abra-
ham was obliged to hide his beloved Sarah out of his very
sight? What a humbling thought, that the noblest, the
fairest, and most gifted, and most beautiful, must one day
lie down in the house appointed for all living. Man
surely has little ground for pride ; though, blessed
thought ! even in the grave he has the sweet germ of ev-
erlasting and indestructible hope. But what seems decay
in the grave is only a process preparatory to a glorious
resurrection. The beautiful blossom emerging from the
dark stem ; the golden-winged butterfly breaking its chry-
salis shell, and coming out ; the spring rising from the
winding-sheet of winter snow ; the summer about to be
born of spring, are illustrative prophecies of the new
body, the resurrection body, rising from the dust of the
old ; " for that which thou sowest is not quickened until it
die." And as long, therefore, as I look round me on
spring, and see the seed decay that is cast into the earth, but
THE BLESSED 'AND HOLY PART. 191
issue in a lovelier plant ; and the petals ^vitlier, but dis-
close the ripening fruit ; so long I am satisfied that those
sweet buds of promise that are scattered throughout this
blessed book, that seem to wither into dust the instant we
bring them near the grave, where corruption has begun
its work ; those buds I am sure shall not decay ; thej
shall blossom, they shall bear immortal fruit, and live in
endless beauty ; for stronger, surer, than spring, and sum-
mer, and autumn, and winter, is one word the Lord our
God hath spoken.
But it has been asked. How are the dead raised ? Let
me turn your attention to one illustrative clause, which
has struck me as containing thoughts that I have not dis-
closed before. It is in 1 Corinthians xv. 35, where the
apostle says, " But some one will say, How are the dead
raised, and with what body do they come ? Thou fool,
that wdiich thou sowest is not quickened except it die."
That one clause contains the secret of the whole. Let rae
ask you to watch and analyse that sentiment, and see if
we have not in it some dim but not uninstructive illus-
tration of the resurrection from the dead. First of all
observe, " Except it die," teaches us dissolution. The
seed is dissolved ; the body is dissolved. You take a seed
of corn ; you deposit it in the earth ; it is disorganized, it
is reduced into its constituent elements. So the body is
laid in the grave. As long as life is in my body, it re-
sists the laws of chemistry, and will not dissolve. The
moment a man is born he begins to die ; and the thing
that keeps him from dying is the higher law of life, which
prevents the lower chemical laws of disorganization in-
stantly taking effect ; life holds you back from disorgani-
192 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
zation. When life departs, and the body is left ; when
the soul takes its flight, the body yields to the laws of
chemistry, comes under new affinities, and falls into disor-
ganization. But still, as the decaying seed that you have
deposited in the earth is related to the full plant which
that seed nurses in its bosom, and the death of that seed
is necessary to the life of that plant, so the old body de-
cays, but it has in its bosom the elements of the new one ;
and the relation of the body laid in the tomb to the body
that will be resplendent in glory is as vital and as inde-
structible as the relation between the seed that you put
in the earth and the seed that grows on the ripe stalk when
the season of autumn draws near. The seed in the earth
is essential to the seed that ripens above it ; the body in
the grave is essential to and inseparable from the body
that shall appear at the resurrection morn. And hence is
the second law of evolution. ''That which thou so west
is not quickened," that is evolution: — "except it die."
When the body is laid in the grave there is not the de-
struction of the old body absolutely, and thereby an end
to it, and afterwards the creation of a new ; but there is
the disappearing of the old by its appearing in the new ;
the new body gathering strength and vitality from the de-
struction of the old, till the old is exhausted, and all its
constituent elements are taken into the new : thus that
which fell is that which rises, corruption having become
incorruption, and mortality immortality ; yet all tlie
while there is perfect identity, for there is no interruption
or break in the development. It appears as the decaying
seed in the earth evolves into the flowering stalk, and the
seed in the ripe ear is the repetition of the seed that decays
THE BLESSED AND HOLY PART. 193
at its roots. The flower on the stalk would not be there.
were the connection between it and the decaying seed in-
terrupted for a moment. The resurrection body would
not be, were the continuity of its connection with ray de-
caying and mortal body interrupted for a moment. God
could create another body, but He does not; He evolves
the new resurrection body from the destruction and disor-
ganization of the old ; and the connection and continuity
between them is as complete as the connection between
the ripe ear on the stalk, and the decaying seed that died
and perished in the earth at its roots. And it is really, I
have sometimes thought, an interesting inquiry — a thought
I leave others to consider — whether the resurrection of
the body does not in some degree begin, in the case of a
believer, even in this present world. The moment that
a man's soul is regenerated, scripture teaches us that a
present process begins in the central seat of the man,
which will radiate outwards, and, uninterrupted by decay
in the grave, it will continue till the trumpet sound, and
the body rise immortal. For what does our Savior say ?
When Jesus told Martha, " Thy brother shall rise again."
Martha, thinking that He alluded to the resurrection at
the last day, said, " I know he shall rise again at the re-
surrection in the last day." Now Jesus evidently meant
something more, for He adds, " I am the resurrection and
the life : he that belie veth in me shall never die."
May it not be that the regenerated soul, even in this
world, is laying the foundations of the resurrection body ?
May it not be possible that the regenerated soul is weav-
ing, even in this life, the finer tissues, the more exquisite
and delicate filaments of that glorious body which shall
9
194 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
rise and be immortal for ever ? If jou ask, how do I
prove this? I answer, look around jou. Take a true
Christian, who for years has cultivated purity of thought
and purity of life ; who has restrained by grace his pas-
sions, who has curbed his appetites, who have striven
more and more, by prayer and by the aid of the Holy
Spirit, to be like his Lord. And take now the contrast to
this — a profligate who has given scope to his appetites, his
passions, his lusts, his evil and his abominable desires. Is
there not in outward aspect a contrast that is unmistakable ?
In the first there is a calm, a serenity, and in his sorest
afflictions a peace that makes his face radiant almost Avith
the forethrown glories of the resurrection morn. In the
second character there is a gloom, a repulsiveness, an un-
attractive character, that seems darkening more and more.
In the words of one who has written well upon this sub-
ject, " See we not in our neighbors and friends how long
habit impresses their characters upon their faces. We
admire and respect more and more the cheerful counte-
nance of frankness, the calm brow of contemplation, the
mild serene eye of holiness, the beaming, deep-seated
smile of charity. "VYe shrink with increasing horror from
the leer of lust, the idiotcy of drunkenness, the scowl of
malignity, and the contracted features of cunning and
fraud. Thus these announce themselves to be at various
stages towards that final state of the body, when no longer
in a flux between decay and renew^al, it shall be unchange-
able and informed by an unchangeable mind to all eternity.
If then it be true that the thoughts of the mind, the af-
fections of the heart, are writing themselves upon the
outward countenance, may not that justify what seems a
THE BLESSED AND HOLY PART. 195
novelty, and which I have now ventured to state, that the
soul of the regenerated man may now be acting on its
material tenement : may now be laying the foundations of
the incorruptible and the immortal body ; and that even
in this life Christ's great words, which always mean more
than we generally attach to them, are strictly and literally
true, " I am now the resurrection and the life; he that
believeth in me shall never see death, but shall live for
ever"?
But let me add that in one respect the analogy fails.
The ripe seed no sooner attains its perfection than it be-
gins to decay ; The beautiful flower is no sooner perfected
than it begins to drop off. I have often felt, in looking
round at nature, which the apostle so strikingly describes
as groaning and travailing in pain, when I look on a
flower-<]!;arden, as if nature had made one m'orantic effort
to throw forth the evidences of perfection. But when
autumn comes, all fall back into what they were before ;
they drop and decay. Nature in her mightiest struggles
gives birth to beauty that no language of mine can ex-
aggerate ; but that beauty is so feeble and imperfect that
it decays and falls back into what it was again. But
this will not be true of man, because man attains a high-
er life ; he inherits what the flowers have not, what na-
ture has not in its present economy, — a lasting life. And
hence man will be the blossom of creation, ever fragrant,
ever amaranthine; man will have the perfection of life ;
but his life will be so lasting because our blessed Lord
has said, " Because I live, ye shall live also." That is
not said of fruit, or flower, or blossom ; but it is said of
regenerated man. And therefore man's nature, when it
196 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
reaches its culminating glorj, never falls back, like the
flowers and fruits of the earth, into their original decay ;
he lasts and lives holj, beautiful, and happy for ever and
for ever. I need not quote from Scripture evidences of
this, in the resurrection of our Lord, in the identity of
Moses and Elijah on the mount of transfiguration. This
is the disclosure of revelation, it is not the discovery of
man's reason. And what a glorious body will ours be !
All its aches and its imperfections gone : the wrinkles
about the eye, and the wrinkles on the face, that remind
one of the broAvn sea-sand from which the tide of life is
rapidly ebbing away, shall all be removed ; all its defects
shall be put away ; the image of God shall be struck upon
man in all its splendor ; every pulse shall be praise, every
action ecstasy, every feeling peace ; and the second Adam
will be, if man may be called so, happier, nobler than the
first. And this great truth is the distinctive disclosure
of revelation, on it the second death hath no power.
Therein is the evidence of what I have said of man's en-
durance when risen again, that over him the second death
hath no power. There will be nothing in man for death
to fasten on ; there will be no fuel for the last fire, no
crevice by which Satan may enter. Blessed, happy, and
holy is he that hath part in this resurrection ; for they
will be priests and kings unto God. What was man made
to ^'^ ? The king of creation. And you do not need the
Bible to tell you this ; you have the evidences of man's ^
kingship everywhere. Let man look the ravenous lion
firmly in the face, and it is said the lion, recognizing the
remains of man's sceptre and crown, will retreat and
skulk away. Is it not true that- though there be much in
THE BLESSED AND HOLY PART. 197
man to indicate he is- discrowned, he retains many of the
traces of his aboriginal sovereignty ; and that all nature
every day, under science, is coming up to serve, and sub-
serve, and be the slave of man ? as if God would teach
you in the world that there are prophecies everywhere
that man had a sceptre that is now broken ; that he shall
have a sceptre again which shall never be snapped in
twain. And when man is risen, he shall not only be the
king of creation, but he shall be the priest of it. He
shall be nature's eye, ever seeing God as the giver of all ;
nature's ear, ever listening to God as the sovereign of all ;
nature's minister, ever offering up her first-fruits and her
incense of praise and adoration to God.
How sad and sorrowful the creed of the heathen
abroad, or the creed of the unbelieving heathen at home !
I wonder how any man that does not believe in the Gos-
pel can look upon a grave without horror ; or can gaze
upon the forsaken slirine from which the soul is gone
without committing suicide ; for of all things the most
unnatural, the most inexplicable must be death, if the
Bible be a repudiated and sealed book. But to a Chris-
tian, who follows his dead to the grave, and feels that it is
not a funeral march, but a triumphant procession through
that dark, deep valley up to the glorious sunlit mount
that shines and sparkles beyond ; he sees over the deep-
est grave in which he lays his dearest dust the star of
Bethlehem shining ; and his ear of faith can hear, rising
even from the depths of that desert tomb, these beautiful
words, "Yea. though I walk through the valley of the
shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me ;
thy rod and thy staff they comfort me ;" and hearing
198 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
those thrilling accents, he can pronounce a benediction,
not for ever, but only for a little, " Blessed are the dead
that die in the Lord : they rest from their labors, and
their works do follow them."
My dear friends, see to it that you have that resurrec-
tion of the soul which is the sure prophecy of this glori-
ous resurrection of the body. The ncAV birth by the
Holy Spirit is the germ of the future ; it is the spring-
tide of the everlasting summer ; it is the seed sown that
is of immortal growth. Oh, may our hearts be opened
by that blessed Spirit who alone can change the heart ;
may we feel, what we should most deeply feel, that the
burial-place of the human heart, in which are so many
dead, must be emptied before the burial-places of the
dead can give forth their charge, that they may enter
into glory !
This is one of the things coming on the earth — all joy
to some — all sadness to others.
LECTURE XXXIII.
DEGREES OF HAPPINESS.
'^^ But this I say. He which soweth sparingly shall
reap also sparingly ; and he which soweth bounti-
fully shall reap also bountifully:'— 2 Corinthians
ix. 6.
There is clearly indicated in the Bible a distinction be-
tween what is called the first resurrection, or the com-
pany of those that believe ; and the second, or subsequent
resurrection, namely, those that die in their sins as they
lived in them. I have already endeavored to obviate
some of the difficulties that occur to thinking minds on
the subject of the resurrection. The resurrection of the
body is not the extrication of something new from the
great mass of humanity ; but the resurrection of the in-
dividual body thai fell, elevated, ennobled, purified ; the
mortal having put on immortality, the corruptible incor-
ruption. The same body deposited in the grave shall rise
from that grave, no longer pervaded by sin, defacing and
disfiguring it; but holy, perfect, beautiful; our vile
bodies fashioned like unto His glorious body.
There are traces scattered through the word of God,
not few nor far between, that evince that not only in the
state of the resurrection, but in the state of the soul sep-
(199)
200 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
arate from the body, there shall be mutual recognition ;
in otlicr words, that each Christian in glory shall be not
in a separate niche alone, Aviihout one countenance to re- .
fleet his thoughts, or one recollection of those from whom
lie was separated for a season ; but that it is our Father's
liouse, the everlasting home, the gathering place of all
that fell asleep in Christ ; and that we shall know each
other as distinctly and fully as we ourselves arc then
known.
Is there any evidence that there will be degrees of
glory and of happiness in the age to come, and in a re-
generated earth ? in other words, is there any connection
between what is sown on earth and reaped in heaven, —
between character generated here and glory inherited
liereafter ?
Now it may seem at first that this inquiry is mOre cu-
rious than important ; but if God has spoken on the sub-
ject, it is not curiosity, but duty to investigate, under-
stand, explain. If the Bible be silent on the subject,
investigation or search is useless and undutiful ; but if
God has touched upon the subject at all, it seems a duty to
investigate whatever God has written ; for there is nothing
in the Bible to satisfy a mere curiosity, but everything,
from the least jot to the loftiest promise, to sanctify and
make happy the human heart. In the next pUice, it
would seem to me that wliile our title of admission into
the realms of the blessed is equally and in all the same ;
that is to say, while all, whatever be their height of
character, or whatever be the degree of their attainments
on earth, if Christians, are admitted into heaven by a
title unto all and upon all, without a difference, by a
DEGREES OF HAPPINESS. 201
righteousness done for them, not done in them, throuo-h
Christ's intercession, in virtue of his sacrifice, and bj his
all-availing name. Yet upon the basis of a common title
of admission into glorj, there may be raised a super-
structure of ascending degrees of happiness ; and one
saint differ from another saint, as one star differeth from
another star in the firmament. In other words, while
there is no merit there may be degrees of grace on earth ;
and if there be degrees of grace on earth, why not de-
grees of glory in heaven above, or in the Millennium
beyond ? Besides, shall it be thought worthy of man to
explore all the conditions of this present orb ; and shall
it be thought curious or undutiful to explore the revealed
characteristics of the world which is to come ? See the
zeal and labors of men of science, how one will travel to
the Andes, to the Alps, to the Appennines, and to the
Polar realms, in order to prosecute their researches about
the structure of a bird, or about the habitat of a plant,
or the genus of a flower. How many will dig into the
bowels of the earth, in order to ascertain the archives of
creation and of this orb from its earliest date. An as-
tronomer, in the cold and frosty night, will watch through
all its hours for the transit of a planet, or submersion of
a satellite. And shall we, who are pilgrims and strangers,
candidates for, and, we trust, heirs of a more exalted in-
heritance— shall we be careless about its nature ; shall we
be indifferent to what its characteristics |irc ? Will it not
be our irrepressible instinct, if we are on our way, to
consult the map, to study the geography, and to ascertain
all the bright peculiarities of that better and future
country — the rest that remaineth for the people of God ?
9*
202 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
Besides, there may be in this study of the degrees of
glory, if it be true, or revealed, a stimulus to eftbit that
we need ; and very often, while one stimulus fails, another
may take its place. While one man is more drawn by
one attraction, another is more impelled by another. At
; 11 events, whatever God has written was written for our
learning : that we, through patience and comfort of the
Scriptures, may have hope.
Let us, in humble reliance upon God's Holy Spirit, try
to ascertain what signs or hints there are of degrees of
glory in the age to come. If grace be simply the bud of
glory, and if glory be simply the culminating splendor
of grace ; if, in other words, the Christian's course, from
his new birth below to his introduction into heaven, is a
continuous and a progressive "one, it is quite clear that
earth and heaven or our present state and future rest, in
the case of a Christian, differ in degree only, not in kind.
Heaven enters into us before we can enter into heaven :
heaven's holiness must come into our hearts now, that we
may enter into heaven's happiness when the world is lost
in the eternity to come. If this be so, if we can ascer-
tain that one man seems in this life to have got more of
heaven in his heart than another ; if we can show that in
this world, and under the rigime of grace, there are de-
grees of progress, and approximation to the everlasting
rest, we establish the principle, and I can see no reason
for doubting the transference of the result to that better
rest that is yet to come. Let me notice some instances.
A beautiful description of how near one may approach to
that better land ; or rather, how much of heaven may
be condensed into a human heart below, is given in his
DEGREES OF HAPPINESS. 203
own figurative but eminently poetic, I would add, mag-
nificent language, by the untutored and untaught preach-
er, John Bunjan. when he says, in the following words,
" I saw in my dream that by this time the pilgrims were
got over the enchanted ground, and entered into the
country of Beulah, whose air was very sweet."
Those bright anticipations of the future, which a
thoughtless world often brands as fanaticism, are really
the increasing splendor of the approaching glory; men
of great piety and soberness of mind, as remote from fa-
naticism as they were from scepticism, have on their
deathbeds seen a nook of the curtain lifted up, and gazed
into the future rest, and only fallen back from excess of
glory, unable to behold the spectacle any more. If this
be reality, what does it show ? That there are distinc-
tions among Christians on earth ; that one man seems to
walk along the margin of the city that hath foundations ;
another man seems to bask at a distance in its brilliant
sunshine, another seems to have cloud and shadow over
him ; another seems so far remote from it that his faith
trembles on the verge of extinction, and he is do'bmed
continually to cry, "Lord, I believe; help mine unbe-
lief." If these be facts, they are prophecies also; for if
such degrees of happiness be realized in the church be-
low, if such difierences be realities in the experience of
Christians here, it is not unreasonable nor illogical to con-
clude that such degrees, distinctions, and difierences will
exist hereafter. Must wc not suppose also, that such
men, with such distinctions here, were capable of eleva-
tion to a glory or a table-land in the world to come of
•which others were not ? Would it not seem as if these
204 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
distinctions upon earth were evidences of varieties of
meetness for varieties of glory in that city that hath foun-
dations, in our Father's home, and amid its many man-
sions ?
Bear in mind, then, this very important truth, that the
future, or rather the upper life, is simply the continuity
of the present ; grace is the bud, glory is the full blos-
som. And just as our lower life has its childhood, its
boyhood, its mature age, and its various stages ; so the
Christian life, who does not know if he be a Christian at
all, has its growth, its new birth, its youth, its ripening
into manhood ; and death does not arrest its development,
it only removes the obstructions to its progress. The soul
carries with it into the other world the habits and sympa-
thies of this. The harvest for ever is the fruit of the
seed-sowing now ; the nature of the future is generated
by the facts and experience of the present. Eternity has
no water of ablution, it simply fixes for ever the direc-
tion in which each is to move. If I may represent it by
a figure, Christ is the great centre of the infinite uni-
verse ; all Christians are like radii drawn and approac-
ing from a common circumference to that centre ; the
new birth is the point in the circumference from which
they start ; all eternity to come is the ceaseless approach
to the infinitely remote centre ; the happiness accumulat-
ing the nearer they approach what they never will be
able to reach. Can we not conceive then, that some have
approached nearer than others : and if so. that one en-
joys a happiness that another does not? Can we not
conceive that one enters into heaven a babe in Christ,
crying even as he touches the threshold of glory, '• Lord,
DEGREES OF HAPPINESS. 205
I believe ; help mine unbelief;" another enters into heav- •
en, shall I say a giant or a full-grown man in grace ;
exclaiming, shouting, rather singing, ' • I know in whom
I have believed ; and that He is able to keep what I have
committed to Him against tliat day." Are not these
likely to differ for ever ? If they do not, God must either
violently advance the one, or violently throw back the
other. But if glory be the continuity of grace ; if heaven
be simply another table-land in the endless progression ;
then each will enter upon that place for which his previ-
ous discipline has fitted him : and as there were degrees
in grace, so also there will be degrees in glory.
We see in this world that God gives distinctions to
men, Christian men, that are unmistakable and indisput-
able. Some Christians pass through the world unknown ;
they have left behind them no stain that blots their mem-
ory, but they have bequeathed no legacy of excellence
that adorns, ennobles, and dignifies it. It may be be-
cause they had not the opportunity. Other Christians
pass through the world like clouds big with countless
blessings; vindicating the truth, spreading the truth,
winning souls to Christ ; leaving behind them grateful
hearts to commemorate their march and excellence. If
then God makes such distinctions here, is it unnatural to
suppose that there will be analogous distinctions in the
future ? If in this lower department of his kingdom He
gave one double honor, and another less honor ; is it not
fair, and reasonable from analogy, to conclude that
there will be differences and degrees in the world to come ?
If God makes distinctions in the nursery, will Ho not
make, and will they not make distinctions in the heav-
206 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
enlj palace ? if He makes distinctions among his child-
ren He is training below, is it not but reasonable to infer
that He will make distinctions in the enjoyment of their
rest and happiness ?
God shows by the very varied experience of Christians
that there must be a difference. One Christian is per-
secuted, tormented ; he is in perils by sea, in perils by
land, in perils among false brethren ; his life is a contin-
uous martyrdom. Another Christian, a true Christian,
lives in the sunshine ; his home scarcely has a cloud in
its sky ; few bitter losses, no severe crosses. Is it rea-
sonable to suppose, while repudiating all merit in both,
that there will be no difference in the enjoyment of the
one superior to the enjoyment of the other? Do not
such texts as these seem to vindicate it? "Our light
affliction, which is but for a moment, v'orketh for us a
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." And again
he says, " If we suffer with him, we shall also reign with
him." If Christ remembers at that day a cup of cold
water given to a disciple in his name, and says it shall
not be without its reward, will he forget the fountain
that has been opened by another, and made to overflow
in streams of beneficence upon the needy, the destitute,
and the poor?
Suppose two Christians, equally pardoned and equally
justified through the full and perfect righteousness of
Christ, are admitted into heaven, as saints in glory re-
tain what they had on earth, their memories, these two
Christians look back upon the past. One looks back and
sees nine-tenths of his life spent in ministering to vanity
and sin, in the gratification of the lust of the eye, the
DEGREES or HAPPIXESS. 207
pride of life, and the love of this present world. On a
death bed, perhaps, he was brought to know, to love, and
trust in the onlj Saviour, and to receive what at the
eleventh hour is as accessible as at the first, complete
forgiveness, and a perfect and a joyous welcome. When
that Christian looks along the vista of the past, can his
life minister to him great comfort ? — can he see that he
has been a great blessing ? If tears drop upon the pave-
ment of the sky, a tear would surely drop from that eye
that sees in the past a life all vanity ; while the tear will
be wiped away when he sees the infinite mercy and grace
that so wonderfully forgave him. But another Christian^
equally pardoned, equally justified, looks back, and what
does he see ? He sees the prisons of the captives that he
visited with words of comfort ; he sees the hovels of the
poor, into which ^e carried a little of life's sunshine ; he
sees the naked ^thom he clothed, the mourner whom he
comforted ; and while he gives all the glory to grace, to
sovereign grace, and takes no merit to himself, but feels
all his right to be there exclusively what Christ did for
him, not what he did for Christ ; is it possible that the
latter shall not feel his heart's pulse bound with richer
joy, while he sees in the distant retrospect, through
grace, his life was not a blot, nor even a blank, but a
large blessing to mankind ? I cannot conceive that there
shall not be a difference in these two. Will Paul, wit-
nessing from heaven the bright record of his toils, and
trials, and sufferings for Christ, have no richer joy,
though no more gratitude, than the thief upon the cross,
when in his agony Christ ^said to him, " To-day shalt
thou be with me in paradise" ? Shall they that are in
208 . THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
heaven, who have turned many to righteousness, and
shine as the stars for ever, shine with no greater splendor
than they who have been saved " yet so as by fire," that
is, just in time to find Him who is the w^ay to heaven?
But are there not in the Bible actual instances of such
distinctions? Are not Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob emi-
nently distinguished when God says for ever, " I am the
God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob" ? Were not
Enoch and Elijah translated ? Was not that a difference,
a distinction ? Were not Elijah and Moses on the mount
of transfiguration ? Were not the three great suffering
apostles made the three favored apostles on the mount
Tabor, in that interval of heaven's glory let down to
this present world? If these distinctions were just in
themselves, such distinctions and degrees multiplied a
thousand-fold will be but just and right hereafter. We
read of the state of the lost that there are degrees of
sufferinor • and if there be staws of successive sorrow
deepening still for ever, is it not fair to assume that
there will be stages and degrees of endless joy ? What
does our Saviour say? " It will be more tolerable for
Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for Caper-
naum;" degrees of guilt followed by degrees of penalty.
What else does he say ? " The servant that knew his
lord's will, neither did according to his w^ill, shall be
beaten with many stripes ; but he that knew not his
lord's will, and did commit things worthy of stripes,
shall be beaten with few stripes." Does not this imply
degrees of suffering ? And what does the apostle con-
vey when he says, " If he tl^at despised Moseff' laAv died
without mercy, of how much sorer punishment" — de-
DEGREES OF HAPPINESS. 209
grees of punishment — " shall he be thought worthy, who
hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and counted
the blood of the covenant an unholy thing?''
How do you explain these differences or degrees of
happiness ? I answer, not by holding that the title to
heaven is different in A from what it is in B. Our right
to heaven is without distinction one and the same ; but
what we maintain is, that there is a difference in men's
capacities, and that the capacity of one is fitted for a
glory for which the capacity of the other is altogether
unfit. It is not in heaven probably that the outer hap-
piness will differ ; but the inner power of taking it in
and appropriating it will materially and for ever differ.
For instance, more sunshine falls on the palace than falls
upon the peasant's hovel. Why ? The sky has the
same brightness over and around both ; but the one has a
larger area, and is covered, therefore, witht a greater
amount of sunshine than the other. More rain-drops
fall upon the large rose than fall into the cup of the se-
questered violet. Why? The same shower descends,
but the cup of the violet cannot hold so much as the rose.
A scholar and a peasant walk forth in the month of May,
or in the leafy month of June, amid the fields, the
forest, or the garden. Both see the same sunshine, both
witness the same green trees and the same bright flowers ;
but the difference in their joy and happiness is prodigious.
The peasant sees, and is pleased ; the scholar sees, and
appreciates ; he sees design, and plan, and arrangement
in everything about him; and derives, by the superior
capacity that he has, an amount of enjoyment that the
peasant cannot have. So in heaven, the happiness may
210 THE GREAT TRIBULATI02T.
not be different in itself; but each man's capacity may
so differ that one shall have an amount of joy that the
other must be a stranger to. Dean Trench says, '' They
whose spiritual eye is most enlightened will drink in most
of His glory." "We read that " God will reward every
man according to his work." Now what does that mean ?
I must not, for fear of being suspected of believing that a
man is justified by his own doings, shrink from what I
find in the Bible. Never be afraid of the full statement
of each truth ; for, depend upon it, every truth is in per-
fect harmony with every other. Whatever God has re-
vealed is true, though we may fail sometimes to see its
accordance with other portions of the divine plan. '' God
will reward every man according to his work." '' Bless-
ed are the dead that die in the Lord ; for they rest from
their labors, and their works do follow them;" "in the
Lord," their safety; '* their works do follow them," the
evidence of what they were, and what they have been
made by grace. What mean such words as these : " God
is not unrighteous, to forget your work and labor of
love;" " Whosoever shall break one of the least of my
commandments shall be called the least in the kingdom
of heaven ; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the
same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven" ?
When Peter told, " Lord, we have left all, and followed
thee," what did Jesus say? " Verily I say unto you,
That ye which have followed me in the regeneration,
when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory,
ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve
tribes of Israel ;" a text on which Matthew Henry says,
" There are here degrees of glory for those that have
DEGREES OE HAPPINESS. 211
done most and suffered most." Again, in Matthew x.
41, we read, '' He that receiveth a prophet in the name
of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he
that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous
man shall receive a righteous man's reward," — the recog-
nition of different rewards in the world to come. And
again, we read in 1 Cor. iii. 13, " Every man's work
shall be made manifest ; for the daj shall declare it, be-
cause it shall be revealed hy fire ; and the fire shall try
every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work
abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a
reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall
suffer loss ; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by
fire;" literally, "with the greatest difficulty;" or, as
Peter says, " If the righteous scarcely be saved, where
shall the sinner and the ungodly appear?" Now, this
statement of Paul indicates that one shall receive an ever-
lasting reward : that another shall be saved with the
greatest difficulty. And upon this, Scott, another com-
mentator, perhaps more sensible, though not more pious
than Henry, says, " Some will suffer great loss in respect
of the degree of future glory." In Daniel xii. 3, " And
they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the fir-
mament ; and they that turn many to righteousness as
the stars for ever and ever." On that text Bishop Louth
says, " These words import that they who have been the
great lights of the world shall have a more glorious re-
ward at the day of judgment.'^
And, finally, we may draw . the same conclusion from
the analogy of this present world. All heaven will not
be a monotony ; all the splendors of the blesssed will not
212 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
be in all the compartments of that magnificent domain
the same. Do we not find it so in this world ? One
flower differs from another flower in beauty, in fragrance,
in preciousness ; yet each lives in the same sunshine, and
breathes the same air. One star differs from another
star in magnificence and splendor ; yet all the stars are
moving in their appointed orbits for ever and ever. One
woman differs from another in beauty : one man differs
from another man in strength, in wisdom, in genius. In
the bowels of the earth the granite and the gem are vast-
ly different from each other ; one crystal is superior to
another crystal. In the head and in the heart, in the
attainments of the one and the feelings of the other, what
differences in different men ! In the human countenance,
what infinite and inexhaustible vai'iety of expression ! In
social life itself we have the vast pyramid of society, the
basis and the apex ; the masses, descending in successive
layers to the foundation, constituting the base of society.
If God, then, has made degrees of dignity, of beauty, of
excellence, throughout his material, his natural, and his
social world ; if God has made degrees of happiness, fit-
ness for heaven, and enjoyment in all his regenerated
church! is it not the just and legitimate inference that
there will be degrees of happiness infinitely differing from
each other in that world which is the complement, the
blossom, and the perfection of the world that now is ?
These things being so, let me remind you of the prac-
tical lesson for us, first to take care that you are resting
on the only Savior. It is of no use for you to discuss
the probability of degrees of glory, if you are a stranger
to the right and title that enables you to cross the
DEGREES OF HAPPINESS. 213
threshold. Your first anxiety, therefore, must be, Have
I felt mj sins an intolerable load ? have I felt that God
is offended with me as a conscious transgressor of his law?
have I heard the joyous tidings that a Savior descended
to mj grave, and died upon a cross for me, that my sins
might be forgiven ? have I accepted Him as all my title,
all my righteousness, all my salvation ; whose name I
plead in prayer, whose name shall be my pass-word
through the very universe itself; whose work for me is
my only and exclusive ground of acceptance this day ?
Do I feel this ? Do you feel this ? Have you ever en-
tertained it as a serious question ? Is it a mere subject
that you hear in sermons, but that you have never dis-
cussed in the silence and in the secrecy of your own in-
dividual heart ? Till that question is settled, till that
subject be entertained, pondered, and solved, all subse-
quent to it is but waste of words and loss of time.
If paralysis, now almost endemic ; if apoplexy, the
result of the excessive excitements of a world exhausted
beyond its normal obligations ; if fever, or sickness, over-
take you ; if the heart, weary with its march, stands
still, there is not an end of you then. There is not even
in death, let me remind you, a suspension of the continui-
ty of conscious life. I believe that the moment when
your relatives look upon your pallid face and ,^ay, " He
is gone !" at that very moment you will be in possession
of a consciousness clearer, brighter, more real, than ever
you were possessed of on earth. And what is that con-
sciousness? To look upon the face of the Son of
God at the judgment-seat. And, oh ! blasting thought,
if you should discover that this is He that was slain for
214 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
me, preached from the pulpit, pressed on my conscience,
and we dismissed the subject from the mind, and went,
one to his farm, another to his merchandize, another else-
where ! " How shall we escape if wo- neglect so great
salvation ?" What a strange thing that men think every-
thing real but religion ! They seem to think everything
intensely important but living religion. They seem to
have a notion, too, that if they venture to touch religion,
their happiness will wither and die. It is all the reverse.
If you at this moment do feel. " That blessed Savior is
mine;" if you do feel, "I can commit to Him my soul,
with its inexhaustible prospects beyond the grave ;" that
come life, como death, it will be- well with you, that sud-
den death will be sudden glory : then you must be happy.
But are you to be satisfied with even this ? No. I fear
that many true Christians will discover that they make
justification by faith alone in Christ's righteousness, so
infinitely precious, a substitute for charity, for meekness,
for liberality, for love, for duty. Pardon through Christ
is not the end of religion, but the preface to religion.
What are we doing in the world around us ? what are
we doing to help the cause of Christ, to promote the gos-
pel, to add to the comfort of the destitute, the needy, and
the poor ? Is it nothing ? Is it little ? It ought not to
be so. If I were a physician, I would try to be the
ver}'' best in England ; if I were a lawyer, I would try
to be the ablest and the most eloquent pleader at the bar ;
if I swept a crossing, I would try to sweep it better than
any other crossing in London. Whatever my profession,
I would determine to excel in it. Let the ambition which
shows itself in the thinscs of time be sanctified and con-
DEGREES OF HAPPINESS. 215
secrated to a nobler being ; and when you leave this pre-
sent world, let there be a train of beneficence behind you
that will inspire many to pronounce your memories bless-
ed. Let there be schools you have supported ; let there
be the ignorant you have taught ; let there be the heathen
you have enlightened; and, by thus making friends of
the mammon of unrighteousness, when you enter into
that everlasting rest, they will meet you and make you
welcome there. ^
LECTURE XXXIV.
RECOGNITION IN THE AGE TO COME.
" Blessed and holy is he thai hath part i?i the first
resiirrectioJi : on such the second death hath no
power, but they shall be priests of God and of
Christ, and shall reign icith him a thousand years.^^
— Rev. XX. 6.
Let us try to gather from the word of God what light
is cast upon a belief that most of us entertain, but that
some have doubts and many have difficulties about, whether
in the state of the soul as separate from the body pre-
vious to the resurrection, or in the soul united to the
bodv subsequent to the resurrection, we shall be able to
recognize relative relative, friend friend, companion com-
panion, with whom we walked and took sweet counsel to-
gether. My conviction is that we shall; my belief is
that the soul of the saint now in its disembodied state
holds communion with and recognizes souls of others sep-
arate from the body now in glory. And it is not im-
probable that our rehitives in perfect joy are nearer to us
than our relatives across the sea ; we may not see them,
but they may thoroughly see, and know, and understand
us. The state of the blessed in glory is less a place, and
more, as Dr. Chalmers called it, a condition ; less a lo-
(216)
RECOGNITION IN THE AGE TO COME. 2u
calitjj and more a state. And if that be so, then the
beautiful Beatitude, *' Blessed are they that mourn, for
they shall be comforted," may have a wider application
to mourners on earth than we are disposed to think :
they may be comforted with the hopes of reunion, and
with the cheering additional hope, without which reunion
would be comfortless, of recognition and restoration.
Some families in every sense have their home in the
future and the brighter land ; their fathers, their mothers,
their sisters, their brothers, have all emigrated — no, not
emigrated; for we are in a strange colony, they have
gone home ; you that remain, like solitary trees in a once
crowded forest, after a few years will also be transplanted
and gathered home. There are few families that have
not a stake in eternity above us and before us ; few fam-
ilies that have not relatives beyond the grave. Blessed
thought ! it will be but a transient separation, the fore-
taste and the vestibule of an everlasting and unending
communion. Some have said, If I could only be sure that
those I have lost are amidst jojs unspeakable and full of
glory ; if only some voice could whisper in some stilly
night from the depths or the heights, "it is well with
them :" or if they could only speak one word, and say it
is well with us ; you think you could be comforted. But
this cannot be : the waters of the Jordan that rush along
the valley of the shadow of death make no audible music ;
there is at present a chasm between saints on earth and
saints in glory impassable to either. We have what is
equally good, a lamp that strikes its beams into the upper
and the future, a sunshine that projects its shafts beyond
the grave ; itnd this book assures us, in words as certain
iO
218 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
and clear as a voice from heaven, '• Blessed are the dead
that die in the Lord ; they rest 'from their labors, and
their works do follow them."
But is there a prospect not merely of reunion, but also
of recognition ? First, let me show the instructive feel-
ing of the heathen on this subject, as evidences of nature
feeling a want that yearns to be satisfied. Let me se-
condly show what traces there are of this truth in the
Old Testament ; next in the New, in the teaching of our
Lord and that of the Apostles ; and lastly, obviate some
of the objections that occur to inquiring minds. Almost
every wise and enlightened philosopher in ancient times
cherished the belief that he w^ould meet with those who
had preceded him into the future. I admit they had no
revelation ; I do not quote what they felt as any authority ;
I simply quote what they said as evidence of nature's
conscious want, yearning, and desire to meet and mingle
with them that had preceded them to the other world.
The first I will quote as an evidence of nature expressing
its feeling is Socrates speaking in Plato, when he says
very beautifully, " Who would not part with a great deal
to have a meeting with Orpheus, Hesiod, and Homer, and
again to converse with Ulysses !" Again, Homer, a
great representative of the feelings of human nature,
speaks of meeting in the future Ajax, and Patroclus, and
Achilles. Cicero, the great Latin orator and philosopher,
says, "I feel transported with ardent impatience to join
the society of my two departed friends. I ardently wish
also to visit those celebrate<l Avorthies of whose honorable
conduct I have read, and to associate with the assembly
of departed spirits and with my dear Cato." Virgil
RECOGNITION IN THE AGE TO COME. 219
again, a Latin poet, represents ^neas as visiting tlie
future, and recognizing the dead that are there. I quote
these not as proofs of the doctrine, or authorities whose
verdict on the subject is of weight; but as evidences that
there are in nature instincts that are prophecies ; and that
in Briton, in Hindoo, in Pagan, in Jew, you find a voice
rising, not from sect, not from locality, but from the very
silent and secret depths of the human heart ; a voice of
yearning and anxiety to meet and mingle with the de-
parted dead that is in its place a prophecy and an earnest
that it will be actualized. The longing for it on the part
of the heathen is incorporated with many absurdities, with
extravagance and error ; but as " sunshine broken in a
rill, though turned astray, is sunshine still," so this truth,
distorted as it may be, and mingled up with absurdity and
and extravagance as it is, is yet part and parcel of the
original and primal feeling of human nature ; and deep
instincts in our nature are prophecies of their own ful-
filment and gratification.
This mutual recognition, let me proceed to show,
whether it.be before or after the resurrection, I believe
to be a reality. The resurrection is only the intenser
manifestation of the individual, not the creation of the
possibility or fact of mutual recognition. The spirit dis-
embodied and in eternal joy may recognise spirit, as
angels recognizes angel, with an accuracy and an exact-
ness far greater than that with which we recognize each
other through the media of these tents and veils of hu-
manity in which it is our lot now to dwell. The fact is,
we see less of each other in the flesh than we shall see of
each other out of it. The body is a veil ; and we know
220 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
that such is the power of mind over exterior matter that
it can shape and mould the countenance to give expression
to what is not, as well as permit it to give expression to
what really and truly is. And hence it seems perfectly
reasonable to conclude that soul may recognise soul ; that
there is an identity there as real, as discoverable as in the
features of the face, the gait or the walk, the tone of the
voice, the look and expression of the countenance. It
may be in that spirit land that a mother lifted to glory,
wondering for a little if the son she left behind be with
her or still in the flesh, may meet one spirit in that better
land w^ho shall give expression to his joy in the language
of one of old, " I am Joseph ;" and these words will
waken lost reminiscences and features, and swell the joys
of the redeemed even in the presence of God and of the
Lamb. We must feel that in the upper glory or in fu-
ture rest memory is not extinguished. The resurrection
does not quench a single attribute of humanity that was
part and parcel of it originally ; it glorifies all, it annihi-
lates nothing. In the parable of the rich man and La-
zarus, we read that Abraham said, " Son, remember ;"
therefore, memory suj:"vives the grave. We read also that
the rich man in misery recollected the number of his
brethren on earth. If memory survive in the lost, surely
it will survive in the blessed. The admission of human
nature into heaven does not eSect the mutilation of it, but
the glorification of it with all the splendors of eternal
and undying perfection. And if we carry memory with
us into the realms of glory, surely we sliall instinctively
and necessarily recollect persons, scenes, circumstances,
relationships, and associations ; and as sure as we recol-
RECOGNITION IN THE AGE TO COME. 221
lect them we shall feel anxious to know that it is well
with those Avho with us took part in them ; and that
anxiety to know, unmet and ungratified, would be a con-
scious want in heaven somewhat incompatible with the
perfect felicity of the saved. Christianity is as a religion,
the mother of union. Sin is the cause and the spring of
disorganization : true religion begins in this world asso-
ciations, friendship, intercourse, communion, that never
will and need not be dissolved. If Christianity has cre-
ated new ties between me and others, and it was Christian
to create them, it is only Christian to conserve and per-
petuate them ; if they be the fruits of this religion, like
all its fruits they shall have an amaranthine life, an im-
perishable glory. And again, natural ties, the ties of
parent, of child, of brother or sister, are intrinsically
pure and holy ; they were originated before sin entered.
And if they be in themselves intrinsically holy, we must
expect that the religion which sanctifies all that is natural
will perpetuate for ever what it has sanctified. Can we
suppose that Lazarus will not know Martha and her
sister Mary ? Will the friendship of David and Jona-
than be quenched for ever ? Will the beautiful affection
of Ruth and Naomi wither the instant that it is admitted
into that land where all bright things never fade, and all
blessed things die not? Besides, there are certain facts
here that seem to demand further recognition. For in-
stance, some unseen benefactor has interposed in the hour
of your trial, and relieved, comforted, or delivered you.
Some word spoken in a distant part of the world by one
you never saw has become to you a ministry of everlast-
ing joy. Some great truths in the printed page, set in a
222 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
new light, have struck your heart with irresistible force ;
you never saw the person that wrote them,, 3'ou never
heard a word from his lips ; hut if you feel that what you
read, written by some one across the Atlantic, has been to
your soul a savor of life, will it not be natural in heaven,
will it not be natural in the future state, to seek out the
unknown individual, to ask what he is and who he is ? If
they that have turned many to righteousness shall shine
as the stars for ever, will it not be natural that you should
see that bright star that has guided you across a stormy
and a tempestuous sea, now that there is no cloud to in-
tercept its splendor, no darkness to dim, and no space to
separate ? The desire seems to be so natural that surely
the sense of it here is the prophecy of its gratification
hereafter. One cause why we do not see as we are seen,
is that sin has enfeebled the intellect, deadened the con-
science, depraved the heart; but we are absolutely as-
sured that in the future world we shall see in a brighter
light all things more clearly ; for in this world we see
through a glass darkly. Remember, that in the times
when the apostle wrote, the window through which they
saw, or the mirror which reflected the human countenance,
was then very imperfect, and from its nature extremely
opaque. The apostle says, " We see now through a glass
darkly ; but then face to face ; now we know in part ; but
then we shall know even as we are known."
But the decisive proof is God's holy word. I will
refer first to the feelings of the Jews, as they are indi-
cated in the Old Testament. We all remember reading
the anxiety of Abraham to find a burying-place at Mach-
pelah for the dust of the beloved Sarah : and his eloquent
RECOGNITION IN THE AGE TO COME. 223
and jet business-like transactions with tbe sons of Heth
upon this subject. Al.^o, the dying request of the patri-
arch Jacob when the time drew near that he must die ;
and he called his sons and said, "lam to be gathered
unto my people ; bury me with my fathers in the cave
that is in he field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that
is in the field of Machpelah, w^hich is before Mamre, in
the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field
of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a burying-place.
There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife ; there
they buried Isaac and Kebekah his wife ; and there I
buried Leah. The purchase of the field and of the cave
that is therein was from the children of Heth." Now
what was the reason of this desire of the patriarchs to
find one common resting-place? It w^as not a morbid
fancy, nor a mere imperfect human passion ; it w^as an
instinct that taught them that the dead dust beneath the
oaks of Mamre should one day be quickened with the
pulse of everlasting life; that the dead dust, that can
still be traced to the very spot where it was deposited by
the patriarchs, shall hear the voice of the resurrection
trumpet, and shall come forth arid be the heir of ever-
lasting life. But we go a step further : it is said, " Abra-
ham w^as gathered to his people." Does that mean simply
that he was buried with them ? That is not true ; for
Terah his father died in Haran, and Abraham's body was
not buried along with his. But Abraham is said to have
been gathered to his own people previous to his burial :
and therefore it must mean his soul joined the company
of them that had preceded him to glory. You recollect
what Jacob said, " I will go down into the grave ;" that
224 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
is our translation, it is properly, " The place of disem-
bodied spirits ;" "I will go to the company of disembod-
ied spirits, to my son, mourning.-' And when his chil-
dren tried to comfort him, it is said he refused to be com-
forted ; evidently his feeling was to mourn till he should
meet his son ; then the patriarch felt he should be com-
forted. The very fact that he expected comfort when
he should meet his son in the place of departed spirits is
proof that he expected then and there to recognize him.
Moses, again, was buried on Mount Nebo : it is said he
too was gathered to his people. But his sepulchre was
an unknown sepulchre : it must therefore have been his
spirit gathered to the spirits of just men made perfect.
This desire to rest their dead dust where the dust of their
fathers was ; the expectation to be gathered to them who
had preceded them to glory, all assumes their belief of
reunion, their expectation of recognition ; for it was not
to a strange people and a strange land, but to the com-
pany and communion of them that preceded them. The
memorable expression, too, of David is very suggestive ;
when his child was taken from him, his first feeling was
absolute submission to God ; but his second was a special
spring of consolation, " I shall go to him, though he shall
not come to me."' Does not that very expression of hope
imply his belief, that his joy would revive because he
would recognise his son that God had taken from him in
just and righteous chastisement to him ? In the teach-
ing of our blessed Lord this reunion and recognition is
assumed rather than asserted. It may be said of human
nature what is said of the laAv, '^ I am not come to de-
stroy the law, but to fulfil it." When Christ came to
RECOGNITION IN THE AGE TO COME. 225
redeem us. He came not to alter the essentials of human
nature, but to sanctify, to perfect, and to glorify all.
When Jesus couiforted Martha, ^vhat did lie say ? Not
" He is happy;" that would have been so far comfort;
but He said, "Thy brother shall rise again:" not simply
"Lazarus shall rise again;" but "thy brother." As if
to show that there w^ould be the resurrection of the visi-
ble relationship as well as the resurrection of the dead
man, He says, " Thy brother shall rise again."
Speaking of the future, Jesus says, " In my Father's
house are many mansions." Then heaven is represented
as a home ; all the saved are under one shelterino^ roof,
and derive their joy from one common domestic hearth-
stone. Will that great, perfect, and holy family be the
only family where all the inmates are strangers each to
the other, and strangers to their common Father ? If
Jesus recognized those that were gathered round Him
below, and they recognized each other, is it possible that
they should be gathered round Him in glory, and one fail
to recognize the other ? When He says again, "Many
shall come from the east, and from the west, and sit down
with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob;" will they be un-
conscious in whose presence they are ? Will they not
know that this is Isaac, and that Jacob, and that Abra-
ham ? Is not the very fulfilment of the promise necessa-
rily recognition, so that they that heard and believed the
promise may know that it is fulfilled ? He also says,
" Ye also shall sit down on twelve thrones," that is, the
apostles ; "judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Will they
not know that these are the twelve tribes ; will the twelve
apostles ? And at tho
10* ' . ■
226 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
•
judgment-day, what does Jesus say? "Inasmuch as ye
did it to the least of these my brethren," pointing to
groups that were around them, " ye have done it unto
me." He says, " Make to yourself friends of the mam-
mon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail they may re-
ceive you into everlasting habitations ;" that is. that those
you have benefited by your wealth, and riches, and in-
fluence, may at the gates of glory welcome you into ever-
lasting mansions through Christ the Lord ; and to testify
that inasmuch as 3^ou did it unto them, therefore you did
it unto Christ. Moses and Elijah appeared together on
the mount of transfiguration; their identity preserved,
their persons recognized. The lost rich man seeth Abra-
ham afar off; Lazarus in his bosom recognised Abraham,
and Abraham recognized him. Again, if we come to the
epistles of the New Testament, we find equally clear proof
of a recognition. For instance, we read in the epistle to
the Hebrews, " Ye," speaking of the saved in glory —
'•' are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the liv-
ing God. and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and
to an innumerable company of angels, to the general as-
sembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in
heaven, and to God the Judge of all." Does not that im-
ply recognition, communion, reunion ? Paul, speaking to
his converts, says, "Warning every man, and teaching
every man, that we may present every man perfect in
Christ Jesus." Does not that seem as if the apostle
expected to recognize those that he expected to present
as the seals of his ministry, as the fruits of his labor?
Archdeacon Paley, a man of no imagination, of no great,
Qj- deep, or tender feeling, writiiig upon this very text,
RECOGNITION IN THE AGE TO COME. 227
saySj " This affords a manifest and necessary inference,
that the saints in the future life shall meet and be known
again the one to the other." Again, the apostle sajs,
"We are your rejoicing, as ye also are ours, in the day of the
Lord Jesus." Does not that seem to indicate thjit they
sliall know him, that he shall personally know them ; and
when they meet at the judgment seat of Christ they shall
rejoice in the company of each other ? Again, the apostle
says, " Eor w^hat is our hope, our joy, our crown of re-
joicing ? And not yet in the presence of the Lord Jesus
at his coming? For ye are our glory and our joy."
Does not this imply that the apostle expected as his reward
to meet them to whom his ministry had been blessed, and
to derive accession to his joy from the sight of the multi-
tudes of them who, through what he taught them, had
washed their robes and made them white in the blood of
the Lamb ? I have quoted Paley on one text, let me
quote another clear and logical writer, a perfect par-
allel to Paley, who had no tender feeling or deep pas-
sion. Dr. Macnight ; in his Critical Edition of the Epistles
of the New Testament, he says upon this text, " The
manner in which the apostle speaks of the Thessalo-
nians shows that he expceted to know his converts at the
day of judgment. If so, we may hope to know our
relations and our friends in everlasting joy." Again, in
1 Thess. iv. 13, we have no less conclusive evidence of
tlie same thing. The apostle says, " I would not have
you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are
asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no
hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again,
even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring
228 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
with him." Now what was the cause of the sorrow of
these mourning Christians ? It was the separation from
their society of those they loved and held communion with
on earth. What Avould be comfort to them ? Not the
general fact of the certainty of the resurrection from the
dead, for they knew this ; but the special fact that those
that had been taken from them they should meet and min-
gle with, and recognize again. The words prove this
inference irresistible. He says, " Them which sleep in
Jesus will he bring with him ; and so shall we be for ever
with the Lord." And again he says, " We which remain
shall be caught up together with them." The idea that
runs through that most beautiful passage is restoration
and recognition of those that have been taken away ; re-
union and restored communion with them from whom they
had been separated. The spring of* consolation he opens
to the mourning Thessalonians because of the loss of their
near and dear ones is not the resurrection, but the recog-
nition, reunion, and restoration of the ties and bonds that
death had snapped, when Christ should come again, and
they all should join Him_, and so be for ever with the
Lord.
There are objections to this great truth, and objections
that have a great deal of plausibility in them. First of
all, it is alleged by some that death makes so great, so
awful a change, that we cannot reason from any experi-
ence that we have below to facts and phenomena which
may exist in heaven or hereafter. I answer, we mistake
what death does ; death does nqt annihilate a single faculty
of the mind, a single pure affectiqn of the heart ; it
operates no change in the individual Christian whatever,
RECOGNITION IN THE AGE TO COME. 229
except that of transference from grace to glory, from earth
to everlasting heaven. At cleatli Ave leave behind us
simply our sin. and at the resurrection day we shall be
raised with all the traits of an individual and character-
istic identity ; sin, imperfection, tears, and headaches and
heartaches, only bemg left behind for the last fire to con-
sume. In the second place, it has been objected that at
the resurrection the change will be so great in our present
body, that it will be impossible to reason from w^hat we
now see or feel in the body, to anything that can possibly
be realized after that great and radical change. I answer,
when the body is raised from the dead, not one fuf^itive
expression on the face, not one glance in the eye, not one
tone in the voice, not one feature that constitutes the
identity and personality of the man, need or shall be al-
tered or destroyed in the grave. Sin only will be elim-
inated— imperfection and sorrow, its progeny, v>ill be
driven away ; but this very corruptible shall put on incor-
ruption. Nay, we have evidence what it shall be ; it is
said in the Corinthians, " He shall change our vile bodies,
that they may be fashioned like unto his glorious body."
Have we any picture of Christ's glorious body? We
have. " The fashion of his countenance was altered : his
raiment was white and glistening ; and his face did shine
as the sun." Now, here is the photograph of Christ's
glorified body. Well, our bodies shall be like his glori-
fied body. But did the apostles fail to recognize Him as
they thus beheld Him ? On the contrary, all the marks
of his identity were there. They recognized the same
man of sorrows, that hung upon the cross, that wept and
sympathised with us, and struggled in his agony in the
230 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
garden of, Getlisemane. And when He rose from the dead
himself. He said, '" Touch me, and handle me ; and see
that a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as je see me have."'
What is meant bj all this, if not to convince us, not only
of our Lord's identity, but of the recognizable and dis-
tinguishable identity, between the resurrection body and
the body that now is ? But it has been objected that in-
dividual, and personal, and social, and relative affections
and attachments are incompatible Avith the supreme affec-
tion and attachment that we owe to the Lord Jesus Christ
in heaven. It is thought by some that all personal and
relative affections shall be merged and lost in the one ab-
sorbing and consuming love to the Lamb that sits upon
the throne. But I do not see that this must follow. For
instance, Jesus had the disciple whom he loved — loved
not merely as He loves you and me, the sinners He has
washed in his blood ; but loved as his friend, preferred as
as the companion of his travels, and has inspired the
sacred penman to record not the least beautiful and touch-
ing proof of his true human heart, " The disciple whom
Jesus loved." And because in tlie realms of the blessed
we may have affections and attachments to each other, it
does not follow that these will weaken or dilute our at-
tachment to our common Lord. The moon moves round
the earth ; yet no less than the other planets round the
sun ; no saints in glory may have their particular orbits,
their individual attractions ; yet no less do they move w^ith
all saints round the central sun, the Sun of Bighteousness.
Our human affections on earth are not incompatible with
our love to our common Loi'd : and when all shall be pu-
rified, they will still less be incompatible. But it has been
RECOGNITION IN THE AGE TO COME. 231
objected that our Lord has said, " In the resurrection they
neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the
angels of God in heaven." Luke explains what this
means when he says, "As the angels, neither can they
die any more." But because marriage ties are not created
in the future, it does not follow that the friendships, and
affections, and bonds of that very relationship shall not be
remembered and realized. It does not follow because there
are no new ties formed there that we shall fail to recoor-
o
nize each other there. Can we suppose each Christian
in heaven to be like a monk in a cell, or a statute in a
niche ; cold, unfeeling, unconsciously connected with the
thousands, the teeming thousands, that are around him ?
If so, heaven w^ould not be our Father's home ; it would
be the cell of the anchorite, not the home of the Christian
son.
But it has been objected by others — and this is, per-
haps, the strongest objection of all, or, at least, the one
the most difficult to deal with — that if memory survive
the grave, if there be no essential revolution in all its re-
collections, that there will be and must be pain, sorrow,
and bitterness in the future rest or in heaven ; for shall
we not miss there some that we would give all the world
to meet there ? And if we miss in the groups that arc
clad in white robes, and that are around the 1.hrone, beloved
ones that we revered and loved with nature's warmest
sympathies on earth, will not that be a gap ? will not that
be agony, and sorrow, and distress ? And how is that
compatible with the statement that in the age to come
there will be neither sorrow, nor crying, nor tears, nor
any more pain ? I admit this is the most difficult to
232 THE GREAT TRIBULATION
answer ; but I submit what I think approximates to an
answer, if it is not a perfect and complete one. May it
not be that only the ties of nature that have also been
sanctified by grace shall survive even in recollection, in
sympathy, and in thought? For instance, a Christian
woman is married to an unregenerate and an unchris-
tian husband. The tie of nature ceased w4ien the hus-
band died, or when the wife was gathered into everlasting
glory. May it not be that this tie, not having been con-
secrated and baptized by grace, not having been glorified
by Christian light and Christian love, may, having ceased
to be a reality — for death separates wife from husband,
aud dissolves the marriage tie — cease also to be a recol-
lection ? The saved in heaven are washed from their
sins, but they cannot forget the sins of which they were
guilty upon earth. It will be impossible to forget, be-
cause we have memories, that w^e once did sin upon earth.
Yet the recollection of those sins will occasion us no sor-
row. In the same manner the glorified wife may have no
pain at the recollection of the lost husband, or, at least,
no pain from missing him there, because that tie, once so
near and dear, dropped when nature died, and is remem-
bered no more. Besides, may it not cast a little light
upon this very difficult thing if we consider that the an-
gels that are in glory must recollect that a vast batallion
of their numbers is now writhing in endless ^gony ?
Angels fell:- Satan is the prince of the fallen angels;
yet the happiness of angels in heaven is not diluted by
the recollection that many of those that were once there
are not there now. There is also a text, "Flesh and
blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God;" that is, all
RECOGNITION IN THE AGE To COME. 233
ties, bonds, relationships, that are mere flesh and blood,
and that never were consecrated, sanctified, or baptized
by the Spirit of God, do not enter into the kingdom ol'
heaven ; are broken off and cease there for ever and for
ever. And we have almost a dim presentiment of this
from our blessed Lord's Avords : " While he yet talked to
the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood
without, desiring to speak with him. Then one said unto
him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand with-
out, desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and
said unto him that told him. Who is my mother ? and
who are my brethren ? And he stretched forth his hand
toward his disciples, and said, Behold, my mother and
my brethren ! For whosoever shall do the will of my
Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and
sister, and mother ;" as if the earthly relationship was
absorbed and annihilated in the divine and the hiojher re-
lationship of God. But if it should be maintained by
any that there is no recognition above, or before us, that
would not diminish these supposed sorrows. If there
shall be pain, or the possibility of pain, from the remi-
niscence that one is missing that we want to meet, if there
be no recognition at all, we shall equally fail to be sure
that those we wish to meet have been admitted here.
You do not get rid of the difiiculty by denying recognition
in the world to come. But besides, of this we are abso-
lutely sure, that all painful recollections are impossible
there. We know from our own experience what may be
a presentiment and prefiguration of it, that feelings of
grief at the loss of near and dear ones, at first most
234 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
poignant, almost intolerable, gradually subside into resig-
nation. And so it may be, that missing in the groups of
the saved some that we could wish to be there, our re-
grets may so subside into resignation to God's most ex-,
cellent will, that we shall be able to say, with an emphasis
with which we never said it before, "Thy will be done
here, even as it is done elsewhere in heaven." But may
it not be that as there is a hope against hope respecting
dead relatives which we feel here, it may be in mercy
permitted to us, in the realms of glory, that we shall
never be sure that some we expected to meet are not
there ? Our Father's house has all infinitude for its di-
mensions, all eternity for its duration ; and though we
may not meet some that we may wish to meet, that will
.not prove that they are not in some other chamber of the
universal home, in some other compartment of our Fath-
er's house. But of this we are absolutely sure, that we
shall have no feelings, desires, or sympathies that are not
in perfect harmony w^ith the will and the mind of God.
For instance, Aaron held his peace when his two sons
were struck dead ; and the brothers of these two were
forbidden even to weep for them, and we read that they
held their peace. So our sympathies and affections shall
be so entirely moulded according to God's holy will, that
we shall not have a wish that is not a reflection from the
throne ; no desire that is not an echo of his word : no
want that is not perfectly, completely overflowed by Deity.
We shall miss &ome great professors that all the world
would have canonized ; and we shall meet many a quiet,
reserved, almost speechless one, w^ho felt deep thoughts,
KECOGNITION IN THE AGE TO COME. 235
uttered few words, was a saint concealed, it may be, bj
his imperfections, concealed, it may be, by his timidity,
but a saint indeed, and an heir of everlasting glory.
And it does seem that if you were to take away that
blessed thought of meetinor Christians whom we have
known and loved below, relatives above whom w^e have
spent our pilgrimage with upon earth, it would take a
gem from the crown of glory, a bright beam from ever-
lasting day. Beautifully, therefore, does the poet say, —
" Oh, when the mother meets on high.
The child she lost in infancy,
Hath she not then for pains and fears,
The day of woe, the watchful night.
For all her sorrows, all her tears.
An over-payment of delight."
And in that remarkable book by Tupper, " Proverbial
Philosophy," full of precious thought, he says, " I look
to recognize, through the beautiful mask of their per-
fection, the dear familiar faces."
But if you should ever think of missing one in glory,
what is the available remedy ? Are you, husband, asso-
ciated with a wife who gives no evidence of being a child
of God ? Speak to her the sacred words ; tell her of
the availing name. Oh, let not that foolish, stupid, worth-
less shame that you would not show as a soldier, a sailor,
a lawyer, or a physician, prevent you one moment from
saying, " This is the way; w^alk ye in it. Believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." And if I
address a wife whose husband gives no evidence of grace,
speak to him; gentle words, spoken in a gentle spirit.
236 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
may fall like the dew upon the soil, without noise, and
without seeming present effect ; but they saturate the soil,
and the beauteous summer gives token of its effects. " A
word in season, behold how good it is." I ask, is there
anything more worthy of being spoken of than Christ,
the soul, eternity ? In a few fleet years the youngest and
the healthiest and the strongest must lie down and die ;
in a few fleet months the aged must leave this pilgrimage
of toil, this battle-field of conflict. Surely, surely, if
there be one thought that ought to dominate, that ought
to be supreme and overwhelming till it is settled, it is
this. Will it be well with me at the judgmelit-seat of
Christ ? Shall I be among those to whom He will say,
" Come, ye blessed of my Father" ? How is it that men
are all anxiety about the things of the world, all apathy
about the things of eternity ? How is it, I ask in the
name of common sense, not to speak of the name of Him
whose ambassador I am, how is it that the trifles of a
day stir every passion and sympathy of the human heart ;
and that the very world for which we are here, the very
end for which we are born, the safety of the soul, accept-
ance through the blood of sprinkling, are treated as if
time were eternity, and eternity were time ?
If you have any one connected with you, live Chris-
^tianity, speak Christianity, teach Christianity, and, above
all, pray. I do not believe that a child that has been
the object of a mother's prayers will ever perish. I do
not believe that a husband who is the ceaseless burden of
a wife's prayers at the throne of grace will die eternally.
I have perfect faith in God as the hearer of prayer.
RECOGNITION IN THE AGE TO COME. 237
Praj, pray, pray. And then when your prayers are an-
swered, they will be lost in everlasting praise ; and you
shall meet above them with whom you held sweet com-
munion below ; and nature's ties, glorified in the light
and splendor of the better land, will be the media of only
more reciprocal delight, through Jesus Christ, to whom
be praise and glory.
LECTURE XXXV.
THE THRONED PRIEST AND KING.
'^ And he shall sit and rule upon his throne ; and he
shall he a priest upon his throne : and the counsel
of peace shall be betiveen them hoth.''^ — Zechariah
vi. 13.
The prophet, I need not saj, refers to the Lord Jesus
Christ, this is the prophecy of what He shall be. There
can be no difficulty in coming to this decision. I do not
therefore spend time in attempting to prove it. It has
been fulfilled in no other, it has been actualized in Christ,
and this alone as proof that it relates to Him. This
spectacle of Christ upon his throne was seen by Isaiah
when he saw "the Lord sitting upon a throne high and
lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above stood
the seraphim : each one had six wings , with twain he
covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and
with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and
said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts ; the whole
earth is full of his glory.' And the posts of the door
moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was
filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me ! for I am un-
done ; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell
in the midst of a people of unclean lips ; for mine eyes
(238)
THE THRONED PRIEST AND KING. 239
have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." Who was this
King, or Lord of hosts, that Isaiah saw? We are in-
formed by the evangelist John that these things spake
Esaias when he saw Christ's glory, and spake of Him;
and those things that he thus refers to are the things
quoted, specificallj quoted, in the sixth chapter of the
book of the prophet Isaiah. I cannot conceive how it is
possible to conclude that Christ is merely a creature, as
long as I find an evangelist, inspired by the Spirit of
God, quoting a prophet's delineation of Jehovah, the
Lord of hosts, and asserting that vision and delineation to
be the Lord Jesus Christ. I only wonder how the Unitarian
ever gets over the difiiculties of his creed : they seem to
me insuperable ; and either he must be gifted with su-
perhuman penetration to arrive at so extraordinary a
conclusion, or he must have badly read a book which the
more it is read reveals more clearly the impress of its
author, and the deity of our blessed and adorable Lord.
He was seen upon a throne by Isaiah ; and he is here
predicted to sit upon his throne. The expression, '^sit-
ting upon a throne," is figurative, but being figurative, it
must have substance as its meaning. Spoken of in Scrip-
ture are several thrones. There is first the throne of
majesty, or that universal sovereignty and precedency
which Christ exercises over all the universe ; all the things
that are fair upon earth, all the things that are beautiful
in the sky are under his control and subject to his gov-
ernment. Heaven is his throne, we are told, and earth
is his footstool ; he made the sea and the dry land. He
superintends and governs from that throne the sea with
its waves, earth with its flowerets, the sky with its clouds,
240 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
and its stars, nations and their people, thrones and their
occupants, cherubim, and seraphim, and children, all are
under the presidency, the government, and inspection of
Him beyond whose cognizance the greatest things are not,
and within whose superintendence the minutest things
ceaselessly lie.
But there is also a throne called " the throne of grace."
''He is exalted a prince," that is royalty, " and a savior
to give repentance and remission of sins." And the
apostle says in the epistle to the Hebrews, '' Having a
high-priest over the house of David, let us come boldly to
the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find
grace to help us in the time of need."
There is the throne of judgment. Christ will be the
occupant of that. We read expressly, " The Son of man
shall sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him shall
be gathered all the nations." Again, " We must all appear
at the judgment-seat of Christ." Again, " He will judge
the world in righteousness." And again, Christ says
from the throne, " Come, ye blessed of my Father." There
is another incidental proof that Jesus is God. If God be
not upon the judgment-seat, where can He be, or should
He be ? I could almost conceive God to be absent at the
creation of the world ; I could almost conceive the absence
of a God in the government of the world : but I cannot
conceive that Deity shall be absent from that throne, at
which and from which the doom and the interests of all
flesh shall be adjusted, all hearts laid bare, and to every
man meted out the exact and everlasting retribution that
justly belongs to him. Grant me that my Redeemer is to
sit upon the judgment throne, and I need no text to prove
THE THRONED PRIEST AND KING. 241
that He is God ; none but God can be there ; and if God
be not there, He seems to me absent from that place
where of all places in the universe His presence is imper- .
atively required.
But all these thrones, we are told, will be ultimately
merged in one, called the throne of glory. " When he
shall sit upon the throne of glory, a Prince and a King
for ever ;" every knee bowing to Him, every tongue con-
fessing that He is Lord. " Unto the Son he saith, Thy
throne, 0 God, is for ever and ever." Now a picture of
this throne we have very beautifully and graphically set
before us in the book of Revelation, where John says in
the fifth chapter, " And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst
of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of
the elders, stood a lamb as it had been slain, having seven
horns," — that is, omnipotence — "seven ages" — that is
omniscience — "which are the seven Spirits of God sent
forth unto all the earth." Then he says, " And they
sung a new song, saying. Thou art worthy to take the
book, and to open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain,
and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every
kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation ; and hast
made us unto our God kings and priests ; and we shall
reign on the earth." At the eleventh verse : " And I
beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about
the throne and the beasts and the elders ; and the num-
ber of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and
thousands of thousands." It will not be a little number
that will be saved ; we cannot agree with the exclusive
bigot that a handful will be saved ; we cannot agree with
the latitudinarian universalist that all mankind will be
11
242 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
saved ; but I believe that, taking all the generations of
the human race together, the overwhelming majority will
be the occupants of heaven, and a minority the inmates
of a prison into which they rushed themselves, in spite of
remonstrating appeals, and where they are, not because
God sent them there, but because they themselves made
themselves fit for being there, and for nowhere else in the
universe of God. " xi great nvultitude," he says in
another part. And what did they say ? ' ' And every
creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under
the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in
them., heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory,
and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and
unto the Lamb for ever and ever." Can that be a hu-
man being, can that be an angel, to whom the universe
thus lifts anthems of everlasting praise, and w)io receives
them on the throne as his just and inalienable due ?
Thus we have seen every throne which Christ occu-
pies and will occupy ; let us now look at the functions
which He fulfils as the occupant of these thrones. First
it is said, " He shall be a priest upon his throne." Part
of the priestly office He fulfilled without, when He suf-
fered without the gate, and gave himself for us. Another
part of the priestly office He carries on in the holy of
holies, where He ever liveth to intercede for us. But
here He is set before us in combined or conjunct charac-
ter, not only as a priest, pleading by the altar, but also
as akin<T throned or seated on his throne. This is Christ's
intransferable glory — that He is a priest and a king at
the same time. The house of Aaron had a priesthood,
but they had not a sceptre and a crown. The house of
THE THROXED PRIEST AND KING. 243
David had the sceptre and the crown, but not the altar, the
mitre, the breast-plate, the Uriili and the Thummim, and
office of the priesthood. But Jesus combines all the sa-
credness of Aaron and all the royalty of David — the
priestly office and the kingly office welded into one. The
occupant of that great and lasting throne in this vision
shall have the altar and the throne in one — the cross He
suffered on and the crown He wears inseparable in his
approaching reign ; and this I shall show is the spring
and source of our greatest blessings. Look at Christ upon
the throne, and the element you feel must be despair ;
look at Christ upon the altar, and you may want that
awe, and reverence, and godly fear, wherewith you should
approach Him. But look at the majesty of the king
through the mercy of the priest, and you will not de-
spair ; look at the mercy of the priest through the ma-
jesty .of the king, and you will not presume. Thus look-
ing and resting upon Christ a priest upon his throne, you
will have peace with God through Christ Jesus. ^ From
God's altar He sends forth rich mercy; from God's throne
He sends forth direction and authority. Thus love and
law, justice and mercy, righteousness and truth, are
brouo-ht toojether, and descend from heaven to earth a
river that makes glad the city of our God, the tabernacle
of the place of the Most High.
He shall sit upon his throne as a priest. Now this is
a mark of special dignity, power, and authority. We
find in the ancient economy that Anron and the priests of
that dispensation, when they officiated at their altars inva-
riably stood. But the distinction that is here implied,
that Christ sits upon his throne, teaches us that we have
244 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
no need of propitiatorj sacrifice. It is finished. If
Christ were still standing bj his altar or bj the throne,
it would imply that propitiatory sacrifice was still going
on ; but the fact that he has sat down indicates that all
the painful sacrifice without is finished, and that he now
wears the trophies and enjoys the spoils of his glorious
and blessed victory. Thus in the ancient economy we are
told by the apostle in his epistle to the Hebrews, the tenth
chapter, at the eleventh verse : •' And every priest stand-
eth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same
sacrifices, which can never take away sin. But this man,
after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat
down on the right hand of God/'' What a beautiful con-
trast! Every ''priest'' in the ancient economy; many
priests contrasting with " this man " — one priest. Then
'• every yri^^t sfa.ndelh.''' The attitude of servants car-
rying on a process incomplete ; but this man sat down.
And '-every priest standeth daily offering" — that is,
many sacrifices : but "this man after he had offered one
sacrifice for ever" for ever ; that is, completely, perfectly.
And these offered sacrifices which can never take away
sin ; but this man offered one sacrifice for sin for ever.
And I may not'ce what I see is corrected in a later edi-
tion of Bagster's Bible — the wrong placing of a comma
in that very verse which I am quoting ; and it is one of
those little mistakes that are of very great importance.
In the twelfth verse we read: "This m.an, after he had
offered one sacrifice for sins." In most Bibles the comma
is put after the word "sins;" and then it is added, "for
ever sat down on the right hand of God." Now He is
not set down for ever on the right hand of God ; He is
THE THRONED PRIEST AND KOG. 245
to rise and come again. Every one that knows the Greek
language would see at once that the comma should be
placed after " for ever." And therefore this verse should
be thus read : " After he had offered one sacrifice for sins
for ever," — completely, in opposition to the many sacri-
fices of Levi — " sat down on the rio:ht hand of God."
Unless read in this way, the full force of the contrast is
not brought out. We have thus our High Priest, not
standing like a servant with a process incomplete, but
having sat down — the sacrifice finished, the oblation
offered, and no more needing to be made as an atonement
for sins.
These two ofiices of Christ as a Priest and a Kinor are
o
never separated in his person, and yet they are perfectly
distinct. The inquiry why God should be pleased to
reveal himself in offices, is to be answered ju^-t irX the same
way as why should He please to reveal himself in attri-
butes. We speak of the attributes of God — omnipresence,
omniscience, omnipotence. So God is revealed partly in
nature, partly in providence. And it is only in analogy
with these and similar attributes tliat we speak of Christ
as revealed by offices ; it is the accommodation of the infi-
nite to finite minds. Christ is revealed to us as a king
and a priest. It is not the office of a king to intercede ;
it is not the office of a priest to reign. Therefore it is as
a priest He is appointed to give remission of sins ; and as
a king He is appointed to give repentance. Thus in that
text often quoted you will see a revelation of Christ as a
priest upon his throne. "He is exalted a prince and
savior, to give repentance and remission of sins." A
prince to give repentance, which is something created
246 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
within US ; a priest to give remission of sins, which is
something declared without us. The efficacy of his blood
secures for us the j^ardon of our sins ; the efficacy of his
royal sceptre creates within us repentance or sanctifica-
tion of heart. Now let us see the Lord Jesus Christ as
the great priest and king upon his throne, and view Him
in both features as he is set before us in the gospel.
View Him then first of all as a priest ; for we cannot
comprehend all the fulness and glory of his character at
once : givino: remission of sins, and ever livinor to inter-
cede for us. The priestly office of Christ is constantly
referred to in every part of the New Testament as the
great spring of all the consolations of the people of God.
Do you need the comfort of pardon — do you need the
comfort of assurance — do you need hope, and peace, and
joy ? The fountain that is open is the fountain in the
house of David — that fountain of atoning blood, the
foot-prmt upon earth of a high priest that has passed
over it, is the great source and cause of all our joy, and
our peace, and our comfort.
He is spoken of in the next place as a king. You will
see in his royal character nothing to awe or to alarm.
Because He is a King, H*e has command ; but because
He is a priest as well as a king, his commands are not
grievous. Because He is a king, He has a yoke ; but
because He is a priest as well as a king, his yoke is easy
and his burden is light. His very commands are royal
ones. He commands to us to be happy. This is his com-
mand ; that you believe on his name. His very law is
love ; his sceptre is so mingled with his cross that when
you are thinking of the majesty of the one, suddenly
247 THE THRONED PRIEST AND KING.
tlierc comforts you an apocalypse of the mercy, and love,
and sympathy of the other. Do not separate the two
great functions of his character, and yet view them as
perfectly distinct. Some try to separate them ; there
are excellent people, moral and upright people, who look
exclusively to Christ as a king. Those that deny the
atonement — that do not see their own ruin by nature —
that do not see their need of a remedial system, look to
Christ only as a king ; they hear his huv, and they say,
"How beautiful !" they listen to his precepts, and they
say, "How perfect!" and they set themselves to obey
them, not to express their allegiance to Him, but to win
their way to heaven and to everlasting happiness. Now
they that look to Christ alone as a king, need to be told
that by deeds of law, that is, by obedience to Christ's
precepts, no human being can be saved. You never can
get to heaven as the reward of being holy ; the steps by
which we climb to glory are not those carved on Sinai by
the Ten Commandments ; you never can strike a way, or
purchase a way, or by dint of force prepare a way by
which, and in which, and through which you can get to
heaven. Therefore, do not look to Christ alone as a
king; in other words, do not regard Christianity as a
mere more beautiful edition of the law. as a code of ex-
quisite precepts, as it is ; as a compendium of holy law,
which it is. I do not blame you for so regarding it ;
but I do blame you for so regarding it exclusively.
It is right you should see Christ the king ; it is wrong
you should think of Him only as the king. And
just to take the obverse, you are not only not to look
a Christ's kingly office alone, but you are also not to
look at Christ's priestly office alone. There are some
248 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
people Vilio so look at the kingly office, that they try to
get to heaven by obeying his law ; there are other people
who so look at Christ's priestly office, that they hope to
get to heaven in spite of disobeying Christ's law. Now,
our answer to the latter is, you are not saved by good
deeds, but you cannot be saved without them. The dis-
tinction is broad ; — you are not saved by good deeds as if
they were the grounds, and merits, and titles of your
salvation ; but you are not saved without good deeds as
the fruits and evidence of your personal acceptance of
the Gospel. There are those who may be called Anti-
nomians, who look to Christ's priestly office alone, their
idea of salvation is immunity from the consequences of
sin ; whereas, if I understand the Bible, salvation is im-
munity not only from the penalty, but from the polluting
presence of sin. It is human nature that wishes to be
saved from the consequences of sin — that is, hell ; but it
is a sanctified human nature that desires to be freed from
the presence, the touch, and contact of sin — that is of a
new man in Christ Jesus. A true Christian shrinks
from sin as much as from its effects ; and he cannot be
satisfied, and he will not be satisfied with a heaven which
is physical separation from hell, but not also moral sepa-
ration from the taint, the contact, and the pollution of
sin. So that he that looks at Christ as a king alone, is
trying to get to heaven by his own deservings ; he who
looks to Christ as a priest alone, is makin^^^ the cross a
shelter for his sins, not the place where those sins are
crucified. But if, on the other hand, we look to Christ
as priest and king also, we view Him as saving us not
only from the consequences of sin, but also from the
THE THROXED PRIEST AND KING. 249
presence, the pollution, and the power of sin ; so that we
not only get rid of the fear of its consequences, but pro-
gressively, if not wholly in this world rid of the power,
and the pollution of its presence.
Interwoven with both, running through both, the sub-
stance, the vitality, the virtue of both, is Christ God as
well as man. Now, if Jesus were not God, he could not
be a king upon his throne ; if He were not man, He
never could have been a priest or a sacrifice. You will
find in all his functions the assumption of his Deity al-
ways involved. And look at his priestly office : He
must be man in order that he may suffer ; because suffer-
ing was the penalty of sin, and our nature He took upon
Him that He might pay that penalty. He was therefore
man that He might suffer and sympathize ; but he was
also God, for while human nature could suffer, it could
not satisfy while it suffered. His humanity made his
sufferings suitable; his Deity m.ade his sufferings satis-
factory. Hence, Deity inlaid every thought, inspired
every feeling, partook in every action, was audible in
every accent, and toned and colored the whole biography
and life of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Look at Him in the next place as a king, and you will
see how Deity is necessarily there. What is the realm
of this great King ? One day it will be the universe,
partially it is so now ; it waits for this earth, the prodigal
orb, to be restored in order for the whole universe to be
under his sceptre. But part of his kingdom is the hu-
man heart. Christ reigns within actually, as well as
prophetically promised to reign without. But who can
see the heart — who can search it — who can note and
11*
250 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
meet its aberrations — who can give it a new and a holy
polarity — who can sanctify it, turn the rock into flesh,
and deadness into sensibility ? lie must be God. He
therefore who is my priest to pardon me. and is also to
sanctify me, must be the maker of theheart in order to
be the regenerator of the heart ; and therefore God as
well as man.
Thus, we have seen Christ in his priestly office, Christ
in his kingly office, and Deity the inspiration and effica-
cy qf both. Let us now turn our attention to the result
of all this. " The counsel," the covenant, " of peace
shall be between them both." I argue from this that it
is impossible there could be peace between heaven and
earth — in other words, it is im.possible there could be
salvation except through Christ as a priest on his throne,
or a king by the altar; or priest and king in one.
Two things are required in order that I can be saved.
What are those two things ? That God shall see no ob-
struction to the going forth of his pardon ; and secondly,
that I should be willing on God's terms to accept God's
way of pardon, and happiness, and peace. There is
therefore a double work to be done ; a work without me in
reference to God ; and a work within me, in myself, which
is a royal or a kingly act. We shall find that the " coun-
sel of peace," or in the more popular phrase, salvation,
can only be accomplished by them both. For instance,
Christ as a priest offers up sacrifice, expiates guilt, pro-
nounces a blessing ; Christ as a king again rescues from
enemies, and subdues us to himself. As a priest Pie ex-
piates my sin by his blood ; as a king He extirpates my
sin by his power. As a priest, Christ pardons my sins,
THE THRONED PRIEST AND- KING. 251
which is an act without me ; as a king, He purifies my
heart, which is a work within me. As a priest. He gives
me a title to heaven : as a king, He makes within me a
fitness for the kingdom of heaven. It is as a priest that
Christ makes it possible for God to pardon me ; it is as a
king that He makes me willing to take God's pardon when
it is so provided for me. What an awful idea does that
give of human nature, that though we know that God is
willing to save us, such is the instinctive enmity in our
hearts that we need a divine work within us to make us
willing to receive pardon ! In his priestly ofiice, Christ
restores me to the divine favor ; in his kingly office, He
restamps upon my heart the divine image. He conquers
and subdues to himself as a king those whom He has
ransomed as a priest. He makes us his property by the
purchase of his blood. He keeps us his property by the
power and sovereignty of his sceptre. Thus I can see
how peace can be between them both ; namely, that as a
priest He has removed every reason why God should con-
demn me. There is no reason in the universe why God
should condemn a sinner that flees to him as a Father
through Christ Jesus. Do you assign the law as a reason?
It is magnified : for Christ my representative obeyed it. Do
you assign sin as a reason ? It is atoned, it is expiated ; for
Christ my sacrifice has expiated it. There is no reason
therefore in the character of God why He should condemn
me. But you say He is just? Quite so: He is just;
but He is just when He justifies them that believe in
Christ Jesus. There is, therefore, no reason on God's
part why I should be condemned, because Christ is a priest,
and has made that atonement for sin which is the grand
252 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
provision of God — a provision we reverently accept, and
shall never be able sufficiently to explain. He has made
it possible for the God that hates sin to pardon the crimi-
nal -who has committed it, but flees to Him in Christ for
pardon. He has made it true that '' if we confess our
sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Thus then there is
no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. "Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is
God that justifieth. "Who is he that condemneth ?" The
lano;uao;e of universal defiance. "It is Christ that died:
yea, rather who is risen again." Thus the priestly office
of Christ has its aspect towards God ; the kingly office of
Christ has its aspect towards man. By virtue of the first
He makes it possible for God to do what God delights to
do — namely, to save my soul ; in virtue of the second,
He makes me willing by my renovated heart to accept and
hail with gratitude and joy all the provision made for my
pardon in his blessed and glorious Gospel. So there is
peace : if I look to God it is peace, for I see no more the
Judge shrouded in the clouds of Sinai, but I bow the knee
and raise my heart, and breathe the most beautiful words
in the language of the world, " Our Father which art in
heaven." All that made me shrink from God is put away ;
all that made me with the instincts of my nature recoil
from his book is put away. T shall no more say, like God's
servant of old, " We shall die, for we have seen the Lord ;"
but the language is reversed, and I answer, " I shall live
for ever, for I have seen that this Lord is my Father."
And so God can look down upon me, and see no reason
why He should condemn me ; there is no reason in the
THE THRONED PRIEST AND KING. Hod
law, there is none in me, there is none in sin ; for the law
is magnified, sin is expiated ; I am willing to accept the
provision of infinite mercy and wisdom, and therefore,
justified bj faith, I have peace with God ; I can say to
Him, in the language of adoption, " My Father;" and he
can respond, in the music of heaven, " My son ;" and if
a son, an heir of God, a joint heir with Christ Jesus.
Thus we see where the fountain and source of peace
is — namely, between the priestly and the kingly office of
Christ, or from Christ a priest upon his throne.
Mark then, as inferences from this : first, the secret of uni-
versal peace, the only source of peace amidst the nations of
the earth is the influence of the everlasting Gospel. You
may as well try by Peace Societies to make sunshine at mid-
night, as to make peace without the Prince of peace. Peace
over all the nations of the earth is not to be woven as cloth
is ; it is not to be made by diplomacy, it is not to be created
by fine speeches about the inexpediency of war ; the true
way 10 create universal peace, and to render the soldier and
the sailor, the battle field and the quarter deck relics of the
past, is to spread more vigorously and speedily that blessed
Gospel, which in royal hearts and in plebian hearts, makes
wherever it is felt the peace that passeth understanding.
Nations are simply groups of individuals ; and m the
present day, when popular power seems to be growing for
good or for evil, so great nations will be more and more
just what individuals are. Far better introduce peace
into our own hearts, peace at our own firesides, and thus
peace in our own nation. As nations cling closer to the
Prince of peace, their hearts will beat in nobler and in-
tenser unison one with another.
251 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
Let US see in all this that great lesson, that there will
one day be universal peace. We have faith in God's
Avord. There is no fear of its failing. Momentary tri-
umphs of Infidelity, or of Popery, or Tractarianism, are
merely eddies in the majestic current, that will soon be
absorbed into its waters and disappear. God has spoken,
we have confidence in his word. I am just as certain that
the religion of this Book — the religion that we know, and"
love, and live in — shall overspread the whole earth, as I
am that another sun shall rise, or that the sun that now
shines shall set behind the western hills. We must have
confidence in God's truth. The church maybe in danger,
the altar may be in danger, the priest may be in danger,
the ceremony may be in danger ; but true religion is
nearest to its most glorious victories when its peril seems
to men the most imminent. It is God's truth, God is with
it, and it must prevail. And the effect of all this will be,
the work of righteousness shall be peace, the effect of
righteousness, gladness, and assurance for ever. A day,
beautiful as ever dawned in Paradise, is no doubt almost
at our doors. The last conflict is approaching ; all Europe
will soon blaze like a volcano. All ancient landmarks will
be obliterated, thrones shall be again overthrown, dynas-
ties will be shaken, the awful tumults of the people will
be heard again ; but in the midst of all the Christian ear
shall hear, ringing sweet and clear from the heavens, " Be
still ; know that I am God ; I will be exalted among the
heathen, I will be exalted in the earth." After a short,
a dark, and a sharp night, that beautiful day will come,
sweeter than thaw after frost, than sunshine after night ;
when the Prince of peace shall reign from sea to sea, and
THE THRONED PRIEST AXD KING. 255
all creation, restored to its morning beauty, shall bask in
the beams of an unsetting and a holy sun. All sin which
rends creation shall be extirpated, all sorrov/ shall vanish
away, tears shall be wiped away from every eye ; and the
very dumb brutes will be restored and be happy — happy as
they were in Paradise. It is said in prophecy, " The lion
shall eat straw like the ox" — every creature in Paradise
w^as made graminivorous. If you will turn to the record
of the animal creation in Paradise, you will find it states
expressly that every creature was made to eat grass, or to
be what we call graminivorous; " To every beast of the
earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing
that creepeth upon the earth, wdierein there is life, I have
given" — what? "Every green herb for meat; and it
was so." Animals were not made to eat each other. I
know how difilcult it is to prove this. I know tliat the
naturalist will say, — The lion has "a peculiar structure of
the teeth ; and the viscera of the lion differ from those of
the ox : he is carnivorous, and not graminivorous. I an-
swer, probably God made them thus in anticipation of
what He knew would come — not what he caused to be,
but what He knew would come — the Fall, the wreck and
ruin of mankind. But He that thus made them can make
them again, and the promise is that " the lion shall eat
straw like the ox;" and that creation shall cease its
groans, its expectancies, its woes ; and be delivered from
all its sad forebodings ; and the stormy .and the troubled
surf of this world shall end in the peaceful calm of an
everlasting and an undisturbed heaven.
Are we looking by faith to this priest for pardon — are
we listening to this king for law? Are we trusting in
256 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
what He had done as a priest, and to that alone, that our
sins may be forgiven ? Are we illustrating the sincerity
of our trust by obedience to his commands as a king ? for
the same Christ that gives us by his blood immunity from
the results of sin, gives us by his sceptre deliverance from
its polluting power every day more and more.
LECTURE XXXVL
OUR REFUGE IX THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
" God is our refuge and strength^ a very j)resent hdp
in trouhle.^^ — PsALM xlvi. 1.
This psalm has been sung in scenes of great tribulation
for two thousand years passed away. It is a psalm for the
day. It was the favorite psalm of Luther amidst the scenes
and storms of the great Reformation, and its words were
the expression of his trust and confidence when the as-
saults of men were heaviest, their threats sores*, and their
power greatest. Whenever circumstances seemed all but
overwhelming about him, he used to say to his companions
in this great cause, " Come, let us sing the 46th psalm ;
' God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in
trouble.' "
We too are entering on scenes in which the psalm will
have an appropriateness we could have wished not to have
occasion for. War is no sooner ended on one field than
we are embarked in other conflicts, the issues of which no
human being can foresee. The loss of treasure, the loss
of means, the loss of life, and the calamities entailed
in 1859 upon the European nations none can estimate ;
but we can retain in the midst of all, in spite of all, tri-
umphant aljove all, our confidence in God, and feel as
believers that our refuge is there, and that he is still here,
(257)
258 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
a verj present help in time of trouble. It is therefore,
inspiring to find the Psalmist lifting up his heart above
the waves, and finding in every attribute of God a bay of
consolation. So has it been with others in the worst of
times ; when no hand on earth can help, and no eye on
earth will pity, it is a blessed resource that remains for the
believer, I have One in heaven under whose overshadowing
wings I can find protection, in whose paternal presence I
can find peace, under whose all encompassing attributes
I have a shelter from the storm, a shadow from tlie heat,
a refuge from fear, a present help in the very sorest time
of trouble. Every attribute in God is a believer's refuge ;
every cleft in the Rock of Ages is a shadow and a shelter
for a Christian. If God loved us, but were not omnipo-
tent, we might never be able to enjoy Him as our refuge ;
if He were powerful, but did not love us, his power might
be arrayed against us ; and if He had all power and all
love, but not omniscience, He might not know our trials ;
or if he were omnipresent, He might not see our trials;
but havmg all power, all love, omnipresence, and omnis-
cience, we can find in him a refuge always adequate, and
always open; his great mercy bidding us welcome, his
power when we reach it able to protect and to preserve us.
How glorious then is the fact, that all the attributes of
Deity arrayed against the least of sins out of Christ, are
combined for the protection of the greatest sinner that flees
to Him by Christ, the way, the truth, and the life ! How
interesting the thought that this refuge is not in the past,
nor in the future, but always in the present !' "God is
our refuge," is as true to-day, and in the great tribulation,
as it was tAvo thousand years ago. He is not only our
OUR REFUGE IN THE GREAT TRIBULATION. 259
refuge, but '■ very present help;" always at hand, alwa3^s
waiting, always willing to help, defend, and deliver us.
He is our refuge in all places ; in the secrecy of our re-
tirement at home, in all the recesses of the soul when it
meditates w^ithin itself, in the sanctuary, and in the great
congregation, in all the intricacies and associations of
public and of private life, on the quarter-deck, on the field
of battle, on the ocean's bosom and in the distant desert,
in India and China, and on itihospi table shores ; God is
there and then, in all these places, always and everywhere,
our refuge, our strength, our present help in time of
trouble. There is no place so secluded fiom the light of
heaven that his eye does not pierce it ; there is no dis-
tance so great that his arm cannot reach it : there is no
sorrow or tribulation so minute as to be unworthy of his
sympathy, and no suifering so great as to be beyond the
reach of his consolation, mitigation, or removal of it.
Wherever a believer can go — if he take the wings of the
morning and flee to the uttermost parts of the earth : if
he say, '' Perad venture the darkness will cover me ;" if he
ascend into heaven ; wherever he is, he finds in his own
heart a presence that cheers him in sorrow, strengthens
him in trouble, refreshes him in trial, and makes him more
than conqueror through him that loved him and gave him-
self for him.
Not only is God our refuge in all places, but in all
seasons. In the season of youth, to guide us, to save us
in its slippery paths from falling, and to conduct us safely
up to man ; in the season of old age, when the strong
men bow themselves, and the golden bowl gives notice
that soon it will be broken at the fountain, and the grass-
260 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
hopper fs a burden, and desire fails — even then, to gray
hairs and old age, God is a refuge and a present help.
In seasons of suffering, of losses, and crosses, and painful
trials — in all the ripples of solitary sorrow, in the over-
whelming torrent of national distress, God is to them
that seek Him, and lift their hearts to Him, a refuge to
which they may have recourse, a present help on which
they may lean, a strength made perfect in weakness, that
fails not in the least, and falters not in the worst of trials.
Thus present is God our refuge and our strength, in all
the attributes of his nature, — his mercy forgives us. and
is a refuge from the guilt of sin : his justice acquits us,
his grace saves us ; all that He is in Christ is a refuge, a
shelter, a trust, and a support to the humblest believer.
And when we flee to Him, all things instantly assume an
altered aspect, a different relationship to us who have fled
for refuge, and laid hold upon the hope set before us.
To the prisoner for Christ's sake, the prison glows with
all the beauty and the glory of a royal palace. Suffering
has lost its sting when it touches a believer. In his case,
bereavement, and poverty, and loss, and trial are pain-
ful, but they are not penal. This refuge does not shelter
us in this world from the ordinary incidents of a fallen
world ; but it lets no incident touch us until the penal
element has been extracted from it, and it has received a
cammission from the Throne not to hurt, but to work for
good to him that loves God, and is called according to his
pur|x>se. The fiery furnace became as a garden to the
Hebrew youths ; and its heated floor as a bed of roses.
"Wherever we have God our refuge, our present help,
there we can say, with no feigned lijs, "It is good for
OUR REFUGE IN THE GREAT TRIBULATION. 261
me to be afflicted ; and though no tribulation for the pre-
sent seemeth joyous, yet I am sure it is working out the
peaceable fruits of righteousness, to them that are exer-
cised thereby." When God is our refuge, and our
strength, and our present help in time of trouble, He
sanctifies all we have remaining that is good, and He be-
comes more than a substitute compensating for the absence
of all that has left us. If all the trees of our warden
are cut down, but the tree of life still remains, we have
shadow from the heat, and its pleasant fruits still to par-
take of God's presence adapts itself to every taste, and
every Christian derives from his presence that which
suits his case, supplies his wants, pleases his taste, and
fills his longing soul, in the language of the Psalmist, as
with marrow and with fatness. When all else is gone,
and we have nothing left, God is more than a compensa-
tion for all. One sun is better than a thousand stars ;
the riches of Christ are realities, the riches of the world
are phantoms The things unseen are real, the things
seen are shadowy and ephemeral. No man who is a
Christian can be overwhelmed by the greatest losses ; no
man who is not a Christian can fail to suffer, and suffer
severely, even from the least of the daily losses that be-
fall us in this present world. It is when a man can find
a constant refuge in the bosom of his Father, a present
help in the strength of Omnipotence, that his severest
losses part with three-fourths of their severity, and his
ordinary losses are altogether unfelt. And when all take
wings and leaves him desolate and alone, he fei'ls he is
not alone ; for He in whom he has all, and from whom he
262 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
derived all, and whose band has taken what He gave, is
still his present help in this his time of trouble.
What in our case are the individual trials, afflictions,
sufferings, that as individuals we now feel ? I speak not
of national or public, but of private and of personal suf-
ferings. Are we under deep convictions of sin ? Do we
feel in all its. poignancy, "lam guiltj before God?"
"We have a refuge to go to ; not that our sin may be ca-
nonized, and we and it go forth as^ain to live together ;
but that there the guilt of our sin may be washed away,
and we justified freely by the righteousness of One who
was made righteousness to us, in whom we find a refuge
from the guilt of our sin, and go forth accepted and ac-
quitted, hating what is forgiven, and praising the unmerit-
ed mercy that graciously forgave it.
Are you harassed with temptations, trials, and evil
thoughts, suggestions, propensities, desires? There is
but one refuge in which you may leave them ; there is
but one shelter from the angry and the scorching shower ;
there is but one to whom you can have recourse as to the
clefts of a rock that is mightier than you. God is your
refuge, in Him alone can you find shelter, there alone
will every arrow strike only to recoil broken and blunted ;
there alone you will hear tliose blessed words, " Satan
hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat ;
but I have prayed for you, that your faith fiil not."
Your trials will purify and humble you ; but they will
not destroy or even endanger you.
Have you the feeling that God has forsaken you. that
your God has forgotten you, as many a Christian has said
OUR REFUGE IN THE GREAT TRIBULATION. 2G3
before ? You must remember that, because jou have not
the conscious signs of the nearness of this presence always,
it may not be the less near, less real, on that account.
There is daylight when there is no sunlight ; ceaseless
sunlight w^ould not be good, daylight is better and softer
than sunlight, and more expedient for us. God may
withdraw from us his comforting presence, though lie
will never withdraw from us his sustaining presence.
God may not be a present comfort even when He is most
felt as a present help ; but He never ceases to be your
refuge, even when your faith falters and your confidence
fails ; He changes not, you change ; tlie cloud is not
down from Him. but up from you. The cloud will not
last forever ; it will be dissolved and scattered, and the
sunshine of his countenance will be lifted up upon his be-
lieving and adopted child ; for He will never leave you,
He will never forsake you. vVre you surrounded with
great troubles, vexed with cares, oppressed by many
anxieties ; fears within and fightings without ; dark re-
miniscences behind, gloomy prospects before : and do you
fancy that all these things are against you ? ]\Iay not
your case be that of the ancient Patriarch ? He said,
•' Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take
Benjamm away; all these things are agniusi me.'' There
was not one word of truth in what lie said Joseph \v;;s,
and Simeon was, and Benjamin was only taken away as
a pledge ; and all these things, instead of being against
him, were all truly working for liim. Tiie liand of God
may be against a believer when the heart of God is full
of sympathy with him. You may be a son of God, and
yet you may be sorrowful. A beggar, without sixpence
264 THE GREAT TRIBULATIOX.
upon earth, may be an heir of glory in splendid and cer-
tain reversion. It is not by sense that we walk, but by
faith. Our treasure is not here, but beyond the sky ;
and the sorest trials may be part and parcel of that pa-
ternal discipline which is preparing a child for his home,
a son for the presence of his Father in heaven. Thus a
believer, everywhere and always, in all time of his
wealth, in all time of his tribulation, in the hour of
death, and in the day of judgment, may say, may sing,
with ecstacy and triumph, " God is my refuge and my
strength, my very present help in this and every time of
trouble."
What is needed to enable us to see all this? The
great want in us all is faith. '• We believe ; Lord help
our unbelief" Faith is to a Christian what sense is to
a natural man ; and the objects believed on are as real
to faith as the objects seen and heard are to sense and
hearing. What we need, therefore, to be able to realize
all the peace and all the repose that spring from the con-
viction in the text, is just that fiith which man can de-
fine, but which the Holy Spirit of God alone can implant
in the heart. Faith shows us God is ; history tells us
God was ; prophecy tells us God will be : faith reveals
to us God is ; and not only is, but is related to us ; and
not only is related to us, but works for us, watching over
us, ordering all things for our good ; making the most
painful things subserve our interests, the most cross things
contribute to our progress : melting the largest obstruc-
tions into impulses and elements of advancement from
grace to glory, till we'Jippear before God in Sion. And
faith not only reveals God is, not only is thus the evi-
OUR REFUGE IN THE GREAT TRIlilLATION. 265
dence of things not seen, but faith is the appropriating
grace. When I have faith, divine fliith, implanted in my
heart, I not only see God, but I take hold of God : I not
only can see God is a refuge — faith can reveal that — but
I can see also and say by faith, " God is my refuge and
my strength, and my present help in all time of trouble."
Nay, faith can enable me to say, " All things are mine ;
Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or life, or death, or things
past, or things present, or things to come — all are mine,
for I am Christ's, and Christ is God's." Faith also can
enable us, not only to see all these things ours, but to
see God, and all that is in God, very near. Faith brings
near. When I see an object, I see its shape, its form,
its dimensions as clearly at the distance of a hundred
feet, as if the sense of touch could enable me to measure
and ascertain its form. So faith brin^rs distant thing's
near ; it brings God near, eternity near, heaven near,
the judgment-seat near ; and these things brought near
to me become the very atmosphere I breathe, the very
food I live on, the constant and ceaseless companions of
my progress through this world to a brighter and a better
beyond it.
Can ^ve then say, God is our refuge ? Can we say,
not in sunshine, but in shadow, He is our present help in
time of trouble ? Do we believe this truth, do we live
on it ? Our belief in it is measurc<l by the trust and the
pressure we can lay upon it, by the amount of peace and
joy we can derive from it. That man in whose heart's
experience this truth is the greatest, most continuous,
shaping, coloring reality, is the man who believes most,
who has the greatest confidence in God as our refuge and
12
266 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
our strength, our very present help in time of trouble.
Faith in mathematics, in science, is a natural gift ; faith
in Christ, as God our refuge, is a divine grace. Nature
has left us the faith that concludes in the discoveries
of science ; grace is ever ready to give us the faith
that is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of
things not seen.
LECTURE XXXVII.
BE STILL.
"■ Be still, and knoiv that I am God : I will be exalt-
ed among the heathen, I will he exalted in the earths
Psalm xlvi. 10.
The forty-sixth psalm is evidently from first to last
a military or a war song. It assumes tribulation, war-
fare, in the midst of the world ; and it points the Chris-
tian to his refuge, his safe and blessed retreat, amidst the
war storms gathering from the distant horizon. God is
not only our refuge, but He is also with us. " He mak-
eth wars to cease unto the end of the earth ; He breaketh
the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder ; He burnetii
the chariot in the fire." If God is thus the source of
victory, if the battle is not to the strong nor the race to
the swift, then " be still ;" do not be alarmed, agitated,
and vexed ; but be satisfied of this ; that God will be
exalted in the earth. Fear not for his kingdom, be not
alarmed for his cause ; not a hair of the head of his
saints shall perish. Be still, and know that He is not
man to repent, nor a creature to fail ; but the mighty
God, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.
This prescription is suitable to the age in which we
live, in the scenes that are opening on a world that ap-
(267^
268 THE UllEAT TRIBULATIUX.
pears to be about to go through its last baptism. What
are some of the grounds of disquiet in the minds of true
Christians ? Why is it that we need the prescription.
" Be still"? We answer, first, from the imperfection of
our knowledge. We see but a fragment of God's pro-
cedure ; we cannot see that out of evil He still educes
good. When we behold overshadowing error, we think
it will deepen and darken till the whole sky is overcast ;
whereas, by-and-bj it is dissolved, and truth shines forth
with all the splendor of the sun, and the momentary
cloud seems to have only increased the intensity of the
glory that succeeds, and follows it. We hear of divisions
and disputes among Christians ; we think the Church is
going to pieces ; but that is because we see but a part, we
do not see the whole. If we saw the whole we should
discover that the momentary discord is only preparatory
to lasting harmony ; and that the dispute of a day pre-
cedes the peace that will prevail through ages to come.
W^e see through a glass darkly ; we do not always recol-
lect this, and because Ave forget it, and fancy that we can
see more clearly than is the case, we are troubled and
disquieted. Because we are blind, we think the world is
going to pieces, and that God has left it to itself Another
reason why we are disquieted is, that we judge very much
after the senses. We call that bright which we see to be
so ; we call that dark which we feel to be so ; and we
judge of God's procedure by the same senses with which
we judge of things that are properly within their pro-
vince, and ought to be submitted to their verdict. Noise
seems greatness, but it may be very emptiness. Glare
seems sublimity, it may be puerility in the extreme. We
BE STILL. 269
judge after the senses, and we are often mistaken.
Christ's cross looked the meanest thing ; it was really the
most magnificent. Christ's grave in the garden looked
a dark and a lonely spot ; it was really the birthplace of
a greater power, the dawn of a brighter glory than ever
shone from heaven upon the hills of earth and the habita-
tions of mankind. We must not think that is power
which looks so. nor that misfortune that seems so. Under
the most unlikely garb there may be an angel from
heaven unawares. The hand of God operates beneficent
results when all seems to us inevitable catastrophe, ca-
lamity, and ruin. Another reason why we are disquiet-
ed, when we look abroad upon the world, and on the
present state of the world, is the hastiness of our judg-
ment. We see what is sad now ; we think all will be sad
to the end. We judge of a lono: season from the change
at its commencement. Yet you would blame very much
the man who would judge of the excellence of a -poem
from the title-page. You would form a very poor esti-
mate of his good sense who would pronounce upon the
splendor of an imperial palace by a specimen of a brick
taken from the wall, or by seeing a few stones of the
foundation laid. Of the true Christian it is said that
" he shall not make haste;" and again, *' it is good quiet-
ctly to wait." Another reason why we are disturbed is,
that we form an atheistic judgment. We look at the
world, and we leave out Him who is its harmony, its
order, and its cohesion. A world without God would l)e
the saddest spectacle, and its history would be the bloodi-
est tragedy. And if we look at the wars that are gleam-
ing like lightning upon the east, the west — in India, in
270 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
China, in Italy — everywhere and no further, ^\e should
form a very sad and sorrowful conclusion. But if we
can look at all that statesmen arrange, at all that warriors
achieve, in the light of the sanctuary, we shall find that
Italian and Indian, and Englishman and Frenchman, are
but the chessmen upon the board, and that God is the
great mover of them all. They think they are inde-
pendent agents, they are really the instruments in his
hand, accomplishing his grand and magnificent designs.
Do not judge after the senses : do not think of the -^orld
without God ; but look upon the world in the light of Him
of whom it is said, ' ' The Lord reigneth ; let the nations
tremble. The Lord reigneth ; let his people rejoice."
Having seen some of the obvious causes why w^e are
disposed to take very gloomy views, and to be disturbed
and troubled in our minds, let me explain what that still-
ness is that is here enjoined. God says through the
Psalmist, " Be still ; and know that I am God." This
stillness, or quiet, is not insensibility. Man must weep
over the losses that are constantly taking place around
him. He must grieve at fields that are red with slaugh-
ter ; he must deplore the necessity of the sword being
taken from its scabbard, and the banner unfurled upon
the field of battle. We cannot but grieve when Ave
know that tlie wave of war, whether it be the w^ave of
conquest or defeat, rolls laden with sorrow into ten thou-
sand times ten thousand ho.mes. We are not called upon
to be insensible. Jesus wept. We are made not of
granite, but of flesh and blood. Stoicism is not Chris-
tianity ; insensibility is not the peace that passeth under-
standing. The stillness that is enjoined is not insens:-
BE STILL. 271
bilitj, but something far richer. This stilhiess is not
fatalism. A fatalist is quite a different person from a
predestinarian. You may believe in predestination, and
yet not be a fatalist. The Mahometan is a thorough fa-
talist. The Moslem sits down when he hears of the pes-
tilence sweeping through the streets of Constantinople,
or when he hears the roll of the Russian drum and the
boom of its artillery thundering -in his rear ; he sits
down, smokes his chihoiiqiie^ and exclaims in perfect
ease, "It is the will of Allah — God's will be done.''
That is fatalism, not Christianity. There may be the
intensest energy in action with a back-ground of un-
broken repose on God. There may be the stillness of
confiding trust, there may yet be the energy of active
and of vigorous exertion. The stillness of the Moslem
is the stillness of stagnation, or the calmness of an iron
nerve, or the stupor superinduced by opium ; it is not
the " Be still, and know that I am God." This, wLich
is here enjoined, is not the stillness of atheistic defiance.
There is a stillness arising from a belief that God has
forsaken the earth, that He has left the most splendid vic-
tory to the greatest strength. There is a stillness arising
from the belief that the battle is to the strong, that the
race is to the swift ; and such confidenee is full of scorn
towards God and indifTerence to the sufferings of mankind.
The exclusion of God, and thinking that by our own arm,
and might, and inexhaustible resources, we can achieve
the victory, that is the stillness of Nebuchadnezzar when
he congratulated himself on his Babylonian splendor : the
stillness of the Assyrian when he " came down like a wolf
on the fold," and thought that by his own prowess he
272 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
would gain the day. The stilhiess of a Christian's heart
is an inspiration of a nobler and a more glorious stamp
than this. It is not presumption. There is a stillness, or
a quiet, or a peace arising from excluding God from the
world, and thinking that our army and our navy will do
all ; and there is a quiet resulting from including God,
and so thinking of God that we ourselves shall do nothing.
Now I know not which is worse ; the atheistic sensuous-
ness that excludes God from the world, and asserts that
we can work the world without Him, or the infidel pre-
sumption that throws all upon God, and sits still, and
says, "God will accomplieh his purposes." God's grace
is not a substitiite for us, as many read the text, but it is
sufficient for us. God's strength is not made perfect in
indolence, in apathy, in presumption, but in trusting and
in trustful weakness. Thus there are grounds of disturb-
ance which are untenable and there are grounds for a peace
that are equally untenable. Let us therefore turn to that
true stillness, the prescription from heaven, the possession
of a Christian's heart, which is generated chiefly by the
blessed assurance, "Know that I am God; I will be ex-
alted amid the nations of the earth." We find that the
stillness, or the peace, or repose, that a Christian feels
springs from the conviction or the experimental knowledge
that God He is God, and will be exalted in the nations and
in all the earth. It is God as revealed in Scripture that
is the foundation of a Christian's peace. If I did not be-
lieve in a God, I should dread the falling of a leaf, the
turning of a corner, the stumbling of a foot ; but because
I believe in God the Almighty, the Father of heaven and
of earth, therefore I am still. Were God other than He is
BE STILL. 273
described in the Bible, I could not trust in Him ; Avere
God ignorant, all might go to ruin without his knowing it ;
were God unwise. He might injure the very cause He
designs to support ; were God limited in power, He might
not be able to help where help is most important ; were
God not omnipresent, He might not see where there was
suffering, and sympathy was needed, or where there was
ruin, and restoration should be interposed ; and were God
unmerciful, we should never be pitied. But because He
is the God that shines from every page, and speaks in
every chapter of the Bible, I am still, because I know that
that God is my God for ever and ever.
We have peace or stillness, not only from knowing God
as revealed in Scripture, but from knowing God in his own
past providential dealings. The antediluvian evil seems
once to have gained the supremacy : Christ's flock re-
stricted to a handful ; evil, as far as we can judge by signs,
had gained the day, and asserted its supremacy ; yet it was
not so ; the Flood .burst upon the earth, and washed away
the guilty ; the remnant were saved in his sovereignty that
were to be the seed of a population countless as the dew-
drops sparkling in the rays of an unsetting sun. The
Assyrian once burst upon Israel with all but irresistible
power ; and when ho came, he exclaimed, in the pride and
triumph of his heart, " By the strength of my hand I have
done it, and by my wisdom ; for I am prudent : jind I have
removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their
treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a val-
iant man ; and my hand hath found as a nest the riches of
the people ; and as one gathcreth eggs that are left, have
I gathered all the earth ; and there was none that moved
12*
274 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
the wing, or opened the mouth.'' So said the Assyrian,
when he congratulated himself upon approaching victory.
But what does God say? " Shall the axe boast itself
against him that heweth therewith ? or shall the saw mag-
nify itself against him that shaketh it ? as if the rod should
shake itself against him that lifted it up, or as if the staff
should lift up itself as if it were no wood. Therefore shall
the Lord ; the Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones lean-
ness, and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like
the burning of a fire." So Pharaoh prided himself on his
strength, thought Israel was in his grasp for ever, but
just at the moment his pride was stoutest and his hope
the brightest, the pathway that seemed to him a prome-
nade to victory presented the awful spectacle of the walls
of water that closed in and buried the hosts and chivalry
of Pharaoh. Napoleon the First is another instance. All
seemed to be within his reach ; kings, thrones, and dynas-
ties were shattered by his touch ; the victory of the world
seemed to be within his grasp ; and lo ! so weak is man,
so great is God, the snows of Russia became the grave of
his mighty army ; and that element, so soft in itself,
wielded by Him that rules, sealed the fate and precipitated
the doom of Napoleon. Thus, when I read the past, and
find God has depressed the proud, cleft the sea for his
people to pass through, led the blind by a way they knew
not ; made every scene resonant with his voice, left the
footprints of his presence upon every acre of the world, I
can lay the stress of my hopes and confidence upon Him,
and amidst all the convulsions of the earth I can be still,
for I know that the Lord is God.
Another reason for this stillness should be our own
BE STILL. 275
personal and almost universal experience. There is no
one, however obscure in his life, however under-ground the
current of his years, who may not seethe shadow of God
at every winding and eddy in its ceaseless stream. You
cannot explain your past history without God : you cannot
account for your present position if you exclude God. Do
you not feel that a tone and coloring has been given to
your mind, a direction to your progress, an arrest here, an
impulse there, that you cannot account for except by know-
ing that it was God ? Leave God out of the humblest
life, and that life is a labyrinth inexplicable, unintelligi-
ble. Let God be seen in it, and the thread runs alono^
it all that guides you through every perplexity, and ex-
plains every turning, and shows a divine hand leadinor
the blind by a way that they knew not, and by paths
that they had not known. All this, then, convinces us
that God reigns and rules, not only in individual his-
tories, but in the histories of the world, and in the move-
ment of the nations of the earth. lie reigns over the
battle-field ; He is no unconcerned spectator of the havoc.
He sees where the guilt is ; He knows where the misfor-
tune lies ; He sees who is there in the discharge of a stern
but inevitable duty, and who is there the minion of a ruth-
less and unjustifiable ambition. And out of all the evil
Ho will educe good, from the storms of Avar shall issue
the calm and the sunshine of everlasting peace ; the sword
shall yet be beaten into the plough-share, the spear
must be turned into the pruning-hook, and the most sav-
age nations of the east and the most cultivated tribes of the
west shall learn war no more. The Danube shall reflect
his glory; the Euphrates shall make way for his progress ;
276 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
and the snows of Russia and the sunshine of Constantino-
ple shall equally, beneath his plastic and regulating pres-
ence, redound to the glorj of his name, and to the ever-
lasting good of his believing and his trustful people ; China
and India shall sing his praise. When I think of all these
things, I can prescribe with an emphasis with which I
never prescribed before, " Be still and know that I am
God." The evil only shall perish, the good shall endure.
Man is made use of to punish man, and to make a path-
way for the progress of the saints of God. It is a hum-
bling thought to the natural man, a magnificent thought
to the Christian, that while Napoleon thought in his folly
he struck out his own path, he was really a battle axe
wielded by God for cleaving a pathway for the Gospel of
Christ.
But let come what may, Christians can be still ; their
hope is beyond the stars, their foundation is stronger than
the everlasting hills ; their cause, their destiny remains
when all is overwhelmed and overthrown. The kingdoms
of this world may be shattered, bat the kingdom of our
God only emerges into greater brightness. The flame
that wraps wide Europe, and calcines great thrones, shall
only light the saints of God to their everlasting home.
The trees of the forest may blaze, but the bush on Horeb
remains in the flame, unscathed and imperishable for ever.
The ships of Tarshish may be tossed and founder in the
waves, but the ark of God's people has Christ in the midst
of it ; it shall never perish. The cities of the nations may
be destroyed, but we have a city that hath foundations,
whose builder and whose maker is God. "Let not your
hearts be troubled." " Be still, aj:id know that I am God."
BE STILL. 277
All things, disturbed kingdoms, desolated nations, broken
sceptres, shattered thrones, the roar of artillery, the roll
of the conquering drum, the blast of the trumpet, the cry
of the wounded, the groans of the dying, have " a needs
be." Be still.
See the expediency of such a prescription as this. It
is by stillness, self-possession, and Christian quiet that we
can best look around us, and estimate our position, and
see clearest. It is in the calm, not the stormy sky, that
we can best see the stars : it is in the still ocean, not the
stormy one, we can see reflected a hundred fathoms down
all the splendors of the sky. It is w^hen our minds are
at peace with God, and thoroughly satisfied that the issue
will be right, that we can best look around us and see
things in their right light, and come to the most just and
consolatory conclusion. And it is by stillness that we are
most prepared for all that may await us. The most col-
lected and composed are the fittest for duty; the greatest
minds are usually calm ; high brows are still ; holy hearts
beat with unbroken composure. It is when the storm is
expected, that the sailor reefs every sail and makes his
canvass less ; it is when the battle is looked for, that the
general calls in and concentrates all his forces for the issue.
It is by calmness, composure, confidence in God, that we can
see the furthest, that we can act with the greatest energy.
And hence the man who is a Christian by grace has gener-
ally been the bravest hero on the field of conflict or upon the
quarter-deck. " Be still." How often is this prescription
given in the Bible. " Rest on the Lord, and wait patiently
for him." "It is good for a man that he both hope and
quietly wait." Remember the Lord reigneth. What a
278 THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
truth is that ! The Lord not only is. but the Lord reigneth.
He is clothed with majesty, his throne is stablished of old.
The floods have lifted up their voice, but the Lord on high
is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the
mighty waters of the sea. This stillness or perfect com-
posure in the wisdom, the power, the goodness of God, all
enlisted on our side, encompassing, enveloping, and shel-
tering us, is, as I have stated, not only compatible, but
necessarily compatible, with the most vigorous and earnest
discharge of the duty that devolves upon us. And the
very first duty that becomes us in the crisis which is
thickening on the earth is prayer to Him that reigns, for
our country, for our countrymen exposed to the perils and
the calamities of war ; and especi lly that God would be
pleased to decide the great conflict of the nations, that his
name may be exalted, his cause prospered, and ancient
prophecy, that scepticism has glenounced as obsolete, may
be translated into modern history, that the nations of the
earth may see and know that they were the inspiration
of God.
APPENDIX.
In order to prove that those who do not attend to prophetic investigation
are impressed by the abnormal complications of Europe and Asia, and
witnesses unconsciously to the fulfilment of prophecy, I will here append
some remarkable extracts from the various representatives of public
opinion . My first extract is from an American point of view : —
I. EVENTS IN ASIA.
" It is not surprising that bold theorists like Dr. Gumming of London,
and other students of the Bible, should imagine they see ' the beginning
of the end ' of prophecy in the historic events of the p:ist few years."
There has been something strangely provocative of that idea in the
return of the currents of strife and revolution to their original centre,
the continent of Asia. The thoughtful have long anticipated and pre-
dicted such return, but while the inlications wei-e faint and gradual
they escaped the common attention. Now, however, when the world has
seen the great Northern Power of that continent arrayed against the
nations of Europe; now that the whole Persian empire is swaying betwen
the eastward march of Russia on the one hand, and the Indian ambition
of England on the other; now that the entering wedge of the * opium
war ' has been succeeded by a new and unexpected second assault upon
the exclusive policy of China; now that the extent of that vast and stag-
nant empire has been shaken by the tramp of revolution; now that the
conquering policy of Russia is expanding into railroad ramifications
through the Continent pari passu with the canal and steam projects of
European commerce along its southern and western margin — now that
these things have become matters of history, the world seems to be
awakening to the fact that Asia is to be the theatre of gigantic events in
the near future, and grave statesmen find excuses for speculative solici-
tude in regard to the ultimate results.
(279)
280 APPENDIX.
" What precise tiu'u these results are to exhibit is not a practical ques-
tion, but the unmistakable tendency of events already past or now
transpiring is among the most momentous considerations of the day.
The abrupt termination of the Russian struggle with Turkey and the
Western Powers was far more remarkable th;ui the origin and incidents
of the war itself, wondei*ful as were the latter. Its full significance is
hardly, however, even yet discernible- With seemingly lowered crest
the Muscovite escaped from a tremendous and rapidly exhausting con-
flict, but at once proceeded to avail himself of the appliances of an ad-
vanced civilization possessed by his enemies, to unite and consolidate his
empire. The idea of commercial convenience, and consequent financial
augmentation and strength, no doubt enters fundamentally into these
schemes; but that this aim is singly or even mainly, as is made to appear,
the design of the Emperor, will be hard to impress upon those familiar
with the inexorable policy of Russia. That icy despotism stands the iron
type of military power in the nineteenth century. — Her network of rail-
ways is primarily to answer the same purpose as the wonderful thoi*-
oughfares constructed by Roman energy, and to perfect the communi-
cation between the centre and the circumference of the empire.
" Nor will it be suiEcient that these means of instant communication
ramify the empire itself. Already is the Czar busy with a counter-
check to the Anglo-Indian encroachment on Persia, and the projected
j'ailroad from Tiflis, his trans-Caucasian centre-point, to Teheran, the
capital of the Shah, marks the first of his colossal strides, to dispute the
empire of Eastern Asia with all the world. To the same purpose have
tended his aggressive spoliations on the Amoor river over his feeble
southern neighbor in that quarter. In the case of Persia, the Shah is
after all, and has long been, but a plastic instrument in the hands of the
Autocrat ; and even now European statesmen are perplexed to conjec-
ture whether or not Persia acted in her recent English disturbance upon
the assurance of Russian succor should matters reach a dangerous posi-
tion.
" This conflict between Persia and England, too, noAV said to be closed
for the present, is not without significance, and though it had seemingly
very simple causes, it is possible the precise share the partial discom-
fiture of Russia in the late war had in it will never be known to the
cabinets of Europe. Upon the side of England it was unquestionably
but another of those events which, like the hand of destiny, have con-
tinued to impel the march of her Asiatic accessions. The difference in
APPENDIX. 281
this case, however, has been and will be that she must encounter the
rival pretensions of Russia, thus precluding the probability of that suc-
cess which has hitherto attended her Eastern usurpations.
" Of the tendency of the events of the past few years in China — to
which may be added the new relation occupied by Japan to the rest of
the world — it is much easier to form an estimate. There were few men
versed in the history of the ' opium war ' who ever anticipated that China
would have remained as long as she has fi-ee from a second European
drubbing. That war was but a preliminary butFet, before which the
walls of Cathayan isolation — endangered by the senile insolence of the
Chinese themselves — are eventually to succumb. It is possible this
would have been repeated before now if the revolution in that country
had not supervened. As it is, that astonishing convulsion of a people
stagnant beyond all criterion is but another link in the general chain.
Tai-ping-Wang could have sprung successfully into the character of a
Chinese Mohammed only by the awakening consciousness of the people
that godship did not dwell in the Tartar potentate. Two hundred
years of undisputed rule had deadened the memory of doubt as to the
Manchu divine right and divine person. It had also extinguished the
vitality of the Ming tradition. But the English opium war taught the
shi-cwd among the Chinese that their super-serene superiority was a
deception and a myth whose absurdity stared them in the face. Such a
man was the disappointed schoolmaster, ' the elegant and perfect,' Siu-
tshuen. He had witnessed in his day the miserable farce of Chinese
resistance, and the total and disgraceful overthrow of celestial valor and
might. His literary studies acquainted him with the potency of the
Ming prestige as a historical souvenir. He may or may not be a remote
descendant. This is immaterial. All that was neceseary was to make
the Chinese Saxons believe that he was of the race of their own Harold,
and the immemorial and ineradicable pi-ejudices against the invader and
usurper Avould come to liis assistance. The whole scheme illustrates the
sublime duplicity of the Cathayan character. The ' Prince of Peace ' —
Tai-ping-Wang — the ' Great Pacificating King ' — could do no less than
avail himself of the national superstition, and he therefore holds his fol-
lowers enthralled with a belief in his indispensable divinity, while on
the other hand he extorts their homage as the representative of the native
nationality. He has caught a glimpse, faint though it be, of the power
of the < outside barbarians ;' he is too shrewd not to appreciate it; he
feels that contact is strengthening the ideas of his own people, and that
282 APPENDIX.
their bleared and besotted vision is clearing to something higher; he
therefore boldly plunders the Christian of an improved idea of divine
relationship, flatters by Oriental policy, and frightens by practical per-
formance, and meets the coming shock of events as a hero and a re-
former.
" But the history of the revolution is nothing in itself. It is only as
an evidence that the lethargic spell of centuries has been broken that it
is important. Whether Ming or Mang-chu shall rule China, until the
spirit abroad in the out-of-door world shall reach her she is inert and
worthless. Already and naturally enough we find the rebel powers
eager to exceed the government in patriotic resistance to the Canton
aggression. Not, we presume, that Tai-ping-Wang has not sense enough
to see that the overthrow of the government forces would militate to his
own advantage by destroying the idea of invincible might in the impe-
rial rule, but that he also sees that the irrepressible sentiment of patri-
otism in the human breast would effect a general desertion from his cause
if he should appear lukewarm against a foreign foe.
" The eflfect of the recent proceedings at Canton is the one important
point to the rest of the world. The fate of the Chinese portion of the
continent of Asia trembles in the balance there. The indications that
Asia is to resume her ancient importance in the aff-iirs of the world may
hinge in no unimportant degree upon circumstances which have already
transpired in that quarter. The knowledge that the Government is not
invincible will cause its overthrow, in all probability, sooner or later.
Pressed upon the north by Russia, from the sea by her open enemies,
within convulsed by a resolute and popular rebellion, the redemption of
the Flowery Land may be lodged in the elements which constitute the
ruin of other nations. The events in Asia, everywhere, of the past few
years are pregnant with meaning.
" The present aspect of the world is eminently fitted to command the
attention even of men unaccustomed to reflect. If we look to the West
we see a mighty nation covered with the wreck of fortunes of all magni-
tudes. Numbers in every part of the land have been precipitated from
the summit of wealth into the depths of poverty. All ranks and con-
ditions of people, both in the Church and in the world, have been equally
affected by it. The root of pride has been torn up as if by a hurricane,
which could neither be resisted nor eschewel. Multitudes, nursed in
the lap of luxury, have, without preparation, and without warning,
been cast forth and thrown on the wide world ! Status on which so
APPENDIX. 283
many were wont to congratulate themselves, and which they were accus-
tomed to guard with sleepless jealousy, has been annihilated at a blow.
• Riches have made to themselves wings and lied, quickly followed by sun-
shine friendships. Like death, the panic has levelled all distinctions.
Property, whether inherited or earned by pei'sonal etfort, has perished.
Like the gourd of the prophet, the prospects of myriads withered in a
night. In many cases, the servant and the master have changed places.
They who were proud to lend are now fain to borrow to sustain life,
and help to begin the world again. The gains of many years, or a whole
lifetime, have been swept away with the besom of destruction !
" These events have a strong practical bearing; they show the vanity
of life, and the unsubst.mtial nature of all earthly gool. The expecta-
tions of multitudes of respectable families have been blasted as if b}-^ the
breath of Heaven ! Copartneries in business, and settlements for life,
have been, in the very act of formation, hopelessly deranged or set aside
for ever. Provisions liberally made for wives, and children, and dear
dependents, have been scattered to the winds ! In cases not a few, such
arrangements were scarcely completed, and the eyes of the affectionate
son, husband, or father, that made them closed in death, when the sound
of the approaching whirlwind Avas heard, and this terrible aggravation
of previous bereavement completed ! The luxury of benevolence which
consisted in attending to the neglected, and remembering the forgotten,
in acting as feet to the lame, as eyes to the blind, and making the heiirt
of the widow to sing with joy, has been summarily put an end to. In
many cases, former dispensers of f.ivors have now become humble sup-
pliants. The work of Christian charity has in many instances come to a
stand-still, and helpless age, during the last .stages of its journey, has
been deprived of its only prop. In a word, ruin in a multitude of cir-
cles has been paramount.
" If we look to the East, wc behold on a scale, both vast and awful,
the wreck of fortunes, accompanied with the blasting of prospects, and
the loss of life : all the destruction which has been realized in all the
oceans of our globe during the same pei-iod are as nothing compared with
the havoc of Hindoostan. India, always a region perilous to life, alike
from the climate and its diseases, has now become more so, to an extent
which it were impossible adequately to describe. The horrors of war
are but secondary to those of the barbarities which have just been perpe-
trated. They are altogether peculiar ; there is nothing that resembles
them connected with either war or pestilence. Even individual assassi-
284 APPENDIX.
nation, collective murder, and multiform massacre, present a compara-
tively winning aspect. It is difficult to say, whether the accompani-
ments tended to mitigate or to aggravate the misfortune. Collective is,
perhaps in some cases, preferable to individual destruction. Men and
Avomen, parents and children, have been cut down by the same blow,
sacrificed by the same hands at the altar of the Furies, while others per-
ished apart, but under conditions not less revolting. Death, under ordi-
nary circumstances, has ever been arrayed in beauty as compared with
the diabolical indignities, horrible beyond description, with which in
luany cases dissolution has been attended. Here the use of appropriate
language is interdicted to us; it may not be polluted with the ideas which
facts present. The soul shudders at the wery thought ! ' '
' ' It cannot be denied that public opinion anticipates extraordinary
events. European policy resembles a vase so full that the addition of a
single drop would cause it to run over; and the question now is whether
that drop will fall at once, or whether the equilibrium will be maintained
for some time longer. Without, however, on that account attaching too
great importance to the rumors of war, we may be convinced that they
are not altogether devoid of foundation. In the pi'esent situation of pub-
lic opinion the first important act which any Cabinet whatever may
undertake to cause its political maxims to prevail over those of another
cannot fail to become a cause of war. . . . If to these considerations
we add the hostility of Russia to Austria, the neutrality of England and
Prussia, and the agitated state of the East and of Italy, we see accumu-
lated such a quantity of inflammable elements that a simple spark may
occasion an immense conflagration. Does this spark exist, and does it
only await the hand to put it in contact with the combustible materials,
or is it not yet formed ? "
II. MAHOMEDANISM.
I have often taken occasion to notice the expiring of Mahomedanism in
Europe as the fulfilment of the ** drying up of the Euphrates." It is
striking to notice its steady evaporation from 1821 to this very year.
The A^'efv York Observer, a judicious, accui-ate, and able journal, thu3
wrote at the close of 1858 : —
APPENDIX. 285
♦' In various parts of the Turkish Empire, and in other countries
where the Mohamme<Jan religion has believers, the present is marked by
fearful outbreaks of fanaticism resulting in the massacre of Christians.
Last week we mentioned the Jeddah murders. Below we give minuter
particulars, of that and other scenes.
" From Bosnia. — A letter from the frontiers of Bosnia of the 8th of
July, states that another sanguinary collision had just taken place be-
tween the Christian population of Bosnia and the Turks. The conflict
had been caused by the tyrannical conduct of the fanatical Beys, who had
declared that they would sooner take up arras against the Sultan than
suffer any compromise to be ma^le with the Christians.
" From Candia. — Accounts from Athens state that a terrible reaction
of the Mussulmans against the Christians has taken place in Candia. A
young Greek of Canea killed a Turk. The body of the Mussulman was
conveyed to the mosque, and a general rising soon after took place. The
European consulates, as well as the Catholic churches, were insulted.
The French flag was fired on, and the hotel of the Turkish Admiral was
threatened unless the Greek was put to death. The Greek was strangled
by order of the Admii-al, and his body was given up to the populace,
and was dragged by them before the houses of the Consuls. The Chris-
tians are leaving Canea in crowds. The Turks at Retimo have devas-
tated the churches in that town, wounded several of the clergy, and
taken possession of the citadel, the artillery stationed in it taking part
■with the mob.
*• Disturbances have broken out in the province of Bagdad in conse-
quence of the recruiting of the army. In several villages the authorities
have been driven out. Omar Pasha has sent troops to restore order.
" Another account from Candia says : — Before every Consulate and
every Christian's house the crowd made a short stiy, hurling stones and
shouting, ' We, too, will show you that we can get what we want.' On
the morning of the 4th all the more wealthy Christian families were
seen leaving the town in whatever ships were at their disposal. The
Mohammedan population was still in arms, and in a fearful state of
excitement. If it be taken into account that the Christian peasantry in
the interior are likewise still in arras, it may be readily comprehendal
that we Imve not yet heai*d the last of these bloody events in Candia. ' '
" From Egypt. — Accounts from Alexandria of the 6th state, that a
considerable agitation against Europeans prevaile<l at Suez, and tliat it
had been found necessary to send troops tliere in order to prevent a
movement"
286 APPENDIX.
" The Massacre at Jeddah. — A correspondent of the London Times
adds the following particulars : — Her Majesty's steamer ' Cyclops,' lately
sent to the Red Sea by the British Government for the purpose of taking
a series of deep-water soundings, had been lying for about a week in the
harbor of Jeddah, whither she had conveyed, as passenger from Suez,
the English acting Consul and his French colleague. Nothing whatever
had occurred to show that the people of the place were animated with
any extraordinary sentiment of hostility towards the Christian inhabi-
tants. The officer of the steamer had made excursions in the vicinity of
the town, and never once met with the slightest molestation or even
insult; and even on the very evening of the outbreak several had been
walking about in the bazaars until near sunset, without the least appa-
rent symptom of the approaching storm. This was on the 15th ult. In
the evening a few persons — Greek residents in the town — came swim-
ming off to the ship, and stated that disturbances had arisen, and that
they feared a conspiracy had been entered into against the Christian
inhabitants. Everything, however, continued in appearance perfectly
quiet; not a shot nor a cry was heard, though the savage work had even
then already commenced; but the assassins had t;iken the precaution to
use cold steel alone. The English Consulate was the first point of attack,
and Mr. Page, the acting Consul must have fallen under the blows of a
crowd of ruffians, who followed up the murder by sacking the house and
tearing down the flag. The unfortunate man's body is said to have been
found literally hacked to pieces.
" Maddened with excitement the mob appears next to have poured
down upon the house of the French Consul, M. Eveillard. Here, how-
ever, the Kaimakam, or governor of the town, made some feeble attempt
to interpose; the force at his disposal amounted to only eighty men, and
whatever efforts they may have iised, they did not succeed in saving the
life of either the Consul or his wife. Both were murdered, and their
daughter alone — a young lady, who, though under twenty years of age,
appears to have possessed the spirit of a heroine — was rescued from the
hands of the assassins, and, covered with an Arab cloak, she was carried
to the house of the Kaimakam. Her face was laid open with a gash from
a sabre-cut across the cheek, but before being dragged forth she had
avenged the murder of her father by the death of the assassin.
" Early on the following morning Captain Pullen, still ignorant of
what had occurred, sent two boats- ashore. When they neared the inner
reefs Turkish soldiers were observed warning them off ; they con-
APPENDIX. 287
tinued, however, to advance until they found themselves surrounded by
a crowd of about 600 men, who from the outjutting reefs poured a shower
of stones upon the boats. The crews were fortunately armed, and soon
forced their way back to the ship, not, however, without having been
compelled to pour a volley of musketry into their assailants.
" The crew of the steamer entreated their officers to be allowed to take
vengeance upon the city, if not by laying the place in ashes, at least by
being permitted to land, even though at the risk of finding themselves,
at most 200 men, opposed to a population of 10,000; but the Kaiuiakam
sent repeated messages beseeching Capt. Pullen to desist from all inter-
ference, warning him that his own house was surrounded by infuriated
fanatics clamoring for tlie surrender of the Christians who they knew
had obtained refuge in the house, and declaring that were a single gun
fired, or one armed man landed from the ship, not only the lives of the
refugees, but also his own, would, to a certainty, be sacrificed. This
oflBcer can doubtless not have yielded without a struggle, and no other
argument would probably have saved the city from its well merited
doom. Even though it be granted that only a portion of the inhabitants
were actually engaged in the massacre, none had a claim for pity where
all had stood calmly by without stretching forth a finger to protect a
handful of inoQ^ensive men and women who lived among them relying
upon their hospitality. Neither need the argument of the sanctity of tlie
Turkish flag have had any weight with the crew of a British vessel of
war. That flag had failed to extend to their fellow-Christians the pro-
tection upon which they had relied, and might well have been utterly
disregarded.
" On the 20th Naamik Pasha arrived with his troops, and some sem-
blance of order was restored. Miss Eveillard and other rescued Euro-
peans were transferred on board the ' Cyclops.' In spite of the opposi-
tion at first made by the Pasha, the crew and marines were afterwards
landed with the British and French colors, and, escorted by a body of
Turkish infantry, they were led to the newly-made grave, over which
the funeral service was read, and the English and French flags were
rchoisted under a salute of twenty-one guns. On the 24th the ' Cyclops '
sailed for Suez, where she arrived on the 3d inst., bringing home twenty-
four refugees. The number murdered at Jeddah was twenty-one, and
at the present moment not a Christian remains in the place.
" Naamik Pasha has some 200 or 300 of the ringleaders in custody;
but, \mder the plea of not having the power of life and death, he refers
288 APPENLIX.
to Constantinople. This is a repetition of the old routine — depositions
are taken, references made backwards and forwards, while months elapse,
and gradually the whole thing is forgotten or overlooked by all excepting
the actors, until the world is again startled by a fresh outbreak, casting
former ones in the shade. Thus, upwards of three years ago, an officer
f)f the British Land Transport Corps on service at Marash, on the confines
of Anatolia and Syria, was, together with his family, assassinated in open
day, and his house burnt down over their heads. Up to this time noth-
ing has been heard of any punishment having been dealt out to their
murderers. More lately, again, the ruffians who at Jaffa broke into the
house of an American missionary and murdered him and his family,
with the accompaniment of every imaginable atrocity, have, by the same
means which the Turkish authorities will bring into play in connection
with the affair at Jeddah, been exempted fi-om the signal punishment
which they ought long ago to have undergone, but for which, now,
perhaps, no one thinks it worth while to press, because all feel that the
time has gone by when its infliction might have afforded a warning and
an example.
" What do these outbreaks mean ? — It is very evident that the spirit
of ffxnaticism is rampant throughout the Mahommedan population. We
do not doubt that the Turkish government will do all in its power to
restrain and subdue it, but the government is weak, and in the ex-
tremities of the empire is powerless. The London religious papers look
upon these events as the beginning of the end. The Christian Times
says : —
" ' The massacre of the Christian population at Jeddah, by the infu
riate Mussulmans, has excited great indignation this week, and attracted
attention, not only as an awful fact, but as a symptom of a spread-
ing danger. For a long time past the Christian population of Syria have
been under the apprehension of suffering from the surrounding Mahom-
medans the treatment the English have undergone in India; secret agents
are exciting the Mussulmans, and even at Cairo the destruction of Chris-
tians is preached. This, together with the affair at Montenegro, and the
agitation in Candia, are the thi-eatening symptoms of a malady difficult
to heal — incurable fanaticism. It will doubtless greatly influence the
Conferences now meeting in Paris. Is the Sultan to lead his people, or
is he to be chained to the past ? Whether the stern revenge which prob-
ably the British and French Governments will think it proper to take on
the people of Jeddah, and their fii^m support of the Sultan's liberal plans,
APPENDIX. • 289
will induce the Mussulmans under his sway to submit to progress and
liberality, it is hard to foresee. Progress and liberality are too often
watered with the best blood of the countries in which they eventually
flourish.' "
" It is useless to bring public opinion to bear on such people. The
only reasonable method of proceeding would be to give them notice to quit.
The Turks, now as of yoi-e, are simply encamped in Europe. Nothing
would be easier for them than to decamp. That they must do so sooner or
later is certain. They are absolutely and hopelessly effete. It appears even
to be true that, by a natural process, they are disappearing from the face
of the earth. Every year more Turks die than are born throughout the
East. In a given time they will dwindle to so manifest a minority, that
their subject races will take heart, turn upon and destroy them. For
we must not suppose that they will be allowed gradually to die out, nor
picture to ourselves the last Turk, with a venerable white beard, taking
his departure for the depths of Central Asia, whence his ancestors ori-
ginally came. When the opportunity presents itself, unless a prudent
retreat is made by them in time, the episodes of the Janissaries and the
Mamlooks will be repeated on a grand scale. They have themselves set
the example, and proclaimed that the only thing that can be done with
obstructives is to destroy them.
" If Europe has its duties towards Turkey, Turkey has its duties
towards Europe. If Europe owes protection to the Ottoman empire, that
empire owes consideration to the peace of Europe. Either the Turks are
competent to maintain their own rights or they are not. If they are,
the whole of this discussion is eminently gratuitous, and Admiral Dundas
may as well bring the fleet home from Besika Bay. If they are not they
must rely on the succor of others, and it is as clear as reason can make
it that this succor must be accepted, not on their own terms, but on the
terms of those who lend it. The Porte cannot pretend to combine the
advantages of independence and protection. If it goes to war on its own
decision and its own responsibility, it may commence hostilities at dis-
cretion; but if it goes to war with British ships and French soldiers, it
can have no right to wrest the initiative from the hands of England and
France. The Four Powers have publicly acknowledged their desire and
their obligation to protect the independence of Turkey, but it is per-
fectly preposterous to demand that, when the object can be attained, by
pacific negotiations, they should select, in preference, the process of a
13
290 * APPENDIX.
war, wliicli •would infallibly be terrible for humanity, and might possibly
be ruinous to themselves. Such a policy would be destructive even to
the very empire under protection. What would be the results of a gen-
eral war no living being could venture to conjecture ; but, if there is any
one point certahi it is this — that at its close there would be no Turkey
in Europe.
" But the policy of the Conference, it is said, is unsatisfactory to the
State aggrieved, and unduly deferential to the State in fault. There is no
wrong on the side of Turkey, and there is all the wrong on the side of
Russia. To decide that Rusi^a should be requested to evacuate at her con-
venience a territor'y which she had nefariously invaded, and thatTuitey
should be recommended to consider a cessation of the outrage as redress
and compensation in full, is to arrange terms of very little equity between
parties thus situated. It may be so, but the result is due to the vei-y
nature of the problem before the world. To ' maintain the integrity of
the Ottoman empire,' in the sense sometimes attributed to the phrase,
can never be a political duty, for the simple reason that it is a political
impossibility. Europe has been ' maiutaining ' this fabric for nearly a
century, and how has it been maintained ? Half its dominions have
been lost. Algiers, Egypt, Greece, the xlrchipelago, and Bessarabia
WM-e once portions of the ' Ottoman empire;' — to what governments do
they pertain now? What 'justice ' did Turkey receive at the hands of
Europe when the Porte was excluded from the provisions of 1815 ? —
when the Greek insurgents were protected by the cannon of the allies
against their legitimate master ? — when the Sultan was compelled by the
Five Powers not only to pardon a rebellious vassal, who had threatened
the very throne of Othman, but to confirm this rebel in the hereditary
possession of his pashalic ? In every instance of intervention which has
occurred since the decline of the Turkish empire the interposing States
have enforced conclusions theoretically irreconcilable with the rights of
an independent monarchy. Nor could it possibly be otherwise. The
plala truth is, that a dominion so unwieldly, ruinous, and unnatural,
could not really be ' maintained in its integrity,' nor can all the Powers
of Eui'ope do more than mitigate the successive symptoms of decay, and
avert by prudent concert the consequences of a violent catastrophe."
APPENDIX. 291
HI. RUSSIA.
In these Lectures and in others I have expressed an op'nion deduced
from the page of prophecy, that Russia is destined to advance Eastward,
and end her history amid signal and consuming judgments in Palestine.
Ezekiel xxxviii. and xxxix. are her history.
The following extracts are in some degree confirmatory of this polarity
of Russia : —
" The Muscovite /erusaZem.— -According to the C/'nu-ers, there exists
not far from Moscow a place rejoicing in the euphonious title of ' Vos-
kreseenskoe. ' The interpretation of this outlandish term is ' The New
Jerusalem;' in other words, it is a counterfeit of the Holy City. One of
its chief places of attraction is a mock tomb, called the Saviour's Sepul-
chre, to which crowds of ' the pious ' continually flock for the purpose of
offering prayers for the deliverance of the real tomb. They are taught
also to supplicate Heaven for the extermination of those who guard the
' holy places,' and to invoke a like curse upon such as have betrayed the
Christian cause by becoming their allies.
' It appears that this imaginary Jerusalem consists of a vast temple,
the site of which corresponds with that of Palestine, save in the absence
of a bright sky and a glowing sun. The reseml)lance in the natural
position is rendered perfect by immense artificial works, so as to remove
the illusion almost beyond the power of discovery. On one side of the
structure is a brook, upon the banks of which are inscriptions announ-
cing that the pilgrim has reached Kedron, while on the other side is an
eminence called the Mount of Olives; then on passing a spacious crenel-
lated enclosure, the beholder sees before him a grand edifice, in imita-
tion of the one erected over the Holy Sepulchre, having an immense
cupola, and all the accessories belonging to its famous prototype. TIic
effect is said to be quite bewildering. This impression increases after
having penetrated into the interior, where all the details of the true tem-
ple are minutely copied, where the sanctums, tlie altars, the tombs — in
all their dimensions — and where the paintings and the ornaments arc all
of the same kind as those at Jerusalem. In the inner sanctuary, too,
there are the seven lamps kept continually burning, and so complete is
the deception that there is an equal degree of emotion excited among tlie
ignorant peasantry as in the sacred grotto itself Such is the Musco-
292 APPENDIX.
vite Jerusalem. The invention of tliis extraordinary sham is attributed
to Alexis, father of Peter the Great.
" And now as to the motive for so strange a creation. Among the
objects found upon the wounded Russians at Inkerman was a Slavonic
book, well besmeared and smoke-scented, and purporting to be a guide
to the above-mentioned fabric. This work discloses a secret which the
ingenuity of western speculators has failed to worm out. It shows that
the Czars have had another pole of attraction besides Constantinople;
they have fixed their greedy gaze upon the fallen city of the Hebrew.
In order to gain possession of the Ottoman capital, they have appealed
to the cupidity of their subjects ; they have pointed to the sunny south
as their heritage; they have depicted it as the ' land of milk and honey,'
which they are destined to seize and inherit. But their day-dreams have
not been content with so rich an inheritance as that. They have also
aspired to plant their eagles upon the hill of Zion, to see their vultures
hovering with outstretched wings over the desecrated fane of Salem. To
realise this grand vision, not only have they operated upon the baser
passions of their people; not only have they fed their lust for conquest
and plunder, but endeavored to excite their fanaticism, to awaken their
rehgous enthusiasm. In short, they have preached a new crusade.
* The empire of the Koran must be destroyed,' say the Czars. 'The
profaned and desecrated lands of the East, once hallowed by the tread of
angels and blessed with the presence of Divinity, must be recovered, and
the broad highway to this sacred prize is through the fertile pi'ovinces of
tlie Turk. Constantinople is the gate to Jerusalem. '
" As a remembrance of this high destiny the Czars have erected in the
heart of their empire a structure modeled upon the oft- visited church of
the Nativity. They have styled it ' Voskreseenskoe,' or ' the New Jeru-
salem.' Thousands of pilgrims visit its shrine every year, and they are
encouraged to perform that ' holy act ' as a means of impressing strongly
upon their minds the thought of Jerusalem itself— that • future capital of
the Orient' The Muscovite rulers teach their subjects that the deliver-
ance of the Desolate City must not remain unaccomplished. That is to
be the supreme end of all their fond hopes, an 1 toward its attainment no
species of cunning is left unemployed." — {Illust. JVews.)
" The invasion of the Holy Places at Jerusalem by Russian schismatics
is going on every day with singular rapidity. We mentioned a short
time since with what solemnity the Russian church was sending preach-
ers into Palestine, but we have now to state something still more impor-
APPENDIX. 293
tant. The Russian Government has conceived the idea of founding seven
new establishments in the holy countries for its clergy and its pilgrims.
It is about to erect at Jerusalem a bishop's residence, a church, a consu-
late and two hospitals. Two other hospitals will be founded at Jaffa
and Bethlehem, The Czar has also, it is said, taken other measures to
strengthen his influence in the Holy Land. Such facts, accomphshed
under our very eyes, are of a nature to excite the solicitude and zeal of
Roman Catholic France." — {Union, 1858.)
" Extract from a Sermon on the Cause of the War^ by Rev. Wm.
Schauffl,er, for many years a Missionary of the A. B. C. F. M. in
Turkey. — But all this does not bring us a clear and true result in our
inquiry, which is necessarily and naturally, what is the character of the
cause ? What are these thousands and scores of thousands fighting for ?
Ask the people in Russia. Thei-e is no man or woman, in Russia I mean,
who is not familiar with the Emperor's design to seize Turkey, and reside
in Constantinople. The more intelligent understand the further bear-
ings; which are, Russia will rule the Mediterranean, and be a mistress
in Europe. This they consider the divine destiny and mission of their
nationality. The priests see still farther. The means, pretty successfully
employed in Russia, to draw in by fraud and keep in by force, the mem-
bers of religious communities, will be carried all over the Old World.
Protestjint missions will be crushed, Bible and Tract Societies crippled by
laws and I'estrictions, and the Russian priests live in their millennial glory.
Of these plans, which are perfectly transparent to every reasonable man
in Russia, European Governments have comprehended at least the political
part. Few see the ecclesiastical and religious, which, however, to us is
the burden of the inquiry. To carry oat these plans immense fortresses
and navies are built, unlooked-for interferences attempted, revolutions
kindled among the subjects of this country ; false pretences spread before
the world, war commenced in time of peace. Is all this right ? No ! No !
Has Europe a right to resist it ? Not a right only, but both right and
duty — more still — a necessity."
" A certain authority is attached by foreign politicians to the state-
ments of the Morning Post, on account of its real or supposed connec-
tion with Lord Palraei-ston. We mention this, because that journal
brings to-day a charge of a very grave character against the Russian
Government — nothing more nor less, in fact, than that the discontent of
our Indian troops, which has now broken out into mutiny, is the work of
294 APPENDIX.
Russian agents, instructed and paid directly by the Foreign-OflSce at St.
Petersburg. ' There is abundant evidence,' says the Post, ' both in Fort
William and Leadenhall-street, of the proceedings of these Muscovites,
and we should not be at all surprised if some of the Oude nobles and
functionaries, and some of the Brahmins, were under-agents in the pay
of the paramount and superior practitioners who were immediately in-
structed by the Russian Chancery.' "
*' During the first moments of a great public calamity there is such
indecent haste in the public mind to throw blame upon somebody that
people are not very discriminating whom they select. The rule of the
East India Company is, we all know, not perfection. But it by no means
follows that the cause of this revolt is to be traced to any defects in the
present system of government. It seems at least probable that the
Sepoys, urged on by infamous Russian agents, intent only upon embar-
rassing British rule, have been led to believe that they could easily make
themselves masters of the country, and thus relieve themselves from all
duty and discipline. The JSTord may sneer as it will at The Daily Tel-
egraph for holding these opinions — borrowed, as it says, from the Morn-
ing Post and Times ; but, if I mistake not, they will meet with pretty
general acceptance in England, and will not be held to be very wide of
the truth even on the Continent." — {Daily Telegraph.)
"The prevailing passion of the Russian nation," says the historian
Alison, "is the love of conquest; and this ardent desire is the unseen
spring which impels their accumulated force in ceaseless advance over all
the adjoining States. Domestic grievances, how great soever, are over-
looked in the thirst for foreign aggrandisement. In the conquest of the
world the people hope to find a compensation, and more than a com-
pensation, for all the evils of their interior administration. Every
Russian is inspired with the conviction that his country is one day to
sonquer the world ; and the universal belief of this result is one of the
shief causes of the rapid strides which Russia of late years has made
towards its realisation. The meanest peasant in Russia is impressed with
the belief that his country is destined to subdue the world."
" The leading journal lately remarked in reference to the speculations
afloat as to whether the sleepless agency of Russia was at work in Persia,
China, and India — ' that it would be a much more pertinent inquiry
APPENDIX. 295
whether the same agency was not in full activity in this country,' That
there is need for such inquiry we need only point to the fact, that never
at any former period were so many orders from Russia and its Govern-
ment in the hands of our engineers, shipbuilders and founders. All the
material to be thus supplied is either intended avowedly for the purposes
of war, or can be made available in the hands of our late enemy for such.
It is thus to be feared thaft the occurrence of a fresh misunderstanding,
or the outbreak of a new quarrel, about the ' sick man's ' professions,
will find Russia prepared to encounter, it may be, a ' world in arms.'
It is painful to think that the munitions of war on which she will then
rely for vindicating the quarrel which she will only be too eager to pro-
voke, have been forged in the workshops of Great Britain. It may be
contrary to sound maxims of peace polity to interfere in this matter; but
it is easy to fancy the surprise — not unmixed with regret — Avhich our
brave soldiers and sailors will feel, when they discover that the guns of
the battery which they have at the expense of so much blood succeeded
in silencing, were fabricated by the hands of their own admu'ing coun-
trymen ! Verily Russian agency is at work, and that at our own
doors."
IV. ROME.
I have also frequently referred to the rapid decadence of Romanism,
and the probable approach of her final judgments. Let anybody take
up the Roman correspondence of a daily paper, and he will be struck at
the rapidity with which events rush to a crisis. The Times^ corres-
pondent thus writes very lately : —
'* At Rome, as I have shown in former letters, things are not so bad
as this, but there are plenty of other grounds of complaint. The Romans,
however, no longer condescend to details — they have long since made
out their case to their own satisfxction and to that of all impartial per-
sons who have taken the trouble to investigate and consider it. They
comprise all their grievances under one head — that of clerical govern-
ment. They regard it, and justly, as the source of all their suSerings,
and the one great bar to the progress and improvement of their coun-
296 APPENDIX.
try. To it they trace every evil they endure. It is against the rule
of the priests that they have repeatedly risen in insurrection, that
they continually tacitly protest, and that they constantly threaten a
revolution, prevented only by Swiss mercenaries and foreign gai-risons.
It is not against the Pope personally that their dislike is directed ; the
question can hardly be said to be that of his temporal sovereignty, still
less that of his spiritual authority. I am far from saying that he is either
loved or respected in his dominions. His weak and vascillating character
is not calculated to command the latter feeling. When there was lately a
talk (founded, I believe, in part, on a steam-corvette having beenordei-ed
in England) of his making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the wish was pretty
generally expressed that he might never return to Piome or have a suc-
cessor there. But he is, in fact, too insignificant a political character to
be the object of yqvj bitter hatred. With a secular Government, a lay
Administration, he might be a fair enough Prince Regnent as times go.
So feeble a character Avould probably always be more or less under the
sway of his Prime Minister. What the Romans desire is to replace
Cardinal Antonelli (the present real ruler of the Pontifical States), his
clerical colleagues, and the whole battalion of official priests and prelates,
by laymen. If it be laid down that a priest-sovereign can govern only
by clerical Ministers, then there can be no doubt what the Romans would
demand. Their cry would be, ' Down with Pope, Cardinals, Priests and
Prelates ! ' The knotty question , which has never yet , I think, been frankly
answered, is, whether the Papacy be incompatible with the civil institu-
tions of the 19th century ? The Romans ask why, if it be not thus incom-
patible, the suggestions contained in Louis Napoleon's well-known letter
to Edgar Ney be not adopted ? They ask for secularisation. They do
not see why the Pontifl> — a temporal as well as a spiritual potentate —
should restrict his choice of Ministers and public functionaries to a hand-
ful of ecclesiastics, to the exclusion of his 3,0:J0,000 of lay subjects.
t^ome of the upholders of the present s^-stem have asserted that the Roman
J relates are laymen. It is certainly not necessary to have taken priest's
orders to be a prelate or even a cardinal; but it is idle to say that the
peculiar class which in the Roman hierarchy are styled prelates do not
form part of the ecclesiastical caste, sharing its interests, ideas, and pre-
judices. If it be maintained, as I have somewhere seen it done, that
they are the pick of the laity, specially adapted to administrative func-
tions, it is easy to overthrow this assertion by notorious facts. The edu-
cation of the prelates and the restrictions imposed upon them tend, on
APPENDIX. 297
the contrary, to incapacitate tliem for rulers aul administrators. Tlie
chief studies of young men destined to the prelacy are theology and
canonical science. By the Canon Law they are forbid len to exerelso any
trade, to be bankers, manufacturers, or merchants. This cm hardly be
considered a good means of qualifying them to become Ministers of Fi-
nance, Commerce, Public Works, or administrators of towns or prov-
inces. Of medical science th'^y are forbidden to know anything; they
are not even permitted to be present at a sui'gical operation. Nevertheless,
all the civil hospitals in the Roman Stat'?s are under the direction of pre-
lates; the care of the public health and sanitary establishments of all
kinds are exclusively confided to them. They are forbidden to serve in
the army, and it is therefore not to be wondered at if they have always
displayed singular talent as military organizers, and if ' Soldat du Pape'
has become a byword of derision in European armies. Celibacy is strictly
imposed upon them, as the most indispensable conlition of their remain-
ing members of the ecclesiastical caste. Tii3 ablest, the most dis-
tinguishe I prelate, if he marries, ceases to be one, and is held no longer
fit to share in the government of the country. It is hardly necessary to
point out the effect of this last strictly-enforced condition. To say noth-
ing of its leading to vice, even of the most shameless kind, it precludes
those ties which most strongly attach men to their country. With regard
to this point one of the most zealous supporters of the present Roinan
system defined, in few words, as follows, the argumeats presented by
the opponents of ecclesiastical government : — ' The priest, destined to
defend the interests of Heaven, knows nothing of those of the earth; having
no family, the prosperity of the country is of little importance to him;
separated from society, he cannot know its true wants; with him the
esprit de corps overrules the spirit of nationality.' The late M. de
llayneval stated these arguments with the intention of refuting them, a
piirpuse in which it is generally acknowledged that he signally filled.
" It will not be allegeil, even by the bigoted, that tliero are not among
Ihosc who profess the Catholic faith, and are sincerely attiche 1 to it,
both in Italy and elsewhere, men of enlightened, honorable, liberal, and
tolerant minds. Many of these have always desirel, an 1 they still desire
more earnestly than ever, and in the interest of the filth to whicli they
belong, tliat the Papacy should be disembarrassel of the onerous burden
which temporal power imposes on it, and they are convinced that if it
were so disengaged it would be much more respected and more inde-
pendent.
13
298 APPENDIX.
" That opinion is, I find, making some way even among ecclestastica.
It is perhaps a bold opinion for a priest to advocate publicly ; one, how-
ever, has been found to do so. A French ecclesiastic, the Abbe J. H.
Michon, has just published a pamphlet of 62 pages ou the subject, enti-
tled La Papaute a Jerusalem, and he supports the proposition implied
in that title with much good reasoning, and at the same time with the
greatest respect for the Holy See. He thinks that the influence of mod-
ern ideas having produced no eiiect on the Roman administration, the
progressive element of the nation has become a formidable enemy to the
stationary element of the Pontifical Government; that the old machine
may, it is true, go on well or ill, so long as it is aided by foreign diplo-
macy or foreign occupation; but that the moment these are withdrawn
the Papacy will be exposed, helpless, to revolution, and that the danger
is imminent. The solution of that dilficult question is not to be found,
the Abbe Michon thinks, in political, administrative, or civil reform, nor
in the secularization of power, which would encounter innumerable ob-
stacles in the clerical organization and the prejudices which control the
Papacy. It is to be found only in the abdication of temporal power.
He is not of opinion, that in such a case, the capital of what may be
termei the Spiritual Papacy could be Rome. It would lose in dignity,
and would still suffer from political complications. He believes that
there is but one city, which out of Italy, and indeed oat of Europe, pre-
sents conditions indispensable to its independence and grandeur, and
where a new era for the mission of a true apostle would open, and that city
is Jerusalem. The Abbe is aware that the project would not be ovei-pleas-
ing to the political world of Rome, who would not willingly exchange a
grand and splendid seat for the lowly but hallowed residence of Jerusa-
lem, though he assures us that the plan has gained the acquiescence of
several political personages in Europe. At Jerusalem the Pope would
cease to be a foreign Sovereign, and would become, what he was in the
commencement, the spiritual and inviolable head of Catholicity. There
no Government could exercise an undue influence over his acts. As the
Sultan is now protected by the whole of the Powers for the benefit of
Europe at large, so, but in a still greater measure, would the indepen-
dence of the Pope be guaranteed by all Catholic countries, while the
prestige his spiritual authority would gain by its exercise in the Holy
City, where the stupendous events on which Christianity itself reposes
were accomplished, is incalculable. In its material interests the Papacy
would be better off than it is at present; its resources would be multi-
APPENDIX. 299
plied, as tliere is not a Catholic Power that would hesitate to contribute
to them. Rome would receive from Spain not less than 3,000,000 francs
annually; and, as a purely spiritual power, the Pope would *.e spared the
expense of a political status. The Abbe Michon concludes as follows ; —
* May Rome not refuse to recognize before it be too late who are her true
friends; may she distinguish between those impetuous and indiscreet
writers who urge her to extre;ne measures in order to exercise dominion
over her, and to make use of her, and the modest and moderate men
who have undc^rtaken the ungrateful task of saying what they believe to
be the truth,and who Avould blush to have recourse, even to please her, to
a system of adulation which is an insult to the holy cause they defend.'
. . . The chief feature in the social state of Rome is decidedly an
abhorrence of Papal government, and, possibly, it might be added, an
increasing indifference to religion. Of the Litter point, however, I can-
not speak with certainty ; only I do know that t'ae day before yesterday
(the Feast of the Annunciation), when the Pope performed mass in the
church of Santa Maria del Popolo, there were not above 209 persons in
the building, besides officials, and very few in the streets to see the dis-
play of military and state carriages, and receive his Holiness's blessing
as he passed. I am told, indeed, that it is not unusual for the people of
Pwome to run up side streets or into houses as they see the Pope's carriage
coming along, in order that they may not be obliged to do him rever-
ence.' This, surely, is a sad falling oif from the days when a G/egory,
an Innocent, a Julius, or a Leo thundered forth his decrees from the
Vatican as * the servant of the servants,' and yet tlie Omnipotent Lord
here below !
" In England we find tlie Papil system modified according to the exi-
gencies of an heretical land and an unbelieving race. Would you know
what that system is in its full development, go to Rome. You will not
at fii'st be conscious of the horrors with which you are surrounded. A
certain season must be given to day dreams in the Forum and to night
dreams in the Coliseum. The artist's enthusiasm must be allowed to
satiate itself on the marvellous marbles which ancient art has bequeathed
to us, and among those wonderful pictures which seem to prescribe the
limits of tlie painter's skill. There comes a time, however, when the
feeling for these things passes by. Man was not sent into tlic world to
dream away Ufe among ruins, nor to practice dilettantism in any of its
alluring forms. Mix, thon, gradually — but with exceeding caution —
with the Italians wlio inhabit this lioly town, and learn from them the
meaning of their lives. You will doubtless meet with exaggeration
300 APPENDIX.
enough — possibly with falsehood, — but on the whole there will be such a
concurrence of testimony in proof of the unutterable turpitude and atro-
cious tyranny of the Papal Government that no indifferent person could
refuse acquiescence in the testimony produced. But, if words will not
convince your mind, look around you ! What you see — th it scene of
ruin and desolation — that hotbed of fever, with its stenches and mia,smas,
was once the capital of the world. When heathens held it, and the
high-priest, with the silent virgin by his side, ascended the Capitol in
honor of Jupiter, Rome was supreme among the nations. In the hands
of ( hristians, and when the self-styled Prince of the Faithful on each
returning Easter-day ascends the balcony of St. Peter's to bless the Holy
City, what has not Rome become ! If it be the case, as all history ap-
pears to suggest, that nations and kingdoms, even as men do, perish and
decay from the effect of their own vices and corniptions, surely the sen-
tence of condemnation has been branded deeply enough upon the brow
of Pontifical Rome. But the ruin, and the sickness, and the poverty,
and the desolation above ground are as nothing compared with what
passes in the interior of those Roman houses and in the dungeons, the
dark scci'ets of which are but occasionally revealed by the few prisoners
who ever escape from their chains to tell the tale. "We have not space
nor time just now to enter upon the subject, but it has been well ascer-
tained that within the last few years horrors have been enacted in the
Roman prisons for which parallels must be sought in the dungeons of the
Spanish Inquisition when that tribunal was at its woret. But the phys-
ical torture — no! nor the imprisonment of hundreds and thousands of
innocent men — is not all. Worse, for worse, than this is the unutterable
moral pollution which overflows upon every wretched cottage and mis-
erable lodging in this Papal land. Get some Roman who has accorded
you his tardy confidence to sit by your side under an old archway, wlien
the hot air and bright sun of Central Italy drive you to some cool shelter,
and there hear what he has to say of the doings of yonder sablc-stoled
priests, who sweep past you in silence and in gloom. Hear his story of
what priests do at Rome, where they are omnipotent, and you will sao
reasons to be thankful that your lot was not cast among the pollutions to
which every Roman born is subject — ^he and his famil3^ Civis Roma-
nus sutn ! How pathetic a complaint do the words now imply ; how
much misery is involved in that brief phrase !
" We, of coui-se, can only concern ourselves with the story of modern
Rome as a political question. The Pope of Rome to us is but a temporal
APPENDIX. 301
Priuce, who grievously oppresses his miserable subjects, and whoso mis-
deeds are likely to hurry on that explosion in Central Italy which sooner
or later must come. The French garrison has been reduced, and the
Pope, in a fright, has sent off for another Swiss regiment to guard him
from the consequences of the too enthusiastic loyalty of his subjects.
The police espionage of Rome has been screwed up to the level of that
of Naples. The project for withdrawing the paper currency has proved
a failure. Every obstacle is thrown in the way of those who would
carry out the projected railroads; for the Cardinals have come to the
conclusion that the instant their wretched sein's begin to travel and mix
with their fellow-creatures there is an end of their dominion. Only
think of what the condition of that population must be, which may
become too enlightened by contact with the lazzaroni of Naples! He
would be a bold man who should venture to predict with absolute cer-
tainty the moment when that power which has held the human race in
thraldom for so many centuries shall fall to rise no more; but certainly
the foundations of the Papacy, as a temporal power, appear sadly shaken
just now. Were the French garrison withdrawn to-morrow, the next
day Pio Nono might reckon himself fortunate if he escaped the ven-
geance of his subjects in the most cunning disguise which the craft of
V. EARTHQUAKES. >,
I have alluded to our Lord's prediction of earthquakes as premonitory
of the eve of this dispensation. I have observed that, within the last
ten years, more earthquakes have occurred than in the pceyious ccntiiry.
I instance one, and add to it the remarkable article in the Times : —
•' A letter from Naples of the 18th inst., gives the following fuller
particulars of the shocks of this frightful earthquake : —
/ Naples has just been visited by several shocks of earthquakes. No
great damage occurred in Naples, as the buildings are strong, but no
doubt the fright and the night air will cause many of the sick who v.i-rc
brought out in the slight covering of night, to die of cold. The follow-
302 APPENDIX.
ing is the news which reached us last night from surrounding parts : —
[n Sala there have been some shocks. lu Atene half the houses have
fallen down. In Padula more than a hundred houses have fallen, and
many lives lost. In Polla the disaster is great, and among the many
victims the whole of the brigade of gendarmes. In Auletta, Petrosa,
and Caggiono, the deaths and destruction of property are great. In Sa-
lerno many edifices are rent in and out ; two churches and the barracks
severely injured. A despatch from the intendente of Banlicata has just
reached, stating that in Potenza the earthquake was most sevei-e, and
das caused much damage : many buildings hiive fallen, burying a great
many families. From Bari the telegram is incomplete, merely stating,
*The inhabitants in great numbers have .' Vesuvius is now in
full activity, but for some days previous to the earthquake no fire issued
from the crater. Whenever the mountain emits fire or lava we feel
quite safe, and you may well suppose how gratifying is the pre-ent ap-
pearance of our safety-valve. Whatever accounts you may read of the
state of this city at the time of the shocks, it will fill short of the reality.
Women were seen carying their children — men helping some old father
or mother, or some sick person wrapped up in the first covering avail-
able. W^omen screaming, tearing their hair, praying and calling on
their patron saint and the Madonna Immaculata, all passing frantically
in densely-crowded streets. The King, on hearing of these disasters,
ordered the public functionaries not to spare anything in the shape of
assistance. His Majesty directed the intendant to proceed to the scene
of the catastrophe, and authorised him to make use of the communal and
provincial funds to aid the sufferers.
" A shock of earthquake was felt in the night of the 18th in the val-
ley and on the mountains near Libenzall (Wurtemburg), as well as in
that town itself. The oscillation appeared to be from north to south.
The vibration was so strong that many of the houses were felt to
tremble, and the windows rattled.
" The occurrence of an earthquake in Europe, were it even slight in
character and partial in its effect, would be a phenomenon well worthy of
notice amid our political difficulties and commercial embarrassments.
y^'e are so accustomed in these temperate regions to the I'egular play of
those great laws of nature which are in accordance with human security,
that when we hear that for many thousands of our fellow-creatures Cm
Dies ir(B — such as Dante would have conceived it — has dawned without
warning, we cannot but pause amid the usual routine of life, and mark
APPENDIX. 303
tlie instability of our own position. The sun rises and sets, day follows
uightj (:o-i:lay is as ycsteixlay. and !o-morrow will be the same; our own
calculations are made, and we assuoie that all will go on as usual while
we ai-e playing out the parts assigned to us upon this world's stage.
The thought that the stage itself is undermined, that the slightest
change in the chymical elements beneath our feet would hurry us all off
to a swift destruction, and that our normal condition is that of men sep-
arated but by a hair's breadth from a catastrophe which would sweep away
this earth and all things on it like a parched scroll, is not one which
frequently presses itself upon the consideration of the digging, spinning,
scheming I'Jth century. Let us admit that, according to all observed
phenomena, the British islands would appear to be tolerably safe from
the consequences of volcanic action, and tiiat as yet there are no signs
abroad to suggest the conclusion that the sequence of human beings upon
this planet is at an end. We may be caught, and we have been caught
in other ways. The blight of a single esculent root has swept away mil-
lions of our fellow-countrymen within the last few years, and in a
manner infinitely more terrible than that in which many thousands of
the Neapolitan population have just been destroyed. The incidence of
such calamities is not confined to any particular quarter of the globe.
They fall within the tropics in one form, upon the temperate zones in
another, and even amid the long-continued gloom of the Polar winters
the poor Esquimaux are periodical!}'' cleared off into eternity by villages
and tribes. In reading, then, this account of the earthquake which has
just torn up the soil of the kingdom of Naples, Ave should not think that
the dealings of Provi'lence with human beings are unequal or unjust,
nor lull ourselves into false security, as though the Neapolitan peasants
were exposed to sufferings from the equivalent of which the luxurious
Londoner is free. In the year which has just expired we have had our
Indian mutiny and our commercial crisis, as they have had their earth-
quake and their own especial forms of calamity.
" The catastrophe of the South of Italy seems even by the accounts we
have as yet received to have been of a very fatal character. The ix)pular
estimate places the loss of human life at about 20.000 persons — the Gov-
ernment computes it at a lesser estimate. If thei-e be exaggeration in
the first calculation, as is probable enough, it is certain, on the other
hand, that owing to the rupture of the electric wires and the suspension
of communication the Government cannot have received full accounts of
the extent of the loss from many of the outlying districts. It is also in
304 APPENDIX.
accordance with all we know of the policy of Southeru Governments
rather to underrate the amount of destruction in such cases, lest the
natural alarm of the population should degenerate into wild and unman-
ageable panic. The immediate destruction of human life, however, will
constitute in the long run but a slender portion of the sufferings conse-
quent upon this great calamity. Towns and villages are destroyed or
half destroyed in every direction. The daily labor of the population is
paralyzed, and even in those fertile regions the great masses of the pop-
ulation only exist by hard and daily exertion. The most ruinous vio-
lence of the earthquake seems to have spent itself mainly upon two prov-
inces, but in a lesser degree the area of its action was far more extensive.
Some idea of its violence may be formel from the brief notes of intelli-
gence which have as yet reached us. In Folia there was so great a loss
of life that 300 bodies have been already dug out of the ruins, and the
ruins have not yet been fully explored. In Castelsano, which has been
levelled with the ground, four hundred persons have perished. lu
Lagonegro the inhabitants had timely warning, and made good their
escape, but the town experienced three shocks in seven hours. Almost all
the buildings inclusive of the church, and the telegraph station, were
cracked. Nothing was solid enough to resist the action of the mighty
subterranean agencies at work. We will take but another instance,
which shall be that of Potenza, the capital of Basilicata. This is a town
of 12,000 inhabitants. Not a single house is tliere left fit for human
habitation. ' The palace of the prefecture, the military and civil hospital,
the barracks of the gendarmes and of the reserve, the college of Jesuits,
the churches, and especially the cathedi al, are all rendered useless, and
no one can without danger cross his own doorway. They were continu-
ing to disinter the numerous victims, the number of whom was un-
known. The whole population who had been in the open air were be-
ginning to take shelter in wooden barracks, which had been erected for
the purpose.' We give this example as one which will show to Avhat
sufferings these poor people have been subjected, independently of their
dead and of their sorrow for their dead. It would be impossible, we
are told by those who hav3 witnessed these terrible scenes, to exagger-
ate the terror and desolation which universally prevail. The inhabi-
tants of the districts which have been so severely visited know what
they have suffered, but they know not what they may suffer next. We
published on Thursday a fearful list of towns wliich had all been com-
pletely or partially destroyed, but there are others concerning which the
APPENDIX. 305
Government has not as yet furnished particulars, and the worst inferen-
ces are drawn from this official silence. All that could be done at the
first outbreak of such a dire calamity seems to have been done or at-
tempted. Beds, medicine, lint, food, nurses, and wood for barracks
have been forwarded with all speed to the scenes of this disaster. In
one particular, however, the benevolent action of the Government has
been checked in a manner which can scarcely afford matter for sur-
prise, when we remember what the character for peculation of the Nea-
politan officials has notoriously been, and how the Government itself has
misappropi'iated such funds. Orders were issued from Naples that the
communal treasuries should be opened for the relief of the sufferers, but
the money had disappeared.
" The capital itself does not seem to have actually suffered any disaster.
There, as elsewhere, the action of the subterranean agencies was felt to
such a degree as might have justified apprehension even in firm and
sober minds; but, not very unnaturally, the wildest terror seems to have
seized upon the inhabitants. They rushed out of their houses as soon as
the awful cry of ' The earthquake ! the earthquake !' was raised, and
they felt the first shocks. For nights they encamped in the open squares.
That hideous horde of ruffians which may be found in every great city,
but which is only seen when revolution, or pestilence, or when, as here,
an earthquake is at work, pervaded the streets in all directions, but chiefly
directed their energies upon the Toledo, where the principal and wealth-
iest shopkeepers carry on their business. Strange to say, even in the midst
of this agony of apprehension, the Neapolitans thronged to the lottery-
offices, eager to secure favorable numbers, and muttering all the while
a jangle of invocations to all the saints in the Roman Calendar, but chiefly
to St. Januarius, their chosen protector. What we are about to write
seems scarcely credible in the latter half of the nineteenth century, but
our correspondent from Naples informs us that — ' The blood of St. Jan-
uarius is said to have been boiled, and a procession was thereupon
formed, in which an image was carried; so I have been told this morn-
ing.' The shocks of the earthquake were frequent at Naples, although
not very intense nor of any great duration; but yet sufficiently so to
inspire the inhabitants with the belief that the end of all things was at
hand. ' '
THE END.
v-V-VORIv A./
NEW BOOKS
And New Editions Just Publisned by
RUDD & CARLETON,
130 Grand Street,
NEW YORK (brooks BUILDING, COR. OF BROADWAY.)
N.B. — RUDD 4 CAULETON, UPON RECEIPT OF THE PRICE, WILL
SKXD ANY OP THE FOLLOWING BOOKS, BY MAIL, postage free, TO
ANY PART OF THE UNITED STATES, THIS CONVENIENT AND
VERY SAFE MODE MAY BE ADOPTED WHEN THE NEIGHBORING
BOOKSELLERS ARE NOT SUPPLIED WITH THE DESIRED WORK.
NOTHING TO WEAR.
A Satirical Poem. By William Allen Butler. Pro
fusely and elegantly embellished with fine Illustrations
on tinted paper, by Hoppin. Muslin, price 50 cents.
MILES STANDISH ILLUSTRATED.
With exquisite Photo'jraphs from original Drawings by
John W. Ehninger, illustrating Longfellow's new Poem.
Bound in elegant quarto, morocco covers, price ^6 00.
BOOK OF THE CHESS CONGRESS.
A complete History of Chess in America and Europe, with
Morphy's best games. By D. W. Fiske, editor of Chess
Monthly (assisted by Morphy and Paulsen). Price Si 50.
WOMAN'S THOUGHTS ABOUT WOMEN.
The latest and best work by the author of ** John Halifax,
Gentleman," "Agatha's Husband," "The Ogilvies,"
&c. From the London edition. Muslin, price ^\ 00
LlSl" OF DUUKS PLliLISIlLD
VERNON GROVE;
By Mrs. Carolin'e H. Glovhr. " A Novel which will
give its author high rank among the novelists ot" thf
day." — Atlantic Monthly, i zmo., Muslin, price ^ i oo
BALLAD OF BABIE BELL,
And other Poems. By Thomas Bailey Aldrich. Tlir
first selected collection of verses by this author. '2mo
Exquisitely printed, and bound ip muslin, price 75 cents.
TRUE LOVE NEVER DID RUN SMOOTH.
An Eastern Tale, in Verse. By Thomas Bailey Aldrich,
author of " Babie Bell, and othe; Poems." Printed
on colored plate paper. Muslin, price 50 cent£
BEATRICE CENCl.
A Historical Novel. By F. D. Guerrazzi. Translatea
from the original Italian by Luigi Monti. Muslin^
two volumes in one, with steel portrait price $1 25.
ISABELLA ORSINI.
A new historical novel. By F. D. Guerrazzi, authoi
of *' Beatrice Cenci." Translated by Monti, of Har-
vard College. With steel portrait. Muslin, prire ^i 25.
DOCTOR ANTONIO.
A charming Love Tale of Italy. By G. Ruffini, au
thor of "Lorenzo Benoni," "Dear Experience," &-c
From the last London edition. Muslin, price 81 00
DEAR EXPERIENCE.
A Tale. By G. Ruffini, author of "Doctor Antonio,'
"Lorenzo Benoni," &c. With illustrations by Leech,
qf the I/ondon Pmich, i2mo. Muslin, price $!i 00
BY KUDD ANIJ CAULKTON.
A BACHELOR'S STORY.
By Oliver Bunce. Upor. the thread of a pleasant story
the autlior has strung a wampum of love, philosophy
and humor, izmo. Muslin, price $ I oo.
LIFE OF HUGH MILLER,
Author of "Schools and Schoolmasters," ** Old Red
Sandstone," &c. From the last Glasgow edition. Pre
pared by Thomas N. Brown. Muslin, price 81 00
AFTERNOON OF UNMARRIED LIFE.
An interesting theme, admirably treated, and combined
with strong common sense. Companion to** Woman*s
Thoughts." From London edition. Price fi 00
LECTURES OF LOLA MONTEZ,
Including her ^'Autobiography," " Wits and Women of
Paris," ''Comic Aspect of Love," "Beautiful Women,
"Gallantry," &c. Muslin, 'teel portrait, price $1 00.
ADVENTURES OF VERDANT GREEN.
By CuTHBERT Bede, B.A. The best humorous story of
C-ollege Life ever published. ?>oth edition, from English
plates. Nearly 200 original illustrations, price |i 00.
CURIOSITIES OF NATURAL HISTORY.
By Francis T. Buckland, M.A. A sparkling collection
of surprises in Natural History, and the charm of a
lively narrative. From 4th London edition, price $1 25.
BROWN'S CARPENTER'S ASSISTANT.
The best practical work on Architecture; with Plans foi
everv description of Building. Illustrated with over
200'Plates. Strongly brund in leather, price $5 00
BY RUPD AND CARLETOX.
THE VAGABOND.
A volume of Miscellaneous Papers, treating in colloquia
sketches upon Literature, Soci-ety, and Art. By Adam
Badeau. Bound in muslin, izmo, price 81 00.
ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT.
A new and popular Biography of this celebrated Savanf,
including his travels and labors, with an introduction by
Bayard Taylor. One vol., steel portrait, price $1 zc^.
LOVE (UAMOUR).
By M. Jules Michelet. Author of "A History of
France," &c. Translated from the French by J. W.
Palmer, M.D. One vol., i2mo. Muslin, price 1 1 00.
ETHEL'S LOVE-LIFE.
By Mrs. M. J. M. Sweat. " Rarely has any recent work
expressed the intenseness of a woman's love with such
ht^Tty abandon." i2mo. Mushn, price ^i 00.
STOKIES FOR CHILDHOOD.
By Aunt Hatty (Mrs. Coleman). Beautifully bound in
cloth, gilt, and profusely illustrated. Put up in boxes
containing 1 2 assorted volumes. Price per box, 84 00.
GOOD CHILDREN'S LIBRARY.
By Uncle Thomas. A dozen charming stories, beautifully
illustrated ; bound in cloth, gilt backs. Put up in boxes
containing 1 2 assorted volumes. Price per box, 84 00.
SOUTHWOLD.
By Mrs. Lillie Devereux Umsted. "A spirited aia
well drawn Society novel — somewhat intensified bui
bold and cle\er." i2mo. Muslin, price 81 00.
LIST OF BOOKS PITBLISHED
DOESTICKS' LETTERS.
Being a compilation of the Original Letters of O K. P.
DoESTicKs, P. B. With many comic tinted illustrationi
by John McLenan. izmo. Muslin, price ^i oo
rPLU-RI-BUS-TAH.
A song that's by-no-author. Not a parody on ** Hia-
watha." By DoESTicKS. With 1 50 humorous illus-
trations by McLenan. izmo. Muslin, price 81 00
THE ELEPHANT CLUB.
An irresistibly droll volume. By Doesticks, assisted by
Knight Russ Ockside, M.D. One of his best works
Profusely illustrated by McLenan. Muslin, price ^\ 00.
THE WITCHES OF NEW YORK.
A new humorous work by Doesticks ; being minute,
particular, and faithful Revelations of Black Art
Mysteries in Gotham, izmo. Muslin, price $1 00
TWO WAYS TO WEDLOCK.
A Novellette. Reprinted from the columns of Morris &
Willis* New York Home Journal, izmo. Hand-
somely bound in muslin. Price §1 00,
THE SPUYTENDEVIL CHRONICLE.
A sparkling Novel of young Fashonable Life in New York;
a Saratoga Season ; Flirtations, &c. A companion
to the "Potiphar Papers." Muslin, price 75 cents.
ROMANCE OF A POOR YOUNG MAN.
I'Von the French of Octavk Feuillet. An admiiaMc
ard striking work of fiction. Translated from the
Seventh J^iris edition. izmo. M u Jin, price -i-i 00
LIST OF BOOKS PUBLISHED
THE CULPRIT FAY.
By Joseph Rodman Drake. A charming edition of thit
world-celebrated Faery Poem. Printed on colored
plate paper. Muslin, i2mo. Frontispiece. Price, ijocts.
THE NEW AND THE OLD;
Or, California and India in Romantic Aspects. By J.
W. Palmer, M.D., author of " Up and Down the Irra-
waddi." Abundantly illustrated. Muslin, izmo. 81,25.
UP AND DOWN THE IRRAWADDI;
Or, the Golden Dagon. Being passages of adventure in
the Burman Empire. By J. W. Palmer, M.D., author
of "The New and the Old." Illustrated. Price, $1,00.
ERIC; OR, LITTLE BY LITTLE.
A Tale of Roslyn School. By F. W. Farrar (Fellow oi
Trinity College, Cambridge). An admirable picture
of inner school Hfe. Muslin, izmo. Price, 81,00.
RECOLLECTIONS OF THE REVOLUTION.
A private manuscript journal of home events, kept during
the American Revolution by the Daughter of a Clergy-
man. Printed in unique style. Muslin. Price, Si, 00
HARTLEY NORMAN.
A New Novel. " Close and accurate observation, enables
the author to present the scenes of everyday life with
great spirit and originahty." Muslin, i2mo. Price,8i,oo.
BORDER WAR.
A Tale of Disunion. By J. B. Jones, author of " Wild
Western Scenes.'* One of the most popular books ever
published in Ameiica. Muslin, izmo. Price, ^i^z?
-w
K.
rf