SERMONS THE COMING AND KINGDOM OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST BY ELDER JAWES WHITE STEAM PRESS BATTLE CREEK NICH 1870OUR FAITH AND HOPE Sermon One INTRODUCTORY exe But sanctify the Lond God im your hearts snd ‘Peay ala fo give tues fo every man tat aheth ous reason of the Hope that isan you mith meekness end Tar Ist 8 15 Our name, Seventh doy Adventists, 1s express ave of two promment features of our faith and hope As Adventists, we are looking for the per sonal appearing and reign of Jesus Chust And an seeking for that readiness necessary to meet our soon coming Loud with joy, we have been led to the observance of the seventh day of the mech as the hallowed rest day of the Creator ‘These distingushng featmes of our religious faith are unpopular We are fully aware that much prejudice exists n the religious world against many of our opimons of Bible truth This, however, exists mainly for want of mformation as to our real positions, and, probably, m some degree from the want of intelligence and prety on the part of some who have represented our views May God help us to overcome this preyudice by a clear and intelligent defense of the truth, in the spit of humihty and love, that shall melt its way into the hearts of the people The text suggests— 1A. preparaton of heart before engeging mm the work of teachmg our fellows “But sane tify the Lord God in your hewts In our heats4 ovn FAITH AYD nore Wo should set the Lord God apart as the object of supreme love, and the only object of worship We should be cleansed from sin, ond imbued with the Spunt of God, before engaging im the respons able work of teaching the trath of God to others, we mar the work, and create prejudice, instead of removing that already existing 2 A preparation of the mind by study 1s sug gested im the text | This as necesary in order fo always eady to teach those of inquiring minds © And be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is m you Divine trath appeals to the under Stonding | ‘The people ask for reasons not aster tions merely ‘Those who teach should be tell gent They should he ready They should be “ready alwaye to give on answer to every man that asketh The veriest novice im heavenly thmgs may give assertions with all the confidence of experienced Bible students, and yet for want of disposition to “search the Scriptires, and to “study to show humself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, “he aay not be able to give one fo.ible reason ‘The people have a might to demand the rea sons of our faith and hope” This 1s clearly shown m the language of the apostle, requirmg readi ness to answer every man that asketh It 1s also seen in the prophetic inquiry and answer, espe aially appheable to our time, “Watchman, what of the mght? Watchman, what of the mght? ‘The watchman said, The mormmg cometh, and also the mght If ye will mqure, quire ye Return, come 4 The manner in which the reasons of our faith and hope should be given, 1s expressly stated— awraopucrory 5 “wth meekness and fear In the absence of meekness, and fear to offend God, hus truth 1s fee ble, and 1s almost sure to berepoached But when 118 taught with meckness and fear, 1t appears m ts beauty and strength -Chnst in lus hife was a pattern of meckness The first mmusters of Jesus, who went forth to the world newly baptized with ‘the Spint of ther Master, were meek men With meckness they presented Jesus as the only Saviour of men And with fear and trembling, lest they should foal to fulfill ther high and holy mission, they went out l upon the strengih of hum twhy had said, “Lo, faim wath you always All who are really imbued mth the Spit of ther divine Master, will manifest m a good degree the meekness which characterized hus life When such speak in defense of Bible truth, they will do at with meckness and with fear The great apos tle, in view of the responsibilities of teaching the word of God, uses these forcible words “For ‘we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ, in them that are saved, and m them that perish’ To the ‘one we are the savor of death unto death, and to the other the savor of Ife unto hfe And who 1s sufficient for these things? 2 Cor 2 15,16 How beautiful, and ‘ow efficient will be that church whose mmstry and membership bear the happy burden of truth, intelligent im the word of Gal xeady almayn, wich meckuess ahd feat, to give an answer to ail who mguire for the reasons of the hope they cherish’ Seventh day Advent asts are making some efforts to reach this position ‘Would God that our zeal in the work of prepara tion was proportionate to our wants, and the great work before us Tt 1s true that we differ m some respects with6 out Larre AyD wore other religious bodies of the presont time, and with most of them we differ widely But we do not differ with others from choice ‘e do not love to differ for the sake of bemg odd No, we choose to be am harmony, if possible, with our fellow men, es early with those who revere God and hs word We beliove it to be a sin to differ mith others, un less there be good reasons why we should differ ‘We do not believe as we do for the sake of ad vantages m this hfe It 1s not always convement to observe the seventh day Sabbath’ Tt 1s often inconvenient to be out of harmony with all the rest of the world two days m the week We frequently sustam losses of friends and woildly advantages on account of our adherence to the Bible Sabbath ‘We do not believe as we do from bemg ot the same cast of mind We differ in respect to natu ral temperument and education, probably, as much as the members of any other’ religious body m eustonce We do not beheve as we do from denomina tional mould We are gathered from Methodists, Regular Baptists, Free will Baptists, Seventh day Baptists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Epis eopabans, Dutch Reformed, Disciples, Christians, Lutherans, United Brethren, Catholies, Umver salis s, worldhngs, and infidels Neither 1s st from national cast that we believe as we do Weare composed of native Americans, Enghsh, Welsh, Scotch, Insh, French, Germans, Norwegians, Danes, Swedes, Poles, Swiss, and othas The bringing together of a body of be lhevers compo ed of such material, affected more or less by the chgious sentimev’s and forms of the several denominations, mith all then national THE WILLEVNIU 1 7 peculanities—enjoymg, m a very large degiee, Thy of sentiment and pint—is evidently tho work of God Bat the governmg prneiple of our faith and practice, as Seventh ‘tay Adventists, 18 our respect for the great God, hus livg word, and the rec ‘ompense of the reward Sermon Two 18D MILLENNIUM ‘Gexr And saw throne snd they at upon thom and judgment was given unto them and I saw the souls of them ‘that were behoadod for the wroness of Jesus and for the word. of God and which had not worshiped the beast neither us image neither had reeerved his mark upon their foreheads or i ther bands and they lived and reigned with Christ housand years" But the reat of the dead lived not again ‘unhil the housand years were Saished | Rev 20 45 ‘The word millennrum signifies a thousand years And while theres a general agreement in applying the word to the period named in the text, all do not agree as to the character of the millennum ‘The popular view of this subject 1s, that the world 18 to be conveited, and that all men will become holy ‘This happy state of things, 1t 18 said, will continue one thousand years, durmg which time Christ will reign with his people spiritually And at the close of the millennium, Christ will come ‘the second tume, and the judgment wall take place But the sacred Sersptures do not teach that at any period of time all men will be conve-ted to There were but few righteous men from Adam to Moses And their numbers in the Jew8 OUR FAITH AND HOPE ash age, compared with the mulutudes of the un believing were very small Nether does Gods plan in the Chnstian age embrace the conversion of all men The gospel must be preached to all nations Thus God visits “the Gentiles to take out of them a people for hisname Acts 15 14 Among the finally saved will not be found all of ‘any one generation, or all of any one nation, but some out of every age, and every tongue will jon an the song to the Lamb “Thou wast slam, ‘and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of ev ery kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation Rev 5 9 ‘From the very nature of the case, the conversion of the world 1s an impossibibty God 1s the same durmg all time He deals with men and nations impartially The devils the same, excepting that the experience of six thousand years has made hum more artful m seducing men and women into sin ‘The fallen race 1s the same, only that each sue ceeding generation Anpemarstn hysically, men tally, and morally, tll the world becomes fully ripe for her final doom ‘This 1s seen in the metallic uage of Dan 2 Here five umversal Jangdoms are the subject of prophecy Four of these pertain to the mortal state, one to the mm mortal The four carthly monarchies, Babylon, Persia, Grecia, and Romie, are severally repre sented by gold, silver, brass, and ron © We not only seem the symbol the depreciation of value from gold to silver, to brass, and to iron, but the Jast divided condition of earthly governments, just before the opening glonies of the ammortal king dom, 1s represented by ron mxed with muy clay. God s plan to convert sinners, and to save all who would obey him, and believe m Jesus, has PAE WILLENNIUY 9 been in operation about six thousand years A ‘erucified and risen Jesus has been preached with the Holy Spmt sont down from Heaven for more than eighteen centuries yet the world has not ‘been converted And the prospect of its conver sion to Bible holiness never looked darker than at the present time In the foreible words of an other* we would inquire “And what are the present prospects of a church that has set out m all confidence to con vert the world? How may those now putting on the harness boast of greater expected success than 1s warranted by the experience of those who have put it off after having fought the good fight? The prophets could not convert the world are we mughter than they? ‘The apostles eould not con vert the world, are we stronger than they? ‘The martyrs could not convert the world can we do more than they? The church for eighteen bun dred years could not convert the world can we doit? They have preached the gospel of Christ, socan we They have gone to earths remotest ‘bounds, so can we They have saved ‘some, so ean we’ They have wept as so few believed their report, so can we They have fimshed ther course with joy, and the mumistry they have re ceived to testify of the gospel of the grace of God wecandothessme Can we reasonably hope to do more? ‘It would take to all etermty to bring the millennium at the rate that modern revivals pro gress, sud the venerableDr_ Lyman Beecher, be fore a mimsterial convention, held close by old. Plymouth rock And what hope is there that they wall progress more rapuily? Is xt mn the word of ‘Preface to Voioe of the Care’10 OUR TAITH AND wore God? Glad would we be to find it there Sadly we read that ‘evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and bemg deceived «Has God » mghte: Saviom—a more power ful Spt? Has he another gospel which will save the world? Whereisit? Is there any way to the kingdom other than that which leads through much tribulation? Is there another way to the crown besides tae way of crosses? Can we reign with Him unless we first suffer in his cause? “No doubt the woild might be converted if they desired to know the Lord And so, had alll who heard received with gladness the word of God, the world mght have been converted within twenty rears of the day of Pentecost If each Christian hea ‘brought one single soul to God with each sue cessive year, the calm splendors of the millennial era might have shone upon the declmmg years of the apostles of Jesus Christ But instead of this, ages of darkness came on ‘The world dad not re pent, but the church apostatized If the gospel were to convert the world, we should have seen tokens of 1t ere this But wheie ae such omens to be found? Shall we look at Judson, who Ia bored ten long years before one smnen yielded to the claims of the gospel? Shall we look to the dense darkness of the heathen world? Shall we look at the formalism of the profe sed church? Shall wo look at the wide extension of infidelity ? Shall we look at the abounding of miquity and the waxing cold of love? Shall we look at a world where cighteen hundred years of toil and tears have not brought one twentieth part of mankind even to a profession of true Chnistamty, and whore not more than one fifth clam for them selves the dubious ttle of Christian nations? 3H WILENNIUW uw Shall we look over a world in which we cannot find one nation of Chnstians, nor one tribe of Christians nor one city of Christians nor one town of Christians, nor one village of Christians, nor one hamlet of Chnistians, save here and there where a questionable faith has led a few, with hypoentes even then 1n their mst, to withdraw themselves from the world, and cherish the un ‘ted virtues of secluded hfe? Surely, after eight cen hundred years of experiment with that system which was toconvert the world, men mght pomt to some country, to some provinee, to some nation, and say, Behold the commencement of a conveited world “But wall not the gospel then pro e a failure? ‘That depends upon what as to be expected of 1t IE the gospel was to effect the eternal salvation of all mankind, then fuihng to accomplish that woh asa failure of the gospel If the gospel was to convert the world, then, xf 1t 1s not done, xt will prove a failure But af the gospel was preached ‘to take ovr or the Gentiles a people for Ths name, then i1s not a failure "Le it was given that God might im mifimte merey and love * save SoM, then it is not a failure “If at was given that every repentant smner might have eternal fe, and that every good soldier might receive a erown of glory, then st 1s not a failure If xt was given that'sn mnumerable company mght be redeemed our oF every nation, and kindred, cnd tongue under heaven, then 1t.8 not a failure If it Was given that the vales ana hills of Paradise restored might teem with a holy thong who shall be “equal to the angels, and be the childien of God, being the children of the resurrection, then atisnot a failure If xt was given that the elect12 OUR FAITH AND OPE aught be brought mto one great family of holy ones, then it 18 not a failure And was not this ats object, rather than the exaltation of a worldly church to the splendors of earthly prosperity, while beneath the theater of ther easy triumph there slumber the ashes of prophets and the dust of the apostles? Are they to hold jubilee a thousand years, while the martyrs unceasing cry, ‘How long! O Lord, goes up to God? Are they to have ther songs of triumph, while the whole creation groaneth for deliverance, and while that longed for day of the redemption of our body 1s postponed? "Nay, verily, the hope of the one body 1s one hope ‘The hope of the church stops not at death, it sweeps beyond earths scenes of tempest and of storm, and reposes in the calm beamungs of that Sun of Righteousness which shall glow above the bosom of Paradise regained ‘The millennium of Rey 201s to open with the rerelation of, the Son of God from Heaven, the destruction of the hving wicked, the resurrection of the just, and the change to immortality of the lying nghteous It 1s @ period 2 ‘which Christ yall ragn porsonally with the sos of all ages who have suffered with hm = 2 Tim u, 12 pe nod 1s bounded at each end with a resurrection Christ plainly declares that “all that are in the graves shall hear hus voice, and shall come forth they that have done good, unto the resurrection of ‘fe, and they that have done evil, unto the resur rection of damnation John 9 28, 29 And Paul testifies “that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust Acts 24 15 Butts left to the Revelator to place these resurrections one thousand years apart, at each end of the millennium THE MILIENAIUY 13 “And I saw [not a converted world, but] thrones [of judgment] and they sat upon’ them, and judginent was givan unto them Mention then made of that portion of the martyrs of Jesus ‘who had been beheaded, and also the victors over the beast, hus image, and us mark, representin all the righteous, then 1s added, “They hve [were raised to hife] and reigned mith Christ a thousand years But the rest of the dead [the ‘mcked] hved not agam [were not raised from the dead] until the thousand years were finished ‘The doctrme of the temporal millennium bemg based upon false mterpretations and meorreet quo tations of certain portions of the sacred Scrsptures, it as proper that we should here notice those texts usually quoted to prove the woilds conversion, and show that they do not mean what they are said to prove 1 “Ask of me, and I shall gue thee the heathen for thine mnhenitance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession Ps 2 8 ‘As sufficient evidence that this text does not prove the conversion of the world, we quote the verse following it “Thou shalt break them with a rod of ron, thou shalt dash them in pieces like a pot ter s vessel 2 The stone cut out of the mountain without hands, shall roll until 1t becomes a great moun tain, and fils the whole earth All the proof for the World s conversion, found m the above, 18 m quoting the text wrong Here 1s the text as 10 reads "Thou sawest fill that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the amage upon his feet that were of sron and clay, and brake them to pieces ‘Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together,4 OUR FAITH AND HOPE and becamo ko the chaff of the summer thresh ing floors, and the wind carried them away, that no place wes found for them and the stone that smote the mage hecame a great mountain, and filed the whole earth Dan 2 34, 35 In this remarkable portion of prophecy, the follomng pomnts are worthy of notice (1) The stone smote the image upon hus feet, and brake the won, clay, brass, silver, and gold to pieces together’ Here 1s destruction, not conversion @) They Became ike the chaff of the summer threshing floors, and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them Here 1s illus trated the removal of all earthly governments (8) Then the stone became a great mountain and filled the whole earth In this prophecy the stone has nothing in common with the image ‘The rmage, a symbol of earthly governments and all wicked men, 1s first removed, and then the stone fills the whole earth But if at be sad that the dashing of the heathen, (Ps 2 9,) and the breaking of the image (Dan 2 34), mean the conversion of the world, then Paul s words, “The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feot shortly, mean the conver sion of Satan 3 Arnaton shall be born im a day Hae 1s another imcorrect quotation Isa 66 8, reads “Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such thmgs? shall the earth be made to bring forth m one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children ‘This text has no allusion to the conversion of sinners but evidently refers to the resurrection of the just 4 “The kingdoms of ths world are become the HE WILLENMIUY 15 kingdoms of om Lord andof his Clit Butlet at be borne in mind that this 1s unde: the third woe, when it 1s also said, “And the nations were an gry, and thy wiath 1s come, and the time of the dead that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give .eward unto thy servants the proph ts, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great, and shouldest destroy thei which destioy the earth Rey 11 15, 1 5 “And ths gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come Matt 24 14 ‘Those who teach tho worlds conveiston would have the gospel preached to all nations, every m diyadual hear xt, believe 1t, obey xt, and all become holy by t What then? ‘the end? No, not un fil the world has enjoyed a smless period of one thousand years Some hold that the one thousand years of Rey 20 are prophetic, each day in the your representing year, mahing three hundred and sixty five thousand years But the text does not say that every individual will even hear this gospel of the kmgdom Tt does not state that any one will be converted and made holy by at And we find it fa fiom intumating that @ world would be converted, and remain so one thousand years, or three hundred and sixty five thousand Years The text simply states, (1) “And thas gospel of the kingdom shall be preached m all the world, (2) “For a witness unto all nations, (8) «And then [not one thousand years later, not three hundred and sixty five thousand but TZ5N] shall the end come 6 “They shall bert thar swords mto plough16 ous SAITH AND HOPE shares and thew spears into prumng hooks na tion shall not ft up a sword agamst nation, neither shall they learn war any more Micah 4 3 See also Isa 2 4 Please notice that Micah 4 1, speaks of the exalted state of the professed church of Chnst in the last days Mountams mean earthly govern ments The church, here represented by “the mountain of the Lords house, was to be exalted above the hills It was to be established im the tops of the mountains "Verses 2-5 1s a statement, not of what the Lord declares would take place m the last days, but what the multitudes of popular professors, who are looking for the conversion of the world, would say The statement commences thus “And many nations shall come and say Verse 2 It 1s man, not God, that says, “And they shall beat their swords ‘into ploughshares, and their spears into prunmg hooks nation shall not lift up a sword agamst nation, neither shall they learn war any more Verse 3 But the Lord speaks m verses 6 and 7, as fol lows “In that day, saith the Lord, will f assem ble her that halteth, and I will gather her that 1s darven out, and her that I have afflicted “In that day ’ when “many nations are prophesy, ing of peace and safety, the Lord s remnant peo ple are driven out and afflicted But we have more and very decisive testimony an regard to the state of the nations in the last days The Lord speaks by hus prophet thus ©Proclam ye this among the Gentiles Prepare war, wake up the mghty men, let alll the men of war draw near Let them come up Beat your ploughshares into swords, and vour pruning hooks THE WOLENNIUSE 1 into spears Joel 8 9,10 Instead of the na trons no more lifting up the sword against each other, in the last days, “evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and “the sword of the Lord shall devour from the one end of the land even to the othe: end of the land no flesh shall have peace Jer 12 12 25 32 ‘This subject may appear still more clear and forcible by arranging mhat many nations say, and what the Lord says, side by side as follows And many nations shall _ Proslaim ye this among the come and soy Come snd iet Gantles Pepsre war rake 4s go up to the mountain of up the mughty men Tet all the etLord and to the house of min of ner dcaw nest’ Let {he God of Jacob andlie wil them come up” Beat your feach us of bie ways and we ploughshares into swatde wall ‘walk im his baths for and your pruminghooks into {he law shall go forth of Zion peas let the weak soy I andthe word of the Lord‘rom am strong” Assemble ‘you Jerusalem Andheshalljudge selves and come ail yo hea among many people nd re then and guiber yourselves ‘bake strong nations afat of together round sboit thither and. they’ shall” beat their cause thy mighty oneato come Swordsintoploughsbares and down O Lord. Let the hea Ger speare into pranimg then be wakened snd come hooks “nation ‘shall not ft up to the valley of Jehosba uD a sword against nation phat for there wall T st to neither shall they learn war judge all the heathen round aay more Mich 42'S" about Joel 3 12 To this agree the words of Paul “The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief m the mght For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them — 1.Thess 5 2,8 How stnkingly is this saying of peace and safety fulfilled in the preaching of the tem poral mullenmium, the conversion of the world, and the prophecy of peace among the nations while Scripture ‘nd facts combine to show that ream 218 OUR FAITH AND TOPE the world 1s sinking lower and lower, the wicked are waxing worse and worse, and the nations are making far greater preparations for war than at any former period T All shall know the Lord, from the least to the greatest Heb 8 11 ‘This: in the promise of the new covenant, and relates, first, to the condition of each individual with whom the new covenant 1s made and, see ondly, to the fullness of the blessings of the gospel when all are brought ito harmony with God im the everlasting state Both ideas are embraced m the promse But that every mdividual will be converted, or that ell or any generation this side of the immortal state, will be converted and come to the knowledge of God, the Senptures do not teach "This promse 1s made concerning those with whom the Lord makes the new covenant Now, although everything has been done that ean pos subly be done to ratify the covenant, or make it of force, yet we cannot soy that 1t 1s actually made with any mdividual until that md:vidual 1s brought into covenant relation with God But when men are so brought into covenant relation with him, according to the promise, the law of God 1s written on the hearts Then’ they know God John says, “And hereby we do know that we know hum, if we Keep his commandments 1 John 2 8 ‘Thus, of course, eannot apply to the uneon verted None who remain impemtent are em braced in the promise 8 The glory of the Lord shall fill the earth as the waters cover the sea “But as truly as I hve all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Load = Num 14 21 PEE WrnEyariy 19 “They shall not hurt nor destroy im all my hol mountain , for the earth shall be full of the know edge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea Isa 11 9 “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea Hab 2 14 “Blessed are the meek, for thoy shall imherit the earth Matt 5 5 This glorious state, howeve, 18 not brought about by the conversion of all men Its intro duced by the destruction of sinful men, the resti tution of the earth to 1ts condition as 1t came from the hand of the Cieatoi, and tho gift of mmoital aty to the meek of all ages “For evil doers shall be cut off, but those that wait upon the Lod, they shall’ mherst the earth Fo. yet a little while and the wieked shall not be, yea, thow shalt diligently consider his. place, and it shall not be But the meek shall’ mheuit the earth, and shall dehght themselves m the abundance of peace Ps 87 911 9 «For behold, Lcreate new heavens and a new earth and the former shall not. be remembered, nor come ito mind Bat be ye glad and rejoice forever im that which I create” for behold, I cre ate Jerusalem a rejoiemg, and her people 'a joy And T wil rqoiee m Jerusalem, end joy in my people and the voice of weeping shall be no more heaid m her, nor the voice of crymg ‘The wolf and the lamb shall feed togetha, and the ion shall eat straw ke the bullock and dust shall be the serpent s meat ‘They shall not bmt nor destroy mall my holy mountam saith the Tord See Isa 65 17-25 also Chap 11 6-9 ‘This prophecy 1s sand to be a figurative deseusp tion of the condition of things durmg the tempo20 oun FAITE AND OPE ral millennium Wo, however, 1ogard xt as a pro phetic deseription of the tate of things after the restitution of the earth and man to their primeval glory Before the fall, man was upright, and the earth and all that God had created upon it, as viewed by the Creator, wero secn to be “very good Gen 1 81 ‘The Scriptures do not terch the anmibilation of all thugs by the fires of the gicat day, and the creation of ‘all new things for the faime stato But they do distinetly teach the restit ition of all things " Thus saith the great Restorer “Behold, Imake all things new Rev 21 5 Isaiah and the Revelator both speak of the new heavens and the new earth ‘The prophet Isaiah 1s either giv ing a figurative description of a very happy con dation of things in this mortal state, or he is por traying the literal glories of the restitution after the second advent and the resurrection of the just To the figurative view we find serious objec tions — (1) Our temporal mullennram fiends, m order that all parts of then figurative theory may har monize, must have in their figurative new heavens and earth, figurative houses, figurative vineyards, and they must figuratively eat the figurative fruit thereof, and be obliged. to suffer from figurative wolves, and figurative ons, figuratively feeding vith figurative lambs and fignrative bullocks, to Say nothung of the presence of figurative serpents But it 1s said that the gospel 1s to convert all theso wolves and lions and serpents ‘Then were ply, that if they are converted, they aro no longer wolves and lions and serpents, and during the en ‘are period of the millenmum there will be noth img but lambs and doves Thereforo the proph TUR MILLE WU 21 ecy has no reference to the temporal millennium It 'must apply to some other period (2) The apostle has so clearly identified the three worlds, namely, the one before the food, the ‘one that nov 1s, and the new earth which 1s to come, as to entirely preclude the figurative view He says “For ths they willingly are ignorant, of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the cath standing out of the water and 1m the water whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same woud aro kept m store, reserved unto ite aguinst the day of judgment and pordition of ungodly tnea 7 cNersblen, we, socording folns Som ase, look for new heavens and a new earth, where mm dwelleth sighteousness 2 Pet 3 0-7, 13 No fact can be more plamly stated than that the world that perished by the flood 1s the same as that which now is, and 1s reserved unto fire ‘This 1s to be changed by fire, nd then will ay pea the new heavens and the new e.rth, accor ing to the promise of God And it 1s a remaika ble fact that the promise of God referred to by the apostle 1s found only m the sixty fifth chapter of Ismah Thus, the apostle lnks the three worlds together ‘Are the fist two worlds literal ? sos the third Is the new earth, mentioned by Isaiah, figurative? So are all throe worlds figa tative’ If they ‘ue all literal, then we see a har mony im Scripture respecting them Butaf they be roganded as figurative, then we are left to the following conclusion In the days of figurative Noah, the figurative heavens and earth beng overflowed by figurative Water, porished figuratively But the figmative22 oun Purr AND OPE heavens and earth which are now, aro reserved unto figurative fire, agamst the figurative day of figmative judgment and figmative perdition of ungodly Sguratve men | Nevertheles, we, ac cording to hus figurative promse, look figuratively for figurative new heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth figurative nghteousness ‘True, the sacred writers use figures and para bles But we feel bound by sacred obligations to believe that God m hus word means just what he says, unless the connections show good reasons why a figure or parable 1s introduced If God docs not mean what he says in his word, who will tell us what he does mean? In case that God does not mean what he says, the Bible ceases to be 1 revelation, and God should give us another book to teach what this one means But the Bible as the very book in which he has plamly spoken, and rovealed hns truth to us With this view of the sacred Seriptmes we see spicad out before us the hiving realities of the new ewth, m all thar grandeur and glory, as when ‘Adama ves lord of Eden Baforo'the fronsgres sion, all was purity and peace, even among the beasts which God had created And who can say that these, with natures such as the Creator first gave them, will not be in place i the cath re stored fiom the fall, as woll as m the earth before the fall? But when the figurative mterpretation of the Scriptures 1s adopted, the new heavens and the new emth of Isa ah and the Revelation may be made to mean almost anything fancy may suggest Such liberties taken with the word of God, have Jed the skeptic to say that the Bible 1s like a fid dle, on which any tune eum be played at pleasure THE SULLENWIUY 28 Baying exammed the principal texts quoted to prove the conversion of the world, and a period of universal peace and holiness m ths mortal state, and seen that they do not mean what they are said to mean, we will now call attention to ‘some of the many direct proofs that no such state of things can exist prior to the second advent 1 The prevalence of the little horn “I be held, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed agamst them, until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most Hugh, and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom Dan 7 21, 22 “But the saints of the Most High shall take the Kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even for ever and ever Verse 18 Here at will be seen that the httle horn makes war with the saints until they take the kingdom and when they once obtam the kingdom they hold st forover, even for ever and ever Whore, then, 1s there room for that period of peace and trumph of the church called the temporal mllennrum? 2 The epostasy “Now we beseech you, breth ren, by the commg of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathermg together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, o1 be troubled, neither by spt, nor by word, nor by le‘ter as from us, as that the day of Christ 1s at hand Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that Man of Sin be revealed, the con of perdition, ‘who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that Ts called God, or that 18 worshiped, 20 that he, 8 God, aitteth an the temple of God, showing him self that he 1s God Remember ye not that when Twas yet with you I told you these things? And24 OUR FAITH AND UOTE now ye know what withholdeth that he might bo revealed in his time For the mystery of miquit doth already work, only he who now lettcth wil let, until he be taken out of the way And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spint of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of hus coming 2 Thess 2 1-8 ‘The apostle 1s here speaking of the day of the coming of the Lord He 1s guarding the church agamst deception m bemg led to expect the com img of Christ too soon” He states what must come before the appearing of the Lord Is at the ‘temporal millenmum ? the trrumphs of the world s conversion? No, xt 1s the o Damel,48 OUR FAITH AND HOPE «The words are closed up and sealed tull the tume of theead Paul says to hus brethren, “That day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that Man of Sm be revealed ‘The apostle s wang reaches down to the time of the end, where the words were to be unsealed ‘Thus plainly shows that the last half century has been the period for the subject of the second ad vent to be brought out, and this the only time that the church of Christ could sempturally look for the comng of the Lord Serman five ‘THE CHURCH NOT IN DARKNESS ‘Texr Dut ye brethren are not im darkness that that ay should overtake you ta.a thief 1 Thesp 6 4 For the consolation of those m the church whose hearts mght bleed with bereavement, the apostle undertakes to dispel ther griefs by removing their Jgporance concerning those who sleep 1 Jesus addresses the church at ‘Thessalonica thus “But I would not have you to be ignorant, broth ren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye Sorrow not, even as others which have no hope For af we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God ‘ning with him For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and re main unto the commg of the Lord shall not pre vent [g0 before] them which are asleep For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voreo of the archangel, and with ‘THR CIIUROH NOT IN DARKNESS 49 the trump of God, and the dead im Christ shall mise first then we which are alive and 1emain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord Wherefore comfort ong another with these word Chap 4 18-18 ‘The apostle would not have the church 1gnorant concerning the dead He would have them m structed relative to the hope that may be cher shed of those who fall asleep im Jesus The church believes that “Jesus died and rose again, and that God “bought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ ~ Very well, “So them also which sleep in Jesus mill God trmg with um As certainly as he brought his Son from the dead, and took hnin up to his own throne, just so certamly wall God also bring from the dead all who sleep mm Jesus, and will take them up to Heaven, and place them on the throne of the Son ‘The day named in the text 1s not the day of the believers death ‘The apostle, in giving instruc tion for the comfort of the church under bereave ments, does not pot to death as the gate to endless joys, through which the pious dead imme dhately pass to Gods might hand where thee ax fullness of yoy and pleasures forevermore No They sleep’ Jesus And thar slumbas will not be breken till the last trump shall awake them ‘The apostle looks forward over the still remaming long period of the slumbers of the just, to the de scent of the Lord from Heaven, the resurrection of the righteous dead, and the change of tae ly ing nghteous to unmortahty, as the glad hope of the just of all ages ‘These (aot the terrors of death and the <1¥0), Fu ate 460 oun rarrn AND HOPE are the grand events that introduce the glones of the life to come ‘To these, the prophets, Christ, and the apostles, have distmetly pomted as the consummating events of the believers hope, and the source of their antierpated joys After spread ing before us these events which mtroduce the burning glories of the day of God, the apostle con cludes lus remarks upon this branch of the subject by this remarkable sentence “Wherefore com fort one another with these words ‘Thus the apostle distinctly states the manner and object of the second advent of Jesus Christ, and treats the doctrine as xf 1t were a legacy to the church, given to bea source of consolation and comfort, espe cially to those mourning in consequence of be- reavements Ho continues “But of the tumes and the sea, sons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief mthemght For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sud den destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon awoman with child, and they shall not escape But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thet” 1 Thes 5 14 Paul here speaks prophetically, and de scribes the state of thmgs Just prior to the end He designates two classes by the words ye and they The word ye represents those whom he calls Drethren, who are well instructed relative to the ‘tames and seasons, and therefore are awake, and waiting and watching for ther Lord The word they represents those who treat the subject of tho coming of Christ as not worthy of ther especial attention therefore, whule some are sounding the ‘THE CHURCH NOT IN DARKNESS 51 alarm, they see no evidences of the soon coming of the Lord, and are saying, Peace and safety ‘The apostle contmues “Ye are all the chil dren of the light, and the children of the day we are not of the might, nor of darkness ‘There fore let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober For they that sleep, sleep m the might, and they that be drunken, are drunken m the night But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and for an helmet, the hope of salvation For God hath not appomted us to wrath, but to obtain sal vation by our Lord Jesus Christ Werses 5-9 ‘The two classes, the position of each, and the destiny of both, are distmetly stated Certainly ‘those who teach that the day of the Lord come on all as a thief m the mght, have not fully examimed the subject For their especial benefit, we will repeat the points of difference, thus Have no need that Inte _ Shallssy Peco and safety unto you Verse 1 Verse 3 Sram are not an ee, rune tardsocem datinets hetbaCay Should. TB daz the Land com Geena yotasetined Vere gies, thet an the mh : Yo are all the children of Yor thoy that sleep sl fhelight “Verge 6 athe might and they Let us not sleep as do cth be drunken are drunken in ere Verse 6. ‘the mght Verse 7 God hath ot appointed us towrath buttpobiain siits, Sudden pusraverrox com mow Verse $ ech upon them Verse 8 No truth of Inspiration can be more clearly de clared than that “surely the Lord God doeth nothmg, but he revealeth hus secret unto hus ser vants the prophets. Amos 3 7 Before visiting52 ovr FAITH AND OPE men and nations with judgments, God has sent forth warnings sufficient to enable the beheving to escape his wrath, and to condemn those who have not heeded the warnmgs ‘This was the case be- fore the flood “By faith Noah, bemg warned of God of things not geen as yet,'moved mth fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world Heb 11 7 At a later period, when the nations had become sunken in idolatry and crue, and the destruction of wicked Sodom was determmed, the Lord said, “Shall T hide from Abraham that thing which I do, seemg that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in hm? Gen 18 17,18 And due notice was given to righteous Lot, who, with Js daughters, was preserved, and none, even in that guilty city, penshed without due warning Lot evidently warned the people and, in thus communing with them, was “vexed with tho filth conversation of the wicked 2 Pet 2 7, ‘When he warned his sons m law, “he seemed as one that mocked Gen 19 14 ’ And when “the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the peo ple from every quarter, Lot warned them, and entreated them to desist from thar wickedness And they at once did that which all sinners since the days of mighteous Lot have been disposed to do to those who faithfully warn them of thar sins nomly, they charged him mth being a juge Before the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, a forerunner was sent to prepare the way before the Lord ‘Those who did not recerve Christ were re jected, “Because —as he said to Jerusalem when ‘warning the people of the destruction of their city [HE CHURCH Nor IN DARKNESS 63 and temple—“thou newest not the time of thy visitation Luke 19 44 We have on record the Lord s prediction of the destruction of Jerusa Jem during the tune of the generation that rejected hum, which was fulfilled in less than forty “years from the time of his crucifixion And that the Chrstans in Judes, mght escape sts umpendng doom, they were told that when they should “see Jerusalem compassed with armies, or, as recorded by Matthew, “ the abommation of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet stand in the holy place, they were to “flee to the mountams Luke 21 20° Matt 24 15 They heeded the admonition, and escaped in safety to Pella ‘Such 1s the testunony of Inspiration respecting the dealings of God with his people m past ages And at cannot be supposed that God will change ins course relative to the future, when that future 1s to realize the erowmmg consummation of all prophetic declarations No, no, mdeed! Before the vials of Jehovahs unmingled wrath shall be unstopped m heaven, and poured out into the earth, upon the shelterless heads of the unbelieving, the world will be fally warned Before the Son of Man thrusts im hus fickle to gather the precious harvest of the earth, that harvest must be fully ripened for the heavenly garner And before the vine of the earth shall be gathered for the wine press of the wrath of God, her clusters must also be fully mpened Rey 14 1419 And the last message of fearful warning to the people will mspen and prepare the beevmg for salvation, and also the unbelieving for destruction5 OUR FAITH AND HOPE Sermon Six NOAHS LIME AND OURS ‘Bat ofthat day and hour knoweth no man no, not ee bel my Father only Bat asthe daye Stal de coming of the Son of Man be of Noo were 20 2 Matt’ 2495 37 ‘The prophetic discourse of Matt 24 and 25 was gra By our Lord in answer to the rnguary of his ‘ea, “ When shall these thmgs be? and what shallbe the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world’ Chap 24 3 Here are two ques- tions, one relating to the destruction of Jerusa Teas the other tothe seoond coming of Chnst ‘The text relates to the latter “We solemnly believe that the day and hour, and even the year, of the second advent are purposely hidden Some of the prophetic periods reach to the time of the end, while others extend still fur ther down very neat the end itself, to an event of which we shall speak hereafter, yet none of them teach to the coming of the Son of Man The prophecies clearly pomt to the period of the see dnd advent, but do not give the definite time of ‘that event) But many suppose that the text proves that nothing may be known of the period Of the second advent In this they greatly err, ‘2s may be seen from the following reasons 1 Because our Lord, after stating that the sun should be darkened, and that the moon should not ‘ve her light, and that the stars should fall from wven, gives the following foreble parable, and makes the most distinct apphoation of xt to ths subject Ue says “Now learn a parable of the NOAM TIME AND OURS 35 fig tice When Ins branch 1s yet tonder, and put teth forth leaves, ye know that summer 1s nigh So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, Fnow that 1t 18 near, even at the doors Verses 82, 88 No language can be moro direct No proof can be more complete The most darmg unbehef will hardly venture to deny these wouds of the Son of God, and ascert that nothing can be known of the period of hus second coming 2 Because our Lord declares that as the days of Noah were, so should also the coming of the Son of Man be Sad God to Noab, “My Spmnt shall not always strive with man, foi that he also 1s flesh, yet his days shall be an hundicd and twenty years Gen 6 3 The penod of the flood was given to the patriarch \d under the direct providence of God he prepared the ark and warned the people So the fulfilling prophecies ind the mgus Gstmolly declare that the necond coming of Chnst 1s at the doors, and the solemn massage as gone forth 8 hose who claim that the text proves that nothing may be known of the period of the second advent, make xt prove too much for ther own un belief "As recorded by Mark, the declaration reads “But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are m Heaven, neither the Son, but the Father If the text proves that men will know nothing of the period of the second advent, alo proves that angels wall know nothing of 1+ and algo that the Son will know nothing of at, ti!l the event takes place! ‘This position proves ‘too much, therefore proves nothing to the pomt Chnst mall Lnow of the period of Ins second advent to this world The holy angels who wait mound the thone of Heaven to receive messages relative to56 OUR FAITH A\D HOPE the part they act m the salvation of men, will know of the time of this closing event of salvation And so wall the waiting, watching people of God undeistand An old Enghsh version of the passage reads, “But that day and hour no man maketh known, neither the angels which are m Heaven, neither the Son, but the Father Thus 1s the correct reading, according to several of the ablest ertics of the age The word now 18 used im the same sense here that itas by Paulan 1 Cor 2.2 For JT determined not to know [make known] anything among you save Jesus Chnst and hum crucified Men will not make known the day and hour, an gol gull not make it known, neither wll the Son, mut the Father will make xt ‘known Says Campbell, “Macknght argues that the term know 1s here used as a causative, in the He brew sense of the conyugation hephil, that 13, to make known His [Christ s] answer 1s just equivalent to saying, The Father will make it known when xt pleases him but he has not author ized man, angel, or the Son, to make 1t known ust im this sense Paul uses the term know 1 Cor 22 “Teameto you Enown tho testimony of God, for I determined to make known nothing among you but a crucified Christ Albert Barnes, in his Notes on the Gospels, says, «Others have said that the verb rendered kncweth ‘means sometimes to make known, or to reveal, and that the passage means, ‘that day and hour none maketh known, neither the angels, nor the Son, but the Father Tt 1s true the word has some ‘ames that meanmg, as 1 Cor 2 2 ‘The Father wil make Lnown the ime He gave the period of the flood to Noab, which well NOANs TIME AND OURS oT represents the proclamation of the second ~dvent, given in connection with the evidence of the ter munation of the periods of Damel, during the great Advent movement of 1840-44 And when the patmarch s work of warnmg and building was fimshed, God sad to him, “ Come thou and all thy house into the ark For yet seven days, and I vall cause xt to ram upon the earth forty days and forty mghts So when the waiting, Watching, weepmg, toilmg time shall be fimshed, and the’ saints shall all be sealed, and shut m with God, then will the voice of the Father from Heaven make known the definste time As we look back to the great Advent movement, to the bitter disappomtment im 1844, and to the numerous efforts to adjust the prophetie poriods by many of the first day Adventists sce that time, and the numerous disappomtments which have fol lowed, we can but feel the force of the words of the prophet ‘Son of man, what 1s that proverb that ye have in the Innd of Israel, saymg, The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth? ‘Tell them therefore, Thus saith the Lord God I ‘will make this proverb to cease, and they shall no more use it as a proverb in Israel but say unto them, The days are at hand, and the effect of every vision For there shall be no more any vam vision nor flattenmg divination withm the house of Israel For I am the Lord I will speak, and the word that I shall speak shall come to pass it shall be no more prolonged for in your days, O rebellious house, wall I say the word, and will perform xt saith the Lord God Eze 12 22-25 “Iwill speak, saith the Lord, “and the word that I shall speak shall come to pass ‘The voice of God will be hewrd from on high im the mast of58 ous .ar7m AND nOrE the awful scenes just preceding the second advent “And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the arr, and there came a great voice out of the temple of Heaven, from the throne, saying, It 1 dont, Rev 16 17 Seo also Jos! 8 16) Jer 25 ‘The burden of the prophecy of Ezekiel, quoted above, evidently 1s time “The days are pro longed, and every vision raileth God will make this proverb to coase, by speaking Iumself In this way the Father will make known the time, a work not given into the hands of men, angels, nor even the Son ‘The present 1s emphatically the waiting, watch ing time Ts: the especial period of the patience of the samts In defimte tume we would find re ‘ef from the state of suspense to which our present position subjects as The Lord appeals to us thus ‘Watch ye therefore for ye know not when the Master of the ‘house comeih, at even, or at md might, or at the cockerowmg, or m the mormng Jest commg suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch” Mark 18 35-87 One of the fatal consequences of not watching ag distinctly stated m Rey 8 8 “If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee The consequence of not watch ing will be ignorance of the ime What will be the consequence of watching? ‘The inference 1s unavoidable, that 1t will bea knowledge of the tame Tn answer to the agomming prayer of the Son of God, “Father, glomfy thy naime, there came a voice from Heaven, saymg, “I have both glorified st, and will glomfy xt agam — ‘The diser NOAH S TIME AND URS 59 ples understood these words from Heaven, while tho people that stood by sad 1t thundered ” John 12 27-29 So will the waiting, watching disci es of Christ understand the voice of God when, shall speak from on hugh But the unbelievin orld wal not understand the voice “The wicket shall do wickedly, and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand Tn compaing Noah s days, and ours, the Lord continues “For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eatmg and drmlang, marry ing and givimg in marriago, until the day that Noo entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away, s0 shall also the coming of the Son of Man be ’ A picture of the resent condition of the mass of mankind 1s here wa How dark the features! ‘The people of the last generation wall be like that hefore the flood, while the ark was preparmg Noah preached and warned them of the commg flood, and they mocked He built the ark, and they scoffed and jeered He ‘was a preacher of righteousness His works were calculated to give edge to, and set home to the heart, what he preached "Every righteous ser mon, and every blow struck in building the ark, condemned a careless, scoffing world As the time drew nearer, the people were more careless, more hardened, more bold and ampudent, and their con domnation surer Noah and hus family were alone And could one family know more than all the World? The ark 1s a matter of mdicule, and Nosh as regarded as a willful bigot But the Lord calls Noah mto the ark Ard by the hand of Providence the beasts are led snto tho ark andthe Lord shuts Noah m This 1s ro garded at first by the soofing mult tude os some60 OUR FAITH AND HOPE thmng wonderful but at 18 soon oxplamed away by the wiser ones, so as to calm ther fears, and they breathe easier The day of expectation finally arnves The sun mses as usual, and tho heavens are clear “Now where as old Noah s flood? 1s heard fiom a thousand impious lips It 1s a day of unusual Feasting and sports _ he farmer 3s caring for his herds and lands, and the mechame 1s pursuing his work of building On this very day some are be img jomed m marmage And whale all are looking, to lang years of future prosperity and kappiness, enddenly the heavens gather blackness Hear fils every heart The windows of heaven open, and the ram m torrents deseends “The fountains of ‘the great deep are broken up, and here and there come gushing up rivers of waters The valleys are fast fling up, and thousands are swept away mm death Some flee to the highest points of land Dut the water fast follows them up Men bear ther wives and children to the mountains, but are obhiged to part with them there to drown, while they chmb the highest trees But soon they, too, are covered with water, so that there 1s, not & restmg place for Noahs dove All are stil medeath Hornd death! made still more horrible by bemg in consequence of slighted merey! But, where 1s Noah? Akt safe m the ark, borne upon the billow Safe from the flood for God “shut jum in By most people the evidences of the soon com ing of Christ are considered insufficient to base faith upon But mark the testumony and acts of one man condemned the people destroyed by the flood The evidences then wore suificient, otherwise the world would not hwe been con NOAMS TIVE AND OURS a demned But a hundred times more convinemg evidences come pouring in upon us, that the day of the Lord 1s near, and hasteth greatly We fol ow down the numerous prophetic chains of Daniel, and of the Revelation, and we find ourselves im very mstanee standing just before the day of wrath Wo seo the signe ‘spoken of by prophets, yy ‘Christ, and in the epistles, fulfilling, or ful led And at the mght time, and im the mght manner, to fulfil certain prophecies, a solemn message arises 1m different parts of the world “Blow ye the trumpet m Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain let all the mhabit ants of the land tremble for the day of the Lad cometh, for it ismghat hand = Joel2 1 Wher ‘ever we look, we see prophecy fulfillmg While the knowledge of God and the spmt of holiness are departing, spmtual wickedness, ike a flood, covers the land But these evidences are considered sufficient to rest faith upon Well, what kind of evidence would the unbeheving have? “When the signs of the end, says the skeptic, “are fulfilled, they will be so plan that noone can doubt But if the signs are of such a nature, and are fulfilled 1n such a manner as to compel all to believe m the commg of Christ, how can at be as it was in the days of Nosh? "Men were not then compelled to believe But eight believing souls were saved, thle all the world bosdes sank in ther unbelief beneath the waters of the flood God has never revealed his truth to man m a manner to compel him to beheve ‘Those who have wished to doubt hus word, have found a wide field m which to doubt anda broad road to perdition While those62 OUR FAITH AND TOPE who have wished to believe, have ever found ever lasting rock on which to rest the faith ‘ust before the end, the world will be hardened an sin, and indifforent to the clams of God Men will be careless about hearmg warnmgs of danger, and bhnded by cares, pleasures, and riches “An unbelioving and infidel race wall be eatmg, drink mg, marrying, bmiding, planting, and sowing Tis nght to eat and drmk to sustain nature, but the sin 1s mn excess and gluttony ‘The mar tinge eovenae is aly, bat Ged lacy a welds thought of Bulding, planting, and sowing, nec essary for convensent shelter, food and clothing, are right, but the world has gone wholly after these things, so that men have no time nor dispo sition to think of God, Heaven, Chnst s comng, and the judgment This world 1s ther god, and all ther energies of body and mmd bow down to serve it And the evil day is put fa. away ‘The faithful watchman who sounds the alarm as he sees destruction commg, 1s held up before the people from the pulputs of our land, and by the religious press, as a “fanatic, a “teacher of dangerous heresies while eI contrast 18 a a Tong penod of peace and prospenty to the church So the churches aie quieted to sleep ‘The scoffer contimues to scoff, and the mocker mocks on | Bat ther dey 1s comng ‘Thus sath the prophet of God “Howl ye, for the day of the Lord 1s at hand, xt shall come as a destruchon. from the Almghty ’ Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man s heart shall melt And they shall be afraid, pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them they shall be mn pam as a woman that travaileth they shall be amazed one at another, NOAH TIME, AND ouns 63 their faces shall be as flames Behold, the day of ‘the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate, and he shall de stroy the sinners thereof out of it Isa 13 6-9 lost dreadful day! Andis xt near? Yes, it hastoth’ Tt hasteth greatly’ What a desorption given by the prophet! Read st, and as you read, try to feel how dreadful will be that day “The rest day of the Lord 1s near af a8 near, and asteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord the mghty man shall ery there bitterly ‘That day 1s a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloommess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm agamst the fenced cities, and agamst the hugh towers And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they’ have sinned against the Lord and their blood shall be Porred out os dust, and their fesh ag the dung father their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them mm the day of the Lord s wrath but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy, for he shall make even a speedy md dance of all them that dwell m the lend Zeph 1 1448 Now we hear the “peace and safety ery from the pulpit, and all the way along down to the groz shop Where 1s the promise of his coming? 1s murmured from the mpious hps of a thousand last day scoffers But the scene will speedily change «For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, and ‘they shall not eseape The scoffing of the haughty seoffer will soon be turned to wailng and howling “The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, andcr ‘OUR FAITH AND HOPE the haughtmess of men shall be bowed down, and the ‘Lord lone shall be exalted 1m that day For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon ey ery one that 1s proud and lofty, and upon every one thats ifted up and he shall’ be brought low Isa 2 11,12 “And the slam of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other ead of the earth they shall not be la mented, neither gathered, nor buried they shall be dung upon the ground’ Jer 25 88 The last plagues im which is filled up the wrath of God, now Bottled up m Heaven, waiting for mercy to fimsh her last pleadings, will be poured out Unmingled wrath of Jeborah' And. not one drop of mercy? Not one! Jesus will lay off his priestly attire, leave the mercy seat, and put \e garments of vengeance, never more to offer hus blood to wash the sinner from hus sms ‘The angels will wipe the last tear shed over smners, tile the mandate resounds through all Heaven, Let them alone The groanmg, weeping, praying church on earth, who m the last message employs every power to sound everywhere the last note of warning, lest the blood of souls be found m her ments, 15 now hushed in solemn silence The foly Spirit has wntten withm them these pro phetic words of their soon expected Lord “He that 1s unjust, let hum be unjust sill and he which 1s filthy, let hum be filthy still and he that as righteous, let hm be righteous still, and he that 1s holy, let hum be holy sill Rey 22 11 Now the mmsters of truth have a message to the people, and gladly speak the words of life ‘They joyfully toil on, suffer on, and spend their cenorzies.in preaching to hearts as haid as stecl, hoping that « few may be reached, gathered nto NOAH S TIME AND OURS 6 ‘the truth, and saved But then they will have no messege” Now shen prayers end strong cree go up to Heaven in behalf’ of simmers ‘Then they wall have no spit of prayer for them Now the durch says to the sinner, Come, and Jesus stands to plead lus blood in hus bebalf, that he may be washod from his sim and hve But then salva taons hour will be passed, and the smner will be shut up m darkness and black despair It will be a day of mourning, and lamentation, and famme for hearmg the words of the Lord “Twill turn your feasts mto mournmg, and all your songs into lamentation and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loms, and baldness upon every head, and I will make it as the mourning of an only gon, and the end thereof asalbitter day Be hold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a Famine in the land, not a famme of bread, nor 2 thust for water, but of hearmg the words of the Lord and they shall wander from ‘ea to sea, and from the north even to the cast, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the ‘Lord, and shall not find it Amos 8 10-12 ‘Now, the word of the Lord may be heard, but smners, m and out of the churches, wth few ex ceptions, do not prize it Then, 1 mall not be heard, for the watchmen, set to watch and sound the alarm of danger, will be called down from ther ugh stations Now, the word of the Lod as earned to the sinner, and offered mthout money or price but he treats at carelessly, or, may be, nyes the humble servant of Chnst from hus door But then wall he go in search fort“ They shall ‘wander from sea to sea, and from the north even tothe east, but they cannot hear it “They shall 566 OUR FAITH AND HOPE ran to and fro to seck the word of the Lord, but shall not findt ‘From city to city, from State to State, from one country to another, will they go to find a man commissioned of high Heaven to speak the word of the Lord, but such an one 18 not to be found All such mill then have finshed thar high commission The word of the Lord! ‘The word of the Lord! Where can we hear it? 1s heard in every land One general wail—the ord of the Lord! goes up to Heaven, but the heavens are brass Then will the people turn and rend the false shepherds, who deceived them with the ery of “peace and safety Cluldren will re proach parents for keepmg them back from walk ing im the truth, and parents their children The muser now loves his money, and holds xt with an iron grasp But 1 wall be sad im that aay, “Go to now, ye mich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth eaten Your gold and silver 1s cankered and the rust of them shall be a witness agaist you, and shall eat your flesh as xt were fire Ye have heaped treasure together for che last days | James 5 1-3 Now, silver and gold may be used to Gods glory, for the advancement of hus causo But m that day, “they shall cast their silver into the streets, and ther gold shall be removed ther silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord Eze 719 THE KINGDOY 67 Sermons Feveo THE KINGDOM Text And in the days of these Langs chall the God of Heaven sot up kingdom which shall never bo destroyed ‘and the kingdom shall not be lef to other people bat itaball ‘break im pieces end consume all these kingdoms and it shall stand forever Dan 2 44 ‘Tae second chapter of Damel mtroduces five universal kingdoms which were to succeed each other The first four kingdoms are earthly and perishable ‘The fifth 1s mmortal, and will stand forever The first four kingdoms are represented by the great metallic image, the several parts of which are composed of gold, silver, brass, and aron med with clay When these shall be bro ken im pieces, and entirely removed, then will the ummortal kingdom fill the whole earth We will now call attention to Dan 2 31-45 Verses 31-36 “Thou, O king, sawest, and behold, 2 great mage This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee and the form thereof was terrible ‘This mage s head ‘was of fine gold, his breast and hus arms of silver, ‘hus belly and his thighs of brass, hus legs of sron, Ins feet part of tron and part of clay "Thou saw est ‘ull that a stone was cut out without hands ‘which smote the image upon hus feat that were of zron and clay, and brake them to pieces ‘Then ‘was the sron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became luke. the chaff of the summer threshing floors and ‘the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them, and the stone that smote the mage became @ great mountam, and filled the68 oun FAITH AND HOPE whole eaith This 1s the dream, and we will tell the mnterpretation thereof before the kmg But first let us notice some umportant points mentioned im this dream 1 The stone smote the image upon hus feet 2 ‘Then was the xron and clay, the brass, the silver and gold, broken in pieces 3 ‘The wind carried them away, like the chaff of the summer threshing floors, s0 that no place was found for them No langnage can desenbe destruction more complete 4 Then, ond not till then, the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth ‘Verses 87, 88 “Thou, O kg, art a king of kings, for the God of Heaven hath given thee a kangdom, power, and strongth, and glory And heresoorar the’children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all Thou art [or thy kingdom 1s] this head of gold ‘Babylon was the ist imgdom of ‘cunrversal empire It was founded by Nimrod, the great grandson of Noah See Gen 10 8-10 It lasted nearly seventeen hundred years, though under different names, sometimes called Babylon, sometimes Assyria, and sometimes Chaldea It continued from the time of Nimrod to that of Belshazzar, who was its last king ‘Verse 39 (first part) “And after thee shall anise another kingdom mferior to thee ‘The Medo Persian kingdom succeeded Babylon Seo chap 5 28 “Thy kingdom [Babylon] divided, and given tothe Medes and Persians ‘The Medo Persian was the second universal kingdom, repre sented by the breast and arms of silver THE KIVGDOW 69 ‘Verse 89 (last part) ‘And another thud king dom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth In chap 8 5-7, 21, we learn that Grecia conquered the Medo Persian kingdom, and became a kingdom of umversal empire This took place under Alexander Here, then, we have the third Jungdom, which 1s represented by the brass of the amage ferse 40“ And the fourth Lingdom shall be strong as iron, forasmuch as iron breaketh m. pieces and subdueth all things and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruse ‘The fourth kingdom is generally ad mitted to be Rome It 1s a universal kingdom that 1s to break in pieces all that went before xt Rome alone answers the desenption That did have umversal empire See Luke 21 “And xt came to pass in those days, that thee went out a decree from Coxsar Augustts, that all the world should be taxed © Casar Augustus was a Romin emperor Here we have the fourth kingdom, represented by the legs of 1ron ‘Verse 41 (frst part) “And whereas thou saw est the fect and toes, part of potters clay, and part of tron, the kingdom shall be divided ‘The West ern Empire of Rome, between the years 4 D 856 and 488, was divided mto ten divisions, or kan doms ‘1 The Huns, m Hungary, a’ D 356, 2. ‘The Osirogoths, im’ Mysia, 877, 8 The Vist goths,in Pannonia, 878, 4 The Franks, im France, 407 "5 ‘The Vandals, m Afnea, 407, 6 The Sueves and Alans, in Gascoigne and Spam 407 T The Burgundins, in Burgundy, 407 8 ‘The Heralt and ‘Rugu, m Italy, 476 § ‘The Saxons and Angles, m Britain, 476, 10 The Lombards,0 OUR FAITH AND HOPE im Germany, 483 Thus the kingdom was divided, as designated by the ten toes Verses 41-48 (beginnng with last part of verse 41) “But there shall be in at of the strength of the sron, forasmuch as thou sawest the ron mxed with miry clay And as the toes of the feet were part of aron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken And whereas thou sawest roa mixed with mry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men, but they shall not cleave one to ‘another, even as 2ron 18 not mxed with clay ‘This language 18 descmptive of the state of the Kingdoms into which the fourth kingdom should be Broken” Some of them should be strong. as won and somo feeble as clay Yet as ron can not be permanently umted to clay, so the stronger Kingdoms shall not be able to annex the weaker to themselves in a permanent union Nor shall the antermarnage of the reigning families succeed m causing these kingdoms to cleave together Next come the words of the text, which distinctly pomt to the period of the setting up of God s am perishable kingdom ‘Verse 44 “And in the days of these kings shall the God of Heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break m pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever ‘The kings mentioned 1m the text are most certamly the ten kings, or ten Kingdoms, of the divided fourth kmgdom for thoy are the subject of discourse The phrase, “Ta the days of these lings, does not refer to the days of the kingdom of Babylon, of Media and Persia of Grecee, ror to the days of Rome THE KINGDOM. a before xt was divided into ten kingdoms But xt does refer to Rome after it had been divided into tga kangdoms, represented by the ten toes of the mage Therefore the kingdom was not set up at the time of the first advent of Chnst Neither could st be set up, according to the text, until the Roman kingdom should be divided into the ten Kangdoms, which division took place between the years 4 D 356 and 483 The settimg up of this Kingdom 1s evidently 2 future event e stone did not smite the image on the head, Babylon, nor on the breast, Media and Persia nor on the sides, Grecia, nor yet on the legs, Rome Pagan The stone did sniute the image on hus feet “But st could not smite the feet before they existed, and they were not in being tll sev eral hundred years alter the frst advent of Jesus Christ We étill wait for the dashmg of the 1m age, or the destruction of all earthly governments, hefore the stone shall become a great mountain and fill the whole earth or the mmortal kingdom be fully established in the earth ‘Phe stone has nothing in common with the 1m age Mark well the events here stated The sione breaks the mage, and xt becomes like the chaff of the summer tireshing floors, and the wind fearres it away so that no place 1s found for it ‘All earthly kingdoms are first broken, and cease ‘to exist, then, and not till then, does the stone fill the whole earth ‘The kmgdom here mentioned 1s not a spint ual kangdom established m the minds and hearts of mortal men In no sense of the word whatever can it be said that the kingdom was set up about the time of the first advent of Chnst If xt be said that the kingdom of grace was set up by our2 OUR FAITH AND HOPF Lori Jesus Christ at hue first advent, then we in quire, Had God no kingdom of grace before that time? If not, then Enoch, Noah, Lot, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and the prophets, have per ished without hope, for certainly no man can be saved without grace It 1s true that the phrase, “It shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, gives, the idea that the kingdom of God, for a tume, 18 cotemporary with perishable kingdoms And in view of this fact, many adopt the popular view of the spmstual reign of Chnist, the conversion of the world, commonly called the temporal millennium Some others, who reject the spiritual reign, sup pose they havea strong hold in this phrase for the mixed millennium, the literal reign of Christ on the earth with the immortal righteous of all ages, among the mortal nations But we raect both these views as bemg opposed to the plainest dec Tarations of the sacred Somptures, and rnvite at- tention to one which we regard as scriptural and harmomous ‘The establishment of the eternal kingdom 1s by a succession of events, the first of which occurs prior to the destruction of earthly governments 1. ‘The Son of God, at the close of his mnistra tion for sinners, and before his seconé appearing, vill receive the kangdom from the Father In the seventh chapter of this prophetic booh we read these words “I saw 1 the mght visions, and be- hold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before hum And there vas given bum dominion and glory, and o Sang: dom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve um His dommmon 1s an everlasting domn THE AINGDOW 3 ton, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom, iat which shall not be destroyed Dan? 13, 14 _ This language describes a grand transaction a Heaven between the Father ind theSon The Son, at hus second advent to this world, does not approach the Father So far from ths, that the apostle represents the Father ag remaming in feaven, and sendmg his Son ‘And he [the Father] shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you Acts 8 30 ‘The words of the Psalmist are to the pomt “Ask of me [says the Father to the Son], and I shall give thee the heathen for thine snheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy pos session Thou shalt break them with a rod of aron, thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter s vessel Ps 2 8,9 Before the Son makes his second advent to this world, he receives from the Father “dominion, and glory, and a kingdom The heathen are hu, and the uttermost parts of the earth are hus possession ‘Thus the God of Heaven sets up the kingdom by mvesting Ins Son yath royal authonty before sending him to man. fest at mn the earth among his enemies 2 After the coronation of the King of kings, the opening heavens will reveal him comng im fendeur and in glory, lending on the arms of feayen to the last. great conitict mth the beast, the false prophet, and the hngsof theearth See Rey 19 ” “Hhs eyes wore as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns “And he hath on his yesture and on Ins thigh a name wntten, ing of lange, and Lord of lords His mssion then will be to ‘‘yudge and make war On one side will be the beast, and the kings of the earth and thew armies, and on the other side will be™ ‘OUR FAITH AND HOPE the King of kings, followed by all the holy angels ‘The armies of Heaven achieve a glorious victory “And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before hum, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshiped his Image ‘These both were cast ali nto a lake of fire burning with brimstone And the remnant were slam with the sword of hum that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of hus mouth In Rey 19 wo seo the complete destruction of all wicked men, or the dashing of the nations in pleces as a potter s vessel, or the mage broken by the stone, and utterly destroyed and removed hke the chaff before the wind The destruction of the enemies of the Lord, represented by the several names of “man of sin, “my of iniquity, tnd that wicked. i'thus Govorbed by tho apos tle—whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of hismouth, and shall destroy with the bughtness of his coming 2 Thess 2.8 B At the second advent of Christ, the right cous dead will be rawsed, the living nghteous will be changed, and thus the subjects of the eternal Kingdom will be made mmortal 1 Thess 4 WL18, 1 Cor 15 51-55 ‘This s the first res urrection at the commencement of the millen 4 The 1mmortal subjects of the kingdom will ascend with ther Lord to the eternal city, and reign with him in the judgment of the wicked a thousand years_durmg which time the earth will be desolate We have seen from New Testament testimony that all wicked men will be destroyed at the second advent See 2Thess 1 7-9, 2 7,8, Matt 13 26-80, 87-43, 8 12, Luke 17 THE KINGDOW © 24-80 The prophets of the Ola Testament clearly describe the desolation of the earth during the millennium See Isa 6 8-11, 18 9 24 1-8, 84 1-15, 28 21, 22 Jer 4 20,97, 25 82-88 Zeph 1 2,8 3 6-8 5 At the close of the millennium the wicked wall be raised from the dead ‘But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finshed — Rev 20 5 They will then be destroyed “And fire come dowa from God out of Heaven, and devoured them Rey 209 Sa tan, and all the fallen angels and all wicked men, wall then be consumed by the fre of Jehovah 3 wrath Rey 20 10 Matt 25 41 2Pet 2 4 Jude 6 In the general conflagration of that time, the old earth and atmospheric heaven will pass away from the face of Him that sutteth on the great white throne Rey 20 11 “The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the ele ments shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up 2 Pet 3 10 6 From the old earth, melted and cleansed from sm and smners, will come forth, molded by the hand of the great Restorer, the new earth, free from all the marks of the curse “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first carth were passed away Rey 21 1_ Then will be fulfilled the woids of Dand “For yet a httle while and the wicked shall not be yea thou shalt dihgently consider hus place and it shall not be But the meek hall mhert the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace Ps 37 10 11 And Chnst refers to the same m his sermon on the16 oR FAITH AND HOPE mount “Blessed are the meek, for they shall unhenit the earth = Matt 5 5 Teas at the close of the one thousand years of Revelation 20, after the final destruction of all God s enemies, that ‘the saints of the Most High shall take the kmgdom, and possess the paeton forever, even forever and ever “And the king dom and dommion, and the greatness of the kg dom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the samts of the Most High, whose Kmgtiom 1s an everlasting kingdom Dan 7 18, 2T” ‘Then will the kingdom m all its parts— the King, the subjects, the terntory, the holy city bemg the metropohs—be complete ‘Then ‘the stone will have become a great mountam, so as to fill the whole earth ‘We have seen that the estabhishment of tho 2m mortal kingdom will be by a succession of events ‘The langdom im. ats first stage, when set up m Heaven, by the God of Heaven, 1s represented by & stone out out of the mounfam — When com plete and fully estabhshed in the earth, 1t 1s repre- sented by a mountain fillmg the whole earth ‘Tho kingdom, 1n its stone condition, 15 cotempo rary for a while with the penshable kingdoms of this world Hence :t 1s said that “1t shall break 1m pieces and consume all thee kingdoms Dan 2 44 ‘This accomplished, and the earth re- stored to xts Eden glory, the kingdom and domn ton, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, will be the eternal inheritance of the redeemed ‘Contrast with this harmomous series of events in the establishment of the kingdom, that view which lune tho Kmgdsrn axistched en the oacth wes ‘Christ comes, and the one thousand years reign of THE BINGDOM 1 Christ with his people on the new carth That ‘view necessarily has Satan let loose on the new earth, after the samts, with Chnst in ther midst have enjoyed ts glories for a thou and years! ‘Then Satan s vast army, “the number of whom 1s as the sand of the sea, 18 raised from the dead out of the new earth' and, with Satan at their head, come tramping up over the fields of liv img green on the breadth of the new earth! to surround the city of the samts And to crown the absurdity of this position, fire comes down from Heaven and consumes the vast multitude of the wicked of all ages upon the new earth! In our opinion, the inconsistencies of this view have Jed many to adopt the mxed millennium and fol low on in the almost endless fancies of what 1s called the Age to Come Tf xt be objected that our view of the subject has the city of the redeemed resting upon the old earth before it shall be regenerated by fie, we reply Ths moy be mn the plan of God, that all smners may see What they havo lost, that the re deemed may witness the terrors of that death from which they are saved, and that the assem dled intelhgences of the universe that have not sinned, may also be impressed with the holiness and dignity of the divino law, the penalty of which 18 death Tremendous execution’ Satan, and all the angels that rovolted with hum, and all men who have died in their sins, from the murderer Cain, down to the last sinner that shall refuse salvation perish m the lake of fire poured upon them as they gather around the aty of the redeemed to take it How fitting a place will the old world78 OUR LAITH AND Hore be—the marks of the curse now doubly visible—for this terrible exeeution “ And hus feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, whichs before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave m the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley Zech 14 4 At the close of thé millennium the Lord mill stand upon the mount of his ascension and after his voice shall call forth the wicked dead, the mount will cleave asunder, leaving @ plain suffciently extensive to receive the New Je rusalem Around this city, Satan and hus vast forces will gather to take it And at the very moment of attack, fire from Heaven wall come down upon them to that extent that the vast scene nec essarily covering a large portion of the old earth s surface, 1s represented as a lake of fire and bum stone Then ‘the elements shall melt with fer vent heat, the earth also But whether that portion of the earth where the city shall rest, hav ing been prepared by a miracle of divine power for the reception of the beloved city, will remam unaffected by the fires of that day’ or whether the melting’ earth and heaven, fleemg from the faco of Hum that shall be seated on the great white throne, Rev 20 11, shall be removed from the city during thew regeneration by fire may not be important to the present discussion of the sub ject_ Either of these can be done by the power ‘of Him who will do greater things in the grand work of the restitution THE TWo KINGDoxS ‘Two conditions of the people of God are ex pressed m the Semptures by the word kingdom THE KINGDOW 9 1 Gods arrangement in the future renard of those who shall be saved by grace This we shall term the kingdom of glory 2 Gods arrange ment to save men by grace This we shall term the kingdom of grace “Let us therefore, says Paul, “come boldly unto the throne of grace Heb’4 16 A throne of grace supposes a king dom of grace KINGDOM OF GLORY Ie will appear evident that the word kingdom mm many cases refers to the future immortal king dom, and cannot be apphed to the means of grace ‘That the smmortal kingdom was not set up at certain periods spoken of in the New Testament, ‘will appear by referring to somo of those Scripture ‘expressions which apply to the future kingdom of glory. It was not set up when our Lord taught his “disciples to pray, “Thy kingdom come Matt 6 10 The prophets, Christ, and the apos Ales, all pont the church forward to the commg and langdom of Christ as the tume of the consum mation of her faith and hope, the end of her toils and sorrows, and the fullness of her joys Hence, 1m the pattern prayer for the Chnistion church of all ages 1s the petition, “Thy kmgdom come The mother of Zebedee s children understood the kngdom to be future when she desired our Lord to grant that her two sons mght sit, “the one on the right hand, and the other on the left, m his kingdom Matt 20 20 21 Agam the kmgdom ves sil fotare when our Lord ate the last passover with the twelve He said to them, “TI say unto you, I-will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall come Luke 22 1880 OUR FAITH AND HOPE But did Christ set up the kingdom before his ascension to Heaven? Dust before his ascension, the disexples inquired, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? It was not then set uy When James wrote hus eputle, the smmortal lmgdom was yet a matter of promse He says “Hearken, my beloved brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich im faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promused to ‘them that love him’ James 2 5 Both Jesus and Paul associate the kmgdom with the second advent Jesus addresses those who are waiting for us coming and kingdom, thus “Let your loms be girded sbout, and your hghts turmng, and ye yourselves like unto'men ‘that wait for ther lord, when he will return from the wedding, that, when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately Luke 12 36, 86 "In ths connection he comforts ins people with thesé precious words “Fear not, ittle flock, for tas your Father s_good pleasure to gue you the kingdom. Veree 88 Poal solomuly charges Timothy “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the fuck and the dead at his sppearing and las kang Kon 2 Tim 41 The apostle else states that “we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of Gox Acts 14 22 This address was made to those who were already Chnistians, yet they were not im the kingdom ‘The immortal Aingdom 1s the reward to be given to all who march boldly on through tribulation here And again he says, “Flesh and blood cannot mbeust the kingdom of God 10Cor 15 50 This set tles the question that there 1s a kinedom not to THE KINGDOW 81 be enjoyed by the samts tll they put on mmor tality, or till they enter the immortal state, which the apostle says, verse 52, 18 “at the last trump ‘The mmature exhibition of the Kingdom of God at the tr: ation 1s designed to show the nature of the kmgdom, and when it will be set up {Bor the Son of Man shall come inthe glory of dus Father, with his angels, and then he shall re ward every man according to his works Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here which shall not’ taste of death, till they see the Son of Man commg in his kmgdom — Matt 16 27, 28 “Till they see the kingdom of God = Luke 9 27 ‘This promise was shortly fulfilled on the mount “And after six days, Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and brimgeth them up into an high mountam apart, and was transfigured be fore them, and hus face did shme as the sun and Jus rament was white as the light And behold there appeared unto them Moses and Ehas talking juth him ‘Then answered Peter, and sad unio Jesus, Lord, 1t 1s good for us to be here If thou vit, let us make here threo tabernacles one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Ehas While he yet spake, behold, a bight cloud overshadowed thein and behold, 2 voice out of the cloud, which sad, This 18 my beloved Son, m whom I am well pleased, hea yehim Matt 17 1-5 Notico the following pomts 1 Jesus Christ appeared there m his own per sonal glory His countenance shone like the sun and his raiment was white as the hight 2 ‘The glory of the Father was there It was & “bright cloud of the dive glory, out of ‘which came the Father s voice win an 682 OUR FAITH AND HOPE 8 Moses and Eas appeared, the one, the rep resentative of those samts who shall be raised at Christ s commng, and clothed with glory, the other, Ehns, tho representative of those who will be alive and be changed at the appearing of Christ 4 The use the apostles made of the scene Peter was one of the witnesses, and in view of the importance of the kingdom of Christ, he, in jus second epistle, has given behovers of all coming ages instruction how they may msure an abundant entrance “into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ “For wo have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and commg of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye witnesses of hus maj esty ‘This, he says, was “when we were wi tum in the holy mount 2 Pet 1 16-18 Ths scene was 2 demonstration of Chnist's second, ersonal, and glorious, coming, and shows that the ungdom will Be immortal when set up, and that xt will bo sot up at the period of the second ad vent, and resurrection of the Just IVGDOM or GRACE Te will also appear evident that im many in stances the word kingdom applies to the means of ¢, and can have no reference to the future gdom The word is so used in many of the parables of our Lord ‘The parable of the wheat and the tares apphes to the present imperfect state, when sinners may enjoy the means of grace, and not to the future state of glory This is evident But the sowing mentioned m this parable did not commence at the first advent of the Son of God The children of the kingdom, and the children of the wicked one, -HE RINGDOW 8 both appeared long before Jesus died for sinners Abel and Cain represented the two classes. Dur ang the entire period from the tume of these sons of Adam to the close of the day of grace, this parable has a clear and foreible application Tn this parable the word kingdom 15 used four times Once it refers to the carth, which will be the teintory of the immortal kingdom, and once it has a distinct reference to the futme kmgdom of glory when fully established m the earth ‘The word lingdom may refer both to the means of grace necessary to preparo men for the fature life, and also to the future hfe itself’ No doubt, in this erable both the kingdom of grace and tie king iom of glory are brought to ew ‘They are very nearly related, the Kingdom of grace reach tag down very neat toy and being preparstory to the enjoyment of, the kingdom of glory ‘The parable of the mustard seed forcibly illus trates the kingdom of grace, embracing at first only our first parents mmmediately after the fall, and finally, in its grand results, embracing all the redeemed of every age, and from every land “Tho kingdom of Heaven 1s like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed hus field which indeed 1s the least of all seeds but when at 1s grown, xt 1s the greatest amon; herbs, and becometh a treo, so that the birds o the air come and lodge m the branches thereof Matt 13 31, 82 ‘The parable of the leaven hid in three measures of meal illustrates the work of grace in the be hevers heart “The kingdom of Heaven 1s lhe unto leaven, which 2 woman took, and hid im three measures of mea] till the whole was leavened Matt 13 83- This parable teaches ontire canea OUR FAITH AND HOPE tification of the mma and heart to God Tho apostle expresses this sentiment when he says, “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly , and I pray God your whole spmnt, aad soul, and body, be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Thess 5 28 ‘The parables of the treasure hid in the field, and of the pearl of great price, teach the value of salvation through Jesus Christ, and the sacrifices that should be cheerfully made to obtain xt “Aga, the kingdom of Heaven 1s like unto treasure Ind ma field, the which when 2 man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field ‘Again, the kingdom of Heaven 1s like unto a mer chantman, seeking goodly pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought 1: Matt 18 44-46 The parable of the net that gathaed good and bad fish, shows that although both good and bad men may be gathered into the chureb, the final separation will declare the true character of each “Aga, the kingdom of Heaven 1s ke unto a net, that was cast mto the sea, and gathered of every kind which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away So shall it be at the end of the world The angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the jast, and shall cast thom into the furnace of fire ‘There shall be waihng and gnashng of teeth Matt 18 47-50 Tn Matthew 25, the kingdom of Heaven 1s lik ened to an Eastern marriage This parable illus trates the action of the church gust before and not after, the econd advent “Then shall the THE KIYEDOW 85 Kangdom of Heaven be hened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom In this connection our Lord Pomts to speoife tame, in which the work of vine grace upon the minds and hearts of believ zs would give them an experience that would be likened to an Eastern marriage ‘The mental struggle in order to break away from the powers of darkness, and by faith reeerve the blessings of the hingdom of grace, 1s thus de sembed by our Lord “And fiom the days of John the Baptist, until now, the kmgdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force Matt 11 12” See Luke 16 16 The apostle speaks of the blessings of the king dom of grace thus “For the kangdom of God is not meat and drink, but nighteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost Rom 14 AT The connection shows that Paul applies the word kmgdom to the present dispensation, and not to the future period of reward THE KIYGDOW AT HAYD John the Baptist came preaching m the wilder ness of Judea and saymg “Repent ye, for the kingdom of Heaven 13 at hand tt 1,2 ‘Now after that John was put m prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God, aad saying, The tuze is fafilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand Repent ye and believe the gospel Mark 1 14,15 And as Jesus sent forth the twelve to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, he said to them, “And as ye fo, preted, saring, The kingdom of Heaven 1s at nd Matt 105-7 We have now reached a very important point8 oun FAITH AYD WoPE an the discussion of this subyect_ Many will meet us here with the popular wew that the kmgdom was sot up at che fume of the frst advent ‘They wall use the phrase, “The kingdom of Heaven is at hand, expressed by John, Jesus, and the twelve, with force upon the minds of those who do not study the subject in all sts bearmgs But, as we have shown, in no sense of the word what ever was the kingdom set up at the tume of the first advent of Chnst ‘The words, “kingdom of Heaven, and “kingdom of God, have but two sgnifications first, the plan to save men by grace, and second, the future condition and re- ward of the saved "The plan of salvation, or the kingdom of grace, was imstituted soon after the fall, and the reward of the saved, or the hing dom of glory, xs future ‘The Greek word translated “at hand, as used by Jesus, Jobn, and the twelve, 1s engrzo, and 1s defined by Greenfield as follows “To approach, draw near | By metouymy, to beat hand tom pend Matt 8 2, 4 i7 10 7, Luke 10 8,11, Mark 1 15’ ‘The zmmortal kingdom was not at hand, according to this defimtion, or the obvious meamng of the phrase, in the days of John and of Jesus In fact, Paul warned the church at Thessalonica against the idea that the dey of Christ—the day to destroy earthly king doms, and establish the ammortal kirgdom—was even then at hand “Be not soon shaken in mind, says the apostle, “or be troubled, neither by spun, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand 2 Thess 2.2 ‘The Greek word translated “at hand im this toxt 1s entstemt, and signifies, according to Green. field, “To place m, or upon, to stand near, be at ‘THE KINGDOW 87 hand, mpend 2 Thess 2.2 In thar bearng upon the subject of the kingdom, there 1s really no difference im the signification of these two Greek words But, does Paul contiadict John, Jesus and the twelve? Certamly he does not ‘What, then, did John and Jesus mean in pro clammmng the kmgdom of Heaven at hand? ‘Not that the kmgdom of grace was soon to be set up No that bad been mstituted more than four thou sind years before that proclamation Neither did ‘they ‘urge immediate repentance on the ground thot the kingdom of Heaven was at hand in the sense of beng the next universal kingdom! Wath this view, their fervent announcement would seem to lose its force But thew proclamation had dhrect reference to the wonderful manifestations of divine power and grace immediately to follow, during the work of confirmmg the covenant, Dan 9 27° first, by Chnst, for three and a half years, and by the apostles, Heb 2 8, the same period of time John looked forward to the mmstry of Jesus, which was approved of God “by miracles, and wonders, and signs, which God did by him, ‘Acts2 22, and proclaimed the kingdom of Heaven at hand And Jesus looked forward to his own minsstry, and also to that of the apostles as “they went forth, and proached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs followmg, Mark 16 20, and proclaimed the kingdom of Heaven at hand ‘This view of the subject 1s sustamed by the commission given by our Lord to the seventy “Go your ways Behold, I send you forth as lambs “among Wolves ‘And into whatsoever city ye enter, and hey receive you, eat such thing’ as are set before you And heal the sick88. OUR FAITH AYD HOPE that aro therein, and say unto them, The kingdom gfGodiscomonigh unto you Luke 10 3, 8,9 The kingdom of God im éhis connection can mean nothing more, and nothing less, than the mamfes, tation of divine power and grace (And with this e the words of Christ ad dressed to the worthy seribe ‘And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, ‘Thou art not far from the kingdom of God Mark 12 34 ‘Thus scribe was sound on the fun damental prmeiples of Gods government He only needed to know Christ and the power of his great salvation, mn order to enjoy all the privileges and blessings of the kingdom of grace Deception has been the work of Satan ever since he so successfully deceived Eve He led the Jows to expect m the Messiah a ruling mon arch, mstead of the meek and lowly teacher, and finally the sacrifice for sinners ‘The Pharisees supposed the kingdom of Israel would then be es tablished with outward show And when he was demanded of the Phansees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, ‘The kingdom of God cometh not with observation neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold the kingdom of Gods mthin you | Lake 17 20,21 But was the kingdom within the un Dekeving Pharisees? The marginal readmg— “among you —helps the case What was then among them? Christ had just cleansed ten lep ers who showed themselves to the pmests, and one of them returned to give glory to God In their midst were the wonderful mamfestations of divine power and graco m the miracles of Christ hence ke said to the Pharisees, “The kingdom of God 1s among you THE KINaDOW 9 ‘At the tame of the second advent, and the es tabhshment of the eternal kingdom, the people will doubtless be under as great deception rela fave to the nature of the commg and kingdom of Christ, a8 the Jews were relative to his mission at us first advent ‘Then he came as the humble teacher of the people, closmg his mission with givin, humself a sacrifice for sinners The Jews rejecte: Jesus because he did not meet their vain expec tations Satan led them to look for the comng of Messiah with outward show, and grandeur, when he was to come m humility "And now that he 1s to appear the second tume mm the clouds of heaven wath power and great glory, Satan has the delu sion prepared for the people, that Christ comes at death, at conversion, or in ‘the outpouring of the Spint of God Jesus anticipates the heresies of our time, and says “The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son ‘of Man, and yo shall not see it And they shall say to you, See here! or, See there! go not after them, nor follow them’ For as the lightning that ightoneth out of the one part under heaven shin eth unto the other part under heaven so shall also the Son of Man bem hisday Luke 17 22-24 But im order to enter the hingdom of glory, we must first be in the kingdom of grace, sharing all ats privileges and blessmgs The fathful John bears testimony “I John, who also am your brother, and companion m tribulation, and 1 the Kangdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the asle that 1s called Patmos for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Chust Rev 1 9 John was in the kingdom of grace Paul to the Colossians delineates true Chnstian experience in a style wonderfully rich and full90 OUR FAITH AND HOPE Ho sets forth the change necessary for a moral fitness to be partaker of the eternal anhenitance, am words that should stir the soul and burn ther way to every Christian heart & For this cause we also, since the day we heard at, do not ecase to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of hus will im all isdom and spintual understanding hat ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleas ing, beg frutfal 1n every good work, and im creasing tn the knowledge of God strengthened wath all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long suffering with joyful ness giving thanks unto the Fathor, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in hght who hath dehvered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into ‘the kingdom of tus dear Son, in whom we have redemption through kus blood, even the forgive ness of sims Col 1 9-14 ‘he apostle here sets forth real conversion ‘When compared with this, most experiences will be found spurious Trae conversion 1s not always the work of a day, or of a year Its, however, always an onward work, widenmg and deepenin as it progresses Those who are truly converte are delivered from the powers of darkness and are translated into the kingdom of grace In Chnist they have a moral redemption, * even the forgive ness of sims_ ‘This passage has no reference to the physical redemption at the resurrection of the just Tes words of stirring interest describe the prepara tion necessary to thent the eternal kingdom of od mE JUDGWEYT ot Sermon Erght THE JUDGMENT ‘Texr [beheld till the thrones were cast down and the Anoteat of Days did sit whose garment was white as snow fand the haur of hus head 'ske the pure wool us throne was Dike the fiery fame and his wheels as buraing fre A fery stream issued and came forth from before mum thousand ‘thousends mumstered unto him ond ten thousand times ten ‘thousand stood Defore him the Judgment was set and the ‘books were opened Tenw in the night visions snd behold one like the Son of Man came with the olouds of heaven sad came to the ‘Ancient of Days and they brought him nearbefore bum And there wae given Bim dominion and glory and a kingiom ‘hat all people nations and languages should serve him ‘hug dominion 19 an everlasting dommion which shall not pa s away and bit hingdom that which saall aot be destroyed Dans 10-13 1 We have m this scriptue a most mpressive deseription of the Judgment The Ancient of Days represents God, the Father One like the Son of Man, who comes to the Ancient of Days, 1s our Lord Jesus Christ Those who stand his presence, either to mmnister or to wait, are not men, but angels Compare Dan 7 10 with Rev 5 11 Daniel deserbes the opemmng of the Judg ment of the nghteous, which occurs m Heaven priot to the return of the Lord to this world to aise them from the dead The Father presides as judge ‘The angels of God are present as mmisters and wit nesses At this tribunal the Son of Man presents humself to receive the dommion of the world Here he 1s crowned King of kings, and Lord of lords, with which title he afterwards comes to the earth Rey 19 11-16 But men are not pres ent to witness this part of the Judgment, nor to92 OUR FAITH AND HOPE behold the coronation of Christ Its the Father, and the Son, and the holy angels, who compose this grand assembly ‘The thrones named an the text are not those of earthly governments, but thrones of judgment ‘The best authorities give the words “cast down, the opposite meanmg They render them “set up, or “established ‘Thus Adam Clarke says “The thrones were cast down, might be translated erected so the Vulgate, positr sunt, and so all the versions Dr ‘Hales, im his ‘Sacied Chro nology, vol n, p 105, renders Dan 7 9, thus “T beheld till the thrones were erected, and the Ancient of Days sat, &e The Douay version reads, “were placod, and so Bernard, and Boothroyd and Wintle m the Cottage Bible Matthew Henry, m hus Exposition, renders 1t “set up _ Of the onginal Hebrew word, Gesensus, 2 hus Lexicon, says mak, (1) To cast, to throw, Dan 8 20, 21,24 6 17° (2) Toset, to place, e.g, thrones "Dan 7 9, compare Rey 4 2 ‘The term used by the Septuagint 18 Sore errBroay which, literally ‘rendered, accordmg to Inddell and Scott, would be, “the thrones were set Other authorities mght be given ‘The Judgment scene embraces the establish ment of thrones and the sittmg im Judgment of the great God, amd the brightness of that glory, feebly represented by fire and flame, surrounded by gngelic hosts second the opening of the hfe records of men, from which they are to be judged, and the Son of Man approaches the Ancient of Days, attended by multitudes of angels, here represented by the clouds of heaven, to receive dominion, glory, and a kingdom “This seene does not represent the second appearing of Christ ‘THE JUDGMENT 98, to this world, unless xt can be shown that the Ancient of Days 1s here With these remarks upon the character of the Judgment, we will briefly call attention to the prophetic cham of that chapter, which shows our fame in the history of earthly governments, and the comparative nearness of the Judgment But to make this portion of symbohe prophecy more dlear and forcible to the reader, we mal frst illus ‘trate Suppose you were traveling a road with which you were ‘unscquanied You inquire of a Stranger—he tells you that the road leads to a glorious city, filled with every good thing, gov ered by the most lovely, mild, and benevolent prince that the world ever saw, that im that eity there 1s neither sickness, sorrow, pain, nor death He then proceeds to tell you what you may ox pect to pass on the road, By which you may know he has told you the truth, and which will mark the progress you have made First, then, he tells you that, after leaving him and traveling’ awhile, You will come to a monument that can be seen a at distance on the top of xt you will see a jon, having eagle s wings At a distance beyond tha, you will come to another monument, having ont a bear, mth three nbs im its mouth Pass ing on still, you will at length arnve at a monu ment, on the top of which you will behold a Teopard, having four wings of a fowl, and four After that, you will come to a fourth, on ‘which 1s a beast, dréadful and ternble, with great ron teeth, and ten horns And, lastly, you will come to another place, where you will see the same beast, with this difference “three of ts first horns have been plucked up, ind in the place ofof OUR TAITH AND HOPE thom hes come up a peculiar horn, having eyes like the eyes of a man, and 2 mouth The next ‘thing you will look for, after passing the last men tioned sign, 1s the city ‘With these directions you commence your Jour ney What do you look for first? “The lion At length you sed it ‘That mspires in you some faith n the persons knowledge and truth, who had directed you Having passed that sign, the next thing you expect to see, as marked im the dhreetions, 13 the bear At length you come in sight of that ‘There, say you, is the second sign he gave me He must have been perfectly ac quainted with this road, and has told me the truth Your faith mereases as you tiavel on ‘What next do you look for? Not the city, cor tainly No, you look for the leopard Well, by and by you behold that in the distance There tas! you ery , now I know he has told me the ‘trath, and it Will come out just as he said Is the next thing you look for the city? No, you look for that terrible beast with ten horns "You pass that, and say as you pass, How exactly the man who’ directed me described everything Now Four faith 1s so confirmed that you almost see the ety but, say you, there 18 one more sign to pass, viz, the horn with eyes , then the eity comes next’ Now hopes high, and your anxious eyes gaze with mtense interest for the lest sign That comes in view, and you exclaim in raptures, There atas! All doubt 1S now removed You look for no more signs Yom longing eyes are fixed to gazo onthe glorious ety next, and probably no man now, however wise he might profess himself, could make you discredit what you. director has THE JUDGVEYT 95 told you The eity—the eity—is fixed im your eye, and onward you go, hasting to your rest Now, xf we find on exammation that all the events or signs that God has given us, which wee to precede the Judgment day and the settmg up of his everlastmg kingdom, have actually trans pired, or come to view, what are we to look for next? The Judgment of the great day! The lorious reward of the just" “The city of the eat Kg! Let us, then, examue the chapte~ efore us ‘Verses 1-8 “In the first year of Belshazza, kang of Babylon, Damiel had a dream, and visions of his head apon hus ned then he wrote the dream, and told the sum of the matters Daniel spake and said, I sawin my vision by mght and, behold, the four winds [denoting commotions} of the heaven strove upon the great sea [waters denot mg people see Rev 7 1o] and four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another ‘These four beasts are explamed by the angel tobefour kmgs Veise 17 In verse 23, they are said to be four kingdoms, which shows that the word king in these visions signifies kingdom Verse 4 “he first was like a lon, and had eagles wings, I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was hfted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man s heart was given xt Babylon, as deseribed in this vision, 1s here ftly represented by a hon, the king of beasts, denot mg the glory of that langdow, and corresponds ‘vith the head of gold in chapter 2 ‘The eagle s ‘wings represent the rapidity of its conquests, and the soaring pride of ats monarchs‘ For lo, T96 OUR FAITH AND HOPE raise up the Chaldeans, [Babylon] they shall Gy ag the eagle tht hesteth to ext Hab 1 6-8 The plucking of hus wings may refer to the humliation of the proud monarch of Baby Ion, chapter 4 81-87, or the cowardice of Bel shazzar, who, mstead of driving away hns foes Like a lion, shut himself up im the city, feasting and driakmg with his lords, till he was lulled, and the kmgdom given to the Medes and Per sans ‘Verse 5 “And behold, another beast, a sec ond, like to a bear, and 1t rassed up itself ‘on one side [representing two lnes of kings, one much longer than the other], and xt had three nbs m the mouth of st, between the teeth of rt, and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh ‘The bear corresponds with the silver breast and arms of the image, and ropresents the Medo Per sian kingdom, which succeeded Babylon It 1s clearly the kingdom here desonbed It was noted for cruelty and thust for blood “The three nibs in the mouth of this bear, evidently symbolize the three great powers conquered by the Medo Persian kingdom ‘viz, Babylon, Lydia, and Egypt See Rollms Ancient History It subdued many and populous kingdoms Ahasue rus, or Artaxerxes, reigned over one hundred and twenty seven provinces See Esther 1 1 ‘Verse6 “After this I beheld, and lo, another, Like a leopard, which had upon the back of xt four wings of a fowl, the beast had also four heads, and dominion was given to it ‘The leopard corresponds mth the brazen sides of the image of chapter 2, and illustrates Grecia ‘The four wings denote the rapidity of 1ts conquests under Alexander ‘The four heads represent its THE JUDGMENT oT division anto four parts, after Alexander died and lus posterity were murdered ferses 7,8 ‘After this I saw im the mght visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and Aernble, and strong exceedingly , and at had great tron teeth, it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of 1t, and st was diverse from all the beasts that were before xt, and it had ten horns I consylered the horns, and bebold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots, and behold, am this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and ‘a mouth speaking great things ‘The fourth beast corresponds with the sron legs of the umage of chapter 2, and represents the Roman kingdom ‘The ten horns of the beast correspond with the ten toes of the image and represent the ten kingdoms ito which the West em empire of Rome was divided But these verses will be particularly examined when we come to the angels explanation We will also pass over the words of the text m verses 9, 10, 13, and 14 which we have noticed ‘Verse 11 ‘I beheld, then, because of the vorce of the great words which the horn spake I be held even till the beast was slam, and hus body destroyed and given to the burning flame ‘Nothmg 1s said of the domimion of this beast Deing taken away as 1s sad of the others ‘The others lost ther dommion after a time but thaw subjects survived, and were transferred to the succeeding governments but the very bod (eubjects) of this fourth lingdom 1s destroyed, and given to the burning fame98 OUR PAITH AND TOPE ‘Verse 12 “As concerning the rest of the ‘beasts, they had ther dommion taken away yet ther ives were prolonged for season and ‘time Babylon, Media and Persia, and Grecia, sue cassively lost the dommion, but the hves of the respective nations were prolonged, beng merged into the succeeding governments "Vorson 15-18 1 Danuel wea grieved ma my spirit m the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me “I came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked him the truth of all this So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things ‘These great beasts, which are four, are four hings, which shall arise out of the earth But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kangdom forever even forever and ever fark this There were four beasts presented to the prophet, which represent four universal monarchs, no more, and no less The fourth “beast was slam, and his body destroyed, and ven to the burning fame This denotes the lestruction of all the living wicked Next, the saints of the Most High take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom, not for thousand years ‘only but forever, even forever and ever Verses 19-25 “Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of 1ron, and hus nails of brass’ which devoured, brake m pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet and of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose THE SUDGVENT 99 Took was more stout than his fellows I beheld and the same horn made war with the saints and prevailed against them, until the Ancient of Days came and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High, and the ume came that the amts possessed the kingdom Thus he said, The fourth ‘beast shall be the fourth kmgdom upon earth which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down and break itn pieces" And the ten horns ‘out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise and another shall rise after them, and he shall de diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings And he shall speak great words agamst the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High and think to change trmes and laws and they shall be given ito his hand until a time and times and the dividing of trme ‘These verses demand more extended comment ‘The points to be noticed, are, 1 ‘The fourth beast or fourth kingdom No kingdom that has existed on earth will answer to at except the Roman kingdom That has been truly diverse from all kingdoms especially mn its forms of government which were not les than seven, bemg at different times, Republican Con sular, Tribune Decemvirate, Dictatorial Tmpe nal, and Kingly Tt was at length divided nto the Eastern and Western empires, Rome proper being in the Western empire 2°The ten horns Between the years a D 856 and 483 the Roman empire was divided into ton kingdoms, as noticed in remarks on chapter 2 ‘Thus, the ten horns are ten kings (kingdoms) that arose out of this empire 8 The little horn The charactensties of this100 OUR FAITH AND HOPE, horn are frst, 1t speaks great words against the Most High and, second 1t makes war with, and Wears out, the saints ‘The same character is de seribed m Rev 18 6,7 ‘And he opened his mouth mm blasphemy against God to blaspheme bis name, ond hus tabersacle, and them that dwell in Heaven And it was given unto hum to make war with the suits, and to overcome them Damel says he ‘prevailed agamst them Paul says “That day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be re vealed the son of perdition who opposeth and exalteth himself above all thats called God or that 18 worshiped so that he, as God, sitteth m the temple of God, showing himself that he 1s God Daniel 5 little horn, Pauls man of sin, and John ¢ blasphemous beast, are clearly identical It must be admitted that such a power has arisen, and that at 1s the Papacy The titlee the popes have assumed, of “ Most Holy Lord and their pretensions to’ pardon sin, even before its commission, if we had nothing’ else sufficiently establish the blasphemous character of that power Pope Innocent III writes He [Christ] hath set one man over the world, jum whor he hath appointed his vicar on earth and as to Christ 1s bent every knee in Heaven, in earth and under the earth so shall obedience and service be paid to his vicar by all, that there may be one fold and one shepherd Again Pope Gregory VII says ike Roman pont alone s by night unwersal In him alone as the right of making laws Let all kings kiss the feet of the pope’ His name alone shall be heard im the churches It 1s the only name in the world Tt. hus night to depose THE JUDGMENT 101 Jungs _ His word 1s not to be repealed by any one It is to be repealed by himself alone Ie ws to bejudged by none ‘The church of Rome has never erred, and the Scriptures testify xt never shall err Surely, here 1s a power diwerse from all others, and proud and blasphemous enough to answer the character of the httle horn It as aid of this horn that he shall thmk to change times and laws Its evident that the laws here poken of are the laws of the Most High for bis work 15 to oppose God The changing of human laws would not be here noted as a characteristic of the man of sin, for his distinguishing acts are agaist God and his sants In flfllment ofthis part of the prophecy, the Roman apostasy has practically Femoved the second commandment from the dees logue, has changed the Sabbath of the fourth, from the seventh to the first day of the week, and has divided the tenth to make up the number of ten commandments See Catholie Catechism 4 The time when the hittle horn, or the Papacy arose. It came up among the ten horns hence did not arise prior to 488, when the tenth horn came up Three of the ten horns were plucked before the little horn on its way up Is was therefore established at the very pomt where the third horn fell In the year of our Lord 498, the Heruli an Rome and Italy were conquered by the Ostrogoths In 534, the Vandals who were under Arian mfluence, ‘were conquered by the Greeks for the purpose of establishing the supremacy of the Catholics The Ostrogoths, who held possession of Rome, were under an Arian monarch, who was an_enemy to the supremacy of the bishop of Rome Hence, be102 OUR FAITH AND HOPE fore the decree of Justiman (the Greek emperor at Constantinople) could be carried into effect, by hich he had constituted the bishop of Rome head of all the churches, the Ostrogoths must be plucked up This conquest was effected by Justinian s army in the month of March, 588 _at which time the Ostrogoths, who had retired without the city, and be 1eged it in thair turn, raised the siege and retired, leaving the Grecks’ im possession of the city Thus the third horn was plucked up before the Papacy, and for the express purpose, too of tetablishing that power See Gibbon s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire ‘The facts answer well to the prophecy Here as the letter of Justinian to the bishop of Rome, 4 D533 «Justinian, plows fortunate renowned triumph ant, emperor ‘consul, &¢, to John, the Most Holy Archbishop of our eity of Rome, and Patriarch “Rendering honor to the apostolie see, and to your holiness (as always was and 18 our desne), and as 1t becomes us honoring your blessedness as a father, we have laid without delay before the notice of your holiness all things pertaining to the state of the church Since xt has alsrays been our earnest study to preserve the unity of your holy see, and the state of the holy churches of God which has hutherto obtamed and wil remam without, any interfering opposition therefore we hasten to subject, and to unite to your holiness all the priests’ of the whole East’ As to the matters ‘which are presently agitated, although clear and undoubted, and, according to the doctrine of your apostohie see, held assuredly, resolved and decided by all priests, we have yet deemed 1t necessary to Jay them before your holiness Nor do we sulfer ‘THE suDGWENT 103 anything which belongs to the state of the church, however manifest and undoubted, that 1s agitated, to pass without the knowledge of your holiness, who are the head of all the churches For in all ‘things (as has been said or resolved) we are prompt to increase the honor and authority of your see “The authenticity of the title say3 Mr Cro Jey,‘ regenvesunanswerahlo proof from the edicts of the ‘Novell of the Justiman code The pre amble of the 9th states ‘that as the elder Rome was the founder of the laws co was it not to be questioned that in her was the supremacy of the pontificate The 131st, on the Beclestastical ‘Tt tes and Privileges chap’ u, states ‘We therefore decree that the most holy pope of the elder Rome 1s tho first of all the priesthood and that the most blessed archbishop of Constantmople, the new Rome, shall hold the second rank, after the holy apostolic chair of the elder Rome ” —Croley on the Apocalypee, pp 114, 115 Imperial Rome fell about a D 475, and was in the hands of the barbarians Thus it continued till the conquest of Rome by Belisarms Justm yan general 536 to 538, when the Ostrogoths Jefe at in possession of the Greek emperor March, 588 ‘Thus the way was open for the dragon to give the beast hus power, and his seat, and great authority Rey 13 2 5 ‘The length of time this power was to con fooue Damefays “Atime and times and the di viding of time John says, Rev 13 5 “Power es gwen unto lum to continue forty and. two months He was to make war upon the saints, the church, and im Rey 12 6, we are told that the woman, the church, fled xnto the wilderness 1260 days, and in tho 14th verse, that 1t was for104 OUR FAITH AND HOPE “a tume, and times, and half atime Here, then, we have the period of the continuance of this power given uti tice forms of expreston, which set les the point that the time, tumes, and the divid ing of time, are 42 months, or 1260 prophetic days, or hteral years 6 ‘The termination of the 1260 years From 538, 1260 years would extend to 1798 Dad anything transpire that year to justify the belief that the domnion of the Papacy ended at that time? It is a historical fact that, on Feb 10, 1798 Berthier a French general entered the city of Rome and took it. Gn the 15th of the same month, the pope was taken prisoner and shut up in the Vatican The Papal government, which had continued from the time of Justimian, was abolished, and a repub lean form of goversment given to Rome The pope was carried captive to France where he died in 1799 ‘Thus he that led into captivity went into captivity he that lulled with the sword was lulled (subdued) with the sword Rev 13° 10 His dominion was taken away by war Verse 26 “But the judgment shall at, and they shall take away hid dommion to consume gad to destroy stunto the end See 2 Thess 2 8 ‘Whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming ‘That the pope was restored or a new one chosen, 1s admitted But that he has power to depose {ings and put he saints to death now. ss denied Before his dominion was wrested from him, he de oosed kings at pleasure for centuries, and silenced sereties by the flame, the rack, the prison, and he sword ‘This he cannot do now, nor has ho een able to do it since 1788 Papacy as com ‘THE JUDGMENT 105 elled to tolerate Protestantism Hear the pope rmself on that subject Here 1s his letter, dated Sept_ 1840 at Rome ‘Exovourca Lerrsr or ovr Most Hour Lonp Gregory AVI, by Divine Providence Pope, to all Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, and Bish ops Pic Venerable Brethren,—Health and the Apos tobe Benediction You well know, Venerable Brothers, how great are the calamities with which the Cathole church 1s beset on all sides im this most sorrowful age, and how pitifully she as af fucted Indeed, are we not (oh, how shame ful!) compelled to see the most crafty enemies of the ‘truth, ranging far and wide with unpumity , not only’ attacking religion with ridicule, the chureh with eontumely, and Catholies with insults and slander but even entering into cites and towns establishing schools of error and impiety, publishing in print the poison of their doctrines, skullfally concealed under the deceitful vail of the natural sciences and new discoveries, and even penetrating ito the cottages of the poor travel ang through rural districts and amsinuating them selves into familiar aequamtanee with the lowest ‘of the people, and with the farmers? ‘Thus they leave no means unattempted, whether by corrupt Bibles in the language of the people, or pestifer fous newspapas tnd other ike publieations or caviling conversation, or pretended charity, or, fi nally, by the gift of money, to allure ignorant people and especially youth, mto their nets, and anduee them to desert the Catholic faith “We refer to facts, Venerable Brethren, which not only ate known to you, but of which you are wnitnesses, even you, who, though you mourn, and,108 OUR FAITH AND HOPE as your pastoral duty requres, are by no means silent, are yet compelled to tolerate m your dio eeses’ thes aforesaid propagators of heresy and mnfidehty Hence it 18 easy to conceive the state of angmsh mto which our soul 1s plunged day and mght, as we, bemg charged with the su perintendence’ of the whole fold of Jesus Christ, and the care of all the churches must give account for Ins sheep to the Divine Prince of Pastors ‘And we have thought fit Venerable Brethren, to recall to your mmds by our present letter the causes of those troubles which are common to us and you, that you may more attentively consider how important it 18 to the church that all holy priests should endeavor, with redoubled zeal, and with united labors, and with every kind of efforts, to repel the attacks of the raging foes of religion, to turn back the weapons, and to forewarn and fortify agaist the subtle blandishments which they often use This, as you know, we have been care ful to do at every opportumty, nor shall we cease to doit _as we also are not sgnorant that-you have always done it hitherto and confidently trust that you mill do hereafter with still more earnest zeal «Given at Rome, at St Mary the Greater, on the 18th of the Kalends of September, of the year 1840, the tenth of our pontificate “Gnecony XVI Pore ‘Verse 27 And the kingdom and dommion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom 1s an everlasting Kingdom, and all’ domnions shall serve and obey him Thus the immortal kangdom of the Most High 38 located under, not above, the whole heaven It THE IE 107 ‘will therefore embrace the whole earth when it shall be punfied by fire, and madenew Rev 21 5 Then will be falfilled the word of the Lord by hus prophets “But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord Num 14 21 “But the meek shal] inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace Ps 87 11 “For the earth shall be fall of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea Isa 11 9 For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea wb 2 1S Now let us see whereabouts we are in the pro phen chain We have passed the lion, Babylon ’e have gone by the bear with three ribs in his, mouth ‘sign of the leopard with four wings of a fowl and four heads has beon passed The dreadful and ternble beast with ten horns has deen seen We have passed the hittle hora hey ing eyes like the eyes of a man That 1s among the things numbered with the past What comes next? ‘The Judgment, and Gods everlasting kingdom Sermon Yue THE TIME Texz Then I heard one sunt speaking and another saint said unto thet certain saint which spake Hoy long all be the vision conceraing the daily sverifee and the transgression of dosolation to give both the sanctuary ad. ‘he host to be trodden under foot? And he aad unto ime. ‘ato two thousand aud three hundred days thon stall the ‘sanctuary be cleansed Dan 8 12 14 ‘The text 1s umportant, or xt would not be m the Bible The text may be understood, otherwise,108 OUR FAITH AND HOPE at a8 not a portion of Gods revelation to man What God has revealed he designed should be understood It 1s true that ¢ the secret things belong unto the Lord our God We have no business with them “But those thgs which are revealed belong unto us, and to our children forever Deut 29 29 ‘Time 1s revealed in the sacred Seriptures ‘Time 1s important, or xt would not be in the Bible To class the prophetic periods with non essentials 1s an insult upon the God of the Bible In giving man a revelation, our gracious God gave the essentials, and left the non essentials out of the book The definite time of the second advent of Christ 18 not revealed m the Bible ‘This fact, however, does not take from the prophetic per: ods any of their mmportance They were de signed to serve an important purpose and just ‘what purpose, 1s the object of this discourse to show ‘We will first briefly define the terms employed an the text I The two samts im conversation are Chnst and Gabriel 2 The vision embraces the three empires of Persia Grecia, and Rome 8 The daily sacrifice and the transgression of desolation, represent Rome mits pagan and pa pal forms 4 ‘Tho sanctuary 1s that of the new covenant, or of the Christian age andisin Heaven It 18 he sanctuary of which Paul speaks in the book of Hebrews 5 The host are the true people of God, who lurect their worship to the heavenly sanctuary THE TIME 109 6 Both the sanctuary and the host are trod den under foot m the same sense that men now tread under foot the Son of God Heb 10 29 T Thedays are prophetic meaning 2800 years, and their commencement and termination can be distinctly defined 8 The cleansing of the sanctuary 1s not from physical uncleanness but from the sins of the people Much may be learned of the nature of the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary at the close of the 2800 prophetic days, by the manner in which the typical sanctuary was cleansed on the tenth day of the seventh month of each year We will now notice each point stated, and give our reasons for the positions taken ‘THE TWO sary 1 The two sats in conversation ‘The angel selected to especially instruct Damel says to him, in chapter 10 21 “‘There is none that holdeth ‘with me in these things, but Michael your prince Jude, verse 9, has the expression, © Michael the archangel Archangel 1s the head over angels, as archbishop 1s head over bishops But who 15 the archangel? The apostle, in 1 Thess 4 16, says “The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the tramp of God and the dead im Christ shall rise first And Jobn 5 25, proves that xt 1s the voice of the Son of God that wakes the dead to life ‘ Ihe dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live These texts prove that Michael 1s the Son of God ‘Therefore the Son of God was one of the two heavenly bemgs And and as there were but two engaged im revealing110 oR FAITH AND HOPE to Damel the great facts of the vision, the angel Gabriel, mentioned m chapter 8 16 9 21, 18 the other heavenly bemg How beautifully grand the scene’ The Son of God and the angel Gabriel m conversation! One mquires of the other “How long the 1sion concern ing Persia, Grecia, and Rom ? The other di rect the answer to the propuet, “Unto two thousand and three hundred days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed THE VISIOV 2 The vision relates to what the prophet saw respecting Media and Persia, Grecia, and Rome, as recorded in the eighth chapter of Daniel ‘Verses 1,2 “Inthe third year of the reign of Kang Belshazzar, a vision appeared unto me even unto me Daneel, after that which appeared unto me at the first’ And Isaw ma vision and it come to pass, when I saw, that I was at Shushan 1m the palace, which as in the province of Elam and I saw an’a vision, and I was by the river of Ula In these verses the term, a vision, 18 mentioned three times Referring to the same mm verse 13, the question 1s asked, “How long shall be the vision? ‘The Son of God, an verse 16, commands Gabriel to make Daniel “under stand the vision And Damel says at the close of his prayer m chapter 9 While I was speak img in prayer oven the man Gabriel, whom 1 had seen in the vision ‘This vision we will now con sider ‘Verses 8,4 “Then I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns and the two horns were lugh, but one was higher than the other, THE TIME m and the higher came up last I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward, 80 that no beasts mght stand be fore him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand but he dd according to his wil, and became great The symbol of the ram 1s explained in verse 20 “The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia “Thus vision does not begin wath the empire of Babylon rep resented by the head of gold in chapter 2, and the lion of chapter 7 It begins with the empire of Media and Persia, at the hight of its power, prevailing westward, northward, and southward, 80 that no power could stand before xt ‘The two horns of the ram denote the union of these two powers m_one government Compare this with the arms of the metallic mage of chapter 2 and the dear raising itself up on one side, of chapter 7 ‘Verses 5-8 “And as I was considering be hold an he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes ‘And he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had geen standing before the river, and ran unto him i the fury of hus power And I saw him come close unio the ram, and he was moved with choler agamst hum, and smote the ram, and brake his two horns and there was no power m the ram to stand before hun, but he cast hum down to the ground and stamped upon him and there was none that could dehver the ram out of his hand Therefore, the he goat waxed very great and when he was strong the great horn was broken, and for st came up fouruz OUR FAITH AND HOPE notable ones toward the four winds of heaven ‘The symbol of the goat 1s thus explamed “And the rough goat 1s the king of Grecia and the great horn that 1s between his eyes 1s the first king Now that bemg broken, whereas four stood up for it four kingdoms shali stand up out of the nation, but not m hs power Verses 21, 22 The explanation of this symbol 1s also defi nite and certain ‘The power that should over throw the Medes and Persians, and, m therr stead, bear rule over the earth, 1s the ‘empire of the Greeks Greece succeeded Persia m the domin ton of the world B o 331 The great horn as here explained to be the first king of Grecia, who was Alexander the Great ‘The four horns that arose when this horn was broken, denote the four ‘Kingdoms into which the empire of Alexander was divided after his death The same 1s represented by the leopard with four heads and four wings, of chapter 7, and by the bazen sides of the metal he image of chapter 2 Its predicted without the use of symbols in Dan 11 3 4 These four kingdoms ‘were Macedon, Thrace, Syria and Egypt They orginated ‘about pc 312 "Verses 9-12 “And ont of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land And it waxed great, even to the Host of Heaven and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them Yea, he magnified himself even to the Prince of the host, and by him the daily sac nifice was taken away, and the place of hus sane tuary was cast down And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgres sion, and it east down the truth to the ground THE TIVE 113, and at practiced and prospered In verses 23-26, the symbol of the httle horn 1s explamed thus “And im the latter ume of ther Lingdom, when tho transgres ors are come to the full a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stond’up And hus power shall be mighty, but not by his own power and he shall destroy wondesfuily, and shall prosper, and practice, and shall. destroy the mighty ond the holy people And through’ his poliey also he shall cause craft to prosper im his hand. and he shall magmfy himself m his heart, and by peace shall destroy many, heshall also stand up against the Prince of princes but he shall be broken with out, hand ‘To avoid the apphiation of this prophecy to the Roman power, pagan and papal che Pupsts hare changed it from Rome to Antiochus Epiphanes, a Syrian kang, who could not resist the mandates of Rome See notes of the Douay [Romsh] Bi Bleon Dan 7, 8 11 This applicationss made by the Papists to save ther church from any share in the fulfilment of the prophecy and an this they have been followed by most of those sho have opposed the Advent faith The fol lowing facts show that the hittle horn was not Antiochus (2) ‘The four kingdoms into which the domimon of Alexander was divided are symbolized by the four horns of the goat Now this Antiochus was but oneof the twenty five Lings that constitated the Syrian horn How, then could he, at the same tame be another remarkable horn? (2) The ram according to this vision, became Fash ant 84 OUR FAITH AND HOPE eat the goat waxed very great but the ttle fiom became exceeding great’ How absurd isthe following application of this comparison Great Very Great “Exceeding Great Perna — GRecta ANTIOCHUS ‘How easy and natural 1s the following Great Very Great Exceeding Great Perna Gnecta ROME, (8) The Medo Persian empire 1s simply called great Verse 4 The Bible mforms us that at extended ‘ from India even unto Ethwopia, over ‘an hundred and seven and twenty provinces Esther 1 1 This was succeded by the Grecian power, which is called vERY Great Verse 8 Then ‘comes the power im question, which 18 called EXCEEDING GREAT Verse9 Was Antiochus exceeding great when compared with ‘Alexander the conqueror of the world? Let an atem from the Encyclopedia of Religious Know! edge answer ‘Finding his resourses ethausted, he resolved to go into Persia, to levy tributes and collect large sums which he had agreed to pay to the Romans Surely, we need not question which was ox ceeding great, the Roman power which exacted the tribute, or Antiochus who was compelled to pay it (4) The power m question was ttle at first, ‘but it waxed, or grew, “exceeding great toward the south and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land What can this describe but the conquering marches of a mighty power? Rome was almost directly north west from Jerusalem, and uts conquests in Asia and Africa were, of THE TIME, 15 course, toward the east and south but where were Antiochus conquests? He came into pos session of a kingdom already established, and Sir Isaac Newton says, “He did not enlarge it (6) Out of many reasons that might be added to the above, we name but one This power was to stand up against the Prince of princes Verse 25 The Prince of princesis Jesus Christ Rev 15,17 14, 19 16 But Antiochus died 164 Fears before our Lord was born It 1s settled, ‘therefore, that another power is the subyect of this rophecy The following facts demonstrate that ‘ome 1s the power in question (1) This power was to come forth from one of the four kingdoms of Alexander sempire Let us remember that nations are not broughtinto proph eey till connected with the people of God Rome had been in existence many years before at was noticed in Prophesy, and Rome had made Mace don, one of the four horns of the Grecian goat, a part of itself B ¢ 168, about seven years before its first connection wath’ the people of God Seo 1 Mac 8 So that Rome could as truly be said to be “out of one of them, as the ten horns of the fourth beast in the seventh chapter could be sad to como out of that beast, when they ware ten ‘angdoms setup by the conquerors of Rome (8) It was to wax exceeding great toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleas ant Tand (Polestme Ps 106 24, Zech 7 14) Ths was true of Rome in every particular ‘Witness its conquests im Africa and Asia and its overthrow of the place and nation of the Jews John 11 48 (8) Tt was to cast down some of the host and of the stars This is predicted respecting the116 oun FAITH AND HOPE dragon Rey 12 3,4 All admit that the dragon was Rome Who can fail to see the aden tty of the dragon and the hittle horn? (4) Rome was emphatically » king of fierce countenance, and one that did understand dark sentences Moses used sumlar language when, as all agree, he predicted the Roman power Deut 9, 50 (6) Rome did destroy wonderfully Witness ats overthnow of all opposing powers (®) Rome has destroyed more of “the mghty and the holy people, than all other perecutn powers combined From fifty to one hundre mulhons of the church have been slain by 1t (7) Rome did stand up agamnst the Prince of princes The Roman power nailed Jesus Christ to the cross Acts4 26,27, Matt 27 2, Rev 12 4 (8) This power 1s to “be broken without hand How clear the reference to the stone “cut out yathout hands, that smote the mage Dan 2 84 Tts destruction, then, does not take pleco un tal the final overthrow of earthly powers ‘These facts are conclusive proof that Rome 1s the sub ject of this propheoy The field of vision, then, hs the empires of Persia, Greece, and Rome THD TWO DESOLATIOVS 8 The daily sacrafice and the transgression of desolation represent Rome in its pagan and pa pal fama, harem tok the pamphlet Oe text would read, “The daily, and the transgress zon of desolation ‘These ‘are two desolating powers first, Paganism then, Papacy Of these, Paul, in 2 Thess 2 3-8, says “Let no man de ceive you by any means for that day shall not THE TIVE ut come except there come a falling away first, and that Man of Sin be revealed, the son of perdition, ‘who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that as called God, or that 1s worshiped so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing him self that he is God _ Remember ye not that when. Twas yet with you I told you these things? And now ye know what withhOldeth that he might be revealed m hus time For the mystery of in tty doth already work oaly he who tow lotteta wall let, until he be taken out of the way And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, ‘and shall destroy with the brightness of Ins com img ‘That which withheld the mamfestation of the Papacy in Pauls day was Paganism These are the two powers which have desolated the peo ple of God, of which the angel speaks in the vis ton of Dan 8 THE

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