shall be answered. When? At the time of the manifestation of the sons of God. And when shall this revealing of the sons of God take place? The answer is in 1 John iii. 2: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." When Christ shall appear, be revealed, be manifested, His fellow-heirs of the wonderful inheritance shall also be manifested, and the coronation day of the great King shall be graced by the deliverance of creation from the bondage, pain, and vanity to which it has been so long subjected. But we need not go to John for the answer. Paul gives the time of restitution in the very words quoted. He tells us that all creation, including Christians themselves, are to be delivered at the time of the redemption of the body, or resurrection, which just brings us again to the coming of the Lord, for His advent and the resurrection of His people are unquestionably to take place at the same time. We do not, however, gather from the revealed doctrine of the future a universal removal of evil, and the introduction of a state of moral and physical perfection, immediately subsequent to the advent of the Lord, but we find the day of judgment, that is to say, the last day of the world's week, the thousand years during which the Lord Jesus will reign and judge the world in righteousness, previous to the final, eternal, and perfect state, characterized by enchanting representations of happiness, prosperity, and peace. We find the following things: 1. The world subjected to divine rule. The kingdom of God has at last come. "Behold, a King shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment. Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. And the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness, and assurance for ever." The Son of man shall sit upon the throne of His glory. He has come whose right it is, and the greatness of the dominion under the whole heaven is given to Him. He has dominion from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. All kings fall down before Him; all nations serve Him; they are blessed in Him, and call Him blessed. "In the last days it shall come to pass that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." (Mic. iv. 1—3.) "And the Lord," says Zechariah (xiv. 9.) "shall be king over all the earth; in that day shall there be one Lord, and His name one." "And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ." (Rev. xii. 10.) The prayer of the disciples, taught them by the Master, "Thy kingdom come," is gloriously answered at last. Let us therefore remember now, whenever we offer it, that we are really R June 1, 1865. praying for the coming of the King Himself, for in His absence God's kingdom cannot appear among men. 2. Israel and Judah are united as one nation in the land of promise. "In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers." (Jer. iii. 18.) If it be asked, Which days? the reply is, When men shall" call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord, and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem; neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart." (Verse 17.) "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is His name whereby He shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." (Chapter xxiii. 5, 6.) shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth." (Isa. xi. 12.) The 37th of Ezekiel is very full upon this subject, and Hosea and Zechariah have glad visions of the time of tribal re-union and national restoration, "He 3. Jesus, the once rejected and despised, is to be their adored Messiah and Sovereign. "He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest," said the angel to Mary, respecting Jesus, "and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David; and He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end." It is needless to say that Jesus has not yet received the throne of David, and were there no other argument for that part of the restitution which necessitates the national restoration of Israel and Judah, this one passage would prove it. "Thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee," said God to David; "thy throne shall be established for ever." (2 Sam. vii. 16.) It must, therefore, be so. Palestine is not lost, nor hath the Lord forgotten His oath. Jehovah hath declared the decree; His chosen King shall be set upon His holy hill of Zion; and then the heavens shall praise His wonders; His faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints. "Of the increase of the government and peace," of the child born and the son given, "there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever." (Isa. ix. 6-7). The covenant of peace, the safety from wild beasts, the fertility of the earth, and the showers of blessing to be enjoyed by Israel at the time, are described in rich language in the 34th of Ezekiel and elsewhere; for God's sanctuary is to be in the midst of them. (Chapter xxxvii. 24-28). Christ must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet. The people that rejected Him shall see Him again, and cry, "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord." 4. Israel, under the reign of the Messiah, is to be a righteous nation, and a great blessing in the earth. "After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." (Jer. xxxi. 33, 34.) "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God." (Ezek. xxxvi. 25-28.) And after the terrible judgments of the great tribulation we have a delightful picture of devoted Israelites, going to the ends of the earth, like their great countryman, Paul, after his conversion, to declare their Master's glory among the Gentiles. (Isa. lxvi. 19.) And the inhabitants of many a hitherto debased, idolatrous nation will believe the great message, and say to the Jew, "We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you." Indeed it is clear that the dark curse of idolatry will never be removed until the Lord arise to shake terribly the earth, and the glory of His majesty is revealed; and then the idols He shall utterly abolish. Then the knowledge of the Lord is to fill the world, and Paradise will be restored. To the root of Jesse "shall the Gentiles seek, and His rest shall be glorious." (Isa. xi. 10.) Then "all the ends of the earth shall remember, and turn unto the Lord; and all kindreds of the nations shall worship before Him;" and the reason of this marvellous transformation is, "For the kingdom is the Lord's; and He is the governor among the nations." (Ps. xxii. 27, 28.) He who created not the world in vain has declared that "the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." (Heb. ii. 14.) 5. Satan's power will be curbed during this blessed Sabbatism, and after a short season of mysterious liberty allowed to him, it will be destroyed for ever. "And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled; and after that he must be loosed a little season." (Rev. xx. 1-3.) At the close of the chiliad, he is loosed out of his prison, and puts forth a final effort to rescue this wondrous planet from its glorious Owner, but after a short career of desperate daring he is cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are-the awful trinity of hell-and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. 6. The curse will be repealed and the suffering creation delivered. "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth June 1, 1865. shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." (Isa. xi. 6-9.) "And it shall come to pass in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them towards the eastern sea, and half of them towards the western sea; in summer and in winter shall it be." Compare this from Zechariah xiv. 8. with Ezekiel xlvii. 8-10. "Then said he unto me, These waters issue out towards the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea, which being brought forth into the sea"-that is, the sea of Sodom, the Salt, or Dead Sea-" the waters shall be healed. And it shall come to pass that everything that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live; and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither; for they shall be healed; and everything shall live whither the river cometh." Reference has been made already to Paul's sublime revelation, that the creature shall be delivered from its groanings and the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God; further quotation here therefore is not needed. 7. Let us hear the magnificent conclusion of this purpose of Almighty mercy to remove the curse from creation, and bring it up to the original ideal of its glorious architect. The millennium has passed with all its physical and moral wonders, all its scenes of beauty and glory, and the beneficence of God makes another movement. The last of the prophets looked, and he tells us what he beheld: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said unto me, Write, for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done." (Rev. xxi. 1—6.) Great, sublime, amazing words-the final union and complement of the "Let light be, and there was light," of the creation, and the "It is finished" of the cross of Calvary. And the declaration follows, which thrills through and through every believing heart, and calls forth adoration too profound for speech: "And there shall be no more curse." Here we bend our heads and worship. No more curse-everlasting stability in moral purity, righteousness, life, and glory. The universe is safe, the redemption is completed, the councils of eternity are developed in might, majesty, and splendour, before which imagination is dazzled and overwhelmed. "6 Sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously!" Come here and see the marvellous work of the Son of God, and be not faithless, but believing. That work in its minuteness touches the thoughts, and feelings, and heart, and conscience, of a poor sinful mortal, and transforms him into a child and heir of God; in its subduing power touches the grave, and the dead arise; and the curse, and it gives place to wonderful blessings; in its procession onward smites the destroyers of the earth, rules them with June 1, 1865. a rod of iron, and crushes all the powers of evil; hurls the usurper from heaven, and shuts him up in prison, and afterwards casts him into the lake of fire prepared for him; and then finally, in its vast sweep, in its amazing circumference, embraces the heavens around us and the earth we tread on, folds them up and lays them aside as a worn-out garment, and supersedes them by new heavens and a new earth, which will remain for ever, unsullied by the breath of sin, unwet by a tear, undisturbed by a solitary foe, the wonder and the glory of the boundless universe of God. Stupendous achievement ! Most marvellous issue of that profoundest of divine thoughts, embodied in the single word REDEMPTION! There is a tendency manifested in our pulpit ministrations and our religious books to limit the significance of this splendid word. Our contracted modes of thought dishonour the record which God has given of His Son. There is a narrow unbelief in our hearts which seems afraid of giving God credit for that royal amplitude of beneficence which inspired men ascribe to Him. The salvation of a handful of the human race, that handful which receives our doctrine, holds our creed, and thinks with us, is the too prevalent idea, whilst it is quietly assumed that the overwhelming majority are doomed to remediless destruction, and the earth with all its wondrous wealth of beauty, notwithstanding the curse, to annihilating fires. Men absurdly imagine that they magnify grace by circumscribing its sphere of action, and hedging it about with conditions which have their source in a spurious theology rather than in the word of God. It is surely appalling enough to think of the Christless multitudes that crowd the cities of so-called Christendom, without imposing traditional restrictions upon hearts that turn with trembling hope to Jesus, though they have not learnt our ecclesiastical terminology, nor sought visible fellowship with us. One of the saddest results of our miserable divisions is this tendency to make God a partner with us when we presume to ascend the forbidden judgmentseat and pass sentence upon our fellow-men. We have buttressed the Lord's temple with piles of sectarian theology, and shut out the sunlight from its windows with scrolls of scholastic creeds. We have fallen out by the way and divided the camp into hostile factions, whose incessant quarrels have grieved the Holy Ghost, and darkened our spiritual sight to the wonderful beauty and grace of the Bible. And instead of bracing ourselves on its delectable mountains with enchanting visions of resurrection or translation glory so near at hand for the Church, and of terrestrial happiness and high religious privilege so near at hand for the rejoicing millions of the human race, we have walked gloomily at their base, the victims of doubt and fear, with a burden on our hearts and mist before our eye. We have not credited our kinsman Redeemer either with the tender love He feels for us, or the splendid generosity which has led Him to make us fellow-heirs with Him of the inheritance of a universe. And to crown our preposterous and ludicrous stupidity we have actually adopted mysticism as the interpreter of revelation! Beyond this, of course, folly cannot go; but it accounts for the enormous mass of rubbish that has been thrown upon the book market as expositions of the Bible; and it accounts, also, for that over which we unfeignedly mourn the ignorance of Christendom respecting the wo |