THE RAINBOW:

I Magazine of Christian Literature, with Special Reference to the Bebealed Future of the Church and the World.

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MARCH 1, 1865.

DEATH AND THE SECOND ADVENT.

BY REV. RICHARD CHESTER.

HERE are very many Christian people who, while firmly believing in the second advent of the Lord Jesus Christ, feel persuaded that He will not come until the close of a yet uncommenced millennium. The prophecies of Scripture, according to their system of interpretation, lead them, as they affirm, to conclude that the Christian Church is so to "lengthen her cords and to strengthen her stakes" as eventually to embrace the world within her pale. The world, under the influence of this universal spread of Christianity, is, they believe, to enjoy a millennial period of uninterrupted peace and blessedness, and then the end shall come-the Judge of quick and dead shall appear, the general resurrection and judgment shall take place, and man's final condition of happiness or misery shall follow.

This view of a post-millennial advent, however, must be admitted to accord but strangely with the solemn and repeated exhortations (if such are to be taken literally) to watchfulness for His coming, as for an event the time of which has been left in utter uncertainty, and which may, therefore, arrive at any moment upon any generation of the sons of men, with which our Lord's discourses with His disciples undeniably abound. How were those to whom these discourses were addressed to interpret such exhortations? Were they to put a world to be converted, and a millennium to be enjoyed, between them and the advent for which they were bidden thus incessantly to watch and to pray? The fact that they did not do so, but that, on the contrary, they lived, as their writings amply testify, in the expectation of the advent as likely to occur in their own lifetime, is a sufficient answer to this question. A more important question, however, is, How are such exhortations to be now interpreted by us? If there be the conversion of a world, over at least two-thirds of which heathen darkness and utterly corrupt and apostate Christianity are in this nineteenth century prevailing

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March 1, 1865.

-if, in addition to this, there be a millennium, subsequent to this conversion, between us and the advent, it is manifest that such exhortations do not apply to us at all. To exhort us to watch for and to expect an event which we know upon the authority of Scripture to be more than a thousand years distant, were an utter absurdity. Conscious of this, and laudably unwilling to admit the alternative that any exhortation of our blessed Lord should be otherwise than profitable to us, each and all, "for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness," this class of interpreters of the "sure word of prophecy" have recourse to what at first sight seems a plausible, as it is in truth the only possible, mode of escape from the dilemma in which they are involved by the manifest clashing of their expectations with the Saviour's solemn words. It is as follows. Death, they say, the death of the believer, all uncertain as it is-liable to occur to each individual on any day, or at any hour or moment-is to him virtually one and the same thing as the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ may well be said to come to each believer at the hour of death. It is, therefore, with reference to death, and not to His own actual appearing in the clouds of heaven, that the Lord has given utterance to these solemn exhortations to watchfulness. We comply, they argue, with these exhortations when-regarding His second coming as an event with which we can have no present practical concern, inasmuch as long before it can take place we shall have been gathered to our graves-we nevertheless watch, and keep ourselves daily in a state of preparedness and expectancy for death.

In reply to all such statements as these, it is surely fair to ask for the production of a single passage of Scripture in which our Lord or His apostles have ever in any way identified or even connected His second coming with death. Where have they ever spoken of deathas they have so repeatedly of the second advent-as a subject of watchfulness, or expectation, or desire ?

If nowhere, then assuredly men should hesitate before, in order to prop up preconceived opinions, they promulgate notions so utterly destitute of any warrant from the Word of God.

Again, death--even the death of the believer-so far from being in Scripture identified or connected with the second coming of the Lord, is invariably presented in the strongest possible contrast to it.

For instance, when upon one memorable and exceptional occasion the Lord Himself drew aside the veil that overhangs futurity, and informed Peter, for the strengthening of the faith, which at that time so deeply needed to be strengthened, of the fact that he should die, and of the nature of the death that awaited him; and when Peter sought similar information with respect to John, we find Him repelling

March 1, 1865.

all such inquiry with the pointed and emphatic reply, "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?" As much as to say, "In setting death before you, I have dealt with you exceptionally and for a particular reason. It is not death, it is my coming that John and his fellow disciples are to keep in view." We have, moreover, in this passage an incontrovertible proof of what totally distinct and different things were death and the second advent in the estimation of the disciples, for we are told that in consequence of these words of their Lord "then went abroad this saying among the brethren, that that disciple should not die." Upon which the Holy Spirit makes the needful comment, "Yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee ?" (John xxi. 18-24.) Nothing can be stronger than the marked distinction drawn in this instructive passage between the Lord's coming and death.

Death is, further, set before us in Holy Scripture as an enemy-"The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." It is set before us as the penal consequence of sin-"The wages of sin is death." It is spoken of as even to believers sometimes sent as a judicial chastisement for wrong-doing. It was such to Moses and Aaron. It was such to those amongst the Corinthian believers of whom the apostle, speaking of their abuse of the Lord's supper, says, "For this cause many amongst you are weak and sickly, and many sleep." (1 Cor. xi. 30.) It was such to those to whom John alludes, "There is a sin unto death." (1 John v. 16.)

Are we to identify the coming of "the enemy" with that of Jesus, "the sinner's friend?" Are we to connect even in thought the advent of sin's penalty, or of God's chastisement, or of that of which the devil 66 has the power " (Heb. ii. 14), with that of Him who "takes away sin" who is to " appear without sin"-the purpose of whose manifestation is "to destroy all the works of the devil "-and death, although the last to be destroyed, not the least? Assuredly to do this is, however unintentionally, to dishonour Christ. Do we long for death? Do we pray for death? I trow not. Yet we ought to do both if we be believers, and if we regard death and the Saviour's advent as identical so far as concerns ourselves. If we are to regard death as being one and the same thing to us as that for which we express our hearts' desire and prayer when we say, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus, come as thou hast promised quickly," assuredly it is gross inconsistency in us when we fall sick to take medicine, or to send for a physician. By so doing are we not striving, not to hasten, but to delay the coming of our Lord? Again, at death the believer is said in Scripture to "depart to be with Christ;" Christ is not said in any sense whatsoever to come to

March 1, 1865.

him. The death even of the believer is usually a scene of pain, sickness, sorrow, and sighing-often of bitter partings and heart-rending farewells. At the Lord's coming pain and sickness shall be for ever dissipated; the death-divided shall be eternally reunited; sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Further, death separates the spirit from the body; the latter returns to the dust of the earth, the former to the God who gave it. The Saviour's coming will raise the body from the sleep of death to the vigour of eternal youth and the glory of enduring immortality; it will reunite the spirit to the body to be separated nevermore.

Is it not, then, unquestionably evident that to speak of death and the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ as in any respect identical-to affirm that when He and His Spirit in His apostles exhort us to watchfulness and expectancy, and prayer for His coming, they would have us to understand, not His coming, but the coming of death, is sadly to confound things that differ, and most unscripturally to unite what God has put asunder? Is it not, further, evident that, were there no other reason for it than this-and there are a multitude of other reasons just as cogent-the class of opinions which render such a confusion, such a union, necessary, are altogether untenable, and ought to be abandoned by all who love truth and Scripture rather than system and prejudice ?

MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL.

BY W. MAUDE, Esq.

MICHAEL is, I apprehend, the ANGELIC TITLE of the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, it is the special, though not the exclusive, name by which He is known as the Divine Leader of the armies of heaven; as the Celestial Prince of the "innumerable company of angels." His special name amongst men is not Michael, but JESUS ("Jehovah-the Saviour "), for He is their Saviour; but His special name amongst the angels is not Jesus, but Michael the Archangel, for He is their Prince and Leader.

The name Michael occurs only five times in Holy Scripture: namely, in Dan. x. 13, 21, xii. 1; Jude 9; and Rev. xii. 7. The meaning of the word is "Who-is-like-God; " a signification which at once directs our minds to Him" who, being in the form (v μopôñ) of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God" (Phil. ii. 6), and who is elsewhere described by St. Paul as "the image (eikov) of the invisible God" (Col. i. 15); and yet again, as "the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image (xapakтnp) of His person." (Heb. i. 3.) So that He Himself, when appealed to by one of His disciples to "show them the Father," could return the sublime answer, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." (John xiv. 9.) How appro

priate to Him, then, is this title, "Who is like God!" His "form". His "image"—the flawless mirror in which alone He can be seen. And surely this name, assuming for a moment its angelic reference, may serve to teach us the important and certain truth, that in regard to angels as well as in regard to men is that saying true, "No one (ovdeìs) hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." (John i. 18.) For even to the highest and most glorious of the angelic host, as well as to us who dwell in houses of clay, God "dwelleth in the light which none (ovdeìs) can approach unto" (1 Tim. vi. 16), and by them, even as by us, His glory can be beheld and borne only as it is revealed "in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Cor. iv. 6.)

Now, in regard to the five passages in which the name of Michael occurs, it is also a very remarkable fact that in every case this name is either bestowed by an angelic being, or used in connection with angelic agency. This fact and its significance has never, so far as I am aware, been pointed out; yet it certainly seems, when once our attention has been drawn to it, to cast much light upon a somewhat difficult subject. In Daniel it is, in all three passages, employed by the angel who delivered to him the wonderful prophecy contained in the 10th and two following chapters; and who, from a comparison of chapter ix. 21-23 with chapter x. 10-12, would certainly seem to have been Gabriel. In Jude, again, the subject is a mysterious conflict with Satan, respecting "the body of Moses." And, lastly, in the Revelation, the vision has respect to a certain war in heaven between Michael and His angels, and the dragon and his host. Let us see, however, how far a closer consideration of these passages will bear out the idea suggested.

The language of Daniel is as follows. In the tenth chapter we read: "And, behold, an hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands. And he (the angel) said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright: for unto thee am I now sent. And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling. Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, MICHAEL, the first of the princes,* came to help me. Then said he, Knowest thou wherefore I come unto thee? and now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia: and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come; . . . . and there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but MICHAEL your prince." And, again, after the description of the "wilful king" in the eleventh chapter, concerning whom it is said: "And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end and none shall help him;" it is added, in the beginning of the twelfth chapter: "And at that time shall MICHAEL stand up, the great prince that standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time."

* See the margin.