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Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be ffilmed at diffferent reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are ffilmed beginning in the upper lefft hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The ffollowing diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent 6tre ffilmis d des taux de reduction diffff^rents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un soul clich6, il est ffilmd A partir de I'angle supirieur gauche, de gauche d droite. et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n^cessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 32X 1 2 3 4 5 6 ni ' Uif >- ©ught Mt to be matching? ^m A REPLY TO Mr. LAING'S TRACT ON THE "SECOND COMING OF THE LORD." - BY ' r. "W, on*^**"*. TORONTO: Bkll, Hawkins &i Oo., Printers, 13 Adelaide Strcjt East I 'il J (i OUGl Mr. Laing' \&^ si ^a| Li¥ In a daj bo) the cry groom cpme are in a grei position of oppose him men that a equally uni taken. It such as he 1 coming of t chosen delil He has und in earnest 1 not the hoi comfort to buke to tl dream of ; i cannot com whom his I apply to yoi. For, I SI of details o in their ph tency of an or any oth( o OUGHT WE TO BE WATCHING? , A REPLY TO Mr. Laing's Tract on the " Second Coming of the Lord" In a day like the present, when (true or false, as it may bo) the cry is being so widely issued, " Behold, the Bride- groom cpmeth," and wheu almost all sections of Christendom are in a greater or less degree responding to it, he assumes a position of no ordinary responsibility who comes forward to oppose himself to this growing expectancy, and to assure men that alarm on the one hand and hope on the other are equally unfounded. This is the position Mr. Laing has taken. It is not merely details of prophetic interpretation, such as he has chosen to link with this announcement of the coming of the Lord, that he sets himself to oppose. He has chosen deliberately to say, " My Lord delayeth His coming/' He has undertaken to assure men there is no need for taking in earnest the exhortation to " watch," because they know not the hour the Lord doth come (Matth. xxiv. 42). His comfort to the careless is, "There is no danger." His re- buke to the watchers is, " There is no such hope as ye dream of ; if we know not the hour, we know at least Christ cannot come in our time. The 'blessed is that servant, whom his Lord when He cometh shall find watching,' cannot apply to you" For, 1 say again^this is no mere question of the accuracy of details of prophetic interpretation, important as these are in their place. We have not first to determine the consis- tency of any views held by so-called ** Plymouth Brethren," or any others. The primary question is not so intricate as .- 'ii n'-^v My he would represent ; and his making tlie two things one, is, I fear me (wljother he intend it so or not) to daunt men by the apparent intricacy, if not indeed also to bring the f"ll weight of ecclesiastical prejudice against " Plymouthism " to bear against the nearness of what the apostle styles '' that blessed hope." I do not want to avoid the issue which he raises. I hope to meet it fully presently. But I do want it to be under- stood, that the question first of all is, " Is there for us any sense or meaning in the Lord's words, Watch, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come 1 " It is vain to say that the prophecy of these chapters (Matth. xxiv., xxv.) speaks, as Mr. Laing seems to assume (p. 68) of the destruc- tion o^ Jerusaleu long ago. His own words (p. 53, 5*) are * in opposition to this, which indeed bears its own folly upon its face. Did the Lord then come with the clouds of heaven and all the holy angeis vi'ith Him, and was there then any going forth of virgiriS to meet Him, or any separation of sheep from the goats 1 Evidently this is future, and as evi- dently it is not death, but a real personal coming of the L((rd from heaven. It is thus as to this coming that the L(trd say.? "Watch." Oujfht we to be watching then? I cannot watch for what I know cannot cnme for a thousand year^ yet. WditiJ can and must, of course. Watc'i, I cannot. Watch- ing is based on the uncertainty of when He may come. Ac- cording to Mr. Laing, it is certain He cannot come in our time. As to that then we may go to sleep, as we list ; watch- ing is in vain. , Thn? does Mr. L'^.ing at the outset contradict God's testi- mo;iy. But I desire t«» follow him now, though briefly, through the various points to which h«^ objects, setkinj; to show the Scripturn rK^ctriiiH, as th<* L«>rd may enahle. It should matter little to any child of God, whether m:in has baptized it "Plymouthism" or aught else. '* The fHllacious definitions on which the theory rests refer," says Mr. L^ing, *■ (1) to the Church ; (2) to the King- dom of God ; (3) to the personal coming of our Lord ; (4) to the •Judgment ; (5) to the Kesurrection ; (6) to the Milh3nium," A quota objects to : "It was that the Ch before all W( Church was day of Pent believers, dis .Spirit incor] since, and is tence on earl of the Lord Let us loc then it will L.*s objectioi of the meani be better eve stituted for t sembly " all applied to th and to the Ji The use of question, as ment as to t to tJiat Chui Church " (M " the house ( when was th all other bodi Now the I my Church,' of which He or was, builc to be Christ' ti-uth is this separate thic » ■t^. ;8 one, la, men by the f-U hism " to iea "that ?. I liopo be under- OT us any ye know in to say IV., XXV.) e destruc- 3, 54) are ^ folly upon r)f heaven then any Eiration of lid asbvi- ■ the L(»rd the Lord I cannot yeard yet. Watch- nne. Ac- me in our jt; watch- rod's testi- h briefly, »e«'kinj; to nable. It nian lian e<»iv rt'sts thf Kin^- ; (4) to the illonium." 1. The Church. A quotation of Mr. Laing's own will shew the view he objects to : " It was not till after the death and resurrection of Jesus that the Church bej^an. In the purpose of God, it existed before all worlds. But as to its actu^ existence on earth the Church was formed by the descent of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost. Those who till then had been individual believers, disciples of Christ, were by the descent of the Holy ' Spirit incorporated into one body, which has existed ever since, and is the Church of God. ... It has its exis- tence on earth between the day of Pentecost and the descent of the Lord Jesus into the air." Let us look first at the proof of this from Scripture, and then it will not be hard to apprehend the character of Mr. L.'8 objections to it. He should know that it is no question of the meaning of the word translated "Church." It would be better every way if the true word "assembly"" were sub- stituted for this in every place in the Kew Testament. "As- sembly " all admit to be the moaning, the same word as that applied to the riotous heathen mob at Ephesus (Acts xix. 41) and to the Jewish " church in the wilderness " (Acts vii. 38). The use of the mere word argues nothing, and is not the question, as Mr. L. should have known ; and his whole argu- ment as to this (p. 29) is pointless. The real question is as to that Church (or assembly), which is called Christ's " My Church" (Matth. xvi. 8) ; " His body " (Eph. i. 22, 23) ; and "the house of God " (1 Tim. iii. 15). The real question is, when was that body formed and how, and is it distinct from all other bodies of saved people, whether Jewish or millennial. Now the Lord's own words, " Upon this rock I will build my Church," should assure us that this was a.' future building of which He spoke. He was going to build it, not had been, or was, building it. Nor is the Jewish church ever claimed fj4ij.m.' to be Christ's or God's house. Notoriously, so far from the trath is this, that His house was (while Judaism lasted) a separate thing from the people, viz., the tabernacle or the i: • i,' p'-\ ■'1 "K '-■ X. temple. Never was it once said to them, as now to Chris- tians, " Ye are the temple of God." Nor &n much as onco are they called (as we) even " living stones," out of which a temple might be built. The assembly which is the " house of God " is the Christian assembly alrne. As to the " Body of Christ" the same thing is, if possible, plainer. Where, I would ask Mr. Laing, does he find that those who constituted the Jewish assembly were members of the body of Christ 1 It is very plain that the Jewish body was not even an assembly of believers, or of the ti o children of God even at all. It was a nation, one of the *' fairilies of the earth " (Amos iii. 2), among whom true child i God were scattered. Only as the fruit of Christ's wo i after it (Jno. xi. 52) were these scattered children of Gt . lo be gathered together in one. And the body of Christ, it is evi- dent, was only' formed by that baptism with the Holy Ghost which John the Baptist predicted in his day as the then future work of Christ, and which was accomplished at Pente- cost for the first time. " Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost," says the risen Lord to His disciples, " not many days hence " (Acts i. 5). " By one Spirit" says the apostle to the Corinthians, " are we all baptised into one- body " (1 Cor. xii. 1 3). If then by the baptism of the Spirit the body k formed, it, was not formed till Pentecost, there being no such baptism before, if we are to take Scripture as the guide at least. Nor could there have been a body on earth until there was a head in heaven, and that was not till Christ as man sat down there, as it is written : "He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right, hand in the heavenly places, . . . and put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the Church which is His body, the fulness of Him that tilleth all in all " (Eph. i. 20-23). That this church. His body, is also the Eve, the bride of the last Adam, is plain from the fifth chapter of the same epistle. It is so plain indeed, I need add no words of naine ; and the union between Christ and the church is said to be a great mystery, as I agree with Mr. Laing in believing to be the interpretation of the last verse but one. Mr. L the apostl him, " wh in God," Spirit. 1 and states and a Join English)- the gospel Mr. L. in of the G " Christ ca make both body, or g tance; but coming a J bestowing Jewish inh How fa measure un do certainly rather, that baptism of the mystery be jointly, same bodv, one word portant for have come time ; so according t< without sub one word of itself to hin principal itie "A coA a to Chris- h as onco [ which a le " house f possible, find that lemhers of ivish body children fan^ilies of p' . God I after Go . to be t, it is evi- [oly Ghost J the then i at Pente- h the Holy many days )stle to the r»' (1 Cor. he body i* ng no such le guide at until there as man sat Q the dead, jnly places, ave Him to i His body, 20-23). he bride of f the same is of mine ; said to be a eving to be Mr. L. must needs also agree, (because in do many >vords the apostle says so) that there was a mystery made known to him, " which from the beginning of the world had been hid in God," until revealed in New Testament times by the Spirit. This he calls (Eph. iii. 4) " the mystery of Christ," and states it to be " that the Gentiles should be joint heirs, and a jomt body * " — (I give it literally, however harshly in English) — " and joint-partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel " (ver. 6). , Mr. L. maintains that this merely refers to the bringing in of the Gentiles into the Jewish blessing ! His words are : " Christ came to take away the middle wall of partition, to make both Jew and Gentile one, not by setting up a new body, or giving a new promise, or obtaining a new inheri- tance ; but by putting the believing Gentile, without his be- coming a Jew, into the body of God's people or church, and bestowing on him an interest in the Jewish promise and Jewish inheritance" (p. 32). How far this is from the fact we can already in some measure understand. For the Scriptures we have considered do certainly prove that Christ has formed a " new " body ; or rather, that the body of Christ began at Pentecost with the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and never existed before. Thus the mystery of Christ in this respect was that Gentiles should bo jointly, or together, a body — His body. It is not " the same body," still less " of the Jewish body ; " nor is there one word about this ". without his becoming a Jew " so im- portant for Mr. L.'8 purpose. For of course a Gentile might have come into the Jewish body by circumcision at any time ; so that the only point here, the thing unrevealed, according to Mr. L., was that a Gentile might now come in without submitting to Jewish ordinances ! That there is not one word of this in the text does not seem even to suggest itself to him ! and this is what he thinks brings out to the principalities and powers in heaVenly places (ver. 8-10) the * **A co-body : " i.e. ;"oMivhile the saints of the Old Testamei't times alone could be cluivacterized as " spirits "-= departed —" made perfect " by resurrection of the body (comp. H(ib. xi. 39,40), the church of the ftrst-born ones does not, as such, sleep, but waits for her Lord. Mr. Laing's objections will nr.r need only a very brief review. His first point, (p. 10) that ^srael is said also in the prophets to be "married'' to Jehovah, is true, but not an objection. It is not the saints who were thus married, but the people (see e. g. Jer. xxxi. 31, 32) and the land (Isa. Ixii. 4). This will be true again for Israel, now divorced (Hos. ii. 2) in the millennium, and in that e^irthly sphere of which any one may convince himself that the Old Testament ever speaks. The New Testament bride is a spiritual people (Eph. V.) or a heavenly city (Rev. xxi). A very little study j of Scripture will prevent one confounding these. Mr. Laing's second objection (p. 31) we have sufficiently examined. His third, as to 1 Cor. x. 32 (p. 33), is of so little importance that I may leave it with the remark, that while [ those belonging to the " Church of God " might, of course. i ;. ( :| ■ 1 i*M ill 1' * : « ll S |i •I \ '•* m \ 1 »?. 10 ■fs: be addressed individually, (and often are) as Jewp or Gen- tiles, the Apostle's, words clearly show that he is looking be- yond the Church ; and clearly those beyond were Jews or Gen- tiles. I cannoteven understand Mr. Laing's object in disputing that there were (and are) three divisions under which all men ranked. Nay, more, (I appeal to Scripture for the proof,) while an address to Jewish or Gentile believers as such might have its special force and take its shape from what they had been, I maintain that they are never spoken of as having Jewish or Gentilo duties or privilc Tea any more, when once they had come into the " Church of God." Judaism and Gentilisra had alike then passed away for these, and cannot be put upon the same footing* with relationships (such as marriage) which God still sanctioned. Mr. Laing's one positive proof text that "the Church un- der both dispensations is one and the same glorious body united by the Holy Spirit and faith to Jehovah-Jesus as its head " (p. 35) is found in Rom. xi. It is a signal proof how little he can find in the Word of God what he desires to have it say. For clearly there is in that chapter not one word about " church," or *'• body," or " union by the Holy Spirit," (union by /aiY/i is not in Scripture at all), or Jesus being " head :" for a very simple reason, that a " tree " has no " head," and is not a " body," nor even a figure of it, it is a thought essentially and perfectly distinct, nay, opposed. The tree is a figure'bf a people responsible to bring forth fruit, where fruitless branches are removed, and others may be grafted in. In a body, still more the body of Christ, this is not possible. The body would be maimed if it lost one member. Nor could fruitless (/. e. lifeless) members be found. Does Mr, Laing seriously believe that the Jewish branches, broken off for their rejection of Christ, were ever members of the body of Christ ? Yet, if the olive tree and the body are the same thing, this must be true. If he says, they were professing people of God, it is quite true ; and as that the apostle takes them up, but ndt even as seed of Abra- ham, much less the body of Christ. Clearly the Jews had been the professing people of God. Some, not all, had been broken ofi* enjoying tl sibilities. how the pe those who i this therefc What f this fundat enough (an Gospel* wa was glad: ] are blessed Jesus says t these also hi believe the shepherd, th herd gave hi dant witnesi faith ; to ouj and Gentile! tract out 0- being exclus he must ma But the as, with the posing7one sentation. that the Hoi Pentecost, ar the church i to the analog oppose confo Spirit and th , • The gos be blessed" (Ga was about Cans ent times from l! or Gen- dng be- j or Gen- isputing 1 all men a proof,) as such 3in what :en of as iiy more, 3f God." for these, itionships tiurch un- 0U8 body 3SUS as its proof how es to have one word ly Spirit," BUS being 5 " has no it, it is a osed. The )rth fruit, rs may be •ist, this is i lost one Bmbers be he Jewish were ever ^e tree and f he says, le ; and as )d of Abra- 5 Jews had , had been broken off for unbelief, and Gentiles grafted in in their place, enjoying the privileges of the place, and assuming its respon- sibilities. This had nothing to do with the question as to how the people of God differed in the one dispensation from those who had been people of God -in a former one ; and of this therefore he says nothing whatever. What further Mr. L. adduces as " abundant witness to this fundamental unity of the Church in all ages " is brief enough (and strange enough) to be quoted in full. " The Gospel* was preached to AbraLham ; he saw Christ's day and was glad : he was justified by faith : they that are of faith are blessed with him, are his seed, and heirs of the promise. Jesus says that he has other sheep not of the Jewish fold ; these also he must bring ; they shall hear his voice, that is, believe the Gospel call, and make 07ie flock as there is one shepherd, that is, one church for which the one good shep- herd gave hi^life" (pp. 37, 38). This is Mr. Laing's "abun- dant witness." To what? To Abraham's being justified by faith ; to our being his seed, and blessed with him ; to Jews and Gentiles forming now " one flock." If Mr. L. can ex- tract out of this a denial of the present Christian church being exclusively the body of Christ, the Eve of the last Adam, he must make this plainer than he has at present. But the last point under this head is the gravest for him, as, with the knowledge that he claims of the views he is op- posing, one can hardly acquit him of intentional misrepre- sentation. *' Once more," he says, " the Plymouth assertion, that the Holy Ghost was not given unto men till the day of Pentecost, and will be withdrawn again from the earth when the church is taken up, alike does violence to Scripture and to the analogy of the faith. . . . The theory which we oppose confounds these two things," — a dispensation of the Spirit and the work of the Spirit, — " and asserts that beqause * The gospel preached to Abraham was, " In thee shall all nations be blessed" (Gal. ill. 8), as that to Israel in the wilderness (Heb. iv. 2) was about Canaan. God's gospel (or good news) was different at differ- ent times from what we now above all call the "gospel." 1!^ ' t)' i:i;^ m 12 fc ■ '. ;■ at Pentecost the spiritual dispensation began, therefore the work of the Holy Ghost, as the Spirit of grace, was unknown before that time" (p. 38). This is absolute (and, I trust, may not be wilful,) mis- representation. He sl^ould know well that the so-called '• Plymouth view " is that the " conversion and sanctification of individual believers," which he specifies as what he means by the work of the Spirit, were always necessary to salvation, always by the operation in grace of the Spirit of God, and always being accomplished from Abel or from Adam even until now, and always will be to the end of the world. But that Scripture makes a difference between the work of the Spirit, which was from the beginning, and the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, and His indwelling in be- lievers ever since. Let my reader note but a few Scriptures as to this, and he will see that in the Word of God what took place at Pentecost was not merely the bestowal of some miraculous gifts, but the " coming " of another Comforter who should " abide for ever " with the disciples, in the place of Him who had left them for the Father's house (John xiv., 16). A coming of such inestimable value to His saints, that it was " expedient for them that He should go away " from them, that that Comforter might come (tlohn xvi. 7). Being come. He was not only to " dwell with " them, (as Christ had dwelt), but to be " in " them, as He had not been (John xiv., 1 7). **At that day they should know that He was in the Father, and they in Him, and He in them" (ver. 20): knowledge never possessed, never hinted at in Scripture before. Thus in the epistles wetind (as never in Judaism) that the very bodies of believers (1 Cor. vi. 19) are the temples of the Holy Ghost, wherein He dwells. And, as the result, "the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God ;" and by the " Spirit of adoption we cry, Abba, Father", (Rom. viii. 15, 16). Search the Old Testa- ment through, you will never find a believer^ as that, uttering that cry. God was saying then, " I am a Father to Israel" not to saints as such ; and believers, although children of God, as tl from serva law as sch of the Fall Father. ' sent forth to redeem i ceive the a hath sent i ing Abba, It is th which beli( version ant con. bats. . one Spirit ; (1 Cor. vi. forms the b place in hea I pass And no Scripture v It is certain in Jerusaler lennial days as claimin^^ Israel, if o above all "the ark o passes over sion. So purposes om the nations Adam, He number of We kno Ifcll llfte -w^. 13 jrefore the i unknown Iful,) mis- e so-called notification what he ecessary to B Spirit of el or from and of -the etween the g, and the Uing in be- V Scriptuiea God what rval of some f Comforter in the place i (John xiv., His saints, d go away " ohn xvi. 7). thera, (as lad not been that He was " (ver. 20): in Scripture udaism) that le temples of le result, "the it we are the jtion we cry, J Old Testa- that, uttering )r to Israel," children of God, as the apostle tells us (Gal. iv., 1-6), diirered nothing from servants, being under tutors and governors (under th? law as schoolmaster, chap, iii., 24) Jintil the time appointed of the Father. Thus under tjie law the children never cried, Father. " But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem tkem that were under the law, that we might re- ceive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, cry- ing Abba, Father." It is this inestimable privilege of the in-dwelling Spirit which believers obtained therefore at Pentecost ; not " con- version and sanctification," as Mr. L. represents' the view he conubats. And union with the Lord is (not by faith but) by one Spirit: "he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit" (1 Cor. vi. 17). Hence the baptism of the Holy Ghost forms the body, the church, after the Head has taken His place in heaven. I pass on now briefly to consider 2. The Kingdom of God. And here again the simplest way is to present first the Scripture view, and then to look at Mr. Laiug's objections. It is certain from Scripture that the throne of the Lord was in Jerusalem in time past, and that it shall be again in mil- lennialdays (Jer. iii. 17). - He dwelt in glory among them; as claiming " all the earth" at Sinai, He promises that Israel, if obedient, shall be to Him "a peculiar treasure above all people" (Ex. xix. 5). As supporting this claim " the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth " passes over Jordan (Josh. iii. 11) to giv "^^rael their posses- sion. So identified were they indeed with His plans and* purposes on earth, that " when the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel" (I)eut. xxxii. 8). We knov /ell the history of this chosen people till Lo- <• v^ ,'>■■>• i£^e i u arami (not my people) was written upon them. Ezekiel sees 'the glory remove from the temple, and the King of Babylon carries them away captive. At this point an instructive term is used : it is no longer the " God of all the earth " of whom we hear, but the God of heaven."^ It is as if God in a cer- tain sense had abandoned the earth, and the Gentile power (in Nebuchadnezz ir) receives from Him the throne of a uni- versal kingdom. Here the times of the Gentiles manifestly begin, and last according to Daniel's vision, until the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of Heaven (Dan. vii. 13). To a remnant returned from Babylon the Lord Jesus pre- sented Himself, announced beforehand by the Baptist, as King of God's kingdom : the kingdom of God was at hand. Christ was rejected by his own, and the title He claimed was put up in derision over His cross : "Thisls the King of the Jews." The prophecies are not silent as to what that title implies (Isa. ix. 6, 7 ; xi.) But Hi^^ rejection by Israel "was the occasion of the display of Divine counsels hitherto hid- den. The cross laid the foundation of blessing both for Is- rael evetitually and for the Church of God (Jno. xi. 51, 52). The suspension of the fulfilment of Israel's promises, and of the earthly blessings, gives room for the gathering of a heavenly people, who are to -share in the rule of the Son of man over the earth in a day fast hastening. Until the broken thread of the Old Testament prophocy is resumed, the " mys- teries of God" (Cor. iv. 1.) have their place, and among these the " mysteries of the kingdom also" (Matth. xiii. 11). These * mysteries ' are not things in their nature mysterious, but, according to the acknowledged meaning of the word, secrets not revealed before, and now made known to the in- itiated only, Thflr kingdom in its present form was thus (Matth. xiii. 35) among the "things kept secret from the foundation of the world." This should assure us that tlie * It 18 found 2 Chr. xxxvi. 23 ; Ez. i. 2 ; v. 11, 12 ; vi. 9, 10 ; vii. 12, 21, 23; Neh. i. 4, 6 ; ii. i, 20 ; Dan. ii. 18, 19, 37, 44. And only tirice I think beside in the Old Testanieut, Jon i. 9 ; Ps. cxxxvi. 26. Old Testam kingdom in tament proi reader carefi There /« reigns, wher . His Father's as Son of k His people : with Me on down with J 13). His tl and not His He is now r( express pron reign with E connection w the blessing < Mr. Laiiij kingdom to riot tell us power of a u able, and thai It is quite tn it is plainly 1 salem, which But this bega fetched " to Gentiles," w alone is respo The next the Baptist aj day of the I Elias which will receive it xi. 14)— a m on to sliow, j John therefo e 16 ""'■HWik'. Izekiel sees •f Babylon ictive term " of whom )(1 in a cer- itile power le of 8 uni- munifestly the coming , vii. 13). I Jesus pre- ist, as King 3 at hand, jlaimed was [Ciiig of the at that title ff Israel "was litherto hid- joth for Is- xi. 51, 52). lises, and of iiering of a the Son of 1 the broken 1, the " myp- and among ith. xiii. 11). mysterious, f the word, vn to the in- n was thus jt from the us that tlio vi. 9, 10 ; vn. •61, 44. AnJ 9 ; Ps. cxxxvi. Old Testament knows nothing pf it, and that to take the kingdom in its present form as being the fulfilment of Old Tes- tament prophecy must needs he an entire mistake. Let the reader carefully mark this. There is a kingdom now. Christ does reign ; but He reigns, where none can reign with Him, Son of God upon His Father's throne ; and not till He takes His own throne as Son of man, will He have a throne He can share with His people : " To him that overcometh will I give to sit with Me on My throne, even as I also Svercome and am se^ down with My Father on His throne " (Rev. iii. 21 ; Col. i. 13). His throne as Son of man is the Old Testament throne, and not His present one, as we have seen. King as He is,' He is now rejected, and His people too are suffering; but the express promise is that if we suffer with Him we ah^U also reign with Him. This coming kingdom is " in inseparable connection with Israel's restoration and supremac;^ and with the blessing of all nations : in a word, with -the millennium." Mr. Laing objects to " the idea of God transferring His kingdom to Nebuchad' ^-izar, rightly enough, but he does riot tell us exactlv whose it is ; that God committed the power of a universal kingdom to Gentile hands is indi.sput- able, and that this began the times of the Gentiles equally so. It is quite true that the phrase only occurs, Lu. xxi. 24, but it is plainly there the time of Gentile domination over Jeru- salem, which will last till she rises again from the dust. But this began with Nebuchadnezzar, so that it is not so " far- fetched " to begin them there. As to the "fulness of the Gentiles," which Mr. L. arbitrarily connects with these, he alone is responsible for that idea. The next objection is singularly feeble. He refers to John the Baptist as fulfilling Malachi's prophecy of Elias before the day of the Lord. He quotes the Lord saying, "This was Elias which was for to come," incorrectly, for He says, *'/;' ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come " (Matth. xi. 14) — a most important condition, for, as the Lord goes, on to show, they were rejocting John and his Lord together. John therefore, who came as Elias, could not actually be Elias m m (: : m til i?i h( R';, m M , i 16 to them ; he did not " turn the hearts of the children to the fathers, and the disobedient to 'the wisdom of the just," an instead of saving the land from curse, their rejection o Christ brought it down. Can Mr. L. contend that John saved the land from a curse 1 ^ Again, the time toaa fulfilled, and the kingdom was at hand, but I have shown th'at the kingdom of God had to come (because of their unbelief) in a way not contemplated in the Old Testament. The mysteries of the kinudom,were opened instead. But the apostle Peter's own account should have made Mr. Laing aware how " some " of those who stood there saw " the kingdom of God come with power " (Mark ix. 1). Peter refers to the transfiguration scene which fol- lowed as that in which they were eye-witnesses of Christ's glory — **the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" — "in the holy mount" (2 Pet. i. 16-18). It was the (still) future coming they saw, as it were, in sample. Moreover the kingdom of God is never in nature earthhj, as Mr. L. puts it, it is the kingdom of heaven ; nor is it ever a kingdom of this world to be established by warfare, as the Lor«i truly assures us. He does nut say, it was to be " es- tablished by witnessing for the tiuih," but that He was born to be such a witu-^ss. Again, when tiie apostle says, " Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven," that was true for the people he was addressing, and he goes on to shew we are to bo raised or changed therefore to enter into it. This proves surely that there is a future kingdom which remains to -be entered so. How does it consist on the other hand with Mr. L.'s idea that we have the kingdom now, in the way he puts it? The next passage, "The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof," does not show that they already had the kingdom except in promise, nor that it has been taken from Israel without possibility of restoration. With such prophecies as Mi'cah iii. 9 — i*^, 7 before one's eyes, he is bold enough at sh restoration. Clearly the Gentiles leny had not God's kingdom, I agree with Mr. L. Then J of Gentile nothing m such a sup We coi It is re so much as directly the truth or faJ tity of the ( presently, t these omitt( As one c a siege of J cessful, the stand on the speak of a p / Hirf presence land is bless over all the Then tak shall have p put on irnmo that is writ! XV. 54). W you will find punishes the 1—3), and tl 19-21), and the pit, and s after many d the great wh I leave tlj Itffect the point. if m was at )d had to templated idom/were int should who stood ■r" (Mark which iol- of Christ's Christ"— I the (still) ire earthly,^ »r is it ever t'rtre, as the to be " es- 'e was born ood cannot the people ,0 be raised surely that entered so. L.'s idea it,1 U be taken the IVuits He kingdom roni Israel ophecies as enough at he Gentiles Then as to Matth< viii. 11, 12, it shows the bringing in of Gentiles into the place of cast out Jews, and it shows nothing more, except the poverty of the cause which needs such a support. We come now to 3. The Coming op the Lord. It is remarkable as to this, that Mr. L. does not examine so much as one of the passages which are believed to teach directly the pre-millennial coming ! He prefers to base the truth or falsity of it on the further question as to the iden- tity of the coming and day of the Lord. This I shall look at presently, but in the meanwhile must produce one or two. of these omitted Scriptures. As one of these we may take Zech. xiv. In the midst of a siege of Jerusalem, which has been already partially suc- cessful, the Lord conies with all His holy ones;* His feet stand on the Mount of Olives (no words could more plainly speak of a personal coming); the mount cleavep asunder at Hirf presence ; He delivers Israel, destroys their enemies, the land is bless d and safely re-inhabited, and the Lord is king over all the earth. Then take the apostle's words : "So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall ht^ve put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass th.. saying that is written. Death is swallowed up in victory" (I Cor. XV. 54). Where is this written? Turn to Isa. xxv. 8, and you will find that this takes place at the time that the Lord punishes the host of the high ones on high, (comp. Kev. xx. 1 — 3), and the kings of the earth upon the earth (Rev. xix. 19 — 21), and when they have been gathered as prisoners in [the pit, and shut up in the prison (Rev. xx. 3), to be visited after many days (after the millennium, at the judgment of the great white throne, see Rev. xx. 10 — 12). It is then, * I leave tbe question open, whether saints or angels ; it does not liffect the point. l:\ m I '■'! W:.*, ■ !■]' ^-^i 0^ mi 1 18 when the Lord of Hosts reigns in Zion and before his ancients gloriously (chap, xxiv, 21 — 23); when ho has brought down the noise of strangers, and abased the branch of the terrible Oi^es ; whon He destroys the veil spread over all nations, and wipes away the tears from off all faces, and takes away the rebuke of His people from off all the earth. Then it is that . the resurrection of the saints shall bring to pass the saying, Death is swallowed up in victory. Mr. Laing insists that we are not to ^tP-tch for the Lord, because Peter and Paul knew they were to die first. But we have no evidence that they know it any length of time before their death. When Paul first speaks of it, the time of his departure was already "at hand" (2 Tim. i. 6). And when Peter speaks of his, he was " shortly " to put off his taber- nacle (2 Peter, i. 14). John's gospel was written after Peter's death, and therefore he could interpret the Lord's saying as signifying " by what death lie should glorify God," without its being so clear that he knew at the time what was meant, for the Lord does not say distinctly he should die (John xxi. 18, 19); nor was Peter 'then young ("when thou wast young,") so that if he did know, it would put off the Lord's coming of necessity but a little way ; and n6 one else would know that he must die. Nor does John say of himself (as Mr. L. seems to intimate) that Christ would not come before he died, but that the Lord had not said he would (verse 23). For the rest, all the New Testament is full of the inimin- ency of His coming. The same virgins who go out at first to meet Him seem in the parable (Matt, xxv.) tOs welcome Him back. The same with the servants in the parable of the talents. Watchfulness as to it is continually enjoined, " lest, coming suddenly, He find you sleeping " (Mark xiii. 36). " We which arc alive and remain to the coming of the Lord," says the apostle (1 Thes. iv). " Behold I come quickly " (Rev. iii. 11). " He that testifieth these things saith, Surely I come qnickly" (xxii. 20). And if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My Loud belayeth His COMING, and shall begin to smite his fellow-servants, and to ^9,t f^nd drink with the drupken, the Lord of that servant shall con hour thai appoint li weeping j solemn, ii leviewing But I the Lord, longs to it apt to beli terra, and " coming o every eye i course His TJie " t only once e and found jean's day just as the own. Thu the earth i coming, bu Hfe is come, explains th plexed a bo I Lord conies^ heavens paj this final a founding th all to a poin merely puts /'(? judgment, from all others by being canght up to meet the Lord in the air. Again, it is not, as the judgment at the great white throne will be, an exact apportionment according to men's works, but a simple sepa- ration of two clasE'^s according as they had honored or not the " brethren " of the King. How could this apply univer- sally as a test, where the heathen were in question ? All this shows conclusively it is not the general judgment which has been supposed. It is the judgment of those who in the interval between the Lord's taking up of His saints, and His coming with them, have had the gospel of the kingdom preached to them (by Jewish " brethren," I doubt not), and have thus received or rejected Christ in the person of His saints. I am sorry that I cannot credit Mr. Laing with either candour or courtesy in his treatment of this subject, which, for its importance, should have had more serious attention [than he bestows upon it. When he quotes, *' then shall He " — the Son of Man — " sit upon the throne of His glory," and adds, "as King — meaning He was not King before this," he should know well that, as I have before said, Scripture makes a difference between His kingdom now as Son of God upon JHis Father's throne, and His kingdom as here, Son of Man lupon His own (Rev. iii. 21) ; and that those whom he is lopposing own His " kingdom and patience " to be now, [though not His " kingdom and glory " (Rev. i. 9 ; I Thes, Iii. 12). ,,t l--'^ ■«'1 I*. ." fix '■'4 m ' 24 Again he says (p. 58) : "Observe, then, that the parallel passages in Luke and Mark put it beyond doubt that the destruction of Jerusalem, spoken of by Matthew, was that which took place under Titus, before the generation who saw Jesus had passed away ; not the assault of Aulichrist, which, it is said, shall take place between the comings." It is dangerous to assume passages to be parallel withou ascertaining first how far they are so. That Matth. xxiv., xx v. and Luke xxi. are in general the same prophecy is plain, of course ; but that there are great differences also is evident upon any careiul examination. Luke does speak of the de- struction of Jerusalem under Titus, and note, that the sign is there, " when ye shall see Jerusalem encompassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let those which are in Judsea flee to the mountains, and let them which are in the midst of it depart out," etc. Now, suppose we add some words from Matthew : " Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house " — that is, flee away immediately. How could a dweller in Jerusalem do that, when Jerusalem was encom- passed with armies ? He could not ; nor had he need. For when Cestius Gallus withdrew his army panic-stricken from Jerusalem, plenty of opportunity was' afforded for leisurely escape. The words of Matthew are thus not found in Luke, nor would they be suitable, for the two passages are not parallel. Matthew mentions wo destruction of Jerusalem, but the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place. Nor does he speak of an " assault " on it even, Antichrist's or any other. Mr. Laing is every way outside of the truth in this. Luke therefore gives an interval between the destruction of the city and the coming of the Lord: — " Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." Matthew connects the tribulation at Jerusalem closely with the Lord's coming : for we have first, the abomi- nation in the holy place ; then great tribulation such as never before or since, but shorty or no flesh would be saved j and then " immediately after the tribulation " the signs of the coming Luke d( The set right a time s( ragteristi terous g translate( from thia Israel j^er for Chrisi gathered over, as il groom mu goats take As to difficulty, gether, for lieving. ; same time The la than for opposes m^ them the c destroyed L They belie] ment" beiif really behc nations upc ^ope, and As to "I iVIr. Laing, , passages tof tells us, as Christ; in and ' that d| ^"•e/"etc., ^oni. xiv. * le parallel , that the ■was that I who saw tet, which, jl withou :xiv.,xxv. 18 plain, of is evident of the de- t the sign is cith armies, Then let md let them ow, suppose which is on f out of his 3W could a was encom- 5 need. Vov bricken from for leisurely ind in Luke, ages are not | erusalem, but j „ holy- place. antichrist's or the truth in e destruction jalem shall be the Gentiles at Jerusalem st, the aliomi- such as never e saved ; and signs of the 25 coming Lord. Thus Matthew does not speak of Titus, while Luke does, and they aro not, so far, parallel. The old mistake as to " this generation " has often been set right. In many languages the word is often used not in a time sense, but for a race or set of people with certain cha- racteristics. " generation of vipers ; " "a wicked and adul- terous generation." In Philippians ii. 15, it is the word translated " nation." In Ps. 6cii. 7, " Thou shalt preserve them from this generation /b>' eyen" I do not doubt it refers to Israel l^ere. Else see the enormous and inexplicable difficulty ; for Christ must have come in the clouds with His angels, and gathered His elect before thirty or forty years passed. More- over, as it is clearly the same coming all through, the Bride^ groom must have come and the judgment of the sheep and goats taken place ! Does Mr. Laing believe this 1 As to the judgment of the " wicked servant," there is no difficulty. It is a parable, not a history, and groups to- gether, for the sake of the principle, the believing and unbe- lieving. This does not show that the award will be at the same time to each. The last objection is again more serious for Mr. Laing than for any other. He should know well that those he opposes maintain the very opposite of his assertion, that with them the doom of everlasting fire means, that they " shall be destroyed by desolating judgments from the face of the earth." They believe, fully as much as he, in "everlasting punish- ment" being really that. On the other hand, does Aw L. really believe that applying the blessing there awarded to nations upon earth " robs " the Christian of his own heavenly hope, and of everlasting life 1 As to " sessional judgment " I must be more brief. But Mr. Laing, I must say, perverts Scripture. He puts these passages together as if one : " * We,' " Christians, the Apostle . tells us, as well as sinners, shall stand before the throne of Christ ; in the clay when God shall judge the secrets of men ; and ' that day is, when the Lord shall be revealed in flaming fire,' "etc., (p. Gl). Would it be believed that his first text, Rom. xiv. 10, says nothing about the day at all , that the ^i m L- x_ 1 K^) 26 Second text (Rom. ii. 16) says nothing about Christians at all ; and that his third quotation, " that day is, when " — does not exist in Scripture ; and that the passage in 2 Thes, i., which he quotes from, says nothing about our standing before the judgment seat then, but of rest recompensed to Christians in the day of the judgment of others ! ' No one supposes that " the saints shall judge the world " in the "same sense " as when God judges the secrets of the heart, so far as I know. But they shall "judge," for Scrip- ture says so, and to this Rev. xx. 4 refers. ^ As to' the rest, what Mr. L. says is only his own confounding things that differ. Tyre and Sidon will not be judged at the time of which Jude, quoting Enoch, speaks ; nor does he mean to say that the very individuals existing in his day would be judged then either. " These," spoken of by Jude, alas, still exist, and will be judged then surely. As to the judgment of the great white throne, the p'as.sage itself limits it to the '* dead " and not the living ; and, there having been a resurrection of the saints a thousand years be- fore, it manifestly does not include these. Thus there is no restricting or adding to God's word, but subjection to it, in so teaching. Moreover, the judgment of the " world " is not the judgment of Christians who are '* not of the world." In Matt. x. 33 nothing is said about the time when ; while Mark viii. 38 speaks only of those of whom he will be ashamed. " They also who pierced Him " are the people who did so (Israel, who had the chief guilt of it), and not the individuals, as a glance at Zechariah (xii. 12) will show ; for they will mourn their sin and find cleansing from it, which Oaiaphas will not (ch. xiii. 1). Did Mr. L. ever read this prophecy of Zechariah seriously ? Again Rev. xi. 15 is the anticipation of what is coming, nothing more. If it be, where is even Mr. L.'s millennium 1 Kor is, the order one of time plainly. The "time" for all these things is the day of the Lord, and they will all take place on that day, but there is no further synchronisgi. I might apply Mr. L.'s own language (p. 22) with greatl truth to this collection of texts on his part. I leave it, how- ever, in tl] Word will and to di8( I must ag] difference i: Testament The pro only to be To quote ag that "there just and un 29 is more rj and the "ho lajjse of time pressions as guages in a V which is thai out particuJa: supply us wi pressions, in the definite. Scripture "Christ the His coming ( asserts is tau^ for himself, t] kould be no phapter, read* "ily of eainl ^ised in in col lent that this] |ave already 'lat this take! foni the natic e earth. 27 iristians at len " — does 2 Thes. i., iding before Christians # the world " screts of the ," for Scrip- 3 tor the rest, ; things that ' the time of 5 mean to say ild be judged s, still exist, te, the passage g ; and, there land years be- us there is no ion to it, in so fid " is not the world." Ill when; while fl he will be the people yf^o ), and not the will show ; for from it, which ever read this hat is coming, .'s millennium 1 "time" for all y will all take jhronis^ja. 22) with great| I leave it, bow ever, in the assurance that the least intelligent student of the Word will not be at a loss to know what is truth amid it all, and to discern the spirit which is at work in it. As to ' 5. The Eesurrection. I must agree with Mr. L. that " there is not a hint of any difference in time between the resurrection of Old and New Testament saints," nor did I ever hear that any thought so. The progfs of the First Resurrection of the saints are not only to be found in Rev. xx., 4 6 as he seems to suppose. To quote against it that Paul believed (what we all believe) that " there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust," is childish. The quotation of Jno v. 28, 29 is more rational ; but there also it is the general statement, and the " hour" may, as we see from verse 25, embrace a long lapse of time. Nothing can be really argued from such ex- pressions as "day" or "hour," as they are used in all lan- guages in a very wide sense. " The last day" is an instance, which is that which succeeds the present, or man's day, with- out particularizing exactly when. Scripture does not fail to supply us with the means of interpreting aright all such ex- pressions, in doing which we must explain the indefinite by the definite, and not reverse the rule as Mr. Laing does. Scripture is precise, that the " order" of resurrection is " Christ the first fruits, afterward they that are Chnsfs at His coming (1 Cor. xv. 23) ; not the Church only, as Mr. L. asserts is taught, I know not by whom ; and not, as he asserts for himself, the wicked dead as well. If this were so, there would be no meaning in the apostle's words. Look at the chapter, reader, and see how plain it is that it is a resurrection nly of saints he has in mind. For when he saya, "it is ised in incorruption," " it is raised in glory," &c., it is evi- ent that this could not apply to the wicked at all ; and we lave alvendy seen by comparing verse 54 with Isa. xxv. 8, at this takes place at the time when the veil is removed m the nations and the offence of God's people taken from e earth. i I ' :. < I — 98 :^ ■n P ;':: '■■-\ Again from Rom. viii. 19-23, we learn that the "whole creation" groans, waiting with ourselves for the "manifesta- tion of the sons of God" at the " redemption of the body," expecting then to be " delivered from the bondage of corrup- tion into the liberty of the glory (so the Greek) of the chil- dren of God." Again, take the L( li .; answer to the Sadducees (Lu. xx. 35, 36): "they which aiu accounted icorthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead" — how could one speak of being accounted worthy to obtain a genefral resurrec- tion, which nobody could lose I—" neither marry nor are giv- en in marriage, neither can they die any more, for they are equal unto the angels ; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection." This is either Universalism or Premillennialism. For if people are children of God as being children of a general resurrection, the wicked too being chil- dren of the resurrection must be also children of God. The first part — " they which are accounted worthy" — shews it is not this ; therefore the other must be the truth : it must be a-" first resurrection" of saints alone. Now, compare with this the passage in Revelation (xx. 4- 6) upon which Mr. Laing spends all 1 's strength : how like is this "they are the children of God" etc., to that " Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection ;" and " neither can they die any more" to " on such the second death hath no power." iind observe^ these words in the Apocalypse are not part of the vision, hut the interpretation* of the vision. First, there are seen thrones, and people sit- ting on them, to whom judgment is committed, then another company of martyrs under the beast, slain after the saints of the past and present had been caught up to meet the Lord. These might have been supposed to have thus been too late for a place with the rest of the heavenly saints, they are therefore here distinctly joined to the other throned saints, asj * These interpretations occur all through the book : take for in- stance, xix. 8, "the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints ;" xx. 2 "that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan," etc. partakers i comes the This is, th( vision of re fot necessa utable pJai Thus M theory cumj God requiiei hteral, not visions previ "P to ridicul it' That th( order ill vvh I^aing to proi "iterpretation they clash wj ^amb surely doubtfuJ, uhf 18 " the right( the rider on i\ Jj"en. His n\ ■The bindiiii;, ^ ^^ith the overi. phe fir.st resur] seen, in perfecf tJiel to Dan. [prophecies) is p "whole aanifesta- 16 body," of corrup- the chil- s (Lu. XX. btain that could one al resurrec lor are giv- >r they are ;, BEING the ^ersalism or ^od as being being chil- God. The -shews it is it must be ation (xx. 4- how like 1 . the second vords in the iterpretation d people sit- -.,^ . ^ ... then another |T(f deny that a Jfrfit resurrection implies a second, especially the saints of Iwhen it is paid " the rest of the dea»l lived not again till the net tVie Lord. Ilhousand years were finished, and when at the close of that been too late lime .in<>ther confessedly literal resurrection does take place, ints they are m bohl enough at any rate, e^t n for Mr. Laing. 1 leave all ned saints, aslhat with entiie coiitidfuce to the judgment of the simplest pint of God. Mr. Laing says little as to 6. Thf. Millennium, id the Scriptures examined have already furnished us with 3 |)k : take for m- ;he saints ;" xx. I:- 1 30 It m % sutficient light tis to it for our present purpose. Mr. L. has plainly not perceived that its being literally a thousand years resultsfrom this period being found in the explanation of the vision, and not merely in the vision itself. It is to be no- ticed how little is said even in Revelation as to the earthly blessing. This is left to the Old Testament prophets, and is« thoir common theme. ' The New Testament adds the reign of the saints and the vision of the heavenly, as Ezekiel of the earthly, city. Here then I close. It is not my intention to follow Mr. Laing through his further arguments as to the tendencies of the doctrines in question. Nor, if he has allowed himself to indulge in charges of which he himself must know the false- hood, shall I do aught but refer it, as I safely may, " to Him who judgeth righteously." I must ask, however, those who would do common justice to the holders of the views in ques- tion, to take these from their own books, and not from Mr. Laing's statements. For instance, that they " claim for them- selves the exclusive name of 'the Brethren/ the Church, the alone Bride of the Lamb" (p. 23) is simply a false assertion. And there are many other statements in his book as unreli- able as this one. But I have done. Reader, eternity 's before us, and fast hastening on is the time when (too late alas, for many) the full truth will be known. Meanwhile the words of the Liv- ing Truth Himself are, " Behold, I come quickly." Can you respond, " Even so, come, Lord Jesus 1" Toronto, April, 1877, F, W. GRANT. c4 Ir. L. has sand years lion of the to be 110- tie earthly ets, and is* he reign of ciel of the follow Mr. ndencies of I himself to IV the false- ' (< to Him ^ those who ews in ques- jt from Mr. am for them- Church, the Ise asdertion. jk as unreli- > us, and fast 31 many) the Is of the Liv- y." Can you GRANT. I \