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LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 GIFT OF" 
 
 Mrs. SARAH P. WALS WORTH. 
 
 Received October, 1894. 
 Accessions No.&J/ b*? . Class No. 
 
 

 // 
 
 TWELYE LECTURES 
 
 ON THE 
 
 EVENTS 
 
 OP 
 
 UNFULFILLED PROPHECY, 
 
 WHICH 
 
 STILL AWAIT THEIR ACCOMPLISHMENT, 
 
 AND ABB 
 
 APPROACHING THEIR FULFILLMENT. 
 
 B Y 
 
 REY. ISAAC P. LABAGH. 
 
 KHCTOB OF OALVABY OHUBCH, BBOOKLTN, 
 
 "Come hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter." 
 
 REVELATIONS, Iv.L 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR. 
 
 UITIVBESITY 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, In the year 1859, by 
 
 ISAAC P. LABAGH, 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. 
 
 STEREOTYPED BY 
 
 THOMAS B. SMITH & SON, 
 82 & 84 BBEKMAN-ST., N. Y. 
 
TO THE 
 
 REV. FRANCIS L. HAWKS, D.D., LL.D., 
 
 EEOTOE OF OALVAET CHITROH, NEW TOEK, 
 
 RENOWNED AS A PULPIT ORATOR, 
 DISTINGUISHED IN THE COUNCILS OF THE CHURCH, 
 
 ACCOMPLISHED AS A HISTORIAN, 
 
 AND DEEPLY VERSED IN THE MYSTERIES 
 
 OF NATURE AND SCRIPTURE, 
 
 jToll0ujing toork is ftespectfallg Inscribed 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
11 SWEET is the harp of Prophecy ; too sweet 
 Not to be wronged by a mere mortal touch ; 
 Nor can the wonders it records be sung 
 To meaner music and not suffer loss. 
 But when a poet, or when one like me, 
 Happy to rove among poetic flowers, 
 Though poor in skill to rear them, lights at last 
 On some fair theme, some theme divinely fair, 
 Such is the impulse and the spur he feels 
 To give it praise proportioned to its worth, 
 That not to attempt it, arduous as he deems 
 The labor, were a task more arduous still." 
 
 COWPER'S WINTER WALK AT NOON. 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 THE author of the following treatise on unfulfilled Proph- 
 ecy was induced, more than twenty years ago, (in conse- 
 quence of an unsuccessful attempt to explain a Prophecy 
 to a layman who inquired its meaning,) to give more earnest 
 heed than before to those things which the prophets have 
 spoken. He felt this to be a duty as well as pleasure on two 
 accounts : 
 
 1. That he might inform and satisfy himself what the 
 great purposes of God concerning the future were; and 
 
 2. Be able, as a public teacher of God's word, to show 
 inquirers after truth the things (as he might discover them) 
 which shall be hereafter, according to the determinate coun~ 
 sel and foreknowledge of God. 
 
 Dark as the subject at first appeared to his mind, constant 
 application and research brought increasing light and clearer 
 views, until at last he began to speak with that confidence 
 which one obtains who feels assured that he has been brought 
 out of darkness into light, and that his eyes have been opened 
 to " behold wondrous things out of God's law." 
 
 Fully aware of the dangers as w r ell as difficulties of this 
 branch of sacred study, he has not been intimidated by 
 either, but trusting in the promise that they who seek for 
 truth in God's word as for hid treasure, shall find it, he has 
 persevered in searching into the deep things of God things 
 declared to be "hidden from the wise and the prudent," 
 but promised to be " revealed unto babes." 
 
VI PREP ACE. 
 
 Concerning the dangers and difficulties of the study of 
 Prophecy, the author would offer a few remarks. 
 
 One great danger or propensity of all interpreters of Proph- 
 
 5y, is to turn prophets themselves, and to substitute their 
 own theories for the verities which the prophets announce. 
 This is a danger most frequently fallen into by those who 
 are committed to certain chronological periods, and have at- 
 tempted with great positiveness to fix the times of their ex- 
 piration. Of this we have had frequent examples in our own 
 as well as former periods. Millerism, e. g., entirely ignored or 
 explained away several of the most important events yet to 
 take place, because it had fixed the termination of all things 
 at so near a period, (1843,) that time sufficient for their ful- 
 fillment did not remain. 
 
 Another danger arises from having the mind strongly bi- 
 ased in favor of some theory of the future, and then investi- 
 gating the Prophecies under that influence ; e. g., believing 
 that the only blessing in store for the Jews is conversion to 
 Christianity, and that therefore the prophets are not to be 
 understood as predicting their national restoration and re- 
 turn to the land of their fathers, in those passages in which 
 this is the literal meaning and natural import of the language^ 
 There is much " handling of the word of God deceitfully," 
 by wresting it from its plain and obvious meaning to make 
 it speak figuratively the sentiments we prefer to hold. 
 
 Still another danger arises from the great desire some 
 have to show that almost all the Prophecies have already 
 been fulfilled, and then selecting events which bear only a 
 remote resemblance, and that, too, in a few particulars, to 
 those predictions. Take, e. g., the Waldenses and Albigen- 
 ses, which some interpreters declare to be the Two Witness- 
 es of Revelations, xi., and whose massacre in Europe, they 
 think, was foreshadowed by the martyrdom of the Two WIT- 
 
PKEFAOE. Vll 
 
 NESSES in the street of the great city, spiritually called Sod- 
 om and Egypt, where our Lord was crucified. From two 
 or three accidental points of coincidence, they interpret this 
 to be a fulfillment of that Prophecy, although in many of the 
 most essential characteristics there is an utter failure. 
 
 The last danger we shall mention, incident to the mter-VX 
 preters of Prophecy, is a tendency to exalt prophetical above *\ 
 doctrinal and practical truth, and making it the GREAT SUB- J 
 JECT to be preached at all times, under all circumstances ana*""-"* 
 on all occasions. This is the infirmity of enthusiasts on this 
 theme, and is as injurious to the cause as is the indifferent 
 of those who boldly proclaim thatr unfulfilled Prophecy 
 not to be understood until it is fulfilled, and that, therefore,' 
 it is useless to attempt to understand, and especially to 
 terpret it. 
 
 From these and other errors into which expounders of 
 unfulfilled Prophecy have fallen, the author has endeavored 
 to learn a useful lesson, and to profit by their mistakes ; and 
 he trusts that the reader will not discover any of them 
 throughout these discourses. Having pointed out these 
 DANGERS, it is proper briefly to touch upon the DIFFICUL- 
 TIES of the interpretation of unfulfilled Prophecy. 
 
 The greatest of these arises from the FRAGMENTARY char- 
 acter of Prophecy. A predicted event is broken up into 
 several parts, and these are distributed among several proph- 
 ets, each of whom predicts the portion given him, but none 
 the whole. Thus, the entire career of our Lord upon earth 
 was foretold by the Old Testament prophets: Moses de- 
 claring the family from which He should descend ; Daniel, 
 the time, and Micah, the place of His birth ; Isaiah, the vir- 
 ginity of His mother and the propitiatory character of His 
 sufferings; David, His resurrection and ascension; and Zech- 
 ariah, His triumphant entrance into Jerusalem, etc., etc. 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 Now to have a distinct view of His whole career, as fore- 
 told by the prophets, we must collect together these and 
 other fragments of the prophets and unite them in one har- 
 monious whole, and hence arises the great difficulty of the 
 interpreter of unfulfilled Prophecy. This was, and still is the 
 stone of stumbling to the Jew, who can not Jit in those 
 Prophecies of Christ's glory and triumph as a conqueror, 
 with those of His shame and humiliation as a sufferer, which 
 the prophets foretold. 
 
 We know not how we can illustrate more clearly this fea- 
 ture of the prophetic writings, than by comparing it to one 
 of those inventions for the entertainment of the young, called 
 a " CHINESE PUZZLE," in which a beautiful picture is first 
 drawn on a flat surface of board or pasteboard, then divided 
 into a great number of parts of curious shapes and different 
 sizes, then thrown into confusion to be gathered and again 
 united in one harmonious whole, which is not unfrequently 
 a task of difficult accomplishment. 
 
 So God has pictured out the future for us in His word, 
 and scattered it in parts throughout the sacred pages, to be 
 collected and united in one harmonious whole, not, however, 
 without toilsome effort, (often, perhaps, unsuccessful,) yet 
 not to be abandoned on that account. For, if those seeking 
 amusement with the ingenious contrivances of human skill 
 will devote hours to arrange the separated parts of a broken 
 picture, that they may see in its entirety the view it pre- 
 sents, with how much more assiduity should students of the 
 oracles of God collect the separated parts of that picture 
 of the future which the divine artist has drawn, divided and 
 distributed through many inspired books, that peradventure, 
 by a careful comparison of things spiritual with spiritual, 
 the whole may be brought into such unity that a clear 
 and distinct view of the portentous future may be obtained. 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 The author, therefore, after many years of careful reflection 
 on this subject, offers to the public the results of these labors, 
 and presents that picture of the future which he has con- 
 structed from those scattered parts which he has gathered 
 out of the prophets, from Moses to St. John the divine. 
 
 As there have been many authors and many works on this 
 difficult branch of divine study, he does not ask that those 
 still seeking information will -reject such views as to them 
 have heretofore appeared plausible, if not satisfactory, but 
 only requests them just " to look on this picture, then on 
 that," and judge which is truest to the original ; and if the 
 results of his labors in this department of sacred study shall 
 be of any assistance to others desiring to prosecute it, or 
 shall stir up any who have heretofore neglected it, to give 
 the more earnest heed to the revelation of God's word con- 
 cerning the future, he will not regret that he has committed 
 his work to the press, although it may expose him to the un- 
 friendly criticism of those who distrust or condemn all trea- 
 tises on this subject, and consider it presumptuous in any 
 one to attempt to read the future from God's word, notwith- 
 standing He has said, " Come hither, and I will show thee 
 things which must be hereafter." It is quite natural that 
 those who justify their neglect to explain that large portion 
 of the word of God which relates to those events yet to be 
 accomplished on the earth, by the assumption, that the only 
 interpreter of unfulfilled Prophecy is the fulfillment itself, 
 should look with DISAPPROBATION, or at least distrust, upon 
 all attempts to draw aside that (to them) impenetrable vail, 
 and to see any thing beyond it. But if the great Prophet of 
 the Church has said, "These things have I told you be- 
 fore it come to pass, that when it is come to pass ye may 
 believe ;" we certainly can not go far astray if we give earn- 
 est heed to the things He has spoken, and endeavor to under- 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 stand -WHAT HE HAS SAID, that we may know what to believe. 
 For unless unfulfilled Prophecy can be to some extent un- 
 derstood, it will be impossible to know WHAT is TO BE FUL- 
 FILLED ; and then Prophecy, instead of being a " light shining 
 in a dark place, to which we do well to take heed until the 
 day dawn," would be a system of hieroglyphics in which 
 would be buried whatever the "Spirit hath said unto the 
 Churches " of the future purppses of God. We can not think 
 that such is the character of the prophetic word of God ; 
 but feel a deep conviction that our Lord intended us both 
 to hear and understand the things which He declared should 
 come to pass, when, having pointed out to His disciples a 
 number of those things which were still in the future, He 
 added, Matthew xxiv. 25, 
 
 BEHOLD, I HAVE TOLD YOU BEFORE." 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE!. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Introductory Discourse on the Importance and Duty of the Study of 
 Prophecy. . 15 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 The Restoration and Conversion of the Jews and their Reestablish- 
 ment in the Land of Canaan. 24 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 The Recovery of the Lost Ten Tribes, and their Reunion with the Two 
 Tribes as one Nation, in the Land of Canaan 41 
 
 LECTURE IY. 
 
 The- Rise, Reign, and Overthrow of the Infidel Antichrist, the Last 
 Head of the Roman Empire 61 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 The Ministry and Martyrdom of the TWO "WITNESSES; the Time, 
 the Place, and the End of their Testimony for Christ. . . 83 
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 
 The Overthrow of Romanism and Mohammedanism, the two great En- 
 emies of the Gospel of Christ 108 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE VII. 
 
 PAQB 
 
 The Calamities and Distresses which fall upon the Nations of the Earth 
 at the Close of this Dispensation. 135 
 
 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 The Battle of Armageddon, where Fought, and its Eesults to the Jews 
 and to the Gentiles. 160 
 
 LECTURE IX. 
 
 The Binding of Satan, and his Expulsion from the Earth. . . 183 
 
 LECTURE X. 
 
 The Introduction of the New Dispensation. 206 
 
 LECTURE XI. 
 
 The First Resurrection and Reign of the Saints with Christ for a Thou- 
 sand Years on the renewed Earth 228 
 
 LECTURE XII. 
 
 The Distinguishing Features of the Millennial Dispensation, which are, 
 1. Fertility of the Earth ; 2. Longevity of its Inhabitants ; 3. Peace 
 and Quietness of all Nations ; 4. Universal Prevalence of Knowl- 
 edge and Holiness, 241 
 
 LECTURE XIII. 
 
 The Difference between the Millennial Dispensation and the New Jeru- 
 salem State. . 269 
 
0? THE 
 
 UFIVBRSIT7 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 IHSTTROIDTJCTORY. 
 
 " Seek ye out of the book of the Lord and read : no one of these shall fail, 
 none shall want her mate, for my mouth it hath commanded, and his Spirit 
 it hath gathered them." ISAIAH, xxxiv. 16. 
 
 KNOWN unto God are all His works from the begin- 
 ning of the world. The counsel of the Lord standeth 
 for ever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations. 
 These declarations of inspired writers agree with what 
 the Lord spake ,by the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah to 
 His ancient people. Remember the former things of 
 old, for I am God and there is none else. I am God 
 and there is none like me declaring the end from the 
 beginning, and from ancient times the things that are 
 not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand and I will 
 do all my pleasure. When we look at the history of 
 God's Providence we find it to be one of the most lucid 
 interpreters of His word. Many portions of holy Scrip- 
 ture would be for ever sealed to us were Divine Provi- 
 dence not acknowledged and admitted as an expounder 
 of them. In fact a large portion of holy Scripture always 
 has treated of things in the future, and was dependent 
 for its verification upon the coming to pass of those pre- 
 dicted events, so that when the events did happen, they 
 became the world wide and manifest explanations of them. 
 
14 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 Providence interpreted Prophecy, or rather we should 
 say confirmed it, that the whole world might see that 
 although "all flesh is grass and all the glory of man is 
 as the flower of the field, the word of God abideth for 
 ever," and that nothing is more sure than that " one jot 
 or tittle of the law shall not fail till all be fulfilled." 
 
 In the chapter from which the text is taken, God, by 
 the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah, foretells the final de- 
 struction and overthrow of an enemy of His and of His 
 people Israel and of His Church which shall take place 
 in the midst of scenes of such terrific grandeur and furi- 
 ous slaughter that the heavens and earth shall quake 
 and all nature tremble with horror. Although the ene- 
 my is described under the general name of Idumea, be- 
 cause, when the prophet wrote, Edom was the bitter 
 enemy of Israel, yet it is evident from tke whole descrip- 
 tion that this is only a generic title, as are also Assyria 
 and Babylon. In the vengeance poured out upon the 
 foes of Israel and Israel's God, the inhabitants of Idu- 
 mea shall come in for their share, and their country may 
 possibly be a part of the battle ground in which the 
 Lord will avenge the quarrel of His Covenant, when, as 
 the prophet says, verse 3, " His indignation shall be upon 
 all nations and his fury upon all their armies/' But 
 there is evidently much in this chapter which can not 
 and does not apply to any great conflict in which the 
 interests of the seed of Abraham have yet been con- 
 cerned. What the prophet declares in verse 8 to be the 
 cause of this war, viz., " the day of the Lord's vengeance 
 and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion," 
 has evidently never yet taken place, for the people referred 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 15 
 
 to are still dispersed and with few exceptions oppressed all 
 over the earth. Neither will the conflict here described 
 ever be realized until their deliverance is effected. What- 
 ever plausible interpretations commentators may give 
 of this Prophecy we have this one evidence of their be- 
 ing either true or false, viz., the manner in which their 
 interpretations affect the fortunes of the Jewish people. 
 They are the key note of the Prophecy, without which 
 every interpretation is out of tune, and can make no har- 
 mony with the text And any interpretation which 
 leaves them in their present state has a prima facie evi- 
 dence of its falsity. 
 
 We must therefore regard this whole Prophecy as 
 still future, and if so, as still awaiting that providential 
 exposition which in the time appointed of God it shall 
 receive. 
 
 Now if twenty-five hundred years ago the Prophet 
 Isaiah, having delivered this prediction with all its de- 
 tails, called attention to it by saying in the words of the 
 text, " Seek ye out of the book of the Lord and read : no 
 one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate, for my 
 mouth it hath commanded, and my Spirit it hath gath- 
 ered them ;" with how much more force do these words 
 come to us now, standing, perhaps, on the verge of the 
 fulfillment of this Prophecy. How does it become us, in 
 the remarkable times in which we live, while wonderful 
 events are constantly taking place, to keep an eye upon 
 the Scriptures of truth and see whether some of these 
 events which are taking place may not be the MATES, to 
 use the language of the prophet, which the prediction 
 has long been waiting for. Every Prophecy is engaged 
 
16 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 to those events in which it is to be fulfilled by the prom- 
 ise of God, and therefore the fulfillment is called its mate 
 for which it waits in confidence and sometimes very long; 
 when the mate arrives and the union between the thing 
 predicted and the thing accomplished takes place, then 
 Prophecy becomes History. 
 
 Almost all the great historical events which have be- 
 fallen the world and the Church, have been matters of 
 Prophecy before they became matters of History. The 
 flood was foretold one hundred and twenty years before 
 it took place. The deliverance from the bondage of 
 Egypt four hundred years before it was accomplished. 
 All the events of our Lord's life many centuries before 
 His advent. His birth, suffering, death, resurrection and 
 ascension, which were for ages matters of prediction, are 
 now subjects or events of history. The rise and fall of 
 the four great empires which have successively borne rule 
 over the whole earth, and which so many historians have 
 chronicled, Daniel wrote prophetically during the exist- 
 ence of the first of them, and Bollin has written histori- 
 cally, together with Gibbon, since the fall of the last. 
 None of these Prophecies has wanted her mate; just the 
 things foretold have been fulfilled; and why? For the 
 reason given in the text, " my mouth it hath commanded 
 them, and my Spirit it hath gathered them!' That secret 
 influence which God exerts over matter and mind and 
 the motives of men, directing them according to His 
 will, is called in the text His Spirit ivhich gathers them, 
 i. e., gathers together those circumstances which control 
 those events which (sometimes indeed unconsciously 
 and often unintentionally to those who are actors in the 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 17 
 
 scenes) produce the very results which the prophet fore- 
 told. We have a remarkable example of this in the ful- 
 fillment of our Saviour's Prophecy concerning the de- 
 struction of Jerusalem and the overthrow of the temple. 
 It is well known that the Roman general was anxious to 
 preserve that beautiful structure intact, and gave orders 
 to that effect, but a Roman soldier, in a mad frenzy, 
 rushed with a torch into the holy place and threw it 
 from him, whereupon the whole temple was almost in- 
 stantaneously, as if by a miracle, in a blaze, and the fire, 
 which seemed to be maddened by a divine purpose, could 
 not be extinguished. 
 
 How wonderfully have all the predictions of Moses and 
 the prophets concerning the dispersion and oppression 
 of the Jews been fulfilled in their minutest particulars. 
 The history of that race for centuries past has been a 
 living commentary on those Scriptures which they have 
 preserved with such pious care. Seek ye out of the book 
 of the Lord and read, ye who have any doubts of divine 
 inspiration, and tell us, who are these "people that 
 dwell alone and are not reckoned among the nations," 
 who have maintained a separate existence for so many 
 centuries among the multitudes of the Grentiles, without 
 a country and a home, and yet have not been called by 
 their names, but have preferred the name of Israelite 
 above that of any other nation ; whom no oppression 
 could subdue nor any motive of gain induce to become 
 Gentiles either by religion or by intermarriage ? Are they 
 not those whose history was written by the pen of in- 
 spiration, first as Prophecy ? Do they not resemble in 
 all the events of their wonderful career those to whom 
 
18 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 Moses said, "It shall come to pass, if thou wilt not 
 hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God to observe 
 to do all His commandments, that the Lord shall cause 
 thee to be smitten before thine enemies, and thou shalt 
 be removed unto all the kingdoms of the earth, and the 
 Lord shall scatter thee among all people, and among 
 those nations thou shalt find no ease, but the Lord shall 
 give thee a trembling heart and sorrow of mind, and thou 
 shalt have none assurance of thy life, but shall be a prov- 
 erb, a bye-word and a hissing among all people ?" How 
 wonderfully has this been verified for centuries past ! and 
 although this land was the first to set an example of 
 toleration to that race by the removal of all civil disabil- 
 ities and odious restrictions of social intercourse, yet in 
 Europe, Asia and Africa it still exists (with some ex- 
 ceptions) in an almost unmitigated degree, and accord- 
 ing to the very letter of the prediction made more than 
 three thousand years ago. What shall we say to these 
 things, but that " there is none like Him who declares 
 the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the 
 things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall 
 stand and I will do all my pleasure ?" As History has 
 always been the best practical commentator on Proph- 
 ecy in ages past, so it will perform the same useful office 
 to the word of God in ages to come. 
 
 The unwritten history of Prophecy will probably be 
 much more interesting than that which is written, be- 
 cause the events yet to take place are more terrible and 
 glorious than those which have already been accomplish- 
 ed. What, for example, is the first coming of our Lord 
 to the second ? What the deliverance of the Jews from 
 
INTKODTTCTORY. 19 
 
 Egypt, or restoration from Babylon, to their final ingath- 
 ering from their long and wide dispersion over the whole 
 earth ? What is the Old Testament or the New Testa- 
 ment dispensation to that which shall be introduced at 
 the second coming of the Lord and the millennial reign ? 
 What the past success of the Gospel to that which it 
 shall enjoy when the knowledge of the Lord shall cover 
 the earth as the waters do the sea ? In fact, some of the 
 most splendid and glorious Prophecies of the whole word 
 of God yet remain to be fulfilled. Some of the most as- 
 tonishing works both of mercy and judgment are yet to 
 be performed, and some of the most astounding miracles 
 to be wrought miracles in nature and miracles in grace. 
 Some suppose that the age of miracles has for ever pass- 
 ed away, and the day for stupendous events and marvel- 
 ous occurrences will never return ; but surely such can 
 not read the word of God with care. That sure word of 
 Prophecy, " whereunto we do well to take heed as unto 
 a light shining in a dark place," speaks of a variety of 
 events which are yet to burst upon an astonished world, 
 and show the complete fulfillment of works begun long 
 ago but not yet perfected. It may not be amiss to give 
 a brief enumeration of some of those unfulfilled Prophe- 
 cies which yet await their accomplishment, and must 
 take place, because the mouth of the Lord hath spoken 
 it. The following are the most prominent. 
 
 1. The restoration and conversion of the Jews and 
 their reestablishment in the land of Canaan. 
 
 2. The recovery of the lost ten tribes, and their re- 
 union with the two tribes as one nation in the land of 
 Israel. 
 
20 INTRODUCTOKY. 
 
 3. The rise, reign and overthrow of the infidel Anti- 
 christ, the last head of the Koman empire. 
 
 4. The ministry and martyrdom of the two witnesses, 
 the time, the place and the end of their testimony for 
 Christ. 
 
 5. The overthrow of Komanism and Mohammedanism, 
 the two great enemies of the Gospel of Christ. 
 
 6. The calamities and distresses which will fall upon 
 the nations of the earth at the close of this dispensation. 
 
 7. The battle of Armageddon, where fought, and its 
 results to the Jews and to the Gentiles. 
 
 8. The binding of Satan and his expulsion from the 
 earth. 
 
 9. The introduction of the New Dispensation. 
 
 10. The first resurrection and reign of the saints with 
 Christ for a thousand years upon the renewed earth. 
 
 11. The distinguishing features of the millennial pe- 
 riod, which are, first, fertility of the earth ; second, lon- 
 gevity of its inhabitants ; third, peace and quietness of 
 all nations ; fourth, universal prevalence of knowledge 
 and holiness, and lastly, 
 
 12. The difference between the millennial dispensa- 
 tion and the new Jesusalem state. 
 
 Now here is a series of events of the most interesting 
 kind, all foretold in Prophecy (as we shall endeavor to 
 show when we treat each topic in its order), and all 
 awaiting their fulfillment. Seek ye out of the book of 
 the Lord and read : no one of these shall fail, none shall 
 want her MATE. If we can show you predictions, clear 
 and explicit, on all these topics which we have enumer- 
 ated, rest assured their fulfillment will not fail to take 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 21 
 
 place at the time appointed of God. We are fully con- 
 vinced that unfulfilled Prophecy is a profitable study to 
 all who give heed to it, as the voice of God declaring the 
 end from the beginning ; and every one should say respect- 
 ing it, as the Psalmist said, "I will hear what God the 
 Lord will speak, for He will speak peace to His people, 
 but the way of the wicked will He turn upside down." 
 The study of unfulfilled Prophecy calls into exercise and 
 strengthens that faith which is the evidence of things not 
 seen ; it demands our implicit confidence in the veracity 
 of God, it tries us to see whether we can take Him at His 
 word, whether a " Thus saith the Lord" has more power 
 over our faith than the sneers of infidelity or the cavil- 
 ings of human reason. Things not yet seen, it brings 
 near, and gives them a reality, so that we are " persuaded 
 of them ;" it enables us to live in the future as well as the 
 past ; and is a beacon light to guide us safely through the 
 gloom and darkness of the long night of our Saviour's 
 absence ; or, in the language of holy Scripture, " a light 
 shining in a dark place, to which we do well to take heed, 
 until the day dawn, and the DAY STAR arise in our hearts." 
 Such being its uses, we trust the discussion of the several 
 subjects we have enumerated will be found profitable, 
 being mixed with faith in them that hear. 
 
 "We enter upon this series of subjects with no desire 
 or design to establish any favorite theory of our own, but 
 simply to show what we understand to be the plain teach- 
 ing of the holy Scriptures on these subjects, and we shall 
 ask you to believe only what is there plainly and clearly 
 expressed. And if it should appear, on a full investiga- 
 tion of the subject, that the future is big with events of 
 
22 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 the most transcendent importance to the Church and to 
 the world, the knowledge of them ought to be regarded 
 by us as of great moment, and be highly prized, that 
 when the events themselves take place, we may not be 
 taken by surprise, or be overwhelmed with dismay, but 
 may calmly view the things which the mouth of the Lord 
 hath spoken, and which must therefore come to pass, be- 
 cause His counsel shall stand, and He will do all His 
 pleasure. From the beginning, God has not intended to 
 keep us in ignorance of future things, but constantly 
 foretold what He would do, and the Church has had un- 
 fulfilled Prophecy to study as long as she has had the 
 inspired volume. In fact, the oldest prophecy in the 
 world, given in Paradise, is yet an unfulfilled one, and 
 awaits its accomplishment at the second coming of Christ, 
 when He will bruise the serpent's headj by casting him 
 in the bottomless pit, and setting a seal on him, that he 
 shall deceive the nations no longer ; then only shall the 
 original prediction of all, the first on the catalogue, receive 
 its complete fulfillment. We might also show the im- 
 portance of the study of unfulfilled Prophecy, from the 
 fact that we can not know certainly that a Prophecy has 
 been fulfilled, unless we know previously what the pre- 
 dicted events were in which it was to receive its fulfill- 
 ment. How, for example, could we see, in the restora- 
 tion of the Jews to the Holy Land, the fulfillment of 
 God's word, unless by study of that word we had pre- 
 viously learned that it foretold that event ? Our faith 
 in the future must, therefore, rest upon our confidence 
 in what the Scriptures teach of the future, and our con- 
 fidence in these upon our knowledge of their contents. 
 
INTKODUCTORY. 23 
 
 Away, then, with the silly pretense of some, who are too 
 indolent to apply their minds to the investigation of 
 recondite subjects, viz., that researches of this kind only 
 tend to craze the brain, and cultivate a taste for specu- 
 lative truth rather than practical. Did not Christ and 
 His Apostles constantly appeal to Prophecy in their 
 controversies with the Jews ? Did He not even chide 
 them for their ignorance on the subject, saying, " Oh, 
 fools and slow of heart to believe ALL that the prophets 
 HAVE spoken ? If ye believed Moses, ye would have be- 
 lieved me, for he wrote of me \" 
 
 Among the last words of Revelation is a blessing prom- 
 ised on the study of unfulfilled Prophecy, " Blessed is he 
 that keepeth the saying of the Prophecy of this book," 
 and, with such an endorsement of this duty, we may well 
 dismiss the cavilings of skeptics, and the dissuasions of 
 the timid, the doubtful, and the indolent, and apply our- 
 selves to the task of learning what things are coming on 
 the earth, according to the determinate counsel and fore- 
 knowledge of Him who hath declared the end from the 
 beginning, and who hath said, " SEEK ye out of the book 
 of the Lord and read : no one of these shall fail, none 
 shall want her mate, for my mouth it hath commanded, 
 and my Spirit it hath gathered them." 
 
LECTURE II. 
 
 EESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 
 
 " The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Thus speaketh 
 the Lord God of Israel, saying, write thee all the words that I have spoken 
 unto thee in a book. For lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will 
 bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the Lord, 
 and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and 
 they shall possess it. Therefore, fearthou not, my servant Jacob, saith tho 
 Lord, neither be dismayed Israel, for lo, I will save thee from far, and 
 thy seed from the land of their captivity, and Jacob shall return and be in 
 rest and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid, for I am with thee, 
 saith the Lord, to save thee : though I make a full end of all nations whither 
 I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee, but I will cor- 
 rect thee in measure and will not leave thee altogether unpunished." JER- 
 EMIAH, xxx. 1-4, 10, 11. 
 
 THE remarkable history of the seed of Abraham has 
 been a standing theme of admiring wonder for ages past 
 to all who have attended to History, Prophecy and Divine 
 Providence. The dealings of God towards them have 
 been more marked than towards any other one of all the 
 families of the earth. He has been nearer to them than 
 to any other nation on the earth, had more frequent 
 communications with them than with any other, in 
 fact, made them the organ and medium of His commu- 
 nication to the whole world His scribes to write His 
 book. It can not be denied that every inspired writer 
 of either the Old Testament or New Testament was an 
 Israelite. No Gentile has ever been called to that honor 
 
KESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 25 
 
 or admitted to that work. The glorious company of 
 apostles and the goodly fellowship of prophets were all 
 Jews. The Saviour and salvation is of Jews. The strong- 
 est man, the wisest man, the meekest man, the man 
 after God's own heart, were all of Abraham's seed. The 
 most illustrious poet, whose inspired strains have awak- 
 ened the joys of the people of God in every age, was an 
 Hebrew. The most ancient historian, whose chronicles 
 of events penetrate three thousand years further back 
 than Cadmus or Herodotus ever presumed to go, was of 
 this time-honored race ; and " time would fail to tell of 
 Gideon and of Barak, of Samson, of Jepthas and of the 
 prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought 
 righteousness, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched 
 the violence of fire, turned to flight the armies of aliens, 
 and others of whom the world was not worthy." 
 
 Moses, in reminding this people of the great honor 
 which God had put upon them above every other nation, 
 addresses them thus : "Ask now of the days which were 
 past, which were before thee, since the day that God cre- 
 ated man on earth, and ask from the one side of heaven 
 unto the other, whether any thing hath been heard like 
 it ? Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out 
 of the midst of fire as thou hast heard, and live? or hath 
 God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst 
 of another nation by temptations, by signs, by wonders, 
 and by a mighty hand, according to all that the Lord 
 your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes ?" For 
 what nation did the sea ever open a passage that they 
 might go through on dry ground ? or did the heavens 
 rain down bread for forty years, and a rock gush out its 
 
 2 
 
26 RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 
 
 waters to give them food and drink? or the walls of 
 cities fall down flat at the sound of rams' horns that they 
 might enter in and possess them ? Such marvelous in- 
 terpositions of divine power the history of no other nation 
 can record. And, as the hand of God has been remark- 
 able toward them in the distinguishing favors He has 
 conferred on them, it has been no less so in the extraor- 
 dinary and humiliating afflictions He has made them to 
 endure calamities so severe and long-continued, that 
 almost all mankind have come to regard them as doomed 
 to a perpetual curse ; fated to be outcasts and wanderers 
 always, bearing for ever the reproach of the Gentiles,, and 
 the shame of their exile from the land of their fathers 
 not knowing that a future still awaits them far more 
 glorious than the brightest period of their past history; 
 a future which shall cast into the shade the highest 
 glory and prosperity of any nation that has ever existed; 
 when they shall be the most honored and most useful 
 of all people on the face of the earth, and in the words 
 of the Prophet Isaiah, the whole world " shall acknowl- 
 edge that they are the people whom the Lord hath 
 blessed." 
 
 There is one thing which the Lord did for this nation 
 which He never did for any other. He gave them a coun- 
 try, a land for an everlasting possession. While the 
 earth is the Lord's, which He has given to the children of 
 men, and left them to wander abroad, or settle upon it 
 wherever they choose, He has selected and reserved one 
 portion of it for the seed of Abraham, which is theirs 
 exclusively by His will, to be occupied by them as long 
 as they kept His covenant, but when they broke it, to 
 
RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 27 
 
 lose possession, but not the title. The country selected 
 for and given to them is Palestine, first called Canaan, 
 because the descendants of Canaan, the son of Ham, the 
 son of Noah, dwelt therein. 
 
 The deed of this property to Abraham and his seed 
 is recorded in the book of Genesis, and it was given 
 about three thousand three hundred and seventy-three 
 years ago. 
 
 In Genesis xii., 1, we read, " The Lord appeared to 
 Abraham, whom He had called to lea' T e his country, 
 (viz., Chaldea,) to go to a land which He would give 
 him," (viz., Canaan.) 
 
 He appeared again to him, verse 7, after his arrival, 
 and said, " Unto thy seed will I give this land." 
 
 Again, in chapter xiii., 15, He said to him, " To thee 
 will I give it and to thy seed for ever/' 
 
 Again, in chapter xv., 18, He said, " Unto thy seed 
 have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the 
 great river Euphrates." 
 
 Again, in chapter xvii., 8, He said, "I will give unto 
 thee, and to thy seed after thee, all the land of Canaan, 
 for an everlasting possession." 
 
 In chapter xxvi., 3, 4, He appeared to Isaac, and said, 
 " Unto thee and unto thy seed will I give all these coun- 
 tries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto 
 Abraham thy father." 
 
 In chapter xxviii., 13, the Lord appeared to Jacob, 
 at Bethel, and said, " The land whereon thou liest, to 
 thee will I give it and to thy seed." 
 
 In chapter xxxv., 12, more than twenty years after, 
 the Lord appeared again to Jacob, and said, " The land 
 
28 RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 
 
 which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, to thee will I give 
 it and to thy seed after thee." 
 
 All these several conveyances of this property, to 
 father, son, and grandson, or rather confirmation of title, 
 shows the will of Grod concerning it, to whom it should 
 belong ; and if a grant made by the God of the whole 
 earth, and recorded in the oldest register of deeds andfacts 
 in existence, does not establish a claim against any right 
 of conquest or adverse possession, then must the will of 
 Grod, indeed, succumb to the violence of man, and the 
 oath of the Creator fail before the purpose of the crea- 
 ture. Such a result who can believe to be possible ? 
 But you will enquire why, if the land of Canaan was 
 given to Abraham and his seed for an everlasting pos- 
 session, have they occupied it for so small a portion 
 of the time since it was first given to them ? It is 
 a remarkable fact that, although the first grant made 
 to Abraham was made about three thousand seven 
 hundred and seventy-three years ago, yet the whole 
 period during which any part of his posterity have 
 possessed the land, has not exceeded one thousand 
 four hundred and eighty-one years. The seed of Abra- 
 ham, Isaac and Jacob did not obtain possession of it 
 until they crossed the Jordan, under the leadership of 
 Joshua, which was four hundred and sixty-seven years 
 after its first grant to Abraham. From their entrance 
 into it, under Joshua^ until the destruction of Jerusa- 
 lem by the Komans, was one thousand five hundred and 
 fifty-one years, from which, if we subtract the seventy 
 years of captivity in Babylon, there will remain- but one 
 thousand four hundred and eighty-one. And if from 
 
KESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 29 
 
 this number we deduct again the captivity of the ten 
 tribes, which took place seven hundred and twenty-one 
 years before Christ, the result will be that the whole of 
 the tivelve tribes have occupied the country together only 
 seven hundred and thirty years, out of the whole period 
 of three thousand seven hundred and seventy-three, 
 since its first grant, (i. e. } the two tribes Judah and 
 Benjamin occupied it one thousand four hundred and 
 eighty-one, and the ten tribes only seven hundred and 
 sixty years,) and yet all this time the land has been 
 theirs, and theirs only, by deed of gift from Him whose is 
 the earth, and the fullness thereof. 
 
 If we undertake to account for this seeming inconsist- 
 ency between the Divine will first expressed to Abraham 
 and its execution, we will find no discrepancy between 
 them, for the occupancy of the land was always on con- 
 dition of their obedience to the commands of God. This 
 Moses informed them in the wilderness, before they 
 crossed the Jordan and took possession of it. In Deuter- 
 onomy, xxviii., he says, " It shall come to pass, if thou 
 shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy 
 God, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above 
 all the nations of the earth, and they shall be afraid of 
 thee. And He shall bless thee in all that thou set- 
 test thine hand unto, and shall make thee plenteous in 
 goods, in the fruit of thy body, and of thy cattle, and 
 of thy ground, in the land ivhich the Lord sware unto 
 thy fathers, to give it unto thee. But if thou wilt not 
 hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep His 
 commandments, etc., the Lord shall send thee cursing, 
 and vexation, and rebuke, in all thou settest thine hand 
 
30 RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 
 
 unto ; and them shalt be smitten before thine enemies, 
 and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth." 
 
 Here we have the key which unlocks the apparent 
 difficulty between the promise and performance of God. 
 He has been faithful to His part of the covenant, but 
 they have not kept their part, and this has been the cause 
 of their expatriation, and of all their accumulated dis- 
 asters. Now, the question is, how long will this state of 
 things continue ? For ever ? or will there be a change, a 
 glorious change, a wonderful change, such as shall strike 
 the world with astonishment and awe, when they see a 
 people, denationalized and dispersed for so many cen- 
 turies, gathered together again and constituted an inde- 
 pendent nation in the land of their fathers, more pros- 
 perous and blessed than ever before ? Hear what Moses 
 declared in this same Prophecy in which he foretold the 
 consequences of their obedience or disobedience. Deu- 
 teronomy, xxx., 1-4 : u It shall come to pass, when all 
 these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the 
 curse which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call 
 them to mind among all the nations whither the Lord 
 thy God hath driven thee, and shalt return to the Lord 
 thy God and obey His voice, that then the Lord thy God 
 will turn thy captivity , and gather thee from all nations 
 whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee, and bring 
 thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou 
 shalt possess it, and He will do thee good, and multiply 
 thee above thy fathers ;" and hear also what our text 
 declares. (See the text.) 
 
 These two passages of Scripture, one from Moses, and 
 the other from Jeremiah, would be a sufficient founda- 
 
RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 31 
 
 tion, if there were no other, for the doctrine we advocate, 
 viz., the restoration of the Jews to their own land. 
 
 It is impossible for us, in the limits of one short dis- 
 course, to adduce all the evidence that bears on this point. 
 There are eighteen Prophecies in which their restora- 
 tion is explicitly declared, besides a number of others in 
 which it is implied. Comment on all these would re- 
 quire a written volume ; let us confine ourselves, then, to 
 the text alone, " Lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that 
 I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and 
 Judah, and I will cause them to return to the land that 
 I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it." Notice 
 the precision of this Prophecy, " my people Israel and 
 Judah" After the revolt of the ten tribes from Keho- 
 boam, the son of Solomon, they set up a separate king- 
 dom, which was thenceforward called the kingdom of 
 Israel, in distinction from that of Judah. This kingdom 
 lasted two hundred and fifty-four years, when it was over- 
 thrown by Shalmanasser, king of Assyria, and the ten 
 tribes were carried away captive. Now Jeremiah uttered 
 the Prophecy of our text one hundred and fifteen years 
 after the overthrow of the kingdom of Israel, and twenty- 
 eight years before the captivity of Judah, of the two tribes 
 in Babylon, which captivity lasted seventy years ; and yet 
 he speaks of a restoration of both to the land of their 
 fathers. We have a very full and circumstantial detail 
 of the restoration of Judah after seventy years' captivity 
 in Babylon, in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, and the 
 circumstances which led to it, in the Prophecy of Daniel, 
 but no historian, either sacred or profane, has ever yet 
 given an account of the restoration of the ten tribes, and, 
 
32 KESTOEATION OF THE JEWS. 
 
 in fact, but little trace has been kept of them since their 
 captivity, so little, that for many centuries they have 
 been spoken of as the " LOST TEN TRIBES." It is evident, 
 therefore, that the Prophecy of our text is still an unful- 
 filled one, because it speaks of a restoration in which they 
 each are to have a part. After the seventy years' cap- 
 tivity of Babylon, the two tribes returned again to Pal- 
 estine, rebuilt the city and temple, and occupied their 
 land more than five hundred and fifty years, until the 
 Koman conquest and destruction of Jerusalem, when 
 they were cast out and scattered all over the earth, and 
 remain so until this day. 
 
 The difference between the captivity of the ten tribes 
 and the two tribes is very striking, marked, and peculiar, 
 as the sins which caused their expulsion from their land 
 are very different. The ten tribes were expelled for their 
 idolatry. The sacred historian informs us, 2 Kings, xvii. 
 16-18, that they made molten images, and worshiped 
 all the host of heaven, and served Baal, therefore the 
 Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out 
 of His sight; there was none left but the tribe of Judah 
 only. " He removed them out of His sight" so that they 
 are hid from mankind, especially from the Church of 
 God in other words, lost to the knowledge of the civil- 
 ized world. 
 
 The fate of Judah was to be different, viz., a disper- 
 sion and scattering abroad in the sight of all nations. 
 They were not to be hid, but to be seen and known 
 everywhere. No opposition or persecution was threat- 
 ened to the ten tribes, but this was to be the fate of 
 the two tribes for many long ages :. a proverb, a by- 
 
RESTORATION OF THE JEWS, 33 
 
 word, etc., no rest for the sole of their feet, etc. This 
 difference in their punishment is attributed to the dif- 
 ference of their offenses. The ten tribes counterfeited 
 Deity by their idolatries ; the two tribes murdered 
 Him by crucifying the Lord of glory. The ten tribes 
 had no knowledge of the Messiah (except the wise men 
 from the East were a delegation from their nation 
 to learn the meaning of the Star which had appeared 
 to them). The two tribes heard His preaching, saw 
 His miracles, and had full evidence of His Divine 
 character, and yet put Him to death ; and for this they 
 have had to bear reproach and contempt and exile for 
 nenrly eighteen centuries. It must be confessed that the 
 crimes of both Israel and Judah were exceedingly ag- 
 gravated, and that God has shown them no favor, though 
 they are the seed of His ancient friend. He has been 
 faithful to all His threatenings, and as He says in the 
 text, " Though I make a full end of all nations whither 
 I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of 
 thee, but will correct thee in measure, and will not leave 
 thee unpunished." 
 
 It is a remarkable fact that almost all the prophecies 
 which speak of the restoration of the children of Israel 
 to the land of their fathers, speak of it as a deliverance 
 from bondage, oppression, contempt, and exile, and as 
 the mercy of God, displayed toward a penitent and 
 obedient people. The ten tribes will renounce their 
 idolatry, and the two tribes their enmity to Christ ; 
 and both will submit to His authority. Certainly, if 
 those prophecies have been fulfilled literally in the 
 judgments they threatened, they will be literally ful- 
 
 2* 
 
34 . RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 
 
 filled in the blessings they promise. By what consistent 
 rule of interpretation can we explain the portion already 
 fulfilled literally, and that still to be fulfilled, in a figura- 
 tive sense." Take, for example, that Prophecy of Ezek- 
 iel, xxxvi., 16-24, in which he says, " The word of the 
 Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, when the 
 house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it 
 by their own way and by their doings. Wherefore, I 
 poured out my fury upon them for the blood they had 
 shed, and on the idols wherewith they polluted it ; and 
 I scattered them among the people, and dispersed them 
 through the countries." Certainly all this has been 
 literally accomplished. Wherefore, He adds, " I will 
 take you from among the Gentiles, and gather y<>u out 
 of all countries, and bring you into your own land ;" 
 (surely the gathering must be as literal as the scatter- 
 ing,) " and ye shall dwell in the land which I gave to 
 your fathers." Surely, this is no other than the land of 
 Canaan, for what other was ever given to their fathers ? 
 So, also, in that Prophecy of Isaiah, xi., 11-13, " It shall 
 come to pass that the Lord shall set His hand again, the 
 second time," (the first was the deliverance from Egypt,) 
 " to recover the remnant of His people which shall be 
 left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathos, 
 Cush, Elam, Shinar, Harnath, and from the islands of the 
 sea ] and He shall assemble the outcasts of Israel " (i. e., 
 the lost ten tribes,) " and gather together the dispersed 
 ofJudah," (?'. e. } the two tribes,) "from the four corners of 
 the earth." The dispersion here spoken of never took 
 place until after the destruction of Jerusalem. This 
 Prophecy has no intelligible meaning if it refers not to 
 
EESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 35 
 
 the restoration of the seed of Abraham to the land of 
 Canaan the two dispersed and the ten lost tribes. And 
 so of all the rest. The same rule of interpretation which 
 applies to the part of a Prophecy that is past, must apply 
 to that part of it which is future. 
 
 And why is so much importance attached in Scripture 
 to this event ? Because it will show in such a striking 
 light the covenant faithfulness of God, and the certain 
 reliance that may be placed on His Word. His promises 
 never fail ; though long delayed, they are fulfilled at last. 
 The covenant with Abraham, concerning the land of 
 Canaan for an everlasting possession to his seed, though 
 long seemingly inoperative and dead, has still a vitality 
 and energy which will surprise the world when it begins to 
 work and produce its promised effects. The land and the 
 people so long separated will be again reunited, and the 
 greatest wonder in the history of nations be accomplished, 
 viz., that a people lo$t for more than two thousand five 
 hundred years shall be found, and a people dispersed and 
 scattered all over the earth for nearly two thousand years 
 shall be gathered and reunited, and both the lost and 
 the dispersed be constituted one happy family, in a land 
 which has been out of their possession for so many centu- 
 ries. The Lord of Hosts hath sworn, saying, " Surely as 
 I have thought, so shall it come to pass, and as I have 
 purposed, so shall it stand." 
 
 The wonderful preservation of the Jewish race dur- 
 ing so many ages of dispersion and oppression, seems to 
 indicate a glorious future yet in reserve for them. 
 Influences which would have annihilated almost any 
 other people, have failed to crush them or extinguish 
 
36 RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 
 
 their hopes of national resuscitation and restoration to 
 the land of their fathers. How many nations have been 
 overthrown by war and conquest, and have disappeared 
 from among the families of the earth, while they, in the 
 lands of their enemies, have outrode the storms of state 
 and the political revolutions by which kingdoms and 
 empires have been overthrown. Where are the proud 
 Assyrians and Babylonians, the warlike Carthaginians, 
 the learned Egyptians, the Parthians, Lydians, Phene- 
 cians, Trojans, ancient Tyrians, Lacedemonians, Spar- 
 tans, and others whose antiquity is of later date than the 
 Hebrews ? They have all passed away, and their descend- 
 ants can not be identified. But the seed of Abraham 
 continue the acknowledged and undoubted descendants 
 of those who occupied the Holy Land eighteen hundred 
 years ago; thus verifying the text, " Though I make a full 
 end of all the nations whither I have scattered thee, yet 
 will I not make a full end of thee." The most powerful 
 nations of antiquity have disappeared and are now known 
 only in history, while the Jewish nation lives in the persons 
 of its scattered children, waiting for that national revivifi- 
 cation which He has promised who " is not a man that He 
 should lie, nor the son of man that He should repent." 
 
 It is a remarkable fact that whenever the judgment 
 of God has been on the Jewish people for their sins, his 
 curse has also been, on their land, especially the curse of 
 barrenness : so that it has been an unproductive country 
 to whomsoever has occupied it. Even now, under the 
 dominion of the Grand Turk, its agriculture is of the 
 lowest degree. But when His blessing returns to them, 
 it shall also return to the land. Wherefore the Prophet 
 
RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 37 
 
 Ezekiel, xxxvi. 28-36, says, speaking of their restoration, 
 " Ye shall dwell in the land that I gave t(^our fathers, 
 and I will call for the corn and increase it, and lay no 
 famine upon you, and the desolate land shall be tilled, 
 whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all the heathen 
 that passed by, and they shall say, this land that was 
 desolate, is become like the garden of Eden, and the waste 
 and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced and in- 
 habited." Surprising change ! which will not be owing to 
 natural or artificial causes only, but chiefly to providen- 
 tial agencies ; for the prophet declares that the Gentiles, 
 verse 36, shall acknowledge it to be the work of the Lord. 
 The great favor that this restored people shall enjoy in 
 the sight of all nations, is in several places foretold by 
 the prophets. The Prophet Zechariah, viii., 13, says, 
 and " it shall come to pass that as ye were a curse among 
 the Gentiles, house of Israel and Judah, so will I save 
 you, and ye shall be a blessing ;" yea, so highly shall 
 they be in favor that he declares, verse 23, " ten men 
 out of all languages of nations shall take hold of the 
 skirts of a Jew, saying, we will go with you for we have 
 heard that God is with you;" and the Prophet Zephaniah, 
 iii., 20, says, " The Lord will make them a name and a 
 praise among all the people of the earth, when He turns 
 back their captivity before their eyes." And the Prophet 
 Isaiah says, chapter lx., that " the Gentiles shall come 
 to their light, and kings to the brightness of their rising, 
 and the sons of them that afflicted thee shall come bend- 
 ing to thee, and all that despised thee shall bow them- 
 selves at the soles of thy feet, and acknowledge that 
 they are the people that the Lord hath blessed." 
 
38 RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 
 
 Their restoration shall not (as some suppose) be the 
 result' of political combinations, or arrangements among 
 the great powers of the earth, delivering their country 
 first from foreign dominion, and then inviting them to 
 re-occupy it. Something of this kind may, and probably 
 will be attempted and partially succeed for a time, but 
 in the end, will fail, when God's own right hand and 
 stretched out arm will accomplish the work by agencies 
 such as men at present little dream of. So that the de- 
 liverance from Egypt, great and marvelous as it was, 
 shall be so far outdone as to be entirely cast into the 
 shade, as the Prophet Jeremiah teaches, xxiii., 7, 8, " Be- 
 hold the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no 
 more say, the Lord liveth which brought up the children 
 of Israel from the land of Egypt, but the Lord liveth 
 which brought up and which led the seed of the house 
 of Israel from the north country and from all the coun- 
 tries whither I had driven them ; and they shall dwell 
 in their own land ;" i. e., their final restoration shall be 
 attended with so many more signal displays of divine 
 power than their first deliverance from Egypt, that the 
 latter shall no longer be referred to as a proof that He 
 is their God. As the ten tribes have been so long hid 
 from the knowledge of mankind, their return shall proba- 
 bly occasion more astonishment to the world than that 
 of the two tribes, who have always been in view of the 
 world, and have had more or less communication with the 
 Holy Land. There are some circumstances in which the 
 restoration of the ten tribes will differ from that of the 
 two tribes, which will be noticed in the next discourse. 
 
 In concluding this brief review of some of those Proph- 
 
RESTORATION" OF THE JEWS. 39 
 
 ecies which foretell the future ingathering of the seed 
 of Abraham to the land of their fathers, w have com- 
 mented on those which refer to the restoration of the 
 whole twelve tribes. There are other Prophecies which 
 seem to refer exclusively to the return of the ten tribes, 
 to which our attention is next due. In the meantime, 
 let us. on a review of the whole subject, admire that un- 
 changeable love of God which is the source of all that 
 wonder-working power which shall accomplish their res- 
 toration, that covenant faithfulness which never forgets 
 to fulfill its promises, and that inflexible justice which 
 does not shrink from inflicting punishment for disobedi- 
 ence, while it never loses sight of the mercy promised in 
 the latter end. While there is every thing in Jewish 
 history, as well the past as that to come, to make us fear 
 the judgments of God, there is much also to excite us to 
 repent for sin, and hope in His mercy. If the crimes of 
 hundreds of years may be forgiven, and the penitents 
 again be restored to favor, and reinstated into their an- 
 ycient privileges, why may not our iniquities also be par- 
 doned, and the eternal life we have lost through sin be 
 restored ? Christ died that we might live, He came into 
 our world that we might have life, and have it more 
 abundantly. The same Prophecy which foretells the 
 restoration of the Jews, and the manner in which it shall 
 be effected, declares, also, how the Gentiles may obtain 
 deliverance from the power of sin. The Prophet Isaiah, 
 chapter xlix. 5, speaking of the work of the Messiah, 
 says, ** It is a light thing that thou shouldst be my serv- 
 ant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the 
 preserved of Israel. I will also give thee for a light to 
 
40 RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 
 
 the Gentiles, that thou mayest he my salvation unto the 
 ends of the ^rth." Through Him, therefore, all we who 
 are exiles from Eden, and wanderers over earth, may also 
 regain the Paradise we lost, the heavenly Canaan, that 
 everlasting rest which remaineth for the people of God ; 
 let us, therefore, a promise being left us of entering into 
 rest, take heed that we do not come short of it. Let us 
 remember that the greatest of all Prophecies, and that 
 in which we have all the deepest interest, is that "testi- 
 mony of Jesus, which is the spirit of Prophecy," " He 
 that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he 
 that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the 
 wrath of God abideth on him." This is a declaration of 
 the great Prophet like unto Moses, and shall be just as 
 literally fulfilled as that spoken by Ezekiel of Babylon 
 and Tyre, or by Daniel of the four great monarchies, 
 which should successively rise, reign, and fall, or of all 
 the Prophets, of the dispersion and restoration of the 
 seed of Abraham. 
 
 Let it be our unceasing effort, then, through faith in. 
 Christ, and obedience to His word, to extract from this 
 sure word of Christ all the sweet it contains, and avoid 
 the bitter, that when it is fulfilled, it may be to our de- 
 light and everlasting joy, and not to our sorrow and 
 eternal regret. 
 
LECTURE III. 
 
 THE TEN TRIBES. 
 
 " Is Ephraim my dear son ? is he a pleasant child ? for since I spake 
 against him, I do earnestly remember him still ; therefore my bowels are 
 troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord. Set 
 thee up way-marks, make thee high heaps : set thy heart toward the high- 
 way, even the way which thou wentest : turn again, virerin of Israel, 
 turn again to these thy cities. For behold the days come, saith the Lord, 
 that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed 
 of man, and with the seed of beast. And it shall come to pass, that like as 
 I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw 
 down and to destroy, and to afflict ; so will I watch over them, to build 
 and to plant, saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun 
 for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a 
 light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar ; the 
 Lord of Hosts is His name. If those ordinances depart from before me, 
 saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation 
 before me for ever." JEEEMIAH, yvxi. 20, 21, 27, 28, 35, 36. 
 
 HISTORIANS, who have delighted to trace the rise and 
 fall of nations, and the migrations of nomadic races, 
 seem, by some strange oversight, to have forgotten 
 to trace the steps of a people who once had a name 
 among the families of the earth, and who clung to their 
 nationality with an undying grasp. The kingdom of 
 Israel, formed out of ten of the twelve tribes, which 
 composed the entire Jewish nation, commenced its 
 separate existence immediately after the reign of Solo- 
 mon, A. M. 3029, A. C. 971, and lasted two hundred 
 
42 THE RESTORATION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 
 
 and fifty-four years, when it was overthrown by the 
 Assyrians. The causes of its gradual decay are given 
 by the sacred historians. They forsook the worship 
 of God and turned unto idols. They bowed down to 
 graven images, and burned incense to them. Where- 
 fore, he was wroth with them, and delivered them into 
 the hands of their enemies, who invaded their coun- 
 try, captured their chief cities, demolished their strong- 
 holds, and carried them away captive into a distant 
 land, far from the home of their fathers, which, for 
 more than two thousand five hundred years, they have 
 never since revisited nor repossessed. Where the place 
 of their sojourn has been from that time to the present, 
 has been a question which has greatly perplexed his- 
 torians,, and all their researches and investigations seem 
 to have never yet been able to clear up the mystery 
 which hangs over their fate, or definitely settle the 
 question, what region of the globe they occupy. What 
 the most learned for ages past have failed to accom- 
 plish, it can not be expected that we could achieve. 
 In fact, we feel that there is an impenetrable purpose 
 of God in this matter, which no human agency can 
 unfold before the time alloted for its disclosure' a 
 secret with regard to this people which God will see 
 is kept until He Himself will reveal it by bringing 
 them from their long hiding place, and showing them 
 to the world as the seed of His ancient friend, the 
 father of the faithful, hid in the day of His anger, but 
 revealed in the day of His love. The most we can 
 promise, therefore, upon the subject of the whereabouts 
 of this missing people is to give, first, the account which 
 
THE RESTORATION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 43 
 
 the sacred writers give of their conquest and captivity, 
 and the countries into which their conquerors led them, 
 next the notice which one of the Apocryphal writers takes 
 of them, then the supposed reference of the Evangelist 
 Matthew to them, afterwards the testimony of Josephus 
 the Jewish historian, who wrote in the first century of 
 the Christian era, then of Jerome, who flourished in the 
 fifth century, and next of a learned Jew of the middle ages, 
 and, finally, the speculations of modern writers, of whom 
 there have heen not a few, some of whom have supposed 
 that they have discovered and identified them, and 
 removed the vail which has so long hidden them from 
 the knowledge of the nations of the world. In chapter 
 xvii. of 2 Kings we read, " In the ninth year of Hoshea, 
 king of Israel, came Shalmanasser, king of Assyria, and 
 took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and 
 placed them in Halah and in Habor, by the river of 
 Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes ; for it was so that 
 the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord, and 
 set up images and groves in every high hill, and under 
 every green tree, and burnt incense unto them ; there- 
 fore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed 
 them out of His sight : there was none left but the tribe 
 of Judah only." Halah and Habor, and the river Gozan, 
 are names no longer with certainty known to geog- 
 raphers ; they have become extinct, and the places they 
 designated, having fallen under the dominion of new 
 masters, are otherwise called. This was common among 
 the conquerors of the East, as we see in the history of 
 the Turkish empire. But the expression, "cities of the 
 Medes," is sufficiently definite to determine the general 
 
44 THE KESTOKATION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 
 
 course of their route from the land of Israel to the place 
 of their captivity. The ancient Media lay north of 
 Persia, and its territory surrounded the Caspian Sea. It 
 became united with Persia under Cyrus, who finally 
 overthrew the very power which had led away captive 
 these conquered Israelites. But the captive tribes seem 
 not to have remained very long in their new homes ; for 
 in 2 Esdras, chapter xiii., which was written nearly three 
 hundred years after they were carried away, the author 
 informs us that the ten tribes took counsel among them- 
 selves that they would leave the multitude of the hea- 
 then and go into a further country, where never mankind 
 dwelt, that they might there keep their statutes, which 
 they never kept in their own land ; and they entered 
 into the Euphrates by the narrow passes of the river ; 
 for the Most High then showed signs fur then), and held 
 still the flood till they were passed over; for through 
 that country there was a great way to go, viz., of a year 
 and a half; and the same region is called Arsareth or 
 Ararat. Then dwelt they there until the latter time ; 
 and now, when they shall begin to return, the Highest 
 shall stay the springs of the stream that they may go 
 through. 
 
 If we now take an easterly direction from the upper 
 branches of the Euphrates, and go at the rate at which 
 we might suppose an entire nation could travel, we would 
 probably be brought, at the end of a year and a half, 
 about three thousand miles into the interior of that vast 
 region known as central Asia, and lying between Inde- 
 pendent Tartary, Thibet, the Chinese empire and Siberia, 
 a region of country but little known to civilization, and 
 
THE RESTORATION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 45 
 
 whose inhabitants have been, from their peculiar habits 
 and laws, for ages past shut out from intercourse with 
 the European races. At the time of the birth of Christ, 
 which was five or six centuries later than this last migra- 
 tion of the captive tribes, we are informed by the Evan- 
 gelist Matthew that there came to Jersualern wise men 
 from the East, saying, " Where is He that is born king 
 of the Jews, for we have seen His star in the East, and 
 are come to worship Him ?" The learned have never 
 been able to agree whoe these Eastern Magi were. 
 Many conjectures have been put forth which we shall 
 not take your time to mention, but only observe that 
 among them all there is none that has a greater appear- 
 ance of probability to our minds than this, that they 
 were a delegation from the ten tribes, to whom God had, 
 by the extraordinary appearance of a star, given knowl- 
 edge of the incarnation of His Son. The ten tribes un- 
 doubtedly carried with them a knowledge of the coming 
 of the Messiah. They knew of the Prophecy of Baalam, 
 " A star shall arise out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise 
 out of Israel which shall smite the corners of Moab and 
 destroy all the children of Sheth." This Prophecy gave 
 rise to the opinion that the appearance of the Messiah 
 should be heralded by a star. Besides, to no people on 
 the face of the earth, next to the Jews, was the advent 
 of the Messiah a subject of so deep an interest as it was 
 to the ten tribes, who, in common with the Jews, ex- 
 pected from him national glory and temporal prosperity. 
 How natural, then, that at the miraculous appearance 
 of a star announcing His birth, they should send a com- 
 mittee to Jerusalem to acknowledge the homage of their 
 
46 THE RESTORATION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 
 
 nation to Him,' give Him this title, "King of the Jews," 
 their brethren from whom they had separated, and pay 
 Him tribute in gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 
 We advance this only as an opinion plausible, probable, 
 but not certain, because the sacred writer has not seen 
 fit to declare from what nation those wise men from the 
 East came. 
 
 The only distinguished writers of note since the Chris- 
 tian era who have referred to the ten tribes, are Jose- 
 phus and Jerome, who both refer to them merely as still 
 residing in the places of their exile. Josephus, who 
 wrote in the reign of Vespasian, recites a speech made by 
 King Agrippa to the Jews, wherein he exhorts them to 
 submit to the Eomans, in these words : " What, do you 
 stretch your hopes beyond the river Euphrates ? Do 
 any of you think your fellow tribes will come to your aid 
 out of Adiabene ? Besides, if they would come, the Par- 
 thian would not permit." We learn from this oration 
 delivered to the Jews, and by a king of the Jews, that 
 the ten tribes were then captive in Media under the Per- 
 sian princes. 
 
 In the fifth century of the Christian era, Jerome, 
 author of the Vulgate, treating of the dispersed Jews in 
 his notes on Hosea, has these words, vol. vi., page 7: 
 " Unto this day the ten tribes are subject to the kings 
 of the Persians, nor has their captivity ever been loosed. 
 
 And again, he says, " The ten tribes inhabit at this day 
 the cities and mountains of the Medes." Ch. xiii. 
 
 In the twelfth century, Benjamin of Tudela, a learned 
 Jew, born in the kingdom of Navarre, traveled exten- 
 sively throughout Europe and Asia, visiting his brethren 
 
THE RESTORATION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 47 
 
 in all lands. He informed us that the cities of Ni- 
 sapur are inhabited by four tribes of Israel, viz., Dan, 
 Zebulon, Naphtali, being part of the first exiles who 
 were carried into captivity by Shalmanasser, king of As- 
 syria, as reported in Scripture. He banished them to 
 Lablach, Chabor, the mountains of Gozan, and the moun- 
 tains of Media. He mentions also a place, Thanaejm, a 
 a very strong city, being fifteen miles square in extent, 
 and large enough to allow agriculture to be carried on 
 within its boundaries. The province of which Tbanaejm 
 is the metropolis, contains forty cities and two hundred 
 villages, and one hundred small towns, and is inhabited 
 by three hundred thousand Jews. Telmas, also a city of 
 considerable magnitude,containing one hundred thousand 
 Jews, is strongly fortified and situated between two very 
 high mountains, and he adds, it is reported that these 
 Jews are of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe 
 of Manasses, who were led captive by Shalmanasser, king 
 of Assyria, and who repaired into these mountainous re- 
 gions where they erected the above mentioned large and 
 strong cities. They are not easily to be reached because 
 of their situation, which requires a march of eighteen 
 days through uninhabited deserts, and this renders them 
 difficult of access. This same writer mentions also in 
 addition to those which we have enumerated, a great 
 number of places in this same region of Asia inhabited 
 by descendants of the ten tribes, whose Jewish traditions 
 and ceremonies confirmed him in the belief that they 
 were his brethren of the house of Israel.* 
 
 * For further information on this point we refer the reader to the rare 
 but invaluable work of this author in the Astor Library. 
 
48 THE KESTORATION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 
 
 These gleanings of evidence contain all the light 
 which early writers since the Christian era have thrown 
 upon the place of their abode. 
 
 We can only next present you with the different theo- 
 ries which have been put forth from time to time to solve 
 the mystery of their existence and residence; some quite 
 plausible, others exceedingly absurd. 
 
 The first we notice is, that the present European races 
 are the ten tribes. The old Koman empire, overrun by 
 northern barbarians, was divided into ten kingdoms 
 which ultimately became Christian, and some have sup- 
 posed that these northern invaders were portions of the 
 ten tribes, and in their conversion to Christianity, was 
 fulfilled spiritually all the promises of restoration and 
 conversion made to the ten tribes, and which are not to 
 be understood literally but only figuratively, an absurd- 
 ity too great , seriously to undertake to refute. If such 
 were the case, how have they been hid for so many ages ? 
 The European nations are like a city set on a hill ; they 
 have been more prominent in the view of the whole world 
 than all other nations. Verily they would be any thing 
 else but the lost ten tribes. 
 
 Others have supposed that the Affghans are the de- 
 scendants of the lost tribes, on account of some similarity 
 between their manners and customs, but this may easily 
 arise from association as, well as from descent. One of the 
 missionaries at the East, by the name of Grant, a few 
 years since, published a work, in which he endeavored to 
 show that the Nestorian Christians were the lost tribes ; 
 it failed, however, to produce conviction in the minds of 
 its readers. A distinguished citizen of this country, Elias 
 
THE RESTORATION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 49 
 
 Boudinot, about forty years ago, published a work, enti- 
 tled " Star in the West/' in which he attempted to show 
 that the American Indians were a portion of the lost 
 tribes, from resemblances between tHeir religious customs 
 and those of the Israelites; and a Congregational minister 
 of Vermont, by the name of Smith, published, not long 
 afterward, a work, entitled " View of the Hebrews," in 
 which he advocated the same theor}^. Later than this, a 
 converted Jew, by the name of Simon, undertook to iden- 
 tify the ancient South American races, Mexicans, Peru- 
 vians, and others, as descendants of ancient Israel, from 
 similarity of language, and civil and religious customs. 
 All these authors have taken, as their starting point, the 
 resolution which, Esdras informs us, the ten tribes took 
 after being first placed in the cities of the Medes, viz., that 
 they would leave the multitude of heathen and go into a 
 land wherein never mankind dwelt, that they might there 
 keep their laws, which God gave them, and that, in pur- 
 suance of this resolution, they continued in a north-east- 
 erly direction, until they came to the Behring Straits, 
 which they crossed, and set foot on this continent, spread- 
 ing over it from north to south, until, at the discovery 
 of it by Columbus, they had peopled it in every part. 
 
 It must be admitted, in justice to the learning and 
 labors of these last mentioned authors, that they have 
 made out an exceedingly plausible case, and have, at 
 least, shown that if the aborigines of this country are 
 not descendants of the ten tribes, they have had some 
 knowledge of the religious customs of the ancient Israel- 
 ites before their migration to this continent, which is very 
 probably the case, and will account for their belief in a 
 
 3 
 
50 THE RESTORATION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 
 
 great Spirit, whom they called Y-o-he-wah, the Jehovah 
 of Scriptures, and the use of the word Alleluia in their 
 religious songs, which is a peculiarly Jewish word, besides 
 many festivals corresponding to those of the Mosaic law. 
 Ethnologists, however, who have paid most attention to 
 the characteristics of the different races of mankind, 
 maintain that the aborigines of this land are of Tartar 
 descent, that they bear a closer resemblance to that peo- 
 ple than to any other. Now, the region of country to 
 which the ten tribes, in their journey of a. year and a half, 
 from the Euphrates eastward, would arrive, would be 
 somewhere adjoining Tartary, and intercourse between 
 the two races would easily lead to the adoption of the 
 religious ideas and customs of the one by the other. Be- 
 sides, the Tartars boast of their descent from the Israel- 
 ites, and the famous Tamerlane took pride in declaring 
 that he was descended from the tribe of Dan, so that, by 
 intermarriage, some of the Tartar tribes may have had 
 the blood of Israel running in their veins, and have be- 
 come, in some degree, proselytes to their faith, and this 
 will readily explain the Tartar habits of the American 
 Indians, together with their Jewish religious customs, 
 without supposing them to be the lost tribes themselves. 
 In 1822, a Mr. Sargon communicated to London some 
 interesting accounts of a number of persons resident at 
 Bombay and Cannanore in southern India, and their 
 vicinity, who were evidently descendants of Jews, calling 
 themselves Beni Israel, and bearing almost uniformly 
 Jewish names with Persian terminations. This gentle- 
 man feeling very desirous of obtaining all possible infor- 
 mation, undertook a mission to Cannanore for this pur- 
 
THE RESTORATION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 51 
 
 pose, and the result of his inquiries was a conviction that 
 they were not Jews of the two tribes, being of a different 
 race to the white and black Jews at Conchin, and conse- 
 quently that they were a remnant of the long lost ten 
 tribes. This gentleman also concluded, from the infor-' 
 mation he obtained from the Beni Israel, that they ex- 
 isted in great numbers in the countries between Conchin 
 and Bombay, the north of Persia, and among the hordes 
 of Tartary. He gave the following account of their cus- 
 toms and manners. 1. In dress they conform to the 
 customs of the natives, though differing in almost every 
 other respect. 2. They had Hebrew names with* the 
 same termination with the Sepoys in the 9th regiment 
 of Bombay native infantry. 3. Same of them read He- 
 brew, and they had a faint tradition of their exodus from 
 Egypt. 4. Their common language was Hindoo; they 
 keep idols and worship them, and use idolatrous ceremo- 
 nies mixed with Hebrew. 5. They circumcise their own 
 children. 6. They observe the great day of atonement 
 of the Hebrews, but not the sabbath or any feast or fast 
 days. 7. They call themselves Gorah Jehudi, or white 
 Jews, and call the black Jews, of whom some are to be 
 found in China, Collah Jehudi. 8. They speak of the 
 Arabian Jews as their brethren, but do not acknowledge 
 the European Jews as such, because they are of a fairer 
 complexion. 9. They use on all occasions the Jewish 
 prayer, Hear, Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, etc. 
 10. They have no priest, under that name, but a reader 
 who performs prayers and conducts their religious con- 
 cerns. Lastly, they expect the Messiah, and that they 
 will one day return to Jerusalem. They think the time 
 
52 THE RESTORATION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 
 
 of His appearance will soon arrive, at which they much 
 rejoice, believing, that at Jerusalem they will see their 
 God, worship Him only, and t>3 despised no more. The 
 following article appeared a few years ago in a German 
 paper, under the head of Leipsic : "After having seen 
 for some years past, merchants from Tifles, Persia and 
 Armenia, among the visitors at our fair, we have had for 
 the first time two traders from Bucharia, with sliaivls 
 which are there manufactured of the finest wool of the 
 goats of Thibet and Cashmere, by Jewish families who 
 form a third part of the population." These two last 
 statements go far toward establishing the fact that there 
 still exists in that remote region called " Central Asia," 
 a large population which are of Israelitish descent, but 
 are so excluded from intercourse with the civilized na- 
 tions of Europe that they are unknown to them. The 
 country lying between Tartary, Thibet, China and Sihe- 
 ria, called the great central plain of Asia, contains a sur- 
 face of one hundred and fifty thousand square miles. 
 This vast region is very little known. By reference to 
 the map you will perceive that the boundaries of the na- 
 tions who inhabit it are not marked, nor their towns lo- 
 cated, nor their rivers traced. In fact geographers have 
 always abandoned it as a terra incognita. The watch- 
 ful jealousy of the Chinese empire on the east, has pre- 
 cluded all access from that direction ; the vast chain of 
 rugged and mountainous districts between it and Tartary 
 have made it inaccessible from the west. The frozen 
 regions of Siberia on the north have made an impassable 
 barrier from that direction, and the great desert of Cobi 
 between it and Thibet has shut it out from the south. 
 
THE RESTORATION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 53 
 
 It is not to be wondered at, that so large a region of 
 earth hemmed in by desert, mountain, frost, and an ex- 
 clusive policy, should contain millions of the human race 
 of which little or nothing is known. Here then, in fine, 
 we consider it not improbable that the great body of the 
 lost ten tribes may be hid, and we have come to this 
 conclusion for the following reasons : 
 
 1. It is the region to which their journey of a year and 
 a half from the cities of the Medes, to find an uninhabit- 
 ed land, as Esdras declares, would naturally bring them. 
 
 2. It is just such a portion of the earth as would be 
 suitable to conceal a people who were designed by Prov- 
 idence to be cast out and hid from the knowledge of 
 mankind for many centuries, being surrounded with so 
 many almost impassable barriers. 
 
 3. Almost every other portion of the earth, except the 
 interior of Africa, China and Japan, has been explored, 
 and the inhabitants of them known to belong to races 
 not Jewish. So that this vast central region of Asia 
 seems to be the only hiding place left for them, and 
 
 4. The declaration that when restored they shall come 
 back to Jerusalem by the same route they left, points 
 out this as their probable hiding place. The Prophet 
 Esdras says, (2 Esdras xiii.) speaking of their settling in 
 the land to which they went, " there they dwelt until the 
 latter time, and now when they shall begin to come, the 
 Highest shall stay the springs of the stream again (i. e., 
 Euphrates,) that they may go through ;" and in the book 
 of Kevelations St. John declares that the sixth angel 
 poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates and the 
 water thereof was dried up that the way of the kings of 
 
54 THE RESTORATION OF THE TEN TRIBES, 
 
 the East might be prepared, "Kings of the East" being 
 a common appellation for chiefs of tribes. This pour- 
 ing out of the vial seems to refer to the declaration of 
 Esdras that the Highest should stay the springs of the flood 
 again at the time of their return that they might pass 
 over, as He did at their departure ; and to what but this 
 does our text refer when it foretells their return, andsays ? 
 "Is Ephr;dm my dear son ?" (the whole ten tribes were 
 frequently called by the name of Ephrairn which was the 
 leading tribe among them ;) " is he a pleasant child ? for 
 since I spoke against him so earnestly I remember him 
 still, therefore my bowels are troubled for him : I will 
 surely have mercy on him, saith the Lord." " Set thee 
 up way-marks,' make thee high heaps, set thy heart 
 toward the highway, even the ivay which tliou wentest. 
 Turn again, virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy 
 cities." As persons about to explore a great wilderness, 
 that they might not be lost in it, and not know how to 
 find their way out, would set up way-marks, bark trees, 
 throw up mounds or heaps as guides for their return, so 
 the Prophet seems to intimate that the route of their 
 return shall be the same as that of their departure. 
 " Set thy heart toward the highway, even the way which 
 thou wenlest. Turn again, virgin of Israel, to these thy 
 cities ;" and then to show the certainty of such an event 
 he adds, " Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I 
 will sow the house of Israel with the seed of man and with 
 the seed of beast, and it shall come to pass that as I have 
 watched over them to pluck up and to break down and 
 to destroy and to afflict, so will I watch over them to 
 build and to plant, saith the Lord." As we remarked in 
 
THE RESTORATION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 55 
 
 the previous discourse the punishment of the ten tribes 
 was different from that of the two. The former were cast 
 out of His sight, and so far removed from their ancient 
 home that they had no further communication with it, 
 whereas the latter have not been so dispersed abroad but 
 that they could revisit their holy city and keep up a 
 communication with their brethren who still reside there. 
 
 The expression, " He cast them out of His sight," has 
 a double reference : 1, to the Holy Land ; 2, to the church 
 of God. Moses, in describing the land of Canaan, the 
 inheritance of Abraham's seed, says, " It is a land which 
 the Lord thy God careth for ; the eyes of the Lord thy God 
 are always upon it, from the beginning of the year unto 
 the end of the year." Ejection from this land, which 
 His eyes were always on, was therefore (in Jewish phrase) 
 a being cast out of His sight ; and as His Church is the 
 dearest object in the world that He can look upon, entire 
 separation from her ministry and ordinances is also a being 
 cast out of His sight. This has been the fate of the Ten 
 Tribes, none of whom have revisited their native land, 
 that we have any knowledge of, since their captivity, ex- 
 cept the wise men from the East were of their number ; 
 while the two tribes have often made pilgrimages to the 
 Holy Land, and thousands of them, in different ages, 
 have gone there to die and rest among the sepulchers of 
 their fathers. 
 
 It would seem, from the Prophecy of Hosea, that the 
 sin of idolatry, for which the ten tribes were cast out of 
 God's sight, shall cleave to them until the time of their 
 restoration to their own land, even as the sin of the two 
 tribes, viz , the rejection of the Messiah, will be persevered 
 
56 THE RESTORATION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 
 
 in by them until their return. In Hosea, xiv. 4-8, God 
 says, " I will heal their backsliding. I will love them 
 freely, for mine anger is turned away from them. Then 
 Ephraim shall say, what have I to do any more with 
 idols ?" The account of Mr. Sargon respecting the Beni 
 Israel was, that they kept idols and worshiped them, 
 and used idolatrous ceremonies mixed with Hebrew, all 
 which, when God will appear for their deliverance, shall 
 be abandoned. " Ephraim shall say, what have I to do 
 any more with idols ?" 
 
 There are many questions connected with the restora- 
 tion of the ten tribes, which the occasion does not permit 
 us to enter into fully, such as, 1. The probable period of 
 their restoration. This seems from Prophecy to be about 
 the time of the downfall of the Mohammedan empire, for 
 as all symbols are derived from some literal event, so the 
 drying up of the river Euphrates is the literal event 
 which has generally been regarded also as the symbol of 
 the exhaustion of the Turkish power, (because that power 
 compasses that river,) the signs of whose decay are mani- 
 fest to all the world. 2. The circumstances attending their 
 restoration. These shall be very extraordinary. They 
 shall be brought forth from their hiding place by some 
 visible token from God. The Prophet Isaiah, xi. 11, 12, 
 says, "It shall come to pass in that day that the Lord 
 shall set His hand the second time to recover the remnant 
 of His people which shall be left, from Assyria, and from 
 Egypt, and from Pathros,and from Gush, and from Elam, 
 and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands 
 of the sea, and He shall set up an ensign for the nations, 
 and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, (i. e. } the ten 
 
THE RESTORATION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 57 
 
 tribes,) and gather together the dispersed of Judah, (i. e., 
 the two tribes,) from the four corners of the earth." This 
 ensign, we are inclined to think, will be the pillar of cloud 
 and of fire which formerly conducted them from Egypt 
 to Canaan, for the Prophet adds, in verse 16, " there shall 
 be a highway for the remnant of His people which shall be 
 left from Assyria" (i. e., the ten tribes,) like as it was to 
 Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of 
 Egypt, when the ensign set up, or the sign of His pres- 
 ence, was the pillar of cloud and of fire, which went up 
 before them, and which they followed. In the next place, 
 they shall come forth with great might. The Prophet 
 Zechariah says, ix. 13, " When I have bent Judah for 
 me, and filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy 
 sons, Zion, against thy sons, Greece, and made thee 
 as the sword of a mighty man, the Lord shall be seen 
 over them, and His arrow shall go forth as the lightning, 
 and the Lord God shall blow the trumpet, and shall go 
 forth as the whirlwinds of the south/' " The nations," 
 Micah vii. 16, " shall see and be confounded at all their 
 might, they shall lay their hands upon their mouth, they 
 shall be afraid, because of the Lord thy God, and shall 
 fear because of thee, for Israel shall do valiantly." 
 Numbers, xxiv. 18. 
 
 Their reconciliation and reunion with the two tribes 
 shall then take place, as shown by the Prophet Ezekiel 
 in the vision of the valley of dry bones, which is explained 
 to him to mean the happy reunion of the whole twelve 
 tribes, as one nation, and their harmonious establishment 
 under one head ; to this Prophecy, in Ezekiel xxxvii., we 
 must refer the reader, as it is too long for quotation. 
 
 8* 
 
58 THE RESTORATION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 
 
 But there is one remarkable circumstance connected 
 with their restoration which is almost too astounding to 
 believe, i. e., after their arrival at the Holy Land, con- 
 ducted as they have been by the ensign lifted up, they will 
 set up a false Messiah whom they will honor with great 
 glory, even with idolatrous reverence, and give to him the 
 homage which is due alone to Christ. This, however, is 
 not more remarkable than their conduct in the wilderness, 
 where, after they had seen the wonderful deliverance of 
 the Ked Sea, heard the voice of God from Sinai, and had 
 the pillar of cloud and fire before their eyes continually, 
 they still fell into idolatry and made a golden calf. 
 
 The Jews have had for many ages past a belief that 
 there will be a Messiah ben Joseph before the corning of 
 the Messiah ben David, who will deceive their nation 
 and finally be slain. As this topic, however, is to form 
 the subject of another lecture on the last Antichrist, we 
 shall not enter into it any further than to say, that it 
 would not be surprising if the ten tribes, who have no 
 knowledge of the Saviour, who are in a state of partial 
 idolatry, finding themselves in the land of their fathers, 
 and brought there by an uplifted sign going before 
 them, as the star led the wise men ages ago, should 
 look around them for the head of their nation, and should 
 finally accept some pretender or impostor, gifted with 
 wonderful arts of magic and great personal valor, and 
 acknowledge him as their Messiah. It would only be in 
 keeping with their past history, for the two tribes have 
 believed in several Messiahs since their rejection of Him 
 whom God sent, thus fulfilling the word he spake to 
 them, "I am come in my Father's name, and ye re- 
 
THE RESTORATION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 59 
 
 ceive me not ; if another shall come in his own name, 
 him will ye receive/' This apostacy, however, will not 
 continue long, for after an attack upon them by some hos- 
 tile nation, an invasion of their country and partial capture 
 of their city, as described by the Prophet, Zechariah, 
 xiv., Christ will personally appear, and then as Joseph 
 made himself known to his brethren, will He reveal Him- 
 self to them, and to all the tribes of Israel, and that 
 Prophecy of Isaiah shall be fulfilled, u a nation shall be 
 born in a day." As Saint Paul was by the appearance 
 of Christ to him immediately convinced of his error, and 
 brought to faith in Him, so he is set forth in Scripture a 
 typej 1 Timothy, i. 16, of the future conversion of the 
 whole Jewish nation at the personal appearing of the 
 Son of Man at His second coming, when the lost ten 
 tribes and the two scattered tribes and all the tribes of 
 the earth shall see Him coming in the clouds of heaven 
 with power and great glory to take to Himself His great 
 power and reign. Nearest to Him in that glorious king- 
 dom which He will then establish will be the children 
 of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, His kinsmen according to 
 the flesh, the rightful owners of the land of His birth, 
 His death, and His sepulcher, who, though long cast 
 off, are yet beloved for the father's sake, and shall be re- 
 stored to their ancient inheritance when the times of the 
 Gentiles are fulfilled and the time to favor Zion lias come. 
 " For thus saith the Lord, who giveth the sun for a light by 
 day, and the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a 
 light by night, if those ordinances depart from before me, 
 saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel shall also cease from 
 being a nation before me for ever" (they may for many 
 
60 THE RESTORATION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 
 
 long ages but shall not/or ever,) " for lo I will command 
 and will sift the house of Israel among all nations, as 
 corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall 
 upon the earth, for I will bring again the captivity of 
 my people Israel, and will plant them upon their land, 
 and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land 
 which I have given them, saith the Lord God." Amos, ix. 
 9, 14, 15. 
 
LECTURE IV. 
 
 ANTICHRIST. 
 
 " Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 and by o^r gathering together unto Him, that ye be not soon shaken in 
 mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit nor by word, nor by letter as from us, 
 as that the day of Christ is 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 son of perdition, who opposeth or exalteth him. 
 self above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so that he as God 
 sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember 
 3 r e not that when I was yet with you I told you these things ? and now ye 
 know what withholdeth, that he might be revealed in his time, for the mys- 
 tery of iniquity doth already work, only he who now letteth will let, until 
 he be taken out of the way, and then shall that "Wicked be revealed whom 
 the Lord will consume with the spirit of His mouth, and destroy with the 
 brightness of His coming, even Him, whose coming is after the working o* 
 Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceiv- 
 ableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received not 
 the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this cause God 
 shall send them strong delusion that they all might be damned who believe 
 not the truth but had pleasure in. unrighteousness." 2 TIIESSALONIANS, ii. 
 1-12. 
 
 THIS passage of Scripture has stood for nearly eighteen 
 hundred years in the New Testament, as a warning voice 
 from God to the Church to be on the look-out for a cun- 
 ning seducer, a vile impostor, a bold blasphemer and 
 tyrant, who shall arise in the end of this dispensation to 
 overthrow the Christian faith and establish in its stead 
 the reign of infidelity. Although it has been read for 
 
62 % ANTICHRIST. 
 
 many centuries, and studied and commented on, yet the 
 learned have never been able to agree as to its ful- 
 fillment, some supposing it is past, others still future. 
 One strong presumption against its having already been 
 fulfilled is the fact that the Christian world can not 
 agree either as to the time or particulars of its fulfill- 
 ment. Every theory that has been advanced has been 
 objected to on account of its not fully realizing the de- 
 scription here and elsewhere given of Antichrist. From 
 the very explicit language of this Prophecy, one would 
 suppose that when its fulfillment does take place it will 
 be so striking and plain that none will be any longer in 
 doubt about the right interpretation of it. But such a 
 fulfillment has not yet been realized, and therefore we 
 infer that the Prophecy is still an unaccomplished pre- 
 diction. Before presenting the views we have formed 
 of the true meaning of this Prophecy, we would 
 
 1. Offer some remarks on the subject of Antichrist in 
 general. 
 
 2. Mention some of the opinions entertained of him by 
 primitive Christians and the early Fathers of the Church. 
 
 3. Draw out the character described in the text and re- 
 ferred to in other portions of Scripture^ that all may see 
 that it is one yet to appear. 
 
 1. Perhaps there is no appellative in Scripture to which 
 looser ideas are attached than to the word Antichrist. 
 This probably proceeds from a careless reading of two 
 passages in the Epistle of St. John. The first is, "Every 
 spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in 
 the flesh is not of God," 1 John. iv. 3; " and this is that 
 spirit of Antichrist whereof ye have heard that it should 
 
ANTICHRIST. 63 
 
 come, and now already is in the world." The second is, 
 "For many deceivers are entered into the world which con- 
 fess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh," 2 John, 
 verse 7 ; " this is a deceiver and an Antichrist." From 
 these passages it has been inferred that the term is alto- 
 gether a generic term, applicable to any system that is 
 hostile to truth, and that it is not to be applied to any 
 single individual that ever has or will arise. 
 
 But the Apostle by no means teaches this. He speaks 
 of an Antichrist of which they had already heard, whose 
 spirit was already in the world, and declares that every 
 one that denies tha't Jesus Christ is come in the flesh was 
 an Antichrist in spirit, not the Antichrist. Such declara- 
 tions do not destroy the individuality of Antichrist, they 
 only declare that his spirit would be at work in the world 
 long before he himself should appear. That a monster 
 of iniquity and blasphemy should appear in the latter 
 days and just before the establishment of the Messiah's 
 kingdom, is a truth which was not only more or less dis- 
 tinctly apprehended even by the Jews of old, who called 
 him the Ante-Messiah, or Messiah Ben Joseph, but was 
 fully acknowledged by the first believers in Christianity. 
 As one says who has written learnedly on this subject, 
 " Type and Prophecy alike foreboded a last struggle 
 with a wicked one, the fulfiller and consummator of 
 transgression, and thence also of divine indignation, the 
 rod of chastisement to the holy people, and at the same 
 time the scourge of the apostate nations/' 
 
 The character of this enemy, so far as we can gather 
 it from the various descriptions given in Scripture, is, 
 that he shall exceed all his types and predecessors in 
 
64 ANTICHRIST. 
 
 tyranny, blasphemy, and oppression ; that he shall be 
 supported by a confederacy of the nations, and that he 
 shall finally fall before the Messiah, standing up to 
 avenge His people in the land of Israel and by means 
 altogether superhuman. 
 
 Various have been the conjectures of both the ancients 
 and moderns as it regards this last foe, and who he shall 
 be. The Fathers were unanimous in the opinion that he 
 would be a person not a system, but they differed as to 
 the nature of his person. Hippolytus thought he would 
 be Satan himself, in the appearance of a man, boasting 
 that he was born of a virgin, which opinion he derived 
 from the passage in Kevelations, " Woe to the inhabiters 
 of the earth and sea, for the devil is come down to you 
 in great wrath, for he knoweth that he hath but a short 
 time." Lactantius, Sulspitius, and others, thought he 
 would be a hyrbrid, or the offspring of Satan by a har- 
 lot. Hilary thought the devil would become incarnate, as 
 the Son of God was, and Jerome inclined to the same 
 opinion ; whilst Chrysostom, Theopolact, and Theodoret, 
 thought he would be a real man, but the agent of Satan. 
 It is singular how general the belief was in ancient days 
 that the Antichrist was to proceed from the tribe of Dan. 
 This opinion is derived from several passages of Scripture 
 which it is unnecessary either to refer to or comment 
 upon. 
 
 Before proceeding to a more particular consideration 
 of the character of the last Antichrist and his exploits, 
 let us notice the various names by which he is designated 
 in Scripture. 
 
 The first we meet with is in Isaiah, xiv. 12-16, where 
 
ANTICHRIST. 65 
 
 he is called Lucifer, the Son of the Morning, who says in 
 his heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my 
 throne above the stars of God, I will sit also upon the 
 mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north; I 
 will ascend ahove the heights of the clouds, I will be like 
 the Most High ; yet, says the prophet, thou shalt be 
 brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit ; they that 
 see thee shall consider thee, saying, is this the MAN that 
 made the earth to tremble, that did shake the kingdoms, 
 that made the earth as a wilderness, and destroyed the 
 cities thereof? The boastful pretensions of this Lucifer, 
 Son of Morning, who will ascend into heaven, and exalt 
 his throne above the stars, and be like the Most High ; 
 this MAN that did shake the kingdoms, etc., and yet is cast 
 down to hell, is very like that Man of Sin spoken of in the 
 text, that Son of Perdition who will exalt himself above 
 all that is called God, or is worshiped ; who will sit in 
 the temple of God, and show himself as God, but yet be 
 destroyed by the brightness of Christ's coming and by the 
 spirit of His mouth. 
 
 The second description of the last Antichrist is given 
 by the Prophet Daniel, xi. 36, who says, "At the time of 
 the end a king shall arise who shall do according to his 
 will, and shall exalt and magnify himself above every 
 God, and shall speak marvelous things against the 
 God of gods, and shall not regard the God of his fathers 
 nor the desire of women," (i. e., Messiah, for every Jewish 
 mother hoped to have the honor of giving birth to the 
 Messiah,) "nor regard any God, but shall exalt himself 
 above all, and shall plant the tabernacles of his palace be- 
 tween the seas," (i. e., the Mediterranean and Dead Seas,) 
 
66 
 
 ANTICHRIST. 
 
 " in the glorious holy mountain," (i. e., Mount Zion,) 
 " where he shall come to his end and none shall help him." 
 How many features the character here referred to has in 
 common with the one described in our text will be readily 
 perceived by a comparison of the two Prophecies. 1. The 
 Man of Sin and Son of Perdition spoken of in the text 
 will oppose and exalt himself above all that is called God 
 and worshiped. So the willful king of Daniel shall exalt 
 and magnify himself against every God and shall speak 
 marvelous things against the God of gods. 2. The Man 
 of Sin in the text shall sit in the temple of God and show 
 himself to be God, or exhibit himself as God. So the 
 willful king shall plant the tabernacle of his palaces in 
 the holy mount, i. e., Zion, where the temple stood and 
 will again stand, and there magnify himself above all 
 gods. 3. The Man of Sin shall at last be destroyed by 
 the brightness of Christ's coming and the spirit of His 
 mouth. So the willful king shall come to his end and 
 none shall help him, an expression intimating a sud- 
 den and violent death from which there can be no 
 escape. 
 
 The third description of Antichrist is in Kevelations, xiii. 
 where the Apostle John describes one who comes up out of 
 the earth and doeth great wonders, so that he makethfire 
 to come down from God out of heaven in the sight of men, 
 and deceiveth them that dwell on earth by means of the 
 miracles he has power to do, who establishes the idola- 
 trous worship of some new deity by arts of magic, and 
 seduces all that dwell on earth, whose names are not 
 written in the book of life, to worship him. Our text 
 calls him that Wicked, whose coming is after the power of 
 
ANTICHRIST. 67 
 
 Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and 
 with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that 
 perish. This false prophet also, like the Man of Sin in 
 our text, and Lucifer, the Son of the Morning, in Isaiah, 
 and the willful king in Daniel, shall come to a terrible 
 end, for lie shall be cast into a lake of fire burning with 
 brimstone, which is the second death. Kevelations, xix. 
 20. Our Saviour, in one of His discourses with the 
 Jews, -who rejected Him though He had done so many 
 mighty miracles among them, says, John, v. 43, " I arn 
 come in my Father's name and ye receive me not, 
 another will come in his own name, him will ye receive." 
 Now this is a Prophecy which either has been or has yet 
 to be fulfilled. In another place, Matthew, xxiv. 19-25, 
 speaking of the last days He says, "There shall be a great 
 tribulation, such as was not known since the beginning 
 of the world, nor ever shall be ; arid except those days be 
 shortened there should be no flesh saved, but for the 
 elect's sake they shall be shortened. Then if any man say 
 unto you, lo here is Christ, or there, believe it not ; for 
 there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and 
 shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that if it 
 were possible they should deceive the very elect. Be- 
 hold," he adds, "I have told you before." How necessary 
 such a warning is, and has been, the history of the many 
 sad delusions and apostacies from the Christian faith, 
 which have occurred during the last eighteen centuries, 
 furnishes ample proof. Because the voice of Christ has 
 not been heeded, all manner of superstitions and heresies 
 have sprung up and flourished. But the question is 
 often asked, have not all these prophecies co 
 
 OF THB 
 
 DIVERSITY 
 
68 ANTICHKIST. 
 
 Antichrist been already fulfilled ? Has not the Mo- 
 hammedan delusion and the papal superstition realized 
 the pictures the sacred penmen have drawn of Anti- 
 christ ? We answer, they have not, for 
 
 1. Mohammed, though he rejected the divinity of Christ, 
 and sought to reduce Him to the rank of a mere Prophet, 
 never reviled Him, nor magnified himself above all that 
 is called God, or is worshiped, nor sat in the temple of 
 God to be adored, nor wrought miracles in support of 
 his pretensions, nor came to a- violent end at last, all of 
 which are the features of the Antichrist of Isaiah, Dan- 
 iel, St. John in Revelations, and St. Paul in our text. 
 Therefore, he can not be the Antichrist of the last days. 
 
 2. Popery, with all its blasphemous pretensions and 
 idolatrous rites, has never denied the Father and Son, 
 has never rejected formally the holy Scriptures or the 
 Apostles' creed, nor the Nicene and Athanasian creeds, 
 those ancient symbols of the Christian faith. Those who 
 think the Roman pontiff is the Man of Sin of St. Paul, 
 and the willful king of Daniel, base that opinion on the 
 titles which have been given to the Pope, such as our 
 " Lord God the Pope," which used to be addressed to 
 him, and a " God upon earth" as he was called in the 
 plenitude of his power. The homage he claimed for St. 
 Peter's chair, and the titles he assumed, such as " King 
 of kings" and "Lord of lords," they consider to have 
 been the exalting himself above all that is called God, 
 and that is worshiped ; and his assumed preeminence 
 in the Church, to be his sitting in the temple of God, 
 showing himself as God. The pretended miracles of that 
 Church they also consider to be the signs, and lying 
 
ANTICHRIST. 69 
 
 wonders, and deceivableness of unrighteousness, by which 
 so many have been induced to put faith in that system 
 of delusion. But he has never made fire to come down 
 out of heaven in the sight of men, as Antichrist shall do, 
 nor been destroyed by violence, as he shall be. Neither 
 is the expression, " Man of Sin," and " Son of Perdition" 
 strictly applicable to a system, the heads of which are 
 continually changing. Counting from Boniface III., 
 created first universal bishop, by the emperor Phocas, 
 in 606, Rome numbers one hundred and ninety-one 
 Popes, not one of whom has ever realized all that is here 
 spoken of Antichrist. We conclude, therefore, that how- 
 ever Antichristian that system, as well as the Moham- 
 medan, may be, in its spirit, yet it is not that Antichrist 
 to which both the Prophets and Apostles and our Sav- 
 iour allude in the passages to which we have already 
 referred. 
 
 The expression, " that MAN of Sin and SON of Perdi- 
 tion," more naturally refers to an individual, than to any 
 system of which a succession of individuals are the contin- 
 uous head. The acts described are personal acts, the doom 
 received is a personal doom. We do not say of a system 
 of falsehoods that it shall be cast into hell. Korah, Da- 
 than, and Abiram were swallowed up in the earth, not 
 their conspiracy against Moses, nor the rebellion which 
 grew out of it ; the judgment was upon the persons 
 engaged in the act. So the judgment foretold in our 
 text against Antichrist, viz., that he shall be destroyed 
 by the brightness of Christ's coming, (the second coming 
 of course,) and the spirit of His mouth, shows that he 
 must be an individual who shall be caught in the very 
 
70 ANTICHRIST. 
 
 act of blasphemy, imposture, and oppression, when the 
 Son of Man shall appear again to establish His kingdom, 
 and shall be punished on the spot. Mohammed died, and 
 had an honorable burial. The Roman pontiffs go down 
 to the grave with great pomp and ceremony ; but this 
 last enemy of God and man, this proud Lucifer, who 
 would exalt his throne above the stars of God, shall 
 have no burial, says the Prophet Isaiah, xiv. 19, but shall 
 be cast out as an abominable branch, as a carcass trodden 
 under foot. 
 
 In addition to this, the time of the appearance of this 
 last Antichrist is specified and fixed, viz., just before 
 the second appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ. The Apostle, in the text, says, "Now we be- 
 seech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be 
 troubled, neither by word or by letter from us, as that 
 the day of Christ is at hand." Why did the Apostle 
 send them this caution ? Because, in his first epistle 
 to them, he had written, " This we say unto you by 
 the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and 
 remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent 
 (or go before) them which are asleep/' 1 Thess., iv. 15-17, 
 "for the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with 
 a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump 
 of God ; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we 
 who are alive and remain shall be caught up together 
 with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air ; 
 and so shall we be ever with the Loixl." From the con- 
 stant use of the pronoun WE we who remain, we who 
 are alive, the Thessalonian brethren inferred that this 
 
ANTICHRIST. 71 
 
 event, the second coming of the Lord, would take place 
 in their day. The Apostle, in his second epistle, in our 
 text, exhorts them not to he troubled, whether by word 
 or by letter from him, as though that day was at hand ; 
 " for," he adds, " 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 exalteth himself 
 above all that is called God, and is worshiped." This, 
 together with the fact that he shall be destroyed by the 
 brightness of His coming, clearly fixes the period of 
 the rise of Antichrist at the end of this dispensation. 
 Besides, the period of his reign shall be a short one. 
 Three years and a half, or forty-two months, or twelve 
 hundred and sixty days, or time, times, and a half time, 
 (which are only different expressions of the same period,) 
 is its appointed duration ; showing clearly that neither 
 Mohammedanism or Romanism, which has existed for 
 centuries, can be this fearful apostacy. The expres- 
 sions, " Man of Sin," and " Son of Perdition," are also 
 very characteristic of this last deceiver and impostor. 
 The first, "tJie Man of Sin," suggests the idea of greatei 
 boldness, and more heaven-daring impiety than was 
 ever before reached by any individual ; the MAN 
 who has excelled all others in transgression, emphati- 
 cally the MAN OF SIN, and Son of Perdition. The 
 only other person in Scripture to whom this appellation 
 is given is Judas Iscariot ; from which circumstance some 
 of the ancients conjectured that the Antichrist would 
 be the spirit of Judas Iscariot revived, and reanimating 
 some one in the latter time. But the expression " Son of 
 Perdition" probably denotes only the speedy, utter, and 
 
72 ANTICHRIST. 
 
 hopeless ruin of this bold blasphemer and impostor one 
 doomed to destruction. The term Antichrist, applied 
 to this last enemy of the Church, seems to denote two 
 things ; first, his pretense to be the Saviour of long 
 promise, the Messiah foretold by the Prophets ; and yet, 
 second, the utter opposition of his character to His. The 
 Jews, who have persevered in the rejection of Jesus of 
 Nazareth to the present day, still believe that the 
 Messiah promised of old will yet appear and gather 
 them to their own land. When, therefore, the way shall 
 be opened by Divine Providence for their return, it is 
 highly probable that some pretender to the character of 
 a Messiah will arise, who, endowed by Satan with won- 
 derful power, and signs, and lying wonders, shall to all 
 appearance seem to be a deliverer raised up for them 
 by God. When Elijah proposed to Ahab to try which 
 was the true God, Jehovah or Baal, the test was to 
 be this : " The God that answereth by fire shall be the 
 true God. And when all the people saw the fire come 
 down from heaven and consume Elijah's sacrifice, they 
 said, The Lord He is God, the Lord He is God." 
 
 Now this last Antichrist, by some power which he 
 shall possess, shall make fire to come down from heaven 
 in the sight of men, and shall deceive them by signs and 
 lying, by wonders which he shall perform, and shall so 
 establish his impious claims to be the true Christ, that all 
 the world shall wonder after him ! The argument of mira- 
 cles is often more powerful when brought in support of 
 error than of truth. Why ? because error is more con- 
 genial to man's corrupt nature than truth; error is flat- 
 tering, truth is humbling. A splendid, dashing, conquer- 
 
ANTICHRIST. 73 
 
 ing Messiah would, with no miracles at all, have been 
 more acceptable to the Jews than the meek and lowly 
 Jesus was with all His wondrous works. This is very 
 evident from the fact that since their rejection of Him 
 they have followed several Messiahs, who without mira- 
 cles have performed only acts of heroism and valor. The 
 famous Bar Cochebas, of the second century, who at the 
 head of a large army committed dreadful excesses upon 
 both Christians and heathen, is well known to the read- 
 ers of history, and the zeal with which they flocked to 
 his standard and fought until he was overpowered by 
 Koman forces, and slain with more than sixty thousand 
 of his followers, shows the ease with which they may be 
 deluded on this subject. A history of the false Messiahs 
 among the Jews, since their rejection of the true one, 
 has been published about forty years since, from which 
 it appears that no less than twenty-five of such impos- 
 tors have arisen in sixteen hundred years, who all have 
 had their followers, and by whose delusions hundreds of 
 thousands of that people have been slain, showing how 
 literally our Lord's words have been fulfilled, " Many 
 false Christs shall arise and deceive many" just pun- 
 ishment for rejecting the true Christ. 
 
 From these antecedents we would not be surprised at 
 any time to see them again rally under the banner of 
 some leader who could give some marvelous sign, or per- 
 form some great wonder in proof of his pretensions. But 
 the word of Prophecy has settled that thus it shall be. 
 " Whose coming," says the text, " is after the working of 
 Satan, with all power and signs, and lying wonders, and 
 with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that 
 
 4 
 
74 ANTICHRIST. 
 
 perish/' While such arguments are presented to win 
 them to the belief of his pretensions, his character will 
 at the same time be the most opposite to that of the 
 true Christ ; showing him to be morally as well as per- 
 sonally Antichrist. Let us draw out the parallel between 
 them in a few particulars. 
 
 1. Christ came in His Father's name; Antichrist conies 
 in his own. 
 
 2. Christ humbled Himself and became obedient ; 
 Antichrist exalts himself above all. 
 
 3. Christ was despised and rejected of men, and dis- 
 owned of His kindred and people; Antichrist will be re- 
 ceived and be gloried in by them, and all the world will 
 wonder after him. 
 
 4. Christ came to do His 'Father's will; Antichrist 
 shall do according to his own will. 
 
 5. Christ glorified God on earth; Antichrist blas- 
 phemes the name of God, and them that dwell in 
 heaven. 
 
 6. Christ, because He humbled Himself and became 
 obedient unto death, was highly exalted, and sat down 
 on the right hand of God ; Antichrist, because he says, 
 " I will ascend up to heaven, I will be like the Most 
 High/' shall be brought down to hell, to the sides of the 
 pit. 
 
 7. Christ is the heir of all things; Antichrist is the 
 Son of Perdition. 
 
 8. Christ shall reign for ever and ever; Antichrist shall 
 be utterly overthrown, and deprived of his short-lived 
 dominion. 
 
 Thus, in every view in which they present themselves, 
 
ANTICHRIST. 75 
 
 they are utterly and entirely at variance with each 
 other. Satan's last grand act of malice against the 
 Kedeemer, it seems, will he, not to corrupt the Chris- 
 tian faith by false additions of doctrine or ridiculous 
 superstitions in worship, leaving the name and substance 
 of Christianity still behind, but to utterly overthrow 
 and supplant it by another system in which Christ 
 will be rejected as an impostor, and His gospel spurned 
 for the teachings of the false prophet who shall then 
 arise. 
 
 But what has kept back for so long a time, this last 
 and greatest development of iniquity from showing it- 
 self ? The Apostle says, in the text, "And now ye 
 know what withholdeth, that he," (i. e., Antichrist,) 
 " might be revealed in hfs time ; for the mystery of 
 iniquity doth already work, only he who now letteth" (or 
 hindereth,) " will let, until he be taken out of the way, 
 and then shall that Wicked be revealed whom the Lord 
 will consume/' etc. What this hindrance to the rise and 
 reign of Antichrist is, has perplexed the learned, fur 
 ages past, to determine. Those who maintain that the 
 Papal system is Antichrist, say it was the Pagan Ko- 
 man empire, (i. e>, Pagan Eome stood in the way of 
 Papal Borne, and the former had to be removed before 
 the latter could be developed ; in other words, the 
 CBBSMTS had to cease to reign, before the Koman bishops 
 could put on the triple crown ;) but those who deny that 
 the Roman Church is the Antichrist of this passage, 
 are at a loss to decide what is the preventing cause of 
 Antichrist's appearance. Among the various opinions 
 given, which are so numerous that we will not venture 
 
76 ANTICHRIST. 
 
 to mention them, we think the most probable is that of 
 Theodoret, who understands it to be the decree of Di- 
 vine Providence. This hinders the appearance of the 
 Man of Sin until the time fixed in the counsels of God. 
 As Christ could not be born until the fullness of time 
 came, so neither can Antichrist appear until the time 
 known only to God shall arrive ; and the near ap- 
 proach of this period can only be known by the signs 
 which betoken its approach. This, says the text, is a 
 falling away first a time when even Christians them- 
 selves will no more love sound doctrine, but will heap 
 up to themselves teachers having itching ears ; when 
 they will give heed to fables, and to seducing spirits, 
 and to doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy. 
 All this is a preparation for his coming smooths his 
 way, and makes his work of deceiving and deluding 
 mankind much easier. 
 
 It may greatly excite the wonder of men, that God 
 would ever permit such a cunning adversary to arise to 
 ensnare them to their ruin ; but the text explains the 
 wonder, and informs us why it is permitted, viz., as a 
 judicial act of God's retributive justice. There are two 
 systems, which have been at work for ages past, sending 
 forth their respective influences throughout the world 
 The system of Infidelity, and the system of Christianity. 
 The former is the fruitful source of all error, supersti- 
 tion and crime ; the latter, the fountain of truth, faith, 
 acceptable worship, and godliness. Now, the system of 
 Christianity has, through the gospel, been unfolding the 
 love and mercy of God, in Christ Jesus His Son, and 
 spreading before us the rich blessings of the Covenant 
 
ANTICHRIST. 77 
 
 of Grace, ratified and sealed in His blood. But. alas ! 
 how extensively have they been despised and rejected by 
 the children of men. For this contempt of His grace 
 He opens the vials of His wrath, by unfolding the sys- 
 tem of Infidelity, and letting loose the evils it contains 
 upon us. So says the text, " Because they received not 
 the love of the truth, that they might be saved, for this 
 cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they 
 shall believe a lie, that they all might be damned who 
 believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteous- 
 ness." Antichrist is, therefore, the avenger of the dis- 
 honor done to Christ the rod in God's hand to chastise 
 those who refused to obey the gospel of His Son. Be- 
 cause they hated truth, God shall give them their fill of 
 error, by the hands of one who shall be the most vile of 
 human kind, a man of sin, and son of perdition, a 
 blaspheming atheist, a cunning impostor, who shall de- 
 ceive, betray, and ruin all his followers, in soul and body, 
 for ever. 
 
 And have we not great reason to believe that this sys- 
 tem of infidelity is hard at work at the present day, and 
 rapidly approaching the period when it shall be developed 
 (through the master spirit which has always animated it, 
 viz., Satan) in him whose coming is after the working 
 of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders ? 
 In what estimation is .gospel truth now held among 
 men generally? What deference is shown to a "Thus 
 saith the Lord,'' when it comes in conflict with worldly 
 interest or policy? Who trembles at God's Word, and 
 fears to violate it ? The subjection of reason to Scrip- 
 ture is regarded as a superstition, too far behind the 
 
78 ANTICHRIST. 
 
 advanced intelligence of this age. The boasted enlight- 
 enment of mankind regards itself as lifted above the 
 necessity of consulting the oracles of God, or of going to 
 the law and to the testimony for counsel in the affairs 
 of life. The tendency to error and superstition, and 
 " philosophy, falsely so called," is one of the mast re- 
 markable characteristics of the present age. All kinds 
 of speculations are preferred to plain gospel truth. Even 
 the simplest narratives of Scripture must now be brought 
 before the tribunal of reason, or be approved by human 
 science before they can be received. So that the question 
 how far, and in what way, we must believe the Scriptures, 
 is a question which Science pretends she only can decide, 
 and multitudes feel disposed to yield to her claims, and 
 submit to her arbitrament. 
 
 This species of infidelity God will assuredly punish, 
 and the way in which He will punish it seems very likely 
 to be by suffering the wise to be taken in their own crafti- 
 ness ; by permitting Antichrist to exhibit such signs 
 and lying wonders in support of his pretensions to Divine 
 homage as their philosophy can not explain. He seems 
 to have the power of a God, power over nature, for he 
 " maketh fire to come out of heaven in the sight of men/' 
 Throwing away the Scriptures, and sitting in judgment 
 upon this wonder, as philosophers, to what conclusion 
 must men come ? Why, that he is from God. This was 
 the criterion by which Elijah proposed to decide between 
 Jehovah and Baal. " The God that answereth by fire 
 let him be God," and when all the people saw the fire 
 come down from heaven, and consume Elijah's sacrifice, 
 they fell on their faces, and said, " The Lord, He is God/' 
 
ANTICHRIST. 79 
 
 And when Antichrist does the same thing, it seems 
 the same result will follow ; " all the world will wonder 
 after the Beast, and will worship him, and say, who is 
 like the Beast, who is able to make war upon him ?" for, 
 as they preferred science to revelation, they shall be con- 
 founded on scientific principles. Because they received 
 not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, " FOR 
 THIS CAUSE/' says the text, " God shall send them strong 
 delusion, that they should believe a lie," the lie of Anti- 
 christ, " that they all might be damned who believed not 
 the truth," (i. e., the Scriptures of truth,) ' ' but had plea- 
 sure in unrighteousness." 
 
 " It is indeed awful/' says a certain writer on this sub- 
 ject, "to think of such a consummation, and, at the 
 same time, to see how possible it is to conceive of its ac- 
 complishment even now, and the merging into it of all 
 the systems of error, however opposite to each other. To 
 see high-toned orthodoxy joined with deism and infidelity 
 in the worship of Antichrist, and nominal Protestantism 
 and Popery find a common ground in the service of His 
 temple." 
 
 Do you say, impossible ? I answer, nay, but most 
 possible ; for, independent of the power that sends the 
 delusion, all that faith which stands on reason and ex- 
 ternal evidence will soon yield, on its own principles, to 
 the more substantial evidence of signs and lying won- 
 ders. And how much of such faith have we now in 
 Christendom ? Deism, and its twofold offspring, skep- 
 ticism and indifferentism, will believe in Antichrist for 
 the same reason that they reject Christ ; and even the 
 atheist will become a worshiper for the sake of consist- 
 
80 ANTICHRIST. 
 
 ency. "I think I see," lie adds, "the preparations 
 already too forward for the coming of the wicked one : 
 would- that I were mistaken/' When we see what ab- 
 surdities obtain currency among men, what superstitions 
 are embraced by them ; what blasphemous pretensions, 
 by false apostles and cunning deceivers, are acknowl- 
 edged by multitudes ; the vagaries of Swedenborgian- 
 ism, the fooleries of Shakerism, the licentiousness of 
 Mormonism, and the occult trickery, or something worse, 
 of spiritual rappings, it seems as if Satan has been 
 practicing for some time past upon the credulity of 
 mankind, to prepare them gradually for that last grand 
 delusion which he intends to play off in the person of 
 the Man of Sin and Son of Perdition, who shall be wor- 
 shiped as God. The delusions of the day are but the 
 antecedents and foreshadowings of that still greater one 
 yet to come. The Father of Lies seems to have- opened 
 a new school of deception and fraud, and has already 
 many pupils in the different departments, going about 
 by cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to de- 
 ceive; and inducing men to give heed to seducing spirits 
 and doctrines of devils, or doctrines concerning demons, 
 or departed spirits. If ever there was a time when 
 Christians needed to study the word of God, and fortify 
 themselves in its teachings, it is at this present day, 
 when the attacks upon that word are of the most artful 
 and insidious, and therefore dangerous kind. The enemy 
 has changed his tactics, and instead of the open infidelity 
 of the last century, like that enunciated by Voltaire and 
 others, has exerted his inventive faculties to contrive 
 new systems, professedly derived from holy Scripture, 
 
ANTICHKIST. 81 
 
 but really most hostile to it ; and has infused into them 
 some of those elements of mysticism and mock philan- 
 thropy wLich are generally very taking with the multi- 
 tude. Under the name of Christian and religious sects, 
 doctrines the most subversive of the Christian religion 
 are widely circulated, and received with favor. Whole 
 denominations, who deny the Lord that bought them, 
 are still classed among Christ's followers ; and such is 
 the spirit of the age that spirit of false liberality and 
 indifference to truth that it is denounced as narrow- 
 minded bigotry to call even in question the Christianity 
 of all these heresies and delusions. This is the state at 
 which things have arrived, and how favorable to a still 
 further advance in error and superstition, you will all 
 form your own judgment. 
 
 Now the only protection against the great delusion 
 which, according to the word of Prophecy, is coming on 
 the earth, is, first, to know and believe that it is com- 
 ing ; second, to understand the character of the delu- 
 sion ; and third, to have our minds so fortified with 
 Christian doctrine, and to be so rooted and grounded in 
 the faith of the gospel, that Satan, with all his powers 
 of delusion, or arts of magic, shall not be able to remove 
 us from the foundation on which we stand. To place 
 you on this strong rock of security and defense is the 
 great work and effort of the ministry of Christ, and the 
 chief object we have in view in the publication of these 
 discourses. Being forewarned, may you be forearmed ; 
 and if, in the providence of G-od, any of us should live 
 to see that " time of tribulation which shall come to 
 
 4* 
 
82 ANTICHRIST. 
 
 try all them that dwell upon the earth," may we be 
 enabled to pass through it unscathed, and in the name 
 and faith of Christ resist the Antichrist until he shall 
 be destroyed by the brightness of His coming and the 
 spirit of His mouth. 
 
LECTURE V. 
 
 THE TWO WITNESSES. 
 
 " And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall proph- 
 esy a thousand two hundred and three-score days clothed in sackcloth. 
 These are the two olive trees, and two candlesticks standing before the 
 God of the whole earth, and if man will hurt them fire proceedeth out of 
 their mouth and devoureth their enemies, and if any man will hurt them, 
 he must in this manner be killed. These have power to shut heaven that 
 it rain not in the days of their prophecy, and have power over waters to 
 turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues as often 
 as they will ; and when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast 
 that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them and 
 overcome and kill them, and their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the 
 great city, which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where also our 
 Lord was crucified; and they of the people, and kindred, and tongues, and 
 nations, shall see their dead bodies three days and a half, and shall not suf- 
 fer them to be put in graves, and they that dwell upon the earth shall re- 
 joice over them and make merry, and shall send gifts, one to another, 
 because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth. And 
 after three and a half days the spirit of life from God entered into them, 
 and they stood upon their feet, and great fear fell upon them who saw them, 
 and they heard a great voice from heaven, saying unto them, Come up 
 hither, and they ascended up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies beheld 
 them; and the same hour there was a great earthquake and a tenth part of the 
 city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand, and the 
 remnant were affrighted and gave glory to the God of heaven ; and the 
 seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven saying, the 
 kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His 
 Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever." REVELATIONS, xi. 3-15. 
 
 GREAT and marvelous are the signs and wonders which 
 the Most High hath reserved to be shown to the chil- 
 
84 THE TWO WITNESSES. 
 
 dren of men when the times of the Gentiles shall be ful- 
 filled, and the period of grace and favor to His ancient 
 covenant people shall arrive. To those who maintain 
 that the age of miracles is past never to return, we have 
 only to say, unfulfilled Prophecy teaches us a very differ- 
 ent doctrine. It points to events yet to come, which 
 shall not only equal, but far exceed any which. belong to 
 the past. In proof of this, we have already adduced 
 three, whose coming to pass shall burst with astonishment 
 upon the world ; viz., first, the restoration and con- 
 version of the Jews ; second, the discovery and return of 
 the lost ten tribes ; third, the rise and reign, the terri- 
 ble career and end of Antichrist. The .chapter from 
 which our text is taken presents us with a fourth great 
 and marvelous wonder which shall also take place before 
 this dispensation shall close ; viz., the appearance and 
 ministry of the TWO WITNESSES, endowed with 
 miraculous powers, whose ministry shall continue for a 
 brief space, when they shall suffer martyrdom, and short- 
 ly afterward be caught up into heaven. This last sub- 
 ject is so intimately connected with all the preceding, 
 (especially with the last) by three points of coincidence, 
 viz., first, time ; second, place ; third, simultaneous ac- 
 tion, that it is necessary to consider them together. 
 
 When the whole house of Israel shall have returned 
 unto the land of their fathers, and when that great de- 
 ceiver and impostor shall arise who will then pretend 
 to be their long expected Messiah that ANTICHRIST 
 who will support his pretensions with astonishing signs 
 and wonders it seems that God in mercy to His an- 
 cient people will then send them TWO EXTRAORDINARY 
 
THE TWO WITNESSES. 85 
 
 MESSENGERS, to warn them against the delusions of that 
 impostor, and announce to them the speedy second ad- 
 vent of the true Messiah. Each of these events there- 
 fore, occurring at the same time, viz., the time of the 
 end, and in the same place, viz., the holy city, and be- 
 ing cotemporaneous events, require to be treated in 
 close succession, inasmuch as they throw light on each 
 other, and are but the several acts of the last scene of 
 this expiring dispensation. 
 
 Before we attempt to designate the two Witnesses here 
 spoken of, or enter upon an investigation of their minis- 
 try and its consequences, let us fix with precision and 
 exactness the PLACE WHERE they shall appear and fulfill 
 their mission. 
 
 In the first verse of this chapter, the Apostle John in- 
 forms us that there was given to him a reed like a rod, 
 and an angel stood, saying, " Rise and measure the tem- 
 ple of God, and the altar, and them that worship there- 
 in ; but the court which is without the temple, leave 
 out, and measure it not, for it is given unto the Gen- 
 tiles, and the holy city shall they tread under foot for- 
 ty and two months." The scene of these transactions is 
 evidently laid in the Holy Land. No city in the world is 
 ever called by the sacred writers the " holy city/' but the 
 city of Jerusalem. In that city stood a temple, called the 
 temple of God. No other is ever called such by the sa- 
 cred writers. That temple had an altar, and was sur- 
 rounded by a court, arid this was called the court of the 
 Gentiles, or the place in which those not circumcised, 
 nor ceremonially clean, might worship at a distance. 
 The measurement of this temple was undoubtedly, for 
 
86 THE TWO WITNESSES. 
 
 its rebuilding, vide Zechariah, ii. l-4 3 which the Jews, 
 after their return to the Holy Land, and before their 
 acknowledgment of Jesus of Nazareth, shall undertake 
 and accomplish. Now, in the previous discourse, we 
 showed that the Man of Sin and Son of Perdition, the 
 last Antichrist, should plant the tabernacles of his 
 palaces (according to the Prophet Daniel, chapter xi. 
 46,) between the seas, in the glorious holy mountain, 
 i. e.j Mount Sion ; and should sit in the temple of God, 
 and show himself to be God (according to St. Paul, 2 
 Thessalonians, ii.) 
 
 But there is now no temple of God on Mount Sion ; it 
 has been in ruins for many centuries, and its site is now 
 occupied by the mosque of Ornar. This temple must, 
 therefore, be rebuilt before this prophecy can be fulfilled, 
 and here is the order, as well as prediction, for its re- 
 building (Revelations, chapter xi. 1) : " Rise and meas- 
 ure the temple of God," (i. e., take the dimensions, or 
 make the plan for its rebuilding,) " and the altar, etc. ; 
 but the court without the temple leave out, for it is giv- 
 en to the Gentiles ; and the holy city " (i. e., Jerusalem,) 
 " shall they tread under foot forty and two months." This 
 shows an invasion of the city by an adverse party, called 
 Gentiles ; the invaded and oppressed people must there- 
 fore be Jews, residing in the capital of their native land, 
 here called " the holy city," which these Gentiles tread 
 again under foot. Is it not evident, therefore, that the 
 scene of these events is laid in Jerusalem, that city of so 
 much glory and shame, of such magnificence and degra- 
 dation, of such wonderful past, and yet more wondrous 
 future, events ? 
 
THE TWO WITNESSES. 87 
 
 Whilst this is taking place, the astounding events of 
 our text also occur. There appear two messengers from 
 heaven, to protest against the blasphemy of Antichrist, 
 and warn them against his delusion. The text says, " I 
 will give power to my two Witnesses, and they shall 
 prophesy a thousand two hundred and three-score days, 
 clothed in sackcloth." 
 
 Scarcely any question in Prophecy has occasioned more 
 perplexity to commentators than this : Who are these 
 two Witnesses ? And among the various opinions given, 
 not one has carried with it the general conviction of its 
 truth. Almost every interpretation is open to some ob- 
 jection, in consequence of which doubt hangs over it. 
 Those who understand the Church of Home to be the 
 Man of Sin, and the Beast out of the bottomless pit, 
 which should prevail twelve hundred and sixty years, 
 and then decline and iall, are compelled to find the two 
 Witnesses whose ministry is cotemporaneous with that 
 of the Beast, somewhere in the past history of the 
 Church ; and, accordingly, some have supposed that the 
 Waldenses and Albigenses, who were massacred in the 
 twelfth and thirteenth centuries in such numbers, by the 
 Church of Rome, for their noble resistance to the corrup 
 tions of that Church, were these two Witnesses. But 
 when we come to apply the tests of the Prophecy to 
 them they fail ; i. e., when we ask, Did the Waldenses 
 have power over waters, to turn them to blood, or to 
 shut up heaven, that it rain not in the days of their 
 prophecy, and to smite the earth with plagues as often 
 as they would ? they can not inform us that they had, 
 except by considering such language as a highly figura- 
 
88 THE TWO WITNESSES. 
 
 
 
 tive description of merely the spiritual influence of 
 their prayers to bring down judgments on the Pa- 
 pacy. 
 
 Or if we ask, how did the dead bodies of these Wal- 
 denses lie three and a half days in the streets of the city 
 spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where our Lord 
 was crucified? they reply, the whole Christian Church 
 is figuratively called the city of God, and the valleys of 
 Piedmont are but as streets of that city, and the massa- 
 cres which there took place were their dead bodies lying 
 in it, and the glorious reformation from Popery in the 
 sixteenth century their resurrection, or the revival of 
 that faith for which they contended. We shall show 
 the utter absurdity of such an interpretation as we pro- 
 ceed. Others have supposed that these two Witnesses 
 are the Law and the Gospel, or the two Testaments, Old 
 and New, personified, and that as these were generally 
 ignored during the dark ages, and their teaching super- 
 seded by Papal decrees, they are represented as prophe- 
 sying in sackcloth, as slain and cast out, but that the 
 Keformation restored them to their place in the Church, 
 and so the two Witnesses revived and ascended up to 
 heaven, the Church being sometimes called the kingdom 
 of heaven. The incompatibility of this interpretation 
 with the Prophecy will also be shown as we proceed. 
 Some have conjectured that the two Sacraments, Bap- 
 tism and the Lord's Supper, were the two Witnesses, but 
 this is liable to the same objection as the others. With- 
 out attempting to mention all the opinions which have 
 been given on this point, we shall now proceed to ana- 
 lyze the language of our text, and see where it will lead, 
 
THE TWO WITNESSES. 89 
 
 and to what result a simple interpretation of it in the 
 literal seuse will bring us. 
 
 " I will give power to my two Witnesses/ 7 Who is the 
 speaker here ? Evidently Christ. This book is called in 
 chapter i. verse 1, " the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which 
 God gave to Him to show unto His servants the things 
 which must shortly come to pass ; and He sent and signi- 
 fied it by His angel unto His servant John." These are 
 therefore Christ's two Witnesses. 
 
 Now Christ has had many witnesses, and still has among 
 men. 1. All the Prophets of the Old Testament were 
 such ; they foretold His coming, and showed beforehand 
 the time, place, family, and circumstances of His life and 
 death. Hence says the Apostle Peter, (Acts, x. 43,) " to 
 Him give all the prophets witness." 2. All the Apostles 
 were His witnesses. Saint Luke informs us, xxiv. 48, 
 that when He gave them their commission to proclaim 
 throughout the world the facts of His life, death, resurrec- 
 tion and ascension, He added, "ye are my witnesses of 
 these things." So, also, every minister of the gospel and 
 every private Christian who has tasted His grace, is a 
 witness for Christ to testify of His goodness and love. 
 
 But in addition to all these, there seem to be Two 
 others who stand above all the Prophets and Apostles, 
 and disciples of every class, who have borne testimony 
 for Him in a way which no others ever have, and who 
 shall again appear to render Him service according to His 
 will. Who are these ? 
 
 The Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, declare 
 that when our Lord took Peter, James and John up into 
 a high mountain and was transfigured before them, there 
 
90 THE TWO WITNESSES. 
 
 appeared also Moses and Ellas in glory, who talked with 
 Him and spake of His decease which He should accom- 
 plish at Jerusalem. These two eminent servants of God 
 were dispatched from the other world to hear testi- 
 mony that He was the Christ, the Saviour of the world. 
 Therefore they have been witnesses for Him in a more 
 extraordinary sense than any other persons who have 
 ever existed, and consequently may with the strictest 
 propriety be called by Him MY TWO WITNESSES. 
 
 Let us now proceed with the Prophecy to see whether 
 such an identification of the two Witnesses will be borne 
 out by the other descriptions of them which follow. In 
 verse 4 it is said, " These are the two olive trees and two 
 candlesticks standing before the God of the whole earth." 
 This undoubtedly refers to the vision which the Prophet 
 Zechariah, iv. 2-11, had, and which was interpreted to 
 him by an angel. He saw a candlestick of gold, and two 
 olive trees by it, one on each side, and the angel in ex- 
 plaining the vision to him says, " these two olive trees 
 were the two anointed ones which stand before the God 
 of the whole earth," not mentioning who they were, but 
 simply " two anointed ones," set apart for some special 
 mission, and at that time standing before God, i. e., wait- 
 ing in readiness to fulfill His will ; so that while there is 
 an evident reference in this prophecy before us to that 
 of Zechariah, yet inasmuch as the two anointed ones in 
 that Prophecy, are not mentioned by name we can only 
 know that they are the same as those in the text, who- 
 ever they may be. 
 
 Verse 5, however, begins to shed a little more light on 
 the subject, which says, " If any man will hurt them, 
 
THE TWO WITNESSES. 91 
 
 fire proceecleth out of their inouth and devoureth their 
 enemies, and if any man will hurt them he must in this 
 manner be killed/' There are but two persons men- 
 tioned in the Scriptures at whose word fire came down 
 from heaven and consumed their enemies. 
 
 1. Moses, who denounced the judgment of God upon 
 Korahand his company, who rebelled against the author- 
 ity which God had given him and sought to overthrow 
 it. He said, Numbers, xvi , " Hereby shall ye know that 
 the Lord hath sent me to do all these things ; if these 
 men die the common death of all men, then the Lord 
 hath not sent me." As soon as he had made an end of 
 speaking, there came a fire from the Lord and consumed 
 the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense. 
 
 2. Elijah. When the King of Israel sent a captain 
 with fifty men to bring Elijah to him, and they went to 
 the top of a hill and said, " Thou man of God, the king 
 hath said come down/' Elijah answered, " If I be a man 
 God, let fire come down from heaven and consume thee 
 and thy fifty," and there came down fire from heaven 
 and consumed him and his fifty, and this was repeated 
 a second time. Now our text says concerning the Two 
 Witnesses, " If any man will hurt them, fire proceed eth 
 out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies/' This 
 never has been done by any other persons except Moses, 
 when Korah and his company would injure him, and 
 Elijah, when the king of Israel would do him harm, and 
 this naturally directs our mind to them as the persons 
 intended by the two Witnesses. " If any man hurt them 
 he must in this manner be killed/' i. e. } (as their enemies 
 were.) 
 
92 THE TWO WITNESSES. 
 
 But you will say, this does not prove conclusively that 
 they are the two Witnesses, for although this has never 
 happened to any but them, that their enemies should be 
 destroyed by fire, we can not thence infer that it may not 
 happen to others at some future time. This is true, and 
 therefore we proceed to the next mark which is given to 
 describe and identify them. 
 
 In verse 6 we are further assured that " these have 
 power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of 
 their prophecy; and have power over waters, to turn 
 them to blood, and to smite the earth with plagues as 
 often as they will." Mark the expression, these have 
 power, present tense, not shall have, future : they are 
 described as having it then in possession. Now who of 
 all that had lived when the Apostle penned this proph- 
 ecy had possessed and exercised these powers ? Elijah 
 had prayed that it might not rain, and it rained not for 
 the space of three years and six months. He had shut 
 up heaven. Moses had threatened and executed upon 
 Pharaoh the judgment of turning water into blood, 
 because he would not let the people of Israel go; and he 
 had smitten the earth with plagues, or rather Egypt 
 with ten plagues. And these are the powers which 
 these two Witnesses possess, and which neither sacred or 
 profane history informs us were ever possessed by any 
 other men. 
 
 Now, every one can judge for themselves whether a de- 
 scription of such attributes as belong to no other persons 
 is sufficient warrant to name them, although in the Proph- 
 ecy, they be not called by name ; e. g., suppose the Proph- 
 ecy had said of these two Witnesses, these are they who 
 
THE TWO WITNESSES. 93 
 
 have never tasted of death, would we not be justified in 
 saying they were Enoch and Elijah ? for these are the 
 only two of whom Scripture bears testimony that they 
 never died. From this remarkable fact many have sup- 
 posed that Enoch and Elijah were the two Witnesses, 
 instead of Moses and Elias ; and that they were ex- 
 empted from death in their day for the express purpose 
 of being reserved as God's witnesses in the end of this 
 dispensation, when they shall be brought forth and be 
 slain by the last Antichrist, and thus undergo at last the 
 penalty pronounced, " It is appointed unto all men ONCE 
 to die/' etc. But for this opinion there seems to be no 
 express warrant in Scripture : it is plausible, but unsup- 
 ported by the law and the testimony. Enoch did not 
 possess (that we have any knowledge of) power over 
 waters to turn them to blood, or power to smite the 
 earth with plagues, or power to destroy his enemies by 
 fire ; therefore he does not meet the qualification of the 
 Witnesses spoken of in the text, who are said to possess 
 these powers. Neither was Enoch chosen to be present 
 at the transfiguration of Christ, though he had been 
 exempted from death. Moses had this honor above him. 
 There is one singular circumstance with regard to the 
 death of Moses, which we may notice in this place, i.e., 
 that it was not witnessed by any one : the place of his 
 burial is unknown. He went up into mount Horeb to 
 die, and never returned. The narrative says, the Lord 
 buried him. Many of the Jews have supposed that the 
 Lord took charge of his body, and kept it in a state of 
 honorable preservation, so that it did not undergo the 
 usual process of corruption. There is a singular passage 
 
94 THE TWO WITNESSES. 
 
 in tne epistle of Jude respecting this, which has very 
 greatly perplexed commentators, viz , that Michael, the 
 archangel, when contending with the devil about the 
 body of Moses, durst nut bring a railing accusation 
 against him. but only said, " The Lord rebuke thee." 
 The wonder is, what the strife between the Prince of 
 Angels and the Prince of Devils could be about, espe- 
 cially in relation to the body of Moses ; and it has been 
 supposed that the devil claimed that the body of Moses 
 should, like the bodies of all others who have sinned, be 
 committed to the earth, that it might undergo corrup- 
 tion ; for perhaps he disbelieved or was ignorant of the 
 doctrine of the resurrection ; but that Michael disposed 
 of it in another way, and that it has, by his power, ever 
 since continued just as it was when the spirit departed 
 from it, or has since been reanimated, and is now with 
 the body of Elias ; and that " these two anointed ones are 
 still standing before the God of the whole earth," waiting 
 for their commission to go and prophesy twelve hundred 
 and sixty days in sackcloth and ashes. Certainly, at the 
 transfiguration, Moses appeared with Elijah; and, if Moses 
 is one of the two Witnesses, shall appear again with him 
 to testify against the Man of Sin, and prepare the world 
 for the second coming of the Saviour. 
 
 Almost all who admit that these two Witnesses are 
 TWO PERSONS, admit that Elijah shall be one of them. 
 His claim to this honor rests upon no less a foundation 
 than a " Thus saith the Lord." The last verse of the 
 Old Testament, the farewell declaration of God to the 
 Jews, is this, " Behold, I will send you Elijah the Pro- 
 phet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day 
 
THE TWO WITNESSES. 95 
 
 of the Lord, and he shall turn the hearts of the fathers 
 to the children, and the hearts of the children to the 
 fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." 
 From this passage of holy Scripture it was, that the 
 disciples asked our Lord, " How say the scribes that 
 Elias must first come ?" Christ replied, " Elias truly 
 cometh first, and restoreth all things." John the Bap- 
 tist had come in the spirit and power of Elias ; but when 
 he (i. e. } John the Baptist,) was asked whether he was 
 the Christ, he said no ; whether he was Elias, he answer- 
 ed, no ; whether that Prophet spoken of by Moses, 
 Deuteronomy, xviii. 15, he again replied, no ; and when 
 asked who he was, he said, " I am the voice of one crying 
 in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord," 
 as saith the Prophet Esaias, chapter xl. 3. Now the 
 Prophet Malachi, iv. 5, to which John did not refer, 
 prophesied of Elijah's coming before the great and 
 dreadful day of the Lord, but the Prophet Esaias, xl. 
 3, of John the Baptist. There appears, therefore, to be 
 an harbinger of the second coming as well as of the first 
 spoken of in Prophecy ; and the Prophecy of Malachi, 
 which foretells the Prophet Elijah's coming, evidently 
 refers to the second advent, which is the a great and 
 dreadful day of the Lord, when He will come in flaming 
 fire, to take vengeance on them that know not God, and 
 obey not the gospel of Christ."* 
 
 * Many have been sadly perplexed with the seeming contradiction be- 
 tween John the Baptist's positive denial that he was Elias, John, i. 21, and 
 our Lord's equally positive assertion that he was, Matthew, xi. 14. Certainly 
 we can not suppose that our Lord intended to assert that the son of Zecha- 
 rias and Elisabeth, who was born only six months before His own incarna- 
 tion, was Elijah the Tishbite, who was carried up into heaven more than 
 
96 THE TWO WITNESSES. 
 
 But some one will inquire, can it be supposed that so 
 great a wonder as this will ever be witnessed on this earth, 
 that two men, who have been so long separated from the 
 living, and from the scenes of earth, shall again mingle 
 with both ? We answer, this is not more incredible 
 than many other things that have taken place. An 
 angel appeared to Lot, to warn him of the destruction 
 of Sodom, that he might make his escape, and why should 
 not two messengers be sent, at a period of such impend- 
 ing judgments, to warn the Jews of the coming of Him 
 who will destroy Antichrist and all his followers with an 
 awful overthrow? Such interpositions of Divine mercy 
 have been frequent, as the history of the Church will 
 show. Is it more incredible that Moses and Elias should 
 appear just before the second coming of Christ, to bear 
 witness for Him, than that they did appear at His first 
 coming on the mount of Transfiguration ? 
 
 But it is asked, why Moses and Elias particularly, ra- 
 ther than any other two then living ? We answer, there 
 
 seven hundred years before. What, then, was his meaning ? Was it not 
 the same with that which the angel declared to his parents before his birth, 
 Luke, i. 17, " he shall go before Him in the spirit and power of Elias ?" If so, 
 then the question arises, Does this interpretation so exhaust the Prophecy 
 of Malachi, (which foretells a personal coming of the Prophet Elijah,) that it 
 was entirely fulfilled in John the Baptist's ministry, both in letter and spirit? 
 or that it was fulfilled only in spirit, leaving the letter to be realized at some 
 future period ? If the latter, then there may be an Elias of the second 
 coming, the veritable Tishbite himself, and there is no contradiction between 
 the declaration of our Lord and that of His forerunner. 
 
 John's referring to Isaiah's prediction, and applying it (instead of Mal- 
 achi's) to himself, seems also to show that he understood Isaiah's man to 
 be a different person from Malachi's, acknowledging that he was the former's, 
 but denying that he was the latter's. Thus both harmonize. 
 
THE TWO WITNESSES. 97 
 
 never were two prophets who enjoyed so great a reputa- 
 tion among the children of Israel as these two Moses 
 to the whole nation, and Elijah especially to the ten 
 tribes, and there are none whose witness for truth and 
 against error would he so powerful as theirs. They know 
 Christ, (the true Messiah) for they saw Him on mount 
 Tabor, and hence know the MAN of SIN to be Antichrist 
 and a false Messiah. But even if we could not conceive 
 of any special reasons why they should be appointed 
 Christ's witnesses against Antichrist, and be the harbin- 
 gers of His second advent, yet if divine wisdom can see 
 a sufficient cause, what are we, that we should reply 
 against God ? 
 
 Let us now proceed to consider the ministry of these 
 two Witnesses, its duration, and its consequences to them. 
 1. They shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and 
 sixty days, clothed in sackcloth and ashes. The time 
 which is mentioned in days is three years and a half, 
 about the same period as John the Baptist's ministry, 
 and the same as our Lord's. It is also the same period 
 as Antichrist's reign. 2. They shall be clothed in sack- 
 cloth and ashes, to denote the calamities of the times, 
 and their deep affliction at the abounding wickedness. 
 John the Baptist was clothed in camel's hair and had a 
 leathern girdle, and his meat was locusts and wild honey. 
 He had to contend against the false teaching of the scribes 
 and doctors of the law, and the hypocrisy of the Phari- 
 sees, and finally fell a victim to his faithfulness in pro- 
 testing against sin in high places. Moses and Elias will 
 encounter a delusion greater than any that has ever yet 
 appeared, viz., the artful pretension of an impostor and a 
 
 5 
 
98 THE TWO WITNESSES. 
 
 pretender to be the true Messiah, supported by signs and 
 lying wonders. It appears that the two Witnesses, to 
 prove their divine mission, will work some miracles, when 
 Antichrist, to meet them on their own ground, will do the 
 same. If they make fire to come down from heaven, he 
 will do the same. This is an old device of Satan, viz., 
 to counterfeit miracles. 
 
 When Moses first went in unto Pharaoh and showed 
 the signs of his authority, the magicians (for a time) 
 counterfeited them with their enchantments, but finally 
 relinquished the contest and acknowledged it was the 
 finger of God. So Antichrist, full of the power of Satan, 
 will dispute the ground step by step with these two 
 Witnesses. If they make fire to come down from heaven, 
 he will do the same. Vide Revelations, xiii. 14. If they 
 at last do something which he can not imitate, he will 
 employ a new argument against them, the ultima ratio 
 regum, the sword. So says the Prophecy, " the Beast 
 that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war 
 against them, and shall overcome them and kill them." 
 Pharaoh sought to do this to Moses, and Ahab to Elijah, 
 but they escaped that time, only, it would seem, to fall 
 at a future period by the hand of a more terrible foe. 
 While Herod slew John the Baptist, and Pilate Christ. 
 
 The martyrdom of these two Witnesses shall take 
 place in that city whose streets have been stained by 
 the blood of martyrs for many ages, and of which Christ 
 said, " Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets 
 and stonest them that are sent unto thee/' When slain, 
 we are informed, verse 8, their dead bodies shall lie in 
 the street of the great city, which spiritually is called 
 
THE TWO WITNESSES. 99 
 
 SODOM and EGYPT, ivhere ako our Lord ivas cruci- 
 fied. We certajnly can be at no loss now to determine 
 what place this is. In Isaiah, i., the prophet says, speak- 
 ing of Jerusalem, " Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of 
 SODOM, and give ear, ye people of GOMORRAH." Because 
 of the wickedness which prevailed in that city, he gives it, 
 by the Spirit, the name of the worst city that ever existed, 
 viz., Sodom ; nnd there are several allusions to its Egyp- 
 tian characteristics in the prophets. But lest this de- 
 scription might not be a sufficient guide to the place of 
 their martyrdom, he adds another which can not fail to 
 identify it, viz., " the place where also our Lord was cru- 
 cified." Can any thing be more explicit than this ? Not 
 even the word Jerusalem would be more definite. That, 
 city from whence He was led out to be crucified, which 
 all the world knows to be Jerusalem, must have equaled 
 Sodom and Egypt in their worst days, to have committed 
 such a crime as this. Here, where so many faithful wit- 
 nesses have lost their lives, it appears that Moses and 
 Elias. the two most important witnesses of Christ, will 
 also seal their testimony with their blood. 
 
 But their death does not satisfy the rage of Antichrist ; 
 he determines to further gratify his revenge by showing 
 the greatest indignity to their remains, and therefore re- 
 fuses them burial, so that " their dead bodies lie three 
 days and a half in the street," exposed to the gaze of all 
 the passers by. Antichrist rejoices that he has van- 
 quished those who did most to shake confidence in his 
 pretensions, and perhaps leaves their bodies exposed, 
 that all seeing them maybe warned of the consequences 
 of opposing him. And what is the effect produced ? 
 
100 THE TWO WITNESSES. 
 
 We are informed in verse 9 : " they of the people, and 
 kindred, and tongues, and nations, shall see their dead 
 bodies three days and a half, and shall not suffer them 
 to be put in graves." The adherents of the Man of Sin 
 shall unite with him in dishonoring their remains ; and 
 verse 10 adds, " they that dwell upon the earth, i. e., those 
 outside of the Holy Land, shall rejoice over them, and 
 make merry, and send gifts to one another ;" why ? The 
 reason is given : " because these two PROPHETS tor- 
 mented them that dwelt on the earth." As a judgment for 
 their wickedness, in embracing the awful blasphemies 
 of Antichrist, perhaps Elijah shut up heaven for three 
 years and a half, as he did in the days of Ahab, or Moses 
 turned water into blood, (vide Revelations, xvi. 4,) as he 
 did unto Pharaoh, or both brought fire down from heaven 
 to destroy those who would do them harm ; and now, 
 having fallen under the blow of Antichrist, (for those 
 who can do all the greatest miracles may yet be them- 
 selves killed, as we see in the case of our Lord and 
 His apostles,) having been themselves slain, those 
 whom they tormented rejoice together, as though the 
 day of their suffering would be at an end. Alas ! 
 how mistaken are their hopes, how short-lived their 
 triumph. 
 
 Notice the reason they give for their joy, " Because 
 these two PROPHETS tormented them." THESE TWO 
 PROPHETS, Moses and Elias, were prophets of the first 
 class. Now, the word PROPHET is never, in holy 
 Scripture, applied to an impersonal object. It never 
 means a system of doctrine, or a collective body, but 
 always A MAN commissioned of God to teach and de- 
 
THE TWO WITNESSES. 101 
 
 clare His will. Does not this show that the two Testa- 
 ments, or the two Sacraments, or the Waldenses and 
 Albigenses, and all that class of expositions which re- 
 gard the term Prophet as a figure of speech, are er- 
 roneous ? and that we must understand by the two 
 Witnesses Lore called PROPHETS, two MEN, endued 
 with the powers and attributes of men, though extraor- 
 dinarily endowed, as Moses and Elias were. 
 
 But how short-lived will be the triumph of their ene- 
 mies. In verse 11 we read, " after three days and a half 
 the spirit of life from God entered into them, and they 
 stood upon their feet, and great fear fell on them which 
 saw them." 
 
 It will not, we trust, be considered irreverent to 
 compare this scene to that which took place in Jeru- 
 salem eighteen hundred years ago, when He who was 
 crucified, dead and buried, to the joy of His enemies, 
 rose again on the third day, to their dismay, and as- 
 cended up to heaven. The two Witnesses seem called 
 to follow closely in the steps of their Divine Master. But 
 scarcely have they ascended to heaven, than a calam- 
 ity greater than that which their enemies supposed they 
 had escaped by their death comes upon them, verse 13 : 
 " The same hour there was a great earthquake ; the tenth 
 part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain 
 seven thousand men, and the remnant gave glory to the 
 God of heaven." Much light is thrown on this passage 
 by Zechariah, xiv., in which the Lord says by the 
 prophet, "I will gather all nations against Jerusalem 
 to battle, and the city shall be taken, and houses rifled, 
 etc., and the Lord shall go forth and fight against those 
 
102 THE TWO WITNESSES. 
 
 nations, as when He fought in the day of battle, and His 
 feet shall stand that day on the mount of Olives, which 
 is before Jerusalem on the east ; and the mount of 
 Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof, toward the 
 east and toward the west, and ye shall flee to the valley 
 of the mountains, like as ye fled from before the earth- 
 quake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and the 
 Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee." 
 Now, this gathering of all the nations together at 
 Jerusalem, which the Prophet Zechariah foretells, chap- 
 ter xiv., explains where all those people, and kindred, 
 and tribes, and tongues shall come from, who shall see 
 the dead bodies of the two Witnesses, which lie three 
 and a half days in the streets of Jerusalem. The earth- 
 quake which the Prophet Zechariah speaks of is the same 
 which the Apostle John, in verse 13, describes, in which 
 seven thousand are slain, and to show further that both 
 refer to the same time, as well as the same events and the 
 same place, notice what immediately follows the text, v. 
 15, says: "After the earthquake, the seventh angel sound- 
 ed, and there were great voices in heaven saying, the 
 kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our 
 Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and 
 ever." The Prophet Zechariah says, " the Lord my God 
 shall come, and all the saints with Him." Does not this 
 clearly show that this whole Prophecy of St. John, in 
 Kevelations, xi., is not a fulfilled Prophecy, but evidently 
 belongs to the time of the end, the close of this dispensa- 
 tion, and that the two Witnesses have never yet appeared? 
 that the three years and a half in which they shall proph- 
 esy in sackcloth and ashes is yet future? and consequently 
 
THE TWO WITNESSES. 103 
 
 that all the interpretations which ingenious spiritualizers 
 have put upon this Prophecy are erroneous and false; for 
 no sooner does the earthquake take place, which follows 
 the ascension of the two Witnesses to heaven, than Christ's 
 kingdom is established, and his reign commences, vide 
 verses 14, 15, and as this is unquestionably future, the 
 events so closely connected with it must be future also. 
 
 We have next shown, in verse 16, the joy on high 
 which follows this event. The four and twenty elders 
 which sat before God, fell on their faces, and worshiped 
 God, saying, " We give thee thanks, Lord God Al- 
 mighty, which art, and wast, and art to come, because 
 thou hast taken to thee thy great power and hast reigned; 
 and the nations were angry, and thy wrath has come, and 
 the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and 
 that thou shouldst give reward unto thy servants the 
 prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear thy 
 name, both small and great, and shouldst destroy them 
 which destroy the earth." That these events have not yet 
 taken place it is unnecessary to assert ; all know they 
 have not. i 
 
 Engaged as we are in a series of discourses on the sub- 
 ject of unfulfilled Prophecy, we have now presented to 
 your minds four great and important events which the 
 prophets have foretold, and which we maintain have 
 never yet been fulfilled, viz. : 1. The restoration and 
 conversion of the Jews ; 2. The discovery and return of 
 the ten tribes ; 3. The rise and reign of Antichrist ; and 
 4. The appearance, ministry, and martyrdom of the two 
 Witnesses. 
 
 In interpreting Prophecies not yet fulfilled, we pursue 
 
104 THE TWO WITNESSES. 
 
 the same course as we do in those which are fulfilled, 
 viz., interpret the language in its plainest and most 
 natural signification, adhering to the same meaning of 
 words which was in use when the Prophecies were written; 
 e. g.y the expression " holy city" means the same now as 
 it did when the Apostles lived, viz., the city of Jerusalem; 
 the term prophet means still what it always meant when 
 it was used by the sacred writers, viz., an individual com- 
 missioned of God to declare His will, etc. Some seem to 
 have an instinctive dread of interpreting Prophecy in 
 such a manner that any of it shall appear to be future, 
 and especially that it should involve events miraculous 
 or even marvelous in their nature, and hence they resort 
 to a system of figurative interpretation, called spiritual- 
 izing, by which they set forth an entirely different class 
 of events from that which the plain language of the 
 Prophecy would seem to justify. They interpret Prophecy 
 as they would parables, and satisfy themselves with re- 
 mote resemblances instead of exact realities. It is easy 
 to see how such a system of interpretation may introduce 
 uncertainty and doubt in this important department of 
 sacred exegesis, and such are the fruits it has continu- 
 ally produced, as is evident from the many and different 
 figurative expositions which have been given of this very 
 Prophecy of the two Witnesses. 
 
 There is no end to the fancies and conjectures of men; 
 and if interpreters of the word of God are not bound 
 down by some more rigid rules of interpretation than 
 those which a luxuriant imagination imposes, there will 
 be no limit to prophetical theories. The vagaries of 
 Swedenborg show what is the consequence of depart- 
 
THE TWO WITNESSES. 105 
 
 ing from the plain meaning of language. Now it is 
 undoubtedly true that the plain and simple meaning of 
 the language of Prophecy may often force us to confess 
 that such a thing as the prophet speaks of, has never 
 yet taken place on earth, and that when it does it will 
 be marvelous even to miraculous. But what then ? 
 Can any events yet to come be more marvelous than 
 those which were once foretold, and have already taken 
 place ? The incarnation of the Son of God was long pre- 
 dicted, and at length took place. Was ever a greater 
 wonder on earth than this ? Now the Jews reject this 
 great mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh, so 
 plainly foretold by the prophets, for the same reason 
 that many Christians reject a literal interpretation of the 
 two Witnesses, viz., because of the marvelous character 
 of the event. When the Prophet Isaiah says, " To us a 
 child is born, to us a son is given ; and his name shall 
 be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the 
 Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace," and we point 
 to Jesus' birth as its fulfillment ; and also to that other 
 prediction : " A Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and 
 thou shalt call his name Immanuel, which, being inter- 
 preted, is, God with us ;" the Jews reply, that can not 
 be the meaning of the prophet ; for, for a Virgin to con- 
 ceive, and for God to be united to man, is an absurdity, 
 a thing contrary to nature, a wonder too great for belief; 
 and hence they depart from the plain meaning of the 
 language, and seek for some hidden or figurative sense. 
 The same disposition is often manifested among Chris- 
 tians when the literal interpretation of a Prophecy 
 involves miraculous events. Now, it is a fact that 
 
106 THE TWO WITNESSES. 
 
 nearly all those Prophecies which cluster around the 
 two advents of Christ partake more or less of the marvel- 
 ous; and this is especially true of those which belong to 
 the second advent. Not only does the event itself, but 
 also its antecedents and consequents, pass the region of 
 ordinary, and belong to extraordinary events; and there- 
 fore when, just before the second coming of our Lord, 
 we present you with two of the most distinguished 
 Prophets of the Old Testament, reappearing on the 
 stage of action, and serving their Lord in a new capac- 
 ity, (not so pleasant, indeed, as at the first advent, in the 
 transfiguration, but quite as important,) be not incred- 
 ulous, as though such a thing could not be, but only 
 ask what is the plain meaning of the Prophecy, and be 
 assured that that shall stand though heaven and earth 
 pass away. 
 
 And if any of us should ever live to see the day when 
 the conflict shall take place between Moses and Eiias 
 and the Man of Sin, who opposeth and exalteth himself 
 above all that is called God, and that is worshiped, the 
 last Antichrist who shall pretend to be the Messiah the 
 Jews have so long looked for, but whose pretensions 
 these two Witnesses will opposs even unto death, may 
 we not be among the number of those who shall re- 
 joice at their death, but of those who shall not worship 
 the Beast nor his image, nor be moved by his signs and 
 lying wonders, but, armed with the word of God, know 
 how to resist him, and maintain our confidence in the 
 Messiah, already come, and then soon again to appear, 
 firm unto the end; and then shall we experience the 
 truth of the promise, " Because thou hast kept the word 
 
THE TWO WITNESSES. 107 
 
 of my patience I will also keep thee from the hour of 
 temptation which shall come upon all the world to 
 try them that dwell upon the earth" (Revelations, iii. 
 10.) Divine Intercessor, pray for rjs, that our faith 
 fail not ! 
 
LECTURE VI. 
 
 OVERTHROW OF ROMANISM AND MOHAMMEDANISM. 
 
 " After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth Boast, 
 dreadful, and terrible, and strong exceedingly, and it had great iron teeth : 
 it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of 
 it, and it was diverse from all the beasts before it, and it had ten horns. I 
 considered the horns, and behold there came up among them another little 
 horn, before whom three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots, 
 and behold in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth 
 speaking great things." DANIEL, vii. 7, 8. 
 
 " Therefore the he goat waxed very great, and when he was strong the 
 great hon. was broken, and for it came up four notable ones towards the 
 four winds of heaven, and out of one of them came forth a little horn, 
 which waxed exceedingly great, towards the south, towards the east, and 
 towards the pleasant land." DANIEL, viii. 8, 9. 
 
 THERE are two mysteries which have been working in 
 the earth ever since the advent of the Saviour, and si- 
 lently exerting an influence over the miuds of multi- 
 tudes of men. These are the MYSTERY of godliness, and 
 the MYSTERY of iniquity. The same apostle who de- 
 clares in one epistle, 1 Timothy, iii. 16, " Great is the 
 mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh, justified 
 in the spirit, seen of angels, preached to the Gentiles, 
 believed on in the world, received up to glory/' says in 
 another epistle, 1 Thessalonians, ii. 7, 9, "For the mys- 
 tery of iniquity doth already work," and then proceeds 
 to show what it would do in future times, when it would 
 become more perfectly organized, viz., delude " with all 
 
ROMANISM AND MOHAMMEDANISM. 109 
 
 power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceiva- 
 bleness of unrighteousness in them that perish." 
 
 It would be a task far exceeding the limits of an or- 
 dinary discourse to trace the operations and workings of 
 these two mysteries for twelve centuries past ; it would 
 be to recite the conflicts of the Church and the world, 
 the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light, 
 whose antagonistic' struggles have filled the pages of 
 history with details, on one side, of persecution and op- 
 pression, and on the other, of mourning, lamentation 
 and woe ! And yet unpleasant as is the view, we ought 
 not to overlook those forms which the " mystery of 
 iniquity" has put on to carry out its opposition to the 
 " mystery of godliness," especially as they have been por- 
 trayed, first, in the writings of the prophets, and next 
 worked out in the events of time, and lastly, photo- 
 graphed in the pages of history. 
 
 While it is our duty to contemplate the mystery of 
 godliness in all its unfoldings in the Church, it is equally 
 our duty to scrutinize the mystery of iniquity in its de- 
 velopments in the world. We propose to place before 
 you some of the workings of the " mystery of iniquity" as 
 they have developed themselves in ages past and still 
 continue to operate in hostility to the gospel of Christ. 
 Those which more strikingly than any others show forth 
 that mystery of iniquity of which the apostle spoke, are 
 Romanism and Mohammedanism, two powers whose 
 cotemporaneous rise, and reign, and oppressive rule for 
 more than a thousand years, form no inconsiderable 
 part of the antagonism which the "mystery of god- 
 liness" has encountered in its endeavors to disseminate 
 
110 OVERTHROW OF ROMANISM 
 
 the Scriptures of truth, unfold the gospel of Christ and 
 promote the happiness of mankind. To bring this sub- 
 ject properly before you, we have selected two passages 
 of Scripture in which the rise of these two powers is fore- 
 told. We shall therefore show 
 
 1. That these passages have reference to these two 
 powers. 
 
 2. Point out the remarkable analogy between them as 
 developments of that grand scheme of Satan, viz, the 
 setting up of a mystery of iniquity against a mystery of 
 godliness. 
 
 3. Show what is their doom, and what in them yet 
 remains to be accomplished. 
 
 In chapter vii. of Daniel's Prophecy, he informs us 
 lie had a vision. He saw four Beasts come up out of 
 the sea ; the first like a lion, the second like a bear, 
 the third like a leopard, and the fourth a nondescript, 
 dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly, and it had 
 great iron teeth diverse from all the others, and it de- 
 voured and brake in pieces and stamped the residue with 
 the feet of it ; and it had ten horns. These four Beasts 
 are universally admitted to be the four universal mon- 
 archies which have successively borne rule over the earth, 
 viz., the Babylonian, Medo -Persian, Grecian and Ko- 
 man. The last having been divided into ten kingdoms, 
 is prefigured by the ten horns which the fourth Beast 
 had. All readers of history know that at the irruption 
 of the northern barbarians in the fifth century, the west- 
 ern half of the Eoman empire was broken up into sev- 
 eral kingdoms, which were formed out of it, several of 
 which continue to the present day. These kingdoms 
 
AND MOHAMMEDANISM. Ill 
 
 were Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Naples, 
 Tuscany, Home, Eavenna, and Lombardy.* Among 
 these ten horns or kingdoms, he saw a little horn arise 
 which had eyes like the eyes of a man, i. e., a symbol of 
 spiritual authority, and a mouth speaking great things, 
 i. e. } a pretender to rights and privileges which did 
 not belong to him. This is generally understood to 
 be the Papacy, which about this time began to assert 
 those claims to spiritual supremacy and even temporal 
 dominion which it has never since relinquished. This 
 little horn plucked up three others b} r the roots. These 
 were Ravenna, Lombardy and Home. 
 
 Leo Isaurus, who ruled in Eavema, being excommu- 
 nicated by the Pope because he opposed his decree in 
 favor of the worship of images and invocation of the 
 dead, Aistulphus, king of the Lombards, seized upon 
 his territory, and thought to make himself master of all 
 Italy, upon which the Pope (Stephen III.) applied to 
 Pepin, king of France, for assistance. Pepin recovered 
 Eavenna from the Lombards, and instead of restoring it 
 to its rightful owners, gave it, at the Pope's solicitation, 
 to " St. Peter and his successors for ever." This was the 
 first of the three kingdoms which fell before the little 
 horn, A. D. 755. 
 
 The kingdom of Lombardy was often troublesome to the 
 Popes. At length Pope Adrian I. sent to Charlemagne, 
 the son and successor of Pepin, to come to his assistance 
 against the Lombards, who had invaded his territory. 
 
 * As there have been differences of opinion among the learned what 
 European powers constitute the ten kingdoms, we have adopted the classi- 
 fication of Irving. 
 
112 OVERTHROW OF ROMANISM 
 
 He accordingly came, and having subdued the Lom- 
 bards, put an end to their kingdom, and gave part of 
 their dominions to the Pope and his successors ; and the 
 tables containing this grant were laid on the altar of St. 
 'Peter. This took place A. D. 774. This was the sec- 
 ond kingdom plucked up by the roots by the little horn. 
 The State of Eome itself, however, was still governed 
 by a senate and the people, who elected the western 
 emperors, and even the Pope himself. To obtain this 
 State was now the ambition of the Pope. Accordingly, 
 after many intrigues and wars, which our time will not 
 permit us to mention, Charlemagne gave the Pope the 
 Duchy of Rome, subject, however, to himself as emp- 
 eror of the West, while his successor, the first Louis 
 of France, confirmed to the succeeding Pope, Pascal, all 
 the former donations of his father, Charlemagne, and 
 grandfather, Pepin. In this grant of Louis are men- 
 tioned the Duchy of Rome, the Exarchate of Ravenna, 
 and the Kingdom of Lombardy, all which were granted 
 " as the patrimony of St. Peter to the Pope and his suc- 
 cestors to the end of the world, to hold them in their 
 own right, principality and dominion." This took place 
 about A. D. 800.* Thus did the little horn, or the 
 Papacy, pluck up the three horns, and on this account, 
 and to this day, the Pope, the King of Rome and the 
 Sovereign of the States of the Church, wears his triple 
 
 * The spiritual supremacy of the Pope being first confirmed about 
 the year 606, several commentators, reckoning the twelve hundred and 
 sixty years of its 'continuance from this period, have concluded that its 
 termination will occur in the year 1866. "We shall soon know how 
 rate such a conclusion is. 
 
AND MOHAMMEDANISM. 113 
 
 crown on state occasions, as if to preserve the mem- 
 ory of this event, and to hold up before the world, 
 and on his head, the proof that he was the little horn be- 
 fore whom the three were plucked up. Out of the fourth 
 monarchy, therefore, and in the bounds of the western 
 Koman empire, after its division into ten kingdoms, we 
 find the power described to which our text alludes a 
 little horn plucking up three horns.* 
 
 Let us now proceed to identify the other power to 
 which the text alludes. In chapter viii. the prophet had 
 another vision. He saw a ram, which had two horns, 
 both high, but the one higher than the other ; and the 
 ram pushed westward, and northward, and southward, 
 and did according to his will, and became great ; and 
 while he was considering, an he goat came from the 
 west, which had a notable horn between his eyes, and 
 smote the ram and brake his two horns, and cast him 
 down, and stamped on him ; and the he goat waxed 
 very strong, and when he was strong the great horn 
 was broken, and in the place of it came up four nota- 
 ble ones towards the four winds of heaven, i. e., the four 
 quarters of the globe, and out of one of these four, came 
 forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great toward 
 the south, toward the east, and toward the pleasant land, 
 i. e., Jerusalem, and it cast down the truth to the 
 ground, and practiced and prospered. 
 
 * The historian Gibbon, in chapter xlv., or volume iii., p. 202, of the fifth 
 American, from the last English edition, describes the boundaries of these 
 three powers as they existed just before their overthrow and subjection to 
 Papal authority, to which authority we refer the reader who desires further 
 information ou this subject : vide, also, chapter xlix., or volume viL, p. 338. 
 
114 OVERTHROW OF ROMANISM 
 
 Now that Daniel might be at no loss what this meant, 
 the angel Gabriel explained it to him, verse 20. The 
 ram which thou sawest having two horns, are the kings 
 of Media and Persia, and the rough goat is the king of 
 Grecia, and the great horn between his eyes, is the first 
 king, i. e.j Alexander the Great. Now, that being brok- 
 en, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand 
 up out of the nation, but not in his power. It is well 
 known to all the readers of history, that Alexander the 
 Great, who died without issue, at his death left his em- 
 pire to be divided among four of his generals. Lysima- 
 chus took the northern regions, Ptolemy, the southern 
 countries, Seleucus, the eastern provinces, and Cassan- 
 der, the western parts. Thus four stood up toward the 
 four winds of heaven, but not in his power. Now out of 
 one of these four there should arise a little horn which 
 should wax exceeding great toward the south, toward the 
 east, and toward the pleasant land, i. e., Jerusalem. This, 
 Gabriel says, shall be in the latter time of their kingdom, 
 when the transgressors are come to the full. This per- 
 son is described, verse 28 ? as being a king of a fierce 
 countenance, and understanding dark sentences, and his 
 power shall be mighty, but not by his own power, i. e., 
 personal valor, of which we shall speak more hereafter. 
 Now the historian Rollin informs us that the empire of 
 Alexander was distributed into four kingdoms, of which 
 Ptolemy had Egypt, Libya, Arabia, Coelo-Syria, and Pal- 
 estine. This little horn, therefore, which was to arise 
 out of one of the four divisions of Alexander's empire, 
 and wax great toward the south, toward the east, and 
 toward the pleasant land, or Jerusalem, would naturally 
 
AND MOHAMMEDANISM. 115 
 
 be looked for to spring up out of that part which fell 
 to Ptolemy, inasmuch MS that embraced t ! >e south and 
 pleasant land, and bordered on the east. 
 
 Some commentators have supposed that An'iochus 
 Epiphanes was the little horn here spoken of. There are 
 very many reasons which might be given why this is not 
 so, only two of which we shall assign. 
 
 1. This little horn was to arise in the latter time 
 of the kingdom, (an expression denoting the Gen- 
 tile dispensation,) out of which he was to spring, but 
 Antiochus Epiphanes reigned over Syria only about 
 one hundred and sixty years after the death of Alex- 
 ander the Great, and one hundred and forty years be- 
 fore the birth of Christ ; and, 
 
 2. The power of this little horn was to continue until 
 the last days, for it was to stand up against the Prince 
 of princes, and to be broken without hand, whereas the 
 power of Antiochus Epiphanes was broken two thousand 
 years ago. There are several other weighty objections 
 against such an application of this Prophecy, which time 
 fails us to mention. 
 
 This little horn must therefore be looked for some- 
 time during the times of the Gentiles or Gentile dispensa- 
 tion, and it is only fur us now to identify him. One of 
 the most remarkable revolutions in the history of this 
 dispensation, since the birth of Christ, and one which 
 laid the foundation for the most wide-spread and endur- 
 ing empire that has existed since the downfall of the 
 Roman, is that which was commenced in Arabia, in the 
 seventh century, by the pretended Apostle of Mecca, but 
 real impostor, Mohammed. His history and career will 
 
 lTIVBRSITT 
 
116 OVERTHROW OF v ROMANISM 
 
 be found to realize the description of the little horn in 
 Daniel, viii. 9, as the Papacy does that in Daniel, vii. 8. 
 Before we proceed to draw out the parallel between these 
 two horns, let us consider briefly the state of society 
 which existed at the time of their appearance, and this 
 will throw some light upon the causes which facilitated 
 their growth as well as the purposes of Divine Provi- 
 dence in permitting them to arise. 
 
 The Christian Church became at an early period di- 
 vided into two parts, the eastern and western, following 
 the civil divisions of the Koman empire Constantinople 
 the capital of the east, and Kome of the west. They 
 were also called the Greek and Latin Churches, accord- 
 ing to the language which each used in divine worship. 
 
 The declension of both these branches of the Christian 
 Church from primitive purity of doctrine and life was grad- 
 ual, yet woful, down to the period when these two horns 
 sprang up. The Greeks, being inclined to philosophical 
 speculations, corrupted the Christian faith by number- 
 less heresies, so that divisions multiplied, and sects strove 
 against each other, until at length all charity, and hu- 
 mility, and piety sank so low that Christ's gospel became 
 a savor of death instead of life. The Arians, and Sa- 
 bellians, and Nestorians, and Apollonarians, and Collo- 
 rydians, and a multitude of others, so confounded the 
 great doctrines of Christianity with the metaphysical 
 subtleties and jargon of the schools, that they lost their 
 power as a rule of life and a way of salvation. The 
 Latin mind was of a different construction from the 
 Greek mind. It inclined more to superstition than to 
 speculation, and accordingly the corruptions of Christ;- 
 
AND MOHAMMEDANISM. 117 
 
 anity in the western Church took that direction instead 
 of the other. Hence invocation of saints, veneration of 
 relics, image worship, and Mariolatry, or the intercession 
 of the Virgin, were the forms of corruption which arose 
 and were rife in western Christendom. It is impossible 
 to make more than a mere reference to these things ; 
 time will not permit us to go into detail. 
 
 Now, to punish the Church for her unfaithfulness and 
 ahuse of His gospel, God permitted two adversaries to 
 arise who should scourge her with the very means by 
 which she had offended Him, and in addition to corrupt- 
 ing her still further with false doctrine and superstition, 
 should, under the name and pretext of religion, establish 
 over her a system of civil and religious despotism, under 
 which she should groan for centuries and ages. Hence 
 the Greek Church, which delighted in speculative philos- 
 ophy, which overran her with various heresies, has been 
 "brought into subjection to a heresy of a new kind, which 
 the little horn out of the Macedonian empire imposed 
 on her at the point of the sword. The Latin Church, 
 which inclined to excessive veneration for relics and 
 saint worship, has been brought into subjection to a 
 system of superstitious rites and ceremonies, with all its 
 debasing tendencies, which the little horn out of the 
 broken Koman empire has also imposed on her for cen- 
 turies ; and these two horns, side by side, have ruled 
 Christendom for ages, and still excise dominion over 
 a large portion of it. Mohammedanism extends over 
 Turkey in Europe and Asia, Little Tartary, Persia, the 
 Mogul empire, Arabia, Egypt, all the southern coast of 
 Africa, Nubia, Zanguehar, part of Nigritia and Sahara, 
 
118 OVERTHROW OF ROMANISM 
 
 and all the Barbary States, comprising an aggregate 
 of a hundred and fifty millions of human beings. Ro- 
 manism prevails over all the Italian States, France, 
 Spain, Portugal, the Austrian empire, many of the Ger- 
 man States, part of Prussia, Ireland, Hungary, Poland, 
 Mexico, Central and South America, comprising an ag- 
 gregate of a hundred and sixty millions of human beings. 
 These vast masses of the human race are still in subjec- 
 tion to those systems of oppression, and moral and spirit- 
 ual darkness, which were first imposed upon them so 
 many centuries ago, and have had a cotemporaneous 
 existence for more than twelve hundred years ; and they 
 are the two branches of that great mystery of iniquity 
 which was to carry on an unceasing conflict against 
 the mystery of godliness until the close of this dispen- 
 sation. 
 
 Let us now draw a parallel between these two horns, 
 and point out the remarkable analogy which exists be- 
 tween them in the whole of their wonderful careers; and 
 as we do this the character of each branch of this mys- 
 tery of iniquity will be more fully developed. 
 
 1. The first point of analogy between them is. their 
 cotemporaneous birth. The seventh century stands as 
 the common era for the commencement of the Papal 
 and Mohammedan tyrannies. 
 
 Though Mohammed was born towards the close of 
 the sixth century, A. D. 571, yet it was not until the 
 beginning of the following century that he began to 
 promulgate his tenets, and assert his claims to be an 
 apostle of God ; and so, although in 533 Justinian ac- 
 knowledged the supremacy of the Roman bishop, yet 
 
AND MOHAMMEDANISM. 119 
 
 it was not until 606 that this power, which was re- 
 jected by many for a long time, was confirmed by 
 the emperor Phocas, and established by decree over 
 the western Church. This is about the same period 
 that Mohammed retired to the cave of Hera to fabri- 
 cate his imposture and compose the Koran, which he 
 pretended to have received from God, and to assert his 
 claim to be obeyed by all men as the apostle of God. 
 Thus the two little horns, Eomanism and Mohammed- 
 anism, sprang up about the same time. 
 
 2. Popery, which commenced first as a spiritual author- 
 ity, soon aimed at temporal sovereignty, and finally be- 
 came the most powerful despotism in Europe. So Mo- 
 hammedanism, which first commenced as a mere religious 
 reformation to abolish idolatry, arose gradually to a mili- 
 tary power of the fiercest class, and ruled Asia, and parts 
 of Europe and Africa for centuries with unmitigated tyr- 
 anny. This double character of both systems is undoubt- 
 edly alluded to by the prophet in our text, when he says 
 of the first horn, " It had eyes like a man, and a mouth 
 speaking great things," i. e., spiritual authority, yet not 
 the humility which belongs to it, but ambitious preten- 
 sions ; and of the second horn, " Shall understand dark 
 sentences and magnify himself in his heart/' 
 
 The Koran, so celebrated in the Mohammedan religion 
 as the book containing their spiritual mysteries, exactly 
 answers this description, and it is not a little remarkable 
 that the author of the Koran should have been uncon- 
 sciously led to appropriate the language of this prediction 
 to himself, in such expressions as these in the Koran, 
 " Lord, thou hast given me a part of the kingdom, and 
 
120 OVERTHROW OF ROMANISM 
 
 hast taught me the interpretation of dark sayings. This 
 is a secret which we reveal unto thee, Mohammed/' 
 His pretense to the knowledge of hidden mysteries was 
 about as well founded as that of the bishop of Eome to 
 universal supremacy. 
 
 3. These two powers are both called little horns, rising 
 from among great horns. The Papacy rises among the 
 ten horns, which were the ten kingdoms of western Kome, 
 and Mohammedanism from or out of four notable horns or 
 kingdoms, in which the Greek or Macedonian empire was 
 divided. The four generals of Alexander were men of 
 distinction before they divided his vast empire between 
 themselves, and the ten kings were probably of noble 
 birth before they wore the crown, but Mohammed was 
 an obscure individual, and the bishops of Kome private 
 citizens before their elevation to power. There was noth- 
 ing in the circumstances of either to warrant the celebrity 
 or exalted position they finally attained. Hence, both 
 are called little horns. 
 
 4. They both reached their elevated position by vio- 
 lence and fraud. The little horn of the Papacy by pluck- 
 ing up three horns, or, as the angel explains it, subduing 
 three kings. The Mohammedan horn by causing craft 
 to prosper in his hand, and by " destroying wonderfully," 
 as the prophet declares. The military exploits of Popery 
 and Mohammedanism form one of the darkest pages in 
 the history of the world. 
 
 5. They both made the rod of their oppression to fall 
 heavily on the Jewish people. The Prophet Daniel says 
 of the first little horn, vii. 25, "he shall wear out the 
 saints of the Most High," L e., the ancient covenant peo- 
 
AND MOHAMMEDANISM. 121 
 
 pie, which has been fully verified in the cruel oppressions 
 which the children of Israel have received in almost all 
 Papal lands ; and of the second little horn, viii. 24, " he 
 shall destroy the mighty and the holy people," which, has 
 been equally fulfilled in the contempt and persecution 
 which Mohammedans have always shown to the seed of 
 Jacob. 
 
 6. The Koman pontiffs claimed to derive their au- 
 thority by regular succession from St. Peter, the first of 
 the Apostles. The caliphs, who are invested with su- 
 preme religious and civil power in the Mohammedan re- 
 ligion, claim to derive authority, by regular succession, 
 from Mohammed, who is, according to their creed, the 
 last and greatest of the Apostles. 
 
 7. The Papal and Mohammedan tyrannies alike ad- 
 vanced the claim to universal sovereignty, and they alike 
 enforced their pretensions by persecution and the sword. 
 In the language of the prophet, vii. 20, " the mouth of 
 the one spake great things," and the other, viii. 25, 
 "magnified himself in his heart." We have all read the 
 Papal bulls, and the blasphemous titles in which they 
 are put forth : PRINCE OF THE KINGS OF THE EARTH, 
 VICEGERENT OF GOD, VICAR OF CHRIST, and the uni- 
 versal homage which the pontiffs have claimed from all 
 nations. The caliphs issued their mandates in no less 
 pompous terms : SERVANT OF THE SERVANT OF GOD, 
 LAST AND GREATEST OF PROPHETS, the PARACLETE, or 
 Illustrious. If any disputed these honors or denied the 
 titles, persecution and death were deemed their just 
 punishment, as the history of both of the little horns will 
 abundantly show. 
 
122 OVERTHROW OF ROMANISM 
 
 8. Popery had her holy cities, and encouraged pilgrim- 
 ages to them from all parts of the earth. Home and 
 Jerusalem were the sacred spots to which her votaries 
 were attracted by promises and hopes of spiritual ad- 
 vantage. A pilgrimage to either of these was accounted 
 an act of great merit, entitling them to high favor in the 
 sight of God. Mohammed made Mecca and Medina the 
 places of religious resort, and awarded great honors to 
 those who visited them. 
 
 9. Popery encouraged holy wars for the propagation 
 of the faith and suppression of heresy. The crusades 
 which aroused all Europe for nearly two centuries, is 
 evidence of her pious use of the sword for the propa- 
 gation of her faith and the extension of her power. Mo- 
 hammedanism accepted the challenge, met her in the 
 Holy Land, and there each slaughtered the other for the 
 glory of God, until the sword was drunk with blood, and 
 Jerusalem had been taken and retaken several times. 
 A favorite motto of Mohammedan princes was, and still 
 is, that the " sword is the key of Paradise." 
 
 10. Popery has instituted mendicant orders and mo- 
 nastic fraternities, so that her Church has swarmed with 
 cowled monks and begging friars, who in many coun- 
 tries have passed over the land like locusts, devouring 
 every green thing. Mohammedanism has also its orders 
 of dervishes, fakirs, santons, etc., who fill the same 
 place in her system that monks and friars do in the Pa- 
 pal. 
 
 11. The Christian princes of Papal Home eventually 
 all acknowledged the supremacy of the Pope, and held 
 their crowns by his grant, doing fealty and homage for 
 
AND MOHAMMEDANISM. 123 
 
 them, as the history of Europe during the middle ages 
 will show; so also the Mohammedan princes held theirs 
 by a like tenure, viz., the authority of the caliphs. 
 
 12. Mohammedanism rose from the smallest begin- 
 ning, and spread with the greatest rapidity until it em- 
 braced nearly the third part of the civilized world. At 
 first its progress was exceeding slow. For when Moham- 
 med was forty-four years of age he had succeeded, as the 
 fruit of several years of labor, in winning over only nine 
 individuals to his faith. From this small beginning, in the 
 short space of eighty years he laid the foundation of an 
 empire which extended itself over more "kingdoms and 
 countries than Kome had mastered in eight hundred 
 years. So when the bishops of Rome first began to 
 claim supremacy over the whole Church, few it' any yield- 
 ed to their claim. But perseverance finally overcame all 
 obstacles, and eventually their dominion was more abso- 
 lute than any of the Roman emperors had been in the 
 palmiest days of their power. The decrees of the Vat- 
 ican at last went forth with the same authority that the 
 edicts of the Cassars formerly had done. 
 
 And so these two little horns grew up gradually side 
 by side, as the scourges of an apostate Church, and 
 " practiced and prospered wonderfully " for many centu- 
 ries, bringing nations prostrate at their feet, and each in 
 the much-abused name of the Lord of Hosts, and by the 
 pretended authority of His word, oppressing the weak, 
 overthrowing the strong, coercing the unwilling, and for- 
 cing submission on pain of death to the errors they 
 propagated and the abominations they set up, even to 
 this day and although they have reached the culminat- 
 

 124 OVERTHROW OF ROMANISM 
 
 ing point of their career, and are now evidently on the 
 wane, (if not near their end,) yet they still exist, and are 
 animated with a good degree of their ancient spirit, 
 modified by circumstances, but not changed in heart. 
 
 We might greatly extend or more minutely draw out the 
 parallel between these two horns, (branches of the mys- 
 tery of iniquity,) did time permit ; but we must hasten 
 on to show what is the doom of these two powers, and 
 what in their history yet remains to be accomplished. 
 
 From the remarkable fact that these two enemies of' 
 Christ and of His gospel, sprang up together, and have 
 maintained a cotemporaneous existence as rivals and 
 enemies to true religion, and to each other, for so many 
 centuries, it has been supposed that their decline and 
 fall will also be simultaneous ; and in this opinion (which 
 many have derived merely from the analogies of the case) 
 we are confirmed by the express declaration of the proph- 
 et. Concerning the fate of the first little horn, the 
 prophet says, vii. 11, "I beheld then, because of the voice 
 of the great words which the horn spake. I beheld even 
 till the Beast was slain and his body destroyed and given 
 to the burning flame;" and the angel explains it farther, 
 thus, verse 26: " The judgment shall sit, and they shall 
 take away his dominion to consume and destroy it to the 
 end/' This is the doom of the Papal apostacy. Con- 
 cerning the second little horn, the prophet says, viii. 25, 
 " He shall also stand up against the Prince of princes, 
 but he shall be broken without hand ;" this is the doom 
 of the Mohammedan delusion. Is it not evident from 
 these expressions that both shall continue in existence 
 until the second advent? Then shall the PRINCE OF 
 
AND MOHAMMEDANISM. 125 
 
 PRINCES, called in Revelations, PRINCE OF THE KINGS 
 or THE EAKTH, and KING OF KINGS, and LORD OF LORDS, 
 appear to take possession of the earth, and to overthrow 
 all powers, and thrones and dominions which are then 
 found hostile to his. The modern dream of evangelical- 
 ism, which fancies that Popery and Mohammedanism 
 will gradually give way before the diffusion of Bibles and 
 tracts, and missionary efforts, is a theory which has 
 no foundation in Scripture. These ancient enemies of 
 Christ, who for so many centuries have corrupted and 
 perverted His gospel, and made void His word by add- 
 ing to and taking from it, by corruptions and counter- 
 feits, shall not be let off for their long-continued opposi- 
 tion to truth and godliness at this easy rate, but shall 
 be made most terrible examples of God's righteous indig- 
 nation against the abuse of His mercy. 
 
 The utter hostility of these two systems to the gospel 
 of Christ must be manifest to the most careless observer. 
 We will not descend to minor points, such as the warlike 
 and persecuting spirit which each has engendered, the 
 low and groveling superstitions both have invented and 
 circulated, the licentiousness, polygamy, and concubinage 
 they have favored, together with numberless other abom- 
 inations ; we will only call your attention to the two 
 great cardinal principles of the gospel system which each 
 of these have rendered null and voict These are the Di- 
 vinity and the Atonement of Christ. 
 
 The great distingushing feature of the gospel, and 
 that which makes it differ from every other system 
 which has ever been devised by man, is this : that the 
 Son of God, the second person of the adorable Trinity, be- 
 
126 OVERTHROW OF ROMANISM 
 
 came incarnate for man, that He might offer up a .sac- 
 rifice for sin which would be sufficient to satisfy divine 
 justice, and procure pardon and acceptance for all who 
 would believe in His name. This is the essence of the 
 whole gospel system Christ and Him crucified, the 
 power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. 
 
 Now how do these two systems stand affected toward 
 these doctrines, these foundation stones of the Christian 
 faith ? Their positions toward Christianity are of utter 
 hostility, for, first, Mohammedanism utterly sweeps away 
 the divinity of our Lord, and reduces him to the rank of 
 a mere Prophet, inferior to the apostle of Mecca ; and 
 with the denial of this glorious truth, goes also the doc- 
 trine of His atonement, which has no place in the system 
 of that impostor. The pilgrimages, and fastings, and 
 prayers, which the Koran imposes, these are the founda- 
 tions on which they build their hopes of acceptance with 
 God. Is not this an utter opposition to the gospel system ? 
 
 Next look at the Papal system. That does not indeed 
 deny the divinity of Christ, nor His atonement, but pro- 
 fesses to believe both, and yet practically and virtually 
 supersedes both ; for if Christ be God and man, and, as 
 the apostle declares, the u one mediator between God and 
 man," what need of so many other mediators to intercede 
 for spiritural blessings for us ? In the Papal system, the 
 invocation of the Virgin and the saints is made one of 
 the most important duties of that religion. Their in- 
 terposition in our behalf is represented as necessary to 
 salvation. Thus the work of our great High Priest, who 
 ever liveth to make intercession for us, and who, the 
 apostle says, (if any man sin,) "is our advocate with the 
 
AND MOHAMMEDANISM. 127 
 
 Father, and the propitiation for our sins" His work is 
 taken out of His hands and given to creatures, dead and 
 in their graves, but whom that delusion has resuscitated 
 to take away His honor and glory ; and His atonement is 
 equally nullified by their doctrine of good works which 
 they declare to be " meritorious and effectual for the 
 remission of sin." Christianity, or the gospel system, 
 teaches us that the blood of Christ alone cleanesth from 
 all sin ; that there is virtue and merit in nothing else to 
 purify the soul from that polluting stain. It teaches that 
 the divinity of Christ gave His atonement such infinite 
 value that nothing need be and nothing can be added to 
 it. Every other device, therefore, to obtain remission of 
 sin, whether penance, or the invocation of the Virgin and 
 the saints to secure their prayers fdr us, is at war with 
 the sufficiency of that atonement which Christ offered, 
 inasmuch as it implies a want of virtue in it which must 
 be supplied from some other source ; and this as effectu- 
 ally nullifies that great doctrine of the Christian system 
 as- Mohammedanism does which formally denies it. Be- 
 sides this antagonism of doctrine, which Popery and Mo- 
 hammedanism have held against the teaching of the New 
 Testament, both have claimed that temporal dominion 
 over the nations of the earth which belongs alone to 
 Christ. They have sought to make vassals of those 
 whom they should have taught to call Christ King and 
 Lord, instead of themselves ; and this is still their spirit 
 and constant aim, and will be to the end. Are not their 
 systems, therefore, utterly irreconcilable with that of the 
 gospel, and with the honor, and glory, and sovereignty 
 of Christ ? What, therefore, can we expect their fate to 
 
128 OVERTHROW OF ROMANISM 
 
 be at His coming but that of utter overthrow ? Could 
 Christ's kingdom be established over the whole earth, 
 and His truth everywhere prevail, while two systems so 
 diametrically at war with both, were suffered to con- 
 tinue ? Impossible. Wherefore the prophet says of 
 one, " The judgment shall sit, and they shall take away 
 his dominion, to consume and destroy it to the end," 
 and of the other, " It shall be broken without hand," 
 expressions both denoting overthrow by divine power. 
 
 In these days of indifference to religious truth, a spu- 
 rious liberality has sprung up, which seeks to put on 
 a par all opinions about religion, however contrary to 
 each other, and to reduce all practices to one common 
 level, m'aking sincerity the only test of goodness and 
 ground of acceptance. According to this plan, there is 
 no such thing as error, or heresy, or superstition, or cor- 
 ruption. Truth and piety are just what each person fan- 
 cies for himself he ought to believe and practice ; and 
 we must respect every one's opinion and way, however 
 absurd, in order to have our own respected. This com- 
 promise, many think, ought to bind God as well as our- 
 selves, and that accordingly, in the end, He will make no 
 difference about what one has believed and practiced in 
 this life, if he was only sincere. According to this theory, 
 these two little horns have nothing to fear. Mohamme- 
 danism, which has struck at the head of Christianity, by 
 denying the divinity of Christ, and of Romanism which 
 has sapped the foundation, by denying the sufficiency of 
 His atonement, and teaching the merit of works as neces- 
 sary to justification, have as fair a chance of acceptance 
 at last, as those martyrs and confessors, with their fol- 
 
AND MOHAMMEDANISM. 129 
 
 lowers, who have lifted up their voices against these her- 
 esies, and have "contended earnestly for the faith de- 
 livered to the saints." But whatever men may think, 
 and plan, and devise, God will do His own will at last, 
 and if He overthrew Babylon for her idolatry, and Nin- 
 eveh for her cruelty, and Tyre for her pride, and Jeru- 
 salem for her rejection of Christ, (all which He had 
 previously declared He would do,) will He shrink from 
 executing His judgments upon these modern foes, who. 
 have perverted His truth and corrupted His worship, 
 any more than He did upon His ancient foes ? Let 
 Him speak for Himself, and let all the earth fear and 
 tremble. St. John invites us to behold the judgment 
 of God upon the great harlot which made all' nations 
 drunk with the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and 
 sa)'S, Revelations, xviii. 8, " Her plagues shall come on 
 her in one day, death and mourning, and famine ; and 
 she shall be utterly burned with fire : for strong is the 
 Lord God, who judgeth her." And to show her utter 
 overthrow and ruin, he says, verse 21, "A mighty angel 
 took up a stone, like a great millstone, and cast it into 
 the sea, saying, thus, with violence, shall that great city 
 which reigneth over the kings of the earth, be thrown 
 down, and be no more found, for by her sorceries all 
 nations were deceived." 
 
 It will only be in keeping with the past dispensations 
 of God's avenging wrath that a city like Rome, which 
 has been the center and source of such corrupting influ- , 
 ences for ages, should like Sodom be sunk into the earth, 
 to rise no more. And the Apostle Jude expressly informs 
 us that the destruction of Sodom was intended to be an 
 
130 OVERTHROW OF ROMANISM 
 
 example of the fate of all who followed in her foot- 
 steps. 
 
 And Mecca and Damascus, which have each heen capi- 
 tals of the Mohammedan apostacy, have also their pro- 
 phetic dooms to bear, when God shall arise to shake terri- 
 bly the earth. Hear the word of the Lord by the Prophet 
 Isaiah, xvii. 1 : u The burden of Damascus. Behold, 
 Damascus is taken away from being a city; it shall be a 
 ruinous heap." Again, xxi. 13, 16 : " The burden upon 
 Arabia. All the glory of Kedar shall fail/' The capital 
 of Mohammedanism (Mecca) lies in this land. But the 
 simultaneous overthrow of these two horns shall take 
 place when the three unclean spirits, out of the mouth of 
 the dragon, of the Beast, and of the false Prophet, shall 
 go forth to gather together the kings of the earth and of 
 the whole world, to the battle of the great day of GOD 
 ALMIGHTY ! Then the indignities which these two organ- 
 ized systems of hostility to the honor and glory of Christ 
 have exhibited in their long career of superstition, false 
 teaching, and oppression, shall come up in remembrance 
 before God and be avenged. In their destruction, He 
 shall show their falsity and their odiousness in His sight, 
 and then shall those beautiful words of the poet be 
 fulfilled : 
 
 " Truth crushed to earth shall rise again, 
 
 The eternal years of God are hers ; 
 But error wounded, writhes in pain, 
 And dies among her worshipers." 
 
 So far from the true servants of God having any sym- 
 pathy for these systems in their overthrow, they are called 
 upon to triumph in their downfall, Revelations, xviii. 20: 
 
AND MOHAMMEDANISM. 131 
 
 " Eejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and 
 prophets, for God hath avenged you of her." 
 
 In the eighth century, fears were entertained that one 
 of the little horns would destroy the other. Moham- 
 medanism threatened the extinction of Komanism, as 
 well as the whole of nominal Christianity. Having 
 brought into subjection the Greek Church, it invaded the 
 Koman apostacy. Having conquered Spain, it sought 
 to extend its power over the whole of western Europe, 
 for which purpose it invaded France, and would soon 
 have thundered at the gates of Home, had not the cele- 
 brated Charles Martel aroused the spirit of the nation, 
 and defeated with immense slaughter the Saracenic host, 
 and compelled them to retire into Spain. This cele- 
 brated battle was fought at Tours, A. D. 732, and (which 
 at that time was considered the salvation of Europe,) 
 delivered the one horn out of the hands of the other, and 
 both still continued to be the scourges of God upon an 
 apostate Church. 
 
 In the eleventh century, it was supposed by many that 
 one little horn would again destroy the other. Pope 
 Gregory VII. formed the design of uniting all the princes 
 of Christendom against Mohammedanism, which was 
 carried out in the reign of his successor, when those im- 
 mense armaments called the crusades left the plains of 
 Europe, to attack the invading hosts of the false Prophet 
 in the Holy Land, and to recover the holy sepulchre from 
 their possession. Success at first smiled upon their efforts, 
 Jerusalem was taken, and a Christian kingdom formed 
 there under Godfrey, first king. This kingdom continued 
 one hundred and eleven years, and had a succession of 
 
132 OVERTHROW OF ROMANISM 
 
 thirteen kings. The conflict between the two little horns 
 (now grown GREAT,) raged for nearly two centuries, dur- 
 ing which time no less than eight different expeditions 
 or crusades were undertaken, the last of which ended in 
 the entire withdrawal of the Christian forces from the 
 East, and the utter abandonment of the enterprise. 
 Mohammedanism recovered all its lost ground, and Ro- 
 manism submitted to defeat. The two little horns still 
 continued to exist, rivals to each other, and oppressors 
 of the Church of God. 
 
 In the fourteenth century another storm gathered 
 which threatened the extinction of one of the little 
 horns. The warlike Turks, who had succeeded the Sar- 
 acens, began to push their conquests westward until they 
 finally captured Constantinople, and again threatened 
 to overrun the whole of western Europe. So great was 
 the terror inspired by their victorious arms that public 
 prayers were offered up in all the churches for deliver- 
 ance from the impending danger. The battle-ground 
 on this occasion was principally in Hungary, where, 
 during a period of more than two centuries, twenty-one 
 great battles were fought, of which number the Turks 
 won twelve, the Hungarians eight, and one doubtful 
 victory, being claimed on both sides. That noble peo- 
 ple who so long breasted the storm which threatened to 
 burst over Europe, and to whom the western powers 
 owe a debt of gratitude, seemed then to be the provi- 
 dential agents to prevent the one little horn from de- 
 stroying the other. The contest, however, ended, as all 
 the former had done, by each retiring within their own 
 dominions, and continuing to uphold those systems of 
 
AND MOHAMMEDANISM. 133 
 
 oppression and imposture which are opposed to the gos- 
 pel of Christ. And this will be the issue of all future 
 conflicts between them : neither will destroy the other, 
 but both will be destroyed together at the second coin- 
 ing of Christ. 
 
 We live in an age when a wonderful spectacle has 
 presented itself to view. The Crescent and the Cross 
 are united under the same banner. Romanism, Prot- 
 estantism, and Mohammedanism have become allies. 
 The two little horns, so long at enmity, seem to have 
 grasped the hand of friendship and made common 
 cause against a new enemy.* What God intends to 
 bring out of this singular combination of hitherto op- 
 posing forces time alone can disclose. Of one thing, 
 however, we feel assured. This alliance can not long 
 continue ; neither will the overthrow of Mohammed- 
 anism be prevented by it any more than that of Ro- 
 manism. Both will continue to the time of the end. 
 As they were cotemporaries in birth, so they will be co- 
 temporaries in death ; as they have been equals in blas- 
 phemy and in the propagation of heresy and supersti- 
 tion, so will they be equal in those righteous retributions 
 which await the ungodly ; as they have been enemies in 
 many a hard-fought battle, and never could destroy each 
 other, so will they at last be destroyed by an enemy in 
 battle from whom there will be no escape. When He 
 who is now the Prince of Peace shall come forth in His 
 character as a " MAN OF WAR, in righteousness to judge 
 
 * This discourse was written and first delivered during the winter of 
 1856, while the Crimean war was raging, and France and England were 
 united to sustain Turkey against Russia. 
 
134 
 
 and make war," then, as the prophet declares, Isaiah, 
 xi. 4, " shall He smite the earth with the rod of His 
 mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the 
 wicked." This conflict shall be different from any other ; 
 for as the same prophet says, ix. 5, " Every battle of 
 the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled 
 in blood ; but this shall be with burning and fuel of 
 fire." And when it takes place the two little horns 
 shall vanish away, the ten horns of the fourth Beast 
 shall disappear, and the four notable horns of the third 
 beast shall be no more seen. All that remains will be 
 the horn of David, which will then bud and blossom, and 
 fill the world with fruit. The mystery of iniquity, in its 
 two leading branches being overthrown, the mystery of 
 godliness will have an unobstructed development, and 
 Christ's reign of truth, and righteousness, and peace will 
 be established over all the earth; while the Church's 
 prayer, so long offered, will be at last answered " Thy 
 kingdom come ; thy will be done on earth as it is in 
 heaven." 
 
LEG TURE VII. 
 
 THE CALAMITIES OF THE LAST DAYS. 
 
 " For thus saith the Lord God of Israel unto me, Take the wine cup of 
 this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations to whom I send thee, to 
 drink it, and they shall drink and be moved, and be mad because of the 
 sword that I will send among them. And it shall be, if they refuse to take 
 the cup at thy hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the 
 Lord of Hosts, ye shall certainly drink, for lo, I begin to bring evil upon 
 the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished ? 
 Ye shall not be unpunished, for I will call for a sword against all the inhab- 
 itants of the earth, saith the Lord of Hosts. Therefore prophesy thou against 
 them all these words, and say unto them, The Lord shall roar from on high, 
 and utter his voice from his holy habitation ; he shall mightily roar upon his 
 habitation ; he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all 
 the inhabitants of the earth. A noise shall come even to the ends of the 
 earth ; for the Lord hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with 
 all flesh ; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the Lord. 
 Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Behold evil shall go forth from nation to nation, 
 and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. And 
 the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even 
 unto the other end of the earth ; they shall not be lamented, neither gath- 
 ered, nor buried; they shall be as dung upon the ground." JEREMIAH, 
 xxv. 15-33. 
 
 THE royal prophet who exclaims in one place, " I will 
 sing of mercy and of judgment; unto thee, Lord, will 
 I sing," in another place says, " Come, behold the works 
 of the Lord, what desolations He hath made in the 
 earth/' The subject which is before us, and now claims 
 our attention, is the calamities and distresses which will 
 
136 THE CALAMITIES OF THE LAST DAYS. 
 
 befall the nations of the earth just before the close of 
 this dispensation. This unpleasant theme we would 
 gladly avoid, could we do so without keeping back part 
 of the whole cgunsel of G-od, or without hiding from you 
 the evil as well as the good which is in the future; but it 
 presses itself upon our attention because it is held up by 
 the prophets as one of those momentous events in which 
 the whole human family have a most painful interest. 
 
 As a part of the duty of an historian is to record the 
 great calamities by fire and sword, and pestilence and 
 earthquake, which have swept away whole cities, and de- 
 populated vast provinces, as well as the political events 
 which have overthrown reigning dynasties and advanced 
 others to power, so do the prophets in describing the 
 course of empire, from its first rise down to its final dis- 
 solution, foretell the fearful events which shall accom- 
 pany the wreck of nations, and the dissolution of empires 
 just before the establishment of the kingdom of the Son 
 of Man. As all the great empires which are spoken of 
 in Prophecy have been built upon the ruins of those 
 which preceded them, and have advanced their way to 
 supremacy over the prostrate necks of subjugated foes, 
 and amidst desolations of countries and the slaughter of 
 their inhabitants, so when the last overturning comes, 
 the time spoken of when the " stone cut out of the moun- 
 tain without hands shall smite the image on the feet, and 
 the iron and the clay, the brass, and the silver, and the 
 gold shall be broken to pieces together, and shall be- 
 come like the dust of the summer threshing floor, and 
 the wind shall carry them away so that no place shall be 
 found for them ;" such scenes of desolation shall be 
 
THE CALAMITIES OF THE LAST DAYS. 137 
 
 spread over the globe as all past disasters are only faint 
 types of. 
 
 In unfolding this subject, therefore, sad and mournful 
 are the tidings we have to hear ; dark and gloomy is 
 the picture which truth compels us to draw of a future 
 scene which earth has yet to realize before that good 
 time coming of which poets and philanthropists delight 
 to speak; "a time of trouble such as never was before, 
 nor ever after shall be," which the prophets foretell with 
 the certainty of a divine foreknowledge. This period, 
 which is alluded to by almost all the sacred writers from 
 Moses to Malachi in the Old Testament, and by our 
 Saviour and the Evangelists and Apostles in the New 
 Testament, is presented by the Prophet Jeremiah in our 
 text under an image of maddening rage and fury which 
 has scarce a parallel anywhere else. 
 
 It has from time immemorial, been the practice when 
 men of violence and blood would excite themselves ta 
 the commission of desperate acts of lawlessness, first to 
 resort to the intoxicating bowl, and there drown reason 
 and inflame passion, until regardless of every considera- 
 tion of justice, or mercy, or humanity, they plunged head- 
 long into their career of ^cruelty, and perpetrated the 
 most horrid barbarities. In allusion to such a practice, 
 the Prophet Jeremiah informs us in the text, that he 
 received the following message : " Thus saith the Lord 
 God of Israel unto me, take the wine cup of this fury at 
 my hand, and cause all the nations to whom I send thee, 
 to drink it, and they shall drink, and be moved, and be 
 mad, because of the sword that I will sand among them." 
 All war and violence proceed from an intoxication of the 
 
138 THE CALAMITIES OF THE LAST DAYS. 
 
 passions. The sober-minded eschew such outbursts of 
 rage. But war is often sent as a scourge by God upon 
 the wicked, a judgment for sin; and not only war, but 
 also pestilence, famine, inundations and insurrections. 
 " Shall there be evil in the city and the Lord hath not 
 done it ?" the Lord asks by the mouth of the Prophet 
 Amos, iii. 6. " Behold I make peace and create evil, saith 
 the Lord," Isaiah, xlv. 7. All the elements are but His 
 messengers, and go and come at His command; therefore 
 He says in the text, " Drink ye and be drunken, and 
 spue and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword 
 which I will send among you." And if they refuse to take 
 the cup at His hand, he should say unto them, " Thus 
 saith the Lord of hosts, ye shall certainly drink, for lo, I 
 begin to bring evil upon the city which is called, by my 
 name," viz., Jerusalem, "and should ye be utterly un- 
 punished? Ye shall not be unpunished, for I will call for 
 a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the 
 Lord of hosts." Has this ever been fulfilled ? We know 
 that Jerusalem has been punished, sorely punished, and 
 is to this day lying under the rod of His displeasure. 
 The holy city is trodden under foot of the Gentiles, 
 and sits desolate and solitary Jike a weeping widow, her 
 children exiled, while the cities of the nations are revel- 
 ing in magnificence and splendor, and their inhabitants 
 are joyous and prosperous. But the tables are to be 
 turned, the afflicted are to be made joyful, and the joy- 
 ous sad. 
 
 The Prophet Isaiah, 15. 17, expresses the truth if pos- 
 sible still clearer than the Prophet Jeremiah. He is di- 
 rected to say, " Awake, awake, stand up, Jerusalem, 
 
THE CALAMITIES OF THE LAST DAYS. 139 
 
 which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of His 
 fury ; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling 
 and wrung them out ; thy sons have fainted, they lie at 
 the head of all the streets as a wild bull in a net ; they 
 are full of the fury of the Lord, the rebuke of thy God ; 
 therefore hear now this, thou afflicted and drunken, but 
 not with wine ; thus saith thy Lord the Lord, and thy 
 God that pleadeth the cause of His people : Behold, I 
 have taken out of thy hand the cup of trembling, even 
 the dregs of the cup of my fury ; thou shalt no more drink 
 it again, but I will put it into the hands of them that 
 afflict thee, which have said to thy soul, bow down that 
 we may go over, and thou hast laid thy body as the 
 ground and as the street to them that went over" 
 Wherejfore the Prophet Jeremiah says in the text, " Ye 
 shall certainly drink, for lo I begin to bring evil upon 
 the city which is called by my name, and should ye be 
 utterly unpunished ? Ye shall not be unpunished, for 
 I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the 
 earth." The fact of Jerusalem's overthrow is therefore 
 the proof and standing witness of the like judgment 
 which hangs over all the other cities and nations of the 
 world. Obadiah, 10-16. And by what means shall this 
 be brought about ? The prophet informs us in the next 
 verse, 30 : " Therefore prophesy thou against them all 
 these words and say unto them, the Lord shall roar from 
 on high and utter His voice from His holy habitation ; He 
 shall give a shout as they that tread the grapes, against 
 all the inhabitants of the earth." A noise, (earthquake ?) 
 shall come even to the ends of the earth : evil shall go 
 forth from nation to nation, which may refer either to 
 
140 THE CALAMITIES OF THE LAST DATS. 
 
 discord or pestilence, moral or physical evil ; and a great 
 whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth 
 a hurricane, which, like a blast from the breath of His nos- 
 trils, shall sweep every thing before it ; and the slain of 
 the Lord shall be from one end of the earth to the other ; 
 they shall not be lamented, nor buried, nor gathered, 
 but be as dung on the ground. 
 
 This dreadful Prophecy, which is yet before us as an 
 unfulfilled one, we shall now attempt to open up to you ; 
 and although in so doing we shall conduct you into a 
 chamber of horrors, and present you with sights to sicken 
 the heart, yet as the original of the picture is drawn by 
 the pen of inspiration, and was intended for us to look at, 
 we should not hesitate to do so, however soul-harrowing 
 the view. 
 
 The calamities and distresses which shall befall the na- 
 tions of the earth just before the close of this present 
 dispensation, will (for the sake of presenting the picture 
 more clearly before your view,) be divided into the fol- 
 lowing classes : 
 
 1. Social disorders. 2. Keligious feuds. 3. Political 
 disturbances. 4. Temporal and physical calamities. 
 
 1. Social disorders. Holy Scripture teaches us that at 
 the close of this dispensation there shall be a total dis- 
 solution of the social compact, and an entire rending 
 asunder of all those moral ties which hold society to- 
 gether, and bind men by a common interest to respect 
 each one his neighbor's rights. Undoubtedly the gen- 
 eral corruption of society begins always first in the social 
 circle. Insubordination and self-will tolerated in the 
 child prepares the way for a disregard of law and order 
 
THE CALAMITIES OF THE LAST DAYS. 141 
 
 in the man. Bad tempers and a spirit of contradiction 
 in youth, unchecked, produce misanthropy and quarrel- 
 someness in riper years. The seeds of social disorder are 
 almost always incubated around the domestic hearth. 
 
 Now the Apostle Paul, who bore so large a part in the 
 work of inaugurating the gospel dispensation, (which 
 many think must do all for the human family that is to 
 be or can be done,) tells us what will be the final state 
 of this dispensation. In the second epistle to Timothy, 
 chapter iii., he says, " This know, also, that in the last 
 days (i. 6., in the end of this dispensation,) perilous 
 times shall come ;" and what are these perilous times ? 
 Wars ? pestilences ? famines ? earthquakes ? No. He 
 mentions a different class of evils. " Men shall be lovers 
 of their own selves ; covetous, boasters, proud, blas- 
 phemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 
 without natural affection, truce breakers, false accus- 
 ers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 
 traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more 
 than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but de- 
 nying the power thereof." Here is a group of moral, or 
 rather immoral, attributes, embracing nineteen partic- 
 ulars, and which are all declared to be the common char- 
 acteristics of the age or generation to which they refer, 
 " the last days." What must be the social condition of 
 that period when nineteen virtues have been eradicated 
 from the heart, and as many opposing vices installed in 
 power ! How strong must be the bond of union which 
 keeps a community together, when so many virtues are 
 gone and so many vices reign ! Let us look at the cata- 
 logue, and imagine a state of society where the virtues 
 
142 THE CALAMITIES OF THE LAST DATS. 
 
 prevail and the vices. are kept down. Where men are 
 not lovers of their own selves supremely, but have sym- 
 pathy and fellow-feeling for others ; not covetous, but 
 generous ; not boasters, but modest in their pretensions ;- 
 not proud, but humble ; not blasphemous, but reverent ; 
 not disobedient to parents, but submissive to their will ; 
 not unthankful, but grateful ; not unholy, but of pure 
 life ; not without natural affection, but affectionate ; not 
 truce breakers, but always fulfilling their agreements ; 
 not false accusers, but never bearing false witness ; not 
 incontinent, but faithful to marriage vows ; not fierce, 
 but gentle ; not despisers of those that are good, but 
 respecters of them ; not traitors, but patriots ; not heady 
 or stubborn, but yielding and listeners to reason ; not 
 high-minded, but meek and lowly ; not lovers of pleas- 
 ure more than of God, but lovers of God more than lovers 
 of pleasure ; not having the form of godliness without 
 the power, but the power as well as the form. Now, we 
 can easily imagine that a state of society in which these 
 nineteen virtues generally prevail in a good degree may 
 be firmly knit together, and the social compact be strong. 
 
 But let the virtues be eradicated and the opposite 
 vices gain control, and how long could society exist ? 
 Would there not be a speedy dissolution of the social 
 fabric ? This the apostle teaches when he says, perilous 
 times shall come. Why ? He gives the reason : "For 
 men shall be lovers of their own selves," etc. Certain- 
 ly no community can be safe where such social disorder 
 reigns. The times are " perilous" indeed, when these 
 nineteen vices universally prevail. 
 
 The Prophet Isaiah, also, in chapter xxiv., shows the 
 
THE CALAMITIES OF THE LAST DAYS. 143 
 
 utter disorganization of society at this same period, when 
 he says, " Behold the Lord maketh the earth empty, and 
 scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof ; and it shall 
 be, as with the people, so with the Priest ; as with the 
 servant, so with the master ; as with the maid, so with 
 the mistress ; as with the buyer, so with the seller ; as 
 with the lender, so with the borrower ; as with the taker 
 of usury, so with the giver of usury to him." The rela- 
 tions formerly 1 existing between these parties, and which 
 in a healthy state of society were necessary and benefi- 
 cial, shall now be entirely broken up, so that one will 
 not regard or aid the other. As our Lord declared, 
 (speaking of this time,) "men shall betray one another, 
 and hate one another. The brother shall betray the 
 brother to death, and the father the son, and children 
 shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them 
 to be put to death ;" the strength of filial and parental 
 attachment will be broken, and even the sacredness of 
 conjugal love will be no protection against treasonable 
 conspiracy. 
 
 Such a total extinction of all the social virtues will 
 soon prepare the way for the fall of the moral virtues. 
 Accordingly, we find that the lower forms of sensuality, 
 such as gluttony, and wantonness, and drunkenness, be- 
 come general. Hence, our Lord compares the period just 
 previous to His second advent, to that preceding the 
 flood, and the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, which 
 were times of astounding sensuality, moral pollution, and 
 debauchery. As it was in the days of Noah, and as it- 
 was in the days of Lot, so shall it be when the Son "of 
 Man is revealed, Luke, xvii. 26-30. Sad prospect for be- 
 
144 THE CALAMITIES OF THE LAST DAYS. 
 
 lievers in human progress and the perfectibility of man. 
 Transcendentalism will surely be at a discount, if any of 
 the believers in that delusion should see that period. 
 
 2. Next to the moral and social disorders of that day, 
 will be the religious feuds which will then distract and 
 embitter the minds of men. 
 
 Our Lord when asked by His disciples when the end 
 should come, replied, " Take heed that no man deceive 
 you, for many shall come in my name, saying, I am 
 Christ, and shall deceive many, and ye shall hear of wars 
 and rumors of wars, but the end is not yet/' These de- 
 ceivers shall inspire their followers with a religious fanati- 
 cism which shall know no toleration, but shall lay waste 
 and destroy all who will not embrace their delusions. Of 
 the spirit which always animates such impostors, we have 
 had an example in the career of the false prophet of Mecca, 
 who put to the sword those who would not submit to his 
 imposture, and of the Roman pontiffs, who subjected to 
 imprisonment, and torture, and the stake, those who pro- 
 tested against their false assumptions. But lest anyone 
 should say these things belong to the past, and can never 
 occur again, look at the false prophet of Mormon, in our 
 own day, and in our own country. Read his defiant 
 threats and the spirit which evidently pervades his blas- 
 phemous communications. Can any one doubt that any 
 thing except mere power is wanting in him to subjugate 
 our whole land to his imposture? Be not deceived ; the 
 spirit of Satan is the ruling spirit of every great deceiver. 
 Mere enthusiasts may be tolerant, but deliberate impos- 
 tors are generally bloodthirsty. In our discourse upon 
 the last Antichrist, we showed you what the character of 
 
THE CALAMITIES OF THE LAST DAYS. 145 
 
 * 
 
 that apostacy would be as to the extent and power of the 
 delusion which it would practice upon the world. We 
 did not then delineate its persecuting spirit, as that more 
 properly belongs to another subject and a future discourse. 
 We will now only refer to one or two passages which 
 bear on the point now under consideration, viz., the re- 
 ligious feuds which shall rage, and rend society asunder 
 before the second advent. 
 
 In Kevelations, xiii. we read, " there was given to him 
 a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he 
 opened his mouth in blaspheni3 r against God, to blas- 
 pheme His name, and His tabernacle, and them that dwell 
 in heaven ; and it was given unto him to make war with 
 the saints, and to overcome them, and cause that as many 
 as would not worship the image of the Beast should be 
 killed." Now the persecutions of this great deceiver, the 
 last Antichrist, and the bigoted zeal of the various other 
 false Christs, and the opposition of the two little horns, 
 Komanism and Mohammedanism, and the resistance of 
 heathenism and Protestantism, which will still number 
 their millions, will produce a state of agitation and exas- 
 peration in the minds of men, which will convert the 
 world into a great battle-ground of conflicting opinions 
 and mortal combat, and this strife will be connected with 
 another evil which will then prevail over the earth, viz., 
 
 3. Political disturbances. Nation shall rise against 
 nation, and kingdom against kingdom. Despotism shall 
 seek to overthrow democracies, and democracy to uproot 
 despotism. The conflict of political principles, which has 
 endured for so many centuries between the oppressors 
 and the oppressed, shall make a desperate struggle for 
 
146 THE CALAMITIES OF THE LAST DAYS. 
 
 * 
 
 the ascendency, and shall fail, for both shall he discom- 
 fited with the sword of the Lord of Hosts, who says, 
 " If I whet my glittering sword, and ray hand take hold 
 on judgment, I will make my arrows drunk with blood, 
 and my sword shall devour flesh." Our text says, "they 
 shall drink of the wine cup of His fury, and be mad, be- 
 cause of the sword which He will send among them, 
 for He will plead with all flesh; He will give them that 
 are wicked to the sword ; and the slain of the Lord shall 
 be at that day from one end of the earth to the other." 
 This uprising of all nations distracted by religious feuds, 
 and embittered by political antagonisms, shall proceed 
 from that judicial infatuation which God shall send upon 
 them as a punishment for their sins. From the cup of 
 His fury, which He makes them to drink, they shall be 
 mad, the prophet says, because of the sword which He 
 will send among them. War is one of God's scourges 
 for sin, as well as pestilence and famine. Though men 
 wage it for wicked purposes, He employs it for righteous 
 ends, and they, without their knowledge or intention, 
 are the agents of inflicting His judgments on themselves. 
 In the grand settlement therefore of His controversy 
 with all nations, He will call for a sword upon all the 
 inhabitants of the earth, and will plead with all flesh. 
 Out of that state of, first, social disorganization we have 
 described, and, secondly, religious strife, horrid war will 
 naturally arise. The passions being let loose, and Di- 
 vine restraint withdrawn, they will rush to arms, and 
 lay waste each other's lands. In connection with the 
 scourge of war and political distractions all over the earth, 
 comes, in immediate succession, 
 
THE CALAMITIES OF THE LAST DAYS. . 147 
 
 4. Another horrid train of ills, in the form of pesti- 
 lence, famine, and earthquakes. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact in the history of the world, 
 that all great political convulsions and subversion of 
 empires have been attended with physical disasters and 
 temporal calamities. Gibbon informs us that about the 
 period of the overthrow of the Roman empire, a plague 
 which took its rise on the borders of the Nile, and spread 
 over the whole of Europe and parts of Asia, swept away 
 nearly two thirds of the population of those regions, and 
 that so great was the mortality, that the order of funerals 
 and sepulture was confounded, that the dead lay unburied 
 in the streets, that at Constantinople for three months, 
 five and at length ten thousand persons died each day, 
 that many cities were left without an inhabitant, that 
 in whole districts of country, the harvevst and vintage 
 withered on the ground, and that the decrease of the hu- 
 man species which then took place in some of the fair- 
 est regions of the globe has never been repaired ; that 
 while this desolating scourge was spreading, some of 
 the most destructive earthquakes of which history gives 
 any record took place, that Constantinople was shaken 
 above forty days, that two hundred and fifty thousand 
 perished at Antioch, that Beyroot, with its whole popu- 
 lation, was destroyed, and multitudes, in various lauds, 
 were slain ; and that to add to the afflictions and mis- 
 eries of that time, famine followed with all its horrors, 
 to still further reduce the population of the earth. Such 
 were the calamities which took place when the fourth 
 Beafit was about being broken up and divided into ten 
 kingdoms. 
 
148 THE CALAMITIES OF THE LAST DATS. 
 
 But vastly more terrible will they be when the ten 
 kingdoms themselves not only, but all the kingdoms of 
 the toorld which are on the face of the earth, shall be 
 made to drink of the wine cup of G-od's fury which the 
 prophet was directed to give them. Then, he says, 
 " evil shall go forth from nation to nation," which our 
 Lord explains to be "pestilences, famine, and earth- 
 quakes in divers places," and the slain of the Lord shall 
 be from one end of the earth to the other. The Lord, 
 by the Prophet Ezekiel, xiv. 21, asks, " When I send 
 forth my four sore judgments, the sword, and the famine, 
 and the noisome beast, and the pestilence to cut off from 
 it man and beast, who shall deliver out of my hand ?" 
 
 There is another agent of destruction which the 
 prophet declares shall be employed also at this time to 
 execute the fury of God on His foes, i.e., a great whirl- 
 wind which shall be raised up from the coasts of the 
 earth. The prophet refers to this in two other places 
 iii this prophecy. In chapter xxx., verse 23, he says, 
 " Behold the whirlwind of the Lord goeth forth with 
 fury, a continuing whirlwind; it shall fall with pain upon 
 the heads of the wicked; the fierce anger of the Lord 
 shall not return until He have done it, and until He have 
 performed the intents of His heart;" and then to show 
 when this shall be, he adds, f ' in the latter days ye shall 
 consider it;" and in chapter xxiii. 19, 20, the same thing 
 is declared. We all have read of the effects of hurricanes 
 in tropical climates, and have occasionally had a little ex- 
 perience of them in our own how trees are uprooted, 
 dwellings laid prostrate, ships driven from their moorings 
 and stranded on the shore, and desolation spread over the 
 
THE CALAMITIES OF THE LAST DAYS. 149 
 
 land ; these are but feeble types of that GREAT WHIRL- 
 WIND of the latter days, when the fury of the Lord 
 shall be upon all nations, and upon their armies, and 
 when the slain of the Lord shall be from one end of the 
 earth to the other. 
 
 What the prophet means by another expression in our 
 text we are not entirely sure. He says, '' a noise shall 
 come even unto the ends of the earth." Whether this 
 be the rumbling sound which accompanies earthquakes, 
 we can not pretend to determine, but of this we are as- 
 sured, that they shall be one of the most terrific agents 
 by which His fierce wrath shall Ue executed. Head 
 Isaiah, xxiv., where the prophet, describing the desola- 
 tions of this period, says, "the earth shnll reel to and fro 
 like a drunkard, and be moved exceedingly," and then 
 imagine the three hundred volcanoes, which are spread 
 over its surface, to be put into active operation, and the 
 many extinct ones to burst out anew, would not the earth 
 be moved exceedingly, and its motion be like the reeling 
 of a drunkard ? There is still another expression of our 
 text which deserves attention ; in verse 30 he says, " the 
 Lord shall roar from on high, and utter His voice from 
 His holy habitation." When He came down on mount 
 Sinai and spake the words of the law, it was amid thun- 
 dering and lightning and the voice of a trumpet, and the 
 mount quaked greatly. The Psalmist referring to this 
 says, "Even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of 
 God," "for His word is very terrible." Saint John, de- 
 scribing the second advent of Christ, corning with a 
 rainbow on His head, His face as the sun, and His feet 
 as pillars of fire, says, " He cried with a loud voice as 
 
150 THE CALAMITIES OF THE LAST DAYS. 
 
 when a lion roareth, and when He cried seven thun- 
 ders uttered their voices/' 
 
 From the comparison which is made between this 
 loud voice and the roaring of a lion, we are inclined to 
 think it refers to the same event to which the prophet 
 alludes when he says, " He shall roar from on high, and 
 utter His voice from His holy habitation." But he adds 
 to this another action still more terrible than the rest : 
 " He shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, 
 against all the inhabitants of the earth." The vintage 
 and the wine press are common figures in Scripture, de- 
 noting God's acts of judgment against His foes. In Isaiah, 
 Ixiii. 1, a question is asked, " Who is this that cometh 
 from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah, this that is 
 glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his 
 strength ?" The answer is, " I that speak in righteous- 
 ness, mighty to save." Question again : " Wherefore art 
 thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that 
 treadeth in the wine fat ?" Answer : " Because I have 
 trodden the wine press alone, and of the people there 
 was none with me ; for I will tread them in mine anger, 
 and trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be 
 sprinkled on my garments, and I will stain all my rai- 
 ment. I will make them drunk in my fury, and bring 
 down all their strength to the earth." 
 
 In the book of Revelations, chapter xiv., the apostle 
 informs us that he " saw a white cloud, and one sitting 
 upon it like the Son of Man, having on His head a golden 
 crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle ; and He thrust His 
 sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, 
 and cast it into the great wine press of the wrath of God." 
 
THE CALAMITIES OF THE LAST DAYS. 151 
 
 Immediately after this a great voice was heard by the 
 prophet out of the temple, saying to the seven angels, 
 " Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of 
 God upon the earth." And now follows a series of ca- 
 lamities and woes upon the children of men, to which 
 there has been no parallel since the flood. Read the 
 contents of these vials, and see what is yet in reserve for 
 a guilty world. The 
 
 1st angel poured out his vial on the earth, and there 
 fell upon man a noisome and grievous sore, like the 
 boil, breaking forth with blains, which Moses inflicted on 
 Egypt, The 
 
 2d angel poured out his vial upon the sea, and it be- 
 came as the blood of a dead man ; and every living 
 thing died in the sea. The 
 
 3d angel poured out his vial on the rivers and foun- 
 tains of water, and tbey became blood. And the angel 
 said, Thou art righteous, Lord, because thou hast 
 judged thus ; for they have shed the blood of saints and 
 prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink. This 
 was also one of the plagues on Egypt waters turned to 
 blood. The 
 
 4th angel poured out his vial on the sun, and power 
 was given unto him to scorch men with fire, and men 
 were scorched with great heat, (the thermometer ris- 
 ing, perhaps, to a hundred and thirty or a hundred and 
 forty degrees) ; and they blasphemed the name of God 
 which had power over these plagues, and repented not 
 to give Him glory. The 
 
 5th angel poured out his vial on the seat of the Beast, 
 (i. e. } the last Antichrist), and his kingdom was full of 
 
152 THE CALAMITIES OF THE LAST DAYS. 
 
 .* 
 
 darkness another plague of Egypt ; and they gnawed 
 their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of 
 heaven because of their pains and their sores, and re- 
 pented not to give Him glory, like Pharaoh and his serv- 
 ants, whose hearts were still more hardened after each 
 successive stroke of God's wrath. 
 
 Next comes, under the 6th vial, three unclean spirits, 
 out of the mouth of the Dragon, of the Beast, and of the 
 False Prophet, which are spirits of devils, working mira- 
 cles, going forth to the kings of the earth and of the whole 
 world, to gather them to the battle of the GEEAT 
 DAY OF GOD ALMIGHTY, concerning which we 
 shall say nothing at present, as this is to form the sub- 
 ject of a future discourse. 
 
 Now group together all these calamities which we 
 have mentioned, and see, at one view, what is the pic- 
 ture they present of the state of the world and society 
 at that day. Social disorganization, produced by the 
 suppression of all the virtues, and wild rage of all the 
 passions. Keligious strife, embittered by the fiercest fa- 
 naticism or grossest superstition ! political convulsions, 
 growing out of the antagonism of opposite principles, and 
 the undying hatred of the oppressors and the oppressed ! 
 horrid war, dragging her death-dealing artillery through 
 every land ! fearful pestilence, spreading her dread pall 
 through every city and country, mountain top and vale ! 
 squalid famine, imprinting her ghastly features upon 
 famished multitudes ! terrible earthquakes, opening their 
 deep abysses and swallowing their thousands, and tens 
 of thousands, like Corah and his company ! whirlwinds, 
 hurricanes, and 'tempests, roaring through plain and for- 
 
THE CALAMITIES OF THE LAST DAYS. 153 
 
 est, spreading devastation in their track, and burying 
 multitudes under the ruins they create ! bodily diseases, 
 loathsome and painful, like Job's, and epidemical ! noi- 
 some and grievous sores, breaking forth with boils and 
 blanes, generally prevalent ! the heat of the earth so in- 
 tensified by the solar rays that breathing is actually op- 
 pressive, and fevers and sun-strokes of constant occur- 
 rence ! the most necessary element of life, water, turned 
 into blood ! and the effluvia arising from the mortality 
 on land, and the death of every thing in the sea, poison- 
 ing the atmosphere, and scattering still more widely the 
 seeds of death ! ! ! 
 
 But the heart sickens at the further recital. Imagine 
 this state of things, (and it is no fancy picture, but mere- 
 ly the copy of an original which prophetic seers drew upon 
 the inspired page many hundred years ago.) Imagine 
 this state of things, and can any better summary of the 
 whole be given than that in the words of our text, " The 
 slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of 
 the earth to the other ; they shall not be lamented, 
 nor gathered, nor buried, but shall be as dung upon 
 the ground ?" 
 
 But some one may say this is too horrible to be credi- 
 ble. We can not believe that a God of love, who in- 
 structs us to call Him Father, and who looks down with 
 compassion and ailection upon all men, as the creatures 
 of His power, would ever accumulate upon them such 
 an exterminating mass of ills, which would all but anni- 
 hilate the race. Impossible ! Incredible ! His mercy is 
 too great ever to allow of such an outburst of fury and 
 wrath. We answer, where do you learn this greatness 
 
 7* 
 
154 THE CALAMITIES OF THE LAST DAYS. 
 
 of God's mercy from holy Scripture ? That teaches 
 you that He once destroyed the whole world, except eight 
 persons, with the waters of a flood ! that He overthrew 
 five cities together, with all their inhabitants, except 
 Lot and his two daughters, by a storm of fire and brim- 
 stone ! that he desolated the fairest part of the globe 
 with ten plagues, and afterward overwhelmed a whole 
 army in the Ked Sea ! Was this the work of mercy or 
 of wrath ? Look at divine Providence and the history 
 of the world, and say whether God has not been fighting 
 against our race ever since the fall, by fire, and water, 
 and pestilence, and earthquake, and famine, and sword, 
 and every variety of ill that flesh is heir to ? What 
 generation has been exempt from 'some one or other of 
 these woes in a greater or less degree ? Do you say He 
 is a God of love ? He is a God of love, blessed be His 
 name ; but oh, do not forget another title which He also 
 bears not an empty title, but one full of meaning, which 
 He has often, and will yet more terribly prove : "Our God 
 is a consuming fire/' Was there ever a people that He 
 loved better than the seed of Abraham, and was there ever 
 a people whom He punished more and longer ? There- 
 fore the prophet, in our text, refers to His dealings with 
 them as a reason why the Gentiles need not expect to 
 escape. He says, if they, i. e., " the nations to whom I 
 send thee," refuse to take the cup to drink, thus saith 
 the Lord, "Ye shall certainly drink ; for lo, I begin to 
 bring evil upon the city which is called by my name ; 
 and should ye be unpunished ? Ye shall not be unpun- 
 ished ; for I will call for a sword against all the inhabi- 
 tants of the earth." The greatest manifestation of His 
 
THE CALAMITIES OF THE LAST DAYS. 155 
 
 love that God has ever made to our world, is in the gift 
 of His Son, to be our Saviour and Redeemer from eternal 
 death. The Jews despised and rejected His love. The 
 great majority of the Gentiles have done the same. The 
 whole heathen and Mohammedan world, comprising be- 
 tween five and six hundred millions of the human family, 
 are enemies of the gospel ; and of the nominal Christi- 
 anity which remains, how much is virtually hostile to it ? 
 The world has had already eighteen hundred years to 
 make up its mind, whether it will acknowledge Jesus 
 Christ as King and Lord, or not ; and by an overwhelm- 
 ing majority it has decided against Him : and this de- 
 cision from a great and overwhelming majority is rap- 
 idly approaching an* unanimity, so that when the Son 
 of Man cometh, He will scarce find faith on the earth. 
 Now does any one suppose that things will continue or 
 remain in this state ? No. Christ, who by His gospel 
 has for centuries been sending messages of peace to man- 
 kind, asking for a voluntary recognition of His right to 
 reign on the earth, but has generally been repulsed with 
 the ungracious reply, "We will not have this man to 
 reign over us," will take possession thereof by power, and 
 then woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth and 
 of the sea. He will give a shout, as they that tread 
 the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. Mer- 
 cy despised, and love rejected, and patience worn out, 
 forbearance will no longer be a virtue, but vengeance 
 and wrath to the uttermost be the just and righteous 
 reward. 
 
 The prophet assigns the reason why the Lord will 
 plead with all flesh by sword, and pestilence, and fam- 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
156 THE CALAMITIES OF THE LAST DAYS. 
 
 ine, and whirlwind, and all His other judgments, to be, 
 because " He has a controversy with the nations." A 
 controversy ! And what is it about ? The dispute is 
 about the dominion of the earth, which Christ claims, 
 and they refuse to grant. He has been peaceably as- 
 serting His claim in the gospel for many ages, which His 
 enemies have resisted with violence. Now He will em- 
 ploy different instruments to subdue their opposition. 
 As He says by the prophet, Isaiah, xlii. 14, "I have 
 long time holden my peace ; I have been still and re- 
 frained myself : now will I cry like a travailing woman, 
 I will destroy and devour at once. The Lord shall go 
 forth as a mighty man ; He shall stir up jealousy like a 
 man of war. He shall cry, yea, nxv ; He shall prevail 
 against His enemies." 
 
 If any one would see the justice of such a series of 
 desolating judgments on the human race as we have de- 
 scribed, let him seriously contemplate the description we 
 have given of the social and moral condition of mankind 
 at the time they are inflicted. Even now, has not in- 
 iquity arisen to such a pitch that it is wonderful that the 
 divine forbearance still holds out ? Could we be placed 
 upon some eminence for a single night, and a panorama 
 be made to pass before us, which would exhibit to our 
 view the interior life of all the great cities on the globe; 
 could we see as God sees all the crimes which are com- 
 mitted in secret as well as public ; the assassinations and 
 murders, and robberies and rapes, the fraud and violence, 
 and oppression and cruelty, and all the multiplied forms 
 of iniquity which the deep depravity of the human heart 
 has invented; could we see them in all that hideous 
 
THE CALAMITIES OF THE LAST DAYS. 157 
 
 deformity in which they appear to the eyes of infinite 
 purity, we would wonder more that the earth has not 
 long ago been desolated by all these judgments, than 
 that they shall be poured out in an age when impiety shall 
 be increased an hundred fold ! Is there any punishment 
 that can be too severe for open and deliberate contempt 
 and defiance of God and His word, and His Spirit, and 
 His grace ? God has not thought so in ages past, for 
 there is not one of these judgments mentioned, that He 
 has not at some time or other inflicted upon those who 
 have provoked Him to wrath : and therefore, when He 
 brings this long controversy which He has had with the 
 nations of the earth to a close, and makes a final settle- 
 ment with an incorrigible race, whom neither His love nor 
 mercy could win, nor His warnings and threats deter 
 from increasing ungodliness, marvel not that He should 
 beat them with many stripes, that He should open all 
 the vials of His wrath, and pour them out upon them in 
 quick succession, until He have overwhelmed them in 
 that abyss of woe which their provocations have so richly 
 merited. The gospel seems to have done for our race 
 nearly all that it can do. "What more could I have done 
 to my vineyard that I have not done, saith the Lord of 
 hosts ? Therefore when I sought that it should bring 
 forth grapes, it brought forth wild grapes; and now go 
 to, I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard; I will 
 lay it waste, it shall not be pruned nor digged. I said, 
 surely tliou wilt fear me, thou wilt receive instruction ; 
 but they rose up early and corrupted all their doings." 
 And now hear the consequence: " Therefore wait ye upon 
 me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the 
 
158 THE CALAMITIES OF THE LAST DAYS. 
 
 prey ; for my determination is to gather the nations, 
 that I may assemble the kingdoms to pour out upon 
 them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger, for all 
 the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy. 
 THEN will I turn to the people a pure language, that 
 they may all call on the name of the Lord to serve Him 
 with one consent." From which it appears that a new 
 and better order of things will not arise until the present 
 order (which has been so thoroughly corrupted) is broken 
 down and taken out of the way. Not that the gospel 
 may not still be the means of salvation to individuals; 
 it may, and will be, " the power of God unto salvation to 
 everyone that believeth ;" and this is the encouragement 
 we hold out to you in the midst of increasing infidelity 
 and ungodliness. Fly to the cross while there is yet 
 hope. Kiss the Son, lest ye perish in the way while His 
 wrath is kindled but a little. For all the children of God 
 there will be a hiding place in the day of His anger. 
 Those who have the Lord which is their refuge, even 
 the Most High, their habitation, no evil shall befall 
 them nor any plague come nigh their dwelling. Hence, 
 the Lord, by the Prophet Isaiah, xxvi. 20, 21, says to 
 such, " Come, my people, enter into thy chambers and 
 hide thee a little until the indignation be overpast, for 
 behold, the Lord cometh out of His place to punish the 
 inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; the earth shall 
 no more disclose her blood nor cover her slain." 
 
 How near, or far off we may be from these terrible 
 scenes, this day of wrath and fierce anger against a wick- 
 ed world, we know not. But it is our happiness that a 
 way of escape is still offered and opened to us through 
 
THE CALAMITIES OF THE LAST DATS. 159 
 
 the love and mercy of God in the sufferings and death of 
 His Son. The satisfaction He offered to divine justice 
 is the only protection afforded to us against His wrath, 
 the only shield against that fierce indignation which will 
 fall upon the head of the wicked. If the world which 
 has "been so long entreated, would only have embraced 
 this provision, that day of fearful reckoning would not 
 have come. The wrath of God being appeased by the 
 atonement of Christ, and His justice against us satisfied 
 by our acceptance of that atonement, no further demand 
 would have been made for satisfaction. But that atone- 
 ment being rejected, the justice of God enforces its claim 
 against all the rejecters of His love by those terrible in- 
 flictions of divine judgment which we have described; and 
 when it does so, whatever men may now think or say, 
 the heavenly host will exclaim, " Righteous art thou, 
 Lord, which art and wast and shall be, because thou hast 
 judged thus; just and true are thy judgments, THOU 
 KING OF SAINTS " 
 
LECTURE VIII. 
 
 THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 
 
 "And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates, 
 that the way of the kings of the East might be prepared. And I saw three 
 unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of 
 the mouth of the Beast, and out of the mouth of the false Prophet ; for 
 they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth to the kings 
 of the earth, and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of the 
 great day of God Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that 
 watch eth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his 
 shame. And he gathered them together into a place called, in the Hebrew 
 tongue, Armageddon. And the seventh angel poured out his vial in the air; 
 and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, 
 saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, 
 and a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so 
 mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city was divided into 
 three parts, and the cities of the nations fell ; and great Babylon came in 
 remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierce- 
 ness of His wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were 
 not found. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone 
 about the weight of a talent, and men blasphemed God because of the hail, 
 for the plague thereof was exceeding great." REVELATIONS, xvL 12-21. 
 
 THE holy Scriptures, which contain a record of the 
 first regular battle that was ever fought among the na- 
 tions of the earth, foretell also the last great conflict that 
 shall take place; and what is remarkable is that the scene 
 of both is laid in the Holy Land. In the days of Abra- 
 ham, just after he had settled in the land of Canaan, 
 (having at the call of God left the land of his birth,) a 
 
THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 161 
 
 war broke out (the first we read of in history,) between 
 four nations lying at the north and east of Palestine, 
 and five lying to the south-east. The former invaded the 
 territory of the latter, and overthrew them. Genesis, xiv. 
 In their discomfiture, Lot, the nephew of Abraham, was 
 taken prisoner and carried away captive, which, when 
 Abraham heard of, he armed all his hired servants, in 
 number three hundred and eighteen, pursued after and 
 overtook them, and rescued Lot and all his goods. On his 
 return from this purguit, he was met by Melchisedek, 
 one of the most illustrious of the types of Christ, and 
 blessed ; which Melchisedek was not only Priest of the 
 Most High God, but also King of Salem, which is King 
 of Peace. 
 
 In the last conflict, which shall take place in that 
 same land, the true Melchisedek, Priest of the Most High 
 God, and Prince of Peace, will also appear to give deliv- 
 erance to the seed of Abraham from their oppressors, as 
 we shall more fully see in the sequel. Strange that the 
 storm of war, which first burst upon our world in that 
 land of so many wonders, should, after having swept over 
 the whole surface of the globe for so many ages, with in- 
 creasing violence return and spend its fury in the same 
 region where it begun ! In our last discourse, we treated 
 of the calamities which would befall the nations of the 
 world at the close of this dispensation. We referred to 
 the social and moral disorders which would then prevail, 
 the civil and political disturbances which would every- 
 where break out, the temporal calamities, of pestilence, 
 famine, earthquake, whirlwind, and tempests, with vari- 
 ous other plagues, which would fall upon a guilty world. 
 
162 THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 
 
 We also referred to the wars which would spring up out 
 of that universal discord which would everywhere exist. 
 But there is one act in these last scenes of an expiring 
 dispensation which surpasses all the rest in awe-inspiring 
 terror and terrific horror; it may he called the GRAND 
 FINALE of this reign of terror, when men's hearts begin 
 to fail them for looking upon the things which are com- 
 ing on the earth. That act is the fearful conflict between 
 three opposing interests which will then divide and em- 
 brace the whole, or nearly the whoJe, of mankind, and it 
 is commonly called the Battle of Armageddon. In deal- 
 ing with unfulfilled Prophecy, so marked an event in the 
 future could not escape our attention, nor with propriety 
 be passed over ; and however forbidding the prospect and 
 unpleasant the theme, yet if we will be followers of God's 
 revealed will, whether in the present, the past, or the fu- 
 ture, we must take note of events and things as they are, 
 have been, or will be, and not seek to shape them accord- 
 ing to our own fancies or wills. 
 
 The Prophecy before us is without question an unful- 
 filled one, and in attempting to unfold it we shall rely 
 entirely upon those lights which the Old Testament 
 Scriptures throw upon it, by collecting together those 
 testimonies which the prophets of the former dispensa- 
 tion furnish for its elucidation. The seer of Patmos, to 
 whom was shown in vision the great events which should 
 precede the second coming of the Son of Man, informs 
 us, chapter xv. 1, that he saw a great and marvelous 
 sign, seven angels having the seven last plagues, to pour 
 out upon the earth, for in them is filled up the wrath of 
 God; in other words, that all His vengeance upon the 
 
THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 163 
 
 wicked would be finished when they were emptied. 
 The first five of these vials were enumerated in our last 
 discourse, to show what a succession of calamities shall 
 fall upon the world hefore the final stroke of vengeance 
 is given. The sixth and seventh vials inaugurate the 
 closing scene. " The sixth angel poured out his vial upon 
 the great river Euphrates, and the water thereof was 
 dried up, that the way of the kings of the East might 
 be prepared." 
 
 In our discourse upon the return of the ten lost tribes 
 of Israel, it may be remembered that we showed that 
 these tribes, in their journey to the east, according to the 
 testimony of the Prophet Ezra, crossed the narrow passes 
 of the Euphrates, for the Lord held still the flood till 
 they were passed over, and from thence went into a far 
 country of a year and a half s journey, where they dwelt 
 until the latter time ; and that when they should return, 
 the Most High would stay the springs of the stream 
 again that they might pass over. This we regard as the 
 key which unlocks the mystery of the sixth vial. It is 
 proper to remark, however, that many commentators re- 
 gard the Euphrates as a symbol of the Turkish power, 
 and the pouring out of the sixth vial upon it, by which 
 the waters thereof are dried up, as merely the gradual 
 exhaustion ot that power by the judgments of Grod. 
 This opinion they derive chiefly from the message given 
 to the angel that sounded the sixth trumpet, in chapter 
 ix., verse 14. That message was, " Loose the four angels 
 which are bound in the river Euphrates ; and the four 
 angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and 
 a day, and a month and a year, to slay the third part of 
 
164 THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 
 
 men. And the number of the army of the horsemen 
 was two hundred thousand thousand." The Turkish 
 power originated on the banks of the Euphrates. It 
 was first divided into four sultanies, viz., Bagdad, Alep- 
 po, Damascus, and Oesarea. These continued then- 
 ravages and conquests toward Europe, until they 
 were finally united in one power by Othman the First, 
 the founder of the present Ottoman power. From the 
 capture of Bagdad by the Turks, in 1057, which com- 
 pleted the overthrow of the Saracens, until the capture 
 of Constantinople, in 1453, which overthrew the Greek 
 empire, was three hundred and ninety-six years. The 
 exact prophetical time of a day, i. e., one year ; a month, 
 thirty years ; and a year, three hundred and sixty-five, 
 equal to three hundred and ninety-six years. 
 
 Now the loosing of the four angels from the river Eu- 
 phrates, being understood of the irruption of those Turk- 
 ish hordes which swarmed from that direction toward 
 Europe, and finally invaded and took possession of a 
 large portion of it, the pouring out of the sixth vial 
 upon the river Euphrates is supposed to mean also a 
 judgment upon the same people and power ; but this 
 does not follow. The Euphrates is not necessarily a sym- 
 bol in either case. It only describes a LOCALITY, and 
 we think is not to be used in any other than its natural 
 sense in either place. 
 
 But with the drying up of the Euphrates under the 
 sixth vial, two events of great importance take place ; 
 first, the kings of the East come forth, which we have 
 before applied to the ten tribes ; second, three unclean 
 spirits go forth out of the mouth of the Dragon, the 
 
THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 165 
 
 Beast, and the False Prophet. Concerning the kings of 
 the East, we shall add nothing to what we have already 
 said in the third lecture ; but of the Dragon, the Beast, 
 and the False Prophet we must now give some account. 
 
 1. In chapter xii., Saint John saw a great red Dragon, 
 with seven heads and ten horns, and crowns on the 
 heads, standing before a woman, ready to devour a man- 
 child which she brought forth, who was to rule all na- 
 tionSo The woman fled into the wilderness, and the man- 
 child was caught up to God and His throne. By this 
 we may understand the Pagan Roman empire, in the 
 person of Herod seeking the life of the infant Jesus, who 
 was saved by His mother fleeing into Egypt, and our 
 Lord at last, when He had finished His work, ascended 
 to heaven, i. e., was caught up to the throne of God. It 
 is a remarkable fact that a great red dragon was a sym- 
 bolic representation of the Roman power in its Pagan 
 state ; and not only so, but dragon forms have ever 
 been favorite symbols among Pagan nations, of which 
 we may see abundant proof to this day in that great 
 stronghold of Paganism, the Chinese empire, where the 
 figure-heads of their vessels, paintings on their walls, and 
 the statues in their temples, partake more or less of the 
 basilisk and dragon-like forms. It would seem, then, 
 that by the Dragon in our text is meant Paganism, or 
 the heathen world. 
 
 2. In chapter xiii., Saint John saw a Beast rise out of 
 the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and crowns 
 on the horns; and on his heads the name of Blasphemy ; 
 and the Dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and 
 great authority. 
 
166 THE BATTLE OF AEMAGEDDON. 
 
 After the fall of the Pagan Koman empire, Satan 
 managed still to concentrate and perpetuate his tyranny 
 in the Eternal City, and over Europe, hy ten kingdoms 
 which sprang up after the irruption of the northern barbar- 
 ism, which finally were united under one head, viz., the 
 Papal power. The civil power of the Caesars, (first con- 
 centrated in Borne, and expressed by the seven crowns 
 ON THE HEADS), being now distributed and divided 
 among the European states, is desciibed by the trans- 
 fer of the crowns to the horns ; yet Rome, under the 
 Popes, ruled Europe (although subdivided into king- 
 doms) with as strong a hand as when united under 
 the Csesars. 
 
 In chapter xvii. Saint John had another vision. He saw 
 a scarlet-colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, hav- 
 ing seven heads and ten horns, (the same old enemy in 
 a new disguise,) but now crowns on neither heads nor 
 horns, and carrying a woman arrayed in a purple and 
 scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones, 
 having in her hand a cup full of abomination, and on her 
 forehead a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, 
 Mother of Harlots and Abomination of the Earth. This 
 beast, (which we regard as the last head of the Roman 
 empire,) is, we think, that great infidel power with which 
 the Papal Church is to be (for a time) brought into some 
 kind of coalition or dependence, for " he carries her;" 
 and is also the Beast spoken of in our text. 
 
 3. The False Prophet. By this, in one word, we un- 
 derstand the Mohammedan delusion. 
 
 Now, out of the mouth of these (the Beast, the False 
 Prophet, and the Dragon,) go forth three unclean spirits, 
 
THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 167 
 
 SPIRITS OF DEVILS, working miracles, to gather 
 together the nations of the earth, and of the whole 
 world, to the battle of the GREAT DAY OF GOD 
 ALMIGHTY. Paganism, embracing the whole heathen 
 world Christianity, embracing Romanism, hydra-headed 
 Protestantism, and every thing nominally Christian ; and 
 Mohammedanism, including all the followers of the false 
 Apostle of Mecca, represent the three great predominating 
 interests of the world. Paganism, though numerically 
 the strongest, is comparatively the weakest for either 
 assault or defense ; Christianity, embracing every thing 
 that bears the name, is the most aggressive ; and Mo- 
 hammedanism, for a century past, has been stationary. 
 
 But a mighty stirring up of the slumbering energies 
 of these three powers, and a clashing of their interests, is 
 foretold in our text. Three unclean spirits shall proceed 
 out of their mouths, spirits of devils, working miracles, 
 operating upon both their credulity and enthusiasm, 
 their faith and zeal, and arousing them to battle, each 
 for their cause : Paganism for its idols ; Mohammedan- 
 ism for its Koran ; and nominal Christianity, far sunk 
 into infidelity, for the blasphemies of the Man of Sin, 
 the Antichrist to come. This conflict shall be no ordi- 
 nary one, but the most extraordinary that ever took 
 place. Hence it is called the battle of that GREAT 
 DAY OF GOD ALMIGHTY, because He shall take 
 a part in it ; for while He turns their weapons against 
 each other for mutual destruction, He shall also hurl 
 upon them weapons which they had not expected, and 
 from whose crushing power there' shall be no escape. 
 
 Almost all the prophets speak of a period which they 
 
168 THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 
 
 call "THE DAY OF THE LOKD," and which they 
 all describe as being one of most terrible calamity to 
 the nations of the earth. Let us collect their testimony, 
 and see how it bears upon the passage before us. 
 
 The Prophet Isaiah says, chapter ii. 10, " Enter thee 
 into the rock and hide thee, for the fear of the Lord, and 
 for the glory of His majesty. For the day of the Lord 
 of Hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, 
 upon every one that is lifted up, and upon all high moun- 
 tains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up, and upon 
 every high tower, and upon every fenced wall, and upon 
 all the ships of Tarshish ; and the loftiness of man shall 
 be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men be made 
 low ; and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day." 
 
 The Prophet Ezeldel, xxx. 3, says, "Howl ye, woe 
 worth the day. For THE DAY OF THE LORD is near ; 
 it shall be the time of the heathen/' 
 
 The Prophet Joel says, iii. 14, " Multitudes, multi- 
 tudes, in the valley of decision ; for THE DAY OF THE 
 LORD is near in the valley of decision." 
 
 The Prophet Amos says, chapter v. 18, " Woe unto 
 you that desire THE DAY OF THE LORD ! To what end 
 is it for you ? THE DAY OF THE LORD is darkness and 
 not light ; as if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear 
 met him ; or went into the house and leaned his hand 
 on the wall, and a serpent bit him. THE DAY OF THE 
 LORD shall be very dark, and no brightness in it." 
 
 The Prophet Obadiah says, verse 15, " THE DAY OF 
 THE LORD is near upon all the heathen : as thou hast 
 done, so shall it be done unto thee ; thy reward shall 
 return on thine own head. For as ye have drunk upon 
 
THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 169 
 
 my holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink con- 
 tinually ; yea, they shall drink, they shall swallow down, 
 and be as though they had not been." 
 
 The Prophet Zephaniah, i. 7-14, says, "Hold thy peace 
 at the presence of the Lord God, for the DAY OF THE 
 LORD is at hand, it hasteth greatly; that day is a day of 
 wrath, of trouble and distress, of darkness and gloomi- 
 ness, of wasting and desolation; a day of trumpet and 
 alarm" etc. 
 
 The Prophet Zechariah, says, xiv. 1, " Behold the 
 DAY OF THE LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided 
 in the midst of thee, for I will gather all nations to bat- 
 tle/' etc. 
 
 The Prophet Malachi, says, iv. 1-5, " Behold the day 
 cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud and 
 all that do wickedly shall be as stubble; and the day 
 cometh that shall burn them up, saith the Lord of Hosts; 
 it shall not leave them neither root nor branch;" and to 
 show what day this is, he immediately adds, " Behold, I 
 will send you the Prophet Elijah before the coming of 
 that great and dreadful DAY OF THE LORD, and he 
 shall turn," etc. 
 
 Now from these passages referred to, can not every 
 one see that almost all the Old Testament prophets hold 
 up before us a period yet future of the most unparalleled 
 tribulation and wrath upon all nations, and that they 
 especially designate it hy the name of the DAY OF THE 
 LORD, and the New Testament writers refer to it by the 
 same title ? 
 
 Saint Paul, 1 Corinthians, v. 5, speaks of one being de- 
 livered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the 
 
 8 
 
170 THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 
 
 spirit may be saved in the DAY OF THE LORD JESUS; 
 and in 2 Thessalonians, v. 2, lie says, " THE DAY OF 
 THE LORD cometh as a thief in the night ;" which re- 
 markably corresponds with our text for immediately 
 after it is announced that three unclean spirits out of the 
 mouth of the Beast, False Prophet and Dragon go forth 
 to the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gath- 
 er them together unto the battle of the GREAT DAY 
 OF GOD ALMIGHTY, it is added, verse 15, "Behold 
 I come as a thief!" Saint Peter referring to if, iii. 4, 
 says, u the DAT OF THE LORD cometh as a thief in the 
 night;" and Saint Paul calls it, 2 Thessalonians, ii. 2, 
 THE DAY OF CHRIST; and Saint James, v. 2, the coming 
 of the Lord, i. e., the day of His coming. 
 
 Now when we look into the prophets to see what shall 
 be the transactions of that day, we find them to be VEN- 
 GEANCE upon Chr.'st's enemies, DESTRUCTION of the 
 wicked, the SLAUGHTER of His/oe*, and the OVER- 
 THROW of all ungodliness and opposition to His power. 
 
 The object of gathering them together in one place, 
 seems to be to make one general and final action of 
 judgment upon the whole world, such as shall effectu- 
 ally overthrow the kingdom of Satan and establish the 
 dominion of Christ. Hear the description of the Prophet 
 Joel, iii. 9, of the battle of the GREAT DAY OF GOD 
 ALMIGHTY: "Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; 
 prepare war, wake up the mighty men; let all the men 
 of war draw near, let them come up; beat your plow- 
 shares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears ; 
 assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen; let them 
 be awakened, and come into the valley of Jehoshaphat, 
 
THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 171 
 
 for there will I sit to JUDGE all the heathen round about. 
 Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision, for the 
 DAY OF THE LORD is near in the valley of decision/' 
 You will perceive from this prophecy, that the DAY OF 
 THE LORD is called a DAY OF JUDGMENT, when the wick- 
 ed are overthrown ; but he adds, t( the Lord will be the 
 hope of His people, and the strength of the children of 
 Israel." Also, that this day of the Lord is called in the 
 New Testament, the day of Christ, and the day of His 
 coming; and by our Lord Himself, Luke, xvii. 30, the 
 day when the SON OF MAN SHALL BE REVEALED. 
 
 That Christ will come again to judge the world, is an 
 article of the Apostolic creed which all Christians believe. 
 But when this second coming shall take place, and what 
 shall be the character of the judgment then executed, 
 whether UNIVERSAL and FINAL, upon all that have ever 
 lived and are then alive ; or only upon the then LIVING 
 and RIGHTEOUS DEAD, have long been matters of contro- 
 versy. For ourselves, we are firmly of the opinion, that 
 the entire work of the judgment of the whole human race 
 is not completed in ONE ACT, or at ONE and the SAME 
 TIME, but that there are TWO separate and distinct acts, 
 the one at the BEGINNING, and the other at the END of 
 the millennium. Whoever will compare the account of 
 the judgment given by our Lord in Matthew, xxv. 31-46, 
 with that recorded in Revelations, xx. 11-15, will, we 
 think, perceive that they refer to different times and dif- 
 ferent events. The former takes place at His coming to 
 set up His kingdom on the earth, the latter, after that 
 kingdom has existed a thousand years. The first is a 
 judgment upon the NATIONS, which He will then gather 
 
172 THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 
 
 before Him, as foretold in Joel, iii. 12, Zechariah xiv. 
 12, the second, upon those who have been in their graves 
 for ages; for the sea will then give up its dead, and death 
 and hell will deliver up the dead which are in them. 
 Now the action described in Matthew, xxv., we under- 
 stand to be that referred to in our text, with only this 
 addition. Our text informs us by what agency all na- 
 tions shall be gathered before Him, viz., by the three un- 
 clean spirits which shall go forth to gather the kings of 
 the earth and of the whole world unto the battle of the 
 GREAT DAY. Both places declare that that gathering 
 shall be at the time of His second coining. 
 
 National sins can only be punished while nations exist 
 as such. Their political offenses, which are committed 
 in an associated capacity, to be punished, must find them 
 still existing in that capacity. Individual sins may be 
 punished ages after death. 
 
 This gathering of the nations to judgment, (we will 
 also find,) is spoken of by almost all the prophets. In 
 Isaiah. Ixv. 18, the Lord says, "For I know their 
 works and their thoughts. It shall come to pass that I 
 will gather all nations and tongues, and they shall come 
 and see my glory ; for behold the Lord will crime with fire, 
 and with His chariots, like a whirlwind, to render His 
 anger with fury, and His rebukes with flames of fire ; for 
 by fire and by His sword shall the Lord plead with all 
 flesh, and the slain of the Lord shall be many." 
 
 The Prophet Jeremiah, xxv. 26, speaks of the same 
 gathering, when the wine cup of the Lord's fury shall be 
 given to all the kingdoms of the world which are on the 
 face of the earth, and they shall drink, and be moved, 
 
THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 173 
 
 and be mad, and fall and rise no more, because of the 
 sword which He will send among them, and the slain of 
 the Lord shall be from one end of the earth to the other, 
 as was shown in our previous discourse. 
 
 The Prophet Ezekiel, xlix. 17, refers to it under the 
 figure of a great feast which is made to every feathered 
 fowl, and every beast of the field, which are invited to a 
 great sacrifice which the Lord will make on the moun- 
 tains of Israel, that they may eat the flesh of mighty 
 men, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, and 
 be filled at His table with horses, and with all men of 
 war, saith the Lord God, when all the heathen shall see 
 His judgments which He has executed, and His hand 
 which He has laid on them. 
 
 The Prophet Daniel, ii. 34, 35, refers to it when He 
 describes a stone cut out of the mountains without hands 
 as smiting all the kingdoms of the earth and dissolving 
 and scattering them as the dust of a summer threshing 
 floor. 
 
 The Prophet Joel declares it in a passage we have 
 already quoted, iii. 12: "Let the heathen be waked up 
 and come to the valley of Jehoshaphat, for there will I 
 sit to judge all the heathen round about." 
 
 The Prophet Zephaniah, iii. 8, says, " Therefore wait 
 ye upon me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up 
 to the prey, for my determination is to gather the nations, 
 that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour out on them 
 mine indignation, even all my fierce anger, for all the 
 earth shall be devoured with the fury of my jealousy/' 
 
 The Prophet. Zechariah, xiv. says, " I will gather all 
 nations against Jerusalem to battle ; then shall the 
 
174 THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 
 
 Lord go forth and fight against those nations, as when He 
 fought in the clay of battle '" and our text says three un- 
 clean spirits went forth out of the mouth of the Dragon, 
 and of the Beast, and of the False Prophet, to gather 
 together the kings of the earth, and of the whole world 
 to the battle of the GREAT DAY OF GOD ALMIGHTY. Do 
 not all perceive how the prophets refer to the event which 
 our text announces ? and in ITS accomplishment THEIR 
 predictions will also find their fulfillment. 
 
 When the Old Testament prophets and the Apostle 
 John uttered their predictions of this last great conflict, 
 the Beast and False Prophet were not yet in existence ; 
 only the Dragon, or Pagan idolatry, had a being. Since 
 that period, they have come upon the stage of action, and 
 grown to be mighty powers on the earth ; but yet the 
 Dragon still, in point of numbers, exceeds them both. 
 Now when the time for action shall come, their ancient 
 hostility, which has slumbered, and been, as it were, 
 smothered for a long time, shall burst out anew, and 
 they shall rush to arms. 
 
 The prophet in our text next mentions a circumstance 
 with regard to this battle which shows that a real and 
 physical or military conflict is meant, viz., its location. 
 HE GATHERED THEM, (not the unclean spirits,) but the 
 ARMIES together into a place called, in the Hebrew tongue, 
 Armageddon. The literal meaning of this word is the 
 mountain of Meggido. Megiddon was in ancient times 
 a city in a great plain at the foot of mount Carmel. It 
 is celebrated in sacred story as the scene of some very 
 remarkable battles. In the division of the Holy Land 
 among the twelve tribes it fell to the lot of the half tribe 
 
THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 175 
 
 of'Manasseh as we read Joshua, xvii. 11. It was there that 
 Deborah and Barak defeated Sisera with a great slaugh- 
 ter. There Pharaoh Necho, and Josiah, king of Judah, 
 met, when the later was slain. According: to the best 
 geographers, the ancient Megiddo stood in what is now 
 known as the great plain of Esdraelori, midway between 
 the sea of Galilee and the Mediterranean. It is supposed 
 to be also the same place that was formerly called Jez- 
 reel, where GUeon with his three hundred men. who first 
 brake their lamps and pitchers, next attacked and dis- 
 comfited the immense hosts of the Midianites and 
 Amalekites, Judges, vii. 33, when the Lord turned the 
 sword of each against his fellows and entirely overthrew 
 them, vii. 22 ; here, also, Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, the 
 vilest of women, and most bitter foe of the God of Israel, 
 was eaten of dogs nnd miserably perished, 2 Kings, 
 ix. 36 ; and here the seventy sons of Ahab were slain by 
 Jehu, son of Nimshi, who was raised up of God to cut off 
 the wicked house of Ahab, 2 Kings, x: 11. The Proph- 
 et Hosea, i. 10, 11, foretelling the restoration of the chil- 
 dren of Israel to the land of their fathers, also connects 
 it with some act of judgment upon their foes, for he adds, 
 " great shall be the day of Jezreel," as if some decisive 
 action should here take place which should change the 
 state of affairs throughout the world for their benefit. 
 
 Now the battle of Armageddon shall not only be re- 
 markable for the extent of its slaughter, (which shall be 
 incalculable,) but especially for the manner in which that 
 slaughter shall be effected. The Prophet Zechariah says, 
 xiv. 3, " Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against 
 those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle." 
 
176 THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 
 
 How the Lord has fought in times past against the chil- 
 dren of men, we may learn from His Word. In the bat- 
 tle between Samuel and the Philistines, recorded in 1 
 Samuel, vii. 10, we learn that the Lord thundered with 
 a great thunder on them, and discomfited them proba- 
 bly by the lightning which usually accompanies thunder. 
 
 In the battle between Joshua and the five kings of the 
 Amorites, the Lord cast down great stones from heaven 
 upon them, and there were more that died from the hail- 
 stones than the children of Israel slew. Joshua, x. 11. 
 
 When Kabshakeh, captain of the host of Assyria, 
 made war upon Hezekiah, king of Judah, (2 Kings, 
 xix. 3,) and invaded his land, Hezekiah called on the 
 Lord for deliverance, and the Lord sent an angel, who 
 slew in one night one hundred and eighty-five thousand 
 of his army, who, in the morning, were all found dead 
 corpses. By some pestilence, or other mortal stroke, (for 
 the Lord has various secret weapons in store for His ene- 
 mies,) was this judgment inflicted. 
 
 In the battle between Gideon and the Amalekites and 
 Midianites, (Judges 3 vii. 22,) He set each man's sword 
 against his fellow, and they destroyed one another. 
 
 But in this battle of the GREAT DAY OF GOD AL- 
 MIGHTY, it would seem that all these modes of destruc- 
 tion will be employed, for our text says, describing this 
 battle of Armageddon, " There were thunderings and 
 lightnings, and a great earthquake, such as was not 
 since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earth- 
 quake, and so great ; and there fell upon men a great 
 hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a 
 talent." And the Prophet Zechariah describing this 
 
THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 177 
 
 same event, a When the Lord shall go forth and fight 
 against those nations, as when He fought in the day of 
 battle," says, xiv. 12-14, " This shall he the plague 
 wherewith the Lord will smite them : their flesh shall 
 consume away while they stand on their feet ; their eyes 
 shall consume away in their holes, and their tongues shall 
 consume away in their mouths ;" (a stroke from God 
 as fatal as that which smote the Assyrians,) "and a 
 great tumult from the Lord shall be among them, and 
 they shall lay hold, every one on his neighbor, and rise 
 up against the hand of his neighbor !" In the Prophecy 
 of Ezekiel, the Lord says, xxxviii. 21, " I will call for a 
 sword against him throughout all my mountains. Every 
 man's sword shall be against his brother. And I will 
 plead against him with pestilence and with blood, and 
 I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the 
 many people with him, an overflowing rain, and great 
 hailstones, fire and brimstone," like on Sodom and Go- 
 morrah. So that the occasional judgments, which at 
 different periods God has inflicted on His foes, are but 
 types of that grand final outburst of His fury, when He 
 will pour out all the vials of His wrath in quick succes- 
 sion, and overthrow all the kingdoms of the earth. 
 
 The text next informs us of the fate of the great capi- 
 tals of the world, verse 19. The great city Jerusalem 
 was divided into three parts, (compare Zechariah, xiv. 4,) 
 and the cities of the nations fell, Paris, London, Vienna, 
 Berlin, etc. ; and great Babylon (on the Tiber, not the 
 Euphrates,) came up in remembrance before God, to 
 give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of 
 His wrath ; and every island fled away,*and the moun- 
 
 8* 
 
178 THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 
 
 tains were not found ! Nature is convulsed at the pres- 
 ence of the Lord ; for, if strange phenomena occurred 
 when He came and died to atone for sin, what may we 
 not expect when He comes to be avenged for it ? Then 
 the earth quaked, the rocks rent, the graves were open- 
 ed, and the sun was darkened : now, there shall be voices, 
 and thunders, and lightnings, and earthquakes, and a 
 great hail, besides the desolations of famine, plague, and 
 war. 
 
 The Prophet Jeremiah seems to have had a vision of 
 the scene of this last conflict when, in chapter iv. 19, he 
 exclaims, " My bowels ! my bowels ! I am pained at 
 my very heart ! I can not hold my peace, because thou 
 hast heard, my soul, the alarm of war ! Destruction 
 upon destruction is cried ; for the whole land is spoiled." 
 And he continues, " I beheld the earth ; and ley it was 
 without form and void ; and the heavens, and they had 
 no light. I beheld the mountains, and lo, they trembled, 
 and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and lo, there 
 was no man, and all the birds of heaven were fled. I 
 beheld, acd lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and 
 all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence 
 of the Lord, and by His fierce anger ; for thus hath the 
 Lord said to me, the whole land shall be desolate, yet 
 will I not make a full end/' 
 
 Read the still more sublime description of this event 
 by the Prophet Habakkuk, Hi.': "Before Him went the 
 pestilence, and burning coals went forth at His feet. He 
 stood, and measured the earth ; He beheld, and drove 
 asunder the nations. The mountains saw thee, and 
 trembled ; the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his 
 
THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 179 
 
 hands on high. The sun and moon stood still in their 
 habitation at the light of thine arrows : they went at the 
 shining of thy glittering spear. Thou didst march through 
 the land" i.e., Jerusalem, "in indignation. Thou didst 
 thresh the heathen in anger. Thou wentest forth for 
 the salvation of thy people," etc. The battle of Arma- 
 geddon occurring in the Holy Land, and taking place 
 after the seed of Abraham has been gathered and again 
 settled therein, (vide Zechariah, xii. 13), becomes a con- 
 flict in which their very existence as a nation is at stake; 
 when the Lord appears for their deliverance, Ezekiel, 
 xxxviii. 14-24, and for the overthrow of all His foes. 
 
 The last description which is given of it in Scripture 
 is in chapter xix. of Kevelations, in which the revelator 
 says : u I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse, 
 and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, 
 and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. His 
 eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many 
 crowns ; and He had a name written that no man knew 
 but He Himself; and He was clothed with a vesture 
 dipped in blood ; and His name is called the WORD OF 
 GOD. And the armies which were in heaven followed 
 Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and 
 clean ; and out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that 
 with it He should smite the NATIONS. And He shall 
 rule them with a rod of iron; and He treadeth the wine 
 press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty G-od. And 
 I saw an angel standing in the sun ; and he cried with a 
 loud voice, saying to all the fowls of the air, Come and 
 gather yourselves together to the supper of the great 
 God, that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and of captains, 
 
180 THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 
 
 and of mighty men ; and the flesh of horses, and of them 
 that sit on them ; and the flesh of ALL MEN, both free 
 and bond ; both small and great. And I saw the Beast, 
 and kings of the earth and their armeis, gathered to- 
 gether to make war against Him that sat on the horse, 
 and against His army. And the Beast was taken, and 
 with him the False Prophet, and they were cast alive 
 into a lake of fire, burning with brimstone." Imme- 
 diately after which we have an account of the binding 
 of Satan, and his casting into the bottomless pit, and the 
 establishment of Christ's kingdom and reign for a thou- 
 sand years. Is not this the same event to which our 
 Saviour alludes in Matthew, xxv., where He says, " When 
 the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy 
 angels with Him, (the armies of heaven), He will gather 
 ALL NATIONS before Him, and separate them asun- 
 der, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats ; 
 and will say to them on the right, Come, ye blessed of 
 my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from 
 the foundation of the world ; and to them on the left, 
 Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the 
 devil and his angels ?" Here is precisely the doom of the 
 Beast, and the False Prophet, and kings of the earth, and 
 all their armies, described in Revelations, xix., and the 
 reward of His saints and faithful followers, described in 
 Revelations, xx. So that the battle of Armageddon, or 
 the GREAT DAY OF GOD ALMIGHTY, is the final breaking 
 up of that long course of policy which the nations of the 
 earth have pursued, whereby the authority of Christ and 
 His laws has been ignored, and infidelity, and supersti- 
 tion, and tyranny have prevailed over all mankind. The 
 
THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 181 
 
 aiders, and abettors, and upholders of these different sys- 
 tems, in their last great struggle to sustain them, shall 
 fall on the plains of Armageddon, and with their fall 
 shall the way be prepared to inaugurate that new sys- 
 tem of righteousness, and truth, and peace, which the 
 second Adam and the second advent will bring to a 
 redeemed world. But it would seem that not until the 
 Prophecy of Joel, iii. 10, shall have been fulfilled, with 
 all its terrible results, as described iii the succeeding 
 verses, will the Prophecy of Micah, iv. 3, be realized, 
 with all its desirable consequences, as also described in 
 its sequel. 
 
 The question is often asked by those who study the 
 prophetic word, how near to us, or how far off, is that 
 terrific contest of which we have now given some ac- 
 count ? " How long shall it be to the end of these won- 
 ders ?" While we would not be so presumptuous as to 
 specify " those times which the Father hath in His own 
 power," yet our Lord has directed us always to look out 
 for those signs of these coming events, which, like the 
 budding fig tree, show that summer is nigh. 
 
 And do not the signs of the times at this present 
 period indicate that evil has gone forth from nation to 
 nation, and that social and political disorganization is 
 increasing throughout the earth ? May not the word of 
 Christ, " I came to send fire on the earth, and what will 
 I if it be already kindled/' be even now commencing its 
 fulfillment; and the conflagration which is already lighted 
 up in Europe be the beginning of that time of trouble of 
 which the battle of Armageddon is the end ? The most 
 sober-minded and deep-thinking have for some time past 
 
182 THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 
 
 regarded the signs of the times as exceedingly porten- 
 tous, indicating the approach of some great crisis in the 
 world's history. 
 
 Politicians, as well as theologians, have expressed the 
 opinion that the state of the world is by no means flat- 
 tering to the friends of peace and progress, but rather 
 indicates a coming struggle of interests and principles, 
 which, if it continues to increase, may ere long turn the 
 whole earth into a great battle-field, and make it an 
 Aceldama. From Prophecy, we know that such a conflict 
 must take place ; and when the signs of the times seem 
 to indicate that it is " nigh, even at the doors/' a warning 
 voice comes to us from that same prophetic word, to which 
 we " do well to take heed :" " Come, my people, enter 
 thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee ; 
 hide thyself, as it were, for a little moment, until the 
 indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh 
 out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth 
 for their iniquity; the earth also shall disclose her blood, 
 and shall no more cover her slain." Isaiah, xxvi. 20, 21. 
 
LECTURE IX. 
 
 CASTING OF SATAN IN THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. 
 
 " 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." 
 REVELATIONS, xx. 1-3. 
 
 THE astonishing scope of Prophecy can not be better 
 illustrated, nor its far-reaching vision set forth, than by 
 comparing the first prediction, which was uttered nearly 
 six thousand years ago, with the events yet to come an- 
 nounced in our text. "The seed of the woman shall 
 bruise the serpent's head," was declared to be the final 
 result to him of that fraud which he had practiced upon 
 our unsuspecting mother, who, through the sin in which 
 he beguiled her* brought death into tha world and all our 
 woe. Before, however, the final stroke should be inflicted, 
 a long course of hostility should exist between the two 
 parties, the deceiver and the deceived, in which each 
 should receive some damage. " I will put enmity be- 
 tween thee and the woman, and between thy seed and 
 her seed," a perpetual strife, which should know no ces- 
 sation, and which has been verified in the history of 
 our race from the day that Cain slew Abel down to the 
 
184 CASTING OF SATAN IN THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. 
 
 present moment, when the great powers of the earth, 
 arrayed in hostile attitude, are shedding each other's 
 blood. 
 
 It is a fact worthy of notice that the Scriptures take 
 for granted the existence of the author of good and the 
 author of evil, without attempting to prove either. In 
 Genesis, i. 1, it says, " In the beginning, God created the 
 heaven and earth/' and in Genesis, iii. 1, " Now the ser- 
 pent was more subtle than any beast of the field." Of 
 Adam it gives an account of his formation from the dust, 
 and of Eve from the rib of Adam, and of beasts, birds, 
 and fishes from the earth and water. But Satan is intro- 
 duced upon the stage of action as one who had a previous 
 existence ; no account is given of his origin. Now al- 
 though there have been in all ages persons who denied 
 the existence of a God and of a devil, yet at the time of 
 the creation of this world, according to the Mosaic ac- 
 count, so far from any doubt existing on this subject, it 
 was one of those admitted facts which required no proof. 
 Hence the Scriptures (taking their existence for granted,) 
 begin by giving us an account of their first acts in this 
 world : God's act of creation and Satan's of destruction, 
 and continue the narrative down from generation to gen- 
 eration, showing the same characteristics throughout ; 
 God doing good, Satan devising evil ; God unfolding His 
 plan of salvation for man, Satan laboring to defeat it. 
 The whole history of our race is but a history of the con- 
 flict of these two powers ; the God of heaven seeking to 
 rule mankind by His laws, and the u god of this world" 
 laboring to control them by entirely opposite principles. 
 Before we contemplate, therefore, the final overthrow of 
 
CASTING OF SATAN IN THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. 185 
 
 his power, and his expulsion from the theater of his ex- 
 ploits for so many ages, it may be profitable for us 
 
 1. To notice the origin of his reign on earth. 
 
 2. The means by which he has wielded his power, and 
 the ends which he has always aimed to accomplish by it. 
 
 3. His overthrow, and its consequences to the human 
 family. 
 
 1. We are to notice the origin of Satan's reign on 
 earth. After the Lord God had created man in His 
 image and likeness, He made him lord of this lower 
 world. The act by which He invested him with author- 
 ity over every thing He had made, runs in these words: 
 " Have thou dominion over the fish of the sea, and over 
 the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that 
 moveth on the earth." As God's vicegerent over this 
 new part of His creation, He made a covenant with him, 
 guaranteeing to him the perpetuity of his power, and life 
 and happiness, on condition of obedience to Him ; and 
 to prove his sincerity, gave him a simple and easy test 
 of obedience, viz., to abstain from the fruit of one tree, 
 which he pointed out, which he was not to eat of nor to 
 touch. The author of all good having thus arranged every 
 thing for his happiness, the author of all evil now pre- 
 sents himself to disarrange and destroy. Knowing that 
 he had no power to compel man to sin, (for his Creator 
 had made him with power sufficient to stand, yet free to 
 fall,) he resorted to falsehood and deceit, and by lying 
 insinuations and false promises, so shook the faith of our 
 first parents in the authority of God, that they swerved 
 from their allegiance to Him, admitted the counsels of 
 Satan into the government of the world, adopted his prin- 
 
186 CASTING OF SATAN IN THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. 
 
 ciples into their administration of it, and gave him a 
 foothold and supremacy in human affairs; and thus, by 
 the same arts he first employed, he has ever since man- 
 aged and controlled mankind, leading them captive, as 
 Scripture declares, at his will. After the fatal act, 
 whereby our first parents cut themselves loose from the 
 authority and covenanted protection of God, Satan's 
 reign began. And what a reign it has been, let the blood- 
 stained annals of time unfold ! Our first parents, de- 
 graded and expelled from Paradise, soon tasted the bit- 
 terness of that cup which their posterity have since had 
 to drink unto the dregs. Their first-born son a murder- 
 er, and their second, a martyr and victim of a brother's 
 malice, must have made them deeply feel what an evil 
 and bitter thing it was to sin against God, and what a 
 fatal error to have surrendered the authority God had 
 given them to another, who would exercise it, not for the 
 happiness but for the destruction of their posterity. 
 
 If we follow down the stream of time we find the grad- 
 ual corruption of the human family increasing at such a 
 fearful rate, that soon " the whole earth was filled with 
 violence, and all flesh had corrupted its way." Under 
 Satan's rule, all forms of iniquity had reached such a 
 height that divine forbearance and patience could endure 
 no longer, but by an act of terrible judgment the whole 
 race, except eight, were destroyed, and Satan's kingdom 
 apparently overthrown. 
 
 Yet almost as soon after the flood as after the fall, 
 did he acquire the supremacy, and anew drive on man- 
 kind to those excesses of crime which brought down 
 upon them the judgment of God. The five cities of the 
 
CASTING OF SATAN IN THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. 187 
 
 plain overwhelmed by the fire of divine wrath, and the 
 seven nations of Canaan exterminated for their abomi- 
 nations, together with the desolation of the land of 
 Egypt and the overthrow of Pharaoh's hosts in the Red 
 Sea, were some of the fruits of his diabolical rule from 
 the flood until the exodus from Egypt to settle in the 
 Holy Land. The whole system of idolatry, which in all 
 ages has comprehended so large a portion of the human 
 family, together with its kindred abomination, demonol- 
 ogy, is his especial creation. Holy Scripture declares it 
 to be the worship of devils. Hence all Paganism is rep- 
 resented by the symbol of a dragon, which is a serpent, 
 one of the names of Satan. 
 
 To those who are incredulous on the subject of Satanic 
 agency in the affairs of the world and in the afflictions 
 of men, let the voice of God in His word be listened to, 
 to hear what He declares. That the holy oracles do 
 speak of a most WICKED ANGEL, who is the implacable 
 enemy and constant tempter of the human race, and es- 
 pecially the bitterest adversary of the Church of God, is 
 evident to the most careless reader. The divers names 
 by which he is called, amounting to sixteen in number, 
 all expressive of his qualities, show his character to be 
 the perfection of all that is wicked and odious in the 
 highest degree, the very incarnation of evil. Thus he 
 is called Abaddon in Hebrew, and Apollyon in Greek, 
 L e , destroyer; Angel of the Bottomless Pit, and Prince 
 of Daikness, to show his origin and influence, and that 
 he is an escaped criminal from a place of punishment, 
 prowling in secret to commit deeds that can not bear the 
 light. He is called a roaring Lion, to denote the fero- 
 
188 CASTING OF SATAN IN THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. 
 
 city with which He seeks his prey. A " Liar from the 
 beginning/' to show that he always deals in falsehood, 
 and that there is no truth in him. Also " a Murderer," 
 because he seeks and delights to destroy the souls of 
 men ; " Belial," which means wicked, and " Beelzebub," 
 god of torments ; " our Adversary," because opposed to 
 our best interests ; " Deceiver," because he always im- 
 poses on us ; " Accuser of the Brethren," because he lays 
 false charges against the children of God ; " Prince of 
 the power of the air," because he has great power in the 
 aerial regions ; " the God of this world," because his 
 principles prevail among mankind more than those of the 
 God of heaven ; besides, "Satan," "Devil," " Serpent/' 
 " Tempter," and such like, which are familiar to all. 
 
 Now a being with so many titles, all expressive of bad 
 qualities, and all of whose actions are hostile, and none 
 friendly, to man, can be viewed in no other light than 
 as our worst foe. Whenever his name is introduced in 
 sacred writ a it is to explain some act of malice or wick- 
 edness which he has plotted or perpetrated against us. 
 Does he appear among the sons of God, it is either as an 
 accuser or tempter. Kighteous Job he charged with hy- 
 pocrisy in the service of God ; and when permitted to 
 test his sincerity, brought all the resources of his de- 
 stroying power to bear upon him : first, in stirring up the 
 Sabeans to seize upon his oxen and asses ; second, in 
 sending lightning to burn up his seven thousand sheep, 
 and the shepherds that kept them ; third, in exciting 
 the Chaldeans to seize his camels, and slay their keep- 
 ers ; fourth, in raising a tempest that beat upon his 
 house and overthrew it ; burying under its ruins all his 
 
CASTING OF SATAN IN THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. 189 
 
 sons and daughters. Such acts of malice, such tor- 
 ments, does he delight to bring down upon the children 
 of men ; and lastly, afflicting his body with loathsome 
 sores, from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet. 
 To avenge himself upon David and the people of Israel, 
 he enticed Mm to number the people, and by that act 
 of pride to bring down a judgment whereby thousands 
 were slain. The sacred historian expressly says, 1 
 Chronicles, xxi. 1, " Satan stood up against Israel, and 
 provoked David to number Israel." Through the false 
 prophets of Baal, through heathen oracles, through wiz- 
 ards and necromancers, he imposed upon the credulity 
 and ignorance of mankind, and taught the most degrad- 
 ing and revolting blasphemies and cruelties. The worst 
 passions of men are the instruments he uses to chastise 
 and destroy them. An ambitious warrior is a sword in 
 his hand, with which he slays hundreds of thousands of 
 the human race. Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Xerxes, Al- 
 exander, Hannibal, Cassar, and all those who were called 
 the great heroes of antiquity, were the infuriated agents 
 of his power, sent forth by him to destroy and lay 
 waste the earth. As is said of the beast with the seven 
 heads and ten horns, so it may be said of all these, " the 
 dragon gave them their seat, their power, and their great 
 authority." What has been generally regarded as an 
 empty boast of Satan, viz., " that all the kingdoms of 
 the world and the glory of them," (which he showed to 
 Christ, and offered to Him, if He would worship him,) 
 "that all these were delivered to him, and that to whom- 
 soever he would he gave them" this, so far from being 
 a vain boast, is a fearful reality. The Scripture would 
 
190 CASTING OF SATAN IN THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. 
 
 not call him " the god of this world," nor the Saviour 
 " the prince of this world," titles implying homage and 
 sovereignty, if he possessed none. 
 
 The power and art of Satan, however, were taxed to 
 the utmost when he assailed Christ, and sought to draw 
 Him into sin-. He could not overcome the second Adam 
 as he had the first. When the " PRINCE of this 
 world cometh," says Christ, " he find eth nothing in me." 
 When, on the lake of Genessareth, he raised a storm to 
 wreck the vessel in which He was asleep, the Saviour re- 
 buked the wind and the sea, and thus averted the dan- 
 ger. His malice against the Saviour, however, (since 
 he could not lead Him into sin,) did not sleep until he 
 had compassed His death, which he did by entering into 
 the heart of Judas to betray Him, and inflaming the 
 minds of the Jews to demand His crucifixion. Peter he 
 desired to have, that he might sift him as wheat, but 
 Christ's intercession saved him. Ananias and Sapphira he 
 prompted to lie against the Holy Ghost, which brought 
 upon them swift destruction. After the gospel began to 
 spread among the Gentiles, and overthrow the prevail- 
 ing idolatry, he raised up bitter persecutions against it, 
 which caused the shedding of much blood. By false 
 teachers and heretics, he caused distraction within the 
 Church, which weakened its power, and brought it more 
 easily into bondage to that system of superstition and 
 tyranny which ultimately enslaved and destroyed it. 
 Sacred Scripture tells us how the great apostacy yet to 
 come shall be introduced, viz., "after the working of 
 Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and 
 all deceiveableness of unrighteousness." 
 
CASTING OF SATAN IN THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. 191 
 
 But above all things, war is a thing Satan most ex- 
 ceedingly delights in, for it cuts off more souls in a day 
 than by natural death he can hope to grasp in many 
 years. The battle-field is his harvest-field, whence he 
 reaps and gathers into his garner thirty or sixty or a hun- 
 dred fold. How artfully does he persuade princes and 
 statesmen that the cause of civilization, of liberty, and 
 of religion, requires them to draw the sword against their 
 neighbors. They are not aware that any other influence 
 than that of justice and truth leads them to the decisions 
 they make ; nor was David, or Judas, or any other of 
 those enumerated, aware that they were under a malign 
 influence when they performed their evil deeds ; but 
 Scripture traces them to their true cause, viz., Satanic 
 agency and it is probably not wide of the mark to as- 
 sert, that every offensive war that has ever heen waged 
 on the earth was caused by his instigation. 
 
 Concerning the last great conflict, when he will gather 
 his forces for a final stroke for universal dominion, we 
 are expressly informed that three unclean spirits, spirits 
 of devils, working miracles, will go forth to the kings 
 of the earth, and of the whole world, to gather them 
 to the battle of the great day. That was the subject of 
 our last lecture, and this contains the result to him. 
 
 Such is a brief and very general history of his career 
 from the fall to the present day, the full details of which 
 would form a library of horrors fit only to be read in the 
 bottomless pit. 
 
 You perceive, therefore, that his power has always 
 been used only for destruction, and his malicious pur- 
 poses advanced solely by fraud and guile ; that his vig- 
 
192 CASTING OF SATAN IN THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. 
 
 ilanoe and activity in every age have been unwearied 
 and incessant ; and that he will pursue his hostility to 
 our race until the last. That his character is one of un- 
 mixed evil and no good, is evident from all that Scrip- 
 ture says of him. When St. Paul would paint the char- 
 acter of Elymas the sorcerer in the blackest colors, he 
 simply clothes him with the attributes of Satan : " 
 full of all subtlety and all mischief, thou CHILD OF THE 
 DEVIL, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not 
 cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord ?" 
 
 The power of Satan, like that of God, is invisible in its 
 operation, but manifest in its results. Because it is 
 hidden, many doubt its existence, but it is no more hid- 
 den than the operations of the Spirit of God are, which 
 our Saviour compares to the wind which bloweth, etc. It 
 is the natural., and we ma} 7 say necessary law of all spir- 
 itual agency, whether good or evil, to t be occult and mys- 
 terious, and the invisibility of Satan is therefore no great- 
 er objection to his existence and malignant agency, than 
 is the invisibility of the Holy Ghost to His sanctifying 
 power. 
 
 But we must hasten to contemplate the overthrow of 
 this great enemy of God and man, and notice the power 
 by which it is accomplished. 
 
 " I saw a mighty angel come down from heaven, hav- 
 ing 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 thou- 
 sand years." Notice the accumulation of titles which is 
 here given to the adversary of God and man. 1. Dragon. 
 This is one of the last titles given to him in the Scrip- 
 
CASTING OF SATAN IN THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. 193 
 
 ture ; it first occurs in Revelations, xii. ; and is there ex- 
 plained in the same terms as in our text. 2. Old Ser- 
 pent. Serpent is the first name given to him in Scripture, 
 Genesis, iii. 1 ; and Devil and Satan are indiscriminately 
 used in Scripture. The first is Greek, and the second 
 Hebrew, and when translated and joined together, they 
 mean wicked enemy. There can scarcely be a possibility, 
 then, of mistaking who is intended by this fourfold title 
 it applies to but one being in the universe. The mighty 
 angel who binds him, we understand to be Michael, the 
 archangel spoken of by Daniel the prophet, and declared 
 to be the great defender of his people in the latter day. 
 In Daniel, xii. 1, he says, " At that time shall Michael 
 stand up, the great prince which standeth for the chil- 
 dren of thy people ; and there shall be a time of trouble, 
 such as never was since there was a nation to that time," 
 plainly referring to the battle of Armageddon, which, as 
 we have shown, is brought about by Satanic agency. 
 Michael seems, in Scripture, to be the warrior angel, while 
 Gabriel is the peace angel. 'Twas Gabriel that came to 
 Daniel, (while praying and fasting and confessing the sin 
 of the people,) and informed him how long it would be 
 to the coming of the Messiah, and comforted him in his 
 sorrow and distress. 'Twas Gabriel that was sent to an- 
 nounce to the Virgin Mary that the time for Messiah's 
 birth had come ; and 'twas probably the same angel that 
 strengthened Christ in His agony in the garden, and at 
 His resurrection rolled away the stone from the sepulchre, 
 as the keepers declared, when, affrighted, they fled. But 
 the name of Michael is always connected with other 
 scenes. In Eevelations, xii. 7, we read, " There was war 
 
 9 
 
194 CASTING OF SATAN IN THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. 
 
 in heaven ; Michael and his angels fought against the 
 dragon, and the dragon fought, and his angels, and pre- 
 vailed not ; neither was their place found any more." 
 It would seem that the good angels have a leader as 
 well as the evil angels. 
 
 This war in heaven we understand to be the aerial 
 heavens, the heavens connected with this earth, or the 
 firmament which God called heaven, in which the feath- 
 ered tribes soar aloft. Satan is called not only the god of 
 this world, but also the prince of the power of the air, or 
 aerial regions. Evil spirits undoubtedly pass through 
 the upper regions of this world, on their errands of mis- 
 chief, as well as the good spirits do, who are sent to min- 
 ister to them who shall be the heirs of salvation. This 
 contest between Michael and Satan and their respective 
 hosts, in the aerial regions, (called the war in heaven, 
 Revelations, xii.) takes place we think only a short time 
 before the battle of Armageddon, for immediately after 
 the war in heaven, and Satan's defeat, it is said, " And no 
 place was found any more for him in heaven, and he was 
 cast out into the earth, and his angels with him ;" and 
 then it is added, " Woe to the inhabitants of the earth 
 and. of the sea, for the devil is come down to you having 
 great wrath, for he knoweth that he hath but a short 
 time ;" and then what does he attempt to do in his great 
 wrath for that short time ? By the three unclean spirits, 
 spirits of devils working miracles, he gathers together the 
 kings of the earth, and of the whole world to the battle of 
 the great day of G-od Almighty. Knowing that the ad- 
 versary he encountered in the atmospheric regions, and 
 who expelled him from thence, is on His way down to the 
 
CASTING OF SATAN IN THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. 195 
 
 earth, to take possession of it also, he musters his hosts 
 to battle to make a last effort for that dominion over the 
 earth he has so long exercised, but the battle is lost, the 
 Beast and the False Prophet are taken, and all their as- 
 sociates, and cast into the lake of fire, and at this time the 
 animating spirit of them all is also arrested, bound, im- 
 prisoned and kept in close confinement for a thousand 
 years. 
 
 In all the former conflicts on earth, while whole armies 
 have been slaughtered, and their leaders fallen or dis- 
 graced, the KEAL INSTIGATOR, who was behind the 
 scenes, has escaped, and then commenced new efforts for 
 another field of slaughter. But at this time, he also shall 
 be captured, and as he was cast out of the AERIAL regions, 
 so shall he be also expelled from the terrestrial , and 
 undergo a long imprisonment in a subterranean place. 
 All doubtless admit that no human power can ever arrest 
 Satan, and cast him out of the earth. A spiritual power 
 may overcome an infernal one, and pursue and capture 
 him, but a h'uman power can only act against his wiles ; 
 therefore all the Church a,nd the gospel for ages, whilst 
 they have been directed against his principles, could not 
 touch his person, nor get rid of his invisible presence. He 
 would still mix among men and interfere in human affairs. 
 But Michael seizes hold of the great offender himself in 
 such a way as an angel only can grapple with an angel, 
 and effectually rids the earth of his presence. 
 
 Our ideas of arrest and imprisonment, and of securing 
 an offender, are associated with the seizing of his per- 
 son, binding, locking up, chaining down, etc.; and there- 
 fore this action was so represented 
 
196 CASTING OF SATAN IN THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. 
 
 Gabriel, with the key of the bottomless pit, and a great 
 chaif! in his hand, is said to lay hold on Satan and cast 
 him into the bottomless pit, and set a seal on him. 
 Those who are opposed to the literal interpretation of 
 Scripture amuse themselves, as they think, at the ex- 
 pense of those who advocate the literal interpretation, 
 by asking, with a jeer, what kind of a chain was this, 
 brass or iron ? and what kind of a key, steel or copper ? 
 and what kind of a pit is a bottomless pit ? and where 
 can such a thing be found ? As our knowledge of an- 
 gels, either as to their forms, or shapes, or bodily mem- 
 bers, is exceedingly imperfect, it can not be expected 
 that we can tell what bonds and ligatures may be re- 
 quired to confine or restrain them. We can not tell 
 what angels' food is, yet we do not doubt that they sub- 
 sist on some food adapted to their natures. We know 
 not how they live ; whether they walk or fly, or sit down 
 or lie down, or be always in motion; and shall it then be 
 demanded of us to say by what kind of a chain wicked 
 angels may be bound ? and what is the metal of the key 
 which shuts up their place of confinement ? God know- 
 eth, though we may not be able to tell ; and it is as great 
 an act of presumption to say that no chain and key are 
 used, against the positive declaration of the text that 
 they are, as it would be for us to attempt positively 
 to show the quality of them, which God has not ex- 
 plained. 
 
 But what idea can we have of a BOTTOMLESS PIT, the 
 place of his confinement ? and where is it located ? it is 
 also asked. If Satan isfirst cast out of the aerial regions 
 unto the earth, and then next out of the earth into the 
 
CASTING OF SATAN IN THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. 197 
 
 bottomless pit, this pit must either be within this 
 earth or entirely beyond the bounds of the globe, and 
 in some other part of creation. Which is the case ? Let 
 us inquire whether there is a bottomless pit connected 
 with this globe ; and if so, where is it ? The globe on 
 which we live has a circumference of about twenty-five 
 thousand miles, and a diameter of about eight thousand. 
 It is a continually-revolving sphere, which turns on its 
 axis once in every twenty-four hours. Philosophers are 
 agreed that it is not a solid body, i. e., the eight thousand 
 miles of diameter, down through from America to China, 
 the opposite sides, are not solid earth ; on the contrary, 
 from experiments made upon the increase of heat as we 
 descend below the surface, it is quite evident that solid 
 earth does not extend to more than sixty miles in depth, 
 (some maintain that it is only thirty miles,) when we 
 reach a state of igneous fluidity. From the constantly- 
 revolving motion of the earth, we can not say that it has 
 any top or bottom. If we say the portion that faces the 
 sun is the top, presently that is turned away and the 
 opposite portion takes its place, so that the earth is 
 really a topless and bottomless ball, no part of the sur- 
 face being at any time in a fixed position toward any 
 other object. Now if the crust of this ball on which we 
 live, be, at the utmost, sixty miles in thickness, see what 
 an immense internal area remains, of nearly eight thou- 
 sand miles in diameter, deducting only the sixty miles 
 of surface or solid earth a vast abyss ! a bottomless 
 pit ! for, partaking of the rotatory motion of the earth, 
 it has neither bottom nor top. Constant revolution, 
 which prevents the exterior of the earth from having a 
 
198 CASTING OF SATAN IN THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. 
 
 top equally prevents the interior from having a bottom ; 
 and this, in truth, is the only idea we can form of a bot- 
 tomless pit, viz, the hollow interior of a revolving ball. 
 So that the TRANSLATOR did not use language without 
 meaning, or necessarily speak in figure when he declared 
 that Satan, when expelled from the earth, should be cast 
 into the bottomless pit. 
 
 But when great criminals are arrested and imprisoned, 
 they are not only placed in dungeons and chained, but 
 the doors are well fastened, and the windows barred, so 
 that all egress may be prevented. If you ask what is 
 now the way of access to the bottomless pit, we answer, 
 in our opinion, the craters of volcanoes. These, which 
 the ancients used to call the chimneys of Tartarus, have 
 evidently a communication with the interior of the earth, 
 and show that eternal fires are raging below, which never 
 go out. This everlasting fire, which our Saviour de- 
 clared was prepared for the devil and his angels, and of 
 the certain reality of which we are admonished by every 
 volcanic eruption, is in that bottomless pit, that vast sea 
 of fire which rages under our feet, Moses refers to it 
 when he says, or God says by him, " A fire is kindled in 
 mine anger, which shall burn to the lowest hell, and 'set 
 on fire the foundations of the mountains, and consume 
 the earth with her increase." The foundations of the 
 mountains extend to the very depths of solid land, until 
 they meet the consuming element which changes them 
 into molten lava ; and then, by forces which are gene- 
 rated in that great laboratory of avenging wrath, they are 
 thrown upon the surface. And from this source shall 
 undoubtedly proceed the fire which will cause " the ele- 
 
CASTING OF SATAN IN THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. 199 
 
 ments to melt with fervent heat, and the earth and its 
 works to be burned up." 
 
 Now let us suppose this action to have taken place, 
 the fire prepared and kept alive so long to have burst 
 forth from its volcanic outlets and purified the earth, and 
 then their action to cease, Satan cast into the pit, and 
 every crater immediately closed, would not his escape be 
 impossible ? Would he not be locked up in a dungeon 
 more secure than any bars or bolts on earth could make 
 one ? Is not the key of the bottomless pit, therefore, 
 the power given to the mighty angel to close the vol- 
 canoes ? These passage-ways to the surface being all 
 shut, he could not approach the human family any more 
 to allure them with guile. The seal set upon him is the 
 sentence of his doom, imprisonment for a thousand years. 
 The reason given is, that he should deceive the nations 
 no longer. But if the apostacy and iniquity of the na- 
 tions were not owing to his deceptions the imprisonment 
 is unjust. If, as some think and say, Satan is charged 
 with more than he is guilty of, then this punishment 
 might seem too severe, but to show that this is not the 
 case, it is added in our text, and " after that" (viz., the 
 imprisonment of a thousand years,) C; he must be loosed 
 a little season." 
 
 Now mark the consequence. During the thousand 
 years of his absence, not a war desolates the face of the 
 earth, the sword is beaten into the plowshare and the 
 spear into the pruning-hook, the knowledge of the Lord 
 covers the earth as the waters do the sea, all see eye to 
 eye and go hand in hand. There is one Lord, and His 
 name one, and from the rising of the sun unto the going 
 
200 CASTING OF SATAN IN THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. 
 
 down of the same incense is offered to His name, and a 
 pure offering; no religious feuds distract the harmony of 
 society, but unity and love universally prevail, and ex- 
 tend even to the lower orders of creation, so that the lion 
 and the lamb lie down together, and the leopard and the 
 kid, and the cow and the bear feed together, and the 
 venomous serpent does not sting; in one word, " there 
 is nothing to hurt or destroy in all God's holy moun- 
 tain." 
 
 Such is the state of the world during Satan's expul- 
 sion from it. But what occurs during the little season 
 he is loosed. Hear the word of God, verse 7 : " When 
 the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed a 
 little season, and shall go out to deceive the nations which 
 are in the four quarters of the earth, to gather them to 
 battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea ; 
 and they went up on the breadth of the earth and com- 
 passed the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and 
 fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured 
 them." 
 
 To show that Satan is Satan still, the god of war, and 
 author of all the controversy and strife that exists among 
 men, this last trial is given him ; from which it appears 
 that his long imprisonment has not altered his nature, 
 and that the human family is not safe when he is at 
 large ; therefore, he is now sentenced and doomed to 
 that ETERNAL TORMENT which is adjudged to the wicked 
 in the lake of fire and brimstone, and the struggle be- 
 tween the seed of the woman and the serpent is for 
 ever ended. The Son of God has destroyed all the 
 
CASTING OF SATAN IN THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. 201 
 
 works of. the devil, and the sentiment of the poet is 
 realized: 
 
 "Lord God of Hosts cut short his power, 
 
 Let him in darkness dwell ; 
 And that he may deceive no more, 
 Confine him down to hell" 
 
 That the place of the future punishment of the wick- 
 ed is within the earth and helow its surface, seems to be 
 a necessary inference from many expressions of the sacred 
 writers. The frequent use of the phrase down to hell, 
 shows that in their opinion it was somewhere beneath 
 us. Thus, the prophet says of the wicked, "let death 
 seize upon them, and let them go doivn quick into hell;"* 
 
 * The place of the future punishment of the wicked is called in the Scrip- 
 tures the lake of fire and brimstone, prepared for the devil and his angels. 
 Why it is so called is differently explained. Some say because it is literally 
 what the language imports, a burning sea of fire, upon which the wicked, 
 after their resurrection, are launched for that voj^age of woe which never 
 comes to an end. Others say the language is figurative, and was intended 
 only to express the most inconceivable anguish of mind and torment of 
 conscience for the sins committed in this life. This is of course merely pre- 
 sumption. It is incapable of proof, either from any express declaration of 
 the Scriptures or unavoidable logical inference, that hell fire does not mean 
 hell fire in the most strict and literal sense of the words. The Scriptures 
 certainly teach us that the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the 
 earth, and all the works therein, shall be burned up. Surely this is LITERAL 
 fire, for God, speaking of this event to Moses, says, Deuteronom}^ xxxii. 
 22, "a fire is kindled in mine anger, which shall burn to the lowest hell, 
 and set on fire the foundations of the earth, and consume the earth with its 
 increase." Now when science teaches us that there are eternal fires raging 
 beneath our feet, which through volcanic openings find their way to the 
 surface of the earth, and may one day so overspread it as to enkindle a 
 general conflagration, and then again subside to their deep abysses below, 
 is it not more than probable that that subterranean region is the actual lake 
 of fire of which the Scriptures speak ? 
 
 But some think that the literal interpretation of the passage, "lake of fire 
 
 9* 
 
202 CASTING OF SATAN IN THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. 
 
 and Solomon declares, " her house is the way to hell, 
 going down to the chambers of death." The Prophet 
 Ezekiel, speaking of the last Antichrist and his over- 
 throw, xxxi. 16, says, " I made the nations to shake at 
 
 and brimstone," conveys such an HORRIBLE IDEA, that it seriously reflects 
 upon the goodness, mercy, and compassion of God to appoint such cruel 
 torments for His creatures. Can a loving Father, they ask, require of any 
 who have offended Him to undergo for endless ages such horrible punish- 
 ment for their sins ? Incredible ! they say, the language must be figurative, 
 and must be so interpreted. But why then use a figure which expresses 
 so much that is horrible ? There is, and always should be in figurative lan- 
 guage, some analogy between the idea actually expressed and the truth 
 really intended to be conveyed. Language expressing the most intense 
 bod ly suffering that can be conceived of, would never be employed to de- 
 scribe a moderate degree of mental anguish, any more than stoning would 
 mean severe scolding, or public burning at the stake sharp reproof before 
 men. If, as some pretend, the expression fire and brimstone is used merely 
 to express the intensity of mental anguish, which they suppose to be so great 
 that nothing but the torment of fire and brimstone can properly express it, 
 then what is gained by such an explanation? Certainly the compassion of 
 God is not diminished : for if the anguish be as keen under one form of 
 suffering as under another, nothing is gained by substituting one for the 
 other. Either the expression, lake of fire and brimstone, denotes an actual 
 PLACE of future punishment, where the wicked will hereafter endure the 
 punishment of their sins in the manner the language naturally imports, or 
 it merely expresses a possible state of mental anguish, which will so far ex- 
 coed any thing they are accustomed to in this life that no other figurative 
 language can adequately express it. If the former, then all is plain and 
 easily comprehended ; if the latter, then the frightful imagery must either 
 be shorn of much of its horrors by suitable explanations, or the literal lan- 
 guage might as well be retained. The difficulty, therefore, of adhering to 
 the literal scnsa is not removed by a figurative interpretation, and even if 
 to many minds it seemed to be, yet the danger of so doing demands that 
 great caution should be observed in rejecting the literal interpretation of the 
 Scriptures, which has generally the preference over every other method of 
 exposition. 
 
CASTING OF SATAN IN THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. 203 
 
 the sound of his full, when I cast him down to hell with 
 them that descend into the pit." The Prophet Isaiah, xiv. 
 15, referring to the same event, viz., the destruction of 
 Antichrist, under the name of Lucifer, says, (notwith- 
 standing his arrogant boasting and great exploits) " yet 
 thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the 
 pit ;" and our Saviour sanctions the use of this phrase 
 when He says of Capernaum, who had enjoyed such 
 great privileges but abused them, "thou shalt be brought 
 down to hell." Now, where is down to all parts of the 
 surface of the earth, but the interior ? If in opposite 
 parts of the globe, and on all sides of it, we can still say 
 hell is down and beloiv, it must be in the interior of the 
 earth. The Chinese are beneath our feet, and we are be- 
 neath theirs, and down, to both can only be in some 
 midway between us. When the earth opened her mouth 
 and swallowed up Korah and his company and they went 
 down alive into the pit, there must have been a pit within 
 the earth to receive them, and what that pit was, other 
 parts of Scripture teach us. It is sometimes called the 
 pit wherein is no water, as we see in the case of Dives; 
 the pit of destruction, (Psalm Iv. 23;) and, in the text, 
 the bottomless pit. 
 
 Besides the word down, so often used to describe the 
 direction of this awful place, the word beneath is some- 
 times employed. The Prophet Isaiah, as we have already 
 seen, speaking of the Antichrist who should be cast down 
 to hell, adds, that hell from beneath should be moved to 
 meet him at his coming. 
 
 But why multiply passages of Scripture to prove this 
 point ? God hath made nothing in vain. And if the 
 
204 CASTING OF SATAN IN THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. 
 
 aerial regions at the renovation of the earth shall be the 
 abode of the risen saints, and the renewed surface of the 
 earth the happy home and millennial rest of all that are 
 still in the flesh, as we shall show in a future lecture, 
 the only place remaining where the author of all evil and 
 the deceiver and destroyer of the human race can be shut 
 out from all access to man, is that deep cavern under our 
 feet whose walls are perhaps sixty miles in thickness, and 
 all whose openings for light or air are closed with such 
 fastness as no power but the divine can ever again loose. 
 This prison house of woe is as much prepared by divine 
 power for its- proper inmates, as the new heavens and 
 the new earth, wherein shall dwell righteousness is for 
 the followers of the Lamb. Hence the Saviour speaks 
 of the kingdom prepared for. the righteous as here on 
 this earth ; and of the everlasting fire prepared for the 
 devil and his angels which we know to rage beneath it. 
 
 State prisons, where prisoners of state are confined, 
 are often adjoining the dwellings of the good and the vir- 
 tuous. Generally culprits confined for crime, suffer in 
 the same dominions in which they committed their mis- 
 deeds. The Tower of London and the Bastile of Paris 
 were within hail of the palaces of St. James and the 
 Tuileries. Kulers, and citizens, and criminals, the happy 
 and the miserable, were all under the same municipal- 
 ity. So, when the Son of David shall establish His royal 
 throne on mount Zion and rule the world in righteous- 
 ness, not only shall His foes be made His footstool, but 
 that great enemy of His authority, the god of this 
 world, the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that 
 worketh in the children of disobedience, and the ringleader 
 
CASTING OF SATAN IN THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. 205 
 
 of all rebellion, shall be confined in that subterranean 
 dungeon connected with this earth which for ages has 
 been prepared for him, and where for ages he shall be the 
 great prisoner of state, suffering the torment of hell 
 fire. The world undoubtedly shall know of his doom, 
 and of his place of confinement, and rejoice in their de- 
 liverance from his power, and while the righteous under 
 the new heavens dwell on the new earth, in the enjoy- 
 ment of a millennium of happiness, Satan, under the 
 new earth, shall be confined in the bottomless pit, to en- 
 dure a millennium of disappointment, rage, and woe ; 
 bruised, (as the apostle says,) under our feet. 
 
 We may now, in our subsequent discourses, introduce 
 you to more agreeable scenes than those connected with 
 divine wrath and judgment, even scenes of glory and 
 happiness to the human race. The entire exclusion of 
 Satanic agency from human affairs, and the happy rid- 
 dance of our world from the presence, and power, and in- 
 trigue and malice of her most relentless foe, will be such 
 a marked era in its history, that, as an unfulfilled Proph- 
 ecy, it could not with justice be overlooked. For as the 
 entrance of Satan into our world was the beginning of 
 its sorrow, and his continual instigations the fruitful 
 source of its manifold miseries, so will his expulsion from 
 it be the beginning of its joy, and the dawn of that pe- 
 riod when righteousness and truth shall spring up among 
 all nations, and the presence of our divine Redeemer 
 gladden a redeemed earth. As there is now no other 
 event between us and this blissful period, that will neces- 
 sarily form the subject of our next lecture. 
 
LECTURE X. 
 
 THE NEW DISPENSATION. 
 
 " Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and 
 a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." 2 PETER, iii. 13. 
 
 THE many changes through which our world has passed 
 since the entrance of sin into it, suggests the strong 
 probability that its present condition, which is still a 
 sinful one, can not be regarded as a permanent condi- 
 tion, but that it is still in a transition state, tending to 
 some other condition, either better or worse. What that 
 change will be human speculation can not determine, or 
 worldly wisdom find out ; but only He can declare, who 
 has the times and the seasons in His own power. 
 
 There are two classes of society who view the future 
 in entirely different lights. 
 
 First, those who live in the past, and are always refer- 
 ring to former times and days gone by as so much bet- 
 ter than the present period ; who look upon this age as a 
 very degenerate one, and see no prospect of its ameliora- 
 tion, but rather anticipate a still further deterioration, 
 until it shall have reached a point of demoralization 
 too awful to contemplate. 
 
 The other class consider that there never was an age 
 of greater light, liberty, general intelligence, benevolence, 
 and moral excellence than the present ; and that this is 
 gradually leading us forward to a position more exalted 
 
THE NEW DISPENSATION. 207 
 
 than the human family has ever yet attained. To them 
 the future is bright, and radiant with hope for the best 
 interests of the human race, while to the former it is 
 dark and threatening to the peace and harmony of the 
 world. 
 
 Between two theories so entirely opposed to each other 
 the sincere inquirer after truth may anxiously ask, Which 
 shall I believe ? Philosophy will give one answer, infi- 
 delity another, and divine revelation a third ; but as the 
 two former speak only the sentiments of erring mortals, 
 he will turn to the third, whose writers speak as they 
 were moved by the Holy Ghost. This will give him a 
 picture of the future, in which more than all the dark- 
 ness of the one theory, and more than all the brightness 
 of the other, are commingled, and yet neither is shown 
 to be the whole truth a future in which clouds full of 
 fury and wrath gather blackness, and burst in storms 
 of calamity and woe upon a wicked and affrighted world, 
 and then break away and reveal a clear and serene sky 
 beyond, indicating a return of calm and sunshine, which 
 shall be as perpetual as it is magnificent and welcome. 
 Our text presents to us the beautiful clearing up after 
 that most terrific storm which shall ever be experienced 
 on earth a storm in which " the heavens shall pass away 
 with a great noise, the elements melt with fervent heat, 
 the earth, and the works therein be burnt up." After 
 which, says our text, " ive, nevertheless, according to His 
 promise, look fur new heavens and a new earth, wherein 
 dwelleth righteousness." 
 
 To see how the apostle reaches this conclusion, let us 
 trace him through his previous argument down to this 
 
208 THE NEW DISPENSATION. 
 
 point. In the beginning of this chapter he says : " This 
 second epistle, beloved, I now write to you, in which I 
 stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, that ye 
 may be mindful of the words which were spoken before 
 by the holy prophets, and of the commandments of us, 
 the apostles of our Lord and Saviour. Knowing this, 
 first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, 
 walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the 
 promise of His coming ? for since the fathers fell asleep 
 all things continue as they were from the beginning." 
 The great doctrine of the Christian religion that which 
 has been preached from the beginning of Christianity to 
 this day as one of its most glorious and sublime truths 
 is, " the second coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ in glorious majesty to judge the world." This 
 fundamental tenet of the gospel, the apostle informs us, 
 shall in the last days be assailed and reviled. SCOFFERS 
 shall arise and say, " Where is the promise of His com- 
 ing ? for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue 
 as they were from the beginning." And is it not noto- 
 rious that this doctrine, one of the most solemn and 
 fearful as well as the most important of Christianity, is 
 practically ignored by multitudes at this day, some of 
 whom, under the guise of religion, as Swedcnborgians, 
 Spirit Kappers, Quakers, Shakers, Mormons, and others, 
 attempt to destroy it by explaining it away ? And 
 others, more bold in infidelity, treat it as an exploded 
 theory, or dogma of the dark ages, which will not stand 
 the test of philosophical scrutiny, or the advanced intel- 
 ligence of the nineteenth century. The tendency of the 
 human rnind to derogate from the transcendent impor- 
 
THE NEW DISPENSATION. 209 
 
 tance of this truth is one of the fearful signs of the near 
 approach of the latter days, according to the word of 
 God. 
 
 But why is this great truth assailed by scoffers ? The 
 reason assigned is, because of its long delay. Our Sa- 
 viour teaches us this in one of His parables. The evil 
 servant to whom was delivered a trust, saying, " Occupy 
 till I come/' shall say in his heart, " My Lord delayeth 
 his coming," and therefore shall begin to smite his fellow- 
 servants, and eat and drink with the drunken. " Scoff- 
 ers shall arise, walking after their own lusts." The tend- 
 ency to luxury and sensuality lies at the bottom of this 
 heresy ; and intellectual pride and infidelity is another 
 powerful ingredient of the spreading poison. For, says 
 the apostle, in the chapter from which the text is taken, 
 " This they are willingly ignorant of, that by 'the word 
 of the Lord the heavens were of old, standing out of the 
 water and in the water." This was the chaotic state of 
 the earth, while yet darkness "lay on the face of the 
 deep," and before God had " separated the waters from 
 the dry land, calling the dry land earth, and the gath- 
 ering together of the waters sea." Previous to this 
 the earth stood as it were out of the water and in the 
 water : both were mixed. 
 
 This was the first condition of the globe. Creation 
 brought it into that state of order and beauty in which 
 we find it when Adam was formed to be its lord. Now 
 that beautiful world, which was formed out of chaos, 
 was overflowed with water, and perished. That deluge 
 of wrath, which swept from it every living thing, and 
 covered its whole surface for more than one hundred and 
 
210 THE NEW DISPENSATION. 
 
 fifty days, utterly defaced its beauty, and changed its 
 form and quality, especially as an abode of health, which 
 we see in the rapid shortening of human life immediate- 
 ly after the flood. But if a world so beautiful as the first 
 was destroyed, what is to be the fate of the present 
 world ? Is there not a strong probability that it too 
 may be laid in ruins ? They who say it never will be, 
 and scout such an idea as absurd, the apostle says, are 
 willingly ignorant of the past. They disbelieve the 
 Word of G-od, and therefore reason only from their own 
 imaginations ; but, he adds, " The heavens and the 
 earth, which are now by the same Word," (i. e., of God's 
 purpose,) " are kept in store, reserved unto fire against 
 the day of judgment/' (which is the day of Christ's sec- 
 ond coming,) "and perdition of ungodly men." And 
 what shall be the result of that devastating fire ? Shall 
 any thing arise out of that conflagration, or shall the 
 annihilation of the earth follow ? Our text declares, 
 " Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for 
 new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth right- 
 eousness." The doctrine of our text, therefore, is, 
 
 1. That upon this globe which we inhabit, there is to 
 be founded a new order of things, as different from the 
 present as the present is from the antediluvian world, 
 and that, 
 
 2. As the change from the antediluvian to the pres- 
 ent was by the waters of a flood, so the change from the 
 present to the millennial, called in our text " new heaven 
 and new earth," will be by a desolating fire. 
 
 3. That this last destruction by fire will no more prevent 
 the repeopling of the globe, than the first by water did. 
 
THE NEW DISPENSATION. 211 
 
 4. And that the population of that "world to come 
 whereof we speak/' will be different from that of " this 
 present world" for while in this, iniquity prevails, in that 
 shall dwell righteousness. 
 
 Here, then, we have before us an entire new order of 
 things, so different from the present and the past, that it 
 can be looked upon in no other light than as an entirely 
 NEW DISPENSATION, a reorganizing of society on a 
 new basis, political, social, and religious. This, in the 
 regular order of subjects, is, therefore, the theme of our 
 present discourse, viz., the INTRODUCTION OF THE NEW 
 
 DISPENSATION. 
 
 To those who have always been accustomed, without 
 enquiry or reflection, to consider Christianity as the last 
 form of obedience and probation that would be given to 
 the human race before the consummation of all things, 
 it may seem strange to speak of another dispensation yet 
 to come, in which the present gospel system will be su- 
 perseded for another more glorious. We look with so 
 much apprehension and disfavor upon all attempts, at the 
 present day, to supplant the gospel system by new theories 
 of moral or social reform, that we naturally listen with 
 prejudice to any suggestion favoring the idea. We feel 
 on the subject of Christianity as the Jews feel still about 
 Judaism, viz., that it is a system so perfect that nothing 
 can ever take its place ; and yet their feelings are no 
 test of truth, for Judaism gave place to Christianity, a 
 more perfect development : and why ma^ not Christi- 
 anity give place to another system still more peifect 
 than itself ? We shall attempt to show you that it 
 not only may, and will, but must. But before^ how- 
 
212 THE NEW DISPENSATION. 
 
 ever, we enter on this task, let us give a brief his- 
 tory, 
 
 1. Of the different dispensations of God's grace to the 
 children of men. 
 
 2. How each was introduced. 
 
 3. How each terminated, or by what means was 
 brought to a close. 
 
 1. By a dispensation, we mean simply a Divine method 
 of promulgating truth and establishing worship. Its 
 author must be God. No human power can introduce 
 any system of doctrine, or form of worship, obligatory on 
 mankind. The 
 
 First dispensation given to the world was the Adamic. 
 This seems to have been exceedingly simple. The law 
 of sacrifice,' together with the law of the Sabbath and 
 the law of marriage, are the only written records we have 
 of this dispensation. What observances were handed 
 down by tradition we know not of. The 
 
 Second was the Noatic. This was an enlargement of 
 the former, and embraced what is called the seven pre- 
 cepts of Noah. The 
 
 Third was the Abrahamic. .This, to all the foregoing, 
 added the rite of circumcision, and contained important 
 revelations concerning the promised Messiah, particular- 
 ly of His descent. The 
 
 Fourth was the Mosaic. This embraced a very exten- 
 sive and full system of doctrines and duties, civil, relig- 
 ious, and political, contained at large in the five books 
 of Moses. The 
 
 Fifth was the Christian, the doctrines and principles 
 of which are contained in the New Testament, and em- 
 
THE NEW DISPENSATION. 213 
 
 braces so much of all the former dispensations as har- 
 monize with its teachings. The 
 
 Sixth will be the millennial, or that NEW DISPEN- 
 SATION of which we shall speak more at large pres- 
 ently. And the 
 
 Seventh will be the new Jerusalem state, that final 
 and closing dispensation, when " Christ will deliver up 
 the kingdom to God, even the Father ;" when, the work 
 of redemption being complete, the season of human 
 probation will be finally terminated. Concerning the 
 difference between these last two, we expect to treat 
 more at large in a future discourse. These seven dis- 
 pensations (seven being the perfect number in Scrip- 
 ture) complete the entire course of Divine culture and 
 discipline given to the human race for its perfection. 
 
 2. Let us notice how each of these dispensations were 
 introduced. 
 
 We will find each of the five past to have been inaugu- 
 rated by personal communication and revelation from 
 God. 
 
 To Adam He appeared, and conversed, and revealed 
 his will, and confirmed His covenant, making the tree of 
 life the seal of it. 
 
 To Noah He appeared, and conversed, gave His law, 
 and then confirmed a new covenant, making the rainbow 
 the seal of it. 
 
 To Abraham He appeared, and conversed, and made 
 known His will, and confirmed a new covenant, making 
 circumcision the seal of it. 
 
 To Moses He appeared, and conversed, and revealed 
 His law in the hearing of all Israel, and made a new cov- 
 
214 THE NEW DISPENSATION. 
 
 enant, and appointed the sprinkling of blood the seal of 
 it ; for, as Saint Paul says, " when Moses had spoken 
 every precept to the people according to the law, he took 
 the blood of calves and goats, with water, and scarlet 
 wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all 
 the people, saying, this is the blood of the covenant 
 which God hath enjoined unto you." 
 
 To the apostles, " God, who appeared at sundry times 
 and in divers manners to the fathers by the prophets," 
 appeared by His Son, and showed them, through Him, 
 those higher mysteries of redemption and salvation which 
 were unknown to all former ages, but were now made 
 manifest for the enlightening of all nations ', and the 
 God-Man established the new covenant, into which we 
 have been brought, by appointing Baptism and the Holy 
 Supper as seals of it. 
 
 The next dispensation will also be introduced by the 
 visible agency of the Son of God, as we shall show in its 
 proper place ; but what the laws thereof will be, and 
 what the seals of the new covenant then made, can not 
 now be known, and the same is true of the last dispen- 
 sation, the new Jerusalem state. 
 
 Having shown the way in which each of these dispen- 
 sations was introduced, let us notice, 
 
 3. The manner in which they each terminated. If 
 their several introductions were remarkable, their seve- 
 ral terminations were not less so. As they were all in- 
 troduced by direct interposition and communication from 
 God, so they were all terminated by awful judgments 
 from heaven. They began in mercy, but ended in wrath. 
 Thus the 
 
THE NEW DISPENSATION. 215 
 
 Adamic dispensation, which commenced in Paradise, 
 ended with the flood. 
 
 The Noatic, which commenced immediately after the 
 deluge, when God smelled a sweet savor in the sacrifice 
 of that just man and blessed him, ended in the over- 
 throw of the five cities of the plain. 
 
 The Abrahamic dispensation, which began soon after 
 that overthrow, when God made a covenant with Abra- 
 ham, terminated in the desolation of Egypt and the 
 overthrow of Pharaoh and his hosts in the Bed Sea. 
 
 The Mosaic dispensation, which commenced in the 
 wilderness at mount Sinai, ended in the destruction of 
 Jersusalem, and the dispersion of the Jews. And 
 
 The Christian, which commenced when our Lord sent 
 forth His disciples to preach the gospel throughout all the 
 world, but more particularly on the day of Pentecost, will 
 come to its end in that great battle of Armageddon, of 
 which we spoke in a former lecture. 
 
 The Millennial dispensation, which shall be introduced 
 at the second coming of the Son of Man, will cease when 
 Satan, let loose again for a little season after his bond- 
 age of a thousand years, gathers his great armies from 
 the four quarters of the earth, and attacks the camp of 
 the saints of the Most High. That glorious dispensation 
 will also close by that last act of judgment, the casting 
 of him and his hosts for ever in the lake of fire ; when 
 the new Jerusalem state, the last dispensation of God's 
 mercy and love, the eternal state, will begin. 
 
 Upon a review of all the dispensations of God's grace 
 to the children of men, we find their beginnings to have 
 all been bright and promising, their endings dark and 
 
216 THE NEW DISPENSATION. 
 
 overwhelming. When we view them separately, they 
 each show the folly and weakness and depravity of 
 human nature, and the constant tendency of mankind 
 to degeneracy and departure from God ; and when we 
 view them collectively, the solemn lesson they teach is 
 that rain and misery may in one hour be introduced into 
 a world, and overspread and desolate it, which ages upon 
 ages of remedial processes, and counteracting influences 
 may be unable to expel. 
 
 But let us turn our attention more particularly to 
 that new dispensation which shall succeed the present, 
 and which in our text is called the " new heavens and new 
 earth wherein dwelleth righteousness." 
 
 The heavens and the earth, or the firmament and 
 terraqueous globe, which now make this " present world," 
 have both undergone sad changes since the creation. 
 The atmospheric regions, which are often the places of 
 storms and tempests, frequently also generate disease 
 and spread pestilence over whole continents. Impurity 
 of atmosphere is a prolific cause of sickness and death, and 
 always will be until the world is purified by that refin- 
 ing process which separates the dross from the pure gold ; 
 Hence the elements melting with fervent heat is but the 
 order appointed for renovating them and making the new 
 heavens. So also of the " earth defiled/' as the Prophet 
 Isaiah says, xxiv. 5, for so many ages a under the inhab- 
 itants thereof," it is the refiner's fire of the conflagration 
 scene that must purge away the dross and filth which ages 
 have accumulated upon its polluted surface. All the 
 monuments of sin must be demolished, its hiding-places 
 discovered and overthrown, and a total purgation of all 
 
THE NEW DISPENSATION. 217 
 
 its wicked works and ways be made. This will be the 
 material part of the new heavens, and new earth of the 
 Age to come. So great a change in external objects will 
 be attended with a corresponding change in its civil and 
 ecclesiastical state. This is expressed by the words 
 " wherein dwelleth righteousness/' In all the former 
 dispensations of God's grace to man, iniquity has pre- 
 vailed over truth and justice, meekness and piety ; now 
 the reverse shall be the case righteousness shall be in 
 the ascendency, and this shall be the result of two 
 causes : first, Satan, the great tempter and deceiver of 
 mankind, shall be bound and cast out of the earth ; and 
 second, the Son of God shall reign in person, whose 
 scepter is a scepter of righteousness, and all nations shall 
 serve and obey Him. The government He shall establish 
 over the redeemed earth shall be a pure theocracy, " ONE 
 Lord," and His name ONE, and "from the rising of the 
 sun to the going down of the same, incense shall be of- 
 fered unto His name and a pure offering." 
 
 It must be evident to every reflecting mind that many 
 of the doctrines and practices of Christianity, as well as 
 many of its exhortations and prayers, would be as totally 
 inapplicable to that state of the Church as some of the 
 laws of the Jewish dispensation are to the Christian 
 Church now existing ; e. g., 
 
 It could no longer be said then as now of the Church, 
 " Fear not, little flock, it is your Father's good pleasure 
 to sjive you the kingdom," for the Church then will em- 
 brace the ivhole world, not a few out of the many. Neither 
 will the teachings of our Saviour during His first advent 
 be applicable to that period: "Wide is the gate and 
 
 10 
 
218 THE NEW DISPENSATION. 
 
 broad is the way which leadeth to destruction, and many 
 there be that go in thereat; straight is the gate and nar- 
 row is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be 
 that find it," for all will then know the Lord from the least 
 to the greatest. All that teaching of our Lord and His 
 apostles which declared that " in this world His disci- 
 ples should have tribulation/' should be "persecuted and 
 suffer reproach," will be inapplicable to that period when 
 universal harmony will prevail. All the cautions against 
 the snares of Satan and the wiles of the devil will be use- 
 less, for Satan will be bound and cast in the bottomless 
 pit, that he may deceive the nations no longer. All the 
 warnings against Antichrist, and other seducers and her- 
 etics, will be unnecessary, for all these shall have been 
 cut off. 
 
 So also with regard to many duties which are strongly 
 urged, such, e. g., as fasting on account of some pressing 
 of impending judgment. " How can the children of the 
 bridechamber fast when the bridegroom is with them ?" 
 The presence of the Saviour and His happy reign will 
 diffuse joy all around : fasting would be out of place. 
 So also all days of humiliation for deprecation of the 
 plague or any temporal calamity. There shall he " noth- 
 ing to hurt or destroy." 
 
 So also with regard TO PEAYEKS. Many of those 
 we now offer will be inapplicable at that time. Even the 
 Lord's prayer will become obsolete, for how could we ask 
 any more that His KINGDOM MIGHT COME, when it had 
 already come? or that His will might be done on earth as 
 it is in heaven, when all served and obeyed Him, and 
 His kingdom ruled over all ? 
 
THE NEW DISPENSATION. 219 
 
 Our liturgy would greatly need to be reformed to be 
 suited to the circumstances of that period. All that re- 
 lates to battle, murder, heresy, schism, and the many 
 disorders of the present period, will be as much out of 
 place at that time as the prayer, and song of Moses at the 
 Red Sea would be at this age. Not but that it may be 
 of use to all to read and reflect upon all these things, 
 and learn from them what the state of society was when 
 they were used, just as we now, from the Mosaic rites, 
 learn how society was ordered when they were practiced. 
 In all probability, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper 
 will then be discontinued, for, as the command to keep 
 this, was only TILL HE COME, i. e., in remembrance of 
 Him during His absence ; so when He comes, we may no 
 longer be required to commemorate His death. 
 
 It is evident from the Old Testament Prophecies, that 
 sacrifices will be partially restored, though it would seem 
 not as propitiatory but as eucharistic, (vide Ezekiel, xliii. 
 18-27; Isaiah, Ix. 7,) and it is beyond question, that the 
 feast of tabernacles will be made obligatory on all na- 
 tions to keep once a year at Jerusalem. This is without 
 doubt the plain meaning of the Prophet Zechariah, xiv. 
 17-19, while Ezekiel seems to go further, and sets forth 
 a ritual of service bearing a strong resemblance to that 
 of the ancient Jewish, chapters xl. xlv. It is probably 
 not far from the truth to say, that as the former dispen- 
 sation was almost exclusively Jewish, and the present 
 Gentile, the succeeding one may be such a blending of the 
 two that each may find in it something of that which 
 He preferred and delighted in ; but of this we can only 
 speak rather inferentially than positively. 
 
220 THE NEW DISPENSATION. 
 
 The great feature, however, of that new dispensation 
 will Le its THEOCKATIC CHARACTER, or that per- 
 fect union between Church and State which has always 
 been in this dispensation so much abused whenever es- 
 tablished, either to the corrupting of the Church, or the 
 enslaving of the State. The Redeemer Himself, will, as 
 the Prophet Zechariah says, vi. 13, sit. as a priest on His 
 throne, and execute righteousness and truth among all 
 nations. A THEOCRACY is undoubtedly the most 
 perfect system of government in the world, if purely ad- 
 ministered, and promotes the temporal happiness, moral 
 advancement, and well-being of a people, to a greater de- 
 gree than any other system can do, if properly carried 
 out. It requires those in authority, as well as those under 
 authority, to be obedient to God, and gives no liberty to 
 rulers to outrage the moral sense of mankind by their 
 vices, under the plea that " the king can do no wrong." 
 It holds all men to a strict accountability to the law of 
 God, even in this life, and punishes blasphemy and adul- 
 ery, as it does murder and apostacy from divine institu- 
 tions as treason and rebellion against the State. The only 
 difficulty heretofore with such a form of government has 
 been the want of virtue to carry it out. Perhaps it never 
 attained to greater perfection than in the days of Sam- 
 uel. He was a, just and wise ruler, and administered the 
 law in the fear of God. But the nation became corrupt- 
 ed and weary of the government of God, and clamored 
 for a change, and God "gave them a king in His anger, 
 and took him away in His wrath." 
 
 Under the present dispensation, the Church of Rome 
 has attempted to establish a theocracy in the Papacy, 
 
THE NEW DISPENSATION. 221 
 
 which, so far from being an institution of heaven, is only 
 Satan's counterfeit of that Divine system which our Lord 
 will establish in the new dispensation. The evils which 
 this spurious theocracy has brought upon the world, no 
 doubt have hud much to do with the increasing determi- 
 nation in the minds of men to separate religion entirely 
 from affairs of state, and yet this can not be done without 
 extreme peril. To vote God and His cause out of doors 
 is a hazardous step for any nation to take. If the Bible 
 is His word, and Christ His Son, and the Church a vine 
 of His own planting, it is dangerous for any state to say 
 it will have nothing to do with either, let them take care 
 of themselves. That it will not in its official capacity 
 recognize them as of God, or as obligatory on society, 
 neither, on the other hand, will it do them any harm. 
 This attitude of neutrality and indifference to God's cause 
 He certainly can not look upon with any favor. Men 
 can not divest themselves of their obligations to Him by 
 associating themselves together in civil and political rela- 
 tions. The object of the theocracy originally was that 
 God should be acknowledged in all the relations of life ; 
 that His will should rule in every thing ; that He should 
 be all and in all. And is not this right ? Who would 
 exclude Him from any thing ? But a theocracy at the 
 present day is an utter impracticability, and for this sim- 
 ple reason : mankind are so distracted in religious opin- 
 ions that they can not unite on any system of religious 
 truth ; they can not agree what the word of God or what 
 His Church is ; and whether or not Christ is His Son 
 and the Saviour of the world ; multitudes affirm, and 
 greater multitudes deny; and a theocracy (without a gen- 
 
222 THE NEW DISPENSATION. 
 
 cral acknowledgment of these truths,) would be an ab- 
 surdity. But when the "'times of the restitution of all 
 things, which God has spoken by the mouth of His holy 
 servants the prophets," shall arrive, and He " shall again 
 send forth that Jesus who has so long been preached to 
 us," and He shall "come in the glory of His Father" to 
 take possession of the earth, and shall overthrow all 
 iniquity and every false system, political and religious, 
 and every institution of Satan, and the four hundred and 
 fifty millions of idolaters, and the one hundred and sixty 
 millions of Papists, and the one hundred and fifty millions 
 of Mohammedans, and the eighty millions of Greek, Ar- 
 menian, Nestorian, and other Eastern Christians, and 
 the ninety millions of Protestants, besides hosts of infi- 
 dels, skeptics, and unbelievers who reject every form of 
 faith ; when all these shall have been subdued, either 
 by the power of His wrath or the power of His truth, 
 then there will be a readiness for the establishment of 
 one, UNIVERSAL SYSTEM, in which the will of God will 
 reign supreme, A dispensation of unity in faith and 
 worship will then arise, which will show a united world, 
 a race brought at last into harmony with itself and with 
 God, through the agency of His Son. 
 
 There are several subordinate circumstances which will 
 powerfully contribute to this happy union of all nations 
 in the faith and worship established at that period, in 
 connection with the PRESENCE AND POWER OF 
 CHRIST, which must always be acknowledged as the 
 great producing cause. These circumstances are : 
 
 1. One visible Head over all the earth, its acknowl- 
 edged Sovereign, whose decrees are acknowledged to be 
 
THE NEW DISPENSATION. 223 
 
 all wise, and from whose decision there will be no appeal 
 Of His infallibility none will entertain a doubt. What- 
 ever directions emanate from Him, all will regard as the 
 voice of unerring wisdom. The Koman pontiff aims to 
 occupy this position to the world at the present day, and 
 in this dispensation, and has for ages past claimed infal- 
 libility for his decisions in doctrine and worship. But 
 not one fifth of the human family recognize his claim, 
 while hundreds of millions utterly laugh it to scorn. 
 The world acknowledges no one to be authority in mat- 
 ters of faith, therefore it continues distracted. But when 
 the LIGHT OF THE WORLD, the SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, 
 shall arise upon all nations in the glory of His second 
 advent, All shall feel that the long night of error and 
 doubt has passed away, and the glorious day of light 
 and truth for all nations has come, and shall open their 
 hearts to receive His instructions, He shall have one 
 fold, and they one shepherd, and All feed in the same 
 pasture. 
 
 2, One language shall then also prevail over all the 
 earth, and be the sacred speech of universal worship. 
 This, we think, is taught by the Prophet Zephaniah, iii. 9, 
 who says, having spoken of the battle of Armageddon 
 and the general conflagration, in these words, " there- 
 fore, wait ye upon me, for my determination is to gather 
 the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour 
 out on them all my fierce anger, for all thu earth shall 
 be devoured with the fire of my jealousy." " Then," He 
 adds, " will I turn to the people a pure language," (i. e. 9 
 a speech unmixed with impure dialects,) "that they may 
 all call upon the name of the Lord to serve Him with one 
 
224 THE NEW DISPENSATION. 
 
 consent/' The whole earth was once of one language 
 and of one speech. That language, (which is generally 
 believed to have been the Hebrew, the language of Adam 
 and Noah, and all generations between them,) that lan- 
 guage was confounded at Babel to defeat an evil purpose 
 in which men were then engaged, and its purity lost to 
 the great majority of men.* Being unable to understand 
 each other, they dispersed abroad over the earth, con- 
 versing in new and various tongues, and from that period 
 to the present there has been an effectual barrier against 
 any unity of purpose among them, in consequence of the 
 difficulty of holding communication, or enjoying social 
 intercourse. 
 
 But when the happy period shall arrive, when all na- 
 tions shall agree to worship the same Lord in the same 
 manner, may it not be expected that God will restore to 
 them again a "pure language, a common speech ?" For 
 if the confounding of their language was a punishment 
 for rebellion, restoring it would be the praper reward for 
 united return to His service. This seems to be the 
 meaning of the prophet we have quoted. The unintel- 
 
 * The language which God gave to Adam in Paradise may be called 
 "pure," when compared with those many tongues invented by men after 
 the dispersion at Babel. If that was the original vehicle of thought in 
 which the Old Testament was written, and which has been so wonderfully 
 preserved as a living tongue by that remarkable people, of whom God says, 
 Isaiah, Ixvi., " I will take of you for priests and for Levites, and they shall 
 declare my glory among the Gentiles ; for as the new heavens and the 
 new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so 
 shall your seed and your name remain ;" it is not improbable that Abra- 
 ham's seed may, in Abraham's language, go forth from Abraham's land, 
 and in the tongue in which the Saviour worshiped while on earth, declare 
 to Tarshish, Pul and Lud, to Tubal, Javan, and the isles afar off, His glory 
 
THE NEW DISPENSATION. 225 
 
 ligible jargon of a thousand tongues ia the united wor- 
 ship of the millennial age, would not sound as agreeable 
 to the ear, as one harmonious swell of a pure speech, un- 
 derstood by all, and going up from all in the same ac- 
 cents of thanksgiving and praise. We can only touch, 
 but can not enlarge further on this point. Rome has at- 
 tempted to remove the difficulty of divers tongues, in 
 the way of general union, by enjoining the use of the 
 Latin language in public worship, but has failed as fail 
 she must in all her efforts to introduce and make uni- 
 versal her system of false pretense, for that glorious dis- 
 pensation is yet to come. 
 
 Lastly, not only shall there be one visible Head, ac- 
 knowledged as Prophet, Priest, and King, the sole Lord 
 and Judge of all laws and ordinances then to be observed ; 
 one language in common use, and spoken by all ; but 
 
 3. There shall be one great metropolis, the seat of 
 royal power and authority, the center and source of re- 
 ligious influence and of control over the whole earth. 
 This shall be that Zion which Grod formerly chose to put 
 His name there, and of which He said, " This is my rest 
 for ever ; here will I dwell, for I have desired it." This 
 sacred spot shall, at this period, be exalted above the 
 mountains and all hills, and all nations shall flow to it ; 
 and He who then and there reigns, will " teach them of 
 His ways, and they shall walk in His paths ; for out of 
 Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord 
 from Jerusalem." Here again the Mother of Harlots has 
 attempted to counterfeit this glorious state of the Church. 
 
 among the Gentiles, and the whole earth become again, in the worship of 
 God, " of one language and of one speech." 
 
 10* 
 
226 THE NEW DISPENSATION. 
 
 yet to come, by making Rome the center and source of 
 all religious authority and influence, but has miserably 
 failed ; for it has become, as Saint John declares, " a hold 
 of every foul spirit, a cage of every unclean and batet'ul 
 bird." Revelations, xviii. 2. Jerusalem (when it shall 
 become the city of the great King, King Messiah, in 
 His second advent,) shall be the joy of the WHOLE 
 EARTH, and the metropolis of the redeemed world. 
 But as this point will be more or less involved in a suc- 
 ceeding lecture, we shall not dwell upon it any longer, 
 only remarking in conclusion, 
 
 That this new dispensation of which we have spoken 
 has its limits, as all the former ones have had, and is like 
 them all, not an eternal, but only a probationary state. 
 Its duration will be shorter than some of the past dis- 
 pensations and longer than others of them. The Adamic, 
 or patriarchal dispensation, as it is sometimes also called, 
 continued sixteen hundred and fifty- six years ; the No- 
 atic dispensation lasted four hundred and fifty-one years ; 
 the Abrahamic four hundred and six, the Mosaic four- 
 teen hundred and eighty-seven, and the Christian has 
 now continued eighteen hundred and fifty-nine years, 
 i. e., two hundred years longer than the Adamic, four 
 hundred longer than the Mosaic, and fourteen hundred 
 years longer than the Noatic or Abrahamic. The new 
 dispensation of which we now speak, the millennial, takes 
 its name from its duration millennial, from mille an- 
 num, a thousand years. An old tradition, which the Jew- 
 ish Rabbis trace to the Prophet Elijah, says the world 
 shall continue seven thousand years, two thousand years 
 without the law, two thousand year under the law, two 
 
THE NEW DISPENSATION. 227 
 
 thousand years under the Messiah, and then comes the 
 Sabbath, or seven thousandth year, when it will have rest. 
 According to the present system of chronology, this would 
 make us yet nearly a century -and a half distant from that 
 glorious period. But chronology is somewhat uncertain, 
 and therefore we can not, with accuracy, calculate the 
 time and the seasons. Let it be our wisdom, then, to be 
 like servants waiting for their lord, who, whether he corn- 
 eth at evening, or at midnight, or at cock crowing, may 
 find them watching ; and especially since, in that new 
 heaven and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, 
 perfect obedience and subjection to Christ will be the 
 reigning law of that dispensation, let us see to it that 
 our hearts and minds, and all our powers within us 3 are 
 brought into that state of perfect submission to His will, 
 which will always make it our highest delight to walk 
 in His ways, and to do His service, and fit us, if not to 
 live as subjects, peradventure to reign as kings and 
 priests with Him a thousand years. 
 
LECTURE XI. 
 
 THE FIRST RESURRECTION AND REIGN OP THE SAINTS 
 WITH CHRIST FOR A THOUSAND YEARS. 
 
 " And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them and judgment was given 
 unto them ; and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the wit- 
 ness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshiped the 
 Beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their fore- 
 heads, or in their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ a thou- 
 sand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand 
 years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is 
 he that hath part in the first resurrection. On such the second death hath 
 no power, but they shall be priests of God, and of Christ, and shall reign 
 with him a thousand years." REVELATIONS, xx. 4-6. 
 
 THE glory which shall be hereafter revealed unto all 
 and in all the children of God, is constantly held forth 
 in holy Scripture as the great persuading and animating 
 motive to us to deny ungodliness, and all worldly lusts, 
 and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this pres- 
 ent world. Concerning the nature of that glory, we can 
 say nothing but what the Scriptures say ; we can only 
 speak as they speak. Concerning its degree, we are as- 
 sured that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it 
 entered into the heart of man to conceive the things 
 which G-od hath prepared for them that love Him ; and 
 concerning the heirs of that glory, all the sacred writers 
 are unanimous in the declaration that they are only 
 those who have become reconciled to God ; through the 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 229 
 
 death of His Son, and have become the followers and 
 faithful disciples of Christ. Our text presents us with 
 a brief statement and a glimpse of some portion of 
 that reward which is to be given to those for whom it is 
 prepared at the second coming of our Lord. Having 
 treated in our last discourse of that new dispensation 
 which shall be introduced when the present one shall 
 close, that new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth 
 righteousness, two questions present themselves for our 
 consideration. 
 
 1. Is that state a purely spiritual and celestial one, or 
 a terrestrial and celestial state united ? 
 
 2. Have the righteous dead a place, and any special 
 privileges therein ; and if so what are they ? 
 
 The thousand years'" reign of Christ on the earth we 
 showed in our last discourse to be one of those several 
 dispensations of grace to the children of men, of which 
 four are already past, the fifth is now present, and that 
 will be the sixth. It is a state of probation on the earth 
 for living men, in which, as in all past ages, they will be 
 under a covenant of obedience, and in a course of prepa- 
 ration for a still higher state. We remarked that one of 
 the distinguishing traits of that dispensation would be its 
 theocratic character. The tabernacle of God being with 
 men, and He dwelling with them, the law and govern- 
 ment of God will be supreme over all other powers. 
 Christ will be King over all the earth, and the throne of 
 David in the Jerusalem rebuilt will be the seat of His 
 royal dominion. As there never was a king who executed 
 all the powers of government solely in his own person, but 
 had many associated with, and subordinate to himself, 
 
230 THE FIRST BESURRECTION 
 
 exercising administrative, judicial, ecclesiastical and civil 
 functions in His name, so in this kingdom, (for which we 
 constantly pray that it may come,) though established in 
 the new earth, and under the new heavens, and governed 
 by Christ in person, it yet seems to be carried on by the aid 
 of viceroys, judges, priests, and teachers of various grades, 
 who will all execute His commands, and apply the princi- 
 ples of His reign to all. Hence says our text, " I saw 
 thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given 
 to them." What thrones these were, and who sat on 
 them, and who gave them judgment, i. e., the power to 
 execute judgment, the remainder of the text informs us. 
 " And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the 
 witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and that had 
 not worshiped the Beast, neither his image, neither had 
 received his mark upon their forehead, nor in their hands ; 
 and THEY lived and reigned with Christ a thousand 
 years." Now as those who reign, sit on thrones, here are 
 the occupants of the thrones he saw. " I saw thrones, and 
 they," i. e, the risen saints, "sat on them, and THEY 
 lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." Here 
 then is the THEOCRACY, with its whole staff of officers 
 fully organized ; and this is the Millennium, that new 
 dispensation of universal holiness which will gladden the. 
 earth at the second advent of the Son of Man. Now as 
 those who are dead can only live again by a resurrection, 
 so the apostle called this appearance of them at this time 
 the FIRST resurrection. He speaks very positively : 
 " This is the FIRST RESURRECTION. Blessed and 
 holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection ; on 
 such the second death hath no power ; but THEY shall 
 
AND REIGN OF THE SAINTS. 231 
 
 be kings and priests of God, and of Christ, and shall 
 reign with him a thousand years/' 
 
 The subject of our discourse at this time therefore is 
 THE FIRST RESURRECTION AND REIGN OF 
 THE SAINTS WITH CHRIST FOR A THOUSAND 
 YEARS. This glorious event of unfulfilled Prophecy is 
 one to which all Christians should look forward with joy- 
 ful hope and extatic delight, for in its accomplishment 
 they will find the reality of that gracious promise of their 
 Lord, " Well done, good and faithful servant, tbou hast 
 been faithful over a few things ; be thou ruler over many 
 things ; enter thou into the joy of tliy Lord." 
 
 The doctrine of a future resurrection of the body is 
 one so fundamental in the Christian system, that we will 
 not call your attention to it by rehearsing its proofs. 
 We continually profess it in the Apostles' creed, and 
 therefore may regard it as an article of faith settled be- 
 yond dispute. 
 
 The only point in reference to the doctrine, which we 
 shall now undertake to show is, that altbough all that 
 have ever died shall be raised again to life, yet that res- 
 urrection shall be a very different event to the two class- 
 es who partake of it. Not only shall some arise to honor 
 and glory, and others to shame and everlasting con- 
 tempt ; but the resurrection of the righteous shall have 
 a long priority to that of the wicked, as long as the whole 
 period of Christ's reign on the earth, i. e., one thousand 
 years. The common opinion that the resurrection of the 
 righteous and the wicked shall take place at the same time 
 is probably derived from two passages of Scripture, which 
 if they stood alone would justify the inference ; but as 
 
232 THE FIRST RESURRECTION 
 
 they must be interpreted in harmony with other Scrip- 
 ture, do not necessarily sustain such a view. These are, 
 
 1. The declaration of our Lord, in John, v. 28: " Mar- 
 vel not at this, for the hour is coming in the which all 
 that are in their graves shall hear His voice, and shall 
 come forth, they that have done good to the resurrection 
 of life, and they that have done evil to the resurrection 
 of damnation." The other passage is that which Saint 
 Paul uttered before Felix, in which he declares his be- 
 lief in a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of 
 the unjust. Because in these general declarations on the 
 subject of the resurrection, no distinction is made in point 
 of time between that of the just and of the unjust, it is 
 inferred that they are simultaneous events ; and this in- 
 ference would be proper enough, were there no other 
 passages which show there is a difference in the time of 
 the resurrection of the righteous and of the wicked, and 
 how long that difference is. Such, however, being the 
 case, the general declarations must of course be inter- 
 preted in harmony with the specific ones. 
 
 Now Saint Paul, in his first epistle to the Thessalo- 
 nians, iv. 16, declares that the DEAD IN CHRIST shall rise 
 FIKST. " The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven," 
 he declares, " with a shout, with the voice of an archangel 
 and the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise 
 FIRST." But how long before the dead out of Christ, is 
 not here declared. Again in 1 Corinthians, xv. 23, hav- 
 ing made the general declaration, that as in Adam all die, 
 so in Christ shall all be made alive ; he adds, "but every 
 man in his own order, Christ the FIRST FRUITS, after- 
 ward they that are Christ's" (i. e. } the righteous dead,) 
 
AND REIGN OF THE SAINTS. 233 
 
 "AT His COMING/' In this chapter, the resurrection of the 
 righteous only is treated of that of the wicked is not even 
 alluded to and the resurrection of the righteous is de- 
 clared to be at His coming, and that COMING is also de- 
 clared in various passages of the Scripture to be WITH 
 His SAINTS, and to "gather His elect from the four 
 winds of heaven," to give reward unto His saints, and 
 to them that fear. Him; and in the text, it is said, they 
 are raised to reign with Him a thousand years, and this 
 is called the FIRST RESURRECTION. The word first being 
 a relative term, must have reference to a second, and if 
 we can determine when that second resurrection takes 
 place, then we may decide how long the first precedes it. 
 In verse 7, of this chapter, the apostle says, when the 
 thousand years are finished, Satan is let loose a little sea- 
 son, and goes out to deceive the nations which are in the 
 four quarters of the earth, and gathers a great army and 
 encompasses the camp of the saints and the beloved city, 
 and is destroyed by fire from heaven, after which he sees 
 the " dead, small and great, stand before God." In the 
 text, having declared the resurrection of the righteous to 
 be to reign with Christ a thousand years, he adds, u the 
 rest of the dead," i. e., the unrighteous dead, "lived not 
 again until the thousand years ivere finished." Now at 
 the expiration of the thousand years, he sees these stand 
 before God, the sea giving up its dead, and death and hell, 
 (i. e.j the grave and hades,) delivering up the dead which 
 were in them, and all being cast into the lake of fire, which 
 he declares to be the second death. In the text, he had 
 asserted that those having part in the first resurrection 
 were " blessed and holy," because " on them the second 
 
234 THE FIRST RESURRECTION 
 
 death had no power." But those raised and judged after 
 the thousand years had passed, all fell under the power 
 of the second death. Is it not evident, therefore, that 
 the two resurrections differ as well in point of time as 
 they do in character ? The first is at the beginning of 
 the thousand years, the second, after its expiration. The 
 first at the binding and expulsion of Satan from the 
 earth, the second, after his being loosed for a little sea- 
 son. The first, to live and reign with Christ on the earth, 
 the second to be cast out from His presence into a place 
 of torment ; in other words, the first, is the resurrection 
 of the just and unto life ; the second, the resurrection of 
 the unjust, and unto damnation; that they are separated 
 from each other by the whole period of the millennium. 
 We are at a loss to conceive how these truths could be 
 expressed with more precision and exactness than they 
 are in the chapter from which our text is taken. 
 
 2. If the point then is established, that the resurrection 
 of the righteous is at the beginning of the thousand 
 years, let us next inquire whether all the godly dead are 
 raised at this time, or only a portion of them ? From 
 the language of our text, some have maintained that this 
 first resurrection is to be only of the most distinguished 
 of the righteous dead, martyrs and confessors, and those 
 who have done much and suffered much for Christ. They 
 suppose that the expression, " souls of those that were 
 beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of 
 God, and which had not worshiped the Beast, neither 
 his image, nor had received his mark upon their fore- 
 heads or in their hands," describes only those who have 
 suffered a violent death ; because in chapter xiii., where 
 
AND REIGN OF THE SAINTS. 235 
 
 the last Antichrist is described, who does great wonders, 
 so that he makes fire to come down out of heaven in 
 sight of men, it is said, that he compels all both small 
 and great to worship an image of a Beast which he en- 
 dows with the power of life and speech, and to receive a 
 mark in their right hand or forehead, in order to buy or 
 sell, and whosoever would not comply with these orders 
 should be killed. Revelations, xiii. 15. 
 
 The text, evidently referring to this persecution of 
 Antichrist, declares, that those who had not worshiped 
 the Beast nor his image, nor had received his mark in 
 their forehead or in their hands, should live and reign 
 with Christ a thousand years. But while such language 
 includes those especially designated, it by no means ex- 
 cludes all others. In fact, all who have lived before this 
 Beast came into existence, and of course never worshiped 
 him or received his mark, are included in the terms of the 
 blessing. So that believers of all ages are comprehended 
 in what seems at first sight to be the privilege restricted 
 only to a few. We conclude, therefore, that the coming 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ will be with ALL HIS SAINTS ; 
 that the children of the first resurrection will be all the 
 godly dead, from righteous Abel to the last believer that 
 shall depart this life before the second advent.* As the 
 Prophet Zechariah declares, " The Lord my God shall 
 come, and all the saints with thee." 
 
 * Perhaps the two Witnesses, being the last among the slain by Anti- 
 christ, shall be among the first raised at the second coming of Christ to de- 
 stroy him, and thus be the first fruits of that noble army of martyrs who 
 shall then, with all who have suffered for Christ, be called to reign with 
 Him. 
 
286 THE FIRST RESURRECTION 
 
 In addition to these, there will be also the godly liv- 
 ing who shall be on the earth at His appearing. What 
 shall be their state ? The apostle having informed us in 
 the first epistle to the Thessalonians, iv. 16, that " the 
 dead in Christ shall rise first/' adds, " then we which 
 are alive and remain, shall be caught up to meet the 
 Lord in the air." " They shall be changed in a moment, 
 in the twinkling of an eye, at the sound of the last 
 trump." " We shall not all sleep" says the apostle, i. e. } 
 the sleep of death ; "but we shall all be changed." 
 Those who had put off this corruptible by death, shall 
 put on incorruption by a resurrection ; and those who 
 had not yet put off this corruptible by death shall put it 
 off by a translation, such as Enoch and Elijah received, 
 who are types of those who shall be changed at the sec- 
 ond advent of Christ, as the saints who, at the resur- 
 rection of Christ, came out of their graves and went into 
 the holy city and appeared unto many, are types of 
 those who at His second advent shall awake from the 
 dust and enter into glory. 
 
 3. Let us next examine the privileges and employ- 
 ments of the saints after their resurrection and trans- 
 lation. These are described in our text, viz., " To live 
 and reign with Christ a thousand years." 
 
 His second coming being to establish His kingdom, 
 their gathering unto Him at that time is to be associated 
 with Him in that kingdom as His servants and ambassa- 
 dors, His viceroys and priesthood, and to execute such 
 authority as He shall entrust to them. This theocratic 
 state, in which the saints shall rule with Christ, was fore- 
 told by the Prophet Daniel long before the first advent 
 
AND REIGN OF THE SAINTS. 237 
 
 ^- 
 
 of our Lord. He declared that the stone cut out of the 
 mountain without hands, and which became a great 
 mountain and filled the whole earth, was the kingdom 
 which the God of heaven would set up after the over- 
 throw of all other kingdoms ; and that this kingdom 
 should not, like all the former, he left to other people, 
 but be given to the people of the SAINTS OF THE MOST 
 HIGH, and should never be overthrown. And describing 
 the coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven, 
 he also saw thrones placed for those who were to be asso- 
 ciated with Him in that kingdom. Our Lord said to 
 His apostles, " Ye who have followed me in the regene- 
 ration," (i. e.j of the world, when He that sits on the 
 throne says, behold I make all things new; a new heaven 
 and a new earth, wherein dvvelleth righteousness,) "ye 
 shall sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel." 
 Here is a royal dominion, promised them at His second 
 coming. Describing, in another place, the reward of His 
 faithful servants, He declares, that it shall be to one to 
 have dominion over ten cities, to another over five cities ; 
 showing in what manner they reign with Him, viz., as 
 prefects and as subordinate officers throughout His king- 
 dom. The whole earth shall probably be districted, and 
 such portions and duties be assigned to each as each 
 shall be qualified to perform. And here, undoubtedly, 
 one star shall differ from another in glory. Some shall 
 have higher stations, and more extensive authority ; 
 others inferior stations, and a more limited influence. 
 The Prophet Daniel intimates that none shall be so con- 
 spicuous and highly honored as those who have been most 
 instrumental in winning souls to Christ. " They that 
 
238 THE FIRST RESURRECTION 
 
 turn many to righteousness shall shine as stars in the 
 firmament for ever and ever/' 
 
 It would, of course, be impossible for us to imagine 
 or conjecture what will be the endless variety of occupa- 
 tions of all the redeemed in the millennial kingdom. We 
 know not how the myriads of angels who now invisibly 
 surround us, and minister to them who are the heirs of 
 salvation, are daily occupied in their works of mercy and 
 love. Suffice it to say, there will be something for all to 
 do, according to their capacities. We know, from the 
 Saviour's declaration, that the apostles will each be 
 kings, and each have a tribe of the restored Israel to 
 reign over. " Yet shall sit on thrones, judging the twelve 
 tribes of Israel." And it is not improbable that the 
 same spheres of usefulness and fields of labor in which 
 men have been engaged in doing good during life, may 
 be placed under their dominion in the world to come. 
 That dominion which was originally given to man before 
 the fall, and was lost by sin, the second Adam, who has 
 recovered by His death, will again restore after the res- 
 urrection. So He assured His followers, Luke, xiii. 32 : 
 " Fear not, little flock ; it is your Father's good pleasure 
 to give you THE KINGDOM." And again, Luke, xxii. 
 30, " I appoint unto you A KINGDOM, as my Father 
 hath appointed unto me, that ye may eat and drink at 
 my table, and sit on thrones judging the TWELVE 
 TRIBES of Israel." The Apostle Paul has assured us 
 that if we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him; 
 and the new song which the apostle heard all the expect- 
 ant saints sing, was fc unto the Lamb, who was worthy to 
 take the book and loose the seals ; for thou hast re- 
 
AND REIGN OF THE SAINTS. 239 
 
 deemed us unto God by thy blood, out of every kindred, 
 and nation, and people, and tongue, and made us unto 
 our God KINGS AND PRIESTS, and we SHALL REIGX 
 ON THE EARTH," Revelations, v. 10. Was this a de- 
 lusive hope ? Our text declares it to be a glorious real- 
 ity. " They,"t. e., the children of the first resurrection, 
 " lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years ; and 
 they were priests of God and of Christ/' 
 
 But where there are kings there must be subjects for 
 them to rule over, and where there are priests there must 
 be people for them to minister unto. Who are these 
 subjects ? and who and where are these people ? We 
 answer, they are the nations of them that are saved and 
 escape from the overwhelming judgments which shall 
 desolate the earth in the great day of the Lord, and from 
 whom the earth again shall be overspread. As from the 
 eight who came out of the ark, the world (which had 
 been swept of its inhabitants by the flood,) was repeopled, 
 so from the remnant that shall escape the final conflagra- 
 tion a numerous posterity shall spring up, and again re- 
 people the globe more numerously than ever, and over 
 these shall the risen saints reign, and execute kingly and 
 priestly offices. 
 
 The reasons why they shall be associated with Christ 
 in this last dispensation of mercy to our world are prob- 
 ably twofold : 
 
 1. To reward them for their faithfulness to Him dur- 
 ing the trials of their earthly career, and 
 
 2. To secure in the best manner the happiness of the 
 human family by a pure administration of the laws of 
 His kingdom. 
 
240 THE FIRST RESURRECTION 
 
 The binding of Satan and casting him into the bot- 
 tomless pit for a thousand years, by separating his evil 
 influences from our race, and putting them beyond the 
 reach of his diabolical wiles, has saved them from one 
 fruitful cause of trouble, misery, transgression, and evil- 
 doing. But still another remains. Very many of the 
 evils of society in all ages have flowed from bad govern- 
 ment. Incompetent 'or dishonest men have had the mak- 
 ing and administration of the laws, and their virtue and 
 fidelity have not always been proof against corruption, 
 or oppression, or fraud. In fact, human nature seems to 
 be too weak and corrupt to act with perfect integrity in 
 those high trusts which involve the dearest interests of 
 mankind. Now to present those evils to society which 
 arise from bad laws- and bad rulers and magistrates ; the 
 Kedeemer, who is King over a 1 .! the earth, establishes a 
 new dispensation for mankind, and gives them laws which 
 emanate from His own wisdom, and then entrusts their 
 execution to those who have been tried and proved to be 
 faithful, and found to be worthy of the first resurrection, 
 and who, freed from the temptations of our fallen nature, 
 having exchanged this corruptible body for an incorrupti- 
 ble one, will be actuated solely by considerations of the 
 public good and Divine glory. As KINGS, they will rule 
 under the great King of kings in righteousness and equi- 
 ty ; as priests, they will officiate in the name and by the 
 authority of the Great High Priest in the beauty of 
 holiness. All causes of bickerings and jealousies being 
 removed from ambitious aspirants for office, and the au- 
 thority of Christ's agents being acknowledged and sub- 
 mitted to, the peace and harmony of the world will flow 
 
AND REIGN OF THE SAINTS. 241 
 
 on from age to age like a mighty stream. It is easy to 
 see, that if in that dispensation the government of the 
 world and the administration of its affairs were still in 
 the hands of fallen men, the same struggles for power, 
 which have ever marked the history of our race, and the 
 same strife for office, with all their demoralizing and dis- 
 turbing effects upon the harmony of society, would be 
 renewed ; and, instead of universal peace, contentions 
 and wars would (as they always have done,) spring up 
 and desolate the face of the earth. Therefore, power is 
 entirely taken out of the hands of men still in the flesh, 
 and given to the RISEN SAINTS, who exercise it with 
 justice and truth in the name of the King of saints, and 
 of the Prince of the kings of the earth. Under the former 
 theocracy, the experiment was fully made of an attempt 
 to administer the laws of God by men, and failed. There 
 never was a purer-minded magistrate on earth than the 
 Prophet Samuel, who was consecrated to the service of 
 God from his infancy, and judged Israel forty years. 
 Not one single act of oppression, or corruption, or injus- 
 tice in any form, was ever laid to his charge. God, whose 
 deputy he was, to rule His people of Israel, approved 
 of His administration, and even the nation itself, when 
 seeking a change of government, publicly attested the 
 purity of all his official acts, and yet they were not satis- 
 fied to have the power remain where it was, but ven- 
 tured on that foolish experiment which brought such 
 manifold disasters on the nation. As a priest, also, 
 Samuel was unremitting in duty, and blameless in life. 
 Yet this was no protection to him against the clamors 
 of ambitious men, who desired to usurp some of his 
 
242 THE FIRST RESURRECTION 
 
 powers, or to shape the policy of his administration ac- 
 cording to their pleasure ; and therefore they began to 
 agitate for his removal. And this is a thing of almost 
 daily occurrence in every age : man hates to be under 
 the government of his fellow man. Though the office 
 be a Divine office, as for example the Christian minis- 
 try, yet if the incumbent exercises the undoubted pre- 
 rogatives of his office, however pure and blameless may 
 be his life, or even eminent his qualifications, somebody 
 will take exception to something, and be offended, and 
 begin to agitate for his overthrow. And these move- 
 ments do not always proceed from the worst class of so- 
 ciety, but sometimes from men of the highest standing, 
 who, to gratify a personal pique, from the most trivial 
 cause, will disturb the peace and harmony of a whole 
 community. Often have men who owe their salvation to 
 the pastor who was the first to turn them from their 
 wanderings and neglect of God and His worship, and 
 gather them into the fold of Christ, and given them po- 
 sition and influence, been the first to lift up the heel 
 against him, as Judas to his master, and seek his over- 
 throw. So that many an one has had to exclaim with 
 the betrayed monarch, " And you, too, Brutus 1" Now 
 if power both in Church and State were continued in 
 the hands of men in the flesh, during the new dispensa- 
 tion or millennial state, the same scenes would proba- 
 bly occur which have disgraced all past dispensations 
 contests for authority leading to acts of insubordination 
 and rebellion, would be frequent. Therefore Christ takes 
 all power out of the hands of fallen men, and entrusts it 
 wholly to those who have been raised above all those in- 
 
AND REIGN OF THE SAINTS. 243 
 
 fluences to which they are still subject in their fallen 
 state, viz., to RISEN SAINTS, who will execute their trust 
 with fidelity to both Him and them. THEY shall be 
 the kings and the priests of God and of Christ, and live 
 and reign with Him " a thousand years." The theoc- 
 racy established in the person of the God-Man will be 
 carried out in the persons of His redeemed saints, and 
 this it is which will make that dispensation one of such 
 superior glory and lasting happiness to mankind. 
 
 Many questions arise connected with this subject which 
 we can now only touch upon : the full discussion of 
 them must be left to some future occasion. These are, 
 
 1. Where will these risen saints dwell in this new dis- 
 pensation ? Will they have their abodes among men, and 
 daily mingle with them in the affairs of life ; or be in 
 some separate place from whence they will issue for the 
 exercise of their kingly and priestly functions among 
 men ? We answer, their abode seems to be in that new 
 Jerusalem which comes down from God out of heaven, 
 and whose magnificence and glory are described in chap- 
 ter xxi. of the KeveLitions of Saint John. This city of our 
 God, eternal in the heavens, i. e., the aerial heavens, is the 
 promised future abode of all His faithful followers ; for 
 into it entereth nothing that defileth or worketh abomi- 
 nation, or rnaketh a lie, but only they that are written in 
 the Lamb's book of life. Here seem to dwell the risen 
 saints, and from hence to issue forth to execute their 
 divine commissions throughout the earth. The vision 
 of Jacob's ladder is then first realized, viz., constant com- 
 munication between heaven and earth, by messengers 
 from the former to the latter. From the new heaven, 
 
24:4 THE FIRST RESURRECTION 
 
 wherein dwell the risen saints in the new Jerusalem, to 
 the new earth, where still remain the children of men, in 
 the flesh, will the servants of the King go forth to exe- 
 cute His commands among our still fallen race. 
 
 The next question is, will the state of men on earth be 
 at that time a state of sin and death, of sorrow and suf- 
 fering, as at present ; or will they be entirely exempted 
 from these evils under this reign of Christ with His 
 saints ? We answer, these evils (it would seem,) will 
 in a great degree cease on the earth, but not entirely. 
 The terrestrial state of this new dispensation will be dif- 
 ferent from its celestial state. In the present dispensa- 
 tion^ both the aerial regions and the solid earth are un- 
 der the curse, Satan occupying the one, as the prince of 
 the power of the air. which is the region of storms and 
 pestilence, and of heaven's fearful artillery the electric 
 dart, and men occupying the other, on which still rests 
 the curse of barrenness, and other tokens of God's wrath 
 for sin, which make it a land of sickness, suffering and 
 death to all its inhabitants. Then Satan being cast out 
 of both the heavens and the earth, the former shall be 
 occupied by the risen saints, and the latter by the sur- 
 vivors of the general conflagration and their posterity, 
 not yet perfected, and therefore not entirely delivered 
 from the effects of the fall. 
 
 As we have in this discourse considered more particu- 
 larly the conditions and employments of those occupy- 
 ing the new heavens, i. e. } the risen saints, so we propose 
 in our next discourse to show you what Scripture teaches 
 of the condition and employment of those occupying the 
 new earth, i. e., men still in the flesh ; and to point out 
 
* AND REIGN OF THE SAINTS. 245 
 
 the advantages they will enjoy over us in this dispensa- 
 tion, and show from what evils now oppressing us they 
 will be delivered. 
 
 In conclusion, may we not congratulate all those who 
 are children of God by faith in Christ upon the glorious 
 prospect which awaits them at His second coming ? 
 " They shall be kings and priests unto God and Christ, 
 and shall live and reign with Him a thousand years." 
 What more could the Saviour do for them than to give 
 them a full share of the glory which He Himself had ob- 
 tained? This was His promise, Kevelations, iii. 21, " To 
 him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me on my 
 throne, even as I also overcame and am set with my Father 
 on His throne ;" and here is its fulfillment. To those who 
 love to be engaged in the Redeemer's service here, but often 
 know not what to do, how delightful is the prospect, that 
 then they shall have an honorable post of duty, and a 
 sphere of usefulness which they can fill with credit to 
 their Master, benefit to their race, and happiness to 
 themselves. But to have a title to these blessings, we 
 must be truly Christians ; not in name only, or in out- 
 ward profession, but in heart, and soul, and actual spir- 
 itual union. We must be "in Christ." It will not an- 
 swer for us to call Him Lord, Lord, and do not the things 
 He says. To such He will say, " I never knew you. De- 
 part from me, ye workers of iniquity." Those who will not 
 have Him to reign in them and over them NOW will not 
 be called to reign with Him then. Belonging to " the 
 rest of the dead which lived not again till the thousand 
 years are finished," they shall have no part in the first 
 resurrection, nor any interest in the promise, " On such 
 
246 THE FIRST RESURRECTION, ETC. * 
 
 the second death hath no power." On what ground 
 could they claim the inheritance of the saints, or reason- 
 ably expect a place of honor or of government in His 
 kingdom? Could they be priests, to teach others obe- 
 dience to their Lord, who had never learned obedience 
 to Him themselves ? The CHUKCH OF CHRIST 
 is the school of preparation for the KINGDOM OF 
 CHRIST. HERE we must learn to obey, that THERE 
 we may be qualified to govern ; and those who never 
 take up the cross here can never put on the crown there. 
 Can any expect to enter the kingdom of Christ without 
 His permission ? Vain hope ! He will call none into 
 His service hereafter who have refused to enter it here, 
 and to perform all the duties it prescribed and enjoined. 
 " The faithful unto death shall have the crown of life," 
 and THEY only shall have part in the FIRST resurrec- 
 tion, and, as KINGS and PRIESTS of God and of Christ, 
 serve Him day and night in His temple, and live and 
 reign with Him a thousand years. 
 
LECTURE XII. 
 
 THE ADVANTAGES AND BLESSINGS OP THE INHABITANTS 
 OF THE NEW EARTH. 
 
 "For behold I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former 
 shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad, and rejoice 
 in that which I create ; for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her 
 people a joy ; and I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy hi my people : and 
 the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. 
 There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath 
 not filled his days: for the child shall die a- hundred years old: but the 
 sinner being a hundred years old, he shall be accursed ; and they shall 
 build houses and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat 
 the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit ; they shall not 
 plant, and another eat ; for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, 
 and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands ; they shall not la- 
 bor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble, for they are the seed of the blessed of 
 the Lord, and their offspring with them. And it shall come to pass, that be- 
 fore they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. 
 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw 
 like the bullock ; and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not 
 hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord." ISAIAH, 
 Ixv. 17-25. 
 
 THE change produced upon the face of nature by the 
 fall of the autumn leaves, and the cold chill of the win- 
 ter's frost can scarcely be greater than the blight which 
 passed over the beautiful earth, when for Adam's sin 
 God said to him, " Cursed be the ground for thy sake." 
 Earth felt the wound, and her loveliness paled before the 
 withering curse So again the change from dreary win- 
 
248 ADVANTAGES AND BLESSINGS OF THE 
 
 ter, which is produced upon the face of nature by the 
 buds and blossoms of returning spring, and the genial in- 
 fluence of sunshine and showers, can scarcely be greater 
 than that which will be effected when that curse under 
 which the earth has so long groaned, shall be removed, 
 and nature shall again shine forth in all her pristine 
 beauty. The transitions from the blessing to the curse, 
 and again from the curse to the blessing, comprise the 
 two extremes of the world's history. They are the Alpha 
 and Omega of the earth's career, beginning with " PAR- 
 ADISE LOST" and ending with " PARADISE REGAINED." 
 We have in our former lectures contemplated, to a 
 certain extent, that glorious future which Prophecy de- 
 clares yet to await our fallen world. We have medi- 
 tated upon the words of Saint Peter : " Nevertheless we, 
 according to His promise, look for new heavens, and a 
 new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness," and saw that 
 a dispensation of grace, far exceeding any that has ever 
 existed in our fallen world, is to succeed the present, 
 which is called the Christian dispensation. We have 
 also meditated upon the words of Saint John concerning 
 the " first resurrection and reign of the saints with Christ 
 for a thousand years," and have seen who are to be the 
 occupants of the new heavens in that future glorious dis- 
 pensation, and what are their powers and privileges. We 
 now invite you to meditate with us on the words of the 
 Prophet Isaiah, and see what is the state and condition 
 of those who shall then occupy the NEW EARTH ; 
 what advantages men still in the flesh , shall then enjoy 
 superior to those we now enjoy, or those which have been 
 enjoyed in any past dispensation. And as a heavens and 
 
INHABITANTS OF THE NEW EARTH. 249 
 
 an earth make up a world, this view of the future terres- 
 trial state and its inhabitants, as well as of the celestial 
 and its occupants, is necessary to a full comprehension of 
 the whole subject THE NEW HEAVENS AND NEW EARTH, 
 and of all who dwell therein. 
 
 The language of Saint Peter, 2 Epistle, iii. 13, re- 
 ferred to a promise then existing. He says, " Neverthe- 
 less we, according to His promise, look for new heavens 
 and a new earth." That promise is contained in our 
 text, in which the Prophet Isaiah says, " For behold I 
 create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall 
 not be remembered, nor come into mind." While Saint 
 John's vision, Revelations, xx. 4-6, showed us, viz., the 
 kings and priests of that dispensation, the Prophet 
 Isaiah shows the subjects and people over whom they 
 rule, and the happiness they enjoy, and the favored con- 
 dition of the earth and all its inhabitants, down even to 
 the brute creation, under the rule of Christ and His saints. 
 
 We will now enter upon the examination of that state 
 of the earth, and of society upon it, as it is presented in 
 the words of our text. A contrast is here made : " Behold 
 I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former 
 shall not be remembered, nor come into mind/' i. e. } the 
 difference between that state of society and the present 
 and all the past shall be so great as that none shall look 
 back then as is now frequently done, and sigh after the 
 days that are past, the good old times that are gone, and 
 lament the evil days that are to come, and wish that they 
 had lived in former ages ; no, in the glory and blessed- 
 ness of that age then present, all shall be so satisfied and 
 delighted that no wistful look toward the past nor vain 
 
 11* 
 
250 ADVANTAGES AND BLESSINGS OF THE 
 
 regrets that it is gone shall for one moment be indulged ; 
 " the former shall not be remembered, nor come into 
 mind." The prophet then begins to specify the things 
 which shall be the occasion of special joy and gratitude 
 in that day, and says, "be ye glad, and rejoice for ever in 
 that which I create." Who does he here address ? Be 
 YE glad, and rejoice. Who? We answer, the JEWISH 
 PEOPLE, as is evident from what follows, " for behold 
 I create JERUSALEM a rejoicing, and HER people a joy ;" 
 and why does he address THEM so particularly ? Be- 
 cause the change will be so much more extraordinary to 
 THEM than to any other people. Ever since the captivity 
 in Babylon, nearly twenty-five hundred years ago, that 
 people have felt the rod of some oppressor, and groaned 
 under the calamities of either war, captivity, oppression, 
 or exile. 
 
 The Christian dispensation, sad to say, and humiliat- 
 ing to confess, has been to them one of exceeding cruel- 
 ty. For centuries they have had to suffer reproach, con- 
 tempt, and wrong, in lands called Christian. Driven 
 from country to country by cruel persecution, their own 
 land in possession of enemies, and their beloved city 
 trodden under foot of the G-entiles, they have had no rest 
 nor abiding place except during the last century, when 
 in this, and a few of the countries of Europe, toleration 
 has been granted, and exemption in some degree from 
 civil disabilities. But in mst parts of the world they 
 still endure the ignominy, and often have to submit to the 
 rapacity, of the people among whom they dwell. And 
 that city of their affections, to which their thoughts and 
 prayers are constantly directed ; and that sacred spot on 
 
INHABITANTS OF THE NEW EARTH. 251 
 
 which the temple stood, they see polluted with fake 
 shrines ; and their brethren who still linger among the 
 sacred remains of their former glory, reduced to the low- 
 est form of penury. Now to them the prophet says, " Be 
 YE glad, and rejoice for ever in that which I create ; for 
 behold I create JERUSALEM a rejoicing, and HER PEOPLE 
 a joy." This change shall be one, therefore, which to the 
 seed of Abraham, above all people on the face of the 
 earth, shall be attended with happiness and joy ; for 
 Jerusalem, from being a ruin of former ages, shall be the 
 joy of the whole earth, and the Jews, from being a 
 proverb, and byword, and hissing, as Moses declared, 
 shall be a praise, and an honor, (as Jeremiah predicts, 
 xxxiii. 9 :) " before all the nations of the earth, which 
 shall hear of all the good which the Lord shall do unto 
 them." The occasion does not permit us to enter into 
 this part of the subject fully, and adduce all the evidence 
 from Scripture, which shows to what a degree of magnifi- 
 cence JERUSALEM REBUILT will attain, or how great shall 
 be the respect and esteem with which all the children of 
 Israel shall be treated by the nations of the earth. One 
 passage alone must suffice to speak for all the rest. The 
 Prophet Zechariah, viii. 13, says, " It shall come to pass 
 that as ye were a curse among the heathen, house of 
 Judah, and house of Israel, so will I save you, and ye 
 shall be a blessing. For as I thought to punish you, 
 when your fathers provoked me to wrath, and I repented 
 not, so again have I thought to do well to Jerusalem 
 and to the house of Judah j for thus saith the Lord of 
 Hosts, in those days it shall come to pass that ten men 
 out of all languages of the nations shall take hold of the 
 
252 ADVANTAGES AND BLESSINGS OF THE 
 
 skirt of a Jew, and say, we will go with you, for we have 
 heard that GOD is WITH you ; and all nations shall call 
 you blessed, for ye shall be a DELIGHTSOME LAND, SAITH 
 THE LORD OF HOSTS." " Therefore/' says the prophet, in 
 the text, to them, "be ye glad, and rejoice for ever in 
 that which I create ; for behold I create JERUSA- 
 LEM a rejoicing, and HER PEOPLE a joy." That city in. 
 which they have lamented and wailed for so many centu- 
 ries by the sepulchres of their fathers, and the ruins of their 
 temple, shall be to them joy and gladness, when rebuilt 
 and reinhabited by them, and shall become the THRONE 
 of the Lord, and the METROPOLIS of the world. 
 
 The prophet still proceeds, " And I will rejoice in Je- 
 rusalem, and joy in my people, and the voice of weeping 
 shall no more be heard in her, nor the voice of crying." 
 The fountains of sorrow, which are rilled from so many 
 different sources, shall all be dried up. Probably the 
 most sorrowful city in the world, for centuries past, has 
 been the city of Jerusalem. The lamentations of Jere- 
 miah apply as strictly to her at the present day as they 
 have ever done : " How doth the city sit solitary, that 
 was full of people ? How is she become a widow, that 
 was great among the nations ? She weepeth sore in the 
 night, and her tears are on her cheeks !" All travelers 
 testify to the dreary and gloomy aspect which every thing 
 wears in the holy city. A penitential cry, and a doleful 
 lamentation arise on the eve of every Sabbath day from 
 the down-trodden Israelites, who assemble in groups un- 
 der the walls of the city which enclose the Mosque of 
 Omar, the site of the temple, and utter the plaintive cry, 
 "Ail bene, Ail bene; bene bethka bekarob, bimheira, bim- 
 
INHABITANTS OF THE NEW EARTH. 253 
 
 heira ; beyamenu bekarob ;" the meaning of which is, 
 " Lord build, Lord build ; build thy house speedily, in 
 haste, in haste ; even in our days build thy house speed- 
 ily." Then the voice of this cry shall no more be heard 
 in her, nor the voice of weeping, but the voice of rejoic- 
 ing and praise ; and according to the Prophet Isaiah, 
 xxvi. 1, " In that day shall this song be sung in the land 
 of Judah : We have a strong city ; salvation will God 
 appoint for walls and for bulwarks. Open ye the gates, 
 that the righteous nation which keepeth truth may en- 
 ter in." 
 
 In every city upon the face of the earth, perhaps, the 
 greater portion of weeping and crying proceeds from 
 children. The various diseases of infancy, the aches and 
 pains, and numberless anxieties, and hopes, and fears 
 they experience, all find vent through streaming eyes and 
 audible sobs ; and then (as our bills of mortality show, 
 that a large portion of the human family die in infancy,) 
 these little sufferers unconsciously draw many a tear and 
 sigh from the aching hearts of their bereaved parents, 
 whose hopes are blasted by their untimely removal. Now 
 the prophet in describing the condition of society in the 
 new earth says, " There shall be no more thence an in- 
 fant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his 
 days ; for the child shall die a hundred years old, but 
 the sinner, being a hundred years old, shall be accursed." 
 By this is meant that the period of infancy at that time 
 shall not be reckoned by days and months, but by many 
 years. When children now obtain a few years of life, we 
 call them no longer infants, but boys and girls, or youths ; 
 then, at a hundred years they shall still be called infants. 
 
254 ADVANTAGES AND BLESSINGS OF THE 
 
 If we divide human life into nine periods, and call the 
 first nine infancy, the second nine childhood, the third 
 nine boyhood, the fourth nine youth, the fifth nine man- 
 hood, the sixth nine middle life, the seventh nine full 
 maturity, the eighth nine declining years, and the ninth 
 nine, or eighty-one years, old age, then the sands of life 
 are nearly run out, and the grave is waiting to receive us. 
 According to this apportionment of the periods of life, 
 Methuselah, who lived nine hundred and sixty-nine 
 years, would, at the age of one hundred, have been only 
 an infant, at two hundred a child, at three hundred a 
 boy, at four hundred a youth, at five hundred a man, at 
 six hundred in middle life, at seven hundred full maturity, 
 at eight hundred decline of life, at nine hundred an old 
 man, (and he at that age still lived sixty-nine years longer, 
 which is within one year of the age of an old man in this 
 period of the world.) We therefore conclude that if at 
 the period the prophet refers to, one dying at a hundred 
 years shall die an infant, it must be because the longev- 
 ity of the antediluvians is restored, and men live again 
 nearly, or quite a thousand years. Infancy shall not be 
 reckoned by one, or two, or three hundred days, but by 
 a hundred years, because old age is then nine hundred 
 years or more. 
 
 " There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor," 
 continues the prophet, " an old man that hath not filled 
 his days ;" now, in consequence of sickness, disease, ex- 
 posure, hardships, or dissipation, and other causes, many 
 become broken in health and constitution in early life, and 
 are old men before they have filled their days, i. e., before 
 they reach middle life. Then the child shall die an hun- 
 
INHABITANTS OF THE NEW EARTH. 255 
 
 dred years old, but the sinner, being an hundred years 
 old, shall be accursed. This settles the question whether 
 there will be any death in the new earth. There will be, 
 but it would seem only of transgressors, for while the in- 
 fant dies a hundred years old, it would seem that its 
 death occurs because at that period it discovers a sinful 
 propensity, and begins to indulge in wickedness. Now, 
 infants who manifest early depravity, are permitted to 
 live and to grow up and pass through all the stages of 
 life, corrupting others by their examples; THEN that great 
 evil to society, bad example, will be rooted out at once, 
 and evil doers, although infants, will be immediately cut 
 oft' by death. Neither will there be any premature old 
 age, because those things which produce it, dissipation, 
 exposure and disease, will then be unknown. The air 
 of the new heavens being rilled with salubrity, and the 
 productions of the new earth being all nutritious, and 
 the habits of mankind pure and virtuous, every thing 
 will contribute to health and long life. So much con- 
 cerning the sanitary condition of that period. 
 
 The prophet then passes on to the different arrange- 
 ments which men will make for their domestic comfort. 
 They shall build houses and inhabit them, they shall plant 
 vineyards and eat the fruit of them; they shall not build 
 and another inhabit, they shall not plant, and another 
 eat a thing which is often done in our day, and has been 
 repeated in every age. A man will build a house, and 
 before it is finished be cut off by death and never occupy 
 it ; or plant a vineyard, and before it has borne any fruit 
 give up the ghost, and another take possession and eat 
 of its fruits. These disappointments are incident to the 
 
256 ADVANTAGES AND BLESSINGS OF THE 
 
 frailties of human life in our present state, when we know 
 not what a day may bring forth ; but far otherwise shall 
 it be then ; for the builder of a house shall occupy it, and 
 the planter of a vineyard shall eat of its fruit; and the 
 reason is given : " for as the days of a tree shall be the 
 days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the 
 work of their hands." It is well known that some trees 
 live and flourish for centuries. The cedars of Lebanon 
 are famous for their powers of resistance to all the ele- 
 ments of decay, and stand as monuments of ancient 
 times. The tree near the town of Somma in Lombardy, 
 which tradition says existed in the days of Julius Csesar, 
 is known by most undoubted evidence to be more than 
 a thousand years old ; and recently those giants of the 
 forest which have been discovered on our Pacific coast, 
 and specimens of which have been exhibited among us, 
 are, from their concentric circles, pronounced by some 
 naturalists to be near three thousand years old. So 
 that the comparison in our text, "as the days of a tree 
 shall be the days of my people, and mine elect shall long 
 enjoy the work of their hands," can only be understood 
 of the longevity of mankind in the new earth, and is 
 of no point or force in any other point of view. Methu- 
 salehs, and Jareds, and Lamechs, all of whom, in the 
 Adamic dispensation, lived more than nine hundred years, 
 will in the new earth be as plentiful as they are scarce 
 now ; men shall "long enjoy the work of their hands, 
 inhabit the houses they builded, and eat of the fruit of 
 the vineyards they planted." No more will worshiping 
 assemblies then be called to utter, in their songs to God, 
 the humiliating sentiment, 
 
INHABITANTS OF THE NEW EARTH. 257 
 
 " Our term of time is seventy years, 
 
 An age that few survive ; 
 But if with more than common strength, 
 To eighty we arrive, 
 
 " Yet then our boasted strength decays, 
 
 To-morrow, turned to pain ; 
 So soon the slender thread is cut, 
 And we no more remain." 
 
 " THEN as the days of a TREE shall be the days of my 
 people."* 
 
 Years old. 
 
 * One of the most celebrated trees in the world is the great 
 chestnut tree of mount JEtna, named the chestnut tree of a hundred 
 horses. Tradition says that Jane, Queen of Arragon, visiting mount 
 ^Etna, found shelter in it from a storm, with her retinue of a 
 hundred persons on horseback. It is hollow above ground, and 
 solid below. A public road leads through it wide enough for two 
 coaches to drive abreast. In it also is a hut built. Its circumference 
 is one hundred and sixty three feet. Said to be the oldest of trees ; 
 supposed to be some thousands of years old. 
 
 Adamson examined a Baobab tree in Senegal, and inferred that 
 it had attained the age of five thousand one hundred and fifty 
 years, by the concentric rings, 5,150 
 
 The celebrated Taxodium of Chapultopec, Mexico, says De Can- 
 dolles, is supposed to be even more aged ; its circumference is one 
 hundred and seventeen feet. 
 
 The oldest tree in England is supposed to be the Parliament 
 oak in Clipstone park, belonging to the Duke of Portland. Edward 
 the First held a parliament under its branches. It was a park be- 
 fore the Conquest. The tree is about 1500 
 
 The same nobleman had an oak higher than "Westminster Ab- 
 bey, called the Duke's walking stick. 
 
 The Casthrop oak, Yorkshire, measures seventy-eight feet in cir- 
 cumference. " Three shire oak," at Workshop, covers part of three 
 shires, York, Nottingham, and Derby. It dropped over seven hun- 
 dred and sixty-seven square yards. 
 
 The Wallace oak, at Ellerslie, Scotland, is .... 700 
 
 Yew trees at Fountain Abbey, England, are . . . 1200 
 
 Olives in the Garden of Olives, Jerusalem, .... 800 
 
 Banians in Hindostan, are : 3000 
 
258 ADVANTAGES AND BLESSINGS OF THE 
 
 The causes promoting this longevity of the inhabitants 
 of the new earth will undoubtedly be the salubrity of 
 the climate and the equal temperature which will then 
 prevail, together with the freedom from all extremes of 
 heat and cold, or sudden changes of temperature. Into 
 this question, however, we will not enter any further at 
 the present time, but proceed to the next particular. 
 " They shall not labor in vain nor bring forth for trouble, 
 for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their 
 offspring with them." How many of the sorrows of life 
 proceed from disappointed hopes, arising from the failure 
 of those plans of life or schemes of happiness in which 
 we embarked, and expected success ? One enterprise after 
 another fails, and our fond expectations are blasted, we 
 mourn over the destruction of our cherished desires, and 
 feel that there is nothing abiding under the sun ; that 
 all is vanity and vexation of spirit. While this is true 
 in the thousand instances of the various business opera- 
 tions of life, it is especially true in the domestic relations 
 of mankind. How much unhappiness arises from the un- 
 filial conduct of children (whom fond parents have in- 
 dulged to a fault,) from their waste of that substance 
 which they toiled long and anxiously to lay up for them, 
 from their habits of dissipation, and their violation of 
 those moral precepts and virtuous principles which they 
 inculcated, need not be mentioned. Many a gray hair 
 has been brought down with sorrow to the grave, and 
 many a parent has expressed their regret that they ever 
 had any children at all. 
 
 It is a sad fact, which every day's experience bears 
 witness to, that, especially in the distribution of prop- 
 
INHABITANTS OF THE NEW EARTH. 259 
 
 erty, in the division of estates, and in the giving of por- 
 tions to children, dissatisfaction, and jealousies, and 
 heart-burnings arise, which often make a parent wish that 
 the whole property was buried in the sea. Many an 
 honest, prudent, industrious father, who has labored for 
 the prosperity of his children, and their comfort in life, 
 even at the sacrifice of his own, has had to exclaim he 
 has labored in vain ; he has only produced unhappiness 
 all around, instead of gratitude and joy. Now the 
 prophet says, in that blessed state of the world they shall 
 not labor in vain, or see with sorrow that all their efforts 
 to make their children happy were fruitless. Happiness 
 and contentment will reign all around. " Neither shall 
 they then/' he adds, " bring forth for trouble" This 
 refers to another matter. 
 
 The sorrows of the maternal parent are of a peculiar 
 kind. None can know their intensity but mothers alone. 
 The whole period of gestation is often nothing but a 
 period of protracted anguish, terminating sometimes in 
 the sad scene of one life sacrificed for another. Many a 
 child has been a ben-oni to its mother, whose soul, like 
 Rachel's/ has departed at its birth. The doom pro- 
 nounced on Eve, still rests, with unmitigated severity, 
 upon all her daughters ; and so dreadful is this curse that 
 we have a standing petition in our litany to implore its 
 mitigation, and a thanksgiving service to be performed 
 when the mercy sought has been granted ; which service, 
 it is to be regretted, through false delicacy, perhaps, is 
 not as religiously and scrupulously observed as it should be. 
 The anguish of parturition is used by our Lord as the 
 strongest metaphor that can be selected to describe ex- 
 
260 ADVANTAGES AND BLESSINGS OF THE 
 
 treme suffering. But, even in the most favorable cases, 
 what anxieties and cares still follow the period of birth. 
 There are all the watehings, and attentions, and fears, 
 and hopes of the period of infancy ; the sufferings of the 
 little ones, felt often more deeply by the mother than by 
 themselves ; and at last, when the dangers of infancy are 
 passed, and boyhood or girlhood has commenced, and the 
 fond mother begins to look with pride upon the season 
 of budding youth, the frost of death comes and nips the 
 flower before it is blown, and the fond parent, over- 
 whelmed with grief, is forced to exclaim, " / have 
 brought forth for trouble." At the birth of Cain, Eve 
 exclaimed with joy, "I have gotten a man from the 
 Lord ;" but that man proved to be a murderer, and she 
 was forced to feel that the pride of her heart was a curse 
 of his kind, a vagabond upon the earth. Now, in that 
 blessed state to come, while fathers will not labor in 
 vain, mothers will not bring forth for trouble. The curse 
 pronounced upon the first mother, and which has ever 
 since rested on her daughters "In sorrow shalt thou 
 bring forth children" will be entirely removed, so that 
 there will be no more ben-onis among the infants then 
 born, or " Kachels weeping for their children, and refusing 
 to be comforted because they are not." The pains and 
 perils against which we offer our liturgical cry being all 
 removed, happy mothers will bring forth with joy ; and 
 the description of the Psalmist, which has thus far been 
 onLy partially and occasionally, will then be fully and 
 constantly realized to every man : " Happy shalt thou be, 
 and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a 
 fruitful vine by the sides of thy house, thy children like 
 
INHABITANTS OF THE NEW EARTH. 261 
 
 olive plants round about thy table. Happy is the man 
 that hath his quiver full of them." While a large family 
 is now often considered a burden, it will then be regarded 
 a blessing. And that horrible crime of infanticide, which 
 is now practiced in many parts of the earth, to prevent 
 a too great increase of population, will then be unknown ; 
 for every infant will be welcomed as an inhabitant of the 
 new earth. 
 
 We can readily imagine how great will be the increase 
 of mankind in a dispensation of so many outward bless- 
 sings. No children dying in infancy, except the occa- 
 sional instances of juvenile depravity, and no mothers 
 dying in giving them birth, and parents living for sev- 
 eral hundred years, increasing, and multiplying as in the 
 Adamic age, the population of the new earth, or millennial 
 dispensation, will exceed by a thousand fold that which 
 it has ever attained in any previous age of the world. 
 The highest estimate that has ever been made of the 
 population of the globe is a thousand millions. In the 
 new earth it is not improbable that it may attain to the 
 enormous amount of ten hundred thousand millions ; for 
 not being subject to the large discount which death 
 makes among infants and adults in every generation, 
 the increase will be in that steadily-progressing ratio 
 which doubles itself within every given number of 
 years. 
 
 The reason for this rapid increase of the inhabitants 
 of the new earth is given in our text. " They shall not 
 labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble, for they are 
 the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring 
 tvith them." God blessed both Adam and Noah, the two 
 
262 ADVANTAGES AND BLESSINGS OF THE 
 
 fathers of the human family, and said, " be fruitful, and 
 multiply and replenish the earth," and if, under all the 
 disadvantages of the fall, with sickness and death con- 
 stantly preying upon the human race, first from two, and 
 afterward from eight, such teeming millions have sprung, 
 and overspread the earth, what may not he expected in 
 that age when all the agencies of evil shall be suppressed, 
 and every instrumentality for good will enjoy a special 
 blessing from the Lord ? Verily, the inhabitants of the 
 new earth shall be as the " sands on the sea shore for 
 multitude," and as the stars of the sky innumerable. 
 
 Having given this description of the social condition 
 or domestic state of society in the new earth, the Prophet 
 next speaks of their religious privileges and advantages, 
 especially the favor they shall enjoy in communion with 
 God. " And it shall come to pass/' he says, " that before 
 they shall call I will answer, and while they are yet speak- 
 ing I will hear." Prayer offered up shall not be long 
 unanswered, or perhaps not answered at all, as often oc- 
 curs in these days. Even Moses, that faithful servant of 
 God, could not obtain the favor for which he supplicated. 
 Thrice did he pray earnestly, " I beseech thee let me go 
 over Jordan, and see that goodly land and Lebanon," but 
 the Lord replied, "Ask me no more concerning that mat- 
 ter." The favor was not granted. And St. Paul thrice 
 besought the Lord concerning that "thorn in the flesh," 
 that "messenger of Satan," sent to buffet him, that it 
 might be taken away, but received for a reply, "My grace 
 is sufficient for thee." The favor was not granted. And 
 others, though not refused, have had to pray long and 
 wait long before the blessing sought was obtained. But 
 
INHABITANTS OF THE NEW EAKTH. 268 
 
 now the promise is, " It shall come to pass that while 
 they are yet speaking I will hear, and before they call I 
 will answer." God will, as it were, anticipate their desires, 
 and grant them, even while asking for them. We learn 
 from this that prayer at that time will still be a duty. 
 The law of the present dispensation will be also the law 
 of that dispensation. " Ask, and ye shall receive, seek, 
 and ye shall find, knock, and it shall be opened to you;" 
 only the blessing will then be brought nearer to the sup- 
 plicant than it is now. Perhaps faith will be stronger to 
 lay hold of it than it is at present, and all the graces be 
 in greater readiness to receive. How delightful only to 
 open our mouths to have them filled ! to stretch forth 
 our desires unto God, and to have them immediately 
 gratified ! Yet such shall be the happy privilege of the 
 worshipers of that dispensation. 
 
 The Prophet next passes on to show the state of the 
 inferior creation, and how the blessed change which has 
 taken place in the earth affects the animal tribes, and 
 says, " the wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the 
 lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the 
 serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all 
 my holy mountain, saith the Lord/' The savage natures 
 of the beasts of prey have always spread terror among 
 the domestic animals, who flee at their approach. The 
 lamb dreads the wolf, and the wolf covets the lamb for a 
 dainty meal ; but now this fear and savage desire shall be 
 extinguished in both breasts ; for the wolf and the lamb 
 shall feed together in harmony and peace. And the lion, 
 who spread his terror over all the beasts of the field, and 
 put his fear also upon man, because of his power to tear 
 
264 ADVANTAGES AND BLESSINGS OF THE 
 
 and destroy, shall lose his ferocious spirit, and change 
 the quality of his food; from being a carnivorous he shall 
 become a graminivorous animal, and " eat straw like the 
 ox." Perhaps, also, like the ox, he shall become a beast 
 of burden, and be used by man in the cultivation of the 
 new earth. The serpent, also, that venomous reptile 
 which lurks in our pathways, and in our unguarded 
 moments inflicts the fatal sting, shall be rendered power- 
 less to injure any more, and then, not relieved from the 
 odium which has ever attached to that animal, he shall 
 still bear the marks of his degradation in the food ap- 
 pointed for him, which shall not be animal, as now, or 
 vegetable, nor fruit, nor herbage, but DUST, the refuse of 
 all things. The entire harmlessness of the most venom- 
 ous serpents at that time is thus described by this prophet 
 in chapter xi. 8 : " The sucking child shall play on the 
 hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand 
 on the cockatrice's den, they shall not hurt nor destroy in 
 all my holy mountain, for the earth is full of the knowl- 
 edge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." 
 
 Such is the description which this prophet gives of the 
 state of the inhabitants of the new earth in their moral 
 and social, domestic and religious conditions. In other 
 parts of this, and some others of the prophets, the picture 
 is made more complete by an enumeration of various other 
 advantages which will then be enjoyed ; e. g., the extraor- 
 dinary fertility of the earth, and especially Judea, at that 
 time. The Prophet Ezekiel declares that it shall be as the 
 garden of the Lord ; the Prophet Isaiah, that the wilder- 
 ness and the solitary place shall smile with verdure, and 
 the desert rejoice and blossom as the rose. Even the great 
 
INHABITANTS OF THE NEW EARTH. 265 
 
 Sahara, with its three thousand miles of driving sand, 
 with here and there only an oasis, shall become a fruit- 
 ful plain ; the glory of Lebanon, and the excellency ot 
 Carmel and Sharon shall be given to it. The Prophet 
 Amos declares that in those days the plowman shall over- 
 take the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth 
 the seed ; i. e., vegetation shall be so rapid, and the suc- 
 cession of crops so continual, that the sower and reaper 
 can scarce keep out of each other's way ; and he adds, 
 " the mountains shall drop down sweet wine, and the 
 valleys be covered with corn, and the pastures with 
 flocks/' Famine, and scarcity, and drought, and barren- 
 ness shall be things of the past, only to be known when 
 they read the history of the former dispensations. 
 
 We might continue our selections from the prophets, 
 to complete the glorious picture, which they give through- 
 out their pages, of millennial felicity, but necessity re- 
 quires that we must draw our remarks to a close. 
 
 In our last two discourses, we contemplated the new 
 heavens, and the new earth yet to come, in two aspects. 
 
 1. In general, as a dispensation of grace, in which the 
 human family were to be advanced to a higher state of 
 happiness and perfection than they had ever yet at- 
 tained. 
 
 2. In particular, as a dispensation embracing two class- 
 es of the human family who have separate and distinct 
 interests, duties, privileges and places of abode ; viz., 
 first, the risen saints who occupy the new heavens, and 
 there reign with Christ, as kings and priests, over the new 
 earth ; and secondly, the men in the flesh who still remain 
 on the solid earth, and cultivate it, marry and multiply, 
 
 12 
 
266 ADVANTAGES AND BLESSINGS OF THE 
 
 and pass through the stages of infancy, youth, manhood 
 and old age. We have in this discourse considered the 
 latter, the terrestrial state of this new era, and this gives 
 us an entire view of the whole dispensation, and shows 
 us the whole Church gathered together in one under 
 Christ, its head, filling the whole world, the heaven and 
 the earth, one part acting as rulers over the others, and 
 possessing the proper qualifications to act as KINGS and 
 PRIESTS over them. In all previous dispensations the 
 Church has been divided and separated, and those best 
 qualified to rule and govern, have been removed from her. 
 This is her state now. The saints who have overcome the 
 world, the flesh, and the devil, having fought the good 
 fight, and finished their course and kept the faith, are now 
 resting in Paradise, waiting for the "first resurrection," 
 and the second coming of the Lord. They can not assist 
 us now with their counsels, nor direct our affairs when in 
 difficulty, or danger, or doubt. The treasure of the gos- 
 pel is still in earthen vessels, and the power of the keys 
 in the hands of fallible mortals. But when, in the NEW 
 
 HEAVENS AND THE NEW EARTH, the Spirits of the just who 
 
 have been made perfect, are brought forth in their glorified 
 bodies, and, occupying the new heavens, are placed over 
 men still in the flesh, inhabiting the new earth, then the 
 Church will be UNITED IN ONE BODY, and be ONE, with 
 its rulers and subjects, its priests and people, and all to- 
 gether bowing the knee to Him of whom the " whole 
 family in HEAVEN AND EARTH is named," the risen saints 
 exclaiming, " Thou hast redeemed us to God, by thy 
 blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and 
 nation, and hast made us unto our Grod kings and priests, 
 
INHABITANTS OF THE NEW EARTH. 267 
 
 and we shall reign on the earth," and those in the flesh 
 saying, " We give thee thanks, Lord God Almighty, 
 which art and wast, and art to come, because thou hast 
 taken to thee thy great power and hast reigned." Then 
 shall be realized the beautiful language of Cowper : 
 
 " One song employs all nations ; and all cry, 
 Worthy the Lamb, for he was slain for us. 
 The dwellers in the vales and on the rocks 
 Shout to each other, and the mountain tops 
 From distant mountains catch the flying joy, 
 Till, nation after nation taught the strain, 
 Earth rolls the rapturous Hosanna round. 
 Thus heavenward all things tend. For all were once 
 Perfect, and ah 1 must be at length restored. 
 Haste, then, and wheel away a shattered world, 
 Te slow revolving seasons ; we would see 
 A world that does not dread and hate his laws. 
 Come, then, and added to thy many crowns, 
 Receive yet one, the crown of all the earth, 
 Thou who alone art worthy. It was thine 
 By ancient covenant, ere Nature's birth, 
 And thou hast made it thine by purchase since, 
 And overpaid its value by thy blood. 
 Thy saints proclaim thee King, and in their hearte 
 Thy title is engraven with a pen 
 Dipped in the fountain of eternal love." 
 
 Well may all exclaim, " 0, how great is thy goodness 
 which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee, for 
 them which trust in thee before the sons of men." 
 
 In our next discourse we shall attempt to explain the 
 difference between the Millennial Dispensation and the 
 New Jerusalem state, a dispensation yet beyond the 
 millennial, and the seventh, and last, and closing state 
 
268 ADVANTAGES AND BLESSINGS, ETC. 
 
 of redemption's work on earth. This, it would seem, 
 shall be introduced after the thousand years are finished, 
 Satan let loose, defeated, and overthrown, the wicked 
 dead raised and judged, and with Satan cast into the 
 lake of fire. Then shall the righteous of the NEW 
 EAKTH, joining the righteous in the NEW HEAVENS, 
 enter on their final and unchangeable state of everlast- 
 ing joy and peace. Beyond this, revelation neither does, 
 nor can we, go. There must we rest our inquiries and 
 researches, and happy will we be, if there we may at last 
 
 " Repose our weary souls, 
 And find eternal rest, 
 Where storms ne'er beat, nor sorrows roll 
 Across our peaceful breast." 
 
LECTURE XIII. 
 
 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE MILLENNIAL DISPENSATION 
 AND THE NEW JERUSALEM STATE. 
 
 " 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, the 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." REVELATIONS, xxl 1-4. 
 
 THE glory which shall be hereafter revealed, is set 
 forth in Scripture by one expression, as remarkable as 
 it is incomprehensible ; it is called " an exceeding and 
 eternal weight of glory." To apply the term weight to 
 glory, suggests the idea of materiality as belonging to 
 the glory hereafter to be revealed. Many suppose that 
 the glory of the heavenly state is altogether moral or spir- 
 itual in its character, and that no part of the happiness 
 of the redeemed will be derived from material objects. 
 This is a sad mistake. The resurrection body, with all 
 its restored senses of hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, 
 and touching, will be as much alive to the beauties and 
 pleasures of outward objects as the present body is in 
 
270 THE MILLENNIAL DISPENSATION 
 
 this life. The new heavens and the new earth, with all 
 their splendid adornments, will be as enchanting to the 
 new organs of the risen body, then incorruptible, as ever 
 the most magnificent landscape of this fallen earth was to 
 these sin-polluted bodies. Therefore, it is not altogether 
 improper, in view of the material glory of the new Jeru- 
 salem, as it is described in the chapter from which the 
 text is taken, to speak of its exceeding and eternal weight. 
 There is a substance in visible and material objects which 
 can be determined by weight and measure. The gold 
 which adorned the temple of Solomon was of an exceed- 
 ing though not eternal weight. The glory of that build- 
 ing was both material and spiritual. The precious metals 
 with which every thing was overlaid constituted the ma- 
 terial glory, and the Divine presence the spiritual. Even 
 so will it be with that CITY and TEMPLE, of which 
 Jerusalem and its holy place were only faint shadows. 
 " That city which cometh down from God out of heaven 
 prepared as a bride adorned for her husband/' will exhibit 
 a material glory of surpassing grandeur and a spiritual 
 glory of inexpressible delight, and both together will jus- 
 tify that expression of Saint Paul, " an exceeding and 
 eternal weight of glory." 
 
 We have at length arrived at that final state of glory 
 and blessedness in the history of our race to which all 
 the previous dispensations of grace have been gradually 
 leading us. We have seen, 
 
 1. The Adamic dispensation, with its seal, the tree of 
 life, commencing in mercy in Eden, and ending in wrath 
 at the flood. 
 
 2. The Noatic dispensation, with its seal, the rainbow, 
 
AND THE NEW JERUSALEM STATE. 271 
 
 commencing in mercy after the deluge, and ending in 
 wrath at the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah. 
 
 3. The Abrahamic dispensation, with its seal of cir- 
 cumcision, commencing in mercy at the call of Abraham, 
 and ending in wrath at the overthrow of Pharaoh in the 
 Red Sea. 
 
 4. The Mosaic dispensation, with its seal of sprinkling 
 of blood, commencing in mercy at mount Sinai, and end- 
 ing in wrath at the destruction of Jerusalem, and over- 
 throw of the Jewish polity. 
 
 5. The Christian dispensation, with its seal of Baptism, 
 and the Lord's Supper, commencing in mercy at the as- 
 cension of Christ, or at Pentecost, and to end in wrath 
 at the battle of Armageddon. 
 
 6. The Millennial, with its seal not yet declared, to 
 commence in mercy at the second advent of our Lord, 
 and to end in wrath, after Satan, let loose out of his 
 prison, gathers an army together against the camp of the 
 saints, and is hurled, with all his hosts, in the lake of 
 fire, and 
 
 7. And lastly, the New Jerusalem, the final and un- 
 changeable state, when the work of the Redeemer being 
 completed, and the season of probation closed, the right- 
 eous shall all enter upon that eternal state of perfect and 
 everlasting enjoyment which shall need no other change, 
 because it is incapable of improvement. Those visions 
 of the future, in which it was given to the prophets to 
 indulge, extend no further than this. This is the ex- 
 treme limit to which Divine revelation conducts us. 
 
 In attempting to unfold this last dispensation to you, 
 and show its nature and peculiarities, we shall first 
 
272 THE MILLENNIAL DISPENSATION 
 
 1. Endeavor to correct some errors into which inter- 
 preters of the Scriptures have fallen with regard to this 
 final period of glory to be hereafter revealed, and 
 
 2. Show the difference between the millennial dispen- 
 sation and the New Jerusalem state. 
 
 1. The first error we notice is that of the SWEDEN- 
 BORGIANS, who maintain that the New Jerusalem 
 dispensation has already commenced, and that it has been 
 in existence for nearly or quite a century. This strange 
 delusion, the offspring of a visionary enthusiast, was first 
 promulgated by the Swedish seer, (as he is called,) Em- 
 manuel Swedenborg, of Stockholm. He announced to 
 the world, in a small tract published at London, A. D. 
 1758, that he saw with his own eyes, when broad awake, 
 the last judgment take place, in the year 1757, i. e. } one 
 hundred and two years ago, immediately after which the 
 New Jerusalem state was inaugurated ; that the Chris- 
 tian and the millennial dispensations have both passed 
 away; and that the present state of the world, which he 
 called New Jerusalem, was its final and perfected state. 
 Christianity having from the beginning to the present 
 time taught the doctrine of Christ's second coming to 
 judge the world, when every eye should see him, and all 
 the inhabitants of the world shall stand before him, this 
 self-styled apostle pretended that the Lord had chosen 
 him to be an eye-witness of these great events, and hav- 
 ing seen them, to proclaim them abroad, organize a new 
 church, and declare the New Jerusalem state begun. 
 Accordingly, on the 19th day of June, A. D. 1770, twelve 
 disciples were sent forth to preach this new gospel every- 
 where, to proclaim the everlasting reign of Christ begun, 
 
AND THE NEW JERUSALEM STATE. 273 
 
 and invite all men to the marriage of the Lamb, which 
 they asserted then took place. As is usual in the ad- 
 vancement of a new theory, it soon found advocates. Its 
 novelty and mysticism commended it to visionary minds, 
 Its absurdity and unscripturalness proved no objection 
 to such, nor its utter irreconcilableness to the teaching 
 of the universal Church from the beginning. 
 
 This visionary theory did not spread with the rapidity 
 that others quite as absurd have often done; it seemed 
 rather adapted to minds of a peculiar cast, to visionary 
 and imaginative minds. Unlike to Mormonism, which 
 is gross and sensual, it is mystical and contemplative, 
 and therefore its converts have been limited to a smaller 
 class. The sect embracing these views is exceedingly 
 small, both in this country and Europe, and was in a de- 
 clining state until recently, when it was stirred up by 
 the appearance and spread of what is called Spiritualism, 
 to which it bears a close affinity. The hope of large ac- 
 cessions from this quarter seems to have inspired them 
 with new energy, but that hope we believe has in a great 
 measure proved delusive, for Spiritualists claim to be far 
 in advance of them, and refuse implicit faith in the teach- 
 ings of their apostles. The number of their followers 
 does not exceed thirty thousand in the United States, 
 while the Spiritualists, though of yesterday, claim ten 
 times that number. The Swedenborgians, however, pay 
 more deference to the Scriptures than the Spiritualists, 
 although their system of explaining it is at war with all 
 sound principles of interpretation. They indulge to such 
 excess in what they call the spiritual or internal sense of 
 the word, that they sweep away almost all literal truth. 
 
 12* 
 
274 THE MILLENNIAL DISPENSATION 
 
 By this process they get rid of the doctrines of the sec- 
 ond advent of Christ, resurrection of the body, and judg- 
 ment to come, and persuade themselves that the seventh 
 dispensation has already arrived, before the fifth has in 
 reality closed. 
 
 It is a most extraordinary fact, in connection with this 
 delusion, and one which should have opened the eyes of 
 its votaries to see its absurdity, that since the first pro- 
 mulgation of this new gospel, and the establishment of 
 the so-called New Jerusalem Church, A. D. 1770, the 
 most violent conflicts have raged among the nations of 
 the earth of which history gives any account. That fierce 
 contest which commenced in the American Revolution 
 and was continued in the French Revolution, and ulti- 
 mately involved all the powers of Europe, continuing for 
 more than a quarter of a century, and drenching the na- 
 tions in blood, took place (can any one believe it?) in the 
 New Jerusalem state ! That period which, according to 
 the Scriptures, was to be a period of universal holiness, 
 has been one of most destructive wars ! ! ! 
 
 Can any sane mind credit such an absurdity? And let 
 any one contemplate the state of things throughout the 
 world at the present day, and ask, is there any resem- 
 blance in it to that blessed period when there shall be no 
 more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain, and no more 
 sea ? Imaginative minds may indulge in pleasing fan- 
 cies until they really believe them to be facts, but sober 
 thinking persons will never sacrifice stern realities to 
 beautiful theories, or close their eyes to the actually ex- 
 isting state of things. 
 
 2. The next error with regard to the new Jerusalem 
 
AND THE NEW JERUSALEM STATE. 275 
 
 state is committed by those who confound it with the 
 millennial state, who do not distinguish between the sixth 
 and seventh dispensations, yet to come, nor notice the 
 clear line of demarcation which divides the two. 
 
 In our tenth lecture we showed, from the words of Saint 
 Peter, " Nevertheless we look for a new heavens and a 
 new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness," that a new 
 dispensation would succeed the present, in which the 
 human family would be advanced to a higher state of 
 knowledge, holiness, and happiness than it has ever at- 
 tained in any past dispensation. In our e'eventh lec- 
 ture we showed, in the words of Saint John, Kevelations 
 xx., 1-4, that the righteous dead, who at the second 
 coming of Christ shall be raised to live and reign with 
 Him, shall occupy the new heavens, and be, under Christ, 
 the kings and priests to govern and minister unto those 
 who, in the millennial dispensation, still in the flesh 
 dwell on the new earth. In our twelfth lecture, we 
 showed, from the words of the Prophet Isaiah, Ixv. 17, 
 the manifold blessings, temporal and spiritual, which shall 
 be enjoyed by the inhabitants of the new earth, under 
 the government of Christ and His saints. 
 
 Now, in consequence of the risen saints occupying the 
 new heavens at the same time that those in the flesh in= 
 habit the new earth, some have supposed that the new 
 Jerusalem state is identical with the millennial dispen- 
 sation. Interpreters of Prophecy have differed on the 
 point whether that holy city, the new Jerusalem, whose 
 glory and magnificence are described in this chapter, 
 with its twelve foundations, garnished with all manner of 
 precious stones ; its gates of pearl, and streets of gold, 
 
276 THE MILLENNIAL .DISPENSATION 
 
 comes down from God out of heaven at the beginning 
 or end of the millennial dispensation. Those who think 
 its appearance immediately follows the coming of Christ 
 and His saints, at the beginning of the millennium, and 
 that it is their abode daring the thousand years' reign, 
 infer that the new Jerusalem state must, of course, then 
 begin, and belong to the millennial dispensation ; while 
 others, who place its appearance at the end of the thou- 
 sand years' reign, consider the new Jerusalem state to be 
 subsequent to the millennial dispensation. But may not 
 the new Jerusalem dispensation be subsequent to the 
 millennial^ although the holy city itself should descend 
 from heaven at the beginning of it ? In support of this 
 view, 
 
 1. Let us point out some of those resemblances be- 
 tween these two dispensations, from which it has been 
 inferred that they are one and the same ; and then 
 
 2. Mark those differences between them, which show 
 clearly that they are different and distinct dispensations. 
 
 Both dispensations have their existence on this globe. 
 The human family in all past and future time will retain 
 its connection with this earthly habitation which God 
 created for it. The defacement of its primitive beauty, 
 (which has been so sadly marred by sin,) is no argument 
 against its being a future happy abode for the redeemed. 
 On the contrary, there is a strong reason why, on the 
 very spot where the GKEAT ENEMY OF GOD AND 
 MAN sought to destroy His work, and gain a victory 
 over Him, he himself shall be conquered and destroyed. 
 Hence, in the millennial dispensation peace and happi- 
 ness shall be restored on this earth to the human family 
 
AND THE NEW JERUSALEM STATE. 277" 
 
 by the expulsion of Satan from it, and his confinement 
 in the bottomless pit. And in this respect it agrees with 
 the new Jerusalem dispensation, during which, Satan 
 expelled also from the aerial regions, shall be cast into 
 the lake of fire, and the saved from among men shall en- 
 joy peace and quietness for ever. But the casting of 
 Satan into the bottomless pit at the beginning of the 
 millennium, and his loosing at the end of it, for a little 
 season, followed by a great apostacy, and his final over- 
 throw and casting into the lake of fire, show most clear- 
 ly that the millennial and new Jerusalem dispensations 
 are separate and distinct states of the Church on this earth, 
 not cotemporaneous, as some suppose, but the one preced- 
 ing and the other following ; the millennial dispensation 
 imperfect, the new Jerusalem perfect ; the millennial a 
 limited dispensation in point of time, the new Jerusa- 
 lem unlimited, i. e. } eternal. Both are distinguished by 
 the personal presence of Christ, and both by the hap- 
 piness of the human family under his reign. But the 
 new Jerusalem as far exceeds the millennial dispensation 
 as that does the Christian, or the Christian the Jewish. 
 
 Let us notice some of the points of difference. The 
 following are the most obvious and striking :* 
 
 1. The millennium, or Christ's reign on the earth as 
 the Son of Man and Heir to the throne of David, is ex- 
 pressly limited to a thousand years. During this time 
 Satan shall be bound, and be cast into the bottomless pit. 
 
 *The fullest contrast that we have seen of these two states, maybe 
 found in a small tract published by the Rev. William Ramsey, of Phila- 
 delphia, a few years ago, which we would recommend to the reader for 
 perusal 
 
278 THE MILLENNIAL DISPENSATION 
 
 Wars shall cease to the end of the earth, and Christ's 
 dominion shall be universal. But at the end of the thou- 
 sand years Satan shall be loosed a little season, and gath- 
 er a great army, and make an attack upon the camp of the 
 saints, and of the beloved city, i. e., the Jerusalem which 
 is on mount Zion, when fire comes down out of heaven 
 and destroys them, and all are cast into the lake of fire, 
 which burneth with brimstone ; which is the second 
 death. Then immediately follows the second resurrec- 
 tion, i. e.j the calling from their graves those who had 
 no part in that resurrection which took place at the be- 
 ginning of the thousand years, and which is expressly 
 called the first resurrection. Kevelations, xx. 6. But 
 a dispensation which commences with the resurrection 
 of the just, and ends with the resurrection of the unjust ; 
 which owes its abundant happiness in some degree to the 
 expulsion of the great enemy of God and man from the 
 dwelling places of society, and yet must come to an end 
 when He returns to the scene of His former triumphs over 
 the weakness of human nature, can not be that final state 
 which shall know no change, and is capable of no ameli- 
 oration. 
 
 This, then, is the first point of difference between the 
 millennial and the new Jerusalem states of the Church, or 
 the sixth and seventh dispensations of God's mercy to the 
 children of men. The one is terminable, the other eter- 
 nal, in the heavens. 
 
 2. During the millennial dispensation the sea is to re- 
 main, Ezekiel, xlvii. 8-10 : " And He said unto me, 
 these waters issue out of the sanctuary towards the east 
 country, and go down into the sea ; and being brought 
 
AND THE NEW JERUSALEM STATE. 279 
 
 forth into the sea, the waters are healed. And it shall 
 come to pass that fishers shall stand upon upon it, from 
 En-gedi to En-eglaim," (places on the Dead Sea,) "and 
 the fish shall be exceeding many, as the fish of the great 
 sea ;" that is, the fish of the sea which lies east of Jeru- 
 salem, now called the Dead Sea, and which the finny 
 tribes have not for ages inhabited, shall then be equal to 
 the fish of the great sea, i. e., the Mediterranean, where 
 they have always been abundant. Also, in Zechariah, 
 xiv. 8, it is declared, in that day living waters, i. e., 
 waters producing life, shall go out from Jerusalem, half 
 of them towards the former sea, i. e., the Dead Sea, and 
 half of them towards the hinder sea, i. e., the Mediter- 
 ranean ; in winter and summer it shall be. That these 
 predictions have never yet been fulfilled, the whole world 
 is witness. That they belong to a future age, is un- 
 questionable. That that age is the millennial is evident 
 from an examination of the Prophecies in which they 
 occur. And that it is not the post millennial, or the new 
 Jerusalem dispensation, is equally evident, from the ex- 
 press declaration of Saint John, Kevelations xxi., that in 
 that dispensation there was no more sea. Now, certainly 
 the dispensation which has no sea can not be identical 
 with the dispensation which has a sea. It must be a dif- 
 ferent and subsequent one. 
 
 3. After the thousand years of millennial rest and fe- 
 licity have expired, preparation is evidently made for a 
 change, in which the happy are to be made happier still, 
 and the miserable still more miserable. The sea gives 
 up its dead, and death and hell, i. e. } the grave and the 
 place of departed spirits, give up their dead ; a great 
 
280 THE MILLENNIAL DISPENSATION 
 
 white throne is set, the books are opened, and the final 
 doom of all pronounced. The holy city, the new Jeru- 
 salem, then seems to come down from God out of heaven, 
 i. e., the aerial heaven, in which it was visible during 
 the millennium, and a great voice is heard, saying, " Be- 
 hold, the tabernacle of God is with men ;" and He that 
 sits on the throne says, "Behold I make all things new." 
 After this there shall be no more crying, nor sorrow, nor 
 pain, of which there were occasional instances during the 
 millennium, (especially when the child died an hundred 
 years old, and the sinner, being an hundred years old, 
 was accursed,) for the former things are done away. 
 How marked, therefore, is the difference between the Mil- 
 lennial and the New Jerusalem states ! The Great Judge 
 of the quick and the dead holds his grand assize at 
 the end of the first, and at the beginning of the last, 
 when probation ends, and eternal retribution begins. No 
 change subsequent to this event is noticed in the Scrip- 
 tures of truth. From this time forth the destinies of all 
 are fixed by that irrevocable decree, " He that is unjust, 
 let him be unjust still ; he that is filthy, let him be fil- 
 thy still ; he that is righteous, let him be righteous 
 still ; he that is holy, let him be holy still." In other 
 words, whatever men are found to be at the end of the 
 millennium, they must and will continue to be through 
 the endless periods of eternity. 
 
 4. In the millennial dispensation, the city of Jerusa- 
 lem, which in this dispensation has been trodden under 
 foot of the Gentiles, will be rebuilt, and will then be the 
 largest city that has ever been on the earth. It will be 
 nearly ten miles square, or forty miles in circumference. 
 
AND THE NEW JERUSALEM STATE. 281 
 
 Vide Ezekiel, xlviii. 30-35.* But the new Jerusalem, 
 the abode of the risen saints, is to be twelve thousand 
 furlongs, (vide Revelations, xxi. 16,) i. e. } fifteen hun- 
 dred miles square. The millennial Jerusalem shall be 
 built upon the earth. The sons of the stranger are to 
 aid in building up its walls, Isaiah, Ix. 10. The fir tree, 
 the pine, and the box are to be used in beautifying it. 
 Gold, silver, brass, and iron are to enter into the com- 
 position of that city, Isaiah, Ix. 17. But the new Jeru- 
 salem is to come down out of heaven, already prepared, 
 and adorned as a bride for her husband ; its builder and 
 maker is God. This city is fifteen hundred miles square, 
 or twelve thousand furlongs, and its height, and length, 
 and breadth are equal ; its wall is to be of jasper ; its 
 foundation garnished with twelve varieties of precious 
 stones ; its twelve gates each a pearl ; its streets of pure 
 gold like transparent glass, such as earth does not 
 yield, for our gold is opaque and yellow. Such a city as 
 this surpasses and ever will surpass the ability of our 
 race to erect. Earth could never furnish the materials 
 for it ; and faith itself could not believe the wonderful 
 description of its size and splendor, and especially its 
 reality, were it not expressly declared that it is the sole 
 work of the " Creator of heaven and earth, and of all 
 things visible and invisible ;" or, in the language of Saint 
 Paul, a " city which hath foundations, whose builder and 
 maker is God." 
 
 * The measuring reed which Ezekiel saw in the hands of the man who 
 was directed to measure the temple, vide chapter xl. 5, was in length six cu- 
 bits, and a hand breath, i. e., about ten feet ; and the city described in chap- 
 ter xlviii. 30-35, was, on each of its four sides, four thousand five hundred 
 measures, which would make it the largest city ever built on earth. 
 
282 THE MILLENNIAL DISPENSATION 
 
 5. In the millennial dispensation a temple is to be erect- 
 ed of great magnificence, differing wholly from either of 
 the former which have stood on mount Sion, which is fully 
 described by the Prophet Ezekiel, in chapters xl. xliv. 
 This temple will not, (it would seem,) like the former, 
 stand in the present city of Jerusalem, which is in the 
 bounds of the tribe of Benjamin, as divided by Joshua, 
 but be some distance north of it in the bounds of Judah, 
 which in the new division of the land, as foretold by the 
 Prophet Ezekiel, xlviii., appears to be north of Benja- 
 min's portion instead of south. Compare Ezekiel, xlv. 1-5, 
 and xlviii. 8, 15-30. It is perhaps on this spot that 
 David's Son and Heir will occupy His father's throne, 
 Luke, i. 32, and, as the Prophet Zechariah, vi. 13, de- 
 clares, sit and rule, and be a priest on His throne. Vide 
 also Isaiah, ix. 7. But in the new Jerusalem John saw 
 no temple, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are 
 the temple of it, Revelations, xxi. 22. Ceremonial and 
 sacramental rites having terminated with the millennial 
 dispensation, places for their performance are no longer 
 needed ; all praise and adore the Lamb, which is in the 
 midst of the throne, face to face. 
 
 6. In the millennial dispensation, seed time and har- 
 vest, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease, 
 vide Isaiah, Ixv. 22 ; Amos, ix. 13 ; Zechariah, xiv. 8. 
 The Prophet Isaiah declares, xxx 18-26, that the light 
 of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the 
 light of the sun shall be seven-fold, as the light of seven 
 days, (in one), in the day that the Lord bindeth up the 
 breach of His people and healeth the stroke of their 
 wound. But in the new Jerusalem there is no need of 
 
AND THE NEW JERUSALEM STATE. 283 
 
 the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory 
 of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light there- 
 of, and there is no night there. Revelations, xxi. 23-25. 
 The risen saints in that dispensation seem to be for ever 
 discharged from all terrestrial conditions, and raised to a 
 state in which sowing and reaping, and changes of sea- 
 sons, belong to them no more. 
 
 7. During the millennial dispensation there will be 
 births as now. The Prophet Isaiah, Ixv. 20, says, 
 " There shall be no more an infant of days" i. e. short- 
 lived infants. This was explained in the former lecture, 
 in which we showed also how great would probably be 
 the increase of the earth's inhabitants during that period 
 when the longevity of the Antediluvians would be re- 
 stored. But in the new Jerusalem they neither marry, 
 nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels of God, 
 being children of the resurrection. Matthew, xxii. 30. 
 
 8. During the millennial dispensation, there will also 
 be deaths as well as births, although the former will be 
 exceeding few as compared with the latter. " The child," 
 (says the Prophet Isaiah,) "shall die an hundred years 
 old," (if at that age, which shall still be its infancy, it 
 shall incline to iniquity,) " but the sinner," (i. e., infant 
 sinner,) "being an hundred years old, shall be accursed." 
 But Saint John assures us that in the new Jerusalem 
 state there shall be no more death, xxi. 3, neither any 
 more curse, xxii. 3, for the former things are done away. 
 This then appears to be the final and unchangeable con- 
 dition of the children of men. How different from all 
 the former, not excepting the millennial, is this new 
 Jerusalem state ! 
 
284 THE MILLENNIAL DISPENSATION 
 
 9. In the millennial dispensation, the inhabitants of 
 the new earth shall build houses, and inhabit them, shall 
 plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them ; but in the 
 new Jerusalem state we read only of the tree of life, 
 with its twelve manner of fruits, which it bears every 
 month, the leaves of which are for the healing of the 
 nations. Does it not appear from this that the nations 
 of the earth, which walk in the light of the city which is 
 illumined with the glory of God and the Lamb, xxi. 23, 
 (not the earthly but the heavenly Jerusalem,) belong to 
 an inferior dispensation, and consequently that the mil- 
 lennial and new Jerusalem dispensations can not be the 
 same, although the holy city, the metropolis and final 
 home of all the redeemed, is seen by them in the heavens, 
 as the pillar of cloud and of fire was by the Israelites 
 during their pilgrimage to Canaan ? In this dispensa- 
 tion we can only see by faith the King in His beauty, 
 and the land that is very far off. Then, perhaps, the 
 heavenly glory will be hung out to the admiring gaze of 
 all the dwellers upon earth, in the firmament of heaven. 
 
 10. During the millennial dispensation, animals shall 
 exist, and the curse be taken from them, either in whole 
 or in part; " the wolf shall lie down with the lamb, and 
 the leopard with the kid, and the cow and the bear shall 
 feed 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 put his hand on the cockatrice's 
 den ; they shall not hurt or destroy in all God's holy 
 mountain." What a change from the present state and 
 condition of things ! In the new Jerusalem state we 
 have no account of the existence of these animals, from 
 
AND THE NEW JERUSALEM STATE. 285 
 
 whence we infer it to be another and a subsequent dis- 
 pensation. 
 
 11. In the millennial dispensation, the land of Canaan 
 shall be divided among the twelve tribes of Israel, in 
 sections widely differing from those given to them by 
 Joshua, according to the command of God. The Prophet 
 Ezekiel, chapter xlviii., describes the portion which each 
 shall have as running from east to west, in parallel lines, 
 from the Mediterranean sea to the river Jordan, a divis- 
 ion of the country which has never yet been made among 
 the seed of Abraham, but which awaits its fulfillment 
 in the age to come. But no distinction between the seed 
 of Abraham and the Gentiles is ever referred to in the 
 new Jerusalem state. That seemed to belong entirely to 
 the "dispensation of the fullness of times," while the 
 various probationary periods were running their courses. 
 It began with the third dispensation and ends with the 
 sixth, the seventh being the last and perfect state, when 
 there shall be no more Jew or Gentile, high or low, rich 
 or poor, for " Jerusalem which is from above is free, and 
 is the mother of us all/' and gathers into her arms all the 
 redeemed out of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue, 
 who have made their robes white in the blood of the 
 Lamb. 
 
 12. The last point of difference which we will notice 
 between the millennial and new Jerusalem states, is s that 
 the names of the cities which are each to be the metrop- 
 olis of its respective dispensation, are wholly different. 
 The name of the city to be the metropolis of the new 
 earth, or millennial dispensation, is called, " JEHOVAH 
 SHAMMAH," which means, the Lord is there. Ezekiel, 
 
286 THE MILLENNIAL DISPENSATION 
 
 xlviii. 35. The name of the city which is to be the abode 
 of the risen saints during the millennium, is the NEW 
 JERUSALEM. It is also called the "great city," the "holy 
 city." Revelations, xxi. 2, 10. Now if this comes down 
 from heaven while the Jehovah Shammah still stands in 
 the land of Judea, about thirty miles north of the pres- 
 ent city of Jerusalem, and becomes the ultimate gath- 
 ering place of all those who are written in the Lamb's 
 book of life, as declared in Revelations, xxi. 27, it must 
 be because there is intended to be made a higher devel- 
 opment of mercy and grace to the children of men than 
 ever before was made : in other words, a dispensation 
 still in advance of the millennial, which, with all its bless- 
 ings, was still an imperfect state. From these various 
 considerations, we conclude that when the thousand years 
 of Millennial blessedness shall be spent, the endless ages 
 of the new Jerusalem glory shall begin, and roll on, 
 until perhaps the new earth shall receive, in place of 
 its " Jehovah Shammah," that city which hath Twelve 
 Foundations, in which are the names of the Twelve Apos- 
 tles of the Lamb, and whose streets of gold, and gates 
 of pearl, and light from the glory of God, will impart 
 to it such beauty and splendor, that heaven itself can 
 scarcely be conceived of as more magnificent and attrac- 
 tive. In fact, earth will be made heaven, by the glory 
 of heaven being brought down to it ; and then, truly, 
 there shall be no more death or curse, for the former 
 things will be done away. Such is the inheritance of the 
 saints, " and this is their portion from me, saith the Lord 
 of Hosts." Who can refrain from joining in the raptur- 
 ous strain of the poet ? 
 
AND THE NEW JERUSALEM STATE. 287 
 
 " scenes surpassing fable, and yet true ; 
 Scenes of accomplished bliss, which who can see, 
 Though but in distant prospect, and not feel 
 His soul refreshed with foretaste of the joy ? 
 See Salem built, the labor of a God ; 
 Bright as the sun the sacred city shines. 
 Thither, redeemed by blood, with robes made white, 
 Are gathered all the followers of the Lamb. 
 Zion 1 an assembly such as earth 
 Saw never, such as Heaven stoops down to see 1" 
 
 How does it become us, who are still in this land of 
 sickness and death, to lift up our heads and rejoice in 
 the hope set before us in the gospel, singing, as we travel 
 to Immanuel's land, 
 
 "Jerusalem, my happy home, 
 
 Name ever dear to me, 
 When shall my labors have an end, 
 In joy, and peace, and thee ? 
 
 When shall these eyes thy heaven-built walla 
 
 And pearly gates behold ; 
 Thy bulwarks with salvation strong, 
 
 And streets of shining gold ? 
 
 Oh when, thou city of my God, 
 
 Shall I thy courts attend ; 
 Where congregations ne'er break up. 
 
 And Sabbaths have no end ? 
 
 There happier bowers than Eden's bloom, 
 
 Nor sin nor sorrow know ; 
 Blest seats ! through rude and stormy scenes 
 
 I onward press to you. 
 
 Apostles, martyrs, prophets there 
 
 Around my Saviour stand ; 
 And soon my friends in Christ below 
 Will join the glorious band, 
 
288 THE MILLENNIAL DISPENSATION. 
 
 Jerusalem, my happy home, 
 
 My soul still pants for thee ; 
 Then shall my labors have an end, 
 
 When I thy joys shall see." 
 
 To this song of hope let us add the prayer of faith : 
 God, who hast prepared for those who love thee such 
 good things as pass man's understanding, pour into our 
 hearts such love toward thee, that we, loving thee above 
 all things, may obtain thy promises, which exceed all we 
 can desire ; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 
 
 tJIITBESITY 
 
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