Prophecy.—Dan. 2:40. "And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things; and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise."
History.—"The arms of the republic, sometimes vanquished in battle, always victorious in war, advanced with rapid steps to the Euphrates, the Danube, the Rhine, and the Ocean; and the images of gold, or silver, or brass, that might represent the nations and their kings, were successively broken by the iron monarchy of Rome—Gibbon, Dec. and Fall, Chap. 38, Sec. 43.
Prophecy.—Dan. 7:7. "After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, 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." Verse 23. "Thus he said the fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces."
History.—In Mithridates' letter to the king of the Parthians—"Do not deceive yourself; it is with all the nations, states and kingdoms of the earth, that the Romans are at war.
Do you not know, that the Romans, when they found themselves stopped by the ocean in the west, turned their arms in this way? that to look back to their foundation and origin, whatever they have, they have from violence; home, wives, lands, and dominions? A vile herd of every kind of vagabonds, without country, without forefathers, they established themselves for the misfortune of the human race. Neither divine nor human laws restrain them from betraying and destroying their allies and friends, remote nations or neighbors, the weak or the powerful. They reckon as enemies all that are not their slaves, and especially whatever bears the name of king. . . . It will be for your immortal glory to have supported two great kings, and to have conquered and destroyed these robbers of the world." See Dan. 11:14. Rollin's Ancient History of Pontus under the year 69, Hist. J. C.
"But the empire of the Romans filled the world, and when that empire fell into the hands of a single person, the world became a safe and dreary prison for his enemies. The slave of Imperial despotism, whether he was condemned to drag his gilded chain in Rome and the senate, or to wear a life of exile on the barren rock of Seriphus, or the frozen banks of the Danube, expected his fate in silent despair. To resist was fatal, and it was impossible to fly. On every side he was encompassed with a vast extent of sea and land, which he could never hope to traverse without being discovered, seized, and restored to his irritated master. Beyond the frontiers, his anxious view could discover nothing except the ocean, inhospitable deserts, hostile tribes of barbarians, of fiercer manners and unknown language, or dependent kings, who would gladly purchase the emperor's protection by the sacrifice of an obnoxious fugitive. 'Wherever you are' said Cicero to the exiled Marcellus, 'remember that you are equally within the power of the conqueror.'" Gibbon, Dec. and Fall, Chap. 3, Sec. 34.
Then in his foot-notes he says, note 1: "Seriphus was a small island in the Ægean sea, the inhabitants of which were despised for their ignorance and obscurity. The place of Ovid's exile is well known by his unmanly lamentations. It should seem, that he only received an order to leave Rome in so many days and transport himself to Tomi. Guards and goalers were unnecessary." Note 2: "Under Tiberius, a Roman knight attempted to fly to the Parthians. He was stopped in the strait of Sicily; but so little danger did there appear in the example that the most jealous of tyrants disdained to punish it."
I know not how words could be gotten together to show more perfectly the fulfillment of that prophecy, and how absolutely the "fourth kingdom upon earth" did "devour the whole earth, and tread it down and break it in pieces," than is shown in these words of Mithridates and Gibbon. And to show the force of Gibbon's mention of the exile of Ovid, we would state that Ovid was the poet of that name, and by some means he incurred the displeasure of Augustus, that "one person" into whose "hands fell the empire of the world," and Augustus banished him to Tomi. Tomi, or Tomos, was a city of Pontus in Europe, on the shores of the Euxine371sea near the mouth of the Danube. And to Tomi he went and remained, with neither "guards nor goalers," till the day of his death, a period of nearly ten years. He could not escape from the power of the Romans, so true it was that "the empire of the Romans filled the world; to resist was fatal, and it was impossible to fly." Now we come to a prophecy and its fulfillment, which is certainly striking, and also important, as it shows so plainly how this great power and dominion were acquired; we refer to Dan. 8:25, which plainly refers to the same power, the only difference being that this embraces the little horn power of Dan. 7 also.
Dan. 8:24. "His power shall be mighty, but not by his own power;" "and shall prosper and practice." The 25th verse says, "he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand." But how is it that he causes craft to prosper? see verse 25, "Through his policy." Here is the explanation of the whole course of the Roman power, both Pagan, and Papal. And here is the exactness of the Scripture. Notice, it does not say, that through policy he shall do this, but "through his policy," showing that it is distinctively the policy, that he practices. And the history will show that no other nation, kingdom, prince, or people, ever had such a policy. We now turn to history to show that policy. In the year 197-6 B. C., Titus Quintius Flamininus, the Roman proconsul, by the defeat of Philip, (son of Demetrius) the king of Macedonia, in battle, and the conclusion of peace shortly after, put an end to the Macedonian war. It was now the time in which the Isthmian games were to be solemnized, and the expectation of what was to be there transacted had drawn thither an incredible multitude of people, and persons of the highest rank, as the conditions of the treaty of peace were not entirely made public. All Greece was in uncertainty. The multitude being assembled in the stadium to see the games, a herald comes forward and publishes with a loud voice:—"The senate and people of Rome, and Titus Quintius the general having overcome Philip and the Macedonians, and set at liberty from all garrisons, taxes, and imposts, the Corinthians, the Locrians the Phocians, the Eubœans, the Ohtihot Achœans, the Magnesians, the Thessalians, and the Perrhœbians, declare them free, and ordain that they shall be governed by their respective laws and usages."-Rollin's Ancient History, Book 19, Sec 2.
"In this is shown his policy, which was to fight battles, and gain victories for other nations, even though they be entirely strangers, only to set them at liberty as they professed, when in reality it was for the express purpose of getting a firmer hold on them, and on other nations through them; for here were seven nations, which they had set at liberty, and immediately they began to spread abroad to other nations, how magnanimous the Romans were. "They called to mind all the great battles which Greece had fought for the sake of liberty. 'After sustaining so many wars,' said they, 'never was its valor crowned with so blessed a reward, as when strangers came and took up arms in its defense. It there that almost without shedding a drop of blood, or losing scarce one man, it acquired the greatest and noblest of all prizes for which mankind can contend. Agesilaus, Lysander, Nicias, and Alcibiades, had great abilities for carrying on war, and gaining battles both by sea and land; but then it was for themselves, and their country, not for strangers and foreigners, they fought. That height of glory was reserved for the Romans. A people who, at their own expense, and the hazards of their lives, engaged in a war for the liberty of other nations; who crossed seas and sailed to distant climes, to destroy and extirpate unjust power from the earth, and to establish universal law, equity, and justice." Ibid. And by sounding this abroad, other nations heard of the justice of the Romans, and their power was infinitely augmented, by those thus confiding in them, and placing the utmost reliance in the faith of their engagements." "For those nations that not only received such generals as the Romans sent them, but earnestly requested that they might be sent; they called them in and put themselves in their hands with joy. And not only nations and cities, but princes and kings, who had complaints to offer against the injustice of neighboring powers had recourse to them. So that in a short time the whole earth submitted to their empire."—Ibid. And it is a fact that no fewer than four kings, namely: Attalus, king of Pergamos, Ptolemy Apion, king of Cyrenaica, Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, and Ptolemy Alexander, king of Egypt, actually left their dominions to the Romans by will.
"The Roman name was revered among the most remote nations of the earth. The fiercest barbarians, frequently submitted their differences, to the arbitration of the emperor, and we are informed by a contemporary historian, that he had seen ambassadors who were refused the honor which they came to solicit, of being admitted into the rank of subjects." - Dec. and Fall, Chap. 1, Sec. 11.
And now Gibbon gives in a few words the end of this policy: "The free states and cities, which had embraced the cause of Rome, were rewarded with a nominal alliance, and insensibly sunk into real servitude. The public authority was everywhere exercised by the ministers of the senate and of the emperors, and that authority was absolute and without control."—Dec. and Fall, Chap. 2, Sec. 10.
Perhaps we could not sum up this evidence in better words than Rollin has done. And surely he cannot be accused of having written these words as an illustration of the fulfillment of this prophecy, because he applied the prophecy to Antiochus Epiphanes. But at the same time we admit that he could not have shown more plainly the truth of the prophecy if he had written them for that express purpose. We quote:—
"But if we penetrate ever so little beyond this glaring outside, we soon perceive that this specious moderation of the Romans was entirely founded upon a profound policy. . . They declared loudly in favor of these republics; made it their glory to take them under their protection, and that with no other design, in outward appearance, than to defend them against their oppressors. And further, to attach them by a still stronger tie, they hung out to them a specious bait, I mean liberty, of which all the republics in question were inexpressibly jealous. The bait was artfully prepared, and swallowed very greedily by the generality of the Greeks, whose views penetrated no further. But the most judicious and most clear-sighted among them discovered the danger that lay concealed beneath this charming bait and accordingly they exhorted the people from time to time in their public assemblies, to beware of this cloud that was gathering in the West; and which, changing on a sudden, into a dreadful tempest, would break like thunder over their heads to their utter destruction.
"Nothing could be more gentle and equitable than the conduct of the Romans in the beginning. They acted with the utmost moderation towards such states and nations as addressed them for protection. . . By this means their authority gained strength daily, and prepared the nations for entire subjection. . . They used to depute commissioners to them, to inquire into their complaints . . . and to decide their quarrels. . . . Afterwards they used with plenary authority to summon those who refused to come to an agreement; obliged them to plead their cause before the senate and even appear in person there. From arbiters and mediators, being become supreme judges, they soon assumed a magisterial tone, looked upon their decrees as irrevocable decisions, were greatly offended when the most implicit obedience was not paid to them, and gave the name of rebellion to a second resistance; thus there arose in the Roman senate a tribunal which judged all nations and kings, from which there was no appeal." Rollin's Ancient Hist. Book 91, Sec. 7. Reflections, under Ant. J. C. 189.
Thus is plainly shown "his policy," and how that "through his policy he caused craft to prosper in his hand," and "by peace destroyed many," and how his power became "mighty" yet "not by his own power."
And when the papal form received from the pagan "his power, and his seat, and great authority," Rev. 13:2, he received also this crafty, insidious policy, which in a greatly magnified form has ever been peculiarly characteristic of that power. Witness the inquisition, the very name of which is suggestive of all that is implied in the prophecy. It is hardly a matter of wonder that the emperors of Rome should claim absolute authority over nations and kingdoms. But when a man, the head of a church, claims and is allowed to exercise, absolute authority over nations, kings, and emperors, we cannot but wonder. And to show that this authority was also "absolute and without control," we wish to present a few passages. First the famous contest between Pope Gregory VII (Hildebrand) and the Emperor Henry IV of Germany. (These extracts will be taken from "Historical Studies," by Eugene Lawrence, published by Harpers & Bros., New York, a work that any man who can raise three dollars and a half ought not to be without.) He says:—
"The representative pope of this new era was the illustrious, or the infamous, Hildebrand, the Cæsar of the papacy. Hildebrand was the son of a carpenter, but he was destined to rule over kings and nobles. His youth was marked by intense austerity, and he was a monk from his boyhood. He early entered upon the monastic life, but his leisure hours were passed in acquiring knowledge, and his bold and vigorous intellect was soon filled with schemes for advancing the power and grandeur of the church. Small, delicate, and unimposing in appearance, his wonderful eyes often terrified the beholder. He came up to Rome, became the real master of the church, and was long content to rule in a subordinate position. Pope after pope died, but Hildebrand remained immovable, the guide and oracle of Rome. He revolved in secret his favorite principles, the celibacy of the clergy, the supremacy of the popes, the purification of the church. At length in 1073, on the death of Alexander II, the clergy with one voice elected Hildebrand pope. He was at once arrayed in the scarlet robe, the tiara placed on his head, and Gregory VII was enthroned, weeping and reluctant, in the papal chair.
"His elevation was the signal for the most wonderful change in the character and purposes of the church. The pope aspired to rule mankind. He claimed absolute power over the conduct of kings, priests, and nations, and he enforced his decrees by the terrible weapons of an anathema and excommunication. He denounced the marriages of the clergy as impious, and at once there arose over Europe a fearful struggle between the ties of natural affection, and the iron will of Gregory. Heretofore the secular priests and bishops had married, raised families, and lived blamelessly as husbands or fathers, in the enjoyment of marital and filial love. But suddenly all this was changed. The married priests were declared polluted and degraded, and were branded with ignominy and shame. Wives were torn from their devoted husbands, children were declared bastards, and the ruthless monk, in the face of the fiercest opposition, made celibacy the rule of the church. The most painful consequences followed. The wretched women, thus degraded and accursed, were often driven to suicide in their despair. Some threw themselves into the flames; others were found dead in their beds, the victims of grief or of their own resolution not to survive their shame, while the monkish chroniclers exult over their misfortunes, and triumphantly consign them to eternal woe.
"He next forbade all lay institutions or appointments to bishops or other clerical offices, and declared himself the supreme ruler of the ecclesiastical affairs of nations. . . It was against this claim that the Emperor of Germany, Henry IV, rebelled. The great bishoprics of his empire, Cologne, Bremen, Treves, and many others, were his most important feudatories; and should he suffer the imperious pope to govern them at will, his own dominion would be reduced to a shadow. And now began the famous contest between the carpenter's son, and the successor of Charlemagne; between the Emperor of Germany and the head of the Church." This was in the winter of 1075-6.
"It was plain to all that no physical danger could shake the iron resolution of Gregory; he next determined to humble the self-willed emperor. Henry, flushed with victory, surrounded by faithful bishops and nobles, attended by mighty armies, had refused, with petulant contempt, to obey the decrees of Rome. Hildebrand summoned him to appear before his tribunal, and, if he should refuse to come, appointed the day on which sentence of excommunication should be pronounced against him. The emperor replied by assembling a council of his German nobles and priests, who proclaimed the deposition of the pope. All Christendom seemed united to crush the bishop of Rome; the married clergy, the Simonists, and all who had received their investiture from temporal sovereigns joined in a fierce denunciation of his usurpation. But Gregory called together a third council in the Lateran, and a miracle or an omen inspired the superstitious assembly. An egg was produced with much awe and solemnity, on which a serpent was traced in bold relief, recoiling in mortal agony from a shield against which it had vainly struck its fangs. The bishops gazed upon the prodigy with consternation, but Gregory interpreted it with the skill of a Roman augur. The serpent was the dragon of the Apocalypse; its mortal agonies foretold the triumphs of the church. A wild enthusiasm filled the assembly, the anathema of Rome was hurled against Henry, his subjects were absolved from their allegiance, and the king was declared excommunicated. The effect of this spiritual weapon was wonderful; the power of the great emperor melted away like mist before the wind. His priests shrunk from him as a lost soul, his nobles abandoned him, his people looked upon him with abhorrence, and Henry was left with a few armed followers and a few faithful bishops in a lonely castle on the Rhine."
The Sabbath at Creation.
[From a work entitled, "A Word for the Sabbath," for sale at the office of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES.]
WHEN first the rapid march of Time began,
And God achieved his ever-wondrous plan,
When heaven and earth the royal summons heard,
And came, obedient, at the Almighty's word,
Sky, land, and sea, and forms of beauty there,
Raised their glad anthems on the silent air;
Then did the Morning Stars loud songs employ,
And all the sons of God gave shouts of joy.
When planets; glimmering on the brow of night,
The orb of day, with his refulgent light,
And rolling earth, each taught their varied bounds,
Commenced, majestic, their eternal rounds—
Six days alone this glorious work employed;
God on the seventh a sacred rest enjoyed.
Calmly and grand the six day's labor close,
The seventh beholds the Deity's repose.
Oh! wondrous power, when the creative power
Ceasing, as dawned that calm auspicious hour,
The Lord in holy, contemplative mood
Surveyed his finished work, and called it good.
'Twas meet the day on which the King did rest
Should thus be hallowed, sanctified, and blest.
'Twas meet that man, from God's example given,
Should yield each seventh day to him and heaven.
So was the hallowed season set apart
To be observed by every loyal heart.
Thus full and clear the Sabbath was made known,
Firm as the pillars of Jehovah's throne.
With the fair earth it left its Maker's hand,
And with the earth will co-existent stand.
As yet, upright in innocence man stood,
Not yet engulfed in sin's polluting flood,
Still pure in heart he walked the earth abroad,
And face to face held converse with his God,
No error yet had slightest foothold found
Within the precincts of that hallowed ground.
In this pure season was the Sabbath given,
When earth was but the outer court of Heaven.
'Twas not a type, foretelling sin to come,
A sad reminder of man's fearful doom,
When e'en his soul by sin's polluting breath
Was doomed, unless redeemed, to certain death.
As yet, man needed no redeeming grace,
Nor type of that as yet could here find place.
A child of Eden is the Sabbath fair,
Its natal breath, that garden's sinless air.
And when to earth Heaven's Royal Monarch came,
His car the clouds, his steeds devouring flame,
When Sinai's towering mount obsequious bowed,
And swelling trumpet answered thunders loud,
When thus the King of kings his footstool pressed,
And trembling earth proclaimed her mighty guest,
'Mid all these heralds of almighty power,
'Mid all the grandeur of that awful hour,
God spake his just, eternal law to man;
And thus, in plainest truth, this precept ran:
The Sabbath day remember; then shall close
The days of weekly toil, for calm repose.
For earthly care and toil, six days are thine,
The seventh is God's holy day divine;
For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth,
And gave all beings and all creatures birth,
And on the seventh enjoyed a sacred rest;
Wherefore the Sabbath day Jehovah blest.
Thus God's own finger points us to its birth,
When he from out the void made heaven and earth.
The Difficulty of Sabbath Reform
MINISTERS are a kind of spiritual tradesmen who supply food suited to the mental digestion of the people. If too honest and too simple in applying the word, their flocks soon start them about their business; hence the difficulty in getting them to lead off in Sabbath reform. The Protestant reformation was not perfect; had it been, there would have been only one sect, and that one such as described in Rev. 14:12: "Here are they who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." Though many Pagan errors cling to our Christianity they will all be dispelled in time by the light of God's word, which is an expanding revelation covering all time.
"How glorious is the sacred page,
Resplendent like the sun;
It gives a light to every age,
It gives but borrows none."
—Sel.
HABITS, though in their commencement like the filmy line of the spider, trembling at every breeze, may in the end prove as links of tempered steel.—Mrs. Sigourney.
Galilee.
By Hepworth Dixon
"You have ridden through Galilee? You have sailed on the lake? You have seen the city of Nazareth, and the site of Magdala, Gerasa, and Capernaum? You have been on the spot of the marriage feast? You have stood on the slope from which He preached the Sermon on the Mount? Is Cana known? Where is Capernaum? Has the spot been identified, and what kind of a place is it now?" Such questions break in cataracts on every pilgrim from the Holy Land. Jerusalem may have a deeper and sterner interest for a Christian Frank than any place in Galilee; yet Galilee is properly the country of our Lord. Here His early life was spent; here His chief companions lived; here His most important words were spoken, and His most important work was done.
The whole province of Galilee was called the country of our Lord. Whence comes this name of Galilee, so closely connected with sacred history, and so sweetly sounding in all Christian ears? It is not sacred to a Jew, nor sweetly sounding in a Jewish ear! The first name under which we know the country is Gelil haggoyim—Land of the heathen. In the midst of Israel a Gentile people clung to the soil, and could not be expelled by fire or sword. They were a remnant of the ancient dwellers, but a hardy and unconquerable remnant, occupying the stony hills and thickets, much as the Druses cling to the hill-sides in Lebanon and the Waldenses to the valleys of Piedmont. Joshua ravaged their towns, and Solomon tossed them as a fee to Hiram; but the leader of Israel and the King of Tyre were equally baffled by the passive tenacity and endurance of these ancient tribes. In the language of Jewish scribes, the country remained a land of strangers and heathens—Galilee of the Gentiles.
Many Hebrews lived in this heathen province, but the high priests looked on such Hebrews as low rabble who were not unwilling to live among strangers for the sake of gain. The feeling was not unlike that which English country squires used to express for people who sought their bread and salt in Van Dieman's Land or Botany Bay. Galilee never ceased to be a term of reproach. To be called a Galilean in the court of Annas and Caiaphas was to be called a rogue and churl. Josephus frequently speaks of the Galileans as brigands. Hence the saying of a strict Jew like Nathaniel, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" Hence the opprobrium attaching in the minds of strict metropolitan Jews to such epithets as Jesus of Nazareth and Jesus the Nazarene.—Hepworth Dixon.
Religious Duty.
MANY persons have an idea that they are free from religious duties until they agree to be bound by them. They think that attendance upon worship, the support of the church, the avoidance of unprofitable amusements, and the maintenance of high Christian character may be binding upon the acknowledged Christian, but they do not apply to the irreligious man—especially the avowed skeptic.
But moral obligation is not created by contract, nor does it depend upon belief. It requires no contract to bring a man within the range of God's physical laws. Disregard of the laws of health is punished, irrespective of the ignorance or disbelief of him who disregards them. Strychnine would kill, even though the victim did not believe in the power of poison or the fact of death; and so of the civil laws. It requires no contract to obligate a man to obey the laws of the State. He may be ignorant of those laws, he may refuse to obey them; he may deny their existence; yet they bind him, and for their violation he is justly punished. And so of the moral laws; it requires no contract to bring man under their authority. By the very nature of his being he is under their authority.
There can be no evasion of the laws by which God carries on his moral government. They must be obeyed or disobeyed. Among those laws are the duties pertaining to the church of Christ. That church is a most important part of that moral government. Indeed, it is, on earth, the very embodiment of that moral government. It is the duty of every one to whom that church is presented, to enter it, to sustain it, and to be conformed in conduct and character to its teachings. Each one of these duties is binding; and the non-performance of the first—that of entering the church—by no means lessens the obligations of the others; nor does disregard of them all either change their nature or diminish their force. The divine law, which lays these duties upon every one, is an eternal fact; and neither its existence nor its power is in any way affected by man's belief concerning it.—Standard of the Cross.
Personal.
By Editor
WE are sure that all our readers will take an interest in the following notice, which we take from the Herald of Denison City, Texas, as it gives such cheering news of the restoration to health of Elder White:—
“TEMPERANCE.—As was noticed in our local columns on Friday, we were favored with a visit from Elder James White. The reverend gentleman embodied in his presence the most forcible temperance lesson with which we have ever come in contact.
“Elder White, in the course of conversation, stated that he had never taken a drink of alcoholic liquor in his life. We were not at all surprised at the statement, for the gentleman, though fully sixty years of age, is as strong, as robust and erect as a man of forty.
“His eyes are bright and undimmed. His hand is as firm as a boy’s, and his step as light and elastic as that of an acrobat.
“Is this merely a coincidence or is it the natural effect of a natural cause? We contend that the latter proposition is the true one. Here is a man upon whom his years bear lightly. He has passed through trials and poverty, and has had his share of grief, just the same as falls to the lot of other men. He has had probably as much need (?) for stimulating drink as any one ever has, yet the fact proved in this case is that there does not exist a need for strong drink. Elder White is one of the many examples of the same kind that would serve as a warning to young men who are sowing the seeds of decay and death with alcohol.”
A letter from Brother White informs us that they will make their home in Texas this winter. We had hoped to be cheered by their presence and aided by their counsel in Oakland this winter.
Christ's Advents Personal.
By Editor
The Hebrew Leader in this wise:—
"Our Christian brethren have insisted that we have waited [and are still waiting] for a flesh and blood Messiah who shall localize himself in Judea and bring back the scattered tribes to a temporal rule and state, but we ourselves have never believed anything of the kind."
Mr. Felix Adler advances it as his opinion that the higher conditions of life constitute the fulfillment of the Messianic prophecy, and the furthering this end in intimate union with their fellow-men as the highest dictate of religion. There is something chilling and dreary beyond all question in such a view of the lofty, soul-inspiring prophecies. It is no wonder many of our Jewish friends reject this specious Rationalism as the sum and substance of the gospel prophecies and promises. —Christian at Work.
We offer our hearty assent to this. We could never be satisfied to substitute any degree of "higher life" in Adam's race at large, for a personal Christ; a crucified, risen, and glorified Messiah. Now will not the Christian at Work consistently "right about" and try to correct the faith, or rather the errors and unbelief of those who assert that the second coming of Christ is nothing but the proclamation of the gospel, and the conversion of the people? At the present time it is giving "aid and comfort" to those who spiritualize away the second advent. We fail to see any consistency in its effort to correct the blind mistake of the Jew in spiritualizing away the first advent.
The Saviour himself said, "If I go away I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that [in order that] where I am, there ye may be also." To what but a personal coming can this refer? The angel said, "This same Jesus, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." And Paul, speaking of the second advent, said, "The Lord himself shall descend."
If this means only a diffusion of gospel knowledge, or the acceptance of the doctrine of Christ by the people, with what grace can we chide the Jew for denying a personal Messiah? "Let not then your good be evil spoken of." The prophecies were not fulfilled by a mystical or figurative Messiah, and we are not prepared to admit that "this same Jesus," even "the Lord himself," is a mere figure of speech. Our faith grasps a more tangible Saviour than a figurative one; our consciousness refuses to appreciate a Christ in symbol only.
But if symbols must be accepted for the personality of Christ, then let the Protestant cease to ignore the mass of the Catholics. They have carried out the idea to where the common people can grasp it. But we want "the very same Jesus," "the Lord himself." And in this we shall be satisfied, together with all "that look for him," and "love his appearing." "Even so, Come, Lord Jesus." This prayer, breathed by the beloved apostle in the fulness of his inspiration, will be answered. We wait in patience, hoping for that coming glory.