Signs of the Times, Vol. 1, No. 11.
OUR PRESENT POSITION: or, the Waiting, Watching TimePage 1
OUR PRESENT POSITION: or, the Waiting, Watching Time.
By James White
TEXT: "Take ye heed, watch and pray; for ye know not when the time is." Mark 13:33. THERE is strength in our position, as manifested in the conversion of infidels, Universalists, common wordlings, and professors from all the churches to the religion of the Bible, and in united action and stability of our people. Their position being clear and satisfactory, they are not exposed to such influences and discouragements as shattered and nearly destroyed the once united, happy and strong body of not less than fifty thousand believers when the time passed. Their false positions on time, after the passing of the true time, proved their ruin. And the position of those who rejected the light upon the sanctuary and its cleansing, and held that the periods reached to the coming of the Lord, and who at the same time rejected the new published times for the second advent, was a trying one, and drove many to adopt the several times upon the flimsiest evidences; while those who adopted the new times were doing their part to confuse the body of Adventists, undermine their faith in the Advent movement, and disgust the world. The hand of God was evidently with William Miller in his conversion from deistical sentiments, his study of the Sacred Scriptures, and his public labors in the presentation of his views of the prophecies. When his positions were assailed by the theological giants of our country, he so successfully defended them as to give him still greater influence over the public mind, which resulted in bringing over to his views not a few of the ministers of the several denominations, and thousands out of their flocks. Among these were some of the ablest of the American clergy. But age and infirmities were enfeebling the powers of the Low Hampton farmer. He had endured the hardships of the war of 1812, the toils incident to active farming life in a new country, and at the age of fifty entered upon his extremely laborious and successful career as a lecturer and writer, and was sixty-three years old at the time of the great disappointment in 1844. His work—the specific work to which God had called him—evidently closed with his disappointment. In his Apology and Defense, published in 1845, he speaks of his labors and their results as follows:— "I labored extensively in all the New England and Middle States, in Ohio, Michigan, Maryland, the District of Columbia, and in Canada East and West, giving about four thousand lectures in something like five hundred different towns. "I should think that about two hundred ministers embraced my views, in all the different parts of the United States and Canada; and that there have been about five hundred public lecturers. In all the sections of country where I labored,—not only in the towns I visited, but in those in their vicinity,—there were more or less that embraced the doctrine of the advent. In some places only a very few, and in other places there have been a large number. "In nearly a thousand places Advent congregations have been raised up, numbering, as nearly as I can estimate, some fifty thousand believers. On recalling to mind the several places of my labors, I can reckon up about six thousand instances of conversion from nature's darkness to God's marvelous light, the result of my personal labors alone; and I should judge the number to be much greater. Of this number I can recall to mind about seven hundred, who were, previously to their attending my lectures, infidels; and their number may have been twice as great. Happy results have also followed from the labors of my brethren, many of whom I would like to mention here, if my limits would permit. "In all my labors I never had the desire or thought to establish any separate interest from that of existing denominations, or to benefit one at the expense of another. I thought to benefit all. Supposing that all Christians would rejoice in the prospect of Christ's coming, and that those who could not see as I did would not love any the less those who should embrace this doctrine, I did not conceive there would ever be any necessity for separate meetings. My whole object was a desire to convert souls to God, to notify the world of a coming Judgment, and to induce my fellow-men to make that preparation of heart which will enable them to meet their God in peace. The great majority of those who were converted under my labors united with the various existing churches. When individuals came to me to inquire respecting their duty, I always told them to go where they would feel at home; and I never favored any one denomination in my advice to such." In the same address he also says: "My labors are principally ended. I shall leave to my younger brethren the task of contending for the truth. Many years I toiled alone; God has now raised up those who will fill my place. I shall not cease to pray for the spread of the truth." Again he says, in the following words which show the Christian spirit, and wisdom of the man whom God had called to put the armor on, and to fight in his cause under reproaches and abuses above measure, but who was meekly laying the armor off, and softening in spirit, and ripening for the hour when his probation should close:— "I would exhort my Advent brethren to study the word diligently. Let no man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit. Avoid everything that shall cause offense. Let your lives be models of goodness and propriety. Let the adversary get no advantage over you. We have been disappointed; but disappointments will work for our good, if we make the right use of them. Be faithful. Be vigilant. Exhort with all long-suffering and patience. Let your conversation be in Heaven, from whence you look for the blessed hope. Avoid unnecessary controversy and questions that gender strifes. Be not many masters; all are not competent to advise and direct. God will raise up those to whom he will commit the direction of his cause. Be humble, be watchful, be patient, be persevering. 'And may the God of peace sanctify you wholly, and preserve you blameless unto the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.'" While suffering under a sense of his disappointment, and witnessing the decline of the cause he had labored to build up, the apostasy of some and the fanaticism of others whom he had loved in the truth, he looked back in obedience to the apostle's injunction—"call to remembrance the former days"—to that period in which God made him a leader in the work of giving the first message, Rev. 14:6, 7, with great pleasure. "When I look back to the period when we began to publish the news of a coming Saviour, I think it the happiest time of my life. How were our hearts refreshed by the readiness of the dear brethren in Christ to hear, believe, and obey, the simple gospel of the kingdom! With what delight have I, in company with many of the dear, anxious children of God read and re-read the Scriptures, searched diligently and compared the prophets, Jesus Christ, and his apostles, to see if these things were so! What glorious light I have often seen in that holy book while thus engaged! And with what joy have I taken sweet communion with kindred hearts in the house of God, where our faith was more and more established by the word of His grace; where our prayers were mingled at the same altar, and arose together as incense to the mercy-seat of our Redeemer, for a preparation to meet the coming glories, which we then expected shortly to realize; where our hearts burned with love and gratitude to God for the good news of the near approach of the King of kings; where our songs of praise and hallelujahs to the Lamb cheered our drooping spirits, and prepared us more vigorously to pursue our weary pilgrimage to the land of promise, which, from evidence to us conclusive, and which I am not ashamed of, we soon expect to reach! "Then, heart beat in unison with heart, soul mingled with soul, and love, holy, heavenly, divine, united us in that oneness of gospel truth; and prejudice and party were dissipated from our thoughts like midnight darkness, or the morning mists by the rising sun. This was a time of love, a time of faith, working by love and purifying the heart. It was this hope, "the blessed hope," that made us purify ourselves from our sectarian prejudices and bigotry. "I have often thought that we then enjoyed a foretaste of the love and fellowship of the saints in light. Why is it not so now? The reason is as obvious as the sun at noon-day. We have been drawn from our first principles by wicked and designing men, who have crept in among us and drawn us into parties, to follow men instead of God, and to form new tests instead of the Bible. Some of our lectures first began the confusion, by declaring an unholy crusade against the sects, which brought in men of blood instead of men of peace. True, after the manner of men, the sects had provoked us to the course we took by all the wicked arts and misrepresentations of our views and motives that human and satanic agency could invent,—by slanders, ridicule, and wrestling the word of God from the meaning which had long been laid down in their own creeds, and departing from those rules by which their fathers, for centuries, had applied mystic Babylon to the church of Rome. We were not called, in my humble opinion, to engage in so universal a war. I think we have, in this, left our first principles, which were, to preach the blessed hope, and beseech men to be ready for the 'glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ,' without personal or denominational considerations. While we pursued this course, God blessed us in our work. We were commanded by the word to be patient, sober, to judge not, not to be high-minded, but to fear, and, by so doing, manifest the same spirit that was in Christ. What have been the fruits of this departure from the plain line of duty? Surely they have not been love, peace, and joy, such as we formerly experienced, when we believed in our hearts that Christ was at the door." We have quoted largely from the addresses of William Miller after the time passed, that the reader may understand the real position of the man whom God had led in the great movement which we solemnly believe occurred in the fulfillment of the first message of Rev. 14. Seventh-day Adventists believe that the third message, now being proclaimed, and the preparatory work for the coming of the Son of man now in progress with those who embrace it, is by the direct providence of God, in fulfillment of certain portions of his word. And this position makes the conclusion that the first and second message of the same series were given under the same providence, and that God raised up William Miller to bring out the great truths of the first message, appear, to say the least, very reasonable. Hence we are the more willing to let him speak for himself, that the candid reader may correctly view this representative and providential servant of Jesus Christ, whose name is associated in the public mind with Adventism everywhere. A Methodist presiding elder, of near kin, once remarked to us, "But few public men grow old gracefully." William Miller entered upon his public labors as a lecturer upon the prophecies in the strength of manhood, after acquiring habits of self-reliance, firmness, and undaunted courage as an army and civil officer. And this stamp of character, sanctified by the grace of God, constituted one of the important qualifications necessary to meet the different forms of determined opposition and persecution which he met. And then, after nerving himself to the battle for thirteen years, forming the strongest combative habits, at that period of his life, as he was about sixty years of age, when strong men's habits generally become very strongly established, to see him calmly, and gently, laying off the armor; and under his bitter disappointment, to witness his resignation to the will of God, and his affectionate appeals and warnings to his younger brethren to be holy men of God, ready for the coming of the Son of man, carries the strongest conviction to candid minds that God had raised him up to do the very work which he did do. As he thus laid his armor off he said to his brethren that his work was done. In this we can see the hand of God. He had spent the strength of his ripe manhood in giving the first message. His burden fell off, which he interpreted, for a short time, that the work of warning sinners was done. But the great work of the third message was then in the future, and if God designed to use him in giving it, he would have given him a new lease of life, and opened the subject to his mind. But he did not see this work and feel its importance; and why should he? He had done his work faithfully and well, and was soon to sleep in Jesus. It is proper here to state that William Miller did not view the second message as we do. Neither did he change his views up on the immortality and Sabbath questions. Having finished his mission in giving the first message, and having reached the point in respect to age, and debility from his extremely arduous labors as a lecturer for thirteen years, with no periods of cessation, only when compelled by sickness, the candid reader can see the love and wisdom of God in not impressing his mind with those subjects which he could not investigate and vindicate before the people. Having done, and well done, the great work given him to do, the probation of public labor with him successfully past according to the will of God, he could say in the language of Paul, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." 2 Tim. 4:7, 8. It is just what might be expected, that those who understandingly embrace the principles of the third message, would first inquire relative to the second and first messages; and would feel the deepest interest in the man whom God raised up to lead off in the opening work of giving the great threefold warning to the world. Those who have been continually publishing a new time upon the heels of a failure, have been not only disgusting the public, but, at each effort, have been virtually condemning82 the position of William Miller on the time question, and losing regard for his valuable labors. These can have but little, if any, interest in his life and views. And on the other hand, those who stood with him on the time question in 1844, and have confessed to the world that they were in error, and have given up their past second-advent experience, virtually condemn his positions and work, and can take, comparatively, but little interest in the history of his life, views, and labors. Both of these classes have departed from the position of William Miller, and have denied, or, at least, hold very lightly, their past second-advent experience, and have left the field to Seventh-day Adventists who stand upon the "original advent faith." And while occupying the position we do relative to the past movement, the public have reason to expect that, while we hold that William Miller moved in the providence of God in his work, we should publish the facts as they existed in his life, views, and labors, in explanation and defense, so far as such facts constitute a defense, of our position. Seventh-day Adventists still love the Advent name, and hold it very dear to them. And while they hold the name, consistency would lead them to cherish, and also hold dear, the very means that made them Adventists. To still hold the Advent name, and turn round and curse, or deny, or even hold lightly, the means God employed to make them what they are, seems the very climax of inconsistency. When Seventh-day Adventists can no longer honor the great second-advent movement, and feel called upon to confess to the world that the pioneers of the cause were mistaken on the very calculation that shook the world, and which resulted in making Adventists a separate people, then they will drop "Adventists" from their name, and pass for simply Sabbatarian Christians. One by one Thou callest,
With Thy mighty word;
One by one they leave us
At Thy bidding, Lord. Childhood in its brightness,
Manhood in its prime,
Hoary age—all passing
Off the stage of time. Friends, long-lov'd and cherish'd
To our hearts most dear!
Nay, you are not perish'd,
Though no longer here. Though Death seems to triumph,
Yet the coming morn,
Which your Lord has promis'd,
Gives no hope forlorn. Christ has gain'd the vict'ry,
Christ who came to save;
Christ, the Resurrection,
Triumph'd o'er the grave. Children of one Father,
By his love made one,
With the glorious Saviour—
Our Saviour and his Son; You shall share his glory,
When your short sleep o'er,
Raised in incorruption,
You live for evermore; Evermore behold him
With the ransom'd throng;
Ever love and serve him,
Ever join the song— "To him who lov'd and sav'd us,
Be pow'r and glory given,
Who by his blood redeem'd us,
Be praise in highest heaven!" Ministration of Angels.
By D. M. Canright
WE have still further proof that Satan is introduced as the king of Tyrus in Eze. 28, by the testimony of verse 15: "Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee." What! a wicked, heathen king perfect in his ways? one who never knew God, but persecuted and destroyed his people, he perfect? Can it be said of a heathen man that he is perfect in his ways? No. Then we readily see that it must relate to some superior being. Verse 12: "Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty." It would not only be false, but absurd, to apply this to the king of Tyrus. The terms, "full of wisdom," and "perfect in beauty," certainly present to our minds a being of more exalted nature than man. Now the question naturally arises, If Satan was once in Heaven, what position did he there occupy? What follows will answer this question, and utterly preclude the possibility of applying it to any mortal man, or to any being short of an angel: "THOU ART THE ANOINTED CHERUB THAT COVERETH; AND I HAVE SET THEE SO." Verse 14. Evidently this is a reference to one of the mighty angels who cover the throne of God. Then it is very clear what position was once occupied by the person called the king of Tyrus. He was a covering angel to the throne of God in Heaven. God created him to fill that office; for he says, "I have set thee so." This was his position, his office. This, certainly, is not true of any man. Hence we are correct in applying it to some superior being. With regard to the remarkable personage brought to view in Eze. 28, we have learned the following facts: 1. He has been in Eden, the garden of God. 2. The same precious stones which compose the wall of the heavenly Jerusalem, were once his covering. 3. He has been upon the holy mount of God. 4. He has walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire, i. e., he has walked the streets of the city of God. 5. He was perfect in his ways. 6. He was full of wisdom. 7. He is wiser than Daniel. 8. No secret can be hid from him. 9. He was perfect in beauty. 10. He was the anointed covering cherub. And, 11. God created him thus. We apply this to Satan, believing that no other application of it can be made which will harmonize all these points. Again, Jesus says that Satan "was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth." John 8:44. This proves that he was once in the truth, and also gives the time when he left it, when he became a murderer, i. e., at the beginning. The only "beginning" with which we are acquainted is the beginning of this world. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Gen. 1:1. How was he a murderer from the beginning? In Gen. 3:1-13, we learn that the devil deceived Eve, and led her into sin. In Rom. 5:12, Paul says, "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." We see then, that by lying to Eve, Satan brought death upon all our race. Thus he really became the murderer of the whole human family. This seems to locate the fall of Satan somewhere about the beginning of our world. John locates it at the same place. "He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning." 1 John 3:8. But the important question is, Why did Satan sin? We read on: "Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. . . . Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness." Eze. 28:15-17. Here we have an intimation of what occasioned the fall of Satan. His heart was lifted up with pride. Probably he looked upon the exalted position which he held, the mighty angels under his command, the principalities, powers, and worlds, that obeyed his word, and his "heart was lifted up," and he looked upon himself as a mighty being, forgetting that his strength came from God. It appears that, under God, Jesus was the only one higher than Satan. Perhaps he now thinks he must be equal with Christ—must have none higher than himself, save the Creator. At the creation of the world, "in the beginning," an opportunity was presented for him to manifest his feelings and test his obedience to God. To crown the creative work, man was to be made. He was to be the noblest work of God. The Father consults Jesus about it, and says, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." Gen. 1:26. Perhaps this was the occasion of Satan's fall. It occurs about the time when he did fall, as we have seen. It was just such a circumstance as would naturally arouse his jealousy of Christ. He considered himself slighted, insulted. His pride was touched, and "he said 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 above the hights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High." Isa. 14:13, 14. Occupying so high a position as he did, perhaps he thought that God would yield to his wishes and place him on an equality with Christ. Thus he was exalted in himself, and was tempted. He yielded to the temptation, ventured the experiment, sinned, and then rebelled. "But," says the objector, "he could not sin without an evil disposition; then where did he get this? from whence came his jealous mind? Must not evil be an inherent principle in his nature? or was there not another devil still back of Satan to tempt him?" To these questions we answer that Satan neither had naturally an evil disposition, nor was there any one to tempt him to do evil. Then how was he induced to sin? Chas. Beecher has some very sensible remarks on this point which we give. He says: "If such was the original condition of the universe, the question arises how sin could possibly enter. Some minds have felt the difficulty so strongly upon this point that they have rejected the Bible account of the matter, and denied the existence of any such sinless state of the universe. But the answer to the question is simple. Sin is, in its own nature, anomalous, and therefore mysterious; it is, in its own nature, an unaccountable thing. For the moment we admit that it is properly accounted for, i. e., the moment we have assigned a good and sufficient cause for it, that moment it ceases to be a sin. A good and sufficient cause is a good and sufficient excuse; and that which has a good and sufficient excuse, is not sin. To account for sin, therefore, is to defend it; and to defend it is to certify that it does not exist. Therefore, the objection that it is inconceivable and unaccountable that sin should enter into such a perfect universe, amounts to nothing but saying that sin is exceedingly sinful, inexcusable, and destitute of the least defense or justification. Sin is a violation of all law, a departure from all original nature, a thing essentially lawless, anomalous, and mysterious. We can identify the fact of its existence; we can describe the manner, we can discover the occasion; but the cause, the good and sufficient cause, God himself and the judgment seat will demonstrate, cannot be shown; for it does not exist."—Redeemer and Redeemed, pp. 82, 83. Because Satan yielded to temptation, sinned, and fell, it does not follow that God created him with an evil inclination. The Bible bears us out in this conclusion; for the Lord says of Satan, "Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee." THE TIME FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE KINGDOM.
It cannot be expected in this short article that we can say much on this point. We will, however, notice a few texts that have a bearing on this subject, and, for a more detailed exposition, refer the reader to works on the prophecies of Daniel, an exposition of Matt. 24, and other works published at the Review Office, Battle Creek, Mich. In selecting testimony on this point, we shall look at the texts that speak of the bringing in of the new-earth state. Peter, in his second epistle (chap. 3:10), says, "The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up." Verse 13. "Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." This testimony shows that the time when the earth becomes an abode for righteousness, or, as some render the text, "wherein the righteous shall dwell," is after the fires of the day of the Lord have purged the works of the devil out of it. This must locate this inheritance after the destruction of the wicked; for the prophet says: "Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it."* Then the establishment of the kingdom on earth must be after the second coming of Christ, and after the destruction of "those that know not God and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." This kingdom follows those represented by the four beasts of Dan. 7. In verses 17, 18, we read, "These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth. But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever." The powers represented by the symbols of the four beasts are not complete until the little horn has accomplished its work. The kingdom is not given into the hands of the saints until the work of this little horn is completed; for by reading Dan. 2, where are introduced symbols of the same kingdoms, we learn that when the God of Heaven sets up a kingdom, the image is dashed in pieces, and becomes as the chaff of the summer's threshing floor, &c. But by comparing the work of the little horn with that of the man of sin,† it will be clearly seen that they are identical, and therefore, that the work marked out as the smiting of the image on the feet can be nothing else than the events by which the nations are dashed in pieces at the coming of Christ. With these points before us, it must be clearly seen that the kingdom cannot be established prior to Christ's second advent. The above conclusion is also confirmed by the testimony of Dan. 7:21, 22: "I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom." This shows that the time when the saints possess the kingdom is after judgment is given to the saints. Verse 27 shows that our conclusion, previously made concerning the locality of the kingdom, is correct: "And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom," &c. A kingdom under the whole heaven could be nothing less than the whole earth. This conclusion is also confirmed by the testimony of verse 18: "But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom," clearly implying that they will take the same territory as their kingdom, over which the four beasts have ruled. Again, we see by reading Matt. 25:31-34, something further concerning the time when the kingdom shall be given to the saints for a possession, as also the locality of that kingdom: "When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory; and before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats; and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." What kingdom was prepared from the foundation of the world? According to this text it is the one the saints are to inhabit. Are the saints at that time called to inherit Heaven as a kingdom? If you say, Yes, we would ask, Was the Heaven which you suppose the saints are to inhabit, where God dwells, prepared at the foundation of the world? We can conceive of no kingdom that was prepared from the foundation of the world, but the earth itself. When God had created the earth, and beautified the face of it, and pronounced it very good, he gave man dominion over it. Gen. 1:26. As we are told (Micah 4:8), this first dominion is to come to Christ, so the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world is the earth itself. The above text also furnishes some evidence as to the time of the giving of the dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heavens unto the people of the saints of the Most High. It is when the Son of man is seated on the throne of his glory, and all nations are gathered before him, and he makes a final separation, consigning one party to the flames and receiving the other to possess the kingdom. It has been argued, quite conclusively too, that the wicked cannot be thus consigned to the flames till after their resurrection, which Rev. 20 locates at the end of the 1000 years, after Christ's second advent, as it also does their destruction. And, therefore, the time when the saints are called to possess this earth as a kingdom must be a thousand years after Christ's second advent, as it could not otherwise be after the resurrection of the wicked. Certain it is, according to Peter's argument, that it is after the earth is made new that the saints are to receive it for an inheritance. "We look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." The earth is to become an abode for the righteous after it is purified by fire; and yet, after that purification, it will be the earth that it is now, in the same sense that this earth is the one that existed before the flood. This earth is composed of the same material that existed before the flood, and yet it is said that "the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished." And so of this earth; when it has been melted and undergone a change by the action of fire, it will become a new earth, in which the saints will dwell. If this earth is not to become the abode of the saints until it is made new, we see it will have quite a bearing in the settlement of the question when the kingdom is established on earth, to learn, if possible, when the earth is made new. Peter says (2 Pet. 3:10), The day of the Lord will come, in the which this earth is to be melted, and a new earth is to be brought in. This, of course, does not fix the definite point when this change shall take place, further than it is said to be in that day. The day of the Lord, we understand, commences with events just prior to Christ's second coming, and concludes after the wicked are destroyed forever out of the earth, which we see by Rev. 20, is in the "little season" after the thousand years. So this text would not fix the definite point for that event, save that it shows that it will be in the day of the Lord. At what point in that day is the new earth to be brought in, now becomes an important question. Some have argued that it will be at the very commencement of that day; that at Christ's second coming the saints will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and that they will then enter the New Jerusalem while the wicked are being destroyed and the earth melted. Some have claimed that there the prophet's testimony applies: "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." Although we agree with the position that this text is a call for God's people to hide themselves while this earth is undergoing its purging by fire, yet, from the testimony that immediately follows, we conclude that it cannot apply till after the thousand years. "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." Here is a coming of the Lord out of his place, and the special object of that coming is stated. When he thus comes to punish them, the earth no more covers her slain. So it must be that at that point all the wicked are resurrected, which to our mind is conclusive evidence that this text has a better application at the end of the thousand years. There is a serious difficulty in the way of the view that the new earth is brought in at the beginning of the thousand years. It seems from Peter's testimony that when this purifying of the earth takes place, the works in it are destroyed. But is it consistent to suppose that after this earth has been cleansed one thousand years, and during that time been the place "wherein dwelleth righteousness," that all the wicked rebels that ever were upon it, shall be resurrected in one vast body out of the purified earth, and go up on its beautiful plains with Satan at their head, and that then fire and brimstone are rained from heaven upon those glorious fields of verdure to destroy the wicked? By the above remarks we do not dispute that the wicked will be raised at the end of the thousand years; that they will come around the New Jerusalem and be destroyed. But we understand their destruction is connected with the purification of the earth. And then that is the time when they shall "see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom," and they themselves thrust out. The kingdom is first established in the city, and finally when the earth is purified, the "dominion and greatness of the kingdom" will be "under the whole heavens." If the earth is made new, and the wicked are upon it when they see the kingdom, they would virtually be IN the kingdom, and how could they then see themselves thrust out? Again, if the whole earth is made new and constitutes the kingdom when they behold it, where is their standpoint from which they can behold, and be themselves out of, the kingdom? But it is all plain with the view above suggested, that the kingdom is first established in the city, and after the wicked are cut off and the earth cleansed, that the dominion is extended under the whole heaven. It has been supposed by some that Christ's kingdom cannot be established at all, until he takes possession of the whole earth, destroys the wicked, and establishes a peaceful reign upon it. But we do not suppose that that is necessary. When he establishes his kingdom, the heathen are given into his hands, that he may "break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." The Lord says of Christ: "Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession."‖ This we understand takes place when the testimony of Dan. 7:13, 14, is fulfilled. "I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom," &c. Some suppose this to refer to Christ's second coming. This cannot be, for when he comes the second time, he comes away from the Father; but this testimony speaks of a time when he is "brought near before him," to receive a kingdom. And in the parable of the nobleman going into a far country to receive a kingdom, we read: "When he was returned, having received the kingdom," &c. So he receives the kingdom before he returns. And, as we shall show in the next chapter, he reigns with the saints in Heaven, the capital of the kingdom, for 1000 years. And at the end of that period, as recorded by Zechariah, Christ's feet will stand on the mount of Olives, and the mount of Olives will cleave half toward one sea, and half toward the other, and there will be formed a mighty plain. Upon that plain we understand that the city, New Jerusalem, comes down. The wicked are then resurrected (Rev. 20); Satan goes out to deceive them; they gather around the camp of the saints, and the beloved city, and fire comes down from God out of Heaven and devours them. That fire which burns the wicked, burns up the works of the devil in the earth. By that fire the mountains are melted and run down like wax, and thus the deep caverns of earth are filled. The curse is forever swept from the earth; and when the fires of that day have subsided, the earth will stand forth in its restored state, beautiful and glorious, and will become the everlasting abode of the saints of God—the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, which Peter says we look for, according to God's promise.