CHRIST

TO THE READER.

The author desires to acknowledge his indebtedness and to offer his thanks to all who have, in any way, contributed to this work. We have, of course, drawn on all available sources, yet for the proof of our position, we have relied almost wholly upon the Bible, believing it to be its own best evidence. Our aim, throughout, has been to state in a brief straightforward, yet in a kind and charitable manner, what we believe to be the true'.interpretation of the principal texts of the Scriptures in reference to the great subjects herein treated.

The Scriptural quotations are mostly taken from the American Revised Version. Those taken from the Authorized Version are so designated.

"Since the sacred leaves to all are free, And men interpret texts, why should not we?"

PREFACE.

'"The weary centuries watch in vain The clouds of heaven for Him."

—Whittier.

Generation after generation has looked to the future for the fulfillment of prophecies that have evidently been fulfilled, losing thereby much of the harmony, beautv and comfort in which the Scriptures abound. Hence come the many speculations concerning:

THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST,

THE DAY OF JUDGMENT,

THE END OF THE WORLD,

THE NEW HEAVEN AND THE NEW

EARTH, DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION.

It lias been truly said that, "He who sets one great truth afloat in the world serves his generation." Although the author may not be able to do this, he hopes at least to make more real to the reader some of the great truths of the Bible which are alreadv afloat.

PREFACE

We believe that the Son of Man came the second time, as He declared He would come, "in the glory of His Father with His angels," and that He rendered "unto every man according to his deeds." Also that some of them who stood by and heard Jesus speak these words lived to see them fulfilled; and that Jesus did not teach that the passing away of heaven over our heads and earth under our feet would be simultaneous with His second coming, the judgment, and the end of the world.

As we understand it, the heaven and earth that was destined to pass away and to be superseded by a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwell-eth righteousness, was the old covenant with its priesthood and sacrifices and the earthy ungodly men of that generation, who believed neither the writings of Moses nor the words of Jesus. The old covenant was only a "copy and shadow of the heavenly things." It had, however, long been a heaven, though an imperfect one, to the true Israelite. But all these things were destined to give way to the new and perfect covenant in which iniquity is forgiven, and sin is forgotten, and there would be forthcoming "an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession."

CONTENTS.

PART ONE

iFCQND COMING FULFILLED

CONTENTS

Page

His Coming and Judgment.................. 31

Tin- Dawn of the Christian Era..............Si.

God'a Deliverance.......................... 3j>

CHAPTER III.

Thk Period of Transition.

The Fate of the Holy City that Had Become

Unholy ................................ 32

Confirming the Word by Signs.............. 39

The Gospel Preached to the Whole World-----12

Then Shall the End Come................... 12

His Coming Expected by His Disciples....... j3

Disciples and Prophets Not Mistaken........41

The Time for the New Kingdom Had Come... 4G

CHAPTER IV.

The Tbk:m.1'1i of Ciimhtiamty.

The Gospels Indicate a Single Event......... 12.

The Confusion of Other Beliefs.............. &2

A More Hopeful View....................... 53

The New Covenant Maketh a New Heaven and

a New Earth........................... &S.

Although Sin May Increase for a Time God's

Word Shall Triumph.................... 53

The Children of God lo Hecomr a ■ World

Power ................................. fiO

Not a New Gospel nor a New Faith but a

Clearer Vision......................... C2

CONTENTS

CHAPTER V

Christ Camk ix thk Oknkrathix tiikn Living.

Page The Assurance of His Coming In that Genera-

iinn ....................................65

The Need of Hia Coming at that Time........-Gfi

Assurance that the Time Was at Hand......._£J

The Rloori of the Righteous as Additional Evidence ................................. 74

The Certainty nf His Coming nnd the Fulfillment of the Predictions.................-73

The Meaning nf the Symhnl................._ZS

The Church of the Lord a Living Evidence. , . 79

PART ONE

CHRIST'S SECOND COMING FULFILLED

CHAPTER I

NOT PEACE BUT A SWORD

The Second Coming Foretold.

"Tell us when shall these things be ? And what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world?" (Matt. 24: 3.) The answer, "Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass away till all these things be accomplished." (Matt. 24 134.) God said to Abraham: "I will make of thee a great nation and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." And after many generations, "at the end of the ages", "in the evening of the world", came the promised seed,—the long expected Messiah, "who was foreknown, indeed, before the foundation of the world, but was manifested at the end of the times for your sake."

(I Peter 1:20.)

Christ's second coming fulfilled

Christ's Work.

Christ left the glory which He had with the Father, taking the form of a servant, and while in this lowly form,—persecuted, hated, scoffed at and scorned by the authorities of the Jewish church,—He accomplished that which has taken deeper and deeper hold upon the minds of men as the centuries have passed. He came and sowed the good seed. The enemy sowed the tares, and the mixture was allowed to grow until the harvest, then the Son of Man came the second time, . not a little child heraled by the angels, but a King "with power and great glory and all the angels with Him" to execute His word, for "this generation," said He, "shall not pass away till all these things be accomplished."

Christ's Method,

John the Baptist said to the Pharisees and Sad-ucees, "Ye offspring of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come ?" . . and, "even now the ax lieth at the root of the trees." "Every tree therefore that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire." Again he declared that the Messiah who baptizes with the Holy Ghost baptizes also

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with fire; "and He will gather His wheat into the gamer but the chaff He wil burn up with unquenchable fire."

"Think not," said Christ, "that I came to send peace on the earth : I came not to send peace but a sword." (Matt. 10: 34.) Again He asserted "I came to cast fire upon the earth; and what do I desire if it is already kindled ?" . . "Think ye that I am come to give peace in the earth ? I tell you, Nay, but rather division." (Luke 12:49-51.)

By reference to Isaiah we find the following: "He will have indignation against His enemies. For, behold, Jehovah will come with fire. and His chariots shall be like the whirlwind, to render His anger with fierceness, and His rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire will Jehovah exe-_# cute judgment, and by His sword, upon all flesh; and the slain of Jehovah shall be many." (Isaiah 66:14-16.)

St. Paul stated: "If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that shall be saved: for the Lord will execute His word upon the earth, finishing it and cutting it short." (Rom. 9:27-28.) "You that are afflicted," also said Paul, "rest with us at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with

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the angels of Mis power in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus: who shall suffer punishment even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of His might." (II Thess. i: 7-19.)

"When therefore the Lord of the vineyard shall come," said Jesus, "what will He do unto those husbandmen?*' They say unto Him, "He will miserably destroy those miserable men, and will let out the vineyard unto other husbandmen." (Mat. 21:40-41.) And Jesus having reference to this event said, "These are days of vengeance that all things that are written may be fulfilled." (Luke 21: 22.)

Kingdom of Peace.

To my mind these Scriptures clearly show that the reign of peace could not begin until after His Second Coming, and the "ax", the "sword" and the "fire" had accomplished their work, and all things which were written and prophesied had been fulfilled.

"Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines and earthquakes in diverse places. Rut all these are the beginning of travail." (Matt. 24: 7-9.)

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Signs of the Nezv Kingdom Fulfilled. We quote the following paragraph from Peloubet's Select Notes. "Wars and Rumors of Wars." "Josephus gives an account of the troublous times before the fall of Jerusalem. The peace that prevailed over the world during Christ's life was soon broken. Rome had troublous times. Four Roman emperors were murdered in swift succession. But especially in Palestine the war fiend ran riot. The Jews themselves were divided into contending factions, who slew each other by the thousands. The neighboring nations joined one party or the other. Then the Jews revolted against the Romans, and the Roman armies overran the whole country. Blood flowed like water." "Earthquakes": "Perhaps no period in the world's history has ever been so marked by these convulsions as that which intervenes between the Crucifixion and the destruction of Jerusalem." "Famines": "A great famine, prophesied in Acts n '.26, ocurred A. D. 49, and another of the reign of Claudius, and mentioned by Josephus. A pestilence, A. D. 65, in a single autumn, carried off 30,000 persons at Rome. These are the beginnings of sorrows; of travail, of that labor-pain of the world out of which the

Kingdom of God is to be born."

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Christ Coming Into the New Kingdom.

•

"So Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for him, unto salvation." (Heb. 9 :28.)

"That He may send the Christ," said Peter, "who hath been appointed for you, even Jesus; whom the heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, whereof God spake by the mouth of His holy prophets that have been of old." (Acts 3: 20-21.) "But He," said Paul, "when He offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God, henceforth expecting till His enemies be made the footstool of His feet." (Heb. 10: 12-13.) And in the same generation in which "He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever," He came the second time and fulfilled the words of the One Hundred and Tenth Psalm and made His enemies His footstool.

Character of the New Kingdom.

The nobleman who went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, as soon as he had gained possession of it, returned and reckoned with his "servants unto whom he had given the

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money, and ordered his enemies slain before him." (Luke 19.)

The Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be the weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." (Matt. 13: 41-42.) Then all the prophecies relating to the judgments of God were fulfilled, "and the world in the church comes to be exchanged for the church in the world," and the religion of letter and type to be superseded by that of spirit and life.

He came the second time to consummate the plan of redemption. "When these things begin to come to pass," said Christ, "look up and lift up your heads because your redemption draweth nigh." (Luke 21: 28.) "Now is salvation nearer to us than when we first believed." (Rom. 13: 11.) "Salvation from our enemies and from the hand af all that hate us." (Luke 1: 7.)

Again Paul says, "Waiting for our adoption,

to-wit, the redemption of our body" (Rom. 8: 23),

having reference to the body of believers—the

Church.

Christ's second coming fulfilled

The Establishment of the Nezv Kingdom and the Overthrow of the Old Powers.

He came with power and great glory to vindicate His people, and cause the overthrow of the wicked, and to establish the kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy forcvermore on the earth, and in earth,—in earthen vessels.

Peter says, "Whose sentence now from of old lingereth not, and their destruction slumbereth not." (II Peter 2:3.)

This great event was the fulfillment of a prophecy more than three thousand years old. It came down through the ages undimmed by time. But it was the Son of Man who first clearlv announced the coming retribution, for to proclaim the "day of vengeance" was a part of the message that God sent Him to proclaim. (Isa. 61: 2.) How clearly He proclaimed it may be seen in the Synoptic Gospels.

That Jesus and His diciplcs did not have reference to the passing away of the actual heavens above us and the earth beneath, in connection with His second coming, the Bible, as we understand it, clearly proves. We neither know how long this sphere has been rolling in its orbit, nor how long it will continue thus to roll. The Bible is as silent

Christ's second coming fclkillkd

in respect to its ending; as it is with regard to its beginning.

But not so with the heaven and earth to which Jesus and His disciples referred. As we understand it, they had reference to the old covenant. and the destruction and dispersion of ungodly men. While the old covenant was waxing old and nigh unto vanishing away, the Xew Covenant was prepared to supersede it and to be established at the final passing away of the old. The new Israel was also forming and ready to come into their promised inheritance, and like the Israel of old, gradually to take possession of the land, so that, as the old heaven and earth passed away, the new heaven and the new earth superseded them.

The Overflowed World.

In the third chapter of II Peter the apostle declares that a world perished in the waters of a flood, and in reply to the mockers of the last days who asked, "Where is the promise of his coming?" he says, "For this they wilfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth compacted out of water and amidst water, by the word of God ; by which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished; but

christ'.s second coming fulfilled

the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men." (II Peter 3: 5-7.)

Here we see that Peter says the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished. He did not have reference to the physical earth, seas and skies. The same physical heaven and earth that stood before the flood stands today. He had reference to the destruction of an ungodly race. The ungodly antediluvians who mocked at the warnings of Noah were suddenly destroyed "and without remedy." So these scoffers might expect to perish by the judgments of God, but as the physical heaven and earth did not pass away in the waters of the flood, may we not reasonably conclude that Peter did not wish to say that the physical heaven and earth would perish at the coming of the Lord?

But nearly twenty-four centuries after the ante-deluvian world had been destroyed by the waters of a flood, another world was destroyed, not by the waters of a flood but by the "fires of His jealousy," "by desolation and destruction, and the famine and the sword."

■

But just as the earth that perished in the great deluge was earthy, ungodly men, so was the

Christ's second coming fulfilled

earth that was destroyed at the end of the world earthy ungodly men, and as the living earth perished in the great deep, in Sodom and Gomorrah, and in the Red Sea, so the living earth perished at the end of the world. "O earth, earth, earth, hear the words of Jehovah." (Jer. 22: 29.)

CHAPTER II.

THE DESTRUCTION OF AN UNGODLY RACE AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE INNER KINGDOM.

Not Destruction as of Old.

God did not bring destruction upon the beasts of the field, nor the birds of the air as he did at the time of the great deluge, for "Jehovah said in his heart, 'I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake,—neither will I smite any more everything living as I have done.* (Gen.8:21.)

The Destruction of Them That Obey Not God.

Time, and, we believe, the Scripture also, proves that Peter did not have in mind the burning up of the immeasurable heavens above us, nor the "everlasting hills" about us when he said, "They shall give account to him that is ready to judge the living and the dead."

"The time is come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begin first at us, what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel

of God?"

Christ's second coming fulfilled

"The end of all things is at hand."

Nor when he said: "The dav of the Lord will come as a thief; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat. But according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." (II Peter—3.)

Peter evidently had reference to the fierv flames of that symbolic fire that Jesus had already kindled (Luke 12:49), which is also mentioned in Luke 3: 16, 17; I Cor. 3: 13; II Thes. 1, 8, and other Scriptures of similar import both in the Old and New Testament, for, on the day of Pentecost in which Christianity was inaugurated, Peter looked down the centuries to far off generations that should receive the promise, and said, "For to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord shall call unto him." (Acts 2:39.)

Neither did Paul have reference to the removal or destruction of the material world, nor the planets over our heads, when he said: "Whose voice then shook the earth; but now he hath promised, saying, yet once more will I make the earth to tremble, not the earth only, but also the

Christ's second coming fulfilled

heaven. And this word, yet once more signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that have been made, that those things which are" not shaken may remain. Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace, whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire." (Heb. 12:26, 29.)

The Disannulling of the Old Covenant

Paul had reference to the Old Covenant, the temporary or time covenant, which was not designed to be permanent, only a copy and shadow of the heavenly things; for he says: "There is a disannulling of a foregoing commandment, because of it weakness and unprofitableness, for the law made nothing perfect." (Heb." 7:18, 19.) ; "For, if that first covenant had been faultless, then would no place have been sought for a second—but that which is becoming old and waxcth aged is nigh unto vanishing away." (Heb.

8:7.130

That Paul did not have reference to a removal

of the earth beneath our feet nor to the starry

heavens overhead is clear from the following

Scriptures.

Christ's second coming fulfilled

"That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." (Eph. 2:7), and "Unto him be the glory in the church, and in Christ Jesus unto all generations- for ever and ever." (Eph. 3:21.)

■

The Consuming Fire of God's Jealousy.

It is therefore clear that neither Peter nor Paul associated Christ's coming with the angels of His power in flaming fire, nor the removing of things shaken, with a change in the physical universe; nor did Jesus and His disciples, as we see it, have any more reference whatever to any physical change of the earth at His second coming, than did the prophet Isaiah at His first coming, as recorded by St. Luke.

He says: "Make ye ready the way of the Lord. Make His paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough ways smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God." (Luke 3:

The mountains and hills and valleys remain as they were when these words were first written.

Christ's second coming fi.'lfiujh>

lie had reference to a moral leveling and not the cutting down of mountains and hills and the filling up of valleys.

While literal fire was a large factor in the destruction of Jerusalem, the holy temple and many persons, Zephaniah, the prophet, has probably made clearer than anv other sacred writer the meaning of fire and earth in this event.

lie says: "The whole land shall be devoured by the fire of His jelaousy for He will make an end. yea. a terrible end. of all them that dwell in the land." (Zeph. i: 18.) 'Tor My determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms to j>our upon them Mine indignation, even all My fierce anger; for all the earth shall he devoured with the fire of My jealousy. For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of Jehovah to serve Him with one consent." (Zeph. 3:8, 9.)

Malachi. the last of the Old Testament prophets. speaks the same truth. He says: "Behold the day conieth, it burncth as a furnace; and all the proud and all that work wickedness, shall be stubble; and the day that conieth shall burn them up. saith Jehovah of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto vou that

fear My name shall the sun of righteousness

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arise with healing in its wings; and ye shall go forth and gambol as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I make, saith Jehovah of hosts." (Mai. 4^3-)

These Scriptures show very plainly that it was the earthy, ungodly men of which the prophets spake and not the earth beneath our feet.

There is a limit to the forebearance of even the Infinite One. "He will not always chide." said David, "neither will He keep His anger forever."

God gave "that crooked and perverse generation" not only forty days but nearly forty years in which to repent and accept the preaching of one greater than Jonah that they might escape destruction, for it had been declared "that every soul that shall not hearken to that Prophet, shall be utterly destroyed from among the people." (Acts 3:23.)

— His Coming and Judgment.

But evil men waxed worse and worse and caused the love of many to grow cold. Finally His long suffering came to an end. The cries of His elect for deliverance from the hand of all their enemies had its effect.

Christ's second coming fulfilled

"And shall not God," says Jesus, "avenge His elect, that cry to Him day and night, and yet He is long suffering over them. I say unto you that He will avenge them speedily." (Luke 18: 7, 8.) Again He says: "Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on a Sabbath; for then shall be great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever shall be." Never again such great tribulation, not that there never would be greater loss of life and property. And like the waters of the great flood, it would suddenly come upon them.

"Then shall two men be in the field—two women shall be grinding at the mill, one is taken and one is left." One is taken and destroyed and the other is left untouched.

This event the revelator saw in his vision and

said: "The kings of the earth and the princes,

and the chief captains, and the rich, and the

strong, and every bondman and freeman hid

themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the

mountains; and they say to the mountains and

the rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the face

of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the

wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their

wrath has come; and who is able to stand ?*^M

(Rev. 6:15-17.)

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God began at a very early date to reveal unto His prophets the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying: "Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of His saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungoldly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." (Jude 14, 15.)

Having the prophecies of Enoch, Moses, Isaiah, David, Ezekial, Daniel, Joel, Zephaniah. Malachi and others who spake of this great judgment, Peter could refer to the long lingering sentence and say, "Whose sentence now from of old lingereth not, and their destruction slumbereth not." (II Peter 2:3), and Paul declared. "The wrath is come upon them to the uttermost." (I Thess. 2:16), and Matthew, "But the king was wroth, and he sent his armies, and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then saith he to his servants, 'The wedding is ready,' but they that were bidden were not worthy." (Matt. 22:7, 8.)

These Scriptures evidently have reference to the day of judgment, as do the parables of the tares of the field and of the net that was cast

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into the sea; and likewise those in the 24th and 25th chapters of Matthew and other kindred Scriptures.

Milton would have expressed a great truth of revelation had he said, "God did not," instead of "God will not defer the vindication of the glory of His name."

The Dafwn of the Christian Era.

That was the end of a long twilight of ever thickening gloom, which ended with the coming of the Bridegroom at "midnight."

Then came the dawn of a new day ; the brightening of the morning of the Giristian era; the establishment of the unseen inner kingdom, the Eden of love, far exceeding the primeval Eden— the early dawn of the millenium, in which Christ is to reign not only a thousand years, but on and on. (See II Peter 1 :i 1; also Luke 1:33), "for He is King, Priest and Prophet of His people for-evermore—the Lord of the hearts and minds of men, not the ruler over an outward kingdom on earth."

Paul saw the approaching day and said: "The

night is far spent, and the day is at hand." (Rom.

13:12.)

Christ's second coming fulfilled

And Peter said: "Whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts." (II Peter i: 19.)

Zachariah looked down through nearly six centuries to the evening of the world, and saw the new unending day and said: "It shall be one day which is known unto Jehovah; not day, and not night; but it shall come to pass, that at evening time there shall be light." (Zech. 14: 7.)

God's Deliverance.

Paul said in his epistle to the Romans, "I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethrens* sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh; who are Israelites;—of whom is Christ according to the flesh." (Rom. 9^2.)

But a hardening, in part, befell the chosen people. Their eyes were blinded. "They stumbled at the stone of stumbling." "They knew not the time of their visitation," nor the time of their destruction until it came upon them.

But before their final overthrow, God raised up "an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy

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nation," which they persecuted from city to city and caused them to cry out unto God day and night for deliverance, as did His people under the cruel taskmasters in Egypt. And as God came down and delivered His people and destroyed Pharoah and his mighty host in the Red Sea, so the Son of Man came down with his armv of angels and delivered the new Israel and caused the overthrow of His enemies and all that lay across the pathway of the Kingdom of God.

CHAPTER III.

THE PERIOD OF TRANSITION.

The Fate of the Holy City That Had Become

Unholy.

Alas! The Holy City whose very stones were dear to those that loved her, was holy no longer. The Son of Man had foretold this, the greatest of all tribulations. 'Tor when He drew nigh, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, 'If thou hadst known in this day, even thou, the things which belong unto peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, when thine enemies shall cast up a bank-about thee and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall dash thee to the ground, and thy children with thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another, because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation/ " (Luke 19:41-44.)

While on His last weary journey, Jesus turned unto the weeping women who were following Him and said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your

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children. For behold the days are coming, in which they shall say, 'Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the breasts that never gave suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.' " (Luke 23 : 28-30.)

Jesus had already declared that "except those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved; but for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened." (Matt. 4:22.)

Paul, having this great tribulation in mind, advised a temporary suspension of marriage and that those that had wives be as though they had none. (I Cor. 7.)

"Behold," says he, "the goodness and severity of God; toward them that fell, severity; but toward thee, God's goodness, if thou continue in His goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off, and they also, if they continue not in their unbelief, shall be grafted in." (Rom. 11: 22-23.)

And so God has revealed not only His great

love for men, but also His great wrath against

all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men,

who hinder the truth in unrighteousness." (Rom.

1-18.) It is as Browning has said:—

"I spake as I saw,

All's love, vet all's law." 38

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Confirming the Word by Signs.

There was an overlapping of the covenants from the Day of Pentecost when God began to write His laws upon the hearts of His people, until the fall of Judaism and the destruction of antichrists about thirty-seven years later. During this period of transition the preaching of the disciples was accompanied by signs. Jesus said, "Lo. I am with you always, (all the days, marg.) even unto the end of the world." (Matt. 28-20.)

Again He said: "These signs shall accompany them that believe: In my name shall they cast out demons; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall in no wise hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover, and they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the signs that followed." Mark 16: 17, 18, also Matt. 10:8.) Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.

That the Lord would be with them to the end of the world, confirming the word by these miraculous manifestations of His power, is clear. To me, it is also clear that some of the disciples who heard Jesus speak these parting words, lived to

Christ's second coming fulfilled

see the end of the world. "But now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin bv the sacrifice of Himself." (Heb. 9:26, A. V.)

"Verily I say unto you. Ye shall not have gone through the cities of Israel till the Son of Man be come." (Matt. 10:23.)

The Gospel Preached to the Whole World.

"This gospel of the kingdom," said Jesus, "shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all nations; and then shall the end come." (Matt. 24:14.)

That the gospel was preached in all the known world, and that it was accomplished in the generation then living, the following Scriptures clearly show. Just before He was received up into heaven, Jesus said unto the little company of believers that were gathered around Him, "Ye shall receive power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you; and ye shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." (Acts 1:8.) "And they went forth and preached everywhere. the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the signs that followed." (Mark 16: 20.)

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And after a few years, Paul, who "labored more abundantly than they all," was enabled to say, "First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ, for you all, that your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world." (Rom. i :8.)

"But I say, did they not hear? Yea, verily, their sound went out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." (Rom. 10:18.)

"According to the commandment of the eternal God, is made known unto all the nations." (Rom. 16:26.)

"Which is come unto you; even as it is also in all the world bearing fruit and increasing." (Col. 1:6.)

"If so be that ye continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye heard, which was preached in all creation under heaven; whereof I, Paul, was made a minister." (Col. 1: 23.)

For the rapidity with which Christianity spread over the world until the latter part of the first century, we have not only the words of Holy Writ, but also the words of Gibbon the Historian.

There is therefore abundant evidence that the

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gospel was preached in all the known world in that generation.

The Lord Jesus Christ, the "Just One," could not, in justice, return to judge the world until all the world had heard the gospel.

Then Shall the End Come.

Although Jesus knew not the day nor the hour when these things which He predicted would be accomplished, yet he knew it would all be accomplished in the existing generation, for he said to His disciples: "This generation shall not pass away till all these things be accomplished." It is also evident that the disciples so understood it; for while the signs that should precede His coming were being fulfilled, they sent letters to the churches throughout the land, declaring that "The coming of the Lord is at hand." (James

5=8.)

"Behold the Judge standeth before the doors." (James 5:9.) "The end of all things is at hand." (I Peter

4 7-)

"Little children, it is the last hour; and as ye

heard that antichrist cometh, even now there have arisen many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last hour." (John 2: 18.)

CHRIST S SECOND COMING FULFILLED

His Coming Expected By His Disciples.

To Peter, the transfiguration of Christ on the holy mount was a guarantee of His coming. "We did not," said he, "follow cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eye witnesses of His majesty." (II Peter i: 16.)

Although the gospel which Paul preached came to Him "through revelation of Jesus Christ," it is of no less authority than that of the other apostles who journeyed with Jesus during His earthly ministry.

When Paul wrote his epistle to the Thessalo-nians, he evidently expected a near return of the Lord. He says: "The God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you who will also do it." (Thess. 5:13.)

These epistles are the earliest of Paul's writings and in them he did not wish to say that "The day of the Lord is just at hand." (II Thess. 2: 2.)

Later on he wrote to the Corinthians, Phillip-

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ians and Hebrews*, saying, "This I say, brethren,

the time is shortened." (I. Cor. 7:29.)

"The Lord is at hand." (Phil 4:4, 5-) "Exhorting one another; and so much the more,

as ye see the day drawing nigh." (Heb. 10:250 "For yet a very little while. He that cometh

shall come and shall not tarry." (Heb. 10:37.) Also the very last message of the Bible is "He

who testifieth these things saith Yea; I come

<juickly. Amen ; Come, Lord Jesus. \.

Disciples and Prophets Not Mistaken.

We are not, it seems to me, justified in claiming that the disciples were mistaken, for Jesus had said to them, "When He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth—and lie shall declare unto you the things that are to come." (John 16: 13.)

Paul says: "As touching the gospel which was preached by me, that it is not after man. For neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me through the revelation of Jesus Christ." (Gal. 1 : n, 12.)

The prophet Daniel evidently had a vision and a revelation of this great event. He says: "I

* Probably lo thn M- bn■«■ . for he was a "Hebrew of Hebrews," and had groat sorrow and unceasing pain In His heart for them. (Rom. I.)

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saw in the night visions, and behold, there came with the clouds of heaven one like unto a son of Man, and He came even unto the ancient of days, and they brought Him near before Him. And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and languages should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." (Dan. 7:13, 14b.)

In the twelfth chapter he says: "There shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time; and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book . but thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end."

St. John, it is believed, was the only apostle who survived the fall of Jerusalem, and, it is also

believed, that he wrote the book of Revelations about the year 68, two years prior to that time. That it was written a short time before the coming of the Lord and the fall of Jerusalem, the book itself is the best evidence, for in the beginning he says:

"The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God

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gave Him to show unto His servants, even the tilings which must shortly come to pass."

In the third chapter, he says of that faultless Philadelphia church, "Because thou didst keep the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of trial, that hour which is to come upon the whole world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. I come quickly; hold fast that which thou hast, that no one take thy crown."

Unlike Daniel's hook, this one was to remain unsealed, for the angel said: "Seal not up the words of the prophecy of this hook; for the time is at hand." (Rev. 22: 10.)

The Time for the New Kingdom Had Come.

The time for the consummation of all these things had come.

The coming of the Lord and the day of judgment were near at hand.

The Judge was standing before the doors; there was no time for change of character nor for foolish virgins to purchase oil.

"He that is unrighteous, let him do unrighteousness still; and he that is filthy, let him be made filthy still; and lie that is righteous, let him do righteousness still; and he that is holy,

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let him be made holy still. Behold I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to render to each man according as his work is." (Rev. 22: n-12.)

In the twelfth chapter of Daniel we see that "when they have made an end of breaking in pieces the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished." About six centuries later their power was broken, their kingdom taken from them and the scepter had departed. This great event was the end of time or the time covenant. It was also the finishing of the "mystery of God, according to the good tidings which He declared to His servants, the prophets." (Rev. 10:7.)

It was the opening of the last "seal, and the sounding of the last trumpet;" it was the executing of "His word upon the earth, finishing it and cutting it short." (Rom. <f: 28) ; it was the end of the days of vengeance as foretold by Christ Himself; (Luke 21:22), and was the fulfillment of the long foretold catastrophe. In short, it was the "end of all things," as declared by the apostle Peter and the "making of all things new," as declared by John the Revelator.

The "last days" to which Joel, Paul and Peter referred were the last days of a dying world.

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(See Acts 2: 16, 17, and II Tim. 3: I, 2, 3, and II Peter 3: 3.)

Not many years intervened between the great outpouring of the spirit and the great declension that followed. Finally "the last days" with the spiritual night came to an end, and we are now living in God's eternal day. "The night is far spent," said Paul, "and the day is at hand." (Rom. 13:12.)

CHAPTER IV.

THE TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY.

The Gospels Indicate a Single Event.

It is believed by many that the 24th and 25th chapters of Matthew predict two great events, one of which has already been fulfilled, the other to take place at some future time, known only to the Father;*also, that the 24th chapter refers to the overthrow of the Jewish nation, and the 25th to the transactions of a final judgment.

That it is one discourse divided into two parts is evident; but can they actually be divided ? What terms are used in the one that are not used with all their force in the other? In the 24th chapter, Jesus says: "Watch therefore, for ye know not on what day your Lord cometh"; in the 25th chapter, "Watch therefore, for ye know not the day nor the hour." In the 24th chapter, "They shall see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send forth His angels with a great sound of a trumpet"; in the 25th chapter, "When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all

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the angels with Him, then shall He sit on the throne of His glory."

The coming of Christ with His angels, as predicted in the 16th chapter of Matthew, is in perfect harmony with that of the 24th and 25th chapters of Matt he w₄ and also of the 13th chapter of Mark. In the 16th chapter of Matthew He says: "The Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then shall He render unto every man according to his deeds."

It is very clear to me that the expressions, "Separating the sheep from the goats" (Matt. 25), "Cut him asunder, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites" (Matt. 24) ; "Render unto every man according to his deeds" (Matt. 16), and "Behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me to render to each man according as his work is" (Rev. 22), refer to the same great and notable event, to-wit: His second coming; the day of judgment; and the end of the world. '

If Jesus predicted two great events, widely separated by time, the first one—the fall of Jerusalem—is certainly the greater, for in Matt. 24:20, 21 He says: "Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on a Sabbath: for then shall be great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever

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shall be." In the 34th verse of the same chapter, He says: "Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass away, till all these things be accomplished."

Because it seemed incredible for the predictions which Jesus made to have had a fulfillment at the fall of Jerusalem, men have for generations thought that Jesus predicted two great events.

We cannot but believe that if Jesus had predicted two great events to His disciples on the Mount of Olives, He would have at least spoken one word whereby we might know that He had reference to two events.

If, in foretelling two great events like the first and second advent of Christ. Moses and the prophets kept them distinctly separate, have we not good reason for believing that if Jesus and His disciples had in mind two great events, they

also would have made a distinction.

But as it is. if there be two, they are spoken of together, and so entangled that it is impossible to separate them.

Nearly nineteen centuries have fled since Jesus and His disciples sat on the Mount of Olives and He described to them the wonderful things that have been the burden of sermon and song for many generations.

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During all this time, so far as our knowledge goes, there has been no evidence which proves that Jesus described two great events, one of which was to take place in the time of the generation then living, the other at some far distant date known only to the Father. Still

"The weary centuries watch in vain The clouds of heaven for Him!"

The Confusion of Otlier Beliefs.

Nevertheless, there are many in every generation who look to the future for the coming of Christ when, as they believe, all terrestrial and heavenly tilings (excepting the saints) will be consumed by elemental fire and God will replace them with new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. This is, perhaps, the prevailing belief. •

Others believe the time is almost ripe for His coming when all the billions of the dead will come forth from the "one mighty sepulchre" and live again on the earth under the reign of Christ throughout the millennial age. Then will come the separation of the sheep from the goats, provided there be any goats after that long peaceful probationary period.

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Others believe the promise of His coming is fulfilled in the gift of the Holy Spirit; others still, that Jesus made predictions that have not been and cannot now be fulfilled.

It is, therefore, plainly evident that many believers in Christ are yet in a maze concerning His second coming. They do not consider the fact that Jesus and His disciples might have had reference to a moral transformation such as is certainly meant in Isaiah 65: 17, 18; 66:22, and Rev. 21.

A More Hopeful Vietv.

The passing away of the existing order of things, in which sin is predominant, would be far more beneficial to the human race than the destruction and reconstruction of the earth which God was ages untold in creating and forming to be inhabited by man. We are not capable of seeing what would be gained either by burning it over or burning it up. The Bible does not treat so much of the heavens and earth as it does of covenants and of men. We are assured that the earth on which we live is as well adapted to the natural man and the propagation of the human race as infinite wisdom can make it.

"He hath established it, He created it not in

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vain, He formed to be inhabited." (Isaiah 45:i8.)

As the natural must precede the spiritual man, the earth will doubtless remain as long as it enhances the glory of God and the good of men.

It is true that Jesus said: "Heaven and earth shall pass away," but reason as well as the Bible, compels us to believe that He did not have reference to the heaven wherein is established the throne of God and our Father's house of many mansions. "The eternal tabernacles," "the third heaven," "the paradise of God" (wherein Paul was caught up and heard unspeakable words), "the city which hath the foundations whose builder and maker is God," is as eternal and imperishable as is God Himself. If Jesus did not have reference to the "third heaven—the heaven of heavens," it is also possible that He did not have reference to the earth on which tower the "everlasting hills."

David, in speaking of the greatness of Jehovah, says: "Who laid the foundations of the earth that it should not be moved forever," and Solomon says: "One generation goeth, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth forever."

These Scriptures at least teach that the earth

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will long remain; and considering the long duration of the earth, the sun, the moon and the stars, the most reasonable interpretation of the words "heaven and earth shall pass away" is that He spake these words for the express purpose of impressing upon the minds of His disciples and on all after generations the durability of His words, and that they were even more stable than the earth, the sun, and the moon and stars.

In the first chapter of Hebrews, Paul quotes from the 102nd Psalm, saying: "Thou, Lord, in the beginning, didst lay the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of Thy hands: They shall perish ; but Thou continuest; And they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a mantle shaft Thou roll them up, and they shall be changed: But Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail."

There is no fire mentioned in connection with the passing away of these things. Even as an old worn-out garment that has served the purpose for which it was made, passes away, so with the earth and the heavens. As we understand it, neither David nor Paul, nor Jesus, gave us any ground for believing that they will ever be replaced with a new heaven and a new earth.

If it could onlv be understood that the heaven

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and earth that were destined to pass away and be superseded by a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, was the old imperfect and temporary covenant, with its sacrifices that could not take away sins, and the unbelievers of a crooked and perverse nation who not only rejected the words of Jesus and His apostles, but persecuted those who believed on Him; and that these were destined to give place to the new, perfect and eternal covenant with a sacrifice that puts away sin, and a personal and witnessing spirit; and that there would be "an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession," then the harmony and beauty of the Scriptures concerning these things will begin to appear, and the new heaven and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, will not seem so vague and far away.

The Neiv Covenant Maketh a New Heaven and a

New Earth.

Paul said: "If there had been a law given which could make alive, verily righteousness would have been of the law." (Gal. 3 531.) Again he says, "If that first covenant had been faultless, then would no place have been sought for a second." (Heb. 8:7.) "In those sacrifices there is

r>6

•

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a remembrance made of sins year by year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins." (Heb. 10:3, 4.) "For I know my transgressions," said David, "and my sin is ever before me." (Psalms 51:3.)

But of the new covenant it is said: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant ... I will put My laws into their mind, and on their heart also will I write them ; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people ... for I will be merciful to their iniquities, and their sins will I remember no more." (Heb. 8:8; 10:12.)

This is certainly heaven for the sin-sick, repentant, disburdened, and spirit-filled soul, and is the second heaven for the Jew who turned from the old to the new covenant. "For if that which passeth away was with glory, much more that which remaineth is in glory." II Cor. 3: 11.)

Four thousand years of the world's age passed into history before the new and living way was dedicated for man's redemption, and that it should come to an end in half the time of preparation is opposed both to reason and revelation. This new and living way was not dedicated for a few score generations only. Paul could see no

Christ's second coming fulfilled

end to the procession of succeeding generations as he looked down the vista of coming ages.

For he says: "Unto Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations forever and ever." (Eph. 3:21.)

And Isaiah says: "Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end." (Isa. 9:7.) "He shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied."

Although Sin May Increase for a Time, God's Word Shall Triumph.

The Scriptures evidently teach that the world would grow more and more sinful; that it would grow more and more indifferent to the gospel; that nation would rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and false Christs and prophets would arise. "In the last days," said Paul, "grievious times shall come. For men shall be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, haughty, railers. disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, implacable." (II Tim. 3.) "In the last days," said Peter, "mockers shall come with mockery, walking after

their own lusts." (II Peter 3:3.) Christ said: "Because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of many

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shall wax cold." That day shall not come, except there come a falling away first. (II Thes. 2:3.) Shall we look to the future or the past for the fulfillment of these things? If we look to the future, it makes a gloomy prospect for the triumph of the gospel.

Many centuries ago, God said of his word: "It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that wihich I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." (Isa. 55.)

But with the increasing wickedness of the world, there would be the triumph of evil instead of the triumph of the gospel and the latter portion of earth's history an apostacy.

But if we look back through the centuries of the Christian era to the generation in which Jesus lived, died, rose from the dead and ascended from the brow of Olivet to the right hand of God, and in that generation see his return and the consummation of all that he predicted, and that the first things are passed away and all things made new, then the outlook changes from gloom to gladness, from defeat to victory, and instead of the multiplying of iniquity, there would be the multiplying of righteousness; and instead of wars and strife between nations, we would see Micah's

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picture of Universal Peace, and hear that angelic anthem that rolled among the clouds and resounded over that manger cradle and over those Judean hillsides fifty-eight generations ago, saying:

"Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men In whom he is well pleased."

Giristianity is in the world for conquest; it thrills with that hope, for its captain is a conquering Christ and under its henign and peaceful influence, "the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leajx>rd shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them . . . They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain ; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah as the waters cover the sea." (Jsa. ii :6, 9.)

The Children of God To Become a World Power.

Under the last Adam, the spiritual head and founder of a new race of "children of God" the world is not only preserved and kept from degenerating, but is being gradually filled with the knowledge of Jehovah. And slowly, slowly, yet

Christ's second coming fulfilled

surely, it grows better and "grace" abounds more and more, and "sin" less and less. All things are converging toward the triumphal hour when Christ's influence shall be universal and all nations shall walk in the light of the Lord. "Then the wilderness and the dry land shall be glad ; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose." (Isa. 35:1.)

Victor Hugo gives utterance to the triumph of the Christian hope in these beautiful lines:

"Be like the bird, that on a bough too frail To bear him, gaily sings:— He carols, though the slender branches fail; He knows that he has wings."

"It is by the influence of Christianity," said Benjamin Harrison, "that we shall approach universal peace and adopt arbitration methods of settling disputes."

"When I look down," said Mr. Beecher, "into the future, my hope and my confidence is that religion is leading men on. My trust and my unshaken hope for the future is that God reigns and the whole earth shall see His salvation."

"Each generation," said Mr. Bascom, "leaves a better world than that into which it was born."

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Not a New Gospel nor a New Faith, but a

Clearer Vision.

Professor Sweet in Modern Sermons by World Scholars* says:

"The Spirit of Christ will never proclaim any other gospel than that which Christ proclaimed on the first clay of His preaching in Galilee; will never teach any other faith than that which was once for all delivered to the saints.

"But as the world grows older the Spirit of Christ may he expected to tell men more and more plainly of the Father. There has been and there will be fresh interpretations of the original message, new lights thrown on the teaching of Scripture and on the doctrine of the Church.

"The Light of the world is ever bringing on the dawn of the perfect day; the unchangeable truth grows clearer in the growing light of knowledge and experience. There has been in the best theological teaching of the last fifty years, within our memory, a marvelous extension of Christian thought, an opening up of new or forgotten avenues of truth, a lifting of clouds which had long obscured the field of vision, a casting away of

• Published by Funk A W»*nalla Co., N. Y.

■

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unsound opinions, and mere presumptions, which marks a real advance in spiritual knowledge.

"It is impossible to foresee the surprises which even the near future mav have in store for not a few of us. Within the lifetime of the younger men new lights may break upon the Church, bringing new fulfillments of Christ's words. Such a hope may well inspire life with a buoyancy which will stimulate the next generation to new endeavors.

"In view of the promise of progressive teaching which the Church has received from Christ,

all lines of legitimate study may be pursued with confidence. 'I will tell you plainly' is a word which will fulfill itself ever more and more to those who are patient workers in every part of the great field of knowledge."

Rev. Andrew Gillies in the Homiletic Rcviciv* says: "This is the greatest of the Christian centuries. It is the greatest in man's insight into truth. We know more about God and Christ and sin and immortality, about ourselves and the uni-verse, than ever has been known before. This century is greatest, too, in the application of truth to the life of the race. After all the real

PubllHli.-<! by Kunk & Wiignulls Co.. X. Y.

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glory of our time is not that we are teaching more clearly than ever the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, it is that we are incorporating them more fully into our social relations. And so this century is the greatest in spiritual power and promise. With all the faults, this period is better religiously than was any past period with all its virtues. I do not mean that all men are self-confessed subjects of Jesus Christ or that all who confess Him as Master are all that they ought to be. I mean that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been interpreted more clearly, spread more widely, and embodied more completely in the life of the race than ever before since He who proclaimed it walked the ways of the earth.

"Step by step since time began, We see the steady gain of man."

CHAPTER V.

CHRIST CAME IN THE GENERATION THEN LIVING.

The Assurance of His Coming in That

Generation.

If it be said that it is impossible for the predictions Jesus made to His disciples on the Mount of Olives to have had a fulfillment in that generation because the Lord Jesus did not appear in the clouds of heaven with His holy angels, let the Son himself answer: "The Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then shall He render unto every man according to His deeds." Then to assure them that His return would not be long delayed, He said : "Verily I say unto you, there are some of them that stand here, who shall in no wise taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom." (Matt. 16:27, 28.)

These words are in perfect harmony with those memorable words in the 24th chapter of Matthew: "Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all these things be accomplished."

Christ's second coming fulfilled

They are also in perfect harmony with His words to the high priest in the 26th chapter of Matthew: "Henceforth, ye shall see the Son of Man .... coming on the clouds of heaven."

With these words, and many others of like import, His disciples had good grounds for believing that the generation then living would see His return and as they saw "the day drawing nigh," they were enabled to comfort one another in the fiery trials which came upon them and to exhort one another to be patient, saying: "Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord." (James 5:7.) "Be ye also patient, establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand." (James 5:8.) "For ye have need of patience, that having done the will of God, ye may receive the promise. For yet a very little while He that Cometh shall come and shall not tarry." (Heb. 10:36. 37)

The Need of His Coming at That Time.

There was urgent need of the return of the

Lord in the generation then living, for the cry of

the infant church went up night and day for the

deliverance from their cruel persecutors. The

good shepherd knew the "little flock" would be

as "lambs among wolves," for He said, "the hour

CHRIST S SECOND COMING FULFILLED

cometh, that whosoever killeth you shall think that he offereth service unto God. And these things will they do, because they have not known the Father, nor me." (John 16:2-3.) "Then shall they deliver you up unto tribulation, and shall kill vou; and ve shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many stumble, and shall deliver up one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall arise, and shall lead many astray. And because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of the many shall wax cold." (Matt. 24:9, 10, 11, 12.)

As the last state of the man with a swept and garnished house became worse than the first, "even so with that wicked generation." (Matt. 12-45.) Hence the sad question, "When the Son of Man cometh, shall tie find the faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8.)

Assurance that the Time Was at Hand.

The apostles assure us that at the time of writing the epistles and the book of Revelation the things which should precede His coming were largely fulfilled, for John says: "Even now there have arisen manv antichrists: whereby we know that it is the last hour," and Paul, in his letter to

the Collossians, declared that the Gospel had been

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preached "in all creation under heaven." The low state of most of the congregations in western Asia Minor—the seven churches, which perhaps represented the whole of Christendom—indicate that "the falling away" had already come to pass.

Seeing the fulfillment of these things, with iniquity and persecution increasing, they could confidently say, "We know that it is the last hour,'* "the Lord is at hand," "the time is at hand," etc., etc.

Then if, as we understand it, there is but one coming with His angels predicted, have we not, with such an overwhelming mass of evidence from the highest authority and from the purest source, strong grounds for believing that not only His second coming, but also that all which He predicted concerning this great event were fulfilled in the generation then living?

How these things were fulfilled or accomplished, we leave to Him who numbered the stars.

Nevertheless, not only the preponderance of evidence, but all the Scriptural evidence, is on the side of their fulfillment in the generation then living. It is all or none, for Jesus said: "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to des-

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olation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand/' (Matt. 12: 25.)

After Jesus had told His disciples of the things which must precede His coming, and of His coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, and sending forth His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, He then tells them how they may be as sure of His return as of the return of summer, saying: "When the branches of the fig tree become tender and putteth forth its leaves, ye know that the summer is nigh; even so ye also, when ye shall see all these things, know ye that He is nigh, even at the doors." (Matt. 24.) Then the great Teacher and Prophet spake those profound and incontrovertible words, and we believe them to be the one path out of the maze— "Verily, I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away till all these things be accomplished." (Matt. 24:34.)

These words He then fortified with others almost if not equally pregnant, "If I will," said Jesus, "that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?" (John 21:22.)

"Verily, I say unto you. Ye shall not have gone through the cities of Israel, till the Son of Man become." (Matt. 10:23.)

Christ's second coming fulfilled

"Verily I say unto you, there are some of them that stand here, who shall in no wise taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." (Matt. 16:28.) Surely these words of the Great Teacher and Prophet are worthy of all acceptation.

In his book "On Prophecy" Fairbairn says of these words in our Lord's discourses, taking Matt. 16:28 for example. "Which by no fair and natural exposition can be referred primarily to events and times altogether subsequent to the Apostolic Age: it must indicate what some of those then present lived to witness.*¹

Professor Weiss in his book, The Religion of the New Testament * says:

"It is perfectly useless by exegetical and critical means to get rid of the fact that Jesus had promised His return to the generation of His day (Mark 9: 1 ; 14:62: Matt. 24:34). All His discourses with references to His return proceed from the standpoint that His hearers as a class would yet live to see His return (John 14: 3 ; 21: 22). . . All apostolic preaching expected it in the near future (James 5:8, 9; I Peter 4:5; Heb. 10:25. 371 R^ev- ^l '3* 3^:**i 22:10, 20).

• Publlnhcd by Funk A \Vn«nft1l» Co., N. T.

Christ's second coming fulfilled

Paul hopes with the majority of the believers to see the return (I Thess. 4: 15. 16; I Cor. 15: 52). And he adheres to the near approach of this return even when thought of His martyrdom came nearer and stronger (Phil. 2: 16, 17; 4: 5). John knows that the last hour is alreadv at hand and expects with his readers to live to see the return (I John 2:18, 28).

"As certain as it accordingly is that the Divine Providence, according to which Jesus was compelled to expect His speedy return, had its special redemptive purposes, so certainly, too, is it wrong to speak of a mistake on the part of Jesus or even of a self-deception in reference to the success of His work."

Should it be proved that Christ was mistaken even in one thing, then the whole plan of redemption would be shaken and there would be nothing secure on which to build our faith and hope, and furthermore the old "ship of Zion" would be left upon a wide tempestuous sea without anchor, chart or compass. But, thank God, it can never be proved that He spake even one word amiss. He says of His words: "I spake not from myself ; but the Father that sent me He hath given me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak." (John 12:49.)

Christ's second coming fulfilled

Apart from the day and hour, which he said he did not know, Christ has in this declaration in Matt. 16:28 and in others of similar kind made the time of his return as plain as it was possible for words to make it. They should be sufficient evidence. They were sufficient for the apostles who heard him speak them, for, when they saw the things coming to pass, which he had told them would precede his return, they sent letters to those who were scattered abroad because of persecutions, saying: "Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand." (James 5:8.)

"Behold the judge standeth before the doors." (James 5:9.)

"Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the living and the dead." (I Peter 4:5.)

"The end of all things is at hand." (I Peter

4 7-)

"Even now there have arisen many Antichrists

whereby we know that it is the last hour." (I John 2:18.)

And Paul, whose gospel came to him "through the revelation of Jesus Girist," sent letters to the Corinthians, Philippians and Thessalonians saying: "The time is shortened." "The Lord is at hand." "I pray God your whole spirit and soul

and body be preserved blameless unto the coming

CHRIST S SECOND COMING FULFILLED

of our Lord Jesus Christ." "Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it." (I. Thess. 5123, 24. A. V.)

I confidently believe that which Paul prayed for came to pass, for it is in perfect harmony with these words of Jesus: "Verily I say unto you, there are some of them that stand here who shall in no wise taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. (Matt. 16:28.)

It is plainly evident that Paul entertained no doubt concerning the fulfillment of that for which he prayed, for he adds, "Faithful is he that calleth vou who will also do it."

With Jesus, Paul, Peter, James and John all proclaiming in effect a return so near at hand that some who were then living would be living when their Lord returned, how can we refuse to believe it? Surely nothing is more plainly stated in the scriptures, and the evidence is certainly overwhelming, for there is not one dissenting voice. Therefore we should not underestimate it, nor should we, like Nicodemus, ask, "How can these things be," but rather what has Jesus and his holy Apostles said, for the decision of this supreme court is final.

Christ's second coming fulfilled

The Blood of the Righteous as Additional

Evidence.

After Christ had strongly denounced the Scribes and Pharisees, he said, "Behold I send unto you prophets and wise men and scribes; and some of them shall ye kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city; That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias Son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you. All these things shall come upon this generation." (Matt. 23:34, 35, 36.)

Pilate said: "I am innocent of the blood of this righteous man, see ye to it." And all the people answered and said: "His blood be on us and on our children." (Matt. 27:24, 25.)

Dreadful, dreadful imprecation! It certainly came, for in less than two score of years, there came upon that generation not only the blood of Jesus, but all the righteous blood from Abel to Zachariah.

"For these," said Jesus, "arc days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled." (Luke 21:22.)

Christ's second coming fulfilled

So terrible was this vengeance that he declared that "except those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved." (Matt. 24:22.)

Little wonder then that, with all the righteous blood and with all that was written against them coming upon them, they said to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the lamb," etc. (Rev. 6:16.)

"Then," said Jesus, "shall be great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, no nor ever shall be" (Matt. 24:21.)

The Certainty of His Coming and the Fulfillment of the Predictions.

It seems to me that, with such impressive words from the lips of the Son of man, and with his spirit-filled apostles in persecutions, and in prisons, declaring the same great truth, there should be no question concerning the time of his coming, nor of the accomplishment of all that he had predicted. Cetainly the apostles had every reason to believe that "the day of the Lord" was drawing nigh, for Jesus had said to them : "When ye see all these things, know ye that he is nigh,

Christ's second coming fulfilled

even at the doors." Moreover, had He not assured them again and again that the generation then living would see his return? We confidently believe they looked not in vain, for prophecies and promises awaited fulfillment, which made his return fa the existing generation imperative. His promise is proof, and it is comforting to be assured by Him who "created the heavens and stretched them forth ; that spread abroad the earth and that which comcth out of it" that they have passed out of their flood and fire; of which we are assured by the bow in the cloud and by the more precious bow of promises in His word, for "there shall be no curse any more" and "as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make, shall remain before me, saith Jehovah, so shall vour seed and vour name remain." Tcsus says: "The meek shall inherit the earth." And Isaiah, "Thy people also shall be all righteous; they shall inherit the laud forever; the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. The little one shall become a thousand, and the small one a strong nation: I, Jehovah, will hasten it in its time." (Isa. 60:21, 22.)

1 f it should be said that the Fourth Gospel was written after the Holy City had been destroyed

Christ's second coming fulfilled

(there is, however, internal evidence of its having been written before that time) and should it be said that, if these prophesies had been fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem, there would at least have been some allusion thereto, I should say, that it has not pleased God to give us an after revelation of this great event further than that foretold by the prophets and by Jesus himself, and that which he revealed unto John on the Isle of Patmos.

There is, doubtless, much more revealed in the last book of the New Testament than it has vet been given credit for.

When one comes to believe that such words as "Must shortly come to pass." (Rev. I :i.) "The time is at hand." (Rev. 1:3.) "Behold I come quickly." (Rev. 3:11.) "Yea, I come quickly." (Rev. 22:2o.) Have reference to the time of the generation then living, much that is written in this wonderful book that hitherto was obscure will then be made plain. That they apply to the generation then living is plainly evident, for they are in perfect accord with words of like import both in the Synoptic gospels and in the Epistles. The same stream of water that runs through the sunny fields, runs through the shadowy forest.

Christ's second coming fulfilled

Even so this stream of truth, which runs through the sunny #ynoptics and epistles, also runs through

this shadowy book.

The Meaning of the Symbol.

It seems to symbolize the closing scenes of a * world that had had its morning, noon and evening. It not only symbolizes the closing scenes of the old. but it also represents the glorious presence of the new. After the famine, the sword, and fire had accomplished their work, and the fire of His wrath had passed away, the Revelator seemed to turn with joy to the new and eternal things, when he said:

"I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away, and the sea is no more. And I saw the Holy City, N'ew Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I beard a great voice out of the throne saying. Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men. and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His peoples, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God ; and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying. nor pain any more; the first things are passed

Christ's second coming fulfilled

• away. And He that sitteth on the throne said,

'Behold I make all things new.' And He saith,

'Write: for these words are faithful and true.'

And He said unto me, 'They are come to pass'."

By these last few words we see that the Revela-tor saw in his vision the accomplishment of all these things.

The Church of the Lord a Living Ezidence.

"The church of the Lord which He purchased with His own blood," is a living evidence of the fulfillment of these things, for instead of a "falling away", "the love of many waxing cold", "and knowledge of the truth waning" is it not increasing in numbers and growing in divine grace, and in the knowledge of the truth, just as we should expect from the mighty forces that make for righteousness which God hath ordained for the accomplishment of His eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus, our Lord? Are not the years and centuries of Christian history growing better? Are not His plans sure of realization? Is not His church, of which He declared the "gates of Hades shall not prevail against it"

certain of victory?

Christ's second coming fulfilled

"Crowns and thrones may perish; Kingdoms rise and wane; But the church of Jesus Constant will remain!"

CHAPTER VI.

WONDERFUL CHRIST.

The New Covenant and the New Life.

God is with His people as He was not under the old covenant. "Christ in you, the hope of glory" was unknown to the men of old. Life and immortality had not yet been brought to light. The way into the Holy Place had not yet been made manifest. They could not enter into the life of the spirit, for the law could not make alive, nor the offered gifts and sacrifices as touching the conscience, make the worshipper perfect.

Although the old was only a shadow of the good things to come, yet "Moses writeth that the man that doeth the righteousness which is of the law shall live thereby." (Rom. 10: 5.)

God did not require a perfect conscience under an imperfect covenant. Since under the new covenant there is much more given, there is also much more required, which may be readily seen in the Saviour's sermon on the Mount: also in his words to Nicodemus, and throughout the New

Testament writings.

Christ's second coming fulfilled

Therefore, all who have complied with the requirements of the new, are delivered out of the power of darkness, and if, to them, truth is the glad sunlight of the soul, they are already translated into the kingdom of the Son of His Love. In this kingdom there is no (soul) death, no judgment, for, for them, these things have passed away, and they are of that radiant number of whom Jesus spake when He said: "Verily, verily l say unto you. He that heareth My word, and believeth Him that sent Me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of death into life." (John 5: 24.) "They are walking in that elevation of character that is forever in the sunshine of God," and in this sacred sunshine earth's bitter things grow sweet and the joy and the pain are made one. Hear -what Christ himself says: "He that followeth Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life." They are now spiritual citizens of the Holy City, New Jerusalem, which John saw coming down out of heaven from God—the Spiritual City —the City of the Great King.

With their spiritual vision they see the "King in His beauty," not in His marred form and visage. They feel His power and preciousness. "They go from strength to strength" and they run with-

Christ's second coming fulfilled

out weariness and they walk without fainting. -They are eating of the hidden manna and drinking anew the fruit of the vine with Jesus in His Father's kingdom (of which the former was but the emblem) and "the true vine," life is flowing into their souls; and they are glorifying the Father in bearing much fruit. "The everlasting love," "the peace that passeth all understanding," "the unsearchable riches," "the unspeakable gift," yea, "all things that pertain unto life and godliness" are theirs forevermore. They are not isolated from those that need their sympathy and service, and it may never be that way. The joy of service may forever be a part of the Christian heritage, for as Lowell says: "For sure in heaven's wide chambers, there is room for love and pity and for helpful deeds." "Are they not all," says Paul, "ministering spirits, sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation?" (Heb. 1:14.)

May we not, then, say with Whittier that it is a great and precious truth of the Gospel

"That the dear Christ dwells not afar,

The King of some remoter star,

But here, amidst the poor and blind,

The bowed and suffering of our kind,

Christ's second coming fulfilled ,

In works we do, in prayers we pray, Life of our life, He lives today."

Through Christ Man Reaches God.

We do not think of the "dear Christ" enough as man, nor enough as God. As man, he ate and drank; as God, He fed the multitudes. As man, He slept on a pillow in a ship, but as God He stilled the wind and the sea. As man He wept with those that wept, while as God He raised Lazarus from the dead. As man He suffered and died, but as God He raised Himself from the dead. Wonderful Christ! His love is universal; His truth is everlasting, and His kingdom shall have no end! "O Star of the Morning, our hope is in Thee!"

In the language of Wortman: "How great the folly of those who seek not the knowledge of 11 ini and of His ways; they close their eyes to the grandest visions, their ears to the noblest songs; their minds to the highest truths; their hearts to the purest inspirations."

The Work of Christianity.

Finallly. if the foregoing conclusions concerning the second coming of Christ be correct, they

Christ's second coming fulfilled

in nowise lessen our responsibility either to God or man, but rather increase it; nor because of the Gospel having been preached in all the world in that generation, is it a reason for abating missionary zeal. The work of Christianity is to seek and save the lost, and to make better men and women, by growing Christward according to His own pattern. Nor because the "day of the Lord", that great "and notable day" is more than eighteen centuries in the past, can the sinner hope to escape punishment from sin, "for sin and punishment are by a great law of God bound together," and there is no escape from the consequences of misconduct. "For he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong that he hath done and there is no respect of persons." (Col. 3:25.)

"To Thee, O love Ineffable! The saving name is given ; To turn aside from Thee is hell! To walk with Thee is Heaven!"

—Whittier.

The New Heaven and the Nezv Earth.

The first and last apostles shall furnish the closing of the first part of the book, by a description of the new heaven and the new earth wherein

CHRIST S SECOND COMING FULFILLED

dwelleth righteousness. "But ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first born who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better than that of Abel." (Heb. 12.) "But ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that ye may show forth the excellencies of Him who called you out of the darkness into His marvelous light." (I Peter 2:9.) "Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." (I Peter 2: 5.)

PART TWO

DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION

CHAPTER I.

THE RESURRECTION OF THE INWARD MAN.

Christ the First to Rise.

Christ was the first to rise. "In Adam all die." (I Cor. 15:22.) "I am the resurrection and the life." (John 11:25.) "The invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse." (Romans 1: 20.)

How Christ's second coming and the sounding of the last trumpet affected those who lived under the old and shadowy dispensation, we know not further than declared by David. (Ps. 17:15.) Paul says, "Behold I tell you a mystery." (I Cor. 15:51, I Thess. 4:16.) Yet it is a mystery still, for he has not made it clear enough to be easily understood. Even Paul himself, when

DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION

"caught up to the third heaven," did not know whether he was in the body or out of it. (II Cor. 12.) So we leave the transactions of that great and "notable day" as we have already said, with Him who numbered the stars.

Saint John says, "That there shall be delay no longer ; but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then is finished the mystery of God, according to the good tidings which he declared to His servants, the prophets." (Rev. 10:6, 7.)

We know that the scriptures teach "that Christ should suffer and that He should be the first that should rise from the dead" (Acts 26:23 a. v.) "the first born among many brethren." (Rom. 8129.) "The first fruits of them that slept" (Cor. 15:20), "the first born from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence." (Col. 1:

^l8> . . . .-,

Titnce Born and Once Risen Christ.

Christ was twice born, thus leaving an example to that and succeeding generations. He was born in Bethlehem of Judea, and he was born again or born anew in Joseph's new tomb. Of all the twice born men, He was the first. Of all the risen dead, that died to sin, He was the first.

DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION

The Resurrection of the "Inward Man."

"God being rich in mercy, for the great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, raised us up with Him, and made us to sit with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." (Eph. 2:4, 5, 6.) This resurrection experienced by Paul, and his converts at Ephesus, is, as it appears to us, the only resurrection that fits in with the resurrection of the risen Christ. Jesus evidently had reference to this resurrection when He said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you ; The hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live." (John 5:25.) In the 28th and 29th verses of the same chapter, He simply emphasized and enlarged upon this great truth of the Gospel, and said, "Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment"

The Voice of the Son of God.

All heard his voice, for the Gospel was preached in all creation under heaven in that generation,

DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION

and there were many devout men, like Cornelius, who were waiting for the consolation of Israel, and when they heard the voice of the Son of God through the gospel, gladly obeyed it, and were made alive together with Christ, and raised up with Him; and they that rejected and spurned the gospel, their enlightenment only brought greater condemnation and finally the great judgments of God that came upon that generation. At the time Jesus spake these words, all, figuratively speaking, were dead and in their tombs. Paul said: "If one died for all, then were all dead." (II Cor. 5:14 a. v.) "All were shut up under sin." (Gal. 3:22.) Christ said: "I came that they may have life." (John 10:10.) "The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." (John 1117.) The law could not make alive. Paul said: "If there had been a law given which could make alive, verily righteousness would have been of the law." (Gal. 3:21.) Peter said: "For unto this end was the Gospel preached, even to the dead, that they might be judged indeed according to men in the flesh; but live according to God in the spirit." (Peter 4:6.) This resurrection was foretold by the prophet Daniel, when he said : "Many of them that sleep

in the dust of the earth shall awake; some to ever-

DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION

lasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt." (Dan. 12:2.) They were asleep while living in the physical body; for it is dust of the earth. "He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust." (Ps. 103:14.) Isaiah said: "Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust." (Isa. 26:19.) P^au1 uttered the same truth that Daniel had foretold when he said, "Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall shine upon thee." (Eph. 5:14.) Again he said: "It is time for you to awake out of sleep; for now is salvation nearer to us than when we first believed." (Rom. 13:11.)

It had been ordained that Christ "should be the first that should rise from the dead." (Acts 26:23 ^a- ^v) The "first born among many brethren." (Rom. 8:29.) "The first born from the dead, all of which refer to the same event." (Col. i: 18.) And all who would "follow His steps" must "awake out of sleep," must "arise from the dead," or, as Chirst himself declared, "Ye must be born anew."

The Physical Resurrection the Objective of the

Spiritual.

Unbelievers as well as believers in Christ, must have the objective evidence of the resurrection,

* DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION

hence the risen bodies of the saints that appeared unto many in the Holy City. (Matt. 27:52, 53.) God has shown the invisible things through the visible, "that they may be without excuse." Christ came to be the outward visible manifestation of the inward invisible plan of divine redemption not simply to declare it. This simple resurrection, if accompanied by self-denial and by growth in "the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ," will, in the fullness of time, raise us up "unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." This resurrection satisfies the longings of the human heart. It is a present power in the believer. It is the life of God in the soul of man. It is Christ in you, and Christ in me, the hope of glory. What more do we need for life, for death or for eternity? It takes naught of eartli or sea or sky, to make this resurrection complete, for "ye are complete in Him." (Col. 2:10 a. v.) It pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell." (Col.

1:19.)

Risen with Christ and born anew are synonymous terms, and have one goal, the Christ likeness "If ye be risen with Christ" said the Apostle, "Seek the things that are above.' ' For by so

doing they would become more and more like him

•

DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION

who said, "I arn the resurrection and the life." Glorious resurrection! Our "Forerunner," our "Elder Brother" had but one resurrection. What are we who stand on the fulfilled side of types and examples of opened tombs, and opened seals and sounding trumpets that we should have more than one resurrection? We are satisfied here with our house from earth, and we believe that we will be abundantly satisfied there "with our house which is from heaven." (II Cor. 5:2 a. v.)

The Resurrection of the Dead Absolutely

Essential.

In his first letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle has made it clear that the resurrection of the dead is absolutely essential to a continued existence. In substance he says, if Christ be not risen, no one has risen. "Your faith is vain; Ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ have perished." The resurrection of which he speaks in the 15th chapter of I Cor. (until he begins to tell you a mystery) is, as we believe the same as that in the II chapter of Ephesians.

This is the resurrection of which he speaks:

"Even when we were dead through our tres-

DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION

passes made us alive together with Christ, raised us up with Him and made us to sit with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." (Eph. 2: 5.6.)

Paul said to the Corinthians that if there was no resurrection of the dead (as some affirmed) then, not only was his preaching vain, but he was a false witness of God. Paul, however, knew that Christ had risen from the dead and that he was the "first born among many brethren." Therefore, he, with the Corinthian brethren, had been made alive together with Christ and were raised up with him to walk in newness of life.

"If the dead are not raised at all," said Paul, "why are they baptized for them?" It is a baptism of sorrow and suffering for those who were dead in trespass and in sins, of which the Apostle speaks. He said: "I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart, for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh." (Rom. 9:2, 3, a. v.) Many Christians since Paul's day have also been baptized or burdened for the dead.

The Resurrection of the Dead Most Beautiful.

When divested of literalism, the resurrection of

the dead is most beautiful, even more beautiful

DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION

than the lilly of the valley or the rose of Sharon, for in the fulness of time the resurrected one is transformed into the likeness of the "King in his beauty," "transformed into the same image from glory to glory."

The Resurrection of the Dead is Restful.

It lays no heavy burden on our faith and love.

The Resurrection of the Dead a Perennial Feast

and Fountain.

"For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of water." (Rev. 7:17, a. v.)

CHAPTER II.

NO RESURRECTION FOR THE OUTWARD MAN.

"The Things Which Are Seen Are Temporal."

As to the resurrection of the outward man or physical body, had it been appointed that it should rise from the tomb, Christ and not Lazarus would have been the first to come forth, for it is declared "that He should be the first that should rise from the dead." (Acts 26:23, ^a- ^v-) "The first born from the dead that in all things He might have the preeminence." (Col. 1:18.)

Advocating a future physical resurrection Mr. Perowine says: "We presume to put no limits upon the almighty power of God. We do not doubt that amid all the ceaseless infinite fluctuations of the material particles, His eye could trace each grain of dust, and His hand collect it, and bring it back to reconstitute the body. But we contend that any such process is as unnecessary as it is improbable. We maintain that the same body which has been laid in the grave may be raised at the last day; though not one single material particle which went to constitute the one body, shall be found in the other."

DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION

As we understand Paul's teaching the outward man or physical body is only a temporary house or tent for the inward man to dwell in for a little while, for he says: "The things which are seen are temporal." (Cor. 4:18, a. v.) And again "Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day." (II Cor. 4 :i6, a. v.) And yet again, "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." (II Cor. 5:1, a. v.)

It is true according to the authorized version that Paul said, the Lord Jesus Christ "shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body." (Phil. 3:21, a. v.)

In the Scriptures just quoted, Paul has certainly made it clear that the outward man is of only temporary duration for he says, "The things which are seen are temporal" and speaks of the outward man as being dissolved and of its perishing. In the dust of the earth there is no vileness. It cannot be properly said that a thing is vile that is devoid of reason and of the power of choice. "No man," said Paul, "ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church." (Eph. 5 129, a. v.)

A devoted Christian will not cherish a vile thing.

DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION

So I think we will have to delve a little deeper than the physical body in order to find the meaning of Paul's words.

Christ is the Way and the Plan of Redemption is

Found in Him.

This inward transformation was exemplified in the transformation of the body of Christ. His was a body of "no beauty" transformed into one of beauty, a "glorious body." Long, long ago the prophet Isaiah foretold this inward transformation, when he said: "Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree; and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree." Paul says: "We all beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory." Step by step it is a gradual transformation of the inward man into the Christ likeness.

Thai Which Is Born of tlxe Flesh Is Flesh.

Jesus said: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." (John 3:6.) It is flesh throughout but not sinful flesh until the youth becomes sinful. "The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth." (Gen. 8:21.)

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Evil from His Youth, Not from Childhood.

Paul often speaks of the inward man or the inward state of man as being flesh as "fleshy wisdom," "fleshy mind," "when we were in the flesh," and "The mind of the flesh is death." "They that are in the flesh cannot please God," "But ye are not in the flesh but in the spirit." The things that defile are from within, not from without. It is the inward flesh or inward man alone that becomes sinful and vile. When he becomes sinful, he becomes carnal and "to be carnally minded is death." (Rom. 8:6, a. v.) "Carnal mind" and "fleshy mind" are synonymous terms, so then "Thev that are in the flesh cannot please God." (Rom. 8:6, a. v.) Paul does not have reference to the outward flesh, for, if so, no one on earth could please God, but He has reference to the carnal mind, which "is enmity against God." (Rom. 8:7.) He speaks the same truth in these words, "I know that in Me. that is, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing." (Rom. 7:18.) Paul did not claim inherent goodness. He says, "It is not the children of the flesh that are children of God." (Rom. 9:8.) Not His spiritual children. The birth of the flesh is only the groundwork for the spiritual birth. It makes a

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mortal, but not an immortal man. Hence the words of Jesus, "Ye must be born again." (John 3:7, a. v.)

"As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." (I Cor. 15:49.) To bear the image of the heavenly is made possible only to those who die to sin and are made alive to God. After one is born anew or born of the spirit then a warfare begins. Paul says: "Walk by the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh, for the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh." (Gal. 5:16. 17.) Paul admonished Timothy to "flee youthful lusts."

Paul lived a victorious life, as all Christians may, if they will only let Christ live in them. Paul said, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me." (Gal. 2:20.) And also "They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." (Gal. 5:24, a. v.) Yet Paul knew that the "old man" was not absolutely dead nor "the body of sin" absolutely done away, for he said, "I buffet my body and bring it into bondage." (I Cor. 9:2j.) And again, "Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body that ye should obey the lusts thereof" (Rom. 6:12), "Knowing this that

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our old man was crucified with Him that the body of sin might be done away" (Rom. 6:6), and "Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body." (Phil. 3: 21.) All of this, as we believe, has reference to the inward body. Certainly he did not have reference to his physical body when he said, "Our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away," for he says, "No one ever yet hated his own flesh, but nour-isheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church.

A number of things taken together constitute a body. They do not necessarily have to be literal hands and feet, eyes and ears or face and mouth. Although "God is a spirit," yet He is spoken of as having all these and other members of the body. The issues of life are spiritual and from within. Let it never be forgotten that God is a spirit, that His word is spiritual, and that these things are spiritually discerned.

The Resurrection Seen in Nature.

As the grain of wheat falls into the ground and

dies, it is absorbed or swallowed up by the germ

that is within the grain, so man, that is mortal,

through the precious promises of God, partakes

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of the divine nature and when this begins to develop it may be said that he is begotten again, "not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God" (Peter 1: 23.), and the divine nature or immortal spirit within the mortal man swallows up the mortal as the germ swallows up the grain of wheat. In this way the "mortal puts on immortality", or mortality is "swallowed up of life," and "death is swallowed up in victory." (I Cor. 15: 54.) "Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 13: 14), for this also is putting on immortality.

There is no living without dying.

Man must die (die to sin) in order to perpetuate his existence. As Christ has said, "Whosoever would save his life shall lose it." (Matt. 16: 25.) Our ruling love makes our destiny. Or, as Pope has said.

"One master passion in the breast, "Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest."

Paul's Explanation of the Resurrection.

Paul anticipated questions concerning the resurrection of the dead and said: "Some one will say, how arc the dead raised and with what manner of body do they come. Thou foolish one,

That which thou thyself soweth is not quickened

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except it die, and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but God giveth it a body even as it pleased Him, and to each seed a body of its own. ... So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body." (I Cor. 15.)

As we understand it, Paul is describing the resurrection of men dead in trespasses and in sins, not only of his own generation but of all the succeeding generations until the last man that will rise has risen from a natural into a spiritual or from a mortal to an immortal state.

When Paul says: "It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power," he has reference, we believe, to moral corruption and to moral weakness, and not to the corruption and weakness of the physical body, many millions of which have already returned to the earth as they were, for it is declared that the dust shall "return to the earth as it was." Peter says, "Having escaped from the corruption that is in the world" (II Peter 114), and "Promising them liberty, while they themselves are bondservants of

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corruption" (II Peter z\ 19), showing that Paul has -reference to the moral corruption and not to corruption of the physical body, and that corruption, weakness, dishonor, natural and mortal, apply to the unregeneratcd men who are carnal and not spiritual. "It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory." There was a period in the apostle's own life that was exceedingly dishonorable. He says of himself, "That beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and made havoc of it." (Gal. 1:13.) But after he met Jesus, while on his way to Damascus, he was a changed man. He was raised to walk in newness of life, and hatred for the church of God gave way for love. "Instead of the thorn there came up the fir tree."

•

Paul was raised from a state of dishonor to one of honor and glory. Therefore he could say from experience that it is "glory, honor and peace to every man that worketh good." So it is not strange when applied to the inward man that he said: "It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory." It is glory even in this life to them that obey the Lord. Paul says, "I have fought a good fight." He won the greatest of all struggles: He conquered himself.

"It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body" will be noticed farther on.

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Irreconcilable From a Literal Viewpoint.

From a literal viewpoint the doctrine of the resurrection is irreconcilable, especially for those who look to the future for the second coming of Christ. For example, it is highly improbable that Paul, who was once "crucified with Christ/' and was made alive with Him (and was raised up with Him) and walked in newness of life with Him, and made to sit in heavenly places with Him, and now dwelling in glory with Him, is waiting for another resurrection, is waiting for something to come from the graveyard to make him complete. I cannot believe that his wants reach beyond heaven's supplies. That which is born from above must be fed and clothed from above. Christ came from above and He said unto His disciples, "I have meat to eat that ye know not of."

The physical body is not necessary either to preserve our identity, for it is nothing more than our earthly, temporal dwelling. "Spiritual things are spiritually discerned." (I Cor. 2:14,)

We should not like to think of Paul as being unknown to the great multitude which he has helped into our Father's house of many mansions,

Paul's Desire.

If Paul's expectations were realized, he has certainly been fed and- clothed and crowned

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through all the centuries since the generation in which he said, "I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ (face to face), \Miich is far belter." (Phil. 1:23, a. v.) "Willing rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord" (II Cor. 5:8), "Earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven/' (II Cor, 5:3, A. V.)

Paul declared that "We all beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are transformed into the same image." If Paul by beholding the glory of the Lord has been transformed into the same image, it is obvious that he needs nothing from this "terrestrial ball."

The Destiny of the Outward Man.

"The ancient Egyptians preserved the bodies oi their dead in order to give the soul a home on its return to earth." Yet with all their skill those bodies are crumbling to dust. It could not be otherwise, for dust is their destiny. The destiny of the outward man, as it seems to me, was sealed forevermore when God said: "Dust thou art and unto dusl shalt thou return." O, brethren and sisters, let us teach a resurrection for the inward man but leave the outward man with the temporal things, as did Paul, to be "dissolved" and to "perish."

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CHAPTER III.

THE SOURCES OF DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION.

The Death of Adam.

The first man, Adam, "was placed in a fruitful garden, among fruit-bearing trees, and all his surroundings were good and beautiful, for God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good, and He hath made everything beautiful in its time." Adam was doubtless as good and beautiful as his environment, for sin had not yet entered into the world to molest and make afraid. And Jehovah, God, commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden thou mayst freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." (Gen. 2:16, 17.)

"The tree was planted and why not for him ? If not, why place him near it, where it grew

The fairest in the center? There can be but one answer— 'Twas His will, and He is good."

—Byron. 107

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Nevertheless, Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden tree and "the eyes of them both were opened," and Jehovah, God, said: "Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil." With the knowledge of good and evil came fear and shame—a state of condemnation which is called death—the death that all die in Adam, the appointed death mentioned in Hebrews 9:27, since disobedience and death are universal with the human race. Paul said that "In Adam all die." (I Cor. 15 : 22.) And again that "We thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died." (II Cor. 5: 14.) Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned." (Rom. 5:12.) "And you did He make alive, when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins." (Eph. 2:1.) "So then as through one trespass the judgment came unto all men to condemnation, even so through one act of righteousness the free gift came unto all men to justification of life." (Rom. 5:18.)

The Christ Life a Deathless Life.

In the light of the above Scriptures may we not reasonably conclude that Paul has reference to the

soul of man and not the house in which it is con-

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fined ? The soul does not surely die at first, again He "calleth things that are not, as though they were." (Rom. 4: 17.) It is, however, under the sentence of death and if death is not abolished, the soul will surely die. Paul says: "Death passed unto all men, for that all sinned." Therefore all come under condemnation or the first death, and for this death there is a resurrection; for Paul says: "God, being rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, and raised us up with Him." (Eph. 2: 5, 6.) This is the deathless life. Christ said: "Verily, verily, I say unto you if a man keep My word, he shall never see death." (John 8: 51.) Again He said: "Whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never die" (John 11:26), physical death being overlooked and disregarded in comparison with that which is the only real death.

Christ's Love for Man.

We neither know how long it takes "grace" to perfect the soul nor how long it takes "sin" to destroy it. "We cannot," said Dr. Hathaway, "limit the mercy of God, nor set bounds of space and time to His love and compassion." James McLeod speaks most beautifully of His love:

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"Purer than the purest fountain, Wider than the widest sea, Sweeter than the sweetest music Is God's love in Christ to me."

Shakespeare also says:

"For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth

brings That then I scorn to change my state with kings."

Transforming Power of Jesus.

"Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked? sailh the Lord Jehovah, and not rather that lie should return from his way and live?" (Ezek. 18: 23.) "The Lord is long suffering not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (II Peter 3:9.) "We ourselves," says Paul, "have had the sentence of death, within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God Who raiseth the dead, Who delivered us out of so great a death, and doth deliver : on whom we have set our hope that He will also still deliver us." (II Cor. 119, 10.) Paul had passed out of death into life; he had been "raised together witfi Christ," and was walking in newness of life, which is the beginning of the resurrection, the consummation of which is to be like Christ in mind and heart and soul. This is the

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goal for which the heroic apostle suffered the loss of all things that he might gain: Although he does not wish to say that he has already attained or been made perfect, he says: "I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Girist Jesus." (Phil. 3:10-14.)

Oh blessed transformation! Forever to be adored is he who is able to make alive and transform the truly penitent into his own likeness; though he be the lowest, ugliest and meanest of mankind.

Only Two Human Souls Created.

Only two human souls were created. All others are begotten; for God gave to man as well as to the lower order of creation the power of reproduction.

The Old Creation, Natural and Earthy.

Now, as we understand it, man was not created

spiritual and heavenly; he was created natural

and earthy. (I. Cor. 15:46,47.) We do not

have reference to the physical. That which

makes him man is not in his physical body but

the thoughts and intentions of the heart make him

such in the sight of God.

Not until the last Adam rose from the dead

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and "became a life-giving spirit" could man be born anew and become spiritual.

Not until this new creation, is man created in the very likeness and image of God as it was said of His son. (Heb. 1:3.) It is the last, and not the first Adam that bears the image of the heavenly. "He calleth the things that are not, as though they were.*' (Rom. 4:17.)

The first is but a natural likeness. "That is not first which is spiritual," said Paul, "but that which is natural." This has never been reversed. "He that is of the earth, is of the earth, and of the earth he speaketh." (John 3:31.)

The New Creation Spiritual and Godlike.

Paul declared: "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature, the old tilings are passed away." (II Cor. 5: 17.) Again he says, "Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth." (Eph. 4:23, 24.) This is the creation that makes the man complete and in the very likeness and image of God. Until this new creation, he can neither turn the other cheek nor go the second mile.

"Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except one

be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

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■

. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except one be born of water {'tlie word')and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." (John 3:6.)

Man partakes of the divine nature through the promises of God. Peter says, "He hath granted unto us His precious and exceeding great promises ; that through these ye may become partakers of the divine nature." (II Peter 1 :4.) Again he says: "Having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which liveth and abideth." (I Peter 1:23.)

"He came unto His own, and they received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1: 11-13.) "Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth. (James 1: 18.)

In the heart of man there is a longing for a God, as the Psalmist exclaimed: "My heart and my flesh cry out unto the living God," and as St. Augustine said: "Thou hast made us for Thee,

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O Lord, and restless are our hearts till they repose in Thee."

The religious nature and the aspirations of a soul after God and holiness is certainly the most precious thing in man, and nothing short of the bread and water of life can satisfy the cravings of his nature.

"I am the bread of life; he that cometh to Me shall not hunger; and he that believeth in Me shall never thirst." (John 6:35.)

"No joy for which the hungering soul has panted, No hope it cherishes through waiting years,

Rut if thou dost deserve it shall be granted, For with each passionate wish the blessing nears.

The thing thou cravest now waits in the distance, Wrapt in the silences, unseen and dumb,

Essential to thy soul and thy existence; Live worthy of it, call, and it shall come."

Mortal and Immortal.

"The first man is of the earth earthy, the second man is of heaven." (T Cor. 15:47.) "Ye are from beneath, I am from above; ye are of this world. I am not of this world." (John 8: 23.)

Christ's native home is in Heaven; ours is on

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earth; He came down; we come up. Moreover, mortality came by the first Adam; Immortality by the second Adam. The descendants of the first Adam die. They all die in their youth—"or in the day that thou eatest thereof." This being the first, it is not a hopeless death; for the promise of the second Adam is: "He that be-lieveth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." This is life eternal; for he adds: "Whosoever liveth, and believeth in me shall never die." (John ii :25, 26, a. v.) It is evident that in this conversation with Martha of Bethany he had no reference whatever to physical death. He had, as we believe, refernce to the "dead in sins," and to all who are made alive from that death. The proof of this may readily be seen in the following scriptures: "You did he make alive, when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins." "Even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ." (Eph. 2:1, 4.) "That we, having died unto sins, might live unto righteousness." (I Peter 2:24.)

Sin and Death.

"The soul .that sinneth, it shall die." (Ezek. 18:20.) This solemn truth occurs again and again in the Bible, and is to me conclusive evi-

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dence that the penalty for sin is soul death, not a physical death for the latter, like the earning of bread by the sweat of our face. This is surely a blessing to the human race, as natural for man as the birth which gave him being. As for the animals which have no sin, "as the one dieth, so dieth the other,—all go unto one place, all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again." (Eccl. 3: 19, 20.)

Physical Death no Detriment.

"O Death, the poor man's dearest friend— The kindest and the best! Welcome the hour my aged limbs

Are laid with thee at rest! The great, the wealthy, fear thy blow

From pomp and pleasure torn; But, oh! a blest relief to those That weary-laden mourn!"

—Burns.

"And I am glad that he has lived thus long, And glad that he has gone to his reward; Nor can I deem that nature did him wrong, Softly to disengage the vital cord. For when his hand grew palsied, and his eye Dark with the mists of age, it was his time to die." —Bryant.

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"Death is as sweet as the flowers are. It is as blessed as bird-singing in spring. I never hear of the death of anyone who is ready to die, that my heart does not sing like a harp. I am sorry for those that are left behind, but not for those who have gone before." —Beecher.

Physical death is the Christian's passport to "an eternal weight of glory."

Soul-Death the Only Evil.

There is, however, a death—a second death, which is the first death unduly prolonged on which no blessing has ever been pronounced, a death from which there can be no arising; a sleep from which there can be no awakening, for after that death there is no more life. "He that over-cometh shall not be hurt of the second death."

Paul says: "What fruit then had ye at that time in the things whereof ye arc now ashamed ? For the end of those things is death." (Rom. 6:21.) "For the wages of sin is death." (Rom. 6:23.) "For if ye live after the flesh, ye must die." (Rom. 8:13.) "He that soweth unto his own flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption."

James says: "Sin, when it is full grown, bring-eth forth death." (James 1 :i5.)

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"Let him know, that he who converteth a sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death." (James 5:20.) Peter says: "But these, as natural brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption." (II Peter 2:12.) In speaking of the enemies of the cross of Christ, Paul says: "Whose end is destruction." (Phil. 3:19), and again, "In them that perish, a savor from death unto death." (II Cor. 2:16.) "Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction." (Math. 7 :i3.) "Whosoever would save his life," said Christ, "shall lose it—for what is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose or forfeit his own self?" (Luke 9:24, 25.)

These words of Jesus and of his apostles certainly make it as clear as words can, that sin, if it is not checked in its development, will ultimately destroy the soul. This we believe to be "the eternal punishment," "the eternal destruction from the face of the Lord." God is merciful. and nothing more merciful could befall the incorrigible.

James says: "The Lord is full of pity, and

merciful," and Peter says: He "is long suffering

not wishing that any should perish." 118

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"Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?' Not alone in the Bible is this question written, but also in the very depths of the human heart.

Life is Begotten of the Belief in the Son of Man.

The imperishable life is promised to those only, who believe on the only begotten Son of God. "He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life; but he that obeyeth not the son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." (John 3:

36.)

"None can keep alive his own soul." (Psalms 22:29, A. V.)

"No created thing sustains itself."

As we understand it, the Bible gives no assurance of the immortality of the soul except through faith in Him who is the bestower of immortality.

"Ye are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus." (Gal. 3126.) But faith that does not act, is lifeless; therefore, in order to become a living son, one must have living faith. The prodigal son said: "I will arise and go to my father," and he went. That is living faith.

"He, who will not take the living water, nor

receive the living bread, can have no life in him.

If the sheep who hear and know the voice of

Jesus receive eternal life and never perish, then

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obviously they who neither hear nor know his voice receive not the eternal life, but perish."

—McLane.

Life Outside of Christ is Doomed.

In the third chapter of Matthew, John the Baptist says: "He will gather his wheat into the garner, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire." "Unquenchable fire," says McLane, "does not denote inconsummable fuel, but fire which like the uncontrollable blaze of a straw fire, cannot be quenched and consumes that upon which it feeds."

In the eighteenth chapter of Matthew, Jesus says: "It is good for thee to enter into life maimed and halt, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into the eternal fire."

In the epistle of Jude, which says that Sodom and Gomorrah are set forth as an example suffering the punishment of eternal fire casts some light upon the Scriptural meaning of the words "eternal fire."

Although no heaven-sent word gives ground for hope, yet, we may share with Tennyson

"The wish, that of the living whole

No life may fail beyond the grave."

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CHAPTER IV.

CHRIST THE SAVIOUR OF THE INNER MAN.

Christ's Mission and Character.

The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to minister ; he left his glory and riches behind and became the poorest of the poor, poorer than the birds and foxes for he had not where to lay his head. The only crown he wore was a wreath of thorns. Nothing was lacking to complete his humiliation. A thief had been preferred to him and they crucified him between two thieves. Moreover he came "in the likeness of sinful flesh." (Rom. 8:3.)

In the 52nd and 53rd chapters of Isaiah, the prophet has described the bodily appearance of the lowly Nazarene, saying: "His visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. ... He grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground; he hath no form nor comeliness, and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him."

This marred visage and form, he took upon

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him (be it reverently said) to be in the likeness of sin, that he might die to sin for an example unto all after generations, that a death to sin must precede the resurrection and the life. How else could the Sinless One die to sin? That which Moses lifted up in the wilderness to cure, was shaped in the likeness of that which wounded. Even so with the Son of Man who was lifted up on the cross to cure sin bitten souls.

"Him who knew no sin, he made to be sin on our behalf." (II Cor. 5 :2i.)

Here, as nowhere else, the invisible things can be clearly seen through the things that arc made.

As Christ voluntarily died to the likeness of sin, so must we voluntarily die to actual sin.

Christ said of his life, "No one taketh it away from me, but I lay it down of myself."

He was made to be sin for us; he died unto sin for us, and he rose from the dead for us. "Who his own self" said Peter, "bare our sins in his own body on the tree." (Peter 2:24, a. v.) "And he died for all," said Paul, "that they that live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto Him who for their sakes died and rose again."

"He was manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself."

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"The death that He died He died unto sin once."

He "suffered for you, leaving you an example, that ye should follow his steps."

He came to be the way, not simply to declare it.

The human mind must have God in human form and the world must see the cross. "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself." So said the Savior of men.

The cross is for all ages and all countries—the cross is the cure for human sin, for the only way to be delivered from sin is to die to it.

"O Cross, that liftest up my head I dare not ask to fly from thee; I lay in dust life's glory dead; And from the ground there blossoms red Life that shall endless be."

The Man of Sorrows.

Although Jesus bore our sins "in his body upon the tree," his sufferings were not all of the body, for he "was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." He said unto his disciples on the night of his betrayal: "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." Paul says

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of him, "who in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and having been heard for his godly fear, though lie was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered" (Heb. 57.8.)

Did he not taste of the depths of that deep, dark, godforsaken feeling that sometimes comes over the soul of one who is without God and without hope? Surely he descended into the depths of human sorrow and suffering, or He could not have tasted of death for every man. He is, therefore, touched with the feeling of our infirmities, "for in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted.

The Meaning of Death.

Paul says, "If then ye were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above." (Col. 3. 1.) "For if we become united with him in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection : knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away" (Rom. 6:5-6), which

body is anger, wrath, malice, railing, shameful

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speaking, fornication, uncleanliness, passion, evil desire and covetousness. These ugly members certainly make a very vile body and if not put to death will rob man of his soul, and leave him like a beast to perish. The death of all these things is the putting off of the old man—the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh and being crucified with Christ. (See Col. 3:11, a. v.) "Put to death, therefore, your members which are upon the earth." (See Col. 3: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.)

The Nezv Body.

But to have love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control, is to have our body fashioned anew, and become "conformed to the body of His glory," and become as little children, not in mind but in malice.

God created human nature as well as all nature; therefore the main traits in human nature are always the same.

Human nature itself is not sinful, else a little child would be sinful, and He also who "took not on Him the nature of angels," but the seed of Abraham.

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"In nature there's no blemish, but the mind, None can be called deformed but the unkind,"

—Shakespeare.

■ The Two Bridegrooms and the Two Brides.

It is essential that man's first estate be natural

and earthy for he has an earthly mission,

The earth must be replenished, and marriage is an institution for replenishing the natural race of man, and this institution is as old as the human

race. For God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the first or natural Adam and from his side He took a rib and made for him a natural bride.

He also caused a deep sleep to fall upon the second or spiritual Adam and from his pierced side flowed the blood that makes for him a spiritual bride.

The Inward Body,

As we understand it, Paul sometimes calls the inward man a body, and in his natural, unregener-ate state, man is called a natural or mortal body, or the body of our humiliation. When quickened hy the spirit, which is always preceded by repent-ence and dying to sin, then it is called a spiritual body. But it is only in the making; the transformation has begun, and if he does no violence

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to the new nature, which is the spirit of Christ within the natural or mortal body, the spirit will gradually transform the natural into a spiritual body, or the natural man into a spiritual man. A spiritual man? Yes, after many days when the words of his mouth and the meditations of his heart are acceptable to God.

The Natural Man and the Spiritual Man.

That which is mortal is "swallowed up of life." "If there is a natural body," says Paul, "there is also a spiritual body." He does not, as T view it, have reference to the physical body, so this is equivalent to saying- that if there is a natural man, there is also a spiritual man, for he refers to the two Adams (see 1 Cor. 15:42, 49), the first Adam a natural man; the second Adam a spiritual man. As we understand it, Adam did not fail from a spiritual state and become natural; he was created so.

That Paul speaks of the inward man as a body,

and that it may be the dwelling- place of the spirit

of Christ, is clear from the following- Scriptures.

"If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of

sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness.

But if the spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from

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DEATH ANi3 THE RESURRECTION

the dead dwelleth in you, He that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through His spirit that dwelleth in you/' (Rom. 8:10, II.} "That ye may be strengthened with power through His spirit in the inward man." . (Eph, 3: 16.) "Inward man" and "mortal bodies" evidently mean the same. Again Paul says: "Wherefore we faint not; but though our outward man is decaying yet our inward man is renewed day by day." (II Cor. 4; 16.)

The Inner Temple Man's Greatest Treasure.

So Paul speaks of an outward man and of an inward man, and of a spirit in the inward man or body. He also speaks of the inward man as a temple. "Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man destroyeth the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is Holy, and such are ye." (I Cor. 3:16.) Thus we see that the inward man—the temple—is holy because of the presence of the spirit of God, and that the temple can be destroyed. Sin, unrepented of, will as surely destroy the inward temple as leprosy will the outward temple,

In the ioth chapter of Matthew, Jesus bids men ■

not to fear them who kill the body but cannot kill

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the sou!; rather to fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. We believe Paul has reference to the inward body when he says, "Know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ?" (I Cor. 6: 15) and "who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory." (Phil. 3: 21.) "Having our body washed with pure water." (Heb. 10:22.) Nothing but the word of God can make clean a defiled body; the defilement is within and nothing short of the constant presence and power of the spirit of Christ himself can keep it clean.

But when Paul says: "Our outward man is decaying" (II Cor. 4: 16) and "We know that if the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved" (II Cor. 5:1), and when Peter says, "knowing that the putting off of my tabernacle cometh swiftly" (II Peter 1: 14), we are assured that they have reference to the outward body, the earthy vesture, the tenement of clay borrowed from earth for a little while.

The Death of tlte Outward Man Is of Little

Concern.

It is the universal law that dust return to dust,

not because of sin, but because it is dust. "The

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DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION

dust returneth to the earth as it was." (Eccl. 12:7.)

"When I pass on, 0 friend, Let my worn body blend With common dust and mend Its mortal ills, and be Returned in bud and tree.

"So when I go away,

Let nature have her sway To resurrect my clay

In bud and bloom and leaf, Green blade and ripened sheaf."

—Parker.

Even though it be called death for the earthly house to be dissolved when the earthly task is done, and go the way of all the earth, it should be esteemed a boon.

"The best is yet to be."

"Precious in the sight of Jehovah is the death of his saints." (Psalms 16:15.)

Good old Simeon said: "Now let thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." And Paul, "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain." John, the Revelator, "heard

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a voice from heaven saying, 'Write, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth; yea, saith the spirit, that they may rest from their labors; for their works follow with them." (Rev. 14:13.) But they also remain for "A good man Ieaveth an inheritance to his children's children." (Prov. 13:22.)

"So long thy power hath blessed me, sure it still

Will lead me on, 0*er moor and fen. O'er crag and torrent till

The night is gone! And with the morn those angel faces smile Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile."

—Neivman.

"Ah, well! for us all some sweet hope lies Deeply buried from human eyes, And, in the hereafter, angels may Roll the stone from its grave away."

—Wkittier.

Death and the Resurrection of the Inner Man.

In his death and resurrection, our Lord Jesus Christ left to man a visible example of the invisible death and resurrection that must take place within all who would overcome and sit down with

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Him in His throne, according to the promise, "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise/' (Isa. 26:19, A. V.) "The death that he died, he died unto sin once." "Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin." "He showed himself alive after his passion by many proofs." "God being rich in mercy—made us alive together with Christ and raised us up with him." "The life that he liveth, he liveth unto God/* Present yourselves unto God, as alive from the dead. His "body was sown a natural body and raised a spiritual body. Ours, also, is sown a natural body, and raised a spiritual body. His body saw no corruption; neither will ours if the spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells within. His body was not wholly spiritual when he arose from Joseph's new tomb. Neither is ours when we emerge from entombment.

"Our Savior Christ Jesus, abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel" (II Tim. 1 :io.)

We too may abolish death and

Live the immortal life with Him;

But this way leads to the cross,

For we too must die to sin.

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Tis the only way to conquer death;

The only way to remove the sting; Apart from death to Sin, no newness of life, No walking in sweet communion with Him;

Not even seeing the Kingdom of God. Much less entering in!

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A MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTION

When Daniel Webster made his last visit to John Adams, the aged ex-President said: "I am as well as a man of ninety could expect. You see I am afflicted with an incurable disease—old age. My house is getting very shaky and so far as I can see, the landlord is not going to make any more repairs." —Selected.

The naively expressed reasons which led Bun-yan himself to hesitate about publishing the Pilgrim's Progress, are equally applicable to its being acted; and Dr. MacDonald's friends and critics differ as widely in their judgment as did Bunyan's friends of old. Says the author:

"When I had thus put my ends together,

I showed them others, that I might see whether

They would condemn them or would justify.

And some said, Let them live; some, Let them

die;

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Address orders to MARION MORRIS

Winchester, Indiana

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Some said, John, print it; others said. Not so; Some said, It might do good; others said, No."

—Selected.

Most books, like their authors, are born to die; of only a few books can it be said that death hath no dominion over them, they live, and their influence lives forever. —/. Swartz.

The books for all time were written, as Ruskin again says, "because the author has something to say which he perceives to be true and useful, or helpfully beautiful; so far as he knows, no one has yet said it; so far as he knows, no one else can say it. He is bound to say, clearly and melodiously, if he may—clearly at all events. In the sum of his life he finds this to be the thing, or group of things, manifest to him ; this the piece of true knowledge, or sight, which his share of sunshine and earth has permitted him to seize. He would fain set it down forever; engrave it on rock, if he could, saying, This is the best of me; for the rest I ate, and drank, and slept, and loved, and hated, like another. My life was as the vapor and is not; but this I saw and knew; this, if anything of mine is worth your memory.

—Selected. 136

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Get the good out of a book without demanding that it shall satisfy you in every line.

—Selected.

They are the best Christians who are more careful to improve themselves than to censure others. —Selected.

Whatever a man does to another he does to himself, whether it be good or evil.

—Hawthorne.

To thine own self be true. And it must follow, as the night the day. Thou canst not then be false to any man. —Shakespeare.

The way to know God is to love and obey Him. "He that doeth his will shall know of the doctrine." Men who stand aloof from a holy life are not capable of discussing wisely about God or heaven or redemption! —Wortman.

The man who is worthy of being a leader of

men will never complain of the stupidity of his

helpers; of the ingratitude of mankind ; or of the

inappreciation of the public. These things are all

a part of the great game of life, and to meet them

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and not go down before them in discouragement and defeat, is the final proof of power.

—Elbert Hubbard.

The greatest man is he who chooses the right with invincible resolution; who resists the sorest temptations from within and without; who bears the heaviest burdens cheerfully; who is calmest in storms and most fearless under menace and frowns; and whose reliance on truth, on virtue and on God is most unfaltering.

—Channing.

Let every man who believes he has a message speak out the thing that is in him.

—Selected,

Men who have learned to nurse their souls on truth in solitary meditation and communion with the invisible, speak at length words that men must hear and heed. —Moorhead.

Let him who would move and convince others, be first moved and convinced himself.

—Carlyle.

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Be true, if you would be believed. Let a man but speak forth with genuine earnestness the thought, the emotion, the actual condition of his own heart; and other men, so strangely are we all knit together by the tie of sympathy, must and will give heed to him. In culture, in extent of view, we may stand above the speaker or below him; but in either case, his words, if they are earnest and sincere, will find some response within us. As face answers to face, so does the heart of man to man. —Carlyle.

------------------

There is no man who may not learn something from any other. He who ordains praise from the mouth of babes has willed that the great may take lessons from the lowly, the cultured from the unlettered. No truth should be rejected because of the strange or the unwelcome form in which it may come. —Selected.

Wisdom is won by the discipline of life as

truly as by the discipline of the schools, and many

a young college graduate has learned by bitter

experience that he can not afford to despise the

judgment of men with less book learning, but

greater life wisdom. —Rev. Dr. Fenn.

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Daniel Webster says: "Knowledge does not comprise all which is contained in the large term of education. The feelings are to be disciplined, the passions are to be restrained; true and worthy motives are to be inspired; a profound religious feeling is to be instilled, and pure morality inculcated under all circumstances. All this is comprised in education."

A man already strong is listened to, and everything he says is applauded. Another opposes him with sound argument, but the argument is scouted, until by and by it gets into the mind of some weighty person; then it begins to tell upon the community. —Emerson.

The close observation of the little things is the secret of all true success in business, in art, in science, and in every pursuit in life. Human knowledge is but the accumulation of small facts, made by successive generations of men—the little bits of experience carefully treasured up by them growing into a mighty pyramid.

—Smiles,

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MORTALITY

(From The Standard Dictionary of Facts, edited

by Henry W. Ruoff.)

If we assume the population of the earth to be one thousand millions, and a generation to last thirty-three years, in that space of time the one thousand millions must all die, and, consequently, the number of deaths will be, by approximation:

Each year.................30,000,000

Each day................. 82,107

Each hour................ 3421

Each second.........nearly 1

One quarter of the population die at or before the age of 7; the half part of it die at or before the age of 17. One in 100,000 persons reaches the age of 100 years; one in 500 reaches the age of 90; one in 100 the age of 60.

To all who are disposed to criticize you after you have decided to take a given course, because God calls you that way, you will be able to say, with Paul: "With me it is a very small thing

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that I should be judged of you or of man's judgment. He that judgeth me is God."

—Hyde.

By thine own soul's law, learn to live;

And if men thwart thee, take no heed, And if men hate thee, have no care—

Sing thou thy song and do thy deed; Hope thou thy hope, and pray thy prayer,

And claim no crown they will not give.

—IVhittitr.

A pure heart at the end of life, and a lowly mission well accomplished, are better than to have filled a great place in the earth, and have a stained soul and a wrecked destiny.

—/. R. Miller.

This truth comes to us more and more the longer we live, that on what field or in what uniform, or with what aims we do our duty matters very little; or even what our duty is, great or small, splendid or obscure; only to find our duty certainly and somewhere or somehow to do it faithfully, makes us good, strong, happy, and

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useful men and tunes our lives into some feeble echo of the life of God.

—Phillips Brooks.

Let us beware of losing our enthusiasm. Let us ever glory in something, and strive to retain our admiration for all that would ennoble and our interest in all that would enrich and beautify our life. —Phillips Brooks.

Sincerity is power. Being insincere in any way, however slight, tampers with the sources of power in one's own soul. Sincere thinking, sincere living, should be cultivated by every young man or woman who wishes to grow in character. —Selected.

Greater than intellect, greater than gold, greater than the world a noble character.

—Selected.

If happiness has not its seat

And center in the breast, We may be wise, or rich, or great,

But never can be blessed.

-—Selected.

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It's the little things you can do quietly to make others happy that bring in the largest returns, that pile up a bank account where no cashier nor robber can get at it. .

—Youth's Companion.

When one is sad and out of sorts for any cause whatever, there is no remedy so infalible as trying to make somebody else happy.

—Carney.

Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.

—/. M. Barrie.

It is the trying that saves us rather than perfect belief or perfect doing. —Heath.

Resolved, never to do anything which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of ray life.

—Jonathan Edwards.

THE IDEAL LIFE

Better than praise and better than gold,

And better than rank by a thousandfold,

Is the bloom of health with a mind at rest,

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And peace at home as a loving guest. To have a heart that is warm within, To live a life unstained by sin, To dare the right with a courage bold, Is better than hoarding piles of gold.

—Virgil A. Pinkley.

Every time we keep silent under insult, and loving and sweet under irritation and provocation, we have made it easier for all about us to do the same. —/. R. Miller.

Whoso keepeth his mouth and tongue, Keepeth his soul from troubles.

—Prov.

Deal gently with the old, for they have come a long way; and be kind to the young, for they have a long journey before them.

—Selected.

_--------------

Whoever wills to do the great things of the Bible finds them still true, —Selected.

The standard of morals must become ever higher and purer as the years go by until we come

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"to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." —Selected.

A well-governed mind learns in time to find pleasure in nothing but the true and the just.

—Amiel.

There is an upward lift which every man has upon his own soul and life. A man cannot lift himself by his boot-straps, but he can tremendously lift himself by his purpose.

—Bishop McDowell, D. D.

HIS LOVE—IT PRECEDED OURS

Some years ago two gentlemen were riding together, and as they were about to separate one addressed the other thus: "Do you ever read your Bible?" "Yes, but I get no benefit from it, because, to tell the truth, I feel I do not love God." "Neither did I." replied the other, "but God loved me." This answer produced such an effect upon his friend that.to use his own words, it was as if one had lifted him off the saddle into the skies. It opened up to his soul at once the great truth that it is not how much I love God, but how much

God loves me. —Selected.

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WHEN HE IS OLD

A celebrated theological professor of Princeton was asked by a skeptic: "Doctor, how do you explain this ? You say that 'Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.' Now, how do you account for the fact that your Bill is such a dissipated fellow?" The doctor replied: "The promise is, when he is old he will not depart from it. Bill is not old yet I" Subsequent years have shown the wisdom of the doctor's faith. Bill is old now, and a Christian.

—Talmage.

"He shall give you another comforter."

"I will not leave you comfortless: I will come

to you."

The comforter is only Christ in another, more

spiritual, more universal form.

—Selected.

God chooses conscious weakness as the channel of the spirit's power. —Pierson.

God is love and therefore all His outgoings are lovely and loving. The stream is as the spring.

—Selected. 147

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THE BIBLE

There are men that are all the time afraid that something will happen to the Bible. I should be if I had no more faith than they have in it. There is a mountain not far from my dwelling in the country, and I never got up in the night to see if it had not been stolen by somebody. Near by rolls the old Hudson, and 1 never said to myself on going to bed, "How do I know that before morning somebody will not run down with a quart pot and carry off that river 1" Now, to me, the Bible stands as firm as mountains stand, and it is in as little danger of being overthrown as mighty rivers are of being carried off in a quart pot. I am never afraid that the Bible will be laid aside. I am never afraid of its being superseded. I feel a certainty that it belongs to God, that it is indispensable to man, and that, however much it may be neglected or run against, it will take care of itself, and maintain its rightful place.

—Beecher.

There is absolutely nothing that man cannot do without, except God. With Him happiness is possible anywhere and always. In deepest perils

and darkest prisons, in the languor of sickness

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and the loneliness of sorrow, in the narrow house of poverty and the fiery furnace of pain, on the cross of disgrace and in the black shadow of death, men and women have been happy because God was with them. Yea, they have sung praises so that the other prisoners have heard them. —Henry VanDyke.

God cannot live in a heart which has become the home of hate. Either God or hate must go. And hate will have to go, if God is graciously besought to remain. —Shannon.

God allures men from before with rewards, and scourges them from behind with poverty, adversity and trouble. Just as one shepherd carries a little salt in advance of the flock, and the other marches behind with a crook and a shepherd dog. —N. D. Hillis.

He who from zone to zone

Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight In the long way that I must tread alone Will lead my steps aright.

—Bryant. 149

MISCELLANY

We can do without praise; we are better off without it. But I do not think many of us can do without appreciation. If those who really care for us take some notice of it when we are trying to do our best. I think that is one of God's great ways of making us live our life well.

—Selected.

No man is strong in a crisis unless he has been gathering strength during a long period of preparation. —Selected.

We need the balance of the two. Mind means reason, thought; heart means feeling, affection, purpose. The law must be written in both. We cannot trust ourselves to feel our way. We must know it. We cannot trust ourselves to know our way, we must feel it.

—McKensie in Homiletic Review.

•

There are few things—whether in the outward world, or, to a certain depth, in the invisible sphere of thought—few things hidden from the man who devotes himself earnestly and unreservedly to the solution of a mystery.

—Hawthorne. 150

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There is no defeat except from within. There is really no insurmountable barrier save your own inherent weakness of purpose. —Emerson.

Even Vergil said: "A man can do anything that he believes he can."

"The hills are dearest which our childish feet Have climbed the earliest, and the streams most

sweet Are ever those at which our young lips drank, Stooped to its waters o'er the grassy bank."

—Selected.

Truths would you teach, or save a sinking land: All fear, none aid you, and few understand.

—Pope, in "Essay on Man."

____________

The highest, the ideal right must be always misunderstood and opposed, because the world is like an army on the march. The vanguard that is leading is the few, the seers, those who see and who care; and the great majority follow on, slowly, unconsciously, perhaps. But they oppose these men that disturb them and call them to some higher and grander thing than they are able as

yet to appreciate. And so, since the world is grow-

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ing, he who cares for the highest things must expect to be alone, must expect to be misunderstood. Must expect to be opposed and thwarted.

—Minot /. Savage.

"Judge not that ye be not judged." Why should a man who advances a new view on any subject have his intelligence, his loyalty to religion and even his moral purposes challenged? Differ we may and must, but why should we seek to read one another out of the counsels of religion, by disparagement, sinister interpretation of motives and bitterness of personal characterization ?

—Ed. Homiletic Review*

MISJUDGING PEOPLE

Speaking of how we often misjudge people's

motives, and how sometimes, because we see at

die moment but a part of what they are about, we

reach harsh conclusions, a Western correspondent

relates the following incident, which occurred at

an auction: "Among the lots put up for gale

was one—'A pretty pair of crutches/ In the

crowd was a poor crippled boy, and the crutches

were just the thing for him. He was the first to

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bid for them. An elderly, well-dressed man bid against him. There were cries of 'Shame! Shame!' in the crowd. The boy bid again, and so did the old gentleman; the boy bid all he had, but the old gentleman outbid him once more, and the poor little lad turned away with tears in his eyes. The crutches were knocked down to the elderly man, who, to the great surprise of all, took them to the poor little cripple and made him a present of them. The crowd were now as enthusiastic in their praise as they had been in their abuse.—Christian Intelligencer.

Attack is the reaction; I never think I have hit hard unless it rebounds. —Samuel Johnson.

To get people to change their minds is one thing, to get them to change their lives is another and much more serious thing. —Hodges.

"Even that which he hath shall be taken away." That is the original endowment of which he made no use. —Selected.

To live on, even when life seems a failure and the comforts of life are gone; to count patient

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living the real living, with or without comfort— that is to be truly brave. —Phillips Brooks.

At every trifle scorn to take offense, That always shows great pride, or little sense.

—Pope.

If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm our hostility.

—Longfellow.

For, alas! alas! with me

The light of life is o'er!

No more—no more—no more— Shall bloom the thunder-blasted tree,

Or the stricken eagle soar!

—Poe.

LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT

Lead, kindly Light, amid th' encircling gloom

Lead Thou me on! The night is dark, and I am far from home!

Lead Thou me on!

Keep Thou my feet! I do not ask to see

The distant scene! one step enough for me.

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I was not ever thus, nor pray'd that Thou shouldst lead me onl

I loved to choose and see my path ;

But now, lead Thou me on!

I lov'd the garish day, and, spite of fears,

Pride rul'd my will. Remember not past years!

—Newman.

MUSIC

Of all the arts beneath the heaven That man has found or God has given, None draws the soul so sweet away, As music's melting, mystic lay; Slight emblem of the bliss above, It soothes the spirit all to love.

—James Hogg.

I WOULD

I would we grew more gentle day by day; I would that smiles more often came to play About our lips, to dwell within our eyes; I would that we could see in God's fair skies More oft the blue and not the somber gray; I would we grew more flowers on life's way

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I would we grew less swift to chide and blame; I would we used more oft love's other name, And that our hearts grew daily yet more kind; I would we were more oft a little blind; And in our homes and on the crowded street I would we heard the coming of his feet

I would we grew more like a little child; I would our spirits were as pure as mild, And that the childlike faith might, too, be ours; I would in all life's dark and lonely hours We, too, might put our hand in his and say, "I'm not afraid ; my Father knows the way." —Irene E. Engleman in Christian Observer.

If love but one short hour had perfect sway, How many a rankling sore its touch would heal,

How many a misconception pass away;

And hearts long hardened learn at last to feel.

What sympathies would wake, what feuds decay, If perfect love might reign but one short day.

—Selected.

____________

O little town of Bethlehem,

How still we see thee lie I Above thy deep and dreamless sleep

The silent stars go by;

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Yet in thy dark streets shineth The Everlasting Light; The hopes and fears of all the years Are met in thee to-night.

—Phillips Brooks.

* WAIT FOR THE MUD TO DRY

Father Graham was an old-fashioned gentleman, beloved by every one, and his influence in the little town was great, so good and active was he. A young man of the village had been badly insulted and came to Father Graham full of angry indignation, declaring that he was going at once to demand an apology. "My dear boy/' Father Graham said, "take a word of advice from an old man who loves peace. An insult is like mud—it will brush off much better when it is dry. Wait a little, till he and you are both cool and the thing is easily mended. If you go now it will be only to quarrel." It is pleasant to be able to add that the young man took his advice, and before the next day was done the offending person came to beg forgiveness. —Selected.

The love of earthly things is only expelled by

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certain sweet experience of the things eternal.

—Selected.

Some one has said, A definite aim is the greatest thing in the world after health and love.

—Selected.

To err is human, to forgive is divine.

—Pope. The speeches of one that is desperate are as wind. —Job.

He who tells a lie is not sensible how great a task he has undertaken for he will be forced to invent twenty more to maintain that one.

—Dean Swift.

The other day we observed that a man, to be remembered, must leave with the world some word of writing or a spoken thought that takes deep root in the lives of men. We are now, since reading the news of the first engagement of the new war, inclined to believe that General Sherman was immortalizing his name when he said that war was hell. —Selected.

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CONSCIENCE

There is no witness so terrible, no accuser so powerful, as conscience, that dwells in every breast. —Polybius.

What we call conscience or moral sense is a complex organization. It is the sentiment of conscience harmoniously educated and co-operating with a man's reason. It is, therefore, the ordinary thinking mind acting in reference to certain spheres of things in consonance with the emotion of conscience, which is the emotion that inspires pain or pleasure in view of things which are supposed to be right or wrong. And conscience is so blind that if you think a thing to be wrong which is as right as the throne of God, you will feel bad in the commission of it. And if you think a thing to be right which is as wrong as wrong can be, that conviction being strong in you, conscience will go on to that side. Conscience has no interpreting power except indirectly. It is the reason that interprets. Conscience follows with its sanction and stamps the decisions of reason with pleasure or with pain, with approbation or with disapprobation, when they pertain to

moral conduct. I do not mean that conscience is

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a Divine interpreter; for I do not believe that there is any such conscience as that. I believe that conscience is precisely like any other emotion. It determines what is right and wrong by what the understanding says is right or wrong. Conscience is an emotion that acts concurrently with intellect, and then gives force to that which the intellect judges to be right or wrong. And it gives pleasure or pain, according to the nature of that which is selected as right or wrong.—Beecher.

So far as doctrines and duties are concerned, not conscience, but the revealed Word of God, is our one and only sure and safe directory.

—Guthrie.

Conscience has been compared to a clock, and the law of God to the sun. The clock is right only when it keeps time with the sun. And so it is with the conscience. It is a safe guide only when it is directed by the commandment of the Lord. —F. fV. Richardson.

If it cost too much to be a zealous and successful Christian, it will cost infinitely more to live

and die an impenitent. —Selected.

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Bible religion costs self-denial; sin costs self-destruction. —Theodore L. Cuyler, D. D.

■' ■

I have come to believe myself, in the probable

■

annihilation of those who never respond to God's offer of forgiveness, those who never believe in Christ and take Him as their Savior. It seems probable that the Bible teaches that the word "Death," as applied to the soul that always refuses to repent, is a death that means total extinction. ... I cannot interpret the use of such a text as we have to-day to meany anything less than that "the wages of sin is death." What do these words mean, if not plainly what they say ?—the extinction of life, the utter going out of the flame that was meant to ascend higher and brighter and purer on the altar of man's worship of his Creator and Redeemer.

—From Sermon by Dr. Charles M. Sheldon.

AMERICA.

(In all, four verses.)

My country! 't is of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing;

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Land where my fathers died, Land of the pilgrim's pride; From every mountain side, Let freedom ring.

My native country 1 thee, Land of the noble free,

Thy name I love: I love thy rocks and rills, Thy woods and templed hills; My heart with rapture thrills

Like that above.

—Smith.

LOVE OF COUNTRY

(From "The Lay of the Last Minstrel," by

Sir Walter Scott.)

Breathes there the man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said:— 'This is my own, my native land!" Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned, As home his footsteps he hath turned From wandering on a foreign strand? If such there breathe, go, mark him well; For him no minstrel raptures swell;

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High though his titles, proud his name,

Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;

Despite those titles, power, and pelf,

The wretch concentered all in self,

Living, shall forfeit fair renown,

And, doubly dying, shall go down

To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,

Unwept, unhonored, and unsung.

CONVERSION

A man that waits for a more convenient season for thinking about the affairs of his soul is like the countryman in Aesop's fable who sat down by a flowing river, saying, "If this stream continues to flow as it does now for a little while it will empty itself, and I shall walk over dry-shod." Ah, but the stream was just as deep when he had waited day after day as it was before. And so shall it be with you. —Spurgeon.

Thus do the organs of the physical or material body cover over and blunt and obscure the senses of the spiritual body within. But as soon as these outward coverings are removed, or lifted, then do the senses of the spiritual body come into active operation, and the scenes of the eternal world

become both audible and visible. —Selected.

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THREE VERSES OF "AFTON WATER"

How pleasant thy banks and green valleys below Where wild in the woodland the primroses blow; There oft as mild evening weeps over the lea, The sweet-scented birk shades my Mary and me.

Thy crystal stream, Afton, how lovely it glides, And winds by the cot where my Mary resides: How wanton thy waters her snowy feet lave, As gathering sweet flowerets she stems thy clear wave.

Flow gently, sweet Afton, among the green braes, Flow gently, sweet river, the theme of my lays; My Mary's asleep by thy murmuring stream, Flow gentlv, sweet Afton, disturb not her dream.

—Bums.

BEREAVED

Dear little hands, I miss them so!

All through the day wherever I go—

All through the night how lonely it seems,

For no little hands wake me out of my dreams.

I miss them all through the weary hours

I miss them as others do sunshine and flowers.

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Day-time or night-time wherever I go, Dear little hands I miss them so.

—Selected.

CONTENTMENT

Is it raining, little flower?

Be glad of rain.

Too much sun would wither thee. ,_T ... ■_. Twill shine again.

The sky is very black, 'tis true,

But just behind it shines the blue.

Art thou weary, tender heart?

Be glad of pain; In sorrow sweetest things will grow,

As flowers in rain. God watches, and thou wilt have sun When clouds their perfect work have done.

______ -Emerson.

LAST WORDS OF A DYING SOLDIER

"Can I do anything for you?" said an officer

in one of our gory battles in America, during that

awful conflict, to one of the lads in blue, whose

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life was trickling away upon the green sward. "Nothing," said the dying soldier, "nothing!" "Shall I get you a little water?" "No, thank you, I am dying." "Is there nothing I can do?" said the officer; "shall I write a letter to your friends?" "No, I have no friends that you can write to. But there is one thing I should be much obliged to you for. In my knapsack you will find a Testament; open it at the 14th chapter of St. John, and near the end you will find a passage that begins with the word 'Peace'; please read it." The officer took up the blood-stained haversack, took out the Testament, and turned to that chapter that your pastor and myself have read so often, or held up so often as a lamp in the valley of the shadow of death—the matchless 14th chapter of John; and he read: "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." "Thank you, sir," said the dying man; "I have got that peace; I am going to that Saviour." And winging its way from the poor bleeding body, the spirit ascended; and, as Noah stretched out his hand to the dove, the infinite Love grasped him and drew him in. For him to die was Christ; for

him to die was gain—gain everlasting.—Cuyler.

MISCELLANY

BOOK OF GOD

Precious, precious, thrice precious Book of God. It can cheer when every other comforter is far away. It has running streams and sparkling fountains and deep wells at which he who drinks shall find living water.

—Selected.

Father, I thank Thee \—Christ.

•

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	TO THE READER. The author desires to acknowledge his indebtedness and to offer his thanks to all who have, in any way, contributed to this work. We have, of course, drawn on all available sources, yet for the proof of our position, we have relied almost wholly upon the Bible, believing it to be its own best evidence. Our aim, throughout, has been to state in a brief straightforward, yet in a kind and charitable manner, what we believe to be the true'.interpretation of the principal texts of the Scriptures in reference to the great subjects herein treated. The Scriptural quotations are mostly taken from the American Revised Version. Those taken from the Authorized Version are so designated. "Since the sacred leaves to all are free, And men interpret texts, why should not we?"


	PREFACE. '"The weary centuries watch in vain The clouds of heaven for Him." —Whittier. Generation after generation has looked to the future for the fulfillment of prophecies that have evidently been fulfilled, losing thereby much of the harmony, beautv and comfort in which the Scriptures abound. Hence come the many speculations concerning: THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST, THE DAY OF JUDGMENT, THE END OF THE WORLD, THE NEW HEAVEN AND THE NEW EARTH, DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION. It lias been truly said that, "He who sets one great truth afloat in the world serves his generation." Although the author may not be able to do this, he hopes at least to make more real to the reader some of the great truths of the Bible which are alreadv afloat.



	PREFACE We believe that the Son of Man came the second time, as He declared He would come, "in the glory of His Father with His angels," and that He rendered "unto every man according to his deeds." Also that some of them who stood by and heard Jesus speak these words lived to see them fulfilled; and that Jesus did not teach that the passing away of heaven over our heads and earth under our feet would be simultaneous with His second coming, the judgment, and the end of the world. As we understand it, the heaven and earth that was destined to pass away and to be superseded by a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwell-eth righteousness, was the old covenant with its priesthood and sacrifices and the earthy ungodly men of that generation, who believed neither the writings of Moses nor the words of Jesus. The old covenant was only a "copy and shadow of the heavenly things." It had, however, long been a heaven, though an imperfect one, to the true Israelite. But all these things were destined to give way to the new and perfect covenant in which iniquity is forgiven, and sin is forgotten, and there would be forthcoming "an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession."


	CONTENTS Page His Coming and Judgment.................. 31 Tin- Dawn of the Christian Era..............Si. God'a Deliverance.......................... 3j> CHAPTER III. Thk Period of Transition. The Fate of the Holy City that Had Become Unholy ................................ 32 Confirming the Word by Signs.............. 39 The Gospel Preached to the Whole World-----12 Then Shall the End Come................... 12 His Coming Expected by His Disciples....... j3 Disciples and Prophets Not Mistaken........41 The Time for the New Kingdom Had Come... 4G CHAPTER IV. The Tbk:m.1'1i of Ciimhtiamty. The Gospels Indicate a Single Event......... 12. The Confusion of Other Beliefs.............. &2 A More Hopeful View....................... 53 The New Covenant Maketh a New Heaven and a New Earth........................... &S. Although Sin May Increase for a Time God's Word Shall Triumph.................... 53 The Children of God lo Hecomr a ■ World Power ................................. fiO Not a New Gospel nor a New Faith but a Clearer Vision......................... C2


	CONTENTS CHAPTER V Christ Camk ix thk Oknkrathix tiikn Living. Page The Assurance of His Coming In that Genera- iinn ....................................65 The Need of Hia Coming at that Time........-Gfi Assurance that the Time Was at Hand......._£J The Rloori of the Righteous as Additional Evidence ................................. 74 The Certainty nf His Coming nnd the Fulfillment of the Predictions.................-73 The Meaning nf the Symhnl................._ZS The Church of the Lord a Living Evidence. , . 79


	PART ONE CHRIST'S SECOND COMING FULFILLED

	CHAPTER I NOT PEACE BUT A SWORD The Second Coming Foretold. "Tell us when shall these things be ? And what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world?" (Matt. 24: 3.) The answer, "Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass away till all these things be accomplished." (Matt. 24 134.) God said to Abraham: "I will make of thee a great nation and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." And after many generations, "at the end of the ages", "in the evening of the world", came the promised seed,—the long expected Messiah, "who was foreknown, indeed, before the foundation of the world, but was manifested at the end of the times for your sake." (I Peter 1:20.) 15



	Christ's second coming fulfilled Christ's Work. Christ left the glory which He had with the Father, taking the form of a servant, and while in this lowly form,—persecuted, hated, scoffed at and scorned by the authorities of the Jewish church,—He accomplished that which has taken deeper and deeper hold upon the minds of men as the centuries have passed. He came and sowed the good seed. The enemy sowed the tares, and the mixture was allowed to grow until the harvest, then the Son of Man came the second time, . not a little child heraled by the angels, but a King "with power and great glory and all the angels with Him" to execute His word, for "this generation," said He, "shall not pass away till all these things be accomplished." Christ's Method, John the Baptist said to the Pharisees and Sad-ucees, "Ye offspring of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come ?" . . and, "even now the ax lieth at the root of the trees." "Every tree therefore that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire." Again he declared that the Messiah who baptizes with the Holy Ghost baptizes also 16



	Christ's second coming fulfilled with fire; "and He will gather His wheat into the gamer but the chaff He wil burn up with unquenchable fire." "Think not," said Christ, "that I came to send peace on the earth : I came not to send peace but a sword." (Matt. 10: 34.) Again He asserted "I came to cast fire upon the earth; and what do I desire if it is already kindled ?" . . "Think ye that I am come to give peace in the earth ? I tell you, Nay, but rather division." (Luke 12:49-51.) By reference to Isaiah we find the following: "He will have indignation against His enemies. For, behold, Jehovah will come with fire. and His chariots shall be like the whirlwind, to render His anger with fierceness, and His rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire will Jehovah exe-_# cute judgment, and by His sword, upon all flesh; and the slain of Jehovah shall be many." (Isaiah 66:14-16.) St. Paul stated: "If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that shall be saved: for the Lord will execute His word upon the earth, finishing it and cutting it short." (Rom. 9:27-28.) "You that are afflicted," also said Paul, "rest with us at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with 17



	Christ's second coming fulfilled the angels of Mis power in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus: who shall suffer punishment even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of His might." (II Thess. i: 7-19.) "When therefore the Lord of the vineyard shall come," said Jesus, "what will He do unto those husbandmen?' They say unto Him, "He will miserably destroy those miserable men, and will let out the vineyard unto other husbandmen." (Mat. 21:40-41.) And Jesus having reference to this event said, "These are days of vengeance that all things that are written may be fulfilled." (Luke 21: 22.) Kingdom of Peace.* To my mind these Scriptures clearly show that the reign of peace could not begin until after His Second Coming, and the "ax", the "sword" and the "fire" had accomplished their work, and all things which were written and prophesied had been fulfilled. "Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines and earthquakes in diverse places. Rut all these are the beginning of travail." (Matt. 24: 7-9.) 18



	Christ's second coming fulfilled Signs of the Nezv Kingdom Fulfilled. We quote the following paragraph from Peloubet's Select Notes. "Wars and Rumors of Wars." "Josephus gives an account of the troublous times before the fall of Jerusalem. The peace that prevailed over the world during Christ's life was soon broken. Rome had troublous times. Four Roman emperors were murdered in swift succession. But especially in Palestine the war fiend ran riot. The Jews themselves were divided into contending factions, who slew each other by the thousands. The neighboring nations joined one party or the other. Then the Jews revolted against the Romans, and the Roman armies overran the whole country. Blood flowed like water." "Earthquakes": "Perhaps no period in the world's history has ever been so marked by these convulsions as that which intervenes between the Crucifixion and the destruction of Jerusalem." "Famines": "A great famine, prophesied in Acts n '.26, ocurred A. D. 49, and another of the reign of Claudius, and mentioned by Josephus. A pestilence, A. D. 65, in a single autumn, carried off 30,000 persons at Rome. These are the beginnings of sorrows; of travail, of that labor-pain of the world out of which the Kingdom of God is to be born." 19



	Christ's second coming fulfilled money, and ordered his enemies slain before him." (Luke 19.) The Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be the weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." (Matt. 13: 41-42.) Then all the prophecies relating to the judgments of God were fulfilled, "and the world in the church comes to be exchanged for the church in the world," and the religion of letter and type to be superseded by that of spirit and life. He came the second time to consummate the plan of redemption. "When these things begin to come to pass," said Christ, "look up and lift up your heads because your redemption draweth nigh." (Luke 21: 28.) "Now is salvation nearer to us than when we first believed." (Rom. 13: 11.) "Salvation from our enemies and from the hand af all that hate us." (Luke 1: 7.) Again Paul says, "Waiting for our adoption, to-wit, the redemption of our body" (Rom. 8: 23), having reference to the body of believers—the Church. 21



	Christ's second coming fulfilled The Establishment of the Nezv Kingdom and the Overthrow of the Old Powers. He came with power and great glory to vindicate His people, and cause the overthrow of the wicked, and to establish the kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy forcvermore on the earth, and in earth,—in earthen vessels. Peter says, "Whose sentence now from of old lingereth not, and their destruction slumbereth not." (II Peter 2:3.) This great event was the fulfillment of a prophecy more than three thousand years old. It came down through the ages undimmed by time. But it was the Son of Man who first clearlv announced the coming retribution, for to proclaim the "day of vengeance" was a part of the message that God sent Him to proclaim. (Isa. 61: 2.) How clearly He proclaimed it may be seen in the Synoptic Gospels. That Jesus and His diciplcs did not have reference to the passing away of the actual heavens above us and the earth beneath, in connection with His second coming, the Bible, as we understand it, clearly proves. We neither know how long this sphere has been rolling in its orbit, nor how long it will continue thus to roll. The Bible is as silent 22



	Christ's second coming fclkillkd in respect to its ending; as it is with regard to its beginning. But not so with the heaven and earth to which Jesus and His disciples referred. As we understand it, they had reference to the old covenant. and the destruction and dispersion of ungodly men. While the old covenant was waxing old and nigh unto vanishing away, the Xew Covenant was prepared to supersede it and to be established at the final passing away of the old. The new Israel was also forming and ready to come into their promised inheritance, and like the Israel of old, gradually to take possession of the land, so that, as the old heaven and earth passed away, the new heaven and the new earth superseded them. The Overflowed World. In the third chapter of II Peter the apostle declares that a world perished in the waters of a flood, and in reply to the mockers of the last days who asked, "Where is the promise of his coming?" he says, "For this they wilfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth compacted out of water and amidst water, by the word of God ; by which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished; but 23



	christ'.s second coming fulfilled the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men." (II Peter 3: 5-7.) Here we see that Peter says the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished. He did not have reference to the physical earth, seas and skies. The same physical heaven and earth that stood before the flood stands today. He had reference to the destruction of an ungodly race. The ungodly antediluvians who mocked at the warnings of Noah were suddenly destroyed "and without remedy." So these scoffers might expect to perish by the judgments of God, but as the physical heaven and earth did not pass away in the waters of the flood, may we not reasonably conclude that Peter did not wish to say that the physical heaven and earth would perish at the coming of the Lord? But nearly twenty-four centuries after the ante-deluvian world had been destroyed by the waters of a flood, another world was destroyed, not by the waters of a flood but by the "fires of His jealousy," "by desolation and destruction, and the famine and the sword." ■ But just as the earth that perished in the great deluge was earthy, ungodly men, so was the 84



	t

	CHAPTER II. THE DESTRUCTION OF AN UNGODLY RACE AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE INNER KINGDOM. Not Destruction as of Old. God did not bring destruction upon the beasts of the field, nor the birds of the air as he did at the time of the great deluge, for "Jehovah said in his heart, 'I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake,—neither will I smite any more everything living as I have done.* (Gen.8:21.) The Destruction of Them That Obey Not God. Time, and, we believe, the Scripture also, proves that Peter did not have in mind the burning up of the immeasurable heavens above us, nor the "everlasting hills" about us when he said, "They shall give account to him that is ready to judge the living and the dead." "The time is come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begin first at us, what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God?" 26



	Christ's second coming fulfilled "The end of all things is at hand." Nor when he said: "The dav of the Lord will come as a thief; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat. But according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." (II Peter—3.) Peter evidently had reference to the fierv flames of that symbolic fire that Jesus had already kindled (Luke 12:49), which is also mentioned in Luke 3: 16, 17; I Cor. 3: 13; II Thes. 1, 8, and other Scriptures of similar import both in the Old and New Testament, for, on the day of Pentecost in which Christianity was inaugurated, Peter looked down the centuries to far off generations that should receive the promise, and said, "For to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord shall call unto him." (Acts 2:39.) Neither did Paul have reference to the removal or destruction of the material world, nor the planets over our heads, when he said: "Whose voice then shook the earth; but now he hath promised, saying, yet once more will I make the earth to tremble, not the earth only, but also the 27



	Christ's second coming fulfilled heaven. And this word, yet once more signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that have been made, that those things which are" not shaken may remain. Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace, whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire." (Heb. 12:26, 29.) The Disannulling of the Old Covenant Paul had reference to the Old Covenant, the temporary or time covenant, which was not designed to be permanent, only a copy and shadow of the heavenly things; for he says: "There is a disannulling of a foregoing commandment, because of it weakness and unprofitableness, for the law made nothing perfect." (Heb." 7:18, 19.) ; "For, if that first covenant had been faultless, then would no place have been sought for a second—but that which is becoming old and waxcth aged is nigh unto vanishing away." (Heb. 8:7.130 That Paul did not have reference to a removal of the earth beneath our feet nor to the starry heavens overhead is clear from the following Scriptures. 28



	Christ's second coming fulfilled "That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." (Eph. 2:7), and "Unto him be the glory in the church, and in Christ Jesus unto all generations- for ever and ever." (Eph. 3:21.) ■ The Consuming Fire of God's Jealousy. It is therefore clear that neither Peter nor Paul associated Christ's coming with the angels of His power in flaming fire, nor the removing of things shaken, with a change in the physical universe; nor did Jesus and His disciples, as we see it, have any more reference whatever to any physical change of the earth at His second coming, than did the prophet Isaiah at His first coming, as recorded by St. Luke. He says: "Make ye ready the way of the Lord. Make His paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough ways smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God." (Luke 3: The mountains and hills and valleys remain as they were when these words were first written.



	Christ's second coming fi.'lfiujh> lie had reference to a moral leveling and not the cutting down of mountains and hills and the filling up of valleys. While literal fire was a large factor in the destruction of Jerusalem, the holy temple and many persons, Zephaniah, the prophet, has probably made clearer than anv other sacred writer the meaning of fire and earth in this event. lie says: "The whole land shall be devoured by the fire of His jelaousy for He will make an end. yea. a terrible end. of all them that dwell in the land." (Zeph. i: 18.) 'Tor My determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms to j>our upon them Mine indignation, even all My fierce anger; for all the earth shall he devoured with the fire of My jealousy. For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of Jehovah to serve Him with one consent." (Zeph. 3:8, 9.) Malachi. the last of the Old Testament prophets. speaks the same truth. He says: "Behold the day conieth, it burncth as a furnace; and all the proud and all that work wickedness, shall be stubble; and the day that conieth shall burn them up. saith Jehovah of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto vou that fear My name shall the sun of righteousness 30



	Christ's second coming fulfilled arise with healing in its wings; and ye shall go forth and gambol as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I make, saith Jehovah of hosts." (Mai. 4^3-) These Scriptures show very plainly that it was the earthy, ungodly men of which the prophets spake and not the earth beneath our feet. There is a limit to the forebearance of even the Infinite One. "He will not always chide." said David, "neither will He keep His anger forever." God gave "that crooked and perverse generation" not only forty days but nearly forty years in which to repent and accept the preaching of one greater than Jonah that they might escape destruction, for it had been declared "that every soul that shall not hearken to that Prophet, shall be utterly destroyed from among the people." (Acts 3:23.) — His Coming and Judgment. But evil men waxed worse and worse and caused the love of many to grow cold. Finally His long suffering came to an end. The cries of His elect for deliverance from the hand of all their enemies had its effect.



	Christ's second coming fulfilled "And shall not God," says Jesus, "avenge His elect, that cry to Him day and night, and yet He is long suffering over them. I say unto you that He will avenge them speedily." (Luke 18: 7, 8.) Again He says: "Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on a Sabbath; for then shall be great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever shall be." Never again such great tribulation, not that there never would be greater loss of life and property. And like the waters of the great flood, it would suddenly come upon them. "Then shall two men be in the field—two women shall be grinding at the mill, one is taken and one is left." One is taken and destroyed and the other is left untouched. This event the revelator saw in his vision and said: "The kings of the earth and the princes, and the chief captains, and the rich, and the strong, and every bondman and freeman hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains; and they say to the mountains and the rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come; and who is able to stand ?*^M (Rev. 6:15-17.) 32



	Christ's second coming fulfilled God began at a very early date to reveal unto His prophets the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying: "Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of His saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungoldly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." (Jude 14, 15.) Having the prophecies of Enoch, Moses, Isaiah, David, Ezekial, Daniel, Joel, Zephaniah. Malachi and others who spake of this great judgment, Peter could refer to the long lingering sentence and say, "Whose sentence now from of old lingereth not, and their destruction slumbereth not." (II Peter 2:3), and Paul declared. "The wrath is come upon them to the uttermost." (I Thess. 2:16), and Matthew, "But the king was wroth, and he sent his armies, and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then saith he to his servants, 'The wedding is ready,' but they that were bidden were not worthy." (Matt. 22:7, 8.) These Scriptures evidently have reference to the day of judgment, as do the parables of the tares of the field and of the net that was cast 33



	Christ's second coming fulfilled into the sea; and likewise those in the 24th and 25th chapters of Matthew and other kindred Scriptures. Milton would have expressed a great truth of revelation had he said, "God did not," instead of "God will not defer the vindication of the glory of His name." The Dafwn of the Christian Era. That was the end of a long twilight of ever thickening gloom, which ended with the coming of the Bridegroom at "midnight." Then came the dawn of a new day ; the brightening of the morning of the Giristian era; the establishment of the unseen inner kingdom, the Eden of love, far exceeding the primeval Eden— the early dawn of the millenium, in which Christ is to reign not only a thousand years, but on and on. (See II Peter 1 :i 1; also Luke 1:33), "for He is King, Priest and Prophet of His people for-evermore—the Lord of the hearts and minds of men, not the ruler over an outward kingdom on earth." Paul saw the approaching day and said: "The night is far spent, and the day is at hand." (Rom. 13:12.) 84



	Christ's second coming fulfilled And Peter said: "Whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts." (II Peter i: 19.) Zachariah looked down through nearly six centuries to the evening of the world, and saw the new unending day and said: "It shall be one day which is known unto Jehovah; not day, and not night; but it shall come to pass, that at evening time there shall be light." (Zech. 14: 7.) God's Deliverance. Paul said in his epistle to the Romans, "I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethrens* sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh; who are Israelites;—of whom is Christ according to the flesh." (Rom. 9^2.) But a hardening, in part, befell the chosen people. Their eyes were blinded. "They stumbled at the stone of stumbling." "They knew not the time of their visitation," nor the time of their destruction until it came upon them. But before their final overthrow, God raised up "an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy 35



	CHAPTER III. THE PERIOD OF TRANSITION. The Fate of the Holy City That Had Become Unholy. Alas! The Holy City whose very stones were dear to those that loved her, was holy no longer. The Son of Man had foretold this, the greatest of all tribulations. 'Tor when He drew nigh, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, 'If thou hadst known in this day, even thou, the things which belong unto peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, when thine enemies shall cast up a bank-about thee and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall dash thee to the ground, and thy children with thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another, because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation/ " (Luke 19:41-44.) While on His last weary journey, Jesus turned unto the weeping women who were following Him and said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your 37



	Christ's second coming fulfilled children. For behold the days are coming, in which they shall say, 'Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the breasts that never gave suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.' " (Luke 23 : 28-30.) Jesus had already declared that "except those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved; but for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened." (Matt. 4:22.) Paul, having this great tribulation in mind, advised a temporary suspension of marriage and that those that had wives be as though they had none. (I Cor. 7.) "Behold," says he, "the goodness and severity of God; toward them that fell, severity; but toward thee, God's goodness, if thou continue in His goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off, and they also, if they continue not in their unbelief, shall be grafted in." (Rom. 11: 22-23.) And so God has revealed not only His great love for men, but also His great wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hinder the truth in unrighteousness." (Rom. 1-18.) It is as Browning has said:— "I spake as I saw, All's love, vet all's law." 38



	Christ's second coming fulfilled Confirming the Word by Signs. There was an overlapping of the covenants from the Day of Pentecost when God began to write His laws upon the hearts of His people, until the fall of Judaism and the destruction of antichrists about thirty-seven years later. During this period of transition the preaching of the disciples was accompanied by signs. Jesus said, "Lo. I am with you always, (all the days, marg.) even unto the end of the world." (Matt. 28-20.) Again He said: "These signs shall accompany them that believe: In my name shall they cast out demons; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall in no wise hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover, and they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the signs that followed." Mark 16: 17, 18, also Matt. 10:8.) Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. That the Lord would be with them to the end of the world, confirming the word by these miraculous manifestations of His power, is clear. To me, it is also clear that some of the disciples who heard Jesus speak these parting words, lived to



	Christ's second coming fulfilled see the end of the world. "But now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin bv the sacrifice of Himself." (Heb. 9:26, A. V.) "Verily I say unto you. Ye shall not have gone through the cities of Israel till the Son of Man be come." (Matt. 10:23.) The Gospel Preached to the Whole World. "This gospel of the kingdom," said Jesus, "shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all nations; and then shall the end come." (Matt. 24:14.) That the gospel was preached in all the known world, and that it was accomplished in the generation then living, the following Scriptures clearly show. Just before He was received up into heaven, Jesus said unto the little company of believers that were gathered around Him, "Ye shall receive power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you; and ye shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." (Acts 1:8.) "And they went forth and preached everywhere. the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the signs that followed." (Mark 16: 20.) 40



	CHRIST S SECOND COMING FULFILLED And after a few years, Paul, who "labored more abundantly than they all," was enabled to say, "First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ, for you all, that your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world." (Rom. i :8.) "But I say, did they not hear? Yea, verily, their sound went out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." (Rom. 10:18.) "According to the commandment of the eternal God, is made known unto all the nations." (Rom. 16:26.) "Which is come unto you; even as it is also in all the world bearing fruit and increasing." (Col. 1:6.) "If so be that ye continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye heard, which was preached in all creation under heaven; whereof I, Paul, was made a minister." (Col. 1: 23.) For the rapidity with which Christianity spread over the world until the latter part of the first century, we have not only the words of Holy Writ, but also the words of Gibbon the Historian. There is therefore abundant evidence that the 41



	CHRIST S SECOND COMING FULFILLED His Coming Expected By His Disciples. To Peter, the transfiguration of Christ on the holy mount was a guarantee of His coming. "We did not," said he, "follow cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eye witnesses of His majesty." (II Peter i: 16.) Although the gospel which Paul preached came to Him "through revelation of Jesus Christ," it is of no less authority than that of the other apostles who journeyed with Jesus during His earthly ministry. When Paul wrote his epistle to the Thessalo-nians, he evidently expected a near return of the Lord. He says: "The God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you who will also do it." (Thess. 5:13.) These epistles are the earliest of Paul's writings and in them he did not wish to say that "The day of the Lord is just at hand." (II Thess. 2: 2.) Later on he wrote to the Corinthians, Phillip- 43