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 22 
 
 BIBLICAL EPOCHS 
 
 
 BY 
 
 / 
 
 Rev. BURDETT HART, D. D. 
 
 'Aspects of Christ: Studies of the Model Life, 
 "Aspects of Heaven," "Always Upward." 
 
 'Ev jracrais rais ypa(f)aU ra nepl aiiroO. 
 
 AovKas 24 : 27 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION 
 AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK 
 
 1896 
 
Copyright, 1896, by 
 
 THE TRU8TBK3 OP IHB 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION 
 AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
In Mtmox^ 
 
 OP A BELOVED AND SAINTED 
 
 THROUGH WHOSE REVERENT AND ILLUMINANT 
 I WAS MADE ACQUAINTED FROM 
 
 lEarliegt (Kfiiltifiooti 
 
 WITH THE 
 
PREFATORY. 
 
 The evolution of the Holy Scriptures was the 
 slow, progressive work of ages. Revelation was 
 not perfected by one single publication of what 
 God would have men believe and know, but it 
 was made by gradual steps of progress, by un- 
 folding of truth as men were prepared to receive 
 it. Its basal design was to develop the divine 
 plan of salvation for mankind. This great pur- 
 pose runs through it all like a band of gold 
 through the entire woof of a costly fabric. Its 
 occult announcement was made at the genesis of 
 the Biblical narration ; it was reiterated in type 
 and prophecy, in signs and wonders, in sacrifice 
 and law and poetry, until, in the fullness of time, 
 all came to completion in the person and work 
 and atoning death of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 The Old Testament was a preparation for the 
 New Testament. The Hebrew history was an 
 introduction to the gospel of the Son of God. 
 The call of the patriarchs, the separation of the 
 children of Israel, the theocratic government of 
 
6 PREFATORY. 
 
 that race through ages of history, were designed 
 to conserve the revelation that God would make 
 of his one great purpose to bring in the Kingdom 
 for which the world stands. The Bible is the 
 history of Redemption — peculiar, composite, run- 
 ning into significant digressions, but ever keep- 
 ing a single end in view. These Scriptures are 
 the inspired records of God's conduct of his peo- 
 ple in their long discipline for the coming of the 
 Christ. They are unique among the world's his- 
 toric and literary works. " Men spake from God, 
 being moved by the Holy Spirit." We are to 
 recognize in them blended human agency and 
 divine direction. They are the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 They are by human hands, and hence are the 
 subject of reverent investigation. That they are 
 in human hands implies that their transmission 
 is under the liabilities of all human work. That 
 they are from God implies that he would have 
 a care for these most important of his works for 
 mankind ; and accordingly we find that the 
 Scriptures have come to us exceptionally guarded 
 in their content and correct in their statements. 
 
 The recent discoveries from the treasures of old 
 libraries, from the literature of forgotten and 
 buried collections, from the deciphered inscrip- 
 tions of ancient monuments, from the guarded 
 manuscripts of cloisters, are shedding new light 
 
PREFATORY. 7 
 
 on the ancient records, and are giving strange 
 confirmation to that which has been faithfully 
 cherished by the Church. 
 
 We are finding that the old Bible is ours ; that 
 its truthfulness is confirmed and authenticated by 
 the results of discovery and scholarship. More 
 and more it is proved to be our own Bible — the 
 one Sacred Book of the world. Its words, sound- 
 ing down all the centuries, freighted with the joys 
 and griefs and exultant hopes and victories of 
 saints through the past millenniums, vocal ever 
 with the songs of angels, and full of the expression 
 of the Son of God, are proved to be the very Word 
 of God. The Bible is the stronghold of Chris- 
 tianity. All antagonisms smite at it, would gladly 
 destroy it. It stands impregnable, the same old 
 Bible, with the memor}^ of the dead in it, with the 
 warm love of childhood in it ; with the woe of our 
 trials reverberating in its melancholy experience, 
 and the joys of our better days ringing in its 
 psalms and prophecies, like chimes of musical 
 bells above the lower life. Its voices are like 
 choice music which one cannot forget ; its prom- 
 ises are like faces that ever beam upon us in their 
 remembered expression; it is like a life within 
 our life, warming and refreshing and invigor- 
 ating us. 
 
 Great periods hold their separate and valuable 
 
8 PREFATORY. 
 
 contribations to the one object for which all Scrip- 
 ture was given by inspiration of God. The prom- 
 inent epochs are great developments of the pro- 
 gressive, and often mysterious, methods by which 
 the divine purpose was effected. They present 
 scenes full of tragic interest, in which divine wis- 
 dom, united with human agency, moves on to the 
 final issue. 
 
 Human history, as set forth in the Holy Scrip- 
 tures, may be distinguished into Nine Great 
 Epochs — the Paradisean, the Antediluvian, the 
 Patriarchal, the Mosaic, the Prophetic, the Messi- 
 anic, the Apostolic, that of the Holy Spirit, the 
 Millennial. Each one presents its lessons of 
 instruction and profit ; for " every scripture in- 
 spired of God is also profitable for teaching, for 
 reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in 
 righteousness : that the man of God may be com- 
 plete, furnished completely unto every good work." 
 The records, carefully preserved, guarded by 
 divine providence, furnishing lessons of wisdom 
 to peoples who have received and cherished them 
 all along the progress of the race, also " were 
 written for our admonition, upon whom the ends 
 of the ages are come." They bring to us, in 
 ever-augmented volume, acquaintance with God's 
 moral government, and impressive enlightenment 
 as to our personal duty. 
 
PREFATORY. 9 
 
 The range that is opened to us by these great 
 epochs is vast and comprehensive, reaching from 
 the golden era of the world's morning, a morning 
 bright and beautiful and full of hope, through 
 long periods of sin and turbulence and conflict, 
 down to the world's gorgeous evening, when the 
 light and songs and bliss of the early Paradisean 
 day, shall be restored in wider radiance and 
 sweeter harmonies and deeper happiness, during 
 the wearily-awaited and long-protracted Millen- 
 nium. We shall see the powers of evil at their 
 baleful work, " spiritual hosts of wickedness " in 
 opposition to God ; we shall behold august and 
 holy personages rising up from the dark ranks of 
 humanity, to warn, to instruct, to bless the race ; 
 we shall see Oxe, with the marks of high divinity 
 upon him, moving forth under obloquy and hate 
 to the rescue of the lost world ; we shall witness 
 the ongoing of a blessed agency winning and 
 subduing mankind to God. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 EPOCH PAGE 
 
 I.—The Paradisean 11 
 
 II.— The Antediluvian 29 
 
 III.— The Patriarchal 51 
 
 IV.— The Mosaic 71 
 
 v.— The Prophetic 91 
 
 VI.— The Messianic 113 
 
 VII.— The Apostolic 147 
 
 VIII.— That of the Holy Spirit 183 
 
 IX.— The Millennial 201 
 
 10 
 
EPOCH I. 
 
 THE PARADISEAN. 
 
BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 THE PARADISEAN. 
 
 Whose mind has not reverted to the golden 
 days when our first parents lived in paradise? 
 Who that has felt the effects of sin and has seen 
 its gloomy reign on earth has not Tsdshed that 
 Adam had remained unfallen, in his original 
 beauty and glory? That was indeed a state to 
 be desired, of which now we can form only an 
 indistinct conception. 
 
 Paradise is described in the Scriptures as a 
 garden. The account is : " The Lord God planted 
 a garden eastward, in Eden ; and there he put 
 the man whom he had formed." It was "the 
 garden of the Lord," " the garden of God." Eden 
 was a large region, whose locality, although it 
 has been the subject of great research and spec- 
 ulation, is yet unknown. We may suppose it to 
 have been, wherever situated, the finest portion 
 of this beautiful world which God had made for 
 
 13 
 
14 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 the residence of man. It was a land of moun- 
 tains and smiling valleys and running streams, 
 rich in vegetation, abounding in lofty trees and 
 fragrant flowers of varied hues. Its sky was azure 
 and clear; its atmosphere salubrious and lucid. 
 Over its plains and through its forests roamed 
 in delightful harmony beasts of every species, 
 flew birds of varied notes and brilliant plumage, 
 dwelt all living animals, which were then con- 
 tent in the new life which the Creator had so 
 recently given to them. 
 
 In the midst of this fair Eden, this land of 
 pleasure, as the word imports, God had planted a 
 garden. More beautiful than the picturesque 
 country which surrounded it, designed as the 
 agreeable dwelling place, the home, of those im- 
 mortal beings, who, made in the image of their 
 Creator, were to have dominion over the earth 
 and all that dwelt upon it. It was the center of 
 production and pleasure, the choice spot where 
 the Creator had lavished his gifts, the paradise of 
 the new world, the bright gem in the coronet of 
 nature. There was seen a luxuriance which has 
 never been equaled. 
 
 In this garden of God massive trees, cedars of 
 Lebanon, " with fair branches, and with a shadow- 
 ing shroud, and of an high stature," lifted to 
 heaven their dense foliage and were swayed by the 
 
THE PARADISE AN. 15 
 
 gentle gales that swept through their musical 
 crowns. The earth teemed with richest plants of 
 every order, whose unbroken series of fruits and 
 flowers loaded the air with their delicate odors. 
 Fountains of perennial waters gushed forth in 
 every grove, imparting coolness to the air and 
 clothing the ground with verdure. Birds of flash- 
 ing plumage swept through those paradisean 
 woods on tireless wings, waking in every bower 
 the sweetest harmonies. Lakes, on whose bosom 
 floated flowering lilies and over which sailed 
 aquatic fowl, nestled in shady retreats, mirroring 
 in their glassy waves the trees that stood like sen- 
 tinels around them. In the midst of the garden 
 rose the towering " tree of life " and by its 
 side the " tree of the knowledge of good and 
 evil." In this garden of delight God placed the 
 man whom he had formed. He assigned to him 
 his duties. For labor he was to till the ground, to 
 perpetuate the useful productions of the earth, to 
 supply himself with vegetable food, and to main- 
 tain the garden in its pristine beauty. God did 
 not design man for idleness. Even in his un- 
 fallen, upright state, in the prodigality and spon- 
 taneousness of paradise, he was to develop his own 
 constitution and the resources of nature by per- 
 sonal labor. Had he remained in sinless strength 
 and purity his work would have been his pleas- 
 
16 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 ure, and its products would have been vigor for 
 himself and ornaments of utility for the world. 
 
 He was also to find development in meditation 
 and worship. In that productive garden it was 
 easy for man to secure the supplying of his wants. 
 His mental and moral nature would demand cul- 
 tivation. He would have time for study and 
 for communion with God. 
 
 In paradise, man was placed under law. One 
 tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, 
 was not to be used. " The Lord God commanded 
 the man, saying. Of every tree of the garden thou 
 may est freely eat : but of the tree of the knowl- 
 edge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it : for 
 in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt 
 surely die." So, then, were the parents of our race 
 in their Eden home, pursuing their labor, en- 
 gaging in study and worship, and maintaining 
 obedience to the law of their Maker. 
 
 We fairly may infer that these progenitors of the 
 human family came from the hands of their Cre- 
 ator perfect in body and soul. They were adult, 
 fitted in mind and body for the life they were to 
 lead, for the duties which at once devolved upon 
 them. Though they were children in experience, 
 they were not immature in power. They stood in 
 the glory of their paradisean home, vigorous and 
 mature, the highly gifted lords of creation. They 
 
THE PARADISEAN. 17 
 
 honored the handiwork of their wise Maker. As 
 God saw that all other things w^hich he created 
 were very good, so he saw that man was a perfect 
 creation, for in the image of himself did God create 
 man : " In the image of God created he him ; male 
 and female created he them." They were the 
 children of the heavenly Father. They did jus- 
 tice to his design and product. In blooming 
 health and strength and beauty they probably 
 far surpassed all who have succeeded them. 
 
 " The loveliest pair 
 That ever since in love' s embraces met — 
 Adam the goodliest man of men since bom 
 His sons ; the fairest of her daughters Eve.' ' 
 
 Since that, sin has wrought a deterioration in the 
 lineaments and proportions of the human form ; 
 passion has put its stamp thereon ; weakness and 
 sickness have disarranged the harmony and 
 beauty with which God endowed it. Man has 
 lost the port and power of his primal manhood. 
 
 Then the soul was in its most excellent state. 
 All its powers were in peace and harmony. There 
 was no discord from depravity, no darkness from 
 prejudice, no wrong sway from false habits and 
 perverted appetites. God made men upright ; 
 their many inventions are of their own seeking. 
 By their very constitution they were fitted for the 
 
18 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 life to which they were introduced. They were 
 holy. They loved God. They saw in him the 
 chief excellence, and their affection went forth 
 spontaneously and earnestly toward him. From 
 all the objects around them, from the wonders of 
 the vast creation, from the loveliness of the new- 
 formed earth, from nature in all its marvels and 
 works, their devotion went up to nature's God. 
 From every pleasure that thrilled their senses, 
 from every duty that sprang from their quick de- 
 light, from every joy in their free and blessed 
 confidence, in their unrestricted intercourse, they 
 turned with holy trust to God and in him they 
 found sweetest rest and peace. They had no 
 thought, no purpose, that was opposed to God. 
 The idea of sin was foreign to their nature, and 
 had they not been tempted from without they 
 probably never would have fallen. 
 
 We can reproduce in imagination somewhat of 
 the life in paradise of the first children of God 
 on earth. With powers all fitted for immediate 
 activity, filled with uninterrupted happiness from 
 all that they observed and from their personal ex- 
 periences, they dwelt in the center and at the head 
 of the new creation. Life and beauty were all 
 around them ; the life and beauty of the earth's 
 glad morning, before the gloom of sin had en- 
 shrouded it and before the wickedness of man had 
 
THE PARADISEAN. 19 
 
 polluted it with deeds of violence and crime ; in- 
 deed, just as God himself with infinite skill and 
 wisdom had formed it. There they lived alone, 
 yet not alone; they lived amidst the works of 
 nature which are the works of God. Every 
 song they heard found an echo and refrain within 
 them. Every leaf and flower was penciled with 
 divine words, the writings of God's hand. Every 
 star shone in its beams with the smile of God. The 
 scenes of loveliness in the world, in all the visible 
 universe, were photographs by God's own hand. 
 All things on earth were subordinated to their 
 will. God gave man dominion over the fish of 
 the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over 
 every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 
 He authorized him to subdue the earth, to bring 
 its every treasure and product into subjection to 
 his desires and purposes. God also caused the 
 beasts and the fowls to pass before Adam, in long 
 succession and order, that he might give them 
 names, and whatsoever the man called every liv- 
 ing creature that was the name thereof In this 
 vocabulary he first perhaps practically employed 
 the language which the Creator had given him. 
 From that he extended his observations, gained 
 a knowledge of the properties and uses of other 
 objects, and classified the diverse kingdoms of 
 nature. 
 
20 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 God was the teacher of our first parents. They 
 had the mental and moral capacities which fitted 
 them for intelligent and spiritual life. They had 
 minds and bodies constituted for right action, but 
 not matured by experience. In capacity, they 
 were mature; in experience, immature. They 
 were not under the necessity of growing up in 
 stature and in mental strength; all that they 
 needed was the right exercise of the powers which 
 they had. This God taught them. The habits 
 and attainments which are necessary for right 
 living are ordinarily the product of the long and 
 co-operative experience of men; but at first we 
 have reason to believe that many things were 
 communicated directly by the Creator. He as- 
 sumed the education of his children, that they 
 might enter on life in accord with his design and 
 might properly educate their children. So the 
 first parents were divinely instructed, and their 
 temporal and spiritual life began as God desired. 
 
 It may be reasonable to assume that the Second 
 Person of the glorious Trinity, the Son of God, 
 who afterward appeared to the patriarchs, who in 
 the fullness of time came forth as the Saviour of 
 the race, who throughout all our human history 
 has been brought into most intimate relations 
 with men, was, in human form, but in divine 
 grace, by intimate and blessed intercourse, the 
 
THE PARADISEAN. 21 
 
 voluntary instructor of these earliest scholars of 
 mankind. 
 
 Perhaps, too, holy angels communed with them ; 
 came with the Son of God on their shining pin- 
 ions, walked with Adam and Eve through the 
 fascinating grounds of paradise, telling them of 
 God, of more brilliant mansions in the holy 
 heaven, their home, of the occupations of those 
 earlier children of God, and loving them as 
 younger, the earth-born, children of the common 
 Father. 
 
 To them everything was new. Life was new ; 
 the world was new ; their acquaintance with God 
 and with his works was new and full of mystery. 
 They looked abroad through the long-drawn 
 vistas of Eden and beheld forests and towering 
 mountains and running rivers stretching away 
 through great territories all unknown to them. 
 They turned their gaze into the blue heavens, 
 and their wonder was stirred by the arching sky 
 and the stellar orbs. They must have prized the 
 presence of superior spirits with whom they could 
 converse and whom they could love. Happy pair ! 
 happy in themselves, happy in their home, happy 
 in their Creator. How long they continued 
 in their blissful state, enjoying the blessings 
 of paradise and communing with God as their 
 Father, we are not informed. Months and years 
 
22 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 perhaps may have passed by, during which they 
 grew in knowledge and ability and in the full 
 understanding of their condition and relations. 
 During this time, short or long, they obediently 
 observed the requirements of their Creator. 
 Daily they ate of the tree of life which stood in 
 the midst of the garden, whose fruit preserved 
 their health, renewed their strength, and would 
 have sustained them in perpetual vigor as long 
 as they should partake of it. 
 
 At length there came a change — dark, sud- 
 den, terrible. The conspirator from hell entered 
 paradise, and tempted Eve, in a way unknown to 
 us, by some evil lure, to taste of the fruit of the 
 tree of the knowledge of good and evil, of which 
 God had said, " Thou shalt not eat of it : for in the 
 day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely 
 die." To this tree the obedient pair had never 
 dared, never wished, to stretch forth a hand ; they 
 had not even thought of doing what their Creator 
 had forbidden them to do. But the insidious wiles, 
 the artful pleas, of the tempter, the adversary of 
 God and man, were too much for the new, frail 
 virtue of the holy, inexperienced parents of our 
 race. The law of God was not so completel}^ and 
 firmly enthroned in them that temptation could 
 not move them from their loyalty. Eve at first 
 answered the tempter well; but by gradual ad- 
 
THE PARADISEAN. 23 
 
 vances he drew her toward the fatal act. " When 
 the woman saw that the tree was good for food, 
 and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the 
 tree w^as to be desired to make one wise, she took of 
 the fruit thereof, and did eat ; and she gave also 
 unto her husband with her, and he did eat." The 
 sinful deed was done. 
 
 From that moment the history of man was 
 changed. Sin was in the world, and death and all 
 our woes were secured. The curse of God was 
 pronounced upon man. Pain and sorrow would 
 afflict him. Thorns and thistles would spring up 
 on the ground, increasing the burden of labor. 
 God, who had been man's friend, who had conde- 
 scended to an intimate intercourse with him, would 
 withdraw and leave him to bitter regrets and hard 
 endurance and the woe of sin. Death would 
 begin its reign, a wide and terrific dominion! 
 Yet, mingled with the sternness of justice were 
 promises of mercy ; on the clouds of despair was 
 painted the bow of hope; and God, who pro- 
 nounced the penalty, proclaimed deliverance. In 
 the very midst of the sorrows of the Fall came 
 the announcement of the Saviour. 
 
 Still, paradise could no longer be the abode of 
 man. Its delights were not prepared for sinners. 
 By sinning, our first parents had forfeited all the 
 pleasures of the place. No longer could they be 
 
24 BIBLICAL EPOCHS, 
 
 permitted to approach the tree of life, of whose fair 
 fruit they had daily partaken. Life was insured 
 to them no more. They were under the power 
 of Death. God therefore drove them forth from 
 the garden to the toil and pain and tumult of 
 a hostile world : 
 
 " The world was all before them, where to choose 
 Their place of rest, and Providence their guide. 
 They hand in hand, with wand' ring steps and slow, 
 Through Eden took their solitary way." 
 
 And they could return no more. Cherubim and 
 a flaming sword that turned every way were 
 placed at the closed and guarded gates of para- 
 dise to keep back any bold intruder. Since that 
 fatal fall, no man has trod the walks, rested in the 
 bowers, tasted the fruit, of the sacred garden. 
 
 Mournful must have been the thought of the 
 deserted paradise. Melancholy must have been 
 the feelings of the guilty and expelled transgress- 
 ors as afar they looked upon the towering groves 
 of their former home and remembered with an- 
 guish the cause of their banishment. 
 
 Wandering back in this brief review to the 
 morning of the world's history, and lingering for 
 a while in the beautiful garden home which was 
 lost by our first parents' disobedience, we are 
 impressed anew with the excellence of holiness. That 
 made paradise. Not its salubrious air, not its rich 
 
THE PARADISEAX 25 
 
 productions, not its exceptional beauty, but the 
 holiness of its dwellers, made it the " garden of 
 delight." As long as they were loyal to God, so 
 long they were blessed, and all things around 
 them were in excellent order, peace, and beautiful 
 harmony. God was their beloved and they were 
 his. Heaven and earth were in delightful accord. 
 Life was rich and full and every way desirable. 
 The lower creatures contributed to their joy and 
 welfare. 
 
 Also, we are impressed with the deplorahleness 
 of sin. One act of disobedience, simple in itself 
 but testing man's regard for God, not only lost 
 paradise for us, but brought on dire calamities of 
 unending nature. It expelled man from the fair 
 home that his Creator had prepared for him, 
 brought on him the curse of God, and sent its sad 
 effects through the whole human history. 
 
 *' Earth felt the wound ; and Nature from her seat, 
 Sighing through all her works, gave sighs of woe 
 That all was lost." 
 
 From that time till now the whole creation 
 groaneth and travaileth in pain, sighing for deliv- 
 erance from the bondage of corruption. Sorrow, 
 disease, conflict, death, are the heritage of sin 
 here ; hereafter to be indignation and wrath, trib- 
 ulation and anguish, forever. 
 
26 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 Sin is transgression of God's law. It is hostile 
 to the glory which belongs to him and to the serv- 
 ice which is his due. All holy beings deplore it. 
 
 We sometimes wonder that Adam and Eve 
 should have plucked and eaten the forbidden fruit. 
 We make little allowance for their freshness and 
 inexperience. With all the knowledge which 
 we have of sin and its effects, and which they had 
 not, we act as badly as they did. He would be a 
 bold man who should claim that he had not done 
 worse than our first parents. With the disposition 
 which we manifest, and which is universally 
 prevalent, it is wellnigh certain that we would 
 pluck forbidden fruit and bring upon ourselves the 
 judgment of God. It is what we are doing. We 
 perpetuate the sin which Adam originated. 
 
 Further, we are impressed with the necessity and 
 the preciousness of the redemption by Christ. By 
 his work he has lifted up the curse from our souls. 
 In no other way could it be done. " For as 
 through the one man's disobedience the many 
 were made sinners, even so through the obedience 
 of the one shall the many be made righteous." 
 At the instant of the Fall, God promised that the 
 serpent's head should be bruised. " When the 
 fullness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, 
 born of a woman, born under the law, that he 
 might redeem them which were under the law, that 
 
THE PARADISEAN. 27 
 
 we might receive the adoption of sons." With- 
 out that, this world would have been one of de- 
 spair. Without Christ, the curse would have 
 been perpetual ; the ruin of the Fall would have 
 been a helpless ruin. Well, then, may we prize 
 the redemption by our Lord Jesus Christ. Para- 
 dise is lost; but paradise may be regained. A 
 brighter home than that which God prepared for 
 man on earth, Christ is preparing for his friends 
 in heaven. Sin spoiled the beauty of the former, 
 and its very site was long since obliterated. But 
 into the latter sin can never enter. There shall 
 be no more curse. And death shall be no more ; 
 neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor 
 pain, any more ; the first things are passed away. 
 The tree of life has been plucked up from the 
 earth ; here we cannot find its leaves and its fruit. 
 But it has been transplanted in heaven, where it 
 grows in perennial beauty, bearing twelve man- 
 ner of fruits, yielding its fruit every month ; and 
 the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the 
 nations. 
 
 We bid farewell to our lost terrestrial paradise. 
 We shall never drink from its fountains ; we 
 shall never gather its peerless flowers ; we shall 
 never rest in its bowers. We shall not there 
 walk with God as our first parents walked. 
 
 We await the welcome to another paradise. 
 
28 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 We pant for its salubrious air ; we thirst for the 
 river of the water of life: we hunger for the 
 fruit of the tree of life : we long for the society 
 of just men made perfect: we wait for Christ. 
 Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly ! 
 
EPOCH II. 
 
 THE ANTEDILUVIAN. 
 
THE ANTEDILUVIAN. 
 
 Respecting the long ages from the Fall to the 
 Deluge we know but little. Over nearly all that 
 then transpired and nearly all who then existed 
 rolls the dark wave of oblivion. A few verses of 
 sacred history constitute the only record of more 
 than sixteen centuries of time. Yet the brief 
 statements are full of interest and suggestion of 
 thrilling truth. Those dark days before the flood 
 were days of turbulence and violence and daring 
 crime against God and man. We behold the 
 gigantic forms of wicked men stalking over the 
 earth and blighting it with their slaughter, op- 
 pression, and lust. We see righteousness banished 
 from the homes of the world, and at length find- 
 ing refuge in the bosom of only a single family. 
 Yet during this epoch of blood and sin there were 
 holy men — a goodly succession of those who loved 
 God and who perpetuated the ordinances of re- 
 ligion, whose names the inspired historian has 
 preserved and which shine with brighter splen- 
 dor on account of the darkness of their times, 
 
 31 
 
32 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 as brilliant stars at night between enshrouding 
 clouds. 
 
 The review and lessons of the antediluvian 
 days bring out a peculiar history. Under the 
 curse of God we have seen our first parents driven 
 forth from paradise to a life of toil and pain. 
 Their natural wants led them at once to settle at 
 some locality where they planted their home and 
 commenced their labors. Their children, brought 
 into the world in pain and anguish, grew up with 
 them and were instructed in the duties of labor 
 and worship. Adam and his wife, although they 
 had so fatally sinned and therefore had suffered, 
 undoubtedly accepted the provisions of grace which 
 God had mercifully announced to them, and lived 
 thenceforth in reconciliation with him. But their 
 repentance could not restore them to that perfect 
 state and that union with God which they had be- 
 fore enjoyed. In paradise there was an intimacy 
 of intercourse with God which they never afterward 
 experienced. There, it was like the intercourse and 
 worship of the angels in heaven. Afterward, God 
 was withdrawn ; he appeared to them in visible 
 form no more ; he spake with them as friend with 
 friend no more. They brought to him their 
 thank-offerings, and at bloody altars they made 
 sacrifice for sin, of beasts that were slain. 
 
 All the world was changed, and all their life 
 
THE ANTEDILUVIAN. 33 
 
 upon it. In paradise the garden produced spon- 
 taneously and continuously its undeviating series 
 of fruits for their nourishment. But now the 
 smitten earth required careful cultivation, it 
 produced its harvests reluctantly, and the labor 
 spent upon it was often disappointing. Blight 
 and mildew destroyed the ripening crops. Thorns 
 and thistles sprang up spontaneously over the 
 fields, contending with man for the mastery. Wild 
 beasts became his enemy and ravaged his pos- 
 sessions. Birds of pillage consumed the fruits of 
 his toil and care. Life was a scene of conflict and 
 sweat and hard endurance. What he gained and 
 garnered for his own subsistence was gained by 
 exertion and was truly " the bread of sorrows." 
 
 The entire experience of the sinful state was 
 new. Adam was created unconsciously to himself. 
 When Eve w^as formed, though she was taken 
 from his side, it was as a pleasant dream w^hen 
 one awaketh. But birth now had assumed a pain- 
 ful character. Sorrow, pangs next to the limit 
 of endurance, were its accompaniments. It was 
 the distressful reminder to her who was first in 
 transgression, of the evil nature of sin. Mys- 
 terious and wonderful to the first parents must 
 have been the birth of their first child, the being 
 of one so helpless, so perfectly formed, so dependent 
 for life, the miniature image of themselves. With 
 
34 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 mingled emotions of wonder and joy they must 
 have watched the actions, the growth, the develop- 
 ment of the bodily and mental powers of their 
 son. It was altogether unlike their own experi- 
 ence. They were made adult, their systems 
 mature and ready for independent life. Here was 
 one entirely dependent upon them, yet daily ac- 
 quiring strength and approaching maturity. To 
 them was committed the new task of training him 
 for life and duty — in which, perhaps, they failed ; 
 for their firstborn brought great calamity upon 
 them by a crime of the darkest character. As they 
 had voluntarily sinned against God, abused his 
 goodness and love, they knew and bore the agony 
 which parents feel from the waywardness and 
 guilt of a beloved child. 
 
 The experience of death was also new to them. 
 As years passed away, and they, at length, were 
 called to look upon the dead form of one whom 
 they had loved, as they gazed into the rayless eyes 
 once beaming with intelligence, as they laid their 
 hands upon the cold limbs once lithe and active, 
 and heard no voice in response to their call, 
 strange emotions must have overpowered them. 
 Death must have had peculiar terror and they 
 must have shrunk from the dread dissolution of 
 soul and body. 
 
 But these facts of birth and death and all the 
 
THE ANTEDILUVIAN. 35 
 
 varied elements of human life came on, and man 
 became accustomed to the experiences of his 
 fallen state. The antediluvian generations multi- 
 plied and a strange history was enacted. 
 
 One of the most prominent facts is the extraor- 
 dinary length of human life in the days before the 
 flood. We are obliged to recur to what we regard 
 as almost ancient history to ascertain facts no 
 further away than such as the antediluvians 
 might have remembered as occurring in their 
 own lifetime. Adam lived to be nine hundred 
 and thirty years of age; Seth lived nine hun- 
 dred and twelve years ; Jared, nine hundred and 
 sixty-two years; Methuselah, nine hundred and 
 sixty-nine years. Such periods of time would 
 reach back from our day beyond the first crusade 
 to the Holy Land, beyond the days of William the 
 Conqueror, to the founding of Cambridge Uni- 
 versity; as far back as the time when figures in 
 arithmetic were introduced into Europe by the 
 Saracens; hundreds of years beyond the dis- 
 covery of America by Columbus. Think of all 
 that has transpired within the past nine hundred 
 and thirty years in the revolutions among the 
 nations, in the progress of learning, science, and 
 religion ; and then think that one with a life as 
 long as that of Adam might have witnessed it all. 
 
 It is difficult to appreciate such longevity. At 
 
36 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 that early period it was permitted for wise reasons. 
 The unoccupied earth was to be peopled, and 
 through such prolonged lives individual families 
 would be greatly increased. It is supposed by 
 some that, for this reason, the earth, during the 
 antediluvian epoch, contained a greater number 
 of inhabitants than it has since done. This lon- 
 gevity would also tend to a great advancement in 
 learning, art, and civilization. The principal rea- 
 son why greater maturity and perfection are not 
 now attained by men in their various investiga- 
 tions and productions, is that death interrupts 
 their discoveries and stops the studies and inven- 
 tions which they have pursued. It was not so 
 before the flood. Men then had time to push 
 their investigations, to give system and efficacy to 
 their plans and inventions, and to develop prac- 
 tical results of a mature character. Skill would 
 be matured by such prolonged experiment and 
 that which one thoroughly attained he would have 
 time to communicate to others. We may there- 
 fore suppose that the antediluvians approached 
 a state of knowledge and skill, in those works 
 to which their attention was given, such as we 
 should not, at first thought, be apt to impute to 
 those early times. One of the first things men- 
 tioned of Cain after his banishment is that he 
 build ed a city and called it after the name of his 
 
THE ANTEDILUVIAN. 37 
 
 son. This would seem to indicate quite a degree 
 of cultivation and knowledge from the earliest 
 times. Of Jubal it is written, *' he was the father 
 of all such as handle the harp and organ," show- 
 ing that the science of music was then cultivated. 
 Tubal-cain is spoken of as "an instructor of every 
 artificer in brass and iron," which indicates the 
 knowledge of architecture, agriculture, and me- 
 chanics. 
 
 How far the knowledge and attainments and 
 works of the antediluvians extended we are not 
 explicitly informed. We are forced to rely upon 
 inference from the few facts that are stated. We 
 know that Noah, with the knowledge and skill 
 possessed in those days, constructed an ark of 
 more than forty thousand tons burden, which 
 was capable of holding all the varieties of living 
 animals, with food for their sustenance for several 
 months, together with a family of eight persons 
 with supplies for their wants, and which was 
 strong enough to endure the rush and shock of 
 the deluge. We know that not long after the 
 flood the sons of men projected a stupendous 
 tower whose top should reach to heaven, in the 
 building of which they were arrested only by the 
 hand of the Almighty. These things indicate 
 skill and ability to execute corresponding to those 
 of any age. We may therefore suppose that 
 
38 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 splendid cities and costly towers, princely palaces 
 and capacious edifices for war or for trade, were 
 seen before the flood. Possibly the works of 
 human genius and strength surpassed all that 
 have since been witnessed. The lofty tower of 
 Babel, rising, perhaps, above all the works of man 
 since its day, may be the sole symbol and witness 
 this side of the deluge of what was common be- 
 fore it. The long life. of that period would nat- 
 urally stimulate to the erection of more costly 
 and massive structures than any that have since 
 been attempted. 
 
 How far, in other respects, the achievements of 
 art, science, and skill were carried must be left to 
 conjecture, aided only by the slightest hints from 
 the brief Scripture narrative. The prolonged life 
 of the antediluvians certainly gave them peculiar 
 advantages for attaining distinction and perfection 
 in every work to which they gave devoted at- 
 tention. 
 
 Moreover, we know that the East, the land of 
 Noah, has from the earliest times been the seat 
 and source of science and art. There flourished 
 the powerful empires of the ancient world. There 
 stood the splendid cities whose disentombed ruins 
 now astonish excavators and explorers. There 
 sculpture and the kindred arts were carried to a 
 high degree of perfection. There astronomy had 
 
TBE ANTEDTLVVIAN. 39 
 
 its post-diluvian birth. There arithmetic was 
 studied, and the science of numbers came thence 
 to the western lands. There are found the litho- 
 graphic monuments which are yielding new light 
 from age to age on the facts of most ancient his- 
 tory. From these lands have flowed forth the 
 streams of knowledge and taste and power which 
 have blessed the nations of the world. Who shall 
 say that all that Babylon and Nineveh accom- 
 plished, all that the human mind in the wide 
 range of its achievements in Egypt and Arabia 
 and among other peoples of the Orient attained, 
 was anything more than the relics of what the 
 world had witnessed in the days of its antedi- 
 luvian vigor and glory? 
 
 The uniformity of human language is another 
 striking characteristic of this epoch. By this 
 common bond the human family was held to- 
 gether. We see the strength of that bond now. 
 A common language bespeaks brotherhood. A 
 strange tongue implies separation. Language is 
 that which characterizes peoples. In those days 
 wherever men went they found their own dialect 
 universall}^ spoken. A common language would 
 lead to common aims and attainments and to 
 a universal advancement. Great undertakings 
 would be carried forward with higher hopes of 
 success than could otherwise be expected. It is 
 
40 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 in the prophecies of future greatness and glorj'- 
 that the nations shall come back to the possession 
 and use of a common language. When God 
 purposed to bring human counsels to nought and 
 put an end to the gigantic works which men 
 had impiously undertaken, he confounded their 
 language. Since then, nations, however numerous 
 and powerful, may not have been able to accom- 
 plish what before a united world could accomplish. 
 
 We know but little of the customs of society, 
 the manner of life, and the forms of government 
 among the antediluvians. Marriage has been 
 known from the beginning, an institution of 
 God coeval with the race. The family and the 
 home have therefore always existed. A son of 
 Cain first practiced polygamy, then, as always, 
 contrary to the ordinance of God, a human abuse 
 of a divine regulation. The Sabbath was an 
 established ordinance of God. Worship, in some 
 form, was more or less practiced. Families were 
 probably united for the promotion of common 
 interests ; while powerful clans arose as events 
 advanced. Over all human institutions was the 
 manifest control of God. 
 
 But the most striking characteristic of the 
 antediluvian epoch w^as its extraordinary and 
 terrible wickedness. That was the iron age of crime. 
 Men toiled in sin and debasement. They rioted 
 
THE ANTEDILUVIAN. 41 
 
 in lust and blasphemy. The very earth reeled 
 under the tramp and rush of its maddened and 
 turbulent population. Before the frantic onset 
 of vice everything good and hallowed was swept 
 away. "There were giants in those days," men 
 who were monsters of oppression, lust, and crime. 
 Wickedness attained a gigantic growth : " Every 
 imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was 
 only evil continually. The earth was corrupt 
 before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 
 And it repented the Lord that he had made man 
 on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart." 
 Crime had an early beginning. Hardly had 
 the first family become settled when their first- 
 born child reddened his hands with his brother's 
 blood. Wicked and envious Cain lifted his hand 
 against the gentle and pious Abel, so covering 
 his name with everlasting infamy as the first 
 murderer. The weeping parents bowed over the 
 cold form of their martyred son, whose spirit was 
 the first to ascend from earth to heaven, and they 
 were pierced anew with sorrow over the bitter 
 fruits of their sin in paradise. Cain was cursed, 
 and he went forth a fugitive and a vagabond in 
 the earth. In the land of Nod he founded a 
 wicked state where infidelity and vice prevailed. 
 This, perhaps, became the fountain head of those 
 temptations which assailed the sons of God and 
 
42 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 which brought on a deep and dreadful degeneracy 
 and corruption. For a time the descendants of 
 the pious patriarchs, Seth, Enos and others, re- 
 mained distinct and continued the ordinances of 
 religion ; but, as the race multiplied, they became 
 acquainted with those of an opposite character, 
 and, breaking away from the restraints of educa- 
 tion and habit, " the sons of God " formed unhal- 
 lowed alliances with " the daughters of men." 
 " They took them wives of all that they chose." 
 The result was a profligate progeny, a race of gi- 
 gantic sinners. From that time the wickedness 
 of man was great in the earth. 
 
 There were, indeed, some who loved and served 
 God. In the fifth chapter of Genesis a genealogy 
 is given probably of those who were pious, the 
 line of hol}^ men who, amid the prevailing wick- 
 edness, maintained the worship of God. Among 
 these was Enoch, who " walked with God," and 
 "was translated that he should not see death," 
 and who " before his translation had witness borne 
 to him that he had been well-pleasing unto 
 God." Among the depraved of his day he stood 
 forth in faithful testimony for the truth, rebuking 
 sinners by his pure life and his solemn warnings. 
 Like Elijah, he was borne away from the earth, 
 a witness of the immortality of man, of the 
 reality of the future life. " He was not ; for God 
 
THE ANTEDILUVIAN. 43 
 
 took him." But although the generation of the 
 pious was continued, yet goodness rapidly dimin- 
 ished and there was an alarming increase of wick- 
 edness. Commencing in families, corruption 
 extended through all ranks of social and civil life. 
 Religion and its claims were banished from their 
 minds. Violence reigned. There was oppression, 
 robbery, and bold murder. The strong plundered 
 the weak and every man's hand was set against 
 his fellow. 
 
 We can form but a faint idea of the world in 
 that epoch of licentiousness and crime. So pol- 
 luted and debased had men become, that Jehovah 
 repented that he had made them, and he deter- 
 mined by one tremendous deluge to sweep them 
 and all the marks and monuments of their sin 
 from the face of the earth. One man alone found 
 favor with God, the righteous Xoah, whose faith 
 in God never faltered, and who, when men went 
 mad in sin, maintained unswerving loyalty to 
 his Maker. To him God communicated his pur- 
 pose to destroy the world, and he commanded 
 him to build an ark sufficiently large to hold his 
 family and all the species of living animals. 
 One of the most sublime declarations in human 
 annals is that respecting Noah's obedience : 
 " Thus did Noah ; according to all that God 
 commanded him, so did he." 
 
44 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 The strong timbers of that famous and stu- 
 pendous structure were laid. Its architect was 
 God. We can faintly imagine the merriment and 
 ribaldry and scorn which such a work must have 
 caused. The impious and profane would cer- 
 tainly mock the old man, who, with the frosts of 
 five centuries upon his head, had undertaken to 
 build such an immense vessel in anticipation of 
 a flood which was to come at the end of one 
 hundred and twenty years. But the venerable 
 patriarch did not pause in his labor. He believed 
 God, and no taunts of the wicked could move him. 
 All things moved forward as they had done. The 
 seasons came and went and years passed away. The 
 violence of man knew no pause, and lust and 
 carnage waxed more intense. Noah continued 
 his work, and as a "preacher of righteousness" 
 admonished guilty men to repent before the fear- 
 ful doom should come upon them. But no man 
 heeded his message. Sunken in sensuality, given 
 over to hardness of heart and debasement of 
 life, they rushed on recklessly in their career to 
 ruin. 
 
 At length the ark was completed. It was stored 
 with provisions. Noah and his family entered it; 
 and, after them, from the four quarters of the 
 globe and the heavens, came the living animals, 
 two by two, and took their appointed places in 
 
THE ANTEDILUVIAN. 45 
 
 peace in the vast fabric provided for their accom- 
 modation. A feeling of awe must have passed 
 through the minds of the world's guilty and reck- 
 less population as they saw the air darkened by 
 the flying birds which swept into the ark, and as 
 they beheld the beasts of the field and of the for- 
 est, the gentle and ferocious, in one magnificent 
 procession, defiling into the ponderous structure 
 with order and harmony. The ark was filled ; its 
 door was shut ; God became the protector of its 
 inmates. 
 
 Seven days still passed by, and all things con- 
 tinued as they were. Men gazed upon the closed 
 and guarded edifice, and then plunged into their 
 sins. All was tumult and crime and wilder gayety 
 than ever. " They ate, they drank, they married, 
 they were given in marriage, until the day that 
 Noah entered the ark, and the flood came, and 
 destroyed them all." 
 
 At last there came a night of darkness. Heavy 
 clouds piled their dense masses upon masses, and 
 pealing thunder shook the foundations of the 
 solid globe. Forked and glaring lightning blazed 
 over the earth, succeeded by a deeper darkness 
 than before. Sleep forsook every eyelid, and every 
 man's heart quaked for fear. In gloom and alarm 
 they waited through that long night for the morn- 
 ing. But no morning rose upon them. The hour 
 
46 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 for the day introduced a wilder tumult of the 
 elements than the night had known. Peal fol- 
 lowed peal until it seemed that the heavens were 
 shattered. Crash succeeded crash until the earth 
 seemed to be rent asunder. Then came the del- 
 uge. " The same day were all the fountains of 
 the great deep broken up, and the windows of 
 heaven were opened." Torrents, huge volumes of 
 water, descended from above; while from their 
 deep bed the waters of the ocean rose and rolled 
 in overwhelming violence across the earth. They 
 shook the mountains as they dashed against them, 
 and the white spray was hurled over their tower- 
 ing crests. Human habitations were whelmed by 
 the advancing flood. Towns and cities and all 
 the massive works of art and skill disappeared, 
 like grain before the sickle of the reaper. Beasts 
 and every living thing sunk under the engulfing 
 waves. The fowls of heaven were dashed with 
 stunning force to the earth. Onward rolled the 
 surging waters. The ancient forests fell before 
 them. The wrecks and ruins of proud empires 
 were borne afar. "And every living substance 
 was destroyed which was upon the face of the 
 ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping 
 things, and the fowl of the heaven : and they 
 were destroyed from the earth ; and Noah only 
 remained alive, and they that were with him in 
 
THE ANTEDILUVIAN. 47 
 
 the ark." A globe of water swung through the 
 heavens, with only one dark, moving substance 
 upon it, the solitary ark of the patriarch, con- 
 veying the sole survivors of the old world to be 
 the pioneers of the new world. 
 
 Thus has the second scene in the world's great 
 drama passed before us, with its warning and 
 instruction. It reads to us the solemn lesson that 
 all men must die. Great was the age of the ante- 
 diluvians ; but the history of each one closes with 
 the comprehensive and personal phrase, " And he 
 died." " All the days that Adam lived were nine 
 hundred and thirty years: and he died." He 
 lived to witness the dire effects of his sin and to 
 mourn in bitterness for it. He saw nine genera- 
 tions of his children peopling the smitten earth, 
 and he saw how from one sin a race became cor- 
 rupt. Methuselah lived nine hundred and sixty- 
 nine years ; and he died. " Yea, though a man 
 live a thousand years twice told, yet hath he seen 
 no good : do not all go to one place ?" " It is 
 appointed unto men once to die." 
 
 We learn also that human nature, ivhen unre- 
 strained, is prone to excesses in sin. What a scene 
 of depravity is given in the history of the ante- 
 diluvian world ! A whole race, with few excep- 
 tions, was given up to wildest lusts and crimes. 
 At last, one man alone remained faithful to God. 
 
48 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 " God saw that the wickedness of man was great 
 in the earth, and that every imagination of the 
 thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." 
 Thus it is with man unrestrained. His tendency 
 is downward. He is of the earth, earthy. Nor is 
 he satisfied with being earthy; he must grovel. 
 Sin leads on to excess. It corrupted man so that 
 God repented that he had made him. It was be- 
 cause the world was deluged with sin that it had 
 to be deluged with water. 
 
 Again, we learn from the fate of the antedi- 
 luvians that God regards sin with abhorrence. It 
 was then terribly expressed. It was expressed 
 when he drove man out of paradise and guarded 
 its gates with the flaming cherubim; when he 
 cursed the sinners and cursed the earth that they 
 trod upon. But it was more impressively ex- 
 pressed when he sunk the whole world under the 
 flood. Six generations of living men thronged 
 the earth with a mighty population. Two thou- 
 sand years had accumulated great works of genius, 
 power and art. Populous cities, with their strong 
 walls and palaces, had sprung into being. All 
 over the world were cultivated fields, homes of 
 men, millions of hearts full of life and hope. But 
 it mattered not ; God could not put up with their 
 aggravated sins, he abhorred those workers of 
 iniquity. So he opened the windows of heaven, 
 
THE ANTEDILUVIAN. 49 
 
 and broke up the fountains of the great deep, and 
 with a wild and universal deluge swept them all 
 away. He cleansed the earth of its wickedness. 
 He whelmed in one promiscuous and awful ruin 
 the race of man and its works. The marks of 
 that fearful flood, in the scarred rocks, in the 
 changes on the surface of the globe, are so 
 many enduring memorials of God's abhorrence 
 of sin. 
 
 Lastly, we are reminded of God^s faithfulness to 
 his friends. Amid the prevalent wickedness, he 
 did not overlook that one man of prayer who 
 alone maintained religion on the earth. He fore- 
 told him of the flood and taught him to prepare 
 for it. For one hundred and twenty years, amid 
 the taunts of men, God upheld him and gave him 
 unwavering confidence in the promise. When the 
 ark was finished, and the aged patriarch had re- 
 tired within it, God shut him in and guarded him 
 from the assaults of the wicked who during the 
 seven days of suspense hung around it. God was 
 with him during the fearful days of the deluge. 
 His hand guided the mighty fabric as it floated 
 over the sunken world, with its precious freight, 
 the sole surviving relic of the antediluvian days. 
 God is ever faithful to his friends. 
 
 Here we bid adieu to our earth as it first existed. 
 We look out on the shoreless sea where once were 
 
50 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 the homes and works of a multitudinous popula- 
 tion. Will the world remain forever whelmed, 
 or will it appear again from those overflowing 
 floods? 
 
EPOCH III. 
 THE PATRIAKCHAL. 
 
THE PATRIARCHAL. 
 
 Like the calm on the sea when the rage of the 
 tempest has died away, Hke the hush on the fields 
 when the storm has spent its fury, is the gentle 
 patriarchal epoch after the turbulent antediluvian 
 days. Conflict, oppression, violence, and vice, are 
 succeeded by peace, order, and paternal rule. We 
 look upon scenes of gentleness and rural beauty. 
 We see feeding flocks and herds tended by faith- 
 ful servants, scattered over the verdant meadows 
 and by the crystal streams. We behold the white 
 pavilions of the patriarchs pitched by the borders 
 of shadowing groves, while near them are the 
 liumbler tents of their retainers. It is the mild 
 pastoral age, an age, however, of checkered events 
 and not without its stirring annals. 
 
 After a year's confinement in the ark, Noah 
 and his family and all the animals went forth to 
 inhabit again the world that had been deluged. 
 The vestiges of the former earth had disappeared. 
 Its mighty population, its works of skill and 
 grandeur, its cultivated fields, its towns and cities, 
 
 5a 
 
54 BIBLICAL EPOCHS, 
 
 all had utterly perished. Naught remained but 
 the bare mountains and the broad territory torn 
 and scarred by the rushing flood. They went 
 forth, those few survivors, with wonder and grati- 
 tude, again to possess and people the renovated 
 earth. The aged patriarch at once reared an 
 altar, and the prayer of thanksgiving ascended 
 with the smoke of sacrifice. God was pleased 
 with the offering, and immediately vouchsafed 
 gracious promises to Noah and his sons, conferred 
 upon them higher prerogatives than he had be- 
 fore conferred upon Adam, and entered into holy 
 covenant with them. The bow on the clouds, 
 overarching the earth, became the signet and 
 memorial, from that time, through every age, of 
 the faithfulness of God. The joyous seasons re- 
 turned again, traversing the world with their per- 
 petual round of blessing, the varied gifts and 
 bounties of Providence, hymning in every zone 
 their harmonic and delightful chorus. Verdure 
 again clothed the drenched earth, and the hills 
 and valleys smiled with their antediluvian beauty. 
 The beasts and birds departed to the places that 
 were suited to their nature, subject to the domin- 
 ion and impressed with the awe of man. The 
 patriarch and his sons, invested with supreme 
 lordship over the world, inspired by the promises 
 of their Maker and by the rapid progress in the 
 
THE PATRIARCHAL. 55 
 
 vegetable world, engaged in the labors and 
 duties of life. They reared their habitations, 
 planted vineyards, tended their flocks and herds, 
 and gradually established the manners and insti- 
 tutions of a new civilization. Their descendants 
 spread abroad, and by degrees the earth was peo- 
 pled anew. The old patriarch, who had lived six 
 centuries before the flood, lived three hundred 
 and fifty years after it, and so attained a greater 
 age than that of any other man since that re- 
 markable event. From that time the period of 
 human life was greatly shortened. 
 
 For many years after the deluge the form and 
 customs of society were simple. Noah, for whose 
 sake God had preserved alive the few survivors 
 of the ancient world, was doubtless revered by 
 his descendants, who paid high respect to his 
 authority and instruction. His sons, Shem, Ham 
 and Japheth, whose posterity respectively inhabited 
 Asia, Africa and Europe, also exercised patriarchal 
 authority ; and for a while the institutions of so- 
 ciety and the arts of life prosperously advanced. 
 
 But alas! scenes of sin and tumult appeared, 
 blighting the promise of the new world. The 
 earth does not seem to be the native clime of 
 virtue and religion. Even the flood did not 
 permanently cleanse and purify it. The severe 
 lessons of that great calamity were forgotten or 
 
66 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 disregarded even within the lifetime of Noah. 
 His great-grandson followed the example of the 
 antediluvian giants, broke away from the patri- 
 archal rule, and assumed unlawful and violent 
 authority. He is represented as " a mighty hunter 
 before the Lord." He was a bold hunter of men, 
 a strong and reckless oppressor. He gathered 
 to himself wild and lawless spirits and assaulted 
 and subjugated others. He set up his own au- 
 thority as supreme, and he became a daring 
 usurper and tyrant. Under his leadership, prob- 
 ably, the project was formed of erecting on the 
 plain of Shinar ^' a city, and a tower whose top 
 should reach unto heaven." The object of this 
 bold design was to create an important metropolis 
 which should be the center of power and in- 
 fluence, the capital of the world. 
 
 Nimrod was probably moved to the under- 
 taking by a desire to consolidate his power and 
 to gratify his pride. The tower was to be his 
 fortress, and from that stronghold he intended 
 to march forth on a career of conquest and 
 dominion. His followers desired to accomplish 
 something which would render them illustrious ; 
 and all who engaged in the enterprise supposed 
 that it would tend to prevent the inhabitants of 
 the world from being " scattered abroad upon the 
 face of the whole earth." As this design became 
 
THE PATRIARCHAL. 57 
 
 known, we can imagine that people, near and far, 
 thronged to the rising city and joined in the 
 building of the lofty tower. Multitudes of work- 
 men swarmed over the fields, preparing the bricks 
 and cement, and other multitudes bore them to 
 the artizans who were erecting the walls. So 
 the gigantic undertaking went forward, story 
 rising above story, until indeed it seemed to as- 
 pire to heaven. It was all displeasing to God. 
 It was planned with no reference to his desire 
 and was in distinct opposition to his purpose. 
 " Man proposes ; God disposes." By the exercise 
 of his power he brought the whole thing to 
 naught. He touched the lips of the builders 
 and confused their language, " so that they could 
 not understand one another's speech." This con- 
 fusion of tongues confused their plans and la- 
 bors. One could not comprehend what another 
 wanted. At once, and of necessity, they ceased 
 the building and were scattered abroad over the 
 world. Thus God turned the counsels of the 
 impious men against themselves and secured 
 the very result against which they conspired. 
 We hear no more of the arrogant hunter. The 
 clamor caused by the miraculous confusion of 
 tongues gave that tower a name which it has 
 borne ever since : the tower of Babel. Its riven 
 and blasted pile stands in ruin on the sterile 
 
68 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 plain of Babylonia, a monument of the folly of 
 man and of the divine retribution. 
 
 This dispersion of the human family, while 
 it was necessary for its growth and sustenance 
 and also that the broad territories of the earth 
 might be peopled and cultivated, seems to have 
 produced an unfortunate effect as to their spirit- 
 ual interests. As men retreated from the sacred 
 places of antiquity, they seemed to forget the 
 lessons of the past, to forget their relation to God. 
 Idolatry, in various forms, assumed the place 
 of true worship, until the religion of the earliest 
 patriarchs was threatened with extermination. 
 The pastoral life led men to observe and reflect 
 upon the objects and powers of nature; and 
 as faith in God died out of their minds, very 
 naturally they came to deify and adore the invis- 
 ible power, or the object in which divinity appa- 
 rently resided. Hence the hosts of heaven were 
 worshiped ; temples and altars were built to the 
 sun, moon, and stars, and from consecrated places 
 incense arose to the celestial orbs. A lower grade 
 of idolatry consisted in the worship of man-made 
 images, to which a degeneracy of manners and 
 character directly led. 
 
 In order that his name and worship might be 
 honored and perpetuated, God determined to call 
 forth Abraham, a godly man, from all others, 
 
THE PATRIARCHAL. 59 
 
 and to make of him a mighty nation which amid 
 the prevaiUng idolatries should maintain true 
 religion in the world. This call introduces us 
 to a new chapter in patriarchal history. A succes- 
 sion of eminent men appeared, whose names are 
 the most distinguished in the world's annals : 
 Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the fathers of the Hebrew 
 nationality, the founders of the Hebrew theocracy. 
 Their names and their influence coexist with the 
 race, being honored by Jew, Christian, and Mo- 
 hammedan. Foremost of these is Abraham, whose 
 name is reverenced in many lands, who is claimed 
 as the patriarch of various religious dynasties, 
 who is beloved as the head of " the chosen people," 
 the prince of the great Hebrew commonwealth ; 
 who has been, and is yet to be more widely, 
 reverenced as the " Father of the faithful " among 
 Jew^s and Gentiles, who, in every land, shall 
 become partakers of his faith. Israel, "a name 
 divinely blest," recalls hallowed memories of the 
 Church through successive ages, when they who 
 have been " Israelites indeed " have borne testi- 
 mony to their faith, while it carries us forward 
 to the time when, with " the whole Israel of God," 
 we shall stand on the Mount Zion above. 
 
 We turn with pleasure to the artless story of 
 the patriarchal times. Those faithful men were 
 not without their frailties and faults. The sacred 
 
60 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 narrative does not represent them as demigods, 
 nor yet men of perfect character or Hfe. It sets 
 them before us as those who loved God and who 
 were kept by him, and needed to be kept, in the 
 way of righteousness. Their life was a simple 
 one, the life of wandering shepherds, yet it w^as a 
 life of independence and nobility. 
 
 They were Fathers, exercising paternal author- 
 ity and watchfulness over their great households, 
 regulating the domestic and social customs of all, 
 and consulted freely by every individual under 
 their care. 
 
 They were Priests, presiding over and leading 
 in the worship of God, appointing the sacred 
 festivals, and offering for all the accustomed 
 sacrifices. 
 
 They were Chiefs, supreme in their rule, main- 
 taining justice and punishing wickedness, train- 
 ing their servants for the duties of war and going 
 forth at their head to battle, forming alliances 
 with kings and surrounding patriarchs, and exer- 
 cising with undisputed right the prerogatives of 
 sovereignty. Opulent in their extensive herds 
 and flocks, their treasures and servants, they pre- 
 served their freedom and were able to repel acts 
 of violence. They w^ere not merely men of un- 
 cultivated manners and rude but generous bear- 
 ing ; but with their generosity there was united a 
 
THE PATRIARCHAL. 61 
 
 politeness and a magnanimity which made them 
 the compeers of kings who lived in palaces. 
 They were characterized by bravery and piety, 
 and were respected or feared by those who had 
 acquaintance and intercourse with them. In their 
 trembling tents the law of God was reverenced, 
 and by their builded altars they recognized his 
 authority and their obligations. 
 
 They were heroes, not in the diminutive, 
 worldly sense, not by the superiority of brute 
 force, but by a higher and holier calling — their 
 walk with God. Theirs was the heroism of faith ; 
 a heroism celebrated by the inspired writer in a 
 roll-call of the heroes, two thousand years after 
 their time, and which has animated the people of 
 God in every age. They looked upon themselves 
 as pilgrims and strangers upon earth. While so- 
 journing in a land not their own and dwelling in 
 tents, they looked for the city which hath the 
 foundations, w^hose builder and maker is God. 
 They lived as in the constant presence of God; 
 their footsteps were guided by his hand, and holy 
 angels encamped round about them. On every 
 hand the world was becoming polluted with 
 wickedness and the rites of a profane idolatry; 
 but the soil which they occupied was sacred to 
 God, and in their tabernacles was preserved the 
 early faith and the primitive worship. In what- 
 
62 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 ever relation of life we behold them, the Hebrew 
 patriarchs have a character unique and interest- 
 ing. There is the same simplicity of manners, 
 the same regard for the rights and welfare of 
 others, the same subdued heroism, the same rever- 
 ence for God. Wandering over the plains of 
 Canaan, sojourning in the capitals of kings, abid- 
 ing at their rural residences, they still bear the 
 same lineaments and stand forth peculiar and 
 venerable among those who surround them. 
 
 Illustrations of their character, and of the di- 
 vine love for them, abound in the sacred history 
 of their lives. At the call of God, Abraham for- 
 sook home and kindred and native land, the asso- 
 ciations of his youth and manhood and the graves 
 of his fathers, and went forth into a strange land, 
 *'not knowing whither he went." Relying im- 
 plicity oh the Being who summoned him, he 
 knew no discouragement and his faith did not 
 falter. However strange his course may have 
 seemed to others, however dark the prospect may 
 have been to himself, he pressed on in the might 
 and confidence of one who honored the com- 
 mission of God. His fidelity was rewarded by 
 glorious promises : " In thee shall all the families 
 of the earth be blessed. I will establish my cov- 
 enant between me and thee and thy seed after 
 thee in their generations for an everlasting 
 
THE PATRIARCHAL. 63 
 
 covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed 
 after thee." 
 
 The valor and magnanimity of the patriarch are 
 seen in the incident recorded in the fourteenth 
 chapter of Genesis. Some of the wild chiefs of 
 the country, like the Kurds of our day, had made 
 a predatory incursion into the land of Canaan, 
 and were returning with their plunder, when they 
 were met by the kings of the plain, whom they 
 defeated; whereupon they pillaged Sodom and 
 Gomorrah and carried away Lot and his family 
 as prisoners. A man who escaped bore the tid- 
 ings to the Hebrew patriarch, who quickly armed 
 his trained men and pursued the marauders. He 
 fell upon them by night and completely routed 
 them, recovering their booty and delivering his 
 kinsman and family. On his return he met 
 the illustrious Melchizedek, to whom he gave 
 tithes and by whom he was blessed. Melchizedek 
 was the king of Salem and was also priest of his 
 people, and, like Abraham, he had preserved the 
 knowledge and worship of the true God. Further 
 than this his history is unknown ; and it is this 
 fact which led the apostle to speak of him as 
 "without father, without mother, without gene- 
 alogy, having neither beginning of days nor end 
 of life." Abraham also refused to retain any por- 
 tion of the recovered property, so showing that it 
 
64 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 was only from motives of humanity that he be- 
 came a warrior. 
 
 Another scene of interest is laid at Mamre. It 
 was the sultry hour of noon when the patriarch 
 sat at his tent-door, looking out at his grazing 
 herds and indulging in devout reflection. Three 
 men appeared before him, whom he greeted and 
 entertained with gracious patriarchal hospitality. 
 One of these august visitors revealed himself to 
 Abraham as a divine person and announced to 
 him the speedy fulfdlment of a precious promise. 
 He also declared to that " friend of God " the pur- 
 pose of his coming to the earth at that time — the 
 investigation of the wickedness of Sodom and 
 Gomorrah. The sympathies of the patriarch were 
 roused by the announcement. He knew the guilt 
 of those cities, and he feared for their fate, es- 
 pecially for his friends who were residing there. 
 He made an intercession in their behalf, perhaps 
 the most touching, affectionate, confiding, preva- 
 lent, in all the history of human prayer ; reveal- 
 ing, on the one hand, the condescension and 
 mercy of God, and on the other hand, the tender- 
 ness and the might of the humble suppliant. 
 With characteristic devotion and faith, that 
 holy man stood between the offending cities and 
 their offended Monarch, and by the power of inter- 
 cession reduced the number frord fifty to ten for 
 
THE PATRIARCHAL. 65 
 
 whose sake, if they could be found in those cities, 
 God promised to spare them. But ten righteous 
 persons could not be found in Sodom and Gomor- 
 rah, and those cities were doomed. 
 
 On the next morning, Abraham went to the 
 place where he had stood before the Lord, and 
 there he beheld a sight which baffled description. 
 Sodom and Gomorrah were wrapped in sheets of 
 devouring flame. Out of heaven the Lord rained 
 brimstone and fire upon them; and the people 
 and all the buildings of those cities and the plain 
 on which they stood were consumed in the ter- 
 rible conflagration, the smoke of which rolled up 
 like the smoke of a mighty furnace. 
 
 The patriarch bowed in holy fear and sub- 
 mission before the Lord his God. Afterward 
 came the memorable trial of his faith. Unex- 
 pectedly, when he was enjoying the prospect of a 
 calm old age, with the son who had been given to 
 him in fulfillment of the promise, he received a 
 command from God to take that son, and to sac- 
 rifice him as a burnt offering on a mountain of 
 Moriah. Startling, dreadful, as the command 
 must have been, Abraham obeyed. Early in 
 the morning, he set out on the mournful journey 
 to Moriah. The parting of Isaac that morning 
 with his mother, the unconsciousness of the youth, 
 must have nearly broken the heart of the old 
 
66 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 man. But he knew in whom he believed. His 
 soul was stayed upon the Almighty. For three 
 days they journeyed to the mountain. Leaving 
 the servants at the foot, the father and the son 
 toiled up the rugged ascent, Isaac bearing the 
 wood, Abraham the fire and the knife. Suddenly, 
 Isaac spake : " My father, behold the fire and the 
 wood ; but where is the lamb for a burnt offer- 
 ing ?" " My son," replied the smitten father, " God 
 will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offer- 
 ing." Reaching the appointed place, the altar 
 was built, the wood was laid in order upon it, and 
 Isaac was bound and placed upon the wood, and 
 then the father raised aloft the knife for the fatal 
 blow. The startling voice of God, speaking in 
 that lonely place and forbidding the sacrifice, 
 alone arrested the uplifted arm, and the gleaming 
 blade fell ringing by the altar. The wonderful 
 faith of the patriarch was fully tested, and from 
 that time he became the acknowledged " Father 
 of the faithful." Additional divine blessings were 
 then pronounced upon him. 
 
 Not long after this Sarah died, and Abraham 
 buried her in the cave of the field of Machpelah, 
 which he purchased, in the manner of a prince, 
 from the sons of Heth. There, when he came 
 to die, " in a good old age, an old man, and full 
 of years," the patriarch himself was buried. In 
 
THE PATRIARCHAL. 67 
 
 the simple manner of the patriarchal age, Isaac 
 lived, a man of gentle and unobtrusive character, 
 and, in advanced life, was "gathered unto his 
 people," and buried in the same cave of Machpe- 
 lah. There too, after a life of romantic interest, 
 with mournful ceremonies, the embalmed body 
 of the patriarch Jacob was deposited by his weep- 
 ing sons. 
 
 Of the lives of the twelve patriarchs, the heads 
 of the great tribes of Israel, that of Joseph is 
 by far the most interesting, possessing the mingled 
 charm of fiction and truth of history, and de- 
 picting in most artless language the working of 
 divine providence. A succession of fascinating 
 and thrilling scenes passes before us. An upright 
 youth is torn from a tender father by fraternal 
 violence; a captive slave in a strange land, he 
 is thrust unjustly into prison ; he becomes the 
 acting head of a populous and powerful empire, 
 swaying its destinies with prophetic wisdom and 
 bringing about a social revolution unmatched 
 in historic annals. The brethren who sold him 
 into Egypt, by stress of famine bow before him ; 
 a mutual recognition takes place, and the whole 
 patriarchal family makes a settlement in a part 
 of the Egyptian realm. Peaceful and honored 
 was the death of the noble and gentle Joseph, 
 mourned alike by Hebrew and Egyptian. 
 
68 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 Here we take our leave of the peculiar patri- 
 archal epoch and of that succession of distin- 
 guished names which illustrated and graced it. 
 It has left to us its lessons of warning and 
 instruction. 
 
 The daring career of Nimrod shows us how slow 
 men are to profit by the judgments of the past. 
 The marks of the flood were not effaced before 
 he renewed the wickedness of the antediluvian 
 times. 
 
 The fate of BabeVs builders shows us how 
 God can turn the plans of wicked men against 
 themselves, and from their temporary success 
 secure his wise and permanent designs. 
 
 The results of selfishness are set forth in the 
 history of Lot He chose the rich plains of Sodom 
 for his pasture-grounds when Abraham gener- 
 ously offered him his choice; he pitched his 
 own tent toward Sodom, and he wellnigh per- 
 ished in the terrible ruin of the place. Idolaters 
 and proud foes of Israel, children of incest, were 
 his only descendants. 
 
 The triumphs and blessings of faith are strik-. 
 ingly manifested in the noble life of the patriarch 
 Abraham. Revered by the faithful of every 
 age, his name is the symbol and representative 
 of unswerving confidence in God. In the ever- 
 lasting covenant which Jehovah made with him. 
 
THE PATRIARCHAL. 69 
 
 we and our children share, with all who by faith 
 are the children of faithful Abraham. In the 
 life of Jacob we see the sad effects of sin. His 
 deception of his father and betrayal of his brother 
 led to a lifetime of disorder. The example of 
 Joseph on the other hand, presents the beauty of 
 youthful piety and the blessings which it secures 
 in after life. 
 
EPOCH IV. 
 
 THE MOSAIC. 
 
THE MOSAIC. 
 
 The Hebrew commonwealth was of a peculiar 
 character. Whether we look at its founder, its 
 origin, its object, its duration, or its results, it 
 stands forth grand and unique among the do- 
 minions of the world. Commencing fifteen cen- 
 turies before the Christian era, it saw empire 
 after empire rise and fall and disappear, while 
 still it held on its course, swaying the minds 
 of a powerful people by its authority, and im- 
 pressing many nations by its religion and its 
 laws. And now, although long ago its capital 
 and glory and its renowned institutions were 
 lost; although its judges and the proud line 
 of its kings exist no more; and although the 
 voices of its rapt prophets are hushed, its power 
 and influence live with that peculiar people 
 who maintain the Hebrew character and faith. 
 Scattered and peeled, driven forth from the 
 goodly heritage of their fathers, oppressed in 
 every land and become a byword and reproach, 
 they have still remained distinct, perpetuating 
 
 73 
 
74 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 the characteristic features, the religious rites, 
 and the national traits of their early ancestry. 
 Though many times conquered, they have not 
 been exterminated ; though carried as captives 
 into strange lands, they have never mingled 
 with their captors — the blood of the patriarchs 
 flows uncontaminated in their veins. Few, 
 comparatively, are the children of the promise 
 who now inhabit the promised land; their 
 songs are silent on Zion's sacred hill ; the Moslem 
 mosque sacrilegiously crowns the polluted sum- 
 mit of ]\Ioriah. Of late, increased attention 
 has been directed to Palestine as the predicted 
 home of the Jewish people, and thousands of 
 emigrants have secured land and built their 
 dwellings within sight of sacred Jerusalem; 
 while from the four quarters of the globe the 
 dispersed children of Israel are looking thither 
 in anticipation of the renewal of the ancient 
 glory and the restored inheritance of their 
 race. 
 
 The land of Canaan was early given to the 
 patriarch Abraham and his descendants by 
 the purpose and promise of God. Hard neces- 
 sity led Jacob and his sons to sojourn in Egypt, 
 where Joseph was then the prime minister of state. 
 But it was only for a season. In Egypt they 
 increased so rapidly that they roused the jealousy 
 
THE MOSAIC. lb 
 
 of the government. The illustrious services 
 of Joseph were forgotten, and the promises of 
 protection to his people, which a former Pharaoh 
 had made, were disregarded. A system of repres- 
 sion was adopted which was designed to crush 
 the spirit and check the growth of the Israelites 
 and to make them slaves of the Egyptians. 
 From their freedom as shepherds they were 
 reduced to a degrading vassalage. Exacting 
 task-masters were appointed over them, and 
 menial service was assigned to them — the dig- 
 ging of clay, the making of bricks, the bearing 
 of burdens for their haughty oppressors. " But 
 the more they afflicted them, the more they 
 multiplied and the more they spread abroad." 
 Baffled and enraged, the wicked monarch formed 
 a murderous scheme for the destruction of all 
 the infant sons of the Hebrews. His edict was 
 overruled by an all-directing Providence for 
 the ruin of the Egyptians and the emancipation 
 of the children of Israel. 
 
 As the daughter of Pharaoh, with her attendant 
 maidens, walked by the banks of the Nile, she 
 saw, floating among the flags, a little ark, which 
 she opened, and, " Behold ! a male infant, 
 weeping." Touched by the crying and by the 
 beauty of the child, the princess determined to 
 adopt him as her own and to educate him as her 
 
76 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 son and heir. So Moses became, in after years, 
 the leader and lawgiver of his own people. 
 
 Egypt had become to them what it was after- 
 ward called in their history and poetry, " the 
 house of bondage." Year after year their infant 
 sons were cast into the Nile ; year after year they 
 were worn and wasted by their rigorous servitude. 
 Yet the people became attached to that land, and 
 often, after their exodus, they were found sighing 
 to return to it. To the unsophisticated Hebrews 
 there was something captivating and impressive 
 in the proud monarchy, the gorgeous religion, the 
 learning and art, of the Egyptians. The civil 
 and religious institutions to which they were in- 
 troduced were in sharp contrast with the sim- 
 plicity and piety of the patriarchal methods. 
 From their pastoral life on the peaceful plains of 
 Canaan they were brought to a land of palaces 
 and temples and pyramids, the land most ad- 
 vanced in civilization and science. Yet Egypt 
 was not their home-land; they were destined to 
 return to the land of their fathers, the land of 
 promise. 
 
 Three qualifications were requisite in one who 
 should successfully lead the Hebrews forth from 
 the country where they had suffered, but for 
 which they had a strong attachment, to their 
 covenanted inheritance in Canaan. 
 
THE MOSAIC. ■ 77 
 
 He must, in the first place, be a Hebrew, lov- 
 ing the God of the patriarchs, and devoted to the 
 Hebrew faith. The people had to a great extent 
 swung away from the religion of their fathers, and 
 there was need of a pious and controlling mind 
 to bring them back to their lost worship. 
 
 In the second place, he must be an Egyptian, 
 well acquainted with the institutions which had 
 captivated the Hebrew mind, and able to con- 
 struct a system which, on the one hand, should 
 not inflame their prejudices, and, on the other 
 hand, should readily secure their return and loy- 
 alty to Jehovah. Their residence for hundreds 
 of years among a people in many respects their 
 superiors had caused them to become thoroughly 
 Egyptianized, and no one but an Egyptian could 
 have led- them from practices of idolatry to the 
 true worship of God. 
 
 In the third place, it was requisite that their 
 leader should be acquainted with the life of the 
 desert, so that he could guide and rule the people 
 during their future wanderings of forty years. 
 
 By marvelous provfdences Moses became emi- 
 nently qualified for this station and mission. 
 Nursed, at the request of the royal princess, by his 
 own Hebrew mother, and trained during his 
 earlier years in a pious Hebrew family, his first 
 and strongest sympathies and principles were 
 
78 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 with the people of God and their faith. He bore 
 upon his person the sacramental symbol of a 
 holy covenant relation with the God of his 
 fathers. No instruction of after years, no in- 
 fluences nor temptations which environed him, 
 even in the palace of the king and the manners 
 of the court, could ever erase from his mind the 
 impressions and truths which he received in the 
 home of his childhood and from a tender 
 mother's lips. 
 
 Adopted by the daughter of Egypt's monarch 
 and furnished with every advantage of his high 
 position, taught by the wisest instructors of the 
 realm, and fitted to become the successor of the 
 Pharaohs, he was learned in all the wisdom of 
 the Egyptians and was skilled in political and 
 religious science. His intellectual mind led him 
 to the foremost rank among the young scholars 
 of Egypt, while his connection with the royal 
 family gave him commanding influence with his 
 associates. It is said that he held a high position 
 in the national armies and as a military leader 
 gained distinguished successes. Familiar with 
 the entire structure of the Egyptian system, he 
 became pre-eminently qualified for the mission to 
 which he was assigned among his people. But 
 this was not all. Burning with strong desire for 
 the deliverance of his race from their wretched 
 
THE MOSAIC. 70 
 
 servitude, he longed to stand forth in their behalf 
 and with his own arm strike for their freedom. 
 But the time had not come. Stung by the indig- 
 nities offered to his brethren, he on one occasion 
 passionately resented the wrong, and then fled 
 from Egypt. 
 
 In the wilderness of Midian, among a people 
 allied to the Israelites and who still preserved 
 the knowledge and worship of the true God, in 
 the quiet occupation of a shepherd, he received 
 a training in strong contrast with that which he 
 had received in the home of his parents or at the 
 court of Pharaoh, but not less necessary. In the 
 solitudes of nature, the illustrious exile from the 
 pleasures and emoluments of the Egyptian 
 capital, was brought into communion with God 
 and the contemplation of divine truth. Along 
 the base of Sinai and Horeb he led his wander- 
 ing flocks, where in coming years he was to lead 
 the great hosts of Israel. Here he experienced 
 a discipline which prepared him for the duties 
 and trials of the wonderful career to which he was 
 destined. There is not a life in sacred or profane 
 history of such thrilling interest, leading through 
 scenes of such magnificent and solemn character, 
 as the life of Israel's greatest man. From his 
 rescue when an infant by the royal princess, 
 through his early education, his brilliant man- 
 
80 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 hood, his lofty station as the vicegerent of God, 
 the suhUme transactions in which he had the 
 most important part, on to his lonely death and 
 his unknown burial, there is the interest of his- 
 tory, the pathos of endurance, and the wonder of 
 miracle. As we contemplate his character we are 
 conscious of the presence of a superior man — one 
 of the noblest and most honored in human 
 annals. He has boldness, chastened and sub- 
 dued; diffidence that needs divine encouragement; 
 faith that never falters ; jealousy for God and the 
 divine law, untiring energy, meekness that char- 
 acterizes the man. His life is a triumph. It 
 stands apart from all others — grander, nearer 
 to God. 
 
 In the lonely desert, God spake to him from 
 the burning bush that was not consumed, de- 
 claring the divine sympathy for the suffering 
 children of Israel and commissioning Moses 
 as their deliverer. He and his brother Aaron 
 were warmly welcomed by the elders of the 
 people, and they entered with confidence on 
 their mission. But their appeal to Pharaoh 
 was spurned; God was despised, and the op- 
 pression of the people was increased* Then 
 came the plagues. Sweeping over the doomed 
 land, one after another, ten successive and fear- 
 ful scourges revealed the power and vengeance 
 
THE MOSAIC. 81 
 
 of the Hebrews' God. Continuously increasing 
 in intensity and virulence, they laid waste the 
 kingdom and ruined the hopes and the works 
 of its people. The Nile, their chief divinity, 
 was turned into blood, bearing death on its 
 pestilential floods. Life became full of misery 
 and insupportable. Their cattle were swept 
 away ; the products of the field were destroyed ; 
 their persons were consumed with burning in- 
 flictions; light was altogether withdrawn from 
 them, and their dwellings were in darkness 
 that could be felt. Last and direst of all, came 
 the plague of death, when the firstborn of every 
 family in Egypt was destroyed. In every dwell- 
 ing the cry of the dying startled all the people, 
 from the palace of Pharaoh down to the lowest 
 habitation ; a wail of common anguish went 
 up from the whole afflicted nation. On that 
 midnight the haughty king relented. On that 
 midnight six hundred thousand strong men, 
 Dn3j, closed around the families of .Jacob, as in 
 order and with rejoicing they moved forth from 
 the land of their oppressors, where for two hun- 
 dred and fifteen years they had sojourned, " and 
 there was not one feeble person among all their 
 tribes." With a high hand did the Lord lead 
 them out, going before them in a pillar of cloud 
 by day and a pillar of fire by night. 
 
82 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 At the end of three days, Pharaoh repented 
 that he had allowed the Israelites to escape, 
 and at the head of his swarthy warriors he 
 pursued them. To the Hebrews it might well 
 have seemed that all was lost. Behind them 
 were the mailed warriors and the armed chariots 
 of their enemy. Before them was the impassable 
 sea, while on either side rose frowning mountains. 
 The courage and faith of Moses rose to the occa- 
 sion. He quieted the murmurs of the frightened 
 people. He calmly received from God the com- 
 mand, " Speak unto the children of Israel, that 
 they go forward." Then the pillar of the cloud 
 and fire, which had gone before them, moved 
 in silent majesty to their rear, shedding its bril- 
 liant light during that long night upon the 
 wakeful Israelites and frowning in blackness 
 upon the bewildered armies of Egypt. Moses 
 stretched forth his rod over the sea, and through 
 its parted floods a dry pathway was formed 
 for the passage of the millions of Israel. When 
 the morning dawned, the waters had resumed 
 their usual appearance. On the farther shore 
 stood the triumphant people of God, while far 
 and wide on the angry waves floated the wreck 
 of Egypt's pride and power — banners that had 
 flaunted in the breeze of yesterday, weapons 
 that had flashed in its light, chariots and horses 
 
THE MOSAIC. 83 
 
 of war, bodies of armed men, nobles of the realm, 
 and the crowned king, all whelmed in the dread- 
 ful overthrow. Mingled with the anthem of the 
 sea, rose the hallelujahs of Israel's hosts, Moses 
 and Miriam leading their psalm of victory and 
 praise. 
 
 It was a long and weary discipline through 
 which the Hebrews were compelled to pass before 
 their decimated hosts were permitted to enter 
 the promised land. Accustomed to the debasing 
 influence of idolatrous Egypt, they were slow to 
 yield to the authority of Jehovah, and so stub- 
 born were they that the Almighty determined 
 that none of those who were adult at the exodus 
 from Egypt should enter the land of Canaan. 
 For forty years therefore they wandered through 
 the desert, until they were all buried beneath its 
 soil. For forty years God rained manna from 
 heaven around the camps of Israel for the suste- 
 nance of the people. For forty years he passed 
 before them in the pillar of cloud by day and fire 
 by night, piloting their course through a country 
 unknown by them. It w^as a long, hard training 
 that the nation endured through those forty 
 years. By impressive manifestations, the law 
 was given at Mount Sinai. The tents of Israel 
 were pitched near its base, when suddenly a 
 cloud descended and rested upon its summit, 
 
84 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 from which lightning flashed and thunder 
 pealed. Silence and awe held the watching 
 multitude. Then came the clear, piercing note 
 of a trumpet, waxing louder and louder, until 
 the mountain quaked and the people trembled. 
 By a still, small voice, soft as a whisper but clear 
 as a clarion, Moses was summoned to the presence 
 of God ; and then the law was announced — the 
 divine code which was to be supreme in Israel 
 and which was to be authoritative among the 
 nations. Even at the foot of Sinai and while 
 Moses was on the mount with God, those per- 
 verse Hebrews engaged in rites of blasphemous 
 idolatry. And so it was in their painful his- 
 tory: idolatry, murmuring, rebellion, character- 
 ized them. Judgment and mercy characterized 
 God's treatment of them. Many times Moses 
 stood between the guilty people and their offended 
 Monarch, offering to bear in his own person 
 the punishment which they deserved, and inter- 
 ceding for them with prevalent prayer. At the 
 foot of Sinai three thousand men were cut down 
 by the sword for their idolatry. At one time the 
 earth opened and swallowed in its dark vortex a 
 whole company of transgressors. At another 
 time a plague swept away thousands on thousands 
 of the sinning people. Again, fiery serpents 
 whose bite was death invaded their camp, and 
 
THE MOSAIC. 85 
 
 would have destroyed them altogether had not 
 Moses lifted up among them a brazen serpent 
 upon which if they looked they lived. The for- 
 bearance of God toward them is a wonder of his- 
 tory. Moses proved himself to be a patient and 
 brave leader. Slowly the disciplinary pilgrimage 
 wore away. The nations of idolaters were swept 
 from their path. At last, after Miriam and Aaron 
 had died, after a million graves had been dug 
 along the tedious route, and all the adults 
 who came out of Egypt were buried, Moses also 
 died. 
 
 He was permitted to behold the promised land, 
 but not to set his foot upon it. From the top of 
 Pisgah he looked upon the Canaan that he loved, 
 to whose border, through incredible hardships, 
 he had led the chosen people. That golden 
 land,— the land of their fathers, the land of their 
 future inheritance, a land flowing with milk 
 and honey, the garden of God,— lay before him. 
 He saw its verdant fields, its silvery streams, 
 its wood-crowned hills, the cities of its pagan peo- 
 ple with their works of skill and power. He 
 looked and longed. But his toil and pilgrimage 
 were ended. Alone on that mountain's crest, 
 with his back to the desert, with his face toward 
 Canaan, he died. And God buried him. Human 
 eye hath not seen his grave ; human hand hath 
 
86 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 placed no monument over his sleeping dust. His 
 monument is in his undecaying works. His 
 memorial is the enduring memory of the people 
 of God. The marble has crumbled, the grandest 
 structures of man have perished, but the name 
 and the deeds of Moses are immortal. 
 
 The design of the Mosaic commonwealth was 
 of prime importance. The raising up of this 
 indomitable leader, of this wise lawgiver; the 
 succession of stupendous miracles and drv-^adful 
 judgments which distinguished the early history 
 of Israel ; the promulgation of the elaborate code 
 of the Hebrew law ; were all tributary to one 
 simple and great design : the 'preservation and con- 
 tinuance of the knowledge and worship of Almighty 
 God on earth. The tendency, as the Scripture 
 narrative shows, as the history and experience 
 of man abundantly attest, is to the forgetfulness of 
 God. Even the fact of the existence of God, that 
 most simple fact, needs to be strongly fortressed 
 that it may not perish from among men. The 
 antediluvians rushed headlong into atheism. At 
 the time of the flood only one man was found true 
 to God ; four centuries after the deluge, idolatry 
 and superstition were prevalent; ever since, the 
 world has been alienated from God : heathenism 
 has been the rule. Even now, the majority of 
 the world's population is in pagan night, having 
 
THE MOSAIC. 87 
 
 no knowledge of the true God. Indeed, it is a 
 startling fact, attested by universal experience 
 and history, that no people has ever retained, or 
 having lost has ever regained, the knowledge of 
 the one eternal Jehovah without some special di- 
 vine agency in their behalf. God made himself 
 known at first by personal appearance and com- 
 munication. The call of Abraham, and all the 
 influences of the patriarchal institution, were for 
 the maintenance of the truth respecting God ; but 
 the descendants of those patriarchs became idol- 
 aters in Egypt, and the most severe agencies 
 which God could employ were hardly sufficient 
 to break them away from their false gods. 
 
 Therefore the Hebrew commonwealth was 
 founded, in which God became the national King 
 and the tutelary Deity of that people. He built 
 into the very structure of the Hebrew nationality 
 the knowledge and worship of himself, so that 
 these could not perish while the nation existed. 
 The government Avas a theocracy. Jehovah was 
 the chief magistrate of the State. The tabernacle 
 was his palace, and there he manifested himself 
 The prime minister was the high priest. The 
 earthly ruler, whether judge or king, was the vice- 
 roy of God. Disobedience was rebellion against 
 God. Religious duty was a political obligation. 
 Prosperity depended upon obedience to the law ; 
 
88 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 punishment followed its transgression. Religion 
 was not merely the means of vitalizing and 
 strengthening the state, but all the laws and reg- 
 ulations of the state were made the bulwarks 
 of religion. The people were God's people, re- 
 deemed by his arm from degrading bondage, 
 rescued by the almighty hand from their enemies. 
 The land of their inheritance was God's land, in 
 which their residence was to be assigned by him 
 and from whose products they were to pay per- 
 petual tithes to him. So God was King, and obe- 
 dience was maintained by temporal sanctions. 
 Idolatry was treason. The central principle of 
 the theocracy, to which everything else, religious 
 or secular, was subordinate, was the authority 
 and worship of the one only God, Jehovah. For 
 this had wonders been wrought in Egypt. For 
 this the sea was parted. For this the law was 
 proclaimed. For this went forth over the desert 
 the pillar of cloud and fire, the wonder of the 
 nations and the guide of Israel. For this the 
 tabernacle was set up wherein God's glory abode, 
 and the Levites were the palace guards. For this 
 was the succession of miracles, the repetition of 
 judgments and mercies, revealing alike the justice 
 and the compassion of God. For this were estab- 
 lished the ordinances and observances which char- 
 acterized the Hebrew people. 
 
THE MOSAIC. 89 
 
 The result has manifested the wisdom of God. 
 Never from the days of Moses have the knowledge 
 and the worship of the one only living and true 
 God been lost on earth. There always has been 
 an Israel, a true people of the Lord, who have 
 loved his character and reverenced his law. And 
 he is to be more widely known and loved : " The 
 earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, 
 as the waters cover the sea." 
 
 The world owes much to Moses and to the com- 
 monwealth of which he was the founder and head. 
 Kaised up in a wonderful manner and fitted for 
 his high commission, that great and good man 
 fulfilled his trust. Never was there another man 
 with whom Jehovah seemed to be so familiar, 
 never another who seemed to have such prevail- 
 ing influence w4th God : " There hath not arisen 
 a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom 
 the Lord knew face to face." He loved God and 
 the people of God, " choosing rather to be evil en- 
 treated with the people of God, than to enjoy the 
 pleasures of sin for a season ; accounting the re- 
 proach of Christ greater riches than the treasures 
 of Egypt." 
 
 Established in a dark age and one of idolatry, 
 the Hebrew commonwealth attained an influence 
 and power which have to this day controlled a 
 mighty people, while its effects are widely wit- 
 
90 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 nessed among the Gentile nations of the globe. 
 It was an economy preparatory to the more per- 
 fect one of Christianity, and without which the 
 Christian era could not have been ushered in. The 
 law must precede the gospel. The burning sac- 
 rifices offered on the reeking altars of Israel, must 
 precede the great sacrifice offered once for all on 
 Calvary. The system of types and shadows was 
 the herald of the glorious system of redemption. 
 
EPOCH V. 
 THE PEOPHETIC. 
 
THE PROPHETIC. 
 
 The prophetic epoch is one wherein great 
 events were transpiring, which also introduces 
 us to a remarkable succession of illustrious men, 
 and during which predictions were uttered that 
 have been slowly fulfilled in the passing of the 
 ages, or are yet to be fulfilled. 
 
 There is a charm and an awe which invest the 
 inspired prophets of the Lord. We think of them 
 as a strange, almost supernatural, order, as they 
 have issued forth from their sacred retreat and 
 from communion with God, clad in sackcloth, 
 and boldly declaring in the palaces of kings and 
 before the guilty people the stern and dire mes- 
 sages of Jehovah, the word of the Lord. It is of 
 great interest to study their characters and lives, 
 to mark their influence upon their own and suc- 
 ceeding times, and to observe how, through their 
 agency, God arrested the progress of idolatry and 
 wickedness and national corruption, and main- 
 tained religion and the ordinances of true wor- 
 ship. 
 
 93 
 
94 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 The prophetic epoch begins with the wise, 
 patriotic, and holy Samuel, the judge and the 
 priest of Israel. There were prophets and pro- 
 phetic utterances before his time. Abraham and 
 Jacob, and the illustrious Moses, " like unto whom 
 there hath not arisen a prophet since in Israel," 
 had fulfilled some of the functions of the prophetic 
 office. God had promised Moses, " I will raise 
 them up a prophet from among their brethren, like 
 unto thee ; and I will put my words in his mouth, 
 and he shall speak unto them all that I shall com- 
 mand him." But with Samuel prophetism assumed 
 the rank and character of an institution. In his 
 day were founded the " schools of the prophets," 
 in which, under the tuition of aged and experi- 
 enced prophets, young men were trained in sacred 
 literature, to become the moral and religious min- 
 isters of the nation. Here they studied the law 
 of Moses, the principles of the theocracy, that they 
 might become their expounders and defenders, 
 and here they attended to the science of sacred 
 music. There were hundreds who were associ- 
 ated and educated in these theological schools, by 
 whose influence, under the control of such instruc- 
 tors as Samuel, Elijah, and Elisha, we may sup- 
 pose the people of Israel were, to a good degree, 
 brought back from the idolatry and degeneracy 
 which had widely obtained during the adminis- 
 
THE PROPHETIC. 95 
 
 tration of the judges. From the time of Samuel, 
 for about seven hundred years, the succession 
 of godly and influential prophets was continued, 
 closing with Malachi, whose last prophetic words 
 of the old era heralded the coming of the 
 prophet-preacher whose solitary voice, sounding 
 in the wilderness, proclaimed the dawm of a more 
 glorious epoch. From Malachi to the Baptist, a 
 period of four hundred years, no prophet's voice 
 w^as heard. 
 
 The prophetic epoch was one of wonderful men 
 and wonderful works. Along its glowing history 
 we may find startling incidents, heroic devotion, 
 unwearied fidelity to God and a faithfulness to 
 men, which paused at no toil nor sacrifice. We 
 behold the chariot of God w4th its horses of fire 
 descending and bearing away the fearless Elijah, 
 without death, to heaven. We catch the sweet 
 strains of the sweet singer of Israel as he tunes his 
 harp to those songs of Zion which have cheered the 
 Church in days of gloom as well as of triumph . We 
 recognize the boldness and faith of Joel and Hosea 
 and Amos and Micah. We hear the sublime pre- 
 dictions of the evangelical Isaiah as he portrays 
 the Lamb of God, wounded for our sins, led to 
 the slaughter for our justification. We are moved 
 by the mournful lamentations of the weeping Jere- 
 miah, and are roused by the tragic and terrific 
 
96 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 threatenings of the exiled Ezekiel. We muse with 
 the rapt Daniel as visions of the future pass grand- 
 ly and gloomily before him, or bow to the lofty 
 tones of the adoring Habakkuk, or rejoice in the 
 cheerful predictions of Haggai and Zechariah. 
 Throughout this entire period there is much to 
 instruct the mind and to stir the heart. 
 
 The Hebrew prophets! Let us seek to know 
 who they were, their manner of life and character, 
 their mode of communicating the messages of the 
 Lord and to learn what we may of their history. 
 
 The prophets were inspired men, who were 
 divinely commissioned to make known the pur- 
 poses of God and to predict future events. " For 
 no prophecy ever came by the will of man : but men 
 spake from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost." 
 In the earlier days prophets were called seers, 
 indicating their receiving of revelations by visions. 
 They were also called men of God, inspired men, 
 servants and angels of Jehovah, and watchmen. 
 They were holy men, men who loved God and 
 reverenced his law, who were probably chosen for 
 the prophetic office on account of their piety. 
 Sometimes they had been educated by older 
 prophets ; sometimes, as in the case of Amos, they 
 were called to their ministry from the common 
 avocations of life. Receiving truth from God by 
 visions or by other modes, they were impelled to 
 
THE PROPHETIC. 97 
 
 declare that truth to those whom it concerned. 
 It is highly probable that the prophetic office was 
 a permanent one ; that the call was for life. It 
 was by the agency of the Holy Spirit that the 
 prophets addressed men. 
 
 Their mission was of great importance. It was 
 designed, not to interfere with any established 
 institutions of the theocracy, but to give vitality 
 and energy to all of them. Provision was early 
 made in the Mosaic law for the prophetic office, 
 and it was under that law, and in its behalf, that 
 the prophets spoke. This office was entirely distinct 
 from the priesthood. The latter was ordinary, 
 the former was extraordinary. The priests super- 
 intended and performed the ritualistic rites and 
 instructed the people in the common duties of re- 
 ligion. But when priests and people became de- 
 generate, when formality had spread through all 
 ranks, or idolatry had assumed the place of true 
 worship, then there was need of an agency which 
 should summon back the recreant priest and the 
 sinful people, which should speak with solemn 
 rebuke and awful warning to both, in the name 
 of the Lord. Such was the mission of the prophets. 
 They were to stand on the downward path and 
 turn back, if possible, the headlong rush of the 
 guilty multitude. They were to reiterate the 
 claims of the holy, but forgotten, law, to declare 
 
98 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 the jealousy of Jehovah, to proclaim his threaten- 
 ings and to announce his mercy on condition of 
 repentance and obedience. They were ministers 
 of God ; maintaining his authority, guarding the 
 purity and permanency of his sacred ordinances. 
 From their retired communion with God, where 
 in holy visions they received the word of the 
 Lord, they came among men to feel the shock of 
 sin and to be jealous for the Lord of Hosts. In- 
 spired by his Spirit, they became bold in defense 
 of his claims. 
 
 They were preachers of the truth ; proclaiming it 
 when it was forgotten ; defending it when it was 
 rejected ; explaining it when it was obscure ; and 
 ever urging it by the highest motives of interest 
 and of duty. At any sacrifice, at the cost of perse- 
 cution and imprisonment, even at the risk of life, 
 they were to uphold religion and to denounce 
 idolatry and iniquity. 
 
 They were watchmen : not only over the people, 
 but over the monarch — over all the interests of 
 the house of Israel. They were the spiritual 
 supervisors and theocratic historians of the na- 
 tion. 
 
 The record of their lives is the testimony of 
 their faithfulness. Alone, relying only upon God, 
 they hurled into the face of kings the charges of 
 their guilt, and pressed home personal responsibility 
 
THE PROPHETIC. 99 
 
 by the declaration, " Thou art the man !" Alone, 
 they arraigned the tumultuous people for their sin- 
 ful courses and demanded their repentance, lest 
 the vengeance of the Almighty should visit them. 
 It is safe to say that without their agency the 
 chosen people would have become like the heathen 
 nations, and darkness, thick as that which brooded 
 over the antediluvian world, would have hung 
 like a pall around the earth. 
 
 It was also a part of their mission to foretell 
 future events. Prophec}', in the limited sense, has 
 been a strong bulwark of Christianity. The great 
 fact, standing distinctly forth on the promulgated 
 records of the Scriptures, that events far distant 
 from the time of the prophet who announced 
 them, events which only the divine mind could 
 foreknow, events in historic and still-transpiring 
 series, were plainly foretold and have been as 
 plainly fulfilled — this fact has been and always 
 will be an impregnable argument for our holy 
 religion. The prophets, therefore, acted not alone 
 for their own times and people, but for the uni- 
 versal Church. They furnished an armory of 
 keen weapons for the use of Christian heroes in 
 every age. They demonstrated the divinity of 
 their mission by the prophetic facts which they 
 announced. They gave proof that the Holy Scrip- 
 tures are indeed the Word of God. The Saviour 
 
100 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 appealed to what Moses and the prophets had 
 written concerning himself; and out of their own 
 Scriptures demonstrated his Messiahship to the 
 unbelieving Jews. From the sure word of proph- 
 ecy, as a lamp shining in a dark place, Paul 
 and Peter and the eloquent Apollos drew their 
 convincing arguments. To this source the fathers 
 of the Church in their conflicts with paganism 
 and unbelief confidently resorted. By the proof 
 from prophecy did Justin Martyr and TertuUian 
 and Augustine convince gainsayers. By this has 
 infidelity in every age been put to silence and 
 shame. It furnishes an argument whose force is 
 not diminished by time, but which increases by 
 a constant accumulation of strength as, in age after 
 age, fulfillment follows fulfillment and prophecy is 
 found to be the utterance of the all-knowing God. 
 The mission of the prophets was therefore for the 
 Church and the world to the end of time. 
 
 The character and manner of life of the prophets 
 may well engage our attention. Their very names 
 represent to us the qualities of goodness and ex- 
 alted virtue. Moses, Samuel, Elijah, Isaiah, Jere- 
 miah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Habakkuk, Malachi, and 
 the others: holy men, above reproach, worthy 
 messengers and prophets of the Lord ! In long 
 and illustrious succession, through hundreds of 
 years, they appeared as the maintainers of re- 
 
THE PROPHETIC. 101 
 
 ligion, loyal among a people inclined to rebellion. 
 Though they were not rich in the wealth of the 
 world, they esteemed themselves the possessors of 
 a priceless inheritance, and the treasures of a na- 
 tion could not have bought them from the service 
 of God. Though they were not exalted to the 
 high places of the earth, they ranked themselves 
 as above kings and warriors, and they did not 
 hesitate to rebuke iniquity wherever it displayed 
 itself. Though they loved retirement and the 
 lowly walks of a useful life, when the divine call 
 came they pressed out into the din of affairs and 
 had a hand in the stirring transactions of the 
 world. From their acquaintance with God, they 
 learned to esteem rightly the great things of re- 
 ligion, and the little things of the world. 
 
 Their life and appearance were humble, and 
 lovers of pleasure may have despised them as 
 they adhered to the simplicity of a holy w^alk. 
 But no one despised them when from heaven 
 they gave in thrilling tones the messages of Je- 
 hovah. Vast assemblages, then, stood awe-struck 
 before them and kings cowered under their de- 
 nunciations. They were meek men, but their 
 meekness was absorbed by a glowing zeal and an 
 intense devotion when the spirit of inspiration 
 moved them. They were men of real piety. The 
 Spirit who employed them had first sanctified 
 
102 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 them. They loved God and his law, and they 
 sought to lead the people to the same holy love. 
 For idols and the whole system of idolatry they 
 cherished a withering contempt, which they ex- 
 pressed in graphic and sarcastic language. They 
 had no patience with Hebrew idolaters — with the 
 people of God who voluntarily heathenized them- 
 selves: and well they might not have. They 
 would have trampled under their feet every false 
 god, and burnt their polluted altars and slaugh- 
 tered their impious priests like victims. They did 
 not pause with the ritual and ceremonies of the 
 theocratic code : but as they knew the excellence 
 of true piet}^ they sought to bring others to the 
 experience of it. The malice of men, persecution, 
 death, were things which they did not take into 
 account when duty was before them. To them 
 all men were alike : they saw in the crowned king 
 nothing more of manhood than in the humblest 
 of his menials. Therefore it mattered not to them 
 to whom their message was to be addressed. 
 Samuel did not hesitate to rebuke the sinning 
 Saul. Nathan no more feared to charge his grave 
 crimes upon David than he would have feared to 
 charge them upon Uriah had he been the guilty 
 man. Elijah bearded the idolatrous and tyran- 
 nical Ahab wherever he found him. Jeremiah, 
 in the palace and amidst the angry courtiers and 
 
THE PROPHETIC. 103 
 
 armed guards of the king, denounced the wicked- 
 ness of Zedekiah. 
 
 They were strong in the Lord and in the power 
 of his might. Legions of angels guarded their 
 footsteps and the banners of archangels waved 
 around them. On one occasion, when a servant 
 of Elisha feared for his master's safety, the prophet 
 prayed that his eyes might be opened, and "he 
 saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses 
 and chariots of fire round about Elisha." 
 
 Personal success and prosperity were of little 
 moment to them, but the welfare of Israel and 
 Zion's prosperity lay near their hearts. The de- 
 cay of the chosen people, the desolations which 
 swept as divine scourges over their land, the 
 growth of idolatry and the triumph of the 
 heathen, — these things preyed upon their peace 
 and destroyed their happiness. With a fond and 
 patriotic attachment they loved their country, and 
 there was not one of them who would not gladly 
 have offered himself as a sacrifice in its behalf 
 They were always jealous for the interests of the 
 nation, and they did not hesitate to rebuke the 
 rash courses and counsels of its kings, to denounce 
 their infamous and treasonable leagues with 
 heathen monarchs, and to summon the people to 
 act as became loyal citizens and true subjects 
 of Jehovah. They were the friends of order, 
 
104 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 justice and good institutions. They sympathized 
 with the oppressed, the widow and the fatherless. 
 They maintained the rights of humanity, the in- 
 terests of virtue, the holy ordinances of religion. 
 Though they were bold and severe, the law of 
 kindness dwelt in their hearts, and it was with 
 bitter lamentations that they bewailed the apos- 
 tasy of the people and the necessity that was upon 
 themselves to rebuke and threaten. 
 
 In whatever condition we view the Hebrew 
 prophets, they have the same exalted character, 
 the same excellence and purity of life. Never has 
 there existed a holier order of men, one more 
 worthy the study and imitation of others. Far 
 above the Jewish people, far above the Jewish 
 priests, they tower in the greatness and grandeur of 
 their eminent character, as the few lofty mountain 
 summits loom in solitary majesty above all else, 
 stretching nearer to heaven, and, when darkness 
 rests on things below them, are crowned early and 
 late with the glory of sunlight. 
 
 The modes in which the prophets communicated 
 the messages of the Lord were various. Sometimes, 
 like orators, they addressed the listening multi- 
 tudes, in language of calm reasoning or in tones 
 of impassioned eloquence. Thus, Elijah, before 
 the tumultuous thousands of Israel, spoke as one 
 who must impress the intellect and move the feel- 
 
THE PROPHETIC. 105 
 
 ings of his auditors. " How long halt ye between 
 two opinions ? If Jehovah be God, follow him : 
 but if Baal, follow him." Sometimes, in the man- 
 ner of public heralds, they cried through the 
 streets of the cities, in wild and startling voices, 
 denouncing the coming doom and calling the 
 guilty people to repentance. Thus, in one of the 
 first instances of foreign missionary labor on rec- 
 ord, a Hebrew prophet appeared on the streets of 
 a proud and godless heathen city, crying along 
 its populous avenues, as with the thrilling voice 
 of doom, '' Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be 
 overthrown !" Sometimes, they waited to be sum- 
 moned before nobles and monarchs to give advice, 
 and then seized the opportunity to deliver their 
 message. Thus, after a night of banqueting 
 and revelry in the palaces of Babylon, when 
 the sacred vessels, captured from the Hebrew 
 temple, had been polluted by the impious rev- 
 elers, and a mysterious hand had come forth 
 and startled the haughty king and his associates 
 by writing their doom upon the wall in letters of 
 fire, Daniel was summoned before Belshazzar, 
 and plainly denounced the crimes of the despot 
 and foretold the overthrow of his power. 
 
 At other times they expressed by striking sym- 
 bols the impending fate of the guilty people, walk- 
 ing before them in sackcloth and with other exter- 
 
106 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 nal marks of anguish. Thus, Jeremiah wore 
 bands and yokes upon his neck, to represent the 
 servitude of some nations. Ezekiel dug through 
 a wall and carried forth his household stuff to 
 symbolize the actions of those who should go into 
 captivity. Again, the prophets recorded the word 
 of the Lord in durable form, to be preserved as a 
 part of the sacred writings of the nation. Hence 
 nearly one-half of the Old Testament consists of 
 their prophetic works, and to the prophets we 
 owe nearly all of the ancient Hebrew Scriptures. 
 It is in their written works that we possess the sweet 
 and magnificent compositions of Isaiah, his sub- 
 lime predictions of the Messiah ; the matchless, 
 mournful elegies of Jeremiah, wherein in plaintive 
 tones he weeps over the desolation of his loved 
 Jerusalem ; the tragic and solemn visions of Eze- 
 kiel, before whose prophetic foresight passed the 
 ruins of demolished cities and the departed grand- 
 eur of proud empires, and on whose enraptured 
 sight rose the Christian commonwealth, the New 
 Jerusalem, the temple of the living God. It is 
 through their treasured writings that we possess 
 the wonderful apocalypse of Daniel, some of which 
 has been fulfilled, some of which awaits fulfill- 
 ment; together with the prophecies of Joel, Na- 
 hum, Habakkuk and their compeers, forming a 
 volume unrivaled in the literature of the world. 
 
THE PROPHETIC. 107 
 
 The pei'sonal history of the prophets, at which 
 we can only glance, opens to us incidents that 
 strikingly illustrate their boldness and faith in 
 God and his distinguishing favor to them. In 
 Samuel we see one who, early consecrated to the 
 Lord by a faithful mother, became one of the 
 most illustrious, as he was one of the most godly, 
 of the Hebrew seers, and who, in an age when 
 military prowess was thought to be the first ac- 
 complishment in a civil ruler, was raised to the 
 judgeship of Israel through his lofty prophetic 
 character and his intrepidity and success as a 
 religious reformer. 
 
 In the life of Elijah we are presented with a 
 rapid succession of heroic deeds and startling mir- 
 acles, commencing with the abrupt and direful 
 oath before guilty Ahab, " As the Lord, the God 
 of Israel, liveth, before whom I stand, there shall 
 not be dew nor rain these years, but according to 
 my word ;" and closing with his sublime transla- 
 tion from earth to heaven by the horses and chariot 
 of fire. Perhaps there is no other one who so thor- 
 oughly represents the spirit of the prophetic 
 epoch as this bold and mysterious prophet. Un- 
 announced, with no trace of his pedigree or early 
 life, he appears before the startled Hebrew mon- 
 arch, with an eye kindled by the fire of inspira- 
 tion, with a voice ringing like a trumpet-call, clad 
 
108 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 in the coarse garb of his order, announces liis 
 stern message, and passes away. The lieavens 
 become like brass over the territories of Israel, 
 and the earth lies scorched and desolate beneath 
 the blaze of an unclouded sun. Famine, disease, 
 death, are the dread results. Three years and a 
 half roll by, and the Hebrew people remains 
 still impenitent. Ahab is their king, Baal is 
 their god. Three years and a half roll by, 
 and the mysterious seer again confronts the 
 impious king. " Is it thou, thou troubler of Is- 
 rael?" is the quick question of the maddened 
 king. "I have not troubled Israel," was the 
 calm reply of the prophet ; " but thou, and thy 
 father's house, in that ye have forsaken the com- 
 mandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed 
 Baalim." He then demanded that the idolatrous 
 prophets, numbering eight hundred and fifty, 
 should be gathered at Mount Carmel, that the 
 great question, who was the true God, might be 
 signally decided. The mandate of the prophet 
 was obeyed; and from all the towns of Israel, 
 prophets, priests and people thronged on all the 
 thoroughfares which led to the top of Carmel. On 
 the route were the marks of Jehovah's wrath in 
 parched and unproductive fields, in dead bodies 
 of famished animals, in wan and wasted faces 
 and forms of men, women, and children. 
 
THE PROPHETIC. 109 
 
 An immense multitude swarmed on the sum- 
 mit of the sacred mount at this call of Elijah. 
 Alone and friendless, the holy man stood amidst 
 the great throng, while thousands frowned in 
 hatred upon him. Like a bugle's silvery tone 
 his clear voice rang out on the still air and over 
 the hushed assemblage, " How long halt ye be- 
 tween two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow 
 him : but if Baal, then follow him." Not a word 
 was spoken in reply. He then proposed that two 
 altars should be built, and that a bullock should 
 be laid upon each, and that the God who should 
 answer by fire should be God. All the people 
 answered, " It is well spoken." From morning 
 even until noon, at their cursed altar, the im- 
 pious priests of Baal invoked the desired result 
 from their god. But there was no answer to 
 their prayers. Excited, they leaped around and 
 upon their altar, while Elijah mocked them and 
 said, " Cry aloud : for he is a god ; either he is 
 musing, or he is gone aside, or he is in a journey, 
 or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked." 
 Maddened and frantic, they shouted, and cut 
 themselves with knives and lancets till the blood 
 gushed upon them. But it was all in vain. The 
 day was wearing away, and there was no voice, 
 nor reply, nor any attention to their cries. 
 
 It was the hour for the evening sacrifice ; Elijah 
 
110 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 called the people near him. With twelve stones 
 he rebuilt the altar of the Lord, placed the bul- 
 lock upon it, and ordered that four barrels of 
 water should be poured upon it once, twice, and 
 the third time. Then, with uncovered head and 
 uplifted hands, he prayed : " Lord, the God of 
 Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known 
 this day that thou art God in Israel, and that 
 I have done all these things at thy word. Hear 
 me, Lord, hear me !" Thereupon, fire fell from 
 heaven and consumed the sacrifice and the altar, 
 and all that was upon it or appertained to it, 
 and even the water in the trench around it. 
 With one accord the people fell upon their faces, 
 and they said, " The Lord, he is God ! The Lord, 
 he is God !" The prophets of Baal were slain ; 
 and on the same day a great rain fell upon the 
 scorched fields of Israel. 
 
 The mantle of Elijah fell upon his disciple and 
 friend, Elisha, whose life was signalized by mir- 
 acles, as had been the life of the former. In 
 deeds of kindness to the widow and the poor, in 
 vindication of the authority of God, in the re- 
 vival of religion, in the tutelage of prophetic 
 pupils, they spent their days. Others of like spirit 
 succeeded them, who endeavored to perpetuate 
 among their people true spiritual worship of God. 
 They were content to sufier and to sacrifice all 
 
THE PROPHETIC. Ill 
 
 worldly things that they might serve God and 
 benefit the nation. In only one do we see high 
 worldly honors associated with devotion and 
 faithfulness to God. At an early age, Daniel was 
 introduced to the royal court of Babylon and 
 educated in the wisdom and learning of the Chal- 
 deans. Although an exile from his native land 
 and exposed to the temptations of a gay and 
 heathen city, he did not yield to the seductions 
 around him, nor did he forget the God of his 
 fathers. True to the religion of Israel, he firmly 
 but courteously refused to comply with the cus- 
 toms of the court, and yet in beauty and knowl- 
 edge he surpassed his young associates. By the 
 wisdom which God gave him in the interpreta- 
 tion of dreams, he rose, like Joseph in Egj^pt, to 
 the highest rank in Babylon. Here he was hon- 
 ored with a series of visions and revelations 
 extending through coming ages and embracing 
 some of the most important events in the world's 
 history. 
 
 At length the mission of the prophets was 
 ended, and the Hebrew people were blessed no 
 more with their priceless instruction, example, 
 and labors. But the fruits of their work did 
 not perish with their lives. Embodied in the 
 sacred Scriptures, their words have been guarded 
 through the ages ; and the men who spake from 
 
112 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 God, being moved by the Holy Spirit, still instruct 
 us. The record of their faithfulness and their 
 sacrifices is before us as a worthy and im- 
 pressive model ; to them the apostle points us as 
 examples for our study and imitation. 
 
 The more sure word of prophecy remains, as a 
 lamp shining in a dark place, opening a period of 
 greater purity and blessedness than has ever been 
 known on earth, when holiness shall be univer- 
 sal and all the kingdoms of the world shall be 
 the kingdoms of our God. To that epoch the 
 prophets pointed forward ; to that day the provi- 
 dences of God are tending. For the coming of 
 that day we should labor and pray. 
 
EPOCH VI. 
 THE MESSIANIC. 
 
THE MESSIANIC. 
 
 Four hundred j^ears of silence, expectation, 
 wonder! Age succeeded age; heaven's counsels 
 seemed to be withdrawn and hidden from the 
 earth. Earth heard no voice of heaven's inspired 
 ambassadors. With the hopeful announcement 
 of the mysterious Malachi, prophecy ceased, and 
 time pressed on to its fulfillment. At length the 
 forerunner, whose coming the last of the proph- 
 ets had predicted, appeared. Consecrated to his 
 office from his birth, trained for its trying duties 
 amidst the solitudes and divine communion of 
 the wilderness, he was one of the most remark- 
 able of Jehovah's heralds to men. His whole 
 appearance and manner of life attracted the 
 attention of men and gathered the multitudes 
 around him. He was clad in raiment of camel's 
 hair, a leathern girdle was around his loins, and 
 his food was the product of the desert, locusts and 
 wild honey. The pause of centuries was broken 
 by his clarion voice, announcing, "The kingdom 
 of heaven is at hand !" From every quarter of 
 
 115 
 
116 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 southern Palestine crowds flocked to his wild 
 retreat, to listen to his bold and faithful appeals, 
 and many were baptized of him in Jordan, con- 
 fessing their sins. The heart of the nation was 
 moved, and in that day of suspense and hope 
 it was not strange that the people questioned 
 whether or not he were the promised Christ. 
 From Jerusalem a delegation of priests and Levites 
 visited him to ascertain the nature of his claims. 
 The Baptist was as humble as he was sincere, and 
 he plainly stated that he was only the harbinger 
 of One mightier than himself, whose shoes' latchet 
 he was not worthy to unloose. 
 
 There was a strange baptism at the Jordan. 
 Reluctantly John administered the rite ; and at 
 the close of it the vaulted heavens were opened, 
 and the Spirit of God descended gently, like a 
 dove, upon the baptized, and a clear voice spoke 
 from on high, " This is my beloved Son, in whom 
 I am well pleased." The tidings of that extraor- 
 dinary baptism flew through the land, and men 
 pondered respecting the character and claims of 
 the Messiah. 
 
 The Messianic epoch is the great epoch in the 
 world's history. It is the center to which all others 
 converge. Patriarchs and prophets, the saints of 
 the earlier day, looked forward. Apostles and 
 
THE MESSIANIC. 117 
 
 martyrs, the saints of the later day, looked back- 
 ward. For this period all other periods exist: to 
 it they are subordinate. Around it, as planet 
 around a sun, they all revolve, getting their im- 
 portance from it and bearing to it their common 
 tribute. The great work of this epoch is that 
 upon which the world depends for its salvation. 
 The life and death of the Redeemer are the confi- 
 dence and joy of the godly throughout all time. 
 Back at the dawn of human experience, the 
 promise of the Saviour shed some Hght into the 
 darkened bowers of paradise. The patriarch 
 Abraham rejoiced to see the day of Christ : and he 
 saw it, and was glad. The reign of the Messiah 
 awoke the sublimest strains of the sweet psalmist 
 of Israel. The prophets foretold the coming and 
 work of Immanuel. In the Redeemer who was 
 to come, the pious, through the preparatory cen- 
 turies, hopefully trusted. The sacrifices smoking 
 on a thousand altars, the bloody rites adminis- 
 tered by consecrated priests, were types of the 
 great Sacrifice once for all off'ered for the sin of 
 the world. 
 
 Since his death, the pious have trusted in the 
 Saviour who has come. Apostles pointed to Cal- 
 vary, and they taught that the blood there shed 
 was all-sufficient. The cross became the im- 
 pressive symbol of the Christian faith. With the 
 
118 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 name of Christ upon their lips, though in the 
 arena and amidst the flames, martyrs have died 
 in triumph. With faith in him, saints in all the 
 ages have found peace in life, and victory in 
 death. 
 
 As the Messianic epoch was the terminating 
 point of all that went before it, so was it the 
 starting point of all that came after it. Like the 
 Spirit, the central guiding power amidst the up- 
 lifted and revolving wheels and living creatures in 
 the vision of Ezekiel, so is the Messiah, amidst the 
 revolving wheels of providence and the living en- 
 ergies which sway the nations and the changing 
 dispensations of the ages, the center and the soul 
 of all. If we cannot fully grasp the spirit of that 
 era and enter into the life which animated it and 
 comprehend the work that was fulfilled then, we 
 can perhaps attain to some approximation to 
 what we would desire. 
 
 The advent of the Prince of Peace took place at 
 a pacific period of the world's history. 
 
 " No war, or battle's sound, 
 Was heard the world around : 
 
 The idle spear and shield were high uphung : 
 The hooked chariot stood 
 Unstained with hostile blood, 
 
 The trumpet spoke not to the armed throng ; 
 And kings sat still, with awful eye. 
 As if they surely knew their sov' reign Lord was by." 
 
THE MESSIANIC. 119 
 
 The conquering legions of Rome had borne her 
 invincible eagles from land to land, and from 
 Gaul to India the nations reposed beneath its 
 sheltering sway. A kind of hush was upon the 
 world, broken only by a low tone, like that which 
 is said to precede a great convulsion in nature, 
 
 " When from the shores 
 And forest-rustling mountains comes a voice 
 That, solemn-sounding, bids the world prepare !" 
 
 Never had there been a time so opportune for 
 the mission of the Christ. The fullness of the time 
 had come for that event which prophecy had an- 
 nounced and for which Providence had been for 
 ages perfecting its designs. The world was open 
 for the spread of Christianity. Along the great 
 thoroughfares that Rome had built to her remotest 
 provinces, on which her couriers flew and over 
 which her legions could be poured, the heralds of 
 the cross could safely journey. The arts and arms 
 of the conquerors had done much toward banish- 
 ing the ignorance and improving the manners of 
 barbarian states. No exciting subject occupied 
 the attention and energies of the nations. They 
 w^ere in a waiting posture. 
 
 Especially were the Hebrews looking and long- 
 ing for their Deliverer, whose coming the patri- 
 archs had foreseen and the prophets foretold. Some, 
 
120 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 like the good old Simeon and the pious Anna, en- 
 tertained correct views of the spirituality of his 
 mission. But the great majority cherished false 
 sentiments to which their pride and selfishness 
 prompted. Their restless spirits fretted under the 
 foreign yoke and they hoped for rescue when their 
 Messiah should appear. Misinterpreting the 
 prophesies of their sacred books, they came to re- 
 gard him as a temporal prince, whose prowess 
 should restore the ancient supremacy of the He- 
 brew commonwealth. Divided into sects clashing 
 among themselves, crushed under the imperious 
 tread of their conquerors, and dead to the spirit 
 of their ancient faith and worship, the Jews were 
 in a pitiable state ; they were not prepared for 
 the reception of a saviour such as Jesus. " He 
 came unto his own, and they that were his own 
 received him not." 
 
 The circumstances of his advent were peculiar. 
 There was a mingled lowliness and greatness which 
 characterized the Messiah from the first — the hum- 
 bleness of humanity with the exaltation of divin- 
 ity. He was the Son of God ; yet he was born of 
 a virgin. An angel voice, in the stillness of night, 
 announced his birth to shepherds who were watch- 
 ing their flocks, and angel choirs celebrated the 
 event in sublimest anthems. Yet on that night 
 the newborn Christ was cradled in a manger. To 
 
THE MESSIANIC. 121 
 
 the obscure home of his parents came Magi from 
 the East, presenting costly offerings and paying 
 reverence to him as to an infant prince. Like 
 other children, he was carried to the temple to be 
 presented to the Lord, but there the inspired 
 Simeon and the prophetess Anna welcomed him 
 as the Hope of Israel. In his coming there was 
 no outward pomp, no regal nor military splendor ; 
 all was humility, the hidings of divinity. For a 
 time the wonders that marked his advent may 
 have impressed the people, but in the retirement 
 of Nazareth Jesus was forgotten ; the memory of 
 those wonders was preserved by few. His pres- 
 ence, when a lad, among the doctors of the temple, 
 where he manifested a wisdom far surpassing his 
 years, may have revived, to a limited extent, the 
 earlier impressions ; but again he passed away 
 into a deeper obscurity than before. 
 
 Galled and crushed under the Eoman power, 
 with no harmony among themselves, and having 
 but little that was bright in the future, their temple 
 pillaged and its worship declining, the Hebrew 
 people were in a mournful condition. The proud 
 Pharisees looked with scorn upon all others and 
 dwelt apart in their hypocritical sanctity. The 
 Sadducees, self-confiding and bent ©n ease and 
 pleasure, denied the greatest truths of man's being 
 and cared for little else than their own temporal 
 
122 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 gratification. The Essenes, indulging in sickly 
 revery and aiming at a sort of transcendental 
 experience, severed their connection with society 
 and frittered away the facts of religion. The mul- 
 titude, more debased than their superiors, imitated 
 only the vices of those above them and plunged 
 more deeply into sin. Accordingly, the state of 
 the Jews at large was mournful indeed. Igno- 
 rance, profligacy, wickedness, abounded, and little 
 of their ancient character and customs was left 
 save a blind devotion to the externals of the 
 Mosaic institutions. Their traits appear repul- 
 sive ; their acts are those of obdurate and cruel 
 men. 
 
 Among such people, at this era, a divine Life 
 was introduced. The Word became flesh and 
 dwelt among men, full of grace and truth. By 
 the mysterious union of the divine and human 
 natures, Jesus was prepared for his redemptive and 
 mediatorial work. 
 
 It is difficult to grasp or to describe the life of 
 the Saviour. It was unique and excellent : Godlike, 
 and therefore beyond comparison with all others ; 
 human, and therefore resembling the life of all 
 men. The life of Jesus transcends all other lives : 
 from the most perfect of men we look with adoring 
 contemplation to Christ, as from the best human 
 works we turn to the handiwork of the great 
 
THE MESSIANIC. 123 
 
 Creator. From every point of view we are im- 
 pressed with the same pre-eminence of his life. 
 As a child, as a friend, as a teacher, as an ex- 
 ample, as Redeemer, Jesus stands alone. From 
 the morning of his days until the evening, he is 
 wonderful, God manifest in the flesh. 
 
 Of his childhood we know but little. Then he 
 was the delight of the family, a solace and a 
 wonder to his mother, who in her heart pondered 
 his sayings and actions. Of his manhood the 
 records are sufficient to show that in him every 
 grace and excellence met. He was meek and 
 lowly, with no aspirations for earthly distinction ; 
 and to the tempter he presented no vulnerable 
 point. His kingdom was not of this world. When 
 he was reviled, he reviled not again; when he 
 suffered he threatened not. He was gentle among 
 the arrogant; forgiving and kind to those who 
 wronged him. Like a lamb he was led even to 
 the slaughter. In him we see a condescension 
 that never can be paralleled. It is seen not only 
 in his coming into the world, but also in the 
 manner in which he came, and in all his life 
 after he came. He was God's own Son, yet he 
 became the Son of man. He was accustomed to 
 the dignities of heaven, yet he took a low place 
 among the people of the world. Turning away 
 from the powerful and learned in their places of 
 
124 BIBLICAL :^pocns. 
 
 pride, he sought the society of the humble and 
 needy. His parents were in lowly life : to them 
 he became obedient. From those who were en- 
 gaged in the common occupations of life he sum- 
 moned twelve to be his apostles. To the poor he 
 preached the gospel. On foot, often alone, he 
 went about doing good, sought more by those who 
 looked to him for benefits than by those who de- 
 sired to benefit him. Though the treasures of the 
 universe were at his disposal, he was often in want ; 
 though the Creator of all worlds, he had not where 
 to lay his head. Though he was rich, yet for our 
 sakes he became poor. Though he might have 
 had holy society, he mingled with those who had 
 no love for his character, no regard for his claims. 
 For others' welfare he sacrificed ease, time, com- 
 fort, bodily rest, the things that men are accus- 
 tomed to prize. He pleased not himself. 
 
 He called his disciples, friends. As an example* 
 to them, he washed their feet. He ate with pub- 
 licans and sinners. He came to seek and to save 
 the lost. 
 
 Children were his delight. His gentle nature 
 found gratification in their innocent manners and 
 loving disposition ; he welcomed their presence, 
 and they rejoiced in him. He taught his disciples 
 to become as little children. He was a man of 
 sorrows, and acquainted with grief. He humbled 
 
THE MESSIANIC. 125 
 
 himself not merely to a lowly life, but he became 
 obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 
 His self-denial was unequaled. Instead of the 
 joy that was set before him, he consented to un- 
 dergo the shame and pain of his earthly life. 
 
 His compassion was godlike. With deep con- 
 cern, with intense sympathy, he beheld the miser- 
 able condition of men. Over Jerusalem he wept as 
 with the grief of a father. Among the sinful and 
 the suffering he walked with a heart whose com- 
 passion embraced all their woes, which went down 
 to the lowest and vilest and sought the welfare of all. 
 His pity led to the exercise of his divine attributes. 
 To him the people were like sheep without a shep- 
 herd, and he longed to be their Shepherd. The 
 claims of the poor, the wants of the widow and 
 fatherless, the afflictions of the wretched in body 
 or in mind, appealed to his heart, and he was 
 swift to afford them sympathy and aid. 
 
 It were difficult to enumerate all the excellences 
 of his character as they were illustrated in his 
 wonderful life. He was bold, patient, discreet. 
 In wisdom he surpassed the sages of the world. 
 A greater than Solomon was he. 
 
 His forgiveness was divine. For his worst ene- 
 mies he prayed earnestly. In purity and temper- 
 ance, in love to God and benevolence to men, he far 
 outranked all that the world has elsewhere wit- 
 
126 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 nessed. He loved the world, and the untiring 
 devotion of his whole life was a testimony to the 
 depth and strength of that love. No labor was 
 too arduous, no danger to imminent, no sacrifice 
 too painful, no time too precious, for securing the 
 salvation of sinners. From place to place he jour- 
 neyed till his way-worn frame was almost ex- 
 hausted. Then, famishing, and resting on the 
 well's cold curb, he sought to lead the sinning 
 to God. Depriving himself of needful sleep, he 
 spent whole nights in prayer in the solitudes of 
 the mountains. 
 
 His benevolence did not exhaust itself in a life 
 of activity, toil, and sacrifice. It led him to suf- 
 ferings such as no one else has ever endured, to a 
 death whose strange and painful character awoke 
 even the sympathy of inanimate nature. Such 
 was Jesus. For us he travailed, wept, died. 
 
 These separate excellences of character and life 
 were harmoniously combined in Christ, while at 
 the same time they were unmingled with the frail- 
 ties and imperfections of humanity, thus form- 
 ing a model, beautiful, proportionate, consistent, 
 divine. It was God with us. 
 
 The works of Christ were more striking to the 
 people of his day than was his life. The latter 
 was, naturally, to a great degree retired and 
 unknown by the world. Much of his time was 
 
THE MESSIANIC. Ill 
 
 spent with his chosen disciples, much was spent 
 in places aloof from the busy and turbulent 
 crowd. But the former were public and palpable, 
 and fitted to produce a deep impression on all 
 who witnessed them. They were the tokens of 
 divinity. They commenced with the ministry of 
 Christ and they continued to its close. They 
 open to us a succession of facts, not indeed 
 as stupendous as those which characterized the 
 Mosaic economy, but more in harmony with the 
 spirit of Christianity and the claims of its 
 Founder. They were works of kindness and 
 benevolence, fitted to promote human happiness 
 and to diminish human suffering. Seldom for 
 himself, often for others, did he employ his divine 
 attributes in miraculous works. The condition of 
 the blindj'the deaf, the dumb, touched the sympa- 
 thetic heart of Jesus. All the suffering excited 
 his commiseration and he delighted to help and 
 relieve them. 
 
 In his day men suffered with a peculiar and 
 awful infliction known as demoniacal possession. 
 The effects of this possession were dreadful. Men 
 were torn and lashed to fury ; they were deprived 
 of the use of their physical and mental faculties 
 by the demon within them. Life was made a 
 misery to themselves and a terror to others. 
 Christ mercifully released many from the presence 
 
128 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 and terrific tyranny of evil spirits. They recog- 
 nized his authority and stood in awe of him. 
 Men might doubt as to his claims, but these cried 
 out, " We know who thou art, thou Holy One of 
 God !" 
 
 The cause and effects and history of this dread- 
 ful malady and scourge are imperfectly understood 
 and perhaps cannot be explained. It may be 
 that as Satan and his minions knew of the mis- 
 sion of Christ and his advent, they were moved 
 to oppose him, to do what they could to check his 
 influence, to thwart his designs, and so at about 
 the time of his birth made an irruption from 
 hell, adopted a new mode of assault, by this series 
 of diabolical movements. As Christ was to become 
 miraculously united to human nature, so they 
 possessed men and tried to counteract' his work. 
 
 The manner in which Jesus rebuked and de- 
 feated them, probably put a speedy end to their 
 new and fiendish plans. At Gadara there were 
 two men possessed with devils, who had their 
 haunts among the tombs. They are described as 
 exceeding fierce, night and day wandering in the 
 mountain and amongst the sepulchers of the dead, 
 attacking those who passed near them, crying 
 with loud voices, cutting their naked bodies with 
 sharp stones, and, whenever bound, snapping 
 asunder their chains and fetters and escaping. 
 
THE MESSIANIC. 129 
 
 By the word of Jesus' the evil spirits were expelled, 
 and the poor men sat at the feet of their deliverer, 
 clothed and in their right mind. We are told of 
 a youth who was seized by an evil spirit, and 
 torn so that he uttered cries of woe and foamed 
 and gnashed his teeth and pined away, and some- 
 times fell into fire and again into water. Jesus, 
 at the request of the youth's father, rebuked the 
 foul invader, and banished him from his usurped 
 dominion. But his departure was attended with 
 such anguish that for a time the child seemed to 
 be dead. 
 
 In multitudes of similar cases, Christ illustrated 
 his power and benevolence. He was ever ready 
 to relieve human sorrow and sufifering, and no 
 one who applied to him was repulsed or sent 
 away unblessed. His ear was ever open to 
 the cry of the desolate-hearted; to the hum- 
 blest he bent with manifest sympathy; for the 
 sinful and wretched he was prompt to exercise 
 his divine attributes. His own wants were for- 
 gotten in behalf of those whom he came to bene- 
 fit and to save. He healed the sick ; he recalled 
 the dead to life : wherever he went fountains of 
 gladness and blessing gushed forth. A kind of 
 heavenly atmosphere surrounded him, and who- 
 ever came within its influence was healed and 
 sanctified. 
 
130 BIBLICAL EPOCHS, 
 
 Touching instances of his compassionate works 
 are given by the evangelists. A popular poet of 
 our own has gracefully rendered one of them : 
 
 Blind Bartimeus at the gates 
 
 Of Jericho in darkness waits ; 
 
 He hears the crowd ; — he hears a breath 
 
 Say, It is Christ of Nazareth ! 
 
 And calls in tones of agony, 
 
 Itjoov, hlETjcdv fie ! 
 
 The thronging multitude increase : 
 Blind Bartimeus, hold thy peace ! 
 But still, above the noisy crowd, 
 The beggar's cry is shrill and loud ; 
 Until they say. He calleth thee ! 
 Qapneij eyeipaij (piovel ae / 
 
 Then saith the Christ, as silent stands 
 The crowd, What wilt thou at my hands? 
 And he replies. Oh give me light I 
 Kabbi, restore the blind man's sight 1 
 And Jesus answers, 'Tnaye, 
 'H rciaTiq aov gecuke oe! 
 
 Ye that have eyes, yet cannot see, 
 In darkness and in misery, 
 Eecall those mighty voices three, 
 
 IrjGOV, EAETjaSv jUE f 
 
 QdpGEij E-yEipai, vTrajE ! 
 
 'H TTIGTIC GOV GEGCiKE G£ / 
 
 Amongst all his works of wonder, none 
 more fully illustrated his great benevolence than 
 
THE 3rESSIANIC. 131 
 
 the three instances which are given of his re- 
 storing the dead to life. In these three cases 
 there is a remarkable gradation as respects the 
 period during which the persons had been 
 dead. 
 
 At the south of Mount Tabor was the city of 
 Nain. In his walk through Galilee, the Saviour 
 approached that city, attended by his chosen dis- 
 ciples and a concourse of people. He had deliv- 
 ered his matchless Sermon on the Mount, that 
 had astonished the people by the truthfulness and 
 authority of its doctrine, which far surpassed the 
 teachings of the scribes. On the previous day he 
 had restored from sickness the servant of a pious 
 Roman centurion, whom, though at a distance and 
 unseen, he cured by his word. Now the crowd, 
 undoubtedly, expected further wonders. As the 
 Messiah, his disciples, and the reverential people 
 came near the walls of Nain, they met a funeral 
 procession issuing from the gate. It was the 
 funeral of a young man, the only son of his 
 mother, who was a widow. Many of the people 
 of the city expressed their sympathy for the 
 -Jiereaved mother, accompanying her to the burial 
 of her soxi. As Jesus beheld the weeping woman 
 in her loneliness and anguish, his sympathy was 
 stirred. Perhaps he thought of his own mother 
 whom he tenderly loved. Approaching the 
 
132 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 mourner, he said in compassionate tones, " Weep 
 not!" He touched the bier, and the procession 
 stopped. It was a moment of suspense to the 
 friends and to the multitude. The voice of 
 Jesus broke the stillness, saying, " Young man, I 
 say unto thee. Arise !" The pale form arose, the 
 tides of life flowed again in their wonted chan- 
 nels, and he began to speak. To the amazed and 
 silent mother the Redeemer delivered her lost 
 son. Fear fell upon every beholder, and as they 
 passed solemnly away, one said, " A great prophet 
 is arisen among us," and another, "God hath 
 visited his people." 
 
 Capernaum was a chief seat of the Saviour's 
 teachings and miracles. Once, a ruler of the 
 synagogue there came and fell before him, be- 
 seeching him to come and heal his daughter, a 
 child of twelve years, who was at the point of death. 
 Jesus at once went with the father, who was anx- 
 ious lest his daughter should die before they could 
 reach the house. On the road word was brought 
 to the ruler that the child was dead. Jesus com- 
 forted him with the promise that she should yet 
 live. Arriving at the house, Jesus, with only 
 the parents and three of his favored disciples, 
 entered the chamber where the dead lay. Quickly, 
 without ostentation, he took the hand of the 
 maiden, simply saying, "Maiden, arise." Her 
 
THE MESSIANIC. 133 
 
 spirit returned and she rose up immediately, to 
 the amazement of her parents. 
 
 In the little village of Bethany, near Jerusalem, 
 lived a family to whom Jesus was tenderly at- 
 tached, Martha, Mary and their brother Lazarus. 
 The brother was taken sick, and the sisters sent 
 to Christ the affectionate message, " Lord, behold, 
 he whom thou lovest is sick." Before the tidings 
 reached the Master, Lazarus had died ; and when 
 Jesus came to the house it was to hear from the be- 
 reaved sisters the lament, "Lord, if thou hadst been 
 here our brother had not died." Jesus wept. He 
 loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Their sor- 
 row was his sorrow. With them, Martha calm and 
 resigned, Mary bowed in excess of grief, and with 
 his disciples, Jesus came to the grave. It was a 
 cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus directed 
 them to remove the stone, which they did. He 
 then led the little company in prayer. The prayer 
 was ended, and for a moment all was still by the 
 silent grave. Then he cried with a loud voice, 
 " Lazarus, come forth !" He that was dead came 
 forth, bound hand and foot with grave-clothes: 
 and his face was bound about with a napkin. 
 
 The miraculous works of Jesus were frequent 
 and impressive ; yet they had but little effect upon 
 the mass of the people. Many, indeed, believed 
 on him, but the great majority felt indifferent to 
 
134 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 his claim while they were reproved by his life. 
 Those who had authority and influence, as a gen- 
 eral thing, became his enemies and even plotted 
 for his death. 
 
 The teachings of Jesus were in harmony with 
 his works and his life. They were of a lofty char- 
 acter and fell on the ears of men as with the 
 voice of divinity. There was a tone terrible and 
 withering in his rebukes. Pharisees and scribes, 
 sinners of every grade, cowered in his majestic 
 presence when he denounced woes upon them for 
 their crimes. When he spoke before assemblies 
 of the people, they listened as to no common 
 teacher. We read, " The multitudes were aston- 
 ished at his teaching : for he taught them as one 
 having authority, and not as their scribes." The 
 mingled simplicity and wisdom of his words fell 
 upon them like tones from heaven, and charmed 
 while they instructed and reproved. There was in 
 his simplest speech a power which they could 
 not withstand. On one occasion his enemies sent 
 officers to take him; so awed were they by his 
 language and bearing that they returned without 
 him, and gave as their excuse to those who had sent 
 them, " Never man so spake." On another occa- 
 sion an armed band, with murderous intent, in- 
 vaded his retirement to capture him. Jesus came 
 forth to them and asked whom they sought, and 
 
THE MESSIANIC. 135 
 
 when they told him, " Jesus of Nazareth," he said, 
 " I am he : " whereupon those rude men went 
 backward and fell to the ground. 
 
 He went down to the place where he had spent 
 his childhood and preached in their synagogue on 
 the Sabbath. The people who heard him were 
 astonished and wondered at the words of grace 
 which proceeded out of his mouth. At the great 
 assemblies on the occasions of the annual feasts of 
 the nation he spoke as with the authority of God. 
 He presented the claims of his kingdom as su- 
 preme, and demanded the loyalty of the human 
 heart for himself. He set forth a spiritual dis- 
 pensation which, in the passing away of the old 
 dispensation, should run parallel with the life of 
 the race and should have the allegiance of the 
 world. He lifted men's minds to a higher stand- 
 point than they had before attained, and gave to 
 the people a broader range of vision than the old 
 economy had contemplated. He exalted the divine 
 law and gave its sanctions a new impressiveness 
 and a stronger grasp on the life of man. At the 
 same time he revealed the way of reconciliation 
 to which the earliest prophecies had pointed and 
 which had been typified in the sacrifices of the 
 Levitical code. 
 
 He taught of God, and set up in his Church, as 
 one of its perpetual sacraments, an enduring 
 
136 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 monument to the mysterious Trinity of the God- 
 head. Of the final judgment and the future state 
 he spoke truth that was of overshadowing and 
 supreme importance and that was fitted to move 
 all the sensibility of the soul. With all that there 
 was of dignity, force, and awfulness in his teach- 
 ing, there was also a tenderness and love which 
 marked him as a sympathizing Saviour. He had 
 words of solace for the smitten hearts of mourners, 
 words of pity for the miserable and convicted 
 sinners, words of kindly warning for the reckless 
 wanderers from God. To the wretched and de- 
 spairing he said, "Come unto me, all ye that labor 
 and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." 
 Over those about to perish, he wept with bitter 
 lamentation. To the saddened disciples whom he 
 was soon to leave, he spoke words of affection 
 and cheer. His instructions were adapted to men 
 as they are, and to their peculiar needs. Christ 
 was a practical teacher. He taught men how to 
 live, how to be ready for the future life. He re- 
 quired holiness of men — a holiness which, being 
 supreme in the soul, should control the conduct 
 and lead to resemblance to God. The ancient 
 economy was " the bond written in ordinances," 
 and although God designed that it should foster a 
 spiritual religion, yet the Jews had made it void 
 by their traditions. Christ reasserted the claims 
 
THE MESSIANIC. 137 
 
 of the moral law, enthroned it in supreme au- 
 thority, and swept away the cumbersome cere- 
 monies of an earlier dispensation. He taught 
 that God takes cognizance of the hidden motives 
 and designs, and judges not so much from the 
 external manifestation as from the internal prin- 
 ciple. And this is a cardinal, distinctive feature 
 of the Master's instruction. 
 
 Notwithstanding the godlike life, the miracu- 
 lous works, and the heavenly instructions of Jesus, 
 he was not acknowledged and received by the 
 world. In accordance with ancient prophecy, he 
 was despised and rejected of men. All along in his 
 divine ministry there had been those who desired 
 and plotted his destruction. His goodness was 
 his greatest crime. They who felt rebuked by his 
 holy life and teachings, feared his influence and 
 hated his power. In his triumph they foresaw 
 their own downfall. Rulers, scribes, priests, saw 
 that their authority was waning before the power 
 of his influence and that the people were yielding 
 to his claim. They said, " The world is gone after 
 him." Here and there, also, one and another 
 among the learned and influential were con- 
 vinced that he was the true and promised Messiah. 
 His enemies took counsel how they might take 
 Jesus and kill him. 
 
 For the last time the toil-worn Teacher came 
 
138 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 up from his wanderings to the sacred Hebrew 
 capital. He came in triumph. From Olivet 
 multitudes thronged his pathway and escorted 
 him with regal honors. They spread their gar- 
 ments and branches of trees in his path. With 
 loud exultations they cried, " Hosanna ! Blessed is 
 he that cometh in the name of the Lord !" From 
 the city other multitudes came out to meet him 
 and give him welcome. Not since the days of 
 Israel's kings had such a triumph been witnessed 
 in the city of David. The whole city was moved. 
 He came to the temple and there healed the blind 
 and tlie lame, while the children hailed him with 
 their hosannas. During that passover week he 
 continued his instructions and warnings to the 
 people. More insidiously than ever his enemies 
 conspired for his death. They found a traitor in 
 one of his own apostles. The plot thickened 
 around the person of Christ. 
 
 Unmoved by all that was transpiring, Jesus, 
 with his disciples, partook of the solemn feast 
 of the nation. The city was crowded with those 
 who had come from all parts of Palestine and 
 from foreign marts of trade, to participate in 
 the gorgeous and scenic ceremonies of that festival 
 week. To none was it more full of thrilling in- 
 terest than to the little group, Jesus and his apos- 
 tles, in an upper chamber of the capital. Years 
 
THE MESSIANIC. 139 
 
 before, after the manner of the old philosophers, 
 he had called them from their humble occupations 
 to accompany him in his labors and to learn from 
 him of the realities of his kingdom. The philos- 
 ophy which he taught them was superior to any 
 which the schools had taught. Although of 
 widely dissimilar traits, their personality had been 
 greatly modified by their intimate intercourse 
 with One so exalted and heavenly. The impetu- 
 ous Peter and the loving John were there, the tw^o 
 most interesting members of the group. There 
 was the sincere and guileless Bartholomew, and 
 James, the first apostolic martyr. Around that 
 table w^re men w^ho were to leave strong impres- 
 sions on the thought of the world and were to 
 introduce the grandest revolution in human his- 
 tory, written not in blood and sorrow, on ensan- 
 guined plains, with slaughtered thousands, but 
 in penitences and prayers and lives of holiness 
 and blessed service in the eternal heavens. 
 
 As they partook of the paschal supper, Jesus 
 instituted a new sacrament, to be observed when 
 the Hebrew passover should be forgotten, in 
 perpetual memorial of his atoning w^ork for the 
 world, the new Supper of the Lord, commemorat- 
 ing by simple symbols his body which wasjoroken 
 and his blood which was shed for the sins of 
 mankind. The minds of the apostles w^ere unpre- 
 
140 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 pared for such an occasion, and it was with 
 bewildering doubt and fear that they passed 
 through the solemnities of that remarkable even- 
 ing. Mournful to them must have been the voice 
 of their Master, as with them he chanted, " The 
 cords of death compassed me: I found trouble 
 and sorrow," or as in exulting strains they sang, 
 " The stone which the builders rejected is become 
 the head of the corner." Most affecting must 
 have been those petitions which he offered in the 
 fullness of his affection and solicitude for them. 
 It was a night long to be remembered by the 
 apostles of our Lord. 
 
 The hush of midnight was on the homes of 
 Jerusalem when Jesus and his disciples passed 
 along its deserted streets, across tlie flowing Ke- 
 dron to the garden of Gethsemane, wdiere he 
 was accustomed to go for retirement and prayer. 
 For the last time he entered this lonely retreat 
 where he had often found strength for duty and 
 trial in communion with his Father. A deep 
 shadow passed over the soul of Jesus at that 
 midnight hour. It was midnight in his heart. 
 Sorrow poured, like surging waves, through his 
 soul. He said, " My soul is exceeding sorrowful, 
 even unto death." He earnestly asked his three 
 beloved disciples to watch with him. Alone he 
 passed into the deeper shadows of the garden, and 
 
THE MESSIANIC. 141 
 
 prayed that, if it were possible, he might be 
 spared the sufferings that were appointed for him. 
 " Nevertheless," he said, " not as I will, but as thou 
 wilt." An angel came from heaven to strengthen 
 him in that supreme trial. But his agony in- 
 creased, and his only help was in prayer. Again 
 and again he sought support where only the 
 wounded and suffering can ever find the help 
 which they must have. God gave him strength 
 for the approaching ordeal, and calmly he an- 
 nounced that the time for his betrayal had come. 
 
 Hardly had he spoken when the glare of ap- 
 proaching torches flickered through the groves of 
 olive trees and the tread of armed men rang 
 along the paths leading to Gethsemane. Judas, 
 the traitor, was at their head, leading them to the 
 hallowed spot consecrated by the agony and prayer 
 of the Son of God. Those rude men laid hands on 
 Jesus and hurried him to the house of the high- 
 priest. Dismayed and perplexed, the apostles de- 
 serted him and fled, leaving him alone with his 
 enemies. 
 
 The story of his trial is brief and saddening. 
 He was brought before the Sanhedrin, whose 
 members hated him and had long desired his 
 death. False witnesses testified against him. The 
 high-priest perverted his language to blasphemy. 
 With one voice, they all condemned him to death. 
 
142 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 Perished was the ancient Hebrew j ustice ! Perished 
 was the grandeur of the old Mosaic law, which for 
 thousands of years had been the bulwark of hu- 
 man freedom and of personal rights! Perished 
 was the sacred character of the chief priest of the 
 venerated Hebrew religion ! By the highest Jew- 
 ish tribunal, the Son of God, the Messiah of that 
 favored nation, the Saviour of the world, was pro- 
 nounced worthy of death ! Darkest picture, sad- 
 dest scene in the jurisprudence of the world! 
 
 But they could not enforce their condemnation. 
 Eoman law was supreme in the Hebrew metrop- 
 olis, and that stern and potent law guarded the 
 life of every individual wherever the eagles of 
 the empire testified to its sway. Behold the 
 priests and elders of the Jews, and the scribes, 
 hurrying in the early morning to the palace 
 of Herod, where Pilate, the Roman procurator, 
 was then residing! Witness their eagerness to 
 prejudice and overawe the Roman judge; their 
 thirst for the blood of Jesus! At first they 
 touched the jealous nature of Pilate, then they 
 appealed to his fears, and at last, when the weak 
 magistrate had yielded step by step before them, 
 when he had scourged the innocent Redeemer 
 and had brought him forth, wounded and bleed- 
 ing, to their presence, as if the sight of blood only 
 maddened them the more, they cried out, with 
 
THE MESSIANIC. 143 
 
 tumultuous voices, " Crucify him ! Crucify him !" 
 Their ferocious mandate was obeyed, and Roman 
 justice fell prostrate before Jewish malice and 
 frenzy. 
 
 After this followed a succession of scenes of 
 the most painful nature. Jesus was given up to 
 the rudeness and insolence of the rough soldiery. 
 They clothed him in purple and crowned him 
 with thorns and gave him a reed for a scepter, 
 and with mock reverence kneeled before him as 
 before an earthly king. Insult followed indignity. 
 They spit upon him and smote him and knelt at 
 his feet in derisive worship. 
 
 Amidst these abhorrent scenes a terrible tragedy 
 was enacted. The traitor Judas, stung with re- 
 morse, hurled at the feet of those who had hired 
 him the price of blood, and rushed from the tem- 
 ple and hanged himself. For him Mercy could 
 not plead, and Justice could not tarry. He went 
 to his own place, a fearful witness to the fact of 
 human depravity and a dreadful instance of the 
 certainty of divine retribution. 
 
 It was nearly nine o'clock in the morning, 
 when a strange procession passed forth from Jeru- 
 salem on the way to Calvary. First went the 
 mail-clad soldiery of Rome; then the meek Re- 
 deemer, almost exhausted by the endurance of 
 the morning and the agony of the preceding 
 
144 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 night ; next, a black man bearing the cross, and 
 then a great company of the friends of Jesus, be- 
 wailing his fate with loud lamentations. On Gol- 
 gotha was the Crucifixion. 
 
 Christ died for man. The burden of a world's 
 transgression was laid upon him. In that death 
 he finished the work that was given him to do. 
 
 Nature expressed her sympathy for her suf- 
 fering Creator. For three long hours darkness 
 was spread like a pall over all the land. As by 
 unseen hands the veil of the temple was torn in 
 twain. An earthquake shook the city and rent 
 the ancient hills. Graves were opened and the 
 sheeted dead walked forth, went into the holy city, 
 startling those to whom they appeared. Fear fell 
 upon the centurion and his soldiers, and they ex- 
 claimed, " Truly this was the Son of God !" 
 
 On the third day of his sepulture, an angel 
 stood at the tomb, and at his presence the earth 
 quaked and the keepers became as dead men. 
 Victorious over death, Christ arose ! 
 
 For a little season the Redeemer appeared to 
 his wondering disciples and blessed them with 
 his presence, his counsels, and prayers. On a 
 mountain of Galilee, he communed with above 
 five hundred of his assembled disciples. Finally 
 from Jerusalem he led his apostles out near to 
 Bethany, where he blessed them. Then he was 
 
THE MESSIANIC. 145 
 
 parted from them, and, environed in a cloud, he 
 rose to heaven, where he ever liveth to make in- 
 tercession for his friends. 
 
 So ends the wondrous Messianic epoch, the cen- 
 tral epoch of the world's history. We pass back 
 over the life of the adorable Saviour, recalling 
 his lowly parentage, his eminent and holy char- 
 acter, his benevolent and miraculous works; we 
 listen to his godlike teachings and learn of his 
 superhuman sufferings, and we know that all this 
 was for us. For us Christ is the Way, the Truth, 
 the Life. He is our Brother, our Friend, our 
 Teacher, our Redeemer, our Lord. 
 
 % 
 
EPOCH VII. 
 
 THE APOSTOLIC. 
 
THE APOSTOLIC. 
 
 Galilee was the northern of the three great 
 divisions of Palestine; Samaria was the south- 
 ern ; Judea lay between them. Galilee was itself 
 divided into two portions, upper and lower. The 
 upper portion, at the time of Christ, was inhab- 
 ited by various clans, fragments of surrounding 
 nations, who had found secure retreats among the 
 fastnesses of its protecting mountains. The lower 
 portion was the residence of a brave, high-spirited, 
 industrious, and independent people, who spurned 
 the Roman yoke and were ever ready for sedition. 
 Here Jesus lived, here he taught and wrought his 
 miracles, here he selected his apostles, and here 
 he showed himself to his disciples after his resur- 
 rection. 
 
 Some of the towns of Galilee were Bethsaida, 
 Cana, Capernaum, Chorazin, Nain, Nazareth, Ti- 
 berias — names which recall interesting scenes in 
 the life and history of Jesus and his apostles. 
 
 The character and occupations of the people 
 were more favorable for the work of Jesus than 
 
 149 
 
150 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 were those of the people of Judea. The influence 
 of the metropoUs, with its pride and bigotry, its 
 clashing sects and degenerate morals, had not 
 extended into Galilee. And although there were 
 rudeness and ignorance which, at first, might be 
 thought to detract from the capability of the Gali- 
 lean people, yet these were associated with other 
 traits, which, sanctified and guided, would pro- 
 duce the qualifications and character that Jesus 
 sought in the men, who, at that epoch, in the 
 face of opposition and at the risk of life, were to 
 propagate the new religion of which he was the 
 Founder. 
 
 Jesus and his apostles were Galileans. In 
 that obscure region, from humble beginnings, 
 Christianity entered upon its career of conquest. 
 At first, as we have seen, a single Person ap- 
 peared, ushered before men by divine tokens 
 and revealing attributes of deity. Slowly his 
 kingdom made its way against the prejudice 
 and hostility of Judaism ; then, emerging from 
 its Galilean home, it took position within the 
 sacred precincts of the temple, and demanded the 
 confidence and loyalty of the ancient people of 
 God ; and then in its resistless progress it went 
 onward over the trembling shrines and temples 
 of paganism, until Christianity wore upon its 
 own brow the diadem of the Caesars and swayed 
 
THE APOSTOLIC. 151 
 
 its scepter over the known world. Although 
 from age to age its successes and reverses have 
 alternated, yet now it is widely extending its 
 triumphs and faithfully working for universal 
 dominion. 
 
 To the teachings and example of the apostles 
 may be traced the zeal and self-denial and world- 
 wide benevolence which, in every period following 
 theirs, have characterized their successors. As we 
 pass back to the review of their lives and times 
 we find the noblest exemplifications of the faith 
 and heroism which the gospel is fitted to nur- 
 ture ; we see the spirit of Christianity developed in 
 lives of supreme devotion, pausing at no personal 
 sacrifice or danger, and leading on through per- 
 secution to the martyr's death and the martyr's 
 crown ; nor can we fail to find the wonderful re- 
 sults which followed such faith and devotion. 
 
 Soon after Jesus had entered on his public 
 ministry, he sought for a select number of disci- 
 ples, to be with him as personal friends and com- 
 panions, to whom he could impart the great things 
 of his kingdom and who would remain as wit- 
 nesses of his godlike life and instructions after he 
 should have gone away. He selected men whom 
 he deemed to be fitted for the station and work of 
 the apostleship. He did not seek them among the 
 wealthy and influential families of Judea, whose 
 
152 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 position and power might have been considered 
 desirable as an aid to his cause. He did not 
 go to the Hebrew schools and choose those who 
 had been thoroughly educated in the law and 
 theology of the nation, and whose learning and 
 eloquence might have been thought most impor- 
 tant for gaining adherents to the gospel. He went 
 to the uneducated, courageous, and independent 
 Galileans ; he chose men who were unknown to 
 the world, who were free from the prejudices and 
 pride which prevailed through all ranks of the 
 learned and powerful ; men who were bound to no 
 sect, who had nothing of station or reputation to 
 lose by becoming the followers of the Nazarene, 
 and who under the tuition of Jesus would become 
 zealous and faithful apostles. 
 
 He called four fishermen from the Sea of Gal- 
 ilee, telling them that he would make them 
 "fishers of men." He called a collector of cus- 
 toms from his business, and others from common 
 pursuits of life, simply saying to them, " Follow 
 me." They left all and followed him. With 
 a self-denial, devotion, and affection which are 
 marvelous, they attached themselves to the mys- 
 terious Teacher whose instruction and works were 
 then attracting the attention of men in every 
 department and business of life. Throughout 
 his ministry they were his constant companions, 
 
THE APOSTOLIC. 153 
 
 his attentive disciples. Although at first they 
 could not appreciate his instructions, and al- 
 though it was hard for them to understand the 
 spirituality of his kingdom, yet Jesus knew that 
 through his continued teachings and training 
 they w^ould eventually be enlightened to grasp 
 what he should reveal to them. They held the 
 Jewish belief respecting the Messiah, which was 
 that he would come as a temporal prince to free 
 the nation from the yoke of its oppressors and 
 to restore its ancient power and glory. Accord- 
 ingly they were constantly looking forward to the 
 time w^hen their Master should throw off his dis- 
 guise, summon the enthusiastic people to his ban- 
 ner, and lead them forth to victory. No doubt 
 they were ready for the conflict which they an- 
 ticipated. The miraculous power of Jesus gave 
 them confidence in him as a leader. The commis- 
 sariat was dependent only on his word. They 
 saw five thousand men abundantly fed with five 
 loaves and two fishes, and they knew of no limit 
 to his ability. They saw him walking upon the 
 sea as upon dry land. They saw him restoring the 
 dead to life, giving soundness and strength to the 
 lame, the sick, and to those afflicted with any 
 malady. What could not such a chieftain ac- 
 complish? He could feed his armies in a 
 desert; he could bring back to life those who 
 
154 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 should fall in battle, and restore the wounded by 
 his word. No defeat, no reverses, would be felt 
 by one who possessed such recuperative forces. 
 
 It was hard for the apostles to learn that the 
 kingdom of their Lord was a spiritual kingdom. 
 They discussed the matter of their relative rank 
 when he should sit upon his throne. Even after 
 his resurrection, after all that they had heard 
 from Jesus before his betrayal, and had seen in the 
 experiences of his death, they asked him, " Lord, 
 dost thou at this time restore again the kingdom 
 to Israel ?" So difficult was it for them to renounce 
 their long- cherished views. Their training, there- 
 fore, was directed to that point. Christ inculcated 
 upon them those virtues which would distinguish 
 them from the world — humility, self-denial, forgive- 
 ness of injuries, devotion to God. By his own im- 
 pressive example he taught them what their lives 
 should be. They saw in him a perfect model. 
 While he had no conformity to the world, he had 
 the deepest sympathy and benevolence for the 
 world. He was untiring in labor, constant in 
 prayer, watchful for opportunity to say and to 
 do the best thing for others. To his apostles he 
 freely spoke. He made known to them, so far 
 as they could bear it, the truth respecting him- 
 self, respecting their mission, respecting God and 
 his government. So they were under a discipline 
 
THE APOSTOLIC. 155 
 
 eminently fitted to })repare them for their respon- 
 sible and laborious life. From him they heard 
 instruction which was adapted to their condition. 
 In him they saw the exemplification of what 
 their own lives should be. 
 
 The apostolic office was peculiar. Strictly speak- 
 ing the apostles had no successors. They were 
 succeeded by those who entered into their labors, 
 who partook of their spirit, who were instructed 
 and ordained by them for the work of preaching 
 the gospel. Those who have most of their faith 
 and devotion in this work and in love to Christ, 
 are most like the apostles. But as apostles they 
 stood alone. The qualifications for the office did 
 not exist after their day. It was necessary that 
 they should have seen the Lord, and should have 
 personally witnessed what they declared to men. 
 The apostles recognized this necessity in their 
 choice of Matthias. Paul also bases the proof 
 of his apostleship on this ground. He says, 
 "Am I not an apostle? have I not seen Jesus 
 our Lord?" plainly implying that the seeing 
 of Christ was essential to his being an apostle. 
 Elsewhere he declares, " Last of all, as to a child 
 untimely born, he appeared to me also." It was 
 necessary that an apostle should be immediately 
 called and chosen to the apostolic office by Christ 
 himself. 
 
156 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 Infallible inspiration was also a necessary qualifi- 
 cation for the office. Without this they could not 
 have discharged their mission. It belonged to 
 them not only to unfold the meaning of the 
 ancient sacred writings of the Hebrews, but also 
 to embody in their own new Scriptures the prin- 
 ciples and constitution of the Christian common- 
 wealth. They were to give the world a new rev- 
 elation, the authoritative and permanent guide 
 of the Church of Christ to the end of time. 
 They needed therefore what was promised to 
 them and what was bestowed upon them, — the 
 special guidance of the Holy Spirit. So their 
 message became not the word of man, but the 
 word of God. 
 
 3Iimculous power also belonged to the apostle- 
 ship. For the establishment of Christianity it 
 was necessary that miracles should be wrought. 
 They were God's seals to its truth. Such won- 
 derful works were therefore witnessed. The apos- 
 tles spake in foreign tongues, healed the sick, 
 raised the dead, and in other ways gave incon- 
 testable evidence that they wrought by the power 
 of God. Speaking of his own ministry at Corinth, 
 St. Paul writes, "Truly the signs of an apostle 
 were wrought among you in all patience, by 
 signs and wonders and mighty works." 
 
 It is evident that these qualifications for the 
 
THE APOSTOLIC. 157 
 
 apostolic office did not exist after their day. 
 Under Christ, they were the founders of the 
 churches. To fulfill their important duties they 
 were supernaturally endowed. With them passed 
 away the peculiar prerogatives of the apostleship. 
 The mission of the apostles, the duties belonging 
 to their office, were most important. They re- 
 ceived their commission from the Saviour him- 
 self, with the assurance that they should do 
 greater works than they had seen him do. Be- 
 ginning at Jerusalem, they were to proclaim him 
 to all nations as the true Messiah, the Saviour of 
 a lost world. This was no easy task. On the one 
 hand they were to encounter the inveterate prej- 
 udice and hostility of the Jews; on the other 
 hand, the pride and paganism of the Gentiles. 
 The Hebrew mind was in a state where it could 
 not readily be reached. With the decline of that 
 people's greatness, there was a decline of its piety. 
 The majesty of the theocracy, whose imposing 
 ceremonial and divine intervention had awed 
 and restrained the popular mind, had long before 
 passed away. The restraints of the monarchy were 
 also withdrawn with its decline; while the pas- 
 sions and the will of that sensitive and imperious 
 people were given unbridled indulgence. Civil 
 feuds divided them and made them enemies the 
 one to the other. Religious faction and fanati- 
 
168 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 cism were carried to a strange excess, having 
 nothing religious about them but the name. Be- 
 sides all else, they chafed under the Roman yoke 
 in a vassalage which they could not brook, but 
 from which they could not free themselves. 
 Fretted and excited and, more than all, maddened 
 against Christianity by the fact that they had just 
 stained their hands with the innocent blood of its 
 Founder, the Jews were in a poor condition to 
 hear the faithful teachings of the apostles. 
 
 Abroad, the prospect was hardly better. En- 
 throned in its ancient seats and sustained by the 
 prejudices and selfishness of its priests, paganism 
 held the nations in an iron tyranny. Its temples 
 and altars stood firmly in every land. Its dark 
 dominion embraced the world. Its pampered 
 priesthood extorted the awe and service of the 
 people. Kings and warriors were its vassals. 
 Even in the most enlightened nations, where the 
 Greek and Latin languages were spoken by sages 
 and orators, where art was achieving its sublimest 
 triumphs, all things were tributary to an over- 
 shadowing superstition. The employments of 
 life, the customs of society, the education of the 
 people, the sympathies of the popular mind, all 
 circled around the debasing false worship as 
 around a common center. Whether, therefore, 
 we consider the mission of the apostles as among 
 
THE APOSTOLIC. 159 
 
 the Jews or among the Gentiles, we see that 
 it was one requiring uncommon patience, pru- 
 dence, fortitude, and faith. Above all, it required 
 the co-operating energy of the Spirit of God. 
 
 The apostles undertook the great task. In- 
 spired by the Holy Spirit, they were ready to 
 undertake it. To the Jews they were prepared to 
 announce their long-expected Messiah in the 
 crucified and risen Jesus. To the pagans they 
 were bold to declare the unknown God whom they 
 worshiped in ignorance, and the way to him 
 through the Lord Jesus Christ. Their great duty 
 to all men was to preach the crucified and living 
 Saviour. To do this eff'ectively, they were em- 
 powered to work miracles whenever it was neces- 
 sary to arrest the attention of men or to establish 
 their own divine commission. Their duty led 
 them to oppose the ceremonial and traditions of 
 the Jews, the corrupting rites and worship of the 
 pagans. 
 
 Another part of their mission was to gather 
 into Christian communities all those who in 
 every place could be influenced to renounce their 
 wrong life and by faith to accept of Christ. 
 Churches, simple in their organization, were 
 therefore planted in the cities where the apostles 
 were successful in their labors. These churches 
 consisted of those who openly confessed Christ as 
 
160 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 their Lord and Saviour. Their members were 
 united as brethren in fellowship for their own 
 growth and in testimony before the unbelieving 
 world. They chose their own teachers, adopted 
 their own regulations, disciplined their own mem- 
 bers, and exercised all the functions which be- 
 long to independent, sovereign commonwealths. 
 The members of each church were the court of 
 final appeal in cases of doubt and difficulty 
 that arose amongst them. Their officers con- 
 sisted of elders and deacons. The elders are 
 also called bishops, overseers, pastors. They 
 were the teachers of the churches, while the 
 deacons were their assistants, attending more 
 particularly to the secular affairs of the congre- 
 gations. Speaking of this subject, the learned 
 Mosheim remarks : " A bishop, during the first 
 and second centuries, was a person who had 
 the care of one Christian assembly, which, at 
 that time, was generally small enough to be 
 contained in a private house. He instructed 
 the people, performed the several parts of di- 
 vine worship, attended the sick, and inspected 
 the circumstances and supplies of the poor." 
 
 The planting of such churches was a part 
 of the apostolic work. Unlike the prophets, who 
 sought to vitalize the ancient economy of the 
 Hebrews, and through this to bring the people 
 
THE APOSTOLIC. 161 
 
 back to a spiritual life, the apostles rejected 
 the old, and aimed to build up a new divine, 
 permanent commonwealth, not confined to one 
 people, but destined to embrace the world. 
 
 The ads and success of the apostles are a 
 marked feature of this epoch. The death of 
 Jesus was an era of moment in their lives. 
 Before that event they had been learners ; after it 
 they became leaders. Before it they were weak, 
 timid, ignorant; after it they were strong, 
 bold, able to cope with the wisest. Especially 
 did the Pentecostal baptism — when, as they 
 were assembled in one place, a sudden sound 
 as of a rushing tempest filled the house, and 
 tremulous tongues, like sundered flames, rested 
 upon the head of each one there — date the 
 commencement of a new life for the apos- 
 tles. That was the manifest descent of the 
 Comforter whose presence Christ had promised. 
 The apostles went forth from the sanctuary in- 
 spired men, with a new sense of their work and 
 with new ability to discharge it. To the multi- 
 tudes who had come up to the feast of Pentecost 
 " from every nation under heaven," they pro- 
 claimed, in various languages, " the mighty works 
 of God." Christ, crucified and risen, was the cen- 
 tral theme of their discourse. Boldly did the 
 apostles charge upon the Jews the guilt of be- 
 11 
 
162 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 ing the murderers of Christ; clearly did they 
 maintain that he whom they had slain was 
 none other than their Lord and Christ. 
 
 The first apostolic sermon, preached in the 
 most extraordinary circumstances, was a marked 
 illustration of the power of the gospel and of 
 the influence of that divine Agent who was 
 thenceforth to attend it. The vast multitude 
 was convicted of sin; the question, which since 
 that time has been asked wherever the gospel has 
 been preached, was heard, "What shall we do?" 
 and three thousand souls were on that day 
 added to the disciples. Fear fell on the multi- 
 tude; wonders and signs attested the divine 
 authority by which the apostles acted. Tliat 
 was the beginning of great things for Chris- 
 tianity. In the name of Christ, miracles were 
 wrought not less wonderful than those which 
 marked the Saviour's ministry. His name, his 
 cross, possessed a power over men which far 
 surpassed the power of any other religion. 
 Wherever the Christian converts went, there 
 went an influence which wrought a change of life, 
 a renovation of the individual and of society. 
 A new power was acknowledged among the in- 
 stitutions and dominions of men — a power 
 blessed, all-controlling, and destined, in the lapse 
 of ages, to convert the world to Christ, 
 
THE APOSTOLIC. 163 
 
 For some time, amidst alternate successes and 
 discouragements, with persecutions on the one 
 hand and the triumphs of the gospel on the other 
 hand, the apostles continued their labors at Je- 
 rusalem. In open rebuke and defiance of both 
 Jewish and Roman power they persisted in 
 preaching the word. Within the Hebrew tem- 
 ple, where the forms of the ancient worship, 
 impressive in their decay, still lingered ; beneath 
 the bulwarks of the castle of Antonia, where the 
 iron warriors of Rome awed the turbulent popu- 
 lace and maintained the dominion of the all- 
 grasping empire : they planted and nourished an 
 institution which should survive when temple 
 and empire should have passed away, whose 
 worship should become the worship of all peoples, 
 and whose dominion should embrace all nations. 
 
 But the time soon came when it was important 
 that the gospel should be borne abroad, when to 
 the Jews who were scattered throughout the world, 
 and to the Gentiles who were dwelling in dark- 
 ness, Christ should be made known. The wider 
 and more thorough diffusion of the gospel was 
 effected through a strange agency, through the 
 malice of the enemies of the new faith. Stephen, 
 a faithful preacher and a powerful reasoner, be- 
 came their victim, the first in a long succession 
 of martyrs to the Christian truth. The taste of 
 
164 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 blood produced the thirst for more, and a bitter 
 persecution scattered the disciples abroad, where 
 God had a work for them to do. To Peter, the 
 first of the apostles, was revealed in a vision the 
 great fact that the Gentiles were to be fellow-heirs 
 with the Jews in the inheritance of Christ, a fact 
 which was soon illustrated under his preaching 
 in the house of Cornelius, an officer of the Roman 
 government, when the Holy Spirit descended 
 upon the Gentiles and they spake with tongues 
 and magnified God. 
 
 From that time the labors of the apostles were 
 widely extended. Peter traveled into the East, 
 beyond the bounds of Roman conquest, amongst 
 nations alien to the Hebrews, where oriental man- 
 ners and customs prevailed, and for a while he 
 made his residence in Babylon. Tradition in- 
 forms us of the acts and successes of these early 
 missionaries throughout a great part of the 
 known world, from Gaul to India, from the 
 barbarian regions of the North to the torrid clime 
 of Ethiopia. 
 
 In this wide field of the apostolic work there 
 was one portion which demanded a laborer of 
 somewhat different qualifications from those of 
 the twelve apostles. For that service Providence 
 had raised up one, who, the son of Jewish parents, 
 was also a free-born citizen of Rome and was 
 
THE APOSTOLIC. 165 
 
 educated in the best learning of his time. Tarsus 
 was " no mean city." Enriched by the products 
 of the highest existing civihzation, distinguished 
 for its schools and philosophers, as well as for the 
 general intelligence of its citizens, rich in classic 
 and historic associations, the favorite of Roman 
 emperors, it was the suitable home of the youth 
 whose future mission, as a preacher of the gospel, 
 would lead him among the polished cities of 
 Greece and even to plant the Church of Christ 
 within the walls of imperial Rome itself. There 
 the early years of the great apostle to the Gentiles 
 were spent, learning from his parents, who edu- 
 cated him according to the strict observances of 
 the straitest sect of the Jews, and from the scholarly 
 people with whom he daily mingled, until, him- 
 self a stern Pharisee, and acquainted with the 
 works of Grecian poets and philosophers, he was 
 removed to Jerusalem and placed under the tu- 
 ition of the celebrated Gamaliel, a teacher of the 
 law and theology of the Hebrews. It was with 
 no feelings of approbation that this ambitious 
 and fiery student beheld the growth of Christian- 
 ity. A three-stranded cord of strength bound 
 and held him to a fierce opposition. As a free- 
 born Roman citizen he was allied to that great 
 heathen imperialism which was holding the 
 scepter of the world, whose unconquered soldiers 
 
166 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 were asserting their dominance over barbarian 
 and cultured people alike. As a Grecian scholar 
 he felt the pride of human learning and gloried 
 in what the wisdom of the schools and the 
 studies of philosophy could do for the enrichment 
 of mankind. As a Jewish bigot, rigidly taught 
 in the tenets of that separate people, he looked 
 with cherished aversion, with defiant and bitter 
 scorn upon a religion that seemed to threaten 
 the polity of his fathers. There was no man then 
 living who had more in his birth and training 
 and the quality of his mind and the peculiarities 
 of his position to make him an uncompromising 
 foe of Christianity. He was its bitterest inquis- 
 itor and persecutor. 
 
 A day came, in the progress of the new faith, 
 which was critical and crucial. Would it stand 
 the test of bloody martyrdom? One of its 
 preachers, a man full of grace and power, at 
 whose hands great wonders and signs were 
 wrought, stood forth in such pre-eminence that 
 it was determined to crush him. He was brought 
 before a prejudiced council, in whose presence his 
 face was as it had been the face of an angel. 
 Unable to answer his able historical plea, they 
 hurried him out of the city and stoned him to 
 death. A proud young man, Roman by birth, 
 Grecian by studious taste, Jew by religion, stood 
 
THE APOSTOLIC. 167 
 
 there consenting to that first Christian tragedy. 
 " And the witnesses laid down their garments at 
 the feet of a young man named Saul." This is 
 our introduction to Saul. From that time the 
 passion of persecution possessed him like a 
 demon. He laid waste the church; he entered 
 into every Christian house ; he dragged men and 
 women to prison. He breathed threats and 
 slaughter against the disciples of the Lord. He 
 determined, by fierce and fiery strokes, to extir- 
 pate the new faith. 
 
 In the north of Syria stood the oldest city of 
 the world. It had been renowned from the 
 days of the patriarchs. It was called " The 
 Eye of the East." It looked forth on the great 
 routes of the merchant caravans. It was the 
 rich center of trade and wide-reaching commerce. 
 The merchant princes of the Orient came up to its 
 prolific marts. Loaded caravans traversed its 
 streets. The "rivers of Damascus" were famed 
 for their purity and coolness. Flowing from Leb- 
 anon, they carried fertility and beauty to the city 
 whose white dwellings shone in the eastern sun- 
 shine amidst gardens of roses of royal tints and 
 flowers in wealthy variety. It was a sight worth 
 going far to see in that day, as it is in this day. 
 
 Against that city of marvelous wealth and 
 beauty, where the gospel was gaining a stroiyg 
 
168 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 foothold, this ardent persecutor leveled liis onset. 
 With his fierce retainers, he spurred along the 
 hard Roman roads for one hundred and thirty -six 
 miles, until, on a sunny noon, as his cavalcade 
 gained an eminence, that splended city burst on 
 their view, an oasis of beauty, set like a gem in 
 the gray and blazing desert. 
 
 Suddenly a light brighter than the fiery sun of 
 the desert flashed upon him. Before it he and 
 his company fell to the ground, and a question of 
 arrest rang on his startled ear. Not for that 
 had he left Jerusalem. Yet, perhaps, all the way 
 the face of the transfigured martyr had been 
 haunting him and the voices of the women and 
 children whom he had cruelly wronged had 
 echoed in his soul. The last words that he had 
 heard from the martyr were words of trust in 
 Jesus. The first words that he now heard from 
 heaven in response to his anxious question, 
 " Who art thou. Lord ?" were, " I am Jesus whom 
 thou persecutest." He was convicted, and his 
 sins stood out before him. His Saviour, contrary 
 to whom he had thought he ought to do many 
 things, was revealed to him. A great revolution 
 took place in all his thoughts and feelings, pur- 
 poses and life. The voice that spoke to him from 
 heaven was in "the Hebrew tongue," his own 
 mother tongue, the language of the Christians 
 
THE APOSTOLIC. 169 
 
 whom he had hunted, the language of the expir- 
 ing martyr as he had prayed with his last breath, 
 " Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." It went 
 home to Saul's inmost soul. It announced the fact 
 which he would most like to forget. It told him 
 of a living truth that he was trying to ride down 
 and stamp out. It put first that which he would 
 put last. He believed in heaven, though he did 
 not believe in Christ. But out of heaven came 
 the thrilling message, " I am Jesus !" It was irre- 
 sistible. From the depth of his being came the 
 overwhelming cry, sweeping, like a flood, all 
 before it, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ?" 
 That settled the matter. It was an entire sur- 
 render. It carried Saul over from one side to 
 the other. It changed the persecutor into an 
 apostle. 
 
 The sight of the glory struck "Saul blind, and 
 for three days he was shut up within himself. 
 He was in golden Damascus, but its outward 
 beauties were hidden to him : another beauty was 
 unfolding itself to his restored soul. Seeing noth- 
 ing of this world, he came to sight of things of 
 the other world. For all these days this question 
 echoed in Saul's mind: "Why persecutest thou 
 Me?" The Me became great, all-absorbing; it 
 filled the whole horizon of his thought and cov- 
 ered the sunless heaven of his imagination. That 
 
170 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 Me had been of small account, had been hated, 
 had been a name of contempt and ignominy. 
 It rose like a sun at morning, clear on his inner 
 vision, waxing in volume of light and luster un- 
 til it filled all the firmament with its burning 
 glory. Thereafter there was but one Name — Je- 
 sus was all. The Me who was revealed on the 
 high-road to Damascus was he whom Saul had 
 persecuted. In the thought of what he had been 
 doing he lived over his whole life. His early 
 days, his education, the Scriptures of his nation, 
 and their hopes and their forlorn fate, passed 
 before him. The new faith, the wonder of Cal- 
 vary, the story of the resurrection and the ascen- 
 sion, the miracles and the preaching of the apos- 
 tles, the advice of Gamaliel at whose feet he had 
 sat, the tragic martyrdom of Stephen, the prisons 
 he had filled with the Lord's disciples, his ride 
 across Palestine, and his fierce errand at Damascus, 
 crowded his blind days of fasting. Then Christ 
 was revealed. Saul saw that there was pardon 
 and peace in him. It was not by human inter- 
 vention he had been arrested. It was by the Lord 
 himself 
 
 Straightway there fell from his eyes as it were 
 scales. He had the full vision of the Lord. From 
 that darkened room he walked forth into un- 
 clouded day, the day of devoted service. The 
 
THE APOSTOLIC. 171 
 
 conversion was one that carried the whole man 
 with it. He was a new man: old things had 
 passed away ; all things had become new. Paul's 
 new birth was a birth into complete Christian life. 
 He committed himself, soul and body to the Lord 
 Jesus. Immediately he confessed his faith and 
 was " with the disciples." He abandoned forever 
 his old associates and his old habits and opinions, 
 and boldly proclaimed Jesus. We are not sur- 
 prised to read that he " increased the more in 
 strength." Chrysostom says of him, " Christ, like 
 a skillful physician, healed him when his fever 
 was at the worst." It was a thorough healing. 
 
 The conversion of Paul was complete, and 
 made him thenceforward to be Paul, the great 
 apostle, the self-sacrificing, heroic soldier of the 
 cross. Think of what he renounced ! He was a 
 man of liberal learning, which might have placed 
 him amongst the foremost of his nation. All 
 that learning he consecrated to Christ. He was, 
 probably, a member of the Sanhedrin and there- 
 fore in the place of power. All that power he 
 consecrated to Christ. He was where he might 
 have gained wealth and fame. He allied himself 
 to a sect that was everywhere spoken against and 
 was despised, and he became its foremost advo- 
 cate. He was a partaker of Christ's sufferings. 
 He breathed love. 
 
172 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 There is something very beautiful in his wish 
 to see Peter. He had seen Christ : he wanted to 
 see Christ's friend. He had been, for three years 
 in the theological school of the desert, where he 
 unlearned the old past of his education and had 
 begun the study of the new faith. Coming again 
 into the fellowship of the brethren and feeling the 
 excitements of the great conflict between the old 
 faith and the new, he desired to become acquainted 
 with the leader of the Church, and he traveled 
 back over the old route from Damascus to Jeru- 
 salem, and for fifteen days those two great apostles 
 were together in the home of Peter. We can 
 only imagine their conversations and their 
 prayers with one another. Peter took Paul to his 
 heart, and Paul was made strong and happy by 
 his welcome. Ananias called him " Brother 
 Saul." Barnabas took him by the hand and intro- 
 duced him to the company of the apostles. Peter 
 received him into his own home, as if he were an old 
 friend. All the brethren cared for him, watched 
 over him, thwarted his enemies, and rejoiced with 
 him in all that he could do for Christ. From 
 that time commenced a career full of marvel, 
 full of human courage and divine benediction. 
 
 Behold the new defender of the truth, the pow- 
 erful preacher of the gospel ! In the synagogue 
 of Damascus, to the amazement of all who heard 
 
THE APOSTOLIC. 173 
 
 him, he maintained the Messiahship of Christ. 
 Against strong antagonists he battled for the 
 Church which he once sought to destroy. The 
 fiery soul of that learned Jew, with all its daring 
 and power, w^as consecrated to Jesus of Naz- 
 areth. 
 
 A great work was to be done, and a great soul 
 was needed for it. Paul set forth on his apostle- 
 ship. In Jerusalem, the city that he loved, where 
 he had passed pleasant years as a pupil of Ga- 
 maliel, where he had been known as the fiercest 
 opponent of the despised Nazarene, he boldly 
 spoke for his new Master. That, however, was 
 not Paul's appointed place of labor. God had 
 destined him for another sphere. He was to be 
 the apostle to the Gentiles. After spending some 
 years in his native city. Tarsus, he was called to 
 labor at Antioch, where the gospel had already 
 met with signal success. From that time he was in 
 labors more abundant. His life became a succession 
 of masterly and untiring efforts, followed by bril- 
 liant triumphs for the gospel. From the eastern 
 coast of the Mediterranean, along the shores of 
 the ^gean, to Italy, he proclaimed Christ as the 
 Saviour of men. His first missionary tour led 
 him to Cyprus and to the southeastern portion of 
 Asia Minor ; his second, to the northern and west- 
 ern portion till he reached the spot where Troy 
 
174 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 was. A call came across the blue ^gean from 
 Macedonia, " Come over and help us," and Paul 
 hastened to plant the standard of the cross on the 
 soil of Europe. Oh, could the eye of the apostle 
 have glanced through coming ages and could he 
 have read a prophecy of the nations, and known 
 how Europe, then enshrouded in the deep dark- 
 ness of paganism, should one day become the seat 
 of powerful Christian states, whose people also 
 should fill another hemisphere with Christian 
 institutions, how would his heart have still more 
 exulted in the glorious mission which he had 
 undertaken ! Paul the first preacher of the gos- 
 pel in Europe ! Who so worthy as he to intro- 
 duce the knowledge of Christ to the occidental 
 nations ! to become the predecessor of the loyal 
 and learned propagators of Christianity in the 
 countries that are the rulers of the world ! While 
 the oriental churches have fallen or have become 
 mournfully corrupt and inefficient, has not the 
 spirit of Paul lingered most in those of the 
 West? 
 
 Among the most interesting scenes in the life 
 of this greatest apostle are those which present us 
 with his labors and successes in the great and 
 splendid cities of that age, as at Athens, at Cor- 
 inth, at Ephesus, and at Rome. Within these 
 august and powerful capitals, where learning, art 
 
THE APOSTOLIC. 175 
 
 and opulence had their chosen seats, idolatry 
 also had most securely and firmly entrenched and 
 enthroned itself. It was allied to the state and to 
 the schools, and it held to its support the busi- 
 ness, the prejudices, and the pleasures of the peo- 
 ple. It was no slight task, nor one free from 
 hazard, to attack this guarded and cherished 
 paganism. 
 
 It was therefore a noble and impressive scene, 
 one which the artists have wrought with fine effect 
 — Paul addressing the men of Athens. Before the 
 high court of the Areopagus, amidst the sages 
 and scholars of that academic city, surrounded 
 by the gorgeous monuments of Athenian pride, 
 power, and art — the splendid shrines, the col- 
 umned temples, and, more imposing than all, the 
 world-famed Parthenon, crowned with the lofty 
 statue of Athens' guardian goddess, at the sight 
 of which the joyous exiles wept as, after years of 
 absence, they returned again to their native city — 
 the apostle boldly and impressively declared the 
 great truths which Plato dimly foresaw and 
 which Socrates would have gladly welcomed, 
 with an eloquence which vied with that of 
 Athens' greatest orator. 
 
 Corinth was at that time in the zenith of her 
 glory : enriched by the commerce of surrounding 
 peoples, graced and beautified by her own mag- 
 
176 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 nificent works of art and by that elaborate archi- 
 tecture which for two thousand years has perpet- 
 uated the Corinthian name. At the same time 
 she was at the nadir of her wickedness : filled 
 with luxury, corrupt with vices, and given up to 
 a debasing idolatry. There and at Ephesus, then 
 the metropolis of Asia and the center of a most 
 polluting worship, Paul proclaimed the gospel, 
 and planted Christian churches into which he 
 gathered many converts. 
 
 For a long time before he was permitted to enjoy 
 the privilege, he longed to visit Rome also, that 
 he might preach the gospel in that center of power 
 and greatness. He desired that Christ should be 
 known in that illustrious capital of the world, 
 and he was willing to encounter all that was 
 necessary to secure that object. He knew what 
 extensive influence would be wielded by a city 
 whose conquering arms were irresistible, whose 
 dominion extended from the pillars of Hercules 
 to the Euxine, from the forests of Gaul and the 
 white cliffs of Britain to the shadows of Mount 
 Atlas and the cataracts of the Nile, and within 
 whose walls were gathered men illustrious in 
 literature, jurisprudence, and art. Providence 
 brought the veteran apostle to Rome, and his 
 heart was gladdened by the success of the gospel 
 there, even within the household of Csesar. It 
 
THE APOSTOLIC. 177 
 
 was at Rome, in the calm evening of his toilsome 
 and turbulent life, that he wrote those beautiful 
 and pathetic words to his son Timothy, " I am 
 already being offered, and the time of my depart- 
 ure is come. I have fought the good fight, I have 
 finished the course, I have kept the faith : hence- 
 forth there is laid up for me the crown of right- 
 eousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, 
 shall give to me at that day: and not only to me, 
 but also to all them that have loved his appear- 
 ing." This may be considered as the dying testi- 
 mony of that most remarkable man, that most 
 laborious apostle. 
 
 Next to the name of Christ on the records of 
 Christianity stands the name of Paul. There 
 may have been greater men than Paul. We 
 recognize the imperial place of Plato; the mys- 
 terious sway of Confucius ; the genius of Homer. 
 Conquerors, philosophers, philanthropists, there 
 have been, from time to time, who have impressed 
 the world, who have molded institutions and laws 
 and human thought — great men in their day and 
 way, but who have passed and whose work has 
 not had the one quality of imperishableness. Paul 
 laid foundations which have remained and 
 are permanent. The churches, indeed, which he 
 planted have not all survived ; but as under the 
 ruins and rubbish on which modern cities are 
 
 12 
 
178 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 builded the workmen come to the massive blocks 
 on which old walls, old temples, old structures of 
 various kinds, stood, so the eternal truths, on 
 which the lapsed churches were founded, remain, 
 and on the very places of their ancient rise and 
 glory the revived, restored churches of Christ 
 are again replanted; while all abroad, in new 
 lands and among other peoples, those truths, 
 through the undying words of Paul, have 
 been through all the Christian ages building up 
 permanent forces in the wide world. 
 
 The service of this great man was a ministry 
 of the Lord Jesus. That was the inward charm 
 of it. That was the light that shone in it like the 
 clear light of gems. That gave the glory to his 
 wonderful career. Christ was in Paul, and the life 
 that he lived in the world was the life of Jesus. 
 The gold that was woven into the royal fabric of 
 his being was the love of Christ. He knew what 
 he owed to the Saviour, and to him Christ was all 
 in all. In the capitals of the world, where Cicero 
 had addressed the Roman senate and where 
 Demosthenes had delivered his matchless Oration 
 for the Crown, Paul spoke on higher themes and 
 for grander issues than theirs. On the track of 
 the great empire the iron prows of whose galleys 
 had plowed their victorious way from the surf of 
 the Atlantic beyond the Hellespont, and the 
 
THE APOSTOLIC. 179 
 
 scream of whose eagles had been heard from the 
 remotest Occident to the boundaries of the empire 
 of Alexander in the Orient, he planted the germs 
 of a wider sovereignty and saw the hopeful begin- 
 nings of a purer dominion. Pie left to the suc- 
 ceeding centuries the testimony of his peerless 
 consecration, w^hile his living Letters are a 
 legacy which rank him as the chief of the 
 glorious company of the apostles. 
 
 Little is known of the deaths of the apostles. 
 Something is told us of their lives, and that is by 
 far the more important. Some of them died at 
 the hands of cruel men, but they counted not 
 their lives dear unto themselves ; they rejoiced to 
 suffer and even to die for the name of Christ. 
 They were ready to meet their Teacher and 
 Friend, their beloved Saviour, and it mattered 
 little to them when the summons should call 
 them to his presence. In the vision which John had 
 of the heavenly Jerusalem he saw that the walls 
 of that glorious city had twelve foundations, and 
 that in them were inscribed the names of the 
 twelve apostles of the Lamb. It is through their 
 fidelity and service that the heavenly city is one of 
 security and strength for the disciples of Christ. 
 
 The years of their ministr}^ were most marked 
 for the victories of Christianity. Originating, 
 under Christ, the vast project of the world's re- 
 
180 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 demption, they entered upon the work as one to 
 be accomplished. It was a work that God had 
 put into their hands and he expected them to do 
 their duty. They did not pause to consider the 
 obstacles and opposition which they were certain 
 to encounter ; they did not hesitate because they 
 were few and feeble and because superstition and 
 paganism were strong and strongly entrenched 
 within ancient barriers of customs and selfish- 
 ness ; they did not waver because the wealth and 
 learning of the world were not with them. They 
 knew that God was with them ; they felt the in- 
 spiration of the Holy Spirit moving them ; they 
 were confident that through Christ strengthening 
 them they could do all things. The results of 
 their devotion and sacrifice were monumental. 
 Within thirty years after the ascension of Christ, 
 Christianity had become one of the most powerful 
 of existing religions. It had superseded to a great 
 extent the ancient Hebrew economy, had over- 
 thrown in its triumphant career long-established 
 paganism, and had gained a firm foothold in the 
 most important capitals of the earth, even in im- 
 perial Rome itself, the mistress of the world. It 
 then became apparent that there were agencies 
 connected with this new religion sufficient to sup- 
 plant other institutions and dominions and to 
 secure its universal and final triumph. 
 
THE APOSTOLIC. 181 
 
 The apostolic epoch passed away ; but the work 
 which the apostles began went forward and is still 
 advancing. We are summoned to emulate their 
 example. Still is borne to our ears the cry which 
 rolled over the ^gean, from the realm of Alex- 
 ander to the silent chambers of the apostle Paul, 
 " Come over and help us !" 
 
EPOCH VIII. 
 
 OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 The agency of the Holy Spirit amongst men 
 is probably confined within no limited epoch of 
 their history. His work began with the com- 
 mencement of man's moral being, and it will end 
 only with the termination of the human race. 
 Yet the more particular manifestation of the 
 Spirit as a distinct and active Agent in the affairs 
 of the world belongs to the period succeeding the 
 ascension of Christ. Before that time men did not 
 know that there was a Holy Ghost. He had ener- 
 gized in the ancient saints, he had spoken through 
 the prophets, he had inspired the writers of the 
 ancient Scriptures, he had striven with the sinners 
 of the olden time and had been vexed by them, 
 and by his agency a godly seed had been contin- 
 ued from age to age, through the earlier divine 
 dispensations. Yet his ministration was not of 
 that distinctive character by which it was marked 
 on and after the day of Pentecost. There had 
 been outward appliances, sacrifices, ceremonial 
 
 185 
 
186 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 observances, visible splendors, voices, visits of 
 angels, visions, by which men were gained to 
 God and kept near and loyal to him. The fact 
 of the Trinity had not been made known : this 
 belonged to a later revelation. 
 
 In opposition to the polytheism of the Gentiles, 
 and to check the polytheistic tendencies of the 
 Jews, Jehovah had been announced as the one 
 only living and true God, and the fact of his 
 unity had been kept clearly before, and impressed 
 strongly upon, the fickle Hebrew mind. Al- 
 though there had been some obscure intimations 
 of a pluralism in this one Godhead, before the 
 coming of Christ, yet it was not till the New Tes- 
 tament times that the revelation was made of the 
 three persons in one God. 
 
 A new dispensation began : a fuller revelation 
 to men of the Godhead took place ; the bonds and 
 ritual of the old theocracy passed away ; the Holy 
 Spirit became a recognized factor in the progress 
 of the kingdom of God ; he became a Shekinah 
 within every man, and his still, small voice spake 
 to every soul. No longer were the blessings of the 
 covenant to be confined to a particular people, nor 
 was God to be acceptably worshiped only on Mount 
 Moriah or on Gerizim. There was to be a broader 
 economy. The blessings which Christ had pur- 
 chased by his all-embracing atonement were to 
 
OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 187 
 
 be borne to all men by the all-prevalent Spirit. 
 So direct and palpable and powerful were to be 
 the manifestations and operations of the Holy 
 Spirit under the new economy that it would be 
 considered as the dispensation of the Third Person 
 of the Godhead, and so intimately and efficiently 
 was his agency to be connected with the means to 
 be employed for the conversion of the world, that 
 they were unitedly to be designated as the Minis- 
 tration of the Spirit. 
 
 On the night of his betrayal, amidst the so- 
 lemnities and sorrows of that sacramental occa- 
 sion, when Jesus mysteriously announced to his 
 beloved disciples the gloomy events that were 
 before him, he took occasion to tell them of 
 another Comforter, who, in his place, should 
 abide with them after he should have gone away. 
 He said, " It is expedient for you that I go away : 
 for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come 
 
 unto you ; but if I go, I will send him unto you 
 
 When the Comforter is come, whom I will send 
 unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of 
 truth ... he shall bear witness of me. . . . When 
 he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you 
 
 into all the truth The Comforter, even the Holy 
 
 Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, 
 he shall teach you all things, and bring to your 
 remembrance all that I said unto you." To this 
 
188 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 divine Agent thenceforward was to be entrusted 
 the superintendence and prosecution of the work 
 of the world's redemption. He is the Spirit of 
 power. He convinces the world of sin. He sanc- 
 tifies those who believe in Christ. He searches 
 the deep things of God. He produces effects like 
 those of Pentecost. 
 
 It is plain from the Scriptures that the Holy 
 Spirit is a distinct^ divine, personal Agent. The doc- 
 trine of the Trinity sets forth the existence of one 
 divine Being in three separate Persons, the same 
 in substance, equal in power and glory : the 
 Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. As the Father 
 and the Son have each his part in the work of 
 human recovery, so also has the Spirit his part. 
 His personality is proved by those statements 
 which ascribe to him personal attributes and acts, 
 not perhaps as expressing all that is true, but ex- 
 pressing all that we know to be true ; his divinity ^ 
 by those expressions which predicate of him 
 divine attributes and works ; his distinct personal- 
 ityy by those statements which assign to him cer- 
 tain offices of his own and separate from those of 
 the Father and the Son. Thus, " The Comforter, 
 even the Spirit of truth, whom I will send unto 
 you from the Father." Again, there is the Father 
 who sends him ; the Son in whose place he is 
 sent ; the Holy Spirit who is sent. The analogy 
 
OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 180 
 
 of language would seem to make the distinction 
 lucid and conclusive. 
 
 The Saviour had a particular mission to fulfill ; 
 a work of instruction and of suffering to finish, 
 during his brief and eventful ministr3^ When 
 this was over his place in heaven summoned him 
 back. What those things are which employ in 
 heaven the Second Person of the Godhead we 
 know only in part. But the Scriptures have 
 given brief hints which are sufficient to assure us 
 that his ascension w\as of more value to us than 
 his personal presence here would have been. 
 " When he ascended on high ... he gave gifts unto 
 men." He left these fields of conflict and hard- 
 ship, but it was as a conqueror returning in 
 triumph to his capital and distributing the spoils 
 of victory. In his Father's realm he is preparing 
 places for his earthly friends. In the presence of 
 God he ever liveth to make intercession for them. 
 He is our Advocate at the throne. 
 
 His bodily presence on earth would have con- 
 fined his agency to a limited portion of the 
 Church. While his disciples were few in number 
 and were together, he could do all that was 
 necessary for them ; but when the little band 
 should become powerful and numerous commu- 
 nities, when the handful of corn in the earth on 
 the top of the mountains should have fruit which 
 
190 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 would shake like Lebanon, when churches should 
 be planted throughout the empire and in lands 
 east and west where the Roman eagles never 
 flew, then there would be need of a Presence in 
 all those multiplied and separated churches — need 
 of One who should everywhere strengthen and 
 encourage the ministers of the word, give efficacy 
 to the truth, open dark and depraved minds to 
 conviction, and carry on to its completion the 
 good work begun in the redeemed. 
 
 The personal presence of Jesus on earth would 
 have been likely to prevent true views of the 
 spirituality of his kingdom. The Hebrew mind 
 was filled with aspirations for a temporal prince. 
 Notwithstanding all his instruction to the con- 
 trary, the disciples of Christ, through his whole 
 life, even after his resurrection and until his as- 
 cension, w^ere looking for the restoration of their 
 ancient kingdom to Israel. Had he remained on 
 earth, gross and earthly views would have been 
 developed amongst his followers. When their 
 Leader had left them, they saw that they were 
 alone, feeble men ; that no secular arm was to be 
 nerved in their behalf; that their reliance must be 
 upon the divine, spiritual Helper whom the 
 Saviour had promised to them. Then they began 
 to feel that the Spirit of the Master was in cease- 
 less antagonism to the spirit of the world, and 
 
OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 191 
 
 that be was to bring down a beavenly life to man. 
 To come to tbe understanding of tbis trutb was a 
 great experience then ; is a great thing now. Tliere 
 was needed, and always will be needed, tlie teach- 
 ing of tbe Holy Spirit. There is a powerful in- 
 fluence in the invisible existence of Christ, in the 
 invisible agency of the Holy Spirit. The presence 
 of Jesus as a true man might have produced 
 familiarity. Men would have thronged around 
 him, as they did during his earthly ministry; 
 they would have deserted their homes, their busi- 
 ness, their country, for the sake of being with the 
 Master, of listening to his gracious words, of wit- 
 nessing his stupendous works, of sharing his 
 divine gifts. Now^ he is exalted to the throne of 
 heaven. We supplicate, we praise, we adore, we 
 serve. 
 
 So much, at least, may be said as showing why 
 it w^as better that Jesus by his departure, should 
 make way for the advent and presence of the 
 Holy Spirit, than that he should personally re- 
 main on earth. But the whole subject is not 
 brought before us till we consider the peculiar 
 office-work of the Holy Spirit He came to take the 
 place of Christ, to do for the disciples what the 
 Saviour would have done could he have been per- 
 sonally present with them. To every believer, in 
 every place, throughout all time, he was to give 
 
192 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 that aid, encouragement, solace, which the blessed 
 Saviour would have given by his words, looks, 
 personal sympathy, divine power. Over all Chris- 
 tian communities, in all lands, in the strong, 
 mature churches of enlightened states, in the 
 feeble, struggling churches in the midst of sur- 
 rounding superstition and paganism, he was to 
 maintain a vigorous, guardian superintendence, 
 increasing their members from without, increas- 
 ing their graces from within. To him was 
 entrusted the kingdom of God on earth, in all its 
 multiplied organizations and powerful agencies. 
 He was to sanctify the ministry and its member- 
 ship ; to give efficacy to its written and preached 
 word ; to go with its heralds from land to land — 
 in a word, to make the gospel, in its varied influ- 
 ences and ministries, the wisdom of God and the 
 power of God to the salvation of the world. 
 
 His office- work was to be not only in and through 
 the churches of Christ, but also directly upon the 
 souls of men ; convincing them of their own sin- 
 fulness, of their relation to a righteous God, and 
 of a coming retribution, and leading them to 
 repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 Wherever there was a soul fallen, estranged by 
 sin from God, there was to be the field of the Spirit's 
 work. The world in its woes, to the extent of its 
 wretchedness, is the only limit to his divine ope- 
 
OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 193 
 
 rations. The salvation of the world is the object 
 of the Spirit's work, as it was the object of the Re- 
 deemer's work. As Christ tasted death for every 
 man, so the agency of the Spirit is for every man. 
 
 His office-work is therefore partly a work of 
 renewal. The mind that was depraved, perverted, 
 lost to God and averse to goodness, is brought to 
 love God, to delight in his service, to be holy. 
 This renewal of individual minds, by the influ- 
 ence of the Holy Spirit, is the great process by 
 which the world is to be converted to God. 
 
 It is also partly a work of sanctification. Those 
 who are renewed he leads on to higher attain- 
 ment in holiness, to a closer union with God. 
 He becomes their Instructor. He takes of the 
 things of Christ and shows them to his people, 
 unfolding to them the excellence of God, the 
 beauty of holiness, the loveliness of the Christ-like 
 spirit. He becomes also their Helper, guarding 
 them from dangers and the assaults of foes, and 
 delivering them out of all their temptations, 
 trials, conflicts. " He helpeth our infirmities." 
 
 He cultivates in us the spirit of prayer, of 
 child-like faith, so that we can look up confidently 
 to God in all our distresses, and look forward cheer- 
 fully to the rest that remaineth for his people. 
 Thus is the promise of Jesus fulfilled, "I will not 
 leave you orphans." 
 
 13 
 
194 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 The history of the Church testifies to the value 
 and preciousness of the Spirit's presence. Where- 
 ever the gospel has gone in its wide influence and 
 triumphs, there the Holy Spirit has gone with it 
 to make the truth mighty to the pulling down of 
 strongholds. Nay, he has gone before the gospel, 
 preparing the heart to receive it, as the soil is pre- 
 pared for the scattered seed. He has worked in 
 the hearts of the children of disobedience, causing 
 them to reflect and awakening them to consider 
 their souls' salvation. He has carried forward 
 the work of sanctification, in the souls of believers, 
 until death has been swallowed up in victory. 
 Conflned by no material trammels, the omnipres- 
 ent and omniscient Spirit has awakened every 
 troubled convicted sinner, has been the Comforter 
 of every child of Christ. His agency has been 
 manifest in the awe that has pervaded wide com- 
 munities, in the confessions of penitence at 
 unnumbered altars, in the vows of obedience 
 before the Searcher of all hearts, in the lives of 
 sacrifice and holiness read and known of all 
 men. 
 
 Wider and richer results are yet to come. Un- 
 der his divine guidance tlie word is to go forth 
 with power in all lands, and the world is to be 
 converted. The ministration of the Spirit will be 
 still more glorious. Mind shall be disenthralled. 
 
OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 195 
 
 The bondage of corruption shall cease. All men 
 shall be brought into the glorious liberty of the 
 children of God. 
 
 A glance at some of the more marked results 
 of the Spirit's agency will be sufficient to demon- 
 strate the glory of his ministration, to prove that 
 it is much more glorious than any that has pre- 
 ceded it. 
 
 According to the instructions of the Master, his 
 apostles returned from Olivet to Jerusalem to 
 await in meditation and prayer the promised ad- 
 vent of the Spirit. In a marked manner the 
 promise was fulfilled. On the day of Pentecost, 
 when they were all with one accord in one place, 
 there came a sudden sound from heaven, like the 
 rush of a tempest, which filled the house where 
 they were assembled. At the same time, emblem- 
 atic of the divine presence, tongues of fire 
 flamed from the head of each of them, tokens of 
 that wonderful power in the use of human lan- 
 guages which they were to receive as the direct 
 gift of God. At once they felt the energy of that 
 divine Agent who had been promised, and they 
 were miraculously endowed with the gift of 
 tongues. To the temporary dwellers in Jerusalem, 
 who had come up from "every nation under 
 heaven " to the sacred feast, they began to publish 
 the gospel of Christ. Then followed the first, and 
 
196 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 in some respects the most remarkable, revival of 
 the new dispensation, characterized by phenom- 
 ena similar to those which have since been 
 witnessed in what are called, in memorial of this 
 event, pentecostal seasons. The truth presented 
 by the apostles was carried home by the Spirit to 
 the minds which he had awakened to receive it. 
 Some who but a few days before, possibly, 
 were shouting with the Jewish rabble, " Crucify 
 him !" were now convicted of their sins, and trem- 
 blingly asked, "Brethren, what shall we do?" 
 Out of the vast multitude who on that day 
 listened to the preaching of the cross, three 
 thousand souls accepted Christ. Such was the 
 glorious commencement of the Spirit's ministra- 
 tion. In all their future labors the apostles were 
 blessed with the presence of the Holy Spirit, who 
 gave the gospel its marvelous efficacy, so that 
 Jewish prejudice and intolerance and Gentile 
 pride and paganism gave way before it, while the 
 humbling religion of Jesus became aggressive and 
 dominant. For a while it seemed as though the 
 power of the Spirit would carry all before it. 
 
 Centuries of darkness had rolled over the 
 world before the morning light of the Reforma- 
 tion dawned. Learning was locked in the cells 
 of hooded monks, while ignorance blindly led the 
 
OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 197 
 
 multitude. Faction and fanaticism widely pre- 
 vailed. The fiat of the Pontiff, the terrors of the 
 Inquisition, awed the nations. It seemed as 
 though earth's darkest night would know no 
 morning, as though the tyranny of Rome could 
 not be broken. But the Holy Spirit began his 
 work. Quietly, in the cloister of a thoughtful monk, 
 he awakened profound interest in the great 
 truths of revelation. On the dusty shelves of the 
 University of Erfurth lay a Latin Bible. To 
 that book the Spirit guided the hand of the 
 thoughtful student and clearly illuminated the 
 word of God to his mind, so that he longed for 
 the way to Christ and to salvation. 
 
 The great work of the Reformation was the 
 work of the Holy Spirit. He led Luther out of the 
 bondage of the papacy and commissioned him as 
 the eminent apostle of the reform. That work of 
 the sixteenth century will ever stand as a demon- 
 stration of the wonderful agency of the Spirit in 
 the minds of men. The world awoke as from the 
 nightmare of ages. The power of the papacy was 
 broken, and what it lost has never been regained. 
 Nations threw off their vassalage to the papal see, 
 and the Pontiff who had put on crowns or dis- 
 placed them at his will became the harmless 
 bishop of Rome. With the wide revival of re- 
 ligion came also the renaissance of learning and 
 
198 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 art. Through every department of life in many 
 lands the Reformation sent the shock of its in- 
 fluence, an influence which shall not cease till 
 Christ's churches everywhere shall stand forth in 
 that freedom wherewith Christ makes his people 
 free. 
 
 It was the work of the Spirit which gave 
 Puritanism its start and steady growth in the 
 seventeenth century, and which led on to the de- 
 velopment of those principles of religious and 
 civil liberty which have made Great Britain and 
 the United States the seats of spiritual and 
 benevolent churches and which have made those 
 nations foremost in all that is truly great and 
 worthy. 
 
 It was the work of the Spirit which led to " the 
 great awakening" of the eighteenth century 
 whose power extended through northern Europe 
 and the English colonies of America, when 
 Whitefield and Wesley in England, and Edwards 
 and the Tennents in America, were the apostles 
 of the triumphant gospel of Christ. Then a new 
 era in the history of the churches commenced. 
 On a broad extent of territory an unwonted solem- 
 nity and a spirit of inquiry prevailed. Religion 
 became the all-engrossing subject of thought and 
 conversation on the part of multitudes, so that in 
 many instances secular duties were neglected, and 
 
OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 199 
 
 it became necessary for pastors to remind mem- 
 bers of their flocks of that part of the command, 
 "Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy 
 work." Christians were revived and sinners were 
 awakened. Itinerant preachers, like Whifefield 
 and Tennent, went from place to place, declaring 
 with a pungency and power like that of the 
 ancient prophets, the messages of God. " The 
 doctrines of grace " were pointedly presented to 
 the congregations, and the word of God became 
 " living, and active . . . and piercing even to the 
 dividing of soul and spirit . . . and quick to discern 
 the thoughts and intents of the heart." On some 
 occasions, hundreds under a single discourse were 
 hopefully converted and within a few years tens 
 of thousands were united to the visible Church of 
 Christ, and the pentecostal days seemed to have 
 returned again. 
 
 The precious revivals of the nineteenth century, 
 those works of grace in which we have shared, are 
 also the work of the Holy Spirit. They have 
 been witnessed by all the world: not merely in 
 Christian communities, but in the old realms of 
 paganism — wherever, upon continents or islands 
 of the sea, missionaries have planted the cross. 
 
 The new development of personal devotion to 
 Christ among the young, which has banded mil- 
 lions of youthful disciples in covenant and earn- 
 
200 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 est endeavor for Christ and the Church has been 
 evidently marked by the leadings of the divine 
 Spirit. 
 
 It is the work of the Spirit to extend the 
 triumphs of the gospel, to bring on the fulfillment 
 of ancient prophecy respecting the universal reign 
 of Christ on earth. That is indeed a glorious 
 ministration which is to secure the emancipation 
 of the world from sin, which is to usher in the 
 dayspring from on high, and to bring forward 
 the noontide glories of the promised and long- 
 awaited Millennium. 
 
EPOCH IX. 
 
 THE MILLENNIAL. 
 
THE MILLENNIAL. 
 
 For nineteen hundred years the Church of 
 Christ has looked forward to the Millennium. 
 That golden age of prophecy, brighter in the dis- 
 tant future than the golden age of the past of 
 which the poets have sung, sweeter with its para- 
 dise regained than was the paradise which was 
 lost, early caught the gaze of the Christian seer, 
 before whom, among the rocky peaks of Patmos, 
 was unrolled the long history of the Church 
 through her conflicts and trials and triumphs. 
 In the dark days of the early militant Church, 
 when the sword of persecution was unsheathed 
 against it and the strong arm of power wrought 
 to cast it down, it was the thought of that coming 
 time of peace and glory which sustained the dis- 
 ciples in their toils and sufferings. Cheeringly to 
 the vision of the martyr rose the sublime prospect 
 of a prosperous epoch when the earth shall 
 become the undisputed inheritance of the saints 
 and there shall be none to vex them. Soothingly, 
 like the harmonies of celestial minstrelsy, fell 
 
 203 
 
204 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 upon the ear of the dying believer the sweet 
 strains as of multitudinous voices jubilant 
 through that coming period whose dawn he had 
 hoped to see. As the ages have gone on faith in 
 the good time that is coming has not wavered, 
 but still the watchers from afar have seen its 
 light streaming up the sky, as dwellers on hills 
 and mountain-sides have seen the gleams of the 
 morning on the remote horizon. In the hasten- 
 ing on of that time pious men of every genera- 
 tion have joyfully labored, in full confidence that 
 He who has promised will in his own wisdom 
 bring it to pass. The hope of the Millennium is 
 alive and active now in the minds of the people 
 of God as truly as at any former period ; so that 
 some are even cherishing the fond expectation 
 that they shall live within the time of the Millen- 
 nial reign of Christ. 
 
 The belief of the Church respecting this epoch of 
 its history has not been uniform. Quite com- 
 monly it has not been considered as a result of 
 the ordinary and natural development of the 
 kingdom of God through processes of instruction 
 and growth such as are usually employed, but 
 rather as a special bestowment of victory and 
 glory by a direct divine interposition. It was 
 very natural that the Jews who were converted to 
 Christianity should retain many of the Hebrew 
 
THE MILLENNIAL. 205 
 
 notions respecting the Messiah. Accordingly, we 
 find very early traces of the belief in the per- 
 sonal reign of Christ at a coming period — a literal 
 interpretation of those passages of the sacred 
 Scriptures which in glowing poetry and high- 
 wrought figures describe that event. As early as 
 the second century, this theory became a prev- 
 alent doctrine, and high names among the fathers 
 of that age are enrolled in its defense. Although 
 this view has been more or less modified by the 
 character and education of the minds that have 
 embraced it, it is still widely maintained, and is 
 now one of the two great theories on this sub- 
 ject between which the faith of Christians is 
 divided. 
 
 It sets forth the fact that the Lord shall visibly 
 appear and reign upon the earth, with all his 
 saints, for a thousand years, in splendor and en- 
 joyment beyond anything which has before been 
 known. It is claimed by some that at his second 
 advent the righteous dead shall be raised, and 
 that after the thousand years, there shall be the 
 resurrection of the wicked and the final judgment 
 of the world. Gross and sensuous views have 
 sometimes been entertained of the millennial 
 state which are utterly without warrant of the 
 word of God. Fanciful ideas often have been 
 propounded by writers in their discussion of the 
 
206 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 subject, to such a degree that minds of more sober 
 and reflective cast have been repelled from any 
 consideration of it. 
 
 A more just and scriptural opinion seems to be 
 this : that the kingdom of Christ, through the 
 agencies which have been and are being em- 
 ployed, shall at length become universally prev- 
 alent, and that then for a long period he shall 
 exercise a spiritual dominion over the race; not 
 that all souls will be converted, but so that, in a 
 general way, it may be said that the world is 
 converted. 
 
 This opinion, for two reasons at least, appears 
 to be more correct than that which teaches the 
 visible reign of Christ for a thousand years. First, 
 it affords a rational interpretation to those pas- 
 sages of Scripture which are most confidently re- 
 lied on for the latter opinion. It is not necessary 
 to suppose that the apostle, where he speaks in 
 the Apocalypse of the reign of Christ, intends a 
 visible personal reign. His spiritual dominion, 
 through the spread of the gospel, the glorious 
 ministration of the Spirit, and the universal 
 triumph of Christianity, fairly exhausts the 
 meaning of his statements and is more in har- 
 mony with other teachings of the Scriptures. 
 Secondly, this opinion does not conflict with those 
 passages of Scripture which teach that the second 
 
THE MILLENNIAL. 207 
 
 advent of Christ will be for the judgment of the 
 world. Christ represents that the design of his 
 coming again in glory is not for the sake of 
 reigning bodily on earth but for the sake of judg- 
 ing all nations. He says he will come again not 
 to live with his friends in this world, but to take 
 them to live with him in the places which he has 
 prepared for them in the mansions of his Father. 
 He tells of only one resurrection-time — that of the 
 evil and the good. 
 
 Before Christ's ascension the apostles believed in 
 a personal reign, but after they were enlightened 
 by the Holy Spirit they seem to have looked and 
 labored only for the spiritual sovereignty of their 
 Master. They afterward taught that his coming 
 would be for judgment; his descent would be 
 with the voice of the archangel and with the 
 trump of God ; his eye would penetrate every 
 soul and bring to light the hidden things of 
 darkness; then, after judgment has been pro- 
 nounced, Cometh the end — the heavens to pass 
 away with tumult, the earth with all its works to 
 be burned, the righteous to ascend to be forever 
 with the Lord. 
 
 Pleasant, therefore, as may be the illusion of 
 the bodily reign of Christ, and gratifying as it 
 may be to many minds to indulge in visionary 
 conceptions concerning such an event, we do 
 
208 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 not seem to be warranted by the Scriptures in con- 
 senting to that view. 
 
 The date of the Millennium is unknown. Those 
 who have wrought most assiduously at the Apoca- 
 lyptic chronology cannot agree upon the time. 
 It is not designed that they should. As early as 
 the lifetime of St. Paul there were those who held 
 that the second advent of Christ was near ; and 
 this opinion created alarm with some and caused 
 others to renounce their worldly associations. 
 The apostle wrote a letter to correct this error, 
 and to teach, as other portions of the Bible also 
 teach, that " of that day knoweth no man." The 
 same thing is true of the beginning and the end 
 of the Millennium. We do not know when its 
 brilliant morning shall dawn upon the world, 
 nor how long that splendid epoch shall con- 
 tinue. 
 
 It is a common opinion that the seventh mil- 
 lennary in the history of the world will consti- 
 tute the biblical Millennium. As God originally 
 appointed six days for labor, to be followed by the 
 Sabbath, so it has been thought that six thousand 
 years of sin may be followed by a thousand years 
 of holiness, the Sabbath of the world's history. 
 There is something natural and alluring in this 
 theory, although there is nothing but this remote 
 analogy to sustain it. Some have argued that the 
 
THE MILLENNIAL. 209 
 
 thousand years of Christ's reign should be reck- 
 oned as are other prophetical dates, a day for a 
 year, which would make the millennial period to 
 consist of three hundred and sixty-five thousand 
 years. This view, full of comfort and inspiration, 
 opens a grand prospect for the Church and for the 
 w^orld. It makes these preparatory periods of a 
 few thousand years seem insignificant in contrast 
 with that long period of more than paradisean 
 glory and blessedness. Thus would the wisdom 
 and benevolence of God in the government of the 
 w^orld stand out in striking characters, while the 
 multitudes of the redeemed through those pro- 
 longed ages of peace and universal holiness 
 would immensely surpass the numbers of the un- 
 saved and greatly augment the apparent excel- 
 lence and glory of the Saviour's work. Whether 
 this shall be so or not must be left to the slow ful- 
 fillment of those predictions which abound in the 
 word of God, but which appear to be left de- 
 signedly obscure, so that they can be clearly inter- 
 preted only by the event. 
 
 The coming on of the Millennium will undoubt- 
 edly be slow and progressive and in the ordinary 
 course of providence. We have no warrant for 
 thinking that it will be miraculously ushered in, 
 that violent and revolutionary overturnings will 
 prepare the way for it, that the kingdom of God 
 
 14 
 
210 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 will be forced upon the nations. Its evolution 
 will be normal and without observation. All 
 things which are now taking place, the moral and 
 political changes which are occurring, the benevo- 
 lent and missionary movements of the Church, 
 the pantings and struggles of the unevangelized 
 peoples for improvement, are all preparatory to 
 the final and complete triumph of the Christ. 
 Slowly and surely the ancient and venerable 
 dominions of paganism will be undermined, 
 until at the appointed time they shall fall beyond 
 recovery. Slowly and surely the principles of the 
 gospel shall be planted like good seed in the soil 
 of the nations, until, when in the good providence 
 of God the springtime shall come, they shall ger- 
 minate and ripen quickly for the glorious har- 
 vest. 
 
 We can form but a faint idea of the possible 
 rapid spread and victories of the gospel, when the 
 hindrances shall be removed and the mighty 
 energies of the Spirit shall give efficacy to the 
 labors of the churches. A nation shall then be 
 born in a day. On the right hand and on the 
 left, from the north and from the south, shall be 
 heard the tidings of whole communities embra- 
 cing the gospel of Christ. Days like that of Pente- 
 cost may be witnessed simultaneously in many 
 quarters. What we have seen in small districts, 
 
THE MILLENNIAL. 211 
 
 during powerful revivals, that which we have 
 seen in the success of the gospel among the 
 Hawaiian people, among the Karens, may be but 
 feeble illustrations of what is yet to take place on 
 a comprehensive scale. Revivals may extend 
 over continents, truth be joyfully embraced, error 
 lose its power over the human mind, wide vic- 
 tories of grace wait on the agency of the Spirit, 
 thousands and millions throng penitently and 
 gladly to Christ as a welcome Saviour, and the 
 w^orld come over on to the Lord's side. All this 
 may take place quietly, enmity and opposition 
 being withdrawn and all souls coming to know 
 the need and the worth of salvation, under the 
 awe of God's recognized presence. If this be so, 
 who can tell how soon the Millennium will dawn 
 upon the world ? While some now living shall be 
 witnesses, the grand epoch may be ushered in. 
 The seventh-thousand period may be that of the 
 world's jubilee. 
 
 The order of events may be substantially gath- 
 ered from the Scriptures : Christ shall gradually 
 gain supremacy over sin, heathenism, and error ; 
 there shall be for a long period the universal 
 diffusion of Christianity; after that for a season 
 Satan shall prevail ; then shall come the judg- 
 ment, the end of the world, with the future allot- 
 ments of the righteous and the wicked. 
 
212 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 The characteristics of the Millennium must be 
 derived solely from revelation. There is nothing 
 in the nature of things, nothing in the logic of 
 the situation, to prove that the gospel shall 
 finally triumph. It has well been said, "The 
 Millennium is a hieroglyph not yet solved." The 
 analogy from past history would show that the 
 victories of the truth are to be followed by 
 mournful reverses, that whatever success it may 
 gain, however hopeful may be its prospects, dis- 
 aster is to tread hard after, and disappointing 
 days are to follow. So was it after the successes 
 of the apostolic times. So was it after Constan- 
 tine had made Christianity the religion of im- 
 perial Rome. So was it after the Reformation 
 and the great revivals of religion. So, but for 
 the promises of God, the pledge of his aid, might 
 it be in the future. Even now there are terrible 
 indications that the magnificent work which has 
 been heroically accomplished by our scholarly 
 and judicious brethren in the planting of insti- 
 tutions of learning and religion at vast expense 
 and sacrifice throughout the empire of the Sultan 
 will be exterminated through the chicanery and 
 fury of the unspeakable Turk. Human nature 
 is prone to wrong-doing. Idolatry and super- 
 stition gratify the mind that does not like to 
 retain God in its knowledge. As far as men are 
 
THE MILLENNIAL. 213 
 
 concerned, there is no assurance of the su- 
 premacy of Christianity ; there is no bulwark in 
 the nature or habits of the race strong enough 
 to withstand the onsets of evil. The fact, there- 
 fore, of the Millennium, and its characteristics, 
 must be learned from the word of God. 
 
 In the Bible an epoch is spoken of such as has 
 not yet been witnessed. Indeed, from the earliest 
 times, all along in the history of God's dealings 
 with men, there is a succession of predictions of 
 the most interesting character, expressed in a 
 variety of forms, all pointing forward to a time 
 that has not yet been known on earth. Hardly 
 had the fall occurred, when the pledge was given 
 and the prediction made that the seed of the 
 woman should bruise the head of the serpent. 
 This pledge is yet to be redeemed. Satan's power 
 is to be broken ; his dominion over men is to be 
 destroyed ; Christ is to reign supreme on earth ; 
 and then the prediction will be fulfilled. Parallel 
 wdth this is another prediction, given more than 
 four thousand years after the former, which says, 
 that the old serpent, which is the Devil and 
 Satan, shall be bound for a thousand years, and 
 cast into the abyss, which shall be shut and 
 sealed over him, that he should deceive the 
 nations no more till the end of the thousand 
 years. This event is still future: the thousand 
 
214 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 years are to come. Between these two strikingly 
 similar predictions, so far asunder, are many 
 others which describe the state of things on their 
 fulfillment. It is written that God will give to 
 his Son the nations for his inheritance and the 
 uttermost parts of the earth for his possession; 
 that all kings shall bow down before him, all 
 nations shall serve him ; that from the rising of 
 the sun even unto the going down of the same 
 God's name shall be great among the Gentiles ; 
 and in every place incense shall be offered unto 
 his name and a pure offering; that the earth 
 shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of 
 the Lord, as the waters cover the sea; that God 
 has sworn by himself, that unto him every knee 
 shall bow, every tongue shall swear; that the 
 days are coming when they shall not teach every 
 man his fellow-citizen, and every man his brother, 
 saying, "Know the Lord," for all shall know 
 him from the least to the greatest of them. It 
 was prophesied by Daniel, "The kingdom and 
 the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms 
 under the whole heaven, shall be given to the 
 people of the saints of the Most High : his king- 
 dom is an everlasting kingdom, and all domin- 
 ions shall serve and obey him." St. John, on the 
 lonely watch-tower that loomed above the dark 
 waters of the JEgean, heard great voices in heaven. 
 
THE MILLENNIAL. 21 5 
 
 saying, " The kingdom of the world is become the 
 kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ : and he 
 shall reign forever and ever." These and numer- 
 ous other statements of Scripture foretell a period 
 such as has not yet been witnessed, and plainly 
 indicate the coming Millennium. 
 
 Preeminently that epoch shall be one of holi- 
 ness. Sin shall be banished from the world. If the 
 passages which predicate universal holiness of 
 that period are not to be taken as strictly literal 
 in that respect, they may be fairly understood as 
 teaching that the exceptions shall be so few as not 
 to be regarded in a general statement. It is the 
 reign of Christ over his saints. " In that day," it 
 is predicted, "shall there be upon the bells of the 
 horses. Holy unto the Lord." Religion shall be all- 
 controlling ; it shall influence men in every call- 
 ing and relation of life. Idolatry, superstition, 
 all forms of false worship, shall be done away. 
 The mighty systems of imposture and paganism 
 which, for ages, have held under their iron tyr- 
 anny the vast majority of the human family, 
 shall then be unknown. The misery and degra- 
 dation consequent upon them, the pain and toils 
 and dangers of penances and pilgrimages, shall be 
 no more. In place of them shall be the pure 
 worship of God, in the home, in the sanctuary, 
 over all the world. The reign of sin on the earth 
 
216 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 has been long and fearsome. It has cursed the 
 world and the dwellers upon it. Nature has felt 
 the pain. It has planted the soil with thorns and 
 briers. It has doomed man to the servitude of 
 warring forces. Crime, lust, violence, madness, 
 have sprung from it, and men have gone in long 
 processions to a wretched future. The whole cre- 
 ation has groaned and travailed in pain together 
 until now. 
 
 The gloomy bondage is to be broken : the fear- 
 ful curse is to end ; the earth is to become as the 
 garden of God. Holy songs, like those of its 
 early paradise, are to float up from its entire 
 territory. 
 
 That epoch shall be one of peace. There shall 
 be no more the armor of the armed man in the 
 tumult, and the garments rolled in blood ; plains 
 piled with hecatombs of slaughtered men ; ruins 
 of pillaged and burned cities. Nations shall beat 
 their swords into plowshares, and their spears in- 
 to pruning-hooks ; nation shall not lift up sword 
 against nation, neither shall they learn war any 
 more. Peace, and the general fruits of peace, 
 shall prevail in every land. The time and cap- 
 ital and labor employed in the sustaining of 
 armies and navies and fortifications and the man- 
 ufacture of ammunition and arms shall be di- 
 verted into the channels of useful labor and to 
 
THE MILLENNIAL. 217 
 
 the promotion of human happiness. The ocean 
 shall become the highway of a benevolent com- 
 merce. Trades, manufactures, agriculture, art, all 
 science and business, shall have direct reference 
 to the welfare of men. The skill of the artist, 
 the learning of the scholar, the labor of the me- 
 chanic, the legislation of the statesman, every 
 profession and employment, shall be consecrated 
 to the true interests of the race and the glory of 
 God. Homes, in their rural beauty; cities, in 
 their vast magnificence; nations, in their intel- 
 lectual and moral power ; earth, in the greatness 
 of its mighty population and the grandeur of its 
 augmenting glories, shall exist in peace and har- 
 mony and without fear of violence. 
 
 That epoch shall be one of hioivledge. Religion 
 is the queen of learning. When her sway shall 
 be complete, ignorance, the daughter of sin, shall 
 be banished from the earth. When, at the time 
 of the Reformation, religion was revived, learning 
 also had revival. During the Dark Ages, when 
 superstition ruled the nations, men were in igno- 
 rance fearful and profound, but no sooner had the 
 trumpet-blast sounded from the cell of Erfurth 
 than the mind of the nations was aroused, and 
 science, art, and popular education were revived. 
 It is in Christian states that true science and 
 learning have their honored seats and secure their 
 
218 BIBLICAL EPOCHS, 
 
 brightest successes. What, then, may we not ex- 
 pect when the reign of righteousness shall become 
 universal, and when the minds of men shall be 
 untrammeled by sin ? Who shall say that the 
 discoveries of modern science, the inventions and 
 improvements of our age, already wonderful, are 
 anything more than the faint foreshadowings of 
 those works of genius, inventions in science, and 
 employment of the slumbering forces around 
 us, which shall be witnessed amidst the intelli- 
 gent and splendid triumphs of the Millennium ? 
 What will hinder but that the acute mind shall 
 discover new applications of the laws already 
 known, more powerful forces within the arcana 
 of nature, sublimer truths hitherto wisely con- 
 cealed, so that works of strength and beauty and 
 utility shall far surpass those which have hereto- 
 fore been known? 
 
 There shall be the prevalence also of higher 
 spiritual knowledge. The earth shall be full of 
 the hioidedge of the Lord. " In that day shall the 
 deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of 
 the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of 
 darkness. . . . They also that err in spirit shall 
 come to understanding, and they that murmur 
 shall learn doctrine." Wisdom and knowledge 
 shall be the stability of those times. The great 
 truths of revelation shall come into clearer in- 
 
THE MILLENNIAL. 2l9 
 
 terpretation, while the deep things of God shall 
 be made known by the Spirit to man. 
 
 That epoch shall be one of prosperity and enjoy- 
 ment. Whereas adversity and pain have been the 
 sad heritage of man, blessedness and material 
 well-being shall then be his portion. The quiet- 
 ness and loveliness that indicate a state of happy 
 prosperity are imaged to us in the scriptural de- 
 scription of the Millennial state : " The wolf shall 
 dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie 
 down with the kid ; the calf and the young lion 
 and the fatling together ; and a little child shall 
 lead them." It is written that tears shall be 
 wiped away from all faces, that the ransomed 
 shall come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy 
 upon their heads. Prophecy in glowing imagery 
 describes the prosperous condition of that coming 
 time, when the commerce and wealth of the sea 
 shall be consecrated to God, when the opulence 
 and power of the Gentile nations shall become 
 tributary to the truth, while upon Israel a cloud- 
 less sun shall shine with perpetual radiance. 
 Beyond all doubt the Scriptures teach that in 
 company with the Gentile world, the ancient 
 people of God shall enjoy the blessings of the 
 Millennium. Though they may not be restored 
 to their own land, the historic soil of Palestine, as 
 for ages has been their hope, they shall be re- 
 
220 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 stored to the privileges and blessings of their for- 
 feited covenant with God. 
 
 The indications of the approach of the Millen- 
 nium are numerous. These indications are seen 
 in the decay of old systems of error. The time 
 was when those systems which have most widely 
 prevailed were vigorous and aggressive. They 
 sent forth their apostles; they entered upon 
 careers of conquest; they converted nations to 
 their faith. Brahmanism once had the vitality 
 and energy necessary for its wide increase and 
 prevalence. Buddhism was once marked by emi- 
 nent growth and extension. Its missionaries 
 went from land to land, over the mountain 
 ranges of the Himalaya, and beyond the waters 
 of the Indus, in the zeal of a vigorous propa- 
 gandism. Mohammedanism, relying on carnal 
 weapons, the fire and the sword, once forced itself 
 upon the nations of Western Asia and became the 
 religion of many wild and powerful tribes. But 
 the days of conquest and extension of these 
 various systems are past. Although still power- 
 ful, they are waning ; the latest attempts at their 
 revival are the spasms of dissolution ; they are in 
 their dotage ; their deluded subjects are losing 
 faith in them and reverence for them. Slowly 
 and surely they are giving way before the power 
 of truth and the agency of Providence. The 
 
THE MILLENNIAL. 221 
 
 lower forms of heathenism seem to be only await- 
 ing a vigorous assault before they shall fall and 
 pass away. In our own time there has been the 
 extraordinary spectacle of a people anticipating 
 the presence of missionaries by casting their 
 idols to the moles and the bats. A divine in- 
 fluence is abroad in the earth, weakening the 
 powers of darkness and bringing on a dissolution 
 of their accursed sway. 
 
 If we turn to the corrupt forms of Christianity, 
 we witness symptoms of decay or of a return to a 
 purer faith. Roman Catholicism, though claim- 
 ing immutability and infallibility, is becoming 
 greatl}^ modified in its theories and practices, has 
 renounced, to a great extent, its crimes of perse- 
 cution, has abolished the Inquisition, is favoring 
 the use of the Bible by the laity, and is disposed 
 to some measure of outward fellowship with 
 those who are not of its communion. It has lost 
 its ascendency in the more enlightened states, 
 and even in Rome holds itself as a prisoner of 
 the Italian government. The ancient oriental 
 churches which long ago departed from the faith 
 once for all delivered to the saints, have wit- 
 nessed revivals of pure religion. In the Greek, 
 Armenian, Nestorian, Syrian, and Coptic churches 
 has been awakened a spirit of genuine religious 
 inquiry, and in some cases their ecclesiastics have 
 
222 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 become the subjects of saving grace. We may 
 anticipate with hope the regeneration of these 
 ancient churches and the renewal of their old- 
 time zeal in the spread of the gospel. 
 
 Indications of the approach of the Millennium 
 may also be seen in the wide success of Christian 
 missions and in the determination of the folloivers of 
 Christ to push to completion the conquests of the 
 truth. Many are abroad with the good news, and 
 knowledge is increasing ; the women that publish 
 the tidings are a great host. The gospel is gain- 
 ing firm foothold in many lands : the barriers of 
 sin and superstition are falling before it; the 
 word of God is read in every language; the 
 means of grace are brought to bear upon all ages 
 and classes of men. Christianity is ever aggres- 
 sive. The crumbhng of other systems indicates 
 its more vigorous exertions. Close on the track 
 of its retreating foes, it presses hard after, to gain 
 what they have lost. Over the wreck and ruin 
 of Satan's empire, it urges its way to the conquest 
 of the world. Nothing less has ever been its 
 aim; nothing less will satisfy its adherents. 
 Every error must be supplanted by the life-giving 
 truth. For this have its apostles toiled : for this 
 have its martyrs died: for this has the contest 
 been hotly and unceasingly waged, as the ages 
 have rolled away. Its heralds are more widely 
 
THE MILLENNIAL. 223 
 
 scattered tlum ever before ; its conquering hosts 
 are abroad on every battle plain. They are 
 piercing the old realms of night and summoning 
 to yield the strong fortresses of sin. The ivorld ! 
 THE WORLD ! is their battle-cry, and it rings from 
 land to land, as through watching and toiling 
 victory follows victory. 
 
 The fulfillment of pwphecy further indicates the 
 approach of the Millennium. Through the dim- 
 ness of ages the ancient seers beheld the radiance 
 of a glorious day. The prophets declared the 
 coming of a time when holiness and happiness 
 shall prevail upon the earth. As the scroll of 
 time has been unrolled, fulfillment has followed 
 fulfillment, until we are drawing near the end. 
 Empire after empire has risen and flourished and 
 passed away, as the prophets predicted. One 
 event has succeeded another according to their 
 express declarations. 
 
 There are portents which indicate that dire 
 events are near at hand. There are omens of good 
 which assure us that God will overrule all things 
 for the advancement of his holy Church. The 
 changes of our day, the onward movements of 
 the nations, the overthrow of old powers of dark- 
 ness, the victories of the gospel, all are preparing 
 the way of the Lord and hastening the arrival of 
 the world's final jubilee. The day is to come when 
 
224 BIBLICAL EPOCHS. 
 
 "All the ends of the earth shall remember and 
 turn unto the Lord : and all the kindreds of the 
 nations shall worship before him." 
 
 Satan shall be bound ; the reign of sin shall be 
 ended; righteousness shall universally prevail. 
 Mankind shall be united in one peaceful and 
 happy family, dwelling in bonds of sympathy 
 and brotherhood, and loving each his neighbor 
 as himself Earth shall be as a holy temple, re- 
 sounding with songs of praise and gratitude. 
 
 To that splendid epoch of the world's Millen- 
 nium all other epochs have been subsidiary. The 
 march of God's purposes, in all their grandeur 
 and sublimity, through the complex events of the 
 slowly-passing ages, has been directly forward to 
 that crowning result. For that, dispensation fol- 
 lowed dispensation, governments rose and fell, 
 and the whole history of the world transpired. 
 
 To that glorious epoch, we, with the saints of 
 all ages, look confidently and longingly forward. 
 
 O Christ! hasten on thy Millennial reign — the 
 reign of peace and holiness, and blessedness ! 
 
BS540 .H32 
 Biblical epochs. 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 
 
 1 1012 00038 4208 
 
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