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ECCE VENIT. 
 
OTorb0 br 2Dn a. 31* Portion* 
 
 IN CHRIST ; or, The Believer's Union with his Lord. Sev- 
 enth Edition. i2mo, fine cloth, 210 pages, $1.00. 
 We do not remember since Thomas a Kempis a book so thoroughly- 
 imbued with great personal love to Christ. It is evidently the happy 
 result of hours of high communion with Him. — Boston Lozirier. 
 
 The true standard of Christian excellence is nobly upheld and dis- 
 played in these pages, which cannot fail to impress every thoughtful 
 reader by whom the volume is taken in hand. — Rock. 
 
 THE MINISTRY OF HEALING ; or, Miracles of Cure in all 
 Ages. Third Edition. i2ino, fine cloth, 250 pages, $1.25 
 An interesting and thoughtful work. Dr. Gordon marshals together 
 witnesses from all ages and all classes in favor of his belief that cures 
 may still be wrought through prayer. — British and Foreign Evan- 
 gelical Review. 
 
 THE TWO-FOLD LIFE ; or, Christ's Work for Us, and 
 Christ's Work in Us. i2mo, fine cloth, 285 pages, $1.25. 
 
 Distinguished by exquisite purity of thought, by deep spiritual in- 
 sight, and by great strength of practical argument. The work is one 
 of great spiritual beauty and helpfulness. — Baptist Magazine. 
 
 ... Its perusal will amply repay the reader who wishes to become 
 a full-grown Christian. — C. H. Spurge on. 
 
 GRACE AND GLORY: Sermons for the Life That Now Is 
 and That Which Is To Come, iamo, fine cloth, 355 pages, 
 $1.50. 
 
 Here we have power without sensationalism ; calm thought, living 
 and earnest, expressed in forcible language; the doctrine orthodox, 
 evangelical, practical. We shall be surprised if these discourses are 
 not reprinted by an English house. — C. H . Spurgeon. 
 
 . . . The author's manner of treating spiritual truths is both power- 
 ful and impressive. — London Morning Post. 
 
 ECCE VENIT; Behold He Cometh. i2mo, fine cloth, 311 pages, 
 
 $1.25. 
 
 *** A ny of the above sent, post free, to any address on receipt of 
 price. 
 
 FLEMING H. REVELL, 
 New York: 12 Bible House ; Chicago : 148 & 150 Madison St. 
 
ECCE VENIT 
 
 25cl)Dlti J3c Coniett) 
 
 BY 
 
 A. J. GORDON, D.D. 
 
 AUTHOR OF "IN CHRIST,"' "THE TWOFOLD LIFE," ETC. 
 
 Ecce venit cum nubibus 
 I5ov epx^raL /j-era tu>v ve<f>e\iov 
 Rev i. 7 
 
 : : Fleming 1b, IRevell : : 
 
 New York: Chicago: 
 
 12 BIBLE HOUSE, ASTOR PLACE. 148 AND 150 MADISON STREET. 
 
 - publisher of Evangelical literature = 
 
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Copyright, 1889, 
 By A. J. GORDON. 
 
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 Electrotyped by H. O. Houghton & Co 
 Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. 
 
 THE ECONOMIST PRESS, 330 PEARL ST., N. Y. 
 
" This word He has in fact spoken, — '■Hereafter ye shall see the 
 Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven? — but it is a word of 
 which there is no other example. Even the mad pride of Roman 
 emperors who demanded religious homage for their statues has never 
 gone so far as to conceive such an unheard-of thought, and here it 
 is the lowliest among men who speaks. The word must be truth ; 
 for there is here no mean term belzueen truth and madness." — 
 
 LUTHARDT. 
 
 c/ Oti avrbs 'O Kvpios eV KeAeva/uari, iv (poovfj apxayy^Aov, /cat iv 
 (TaAiriyyi deov KaTafi^creraL aw oupauov. — PAUL, I Thess. iv. 1 6. 
 
The Library 
 CF CoNnir:3# 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The importance of a doctrine may be judged some- 
 what by the proportionate space and prominence given 
 to it in the New Testament. Measured by this stand- 
 ard, the theme of Christ's coming in glory is second to 
 none in Scripture, not even to the atonement itself, in 
 the claim which it makes upon our consideration. "A 
 real pearl of Christian truth and knowledge" a great 
 expositor calls it. And since the merchantmen who 
 seek this goodly pearl are too few, it becomes those 
 who have proved it, both by spiritual experience and 
 scriptural study, to be indeed a " pearl of great price," 
 to do their utmost to set forth its excellency. If, 
 therefore, in what we have written we have reflected 
 one " purest ray serene " from this precious doctrine 
 and glorious hope of the Church, we shall count it a 
 high honor from the Lord. 
 
 Would that such a theme might be divested of all 
 controversial aspects! But here, as everywhere, there 
 are schools of interpretation between which one finds 
 himself obliged, whether he will or not, to choose. 
 Pre - millennial or post -millennial advent — Christ's 
 coming before the millennium or after the millennium 
 — is the issue which divides two great parties of bib- 
 lical students. We humbly but firmly hold with the 
 first school on this question. If we admit, with the 
 eminent theologian Van Oosterzee, — to whom we ac- 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 knowledge great indebtedness, — that "some courage 
 is required to range one's self among the defenders of 
 Chiliasm," with him we profess that " we do so never- 
 theless in obedience to faith in the Word, without 
 which we know nothing of the future." And yet here 
 the courage of conviction need not be greatly taxed 
 considering these two facts, viz., that the concession 
 of Church historians, led by such masters as Neander 
 and Harnack, is that pre-millennialism was the ortho- 
 dox and accepted faith of the Church in the primitive 
 and purest ages ; and that the opinion of the most 
 eminent exegetes of our time, that this is the true doc- 
 trine of Scripture, so strongly preponderates as to give 
 promise of an early practical consensus. 
 
 Pre-millenarians, again, are divided into two schools, 
 the Futurist and the Historical : the former of whom 
 hold that Antichrist is yet to appear, and that the 
 larger part of the Apocalypse remains to be fulfilled ; 
 while the latter maintains, with the reformers and the 
 expositors of the early post-Reformation era, that Anti- 
 christ has already come in the bloody and blasphemous 
 system of the papacy, and that the Apocalypse has 
 been continuously fulfilling from our Lord's ascension 
 to the present time. If we turn away from the Futurist 
 interpretation — in which we were " nourished and 
 brought up " so far as our prophetic studies are con- 
 cerned — and express our firm adherence to the His- 
 torical, it is because we believe that the latter is more 
 scriptural, and rests upon the more obvious and sim- 
 ple interpretation of the Word • and also because we 
 find that it has such verifications in fulfilled history 
 and chronology as to compel even some of its strong- 
 est opponents to concede that it is a true interpreta- 
 
PREFACE 
 
 tion if not the complete and final one. But we depre- 
 cate controversy between these schools, since both 
 hold strongly to the hope of the Lord's imminent 
 return, and are vying with each other in earnest en- 
 deavor to restore the doctrine to its true place in the 
 creed and in the consciousness of the Church. It 
 certainly becomes us all, while rejoicing in the light 
 we have, humbly to wait for greater light, assured that, 
 in the foregleams of the approaching advent, contra- 
 dictions will more and more vanish, till in our gather- 
 ing together unto Him " the watchmen shall lift up 
 the voice, with the voice together shall they sing, for 
 they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring 
 again Zion." 
 
 When Samuel Taylor Coleridge had finished read- 
 ing that remarkable book, Ben Ezra's " Coming of 
 Messiah in Glory and Majesty," he indited the follow- 
 ing prayer. With its devout aspirations in our hearts 
 and on our lips, let us come to the study of the ex- 
 alted theme. 
 
 " O Almighty God, Absolute Good, Eternal I Am ! 
 Ground of my being, Author of my existence, and its 
 ultimate end ! mercifully cleanse my heart, enlighten my 
 understandings and strengthen my will ; that if it be 
 needful orfurtherant to the preparation of my soul, and 
 of Thy Church, for the advent of Thy kingdom, that 1 
 should be led into the right belief respecting the second 
 coming of the Son of matt into the world, the eye of my 
 mi?id may be quickened into quietness and singleness of 
 sight. Amen." 
 
 i i>' 
 
 Clarendon Street Church, Boston, 
 
 September i, 1889. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART FIRST: FORETOLD. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. The Uplifted Gaze i 
 
 II. Tarrying within the Veil 13 
 
 III. The Power of His Coming 3° 
 
 IV. The Programme of Redemption .... 44 
 V. The Ends of the Ages 60 
 
 PART SECOND: FORFEITED. 
 
 I. Heavenly Citizenship 85 
 
 II. The Fall of the Church 96 
 
 III. The Advent of Antichrist 108 
 
 IV. The Bride of Antichrist 132 
 
 V. The Mock Millennium 147 
 
 VI. The Eclipse of Hope 165 
 
 PART THIRD: FULFILLED. 
 
 I. Hope Revived 179 
 
 II. Foregleams of the Day 193 
 
 III. Behold He Cometh 208 
 
 IV. The First Resurrection 218 
 
 V. The Translation of the Church . . . 236 
 
 VI. The Marriage of the Lamb 248 
 
 VII. The Judgment of Christendom .... 258 
 
 VIII. The Restoration of Israel 274 
 
 IX. The Millennial Kingdom , 290 
 
PART I. 
 
 FORETOLD. 
 
ECCE VENIT, 
 
 I. 
 
 THE UPLIFTED GAZE, 
 
 Have we thought how significant and full of 
 instruction is the earliest attitude of the Church 
 as presented in the opening chapter of the Acts : 
 " Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing tip into 
 heaven?" In a single graphic sentence is thus 
 indicated the primitive uplook of Christianity ; 
 and this question, with what immediately follows, 
 is uttered, not so much for rebuke as for interpre- 
 tation. The great High Priest has just passed 
 within the veil, and the cloud-curtain has shut 
 Him out of sight. And, as the Hebrew congre- 
 gation, upon the great day of atonement, looked 
 steadfastly upon the receding form of Aaron as 
 he disappeared within the veil, and continued 
 looking long after he was out of sight, waiting 
 for his reappearance ; so exactly did these men 
 of Galilee, though they knew not what they did. 
 And the angels were sent to declare to them the 
 meaning of their action : " This same Jcstis, 
 
ECCE VENIT. 
 
 which is take 71 up from you into heaven, shall so 
 come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into 
 heaven" This is the earliest post-ascension an- 
 nouncement of that gospel of hope which, at the 
 first, began to be spoken by the Lord Himself, — 
 " If I go . . . I will come again" — which is now 
 confirmed unto us by His angels, and is hence- 
 forth to be reiterated by apostle and seer till, 
 from the last page of Revelation, it shall be heard 
 sounding forth its " Surely I come quickly." 
 
 The second coming of Christ is the crowning- 
 event of redemption ; and the belief of it consti- 
 tutes the crowning article of an evangelical creed. 
 For we hold that the excellence of faith is ac- 
 cording to the proportion of the Lord's redemp- 
 tive work which that faith embraces. Some ac- 
 cept merely the earthly life of Christ, knowing 
 Him only after the flesh ; and the religion of such 
 is rarely more than a cold, external morality. 
 Others receive His vicarious death and resurrec- 
 tion, but seem not to have strength as yet to fol- 
 low Him into the heavens ; such may be able 
 to rejoice in their justification without knowing 
 much of walking in the glorified life of Christ. 
 Blessed are they who, believing all that has gone 
 before, — life, death, and resurrection, — can joy- 
 fully add this confession also : " We have a great 
 High Priest who is passed through the heavens ; " 
 
 ■Ml 
 
THE UPLIFTED GAZE. 
 
 and thrice blessed they who can join to this con- 
 fession still another: "From whence also we look 
 for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ." For it 
 is the essential part of our Redeemer's priesthood 
 that, having entered in, to make intercession for 
 His people, He shall again come forth to bless 
 them. How sweet was the sound of the golden 
 bells upon the high priest's garments, issuing 
 from the holy of holies, and telling the waiting 
 congregation of Israel that, though invisible, he 
 was still alive, bearing their names upon his 
 breast-plate, and offering up prayers for them, be- 
 fore God ! But, though they listened intently 
 to these reassuring sounds from within the veil, 
 they watched with steadfast gaze for his reappear- 
 ing, and for the benediction of his uplifted hands 
 that should tell of their acceptance. 1 This they 
 counted the crowning act of his ministration. 
 Therefore, says the Son of Sirach, " How glori- 
 ous was he before the multitude of his people, in 
 his coming forth from within the veil ! He was 
 as the morning star in the midst of the cloud, or 
 as the moon when her days are full." If this 
 could be said of the typical high priest, how 
 much more of the true ! Glorious beyond de- 
 
 1 " All their hopes depended on his life within the veil ; and 
 when at length he came forth alone, there was great joy, for 
 they thought they were accepted." — Gemara. 
 
ECCE VENIT. 
 
 scription will be His reemergence from the veil ; 
 "the bright and morning Star," breaking forth 
 from behind the cloud that received Him out of 
 sight ; His once pierced hands lifted in benedic- 
 tion above His Church, while that shall be ful- 
 filled which is written in the Hebrews : " And 
 when He again bringeth in the Firstborn into 
 the world, He saith, And let all the angels of God 
 worship Him " (Heb. i. 6, r. v.). 
 
 This attitude of the men of Galilee became 
 the permanent attitude of the primitive Church ; 
 so that the apostle's description of the Thessa- 
 lonian Christians — "Ye turned to God from 
 idols, to serve the living and true God, and to 
 wait for His Son from Heaven" — might apply 
 equally to all. Talk we of "the notes of a true 
 Church " ? Here is one of the most unquestion- 
 able, — the uplifted gaze. As apostate Christi- 
 anity, by a perverse instinct, is perpetually aping 
 the eastward posture of Paganism (Ezekiel viii. 
 1 6), so inevitably is apostolic Christianity con- 
 stantly recurring to the upward posture of Primi- 
 tivism. What Tholock says of Israel, that, " As 
 no other nation of antiquity, it is a people of 
 expectation," is equally true of the Church of the 
 New Testament. It is anchored upward, not 
 downward ; its drawing is forward, not backward ; 
 " Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, 
 
THE UPLIFTED GAZE. 
 
 both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into 
 that within the veil, whither the forerunner is for 
 us entered, even Jesus." As the ancient An-*' 
 chorius bore t he anchor into port, and fastened 
 it there, while as yet the ship could not enter, 
 because of the tide ; so has our Prodromos — our 
 Precursor — fixed the Church's hold within the 
 veil, that it may not drift away through adverse 
 winds or tides. But this anchoring is only a 
 preparation for that entering which He shall 
 effect for us when He shall come again to receive 
 us unto Himself. 
 
 What if those who are much occupied with 
 looking up, zealous to " come behind in no gift, 
 waiting for the coming of the Lord" should some- 
 times be stigmatized as star-gazers and impracti- 
 cable dreamers ? Let them rejoice that, in so 
 acting, they prove themselves, not only the sons 
 of primitive Christianity, but also the sons of 
 primitive humanity. For, in the beginning, God 
 made man upright, both physically and morally. 
 Some tell us that the derivation of avOpanros — 
 man — makes the word signify an uplooker. 1 Cer- 
 tainly, this originally constituted his marked dis- 
 tinction from the brutes that perish, that, while 
 
 i " From this circumstance — man's elevated countenance — 
 the Greeks plainly derived the name avOpwiros, because he looks 
 upward." — Lactantius, Inst. ii. I. 
 
ECCE VENIT. 
 
 they looked downwards towards the earth, which 
 is their goal, he looked upward toward the heaven 
 for which he was predestined. How significant 
 the question which Jehovah puts to the first sin- 
 ner of Adam's sons : " Why is thy countenance 
 fallen ? " The wages of sin is death, and the 
 goal of the sinner is the earth with its narrow 
 house. So we find the whole apostate race, from 
 the earliest transgressor onward, with counte- 
 nance downcast and shadowed with mortality, 
 moving toward the tomb and unable to lift up the 
 eyes. But the sons of the second Adam appear 
 looking steadfastly up to heaven and saying : 
 "We see Jesus, who was made a little lower 
 than the angels, for the suffering of death, 
 crowned with glory and honor." His coronation 
 has restored their aspiration : it has lifted their 
 gaze upward once more to the throne. 
 
 The tabernacle imagery is still further sugges- 
 tive touching the subject under consideration. 
 Ask the ritualist, clothed in his rich vestments, 
 and offering his eucharistic sacrifice upon the 
 altar, why he does thus ; and the answer is, that 
 the minister must repeat in the Church on earth 
 what our Great High Priest is doing in the true 
 tabernacle above. But if this principle were 
 faithfully carried out, it would prove the death- 
 warrant of ritualism. The great day of atone- 
 
THE UPLIFTED GAZE. 
 
 ment is now passing ; let all sacrifices and ser- 
 vices cease without the veil. Oh, ye self-ordained 
 priests, why do ye " stand daily ministering and 
 offering, oftentimes, the same sacrifices which 
 can never take away sins ? " Behold, " this Man, 
 after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, 
 sat down on the right hand "of God, from hence- 
 forth expecting till His foes be made His footstool." 
 They most literally reflect His ministry on earth 
 who, at the communion, sit down to remember 
 the sacrifice of Calvary, but not to repeat it ; who 
 listen to the " Till He come," which it whispers, 
 and so unite with Him in His "expecting." He 
 waits for the same event for which He bids us 
 wait, His triumphal return. And for the congre- 
 gation before the veil, not worship, but work and 
 witnessing, are now the principal calling, — work 
 and witnessing with special reference to that glo- 
 rious consummation which our Saviour is antici- 
 pating. For, as He assigns us our service, this 
 is the language of His commission : " Occupy till 
 I come ; " and, as He appoints us our testimony, 
 this is the purport of it : " And this gospel of the 
 Kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a 
 witness to all nations ; and then shall the end 
 come.' 1 
 
 Indeed, let us observe that, since Christ took 
 His place of expectancy within the veil, and as- 
 
8 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 signed us our place of expectancy without the 
 veil, all present duties and spiritual exercises have 
 henceforth an onward look ; an advent adjust- 
 ment, like the needle to the pole. " The solemn 
 Maranatha resounds throughout the Scriptures, 
 and forms the key-note in all their exhortations, 
 consolations, warnings." 1 Is holy living urged? 
 This is the inspiring motive thereto : " That, 
 denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should 
 live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present 
 world, looking for that blessed hope and tlie glori- 
 ous appearing of the great God and our Saviour 
 Jeszis Christ" (Titus ii. 13). Is endurance un- 
 der persecution and loss of goods enjoined ? This 
 is the language of the exhortation : " Cast not 
 away, therefore, your confidence, which hath 
 great recompense of reward. For yet a little 
 zvhile and He that shall come zvill come and will 
 not tarry" (Heb. x. 35-37). Is patience under 
 trial encouraged in the Christian ? The admo- 
 nition is : " Be ye also patient ; stablish your 
 hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh " 
 (James v. 8). Is sanctification set before us for 
 our diligent seeking ? The duties leading up to 
 it culminate in this : " And the very God of peace 
 sanctify you wholly ; and I pray God your whole 
 spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless 
 
 1 Van Oosterzee. 
 
THE UPLIFTED GAZE. 9 
 
 at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ''' (i Thess. 
 v. 23). Is diligence in caring for the flock of 
 God enjoined upon pastors ? This is the reward : 
 " Feed the flock of God which is among you, tak- 
 ing the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but 
 willingly ; . . . and when tJie CJiief Shepherd shall 
 appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that 
 fadeth not away " (1 Peter v. 4). Is fidelity to 
 the gospel trust charged upon the ministry ? This 
 is the end thereof : " That thou keep this com- 
 mandment without spot, unrebukable, until the 
 appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Tim. vi. 
 14). And again: "I charge thee in the sight of 
 God and of Christ Jesus, who shall judge the 
 quick and the dead, and by His appearing and 
 His kingdom, preach the word" (2 Tim. iv. 1). 
 Space would fail us, indeed, to cite passages of 
 this purport ; they so abound that we may say 
 that the key to which the chief exhortations to 
 service and consecration are pitched in the New 
 Testament is : "To the end He may stablish your 
 hearts unblamable in holiness before God, even 
 our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 
 with all His saints" (1 Thess. hi. 13). 
 
 The reader of these and many other texts of 
 like import will observe how God has thus 
 marked His admonitions with the rising inflec- 
 tion, as though to save our Christian living from 
 
ECCE VENIT. 
 
 depression and monotony. Duty done for duty's 
 sake becomes commonplace ; activity inspired bv 
 the possible nearness of death has a certain 
 downward emphasis unbecoming the children of 
 the kingdom. Therefore duty — that which is 
 due — is less insisted on in the gospel, as a 
 motive, than reward, — that which mav be at- 
 tained ; and as for the imminence of death as an 
 inspiration to devotedness, we never find it once 
 mentioned. It is the advent of the King of 
 glory, " BcJwld, I conic quickly ; and My reward 
 is with Me to give to every man according as his 
 work shall be," and not the advent of the kins: of 
 terrors, that constitutes the incentive to Chris- 
 tian earnestness. However low the note which 
 is struck in God's discipline of His people, it is 
 always keyed to a lofty pitch to which it is cer- 
 tain to rise ; and if, as in one familiar instance, 
 the inspired discourse drops to the ground-tones 
 of death and doom, — "// is appointed unto men 
 once to die, but after this the judgment '" — it is 
 only that it may mount immediately to the ex- 
 alted strain to which the whole Xew Testament 
 is tuned, — " So Christ was once offered to bear 
 the sins of many, and unto them that look for 
 Him shall He appear a second time without sin 
 unto salvation " (Heb. ix. 28). 
 
 Never did a Christian asre so sreatlv need to 
 
THE UPLIFTED GAZE. II 
 
 have its attitude readjusted to the primitive stand- 
 ard as our own, — commerce, so debased with 
 greed of gold ; science, preaching its doctrine 
 of "dust thou art;" and Christian dogmatics, 
 often darkening hope with its eschatology of 
 death ! The face of present-day religion is to 
 such degree prone downward that, if some Joseph 
 appears, with his visions of the sun, moon, and 
 stars, men exclaim : " Behold, this dreamer com- 
 eth." But they that say such things plainly de- 
 clare that they do not "seek a country." There 
 is a tradition that Michael Angelo, by his pro- 
 longed and unremitting toil upon the frescoed 
 domes which he wrought, acquired such a ha- 
 bitual upturn of the countenance that, as he 
 walked the streets, strangers would observe his 
 bearing, and set him down as some visionary or 
 eccentric. It were well if we who profess to be 
 Christians of the apostolic school had our conver- 
 sation so truly in heaven, and our faces so stead- 
 fastly set thitherward, that sometimes the " man 
 with the muck-rake" should be led to wonder at 
 us, and to look up with questioning surprise from 
 his delving for earthly gold and glory. Massillon 
 declares that, " in the days of primitive Chris- 
 tianity, it would have been deemed a kind of 
 apostasy not to sigh for the return of the Lord." 
 Then, certainly, it ought not now to be counted 
 
ECCE VENIT. 
 
 an eccentricity to "love His appearing," and to 
 take up with new intensity of longing the prayer 
 which He has taught us: "Even so, come Lord 
 Jesus." Amid all the disheartenment induced 
 by the abounding iniquity of our times ; amid the 
 loss of faith and the waxing cold of love within 
 the Church ; and amid the outbreaking of law- 
 lessness without, causing men's hearts to fail 
 them for fear, and for looking after those things 
 that are coming on the earth, — this is our Lord's 
 inspiring exhortation : " Look up and lift up your 
 heads, for your redemption draweth nigh." 
 
 
II. 
 
 TARRYING WITHIN THE VEIL. 
 
 Cen-turies have passed since our great High 
 Priest disappeared behind the cloud-curtain of 
 the heavenly sanctuary ; and His Church, like the 
 people of old who waited for Zacharias, has " mar- 
 velled that He tarrieth so long in the temple." 
 Pondering the sacred promises of His return, 
 which are written for our hope, we find warnings 
 of startling immediateness, but also mysterious 
 suggestions of possible long delay. In the post- 
 ascension gospel of Revelation, the word is con- 
 stantly sounding out, "Behold, I come quickly ;" 
 while in the parables of the kingdom, contained 
 in the closing chapters of the Gospel according 
 to Matthew, we read, " While the Bridegroom tar- 
 ried ; " and "After a long time, the Lord of those 
 servants cometh and reckoneth with them." Yet 
 both of these gospels have the same key-note : 
 " Watch, therefore, for ye know neither the day 
 nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh " 
 (Matt. xxv. 13) ; and "Blessed is he that watcheth 
 and keepeth his garments" (Rev. xvi. 15). Hence 
 we conclude that these texts are parts of a com- 
 
14 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 plex system of prophecy, wherein incitements to 
 hope and checks to impatience are so perfectly 
 balanced as to keep the Church ever expectant, 
 while restraining her from being ever despond- 
 ent. For nothing can be plainer to the unpre- 
 judiced reader of the New Testament than that 
 it is the purpose of the ascended Bridegroom 
 to have his Bride constantly, soberly, and busily 
 waiting for His return, until the appointed time of 
 His detention in the heavens shall have expired. 1 
 Hence " He has harmonized with consummate 
 skill every part of His revelation to produce this 
 general result ; now speaking as if a few seasons 
 more were to herald the new earth, now as if His 
 days were thousands of years ; at one moment 
 whispering into the ear of His disciple, at another 
 retreating into the depth of infinite ages. It is 
 His purpose thus to live in our faith and hope, 
 remote yet near, pledged to no moment, possible 
 at any ; worshipped, not with the consternation of 
 a near, or the indifference of a distant, certainty, 
 but with the anxious vigilance that awaits a con- 
 
 1 " The heaven that gives back Christ gives back all we have 
 loved and lost, solves all doubts, and ends all sorrows. His 
 coming looks in upon the whole life of His Church, as a lofty 
 mountain peak looks in upon every little valley and sequestered 
 home about its base, and belongs to them all alike. Every gen- 
 eration lies under the shadow of it." — Rev. John Ker. 
 
TARRYING WITHIN THE VEIL. 15 
 
 tingency ever at hand. This, the deep devotion of 
 watchfulness, humility, and awe, He who knows 
 us best knows to be the fittest posture of our 
 spirits ; therefore does He preserve the salutary 
 suspense that ensures it, and therefore will He 
 determine His advent to no definite day in the 
 calendar of eternity." 1 
 
 How could revelation be so adjusted as to se- 
 cure this end — the perpetual watchfulness of the 
 Church for the Redeemer's second coming — 
 without, in the event of long delay, subjecting 
 the Lord to the imputation of having deceived His 
 flock, or the inspired apostles to the charge of 
 being mistaken in the hopes which they cherished 
 for themselves, and which they nourished in those 
 to whom they wrote ? We shall find the true 
 answer to these questions by searching the Scrip- 
 ture to learn how God has actually effected this 
 result. 
 
 Observe, in the first place, the union of the 
 known and the unknown in this great problem of 
 the advent consummation ; a union exactly fitted 
 to inspire the Church with sacred curiosity to 
 search diligently and constantly for its solution. 
 For just as there is in revelation a dogmatic 
 certainty as to the fact of Christ's return, " The 
 Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a 
 
 1 Archer Butler. 
 
1 6 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 shout" so there is a dogmatic uncertainty as to 
 the time of His return : " But of that day and that 
 hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which arc 
 in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." By 
 this combination of the revealed and the unre- 
 pealed, perennial interest and inspiring search are 
 ensured, which were utterly impossible if either 
 one of these elements were wanting. Take away 
 the certainty as to the fact of Christ's coming, 
 and tell us that He may never return, and at once 
 the wing of hope is paralyzed, and the eye of vig- 
 ilance closed ; take away the uncertainty as to 
 the time of Christ's coming, and tell us that 
 a definite thousand years of millennial blessedness 
 stands between us and the advent ; or have told 
 the early disciples that at least eighteen centuries 
 must elapse before their Lord should come back, 
 — and looking for His immediate return were 
 utterly impossible, so that the watchman's vigil 
 must cease and the virgin's lamp be quenched. 
 Therefore, by a wise combining of the known 
 and the unknown factors in the construction of 
 prophecy, there have been secured the most 
 powerful stimulant to watchfulness, and the most 
 salutary check to presumption. 
 
 By the succession of prophetic fulfilments the 
 same result is promoted. It is a part of the divine 
 plan to give an onward look to all predestined 
 
TARRYING WITHIN THE VEIL. 17 
 
 events ; prophecy no sooner becomes history 
 than history in turn becomes prophecy, accom- 
 plished facts passing into foretypes of greater 
 facts to come. "A little while and ye shall not 
 see Me," said Jesus in His last discourse with His 
 disciples, " and again a little while and ye shall 
 see Me " (John xvi. 16). After two days of burial 
 they did see Him, coming forth from the grave, 
 and ending the " little while " of their lonely sep- 
 aration in the joy of the resurrection fellowship. 
 But the forty days of risen earthly life soon ter- 
 minated and He went to the Father, and again 
 they saw Him not. Yet after another " little 
 while " of waiting the day of Pentecost arrived ; 
 and then, as the Holy Ghost descended, they 
 beheld Him again spiritually, as He had promised, 
 — oxpeo-Qc jxe. Thus was His word fulfilled : " I will 
 not leave you orphans ; / will come to you." But 
 the end of the Master's gracious prediction had 
 not been reached : the expectation had rather 
 been lifted up and carried on, through what Stier 
 calls "the typico-propJietical perspective" of this 
 prediction, to that still further coming in which 
 these others were to find their consummation. 
 Therefore the writer of the Epistle to the He- 
 brews, addressing those who had " tasted the 
 heavenly gift" and been made "partakers of the 
 Holy Ghost," takes up the promise yet once more, 
 
1 8 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 and repeats it with exquisite pathos : " For yet a 
 little while — how little ', how little — and He that 
 is coming shall come, and shall not tarry" (x. 37). 
 Can it be that nineteen centuries were to be in- 
 cluded in our Lord's "little while," or has He 
 forgotten His word, we ask ? And the apostle 
 Peter answers : " But, beloved, ! be not ignorant 
 of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord 
 as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one 
 day. The Lord is not slack concerning His prom- 
 ise " (2 Pet. iii. 8, 9). If those to whom these 
 words were written could not comprehend them, 
 we can do so in the light of accomplished time. 
 Christ's resurrection is the miniature of that of 
 His Church, both in circumstance and in time. It 
 is written in the prophet Hosea : " After two days 
 will He revive us ; in the third day He will raise 
 us up, and we shall live in His sight " (vi. 2). Our 
 Lord's two days in the tomb are but a brief of the 
 Church's two millenniums under humiliation and 
 mortality ; as also an epitome of Israel's two mil- 
 lenniums of rejection and cutting-off. But with 
 Him we expect that, on the third day, God will 
 raise us both up, and we shall live in His sight. 
 Thus the " little while " that covered the two days 
 of our Saviour's burial stretches across the two 
 millennial days of the Church's militant state. 
 But, measured on the scale of eternity, " how lit- 
 
TARRYING WITHIN THE VEIL. 19 
 
 tie, how little," is the time of waiting until we 
 see Him again ! This is an illustration of the 
 prophetic perspective which belongs to many 
 portions of Scripture, and it shows how God has 
 provided for the raising and carrying forward of 
 our vision to the one coming in which all others 
 culminate. 
 
 Other examples equally striking might be cited ; 
 as, for instance, that prediction and transaction : 
 " Verily I say unto you, There be some standing 
 here which shall not taste of death till they see 
 the Son of Man coming in His kingdom. And af- 
 ter six days He was transfigured before them " 
 (Matt. xvi. 28). A miniature rehearsal of His 
 glorious coming was here exhibited, enacted upon 
 a miniature scale of chronology, — "after six days" 
 — and presenting in vivid epitome that sabbatic 
 glory which is to dawn when the world's weary 
 working days are over. And the scene remains 
 for all time, not as a type simply, but as an actual 
 first instalment, as St. Peter interprets it, " of 
 the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ " 
 (2 Pet. i. 16). 
 
 If we note the events that were predicted to 
 precede and herald the second advent — the ap- 
 pearance of Antichrist and the widespread preach- 
 ing of the gospel — we find the same successive 
 fulfilments, and the same consequent quickening 
 
20 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 of expectation. " Little children," writes John, 
 " it is the last time : as we have heard that Anti- 
 christ shall come, even now are there many anti- 
 christs ; whereby we know that it is the last 
 time" (i John ii. 18). These to which he refers 
 were but incipient antichrists, feeble prototypes 
 of that which was to follow ; but their presence 
 was enough to bring the end of the age and the 
 return of Christ into vivid expectation. A few 
 centuries later we find the Church, with St. Paul's 
 Thessalonian prediction in its hands, — - " For that 
 day shall not come except there come a falling 
 away first, and that Man of Sin be revealed," — 
 watching the impending fall of the Roman Em- 
 pire, and expecting to see that Wicked One 
 emerge from its ruins ; since it was an apostolic 
 tradition that the empire was the hindering power 
 that must be taken out of the way before he could 
 be revealed. 1 
 
 1 " We are now in the end and consummation of the world, 
 the fatal time of Antichrist is at hand." — Cyprian, 3d century. 
 " Who is he that letteth ? Who but the Roman Empire ? the 
 breaking up and dispersion of which among the ten kings shall 
 bring on Antichrist. And then shall be revealed that Wicked 
 One whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the Spirit of His 
 mouth." — Tertullian y 3d century. "This — the predicted An- 
 tichrist — shall come when the time of the Roman Empire shall 
 be fulfilled and the consummation of the world approach." — 
 Lactanthcs, 4th century. 
 
TARRYING WITHIN THE VEIL. 21 
 
 The anticipation cast a solemn gloom over the 
 imagination of Christians ; but it touched and 
 kindled that gloom with the brightest hope, since 
 it was known that, however terrible the monster, 
 his appearance would be the precursor of the 
 appearing of Christ, who would destroy him by 
 the brightness of His coming. Thus was the 
 advent - consummation brought again into vivid 
 relief. The conception gathered from the pro- 
 phetic Scriptures was that of a single man, the 
 incarnation of diabolical wickedness, raging and 
 reigning for three years and a half, and then 
 destroyed by the lightning-flash of the epiphany. 
 Such an idea was natural, and tended again to 
 draw the parousia into startling proximity to the 
 generation then living. But as centuries of ful- 
 filling history began to throw their interpreta- 
 tion into prophecy, another conception inevitably 
 emerged. Have we seen, over the shops, those 
 curious changeable signs that present one name 
 to the eye as we approach — which gradually dis- 
 solves in passing — and another name as we look 
 back and read again ? So with this prediction of 
 Antichrist. To the early Church looking forward 
 it seemed to foretell an individual Man of Sin, of 
 three-years-and-six-months' reign. But when, out 
 of the gloom and blood of the Middle Ages, the 
 students of prophecy looked backward, they be- 
 
2 2 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 gan to see what the apostolic Church could have 
 hardly dreamed of, — a corporate Antichrist ; the 
 miniature Man of Sin, who had been expected, 
 now magnified into a monstrous pseudo-Christian 
 hierarchy ; the Apocalyptic beast bestriding the 
 centuries, red in tooth and claw with the blood of 
 saints ; his twelve hundred and sixty days' do- 
 minion expanded into as many years, constituting 
 for the Church an era of unparalleled suffering 
 and travail and tears ; and as they saw and bore 
 witness, once more there burst forth from the 
 Church, from her prophets and reformers, such 
 an advent-shout, "Behold He cometh," as cen- 
 turies had not witnessed. 1 To say that the ear- 
 lier interpreters were more likely to be correct 
 in their conception of Antichrist than we, upon 
 whom the end of the age is dawning, is to say 
 that those who gathered from our Lord's myste- 
 rious predictions — " This generation shall not 
 pass until," and "there be some standing here 
 who shall not taste of death till they see" — the 
 
 1 " Antichrist is already known throughout all the world. 
 Wherefore the day is not far off." — Latimer on 2 Thess. ii. 3, 
 1535. "O England, England, beware of Antichrist! Take 
 heed he doth not deceive thee." — " / trust our Redeemer'' s com- 
 ing is at hand.'''' — Bradford the Martyr, 1555. "I believe that 
 all the signs which are to precede the last day have already hap- 
 pened. The gospel is preached throughout the world : the Son 
 of perdition is revealed.' 1 '' — Luther, 1517. 
 
TARRYING WITHIN- THE VEIL. 23 
 
 impression that the kingdom of God should im- 
 mediately appear, more truly understood Him than 
 we who have for our assistance the exegesis of 
 providential events which eighteen centuries have 
 been drawing out. It is enough to observe that, 
 by a marvellous adjustment of prophecy and his- 
 tory, the watchers in the early Church, and in the 
 modern Church alike, have found constant incite- 
 ment to expectation. 
 
 To sum up our observations on this point : The 
 long interval of apostasy and trial which lay be- 
 fore the Church ere the advent should arrive was 
 both revealed and concealed in prophecy, — re- 
 vealed even to the minutest circumstance and 
 detail ; yet in such hieroglyphic symbols * and 
 chronology that it should remain graciously con- 
 
 1 The miniature symbols are such as these : A beast for 
 Antichrist, an enthroned harlot for the apostate Church ; an 
 exiled bride for the true Church, two candlesticks for faithful 
 witnessing Churches. The miniature chronology accompanying 
 these is the mystical number variously expressed, — " time, times 
 and half a time," "forty and two months," " a thoitsand two hun- 
 dred and threescore days," etc. Since the symbols have been 
 proved to stand for age-long realities, it seems incontestable that 
 the chronology must stand for a correspondingly long period. 
 Hence, since it covers the watching-time of the Church's history, 
 it is always expressed enigmatically, that it might not be under- 
 stood too early. The millennium, on the contrary, belonging to 
 the time beyond the Lord's advent and the Church's waiting, is 
 expressed in plain terms, — " a thousand years." 
 
24 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 cealed until history should furnish the Rosetta 
 Stone for its interpretation. The Apocalypse — 
 which was to be the Church's vade-mecum through 
 the long dark ages — was written in cipher, that 
 it might not be comprehended prematurely, and 
 thereby bring discouragement to the faithful ; 
 but events were commissioned to yield up the 
 key to that cipher in due time, that the wise 
 might understand and look up. To the first 
 generation of Christians this guide-book seemed 
 to show the Lord's coming near at hand ; but 
 when His coming was delayed, later generations 
 could see that, according to the sure word of 
 prophecy, it must have been so ; and thus, in- 
 stead of disappointment, there was a confirmation 
 of Scripture that only gave new vigor to hope. 
 
 Holding that the Book of Revelation is the 
 prophetic history of the Christian Church from 
 our Lord's ascension to His return to usher in the 
 millennium, we find that in itself it is a marvellous 
 symbol. As given into the hand of the glorified 
 Lamb to open, it is described as " a book written 
 within and on the back side, sealed with seven 
 seals" which seals represent the successive chap- 
 ters of the Church's suffering and judgment 
 throughout this dispensation. 
 
 Now, if by a "book" were meant the same 
 thing which we describe by that word, the reader 
 
TARRYING WITHIN THE VEIL. 25 
 
 could turn the leaves through, and look onward 
 at once to the last page to learn the issue. But 
 here is a roll, sealed with seven seals, and only 
 as history slowly unwinds that roll can its succes- 
 sive chapters be read. Hence mark the won- 
 drous plan by which the reader's expectation is 
 kept alert as it is unfolded. There are seven 
 seals ; under the seventh seal seven trumpets, 
 and under the seventh trumpet seven vials. Now, 
 the pondering and expectant Church reads chap- 
 ter after chapter as the successive seals are 
 loosed ; and how anticipation kindles and glows 
 upon the opening of the seventh, which is known 
 to be the last ! But, lo ! under the seventh seal 
 appear seven trumpets, — seven sub-divisions of 
 the seventh chapter, — and so once more the 
 expectation is checked, and then lifted and borne 
 onward. But when angel after angel of judgment 
 has sounded, and the seventh trumpet is ready to 
 blow, what awed and solemn anticipation is once 
 more roused, since it was under this that "the 
 mystery of God should be finished, as he hath de- 
 clared to His servants the prophets " (Rev. x. 7). 
 But under the seventh trumpet again are seven 
 vials, — seven chapters still of judgment under 
 the last great chapter, — and once more the wait- 
 ing Church looks onward ; not in disappointment, 
 but in hope, made stronger by experience, until 
 
26 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 the seventh vial is poured out, and the voice from 
 heaven shall cry, "It is done" (Rev. xvi. 17). 
 
 As the Apocalypse is the Church's preor- 
 dained history, so is this symbolic scroll the fac- 
 simile of that history. It is written within and 
 without, just as the secular and sacred stand 
 related to each other in their accomplishment ; 
 the history of the world and the history of the 
 Church being the obverse and the reverse sides 
 of the same transaction, the one permitted in the 
 providence of God to shape the other, and the 
 other to interpret the one ; and these two mov- 
 ing together as time unwinds the scroll of pre- 
 arranged events. But what chapters within chap- 
 ters ! What fulfilment opening out of fulfilment, 
 all alluring and onleading the hope towards that 
 one divine event for which the whole creation 
 groans ! We remember sailing over a beautiful 
 lake in Switzerland, journeying to the village that 
 lay at its opposite end. Again and again, as the 
 encircling hills shut in about us, the further shore 
 seemed close at hand, and our destination nearly 
 reached. But, rounding a projecting point, the 
 aspect would change, the mountains would part 
 once more, and another broad expanse of water 
 would lie stretched out before us. Thus, by a 
 singular peculiarity of the landscape, the jour- 
 ney's end seemed always imminent, and yet con- 
 
TARRYING WITHIN THE VEIL. 27 
 
 stantly receding. It was striking to observe how 
 this feature of the journey affected the voyagers. 
 Not a passenger was found at the ship's stern 
 gazing backward. Every one was on the look- 
 out. All eyes were bent forward in eager expec- 
 tation, till at last the destined harbor was reached. 
 Now all the commands and promises of Christ 
 put us on the outlook, and every great junc- 
 ture of fulfilling history sets us watching to dis- 
 cern whether the day-dawn is not approaching, 
 whether the eternal hills are not closing in to 
 bring the end of the age. The impulse which 
 inspires us to watch, to expect, to be ready to 
 disembark, however vain it may seem to men, 
 has both the authority of God's word and the 
 admonitions of all the history of the Church for 
 its support. And, more than this, while none 
 can know the day or the hour of the advent, we 
 carry with us a chart of the Church's history to 
 tell us approximately where in our stormy and 
 perilous voyage we are. Its weird, mysterious 
 pages contain the whole map and delineation of 
 the Church's career from the ascension to the 
 return of the Lord ; but it was left for time to 
 break the seals of this book and to discover its 
 meaning. This it has been doing ; and as, cor- 
 responding to this chart, headland after headland 
 of the prophetic history has been descried, these 
 
28 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 have been recognized by the students who have 
 been searching diligently what and what manner 
 of time the Spirit did signify in penning this 
 prophecy ; and, though they have read no an- 
 nouncement of day or hour upon them, they have 
 found them displaying the same cautionary sig- 
 nal with which the Church started : " Behold, 1 
 come quickly : hold fast that which thott hast, that 
 no man take thy crown" (Rev. iii. u). It is a 
 warning startling enough to indicate that, though 
 we know not how near the end of the age we 
 may be, yet we are nearing it. 
 
 " Let your loins be girded about and your 
 lights burning," therefore. There is enough of 
 certainty in this subject to feed the lamp of our 
 faith ; and enough of uncertainty to make us 
 very careful and solicitous lest when the Bride- 
 groom comes we be found among the foolish 
 virgins, saying, "Our lamps are gone out." 
 
 The chief point is, that this hope have a liv- 
 ing and abiding place in our affections and our 
 thoughts. " Thought," says a Christian father, 
 " is the sleepless lamp of the soul." It is a lamp, 
 indeed, that burns with varying brightness, — 
 flaming up in moments of intense study and ut- 
 terance, and dying down in sleep till there is only 
 the pale glimmer that remains in dreams. But it 
 is a lamp that is never really quenched ; for how- 
 
TARRYING WITHIN THE VEIL. 29 
 
 ever profound the slumber, it only requires a word 
 to wake us, and to bring all our mental powers 
 into instant activity. Thus must it be with the 
 holy lamp of watchfulness, — always trimmed and 
 burning, but not of necessity always shining in 
 full strength. That is to say, we need not be 
 every moment thinking of Christ's return, talking 
 of it, and preaching it. There should be ever in 
 our hearts the calm certainty and the sober hope 
 that keep us ready for this event at any moment. 
 But this hope should rather minister to us than 
 be ministered to by us. Instead of perpetually 
 dwelling on it and reiterating it, we should be 
 lighted by it in our busy toil of gathering the 
 guests for the marriage feast, and doing the work 
 which our absent Lord has committed to us. 
 Ready always to give to every man that asketh 
 a reason for the hope that is in us, we should yet 
 show the value of our lamp by the holy service 
 into which it guides our feet, and the diligent 
 piety which it makes visible in our lives. 
 
III. 
 
 THE POWER OF HIS COMING. 
 
 Christ is not only coming in power at the last 
 day, but the power of His coming is to be com 
 stantly operating in the present day. As God 
 has appointed the moon to lift the tide by its at- 
 traction, that it may flood and fill all the inden- 
 tures of the coast, so has He ordained this great 
 event of Christ's parousia to draw up the faith 
 and hope and love of the Church, when these have 
 ebbed towards the world. If the philosopher is 
 counted to have embodied the highest practical 
 wisdom in his maxim, " Hitch your wagon to a 
 star," can we question the efficacy of the divine 
 method which has fastened all our hopes to " tJie 
 Bright and Morning Star" ? For, indisputably, 
 the chief motive by which duties, obligations, as- 
 pirations, and attainments are determined in the 
 New Testament is this, the ever-imminent return 
 of the Lord from heaven. Therefore even the 
 highest commendation that could be put upon 
 a primitive church — "ye come behind in no gift " 
 — was not so high that this crown could be 
 omitted from it, " waiting for the coming of our 
 
THE POWER OF HIS COMING. 31 
 
 Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. i. 7). Such a tribute 
 sounds strange to the Church of to-day, because 
 she has so much accustomed herself to steer by 
 the compass of her creed, instead of by the star 
 of her hope ; and to measure her position by the 
 dead-reckoning of ecclesiastical history, instead of 
 determining it by observation of those heavenly 
 lights which God has given to rule the day and 
 to rule the night. Yet here is a motive so tran- 
 scendently powerful that, were it taken away, the 
 Church would lose her upward gravitation. 1 
 
 It is easy to say that absorption in the state of 
 glory tends to render us careless concerning the 
 serious claims of the state of humiliation. But 
 we believe that quite the contrary is true. For 
 our present not only makes our future, but is 
 made by it ; and that Christian alone can live well 
 in the life that now is, who lives much in the life 
 that is to come. As one has well written : " Only 
 from the point of view of eschatology can we 
 understand aright the problems of the human 
 life ; for only when we recognize what is the final 
 aim of life and being can we also set forth the 
 
 1 "All the Apostolic exhortations and consolations are so 
 closely connected with the prospect of the personal return of the 
 Lord, that whoever contradicts this last, thereby takes away the 
 roof and cornice from the structure of Apostolic Theology." — 
 Van Oosterzee. 
 
ECCE VENIT. 
 
 goal to all the efforts of man. Therefore it has 
 been said from an early period, Re spice finem" 
 
 Do we apprehend the total change of outlook 
 which Christ has effected for the believer by His 
 redemption, transforming a "fearful looking-for 
 of judgment " into a joyful " looking for that blessed 
 Jiope " ? A sinner cannot look upward if he real- 
 izes his doom ; a saint cannot look downward if 
 he realizes his destiny. How deplorably, there- 
 fore, do they lower the standard of redemption 
 who, by substituting tJianatology for eschatology, 
 fix our anticipations upon our departure through 
 the gates of the grave, instead of lifting them to 
 Christ's return through the gates of glory. If we 
 make Death our hope, let us not be surprised if 
 others learn to make him their hero. 1 
 
 What, let us ask, are the attainments of the 
 Christian life most insisted on in Scripture, and 
 yet the most difficult to achieve, and how does 
 
 1 Professor Duncan, commenting on the famous book of Car- 
 lyle, exclaims : " Hero-worship ! Ah, well ! he and I have to meet 
 a strange hero yet— Qauaros — the greatest that I know of next 
 to Him who overcame him." Let us look to it that by our death- 
 homage, expressed in such mortuary poetry as, 
 
 " Death is the crown of life, . . . 
 
 Death gives us more than was in Eden lost, 
 The King of Terrors is the Prince of Peace," 
 
 we do not take the crown from the head of the greater and place 
 it on the head of the less. 
 
THE TOWER OF HIS COMING. 33 
 
 the hope of Christ's personal return affect 
 them ? 
 
 Unworldliness, in the midst of the present evil 
 world ! — there is nothing which so powerfully 
 promotes it as the realization that He whose ser- 
 vants we are may appear at any moment to reckon 
 with us, and take us out of this world. Why is 
 it that so many Christians make Death their ex- 
 ecutor, leaving thousands and millions to be dis- 
 pensed by his bony fingers ? Because they are 
 exitists, rather than adventists ; their going, and 
 not Christ's coming, being the goal towards which 
 they calculate. Therefore, if they die their wealth 
 can stay behind : their covetousness can still sur- 
 vive and reap post-mortem usury. Living men, 
 transporting their riches in daily installments into 
 the world to come ; or dead men remitting back 
 their fortunes into this world, and still fingering 
 the interest thereof in mortuary incomes, — here 
 are the two ideals : and our Lord has plainly in- 
 dicated which should be the Christian's in His 
 saying, " Lay not up for yourselves treasures on 
 earth ; but lay up for yourselves treasures in 
 heaven." And can there be any doubt that, if 
 the position to which we have been called and 
 raised by Christ's enthronement were really occu- 
 pied and exulted in by us, — " For our citizenship 
 is in heaven, from whence also we look for the 
 
34 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 Saviour" — the achievement of making heavenly 
 investments would be easy and inevitable, and the 
 grip of avarice be unclasped from the purse-strings 
 of multitudes of Christians ? The old nature is 
 not sufficient for itself ; and as truly as " the ex- 
 pulsive power of a new affection " is needed to 
 overcome the heart-contraction of self-love, so 
 truly is the uplifting power of a new hope required 
 to break that purse-contraction of self-enrichment 
 which is now the greatest obstacle to the evan- 
 gelization of the world. The logic is inevitable; 
 if we are citizens of heaven, we are " strangers 
 and pilgrims in the earth ;" and every rational in- 
 stinct will lead us to make our investments where 
 we hold our residence. 
 
 Not less difficult to overcome is that worldly- 
 mindedness which seeks a present reward and 
 a present glory. "But it shall not be so among 
 you," is the decisive rebuke of our Lord to such 
 aspirations. But how not ? By the vision of a 
 millennial crown and throne, the heart is recon- 
 ciled to a present cross and humiliation. "We 
 have forsaken all and followed Thee ; what shall 
 we have, therefore ? " "Ye that have followed 
 Me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall 
 sit in the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit 
 upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of 
 Israel " (Matt. xix. 28). A dispensation of re- 
 
THE POWER OF HIS COMING. 35 
 
 proach for the Church cannot be perpetual ; 
 neither can a dispensation of glory be premature. 
 The disciple must wait ; but, in waiting for the 
 reign of Immanuel, he is waiting for his own 
 reign as heir-apparent to a crown of glory. Let 
 us not, through a false humility, reject the doc- 
 trine of rewards, which Scripture so strongly 
 emphasizes. But when and where ? are the all- 
 important questions. Constantly do we hear it 
 said of one deceased, " He has gone to his re- 
 ward." But, from the testimony of the Word, 
 tell us where the believer is directed to look for 
 his recompense at death ? He is taught to aspire 
 to a crown. But we are not to infer, because it 
 is said, "Be thou faithful unto death," — that is, 
 up to the point of suffering martyrdom for Me, — 
 "and I will give thee a crown of life," that our 
 dying day is our crowning day, and that St. 
 Sepulchre has been especially commissioned to 
 preside at our coronation. To those who share 
 Christ's travail and sorrow in the present life, for 
 the rescuing of souls, a coronet of joy is promised. 
 And when ? " For what is our hope, or joy, or 
 crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the 
 presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming?" 
 (i Thess. ii. 19.) To those who have chosen the 
 portion of suffering with Christ in this world, as 
 a little flock, it is written : "And when the Chief 
 
36 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of 
 glory that fadeth not away " (i Peter v. 4). To 
 the steadfast soldier, who has fought the good 
 fight, and finished his course, and kept the faith, 
 the assurance is : " Henceforth there is laid up for 
 me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the 
 righteous judge shall give me at that day ; and not 
 to me only, but unto all them also that love His 
 appearifig" (2 Tim. iv. 8). Of that other crown 
 — the fourth — the time of the bestowal is not 
 mentioned : " Blessed is the man that endureth 
 temptation ; for when he hath been approved he 
 shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord 
 promised to them that love Him " (James i, 
 12, r. v.). But since it is the corona vita?, it is 
 evident that it will be given at Christ's advent, 
 when forever "death is swallowed up in victory," 
 and not at our decease, when for the time life 
 is swallowed up in defeat. Most inspiring is this 
 doctrine of an open and final award to Christian 
 fidelity. Martyrs have grasped it from afar, and 
 been upheld amid the flames ; and we, who are 
 not called to suffer like them, learn also to exult 
 in it as that which shall bring our vindication 
 against such as contemn us, because we run not 
 with them to the same excess of riot in world- 
 getting and gain-grasping. For there is a real 
 choice of recompense. Let no one say that this 
 
THE POWER OF HIS COMING. Zl 
 
 world has nothing to give the Christian ; it has. 
 Three times our Lord pronounces that solemn sen- 
 tence concerning religious man-pleasers, " Verily 
 I say unto you, they have their reward." The 
 preeminent question is, whether there is power 
 enough in the Redeemer's proffer, "Behold, I 
 come quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give 
 to every man according as his work shall be," to 
 disenchant the heart from this temporal and sor- 
 did recompense ? Only when we realize our call- 
 ing as the sons of God, " begotten again unto a 
 lively hope," and made heirs of a reserved inher- 
 itance, can it be so. "The servant abideth not 
 in the house forever ; " and if we are only such, 
 we shall demand day-wages, even as " the hireling 
 looketh for the reward of his work." But "the 
 son abideth ever," and therefore can "both hope 
 and quietly wait " the final award of the inherit- 
 ance. 
 
 If we turn from the perils of worldly-minded 
 Christians to the trials of serious saints, we find 
 the advent-hope serving the same end. Unless 
 one is completely in the spell of a delusive op- 
 timism, he must often be appalled in contem- 
 plating the condition of the world. A thousand 
 millions of the race still strangers to any form of 
 Christianity ; two thirds of nominal Christendom 
 lapsed into an apostasy hardly better than pagan- 
 
3 & ECCE VENIT. 
 
 ism ; and of the remaining third, only a meagre 
 proportion really spiritual disciples ! Without, 
 the whole world lying in the Wicked One ; and 
 within, perpetual corruptions of doctrine, con- 
 stant estrangements from the faith, daily repri- 
 sals of the Prince of Darkness upon the domain 
 of light ! A heart-swoon, like that which fell 
 upon holy Daniel at the river Ulai, must some- 
 times seize the thoughtful Christian in view of all 
 this, from which only a vision of the Ancient of 
 Days, coming in the clouds of heaven, can rouse 
 him. As, amid the desperate corruptions of the 
 Catholic Church just previous to the Reforma- 
 tion, we find some who, having abandoned all 
 hope from prelates and councils, took the name 
 of "Expectants" and simply waited, "such must 
 we become, if we would be saved from dishear- 
 tenment. We must not only look forward to the 
 deliverance of the Coming One, but sometimes 
 take our seat with Him in His throne, and share 
 His attitude and anticipation as He sits there, 
 " expecting till His foes be made His footstool" 
 
 Then for that great overshadowing woe of mor- 
 tality and corruption, what is the cure but the 
 coming of the Coming One? "Thou shalt be 
 recompensed at the resurrection of the just" said 
 our Lord, speaking concerning the good deed 
 done to the poor. But, in the light of other 
 
THE POWER OF HIS COMING. 39 
 
 Scriptures, we may say that there is no promise 
 that has so general an application. If death be 
 the payment of the debt of nature, the first resur- 
 rection, at our Lord's appearing, will be the full 
 repayment of the debt of grace. For this event 
 will give us back all that we have lost : our 
 friends in Christ, looking and speaking as they 
 were wont ; our inheritance in an earth renewed 
 and glorified ; and the temple of our body, no 
 longer a house divided against itself through the 
 conflict of sin, but raised up and re -dedicated 
 with surpassing glory. Christ's redemption is 
 not a compromise with Death, but a reimburse- 
 ment for all of which he has robbed us, — a full 
 refunding, exacted by the lawsuit of the atone- 
 ment, of our defrauded inheritance. " I shall go 
 to him, but he shall not return to me," was all 
 that the broken-hearted David could utter con- 
 cerning his dead child. But we who look for a 
 Saviour can say more than this, since " them also 
 which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." 
 What a beautiful, prophetic suggestion there is 
 for us in that record of the Bethany feast which 
 immediately follows the story of the raising of 
 Lazarus : "But Lazarus, which had been dead, 
 whom He raised from the dead, was one of them 
 that sat at the table with Him " (John xii. I, 
 2). Often, in our advent anticipations, have we 
 
4-0 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 dreamed of the arrival of the long-looked-for con- 
 summation, and of our beloved dead suddenly re- 
 appearing, taking the vacant chair at the table, 
 greeting us with the old familiar look, and speak- 
 ing to us in the old familiar tones. If but a 
 dream, this certainly is true : that the parousia 
 will bring a real restoration, not simply a trans- 
 fer into some strange society of shadows and 
 spirits. Many seem to take pride in death, since 
 they have learned to call it their dies natalis ; 
 but we confess that we are ashamed to die, 
 rather than proud, since we know that in this 
 event we shall have reached the pay-day of sin's 
 wages. 1 Praised indeed be Immanuel, that dying 
 now means our departing to be with Christ ; but, 
 nevertheless, it is a return for which we now wait, 
 — His return, and our return with Him. There- 
 fore has the Holy Ghost drawn for us that mag- 
 nificent vision of the Lord Himself descending 
 from heaven with a shout ; and then, for the 
 Church of all ages, is added the injunction : 
 
 1 " For my own part, I must confess to you, that death, as 
 death, appeareth to me as an enemy, and my nature doth abhor 
 and fear it. But the thoughts of the coming of the Lord are 
 most sweet and joyful to me ; so that, if I were but sure that I 
 should live to see it, and that the trumpet should sound, and the 
 dead should rise, and the Lord appear before the period of my 
 age, it would be the joyfulest tidings to me in the world. Oh 
 that I might see His kingdom come ! " — Richard Baxter. 
 
THE POWER OE HIS COMING. 41 
 
 "Wherefore comfort one another with these 
 words" (1 Thess. iv. 18). 
 
 " Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty : 
 they shall behold a land of far distances" (Isa. 
 xxxiii. 17). Blessed is it if we are so long-sighted 
 as to catch glimpses of that better country, amid 
 the trial and turmoil of this ; but doubly blessed, 
 if we can look down upon this country through 
 the far-reaching vistas of that, viewing the pres- 
 ent life from the exalted stand-point of our Re- 
 deemer's throne. And this is permitted us. 
 For there are what we may call spiritual rehear- 
 sals of the advent rapture, in which, like Paul, 
 we are " caught up into Paradise " and hear un- 
 speakable words. Let those bear witness who 
 have proved it, — and there are such, — how 
 utterly the whole scene of life has been changed 
 in such moments. " Like Philip, I was caught 
 away by the Spirit," writes one, "and was found, 
 not at Azotus, but in the advent cloud, seated 
 with my Lord in the chariot of His descending 
 glory. A fire devoured before Him, and it was 
 very tempestuous round about Him. I heard 
 Him call to the heavens from above, and to the 
 earth, that He might judge His people, saying, 
 ' Gather my saints together unto Me, those that 
 have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.' And 
 as His redeemed ones came flying to Him, 'as a 
 
42 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 cloud, and as the doves to their windows/ from 
 every tribe and kindred of earth, I beheld such 
 as had been left behind. What wringing of hands 
 there was among those who had loved gold su- 
 premely in a world which God so loved as to 
 give His only Son for its redemption ! What 
 blanched faces upon those who had fared sump- 
 tuously and lived deliciously amid a starving and 
 perishing race ! Many of them who did so 
 seemed to have worn the name of Christians ; 
 for, as I listened, I could hear a mighty wail 
 borne up from them towards the descending 
 Judge : ' Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in 
 Thy name ? and in Thy name cast out devils ? and 
 in Thy name done many wonderful works ? ' But 
 He only answered them : ' I never knew you : 
 depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.' Whether 
 in the body or out of the body when this trans- 
 port was upon me, I cannot tell. But never since 
 it occurred has the world been the same to me ; 
 nor can I think of its wealth, its luxury, its ease, 
 its honors, without an instant prayer to be deliv- 
 ered from making these my gods." 
 
 Such "instant prayer" we may all well learn 
 to offer, in the midst of our necessary work con- 
 stantly sending up ejaculatory petitions that we 
 may be delivered from the present evil Avorld, 
 so that, when our Lord appears in the clouds of 
 
THE POWER OF HIS COMING. 43 
 
 heaven, we may bound towards Him by a resist- 
 less attraction, and be forever with Him. 1 Noth- 
 ing can compensate for their loss who have elim- 
 inated this advent-hope from their creed. One 
 love conquers another ; and only by tasting " the 
 powers of the world to come" can there be 
 wrought in us a radical and enduring distaste for 
 the vanities of the world that now is. Well, 
 therefore, has one written concerning this hope, 
 that, " of the life of watchfulness, patience, and 
 heavenly-mindedness, it is the soul and power ; 
 and history makes abundantly manifest that, 
 where this prospect has temporarily receded in 
 the Christian consciousness, the spiritual life also 
 has declined. One may confidently say that to a 
 healthy Christian life ' etwas Apocalyptisches" — 
 something apocalyptical — also belongs ; and that 
 obligation to observe the signs of the times can- 
 not possibly be fulfilled so long as the question 
 as to the final whither has not, at least in prin- 
 ciple, received an answer." 
 
 1 " O Almighty God, grant that those necessary works wherein 
 we are engaged, whether in the affairs of Thy Church or of this 
 world, may not prevail to hinder us ; but that, at the appearing 
 and advent of Thy Son, we may hasten with joy to meet Him, 
 who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one 
 God, world without end. Amen." 
 
IV. 
 
 THE PROGRAMME OF REDEMPTION. 
 
 It is remarkable to observe that the first coun- 
 cil of the Christian Church ever convened should 
 have outlined the whole scheme of redemption 
 from Pentecost to the consummation of the ages. 
 And whatever we may hold as to the binding 
 authority of later councils, we must accept the 
 deliverances of this at Jerusalem as final, since 
 from the testimony of inspired Scripture we 
 know that the Spirit so truly presided and guided 
 in the assembly that in publishing its decisions 
 it was written, "// seemed good to the Holy Ghost 
 and to us "(Acts xv. 28). Jesus Christ is the 
 Architect of the ages. Not only " all things were 
 made by Him" — all worlds and systems of the 
 material universe — but all the dispensations were 
 planned and predestined by Him : " By whom 
 also He made the ages " (Heb. i. 2). His Church 
 was not set upon her course until a complete 
 programme of her mission had been placed in 
 her hands, the working -plan by which all her 
 operations were to be directed. "Known unto 
 God are all His works from the beginning of the 
 
THE PROGRAMME OF REDEMPTION. 45 
 
 ivorld" (Acts xv. 18) is the significant declara- 
 tion which accompanies the publication of this 
 programme. And, instead of being day-laborers 
 working in ignorance, God would have us, as 
 laborers together with Him, to understand the 
 entire divine scheme by which our efforts are to 
 be directed, that we may be saved alike from pre- 
 sumption and from despair. 
 
 " Simeon Jiath declared how God at the first did 
 visit the Gentiles to take out of them a people for 
 His name " (Acts xv. 14). Here is the first act 
 of the great programme. Because of the citation 
 from the Old Testament which immediately fol- 
 lows — " And to this agree the words of the 
 prophets, as it is written : After this I will return, 
 and will build again the tabernacle of David which 
 is fallen down" — it has been inferred that this 
 Gentile outgathering and the tabernacle upbuild- 
 ing mean the same thing ; in other words, that 
 the rearing of the tabernacle of David is a figura- 
 tive expression for the building of the Church of 
 Christ. By this superficial though not altogether 
 unnatural explanation of the passage, the whole 
 programme has been reduced to a single act, and 
 the inference drawn that the preaching of the 
 gospel in this dispensation is to issue in the con- 
 version of "all the Gentiles." 
 
 But it is only necessary to observe three things 
 
46 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 in order to correct this misapprehension : First, 
 that the citation here made from the closing 
 chapter of the Book of Amos is clearly a predic- 
 tion of the literal restoration of literal Israel, and 
 their reinhabitance of their land ; for the words 
 quoted are part of a passage which ends with this 
 decisive language: " And I will plant them upon 
 their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out 
 of their land which I have given them, saith the 
 Lord thy God" (Amos ix. 15). Observe again 
 that in making this citation the Holy Ghost in- 
 serts the words, not found in the original text, 
 "After this I will return" and will build again, 
 thus making the restoration of the Davidic tab- 
 ernacle subsequent to the gathering out of the 
 Church from the Gentiles, and connecting it 
 directly with the personal return of the Lord. 
 And, lastly, we are to notice that in announcing 
 this election from among the Gentiles, it is not 
 added, "in this are fulfilled the words of the 
 prophets," but "with this harmonize — a-v^movaiv, 
 sympJwnize — the words of the prophets." It is 
 but saying that the parts of the great oratorio of 
 redemption perfectly accord, though centuries lie 
 between its different measures ; and then, to show 
 us how they accord, the Holy Spirit sounds all 
 the octaves thereof with a single sweep, and lets 
 us listen to their grand unison. This, then, is the 
 
THE PROGRAMME OF REDEMPTION. 47 
 
 programme of redemption by which we are to 
 work in evangelizing the world : — 
 
 "First, God did visit the Gentiles to take out 
 of them a people for His name. And to this agree 
 the words of the prophets, as it is written : — 
 
 "After this I will return and will build again the 
 tabernacle of David which is fallen down ; and I 
 will build again the ruins thereof and I will set 
 it up : 
 
 " In order that the residue of men might seek 
 after the Lord, and all the Gentiles upon whom 
 My name is called, saith the Lord who doeth all 
 these things." 
 
 The three great stages of redemption are thus 
 outlined in their order. 
 
 The gathering of the Church is the first act, 
 and this, having begun at Pentecost, is still go- 
 ing on. All the descriptions of it contained in 
 Scripture mark it as elective. From the word of 
 Christ to His first disciples, " I have out-chosen 
 you out of the world," to the triumph-song of the 
 saved heard by the seer in Patmos, " Thou hast 
 redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every 
 kindred and tongue and people and nation," the 
 Bride of Christ is always the Ecclesia, the called 
 out. Nowhere is universal redemption predicted 
 as the result of preaching the Gospel in this dis- 
 pensation. If in the minds of those who are 
 
48 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 accustomed to speak of the world's conversion 
 there is a violent revulsion from this saying, we 
 remind them that we are simply affirming the 
 truth of the doctrine of election, and its applica- 
 tion to this entire age. Most tenderly and rev- 
 erently would we handle this solemn mystery of 
 the Sovereign Will. " Who has not known pas- 
 sion, cross, and travail of death," says Luther, 
 "cannot treat of this theme without injury to 
 man or enmity to God." But it is written in 
 Scripture, and the verdict of the ages declares it 
 true. For after eighteen centuries of Christian 
 conquest the vast proportion of the world still 
 "lieth in the Wicked One," and Christ's true 
 Church is but a "little flock" in comparison. 
 Only with pathetic sympathy for our fallen race 
 in its ruin and helplessness can we contemplate 
 this fact. And yet we must be reminded that all 
 attempts to violate this decree by making the 
 Church a multitudinous collection, instead of a 
 gracious election, have only issued in apostasy. 
 Sacramentarianism would take the world into the 
 Church by instituting a baptized paganism instead 
 of taking the Church out of the world by preach- 
 ing spiritual regeneration ; and behold the result 
 in a half-heathenized Christendom. Latitudina- 
 rianism would make the Church coextensive with 
 the world by preaching the gospel of universal 
 
THE PROGRAMME OF REDEMPTION. 49 
 
 salvation, — all men by nature the sons of God, — 
 and thus, by crowding the Lord's house with " the 
 children of the Wicked One," turn it into "the 
 synagogue of Satan." Though it be in mystery, 
 and sorrow and tears, we had best work on, there- 
 fore, by the divine schedule, preaching the gospel 
 among all nations for a witness that we may 
 gather out for Christ a chosen and sanctified peo- 
 ple, calmly answering those who say that God's 
 ways are partial with His own words: "When 
 that which is perfect is come, then that which is 
 in part shall be done away." 
 
 And yet, lest we should take too narrow a view 
 of this theme, other considerations should not be 
 overlooked. Christ is called " The Light of the 
 World." The beams of sunlight both elect and 
 irradiate ; taking out here and there from muddy 
 pool or acrid dead sea a pure, crystalline drop 
 and lifting it heavenward ; but also lighting and 
 warming all the atmosphere by their radiance. 
 So Christ, preached among the Gentiles, elects 
 from them a holy flock, a regenerate Church ; but 
 besides this, He changes the moral climate of the 
 world so that such noxious growths as cannibal- 
 ism, slavery, polygamy, and infanticide disappear. 
 These two results inevitably attend the proclama- 
 tion of the gospel ; regeneration saving some out 
 of the world, and civilization putting something 
 
50 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 of Christianity into the world : but by neither 
 process as now going on is the millennium des- 
 tined to be ushered in. 
 
 Moreover, let us reflect that an election is never 
 v an end in itself ; it is rather a means and prepara- 
 tion for some vastly larger accomplishment. The 
 body of the elect is really Christ's army, gathered 
 by a divine conscription from every kindred and 
 people, that they may attend Him as He goes 
 forth to His final conquest of the world. "And 
 they that are with Him are called and elect and 
 faithful " (Rev. xvii. 14). Of this, however, we 
 shall speak later. 
 
 The second act of the divine programme now 
 comes into view. " After this I will return and 
 build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen 
 down." By Christ's personal coming in glory, the 
 conversion and restoration of Israel are to be 
 accomplished. The reader has only to compare 
 this order with the redemption schedule drawn 
 out in the eleventh of Romans to see how per- 
 fectly they agree. St. Paul, indeed, begins with 
 the Jewish election, as St. James does with the 
 Gentile election. And we must remember that 
 the choosing out that is going on in this dispen- 
 sation touches both : " not out of the Jews only, 
 — but also out of the Gentiles " (Rom. ix. 24). But 
 each apostle takes up the same succession of 
 
THE PROGRAMME OF REDEMPTION. 5 1 
 
 events ; first the Gentile outgathering, and then 
 the Hebrew regathering. The hardening of the 
 Jews which we now behold is declared by Paul 
 to continue " until the fulness of the Gentiles be 
 come in. And so all Israel shall be saved. As 
 it is written : There shall come out of Zion the 
 Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from 
 Jacob" (Rom. xi. 25, 26). By the "fulness of the 
 Gentiles" we understand the predestined num- -/ 
 ber, the elect company gathered through the 
 entire period of this dispensation to form the 
 Bride of Christ. 1 When this number shall have 
 been accomplished, then the conversion of Israel 
 will occur and their national restoration to God's 
 favor. The two parts of the aged Simeon's proph- 
 ecy are strictly consecutive : " A light to lighten 
 the Gentiles and the glory of Thy people Israel " 
 (Luke ii. 31, 32). The sun is the light of the 
 earth, overspreading it with his beams and elect- 
 ing and drawing up from it the pure water-drops 
 
 1 The word irX^pwfxa — ftdness — is used to signify a limited 
 fulness as well as an unlimited : it may apply to the contents of 
 the brimming cup dipped from the ocean as well as to all the 
 waters of the ocean. " When the fulness of time was come, God 
 sent forth his Son" (Gal. iv. 4). Here is meant the completion 
 of a certain preordained period of time. So "the fulness of the 
 Gentiles " we hold to mean the entire number of those to be 
 gathered out of the Gentiles during the age. See use of the 
 word also in Mark ii. 21. 
 
52 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 which form the clouds ; but he is the glory of the 
 heavens, being their very central and most illus- 
 trious orb. And so is Christ a light for revelation 
 to the nations, exhibiting God to them in Himself 
 who is "the brightness of His glory and the ex- 
 press image of His person," in order to win from 
 them a chosen heritage. But He will be the su- 
 preme glory of His people Israel, when He shall 
 at last be owned as their Messiah and reign in 
 the midst of them as King. 
 
 These two stages of redemption — the Gentile 
 election and the Hebrew restoration — are to be 
 accomplished "in order" to a third, namely, 
 "that the residue of men might seek after the 
 Lord, and all the Gentiles upon whom my name 
 is called." 
 
 The old priority still holds, so far as world-wide 
 salvation is concerned : "To the Jew first and also 
 to the Gentile." This order was inverted for a 
 time by the rejection of Christ by His people ; 
 but when they shall turn unto Him and find 
 mercy, it will be taken up again. It stands writ- 
 ten in Scripture that " all Israel shall be saved ; " 
 and just as plainly, that through that consum- 
 mation " all the Gentiles upon whom my name is 
 called." Without enlarging upon the thought, 
 what a profound hint of this does Paul give in the 
 words of the same chapter concerning his rejected 
 
THE PROGRAMME OF REDEMPTION. 53 
 
 people : " Now if the fall of them be the riches 
 of the world, and the diminishing of them the 
 riches of the Gentiles, how much more tlieir ful- 
 ness." " For if the casting away of them be the 
 reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving 
 of them be but life from the dead?" (Rom. xi. 12, 
 15.) "It is clear," says Lange, "that the apostle 
 awaits a boundless effect of blessing on the world 
 from the future conversion of Israel." Then 
 shall the word of Joel concerning the effusion of 
 the Spirit have a complete fulfilment, as it had a 
 partial and prefigurative accomplishment on the 
 day of Pentecost. For if we turn to the prophet 
 we find it said : " And ye shall know that / am in 
 the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your 
 God and none else. And it shall come to pass 
 afterward that I will pour out my Spirit u,pon all 
 flesh " (Joel ii. 27, 28). And with this agree the 
 words of Isaiah where he predicts the desolation 
 of Zion as continuing " till the Spirit be poured 
 iLpon 7 is from on high" (Is. xxxii. 15). When the 
 Lord shall shed forth the Holy Ghost abundantly 
 upon His covenant people, through them will come 
 unspeakable blessing to the Gentiles. 1 The mod- 
 
 1 " A new life in the higher charismatic fulness of the Spirit 
 shall extend from God's people to the nations of the world com- 
 pared with which the previous life of the nations must be con- 
 sidered dead." — Auberlen. 
 
 v 
 
54 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 ern post-millennial interpretation completely de- 
 ranges the programme of prophecy at this point 
 by making redemption terminate with its first 
 scene. " The end of the age," brought in by the 
 second coming of Christ, misleadingly translated 
 "the end of the world" in our common version, 
 is supposed by many to close the probation of the 
 race, winding up the present earthly scene, and 
 bringing in the final judgment and the eternal 
 state, instead of opening into the triumphs of the 
 age to come. Is it possible that the first Chris- 
 tians could have had this idea ? If so, how could 
 they have so ardently desired, and earnestly 
 looked for, the speedy return of the Lord, since 
 His coming would end the work of Gentile in- 
 gathering, while as yet only a handful had been 
 saved ? On the contrary, take the words of Peter 
 to the Jewish rejectors of Christ, and observe how 
 clearly they teach the very opposite : " Repent ye 
 therefore and turn again, that your sins may be 
 blotted out, that so there may come seasons of 
 refreshing from the presence of the Lord ; and 
 that he may send the Christ who hath been ap- 
 pointed for you, even Jesus whom the heaven 
 must receive until the times of the restoration of 
 all things " (Acts hi. 19-21, r. v.). Here we have, 
 as constantly throughout Scripture, the repent- 
 ance of Israel directly connected with the return 
 
THE PROGRAMME OF REDEMPTION. 55 
 
 of Christ from heaven, and their conversion and 
 the Lord's appearing resulting, not in their cut- 
 ting off from the presence of the Lord, but in 
 times of " refreshing from the presence of the 
 Lord ; " not in the winding up of all things, but 
 in the " restoration of all things" Three acts of 
 the divine programme appear again in this decla- 
 ration of Peter, — the coming of Christ, the con- 
 version of Israel, and universal redemption, — 
 corresponding exactly with those revealed in the 
 texts from James and Paul already considered. 
 
 How clearly it is thus seen that the final re- 
 demption of the world comes at last through the 
 conversion and restoration of Israel, and the 
 glorifying of the Church at our Lord's return ! 
 If it be said that this is a Jewish conception, bor- 
 rowed from the Old Testament, 1 we will answer, 
 "Yes, and reiterated and more explicitly un- 
 folded in the New Testament." For nowhere is 
 the order of events so distinctly revealed as in 
 the Acts and Epistles. 
 
 " Election, partial and opposed to universal 
 
 1 " It is certainly not without significance that the Old Testa- 
 ment throughout binds the fulfilment of the Divine kingdom to 
 the land that was granted to Abraham, not by right of nature, 
 but by grace. The prophets know of no final completion of the 
 Divine promises without the confirmation of this old promise of 
 the eternal possession of the Holy Land." — Oehler, Old Testa- 
 ment Theology, \. p. 93. 
 
56 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 redemption," has been the verdict of thousands 
 who have replied against God, knowing little of 
 the range of His eternal plan. " Election, gra- 
 cious, and preparatory to universal redemption/' 
 is the discovery which a deep pondering of Holy 
 Scripture reveals. The chosen nation, Israel, 
 restored and made glorious on earth, with the 
 Lord dwelling in the midst of her, and the elect 
 Church transfigured with her risen Saviour, — these 
 are His appointed agents, trained by long dis- 
 cipline and trial for bringing all peoples and 
 tribes into obedience to God. As to the Gentile 
 election, so to the Hebrew restoration, objectors 
 may be reconciled when it appears that this, too, 
 is instrumental and preparatory to world-wide 
 salvation. "Arise, shine, for thy light is come, 
 and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee," 
 is the summons which the long captive daughter 
 of Zion shall hear, and then the blessed result : 
 "And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and 
 kings to the brightness of thy rising " (Is. lx. 
 3). No dream of the world's conversion, how- 
 ever ardent, can surpass the glowing reality as 
 depicted in the prophecy just quoted, — " The 
 abundance of the sea," " The forces of the Gen- 
 tiles," " The inhabitants of the isles," coming no 
 longer by ones and twos, but in clouds ! Only let 
 us observe the order of their coming, — through 
 
THE PROGRAMME OF REDEMPTION. 57 
 
 restored and forgiven Israel, — that we may un- 
 derstand the Messianic prayers which are taught 
 us in the Scripture to be the truest missionary 
 prayers. To plead for the speedy return of the 
 Lord is to plead for the speedy ingathering of the 
 heathen ; to pray for the peace of Jerusalem is to 
 pray for the conversion of the Gentiles. How 
 this comes out in the words of the sixty-seventh 
 Psalm ! — " God be merciful unto us and bless us, 
 and cause His face to shine upon us; that Thy 
 way may be known upon earth, Thy saving health 
 among all nations." The Jews have been in the 
 shadow of God's averted countenance ever since 
 they rejected His Anointed, and hid, as it were, 
 their faces from Him. But when they shall re- 
 pent and return to Him, He will turn His face 
 again upon them in blessing. Then will redemp- 
 tion go forth unhindered and without measure 
 upon the Gentiles. 1 " Then shall the earth yield 
 her increase, and God, even our own God, shall 
 
 1 " Those beautiful questioning words of Isaiah about the 
 Gentiles often occur to me : ' Who are these who fly as doves to 
 their windows ? ' — a flock of doves speeding to their home, their 
 ark of refuge. Noah's one dove, like the solitary Jewish Church, 
 took refuge there from the wild waste of waters ; but all kin- 
 dreds, people, tongues, and nations shall fly to their stronghold in 
 later times, their feathers of gold and their wings covered with 
 silver, white and lovely though they have lain among the pots." 
 — Patience of Hope. 
 
58 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 bless us, and all tJie ends of the eartJi shall fear 
 Him" Blessed time, when God's patient seek- 
 ing after the Gentiles shall give place to a uni- 
 versal seeking of the Gentiles after God. " And 
 the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, 
 saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the 
 Lord and to seek the Lord of Hosts. I will go 
 also, yea, many people and strong nations shall 
 come to seek the Lord of Hosts in Jerusalem, 
 and to pray before the Lord" (Zech. viii. 21, 22). 
 To those, therefore, who would dishearten us by 
 declaring that missions to the heathen are a fail- 
 ure, and that, at the end of nineteen centuries of 
 evangelization by the Church, there are a thou- 
 sand million of earth's fourteen hundred millions 
 who have not even named the name of Christ, 
 — that " for every additional Christian, we have 
 every year a hundred and eighty additional 
 heathens or Moslems," — our answer is, An ex- 
 hortation to redoubled diligence in preaching the 
 gospel to every creature, that we may thereby 
 " hasten the day of God ; " an invocation, " Even 
 so come Lord Jesus ; " and a prayer which we 
 breathe out in the most fitting words of the old 
 English burial service : " That it may please Thee 
 shortly to accomplish the number of TJiine elect and 
 to hasten Thy kmgdom, that we, with all those 
 
 \ 
 
THE PROGRAMME OE REDEMPTION. 59 
 
 that are departed in the true faith of Thy holy 
 name, may have our perfect consummation and 
 bliss, both in body and soul, in Thy eternal and 
 everlasting glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 Amen." 
 
V. 
 
 THE ENDS OF THE AGES. 
 
 Three consecutive ends of ages come into 
 view in the New Testament : First (Heb. ix. 26), 
 " Once in the end of the ages hath he appeared to 
 put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself," Christ's 
 first coming, terminating the Jewish economy in 
 the judgment and rejection of the house of Israel, 
 and opening the door of grace to the Gentiles; 
 second (Matt. xiii. 49), "At the end of the age the 
 angels shall come forth and sever the wicked 
 from among the just," Christ's second coming, 
 attended by the first resurrection and the rap- 
 ture of the Church, terminating the dispensation 
 of grace in the judgment of apostate Christen- 
 dom, restoring Israel, and introducing the mil- 
 lennium ; third (1 Cor. xv. 24, r. v.), " Then cotneth 
 the end, when He shall deliver up the kingdom 
 to God even the Father," the close of the millen- 
 nium, the resurrection of the rest of the dead, 
 and the last judgment. 
 
 Observe with what dramatic solemnity each of 
 these successive ages is brought to a close. On 
 the cross of Golgotha, amid the rending of the 
 
THE ENDS OF THE AGES. 6 1 
 
 temple veil, the shock of earthquake, and the 
 darkening of the sun, Christ ended the first with 
 that mighty cry: "It is finished" (John xix. 30). 
 Amid voices, and thunders and lightnings, and 
 an earthquake, and the outpouring of the sev- 
 enth vial, the present age is closed, a great voice 
 out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, 
 saying: "It is done" (Rev. xvi. 17). With the 
 passing away of the first heaven and the first 
 earth, and the abolishing of death and sorrow and 
 crying and pain, the millennial age is brought to 
 an end, He that sitteth on the throne saying : 
 " It is done, I am Alpha and Omega, the begin- 
 ning and the end " (Rev. xxi. 6). 
 
 What is called the post-millennial theory — 
 the doctrine that Christ's return is at the end 
 of the millennium instead of the beginning — 
 maintains its position by telescoping the ages, 
 running the second and third together, and so 
 making their principal events to synchronize. It 
 is agreed that a resurrection takes place at the 
 advent of Christ. But pre-millennialists hold that 
 this is "the first resurrection," — the rising of 
 the just, — and that a chiliad will elapse between 
 it and the second resurrection, during which 
 period Christ will reign over the earth with His 
 glorified Church, and that therefore His coming 
 must be pre-millennial. This might not appear 
 
62 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 to one whose eye is not trained by a diligent study 
 of the Word to apprehend the perspective of 
 prophecy. But will our readers follow us care- 
 fully, and see whether the position is not justi- 
 tified by an appeal to Scripture. 
 
 The following text we regard as having to do 
 with three consecutive ages (i Cor. xv. 22-29 ) : 
 " In Christ shall all be made alive. But every 
 man in his own order : CJirist the first-fruits," — 
 at the close of the Jewish dispensation, — " after- 
 ward they that are Christ s at His coming" — at 
 the close of the present dispensation, — " then 
 cometh the end" — at the close of the millennial 
 dispensation. This last "end," however, is held 
 by post-millenarians to mean the time of Christ's 
 coming and the resurrection of all, both righteous 
 and wicked ; so that there is no considerable 
 period between the advent and the final consum- 
 mation. 
 
 But observe the significant adverbs " after- 
 wards " and " then" — €7retra ; eha} They are cor- 
 relatives ; and as we know that one describes an 
 era of at least nearly nineteen hundred years, it 
 
 1 " By the words eireira and eira, two separate epochs are dis- 
 tinctly marked ; and it is a violation of all usage of terms to 
 construe them otherwise. The interval of the first is stretching 
 beyond 1,800 years ; how many ages will intervene between the 
 second and the third, who can tell ? " — Kline. 
 
THE ENDS OF THE AGES. 63 
 
 is quite impossible to suppose that the other indi- 
 cates no considerable period of time. And this 
 is not all. Scripture is like a dissected map, 
 whose scattered parts we must fit together if we 
 would discover what is the divine pattern of the 
 ages. And, turning to the Apocalypse, we find 
 that it gives us the period and the events with 
 which to fill up this disputed space between the 
 resurrection of them that are Christ's at His com- 
 ing and the end. For in its pages we have a 
 vision of " the first resurrection " — that which all 
 Scripture teaches us to connect with Christ's 
 second advent — and then the statement that "the 
 rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand 
 years were ended ; " and between these two, the 
 glorified saints reigning with Christ a thousand 
 years (Rev. xx. 4-6). If plain language may be 
 plainly interpreted, this gives us the filling up of 
 the outline revealed in Corinthians, and verifies 
 the schedule of the ages with which we begin this 
 chapter. 
 
 Moreover, if we observe the events which are 
 connected with the " end " in the Corinthian 
 prophecy, we see how clearly they define it. 
 " Then cometh the end when He shall deliver up 
 the kingdom to God, even the Father" (1 Cor. xv. 
 24, r. v.). But on Christ's appearing at the close 
 of the present age, He takes the kingdom from 
 
64 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 the Father. As Daniel sees One like unto the 
 Son of man coming with the clouds of heaven, he 
 beholds Him invested with kingship by the " An- 
 cient of Days : " "And there was given Him do- 
 minion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples 
 and nations and languages should serve Him " 
 (Dan. vii. 13, 14). Can our Lord's receiving the 
 kingdom from the Father mean the same thing 
 as His delivering up the kingdom to the Father ? 1 
 In Revelation the representation is precisely the 
 same. As the seventh angel sounds — the angel 
 of the last trump under which the righteous dead 
 are raised (1 Cor. xv. 52) — there are great voices 
 in heaven saying : " The kingdom of this world 
 is become the kingdom of our Lord and of His 
 Christ ; " and the response from the four and 
 twenty elders is : " We give thee thanks, O Lord 
 God Almighty, which art and wast and art to 
 come," — this is the title of the glorified Christ 
 (i. 8), — " because Thou hast taken to Thyself 
 
 1 " Is the object of Christ's coming to surrender the kingdom 
 to the Father, or does He come first of all to rightly enter upon 
 it ? Undoubtedly the latter. The appearing of Christ is at the 
 same time the appearing of His Kingdom. This unquestioned, 
 then it is clear that the return of Christ is rather for the purpose 
 of assuming than assigning the kingdom, and therefore the pa- 
 rousia of Christ and the End of the World do not coincide, but 
 on the contrary are separated from each other." — Luthardt, 
 Lehre von den Letzten Diugen, p. 129, 
 
THE ENDS OF THE AGES. 65 
 
 Thy great power and hast reigned." This cer- 
 tainly is Christ's assumption of the kingdom 
 rather than His surrender of it. Not only does 
 He receive the kingdom at His advent, but, ac- 
 cording to this same prophecy of Daniel, His 
 redeemed people share its reign and judgment 
 with Him : " And the time came that the saints 
 possessed the kingdom " (Daniel vii. 22). But this 
 time is shown in Revelation to extend from the 
 first resurrection to the second resurrection : 
 " Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first 
 resurrection : on such the second death hath no 
 power ; but they shall be priests of God and of 
 Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand 
 years" (Rev. xx. 6). Observe, again, that the last 
 end which we are considering is "the end . . . 
 when He shall have put down all rule and author- 
 ity and power" Does He not begin this work at 
 His advent, when He destroys Antichrist, and all 
 his vast array of allied wickedness, by the bright- 
 ness of His coming ? " For He must reign till He 
 hath put all enemies under His feet." But at His 
 coming for the first resurrection, He finds His 
 enemies unsubdued, the nations angry, the apos- 
 tasy ripe for judgment. This cannot be the time 
 of the completed subjection of His foes. " The 
 last enemy that shall be destroyed is death" Yet 
 it is only at the end of the millennium, at the 
 
66 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 termination of the thousand years' reign of the 
 saints, and after the white-throne judgment, that 
 the announcements are heard: " And death and 
 hell were cast into the lake of fire ; " "And there 
 shall be no more death " (Rev. xx. 14 ; xxi. 4). 
 We find, therefore, an entire era of the conquest 
 and reign of Immanuel and His saints between 
 the resurrection at His glorious appearing and 
 the end when He shall surrender His kingdom. 
 These considerations would seem to establish 
 conclusively the pre-millennial order of Christ's 
 coming ; but there are others. 
 
 The present age is everywhere set forth in 
 Scripture as one of mingled darkness and light, 
 towards the end of which the shadows rather 
 deepen into judgment than break away before a 
 triumphant millennial dawn. The parables of the 
 kingdom, contained in the thirteenth chapter of 
 Matthew, are decisive in their teaching. These 
 parables are seven ; and we hold that — like the 
 seven prophetic pictures of the Apocalyptic 
 churches — they portray the successive eras of 
 the history of Christendom from the beginning of 
 the dispensation to its close. 1 In them we have 
 
 1 The Epistles to the Seven Churches, besides describing what 
 is undoubtedly historical, have so many allusions which are evi- 
 dently figurative and mystical that there is the strongest reason 
 for accepting the view advanced by Mede, one of the earliest 
 
THE ENDS OF THE AGES. 67 
 
 a vivid delineation of the trials and resistance 
 which the kingdom of heaven was to encounter 
 from the Adversary, from its first introduction 
 into the world until the end of the age ; and if, 
 in their exposition, we are guided by the light 
 which other Scriptures throw upon them, we seem 
 to discover both a logical and a chronological 
 order in the teaching which they set forth. 
 
 In the first parable, the seed is " the word of 
 the kingdom." As it is sown, three parts fall 
 into unfruitful soil, and only one part into good 
 ground. Does not this harmonize with the uni- 
 versal experience of the preachers of the Gospel, 
 from the day of our Lord's ministry until this 
 present, that only the smaller fraction of their 
 hearers give fruitful heed to the Word ? 
 
 In the second parable, we take the field that is 
 really receptive, and into which good seed has 
 been cast, and, lo ! tares are found to have been 
 sown therein by the Adversary, which now appear 
 growing together with the wheat. This our Lord 
 explains to mean the mingling of "the children 
 of the Wicked One" with "the children of the 
 
 Protestant Apocalyptic commentators, and received by many 
 later expositors, that it was intended "that these seven churches 
 should prophetically sample unto us a sevenfold temper and 
 constitution of the whole Church according to the several ages 
 thereof, answering the pattern of the churches named here." 
 
68 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 kingdom." And is not this exactly what came to 
 pass in the first stages of the apostasy, the bring- 
 ing of unregenerated men into the Church of 
 Christ and mixing them with true saints ? With 
 this second parable of the kingdom harmonizes 
 most strikingly the second stage of prophetic 
 Christian history as exhibited in the Church of 
 Smyrna (Rev. ii. 9), — "I know the blasphemy of 
 them that say they are Jews and are not, but are 
 of the synagogue of Satan ; " false professors per- 
 sonating the true, the children of the Wicked One 
 palming themselves off as children of the king- 
 dom (see Rom. ii. 28). 
 
 The third parable shows the result. The king- 
 dom of heaven becomes a lofty and overshadow- 
 ing world -church. 1 The mustard -seed springs 
 up, but not according to its kind ; from an herb 
 it grows into a great tree, and the birds of the 
 air that once sought to destroy the seed of the 
 kingdom now lodge in its branches ; the em- 
 perors and kings who had striven to uproot the 
 pure Church find shelter in this secular Church, 
 which, in its changed condition, overspreads the 
 earth with marvellous rapidity. Let one read 
 this parable in the light of the same represen- 
 
 1 "As the mustard-seed even changes its species, passing 
 from an herb to a sort of tree, so does the kingdom of heaven pass 
 into the likeness of a great world-stated — Lange. 
 
THE EAES OE THE AGES. 69 
 
 tation as given by the prophets (Ezk. xxxi. 3- 
 14, and Dan. iv. 10-19), and he can hardly con- 
 clude that our Lord intended herein to set forth 
 a true spiritual growth of His Church. It is 
 rather the Pergamos period of her development 
 which the prophetico-historic interpreters have 
 understood to be the era of the union of Church 
 and State, wherein what was originally "not of 
 this world " becomes a vast world-kingdom. The 
 prophetic prefigurement in the Apocalypse is 
 very striking, — Balaam conspiring with Balak, 
 the prophet with the king, to seduce the children 
 of Israel into idolatry (Rev. ii. 14), — even as, in 
 the history of the Church, the bishops and the 
 emperors by their ecclesiastical alliance pagan- 
 ized Christianity. 
 
 The fourth parable gives the result of this rank 
 prosperity of the Church in the complete corrup- 
 tion of her life and doctrine: "The kingdom of 
 heaven is like unto leaven which a woman took 
 and hid in three measures of meal till the whole 
 was leavened." Let those who affirm that this 
 parable signifies the gradual penetration and sav- 
 ing transformation of the whole world by the 
 Gospel reflect that, in order to get this interpre- 
 tation, they must give to leaven a directly oppo- 
 site meaning from that which Scripture invariably 
 assigns to it, since it is always employed in the 
 
70 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 < 
 
 Bible as a type of corruption, there being abso- 
 lutely no exception to this usage in Old Testa- 
 ment or New. 1 Hear our Lord's admonition to 
 " take Jiccd and beware of the leaven of the Phari- 
 sees and of the Sadducees" meaning thereby their 
 false doctrines (Matt. xvi. 12). Listen to the 
 exhortations of the apostle against " the leaven of 
 malice and wickedness" (1 Cor. v. 8). Warning 
 the Galatians of the doctrine of the Judaizers, he 
 bids them remember that "a little leaven leaven- 
 etJi the whole lump " (Gal. v. 9). Reproving the 
 Corinthian Church for harboring fornicators, he 
 uses the same phrase, and adds: "Purge out, 
 therefore, the old leaven, that ye may be a new 
 lump, as ye are " — according to your calling and 
 profession — "unleavened" (1 Cor. v. 7). Com- 
 paring Scripture with Scripture, — the only 
 method of interpreting difficult texts, — it seems 
 clear that this parable of the leaven symbolizes 
 the apostate Church, ''which did corrupt the earth 
 with her fornication" (Rev. xix. 2), and not the 
 true Christianitv, which was to transform the 
 whole earth by the Gospel. The only instance 
 where the use of leaven was commanded in 
 
 1 Even the heathen attached this significance to it, as shown 
 by the following sentence of Plutarch, as cited by "Wetstein : 
 " Xow leaven is both generated itself from corruption, and it cor- 
 rupts the mass "with which it is mingled." 
 
THE ENDS OF THE AGES. 71 
 
 Jewish worship affords a striking confirmation 
 of this interpretation. Rigidly and repeatedly 
 was its employment forbidden in the Passover 
 service, because that service was foretypical of 
 Christ, who should be without spot or blemish. 
 But the wave-loaves of the feast of Pentecost 
 were commanded to be "taken with leaven" 
 (Lev. xxiii. 17) ; and Pentecost is believed to 
 have been foretypical of the Church, as the Pass- 
 over was of Christ ; and its corruption by the 
 leaven of false doctrine was thus possibly fore- 
 shadowed even in a Jewish rite and ceremony. 
 
 But could the kingdom of heaven be compared 
 with an evil or corrupt thing ? Not in its prim- 
 itive and original condition certainly. But in its 
 deteriorated state it might. "Then shall the king- 
 dom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins : . . . 
 five of them were wise said Jive were foolish" 
 (Matt. xxv. 1, 2). Here the kingdom of heaven, 
 as it will be immediately previous to the coming 
 of Christ, is compared with what is semi-apostate, 
 according to the invariable representation of the 
 mixed condition prevailing at that period. If, as 
 we believe, the parable of the leaven belongs to 
 the Middle Ages, when the Church was com- 
 pletely apostate, it is clearly reasonable that the 
 kingdom should then be compared with leaven, 
 which is the synonym of corruption. And can 
 
72 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 we fail to be struck with the exact correspond- 
 ence between the fourth parable of the seven in 
 Matthew and the fourth prophecy of the seven 
 in the Apocalypse ? As in the one a woman is 
 seen hiding leaven in the meal, so in the other 
 is pictured "that woman Jezebel teaching and 
 seducing Christ's servants to commit fornication, 
 and to eat things sacrificed to idols " (Rev. ii. 20) ; 
 that is, the papacy disseminating false doctrine in 
 the Church, and adulterating its worship with 
 pagan rites and ceremonies. 
 
 Such we believe to be the interpretation of 
 this much-disputed parable which Scripture com- 
 pels, and we may add also, which history con- 
 firms. 1 For if one holds that here is a similitude 
 of the transformation of the whole world by the 
 Gospel, he can show no fulfilment in fact ; since, 
 after nearly twenty centuries, the vastly larger 
 part of the world is still pagan, unchristian or 
 antichristian. If the parable signifies the cor- 
 ruption of the whole prophetic earth by the 
 leaven of paganized Christianity, history gives a 
 
 1 Some, who cannot admit that the parable of the leaven 
 refers to the corruption of the Church, concede that it may bear 
 this as a secondary meaning. Richter's House Bible says : 
 " The mixed degeneracy and sinfulness of the no longer apostoli- 
 cally pure Church which now extends itself is at the same time 
 meant" 
 
THE ENDS OF THE AGES. 73 
 
 perfect confirmation of it ; since, just before the 
 clawn of the Reformation, it was proudly boasted 
 by the Roman hierarchy that all opposition had 
 at last been silenced, and the entire Christian 
 world brought into acquiescence with the Apos- 
 tate Church. 
 
 Having uttered these four parables in the pres- 
 ence of the multitude, our Lord makes a signifi- 
 cant break in His discourse and sends them away; 
 then, entering into the house, He speaks the re- 
 maining three to His disciples. What do these 
 last signify ? An eminent commentator, Dr. 
 Schaff, following a totally different exposition of 
 the earlier parables from that we have indicated, 
 when reaching the parable of the hid treasure 
 remarks on the striking historical likeness which 
 is presented to it in what occurred at the Refor- 
 mation. We consider that this may be the in- 
 tended prophetic reference. It is God's elect 
 people who are repeatedly called in Scripture His 
 " peculiar treasure " (Ex. xix. 5 ; Ps. cxxv. 4, etc.). 
 In " the field " where the kingdom of heaven has 
 been so resisted and thwarted by the Adversary 
 this treasure now lies hid out of sight. "The 
 kingdom of God is as it were buried beneath the 
 clods of false Christianity, — of superstition, hu- 
 man ordinances and ceremonies " (Roos). Is not 
 this the Sardis period of the Church, nominal 
 
74 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 Christianity alone visible ? " I know thy works, 
 that thou hast a name that livest and art dead." 
 But there is a hidden remnant: 1 " A few names 
 even in Sardis that have not defiled their gar- 
 ments." At what cost of martyr-blood and of the 
 selling of all — property, friends, and life — was 
 this hidden treasure recovered, and what bound- 
 less joy resulted ! So likewise of the sixth par- 
 able, that of the pearl. The sixth Church of the 
 Apocalypse, Philadelphia, which has been held to 
 be the Church of the Reformation, has this as its 
 distinctive honor: " Thou hast kept my Word" 
 By the hand of such as Wiclif, and Luther, and 
 Tyndal, who heard the command of God, " Buy 
 the truth and sell it not," the priceless pearl of 
 the Holy Scriptures, or, forsooth, that pearl of 
 pearls, the doctrine of justification by faith, — 
 long hidden from the people under the rubbish of 
 the apostasy, — was again brought to light and 
 held forth, at what countless cost of life and 
 substance, but also amid what exultant rejoicing! 
 
 1 " The kingdom of heaven is represented as having once 
 more become invisible in the visible Church ; as hid like a treas- 
 ure, erst concealed in a most unlikely place, in the midst of 
 worldly things. It appears as a treasure-trove — a free gift of 
 grace — discovered by a person in a fortunate hour while he 
 was engaged in digging : true Christianity, when again dis- 
 covered, a subject of great joy." — Lange on The Parable of the 
 Hid Treasure. 
 
THE ENDS OF THE AGES. 75 
 
 The seventh parable is most striking in its fore- 
 casting of the times in which we live : " Again 
 the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net that was 
 cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind " — ■ 
 iK 7ravT05 yevovs — "out of every race!' Here is the 
 draw-net of world-wide missions ; and the fact 
 that our Lord interprets the parable as applying 
 to the close of the dispensation shows how per- 
 fectly its teaching accords with His own prophecy 
 that towards the end the Gospel of the kingdom 
 should be preached among all nations. It will be 
 seen thus that as the first parable, in which the 
 Son of man is the sower, touches our Lord's first 
 advent, so the seventh touches His second ad- 
 vent. And it is certainly natural to conclude — 
 since seven is in Scripture the number of com- 
 pleteness — that the others span the entire in- 
 terim. The result of this net-casting is, accord- 
 ing to the invariable teaching of Scripture, a 
 mixed gathering, in which righteous and unright- 
 eous are found together at last, awaiting the sepa- 
 ration of judgment. Is there any likeness here 
 to the seventh or Laodicean picture of the Church, 
 " Because thou art lukewarm " i If we may credit 
 the quaint suggestion of an expositor that " luke- 
 warmness is the result of the mingling of ex- 
 tremes of cold and heat in the same vessel," 
 there is. At all events, this picture agrees with 
 
76 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 the combined teaching of the Scriptures concern- 
 ing the close of the dispensation. It will be an 
 age of mingled zeal and formalism ; evangelical 
 fervor carrying the servants of Christ to the ends 
 of the earth proclaiming the everlasting Gospel, 
 and abounding iniquity causing the love of many 
 to wax cold. The last period, however, does not 
 seem to be the period of the widest and com- 
 pletest apostasy of the Church, as some would 
 teach. That era is the middle era, when the 
 whole lump was leavened ; subsequently to this, 
 there is a partial and glorious recovery. This is 
 for our joy, amid all in the outlook which is for 
 our admonition. The sailors on the Southern 
 Sea sing, "Midnight is past, the cross begins to 
 bend." And we, as voyagers through these trou- 
 bled ages, in which are the sea and the waves 
 roaring, and men's hearts failing them for fear, 
 may sing, "Midnight is past." Let not those 
 who are looking for the millennium instead of 
 Christ paint a future for the Church of untinged 
 brightness ; let not those who are looking for 
 Antichrist instead of Christ picture a future for 
 the Church of unmitigated blackness : for neither 
 representation is true to prophecy. " Watchman, 
 what of the night ? The Watchman said, " The 
 morning; comet Jl and also the night." 
 
 Trace through whatever line we will, we find 
 
THE ENDS OF THE AGES. 77 
 
 the same condition at the end of the dispensation. 
 If from the seed-time of the world we look on to 
 the reaping-time, we find the wheat and the tares, 
 the children of the kingdom and the children of 
 the Wicked One, growing together until the har- 
 vest ; then separated each for his destiny : " So 
 shall it be at the end of the age " (Matt. xiii. 40). 
 
 If we watch with joy the ingatherings of the 
 Gospel net as it sweeps through the nations, we 
 find that, when it is full and drawn to the shore, 
 the good are gathered into vessels, but the bad 
 are cast away: "So shall it be at the end of the 
 age " (Matt. xiii. 49). 
 
 If we listen to our Lord's great eschatological 
 discourse, we hear prediction after prediction of 
 wars, and famines, and pestilences, persecutions, 
 and apostasies, and false christs, together with a 
 world-wide preaching of the Gospel for a witness ; 
 but instead of any gleam of millennial glory in 
 the solemn prophecy, we find it culminating in 
 such a time "as it was in the days of Noah." 
 And all this is our Saviour's answer to the ques- 
 tion, "What shall be the sign of Thy coming and 
 of the end of the age ? " (Matt. xxiv. 3.) 
 
 If we question the Scriptures concerning the 
 characteristics of the last time as set forth by the 
 apostles, we are told that these shall be "perilous 
 times" (2 Tim. iii. 1), — times in which "some 
 
78 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 shall depart from the faith, giving heed to sedu- 
 cing spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies 
 in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with 
 a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding 
 to abstain from meats" (i Tim. iv. 1-3); that 
 whereas in primitive days Christians lived in 
 sober expectation of the Lord's return, " there 
 shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after 
 their own lusts, and saying, Where is the sign 
 of His coming?" (2 Pet. hi. 3, 4.) 
 
 If we inquire concerning the dispensation as 
 a whole, we learn that the purpose of our Re- 
 deemer's work was, not that He might transform 
 this into a present golden age, but "that He 
 might deliver us from this present evil age" (Gal. 
 i. 4) ; not that He might conform this age to us, 
 but that we should " be not conformed to this age " 
 (Rom. xii. 2). Such statements suggestively in- 
 dicate that it is not the divine purpose to millen- 
 nialize the present dispensation, but rather to call 
 out from it a holy Church, a separated people. 
 
 For what, moreover, are the age-long character- 
 istics as revealed in Scripture ? Paul, in teaching 
 the Thessalonians concerning the second coming 
 of Christ, admonishes them that, before that day 
 could arrive, there must first come a falling away 
 and a revelation of the man of sin. And he tells 
 them that this apostasy had even then begun, — 
 
THE ENDS OF THE AGES. 79 
 
 "the mystery of iniquity doth already work," — 
 and that out of it "that Wicked" would be re- 
 vealed, "whom the Lord shall consume with the 
 spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the 
 brightness of His coming." Here is a demon- 
 stration from Scripture that the predicted apos- 
 tasy would stretch across the entire age from the 
 days of Christ's immediate apostles to the day of 
 His second advent, when in its consummated 
 development it would confront the descending 
 Judge and meet its doom. Is it, then, a ripe mil- 
 lennium that welcomes the returning Lord at His 
 epiphany, or a ripe apostasy ? Let him that read- 
 eth understand. 
 
 Again, since God's ancient people Israel are 
 everywhere represented in Scripture as having 
 a blessed share in the triumphs and joys of the 
 millennial glory, let us ask what their condition 
 is to be in this dispensation. In our Lord's great 
 prophecy concerning His second coming and the 
 end of the age, He answers this question con- 
 clusively. He describes in graphic outlines the 
 destruction of Jerusalem, with the events preced- 
 ing and portending it. After using language that 
 can only apply to that appalling event, — " Pray 
 ye that your flight be not in the winter," — He 
 adds, " For there shall be great tribulation, such as 
 was not since the beginning of the world to this 
 
80 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 time, — no, nor ever shall be" (Matt. xxiv. 20, 21). 
 How long shall this tribulation continue ? Until 
 Christ's second coming. For our Lord declares 
 that " immediately after the tribulation of those 
 days" the signs of the advent shall be witnessed, 
 when " they shall see the Son of man coming in 
 the clouds of heaven with power and great glory " 
 (xxiv. 30). So closely are these two events con- 
 nected in the prediction that some have argued 
 that Christ's advent must have actually occurred 
 at the destruction of Jerusalem, in a spiritual or 
 providential sense. But a careful examination of 
 the language employed proves beyond question 
 that it is a literal coming that is here described, 
 and that a literal immediateness after the great 
 tribulation is affirmed by the word eu0e'u>9, " imme- 
 diately." If we turn to Luke's Gospel, however, 
 and read his parallel report of our Lord's words, 
 all becomes plain (Luke xxi. 23-27). For he 
 makes the tribulation to include the dispersion 
 of the Jews among all nations, and the treading 
 down of their Holy City by the Gentiles, " until 
 the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." In other 
 words, the great tribulation covers the entire age 
 from Zion's captivity to Messiah's coming. To 
 say that the millennium is to precede Christ's 
 advent, therefore, is to affirm the possibility of 
 putting that era of unparalleled blessing into the 
 
THE ENDS OF THE AGES. 
 
 same period which is occupied by this unequalled 
 tribulation ; in other words, it is to identify and 
 synchronize the golden age of Israel's triumph 
 with the gloomy age of Israel's trouble. This 
 cannot be. For we see in prophecy that the 
 great apostasy and the great tribulation so far pre- 
 empt the present dispensation, that the Church's 
 millennium and Israel's millennium are alike 
 crowded out, and there is found no place for them, 
 till the Lord descends in glory to destroy Anti- 
 christ and restore Israel. 
 
PART II. 
 FORFEITED. 
 
" Our looking at Chrisfs coming as at a distance is the cause of 
 all those irregularities which render the thought of it terrible to 
 us?" 1 — Matthew Henry. 
 
 " Chiliasm disappeared in proportion as Roman Papal Catholi- 
 cism advanced. The Papacy took to itself as a robber, that glory 
 which is an object of hope, and can only be reached by the obedience 
 and humility of the cross. When the Church became a harlot she 
 ceased to be a Bride who goes forth to meet her Bridegroom, and 
 thus Chiliasm disappeared." — Auberlen. 
 
 " In plucking up the faith of Chrisfs coming Satan aims directly 
 at the throat of the Church. For to what end did Christ die and 
 rise again, but t/ial along with Himself he might some day redeem 
 us from death, and gather us into eternal life ? " — Calvin. 
 
I. 
 
 HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP. 
 
 A man's dwelling in one country, and holding 
 citizenship in another and far remote country, is 
 not an unknown circumstance. In such a case, 
 we may have the singular anomaly of one being 
 most a stranger in the land in which he is present, 
 and most at home in the land from which he is 
 absent. Our blessed Lord was the first perfectly 
 to realize this idea respecting the heavenly coun- 
 try. For He speaks of Himself as " He that 
 came down from heaven, even the Son of man 
 who is in heaven." So truly a citizen of the 
 other world was He that even while walking with 
 men and talking with men He regarded Himself 
 . as there, not here. And this saying of His occurs 
 in that discourse where, with an emphatic "verily, 
 verily," He declares that "except a man be born 
 from above he cannot see the kingdom of God." 
 
 Here is the key to the whole mystery. As 
 the only begotten of the Father, Christ's native 
 country was above ; and during all the days of 
 His flesh He neither relinquished His heavenly 
 citizenship nor acquired an earthly residence. 
 
86 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 " Blessed be the Lord God of Israel : for He hath 
 'visited and redeemed His people," is a significant 
 note in the prophecy of His birth. And four 
 times in the Gospels is our Lord's advent to earth 
 spoken of as a visit. But it was a visit which 
 never for a moment looked toward a permanent 
 abiding. At His birth He was laid in a borrowed 
 manger, because there was no room for Him in 
 the inn ; at His burial He was laid in a borrowed 
 tomb, because He owned no foot of earth ; and 
 between the cradle and the grave was a sojourn 
 in which " the Son of man had not where to lay 
 His head." The mountain top whither He con- 
 stantly withdrew to commune with His Father 
 was the nearest to His home. And hence there 
 is a strange, pathetic meaning in that saying, 
 "And every man went unto his own house ; Jesus 
 went unto the Mount of Olives." 
 
 Now, as it was with the Lord, so it is to be 
 with His disciples. "For our citizenship is in 
 heaven" says the apostle. Herein is the saying 
 of Lady Powerscourt true : " The Christian is 
 not one who looks up from earth to heaven, but 
 one who looks down from heaven to earth." A 
 celestial nativity implies a celestial residence ; 
 and with a certain divine condescension may the 
 Christian contemplate the sordid, self-seeking 
 children of this present evil age and say, with 
 
HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP. 87 
 
 his Lord : " Ye are from beneath ; I am from 
 above : ye are of this world ; I am not of this 
 world." Let us be admonished, however, that 
 to say this truly and to live it really may subject 
 us to the experience indicated by the apostle : 
 " Therefore the world knoweth us not because 
 it knew Him not." There is a certain quaint 
 beauty in the apology which an old reformer 
 made for the hard treatment which he and his 
 friends received from the men of this world. 
 "Why, brethren," he would say, " they do not 
 understand court manners or the etiquette of 
 heaven, never having been in that country from 
 whence we come ; therefore it is that our ways 
 seem strange to them." Would that in the 
 Christians of to-day celestial traits were so con- 
 spicuous as to occasion like remark ! Perhaps it 
 is because there are so few high saints in the 
 Church that there are so many low sinners out- 
 side the Church, since the ungodly can never be 
 powerfully lifted up except by a Church that 
 reaches down from an exalted spiritual plane. 
 
 What means that lofty address of the apostle, 
 " Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the 
 heavenly calling" ? (Heb. hi. 1.) The reference 
 is not merely to our final destiny as those who 
 are to be called up to heaven, but to our pres- 
 ent service as those who have come down from 
 
88 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 heaven ; sons of God rejoicing in a celestial 
 birth, bringing the air and manners of glory 
 into a world that knows not God. As such we 
 are exhorted to " consider the Apostle and High 
 Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus ; " an apos- 
 tle being one who comes forth from God, and an 
 high priest one who goes in unto God. And 
 Christ Jesus not only fulfils both these offices 
 in Himself, as he says, " I came forth from the 
 Father and am come into the world ; again I 
 leave the world and go to the Father," but He 
 makes us partakers with Him of the same hea- 
 venly calling, sending us into the world, as the 
 Father hath sent Him, and permitting us " to 
 enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus," 
 as He has entered in by His own blood. 
 \r Confessing that our citizenship is in heaven, it 
 should be easily determined what our conduct 
 and bearing towards the world must be. One 
 is expected to pay taxes and make investments 
 where he holds residence. Therefore all calls to 
 bountiful giving and all demands for rigid self- 
 denial are to be esteemed' as reasonable assess- 
 ments, not as gratuities. Christianity is no para- 
 dox, in which believers are required to do pecu- 
 liar things for the sake of being peculiar, and to 
 exhibit startling contradictions for the sake of 
 arousing the contradiction of sinners against 
 
HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP. 89 
 
 themselves. When we are called to lay up trea- 
 sures in heaven, it is because that is our country ; 
 when we are enjoined not to love the world, nei- 
 ther the things that are in the world, it is be- 
 cause this is not our country. Two practical er- 
 rors spring from an earthly theology, viz., that 
 the world is the Christian's home, and the grave 
 the Christian's hope. On the contrary, one pos- 
 sessed of a clear advent faith would choose for 
 himself such an epitaph as that which Dean Al- 
 ford composed for his tomb : " The inn of a trav- 
 eller on his way to Jerusalem" Ah, yes, that is 
 it ! A pilgrim's portion, food and raiment and 
 contentment therewith ; the mansion which for- 
 tune has provided, or the cabin which penury 
 has reared, each alike counted a hospice where 
 one lodges as "a pilgrim and stranger in the 
 earth;" and the grave a narrow inn whose win- 
 dows look towards the sunrising, where the so- 
 journer sleeps till break of day, — this, without 
 question, is the ideal of the Christian life as out- 
 lined in the Gospel. 
 
 An impracticable ideal, it will be said. But it 
 was not so in the beginning. To say nothing 
 of apostolic Christianity, let us ask what it was 
 that gave the Christianity of the first two centu- 
 ries such extraordinary vigor in its conflict with 
 heathenism. An eminent writer, Gerhard Uhl- 
 
90 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 horn, has shown with a graphic hand that it was 
 just this quality of absolute unworldliness which 
 constituted the secret of its power. 1 The men 
 who conquered the Roman Empire for Christ 
 bore the aspect of invaders from another world, 
 who absolutely refused to be naturalized to this 
 world. Their conduct filled their heathen neigh- 
 bors with the strangest perplexity : they were so 
 careless of life, so careful of conscience, so prodi- 
 gal of their own blood, so confident of the over- 
 coming power of the blood of the Lamb, so un- 
 subdued to the customs of the country in which 
 they sojourned, so mindful of the manners of 
 "that country from whence they came out." 
 The help of the world, the patronage of its rul- 
 ers, the loan of its resources, the use of its meth- 
 ods, they utterly refused, lest by employing these 
 they might compromise their King. An invad- 
 ing army maintained from an invisible base, and 
 placing more confidence in the leadership of an 
 unseen Commander than in all imperial help that 
 might be proffered, — this was what so bewil- 
 dered and angered the heathen, who often de- 
 sired to make friends with the Christians with- 
 out abandoning their own gods. But there can 
 be no reasonable doubt that that a^e in which 
 the Church was most completely separated from 
 
 i Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism, 
 
HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP. 91 
 
 the world was the age in which Christianity was 
 most victorious in the world. 1 
 
 It was also the era of undimmed hope of the 
 Lord's imminent return from glory, so that it 
 illustrated and enforced both clauses of the great 
 text : " For our citizenship is in heaven, from 
 whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord 
 Jesus' 1 (Phil. iii. 20). 
 
 Our Lord set forth His departure from the 
 world under the parable of "a certain nobleman 
 who went into a far country to receive for him- 
 self a kingdom, and to return" (Luke xix. 12). 
 As a Roman, living in Judea, on appointment to 
 the governorship of that province, would go to 
 Rome to be invested with office, and then return 
 to rule, so Christ has gone to heaven to be in- 
 vested with the kingship of the world, and now 
 He and His watchful servants are eagerly wait- 
 ing for the same thing ; He sitting at God's 
 
 1 These few sentences from a writer of the second century 
 give a graphic portrait of the Christians of that period : " They 
 inhabit their own country, but as strangers ; they bear their part 
 in all things as citizens, and endure all things as aliens. Even- 
 foreign country is a fatherland to them, and every fatherland a 
 foreign country. . . . They live in the flesh, but walk not after 
 the flesh. . . . They dwell on earth, but are citizens of heaven. 
 They are poor, and make many rich ; they are in want of all 
 things, and they have all things in abundance; they are dis- 
 honored, and in dishonor glorified." — Epistle to Diognctus V, 
 
92 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 right hand " expecting till His enemies be made 
 His footstool," and they expecting till He shall 
 return to reign over the earth. Of the kingdom, 
 the King and His kinsmen, the same avowal of 
 unearthly origin is made by Christ : " My king- 
 dom is not of this world ; " "They are not of the 
 world, even as I am 7iot of tJie world" The 
 kingdom is the "kingdom of God," the "king- 
 dom of heaven ; " its constituency are those who 
 are "begotten of God," and "born from above." 
 True, this kingdom is now in the world in its 
 rudiments and principles, in its citizens and rep- 
 resentatives : those who, like their Lord, have 
 been sent hither to accomplish the work of gath- 
 ering out a people for His name. But, lest we 
 fall into fatal error, let us not imagine that we 
 are now reigning with Christ on the earth, or 
 that the kingdom of God has been set up in the 
 world. The Church's earthly career during the 
 present age is the exact fac-simile of her Lord's, 
 — a career of exile rather than of exaltation ; of 
 rejection rather than of rule ; of cross-bearing 
 rather than of sceptre - bearing. Grasping at 
 earthly sovereignty for the Church while the 
 Sovereign himself is still absent has proved, as 
 we shall show hereafter, the most fruitful root 
 of apostasy. It may be said that this picture 
 of the Church, as despised and rejected in the 
 
HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP. 93 
 
 world, suffering, outcast, and in exile, does not 
 correspond to the facts. Not to the facts of our 
 own generation, we admit, wherein the world is 
 on such excellent terms with Christians. But 
 that it represents the character of the dispensa- 
 tion as a whole cannot be questioned, when we 
 recall the dark ages and martyr ages of the Chris- 
 tian era ; the prisons, and racks, and dungeons, 
 and stakes, which stretch on through so large a 
 portion of this age. And the pictures of proph- 
 ecy are composite pictures, gathering up the main 
 features of the entire dispensation and presenting 
 them in one. Viewed thus, prediction and his- 
 tory perfectly accord. 
 
 "The kingdom is now here in mystery, and 
 to be here hereafter in manifestation," one has 
 tersely put it. And to this the predicted destiny 
 of believers corresponds. " Your life is hid with 
 Christ in God ; when Christ, who is our life, 
 shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him 
 in glory " (Col. iii. 4). " Sons of God, tJierefore 
 the world knowetJi us not, because it knew Him 
 not" (1 John iii. 1). "The earnest expectation 
 of the creature waiteth for the ma7iifestation of 
 the sons of God" (Rom. viii. 19). "If we suffer, 
 we shall reign with Hint " (2 Tim. ii. 12). Ob- 
 scurity, rejection, exile, and trial in the world 
 now ; manifestation, vindication, enthronement, 
 
94 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 when the King comes, — this is the foretold call- 
 ing of the children of the kingdom. The un- 
 precedented exemption of the Church from per- 
 secution, and the extraordinary triumphs of the 
 Gospel which have characterized this nineteenth 
 century, may tend to seduce us into the notion 
 that the kingdom has already come, though the 
 nobleman who had gone into a far country has 
 not yet returned. That we may think truly on 
 this subject, let us hear our Lord's voice, say- 
 ing : " Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father s 
 good pleasure to give you the kingdom " (Luke xii. 
 32). In spite of widespread conquests of the 
 Gospel the Church is still " a little flock," amid 
 the vast populations of Pagans, Mohammedans, 
 Infidels, and Apostates. This flock in every age 
 has been branded with opprobrium, and torn by 
 persecution, and beaten by hireling shepherds, 
 and the end is not yet ; for, as good Samuel 
 Rutherford says, " So long as any portion of 
 Christ's mystical body is out of heaven, Satan 
 will strike at it." However favored in our times, 
 this flock is not the kingdom ; but it has the 
 promise of the kingdom, in which rejection shall 
 give place to rule, and crucifixion to coronation. 
 When? "And when the Chief Shepherd shall 
 appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that 
 fadeth not away " (1 Pet. v. 4). Whatever tern- 
 
HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP. 95 
 
 porary respite from persecution we may enjoy, so 
 that for the time it may be said as of old, " then 
 had the Churches rest," no permanent peace is 
 guaranteed until the Lord's return. "And to 
 you who are troubled, rest with us when the 
 Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven " 
 (2 Thess. i. 7). 
 
II. 
 
 THE FALL OF THE CHURCH 
 
 When the Church under Constantine became 
 enthroned in the world, she began to be de- 
 throned from her seat " in the heavenly places in 
 Christ Jesus." For then did she forget her high 
 calling, and become enamored of earthly rule and 
 dominion. This, let us not forget, was the fatal 
 temptation through which the Church lost her 
 primitive purity, and brought upon herself all 
 manner of dishonor and apostasy. What a ten- 
 der prophetic warning of such temptation is con- 
 tained in that saying of Paul to the Corinthian 
 Christians : " I have espoused you to one hus- 
 band that I may present you as a chaste virgin to 
 Christ. But I fear lest by any means, as the ser- 
 pent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your 
 minds should be corrupted from the simplicity 
 that is in Christ " (2 Cor. xi. 2). In the world, 
 but not of it, the Church, the Bride of Christ, 
 was to await the return of her Betrothed Hus- 
 band from heaven, that, arrayed in fine linen, 
 clean and white, which is the righteousness of 
 saints, she might be presented to Him "agio- 
 
THE FALL OF THE CHURCH 97 
 
 rious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any 
 such thing." If, during the time of her espousal, 
 Satan could only alienate her affections by get- 
 ting her enamored with the kings of the earth, 
 so that she should accept their dowries instead of 
 her heavenly inheritance, and put on their royal 
 purple instead of her virgin white, his triumph 
 would be assured. And this is literally what he 
 did. 
 
 Observe how the temptation was presented 
 first to the Lord Himself by Satan, to seduce 
 Him from His love for the Church, that He 
 should not redeem her with His own blood. 
 "All tJie kingdoms of tJie world and the glory of 
 them" was the alluring prize which the Tempter 
 set before our Bridegroom. "All these things 
 will I give Thee if Thou wilt fall down and woi'- 
 ship me " (Matt. iv. 9), was the alluring promise 
 held out to Him. Have we understood the deep 
 reality and significance of this temptation in the 
 wilderness ? 
 
 Precisely what Satan, "the Prince of this 
 world," proffered — all the kingdoms of the 
 earth — had long ago been pledged to Christ by 
 the Father. But before this inheritance could 
 be realized, He must be despised and rejected of 
 men, crucified and buried, and then raised up to 
 wait an unknown time upon His Father's throne 
 
98 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 "till His enemies be made His footstool." The 
 Tempter would say, " Why not take the kingdoms 
 of the world at once, foregoing the humiliation 
 and the cross and the long rejection by the 
 world?" But the Saviour's resistance of the 
 temptation was prompt and final : " Get thee be- 
 hind Me, Satan." And when, afterwards, Simon 
 Peter, preoccupied no doubt with the idea of an 
 immediate temporal kingdom for his Lord, re- 
 pelled Christ's announcement of His approach- 
 ing crucifixion, saying, " Far be it from Thee, 
 Lord ; this shall not be unto thee," Jesus recog- 
 nized it as the old wilderness temptation reap- 
 pearing, and met it with the same rebuke : " Get 
 thee behind Me, Satan " (Matt. xvi. 23). Thus the 
 Son of God, true to His Father's commission and 
 to His plighted affection for His Bride, whom 
 He must purchase with His own blood, stood 
 firm against this great temptation, accepting a 
 present cross and rejection, instead of a present 
 crown and dominion ; choosing to be cast out by 
 a world that knew Him not, until after "the 
 times or seasons which the Father hath put in 
 His own power" should be fulfilled, and the 
 announcement be made, "The kingdoms of this 
 world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and 
 of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and 
 ever." 
 
THE FALL OF THE CHURCH. 99 
 
 The second Adam had thus steadfastly resisted 
 the solicitations of the old serpent. Would the 
 second Eve, His Bride, do likewise ? For more 
 than two hundred years the Church did remain 
 true to her heavenly citizenship, counting herself 
 a stranger in the earth and looking for her Lord 
 from Heaven. Her uplifted gaze and unworldly 
 attitude were such conspicuous features of the 
 early Church that even unbelieving historians 
 like Gibbon have noted them, and dwelt upon 
 them with a kind of suppressed admiration, that 
 author conceding that, while the hope of Christ's 
 imminent return remained universal, " it was pro- 
 ductive of the most salutary effects on the faith 
 and practice of Christians, who lived in the awful 
 expectation of that moment when the globe itself 
 and all the various races of mankind should trem- 
 ble at the appearance of their divine Judge." 
 The bloody persecutions which reigned from 
 Nero to Diocletian only confirmed this hope, — 
 earthly disenfranchisement making heavenly citi- 
 zenship more real and dear. 
 
 But now the perilous trial of peace was to be 
 encountered. Will the Church endure the test 
 of imperial patronage as she has borne the test 
 of imperial persecution ? O Bride of Immanuel, 
 made "dead to the law by the body of Christ 
 that ye should be married to another, even to Him 
 
ECCE VEXIT. 
 
 who was raised from the dead" (Rom. vii. 4), 
 alas for the day when thou didst receive the kings 
 of the earth for thy lovers, and, forgetful of thy 
 Lord's promise, " I appoint unto you a kingdom 
 as My Father hath appointed unto Me," didst 
 accept a throne from the princes of this world ! 
 Earth's sovereignty had long since been pledged 
 to the Church as well as to Christ : " And the 
 kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the 
 kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given 
 to the people of the saints of the Most High " 
 (Dan. vii. 27). But the time for its acquisition 
 was definitely fixed at the coming of the Son of 
 man in the clouds of heaven. For the Church to 
 accept it in the present age was to fall before the 
 very temptation where her Lord had stood firm. 
 
 If we look upon that famous assembly, the 
 Council of Nicea, a. d. 325, what a clear dividing 
 line does it present between the old and the new, 
 between the Church heavenly that had been, and 
 the Church earthly that was to be ! Here on the 
 one hand were the true successors of the apos- 
 tles, bearing in their bodies the marks of the 
 Lord Jesus ; their maimed limbs, and sightless 
 eyes, and marred visages telling most expres- 
 sively how, up to this time, the servants of Jesus 
 had been " filling up that which is behind of the 
 afflictions of Christ in the flesh for His body's 
 sake, which is the Church." 
 
THE FALL OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 But here, on the other hand, in strange con- 
 trast with these, was that central figure, arrayed 
 in rich robes and seated on a golden chair in the 
 midst of the assembly, — Constantine, the head 
 of the Church. "What gain to our cause," whis- 
 pered ambitious bishops, "that now we have a 
 Christian emperor who will throw over us the 
 shield of his protection and defend the orthodox 
 faith with the sword ! " "Alas, what loss ! " might 
 have sighed the angels, as they witnessed the 
 nuptials of the Bride of Christ with the kings of 
 the earth. But did not Constantine have a su- 
 pernatural seal set upon his imperial patronage 
 of the Church in that vision of the flaming cross 
 displayed in the heavens with its motto, in this 
 sign conquer ? Considering the real character 
 of the emperor, as afterwards unfolded, a faith 
 which should credit the alleged vision as from 
 God would be far more difficult than a credulity 
 which should ascribe it to the arch-tempter. For 
 what was that cross by which the Church was 
 henceforth to seek her conquests ? An eminent 
 historian has described the startling impression 
 made upon his mind by the sight of a crucifix • 
 which was shown him in Italy, — a crucifix ex- 
 quisitely carved, and studded with the rarest 
 jewels, but which at the touch of a secret spring 
 flew open, and proved itself to be a case for hold- 
 ing a keen-edged and glittering Roman dagger. 
 
102 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 There is a cross in which an apostle was wont 
 to glory as that whereby the world was cruci- 
 fied unto him, and he unto the world ; there is 
 a cross concerning which our Lord spake, say- 
 ing : " If any man will come after Me, let him 
 deny himself and take up his cross and follow 
 Me." But how utterly remote from these that 
 cross which began to sway the Church from the 
 age of Constantine, — that cross which carried 
 the dagger of persecution in the crucifix of super- 
 stition, thus supplanting "the sword of the 
 Spirit" by "the sword of the magistrate," in 
 order to further the gospel of peace ! 
 
 This fall from heavenly to earthly citizenship 
 was accompanied, moreover, by a gradual ex- 
 change of spiritual worship for carnal supersti- 
 tions. Worse than carnal, indeed ! Satan, who 
 had tempted the Church into accepting earthly 
 dominion from his hands, now seduced her into 
 mixing his own ritual with her simple, primitive 
 services. For we must not forget that, accord- 
 ing to the explicit teaching of Scripture, pagan- 
 ism is really demonism. " The things which the 
 Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and 
 not to God" (i Cor. x. 20), says the apostle. 
 Whether the deluded votaries of Jupiter and 
 Mars knew it or not, it was really true that de- 
 mons were the instigators and recipients of their 
 
THE FALL OF THE CHURCH. 103 
 
 worship. Idolatry is always and everywhere the 
 religion of Satan, ordained for stealing from God 
 the homage of human hearts and turning it to 
 himself. And so, little by little, the elements of 
 paganism began to mingle with the worship of 
 Christ, — holy water, candles, the wafer, images, 
 processions, the adoration of saints and relics, 
 the idolatry of the cross, and much more, — of 
 all which we may assert confidently what Car- 
 dinal Newman concedes concerning the first, that 
 they were originally " the very instruments and 
 appendages of demon-worship" 1 
 
 But though the Church has thus been cor- 
 rupted, out of it a faithful number has been pre- 
 served to constitute the hidden Bride of Christ. 
 Observe how graphically this is shown in the seal- 
 ing of the one hundred and forty-four thousand 
 in the seventh chapter of Revelation, — a passage 
 not hard to understand if we bear in mind, as 
 always in studying the Apocalypse, that Scrip- 
 ture explains Scripture, and that history repeats 
 history. 
 
 In the eighth chapter of Ezekiel we find God 
 denouncing the heathen abominations which have 
 been mixed with the worship of His sanctuary, 
 — ''the image of jealousy," the "weeping for 
 Tammuz," and the eastward posture in which 
 
 1 Development, pp 359, 360. 
 
104 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 men "worshipped the sun towards the East." 
 On account of these pollutions the Lord com- 
 mands fearful judgments upon His people. But, 
 before these judgments commence, He bids His 
 messengers : " Go through the midst of the city, 
 through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark 
 upon the foreheads of tlie men that sigh and cry 
 for all the abominations that be done in the midst 
 thereof y As the destroyers go forth the injunc- 
 tion is : " But come not near any man upon whom 
 is the mark." Here is a sealed and spared rem- 
 nant in the midst of the prevailing Jewish apos- 
 tasy. Turn now to the corresponding story in 
 the Apocalypse (Rev. vii.). The prophetic drama 
 opens with the Church in her primitive exalta- 
 tion, seated with Christ in heavenly places ; then 
 the seals are unloosed, unfolding the successive 
 chapters of Christian history, — conquest, conflict, 
 famine, and pestilence ; the " Come ! " " Come ! " 
 " Come ! " " Come ! " is heard breaking in before 
 each opening era, answering in majestic anti- 
 phon the Lord's " Behold, I come quickly," and 
 showing the Church still true to her ancient 
 hope; the martyrs, "slain for the word of God 
 and the testimony which they held," invoke their 
 Redeemer, " How long, O Lord ? " Then comes 
 the crash of falling paganism, with the affrighted 
 cry of the heathen before "the wrath of the 
 
THE FALL OF THE CHURCH. 105 
 
 Lamb," and Christianity, that was so long upon 
 the scaffold and at the stake, is now upon the 
 throne of the Caesars. 
 
 But, alas, as we have seen, the Church, that 
 has been "more than conqueror " through defeat, 
 is now more than vanquished through victory ! 
 For, having overthrown paganism, she became 
 herself gradually paganized, and her worship cor- 
 rupted with mixtures of heathen religion which 
 the Scriptures call the worship of demons, — the 
 employment of images and pictures, which of old 
 provoked the Lord to jealousy; the turning to- 
 wards the east, after the manner of the Babylo- 
 nish sun-worshippers ; the signing with the cross, 1 
 which was long connected with the sensual wor- 
 ship of Tammuz. In fine, the identical abomina- 
 tions which God had denounced in the Jewish 
 sanctuary were now found in the Christian 
 Church. And once more avenging scourges are 
 let loose on Christendom — Saracen and Turkish 
 invasions — to punish its inhabitants, " that they 
 should not worship demons, and idols of gold, and 
 silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood" (Rev. 
 ix. 20). 
 
 1 Julian, the emperor (361 A. D.), taunts the Christians with 
 their idolatry, saying, " Ye worship the wood of the cross, mak- 
 ing shadowy figures of it in the forehead, and painting it at the 
 entrance of your houses." — See Note B. 
 
io6 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 But before judgment begins, God's sealing and 
 separation again take place : " And I saw another 
 angel ascending from the east, having the seal of 
 the living God, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither 
 the sea nor the trees, till we have sealed the ser- 
 vants of God in tJieir foreheads." 1 The sealed 
 company whose description follows is an elect 
 company out of the tribes of spiritual Israel ; a 
 small company compared with the great mass of 
 nominal Christians; a perfect company, " one hun- 
 dred and forty four thousand." It is the four- 
 square multitude, identical with the four-square 
 city, which appears in the twentieth chapter, 
 coming down from God out of Heaven, and which 
 is explained to be " the Bride, the Lamb's wife." 
 It is a company " sealed with the Holy Spirit of 
 promise," in contrast with the vast throngs of 
 unconverted heathen who have been sealed with 
 the sign of the cross ; and as chosen and faithful, 
 
 1 Rev. vii. 2, 3. In the Apocalypse, where Jewish people, 
 Jewish temple, and Jewish rites stand for corresponding Chris- 
 tian facts, we have no doubt that this sealed company represents 
 spiritual Israel, — real Christians out of the great multitude of 
 nominal Christians. Dean Alford's challenge, to those who 
 hold that literal Israel is here meant, is decisive. He asks 
 whether " the Holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from 
 God " (Rev. xxi. 10), must be taken to be the residence of literal 
 Jews, because it bears the names of " the twelve tribes of the 
 children of Israel." Few would admit this inference, we believe. 
 
THE FALL OF THE CHURCH. 107 
 
 it exhibits the twofold signature of the seal of 
 God, — " The Lord knoweth them that are His" 
 and " Let every one that nameth the name of Christ 
 depart from iniquity" (2 Tim. ii. 19). This true 
 and unseduced Bride of Christ we meet through- 
 out the Apocalypse, as we do throughout the 
 whole course of Christian history. Whether as 
 Waldensian, or Huguenot, or Lollard, she is ever 
 hated by the apostate Church. But she preserves 
 her virginity unstained, keeps herself undefiled 
 from the harlot Church and her daughters, and 
 when all Christendom has become earthly she 
 maintains her heavenly citizenship ; now hidden 
 out of sight, and now seen standing with the 
 Lamb upon Mount Zion. So that to the end, as 
 in the beginning, we greet her with the divine 
 salutation, " But ye are come unto Mount Zion, 
 and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly 
 Jerusalem." 
 
 We shall meet her again in her final presenta- 
 tion to the Bridegroom ; but for the present we 
 must further trace the fortunes of her fallen 
 sister. 
 
III. 
 
 THE ADVENT OF ANTICHRIST. 
 
 Out of the apostasy comes the Antichrist. To 
 look for him without the Church in latter-day 
 Judaism, or against the Church in latter-day infi- 
 delity, is equally to miss the clear marks of iden- 
 tification which have been set for our warning 
 in "the sure word of prophecy." 
 
 Exhorting the Thessalonian Christians " by 
 the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our 
 gathering together unto Him," the Apostle ad- 
 monishes them not to be deceived : " For it will 
 not be, except the falling away come first, and the 
 man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, he that 
 opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is 
 called God or that is worshipped ; so that he sitteth 
 in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God" 
 (2 Thess. ii. 3, r. v.). Here is the great Pauline 
 prediction of Antichrist ; and how rigidly does its 
 language bind us to the conception of a dreadful 
 enemy of God, springing up within the Christian 
 Church! u Except the apostasy come first" the 
 words read exactly. It can be " no political or 
 politico-religious falling away " that is here indi- 
 
THE ADVENT OE ANTICHRIST 109 
 
 cated, as Ellicott truly says ; but, according to the 
 scriptural use of the term, "that religious and 
 spiritual apostasy, that falling away from faith in 
 Christ, of which the revelation of Antichrist shall 
 be the concluding and most appalling phenom- 
 enon." And looking backward over the history 
 of the Church for eighteen hundred years, we ask 
 how the prediction could be more literally fulfilled 
 than in the astonishing eclipse of pagan and idol- 
 atrous superstition under whose shadow two 
 thirds of nominal Christendom now rests. So we 
 may premise that we shall find the answer to this 
 mysterious prophecy in the line of popes having 
 their seat of authority in Rome, and extending 
 their rule through more than twelve centuries of 
 the Christian era. 
 
 In examining this prediction we begin with 
 that expression which is most central and sug- 
 gestive : " He sitteth in the temple of God, setting 
 himself forth as God." The interpretation which 
 applies these words to the material temple rebuilt 
 in Jerusalem is lacking both in accuracy and sig- 
 nificance, — in accuracy, since there is no un- 
 disputed instance in the New Testament where 
 the phrase, 6 mo? rov 6eov, the temple of God, is 
 applied to the Jewish temple ; and in significance, 
 since it would be a matter of indifferent interest 
 to Gentile Christians that some distant pretender 
 
ECCE VENIT. 
 
 was to arise who should win the acceptance and 
 homage of the Jews. 1 Scripture interprets Scrip- 
 ture ; and when we hear false witnesses accusing 
 Christ of saying, " I am able to destroy the tem- 
 ple of God and to build it in three days," we have 
 only to turn to another text to find that in what 
 he said, "He spake of the temple of His body" 
 (John ii. 21). So when a Judaizing interpretation 
 would lead us, from this phrase of the Apostle, to 
 imagine a future temple rebuilt in Jerusalem, en- 
 throning an infidel Antichrist, we have only to 
 collate the passages in which the expression oc- 
 
 1 For the significance of this phrase, 6ua6s rod 6eov, see the 
 following texts, the only ones where it occurs: i Cor. iii. 16; 
 i Cor. iii. 17; 1 Cor. iii. 17; 11 Cor. vi. 16; 11 Cor. vi. 16; 
 Rev. iii. 12; Rev. xi. 1-19. Of the word va6s alone, we beg it 
 to be noticed that after the institution of the Christian Church 
 it is never once applied to the temple in Jerusalem. Twenty-five 
 times in the Acts the Jewish temple is spoken of, but the word 
 Up6v is used in every instance, never vaos. Neither is the latter 
 word once employed in any epistle to designate the Hebrew 
 temple. How could God call that His temple {pa6s) when He 
 had ceased to dwell therein {paw), — " Behold, your house is left 
 unto you, desolate"? How surely must the woid apply to the 
 Christian Church after that God by the Holy Ghost had taken 
 up His abode in it! — " An holy temple (pa6s) in the Lord, in 
 whom ye also are build ed togetJier for an habitation of God tJirough 
 the Spirit" We believe that a candid exegesis of this phrase — 
 Spaos rod deov — fixes the seat of the man of sin within the sphere 
 of the Christian Church, as certainly as the designation of the 
 seven hills fixes the seat of the woman of sin in the city of Rome. 
 
THE ADVENT OF ANTICHRIST. ill 
 
 curs to find how invariably it stands for Christ's 
 mystical body, the Church, considered as a whole 
 or in its members : " Know ye not that ye are the 
 temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth 
 in you?" (i Cor. hi. 16.) 
 
 Here is wisdom ; for why is the Church called 
 the temple of God ? Because indwelt by the 
 Spirit, presided in by the Holy Ghost. When 
 this temple — the redeemed Church of Christ — 
 was dedicated on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit 
 descended in the semblance of tongues of fire, 
 and it " sat — iKojSurcv — upon each one of them" 
 Henceforth the body of believers, sanctified and 
 sealed, is the true Cathedra, where the Spirit 
 sits ; the real " Holy See," or seat of the Holy 
 One. Sanctity or sacrilege, therefore, is indi- 
 cated by this word "sit," according as it is ap- 
 plied to God presiding in His own house, or to 
 man thrusting himself into God's place. Observe 
 how reverently the apostle Peter recognizes the 
 Spirit's presence and primacy in the Church so 
 soon as He is come. Rebuking the sin of Ana- 
 nias, he says : "Why hath Satan filled thy heart 
 to lie to the Holy Ghost ? " "Thou hast not lied 
 unto men, but unto God" (Acts v. 3). No thought 
 of His own primacy here ! Mark with wonder, 
 also, the holy deference which the ascended Lord 
 Himself yields to the Spirit, now that, as the 
 
H2 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 promised Paraclete, He has taken His place in 
 the Church. Seven times in his post-ascension 
 gospel — the epistles to the seven churches — 
 we hear Him say : " He that hath an ear, let him 
 hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches ; " as 
 though to teach us that, while the Spirit is in 
 office as President and Teacher, even the glori- 
 fied Christ will not intrude into His seat ; but 
 will commend us to His guidance, even as while 
 He was on earth the Father commended His 
 disciples to Him, saying, "This is My beloved 
 Son, hear ye Him." 
 
 We are prepared thus to comprehend the pre- 
 sumption and blasphemy which it would imply 
 for a man to sit in the Spirit's seat in the Temple 
 of God. And we know that one of the most con- 
 spicuous traits of the early apostasy was clerisy, 
 the thrusting of man into the place of rule and 
 authority which belong to the Spirit ; that this 
 tendency constantly strengthened till the bish- 
 ops, instead of humbly heeding the apostolic in- 
 junction to feed the flock over which the Holy 
 Ghost had made them overseers, began to lord 
 it over that flock, rearing a primacy out of the 
 pastorate, and a papacy out of the primacy, till 
 the evil culminated in the sovereign pontiff usurp- 
 ing the place of the Holy Ghost. For since the 
 Holy Ghost is Christ's true and only Vicar on 
 

 THE ADVENT OF ANTICHRIST 113 
 
 earth, — "another Paraclete" sent to take the 
 place of the ascended Lord, — what is he who 
 should claim to be the Vicar of Christ but a 
 usurper of the Spirit's seat in the temple of God? 
 All the dark outlines of Paul's prophetic pic- 
 ture of the Antichrist harmonize with this inter- 
 pretation. He is called " The man of sin" as 
 though to mark his utter contrast to the true pas- 
 tor, whom the Scriptures name " The man of 
 God!' But could the long succession of popes be 
 designated by this individual name, "The man?" 
 Yes ; the elect Church, extending through all 
 ages, is called in Scripture "one new man " (Eph. 
 ii. 15). The true line of spiritual ministers is 
 evidently intended by "the man of God thor- 
 oughly furnished," named in the Epistle to Tim- 
 othy. So with other terms in which the singular 
 is used for the plural : the succession of the 
 Jewish priesthood is certainly meant in the state- 
 ment in the Epistle to the Hebrews, " Into the 
 second went the high priest alone once every 
 year." Indeed, if it be urged that the name Anti- 
 christ — 6 avTixpio-Tos — must mean an individual 
 man, we find that this is not necessary, since the 
 whole body of believers throughout the dispensa- 
 tion is called by its counterpart "The Christ," 
 6 Xpio-ros (1 Cor. xii. 12). Thus Scripture, as well 
 as the common usage, in which we speak of the 
 
114 ECCE VEN1T. 
 
 royal or of the ecclesiastical succession as " the 
 king," or "the bishop," justify us in interpreting 
 "the man of sin" to mean the line of pontiffs. 
 As to the character indicated by the words, must 
 we not admit its fulfilment to the uttermost in 
 the pontificate ? Whatever virtue or mildness 
 may have appeared in single instances, we are to 
 remember that the pictures of prophecy are com- 
 posite photographs, giving the main features com- 
 bined as revealed throughout the age. Who can 
 deny that many of the popes have been mon- 
 sters of iniquity, or that the great majority have 
 stained their hands with the blood of saints ? If 
 so, does not this language sufficiently express 
 their blended likeness ? 
 
 Yet deeper and more dreadful grow the shad- 
 ows with which inspiration paints the portrait : 
 "The man of sin, the son of perdition" Only one 
 has borne this latter name, Judas Iscariot, who 
 with a kiss betrayed his Lord, and, with a " Hail, 
 Master ! " on his lips, delivered Him to His ene- 
 mies. And who was Judas, that his significant 
 name should be thrown forward upon the coming 
 Antichrist ? He was an apostate bishop, — "His 
 bishopric let another take" (Acts i. 20). He was 
 a thief who had the bag, and who, in order to en- 
 rich himself, sold his Lord for thirty pieces of 
 silver. Oh appalling counter-reality which we 
 
THE ADVENT OF ANTICHRIST. 115 
 
 see emerging from the shadows of history ! the 
 pontifical bag-bearer, rich with untold treasures 
 purloined from his poor flock, delivering up the 
 Body of Christ evermore to death, as the first 
 betrayer did the Head, till the enthroned Re- 
 deemer must have groaned again and again, as of 
 old: "Why persecutest thou Me?" Revolting 
 as it is to our Christian charity to dwell upon 
 these things, we are compelled, in a time when 
 a speculative interpretation is joining hands with 
 a sacramental apostasy, to veil the face of Anti- 
 christ. Yet, if only once in the ages, — after 
 Waldensian slaughter or St. Bartholomew's mas- 
 sacre, — we could see this vicar of Iscariot fling- 
 ing down his silver and crying, " I have betrayed 
 the innocent blood," what haste would we make 
 to throw the mantle of forgetfulness over his 
 ghastly deeds ! 
 
 The marks of correspondence between this 
 counter-Christ and the true are most striking at 
 every point. He has his Parousia and his Apoca- 
 lypse — his coming and his revelation — as does 
 the Christ. The Son of God enters His earthly 
 career through incarnation, — " Great is the mys- 
 tery of godliness, He who was manifested in the 
 flesh," — and the son of perdition does the same : 
 " The mystery of iniquity doth already work." 
 As it was said of the Lord's betrayer, "Then 
 
Il6 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 entered Satan into Judas Iscariot," so the begin- 
 ning of this enemy is through a dark, mysterious 
 entering in of the Evil One for corrupting the 
 Church. The mystery of godliness is God hum- 
 bling Himself to become man ; the mystery of 
 iniquity is man exalting himself to become God, 
 — "Ye shall be as gods." The mystery of god- 
 liness is loyalty ; the Son of God, through the 
 Holy Spirit, rendering perfect obedience to the 
 will and word of the Father : the mystery of in- 
 iquity is lawlessness, dvo/u'a ; the son of perdition, 
 through " the spirit that now worketh in the 
 children of disobedience," subverting God's law, 
 and rule, and order in the Church. In the one 
 we see Christ emptying Himself of His glory ; 
 in the other we see Antichrist filling himself with 
 his glory, so that he " opposeth and exalteth him- 
 self above every one called God or an object of 
 worship," and "sitteth in the temple of God, set- 
 ting himself forth as God." 1 How marvellously 
 
 1 "'As God, showing Himself that He is God.'' For many hun- 
 dred years, to this day, the Roman pontiffs have literally fulfilled 
 this prophecy of St. Paul. When Cornelius, the centurion, fell 
 down at Peter's feet and worshipped him, St. Peter forbade him, 
 saying, ' Stand tip ! I myself also am a man.'' But the self- 
 called successors of St. Peter sit in the temple of God as God. 
 For many centuries each of them, at his inauguration, has taken 
 his seat in God's Church, upon God's altar, and, so sitting, has 
 been adored by men falling down before him and kissing his 
 feet." — Bishop Wordsworth on the Apocalypse, p. 394. 
 
THE ADVENT OF ANTICHRIST. 
 
 has this latter prediction been realized ! " Do- 
 mine Dens ! " If but once we heard these words 
 addressed to the pope by his allowance, it should 
 lead us, as the students of this prophecy, to 
 ask, "Art thou he that should come?" What if 
 employed repeatedly, and with every variety of 
 adoration ? Alexander VI. , the Nero of the Pon- 
 tificate, as he has been called, moving to his con- 
 secration, passes under a triumphal arch, on 
 which is inscribed : " Caesar was a man ; Alexan- 
 der is a God." Marcellus, in an address to Pope 
 Leo X. at the fifth Lateran Council, exclaims, 
 "Thou art another God on earth " — tn denique 
 alter Dens i?i terris. Gregory II. boasts to the 
 Greek emperor : "All the kings of the West rev- 
 erence the pope as a God on earth." Pope 
 Nicholas writes : " Wherefore if those things 
 which I do be said to be done, not of man, but of 
 God, what can yon, make me but God ? Again, if 
 the prelates of the Church be called and counted 
 of Constantine for gods, I, then, being above all 
 prelates, seem by this reason to be above all 
 gods." These instances of deification, if there 
 were no more, would fill out every line and speci- 
 fication of this Pauline prediction ; while that cul- 
 minating act of 1870 — the placing of the crown 
 of infallibility upon the head of the pope by the 
 Ecumenical Council — would set the attesting 
 
n8 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 seal of literal history to this astonishing word of 
 literal prophecy. 
 
 We know how some, at this point, have started 
 on an adventurous hunt into the future for an 
 Antichrist who is at once a God-denier and a God- 
 pretender; since the apostle John has declared 
 concerning this terrible personage that he " de- 
 nieth the Father and the Son." But the candid 
 reader has only to compare this word " deny " as 
 employed by John with its use by Paul, and Peter, 
 and Jude, in their predictions of the falling away, 
 to see that the reference is beyond question to 
 the denial of apostasy, and not to the denial of 
 infidelity; to such as "profess that they know 
 God, but in works deny Him," and not to such 
 as are avowedly and openly atheistic. 1 The anom- 
 aly of bald infidel worship, exacted by one who at 
 once deifies and undeifies, has no place, we are 
 persuaded, in this prophecy. Nor has that other 
 conception of a Napoleonic demigod drunk wit-h 
 the infatuation of world-rule, — a conception which 
 
 1 See Titus i. 16, 2 Peter ii. 1, Jude 4. The latest dictionary 
 of the Greek New Testament — the Grimm, edited by Thayer 
 — gives this as the second definition of apueofiai, to deny : 
 "'Api/eoyuat, God and Christ, is used of those who, by cherishing 
 and disseminating pernicious opinions and immorality, are ad- 
 judged to have apostatized from God and Christ" 1 John ii. 22 
 (cf. iv. 2; 2 John vii. 11) ; Jude 4 ; 2 Pet. ii. 1. 
 
THE ADVENT OF ANTICHRIST 119 
 
 has greatly colored the imaginations of many ex- 
 positors. That the man of sin is identical with 
 the "little horn" of Daniel, and the "beast" of 
 the Apocalypse, is clear enough ; and that as such 
 he is a temporal ruler, no one doubts. And so 
 has he proved ; for when has the world seen a line 
 of world-sovereigns like the popes ? But can we 
 imagine such a blending, in any single infidel 
 man, of secular and spiritual imperialism as is 
 foreshadowed in this compound prediction of 
 Scripture, and as is fulfilled in this double-headed 
 ruler in the Vatican ? The pontiffs are the lineal 
 successors of the Caesars, as they claim to be of 
 the apostles. Mr. Pember, in describing this 
 combination of office, gives a perfect description 
 of the sovereign pontiff, though he did not intend 
 it as such : — 
 
 "At length, however, Julius Caesar, who had 
 previously accepted the office of Pontifex Maxi- 
 mus, solved the difficulty by constituting himself 
 emperor. He thus became the first Roman in 
 whom the powers of the Pontifex and the Impe- 
 rator were combined, and was probably the first 
 to be recognized as the head of the Oriental 
 priesthood, — the Roman pontificate having pre- 
 viously been distinct from and inferior to the 
 Chaldean, with which it was thenceforth identi- 
 fied. He was consequently declared to be divine, 
 
ECCE VENIT. 
 
 and exercised a wonderful influence over his 
 army and the people, even going to the length of 
 openly prescribing to the latter for whom they 
 should vote. And lastly he corrected the calendar 
 and changed times by inserting two additional 
 months, in accordance with the pontifical preroga- 
 tive, which gave him his title of King of the 
 Ages. The power which he had acquired de- 
 scended to his successors ; so that in the statues 
 of the emperors, the ring is always engraved with 
 the figure of a lituus, or crosier, to indicate the 
 highest quality of imperatorial rank, — that of 
 Pontifex Maximus." 1 And the popes are the 
 successors of these successors. 
 
 Such is the figure which history presents as its 
 answer to prophecy. Is it only the eye of bigotry 
 that can detect a likeness between the two ? 
 
 The germs of this evil system were growing in 
 the apostle's day, — " The mystery of iniquity 
 doth already work''' Is it credible that it should 
 have continued operating through eighteen cen- 
 turies, in order to bring forth some yet future 
 short-lived, infidel Antichrist, so transcendently 
 wicked that all which has gone before, with its 
 unspeakable record of blood and blasphemy, is 
 only an indifferent prototype of him ? If charity 
 could bias our interpretation at all, which it must 
 
 1 Antichrist, Babylon, and the Coming Kingdovi, p. 81. 
 
THE ADVENT OF ANTICHRIST 121 
 
 not, how little mercy have they who, in order to 
 relieve the papacy of this stigma, darken our 
 future with such an appalling apparition ! More- 
 over, such a conception puts a strain upon our 
 credulity greater than it can bear. For when we 
 study Satan's career in Scripture and in history, 
 we find that open infidelity is little in his line. 
 His way has ever been to masquerade in the 
 symbols and sacraments of the Church ; to manip- 
 ulate the machinery of spurious miracles ; to 
 put on a sad countenance as the hypocrites do, 
 that behind it he may mock at God. Therefore 
 the epiphany of " that Wicked One" should be 
 looked for in a feigned religiousness rather than 
 in a blatant atheism ; as it is tersely said in the 
 Noble Lesson of the Waldensians : " Antichrist is 
 the falsehood of eternal damnation covered with 
 the appearance of truth and righteousness of 
 Christ and his Spouse." 1 
 
 For this reason we are not surprised at the 
 prediction of startling wonder-working as signal- 
 izing the advent of this pseudo-Christ, "whose 
 coming is after the working of Satan in all power, 
 and signs, and wonders of falsehood." One who 
 is at all acquainted with the history of the Middle 
 
 1 "Antichrist es falseta de damnation ceterna cuberta de specie 
 de la verita e de la justitia de Christ e de la soa sposa" — Dcs 
 Eglises Vaudoises, chap. xiv. 
 
122 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 Ages need not be told how exactly the papal 
 reality fits this prediction ; how the chaste and 
 artless miracles of the primitive Church were 
 travestied by those of the mediaeval Church in 
 the grotesque signs and wonders alleged to have 
 been wrought at saints' tombs, and through the 
 agency of martyrs' bones and sacred relics. Thus 
 was the man of sin to authenticate his ministry 
 " in all deceit of ' unrighteotisness for them that are 
 perishing ; " and the issue would be that God 
 should " se?id them a working of delusion that they 
 should believe the lie, that they may all of tJiem be 
 judged who believed 7tot the truth." x And so has 
 it come to pass ; the assumptions of the priest- 
 hood culminating in a deified man, and the work- 
 ing of delusion culminating in a deified wafer. 
 A devout minister in the Church of England, 
 crying out in pain at the apostasy now repeating 
 itself in his own communion, boldly says, con- 
 cerning the miracle of transubstantiation : " The 
 crowning error into which the visible Church was 
 by degrees led — the process of Satanic inspira- 
 tion extending from the eighth to the thirteenth 
 century — was, that the priesthood possessed a 
 divine power to locate the Lord Jesus Christ on 
 an earthly altar, and to lift him up, under the veils 
 of bread and wine, to the adoration of the people. 
 
 1 2 Thess. ii. 9, 10 (Ellicott's translation). 
 
THE ADVENT OE ANTICHRIST. 123 
 
 It is in this blasphemous fraud that the apostle 
 Paul's prophecy finds its accurate fulfilment. Of 
 the apostasy forerunning the second coming of 
 Christ he says, that the deluded followers of the 
 Lawless One should believe 'the lie,' — to ij/ev&os. 
 Of all the impostures that the Father of Lies ever 
 palmed upon a credulous world, this doctrine, 
 which both logically and theologically repeats 
 millions of times the humiliation of the Blessed 
 Redeemer, necessarily transcends all ! Hence it 
 is that the definite article is placed by the Holy 
 Ghost before this word 'lie.' " x 
 
 Of " the mouth speaking great things and 
 blasphemies," ascribed to this being both in 
 Daniel and Revelation, we have only to inquire 
 what mouth-assumption could surpass that con- 
 tained in the well-known Bull Unam Sanctam of 
 Boniface VIII. : "It is essential for salvation for 
 every human creature to be subject to the Roman 
 pontiff." Blasphemy means usurpation of the 
 prerogatives of the Deity rather than profane 
 denial. When the Jews accused Jesus of this 
 sin, this was the ground : " Why does this man 
 speak blasphemies ? Who can forgive sins but 
 God alone?" Again: "For a good work we 
 stone Thee not ; but for blasphemy, and because 
 Thou, being a man, makest Thyself God." Does 
 
 1 Ormiston, Satan of Scripture, p. 126. 
 
124 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 not the man of Rome stand openly convicted on 
 both these grounds ? 
 
 In the expression, "He who now letteth" we 
 have one of the most significant touches in the 
 whole picture. What hindered the manifestation 
 of Antichrist ? " And now ye know what with- 
 holdeth," says the apostle. If they did know, 
 and passed the secret from lip to lip, tradition on 
 this point is valuable. Hence when we find that 
 it was the well-nigh unanimous understanding 
 among the Christian fathers, from those who 
 touched hands with the apostles onward, that it 
 was the Roman Empire that must be taken out 
 of the way before the man of sin could be re- 
 vealed, we have strong reason to credit this 
 opinion. And mark how the reserve of the apos- 
 tle, in not mentioning this hindering power, 
 bears out this interpretation. If, as some now 
 say, it was the Holy Spirit that was intended, 
 we can see no reason why He should not have 
 been distinctly named ; but if it was the Roman 
 Empire, there is every ground for the apostle's 
 withholding the fact from his epistle, and com- 
 mitting it only to oral tradition. For the epistle 
 would be publicly read in the churches, and its 
 contents reported, perhaps, to the ears of the 
 rulers. To say that the empire, which was held 
 to be eternal, was about to pass away, would 
 
THE ADVENT OF ANTICHRIST. 125 
 
 savor of treason, and would form a just ground 
 for persecution. And therefore, it would seem, 
 the apostle gave it out as a whispered secret : 
 "Remember ye not that when I was yet with 
 yon I told yon these things? And now ye know 
 what witJiholdetJi that he might be revealed in 
 his time" (2 Thes. ii. 6). For once tradition has 
 authority, since in this chapter the apostle not 
 only enjoins that those addressed " obey our word 
 by this epistle," but also "hold to the traditions 
 which ye have been taught, whether by word or 
 our epistle" And we know on the fullest testi- 
 mony that the opinion named was held as a tra- 
 dition apostolical in the early Church ; and as 
 such it has come down to us. If, then, the Thes- 
 salonians knew, and that which they knew has 
 been, with reasonable certainty, reported to us, is 
 it presumptuous that. we should strongly believe? 
 If we are right at this point, a strong light is 
 thrown upon the question raised in the early part 
 of the chapter, whether a singular noun can stand 
 for a succession of individuals. This hindering 
 power is "he that letteth" which antiquity inter- 
 preted to mean the succession of emperors. On 
 which Bishop Wordsworth remarks, " As he that 
 letteth is a public person or series of persons, so 
 is he that sitteth also ; " the one being the suc- 
 cession of emperors, and the other being the 
 succession of popes. 
 
126 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 And here comes in the most weighty consider- 
 ation that so it was, that the papacy did actually 
 emerge upon the subsidence of the empire. Car- 
 dinal Manning, who certainly has no preposses- 
 sion in favor of the view we are advocating, 
 writes thus : " The possession of the pontiffs com- 
 mences with the abandonment of Rome by the 
 emperors. . . . No sovereign has ever reigned in 
 Rome since, except the Vicar of J e sits Christ." 1 
 Singular coincidence ! does the reader exclaim ? 
 No, not singular ; it was bound to be so, on ac- 
 count of certain words which an apostle wrote 
 centuries before under the inspiration of the 
 Holy Ghost. ( Prophecy is the mould in which 
 history is cast ; and no violence of man, no con- 
 vulsions of nations, can either break that mould 
 or constrain the course of history, that the one 
 should not answer to the other point by point, 
 feature by feature. It is for the Christian in- 
 terpreter to note such correspondences as they 
 occur, counting each conformation as a confirma- 
 tion for establishing the sure word of prophecy. 
 
 1 " By a singular arrangement of Divine Providence, as we 
 have said on a former occasion, it happened that the Roman 
 Empire, having fallen, and being divided into many kingdoms 
 and divers states, the Roman pontiff, in the midst of such great 
 variety of kingdoms, and in the actual state of human society, 
 was invested with his civil authority." — The Pope's Allocution, 
 1866. 
 
THE ADVENT OF ANTICHRIST. 127 
 
 A system of exposition which withdraws our at- 
 tention from these coincidences, and sets us to 
 gazing into blank space for something to emerge, 
 of which not even the shadow is in sight, we can- 
 not think profitable. There are things to come 
 which ought powerfully to attract our attention, 
 but our eyes should not be so holden thereby 
 that we cannot see what is passing and what has 
 already come to pass upon the earth. Such cor- 
 respondences of history with prophecy, of fact 
 with prediction, as these that we have pointed 
 out, cannot occur by chance. And in view of 
 them we may as certainly hold the papacy to be 
 the fulfilment of Paul's prediction of the Anti- 
 christ as we hold the face of a coin to be the ful- 
 filment of the die in which it was struck. 1 
 
 1 It is coming to be admitted even by futurist interpreters 
 that the word "Antichrist " signifies a vice-Christ, rather than an 
 open opponent of Christ. Andrew Jukes says : " I am satisfied 
 that, according to the derivation of the word, Antichrist means 
 primarily *in the place of Christ? rather than 'against Christ? 
 'Avtl — in Latin, vice, whence we get the word Vicar, the very 
 title claimed in reference to Christ by the Pope of Rome — is 
 literally ' in the place of.'' " He cites, among others, the follow- 
 ing examples: 'Avdviraros (Acts xiii. 7), the deputy, or procon- 
 sul, not " against the consul," but " in the place of the consul ; " 
 'AvreiriaKOTTos (Gregor. Naz.), a vice-bishop, one acting for the 
 bishop. That this is not a merely modern and Protestant inter- 
 pretation will appear from the fact that Lactantius (260-330) 
 speaks thus of this personage : " Now this is he who is called 
 
:28 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 We end where we began, — with the temple of 
 God. The dreadful prediction of the destiny of 
 the man of sin is in the words: "Whom the 
 Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, 
 and shall destroy with the brightness of His com- 
 ing." Behold how the consuming has been going 
 on within the last few centuries, especially during 
 our own time ; so that an eminent writer has 
 declared that in the downfall of the temporal 
 power the papacy met with the heaviest loss 
 which has befallen her in a thousand years. But 
 of the rest how can we speak but with an un- 
 utterable awe and pity : " Whom He shall destroy 
 with the brightness of His appearing'' For what ? 
 " Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, 
 and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you ? If 
 any man defile the temple of God, him will God 
 destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which 
 temple are ye" (i Cor. iii. 17). What language 
 can tell how this temple has been defiled ? The 
 heathen rites and ceremonies corrupting the wor- 
 ship of Christ ; the idols and the sacrilege ; the 
 worship of the queen of heaven ; the blood of 
 God's saints staining His own courts ; the blas- 
 phemy of a man professing to forgive sin ; of a 
 
 Antichrist ; but he shall falsely call himself Christ, and shall 
 fight against the truth." — The Divine Listitutes, lib. vii., cap. 
 xix. 
 
THE ADVENT OF ANTICHRIST. 1 29 
 
 man snatching the attribute of Divine infalli- 
 bility ; of a man receiving worship from his fel- 
 lows ; in fine, of a man sitting in the seat of the 
 Holy Ghost, shutting the mouth of God's Spirit, 
 — the Holy Scriptures, — and bidding the Church 
 hear only his own "mouth speaking great things/' 
 Idolatry of Mary ; idolatry of the mass ; idolatry 
 of the cross ! How solemnly sounds God's word 
 in view of it all ! "And what agreement hath a 
 temple of God with idols?" (2 Cor. vi. 16, r. v.) 
 Do we not know, if we have read the Scriptures, 
 that it is such desecration of His house, and such 
 defiling of His worship, which have ever called 
 down the severest judgments of God ? Let us 
 recall the fact, not that we may redouble our 
 denunciation of an apostate Church, but that we 
 may search our own sanctuaries, with a lighted 
 candle, to see if aught of the corrupting leaven 
 be found among us. 
 
 What our eyes see is, again, an astonishing seal 
 set to the truth of this great prediction. Who 
 has not heard the oft-quoted saying that the con- 
 dition of the Jews in the present dispensation is 
 the most striking verification of the truth of the 
 Scripture ? Just as was predicted, they have 
 been scattered, peeled, and subjected to daily 
 death ; and yet here they are preserved as a dis- 
 tinct people, a burning bush ever aflame with 
 persecuting fires, but not consumed. 
 
T.30 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 So has the line of pontiffs continued. 1 Taking 
 its rise in the beginnings of the age, gradually 
 strengthening and maturing till fully developed, 
 with temporal and spiritual sovereignty centring 
 in one head, it has lived on for more than twelve 
 hundred years, and there it sits to-day on its seat 
 in Rome, in spite of every likelihood that it would 
 long ago have passed away, the longest line of 
 rulers the Western world has ever seen. As the 
 Jewish succession remains unbroken, that the last 
 generation of cast-off Israel may confront the 
 descending Lord at His advent, looking on Him 
 whom they pierced, and mourning because of 
 Him with saving penitence that "so all Israel 
 shall be saved ; " so likewise the long succession 
 
 1 " And power was given wito him to continue forty and two 
 months''' (Rev. xiii. 5). This period of Antichrist's duration we 
 hold to be, according to the "year-day theory," twelve hundred 
 and sixty years. To those who deride such interpretation as 
 strained, and insist that the words mean three years and a half, 
 we reply : What expositor has interpreted the ten days' 1 tribula- 
 tion in Rev. ii. 10 to be ten literal days ? But if the Holy Spirit 
 meant years, in the Apocalypse, why did He not say years ? it is 
 replied. Why, when He meant churches and ministers, and 
 kingdoms and kings and epochs, did He say candle-sticks, and 
 stars, and beasts, and horns, and trumpets ? Yet, having used 
 these miniature symbols of greater things, how fitting that the 
 accompanying time should also be in miniature ! To use literal 
 dates would distort the imagery, as though you should put a 
 life-sized eye in a small-sized photograph. 
 
THE ADVENT OF ANTICHRIST. 131 
 
 of hierarchs continues, that the last Pontifex 
 Maximus may stand face to face with the Lord at 
 His appearing, and receive his doom, in the cut- 
 ting off of his usurping line forever. As we 
 read all this, let it be with bowed heads and with 
 weeping eyes, while we ponder the lesson, once 
 more, of the terrible consequences of pride, and 
 ambition, and worldliness, when permitted to run 
 their course in the Church of God. 
 
IV. 
 
 THE BRIDE OF ANTICHRIST. 
 
 Among the presumptuous titles ascribed to the 
 Papal Antichrist is that of " True Lord and Hus- 
 band of the Church." If he is such, we must find 
 in Scripture the portraiture of his bride, that we 
 may carefully distinguish her from the wife of the 
 Lamb. As the most complete and graphic pic- 
 ture of the "man of sin" is found in the second 
 chapter of Thessalonians, so the most vivid por- 
 trayal of the woman of sin with whom he is allied 
 is found in the seventeenth chapter of Revelation. 
 Here we behold her introduced under the name 
 of " The great harlot that sitteth upon many 
 waters" and she is pictured as riding upon a beast 
 with "seven heads aiid ten horns." These sym- 
 bols are interpreted for us by the Spirit of God, 
 so that in our study of this mystery we have a 
 divinely revealed clue with which to begin. " The 
 waters which thozc sawest where the harlot sitteth 
 are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, a?id 
 tongues." Wide dominion and far-reaching sway 
 over the inhabitants of earth are here indicated. 
 " The seven heads are the seven mountains on 
 
THE BRIDE OF ANTICHRIST. 133 
 
 which the woman sitteth" In poetry and in his- 
 tory, on monuments and on coins, Rome is known 
 as "the seven - hilled city." Propertius thus 
 speaks of her : — 
 
 The city high on seven hills 
 That rules the boundless earth." 
 
 The designation is so exact that there is a well- 
 nigh unanimous consent among Romanist and 
 Protestant interpreters alike, that the ancient 
 imperial city on the Tiber is hereby pointed out, 
 though the former contend that the prophecy 
 relates to pagan Rome. "The great harlot " is a 
 term equally clear in its significance ; it being the 
 representation of a fallen and apostatized Church. 
 "How is the faithful city become an harlot!" 
 (Isa. i. 21) exclaims Jehovah in His lament over 
 backsliding Jerusalem. " Thou hast played the 
 harlot with many lovers" (Jer. iii. 1) he cries 
 again. And once more : " Though Israel play the 
 harlot, let not Judah offend" (Hos. iv. 15). Thus 
 in the Scripture's own light we discern this mis- 
 tress to be the faithless Church who, having vio- 
 lated her betrothment, and having ceased to look 
 for the return of her affianced Husband, has ad- 
 mitted others into his place and become the par- 
 amour of the kings of the earth. Most distinctly, 
 then, are the character, and dominion, and resi- 
 dence of this ecclesiastical woman denned. 
 
34 ECCE VEN1T. 
 
 If we turn now to the prophetic description of 
 the woman's dress, we are almost startled by its 
 realistic character : "And the woman was arrayed 
 in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold 
 and precious stones and pearls." Who does not 
 know that scarlet and purple are as truly " the 
 colors" of the papacy as the red, white and blue 
 are of the United States ? In the Ceremoniale 
 Romanum — an ancient book of directions, — the 
 dress and adornments with which the pope must 
 be clad on assuming his office are minutely de- 
 scribed. Of the different articles of attire speci- 
 fied, five are scarlet. A vest covered with pearls, 
 and a mitre adorned with gold and precioits stones 
 are also named in the prescribed apparel. Nor 
 need we go back to so early authority on this 
 point. Our own eyes bear witness to these mis- 
 tress-marks as they appear to-day. What a pro- 
 fusion still of purple robes and costly jewels! 
 When the first American Cardinal was created, 
 the infection of " cardinal red" seized on fashion- 
 able circles throughout the land, far and wide, 
 ladies' bonnets and dresses fairly blushing with it, 
 till society seemed streaked through and through 
 with the hues of the scarlet woman, as when a 
 blood-clot falls into an urn of water and is diffused 
 abroad. If any say that it is only a narrow and 
 fanciful sectarianism that can detect such minute 
 
THE BRIDE OF ANTICHRIST. 135 
 
 identity between the prophetic picture and the 
 papal reality, they have but to be reminded that 
 so honored a Catholic saint as Beneventura con- 
 densed this whole apocalyptic prediction into a 
 single pungent sentence, and applied it to the 
 papacy of his day, when he designated her as " a 
 wantoii clad in scarlet." 
 
 And how striking it is to note that true in- 
 stinct which leads the ritualists of our time to 
 copy the dress-marks of Rome, just as they are 
 reviving her pagan ceremonial and doctrine, — so 
 strongly is the prophetic negative bound to re- 
 produce itself in every photograph of history ! 1 
 
 1 How the Anglican Church is " resuming the decorations of 
 the harlot " appears from the following : In the services con- 
 nected with the recent consecration of the Cathedral of Truro, 
 the red vestments, which were abolished in the reign of Eliza- 
 beth, were again so conspicuous that Punch photographed the 
 scene under the heading of " Outbreak of Scarlatina at Truro." 
 Join with this the following Church news : " Last Sunday the 
 rector of St. Paul's Church wore a white stole embroidered in 
 three shades of blue, the same done in monograms and flowers 
 set with carbuncles and bugles ; with Maltese crosses set with 
 sapphires and diamonds ; with lilies set with garnets, — the 
 whole number of diamonds numbering forty, and of precious 
 stones one hundred and thirty -five : estimated cost of this me- 
 morial gift, £ 1,000. A visitor describes the Bishop of Lincoln as 
 ' adorned with mitre and cloth of gold, his orphrevs so lavishly 
 decorated with amethysts, pearls, topazes, and chrysolites set in 
 silver as fairly to dazzle the beholder.' How repulsive is all 
 this to such as seek to maintain the simplicity that is in 
 Christ ! " 
 
136 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 What is that chalice which the woman lifts 
 aloft? "Having a golden cup in her hand, full 
 of abominations and filthiness of her fornication." 
 Idolatry and spiritual apostasy are clearly sym- 
 bolized here. Concerning ancient Babylon the 
 prophet wrote : " Babylon hath been a golden 
 cup in the Lord's hand that made all the earth 
 drunken ; the nations are drunken with her wine, 
 therefore the nations are mad " (Jer. li. 7). 
 
 Euphratean Babylon was the prolific mother of 
 idolatry, — that idolatry which Scripture clearly 
 shows to be the liturgy of demons, — and with 
 this she seduced God's ancient people into spir- 
 itual fornication. And now the Church, having 
 become paganized by absorbing into herself the 
 literal elements of this ancient heathenism, is 
 photographed as mystical Babylon, in her turn 
 enticing to idolatry and spiritual unchastity. 
 
 It is no exaggeration to say that the Eucharis- 
 tic cup which Rome now puts to the lips of her 
 communicants, with its mixture of miracle and 
 magic, resembles more nearly the chalice of the 
 ancient Chaldean " Mysteries " than it does the 
 chaste and simple memorial cup which Christ left 
 in the hands of His Bride, the Church ; and, in 
 view of the transformation which has taken place, 
 what startling significance is there for Roman- 
 izers in the apostle's saying : " Ye cannot drink 
 
THE BRIDE OF ANTICHRIST. 137 
 
 the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. Ye 
 cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and the 
 table of demons" ! (1 Cor. x. 21), — startling, if 
 indeed it be true, that the Bride of Christ, who in 
 the beginning is described as having " turned to 
 God from idols to serve the living and true God, 
 and wait for His Son from heaven," is become 
 such that she is now turning men from God to 
 serve idols, seducing them to make an image of 
 the sacrament, before which they fall down in 
 worship. 1 
 
 "And His name shall be in their foreheads," is 
 the promise given to the Bride of the Lamb. 
 And Antichrist's bride must maintain this par- 
 ody, so, as the spouse of him who is " the mys- 
 tery of iniquity" this woman of the Apocalypse is 
 thus presented to us : "And upon her forehead a 
 name written," "mystery, babylon the great, 
 
 THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF 
 
 the earth." Need we ask who it is that arro- 
 gates to herself the title, " Rome, Mother and 
 Mistress ? " Striking as are the parallels, even 
 more so are the contrasts. "Jerusalem which is 
 above, who is the mother of us all" confesses the 
 
 1 " If any man shall say that this holy sacrament should not 
 be adored, nor carried about in processions, nor held up publicly 
 to the people to adore it, or that its worshippers are idolaters, 
 let him be accursed-" — Council of Trent. 
 
138 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 Holy Church whose citizenship is in heaven ; 
 the Church which has become earthly and idola- 
 trous is characterized as " Babylon the great, the 
 mother of harlots.'' The Bride is " arrayed in fine 
 linen, clean and white" which is the " righteous- 
 ness of saints." The Harlot is u arrayed in pur- 
 ple and scarlet color" which is the vesture of 
 kings. The union of the true Church with Christ 
 in Heaven is a "great mystery;" the union of 
 the false Church with the rulers of this world is 
 the counter "mystery" 
 
 As for that other cup with which the Harlot 
 has intoxicated herself, — " / saw the woman 
 drunken with the blood of saints and with the 
 blood of martyrs" — what language shall we bor- 
 row to describe it ? It has been estimated that 
 the papacy has directly or indirectly slain fifty 
 millions of martyrs on account of their faith, the 
 vast majority of these being sincere Christians, 
 whose only crime was that they would not own 
 allegiance to Antichrist. Let charity discount 
 the number by one half, if it were possible, and 
 let her suggest every conceivable palliation for 
 the murder of the rest, and we still have the 
 most ghastly chapter which the volume of history 
 contains. Would that we might mingle our weep- 
 ing with floods of repentant tears from the # eyes 
 of this cruel mother, if, forsooth, we could thereby 
 
THE BRIDE OF ANTICHRIST. 139 
 
 mitigate the wrath treasured up against the day 
 of wrath which her crimes have earned. But, 
 alas! we find "Te Deums" sung over Huguenot 
 slaughters, but not one papal Miserere can we 
 discover. Commemorative medals are still ex- 
 tant signalizing the massacre of St. Bartholomew, 
 but not one monumentum lacrimarum over that 
 event is to be found in all the archives of the 
 seven-hilled city. " And when I saw her / won- 
 dered with great wonder," writes the Seer ; and 
 now that history has filled in every detail of the 
 crimson outline of prophecy, we wonder with 
 even profounder amazement that such a demoni- 
 acal tragedy could ever have been enacted in the 
 name of Christianity. But we remember that 
 the woman who did these things was "drunken." 
 And there is no intoxication so profound as that 
 induced by pagan superstition tinctured with 
 Christian blood. Even Martin Luther, while yet 
 in the delirium tremens of popery, raged with 
 this blood-thirst. " So intoxicated was I, and 
 drenched in papal dogmas," are his words, " that 
 I would have been most ready to murder, or as- 
 sist others in murdering, any person who should 
 have uttered a syllable against the duty of obe- 
 dience to the Pope." Nay, even those who 
 have been sobered by generations of Protestant 
 abstinence from persecution, if they once return 
 
140 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 to the cups of the Harlot, speedily exhibit symp- 
 toms of the old appetite, as witnessed, for exam- 
 ple, in the oft-quoted saying of Dr. Manning, 
 now cardinal, when urging Romish aggression in 
 England : " It is yours, right reverend fathers, to 
 subjugate and subdue, to bend and to break the 
 will of an imperial race." 
 
 This mystical name of "Babylon the Great" is 
 marvellously apt on many grounds. It was lit- 
 eral Babylon that was the most constant and 
 inveterate persecutor of ancient Israel. So was 
 this typical Babylon to be the most malignant 
 persecutor of spiritual Israel, the true and uncor- 
 rupted Church of Christ. This were enough to 
 justify the analogy. But we believe that there 
 is even a profounder significance in the name. 
 Papal Babylon, as we have said above, was to re- 
 enact the idolatries of Chaldean Babylon to such 
 an extent that she would be the restored image 
 and counterpart of her. How the Babylonian 
 cultus was diffused abroad among surrounding 
 nations, and how it reappeared in the Roman 
 Empire, and was in turn copied and reproduced 
 by the papacy, is a matter of history. It is too 
 great a subject to be discussed in a single chap- 
 ter. The most that we can do now is to note 
 some marks of identification between the idola- 
 try of the mystical city and that of the literal 
 
THE BRIDE OF ANTICHRIST. 141 
 
 city. Read in Jeremiah xliv. Jehovah's terrible 
 denunciation of the Jews in Egypt for their ob- 
 stinate worship of "The Queen of Heaven." This 
 was Semiramis, or Astarte, the great Babylonian 
 goddess. She was called "the mother of the 
 gods," and was "most worshipped of all the 
 divinities." In the corruptions of Christianity, 
 the Virgin Mary, astonishing to tell, was gradu- 
 ally lifted into her place, and adored under the 
 identical titles, till to-day the voice of the pa- 
 pacy is exactly that of apostate Israel : " But we 
 will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth 
 out of our own mouth to burn incense unto the 
 queen of heaven" (Jer. xliv. 17). Not only in- 
 cense, but, these same Jews confessed, "we did 
 make our cakes to worship her" (v. 19). Here 
 the pedigree of the wafer is suggested ; and 
 if one will candidly trace back the descent, we 
 challenge him to resist the conclusion that the 
 wafer comes from the Babylonish cake, its round- 
 ness being due to the fact that it was originally 
 an image of the sun, and worshipped as such. 
 Consider, also, the use, in worship, of candles, 
 which the ritualists are now so sedulously employ- 
 ing to light themselves back into the Dark Ages. 
 In the apocryphal book of Baruch there is a 
 minute and extended description of the Babylo- 
 nish worship, with all its dark and abominable 
 
142 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 accessories. Of the gods which they set up in 
 their temples, it is said that their " eyes be full 
 of dust through the feet of them that come in." 
 And then it is added that the worshippers " light 
 for them candles, yea, more than for themselves, 
 whereof they cannot see one" In the pagan wor- 
 ship at Rome, which was confessedly borrowed 
 largely from Assyria and Egypt, we have ac- 
 counts of processionals, in which surpliced priests 
 marched with wax candles in their hands, carry- 
 ing the images of their gods ; and we find a 
 Christian writer, Lactantius, a. d. 260-330, ridi- 
 culing the heathen custom of lighting candles to 
 their gods, " because they are of the earth, and 
 stand in need of lights that they may not be in 
 darkness," which he certainly would not have 
 done had the practice formed any part of prim- 
 itive Christian worship. 1 And time would fail 
 to tell of the confessional, so closely reprodu- 
 cing that imposed on the initiates in the ancient 
 mysteries ; and of holy water, of the eastward pos- 
 ture, of the signing with the cross, and of cere- 
 monies and vestments, nameless and incompre- 
 hensible. Granting, for the sake of charity, that 
 
 1 Divine Institutes, b. vi. 2. Bishop Coxe, the High Church 
 editor of the American edition of the Fathers, gives this note on 
 this passage : " The ritual use of lights was unknown to the 
 primitive Christians, however harmless it may be." 
 
THE BRIDE OF ANTICHRIST. 143 
 
 altars and incense were borrowed from Jewish 
 worship, — which things, indeed, were done away 
 in Christ, — it still remains true that the great 
 bulk of the papal ceremonies were originally part 
 and portion of primitive idol-worship, of which 
 idol-worship Babylon was the chief mother and 
 nurse. 1 
 
 The complete image, as presented in this vis- 
 ion, is one of the most striking in all prophecy. 
 "And I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-colored 
 beast" — the apostate Church riding upon the 
 state, supported by it, and yet controlling it. 
 Who does not know how exactly this harmonizes 
 with the facts ; how the Church, upon her fall, 
 saddled herself upon the empire, till, acquiring 
 complete control, she became able to hold it in 
 by bit and bridle of bull and concordat, compel- 
 ling it to bear her weight and to do her will ? 
 Blasphemy and apostasy are counterparts. Anti- 
 christ, a world-king, sitteth in the temple of God, 
 showing himself as God. Antichurch, forfeiting 
 her citizenship in heaven, now sitteth in the seat 
 of kings. " Simeon and Levi are brethren : in- 
 struments of cruelty are in their habitations. O 
 my soul ! come not into their secret." " Upon a 
 
 1 For a profound and learned exhibition of this whole subject 
 see Hislop's " Two Babylons" London, S. W. Partridge & Co. 
 
144 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 scarlet-colored beast," — predictive of blood-guilti- 
 ness, a foreview which history has amply verified. 
 " Grind enough of the red," used to be the ghastly 
 phrase of the painter David, one of the French 
 revolutionists, as he urged on the bloody work of 
 the guillotine. Rome secular has never been 
 sparing of the red in carrying out the orders of 
 Rome spiritual, whom she has faithfully served 
 as public executioner ; she has painted true to 
 the prophetic pattern. Hence the "names of 
 blasphemy " which cover her. With heaven-de- 
 fying self-exaltation she has assumed to sit in the 
 judgment-seat of God, and to condemn His saints 
 by millions to death, so that whereas Jehovah 
 was wont to reprove kings for their sakes, saying, 
 "Touch not my anointed, and do my prophets no 
 harm," these — the Harlot and the Hierarch — 
 have "taken counsel together against the Lord 
 and against His anointed," to burn them at the 
 stake and rend them in the Inquisition. And 
 yet, after all, the longing is irresistible, that this 
 fallen daughter of God — the harlot Church — 
 might be reformed, and like that other Magdalene 
 be found bathing the Saviour's feet with her pen- 
 itent tears. Nothing in history is more pathetic 
 than that yearning of pious Catholics of the Mid- 
 dle Ages which found expression in the prophecy 
 of a "Papa Angelicas" about to appear, an An- 
 
THE BRIDE OF ANTICHRIST. H5 
 
 gel-Pope, who should restore the denied Church 
 to her primitive purity, and invest her once more 
 with the white robes of spiritual chastity. But 
 such a conception is as contrary to possibility as 
 it is counter to Scripture. That which has been 
 the curse of the Church can never be its cure. 
 An angelic man in the papal chair, if such an one 
 could be found to sit there, would be as abhorrent 
 in his office as he might be lovely in his person, 
 for papacy is the essence of Antichrist, and as 
 such can never help Christ in reforming His 
 Church. If any demur at this, and contend that 
 with all her errors Rome still holds enough of 
 truth to constitute her a true Church, we must 
 reply that she cannot be both the bride and the 
 harlot ; and to this her most eminent prelates 
 assent, compelling us to choose between the two 
 alternatives. Cardinal Manning says : " The 
 Catholic Church is either the masterpiece of Satan 
 or the Kingdom of the Son of God" 1 We solemnly 
 deny that she is the latter. Cardinal Newman 
 declares : " Either the Church of Rome is the house 
 of God or the house of S atari : there is no middle 
 ground between them." 2 We solemnly affirm that 
 she is not the former. 
 
 1 Lectures on the Fourfold Sovereignty of God, London, 187 1, 
 p. 171. 
 
 2 Essays, ii. p. 116. 
 
146 ECCE VEN1T. 
 
 And yet the cup of the Roman sorceress, let 
 us remember, is once more put to the lips of 
 Protestants, who are solicited to drink it, and 
 forget their estrangement from their " Mother 
 Church." How many have been drugged into 
 communion, or at least into wanton dalliance, 
 with her, we need not say. It is enough to utter 
 the warning, that here fellowship is fornication. 
 If, by the regenerating and sanctifying grace of 
 the Spirit, we belong to the true body of Christ, 
 we are bound to meet every overture for commu- 
 nion with Rome with the inspired question and 
 inspired answer of the apostle : " Shall I, then, 
 take the members of Christ, and make them 
 members of a harlot ? God forbid " (1 Cor. vi. 
 
 is)- 
 
V. 
 
 THE MOCK MILLENNIUM. 
 
 Antichrist and Antichurch, — these two reign- 
 ing together have brought on an anti-millennium, 
 the dazzling caricature of that which is promised 
 to appear at the second coming of Christ and the 
 marriage of the Lamb. An eminent exegete, in 
 a recent symposium on the pre-millennial advent, 
 replies to those who query whether the present 
 may not after all be the long-predicted millen- 
 nium, that it might be more correctly called "the 
 millennium of Satan." This saying sounds ex- 
 tremely harsh and pessimistic, but it has the ad- 
 vantage of conforming to Scripture. " The age 
 to come" — 6 alo)v fxiXXoiv — has its unmistakable 
 characteristics as set forth in Scripture : it will 
 be the age of the resurrection of the just (Luke 
 xx. 35), with all the glorious triumphs and rewards 
 which belong to that consummation ; and it will 
 be ushered in by the visible appearing of the 
 Lord from heaven (Matt. xiii. 39) ; it will be 
 Christ's millennium, during which Satan shall be 
 bound and shut up so that he can tempt the na- 
 tions no more (Rev. xx. 1-5). 
 
ECCE VENIT. 
 
 The present age, — 6 vvv alwv, — spanning the 
 entire distance from the first to the second advent, 
 has also its distinctive characteristics : it is called 
 
 "the "present evil age" (Gal. i. 4) ; Christians are 
 exhorted to " live soberly, righteously, and godly 
 
 - in this present age" (Titus ii. 12), to "be not 
 conformed to this age " (Rom. xii. 2), and they 
 are admonished that Christ "gave Himself for 
 our sins, that He might deliver us from this pres- 
 ent evil age " (Gal. i. 4). So far from Christ being 
 Lord of this age, as He should be were it His 
 millennium, we are distinctly told that Satan is 
 
 —-"the god of this age," — 6 #eo? rov aicovos tovtov (2 
 
 Cor. iv. 4). Till this dispensation ends, therefore, 
 and the sway of its god is broken, there can be 
 no millennium of universal righteousness in which 
 Christ shall reign with His saints upon the earth. 
 Multitudes will be taken oat of this age to form 
 the Ecclesia, the called out, the Bride of Christ, 
 to be presented to Him at His coming ; but the 
 Church will never so transform the dispensation 
 as to turn it into a blissful millennium. The 
 clock of the ages runs true to the eternal order, 
 and however impatient the Church may be for 
 the consummation of all things, she cannot move 
 forward the hands of that clock a single hour to 
 bring in the Sabbatic rest before the fulness of 
 time be come. But this was really what was at- 
 
THE MOCK MILLENNIUM. 149 
 
 tempted by the Church after her elevation to an 
 earthly throne under Constantine. She grasped 
 for her glory in the time appointed for her humil- 
 iation, and vainly thought to reign in the earth 
 while her King is still absent in heaven. 
 
 With the historical school of interpreters we 
 find in the twelfth chapter of Revelation a graphic 
 portraiture of this critical era. The sun-clothed 
 woman figures the Church in her investiture 
 with rule and authority under Constantine ; her 
 travailing and bringing forth the man child who 
 was "to rule all nations with a rod of iron," ex- 
 hibits her compassing earthly dominion and sov- 
 ereignty, which dominion and sovereignty are, 
 however, caught away from the true Church, 
 whose portion is for the present the wilderness 
 and rejection, and reserved with Jesus Christ on 
 the throne where He is " expecting till His foes 
 be made His footstool," when the promise shall 
 be fulfilled to Him and to His reigning Bride : 
 " I will give thee nations for thine inheritance, 
 and for thy possession the ends of the earth. 
 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, like 
 a potter's vessel shalt thou dash them in pieces." 
 But in the conflict between paganism and Chris- 
 tianity, in which the former is overthrown, as 
 symbolized by the casting out of the dragon, the 
 deluded Church imagines that her millennial 
 
T50 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 triumph has arrived, and the cry is heard : " Now 
 is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom 
 of our God and the power of His Christ'" (Rev. 
 xii. 10). Mr. Pember, though not following this 
 interpretation of the Apocalypse, has most ad- 
 mirably sketched its historical counterpart. He 
 says : " When the Christians were relieved from 
 persecution by the policy of Constantine, and 
 came into honor after having been so long reck- 
 oned as the filth of the world and the offscour- 
 ing of all things, the cry was straightway raised 
 that the kingdom had come. But the result of 
 this vain Lo here ! was the introduction of two 
 pernicious doctrines, that the kingdom is possi- 
 ble without the personal presence of the King, 
 and that the Church can become mistress of the 
 world during her widowhood and while Satan is 
 still reigning prince. Further mischief followed, 
 for there being nothing to support such views in 
 the New Testament, those who entertained them 
 were compelled to have recourse to the Old, and 
 to cite from thence the prophecies of Israel's fu- 
 ture glory, in order that by a false application of 
 them to the Church they might justify the pros- 
 perity which had accrued to her through her alli- 
 ance with the pagan world." 1 
 
 Satan, who is the god of this age, is an anti- 
 
 1 Antichrist, Babylon, and the Coming Kingdom, p. 145. 
 
THE MOCK MILLENNIUM. 15 1 
 
 god, and as such he is the great caricaturist of all 
 holy persons and things, that he may the more 
 effectually delude and destroy. And having seen 
 the counter Christ and the counter Church which 
 he created for leading men astray, we shall now 
 consider how through these two he brought in a 
 counter millennium, an astonishing parody of the 
 true Sabbatic era and the real kingdom of God 
 on earth which are promised in connection with 
 Christ's second advent. 
 
 Everything which belongs to that blessed age 
 has been, and is still, claimed by the apostate 
 Church as already here. Was not Christ to usher 
 in the millennium by His personal coming? "On 
 thee, most blessed Leo, we have fixed our hopes 
 as the Saviour that was to come," — " Salvatorem 
 ventiLriun" x So spake an adoring bishop to the 
 pope at the fifth Lateran council. In his sover- 
 eign vicar, Christ has already appeared and is 
 already ruling, says Rome. " In the person of 
 Pius IX., Jesus reigns on earth," exclaims Car- 
 dinal Manning, "and he must reign till He hath 
 put all enemies under His feet ! " 2 
 
 1 Harduin, 1651. 
 
 2 See closing pages of Vatican Council, by Henry Edward, 
 Archbishop of Westminster, 187 1. It is an exaltation of the 
 pope as "the supreme judge and infallible teacher of men," end- 
 ing with a warning to his enemies that " whosoever shall fall on 
 
152 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 But was it not appointed to the Church to 
 suffer with Christ during this dispensation, that 
 she might reign with Him in the age to come ? 
 " Nay, but now is come salvation and the king- 
 dom of our God," replies the harlot bride. Hear 
 the Bishop of Medrusium at the fifth Lateran 
 council again : " But weep not, daughter of Zion, 
 for God hath raised up a Saviour for thee ; the 
 Lion of the tribe ofjudah (alluding to Pope Leo), 
 the root of David hath come, and shall save thee 
 from all thy enemies." 1 A "little flock" wait- 
 ing for "the Chief Shepherd" to appear; an es- 
 poused bride looking for the Bridegroom's re- 
 turn, — such we had supposed to be the character 
 of the Church in this present time. But the un- 
 faithful spouse has found her Chief Shepherd and 
 Bridegroom in the pope. Marcellus, in behalf of 
 the Church, speaks thus to Leo X. : "I come to 
 thee as my true Lord and Husband, beseeching 
 thee to look to it that thy bride may be renewed 
 in her beauty ; and see to it that the flock com- 
 mitted to thee be nourished with the best and 
 spiritual aliment, the fold united in one which is 
 now divided, and the sickness healed which has 
 
 this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall it will 
 grind him to powder." It is an amazing exhibition of eloquent 
 blasphemy. 
 
 J Harduin, 1687. 
 
THE MOCK MILLENNIUM. 153 
 
 afflicted the whole world : for thou art our Shep- 
 herd, our Physician, our Governor, in fine, a sec- 
 ond God on earth." 1 
 
 Christ foretold the condition of his true Church 
 — " the children of the bride-chamber " — during 
 His absence thus : " But the days will come when 
 the Bridegroom shall be taken from them, and 
 then shall they fast." The Church of this false 
 kingdom, this pseudo-millennium, is thus pictured 
 in the Apocalypse : " For she saith in her heart, I 
 sit as queen and am no widow, and shall see no 
 sorrow" (Rev. xviii. 7). How literally was this 
 prediction translated into history when the in- 
 fatuated Eusebius, glorying over the triumphs 
 of Christianity in his day, exclaimed : " Whereas 
 the Church was widowed and desolate, her chil- 
 dren have now to exclaim to her : ' Make room ! 
 Enlarge thy borders ! the place is too strait for 
 us.' The promise is fulfilling in her: 'In right- 
 eousness shalt thou be established ; all thy chil- 
 dren shall be taught of God, and great shall be 
 the peace of thy children.' "- Nay, more : so far 
 from fasting, and waiting the time when they 
 should sit down with the Lord at His table in 
 His kingdom, this historian rejoices that after 
 the enthronement of Christianity under Constan- 
 tine, when "the bishops sat down at the emper- 
 
 1 Harduin, 1687. 
 
154 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 or's table, and the rest all around him, it looked 
 like the image of the very kingdom of God." * 
 
 Though "a name above every name" is given 
 to Immanuel, He still waits for every knee to 
 bow to Him ; He still waits for His promised 
 throne, "the throne of His father, David." He 
 still waits for His royal title, "King of kings 
 and Lord of lords," which title, as the Scripture 
 shows, belongs only to the day of His glorious 
 coming. But not so with Antichrist. " There is 
 but one name in the world," he declares, "and 
 that is the pope ; he only can use the ornaments 
 of empire ; all princes ought to kiss his feet ; he 
 alone can nominate and displace bishops, and as- 
 semble and dissolve councils. Nobody can judge 
 him ; his mere election constitutes him a saint ; 
 he has never erred, and never shall err in time to 
 come ; he can depose princes, and^ relieve sub- 
 jects from their oaths of fidelity." 2 
 
 What wonder that with such assumptions all 
 the sublime promises of the millennial glory 
 should have been counted as now fulfilled ! So 
 it was ; and we read of the ambassadors of the 
 Portuguese king bowing down to Pope Leo, and, 
 after addressing him as "Supreme Lord of all" 
 blasphemously adapting to him the words of 
 prophecy : " Thou shalt rule from sea to sea, and 
 
 i V. C. iii. 15. 2 Diet, Papa, Greg. VII. 
 
THE MOCK MILLENNIUM. 155 
 
 from the river Tiber to the ends of the earth ; 
 the kings of Arabia and Saba shall bring gifts to 
 thee ; yea, all princes shall worship thee, all na- 
 tions shall serve thee." 
 
 At no point has the Messianic glory been more 
 brilliantly mimicked than here. The profusion 
 of offerings which have poured in upon the royal 
 priest of Rome from the kings of the earth is 
 astonishing to recount. No monarch that ever 
 reigned has been the recipient of such sumptuous 
 gifts from the princes of this world. And the 
 spell of fascination which has ever evoked such 
 tributes, although long weakened, seems to be 
 again reviving, as indicated by the published list 
 of royal presents to the pope on his recent ju- 
 bilee. The soft adulation toward Rome, which 
 many Protestant clergymen have learned to culti- 
 vate during the last half century, is now being 
 matched by a renewed subserviency on the part 
 of kings. Bishop Cox, one of the compilers of 
 the Liturgy of the Anglican Church, writing from 
 England to friends on the Continent in 1559, 
 while Elizabeth was reigning, said : " We are 
 thundering forth in our pulpits, and especially 
 before our Queen Elizabeth, that the Roman 
 Pontiff is truly Antichrist." Such thunder has 
 so far subsided among those employing this lit- 
 urgy that now a great company of priests are 
 
156 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 laboring to bring about organic union with Rome, 
 and the present successor to Elizabeth on the 
 English throne sends one of the most princely of 
 the anniversary gifts to Leo XIII. Luther, after 
 his eyes, long holden of superstition, were opened 
 to discern the Scriptures, looked at prophecy and 
 then at the papacy and exclaimed : " It is most 
 manifest, and without any doubt true, that the 
 Roman Pontiff, with his whole order and king- 
 dom, is the very Antichrist." But instead of 
 Luther's mitre of malediction upon the head of 
 this usurper of Christ's millennial throne, Ger- 
 many now sends, as the tribute of King William 
 to the Roman Pontiff, "a jewelled mitre costing 
 four thousand dollars." So the masquerade goes 
 on before the eyes of men and angels, that the 
 unwary may still longer be deceived, and made to 
 believe that this is He of whom the Psalmist 
 wrote, "The kings of Tarshish and of the isles 
 shall bring presents ; . . . yea, all kings shall fall 
 down before Him ; all nations shall serve Him." 
 Only those can unmask these pretensions who 
 read the Scriptures diligently, and find that He 
 of whom this is written has this honor, which the 
 pope has never known : " For He shall deliver 
 the needy when he crieth ; the poor also, and 
 him that hath no helper. He shall spare the 
 poor and the needy and shall save the souls of 
 
THE MOCK MILLENNIUM. 157 
 
 the needy ; He shall redeem their souls from 
 deceit and violence, and precious shall their blood 
 be in His sight" (Psalm lxxii. 12-14). 
 
 Not merely the millennial reign, but the mil- 
 lennial splendors, have been snatched by the 
 faithless bride. Sober dress becomes the widow- 
 hood of the Church ; gaudy attire and jewelled 
 fingers convict her of wantoning with earthly 
 lovers ; majestic cathedrals, hoarding boundless 
 wealth and adorned with costly furniture, imply 
 that she has forgotten that here she has no con- 
 tinuing city, but that her citizenship is in heaven, 
 from whence she looks for her Lord. Cardinal 
 Newman, in defending these lavish splendors of 
 the papacy, declares that their presence "as little 
 proves that the Church is Antichrist as that any 
 king's court is Antichrist," and then cites the 
 following passages in their justification : " I will 
 lay thy stones with fair colors, and thy founda- 
 tions with sapphires, and I will make thy windows 
 of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy 
 borders of precious stones" "The glory of Leb- 
 anon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine 
 tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of 
 my sanctuary" 1 But this is only a piracy of 
 Messianic prophecies, all these texts being de- 
 scriptive of the age of glory yet to come. To 
 
 1 Essays, ii. 184. 
 
I5 8 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 quote them in this connection is simply to justify 
 our charge that the apostasy has ravished the 
 Church millennial to get building materials for 
 the Church militant. It should be soon enough 
 to walk on golden streets when the New Jerusa- 
 lem descends from heaven " as a Bride adorned 
 for her Husband ; " but the harlot must needs 
 seize the paving-stones of the Holy City to beau- 
 tify the streets of " that great city which is spir- 
 itually called Sodom and Egypt, where also our 
 Lord was crucified" (Rev. xi. 8). 
 
 Let it not be implied that we should be so shut 
 up to sackcloth and ashes in the dispensation 
 that now is, that we can have no happy glimpses 
 of that which is to follow. Most expressively 
 does the apostle, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, 
 speak of Christians as those who have " tasted the 
 powers of the age to come" (Heb. vi. 5). Fore- 
 tastes are graciously permitted, but immediate 
 and full appropriation is forbidden. " Be not con- 
 formed to this age, but be ye transfigured by the 
 renewing of your mind," says the Scripture. The 
 transfiguration was a prelibation of the age to 
 come ; the cup of glory tasted for a moment by 
 our Lord to strengthen Him to drink the cup of 
 His vicarious anguish. But it could be only a 
 taste as yet, not a complete fruition. Yet Simon 
 Peter, whose mistakes are always significant as 
 
THE MOCK MILLENNIUM. i59 
 
 foretypical of the permanent errors of his self- 
 styled successors, exclaims, "Let us make tJircc 
 tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and 
 one for Elias, not knowing what lie said" (Matt. 
 xvii. 4). As though a momentary visitation of 
 the coming glory could now be prolonged into a 
 residence ! As though this foretaste of the mil- 
 lennium could be made a permanent repast ! In 
 his epistles, however, the same apostle three 
 times speaks of " the sufferings of Christ and the 
 glory that should follow" showing how clearly 
 now the succession and characteristics of the ages 
 had been revealed to him by the Spirit. We are 
 still in the dispensation of Christ's sufferings ; 
 and if we have the patience of the waiting bride 
 we shall covet no richly adorned dwellings until 
 the dispensation of glory shall be ushered in and 
 the word of prophecy be fulfilled : " Behold the 
 tabernacle of God is with men " (Rev. xxi. 3). 
 
 Not only did the Church preempt the glories 
 of the age to come, but also its retributions. And 
 in this her presumption exceeded all bounds. 
 "Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the 
 world ? " asks the apostle. Well might the lowly 
 disciple of Christ be startled and staggered at 
 such a suggestion ! But it is only an illustration 
 of the reversals which will be effected at the set- 
 ting up of the kingdom of Christ. They whose 
 
l6o ECCE VENIT. 
 
 portion it was to stand before the judgment-seat 
 of kings will now sit in the judgment-seat with 
 the King of kings, "to execute upon them the 
 judgment written : This honor have all his saints " 
 (Ps. cxlix. 9). But this exercise of judicial honor 
 is limited most rigidly to the age to come. " Ye 
 which have followed me, in the regeneration" — 
 "in the renovation, TraAtyyeveo-ia, being the res- 
 toration of this world of ours on the appearance 
 of the new aeon" (Lange), — "when the Son of 
 man shall sit on the throne of His glory, ye also 
 shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve 
 tribes of Israel" (Matt. xix. 28). It is only in 
 association with the glorified Lord, present in the 
 body to judge men according to the deeds done 
 in the body, that this office can be exercised by 
 the redeemed. Therefore the Scripture is very 
 explicit, and saith : "Judge nothing before the 
 time until the Lord come" (1 Cor. iv. 5). 
 
 But see what the Church was left to do so 
 soon as she began to glorify herself and live deli- 
 ciously, and to commit fornication with the kings 
 of the earth. She snatched both the throne and 
 the sceptre of God, and began to deal out con- 
 demnation to His saints. The centuries of Anti- 
 christ's career have constituted one long judg- 
 ment day, in which justice has been outraged as 
 never before in the history of the ages ; one pro- 
 
THE MOCK MILLENNIUM. 161 
 
 longed assize, in which popes, and cardinals, and 
 bishops have sat in the bench with Chief Justice 
 Apollyon, and administered sentence according to 
 the statutes of the Prince of Darkness. 
 
 How visibly can the form of this black magis- 
 trate be seen behind this mock tribunal ; how 
 almost audibly does the chuckle of his infernal 
 laughter break forth over this monstrous parody 
 of the court of God which he has seduced the 
 apostate Church to set up ! With unfathomable 
 ingenuity he has opened, before the time, the 
 lake of fire to which he is doomed, and made a 
 channel for it from the apostate Church ; and thus 
 to the astonished " world-rulers of this darkness " 
 he has shown a lurid river of the water of death 
 proceeding out of the throne of the Beast and 
 the Harlot, with millions of Christ's true saints 
 writhing in its flames on account of the testi- 
 mony which they bore to the faith of Jesus : 
 fantastic cruelties burlesquing the calm justice 
 of God ; the throne of iniquity supplanting the 
 throne of grace, and impanelling the princes of 
 this world, who crucified the Lord of Glory, to 
 sit in judgment upon His faithful witnesses ! If 
 we knew of no other age than this, we might 
 verily believe that the Father of Lies had outwit- 
 ted the Father of Mercies. It was the contem- 
 plation of just what we are describing that is said 
 
1 62 ECCE VEN1T. 
 
 to have drawn forth from Voltaire the bitter re- 
 mark : " If this is the best the Almighty Author 
 can do, He deserves to be hissed rather than 
 worshiped." No, philosopher! and we may add, 
 no, theologian ! This is not the best that God 
 can do; this is not Christ's millennium: it is 
 Satan's mock millennium. For some inscruta- 
 ble reason, the Lord has permitted a demon- 
 stration to the principalities and powers in the 
 heavenly places of the worst which His arch- 
 enemy can do. Wait a little and the Lord shall 
 descend from heaven to usher in the real millen- 
 nium, the true Sabbatic consummation for which 
 the ages have sighed, and for which the whole 
 creation, until now, is groaning and travailing 
 in pain ; then our Immanuel will show us the 
 best He can do. 
 
 It is regretted that our Protestant Christianity, 
 in its separation from Rome, never passed en- 
 tirely out of the baleful shadow of this pseudo- 
 millennium. For many to this day confound the 
 Church with the kingdom, and apply the prom- 
 ises of the glory of the age to come to the 
 present triumphs of the gospel. God forbid that 
 in the slightest degree we should undervalue the 
 missionary and evangelical victories which have 
 so signally marked this century ; but if we are 
 tempted to predict the speedy conquest of the 
 
THE MOCK MILLENNIUM. 163 
 
 whole world to Christ through these successes, 
 we need to be admonished to speak according to 
 the Word. The present is the dispensation of 
 election ; the declared purpose of preaching the 
 gospel to the Gentiles in this age is, " to take out 
 of then? a people for His name" (Acts xv. 14), 
 and it is a premature grasping of the kingdom to 
 apply to this period those glorious predictions of 
 universal righteousness in the age to come, with 
 which Scripture abounds. If it be said that 
 this conception of preaching the gospel "for a 
 witness," and "to gather out," is a narrow and 
 disheartening one, we reply that it is in harmony 
 with the universal testimony of Scripture ; and 
 we shall be far safer and more successful to work 
 according to God's schedule of the ages than 
 according to man's time-table. Indeed, if we 
 would be intelligent laborers for Christ, we must 
 not fail to discriminate rigidly between the sphere 
 of the militant Church and the sphere of the 
 millennial Church. There is an ancient saying 
 of great significance : " Distinguite tempora et 
 concordat? mt scriptures:" "Distinguish the pe- 
 riods and the Scriptures will harmonize." Fail- 
 ure at this point has worked vast misconcep- 
 tion. The theories of Christ's paro??sia having 
 already occurred, of the resurrection already ac- 
 complished, and of judgment already going on 
 
1 64 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 in the unseen world, all rest upon that confusion 
 of the dispensations which makes " the world to 
 come" signify the present time or the disem- 
 bodied state. Here, again, is a premature snatch- 
 ing of the coming glory; and to effect it the 
 ages have been telescoped, and their distinguish- 
 ing events huddled together in one promiscuous 
 jumble. The result is, prophecy without perspec- 
 tive ; dispensations without distances intervening ; 
 the divine vision of things to come blended with 
 the present scene ; and the whole turned into a 
 Chinese picture, with all the objects in the fore- 
 ground. 
 
 Cross -bearing, patient endurance, diligent ser- 
 vice, — this is our present calling, while we ever 
 pray our absent Lord " that it may please Thee 
 shortly to accomplish the number of Thine elect 
 and to hasten Thy kingdom." Meanwhile we 
 are "to live soberly, righteously, and godly in 
 this present age" if by any means we may be 
 " counted worthy to obtain that age and the res- 
 urrection from the dead." 
 
VI. 
 
 THE ECLIPSE OF EIOPE. 
 
 It would be inevitable that, in the condition 
 of things described in the previous chapter, the 
 primitive hope of Christ's second coming in glory 
 should pass into utter eclipse. If the Messianic 
 reign had begun, and the kingdom had really 
 been set up, why should Christians longer look 
 for the Lord from heaven to establish His millen- 
 nial throne ? The cry, " Behold the kingdom ! " 
 now filled all mouths ; the lavish splendors of the 
 papal court dazzled all eyes ; and there was little 
 occasion for that other cry to be longer sounded, 
 — Behold, He cometh!" — the cry which was 
 first uttered by that " brother and companion in 
 tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of 
 Jesus Christ," and which was continued for two 
 hundred years by his faithful fellow - sufferers. 
 So it was that Satan's counterfeit drove the gen- 
 uine coin out of circulation, till the early advent 
 hope of the Church passed into almost complete 
 oblivion. 
 
 Harnack, in his masterly article on the Millen- 
 nium, shows that Augustine was the first theolo- 
 gian " to grasp and elaborate the idea that the 
 
166 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 Church is the kingdom of Christ and the city of 
 God ; . . . that the millennial kingdom had com- 
 menced with the appearing of Christ, and was, 
 therefore, an accomplished fact." And he adds 
 that, "by this doctrine of Augustine's, the old 
 millenarianism, though not completely extirpated, 
 was at least banished from the realm of the dog- 
 matic 1 
 
 Of course, as the papacy developed more and 
 more subsequent to Augustine's day, more and 
 more was the millennial hope of the Church ob- 
 scured. For that hope stands in direct antago- 
 nism to every principle of the Hierarchy. As a 
 learned writer has said : " It never pleased, but 
 always gave offense to, the Church of Rome, be- 
 cause it did not suit that scheme of Christianity 
 which they have drawn. The Apocalypse of John 
 supposed the true Church under hardships and 
 persecutions ; but the Church of Rome, suppos- 
 ing Christ reigns already by His vicar the pope, 
 hath been in prosperity and greatness, and the 
 commanding Church in Christendom for a long 
 
 1 The article, " Millennium," by Prof. Adolph Harnack, of 
 Berlin, to which we constantly refer in this chapter, is in the last 
 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. It is the ablest exhibi- 
 tion, in brief compass, of the primitive and historical claims of 
 pre-millenarianism, and of the causes of the Church's decline 
 therefrom, with which we are acquainted. 
 
THE ECLIPSE OF HOPE. 167 
 
 time. This has made the Church of Rome al- 
 ways have an ill eye upon this doctrine, because 
 it seemed to have an ill eye upon her; and, as 
 she grew in splendor and greatness, she eclipsed 
 and obscured it more and more, so that it would 
 have been lost out of the world as an obsolete 
 error if it had not been revived by some at the 
 Reformation." 1 
 
 It is most striking to observe how, as the apos- 
 tasy went on, not only the teaching on this sub- 
 ject ceased, but the symbols, and worship, and 
 ordinances of the Church became so changed as 
 to silence their testimony to Christ's second com- 
 ing, and to throw that doctrine into eclipse. 
 
 The seduction of the Church from its primitive 
 simplicity was accomplished mainly by these two 
 influences : pagan philosophy corrupting her doc- 
 trine, and pagan ceremonies corrupting her wor- 
 ship. Both of these were inherently hostile to 
 the chaste and artless Chiliasm of the apostolic 
 age. The primitive hope was intolerable to ra- 
 tional theology, because it could not be surveyed 
 and mapped out upon its logic charts. Hence, 
 no sooner had philosophy been installed in the 
 apostle's chair than it began to wage war upon 
 the apostle's doctrine. 
 
 As the Apocalypse was regarded as the strong- 
 
 1 Thomas Burnet, 163 5-1 700. 
 
1 68 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 hold of millenarianism, determined siege was 
 made against this book : its authority was ques- 
 tioned, its value discounted, till it was finally 
 driven from the canon ; and, so far as the Greek 
 Church was concerned, it was denied a place in 
 Holy Scripture for centuries, and consequently 
 " Chiliasm remained in its grave." 1 
 
 Nor was this the worst injury emanating from 
 this source. Pagan philosophy infused its own 
 notions of a future life into ecclesiastical theol- 
 ogy. It deftly substituted the Platonic doctrine 
 of the immortality of the soul for the Christian 
 doctrine of the resurrection of the body. In har- 
 mony with this change came in the notion of 
 judgment being administered immediately after 
 death in the disembodied state, instead of being 
 reserved till the coming: of the Lord and the 
 
 o 
 
 raising of the dead, — a conception as charac- 
 teristic of all heathen religions as it is foreign 
 
 1 Professor Harnack, avowing that millenarianism "was in 
 former times associated — to all appearance inseparably associ- 
 ated — with the gospel itself," adds that " it can only exist along 
 with the unsophisticated faith of the early Christians ; " that " the 
 millenarians of the ancient Church, just because they were mil- 
 lenarians, despised dogmatic in the sense of philosophic theol- 
 ogy." Professor Van Oosterzee also observes that there is an 
 irreconcilable " inner discrepancy between the modern theolog- 
 ical philosophy and the prophetic and apostolical Scriptures." 
 — Person and Work of the Redeemer, p. 450. 
 
THE ECLIPSE OF HOPE. 169 
 
 to the teaching of both the Old Testament and 
 the New. This eschatology of the under-world, 
 which even to this day so deeply colors our the- 
 ology, could not fail to make strongly against 
 the original advent faith of the Church. For it 
 changed the up-look of primitive Christianity to 
 the down-look of pagan mythology, by making 
 death the object of consideration instead of the 
 coming of Christ. This was the master-stroke of 
 Satanic art, — the substitution of death for life, 
 of mortality for resurrection, in the hopes of the 
 Church. It is a perversion so radical and subtle 
 that to this day many Christians are blinded by 
 it, so that they imagine that their dying means 
 the same thing as Christ's coming. Twin coun- 
 terfeits of paganism are these two ; ritualism cor- 
 rupting the liturgy of the Church with demon- 
 worship, and Platonism corrupting the eschatol- 
 ogy of the Church with death-worship. Instead 
 of the expectation being fixed upon Christ's ad- 
 vent, it became fixed upon the soul's exit ; death 
 was glorified into a good angel ; and thus mor- 
 tality, Satan's masterpiece, supplanted resurrec- 
 tion, Christ's masterpiece, and the " Terrible 
 Captain Sepulchre and his Standard-bearer Cor- 
 ruption " were crowned and throned in the place 
 of the Coming Christ, who is " the Resurrection 
 and the Life." In the gospel, death is made 
 
170 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 neither the terminus ad quern nor the terminus a 
 quo ; that towards which we look for the consum- 
 mation of our hopes, or from which we enter upon 
 our complete sanctification and final perfection. 
 " Not that we would be unclothed, but clothed 
 upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of 
 life," is the inspired confession of the believer. 
 And nothing will so completely quench the can- 
 dle of our true hope as the opposite idea that 
 death is the supreme deliverer to be waited for. 
 
 The ceremonies which gradually grew up in 
 the Church tended to the same result. For as 
 worship more and more took the place of the 
 Word in the Christian assembly, the contem- 
 plation was withdrawn from the glories of the 
 age to come. Purgatory was substituted for 
 Paradise ; masses for the disembodied souls in 
 the former supplanted scriptural exhortations to 
 the attainment of the rewards and glories of the. 
 latter. The lamp of prophecy, which the Lord 
 left in the hands of his waiting Bride, had at last 
 been exchanged for the tapers of heathenism. 
 "We almost see the ceremonial of the Gentiles 
 introduced into the Church under pretense of re- 
 ligion," exclaims Jerome, "piles of candles lighted 
 while yet the sun is shining. Great honor do 
 such persons render to the blessed martyrs, think- 
 ing with miserable tapers to illuminate those 
 
THE ECLIPSE OF HOPE. 171 
 
 whom the Lamb in the midst of the throne shines 
 upon with the splendor of His majesty." x It will 
 be seen from this saying which way the candle 
 of paganism throws its beams, as compared with 
 the true light which Christ gave to His Church. 
 "We have also a more sure word of prophecy," 
 writes Peter, "whereunto ye do well that ye take 
 heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, 
 until the day dawn and the day-star arise in your 
 hearts." Here is the lamp which amid earth's 
 night was to shed its rays far on towards the 
 coming King, to meet and mingle with the light 
 of His returning glory, " until the day break and 
 the shadows flee away." What a blow was it to 
 the bridal hopes of the Church when ceremony 
 took the place of scriptural preaching and expo- 
 sition in the assemblies of Christians ! 
 
 Observe the same suppression of primitive 
 .teaching in the Christian ordinances. Baptism, 
 as instituted by our Lord, bore graphic witness 
 to the first resurrection, and hence at every ad- 
 ministration it uttered a visible " Behold he com- 
 eth ! " Hear the apostolic exposition of this 
 ordinance : " Know ye not that so many of us as 
 were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized 
 into His death ? Therefore we are buried with 
 Him by baptism into death, that like as Christ 
 
 1 Adv. Vigilantium, c. ii. 
 
172 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 was raised up from the dead by the glory of the 
 Father, even so we also should walk in newness of 
 life (Rom. vi. 4) : a text which shows, says Canon 
 Westcott, that the very entrance of the primitive 
 Christians into the Church "was apprehended 
 under the form of a resurrection." But as the 
 rite became mutilated in the Western Church, 
 the tongue with which it once proclaimed our 
 advent hope was plucked out, and its testimony 
 silenced, so that, as now widely practiced, the 
 ordinance gives no suggestion of resurrection. 1 
 
 The Lord's Supper, also, was not only robbed 
 of its millennial witness, but made to express a 
 completely contrary idea. For gradually the doc- 
 trine of "the real presence" became associated 
 with the communion. Originally the eucharist 
 
 1 Dean Stanley declares that the change from the primitive 
 form of immersion to sprinkling has " set aside the larger part 
 of the apostolic language regarding baptism, and altered the very 
 meaning thereof'' [Essay on Baptism). Dean Goulburn, regret- 
 ting that immersion, which is the rule of his church, has been 
 discontinued, says that, were it still practiced, '" The water clos- 
 ing over the entire person would then preach of the grave which 
 yawns for every child of Adam, and which one day will engu'f 
 us all in its drear abyss. But that abyss will be the womb and 
 seed-plot of a new life. Animation having been for one instant 
 suspended beneath the water, — a type this of the interruption of 
 man's energies by death, — the body is lifted up again into the 
 air by way of expressing emblematically the new birth of resur- 
 rection." — Bampton Lechtres, 1850, Oxford Edition, p. 18. 
 
THE ECLIPSE OF HOPE. 173 
 
 proclaimed the real absence of the Lord. — " This 
 do in remembrance of Me" was its voice. We do 
 not remember a present friend, but one who is 
 absent. " For as often as ye eat this bread and 
 drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death until 
 He come." — We do not wait the coming of one 
 who is with us, but of one who is away from us. 
 The Jews to this day keep a vacant seat for Eli- 
 jah at their paschal meal, remembering the word 
 of the Lord, "Behold I will send you Elijah the 
 prophet before the coming of the great and dread- 
 ful day of the Lord," thus making the feast an- 
 ticipative as well as commemorative. And while 
 the Bridegroom tarries, there is ever a vacant seat 
 at the Lord's table, left empty for the Lord Him- 
 self, who distinctly said at the beginning that He 
 would not henceforth participate in the cup with 
 His disciples till He should drink it new with 
 them in the Father's kingdom. Of course, in the 
 person of the unseen Holy Spirit, Christ is ever 
 with His Church. But visibly and corporeally 
 He is not present ; and the communion was or- 
 dained to proclaim this fact through all the in- 
 terim from His departure to His return. Alas ! 
 it was a sad blow to the Church's advent hope 
 when these two sacramental witnesses to our 
 Lord's return were brought into a conspiracy of 
 silence concerning that blessed event, while one 
 
174 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 of them was made to bear false testimony, pro- 
 claiming a literal presence of the Lord in body 
 and blood, thus hushing into silence the " until 
 He come" which the ordinance was originally 
 commissioned to utter. 
 
 Thus was Christ's prophecy literally fulfilled : 
 " While the Bridegroom tarried they all slumbered 
 and slept" And it was fulfilled exactly as the 
 language signifies. For the word translated 
 " slumbered " is vvard^w, to nod. At first there 
 were faithful witnesses, such as Nepos, Methodius, 
 Apollinaris, and Lactantius, who sought to rouse 
 the lethargic Church, but there was only a mo- 
 mentary awakening, followed by a deeper relapse 
 into slumber. The Church drowsed and nodded, 
 then fell into a profound sleep ; and during the 
 long period of the Dark Ages the advent faith dis- 
 appeared. Not utterly, indeed, for in Harnack's 
 expressive phrase, " It still lived on in the lower 
 strata of Christian society ; and in certain under- 
 currents of tradition it was transmitted from 
 century to century." That is, while the harlot 
 Church, including the great body of nominal 
 Christians, became completely dead to this truth, 
 the true Bride, the woman in the wilderness, 
 obscure, despised, and persecuted, still cherished 
 it in secret. Hence all through the ages we find 
 glimmering rays from the Virgin's lamp falling 
 
THE ECLIPSE OE HOPE. 175 
 
 here and there in the surrounding darkness. The 
 Waldensian candlestick, with its motto, " Lux in 
 tenebris" threw stray beams of advent light into 
 the encircling gloom. Read the following from 
 the Noble Lesson, a famous treatise originating 
 in that body about a. d. 1200 : " O brethren, hear 
 a noble lesson : we ought often to watch and be 
 in prayer ; for we see that this world is near its 
 fall. We ought to be very careful to do good 
 works, for we see that the end of the world is 
 approaching." 
 
 That other band of sackcloth witnesses, the 
 Paulicians, gave similar testimony. For while 
 the great body of Christendom had settled down 
 into a contented earthly citizenship, these hunted 
 and hated Protestants saluted each other as 
 crvveKSrjfxoc, — " Fellow-exiles ; " and while the blind 
 virgin - worshipers adored the Mother of God, 
 these spoke of the Jerusalem above, the Mother 
 of us all, as that from whence Christ, the " Fore- 
 runner, having for us entered," would surely 
 come again. Even from within the Catholic 
 communion came stray testimonies, like that of 
 Bernard of Cluny in the twelfth century : — 
 
 " The world is very evil. 
 
 The times are waxing late. 
 Be sober and keep vigil. 
 The Judge is at the gate." 
 
176 ECCE V EN-IT. 
 
 But these were only broken rays, feeble heart- 
 reflections from those who had kept sight of 
 "The Bright and Morning Star," in the mid- 
 night of the Church's apostasy. We do not for- 
 get that there were powerful outbreaks of expec- 
 tation of Christ's return, like that which marked 
 the dawn of the thousandth year of the Christian 
 era. But the conception which characterized 
 these was that of a Judge coming in terror, not 
 of a Bridegroom returning to bring joy to his 
 waiting Bride. The patience of hope revived 
 only in a panic of fear. The forebodings of this 
 period having passed, Christendom relapsed once 
 more into profound slumber concerning her prirrh 
 itive hope, — a slumber disturbed only here and 
 there by the dreams of those whom she counted 
 visionaries and fanatics. So it continued till the 
 dawn of the Reformation. 
 
PART III. 
 FULFILLED. 
 
" With the Lord's second advent will begin the real reign of 
 God upon earth — a kingdom of righteousness, holiness, and peace, 
 consisting of saints, with exemption from the Evil One and his 
 enticements, and under a mighty influence of celestial power. It 
 is called the reign of a thousand years. Modern times have again 
 paid attention to this hcttine of the Millet nium, thus coinciding 
 with the ancient Fathers. It is resounding, as it were, a new call : 
 ' The Lo7'd cometh ! ' Among believers, this doctrine, far removed 
 from carnal conceptions, should no more be considered an error." 
 — John Frederick Meyer. 
 
HOPE REVIVED. 
 
 The Reformation was virtually a republication 
 of the gospel ; it was the Christian era begin- 
 ning anew, and repeating in substance the primi- 
 tive features of the religion of Jesus. 
 
 The historical school of interpreters have found 
 in the tenth chapter of Revelation a graphic and 
 powerful prefigurement of this event : " And I 
 saw another mighty angel come down from heaven 
 clothed with a cloud ; and a rainbow was upon 
 his head, and his face was as it were the sun, 
 and his feet as pillars of fire ; and he had in his 
 hand a little book open." From the description 
 of this mighty angel we can hardly fail to iden- 
 tify him with the glorified Christ, the Angel of 
 the Covenant, as already pictured in this book 
 (i. 13-16). There is the same countenance "as 
 of the sun shining in his strength," the same 
 mighty voice, and the same burning feet. The 
 conception seems to be that of Christ appear- 
 ing in history to reaffirm His testament. But 
 that which identifies this representation most 
 certainly to our mind is its likeness to a similar 
 scene in the Old Testament, a point hitherto 
 
180 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 overlooked, so far as we are aware. For the keys 
 to the Revelation are generally found in the Bible 
 itself, events of its history being so paralleled or 
 reproduced in the Apocalyptic imagery as to ren- 
 der the meaning apparent. 
 
 Now the scene of the second giving of the law, 
 as described in Exodus, seems to be substantially 
 rehearsed in this chapter of the Apocalypse in 
 order to figure the second giving of the gospel. 
 The circumstances were identical. As the tables 
 of the law had been destroyed on account of the 
 idolatry of Israel, so now the statutes of the gos- 
 pel had been annulled by the gross idolatry of the 
 papacy. But, God having commanded Moses to 
 hew two tables of stone, like unto the first that 
 were broken, the servant of God stands upon 
 Mount Sinai holding the tables in his hand. 
 "And the Lord descended in the cloud" (Ex. 
 xxxiv. 5). So in the second giving of the gos- 
 pel we behold " a mighty angel come down from 
 heaven clothed with a cloud." There is the same 
 " proclaiming " with a loud voice in either in- 
 stance. "The pillars of fire" to which the an- 
 gel's feet are likened complete the identification, 
 so that we have the pillar and the cloud in both 
 scenes. "Behold I make a covenant before all 
 thy people," says Jehovah on the mountain-top. 
 In the Apocalypse this renewed covenant is 
 
HOPE REVIVED. 
 
 graphically symbolized by the bow overarching 
 the angel : "And the rainbow was tipon his head." 
 Moses, with the two tables of testimony in his 
 hand received anew from Jehovah, and the one 
 addressed in the Apocalypse with " the little book 
 open" received from the hand of the angel, — this 
 completes the parallel. And if we may conclude, 
 with many commentators, that the " little book 
 open " is the gospel restored after its long sup- 
 pression by the idolatrous Church, then the veri- 
 similitude is most striking between the resto- 
 ration of the law and the restoration of the 
 gospel. 
 
 How such truths as justification by faith blazed 
 out anew from the reopened Testament at the 
 Reformation is well known ; and the long-lost 
 doctrine of Christ's glorious appearing as the 
 hope of the Church could not fail in like manner 
 to be revived so soon as the Scriptures were un- 
 chained. We do not say that primitive Chiliasm 
 was restored in its entireness to the creed of 
 the Reformed Church. Attention was so much 
 occupied with the saving truths of the gospel 
 that its sanctifying hopes were not duly empha- 
 sized. Beside there were gross and repulsive 
 caricatures of ancient millenarianism appearing 
 here and there to create revulsion from the true. 
 Satan's tares were not only sown in Christ's 
 
ECCE VENIT. 
 
 newly-ploughed field, but they were so rank and 
 forward in their growth as to forestall attention, 
 and prevent the real wheat from being recognized 
 when it should appear. But this fact is very 
 noticeable, that, as the features of Antichrist be- 
 gan to be descried in the papacy by the Re- 
 formers, the mind inevitably went forward to 
 Him who was to destroy this Man of Sin "by 
 the brightness of His coming." So ripe w T as the 
 apostasy, so near seemed the epiphany ; so devel- 
 oped was Antichrist, so imminent seemed the 
 coming of Christ. Clear and intelligent were the 
 voices that began to break forth from among 
 the disenthralled subjects of the pontiff. " The 
 world, without doubt, — this I do believe, and 
 therefore say it, — draws to a close. Let us, 
 with John, the servant of God, say in our hearts 
 to our Saviour Christ : Come, Lord Jesus, 
 come." 1 So spoke Ridley in 1554; and his 
 fellow-martyr for the truth, Cranmer, said like- 
 wise : "We ask that His kingdom come, for that 
 as yet we see not all things put under Jesus' 
 Christ. . . . As yet Antichrist is not slain. 
 Whence it is, we desire and pray, that at length 
 it may come to pass and be fulfilled ; and that 
 Christ alone may reign with His saints, accord- 
 ing to the divine promise, and live and have 
 
 1 Lamentation for the Change of Religion. 
 
HOPE REVIVED. 1 83 
 
 dominion in the world according to the decrees 
 of the Holy Gospel, and not according to the 
 traditions and laws of men, and the will of the 
 tyrants of this world." 1 And Hugh Latimer 
 spoke to the same intent : " Let us therefore have 
 a desire that this day may come quickly ; let us 
 hasten God forward ; let us cry unto Him day 
 and night, * Most merciful Father, Thy kingdom 
 come.' St. Paul says: 'The Lord will not come 
 till the swerving from the faith cometh ' (2 Thess. 
 ii. 3), which thing is already done and past. 
 Antichrist is already known throughout all the 
 world : wherefore the day is not far off. Let us 
 observe, for it will one day fall on our heads." 2 
 
 These are testimonies which gleam with the 
 light of martyr-fires already kindling upon their 
 confessors, — fires which were sent to purify that 
 hope which is itself the purifier of the saints. 
 As an old coin stamped with the image of some 
 forgotten king, but so worn by use that the royal 
 countenance has disappeared, yet being subjected 
 to a powerful heat gives back the obliterated face 
 again to the beholder, so the image and super- 
 scription of the coming Christ, our advent Re- 
 deemer, long effaced from the gospel by idolatry 
 and vain philosophy, reemerged in the martyr-fires 
 
 1 Catechism of Edward VI., fJSS- 
 
 2 Sermons on the Lord's Prayer, 
 
184 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 of the Reformation ; and once more men read 
 and repeated the words thereon : " Behold, I 
 come quickly." 
 
 As to the other reformers, Martensen, the emi- 
 nent Danish theologian, has expressed his regret 
 that when Luther and his coadjutors, under God, 
 set their hands to recover the primitive faith, 
 they should not have restored apostolic mille- 
 narianism, and given it a place in the reformed 
 creed. But Luther did not reject it, though this 
 has been alleged. " The Jewish opinions " so 
 pointedly condemned in the Augsburg Confession, 
 which he assisted in drafting, really had reference 
 to the notion of a millennium in the flesh, or the 
 setting up of the kingdom of God in this present 
 evil age and before the advent. Some extreme 
 Anabaptists had exhibited this travesty of a 
 sacred truth, and in carrying out the idea had 
 stirred up sedition and brought scandal upon the 
 Protestant movement. At these the disavowal 
 was aimed. 1 The article in question really con- 
 demns the post-millenarianism now so greatly 
 in vogue among us. It reads : " They condemn 
 
 1 "And as at the time, among other calumnies, this blame was 
 also cast upon us, as if the gospel taught and encouraged rebel- 
 lion and undutifulness toward authorities, we had, by these words 
 of the Confession, to free ourselves of such imputations." — Me- 
 hincthott's Works, vol. xxvi., p. 366. 
 
HOPE REVIVED. 185 
 
 others also, which spread abroad Jewish opinions, 
 that before the resurrection of the dead, the godly 
 shall get the sovereignty in the world, and the 
 wicked be brought under in every place." That 
 the godly will not get the sovereignty of the 
 world, and subdue the wicked before the resur- 
 rection at Christ's coming, is what true Chiliasm 
 has always avowed. 
 
 How strongly the principal reformers empha- 
 sized this view, as against the notion of world- 
 conversion and regeneration before the advent, 
 now so widely accepted among religious teach- 
 ers, will appear from two or three quotations. 
 "Some say," writes Luther, "that before the 
 latter day the whole world shall become Chris- 
 tians. This is a falsehood forged by Satan that 
 he might darken sound doctrine. Beware, there- 
 fore, of this delusion." * And John Knox, the 
 intrepid Scotch reformer, likewise declares : " To 
 reform the whole earth, which never was, nor 
 yet shall be, till that righteous King and Judge 
 appear for the restoration of all things." 2 Of the 
 unfitness of the conception of the kingdom ap- 
 pearing before the King, of the triumph of the 
 saints before the triumph of the Saviour, John 
 Calvin thus speaks : " Christ is our Head, whose 
 kingdom and glory have not yet appeared. If 
 
 1 Com. on Jo/m,x, n-16. 2 Treatise on Fasting, 
 
86 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 the members were to go before the Head, the 
 order of things would be inverted and preposter- 
 ous ; but we shall follow our Prince then when 
 He shall come in the glory of His Father and sit 
 upon the throne of His majesty." 1 These selec- 
 tions sufficiently indicate how strongly the nega- 
 tive aspects of Chiliasm were maintained by the 
 Reformers. When we hear their positive avow- 
 als of the certainty and imminence of the Lord's 
 second advent, their position becomes even more 
 clearly defined. Hear Knox in his letter to the 
 faithful in London, in 1554 : " Has not the Lord 
 Jesus, in spite of Satan's malice, carried up our 
 flesh into heaven ? And shall He not return ? 
 We know that He shall return, and that with ex- 
 pedition." Luther in his weariness of the Refor- 
 mation battle, cries out affectingly : " There is no 
 more help or counsel upon earth except in the 
 last day. I hope, too, that it will not be much 
 longer before it comes ; I believe that the gospel 
 will become so despised that the last day cannot 
 be far off, not over a hundred years. God's Word 
 will again wax less and fall off, and great dark- 
 ness will come for want of true and faithful min- 
 isters of the Word. Then will the whole world 
 run wild, sensual, and live in all security without 
 reflecting. Then shall the voice come and sound, 
 
 Psychopannychia } p. 551 
 
HOPE REVIVED. 187 
 
 'Behold, the Bridegroom cometh,' for God will 
 not be able longer to endure it." 1 
 
 If the excesses of certain Anabaptists preju- 
 diced Luther and his associates so that they did 
 not give millenarianism that recognition in the 
 reformed theology which it deserved, the fidelity 
 of others of this sect — "many of whom," says 
 Harnack, "need not shun comparison with the 
 Christians of the apostolic and post -apostolic 
 ages " — had much to do with keeping it alive in 
 Christendom. This, Harnack distinctly recog- 
 nizes, declaring that, while the Reformers fol- 
 lowed too much the teachings on this subject 
 which had prevailed in the Catholic Church since 
 the time of Augustine, "millenarianism neverthe- 
 less found its way, with the help of Apocalyptic 
 mysticism and Anabaptist influences, into the 
 churches of the Reformation, chiefly among the 
 reformed sects, but afterwards also into the Lu- 
 theran Church." Of these reformed sects we can 
 only speak briefly. The lineal descendants of the 
 Anabaptists — John Bunyan's spiritual kinsmen 
 and fellow - sufferers in England — presented a 
 confession to Charles II. which embodies "the 
 purest early Patristic millenarian doctrine of any 
 creed in modern times." There were apostolic 
 names among the more than twenty thousand 
 
 J Table Talk, 
 
1 88 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 Baptists who, in giving their adhesion to this 
 document, declare : " We are not only resolved to 
 suffer persecution to the loss of our goods, but 
 also life itself, rather than decline from the same." 
 The confession contains a touching avowal of the 
 pilgrim condition of Christ's disciples until His 
 advent, on which event their hopes are placed : 
 " Though now, alas ! many men be scarce content 
 that the saints should have so much as a being 
 among them, but when Christ shall appear, then 
 shall be their day : then shall be given them power 
 over the natio?ts to rule them with a rod of iron ; 
 then shall they receive a crown of life which no 
 man taketh from them." If the Westminster Con- 
 fession was less explicit so far as giving any formal 
 expression of Chiliasm, it at least sets the hope 
 of our Lord's ever imminent return into conspic- 
 uous prominence, declaring : " Christ will have 
 that day unknown to men, that they may shake 
 off all carnal security and be always watchful, 
 because they know not at what hour the Lord 
 will come." With the Evangelical party in the 
 Episcopal Church this has been so strong a con- 
 viction and article of faith as to render them its 
 most conspicuous champions in modern times. 
 
 Among the fathers of Congregationalism, es- 
 pecially those who planted the gospel in Amer- 
 ica, the ancient doctrine was strongly held and 
 
HOPE REVIVED. 189 
 
 ardently preached. New England theology was 
 in the beginning as deeply colored with millena- 
 rian hopes as primitive Christianity itself. The 
 Mathers, who preached in the city in which we 
 write, and whose sepulchres are with us to this 
 day, were bold confessors of apostolic Chiliasm ; 
 and considering how strongly other eminent men 
 of their day echoed their sentiments, Davenport, 
 Spaulding, and Walley, we must conclude that 
 this precious faith had found another blooming 
 period in connection with this eventful planting 
 of the gospel. But, alas ! as in the beginning 
 this doctrine was wrecked on the philosophy of 
 Augustine, so now it disappeared before the 
 mighty logic of Jonathan Edwards. For, in his 
 " History of Redemption," though he speaks 
 clearly of the literal advent and resurrection, the 
 millennial hope of God's Church is so spiritual- 
 ized and attenuated as to be utterly unrecogniz- 
 able ; and from his day the Church, of which he 
 was so eminent a light, has drifted more and more 
 toward that post-millenarianism which may have 
 had not a little influence in producing the baleful 
 fruits of eschatology now ripening among us. 
 
 All that we can give in our brief space is only 
 the merest outline of the renaissance of millena- 
 rianism. The clearest traces of the revived hope 
 of the Church, however, appear in the noble line 
 
19° ECCE VENIT. 
 
 of Apocalyptic expositors — a true apostolic suc- 
 cession — beginning with Joseph Mede, born in 
 the same half century in which Luther died, 
 and coming down to Elliott in our own century. 
 Their way is like the path of the just that shin- 
 eth more and more unto the perfect day ; in their 
 hands the prophet's lamp glows with ever-bright- 
 ening beam towards the millennial dawn. In- 
 deed, whenever men have turned from dogmatics 
 to Scripture, a revival of millennial views has 
 been inevitable. So it was that when the great 
 evangelical exegete Bengel appeared, and began 
 to unchain the Word of God and allow it to speak 
 for itself, such an impulse was given to advent 
 truth that, according to Hengstenberg, " Chiliasm 
 obtained an almost universal diffusion through 
 the Church." 1 And yet, as ever, there were 
 many adversaries. Of Bengel, Dorner says : " His 
 works were the first cock -crowing of the new 
 kind of exegesis the Church so greatly needed. ,, 
 But before the cock - crowing was fairly heard, 
 the advent faith was thrice denied by the incred- 
 ulous question : " Where is the sign of His com- 
 
 
 1 " To whom else do we owe it that the Orthodox Church of 
 the present time does not brand the Chiliastic view of the last 
 times as a heterodoxy, as is done in almost all the manuals of 
 dogmatics, so that there is scarcely a believing Christian now 
 who does not take this view ? " — Delitzsch. 
 
 
HOPE REVIVED. 191 
 
 ing?" For in the same century with Bengel 
 wrote Whity the Arian, the author of that " New 
 Hypothesis " in eschatology called post - millen- 
 nialism, which now rules so largely in the theo- 
 logical schools of this country, — a spiritualizing 
 system whose ultimate tendency has been to ob- 
 scure the doctrine of a literal advent, a literal 
 resurrection, and a literal kingdom, and to put far 
 off the day of the Lord. Just as Judaizing con- 
 ceptions brought the doctrine of the millennium 
 into disrepute in the early ages by carnalizing it, 
 so this interpretation has tended to discount it in 
 our times by spiritualizing it. Once more, how- 
 ever, has come a reaction towards the ancient 
 teaching. For in our own generation has been 
 witnessed such a flaming-up of the torch of prim- 
 itive adventism as has not been known since the 
 first century. The learned exegete and the hum- 
 ble Bible - reader — the one searching with the 
 critical eye of scholarship, and the other with the 
 single eye of faith — have reached the same con- 
 clusion, and joined to sound out together the cry, 
 "Behold, He cometh ! " What eminent exposi- 
 tors are to-day standing forth to give their bold 
 adhesion to this much-maligned doctrine ! What 
 eloquent preachers have risen up to sound out 
 the cry, "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh!" 
 What ardent evangelists are going through the 
 
192 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 land bearing in their hands the relighted lamp of 
 prophecy, opening and alleging that " this same 
 Jesus, who was received up into heaven, shall so 
 come in like manner as He went up ! " What 
 gifted poets have tuned their lyres to this exalted 
 theme, so that now, " with their garlands and 
 singing - robes about them," they are heralding 
 with Milton, their choir-leader, "the eternal and 
 shortly expected King 1 ' " What crowded assem- 
 blies are gathering for conference and mutual 
 encouragement concerning this lofty theme ! All 
 these things constitute an undisputed sign of that 
 greater sign, " the sign of the Son of man in 
 heaven," coming to heed at last the sigh of 
 groaning and travailing creation, to renew the 
 face of the earth, that it may be to the Lord 
 "for a name, for an everlasting sign, that shall 
 not be cut off." 
 
II. 
 
 FOREGLEAMS OF THE DAY. 
 
 " Eudia ! " " Fair weather ! " Such is the excla- 
 mation which our Lord puts into the mouth of the 
 watchers of the evening-red upon the western 
 horizon ; and then He chides His hearers that, 
 discerning the face of the sky, they cannot dis- 
 cern the signs of the times (Matt. xvi. 2, 3). After 
 the long, wild storm of the ages, the " hail and 
 fire mingled with blood " devastating the earth, is 
 it strange that we should watch eagerly for the 
 tokens of the fair day of God which the coming 
 of the Son of man shall usher in ? Some say 
 that signs are not for the Church, since she is 
 heavenly, and has her home on high. But just 
 for that reason they are for the Church, for the 
 "strangers and pilgrims on the earth" who " de- 
 sire a better country, even a heavenly." 
 
 The budding fig-tree is certainly a token for 
 us, — a Jewish sign for the Christian Church ; 
 and if, as we believe, this phenomenon is now 
 appearing, it should be to the waiting Bride of 
 Immanuel as the song of her Beloved, " Rise up, 
 my love, my fair one, and come away : for, lo ! the 
 winter is past, the rain is over and gone ; the 
 
94 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 "flowers appear on the earth ; the time of the 
 singing of birds is come, and the voice of the 
 turtle is heard in the land. The fig tree putteth 
 forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender 
 grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair 
 one, and come away." The cursing of the fig 
 tree we believe, with many expositors, to be an 
 enacted parable. If our Lord had pointed to the 
 green and spreading branches and said, " This is 
 Israel," His meaning had hardly been plainer. 
 " Leaves only," — abundant professions, luxuriant 
 outward religious display, — such was the char- 
 acter of the Hebrew Church as it appeared to the 
 Saviour's eyes. "And he said unto it, Let no 
 fruit grow on thee henceforward forever ; and 
 presently the fig tree withered away " (Matt. 
 xxi. 19). Yet not forever. Why not translate 
 the words literally, ek rbv aiuva, "for the age " ? 
 Then, in miniature symbol, we have the magni- 
 fied fact to which the centuries have been bear- 
 ing solemn witness, namely, that for the entire 
 age, for the whole dispensation following their 
 rejection of Christ, the Jewish people would be 
 dry, and unfruitful, and dead. 
 
 But subsequently we hear our Lord saying : 
 " Now from the fig tree learn her parable ; while 
 her branch is now become tender and putteth 
 forth leaves, ye know that the summer is nigh." 
 
FORE GLEAMS OF THE DAY. 195 
 
 " As in its judicial unfruitfulness it emblematized 
 the Jewish people, so here the putting forth of 
 the fig tree from its winter dryness symbolizes 
 the future reviviscence of that race which the Lord 
 declares shall not pass away till all be fulfilled " 
 (Alford, Matt. xxiv. 33). As the blight and barren- 
 ness were for the age, so the budding and bloom- 
 ing will be a joyful sign of the termination of the 
 age. Thus our Lord has given one answer to 
 the question with which this chapter opens : 
 "What shall be the sign of Thy coming and of 
 the end of the age ? " 
 
 Are there any swelling buds of promise now 
 visible on the long-withered Jewish stock ? We 
 name these, whose presence only the densest 
 prejudice can fail to recognize as significant : 
 The civil emancipation of Israel during the pres- 
 ent century where in all lands she has been op- 
 pressed, as though the word of the Lord were 
 already fulfilling, " Loose thyself from the bands 
 of thy neck, oh, captive daughter of Zion ; " the 
 tide of emigration setting toward Palestine, accel- 
 erated of late by the persecutions in many coun- 
 tries, as though the Israelites were being driven 
 out in order to be driven home ; the extraordinary 
 conquests of the gospel in later years among this 
 people, so that it is estimated that more Jews 
 have been converted to Christianity in the nine- 
 
ig6 ECCE VEN1T. 
 
 teenth century than during the whole period of 
 the Christian era ; and last, the wonderful Christ- 
 believing movement headed by Joseph Rabin- 
 owitch of Russia — a movement within the Jew- 
 ish Church for confessing Jesus as the Messiah — 
 having this for its watchword : " The key of the 
 Holy Land lies in the hand of our brother Jesus." 
 This remarkable revival, though but five years in 
 progress, is said to have already won to itself 
 some fifty thousand adherents ; and Professor 
 Delitzsch, the eminent Hebraist, having studied it 
 in the light of the prophetic Scriptures, expresses 
 the conviction that it " marks the beginning of 
 the end;" and with him several thoughtful Jew- 
 ish Christians join in publishing their judgment, 
 that "this movement may develop into the prom- 
 ised restoration of Israel." 
 
 The world-wide proclamation of the gospel is 
 also a significant token of the approaching end 
 of the age. " And this gospel of the kingdom," 
 our Lord declares, " shall be preached in all the 
 world for a witness unto all nations, and then 
 shall come the end." Prophecy unfolds itself in 
 concentric circles of fulfillment, each circle tak- 
 ing in a wider sweep of history than its prede- 
 cessor, till the whole circumference of the divine 
 prediction has been filled up. This principle is 
 illustrated in the Saviour's saying : " Verily, I 
 
FORE GLEAMS OF THE BAY. 197 
 
 say unto you, This generation shall not pass away 
 till all be fulfilled " (Matt. xxiv. 34). The gen- 
 eration then living did not pass away until the 
 destruction of Jerusalem, — that ending of the 
 Jewish age which was a vivid foretype of the 
 greater event, the termination of the Christian 
 age ; but the generation in its larger sense — 
 the Hebrew race — survived that catastrophe, 
 and still endures, as a standing memorial of the 
 truth of this saying of our Lord ; its budding 
 and revival to be the sure foretoken of the end 
 of this dispensation, as its cursing and withering 
 were of the end of the former. We may draw a 
 figure at this point from a beautiful expression in 
 Paul's sermon on Mars Hill, where, according to 
 the original, he says that God hath " Jwrizoncd 
 the times appointed." 1 In prophecy there are 
 
 1 It is evident, comparing St. Luke with the other synoptists, 
 that Jesus turned the thoughts of the disciples to two horizons, 
 one near and one far off, as He suffered them to see one brief 
 glimpse of the landscape of the future. The boundary line of 
 either horizon marked the winding up of a ceon< the avureXeia 
 amvos ; each was a great TeAoy, or ending ; of each it was true 
 that the then existing ytvea — first in its literal sense of "gener- 
 ation," then in its wider sense of " race " — should not pass away 
 till all had been fulfilled. And the one was the type of the 
 other : the judgment upon Jerusalem, followed by the establish- 
 ment of the visible Church upon earth, foreshadowed the judg- 
 ment of the world and the establishment of Christ's kingdom at 
 His second coming. — Farrar's Life of Christ, ii. 259. 
 
ECCE VENIT. 
 
 near and distant horizons, their outline so blend- 
 ing to the eye that they can with difficulty be 
 distinguished. Thus do the bounds of the suc- 
 cessive ages mingle in the outlook of the future ; 
 and, in our Lord's great eschatological discourse, 
 so complete is the mingling that it is quite im- 
 possible entirely to separate them. Keep in mind 
 this fact in interpreting our Saviour's prophecy 
 of the preaching of the gospel among all nations. 
 It was fulfilled within the narrower circle of the 
 Roman world, before the fall of the Jewish city 
 and the termination of the Hebrew economy. 
 Paul, writing to the Colossians, speaks of " the 
 gospel which is come unto you, as it is in all the 
 world" and again, of "the hope of the gospel 
 which ye have heard, and which was preacJied 
 tinto every creature which is under heaven " (Col. 
 i. 6, 23). The inner circle of this prediction was 
 thus filled up ; and now we wait for the outer 
 circumference to be reached, when, in the largest 
 sense, "all nations " shall be visited by the gos- 
 pel, that the end of this dispensation may come. 
 Need it be said that our own generation, and 
 especially our own century, is witnessing the un- 
 questionable marks of the fulfillment of this pre- 
 diction ? The century opened with almost every 
 heathen country in gross darkness concerning 
 the gospel ; it is about to close with every nation 
 
FOREGLEAMS OF THE DAY. 199 
 
 holding up luminous points of evangelized do- 
 main to witness to God that it has received the 
 witness of God in the gospel of His Son. 
 
 The closing words of Daniel contain another 
 sign for us: "But the wise shall understand." 
 The book of prophecy, which was sealed " till 
 the time of the end," was to be revealed to God's 
 searching servants as the time of the end drew 
 near. Therefore such uncovering of the pro- 
 phetic mysteries, such inquiry and demonstration 
 concerning the " what, and what manner of time," 
 as our generation has witnessed, is a most strik- 
 ing token of the nearing termination of the age. 
 The same Spirit who is in the Word is in the 
 Church ; and as " the testimony of Jesus is the 
 spirit of prophecy," so the witnesses of Jesus will 
 be the expositors of prophecy. Errors and mis- 
 calculations they will make, no doubt ; but the 
 general consensus of their opinion will be shaped, 
 we believe, to the teaching of the inspired page. 
 Therefore the deepening search is a sign of on- 
 coming dawn. " It is not to be denied that our 
 own age enters, with an earnestness and inten- 
 sity such as no earlier one has shown, into the 
 eschatological examination, and presses forward 
 in the complete development of this doctrine, one 
 sign among many that we are hastening towards 
 the great decision." 1 
 
 1 Kline. 
 
200 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 And yet this is only half a sign, the bright side 
 of an omen of hope, whose other hemisphere is 
 in shadow. Peter gives us the dark counterpart. 
 " Knowing this first, that there shall come in the 
 last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 
 and saying, Where is the sign of His coming ? 
 For since the fathers fell asleep, all things con- 
 tinue as they were from the beginning of the cre- 
 ation " (2 Pet. iii. 3). 1 Language could not de- 
 scribe more accurately the attitude of a large sec- 
 tion of the nominal Church respecting the future. 
 " Evolution, not catastrophe," is the cry. By the 
 transforming power of Christian civilization, the 
 world is to be gradually subdued to God, and the 
 present good age, with its beneficent endowment 
 of steam, and electricity, and printers' type, is 
 to terminate in a Christo-scientific millennium. 
 Darwin, the apostle of evolution, echoes back the 
 
 1 Never did the Church witness such a constellation of signs 
 of the near coming of Christ as now. " The branches of the fig 
 tree are full of sap, and the summer is at hand." Assuredly I 
 am not ignorant that a portion of the Church has become grad- 
 ually weary of the long-tarrying, and has fallen into doubt. You 
 also shake your head, and are of the opinion that we have long 
 talked of " the last time." Well, use this language, and increase 
 the number of the existing signs by this new one. Add that of 
 the foolish virgins, who, shortly before the midnight hour, main- 
 tained " the Lord would not come for a long time." — F. W. 
 Krummacher. 
 
FOR EG LEA MS OF THE DAY. 201 
 
 words of Peter, the apostle of judgment, saying : 
 "All things continue as they were since the be- 
 ginning of creation ; there is no need for miracu- 
 lous intervention, no room for supernatural ac- 
 tion ; as it was in the beginning, so it is now, and 
 so it shall ever be, as regards the succession of 
 physical phenomena." In this saying he speaks 
 for multitudes within the Christian Church. Man 
 is the microcosm of creation ; and as the doctrine 
 of salvation by development has with many su- 
 perseded that of salvation by regeneration, so has 
 the theory of a millennium through evolution 
 taken the place of that of a millennium, through 
 crisis. 
 
 We should be reminded, at this point, that the 
 signs of the approaching end of the age are both 
 bright and dark. The gloomy pessimism which 
 looks only for deepening apostasy is quite as 
 wrong as the placid optimism which expects the 
 world to glide peacefully into the golden age of 
 glory. The brighter the light the deeper the 
 shadow. The world - wide evangelization which 
 our generation is witnessing ; the translation of 
 the Scriptures into innumerable tongues ; the 
 unparalleled study of the Bible, through Sunday* 
 school and lay instruction ; the revivalism pro- 
 moted by such bands of earnest workers of every 
 grade and order, — these facts indicate that a 
 
202 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 light is falling upon our lost humanity such as 
 never was before. But the shadows are "the 
 blackness of darkness" itself. Avarice within 
 the Church, threatening to throttle the gospel 
 just when the promise is greatest for its triumph ; 
 anarchy without, menacing all order and stability 
 with its angry growl ; the ruin which Christian 
 nations are sowing, in the path of the mission- 
 ary's blessing, by their opium and strong drink ; 
 the ingenious vice and elaborate debauchery which 
 our higher civilization is begetting ; the restrained 
 anger of the nations, who await only the slightest 
 provocation to fly at each other's throats with 
 their terrific armaments, — this outlook is so dis- 
 mal as to be utterly appalling, were we not confi- 
 dent that even the shadows point to the dawn. 
 "Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and 
 zvoi'se, deceiving and being deceived." Present 
 history gives its emphatic Amen ! to this sure 
 word of prophecy. But "the path of the just is 
 a shining light, that shineth more and more unto 
 the perfect day ; " and, God be praised ! a great 
 company are walking that path to-day, with their 
 faces brightening with a keener radiance as they 
 behold their redemption drawing nigh. Hemi- 
 spheres of hope are both, to those who know the 
 Scriptures, — the darkness of abounding deprav- 
 ity, and the brightness of saintly consecration. 
 
FOREGLEAMS OF THE DAY. 203 
 
 For the energy of Satan is evermore a tribute 
 to the zeal of God appearing in the Church. If 
 Christians are rising up to extraordinary service 
 for God, because they know that " the time is 
 short," what wonder if Satan should "come down 
 with great wrath because he knoweth he hath 
 but a short time ? " 
 
 As for chronological signs, we believe that 
 these are given to enable us to approximate, not 
 to calculate, the time of the end. Those compu- 
 tations by which some have presumed to deter- 
 mine the day and the hour of the Lord's return 
 have brought great discredit upon Apocalyptic 
 study. Only as the prophet's lamp shines upon 
 the prophet's calendar can we read it aright ; and 
 while we examine the inspired dates of the latter, 
 we must give heed to the divine admonition of 
 the former: "But of that day and hour knoweth 
 no man ; no, not the angels of heaven, but my 
 Father only" (Matt. xxiv. 36). 
 
 In saying this, however, we are far from dispar- 
 aging the study of. divine chronology. That oft- 
 repeated interval, — " time, and times, and a half 
 a time" 'forty and two months," "a tJwnsand two 
 Jnmdred and tJireescore days," — we hold to sig- 
 nify always the same thing, according to the year- 
 day interpretation, twelve hundred and sixty years. 
 Now, as this is the period of the domination of 
 
204 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 the beast (Rev. xiii. 6), and of the witnesses 
 prophesying in sackcloth (xi. 3), of the career of 
 the " little horn" (Dan. vii. 24), and of the so- 
 journ of the woman in the wilderness (Rev. xii. 
 6), it gives us several lines of measurement that 
 verify each other. By general consent, the "little 
 horn" and "the beast" signify the Antichrist. 
 This mysterious power holds dominion for "forty 
 and two months" the same period as that of the 
 woman's sojourn in the wilderness. But the 
 exile of the Bride, the woman in white, must cor- 
 respond in duration with the enthronement of the 
 Harlot, the woman in purple, for these are the 
 obverse and reverse sides of the same prophetic 
 fact. Now, as we know from history that the 
 Harlot has been sitting as queen on the seven 
 hills for more than twelve hundred years, and as 
 we know from prophecy that her opposite, the 
 Bride, was to be in exile for "a thousand two 
 hundred and threescore days," we conclude that 
 these days signify years, for the Beast, and for 
 the Bride, and for the Harlot alike, all these 
 having the same period for their allotted career. 
 Therefore it is not true, as some assert, that An- 
 tichrist arises only after the apostate Church has 
 run her course, to hold sway for a literal three 
 years and a half ; but he is contemporaneous with 
 her. Now, since Antichrist's destruction is ef- 
 
FOREGLEAMS OF THE DAY. 205 
 
 fected by Christ's' coming, the career of the for- 
 mer, as predicted in prophecy and confirmed by 
 history, must furnish one of the plainest meas- 
 ures by which to approximate the time of the end. 
 If the rise of the papacy could be fixed as to the 
 exact day and year, we might not err in seeking 
 by computation for the day and year of its fall, 
 and so approximate closely the date of the coming 
 of the Lord. But as its beginning was in several 
 epoch-marking events, so, applying our measuring 
 line, we must look for its decline in corresponding 
 crises of decadence, each crisis being an alarm 
 bell for admonishing us to watchfulness. From 
 several initial dates in history, corresponding ter- 
 minal periods have been correctly anticipated by 
 students of prophecy for the last three hundred 
 years. It is impossible to enter with detail into 
 the subject. Nearly two hundred years ago, 
 Apocalyptic scholars forecast the years 1790 and 
 1848 as critical years in the commencing of the 
 downfall of the papacy, — the first of which, as 
 events proved, brought her under the bloody 
 judgments of the French Revolution, and the 
 second into that other political convulsion which 
 drove the pope into exile. So, likewise, many 
 expositors concurred in looking for some marked 
 calamity to Rome in 1868-70, — the latter year, 
 as history was to prove, being that of the down- 
 
2o6 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 fall of the temporal power of the pope, the sever- 
 est blow, in the estimation of many, which has 
 fallen upon Rome in a thousand years. These 
 are illustrations of correct chronological compu- 
 tation which might be greatly multiplied. They 
 suffice to indicate that they err not who, like 
 the prophets, search "what manner of time" the 
 Spirit in the Word has signified by the chronol- 
 ogy therein given ; as they suffice, also, to indi- 
 cate that our century is solemnly marked as the 
 era of expiring dates, and therefore of startling 
 admonitions to watchful expectation. 
 
 One black, portentous cloud of warning hangs 
 upon the horizon, to which we refer in closing. 
 The Apocalyptic picture of the three unclean 
 spirits like frogs, out of the mouth of the dragon, 
 and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the 
 mouth of the false prophet, has been generally 
 taken as predictive of an outbreak of sorcery. 
 And here, as frequently, we have the divine in- 
 terpretation accompanying the divine prediction : 
 "For they are the spirits of demons, working mir- 
 acles " (Rev. xvi. 14). It is a sign of the times 
 not to be mistaken. The abominations of witch- 
 craft, which God so constantly condemns in Scrip- 
 ture, with threat of the sorest penalties, have 
 once more broken upon the world, under the 
 name of Spiritualism. . A great cloud of black 
 spirits have darkened the air ; millions have been 
 
FOREGLEAMS OF THE DAY. 207 
 
 seduced into lending their ears to their whisper- 
 ings, and, among these, multitudes of nominal 
 Christians. That it is "the spirits of demons" 
 who are personating kindred and friends, and giv- 
 ing their soul-destroying " revelations of the un- 
 seen world," we have no question. Their fantas- 
 tic miracles, their grotesque tricks of infernalism, 
 — who has not heard of them? This we count 
 the blackest cloud on the horizon. But observe 
 the silver with which it is lighted up : " Behold, I 
 come as a thief ! " is the startling warning which 
 breaks out in the very next sentence of Revela- 
 tion, as though it had been said, "When you see 
 this come to pass, then look up." And not only 
 a warning, but an exhortation: "Blessed is he 
 that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he 
 walk naked and they see his shame." All night 
 long the Temple watchmen made their rounds of 
 duty, never knowing at what hour their overseer 
 would come in upon them to learn if they were 
 vigilant and faithful. If, coming unawares, he 
 found any watchman sleeping at his post, the 
 penalty was that the offender should be stripped 
 of his garments and turned out naked of his uni- 
 form, to his shame and confusion. " Blessed are 
 those servants whom the Lord, when He com- 
 eth, shall find watching. And if He come in the 
 second watch, or come in the third watch, and 
 find them so, blessed are those servants." 
 
III. 
 
 BEHOLD HE COMETH! 
 
 It is such a momentous event, — the coming of 
 the Son of man in the clouds of heaven, — r and the 
 contemplation of it so overpowers the imagination, 
 that we can easily understand why, in this age so 
 averse to the supernatural, attempts to explain 
 away its literalness should multiply on every hand. 
 But, as though anticipating these evasions and 
 refinings of latter-day philosophy, the Holy Ghost 
 has guarded this great hope of the Church by the 
 utmost accuracy of definition (Acts i. n). " This 
 same Jesus who is taken up from you " fixes the 
 corporeal identity of the coming Lord with Him 
 whom we have known of the wounded hands and 
 pierced feet ; and "shall so come in like manna' 
 as ye have seen Him go into Heaven" determines 
 His literal, visible, and bodily return to earth. 
 So, also, with the Thessalonian prediction (i 
 Thess. iv. 16). In the words, "The Lord Himself 
 shall descend from heaven with a shout," there 
 is a kind of underscoring of Holy Writ, that we 
 may be particularly reminded that it is no spir- 
 itual apparition of Christ for which we look, but 
 " His own august personal presence." 
 
BEHOLD HE COMETH. 20$ 
 
 And yet His parousia, of which the Scripture 
 so constantly speaks, is said to signify His pres- 
 ence ; and therefore elaborate volumes have been 
 written to prove that " the coming — paronsia — 
 of the Son of man " means His abiding invisible 
 dwelling in the Church through the Holy Spirit. 
 " Presence " the word undoubtedly means, but not 
 omnipi'esence. The everywhereness of Christ in 
 the person of the Comforter is the peculiar bless- 
 ing of this dispensation. In this sense He can 
 say to every member of His mystical body, the 
 Church, in every place on earth and at every 
 moment of time : " Lo, I am with you always, 
 even unto the end of the age." It was in order 
 to give place for this world-wide, or rather Church- 
 wide, indwelling that it was expedient for our 
 Lord to go away ; that so the Paraclete might 
 come to abide with His people perpetually. But 
 this every where-presence of Christ by the Holy 
 Ghost is never once spoken of in Scripture as 
 His parousia. This term applies only to His 
 bodily and visible presence, a being with us, which 
 can only be effected by a corporeal return to us. 
 Therefore is His advent comprehensively called 
 His parousia, or coming; it is that "for which 
 we look," and which " every eye shall see," and 
 not that which has already come to pass spirit- 
 ually, and which, therefore, no eye can see. 
 
210 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 The second coming of Christ is the axis of a 
 true eschatology ; that in which all its doctrines 
 and all its hopes stand together. Rightly are 
 some insisting on what they name a Christo-cen- 
 tric theology ; only let them consistently apply 
 their principle to the doctrine of last things, 
 making all our ultimate hopes and attainments to 
 concentre in the coming Christ. Then shall we 
 cease to hear in orthodox dogmatics that " sancti- 
 fkation ends at death," when the New Testament 
 everywhere binds its consummation to the second 
 advent of Christ ; then, also, except in liberal 
 theology, may we no longer listen to the affirma- 
 tion that resurrection is attained for each one 
 separately in an instant, in the shutting of an 
 eye, at the last breath of the body, when Scripture 
 declares that " we shall all be changed, in a mo- 
 ment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump " 
 (i Cor. xv. 51, 52). Any doctrine of the resur- 
 rection dissociated from the advent must be 
 false, — false because eccentric, and without rela- 
 tion to the axis of redemption, the parousia. No 
 atonement apart from the cross ; no resurrection 
 apart from the coming ! The morning star of the 
 Church is the glorious appearing ; but this star, 
 at least, has satellites, — the resurrection, the rap- 
 ture, the glory, — and not one of these will be 
 visible "until the day dawn, and the day star 
 arise." 
 
BEHOLD HE COMETH. 
 
 What deep questions suggest themselves as 
 soon as we begin to meditate on this theme ! 
 How can it be, if His coming is personal and 
 bodily, that "every eye shall see Him"? Will 
 His parousia be prolonged, or, as some hold, will 
 it elapse in a moment, " as the lightning cometh 
 out of the east, and shineth even unto the west," 
 leaving the great world to wonder what has be- 
 come of the saints ? In other words, will He be 
 visible to His Church alone at His parousia, man- 
 ifesting Himself unto them, but not to the world 
 until a later epiphany, when He shall appear in 
 glory with His saints ? Already there has been 
 too much of dogmatizing on these points ; there- 
 fore we prefer to leave them for the day to reveal. 
 
 The attitude of the Church towards this sub- 
 lime event is the all - important consideration. 
 That should be one of joyful hope, and not of 
 dread expectation. We cannot think that true 
 and watchful believers will share in that advent 
 wail which is so graphically pictured in the Rev- 
 elation (Rev. i. 7) : " All the tribes of the land 
 shall mourn over Him," indeed, they who pierced 
 Him reading their condemnation in His wounds 
 and smiting on their breasts ; but they who own 
 those wounds as the credentials of their peace 
 with God will lift up their heads and rejoice, 
 saying : " Lo, this is our God ; we have waited 
 
212 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 for Him and He will save us : this is the Lord ; 
 we have waited for Him ; we will be glad and re- 
 joice in His salvation " (Is. xxv. 9). Eagerly do 
 we summon parable and poetry to picture the 
 exultant scene as we gather it from Scripture. 
 One who stands among us, as the venerable Sim- 
 eon of our generation, "just and devout, waiting 
 for the consolation of Israel," 1 has, in a recent 
 utterance, made the advent scene so real by the 
 use of a historical incident, that we are con- 
 strained herewith to reproduce the picture en- 
 tire : — 
 
 " When those that upheld the banner of truth 
 had almost lost heart, and Protestantism seemed 
 failing, John Knox accepted the invitation from 
 the true-hearted ones, and left Geneva for Scot- 
 land. When he landed, quick as lightning the 
 news spread abroad. The cry arose everywhere, 
 ' John Knox has come ! ' Edinburgh came rush- 
 ing into the streets ; the old and the young, the 
 lordly and the low, were seen mingling together 
 in delighted expectation. All business, all com- 
 mon pursuits, were forsaken. The priests and 
 friars abandoned their altars and their masses 
 and looked out alarmed, or were seen standing 
 by themselves, shunned like lepers. Studious 
 men were roused from their books ; mothers set 
 
 1 Dr. Andrew Bonar. 
 
BEHOLD HE COMETH. 213 
 
 down their infants and ran to inquire what had 
 come to pass. Travelers suddenly mounted and 
 sped into the country with the tidings, 'John 
 Knox has come.' At every cottage door the in- 
 mates stood and clustered, wondering, as horse- 
 man after horseman cried, ' Knox has come.' 
 Barks departing from the harbor bore up to 
 each other at sea to tell the news. Shepherds 
 heard the tidings as they watched their flocks 
 upon the hills. The warders in the castle chal- 
 lenged the sound of quick feet approaching, and 
 the challenge was answered, ' John Knox has 
 come ! ' The whole land was moved ; the whole 
 country was stirred with a new inspiration, and 
 the hearts of enemies withered." Oh, if that was 
 the effect of the sudden presence of a man like 
 ourselves, — a man whom we will rejoice to meet 
 in the kingdom, but only a man, — what will the 
 land feel, what will earth feel, when the news 
 comes, " The Son of man ! The Son of man ! 
 His sign has been seen in the heaven ! O wise 
 virgins, with what joy will you go out to meet 
 Him ! " 
 
 Some admonish us not to take too literally the 
 words, " And at midnight there was a cry made, 
 Behold the Bridegroom cometh ! " since, sudden 
 as the advent surprise will be, it cannot really be 
 in the night for all the world, as one side of the 
 
14 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 globe is dark and the other light at the same 
 moment. True ; and yet how perfectly our Lord's 
 picture of His coming answers to this fact, since 
 it brings into the same instantaneous photograph 
 a day-scene, and a night-scene, and a twilight- 
 scene : " I tell you in that night there shall be 
 two men in one bed," — the midnight surprise ; 
 "the one shall be taken and the other shall be 
 left." "Two women shall be grinding together," 
 — the twilight surprise; "the one shall be taken 
 and the other left." "Then shall two be in the 
 field," — the mid-day surprise ; "the one shall be 
 taken and the other left " (Matt. xxiv. 40; Luke 
 xvii. 34-36). It would seem thus as though the 
 lightning-flash of His parousia would encircle the 
 world in an instant. Realistic in the highest 
 degree is the picture : no halt in the hurried 
 march of our humanity for burnishing the armor 
 for the grand review ; no pause in life's drama 
 for shifting the scenery before the final act is 
 introduced ! Instant transition of the Church 
 from busy toil and tired sleep into the beatific 
 vision and the awakening immortality, and as 
 instant a lapse of the ungodly from the day of 
 grace into the day of doom. The event will evi- 
 dently be utterly unexpected except for the faith- 
 ful few who have kept their watch. 
 
 Morally, or rather dispensationally, Christ's 
 
BEHOLD HE COMETH. 215 
 
 coming will be in the night. For such, according 
 to Scripture, is the whole period of our Lord's 
 absence. When He was yet with His Church 
 He said : " I must work the works of Him that 
 sent me while it is day: the night cometh." It 
 was His presence that made the day, — " As long 
 as I am in the world, I am the light of the world " 
 (John ix. 5), — and His removal that would bring 
 the night. Hence we find Paul saying, — in the 
 time of the Lord's absence and in view of His 
 return, — " The night is far spent, the day is at 
 hand" (Rom. xiii. 12). Here is an exact inversion 
 of the order from that of Christ, suggesting that 
 it is the absence or the presence of our Lord 
 which determines the question. " They that sleep, 
 sleep in the night" (1 Thess. v. 6). The words 
 are true dispensationally as well as literally. So 
 long as " they that sleep in Jesus" are still in 
 their graves, the world's morning will not have 
 come: "And they that are drunken are drunken 
 in the night" So long as the riot of unrestrained 
 sin goes on over all the earth, and the mass of 
 humanity is held in the mad intoxication of the 
 god of this world, the day-dawn will not yet be 
 visible. But what an exquisite parable there is 
 for us — an enacted parable — in that story of 
 Christ's walking on Tiberias ! He has "gone up 
 unto the mountain apart to pray ; " and the 
 
216 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 Church which He launched is "now in the midst 
 of the sea, tossed with waves and the wind con- 
 trary." But "in the fourth watch of the night" 
 He comes to her, walking upon the sea ; and 
 they, who for a moment feared and were troubled 
 at the startling apparition, will hear His voice 
 saying, " Be of good cheer : it is I ; be not afraid." 
 These words will bring an end to all sorrow, a 
 calm for all storms. 
 
 "And they shall see the Son of man coming 
 in the clouds of heaven with power and great 
 glory." Himself has said this concerning Him- 
 self, and to attempt to heighten the effect of His 
 words by any imaginative description of the scene 
 predicted were certainly to lower the impression 
 which the inspired declaration itself makes upon 
 the mind. So great is this saying that it alone 
 befits the incarnate Word who spoke it. " Only 
 a Jesus could forge a Jesus," it has been said; 
 and only the Coming One whom we have known, 
 "whose goings forth have been of old from ever- 
 lasting" could predict for Himself such a coming 
 as this. And the hope of it has reversed the 
 current of humanity. " Man goeth to his long 
 home, and the mournefs go about the streets," 
 was the plaintive strain of the old dispensation. 
 But since Jesus ascended and put the exultant 
 "Ecce Venit" into the mouth of His redeemed, 
 
BEHOLD HE COMETH. 217 
 
 "Man cometh" is now their song. The proces- 
 sion of mortality is about to halt, and then to 
 move forward ; but forward shall now signify 
 from death to life : from the pilgrim's inn of the 
 grave to the long home of " Forever with the 
 Lord." 
 
IV. 
 
 THE FIRST RESURRECTION-. 
 
 The announcement of two resurrections, sepa- 
 rated in time by a thousand years, and distin- 
 guished in character as unto immortality and 
 unto mortality, seems to be one of the very plain- 
 est in all Scripture : "And I saw the souls of them 
 that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus 
 and for the Word of God : and such as worshiped 
 not the beast, neither his image, and received not 
 his mark upon their forehead and upon their 
 hand: and they lived and reigned with Christ a 
 thousand years. The rest of the dead lived not 
 until tJie thousand years shoidd be finished. This 
 is the first resurrection" (Rev. xx. 4, 5, r. v.). 
 Here is first a vision of disembodied souls, then 
 of their reanimation. This reanimation must 
 mean a literal rising from the dead ; for two 
 words employed in the passage put the matter 
 beyond dispute: "They lived" — It^crav — is lan- 
 guage which is never, in the New Testament, 
 applied to the soul disembodied, but to man in 
 his complete condition of body and spirit united ; 
 and "This is the first resurrection" — draorao-is — 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 defines this living to be bodily reanimation, since 
 the word in the New Testament, with perhaps a 
 single exception, always signifies corporeal resur- 
 rection. So that the phraseology employed seems 
 to render it impossible to apply the vision either 
 to the condition of disembodied existence or to 
 the quickening of spiritual regeneration. 
 
 But how is it that we have never met this 
 startling doctrine of two distinct resurrections, 
 with a millennium between, till we reach the last 
 book of the Bible ? We have met it without be- 
 ing able to define it. As in Daniel, we have a con- 
 densed prophecy of the great tribulation which, 
 by our Lord's interpretation in the twenty-fourth 
 of Matthew, is expanded into an age-long period 
 of Jewish trial ; so in John's Gospel (v. 28), we 
 have a miniature prediction of the resurrection : 
 "For the hour is coming in which all that are in 
 their tombs shall hear the voice of the Son of 
 God, and shall come forth, they that have done 
 good, unto the resurrection of life ; and they that 
 have done ill, unto the resurrection of judgment," 
 — which hour, in the Apocalypse of John, is in- 
 terpreted as covering the entire millennial era in 
 its fulfillment. This is according to the common 
 method of prophecy. 
 
 Holding that the last presentation of the resur- 
 rection — this in the Apocalypse — is the com- 
 
2 20 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 pletest and most comprehensive, the important 
 question is, whether the statements of the doc- 
 trine in other parts of Scripture harmonize with 
 this. Not only do they harmonize, but in^several 
 instances they find their only solution in it. 
 
 In the first place, we call attention to a class of 
 passages which are marked by this peculiarity, 
 that they seem to represent the resurrection of 
 believers as eclectic and special. It is plain, if 
 the scheme which we have drawn out from Rev. 
 xx. is correct, that the subjects of the first resur- 
 rection are called out from the general mass of 
 the dead ; or, in other words, that a prior resur- 
 rection would involve the idea of an elect resur- 
 rection. And this conception would seem to 
 explain at once our Lord's allusion (Luke xx. 35) 
 to those who shall be " accounted worthy to ob- 
 tain that age, and the resurrection out from the 
 
 dead, — tt}s di/acrrao-ecos rrjs Ik veKpiov. If there be 
 
 a first resurrection, at the opening of the millen- 
 nial age, in which only the righteous share, the 
 significance of this text is apparent at once. 
 Even more striking are the words of Paul (Phil. 
 iii. 11) : "I count all things but loss ... if by any 
 means I might attain unto the out - resurrection 
 
 from tJie dead" rrjv l^avaaracriv Ttjv Ik veKpiov, The 
 
 words are very strong in the Greek. We do not 
 see how they can possibly refer to anything else 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 than an eclectic resurrection, a separation and 
 quickening to life out from among the dead. 
 Especially would this seem to be so when, in ad- 
 dition to the very emphatic language describing 
 the resurrection itself, there is the expression of 
 intense desire and vehement striving to attain it. 
 Why should one strive to attain what is inevi- 
 table, as Paul's resurrection must have certainly 
 appeared to be, had he held that all men will be 
 raised together ? And what can our Lord's words 
 
 — " They which shall be accounted worthy to ob- 
 tain that age and the resurrection from the dead " 
 
 — mean on any other view than that which we 
 are defending, — the view, namely, that there is 
 a prior age in which the rising of the saints will 
 take place, and a distinct, and special, and privi- 
 leged dispensation of bodily redemption which 
 belongs to them ? And this phase of our argu- 
 ment is set in very strong light by the additional 
 fact that this expression, " resurrection from the 
 dead," — di/ao-rao-ts Ik veKpwv, — is so invariable 
 throughout the New Testament in its applica- 
 tion to Christ as well as to His saints. There is 
 only one instance where the other phrase, avd- 
 o-rao-is vzxpuv, — the general expression for the 
 resurrection of the dead, — is applied to our Lord, 
 and that seems to be on account of a special 
 requirement of the context (Rom. i. 4.) He, 
 
222 ECCE VENJT. 
 
 coming forth from the dead, and opening the 
 doors for all believers to come forth with Him 
 in the resurrection unto life, is described just as 
 they are, as rising U veKpuv. Hence, very sig- 
 nificantly, we find it said in the Acts that the 
 apostles "preached through Jesus the resurrec- 
 tion from the dead" not the resurrection of the 
 dead (iv. 2). Now we will not dwell on the ques- 
 tion whether the eclectic conception is contained 
 in the words to the extent that we have claimed. 
 We find it admitted even by some who oppose 
 the doctrine we are advocating. Olshausen even 
 goes so far as to declare that " the phrase would 
 be inexplicable if it were not derived from the idea 
 that out of the mass of the dead some would rise 
 first." 1 
 
 And what if it be affirmed that even in the 
 Old Testament we find distinct traces of the idea 
 of an eclectic and precedent resurrection of the 
 just ? The passage in Daniel xii. 2, translated in 
 our common version, " And many of them that 
 
 1 " What special meaning," asks Professor Stuart, " can this 
 language have unless it implies that there is a resurrection where 
 the just only, and not the unjust, shall be raised ? " This ex- 
 pression, as well as the " every man in his own order," and the 
 evident " plain prose " character of the passage in Rev. xx., com- 
 pels this learned man, though a strong post-millenarian, to con- 
 cede most fully the doctrine of the first resurrection. — Stuart 
 on Apocalypse, i. pp. 175, 178, 379, 499, and ii. 356, 474, 562. 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 223 
 
 sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some 
 to everlasting life, and some to shame and ever- 
 lasting contempt," is undoubtedly a Messianic 
 prediction concerning the time of the end. Tre- 
 gelles translates the passage as follows, giving us 
 not only the authority of his own accurate schol- 
 arship for the rendering, but that of two eminent 
 rabbis, Saadia Haggion and Eben Ezra, whose 
 explanations are quoted at length : "And many 
 from among the sleepers of the dust of the earth 
 shall awake, these — that awake — shall be unto 
 everlasting life ; but those — the rest of the 
 sleepers who do not awake at this time — shall 
 be unto shame and everlasting contempt." Here 
 again, if our authorities are correct, we have the 
 idea of the first resurrection with its eclectic and 
 separate character, and its distinct issue in life, 
 most emphatically set forth. And how solemnly 
 applicable to the literal as well as to the spiritual 
 quickening of men are the words of our Lord : 
 "The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of 
 God, and they that hear shall live." One event 
 awaits mankind : " Like sheep they are laid in 
 the grave ; death shall feed upon them." But all 
 will not hear the great first resurrection call. As 
 now, so then, the words of Jesus will be true : 
 " My sheep hear my voice." As now, so then, 
 only those that have received the spirit of adop- 
 
224 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 tion will cry, " Abba, Father ! " as the great God 
 shall call to the dead by the mouth of His Son. 
 " If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from 
 the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ 
 from the dead shall quicken your mortal bodies 
 by His Spirit that dwelleth in you." That Spirit 
 is the bond of life between Christ and all that 
 sleep in Him, and the pledge of their redemption 
 from the grave. The witness, now, of our son- 
 ship, He is the witness that then we shall be 
 children of the resurrection ; responding and 
 waking instantly at the sound of the trumpet, — 
 "Thou shalt call and I will answer;" while in 
 "that silence that terrifies thought," the rest of 
 the dead shall sleep on, waiting only in their con- 
 scious loss for the Day of Judgment to consum- 
 mate and manifest their doom. 1 
 
 1 As indicating how far this idea is from being novel or 
 modern, we offer these striking testimonies : Chrysostom says : 
 " The just shall rise before the wicked, that they may be first in 
 the resurrection, not only in dignity, but in time" (Comment on 
 i Thess. iv. 15). Jeremy Taylor says: "The resurrection shall 
 be universal : good and bad shall rise, yet not all together, but 
 first Christ, then they that are Christ's ; and then there is an- 
 other resurrection," etc. (Sermon on 1 Cor. xv. 23). Toplady 
 says: "I am one of those old-fashioned people who believe the 
 doctrine of the millennium, and that there will be two distinct 
 resurrections of the dead : first of the just, and second of the 
 unjust ; which last resurrection of the reprobate will not com- 
 mence till a thousand years after the resurrection of the elect." 
 — Works, vol. hi. p. 470. 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 225 
 
 Had we time to take up all the texts bearing 
 on the question, we should wish to notice some 
 passages which represent the resurrection as di- 
 rectly conditioned on faith and regeneration and 
 union with Christ ; all of which would go to show 
 that the redemption of the body is a distinct in- 
 heritance of believers in some sense, and cer- 
 tainly not unlikely in the sense we are claiming. 
 
 We wish now to refer to two texts which have 
 been cited as distinctly and unquestionably con- 
 tradicting the theory we are advocating. The 
 first is in 2 Timothy iv. 1, reading, according to 
 the common version : " I charge thee, therefore, 
 before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall 
 judge the quick and the dead at His appearing 
 and His kingdom." It is said that we have here 
 the living and the dead, without distinction or 
 separation, brought together at the coming of 
 Christ. All that need be said in regard to this 
 passage is that, according to the revised version, 
 the words read : " and by His appearing and 
 kingdom." This change not only relieves the 
 passage of any seeming contradiction of the doc- 
 trine which we are advocating, but makes it bear 
 emphatic support to it. 
 
 The other text is John v. 28, r. v. : " Marvel 
 not at this ; for the hour cometh in which all that 
 are in the tombs shall hear His voice and shall 
 
226 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 come forth, they that have done good, unto the 
 resurrection of life ; and they that have done ill, 
 unto the resurrection of judgment." This, it is 
 said, teaches a simultaneous resurrection, since it 
 declares that in the hour that is coming both 
 classes will come forth to their respective re- 
 wards. We answer that, in the first place, we 
 think it is clear that the word "hour" (<Spa), as 
 here employed, refers to an era or lengthened 
 period of time. This we know is not an unusual 
 meaning of the word, as appears by referring to 
 such examples as I John ii. 18, Rom. xiii. n ; and, 
 what is more directly to the point, our Lord had 
 just used the term in this sense in verse twenty- 
 fifth : " Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is 
 coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the 
 voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall 
 live." This is generally taken to refer to that 
 spiritual quickening, under the preaching of the 
 gospel, which began with the time of Christ, and 
 is going on to-day. Therefore the hour referred 
 to must have continued for at least nearly two 
 thousand years. This is the time for the quicken- 
 ing of the living who are dead in sins. It is evi- 
 dently synchronous with i John ii. 18, — "It is 
 the last time " (<5pa), — and covers the whole gos- 
 pel dispensation. Next follows, in our Lord's 
 discourse, a statement in regard to the time of 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 227 
 
 the dead. The two periods are set in contrast, 
 as it would seem. The first — the hour of spirit- 
 ual quickening — has already begun. Hence it 
 is described thus : " The hour is coming and now 
 is." The second had not yet begun ; hence only 
 the words, "The hour is coming," are used with 
 reference to it. Is it not fair to presume that 
 the second era, like the first, is a prolonged one ? 
 We think no one can reasonably deny this. This 
 is the way we take it : At the appearing of the 
 Lord from heaven, the age will open in which all 
 that are in their graves will come forth, but some 
 at the beginning and some at the end of the age. 
 If it be said that it is a strained and unnatural 
 construction to bring events which are so far 
 apart into such immediate juxtaposition, with no 
 intimation of any time lying between them, we 
 reply that it is not at all uncommon in prophecy. 
 Who, for instance, in reading Isaiah's words con- 
 cerning the Messiah, — " to proclaim the accept- 
 able year of the Lord and the day of vengeance 
 of our God," — would have imagined that in this 
 single sentence two grand and distinct eras were 
 brought together and spoken of in a breath, — 
 the era of grace and the era of judgment ? But 
 the Lord, by His penetrating exegesis, cleft the 
 passage asunder, we remember, as He expounded 
 it in the synagogue, and, breaking off in the mid 
 
228 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 
 die of the sentence, — " to preach the acceptable 
 year of the Lord/' — He closed the book and sat 
 down, saying: "This day is this Scripture ful- 
 filled in your ears " (Luke iv. 21). We take it 
 that, in this prophetic passage of His own, there 
 is a similar conjoining of distinct and widely 
 separated acts of the same resurrection drama. 
 
 And we are confirmed in this impression by 
 noting how exactly this passage, with its expres- 
 sions "resurrection of life" and "resurrection 
 of judgment," corresponds to the passage in 
 Revelation, these being common points in the 
 two texts, — the latter seeming to fill out in de- 
 tail what is here presented in outline. And this 
 leads us to remark that there is perhaps no doc- 
 trine of Scripture the references to which are at 
 once so fragmentary and so complemental of each 
 other as this doctrine of two resurrections. Ex- 
 cept in the passage in the Revelation, it is no- 
 where presented in a formal and complete state- 
 ment. But what is very striking is, that almost 
 every scattered allusion to it fits into this passage 
 at some point, confirming its literal significance, 
 and being confirmed by it. For example : All 
 are agreed that John v. 28, 29, and Luke xx. 36, 
 have reference to the literal rising of the body 
 from the grave. Apply these texts to Revela- 
 tion xx. 1-6, and note how perfectly they fit it : 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 229 
 
 " They that have done good unto the resurrection 
 of life ; " "They lived and reigned with Christ : 
 this is resurrection the first " (Rev.) ; " They 
 that shall be accounted worthy to obtain that 
 world and the resurrection from the dead neither 
 marry nor are joined in marriage, neither can they 
 die any more" (Luke) ; "On such the second death 
 hath no power" (Rev.). "They that shall be ac- 
 coiinted worthy to obtain the resurrection from 
 the dead " (Luke) ; "Blessed and holy is he that 
 hath part in the first resurrection ;" "They that 
 have done evil to the resurrection oi judgment" 
 [k/kW] (John) ; "And they were judged \_l K pi6rj- 
 aav] every man according to their works " (Rev.). 
 We do not see how any candid critic can fail to 
 identify these passages as referring to the same 
 event, the literal resurrection of the body. And 
 putting all these texts together, we find that one 
 supplies what another omits ; the gospels and 
 epistles teaching the privilege and preeminence 
 attaching to the believer's resurrection, and the 
 Apocalypse teaching its priority and separateness 
 in time. 
 
 Let us observe that the saints' resurrection is 
 "first " in several senses. 
 
 It is first in time, as we have already seen. 
 How shall we state it ? That the death sentence 
 has been shortened by a thousand years for the 
 
230 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 martyrs who have won their reprieve by their 
 faithful sufferings for Christ ; for the overcomers 
 who have gained a seat with Christ in His mil- 
 lennial throne by their victory over the world. 
 We seem to hear these sainted ones saying to 
 grim Death, as he exacts sin's wages : " Take thy 
 bill and sit down quickly and write fifty," for, as 
 partners with our suffering and victorious Lord, 
 the half of your sentence has been remitted. Of 
 Immanuel it is written : " Whom God hath raised 
 up, having loosed the pains of death ; because it 
 was not possible that He should be ./widen of it." 
 He was no prison-breaker who burst the gates of 
 death and "tore the bars away." He had served 
 His appointed time in the grave, and therefore 
 could not be longer detained ; and hence, after 
 His two days' burial had expired, He received 
 His righteous discharge. So we believe that His 
 mystical dead body — "those that have been laid 
 to sleep through Jesus" — cannot be holden of 
 the tomb a single hour after it shall have begun 
 to dawn towards the first day of the millennial 
 week, because then their sentence will have ter- 
 minated. This is the overcomer's hope, — the 
 reward so much earlier, as well as more glorious, 
 than we have dreamed of ! the crown so much 
 sooner, as well as brighter, than we have imag- 
 ined ! The devout Lavater, meditating on this 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 231 
 
 point, exclaims : "How inexpressibly animating 
 to the best exercise of our moral powers must 
 this idea be, — to be a thousand years sooner in 
 the enjoyment of the full fruition of the blessed ! 
 So much earlier — a thousand years earlier — to 
 enjoy personal fellowship with the lovely Saviour 
 and the noblest of the human family, and, along 
 with Jesus, the prophets and apostles, to super- 
 intend the immediate concerns of the Godhead." 
 First in character also will be this pre-millen- 
 nial resurrection ; its preeminent glory being 
 that upon those who attain to it " the second 
 death hath no power." Here is the true harvest 
 of which Christ is " the First-fruits." How can 
 that Scripture be true which declares that Christ 
 is first bom from the .dead" (Coloss. i. 19)? Had 
 not several returned from death before Christ 
 rose, — the Shunamite's son at the prayer of 
 the prophet, and Lazarus and the widow's son at 
 the call of Jesus ? How, then, was He u the first 
 begotten of the dead" (Rev. i. 5)? The answer 
 seems obvious. These were raised to die again. 
 Wondrous as was the transaction which restored 
 them to life, it was only this mortal putting on 
 mortality, and this corruptible putting on corrup- 
 tion. But "Christ being raised from the dead 
 dicth 110 more ; death hath no more dominion over 
 Him " (Rom. vi. 6). The gospel of the resurrec- 
 
232 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 tion which we preach, therefore, has no peer or 
 rival in that which nature presents to us. Beau- 
 tiful and oft-recurring as is the latter, it whispers 
 no hint of immortality. Of a mortal resurrection 
 which the Scriptures foretell for some, we see 
 tokens and similitudes all about us in nature — in 
 the flower springing up from the seed which has 
 fallen into the earth and died ; in the morning 
 opening the vast grave of night, and summoning 
 a sleeping world to rise and meet the sun " as he 
 cometh forth as a bridegroom from his chamber;" 
 in the springtide calling the earth from the tomb 
 of winter, loosing her shroud of snow, and cloth- 
 ing her with renewed life and beauty : in all these 
 there are joyful parables and pledges of a resur- 
 rection. But the flower fades and dies, the 
 morning sinks again into the embrace of night, 
 and the earth lies down once more in the sepul- 
 chre of winter ; and so, alas ! these symbols only 
 mock the hope they have kindled in the soul. 
 But while we are asking sorrowfully, " Is there 
 no resurrection that is exempt from death ? " this 
 great text breaks upon our ears : " Blessed and 
 holy is He that hath part in the first resurrection ; 
 on such the second death hath no power." Christ's 
 resurrection is the epitome of His Church's. As 
 He rose only after a definite and divinely ap- 
 pointed time of resting in the grave, so will 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 233 
 
 His people. That unseemly snatching for the 
 crown of life which characterizes the latest im- 
 proved eschatology — the theory that every man 
 rises from the dead as soon as the breath is out 
 of the body — has no foundation in Scripture. 1 
 Indeed, it has none in reason, unless we can admit 
 that death is equivalent to life ; elimination to 
 resurrection ; the falling down of this tabernacle 
 of clay to its standing up. This is the revived 
 error of Hymeneus and Philetus which makes 
 the resurrection to be past already ; it places our 
 hope in what is death's victory over us rather 
 than our victory over death ; it promises us a 
 bodiless spirit in place of that "spiritual body" 
 which is our redemption-birthright. " This im- 
 mortal spirit shall put off its mortal coil " is the 
 doctrine of philosophy ; " This mortal shall put 
 on immortality " is the doctrine of Scripture. 
 Do we not see what transcendent honor is thus 
 put upon the body in its promotion to incorrupt- 
 ibility ? This in which we dwell — " the temple 
 of the Holy Ghost " — is not our "vile body," as 
 
 1 Professor Christlieb well says : " Whoever denies the bodily 
 resurrection should be honest enough no longer to speak of res- 
 urrection at all. Resurrection does not refer to the spirit, the con- 
 tinued existence of which the Scripture takes as a matter of 
 course, but only to the body, and its issuing forth alive from the 
 grave. Only that can rise again which has been laid down in 
 the grave, and that is only the body, not the spirit." — Modern 
 Doubt and Christian Belief, p. 449. 
 
234 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 it is misleadingly called in the common version ; 
 though, because of the shadow of the curse which 
 rests upon it, it is that in which " we groan being 
 burdened." But itself shall be changed by the 
 coming Lord, the very fabric and substance of it 
 transformed and glorified. And because restora- 
 tion rather than evolution is so distinctly taught 
 in Scripture, we are certified of our continued 
 physical identity, as it is written : " From whence 
 also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 who shall fas J don anew the body of our humilia- 
 tion, that it may be conformed to the body of His 
 glory " (Phil. iv. 21, r. v.). The charcoal and the 
 diamond are the same substance ; only that one 
 is carbon in its humiliation, and the other carbon 
 in its glory. So is this tabernacle in which we 
 now dwell, in comparison with our house which 
 is from heaven. The one is mortal flesh shad- 
 owed by the curse, and doomed to be " sown in 
 dishonor ; " the other is that flesh made immortal 
 and marvelously transfigured. This house of clay, 
 endeared to us by so many associations, is, there- 
 fore, only to be untenanted for a brief while, that 
 we may move into it again wondrously refitted 
 and beautified by its divine Fashioner. This 
 thought, if cherished, may heal the homesickness 
 which so often comes over us in the thought of 
 death. For observe the exquisite balancing of 
 those two household words — ivSyj^ovvra and 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 235 
 
 £K§r]ixovvTes — in Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians : 
 " Knowing that while we are at home in the body, 
 we zxefrom home 1 from the Lord, . . . and willing 
 rather to be from home from the body, and at 
 home with the Lord " (2 Cor. v. 6). But this 
 home-dwelling with our Redeemer, as the connec- 
 tion shows, is not attained by our being unclothed, 
 but clothed upon, with our house which is from 
 heaven, that mortality may be swallowed up of 
 life. It is when we become immortal residents 
 in an immortal body that we are forever at home : 
 " So shall we be ever with the Lord : wherefore 
 comfort one another with these words." Having 
 these promises, therefore, we should eagerly look 
 upward, in patient waiting for our house from 
 heaven, seeking the consummation of our hope, 
 not in the putting off of this our tabernacle, but 
 in the putting on of that. After his ardent prayer 
 that he " might attain unto the resurrection from 
 the dead," the apostle adds : " I press towards 
 the mark for the prize of the up - calling " — 
 rrjs aw KXtjcrecos — "of God in Christ Jesus." Let 
 who will fasten their hope upon the down-calling 
 of mortality : " Return unto dust, ye children of 
 men ; " we will listen patiently and joyfully for 
 the up-calling of immortality : " Awake and sing, 
 ye that dwell in the dust, for thy dew is as the 
 dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out her 
 dead " (Is. xxvi. 19). 
 
V. 
 
 THE TRAXSI.ATION OF THE CHURCH 
 
 The most startling; and except for the testi- 
 mony of the "sure word of prophecy " the most 
 incredible, transaction of which we can conceive, 
 is that set forth in the words, " caught up to meet 
 the Lord in the air!' The lightning-flash of the 
 advent, dazzling and blinding for a moment ; the 
 swift transition of the cloud-chariot, and then 
 "forever with the Lord" — this is the brief de- 
 scription of the ecstatic scene which we call the 
 Church's translation (i Thess. iv. 15-18). 
 
 1 1 is a twofold event, affecting the sainted dead 
 and the saints that are living at the time of the 
 parousia, and bringing both into one condition. 
 " The dead in Christ shall rise first ; then we 
 which are alive and remain shall be caught up 
 together with them." This order and distinction 
 are revealed in several passages where the casual 
 reader mi°;ht not discover them. In the storv of 
 the raising of Lazarus — that enacted prophecy 
 of the first resurrection — they are distinctly 
 marked (John xi.). Beautiful miniature of the 
 Church is that home in Bethany, whose crown- 
 
THE TRANSLATION OF THE CHURCH. 237 
 
 ing honor is this, that " Jesus loved Martha and 
 her sister and Lazarus." Like the body of Christ 
 to-day, a part living and a part dead, — " our 
 friend Lazarus sleepeth," — this household was 
 waiting the coming of the Lord. But notwith- 
 standing the sickness and dying that were rav- 
 aging that home, Jesus " abode two days still in 
 the same place where He was!' just as He has 
 already remained away from His Church nearly 
 two millenniums — "one day is with the Lord as 
 a thousand years, and a thousand years as one 
 day " — while sickness and mourning and death 
 have been holding sway. Then the advent an- 
 nouncement, for which we also wait, was heard, 
 " Our friend Lazarus sleepeth ; but / go that I 
 may awake him out of sleep." Such will be the 
 blessed errand on which our Lord will come when 
 the time of His return arrives. "Then Martha, 
 as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went 
 and met Him" even as the wise virgins will do 
 when He shall come again; "but Mary sat still 
 in the house," like those of the other company, 
 the unwatchful and ungirded ones. 
 
 Then hear the Lord's great advent exposition : 
 " I am the Resurrection and the Life : he that be- 
 lieveth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall lie 
 live ; and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me 
 shall never die." It is no mere rhetorical ampli- 
 
2 38 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 fication which we find here. This double office 
 of Christ, and the corresponding twofold work, 
 exactly match the declaration in the First Epistle 
 to the Thessalonians (iv. 17). He is "the Resur- 
 rection " to those who shall be in their graves at 
 the time of His coming; He is "the Life" to 
 those who shall then be on the earth. To the first 
 class He alludes when He says, "though he were 
 dead, yet shall he live ; " to the second He refers 
 in the saying : " Whosoever liveth and believeth 
 in Me shall never die." But both, in a moment, 
 in the twinkling of an eye, shall be brought into 
 the same condition of "glorified corporeity " at 
 the sound of the last trumpet. 1 
 
 Need we say that the transfiguration — that 
 vivid tableau of the glorious appearing of our 
 Lord — exhibits the same truth in unmistakable 
 outline : "And, behold, there talked with Him 
 two men, which were Moses and Elias, who 
 appeared in glory." These two men were the 
 representatives of the two classes just named. 
 Moses, coming up from his unknown sepulchre 
 in the valley of Moab, as the forerunner of the 
 
 1 Let it be noticed that the second company named by Christ 
 and the second company named by Paul are described by pre- 
 cisely the same form of speech, the timeless present participle : 
 ■Kas 6 (a>v kol\ TTHTrevow, u all the living and believing'''' (John xi. 
 25! ; rj/uLels ol (tovres ol ir€piKeiir6/j.evoi, " we the living, the remain- 
 ing''' (1 Thess. iv. 17). 
 
THE TRANSLATION OF THE CHURCH. 239 
 
 dead who shall be raised at the advent of Christ ; 
 and Elias, returning from the presence of the 
 Lord, as the representative of those who taste 
 not of death, but are translated, — these, stand- 
 ing together with the Lord in transfiguration 
 glory on the Mount, present to us a radiant re- 
 hearsal, a glowing epitome, of the coming and 
 kingdom of Jesus Christ. 
 
 If we turn to the great resurrection discourse 
 of Paul in the fifteenth of 1 Corinthians, we find 
 at the culmination of the argument the same 
 double reference : " For the trumpet shall sound, 
 and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we 
 shall be changed." Here are the two parties to 
 the final transfiguration ; and they are in an in- 
 stant brought into the company of One for whom 
 they both had been waiting. 
 
 Incomparably beautiful are the prophet's in- 
 spired words, when freed from the translator's 
 interpolated words : " Thy dead shall live, my 
 dead body shall they arise " (Isaiah xxvi. 19). The 
 sainted sleepers, though under the deep humili- 
 ation of corruption, he disdains not still to call 
 " my body." Strangers and pilgrims in the 
 earth, they have pitched their tents in the grave 
 for a night, saying with their Lord : " Moreover, 
 my flesh shall tabernacle in hope." And the first 
 incident in the advent consummation will be the 
 
240 ECCE VENiT. 
 
 summons for these sojourners in the tomb to 
 strike their tents, and, with the living, to take 
 up their march to meet the coming Bridegroom 
 in the air. " For this corruptible must put on 
 incorruption, and this mortal must put on immor- 
 tality." Here we must believe in no mere skillful 
 balancing of inspired rhetoric, but a double desig- 
 nation to distinguish a double company, — those 
 that are dead and those that are alive at the com- 
 ing of Christ. For whether or not the first mem- 
 ber of the sentence describes those whose flesh 
 has seen corruption, the second member unques- 
 tionably applies to the living and their change : 
 " So when this corruptible shall have put on in- 
 corruption, and this mortal shall have put on 
 immortality, then shall be brought to pass the 
 saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in 
 victory." 1 For then those upon the earth under 
 sentence of death, and those in the earth under 
 
 1 Lange's Commentary criticises Bengel's view of this passage, 
 that "the epithets 'corruptible' and 'mortal' (i Cor. xv. 53) 
 are to be distinguished as though the former applied to the dead 
 and the latter to the living." But though the first word, (p6apr6s, 
 — corruptible, — may refer to the living, its cognate forms, em- 
 ployed in verses 42 and 52, apply to the dead. And we thence 
 infer that " this corruptible " designates the same class. " This 
 mortal" — Qv7\r6s, — on the contrary, is defined in the Thayer- 
 Grimm Greek Lexicon to mean " subject to death, and so still liv- 
 ing" 1 (cf. Rom. vi. 12; viii. 2; 2 Cor. iv. 2; v. 4). We think 
 Bengel's view is reasonable, and not fanciful. 
 
THE TRANSLATION OF THE CHURCH. 241 
 
 the dominion of death, will shout together their 
 triumph over the last enemy. 
 
 As the daily watchers for the Lord's return, it 
 is our dear hope that we may be in the company 
 who shall not see death. This was the aspiration 
 of Paul, expressed in the words : " Not for that 
 we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that 
 mortality might be swallowed up of life." He 
 speaks not here of resurrection, but of transfigu- 
 ration ; not of death swallowed up in victory, but 
 of the swifter and more immediate transition of 
 mortality swallowed up of life. With the secret 
 wherewith he comforted others — " Behold, I 
 show you a mystery : we shall not all sleep, but 
 we shall all be changed " — he now comforts him- 
 self, while groaning and burdened in this taber- 
 nacle. It is the most thrilling thought conceiv- 
 able for those who are all their lifetime subject 
 to bondage through fear of death, that, instead of 
 being unclothed by the ghastly hands of death, 
 they may be clothed upon by the transfiguring 
 touch of life ; that, instead of the winding-sheet 
 of the grave, there may be the immediate en- 
 swathement of the garments of glory. But to 
 whichever company we may belong, the shout of 
 triumph will be ours : " O Death, where is thy 
 sting ? O Grave, where is thy victory ? " 
 
 Reunion with the descending Saviour is the 
 
242 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 first experience in the great transaction. " Caught 
 up to meet the Lord in the air," — these words 
 are crowded with suggestion, since they always 
 signify to meet and return with. As the dis- 
 ciples in Rome went out to meet Paul when they 
 heard of his approach, and accompanied him to 
 the city ; as the wise virgins are pictured as go- 
 ing forth to meet the bridegroom and attending 
 him to the house of the bride, — so by the same 
 form of speech it is here implied that the Church 
 will be raptured away to join the Lord on His 
 advancing way, and escort Him back to the 
 earth. 1 It is not true, as some have judged from 
 this passage, either that the Lord comes no fur- 
 ther than the upper air, or that believers depart 
 forever from this lower world. This is rather 
 the Redeemer's royal return to the earth. We 
 remember how, on the visit of a great general 
 to our city, — after he had conquered peace and 
 saved the country, — a delegation of our most 
 honored citizens went out a few miles beyond the 
 borders of the town to welcome and conduct him 
 to the metropolis. Thus will God's elect, the 
 
 1 Acts xxviii. 15 ; Matt. xxv. 6. The phrase of our text — els 
 b,TT<xvTi)<nv — is used in both these other instances, and nowhere 
 else in the New Testament. The circumstances in each case 
 define its meaning, showing it to signify, as Alford says, " meet- 
 ing one who is approaching, not merely meeting with a person." 
 
THE TRANSLATION OF THE CHURCH. 243 
 
 transfigured Bride of Christ, go forth at the 
 sound of the trumpet to meet the Bridegroom 
 upon the suburbs of our globe, to attend Him 
 earthward. 
 
 Triumphal entry, indeed ! Earth, that once 
 rejected her Lord, and sent Him back alone to 
 heaven with five wounds upon His person, will 
 furnish a majestic convoy for His return. " The 
 glorious company of the apostles, the noble army 
 of martyrs, the Holy Church throughout all the 
 world," — these, whom the world knew not, even 
 as it knew Him not, now raised and transfig- 
 ured, will constitute an innumerable white-robed 
 retinue to attend Him onward as He comes at 
 last to accomplish the restitution of all things. 
 And yet, so far as we can read the outlines of 
 prophecy, we infer that there will be a pause in 
 the march of this descending procession, — how 
 long we do not conjecture, — while the advent 
 judgments are visited upon Christendom. For 
 observe in the prophet Isaiah that, following the 
 summons of the dead, "Awake and sing, ye that 
 dwell in the dust," there is the gracious call : 
 "Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, 
 and sJint thy doors about thee ; hide thyself, as it 
 zvere, for a little moment, until the indignation be 
 overpast. For, bcJwld, the Lord comet h out of His 
 place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their 
 
244 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 iniquity : the earth also shall disclose Jier blood, 
 and shall no more cover her slain" (Isaiah xxvi. 
 20, 21). As Noah was hidden in the ark when 
 the judgment of the flood came upon the earth ; 
 as the disciples, being forewarned by Christ, were 
 sheltered in the hill-top of Pella, beyond Jordan, 
 during the bloody siege in which Jerusalem per- 
 ished, — so shall it be with those who are ac- 
 counted worthy to escape the judgments poured 
 out upon apostate Christendom. They shall be 
 wrapped away in a sheltering pavilion of cloud, 
 and hidden in some angel - guarded retreat on 
 high, where the apostle's word shall be fulfilled to 
 them : "And to you who are troubled, rest with 
 ?is, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from 
 heaven, with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, 
 taking vengeance on them that know not God 
 and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ " (2 Thess. i. 7, 8). 
 
 As to the deep questions of when ? and how ? 
 connected with this transporting theme, we must 
 not speak dogmatically. We get suggestive hints, 
 however, from type and parallel, as well as from 
 literal prophecy. " Enoch, the seventh from Adam, 
 prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord 
 cometh with ten thousand of His saints " (Jude 
 14). He not only prophesied, but was himself a 
 prophecy, — a literal prototype of those who shall 
 
THE TRANSLATION OE THE CHURCH 245 
 
 be translated and not see death. As he was the 
 "seventh from Adam," these raptured ones, we 
 expect, will belong to the seventh millennium 
 from creation ; and as the history of his change 
 is condensed into these brief words, " And he was 
 not, for God took him" so will theirs be. Um 
 heralded and unnoted by the great busy world, 
 so far as we can judge, will be this transaction. 
 " Behold, I come as a thief ! " says our Lord. 
 Not one of the sleeping household saw the mid^ 
 night robber as he crept in and snatched the jew- 
 els, and silently stole away. " And they shall be 
 mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when 
 I make up my jewels" (Mai. iii. 17). But the 
 world will not know its loss until they are gone, 
 the wheat gathered in and the tares left ; the 
 jewels snatched away and the casket remaining. 
 Then, at last, will they " discern between the 
 righteous and the wicked, between him that serv- 
 eth God and him that serveth Him not," as the 
 day has now come that burns as an oven, "in 
 which all that do wickedly shall be stubble," and 
 the Lord sits "as a refiner and purifier of sil- 
 ver." True, it is written that "the trumpet shall 
 sound" at the ushering in of this great transac- 
 tion ; but as the outer world has not heard the 
 Apocalyptic trumpets as they have successively 
 sounded, they may not hear " the sound of the 
 
246 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 last trump." True, it is said also, that "the 
 Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a 
 shout;" but this Kekevafia, or summons, may be 
 only for the ears of the faithful, who, like a re- 
 treating army, shall now be silently withdrawn 
 from a judgment-doomed Christendom. 
 
 And yet, upon this whole question of a secret 
 rapture, we would speak with reserve, knowing 
 that there are scriptures which give a different 
 impression. But the event itself, hidden or man- 
 ifest, is a most inspiring one in the influence 
 which it carries. "The translation of Enoch," 
 says Dr. Owen, " is a divine testimony that the 
 body itself is capable of eternal life." And this 
 transaction, like Peter's vision, has been thrice 
 repeated, — in the Patriarchal age by Enoch ; in 
 the Prophetic age by Elijah ; and in the Gospel 
 age by Christ, — that we might not forget the 
 lesson which it teaches. 1 With such a vision 
 before our eyes, we should cease talking of the 
 immortality of the soul, as though we knew not 
 
 1 " Xot infrequently we substitute for the fullness of the Chris- 
 tian creed the purely philosophical conception of an immortality 
 of the sou], which destroys, as we shall see hereafter, the idea 
 of the continuance of our distinct personal existence. Nothing 
 is more common than to hear it assumed that the soul is the 
 whole self. Yet nothing can be more clear upon reflection than 
 that the only self of which we are conscious is made up of soul 
 and body." — Westcott, Gospel of the Resurrection, pp. 6, 138. 
 
THE TRANSLATION OF THE CHURCH 247 
 
 that God had provided some better thing for us. 
 It is a lamentable apostasy from Paulism to Pla- 
 tonism to substitute the hope of being " un- 
 clothed " for that of being "clothed upon." 
 
 Let philosophers dream of a naked immortality 
 as man's highest estate in the life to come, but 
 we will be content with nothing less than God's 
 full provision of this mortal putting on immortal- 
 ity. Therefore the conception of the body as the 
 spirit's clog and prison-house should find no place 
 in a Christian eschatology. It may, indeed, some- 
 times be so in our present fallen and disordered 
 condition. But the transfiguration will forever 
 abolish such an anomaly, giving us a winged body 
 in the place of a weighted spirit. If heathen 
 moralism spoke the best it knew in the famous 
 saying of Plotinus, that "he was thankful he was 
 not tied to an immortal body," let not Christianity 
 fail to speak the best it knows in the rejoicing of 
 its disciples that they shall be untied, indeed, 
 from this mortal, but only to be translated in an 
 immortal body : " They shall mount up with wings 
 as eagles ; they shall run and not be weary ; they 
 shall walk and not faint." 
 
VI. 
 
 THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB. 
 
 The bridal relationship of the Church to her 
 Lord is so profound an idea that we are not sur- 
 prised to find its roots deeply embedded in the 
 history and prophecy and poetry of the Old Tes- 
 tament. Not to dwell upon the typical fore- 
 shadowings of this truth contained in the story of 
 Abraham's servant seeking a bride for Isaac, and 
 of Jacob's seven years' service for Rachel ; and 
 not to enlarge upon the gracious words of Jehovah 
 to His people, " I will betroth them unto Me for- 
 ever; and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the 
 bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee," — we 
 find in the Canticles the most complete and vivid 
 setting forth of this conception. The central idea 
 of the Song of Solomon is the same as that of the 
 Apocalypse. According to Ewald, the commen- 
 tator, who has given the most subtle analysis of 
 this exquisite poem, the plot is this : " On the 
 one hand, a king in all the splendors of his glory, 
 transported with admiration, overflowing with 
 passion ; on the other, the poor and simple shep- 
 herd to whom the Shulamite has plighted her 
 
THE MARK r AGE OF THE LAMB. 249 
 
 faith ; the former present, the latter absent ; the 
 maiden called to decide freely between these two 
 rivals. Such is the conflict in all its moral 
 grandeur." 
 
 Translating Oriental poetry into Apocalyptic 
 symbolism, the Book of Revelation yields us the 
 same conception. 1 Immanuel, the Shepherd 
 Bridegroom, feeding His flock in Paradise, is ever 
 sending word to His espoused Church on earth, 
 "Behold, I come quickly." But she, in her long 
 waiting, is constantly solicited and wooed by 
 royal suitors — purple and gold and precious 
 stones being offered her — to withdraw her heart 
 from her heavenly Consort, and to accept a 
 throne with the kings of the earth. The harlot 
 bride, a fallen daughter of God, clothed with 
 scarlet and decked with jewels, and living in for- 
 nication with the rulers of this world, appears 
 upon the scene, hating and hunting this unsullied 
 spouse of Christ and driving her into exile. But 
 in spite of all these trials of her faith on the one 
 hand, and all these solicitations of kings and 
 these proffers of Solomonic wealth and splendor 
 on the other, her heart is still true to her absent 
 
 1 "The Seer 
 That, ere he died, saw all the grievous times 
 Of the fair Bride — who with the lance and nails 
 Was won," — Dante. 
 
ECCE VENIT. 
 
 Lord, and her noble answer is, " Many waters 
 cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown 
 it ; if a man would give all the substance of his 
 house for love it would be utterly contemned" 
 (Cant. viii. 7). 
 
 And yet the trial is one of intense and pro- 
 tracted severity. Her Lord delays His return 
 long beyond her expectation ; and the world 
 mocks at her bridal hope, incredulously asking, 
 "Where is the sign of His coming?" Beside, it 
 is an invisible and far-off Lover to whom her 
 heart is plighted, one who appears only in visions 
 of hope, and "who in His sublime austerity 
 scorns to use any sensuous means for attracting 
 His people to Himself." In a word, her choice 
 must be between an earthly Solomon, crowned 
 with present glory and honor, and the Beloved 
 whom the world has rejected, and who now stands 
 without, knocking, His head wet with the dews 
 of the night. " Sometimes He comes down and 
 manifests Himself to the eyes of her faith. She 
 sees Him as in a dream ; she delights herself 
 spiritually with His presence, — then suddenly 
 He vanishes. And then once more she is alone, 
 carrying on the contest with Solomon, who draws 
 near in all his pomp, and tries to cast his spell 
 upon her. But she remains faithful to Him who 
 is invisible ; she sees the moment approaching in 
 
THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB. 251 
 
 which, the true love of her God having won the 
 victory in her heart over all the arts of the se- 
 ducer, she will be fetched away by Him, and — 
 more fortunate in this respect than the Shulamite 
 herself — will be able to follow Him to those 
 spiced mountains where He pastures His flock 
 amongst the lilies." 1 
 
 That moment has now come ; the Bridegroom 
 appears in the clouds of heaven to take His be- 
 trothed one to Himself; and this is "the mar- 
 riage of the Lamb." 
 
 For mark the significant fact, that the Church 
 is only affianced to Christ as yet, not married. 
 " / have espoused you to one husband that I may 
 present you as a chaste virgin to Christ" writes 
 Paul to the Corinthians, speaking by the Holy 
 Ghost. All through the time of His absence 
 "the Spirit and the Bride say, Come." But not 
 until He appears in glory, and translates the 
 Church, does the Bride become the wife : "Come 
 hither and I will show thee the Bride, the Lamb 's 
 wife." The convent language, therefore, in which 
 the veiled nun is declared to be "wedded to 
 Christ," is entirely foreign to the teaching of 
 Scripture. For these holy nuptials are not with 
 the individual, but with the whole Church, and 
 therefore they cannot be consummated till all the 
 
 1 Godetj Studies on the Old Testament, p. 329. 
 
252 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 faithful — the quick and the dead — are brought 
 into one company. As long as the Saviour is 
 still absent from His people, it is the Church's 
 fast-day, not her feast-day. " Can the children 
 of the bride-chamber fast while the Bridegroom 
 is with them ? As long as they have the Bride- 
 groom with them they cannot fast. But the days 
 will come when the Bridegroom shall be taken 
 away from them ; then shall they fast, in those 
 days" (Mark ii. 19, 20). This describes the pres- 
 ent attitude of the Church, — one of patient 
 waiting and chastened sobriety " till He come." 
 As often as she breaks the bread and drinks 
 the cup, she may say to her Lord : " Thou pre- 
 parest a table before me in tlie presence of mine 
 enemies" But not yet are His words fulfilled to 
 her : " That ye may eat and drink at My table, in 
 My kingdom" All attempts at premature wed- 
 lock with Christ, by making the communion a 
 feast of His "real presence," instead of a fast for 
 His real absence, does violence to that virgin- 
 instinct of the Church which knows that there 
 can be no true nuptials until the Bridegroom 
 comes, as there can be no real reign of the saints 
 until the King appears. 
 
 For where is the true Bride of Christ at this 
 time ? Before the face of her enemy she has 
 " fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place 
 
THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB. 253 
 
 prepared of God, that they should feed her there, 
 a thousand two hundred and threescore days " 
 (Rev. xii. 6). The time of the Harlot's enthrone- 
 ment is the time of the Bride's exile ; while the 
 one is sharing a crown with the princes of this 
 world, who crucified the Lord of glory, the other 
 is sharing rejection with Him whom the world 
 knew not. What pathetic sorrows are hers dur- 
 ing all this wilderness period ! Because she will 
 not be seduced from her bridal affection, all man- 
 ner of opprobrium is heaped upon her. Even 
 the watchmen, when they find her, smite her 
 and wound her, and the keepers of the walls take 
 away her veil from her. But in spite of all vio- 
 lence and scorn of men, her heart is with the 
 absent Bridegroom, saying : " I charge you, O 
 daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my Beloved, 
 that ye tell Him that I am sick of love." 
 
 " My heart is with Him on the throne, 
 And ill can brook delay ; 
 Each moment listening for His voice : 
 ' Rise up and come away.' " 
 
 But now the long hoped-for consummation has 
 arrived. The cry, " Behold, the Bridegroom com- 
 eth, go ye out to meet Him," sounds upon the 
 air. She who kept her garments unspotted from 
 the world is ready to be married, and stands 
 clothed in her wedding vesture : she, also, who 
 
254 ECCE VENJT. 
 
 lived wantonly with the kings of the earth, is 
 ready to be condemned, and stands "arrayed in 
 purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold 
 and precious stones." Hardly has the "Alleluia" 
 over the judgment of "the great Harlot which 
 did corrupt the earth with her fornication " died 
 away, before another is heard : "Alleluia, for the 
 Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad, 
 and rejoice, and give honor to Him : for the 
 marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath 
 made herself ready" (Rev. xix. 6, 7). It is the 
 hour of blissful fruition for the waiting Bride : 
 " Who is this that comet Ji up from the wilderness 
 leaning upon Iter beloved?" (Cant. viii. 5.) Who, 
 indeed, but she whose countenance was often 
 bedewed with tears, whose feet were often torn 
 with the thorns of the desert through which her 
 enemies pursued her ? But now the reproach of 
 her widowhood is taken away, the bridal veil is 
 upon her face, and the nuptial joy is in her 
 heart. 
 
 The end of the Redeemer's spousal love is at 
 last made manifest : " Husbands, love your wives, 
 even as Christ also loved the Church and gave 
 Himself for it," writes the apostle. And to what 
 purpose was this divine affection? "That He 
 might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing 
 of water by the word ; " this is what he is now 
 
THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB. 255 
 
 accomplishing by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. 
 "That He might present it to Himself, a glorious 
 Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such 
 thing, but that it should be holy and without 
 blemish" (Eph. v. 25-27): this is what He is 
 yet to accomplish by the ministry of His second 
 coming. How striking the language ! " Himself 
 to Himself," — avrbs eauro", — " Christ permits 
 neither attendants nor paranymphs to present 
 the Bride; He alone presents, He receives." 1 
 And He gives her to Himself in completed sanc- 
 tification and transfigured beauty. St. Paul was 
 jealous over the Corinthian Christians, that he 
 "might present them as a chaste virgin to Christ." 
 But Immanuel receives this virgin not only as 
 chaste, but as chastened ; not only as sanctified 
 through trial, but as at last glorified through rap- 
 ture. Often she may have been tempted to mur- 
 mur at the hardship of her lot, and the severity 
 of her wilderness portion. But all this is not 
 worthy to be compared with the glory that is 
 now revealed in her as she stands at the Bride- 
 groom's side, and hears Him saying to her : " I 
 remember for thee the kindness of thy youth, 
 the love of thine espousal, when thou wentest 
 after me in the wilderness, in a land that is not 
 sown " (Jer. ii. 2, r. v.). 
 
 1 Elliebtt. 
 
256 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 And there is not only a presentation, but a 
 manifestation, in which obscurity and obloquy 
 give place to glory and honor. 
 
 It has happened within our knowledge that a 
 wealthy and cultivated gentleman became affi- 
 anced to a maiden of the lowest and poorest con- 
 dition. Because he had set his love upon her, he 
 took her out of her poverty and ignorance, and 
 sent her to a distant school to be educated and 
 fitted for her appointed sphere. After years of 
 discipline and preparation, he withdrew her from 
 her retreat and brought her to his home, where 
 a splendid reception was given her, and she was 
 publicly introduced into the society in which she 
 was henceforth to move as his wife. Precisely 
 thus has Christ dealt with His Church, — sending 
 her into long wilderness discipline to be trained 
 for her heavenly associations. But now that the 
 time of her humiliation is ended, He brings her 
 forth to receive her visible manifestation and 
 royal dowry. Whereas she has "esteemed the 
 reproach of Christ as greater riches than the 
 treasures of Egypt," now is manifested in her 
 " what is the riches of the glory of His inheri- 
 tance in the saints ; " and whereas she has been 
 counted "the offscouring of all things" for His 
 sake, she is now exalted before the eyes of men 
 and angels with Him who has come " to be glori- 
 
 
THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB. 257 
 
 fied in His saints, and to be admired in all them 
 that believe." In a word, the Bride who has 
 shared her Lord's rejection now shares His 
 throne as the wife of the Lamb, the Queen-con- 
 sort of the King of kings. Here is the crown- 
 ing joy of the redeemed. He and His are no 
 more twain ; but one; the " little while" of their 
 separation is at last swallowed up in the "forever 
 with the Lord." They see His face; His name 
 is in their foreheads ; they hear His voice : " Eat, 
 O friends : drink, yea, drink abundantly, O be- 
 loved." " Blessed are they which are called unto 
 the marriage supper of the Lamb." 
 
VII. 
 
 THE JUDGMENT OF CHRISTENDOM. 
 
 The first resurrection and the rapture of the 
 saints have carried our contemplation heaven- 
 ward ; but it is now recalled to what is passing 
 on the earth. The one transaction is the exact 
 reverse of the other. The Virgin Bride is called 
 upward to the marriage supper of the Lamb ; the 
 apostate Spouse of Christ is now cast down and 
 publicly divorced by her long dishonored Lord. 
 The punishment meted out to her — " These 
 shall hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate 
 and naked, and shall eat her flesh and burn her 
 with fire" (Rev. xvii. 16) — is according to a very 
 ancient law : " And the daughter of any priest, 
 if she profane herself by playing the whore, she 
 profaneth her father : she shall be burnt with fire" 
 (Lev. xxi. 9). This fallen daughter of God has 
 persisted in her fornication with the kings of the 
 earth for centuries ; and they with whom she has 
 glorified herself and lived deliciously now turn 
 against her and become the providential instru- 
 ments of her destruction, saying to the Almighty : 
 
THE JUDGMENT OF CHRISTENDOM. 259 
 
 " Thy daughter-in-law hath played the harlot : 
 bring her forth and let her be burnt " (Gen. 
 xxxviii. 24). Graphic and lifelike to the highest 
 degree are the delineations of the papal apostasy. 
 As the true Church of Christ is set forth under 
 the double similitude of a bride and of a city, so 
 is the false. And one has only closely to compare 
 the details of the harlot's photograph in Rev. xvii. 
 with the lurid painting of Babylon the Great in 
 Rev. xviii. to perceive that the subject is the same 
 in each. The scarlet and purple, the gold and 
 precious stones and pearls, are found in both de- 
 scriptions : the same sin of wantonness with the 
 kings of the earth ; the same indictment of per- 
 secuting God's saints ; and the same doom of 
 being "utterly burned with fire" belong to each. 
 Only in the first portrayal the kings of the earth 
 are seen executing the divine vengeance upon 
 the apostate bride ; while in the second they are 
 represented as bewailing and lamenting her 
 doom, even as a profligate will sometimes weep 
 and mourn over his murdered paramour. 
 
 This judgment seems to be executed in two 
 stages, gradual and sudden, harmonizing with the 
 two stages of the judgment of the Man of Sin as 
 foretold in Thessalonians : "Whom the Lord shall 
 consume with the breath of His mouth, and destroy 
 with the brightness of His coming." 
 
260 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 The first process is described thus : " And the 
 ten horns which thou sawest and the beast, these 
 shall hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate 
 and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and shall burn 
 her with fire" (Rev. xvii. 16). The beast here 
 must be the same which carries the harlot ; it 
 cannot be an individual Antichrist, therefore, else 
 we should have the grotesque figure of the woman 
 riding upon a man, a symbolical monstrosity of 
 which revelation could not be guilty. Besides, 
 there is no precedent in Scripture for making a 
 beast signify an individual man. If Daniel gives 
 the key to Revelation, as is generally admitted, 
 a beast means a dynasty or civil government. It 
 is the body of the beast, the Papal Empire, with 
 its ten kingdoms, including rulers, people, terri- 
 tory, and dominion, that is here evidently meant. 
 These that have long supported the harlot church 
 now turn and rend her. It is useless to say that 
 by identifying the papacy with the beast, this 
 verse would compel the conclusion that the 
 Roman Pope finally destroys the Roman Church. 
 There is a Head and a Body of the true Church ; 
 the Head is called The Christ, 6 Xpio-Tos (i Cor. 
 xi. 13), and the Body is called The Christ, 6 X/hotcs 
 (1 Cor. xii. 12) ; but it does not follow, therefore, 
 that when it is said that " Christ loved the Church 
 and gave Himself for it," we must conclude that 
 
THE JUDGMENT OF CHRISTENDOM. 261 
 
 He loved Himself and gave Himself for Him- 
 self ; for though Christ and the Church are mys- 
 tically one, their actions and offices are separable. 
 So the papacy, as head of the Roman Empire in 
 its ten-kingdomed condition, is called the beast 
 (Rev. xiii. 4, 5, 6) ; and the empire itself, as the 
 body, is called the beast (Rev. xvii. 3). But 
 though symbolically one, their actions and career 
 are distinguishable. It is clearly the body of the 
 beast that is figured as carrying and supporting 
 the harlot, — the Roman Empire under the sway 
 of the Roman Church, the empire supporting the 
 Church, and the Church ruling the empire. But 
 when the consuming judgments begin, this is 
 changed. Just what was predicted, we have lived 
 to see, — the kingdoms once subject to the papacy 
 snapping their concordats and alliances, till the 
 woman's bit and bridle are utterly broken ; those 
 kingdoms turning upon her and stripping her of 
 her endowments, rejecting her authority, and 
 tearing away her territory. So we have beheld 
 it wonderfully come to pass in these latter days. 
 Events often constitute an indisputable exegesis. 
 So long ago as a. d. 1607, Brightman, the com- 
 mentator, " searching what and what manner of 
 time " the Spirit signified by this prophecy, con- 
 cluded that about a. d. 1800 the dismantlement 
 of the Roman Church would begin. In August, 
 
262 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 1797, the French ambassador in Rome wrote to 
 Napoleon : " Discontent is at its height in the 
 papal states ; the government will fall to pieces 
 of itself. We are making it consume by a slow 
 fire. It will soon crumble into dust." The next 
 year the papal government was overthrown, and 
 an infidel democracy reared on its ruins. " The 
 churches and convents," says Alison, " the 
 palaces of the cardinals and nobility, were laid 
 waste. The spoliation exceeded all that the 
 Goths and Vandals had effected." x A further 
 exhibition of the same process of consumption we 
 have witnessed, especially in Italy and in France, 
 since the recent loss of the pope's temporal 
 power. 
 
 Then follows a subsequent stage in the retribu- 
 tion, when the awful cry breaks upon our ears : 
 "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great J '" It is 
 history repeating itself. Every age has ended in 
 judgment, and so shall the present dispensation 
 close. As apostate Judaism met its doom in the 
 destruction of Jerusalem ; so apostate Christen- 
 dom expiates its sentence in the overthrow of 
 mystical Babylon. This destruction will fall, we 
 believe, upon the literal city of seven hills, as the 
 visible centre and capital of the apostasy. What 
 other systems beside the papal may be involved 
 
 1 Closing Days of Christendom, Wale, p. 362. 
 
THE JUDGMENT OE CHRISTENDOM. 263 
 
 in the judgment is a most solemn question to be 
 pondered. It is plainly intimated that the mother 
 has daughters, and therefore that Babylon the 
 Great has outlying suburbs which are in fellow- 
 ship with her. Let him that readeth understand. 
 The extent of this judgment needs to be carefully 
 considered, since some would discredit the plain 
 interpretation which we follow, by declaring that 
 it implies the consigning of every subject of the 
 pope to perdition, as it is declared that " if any 
 man worship the beast and his image, and receive 
 his mark in his forehead or in his hand," he shall 
 be consigned to everlasting punishment. But 
 here the analogy of previous judgments throws 
 striking light. Before the doom of fire and brim- 
 stone fell upon Sodom, the warning was sounded, 
 — " Up ! get thee out of this place, for the Lord 
 will destroy this city;" and heeding the call, some 
 were found sheltered in little Zoar ere the burn- 
 ing rain descended. So, likewise, before Jerusa- 
 lem was destroyed, the Saviour's previous admo- 
 nition was enforced : " Then let them which be in 
 Judea flee to the mountains ; " and the holy seed 
 gained refuge from the awful slaughter in the 
 hilltop of Pella. 
 
 The Apocalypse predicts a similar warning be- 
 fore the fall of Babylon : " Come out of her, my 
 people, that ye be not partakers of her sins." 
 
264 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 This summons, we believe, is synchronous, or 
 nearly so, with the descending of the Lord in 
 glory (Rev. xviii. 4). We conclude this because 
 the Church is summoned to exercise judgment, — 
 " Reward Iter even as she rewarded you, and 
 double unto Jier according to her works " — which 
 she is everywhere forbidden to do in her present 
 suffering state, but which she is to do at the 
 time of her reign and judgment with Christ at 
 His coming in glory. Before the sentence goes 
 forth, " Babylon the Great is fallen," the gracious 
 call of separation will have been sounded : " Come 
 forth, my people, out of her," and then " they that 
 are Christ's at His coming," whether hitherto in 
 Babylon or without her, whether in their graves 
 or living on the earth, will be caught up to meet 
 the Lord in the air, where, standing with the 
 Lamb upon Mount Zion with the hundred and 
 forty -four thousand having the Father's name 
 written in their foreheads, they shall see afar off 
 the doom of such as persisted in worshiping the 
 beast and wearing his name upon their brows. 
 As some true saints of God have been found in 
 Rome during all her history, so we doubt not it 
 will be to the end. But overwhelming doom 
 will fall upon such as persevere in their idola- 
 tries after this last warning cry shall have been 
 sounded. If then "any man is worshiping the 
 
THE JUDGMENT OF CHRISTENDOM. 265 
 
 beast, and receiving his mark on his forehead or 
 upon his hand," "the same shall drink of the 
 wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out 
 without mixture into the cup of his indignation " x 
 (Rev. xiv. 9). 
 
 Hark the song of exultation breaking forth 
 from heaven ! A great voice of much people — 
 of myriads whose blood the harlot drank — is 
 now heard saying: "Alleluia! salvation, and glory, 
 and honor, and power unto the Lord our God. 
 For true and righteous are His judgments ; for 
 He hath judged the great whore which did cor- 
 rupt the earth with her fornication, and hath 
 avenged the blood of His servants at her hand " 
 (Rev. xix. 2). And immediately a triumphal pro- 
 cession is seen moving forth from the direction 
 whence comes the song : " And I saw heaven 
 opened, and behold a white horse ; and He that 
 sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and 
 
 " Covetous Babylon of wrath divine, 
 By its worst crimes, has drained the full cup now. 
 
 Her idols shall be shattered in the dust, 
 Her proud towers, enemies of heaven, be hurled, 
 Her wardens into flames and exile thrust. 
 Fair souls and friends of virtue shall the world 
 Possess in peace ; and we shall see it made 
 All gold, and fully its old works displayed." 
 
 Petrarch, 1304- 1374. 
 
266 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 in righteousness doth He judge and make war" 
 (Rev. xix. u). This majestic rider we met at 
 the very opening of Apocalyptic history (vi. 2), 
 but then He was going forth in peaceful con- 
 quest : " And I saw, and behold a white horse, 
 and He that sat upon him had a bow," — " Thou 
 didst ride upon thine horses, upon thy chariots of 
 salvation : thy bow was made quite bare " (Hab. 
 iii. 9), "and a crown was given unto Him." This 
 is the " Stephanos" the crown which in Scripture 
 is so repeatedly set before the Christian as the 
 prize for his spiritual overcoming, and which is 
 fitly worn by Him who in the days of His flesh 
 could say, " I have overcome the world." "And 
 He went forth conquering and in order to con- 
 quer" ■ — not only to effect the present victories of 
 redemption, but to win the ultimate sovereignty 
 of the world. 
 
 This final conquest has now arrived ; for as 
 the white-horse rider comes forth from heaven, 
 we behold, " and on His head were many crowns." 
 Not the Stephanos now, but the diadema is the 
 symbol of His supremacy. The kingdom of the 
 world has become the kingdom of our Lord and 
 of his Christ ; and all the crowns of all the kings 
 have passed over upon His brow. The long suc- 
 cession of world-wide monarchies which we be- 
 held in Daniel's vision has intervened ; the stone 
 
THE JUDGMENT OF CHRISTENDOM. 267 
 
 cut out of the mountain without hands now 
 smites the image upon its feet, and itself fills the 
 whole world. How striking the picture of the 
 final transfer of earth's sovereignty to Immanuel ! 
 To Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the first 
 in this line of universal monarchs, God said : 
 " Thou, O king, art a king of kings " (Dan. ii. 37). 
 Now that this bloody line terminates in the over- 
 throw of mystical Babylon — whose sovereign, 
 the pope, has long arrogated both temporal and 
 ecclesiastical supremacy — Messiah takes up both 
 the successions and also takes the long abused 
 title attaching thereto: "And He hath on His 
 vesture and on His thigh a name written, King of 
 kings and Lord of lords" (Rev. xix. 16). 
 
 It is necessary here to explain how this judg- 
 ment of Christendom is related to that of the 
 world as a whole. This will only be possible by 
 giving careful attention to the law of prophetic 
 perspective which rules so constantly in the di- 
 vine predictions. That wondrous judgment par- 
 able of our Lord, recorded in the twenty-fifth 
 of Matthew, seems to be opened out by later rev- 
 elations so as to have an age-long reach. Resur- 
 rection and judgment are counterparts ; and as 
 the rising of the dead, foretold by Christ in the 
 Gospel of John (v. 28), though seeming to be a 
 simultaneous event for the righteous and for the 
 
268 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 wicked, — " The hour is coming in the which all 
 that are in the graves shall hear His voice and 
 shall come forth : they that have done good, unto 
 the resurrection of life ; and they that have done 
 evil, unto the resurrection of damnation " — is 
 shown in the later Revelation of John to take 
 place in two stages a thousand years apart : so 
 the judgments in which these respective resurrec- 
 tions issue are separated by an entire millennium 
 Laying the prophecy of the xxvth of Matthew 
 alongside this of the vth of John, we judge that 
 they exactly harmonize ; that the time when the 
 Son of man shall " sit upon the throne of His 
 glory " is the whole millennial period ; that the 
 time when the righteous dead shall hear the King 
 say unto them, " Come, ye blessed of my Father, 
 inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the 
 foundation of the world," is at the coming of 
 Christ in the beginning of the millennium, which 
 is " the resurrection of life : " that time when the 
 unrighteous dead shall hear the sentence, " De- 
 part from me, ye cursed, into eternal fire," is at 
 the close of the millennium, which is " the resur- 
 rection of condemnation." While this is so, we 
 should not err in saying that in one sense the 
 judgment of the righteous and of the wicked is 
 simultaneous. For since resurrection is the great 
 declarative act of justification, the coming forth 
 
 MH 
 
THE JUDGMENT OF CHRISTENDOM. 269 
 
 of the righteous from the tomb at the advent of 
 Christ is their open acquittal and vindication be- 
 fore the universe ; while the non-resurrection of 
 the wicked is their silent condemnation, — which 
 silent condemnation, however, is to be made pub- 
 lic and visible at the second resurrection and the 
 great white-throne judgment at the end of the 
 millennium. 
 
 It has been maintained that the scene in the 
 xxvth of Matthew is strictly and only a judgment 
 of the living nations. It is clearly this ; but the 
 question is, whether this prophetic picture of our 
 Lord is not a composite photograph comprehend- 
 ing in a single view all the stages and subjects 
 of the judgment. 
 
 While acknowledging the exceeding difficulty 
 of harmonizing all the texts relating to this sub- 
 ject, we conceive of the great transaction thus : 
 judgment begins at the house of God when the 
 Master of the house returns in the clouds of 
 heaven. Instantly there is a separation of the 
 wheat from the tares ; of the sheep from the 
 goats ; of the Bride from the harlot. By resur- 
 rection and translation, the faithful living and 
 the faithful dead are instantly brought into one 
 company in the skies ; by non-resurrection and 
 devastating judgments, the apostate dead and the 
 apostate living are brought into the other com- 
 
270 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 pany in Hades. Thus, in a moment, in the 
 4~ twinkling of an eye, judgment is pronounced for 
 both classes. 
 
 Now the reward of the righteous begins. 
 That manifestation predicted in the words, " For 
 we must all appear before the judgment-seat of 
 Christ, that every one may receive the things 
 done in his body according to that which he hath 
 done, whether it be good or bad," at last takes 
 place. This is not a judgment of believers as to 
 the question of life or death ; into such judgment 
 it is distinctly declared they do not enter : " Ver- 
 ily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth My 
 word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath 
 everlasting life, and shall not come into condem- 
 nation," — KpCa-iv, judgment) — " but is passed from 
 death unto life " (John v. 24). The first resur- 
 — rection is itself the award of life ; and they who 
 now stand in their risen and immortal bodies 
 have passed beyond all possible inquisition con- 
 cerning the inheritance of life eternal. But into 
 strict and solemn investigation concerning their 
 works they do now come ; for at length is that 
 Scripture fulfilled : " Every man's work shall be 
 made manifest ; for the day shall declare it, be- 
 cause it shall be revealed by fire ; and the fire 
 shall try every man's work of what sort it is " (1 
 Cor. iii. 13). Doubtless there will stand before 
 
THE JUDGMENT OF CHRISTENDOM. 271 
 
 the Lord in that day many who are saved but 
 unrewarded, redeemed by the precious blood of 
 Christ, but not recompensed at the resurrection 
 of the just ; their works burned up as worthless, 
 but themselves saved so as by fire (1 Cor. iii. 15). 
 But to such as have borne the cross and endured 
 hardness, this is the time of reward : " Behold, I 
 come quickly and my reward is with me to give 
 to every man according as his work shall be." 
 And this recompense we believe will consist in 
 no vague and transcendental joys of song, and 
 rapture, and repose. That repeated strain in the 
 parable which follows that of the ten virgins — 
 " Well done, good and faithful servant : thou hast 
 been faithful over a few things, / will make thee 
 — ruler over many things' 1 — seems to indicate the 
 nature of the saints' inheritance. Reigning with 
 Christ over the earth throughout the millennium, 
 their rank in His manifested kingdom will be 
 according to their fidelity during the time of His 
 absence. In the judgment of the nations which 
 now follows, they will be associated with their 
 Lord, — " Know ye not that the saints shall judge 
 the world?" (1 Cor. vi. 2) — and in their nearness 
 to Him in honor and authority will consist the 
 greatness of their reward. It is not necessary to 
 believe that the saints' reward will be altogether 
 earthly or civil, but nevertheless there is a mean- 
 
272 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 ing which must not be spiritualized away in the 
 beatitude of our Lord : " Blessed are the meek, 
 for they shall inherit the earth " (Matt. v. 5) ; and 
 in the award of the nobleman returning from a 
 far country to set up his kingdom : " Well, thou 
 good servant: because thou hast been faithful in 
 a very little, have tJwic authority over ten cities" 
 (Luke xix. 17). 
 
 At the end of the millennium occurs the sec- 
 ond resurrection. So far as there is a quicken- 
 ing of "the rest of the dead " — those left behind 
 at the sound of the advent trumpet a thousand 
 years before — it is strictly a " resurrection unto 
 judgment." Here, in the vision of the great white 
 throne which follows, we find " the book of life " 
 opened, and "whosoever was not found written 
 in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." 
 Those whose names were in the book have 
 already been living and reigning with Christ a 
 thousand years ; therefore, unless we think of 
 them as now leaving their thrones and crowns, 
 and coming before the bar of God to be tried for 
 their lives, we cannot conceive of their being the 
 subjects of this solemn inquisition : and as we 
 have already seen, the Scripture declares that 
 they will not be, since they have already passed 
 from death unto life, and come not into judgment. 
 
 But, holding that the righteous and unright- 
 
THE JUDGMENT OF CHRISTENDOM. 273 
 
 cous still die during the millennium, it appears 
 that there will be saints as well as sinners in the 
 second resurrection. Hence there will be for 
 such a judgment of works when the assize of the 
 great white throne and of Him that sits on it shall 
 open. How solemnly, therefore, it reads : " And 
 the sea gave up the dead which were in it ; and 
 death and hell delivered up the dead which were 
 in them, and they were judged every man accord- 
 ing to their works ! " (Rev. xxi. 13.) 
 
 Such seems to be the order as we gaze through 
 the long and solemn perspective of the judgment 
 scene ; but if our readers shall put a question- 
 mark against many of our conclusions, we shall 
 not be surprised. There is a massing of shad- 
 ows and a concentration of mystery about the 
 whole scene which invest it with unutterable awe. 
 We are willing to leave the shadows unlifted and 
 the mystery unsolved, if, " knowing therefore the 
 terror of the Lord," we may "persuade men." 
 
VIII. 
 
 THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL. 
 
 There is a fragment of Jewish legend that has 
 floated down to us, which represents two venera- 
 ble rabbis as musing among the ruins of Jerusa- 
 lem after its destruction. One is giving way to 
 unrestrained lamentation, saying : " Alas ! alas ! 
 this is the end of all. Our beautiful city is no 
 more, our Temple is laid waste, our brethren are 
 driven away into captivity." The other, with 
 greater cheerfulness, replies : " True ; but let us 
 learn from the verity of God's judgments, which 
 we behold about us, the certainty of His mercies. 
 He hath said, ' I will destroy Jerusalem,' and we 
 see that He hath done it. But hath He not also 
 said, ' I will rebuild Jerusalem,' and shall we not 
 believe Him ? " 
 
 This is a correct method of reasoning, and one 
 which we would commend to Gentile doctors as 
 well as to Hebrew rabbis. A literal fulfillment 
 of threatenings upon Israel argues a literal fulfill- 
 ment of promises. The sorrowful and ill-starred 
 history of the Jewish race since the dispersion 
 has been the theme of constant reflection among 
 
 ■■^h 
 
THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL. 275 
 
 thoughtful men. It is not merely the fact of 
 their unparalleled sufferings which has arrested 
 attention, but the evidence of a providential 
 method, if we may say so, running through those 
 sufferings, the appearance of their history having 
 been woven at every point to the pattern of some 
 hidden decree. Persecution which would have 
 blotted out any other nation seems in their 
 case to have been so blended and tempered with 
 divine preservatives, that, like that symbol of 
 their Jehovah, the burning bush, they present the 
 astonishing spectacle of a nation always girdled 
 about with the fires of judgment, but never con- 
 sumed. Scattered like dust to the four winds, 
 they have yet preserved their national unity as 
 firm and compact as a rock ; driven out of their 
 land, and kept from it by an inexorable decree, 
 they have beheld their supplanters guarding with 
 scrupulous care their most sacred shrines, as 
 though unconsciously waiting to surrender them 
 back to them on the expiration of their lease ; so 
 utterly homeless that they have had no city or 
 foot of land for centuries which they could call 
 their own, they have, nevertheless, been the 
 bankers of the world, as though destined always 
 to have on deposit the wealth needful for restor- 
 ing the desolations of Zion, if the hour for such 
 restoration were to come. This mingling of 
 
276 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 mercy and misfortune in their career has consti- 
 tuted the Jewish race the paradox and miracle 
 of modern history. It has awakened a constant 
 curiosity and speculation in the minds of the 
 thoughtful as to their future. Incomparably dark 
 as has been their history for eighteen hundred 
 years, men have been constrained to see in that 
 darkness the shadow of Jehovah's hand turned 
 over them for their protection and preservation ! 
 And in the very sharpness of the judgments that 
 have overtaken them, not a few have discerned 
 the presage of a future glory far surpassing any- 
 thing in the past. 
 
 Have we thought what an undertone of hope 
 there is even in the divine condemnations of the 
 Jews? The single word "until" constitutes a 
 kind of epitomized prophecy of Israel's restora- 
 tion. The picture which our Lord gives in the 
 gospels of the destruction of the Holy City and 
 the dispersion of the Jews is one of the darkest 
 in all Scripture. What a massing of the shadows 
 of doom ; what a crowding together of successive 
 chapters of woe ! And yet, as we reach the mid- 
 dle of that sentence which summarizes whole cen- 
 turies of divine retribution, "Jerusalem shall be 
 trodden of the Gentiles until the times of the 
 Gentiles be fulfilled," we are conscious of a cer- 
 tain powerful relief from the strain that has been 
 
 ■H^iHl 
 
THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL. 277 
 
 put upon us. "Until" — amid the dense sur- 
 rounding darkness, this one word fairly gleams 
 with the promise of a better future for the suffer- 
 ing race. It is only a hint, an intimation, that 
 is given us ; but it is so pregnant with the hid- 
 den light of hope, that it impels us instinctively 
 to fix an end to the desolations of Zion. So in 
 our Lord's pathetic farewell to the Temple, after 
 His rejection, there is the same refrain, "Behold, 
 your house is left unto you desolate ; " and, 
 " Verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see Me, 
 until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is 
 He that cometh in the name of the Lord." Until 
 the time come, — here, certainly, is a flash of light 
 upon the dark prediction of Israel's desertion. It 
 is but a word, again ; but it is heavy with the 
 burden of prophetic expectation. Next to the 
 silence which says nothing contrary to our hope, 
 the hint which barely breaks the silence in its 
 favor is the most significant. And this is all we 
 have here ; but how much is in it ! In St. Paul's 
 discourse upon the hardening and healing of his 
 people, like phraseology occurs. " Blindness in 
 part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of 
 the Gentiles be come in." Thus, again and 
 again, this word " until " is heard, like a cadence, 
 in the solemn strain of the Divine threatening, in 
 which Jehovah's voice seems to drop, for a mo- 
 
278 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 ment, from the stern tones of anger and impre- 
 cation, to those of His "old love" and tender- 
 ness. 1 
 
 But let it not be supposed that we have in the 
 New Testament only inspired hints and implica- 
 tions concerning Israel's restoration. The elev- 
 enth chapter of Romans is a compact and well- 
 reasoned argument upon this theme, conducting 
 us step by step from sorrowful premise to trium- 
 phant conclusion. " Hath God cast away His 
 people ? " is the question considered. " God hath 
 not cast away His people whom He foreknew" 
 is the conclusion reached. And this upon two 
 grounds, — present fact and future fulfillment. 
 Though the nation has been cut off, there is "a 
 
 1 " O then that I 
 Might live, and see the olive bear 
 Her proper branches, which now lie 
 
 Scattered each where, 
 And without root and sap decay, 
 Cast by the husbandman away, 
 
 And sure it is not far ! 
 
 " For surely He 
 Who loved the world so as to give 
 His only Sonne to make us free, 
 Whose Spirit, too, doth mourn and grieve 
 To see man lost, will, for old love, 
 From your dark hearts this veil remove." 
 
 Henry Vaughan, 1654. 
 
 . 
 
THE RESTOKA TION OF ISRAEL. 279 
 
 remnant, according to the election of grace" who 
 have believed on Christ to their salvation, and 
 therefore have been preserved in the favor and 
 fellowship of God ; while, on the other hand, 
 those remaining outside this remnant have been 
 hardened : "the rest were blinded!' But concern- 
 ing this rejected majority, there is hope, because 
 of the sure covenant of God. And though, like 
 the branches of an olive tree, they have been 
 broken off, we are told, first, that " God is able to 
 graff them in again;" and, a little after, "How 
 mitcJi more shall these which be natural branches 
 be graff ed into their own olive tree." Not only 
 possibility, but certainty, of Israel's restoration 
 is thus predicated. And the argument culminates 
 in the grand conclusion, "And so all Israel shall 
 be saved" — an elect and individual redemption 
 at last succeeded by a national and complete re- 
 demption. And this full recovery, it will be ob- 
 served, is in connection with the second coming 
 of Christ in glory. As it is written: "There 
 shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall 
 turn away ungodliness from Jacob." 1 
 
 A typical man is often set before us in Scrip- 
 
 1 " The passage cannot be understood merely to denote the 
 first appearance of Messiah as Isaiah xi. ; but, in any case, the 
 eschatological appearance of Jehovah is also conjoined in the 
 Messiah." — Lange. 
 
280 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 ture for. our clearer instruction in regard to great 
 events. And such was Paul in relation to the 
 final redemption of Israel. He says of himself, 
 the " blasphemer and persecutor" of Christ: 
 " Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that 
 in Me first Christ Jesus might show forth all 
 long-suffering, for a pattern of those who should 
 hereafter believe on Him unto eternal life," — 
 
 vTroTviruicriv tujv fxeWovroiV TTLCTTevuv, — not a?l ensaviple 
 
 to, but a sample of, those who should afterwards 
 believe unto salvation. By the manner of his 
 conversion he was constituted a kind of first- 
 fruits, or prototype, of the Jewish harvest. 
 Whether or not in this passage he refers expli- 
 citly to his kinsmen according to the flesh, we 
 find, at least, that the circumstances of his own 
 new birth were so unique as to constitute a 
 special type. For, enumerating those by whom 
 the Lord was seen after His resurrection, he 
 says : " And last of all, as unto one born out of 
 due time, He appeared to me also." By the vis- 
 ible, glorious manifestation of Christ to his eyes, 
 was this Hebrew of the Hebrews smitten with 
 conviction ; by the indictment of the Redeemer's 
 personal wounds — "I am Jesus of Nazareth, 
 whom thou persecutest " — was he brought to 
 repentance and confession. When he " could not 
 see for the glory of that light," then was the veil 
 
THE RESTORATION- OF ISRAEL. 281 
 
 taken away from his heart, so that he turned to 
 the Lord in the profoundest penitence. 
 
 "Behold, He cometh with clouds, and every 
 -eye shall see Him, and they also that pierced Him, 
 and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over 
 Him" (Rev. i. 7, r. v.). If, with most expositors 
 we must understand " the tribes " in this instance 
 to mean the kindreds and peoples of the world, 
 we cannot so interpret the Old Testament proph- 
 ecy of which this is a quotation. In the profound 
 mourning, so graphically pictured by Zechariah, 
 in which " every family apart " is seen sobbing 
 out an uncontrollable grief, the scene is, by gen- 
 eral consent, in the Holy Land, and the subjects 
 the house of Israel. And what has come to pass ? 
 The bounds of another prophetic "until" have 
 been attained for Jerusalem. " Upon the land of 
 my people " God threatened thorns and briers, 
 forsaken palaces, and deserted towers, " until the 
 Spirit be poured out upon us from on high " (Is. 
 xxxii. 15). That time has now been reached, and 
 the word which God spoke by the mouth of 
 Zechariah is fulfilled : "And I will pour upon the 
 house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Je- 
 rusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplications : 
 and they shall look upon Me, whom they have 
 jicrccd, and mourn for Him, as one mourneth 
 for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for 
 
282 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 Him, as one is in bitterness for his firstborn " 
 (Zech. xii. 10). The point of departure at last 
 becomes the point of return. The wounds of 
 Jesus were the death sentence upon national Is- 
 rael ; and now they become the source of life to 
 that long-rejected people. For immediately upon 
 the prediction of their mourning for Him whom 
 they pierced, it is added : " In that day there 
 shall be a fountain opened to the house of David, 
 and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and 
 for uncleanness." 
 
 Nationally or individually, there is but one way 
 of salvation for Israel, — the way of the Cross; 
 and one way of repentance, — a total reversal of 
 attitude towards the Nazarene. The Jews cried 
 out : "His blood be upon us and upon our chil- 
 dren;" and for this whole age that blood has 
 been crying out for vengeance against them. By 
 their own repentance and faith must that pre- 
 cious offering be turned from the blood of impre- 
 cation to the blood of cleansing. "Not this man, 
 but Barabbas" they said, when the awful alterna- 
 tive was offered them ; and Barabbas, the mur- 
 derer and robber, has swayed them with his dag- 
 ger, and pillaged them of their wealth, even unto 
 this day. "Not Barabbas, but this man" must be 
 their penitent confession before this spoiling shall 
 cease. " We have no king but Ccesar" was their 
 
THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL. 283 
 
 answer when the appeal was made to them, 
 "Will you crucify your King?" And Caesar 
 after Caesar has crucified, enslaved, and outraged 
 them till, as no other, they have become a nation 
 of sorrows and acquainted with grief. This fatal 
 choice must also be reversed, and instead of it 
 the acclamation be raised : " Hosanna to the 
 Son of David ! blessed is He that cometh in the 
 name of the Lord ! " Indeed, recalling Christ's 
 prediction, — " Ye shall not see Me henceforth, 
 till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the 
 name of the Lord" (Matt, xxiii. 39), — we must 
 remember that He gives us the key-note of Is- 
 rael's repentance in these words. They are part 
 of the Jewish "Hallel" sung at the Passover. 
 The strain which immediately precedes this ben- 
 ediction is : " The stone which the builders reftcsed 
 is become the Headstone of the corner. This is the 
 day which the Lord hath made : we will rejoice 
 and be glad in it" (Ps. cxviii. 22-25). How 
 glorious this song of Israel's consummated res- 
 toration ! And what a heightening of the dra- 
 matic effect of that lurid picture of the overthrow 
 of mystical Babylon, that, amid the rejoicing of 
 the Church over the downfall of her great enemy, 
 this "Hallel" is heard four times breaking in, as 
 though Israel, too, were joining to celebrate the 
 fall of the last and bloodiest form of Caesar's 
 
284 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 kingdom, that from which both Christian and Jew 
 have received their bitterest persecution ! (Rev. 
 xix. i, 3, 4, 6.) 
 
 As to the exact order of events connected with 
 Israel's conversion and restoration, we must not 
 speak too confidently. Some passages seem to 
 make the Jews' repentance the occasion of the 
 Lord's return, and others would appear to make 
 the Lord's return the occasion of their repent- 
 ance. Of the first kind is Peter's declaration to 
 the crucifiers of Jesus : " Repent ye, therefore, 
 and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, 
 that so there may come seasons of refreshing 
 from the presence of the Lord ; and that He may 
 send the Christ who hath been appointed for yon, 
 even Jesus, whom the heaven must receive until the 
 times of tJie restoration of all things''' (Acts iii. 
 19-21, r. v.). Here the Saviour's coming back 
 is made contingent on the conversion of the 
 Israelites ; while, in the prophecy of Zechariah, 
 that appearing in glory seems to be the producing 
 cause of the Jews' repentance. From all that we 
 gather, we judge that both conclusions are true, 
 — that Israel will regather in their land in un- 
 belief, as they are now beginning to do ; that they 
 will be brought into great tribulation through the 
 assaults of enemies coming against them in siege ; 
 that in their utmost extremity they will cry out 
 
THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL. 285 
 
 for their Messiah ; and " then shall the Lord go 
 forth and fight against those nations." His com- 
 ing, however, will bring sorrow, as well as succor. 
 " His feet shall stand in that day upon the Moimt 
 of Olives, which is over against Jerusalem on the 
 east." But those feet that bring deliverance will 
 bring overwhelming conviction, as it is seen that 
 they are the same that they once nailed to the 
 cross. As He lifts up His hands for their help, 
 " one shall say unto Him, What are these wounds 
 in Thy hands ? Then He shall answer, Those with 
 which I was wounded in the house of my friends " 
 (Zech. xiii. 6 ; xiv. 4). Thus while He comes to 
 bring salvation to a repenting people, His coming 
 will add repentance to repentance, as it brings 
 home their terrible crime against their Messiah, 
 so that "all the tribes of the land shall wail 
 because of Him." But what joy shall give place 
 to that lamentation, after their sin is purged ! 
 Now shall long-prostrate Jerusalem hear the sum- 
 mons : " Arise, shine ; for thy light is come, and 
 the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." 
 
 The twin fact of Israel's restoration to God's 
 favor is this of their restoration to their own land. 
 To cite passages in proof of such restoration 
 would be to quote whole chapters and entire 
 books from the prophets, of whose writings this 
 is the constant glowing burden. 
 
286 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 This great consummation seems destined to 
 occur in two principal stages, elective and na- 
 tional. First, a few are represented as being 
 brought upon ships from their scattered habita- 
 tions (Is. xviii. ; lx. 9) : "I will take you one of 
 a city, and two of a family ; and I will bring you 
 to Zion " (Jer. iii. 14). These would appear to 
 be a kind of first-fruits of the final restoration. 
 And as sober judges of events see this gathering- 
 out and gathering-home already taking place, it 
 should be to us a sign and an earnest of the 
 speedy realization of Israel's complete hope. Af- 
 ter this partial restoration, we are led to expect 
 the final and full regathering, a national move- 
 ment, like the Exodus from Egypt, only far sur- 
 passing that in glory and power (Jer. xxiii. 3-5 ; 
 xxxi. 8, 9). 
 
 This great restoration constitutes the true hope 
 of the Israelite, as the return of the Lord does of 
 the Christian. And it is very interesting to read, 
 in the light of this fact, the closing chapters of 
 the Old and of the New Testaments. In the one 
 the promise is, "Behold, I will send y oil Elijah;" 
 in the other, u Behold, I come quickly" To the 
 prepared people of His Church He comes, that 
 He may receive them into the place which He 
 has gone to prepare; to His long -disobedient 
 people, Israel, He sends the prophet, that He may 
 
THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL. 
 
 287 
 
 "turn the heart of the fathers to the children, 
 and the heart of the children to their fathers." 
 Accordingly, as for the Christian the commun- 
 ion is commemorative and anticipative, so is the 
 Passover for the Jew. The Lord's Supper, by 
 its solemn formula, is ever repeating, "Till He 
 come ; " and the Passover, with its vacant seat 
 for Elijah, is ever saying, "Till Israel return." 
 As the sprinkled blood and bitter herbs remind 
 children and children's children of the Hebrew 
 household how the Lord brought their fathers 
 out of Egypt, they also recall evermore Jehovah's 
 promises : " Therefore behold the days come, 
 saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said, The 
 Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel 
 out of the land of Egypt ; but, The Lord liveth 
 that brought up the children of Israel from the 
 land of the north, and from all the lands whither 
 He had driven them ; and I will bring them again 
 into their land that I gave unto their fathers " 
 (Jer. xvi. 14, 15). Nothing that has yet occurred 
 can be said to have fulfilled this prediction of 
 " bringing them again into their own land." If 
 the contrary be affirmed, how can we explain the 
 finality and perpetuity of this restoration as 
 affirmed in several parallel texts ? " And I will 
 plant them upon their land, and they shall no more 
 be pulled tip out of their land which I have given 
 
ECCE VENIT. 
 
 them, saith the Lord thy God" (Amos ix. 15 ; Jer. 
 xxxi. 8-9 ; Ezek. xxxiv.-xxxvii.). And if any ask, 
 " How can this be, considering the wide apos- 
 tasy and practical surrender of these promises by 
 such vast numbers of Israelites ? " we must an- 
 swer : How can it fail to be, since Jehovah, who 
 made this promise, cannot lie ? As though an- 
 ticipating this incredulity of men, He has said, 
 concerning the time when He makes a new cov- 
 enant with His people, " to forgive their iniquity 
 and remember their sin no more " : " Thus saith 
 the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, 
 and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars 
 for a light by night, which divideth the sea when 
 the waves thereof roar ; The Lord of Hosts is His 
 name : If those ordinances depart from before 
 Me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also 
 shall cease from being a nation before Me for- 
 ever. Thus saith the Lord : If heaven above can 
 be measured, and the foundations of the earth 
 searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the 
 seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith 
 the Lord" (Jer. xxxi. 31-37). 
 
 So great will be the glory of Israel's recovery, 
 that the sorrow of His long rejection will seem 
 as nought in comparison. Now will God comfort 
 His people, saying : " For a small moment have I 
 forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather 
 
THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL. 
 
 thee" (Is. liv. 7). Instead of the sentence: "I 
 have given the dearly beloved of My soul into the 
 hands of her enemies," to His people, resisting no 
 longer, He will say : " For as the girdle cleaveth 
 to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave 
 unto Me the whole house of Israel, and the whole 
 house of Judah, saith the Lord, that they might 
 be unto Me for a people, and for a name, and for 
 a praise, and for a glory " (Jer. xiii. 1 1). 
 
 Not only shall their sun no more go down, but 
 because the Lord is their sun, " the light of the 
 moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the 
 light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of 
 seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up 
 the breach of His people, and healeth the stroke 
 of their wound" (Is. xxx. 26). 
 
IX. 
 
 THE MILLENNIAL KINGDOM. 
 
 In the transfiguration — which is distinctly 
 called "the Son of man coming in His king- 
 dom " — we have a miniature presentation of the 
 millennium. Moses and Elias, who appear with 
 Christ in glory, prefigure respectively the risen 
 and the changed saints translated and brought 
 into one company at the appearing and kingdom 
 of our Lord ; while the disciples who stand with- 
 out the cloud and behold His glory are typical of 
 those in the flesh, the Jews and the nations, who 
 will still be left on the earth after the rapture 
 of the saints. What relation to this globe will 
 the transfigured Church hold in the millennium ? 
 Some have maintained that she will be forever 
 removed from this sphere, the world and its in- 
 habitants being burned up together as soon as 
 the Church is taken away. Others have held 
 that while the ungodly will be utterly consumed 
 at the appearing of the Lord, the earth, purified 
 and renewed, will become the eternal and exclu- 
 sive abople of the saints. Either view is extreme, 
 as judged by a full collation of Scripture. It is 
 
THE MILLENNIAL KINGDOM. 291 
 
 plainly declared in Revelation that the saints 
 shall " reign over the earth ; " but that they will 
 be absolutely bound to it, as now, by terrestrial 
 gravitation, does not follow. " They that are ac- 
 counted worthy to obtain that age and the res- 
 urrection from the dead . . . are angel-like, — 
 to-ayyeXot, ■ — and are sons of God, being sons of -- 
 the resurrection" (Luke xx. 36). Surely here is 
 a suggestive hint for us. Angels visit this earth • 
 and mingle with its inhabitants ; they have tan- 
 gible forms, and accept material food, and exer- 
 cise gracious ministries for those in the flesh, - 
 and yet they reside in a higher sphere. So may 
 it be with the sons of the first resurrection, — in 
 perpetual contact with the earth, but not inhabit- > 
 ants of it. Instinctively we turn for light on this 
 subject to our Lord's forty days between His ris- ,. 
 ing and His ascending. Though now in the res- 
 urrection body, He associated as familiarly as ever 
 with His disciples : at one time holding high dis- 
 course with them concerning the things of the 
 kingdom ; at another eating in their presence of 
 the broiled fish and honeycomb ; to-day directing 
 that cast of the net into the Sea of Galilee by 
 which the multitude of fishes was enclosed, and 
 to-morrow announcing the great commission in 
 the mountain of Galilee by which the draw-net 
 of world - wide missions was committed to His 
 
292 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 Church ; and all the while maintaining that 
 X strangely double life in which He was now han- 
 dled and inspected to prove his body to be literal 
 flesh and bones, and now mysteriously withdrawn 
 like a vanishing spectre. Here is revelation in a 
 mystery concerning the glorified saints and their 
 relation to the millennial earth. For the life of 
 Christ is the life of His Church in epitome. 
 
 Reasoning from these hints, we gather that 
 the millennial Church may hold a relation to the 
 earth as close as that which we now maintain, 
 and a relation to heaven as intimate as that which 
 the angels enjoy. Perhaps there is more than 
 poetry in the prophet's delineation of the Mes- 
 sianic glory (Is. xl. 31): "They that wait upon 
 the Lord shall renew their strength ; they shall 
 mount up with wings as eagles ; they shall run 
 and not be weary ; they shall walk and not 
 faint : " celestial flight alternating with terres- 
 trial travel, and each alike unwearying. 1 
 
 What a realistic element in the promised vic- 
 tory of the saints it is, that they shall enjoy their 
 v triumphs in the very sphere where they suffered 
 their defeats ! This is according to the divine 
 
 1 " Captain Credence lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, 
 Immanuel came with colors flying, trumpets sounding, and the 
 feet of His men scarce touching the ground" — Bunyan's Holy 
 War, 17. 
 
 am 
 
THE MILLENNIAL KINGDOM. 293 
 
 purpose. The millennium is called " tJie times of 
 the restitution of all things" (Acts iii. 21). The 
 steps in this restitution move slowly and stead- 
 ily ; but, because it is a restoration, each step for- 
 ward is really a step backward towards the purity 
 and perfection of the primitive paradise. All 
 that was involved in the fall will be involved in 
 the recovery : the soul restored to God by regen- 
 eration ; the body restored to the soul by resur- 
 rection ; and the earth restored to man by regen- 
 esis. Thus the rainbow arch of redemption bends 
 back and touches the earth from which it springs, 
 — " the sufferings of Christ, and the glory which 
 should follow," both have their scene in the same 
 material world. And remembering that the ex- 
 alted Head and the mystical body have an identi- 
 cal destiny, we see how much is suggested by this 
 fact. Christ returns in glory to the point of His 
 earthly departure : "His feet shall stand in that 
 day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before 
 Jerusalem on the east " (Zech. xiv. 4). In His 
 transfigured body He may now survey the literal 
 scenes of His humiliation : Gethsemane, where 
 He sweat great drops of blood ; and Golgotha, 
 where " by wicked hands He was crucified and 
 slain;" and the garden where He lay for two 
 days buried. Heroic poetry, in its most pre- 
 sumptuous flights, has never dreamed of such a 
 
294 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 vindication for defeated warriors as this, — tri- 
 umphing in a deathless body on the very field 
 where the dead body was mutilated and en- 
 tombed. And our Redeemer comes not alone in 
 His victorious entry upon the earth : " Behold, 
 the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His 
 saints to execute judgment upon all, and to con- 
 vince all that are ungodly among them of all 
 their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly 
 committed, and of all their hard speeches which 
 ungodly sinners have spoken against Him" (Jude 
 15). Christ's confessors, who, being reviled, re- 
 viled not again, but committed themselves to 
 Him that judgeth righteously, may tread again 
 the very judgment halls where they listened in 
 silence to the hard speeches of ungodly sinners 
 who condemned them to death ; may stand on 
 the very spot where the earth once drank up 
 their witnessing blood, or tread under foot the 
 very soil with which their martyr -ashes once 
 mingled. 
 
 Will the glorified Church hold relation to mor- 
 tal men still living on the earth ? They who deny 
 this, and suppose that the whole human race will 
 be swept from the globe and destroyed at the 
 coming of Christ, quote words of terrific import 
 for such a view (2 Thess. i. 7). But if we balance 
 Scripture with Scripture, the conclusion is other- 
 
THE MILLENNIAL KINGDOM. 295 
 
 wise. For not only is it taught that the advent 
 judgments fall especially on apostate Christen- 
 dom (Matt. xiii. 40, 41), but with equal clearness 
 that Christ's coming issues in the conversion of 
 Israel (Zech. xii. 10; Rom. xi. 26), and through 
 Israel in the conversion of the Gentiles (Rom. xi. 
 12-15 i ^ s - l x -)- W e conclude, therefore, from a 
 wide collation of Scripture, that after the transla- 
 tion of the Church, two classes will still remain 
 living on the earth, — the Jews and the nations. 
 And as the glorified saints have now become 
 "kings and priests unto God," they must exer- 
 cise rule and ministry over some besides them- 
 selves, and over whom but these ? Here Scrip- 
 ture is clear and harmonious with itself. Im- 
 manuel now takes " the throne of His father 
 David," that He may "reign over the house of 
 Jacob forever." But He is not alone in His 
 kingly rule over Israel. Of His risen saints it is 
 written that " they lived and reigned with Christ 
 a thousand years." His glorified Bride sits by 
 Him in His throne, Queen-consort with her en- 
 throned Lord ; nearer to Him than any other as 
 "the wife of the Lamb." Now is fulfilled that 
 Scripture which cannot be broken : " Verily I 
 say unto you that ye which have followed Me in 
 the regeneration," — the regenesis, -n-aXtyyev^aia, 
 " when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of 
 
296 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 His glory — ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones 
 judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Matt. xix. 
 28). In this dominion of the risen saints there 
 doubtless is order and precedence according to 
 the degree of suffering and loss endured for 
 Christ. The apostle band would seem to have 
 especial preeminence ; next the martyr company, 
 whose long waiting for the avenging of their 
 blood is at last rewarded ; and saints and be- 
 lievers of all generations, who have been counted 
 worthy to obtain that age and the resurrection 
 from the dead. Israel is still in the flesh, though 
 converted, purified by long trial, and brought at 
 last into loyal subjection to Messiah. Through 
 her as a redeemed nation, and through her ex- 
 alted city as capital of the world, the Son of 
 David will now extend His blessed sway to the 
 ends of the earth. " For out of Zion shall go 
 forth the law, and the word of the Lord from 
 Jerusalem. And He shall judge among the na- 
 tions, and shall rebuke many people ; and they 
 shall beat their swords into ploughshares and 
 their spears into pruning-hooks ; nation shall not 
 lift sword against nation, neither shall they learn 
 war any more" (Is. ii. 4). At length, through 
 this benignant consummation, the righteous gov- 
 ernment for which the suffering nations have 
 sighed will have been reached. The last attempt 
 
THE MILLENNIAL KINGDOM. 297 
 
 at human rule, like all before it, will have miser- 
 ably failed, and men, despairing of self-help, will 
 finally be prepared to accept the benignant rule 
 of God, that perfect theocracy in which Christ 
 the Lord shall be King over all the earth. We 
 have said in a previous chapter that election is 
 not the end of grace, but the means to a vastly 
 higher end. This ultimate purpose here comes 
 into view. The elect Church, glorified with her 
 Lord, and the elect nation Israel restored and 
 converted, now take up the work of universal re- 
 demption. Have we pondered the deep sugges- 
 tiveness of the apostle's saying : " He hath raised 
 us up together, and enthroned us together with 
 Him, in order that He might shoiv forth to the 
 ages which are coming the exceeding riches of His 
 grace in His goodness towards its in Christ Jesus " 
 (Eph. ii. 7). 1 The garnered wealth of redemp- 
 tion, the holiness, and faith, and love gathered 
 up from generations of chastened experience, and 
 now displayed in the transfigured Church, — 
 what may be the impression of this upon the 
 generations of the age to come ? At last the 
 
 1 " That God in the future order of things, that is, in the 
 kingdom of God, — in which the glory of the faithful, which is 
 hidden here below, will be made visible to all, — may manifest 
 the overwhelming richness of His grace." — Olshausen's Para- 
 phrase. 
 
298 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 Son of God is fully manifested in "the manifes- 
 tation of the sons of God." He has come " to 
 be glorified in His saints and to be admired in all 
 them that believed" (2 Thess. i. 10), — the raised 
 and enthroned Church being as a mirror in which 
 His majesty is reflected and displayed. Now 
 will be seen " what is the riches of the glory of 
 His inheritance in the saints" (Eph. i. 18). And 
 we may believe that, as the Queen of Sheba was 
 astonished at the splendor of Solomon, and at- 
 tested her admiration by rich gifts, so the gen- 
 erations yet unsubdued to Christ at the opening 
 of the millennium, may be filled with wonder at 
 the exhibitions of redeeming grace now visible in 
 the perfected Church, and at the riches of His 
 forbearance as manifested in converted Israel, 
 so that they shall be moved to take up, con- 
 cerning Immanuel, the beatitude of this admir- 
 ing queen : " Happy are thy men, happy are 
 these thy servants which stand continually before 
 thee and that hear thy wisdom. Blessed be the 
 Lord thy God which delighteth in thee to set 
 thee on the throne of Israel : because the Lord 
 loved Israel forever, therefore made He thee 
 king to do judgment and justice" (1 Kings x. 
 8, 9). These triumphs may not be gained at 
 once ; but they will be effected with a rapidity 
 of which we as yet know nothing, so that liter- 
 
THE MILLENNIAL KINGDOM. 299 
 
 ally a nation shall be born in a day. For two 
 new conditions will now be brought in, — condi- 
 tions utterly unknown since the fall of man : the 
 binding of Satan and the universal outpouring 
 of the Holy Ghost. Let us try to conceive of 
 the astonishing changes which will thus ensue in 
 the complete repression of " the spirit that now 
 worketh in the children of disobedience," and in 
 the unrestrained operation of the Spirit of truth 
 and holiness now poured out upon all flesh. What 
 will have now come to pass is not simply an 
 exchange of malign influences in the earth for 
 more benign, but the actual dethronement of 
 "the god of this age," 1 and the unhindered 
 reign of Christ in his stead. Thus there is a 
 complete reversal of conditions : " the Prince of 
 Peace " holding absolute sway in the dominion 
 where the "Prince of the power of the air" has 
 so long triumphed. Now will be ushered in the 
 real golden age of which the weary nations have 
 so long dreamed, — the true Sabbath-keeping for 
 which the people of God have waited. If our 
 
 1 " That which ceases by the binding of Satan is the cohesive 
 power of evil, by which it has been able to become an historical 
 and motive principle in the development and in the life of na- 
 tions, by which it has proved itself a ruling power on earth. In- 
 stead of that now comes in the development of the power of the 
 glorified Church of God." — Karsten. 
 
300 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 readers have been inclined to put a mark of in- 
 terrogation against any of our millennial anticipa- 
 tions, we have only to remind them that when the 
 chief apostle bounds forward in thought to this 
 period, and speaks of its "far more exceeding 
 and eternal weight of glory" (2 Cor. iv. 17), his 
 language becomes well-nigh untranslatable, he so 
 joins hyperbole to hyperbole — xaff v-rrepjSoXrjv eU 
 vireppoXrjv — in his effort to express its transcen- 
 dent blessedness. " The uniquely beautiful, the 
 eternally true, the highest good, must be fittingly 
 made manifest upon an earth whereon they have 
 been so long ignored ; and as that earth has so 
 long crowned with thorns its lawful King, it must 
 contemplate Him yet once again in His full 
 beauty. It is this blissful period to which proph- 
 ecies like Isaiah xi. 6-9, xxxv., lx., lxv., and others 
 appear to us to point. It will be the time in 
 which the kingdom of God rules upon earth. 
 Purified by suffering and conflict, the Church of 
 God now shares in the triumph of its Head : the 
 Bride finds her rest, after her long wanderings in 
 the desert, on the bosom of the Bridegroom. It 
 now becomes apparent that the kingdom of God 
 is in reality a power in every domain with which 
 it comes in contact, and that the highest manifes- 
 tation of the truth calls forth a life such as with- 
 out this is nowhere found on earth. In a word, 
 
THE MILLENNIAL KINGDOM. 301 
 
 it is the time of the Christocracy ever more tri- 
 umphantly unfolding itself ; the realization of the 
 Ideal, of which the old Theocracy in Israel was 
 only the shadow ; a realization, however, which 
 in nothing detracts from the universalistic char- 
 acter of the Saving Revelation now brought to 
 completion." 1 
 
 The relation of the three classes of men in the 
 millennium has been compared to the threefold 
 division of the tabernacle. The Bride of Christ, 
 the glorified Church, is the Holy of Holies, ex- 
 alted into equal fellowship with her Head. 2 Con- 
 verted Israel is in the relation of the Holy Place, 
 and the nations which come up to worship Jeho- 
 vah stand as in the court of the Gentiles. Only 
 we must be reminded how completely the veil of 
 the Holiest is now rent asunder, so that as the 
 millennial triumph advances all peoples are em- 
 braced in the light of God's favor. The cloud of 
 glory — symbol of Jehovah's presence — was first 
 contained within a narrow ark in the wilderness ; 
 
 1 Van Osterzee, Christian Dogmatics, p. 799. 
 
 2 " How beautifully does the prophet Isaiah (Is. iv. 5) suggest 
 the Bridal relationship of Christ to His Church in the millen- 
 nium ! The shekinah glory has returned : 'A cloud and smoke 
 by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night.' And now it 
 is said, not as in our common version : ' For upon all the glory 
 shall be a defense,' but ' Upon all the glory shall be the mar- 
 riage canopy? " 
 
302 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 then, as the Temple of Solomon was dedicated, it 
 filled the whole house, so that "the priests could 
 not stand to minister by reason of the cloud " 
 (2 Chron. v. 14) ; in its final outreach it will em- 
 brace the world in its effulgence, and the whole 
 earth will become a Holy of Holies. Then will 
 the kingdom of God be fully consummated ; the 
 blessed predictions of righteousness and peace 
 contained in the seventy-second Psalm will be no 
 longer chanted only in the music of the Levites, 
 but they will be set to the measures of literal 
 accomplishment, and sung out in the strains of 
 triumphant experience: "All men shall be blessed 
 in Him ; all nations shall call Him blessed." At 
 length, in a restored creation, will Messiah see 
 of the travail of His soul and be satisfied. Thus 
 will the Psalm of redemption be finished : "And 
 let the whole earth be filled with His glory. 
 Amen, and amen. The prayers of David the son 
 of Jesse are ended " (Ps. lxxii. 20). 
 
 But we have outrun our argument, and must 
 return to what has been passed over. 
 
 Beside Jew and Gentile and Church of God, 
 there is still another sharer in the millennial re- 
 demption ; a dumb partner who is yet to find 
 utterance when "the hills shall break forth into 
 singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap 
 their hands." " Often " says Goethe, " have I had 
 
 ... 
 
THE MILLENNIAL KINGDOM. 303 
 
 the sensation as if Nature, in wailing sadness, 
 entreated something of me, so that not to under- 
 stand what she longed for cut me to the heart." 
 We understand what her longing is, and what is 
 to be God's final answer to it. " For we know 
 that the whole creation groaneth and travail eth 
 in pain together until now, . . . waiting for the 
 adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body" 
 (Rom. viii. 23). Earth bears the wound received 
 through man's transgression, and the brute cre- 
 ation travails in anguish with fallen humanity. 
 Deep as is the mystery of punishment for sin, 
 the punishment of no sin, as witnessed in animal 
 suffering, is even more inexplicable. " In Adam 
 all die : " not only all persons but all things. But 
 as man and creation fell together, so must they 
 rise together in the time of redemption. Earth 
 will then lay off her soiled week-day garb and put 
 on her Sabbath dress, and, with her singing robes 
 about her, take up again that anthem which was 
 heard when the morning stars sang together, and 
 all the sons of God shouted for joy. " Cursed is 
 the ground for thy sake, thorns and briers shall 
 it bring forth to thee" (Gen. iii. 17, 18), is the 
 sentence which for six thousand years has re- 
 mained as a sign and testimony to God's judg- 
 ment upon sin. But then : " Instead of the thorn 
 shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier 
 
304. ECCE VENIT. 
 
 shall come up the myrtle tree : and it shall be to 
 the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that 
 shall not be cut off" (Is. lv. 13). The beauty of 
 holiness and the eternal harmony of redemption 
 must be displayed where the dishonor of sin has 
 been most visible. Therefore this globe, which 
 has so long served as a grave for man fallen, will 
 now serve as a temple for man upraised ; yea, 
 more, as Anselm says : " The whole earth, which 
 carried in its lap the body of the Lord, will be 
 a paradise." 
 
 With such predestined glory before her, what 
 wonder that Nature should be found taking her 
 place with Christ and the Church as an eager 
 expectant of the Advent ? If we could bring out 
 the full original of that passage, " For the earnest 
 expectation of the creature zvaitctJi for the mani- 
 festation of the sons of God" (Rom. viii. 19), we 
 should behold a delineation so graphic that, as 
 Godet has said, " A sculptor of any imagination 
 and genius might carve a statue of Hope from it." 
 The picture is this : " Nature, an unwilling slave 
 to vanity and corruption, stands, impatient of her 
 bonds, with uplifted head, scanning with longing 
 eye the distant point of the horizon from which she 
 looks for help, her hands stretched out to grasp and 
 welcome the redemption into freedom and perfec- 
 tion which she yearns for and confidently expects.'" 1 
 1 Dr. Samuel Cox on Rom. viii. 19. 
 
 _ 
 
THE MILLENNIAL KINGDOM. 305 
 
 It is necessary to emphasize this truth of the 
 rehabilitation of the earth on philosophical as well 
 as on spiritual grounds. For we know not how 
 to vindicate the ways of God to sober thinkers, 
 if this material world is to end in catastrophe in- 
 stead of regeneration. A vague shadowy heaven 
 beyond the stars, to which man as a bodiless im- 
 mortal spirit is to be finally transported, has lit- 
 tle meaning or attraction for the ordinary mind. 
 And we are free to say that such a conception is 
 a triumph of Gnostic philosophy over scriptural 
 revelation, — the philosophy which finds man's 
 highest happiness in release from this material 
 body, and therefore, logically, the race's high- 
 est attainment in deliverance from this material 
 world. While this notion is widely prevalent in 
 the Christian Church of our day, we deny that 
 there is anything inspiring or victorious in it. 1 
 Instead of the apostolic prayer for the perfection 
 
 1 It is a one-sided spiritualism which can conceive of no per- 
 fectly consummated blessedness save in a heaven distant as far 
 as possible from this earth. Infinitely more acceptable, and 
 more worthy of God, is the Biblical conception that this earth, 
 too, which, through sin laden with the curse has been made the 
 scene of grace, has, as well as other worlds, a peculiar destina- 
 tion to accomplish in the realization of God's adorable plan ; and 
 that the gulf shall entirely cease to be, which at present exists 
 between heaven and earth." — Van Oosterzee, Image of Christ, 
 p. 491. 
 
306 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 of our " whole spirit, soul and body at the coming 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ," it places our hope in 
 the dismemberment of this human trinity : it 
 proposes a truce with the grave, willingly sur- 
 rendering the body to its possession, provided 
 only the soul may be eliminated in the dissolv- 
 ing chemistry of death, and float away to some 
 realm of happy shades. Instead of rejoicing in 
 the beatitude, " Blessed are the meek : for they 
 shall inherit the earth," it makes haste to yield 
 all right and title to this globe, if only the saints 
 may be released from its gross environments, and 
 soar to worlds unknown. Even so lofty a thinker 
 as Edwards gives full sway to this idea in his 
 " History of Redemption," where, speaking of the 
 end, he says: "Thus Christ's Church shall for- 
 ever leave this accursed world to go into the high- 
 est heaven, the paradise of God. . . . When they 
 are gone this world shall be set on fire and turned 
 into a great furnace, wherein all the enemies of 
 Christ and His Church shall be tormented for- 
 ever." Is this an alluring conception of redemp- 
 tion, that in its final issue it will have turned 
 what was made to be a Paradise for man's delight, 
 into a purgatory for his torment ? We should 
 call this the apotheosis of divine failure, rather 
 than the crown of divine redemption. Yet it is 
 the logical outcome of that philosophy which con- 
 
THE MILLENNIAL KINGDOM. 307 
 
 siders the spiritual to be everything, and the 
 material nothing. We hold that it is infinitely 
 honoring: to the Creator to believe that in the 
 end He will be found tabernacling in a restored 
 world, from which He has wiped away the last 
 vestige of sin, and in which He has silenced the 
 last discord of rebellion. 1 If the problem of hu- 
 man destiny is to be worked out to a successful 
 issue only on some yonder side of creation, and 
 in such unknown terms and quantities that even 
 the spiritual Christian cannot comprehend it, how 
 impossible it will be to justify God's dealings to 
 men ! In treating of the doctrine of future life, 
 it may be questioned whether modern theology 
 has not so far withdrawn from a sober and Scrip- 
 
 1 " Upon two distinct grounds we may believe that the earth 
 will ultimately be made new, — First, that having been brought 
 under the bondage of corruption, not of its own will, but by the 
 sin of man, it is embraced in the scope of redemption ; it is to 
 enter into 'the liberty of the glory of the children of God' 
 (Rom. viii. 21). Second, that God having made man, body and 
 soul, and appointed the body to be an essential element in 
 humanity, He will so order the material world that it shall min- 
 ister in the highest degree to all his needs. If the body be 
 raised into a higher condition through resurrection, there must 
 be a corresponding change in its material environments, — the 
 new creation serving as a means to higher knowledge of God, 
 and to the continual enlargement of man's conception of His 
 power, wisdom, and goodness" — Rev. S. J. Andrews, God's 
 Revelations to Men, p. 361. 
 
308 ECCE VENIT. 
 
 tural materialism as to be carried into an atten- 
 uated, and for the most part incomprehensible, 
 spiritualism. We believe, on the contrary, that 
 in setting forth the judgments and rewards of 
 the future, God has expressed them in conditions 
 which even the men of this world may under- 
 stand if they will. 
 
 That there must t>e a baptism of judgment-fire 
 for the earth, preparatory to this anointing with 
 millennial joy, is plainly revealed. How difficult 
 it is to explain the predictions of Scripture on 
 this subject, we need not say. "The day of the 
 Lord" of which Peter writes — "in the which 
 the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, 
 and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, 
 the earth also and the works that are therein 
 shall be burned up " — is evidently a long period, 
 embracing the entire age, from the second advent 
 to the close of the millennium. It is within this 
 era that these burning judgments occur. But 
 the fire is for purging, and not for annihilating, 
 since the announcement immediately follows : 
 " Nevertheless, we, according to His promise, 
 look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein 
 dwelleth righteousness" (2 Pet. iii. 13). In the 
 prophecy of Isaiah we have a glimpse of this re- 
 newed order : " For, behold, I create new heavens 
 and a new earth, and the former shall not be re- 
 
THE MILLENNIAL KINGDOM. 309 
 
 membered nor come into mind " (Is. lxv. 17). 
 Now Jerusalem is seen restored and made a per- 
 petual joy in the earth ; a warring creation has 
 been tamed, and the wolf and the lamb are found 
 peacefully feeding together. But though life is 
 wondrously ameliorated and prolonged, so that 
 one a century of age is counted an infant, — 
 "The child shall die an hundred years old," — 
 immortality has not yet been reached for the U %* 
 
 whole race on earth. The goal of death has been 
 pushed far onward, but not abolished ; and though 
 for the risen Church death has been swallowed 
 up in victory, it still has dominion over men in 
 this globe during the millennium. 
 
 But looking on to the end of this millennial 
 period we behold the final and perfected order 
 in which mortality, with all its sorrowful accom- 
 paniments, has at last been swept away : "And I 
 saw a new heaven and a new earth ; for the first 
 heaven and the first earth were passed away : 
 and there was no more sea" (Rev. xxi. 1). Now 
 the climax of blessedness has been reached for 
 the world and all that dwell therein. As the 
 opening of the millennium witnessed the bridal 
 of the Church with Christ, its close will witness 
 the bridal of the earth with heaven. Then the 
 redeemed were caught up into the clouds to cele- 
 brate their nuptials with their Lord ; now the 
 
3 TO ECCE VENIT. 
 
 Lord comes down to our globe to celebrate the 
 nuptials of the earth and sky : "And I heard a 
 great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the 
 tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall 
 dwell with them, and they shall be His people, 
 and God Himself shall be with them and be their 
 God. And God shall wipe away all tears from 
 their eyes ; and there shall be no more death, 
 neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be 
 any more pain ; for the former things are passed 
 away" (Rev. xxi. 3, 4). 
 
 From all we have thus considered, our infer- 
 ence is, that the redemption of the earth will 
 begin with the return of the Lord from heaven 
 at the opening of the millennium ; but will only 
 be perfected at the end of that period, when 
 death shall be forever abolished, and there shall 
 be no more curse. The millennial kingdom is 
 thus redemptive, not only for the race, but for 
 the earth, — the final chapter in the great res- 
 toration which is to usher in the eternal state. 
 Though far surpassing all which we now know in 
 blessedness, the millennium will not be a fault- 
 less condition. Sin and sin's agencies will still 
 have a certain sway ; for Satan will yet once 
 more incite rebellion before being finally and 
 forever cast into the lake of fire (Rev. xx. 
 3-10). But after that the eternally perfect, the 
 
THE MILLENNIAL KINGDOM 
 
 faultlessly holy, condition will be reached. Of 
 this condition we can as yet only catch transport- 
 ing glimpses, and speak in stammering accents. 
 It is the time when God shall be all in all, and 
 the whole world brought into unwavering obe- 
 dience to His will. The long-suffering Church 
 forever married to her Lord ; Israel, once hated 
 and forsaken, now made an " eternal excellency, 
 a joy of many generations;" the Gentiles, who 
 long lay at the gate full of sores, carried by 
 angels into Abraham's bosom ; and the world, 
 with all its reconciled inhabitants, lying forever 
 on the breast of God. 
 
 " Earth, thou grain of sand on the shore of the 
 Universe of God ; thou Bethlehem, amongst the 
 princely cities of the heavens, — thou art, and re- 
 mainest, the Loved One amongst ten thousand 
 suns and worlds, the Chosen of God ! Thee will 
 He again visit, and then thou wilt prepare a 
 throne for Him, as thou gavest Him a manger 
 cradle ; in His radiant glory wilt thou rejoice, as 
 thou didst once drink His blood and His tears 
 and mourn His death ! On thee has the Lord 
 a great work to complete ! " 
 
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 PROPHETIC STUDIES of the International Prophetic Conference, 
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