LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
 n ^t~^ — 
 
 tnap. Copyright No. 
 
 Shel£_Vfct-i 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERSCA. 
 
THE 
 
 COMING OF THE GREAT KING 
 
 OR 
 
 AN EXAMINATION AND DISCUSSION OF THE 
 
 SECOND COMING OF CHRIST, AND OF 
 
 QUESTIONS THERETO RELATED 
 
 BY 
 
 / 
 
 Wm. houliston 
 
 WITH A CONCLUDING CHAPTER 
 
 ON 
 
 THE MILLENNIUM AND THE FUTURE LIFE 
 
 minneap(j 
 
 Great WesterN^^ 
 
 TWO COPIES RECEIVED 
 1 
 

 The Library 
 of Congress 
 
 WASHINGTON 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM HOULISTON 
 
fSS 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 I am exceedingly glad of the opportunity which 
 the good old custom of prefacing books affords 
 me, of introducing this little volume to the public in 
 a few salutatory and explanatory remarks. First, 
 and salutatorily, I present to you my most hearty 
 greeting, assuring you of my sincere regard, and of 
 the very grateful sense I have of a constantly grow- 
 ing interest in, and sympathy with humanity of 
 every clime and shade and tongue. I wish further 
 to assure you of my yearning desire for, and glad 
 expectation of a speedy emancipation of humanity 
 from many, at least, if not from most of the per- 
 plexing cares, the misfortunes, and the sorrows, 
 to which it now is and ever has been subject since 
 the peaceful days of Eden, and which are to be 
 brought to a close by the coming of the "Great 
 Deliverer," and his inauguration of a new era, to 
 describe the glories and the peace of which Sacred 
 Scripture has exhausted all the poetry of language. 
 
 Explanatorily I wish to say, that while at first 
 view, the comparatively recent publication of a 
 number of volumes upon practically the same sub- 
 ject as this one, written by men of recognized schol- 
 arship and ability, whose names are familiar to the 
 
literary world, supplies every need in this line, and 
 ought perhaps to have discouraged a further pub- 
 lication, at least by one who can lay no claim to 
 scholarship, and who has never yet emerged, and 
 probably never will, from the shadows of literary 
 obscurity, yet, upon a further view of this same 
 fact, and one taken from another standpoint, both 
 the motive and excuse for this little volume may be 
 easily found. 
 
 The publication of the scholarly and exhaustive 
 expositions of this subject, above referred to, are 
 only one of a series of evidences of a revival of in- 
 terest in the subject. The holding of prophetic con- 
 ferences in recent years, both in this country and in 
 Europe is another. It is not surprising, there- 
 fore, nor blamable, that others besides those whose 
 names are enrolled among the literati, and who 
 also have been for years interested students of the 
 subject, and have thought long and deeply upon it, 
 should be prompted at a time like this to lay before 
 the public their contribution to the general expres- 
 sion upon the theme. 
 
 In writing this volume, the aim has been to 
 treat the subject comprehensively enough to satisfy 
 the ordinary reader, and yet to keep it within the 
 limit of a hundred and fifty pages or so, having in 
 mind the fact that, while the average reader, moved 
 either by interest in the theme, or by simple curios- 
 ity, might readily enough take up and read a book 
 of this kind which he could peruse in a few hours, 
 he would persistently ignore a ponderous volume 
 
of from five hundred to six hundred pages on the 
 same subject. 
 
 If a knowledge of this subject, and an interest 
 in it, is imparted by what is here written, and es- 
 pecially if it prompt to its further and more mature 
 study among the larger and abler expositions re- 
 ferred to, the writer of this one will be satisfied. 
 
 It may also be truthfully, and I trust modestly, 
 urged as an additional plea for the publication of 
 this volume, that, taken as a whole, the thoughts 
 and arguments which it presents are original and 
 independent; that it contains the result of much 
 careful, personal research into the Scriptures and 
 other sources, and that the book is therefore not a 
 mere repetition "a le perroquet"* of what has al- 
 ready been said by others. 
 
 In the treatment of Scripture, that principle of 
 interpretation has been followed which is recog- 
 nized by Alford, and which is the only rational one, 
 viz: that "a figurative sense of words is never ad- 
 missible except when required by the context," 
 and the effort is uniform and consistent through- 
 out this volume, to rescue the truths of Scripture 
 from the perversion and corruption which they have 
 suffered by the figurative or allegorical method of 
 interpretation which is so common and so popular. 
 
 It is very reasonably assumed in these pages 
 that the Bible was intended to be a revelation and 
 not an obscuration of truth; that the Holy Spirit, 
 in the selection and guidance of His various 
 amanuenses (by which is meant the original writ- 
 
ers, and not the mere copyists, including the trans- 
 lators) with unerring wisdom provided for the exact 
 and clear expression of His mind, or of the truths 
 He purposed to reveal; that the office of the exe- 
 gete, therefore, in the strict sense of the term, is 
 useless and officious, and that no man, nor body of 
 men, has ever been commissioned, authorized, or 
 qualified to interpret, but simply to teach, the 
 Scriptures. The interpretation and elucidation of 
 Scripture truth belongs exclusively to the Holy 
 Spirit. This is His office, and His alone, and this 
 powerful and efficient aid is vouchsafed to every 
 candid and believing student of God's Word. If, 
 in connection with the study of the Word, it were 
 relied upon alone, it should lead ultimately and 
 inevitably to uniformity of belief. I say ultimately, 
 because all Scripture truth, even with this powerful 
 aid, is not grasped or apprehended at once by the 
 human mind, no more than is any other truth, 
 but progressively; neither is the perceptive power 
 of all minds equal. I say it should lead inevitably 
 to uniformity of belief, because truth is fixed and 
 immutable, and the Holy Spirit, who is declared 
 by Christ to be the "Spirit of Truth," can not, 
 therefore, teach one thing out of the Word to one 
 mind, and contradict that teaching to another 
 mind. "God is not the author of confusion." The 
 BabH of creeds in the world to-day, which fills the 
 mind of the earnest seeker after truth with dismay, 
 must not, and can not be charged to the Holy 
 
Spirit. They are the product of the human exegete, 
 alone. 
 
 These remarks do not, of course, apply to the 
 symbolic Prophecies. The design of God in these 
 Prophecies being, evidently, to reveal certain truths 
 in such a way that the unfolding of the history of 
 the world and of the race, alone, would make them 
 understood, and understood only at and after the 
 time they became due. 
 
 Wm. Houliston. 
 
 Minneapolis, Minn. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 NATURE AND MANNER OF THE LORD'S 
 
 RETURN. 
 
 Page. 
 Scripture Teaching on This Point — No Obscur- 
 ity Nor Ambiguity about it — The Literal 
 Personal and Visible Return of Christ Plain- 
 ly Taught 13 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 A DIGRESSION. 
 Popular Objection to the Doctrine of the Lit- 
 eral, Personal, and Visible Advent Dis- 
 cussed — Modern Philosophy and Theology 
 in Conflict with Scripture and Science — No 
 Agreement Between the Soul of Scripture 
 and the Philosophical and Theological 
 Soul— What is the Soul? 25 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 EXACT TIME OF THE SECOND ADVENT 
 UNKNOWN. ITS PROXIMITY DIS- 
 CERNIBLE TOWARD THE END 
 OF THE AGE. 
 Ignorance of the Savior on this Point — Ignor- 
 ance of the Apostles— of the Writers of the 
 
Epistles — of All Men in Apostolic Times — 
 of Men Now, and to the End of the Age — 
 Proximity of the Event Discernible Toward 
 the End of the Age, by the Exhaustive Ful- 
 fillment of Prophecy, and by the Signs 47 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE SECOND ADVENT WILL BE PREMIL- 
 LENNIAL. 
 
 Testimony of Scripture on this Point — Views of 
 the Early Christian Church — The Literal, 
 Personal, and Premillennial View Held by 
 Able Men and Scholars During Every Age 
 of the Church, and Increasingly Prevalent 
 Now — Origen as anExegete — His Aims and 
 Scheme — Origen Primarily Responsible for 
 the Perversion of Christian Truth 71 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PROPHECIES AND SIGNS. WATCHMAN, 
 WHAT OF THE NIGHT? 
 
 Examination of Prophecy — Evidence of the Ap- 
 proaching End of the Age and Imminence of 
 the Savior's Return — Times, Periods, Dates 
 — Views and Computations of Mr. H. Grat- 
 tan Guiness — Views and Chart of Mr. J. B. 
 Dimbleby, Premier Chronologist to the 
 British Chronological and Astronomical 
 Association, London — The Principle of 
 "Septiform Periodicity ,, — Signs 93 
 
 10 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE MILLENNIUM AND THE FUTURE 
 LIFE. 
 
 Popular Idea of the Future Life Fanciful and 
 Erroneous — Examination and Analysis of 
 One or Two Sample Passages of Scripture 
 upon which, as They Appear in Our Com- 
 mon Version, the Popular Belief has Its 
 Foundation or is Supposed to Have Sup- 
 port — What the Scriptures have to Say of 
 the Future Life — Old Earth to be the Thea- 
 ter of its Manifestation — To be Inaugurated 
 by the Resurrection of the "Dead in Christ" 
 and the Establishment of the Millennial 
 Kingdom — Removal of the Curse — Political 
 Features of the Millennial Period — Future 
 Life Manifested Through a Material Organ- 
 ism — Answer to the Question, "Shall We 
 Know Each Other in the Future Life? ,, ... 137 
 
 11 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 NATURE AND MANNER OF THE 
 
 LORD'S RETURN. 
 
 Scripture Teaching on this Point — No Obscurity 
 
 nor Ambiguity about it — The Literal, Personal, 
 
 and Visible Return of Christ Plainly Taught. 
 
 At the risk of being tedious and wearisome to 
 the reader, for a few pages, by the multiplication 
 and repetition of quotations from the Bible, it is 
 purposed to lay down in this chapter, a foundation 
 of Scripture testimony, broad, deep, and solid 
 enough, not merely to sustain the superstructure 
 that shall be reared upon it, but to mock the shafts 
 of sophistry which may be hurled against it by 
 prejudice and the hostility of theorists. We be- 
 speak, therefore, the patience and good nature of 
 the reader. 
 
 No ordinarily intelligent person whose mind 
 has not been biased in education, or by prevalent 
 and popular notions, or, who has not accustomed 
 himself, as the result of those influences, to habitual 
 juggling with God's word, can read the multiplied 
 and various statements of, and references to the 
 second coming of Christ, scattered throughout the 
 New Testament, and understand them otherwise 
 than as meaning a literal, personal and visible re- 
 turn of the Lord to this earth. 
 
 13 
 
In support of the above premises, a few of the 
 more explicit and precise statements of Scripture 
 on this point may be examined: — statements 
 worded with such evidently intentional care and 
 definiteness, that they can not be misunderstood, 
 but must be deliberately and wilfully preverted or 
 set aside, with the intention of avoiding their de- 
 structive effect upon the theory of a tropical or 
 figurative second coming, or return of Christ The 
 explicitness and precision of some of these state- 
 ments suggest , if they do not almost force one to 
 the conclusion that the Holy Spirit in inditing 
 them, aimed to forestall any attempt that might be 
 made in later times to corrupt this doctrine, and 
 so constructed the statement of it as to thwart and 
 defeat the attempt. 
 
 For example: When the Lord was ascending 
 from Mount Olivet, and the disciples were gazing 
 in astonishment at their departing Lord, "two men 
 in white apparel stood by them, which also said, 
 Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into 
 heaven; this same Jesus which is taken up from 
 you into heaven, shall so come, in like manner as 
 ye have seen him go into heaven." 
 
 Now, observe carefully and critically the points 
 of emphasis in this passage, and note in these points 
 of emphasis, the very obvious intention of fixing 
 definitely and beyond all mistake, or all con- 
 troversy, two things; first, the identity of the 
 Person, or Being, concerning whom the statement 
 was made that He should come again, and second ; 
 
 14 
 
the sense in which His coming was to be under- 
 stood, as well as the manner, — the precise manner 
 of His advent. 
 
 The points of emphasis are these, "this same 
 Jesus" "shall so come" "in like manner" Now 
 it is certainly obvious and beyond all dispute that 
 the introduction of the adjective same between 
 this and Jesus is to emphasize the identity of 
 the Person spoken of, viz: Jesus, Jesus himself; 
 not his Spirit; not the Holy Spirit; not an influence 
 or emanation from Jesus or from God the Father, 
 but this same Jesus who was at that moment being 
 taken up into heaven, — the resurrected Jesus of 
 "flesh and bones" and wounded side and hands, 
 who, for the purpose of assuring His disciples of 
 His identity some weeks before this event, had 
 said "behold My hands and My feet, handle Me 
 and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as 
 ye see Me have." (Luke 24:39) The same Jesus 
 who, a few hours before His death, had promised 
 to "drink of the fruit of the vine" with them in 
 the kingdom of God, — this still incarnate and ever 
 to remain incarnate "Son of God" — none other, 
 none different. It is also equally obvious that the 
 introduction of the adverb so between shall 
 and come is to emphasize the sense in which 
 His coming is to be understood, as well as the 
 manner of His coming. And, as if such emphatic 
 declaration was scarcely strong enough to fix the 
 sense, the words "in like manner" are super-added. 
 
 Now, how did He go, for the witnessing dis- 
 
ciples were assured that He would so come, in 
 like manner as they had seen Him go into heaven. 
 Why, He simply ascended from the earth, bodily, 
 while the disciples were gazing at Him, until a cloud 
 received Him out of their sight. It follows, there- 
 fore, on the authority of the angelic visitants, 
 that He shall so come; that is to say, as He then 
 ascended from the earth, so, when He comes again 
 He shall descend to the earth; as the cloud re- 
 ceived Him out of their sight, so, when He comes 
 the clouds will accompany Him; and, as all human 
 eyes present at His ascension saw Him go, so, 
 when He comes "every eye shall see Him." 
 
 Now, does this accord with other Scripture, and 
 can the testimony of these angels be corroborated 
 by Scripture? Yes, Jesus said "if I go away I shall 
 come again" He had also said, "and then shall 
 they see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of 
 heaven with great power and glory." In Rev. 1 17, 
 we read, "Behold He cometh with clouds, and 
 every eye shall see Him" Daniel, in prophetic 
 vision, says, "and behold one like the Son of Man 
 
 came with the clouds of heaven and there was 
 
 given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom 
 etc." 
 
 Thus we have the statement of His reappear- 
 ance, or second coming, not only clothed in such 
 language, and so constructed, as to render any 
 other than a literal interpretation rationally and 
 scientifically impossible, but we find the statement 
 in accord with, and supported by other Scripture 
 
 16 
 
statement, and by the words of Jesus, Himself, so 
 far as relates to the nature and manner of His 
 coming; viz: literally, personally, visibly, and in the 
 clouds of heaven. 
 
 The Scriptures so abound with passages re- 
 ferring to the second advent of Christ to the 
 earth, — three hundred or more of times, I believe, 
 it is stated or referred to, — that it almost wearies 
 one to make selections. We will however select 
 a few for the purpose, especially, of indicating there 
 uniformity and harmony, as in the instances cited 
 above. 
 
 We read, "For the Lord Himself shall descend 
 from Heaven with a shout etc." (Thes. 4:16). "For 
 our citizenship is in Heaven, from whence also we 
 look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who 
 shall change our vile bodies, etc." (Phil. 3:20„2i). 
 "Repent ye therefore and be converted, that your 
 sins may be blotted out, when the times of refresh- 
 ing shall come from the presence of the Lord, and 
 He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was 
 preached unto you; whom the Heavens must re- 
 ceive until the times of restitution of all things, 
 which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His 
 Holy Prophets since the world began." (Acts 3:19, 
 20,21). In these passages we have the identity of 
 the Savior again emphasized, as in the ones 
 formerly quoted. "The Lord Himself." "We look 
 for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ" "He shall 
 send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto 
 you" This same Jesus, you see. 
 
 17 
 
Not only this, but these passages, by the only 
 honest and fair interpretation, affirm His descent 
 or return to earth. "The Lord Himself shall de- 
 scend from Heaven," "Our Citizenship is in 
 Heaven, whence also we look for the Savior," "He 
 shall send Jesus Christ, whom the heavens must re- 
 ceive until the times of restitution of all things," 
 "then shall they see the Son of Man coming in the 
 clouds." 
 
 Nothing, it w y ould seem, but the blindest and 
 most obstinate devotion to some extra-biblical the- 
 ory of the second advent could obscure the light 
 or resist the force of these explicit and emphatic 
 statements of the literal, personal, and visible re- 
 turn of our Lord. 
 
 Compare now Math. 24: 26, 27, with Rev. 1: 7. 
 In the former we read, "wherefore if they shall say 
 unto you, behold He is in the desert; go not forth, 
 behold, He is in the secret chambers; believe it not; 
 for as the lightning cometh out of the east and 
 shineth even unto the west, so shall also the com- 
 ing of the Son of Man be." The meaning of these 
 words to any candid mind is quite obvious. It is 
 this, — the Savior warns them against deception 
 from false christs who, He said, should appear in 
 the course of the events or signs preceding the end 
 of the age, so that, if any one should say, "lo, here 
 He is, or lo there, or behold He is in the desert," 
 etc., it must not be believed; because, the coming 
 of the Son of Man will be universally visible and 
 universally recognized. No one will need to be 
 
 18 
 
told of it, when it occurs, for all will see it, and all 
 will know it, just as in the case of the lightning 
 which, though the electric discharge comes from a 
 cloud in the eastern horizon, nevertheless it flashes 
 its lurid light from east to west, and through all 
 the space within the visible circle of the heavens, — 
 from the one part under heaven, as Luke has it, to 
 the other part under heaven, — so that every one 
 who is not blind must see it and know it. Now 
 read Rev. i : 7, "Behold He cometh with clouds 
 and every eye shall see Him" 
 
 Indeed, the terms most frequently used to ex- 
 press His second coming, suggest, if they do not 
 assert it, that the event is one which is especially 
 cognizable to the sense of sight; as, for example, 
 the following: "To them that look for Him, shall 
 He appear the second time, etc/' "Looking for 
 that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of 
 the Great God and our Savior." "For we know 
 that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, 
 for w<e shall see Him as He is." "See that thou 
 keep the commandment without spot, unrebukable, 
 until the appearing of our Lord." "I charge thee, 
 therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 who shall judge the quick and the dead at His ap- 
 pearing and kingdom," and a multitude of other 
 passages. 
 
 Only a small portion of the evidence from 
 Scripture has been given to prove the literality, 
 personality, and visibility of Christ's second com- 
 ing, but it is already overwhelming. Such fanciful 
 
 19 
 
notions, therefore, as that by Christ's second com- 
 ing we are to understand His invisible presence and 
 influence at conversion, or His presence either in 
 person or representatively at the death of the be- 
 liever, are utterly without warrant from Scripture 
 yea more, they are a flagrant perversion of Scrip- 
 ture. 
 
 But, to settle more effectually and completely 
 the assumption of any Scriptural warrant, or even 
 permission for these notions we have only to turn 
 to John 21 : 18, where we read, — "Verily, verily I 
 say unto thee (that is to Peter) when thou wast 
 young, thou girdedest thyself, and walkedest 
 whither thou wouldst, but when thou shalt be old, 
 thou shalt stretch forth thine hands, and another 
 shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou 
 wouldst not. This spake He, signifying by what 
 death he (Peter) should glorify God, and when He 
 had spoken this, He (Christ) saith unto him (Peter) 
 follow me. Then Peter turning about seeth the 
 disciple whom Jesus loved (that is John) follow- 
 ing; * * * Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, 
 Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith 
 unto him, if I will that he tarry till I come, what 
 is that to thee? Follow thou me. Then went this 
 saying abroad among the brethren, that that disci- 
 ple (John) should not die." Now, as every one 
 knows, Christ here foretold Peter's death by mar- 
 tyrdom, and as Peter was very curious or anxious 
 to know what would be the fate of John, his be- 
 loved friend and companion, he asks the question 
 
 20 
 
of Jesus, what should become of John. The reply 
 of Jesus is, "if I will that he tarry till I come what 
 is that to thee?'' and we are very carefully told that 
 Jesus did not positively say or predict that John 
 should remain alive till His coming again, but 
 that He simply said to Peter, that if it should be 
 His (Jesus') purpose that John should remain alive 
 till He came again, what concern was it of Peter's? 
 
 But, in doing this, Jesus has most emphatically 
 distinguished between these two events, viz.: be- 
 tween the death of a believer, and His own second 
 coming. Peter's dying, it is here practically af- 
 firmed would not be tarrying till Christ's second 
 coming, and John's tarrying till Christ came would 
 not be death for John. Thus the death of a be- 
 liever is not Christ's second coming. 
 
 Now we will proceed to show that conversion 
 is not Christ's second coming. Turn to Acts, 3: 
 19. We read, "repent ye, therefore, and be con- 
 verted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the 
 times of refreshing shall come from the presence of 
 the Lord; and He shall send Jesus Christ, which 
 before was preached unto you; whom the heavens 
 must receive until the times of restitution of all 
 things, etc." 
 
 In the first place we remark, the exhortation 
 here is to be converted first, as preparatory to the 
 second coming of Christ, therefore, these two 
 things can not be identical. In the second place 
 the exhortation is to be converted now, while Je- 
 sus' second coming is, in the same passage, said 
 
 21 
 
to be due only at the time of the restitution of all 
 things; — the heavens must receive or hold Him 
 until then, — that is, until the restoration of crea- 
 tion or of the earth to its primal condition, or as 
 it was before the curse. 
 
 Before closing this part of the theme, let us 
 ask this question: If Christ's second coming were 
 not literal, personal, and visible, what application is 
 possible, and what congruity is there in the warn- 
 ing given to the disciples concerning false christs, 
 who should appear in the course of the age "shew- 
 ing great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it 
 were possible they shall deceive the very elect ?" 
 Are not these false christs who exercise those pow- 
 ers, literal, visible persons? And, if they are, 
 which must be admitted, must not the elect be 
 sadly ignorant of the spiritual nature of Christ's 
 second coming, when they are so imminently liable 
 to be deceived by these gross, material, and visible 
 imposters? Or, on the other hand, must not the 
 coming of these false christs, material and personal 
 as they are, present a very striking resemblance to, 
 and correspondence with the true advent, to prove 
 so dangerously deceptive, even to the "very elect?" 
 
 So much as to what the Scriptures, at least, 
 teach with reference to the nature and manner of 
 the Second Advent, and it is equally clear, from 
 the writings of the early Fathers, as will be shown 
 later on, that these were the views and teachings 
 of the apostolic and early Christian Churches. 
 And, outside of these writings, among the inscrip- 
 
 22 
 
tions on the tombs in the catacombs of Rome, and 
 from other sources, the evidence is not only abun- 
 dant, but overwhelming on this point. It is sim- 
 ply impossible for any person well informed on this 
 subject to doubt this, and they only, among those 
 who reject the doctrine of the personal return of 
 the Lord, are rational, who admit that these are 
 indeed the teachings of Scripture, and were the 
 views of the early Christian Church, but who claim 
 that this was due to the misapprehension of the 
 writers of Scripture, and the ignorance of the 
 Church; the crudity and immaturity of its religious 
 ideas and conceptions, and that, as it grew older, 
 and its religious ideas developed or evolved, as the 
 result of greater spiritual enlightenment and in- 
 tellectual expansion, these gross and materialistic 
 notions were abandoned. 
 
 For this latter opinion, how r ever, with all its 
 show of fairness, w r e have no respect, as it practi- 
 cally repudiates the Bible as the Word of God, and 
 a divinely inspired record of revealed truth, and is 
 nothing more nor less than a masked and hypo- 
 critical deism. Moreover, it is a characteristic 
 product of the self-conceit of the present age, which 
 arrogates to itself intellectual superiority over all 
 past ages. 
 
 The Bible either is, or it is not, the Word of 
 God. If it is, its plain teaching may not be ignored 
 nor set aside because it conflicts with the philoso- 
 phies of men, or because it is materialistic. Its 
 teachings are, it is true, materialistic, and immeas- 
 
 23 
 
 
urable injury has been done to truth by the attempt 
 in all ages to spiritualize and etherialize those 
 teachings so as to adapt them to human philoso- 
 phy. 
 
 The Bible teaches uniformly and unequivocally 
 the restoration of the earth to its primal condition; 
 to its edenic perfection and splendor, and the resur- 
 rection of man to dwell therein. This was the 
 hope of Paul as stated by himself on the occasion 
 of his examination before the Roman centurion 
 and the high* priest Ananias. It was the hope of 
 the Jews, as further affirmed by the same apostle 
 in his superb speech before Agrippa (Acts 26:1, 
 8, 9). It was his theme on Mars hill, and appar- 
 ently, his theme everywhere, for we are told that 
 he went everywhere ''preaching Christ and the 
 resurrection," — not the resurrection of Christ, but 
 the resurrection of the dead, through Christ, who 
 was the earnest and first fruits of them that sleep. 
 From the promise to Abraham that he should 
 be "the heir of the world," (as explained by the 
 apostle, Rom. 3:4) to the sermon on the mount, 
 where Jesus taught that "the meek shall inherit the 
 earth," and indeed from Genesis to Revelation, this 
 is the plain and obvious teaching of Scripture. 
 
 24 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 A DIGRESSION. 
 
 Popular Objection to the Doctrine of the Literal 
 Advent Discussed. — Modern Philosophy and 
 Theology in Conflict With Scripture and 
 Science. — No Agreement Between the Soul of 
 Scripture and the Philosophical and Theologi- 
 cal Soul. — What is the Soul? 
 
 Perhaps it will be profitable and helpful at this 
 point to digress from the main subject, to discuss 
 at some length the ground of the popular objec- 
 tion to the literal and personal return of our Lord. 
 
 The ground of objection is, as we have inti- 
 mated, that this view or conception of the second 
 advent is gross, materialistic, and unphilosophical. 
 We wish to say first, that philosophy, notwith- 
 standing the pretentious etymology of the term 
 used to designate it, is not by any means unerring- 
 wisdom or knowledge; much less is it absolute 
 truth. Much of philosophy is sheer speculation, 
 fancy, imagination, and in some of its departments 
 it is in demonstrable conflict with both science and 
 truth. Especially is this the case in its theological, 
 psychological, and anthropological departments. 
 
 Alas for the integrity of religious truth, and 
 
 25 
 
particularly of Christian truth, the poison of Gre- 
 cian philosophy in general, and of Neo-Platonism 
 in particular, has shattered it in every nerve and 
 fibre, and almost annihilated it. Christian truth, 
 even in its early propagation by the Apostles, had 
 no more subtle, dangerous, and persistent foe, and 
 the teachers of Christianity had to be ever watch- 
 ful to resist the insidious encroachments of a foe 
 whose aims and assaults, where successful, were 
 always more or less ruinous to truth. Again and 
 again had Paul to warn his pupils and converts 
 against "philosophy and vain deceit/' and "science 
 falsely so called. " 
 
 The fact is, as any careful and unbiased student 
 can satisfactorily prove for himself, that, with refer- 
 ence to the question of man's future, the funda- 
 mental difference between the teaching of Christ 
 and his apostles on the one hand, and the current 
 philosophy of the world at that day, on the other, 
 was, that the Christians taught a future life through 
 a resurrection or re-living of the body, or organ- 
 ism, — changed somewhat, it is true, as to its ele- 
 ments and powers, but not as to its identity, — 
 while philosophy taught the immortality of the 
 soul, as the conscious and intelligent part of 
 man, which death and the dissolution of the body 
 only liberated. 
 
 Philosophy has not changed. To-day, in the 
 three departments referred to, in dealing with the 
 subject of man, — his structure and nature, — it pos- 
 tulates a soul to which it assigns certain charac- 
 
 26 
 
teristics and powers, and which it constitutes the 
 seat and source of reason, intelligence, of all moral 
 attributes, and of consciousness, of course, as these 
 other functions and powers imply and demand the 
 latter. 
 
 Sir William Hamilton says, "Man is not an 
 organism, he is an intelligence served by an or- 
 ganism. " This proposition contains the whole 
 modern philosophical idea of the nature of man, 
 and expresses concisely and accurately the popu- 
 lar notion. But, it does not rest on scientific 
 ground. It is purely metaphysical. So far as 
 science speaks or can speak on the subject, it con- 
 tradicts and reverses this proposition. It affirms 
 that man is an organism, and is intelligent as an 
 organism, and because he is an organism, the rela- 
 tive intelligence in individuals, as to both quantity 
 and quality, being dependent upon the structure 
 and condition of their respective organisms, plus 
 or minus, of course, the culture applied to each. 
 It affirms that consciousness and intelligence cease 
 when the functions of the organism cease, and that 
 when man dies, and the dissolution of the body 
 takes place, he is practically extinct. The logical 
 corrollary, therefore, is, that if ever man returns 
 to consciousness hereafter, it will be when, in the 
 resurrection, by the omnific power of God he is 
 reorganized, — not necessarily by a recombination 
 of the same materials, or materials of the same 
 kind, but by a combination of materials of some 
 kind. And, this is precisely the teachings of Scrip- 
 
 27 
 
ture, — the teaching of Christ and the apostles. 
 Man has a body now, and he is to have one here- 
 after. The present one has been designated a 
 natural body, the future one a spiritual body, — a 
 body at all events, not an "immaterial spirit" not 
 a phantasm, not a formless, intangible, invisible 
 nothing, but a body, and very reasonably so, for, 
 if the saints are to live and reign with Christ for a 
 millennium on this material earth, as taught by 
 Scripture, if they are to sit upon thrones (that num- 
 ber of them at least whose privilege this will be) 
 judging the twelve tribes of Israel, if they are to 
 sit down with Christ in His Kingdom, and drink 
 with Him "of the fruit of the vine" as He prom- 
 ised them He would, then they must have material 
 bodies. [See chapter VI, Quotation from McClin- 
 tock & Strong's Encyclopedia.] 
 
 The philosophical soul is immaterial and im- 
 mortal, and the human body, which in some mys- 
 terious way it inhabits and controls (that is to say 
 when the soul is not, according to another and 
 somewhat contradictory principle of the same phil- 
 osophy, dominated and controlled by the body) — 
 the body, we repeat, is philosophically, a material 
 organism of merely temporary use and conveni- 
 ence, serving only to put the soul into visible and 
 tangible relations to the material universe, but not 
 at all necessary to consciousness or intelligence, or 
 to that which is expressed in the phrase mental 
 phenomena, all of which the soul is supposed to 
 
 28 
 
exercise independently of the body, and after the 
 body has actually crumbled into dust. 
 
 To this cherished idea of philosophy, which has 
 persisted through nearly all the ages, and which 
 seems as tenacious of existence and as immortal as 
 the human soul of its own conception, stands 
 opposed, fairly and squarely, as we have said, both 
 the Bible and science. The Bible wherever it 
 speaks didactically or positively on the subject, as- 
 serts in the strongest terms the obliteration and 
 destruction of all consciousness and all mental ac- 
 tion or phenomena in man, — not in his body, — 
 but in man, at death, and teaches a common recep- 
 tacle for all men, at death, viz.: hades or the grave. 
 It teaches a future life only through and by a resur- 
 rection or re-living of the body, which is always 
 put remotely in the future, and is not a resurrec- 
 tion one by one of individuals, but a general resur- 
 rection, or to state it more exactly, a resurrection 
 in the mass, but in two divisions, and at two differ- 
 ent times, of all mankind, — a first resurrection of 
 the "dead in Christ, ,, and afterwards a resurrection 
 of "the rest of the dead." 
 
 In support of what is here said with reference 
 to the obliteration of consciousness in man at 
 death, as taught in the Scriptures, we will not quote 
 at any length, but will give a sample passage or 
 two, and refer the reader who wishes to investigate 
 the subject more thoroughly to a tract published 
 by the "Scriptural Publication Society/' of Yar- 
 mouth, Maine, entitled "Man in Death," by Bishop 
 
 29 
 
Law. The texts we offer, and which might be 
 multiplied many times, are these: Eel. 9:5, "For 
 the living know that they shall die, but the dead 
 know not anything, * * * Also their love and 
 their hatred and their envy is noiv perished." Also, 
 Psalms 146:4, "His (man's) breath goeth forth, he 
 returneth to his earth; in that very day his 
 thoughts perish" To say that this refers to the 
 body and not to the soul, is begging the whole 
 question. Upon what authority, pray, is this as- 
 sumption? Not upon that of Scripture, certainly, 
 for it makes no such distinction, and affords utterly 
 no warrant for the philosophical use of the word 
 soul. 
 
 But, as we have before stated, not only is the 
 Bible opposed to this idea, but so also is science. 
 Science recognizes a vitalizing and energizing 
 principle inherent in all animated beings, and com- 
 mon to them all, which is called life. It has, in 
 and of itself, no consciousness nor intelligence. It 
 can not think nor act except through a material 
 organism with correlated parts, but, given such an 
 organism, this principle furnishes the energy or 
 force, and starts and maintains the function of the 
 organism, in all its parts. When, therefore, any 
 vital part or organ is injured or destroyed, so as to 
 render it useless, this principle is powerless to 
 maintain the function, and death and dissolution 
 ensue, and all consciousness ceases, for conscious- 
 ness is the result of the action of the brain and 
 nerves. When that action ceases, — when the fu'nc- 
 
 30 
 
tion of the brain ceases, consciousness ceases, and 
 all mental phenomena. 
 
 From a number of opinions on this subject pub- 
 lished in a work entitled "Science and Immortal- 
 ity," edited by Samuel J. Barrows, and published 
 by Geo. H. Ellis, Boston, we select the following 
 of Lester F. Ward, A. M., of the Smithsonian In- 
 stitution, Washington, D. C. He says, 'The con- 
 sciousness, when scientifically examined, reveals it- 
 self as a quality of brain, or mode of manifestation 
 of the molecular activities of the organized brain 
 substance. It is a universal induction of science 
 that modification of brain is accompanied by modi- 
 fication of consciousness. No exception to this 
 law has ever been discovered. The conclusion is, 
 therefore, almost a necessary one that brain is the 
 cause of consciousness, and that consciousness de- 
 pends upon and varies with the nature and condi- 
 tion of the brain. * * * It follows that so far 
 as science can speak on the subject, the conscious- 
 ness persists as long as the organized brain, and 
 no longer. * * * The immortality of science 
 is the eternity of matter and its motions in the pro- 
 duction of phenomena, and science will object to 
 all unphilosophical attempts to confound phenome- 
 non with these."* 
 
 * Lest any of my readers who may have seen the symposium of 
 opinions edited by Mr. Barrows from which I have quoted, and who may 
 be acquainted with the materialism of Mr. Ward, and his lack of 
 sympathy with revealed truth, should think me partial or unfair in 
 limiting my quotations to one drawn from the opinion of Mr. Ward, and 
 thus from that class of opinions which incline to the materalistic side of 
 the question, I will quote also from the opinion of Chas. A. Young - . 
 LLD., Prof, of Astronomy in Princeton College, N. J., taken from the 
 
 31 
 
But, expert testimony like the above, interest- 
 ing and valuable as it is, is not essential to the sup- 
 port of a fact or truth, the evidence and proofs of 
 which are constantly passing under common ob- 
 servation, and which come' quite within the range 
 of the intelligence and comprehension of ordinary 
 men. Fresh illustrations of the complete depend- 
 ence of human consciousness, and of human intel- , 
 ligence as well, upon the healthy function of the 
 brain, are being furnished every day, all around us, 
 and one need only look and reflect a little to dis- 
 cover this truth. 
 
 At the risk of prolonging this digression be- 
 yond due bounds, we feel impelled to give an illus- 
 tration: A man falls, or is struck a heavy blow 
 upon the head. Immediately, consciousness, all 
 mental phenomena, and voluntary motion are sus- 
 
 same symposium, as a fair representation of the argument on the other 
 side, but in doing so will take the liberty of pointing out the weakness of 
 his argument. I quote: — "The fact that, when I (ego) determine to 
 raise my hand, a certain definite change takes place in certain brain- 
 cells, and a stimulous then sets out and makes its way from the brain 
 along certain nerve-fibres, with an ascertainable speed, till it reaches 
 certain muscular fibres, which in consequence contract and lift the arm., 
 this is all interesting ; but it neither proves that my brain is myself, nor 
 does it in the least explain the nature of the connection between my 
 will and the brain-cells where the physical chain of action seems to 
 originate. * * * And so I cannot accept the materialistic hypothesis as 
 scientifically satisfactory, and am forced to consider it as much more 
 probable that the man is more than his body, and likely to survive it." 
 Now, the weak point in this argument — and it is so conspicuous as 
 to scarcely require pointing out — is this, that if it is of any value either 
 as a proof or a mere intimation that " man is more than his body, and 
 likely to survive it," it is of equal value as a proof or intimation that the 
 inferior animal — that a dog, for instance, "is more than his body and 
 likely to survive it," since his action, also, is determined in precisely the 
 same way, and by the same processes. The dog, also, has an ego and a 
 will, and the only difference between man and the inferior animal, so far 
 as Mr. Young's illustration is concerned, is one of relative intelligence in 
 determining and guiding their respective action. And so, upon further 
 reflection, we find that the will is qualified by the intelligence, and not 
 the intelligence by the will. The will, therefore is not first, but the 
 intelligence, and intelligence scientifically considered and popularly 
 acknowledged is a quality of brain substance. 
 
 32 
 
pended; it may be only for a few moments, or it 
 may be for hours or days. That part of the ma- 
 terial organism called the brain has been injured, 
 or disturbed in its function, with the result that 
 that man's life becomes a perfect blank during the 
 period of such suspended function. He knows 
 nothing, and feels nothing, and all intellectual pro- 
 cesses cease, and, when the function of the brain is 
 again restored, consciousness returns, and all men- 
 tal operations begin precisely where they left off. 
 
 The most marked case the writer has ever heard 
 of, is that of the naval officer who was struck by a 
 flying missile from a bursting shell, during an en- 
 gagement, and just as he was giving a command to 
 his men. The command was only half uttered 
 when the blow and resulting unconsciousness 
 came. He was placed in a hospital where he re- 
 mained unconscious for weeks. A piece of the 
 skull, which had been fractured by the missile, was 
 piessing down upon the brain, and on being dis- 
 covered was removed, and at once consciousness 
 returned, and, as it was returning, immediately, he 
 finished the word of command to his men. 
 
 In the terms employed by Mr. Ward, "the 
 molecular activities of the organized brain sub- 
 stance" had been suddenly arrested by the me- 
 chanical pressure upon it of the piece of bone. As 
 soon as that pressure was removed, they were re- 
 stored, and consciousness and the whole mental 
 function returned, beginning precisely where it had 
 left off. As though he had been a machine, — :i 
 
 33 
 
phonograph, for instance, into whose mechanism 
 some foreign substance had been thrust while it 
 was articulating a sentence, and before it was more 
 than half through with it. Instantly the phono- 
 graph stops, remains silent for weeks until the in- 
 truder is removed when, immediately, it takes up 
 the sentence again where it had left off, and com- 
 pletes it. 
 
 Thus science, common observation, and Scrip- 
 ture are in accord as to the need of a material or- 
 ganism in order to consciousness and all mental 
 activity. At least, there is absolutely nothing from 
 either of these sources to warrant the assumption 
 that consciousness and intelligence are possible 
 without it. Philosophy, on the other hand, and 
 without any proofs, asserts the contrary, and is 
 therefore in conflict alike with the Scriptures and 
 with science, properly so called. 
 
 A curious question suggests itself with refer- 
 ence to the illustration above given, when the phil- 
 osophical hypothesis is considered that the seat and 
 source of consciousness, as w T ell as of intelligence 
 and all mental and moral phenomena in man, re- 
 sides in the soul, using that term, of course, in its 
 philosophical sense. The question is this: Where 
 was the soul of this officer during the weeks of sus- 
 pended brain function? It could not have left the 
 body, because, according to the same philosophy, 
 the separation of soul and body does not occur till 
 death, and the man was not dead. It must, there- 
 fore, if it existed at all, have been present in the 
 
 34 
 
body. But, if so, why is it that the period of sus- 
 pended brain function remains forever an absolute 
 blank in the man's consciousness? 
 
 But, to what is here said it will likely be re- 
 plied that the Bible recognizes, and speaks fre- 
 quently of the soul and that therefore the soul is 
 no mere postulate of philosophy as here asserted, 
 but is a fact of Revelation. 
 
 The Bible does, indeed, very frequently speak 
 of the soul, and of the spirit also, — two distinct 
 terms, by the way, indicating two different things, 
 and never confounded together in Scripture as 
 they are in philosophy and in the popular thought, 
 but, there is not the least identity between either 
 the spirit or the soul of Scripture, and the theologi- 
 cal or philosophical soul. 
 
 The spirit of Scripture is identical with the 
 biological principle of life. It is the vitalizing 
 principle or force that animates or energizes the 
 organism of all sentient creatures, and it is applied 
 in the Scriptures indiscriminately to men and in- 
 ferior animals, as in Eel. 3: 21, "Who knoweth the 
 spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of 
 the beast that goeth downward to the earth?" 
 This, by the way, is a peculiar passage, whose 
 meaning can only be conjectured. Perhaps the 
 thought is, that the spirit or life of man "returns to 
 God who gave it" to be held or reserved until the 
 resurrection of his organism, agreeably to other 
 statements of Scripture, as "your life is hid with 
 Christ in God." "When Christ, who is our life, 
 
 35 
 
shall appear (to resurrect the dead organism) then 
 shall we appear with Him in glory; that is, in our 
 glorified body, but the spirit or life of the beast 
 goes down with it to the earth never to be restored. 
 
 The etymology of the word spirit is significant 
 of its meaning. The French cyclopedia entitled 
 u Le Grand Distionnaire Universel du XIX Sli- 
 de" under the word "Esprit" (spirit) says: 
 "Spirit, from spiritus, properly breath, respiration, 
 from the Latin 'Spiro," I breathe; same as San- 
 scrit 'Spar/ to live, to respire; from which also the 
 Sanscrit 'Spartar/ breath, exactly the Latin 'Spir- 
 itus.' " The etymology given in the work referred 
 to is very comprehensive. We recommend it to 
 the reader who understands French. 
 
 The Century Dictionary, under the word 
 "Spirit" says: The primitive and natural notion 
 of life was that it consisted of the breath, and in 
 most languages, words etymologically signifying 
 breath are used to mean the principle of life." 
 
 What is true of the spirit of Scripture is also 
 true of the soul of Scripture. It has no identity 
 whatever with the soul of theology or philoso- 
 phy. It has absolutely nothing in common with 
 the soul of theology or philosophy. The soul 
 of the latter is an exclusive possession of man. 
 The lower animals, according to philosophy, are 
 soulless, but the soul of Scripture is applied to 
 men and animals alike. Both are said to be souls^ 
 and both are said to have souls. Again, the soul 
 of philosophy is never identified with the body. 
 
 36 
 
The sharpest distinction is always made by phil- 
 osophy between the soul and the body, but the 
 Scriptures, with but two solitary exceptions, which 
 will be presently noticed, make absolutely no such 
 distinction, but use the term soul continually 
 to express the person or individual, even when the 
 obvious reference is to the body, thus making the 
 terms body and soul interchangeable and of 
 the same import. Take such passages, for in- 
 stance, as Num. 9: 6, "and there were certain men, 
 who were defiled by the dead body (soul in the 
 original) of a man," also verses 7 and 10, and chap. 
 9:6, Lev. 11:43, 44> Lev. 21: 11, besides a multi- 
 tude of passages of another class, of which the fol- 
 lowing are examples: Num. 21:5, "and our soul 
 loatheth this light bread;" Num. 11:6, "but now 
 our soul is dried away;" Prov. 27 ': 7, "The full sou] 
 loatheth an honey comb, but to the hungry soul 
 every bitter thing is sweet; "Luke 12: 19, "and I 
 will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast many goods 
 laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, 
 and be merry." This last passage furnished Ma- 
 thew Henry an occasion for making some very ab- 
 surd comments, wherein it is very obvious that 
 Christ who uttered the parable, and Mathew Henry 
 who commented upon it, were widely at variance 
 in their ideas with reference to the nature of the 
 soul. In the parable, Christ makes the rich man 
 say to his soul "eat, drink, and be merry," thus 
 identifying it with the physical organism. On the 
 contrary, Mathew Henry, commenting on this self- 
 
 37 
 
gratulatory speech of the rich man, holds him up 
 to scorn and ridicule for addressing these words to 
 his soul, as though his soul could be satisfied with 
 material things, thus showing that he held the pop- 
 ular notion of the immateriality of the soul, and of 
 its distinction from the body, — in short, shows his 
 agreement with the philosophical idea of the soul. 
 The folly with which, in this parable, the Savior 
 charges the rich man has no reference to his having 
 offered material comforts to his soul, but to the 
 fact of his concentrating all his thought and inter- 
 est in the pleasures of this life, ignoring its uncer- 
 tainty, and the necessity of making preparation for 
 the life to come. Indeed, if the soul is immaterial, 
 and the rich man be supposed to have known it, 
 then, his proposition to regale it from the contents 
 of his barns, while it has no moral quality to justify 
 the parable or point a moral lesson, stamps him as 
 something more than a mere "fool," as charged by 
 our Savior. He could have been nothing short of 
 an idiot. 
 
 Again, pursuing still further this contrast be- 
 tween the soul of philosophy and that of Scripture, 
 we observe that the soul of philosophy is immor- 
 tal, while the soul of Scripture is mortal, since, 
 aside from the passages quoted above in which 
 souls are spoken of as being dead, it is the express 
 testimony of Scripture that "the soul that sinneth, 
 it shall die." The soul of philosophy, being im- 
 mortal, is also indestructible, but the soul of Scrip- 
 
 38 
 
ture may, and in multitudes of cases it will be de- 
 stroyed by God in the "Gehenna fire." 
 
 As examples of the indiscriminate use or appli- 
 cation in Scripture of the term soul to men and 
 inferior animals we quote from the record of crea- 
 tion given in Genesis (chap. I and 2) giving them 
 to the reader as they stand in the original Hebrew 
 text, as the English Version has deliberately 
 changed the text, having been, without doubt, in- 
 fluenced by the philosophical notion that men 
 only had souls. 
 
 Gen. 1 : 20, "Let the waters bring forth abun- 
 dantly the moving (or creeping) creature that hath 
 (Heb. nephesh chayah) a living soul," as in the 
 margin of the E. V.) 
 
 Gen. 1:21, "God created great whales and 
 every living soul (Heb. nephesh chayah) that mov- 
 eth (or creepeth) which the waters brought forth." 
 
 Gen. i : 24, "God said, let the earth bring forth 
 the living soul (Heb. nephesh chayah) after his 
 kind." 
 
 Gen. 1:20, "To every soul (Heb. nephesh) that 
 creepeth upon the earth." 
 
 Gen. 2:7, "Man became a living soul" (Heb. 
 nephesh chayah.) 
 
 Gen. 2: 19, "And out of the ground the Lord 
 God formed every beast of the field, and every 
 fowl of the air, and brought them to Adam to see 
 what he would call them; and whatsoever Adam 
 called every living soul, (Heb. nephesh chayah) 
 that was the name thereof." 
 
 39 
 
It will be observed in the above quotations, that 
 the moving or creeping creatures which the waters 
 brought forth are said to be living souls, and to 
 have living souls. So far, therefore, as the soul 
 is concerned, man enjoys no distinction whatever 
 over the beast, and whatever the soul or living soul 
 may be, the lower animals and all sentient creatures 
 have it. 
 
 It would be almost a waste of time to consider 
 here that use of the word soul in the Bible and 
 in other literature, by which it is put for the 
 thoughts, feelings, will, affections, emotions, etc., 
 just as the various organs of the body were used, 
 and indeed still are, to some extent, to indicate the 
 feelings, etc. We are all familiar with this; and 
 the reason for such use is not far nor hard to find. 
 It grew out of the popular error which located the 
 passions, emotions, feelings, etc., in these organs, 
 viz. : the heart, the liver, the reins or kidneys, 
 bowels, etc., as, for instance Ps. 16:7, "my reins 
 also instruct me in the night seasons/' (9th verse) 
 "Therefore, my heart is glad, and my glory (liver) 
 rejoiceth." Ps. 34:2, "My soul shall make her 
 boast in the Lord." 1st John 3: 17, "Bowels of 
 compassion," or, as it is in the original, simply 
 "bowels. " Passing this, there remains to be con- 
 sidered the most difficult passages of Scripture 
 touching the soul, of which there are, perhaps, but 
 two. They are these, "the whole of you, the spirit, 
 and the soul, and the body," 1st Thes. 5:23, and 
 
 40 
 
Math. 10:28, "fear not them which kill the body 
 but are not able to kill the soul, etc." 
 
 It will be noticed that the spirit is here distin- 
 guished from the soul and the body, and it has 
 already been shown that the spirit is the life princi- 
 ple. What then, in these passages is intended to 
 be expressed by the word soul as distinct from 
 the mere body? We have just shown that the 
 term soid as applied in Scripture refers to the 
 person or to the individual whether of men 
 or animals. It seems to have a wider or more 
 comprehensive meaning than the term body, 
 which hardly expresses more than the mere mass 
 of corporeal matter of w T hich the individual is com- 
 posed, and which is common to all individuals. 
 Our conception is that it serves to express the in- 
 dividual in those qualities or attributes which dis- 
 tinguish him from all other individuals; that it re- 
 fers to that which, in every animate or living 
 creature, individualizes it and distinguishes it from 
 every other living creature, whether of the same 
 kind, or belonging to other forms of living 
 creatures that now exist, that ever have existed, or 
 that ever will exist throughout the universe during 
 the endless cycles of eternity. In other words, its 
 individuality or identity, as to form and feature, 
 and mental and moral attributes, if not physical 
 ones, and w r e are inclined to the belief that it in- 
 cludes even these. 
 
 The mere mass or aggregation of corporeal 
 matter; the molecular combinations which con- 
 
 41 
 
struct the organism are dissolved at death, and the 
 organism, — the body is thus destroyed; abso- 
 lutely destroyed, as it is resolved into the original 
 atoms of matter which composed it, and is dis- 
 persed through various other organic forms, never 
 again to be reassembled in the same body, but the 
 individuality; that which distinguished the man or 
 the individual from all others; the very kernel, so 
 to speak of his being, and which the organism 
 manifested; in other words the soul, as we believe 
 it is, can not be destroyed, but simply ceases its 
 manifested existence, as, in the mind of God, where 
 it originated, and where alone it now continues to 
 exist, — in the mind of God, we say, — in the eternal 
 councils and purposes of the Almighty, a day has 
 been set apart when He will reorganize and re- 
 vivify this "sleeping" soul. 
 
 But, lest we should appear to contradict our- 
 selves, having only a moment ago affirmed that the 
 soul of Scripture is destructible, we wish to qualify 
 this latter statement by saying that, it cannot be 
 destroyed neither by the violent hand of man, nor 
 by any of the accidents or processes of whatever 
 kind or nature which deprive of life or "destroy 
 the body," but, in the second death, by the "Gehen- 
 na fire," which puts an end forever to the actual ex- 
 istence of a certain class of persons, such souls are 
 practically and permanently destroyed. 
 
 But, resuming the thought interrupted by the 
 above parenthetic clause, let it be remembered that 
 things or persons not yet in existence, and things or 
 
 42 
 
persons whose existence has actually ceased, do, 
 nevertheless, exist in the mind, so to speak, of God. 
 This is a necessary deduction from what we con- 
 ceive to be the nature and power of the Deity, who 
 knows the end from the beginning, and who planned 
 the entire universe before its construction was be- 
 gun, and whose infinite mind reaches both ways, 
 and grasps everything between the two eternities. 
 
 There are passages of Scripture which intimate 
 what is above suggested with reference to the ex- 
 istence of the individual in the mind of God both 
 before and after his actual existence. In the 139th 
 Psalm, 16th verse, we read, "Thine eyes did see 
 my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book 
 all my members were written, which in continu- 
 ance were fashioned, when as yet there was none 
 of them." This passage suggests the existence of 
 the psalmist, in the mind of God, before the process 
 of his development, — before his actual existence. 
 In Isaiah, chap. 45:3 and 4, Cyrus the Persian 
 monarch, was named by the Almighty, over one 
 hundred years before he came into actual existence. 
 Indeed, all prophecy is full of illustrations. 
 
 The discussion between Christ and the Sad- 
 ducees on the subject of the resurrection, as re- 
 corded by Luke (Chap. 20) is full of the suggestion 
 that men, especially righteous men, have an exist- 
 ence in the mind of God, and in his purposes with 
 reference to the future, after they cease to exist, in 
 fact. Especial attention is called to the 38th verse, 
 
 43 
 
"For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living; 
 for all live unto him." 
 
 Read the whole narrative, and remember that 
 the discussion here recorded was as to the resur- 
 rection of dead men, and not as some, with incom- 
 prehensible obtuseness of perception imagine a 
 discussion as to whether dead men, or men sup- 
 posed to be dead, were or were not still alive. 
 Neither is the argument of Christ intended to 
 prove a resurrection of any kind, literal or figura- 
 tive, as having already taken place, with reference 
 to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as well as all others 
 already dead, nor as taking place every day, or all 
 the time with reference to those who were dying. 
 This was the heresy of Hymenaeus and Philetus 
 recorded and condemned in Paul's letter to Timo- 
 thy (2d Tim. 2: 17, 18). No, Christ's argument 
 was, that as God had declared to Moses out of the 
 burning bush, "I am the God of Abraham, the God 
 of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," and as God is not 
 the God of the dead but of the living, there would 
 therefore, most assuredly, be a resurrection of 
 Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and of all the dead, 
 and that God was justified in saying that He was 
 the God of xAbraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all dead 
 men, only in view of the fact that "all live unto 
 Him," anticipatively, because of the coming resur- 
 rection. And it is to this incident, — the discus- 
 sion between Christ and the Sadducees, — that Paul 
 has reference when he says (Rom. 4: 17), "God, 
 
 44: 
 
who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things 
 that be not as though they were/' 
 
 Since writing the foregoing, a note appended to 
 the seventh page of the second volume of Milman's 
 Edition of Gibbon's ''Decline and Fall of the Ro- 
 man Empire/' has fallen under our observation, in 
 which Mr. Guizot, whose note it is, takes exception 
 to Mr. Gibbon's view of Plato's philosophy with 
 reference especially to the nature of the Deity and 
 of the material world. In discussing this miscon- 
 ception of Mr. Gibbon, which is not his alone, ap- 
 parently, but a popular one, he brings to light the 
 essential idea of Plato relative to the psyche or 
 soul, — not, it is true, the human soul, particularly, 
 but the soul in general, which Plato in his philoso- 
 phy assigns, it appears, to all matter. 
 
 While not in the least degree disposed to at- 
 tach any particular importance or value to the 
 metaphysical speculations of Plato upon this im- 
 penetrable subject, who, without any doubt, knew 
 no more about it than any one else, whatever may 
 have been his superior genius in the line of philo- 
 sophical speculation, yet, it is interesting to us to 
 note, and to point out the fact, that his idea of the 
 soul, if we understand Mr. Guizot aright, is pre- 
 cisely identical with the conception of it as given 
 in this chapter. "An attentive examination," says 
 Mr. Guizot, "is sufficient to convince us that he 
 (Plato) has never assigned it (the soul) an exist- 
 ence external to the Deity (hors de la Divinite)" 
 and he substantially says that the soul, according to 
 
 45 
 
Plato, is the ideal, in the intelligence of the Deity, 
 of the form and motion and function which he puts 
 into matter. Plato's philosophy embraced, as one 
 of its primary and fundamental principles, the eter 
 nity of matter, as well as the eternity of God. 
 
 We feel sure the reader will pardon this long 
 digression which, perhaps, may have the merit of 
 having thrown some light upon a subject which, in 
 the popular mind, is in great obscurity, — a digres- 
 sion, too, which seemed necessary, in order to an- 
 ticipate and defeat the unreasonable objection that 
 the view here taken of the second advent is ma- 
 terialistic and unphilosophical. It is, we admit it, 
 unphilosophical ; that is to say, it is in conflict with 
 certain unfounded, unreasonable, and untenable 
 philosophical dogmas. It has, however, the vast 
 advantage of being Biblical, and reasonable, and in 
 accord with science and known physiological and 
 biological facts, which the other views have not. 
 We admit also that it is materialistic, but it only re- 
 stores to matter the place of importance and of 
 honor which justly belongs to it, and from which it 
 has been deposed by an arrogant and false philoso- 
 phy. Matter is eternal; matter is essential to the 
 manifestation of life, of consciousness, and of all 
 mental phenomena in man, and we bow in pro- 
 found reverence in the presence of this vast and 
 magnificent material universe which is the grand- 
 est and mightiest expression of the majesty, and 
 wisdom and power of Almighty God. 
 
 46 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 EXACT TIME UNKNOWN.— PROXIMITY 
 
 OF ADVENT DISCERNIBLE TOWARD 
 
 THE END OF THE AGE. 
 
 Ignorance of the Savior as to the Time; of the 
 Apostles; of the Writers of the Epistles; of All 
 Men, Then, Now, and to the End of the Age. — 
 Proximity Known by the Exhaustive Fulfill- 
 men of Prophecy and by the Signs. 
 
 It seems quite evident from the statements and 
 teachings of our Lord, Himself, that the time of 
 His return will never be definitely known before 
 it occurs. In face of these statements and this 
 teaching, the attempt to definitely fix, and to pro- 
 claim, even approximately, the day of the second 
 advent is folly, and a serious mistake, where it is 
 not presumption, and an irreverent invasion of the 
 prerogatives of God. 
 
 "It is not for you/' said Jesus to his disciples, 
 after His resurrection, "to know the times or the 
 seasons which the Father hath put in His own 
 power;" note the words, "hath put in His own 
 power/' not in the power of another generation: 
 a generation living at the time the events are about 
 to transpire, as some have conceived, but, in His 
 
 47 
 
own power. And this accords with what He had 
 previously said with regard to the utter exclusive- 
 ness and inviolability of this secret of the Almighty, 
 viz.: "but of that day and that hour knoweth no 
 man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, 
 neither the Son, but the Father/' or as Mathew has 
 it, but my Father only. It is called the day of the 
 Lord; the day of God; the great and terrible day 
 of the Lord; the great and dreadful day of the 
 Lord, etc., and it is so called, most likely, because 
 God has chosen to hold the time of its occurrence 
 an impenetrable secret a day known only to him- 
 self. 
 
 Let us examine some of these statements of our 
 Lord and his teachings wdth reference to this event, 
 and observe the evidence which they contain of 
 the absolute secrecy of the time of its occurrence, 
 and of the universal ignorance of men, both at the 
 time these utterances were made as well as in all 
 subsequent time, prior to the event, with reference 
 to the time of its occurrence. 
 
 Take first those which indicate the ignorance — 
 we say it with profound reverence — of our Lord 
 Himself, on this point, as acknowledged by Him- 
 self in the quotation just given. For example, His 
 remark to Peter, recorded in John 21:22, "if I will 
 that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?" It 
 is simply incredible that if our Savior had known 
 the event to which he referred, to be 1900 or 2000 
 years subsequent to the time of His addressing 
 Peter, He would have used any such expression, 
 
 48 
 
for He well knew that John would not and could 
 not live for 2000 years. 
 
 Again, in all those warnings and exhortations 
 to His disciples to watch for His coming,— exhor- 
 tations made to the disciples personally, and no 
 doubt intended for them personally,— His expecta- 
 tion of an early return, a return within their life 
 time is abundantly evident. For example, Mark 
 I3--33, "take ye heed, watch and pray for ye know 
 not when the time is," and verse 35, "watch ye 
 therefore, for ye know not when the master of the 
 house cometh, at even, at midnight, or at the cock- 
 crowing, or in the morning; lest coming suddenly 
 he find you sleeping; and what I say unto you I 
 say unto all, watch." 
 
 The thought certainly is fraught with infinite 
 comfort that the Lord told us of His ignorance of 
 the time of His coming. For, if He had not, how 
 would it have been possible to sustain our faith 
 in the sayings of Jesus, and what confidence could 
 Ave have in the truth of Scripture, generally, in view 
 of the conspicuous fact that He admonished men 
 whose lives were bounded, at most, by a period of 
 50 or 60 years from the time He spoke, to watch for 
 and to expect an event, which, after a lapse of over 
 eighteen centuries and a half is still in the future. 
 But, blessed be the Lord, it only confirms His 
 truthfulness, and the reliability of His word, for 
 He confessed His ignorance of the time, and in this 
 respect claimed no advantage over other men, nor 
 the angels in Heaven, and the facts as they con- 
 
 40 
 
front us prove His statement with regard to His 
 ignorance of the time, true. 
 
 We can not, at this point, resist the inclination 
 to refer to an utterance of our Lord furnished us in 
 Mathew's gospel (chap. 10:23) which seems at first 
 sight, to supply additional and stronger evidence 
 of the ignorance of our Lord Himself, with refer- 
 ence to the time of His second coming, but the 
 form of expression is so strong that we dare not 
 use it in this way: It proves too much. It is a 
 solemn asseveration, akin to an oath, — a form which 
 the Savior would never have used in declaring any- 
 thing, if He had not had positive knowledge and 
 assurance of the certainty and truth of His state- 
 ment. 
 
 The passage with its connections is this: The 
 Lord called unto Him His twelve disciples or apos- 
 tles and gave them power over unclean spirits, and 
 to heal disease, and sent them out to preach the 
 gospel of "the kingdom," commanding them not to 
 go into the way of the Gentiles, nor unto any of the 
 cities of the Samaritans, but to go rather to the 
 lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then, after some 
 other instructions, He adds, in the 23d verse, the 
 solemn words referred to, viz: "For verily I say 
 unto you, ye shall not have gone over the cities of 
 Israel till the Son of Man be come/' 
 
 The dust of eighteen tedious centuries has been 
 accumulating over the graves of the apostles to 
 whom these words were uttered. The cities of 
 Israel have, for the most part, crumbled into ruin, 
 
 50 
 
and, in the larger proportion of cases, perhaps, not 
 a trace of them is left, but the Son of Man has not 
 come. The human race is still wearily waiting for 
 the ''Great Deliverer," "the whole creation still 
 groaneth and travaileth in pain." Was the Savior 
 when He uttered this solemn asseveration, not only 
 ignorant of the time of His second coming, and 
 cherishing mistaken views with regard to it, but 
 also presumptuous, in making this solemn and 
 positive statement concerning something of which 
 He was ignorant. Or, did He mean to speak of 
 something else than His second coming, properly 
 so called, or is His second coming something other 
 and different from what we regard it, or, is the 
 solution of this problem to be found in the proba- 
 bility that He never uttered the words attributed 
 to Him in the gospel of Mathew? We prefer the 
 latter view. It is a fact, at all events, that this sen- 
 tence and utterance is not found in the Vatican 
 MS., and though found in many other important 
 MSS., and approved by Griesbach, and by him in- 
 serted in his text, yet its absence from this one, 
 taken into consideration together with its obvious 
 conflict with fact, affords some ground for reject- 
 ing it. 
 
 However, an examination of the marginal refer- 
 ences of this passage will reveal the light in which 
 it is ordinarily understood. It is supposed that 
 Jesus here refers to the transfiguration which took 
 place some short time after this, and not to His sec- 
 ond coming, properly so called, and the justifica- 
 
 51 
 
tion for this use of the passage is found in the fact 
 that Jesus, six days before the transfiguration, had 
 said to His disciples (Math. 16:28 and 17:13): 
 "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 is 
 strengthened by the allusion of Peter'to this same 
 event as in some way an evidence or foretoken of 
 the second coming, and future power and glory of 
 the Savior (2d Peter 1: 16, 17, 18). 
 
 Another passage of the same kind, but exceed- 
 ingly more difficult, occurs in Math. 24:34, and 
 the corresponding passages in Mark and Luke 
 (Mark 13:30, and Luke 21:32). In this passage 
 the language of Christ is stronger, more positive 
 and emphatic, and more in the nature of an oath 
 than the previous one. It is, as we have in- 
 timated, found in three of the four gospels, — ■ 
 Mathew, Mark and Luke, — and so far as we 
 know, appears in all MSS., and there is there- 
 fore, no ground upon which to question its 
 authenticity. It occurs in the prophetic discourse 
 of Christ, referring to the events and signs which 
 are to precede His coming and the end of the age, 
 and reads as follows: "Verily I say unto you, this 
 generation will not pass till all these things be ful- 
 filled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My 
 words shall not pass away." 
 
 Now ,assuming the second coming of Christ to 
 be literal and personal, as the Scriptures most ob- 
 viously teach, and as we have in these pages, with 
 
 52 
 
scarcely an effort, proved it to be, this strong dec- 
 laration of Jesus comes into violent collision, ap- 
 parently, with the obvious fact that Jesus has not 
 yet appeared, while the generation to whom He 
 spoke, taking, of course, the word genea or 
 generation in its ordinary sense, has perished 
 from the earth, and has mingled with its dust for 
 nearly 1900 years. 
 
 Dare we take this statement of the Savior as 
 another instance of His ignorance and misconcep- 
 tion of the time of His coming and kingdom? Im- 
 possible; the language, besides being intensely 
 positive, is prophetic, and some other understand- 
 ing of the word genea will have to be allowed 
 which will reconcile these solemn words w r ith the 
 facts of history. That the Savior was ignorant of 
 the time of His coming, He Himself declared. 
 That He entertained misconceptions with regard 
 to the time, and that He expected it to come dur- 
 ing the lives of at least some of the disciples, then 
 present with Him, and thus literally during that 
 genea or generation is abundantly evident, and 
 has been demonstrated in this chapter, but, in this 
 instance, His language is so intensely positive that 
 He must have known the absolute truth of what 
 He said. 
 
 While we believe in the theory of progressive 
 revelation, and of the progressive interpretation of 
 Prophecy as ably and convincingly set forth by Mr. 
 Grattan Guinness in his work entitled "The Ap- 
 proaching End of the Age" (which we sincerely 
 
 53 
 
wish everyone would read), and while we believe, 
 also, as there suggested, that Prophecy is ordinar- 
 ily written in such a way as to inspire a present 
 hope, while it demands a future fulfillment, and 
 sometimes even a future interpretation, yet, a dis- 
 tinction must be sharply drawn between Prophecy 
 written in obscure symbols, and positive and plain 
 statements, such as the one under consideration, 
 and all others made by Christ, though less positive 
 than this one, to which reference has been made in 
 this chapter. We can not admit, nor do we inti- 
 mate, that Mr. Guinness teaches, that Christ ut- 
 tered statements or words with the deliberate in- 
 tention of misleading those to whom He spoke, or 
 of begetting in them a false hope, even with so be- 
 nevolent a motive or purpose as that of inspiring 
 courage during a long period of delayed fulfillment. 
 With regard, therefore, not to this special utterance 
 of Christ, which is to be considered as something 
 different, but to the other sayings above alluded to, 
 as, for instance, His exhortation to His disciples, 
 "Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour 
 as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh," and 
 others of the same import, we must chose, in at- 
 tempting to understand or explain them, between 
 two alternatives, viz: either the ignorance and mis- 
 conception of Jesus upon the subject, or His delib- 
 erate purpose to mislead. This is the question we 
 have to face, and it is. useless to attempt to. evade 
 it. To the former explanation we have the warrant 
 which His own confession of ignorance affords. 
 
 5± 
 
There seems little less than blasphemy in the lat- 
 ter. What, then, did Jesus mean by the words, 
 "this generation/' in the passage referred to? This 
 question has been prolific of controversy, and has 
 had various attempted explanations. Among the 
 section of biblical expositors and exegetes devoted 
 to a figurative use of Scripture language, there is a 
 class who regard all this discourse of Christ to His 
 disciples, in which these words are found, as an al- 
 legorical or figurative representation of the calami- 
 ties which were to befall the Jews in the seige of 
 Jerusalem by the Roman army under Titus, and 
 who interpret Christ's second coming to mean 
 simply those calamities, and the overthrow of the 
 government and polity of the Jewish people. It 
 seems almost incredible that anyone could possibly 
 satisfy his intelligence and reason by such an inter- 
 pretation of Christ's words; incredible, at least, 
 that he should have given more than an exceed- 
 ingly superficial or cursory glance at the subject of 
 the second advent. This class, however, enjoy the 
 advantage over those who hold the view of a literal 
 and personal advent, in that they have an exceed- 
 ingly easy and ready explanation of this difficult 
 passage. If, indeed, all that Christ meant by the 
 recital of events and signs to precede His coming, 
 was to forewarn them of the impending destruction 
 of Jerusalem, and if all that is meant by His sec- 
 ond coming is that destruction, and the oblitera- 
 tion of the polity of the Jewish people, then, of 
 course, the words of Jesus are plain and at once in- 
 
 55 
 
telligible. The generation to which He spoke did 
 not pass till all these things were accomplished. 
 But the incongruity of such a view is so flagrant 
 as to make any attempt to discuss it seem ridicu- 
 lous. That, certainly, need not be done here. The 
 first chapter of this volume is more than a sufficient 
 refutation. 
 
 Again, there is a vary large class who, prompted 
 by the general desire to overcome the difficulty 
 which this passage involves, take the view that 
 this discourse is a double prophecy, — a prophecy of 
 events near at hand and well within the life time 
 of the generation existing at the time the prophecy 
 was delivered, and at the same time a prophecy of 
 remoter events to be developed in the distant 
 future. In plain words, they regard it as as at once 
 a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem and the 
 overthrow of the Jewish government and nation, 
 on the one hand, and on the other, a prophecy of 
 the end of the world and the coming judgment. 
 But this confusion of things in no way related to 
 each other, and the theory in general of double 
 prophecies, or prophecies of double import or ap- 
 plication, does not attract us. Such theories seem 
 to us unwarranted and altogether fanciful. We can 
 not imagine that in a discourse uttered in response 
 to a simple and earnest request on the part of His 
 disciples for enlightenment in regard to certain 
 questions of great interest to them,— a discourse 
 ostensibly intended to enlighten them as to those 
 questions, Jesus would have mixed things up to- 
 
 56 
 
gcthcr in such hopeless confusion, — in such a per- 
 plexing and unintelligible manner, that they could 
 not possibly have understood Him, and that only 
 the ingenuity of the generations living eighteen 
 centuries thereafter would have been able to un- 
 ravel. 
 
 Among those who believe in a literal and per- 
 sonal return of Christ, and who therefore seek to 
 reconcile this apparently conflicting prediction with 
 the facts of history, are those who claim that he 
 genea or this generation refers, not to the gen- 
 eration in whose time He spoke, but to the genera- 
 tion who should be witnesses of the last signs 
 spoken of in that remarkable discourse, and they 
 insist that the phrase in the original Greek permits 
 of this construction. So that, practically, to give 
 the proper sense of the passage, instead of reading 
 this generation, we should read that genera- 
 tion shall not pass. But there is no cogency in 
 this view, — nothing, it seems to us, to support an 
 argument. If that generation was intended, then 
 why not have said so? There is no lack of facility 
 in either the Syriac or Greek languages. Besides, 
 even should it be admitted that the "all these 
 things" which were to be fulfilled before the pass- 
 ing of the generation spoken of, referred to the last 
 or closing signs enumerated in the discourse, — an 
 admission which, while there is absolutely no 
 ground for it, is indispensable to the validity of this 
 argument, — then, to say that the generation which 
 was to witness them would not pass before they 
 
 57 
 
were fulfilled, is simply equivalent to saying that the 
 generation whose it was to see them would not 
 pass till it had seen them, — a statement as inane 
 as the fact which is stated is obvious, and which is 
 altogether unworthy of Christ. 
 
 What the solution of this knotty question may 
 be, it is difficult to say. . If, however, it is permis- 
 sible to use, even in an accommodated sense, the 
 Greek word genea, in which the whole difficulty 
 resides, to signify the Jewish people or race, in 
 whose midst Christ was, then, not only will a very 
 satisfactory solution of the difficulty be found, but 
 this very sentence will appear to contain one of the 
 most striking prophecies or predictions in the 
 whole Bible, one which, so far, has had a most mar- 
 vellous fulfillment, and one which, in view of the 
 circumstances surrounding the Jewish people for 
 well nigh two millenaries, required a protracted 
 miracle in order to its fulfillment. Over eighteen 
 centuries have passed since Jerusalem was be- 
 sei°*ed and destroved bv the armies of Rome. The 
 temple, its worship and service, came to an end in 
 that fateful seige. The Jewish national polity has 
 long ago perished from the earth. Nearly fifty gen- 
 erations of men have passed away. The Jews for 
 long centuries have been expatriated, are scattered 
 among the peoples, and have been natives and deni- 
 zens of every nation on the earth. The dismal cata- 
 logue of events predicted by Christ in that memora- 
 ble discourse have been slowly but steadily passing 
 into history through all these tedious years, and 
 
 58 
 
are well nigh all accomplished, but the genera- 
 tion or r race of the Jews has not passed. They are 
 with us still. 
 
 This meaning, the Greek word Genea cer- 
 tainly has, as attested by scholars of prominence 
 and of acknowledged ability, and the word is so 
 used in many places in Scripture. The exposition 
 or explanation above given, therefore, of this ob- 
 scure passage, is the most satisfactory, and has 
 been adopted by many scholars from the earliest 
 times to the present, as the true meaning. Asso- 
 ciated with this view, might be mentioned here the 
 names of Jerome, Dorner, Stier, Nash, Alford, and 
 Wordsworth. Jerome, however, is undecided as to 
 whether the word genea in this connection refers 
 to the human race or the Jewish race; — u aut omne 
 genus hominum signijicat, aid specialiter JvAaeorum." 
 
 Alford, in a note which is given in Lange's 
 Commentary-Schaffe's (Math. 24:34), says: "As 
 this (y] yevea ai)Tr ( ) is one of the points on which 
 the rationalizing interpreters (De Witte, &c), lay 
 most stress to show that the prophecy has failed, it 
 may be well to show that genea has, in Hellenis- 
 tic Greek, the meaning of a race or family of peo- 
 ple. See Jer. viii., 3 in the Lxx; compare Ch. xxiii., 
 36, with verse 25, kyovzixrarz but this generation 
 did not slay Zacharias, — so that the whole people 
 are addressed: see also Luke xvii. 25; Math. xvii. 
 17; Luke xvi. 6, where genea is predicated both 
 of the vlo\ too atwvos tootou and the olo\ too 
 <pt»r6$ Acts xi. 40; Phil. xi. 15. In all these places 
 
 59 
 
genea is equal to genos, or nearly so; having, 
 it is true, a more pregnant meaning, implying that 
 the character of one generation stamps itself upon 
 the race, as here in this verse also. This meaning 
 of genea is fully conceded by Dorner (from 
 whom he makes a long quotation). * * * The 
 continued use of napzpyoixai in verses 34, 35, 
 should have saved the commentators from the 
 blunder of imagining that the then living genera- 
 tion was meant, seeing that the prophecy is, by the 
 next verse, carried on to the end of all things; and 
 that, as a matter of fact, the apostolic and early 
 Church did continue to expect the Lord Jesus after 
 that generation had passed away." 
 
 We are aware that what we have said with refer- 
 ence to the Savior's ignorance and misconception 
 as to the time of His second coming, will be indig- 
 nantly rejected, and be regarded, perhaps, as al- 
 most blasphemous by a majority of those, at least, 
 who hold trinitarian views, but, it must be quite 
 evident to the logical mind, whether devoted to 
 trinitarianism or not, that if the Savior's knowledge 
 as to the time of His second advent was limited to 
 any extent whatever, as acknowledged by Him- 
 self, — if "that day and that hour" which was known 
 to the Father, w 7 as, on His own confession, abso- 
 lutely unknown to Him, then there is at least a 
 possibility of a more extensive lack of knowledge 
 on the subject, even to the extent of complete ig- 
 norance, and from many of His sayings this is quite 
 probably so. Indeed, there are not wanting, in the 
 
 60 
 
life and utterances of Christ, other evidences of His 
 ignorance of those things which pertained to His 
 own experience in the work of redemption. His 
 memorable prayer in the garden of Gethsemane, 
 "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from 
 Me," is exceedingly suggestive of it. 
 
 Next, and very briefly, let us consider the evi- 
 dence which the gospels afford of the ignorance of 
 the apostles and first disciples of our Lord with 
 reference to the time of the Second Advent. The 
 evidence is so abundant and so conspicuous that it 
 is scarcely necessary to refer to it at all, or to dis- 
 cuss the question at any length. 
 
 The first evidence of this fact which suggests 
 itself is contained in the repeated warnings given 
 by Christ to them, to "watch" and "to be ready." 
 accompanied frequently, if not uniformly, by the 
 statement "for ye know not the time." For exam- 
 ple, in the passage quoted a few moments ago from 
 Math. xxiv. 44, "Therefore, be ye also ready, for 
 in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man 
 cometh." Also Mark xiii. 33, "Take ye, heed, 
 watch and pray, for ye know not when the time is," 
 and many similar passages. And, that this ignor- 
 ance of the disciples on this point continued even 
 after the Savior's death and resurrection, witness 
 the words of Jesus quoted in the opening of this 
 chapter, and spoken by Him after He arose from 
 the dead: "It is not for you to know the times and 
 the seasons." Finally, if the Savior, Himself, knew 
 
 61 
 
nothing of the lime of His coming, how could 
 they know? 
 
 The Epistles also abound with evidence of the 
 ignorance and misconception of those who wrote 
 them, with reference to the time of this event. They 
 all expected it to occur, in all likelihood, within their 
 life time, Peter excepted, whose death before its 
 occurrence had been foretold him by the Savior, 
 but he also expected it to take place within the life 
 time of his fellow disciples. Paul, Peter, James, 
 John and Jude, — all of them, without exception, 
 were under this impression. James, in the last 
 chapter of his letter, exhorts and encourages the 
 scattered brethren belonging to the twelve tribes, 
 who had suffered fraud and injustice from their 
 wealthy employers, to "be patient unto the coming 
 of the Lord." "Be ye also patient, stablish your 
 hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh; 
 behold, the judge standeth before the door/' 
 
 Jude (4th verse) refers to certain vicious men 
 crept in unawares, into the Church, or circle of be- 
 lievers, and measuring them up in the 18th verse, 
 to the description which Peter gives of certain feat- 
 ures of society, or of the Church, which were to 
 characterize the last days of the dispensation, 
 comes to the conclusion that he is living in the 
 last days, or time, and points his brethren to these 
 features, then existing, as proofs. 
 
 John also in his first letter, 2d chapter, 18th 
 verse, reasons it out in about the same way. His 
 words are, "Little children, it is the last time, and 
 
 62 
 
as ve have heard that Antichrist shall come, even 
 now are there many Antichrists ; whereby we know 
 that it is the last time." 
 
 Peter, in his second letter to his converts, scat- 
 tered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, &c, 
 exhorts them to diligence and watchfulness, — 
 "looking for and hastening unto the coming of the 
 day of God." And again, "Wherefore, beloved, 
 seeing that ye look for these things, be diligent, 
 that ye may be found of Him in peace, without 
 spot and blameless." He knew that he, himself, 
 would not live to see the day; for the Lord had 
 foretold him of his death, which He said would oc- 
 cur prior to the event, and in these ardent and ten- 
 der admonitions to his converts, we can almost per- 
 ceive a tone of sadness and disappointment that 
 this would not be his privilege. 
 
 Paul's letters, also, clearly and abundantly 
 show 7 his hope and expectation of living till the 
 Lord's return, and he never surrenders them till 
 imprisoned, enchained, and waiting for the heads- 
 man's axe in a Roman jail, all hope of continued 
 life has been extinguished. 
 
 We are quite aware of the opinion which ob- 
 tains, very generally, that while Paul's first letter 
 to the Thessalonians, which was one of his earlier 
 apostolic letters, does indeed show this expectation ; 
 his second letter to the same Church shows a 
 deeper knowledge of divine things, and his conse- 
 quent abandonment of this expectation, especially 
 as in chapter 2d of the letter he admonishes - the 
 
 63 
 
Church against the misconception which seems 
 there to have begun to prevail, that "the day of 
 Christ was at hand," — the chapter which predicts 
 the "falling away' 'and the revelation of "the Man 
 of Sin." But, there is no evidence here or else- 
 where that he knew definitely the nature or extent 
 of this apostasy, or the time required for its devel- 
 opment. He did know that "the mystery of in- 
 iquity" was already at work, and he also knew what 
 was holding it in check, temporarily, but he might 
 have expected, — and some utterances made by him 
 in letters written several years afterwards, make it 
 quite probable that he did expect — the removal of 
 this letting power, the development of the apos- 
 tacy and of the Man of Sin, as well as the re- 
 turn of Christ, within his own life time. 
 
 These subsequent utterances of the apostle are, 
 first, the commendation which he expresses (ist 
 Cor. 1:10) to the Corinthian Church, where he 
 praises them, not only for their spiritual attain- 
 ments, but because they were "waiting for the 
 coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." This letter was 
 written from three to five years after the letter to 
 the Thessalonians containing the reference to "the 
 Man of Sin" and the "falling away." Another is 
 found in his letter to Titus (Chap. 2:11 to 13), 
 written A. D. 65, and thus from nine to eleven 
 years after the letter to the Thessalonians, and 
 within a year or two of his martyrdom. He writes, 
 "The grace of God which bringeth salvation hath 
 appeared unto all men, teaching us that denying 
 
 64 
 
ungodliness and wordly lusts, we should live so- 
 berly, righteously, and Godly, in this present world; 
 looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appear- 
 ing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ" 
 
 Taking the passage in 2d Thess. as a prophecy 
 of the great apostle, made at that time to the Thes- 
 salonian Church, there is no warrant for suppos- 
 ing that he fully understood its import; knew all 
 the facts connected with it, or the time required for 
 its fulfillment, any more than did other prophets, 
 with reference to whom Peter (1st Pet. 1:10, 11) 
 says "of which salvation the prophets have in- 
 quired and searched diligently, who prophesied of 
 the grace that should come unto you; searching 
 what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ 
 which was in them did signify, when it testified be- 
 forehand the suffering of Christ, and the glory that 
 should follow." 
 
 But, it is plainly no prophecy made at this time 
 to the Thessalonian Church, since the apostle 
 speaks of the matter as something of which he had 
 spoken to them before, and with which they were 
 familiar, as indicated by the words, "and now ye 
 know what withholdeth that he might be revealed 
 in his time/' In the original Greek, instead of a 
 falling away it is the falling away (he apostasia) 
 — a specific apostasy, the knowledge of which was 
 already in the possession of the Churches, perhaps 
 communicated to them through the apostles, or 
 perhaps a part of the revelations made to Paul him- 
 self, when he was "caught up to the third heaven," 
 
 65 
 
or may be, expressly revealed to the Church at 
 some previous time by the Spirit. (See ist John 
 4:1, &c.) 
 
 But, what we have been attempting to show, 
 primarily, is, not that Paul, through all his minis- 
 try w r as uniform in his belief or opinion, that 
 the advent would probably occur before he 
 died, but, that in common with the rest of the 
 writers of the epistles, he was ignorant as to the 
 time of the advent, and, if those who contend that 
 he believed one thing in the earlier part of his 
 ministry, and receded from that view as he ap- 
 proached the end of his career, are right, then, it 
 is equally clear, even on this theory, that he knew 
 nothing, positively, of the time of the event. 
 
 Permit, also, the suggestion, right here, that 
 whatever Paul's belief may or may not have been 
 with reference to the time of the advent, — whether 
 near or remote from the time in which he lived, 
 the event itself was not only firmly believed by him 
 to the end of his life, but to the end of his life was 
 considered by him to be a thing demanding the 
 most cherished, earnest, and constant hope and ex- 
 pectation of every Christian. 
 
 Whatever contention there may be as to Paul's 
 authorship of some of the letters ascribed to him; 
 of their dates and of the places where they were 
 written, there can be no reasonable doubt that he 
 wrote the letter to Timothy, and that it was writ- 
 ten at the close of his life, in the very shadow of 
 the executioner's block, as it contains within itself 
 
 66 
 
evidence of this, and there, right in the closing- 
 chapter, he exclaims, "Henceforth there is laid up 
 for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, 
 the righteous judge, shall give me at that day; and 
 not to me only, but unto all them also that love his 
 appearing." 
 
 And now, let us consider briefly the question of 
 the ignorance of mankind, in general, with refer- 
 ence to the time of the second advent, right up to 
 the end of the age. One passage from Scripture 
 may be sufficient, though there are many which 
 reveal it. We select the most emphatic, compre- 
 hensive, and unequivocal: "For as a snare shall 
 it come upon all these that dwell on the face of 
 the whole earth" (Luke 21:35). That includes 
 everybody, saint and sinner alike, but there will be 
 this difference, however, between the saint and the 
 sinner: The saint, if he be not one of the "foolish 
 virgins," will have his lamp trimmed and his light 
 burning; oil in his vessel, and be patiently waiting 
 for his Lord, and so, "that day will not overtake 
 him as a thief in the night;" whereas, the sinner will 
 utterly ignore the event, — it will have no place in 
 his thought or faith, — and so, he will be thus over- 
 taken. Instead of expecting and waiting and 
 watching, he will be saying, "peace and safety." 
 No, the exact time of the Lord's return is one of 
 the secrets of the Almighty, and "the secret things 
 belong unto the Lord, our God, but those things 
 which are revealed belong unto us and to our chil- 
 dren forever." 
 
 67 
 
But, if the exact time of the Second Advent is 
 wrapped in secrecy, and mystery, and sacredly re- 
 served within the impenetrable councils of the Al- 
 mighty, its approach and proximity are to be dis- 
 cernible to the believers living during the period 
 immediately preceding its occurrence, — the period 
 spoken of by Daniel as "the time of the end." This 
 is at once apparent, and incontrovertible, from the 
 signs given by our Lord, w r hich, He said, were to 
 precede the event; which He admonished His hear- 
 ers to observe and heed (Luke 21:25); "and there 
 shall be signs in the sun and in the moon, etc. 
 * * * and when these begin to come to pass, 
 then look up, and lift up your heads, for your re- 
 demption draweth nigh." Again (verse 29th), 
 "Behold the fig tree and all the trees, when they 
 now shoot forth, ye see and know of yourselves 
 that summer is night at hand, so likewise ye when 
 ye see these things come to pass know ye that the 
 kingdom of God is nigh at hand; — or as Mathew 
 has it, "know that it is near, even at the door." 
 
 It is still further apparent from the Prophetic 
 Scriptures, especially those of Daniel and the Reve- 
 lations, which, in symbolic figures foretell and de- 
 scribe the event, and certainly we must accord to 
 the Holy Spirit who indited those Scriptures, an 
 intelligent and useful motive or purpose, and the 
 purpose of Prophecy, as very clearly intimated by 
 our Lord in His conversation with the two disci- 
 ples on the road to Emmaus, is to instruct, at least 
 those living in the times of the event prophesied, 
 
 68 
 
that the time has come or is fully matured: "Oh 
 fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Proph- 
 ets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suf- 
 fered these things and to enter into his glory? And 
 beginning at Moses and all the Prophets he ex- 
 pounded to them in all the Scriptures the things 
 concerning Himself." 
 
 To ignore Prophecy and to treat it with neglect, 
 is to dishonor God's word, and to charge the Holy 
 Spirit with folly in producing that which is without 
 purpose or profit. God has declared in His word 
 that He creates nothing in vain. Christ, himself, 
 refers to Daniel's Prophecy, and Daniel in a vision 
 which he gives us in chapter 7, verse 13, prophesies 
 of the Lord's return, and of His reign upon the 
 earth, in these words: "And, behold one like the 
 Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven * * * 
 and there was given Him dominion, and glory, and 
 a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages, 
 should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting 
 dominion which shall not pass away, and His king- 
 dom that which shall not be destroyed." 
 
 We repeat, therefore, the prophetic Scriptures, 
 from their nature and use, make it apparent that 
 those living at or near the time of the Second Ad- 
 vent shall be able to discern its approach and prox- 
 imity, for, the event is foretold and described in 
 Prophecy, and the things social, political, and re- 
 ligious, leading up to it, and one of the purposes of 
 Prophecy, as we have seen, is to instruct God's 
 children living at the time of the events therein 
 
 69 
 
predicted, that the time is either upon them or 
 "nigh at hand, even at the door." 
 
 This principle was recognized by God's believ- 
 ing and faithful children at the time of the first ad- 
 vent of our Lord, and by studying the prophetic 
 Scriptures, and noting the social, political, and 
 religious events of the times, as well as the signs, 
 they knew that the "due time" was come, and there 
 were many in Jerusalem besides Simeon, who were 
 therefore "waiting for the consolation of Israel," 
 as appears from Luke 2:38, where Anna, the aged 
 Prophetess, is described as coming into the temple ; 
 giving thanks unto the Lord, and speaking of the 
 newly born Savior "to all them that looked for re- 
 demption in Jerusalem, — that is, to them that look- 
 ed and waited for the Savior, according to the dec- 
 laration of Prophecy. And this reminds us that 
 the writer to the Hebrews (Chap. 9:38) says: "To 
 them that look for Him shall He appear the sec- 
 ond time, without sin (or a sin offering) unto sal- 
 vation." 
 
 When Herod, with murderous design in his 
 heart, summoned the chief priests and scribes of the 
 people and demanded of them where Christ should 
 be born, they promptly said, "in Bethlehem," bas- 
 ing their statement on the authority of the Prophet 
 Micah, who, 710 years before, speaking by the 
 Spirit, had prophesied and said (Chap. v. 2): "But 
 thou Bethlehem Ephrata, though thou be little 
 among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee 
 shall He come forth unto Me that is to be ruler in 
 Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, 
 from everlasting." 
 
 70 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE SECOND ADVENT WILL BE PREMIL- 
 
 LENNIAL. 
 Testimony of Scripture on this point. Views of 
 the early Christian Church. — The literal, per- 
 sonal, and premillennial view held by able men 
 and scholars during every age of the Church, 
 and increasingly prevalent in these times. — Or- 
 igen as an exegete. — His aims and schemes. — 
 Origen primarily responsible for the perversion 
 of Scripture truth. 
 
 Having in the previous chapters established the 
 fact that the Second Advent will be personal and 
 literal, and that its proximity may and will be dis- 
 cerned in the time of the end, by the characteristic 
 signs, and by the exhaustive fulfillment of the 
 prophetic Scriptures which predict it, it would seem 
 that the next question in natural order would be 
 the question as to the imminence or otherwise of 
 the event. There is, however, a preliminary ques- 
 tion, viz: is the Second Advent premillennial or 
 postmillennial, because, if it is postmillennial, and 
 the Millennium has not yet begun, as we do not 
 think any rational person will assume, then the 
 second coming can not, in the nature of the case, 
 
 71 
 
take place soon, and it would be idle to discuss such 
 a question. 
 
 • How, in view of the plain teaching of Christ 
 and the apostles, there can be any question as to 
 the fact that the Second Advent will be premillen- 
 nial, is almost incomprehensible, and would be ut- 
 terly so, were we not already familiar with the al- 
 most universal practice, — and a practice which has 
 obtained through multiplied centuries, — of manipu- 
 lating and working over Scripture so as to make 
 it authorize and support every theological dogma 
 or doctrine, and every religious theory the human 
 mind has ever conceived; and were we not also 
 familiar with the almost universally prevalent no- 
 tion, out of which the above mentioned practice 
 has, if not sprung, at least has found its sanction, 
 viz: that the Sacred Scriptures in all their parts or 
 features; historical, poetical, prophetic, or didac- 
 tic, have an occult meaning, — a meaning beneath 
 the mere letter or surface, and which is not only 
 the principal meaning; the meaning of chief signifi- 
 cance, but oftentimes the only and real meaning. 
 A whole chapter might be written, and profitably, 
 too, illustrating and giving examples of these in- 
 genious, and sometimes amusing, perversions of 
 Scripture, if such sacriligious treatment of Scrip- 
 ture can be spoken of as amusing. Theosophists, 
 Christian-Scientists, Swedenborgians, Spiritualists, 
 the various orthodox Churches, Protestant and 
 Catholic alike, and the Liberals, so called, — all of 
 
 72 
 
them are adepts in the art. But this is not our 
 theme. 
 
 We repeat, therefore, it would be utterly incom- 
 prehensible how there can be any question as to the 
 premillennial character of the Second Advent, in 
 view of the plain teachings of Christ and the apos- 
 tles, were it not for the existence of these notions 
 and practices, and of denominational prejudices, 
 which, like all prejudice, blinds the perceptions and 
 paralyzes the judgment. 
 
 Let us examine the sayings of Jesus as recorded 
 in the Gospels, and see what light they throw upon 
 this question. 
 
 It is recorded by Matthew (Chaps. 23 and 24) 
 that one day Jesus was teaching in the temple, and 
 the w r riter gives us a report of some portiorr at least, 
 of what the Savior said on that occasion. When 
 He was through with His discourse, He, with His 
 disciples, who were also with Him, left the temple 
 for retirement and rest, no doubt, on the Mount of 
 Olives, — a favorite resort of our Lord. As they 
 were leaving the temple enclosure some of the dis- 
 ciples called His attention to the buildings and 
 especially to the stones of which they were built, 
 or which were built into them, saying (as Mark 
 more specifically states it in chapter 13 of his gos- 
 pel) "Master, see what manner of stones, and what 
 buildings are here. ,, Jesus replied (as in Mark) 
 "seest thou these great buildings? there shall not 
 be left one stone upon another, that shall not be 
 thrown down." A little later, when they had all 
 
 73 
 
crossed the Kidron valley, and were seated on 
 Mount Olivet, in sight of the sacred city and tem- 
 ple, James, John, Peter, and Andrew came to Him 
 and asked Him privately, "when shall these things 
 be? and what shall be the sign of Thy coming and 
 of the end of the world (or rather age)." Jesus re- 
 plied by epitomizing the salient features of this age, — - 
 the age common to them and to us, — and by passing 
 them in panorama, so to speak, before their minds. 
 He begins -by cautioning them against imposters 
 and false christs who should come, and who should 
 deceive many. He cautions them also against a 
 too hasty conclusion, from the prevalence of "wars 
 and rumors of wars," that the "end" was, therefore, 
 at hand. For, said He, "nation shall rise against 
 nation, etc., but, "all these things are (only) the 
 beginning of (the) sorrows" that w T ere to character- 
 ize this fateful age. 
 
 Then He foretells, in a general way, what shall 
 befall them, and his followers, generally, before 
 these things occur (so Luke tells us). Then, tak- 
 ing a comprehensive glance down through the long 
 vista of years, He predicts the multiplication of false 
 teachers (and how they have multiplied, indeed* 
 and how they do abound?) and finally, He foretells 
 the preaching of "this gospel of the kingdom in all 
 the world for a witness unto all nations, and then 
 shall the end come." 
 
 He next refers to the Prophecies and warns 
 them with reference to the approaching destruction 
 of the city of Jerusalem by the Romans, saying, 
 
 74 
 
"when, therefore, ye see the abomination of desola- 
 tion spoken of by Daniel the Prophet standing in 
 the holy place, flee ye to the mountains." He 
 again warns them against the false christs and im- 
 posters that are to develop at this time, assuring 
 them that when He does really come again, it will 
 be as clear to their own consciousness as the light- 
 ning flash, and they would not need to be told of it. 
 He then gives an account of the signs in the sun. 
 moon, stars, etc., which are to herald His coming, 
 and which are to be followed by the "sign of the 
 Son of Man in heaven," and the gathering of the 
 elect, by the angels, from the four winds of heaven, 
 and He concludes with the parable of the fig tree, 
 and the admonition "so likewise ye, when ye shall 
 see all these things, know that it is near, even at 
 the doors." 
 
 Now, it will be observed that in all this dismal 
 catalogue of events which are to characterize the 
 age, there is not the slightest intimation of a Mil- 
 lennium. Is it not, therefore, unreasonable and in- 
 credible that, if so important a feature and one cov- 
 ering so extensive a portion of the age, belonged 
 to it, the Savior would have passed it over in this 
 recital, in utter silence? It is completely ignored. 
 
 It is true that, in the 14th verse He says, "a,nd 
 this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all 
 the world for a witness unto all nations," but it re- 
 quires a marvelous stretch of imagination to get, 
 out of this statement, a prophecy of a Millennium 
 of righteousness upon the earth. It is equally 
 
 75 
 
futile to attempt to apply it as a prophecy of the 
 conversion of the world. The statement Christ 
 here makes, plainly and simply is, that "the gospel 
 of the Kingdom," — the Kingdom to be set up when 
 he comes; the Kingdom about which he taught 
 them to pray "thy Kingdom come;" — this gospel 
 shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto 
 all nations, and then shall the end come," the end 
 of this corrupt age, and the beginning of the mil- 
 lennial reign of Christ and His saints upon the 
 earth, when shall be fulfilled (and not till then) 
 those various promises and predictions of abound- 
 ing righteousness upon the earth, scattered 
 throughout the Scriptures. And, it is also to be 
 observed, that this "preaching of the gospel of the 
 Kingdom as a witness unto all nations" is done 
 simultaneously with "the abounding of iniquity 
 and the waxing cold of the love of many," (see 12th 
 and 13th verses). 
 
 Again, from the admonitions given by Christ 
 to His disciples on this occasion, concerning the 
 signs which were to herald His coming, as well as 
 others to which we have before alluded, it is evi- 
 dent that Christ not only knew nothing of the time 
 of His second coming, but that He expected it to 
 occur during the lives of at least some of His disci- 
 ples who were then present with Him, and, if so, 
 then He knew nothing of this hypothetical millen- 
 nial period that had to precede His advent. 
 
 Read, for example, Mark 13: 33, "take ye heed, 
 watch and pray, for ye know not when the time 
 
 76 
 
is," and verse 35, "watch ye, therefore, iox ye know 
 not when the master of the house cometh, at even, 
 at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the 
 morning; lest coming suddenly he find you sleep- 
 ing, and what I say unto you, I say unto all, watch." 
 
 How incongruous and futile, yea, how cruel 
 such warnings and injunctions to His ingenuous 
 and confiding disciples, who could, at best, live no 
 more than 50 or 60 years beyond the time when 
 such warnings were made, if He knew anything 
 about this intervening period of a thousand years. 
 What a mockery of their poor human frailty and 
 ignorance, and what a useless and impossible in- 
 junction for us also, if one thousand long, eventful 
 years must yet sweep majestically by before He 
 returns. 
 
 No wonder postmillenarians take no interest in 
 the second coming of Christ. What interest can 
 they feel or take in an event, how glorious soever 
 it may be, that is at least one thousand years in the 
 future, and long, long centuries after they shall 
 have mingled their dust with that of the mighty 
 millions who have gone before? How absurd all 
 injunctions to watchfulness; how futile all warnings 
 concerning the event. 
 
 Again, there is no intimation of this intervening 
 millennial period in any of the Epistles. The 
 writers of these letters have utterly ignored it. 
 They tell us of the corruption of this age, and of a 
 great apostacy or falling away, which should occur 
 in the course of it, and before the Lord should 
 
 77 
 
come. They also date the commencement of this 
 apostasy, — its germination, so to speak, just then, 
 at the time they wrote, and predicted its develop- 
 ment and continuance, without interruption, right 
 up to the end of the age, leaving no space whatever 
 for a millennium of righteousness. Indeed, "the 
 Mystery of Iniquity," which Paul, in his second let- 
 ter to the Thessalonians (Chap. 2 : 3) said was 
 already working, should continue to work; — 
 though somewhat hindered by some cause, then 
 existing, but which should ultimately be removed, 
 — until there should be revealed a "wicked one" 
 whom the Lord should "consume with the spirit of 
 His mouth, and destroy with the brightness of His 
 coming." No room, therefore, for a millenium. 
 There can hardly be any doubt, also, about the 
 identity of this "Mystery of Iniquity" with the apo- 
 calyptic "Babylon" or "Mother of Harlots" whose 
 period of triumph and glory belongs to the present 
 age, and who should continue till the coming of the 
 "Lord of Lords and King of Kings." 
 
 Dr. G. C. Lorimer, in a sermon preached in 
 Immanual Baptist Church, Chicago, some time 
 ago, very pertinently remarks on this point. 
 "These representations are irreconcilable with the 
 expectations entertained by some disciples that the 
 millennium must close prior to the second advent. 
 If a thousand years of blessedness are to be enjoyed 
 before that stupendous event occurs, surely the 
 generation then living will be looking for it. It 
 does not relieve the difficulty to say that, as this 
 
 78 
 
gracious period terminates, there will be a falling 
 away, and that to the people thus backslidden the 
 appearing of Jesus will be unexpected, for it is in- 
 conceivable that they should not be aware of the 
 golden era, then passing or past, and of the mo- 
 mentous sequel which it foretokens. Moreover it 
 should be remembered that Jesus and His follow- 
 ers speak of the gospel age, with its mixture of 
 good and evil, as continuing without decisive re- 
 sults up to the hour of supreme and final revela- 
 tion." 
 
 So far as the moral condition of society at the 
 immediate time of the Second Advent is concerned, 
 the intimations from the words and sayings of both 
 Christ and the apostles are, that it will be about as 
 bad, if not worse, than it has ever been. In the 
 comparison drawn by our Savior between the day 
 of His coming and the days of Noah and of Lot, we 
 have a very strong conviction that the parallelism 
 is by no means exhausted in the mere suddenness 
 of the event, and in the utter surprise by which the 
 w r orld will be overtaken, but that it extends to the 
 moral and social conditions of the two periods, — 
 to the utter worldliness and carnality, if not to the 
 actual depravity, as well as to the terrific and over- 
 whelming destructiveness of these ancient days of 
 wrath. It certainly is not entirely without signifi- 
 cance that reference is made to the fact that "they 
 did eat, they drank, they married wives, they 
 bought, they sold, they planted, they builded," 
 since these are the most common events and activi- 
 
 79 
 
ties of human life. The suggestion most certainly 
 is, that as in the days of these ancient catastrophies, 
 the people were utterly absorbed with worldly 
 things, and immersed in the affairs of this life, 
 to the complete neglect of, and unconcern for 
 religious truth, and religious duty, so it will be, or 
 such will be the state of mind and feeling of the 
 world, in general, when the Lord returns to earth. 
 
 Read 2d Tim. 3 : 1 to 7 inclusive about the con- 
 dition of society in the perilous days of the last 
 time; also 1st Tim. 4: 1, and 2d Peter 2:1, and 3: 3. 
 And, as intimated in the early part of last chapter, 
 this feature of the last days; of the day of the Lord, 
 was so well recognized by the writers of the Epis- 
 tles, that they made it the gage of the days in 
 which they lived, and, in view of the prevalence of 
 iniquity even in their days, erroneously concluded 
 that they were living in the "last days," or as John 
 called it, "the last time." Read also John's first 
 letter, and Jude's. 
 
 If the Millennium is to be in progress when 
 Christ makes His return to earth, what congruity 
 is there in the warnings and admonitions which He 
 uttered to His disciples, in immediate connection 
 with this event? warnings about the presence and 
 prevalence of false christs and false prophets, 
 "showing great signs and wonders, so that, if it 
 w 7 ere possible, the very elect would be deceived;" 
 warnings to "take heed lest at any time their hearts 
 should be overcharged with surfeiting and drunk- 
 enness, and cares of this life, and so that day should 
 
 80 
 
come upon them unawares," if such things were 
 not to characterize the time of the Second Advent, 
 rather than the purity, benignity, and peace, and 
 the moral glory, generally, of the millennial period. 
 What congruity in such a view is there, with the 
 statement of Christ that to some, at least, "that day 
 should come upon them as a thief in the night,'* 
 and that when they should be saying "peace and 
 safety;" then sudden destruction shall come upon 
 them, as travail upon a woman, and they shall not 
 escape," and with the further statement that "as a 
 snare will it come upon all these that dwell on the 
 face of the whole earth." 
 
 In the parable of the unjust judge, recorded by 
 Luke (Chap. 18) there is a very significant sug- 
 gestion that when the Lord returns again, all faith 
 in God, or at least in His control and government 
 of the world and of men, will have nearly, if not 
 quite perished from the earth. What else can be 
 the ominous meaning of His question "neverthe- 
 less, when the Son of Man cometh shall He find 
 faith on the earth?" No, the Millennium will not 
 be in progress when Christ returns, neither will it 
 occupy any portion of this age. 
 
 After all, do postmillenarians really think it 
 credible that Christ will remain away from the 
 world and from His people all through the millen- 
 nial period with all its moral beauty and grandure, 
 and make his return to earth only at its close, and 
 after "the devil shall have been loosed again from 
 prison, and goes out to deceive the nations," and 
 
 81 
 
this earth, outside of the '-camp of the saints, tihd 
 the .-beloved-city," shall, for a "short time," at least; 
 be turned into a pandemonium? : ' 
 
 But finally, in the entire Scriptures there is- but 
 one chapter, — one only,— that speaks specifically of 
 a millennium, and that is the 20th of Revelations. 
 There is not the slightest mention of it anywhere else. 
 Now, whatever, if anything, is said in that chapter 
 bearing upon the question of the time of the Mil- 
 lennium with relation to the Second Advent, ought 
 to be conclusive in this discussion. Fortunately 
 there is something there said which determines, 
 very clearly, this matter. 
 
 The chapter opens by describing how an Angel 
 came down from Heaven with the key of the "bot- 
 tomlessipit, and a chain in his hand," who seizes the 
 devil, casts him into the pit, and confines him there 
 for a thousand years. Then, thrones are seen, "and 
 the souls of those w T ho were beheaded for the wit* 
 ness of Jesus, and for the word of God * * * 
 and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand 
 years;" viz.: the thousand years during which the 
 devil was bound. Now note the next verse (5th), 
 "But the rest of the dead lived not again until the 
 thousand years were finished. . This is the first res- 
 urrection." 
 
 Here, it will be clearly seen that the Millenium 
 is put between the first and the second resurrection. 
 In other words, it is clearly indicated to be after the 
 first resurrection and before the second. The state- 
 ment is that "the souls of those who were beheaded 
 
 82. 
 
(and therefore were, immediately preceding this 
 event, dead) lived/' — that is to say, lived again, or 
 were resurrected, and then, after their resurrection, 
 "reigned with Christ a thousand years." "But the 
 rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand 
 years were finished." u This" (the living again of 
 the souls of those who were beheaded) "is the first 
 resurrection. " The "rest oi the dead" lived not 
 again till the Millennium was passed and over. 
 Evidently, therefore, the Millennium comes after 
 the first resurrection. 
 
 Now, when does the first resurrection occur 
 with relation to Christ's coming? Does it occur 
 before His coming or after He has come? In ist 
 Thess. 4: 16, we read "For the Lord Himself will 
 descend from Heaven with a shout, with the 
 voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God; 
 and the dead in Christ shall rise first." Here then 
 is the first resurrection, and it is evident that it oc- 
 curs after the coming of Christ. Indeed, the object 
 and purpose of his coming, is, to raise the sainted 
 dead, "the dead in Christ," and to then establish 
 His millennial Kingdom, in righteousness and 
 peace upon the earth, where the resurrected saints 
 will reign with Him, as stated in this chapter of the 
 Revelations which we are considering, for a thous- 
 and years, or during the Millennium. The Mil- 
 lennium is, therefore, after His second advent, and 
 not before, and His coming is thus,premillennial. 
 
 This 20th chapter of Revelations, alone, where, 
 and where only, in the whole of the Bible, the fact. 
 
 83- 
 
of a millennium is specifically recorded and re- 
 vealed ,settles this question clearly and conclusively 
 in favor of the premillenarian view; contains within 
 itself all the evidence needed, and in fact, practically 
 declares the coming of Christ to be premillennial. 
 
 The view taken in this volume- with reference 
 to the nature and manner of the Second Advent, 
 and the time when it is due, with reference to the 
 millennial period, was the view held by the earliest 
 Fathers of the Church, and by primitive Christians 
 in post-apostolic times. It has been held by many 
 of the most eminent, learned, and pious men among 
 both the clergy and laity, ever since these times, 
 and it is now cherished and proclaimed by some 
 of the ablest and foremost men in the world, — 
 philologists, theologians, evangelists, linguists, and 
 scholars of every class, and by thousands of the 
 brightest, most intelligent, and thoughtful men and 
 women on the ordinary social plane. 
 
 The Rev. Edward White, one of the most use- 
 ful, influential, and respected Congregational min- 
 isters in Europe, in a discourse delivered by him on 
 the 19th of March, 1882, at the anniversary of his 
 ministry in St. Paul's Chapel, says, "Again, the be- 
 lief in the advent of Christ at the end of "the times 
 of the Gentiles," to destroy antichrist, and to estab- 
 lish the kingdom of God on the earth for a thous- 
 and years, is now widely spread among Christian 
 people, excepting the Independents and Baptists, 
 who, almost to a man, repudiate it, although nearly 
 all their forefathers held it in the ages of Puritan- 
 
 84 
 
ism. If you are one of the great company of those 
 who hold this "blessed hope" and love "the appear- 
 ing of the Lord," as an Apostolic Christian ought 
 to do, does the general contempt of the dissenting 
 ministers of England for "premillennial views" in 
 the least degree shake your faith in that which 
 Bishop Lightfoot demonstrates to have been the 
 primitive faith of Christendom, and which such 
 men as Auberlin, Steir, Alford, and a thousand 
 others, hold to be the plain doctrine, not only of St. 
 Paul in the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, 
 but everywhere else the doctrine of the Old and 
 New Testaments?" 
 
 Barnabas, Papias (a contemporary of St. John, 
 the evangelist and revelator), Polycarp (the disci- 
 ple of St. John), Irenaeus (the disciple of Polycarp, 
 and who lived and wrote scarcely sixty years after 
 the death of St. John, and who was linked to him 
 in the direct channel of apostolic teaching by Poly- 
 carp), Hyppolitus (the disciple of Irenaeus), Jus- 
 tin Martyr, Tertullius, the Latin fathers, generally, 
 who, fortunately, did not come within the circle of 
 Greek influence, viz. : Commodius, Victorinus, Pet- 
 tavensis, Lactantius, Sulpicius Severus, — all held 
 and taught the views contended for in this volume. 
 The Encly. Brit. Vol. 16, page 317, speaking par- 
 ticularly of the Latin fathers, just named, says, 
 "all were pronounced millenarians, holding by the 
 very details of the primitive Christian expectations. 
 They expected that after the first resurrection 
 
 85 
 
• Christ would reign with the saints in the-, flesh forya 
 thousand years." 
 
 The leaven of pagan philosophy, however, in its 
 Grecian modification, at a time when Grecian cul- 
 ture and influence were dominating the intellectual 
 world, was being constantly and zealously insinu- 
 ated into the teachings of the early Christian 
 Church, so that even in apostolic times the propa- 
 gators of the Christian faith had to be ever on the 
 alert, and ever on the defensive in resisting and re- 
 pressing this influence. St. Paul warns the Colos- 
 sians (Chap. 2 : 8), "Beware lest any man spoil you 
 through philosophy and vain deceit, etc.," and his 
 letter to Timothy contains frequent similar exhorta- 
 tions, notably, 1st Tim. 6: 20. 
 
 The early Christian Fathers, also, — the imme- 
 diate successors of the Apostles, were kept busy 
 combatting the multiform heresies which the active, 
 subtle, and prolific philosophies of the time engen- 
 dered, Their principal writings are devoted to this 
 work. The most important and valuable work of 
 Irenaeus is his "Refutation and Subversion of 
 Knowledge Falsely So-called/' or, as it is com- 
 monly known, "Against Heresies." 
 
 Of all persons primarily responsible for the per- 
 version and corruption of Christian doctrine, Ori- 
 gen stands at the head. Able, learned, zealous, in- 
 defatigable and irrepressible, his influence out- 
 weighed the combined influence and efforts of all 
 others in the Christian Church at that time, and un- 
 fortunately, that influence was unfavorable to the 
 
 86 
 
purity of Christian doctrine. Able men, learned 
 in the Oriental and Greek philosophies, had, no 
 doubt, many a time clashed swords, figuratively 
 speaking, with the early defenders and promoters 
 of the Christian faith, but those assaults were from 
 without the Church. Origen, on the contrary, was 
 within the Church, the patron, for a time at least, 
 of Demetrius, Bishop of Alexandria, and was in 
 charge of the catechetical school there, and had 
 the advantage over all other perverters and de- 
 stroyers of Christian truth, in that he was within 
 the citidel of Christianity, and equipped as no other 
 man of his time was, for such a work. 
 
 There is no design here, to insinuate that Origen 
 was the deliberate and intentional enemy of Chris- 
 tianity or of Christian truth, but, like many another 
 able and ambitious man, he had a favorite theory, 
 and a favorite scheme, which dominated his mind 
 and will, and which easily betrayed him into the 
 perversion of truth. This scheme was the concil- 
 iation of philosophy and religion, and it is too 
 obvious to require argument, that any serious effort 
 to reconcile, not so much philosophy with religion, 
 as religion with philosophy,— that is to say, the at- 
 tempt to adjust the teachings of Christ and the 
 Apostles, and the Word of God, in general, to the 
 vain imaginings and speculations of men, must re- 
 sult in the compromise and perversion, more or 
 less, of religious truth. 
 
 As a natural product of this impossible effort, 
 and this monstrous scheme, came the figurative or 
 
 -87 
 
allegorical interpretation of Christian truth,- 
 system of interpretation, at once the most un- 
 scientific, and the most subversive and destructive 
 of all truth that could ever have been imagined; a 
 system which has practically ''rendered the Word 
 of God of none effect," and, as before said, made it 
 possible to use the Scriptures as the text book. of 
 every, and all the conflicting religious theories in 
 the world, and justified the sceptic's sneering 
 charge, that "you can prove anything and every- 
 thing you have a mind to from the Scriptures/' 
 And Origen, though not the founder of this system, 
 —a system which was in use for centuries before, 
 among Jewish writers and teachers, yet was, if not 
 the very first to use it, at least the first to establish 
 its use in the Christian Church. 
 
 A few quotations from competent authorities 
 will make this apparent. In McClintock & 
 Strong's Bib. Theo. and Eccl. Cyc, Vol. 7, page 
 428, we read, under the head of "Origen" — "Ori- 
 gen is called the father of Biblical criticism and 
 exegesis of the Church. * He is univer- 
 
 sally regarded as one of the most laborious and 
 learned scholars that has appeared in Christendom, 
 and although his orthodoxy has, on some impor- 
 tant points, been called in question, his fame and 
 influence will endure to the end of time." Now let 
 us see what was his special method of treating 
 Scripture, and what were his aims as an exegete. 
 
 On page 938 of the work above quoted we read, 
 "Neo-Platonism, — an eclectic philosophy nearly 
 
coeval in origin with Christianity, but developed in 
 3n anti-christian and pantheistic direction. * * 
 * The term, in its narrow, and perhaps more com- 
 mon acceptation, is applied to the doctrinal system 
 of the philosophical school -founded at Alexandria, 
 in Egypt, by Ammonius Saccas, in the first half of 
 the third century after Christ, and continued by his 
 pupils and successors, not only in the city of its 
 origin, but also in other places. * * * Many 
 of the early Christian writers advocated the em- 
 ployment of the philosophical methods to elucidate 
 *md establish the doctrines of the gospel, and were, 
 -consequently, to a greater or less extent imbued 
 with the spirit, and favored the professed objects 
 of the Neo-Platonists, i. e., the conciliation of phil- 
 osophy and religion; but the pagan school, 
 especially during its later history, was characterized 
 by an intense hostility to Christianity, as well as by 
 theosophical views and thurgic practices." 
 
 Now, having seen what Neo-Platonism was, 
 and what were its objects, let us see how Origen 
 stands related to it, and what were the sources from 
 which, or the aims of the person from whom he 
 imbibed these notions. On page 940 of the same 
 authority already quoted, under the head of "Am- 
 monius Saccas," we read, — "Ammonius, called Sac- 
 cas * * (A. D. 175 to 250) is -usually regarded 
 as the founder of the Alexandro-Roman school of 
 Neo-Platonism. He was born of Christian par- 
 ents, and by them trained in the principles of their 
 faith, but probably apostatized when his mind be- 
 
 89 
 
*mmt absorbed in the study of heathen philosophy. 
 * * * He founded a school of philosophy, and 
 attracted to it pupils whose subsequent fame as 
 -philosophers made the name of their master illus- 
 trious. Of these, the most prominent are Plotinus, 
 the two Origens, the philologist Longinus and 
 Hermennius." Now, let us go back to page 939 
 of the same work and quote a little. 'The earliest 
 in point of time, as well as the most important, of 
 those philosophers whom we shall mention as 
 among the precursors of Neo-Platonism, was Philo, 
 commonly surnamed Judaeus. * * * He em- 
 ployed the allegorizing method of interpreting the 
 Scriptures * * * and sought to harmonize the 
 philosophy of religion with that of Plato, Aristotle 
 and others. His theology, consequently, was a 
 blending of Platonism and Judaeism. Among 
 other names prominently connected with Neo- 
 Platonism is to be found the names of Porphery, 
 the famous opponent of Christianity, a pupil, first 
 of Origen, at Caesarea, then of Longinus at Athens, 
 and finally of Plotinus at Rome. Also the name 
 of "J u H an ^e apostate/' who renounced the Chris- 
 tian faith, and became one of its most virulent and 
 dangerous foes, and an earnest and influential 
 friend and patron of Neo-Platonism and the old 
 heathen cultus" (page 942). 
 
 //During the reign of Emperor Alexander Sev- 
 erus, who was a member of the Oriental apbstacy, 
 Origen lent the whole weight of his talent and in- 
 -fluence to .aid the emperor in his design; to unite 
 
 -so 
 
all icreeds in one at Rome, and with a view: to this 
 end he prevailed upon the emperor to add the name 
 of Christ to the number of his gods. He then im- 
 mediately changed his own name, originally Ad- 
 mantus, adopting that of Origen." From that 
 moment the distinctive doctrines of the gospel 
 ceased to be taught generally. The atonement was 
 no longer spoken of; the second advent of Christ, 
 and his future kingdom, were denied; the resurrec- 
 tion of the body was explained away. The con- 
 spiracy triumphed under Pope Damascus (about A. 
 D. 381), who declared the Millennium had already 
 commenced, and expelled from the Church, as 
 heretics, all who looked for Christ's second advent 
 and kingdom," (Church History). The italics in 
 the preceding paragraphs are ours. 
 
 On page 841, Vol. vii., Encyl. Brit, we read, — 
 "He (Origen) distinguished a three-fold sense of 
 Scripture, a gramatico-historical, a moral, and a 
 pneumatic, — the last being the proper and highest 
 sense." 
 
 '■"He thus set up a formal theory of allegorical 
 exegesis, which is not quite extinct in the churches 
 even yet, but in his own system was of fundamental 
 importance. On this method, the sacred writings 
 are regarded as an inexhaustible mine of phil- 
 osophical and dogmatic wisdom; in reality, ^the 
 exegete reads his own ideas into any passage he 
 chooses," (italics are ours) ,* * -the old Chris- 
 tian eschatology is set aside; no one has dealt such 
 deadly blows to Chiliasm (millenarianism) and 
 
 • ;91 
 
Christian apocalypticism as Origen. It need hardly 
 be said that he spiritualized the church doctrine of 
 the resurrection of the flesh" (page 842). 
 
 The fact is, the plain eschatology of the Bible 
 was abhorrent to his system of exegesis, and he, 
 therefore, denied it, precisely as more modern 
 "higher critics" do with everything in the sacred 
 book that repugns their system. 
 
 From the foregoing liberal quotations it is evi- 
 dent, that the earliest Christian Fathers, and the 
 primitive Christian Church held and proclaimed 
 the identical views we have been maintaining, as to 
 the nature, manner and premillennial character of 
 the Second Advent, and that the philosophical 
 school of Neo-Platonists at Alexandria with which 
 Origen was affiliated, was the mephitic swamp of 
 Oriental and Greek philosophical speculation, 
 whence flowed the turbid stream of allegorical Bib- 
 Heal exegesis, which has been vitiating and corrupt- 
 ing Christian doctrine through all the centuries 
 which have since intervened, and that Origen, 
 standing as he did at the fountain head, and having 
 his mind and thought saturated, as the result of 
 such intimate and constant association with those 
 pagan philosophers, with their fanciful speculations, 
 became the great reservoir of the Church into 
 which were gathered those poisonous waters which, 
 through a thousand or ten thousand channels, have 
 been transmitted and distributed through the 
 Church and world. 
 
 9% 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 PROPHECIES AND SIGNS. 
 
 "WATCHMAN WHAT OF THE NIGHT?" 
 Examination of Prophecy. — Evidence of the Ap- 
 proaching End of the Age, and Imminence of 
 the Savior's "Return. — Time, Periods, Dates. — 
 Views and Computations of Mr. H. Grattan 
 Guinness. — Views and Chart of Mr. J. B. Dim- 
 bleby, Premier Chronologist to the British 
 Chronological and Astronomical Association, 
 London. — The Principle of "Septiform Periodi- 
 city." — Signs. 
 
 In the previous chapters, having discussed the 
 nature and manner of the Second Advent; having 
 established the fact that it is premillennial, and that, 
 while the exact time of its occurrence is kept a 
 profound secret in the mind and counsels of the 
 Almighty, and will not be known till the stupend- 
 ous event startles a stupid, carnal world with its 
 momentous presence. Having also shown that its 
 approach and proximity may, and will be discerned 
 by the waiting and watching Christian who gives 
 heed to the Prophetic Scriptures, and the signs of 
 the times, the next question in natural order is, "is 
 the Second Advent imminent or may the Lord's re- 
 turn be expected soon?" 
 
 93 
 
This section of our theme, though of para- 
 mount importance and interest, must necessarily, 
 in a work of this compass, be treated with great 
 brevity, nevertheless, .we will endeavor to be com- 
 prehensive enough to satisfy the mind of the ordin- 
 ary reader. The student and. those who are zealous 
 and enthusiastic in the pursuit of knowledge upon 
 this theme, will find in the work of Mr. H. Grattan 
 Guinness entitled "The Approaching End of. the 
 Age// (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 27 Pater- 
 noster Row,, 1894), not only a very interesting and 
 full discussion of, this subject, but also,, on page <58o, 
 a very large catalogue of the works of other writers 
 on the same theme. 
 
 .In the investigation of this question there are 
 two fields of enquiry or two sources of evidence. 
 One is the symbolic Prophecies, as of Daniel or the 
 Apocalypse, which, in a series of apt figures or 
 symbols, part of which are therein directly inter- 
 preted to us, as a sort of key to help us to a full and 
 final solution, reveal to us the course of the world's 
 history, in its largest outline, down to the end of 
 this age and the establishment of Christ's millennial 
 reign, as the beginning of a new era or age. The 
 other field of enquiry or source of evidence, is "the 
 signs of the times," physical and moral, for which 
 a gage has been given us, or a photograph, so to 
 speak, by Christ and the apostles, by which to 
 measure or compare them, and so, to determine 
 whether or not "the time of our redemption draw- 
 eth nigh." And, while the prophetic charts are 
 
 94 
 
drawn in symbols, we believe the signs which have • 
 been given us as a token or harbinger of the com-' 
 ing redemption of the saints, both living and dead,' 
 from the curse and consequences of sin,--from' 
 moral and physical corruption, to moral and physi- 
 cal immortality or eternal life, — are literal. Yes f 
 we believe the signs given us by our Savior as pre- 
 monitory of His second coming are to bev literally. T 
 fulfilled, and we grow unutterably weary . of that 
 stupid scepticism of the human mind and heart' 
 which is constantly betraying itself in the refusal 
 to accept the plain words of Christ, and the Sacred 
 Scriptures, just as they stand, but with impious 
 audacity, explains them away, or perverts their 
 meaning, rather than admit their possibility. Why 
 may there not be signs in the physical world at 
 Christ's second advent? Were there none at His 
 first advent, — -at His birth, and at His death? Is 
 the~story:of "the star in the east," the light at night 
 upon ? the Judean plains, and the song of the angels: 
 untrue? Was there no earthquake, no rending of 
 the veil of the temple, no darkness from the sixth 1 
 till the ninth hour, at the time of the crucifixion? 
 If these are, indeed, facts of history, howeven de- 
 pendent upon, or explicable by natural causes they 
 may have been, why is the predicted darkening, of 
 the^sun, the refusal of the moon to give her light, 
 the falling of the stars from heaven, and the shaking 
 of the powers of heaven, any more wonderful or- 
 less possible, as a sign or harbinger of- the coming' 
 redemption of the earth and of the race? And, if 
 
 0S\ 
 
ever words fell from the lips of Christ which de- 
 mand our most reverent and explicit acceptance 
 and belief, they are these very words where he tells 
 us of the signs in the sun, moon, stars, the waves 
 of the sea, and the powers of the heavens, since 
 He follows them immediately with the solemn as- 
 severation, "heaven and earth shall pass away, but 
 My words* shall not pass away." 
 
 :In examining the question before us, our first 
 enquiry will be in the field of Prophecy, and we will 
 select for our first investigation the prophecies of 
 Daniel, which have, in our humble opinion, been 
 rescued from all cavil, criticism, or doubt as to their 
 authenticity and value as Prophetic Scripture by 
 the recognition of the Christ Himself, who, in His 
 conversation with His disciples on the subjects of 
 the destruction of Jerusalem, of His own second 
 coming, and of the end of the age, — separate sub- 
 jects, though all briefly spoken of in the conversa- 
 tion alluded to, — said, "when ye therefore shall see 
 the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel 
 the prophet, stand in the holy place, etc." 
 
 The "higher critics" may amuse themselves, 
 gratify their pride of erudition, or their self-conceit, 
 by questioning or denying the authorship of the 
 book of Daniel, if they please, but both they and 
 their "higher criticism" will, sooner or later, pass 
 into eternal oblivion, while the words of Jesus, 
 which "never pass away," and which recognize 
 both the book and the prophetic power and author- 
 ity of Daniel, and which have been inscribed by the 
 
pen of the evangelists upon the pages of Sacred 
 Truth, shall continue to proclaim the divine en- 
 dorsement of the book and of the prophet down 
 through the everlasting ages. 
 
 Daniel presents to our view a series of prophetic 
 pictures or sketches of the world's political history 
 from the time of Nebuchadnezzar, or the establish- 
 ment of the Babylonian empire down to the final 
 overthrow of all human governments, and the 
 establishment of the divine government of the 
 world, politically and socially, under the Messianic 
 Kingdom. These pictures are mere sketches of the 
 larger outlines of political history, each successive 
 picture being slightly more comprehensive, and 
 embracing a few more details than its predecessor. 
 The object of this repetition in different form and 
 in increasing detail is, without doubt, to attract and 
 fasten the mind upon the prophecy, and to aid in 
 its interpretation. 
 
 The first picture given is the metalic image 
 which is contained in the dream of Nebuchadnez- 
 zar, and which Daniel, by the aid of the Divine 
 Spirit, reproduces and interprets (Daniel ii.) This 
 sketch is the merest skeleton, so to speak, of his- 
 tory, — the frame work, around which the tissue 
 and fibre of history, in all its infinite detail, gathers. 
 Naked as it is, however, it is admirably adapted to 
 display with the utmost clearness, and to establish, 
 certain fundamental and important truths, by tak- 
 ing heed to which, the student of prophecy will be 
 guarded from error in his conclusions with regard 
 
 97 
 
to one of the most essential and vital points in those 
 prophetic utterances, viz.: the relative time of the 
 Second Advent and of the establishment of the 
 Messianic Kingdom. 
 
 This image of various metals, as the prophet 
 himself instructs us, represents the great kingdoms 
 or empires, — in fact, the universal empires of the 
 world. That they are the universal empires is evi- 
 dent, first, from the particular emphasis which the 
 prophet puts upon the universal dominion of the 
 first, or Babylonian kingdom, in verse 38th, and of 
 the statement in the 39th verse of the universal do- 
 minion of the second and third kingdoms which 
 were to succeed the Babylonian, and, secondly, it 
 is also evident from the limitation by the Prophet, 
 to the number of four, the kingdoms which are to 
 precede the Messianic kingdom, for, while the great 
 powers or governments w 7 hich have appeared on 
 the earth since the fall of the Babylonian empire 
 have been numerous, there have been but four uni- 
 versal empires. The reference, therefore, must be 
 to those. Of this, however, no doubt is left in the 
 mind after considering the third picture or symbol, 
 which the Prophet gives in the 8th chapter, where 
 the second and third kingdoms are specifically 
 stated to be the empires of Medo-Persia and 
 Greece, and where the fourth kingdom is so de- 
 scribed as to make it apparent that the empire of 
 Rome is meant, which are the four, and only four 
 universal empires of history. We repeat, some 
 things are made perfectly clear from this prophetic 
 
 98 
 
symbol or image, and especially the relative time, — - 
 the time as it stands related to the four great, uni- 
 versal empires of the world, — of the establishment 
 of the Messianic Kingdom. 
 
 It will be observed in this prophetic picture 
 that when the Stone appears, — the "stone cut out 
 of the mountain without hands," which represents 
 the Messianic Kingdom, — it strikes the image vio- 
 lently upon the feet, grinding the whole image into 
 powder, which immediately and forever disappears 
 from the face of the earth. There is no ambiguity 
 about this. It is perfectly clear. It indicates that 
 the Messianic Kingdom comes after the last of the 
 four universal empires. It does not synchronize 
 with it or with any of them, or run parallel with 
 them, but succeeds them all. It does not, in a quiet 
 way, imperceptibly insinuate itself into the others, 
 gradually metamorphosing and absorbing them 
 or any one of them, but smites them suddenly and 
 violently, — smites the image upon the feet; the very 
 extremity of the last section of the image; the end 
 or closing period of the Roman empire, and obliter- 
 ates forever all merely human governments, substi- 
 tuting therefor the Messianic Kingdom. 
 
 Whatever truth, therefore, there may be in a 
 so-called spiritual kingdom, or reign of Christ in 
 the hearts of men, beginning at the Pentecostal ef- 
 fusion of the Spirit, or at any other time, this is not 
 that kingdom, but another, and no doubt literal 
 kingdom, — the same, unquestionably, as the one 
 which, in the 13th and 14th verses of chapter 7, of 
 
 99 
 
this same book, is represented as being given to 
 "one like unto the Son of Man," who came "in the 
 clouds of heaven" — and which is described in 
 verse 27th as being "under the whole heaven" 
 or the world around, for, as "King of Kings 
 and Lord of Lords" Jesus shall "reign from 
 sea to sea, and from the river to the end of 
 the earth." It is to be a fifth, a last, and a 
 perpetual kingdom, — universal in a much more 
 comprehensive sense than can be applied to any 
 other of the previous empires of the world, for it is 
 to "fill the whole earth," and " all peoples, nations, 
 and languages" shall serve the Messiah King. Of 
 the perpetuity of this government we are also as- 
 sured, for "His dominion is an everlasting domin- 
 ion, which shall not pass away, and His Kingdom 
 that which shall not be destroyed" (Chap. 7: 14. 
 
 It will also be observed that when the stone 
 smites the image, the ten toes and the mixture of 
 clay have been developed in that section of it. 
 This indicates that the establishment of the Mes- 
 sianic Kingdom must occur at a time subsequently 
 to the subversion and division of the Roman em- 
 pire. Of course, as before intimated, when the fifth, 
 divine empire comes, all merely human govern- 
 ments will disappear, at once, from the earth, and, 
 according to the principle or axiom, that the 
 greater includes the less, not only will the ten-toe 
 and clay-mixed period of the Roman empire have 
 passed away, but every other phase and vestige of 
 it. The only use, therefore, that it is designed to 
 
 100 
 
make of this allusion to the ten-toe and clay-mixed 
 feature of the symbol is, that all theories of the 
 Messianic Kingdom, and all interpretations of this 
 and other Prophecies, which construct a Messianic 
 Kingdom before the subversion and division of the 
 Roman empire are erronious. 
 
 But, it will at once be asked, "has not the Ro- 
 man period passed away already, and yet the fifth 
 or Messianic Kingdom has not been established? 
 Has not this prophecy failed?" No, the Roman 
 period has not yet passed, but for light on this 
 point, or on this phase of the question, we must 
 refer to the other pictures or symbols which the 
 prophet Daniel gives us. The symbol we have 
 been considering conducts us no further than the 
 points indicated above. Beyond these points, the 
 succeeding symbols find their use and application. 
 In order, therefore, to bridge this apparent hiatus 
 between the- disappearance of the Roman empire, 
 properly so called, and the Messianic Kingdom, we 
 must examine the prophetic picture or sketch given 
 in Daniel 7. 
 
 In this picture four beasts arise, successively, 
 out of the sea, — a lion, a bear, a leopard, and finally 
 a beast for which no name is found. Each of these 
 beasts presents a different appearance, has different 
 characteristics, and conducts itself differently from 
 either of the others. The last beast is the more 
 formidable, is most strikingly "diverse" from all the 
 previous ones, and is distinguished particularly, as 
 having "ten horns" out of the midst of which a 
 
 101 
 
"little horn" arises, which plucks up three of the 
 ten horns by the roots. This horn has "eyes like 
 a man, and a mouth speaking great things. " 
 
 It is hardly necessary to say here, that the four 
 beasts of this prophetic picture, are only another 
 representation of the four universal empires sym- 
 bolized in the various sections, of differing metals, 
 in the "image" of the previous sketch. All 
 prophetic students are agreed on this point, and it 
 is sufficiently obvious from the explanation of this 
 picture which is given to Daniel in verses 17th to 
 the end of the chapter. 
 
 Now, the fourth beast in this picture has ten 
 horns, as the last section of the image has ten toes. 
 Both of these figures or symbols as we before have 
 said represent the Roman empire. The delineation 
 of the Roman empire in the image goes no farther 
 than to present to our view the political change 
 which took place in the empire when it became 
 divided into ten kingdoms. Here it leaves it. In 
 the picture of the beasts, however, the view is ex- 
 tended so as to embrace that particular and impor- 
 tant political change which occurred when the 
 crown and sceptre of the Western section of the 
 Roman empire, — the sovereignty and the govern- 
 ment, — became vested in the Pontiffs or Popes of 
 Rome. 
 
 It is this epoch in the history of the Roman 
 power and dominion, — this phase of it, — which, as 
 a politico-ecclesiastical government, renders it so 
 emphatically "diverse" from any and all of the uni- 
 
 102 
 
versal empires which preceded it. Under this 
 phase it has lasted for 1,200 years, and, though 
 badly crippled, and shorn of power in its political 
 arm, it still exists, and sways its arrogant and des- 
 potic spiritual sceptre, over a vaster extent of terri- 
 tory, a greater number of nations, and diversities of 
 peoples and races than ever bowed to the yoke of 
 the proudest and strongest political empire that 
 ever controlled the world. 
 
 This is the "little horn" which arose from the 
 midst of the "ten horns, ,, in the prophetic symbol 
 of Dan. 7th, whose power, feeble at first, after many 
 vicissitudes, after many alternating defeats and 
 triumphs, ultimately acquired a magnitude which 
 not only distinguished it as "stouter than its 
 fellows" of the ten horns from which it sprung, ac- 
 cording to the prophetic symbol, but, in its domin- 
 ion and tyranny over the consciences of men, and 
 the crushing power of its secular arm, has eclipsed 
 every other organized human power that has ever 
 dominated the globe. 
 
 A passage in Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the 
 Roman Empire'' (Milman's, Vol. I., page 447), is 
 so a propos here, and serves so appropriately to 
 confirm and emphasize this view of the extension 
 or prolongation of the Roman period and power 
 through the Popes of Rome, that we feel con- 
 strained to introduce it at this point. Speaking of 
 the site of the gardens and circus of Nero, in Rome, 
 — the scene of the inhuman cruelties and butcheries 
 practiced upon the Christians of that city by the 
 
 103 
 
command of this infamous tyrant, Gibbon says, 
 "On this spot, a temple, far surpassing the ancient 
 glories of the Capitol, has been since erected by 
 the Christian Pontiffs, who, deriving their claim 
 of universal dominion from an humble fisherman 
 of Galilee, have succeeded to the throne of the 
 Ctesars, given laws to the barbarian conquerors of 
 Rome, and extended their spiritual jurisdiction 
 from the coast of the Baltic to the shores of the 
 Pacific Ocean'' (italics are ours). 
 
 It is gratifying, in presenting to the reader the 
 above quotation from one of the ablest and most 
 eminent historians "of any age and of any country," 
 to point to the fact that this passage furnishes a 
 striking example of a notorious sceptic, and a con- 
 spicious despiser of Prophecy, yielding uncon- 
 scious and involuntary service in its elucidation and 
 interpretation, and helping to confirm and establish 
 thereby the truth of the very Scripture whose au- 
 thenticity he doubts, and whose authority he scorns. 
 
 The Roman power, therefore, — the fourth king- 
 dom, represented by the iron section of the metalic 
 image, still exists, and the prophecy has not failed. 
 As before stated, it must and will continue to exist 
 until at least the approaching dawn of the Mes- 
 sianic Kingdom, in order to verify the prophecies 
 contained in both of the symbols referred to, viz.: 
 the metalic image and the four beasts. Indeed, the 
 latter symbolic prophecy specifically declares that 
 the "little horn" with its human eyes, and its pre- 
 tentious and blasphemous mouth should continue 
 
 104 
 
till the "Ancient of Days" should come, and having 
 executed judgment upon it. should destroy it, and 
 transfer the sceptre of universal dominion and 
 power to him who shall come "in the clouds of 
 heaven," — to the Messiah King. 
 
 As intimated in the 26th verse, however, the de- 
 struction of this persecuting power, is not to be 
 sudden, but gradual, until final extinction. This 
 process of gradual consumption has been going on 
 for years, and is still in progress. The temporal 
 power of the Pope is gone. His possessions have 
 been contracted within the narrow limits of the 
 Vatican Palace and grounds, and the secular arm 
 of the church, with which he dealt such deadly 
 blows, is permanently paralyzed. The signs of de- 
 cay and approaching dissolution are startlingly ap- 
 parent. The present occupant of the Papal throne 
 is old and feeble, like the Papacy itself. Will he 
 have a successor? Many thoughtful men, who 
 have scanned with care and skill the prophetic 
 records, doubt it. The Prophecies we have been 
 considering have almost entirely, if not quite, been 
 fulfilled. Their complete translation into history 
 must bring the end of the age, and the dawn of the 
 Millennial Kingdom. Surely, our "redemption 
 draweth nigh." 
 
 But further than this, in the prophecy we are 
 examining, . as well as most of the prophecies re- 
 ferring, if not to this event particularly, at least to 
 the era or period immediately preceding this event, 
 ^nd whose termination is to mark the dawn, or 
 
 105 
 
rather the approaching dawn of the new era over 
 which Christ shall preside as "King of Kings and 
 Lord of Lords," specific time is given, — the time 
 of the duration of this preliminary period. In this 
 symbolic prophecy of the four beasts of Daniel 7, 
 the time of the duration of the persecuting and 
 blasphemous power represented by the "little 
 horn" is given, but is expressed, as all other 
 prophetic periods are, in figurative language, — in 
 prophetic cypher, so to speak. The duration of 
 this power is here said to be until "time, times, and 
 the dividing of time," or, as elsewhere expressed, 
 (Dan 12:7) "a time, times, and a half," or, as in 
 Rev. 12: 14, "a time, times, and a half a time," or 
 R ev - 3 : 5 "forty and two months," or, Rev. 12: 6, "a 
 thousand, two hundred and three score days." 
 
 Now, we do not for a moment doubt that these 
 prophetic numbers, or figures, or periods, have as 
 important a place in the Prophetic Record, and 
 that just as intelligent a purpose or design has 
 placed them there, as may be claimed for any and 
 every other part of Scripture Prophecy, but, we 
 doubt that they were ever placed upon the record of 
 Prophecy to enable men, at any time within the 
 present age, or during the period embraced in these 
 figures to predict the exact time of the coming of 
 "the Son of Man/' and the establishment of the 
 Messianic Kingdom. 
 
 The conspicuous and humiliating failures which 
 have followed such attempts in the past, and which 
 have brought dishonor and discredit not only upon 
 
 106 
 
Prophetic Scripture, but upon the entire canon, 
 afford painful evidence of their imprudence and 
 folly. 
 
 We nevertheless believe that the key to the in- 
 terpretation of these numbers or cyphers has been 
 found, and that the period of time which they indi- 
 cate has been accurately measured, and is correctly 
 expressed as 1,260 solar years, and that the errors 
 which have been made by prophetic students have 
 been, not so much errors of computation, as errors 
 of application, — that is to say in applying these 
 figures to wrong periods, starting them from wrong 
 points in the world's history, applying them to gov- 
 ernments and powers for which they were not de- 
 signed, and lastly, and more particularly, we think 
 that a very general error has been made in the ap- 
 plication of these figures, by confounding together 
 two separate and very distinct things, viz: the 
 overthrow of the persecuting power indicated in 
 the prophecy, and the second coming of Christ, 
 and of his kingdom, or, to state it more clearly, 
 in associating together in close or immediate syn- 
 chronism the downfall and obliteration of the pow- 
 ers to which the figures properly and only refer, on 
 the one hand, and on the other, the "Second Ad- 
 vent," and the establishment of the Messianic King- 
 dom. 
 
 The exhaustion of the periods indicated by the 
 prophetic cypher will mark the downfall of certain 
 powers, perhaps practically, of human govern- 
 ments, and it is true that the next great event in the 
 
 105 
 
world's history, after such downfall, will be the 
 "coming of the Son of Man," and, witltin an in- 
 definite period thereafter, the inauguration of the 
 Messianic Kingdom, but there may be, and very 
 likely will be, space enough between the closing 
 of the era indicated by the prophetic cypher, and 
 the "second coming," to make that portentous 
 event sudden enough, startling enough, and unex- 
 pectedly enough to verify the statement of the 
 Savior, that "as a snare shall it come upon all them 
 that dwell on the face of the whole earth." 
 
 The parable of the "ten virgins" suggests a 
 very strong probability of this being the case. A 
 fair exposition of the parable is this, — there will 
 be a great awakening among believers with regard 
 to the "second coming," caused, we apprehend, by 
 the extensive study of the prophecies, and by the in- 
 terpretation of prophetic symbols and periods, but 
 more particularly by the lapsing of those periods, 
 the actual overthrow of the powers indicated by 
 those symbols, and the exhaustive fulfillment of 
 prophecy. But, there will immediately follow 
 a disappointing delay. Unexpectedly, "the bride- 
 groom tarries." During this delay the faith and ex- 
 pectation of believers w r ill grow torpid, and they 
 will lapse into lethargy or apathy more or less com- 
 plete, — "while the bridegroom tarries, they all 
 slumber and sleep," until at length, in the midst 
 of this midnight darkness, and this numbness of 
 faith and of spiritual sensibility, the cry will be 
 heard, "behold the bridegroom cometh." 
 
 10s 
 
In fact, such a lapse, between the exhaustive ful- 
 fillment of the prophetic periods, and the actual 
 "appearing" of Christ, must occur, in order to ver- 
 ify and fulfill the repeated and explicit statements 
 of our Lord, with reference to the suddenness and 
 unexpectedness of this event, for it must be quite 
 evident that, if the exhaustion of those prohphetic 
 periods mark, not only the overthrow of certain 
 powers, but the simultaneous coming of "the Son 
 of Man," and if these periods have been and are 
 correctly interpreted, there can not, therefore, be 
 any thing sudden or unexpected in the event. Nor 
 will it do to say, by way of evading this argument, 
 that it is to the unbeliever, the careless, and the 
 sinner alone that the event will be sudden and un- 
 expected, and that to this class, in spite of the in- 
 terpretation and fulfillment of prophecy, the event 
 will take them at unawares, since Christ's warnings 
 were not given to this class, but to His immediate 
 and faithful disciples, and to them His declaration 
 ever is "watch ye therefore, for ye know not, &c," 
 and besides, as we have just quoted, He said that 
 "as a snare shall it come upon all those that dwell 
 on the face of the whole earth." 
 
 It is always wise as well as reverent to respect 
 the strict accuracy, and unerring precision of the 
 Savior's language, and it is always presumptuous to 
 set aside His words, or to strain their obvious 
 meaning, so as to adapt them to our theories. This 
 practice has always been, and is now by far too 
 common and widespread. 
 
 109 
 
The prophetic periods we have been consider- 
 ing are, of course, variously applied and inter- 
 preted by different prophetic students and exposi- 
 tors, and, while dogmatism is offensive and intol- 
 erable at all times, and in regard to any department 
 of Scripture teaching, it is particularly so in that 
 department of Scripture which of all others, is the 
 most vague and obscure, viz: the prophetic. 
 
 Without, therefore, any inclination to dogma- 
 tize, w r e desire to say that, after a somewhat care- 
 ful investigation of various theories of prophetic 
 interpretation or application, it is our conviction 
 and judgment that that view 7 which makes the 
 "fourth beast" the Roman empire; the "little horn" 
 of Dan. vii., the papacy (which was a direct and 
 intimate outgrowth of the Roman empire); which 
 makes the "time, times, and dividing of time" the 
 measure of the duration of the papacy, and which 
 reckons the time of that duration 1260 years, is the 
 most obvious and rational, and presents the most 
 perfect coincidence between symbol and thing sym- 
 bolized, — between type and antitype. Not only 
 this, but the papacy in every feature of it, — in the 
 place an manner of its rise, the seat of its power, 
 its historic character, corresponds, as no other 
 power does, not simply with the prophetic features 
 of the Prophecies of Daniel, but with those of the 
 coincident Prophecies of the "Man of Sin" in Thes- 
 salonians, and "Babylon the Great" of Revelations. 
 The papacy is, in fact, the subject of a four-fold 
 Prophecy, whose minutest delineations find their 
 
 110 
 
counterparts in the Papacy alone of all the human 
 powers that ever dominated the earth. 
 
 So far as the merely chronological features of 
 the prophecy are concerned, with a little ingenious 
 adjustment of dates, &c, it can be made to sup- 
 port fairly well any or all the various theories of 
 prophetic interpretation or application, but figures 
 are susceptible of such marvelous manipulation, and 
 are thus so treacherous and misleading, that we are 
 inclined to yield our preference to that interpreta- 
 tion of the Prophecies which has the advantage of 
 both chronological adjustment and complete coin- 
 cidence of type with antitype. This, without con- 
 troversy, can be claimed for that interpretation, as 
 we have said, which identifies the Papal Power 
 with the "little horn" of Dan. vii., and the best and 
 most recent expositors compute that the prophetic 
 period which marks the duration of this power ex- 
 pires from 1898 A. D. to 1923 A. D. Verily the 
 "coming of the Son of Man" and of the heavenly 
 kingdom hasten. 
 
 The dates above given as marking the termina- 
 tion of the "times of the Gentiles," and, according 
 to some, of the "Jewish times" as well, have been 
 obtained by the careful and studious examination of 
 Prophecy, especially that of Daniel and the Apoc- 
 alypse, as the result of which it has been discov- 
 ered that the prophetic "seven times" represents a 
 period of 2,520 years; that it is a "great week" of 
 years of years, or, in other words, a week, each 
 day of which measures 360 years; that the prophetic 
 
 111 
 
"time, times, and half a time" is just one-half such 
 week, or 1260 years; that the "forty-two months/" 
 and the "1260 days" of the Apocalpyse are identical 
 with the latter period, or half week, and by applying 
 this last period to the papal power, as being the 
 power represented by the "little horn," and, accord- 
 ing to Mr. H. Grattan Guinness, dating the rise 
 of that power, not from any single date or event in 
 its history, but from a series of events connected 
 with and marking its rise, covering a series of 
 dates, or periods of about a century, from the de- 
 cree of the Emperor Justinian A. D. 533 recog- 
 nizing the Bishop of Rome as "the head of all the 
 holy Churches, and all the holy priests of God," 
 to the decree of Pope Vitalian, A. D. 633, Latiniz- 
 ing the Churches throughout Christendom, and 
 thus effectually and permanently fixing the ascend- 
 ency of the Bishop or Pope of Rome, — applying, 
 we say, the 1260 years to any point in this period 
 of the rise and development of the Papacy, a cor- 
 responding point marking the progress of its de- 
 cline and final fall is reached. Thus, from the de- 
 cree of Justinian constituting the Bishop of Rome 
 the supreme head of the Churches, and thus defi- 
 nitely fixing the year of the official establishment of 
 the papal supremacy, viz: from A. D. 533, the pe- 
 riod of 1260 years stretches to A. D. 1793 and the 
 French revolution. This year (1793) a critical point 
 in that revolution was reached by the execution of 
 Louis XVI. on the 21st of January, and the ter- 
 mination of the French monarchy. This revolution 
 
 112 
 
sustains a very intimate relation to the decline of 
 the papal power. It was the earliest and most po- 
 tent agent in the overthrow of that power. The 
 International Cyclopedia, vol. vi., page 216, speak- 
 ing of this revolution, says: "On the 20th of Jan- 
 uary, 1793, sentence of death was passed upon him 
 (the king of France) and on the following day he 
 was beheaded. Revolts broke out in every part of 
 France. *. * * Christianity (Romanism, of 
 course,) was now formally deposed (that is to say, 
 in France, which had been its sturdiest champion 
 and defender) and the sacredness of the republic, 
 and worship of reason solemnized. " 
 
 Again, from the decree of the emperor Phocas 
 "confirming the primacy of the see of Rome over 
 that of Constantinople and all the Eastern and 
 Western churches," viz: A. D. 607, the 1260 years 
 measure to 1867. In that year France, which was 
 once more the defender of Romanism, and the sup- 
 porter of the temporal power of the Pope in the 
 papal states, began to withdraw her troops from 
 Rome, and what were not withdrawn that year re- 
 mained a comparatively short time, as the exeg- 
 encies of the Franco-Prussian war which soon fol- 
 lowed (1870) compelled the withdrawal of the last 
 French detachment, on August 8, 1870, putting an 
 end to the French protectorate of the papal states. 
 On the 20th of the following month the Italian 
 troops under Gen. Cadrona entered Rome. On the 
 2d of October the unity of the Italian kingdom 
 was accomplished by the absorption of the papal 
 
 113 
 
states, and the temporal possessions and power of 
 the Pope were gone. From A. D. 633, the year of 
 the decree of Pope Vitalian Latinizing the 
 Churches throughout Christendom, 1260 years 
 reach to the year A. D. 1923. 
 
 To satisfy the curiosity or interest of the reader, 
 we will introduce here, by way of illustrating the 
 application of the year-day principle of interpreta- 
 tion, a quotation and example from a pamphlet en- 
 titled "The New Era at Hand/ by Mr. J. B. Dim- 
 bleby, Premier Chronologist to the British Chrono- 
 logical and Astronomical Association, London. It 
 will be observed that this gentleman's view is, that 
 the "little horn" of Daniel's Prophecy (Dan. vii.) 
 represents the Mohammedan power. Well, we 
 wish simply to say here, that while differing with 
 him in this view, as before intimated, we have ab- 
 solutely no controversy with him on the point, as 
 the Prophecy, in its general features, at least, will 
 apply as well to the "Mohammedan power," as to 
 the "Papal power," and the former power, of which 
 the Ottoman Empire and the Sultan of Turkey are 
 the recognized representatives, has been passing 
 through the same process of decay, and exhibits to- 
 day the same ominous decrepitude that is visible in 
 the Papacy. The fiendish massacres of the past 
 year or two, practiced upon the Armenians by Mo- 
 hammedan fanaticism and deviltry, and without 
 doubt under the secret sanction, if not direction of 
 the Sultan, may be the overflowing drops in the 
 "full cup" of Mohammedan "iniquity" which shall 
 
 114 
 
speedily bring down upon it the pent up wrath and 
 vengeance of Almighty God.* But, as there is an- 
 other "little horn" mentioned in Dan. viii., in con- 
 nection with another specific prophecy, we prefer 
 the belief that the "little horn" of Dan. vii. prefig- 
 ures the Papacy, while that of Dan. viii. points to 
 the Mohammedan power, and as both these perse- 
 cuting powers took their rise at the same time, 
 practically, — the birth of Mohammed being in the 
 year A. D. 570, and the accession of Gregory the 
 Great, who w r as the first, in our modern sense of the 
 word, of the Popes, in A. D. 590, — the application 
 of the prophetic period indicates a very close syn- 
 chronism. 
 
 *Since the above was written; the fact that the Sultan authorized and 
 was responsible for the massacres of the Armenians above referred to, 
 is now known to all the world, and the pages of future history which will 
 narrate the events of the Ottoman Empire under the reign of Abdul 
 Hamid will record this fact. 
 
 The Greco-Turkish war has also occured since the above was written, 
 and all are familiar with its events and results. The Greeks have been 
 crushed. Thessaly is in the hands of the Turks, and is occupied by a 
 large army which is daily strengthening its position. The military pres- 
 tige of Turkey has been enormously advanced by these successes, and 
 the mutual jealousies, distrust, and bad faith of the European Powers 
 seem to shield and protect her against any effective interference on their 
 part in her manifest design to absorbe Thessaly. To the superficial and 
 unreflecting observer, these facts make the overthrow of the Ottoman 
 Empire (representing the Mohammedan power), and the disintegration 
 of its territory, in the near future, extremely improbable. But, abortive 
 as has been the diplomacy of Europe, hitherto, in inducing Turkey to 
 comply with the demands of the joint note of the nations interested, the 
 moment is approaching with great rapidity when the powers of Europe, 
 stultified in their own eyes, as well as in the eyes of the world at large, by 
 their own indecision and their apparent inability to agree upon coercive 
 measures, and irritated by the insolence of the Turk, who keenly appreci- 
 ates and is taking all possible advantage of their impotence,— the moment, 
 I say, is rapidly approaching, when, the pride of the European nations 
 being stung beyond the point of endurance, some one or more of them, 
 despairing of a general "entente" will act independently and with deter- 
 mined vigor, and will not stop until the Turk is crushed, his power de- 
 stroyed for ever, and his territory dismembered, Very possibly Russia, 
 aided or backed by Germany, will take the opportunity, and use the ex- 
 cuse afforded by the present situation to carry out her long cherished 
 design of seizing and retaining premanent possession of Constantinople 
 and the Bosphorus, which will only be the first step toward the final and 
 speedy explusion of the Turk from Europe, the complete dismember- 
 
 115 
 
We will now quote from Mr. Dimbleby: "What, 
 then, are the means by which we expect the end of 
 the present dispensation? In other words, what are 
 the prophecies of Scripture which we have to no- 
 tice? I answer that they are a period called "seven 
 times," which are 2520 years. A time is called 360 
 years, therefore "seven times" comprise 2520 years, 
 or tw T ice 1260. Observe, there are two periods 
 called "seven times." One is called the "times of 
 the Gentiles," and the other "the times of the Jews." 
 The distinction between them is, that the former 
 began with four universal empires, called "beasts," 
 in 33764, when Babylon* became mistress of the 
 world; and the latter began 30 years later with the 
 captivity in 34064* so that the Jewish times are not 
 complete till 30 years after the Gentile times are 
 ended. Thus — 
 
 Gentile Times. Jewish Times. 
 
 3376i 34o6i 
 
 2520 2520 
 
 5896^ our 1898^ 59264 our 19284 
 
 In Rev. vii., under the figure of a woman clothed 
 
 with the sun, we have the whole period of the seven 
 
 times, forming the history of the militant church, 
 
 ment of his Empire, and its partition among the nations. England will 
 take formal possession of Egypt, and using Cyprus, which she now owns, 
 as the base of her operations, will, in ali probability, annex Syria. 
 
 The following of recent date (London, Oct. 9, by Commerical Cable 
 to the New York Times), will be of interest, as showing the very unsettled 
 state of the Greco-Turkish question, and the extremely volcanic political 
 conditions which exist in Europe even now, just as this volume goes to 
 press: -"The Sultan begins his preparations for evacuating Thessaly by 
 sending twenty thousand fresh troops of the line thither. The shipping 
 of these soldiers, all picked battalions drawn newly from Asia, has been 
 proceeding busily all week. A casual explanation is dropped to Europe 
 
 116 
 
viz: 1260 (verse 8) for the holy city, and forty-two 
 months, which are 1260 day-years, or a period of 
 the same length (verse 14) for the Mohammedan 
 desolation of Christendom. — Total 2520. 
 
 As to how long the four beasts were to flourish, 
 we get it from the facts of history, and singular to 
 state, books of history show that they flourished 
 1 260 years, which are "time, times and a half." What 
 a key to these times we have in this fact. We are 
 also told in Dan. vii., 25, that the "little horn" (evi- 
 dently the Mohammedan power, by the facts of his- 
 tory) was to have the saints given into his hands for 
 a time, times, and a half, which is the other 1260 
 years. We have only to put them together: 
 Babylon continued. . 90 years from 3376^ to 3466^ 
 Medo-Persians " . . 200 years from 3466^ to 3666^ 
 Grecians . . 304 years from 3666^ to. 3970J 
 
 Romans . .666 years from 3970J to 4636J 
 
 Total 1260 Jerusalem taken by the 
 
 Saracens, 4636J. 
 Mohammedan period 1 260 from 4636J to 5896J 
 
 = our 1898I 
 
 2520 years. 
 
 at large, that these reinforcements are designed merely to take the 
 places of invalids and disabled men who are being brought away, and 
 that when the army of occupation is thus completely restored to effective 
 strength, the process of evacuation will begin. 
 
 What is even more interesting, perhaps, than the Sultan's calm cheek 
 is the pretense of the embassies at Constantinople and of correspondents 
 inspired by them, that they are to believe that the Sultan in pursuing this 
 course, is merely trying to fool his Mohammedan subjects. Nobody says 
 frankly what everybody is now coming to apprehend, that there is to be 
 no evacuation of Thessaly whatever. Instead, we shall have another win- 
 ter devoted to fruitless diplomatic cackling over Crete, culminating very 
 likely in more massacres and more bombardments before spring " 
 
 117 
 
We will now append one of Mr. Dimbleby's 
 charts in further illustration of the application of 
 these figures. We think It will be of interest: 
 
 At this point, in connection with the foregoing 
 chart, and what has been said about the /'great 
 week" or "seven times' 'of Prophecy, it will interest 
 the reader, and stimulate his faith in the great 
 truth of Divine Providence, as well as in the in- 
 spiration of the Sacred Scriptures, to record the 
 fact that in this "time of the end" in which we live, 
 foretold by the Prophet Daniel (Chap, xii.) when 
 ''knowledge is increased," especially the knowledge 
 of Prophetic Scriptures, it has been discovered that 
 a great, comprehensive, and universal principle or 
 law, which has been called the "septiform princi- 
 ple," or principle of "septiform periodicity" per- 
 vades and is operative throughout the solar sys- 
 tem, at least, if not throughout the universe, con- 
 trolling and regulating the revolutions of the heav- 
 enly bodies, and measuring their vast cycles; di- 
 recting and ordering also the life, growth, maturity 
 and decay of all organic forms; dividing into septi- 
 form periods, and conducting the progress of indi- 
 vidual human life from its inception to its close, 
 and holding sway over the social and political his- 
 tory of the race from the beginning to the end of 
 time. 
 
 The prophetic figures or numbers just given 
 from Daniel, measure important periods in the 
 world's history, and not only do they come within 
 the operation of this septiform principle, but, as a 
 
 118 
 
F both of the same length, 2520 
 Ne the latter, and therefore ends 
 
 Babylon . 
 
 Medo-Per 
 
 pires lasted 1260 years, and that 
 90 "immediately succeeded the Ro- 
 
 200 
 
 304 
 
 Pagan Rome 
 
 First 1260 
 
 The Anti- 
 christ of Mo- 
 ll am ed an 
 power tread- 
 ing down Je- 
 rusalem 1260 
 years. 
 
 The Second.. 1260 
 
 2520 
 
 of Time: 
 
 p," being months of 30 days. 
 
 50 times in the Scriptures, and 
 ^e "regeneration," "restoration," 
 
 'my day," "which Abraham saw 
 \ will break into pieces the king- 
 ie reward to his servants," "the 
 ing and kingdom,"— all of which 
 ad of the Gentile times, in 589634. 
 
THE APPROACHING CLOSE OF THE PROPHETIC PERIODS. 
 
 Mahomi 
 3376'/g Babylc 
 
 Beast became Universal Empire. 
 3406'/. Cap.ivity of 70 years began. 
 
 3451% Daniel's vision of 4 beasts. 
 
 3666% Alexander "he goat" began. Dan. > 
 4029% Crucifixion. 
 
 power tread- 
 ing down Je- 
 rusalem 1260 
 
 The Second.. 1260 « 
 
 Bibical Standards of Time: 
 
 300 a time, 
 
 jr 360 years. 
 
 360 , K J 
 
 360 > nmes 
 
 or two times. 
 
 180 half a t 
 
 
 1260 years, e 
 
 numerated as "days. 
 
 1260 also en 
 
 merated as "42 mor 
 
 2520 years, o 
 
 r "seven times » 
 
 The period "th 
 
 t day" occurs abou 
 
 t 150 times in the Scriptures, and 
 always in an emphatic sense, indicating the "regeneration," "restoration," 
 "the day of the Lord Jesus," "his time," "my day," "which Abraham saw 
 and was glad." "the period when the stone will break Into pieces the kinp,- 
 
 grand levee," "the rapture of his appearing and kingdom,"— all of which 
 point out that it is the 30 years from the end of the Gentile limes, In 6808! ,, 
 
 :s end, Turkey falls. 
 
 Period of 30 years, c 
 s 1928M, end of Jev 
 
consequence, coincide with the soli-lunar cycles. 
 A little over half a century ago M. De Cheseaux, 
 a Swiss astronomer, while studying the Prophecies 
 of Daniel, discovered this startling fact. He also 
 discovered that the difference between the 1260 
 years embraced in the "time, times, and dividing of 
 time" of Dan. vii. and the 2300 day-years of Dan. 
 viii., viz: 1040 years "is the largest accurate soli- 
 lunar cycle known." 
 
 M. De Cheseaux says: "On examination of the 
 period of 1040 years by the best modern astronom- 
 ical tables, I found that it was even so (a perfect 
 cycle, free from error). Its error is absolutely im- 
 perceptible, in so long a period, and may indeed 
 be accounted for by errors in the tables themselves, 
 owing to the inaccuracy of some of the ancient 
 observations on which they are founded." (H. 
 Grattan Guinness, in "The Approaching End of the 
 Age," page 403). 
 
 Mr. Guinness, in the work referred to, speaking 
 of the following prophetic periods, viz: 
 
 65 years Isa. vii., 8. 
 
 70 years Jer. xxv., 7. 
 
 490 years Dan. ix. 
 
 2300 years Dan. viii. 
 
 1260 years Dan. vii. 
 
 2520 years Dan. iv. 
 
 1290 years Dan. xii. 
 
 1335 years Dan. xii. 
 
 30 years Dan. xii. 
 
 45 years .Dan. xii. 
 
 119 
 
2595 years Dan. xii. 
 
 iooo years Rev. xx. 
 
 says: "A little consideration will show a va- 
 riety of beautiful and harmonious relations between 
 these apparently dissimilar and incongruous pe- 
 riods. 
 
 They are all proportionate parts of a great week 
 of millenaries, and fit into each other, and into a 
 framework of 7000 years, in a way that proves al- 
 most to demonstration, that they are designed so 
 to do. 
 
 The 70 years of the Captivity may be regarded 
 as a day; the 490 years of the restoration is then 
 a week of such days; the 1260 years of the domin- 
 ion of the little horn is eighteen such days; the 
 2520 years of the times of the Gentiles is thirty-six 
 such days (a tenth of 360 or a year of such days), 
 and the 2300 years to the cleansing of the Sanc- 
 tuary is a third of the whole period, the nearest 
 third of seven millenaries possible in centuries. 
 
 Of all these periods the root is evidently the 
 iveek of years, the seven years which, under the 
 Levitical economy, extended fcom one sabbatic 
 year to another. 
 
 The 70 years during which the Babylonish Cap- 
 tivity was appointed to endure, were 10 such weeks, 
 and the 490 years of the restored Judaism 70. The 
 little horn was to reign 180 such weeks, and the 
 "Times of the Gentiles' 'to extend over 360, or an 
 entire year of such weeks, while the whole period 
 of seven millenaries contains 1000 such weeks. 
 
 120 
 
It must be remembered also that the Jubilee pe- 
 riod established under the law of Moses, was seven 
 such weeks, or 49 years; so that the period of re- 
 stored Judaism to the time of Messiah the Prince, 
 was a ten-fold Jubilee, or 490 years. 
 
 It should be further noted that the two principal 
 of these periods, the 2520 years, and the 2300 years, 
 relate respectively the one to the THRONE, the 
 other to the SANCTUARY; the first embracing 
 the whole period of Gentile rule, from the conquest 
 of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar to the establishment 
 of the kingdom of Christ, the true son of David; 
 and the other extending from the time of the 
 Medo-Persian kingdom, to the final cleansing of the 
 Sanctuary, when Jerusalem ceases to be trodden 
 down of the Gentiles, the times of the Gentiles be- 
 ing fulfilled. The one is thus civil the other sacred 
 in character. 
 
 Harmonious and deeply significant mutual rela- 
 tions subsist therefore among these periods, and 
 between them and the legal and ceremonial times 
 established under the Mosaic economy. It remains 
 to show that they are connected also with other pe- 
 riods of Jewish history, and that though they are 
 not all soli-lunar cycles, they form a series of septi- 
 form soli-lunar periods, and that, of so marked and 
 accurate character, as to preclude all thought of 
 accidental coincidence, and to declare with unmis- 
 takable clearness the Creator's plan." 
 
 No wonder then that the number seven had a 
 sacred character in the estimation of the Jew r s, and 
 
 121 
 
no wonder it is spoken of as denoting perfection, 
 completeness, as used in Scripture, since the Great 
 Architect of the universe, when He constructed and 
 organized the solar system in which He has es- 
 tablished our habitation, made this number the 
 chief of numbers, the ruler or controller of our 
 astronomical cycles, and planned and measured off 
 the great eras in the history of the race to harmon- 
 ize with these cycles. No wonder, since in the or- 
 ganic world, or world of organic forms, He has es- 
 tablished this law of the septiform period to govern 
 their development and decay. 
 
 To the scientist and the thoughtful student of 
 nature, this ubiquitous law is ever revealing itself, 
 and in the science of pathology its presence and in- 
 fluence in the progress of disease is clearly recog- 
 nized, though no attempt, perhaps, is made to 
 understand it, or to trace its cause. In continued 
 fevers, for instance, the points of crisis are well 
 marked, and known as occurring at intervals of 
 seven or multiples of seven days, and, even in 
 health, the pulse beats faster in the morning for 
 six days in succession, and then slower on the 
 seventh. 
 
 The very first page of the Bible, — the Book of 
 God, — contains a suggestion or intimation of this 
 principle or law of "septiform periodicity" in the 
 record of creation. For six Great Days, — longer 
 than the prophetic days, — millenaries at least, this 
 planetary system of which our earth is a member, 
 and of which the sun is the center and ruler, was 
 
 122 
 
in process of evolution under the inspiration and 
 guiding hand of the Almighty. These six equal pe- 
 riods were followed by a seventh of equal duration, 
 during which, the creative work having been pre- 
 viously accomplished, God is said to have rested, — 
 rested from that particular work of creation. Not 
 only this, but for all time thereafter, He blessed 
 and hallowed this seventh period. 
 
 We know there are objections to the view that 
 the days of creation mentioned in Genesis are long 
 periods, and not days of 24 hours, and the objection 
 is made on two grounds: first, on the ground that 
 there is no Scripture warrant for such an interpre- 
 tation of the very plain words used in the record, 
 especially as the measure of the periods is indicated 
 to lie between "the evening and the morning" — that 
 is to say, after every creative act recorded in the 
 first chapter of Genesis it is distinctly stated that 
 "the evening and the morning" was such and such 
 a day." 
 
 The second objection is that if long periods are 
 to be allowed as the measure of those days, and if 
 evening or darkness succeeded the morning or 
 light in each of the periods, and was of the same 
 duration; if, in other words, one part of those long 
 periods was light and the following part darkness, 
 then, all the vegetable, animal, and other life w r hich 
 sprang into existence during the long day, must 
 necessarily have perished in the long night of dark- 
 ness which followed, and the work of creation have 
 been vain and useless. 
 
 123 
 
With the first objection, on general principles, 
 we are heartily in sympathy. We have abundantly 
 demonstrated in these pages our profound devo- 
 tion to the literal interpretation of Sacred Scrip- 
 ture, and our abhorrence of the system of Biblical 
 exegesis which profanely alters the plain and ob- 
 vious meaning of that Scripture, giving to its sim- 
 ple statements a tropical or figurative signification, 
 which it requires, in many cases, a violent effort to 
 extort from them, and all to bring them into adjust- 
 ment with a preconceived theory or dogma. But, 
 we notice that these same terms, "day" and "even- 
 ing and morning" are used in designating some of 
 the prophetic periods whose length, it has been 
 demonstrated, are certainly more than days of 24 
 hours. For example, the literal translation of Dan. 
 viii., 14, is "unto evening morning two thousand 
 three hundred," the word days is not mentioned, 
 and we are sure from the study of Prophecy that 
 those 2300 "evenings mornings" are not days or 
 periods of 24 hours, but years or periods of 360 
 literal days and nights. And, though we recognize 
 the essential difference between the prophetic or 
 symbolic Scripture and the historic, and admit that 
 a figurative signification or application is allow- 
 able only to the former, yet, may not the phrase 
 "evening and morning" in both of these cases sim- 
 ply mean from the dawn or beginning of the pe- 
 riods represented in either case by the term "day" 
 to its close? 
 
 124 
 
Such a view of the creative work of God, as it 
 relates to our planet and the entire system to which 
 it belongs, is certainly more in harmony with the 
 revelations of science, with the processes of nature 
 as we behold or have learned them, and with what 
 we know to be the orderly and leisurely methods of 
 the Almighty. 
 
 So far as the second objection is concerned, it 
 vanishes at once, if as in the reply to the first objec- 
 tion, we are allowed to explain or suggest that the 
 phrase "evening and morning" in the record of 
 creation, like the "evening and morning" in the 
 chronological prophecy, means, from the dawn of a 
 period to its close, and has no reference to the alter- 
 nations of light and darkness which characterize 
 the day and night. 
 
 During the six creative periods, the day and the 
 night very likely succeeded each other in regular or- 
 der during every 24 hours, just as they do now, — 
 indeed, according to the record, the first act of crea- 
 tive power exerted by the Almighty in the organi- 
 zation of our planetary system, w r as put forth in the 
 evolution of light, and its alternation with the 
 darkness, and this important creative act was suffi- 
 cient to occupy the entire period of the first great 
 day. 
 
 Assuming, therefore, these days to be millenar- 
 ies, and this opinion is not only an ancient one, but 
 has also the support of some of the best of recent 
 expositors, the seven great days formed together, 
 very likely, the first grand cycle of our system, and 
 
 125 
 
the last moment of time in the expiring cycle was 
 followed by the first moment of time in the new r 
 cycle which is now in progress. If the first grand 
 cycle consisted of seven millenaries, then seven 
 millenaries will, without doubt, complete the sec- 
 ond. We are fast approaching the close of the 
 sixth millenary in the second cycle. Will the 
 seventh in this grand cycle, corresponding to the 
 seventh of "rest" in the first one, be the long prom- 
 ised and long expected "Millennium?" From the ex- 
 haustive fulfillment of prophetic Scripture, and the 
 indications of prophetic chronology, as we have 
 seen, it looks very much as though it would, and, 
 as the Second Advent precedes the Millennium, as 
 we have shown, then indeed the "coming of the 
 Son of Man" must be nigh, — very nigh. 
 
 Whether the days of creation were millenaries, 
 or simple days of 24 hours each, the fact remains 
 that the stamp of the septiform law is upon them; 
 and, what is true in this respect of the first chapter 
 of the Book of God, is equally true of the first chap- 
 ter in the last Book of the Sacred Canon, for the 
 septiform law is strikingly apparent here also in 
 the "seven churches," the "seven stars," and the 
 "seven candle-sticks;" and indeed through the en- 
 tire book, in the "seven vials," the "seven seals," 
 &c, it is exceedingly conspicuous. 
 
 It w 7 ould be very interesting to pursue this line 
 of thought for several pages more, but this would 
 only tend to defeat one of the principal objects in 
 writing this volume, which is, to produce a book on 
 
 126 
 
the subject of the "second coming of Christ" whick 
 would at once be comprehensive enough to satisfy 
 the ordinary reader, and not exact from him more 
 than a few hours in its perusal. If the book should 
 exceed a hundred and fifty pages it would disap- 
 point the writer. 
 
 Interesting also as it would be to continue still 
 farther the study of Prophecy, and to examine the 
 remaining Prophecies of Daniel, especially the one 
 contained in the eighth chapter with its "ram which 
 had two horns," and the "he .goat" which con- 
 quered and succeeded it, which had a "notable horn 
 between its eyes;" of the "four horns" which sprang 
 from this horn, and of the "little horn" which 
 sprang out of one of those four horns; of the 2300 
 days, or "evenings-mornings" which mark the 
 duration of the power and triumph of this "little 
 horn," to which we have already referred, and 
 which we believe to represent the "Mohammedan 
 power." Intensely interesting also as it would be 
 to scan the more important parallel Prophecies of 
 the Apocalypse, which by inducing still further de- 
 tails, throw still greater light upon the question of 
 the "time of the Second Advent," and confirm the 
 testimony of the previous Prophecies with reference 
 to the proximity of that event and of the millen- 
 nial age, the purpose just referred to, to confine 
 the review of these subjects within the limits of 150 
 pages or thereabouts, and the further fact that this 
 volume is not a study of the Prophetic Scriptures, 
 will, we trust, be accepted as a sufficient apology 
 
 127 
 
for omitting to do so. Enough, we are sure, has 
 been here said on the subject of Prophecy, and 
 enough of light from the Prophecies examined has 
 been adduced to indicate very clearly that the 
 Lord's return is nigh. 
 
 The next thing in natural order now, is a study 
 or examination of the "signs" which Christ said 
 were to herald His return, and which He admon- 
 ished His disciples to note. The greatest possible 
 brevity consistent with the importance of this 
 phase of the subject will, for the reasons already 
 given, be observed in the treatment of it. 
 
 There is absolutely no more reason, and there- 
 fore no more justification for the treatment of these 
 "signs" as symbols or figures, than there is for do- 
 ing so with the Decalague or the Sermon on the 
 Mount, except the reason intimated in the open- 
 ing of this chapter, viz: the chronic and inveterate 
 scepticism of the human heart, which refuses to ac- 
 cept any statement literally, even though it falls 
 from -the lips of Christ or is inscribed on the record 
 of Sacred Scripture, which intimates or involves an 
 interference with the ordinary laws of the universe. 
 What then, if natural law is absolutely insuperable, 
 about the conception and birth of Christ Himself? 
 Where then shall the limit be fixed to this incon- 
 sistent scepticism which denies the infraction of one 
 of nature's laws, and admits the infraction of an- 
 other? Shall it be confined to the interference with 
 the motions and phenomena of the heavenly bodies 
 only, or must it be permitted a wider range? 
 
 128 
 
A very considerable class of Bible students, in- 
 cluding the "Adventist" bodies, as a whole, believe 
 that the major part of those "signs" have been al- 
 ready literally fulfilled. The "dark day" of May 
 19th, 1780, followed by the dark night, a descrip- 
 tion of which is appended in a note* (see note), is 
 regarded by them as the specific fulfillment of the 
 sign alluded to by Jesus (Math, xxiv., 29,) in the 
 words, "Immediately after the tribulation of those 
 days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall 
 not give her light," and the startling meteoric 
 shower of November 13, 1833, also described in the 
 appended note, is regarded as the specific fulfill- 
 ment of the further sign there alluded to, viz : "and 
 the stars shall fall from heaven." The "shaking of 
 the powers of the heavens," which is also another 
 sign mentioned in the chapter referred to, is sup- 
 posed by them to be having its fulfillment at the 
 present time in the phenomenal prevalence of cy- 
 clones or electric storms, and tornadoes. 
 
 * In "The Last Day Tokens," by S. S Brewer, published by the 
 "Scriptural Publication Society," Yarmouth, Maine, we find among 
 many others of equal interest the following description of the " Dark 
 Day," which was given by Dr. Adams on the 27th of May, 1780; eight 
 days after it occurred : — "We had a very extraordinary phenomenon 
 the 15th day of this month. In the morning it was rainy till about nine 
 o'clock, when the clouds broke away and the sun appeared, but very 
 red. After nine the clouds grew very thick, with the wind from the 
 southwest, appearing of a yellow hue. At eleven, the public school was 
 dismissed, it being so dark that no person could read or write. It 
 continued to grow darker till twelve, when it was so dark that we could 
 not tell one person from another in a room with three large windows in 
 it. In short it was midnight darkness at noonday. The fowls went to 
 roost, and there was a strong smell of smoke. It had been very dry for 
 a longtime, the wind having been at the east for four or five days, which 
 drove the smoke back to the westward. And when the wind shifted it 
 brought it all down in a body, which together with the dense clouds. 
 caused the darkness, which lasted to three o, clock p. m., before it began 
 to grow light. Thousands of people who could not account for it from 
 natural causes, were greatly terrified. And indeed it cast a gloom on 
 
 129 
 
There does not seem to us very much cogency 
 in this view, nor does it recommend itself to our 
 judgment. Not that very much importance is to be 
 attached to the objection which is so frequently 
 urged against it, viz : that "dark days" or phenome- 
 nal obscurations of the light of the sun and moon 
 have many times occurred, and that meteoric show- 
 ers are a very common natural phenomenon, gov- 
 erned by the ordinary laws of rotation, revolution, 
 and gravitation, which control the motion of heav- 
 enly bodies and cosmic matter generally, thus caus- 
 ing these meteors to recur in periods more or less 
 regular, and that cyclones and electric storms have 
 existed at all times, though the causes and the laws 
 which govern them are yet unknown. This is pos- 
 sibly very true, but it is also possibly true that 
 God, in the original arrangement of the universe or 
 in His control of it at all times has made provision 
 for an unusual and exceedingly striking exhibition 
 of these phenomena, to fulfill the sign at the time 
 
 earth. The frogs and night hawks began their notes. At four o'clock 
 the wind shifted to the northeast, which brought the clouds back, and at 
 sunset it was again very dark. At nine it was darkness to be felt by 
 more senses than one, as there was a strong smell of soot. Almost every 
 one who happened to be out in the evening got lost going home. The 
 darkness was as uncommon in the night, as it was in the day, as the 
 moon had fulled the day before." 
 
 From the same work we extract the following description of the 
 meteoric shower of Nov. 15th. 1833 ■ — The following observations upon 
 the falling stars of Nov. 15th, 1833, was furnished by Henry Dana Ward 
 for the New York Journal of Commerce, of which city he was at that 
 time a resident. " The Falling Stars —In your paper this morning some 
 notice is taken of the phenomenon of yesterday. It comes so far short 
 of the view taken of it by myself and a number of my friends who gazed 
 upon it with me, that I send you the story of that eventful scene as *e 
 witnessed it. 
 
 " One of the family arose at five o'clock a. m., to prepare for leaving 
 the city on the seven o'clock boat. He threw up the window to see 
 whether the dawn had come, and behold the east was lighted up, and 
 the heavens were apparently falling. He rubbed his eyes, first in doubt, 
 
 130 
 
appointed. When the members of this planetary 
 system were created, as recorded in the Book of 
 God, and the laws established which control their 
 motions, &c, it was declared by the "Great Archi- 
 tect" whose infinite mind designed the entire sys- 
 tem, "let them be for signs, and for seasons, and 
 for days and years. ,, 
 
 They need be none the less signs, or means of 
 measuring time, or causes of seasons, because God 
 has enabled us to study, and permitted us in some 
 measure to understand their operation and laws. 
 The rain-bow is known to be the effect of the re- 
 fraction of light, or of the sun's rays by vapor, but, 
 none the less, God decreed that it should be a per- 
 petual "sign" or token that He should never again 
 overwhelm the world, or destroy the race by a 
 flood. The bow may have existed before, or it may 
 not, for there are scientists who are persuaded that 
 the earth originally rotated on its axis on a plane 
 parallel to the plane of its orbit, and that at some 
 
 but seeing on every side the starry firmament as if-it were broken up, 
 and falling like theilakes of snow and whitening the skies, he aroused 
 the whole family. At the cry, ' look out of the window,' I sprang from a 
 deep sleep, and with wonder saw the east lighted up with the dawn and 
 METEORS. The zenith, the north, and the west, also showed the 
 falling stars in the very image of one thing, and of only one I ever heard 
 of. 1 called to my wife to behold ; and while robing, she exclaimed, * see 
 how the stars fall.' I replied, 'this is the wonder ;" and we felt in our 
 hearts that it was a sign of the last days. For truly, ' the stars of heaven 
 fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs when she 
 is shaken of a mighty wind' — Rev. vi, 13. This language of the prophet 
 has always been received as metaphorical. Yesterday it was literally 
 fulfilled. The ancients understood by aster in Greek and stella in Latin, 
 the smaller lights of heaven. The refinement of modern astronomy has 
 made the distinction between stars of heaven and meteors of heaven. 
 Therefore, the idea of the prophet, as it is expressed in the original 
 Greek, was literally fulfilled in the phenomenon of yesterday, so as no 
 man before yesterday had conceived to be possible that it should be 
 fulfilled. The immense size and distance of the planets and fixed stars 
 forbid the idea of their falling unto the earth. Larger bodies cannot fall 
 
 131 
 
time a catastrophe occurred which altered this, 
 causing it to rotate as it does now at an angle to the 
 plane of its orbit, whose average value is sixty-six 
 and one-third degrees. There is not a word said 
 about rain or the existence of rain, in the Bible, as 
 existing before the flood. When vegetable life was 
 created, according to the Scriptural account, the 
 moisture needed for its sustenance was supplied by 
 "a mist which went up from the earth and watered 
 the whole face of the ground" (Gen. ii., 3), and in 
 verse 5 it is distinctly affirmed that "God had not 
 caused it to rain upon the earth." By some it is 
 supposed that, when the catastrophe above referred 
 to occurred, "the waters that were above the firma- 
 ment" (at that time) and "which were divided (by 
 the firmament) from the waters that were below the 
 firmament," as described in Genesis, were precipi- 
 tated to the earth, causing the flood, and, by allow- 
 ing the sun's rays to come directly down upon the 
 earth instead of passing through the previously ex- 
 
 in myriads unto a smaller body ; but most of the planets and all the 
 fixed stars are many times larger than our earth. They cannot fall unto 
 the earth ; but these fell toward the earth. 
 
 "And how did they fall? Neither myself nor one of the family heard 
 any report; and were I to hunt through nature for a simile, I could not 
 find one so apt to illustrate the appearance of the heavens as that which 
 St. John uses in the prophecy before quoted. ' It rained fire,' says one ; 
 another — * It was like a shower of fire;' another— 'It was like the 
 large flakes of falling snow before a coming storm, or large drops ot rain 
 before a shower.' I admit the fitness of these for common accuracy ; but 
 they come far short of the accuracy of the figure used by the prophet. 
 'The stars of heaven fell unto the earth.' They were not sheets, or 
 flakes, or drops of fire ; but they were what the world understands by 
 ' falling stars ; ' and one speaking to his fellow in the midst of the scene 
 would say, 'See how the stars fall,' and he who heard would not pause to 
 correct the astronomy of the speaker, any more than he would reply, 
 ' the sun does not move,' to one who should tell him, ' the sun is rising. ' 
 The stars fell 'even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is 
 shaken of a mighty wind.' Here is the exactness of the prophet. The 
 falling stars did not come as if from several trees shaken, but from one. 
 
 132 
 
isting band of water, or dense vapor ("the water 
 that was above the firmament,") the whole meteor- 
 ological system of the earth was changed, and the 
 evaporation and condensation of water first began, 
 bringing with it the rain-bow, for the first time in 
 the history of the world. No one probably knows, 
 and it matters little whether the bow had ever ap- 
 peared before or not, God at this time made of it a 
 sign and token. Can He not use any of the natural 
 phenomena in the same way? And, by intensifying 
 any such phenomenon on a special occasion, and 
 thus rendering it striking, make of it a sign and 
 portent of approaching events previously an- 
 nounced, and of the coming or approach of which 
 He has declared that that shall be the sign? Is it 
 necessary, to fulfill or produce the sign, and satisfy 
 the captious and unreasonable objector, that God 
 should obscure the sun and moon by other than 
 natural causes, and hurl the planets or the stars 
 from their spheres? 
 
 Those which appeared in the east fell toward the east; those which 
 appeared in the north fell toward the north ; those which appeared in the 
 west fell toward the west ; and those which appeared in the south (for I 
 went out of my residence into the park) fell toward the south. And they 
 fell, not as the ripe fruit falls ; far from it ; but they flew ; they were cast 
 like the unripe fruit, which at first refuses to leave the branch, and when 
 under a violent pressure it does break its hold, it flies swiftly, straight 
 off, descending ; and in the multitude falling, some cross the track of 
 others, as they are thrown with more or less force, but each one falls on 
 its own side of the tree. Such was the appearance of the phenomenon to 
 the inmates of my house. I walked into the park with two gentlemen of 
 Pearl street, feeling and confessing that this scene had never been 
 figured to our minds by any book or mortal, save only the prophet. 
 What would be the next we were at a loss to conceive, consistent with 
 the usual course of events. We asked the watchman how long this had 
 been ; he said, ' about four o'clock it was the thickest.' 
 
 ** We gazed until the rising of the sun put out the 1 esse r falling stars 
 with the \zsser fixed stars, and until the morning star stood alone in the 
 east to introduce the bright orb of day. And here take the remark of 
 one of my friends in mercantile life, who is as well informed in polite 
 
 133 
 
Our objection to the view that the phenomena 
 alluded to, and described in the note, was the ful- 
 fillment of any of the signs, rests on entirely differ- 
 ent grounds. Our objection is, first, that they do 
 not seem to furnish an adequate fulfillment of the 
 prediction, and secondly, because there is too great 
 a lapse of time, or too great an interval between 
 the several phenomena. The "dark day" or ob- 
 scuration of the sun and moon was limited to, and 
 visible over, a comparatively small fraction of the 
 earth, and the same is true of the meteoric shower 
 referred to. Neither were general enough, in our 
 opinion, to worthily fulfill the sign. It is our belief 
 that the signs have not yet appeared; that when 
 they do, they will affect the earth more generally, 
 or will be more universally observed and felt, and 
 that these signs will come either simultaneously or 
 in quick succession, and be startling in the extreme. 
 
 There are, of course, other signs given in the 
 Bible as marking the "last days" or closing period 
 
 learning as most intelligent merchants of our city who have not made 
 science their study. Sitting down to breakfast we spoke of the scene, 
 and he said. ' I kept my eye fixed on the morning star. I thought while 
 that stood firm we were safe ; but I feared every moment that would go, 
 and all would go with it.' Be assured, Messrs. Editors, this was the 
 language of nature in full flow of feeling, just after an hour's watch of 
 the magnificent scene, and was met with an open response of approbation 
 from other intelligent eye-witnesses. The reader will see that this 
 remark proceeded from an almost irresistible impression of intelligent 
 eye-witnesses that the firmament had given away — that the whole host 
 of stars had broken up — yet hope clung to the morning star, which 
 never shone more glorious. 
 
 " In this narrative I have spoken not of causes, but of appearances, 
 and the appearances according to the impressions they made on men. 
 I know not how to convey a more accurate notion of them, and yet some 
 will say ' it is fanciful.' Such may know my opinion, that no fancy is 
 adequate to realize with any description the solemn interest of the scene ; 
 and that it required no fancy to heighten the picture, but a sound, well 
 informed, and enlightened reason, to check the fancy, and to restrain it 
 from running headlong into the idea of the thing which this scene is 
 
 134 
 
of the present dispensation. These latter signs are 
 to be exhibited in the social and political world. 
 They are intimated in such passages as Math. 24:37, 
 38, 39; Mark 17:23 to 28; Luke 21 125, 26; 2d Peter 
 3: 3 and 4; and a particularly detailed description 
 of human society in these "perilous times" of the 
 4 last days" is furnished by St. Paul in his second 
 letter to Timothy, third chapter. 
 
 As it is purposed to close this volume with a 
 chapter on "The Millennium, and the Future Life," 
 no space, within the limits set, can be taken for a 
 study of these signs. Let it suffice here to say that, 
 in spite of the boasted progress of our age, — and 
 the progress of the age has indeed been marvellous 
 along many lines, including science, invention, lit- 
 erature, art; in the more general diffusion of knowl- 
 edge, and in the intelligence of the masses, — not- 
 withstanding this progress, we say, and the potent 
 influence which it ought to have exerted in the di- 
 rection of purifying the social fabric, and ameliorat- 
 ing political conditions, no candid and reflecting 
 person can examine closely and calmly into these 
 two departments of modern human life, without ex- 
 
 made in prophecy to prognosticate. Men will say ' where is the promise 
 of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as 
 they were from the beginning of the creation.' — 2 Peter iii, 4. ' But the 
 day of the Lord will come.' and although with him a thousand years are 
 as one day. and one day as a thousand years, it is wise to learn from the 
 teachings of his providence as well as of his word. No philosopher or 
 scholar has told or recorded an event (I suppose) like that of yesterday 
 morning. A prophet of 1800 years ago foretold it exactly, if we will be at 
 the trouble of understanding stars falling to mean falling stars ; or 4 hoi 
 asteres tou ouranou epesan teen geen.' in the only sense in which it is 
 possible to be literally true. Would I stop all business? No. 'Be 
 deligent in business? is the apostle's word, and that must stand." 
 
 135 
 
periencing a sense of disquietude and distrust, if not 
 of decided apprehension. 
 
 With crime appallingly on the increase, the 
 moral sense in an atonic state, where it is not com- 
 pletely atrophied; wealth, and with it power, being 
 rapidly centralized in the hands of a few, at least in 
 this country; the growth of monopolies and trusts, 
 and the apparent powerlessness of the government 
 to eradicate or suppress them; the sharply defined 
 antagonism of the classes, and the sullen murmur 
 of discontent which comes grumbling up from the 
 lower social plane, — all these things mark an ex- 
 tremely critical period, and suggest the presence, 
 or the near approach of the "perilous times" of the 
 "last days." 
 
 As against these conspicuous facts, the popular 
 optimism of the present day is the wildest kind of 
 delusion, and is perhaps the prophesied cry of 
 "peace and safety" before the impending storm of 
 the "day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous 
 judgment of God." 
 
 136 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE MILLENNIUM AND THE FUTURE 
 LIFE. 
 
 Popular idea of the future life fanciful and erron- 
 eous — Examination and analysis of one or two 
 sample passages of Scripture upon which, as 
 they appear in the common version, the popular 
 belief has its foundation or is supposed to have 
 support — What the Scriptures have to say of 
 the future life — Old earth to be the theater of its 
 manifestation — To be inauguarted by the res- 
 urrection of the "dead in Christ," and the es- 
 tablishment of the millennial kingdom — Re- 
 moval of the curse — Political features, &c, of 
 the millennial period — Future life manifested 
 through a material organism — Answer to the 
 question, "Shall we know each other in the 
 future life?" 
 
 The subject which has been so imperfectly dis- 
 cussed in the preceding chapters very naturally sug- 
 gests, if it does not actually demand, in order to its 
 completeness, at least a brief consideration of the 
 subject of the Millennium and the Future Life. 
 The Millennium and the Future Life, so far as the 
 righteous are concerned, are identical. They do 
 
 137 
 
not present to our thought two distinct subjects, 
 but one only, for the Millennium is ushered in by 
 the resurrection, or restoration to life of the "dead 
 in Christ, ,, or the righteous dead, and constitutes 
 the initial epoch in that "eternal life" which is the 
 reward of the righteous, and their exclusive inher- 
 itance, the bestowal of which was the unique pur- 
 pose and object of the redemptory work and sacri- 
 ficial death of Christ, and which shall continue in 
 endless evolution or unfolding throughout the 
 everlasting ages. "I am come/' says Christ, "that 
 they may have life, and that they may have it more 
 abundantly," — abundantly as to to duration, as well 
 as to power and scope. 
 
 But, what a stupendous theme is this. How the 
 human mind is awed in its contemplation, and made 
 conscious of its weakness and of the limitation of its 
 powers. And yet, how fascinating and attractive is 
 the theme. How it scintillates and sparkles and 
 glows before the eye of the imagination. No won- 
 der the pencils which have attempted to picture the 
 "future life" have frequently been dipped in the 
 colors of fancy, and that the resultant picture has 
 been, therefore, not a verisimilitude, but a mere 
 dream, which eludes both the senses and the rea- 
 son, and has no substantial basis, neither in science 
 nor in Scripture. Indeed, the future life of the 
 popular thought is a future life only in the sense of 
 being a sequel to, or continuation of the present life, 
 under changed conditions, and not at all future in 
 the sense of being due for the entire race at some 
 
 138 
 
definite time yet to come. On the contrary, the 
 future life, as popularly understood, is a life in 
 progress now, and which has been in progress for 
 many ages, ever since the "blood of righteous 
 Abel" was spilt by the cruel hand of Cain, hard by 
 the gates of Eden, and thus Abel, passing through 
 the grim portals of death, entered solitarily and 
 alone into the "mysteries" of the future life. 
 Where? No one knows definitely. The only at- 
 tempt at its localization being expressed in the very 
 vague term "Heaven." How? No one knows that, 
 either, except as it may be gathered from the not 
 less vague and unintelligible phrase used to express 
 the popular conception of it, viz: "In the disem- 
 bodied state." ' 
 
 There is no language emphatic enough in which 
 to repudidate this mongrel and monstrous product 
 of heathen philosophy on the one hand, and on the 
 other, of the lying fabrications of the so-called 
 Christian Church during a corrupt, ignorant, and 
 superstitious period of her history, — a product 
 which has its roots in the fiction of human immor- 
 tality, that same old, persistent, traditional lie, first 
 uttered by the "serpent" in Eden, "thou shalt not 
 surely die." 
 
 Nowhere in the Scriptures is man said to be im- 
 mortal, and neither is there a single suggestion or 
 intimation of his going to Heaven when he dies, 
 nor at any time thereafter. On the contrary, there 
 are at least two very emphatic statements in the 
 Bible, one by Christ, the other by Peter, which deny 
 
 139 
 
this theory. The former is recorded in John's gos- 
 pel (Chap, iii., 13), and occurs in the conversation 
 between Christ and Nicodemus, and is this, "No 
 man has ascended up to Heaven." For four thou- 
 sand years at least, before this utterance of the Sa- 
 vior, the saints of God had been falling, generation 
 of them after generation, under the stroke of death, 
 and if the theory of the immediate ascent of the 
 saints to Heaven, at death, be true, what shall be 
 done with this strong and clear statement of the 
 great teacher and the founder of our faith? If, on 
 the other hand, this statement of Christ be true, 
 what then becomes of the popular notion of the as- 
 cent to Heaven of the saints at death? 
 
 The other Scriptural denial of this theory is 
 recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, Chap, ii., 29 
 to 34 inclusive, and forms a part of Peter's pente- 
 costal sermon. Referring to the prophetic psalm 
 of David (Ps. xvi., 8, 9, 10,) he applies it to Christ, 
 and in his argument for this application of it he 
 says, "men and brethren, let me freely speak unto 
 you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and 
 buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day; 
 * * * (verse 34) "for David is not ascended into 
 the heavens." Peter's argument, therefore, is not 
 only conclusive as to the application of this pro- 
 phetic psalm to Christ, but also conclusive as 
 against the popular doctrine or notion of the as- 
 cent of men to Heaven at death, for if David, the 
 "man after God's heart" was not in Heaven at the 
 time of this sermon, — over a thousand years after 
 
 140 
 
his death, — who of all the saints were, and who of all 
 the saints shall ever be. 
 
 It is true there are a few passages of Scripture, 
 as rendered in our common English version w r hich, 
 given the theory of the immortality of the soul, and 
 of its ascent to Heaven at death, seem to harmonize 
 with the theory, and, even perhaps to intimate it, 
 but every one of those passages might, with much 
 less distortion of the original, and with absolute 
 harmony as to the general teaching of Scripture on 
 these subjects, be translated differently. 
 
 Tinkering with, and manipulating Scriptures, 
 with the object of forcing it into adjustment with 
 private theories, or theories of any kind, can not 
 be any more abhorrent to the reader than it is to 
 the writer, as these pages amply attest, but, it must 
 be admitted that where, in our English version, a 
 passage of Scripture is so translated from the orig- 
 inal, as to bring it into conflict with other portions, 
 and with the general teaching of Scripture on any 
 given subject, and which might, at the same time, 
 be translated with equal or even greater propriety, 
 and without any violence whatever to the original, 
 so that it would not conflict with other portions, 
 nor contradict its general teaching on any given 
 subject, then, every consideration of reason, con- 
 sistency, and truth demand that the latter transla- 
 tion be substituted for the former. 
 
 It would be wandering too far, alike from our 
 subject and our purpose, to examine all of those 
 passages of Scripture, or even to examine very ex- 
 
 141 
 
haustively any one of them, but it might be due to 
 the reader to refer to, and examine one or two of 
 them by way of illustration. 
 
 The most obvious one is the Savior's reply, on 
 the cross to the penitent thief, recorded in Luke's 
 gospel (Chap, xxiii., 43), viz: "And Jesus said 
 unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou 
 be with Me in Paradise." Before considering the 
 question of the translation of this passage or its 
 grammatical structure, it will be best to bring to 
 the attention of the reader one or two important 
 facts in connection with it. 
 
 The first and most important fact to be noted 
 is that the Savior was not in Heaven at any time 
 during the day of the conversation with the peni- 
 tent thief, as we shall show. He was dead and his 
 body delivered to Joseph of Arimathea on the "day 
 of the preparation" which was "the day before the 
 Sabbath" (as explained by Mark). The conversa- 
 tion alluded to must therefore have occurred that 
 day at the latest, viz: Friday. On the following 
 Sunday, the day after the Sabbath, at dawn or 
 thereabouts, He appeared to Mary in the garden 
 where the tomb in which He was placed after death 
 was located, and, on a movement from Mary, prob- 
 ably to fall at His feet and embrace Him, at the 
 moment of His revealing Himself to her, He ob- 
 jected, saying, "touch Me not, for I have not yet 
 ascended to my father" Here then are the words 
 of Christ, Himself, given at least the second day 
 after His conversation with the penitent thief, at- 
 
 142 
 
testing the fact that He had not ascended to 
 Heaven yet. If, therefore, the English translation 
 of Christ's reply to the thief is correct, promising 
 the thief to be with Him in Paradise that very day 
 of the conversation, then it follows, in view of the 
 above recorded fact, that His promise failed. They 
 were not in Heaven together that day. As a mat- 
 ter of fact, recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, by 
 the most particular and lucid of all New Testament 
 writers, Christ did not ascend to Heaven for forty 
 days after His resurrection (Acts i., 3). 
 
 Of course, to this it will be replied by those who 
 hold opposite views on the questions which we have 
 been discussing, that, when Jesus told the thief that 
 He would that day be with him in Paradise, he 
 meant this of His "soul," and not of His body; 
 that His body did not ascend, it is true, for 40 
 days after His resurrection, but His "soul" as- 
 cended immediately at death, and returned again to 
 re-inhabit His body at the resurrection, on the 
 third day thereafter. But the second chapter of 
 this volume more than meets this objection, and 
 if anything further is wanted, the objector is refer- 
 red to Psalm xvi, 10 (the psalm which we have just 
 seen, was applied by Peter to Christ), where he will 
 read, "For thou wilt not leave my soul in hades 
 (the grave), neither w T ilt thou suffer thine Holy One 
 to see corruption." Evidently his soul accom- 
 panied his body to the grave, and lay there en- 
 tombed, since it is prophetically affirmed in this 
 passage that it should not be "left there," and that 
 
 143 
 
the "Holy One" — his complete and entire human- 
 ity — should not be suffered to "see corruption" by 
 being thus "left in hades" or the grave. The next 
 fact in this connection to which attention must be 
 called is that nowhere — neither in the thief's re- 
 quest nor in the Savior's reply — is anything said 
 about Heaven. The request is, "Remember me 
 when thou comest into (in) thy kingdom." The 
 reply is "Thou shalt be with me in Paradise." Un- 
 less, therefore, it can be demonstrated that Heaven 
 and Paradise are one and the same place, or that 
 Paradise is in Heaven, there is no warrant for using 
 this Scripture as a proof that men go to Heaven 
 when they die. There is ground, however, for in- 
 sisting that Christ's Kingdom and Paradise are the 
 same place, or that, at least, Paradise is located in 
 and forms a part of that Kingdom, because other- 
 wise there would be no congruity between the 
 thief's request and the Savior's reply. The request 
 is, "Lord, remember me when thou comest in thy 
 Kingdom" The reply is, "Thou shalt be with me 
 in Paradise" 
 
 By this brief exposition of plain and incontro- 
 vertible facts the prejudices of the reader, if he 
 have any, in favor of the present rendering of this 
 passage in the E. V. will be, if not dissolved, at 
 least sufficiently disturbed to render him willing 
 to consider w T hat will now be said on the question 
 of the grammatical structure and translation of the 
 passage. 
 
 144 
 
Observe that the passage promises the pres- 
 ence of Christ together with the thief in Paradise 
 on the day of the conversation, only by having the 
 comma (,) placed after the word thee instead of 
 after to day thus, "Verily I say unto thee, to day 
 thou shalt be with me in Paradise. ,, If the comma 
 were placed where it evidently and properly be- 
 longs, viz: after to day, no such promise would 
 appear, but in its stead a simple assurance or prom- 
 ise to the thief of his admission to Paradise with 
 Christ at Christ's coming and Kingdom. We say 
 at the coming and Kingdom of Christ because in 
 examining the reply of the Savior, it must not be 
 severed from the request which it answers, "Lord, 
 remember me when thou comest in thy Kingdom" 
 "Verily I say unto thee this day, thou shalt be with 
 Me in Paradise, or in the paradise. The transposi- 
 tion of the words "thou shalt" to "shalt thou" in 
 the E. V. is purely arbitrary. 
 
 The Syriac-Peshito New Testament, which is 
 by some, if not by most scholars considered to be 
 the oldest witness to the apostolic text, renders 
 this passage practically as we have given it above. 
 It reads: "Verily I say to thee to day, with Me 
 thou shalt be in the Eden's garden." 
 
 Now, as to the matter of punctuation, the reader 
 must understand that there are no punctuation 
 marks in the original MSS. The system of punc- 
 tuation did not come into use till the fifteenth cen- 
 tury. The sense, therefore, of the passage can not 
 be settled by that means. If it could be positively 
 
 145 
 
determined whether the Greek adverb semeron 
 (to day or this day) qualified the verb which pre- 
 cedes it or the one which follows it, the question 
 would at once be effectively settled, but in the 
 Scriptures this adverb is used sometimes to qualify 
 the one and sometimes the other. It is used to 
 qualify the verb which precedes it, however, 170 
 times, as against 51 times in which it is used to 
 qualify the verb which follows it. One or two ex- 
 amples must suffice here: Deut. xxx, 16, "I com- 
 mand thee this day, to love, etc." Deut. viii, 19, "I 
 testify against you this day, that ye shall surely 
 perish." 
 
 If, therefore, the adverb semeron (this day), 
 in the reply of Christ to the thief, were allowed 
 to qualify the verb which precedes it, as in the large 
 majority of cases, the passage would then become 
 harmonious with the general teaching of Scripture, 
 and with the facts which have been noted concern- 
 ing the whereabouts of Christ immediately after 
 his crucifixion. As it now stands in the E. V. it is 
 in conflict with both. Properly rendered, therefore, 
 the passage ought to read thus, "Verily I say unto 
 thee this day, thou shalt be with Me in the Para- 
 dise." 
 
 One more passage of Scripture may be exam- 
 ined briefly — one more utterance of the Great 
 Teacher which is supposed to yield support to the 
 doctrine of human immortality, or, at least, the 
 persistence of human life after the dissolution of the 
 body, and by implication, of the migration of the 
 
 146 
 
soul to Heaven at death. It is found in the con- 
 versation carried on between Jesus and Martha as 
 they walked together from the home to the tomb of 
 Lazarus, on the occasion of the resurrection of the 
 latter by our Lord. The words are these: "I am 
 the resurrection and the life; he that believeth on 
 Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and 
 he that liveth and believeth on Me shall never die." 
 These are the words of Jesus in rejoinder to the 
 statement of Martha, "I know that he shall rise 
 again (that is, Lazarus) in the resurrection at the 
 last day." Now, of course, there is nothing here 
 said about the migration of the soul to heaven or 
 elsewhere. The question as to what becomes of 
 man at death is not even hinted at, but there does 
 seem to be a very positive and emphatic statement 
 made by the Savior that, so far as a certain class of 
 persons are concerned, viz: believers, they never 
 die. If, therefore, they never die, then, when the 
 dissolution of the body takes place, they are not 
 dead, and something w r hich is not the body, and 
 which must be the essential part of them — the soul, 
 in short, according to the popular belief — living, 
 conscious and intelligent, must necessarily be some- 
 where, or go somewhere, and the popular belief, 
 again, sends it to Heaven. Let us examine this say- 
 ing of Christ, and see how far it supports such a 
 view. To do this it will be necessary to go back 
 of the English version to the Greek original. 
 
 The words which in our E. V. are translated 
 "shall never die" are "w aitoftavrj ens tov 
 
 147 
 
aiu)/j.a" literally, "not not may die into the age" or 
 freely translated, "shall not die eternally," or "shall 
 not die forever" Eis ton aionos (into the age) is 
 almost everywhere in the New Testament trans- 
 lated "forever" and so it should be here. The 
 French Bible by J. F. Ostervald, published at 
 Brussels (1863) by the "depot de la Societe Biblique 
 et Etranglre" (British and Foreign Bible So.) 
 translates it exactly right, thus, "Je suis la reurrec- 
 tion et la vie. Celui qui croit en moi vivera, quand 
 meme il serait mort, et quiconque vie et croit en 
 moi, ne mourra point pour tousjours;" that is, 
 "shall not die for always." To have translated it 
 as in the E. V., "shall never die," would have made 
 it read il ne mourra point jamais" It will at once 
 be seen that there is a wide difference between 
 these two translations. The former practically af- 
 firms the persistence of the life of the believer after 
 the dissolution of the body. The latter recognizes 
 the death — the actual and effectual death of the be- 
 liever, but denies that it shall be forever. The latter 
 translation is not only the only one consistent with 
 the general teaching of Scripture, but is the only 
 one coherent with itself. They were talking of the 
 resurrection,-Jesus andMartha were, on this occas- 
 ion,-and Jesus calls Martha's attention to the fact 
 that in Him was vested the resurrection power, and 
 the future life of the believer. "I am the resurrection 
 and the life," and because He is, or because the 
 power resides in Him to reorganize and to revivify 
 the sleeping believer, the latter shall not perma- 
 
 148 
 
neatly die, or die for ever for Christ shall raise 
 him up again at the last day. "This," says Jesus, "is 
 the father's will that hath sent Me, that of all which 
 He has given me, I should lose nothing, but should 
 raise it up again at the last day," or, as in the next 
 verse, "that he that believeth on the Son may have 
 everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last 
 day." (John vi, 39, 40.) Why this constant and 
 almost unfailing association in the Scriptures, of 
 the resurrection with the future life, if the future life 
 is independent of the resurrection? 
 
 Of course, with a little verbal juggling, even the 
 translation which is here suggested as the correct 
 one, and even in the English language, may be 
 made to mean that the believer shall never die, 
 for, when it is said that he "shall not die forever J 
 it may be insisted that that means 'forever he shall 
 not die," which is equivalent to he shall never 
 die. But what candid reader would ever take that 
 meaning out of the sentence? 
 
 Enough, however, has been said on this point. 
 There remains simply to say that all other similar 
 -Scriptures which are used to support the theory 
 of human immortality, the persistence of life after 
 the dissolution of the body, or the migration of the 
 soul to Heaven, at or after death afford, when crit- 
 ically examined, no support whatever, but, on the 
 contrary, frequently afford efficient support to the 
 opposite view. 
 
 What, then, of the future life? What do the 
 Scriptures reveal concerning the time of its in- 
 
 149 
 
auguration? What have they to say as to where 
 it shall be enjoyed, or what place in the universe is 
 to be the theater of human experience, of human 
 activity and achievement in the future life? What 
 of the glories of the new abode, the new nature, 
 and the new experiences of the redeemed? Are 
 the Scriptures silent on these transcendently inter- 
 esting themes? In this w r orld of woe and sorrow 
 and pain has God left so meager a revelation with 
 regard to the future life that there is scarcely 
 enough to stimulate courage or inspire hope in the 
 human breast, and absolutely nothing as to where 
 and what shall be our future home? No indeed. 
 The revelations of Scripture on these points are 
 copious and clear, and the believer who takes God 
 at his word, who "staggers not at the promises of 
 God through unbelief," but, being "strong in faith, 
 giveth glory to God, being fully persuaded that 
 what He has promised He is able also to perform/' 
 who has no fond theory to sustain or promote, and 
 who does not bow at the shrine of the arrogant and 
 despotic philosophies and opinions of a world "wise 
 in its own conceit," finds no obscurity in the state- 
 ments of Scripture on these points, and no difficulty 
 in accepting them. 
 
 But the "veil of unbelief" is on the hearts of all 
 others, and they can not see. They either ignore 
 the revelations altogether, or regard them as mere 
 poetry or figures of speech, or, what is worse, deny 
 the authenticity and reliability of the record. 
 
 150 
 
The Apostle Paul in his first letter to the Corin- 
 thians (Chap, ii, 9), quoting Isaiah, says: "For it 
 is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither 
 have entered into the heart of man, the things 
 which God hath prepared for them that love Him, 
 hut God hath revealed them to us by His Spirit, for 
 the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things 
 of God." That is to say, the eye, the ear, and the 
 heart of the unregenerated (the natural man, as the 
 apostle in the fourteenth verse explains) is per- 
 versely closed to the revelations which God, by his 
 Holy Spirit, has made and recorded in his word 
 concerning the "things which He has prepared for 
 the enjoyment, in the future life, of those ivho love 
 him" but to us — to the regenerated believer, the 
 revelation is open and intelligible. "The natural 
 man," he explains, "receiveth not the things of the 
 Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; 
 neither can he know them, because they are spirit- 
 ually discerned, but we have received, not the spirit 
 of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that 
 we might know the things (of the future life about 
 which he was talking) which are freely given (in his 
 word) to us of God. 
 
 These words of the apostle accord with what has 
 been said above, although they are commonly quot- 
 ed, misquoted, or, rather, half-quoted, so as to teach 
 the notion that u the things" which pertain to the 
 future life are not only unrevealed, but that they 
 are utterly beyond the ken and comprehension of 
 mortal man — that he has no eye to see, no ear to 
 
 151 
 
hear, and no mind to conceive or understand the 
 "ineffable mysteries" of the future life. 
 
 So far as the unbeliever is concerned, this is es- 
 sentially true. It is not simply difficult, but impos- 
 sible, for him to receive these things, because it is 
 purely a matter of faith in the plain statements of 
 God, and he has no faith. If you should be curious 
 enough at any time to test this, and at the same 
 time test the prevalence of unbelief, and the over- 
 whelming predominance of the unbeliever over the 
 believer, just hint seriously at the subject of the 
 return of Christ, or the resurrection of the right- 
 eous dead, to reinhabit the earth, or the reign of 
 Christ and the risen saints upon the earth during 
 the millennial period, etc., etc. — just hint seriously, 
 we say, at these subjects to your friends and neigh- 
 bors, or in any social group which may be gathered 
 anywhere, and suggest these events as the only and 
 fast approaching remedy, designed by God for the 
 social and political evils of the world, and then 
 notice the curl of scorn upon the lips of your aud- 
 itors, the look of mingled pity and contempt for 
 you in their eyes, and the general embarrassment 
 and malaise of the group. If you were a child, 
 they would listen complacently to your reference 
 to those things, as they would to a nursery rhyme 
 or a childish fable you might repeat, but as you are 
 a person of mature years and mind, your allusion to 
 them only inspires disgust. 
 
 How could it do otherwise? Do not these no- 
 tions, as viewed by them, bear upon their face the 
 
 152 
 
stamp of the crude, infantile age in which they were 
 conceived? Are they not in ridiculous inharmony 
 or conflict with the great modern scientific theory 
 which affirms that all the changes and modifica- 
 tions which occur in the world, whether physical, 
 social, political, intellectual, moral, etc., etc., are 
 the effects of a principle of evolution which is uni- 
 versally operative, conducting all things to ultimate 
 perfection? Are they not in conflict with the theory 
 of the universal domination of law? Finally, have 
 they not been discarded long long ago by the great 
 world at large, and especially by the great men of 
 the world — the men of eminence and distinction in 
 the domain of philosophy, science and literature? 
 How, then, can you expect any one who respects 
 his reputation for intelligence to believe them? 
 
 When the haughty leaders of Jewish society 
 sent officers, on one occasion, to arrest Jesus, the 
 officers returned without him. "Why have ye not 
 brought him?" they demanded. "Never man spake 
 as this man," exclaimed the officers in reply. Now 
 listen — listen to the rejoinder of these superb aris- 
 tocrats, who reckoned themselves the exclusive 
 depositaries of truth and the very source of wisdom. 
 "Are ye also deceived; have any of the rulers or of 
 the pharisees believed on him? And, if not, how 
 could any one then have the temerity to believe on 
 him? Nevertheless, the Sacred Scriptures, whose 
 authenticity and divine inspiration are attested by 
 abundant and satisfactory evidence, internal and 
 external, and especially by the exact fulfillment of 
 
 153 
 
specific Prophecy — the Scriptures, we say, declare 
 these things in the plainest and most unmistakable 
 terms. They declare that Christ shall come again 
 to earth; that the righteous dead, or dead in Christ, 
 shall rise from among the dead at that time; that 
 all merely human governments shall be extin- 
 guished from the earth, and be replaced by a the- 
 ocracy with Christ at its head as King of Kings and 
 Lord of Lords, and the risen apostles and saints 
 as its ministers and officers — a government whose 
 every principle and law, and whose entire admin- 
 istration will be founded and conducted in abso- 
 lute righteousness and truth. They declare that the 
 "curse" will be removed from the earth. "Cursed 
 is the earth for thy sake," said the Lord to Adam, 
 in that evil day of man's first sin; "in sorrow shalt 
 thou eat of it all the days of thy life; * * * thorns 
 also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, * * * 
 and in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, 
 etc." But, in the "regeneration ,, which is fast ap- 
 proaching "there shall be no more curse. " "In- 
 stead of the thorn will come up the fir tree, and in- 
 stead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree," 
 "the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad, 
 and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the 
 rose." "Zion's wilderness shall be like Eden, and 
 her desert like the garden of the Lord." The crea- 
 tion is to be "delivered from the bondage of cor- 
 ruption" under which it has for millenniums been 
 "groaning and travailing in pain." There is to be 
 a "restitution of all things." In short, there is to be 
 
 15^ 
 
a restoration of the earth to the primal order of 
 creation from which it has lapsed. 
 
 Do you ask how this can be done, seeing it in- 
 volves, apparently, a sudden disturbance of the 
 existing order of things in the natural world— a 
 complete change in the laws which have been oper- 
 ating in nature for vast cycles, if not forever? The 
 answer is not difficult. It will be done by the power 
 of God, "according to the working whereby he is 
 able to subdue all things unto Himself." With man 
 many things are impossible, and many things seem 
 to him absolutely impossible, but "with God all 
 things are possible." It is not only idle and use- 
 less, but unphilosophical as well, for the finite 
 "creature" to attempt to limit the power of the 
 Almighty, or to measure the infinite capacities of 
 his mind and will. 
 
 Old Earth, then, w T hich has been the home of 
 mankind from the first, shall "in the regeneration" 
 continue to be his home, and will be the theater of 
 the future life. "Heaven, even the heavens, are the 
 Lord's, but the earth hath he given to the children 
 of men." "The meek shall inherit the earth, and 
 shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace," 
 "for evil doers shall be cut off, but they that wait 
 upon (for) the Lord, they shall inherit the earth" 
 "The righteous shall inherit the land, and shall 
 dwell therein forever." 
 
 - Broadly stated, the political features of the mil- 
 lennial period will be these: "The Lord shall be 
 King over all the earth." (Zech. xiv, 9.) The Apos- 
 
 155 
 
ties will be his coadjutors, "sitting upon twelve 
 thrones, judging (that is, ruling) the twelve tribes 
 of Israel. " The risen saints will also participate in 
 the administration of government, especial prom- 
 inence being given to the martyrs — to those "who 
 were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and of the 
 word of God." The principles of government and 
 the principles which shall dominate and control in 
 social life, will be those enunciated by Christ at his 
 first advent, and recorded in very large outline in 
 the gospels — principles founded in eternal justice, 
 truth and righteousness; utterly impracticable in 
 the present perverted moral state of society and of 
 mankind, as any one can see, but easily and natural- 
 ly practicable under the Messianic kingdom, for 
 which evidently they were intended, for then, "Be- 
 hold! a king shall reign in righteousness, and 
 princes shall rule in judgment (justice)," and Satan, 
 the present "prince of this world," the "spirit that 
 now worketh in the children of disobedience," will 
 be "bound for a thousand years." 
 
 During the millennial age, therefore, righteous- 
 ness shall predominate on the earth. The right- 
 eous and beneficent reign of Christ, his coadjutors, 
 ministers and officers, from among the risen and 
 immortalized saints; the irresistible power of this 
 government; the presence, example and moral in- 
 fluence generally, in society, of the reorganized and 
 perfected saints; the important fact of the absence 
 of satanic influence during this period — all these 
 features of the Millennium will give prevalence to 
 
 156 
 
righteousness on the earth. The terrific judgments, 
 also, which shall be visited upon the inhabitants of 
 the earth at, or immediately following, the return 
 of Christ, will have a potent influence in promoting 
 righteousness during the millennial age; first, by 
 sweeping from the surface of the globe, in over- 
 whelming destruction, vast multitudes of its un- 
 righteous and wicked population, and, in the sec- 
 ond place, by the wholesome and restraining fear 
 which they will infuse into the hearts of those who 
 escape, when they will be thus furnished with the 
 startling proof of the fact which they had long ig- 
 nored or denied, viz: that there is, indeed, a God, 
 and that "the Lord Most High is terrible; he is a 
 great King over all the earth" — a fear whose influ- 
 ence will be projected into and throughout all the 
 centuries of the Millennium. But it must not be 
 overlooked that the millions of unregenerated men 
 and women who shall survive these judgments and 
 be left upon the earth at the time of the establish- 
 ment of the Messianic kingdom, will continue to 
 live the ordinary course of life, just as if this stu- 
 pendous event had not occurred. Christ's coming 
 does not result in, or is not followed by the removal 
 from the earth of all the inhabitants existing there 
 at the time of this event. On the contrary, multi- 
 tudes of them continue to live, and, being unregen- 
 erate and not having received the divine touch of 
 immortality and of moral perfection, they retain all 
 their inherent propensity to sin, and the character- 
 istic perversion of their moral natures ; their liability 
 
 157 
 
to sin and the actual sinfulness of their lives being 
 diminished, but not extinguished, by the moral in- 
 fluences of their new environment and their emanci- 
 pation from satanic influences. Their offspring, 
 also, will inherit from them the same tendency and 
 liability to sin, but possibly in a less degree, and 
 thus the race, though remaining unregenerate, will 
 become purer and better as the Millennium pro- 
 gresses. 
 
 At the close, however, of this period "Satan is 
 loosed out of his prison and shall go out to deceive 
 the nations which are in the four quarters of the 
 earth, Gog, and Magog, to gather them to battle" 
 against the "saints" and the "beloved city." 
 
 This final rebellion of the enemies of God and 
 of His people results in the discomfiture and over- 
 throw of these rebellious hosts by special divine in- 
 terposition, and is quickly followed by the second 
 resurrection, or the resurrection of "the rest of the 
 dead;" the judgment and punishment of the wicked 
 or unrighteous, and the final conflagration or 
 cataclysm of fire referred to by Peter, in which the 
 unrighteous are utterly destroyed, and out of which 
 comes the "new earth wherein dwelleth righteous- 
 ness" — that earth which is to be adorned by the 
 "Holy City," the "New Jerusalem," in which 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" shall have "passed away." During 
 the Millennium, however, except from among the 
 
 15 
 
resurrected and "changed" saints — those who shall 
 have passed forever from the mortal to the immor- 
 tal state, and who are to be the inhabitants of the 
 "new earth" — death will continue to gather in his 
 victims. Sorrow and pain will still be present in 
 the world, though in all probability much dimin- 
 ished. 
 
 We shall have organized material bodies in the 
 future life, or, to state the proposition with strict 
 accuracy, we will be organized material bodies in 
 the future life, and in this respect no different from 
 what we are in this life. This has already been in- 
 timated in a previous chapter. 
 
 , Aside from the more or less direct testimony 
 borne by Scripture to this fact the Scripture theory 
 and doctrine of the resurrection implies and 
 logically demands it. Something which has gone 
 down, which has been prostrated, must be "raised 
 up again" to fulfill the idea of a resurrection; to 
 justify the etymology of the word which expresses 
 it; and to give consistency and coherency to the 
 baptismal symbol which represents it. By baptis- 
 mal symbol we mean, of course, that form of bap- 
 tism in which the candidate is dipped — the bury- 
 ing of the body out of sight, temporarily, beneath 
 the water, and the raising of it up again into full 
 view, from the water in which it had temporarily 
 been hidden, and this, without controversy, was at 
 least the common mode or form of baptism in 
 apostolic times, and the only one which had, from 
 the standpoint of the early Christian Church, any 
 
 159 
 
significance. (See Rom. vi, 3, 4, 5, and First Peter 
 iii, 21, omitting the words in the parenthesis, the 
 more clearly to discern the figure.) 
 
 As regards the etymology of the word, the root 
 of * Avaaraais is 'Avurrqfit to make to stand up,, 
 raise up, set up, also to build up again, to restore. 
 So also in the Latin Resurgo-ere, from Re, which 
 in composition means again, back, or back 
 again; sursum, which means above, and erigo- 
 ere, to make to stand, to stand up, literally, there- 
 fore, to make to stand up above, again. 
 
 The essential idea of the resurrection, there- 
 fore, as indicated by the etymology of the word, is 
 that the body which has not only been prostrated, 
 but which, by burial, has been hidden in or below 
 the ground, will be made to stand up again above 
 the soil, for the Latin verb erigo, ergere has this 
 specific meaning, and is used to denote the sprout- 
 ing and shooting up of plants above the soil. In- 
 deed, Paul, in 1st Cor. xv, speaking of the resur- 
 rection, refers to the "bare grain of wheat, or of 
 some other grain" which is planted, and from which 
 the future grain springs, as in some way analogous 
 to the resurrection of humanity. The particular 
 grain or kernel of grain which is sown does not re- 
 appear, but grain precisely similar and of the same 
 general nature does. Not oats for wheat, nor 
 wheat for corn, but wheat for wheat, oats for oats, 
 etc., for "God giveth it a body, but to every seed 
 its own body." Precisely so. In the resurrection 
 we shall have a body as "God shall give us," but 
 
 160 
 
every one his own body, identical in form and 
 feature, etc., with the one which was planted, 
 though composed of new materials, endowed with 
 increased and very likely new capacities and pow- 
 ers, and with the principle of eternal life operat- 
 ing in it, or, in other words, the power of unfailing 
 and endless recuperation or repair of wasting forces 
 and tissues, and of resistence to disease. 
 
 In the first pages of human history, the first 
 centuries of human existence, when mankind was 
 fresh from the hand of the Creator, ere the poison 
 of disease had secured a lodging in his constitution, 
 and had developed into the infinitely multitudinous 
 forms which now assault and slay him, he lived for 
 centuries — eight, nine, almost ten centuries. When 
 the new organism will be bestowed in the resurrec- 
 tion, it will be absolutely- proof against disease, and 
 will possess the power to the fullest extent which 
 it now exerts to a limited extent, of repairing all 
 waste of the tissues and forces of the body, and of 
 perpetual self-renovation. If, as we have seen, fall- 
 en man could, under favorable circumstances, live 
 for nearly a millennium, it is quite possible for the 
 redeemed man to live forever, even though he be 
 but a material organism. 
 
 Immortality, strictly speaking, does not inhere 
 in man— can not belong to him. He is a mere 
 creature, who owes his existence to a higher power 
 and intelligence. He will, therefore, ever remain 
 subject to the will of his Creator, who may, if He so 
 please, terminate his existence at any moment. 
 
 161 
 
"God only hath immortality." Prolonged exist- 
 ence, or "eternal life," is the only thing possible to 
 man, and even this is a gift in the power and con- 
 trol of the giver. "The wages of sin is death," says 
 the Apostle, "but the gift of God is eternal life." 
 "If thou knewest the gift of God," said Jesus to the 
 Samaritan woman, as recorded in John's gospel, 
 Chap. 4:10, and then in the 14th verse he declares 
 that gift to be "everlasting life." In chapter 10 of 
 the same gospel, verses 27, 28, we read : "My sheep 
 hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow 
 me, and I give unto them eternal life" and they 
 shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them 
 out of My hand." And this "zoe aionios" or eter- 
 nal life, is only a derived life. "Because I live," 
 says Jesus, "they shall live also." 
 
 The only sense, also, in which man may be said 
 to "have eternal life" now as affirmed by the Sav- 
 ior, is by becoming, through faith and repentence 
 and the regenerating power of the spirit, an "heir 
 of eternal life" an "heir of salvation" — a salvation, 
 not now, but "ready to be revealed in the last time" 
 (Peter i, 5), viz: at the resurrection. It is only 
 when the "redemption of the body" is accomplished 
 that the "eternal" or the "everlasting" life begins. 
 
 This was the hope which inspired the patriarch 
 Job, when, away back in the dim twilight of human 
 history, in the "land of Uz," on the fertile Syrian 
 plains east of the Jordan, he was permitted by the 
 Spirit of the Almighty to catch a glimpse of the 
 future resurrection life, and gave expression to 
 
 162 
 
those words of blessed hope which have been re- 
 corded on the page of Sacred History for our com- 
 fort and encouragement. Let us repeat them, and 
 as we do, let us pause between the sentences to 
 analyze their meaning: "I know that my Redeem- 
 er liveth." What did Job mean or understand by 
 "Redeemer ?" Redeemer from what? Not from 
 sin, certainly, for he does not seem to be oppressed 
 with a sense of sinfulness, but on the contrary feels 
 the greatest assurance of his integrity and of his 
 innocence, and the record declares of him that "in 
 all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly/' 
 What then did he hope to be redeemed from? Why, 
 from death, most assuredly, — that "king of terrors" 
 that now stared him in the face, and grinned 
 hideously at him as he lay among the ashes in the 
 relentless grasp of a loathsome, and fatal disease, 
 as he supposed. "I know that my Redeemer liveth, 
 and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the 
 earth." Notice the time he expects the Redeemer 
 and the redemption, and the place where he ex- 
 pects Him to appear. He expects Him to "stand 
 upon the earth" and at the "latter day" — identical 
 with the "last day" referred to by the Savior when 
 He said (John vi, 40) "And this is the will of Him 
 that sent Me, that every one which seeth the Son, 
 and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life; 
 and I will raise him up at the last day;" identical 
 also with the last time spoken of by Peter already 
 referred to (1st Pet. 1, 5) when he said "kept by 
 .the power of God unto salvation ready to be re- 
 
 183 
 
vealed in the -last time" That is to say the day 
 of resurrection power and glory, which will be the 
 last day of the present dispensation. 
 
 "For I know that my Redeemer liveth (Re- 
 deemer from death; see Hosea xiii, 14), and that 
 He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth ; and 
 though after my skin, worms destroy this body 
 (that is, after they shall have destroyed the skin 
 they shall destroy the entire body), yet in my flesh 
 shall I see God." Scholars tell us that properly 
 translated this must read "out of my flesh" or 
 "from my flesh" as in the new version. Well, out 
 of my flesh or from my flesh, that is to say out of 
 a body of flesh or from a body of flesh, or from 
 fleshly eyes, in spite of the destruction of the body 
 which he was anticipating, he "shall see God." 
 "Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall 
 behold, and not another." That is to say I myself, 
 this identical Job, and not another man. "Though 
 my reins be consumed within me." In spite of 
 the fact that I am now about to be consumed and 
 suffer dissolution, or will do so sooner or later, 
 yet I, Job, the same identical individual shall, when 
 my Redeemer from death stands again upon the 
 earth at the last day, — the day of resurrection 
 power — see God. I shall behold him from a body 
 of flesh. We know that elaborate arguments have 
 been made to prove that Job did not here refer 
 to the resurrection, that in fact, Job knew nothing 
 about the resurrection. We know that it is as- 
 serted that the ancient Jews knew nothing about 
 
 164 
 
a resurrection, that there are no intimations of it 
 in their early history, or in the earlier part of the 
 Bible, but the evident carefulness of the patriarchs 
 about the place of their burial, as in the case of 
 Abraham, and about the transportation of their 
 bones, as in the case of Joseph, together with the 
 positive declaration of the apostle Paul that this 
 was the "hope of the Fathers" (Acts xxvi, 6, 7, 8) 
 warrant an entirely different opinion. 
 
 Our bodies therefore, in the future life, will 
 be not only material, but they will be bodies of 
 flesh. The above quotation from Job intimates it, 
 and the resurrected body of the Savior of "flesh 
 and bones" which is the pattern of our own future 
 bodies proves it, for "we shall be like him" and 
 "as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall 
 also bear the image of the heavenly." (1st. Cor. xv, 
 49) that is of the Heavenly Man "the Lord from 
 Heaven." (verse 47.) 
 
 It will of course be objected by those who are 
 opposed to this view, that in this same chapter, and 
 in the very next verse to the one we have quoted, 
 viz : in the 50th the Apostle declares that flesh and 
 blood can not inherit the Kingdom of God; neither 
 doth corruption inherit incorruption." We admit 
 this apparent contradiction, and can only suggest 
 a possible explanation. In the 16th Chap, of 
 Matthew occurs the notable confession of Peter to 
 the Messiahship of Jesus, "Thou art the Christ, the 
 Son of the living God." In the verse which im- 
 mediately follows this, viz: the 17th, Jesus replies 
 
 165 
 
by saying "Blessed art thou Simon Barjona; for 
 flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, 
 but my Father which is in Heaven." Here it is 
 evident that flesh and blood is used to express or 
 to draw a contrast between the frail and perishable 
 creature, and the everlasting Creator. Indeed the 
 apostle Paul himself, both in his letter to the 
 Galatians and his letter to the Ephesians, uses this 
 same phrase flesh and blood to indicate man in 
 an aspect of weakness or frailty, as contrasted with 
 superior powers. Thus in Ephe. vi, 12, he says 
 "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but 
 against principalities, against powers etc.," and in 
 Gal, i, 15, 16, he says "But when it pleased God, 
 who separated me from my mother's womb, and 
 called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me, 
 that I might preach Him among the heathen; im- 
 mediately, I conferred not with 'flesh and blood,' " 
 that is to say, he did not forthwith seek the endorse- 
 ment or ordination of the Apostles at Jerusalem, as 
 he explains in a subsequent verse, but, obeying 
 rather the commission of Christ from whom he had 
 received his call and ordination he went to Arabia 
 and there preached the gospel, and did not visit 
 Jerusalem nor the Apostles for three years there- 
 after, considering the commission of Christ superior 
 to any commission or authority he might receive 
 from flesh and blood. The phrase flesh and 
 blood is even now used to denote human frailty. 
 It may therefore w T ell be that all the Apostle in- 
 tended to convey in this 50th verse of Cor. xv, was, 
 
 166 
 
that man in his present frail, perishable, and cor- 
 ruptible state could not inherit the Kingdom of 
 God, but must undergo the "change" mentioned 
 in the same chapter, as necessary to fit him for 
 "eternal life." It is also, of course, possible for 
 God to construct for us in the future, a body of 
 flesh and bones which yet will not be a body 
 of flesh and blood, that is to say, the body may 
 be a framework of bone, with a covering of tissue 
 or of flesh, to bring back the original form and 
 lineaments, but instead of the blood which is now 
 the vehicle of nutrition and the agent of repair, 
 there may be introduced another agent more potent 
 and vital, and one which will possess the power of 
 perfect and complete resistance to all influences 
 inimical to the life of the body. It may be that 
 some entirely new and different system of nutrition 
 and repair may be substituted for the present one. 
 It has not pleased God to reveal to us anything 
 about this, and we must be content to wait till, in 
 the possession of the resurrection body it becomes 
 a matter of personal and present consciousness. 
 We do know however, for it has been revealed, 
 that we "shall never perish, neither shall anyone 
 be able to pluck us out of the hand " of the great 
 life-giver. The former explanation, however, seems 
 to us to be the natural and rational one, and that 
 our future bodies will be exact duplicates of the 
 present ones, with only the difference noted on a 
 previous page, viz: their capacity to resist disease 
 and all destructive influences, and the capacity of 
 
 167 
 
endless self-renovation. As before intimated, if 
 Adam could live with our present organism for 
 930 years and Methuselah for 969, what need is 
 there for any other organism to make eternal life 
 possible? The resurrection would then be a 
 literal fact, and the doctrine of the resurrection be 
 consistent and coherent. 
 
 And again, if the resurrected saints are to reign 
 with Christ on the earth for a thousand years, ad- 
 ministering the government of the world, mixing 
 with and in constant intercourse with the unregen- 
 ate portion of its population, is it conceivable that in 
 their organic structure they shall differ from the 
 others to any apparent extent? We do not think so. 
 The use by the apostle, in this chapter of his 
 letter to the Corinthians, of the qualifying word 
 spiritual as applied to the future body must not 
 be allowed to mislead us. In an article in McClin- 
 tock & Strong's Bib. Theo. & Eccles. Ency. on 
 page io54,section (a)*are to be found the following 
 words on this point: we quote, 'The apostle's dis- 
 tinction between the psychical (d'o/ixov, natural) 
 and the pneumatical ( weufiarxov "spiritual") in 
 that passage is not of material (<poaixov, physical) 
 as opposed to immaterial or disembodied; for both 
 are equally called body (trw/ia actual and tangible 
 substance), such as we know our Lord's resurrec- 
 tion body was composed of (Luke xxiv, 39). It i* 
 merely, as the whole context shows ("corruptible — 
 incorruptible," "mortal — immortal," etc.) the dif- 
 
 Volume 8. 
 
 168 
 
ference between the feeble, decaying body of this 
 life in its present normal state, and the glorious, 
 fadeless frame of the future world in its transcen- 
 dent condition hereafter; in short, its aspect as 
 known to us here from natural phenomena, and its 
 prospect as revealed in scripture. This appears 
 from the contrasted use of these terms in another 
 part of the same epistle (ist Cor. 2, 14, 15) to 
 denote the unregenerate as opposed to the regen- 
 erate heart, the former being its usual or depraved, 
 and the latter its transformed or gracious state." 
 The question is frequently asked, "shall we know 
 our loved ones," or, "shall we know each other in 
 the future life?" Although these questions are 
 asked by some of our dearest friends, and by per- 
 sons of intelligence, we are nevertheless compelled 
 by facts to say, that such questions have their 
 origin in ignorance of the Scriptures. When a 
 group of sceptical Saducees, ignoring the teaching 
 of their own Scriptures, and deceived by the current 
 philosophies of men, captiously asked the Sa- 
 viour this question "in the resurrection, whose 
 wife shall she be of the seven, for they 
 all had her?" the very first words of his re- 
 ply were, "ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, 
 nor the power of God." The questions above 
 referred to, are the product of the same reprehensi- 
 ble ignorance of Scripture, and the same scepticism 
 as to the power of God. In the mind of one who 
 has an accurate knowledge of Scripture teaching 
 upon the resurrection and the future life, and who 
 
 169 
 
has implicit faith in the ability or "power of God" 
 to accomplish His declared purpose and promises, 
 such questions do not arise. "Why should it be 
 thought a thing incredible with you that God 
 should raise the dead," — the reaUy dead and the 
 very same dead persons? Is it because it is con- 
 trary to the natural order of things, as we have been 
 accustomed to see them and know them? Is it be- 
 cause it runs sharply across, or violently against 
 the ordinary laws of biology, or indeed any other 
 of the laws of the universe? In reply to this ob- 
 jection, it may be asked, are the laws of the uni- 
 verse self-generative or self-enacted? Are they 
 greater or superior to the God of the universe who 
 made and established them? Has God never be- 
 fore in the majesty of His power interfered with the 
 operation of the laws of nature, and of the universe? 
 Are the stories of the flood; of the passage of the 
 Israelites through the Red Sea and the Jordon; 
 the standing still of the sun upon Gibeon; and of 
 the moon on the Valley of Ajalon; the retrocession 
 of the rays on the dial of Ahas ; the resurrection of 
 Lazarus, and of Christ himself, myths? Is the Bi- 
 ble a book of fables or a tissue of lies from begin- 
 ning to end? In view of the invulnerable testi- 
 mony which history bears to the literal and exact 
 fulfillment of the Prophetic Scriptures, dare you 
 say so? 
 
 "Verily, verily," said Christ, "the day is coming 
 and now is (raising the dead was a power exercised 
 by Christ during His ministry) when they that are 
 
 170 
 
in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of 
 God and they that hear shall live," — that is to say, 
 the very identical persons who are now in the 
 graves, mingled and confounded with, and lost, 
 practically, in the dust of the earth though they are, 
 they shall live. And, when these "children of the 
 resurrection" do live again, every faculty they ever 
 possessed or exercised will be theirs again, invigor- 
 ated and perfected by the new organism, and forever 
 liberated from the depressing and trammeling in- 
 fluence of disease and disordered function. Is it 
 conceivable, then, that their memories, — those res- 
 ervoirs of knowledge of such marvellous capacity, 
 even in this life, shall, when they enter upon the 
 new life, be an absolute blank, with all impressions 
 of the past obliterated? This w r ould be to reduce 
 their possessors to the state of infants or idiots. 
 Moreover, if all traces of the past w 7 ere forever ob- 
 literated from their memories, what congruity or 
 value would there be in either the rewards or pun- 
 ishments of a future life, if those who were the sub- 
 jects of them were rendered incapable of associat- 
 ing them, by recollection, with the virtues or vices 
 of their past lives, to which they stand correlated? 
 Such a conception must be rejected on rational 
 grounds, even if there were not ample Scriptural 
 testimony against it. On the contrary, the human 
 memory will then be revived, with all its impres- 
 sions of the past restored and intensified, even those 
 of them, we doubt not, which time, and age, or dis- 
 ease had succeeded in obliterating or at least ren- 
 
 171 
 
dering so dim that they could no longer be re- 
 called, and the memory will then become a reser- 
 voir of information, knowledge, ideas, and experi- 
 ence, of almost infinite capacity. 
 
 When, therefore, we shall meet our loved ones, 
 or meet each other in the future life, can there be 
 any question of an immediate and perfect recog- 
 nition, and a sweep of recollection over the past 
 life such as will bring the minutest trifle therein 
 with which those persons and we stand mutually 
 related, back to our consciousness with the utmost 
 vividness? 
 
 The testimony borne by Scripture to the fact 
 that the human memory shall, in the future life, re- 
 tain the impressions made upon it in the former life, 
 or the present life, though not abundant are suffi- 
 cient. In Math, vii., 22, we read the words of Je- 
 sus, "many will say to me in that day (the day of 
 final judgment) Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied 
 in thy name? and in thy name have cast out dev- 
 ils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?" 
 This passage alone from the words of the great 
 teacher proves it. But there is at least another, 
 which, if not as conclusive as the one just quoted, 
 is strongly suggestive of the fact we are discussing, 
 Math, xxv., 31 to 46 inclusive is this passage. The 
 righteous in this description of the final judgment 
 are made to say, "Lord, when saw we Thee an hun- 
 gered and fed Thee? or thirsty and gave Thee 
 drink, etc.," evidently exercising the power of mem- 
 ory over the former life, but failing to find anything 
 
 172 
 
there to justify the statement of Christ that when 
 He was hungry they fed Him, etc. Jesus solves the 
 difficulty for them by saying "inasmuch as ye did it 
 unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have 
 done it unto Me." 
 
 But again, the Scriptures plainly teach that our 
 future spiritual bodies are to be like that of Jesus. 
 "These vile bodies," or bodies of our humiliation 
 (as in the new version) are to be changed and fash- 
 ioned like unto His glorious body." John tells us 
 that "we shall be like Him." He is simply "the 
 first fruits of them that sleep" and in no way differ- 
 ent from the general harvest of the dead or sleeping 
 ones, which is to follow. He is only "the first 
 among many brethren" who, to be brethren must 
 be like Him. It follows, therefore, that if, after 
 His resurrection, when changed from the natural 
 to the spiritual body, from the body of His humili- 
 ation to that of His glory, in the exercise of the 
 power or function of memory He could recall 
 events, persons, etc., of His past life, so also will 
 we be able. He did that very thing, as can be re- 
 peatedly verified by reference to that part of His 
 biography recorded by the writers of the New Tes- 
 tament which treats of His sayings and doings after 
 His resurrection. 
 
 But, perhaps the question "shall we know our 
 loved ones, or each other in the future life" is asked 
 not because of any fear that our past lives w r ill be 
 obliterated from memory, but because of an appre- 
 hension that the transformation or change which 
 
 173 
 
shall occur in us and in our friends when the "body 
 of glory" will be substituted for the "body of hu- 
 miliation" will be so great in every respect, as well 
 in our personal appearance as in our dispositions, 
 and our powers of both mind and body, that we will 
 be 'utterly irrecognizable, — that we will be practi- 
 cally other persons entirely, and that, but for the 
 events and scenes we can recall to each other when 
 we meet, it will be like making an entirely new ac- 
 quaintance in every case. 
 
 Well, it must be admitted that the change which 
 we shall undergo will be stupendous, for our hu- 
 manity will then "be made perfect" in every de- 
 partment of its being; — in its composition, for "this 
 mortal body shall have put on immortality" and 
 "this corruptible body shall have put on incorrup- 
 tion;" in its structure, for there shall be no deform- 
 ities nor blemishes upon us then, even though in 
 this life we may have been compelled to carry them 
 from the cradle to the grave, whether as a congeni- 
 tal defect, or, as the result of accident or any of the 
 infinite multitude of diseases which stand ready 
 every moment in this life to assault and slay us. 
 There shall be no curved nor broken spines; no 
 semi-paralyzed bodies, no club feet nor cleft palates 
 and hare lips. All traces of disease, and of the cor- 
 roding hand of time, care, sorrow or toil, will have 
 vanished forever, and we shall stand forth, each a 
 picture of comliness and beauty in form and feat- 
 ure, and of health and vigor, that would put to 
 shame the fairest of the sons and daughters of this 
 
 174 
 
age. Our moral nature also, which was originally 
 created ''after the image of God/' but which has 
 suffered a serious lapse by the fall of our first par- 
 ents, and whose obliquity or declination from exact 
 rectitude is not only coincident with, but perhaps 
 entirely due to the physical disorder and default 
 from w 7 hich we suffer, giving to our appetites, de- 
 sires., and passions, either an excessive or a morbid 
 quality, or both, — this nature will be changed, re- 
 adjusted into complete harmony with the principles 
 and the spirit of righteousness, the moral image 
 of the Creator will be reimprinted upon it, and we 
 shall be pure as the Angels who surround the 
 throne of the Infinite, and joyous and happy as the 
 Seraphim who shout the anthems of Heaven. But, 
 through all these changes, and with them all, will 
 be, in some way, the imperishable stamp of our dis- 
 tinct identity, and "we shall know (each other) even 
 as also we are (now) known." 
 
 The disciples had no difficulty in recognizing 
 their risen Lord, except when, by the exercise of a 
 subtle power or influence over them "their eyes 
 were holden that they should not know Him," as 
 in the journey to Emmaus. When, however, "in 
 the breaking of bread" that influence was removed, 
 they instantly knew Him. 
 
 One of the most beautiful and touching in- 
 stances of this recognition, is that furnished by 
 Mary Magdalene, as she stood before the empty 
 tomb, weeping, sorrowing, and disconsolate over 
 the loss of her Lord. Jesus appears upon the scene 
 
 175 
 
and tenderly asks her, "woman why weepest thou? 
 Whom seekest thou?" and she, — her eyes being in 
 all probability holden, temporarily, as were those 
 of the travelers to Emmaus, — mistaking Him for 
 "the gardener/' replies, "Sir, if thou hast borne 
 Him hence, tell me w T here thou hast laid Him, and 
 I will take Him away." "Mary," "Rabboni,"— 
 that was all they said to each other, and in an in- 
 stant, so clear was the recognition of her Lord by 
 Mary, that she no doubt leaped to embrace Him. 
 or to throw herself at His feet, as the sequel con- 
 clusively proves. 
 
 Again, Peter, James, John, Thomas, and Na- 
 thaniel were fishing in a boat on the Sea of Tiber- 
 ias. Jesus appears on the shore. The disciples did 
 not know at first that it was He. As in the other 
 cases referred to there seems to have been a tardi- 
 ness in the recognition. But it was only for a mo- 
 ment. "Children have ye any meat," asks Jesus. 
 "No," was the simple reply. "Cast the net on the 
 other side of the ship." They cast it, and it was in- 
 stantly full of fish. "It is the Lord," exclaims 
 John in quick recognition, and immediately Peter, 
 — Peter, heartsore with the painful recollection of 
 his shameful triple denial, — Peter is in the sea, 
 making for the shore and for Jesus. Presently they 
 are all on the shore, and, on the invitation of Jesus 
 to "come and dine" of the "broiled fish and of the 
 bread" which He had miraculously provided, they 
 sat down together, "and none of the disciples durst 
 
 176 
 
ask Him who are thou? knowing that it was the 
 Lord." 
 
 If, then, the disciples, with mortal eyes, and with 
 the dull perceptions of the present organism could 
 recognize the risen Lord in His resurrection or 
 glorified body, can there be any question that we, 
 when glorified and with our perceptions and powers 
 almost infinitely enhanced, will be able to recognize 
 each other? None whatever. 
 
 But was this body in which Christ appeared at 
 this time, indeed, His glorified body? The pres- 
 ence of the wounds, still unhealed, upon the resur- 
 rection body of Jesus, as He first showed Himself 
 to His disciples, has induced the belief in the minds 
 of some that this body, which was the very body in 
 which He had been entombed, was only a tempor- 
 ary one, subsequently replaced by another, which 
 was the "glorified body," the body in which He is 
 supposed to have appeared at the transfiguration, 
 in which also He was revealed to John on the Isle 
 of Patmos, and whose effulgence is also supposed 
 to have caused the intense light which smote St. 
 Paul to the ground as he "journeyed from Damas- 
 cus/' But, this is mere assumption, utterly un- 
 warranted by Scripture, and is open to the serious 
 objection that it makes the resurrection of Christ 
 differ from that of the saints, by giving Him two 
 bodies after the resurrection, — first the body which 
 had been entombed, and then the glorified body, 
 or body of the future life, while the saints are sim- 
 ply sown in the "natural body/' and raised, imme- 
 
 177 
 
diately in the "spiritual body/" and it is thus con- 
 trary to the teaching of the great apostle (Rom. 
 vi., 5), "For if we have been planted together in the 
 likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness 
 of His resurrection." Christ* so far as the resur- 
 rection is concerned, is simply the "first fruit" of 
 "them that sleep," and in no respect different from 
 the general harvest of the resurrected dead. 
 
 Christ, after His resurrection called attention to 
 the yet unhealed wounds on His body, as a proof 
 of His actual identity, as an evidence that He, — He 
 Himself, — had risen from the dead, and the testi- 
 mony which those wounds bore to this important 
 fact was duly acknowledged. So we, with equal 
 assurance, with equal gratitude and joy, accept the 
 testimony of those wounds as a proof that the 
 very same body, not as we have before explained, 
 as to the identical molecules or atoms which com- 
 pose it, but as to everything else, — the very same 
 body which goes into the grave, reappears in the 
 resurrection, save only that the "weakness" and the 
 "corruption" in which it is sown, are changed for 
 the "power" and the "incorruption" ^in which it is 
 raised. We do not believe that a single organ or 
 set of organs, or any function of the present body 
 will be left out of the future body. They will all 
 be there, but no longer in "weakness" but m 
 "power." The process of recuperation and repair 
 which belong to this mortal body, will also be oper- 
 ative in the resurrection body, only it will be more 
 potent, and will be absolutely effective. 
 
 178 
 
The lacerations in the hands, feet, and side of 
 Jesus were still present when He first appeared to 
 the disciples, because they had been made by the 
 cruel nails and spear, only a few days before, and 
 the process of repair had not advanced far enough 
 to have healed and effaced them, as we believe they 
 did in due time. We believe that the future body, 
 the future life, the future world are all governed by 
 natural laws, — by laws which are inherent in them, 
 and natural to them. There is in fact no such 
 thing as the supernatural in all the universe of 
 God, save only when God Himself, in the exercise 
 of His sovereign will, and irresistible power, sus- 
 pends, arrests, or changes the operation of those 
 laws to suit His purpose, or to manifest His power. 
 God only is Supernatural, for He only is above 
 nature.* 
 
 *If the Savior's body of the incarnation, the body of flesh and blood 
 which He received through Mary at His birth in Bethlehem, in which He 
 wandered over the plains of Palestine, in which He performed His mira- 
 cles, taught the people, hung upon the cross, lay in the tomb, and which 
 without controversy was the body in which He rose from the dead, — if 
 that body continued to exist but forty days after the resurrection and 
 was then dissolved or destroyed, or in any way displaced by another and 
 entirely different body, then, the incident of the resurrection in the his- 
 tory of Christ, and which occupies so important a place in Christian 
 theology, is without significance and is absolutely superflous in the 
 Savior's work of salvation. 
 
 If in the future life, as taught by Scripture, "we shall be like Him," 
 if we are to "bear the image of the heavenly (Adam) " if our bodies are 
 to be "fashioned like unto His glorious body," and that glorious body is 
 not the body of "flesh and bones" of the resurrection, but a new and 
 entirely different body, then the resurrection, logically, can not be either 
 the type, the proof, or the earnest of our resurrection, and therefore in 
 the plan of redemption it is without any raison d'etre. 
 
 If, on the other hand, the body of the Christ of Nazareth, Golgotha, 
 and the resurrection is identical with the body which "ascended up on 
 high" and "sitteth on the right hand of God" in the discharge of the 
 Mediatorial function of Christ, then the resurrection has a profound 
 significance, is coherent with, and altogether indispensable in the plan 
 of salvation. The resurrection of our Lord thus becomes intelligibly 
 the pattern, the earnest, the demonstration and the proof of ours, and 
 the arguments of the great Apostle contained in the 12th to the 18th 
 
 179 
 
And now my beloved readers, in the closing and 
 parting words I am about to express, let us draw 
 close to each other in mutual sympathy, and confi- 
 dence. Let our hearts be open to ourselves and to 
 each other, as reverently we enter together that 
 sacred domain of the human consciousness, the 
 affections and emotions, and endeavor to gather 
 from this source also some light, some evidence, or 
 intimation, at least, of the future life, with especial 
 reference to this very phase of the subject, or, with 
 reference to the question: "has this human body 
 any part in the future life, or is it, as asserted by 
 philosophy, abandoned at death, and our future 
 existence continued ever after as immaterial be- 
 ings?" 
 
 You remember, not very long ago, perhaps, 
 when, tearful, heartbroken, all the sunshine extin- 
 guished from your life, and an unutterable and in- 
 tolerable sense of desolation crushing your spirits, 
 you bent over that encoffined form, and gazed long 
 and passionately upon the closed eyelids, the pallid 
 cheeks, the silent lips, and the folded hands, of one 
 whom you loved more dearly than you loved your 
 
 verses, inclusive, of the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians become 
 lucid and reasonable, as certainly they are not on the other hypothesis. 
 It will no doubt be urged by those who oppose this proposition that 
 the resurrection of Christ ia the 'body of His humiliation" was useful 
 and necessary to prove that He was indeed alive after His entombment, 
 and thus to prove His power over death; that, should He have appeared 
 at that time in His "glorified" body instead of the body in which He had 
 been familiarly known, this proof would have failed because of the un- 
 certainly which would have surrounded His identity. The reply to this 
 is, that His power over death was as effectually proved by the raising of 
 Lazarus and others, which He accomplished during His life, as by His 
 own resurrection after His death. As to any possible difficulty of His 
 identification in the glorified body, neither Stephen nor Paul, who both 
 saw Him after His ascension, seem to have had any. 
 
 180 
 
life. Presently the officiating clergyman began 
 the solemn service of the hour. Kindly, tender 
 words were spoken, words of sincerest sympathy 
 and affection, for he was a good man, a true Chris- 
 tian, and a tried and faithful personal friend. But 
 the stupor of grief had closed your ears, and the 
 words were to you no more than a melancholy 
 wail, until at last these words fell from his lips: 
 "This is not your loved one. This is only the tene- 
 ment of clay which served for a temporary abode. 
 Your loved one has gone to a fairer land, and is 
 now enjoying the felicities of the eternal home." 
 There was something so cold and cheerless in these 
 words, that you were startled back into complete 
 consciousness, and your eyes went instantly back 
 to that casket which enclosed that sacred form. 
 You recall that form. You think of those eyes 
 that were wont to look so affectionately into yours, 
 which you had seen beaming with intelligence, and 
 sparkling with mirthfulness. You think of the lips 
 that had spoken such gracious and such tender 
 words, and which had so many times been pressed 
 to your own in the expression of love. You think 
 of the hands, — precious hands, — that had so con- 
 stantly, tirelessly, willingly and kindly ministered 
 to your wants and to your comfort, and whose 
 touch had so frequently soothed you in moments 
 of pain. You know every line and mark and feat- 
 ure of them, and never did they seem more beauti- 
 ful or so dear to you as now. You think of those 
 feet, that never grew weary in their service of love 
 
 181 
 
for others. You think of that form that moved to 
 and fro in the home, and whose presence there 
 gave light, and warmth, and peace and comfort, 
 and seemed like a benediction from Heaven, and 
 some way, some how, from your heart, from the 
 inmost depths of your consciousness, a vehement 
 protest, arose against the coldness and cheerless- 
 ness of the philosophy which these words of the 
 minister expressed, and more than ever you felt 
 like prostrating yourself upon that sacred form, 
 and bathing it w T ith your tears in expression of your 
 respect and love. 
 
 My brother, my sister, in spite of your philoso- 
 phy, in spite of all philosophy, this form, instinct 
 with the principle of life, and in full function of all 
 its powers, is what you have loved, and is that for 
 which you are now yearning in bitterness, and it is 
 this, just this very body, which Christianity, as 
 taught by its Great Founder, promises to give you 
 back again by a resurrection. This is what 
 makes Christianity differ from and transcend all 
 other beliefs, and put philosophy to shame. 
 
 "I am the resurrection and the life/' said Jesus, 
 "He that believeth on Me, though he were dead, 
 yet shall he live (John ii., 25). "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." (John v. 24.) "This is 
 the will of Him that sent Me, that every one that 
 seeth the Son and believeth on Him, may have 
 
 182 
 
everlasting life; and 1 will raise him up again at the 
 last day" (John, vi. 40). 
 
 Reuss, as quoted by Prof. Drummond (Nat. 
 Law in Spir. World, page 171) may speak of the 
 "thesis of a miraculous corporeal reconstruction of 
 our person as absolutely opposed to reason," but 
 Christ has plainly taught that very thing, as in the 
 quotations above given, and Paul, who declares 
 that he did not receive his gospel from man nor by 
 man, but by revelation directly and personally from 
 Christ, affirmed the doctrine of the resurrection 
 everywhere he went preaching the gospel, and in 
 the interrogation he put to Agrippa he intimates 
 his profound belief in it, viz.: "Why should it be 
 thought a thing incredible with you that God 
 should raise the dead?" Whose word shall we 
 take? Who is the best authority? Christ or 
 Reuss? 
 
 What do you or I care for that cold, illusive ab- 
 straction of philosophy, the "human soul" which 
 neither we nor any one else has ever seen, which 
 has never and can never be described, which is as 
 invisible and intangible in conception as it is in 
 fact, and which has actually no existence, save in 
 the human imagination, and as "a spirit" in spirit- 
 ualistic "cabinets," where time and again, by reso- 
 lute and competent men, intent on exposing fraud, 
 itshas been rudely and unceremoniously "material- 
 ized" and found to be veritable "flesh and blood." 
 
 On the authority, therefore, of the great Life 
 Giver and Life Restorer, on the authority of Him 
 
 183 
 
who said, "I am the resurrection and the Life," and 
 who many a time proved both the validity of His 
 claim and His actual power over death, as He wan- 
 dered backward and forward over the Judean and 
 Galileean hills and plains; on the authority of Him 
 who comforted Jairus by releasing his daughter 
 from the grasp of death, who comforted the widow 
 of Xain by giving her back her only son, and who 
 comforted Mary and Martha by restoring their 
 brother Lazarus; on the authority of the eternal 
 Son of God, I declare to you in closing, that in due 
 time, we shall look again into the same sweet faces 
 that we knew and loved so well, — faces which will 
 then be radiant with the glow of immortal health 
 and immortal youth. We will receive with rapture 
 into our own eyes, the transcendently tender and 
 affectionate gaze of those eyes which, in the years, 
 long, long ago, beamed so lovingly upon us. We 
 shall embrace the dear forms of those loved ones, 
 and press their lips, not parched and dry with fever 
 now, nor tainted with ' the breath of disease, nor 
 cold and livid with the chill of death, but warm and 
 soft and rosy with the vigorous life currents of the 
 new organism, moist with secretions pure and fresh 
 and sweet as the dew of the morning, and fragrant 
 with the breath of the Immortal Life. 
 
 184 
 
I3T\