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THE 
 
 SEVENTH ANGEL: 
 
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 %\t Hiltamm aW t0 fatwwte. 
 
 By KEV. SAM'L JACOBS, 
 
 PASTOR OF THE FIRST C. P. CHURCH, EVANSVILLE, INDIANA. 
 
 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air ; and 
 there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from 
 the throne, saying, It is done. — Rev. xvi, 17. 
 
 LOUISVILLE, KY.: 
 A. F. COX, 452 MARKET STREET. 
 
 185G. 
 
■3 
 
 Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1856, by 
 
 EEV. SAMUEL JACOBS, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the U. S. for the District of Indiana. 
 
 Qg CONGRF.3S 
 
C ONTENTS, 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 The Seventh Angel, 11 
 
 Ll c TURE II. 
 The Holy City Trodden Down, .... 43 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 The Prophesying of the Witnesses of the Truth— Their 
 
 Death, etc., ....... 83 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 The Church shadowed forth in the persons of the three 
 
 great Apostles, Peter, Paul, and John, . . 117 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 The Dispersion and Gathering of the Jews, . .151 
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 The Kingdom of Christ, ' 191 
 
 LECTURE VII. 
 The Nature of the Millennium, .... 231 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The celebrated author, Thomas Dick, LL.D., 
 in his "Essay on Covetousness," observes, with 
 respect to the Millennium, "It is of importance 
 that a clear conviction of the certainty of such 
 events should be deeply impressed upon the 
 mind of every professor of religion; as some 
 who call themselves Christians, have not only 
 insinuated, but openly declared, that the state of 
 the world will never be much better than it is ; 
 and, consequently, that we need give ourselves 
 little trouble in making exertions for the regen- 
 eration of society — which is just, in other words, 
 an apology for indulgence in covetousness." 
 
 The view thus expressed, together with other 
 considerations, led the author to prepare these 
 Lectures in the present form. 
 
 They were delivered in the First Cumberland 
 Presbyterian Church, in the city of Evansville, 
 Indiana, early in the Summer of 1855, with a 
 view of showing from the "signs of the times," 
 and the developments of prophecy, that the 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 period, usually denominated the Millennium, is 
 near at hand. As the tender branch and opening 
 foliage of the fig-tree announce "that summer is 
 near/' these stately steppings of our heavenly 
 King are evidences to his children that the time 
 of Zion's triumph is here. 
 
 It will not pass unobserved, that portions of 
 Scripture introduced into these Lectures are 
 indicated simply by the usual quotation marks, 
 without giving the chapter and verse ; this would 
 only have encumbered the printed text, without 
 any particular advantage to the reader. An 
 effort was made, in the preparation of these 
 Lectures for the present form, to embody in them 
 such variety as to suit the tastes of all. We 
 aimed to incorporate in them history, theology, 
 biography, missions, events, with an occasional 
 touch of the descriptive. 
 
 If the book will in any way conduce to the 
 advancement of truth, or awaken a more lively 
 interest in the cause of our Kedeemer, the author 
 will feel amply rewarded. 
 
 SAMUEL JACOBS. 
 
 Evansville, Indiana, March 12, 1856. 
 
LECTURES, 
 
LECTURE I. 
 
 %\t Sehst! %%%th 
 
LECTUKE I. 
 
 THE SEVENTH ANGEL. 
 
 " And the seventh angel sounded ; and there were great 
 voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are 
 become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he 
 shall reign forever and ever." — Rev. xi, 15. 
 
 There is an opinion, which has taken 
 possession of many of the strong minds of 
 Europe, in reference to a vast religious 
 movement by which a new epoch in the 
 history of the Church is about to be devel- 
 oped. A sentiment of a similar kind is 
 steadily gaining ground this side of the 
 Atlantic. 
 
 It is evident to all who are competent 
 to discern the signs of the times, that 
 Christianity, which is a life, is beginning 
 to develop itself in a way that its prin- 
 ciples are being better understood, and 
 tend to open the eyes of many who never 
 
12 THE SEVENTH ANGEL. 
 
 met its beams before. The progressive 
 knowledge of Revelation has, to a great 
 extent, engendered a sentiment of this 
 kind. By accretion, new materials have 
 been accumulated, this added to what was 
 previously collected by dint of study and 
 the aid of science, has given birth to the 
 idea that the present state of things is 
 indicative of an extraordinary epoch in the 
 history of the Church. 
 
 It is not our intention in these lectures 
 to enter the arena of controversy on the 
 subject of the Church question, with which 
 our newspapers, reviews, pamphlets, and 
 books are crowded. The controversy 
 made between the right of private judg- 
 ment and the authority of the Church; 
 the individual concern of salvation, or as 
 wholly coming through the Church to the 
 believer, are questions involving great 
 principles, and hence, we leave them to 
 wiser and better heads. 
 
 The object of these lectures is to de- 
 monstrate, from the signs of the times and 
 
THE SEVENTH ANGEL. 13 
 
 from prophecy, that we live in a period of 
 the history of the world when an event of 
 no ordinary kind is about to take place. 
 We, my readers, regard that event as the 
 commencement of the millennium, or the 
 thousand years reign of peace, and the 
 triumph of the gospel with which God has 
 promised to bless the world of mankind. 
 A period moreover, when the black banner 
 of the prince of darkness will be hurled to 
 the ground, and the banner of Jesus Christ 
 reared in its stead. 
 
 It would betray the ignorance of any 
 one to assert that the present movements 
 in the Church are not the offspring of 
 Christianity. Hitherto our exertions were 
 isolated and feeble, the little silvery rip- 
 ples fructified the plains through which 
 they passed, but could easily be checked 
 or evaporated. But their juncture has 
 formed a mighty river, moving majesti- 
 cally, destined to penetrate every moral 
 desert, and carry fertilization to our deso- 
 lated world; rolling on and bearing the 
 
14 THE SEVENTH ANGEL. 
 
 precious fruits of grace and truth from 
 land to land, and from nation to nation, 
 
 " Till like a sea of glory, 
 
 It spreads from pole to pole." 
 
 The majestic river that rolls its vast 
 columns of water towards the great deep, 
 in some respects is a fit emblem of the 
 own ward progression of the Church. Some- 
 times it moves along slowly and heavily, 
 like the water over the tunnel of the 
 Thames at London ; occasionally its velo- 
 city is scarcely perceptible ; it moves 
 majestically, with ease, as if conscious of 
 its gathering strength, and then it thun- 
 ders down the vast cataract, leaping for- 
 ward anxious to bury itself in the bosom 
 of the ocean; proclaiming to all around 
 that its force is powerful and irresistible. 
 
 A consciousness of the responsibility 
 resting upon the Church together with a 
 belief in the firmness and stability of the 
 Divine operations, has called forth every 
 means that would tend to spread the gos- 
 pel among the inhabitants of the earth. 
 
THE SEVENTH ANGEL. 15 
 
 And such has been the success attending 
 these means, that infidelity in its varied 
 forms, has not, and cann:t y rear an effec- 
 tual barrier to their influence and their 
 rapid progress. Obstacle after obstacle is 
 giving way. Barriers, hitherto insurmount- 
 able, are now overcome. Every event 
 of Providence declares plainly that an 
 ever watchful God is guarding the interests 
 of his cause in this world. The Church 
 was never nearer his heart than now; and 
 he hates her enemies as really as he did 
 Nero, Julian, and others, whose enmity to 
 the cause of the crucified One led them 
 to use all their power towards extermi- 
 nating the Christian religion. 
 
 Having made these preliminary obser- 
 vations by way of introducing the subject 
 to your attention, I shall now show, 
 
 1. What we are to understand as the 
 fulfillment of the sounding of the six angels 
 implied in the words of the text ; and 
 
 2. Prove that it is about this period ice 
 are to expect the sounding of the seventh 
 
16 THE SEVENTH ANGEL. 
 
 angel, and consequent upon this the com- 
 mencement of the millennium. 
 
 The book of Revelation contains a 
 series of prophecies exhibiting the state of 
 the Church, and of the world as connected 
 with the Church, from the days of the 
 Apostles until the end of time. The 
 Revelation was given in the first century 
 of the Christian era. The epistle to the 
 seven churches of Asia, presents us with 
 a concise view of the state of religion in 
 the Christian world at that period. The 
 remaining part of the book consists of a 
 series of visions, by which the Spirit of 
 God unfolded to the exile of Patmos the 
 scenes of future times; and he presents 
 them to us precisely in the same manner 
 as they appeared to him. There is, there- 
 fore, no natural obstruction in the way of 
 any one who uses the proper means with 
 a suitable disposition to attain an accurate 
 knowledge of the prophecies as far as they 
 are accomplished. Is is not indeed in- 
 tended that we, by the study of prophecy, 
 
THE SEVENTH ANGEL. 17 
 
 should be able to unfold the scenes of 
 future times, and tell what kind of events 
 are predicted, and when those events shall 
 take place. "It is not for us to know the 
 times or the seasons which the Father 
 hath put in his own power." It is the 
 wisdom of God to throw a kind of natural 
 obscurity over the prophecies until they 
 are about to be fulfilled. Thus we see 
 that prophecy is emphatically what it is 
 represented to be by the apostle Peter: 
 '• A light shining in a dark place." If we 
 suppose ourselves at the hour of midnight 
 standing on the margin of the ocean, and 
 behold a distant light twinkling on the 
 verge of the horizon, we may then under- 
 stand what the scriptures mean by pro- 
 phecy before it is fulfilled. But as the 
 light gradually approaches, it becomes 
 larger and brighter, so that we are enabled 
 to discern some of the objects around it, 
 until at length all the darkness is dis- 
 pelled, and we see every object clearly and 
 plainly before us. Thus when any pro- 
 
18 THE SEVENTH ANGEL. 
 
 phecy is fulfilled, the darkness is removed, 
 and the event predicted stands before us in 
 the brightness of the noon-day sun. 
 
 When we contemplate any event re- 
 corded by the spirit of prophecy, and look 
 for its accomplishment, it is necessary for 
 us to understand from the general tenor 
 of the scriptures in what period of the 
 w : orld it is to take place. God, in his 
 providence, has divided the world into 
 different periods, or dispensations, and the 
 events which are prophesied of as to take 
 place in one of these periods are not to be 
 looked for in another. 
 
 The neglect of this salutary caution has 
 led many commentators astray, and in- 
 duced them to mistake the scintillations 
 or the ignus-fatuus of their own fancy for 
 the light of prophecy. Thus the world 
 has been bewildered with dreams of enthu- 
 siasm instead of the true interpretation of 
 scripture. But if we keep in view the whole 
 tenor of scripture prophecy, and look for 
 the event in that period in which it ought 
 
THE SEVENTH ANGEL. 19 
 
 to take place, we shall find no difficulty 
 in discerning any event as soon as it comes 
 to pass. 
 
 The first part of this prophecy consists 
 of a book, or rather a roll of parchment, in 
 the hand of him who sat upon the throne. 
 This was the kind of books which were 
 used in those times. It consisted of seven 
 pieces of parchment, written within and 
 without, and sealed together with seven 
 seals ; and when these seals were succes- 
 sively opened, each one of them presented 
 to the mind of the Apostle a distinct reve- 
 lation concerning some important event, 
 or some important change in the world 
 during the two centuries immediately suc- 
 ceeding. After these seven rolls of parch- 
 ment were unfolded, the Apostle beheld 
 seven angels with seven trumpets, and 
 these angels went forth in succession, and 
 sounded to give an alarm to the world of 
 the judgments which were to follow. 
 Hence, we propose to show, 
 
 1. What tve are to understand as the 
 
20 THE SEVENTH AXGEL. 
 
 fulfillment of the sounding of the six angels 
 implied in the ivords of the text. 
 
 The first of these trumpets related to 
 the judgments which were executed on the 
 Roman Empire, by the ravages of the 
 Goths under the command of Alaric ; who 
 crossed the Danube on the ice, traversed 
 the plains of Macedonia and Thessaly, 
 passed Thermopylae, where no Leonidas 
 opposed his march, and overrun the whole 
 of Greece, leaving his bloody traces all 
 along his path. After having ravaged 
 Greece in a most terrible manner, Alaric 
 turned upon Itaty. And notwithstanding 
 the heart of the empire was struck with 
 disease, there was still spasmodic strength 
 in those giant limbs which had grasped 
 the extremities of the earth. In a time 
 of need she would make a mighty effort 
 to maintain her right. The legions were 
 called from all the provinces to the defense 
 of Italy. So terrible was the conflict, that 
 the Goth was thrice repelled; but urged 
 on by an impulse which he declared he 
 
THE SEVENTH ANGEL. 21 
 
 had no power to resist, he returned to the 
 attack, which terminated in his favor. 
 The convulsive strength of Rome was 
 exhausted, and Alaric stood a victor before 
 her walls, the first stranger, perhaps, who 
 since Hannibal the Carthagenian general, 
 six centuries before, had beheld the city; 
 save as an ally, a suppliant, or a captive. 
 These ravages were made between the 
 fourth and fifth centuries. 
 
 The second trumpet referred to the 
 ravages of the Vandals with Genseric at 
 their head. Africa was the field assigned 
 Genseric the Vandal. He passed the 
 straits of Gibralter in vessels furnished by 
 the Spaniards, who, being filled with fear 
 respecting their own safety, were joyful to 
 expedite his departure. A new city had 
 sprung up upon the ruins of ancient Car- 
 thage, which almost equaled the magnifi- 
 cence of Rome itself. Genseric appeared 
 so suddenly before it, that while his brave 
 men were mounting the walls of the city 
 its inhabitants were crowding the circus, 
 
22 THE SEVENTH ANGEL. 
 
 unconscious of their danger. The fertile 
 African coast, the granary of Rome, the 
 reduction of Hippo and Carthage, together 
 with all northern Africa, resulted in the 
 establishment of a government under Gen- 
 seric that waged a long war with Rome, 
 which finally resulted in favor of the Van- 
 dal general. 
 
 In the sounding of the third trumpet 
 the attention is called to Attila, the king 
 of the Huns. There is considerable una- 
 nimity among expositors in applying it to 
 Attila, a more ferocious race than the 
 former. As to the chief, he regarded him- 
 self as being devoted to Mars the god of 
 w T ar, and the common appellation by which 
 he has been designated is, " The scourge 
 of God, and the terror of men." It has 
 been said that he applied this title to him- 
 self: and boasted that he was sent into 
 the world by God for this purpose. This 
 general and his men " for the period of 
 fourteen years, shook the East and West 
 in the most terrible manner, and deformed 
 
THE SEVENTH ANGEL. 23 
 
 the provinces of each empire with all kinds 
 of plundering, slaughter, and burning. 
 They wasted Thrace, Macedon, and Greece, 
 putting all to fire and sword, and com- 
 pelled the eastern emperor, Theodosius the 
 second, to purchase a shameful peace. Then 
 turned his arms against the western em- 
 peror, Valentinian the third ; and entered 
 Gaul with seven hundred thousand men, 
 and, not content with taking and spoiling, 
 set most of the cities on fire. But at 
 length, being there vigorously opposed, 
 he fell upon Italy, took and destroyed 
 Aquileia." After this he continued his 
 march; the cities Altinum, Concordia, and 
 Pauda, were reduced to ashes. The in- 
 land towns, Vicenza, Verona, Bergamo, all 
 shared the same fate. The plains of Lom- 
 bardy through which the river Po flowed, 
 were bounded by the Alps and the 
 Appennines. All the cities builded on 
 these beautiful plains were visited with 
 depopulation, slaughter, servitude, burning 
 and desperation. It is a saying worthy 
 
24 THE SEVENTH ANGEL. 
 
 the ferocious pride of Attila, that the 
 "grass never grew on the spot where his 
 horse had trod." The career of this king 
 was of short duration, and yet brilliant, 
 and may well be represented by the falling 
 of a blazing meteor in its rapid flight from 
 heaven to earth. He figured very largely 
 for the space of twenty years, in which 
 time were performed all the deeds ascribed 
 to him. The blazing star shone out in 
 peerless and dazzling splendor in its pas- 
 sage from heaven to earth, and then went 
 forever out by falling into the sea. 
 
 The fourth trumpet shows the feeble and 
 expiring state of the empire by the em- 
 blem of the sun, and moon, and stars being 
 darkened, and the third part of them being 
 smitten. Then follows the three woe 
 trumpets. "I beheld/' says the Apostle, 
 "and heard an angel flying through the 
 midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, 
 Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabitants of the 
 earth by reason of the other voices of the 
 trumpet of the three angels, which are yet 
 to sound." 
 
THE SEVENTH ANGEL. 25 
 
 The fifth trumpet had reference to the 
 rise and progress of the impostor Moham- 
 med and the judgments which were exe- 
 cuted on the Christian world by the nume- 
 rous armies of Saracens, who covered the 
 country like locusts, and continued their 
 ravages for a hundred and fifty years, 
 which is the five months mentioned by the 
 Apostle, as the period of this judgment. 
 At the end of this woe, there seems to be 
 a kind of cessation of calamities, and the 
 Christian world seems to have the advan- 
 tage of their enemies for a number of ages ; 
 but they are admonished not to rest in 
 security, for " one woe is past ; and be- 
 hold, there come two woes more hereafter." 
 
 The commencement of the judgments 
 signified by the sixth trumpet was made 
 in the latter part of the thirteenth cen- 
 tury, about the year 1280, when the four 
 angels were loosed who had been bound 
 by the river Euphrates. Then came for- 
 ward the four Sultans of the Turkish or 
 the Ottoman empire, who had been con- 
 2 
 
26 THE SEVENTH ANGEL. 
 
 fined for many years within the limits of 
 their own territories by the Crusades, or 
 the wars of the Christians to recover the 
 Holy Land from the infidels. These are 
 the four angels who had been prepared 
 " for an hour, and a day, and a month, and 
 a j^ear, for to slay the third part of men." 
 These tremendous judgments continued 
 for nearly four hundred years, and this 
 second woe concludes with what is con- 
 tained in the little book which the Apostle 
 saw in the hand of the angel who stood 
 with one foot upon the earth and the other 
 upon the sea, and swore that time should 
 be no longer; but that in the time or 
 period of the seventh woe trumpet, the 
 mystery of God should be finished, and 
 then should commence the millennium. 
 "The seventh angel sounded; and there 
 w r ere great voices in heaven, saying, The 
 kingdoms of this world are become the 
 kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; 
 and he shall reign forever and ever." This 
 leads us to notice, 
 
THE SEVENTH ANGEL. 27 
 
 2. That it is about this period ive are 
 to expect the sounding of the seventh angel, 
 and consequently, the millennium* 
 
 In order to establish the proposition 
 announced in the second division of the 
 subject, it will be necessary to call your 
 attention, for a few moments, to the second 
 grand division of the second part of the 
 book of Revelation. The first part, which 
 ends with the third chapter, gives a con- 
 cise view of the Christian world at the 
 close of the first century, and the second 
 part exhibits a view of the state of the 
 Christian world from that period until the 
 last judgment, and concludes with a short 
 description of the heavenly state. The 
 second part has two grand divisions. The 
 first commences with the fourth and ends 
 with the eleventh chapter, and the second 
 division commences with the twelfth 
 chapter, and gives another and more 
 particular view of the same subject. We 
 therefore, call attention to the commence- 
 ment of the thirteenth chapter of Re vela- 
 
28 THE SEVENTH ANGEL. 
 
 tion: "I stood/' says the Apostle, "upon 
 the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up 
 out of the sea, having seven heads and ten 
 horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and 
 upon his heads the name of blasphemy. 
 And the beast which I saw was like unto a 
 leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a 
 bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a 
 lion; and the dragon gave him his power, 
 and his seat, and great authority. And I 
 saw one of his heads, as it were, wounded 
 to death, and his deadly wound was healed; 
 and all the world wondered after the beast. 
 And they worshiped the dragon which 
 gave power unto the beast; and they wor- 
 shiped the beast, saying, who is like unto 
 the beast; who is able to make war with 
 him? And there was given unto him a 
 mouth speaking great things, and blas- 
 phemies; and power was given unto him 
 to continue forty and two months." By 
 the forty and two months we are to 
 understand 1260 days, according to the 
 Jewish mode of computing time. These 
 
THE SEVENTH ANGEL. 29 
 
 1260 days are 1260 prophetic years, 
 according to the key given us by the 
 prophet Ezekiel. For the benefit of the 
 reader we will insert the key adverted to, 
 as this the better enables us to understand 
 the meaning of the expression, "forty and 
 two months." 
 
 "For I have laid upon thee the years of 
 their iniquity, according to the number of 
 the days, three hundred and ninety days; 
 so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house 
 of Israel. And when thou hast accom- 
 plished them, lie again on thy right side, 
 and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the 
 house of Judah forty days; I have 
 appointed thee each day for a year." 
 "And your children shall wander in the 
 wilderness forty years, * * * after the 
 number of the days in which ye searched 
 ed the land, even forty days, each day for 
 a year" 
 
 Here, then, we have the testimony of 
 two witnesses respecting the meaning of 
 the expression "forty and two months." 
 
30 THE SEVENTH ANGEL. 
 
 and the wisest and best of teachers has 
 said, "in the mouth of two or three wit- 
 nesses, every word may be established." 
 By the sea referred to in the thirteenth 
 chapter of Revelation, we are to understand 
 the fluctuating state of the Roman empire 
 a short time after the dethronement of 
 Momyllus, or Augustulus, as he was named 
 in derision, being a diminutive Augustus. 
 He was the last of the emperors. It con- 
 sisted of a vast congregated multitude of 
 people, of different nations and languages, 
 who acknowledged the sovereignty of the 
 Pope. The dethronement of Momyllus 
 was effected by Odoacer, king of the 
 Heruli; who coming to Rome with an 
 army of barbarians, stripped the Emperor 
 of the imperial robes, put an end to the 
 very name of the Western Empire, and 
 caused himself to be proclaimed king of 
 Italy. His kingdom continued perhaps 
 sixteen years. By the beast which rose out 
 of the sea, we are to understand the 
 seventh and last form of government, 
 
THE SEVENTH ANGEL. 31 
 
 which still subsists ; and by the ten horns 
 which wore the ten crowns, we are to 
 understand the ten kingdoms which are 
 said to have given their power and strength 
 to the beast. Nothing can be more evi- 
 dently pointed out to us, than that the city 
 of Rome is the seat of this idolatrous and 
 persecuting power. The seven heads 
 are, in the first place, said to be seven 
 mountains, and it is well known that Rome 
 is situated on seven hills. This great city, 
 which has so long reigned over the kings 
 of the earth, is represented in the seven- 
 teenth chapter, by a woman setting upon 
 a scarlet colored beast, having seven heads 
 and ten horns. "He carried me away in 
 the spirit into the wilderness; and I saw 
 a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast, 
 full of names of blasphemy, having seven 
 heads and ten horns. And the woman 
 was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, 
 and decked with gold and precious stones, 
 and pearls, having a golden cup in her 
 hand full of abominations and filthiness ol 
 
82 THE SEVENTH ANGEL. 
 
 her fornication. And upon her forehead 
 was a name written: MYSTERY, BABY- 
 LON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER 
 OF HARLOTS, AND ABOMINATIONS 
 OF THE EARTH." The seven heads 
 of the beast represented not only the 
 seven hills on which Rome is built, but 
 also the seven forms of government which 
 have succeeded one another in that city 
 since the first foundation of the empire. 
 "There are seven kings; five are fallen, 
 and one is, and the other is not, yet come ; 
 and when he cometh, he must continue a 
 short space. And the beast that was, and 
 is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the 
 seven, and goeth into perdition." Of these 
 seven forms of government, five had fallen 
 at the time of the Apostle. These were 
 Kings, Consuls, Dictators, Decemvirs, and 
 military Tribunes. The Imperial head 
 was that which then subsisted. When, 
 therefore, this form of government fell, 
 there was to be a short space only, before 
 the eighth and last head. Indeed, this 
 
THE SEVENTH ANGEL. 33 
 
 short interval between the Imperal head 
 and the last form, could scarcely be called 
 a regular government, and therefore, it is 
 said, "the beast that was, and is not, even 
 he is the eighth and is of the seven." This 
 last head may be said in some sense to 
 have been in existence from the time that 
 the Emperor ceased to rule, and this makes 
 the difficulty in ascertaining the precise 
 time when this beast rose out of the sea. 
 If we could ascertain the precise period 
 of his rise, we could easily ascertain the 
 period of the termination of his reign ; for 
 it would only be necessary to add the 
 "forty and two months," or 1260 years, 
 which would bring us down to the time of 
 his fall. 
 
 But, as the rise of the beast out of the 
 sea was gradual, and shows the gradual 
 lise of the power of anti-Christ, so we are 
 here to fix our attention on two particular 
 periods of time, namely: the time when 
 he began to rise, or when the Apostle saw 
 him first make his appearance above the 
 
34 THE SEVENTH ANGEL. 
 
 surface of the water, and the time when he 
 may be said to have been risen, and stand- 
 ing on the shore. This may be supposed 
 to be a trivial speculation, but it is never- 
 theless a very important consideration in 
 the development of the prophecy. For, 
 as power was given to this beast to con- 
 tinue forty and two months, so he must 
 begin to sink at the end of forty and two 
 months, from the time in which he began 
 to rise. And for the same reason he shall 
 be utterly destroyed in forty and two 
 months from the time in which he was 
 completely risen. No government rises 
 in a moment, or falls in a moment; but 
 governments generally require a length of 
 time to rise or fall, in proportion to their 
 magnitude. It is not to be supposed that 
 the spiritual domination of the Church of 
 Rome, and the consolidation of the ten 
 kingdoms under her government, could be 
 completed in much less than half a century. 
 It was probably not the work of one man, 
 nor a generation of men, but of a succes- 
 
THE SEVENTH ANGEL. 35 
 
 sion of bodies of men, engaged in the 
 same work, and the succeeding generation 
 carried on, and endeavored to bring to 
 perfection what their fathers had begun. 
 Hence, as this government rose by slow 
 degrees, so by slow degrees it may be 
 expected to fall. It is said to continue 
 for one thousand two hundred and sixty 
 years from the commencement of its rise 
 to the commencement of its decline, and 
 the same length of time from the period 
 of its acknowledgment by the ten king- 
 doms, until the period of its utter extinc- 
 tion. 
 
 Now, then, it is generally agreed by 
 historians, and the most respectable com- 
 mentators, that the Bishop of Rome was 
 acknowledged as ecumenical, or universal 
 Bishop, about the year GOO. This title 
 was conferred upon Boniface III, by the 
 Emperor Phocas. He was then called the 
 spiritual lord of the world, and the vice- 
 gerent of Jesus Christ. It was then that 
 he placed himself in the temple of God, 
 
36 THE SEVENTH ANGEL. 
 
 showing himself as though he were God. 
 We cannot, therefore, suppose that this 
 monster of iniquity could have risen to 
 such enormous power in less than from 
 thirty to fifty years, from the time of the 
 commencement of his ambition. We know 
 from the historians of that period, that 
 the Bishops of Rome were then as ambi- 
 tious as they are in the present day, and 
 that they had even more power in the 
 middle of the sixth century, than they 
 now possess. We may, therefore, very 
 safely date the commencement of the rise 
 of anti-Christ in the year 560; if then, we 
 add to this period thirty years, the time of 
 his rising, we have 590, and by adding the 
 1260 years to it, we are landed in the 
 present period of the world. If then, 
 three years and a half, the time that the 
 witnesses of the truth were slain and their 
 bodies lay upon the street of the city, be 
 added, we are then placed still nearer the 
 present time in which we live. Or, take 
 the other date, which is more easily com- 
 
THE SEVENTH ANGEL. 37 
 
 prehended. He was made universal 
 Bishop in 600; by adding to this date the 
 time he is to rule, or to cast down the 
 truth to the ground, and to practice and 
 prosper, which, as before stated, is 12 GO 
 years, those two numbers added together 
 will land us in 1866. This is the first 
 proof of our position. We expect, in the 
 further prosecution of this subject, to 
 adduce other arguments looking in the 
 same direction, and which to us are suffi- 
 ciently strong and clear in themselves, 
 that no one who will pay some attention 
 to the subject, can fail to see. 1866, or 
 thereabouts, is the time we have fixed in 
 our minds as the period when the blessed 
 millennium will be rapidly advancing to 
 the summit of its glory. 
 
 "Revolutions sufficient in number and 
 importance to fill the pages of the world's 
 history for a century, have been crowded 
 into a twelve-month. The crashing of 
 falling dynasties has echoed from every 
 shore. Crowns and coronets have fallen 
 
88 THE SEVENTH ANGEL. 
 
 thick as meteors in the November ' shower 
 of stars.' Thrones of tyranny have fallen 
 without a visible foe. Despotic power has 
 melted before popular rights. Absolutism 
 in church and state has received its death 
 blow. Freedom of conscience, freedom of 
 speech, freedom of the press — in other 
 words, the liberty of being men and 
 Christians, and of making others such,- — 
 these have been the watchwords of revolu- 
 tion, the incentives to heroic and successful 
 struggles with despotism. Though there 
 may be many reverses, may we not adopt 
 the expressive language of Robert Hall, 
 i The empire of darkness and of despotism 
 has been smitten with a stroke that has 
 sounded through the universe.' When 
 we see whole kingdoms, after reposing for 
 centuries on the lap of their rulers, start 
 from their slumbers, the dignity of man 
 rising from depression, and tyrants trem- 
 bling on their thrones, w 7 ho can remain 
 entirely indifferent, or fail to turn his eyes 
 to a theater so august and extraordinary? 
 
THE SEVENTH ANGEL. 39 
 
 These are a kind of throes and struggles 
 of nature to which it would be sullenness 
 to refuse our sympathy. Old foundations 
 are breaking up; new edifices are rearing." 
 Now, more than at any previous history, 
 is the gospel making its way among the 
 nations. The mightiest bulwarks behind 
 which Satan has entrenched himself, have 
 been Paganism, Mohammedinism and the 
 Papacy. The great disideratum in the 
 council-chamber of pandemonium has 
 always been, how could the true God not 
 be worshiped, and yet this innate disposi- 
 tion to worship be gratified. It would 
 seem that the difficulty was solved by the 
 arch-fiend of man's best and most endur- 
 ing interests. But now the sleeping 
 nations have awaked from their long slum- 
 ber, and have 
 
 " Found an aching void, 
 The world can never fill. " 
 
 Light, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, 
 has been desired. The Macedonian cry 
 
 is sounding in our ears, " come over and 
 
40 THE SEVENTH ANGEL. 
 
 help us." Much has already be done. 
 Religion's golden chain has bound the 
 hearts of many poor heathens to the 
 throne of God. Cheering intelligence 
 reaches our ears almost constantly of the 
 unparalleled progress of the " knowledge 
 of the truth/' and still 
 
 "From many an ancient river — 
 
 From many a palmy plain, 
 They call us to deliverj | 
 
 Their land from error's chain." 
 
 Of this we shall more particularly speak 
 in our future lectures, and show, from 
 present indications, that the time is near 
 at hand when 
 
 " Christ shall reign on Zion's hill, 
 And all the earth with glory fill." 
 
LECTURE II. 
 
 t Solg Citg fcfoktt gofon. 
 
LECTURE II. 
 
 THE HOLY CITY TRODDEN DOWN. 
 
 And the holy city shall they tread under foo^ forty and 
 Wo months. — Rev. xi, 2. 
 
 My hearers, it may be regarded as an 
 established fact, that God will finish every 
 work he has commenced respecting his 
 Church. No unseen embarrassments can 
 defeat him in his original purpose. Whether 
 we can trace his footsteps or not — for be 
 assured, that many of his plans lie con- 
 cealed from us, — it follows, as a reasonable 
 deduction from the premises, that the 
 Church, in her spiritual structure, will 
 ultimately receive her top-stone. True, 
 she has passed through very many severe 
 afflictions and cruel persecutions. But 
 these have been to her as the " refiner's 
 fire and fuller's soap." One beautifully 
 
 Note, — The author is indebted to Rev. A, Barnes for 
 pome thoughts in this Locturo. 
 
44 THE HOLY CITY 
 
 observes that "God is the refiner; his 
 people the gold, and affliction the furnace." 
 The worlds he commenced, he finished. 
 They rolled from his omnific hand com- 
 pleted, and fully fitted to subserve the 
 purposes for which they were made ; not 
 one w T as left half formed or motionless. 
 By his wisdom each was placed in its 
 orbit; and from the same source they 
 derived light, laws, and impulse. Ever 
 since their formation they have rolled on 
 with steady and settled course. No comet 
 has ever rushed into the sun, or infringed 
 upon a planet. How are the comets 
 reigned and curbed in their eccentric 
 orbits, and never yet had power or permis- 
 sion to burn a single world. 
 
 When Jehovah became incensed at our 
 world, and resolved upon its destruction, 
 with what a firm and steady step did he 
 go on to achieve his purpose. He gives 
 command, and Noah builds the ark, which 
 being completed, God, who had hitherto 
 barred the fountains of the deep, caused 
 
TRODDEN DOWN. 45 
 
 the waters to leap from their ancient 
 boundaries by perhaps changing the 
 polarity of the globe. The waters rose, 
 and spread, and foamed, and dashed, until 
 death seemed to stand as a conqueror 
 over the whole face of nature; and the 
 only spark of life visible, was the dim 
 flickering lamp in the ark, as it rocked on 
 the waves of an oceaned world. 
 
 That God is of the same mind, and that 
 it is not in the power of finite beings to 
 turn him, is a thought that is fraught with 
 comfort He has resolved that the Church 
 established by his Son, shall be universal, 
 and he will go on to the accomplishment 
 of his purposes respecting it. 
 
 The language of the text refers to a 
 melancholy state of the Church for the long 
 period of forty and two months, or twelve 
 hundred and sixty years, thirty days being 
 included in a month; the same period with 
 that afterwards termed a time, times, and a 
 half a time; that is, a year, two years, and 
 half a year, or three years and a half, all 
 
46 THE HOLY CITY 
 
 of which are prophetic numbers; so that 
 twelve hundred and sixty days are twelve 
 hundred and sixty years. Let us advert 
 to the context. The Apostle was presented 
 with "a reed like unto a rod; and the angel 
 stood, saying : rise, and measure the tem- 
 ple of God, and the altar, and them that 
 worship therein. But the court which is 
 without the temple leave out, and measure 
 it not, for it is given unto the Gentiles ; 
 and the holy city shall they tread under 
 foot forty and two months." 
 
 The treading down of the city, you will 
 observe, was to continue the same length of 
 time that the beast was to reign, spoken 
 of in our last lecture. Then it was stated 
 how long he should reign. Now, we have 
 another subject referring to the same 
 power; with this difference: In the preced- 
 ing lecture the beast, with the authority in- 
 vested in him, was noticed. Here we have 
 awful work spoken of, — the treading down 
 of the holy city, — and it will devolve 
 upon us on this occasion, to show, 
 
TRODDEN DOWN. 47 
 
 1. By whom the holy city was trodden 
 down. 
 
 2. The manner in which it was done. 
 
 3. Deduce from the premises another 
 argument in proof of oar position. 
 
 In order to the better understanding of 
 the subject upon which we have entered, 
 it will be necessary to advert, for a moment, 
 to the dealings of Providence towards the 
 persons by whom the holy city was trod- 
 den down. It is a fact that requires no 
 proof, that God never chastises a nation or 
 people without previous warning. As 
 proof of this position, I may be allowed to 
 remind you of Noah, who preached one 
 hundred and twenty years to the wicked 
 antediluvians. In order, then, to prepare 
 the way for the first division of our sub- 
 ject, it will be necessary to call your 
 attention to the ninth chapter of Revelation, 
 commencing at the thirteenth verse. You 
 will now remember, 
 
 1. By whom the holy city teas trodden 
 down. " And the sixth angel sounded, and 
 
48 THE HOLY CITY 
 
 I heard a voice from the four horns of tne 
 golden altar which is before God, saying to 
 the sixth angel which had the trumpet, 
 loose the four angels which are bound in 
 the great river Euphrates. And the four 
 angels were loosed, which were prepared 
 for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a 
 year, for to slay the third part of men. 
 And the number of the army of the 
 horsemen were two hundred thousand 
 thousand; and I heard the number of them. 
 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, 
 and them that sat on them, having breast- 
 plates of fire, and of jacinth and brimstone; 
 and the heads of the horses tvere as the 
 heads of lions, and out of their mouths 
 issued fire, and smoke, and brimstone. By 
 these three was the third part of men 
 killed by the fire, and by the smoke, and 
 by the brimstone, which issued out of their 
 mouths. For their power is in their 
 mouth, and in their tails; for their tails 
 tvere like unto serpents, and had heads, 
 and with them they do hurt. And the 
 
TRODDEN DOWN. 49 
 
 rest of the men which were not killed by 
 these plagues, yet repented not of the 
 works of their hands, that they should 
 not worship devils and idols of gold, and 
 silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood, 
 which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk; 
 neither repented they of their murders, 
 nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornica- 
 tion, nor of their thefts." 
 
 It is very probable, my hearers, that the 
 first part of this prophecy related to the 
 Turkish power, extending from the time of 
 the first appearance of the Turks in the 
 neighborhood of . the Euphrates, to the 
 final conquest of Constantinople, in 1453. 
 The Turkish power, we are told, rose on 
 the decline of the Arabic, and was the 
 next important power in affecting the 
 destinies of the world. 
 
 The Turks had their origin in the vicinity 
 of the Caspian sea, and were divided into 
 branches, one on the east and the other on 
 the west. The latter, we are informed by 
 good authority, could, in the tenth century, 
 
50 THE HOLY CITY 
 
 collect forty thousand soldiers, and the 
 other branch numbered perhaps one hun- 
 dred thousand families. A mighty 
 Turkish and Moslem power was finally 
 concentrated under Toguel, who had con- 
 quered the Caliph in the region of the 
 Tigris and the Euphrates, extending east- 
 ward, so as to embrace, in its geographical 
 limits, Persia and the countries adjacent 
 to the Caspian sea. A mighty dominion 
 had been forming in the east that had 
 subdued Persia, and by union with the 
 Caliph, secured the subjugation of Bagdad ; 
 and by embracing the Mohammedan faith, 
 became prepared to act its subsequent 
 important part in the affairs of the world. 
 They crossed the Euphrates and invaded 
 Asia Minor. This, perhaps, was one of the 
 most powerful armies ever marshaled in 
 battle array. According to the statements 
 made by Mr. Gibbon respecting this army, 
 " The myriad of Turkish horses overspread 
 a frontier of six hundred miles, from 
 Taurus to Arzeroum." How remarkable 
 
TRODDEN DOWN. 51 
 
 the language of the Revelation respecting 
 this very matter: "The number of the 
 army of the horsemen were two hundred 
 thousand thousand." 
 
 Alp Arslan, the son of Torgul, became 
 the successor of his father, who, fired with 
 ambition, passed the Euphrates at the head 
 of the Turkish cavalry, and entered 
 Cesarea, the metropolis of Cappadocia, to 
 which, as we are informed, he was attracted 
 by the fame and wealth of the temple of 
 St. Basil. The next thing at which they 
 aimed, was the establishment of a king- 
 dom in Asia Minor, evidently with a view 
 of seizing upon Constantinople when 
 an opportunity should be presented. The 
 establishing of the Turks in Anatolia, or 
 Asia Minor, was the most deplorable loss 
 which the Church and Empire had sus- 
 tained. This kingdom, says one, " was 
 added to the table of oriental geography." 
 It extended from the Euphrates to Con- 
 stantinople, and from the Black Sea to the 
 confines of Syria. The next notable 
 
52 
 
 THE HOLY CITY 
 
 event in the history of the Turkish power, 
 was the conquest of Jerusalem. By this 
 the attention of the Turks was turned for 
 a time from the conquest of Constantino- 
 ple — an event at which the Turkish 
 power all along aimed, and in which they 
 expected ultimately to be successful. Had 
 they not been diverted from it by the wars 
 connected with the Crusades, Constantino- 
 ple would have fallen long before it did 
 fall, for it was too feeble to defend itself 
 had it been attacked. The conquest of 
 Jerusalem by the Turks, and the oppres- 
 sions which Christians experienced there, 
 gave rise to the Crusades, by which the 
 destiny of Constantinople was still longer 
 delayed. The war of the Crusades was 
 made on the Turks, and as the Crusades 
 mostly passed through Constantinople and 
 Anatolia, all the power of the Turks in 
 Asia Minor was requisite to defend them- 
 selves, and consequently, they were unable 
 to make an attack upon Constantinople 
 until after the final defeat of the Crusades, 
 
TRODDEN DOWN. 53 
 
 and the restoration of peace. They sub- 
 sequently, however, struck the final blow, 
 and Constantinople fell into the hands of 
 the Turks in 1453. This event estab- 
 lished the Turkish power in Europe, and 
 checked the progress of a corrupt Church. 
 If you ask why all this was permitted, 
 we answer that God intended by the use 
 of this power, to arrest the progress of a 
 corrupt Christianity, and also to scourge 
 an idolatrous Church. Had not the sword 
 of the crescent been drawn, where would 
 the ravages of the beast with seven heads 
 been stayed? His ambition led him to 
 extend as far as possible, the power of the 
 Romish Church. But Jehovah had fixed 
 her bounds: "thus far shalt thou go, but 
 no further." The voice that proceeded 
 from the four horns of the golden altar, 
 is a strong indication of the Divine dis- 
 pleasure, and plainly intimates that the 
 sins of men must have been very great, 
 when the altar which was their sanctuary 
 and protection, called aloud for vengeance. 
 
54 THE HOLY CITY 
 
 We see here also, that God restrains 
 the enemies of the Church until he gives 
 the word to have them turned loose, and 
 also, that God has at his command instru- 
 ments to accomplish his purposes at any- 
 time, for any hour, or day, or month, or 
 year, that God shall appoint. By these 
 instruments the eastern portion of a cor- 
 rupt and idolatrous Church was completely 
 routed. They were the first in the crime, 
 so they were first, likewise, in the punish- 
 ment. They were previously visited by 
 the Saracens; but this producing no change 
 or reformation, it became necessary to 
 chastise them by a more formidable power, 
 the Turks, and they were entirely ruined 
 by them. Hence, we are driven to the 
 conclusion that the ho]y city was trodden 
 down by the Romish Church; because 
 there were no Churches remaining after 
 this judgment, guilty of the sins specified, 
 but the western, or those in communion 
 with Rome. And they were not at all 
 reclaimed by the ruin of the eastern, but 
 
TRODDEN DOWN. 55 
 
 persisted still in their iniquities. From 
 these considerations we can arrive at no 
 other conclusion than that the holy city 
 was trodden down by the Romish Church, 
 which will appear still more evident 
 by calling your attention to the second 
 division of our subject, in which we 
 promised to show, 
 
 2. How, or in what way the holy city 
 was trodden down. The Apostle, in giving 
 us a description of the judgments alluded 
 to, proceeds to enumerate the sins of which 
 they repented not: "And the rest of the 
 men which were not killed by these plagues, 
 yet repented not of the works of their 
 hands, that they should not worship devils, 
 and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, 
 and stone, and of wood, which can neither 
 see, nor hear, nor walk. Neither repented 
 they of their murders, nor of their sorce- 
 ries, nor of their fornication, nor of their 
 thefts." 
 
 These are very serious charges to be 
 alleged against the Church. Yet, they 
 
56 THE HOLY CITY 
 
 are true. John looked down the dim vista 
 of time, and beheld within the bosom of 
 the Romish Church, the various things 
 specified, and he recorded them; and what 
 he uttered respecting these things was com- 
 pletely fulfilled in the history of the Church 
 of Rome. 
 
 It must be obvious to the individual 
 disposed to chronicle events, that some, or 
 all these sins were committed from the 
 time the city began to be trodden down, 
 seeing the witnesses prophesied the same 
 length of time, which corresponds with the 
 same period of the woman dwelling in the 
 wilderness, which was for a "time, times, 
 and half a time." 
 
 We now propose to show from a state- 
 ment of historical facts, that the specific 
 charges made by John, may with justice 
 be applied to the Church of Rome. And 
 if we can succeed in establishing this, it 
 will not only demonstrate how the holy 
 city was trodden down, but at the same 
 time it will be another strong proof that 
 
TRODDEN DOWN. 57 
 
 we are now rapidly approaching the millen- 
 nial period of the world. 
 
 The first specification we shall notice is 
 their idolatry. Is this true of the Romish 
 Church? Do they sanction it ? To these 
 interrogatories we must unhesitatingly 
 answer, yes. We go further; they not 
 only sanction it, but it is enjoined upon 
 her votaries as an imperative duty, and 
 notwithstanding the flood of light that has 
 poured in upon us in the nineteenth cen- 
 tury, they still cling to it, and no doubt 
 would regard it as sacrilegious to abandon 
 it. It is an article incorporated in her 
 compendium of faith, as we learn from the 
 decrees of the seventh general council, 
 known as the second council of Nice. In 
 that celebrated council they authorized 
 and established the worship of saints and 
 their images. At the same council it was 
 decreed, unanimously, that the worship of 
 images is agreeable to scripture and reason 
 This kind of worship has prevailed every 
 where in the bosom of that Church ever 
 4 
 
58 THE HOLY CITY 
 
 since. Who needs to be told that a large 
 portion of the actual prayers offered in 
 their services is addressed to the Virgin 
 Mary. Not only did this practice continue, 
 * but new saints have been added to their 
 number." In 1460 Catharine of Sienna 
 was canonized by Pope Pius II. In 1494 
 Anslem was canonized by Alexander. 
 Alexander's bull, more heathen than 
 Christian, avows it to be the Pope's duty 
 thus to choose out, and to hold up the 
 illustrious dead, as their merits claim, for 
 adoration and worship. The use, and 
 even the worship of images was firmly 
 established before the end of the sixth 
 century," and has been kept up ever since, 
 and hence they are justly chargeable with 
 the sin of idolatry; because, "sin is the 
 transgression of the law," and the law by 
 which we are to govern our lives in this 
 world emphatically declares, "Thou shalt 
 not make unto thee any graven image, or 
 any likeness of any thing that is in heaven 
 above, or that is in the earth beneath, or 
 
TRODDEN DOWN. 59 
 
 that is in the water under the earth. Thou 
 shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor 
 serve them, for I, the Lord thy God, am a 
 jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the 
 fathers upon the children unto the third 
 and fourth generation, of them that hate 
 me; and showing mercy unto thousands 
 of them that love me, and keep my com- 
 mandments." 
 
 Neither repented they of their murders. 
 Need I say in this also the Romish Church 
 stands guilty. Indeed, in nothing has the 
 papacy been more remarkably charac- 
 terized than in the vast number of murders 
 perpetrated on the innocent in persecution. 
 It is supposed by Dr. Berg, who has given 
 much attention to the subject, that in the 
 crusade against the Waldenses in 1215, a 
 million of men perished. In the estab- 
 lishment of the barbarous Inquisition, 
 150,000 perished in the short period of 
 thirty years ; and from the beginning of 
 the order of Jesuits, by Loyola, in 1510 
 to 1580, a period of forty years, nine 
 
60 THE HOLY CITY 
 
 hundred thousand persons were killed by 
 persecution. The same cruel spirit evinced 
 itself in the attempt to suppress the true 
 and genuine religion in England, in 
 Bohemia, and in the lower countries. Fifty 
 thousand persons were hanged, burned, 
 beheaded, and buried alive, in what is 
 called the low countries. This number 
 was vastly increased on the revocation of 
 the edict of Nantz, in the multitudes that 
 then fell before the arm of persecution. 
 To these are to be added all that fell by 
 persecution in the days of Mary, of bloody 
 memory. Not less than fifty millions of 
 persons have perished in the persecutions 
 of the Waldenses, Albigenses, Bohemian 
 brethren, Wicklifites, and Protestants. In 
 the wars of the Spaniards for the express 
 purpose of propagating the Catholic 
 religion fifteen millions of Indians perished. 
 Three millions and a half of Moors and 
 Jews perished by Catholic persecution and 
 arms in Spain all for the purpose of either 
 saving or propagating their own faith. 
 
TRODDEN DOWN. 61 
 
 Thus, perhaps, not less than sixty-eight 
 millions and five hundred thousand human 
 beings have been put to death by this one 
 cruel, corrupted, and persecuting power. 
 Surely these facts, gathered as they have 
 been from well authenticated history, 
 sufficiently prove the second specification 
 made by the inspired Apostle. Their 
 history is a history of blood and murder. 
 
 The next specification mentioned in the 
 catalogue of crime, is sorcery. They have 
 their charms, and magic arts, and rites in 
 exorcism, and other things. It is needless 
 to remind you of the frauds practiced, the 
 cunning devices adopted in order to blind- 
 fold the unwary, their pretended miracles 
 and revelations, the supposed virtue of 
 relics, and a manifest disposition to de- 
 ceive. No honest Protestant surely will 
 be disposed to deny this, and most assu- 
 redly no intelligent Catholic can for a 
 moment doubt it. 
 
 " The very recent imposture of the 
 holy coat of Treves, is a strong proof that 
 
62 THE HOLY CITY 
 
 the disposition to practice such arts still 
 exists, and that the power to impose on a 
 large portion of the world has not yet died 
 away." 
 
 Neither repented they of their fornica- 
 tion. On this subject we will merely give 
 one or two extracts from some authors of 
 undoubted veracity. "In early life, during 
 the Pontificate II, Roderic Borgio, already 
 a Cardinal, had been stigmatized by a 
 public censure for his unmuffled debauche- 
 ries. Afterwards, he publicly cohabited 
 with a Roman matron named Vanozia, by 
 whom he had five acknowledged children. 
 Neither in his manners, nor in his lan- 
 guage, did he affect any regard for morality 
 or decency; and one of the earliest acts 
 of his pontificate was to celebrate, with 
 S3andalous magnificence in his own palace, 
 the marriage of his daughter Lucretia! 
 On one occasion, this prodigy of vice, 
 gave a splendid entertainment within the 
 walls of the Vatican, to no less than fifty 
 public prostitutes at once, and that in the 
 
TRODDEN DOWN. 63 
 
 presence of his own daughter, at which 
 entertainment deeds of darkness were 
 done, over which decency must throw a 
 veil; and yet this monster of iniquity was 
 regarded by the papists as the legitimate 
 successor of the Apostles, and the Vicar 
 of God upon earth, and was addressed by 
 the title of c His Holiness.' " The following 
 is from the pen of one whose fame has 
 spread over both hemispheres; I mean 
 Dr. D'Aubigne: "The annals of the age 
 swarm with scandals. In many places the 
 people were well pleased that the priest 
 should have a woman in keeping, that 
 their wives might be safe from his seduc- 
 tions. What scenes of humiliation were 
 witnessed in the house of the pastor! 
 The wretched man supported the mother 
 and her children, with the tithe and the 
 offering; his conscience was troubled, he 
 blushed in the presence of his people, and 
 his servants, and before God. The mother, 
 fearing to come to want when the priest 
 should die, provided against it beforehand, 
 
64 THE HOLY CITT 
 
 and robbed the house of the priest of the 
 most costly articles. Her character was 
 gone, her children were a hying accusation 
 of her crimes. The children, treated on 
 all sides with contempt plunged into 
 brawls and debaucheries. Such was the 
 family of the priest!'' Look at the 
 many grievances to the Pope's Nando at 
 the Diet of Nuiembuig, and remember also 
 the speech of Duke George at Worms, 
 and his admission of the corruption of the 
 priests. Think of the testimony given by 
 Erasmus, who is never by the Romanists 
 ranked with Protestants, only when he 
 boldly points out the licentiousness of the 
 priests and monks, then he is branded by 
 what is considered by them the most 
 odious and disreputable name — a heretic. 
 In many places the priests paid to the 
 bishop a regular tax for the woman with 
 whom he lived, and for every heir he had 
 by her. One of the German bishops, at a 
 great entertainment, publicly declared that 
 eleven thousand priests had applied to him 
 
TRODDEN DOWN. 65 
 
 for this purpose! It is Erasmus who 
 records this. Professor Tischer says on 
 this subject: "The Romish monks were 
 not merely burdens to community, and 
 traitors to their country, but they were 
 also addicted to the grossest vices and 
 sensuality, and were corrupters of the 
 public morals. In passing through a 
 country, (on their begging excursions,) 
 they cooled the libidinous ardor, which in 
 the lap of luxury they had cherished 
 during half the year, and debauched mar- 
 ried w r omen and virgins. They accom- 
 plished their vicious designs under the 
 cloak of religion, and by making promises 
 of absolution ; even innocence, fortified by 
 the strongest sentiments of conjugal fidelity 
 and of honor, fell a prey to those wandering 
 pious debauchees! In the very cloisters 
 so much discord prevailed, and such out- 
 rageous indecencies were carried on by 
 the monks and nuns, that it is impossible 
 to relate them without blushing. Their 
 lewd and vicious practices were so note- 
 
66 THE HOLY CITY 
 
 rious, and so universally known, that they 
 were no longer novelties, and had ceased 
 to be topics of conversation ! The cloisters 
 often contended with the public brothels 
 for the prize of superiority in acts of lewd- 
 ness ! " And it is true in respect to the 
 Romish Church, a title moreover, they 
 have applied to themselves, that she is 
 "idem semper uMque" always the same. 
 Testimony in abundance could be adduced, 
 showing that the charge specified by the 
 Revelation must necessarily refer to the 
 Romish Church, as the charge clings to 
 her, however loud they, and their friends 
 cry out misrepresentation and persecution. 
 She has proven herself to be "mother of 
 harlots." 
 
 The last specification made by the 
 Apostle, is that of theft It is needless to 
 say, that this charge respecting the 
 Romish Church is not without founda- 
 tion. It comes to us confirmed by the 
 voice of history. The most unholy meas- 
 ures were adopted in order to fill their 
 
TRODDEN DOWN. 67 
 
 Church with riches. And such has been 
 the success attending their efforts in this 
 direction, that in many places where their 
 cause has declined, and where the people 
 have been robbed by cunning frauds, they 
 have more money than they can use, and 
 it is sent to this country in large sums, to 
 make experiments on new fields. In their 
 cunning devices, no regard was had to the 
 principle involved; but success, whether 
 by honorable or dishonorable means, was 
 their aim. And it is a fact substantiated 
 by good authority, that success did attend 
 them; and by it the Church increased in 
 wealth. 
 
 In the ninth century, according to 
 Mosheim and others, the lives of saints 
 were written with a view of the more effec- 
 tually securing the confidence and even 
 veneration of an ignorant and deluded 
 multitude. The most palpable falsehoods 
 were written respecting the wonderful 
 exploits which it was said had been per- 
 formed by them while on earth. This, 
 
&8 THE HOLY CITY 
 
 naturally enough, prepared the way for 
 lucrative gain. Some, fired with a desire 
 of gain together with an ambitious desire 
 to be venerated by the multitude, led 
 many to use their utmost endeavors to 
 fasten upon the minds of the deluded peo- 
 ple, the genuineness of these tales. But 
 even more than this was done with a 
 design to accomplish their ends. It was 
 not enough to reverence departed saints, 
 and to confide in their intercession and 
 succor. It was necessary also that they 
 be clothed with imaginary power to heal 
 diseases, work miracles, and as possessing 
 power to deliver from all the calamitous 
 events of life. Nay, their bones, apparel, 
 and furniture were all supposed to possess 
 healing powers. 
 
 The consequence was, as we might 
 naturally expect, every one was eager to 
 provide himself with a sacred relic, and 
 thus was afforded an opportunity to accu- 
 mulate riches. It was necessary that the 
 demand be met, and thus, by theft, for it 
 
TRODDEN DOWN. 09 
 
 can be called nothing else, were the people 
 imposed upon and the riches of the Church 
 enhanced. 
 
 Look at the history of the Church 
 during the twelfth century, and we see 
 the same spirit manifested. Mosheim 
 uses the following language in respect to 
 this subject: "The general prevalence of 
 ignorance and superstition was dexterously, 
 yet basely, improved, by the rulers of the 
 Church, to fill their coffers, and drain the 
 purses of the deluded multitude: indeed, 
 each rank and order of the clergy had a 
 peculiar method of fleecing the people. 
 The bishops, when they wanted money for 
 their private pleasures, or for the exigen- 
 cies of the Church, granted their flock the 
 power of purchasing the remission of the 
 penalties imposed upon transgressors, by 
 a sum of money, which was to be applied 
 to certain religious purposes ; or, in other 
 words, they published indulgences, which 
 became an inexhaustible source of opulence 
 to the episcopal orders, and enabled them, 
 
70 THE HOLY CITY. 
 
 as is well known, to form and execute the 
 most difficult schemes for the enlargement 
 of their authority, and to erect a multitude 
 of sacred edifices, which augmented con- 
 siderably the external pomp and splendor 
 of the Church. The abbots and monks, 
 who were not qualified to grant indul- 
 gences, had recourse to other methods of 
 enriching their convents. They carried 
 about the country the carcasses and relics 
 of the saints in solemn procession, and 
 permitted the multitude to behold, touch, 
 and embrace, at fixed prices, these sacred 
 and lucrative remains." Indulgences have 
 been a vast source of revenue to the 
 Church ; which perhaps can be expressed 
 in no better way than to use the language 
 of Wickliffe, that they were mere forgeries 
 whereby the priesthood rob men of their 
 money. The prescription of pilgrimages 
 as penances, was another prolific source of 
 gain to the Church, that deserves no 
 milder name than theft. Every one who 
 went on such pilgrimages, went prepared 
 
TRODDEN DOWN. 71 
 
 to make an offering at the shrine of some 
 saint ! Theyprepared themselves because 
 they were expected, and even required, 
 when bowing at the reliquary tomb, to 
 make an offering as a token of their regard 
 and veneration for the sacred relic there 
 inclosed, and the income from this source 
 was immense. 
 
 But even at this day, not only among 
 the deluded followers of Rome is this same 
 principle being practiced, but we ourselves, 
 yes, we Protestants, have been deceived 
 by that class of men who above all others 
 are most to be dreaded. I mean the 
 subtle and dangerous order of Jesuits. 
 They did more to check the progress of 
 the Reformation in the sixteenth century 
 than all other causes combined ; and by 
 this very class of men have you and I been 
 imposed upon. Yes, we have unwittingly 
 contributed of our means to fill the coffers 
 of the Romish Church. 
 
 Our country is full of a class of men 
 who go from place to place, having in their 
 
72 THE HOLY CITY 
 
 possession an instrument of writing, pur- 
 porting to give a short history of a sad 
 misfortune which befell them and their 
 family while flying from oppression, with 
 a view of seeking a home in the new world. 
 Their families are said to be on some 
 island of the sea awaiting their return. 
 Their apparel indicated poverty, and their 
 countenance a sad and broken heart. 
 Your sympathies perhaps were touched, 
 and you gave your mite. Now let me 
 say to one and all, who have been accosted 
 by such persons, and to whose call you 
 responded, that upon you deception has 
 been practiced. The money thus gathered 
 together is not, as you suppose, applied 
 towards the relief of the distresed ; but 
 was put where thousands have been placed. 
 These men are Jesuits of the blackest 
 kind, who instead of receiving anything at 
 our hands, should be spurned from our 
 presence. It is only another way devised 
 to practice deception, and to take from us 
 what is justly our own without giving us 
 
TRODDEN DOWN. 73 
 
 an equivalent, unless it is the egregious 
 deception which is thus practiced upon us. 
 This is another scheme that may very 
 properly be classed under the head theft 
 We now come to the last proposition an- 
 nounced in the subject, which was 
 
 3d. To deduce from the premises another 
 argument in proof of the near approach of 
 the millennium. You will remember our 
 first and second divisions of the ^subject 
 under consideration. Those persons, who 
 perished by the plagues, were of the 
 Eastern Roman empire, with the Greek 
 Church connected with it ; and those who 
 were not killed were of the Western Ro- 
 man empire, with the Latin Church con- 
 nected with it. Of the latter, it is said by 
 the Apostle, they repented not. Although 
 the Eastern Church was chastised in a 
 most terrible manner, they failed to take 
 warning by the sad misfortune which befell 
 them, and still persisted in their sins, so 
 odious in the sight of God, and which he 
 has declared shall not go unpunished. "It 
 5 
 
74 THE HOLY CITY 
 
 is natural/' says Mosheim, "to inquire into 
 the true causes that contributed to this 
 unhappy revolution. We must not seek 
 ibr them either in the councils or in the 
 valor of the infidels, but in the dissensions 
 that reigned in the Christian armies, in 
 the profligate lives of those who called 
 themselves the champions of the Cross, 
 and in the ignorance, obstinacy, avarice, 
 and insolence of the Pope's legates." And 
 yet, the - Western branch of the Church 
 continued to adhere to all their sins, the 
 very same crimes, that drew down upon 
 the heads of the Eastern branch the vin- 
 dictive wrath of God. They were not to 
 do so forever. God has set bounds to 
 man's impiety, and if they will not learn 
 lessons from his word and his dealings with 
 others, they must eventually learn it by 
 their own experience. With reference to 
 the holy city, he has determined that it 
 shall not always be at the mercy of her 
 enemies. She is not to be trodden under 
 foot forever. At the appointed time he 
 
TRODDEN DOWN. 75 
 
 will raise her ruined walls, and restore her 
 beauty. The period allowed anti-Christ to 
 tread down the city is twelve hundred and 
 sixty years; and we must necessarily date 
 the commencement of this same circum- 
 stance from the same period that the Pope 
 was acknowledged ecumenical or universal 
 bishop, as this with the treading of the 
 holy city must have a relative connection. 
 Therefore, the time is as in our preceding 
 lecture, 1866, or thereabouts. We have 
 shown you in what way the holy city was 
 trodden down, and by whom, and therefore 
 we are led to the conclusion, that the time 
 is near at hand when the saints animated 
 afresh in the cause of Christ, may sing, 
 
 " Triumphant Zion ! lift thy head 
 From dust and darkness, and the dead ! 
 Though humbled long, awake at length, 
 And gird thee with thy Saviour's strength 
 Put all thy beauteous garments on, 
 And let thy excellence be known ; 
 Decked in the robes of righteousness, 
 The world thy glory shall confess. 
 No more shall foes unclean invade, 
 And fill thy hallowed walls with dread j 
 No more shall hell's insulting host 
 Their victory and thy sorrows boast. 
 
76 THE HOLY CITY 
 
 God from on high has heard thy prayer, 
 His hand thy ruins shall repair; 
 Nor will thy watchful Monarch cease 
 To guard thee in eternal peace." 
 
 There is evidently a mighty movement 
 among the powers of Europe. Many who 
 are now living will witness the complete 
 downfall and utter destruction of that 
 collossal power established in Europe in 
 1815, which for many years has kept the 
 world in bondage, and riveted the chains of 
 oppression upon its unhappy victims, by 
 what was most unrighteously denominated 
 the Holy Alliance. It was a most unholy 
 compact against the rights and liberties of 
 mankind. They have waged a most 
 unrighteous war, not only against the 
 bodies but the souls of men. Not only do 
 they wish to keep their bodies in bondage, 
 but their minds in the shackles of igno- 
 rance and superstition forever. They have 
 continued to the last to give their power 
 and strength to the beast, and they shall 
 at last go down with him to perdition. 
 
TRODDEN DOWN. 77 
 
 That high and holy Being who watches 
 over the destinies of the nations, who 
 has the hearts of kings in his hand, and 
 "turns them like the rivulets of water 
 into whatever channel he pleases," will now 
 begin to turn the tide of their triumph 
 into utter defeat and everlasting confusion. 
 When their destruction is accomplished, 
 then cometh the utter destruction of anti- 
 Christian Rome. For, says the Apostle, 
 in the sixteenth chapter of Revelation and 
 eighteenth verse: " There was a great 
 earthquake, such as was not since men 
 were upon the earth, so mighty an earth- 
 quake, and so great. And the great city 
 was divided into three parts, and the cities 
 of the nations fell, and great Babylon came 
 in remembrance before God, to give unto 
 her the cup of the wine of the fierceness 
 of his wrath." It would seem as if this, in 
 part at least, has had its accomplishment 
 in the recent wars and commotions that 
 have shaken in such a terrible manner, as 
 it were, all Europe. If the present 
 
78 THE HOLY CITY 
 
 Emperor of France should suddenly die, 
 all Europe would be in a blaze, and per- 
 haps the most terrible war that ever 
 desolated our world would follow. It is 
 evident that there will yet be a most 
 tremendous concussion between two oppos- 
 ing spirits that are now operating upon the 
 minds of men; the spirit of emancipation 
 and the spirit of tyranny, which so long 
 domineered over the world. Who needs 
 to be told that these powerful spirits are 
 now engaged in embodying their forces, 
 and arming and preparing for the conflict. 
 Therefore, it is plain, even from a superfi- 
 cial view of the world as it is at this very 
 time, that there will be in a short time a 
 great earthquake, such as was not since 
 men were upon earth, so mighty an earth- 
 quake and so great. Then, not only Rome, 
 but all the unholy compacts and combina- 
 tions which have been formed against the 
 rights and liberties of mankind, both civil 
 and spiritual, shall crumble and fall to 
 ruin. Thus, "the cities of the nations 
 
TRODDEN DOWN. 79 
 
 shall fall," and then Rome, like ancient 
 Babylon, shall become a perpetual desola- 
 tion. Yes, my friends, the Church will be 
 free and the blessings she has to give will 
 be scattered among the nations of the 
 world. Christianity is moving forward. 
 She is on her march, and nothing will stop 
 her. She asks no compromise from her 
 enemies. The sentinels on the walls of 
 Zion are fast awaking from their slumbers. 
 The gospel banner is unfurled and is wav- 
 ing gloriously on the breeze. The Church 
 is standing on the field she has won, and is 
 ready to shout victory. Methinks the 
 saints above are now ready to strike their 
 golden lyres ; and whenever victory shall 
 perch on the banner of Zion's King, they 
 will send a pulsation of mighty joy through 
 the highest heavens, which reverberating 
 thence from all sides, the eternal temple 
 will ring, and the rising, swelling anthem, 
 will reach out to creation's further side, and 
 the inhabitants of the holy city will catch 
 the hallowed flame, and prolong the joyful 
 
80 THE HOLY CITY TRODDEX DOWN. 
 
 strain, while angels will give to their "lutes 
 of lucid gold" a tone of louder harmony, 
 and all creation be filled with one vast, 
 blessed jubilee. Surely, my readers, 
 gratitude should engross all our powers, 
 for the prospect, and every power we 
 possess should be used to bring about this 
 period, when 
 
 "Jesus shall hare dominion 
 
 O'er river,, sea, and shore, 
 Far as the eagle's pinion, 
 
 Or dove's light wing can soar.** 
 
 Here we rest our subject until the next 
 Lord's day, when we shall, God permitting, 
 resume the subject again. Think upon 
 what we have said, and may it act as an 
 incentive in leading you to consecrate 
 yourselves anew to the service of the good 
 Being. 
 
 u Come, let us with a grateful heart ; 
 
 In the blest labor share a part; 
 Our prayers and offerings gladly bring, 
 To aid the triumphs of our king," 
 
LECTURE III. 
 
 IJrojjjjtsgittg of tljt Mihums. 
 
LECTURE III. 
 
 THE PROPHESYING OE THE WITNESSES. 
 
 And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they 
 shall prophesy a thousand and two hunderd and three score 
 days, clothed in sackcloth. — Kev. ii, 3. 
 
 God has always had his witnesses in 
 the world. In the various vicissitudes 
 through which the Church has been called 
 to pass, there never was a time when the 
 Church was entirely extinct; even Elijah, 
 when he looked out upon Israel's forsaken 
 altars, was assured that seven thousand 
 had not bowed the knee to Baal, nor kissed 
 his image. 
 
 In the context we have a representation 
 of the melancholy state of the Christian 
 world during the reign of anti-Christ. The 
 true worshipers of God are such a small 
 number that they might easily be measured 
 with a reed like unto a rod; while the 
 externals of worship and the .dignitaries 
 
84 PROPHESYING OF THE WITNESSES. 
 
 and emoluments of the Church, are gen- 
 erally in the possession of men who have 
 no Christianity but the name. They tread 
 the holy city under their feet; they make 
 the holy things of God the means of 
 gratifying their worldly ambition. They 
 make religion a kind of ladder, by which 
 they ascend into influence and power 
 among mankind. 
 
 But during this time of general and 
 prevailing iniquity, God has promised to 
 raise up and continue in the world a few 
 who will bear testimony to his truth. "I," 
 says God, "will give power unto my two 
 witnesses, and they shall prophesy a 
 thousand two hundred and three score 
 days, clothed in sackclock." 
 
 There are three things to which we shall 
 call your attention in the investigation of 
 the subject brought to view in the words 
 of the text. 
 
 1. What are tve to understand by the 
 tvitnesses ? 
 
PROPHESYING OF THE WITNESSES. 85 
 
 2. The time of their prophesying and 
 death 
 
 3. Their resuscitation, and the conse- 
 quences which followed. 
 
 1. What are we to understand by the 
 witnesses ? In regard to the witnesses, a 
 number of opinions have been entertained. 
 Some have said they mean the Protestant 
 and Greek Churches ; others, the Old and 
 New Testament ; others, the Old and New 
 Testament Churches ; others, Christ and 
 John the Baptist; others, Pope Sylvester 
 and Mena ; others, John Hussand Luther; 
 others, the Waldenses and Albigenses; 
 others, the true ministers of the gospel. 
 This last view seems to quadrate with the 
 sentiments expressed in the context. They 
 are the true ministers of the gospel, and 
 individuals of every class who stand up in 
 defense of the truth. They are said to be 
 clothed in sackcloth, because they grieve, 
 and mourn, and lament over the follies, 
 and vices, and infatuations of mankind, 
 and because they are everywhere hated, 
 
86 PROPHESYING OF THE WITNESSES. 
 
 and opposed, and persecuted. These are 
 the two witnesses, and the two golden 
 candlesticks standing before the God of 
 the whole earth. Here an allusion is 
 made to the prophecy of Zechariah. The 
 Prophet beheld in a vision, a golden candle- 
 stick similar to that which was placed in 
 the temple. It had a bowl upon the top 
 of it, seven lamps, and seven pipes to con- 
 vey the oil to the lamps; and there were 
 two olive trees, one upon the right side 
 and the other upon the left side of the 
 bowl. When the prophet inquired, " What 
 were those two branches which through 
 the golden pipes emptied themselves," 
 he was told, "that they were the two 
 anointed ones, that stand before the Lord 
 of the whole earth." Here, then, we see 
 i most significant and striking representa- 
 tion of the true ministers of the gospel. 
 The churches are the candlesticks, and the 
 ministers are the olive-trees that pour out 
 the oil for the light. They exhibit the 
 truths of the gospel to the minds of their 
 
PROPHESYING OF THE WITNESSES. 87 
 
 audience,, and these truths are a constant 
 source of illumination, both to them and 
 the world around thorn. It is in this 
 sense that Christians are said to be " the 
 light of the world, a city set upon a hill 
 that cannot be hid." 
 
 For the better understanding of our 
 subject, we will give the wording of the 
 prophecy touching the witnessss: "When 
 they shall have finished their testimony, 
 the beast that ascendeth out of the bot- 
 tomless pit shall make war against them, 
 and shall overcome them, and kill them. 
 And their dead bodies shall lie in the 
 street of the great city, which spiritually 
 is called Sodom and Egypt, where also 
 our Lord was crucified. And they of the 
 people, and kindred, and tongues, and 
 nations, shall see their dead bodies three 
 days and an half, and shall not sutler their 
 dead bodies to be put in graves And 
 they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice 
 over them, and make merry, and shall 
 send gifts one to another; because these 
 
88 PROPHESYING OF THE WITNESSES. 
 
 two prophets tormented them that dwelt 
 on the earth. And after three days and 
 an half, the Spirit of life from God entered 
 into them, and they stood upon their feet; 
 and great fear fell upon them which saw 
 them. And they heard a great voice 
 from heaven, saying unto them, Come up 
 hither. And they ascended up to heaven 
 in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. 
 And the same hour was there a great earth- 
 quake, and the tenth part of the city fell, 
 and in the earthquake were slain of men 
 seven thousand; and the remnant were 
 affrighted, and gave glory to the God of 
 heaven." It is obvious that this language 
 is highly figurative. The great city is no 
 particular city upon the earth, but means 
 every part of the world where anti-Christ 
 prevails. The prophecy relates chiefly to 
 the ten kingdoms which are called the 
 "ten horns of the beast," and it is well 
 known that although they do not all at 
 this time acknowledge the jurisdiction of 
 the Church of Rome, yet the spirit of 
 
PROPHESYING OP THE WITNESSES. 89 
 
 anti-Christ has a powerful influence through- 
 out every one of them. Any kind of 
 spirit that sets up itself against the au- 
 thority and government of Jesus Christ, 
 is the spirit of anti-Christ. 
 
 God calls them his two witnesses because 
 two are necessary to establish a fact in 
 evidence, Matt, xviii, 16. And we find 
 that God frequently commanded that two 
 should be joined in their commission: 
 Moses and Aaron in Egypt. In the apos- 
 tasy of the ten tribes, Elijah and Elisha 
 were true witnesses. Christ sent forth his 
 disciples, "two and two;" and it is a re- 
 markable fact that in the days of the 
 Reformation, the reformers appeared in 
 pairs, as the Waldenses and Albigenses, 
 John Iiuss and Jerome of Prague, Luther 
 and Calvin, Cranmer and Ridley. These 
 were witnesses of the truth. But 
 
 2. The time of their prophesying and 
 death. It is said to be, one thousand two 
 hundred and three score days. There is 
 some difficulty in fixing the precise time 
 
90 PROPHESYING OF THE WITNESSES. 
 
 when their prophesying commenced. The 
 strong probability is, that it commenced 
 about the period when the "man of sin " 
 was exalted; as God after declaring through 
 John that the holy city should be trodden 
 under foot " forty and two months," imme- 
 diately adds, " and I will give power unto 
 my two witnesses," &c. From which we 
 may infer that the treading of the city and 
 the prophesying of the witnesses would 
 commence about the same period. There 
 is, however, one distinction to be ob- 
 served in the investigation of this subject. 
 That the prophesying, and the giving of 
 solemn testimony, are two different things; 
 and both words are used with respect to 
 the witnesses. Hence, it is said when they 
 shall have finished their testimony, the 
 beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless 
 pit shall make war against them, and shall 
 overcome them, and kill them. They 
 bore their solemn testimony to the truth 
 from the time that the little horn cast it 
 down to the ground, until all Europe was 
 
PROPHESYING OF THE WITNESSES. 91 
 
 aroused by the voice of Luther, and the 
 Pope was made to tremble on his polluted 
 throne at Rome. For ten centuries sin 
 seemed to triumph over holiness; false- 
 hood over truth; and vice over virtue. 
 But during all this dark period to the 
 Church, there were witnesses for the truth 
 in the persons of different individuals; and 
 as they were called "from earth away/' 
 others were raised up in their stead, and 
 thus a few were kept by the power of God 
 who were as the salt of the earth. But 
 they were slain at last, and the animosity 
 of their enemies was not satisfied at their 
 death merely, but was seen in the disre- 
 spect shown to the bodies of the witnesses 
 after death. The two witnesses in the 
 persons of different individuals bore testi- 
 mony in a most solemn and serious man- 
 ner for the truth until the sixteenth 
 century dawned upon the world, and lifted 
 upon the Church the Star of Hope, then, 
 their testimony ceased; or, Hhey finished 
 their testimony as to themselves. They 
 
92 PROPHESYING OF THE WITNESSES. 
 
 were few in number, but two. Now, the 
 period had come when the number of wit- 
 nesses should be increased. Like some 
 mighty constellation that bursts from the 
 east at the hour of midnight, the Reform- 
 ers appeared, and at a time moreover, 
 when the sinking Church needed their 
 courage and their prayers, a time when 
 moral darkness was almost total, and like 
 that of Egypt could seem to be felt. It 
 would not be the small number of two, 
 who would now testify for God. Sin, 
 however, increased, and the power of the 
 beast thereby was enhanced, and he made 
 war against the witnesses and killed them, 
 and they remained dead three days and a 
 half, or prophetically, three years and a 
 half. And then the Spirit of life from 
 God entered into them, and they stood 
 upon their feet. I will close this second 
 head by inserting in this place a portion 
 of the notes of A. Barnes. The reader 
 will remember that it was after they had 
 finished their testimony they were killed, 
 
* PROPHESYING OF THE WITNESSES. 93 
 
 and not after they had ceased prophesying, 
 for they were to prophesy 1260 years. 
 After they were brought to life, they pro- 
 phesied as before, but their position was 
 then different; they were called up to 
 heaven in the sight of their enemies, by 
 which we are to understand their elevation 
 in respect to the Church, and the effects 
 which followed were enough to convince a 
 slumbering world of the truth of which 
 they bore their most solemn testimony : 
 ' there was a great earthquake.' 
 
 The object in quoting from Mr. Barnes 
 is to show when the witnesses were slain, 
 and how it was done : " Now it happens 
 that there was a point of time, just previous 
 to the Reformation, when it was supposed 
 that a complete victory was gained over 
 those who were regarded as 'heretics,' but 
 who were, in fact, the true witnesses for 
 Christ. That point of time was during 
 the session of the Council of Lateran, 
 which was assembled A. D. 1513, ami 
 which continued its sessions to May 10. 
 
94 PROPHESYING OF THE WITNESSES. 
 
 1517. In the ninth session of this council, 
 a remarkable proclamation was made, indi- 
 cating that all opposition to the Papal 
 power had now ceased. The scene is thus 
 described by Mr. Elliott (ii, 396, 397): 
 'The orator of the session ascended the 
 pulpit; and amidst the applause of the 
 assembled Council, uttered that memorable 
 exclamation of triumph — an exclamation 
 which, notwithstanding the long multiplied 
 anti-heretical decrees of Popes and Coun- 
 cils, notwithstanding the yet more multi- 
 plied anti-heretical crusades and inquisito- 
 rial fires, was never, I believe, pronounced 
 before, and certainly never since. Jam 
 nemo reclamed, nuttus ohsistit? ' There is 
 an end of resistance to the Papal rule and 
 religion ; opposers there exist no more; ' 
 and again, ' The whole body of Christen- 
 dom is now seen to be subjected to its 
 head, i. e. to Thee.'' " This occurred May 
 5, 1514. It is, probably, from this time 
 that the three days and a half, or three 
 years and a half, during which the dead 
 
PROPHESYING OF THE WITNESSES, 5(J 
 
 bodies of the witnesses remained unburied 
 and were exposed to public gaze and 
 derision, are to be reckoned. 
 
 But it was with remarkable accuracy 
 that a period of three years and a half 
 occurred from the time when this procla- 
 mation was made, and when it was sup- 
 posed that these witnesses were dead, to 
 the time when the voice of living witnesses 
 for the truth was heard again, as if those 
 witnesses that had been silenced had come 
 to life again ; and " not in the compass of 
 the whole ecclesiastical history of Chris- 
 tendom, except in the case of the death 
 and resurrection of Christ himself, is there 
 any example of the sudden, mighty, and 
 triumphant resuscitation of his Church 
 from a state of deep depression, as was 
 just after the separation of the Lateran 
 Council exhibited, in the protesting voice 
 of Luther, and the glorious Reformation." 
 All accounts agree in placing the beginning 
 of the Reformation in A. D. 1517. The 
 effect of this, as compared with the sup- 
 
96 PROPHESYING OF THE WITNESSES. 
 
 posed suppression of heresy, or the death 
 of the witnesses, and as an illustration of 
 this passage before us will be seen from 
 the following language of a writer in the 
 Encyclopedia Brittanica : " Everything 
 was quiet; every heretic exterminated: 
 and the whole Christian world supinely 
 acquiescing in the enormous absurdities 
 inculcated in the Romish Church, when, 
 in 1517, the empire of superstition re- 
 ceived its first attack from Luther." Or, 
 in the language of Mr. Cunningham: "At 
 the commencement of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, Europe reposed in the deep sleep of 
 spiritual death, under the iron yoke of the 
 Papacy. There was none that moved 
 the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped ; 
 when suddenly in one of the universities 
 of Germany the voice of an obscure monk 
 was heard, the sound of which rapidly 
 filled Saxony, Germany, and Europe itself; 
 shaking the very foundations of the Papal 
 power, and arousing men from the lethargy 
 of ages." 
 
PROPHESYING OF THE WITNESSES. 97 
 
 "The remarkable coincidence in regard 
 to time — supposing that three years and 
 a half are intended — will be seen from the 
 following statement. The day of the 
 ninth session of the Lateran Council, when 
 the proclamation above referred to was 
 made, was, as we have seen, May 5, 1514; 
 the day of Luther's posting up his thesis 
 at Wittenberg (the well known epoch of 
 the beginning of the Reformation) was 
 Oct. 31, 1517. "Now from May 5, 1514, 
 to May 5, 1517, are three years ; and 
 from May 5, 1517, to October 31 of the 
 same year, 1517, the reckoning in days 
 is as follows : 
 
 May 5, 31 . 
 
 .27, 
 
 August 31 . 
 
 . 31 
 
 June 30 . 
 
 . 30, 
 
 Sept. 30 . 
 
 . 30 
 
 July 31 . 
 
 . 31, 
 
 October 31 . 
 
 . 31 
 
 In all 180, or half of 360 days, that is 
 half a year; so that the whole interval is 
 precisely to a day three and a half years.' 
 Elliott, ii, 402, 403. 
 
 No wonder that Pope Hadrian, in his 
 
98 PKOPHESYING OF THE WITNESSES. 
 
 address to the Diet at Nuremberg, used 
 the following emphatic language : " The 
 heretics Huss and Jerome are now alive 
 again, in the person of Martin Luther." m . 
 
 We are now to examine, in the next 
 place, 
 
 3d. Their resuscitation, and the conse- 
 quences which followed. After the dead 
 bodies of the witnesses had received the 
 scorn, contempt, and derision of their 
 enemies, and the delectable spirit of those 
 who hated the witnesses, began to evince 
 itself in the way of sending "gifts one to 
 another," the spirit of life from God 
 entered into them, and they stood upon 
 their feet, "and great fear fell upon them 
 which saw them." The reader will be 
 kind enough to notice the difference 
 between testimony and evidence. Web- 
 ster says, "testimony differs from evidence; 
 testimony is the declaration of a witness, 
 and evidence is the effect of the declara- 
 
 *This view of the subject accords with that of John dim- 
 ming, D.D. 
 
PROPHESYING OP THE WITNESSES. 99 
 
 tion on the mind, or the degree of light 
 which it affords." It was the effect that 
 followed the bold and fearless declaration 
 made by the reformers who were witnesses, 
 that shed a brilliant light in their day. 
 The centurion may have had his scruples 
 whether this may not be the Son of God, 
 but it was not until after the earthquake, 
 which immediately followed the death of 
 Christ, that he was forced to say, " Truly 
 this was the Son of God." "And the 
 same hour was there a great earthquake, 
 and the tenth part of the city fell, and in 
 the earthquake were slain of men seven 
 thousand." This was the effect which 
 followed the resuscitation of the witnesses. 
 The most respectable commentators that 
 have written upon this subject, give it as 
 their opinion, that the tenth part of the 
 city means one of the ten kingdoms whose 
 power and strength were given to the 
 beast; and for the fulfillment of the pro- 
 phecy referred to under the terrible image 
 of an earthquake, we must ascertain if 
 
100 PROPHESYING OF THE WITNESSES. 
 
 there is to be found in history any circum- 
 stance in which any one of the ten king- 
 doms ever fell. If this can be done, then 
 another proof springs up before us. The 
 expression " same hour/' need not be 
 insisted upon very accurately, as all 
 governments rise or fall in proportion to 
 their magnitude. 
 
 Commentators differ as to what is to be 
 understood by the "tenth part of the city/' 
 in its fall. We think it may be applied to 
 Spain. It is a well known fact, that no 
 kingdom was ever more favored in the 
 support of this monster of iniquity than 
 the kingdom of Spain. That government 
 has always been the most strenuous sup- 
 porter of the Romish hierarchy, and the 
 most bitter persecutor of the Church of 
 God. There, torrents of the blood of 
 martyrs have flowed, and the persecutors 
 have even boasted of their cruelties. There, 
 every attempt at a free and honest decla- 
 ration of the truth has been branded with 
 the odious appellation of heresy, and the 
 
PROPHESYING OP THE WITNESSES. 101 
 
 offender consigned to the horrors of the 
 Inquisition. 
 
 And yet Spain, at the commencement 
 of the Reformation, possessed what could 
 not be said of Italy, a noble, high minded 
 people, who were religiously inclined. 
 Her locality was such as might have 
 rendered her independent of Rome. It 
 was remote and isolated ; and her distance 
 from the scene of Reformation makes it 
 evident that she would be affected but 
 little by it in the commencement. There 
 was no country where a revival of true 
 and vital piety could have been expected 
 so much as in Spain. From her should 
 have emanated that principle of Chris- 
 tianity which they had at first received 
 perhaps from the Apostle Paul himself. 
 She willingly rendered a servile obedience 
 to her priests. The priests on the other 
 hand had in their possession the treasury ; 
 they also ruled in the peninsula. When 
 avarice and ambition had carried the arms 
 of Rome into the heart of Spain, they 
 
102 PROPHESYING OF THE WITNESSES. 
 
 found the soil in many places pregnant 
 with silver and gold. A mine adjacent to 
 Carthagenia yielded twenty thousand 
 drachms of silver every day. Astoria, 
 Gallicia, and Lusitania, yielded twenty 
 thousand pounds of gold annually. From 
 which source a large revenue was poured 
 into the treasury at Rome. She gave her 
 power and strength to the beast. They 
 equipped fleets and went to destroy the 
 good work of the Reformation. But the 
 nations attacked by them were elevated, 
 and Spain, by their united efforts, was 
 eventually crushed. 
 
 But, as Spain has been foremost in the 
 cruelties of persecution, so God, with her, 
 has commenced the work of vengeance. 
 Seldom has there been a more striking 
 accomplishment of prophecy than in the 
 dreadful downfall of Spain. Raised to a 
 high pinnacle of honor among the nations of 
 the earth by the spirit of liberty and 
 emancipation generated among her sons, 
 rejoicing in the prospect of a free govern- 
 
PROPHESYING OF THE WITNESSES. 103 
 
 merit to be handed down to future genera- 
 tions, she has sunk to the lowest state of 
 degradation and wretchedness. There is 
 scarcely to be found in the records of 
 history, a similar account of a nation 
 having such fair and splendid prospects of 
 prosperity, and such elevation of charac- 
 ter among the nations of the earth, which 
 has had those prospects more rapidly 
 blasted, or has fallen deeper into misery. 
 There was a period in the history of Spain 
 when she was without a rival. She was at 
 the head of the European powers; her 
 military prowess was acknowledged. Por- 
 tugal was added to it, together with many 
 settlements in the East Indies — the com- 
 merce of those regions increased their naval 
 power. Italy, with all her princes, the 
 Pope, and even the court of Rome, were 
 measurably reduced to subjection under 
 Philip. "The Austrian branch in Ger- 
 many, with their dependent principalities, 
 was closely connected with him, and was 
 ready to supply him with troops for every 
 
104 PROPHESYING OF THE WITNESSES. 
 
 enterprise." With all these advantages 
 she reached the climax of her glory. She 
 felt her greatness. Philip, chagrined 
 under his repulses in the Netherlands, 
 determined to attack England in order to 
 avenge himself on Queen Elizabeth, for 
 the aid she rendered the Hollanders, who 
 made a successful defense in favor of the 
 principles of Protestantism. Nothing 
 less than a complete reduction of England 
 again to the domination of Rome, would 
 satisfy him. Philip was a bigoted, cruel 
 Catholic; he persecuted the people of God 
 in a most inhuman manner. 
 
 At the time he purposed in his heart to 
 avenge himself on Elizabeth, Spain had 
 reached the summit of her glory. Immense 
 preparations were made, says one, "in all 
 parts of Sicily, Naples, Spain, Portugal; 
 artizans were employed in building vessels 
 of uncommon size and force; naval stores 
 were bought up at great expense; provi- 
 sions amassed ; armies levied and quartered 
 in the maratime provinces, and plans laid 
 
PROPHESYING OF THE WITNESSES. 105 
 
 for such an embarkation as had never 
 before appeared on the ocean. The military 
 preparations in Flanders were no less for- 
 midable. The troops from all quarters 
 were every moment assembling to 
 re-inforce the duke of Parma, who em- 
 ployed all the carpenters he could procure 
 in building flat-bottomed vessels to trans- 
 port into England an army of thirty-five 
 thousand men assembled in the Nether- 
 lands." Thus was fitted out by labor and 
 great expense, what was proudly styled 
 the Invincible Armada, and which was 
 deemed of sufficient strength to strike a 
 successful blow upon England. There 
 was not even a question raised as to the 
 issue. This formidible armament was 
 consigned to the command of Marquis of 
 Santa Grace, a sea officer of great celebrity; 
 and who would dare, under all the seemingly 
 favorable circumstances, whisper a doubt 
 as to the success that would attend them. 
 Spanish and Italian noblemen embarked as 
 volunteers, in order to share in the glory 
 7 
 
106 PROPHESYING OF THE WITNESSES. 
 
 of so great a conquest. The fleet sailed 
 in 1588. They approached the shores of 
 England, "coming full sail, disposed in the 
 form of a crescent, and stretching the dis- 
 tance of seven miles, from the extremity 
 of one division to that of the other." 
 This was, perhaps, the most powerful fleet 
 that ever sailed upon the ocean. The 
 hearts of brave men trembled for the 
 fate of England. But God 
 
 " Who rules on high, and thunders when he please, 
 That rides upon the stormy sky, and manages the seas," 
 
 sent a mighty gale, by which many of the 
 Spanish vessels were wrecked, and only 
 about one half were permitted to return 
 home. Not a Spaniard was permitted to 
 set his foot upon the soil of England. The 
 destruction of this vast and formidable 
 armament, was accomplished almost with- 
 out the aid of any human being whatever. 
 " Afflavit Deus et dissipantur"* 
 
 * This was an inscription caused to be struck on medals by 
 Queen Elizabeth, commemorating this signal deliverance of 
 Providence. 
 
PROPHESYING OF THE WITNESSES. 107 
 
 Thus, the visionary schemes of Philip 
 vanished like smoke. The expectations 
 that soared so high were blasted. From 
 this period Spain began to sink; her 
 career has been downward. She lost one 
 province after another, until she is now, as 
 it were, reduced to beggary. Her own 
 civil wars have rent and torn her asunder, 
 and now she has but a name to live. Thus, 
 the very kingdom that tried to check the 
 progress of the Reformation at last fell, 
 and her fall may well be represented by 
 the image of an earthquake. Sable night 
 has covered her with a mantle of gloom. 
 The sun of her glory went down amidst 
 the gloom and shame of human blood. 
 
 The defeat of the Invincible Armada 
 led the priests to assert that the defeat 
 was owing to the fact that the Moors were 
 permitted to live among them, and conse- 
 quently they were driven out of the coun- 
 try, and thus the most industrious, and 
 useful inhabitants were banished. Another 
 cause of her awful decline. She began to 
 
108 PROPHESYING OF THE WITNESSES, 
 
 sink, and sink until Ichobad might with 
 propriety be written on her banner. 
 
 The image or representation of this 
 dreadful calamity is taken from one of the 
 most terrible convulsions of nature. Noth- 
 ing upon earth can be more tremendous 
 than an earthquake. When the earth shakes 
 and tremble s, when the foundations of the 
 hills are moved, when villages and cities 
 and all their inhabitants sink into the 
 abyss, it is a most awful exhibition of the 
 wrath of God. Hence, such images are 
 frequently used by the prophets to signify 
 the moral convulsions by which govern- 
 ments are overturned. A moral earth- 
 quake is that kind of revolution by which 
 the moral establishments of nations are 
 broken up, their political institutions over- 
 turned, and the w 7 hole nation thrown into 
 confusion and dismay. Such has been 
 the earthquake which has shaken to its 
 center this tenth part of the cily, and 
 turned the whole land into a scene of 
 devastation and ruin. There is something 
 
PROPHESYING OF THE WITNESSES. 109 
 
 remarkable in the phraseology of this pre- 
 diction, and which makes it still more 
 evident that this event was intended. The 
 literal rendering of the prophecy is, "there 
 were slain in the earthquake, names of 
 men seven thousand." This evidently 
 signifies a large number of the most emi- 
 nent characters in the nation. It is pre- 
 dicted that the judgments will chiefly fall 
 upon men of name, rank, dignity, and 
 power. This has been remarkably the 
 case in the judgments on Spain. In com- 
 mon wars the calamity falls chiefly upon 
 the lower classes of society; but here the 
 judgment has fallen chiefly upon the men 
 of name, of eminence in the nation. 
 Scarcely a doubt can exist in the minds 
 of those who investigate the subject with 
 intelligence and candor, that the dreadful 
 judgments on Spain are the accomplish- 
 ments of this remarkable prophecy. 
 
 Another proof, my hearers, that we are 
 approximating the millennium. With 
 these facts before us, we can arrive at no 
 
110 PROPHESYING OF THE WITNESSES. 
 
 other conclusion than that great moral 
 revolutions are shortly to transpire. Every 
 opposition will be crushed beneath the 
 gigantic wheels of the blood-stained car 
 in which the Redeemer is riding in 
 majestic and terrible triumph through a 
 conquered empire. A good reason, my 
 friends, why we should aw T ake out of sleep, 
 and put on the armor of light, and go forth 
 conquering and to conquer, until Christ, by 
 the united voices of two worlds, shall be 
 proclaimed universal king. 
 
 The nearness of the millennium is no valid 
 reason why we should relax our energies, 
 or grow cold and indifferent to religion, 
 but it is a reason why our intellectual 
 faculties and physical energies should find 
 their purest and noblest, and invigorating, 
 and energetic employment in this work : 
 because a great work is to be done, and 
 but little time in which to do it. And if 
 you refuse to consecrate all your powers 
 to this w r ork, God will confer upon others 
 the honor of being co-workers with him 
 
PROPHESYING OF THE WITNESSES. Ill 
 
 the Sovereign and Saviour of all, in plant- 
 ing the standard of the cross on the isles 
 of the sea, and over the whole surface of 
 the globe. The whole must and will be 
 accomplished, and it will be executed 
 through human instrumentalities. " Bring 
 forth therefore fruits meet for repentance ; 
 And think not to say within yourselves, 
 We have Abraham to our father ; for I 
 say unto you, that God is able of these 
 stones to raise up children unto Abraham." 
 As much as if he had said, the time has 
 now come when, for the accomplishment of 
 his own purposes, God will have a faithful 
 and industrious people through whom this 
 work is to be performed. And if you are 
 unwilling to engage in it, He will raise up 
 others if it must be done by a miracle. 
 
 Think not that you are placed in this 
 world simply to buy and get gain; but a 
 work is to be done by every adult person 
 before me. Each of you, my hearers, are 
 links in the great chain of human existence. 
 And there is not an individual in this 
 
112 PROPHESYING OF THE WITNESSES, 
 
 assembly — no matter how much obscurity 
 may surround him — whose existence does 
 not stir a ripple gyrating outward and 
 inward in its concentric circles, until it 
 reaches across the whole ocean of God's 
 eternity, setting in motion the river of 
 life, and the crystal fountain where ten 
 thousand mighty angels drink. Why, then, 
 should you suffer these ft golden moments" 
 to "glide swiftly away/' without improving 
 them to the glory of God, and the best and 
 most enduring interests of the undying 
 soul in this world and in the world beyond 
 the stars. 
 
 Angels, my hearers, would gladly for a 
 season lay down their golden harps, and 
 leave the hallelujahs of heaven, to become 
 the honored instruments of bearing the 
 messages of mercy to fallen humanity. 
 But God has seen fit to select you and I, 
 as the bearers of the "blessed Gospel" to 
 the world. And shall w T e refuse to engage 
 in a work that would draw from the skies 
 the brightest and tallest of the first-bom 
 
PROPHESYING OF THE WITNESSES. 113 
 
 sons of light, if lie were permitted sc 
 to do? 
 
 May you aid by your prayers and your 
 offerings in this work of love; and may 
 you be permitted to share in the unprece- 
 dented honors of that day, when the voices 
 of untold millions will proclaim in tones of 
 thunder, and sweet as the music of the 
 spheres, the inauguration of Heaven's 
 King over the vast universe of God; and 
 this earth become 
 
 " A cathedral boundless as our wonder, 
 Whose quenchless lamp the sun and moon supply ; 
 Its choir the winds and waves, its organ thunder, 
 Its dome the sky." 
 
LECTURE IV. 
 
 %\t (%rt| In |)efer, a §ml, mfc f 0Jw. 
 
LECTURE IV. 
 
 " And knowledge shall be increased." — Dan. xii, 4. 
 
 The Church, as an organic whole, may 
 be considered as having been very fitly 
 represented in the persons of the three 
 great Apostles, Peter, Paul, and John. 
 Not, however, in any power delegated to 
 them abstractly; nor in any authority in 
 the Church over the rest of the Apostles, 
 or with other members of the mystical 
 body of Christ. But the Church as a con- 
 crete whole has been shadowed forth by 
 the spirit that characterized them, while 
 they lived on these mundane shores after 
 their conversion to Christianity. 
 
 Peter was a bold, courageous, undaunted, 
 fearless disciple of Christ. No hostility 
 could check his ardor — no obstacle arrest 
 
118 THE CHURCH 
 
 his progress. He is distinguished from 
 the other Apostles by a fiery, excitable, 
 choleric, sanguine temperament. He was 
 characterized by a bold self-reliance, prompt 
 readiness for action, and a considerable 
 talent for representation and church gov- 
 ernment. By his excitable and impulsive 
 nature he was very easily led to a false 
 estimate of his own powers; which accounts, 
 perhaps, for his denial of the Lord. In 
 depth of knowledge and the principle of 
 love he doubtless falls short of Paul and 
 John; and he was not so well prepared on 
 this account for the business of completion. 
 His talents were admirably adapted for 
 the business of beginning, or for the first 
 formation of religious enterprises. 
 
 He was never able to conceal his inmost 
 nature ; it comes everywhere involuntarily 
 light, and consequently we become thus 
 better acquainted both with his virtues 
 and his faults from the evangelical narra- 
 tive than we are with the other Apostles. 
 
 On several occasions, when the other 
 
IN PETER, PAUL, AND JOHN. 119 
 
 disciples began to yield to a feeling of 
 discouragement, Peter stood forth, and 
 rallied their sinking hopes. Once, espe 
 cially, the concourse of followers whom 
 Christ had collected around him withdrew, 
 and the Apostles themselves had secretly 
 formed the same design. But this illus- 
 trious man, unmoved by the terrible array 
 of threatened persecution, remained by his 
 deserted Master. "Lord," said he with 
 his usual characteristic warmth, " to whom 
 shall we go? Thou hast the words of 
 eternal life, and we believe, and we are 
 sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of 
 the living God." Read his biography, 
 and you will find a constellation of most 
 noble qualities. Sanguine in his hopes, 
 bold in his plans, and fearless, not to say 
 impetuous, in the work of the ministry. 
 A bold, decided fidelity to the Saviour 
 embodied itself in all his cod duct after his 
 restoration, and if after this period he had 
 a fault other than the common frailties of 
 nature, it was his impatience at the meek 
 
120 THE CHURCH 
 
 and gradual advance of Christianity. 
 He wished to push it forward with a zeal 
 proportioned to its real claims, and a cor- 
 responding violence with that which op- 
 posed it. In his eagerness for the accom- 
 plishment of this purpose, he manifested 
 a strong desire to lead the little band of 
 Christians againat their blood-thirsty ene- 
 mies. And if Christ had resorted to the 
 use of the sword in establishing his reli- 
 gion, there can be no doubt but intrepid 
 Peter would have brandished his sword for 
 the conflict. He would have kept the 
 field at all hazards till he was a conqueror 
 or a corpse. When the motley crowd 
 came out from Jerusalem with swords and 
 staves to seize the person of Christ, Peter, 
 not daunted at their approach, drew his 
 sword, attacked them single-handed, and 
 had he been permitted, would have re- 
 pelled them, or perished in the attempt. 
 He smote oif the ear of the servant of the 
 High Priest, evincing in the strongest 
 manner the spirit by which he was gov- 
 
IN PETER, PAUL, AND JOHN. 121 
 
 erned. Each of the Apostles, possessed 
 his own peculiar qualification conferred not 
 by inspiration, but by nature, which the 
 Holy Ghost subsidized into the service of 
 Christianity. But a few hours or days 
 after the crucifixion of the Son of God, 
 before the blood on the Cross was dried, 
 we behold this fearless man preaching 
 Jesus and the resurrection to the very 
 people who had imbued their hands in 
 innocent blood. He hesitates not to re- 
 mind them of their cruelties to the Saviour; 
 and charges them with murdering the 
 Redeemer, and with all the energy of his 
 soul urges them to apply the blood of 
 Christ to the cleansing of their sins, and 
 thus be fitted for heaven. 
 
 At one time, with unbecoming familiarity 
 and unconscious presumption, he admin* 
 isters a rebuke to Christ, and tried to dis- 
 suade him from the course of suffering 
 which was requisite for the redemption of 
 the world. At another time, his high- 
 minded modesty leads him to make him- 
 8 
 
122 THE CHURCH 
 
 self wiser than his Master: "Lord, dost 
 thou wash my feet ? Thou shalt never 
 wash my feet ! " From all these peculi- 
 arities brought to view in the biography of 
 Peter, it is obvious that he was disposed 
 to build up his Master's cause by coercive 
 means if necessary. A bold, stern, un- 
 daunted spirit characterized this illustrious 
 man through his whole life, which the ter- 
 rors of the cross could not abate. 
 
 Peter represents the Church under the 
 Romish Hierarchy. It is a principle incor- 
 porated in her very nature to propagate 
 her sentiments by coercive means. For 
 those who refused to comply with her re- 
 quirements, however unjust they were, 
 there was the blazing faggot, or the cell of 
 the barbarous Inquisition. The only way 
 to stop the progress of Protestantism, and 
 thus save their own Church, was the use 
 of the most hellish instruments of torture 
 that wicked men could devise. 
 
 This is not fiction, nor is it a whim of 
 the imagination. It is sober reality. It 
 
IN PETER, PAUL, AND JOHN. 123 
 
 is unvarnished truth. It comes to us con- 
 firmed by the voice of history; and the 
 individual who asserts any thing to the 
 contrary, either betrays his ignorance of 
 history, or involves himself in the charge 
 of imbibing selfish principles respecting 
 his own desired ends. 
 
 The condition of the Pope at this time 
 is very precarious : there is no nation to 
 whom he can look for succor with any 
 degree of certainty : for this very reason, 
 the days of the Romish church are nearly 
 numbered — a strong proof that her suc- 
 cess and existence depends exclusively 
 on coercive measures. But, now Christ 
 says to them, through the person of Peter, 
 "put up thy sword into the sheath." 
 
 It is an interesting fact, that some of 
 the kingdoms and countries hitherto held 
 by Catholic power, are becoming more and 
 more alienated from the domination of 
 Rome. Sardinia, comprising the north- 
 western part of Italy, is gradually throwing 
 off the restraints of the Romish Church. 
 
124 THE CHURCH 
 
 South America, and Brazil, particularly, 
 is becoming more and more favorable to 
 religious liberty. Even degraded Spain 
 is beginning to cherish a ray of hope. 
 There is a waking up in our own beloved 
 country among the members of the Romish 
 communion. The passage of the " Church 
 Tenure Bill," by the Legislature of the 
 State of New York, has produced quite a 
 sensation, and many thousands of Roman 
 Catholics, in several States, have been very 
 decided and earnest in demanding the 
 passage of a law preventing the title of 
 their Churches from being invested in the 
 hands of the Bishops. 
 
 It is self-evident that the career of the 
 Romish Church is nearly run. She is 
 tottering to the fall. Her name is Ichabod, 
 and soon "the kings of the earth, who have 
 committed fornication and lived deliriously 
 with her, shall bewail her, and lament for 
 her, when they shall see the smoke of her 
 burning, standing afar off for fear of her 
 torment, saying, Alas ! alas ! that great city 
 
IN PETER, PAUL, AND JOHN. 125 
 
 Babylon, that mighty city ! for in one hour 
 is thy judgment come." She is passing 
 away, and Paul stands before us as the 
 next fit representative of the Church. 
 
 Paul was the most profound scholar in 
 the infancy of the Church. All the other 
 apostles were unlearned. They had little 
 or no knowledge of letters and philosophy. 
 In order to the success of the Church, it 
 was necessary that some one be selected 
 whose acquaintance with the arts and 
 sciences and the various branches of learn- 
 ing, might enable him to combat with 
 Jewish doctors and Pagan philosophers. 
 The person chosen for this purpose was 
 Saul of Tarsus, a virulent enemy to the 
 Christians, who possessed an invincible 
 courage, which led him to persecute the 
 saints of God even unto death. 
 
 He was a man of good education and 
 fine classical learning. He became ac- 
 quainted with Latin and Greek literature 
 in his native place, and was then sent to 
 Jerusalem where he entered a school of 
 
126 THE CHURCH 
 
 great celebrity; gifted with eminent talents, 
 with creative genius, and a rare keenness 
 and energy of intellect, he made himself 
 master of the whole extent of Rabbinical 
 learning; having for his preceptor the 
 celebrated Gamaliel, who, according to the 
 Jewish Talmud, was styled "The glory of 
 the law." His proficiency here was so 
 great, that he was elected, even while a 
 student, to a seat in the Sanhedrim. His 
 learning included jurisprudence, as w 7 ell as 
 theology, and the various modes of inter- 
 preting the Bible — allegory, typology and 
 tradition — as his epistles abundantly dem- 
 onstrate. By the knowledge he acquired 
 in these respects, he was fully armed and 
 equipped for the defense of the doctrines 
 of the cross in which he so much after- 
 wards gloried, and upon w 7 hich he imme- 
 diately entered after the Spirit of God 
 changed the direction of the powers of his 
 master mind. By it he was enabled to 
 unfold the doctrinal contents of Christianity 
 in a solid and complete manner. Nor did 
 
SN PETER, PAUL, AND JOHN. 127 
 
 he fail to refute with most wonderful skill 
 the errors of the Pharisees. He accom- 
 modated himself to the character of his 
 hearers ; when addressing a Jewish assem- 
 bly, he would quote from the Prophets ; 
 when addressing a Pagan audience, he 
 quoted from their poets, Aratus (Acts xvii, 
 28), from Menander (1 Cor. xv, 33), and 
 from Epimenides (Tit. i, 12). With his 
 mind stored with the richest gems of nature, 
 with an extensive knowledge of the arts, 
 he went forth propagating the doctrines of 
 the cross; and although he was a man of 
 infirm health, and of a very unpleasant 
 hesitancy of enunciation, yet we find him 
 commanding respect from every audience, 
 and in every circle. Infidelity withered 
 under his eye; wit shrunk from the dignity 
 of his frown; and the decorated insolence 
 of office trembled before him, even while 
 he stood a criminal at its bar. 
 
 It is impossible to read his epistles with 
 candor, or even with care, without discover- 
 ing a correct, profound, and comprehensive 
 
328 
 
 THE CHURCH 
 
 mind. It is true he wrote by inspiration ; 
 but this only shielded him from error ; he 
 was left, as was every other inspired person, 
 with his own peculiarities of style and 
 thought. 
 
 His course of reasoning is different from 
 all the other New Testament writers. He 
 is more nervous, more forcible ; reasoning 
 seems to have been more his object. There 
 is something in all his epistles which shows 
 us what his education had been ; purity of 
 language, and correctness of conception, 
 which we can easily see, was entirely 
 original with him. In many parts he is 
 highly eloquent, particularly where he 
 was called to defend himself in public. 
 Nothing but his talents could have pro- 
 duced the prodigious effects which fol- 
 lowed his discourses. True, the Spirit 
 applied what he said. Yet, he most assu- 
 redly was one of the most remarkable 
 men that ever had an existence. " Much 
 learning," said one of his judges, " doth 
 make thee mad." Much learning indeed 
 
IN PETER, PAUL, AND JOHN. 129 
 
 the apostle had ; but it was a very different 
 man who had the madness. 
 
 His mighty mind seems to have under- 
 stood the principles of Christianity more 
 perfectly than any of his cotemporaries. 
 There is but one point upon which he did 
 not enter ; with all his profound erudition, 
 to him it was incomprehensible ; "great is 
 the mystery of godliness : God manifested 
 in the flesh;" and on that subject he has 
 warned us not to enter into a controversy 
 respecting it: " without controversy, great 
 is the mystery of godliness, 55 &c. It is 
 not to be wondered that Paul could not 
 understand the mystery ; angels them- 
 selves cannot comprehend it; and who can 
 tell but the investigation of this very sub- 
 ject will constitute in, part at least, the 
 enjoyment of saints in "that better land. 55 
 "Angels, 55 we are told, "desire to look 
 into it; 55 and if they manifest so strong 
 a desire to look into a matter from which 
 they can derive no advantage, so far as 
 redemption is concerned, why may not the 
 
130 THE CHURCH 
 
 saints who are saved by this great mystery, 
 desire to look into it, and learn, if possible, 
 the mystery connected with their ever- 
 lasting salvation. 
 
 Paul stands before us as the representa- 
 tive of the present age, of the world, and 
 the Church as connected with it. No 
 previous period in the history of the w r orld 
 ever witnessed such wonderful develop- 
 ments in relation to the arts and sciences 
 And at no previous period was there such 
 an unwonted ambition to become acquainted 
 at least with the rudiments of useful know- 
 ledge. Learning heretofore had been 
 confined to but few nations, and then only 
 to a few individuals of those nations. 
 Now there is something approximating a 
 universal diffusion of knowledge in every 
 department in life. 
 
 "It is but a few years since the literary 
 trumpery of Paganism — the Koran of 
 Mahommed, the Targums and Talmuds of 
 the Jews, and the nonsensical traditions, 
 legends and ghostly tales of Romanism, 
 
IX PETER, PAUL, AND JOHN. 131 
 
 engrossed nearly all the learning in the 
 world. Truth stood alone. She sighed 
 in vain for any to do her reverence. His- 
 tory, Philosophy, Geography, Physics, 
 Metaphysics and Theology, were unknown, 
 except as dimly seen, befogged and mys- 
 tified in the sacred books of paganism. 
 Socrates fell a martyr to true science. The 
 Copernican system of the heavenly bodies 
 at a much later date, was condemned as a 
 heresy, by the sapient Inquisition of the 
 seventeenth century ; and Galileo, for 
 certain astronomical discoveries made by 
 his newly constructed telescope, and which 
 went to confirm the Copernican heresy, 
 was condemned by the same ghostly court, 
 to all the horrors of perpetual banishment, 
 and forced to purchase- his liberty by 
 retracting his opinions. 
 
 Virgilious, archbishop of Salzburg, was 
 excommunicated by the Church of Rome, 
 and Spegelius, archbishop of Upsal in 
 Sweden, suffered martyrdom at the stake 
 for entertaining the theory of the spherical 
 
132 THE CHURCH 
 
 form of the earth. The discoveries and 
 signal advances made in science by the 
 immortal Bacon, were believed by his 
 ignorant cotemporaries to be the works of 
 magic. But the infernal chain is now 
 measurably broken ; man is intellectually 
 emancipated ; there is freedom of thought, 
 freedom of research, and full scope given 
 to all the inventive and acquisitive powers 
 of mind. 
 
 Late advancements in science have 
 vastly facilitated all the operations of life, 
 and thrown open to the unrestricted range 
 of the mind, fields of immeasurable know- 
 ledge. Astronomy has brought within 
 the scope of our intellectual vision bound- 
 less fields, all radiant with starry gems, 
 which, when plied with telescopic aid 
 become a resplendent galaxy of worlds, all 
 fitted up for the habitation and happiness 
 of immortal beings like ourselves." 
 
 The world is fast rolling on to wonderful 
 scenes. The times are serious and even 
 ominous. God is arising to shake in a 
 
IN PETER, PAUL, AND JOHN. 133 
 
 most terrible manner the nations. A 
 grand work of preparation is going on in 
 the world. Are we not now living in the 
 times long ago predicted by the prophets ? 
 "Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge 
 shall be increased. The chariots shall rage 
 in the streets, they shall justle one against 
 another in the broad ways ; they shall 
 seem like torches, they shall run like the 
 lightnings." Surely the mental ray of 
 these prophets was purged. They beheld 
 the nineteenth century passing before their 
 visions, as a grand panorama. 
 
 The power of steam is made the 
 servant of man. It is used to print his 
 thoughts ; then, as on the wings of the 
 wind, it hurries away to disseminate those 
 thoughts through the world. And thus, 
 has fallen humanity been lifted from the 
 dust, and shown the true and certain way 
 to lasting happiness and eternal peace. 
 
 We are told that the whole New Testa- 
 ment can be printed in one minute ! What 
 increased facilities for spreading knowledge 
 
134 THE CHURCH 
 
 do we possess over our progenitors. In 
 the beginning of the present century, had 
 some one stepped forward and predicted 
 all these new and most astonishing dis- 
 coveries and inventions, it Would have 
 been pronounced visionary. And yet all 
 this is realized. But man has been unwill- 
 ing to stop here, he has reached forth his 
 hand to grasp the lightning that plays 
 around the eternal throne, and has made it 
 do his bidding. Go my servant, haste 
 away, and over hill, and mountain, valley 
 and sea, bear this message to my friend, 
 — go, and in less than a moment return 
 again with an answer. The message starts 
 and time itself is left behind. How we 
 are amazed! It would seem as if we were 
 approaching very near the presence-chamber 
 of the Eternal. 
 
 Again, is there is not a literal " run- 
 ning " in these days? What a stir among 
 the nations ! How they crowd upon us 
 from the old world — about three hundred 
 thousand annually! Every ship comes 
 
IN PETER, PAUL, AND JOHN. 135 
 
 freighted with men, women, children, and 
 merchandise. And what running amongst 
 ourselves ! East, west, north, and south, are 
 to be seen men and women running, one 
 moment here, and the next moment 
 yonder. On our steamboats, we speak of 
 " running " ten, fifteen, and twenty miles 
 an hour. And on our railroad cars, we 
 talk of running thirty, forty, fifty, and 
 sixty miles an hour. Is it not a remarka- 
 ble fact that our fastest running trains are 
 called " lightning trains ? " Surely, the 
 prophet Nahum could not have used more 
 appropriate language in predicting railroads. 
 Could any man who has been permitted to 
 see with his natural eye our railroad trains 
 as they whirl away through many an ample 
 curve and sweep, have described it in a 
 more beautiful and sublime manner than 
 did the prophet Nahum over two thousand 
 five hundred years ago? "They shall 
 seem like torches, they shall run like the 
 lightnings." 
 
 The world is advancing. The eyes of 
 
136 
 
 THE CHURCH 
 
 men are being opened, and there is to be 
 seen wherever man goes, an unprecedented 
 sensibility to all that pertains to the hap- 
 piness of the race. Is there a vice that 
 afflicts humanity? It is at once attacked, 
 and treated as an enemy of the race. Does 
 persecution, superstition, ignorance, and 
 oppression impede the progress and happi- 
 ness of man? A philanthropic spirit is sud- 
 denly roused, and fired with indignation 
 at once, and authoritatively demands re- 
 dress, the expulsion and decapitation of 
 the dreaded foe. 
 
 By the advancement of the science of 
 theology, new light has been educed from 
 the sacred page. The principles of inter- 
 pretation are being better understood ; 
 and for this reason, the Bible has been 
 made to shed a more brilliant light on our 
 pathway. The truth is, learning of all 
 sorts is to an unprecedented extent made 
 to be subservient to the cause of truth. 
 
 Eloquence, history, poetry, literature, 
 science, philosophy, and the arts, are all 
 
IN PETER, PAUL, AND JOHN. 137 
 
 made to subserve the purposes of adorning, 
 defending, enriching, and embellishing the 
 truth. Even the war between liussia and 
 the allied forces of France and Great 
 Britain may be largely subservient to the 
 diffusion of revealed truth. It is carrying 
 back amid the tumult of arms, that light 
 to the East, which first arose there, but 
 from which superstition and tyranny have 
 long banished it. All wars, since the 
 birth of history, we may safely assert, have 
 been propagators of principles, and have 
 pushed forward the human race a stage in 
 their onward progress. The Macedonian 
 conquests rudely shivered the stately but 
 stereotyped forms of oriental government 
 and religion, and helped to diiFuse Greek 
 literature and taste over Asia. 
 
 Truth, we say, is advancing. Prophe- 
 cies are fast fulfilling. New modes of 
 operation are discovered and put into exe- 
 cution; and they have been found to be 
 in accordance with the principles of the 
 Bible. Sabbath schools, what a powerful 
 9 
 
138 THE CHURCH 
 
 means are they in the hands of the 
 Church in disseminating truth ! How they 
 flourish, how they spread! In Europe 
 and America ; in Asia, that metropolis of 
 idolatry ; in Africa, the empire of degra- 
 dation ; from Canada to New Holland ; 
 from Ceylon to the West Indies; from 
 Nova Scotia to the Cape of Good Hope, 
 they have multiplied their trophies. We 
 may ask, where is the continent on which 
 they have not been organized ? Where 
 the people not visited by their blessed 
 influence ? What island of what sea, if 
 inhabited by man, has escaped the eye of 
 their benevolence? Indeed, where are 
 Sabbath schools not to be found? The 
 south, far beyond the islands of spice, cries 
 out, " They are here! " Up in the ever- 
 lasting snows of the north, a voice from the 
 frigid zone responds, " They are here ! " 
 The oriental, looking out upon the dark 
 waters of the Euxine, and over the deep, 
 blue waves of the Mediterranean, repeats, 
 "Even here, aie Sabbath schools!" From 
 
IN PETEK, PAUL, AND JOHN. 139 
 
 the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean, ten 
 thousand voices cry, "We are here!" 
 God has planted, and reared, and blessed 
 them. They are as a great moral univer- 
 sity where the candidates for immortal 
 honors are educated in all the accomplish- 
 ments of immortal truth and virtue. They 
 have reclaimed the Sabbath; they have 
 purified society ; and doubtless they will 
 be hailed in the great day of eternity by 
 multiplied thousands as the instrument of 
 their salvation. 
 
 Everything tending to advance the 
 cause of truth is now seized with avidity, 
 and appropriated to this purpose. Every 
 drop of motive power that floats within 
 the reach of human talent, is collected to 
 swell the current of influence, on which 
 the perishing millions are borne towards 
 the ark of salvation. How great the 
 amount of talent that can now, at a mo- 
 ment's warning, be called to the defense of 
 the truth ? It is now, more than at any 
 previous period, that literature is conse- 
 
140 THE CHURCH. 
 
 crated to Christian purposes, and assumes 
 its just proportions. It is destined to be 
 the moon of the millennial world, but from 
 Revelation as from a great moral sun will 
 take all its outlines — its graceful curves 
 and the perfection of its circle, 
 
 "As earth keeps up her jubilee one thousand years." 
 
 Again, who needs to be informed that 
 the Church is, at this very time, actively- 
 engaged in carrying out the leading trait 
 of the Apostle Paul. He was emphati- 
 cally a missionary; he went from place to 
 place, intent on building up his Master s 
 cause. If this illustrious man had done 
 for the Roman Empire, what he did for 
 Christianity, I know not but he would 
 have been enshrined, and immortalized in 
 monuments of marble or of brass. Take 
 the map — trace the route of his travels; 
 count the churches he formed, and the 
 converts he made, and you will say at 
 once, he was a missionary in the strictest 
 sense of the term. 
 
 In planting the standard of the Cross, 
 
IN PETER, PAUL AND JOHN. 141 
 
 he engrossed all his time and talents. He 
 plunged into the midst of idolatry, and 
 preached Jesus and the resurrection. He 
 made the Areopagus ring with the news 
 of mercy. Not deterred from the blessed 
 work of missions by persecution or 
 threatened death, he continued to cry, 
 
 "Behold the Lamb." 
 
 By his intrepid zeal and love for souls, he 
 expounded the great truths of Christianity 
 in the presence of the most learned men 
 of his age; having arrested their attention 
 he would pour into their minds the truth 
 like a flood of light, while his auditors 
 were filled with the greatest wonder, and 
 thus won for himself a name I would 
 rather wear than all the stars and crowns 
 that deck the monarch's brow, or the 
 mitres that ambition ever coveted or sub- 
 jection bestowed. 
 
 Now, my hearers, let me ask, is not the 
 Church in her different branches at this 
 time exhibiting this prominent trait of the 
 Apostle's. The subject of missions is 
 
142 THE CHURCH 
 
 emphatically the work of the Church in 
 modern times; she regards it as such, and 
 consequently her influence has been felt 
 in this direction. There is, evidently, a 
 disposition on the part of the Church to 
 put forth increased efforts, with a view of 
 enlarging the borders of Zion, that the 
 geographical limits of the earth alone may 
 be the boundary line of the Church, or in 
 the words of the poet as better expressed, 
 
 " Till earth's remotest nation 
 Has learned Messiah's name." 
 
 How many minds have been enlightened 
 by this work? How many hearts made 
 glad? How many tears has it wiped from 
 sorrow's eye? How many upon whom 
 the gorgon eye of vice was fixed until 
 they were petrified and frozen into flint, 
 have melted under the genial rays of the 
 Sun of righteousness? By our soul-loving 
 missionaries, what a heavenly effulgence 
 has been carried, I was about to say, all 
 over this dark world? How many places 
 have been made to "bud and blossom as 
 
IN PETER, PAUL AND JOHN. 148 
 
 the rose?" Surely the Sun of righteous- 
 ness has arisen to the zenith of the moral 
 heavens, and from him what overwhelming 
 rays of truth flash out on this sin-cursed 
 world. Wherever the gospel tidings 
 spread, Satan's throne is broken, his 
 kingdom subverted, and every blow dealt 
 alarms the prince of hell, and shakes the 
 pillars of his dreary domain. Every 
 wave that rolls brings us news of fresh 
 and glorious conquest of truth over error. 
 Again, he was converted in a most 
 singular manner. The very suddenness 
 of his transition from bigoted Judaism to 
 the inspired faith of the Son of God, 
 reveals to us the peculiarity of his position 
 as Apostle to the Gentiles and representa- 
 tive of the most free and evangelical 
 conception of Christianity. It seems to 
 have been but a short work of the Spirit, 
 and Saul was changed from nature to grace, 
 from a most virulent persecutor of the 
 Church to one of its most zealous and 
 faithful defenders. The members of the 
 
144 THE CHURCH 
 
 infant Church, having had a knowledge of 
 his previous history, and the malignant 
 disposition he manifested towards the 
 Church, made them, even after his conver- 
 sion, suspicious of the change said to be 
 wrought in him. I look upon the sudden 
 change in Paul respecting his religion, as 
 shadowing forth the sudden changes that 
 have already taken place, and that will yet 
 take place in a still more powerful manner 
 among the nations; I mean a change from 
 idolatry to the true worship of God. May 
 not his miraculous conversion serve to 
 remind us also, of the prophecy respecting 
 the rapid increase of the Church just 
 before the millennial era. "A nation shall 
 be born at once." And may not the 
 suspicion of the little Church remind us of 
 the feeling now manifested and frequently 
 urged as an objection to the near approach 
 of the millennium, "that so many nations 
 are yet in heathenish darkness;" and if, 
 says the objector, "the millennium is 
 so near, a wonderful change must be 
 
IN PETER, PAUL, AND JOHN. 145 
 
 wrought, and but little time to do it in." 
 We reply, Paul, representing this period, 
 was suddenly converted. And prophecy 
 declares that "a nation shall be born at- 
 once;" and this prophecy, doubtless, will 
 be fulfilled before many years. 
 
 John, my hearers, may be regarded as 
 the representative of the Church during 
 the millennial period of the world. He 
 was mild, amiable and lovely, — supposed 
 to be the youngest of the Apostles, and 
 was the last taken to his reward. By his 
 amiable manners, and the sweetness of 
 his disposition, he won for himself the 
 endearing appellation, " beloved disciple." 
 — "That disciple whom Jesus loved." 
 When the supper was instituted he lay, 
 the contemplative, self-communing disciple, 
 in mysterious silence upon the bosom of 
 his Lord. He seems to have had more 
 familiarity with Christ than any of the 
 disciples. When on the isle of Patmos 
 he had such a view of heaven as filled 
 him with wonder and amazement. lie 
 
146 THE CIIUROH 
 
 was denominated the " beloved disciple/ 5 
 and the Church as shadowed forth by him 
 is emphatically styled the " beloved city/' 
 Rev. xx, 9. Love during the millennium 
 will be the predominating principle in the 
 hearts of the major part of the human 
 race. 
 
 It will manifest itself in a practical way 
 in the lives of men. A new impulse will 
 be given to philanthrophy. Projects will 
 be devised for relieving indigence, suffer- 
 ing and want. Every thing oppressive 
 will be removed ; for 
 
 " Prone to the earth oppression shall be hurled, 
 Her name, her nature withered from the world." 
 
 John became endeared to the Saviour 
 through his unbounded love for him, so 
 will the Church become endeared to the 
 Redeemer by her warm attachment for 
 him, and hence, will "live and reign with 
 Christ a thousand years." The Church 
 is denominated u the bride, the Lamb's 
 wife." 
 
 John was appointed the confidential 
 
IN PETER, PAUL, AND JOHN. 147 
 
 prophet of the New Testament and to 
 him was unfolded the future history of the 
 Church. After the death of Peter and 
 Paul it devolved on him, properly and 
 alone, with his genius to complete the 
 full history of the Church until the final 
 winding up of everything bearing the 
 index of earth. The whole scene passed 
 before him as a thrilling and even gorgeous 
 panorama. In his rapt vision, he saw the 
 coming splendor ; and rising glory ; and 
 spreading grandeur of the Church down to 
 the final winding up of all things terres- 
 tial. He saw the death of the enemies 
 of the Church, — the resuscitation of the 
 witnesses — the chaining of the dragon — 
 the thousand years reign of peace, — and 
 the ending of the world. Now, what 
 appeared to him in a vision, will be unto 
 the Church a blessed reality;— and what 
 to him was seen away in the future, will 
 to the Church shine out with peerless and 
 dazzling splendor. Rapt in the heave ns 
 on the Lord's day, he beheld the unutter- 
 
148 THE CHURCH. 
 
 able glory of his Lord, and received the 
 communication of his plans to an extent 
 that was unrevealed to all the world 
 beside. 
 
 So with the Church all her plans will 
 not only be seen, but will be carried by 
 her into execution, and the beauties sur- 
 rounding the Church will not be away in 
 the future, but the kingdom of Christ will 
 be in the very midst of it. 
 
 The nature of the millennium will be 
 presented more fully in my last lecture ; 
 with these thoughts I here rest the subject 
 for the present ; urging you at the same 
 time to go from this place ever singing in 
 your hearty 
 
 "Hasten, Lord, the glorious time 
 
 When beneath Messiah's sway, 
 Every nation, every clime, 
 
 Will the gospel call obey. 
 Highest kings his power shall own, 
 
 Heathen tribes his name adore ; 
 Satan and his host o'erthrown, 
 
 Bound in chains shall hurt no more." 
 
LECTURE V. 
 
 (wperste aito @at|eriiq of % |tfos. 
 
LECTURE V. 
 
 Thus saith the Lord ; Behold, 1 will take [the children of 
 Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and 
 will gather them on every side, and bring them into their 
 own land. — Ezekiel, xxxvii, 21. 
 
 One marked indication of the signs of 
 the times, having reference to the near 
 approach of the millennium, is the shaking 
 among the dry bones of the Jews. The 
 hand of God is actively engaged in pre- 
 paring them for restoration to the land of 
 their fathers, and a return of them to the 
 favor of God. 
 
 The Jews have a history of intense 
 interest. God honored them from their 
 beginning — granted them a rich and 
 beautiful country — conducted them thither 
 by his own strong arm — the sea divided 
 and Jordan rolled back its mighty waves 
 — the rock became a pool; their garments 
 lasted forty years, and the angel Jehovah 
 
152 DISPERSION AND GATHERING 
 
 led them through the dark labyrinths and 
 dangers of the desert. God signalized the 
 whole way by monuments of his goodness 
 — preserved them two thousand years 
 amidst the commotions of a most revolu- 
 tionary period — made them the depositories 
 of his grace for the world. 
 
 The Jews, however, became rebellious, 
 and their flagrant acts of impiety incurred 
 the displeasure of God; and drew down 
 upon themselves and posterity the vindic- 
 tive wrath of the Deity. The prophecies 
 respecting this unfortunate race have been 
 so completely fulfilled; that the proof of 
 the divine authenticity of the scriptures 
 resolves itself in one short familiar word, 
 and that word is Jew ; To the faithful 
 reader, prophecy respecting the Jews, 
 together with the knowledge of their 
 history, is sufficient evidence to his mind 
 that the Bible is true. 
 
 From the words of the text we may lay 
 down the following propositions : 
 
 1. To examine the prophecies respecting 
 
OF THE JEWS. 153 
 
 tfie Jews in the judgments predicted; and 
 also their fulfillment as far as they have 
 been accomplished* 
 
 2. Examine the prophecies haviny refer- 
 ence to their return to their own land, as 
 also a return of them to the favor of their 
 God. 
 
 3. Deduce some inferences from the 
 same, indicating the near approach of the 
 millennium* 
 
 1. We tvill examine the prophecies re- 
 specting the Jews in the judgments pre- 
 dicted; and also their fidfillment as far as 
 they have been accomplished. In order to 
 this we have selected from the Bible such 
 scriptures as have a direct reference to 
 their dispersion among the nations of the 
 world, showing at the same time the dire 
 evils that should befall them. " The Lord 
 shall scatter thee among all people from 
 the one end of the earth even unto the 
 other; and there thou shalt serve other 
 gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers 
 10 
 
154 DISPERSION AND GATHERING 
 
 have known, even wood and stone. And 
 among these nations shalt thou find no 
 ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot 
 have rest; but the Lord shall give thee 
 there a trembling heart, and failing of 
 eyes, and sorrow of mind. And thy life 
 shall hang in doubt before thee ; and thou 
 shalt fear day and night, and shalt have 
 none assurance of thy life. I will scatter 
 you among the heathen, and will draw out 
 a sword after you ; and your land shall be 
 desolate, and your cities waste. And 
 upon them that are left alive of you, I 
 will send a faintness into their hearts in 
 the lands of their enemies ; and the sound 
 of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and 
 they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; 
 and they shall fall, when none pursueth. 
 And ye shall have no power to stand be- 
 fore your enemies. And ye shall perish 
 among the heathen, and the land of your 
 enemies shall eat you up. And the Lord 
 shall scatter you among the nations, and 
 ye shall be left few in number among the 
 
OF THE JEWS. 155 
 
 heathen, whither the Lord shall lead you. 
 Thou shalt become an astonishment, a 
 proverb, and a by-word among all nations, 
 whither the Lord shall lead thee. All 
 these curses shall come upon thee, and 
 shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till 
 thou be destroyed: because thou heark- 
 enedst not unto the voice of the Lord thy 
 God ; and they shall be upon thee for a 
 sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed 
 forever. I will cause them to be removed 
 into all kingdoms of the earth. I will 
 cast you out of this land into a land that 
 ye know not, where I will show you no 
 favor. I will scatter them also among the 
 heathen, whom neither they nor their 
 fathers have known. I will deliver them 
 to be removed into all the kingdoms of 
 the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach 
 and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all 
 places whither I shall drive them. I will 
 bereave them of children. I will deliver 
 them to be removed to all the kingdoms 
 of the earth, to be a curse, and an aston- 
 
156 DISFERSION AKD GATHERING 
 
 ishinent, and an hissing, and a reproach 
 among all the nations whither I have 
 driven them. I will sift the house of Is- 
 rael among all nations, like as corn is 
 sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least 
 grain fall upon the earth. Death shall be 
 chosen rather than life by all the residue 
 of them that remain of this evil family, 
 which remain in all the places whither I 
 have driven them, saith the Lord of hosts. 
 They shall be wanderers among the nations." 
 What heinous sin was it that could be 
 the cause of such dreadful calamities? 
 Can any other be assigned than what the 
 scriptures assign? Christ, who was able 
 to look into the future, saw the lowering 
 storm gathering, and the dreadful judg- 
 ments about to be poured upon them. He 
 gazed upon the great city, his eye affected 
 his heart, and his heart affected his tongue, 
 and he uttered the words : " Jerusalem, 
 Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and 
 stonest them that are sent unto thee; 
 how often would I have gathered thy 
 
OP THE JEWS. 157 
 
 children together, as a hen doth gather her 
 brood under her wings, and ye would not ! 
 Behold, your house is left unto you deso- 
 late. And verily I say unto you, ye shall 
 not see me until the time come when ye 
 shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the 
 name of the Lord." 
 
 The time of Israel's affliction came. 
 The golden crown was hurled from his 
 head ; the robes fell from off his shoulders; 
 the scepter departed from Judah, and he 
 became as contemptible, weak, ignonlinious 
 and poor, as he had been previously hon- 
 ored, rich, and powerful. Not a jot or 
 tittle uttered against the Jews shall go 
 unfulfilled. Their miseries commenced 
 when they rejected the Son of God. 
 The individual who signed his death war- 
 rant, signed the death warrant of the whole 
 nation. From that time their sky became 
 dark. The sun of their glory went down ; 
 and they were pealed and scattered through 
 all the world. 
 
 We have given the prophecy respecting 
 
158 DISPERSION AND GATHERING 
 
 the Jews. Let us inquire what is their 
 history. Have any of those terrible pre- 
 dictions uttered against them been ful- 
 filled ? "All the predictions respecting 
 the Jews are delivered with the clearness 
 of history and the confidence of truth. 
 They represent the manner, the extent, 
 the nature, and the continuance of their 
 dispersions, their persecutions, their suffer- 
 ings, their blindness, their feebleness, their 
 fearfulness, and their faint-heartedness, 
 their ceaseless wanderings, their hardened 
 impenitence, their insatiable avarice, and 
 their grievous oppressions, and their mur- 
 ders." 
 
 At the destruction of Jerusalem a most 
 terrible scene was witnessed. At the 
 Passover, when there were perhaps two 
 million of people in the city, the Romans 
 surrounded it by a circumvalation, which 
 with astonishing activity, was effected by 
 the soldiers in three days ; so that it was 
 impossible for any to make their escape. 
 Titus, who was one of the most merciful 
 
OF THE JEWS. 159 
 
 generals that ever grasped a sword, touched 
 by their calamities, entreated them to 
 surrender; but they refused. He also 
 sent Josephus to advise them to surrender, 
 who earnestly entreated them to do so; 
 but the Jews answered him with nothing 
 but reproaches and imprecations, declaring 
 their firm persuasion that God would 
 defend the city, and that it should neve'r 
 be taken. 
 
 Thus was fulfilled, what had been pre- 
 viously predicted that the Jews would in 
 the time of their calamities presumptuously 
 lean upon the Lord and say, "Is not the 
 Lord among us? None evil can come 
 upon us ! " Josephus delivered to them 
 a long address, but could not prevail upon 
 them to accept of what was reasonable. 
 Titus in the meantime erected bulwarks, 
 and made other preparations to storm the 
 third and last wall that surrounded the 
 city so that the Jews might repent of their 
 obstinacy. But all was in vain, the decree 
 had gone forth that Jerusalem must be 
 
160 DISPERSION AND GATHERING 
 
 destroyed. Titus, after viewing the heavy 
 calamities which the Jews were now 
 enduring was moved to sympathy, but 
 knew it was the judgment of God, and 
 was apprehensive if he did not chastise 
 them that God would chastise him. After 
 making every reasonable overture to them, 
 all of which were rejected, he became 
 exasperated at their obstinacy, and 
 resolved to take the city. The siege 
 lasted about six months, and the city was 
 taken. I suppose greater calamities never 
 befell any people in so short a time. No 
 city ever perpetrated greater deeds ; and 
 no city ever suffered such affliction. 
 Thousands were slain, and when they 
 could no longer bury them, they were 
 thrown over the wall with a view of terri- 
 fying the Romans by their stench. The 
 people fed upon one another. The scene 
 of suffering is beyond description. The 
 city, temple and all, was laid in ruins. In 
 respect to the destruction of the city and 
 the temple, there was a most remarkable 
 
OF THE JEWS. 161 
 
 fulfillment of prophecy. It runs in this 
 wise, "The people of the prince that shall 
 come, shall destroy the city and the sanc- 
 tuary." Who is this prince but Titus 
 who did all in his power to save the city 
 and the temple. " When they had gotten 
 within the walls of the city/' Josephus 
 says, "they were seized with a kind of 
 frenzy, and, hurling firebrands upon that 
 magnificent edifice, it was, with the city, 
 soon laid in ruins." You will be kind 
 enough to notice the accuracy of the pre- 
 diction ; not the prince, but the people of 
 the prince shall destroy the city and the 
 sanctuary. Titus aimed to save the tem- 
 ple, and commanded the soldiers to extin- 
 guish the fire ; but it was all of no avail. 
 Amidst his exertion to prevent the 
 destruction of the temple, a Roman 
 soldier, urged, as he declared, by divine 
 impulse, regardless of the command of Titus, 
 climbed on the shoulders of another, and 
 threw a flaming brand into the golden 
 window of the temple, by which it was 
 
162 DISPERSION AND GATHERING. 
 
 instantly set on fire. Thus terminated 
 the glory of one of the most splendid 
 edifices that was ever erected. From its 
 stupendous size, its massiveness and soli- 
 dity, one would have supposed it would 
 withstand the most violent attacks. But 
 it was predicted otherwise, and the pre- 
 dictions must be fulfilled. Nothing 
 remained except three lofty towers, Mari- 
 amne, Phasael, and Hippocas, which Titus 
 commanded should remain as evidences 
 of this great city, and as trophies of his 
 victory. 
 
 Thus many were killed. The hand- 
 somest of the young men were reserved 
 to grace the triumphant entrance of Titus 
 into Rome. Others with their wives and 
 children were sold like cattle, but at a very 
 low price. Thirty of them were sold at 
 one time for a penny; and thus was 
 fulfilled the words of prophecy uttered 
 many years prior to this period, by Moses : 
 "And ye shall be sold for bondmen and 
 bondwomen, and no man shall buy you." 
 
OP THE JEWS. 1G3 
 
 Some of the Roman officers remained after 
 the conquest of Jerusalem, and subdued all 
 Judea, and took possession of all their 
 fortified places. The first place secured 
 was Maehurentha, the place where the 
 faithful John was beheaded. The blood of 
 that good man still cried for vengeance. 
 Some three thousand Jews were slain in 
 the woods of Jardes, to which place they 
 had resorted for safety. At the siege 
 of Massada, Eleazar, the commander, 
 instructed the garrison to burn their stores 
 and to destroy first, the women and chil- 
 dren, and then themselves. And this 
 horrible command was executed. The 
 number was about nine hundred and sixty. 
 Ten persons were selected to perform the 
 bloody deed; when this was done, one was 
 then appointed to kill the remaining nine. 
 The last surviving one, beholding the slain 
 weltering in their gore, plunged the sword 
 into his own heart and died. 
 
 At Cesarea twenty thousand Jews were 
 killed by the Syrians. At Damascus, ton 
 
164 DISPERSION AND GATHERING 
 
 thousand more were destroyed. At 
 Alexander, fifty thousand were killed. At 
 Jerusalem, it is supposed one million one 
 hundred thousand Jews perished by sword, 
 famine, and pestilence. In the war brought 
 against them by Adrian for their cruelties 
 against the heathens and Christians, about 
 sixty thousand Jews were slain. In the 
 sixth century, it is supposed twenty 
 thousand were slain, and an equal number 
 carried away and sold for slaves. In the 
 tenth and eleventh centuries their calami- 
 ties rather increased than diminished. In 
 France vast numbers were burned. At 
 the coronation of Richard I, of England 
 many were murdered. One thousand five 
 hundred were burned to death in the 
 palace of York. In Persia, they were 
 murdered in multitudes. In Portugal and 
 Spain they met with cruel treatment. In 
 the fourteenth century about eight hundred 
 thousand were banished from Spain; some 
 met a watery grave in their passage to 
 Africa; others died by hard usage, and 
 
OF THE JEWS. 165 
 
 numbers lay upon the fields till they were 
 devoured by wild beasts. I suppose it 
 would be no exaggeration to say that two 
 millions two hundred thousand Jews have 
 been put to death by the sword, famine, 
 and pestilence. They said, "his blood be 
 on us and on our children," and so it has 
 been. 
 
 They have also been scattered among 
 the nations. This, we think, requires no 
 proof. "They abound in Poland, in 
 Turkey, in Germany, and in Holland ; in 
 Russia, France, Spain, Italy, Britain, and 
 America, Persia, China, and India. On 
 the east and on the west of the Ganges. 
 They have trod the snows of Siberia, and 
 the sands of the burning desert; and the 
 European traveler hears of their existence 
 in regions which he cannot reach, even in 
 the very interior of Africa." They are to 
 be found every where. They are as the 
 drop in the ocean, and yet not comming- 
 ling with the surrounding waters. 
 
 How true, also, that they have been the 
 
166 DISPERSION AND GATHERING 
 
 objects of hatred. There is no name that 
 seems to carry with it so much odium as 
 the name Jew. It is associated with 
 everything detestable. It is the index to 
 all that is contemptible. They have been 
 hated, may I not add, with cruel hatred. 
 Have they not also become a proverb and 
 a by-word. How common the expression, 
 "close as a Jew." How familiar the 
 sentence "rich as a Jew." In our dealings 
 we meet with the language, "I Jewed him 
 down." In our intercourse with each 
 other how frequently do we hear it said, 
 "take care of that man, he will Jew you." 
 Surely it requires but little discernment 
 to see the complete fulfillment of many 
 portions of prophecies touching the Jews. 
 But a brighter day is dawning. The 
 Jews are not always thus to continue. 
 Prophecy not only presents a dark, but 
 also a bright side. And the signs of the 
 times indicate the near approach of the 
 long since predicted blessings for them. 
 The great drama is yet in progress; a long 
 
 - 
 
OF THE JEWS. ^167 
 
 and melancholy interlude has interposed, 
 and now "coming events cast their shadows 
 before/' and indicate the termination ot 
 the heavy afflictions of God's Israel. And 
 the scene about to be exhibited will be 
 more resplendent than any which pre- 
 ceded it. 
 
 The Jews, as a nation, are to be 
 gathered into their own land, and to 
 become a strong body politic. Palestine 
 is the Lord's inheritance, reserved for the 
 seed of Abraham, and into it shall they 
 ultimately be gathered. 
 
 A question has been raised respecting 
 the nature of the fulfillment of prophecy 
 having reference to the Jews. It has been 
 asserted that there will be a spiritual ful- 
 fillment exclusively without any reference 
 to a literal gathering of them to their own 
 land. And upon the other hand, it is 
 maintained that there will be a spiritual 
 and also a literal fulfillment. To deter- 
 mine this question fully, my respected 
 auditors, you need but inquire into the 
 
168 DISPERSION AND GATHERING 
 
 nature of the fulfillment of prophecies thus 
 far accomplished. Was it spiritual, or was 
 it literal ? If spiritual, then it follows 
 that those prophecies yet to be fulfilled, 
 will also be spiritual. If however, there 
 has been a literal fulfillment of prophecy 
 touching the Jews, then it follows that a 
 literal fulfillment will take place in regard 
 to those prophecies yet to be accomplished. 
 This will lead us, 
 
 2. To examine the prophecies respecting 
 their return to their own land, as also, a 
 return of them to the favor of their God. 
 We would remind you at this point, that 
 it is our firm persuasion, that there will be 
 a literal gathering of the Jews to their 
 own land; keeping this thought in view, 
 we will now proceed to the language of 
 prophecy, and see how far they have been 
 fulfilled. 
 
 "And it shall come to pass in that day 
 that the Lord shall set his hand again the 
 second time to recover the remnant of his 
 people." The first time implied in theso 
 
OF THE JEWS. 1G9 
 
 words was when they were delivered from 
 Egyptian bondage, and were led to the 
 promise land, (Palestine,) "Which shall 
 be left from Assyria, and from Egypt, and 
 from Pathros, and from Cush, and from 
 Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, 
 and from the islands of the sea. And he 
 shall set up an ensign for the nations, and 
 shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and 
 gather together the dispersed of Judah 
 from the four corners of the earth. And 
 it shall come to pass in that day, that the 
 great trumpet shall be blown, and they 
 shall come which were ready to perish in 
 the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in 
 the land of Egypt, and shall worship the 
 Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem. 
 Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that 
 it shall no more be said, the Lord liveth, 
 that brought up the children of Israel out 
 of the land of Egypt. But, the Lord 
 liveth, that brought up the children of 
 Israel from the land of the north, and from 
 all the lands whither he had driven them ; 
 11 
 
170 DISPERSION AND GATHERING 
 
 and I will bring them again into their land 
 that I gave unto their fathers. I will 
 accept you with your sweet savor, when I 
 bring you out from the people, and gather 
 you out of the countries wherein ye have 
 been scattered. I will bring them out 
 from the people, and gather them from the 
 countries, and will bring them to their own 
 land. And I will multiply upon you man 
 and beast ; and they shall increase and 
 bring fruit; and I will settle you after 
 your old estates, and will do better unto 
 you than at your "beginnings. Thus saith 
 the Lord God ; In the day that I shall 
 have cleansed you from all your iniquities 
 I will also cause you to dwell in the 
 cities, and the wastes shall be builded. 
 And the desolate land shall be tilled. 
 Whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all 
 that passed by. The hand of the Lord 
 was upon me, and carried me out in the 
 Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the 
 midst of the valley which was full of bones, 
 and caused me to pass by them round 
 
OF THE JEWS. 171 
 
 about ; and behold, there were very many 
 in the open valley; and lo, they were 
 very dry. And he said unto me, Son of 
 man, can these bones live ? and I answered, 
 
 Lord God, thou knowest. Then he 
 said unto me, Son of man, these bones 
 are the whole house of Israel ; behold, 
 they say, Our bones are dried, and our 
 hope is lost; we are cut off for our parts 
 Therefore prophesy, and say unto them. 
 Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, my 
 people. I will open your graves, and cause 
 you to come up out of your graves, and 
 bring you into the land of Israel Behold, 
 
 1 will take the children of Israel from 
 among the heathen, whither they be gone, 
 and will gather them on every side, and 
 bring them into their owwland." 
 
 This is prophecy. Let us inquire, what 
 is history? The page of history is, at 
 this time, sublimely interesting in refer- 
 ence to the seed of Abraham. Every 
 year brightens the signs that the time to 
 favor Zion is near. The Spirit of God is 
 
172 DISPERSION AND GATHERING 
 
 moving upon the face of the dark waters ; 
 working out from discord and darkness, 
 light and harmony; causing the shapeless 
 mass to burst into efflorescence and beauty. 
 An angel of mercy is seen walking on the 
 troubled sea of Israel's afflictions, saying 
 "peace, be still." God is evidently pre- 
 paring the way for the return of the long 
 lost Jew to his beloved Palestine. Men 
 are beginning to feel that the Jews have 
 rights ; and are acting upon this principle. 
 The inveterate enmity hitherto imbibed 
 against them is beginning to yield to the 
 mild and gentle influences of the gospel. 
 Napoleon Bonaparte has the honor of being 
 the first to recognize Jewish rights. The 
 German States, however, were the first to 
 confer upon them the rights of citizens, 
 and relieving them from the untold and 
 unpitied wrongs of eighteen hundred years. 
 How easily are our sympathies aroused 
 in behalf of the Jew. Fifty years ago, 
 every Jew throughout the world might 
 have been destroyed, and little, or no 
 
OP THE JEWS. 173 
 
 sympathy would have been manifested in 
 their behalf. But now the scene is 
 changed. Such is public sentiment touch- 
 ing the Jew, and the feeling cherished in 
 his behalf, that let the foot of oppression 
 attempt to crush him, or the mouth of 
 persecution undertake to devour him, and 
 ten thousand voices would be raised in his 
 behalf, and thundered forth in one united 
 remonstrance. 
 
 The cause of the Jew is now arresting 
 the attention of men on both sides of the 
 Atlantic. Meetings are held in some of 
 the principle cities of the world; and at 
 these meetings prayers are offered up to 
 the God of heaven, that he would over- 
 rule all for good. Petitions have been sent 
 to Europe and the United States requesting 
 these governments to make it the impera- 
 tive duty of their respective Consular 
 Agents in the East to urge on the Pacha of 
 Egypt the importance of recognizing the 
 Jews throughout the geographical limits of 
 his dominion, as men who have rights as 
 
174 DISPERSION AND GATHERING 
 
 well as his other subjects. These peti- 
 tions are responded to favorably. 
 
 Another marked indication in the signs 
 of the times, is the attention which is 
 beginning to be directed to the subject of 
 restoring Palestine to its original beauty 
 and fruitfulness. Meshullam, a Christian 
 Jew, it is said, has met with great success 
 in making experiments in introducing 
 modern modes of agriculture into that 
 country, and his establishment is becom- 
 ing a center of great attraction. The 
 most encouraging feature is the influx 
 of Jews returning to the land of their 
 fathers. As high as fifteen hundred arrive 
 in Jerusalem in a single week. 
 
 The example of Meshullam has proved 
 contagious, and great results are destined 
 to flow from it. The London Jewish 
 Chronicle, a Journal conducted by the 
 Jews, is earnestly directing attention to it, 
 and a Jewish Association has already been 
 formed in London to promote this object. 
 
 According to Dr. Cumming, " in the age 
 
OP THE JEWS. 175 
 
 of Constantine the Great, there were just 
 five hundred Jews in Palestine, and two 
 hundred in Jerusalem. In 1848, there 
 were twenty thousand Jews in Palestine, 
 and ten thousand in Jerusalem; and the 
 mixed population is diminishing every 
 day." 
 
 Again, what vast numbers are being 
 converted to Christianity. Mr. Thobuck, 
 one of the brightest gems now living in 
 the Church, and himself a Jew, and who 
 has paid considerable attention to the 
 history of his own people, gives it as his 
 opinion, " that a greater number of Jews 
 have been converted to Christianity during 
 the last quarter of a century than in the 
 eighteen hundred years which have pre- 
 ceded it." Certainly a strong proof that 
 they are on the eve of a great moral 
 change, as well as a gathering together of 
 them into their own land. 
 
 A missionary from Constantinople, 
 writes that the Jews in Constantinople are 
 manifesting an unusual spirit of religious 
 
176 DISPERSION AND GATHERING 
 
 inquiry. One of the principal Jews pays 
 me an occasional visit, and sometimes the 
 very first interrogatory I propound to him 
 is, has he come? "Not yet," has been his 
 reply, till his last visit, when laying his 
 hand on his breast he said, in a low and 
 solemn tone, "If you ask me, I say he 
 has come; and if you will show me a 
 secure place from the scimitar of the 
 Moslem, I will bring you ten thousand 
 Jews to-morrow who will make the same 
 confession." 
 
 We cannot, my hearers, but regard the 
 Jew as on the eve, yea, in the midst of 
 some mighty movement. There is, on 
 their part, a singular preparedness for some 
 great change. They are rich, and yet 
 their wealth is all portable. The Roth- 
 schild's who are celebrated for their wealth 
 are the agents of this singular race of 
 beings. Should certain Jewish capitalists 
 suddenly withdraw their means, whole 
 kingdoms would feel the effect. They ai e, 
 morever, in a transition state, being 
 
OF THE JEWS. 177 
 
 schooled in every nation on the globe in 
 lessons of usefulness. They are, in a 
 measure, at least, incorporated with the 
 modes of thinking of all the nations 
 whither they have gone. Living under the 
 laws and governments of every nation 
 under heaven, they will be able on this 
 very account to construct a more perfect 
 civil and church polity than the world has 
 ever yet enjoyed. They have wealth; 
 they have talent. Some of the most 
 celebrated professors in the German 
 universities are Christian Jews. And in 
 the Church of England there are twelve 
 ministers officiating who are Jews, and 
 some of the missionaries employed by the 
 Church of Scotland are converted Jews. 
 They have enterprise, numbers, and influ- 
 ence; and never did mortal eye rest in 
 silent rapture upon a finer soil, and upon 
 more luxuriant productions, when properly 
 developed, than the land reserved far 
 them, and into which they shall ultimately 
 be gathered. 
 
178 DISPERSION AND GATHERING 
 
 Another important consideration is the 
 Turkish loan obtained from the Rothschild. 
 This circumstance is highly suggestive. 
 Every reflecting Christian must have had 
 frequent thoughts of the Jews of Palestine, 
 and of the promises and prophecies re- 
 specting them in the Bible, during the 
 dark, gloomy, thickening war plot between 
 the Russians and the Allied powers. 
 Such prophecies as the great battle of 
 Armageddon- — the angel standing in the 
 sun calling all the fowls of heaven to the 
 feast of the great God — the treading of 
 the wine-press without the city, and the 
 blood coming to the horses bridles, are 
 passages of Holy Writ which crowd up 
 before the mind in awful grandeur, clothed 
 with the idea of a possible fulfillment 
 within a short time ! Palestine is the 
 Lord's inheritance, reserved for the seed 
 of Abraham. The Turkish power holds 
 it. That power must give way before the 
 plans of Divine Providence. And nothing 
 is more certain than its overthrow. It 
 
OF THE JEWS. 179 
 
 only stands now as it is propped up by a 
 little doubtful political power. Who next 
 will own Palestine ? Evidently the Jews. 
 The world has wandered after the wealth 
 of the Rothschild. They are Jews. And 
 the question naturally arises, why has 
 God raised them up, and placed in their 
 hands an amount of wealth equal to many 
 an entire kingdom? May it not be, my 
 hearers, for such a time as this ? There is 
 evidently a movement of Providence in 
 this affair. The Turkish power, straitened 
 for money to defend themselves against 
 the aggressions of Russia, comes to one 
 of these Jews to borrow* The Turkish 
 power has been on the decline for years, 
 her treasures are exhausted, they ask a 
 loan at the hands of Rothschild. He asks 
 a mortgage on Palestine, and on this con- 
 dition agrees to advance more funds than 
 Turkey asks. The Sultan, knowing that 
 Palestine is one portion of his dominion on 
 which the Emperor of Russia had fixed 
 his covetous eye, that he might command 
 
180 DISPERSION AND GATHERING 
 
 the Mediterranean and Red seas, as well 
 as the mouths of the Nile, would the more 
 readily mortgage it to Rothschild, in order 
 to place it as far as possible from the 
 enemy, and by this means Jhave it iden- 
 tified with the interests of Western Europe; 
 and in this way the more effectually to 
 secure the aid of England and France, in 
 the event Turkey is attacked by the Czar 
 of Russia. The mortgage lies unredeemed 
 — and can never be redeemed. The 
 Turkish power is destined to go down- 
 Palestine is once more the property of a 
 Jew. But Russia seemed determined to 
 have it, and to obtain it must fight all 
 Europe ; and the last great conflict is on 
 this sacred ground. There the wine-press 
 was trodden without the city of Babylon. 
 Palestine has always been in the posses- 
 sion of the Saracens and Turks. New 
 forms of government rise over all Europe, 
 and the Jews are returning to their father- 
 land under the deed of the Rothschilds. 
 " The long and dreary winter of Jacob's 
 
OF THE JEWS. 181 
 
 captivity seems to be nearly passed. The 
 genial sun of the Divine favor is beginning 
 again to shine, and to melt from their 
 hearts the ice of ages. And soon we may 
 expect the sons and daughters of Judah 
 will take their harps from the willows, and 
 in the sweet lays of their own poet, sing, 
 
 ' Lo the winter is passed, and the rain is over and gone, 
 
 The flowers appear on the earth, 
 The time of the singing of birds is come, 
 
 And the voice of the turtle is heard in the land.' 
 
 Symptoms of ever welcome spring appear 
 — marks of resuscitation among the dry 
 bones of Judah. And each revolving year 
 shall witness new developments of the 
 rising fctar of Jacob, till the kingdom shall 
 be restored to David, and Judah shall 
 again wear the crown, and bear the scepter, 
 and Jerusalem become a joy and praise in 
 all the earth." 
 
 "How long, dear Saviour, oh how long 
 
 Shall this bright hour delay ? 
 Fly swiftly round, yo wheels of time, 
 
 And bring the welcome day." 
 
 Throughout many of the German states 
 
182 DISPERSION AND GATHERING 
 
 the Jews have cast off the Talmud ; and 
 in the city of London there is a synagogue 
 where a Jew preaches without it, and re- 
 jects it altogether. There is a general 
 waking up of this long dejected and neg- 
 lected nation. The Prussian ambassador 
 at the Court of Rome states that there is 
 a general movement and inquiry among 
 all the Jews at this moment, and that 
 measures will be taken to restore them 
 soon to the land of their fathers. 
 
 The Jewish mind is everywhere awake. 
 At no previous history of theirs was there 
 such an earnest spirit of inquiry. They 
 are discussing among themselves with 
 regard to the Talmud and Rabbinical tra- 
 ditions. A large class of Jews in Germany 
 have taken strong sides against the Tal- 
 mud, and question its authority. In other 
 places many have their confidence in the 
 Talmud shaken. In France, Holland, 
 Germany, Poland, and England, there is 
 an abandonment of the Talmud on the 
 part of many. The following declaration 
 
OF THE JEWS. 183 
 
 was made in a Jewish synagogue in Lon- 
 don, but recently: "We are happily 
 emerging from the darkness into which 
 persecutions of unparalleled intensity and 
 duration had banished us. Our domestic, 
 social, and political life is assuming a 
 brightness, which we feel assured will be- 
 come more and more cheering." ItMs 
 also a remarkable fact, that nearly all the 
 newspapers of Germany are at this time in 
 the hands of the Jews, and controlled by 
 them. A ready writer in speaking of this 
 circumstance, says : "For better or for 
 worse, they are on the move. Every 
 month we hear the tidings of change. 
 Old chains are being broken. Old opin- 
 ions, associations, and observances are 
 being abandoned. The harbor of Rabbini- 
 cal Judaism is left. They must now 
 eithor be piloted to the haven of truth, or, 
 borne along for a time by every wind that 
 blows, and be at length stranded on the 
 shore of infidelity." 
 
 Another fact which you yourselves 
 
184 DISPERSION AND GATHERING 
 
 know, perhaps is, that the gold of all Eu- 
 rope is so much in their hands that they 
 can at almost any moment produce a panic 
 in money matters. Why is it that they 
 have little or no wealth in real estate ? 
 Their riches, consisting as it does, of gold 
 and silver, places them in a condition to 
 go at any time when Providence shall 
 order it. You do not find them engaged 
 in any public improvements, these concern 
 them but little. And while such improve- 
 ments are being constructed they will only 
 the more speedily place them in their own 
 land. 
 
 Sir Moses Montefiore, who is a leading 
 Jew in England, went to St. Petersburgh 
 with a view of negotiating with the Em- 
 peror of Russia, that the Jews against 
 whom a most inhuman edict had been 
 issued, should be permitted to emigrate. 
 He has been most graciously received, 
 and the Emperor has given permission to 
 ten thousand Jews to emigrate to Pales- 
 tine. Lord Ashley, at a meeting of the 
 
OP THE JEWS. 185 
 
 Jews' Society in London, said : "At no 
 time has the horizon been so bright for 
 the Jewish people. At no time prophecy 
 so near its fulfillment. A year ago no 
 imagination was lively enough to conceive 
 one-tenth of what we have heard this day." 
 Let me give the language of Rev. Mr. 
 Bellson respecting the Jewish people : " I 
 am more than ever/' says he, " impressed 
 that the Jews are hastening to a great 
 crisis. It must be evident to any common 
 observer, there is a great movement among 
 them. This wonderful people, who, for 
 eighteen hundred years remained unaltered, 
 have undergone a marvelous revolution 
 within the last forty years, especially 
 within the last twenty. They are in a 
 transition state. Thousands, convicted of 
 the hollowness and rottenness of Rabbin- 
 ism, and therefore have thrown it oft', feel 
 a vacuum in their souls, which Christian 
 truth alone can fill. The Talmud is sinking 
 fast, and its giving up the ghost cannot be 
 far off" Such language speaks volumes, 
 a2 
 
188 DISPERSION AND GATHERING 
 
 especially when we consider from what 
 source it emanates ; sentiments of this 
 kind coming from the most intelligent 
 Jews is certainly indicative of the near 
 approach of the millennium. 
 
 Finally, we have presented before us a 
 panoramic view of the Jew as at present 
 to be seen among the people. He has no 
 home; no permanent place of residence; 
 nothing to bind him here. No gorgeous 
 palaces to be remembered as the old home- 
 stead. He is indeed a wanderer among the 
 people. See him where you will, and how 
 dissatisfied his look. Every expression of 
 his countenance is an index of the inward 
 feelings of his heart; not satisfied any 
 where ; sighing for the hills and valleys of 
 Palestine, and for the holy hill of Zion, and 
 his expectation of going thither, and his 
 prospects of reaching it, as sanguine as 
 were those who were carried away in the 
 long and dreary captivity of the ancient 
 Jews. Such are some of the facts that 
 present themselves to our minds. \ They 
 
OP THE JEWS. 187 
 
 merit our consideration, and if properly 
 examined, will be a subject of interest to 
 us all. Our last proposition announced in 
 the division of our subject was, 
 
 3. To deduce from the premises an 
 argument respecting the near approach of 
 the millennium. 
 
 The facts presented surely warrant the 
 conclusion that the time is at hand when 
 the Father of all our mercies, will again 
 smile on his wandering children. The arm 
 of the Almighty is again made bear in the 
 defense and deliverance of his ancient 
 people. They are engraven on the palms 
 of his hands. Pie is very kindly inviting 
 them to return, and many, we have seen, 
 are responding to the call. 
 
 All things seem to be approximating a 
 crisis of intense interest. We can draw 
 no other inference, my hearers, from the 
 condition of the Jews in the relation they 
 sustain to the whole world. The time is 
 at hand when all those who oppose the 
 Divine plans in bringing together the dis- 
 
188 GATHERING OF THE JEWS, 
 
 persed of Judah, shall be taken out of the 
 way. Yes, Jerusalem shall be built, and 
 God's name be honored in that land where 
 Christianity first rose, but from whence it 
 was driven by persecution. My friends, 
 I believe most firmly that the Jews will be 
 gathered to their own land, and that it will 
 be accomplished before many years. And 
 when this event shall have come, the 
 millennium will then begin to dawn upon 
 our dark world; and religion's golden 
 chain will bind men to the throne of God, 
 when hearts and voices will unite in one 
 universal song of praise to the all-conquer^ 
 ing Redeemer. 
 
 But see! the watchman! Let us 
 inquire 
 
 " Watchman ! tell us of the night, 
 
 What its signs of promise are ? 
 Traveler ! o'er yon mountain height, 
 
 See the glory-beaming star ! 
 
 Watchman ! does its beauteous ray 
 
 Aught of hope or joy foretell ? 
 Trav'ler I yes it brings the day, — 
 
 Promis'd day of Isr<ieV * 
 
JLKO TURE VI. 
 
 %\t JUngbom of Cjrrist. 
 
LECTUHE VI. 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 
 
 *' And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven 
 set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed ; and the 
 kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break 
 in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand 
 forever." — Daniel ii, 44, 
 
 These are words of encouragement to 
 the sincere lover of Zion. Although thev 
 were uttered centuries ago, they are yet 
 fraught with a sweetness that always flows 
 from the promises, respecting the triumph 
 and glory of the kingdom of Christ. 
 
 They were uttered by Daniel in the 
 presence of the king of Babylon, while 
 interpreting a dream the king had in the 
 second year of his reign. With this 
 dream the king was exceedingly troubled. 
 Although it had fled from his memory, 
 "lac commanded to call the magicians, and 
 
192 TIIE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 
 
 the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the 
 Chaldeans, for to show the king his dreams," 
 on pain of death. They remonstrate with 
 him respecting the unreasonableness of the 
 demand; agreeing if the king shall tell 
 the dream to give the interpretation thereof. 
 The king, however, is unyielding in his 
 demands, and but two ways lie before 
 them, either to comply with the command, 
 or die. 
 
 God, however, who watches over his 
 people, and guards their interests, was with 
 his prophet Daniel, and endowed him with 
 wisdom not only to give the dream and 
 the interpretation, but also the state of 
 mind of the king before he closed his eyes 
 in sleep. He was brought before the king, 
 and after a few preliminaries, intended no 
 doubt to impress the king with the truth 
 that it was the God of heaven who enabled 
 him to reveal this whole affair, he then 
 proceeds to say, "As for thee, king, thy 
 thoughts came into thy mind upon thy 
 bed, what should come to pass hereafter." 
 
THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 193 
 
 " Thou, king, sawest, and behold a great 
 image. This great image, whose bright- 
 ness was excellent, stood before thee ; and 
 the form thereof was terrible. This image's 
 head was of fine gold, his breast and his 
 arms "of silver, his belly and thighs of 
 brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron 
 and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a 
 stone was cut out without hands, which 
 smote the image upon his feet that were 
 of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. 
 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the 
 silver, and the gold, broken to pieces 
 together, and became like the chaff of the 
 summer threshing floors; and the wind 
 carried them away, that no place was found 
 for them : and the stone that smote the 
 image became a great mountain, and filled 
 the whole earth." 
 
 The interpretation of this dream, as we 
 learii from Daniel, was that of different 
 kingdoms under different forms, and ruled 
 by different kings in different periods of 
 the world. The head of the imaffe >va^ of 
 
194 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 
 
 gold, and denoted the kingdom of Babylon 
 then in existence, and which, at this time, 
 had reached its acme. It was ruled by 
 Nebuchadnezzar, a proud and haughty 
 monarch, and was at this period a kingdom 
 of unparalleled wealth. Hence, says 
 Daniel, " Thou art this head of gold." 
 Isaiah, in view of its riches, denominated 
 it, "the golden kingdom." 
 
 The "breasts and arms of silver," refer 
 to the Medo-Persian empire founded by 
 Cyrus, who was himself a Persian by his 
 father; and on the mother's side a Mede. 
 Having conquered Babylon, he established 
 a potent empire on the ruins thereof. 
 
 The "belly and thighs of brass," point 
 us to the Macedonian or Greek empire, 
 established by Philip, and enlarged by his 
 son Alexander the Great. Alexander 
 conquered Greece, crossed into Asia, took 
 Tyre and Egypt, conquered king Darius 
 and exterminated the Medo-Persian em- 
 pire. Alexander also conquered all the 
 countries lying between the Adriatic sea 
 
THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 195 
 
 and the river Ganges. He carried his 
 conquests so far that it has passed into a 
 proverb (however doubtful it may be) 
 that he conquered the world, corresponding 
 with the phraseology employed by Daniel, 
 " which shall bear rule over all the earth." 
 Alexander himself commanded that he 
 should be called "the king of all the 
 world." And one remarks, after the 
 conquests of Alexander, legates came to 
 congratulate him on his success, or submit 
 to his empire, that he appeared to himself 
 and to those around him, "to be the Lord 
 of the whole earth and of the sea." 
 
 "Legs of iron," &e., evidently refer to 
 the Roman Empire, and not, as some sup- 
 pose, to Seleucidae, who reigned in Syria, 
 and to Lagidae, who reigned in Egypt. 
 The figures employed imply that the king- 
 doms of Seleucidae and Lagidae cannot 
 possibly be the fourth kingdom, because it 
 was to be stronger than the preceding 
 kingdoms, as iron breaketh and bruiseth 
 all other metals, so this breaketh and sub- 
 
196 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST, 
 
 dueth all the former kingdoms; and it is 
 evident that these kingdoms, instead of 
 being stronger, were much weaker, and in 
 size were much smaller. The Roman 
 Empire is evidently meant; "legs of iron,' 5 
 and "feet part of iron and part of clay," 
 imply that though part of its elements 
 were strong as iron, its constitution being 
 heterogeneous, had in itself the elements 
 of division. The legs represent the 
 eastern and western divisions of the 
 Empire, and the ten toes the petty king* 
 doms which afterwards succeeded. 
 
 In the further prosecution of the subject 
 thus introduced to your attention, we will 
 
 1. Advert to the rise and decline of the 
 kingdoms implied in the text, and as 
 brought more particularly to view in the 
 context. 
 
 2. Call attention to the fifth kingdom, 
 and also to the work to be accomplished by 
 it. And 
 
 3. Ascertain the time when the whole 
 work will be completed. 
 
THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 197 
 
 In glancing at these kingdoms from the 
 days of Daniel down to the present time, we 
 will see how beautifully the interpretation 
 has been fulfilled. 
 
 1. Advert to the kingdoms spoken of in 
 their rise and decline. 
 
 The first is Babylon, which was one of 
 the mightiest nations of antiquity; the 
 trophies of her successful wars, and active 
 industry, filled her metropolis with such 
 treasures of magnificence, as rendered it 
 the praise and glory of the whole earth. 
 As to the king himself it was said, "thou 
 art this head of gold." And the language 
 of inspiration respecting her is "the 
 golden kingdom." The greatness and the 
 grandeur of everything connected with 
 them have been so graphically described 
 both by profane and inspired writers, that 
 it has been appropriately reputed one of 
 the "wonders of the world." The state of 
 the arts and the sciences among the Baby- 
 lonians, attest that they had advanced a 
 considerable distance in the scale of civili- 
 
198 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 
 
 zation. Every historian acknowledges her 
 greatness and proclaims her fame. But 
 these active and industrious habits, which 
 had been instrumental, under the blessing 
 of the good Being, in securing their 
 exaltation, w r ere at length exchanged for 
 the most effeminate and vicious indul- 
 gences. They became as famous for their 
 wickedness as they had been previously 
 renowned for their war-like achievements. 
 And whilst in the pride of her heart she 
 styled herself "a lady forever;" whilst her 
 nobles, and her lords were exulting in the 
 impregnability of her bulwarks, and cele- 
 brating it in song, and revelry and wine, the 
 shadowy hand in Belshazzar's palace 
 recorded the sad truth that the Medes w r ere 
 in her gates and the Persian on her throne. 
 In the midst of revelings and idolatries, 
 Belshazzar, a most dissolute monarch, 
 orders the golden vessels, which had been 
 brought from Jerusalem and placed in the 
 temple of Belus in Babylon, thus adding 
 sin to sin. These vessels were used in 
 
THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 199 
 
 their rioting. They polluted them with 
 their voluptuous lips, and poured out 
 libations to the idols, and sang impious 
 songs in honor of false gods. In the very 
 midst of their banquetings — in the very 
 same hour of the night, came forth fingers 
 of a man's hand, and wrote upon the 
 plastered wall, the doom of Babylon's king. 
 Dim grew the lamps before those letters of 
 fire. These were presages of his impend- 
 ing ruin. Hushed is the voice of mirth. 
 Silent the song of revelry. Such was the 
 king's panic that the joints of his knees 
 smote together. For a moment the 
 palace is wrapt in the solitude and silence 
 of the grave. But the silence is broken 
 by the sound of the groans of the dying. 
 Cyrus has entered the city — the clangor 
 of war is resounding through the street. 
 Belshazzar is slain! Babylon is taken! 
 Her glory faded. 0! disastrous night. 
 Where is Babylon's glory now? Thus 
 proud Babylon fell ; and so complete and 
 tremendous has been her fall, that Isaiah 
 
200 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 
 
 represents the grave as starting up and all 
 the shades of the mighty dead as arising in 
 astonishment at her overthrow. Thus 
 passed away the golden empire of Babylon. 
 Cyrus, the conqueror of Babylon, became 
 the illustrious founder of the Medo-Persian 
 empire. At first, possessing a country 
 containing about one hundred thousand 
 inhabitants. By his good example, and 
 his war-like ability, he became the sole 
 head of a nation considered boundless 
 in extent, and unrivaled in its power. 
 Besides conquering Babylon, he with a 
 powerful army overrun Syria, Egypt, 
 Armenia, and Asia. He also conquered 
 Croesus, that rich king of Lydia. And 
 so long as they continued in the original 
 simplicity of their mountain fare ; " when," 
 as one says, " their clothing was skins, 
 their food wild fruits, and *their drink, 
 water," so long were the Persian arms the 
 dread and terror of the whole world. But 
 their conquests soon furnished the cause 
 of their ruin. An idling disposition 
 
THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 201 
 
 began to evince itself even before the 
 death of their renowned general. The 
 coarseness of their mountain fare, soon 
 gave place to all the dainties of a tropical 
 clime. Voluptuousness and debauchery 
 were lauded as virtues. Thus were the 
 seeds of ruin being sown ; which, if not 
 checked in their first growth, must eventu- 
 ate in the downfall of the empire ; nor 
 were they checked, but nurtured with all 
 the care and anxiety of a favorite plant. 
 At length the deadly upas waved its 
 sturdy boughs over the high places of 
 the nation, blanching the cheek of Per- 
 sian glory, and paralyzing the strength of 
 Persian arms. 
 
 But a few generations passed away, 
 before they fell by the sword of the 
 Macedonian conqueror, so completely 
 enfeebled, that Alexander with an army 
 thirty times inferior to that mustered by 
 king Darius, in two brief battles at the 
 river Granicus, and the town of Issus, 
 13 
 
202 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 
 
 struck the death-blow to their mighty 
 name,, and quenched the flame of her 
 country's glory forever. 'And thus the 
 second monarchy passed away, only to 
 give place to the third. 
 
 Greece or Macedonia now assumes pre- 
 eminence among the nations of the earth; 
 and well does she deserve the exalted 
 name she bears among all people. Liter- 
 ature, art, science, and religion, all of 
 which were so diligently cultivated on her 
 soil, as to furnish a wreath for her brow, 
 such as no nation ever wore before her. 
 Every thing that was conducive to a 
 nation's renown, the Greeks sought after 
 and appropriated to their use. No pursuit 
 was deemed too laborious, no enterprise too 
 hazardous, to elevate their country's honor 
 above the nations of the earth. They had 
 their Simonides, and Pythagoras who 
 shone forth as brilliant stars of the nation. 
 Among them lived Anacreon, who was 
 continually laughing at the follies of man- 
 
THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 203 
 
 kind. And they had Heraclitus, who 
 wept at the follies of mankind. These no 
 doubt contribute to the improvement of 
 the men of Greece. They succeeded in 
 rearing a national edifice which all the 
 world admired. But they neglected to 
 reject and expel every corrupting element, 
 and soon her massive pillars began to 
 evince signs of decay. Racked and tossed 
 by seditions and revolutions, and rent by 
 the fury of intestine wars, the sun of her 
 glory went down, amidst the gloom and 
 shame of human blood ; whilst a few 
 inglorious victors fell an easy prey to the 
 valor of Roman arms. The illustrious 
 Hannibal, after crossing the Alps to the 
 consternation of Rome, and put to flight 
 all the armies of Italy, and stripped three 
 bushels of gold rings from oft' the fingers 
 of her knights, had his own army taken in 
 a scene of debauchery and made to bow to 
 the mistress of the world. Tims passed 
 away the brazen kingdom. Her epitaph 
 
204 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 
 
 is written, and her biography is compre- 
 hended in the words rise and decline. 
 
 The fourth monarchy is that of the 
 Roman, which is yet in existence. You 
 will be kind enough to remember that it 
 was against the feet and toes of the image, 
 the stone was made to impinge, and the 
 colossal statue fell, that is, the Roman 
 monarchy, or the fourth and last kingdom 
 that should be in existence at the time 
 when the God of heaven should set up a 
 kingdom never to be destroyed. It was 
 to be in the clays of these kings. " And 
 this is literally true ; for its rise was when 
 the Roman government, partaking of all 
 the characteristics of the preceding 
 empires, was at its zenith of imperial 
 splendor, military glory, legislative 
 authority, and literary eminence. It took 
 place a few years after the battle of Actium, 
 and when Rome was at peace with the 
 whole world." Again, Christ was bom at 
 a time when by a decree of Cesar 
 
THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 205 
 
 Augustus the Roman emperor, that all the 
 world should be taxed, implying that the 
 Roman monarchy had spread so as to 
 include in her geographical limits a larger 
 extent of territory than the preceding 
 ones, which leads us to the second division 
 our subject, viz : 
 
 2. To call attention to the fifth kingdom, 
 and also the consequence of its establish- 
 ment. "It shall break in pieces and con- 
 sume all these kingdoms." 
 
 Other kingdoms have been established 
 upon the blood and bones of human beings, 
 caused by human ambition and worldly 
 power. They flourished for a season and 
 fell. But this kingdom was to be estab- 
 lished by the God of heaven, and should 
 never end. The little stone, detached 
 from the mountain, was to strike the 
 colossal image standing on a plain. This 
 stone emanated from a high source, while 
 the image representing the kingdoms of 
 the world, was in the valley ; implying 
 
206 THE KINGDOM OP CHRIST. 
 
 that this new kingdom was of a high and 
 heavenly origin, and although small at its 
 commencement, it was mysteriously aug- 
 mented until it filled the whole earth. 
 This stone pointed to Christ and his king- 
 dom to which we have already alluded. 
 He is frequently spoken of as a stone. 
 "Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation 
 stone, a tried stone, a precious corner 
 stone, a sure foundation ; he that believeth 
 shall not make haste. And he shall be 
 for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumb- 
 ling, and for a rock of offense to both the 
 houses of Israel. The stone which the 
 builders rejected, the same is become the 
 head of the corner." This last quotation 
 is most positively applied to Christ. It is 
 evident, my hearers, that Christ, and espe- 
 cially his kingdom, is the stone referred to 
 in the interpretation of the dream. It was 
 small at the commencement, and to all 
 human appearance seemed inadequate to 
 the task, yet, was to accomplish the 
 
THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 207 
 
 demolition of the statue ; not instantly, 
 nor by sudden violence ; but by a con- 
 tinued process of comminution. The 
 Roman empire was represented by the 
 legs, feet, and toes of the image. The 
 stone therefore in coming in contact with 
 the image would naturally strike the toes 
 first, and then the feet, by which we may 
 know in what way this fifth kingdom 
 would supplant those that preceded it. 
 The ten toes corresponds, and doubtless 
 means the same thing, with the beast with 
 seven heads and ten horns already alluded 
 to in our first lecture. These ten king- 
 doms that have given their power and 
 strength to the beast, will yield to the 
 genial, the warming, and the animating 
 influences of the Holy Spirit. Through 
 the medium of the word of God, a flood 
 of light will burst upon them, and they 
 will abandon every thing bearing the index 
 of idolatry. Wherever the gospel spreads 
 its glorious light, there the kingdom of 
 
208 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 
 
 Christ is advancing. Christ, and his apos- 
 tles were the first to assert the claims of 
 king Messiah. The stone, however, was 
 started, and in the space of fifty years 
 after the ascension of Christ ; the sound of 
 the gospel trumpet was heard to echo 
 amid the mountains of Judea, Samaria, 
 Gallilee, Syria, Asia, Africa, Persia, and 
 even to reverberate upon the shores of 
 Italy, Spain, and as some assert upon the 
 island of Britain itself. The mists of 
 superstition were dispersed by the sin- 
 piercing rays of the Sun of Righteousness, 
 and every where there was the most 
 glorious triumph of light over darkness. 
 
 The Church, however, was permitted to 
 sink, and vast hell presumed her victory 
 would soon be achieved. But the six- 
 teenth century lifted upon her the dawn 
 of hope. In the persons of Luther, Cal- 
 vin, Zuinglius, and Knox, she found able 
 advocates. The stone received a fresh 
 impetus, and was made to impinge with 
 
THE KINGDOM OP CHRIST. 209 
 
 more violence against the image, and the 
 time is not far distant when it will become 
 pulverized under the weight of the stone 
 that is destined to increase in size until it 
 shall fill the whole earth. 
 
 How many places are now accessible by 
 the missionaries of the cross. In places 
 where until recently it was hazardous to 
 avow Christianity, it is now a privilege 
 enjoyed without molestation. The papal 
 world is becoming more and more acces- 
 sible to the truth. And in many coun- 
 tries where it was least of all expected ; 
 many persons, fatigued, and unsatisfied by 
 the vain attempt to find true peace and hap- 
 piness in formal services, have laid hold of 
 Christianity, and have found that peace of 
 mind which the gospel invariably affords. 
 Truth is advancing, and it matters not 
 through what vicissitudes it may be called 
 to pass, it is destined to triumph over error. 
 
 fi Truth crushed to earth, will rise again, — 
 The eternal years of God are hen." 
 
210 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 
 
 Christianity is on her march, she is 
 dashing aside the artillery aimed at her 
 life. She stands side by side of every 
 true science, and harmonizes with them. 
 She has been justified by the most accom- 
 plished literati of the world. She stands 
 near the ruins of Nineveh, and beholds 
 Layard digging out the majestic remains 
 of that once renowned city, and tells him, 
 * These are the evidences of my origin," 
 
 "Again, let us look at its wonderful 
 spread. This religion once spoke but one 
 tongue ; it now speaks in every tongue of 
 the world, and every day is a continual 
 Pentecost. Our holy faith crosses broad 
 seas, climbs rugged mountains, and raises 
 its fanes in every country. Its wings are 
 not numbered amid polar snows, and it 
 does not faint amid equatorial suns. It 
 gains in speed and power, and the most 
 accomplished of mankind are acknowledg- 
 ing respecting it, ' Truly this is the finge* 
 of God.'" 
 
THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 211 
 
 " In the days of these kings the God of 
 heaven shall set up another kingdom." 
 This kingdom must have a king ; and we 
 are told that Christ is the king — was 
 styled thus by the person who signed his 
 death warrant. I am aware, however, 
 that Christ said his " kingdom was not of 
 this world/ 5 but it was not always so to 
 be. " For the kingdoms of this world are 
 to become the kingdoms of Christ, and he 
 shall reign forever and ever." His do- 
 minion is an everlasting dominion, which 
 shall not pass away, and his kingdom that 
 which shall not be destroyed. We are 
 taught to believe that this blessed event 
 will ultimately be accomplished. For 
 
 " Jesus shall reign where'er the sun 
 Doth his successive journeys run; 
 His kingdom stretch from shore to shore, 
 Till moons shall wax and wane no more." 
 
 Christ, we said, is to be the king, and 
 as such has already been anointed. He 
 was anointed to the three-fold office of 
 
212 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 
 
 Prophet, Priest, and King. As Priest, 
 he was anointed, and was sacrificed upon 
 the cross, and passed into heaven. As 
 Prophet, he was also anointed, he taught 
 the people, and the people were aston- 
 ished at his words and doctrines. "Never 
 man spake like this man." As King, he 
 was also anointed, but is not yet fully mani- 
 fested. David was a type of Christ ; but 
 as David did not enter upon the duties of 
 a king, although he was anointed already, 
 until after the death of Saul, who was a 
 type of anti-Christ, so Christ as the 
 anointed king will not enter fully upon 
 the duties of a king until after the death 
 of anti-Christ the anti-type of Saul. Saul, 
 we say, was a type of anti- Christ. Look 
 at his history from the time he was 
 anointed king by the prophet Samuel 
 until he closed his earthly career, and see 
 what a remarkable coincidence there is 
 between his history and the history of 
 anti-Christ as developed within the last 
 
THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 213 
 
 twelve centuries. Whoever reads the 
 biography of Saul, whether written by 
 inspired or profane writers, must see that 
 in him was foreshadowed the anti-Christ 
 which should follow. Saul was at one 
 time in his history blessed with the gift of 
 prophecy, and it passed into a proverb, 
 "Is Saul a]so among the prophets?" 
 God spoke to him by dreams and visions 
 of the night. But he became a rebel 
 against God. And God departed from 
 him. lie was filled with hatred against 
 David ; and his animosity led him to seek 
 his life. The cause of this was jealousy ; 
 he knew David was to be his successor. 
 He resorted to cunning devices for the 
 purpose of accomplishing his desire. But 
 an overruling Providence interfered, and 
 David was saved. Better try to pluck 
 the sun from its orbit, than to interfere 
 with the providences of God. Better 
 undertake to roll a tide of desolation 
 through the starry world, than undertake 
 
214 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 
 
 to defeat the plans of Jehovah. Saul, 
 when approaching an incensed God, was 
 driven to despair, and as his last resort he 
 flies to the witch of Endor, and shortly 
 afterwards died. So will be the end of 
 anti-Christ, who is now jealous of the pro- 
 digious success of the kingdom and cause 
 of Christ ; and who would Herod-like most 
 gladly concoct some plan to impede the 
 progress of this kingdom, and thus save 
 himself. But it is all useless. The time 
 has come when anti-Christ shall be de- 
 stroyed. His throne is tottering, and will 
 soon crumble and fall. And as Saul was 
 suddenly cut off, so will anti-Christ meet 
 with a similar end. But it is time to 
 inquire more particularly as to the time 
 when this most glorious event shall take 
 place. An event fraught with interest, 
 and one too that should be looked upon 
 as intimately connected with the happiness 
 of the universal brotherhood of mankind. 
 But, 
 
THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 215 
 
 3. Let as ascertain the time zvhen the 
 whole work tvillbe completed. 
 
 We invite your attention to the eighth 
 chapter of Daniel, where we are furnished 
 with another vision which appeared to him 
 in the third year of the reign of Belshaz- 
 zar, and a short time before the rise of 
 the Medo-Persian Empire. " I lifted up 
 mine eyes and saw, and behold, there 
 stood before the river a ram which had 
 two horns; and the two horns were high; 
 but one was higher than the other, and the 
 higher came up last." This ram, he was 
 informed, meant the kings of Media and 
 Persia. The great goat which destroyed 
 the ram, was the kingdom of Greece or 
 Macedonia, established by Philip, and 
 enlarged by his son Alexander the Great. 
 By the little horn we are to understand 
 the Roman Empire, both Pagan and anti- 
 Christian. It is the same as the fourth 
 beast described in the seventh chapter of 
 Daniel ; and the beast with seven heads 
 
21 G THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 
 
 and ten horns, which is described in the 
 thirteenth chapter of Revelation. The 
 same power under the same form still 
 exists, and still casts down the truth to 
 the ground, and practices and prospers. 
 "Then," says Daniel, "I heard one saint 
 speaking, and another saint said unto that 
 certain saint which spake, how long shall 
 be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, 
 and the transgression of desolation, to give 
 both the sanctuary and the host to be 
 trodden under foot? And he said unto 
 me : unto two thousand and three hundred 
 days." This is called, in the twenty-sixth 
 verse, "the vision of the evening and the 
 morning." "The vision of the evening 
 and the morning which was told, is true ; 
 wherefore shut thou up the vision, for it 
 shall be for many days." It is certain 
 and evident that the period of time signi- 
 fied by the vision, commenced when the 
 Median and Persian kingdoms were united 
 under Cyrus and his uncle Darius; and we 
 
THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 217 
 
 are told by the best chronologers that this 
 event took place in the year 534 before the 
 Christian era; if then, we add 534 to the 
 present year 1856, it will appear to be 
 2390 years since the date of the vision. 
 But there has been an error of one hundred 
 years carried through all our Hebrew 
 Bibles. The Septuagint translation, which 
 was made about two hundred and fifty 
 years after the time of Daniel, was twenty- 
 four hundred days, and the events which 
 have since transpired, prove that transla- 
 tion to be correct; for the twenty-three 
 hundred years has passed away since the 
 date of the vision, and the little horn still 
 continues, in a measure, to cast down the 
 truth to the ground, and to practice and 
 prosper. If then, 534 be added to the 
 present year 1856, it will be 2390 since 
 the date of the vision, and from the time 
 of the vision until the complete fulfillment 
 of what should take place, was to be 
 2400 years. It is, as we have seen, 2390 
 14 
 
218 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 
 
 years since the date of the vision; yon 
 will perceive that only ten years more are 
 required to make the 2400 years. And 
 this was the length of time that was to 
 intervene between the time when Daniel 
 saw the vision until the sanctuary should 
 be cleansed. It was 534 years before the 
 commencement of the Christian era when 
 Daniel saw the vision; by subtracting 534 
 from 2400, we have as the result 1866. 
 Ten years added to 2390 makes the 2400, 
 and ten years added to 1856 makes 1866. 
 Here then, we have another proof of our 
 position. Here are the dates — you may 
 make the calculation yourselves; and we 
 cannot see how you can come to any other 
 conclusion than the one we have presented. 
 Again, we invite you to turn to the twelfth 
 chapter of Daniel, where we are furnished 
 with another proof. "And from the time 
 that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, 
 and the abomination that maketh desolate 
 set up, there shall be a thousand two hun- 
 
THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 219 
 
 dred and ninety days, (1290.) Blessed is 
 he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand 
 three hundred and five and thirty days." 
 (1335.) The taking away of the daily 
 sacrifice, and the abomination which 
 maketh desolate set up, some suppose 
 refer to the time when Antiochus, by his 
 military agent, Appollonius, took posses- 
 sion of Jerusalem, and put a stop to the 
 temple worship there. "They shed inno- 
 cent blood around the sanctuary, and 
 defiled the holy place; and the inhabitants 
 of Jerusalem fled away; her feasts were 
 turned into mourning, her Sabbaths into 
 reproach, and her honor into disgrace." 
 1 Mac. i, 37-39. However plausible may 
 be the reasoning respecting this matter, 
 and however honest others may be in 
 applying it to Antiochus, and the destruc- 
 tion of the temple worship in Jerusalem, 
 we must dissent from the view. We think 
 it refers to anti-Christ. In the eighth chap- 
 ter of Daniel the subject, as we have seen, 
 
220 THE KIKGDOM OF CHRIST. 
 
 is introduced respecting the daily sacrifice 
 and the abomination which maketh deso- 
 late ; and in answer to the interrogatory as 
 to how long this should continue, it was 
 said, twenty-four hundred years. Now, in 
 this chapter we have the same subject 
 introduced respecting the daily sacrifice, 
 &c. To understand this subject properly, 
 we must remember that the introduction of 
 the subject in Daniel, eighth chapter, 
 closed with the information respecting the 
 length of time that was to elapse from his 
 day until the complete fulfillment of the 
 desolation spoken of. In the vision 
 recorded in the twelfth chapter, he was 
 informed how long this desolation should 
 continue after the daily sacrifice had been 
 taken away. The former must be 
 reckoned from the time of Daniel, and 
 the other must be reckoned from a later 
 date. It evidently'refers to a period when 
 the true worship of God was interrupted 
 by innovations; the introduction of forms 
 
THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 221 
 
 and ceremonies, by which the vitality of 
 the Church, in a great measure, was lost. 
 And this took place when its spirituality 
 had been exchanged for outward appear- 
 ances. 
 
 And this was not done instantly, but in 
 a gradual way. The Church that Paul 
 planted in Rome was composed of a few 
 converted Jews, Greeks, and Roman citi- 
 zens. Its fame soon spread while under 
 the teaching of the Apostle Paul. For a 
 time it shone brightly, and its light was 
 seen. Its faith was everywhere celebra- 
 ted. But it soon declined and lost its 
 primitive purity. It was by degrees that 
 Christian Rome advanced to the usurped 
 dominion of the world. For a time the 
 bishops had the superintendency of the 
 Churches within the jurisdiction of the 
 prefect of Rome. Rome at this time was 
 the largest, richest, and most powerful city 
 in the world. It was the seat of the em- 
 pire, the mother of nations. "If Rome 
 
222 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 
 
 is the queen of cities, why should not her 
 pastor be the king of bishops? Why 
 should not the Roman church be the 
 mother of Christendom ? Why should not 
 all nations <be her children, and her author- 
 ity thier sovereign law? It was easy for 
 the ambitious heart of man to reason thus. 
 Ambitious Rome did so." 
 
 The bishops throughout the empire felt 
 a pleasure in yielding to the bishop of 
 Rome some portion of that honor which 
 was, as they supposed, due the queen of 
 the world. The power of the pastor in 
 Rome increased like an avalanche, and 
 thus anti-Christ began to assume his de- 
 sired place in the temple of God. The 
 love of pre-eminence, or spirit of domina- 
 tion, was then considered an unequivocal 
 mark of anti-Christ. Hence said Gregory I, 
 respecting the patriarch of Constantinople, 
 " Whoever assumes the name or title of 
 universal bishop, is anti-Christ." And 
 this may be considered good authority, 
 
THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 223 
 
 coming as it does from one of the bishops 
 of Rome. From this time, therefore, is 
 obviously the period when the daily sacri- 
 fice was taken away, and the abomination 
 which maketh desolate was set up. Let 
 me advert to the 17th chapter of Revela- 
 tion, and we have the inscription of the 
 power that took away the daily sacrifice, 
 and whose abomination makes desolate. 
 It is represented by a woman arrayed in 
 purple and scarlet, and decked with gold 
 and precious stones and pearls, having a 
 golden cup in her hand full of (mark the 
 expression) abominations and filthiness of 
 her fornication, "And upon her forehead 
 was a name written, MYSTERY, BABY- 
 LON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER 
 OF HARLOTS, AND (mark what follows) 
 ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH." 
 Able writers, who have investigated this 
 subject thoroughly, tell us that the earliest 
 developments of the papacy was about the 
 year 531- This may be considered as the 
 
224 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 
 
 date of its dawn ; and from this period it 
 was to be one thousand, three hundred, 
 five and thirty days (1335) until the 
 abomination which maketh desolate was 
 to be brought to an end. " Blessed is he 
 that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand 
 three hundred and five and thirty days." 
 If, then, we add 1335 to 531, we land 
 again in 1866. 
 
 It has been asked, what is the use of 
 preaching upon the subject, if, as you say, 
 the millennium is so near at hand. We 
 reply, " much every way. " The com- 
 mand is, "Watch and pray. 5 ' The one is 
 as important as the other is sublime. One 
 duty devolving upon Christians is to live 
 above the world; not to be conformed to 
 the world. Christ said, " I have chosen 
 you out of the world." Just think for a 
 moment what the Bible requires in calling 
 us to be Christian. It is to immolate self, 
 to be divorced from the world, to renounce 
 the world, to be crucified to the world. 
 
THB KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 225 
 
 We have a thousand appetites that must 
 be overcome, a thousand propensities that 
 must be conquered, a thousand passions 
 that mast be subdued ; and to allure us, 
 objects most seductive, and solicitations 
 most refined are placed before us. These 
 are to be repelled, surmounted, overcome. 
 The fact is the very name, Christian, 
 implies crucifixion to the world. The 
 Christian in his profession, his pursuits, his 
 joys, his hopes, seems to exclaim with the 
 superb eagle soaring aloft on silver wing 
 until he revels among the stars, and lights 
 upon the chariot of the sun: "I was born 
 on the earth, but I live in the sky." To 
 think of the near approach of the millen- 
 nium, and how you become inspired with 
 new zeal. How it diminishes the lustre 
 of the world's pomp and glory ! It recon- 
 ciles you to its poverty, you are resigned 
 to its sorrows, its persecutions and you 
 are ready to exclaim, "what have I to 
 do with the world's vanities, its smiles, and 
 
223 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 
 
 its glories ? I am waiting, expecting, 
 looking, hoping, praying, for that blessed 
 hope, the approach of the millennium." 
 From the overflowing of such an heart, 
 what an influence would be exerted, what 
 a ray of light would emanate from the 
 example, and what a deep impression would 
 be made on the minds of all within the 
 circle of our acquaintance ? But does not 
 the view you take, and the opinion you 
 express, as to the nearness of the millen- 
 nium have a tendency to induce indiffer- 
 ence on the subject? "Instead of this 
 being a reason for relaxing our exertions," 
 says one, "it is the reverse; if the letter 
 paper is nearly full, let us crowd more 
 writing into the space that remains ; if the 
 candlelight is nearly extinguished, let us 
 work the harder ere it go out. Let our 
 loins be girt, and our lamps burning, as 
 men waiting for the Lord." 
 
 Whenever it is announced that a new 
 star has been discovered in the heavens, 
 
THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 227 
 
 astronomers, using this earth as an obser- 
 vatory, and by the aid of the telescope, look 
 in the direction of the star, and if possible 
 find out its relative position. My hearers 
 the Star of Hope is about to rise on 
 the world; and we invite you, to place 
 yourselves upon the promises of the Bible, 
 and by the use of the telescope of the 
 gospel, learn with certainty the truth of 
 the rising star in the moral heavens. "He 
 calleth to me out of Seir," 
 
 " Watchman ! tell us of the night 1 
 
 Higher yet that star ascends: 
 Trav'ler! blessedness and light, 
 
 Peace and truth its course portends ! 
 
 Watchman ! will its beams alono 
 Gild the spot that gave them birth 
 
 Trav'ler I ages are its own, 
 See ; it bursts o'er all the earth." 
 
LECTURE VII. 
 
 €\t Itaian of % llillemrittm. 
 
LECTURE VII. 
 
 THE NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 
 
 Thy kingdom come. — Matt, vi, 10. 
 
 Prayer is an indispensable duty enjoined 
 upon Christians. It is made obligatory 
 upon them, because they are commanded to 
 pray, and because their interests, both tem- 
 poral and spiritual, are inseparably con- 
 nected with it. We are commanded to 
 make our wants known, and if faith accom- 
 panies the requests we make, they will be 
 granted, if the thing requested be in accord- 
 ance with the will of God; for, let it be 
 remembered that God's will is always right; 
 and he is too wise to err, and never doeth 
 wrong. We may request at the hands of 
 God such things, which if granted, would be 
 unto us curses instead of blessings. Nero's 
 mother prayed that her son might be 
 
232 NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 
 
 Emperor. Her wishes were realized; but 
 Nero murdered his mother. No injury 
 will be sustained by us in leaving the event 
 with God. 
 
 There are, however, prayers that we 
 may offer to God and claim their answer. 
 You have noticed in reading the scriptures 
 that we are frequently commanded to pray 
 for certain things. The words of the text 
 are of such a nature. We are most posi- 
 tively commanded to pray for the kingdom 
 of Christ to come. It would be reflecting 
 most seriously on the character of God to 
 hesitate a moment in believing that such 
 a petition would not be heard and answered. 
 It was not only given to the infant Church, 
 but was to be of binding force on the 
 Church /through all subsequent periods, 
 and will continue so until it shall be fully 
 and completely answered, and the praise 
 of Christ 
 
 " Sound from shore to shore." 
 
 It is no valid objection to say that the 
 
NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 233 
 
 phraseology employed in the text does not 
 refer to a kingdom in this world. Read 
 the next sentence, and an explanation of 
 the text follows: "Thy kingdom come." 
 And what follows? "Thy will be done. " 
 Where ? "On earth." How? "As it is 
 in heaven." Would you learn the nature 
 of Christ's kingdom, consult Paul's letter 
 to the Romans, xiv, 17: "For the king- 
 dom of God is not meat and drink, but 
 righteousness, and peace, and joy in the 
 Holy Ghost," Paul defines the kingdom 
 of Chri^ to be righteousness, peace, and 
 joy i all of which may be realized in this 
 world, arjei which will be the portion of the 
 saints during the millennial reign of 
 Christ, or else words have no meaning. 
 Righteousness — and what says prophecy 
 respecting it during the millennium? 
 "The mountains shall bring peace to the 
 people, and the little hills, by righteousness. 
 In his days shall the righteous flourish, and 
 abundance of peace so long as the moon 
 15 
 
234 NATURE OE THE MILLENNIUM. 
 
 endareth. I will also make thy officers 
 peace, and thine exactors right eousnes." 
 
 Peace. "The meek shall inherit the 
 earth, and shall delight themselves in the 
 abundance of peace. Thus saith the Lord, 
 behold, 1 will extend peace to her like a 
 river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a 
 flowing stream. I will also make thy 
 officers peace" &c. 
 
 Joy. " The ransomed of the Lord shall 
 return, and come to Zion with songs of 
 everlasting joy upon their heads; they 
 shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow 
 and sighing shall flee away. Break forth 
 into joy ; sing together, ye waste places 
 of Jerusalem; for the Lord hath comforted 
 his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. 
 Be ye glad and rejoice forever in that 
 which I create, for behold, I create Jeru- 
 salem a rejoicing, and hex people a joy. 
 And I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy 
 in my people ; and the voice of weeping 
 shall be no more heard in her, nor the 
 
NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 235 
 
 voice of crying. The Lord thy God in 
 the midst of thee is mighty; he will save; 
 he will rejoice over thee with joy" 
 
 Having made these preliminary remarks 
 respecting the kingdom of Christ, we will 
 give you, in a condensed form, some of 
 the views that have been entertained on 
 this subject, and reserve what we have to 
 say touching the nature of the millennium 
 until the closing of this lecture. 
 
 1 . Show some of the vieivs entertained 
 on this subject 
 
 Some very strange notions have been 
 imbibed on this subject. One has given 
 free scope to his imagination, by saying 
 that the large rivers in America are mostly 
 on the eastern side, by which means the 
 Jews will be able to waft themselves more 
 easily down to the Atlantic, and then 
 across that great ocean to the holy land; 
 and moreover, that Christ will appear at 
 the equinox, when the days and nights are 
 of equal length over the glob?, and that 
 
236 NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM, 
 
 the body of Christ will be luminous, and 
 being suspended in the air over the equa- 
 tor for the space of twenty-four hours, will 
 be seen with circumstances of peculiar 
 glory from the rivers to the ends of the 
 earth, by all the inhabitants of our world. 
 
 Another writer of considerable celebrity 
 has published two small volumes on pro- 
 phecy, in which he contends for a millen- 
 nium involving the personal reign of 
 Christ on earth. Its commencement he 
 dates, as we have done, in 1866, with 
 which view we most heartily concur, 
 except the idea of the personal reign of 
 Christ. We regard the millennium as a 
 spiritual reign of the Redeemer. 
 
 Bishop Newton, Dr. Gill, and others 
 also, contend for a personal reign of Christ 
 on earth. One in his dissertation on the 
 prophecies gives the following description 
 of the millennium: "When these great 
 events shall come to pass, which we collect 
 from the prophecies, this is to be the 
 
NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 237 
 
 proper order; the Protestant witnesses 
 shall be greatly exalted, and their 1260 
 years of prophesying in sackcloth, and of 
 the tyranny of the beast, shall end 
 together; the restoration of the Jews 
 succeed; then follows the ruin of the 
 Ottoman Empire; and then the total 
 destruction of Rome and of anti-Christ. 
 When these great events, I say, shall come 
 to pass, then shall the kingdom of Christ 
 commence, or the reign of the saints upon 
 the earth." 
 
 Another entertaining and exalted idea 
 of the advantages to which our nature 
 may be destined, intimates that the thou- 
 sand years may be regarded as prophetical ; 
 and that consequently the millennial era 
 will last three hundred and sixty thousand 
 years. 
 
 Another view is, that there will be no 
 resurrection; and that the millennium 
 only implies the revival of religion; and 
 the triumph of the truth. 
 
238 NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 
 
 There is another view, which is exten- 
 sively held in the Christian Church, and 
 which is claimed to be based on the scrip- 
 tures of divine truth. According to this 
 theory, this earth is to be purified by fire 
 as was the old world by water. It will 
 then be the abode of the sacramental host 
 of God, the home of the pious. The fol- 
 lowing is this theory expressed in few 
 words : " Then we say that this earth of 
 ours, cleansed from the blood and tears of 
 many generations, and exulting in the 
 smile of the Eternal, shall be — not heaven 
 merely— but the very center and shrine 
 of heaven." 
 
 In favor of this theory, an argument is 
 adduced from reason. It runs in this 
 wise : When man sinned and fell, the 
 physical world felt the effect, and shared 
 in the terrible ruin which followed. 
 
 " Earth felt the wound, and nature from her seat, 
 Sighing through all her works gave signs of woe, 
 That all was lost." 
 
 It is maintained as nature was partaker 
 
nature op the millennium. 239 
 
 in the ruins of the fall, so it must also 
 become a sharer in the final restoration. 
 It is true, that the earth was affected by 
 the fall ; the ground was cursed for the 
 sin of our progenitors, but to assume that 
 it must be renovated on that ground 
 merely, is assuming too much ; as that 
 mode of reasoning would evidently lead to 
 conclusions that its adherents themselves 
 would discard. If such reasoning be cor- 
 rect, then it follows that man, who was a 
 great sharer in the ruins of the fall, would 
 ultimately be restored ; and the whole 
 race be finally saved with an everlasting 
 salvation. 
 
 A passage of scripture in Revelation, 
 chapter xxi, is supposed to teach this 
 theory : "And I saw a new heaven and a 
 new earth ; for the first heaven and the 
 first earth were passed away, and there 
 was no more sea." As this theory is 
 professedly based on scripture, it must 
 receive a passing notice. The sense of 
 
240 NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 
 
 the passage just quoted will perhaps bo 
 better understood from an examination of 
 the context, commencing at the seventh 
 verse of the preceding chapter; then it 
 will be seen why the holy city is repre- 
 sented as coming down from God out of 
 heaven. You will observe, my friends, 
 that two cities are spoken of. The " be- 
 loved city " which is on earth, and the 
 u holy city " coming down from heaven. 
 These evidently denote the militant and 
 triumphant branches of the Church. With 
 this fact before us, let us attend to a con- 
 crete exposition of the whole passage, and 
 see if all will not appear perfectly natural, 
 and at the same time accompanied with a 
 clearness that will leave no room for doubt. 
 At the close of the glorious millennium, 
 or expiration of the thousand years reign 
 of peace, will come the final winding up of 
 all that bears the index of earth ; when 
 the Church militant has encamped in full 
 panoply, waiting to be marched into its 
 
NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 241 
 
 triumphant state, the evil one will make 
 one more desperate effort against it. The 
 powers of hell will be drawn up in battle 
 array, gathered together from the four 
 corners of the earth. This army, figura- 
 tively called Gog and Magog, will be 
 numerous as the sand of the sea. With 
 boldness they march up to the camp of the 
 saints who are in the "beloved city," 
 the Church of God in its militant state. 
 In this emergency, the Lord appears in 
 behalf of his people, and the mighty army 
 of the enemy is exterminated by fire from 
 God out of heaven, and the devil by whom 
 this vast army have been most wofully 
 deceived, is taken and cast into the lake 
 of fire, to reap the bitter reward of his evil 
 doing, and for his determination to destroy 
 the cause of Christ. 
 
 Meanwhile, the supreme potentate, ar- 
 rayed in all the solemn ensignia of u Judge 
 of all," is about to make his second entry, 
 with supernal pomp, to close the nuptials 
 
242 NATURE OT THE MILLENNIUM. 
 
 between the Lamb and the bride, who has 
 now made herself ready, and also to sum- 
 mon mankind to his bar. High in the 
 oriental sky, the impenetrable gloomy 
 clouds are beginning to separate. A bril- 
 liant spot, dim and small at first, but 
 increasing in size, and growing brighter as 
 it approaches the earth, is visible through 
 the gathering gloom. " The dazzling 
 radiance moves onward and downward, 
 and is drawing nigher and still nigher to 
 the earth." The blessed Redeemer rides 
 in awful grandeur. His wheels roll in fire, 
 surrounded with unparalleled sublimity of 
 state. Ten thousand times ten thousand 
 angels follow him to grace the scene. 
 Christ in front — he leads on a long pro- 
 cession of illustrious attendants, reaching 
 as far back into the heavens as our aston- 
 ished vision can reach — the whole retinue 
 shining with immortal splendor, and coming 
 on like a mighty flood of living glory. 
 When they reach the lower atmosphere of 
 
NATURE OP THE MILLENNIUM. 243 
 
 our earth, the dazzling host will stop, and 
 a strong voice, stern and sonorous will be 
 heard by all the living tribes of men, come 
 to judgment! Come to judgment ! Come 
 each, come all, come away ! 
 
 " Behold the awful books displayed, 
 Big with the important fates of men; 
 
 Each deed and word now public made, 
 As wrote by heaven's unerring pen." 
 
 The saints, having been judged and 
 approved, are now waiting to be conducted 
 to heaven, their promised reward. Who 
 will conduct them thither ? Hear it, oh 
 ye heavens ! " The holy city, new Jeru- 
 salem." By which we are to understand 
 the whole Church triumphant, shall come 
 down from God out of heaven. The new 
 Jerusalem, the "holy city," or Church 
 triumphant, and the "beloved city," or 
 Church militant on earth are now visibly 
 united, the holy nuptials are consummated, 
 and all prepare for their ascension to 
 heaven. See, they look for the last time 
 
244 NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 
 
 on the old and hoary earth ! Why, that 
 they are now ready, is it longer delayed ! 
 Oh ! what glory now encircles the brow of 
 the Son of God ! Now is he ready to lead 
 many sons to glory. But see! Away 
 they start, rising higher and higher, 
 spreading further and further, until at last 
 the city of God, in silent grandeur, lifts its 
 towers before them. " Lift up your heads, 
 ye gates ; and be ye lifted up, ye ever- 
 lasting doors, and the King of glory shall 
 come in. Who is this King of glory ? 
 The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord 
 mighty in battle." Christ says to God 
 the Father, here am I, and here are the 
 evidences of my victory. They pass into 
 the city prepared for them. What a 
 mighty, universal burst of rapturous ap- 
 plause. What high sounding symphonies 
 swell the grand chorus of the joyful throng 
 as they sing, " Let us be glad and rejoice, 
 and give honor to him ; for the marriage 
 of the Lamb is come!" 
 
NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 245 
 
 This may suffice as an exposition of 
 these scriptures which are of shadowy 
 import, at all events they partake very 
 much of prophecy, and it is precarious to 
 base a positive doctrine on prophecy 
 exclusively, especially when there is so 
 much direct evidence against it. 
 
 Reason, instead of furnishing an argu- 
 ment in favor of this theory, gives us an 
 incontrovertible argument against it. The 
 circumference of the earth is too small to 
 be the final home of the blessed. Let us 
 suppose the trump of God now sounding, 
 its thundering tones would peal from moun- 
 tain to mountain, re-echo from valley to 
 valley; and reaching out into distant 
 space would bound from star to star, and 
 then roll on to creation's further side. 
 See ! all the dead coming forth. " The 
 sea delivers up the dead," that were in its 
 depths. Every grave opens and lets its 
 prisoner go. Let all the untold millions 
 of mankind who have peopled the earth 
 
24G NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 
 
 and passed away, be gathered together and 
 they would cover every mountain from its 
 loftiest peak down to its lowest declivity. 
 Every island, each ocean rock, of every 
 sea, would be full of close pressed crowds 
 of human forms. Not a single foot of 
 land, no, not a rock projecting above the 
 surface of the sea, but would be covered 
 with) living human forms. There would 
 be all the ancient worthies, patriarchs, 
 prophets, apostles, martyrs, who ascended 
 the skies in chariots of fire, dropping their 
 mantles, as they rose, on followers who 
 were fit to wear them. There would also 
 be champions who smote with the sword 
 of the Spirit, the flying powers of darkness. 
 Let all the collected wisdom and virtue of 
 all lands and all ages meet together; the 
 seven thousand who had not bowed their 
 knee to Baal, nor kissed his image. The 
 seed of Abraham which was to be "as the 
 stars of the sky in multitude, and as the 
 sand which is by the sea-shore innumer- 
 
NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 247 
 
 able." "These all died in faith." To 
 these are to be added the children who 
 have gone up from Christian, and from 
 heathen lands; those little ones whom 
 angels sung to rest, moreover, the heavenly 
 hosts are innumerable. The exiled John 
 while on Patmos was favored with a view 
 of heaven — the veil was drawn aside and 
 0! what a scene fell upon his vision, 
 radiant with the splendors of eternal day ! 
 He looked, he wondered, and was thrilled 
 with rushing pulsation as the pealing 
 anthem came sounding on his ear — 
 
 " Sweetest sound in seraph'3 song, 
 Sweetest note on mortals tongue. " 
 
 He tells us that he saw an innumerable 
 host of angels that no man could number. 
 " And I beheld, and I heard the voice of 
 many angels round about the throne, and 
 the beasts, and the elders; and the number 
 of them was ten thousand times ten thou- 
 sand, and thousands of thousands." Let 
 all .this Vast number John beheld; those 
 
248 NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM, 
 
 who have been added to that number since 
 his day; and all be gathered together 
 from the graves of earth, and the caves of 
 ocean; and it needs no lucid argument to 
 prove that this insignificant planet on 
 which we live, would be too small for the 
 eternal home of those who have been 
 redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. 
 
 As this theory has been advocated by 
 men of erudition, whose celebrity demands 
 that it be not dispatched with little or no 
 investigation. Therefore we shall adduce 
 other arguments, showing that the view 
 under consideration doe snot quadrate with 
 the Bible. We are told by the Apostle 
 when the thousand years shall have expired, 
 Satan is to be loosed a little season, and 
 that he will gather together the wicked 
 for battle against the saints of the Most 
 High, &c. The idea we wish to impress 
 upon your minds is, as you have been 
 frequently taught, that heaven is a holy 
 place; and that nothing sinful can enter 
 
NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 249 
 
 it. How, then we ask will it be possible 
 for Satan, who long since raised the stand- 
 ard of revolt against the God of heaven, 
 and who ever since his fall, has been 
 making the most powerful efforts to destroy 
 the kingdom of Christ ; how, we ask, will 
 he be permitted to enter the abode of the 
 blest with a view of arraying a formidable 
 force against them, if the earth-heaven 
 theory be true ? 
 
 The truth is, my hearers, heaven is now 
 prepared, and many of the saints have 
 entered it. Where is Enoch ? Where is 
 Elijah? who were translated to heaven 
 and did not taste death. Christ said to 
 the thief on the cross, " to-day shallt thou 
 be with me in Paradise." And where is 
 Christ? He ascended to heaven it is 
 said, and was beheld until a cloud received 
 him out of sight; and those that saw him 
 were assured by the angels, that he should 
 come again in like manner as he had 
 ascended, all of which implies that heaven 
 16 
 
250 NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 
 
 is a local place, and that it is now prepared, 
 and saints at death enter it. 
 
 Again. The Saviour said to his 
 sorrowing disciples but a short time prior 
 to his leaving this world, "Let not your 
 hearts be troubled; ye believe in God, 
 believe also in me. In my Father's house 
 are many mansions ; if it were not so, I 
 would have told you. I go to prepare a 
 place for you. And if I go and prepare a 
 place for you, I will come again and 
 receive you unto myself; that where I 
 am there ye may be also." From these 
 comforting words we learn that our man- 
 sions are now prepared; but, according to 
 the theory under consideration, the place 
 which the saints are to occupy as their 
 eternal home is not yet prepared. 
 
 From the words just quoted, we are 
 assured that Christ will come again after 
 these mansions shall have been prepared; 
 but according to the theory of the earth's 
 renovation, these mansions will not be 
 prepared until after his second coming. 
 
NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM* 2ol 
 
 In order to prepare these mansions he 
 leaves the earth, he goes away from it, 
 showing plainly that heaven is away from 
 the earth, and that it is already prepared. 
 He will come to receive us to himself 
 implying, that the future abode of the 
 saints is not this earth. "That where I 
 am there ye may be also.'* Where is he ? 
 and the answer is in heaven. 
 
 That heaven is a place somewhere away 
 from the earth, is evident from other por- 
 tions of the Bible. David said, "Whom 
 have I in heaven but thee ? And there 
 is none upon earth that I desire besides 
 thee." Here we have the two worlds 
 brought to view. God was David's all in 
 heaven, and there was none upon earth 
 he desired besides him. " We know then 
 that if our earthly house of this tabernacle, 
 were dissolved, we have a building of God, 
 an house not made with hands, eternal in 
 the heavens." What can be plainer than 
 that heaven is now prepared, and that 
 saints soon as they are liberated from this 
 
252 NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 
 
 prison of clay will enter it. " The heaven, 
 even the heavens, are the Lord's ; but the 
 earthly hath he given to the children of 
 men." "Thy will be done on earth as it 
 is in heaven." "I came forth from the 
 Father, and am come into the world; 
 again, I leave the world, and go to the 
 Father." 
 
 The patriarchs confessed that they were 
 strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 
 Strangers, for the reason that they were 
 pDgrims. "These all died in faith, not 
 having received the promises, but having 
 seen them afar off, and were persuaded of 
 them, and embraced them, and confessed 
 that they were strangers and pilgrims on 
 the earth. For they that say such things 
 declare plainly that they seek a country. 
 And truly, if they had been mindful of 
 that country from whence they came out, 
 they might have had opportunity to have 
 returned. But now they desire a letter 
 country, that is, an heavenly; wherefore 
 God is not ashamed to be called their God> 
 
NATURE OF THE MILLENIUM. 253 
 
 for he hath prepared for them a city." 
 What can be more obvious than that 
 heaven is now prepared. No other reason- 
 able inference can be drawn from the 
 language just quoted. In no sense, then, 
 can this earth be called heaven. It is 
 God's footstool. In view of this subject 
 the Christian may say: "Farewell, thou 
 earth, thou land of the curse ! My aspi- 
 rations are towards the fountain of 
 uncreated light. Farewell, ye lamps of 
 heaven, ye shall not stay my freed 
 spirit's upward flight. Far, 
 
 Far from these narrow scenes of night 
 
 Unbounded glories rise, 
 A.nd realms of infinite delight, 
 
 Unknown to mortal eyes." 
 
 Borne upon the wings of faith, we may 
 attempt to follow the track of the Saviour's 
 ascension, or that of the chariots of Israel 
 in which Elijah went up — alas! let us 
 not attempt it in the body. Here, then, 
 we rest in the patience of hope, and in that 
 assurance of faith which is the evidence 
 of things not seen. This, however, wo 
 
254 NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 
 
 know, when once the signal for our depart- 
 ure is given, our emancipated spirits shall 
 cleave the air, as Christ and Elijah did; 
 passing through the first heaven, the earth, 
 its sinful abode, shall dwindle into nothing 
 behind it. The second heaven also, with 
 all its planets, suns, and systems, stretch- 
 ing far beyond the reach of human thought, 
 will soon fade back into dim space. Now, 
 the third heaven will stretch out before us, 
 onward and upward, its eternal plains! 
 Faint and far before, but drawing nearer, 
 and nearer, appears the Holy City; soon 
 its twelve shining foundations, from which 
 the battlements of blazing jasper tower 
 upwards, are scaled — the portals of light 
 are crossed, and now before the soul's 
 enraptured gaze the heaven of heavens 
 stretches broader and higher its boundless 
 realms through uncreated light! 
 
 Amen ! Hallelujah ! Come, Lord Jesus, 
 come quickly! 
 
 Let us advert, for a moment, to the 
 resurrection as taught in the scriptures. 
 
NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 255 
 
 It is asserted that there will be two literal 
 resurrections. The first to take place just 
 at the ushering in of the mill ennium, and 
 is to consist of those who died as martyrs 
 in the cause of Christ, together with all 
 the saints of God, and that these shall 
 live and reign with Christ a thousand years, 
 and that the wicked dead are not to be 
 raised until the thousand years are finished. 
 The following scriptures are supposed to 
 establish the theory : " And I saw thrones, 
 and they sat upon them, and judgment 
 was given unto them; and I saw the souls 
 of them that were beheaded for the wit- 
 ness of Jesus, and for the word of God, 
 and which had not worshiped the beast, 
 neither his image, neither had received 
 his mark upon their foreheads, or in their 
 hands ; and they lived and reigned with 
 Christ a thousand years. But the rest of 
 the dead lived not again until the thou- 
 sand years were finished. This is the 
 first resurrection. Blessed and holy is 
 he that hath part in the first resurrect ion; 
 
256 NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 
 
 on such the second death hath no power, 
 but they shall be priests of God and of 
 Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand 
 years." 
 
 It is obvious that this theory, if at all 
 sustained by the scriptures, is embraced in 
 the quotation just made. The doctrine of 
 two resurrections is not only implied, but 
 also taught in the paragraph above. But 
 we cannot imbibe the idea that two literal 
 resurrections are taught in the scriptures. 
 "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in 
 the first resurrection" bv no means sustains 
 it It is not denied that there are two 
 resurrections, but it is denied that both are 
 literal, and that a thousand years will 
 intervene between them. The first resur- 
 rection is a resurrectionfrom spiritual death. 
 All persons, before they are changed from 
 nature to grace, are represented in the 
 Bible as being dead. Hence, says the 
 Apostle, "awake, thou that sleepest, and 
 arise from the dead, and Christ shall give 
 thee light" Who would for a moment 
 
NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 257 
 
 indulge the idea that Paul had in his pere- 
 grinatings wandered into same lonely 
 cemetery, and among the quiet dead, 
 addressed himself in the language just 
 quoted? He evidently addressed himself 
 to those who were living, and yet w r ere 
 dead "in trespasses and sins." And the 
 same Apostle, in describing one who had 
 responded to the call, and was made alive 
 unto God, says: "And you hath he 
 quickened, who were dead in trespasses 
 and sins." 
 
 Again, Christ, in the days of his incar- 
 nation, said to two particular individuals 
 "follow me." But one replied, "Lord 
 suffer me first to go and bury my father." 
 Allow me to perform this last tribute of 
 respect to the deceased one, after which, 
 I shall then comply with thy command. 
 Now mark the reply: "Let the dead 
 bury their dead." The only proper expo- 
 sition of this language is, let those who 
 are spiritually dead bury those who are 
 temporally dead. 
 
258 NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 
 
 "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." You will 
 be kind enough to notice the language, 
 "the hour is coming and now is;" it was 
 then already. This evidently implies a 
 resurrection that might take place at that 
 time already, as it is said, "they that hear 
 shall live," which cannot be applied to the 
 literal resurrection, as a condition seems to 
 be implied respecting this resurrection. 
 But at the resurrection at the last day, all 
 will hear and all will come forth. The first 
 resurrection then is spiritual. "Blessed 
 and holy is he that hath part in the 
 first resurrection." It must mean those 
 who, having been dead in sin, were made 
 alive again by the power of the Holy 
 Ghost, and became mystically united to 
 Christ; and as plants derive vegetable life 
 from the earth, and the body derives 
 animal life from the soul, the Christian 
 derives spiritual life ljom Christ his living 
 
NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 259 
 
 head. This is what we understand by the 
 first resurrection. 
 
 That there is to be but one literal resur- 
 rection, the scriptures abundantly prove. 
 Let us advert for a moment to a few pas- 
 sages looking in this direction : " And this 
 is the Father's will which hath sent me, 
 that of all which he hath given me, I shall 
 lose nothing, but should raise it up again 
 at the last day. 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. No man can come to 
 me, except the Father which hath sent 
 me, draw him ; and I will raise him up at 
 the last day. I am the living bread which 
 came down from heaven. If any man eat 
 of this bread, he shall live forever: and 
 the bread that I will give is my flesh, which 
 I will give for the life of the world. Whoso 
 eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, 
 hath eternal life ; and I will raise him up 
 at the last day." AVho may be said to 
 
260 NATURE OP THE MILLENNIUM. 
 
 believe in Christ ? Surely not the unbe- 
 liever. It is obviously the Christian. 
 And when are such to be raised from the 
 dead? We answer, the last day. Not 
 one thousand years prior to the last day. 
 Who may be said to have eaten the flesh 
 of Christ, and to have drank his blood ? 
 Most assuredly not the wicked, and pro- 
 fane, not the infidel, or the scoffer, but the 
 Christian. And when is such an one to 
 be raised from the dead ? Christ answers 
 the interrogatory by saying the last day, 
 and not a thousand years previous. 
 
 And is there a last day, a day of judg- 
 ment ? Yes, my hearers, this truth is 
 clearly revealed in the Bible. When the 
 thousand years shall have expired, and be 
 added to the years beyond the flood. 
 Then an Archangel, the herald of the 
 Sovereign Judge, will come down from 
 heaven to earth, " to prepare the w T ay of 
 the Lord," and to summon the whole 
 human race to come forth, that they may 
 be in readiness to meet him when he shall 
 
$ATt?RE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 2&1 
 
 appear in his radiant glory. How vast, 
 how majestic, how awfully surprising, will 
 be the appearance of that arch-herald, who 
 can tell? Adorned with apparel more 
 brilliant than the shining sun in all its 
 midsummer splendor, with a sparkling 
 luster, dyed in all the beauteous hues of 
 heaven, fixed upon his brows. He alights 
 firm and stately upon this doomed earth, 
 and with one foot upon the trembling 
 earth, and the other upon the raging sea, 
 he shall swear, u time shall be no longer." 
 And as his voice reverberates along the 
 sky until it reaches the utmost bounds of 
 creation, it will be followed by another 
 still more sublime — the trump of God 
 which sounds from pole to pole. It will 
 shake the pillars and battlements of 
 heaven; it will penetrate the deepest 
 recesses of the tomb, and pour forth its 
 amazing, and its awful thunder into the 
 abodes and realms of eternal silence ; and 
 then go resounding through the trembling 
 realms of hell, and vast hell like a surging 
 
262 NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 
 
 volcano will heave its thousands to the 
 bar of God. Whilst worlds will crush 
 against worlds, and consternation and 
 alarm will seize upon the living tribes of 
 earth, and all will obey. 
 
 It matters not whether we be buried in 
 a cerement of granite, beneath all the 
 rocks, hills, and mighty mountains of the 
 world ; heaved up and piled together high 
 as the moon, and broad as the circle of the 
 earth. We must obey. Methinks the 
 call will fall upon the world like the sudden 
 pealing thunder of a midnight storm, or 
 the hoarse crash of falling worlds. 
 
 * While sinners in despair shall call, 
 ' Rocks hide us, mountains on us fall I ' 
 The saints ascending from the tomb, 
 Shall joyful sing, i the Lord is come/ " 
 
 But, it is time to inquire 
 
 II. Into the nature of Christ's kingdom. 
 We would here say that it is not our 
 opinion that death will cease during the 
 millennium, or that mankind will be en- 
 tirely freed from all the ills which flesh is 
 heir to, or that every member of the 
 
NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 263 
 
 human family will be Christians, or that 
 men will not be required to exert them- 
 selves physically to secure the necessaries 
 of life. But we will state, 
 
 1. That men will not be permitted to 
 prosper in dishonesty as they have hitherto 
 done. We shall from this period see the 
 disappointment and confusion of those who 
 meditate schemes of iniquity. It has 
 already been the course which God has 
 pursued in his government of the world, 
 to order the dispensations of his wrath in 
 such a manner as to give men time and 
 space for repentance. It is thus that he 
 shows his long suffering and forbearance. 
 But, it is evident, that as men are always 
 progressing in the habits of virtue or of 
 vice, so the delay of punishment only 
 serves to give a wicked man opportunity 
 of growing more wicked and more hardened 
 in sin. Thus we see multitudes constantly 
 abusing the forbearance of God to their 
 eternal destruction; and "because sentence 
 against an evil work is not executed 
 
264 NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 
 
 speedily, the hearts of men are fully set 
 in them to do evil." But although God 
 is slow to anger, his vengeance is sure* 
 The delay of punishment offers no ground 
 of hope that any criminal shall escape. 
 He has his own wise purposes to answer 
 by evil as well as by good. He will 
 " cause the wrath of man to praise him, 
 and the remainder of wrath he will re- 
 strain." Thus, for many years and ages 
 he has suffered irfiquity to prevail in the 
 world. The spirit of anti-Christ existed 
 and operated in the days of the Apostles, 
 and continued to grow more powerful from 
 age to age, until at length the dominion 
 of iniquity was established and anti-Christ 
 sat upon the throne. His power has now 
 existed for nearly one thousand two hun- 
 dred and sixty years. He has succeeded 
 in slaying the witnesses and casting their 
 bodies out into the streets of the city. 
 But now the period of his domination is 
 about to close, and the reign of righteous- 
 ness about to commence. We may there- 
 
NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 265 
 
 fore conclude that the first display of the 
 power of the Redeemer will appear in 
 defeating all the schemes of iniquity. 
 You will find that men will not be able to 
 prosper in dishonesty as they have hitherto 
 done. The hands of sinners will soon be 
 caught in their own snares. They will 
 soon fall into the pit which they have 
 digged for others, and sentence upon an 
 evil work will be executed more speedily 
 than has been the case since the fall of 
 man. Thus, every kind of iniquity will 
 appear in its proper colors. Men will learn 
 the long neglected art of giving and of 
 bearing reproof, and the sinner who perse- 
 veres in his transgression, will not only 
 lose his influence, but bring upon himself 
 the contempt and the abhorrence of man- 
 kind. There is much meaning in that 
 declaration of the prophet, a The child 
 shall die an hundred years old, but the 
 sinner being an hundred years old shall be 
 accursed." We are here informed that in 
 17 
 
266 NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 
 
 those blessed days that are to come, men 
 shall generally live to the age of one 
 hundred years, and shall be as healthy 
 and vigorous as if they were young men 
 until the day of their death ; but the sin- 
 ner who has hardened himself in iniquity 
 through the course of a hundred years, 
 shall be an object of universal abhorrence. 
 He shall be MAGOR MISSABIB, a terror 
 to himself and to ail around him. 
 
 Another feature of the millennium will 
 be a blessed union among the people of God. 
 It is one of the most important events 
 which ever took place upon the earth. An 
 event for which preparation has been 
 making for nearly six thousand years. 
 Now, the Redeemer will rapidly hasten 
 that glorious time when there shall be "one 
 Lord and his name one." Therefore it is 
 said that "the four and twenty elders, who 
 sat before God on their seats, fell upon 
 their faces, and worshiped God, saying: 
 We give thee thanks, Lord God 
 
NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 267 
 
 Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to 
 come; because thou hast taken to thee 
 thy great power, and hast reigned." These 
 four and twenty elders are the symbol of 
 the Church of God. They are destined 
 to set on thrones around the throne of 
 Jehovah. "Yea," says the Apostle, 
 speaking to the Christian Church, "ye are 
 a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an 
 holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye 
 should show forth the praises of him who 
 hath called you out of darkness into his 
 marvelous light." They are here repre- 
 sented in their true character, as crowned 
 in glory and sitting around the throne of 
 God. Hence, the truth intended to be 
 conveyed to our minds by this expression 
 of their praise is, that there will now be a 
 union of sentiment and feeling among all 
 who profess the Christian name. Chris- 
 tians on earth and Christians in heaven 
 will join in the ascription of praise and 
 glory to God and the Lamb. As from this 
 
268 NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 
 
 period we may date the downfall of anti- 
 Christ, so from this period we may also 
 date the commencement of the downfall of 
 the spirit of discord and division among 
 the true servants of God. Hence, one of 
 the most important and blessed results 
 which may be anticipated, is the union 
 of all the Christian Churches. They 
 shall all unite in worship, and in honest 
 and persevering exertions for the spread- 
 ing of the gospel. It is much to be feared 
 that in the unions which have been formed 
 among Christians of different denomina- 
 tions, and in all the exertions which have 
 been made for the promulgation of the 
 gospel, there has been too much self-inter- 
 est and the leaven of worldly speculation. 
 Some honest men have been engaged in 
 the work, and some good has already been 
 accomplished; but when the spirit of life 
 from God shall have entered fully into wit- 
 nesses of the truth, and when they shall 
 stand upon their feet^ they shall "hear a 
 
NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 269 
 
 great voice from heaven, saying unto 
 them, come up hither." Thus they 
 " shall ascend to heaven " in the sight of 
 their enemies. By this emblematical rep- 
 resentation we are to understand the honor 
 and elevation of the witnesses of the 
 truth to the highest seats in the Church. 
 For the long period of one thousand two 
 hundred and sixty years they have been 
 despised, and hated, and persecuted, and 
 were slain 5 and their bodies lay upon the 
 streets of the city; but henceforth they 
 shall live in honor and veneration among 
 mankind. There will be an honest emula- 
 tion among the true ministers of the 
 gospel to discover and to publish the 
 truth; and this will not only produce a 
 union of sentiment and affection among 
 themselves; they themselves shall not 
 onty see eye to eye, but they shall have 
 so much influence on all who attend upon 
 their ministry, as to produce union and 
 harmony throughout the whole Church of 
 
270 NATURE OF THE MILLENHIUM. 
 
 God; they shall all join in the heavenly- 
 declaration of praise, "we give thee thanks, 
 Lord God Almighty, which art, and 
 wast, and art to come ; because thou hast 
 taken to thee thy great power, and hast 
 reigned." Then will Christians in sin- 
 cerity exclaim 
 
 " Let names, and sects, and parties fall, 
 And Jesus Christ be all in all." 
 
 There will not only be an abstract recogni- 
 tion among the churches, touching the 
 doctrines of a one body and one spirit, 
 even as we are called in one hope of our 
 calling," but there will be a recognition 
 of its application also. No sectarian pride, 
 or denominational peculiarity will longer 
 keep the churches in suspicion and selfish 
 isolation. An insidious and malicious 
 world wiil no longer view with delight the 
 unseemly separations and jarrings among 
 the churches, and exclaim in scorn, 
 " ridente Turcot, nee dolente Judceo;" 
 "the voice is the voice of Jacob, but the 
 
NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 271 
 
 hands are the hands of Esau." But they 
 will be compelled to exclaim, "see how 
 these Christians love one another. 55 
 
 Another characteristic of the millennium 
 will be, a universal reign of peace. 
 
 The binding of Satan implies a restraint 
 upon his influence. The language of 
 prophecy, pointing to this period, is plain 
 and emphatic: "He shall judge among 
 many people, and rebuke strong nations 
 afar off; and they shall beat their swords 
 into plow-shares, and their spears into 
 pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up a 
 sword against nation, neither shall they 
 learn war any more. But they shall sit 
 every man under his vine and under his 
 fig tree ; and none shall make them afraid, 
 for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath 
 spoken it. 55 War is indeed sport to Satan, 
 but it is death to us. Only think of the 
 vast numbers that war has destroyed. It 
 is no exaggeration to say, that war has 
 actually immolated a greater number of 
 
272 NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 
 
 the human species than are now to be 
 found on the surface of the globe. Read 
 the biography of Caesar, the pride of proud 
 Rome, the terror of the civilized world, 
 performing feats in his military maneuver- 
 ings approaching almost to miracles, and 
 you will be filled with astonishment to learn 
 that in fifty battles fought by him, he 
 trampled upon the bodies of 1,192,000 of 
 his fellow creatures. War! what desola- 
 tions has it not wrought. The angel of 
 death follows in its train. How many 
 cities have been destroyed! How many 
 houses emptied! Had not an all-wise 
 God by his power restrained the progress 
 of war, human society would long since 
 have become extinct, and the world have 
 become a cemetery, filled with withered 
 and bleached bones of dead men. But, 
 when the blessed millennium will have 
 fully come, 
 
 " Then shall wars and tumults cease." 
 
 The attention of mankind will be turned to 
 
NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 273 
 
 the interest of the race, and the science 
 and talent of mankind will no longer be 
 employed in human butchery. The hap- 
 piness of the human race, and the best 
 interests of society, will be the aim and 
 object of the major part of mankind. 
 Emanuel shall sway his scepter from the 
 northern to the southern pole, and from the 
 rising to the setting sun, and his illimita- 
 ble dominion will extend so as to embrace 
 within its geographical limits all the tribes 
 of men. Christ will then receive the 
 homage and adoration of the vast majority 
 of the peopled world. Then the demon of 
 war shall die. Then the temple of Janus 
 shall be closed, and the sword will be put 
 into an eternal scabbard, and peace spread 
 her balmy wings over the nations of the 
 earth; and a messenger with hasty precip- 
 itation shall descend from the courts of 
 bliss, and wave the olive branch of peace 
 over the distracted nations, with the 
 declaration, "Peace, peace, be still. " 
 18 
 
274 NATUE3 OF THE MILLENNIUM. 
 
 Every "child of grace" shall crowd around 
 the cross, with its banners unfurled waving 
 in the breeze, bearing the inscription, 
 "Peace on earth and good will to men." 
 The clangor of war shall not again be heard 
 among the nations. The shouts of con- 
 quering hosts shall die away forever; for 
 the promise is, "their eyes shall see Jeru- 
 salem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that 
 shall not be taken down ; not one of the 
 stakes thereof shall ever be removed, 
 neither shall any of the cords thereof be 
 broken. But there the glorious Lord will 
 be unto us a place of broad rivers and 
 streams, wherein shall go no galley with 
 oars, neither shall gallant ships pass there- 
 by." Visions of that blessed era! how ye 
 crowd upon my aching sight ! 
 
 " Thus, till a thousand years be past, 
 Shall holiness and peace prevail." 
 
 Another happy feature of that era will 
 be, a general diffusion of knoivledge. 
 Every circumstance will be favorable to 
 
NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 275 
 
 it; and the world will be in a condition to 
 make rapid advances in knowledge. " In 
 the representation of that blessed period 
 usually denominated the millennium, when 
 religion shall universally prevail, it is men- 
 tioned as a conspicuous feature, that c men 
 will run to and fro, and knowledge shall be 
 increased.' That period will not be distin- 
 guished by men's minds being more torpid 
 and inactive, but rather by the consecration 
 of every power to the service of the Most 
 High. It will be a period of remarkable 
 illumination, during which 'the light of 
 the moon shall be as the light of the sun, 
 and the light of the sun shall be seven fold, 
 as the light of seven days.' Every useful 
 talent will be cultivated, every art subser- 
 vient to the interest of man be improved 
 and perfected; learning will amass her 
 stores, and genius emit her splendor; but 
 the former will be displayed with ostenta- 
 tion, and the latter shine with the softened 
 effulgence of humility and love," 
 
276 NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 
 
 Every thing calculated to retard the 
 progress of knowledge will be removed, 
 and free course given to the range of the 
 powers of the mind. The midnight of 
 moral ignorance, so long the bane of our 
 race, shall be dispelled by the rays of 
 divine truth. The Bible will be better 
 understood, and as a lamp to our path 
 will shed a golden ray of light on us, 
 while passing through this world on to the 
 world above. "They shall not hurt nor 
 destroy in all my holy mountain, for the 
 earth shall be full of the knowledge of the 
 Lord, as the waters cover the sea." "In 
 that day shall the deaf hear the words of 
 the book, and the eyes of the blind shall 
 see out of obscurity, and out of darkness." 
 It would seem that this last prophecy is 
 now fulfilled. Is it not a fact that the 
 blind are now taught to read, by means of 
 the blind man's book? Are not the deaf 
 also made to hear, as it were, the words of 
 the book? "They also that erred in 
 
NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 277 
 
 spirit shall come to understanding; and 
 they that murmured shall learn doctrine. 
 Wisdom and knowledge shall be the sta- 
 bility of the times, and strength of salva- 
 tion ; the fear of the Lord is his treasure. 
 I will give you pastors according to mine 
 heart, which shall feed you with knowledge 
 and understanding." Again, 
 
 It will he a time of rejoicing. We 
 cannot express that time of rejoicing better 
 than to give the words of prophecy pointing 
 to that period. "Thy kingdom come," 
 is the prayer to be offered unto God; and 
 the Apostle, as already stated, has defined 
 that kingdom as being righteousness, 
 peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. " He 
 will swallow up death in victory ; and the 
 Lord God will wipe away tears from off all 
 faces; and the rebuke of his people shall 
 he take away from off all the earth ; for the 
 Lord hath spoken it. Break forth into 
 joy, sing together, ye waste places of 
 Jerusalem; for the Lord hath comforted 
 
278 NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 
 
 his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. 
 Be ye glad, and rejoice forever in that 
 which I create ; for behold, I create Jeru- 
 salem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. 
 And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy 
 in my people; and the voice of weeping 
 shall be no more heard in her, nor the 
 voice of crying. Sing, daughter of 
 Zion ! Shout, Israel ; be glad, and 
 rejoice with all the heart, daughter of 
 Jerusalem. The Lord hath taken away 
 thy judgments, he hath cast out thine 
 enemy; the King of Israel, even the 
 Lord, is in the midst of thee ; thou shalt 
 not see evil any more. In that clay, it 
 shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not; 
 and to Zion, Let not thy hands be slack. 
 The Lord thy God in the midst of thee 
 is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice 
 over thee with joy ; he will rest in his 
 love, he will joy over thee with singing." 
 
 That will be Zion's rejoicing time. The 
 whole Church of God, raised from the ruin 
 
NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 279 
 
 of ages, will now have a rejoicing time for 
 one thousand years. Mourning Christian, 
 raise thy fainting head. Look beyond 
 thee ! Zion's reign of triumph is near ! 
 Soon the dark impervious clouds that 
 tiover o'er thee will disperse; and the rays 
 «of the Sun of Righteousness will shine out 
 upon the world. Cheer up! Let the 
 hope of something better hang like gar- 
 lands of light upon thy path ! Soon will 
 
 *"<}hie-so£g employ all nations, &nd ail cry, 
 Worthy the Lamb, for he was slain for us ; 
 The dwellers in the vales and in the rocks, 
 Shout to each other, and the mountain tops 
 From distant mountains catch the flying joy ; 
 Till nation after nation tasight tlie strain, 
 Earth rolls the rapturous hosanna round." 
 
 Soon will the curtain be lifted and disclose 
 fche new order of its moral creation. "And 
 happiness and peace return to dwell with 
 men." Angel lyres and human voices will 
 sweetly blend in ascribing glory and 
 honor to the Lamb. Angels, springing 
 from their thrones of gold, will lay aside 
 their glittering crowns, and festal harps, 
 
280 NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 
 
 and leave for a season the fair fields of 
 light ; and the blooming bowers of the 
 eternal paradise — to witness the complete 
 destruction of the enemy of Christ's king- 
 dom. Methinks they pass by ten thousand 
 worlds of light ; that for ages have rolled 
 around beneath the eternal throne. With 
 hasty precipitation they descend to this 
 world; eager to catch the news of triumph; 
 and bear the glad intelligence to the celes- 
 tial paradise. See them rising up with 
 out-stretched wing into the regions of 
 light ! Then speedily pass into the por- 
 tals of everlasting day. All heaven is 
 silent wondering at the astonishing scene ; 
 not a harp string is touched. The flaming 
 band with anthems of adoration drop at 
 the footstool of the throne, there to an- 
 nounce the glad intelligence of the triumph 
 and glory of the kingdom of Christ in this 
 world. What shouts! What songs! All 
 heaven is filled with one scene of rapturous 
 applause ! Angel trumps resound its fame. 
 
NATURE OP THE MILLENNIUM 281 
 
 and with their "lutes of lucid gold/' they 
 swell out the grand chorus of the joyful 
 throng, and make all heaven vocal with 
 their praise. Because the accused of the 
 brethren is now cast down. 
 
 " All hail the power of Jesus' name, 
 
 Let angels prostrate fall ; 
 Bring forth the royal diadem, 
 
 And crown him Lord of all. 
 
 Crown him, ye morning stars of light, 
 
 Who formed this floating ball ; 
 Now hail the strength of Israel's might, 
 
 And crown him Lord of all. 
 
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