The Saint's Inheritance.
By J. N. Loughborough
PURPOSE OF GOD CONCERNING THE EARTH. WHAT is the purpose of God respecting the earth? In answering this question we do not propose to occupy the place of the minister who told his audience he was going to declare to them the secret will of God. We wish to deal with what God has revealed. Without the light of revelation, we can give no true answer to the above question. But, if God has made known his purpose concerning the earth, we shall not be considered on forbidden ground in examining a few Scripture testimonies on this subject. Was it the plan of God concerning the creation of this earth, that it should remain in the hands of the wicked about six thousand years, and then be burned up? Is this system of planets with our earth, thus to be thrown into confusion, and destroyed? What saith the Scripture on this point? We read: "For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it: he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited."* Here it is plainly stated what God's design was in creating the earth. "He formed it to be inhabited." But, say you, It has been inhabited. Yes, but mostly by a race of rebels. Can we suppose that God's purpose concerning the earth has been entirely carried out in the past, while man has possessed the earth? God's purpose was that the earth should "be inhabited." God gave the earth to man (Gen. 1: 26), and gave him "dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." From this, we should learn that God designed that man, not some other race, should inhabit the earth. With this agrees also the language of David, when he says (Ps. 115: 16), "The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's; but the earth hath he given to the children of men." But when the earth was thus given to man, he was in an upright state, and the Lord had pronounced him, with the rest of his works, "very good." Solomon says (Eccl. 7: 29), "This only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions." Seeing the manner in which the Lord has dealt with man, we should conclude his purpose was that man, in an upright state, should possess the earth, for he was in an upright state when God gave him dominion over the earth. When he became sinful, he lost that dominion. A skeptical mind might, perhaps, be ready to claim that God's purpose had been frustrated in the fall of man. Although it may seem to them that God's purpose has been frustrated, yet we believe, and shall endeavor to show, that God's purpose will yet be carried out, and the earth will be possessed by man in an upright state. Those who are found worthy of the free gift of eternal life, and a part in God's kingdom, will have the earth, freed from the curse, as their eternal inheritance. In accordance with this idea, Peter says, We "look for new heavens and a new earth [renewed earth], wherein dwelleth righteousness." Some paraphrase this, "Wherein the righteous shall dwell," which probably gives the correct idea. Then will God's purpose respecting the earth be fully accomplished. The Bible testimony is plain that God's purpose concerning the earth will be fulfilled in filling this earth with a race of holy beings composed of those who have believed and obeyed Him during earth's probationary period. Many who have stood high as Christians in the past have believed and advocated this same sentiment, among whom we enumerate Luther, Calvin, Cranmer, Joseph Mede, Dr. Goodwin, the entire body of Baptists in the time of Richard II., Milton, Joshua Spaulding, Cotton Mather, Doddridge, George Benson, Toplady, John Wesley, Dr. Adam Clarke, Dr. Urwick, of Dublin, A. Tholuck, D. D., Dr. John Pye Smith of England, Joseph D'Archy Sirr, of England, Chalmers, Pope, Heber, Isaac Watts, Matthew Henry, Matthew Pool, Richard Baxter, Thomas Burnet, Bunyan, and Edward Irving, of England. The author last named, in his Orations, thus speaks: "And cannot God create another world many times more fair, and cast over it a mantle of light many times more lovely, and wash it with purer dew than ever dropped from the eyelids of the morning?" Oh! what a thought! that the deluge of sin shall be bailed out, that the long-covered hills and valleys of holiness shall again present themselves, that the slimy path of the old serpent shall be cleansed out of all nations, and the alloy of hell with fervent heat be burned out of the elements of the solid globe, that the kingdom, peopled with the redeemed, shall become meet to be presented in the presence of God, and remain forever." An inheritance of the earth of this kind, makes the existence of the earth more worthy of its Creator, than the view that it exists for six thousand years filled with sin, vileness and confusion, and is then blotted out of existence. Nay, let it be cleansed from sin. Let all the earth with glory be filled. With David may we not say, "Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the Lord, Oh my soul. Praise ye the Lord." Ps. 104: 35. J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.
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