1. KINGDOM AGAINST KINGDOM.
Said the Saviour, "For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places." No point has been argued in favor of what we have been used to call the Universalist view, of the past complete fulfillment of Matthew 24, with greater show of plausibility than this. Yet it remains decidedly against that view. Dr. Adam Clarke, for whose honesty and ability we entertain the highest respect, says: "This portended the dissensions, insurrections, and mutual slaughter of the Jews, and those of other nations, who dwell in the same cities together;" etc. We say we respect Dr. Clarke, and it is no disparagement of him to believe there is more light now shining out from this chapter, with the greater investigation, and the later fulfillment of prophecy, than he saw in his day. We insist that all that he produced in regard to the dissensions among the Jews, their insurrections, etc., do not meet the demands of this text. On the latter part of the verse he says: "This portended the open wars of the different tetrachies and provinces against each other." In this chapter the Saviour refers us to Daniel the prophet, by whom we learn, what indeed we can learn from any history, that the kingdom of Rome was universal in power at the time of which we are speaking. The dissensions and insurrections of tribes and provinces were not sufficient to meet the prophecy. But the Saviour further says: "And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that ye be not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet." The overthrow of Jerusalem was caused by an "insurrection" of one of the "provinces" of the Roman kingdom. But these are not even connectives of the final event which was mentioned by our Saviour. These things—wars and rumors of wars—shall come, "but the end is not yet." And kingdom rising against kingdom—which, we insist, was not fulfilled by provincial insurrections—"are but the beginning of sorrows,"—"the end is not yet." This point will be yet more clearly settled when others are considered.