CHRIST'S KINGDOM ON EARTH.
[From a discourse on Dan. 7:13, 14, by J. Seiss, D.D., of the Lutheran Church, Philadelphia.] In all these passages we have a literal, universal, and abiding kingdom ascribed to Christ in connection with his second coming. It is not a kingdom far off in the remoteness of unknown space, but here in this world. It is to be “under heaven.” It is to embrace “the kingdoms of the world.” Its subjects are to be “people, nations, and languages.” To take possession of it, Christ is said to “descend from heaven,” “come,” “appear,” and stand again upon the earth. It is, then, of necessity, just such a kingdom as the prophets foretold, and as the Jews and apostles expected. It is to be outward, literal, universal, glorious, and eternal. It is not “from or out of this world,” just as John’s baptism was not “from or out of this world.” It comes from God. It originates from above, not from beneath. It is not set up by earthly means, but by divine power. But as John baptized on earth, although his baptism was not “from this world,” and as the church is located on earth, although not of the earth, so Christ will reign in this world in the sublimities of visible empire.8His tabernacle is then to be “with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them.” This reign of Christ, then, is also to be a personal reign. He was “made in the likeness of men.” He must therefore have a local dwelling-place. As the Son of man he is now in heaven. And when it is said that he will come again to earth, and dwell with men, we must believe that this world will be his home. He can not dwell and reign on earth as the son of David and not be personally present on the earth. Every point, then, at which the Scriptures touch upon this subject, furnishes something to corroborate and strengthen our doctrine that the Lord Jesus Christ will return again to this world, and here set up a literal empire, or Christocracy, and personally reign over the nations in the bliss and glory of a universal and eternal kingdom. The prophecies of the Old Testament, taken in their plain, natural sense, teach it. When Christ was on earth, both Jews and Christians held it. The New Testament nowhere condemns it as an error, but in many places refers to it as a matter well and correctly understood; and in the Old Testament and the New we find many passages which can not be consistently interpreted without admitting it as a true doctrine of God. We can not, therefore, escape from the conclusion that the blessed and adorable Son of the virgin is yet to reign in this world as a great and glorious divine Prince, whom all the nations shall obey and the world hail as its only King. All the Scriptures proclaim it; the whole creation groans and longs for it; and I can not but believe it. Next to the doctrine of atonement for the world’s guilt, it is the dearest of all the revelations of God. The Desire of All Nations.
To this hour the greatest desideratum of our race is good government,—government freed from the frailties and unrighteousness which have ever adhered to that department of human interest. The church, too, is crippled, torn, and disordered, for want of some present divine umpire to judge between its contending sects, purge out its ambitious disturbers, and quell its feverish perturbations. All nature seems to have heard the promise concerning the Seed of the woman and his restorative empire, and has stood in anxious expectancy ever since. All the world, in all its departments, has been longing and prophesying for ages for a divine Deliverer, and the age of gold which his administrations are to bring with them. And yet he has not come. I do not, indeed, deny that Christ now reigns in the hearts of his children, or that he exercises a providential control over the affairs of the world. I know and rejoice that there is a sense in which he is present now, even where but two or three are assembled in his name, and that wherever a sinner turns to God, there something of his regal authority and power is felt. But I also know that, with all his spiritual and providential presence and rule, as now in the world, everything is imperfect as compared with the promises of what is to be hereafter. Satan, for the most part, is yet the king and master of this world, and not the illustrious Son of David. Everything in church and state, public and private, is more or less disjointed, weak, sickly, and failing of what we most desire. Remedies only multiply wants and defects. “That which is crooked can not be made straight; and that which is wanting can not be numbered.” The best-planned institutions and the wisest laws are constantly disappointing us. The holy law itself was “weak through the flesh;” and the same is to be said of all that we now have. No one adequately fulfills and can fulfill his relations. The consciences of even the best Christians, if properly enlightened, continually reproach them. Everything seems to feel the absence of its redeeming Lord. He does not yet reign, as it is necessary for us that he should reign. “We see not yet all things put under him.” Matters now are only in a stage preparatory to something still beyond us. The throne of David is yet less than a cipher. The promised Son has not yet lifted it out of its degradation. Mount Zion is still trodden by the vile foot of the destroyer. Israel, that is to be redeemed and become the standard bearer of ransomed nations, is still scattered over all the earth. The enemies of God still vaunt themselves over his Anointed. Ignorance, fanaticism, and infidelity still stalk abroad even through the church. The man of sin, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, still sits in the temple of God. Great Babylon still stands, drunk as she is with the blood of the saints. The wild beast and the false prophet are still allied against the Lamb, and against the witnesses of Jesus. Evil men and seducers are still waxing worse and worse. Despotism and tyranny still hold the places which justice and charity alone should fill. War and bloodshed still devastate and deluge this poor, fallen world. Rapine and plunder still press their foul trade on land and on sea. Ambition, intrigue, finesse, and deceit still hold disgraceful sway in the best Parliaments and Legislatures on earth. Scoffers abound everywhere, walking after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming?” The wails of suffering and wretchedness still float on every breeze; and the cries of wronged millions still go up into the ear of Jehovah. O, tell me not that this is the glorious reign of Messiah! Tell me not that these are the scenes to which the saints of old looked with so much joy. I will not so disgrace my Saviour or his word as to allow for a moment that this dispensation is the sublime Messianic kingdom. No, no, no; Christ does not yet reign in the kingdom which he has promised, and for which he has taught us to pray. Isaiah and Gabriel have said that he should occupy the throne of his father David, and reign over the house of Jacob, and establish his government in eternal peace and righteousness; but David’s scepter he has never held; over Jacob’s house he has never ruled; and the whole world is yet full of iniquity and woe. Where Is the Christian Nation?
The psalmist has taught us that all nations shall serve Him, the gentiles be His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth His possession; but there is not a nation in all this wide world that is thoroughly Christian, and not a people who unanimously acknowledge that Christ is Lord. Of the ten hundred millions of souls that now constitute the family of man, not two-fifths are even professedly Christian. Take from the most Christian community—take from among the highly-favored inhabitants of our own city—all who are not of the household of faith, and what a scanty population would remain! Take the most enlightened and cultivated of the nations, take England—take Saxony—take our own country—take the model nation of Christendom, containing the most churches, and the greatest number of devout people, examine the structure of its government, test the operations of its laws, sift the character of its inhabitants, weigh it in the balances of Scripture truth and divine requirements, aggregate its good and its evil, strike the balance between righteousness and iniquity, and then tell me whether there is a nation on all the globe that does not gravitate towards hell rather than towards heaven. The church itself, inclosing within its pale all the purest and holiest specimens of humanity, after the toils and prayers of eighteen centuries, is still a feeble craft, working against wind and tide. Soon shall Messiah come in his glory, and set this imprisoned and down-trodden world at liberty. Soon shall the Son of Mary stand upon the Mount of Olives and plant his throne upon the hill of Zion. Soon shall the glorified saints supplant besotted politicians, and the swelling tide of righteousness and peace overflow the earth. Soon shall the newborn nations send up their delegations to Jerusalem to worship the King in his beauty, and go forth with joy in the blessedness of obedience to him. Men may scoff, and say that we are degrading the blessed Saviour to a level with earthly monarchs, and surrounding him with the miserable trappings of their soul courts. They may ridicule us, and say that we are dragging down the throne of heaven’s King to place it amid graves, almshouses, hospitals, penitentiaries, labor prisons, sickly cities, and worn-out states. But they forget that the promise is that Christ shall “make all things new,” and banish forever all these evidences and emblems of depravity and sin. They forget that death is to be swallowed up of life, and the whole sentence of the world’s curse forever rescinded. They forget that all tears are to be dried, and that there is to be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor tears, nor any more pain, nor any more sin, within all the domain of Messiah’s eternal dominion. O that Christians did but look at these things as God has presented them, and lay hold of the promises which he has given to encourage us! Then would they go forth to duty with greater earnestness and intenser joy. Then would they pray with fonder hope, “Thy kingdom come,” and ever and anon respond, “Amen, even so come, Lord Jesus.”