DESTRUCTION NOT CONVERSION.
IN a recent article in the Congregationalist on "Future Christianity," Prof. Austin Phelps says:— "The conversion of the world to Christ is a prophecy and an enterprise. We are prone to rest in the prophecy, and to lag in the enterprise. At present it languishes, not for the want of resources, not for the want of faith in the issue, but for the want of character, consecrated and concentrated in its achievement." It may be true, as the professor says, that the conversion of the world is an enterprise, but the statement that it is a prophecy lacks confirmation. The texts usually relied upon to prove this point, which, however, is generally assumed rather than attempted to be proved, certainly do not justify the claim. True, the world is to be given to Christ, but not in the sense of being converted. Says the Father to the Son: "Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." Ps. 2:7-9. This is not, however, a promise of conversion but of destruction. And the work is not to be accomplished by the preaching of the gospel, but after the mystery of God—the work of redemption—shall have been finished. When Christ leaves the mediatorial throne and puts on the garments of vengeance,—when he pleads with all nations, not with his Spirit but by fire and sword, and destroys the wicked with the spirit of his mouth, and consumes them with the brightness of his coming, then it is that the world will be given to him.