p. 2 | THE RESTITUTION by Eugene Leland

Pacific Press Publishing Company · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · May 3, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 18.

THE RESTITUTION.

By Eugene Leland

"LET not your heart 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."

These were the Master's words of comfort to the little band whose troubled hearts were filled with dread forebodings at His saying: "Whither I go ye can not come." "Simon Peter said unto Him, Lord, whither goest Thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow Me now; but thou shalt follow Me afterwards."

Strange words were these to the disciples, and long they pondered in their hearts what they might mean. Until they saw Him go away, and a cloud received Him from their sight, they did not comprehend them. "And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven." Acts 1:10, 11.

Cheered by these promises, the glad disciples then returned unto Jerusalem, where they remained in prayer, and all with one accord, and in one place, until the promised Comforter, the Holy Ghost, had filled them with His mighty power, and then they healed the sick and raised the dead to life. And Peter, preaching to the wondering people, said to them: "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you; whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began." Acts 3:19-21.

A multitude believed the Word, and thus were filled with all the mighty power of God. And, tho they all obtained a good report through faith, yet have they not received the promise. Many of them died the martyr's death. And millions more to whom the promise is yet to be fulfilled, have died the same. "And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." Rom. 8:23.

That promise will not be fulfilled until He comes whose right it is to rule, and takes the kingdom to Himself, until the Lord Himself from heaven descends to earth with the mighty shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and the trump of God. That voice awakes the dead in Christ, and of the ransomed hosts of earth to greet the glorious Conqueror, they are the first. And thus to them the promise is fulfilled. Then we which are alive and waiting for the coming of the Lord, together with the resurrected saints, are caught up in the clouds to meet the Saviour in the air, and so with Him we evermore shall be.

And thus the times of restitution come. And thus the promise is fulfilled. To them that look for Him the second time, the Saviour thus appears. The saints, translated then,

stand on the sea of glass and sing the song of victory. There they shall live and reign with Christ a thousand years. From one end of the earth unto the other end lie the ungathered dead, slain of the Lord. No one laments for them, and there is none to bury them from sight. The earth is desolate. The heavens have no light. The mountains tremble, and the hills move lightly. There is no man, and all the birds of heaven are fled. The fruitful place is turned into a wilderness, and all the cities of the earth are broken down. "For thus hath the Lord said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end." Jer. 4:23-27.

The angel with the key of the abyss has come from heaven, having a great chain in his hand, and laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and cast him into the abyss, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the world no more until the thousand years should be fulfilled; and after that he must be loosed a little season. Rev. 20:1-3.

Dread punishment! A thousand years in solitude! Dread punishment! Only to be succeeded by punishment more dreadful still! The sepulchres of all earth's mighty dead are there—warriors whose deeds have drenched the earth with blood and filled the world with wo. But they are dead. And Satan has no power now to move the mighty warrior's arm. In silence and unconsciousness, regardless of the desolation all about them, they sleep on a thousand years. The temples of the gods are there, deserted, broken down; temples whose smoking altars, could they but speak, would tell of human sacrifice; temples whose subterranean cells, had they a voice, could tell of myriad captives, who have pined and perished. But now the deeds of shame unnamable, done at the foul fiend's behest, are known alone to him.

"No more the writhing victim's groans fall on his gloating ear; No more the horrid carnival of shame and crime and fear; But bursted bands, and broken bars, and crumbling walls mayhap, And dungeons dark, and manacles, and sepulchers agape, And ruthless rack which never more shall quivering sinews strain, These all,—mute voices,—loud proclaim all past his power to pain, And hurrying through the broken aisles the echoes from his tread Seem to recall the pleadings vain from myriad voices—dead."

But he is bound. The wicked of the earth are dead, all dead, and Satan has no power now to lead them on to further deeds of wickedness. Yea, he is bound. He has no power now to persecute and cause oppression to the saints; for, rising from the grave, obedient to the Archangel's voice, together with the living saints, the righteous dead ascend to heaven to live and reign with Christ a thousand years, while all the wicked dead sleep on, unconscious that their mighty prince is bound.

But all the dead, the just and the unjust, shall hear His voice, and shall come forth, the just, when Christ appears the second time, but the wicked dead live not again until the thousand years are finished. And then even they shall hear the doom blast of the trump of God, and rise again. And then the shackles fall from Satan's hands, and for a little season he is loosed, and by his great deceptive power goes out to gather all this mighty host of resurrected wicked dead to battle, the number of whom is as the sand upon the seashore.

Meanwhile the holy city, New Jerusalem, the mother of us all, descending out of heaven from God, becomes the camp of saints upon the earth, protected by the mighty power of God from Satan and his horrid host, who, compassing the camp of saints about, and the beloved city, would wage unhallowed war with God. But fire comes down from heaven and devours them. This is the second death—awful—eternal.

Thus the earth becomes a seething mass of living fire, burning, unquenchable, until sin and sinners are destroyed. But the heavens and the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. After it has burned out the last vestige of sin from the earth, melting it to its original gaseous elements, awful example to the universe of the consequences of sin, the voice of the Son of God is heard as once before He spake, when looking at this same earth, formless and void. The chastened earth, trembling beneath the awful scourge of God, responds. A firmament all glorious and bright appears above. The waters from their hiding-place return and form the seas. The melted mountains rise again in shapely form, and in the valleys rivers flow as once before the stream from Eden flowed. Yea, in the wilderness waters break out, and in the desert, streams. The parched ground becomes a pool, the thirsty land a cooling spring. Again the voice of God is heard; and as the words in majesty and power roll through the earth, the wilderness and solitary place are glad for them, and with the desert they rejoice and blossom as the rose, yea, blossom forth abundantly, even with joy and singing. The glory of fair Lebanon, the excellency of sweet Carmel and of Sharon, are given unto them, and once again the glory of the Lord is seen, filling the earth even as the waters fill the sea. Isaiah, thirty-fifth chapter.

He speaks, and now the gladdened earth, despoiled by sin of every living thing, responsive to the word, brings forth abundantly. The seas are filled with finny tribes, no more pursuing to devour; and in the air, songsters adorned with radiant plumage, gladden the groves with rapturous melody. The wolf dwells with the lamb; the leopard lies down with the kid; the cow and bear together feed, their young ones lying near. The lion, all his fierceness gone, no more pursues his living prey, but with the ox, contented, grazes the fields, while the young lion and the calf, together with the fatling, play, led by a little child. Even the serpent's den is made a harmless place, where children sport; for they shall not destroy nor hurt in all My holy mountain, saith the Lord. Isa. 11:6-9.

And now, as at the first, the sons of God, beholding the new earth, clad with verdure and loveliness surpassing the power of pen to tell, and peopled with living creatures, as harmless as beautiful, together with the singing of the morning stars, shout for joy. No stain of sin to mar the harmony. No more the scalding, bitter tear of grief, for God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. Rev. 21:4. The yawning, insatiate grave at last is satisfied, for death and hell are cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death. Rev. 20:14. And then, when all things have been made new, the invitation of the Saviour will be given: "Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Matt. 25:34. "And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith the Lord." Isa. 66:23.

EUGENE LELAND. 704 St. Lawrence St., Montreal, Quebec.