THE HOUSEHOLDER'S RETURN.
By Max Hill
"THIS Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." Matt. 24:14. A time will come when every soul has heard the Gospel, the good news of salvation, and has either accepted or rejected the offer of mercy and pardon, the offer of life everlasting. From that day probation will be past. This presupposes another event, the judgment, for no man is adjudged innocent or guilty without trial. We are not left in darkness or doubt in regard to this matter. Read Acts 17:31. God "hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained." Again, in Heb. 9:27, "It is appointed unto all men once to die, but after that the judgment." Of necessity many will still be living, and will continue to live, after the day of pro- bation passes. These will be judged before death, for "all shall stand before the judgment seat of God" (Rom. 14:10), "the quick and the dead." Acts 10:42. In all the ages of the past men have lived their lives—good or evil—and died. So far as their cases are concerned, all is settled, for in the grave where they have gone there is no wisdom, no knowledge, no repentance, no hope of salvation—their thoughts have perished. Their lives determined their future, whether it shall be life eternal or total annihilation. So also with the living; the life will be the test. It is a sad thought that many, many will come to the judgment hour, be weighed in the balance, and found wanting. Without doubt many upon whom the death sentence is passed will go on believing they are doing God's will, yet having grieved His Spirit away forever. Then the Master of the house will have risen up and shut the door, and knocking and seeking will no longer avail. Luke 13:24-26. Only those who have done the will of the Father will be safe. When the aged seer had written the wonderful visions opened up before his view that Sabbath day on wind-swept Patmos, the angel said to him: "Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand;" when men see these things come to pass, let them understand that His coming is near. Down in the period when "the time is at hand," before the triumphant, grave-opening shout shall be heard in the heavens, the decree goes forth: "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; he which is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him be holy still." This is not long before the Lord's appearing, for He says: "Behold, I come quickly." Rev. 22:11, 12. When the decree goes forth, the door of hope is forever closed to sinners, the day of repentance is passed. Then on the wicked who have clung to their sins, repelling every offer of mercy and pardon, there will fall the most terrible visitation of disaster that man has ever seen, when the vials of God's wrath are poured out. Only the saints of God live through that terrible time without suffering; while the wicked, having grieved the Spirit of mercy away, writhe under the unmingled wrath which their own course has brought upon them. Then "he that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." "A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked." Ps. 91:1, 7, 8. The closing of probation and the falling of the plagues are the first of a series of events to take place in connection with the coming of the Lord, which follows "quickly." The trumpet blast, the clarion shout, the blinding lightning flash that accompany the Saviour as He descends on the clouds of heaven, the host of angelic beings, will have two effects; the shout brings the sleeping saints from their lowly beds, together8with the men who pierced the crucified Saviour (Dan. 12:2; Rev. 1:7), and the lightning destroys the wicked, they having vainly attempted to hide themselves in the caves and rocks of the mountains which they pray to fall on them. Then will the ransomed ones be caught up together with the risen saints on the sea of glass. Satan, alone in the earth with the dead men whom he has deceived and brought low, is bound in a prison-house as with a chain, having no one to tempt and destroy, for "the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished." There he shall be shut up, with a seal set upon him, that he may deceive the nations no more, "till the thousand years shall be fulfilled." In the meantime the saints "lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." This period begins at the first resurrection. Then at the second coming of Christ, and just previous, these events take place: Probation closes, the plagues fall, the wicked are slain, Satan is bound, the saints redeemed. The thousand years pass, and then the final restoration of all things is effected. "And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison." How is this accomplished? Rev. 20:6 speaks of the resurrection of the righteous at the second advent as the first resurrection; the fifth verse speaks of the wicked living again when the thousand years are finished. So this is the second resurrection of the wicked. Being loosed from his prison once more, having living men to deceive, Satan's first work is to go out among the nations and gather them together to take the City, the New Jerusalem, which comes down to the earth at the close of the thousand years. For this a "little season" of time is granted him to gather and train his forces for the last attack against the government of God. If we consider Isa. 65:20 to refer to this time, when "the child shall die an hundred years old, but the sinner, being an hundred years old, shall be accursed," this "little season" may be a hundred years. All are raised at the time the New Jerusalem descends, the innocent child of ungodly parents and the hardened sinner. At the close of the period the child, being then a hundred years old, shall die; but the sinner shall be accursed. About the beloved City will be gathered an army greater than any other army ever brought together, consisting of the rank and file of all the wicked of all the ages. With all the inventive genius of all the ages at their command, with an unnumbered host for support, and the leader of the legions of darkness in command, they march against the Citadel of the redeemed. But suddenly that mighty advancing host is checked, and those within the City see the fire of God poured out upon them. All go down in the holocaust of fire,—Satan, his angels, his dupes,—all are consumed. This is the second death. The redeemed in the City, and the universe of God, will then see the love and wisdom of the Creator in thus allowing sin to run its course. All shall see and know that He is just, and then "He will make an utter end; affliction shall not rise up the second time" (Nahum 1:9), for Satan, the author of evil, shall be destroyed, and tho he has been the terror of the nations, he shall never be any more. Eze. 28:19. From the refined and purified elements of this sin-cursed earth, the Lord has said: "Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. . . . And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people; and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. . . . And mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands." Isa. 65:17-22. These are the events of the closing of time, the ushering in of eternity: The New Jerusalem descends from heaven at the close of the thousand years; the wicked dead are raised, thus loosing the bonds of Satan, to whom a "little season" is given to more fully demonstrate his character of rebellion and usurpation; fire issues from God out of heaven and devours him and all the wicked; the earth is created new and pure; the government is given to Him whose right it is to reign, "the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last," the doing of whose commandments brings blessing, the right to the tree of life, and entry into the City. "Behold I come quickly!" Whose heart does not echo the prayer of John, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus!" Rev. 22:20.