HE COMES TO EXECUTE JUDGMENT
The Triumphs That Follow—Eternal Separation of the Wicked—The Terrible Are Brought to Naught—The Voices of Genesis and Revelation in Unison WHEN the New Jerusalem descends, Christ will not come to proclaim His law from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. This He did of old from Sinai; and again from Jerusalem, in the days of His humiliation, when, derided by kings, insulted and abused by a world He would die to save, and rejected in scorn by a church He came to redeem, He established the new covenant with Israel, promising to put His law in their hearts, to forgive their iniquities, and to remember their sins no more. He now comes to execute judgment upon the ungodly, according to their treatment of His law and His offered pardon, which they have refused. There must first be the resurrection of the unholy dead. Acts 24: 15. They must awake to the shame and judgment which, during their lives, they have chosen. They that pierced His side, smote Him with the reed, plaited and placed the crown of thorns, together with Herod and Pilate and all nations of all the ages, must meet His searching eye as He now sits in kingly glory as their judge. No falling rocks nor crumbling mountains can hide the guilty in that day of final indignation against sin. Death must again deliver up its dead. The sea must again "unfold its waves, and give up the myriads that lie beneath its tidal flow. Rev. 20: 13. Hades itself, with all its bars and bolts and cords and pains, must yield to the hand of Him who bears its key, and deliver up its dead. Rev. 1: 18. All must come forth at the summons of the Judge." Death shall be no cover, the grave no refuge, in that awful day when God shall judge the world in righteousness according to their works. THE DEAD, SMALL AND GREAT, STAND BEFORE HIM
"God shall judge the secrets of men, by Jesus Christ, according to the gospel. Rom. 2: 16. All classes will be there. All ages will be represented. The dead, small and great, shall stand before God and be judged. Rev. 20: 12. "The men of Nineveh, who repented at the preaching of Jonah, shall rise up in judgment to confound and condemn the men of Jerusalem, who did not repent at the preaching of Jesus Christ. Matt. 12: 41. The men who ate and drank with Jesus, and in whose streets He taught, shall hear Him say at last, 'Depart from Me; I never knew you.' Luke 13: 26. The Jews who listened to His words shall weep and gnash their teeth when they see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and they themselves thrust out. Luke 13: 28. Felix shall find that the Judgment to come, at the mention of which he trembled, was no idle tale. Acts 24: 25. Judas shall learn how much better it had been for him if he had not been born. Matt. 26: 24. And all sinners shall find that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Heb. 10: 31. None shall be so great that they can defy His judgment, so mighty that they can escape His notice. He shall judge the world in righteousness. "There shall come the solemn and eternal separation of the righteous and the wicked. They have been mingled together from the beginning, but now they shall mingle no more. Cain shall no more slay Abel. The Sodomites shall no more vex Lot. Pharaoh shall no more oppress Israel. The child of the bondwoman shall no more mock the son of the free. Haman shall no more plot against Mordecai. Nero shall no more afflict Paul. Herod shall no more imprison John. Nations shall no more persecute490Christians, nor shall rulers put them to torture or to death. God shall make an eternal severance of these different classes. He shall thoroughly purge His floor, garnering His wheat, and burning up the chaff with fire unquenchable. Matt. 3: 12. Saints shall return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not, for the day that cometh shall burn the wicked up, while on the servants of the Lord shall rise the healing beams of the Sun of Righteousness. Mal. 4: 1, 2."—H. L. Hastings. "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God. Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; He will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert." "And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there." Isa. 35: 1-6, 8, 9. FEARFULNESS SURPRISES THE HYPOCRITES
"The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil; he shall dwell on high: his place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure. Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off." "Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken. But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby." "And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity." Isa. 33: 14-17, 20, 21, 24. NO VOICE OF WEEPING THERE
Then shall God rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in His people. "And the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying." Isa. 65: 19. "And the Lord shall be King over all the earth." Zech. 14: 9. "This earth where Christ has been a hopeless outcast, a despised wanderer, and has met a felon's doom, shall yet shine forth, redeemed, purged, glorified, and arrayed in everlasting splendor, as the center of divine dominion." "And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life." Rev. 21: 23-27. VIOLENCE SHALL BE NO MORE
"Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise. The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land forever, the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, that I may be glorified." Isa. 60: 18-21. "Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of His people, and healeth the stroke of their wound." Isa. 30: 26. "Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously." Isa. 24: 23. THE TERRIBLE ARE BROUGHT TO NAUGHT
"The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. For the terrible one is brought to naught, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off: that make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of naught." Isa. 29: 19-21. "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." Isa. 11: 6-9. GENESIS AND REVELATION IN UNISON
"God's word declares the end from the beginning. It is not only the chart which guides each weary wanderer to his eternal rest, but it is the record of the great plan and purpose of the Almighty concerning the world which He has made and the church which He has redeemed. It unfolds God's everlasting purpose, as manifested in Jesus Christ; and if one will read three chapters at the beginning of the Bible and three at the end, he will be struck with the correspondence which there exists. "At the beginning of the Bible, we find a new world: 'In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.' At the end of the Bible, we find a new world: 'I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.' At the beginning, we find Satan entering to deceive and destroy; at the end, we find Satan cast out, 'that he should deceive the nations no more.' At the beginning, sin and pain and sorrow and sighing and death find entrance to the world; at the end, there shall be no more pain nor sorrow, no sighing and no more death. At the beginning, the earth, for man's transgression, is cursed with thorns and thistles; at the end, 'there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it.' At the beginning, we find the tree of life in Paradise, from which the sinner is shut out by a flaming sword, lest he eat and live forever; at the end, we find the tree of life again, 'in the midst of the Paradise of God,' and the blessed and the blood-washed ones have a right to the tree of life, and 'enter in through the gates into the city.' At the beginning, man was beneath the dominion of death and the grave: at the end, 'the dead, small and great, stand before God,' the sea gives up its dead, and death and hell are destroyed in the lake of fire. At the beginning, the first Adam lost his dominion over the earth, and was driven out of the Garden of Eden in shame and sorrow; at the end, we find the second Adam victorious over sin and death and hell, enthroned as King and Lord of all, and reigning in triumph and glory forever." "Thus shall this city shine forth in all the glory of divine adornment as the home of the saints. Men shall come from earthly wanderings to celestial homes; from dens and prisons here to joys and mansions there; out from iron doors and in through pearly gates. And feet that woke the dull echoes of the gloomy dungeon's floor shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem! Hands that clanked their chains with slow and tedious move shall strike the instruments of heavenly melody, and wake the harp notes of enduring joy. Brows once crowned with thorns and grimed with smoke and burning, shall grow smooth, and fair, and royal, beneath the crowns that never fade. Sackcloth shall be exchanged for fine linen, clean and white; and gazing on the least of all the gathered throng, we may say, 'Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.'" Matt. 6: 29.491 PALACE OF THE ANGELS AND THE THRONE OF GOD
"Here is the palace of angels and of God. Here stands the throne of God and the Lamb. Rev. 22: 3. Here shall the nations of the saved walk lovingly and peacefully in the calm, still light that beams through jasper walls and radiant palaces. Rev. 21: 24. All shall be pure and bright and blessed; for the tabernacle of God shall be with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them,—their God. And 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 shall be done away. Rev. 21: 3, 4. 'And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.' "Glorious shall be that city, the new metropolis of the established kingdom of God. And as Israel's sons, returning to their own land to dwell forever, shall join themselves with ties of love and vows of attachment to its soil, and call their land married, so shall Jesus, taking this as His eternal residence, consecrate it as the bride, the wife of the Lamb. Isa. 62: 4, 5; Rev. 19: 7, 8. NIGHTLESS DAY AND TEARLESS JOY
"And all this glorious garniture of gates of pearl, and streets and buildings of transparent gold, and walls of jasper, and foundations of amethysts, and chrysotites, and emeralds, and gems set by the cunning of its divine Architect, shall abide and adorn the home of the saints, the city of their glory, the palace of their King, the dwelling of their God. Blessed city of nightless day and tearless joy, where enemies never come, and whence friends never depart; city expected by Chaldean patriarchs, and foretold by Hebrew prophets; seen in the visions of God on Patmos, and by the eye of faith in all ages and in all lands;—we hail thy coming, and welcome thee as our endless home,—the peaceful Paradise of God."—H. L. Hastings. "Behold the promised golden throne,
The conquering palm, the unfading crown;
And, more than all, that beaming eye
Whose glance is love and ecstasy!
But, lo, what sudden splendors beaming
O'er heaven's illumined arch are streaming,
What hues of varied beauty blending,
What fair celestial towers descending!
O, Salem! City of our God!
The saints'—the martyrs' blest abode!
I see thy gates of pearl unfold,
I see thy streets of burnished gold,
I see thy towers in crystal shine,
Meet temple for a King divine.
Hail, perfect, pure, in virgin pride,
The mighty Lamb's resplendent bride!
Within thy hallowed courts are found
No lurking foes to vex or wound;
No dim eye sheds the hopeless tear;
No bosom throbs with doubt or fear;
And hushed is shame's tumultuous thrill,
And passion's warring storm is still.
No bright sun beams by day, by night
No pale moon sheds her feeble light;
But from the throne of living fire
Where sits revealed the eternal Sire,
Where seraphs raise their loudest strain,
To hail the Lamb that once was slain,
Though faith and hope have passed away,
Love sheds a pure, unchanging ray.
What faintly shone on earth before,
Now beams and burns forevermore."
R. C. P.