"The Earnest Expectation."
By H. W. Beecher
IN the language of the New Testament, and in current religious usage, Christians are regarded as citizens of a divine kingdom of which their Lord is the head. Accordingly they seek its present advancement in this world, and have their most glorious prospect in its final triumph at his second coming. Their citizenship lies not merely in obligations to his service, and necessary subjection to his sway, which may as well be affirmed of all mankind, and of infernal powers; but in loyalty to his person and reign, participation in his principles, fidelity to his measures, and confidence in his resources. Hence it enters into their desire and plan, as into his own, to extend his dominion and to multiply its subjects in this world, to deepen and diffuse the blessings enjoyed under it, to make their friends and neighbors and all the families of mankind partakers of their own privileges and hopes. Theirs is not the ambition of Roman citizens, or of any modern aristocracy, to aggrandize their own exclusive caste, while enlarging the territories and multiplying the vassals of their government. They would make their fellowship as wide as their conquests. Yet, while such is their desire, their earnest expectation "waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God." As with the faithful subjects of any monarchy, their most glorious prospect is in the ultimate triumph of their Sovereign, not merely in gathering a vast number of willing and favored subjects, but in subduing all his incorrigible foes. This result they must look for, according to his announcement, in his second coming. The promised consummation of his kingdom among mankind is beyond the growth of his religion, or the spread of its influence; it is his personal presence and triumph. Hence it must be looked for in connection with the resurrection, and "the time of restitution of all things." It will be the inauguration of his reign in the "new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness." Thus the apostle Paul, after saying, "Our conversation [our citizenship] is heaven," adds, "from whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body." Now many philanthropists have gone aside from this apostolic and scriptural idea in their conception of the results anticipated by Christianity. They have expected civil governments to be rectified and perfected, great moral reforms to be accomplished, and mankind to be advanced to a high, social, intellectual, and moral condition, through existing agencies, leaving nothing further to be done or gained. Many Christians too, seem to be content with expecting the world to be pervaded by the principles of Christianity, making little or no account of Christ's coming and the resurrection and the new earth. Their "golden age" for the world is made such, at best, by the prevalence of moral and religious truth. They speak as if the kingdom of Christ were a mere figure for the moral influence of his religion, and not as literal an account as can be given of a state or commonwealth having Christ at its head, whose utmost prosperity must therefore be in his person and presence. And too often they speak of themselves individually as if the consummation of their prospects were in the rest and blessedness that immediately follow death, rather than in "the resurrection of the just," when "the meek shall inherit the earth." Adhering more closely to the Scriptures, they will remember that Christ is truly and properly a king, and they are his loyal and confiding subjects; that having come to this earth, a revolted province of his dominions, he went away for a season; that according to his parables and promises, he will one day return to vindicate his servants, and punish his enemies; that he is now "expecting till his enemies be made his footstool," but will then complete his work for the righteous living and dead, and reign with them in the new earth, even in the New Jerusalem. Along with the promise so often cited, "Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession," there runs the threatening, "Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." To that time, both of reward and "vengeance," when every eye shall see him, the prophets and apostles looked forward with exultation, beyond all improvements and reformation in society; beyond even the predicted proclamation of the gospel to all nations; beyond even the rest of falling asleep in Jesus. Amid all their trials and successes, they looked and longed for the final coming of that divine kingdom, of which they were citizens—not in the amelioration of existing institutions—not even in the prevalence of Christianity over idolatry and unbelief, but in the final coming of their King—"looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God"—in the mean time confessing "that they were pilgrims and strangers on the earth," and desiring "a better country, that is an heavenly." Let their chief hope be ours. We know not how better to set forth the expectation that befits Christians, amidst whatever troubles and uncertainties may surround them in the present life, than by turning to the apostle Paul when he would most cheer the Thessalonians under their "persecutions and tribulations," as in the first chapter of his second epistle, to which we solicit the attention of our readers. Sure we are, if only from the example in the New Testament, that nothing can better qualify the people of God for the sufferings and the duties of this present time, "than to wait for his Son from heaven."—H. W. Beecher.