THE COMING HEIR, CONQUEROR, & KING.
By J. Chapman
[The following article is copied from the Northern Christian Advocate. Were it not for this, the reader would doubtless be disposed to regard it as the production of some genuine Sabbath-keeper, so exact is its harmony with the word of God, or, at least, with what we conceive to be the teaching of that word. But it is none the worse for the source from which it comes. We hail truth, whoever may utter it, and only wish that those who have so accurate conceptions of it on some points, might see with equal clearness on every other. U. S.] "I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: and it shall be no more until He come whose right it is, and I will give it Him." Eze. xxi, 27. THERE is a peculiar force and beauty in the phraseology of this Scripture. The repetition greatly intensifies it, and was the means employed by the Holy Ghost to best express its great importance and vast meaning. This is one of the many prophetic promises which refer directly to the personal appearing, kingdom, and endless reign of the Messiah. Zedekiah was that "profane and wicked prince of Israel" spoken of in the two preceding verses, of whom God said, "Remove the diadem and take off the crown." He was the last king that sat upon the throne of Israel, since which time the overturning has continued. "And it shall be no more" until Christ, the Son of David and promised heir, "whose right it is," shall come and possess it in person, as really as did Zedekiah. The coming of Christ, "the heir," here referred to, cannot be his first advent, for he came not then to claim and take his place on David's throne as Israel's King, but to usher in the dispensation of the Holy Ghost by his teachings, sufferings, and death; thus opening a door of hope to all who would believe upon him throughout the world. Hence we see that the overturning did not subside at the first appearing of Christ, nor has it yet ceased, but is increasing in violence, and will become still more intense until the coming of the "Prince of peace, whose right it is." Then shall he introduce and establish his glorious and endless reign, utterly abolishing both sin and death. This glorious triumph shall be Where all his laws are spurned,
His holy name profaned,
And where the ruined world has mourned,
With blood of millions stained.
The entire revelation of God to man harmonizes with this teaching, and with it harmonizes the marked and peculiar signs of our times. Nearly two thousand years have elapsed since the ascension of our Lord, and we have positively reached the time spoken of by Daniel the prophet, thus: "Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." Who can doubt? "He that runneth may read" this. Still another fact is not less obvious. It is that so clearly predicted by our Saviour thus: "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." The bands59that bound society together, civil, social, and religious, all seem to be giving way. The time of trouble spoken of by both Daniel and our Saviour, is actually upon us. "Like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt," so it is now with the troubled masses. "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." This is now the moral phase of society, and precisely our prophetic whereabouts in the church, our nation, and the world at large. The church is in exile, weeping and praying, "even so, come Lord Jesus." While the latter-day "scoffers" in derision are saying, "Where is the promise of His coming?" thousands are "deceiving and being deceived" by the delusive dream that the millennial day is softly stealing upon our world, and there shall be the much talked of golden age. Alas for such! Between our time and that future glory of Messiah's reign there lies a region as dark as midnight, strewed with such ruined hopes and blasting terrors as this world has never known—a time of plagues and tribulation as never was, when all hopes except those based on the truth shall utterly perish, with all those who have deceived themselves thereby. There is a most manifest, blind, persistent rejection of the glorious truth, that the next great event which will mark the history of our world, make an end of Satan's usurpation and bring in everlasting righteousness, is the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ to establish his kingdom, in answer to that prayer he himself indited, "Thy kingdom come," the very kingdom ascribed to him, "for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever, amen." No person who may be favored with grace enough to disarm himself of prejudice, and sit down as a humble learner at the feet of Christ and his apostles, and receive their exposition of the prophets, can resist the fact that the hope of the primitive church was, and the true hope of the church now is, "the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ." Titus ii, 13. Not until then will the church be disenthralled and saved from all her enemies, coming out of the wilderness, "fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners." Not until then will God's incorrigible enemies bow and confess, under the heavy pressure of his righteous judgments, and be removed as tares and cumberers of the ground. Verily there is no other legitimate Bible hope for the Israel of God in its trying hour. If other hopes are entertained, they are of human origin, and never to be realized. They are but the light of the fire and "the sparks of their own kindling." With all deference to the opinions of others, such is the modern theory of this world's conversion, and the building of Christ's everlasting kingdom in his personal absence by human instrumentality. In the light of God's immutable truth, it may be safely affirmed that God has nowhere commissioned men either to convert the world or build his kingdom proper in this world. If any doubt, let such disprove by plain, obvious scriptural testimony. Christ has commissioned and sent forth men to preach the gospel of the kingdom, and to tell us what the sure result would be, namely, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned." The labors of more than eighteen hundred years, the world over, have invariably confirmed this certain result. We are forced to the conclusion that during the present dispensation, fallen humanity will remain the same, and that the gospel, like its author, will continue the same, nor will God, or the Holy Ghost, change. Hence the results of preaching, and all other means of grace, will not be more efficient in their results than they have been in the primitive church, and through the ages past. To what other conclusion does revelation, reason, and common sense lead? The apostle Paul certainly understood the nature of his calling, and may safely be regarded as a model minister and missionary of the gospel. In all his writings, there is nothing to indicate that he thought his commission was to convert the world, or build the kingdom of Jesus Christ. His words may be forced into such a construction, as they frequently have been. We will hear him speak for himself, thus: "I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some." He meddled not with things beyond his calling and measure. Would to God it were so with all who claim to be sent of Christ to teach and preach in our day.—J. Chapman.