The Restitution | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 10, 1865

The Restitution.

AND that hour is drawing near. The creature, who shared the blight of sin, shall also feel the blessings of redemption. And so in the world to come it is written, "There shall be no more curse." The former things shall have passed away. It shall be brought back to its first estate. Its glorious beauty shall be no more a fading flower. It shall smile in undying bloom. "Then shall the earth bring forth her increase." Its early fertility shall be restored. "The ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed." Amos ix. 13. Noxious weeds thorns and briers shall deface it no more. Its Eden beauty shall be restored. The animals shall live in peace, as at the first. Tempests shall no longer deform it. Earthquakes no more heave and rend its bosom. Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders. Isa. lx. 18. The winds shall cease their raging, for "there shall be new heavens," i. e., a new arrangement of the atmosphere, by which the outburst of the tempest shall be needed no more. Every element of harm and opposition shall be removed. Every token of blight banished. "Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle-tree." Isa. lv. 13. "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." Isa. xxxv, 5, 6. The foreshadowed work of Christ shall be gloriously realized, and all the evils that followed in the path of sin shall be banished forever. Then, "Behold I make all these things new." New in beauty and in harmony. New in perfect adaptation each to the other. And new, especially in this, that sin will be banished, and righteousness dwell in the world forever!

And this is the glorious sight, ever rising up and filling the vision of the Book of God. It was figured in the Jewish Sabbatic year. There was peace in all their borders. All men rested from their labors. The cattle rested. The land rested. Throughout the year there was neither sowing of seed for the reaping of grain. God had sent abundance through all their borders, and every man sat beneath his own vine and fig-tree. Everything told of peace and prosperity. Everything spoke of a nation fearing God, and blessed in his service. This was its design.

St. Peter calls it "the restitution of all things which God hath spoken, by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began." Acts, iii. 21. I pray you examine that text. What is restitution? Just bringing things back to their first estate. It is nothing else. Whatever was the state of all things at first, will be their state again. If it is not, there is no restitution. It must reach to man, and he will be restored. It must reach the inhabitants of the earth, and they will be restored. If all this is not done, there is no restitution. Holiness alone will not repay the ruins of the fall. Were every man a saint, that would not pluck the venom from the serpent's fang, nor restrain the tempest in its wrath, nor bid the earthquake cease, nor put back the hand of sickness, nor turn aside the power of death. The constitution of the material universe must be altered. It must be brought back to its first estate. And that is restitution.

And that is God's promise. It is not left to inference. It has been the burden of every prophet he has sent into the world. He has spoken it by all the prophets which have been since the world began. It is linked in with Christ's second coming. It is the glorious result of that coming.

As such, the Scriptures call it "the blessed hope." As such, it has ever been the pole-star to the Church. And toward it, the eye of the believer has turned, with trembling intensity of interest that nothing could arrest or subdue. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, beheld it. He caught its earliest beams as it rose bright and clear, above the storm-tossed ocean on which that Church was called to go forth. Jacob saw it on his dying bed, as he told of him, unto whom the gathering of his people should be. Moses saw it, and the prophets. The man of Uz beheld it beaming with resplendent light. His faith realized the view. In his flesh he saw his God, as he stood in the latter day on the earth. David touched his harp with rapturous exultation, as visions of his coming glory rose up before him. Isaiah calls up every image of grandeur, and pours forth his most entrancing strains, as he portrays the splendor of his reign.

Jeremiah tells us of his everlasting covenant. Ezekiel saw him tread the earth again. Daniel tells of the majesty of his throne, and beheld all nations serving and obeying him. Zechariah saw him come with all his saints, while Malachi exclaims; "Behold, he shall suddenly come to his temple!" Every prophet strikes his harp to the strain of this blessed, and adds his tribute to the glories of that day, that shall usher in "the restitution of all things!"

And well may it be termed the blessed hope. It is so in itself. It is so, in its results to the people of God, and to all the works of his hands. It is fearful only to the enemies of our Lord. It is distasteful only to those who have no clear realization of a saving interest in its blessings.