Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 4, 1893
Editorial.
By Editor
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable.”—2 Tim. 3:16.
“I AM not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.” Rom. 1:16, 17.
THE gospel of Christ comes to the world through individual hearts. It cannot be operated through a system or through a church independent of the persons who compose the church. It is not found in some great treasure-house the key of which is controlled by some particular church. The key to God’s blessing is faith, and faith means perfect submission of the will to God and the appropriation of his promises to the heart and life.
THOSE who have thus received Christ can preach his gospel; for the preaching of the gospel is the preaching of Christ, the Incarnate Word. The charge is not, Preach about the word, but, Preach the word. It is not to preach about Christ, but to preach Christ. He who has the word in his heart can proclaim the word, but he who has not the word does not know the word, and hence cannot proclaim it. So also if one does not know Christ, if he has not Christ in the heart, he cannot preach Christ. It was necessary that Christ should be revealed in Paul before he could preach among the heathen. Gal. 1:16.
THIS is one of the great truths which has largely slipped from the grasp of the church. There are plenty of men, able and learned, D.D.’s, A.M.’s, S.T.D.’s, etc., who are preaching flowing sermons and writing and reading fine essays about the word. They sit in judgment on its inspiration, and discourse about its “errancy” and “inerrancy.” They put themselves above prophet, apostle, and Author in what they have to say about the word. In that word which is thus cut and carved and criticised is Christ, the Living Word. They know him not, and therefore they know not his word. They are deceived in believing that they are preaching the gospel when they know not the gospel, and, sadder than all else, multitudes are deceived into believing the same thing.
FROM this evil grows another. The gospel is “the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.” But as they do not know the gospel, they do not know its power, nor does its power follow their preaching. Men are not reformed. Morality does not increase. Ordinances of the church are not kept. Not having the word of God, not having the power of the word behind the preaching, transgression continues, and multiplies within the church itself. Instead of submitting to God and his will they substitute something which they call his will. For his power they substitute earthly power. Hence comes Sunday as an institution of “the church,” though not of God. Hence comes appeal for Sunday laws, the power of the world instead of the power of God. Hence also comes the persecution of those who will not submit to human decrees. “And these things,” says Christ to his true church, “will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father or me.”
HOW ARE THEY ANSWERED?
WE take the following from a recent number of the Christian Statesman; the reader will notice that it is from the lips or pen of one of the leading Sunday advocates:—
SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS ANSWERED.—Our opponents declare, “We are not satisfied with inferences and suppositions; show us where the first day is spoken of as holy, or as being observed instead of the seventh; we must have a direct and positive command of God.” We admit there is no such command. But if we are to be limited by such a demand, all of us shall soon find ourselves in a very entangling predicament. Let us point to one as an illustration. Polygamy is an institution recognized in the Old Testament. Its conditions were provided for by divine enactment. Now polygamy is utterly prohibited by the church, and it is a crime punished by the State. Yet there is no positive divine command recalling that permission of polygamy which was granted in the Old Testament. The Mormon can intrench himself behind the same breastwork of argument as that put up by the Seventh-day Baptists and the Seventh-day Adventists. He can triumphantly demand the text of Scripture which repeals polygamy. He, too, can claim that the State pronounces on the religious question when it legislates against his belief. Further, these Sabbatarians tell us, “If this change went on as you suppose, it is strange that the apostles do not speak of it.” To this we reply: The apostles preached in many heathen communities where infanticide and polygamy were common; but we have no record of anything they said against these grievous sins. Likewise with the institution of slavery. We have as much scriptural authority for the observance of the first day as we have for the abrogation of slavery. Therefore the demand of the Sabbatarian for a text of Scripture is a weapon of the boomerang sort, which flies back and hits them as severely as it strikes us.674—Rev. Geo. S. Mott, D.D., Acting President American Sabbath Union.
There are some points in the above to which we wish to call attention:—
1. Dr. Mott, and the Christian Statesman, evidently, as it quotes with approval his words, plainly say with reference to a divine command for first-day observance, “We admit there is no such command.” Good! Let it be remembered; and let not the fourth commandment be used to inculcate Sunday observance again.
2. Polygamy was one of those things which God suffered because of the blindness and hardness of the hearts of the people (Matt. 19:8); it was among the things of “the times of ignorance” which “God winked at” (Acts 17:30). And every law which seems to recognize the institution simply and rather recognized the rights of those who were victims of the institution, such as the wives and children. See Deut. 21:15–17. Never once has God given command that polygamy should be recognized, or even intimated that it was a divine institution. He simply recognized the rights of those who were compelled to submit to an institution which was contrary to the divine oracle, and the rights of those whose existence came through it. As evidence that it was not God’s order that man should have more than one wife, read the following scriptures: Gen. 1:27; 2:20–24; Matt. 19:4–6; Mark 10:5–9; Mal. 2:14–16; Eph. 5:31.
Every one of the above scriptures recognizes but the one wife. God made male and female, not male and females. “They twain,” “the two”—not the three or four or five—shall be one flesh. In the very ones to whom the people would look for an example, God expressly forbade polygamy. The king of Israel could not without disobeying God have more than one wife, for he should not “multiply wives to himself,” which command he would certainly transgress by taking more than one. The same restrictions are placed upon officers in the Christian church (1 Tim. 3:2, 12). If this was the case with those who ought to be examples in the faith, it is just as true on the part of those who should follow the examples. Much more might be said, but the above is sufficient to show that God never sanctioned polygamy. He never commanded it; all his commands were implicitly against the institution; he therefore needed not to repeal what he had never commanded.
3. It is just so with slavery. God recognized the rights of those who were in slavery; but he never commanded slavery. It was recognized, for the reason that it was held as part and parcel of the laws of governments which had not yielded to God, and therefore would not obey him. The truly converted nation, the nation which has the Spirit of Christ, will never hold slaves; but, in the nature of the case, the converted nation will never be, can never be, till God gathers home his holy nation one by one. God therefore overlooked their ignorance and blindness, and, as far as it was possible in the condition of the people, guarded the rights of those in slavery. Therefore, as God never commanded slavery, why should a demand be made for its abrogation? He cannot abrogate what has not been commanded. How God regards the relative position of men, how he shows that they are all on the same level, is shown by such scriptures as Deut. 16:17; Acts 10:34; Matt. 23:8-11; Acts 17:24, 26. These principles when received in the heart will utterly abolish every form of bondage.
As a similar instance of God's dealing with men, take his instructions in Deut. 17:14-20, regarding the qualifications and duties of a king. God gave these to guard his people from the tyranny which kings often exercise, but did he mean by this that he thought a king would be a good thing for them, and that it was of his order?—Not at all. Read how God regarded a king, in 1 Sam. 12:16-19. They rejected God's rule when they asked a king. See chap. 8:5-9. Yet God in his mercy did not cast them off; he guarded by the best of instruction those who were victims of unrighteous rule.
Yes, Seventh-day Adventists are "answered," but how are they answered? Why, two institutions are taken which God never commanded, which are in spirit against all his commandments, from which unrighteous institutions God guarded his people by the best laws the people would bear,—and concerning these institutions the Rev. Geo. S. Mott, D.D., asks for one text which shows that God has abrogated what he never gave!! Such "reasoning," such "logic," is the wickedest sophistry, which hides truth by words without knowledge. Oh, the pitiableness of it!
God has permitted slavery, just as he has permitted Sunday observance. The Mormon polygamist and the slave owner are paralleled by the Sunday keeper. The two former institutions were never given of God; they were and are against his law and nature; they have proved a curse to mankind; but God has never repealed them, because he never gave them. He has blessed both polygamist and slaveholder, not because of polygamy or slavery, but in spite of it, because of His mercy, in order to win erring man to the truth. The Sunday sabbath was never given of God; it was and is contrary to God's law; it has perverted his truth and ruined souls; but God has never repealed it, because he never gave it. God has blessed the Sunday keeper, not because he kept Sunday, but in spite of it, because of His mercy, in order to win erring man to the truth. But the seventh-day Sabbath God gave through Christ (Ex. 20:8-11; Mark 2:27, 28), and he has never abrogated his law. This is our answer. Dr. Mott is not skilled in boomerangs.
PATERNAL GOVERNMENT.
By W. N. G.
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS once wrote a letter to a Western Commercial Congress, and among other practical suggestions said that "the idea of the general government as a paternal do-all is wrong, dangerous, and entitled to no respect." There is great reason for emphasizing this truthful utterance, as "the idea" referred to is constantly enlarging. There is a growing inclination in these days toward appealing to the government for a remedy for every imaginary evil. And the more fanatical the project in contemplation the more frantic the appeal.
In no realm, however, does the paternal government theory work so disastrously as in matters of religion. And what seems so utterly inexcusable in efforts to obtain government support of religious dogmas in the United States is the fact that we have always before us the beneficent results of religious freedom. We have a government built up, as the result of a long struggle to throw off the tyranny of compulsory religion; we can read in history the consequences of that kind of government; we can compare our own with those of our contemporaries, which cling more or less to the ancient paternalism. And the comparison is always favorable to the advancement of the Christian religion.
True Christianity assimilates with absolute religious liberty, while other religions wane. The reason is that Christianity's social motto is, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." Legal compulsion invariably corrupts Christianity. Under the pressure of human law, its votaries become arrogant, selfish, oppressive—just the reverse of Christian, although bearing the Christian name. The growing clamor for Sunday laws, and for dogmatic teaching in public schools, is plainly developing, or, rather, exposing, among nominal Christians the disposition to coerce by any means those who oppose these things and maintain that Christianity should stand on its own merits.
That the effort to induce the government to take legal cognizance of Christian institutions and usages is the outgrowth of degeneracy or apostasy from the original faith, is manifest in the fact that the dogmas for which legal enforcement is urged are invariably corruptions of the genuine. As a matter of fact, Christianity never has been, never can be, enforced by civil laws,—only pretentious corruptions have been thus maintained. Christianity in its purity has ever been the sufferer by such laws. Great pressure has been made of late to secure and to enforce Sunday laws in the various States and in the United States; and this is done in the name of Christianity. But Sunday is not a Christian institution; it is a pagan holiday, which men have endeavored to ingraft upon the Christian faith. As it cannot by any means assimilate, it can only be apparently held in its illegitimate position by means of human machinery; its "last ditch," its "forlorn hope," is civil law.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is "the power of God unto salvation." This being the case, it ought to be able to stand on its own merits. He that could "overcome the world" while assuming the nature of frail humanity and being "tempted in all points like as we are," when all human law was against him, can carry his work through to the end without its special aid. During the days of the apostles the gospel was carried to all the known world, while it was treason to preach any religion not sanctioned by the government. Neither Christ nor his apostles ever sought the aid of the civil law in carrying out the work of evangelization. That was reserved for a later day, when apostasy had brought in strange doctrines which the masses were slow to receive and scheming authorities were anxious to propagate. When the gospel becomes so encumbered with such issues and institutions as can only stand by the support of human power, then it ceases to be the gospel of Christ, and the power of God is no longer with it. Any institution which legitimately pertains to the gospel of Jesus Christ has the power of God under it, and it will never ask the government to become a leaning post.
Jesus said to his disciples, when he started them out on the gospel mission, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." Matt. 28 : 18. Who gave that power to him?—"Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands," etc., John 13 : 3. If he has all power in heaven and in earth, given by God himself, how much will any ukase, or bull, or statute, or ordinance of man, add to it? We pray, "Our Father who art in heaven," and if this be an honest acknowledgment, we want no paternal dictation on the part of any earthly government as to what religious institutions or usages we shall sustain or observe. W. N. G.
With Christ Not Men
With Christ Not Men.—Sometimes there are persons who imagine themselves quite good singers because they can sing so easily and readily when accompanied by a good choir and musical instrument; but if called upon to lead a small meeting in singing, they make utter failure. There are Christians whose cases are very similar. When attending some good warm spiritual meeting, they get warmed by the warmth of others, and think that they have received a great measure of strength, and have contributed greatly to the success of the meeting; but if these same persons are called upon to stand alone for Christ amid a Babel of strange tongues and dispositions, they yield to the influences of Satan. The real test of union with Christ is to stand alone, whatever influences may be around us. “Let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.” Union with Christ will enable the Christian to stand uncorrupted wherever duty calls. Men may prove traitors to God all around him; it will but lead him to be more loyal. Men may prove cowards; he will gather renewed courage. His source of life and growth is from above. “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree675planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her root by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green, and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.”
Doctrinal.
By Editor
"If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God."—John 7:17.
CHRIST AS KING.
BY THE EDITOR.
HIS RELATION TO RELIGIOUS LEGISLATION.
In our last two issues was considered Christ as prophet or teacher, and Christ as priest. It was shown from the Scriptures that in neither of these relations to the world does Christ or his people, according to the Scriptures, have any part in moulding or controlling the world through civil government; that is, the power of civil government is not to be appealed to nor used for the propagation of truth, for the support or promotion of religious institutions, nor for the maintenance of the servants of God.
The mission of Christ as prophet and teacher extended to the time when he ascended to heaven after his resurrection. His work as teacher since that is carried on through his church endowed by his Holy Spirit.
Christ's work as priest will continue till the whole spiritual house or church of God is built, and the last soul is gathered in. While engaged in this work he sits upon the throne of his Father (Heb. 8:1), and when the last soul of man which will receive him, has received him, then Christ will take his own throne with the overcomers (Rev. 3:21). His own kingdom therefore lies beyond his priesthood. In fact, his kingdom is not set up, he does not possess the throne of his glory, till he comes the second time; for thus he himself declares:—
"When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory." Matt. 25:31.
In 2 Tim. 4:1 the same truth is expressed by the apostle. He gives his charge to ministers to preach the word, in view of the following great events: "I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom." The two events are connected; the kingdom is set up at Christ's appearing.
Another vital proposition connected with this is that Christ's kingdom will be on this earth. The earth was made for the home of man (Genesis 1 and 2); and the curse of sin upon it did not destroy the design of God that the earth should be inhabited by a people that are "all righteous" (Isa. 60:21); "for thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he has established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else" (Isa. 45:18). God's very existence is pledged to do just what he designed to do in the beginning. Man refused to obey God in the beginning, and sold himself under sin (Rom. 7:14) to the lord of sin; Satan in this way usurped authority and became "prince of this world." See John 12:31; 2 Cor. 4:4; Luke 4:5-7. This power of Satan is broken by Christ. Rev. 12:10; Heb. 2:14.
These two truths,—that the kingdom of Christ is this world and that it will not be set up till the end of this age,—are plainly set forth in the great symbolic lines of prophecy in the second and seventh chapters of Daniel and elsewhere. The four great successive empires of the world are presented before us,—Babylon, Medo-Persia, Grecia, and Rome,—and then, in the very last days of the Roman Kingdom, "shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, . . . but it shall stand forever." Dan. 2:44. The same truth is declared in the seventh chapter. After depicting the rise and fall of the four great empires above named, the prophet says: "And the kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven [including all the earth], shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom." Verse 27.
Jesus said to those who thought that his kingdom was soon to be set up:—
"A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come." Luke 19:12, 13.
The receiving of the kingdom is set forth in connection with the judgment in Daniel 7. After presenting before us the solemn scenes of the investigative judgment (verses 9, 10), the prophet says in verses 13, 14:—
"I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed."
All these passages of Scripture and many more teach that this world is Christ's kingdom, and that it will be set up at the close of all earthly kingdoms, at the coming of Christ in his glory.
The next question which we ask is, How will this kingdom be set up? How will it come to Christ? Our National Reform friends tell us that these kingdoms, the nations of earth, will be converted, will submit to God in a political way, and will become a part of the kingdom of Christ. Miss Frances Willard says that the kingdom of Christ must come to the world through "the gateway of politics." But what saith the Scripture? Is it by earthly laws? is it by the politics of nations? is it by the manipulation of votes? is it by any or all of these that the kingdoms of the world become the kingdom of Christ?—Nay, these are not God's way. In the very nature of the gospel of Christ it cannot thus come in. But this we will not discuss at present. What are the plain statements of Scripture as to the way in which the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of Christ?
In a passage, a part of which we have before quoted, in Daniel 2, we are emphatically told just how the kingdom of God succeeds the kingdoms of earth. In the symbol, the stone (Christ) smote the image (earthly kingdoms) upon the feet, and the parts of the image were "broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them; and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth." Verse 35. In verse 44 the interpretation declares: "In the days of these kings [the last kingdoms upon earth] shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people [as are earthly kingdoms], but it shall break in pieces and consume [not convert] all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever." Certainly this does not indicate a converted world.
The second psalm bears a testimony of like import. The Father says to the Son: "Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." How could language more plainly indicate utter destruction?
The same thing is taught over and over again in the New Testament. In the parable of the wheat and tares (Matthew 13) we are taught that no human power is to be used to root out the tares, but both are to grow together till "the harvest," "the end of the world," and then God destroys the tares. They never become wheat. In 2 Thessalonians 2 the great apostasy, the man of sin, is presented. That mystery of iniquity, with all its adherents, continues till Christ comes the second time; and it is just before that great event that all its wickedness is revealed. When Christ appears all not of him will be consumed "with the spirit of his mouth" and destroyed "with the brightness of his coming." Verse 8. See also Rev. 11:15, 18; 19:11-21.
From the above and many other scriptures we can come to no other conclusion than that the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of Christ by the destruction of all these kingdoms, destroyed by the brightness of Christ's coming when he comes to execute the judgment committed to him. See Isa. 59:17, 18; John 5:27.
The reign of Christ upon the Father's throne as priest will come to an end. Says the apostle:—
"Then cometh the end [of Christ's reign as priest], when he [Christ] shall have delivered up the kingdom [of his priestly rule] to God, even the Father; when he [the Father, according to the promise, Ps. 110:1] shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he [Christ] must reign [as priest-king], till he [the Father] hath put all enemies under his [Christ's] feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he [the Father] hath put all things under his [Christ's] feet. But when he [the Father] saith all things are put under him [Christ], it is manifest that he [the Father] is excepted, which did put all things under him [Christ]. And when all things shall be subdued unto him [Christ], then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him [the Father] that put all things under him [Christ], that God may be all in all." 1 Cor. 15:26-28.
But his reign upon his own throne, upon the throne of David, will never come to an end (Luke 1:32, 33); and it will not be by human power or means that it will be obtained; "the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this" (Isa. 9:7). Everyone who will now embrace the Son, who will receive the gospel of Christ, will have a part in that kingdom as one of the heirs of the promise. Gal. 3:29. But those who do not have Christ formed within, who identify themselves with sin, will be destroyed before the glory of God's grace when Christ comes. Therefore in the setting up of that kingdom politics can have no part, human expediency has no part, human policy has no part, human rule, human shaping or moulding of plans, do not enter into it. It is not of human might or power, but by "my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts." We may therefore leave the setting up of Christ's kingdom to God. Our work, the work of all Christians, the only work for Christ of all, is to hold up Christ a sin-pardoning, all-healing Saviour, to live Christ, talk Christ, and to minister the power and blessings of Christ to all.
WHAT CHRIST'S COMING IS TO THE CHURCH.
THAT the second coming of Christ will be a literal, personal, visible, glorious coming, we have abundantly shown in past numbers. That the coming of Christ is near, and that it is not only our privilege but our duty to know when it is near, we have also shown. We wish at this time to notice what the Lord's coming has ever been to the church, and the effect of this doctrine upon the life of the believer.
The coming of Christ has been the hope of the church in all ages. The hope of course embraces more than the mere coming. There is the hope of the resurrection of the dead (Acts 24:15; 23:6), but this hope is realized at the coming of Christ (1 Thess. 4:16, 17). There is the hope of eternal life (Titus 1:2), but this life will be given absolutely at the resurrection of the last day (John 6:40). We read of the hope of the glory of God (Rom. 5:2), but this glory will be revealed at the second coming of Christ (Matt. 16:27). And all these hopes are but parts of one hope, even "Christ, our hope," in whom all fullness dwells. 1 Tim. 1:1. But all hope in Christ culminates in his second coming. Says the apostle in speaking of God's grace and its results:—
"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." Titus 2:11-14.
The second coming of our Lord is truly the realization of the blessed hope to his people. And thus has it ever been to his faithful servants of every age and dispensation. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of the day when Christ should come and execute judgment on a guilty world, thus delivering his downtrodden and oppressed people. Jude 14, 15.
The ancient Idumean patriarch Job looked forward to the same time. In the bitterness of his pain and misery, he sings in triumph: "For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God; whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another [margin, "not a stranger"]." Job 19:25-27.
Job looked forward to that time when Christ should transform the body of his humiliation, that it should be like his own glorious body. Phil. 3:21. And this Redeemer of Job's would not be to him a stranger. Job never looked upon the face of his Redeemer while he lived, but he knew him. He knew his righteousness, his holiness, his purity; knew his greatness, his majesty, his power; knew his mercy, his sympathy, his love; and when the voice of the Son of God calls the patient man back to life, he will see mirrored on that divine countenance of all others all the majesty and the holiness, the tender sympathy and mercy and love, which he had learned of God while enduring the trials of earth. And so will it be with every child of God. We may not with Peter and John have beheld with open face our Lord, but we may become so well acquainted with him that when we meet on that great day of all days, he will be to us no stranger, but one long known and loved, the best and dearest Friend.
David, the sweet Psalmist of Israel, the earthly progenitor of our Lord, contemplating the unsatisfying things of earth, sings: "I will behold Thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness." Ps. 17:15. Isaiah looks forward to the glory of the Redeemer, of whom he prophesied (1 Peter 1:10, 11), and thus pours forth his hope: "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. . . . For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place." Isa. 26:19-21.
Jeremiah looks forward to the time when the children of hope shall come again from the land of the enemy (chapter 31:15-17); Ezekiel (37:1-14) reveals to the waiting in Israel the future resurrection. The Lord through another prophet declares: "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death; O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction." Hosea 13:14.
But we have not time to mention all the bright expressions of hope as patriarch or prophet looked forward to the coming of Christ. The saints of New Testament times, while instructed that Christ was not coming in their day (2 Thess. 2:1-3), yet looked forward to his coming as the time of life and joy and glorious reward. The crown will then be given (1 Peter 5:4; 2 Tim. 4:8); the reward will be bestowed (Rev. 22:12; Matt. 16:27); this mortal will then put on immortality (1 Cor. 15:51-55); and the volume of the Book closes with the prayer of the church (as "Thy kingdom come" has been its prayer through the centuries of tribulation), "Even so, come, Lord Jesus" (Rev. 22:20).
One of the strongest things connected with the whole subject is the indifference and apathy manifested on the part of the greater portion of the professed church of Christ. Many ministers are either utterly indifferent or openly hostile to the doctrine of Christ's soon coming. They profess that they love Christ, but can we truly, heartily love an individual unless we love his personal presence? Can we separate the two—the love from the person? Nay, we cannot; if we love a person, we love his presence. If a wife devotedly loves her husband, she loves and longs for his presence; and just so with the husband. And even so, dear reader, if we love Christ, we will love his presence, we will long for his presence, we will rejoice when his coming is near.
This hope purifies the heart of him who truly holds it. This is expressly declared: "We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." 1 John 3:2, 3.
It could not be otherwise than this. We will seek to please those we love unless we love self better. The wife who loves her husband will seek to please her husband. She will endeavor to make home pleasant when he comes. She does this almost involuntarily. So it will be with that Christian who loves his Lord. He will not scoff at his coming, he will rejoice to know that Christ will return. He will search the evidences to know whether that coming is near at hand. As evidences multiply, his heart will rejoice as he sees his redemption draw nigh. Luke 21:28.
He will watch for that coming. He will prepare himself to entertain such a guest. As a loyal subject would renovate, repair, cleanse, and beautify his house, and furnish his best rooms for guest chambers, if he expected a visit from his prince, so will the Christian prepare his character who looks for his Lord. As he contemplates his coming, his heart will grow purer in his contemplations. The hope of that coming will hallow his joys and sweeten his cups of trial; and his every fiber will thrill with joy and life at the anticipated meeting.
Weary pilgrim in life's weary way, let thy heart be cheered; thy Lord is coming. Soldiers on the battle field, fight on, thy King will soon appear. Not "distant hope nor dim" is thine. The rays of coming morn already streak the east; the Sun of Righteousness is about to rise with healing in his beams. Does the world—worse, does a worldly church—laugh at thy faith and mock thy hope, hold it fast. Believe still, hope on, love on. In "a little while" "thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty," thy Friend, Redeemer, Lord. Happy those who can say at that time, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us; this is our Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation."