Earlier text: General ArticlesTHE POWER OF CHRIST'S RESURRECTION.
By Rev. S. Graves, D. D.
PAUL greatly desired to know this. What is it? It is something more than that display of power which was manifest in his literal resurrection, great as that was, by which he was "declared to be the Son of God with power." Christ's resurrection was unlike any other that had ever taken place. It was a resurrection invested with "the power of an immortal life." "Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him." Christ risen and exalted to Heaven, in our glorified human nature, is the connecting-link between this world and the next—the visible and the invisible; and through the risen Christ comes down to us, flows in upon us, "the powers of the world to come." And so the reality of a future life, of a personal resurrection, of the continuity and identity of the life that now is, and that which is to come,—all the power which truths like these, set forth in the strong light of facts, hold over us, is due to the resurrection of Christ. What dignity does this give to life, with what responsibilities does it weight the days we are passing here—eternal issues gather around them! The words we speak, the works we do, the very thoughts which shape themselves in our minds, take on infinite values, in the light of Christ's resurrection. What a place it makes of the home, the office, the shop, the store, where so much of the earnest work of life is done! How these places are made by it the court of the invisible world which opens out into the eternities, and takes on the glory or the gloom of their unending states! Herein is found, herein is seen and felt "the power of Christ's resurrection." Then, again, Christ's resurrection is the final and finishing proof of our Lord's divinity. It established Christianity as an historical and divine religion; made it a faith at once solid in basis, and full of life and power. Christ its head and founder is a living person; whereas the founders of all other religions live only in the memories and reverence of their followers. It is therefore the doctrine of the resurrection—the resurrection element in the Christian religion—that gave it at first its power to conquer the old pagan world, and is its conquering power to-day. Moral precepts the world had before Christ's day, many of them of great beauty and truth, which he himself adopted—for the Christian religion, in its fullness, embodies all divine truth. But of themselves they lacked power to change the character and lives of men. And there are religious systems to-day which discard or belittle the resurrection of Christ, and put forward moral precepts, sentiment, abstract virtues. But they are as cold and powerless to move men in the deeper experiences of life, to stay the progress of vice and turn it back, as the northern lights are to change December snows into the blossoming of June. It is the doctrine and reality of "Christ crucified," risen, and alive forevermore, that gives vitality to faith, and commands a power which men feel—which the world has felt to its very extremes. But manifest and marvelous as the power of the resurrection is seen to be in those directions, it was more than this which Paul desired to know when he exclaims: "That I may know Him and the power of his resurrection." To know this power is to have it as an experience. Not an easy thing. It doesn't come of itself; we don't glide into it. The path by which it is reached lay, in Paul's case, through suffering—"the fellowship of his sufferings." It was realized by a conformity to his death—"being made conformable to his death." Christ was not raised from the dead until he had died; nor can we know "the power of his resurrection" until we have first died with him, come into such a soul-identity with him—such a life-and-death fellowship with him—as to have been, in the intense language of Scripture, "crucified with Christ"—"dead with him." What does baptism mean apart from such an experience as this? Baptism means, unless it be a solemn farce, I am dead with Christ, buried with Christ, and out of this experience, risen with Christ; between the world-life I was living, and my now-life, there lies a sepulcher—the very portals of the grave stand closed between the two. And "the power of Christ's resurrection"—the personal, practical, experimental knowledge of this—is attainable only through such a "fellowship with the sufferings" of Christ, and such a conformity to his death. How much of such experience is found among the people of God to-day? How much resurrection-life is there in the churches of our land, which has come up from the grave of worldliness, and self-seeking, and pleasure, and personal gratifications, and entered into the strong, pure, masterful life of God? We have, I fear, fallen into a false interpretation of many apostolic sayings, accounting that their significance lay in those peculiar times when a death of martyrdom was almost imminent. "I die daily," "I bear about in my body the dying of the Lord Jesus," "I will not glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which"—not "whom"—"I am crucified unto the world and the world unto me." It wasn't the cross of wood erected on Calvary, that Paul here glories in, but that "by which he was crucified to the world and the world to him." The deepest meaning of the cross is self-surrender, self-sacrifice, self-immolation. In this is its great power. And until it is so apprehended in the practical experience of Christians more generally, its power will be hidden and restrained. There is a truth of deep and vital significance to the Christian church set forth in the Roman Catholic mass—though held by the Papists under a mystical and semi-idolatrous view—of the repeated and continuous sacrifice of Christ, which is to be realized, not through priestly mummeries by "the elevation of the host," but in the thorough Christliness of Christians; in the spirit of self-sacrifice, and even of substitution, up to their measure, for the perishing about them—putting our soul in their souls' stead—the giving up and giving away of the truest life within us, to save them, which had its full and perfect realization in the sacrifice of Christ. And so Paul says, "Death worketh in us, but life in you;" and so, too, there is to be "a filling up of that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ." It is in this experience that is found, in its most real sense, the power of Christ's resurrection—Christ crucified, Christ risen in his people, the spirit of calvary, and the tomb of Joseph, in the hearts of believers; in the life of the church. With this power renewed, Pentecost would come again, and in larger measures. Who can doubt it?—Examiner and Chronicle. THE PRAYER-MEETING.
By W. W. Boyd, D. D.
BY W. W. BOYD, D. D.
To secure the best results from the prayer-meeting, preparation of heart is necessary on the part both of pastor and people. If the leader of the service comes rushing in, without previous heart preparation, he will fail to give that spiritual key-note at the beginning which is essential to the unity and harmony of the meeting.
And here is one great defect in prayer-meetings. The pastor, hurried and driven by pastoral duties, forgets the still hour which ought to precede his every public appearance as Christ's ambassador, and stands up to read the opening scripture without that spirit of prayer which alone can make his utterance a tongue of fire. No wonder the meeting drags and everybody seems lifeless. But let the pastor enter the service of prayer with his heart all aglow with communion with God, through his word and Spirit, and the effect is electrical. Then, indeed, he becomes the mouth-piece of God, and his speech is full of truth and grace.
What is true of the pastor, is true also of every member of the church. Each should seek his closet of prayer before he attends the public service, and seek a preparation of heart to fit him to speak or pray in the Spirit.
When Jesus said to Peter, unless I wash your feet, you have no part with me, Peter exclaimed, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head." But Jesus made a most significant reply, "He that is washed, needeth not save to wash his feet, but is every whit clean." It was the custom in the East for the guest, before going to the feast, to take a bath. He started for the house of his host fresh from the bath. But on his way, the dust of the road would gather upon his open sandals and soil his feet. It was necessary before coming into the presence of the host, not to wash his whole body again, but simply to bathe his feet, for which duty conveniences were provided in the outer room. Jesus draws his illustration from this custom. "He that is washed"—he that is cleansed in regeneration—is washed once for all. He needs no second baptism of the regenerating Spirit. "He needeth not save to wash his feet," to remove the dust of worldliness that may have gathered during his contact with the world. Every day the Christian needs this partial cleansing; and especially when he is to present himself in his Master's house, does he need to come "clean every whit." The worldly thoughts and feelings which the daily duties of life have brought to him, are to be left at home in the closet of prayer. He is not to bring those into the house of God, but to leave them without. A company of Christian believers, thus coming together in the spirit and power of the gospel, will kindle in the prayer-meeting a fire of holy devotion that will strike the hearts of the unconverted present with such irresistible force that they will cry out, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" And if, perchance, there should be some cold-hearted professor of religion present, he will find, in the fervent prayers and exhortations of the spiritual, the fire with which to light the dead altar in his own heart and home.
All deadness and coldness in the prayer-meeting is attributable to the neglect of closet duties. Men shut Jesus out of their thoughts and companionship during the week, and then wonder why they do not meet him in the house of God. If we do not let the blessed Lord walk with us in our daily duties, and share with him the labors and secrets of common, every-day life, we need not be surprised to find that he is absent from us in the great crises of our lives. Jesus must be our daily friend, brother, counselor, and helper; and then will he be ours always, our inspiration and wisdom when we rise to speak for him, our ever-present help. "Enter into thy closet and shut the door," shut out the world and worldly thoughts, and then see how sweet, refreshing, and spiritual the weekly service of prayer will become to you.—Baptist Flag. PRODUCT OF MODERN SPIRITUALISM
It is more than thirty years since Spiritualists began, as they claim, to receive communications from the other world. In so long a period of such constant intercourse with beings of another sphere, they ought to have gathered a great deal of most interesting and important information. But what have they been able to teach the world as the result of their superior facilities for acquiring knowledge? The ministry of Jesus of Nazareth lasted but three years—only a tenth of the time during which "the spirits" have been making daily utterances. The words of Jesus have turned the course of the thought of the whole world. But what have the teachings of the spirits amounted to? How many of their communications will take place in the world's thought with the majestic sermon on the mount? During this thirty years men still in the flesh have made many and valuable additions to the world's stock of ideas. In poetry, in philosophy, in science and in theology they have put forth many volumes which must be recognized as of value. But what, meanwhile, have the disembodied spirits added to the world's fund of wisdom? The communications from the other sphere have been very copious, but what have they been worth? What have the spirits told us that we did not know before? The fact is, that while spirits still in the flesh have been producing each year works that were a valuable addition to the world's literature, the disembodied spirits have not in the whole three decades produced a single volume, or even a pamphlet, which the world has thought worthy a place on the library shelf. Nay, more, —take the writings of Judge Edmonds, Superintendent Kiddle and others of the more intelligent Spiritualists, and the better things in their writings are what they have written of themselves alone, and not by the guidance of the spirits. The literature of the last thirty years is very copious and valuable, but if "the spirits" have indited a single work which is of any real worth, the world has yet to find it out. Page after page of "communications" has been published, but in all these pages there has not been a single thing which the world did not know before—there has not been a single sentence which the world would have been the worse for if it had461never been written. These things being so, we may ask what it would amount to if the claims of the Spiritualists were admitted? Suppose we could get communications from disembodied spirits, of what importance would it be if those communications were worth nothing when received? Of what value are spiritual messages which tell us nothing, which cannot give us a single new idea? Of what use is it to obtain new poems from Shakespeare, if the poems he now writes are not worth printing in a country newspaper? Of what importance is it to secure essays and treatises from the other world, if these treatises are not one-tenth as good as are written by men still on earth? Suppose the spirits can tip tables, fiddle in the dark, and fling hair-brushes around the room, is the world pressingly in need of the performance of such feats? Waiving all discussion as to the evil done by Spiritualism, the question may be asked, What good has it done? If in thirty years' time the spirits have not been able to give to the world a single new and valuable idea, it is certainly not worth while for the world to take any pains to keep up their acquaintance. —Examiner and Chronicle. One of the most important questions of the day, as we read in the Illustrated Christian Weekly, is that of the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. We may not conceal from ourselves the fact that there is a large number of those who profess and call themselves Christians, who hold very low and very loose views on this point. We should demand proof for the assertion that this class is growing largely in proportion to the number of those who still hold the old evangelical doctrine. But whatever be the case relatively, in point of fact, the number of those who at the least minify inspiration is large. "Holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." They were inspired in a different sense from that in which we speak of an inspired orator or artist. They were inspired in a different sense from that inspiration to holy thoughts, and motives, and actions, which the Holy Ghost puts into the soul of the believer. They were the Almighty's penmen, to be sure, not his pens; their individuality, their particular circumstances, their personal experiences, were all made use of along the channel of the divine purpose. But they were "inbreathed" of the Holy Spirit, that through their utterances the will of God might be communicated to man. The collection of their writings becomes thus, the Bible, the Book, which, while composed in so many parts, along so many generations, is still a unit,—one Book of God. Here the evangelical church takes its stand. In the language of inspiration itself, it says, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." The whole Bible, says the evangelical church, is inspired, not simply such parts of it as we may pick and choose. The Bible as a whole is inspired, and so we will use its different parts to shed light upon each other. Now, because the Bible is inspired, it is authoritative. The only question that remains for the honest seeker after truth is, "What does the Bible say?" If anything comes to him guaranteed with a "Thus saith the Lord," that is the end of all controversy.—Christian Union. SCIENCE AND RELIGION.
By Eld. W. M. Healey
We are often told that science is opposed to religion, and that one of them must soon yield up the conflict. We find that atheists have seized upon nearly every known science to prove that there cannot be a personal, living God, who created all things. There are many of these men now who tell us that all these ideas of God must soon give way to scientific discoveries. It is useless to talk to them from a Bible stand-point, because they say, "We deny the existence of God, and so of course do not believe in any of his revelations." They say, "You know of God only by faith; you have not seen him. You say be created the earth and every living thing upon it, but you do not know it. We believe only what we can demonstrate and prove by science." Well, what can these wise men prove? Oh! they can tell us about the formation of the earth, that it must have been millions of years in coming to its present state. Then they say that animal life has been developing for many ages to bring it up toward perfection. But I ask, how do you know that these things are so? "Oh," says one, "we know that the earth has been millions of years in forming by the cooling process which we see is constantly going on. But how do you know that this process has been going on at this rate for millions of years? Might it not have been more rapid at one period than another? They think not. Yes, they think not, but they do not know it has not. Then in regard to man and other animals, if they have been developing from lower orders for ages, we ask, Where did the first germ of life come from? Can they tell? No; but the believer in God can. He says, "Life came from God." Now, reader, I ask you if there is not more reason in the religious view of this matter than in that advanced by atheists and which they attempt to prove by science. They, like us, find a limit to their research, but we can go beyond them, at least one degree. THE HORRIBLE DOCTRINE.
By D. T. Taylor
Look at these pictures of an eternity of future misery, from the pen of an ardent believer in the awful doctrine, and say, reader, how you like them. From a book entitled, "A Sight of Hell," by Rev. Father Furniss, C. SS. R., printed by "permission of the superior," and thus indorsed by the heads of the Romish church, and recommended to be used along with the catechism in Sunday-schools as part of a course of religious instruction, it being, we are told, one of a series of "books for children and young persons,"(!) I copy the following extracts:— "Little child, if you go to hell, there will be a devil at your side to strike you. He will go on striking you every minute for ever and ever without stopping. The first stroke will make your body as bad as the body of Job, covered from head to foot with sores and ulcers. The second stroke will make your body twice as bad as the body of Job. The third stroke will make your body three times as bad as the body of Job. The fourth stroke will make your body four times as bad as the body of Job. How, then, will your body be after the devil has been striking it every moment for a hundred million of years without stopping?" Then comes "A Dress of Fire," thus: "Are not thy garments hot? Come into this room. You see it is very small. But see, in the midst of it there is a girl, perhaps about eighteen years old. What a terrible dress she has on—her dress is made of fire! On her head she wears a bonnet of fire. It is pressed down all over her head; it burns her head; it burns into the skin; it scorches the bone of the skull and makes it smoke. The red-hot, fiery heat goes into the brain and melts it. You do not, perhaps, like a headache. Think what a headache that girl must have. But see more. She is wrapped in flames, for her frock is on fire. If she were on earth she would be burned to a cinder in a moment. But she is in hell where fire burns everything, but burns nothing away. There she stands burning and scorched; there she will stand forever burning and scorched. She counts with her fingers the moments as they pass away slowly, for each moment seems to her like a hundred years. As she counts the moments she remembers that she will have to count them forever and ever." We then have the picture of "A Boiling boy." It is as follows: "But listen! There is a sound just like that of a kettle boiling. Is it really a kettle which is boiling? No. Then what is it? Hear what it is. The blood is boiling in the scolded veins of that boy. The brain is boiling and bubbling in his head. The marrow is boiling in his bones." One more, we have a peep at the "Roasted Baby," as follows: "The baby is in a red-hot oven. It stamps its little feet on the floor of the oven. You can see on the face of the little child what you see on the faces of all in hell—despair, desperate and horrible." But enough. Here we have immortal-soulism and endless misery gone to seed. Is this Bible doctrine? Never, never!—Bible Banner. HOW TO SECURE REGULAR ATTENDANCE.
UNDER the heading of "Notes on Open Letters," the Sunday-School Times for September 25, gives the following excellent advice:—
"A teacher has a duty not only to be at Sunday-school himself, but to see that his scholars are there. It is a comparatively easy matter to take care of scholars who want to be taken care of. The real trouble is in attending to those who don't want any attention. A young man applied to a Boston merchant for a situation as salesman. 'Can you sell goods to a customer?' asked the merchant. 'I think I could sell to any man who wanted to buy,' was the young man's answer. 'Oh, that's nothing to the purpose!' said the merchant. 'Any fool can sell to a man who wants to buy. I want clerks who can sell to the men who don't want to buy.' It is still true that 'the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.' There is a thought worthy of attention in that Boston merchant's idea of a good salesman. The angels had to 'lay hold' on Lot, to induce him to leave Sodom, when he was inclined to stay there at the risk of the city's doom. And many a teacher has to do a similar work for scholars who would sooner be in Sodom than in Sunday-school. A young lady teacher in central New York wants light as to her duty in this direction. She asks:
"'What would be the best way to secure a regular attendance from one's scholars? And, is it best to visit them every time they are absent? I am a young teacher; but I love my class dearly.'
"That last sentence lays a good foundation for the answer to the first question. If a teacher would have his scholars always in attendance at Sunday-school, he must 'love them dearly.' As to the methods of securing regularity in a class, we wrote some time ago, as follows, in answer to a correspondent: 'Let the scholars feel, to begin with, that you count punctuality and regularity important. Always be on hand yourself at the school. Let no slight cause keep you away, or behind time, for a single Sunday. Give prominence to regularity in your work with the scholars. Note their attendance. Commend those who are regular. Ascertain the cause of every absence, and express regret that anything should have kept a scholar away. If possible, see each absent scholar during the week following his absence. If you cannot see him, send him word, by letter or by a class-mate. Call attention to the attendance of the class month by month, showing who was most regular, and who least so. In such ways emphasize the importance of regularity, and stimulate to its attainment. Talk earnestly and lovingly on the subject with those who are irregular. In some schools there are proper rewards for regular attendance.'
"'It requires a constant and steady pressure, with tact and wisdom on the teacher's part, to secure the regular attendance of restless and wayward scholars; but the thing can be done, and it ought to be.' It is, as we have here intimated, not essential that every scholar should be visited personally on every absence from the class. But a teacher should always take pains to learn in some way why a scholar is away, and to let the scholar know that he is missed, and is wanted in the school. Visiting at the scholar's home has its part in keeping up a love of the teacher, a love of the school, and a love of regularity in attendance. That visiting must not be neglected on the one hand, nor made a mere formality and counted on too confidently, on the other." Children and Church Attendance
It is held by some that the Sunday-school and public worship are too much for the average child in our day. We have no sympathy with this view, and it is clearly disproved by the fact that the children of a generation ago were not only able to attend church, but two sessions of the school. The sin of this failure, we believe, must be traced to a want of faithful instruction and a lack of parental authority. Children should be impressed with the duty of church-going; they should be trained to the habit of regular attendance upon the preaching services, and no frivolous excuses should be allowed for their neglect.— Baptist Weekly. Willing Work Is Not Troublesome
Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly. TIME OF THE JUDGMENT OF REV. 14:7
By Uriah Smith
It was shown last week that a preliminary work of Judgment must take place before the Lord comes; and that this is something connected with the work of Christ, as it constitutes, at the time the message of Rev. 14:6 is given, the burden of the everlasting gospel which the angel had to preach. In all that is revealed concerning the work of our Saviour for us, is any such preliminary Judgment work brought to view? Paul, in Heb. 8:4, 5, states plainly that the priests who ministered under the Mosaic or typical dispensation, prefigured in their ministry the work of Christ, our great High Priest under this dispensation. Read Hebrews, chapters 7, 8 and 9. Those priests performed their service in connection with a sanctuary. This sanctuary consisted first of the tabernacle erected by Moses, Ex. 25:8, and onward; and secondly, of the temple erected by Solomon, to which the movable structure of Moses gave place. 1 Kings 8:1–11. This, Paul says, Heb. 9:1–7, was the sanctuary of the first covenant. This sanctuary had two apartments, the first or holy place, the second or most holy, in which was the ark of God's testament. In the first a daily ministration was carried on through the year; in the second, went the high priest alone once every year. Heb. 9:6, 7. This last day was the day of atonement, or of putting away of sin. It closed the yearly round of service, and was the cleansing of the sanctuary. Lev. 16. In Dan. 8:14, a great prophetic period is given, and in connection with that, the sanctuary and its cleansing is brought to view: "Unto two thousand three hundred days [years], then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." In Dan. 9:24, 25, we are told that only seventy weeks, or 490 years of the 2300, are allotted to Daniel's people, that is, to the Jews and to old Jerusalem. Then the remaining 1810 years have their application in the present, or gospel dispensation. The sanctuary of which we have spoken, was the sanctuary of the first covenant. That covenant came to an end when Christ established the new at his first advent; Heb. 8:6–13; and with that covenant, the sanctuary of that covenant also ended. But the 2300 years, as we have seen, extend down 1810 years into this dispensation; and at the end of these days, the angel assured Daniel the sanctuary was to be cleansed. This dispensation, therefore, has a sanctuary; and what is it? Paul, in Heb. 9:9, 23, 24, plainly states that the earthly sanctuary was a pattern, figure, type, of the true sanctuary in Heaven. In Heb. 8:1, 2, he states that Christ, in his ascended position of glory and majesty in the Heavens, is a minister of that sanctuary, the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man. In Heb. 9:23, 24, he states that it was necessary that the holy places made with hands, the earthly sanctuary, which was a pattern of the heavenly, should be cleansed with the blood of the earthly offerings, calves and goats, but the heavenly sanctuary itself must be cleansed with the blood of a better sacrifice, which is the blood of Christ. Many people overlook the blood of this dispensation. Without shedding of blood is no remission. Precious blood of Christ! Knowing that Christ has shed his blood; and that thereby we have forgiveness of sin, they have no idea of anything further. How this blood becomes efficacious for us, or in what way it is ministered, they have no conception. The types of the former dispensation bring out this matter in beautiful clearness. As the blood of the typical offerings was ministered in the service of the typical sanctuary, so the blood of Christ, the antitype, is employed in the service of the antitypical, or true, sanctuary in Heaven. As the blood of the earthly offerings cleansed the typical sanctuary, the blood of Christ cleanses the true; as that took away sin in figure, this takes away sin in fact. A round of service was completed in the earthly sanctuary once every year. The tenth day of the seventh month of every year was devoted to the work of cleansing the sanctuary, and was called the day of atonement. Lev. 16:29, 30. Christ, since he ever liveth, performs his service once for all. Heb. 9:25, 26. When our Lord appears in the clouds of heaven at his second advent, his work as priest is done; for then he assumes the robes and crown of a king and conqueror. Rev. 19:12–14. But the closing part of his work as priest, must, according to the type, be a work in the most holy of the heavenly sanctuary, to make atonement for his people, and cleanse the sanctuary, not from any physical impurities, but from the imputed sins of those who have sought forgiveness through his blood. And this work he accomplishes just before his second coming. The reader will now see that this is the very work of preliminary Judgment which it has been shown must be performed before Christ comes. For the atonement, or putting away of sin, involves the examination of character and decision of cases, according to the records in the books above. The close of Christ's priestly work will determine forever who are his and who are not. And upon all who have secured the forgiveness of their sins through his mediation, immortality is conferred "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye," at his second coming. When, then, does this work of cleansing the sanctuary, or this preliminary Judgment, commence? At the end of the 2300 days of Dan. 8:14; for so the angel assured Daniel. All now hangs upon the termination of this one period of time; can we tell when those days end? Dan. 9, being an explanation of Dan. 8, informs us that they date from the going forth of a commandment to restore and build Jerusalem. In Ezra 7, we find the commandment referred to; and it went forth in the 7th year of Artaxerxes, king of Persia; Ezra 7:7; and the 7th year of this king is determined by Ptolemy's canon, to be the year 457 B. C. Dating from the latter part of that year, Ezra 7:9, they would extend to the same point in the year 1844 A. D. But that identical year witnessed the very height of the great advent movement, which, as we have seen, was a fulfillment of the message of Rev. 14:6, 7. That movement was founded principally on the interpretation of the great prophetic period of 2300 days. The message brought us to the hour of God's Judgment; and the prophetic period on which it was based brought us to the cleansing of the sanctuary. The hour of God's Judgment and the cleansing of the sanctuary involve, therefore, the same work and occupy the same time. This work has been in progress since the ending of the days in 1844. It occupies a brief but indefinite period just preceding the coming of Christ. It is a work we have shown to be necessary as the closing up of the work of Christ as priest, and as the preliminary Judgment work which must just antedate his appearing. It cannot from the very nature of the case be long extended; and the coming of Christ immediately follows. Candid reader, think of these things.