Publishing Committee · Rochester, N. Y. · Apr 18, 1854
WILLIAM MILLER.
By Editor
The following we take from a small work entitled Wm. Miller's Apology and Defense, published in Boston, 1845. It gives a brief sketch of the experience of this servant of God, and the manner in which he studied the holy Scriptures which will be deeply interesting to many, at least of the readers of the REVIEW. ED.
TO ALL WHO LOVE THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IN SINCERITY.
As all men are responsible to the community for the sentiments they may promulgate, the public has a right to expect from me, a candid statement in reference to my disappointment in not realizing the Advent of Christ in A. D. 1843-4, which I had confidently believed. I have, therefore, considered it not presumptuous in me to lay before the Christian public a retrospective view of the whole question, the motives that actuated me, and the reasons by which I was guided.
DEISTICAL OPINIONS.
It may not become me to speak particularly of "my manner of life from my youth," which is known to an extensive circle of neighbors and acquaintances; but I have ever endeavored to live "in all good conscience before God until this day," and to discharge conscientiously my obligations to my fellow men. I was early educated to reverence the Scriptures as a revelation from God to man; and I was more or less a reader of the Word, without being savingly affected by it. I was, however, always perplexed with what I then deemed inconsistencies and contradictions in the Bible, which I was unable to harmonize; and yet I knew that if the Bible was what it purports to be, it must in some way all be harmonized.
Not having any serious doubts of its authenticity, I was exceedingly anxious to reconcile all its various parts, and, unsuccessfully, resorted to all means within my reach. I was particularly anxious to have them harmonized by the preachers of the Word; and accordingly embraced every opportunity, to present for their removal, the difficulties under which I labored. But I obtained from them no satisfaction; they usually adduced the opinions of various commentators, which were as contradictory as were their own, or told me they did not understand them, and that I could not, because God had hidden their meaning under a mystical veil. This served more to perplex my mind than to shed light on the questions at issue.
In this state of mind, at the age of twenty-two, I removed from Hampton, N. Y., where I had resided from the age of four years, to Poultney, Vt. There I became acquainted with the principal men in that village, who were professedly Deists; but they were good citizens, and of a moral and serious deportment. They put into my hands the works of Voltaire, Hume, Paine, Ethan Allen, and other deistical writers, in which the difficulties that had perplexed my own mind were discussed in so plausible a manner, that I concluded the Bible was only the work of designing men; and I discarded it accordingly. I, however, believed in a Supreme Being as brought to view by the works of Nature and Providence; and believed that there was to be an hereafter, in which our happiness would be proportioned to the virtue of our lives in the present state. With these views, I was associated with others in the defense of deistical sentiments, for about twelve years.
FIRST RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS.
Before the close of this period, however, I began to suspect that Deism tended to a belief of annihilation, which was always very abhorrent to my feelings. In the fall of 1812, as I was returning to Poultney from the court at Rutland, in company with Judge Stanley, I asked him his opinion respecting our condition in another state. He replied by comparing it to that of a tree which flourishes for a time, and turns again to earth; and to that of a candle which burns to nothing. I was then satisfied that Deism was inseparably connected with, and did tend to, the denial of a future existence. And I thought to myself, that rather than embrace such a view, I should prefer the heaven and hell of the Scriptures, and take my chance respecting them. Still I could not regard the Bible as inspired.
CONNECTION WITH THE ARMY.
In 1813, I received a Captain's commission in the U. S. service, and continued in the army until peace was declared. While there, many occurrences served to weaken my confidence in the correctness of Deistical principles. I was led frequently to compare this country to that of the children of Israel, before whom God drove out the inhabitants of their land. It seemed to me that the Supreme Being must have watched over the interests of this country in an especial manner, and delivered us from the hands of our enemies. I was particularly impressed with this view when I was in the battle of Plattsburg, when with 1500 regulars, and about 4,000 volunteers, we defeated the British, who were 15,000 strong; we being also successful at the same time in an engagement with the British fleet on the lake. At the commencement of the battle, we looked upon our own defeat as almost certain, and yet we were victorious. So surprising a result against such odds, did seem to me like the work of a mightier power than man.
REMOVAL TO LOW HAMPTON.
At the close of the war, I removed to my present residence in Low Hampton, N. Y.; and being retired from public life, in the busy scenes of which I had been engaged for ten years, I had more leisure for reading and reflection respecting another state. I could, however, find no assurance of happiness beyond the grave; all was dim and uncertain there. One day in May, 1816, I detected myself in the act of taking the name of God in vain, a habit I had acquired in the service; and I was instantly convicted of its sinfulness. I was then led to inquire how a just Being could consistently save those who should violate the laws of justice. The works of Nature or of Providence, could give no answer to this question; and I was almost led to despair. In this state of mind, I continued for some months, when suddenly the character of a Saviour was vividly impressed upon my mind. It seemed that there might be a Being so good and compassionate as to himself atone for our transgressions, and thereby save us from suffering the penalty of sin. I immediately felt how lovely such a Being must be; and imagined that I could cast myself into the arms of, and trust in the mercy of such an One. But the question arose, How can it be proved that such a Being does exist? Aside from the Bible, I found that I could get no evidence of the existence of such a Saviour, or even of a future state. I felt that to believe in such a Saviour without evidence, would be visionary in the extreme. I saw that the Bible did bring to view just such a Saviour as I needed; and I was perplexed to find how an uninspired book should develop principles so perfectly adapted to the wants of a fallen world. I was constrained to admit that the Scriptures must be a revelation from God; they became my delight, and in Jesus I found a friend.
DETERMINED TO UNDERSTAND THE SCRIPTURES.
Soon after this, in the fall of 1816, I was conversing with a friend respecting my hope of a glorious eternity through the merits and intercessions of the Saviour, and he asked me how I knew there was a Saviour? I replied that He was revealed in the Bible. He then asked me how I knew the Bible was true? and advanced my former deistical arguments on the inconsistencies, the contradictions and the mysticisms in which I had claimed it was shrouded. I replied that if the Bible was the word of God, everything contained therein might be understood, and all its parts be made to harmonize; and I said to him that if he would give me time, I would harmonize all these apparent contradictions, to my own satisfaction, or I would be a Deist still.
MANNER OF STUDYING THE BIBLE.
I then devoted myself to prayer and to the reading of the Word. I determined to lay aside all my prepossessions, to thoroughly compare Scripture with Scripture, and to pursue its study in a regular and methodical manner. I commenced with Genesis, and read verse by verse, proceeding no faster than the meaning of the several passages should be so unfolded, as to leave me free from embarrassment respecting any mysticism or contradictions. Whenever I found anything obscure, my practice was to compare it with all collateral passages; and by the help of Cruden, I examined all the texts of Scripture in which were found any of the prominent words contained in any obscure portion. Then by letting every word have its proper bearing on the subject of the text, if my view of it harmonized with every collateral passage in the Bible, it ceased to be a difficulty. In this way I pursued the study of the Bible, in my first perusal of it, for about two years, and was fully satisfied98that it is its own interpreter. I found that by a comparison of Scripture with history, all the prophecies, as far as they have been fulfilled, had been fulfilled literally; that all the various figures, metaphors, parables, similitudes, &c., of the Bible, were either explained in their immediate connection, or the terms in which they were expressed were defined in other portions of the Word, and when thus explained, are to be literally understood in accordance with such explanation. I was thus satisfied that the Bible is a system of revealed truths, so clearly and simply given, that the "wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein."
THE RESULT ARRIVED AT.
While thus studying the Scriptures, I became satisfied, if the prophecies which have been fulfilled in the past are any criterion by which to judge of the manner of the fulfillment of those which are future, that the popular views of the spiritual reign of Christ, a temporal millennium before the end of the world, and the Jews' return, are not sustained by the word of God; for I found that all the Scriptures on which those favorite theories are based, are as clearly expressed as are those that were literally fulfilled at the first Advent, or at any other period in the past. I found it plainly taught in the Scriptures that Jesus Christ will again descend to this earth, coming in the clouds of heaven, in all the glory of his Father: that at his coming the kingdom and dominion under the whole heaven will be given to Him and the saints of the Most High, who will possess it forever, even forever and ever: that as the old world perished by the deluge, so the earth that now is, is reserved unto fire, to be melted with fervent heat at Christ's coming, after which, according to the promise, it is to become the new earth wherein the righteous will forever dwell: that at his coming the bodies of all the righteous dead will be raised, and all the righteous living be changed from a corruptible to an incorruptible, from a mortal to an immortal state, that they will all be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air, and will reign with him forever in the regenerated earth: that the controversy of Zion will then be finished, her children be delivered from bondage, and from the power of the tempter, and the saints be all presented to God blameless, without spot or wrinkle in love: that the bodies of the wicked will then all be destroyed, and their spirits be reserved in prison until their resurrection and damnation: and that when the earth is thus regenerated, the righteous raised, and the wicked destroyed, the kingdom of God will have come, when his will will be done on earth as it is done in heaven, that the meek will inherit it, and the kingdom become the saints. I found that the only millennium taught in the word of God is the thousand years which are to intervene between the first resurrection and that of the rest of the dead, as inculcated in Revelation xx; and that it must necessarily follow the personal coming of Christ and the regeneration of the earth: that till Christ's coming and the end of the world, the righteous and wicked are to continue together on the earth, and that the horn of Papacy is to war against the saints until his appearing and kingdom, when it will be destroyed by the brightness of Christ's coming; so there can be no conversion of the world before the advent: and that as the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, is located by Peter after the conflagration, and is declared by him to be the same for which we look, according to the promise of Isa. lxv, 17, and is the same that John saw in vision after the passing away of the former heavens and earth; it must necessarily follow that the various portions of Scripture that refer to the millennial state, must have their fulfillment after the resurrection of all the saints that sleep in Jesus. I also found that the promises respecting Israel's restoration, are applied by the Apostle to all who are Christ's—the putting on of Christ constituting them Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
THE AGE OF THE WORLD IN WHICH WE LIVE.
I was then satisfied, as I saw conclusive evidence to prove the advent personal and pre-millennial that all the events for which the church look to be fulfilled before the advent, must be subsequent to it; and that unless there were other unfulfilled prophecies, the advent of the Lord, instead of being looked for only in the distant future, might be a continually expected event. In examining the prophecies on that point, I found that only four universal monarchies are any where predicted in the Bible to precede the setting up of God's everlasting kingdom; that three of those had passed away—Babylon, Medo-persia, and Grecia—and that the fourth, Rome, had already passed into its last state, the state in which it is to be when the stone cut out of the mountain without hands shall smite the image on the feet, and break to peices all the kingdoms of this world. I was unable to find any prediction of events which presented any clear evidence of their fulfillment before the scenes that usher in the advent. And finding all the signs of the times and the present condition of the world, to compare harmoniously with the prophetic descriptions of the last days, I was compelled to believe that this world had about reached the limits of the period allotted for its continuance. As I regarded the evidence, I could arrive at no other conclusion.
THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE SCRIPTURES.
Another kind of evidence that vitally affected my mind, was the chronology of the Scriptures. I found, on pursuing the study of the Bible, various chronological periods extending, according to my understanding of them, to the coming of the Saviour. I found that predicted events which had been fulfilled in the past, often occurred within a given time. The one hundred and twenty years to the flood, [Gen. vi, 3:] the seven days that were to precede it, with forty days of predicted rain, [Gen. vii, 4:] the four hundred years of the sojourn of Abraham's seed, [Gen. xv, 13:] the three days of the butler's and baker's dreams, [Gen. xl, 12-20:] the seven years of Pharaoh's, [Gen. xli, 28-54:] the forty years in the wilderness, [Num. xiv, 34:] the three and a half years of famine, [1 Kings xvii, 1:] the sixty-five years to the breaking of Ephraim, [Isa. vii, 8:] the seventy years captivity, [Jer. xxv, 11:] Nebuchadnezzar's seven times, [Dan. iv, 13-16:] and the seven weeks, three score and two weeks, and the one week, making seventy weeks, determined upon the Jews, [Dan. ix, 24-27:] the events limited by these times, were all once only a matter of prophecy, and were fulfilled in accordance with the predictions.
When, therefore, I found the 2300 prophetic days which were to mark the length of the vision from the Persian to the end of the fourth kingdom, the seven times continuance of the dispersion of God's people, and the 1335 prophetic days to the standing of Daniel in his lot, all evidently extending to the advent, with other prophetic periods, I could but regard them as "the times before appointed," which God had revealed "unto his servants the prophets." As I was fully convinced that "all Scripture given by inspiration of God is profitable," that it came not at any time by the will of man, but was written as holy men were moved by the Holy Ghost, and was written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope, I could but regard the chronological portions of the Bible as being as much a portion of the word of God, and as much entitled to our serious consideration, as any other portion of the Scriptures.
I therefore felt, that in endeavoring to comprehend what God had in his mercy seen fit to reveal to us, I had no right to pass over the prophetic periods. I saw that as the events predicted to be fulfilled in prophetic days had been extended over about as many literal years; as God, in Num. xiv, 34, and Eze. iv, 4-6, had appointed each day for a year; as the seventy weeks to the Messiah were fulfilled in 490 years, and the 1260 prophetic days of the Papal supremacy in 1260 years; and as these prophetic days extending to the advent were given in connection with symbolical prophecy, I could only regard the time as symbolical, and as standing each day for a year, in accordance with the opinions of all the standard Protestant commentators. If, then, we could obtain any clue to the time of their commencement, I conceived we should be guided to the probable time of their termination; and as God would not bestow upon us an useless revelation, I regarded them as conducting us to the time when we might confidently look for the coming of the Chiefest of ten thousand—One altogether lovely.
COMMENCEMENT AND TERMINATION OF THE PROPHETIC PERIODS.
From a farther study of the Scriptures, I concluded that the seven times of Gentile supremacy must commence when the Jews ceased to be an independent nation at the captivity of Manasseh, which the best chronologers assigned to B. c. 677; that the 2300 days commenced with the seventy weeks, which the best chronologers dated from B. c. 457; and that the 1335 days commencing with the taking away of the daily, and the setting up of the abomination that maketh desolate, [Dan. xii, 11,] were to be dated from the setting up of the Papal supremacy, after the taking away of Pagan abominations, and which, according to the best historians I could consult, should be dated from about A. D. 508. Reckoning all these prophetic periods from the several dates assigned by the best chronologers for the events from which they should evidently be reckoned, they all would terminate together, about A. D. 1843. I was thus brought, in 1818, at the close of my two years study of the Scriptures, to the solemn conclusion, that in about twenty-five years from that time all the affairs of our present state would be wound up; that all its pride and power, pomp and vanity, wickedness and oppression would come to an end; and that in the place of the kingdoms of this world, the peaceful and long desired kingdom of the Messiah would be established under the whole heaven; that in about twenty-five years the glory of the Lord would be revealed, and all flesh see it together, the desert bud and blossom as the rose, the fir-tree come up instead of the thorn, and instead of the briar the myrtle-tree, the curse be removed from off the earth, death be destroyed, reward be given to the servants of God—the prophets and saints and them who fear his name, and those be destroyed that destroy the earth.
"LOOKING FOR THAT BLESSED HOPE."
I need not speak of the joy that filled my heart in view of the delightful prospect, nor of the ardent longings of my soul, for a participation in the joys of the redeemed. The Bible was now to me a new book. It was indeed a feast of reason; all that was dark, mystical, or obscure to me in its teachings, had been dissipated from my mind, before the clear light that now dawned from its sacred pages; and O how bright and glorious the truth appeared. All the contradictions and inconsistencies I had before found in the Word were gone; and although there were many portions of which I was not satisfied I had a full understanding, yet so much light had emanated from it to the illumination of my before darkened mind, that I felt a delight in studying the Scriptures which I had not before supposed could be derived from its teachings. I commenced their study with no expectation of finding the time of the Saviour's coming, and I could at first hardly believe the result to which I had arrived: but the evidence struck me with such force, that I could not resist my convictions. I became nearly99settled in my conclusions, and began to wait, and watch, and pray for my Saviour's coming.
THE QUESTION OF DUTY.
With the solemn conviction that such momentous events were predicted in the Scriptures to be fulfilled in so short a space of time, the question came home to me with mighty power regarding my duty to the world in view of the evidence that had affected my own mind. If the end was so near, it was important that the world should know it. I supposed that it would call forth the opposition of the ungodly; but it never came into my mind that any Christian would oppose it. I supposed that all such would be so rejoiced in view of the glorious prospect, that it would only be necessary to present it, for them to receive it. My great fear was, that in their joy at the hope of a glorious inheritance so soon to be revealed, they would receive the doctrine without sufficiently examining the Scriptures in demonstration of its truth. I therefore feared to present it, lest by some possibility I should be in error, and be the means of misleading any.
FOLLOW ME!
By A. R. Smith
BY A. R. SMITH.
"Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me." John xxi. 21, 22.
If other's joys seem more than thine,
Pause, ere thou at this repine;
Life hath full enough of woe,
For the sunniest path below.
Labor, ere shall pass the day:
God shall all thy ills repay.
Christian, what are they to thee?
Saith the Saviour, "Follow me!"
By the souls to win or lose,
By the good thou didst not choose,
By thy duties left undone,
By the evil thou wouldst shun,
From thy brother's failings fly,
Oft inquire, "Lord, is it I?"
Christian, what are they to thee?
Saith the Saviour, "Follow me!"
By the crown we hope to wear,
By the bliss we long to share,
By the blessings now we crave,
From the Lamb who died to save,
Only seek his name to raise,
Meeting censure here, or praise.
Christian, what is that to thee?
Saith the Saviour, "Follow me!"
Let thy heart be pure within,
Die to self, the world and sin.
Hope, whatever may betide;
Trust the never-failing Guide.
Faith on him alone, depend;
Love, enduring to the end.
Christian, this thy strength shall be:
Saith the Saviour, "Follow me!"
"THE GLORIOUS HOPE."
By Editor
The New York Baptist Association held their fifty-third anniversary in the meeting house of the Berean Baptist Church, N. Y., on Tuesday and Wednesday, May 30 and 31, 1843. Their Circular Letter, written according to appointment by A. Wheelock, pastor of the church worshiping in sixteenth-street, is specially appropriate to the present time. It is truly refreshing. We copy it entire.
BELOVED BRETHREN :—For mutual encouragement and comfort amid the sorrows and afflictions of our pilgrimage, permit us to address you, in this annual epistle, on the subject of our Second Adoption.
The sufferings of God's people led Paul, in the eighth chapter of Romans, to contrast the state of a Christian while a mortal subjected to the frailties and sufferings of this life and the corruptions of the grave, and the same Christian after he shall have become immortal, liberated from these evils, and resplendent with the glory of the Sons of God. "For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the Sons of God. We ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our bodies."
God, in the work of redemption, begins it upon the soul and ends it upon the body. He first changes our minds into the image of Him who created us. By this there is imparted to us a moral character like that of our Creator and Redeemer. We love holiness and hate sin, loath the corruptions of our nature, and long after perfection in righteousness. It is in connection with this we receive our first adoption; but while we wonder at and admire the change wrought on the mind, we are left still to sigh about the flesh on account of its enervating and contaminating influences against the spirit. Its carnal desires, its evil working, and its frail and dying state remain, so that "we groan within ourselves and wait for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our bodies." This is the second adoption. When received, then shall we be like Christ, not only in spirit but in body.
That God designs to confer upon believers this second adoption—in other words, that he designs to change greatly and wonderfully their bodies, is clearly a matter of divine revelation. "Behold," said the inspired Apostle, "I show a you mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." 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. Then, as "we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." It was this which, by the vision of the Almighty, animated Job when he said, "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that I shall stand in the latter day upon the earth, and though after my skin worms devour this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold and not another, though my reins be consumed within me." From these and many other like passages, we have presented to the eye of faith a vision of the work of grace completed, of redemption perfected. It is a vision truly glorious, though we see it yet but in part; for in its fulness it is so incomprehensible that "it doth not yet appear what we shall be." The vision we conceive of its glory is like a bright moon-light view the traveler catches of a splendid mansion, through the thick foliage of the trees that surround it. Now his eye lights upon a pillar, a cornice, a window, a corner; and from these, his imagination endeavors to give form and beauty to the entire structure. So it is with that glorious body after which the saints are longing, and an indefinite view of which is presented in such passages as we have quoted.
But it is not by the paintings of the imagination merely that God has left us to ascertain what will be the appearance of our glorious bodies. He has given us a pattern in the glorious body of our Lord Jesus Christ. This was submitted to the inspection of the eye-witnesses on the holy mount of transfiguration. The Scriptures teach us that that wonderful scene was designed as a kind of miniature representation of the second advent of our blessed Saviour. Certain of the apostles were promised by our Lord that before they died they should see this representation. "For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels, and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here who shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom." All these disciples are long since dead, and there has not been yet any coming of Christ with his angels, when he rewarded every man according to his works.
Jesus presented this promise to those disciples in a metaphor. Metaphors are often employed thus by the sacred writers. Take the following as specimens: "The three branches are three days," i. e., represent three days. "The seven empty ears, blasted by the east wind, shall be seven years of famine." Ephraim is a cake unturned. All flesh is grass—surely the people are grass. Take, eat, this is my body—this cup is my blood. I am the vine, and my Father is the husbandman. The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. Whoso hateth his brother is a murderer. The seven stars are the seven angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches. So the text, "Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here who shall not taste of death till they see (a representation of) the Son of man coming in his kingdom." After six days, that representation was given them in the transfiguration of their Lord.
Peter was one of the favored three who was permitted to be an eye-witness of his majesty on that memorable occasion, and he has taught us in his second epistle, that it was a representation of that glorious advent of Christ, which is joyfully anticipated by all truly evangelical Christians. He assured his brethren that the account, which it appears he had often given them, of the splendid and awful exhibition of Christ's transfiguration, was entirely unlike the incredible, fabulous stories the heathen had invented and published concerning their gods—stories, the accuracy of which no one could avouch—but said he, we were eye-witnesses. "We have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father glory and honor, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And this voice, which came from heaven, we heard when we were with him in the holy mount." Peter is particular in defining the time and the place of this marvelous exhibition; and applies to it the same metaphorical name that was given it by the Saviour, "the coming of our Lord :" that is, a representation of his coming. By the transfiguration, then, Jesus meant to show us the splendor of the retinue that will accompany him when he comes to judge the world.
As to the glorious body he exhibited to Peter, James and John, on the holy mount, the Evangelists say, "The fashion of his countenance was altered, his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow, so as no fuller on earth can white them: his raiment was white and glistening, white as the light." John was one who saw the transfiguration, and speaks of it in his gospel. "And we beheld his glory, (said he,) the glory as of the only begotten of the Father." In the book of Revelations, an account is given of Christ again appearing in his glorious body to this beloved disciple on the island of Patmos, and he has described him as looking very much as he did in the transfiguration. "He was clothed with a garment down to his feet, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hair was like wool as white as snow, and his eyes were as a flame of fire, and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength." What surpassing glory! When the sun shineth in his strength, no man can look upon it for a moment. And his raiment was white as the light! From the crown of his head to the soles of his feet, nought appears but the most effulgent glory. The liveliest imagination fails in attempting to delineate this splendor. The brightest objects in nature are employed to paint its glory; but even these are regarded by an eye-witness as altogether inadequate. Soaring above the sun, he says, the glory of Christ, when he saw it, was "as the glory of the only begotten of the Father;" and in another passage he says, when Christ appears, "we shall be like him;" but notwithstanding he had been exhibited as clothed with the sun, and glistening in white, still he declares, "It doth not yet appear what we shall be," so far are these illustrations from exhibiting the splendor of his future glory.
And yet, amazing thought! Beloved, this is the glory with which our bodies will be invested when the work of our redemption shall be consummated in the day of our next adoption! "For when he who is our life shall appear, then shall we appear with him in glory. We know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him. He shall change our vile body, and fashion it like unto his glorious body. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." O wondrous prospect! Matchless grace! Blessed hope! Yes, we are "looking for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of the great God, even our Saviour Jesus Christ! when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe, in that day. We groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body."
The apostles in their oral, as well as their written communications, often referred to this edifying subject, for the support and comfort of their brethren. Peter says, "I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them; yea, I think it meet as long as I am in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance." Said Paul, "Remember ye not that when I was with you, I told you these things?" The apostles had both seen our Lord in his glory, and as they had learned by revelations that he purposed to invest the bodies of all his faithful disciples, with the same glory, how could they refrain from speaking of it to their afflicted brethren, to cheer and support them amidst their cruel persecutions. By it, they themselves were greatly animated, and they often spake of it to support and animate their suffering brethren. Whenever they refer to "this blessed hope," with what expressions of delight and rapture do they speak of it. Paul compares it to sowing seed, and says, "Thou sowest not that body that shall be"—its future verdure, and blossoms, and fragrance is not yet seen, but "as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." When Daniel in vision saw the redeemed100arrayed in their glory, he exclaimed, "They shall shine as the stars for ever and ever." The Saviour's description of it was still more clear and splendid. "Then," said he, "shall the righteous shine forth as the sun, in the kingdom of their Father." John, the beloved disciple, despairs of giving a full and adequate idea of the glory in which the saints will be at last invested, and breaks forth in the following exclamation: "Beloved, it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him." The Psalmist exulted when he saw it afar off, and said, "I shall be satisfied when I awake in thy likeness." The apostles were so overcome when they saw Christ's glorious body on the holy mount, that they fell on their faces! O what a scene will be presented to our astonished vision, when we shall not only see him as he is, but see all the blood-washed throng arrayed in the same glory!
"Arrayed in glorious grace
Shall these vile bodies shine,
And every shape, and every face,
Look heavenly and divine."
Cleansed from all sin, their souls adorned with grace, and their bodies bearing the image of the heavenly, they are all loveliness and holiness within, all beauteous and comely, and glorious without! If at the Saviour's first advent, when he changed his glory for ignominy, the angels shouted glory to God in the highest, what will they say when they escort him down the skies in his second advent, "to be glorified in his saints?" If there was joy among the angels in heaven over one sinner that repented, how will they feel when they see the whole company of the redeemed, cleansed from sin, clothed in white, and dazzling in glory like their Lord! What a coronation day will that be, when the Captain of their salvation shall walk with them in white through the streets of the New Jerusalem, paved with gold, transparent as glass! What music will be made when the General Assembly and the Church of the First Born shall be arranged on the sea of glass, having the harps of God, harping with their harps, and singing it as were, a new song before the throne! while they outshine the angels in the kingdom of their Father.
And, beloved, if we be Christ's, such are our prospects, such the blessedness of our hopes!
"There we shall see his face,
And never, never sin;
There from the rivers of his grace,
Drink endless pleasures in.
Yes, and before we rise
To that immortal state,
The thoughts of such amazing bliss,
Should constant joys create."
In view of such a prospect, how the disciple, wasting away with disease, and sinking into the grave; or the poor saint pining in want, and clothed in rags, or groaning under persecution, should exult in joyful triumph! What consolation should the bereaved derive from this subject, when they resign to dust the remains of beloved friends! What solemn admonition does it give the unconverted, whose bodies in that dread day, will "come forth with shame and everlasting contempt," when they will see the righteous shining forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father!—Mid. Cry—1843.