10, 13. Then (Tóre) shall He say also ment: The smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever. xiv. 11. Her smoke rose up for ever and ever. xix. 3. Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. xx. 15. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. xxi. 8. But the righteous into life eternal. Matt. xxv. 31-46. The Lamb-shall lead them unto living fountains of waters. vii. 17. The time of the dead that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward to the saints, &c. xi. 18. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection, over such the second death hath no power. xx. 6. There shall be no more death.-There shall be no night there. xxi. 4, 25. In the midst―the tree of life. xxii. 5, &c. The Lord Jesus Christ is the light as the life of his people. whom he delivers from their darkness, and saves from their sins. The mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, as made known by him, are no longer mysteries to them. There is naught but perfect harmony between his words, as he spake to the people in parables, or expounded them privately to his disciples, or told them the things which must come to pass, when, having received the kingdom, He shall return. The relative connection of the things here revealed, when the time of their completion shall come, is as express and distinct as is the testimony of his apostle that the Lord Jesus Christ shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom, or the sayings of this book, and the things which John saw and recorded when the sixth seal was opened, and when the seventh trumpet sounded, and the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of God and his Christ, when He takes to himself his great power and reigns. At the end of this age, of which Satan is the god, comes the destruction of his children; and then—for that word of Jesus, so often repeated, leaves no interval between-shall the righteous shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of the Father. With the darkening of the sun and of the moon, the falling of the stars, and the shaking of the heavens and of the powers that are in them, He has identified, as to time, by the same express word, the appearing of the sign of the Son of man, and, as in Joel and the Revelation, the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord, "Then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; and He shall send his angels, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." The sixth seal, which He opened, has the Lord himself, as well as the prophets, for its interpreter. The Lord when He cometh shall make the wise and faithful servant ruler over all his goods; as he that overcometh shall inherit all things; and coming in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour when he is not aware, He will cut asunder the evil servant, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. "Then," as the Lord ever testifies anew of the same things, as accomplished at the same time, shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virginsand they that were ready went in to the marriage; and the door was shut." As if the same truths needed to be repeated till the Lord's own words should fix them in the hearts of the faithful, the good Shepherd whose voice his own sheep hear, as they flee from the voice of strangers, confirmed them anew to the last, and told the things which must be done when He shall come again. "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 and be I fore him shall be gathered all nations." All the tribes of the earth shall mourn when they see the Son of man coming with power. He will judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. As the sower is the Son of man, so is he seen, at the time of harvest, with a sharp sickle in his hand. Then, in the end of this age, as He expounded the parable, shall He send forth his angels; and all things that offend, and they that do iniquity, shall be gathered out of his kingdoms; and they shall sever the wicked from among the just. And when the Shepherd of Israel, the Shepherd and Bishop of souls, once the meek and lowly Jesus who laid down his life for his sheep, shall sit, the Shepherd King, upon his throne of glory, in the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men," He shall separate them from one another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats;" and his work shall then be perfect work— even as seen to this hour in Palestine, when at the close of day, when each goes to his own fold, not a goat or kid is seen among the sheep, nor a sheep or lamb among the goats. The Judge has not assigned a different hour for the resurrection of the just and the unjust, any more than for the judgment of the quick and of the dead. “The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." And when the Son of man shall sit upon his throne of glory, and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left, “ Then shall the king say to them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."—Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels."—" And these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal." The kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world, then comes; and then the righteous enter it. Then the children of the kingdom, in whose hearts Christ reigned, not by things which their hands did handle or their lips did taste, but by his word and Spirit, shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of the Father, of which and of whom they were the children. The kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of the Father, the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world, is one and the same. Wherever its mysteries are made known, in regard to the relation which these things bear to each other, in respect to the time when they must come to pass, the direct testimony of Jesus will, in the comparison of scripture with scripture, be ever seen to be the same as that of the prophets, by whom God spake of the times of the restitution of all things. And thus, where time is mentioned in the Book of Revelation, those things are allied, which Jesus himself had so often joined together. And the seventh angel sounded: and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshiped God, saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth. Rev. xi. 15-18. CHAPTER VIII. TESTIMONIES IN THE WRITINGS OF MOSES COMPARED WITH THE BOOK OF REVELATION, AND OTHER SCRIPTURES. O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken, were the first words of Christ to the two disciples on their way to Emmaus, when they told him how their hopes in Jesus of Nazareth had perished by his crucifixion. He added, " Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures, the things concerning himself." On the same day, if not the same hour, for in that they rose up and returned to Jerusalem, He showed himself to his apostles for the first time after his resurrection; and he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me. Had ye believed Moses, said Christ, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?" The Lord also appealed to the testimony of David, and declared by whom he spake. David himself said by the Holy Ghost, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool. There, as Paul testifies, in making the same appeal, Christ sits, and must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.* It is in testifying of his power and coming, as an eye-witness of his majesty, that the Apostle Peter says, Ye do well to give heed to the sure word of prophecy. The harmony of that word has farther to be illustrated, and new things to be added to old, or other testimonies to be adduced, from the writings of Moses, the Psalms of David, and the books of the prophets, as they unitedly testify of the power and coming of the Lord. 1 Luke xxiv. 25-27, 44. John v. 46, 47. Mark xii. 36. 41 Cor. xv. 25. |