to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by His sword will the Lord plead with all flesh; and the slain of the Lord shall be many." Is. lxvi. 5-16. To this last prediction, the apostle Paul evidently alludes, when, addressing the church at Thessalonica, he says of the coming of Christ, "It is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power, when He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe." 2 Thes. i. 6-10. Behold the Name of the Lord cometh from far, burning with His anger, and the burden thereof is heavy; His lips are full of indignation and His tongue as a devouring fire....And the Lord shall cause His glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of His arm with the indignation of His anger and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering and tempest and hailstones." Is. xxx. 27-30. "Therefore, wait ye upon me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the prey; for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation even all my fierce anger; for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy." Zeph. iii. 8. "For behold the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn, them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." Mal. iv. 1. "And I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms; and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen; and I will overthrow the chariots and those that ride in them; and the horses and their riders shall come down every one by the sword of his brother." Hag. ii. 22. "For behold, in those days and in that time when I shall bring again

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the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people, and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.... Behold I will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will return your recompense upon your own head....Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near, let them come up. Beat your plough-shares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about; thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord. Let the heathen be awakened and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat, for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe; come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the val. ley of decision; for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake; but the Lord will be the hope of His people, and the strength of the children of Israel. Joel iii. Η 16. "God CAME from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise. And His brightness was as the light; He had horns [the symbol of authority and power] coming out of his hand; and there was hiding of his power. Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet. He stood and measured the earth. He beheld and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow.... The sun and moon stood still in their habitation: at the light of thine arrows they went, and at the shining of thy glittering spear. Thou didst march through the land in indignation, thou didst thrash the heathen in an

ger." Habak. iii. 3—12. "Come near ye nations to hear, and hearken ye people; let the earth hear and all that is therein; the world and all things that come forth of it. For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and His fury upon all their armies: He hath utterly destroyed them, He hath delivered them to the slaughter. Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcasses, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood. And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig-tree: for my sword shall be bathed in heaven. Behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment. The sword of the Lord is filled with blood; it is made fat with fatness and with the blood of lambs and goats, and with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for the Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea....For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion." Is. xxxiv. 1-8. "Behold the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate and He shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light; the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity... I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of His fierce anger." Is. xiii. 9-13. "Behold the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof....The land shall be utterly emptied and utterly spoiled; for the Lord hath spoken this word. The earth mourneth and fadeth away; the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish. The earth also is defiled under

the inhabitants thereof....Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left....Fear and the pit and the snare are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth. And it shall come to pass that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit, and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake. The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall and not rise again. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited. Then the moon shall be confounded and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously." Is. xxiv. 1—23. "Now, therefore, be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong; for I have heard from the Lord God of hosts a consumption even determined upon the whole earth." Is. xxvii. 22.

In this work of tremendous destruction with which the Millennium is to be ushered in, Israel and Judah shall be made powerful instruments in the hand of the Lord; and their land appears to be the destined spot for the great and final overthrow. "When I have bent Judah for me," saith the Lord, "filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and made thee as the sword of a mighty man. And the Lord shall be seen over them, and His arrows shall go forth as the lightning, and the Lord God shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds of the south; the Lord of hosts shall defend them." Zech. ix. 13, 14. "But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend. Thou

whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, thou art my servant; I have chosen thee and not cast thee away . . . . Behold I will make thee a new sharp thrashing instrument having teeth; thou shalt thrash the mountains and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff." Is. xli. 8, 9, 15. "And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau, for the Lord hath spoken it." Obad. ver. 18. "The portion of Jacob is not like them; for He is the Former of all things; and Israel is the rod of his inheritance; the Lord of hosts is His name. Thou art my battle-axe and weapons of war; for with thee will I break in pieces the nations; and with thee will I destroy kingdoms; and with thee will I break in pieces the horse and his rider ; and with thee will I break in pieces the chariot and his rider; with thee also will I break in pieces man and woman; and with thee will I break in pieces old and young; and with thee will I break in pieces the young man and the maid; I will also break in pieces with thee the shepherd and his flock; and with thee will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with thee will I break in pieces captains and rulers." Jer. li. 19-23. "Now also many nations are gathered against thee, [Zion;] that say, let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion. But they know not the thoughts of the Lord, neither understand they His counsel; for He shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor. Arise and thrash, O daughter of Zion; for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass; and thou shalt beat in pieces many people; and I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth." Mic. iv. 11-13. "And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people, as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep; who, if he go through, both treadeth down and teareth in pieces, and none can