Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

ing. The light of God and the Lamb shall be so full, glorious, and abiding, that night no longer can exist in that city. Its inhabitants need no shutting off of day to give them sleep. They are independent of all material orbs or their revolutions. Of course, this statement does not apply to "the nations" on the earth. The succession of day and night existed before Adam fell, and he needed the repose of night even in his innocence. He lived in an earthly body, and that body needed sleep. We also have the positive statement that he did sleep, even before he sinned. Likewise those who then live in the flesh, will need sleep, and their seasons of repose. Hence, the covenant with Noah was, that, "while the earth remaineth, day and night shall not cease.” (Gen. 8:22.) But in the home of the glorified saints there will be no more night. Darkness of all orders, physical, mental, and moral, shall have no place there. As the glory of the Shekinah ever glowed in the Holy of Holies, so shall the Jehovah brightness ever illuminate the heavenly Jerusalem, and all its inhabitants shall themselves be light; for they "shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars forever and ever." (Dan. 12: 3.)

"And they shall reign to the ages of the ages." Not for the thousand years only, but forever shall their glory and dominion last. This tells at once their eternal dignity, and the eternal perpetuity of men in the flesh. If they are to be kings forever, they must have subjects forever; and their subjects,

whom they shepherdize, over whom they rule, and for whom they hold the dominion, are everywhere described as "the nations"-"all people, languages, and nations under the whole heaven." (Rev. 2: 26; 12:5; 22: 1; 24: 26; Dan. 7:14, 27; Matt. 19: 28, 29; 1 Cor. 6:2.) Either, then, their kingdom must come to an end for want of subjects, or nations, peoples, and men on the earth must continue in the flesh, as Adam and Eve before the fall. But these glorified ones are to "reign to the ages of the ages," and their "kingdom is an everlasting kingdom;" and as they cannot reign without subjects, so nations on earth must last coequally with their regency. Both their office, and the activities in which their sublimest happiness is located, must fail them, if the nations over whom their rule is, ever cease to be. They neither marry, nor are given in marriage; for they are as the angels of God; but their subjects are of a different order, and their dominion and glory shall grow forever, by the ceaseless augmentation of the number of their subjects throughout unending generations.

Such is the final picture set before us in these wonderful prophecies and foreshowings of the purposes of our God. Such are the fore-intimations of that new heavens and earth wherein eternal righteousness dwells. And such are the glimpses which our gracious Saviour has given us of the dignities and blessedness to which we are called by his Gospel.

See, then, my friends, how very high our calling

is. And shall we not value, cherish, and improve it? Shall we throw away our chance for such an eternal home? Shall we slight the offers and opportunities of blessedness like this? Let fortunes pass; let friendships be forfeited; let earthly comforts go unenjoyed; cast honors, titles, crowns, empires to the wolves and bats; but let not the privilege go by of becoming an immortal king and co-regent with the Lamb in the Golden City of the New Jerusalem.

[blocks in formation]

LECTURE FIFTY-FIRST.

LAST SECTION OF THE BOOK-CERTAINTY OF THESE REVELATIONS-THE REPEATED BENEDICTION UPON THOSE WHO TREASURE THEM-EFFECT OF THEM ON THE APOSTLE-THE DIRECTION TO HIM WHAT TO DO WITH THEM-AN ARGUMENT FOR THE SAME-THE CONDITION ON WHICH THE BEATITUDES OF THIS BOOK ARE TO BE ENJOYED-A PARTICULAR WASHING OF ROBES.

REV. 22: 6-15. (Revised Text.) And he said to me, These words [are] faithful and true, and the Lord the God of the spirits of the prophets sent his angel to show to his servants what things must come to pass shortly.

And behold, I come quickly blessed he that keepeth the words of the prophecy of this book.

And I, John, [was] hearing and seeing these things. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. And he saith to me, See, no; I am fellow-servant of thee and of thy brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book: worship God.

And he saith to me, Seal not up the words of the prophecy of this book; the time is near. Let the unjust one do injustice more and more, and the filthy [or polluted] one defile [or do pollution] more and more, and the righteous one do righteousness more and more, and the holy one sanctify more and more.

Behold, I come quickly, and my reward with me, to give to each as his work is, I the Alpha and the Omega, First and Last, the Beginning and the End. Blessed they that wash their robes that they may [in that they shall] have the power over the tree of life, and enter by the gates into the city. Excluded [or outside are] the dogs, and the sorcerers, and the fornicators, and the murderers, and the idolaters, and every one loving or making a lie [or, what is false].

( 445 )

WE

E come now to the last section of this wonderful Book-the Epilogue-the closing remarks. The Grand Panorama of an ending and renewing world has reached the point where everything enters upon the eternal state, and we are now to take leave of the wonderful exhibit. We have seen the Church in its universality and varied historic continuity from the days of the Apostle down to the time when Christ shall come for his people, and how he will end its career by taking one here and another there, and leaving the rest, because of their unreadiness to taste the sorrows of the great Tribulation. With the judgment thus begun at the house of God, we have seen it roll along through the breaking of seals, the sounding of trumpets, and the pouring out of bowls of wrath, in ever-varying scenes of miracle and wonder, towards saints and sinners, the living and the dead. We have seen the Antichrist coming up from his abyss, captivating the world, running his course of unexampled blasphemy, and sinking forever in his deserved perdition. We have seen the final doings of Satan, in heaven and earth, his arrest and imprisonment, his short loosing, and his final consignment, with all his, to the lake of fire. We have seen the thrones of the shepherdizers of the nations, the breaking down of all rebellion, and the coming forth into the living world of the eternal principles of righteousness. We have seen the shaking of the old heav ens and earth, and the same passed through the throes of the long-expected Regeneration. We

« AnteriorContinuar »