this age; he says that "the earth, being stored with fire;" that is the literal translation; "is reserved unto judgment and the perdition of ungodly men." It has been ascertained, as if to show not that Peter had studied science, of which we have no evidence, but that Peter stated what was scientifically true, without the technical terms of science; it is not at all a thing unknown, that the earth itself is merely a crust, a shell; and that its interior, in all probability, is one vast ocean of liquid lava, or molten, surging fire. It has been found that every forty feet you bore into the surface of the earth the thermometer, Fahrenheit's thermometer, rises one degree; and if it were possible to bore down into the earth sixty miles, every thing that we know, iron, gold, silver, granite, would all be melted and become liquid through the action of the fire that is there; it is a very solemn thought, that our earth is simply a live shell-it is eight thousand miles in diameter; and of the eight thousand miles in diameter more than seven thousand eight hundred miles are one vast concave, filled with liquid fire; and it has been supposed, and not without probability, that the volcanoes are to the earth what the safety-valve is to a steam boiler-the means of the escape of the excess of pressure, lest the whole be rent into atoms and every one perish in it. If that be the case, the reason why our earth is preserved is not the genius nor the excellence of man, but that in God we live and move; and that the hour and the year, however near, are not yet come when, in the language of Peter, the imprisoned fire shall be let loose, and the earth and all that is therein shall be burned up, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. I may also notice while alluding to Peter, who quotes this passage, the exact accuracy of the phrase he employs, "The elements shall melt with fervent heat;" that is, the stone, the iron, the gold, the silver that are in the earth shall melt. If Peter had said, they shall be burnt, scientific men would have said, Peter must have been ignorant of science; for it is a fact that all these things have already been burnt; the gold has been melted-in Australia and California the gold has been melted and poured into the quartz rock; the granite we know is the result of intense heat, and has been in a molten state; there being no remains or evidences of life contiguous to the granite. If therefore he had said, these things shall blaze, he would have said what is not correct; but with exact accuracy, for the Bible is always accurate, and it is man's science that is frequently wrong, he says, these things shall melt with fervent heat, not be burnt up; earth and the things on it shall be burned up, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat." It is after Peter has thus portrayed that conflagration, which mark you is not the prophecy of a human being, of an uninspired man, but the exact and certain prediction of God Almighty, that he says, "Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for a new heaven "-not another heavens, mark you"and a new earth," not another earth, but plainly the transformation and the rectification of the air, the sky, the earth that we now live in. And the promise that Peter alludes to is therefore this very promise in the seventeenth verse of this chapter: X "the "For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind." Well then, if this be so, here is the difficulty; Peter states expressly that the conflagration of the earth will not be its annihilation. There is no such thing known as annihilation. Nothing upon earth is annihilated: things that exist cannot be annihilated. Chemistry will tell you we are conversant with change of structure, but never with annihilation. If you take the flax that grows in the field, now- -it is dried, its threads or filaments are made into hemp; that hemp is refined in some shape and purified, and it is made into linen; that linen is bleached, it is worn, it is cast aside; it is then pounded into fragments in the paper-mill; it is made into paper, and appears in the shape of the newspaper upon your breakfast table; it is then cast into the fire, and it goes up the chimney in the shape of carbon; but not an atom of that hemp has been annihilated; it has changed its structure over and over again, but annihilation it has never experienced, and cannot possibly experience. So with this earth; when it is subjected to the last fire it will not be annihilated. I see no reason why it should be annihilated. Why should the devil get his will? Why should sin and Satan have the supremacy? It was once very beautiful and very holy; and the last fire will not annihilate one thing that God has made, but it will purify everything that the devil has polluted; and the new heavens and the new earth will emerge, wherein dwelleth righteousness. I often look forward to that day with this joyful thought, that everything that Satan did or has done will be made a present of to him, and he shall have all the glory of it; and that everything that God has made and that Christ has redeemed shall be presented to God, and he shall have all the glory of it. There occurs a difficulty which I have not yet been able to solve, on the assumption, mark you, that this is the portrait of the millennial age; and the language used is such that one can scarcely escape the conviction that it is so. We read in Revelation, "I saw a new heaven and a new earth; the first heaven and the first earth were passed away;" that is in Revelation xxi., and you recollect in that chapter it is stated, "And God will wipe away all tears, and there shall be no more sorrow, and there shall be no more crying, and there shall be no more death." Well then, if that be the case, how can we explain the twentieth verse of this chapter? The last verse, "The wolf and the lamb shall feed together," it is easy to see; the other verses it is also easy to see; but the twentieth verse I confess has puzzled me. I have looked into all the books that are in my own library; critics I mean, such as Poole's Synopsis; Gill's masterly work, containing the greatest amount of Oriental literature; I have examined the original, I have looked out for the words in lexicons, but still I have not been able to satisfy my own mind. It is in the twentieth verse, "There shall be no more thence an infant of days;" I can understand that-there shall be no infant; "nor an old man that hath not filled his days;" man's condition will be the bloom of everlasting youth or manhood; but it is hard to make out what the phrase means, "for the child shall die an hun 66 dred years old;" and the other expression, "the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.” Now recollect in Revelation xxi. it is said, No more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor tears;" and again, Peter says that this is the picture of the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righte ousness. THE FINAL GLORY. ISAIAH LXVI. THE graphic picture in this chapter refers to an age that is not yet arrived. It begins, first of all, by God's rebuke of those who think that worship consists in form, in ceremony, in embroidery, in altar, in temple, or in incense; and hence that central and magnificent truth, that God is worshipped by the humble heart and by the contrite spirit everywhere and at all times; for God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. A place of worship is a right thing; but when the place of worship is made to take the place of the worship, or when the form excludes the spirit, or when the ceremony is so splendid that the inner spirit is lost and buried in it, then such worship is only hateful in the sight of God; and so he tells you in the third verse. He says: "He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man;" that is, the sacrifice which in itself |