“Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house; and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. He answered and said unto them, he that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; the field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom: but the tares are the children of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.” Matthew 13:36-43.
There is no dispute among Christians as to the fact, that a very holy and blessed state of things is yet to exist upon this earth. This is commonly called the Millennium, from its being destined to last a thousand years. In Scripture, however, it is generally known by the name of the Kingdom, from its being the blessed state in which the great Messiah, “the one King,” “the blessed and only Potentate,” shall bear rule, and realize all that God hath spoken concerning His blessed empire, by the mouth of all his holy. prophets ever since the world began.” All Christians are agreed in expecting that such a state of purity and blessedness will yet exist in the earth. But what is to be its proper nature; when it will be introduced, and how; whether it will precede or follow Christ's second and glorious advent; and whether he will preside in and rule over it in person, or merely by his Spirit and word? these are points about which Christians greatly differ. Now on these disputed points— interesting to all, happily engaging the thoughts of many minds at present, and rising in importance every day, we would like to be of service in the hands of God in conducting any candid inquiring minds, willing to be guided by the word of God alone, to a satisfactory, because scriptural decision. In attempting this, however, we must advert, first of all, to the nature, course, and issue of the dispensation under which we are now living, that of the Gospel; for there is reason to think that it is in mistaken conceptions on this point that almost all erroneous views relating to the Kingdom have had their origin.
As to the course and issue of the present dispensation, there exist these two widely different, nay, entirely opposite opinions. The first is, that the Gospel is gradually to extend and widen is influence more and more; that, amid partial and temporary declensions, it is to be, on the whole and throughout, of a progressive and advancing nature; and that, without any material change on its own nature, or the agency employed in it, it is, in the latter days of its history, to acquire a universal and supreme dominion, extending its conquests and deepening its influence till it embrace the whole earth in its sway, and set up throughout all its borders “the kingdom of righteousness, and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.” This is the first opinion, and it prevails among the great majority of Christians now, though it did not do so during the three first centuries of the Church. The second stands directly opposed to this, and is in substance as follows: That the Gospel, from first to last, is to have not a steadily progressive, but an extremely chequered course; that, while employed by God “to take out of the Gentiles a people for his name,” it is never to obtain universal dominion and predominant influence that, on the contrary, there is to be one grand apostasy, rising at the beginning, extending throughout its whole course, and lasting till its very end; that its sphere is by this apostasy to be contracted, and its influence diminished more and more as it approaches its close; that its last days are to be its darkest, not its brightest days; and that, instead of shining wider and clearer, till it overspread the earth with meridian glory, it will, so to speak, set in night, in the darkest night this world ever saw; it will end and be removed by the judgments of God, and, not merging into, be entirely supplanted by, and give place to, another and different order of things— that of the kingdom, Christ's personal advent, and personal reign.
The question is, Which of these two opposite opinions is the correct and scriptural one? In seeking for an answer to this question in God's own Word, we shall endeavor to show that the second opinion is most agreeable to all its statements. And though it be scarcely possible to consider the course and the close of this dispensation entirely apart, and as two separate subjects, the rest of this paper shall relate chiefly to the former point— its course.
There are many passages which very distinctly intimate what is to be the course of this present dispensation. Some of these give us a sketch of its whole career from its rise to its close. But in none of them do we find any hint or trace of a Millennial state between these extreme points. The kingdom is placed out of and beyond this dispensation altogether. And in it, there is not only a mixture, but a preponderance, and a progressive increase, of evil, from the beginning to its very end.
Take, for example, the parable of the tares, a passage designed by our Lord to illustrate “the Kingdom of Heaven”– that is, the reign of heavenly principles --in its first or rudimental state; in other words, the Gospel dispensation. Matthew 13:24-30;36-43. On this parable we would submit the following remarks:
It spans the whole economy under which we are now living. It begins at its very beginning, and goes down to its very end. It commences with Christ's personal ministry on earth; it closes with his personal coming to judgment at the end of the world, verses 37 and 41. It is, therefore, a brief abstract, a kind of miniature view, of all that lies between these two extreme limits—between the first and the second coming of our Lord. The history of our whole economy is here.
Between these extreme limits we find no trace nor hint of any Millennium. After and beyond the second coming of the Son of Man, and his gathering out of his kingdom “all things that offend, and casting them into a furnace of fire;” we do find some notice of that blessed state: “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” But not before this ultimate period— not between the first and second advent. Now, if a state of things so very peculiar and blessed in its nature as the Millennium, and of such long duration, had been to occur between these two points, would it have been entirely omitted in the picture? Suppose its place, in point of fact, to be here, would not its omission in this picture of the whole be somewhat like a history of our race without the Fall, and of our recovery without the Cross— the very capital feature omitted?
The best of the dispensation is first, not last. It begins well, grows worse, and ends worst of all. The Son of Man first sows his field. His are good seed “the children of the kingdom.” Then “men slept!” a mark of degeneracy on the part of the Church; and taking advantage of this, its careless and slumbering state, his enemy, the devil, came and “sowed tares among the wheat.” Here it is not the good which is progressive, but the very reverse. The good retrogrades, the evil enters and prevails. The progress is not from good to worse; but from good to bad, and from bad to worse.
The dispensation thus becoming a mixture of good and evil, this mixture continues, not for a while merely, but down to the very end. There is no amendment; no rectifying of the evil; no re-sowing of the field; no pulling up of the tares; no changing of the tares into wheat; that is, no conversion of the world. The design of the parable is to teach the very reverse of this. It is to teach that there is to be no rectifying of this mixed estate, which the devil was to introduce, and which now prevails around us, by any agency that now exists, nor during any period of this current dispensation. The character of the whole dispensation was to be that of commingled good and evil; the evil contending with and injuring the good. It was to be a mixed economy down to its very close. The mixture, introduced by Satan, was to continue to the very end of all things, “to the harvest of the world,” to the second advent of the Son of Man, the ultimate reaper as well as the original sower of the field. Nay, it is this very mixture, or rather the increase of the evil ingredient in it, “the tares,” which calls for and brings on the harvest; for you observe it is a harvest of wrath. And then this mixture continuing, increasing to the very end; the rectifying which comes at last is not by mercy but by judgment— not by the sowing of grace, but the sickle of vengeance— not by an extension of the Gospel, the labors of ministers, or any gracious instrumentality whatsoever, now at work, but by the angels of God, who are to accompany the Son of Man at his second advent, and are to be the reapers of his field. The rectifying of all our evils will be then, not till then; then it will be by angels, not by men; and it will consist not in re-sowing but in reaping the field— not in changing the tares into wheat, but in gathering these tares together, and binding them into bundles and burning them.
The termination of this economy, therefore, is in judgment, not mercy; judgment on the children of the evil one, the tares; and mercy only upon this judgment—mercy “to the children of the kingdom” after and in consequence of the wicked being gathered out and consumed. Judgment first; then mercy—mercy, however, not by an extension and enlargement of the economy of grace, but in a new economy altogether; for in the evil shall be purged out by consummate judgment on the wicked. The present economy, according to this sketch of its course, does not terminate by an enlarged exercise of grace, in the common meaning of the word; nor by the use and success of any agency now in operation the gospel, the ministry, the Spirit. It is ended by an agency and an act entirely new and different— by the immediate intervention of the Son of Man, and by the immediate instrumentality of his angels; by the Son of Man himself sending forth his angels into the field, the world, and by their hands “gathering out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and casting them into a furnace of fire, where there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” This is the end of the economy; for the second personal coming of the Son of Man and this act of judgment are allowed by all to end it. This is most obviously the end of all things,– the end of the world, or age,— the last and awful reaping. Then the evil terminates, never till then; then, and not till then, the reign of unmixed good begins,— “the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” But this act which ends the evil and begins the unmixed good— which terminates the economy of grace and introduces the kingdom in its place— is different from everything which has hitherto happened, or which is now in use. It is an act of power, not of grace. It is the work of judgment, not mercy. It is the doing, not of missionaries and ministers, but of angels,—the effect not of an extended gospel, but of the personal intervention of the Son of Man. Not the golden scepter, but the iron rod.
We may add, that the kingdom in its perfect state,— the reign of unmixed good, thus introduced by power and judgment,— has its seat in the very same world where the evil existed, and whence it is now cast. The scene is not changed from beginning to end of this parable. The field throughout is the world. In this world is the kingdom, imperfect at first and mixed with evil, afterwards made perfect by the Son of Man and his angels, and entirely unmixed. And it is in this kingdom, whose seat from first to last is in this world, that the righteous, when the moral atmosphere has been cleared by the last act of judgment, shine out as the sun without a cloud. The state of things is widely altered; the theater on which they pass remains the same—the present earth. “One generation cometh and another goeth, but the earth abideth forever.” On the whole, in this one parable, as in a picture, we have the whole of this present economy; which begins in the first coming and ends in the second; no Millennium between these two periods; the mixture of good and evil throughout; the evil continuing, nay increasing, till the very end, the end in judgment, not in mercy, by the Son of Man and his holy angels; then the perfect state, the kingdom alone; and all in this one world of ours, which has hitherto been, and is still to be, the scene of all God's greatest wonders.
Take another passage of like extent and import, Matthew 24:3-31, or Luke 21:5-36. This is another Scripture which stretches from the beginning to the end of the Christian economy,— the Gentile dispensation. The question of the disciples leads our Lord to characterize the whole of it, from its commencement to its close. That question took its rise from his conversation about the destruction of the Temple. They, fancying that event to be at the very end of the world, and his final coming, framed their question accordingly. And his answer is most obviously commensurate with their question,— is co-extensive with it, begins where it began, and goes down to the end of all things. It, of course, includes the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem, which was one of the signs of his coming—a type or sample of what was to be accomplished then— the first act of judgment or earnest of that full judgment on the Gentile as well as Jewish Church, which is to usher in his coming, and the end of all things. But while the answer includes this typical and earnest judgment, it shoots far beyond it. It goes down to his second and glorious coming itself. And that coming was in no sense at the destruction of Jerusalem. In the passage, it is expressly distinguished from that destruction, and placed beyond it in point of time, verse 29, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days,”—i. e., “the days of Jacob's trouble;” commencing with their dispersion at the taking of Jerusalem, continuing still, and yet to increase into an awful crisis when Zechariah 14:2-4, is fulfilled “Immediately after the tribulation of these days,”— immediately after this full course of judgment,— shall all the signs of Christ's instant advent be displayed. Matthew 24:29-31. Not before, not at, but after this course of destruction, shall this solemn scene be realized And who can doubt that this is Christ's personal, second, ultimate coming? There is no such coming revealed in Scripture if it be not described in this passage, illustrated as it is by the dependent context, Matthew 24:32–51. With the most absolute certainty, then, do we conclude, that the answer of our Lord embraces the whole dispensation. It begins with the initial tribulations on the Jews, and it ends with the consummate judgments both on them and on the Gentiles. The dispersion of the one stands at its beginning,— the judgment of the other, “when he shall come in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory,” stands at its close. And the very drift and design of the whole discourse is to give the prominent events which lie between as signs of the latter event— “his coming,” and “the end of the world.” It was to sketch the character and course of the whole dispensation down to this its eventful close, that those living under it might not be deceived.
Now, not to enter into a minute comment on the whole passage— (it may fall in our way hereafter)– there are these three general observations lying on its very surface. 1st, There is no trace of any Millennium throughout the whole. From beginning to end, not a hint of any such thing. The scene is dark and troubled throughout— all shade and cloud together— not a ray of Millennial light and blessedness in it all. Now, had the scriptural place of the Millennium been really before the second advent of our Lord, which advent this passage takes in, is it conceivable that such a vast, peculiar, most glorious thing, would have been entirely omitted in a discourse expressly designed to state the signs and antecedents of that coming? Would Christ have given all the dark ones, and left out the only bright and blessed one,—surely the most pleasing to his benign eye? If such an era had really been antecedent to his coming,—had been especially where Christians commonly place it,— it is impossible to conceive anything which would have been so marked, so mighty, so unequivocal, so surely determinating a sign of his coming. A thousand years of heaven-like glory— Satan bound— peace and holiness reigning upon earth! Yet this, the most notable and easily determined of all signs, if one at all,— this alone omitted,—all the others carefully marked. The thing is not credible. In the discourse which traces the antecedent events and signs of Christ's second coming, no Millennial state occurs. The reason is, and must be, because no such blessed state is, in point of fact, to precede his coming upon earth. The picture wants it. Why? Because the actual landscape does.
The second remark is, that while there is no Millennium in our Lord's discourse, every thing is on the contrary of a nature the reverse of Millennial. The whole scene run over is filled with evils; evils in the Church, evils in the world; inward and outward; physical, providential, spiritual; evils from the kingdoms of the earth, from professing Christians, from God's own hand. We hear “only of wars and rumors of war,— nation rising against nation, kingdom against kingdom,— famines, pestilences, earthquakes,” and “these but the beginning of sorrows,”— plainly noting that worse, not better, were to follow. Then come persecutions from the world, verse 9; and the natural consequences of these in an unsound corrupt Church— “offences, stumblings, mutual betrayals, hatred of one another,” verse 10; and, after these, false teachers with all their fruits,—the deceiving of many— the abounding of iniquity— the decay of love the coldness which marks old age, verses 11-13;— this to such an extent, that the endurance of any through such a course unto the end is marked as singular, and noted with a special blessing. From first to last all the signs are dark— all the features sable. Even what might seem at first as an exception to this is the very reverse—“the preaching of the gospel in all the world.” The preaching of the gospel; but for what end?— not for universal conversion, but only for a witness unto all nations witness of God's grace, and of their guilt, in its all but universal rejection.
And then, thirdly, the evil which marks the whole dispensation, which is its characteristic feature, is progressive evil. In both its branches, moral and physical, it is progressive,—and progressive down to the very close. In this fearful description by a faithful hand, point to the period when the course of evil is arrested and turned back?— when it is even stayed or lessened? You cannot. On the contrary, there is a growing intensity in it from first to last. The moral evils become worse and worse; the natural evils, their outward accompaniment and shadow, become worse and worse also. Dark as the whole scene is, there is a deepening and ever deepening shade in its darkness. The clouds which arise, thick and gloomy enough at first, overspread the whole horizon. They are darker at noon than dawn, and at night than noon; till at eventide they break in universal tempest. In the natural and moral evils, in the persecutions, in the errors, the deceptions, the apostasy, the ever-accompanying tribulation over all, the progress is all to maturity in each, to an awful crisis, as the ultimate issue and consummation of the whole. Compare verse 5 with verses 23, 24; and verses 7, 8, with verses 21, 22. And to this whole dispensation, dark and evil throughout, and darkest and worst at the end, so bad at the end that its course needs to be abruptly terminated, lest no flesh should be saved— to such a downward course of things how appropriate a close, how suitable a finish to the whole! Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven: and 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 with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” verses 29–31. And has not the dispensation hitherto exactly corresponded with this anticipative account of it? Its prediction once, is it not its most exact and faithful history now? And if, heretofore, the one has answered to the other as face to face in a glass why not henceforth, also, even to the end? And if to the end, then no amendment by human means— no spreading gospel— no converting lands—no dispersing of the clouds, and pouring in over all the earth of the light of a glorious day; but ever-deepening shades instead—the gathering night— the multiform evil, darker and more intense— till faith being almost fled, and hope about to die, the Son of Man himself, this world's only hope, at last appears as a thief in the night, and by solemn judgment ends the scene.
There are many other passages exactly equivalent to these. In fact, we know not any which, when rightly understood, do not give a similar account of the present economy. There are none which even seem to give a contrary account— which even seem to mark its progress as one of good and not of evil. And the wonder is whence such a notion could have arisen or how, with the Bible in our hands, it could have so long kept possession of so many minds. We must more briefly refer to other passages.
2nd Thessalonians 2:1-10. On this, note these following things:— 1. The coming of our Lord, mentioned both in the beginning and end of it, verses 1 and 8, is one and the same; and it can be none other than his second, personal, glorious advent. See not only the expressions in verse 1, but especially in chapter one 7-9, where the subject of this second chapter is first introduced. 2. The only necessary pre-requisite to that coming— the only antecedent mentioned by, and, from his way of mentioning it, we may say, known to, the apostle, as necessary before our Lord can so come— is not a spreading gospel, not a gathering church, not a state of growing spiritual prosperity. No. All this had already reached its height; and the only other precursor known to him was declension, apostasy, a falling away,— this fully developed and ripened into its head. 3. This apostasy, “this mystery of iniquity,”—was already, even in Paul's day, at work, though then only secretly and underground. Just as the other and opposite mystery, “the great mystery of godliness,” was also working for thousands of years before it appeared above ground in proper shape and form. This mystery of iniquity, discovered by an apostle's piercing eye even then, though only underground, inchoate, not perfect, was to proceed in its progress, working upwards and upwards to the surface of things, till it should at last appear, like its antagonist mystery, in perfect form, under a visible head, and in the open light of day. And, first and last, inchoate and perfect, in scattered principles, and then in a compacted system, this mystery of iniquity was to trail its serpent length along the whole course of this dispensation. Young and almost indiscernible at the beginning, it was to grow and spread down to, and be only mature at its close. Arising almost at the very first coming of our Lord, it is to be found existing at his second, in the very zenith of its power, lifting its crested head to heaven. Then, not till then, is it to be destroyed,— crushed for ever. So, here again the black mark is on the dispensation. Its attribute is not light, but darkness,— not good, but evil,— not growing prosperity, but growing apostasy, of which “the last end is the worst.”
The Second Psalm also may be referred to as stretching over the whole dispensation. We find the beginning of it applied, by inspired interpreters, to the conspiracy between Herod and Pontius Pilate,— the Gentiles and the people of Israel against the Holy Child Jesus; Acts 4:23-28. At the end of it, we are told of Christ taking his kingdom and destroying the wicked; Psalm 2:8-9. All between these extreme points of our economy is described as a state of opposition to the Lord and his anointed, on the part both of the people (or Gentiles) and their kings and rulers,— an opposition never subdued by the exercise of grace, but destroyed at last, and in the very end of the economy, by an act of unmitigated exterminating judgment, verse 9. And is not this a faithful account of the state of affairs under this dispensation, so far as it has already gone? For while the gospel has been all along calling out God's own elect, both from among people and their rulers, is it not true that, speaking generally, both the one and the other have practically rejected this blessed gospel in its simplicity and spirituality, that the history of all lands where its joyful sound has been proclaimed has just been one of practical and determined rebellion against the Lord and against his anointed?
The whole Book of Psalms, indeed, viewed as the language of the true David, either in his own name or as the mouth of his church, in his contest with the great Antichrist, is full of very interesting information as to the state of things during the whole of this dispensation, and is quite conclusive on the point in question. There we find the Antichrist and his members, or, as Horsley usually denominates it, “the great Antichristian atheistic faction,”— rising into awful power— prevailing against the true Church of God, just as his enemies did personally against the Christ,— crushing all her energies— threatening her very existence extinguishing almost everything like vital piety in the earth— growing worse and worse, as the stream of time carries us onward to the end of all; till that great Antichristian power seems to stand alone in the earth, and, like one of the beasts in Daniel or Revelations, to brave the heavens with its front, and crush the earth beneath its hoof. And this state of things never changes till the true king— no more as the suffering David, but as the triumphant Solomon— enters the scene, and having, by the exercise of royal power, driven all his adversaries from the stage, sets up the pure and peaceful kingdom where the usurper and the oppressor has so long borne sway; Psalms 72:1-4. We must not enter, however, on a field so wide and inviting as this.
Let the reader now consider these unconnected passages, which, if not all so fully descriptive of the whole dispensation, bear at least emphatic testimony as to the wide-spread degeneracy which is to mark its closing days; 1 John 2:18. The apostle pronounces even that in which he lived to be “the last time.” How did he know it to be so? Because it was a good time, and likely to ripen into Millennial purity? Had the notions commonly held by Christians about the progress and issue of the gospel economy been correct, this would have been the case. The last time would have been discovered by its superior goodness. It was, however, the very reverse. Declension, apostasy, antichristianism,— the multiplying and abounding of such things, are the marks by which the last of all the apostles discovered it to be “the last time.” It was the gathering darkness, not the growing light, which made the beloved apostle feel that he was already among the shades of evening— the end of the age. How emphatically this intimates what was the opinion of inspired men as to the course and issue of the present dispensation. So sure of its progressive degeneracy, even till the very end, that, whenever such degeneracy began to spread, they instantly noted it as a sign that the end was near.
1st Timothy 4:1-3. Here again, not progress in good, but apostasy, is given as a mark of the latter times. And this is the express testimony of the Spirit himself in the Word. No place being specified, it is given as his express testimony throughout the Scriptures; 2nd Timothy 3:1-7, 12, 13; 4:3-4. This is a context not about the latter days merely, but the last of these. It carries us down through the latter stages of the dispensation to its closing scenes. And the progress is in evil, not in good. It is from bad to worse,— from noon to eve, and from eve to midnight. 2nd Peter 2 and 3, throughout. This again relates to the closing days of the dispensation, and what a scene of manifold corruption does it lay open throughout, issuing at last in open, scoffing, contemptuous impiety and infidelity! The whole Epistle of Jude is precisely parallel to this, both as to its place in the economy and as to all its moral characteristics. How awful the characters which here overspread the scene! and they continue even to the very time when Enoch's prophecy shall be fulfilled; Jude 5:13-14. To these we may add, Luke 18:1-8, which shows what will be the work of the Church during all the dispensation,— crying day and night, as in a suffering state, for their promised deliverance, like the souls under the altar; Revelation 4. God seems long to turn a deaf ear to their cry, out of compassion and long-suffering towards a guilty, impenitent, oppressive world, whose ruin, not conversion, is inseparably involved in his listening to the cry of his elect, and avenging their cause. And note when shall this cry be complied with,— the elect avenged— the wicked destroyed? All at the coming of the Son of Man. And at that coming what a state of things! Not the full tide of Millennial glory overspreading the earth— but scarcely so much as a trace of this faith to be anywhere found! The darkest night before the dawn of the nightless day!
All the Epistles, in fact, are written to Churches in an oppressed and suffering state,— as being but a mere election amid a world full of enemies and evil— the “lily among thorns,” by which it is ever over-topped and torn, and threatened with utter destruction. This whole department of Scripture, therefore, would become comparatively inappropriate and obsolete were the Church ever to reach a state of Millennial purity, and peace, and prevalence, so long as the Word of God is to be her only lamp in the darkness. The whole Bible, indeed, implies a state of contest, depression, evil, sorrow, on the part of the Church, so long as that Bible is to be the man of her counsel, and until, not the written, but the incarnate Word shall put himself at the head of her fortunes.
It thus appears to be the testimony of God in his Word that evil is to be the character of this dispensation down to its very close, and that this evil, instead of being ever removed or even diminished, is to spread and increase till removed by the entrance of another order of things altogether. The history of the Church during the whole period of the present dispensation finds an exact parallel in the history of Christ himself during the days of his flesh. This is her humiliation, as it then was his. During the whole currency of it, all the members of the body are entering, each in his place and order, into a full communion with their great Head in his sufferings and sorrows, even as when he comes the second time, all will together enter into full communion with him in his triumph and joys. This is the time of her humiliation, her agony, her cross-bearing, her parturition, her crucifixion even, as it then was of his. The Church has her full and perfect type in her Lord himself— the members in their common head. Her history is written out from beginning to end in the child born in the stable and cradled in the manger— driven down to Egypt as soon as born growing up into the man of sorrows—tossed about through life without a place to lay his head— his visage marred more than any man, grief in his heart, the cross upon his back from first to last—no amendment— no relief— evil throughout and the last the worst of all, till what began by a birth in the abode of beasts, ended in death, the worst of deaths, crucifixion, among the chief of criminals. Then only the tide completely turns; out of the night of death comes the brightness of resurrection; and from that period onwards, all in her history shall be increasing light, and blessedness, and glory, during the eternity of her being, her fortunes being inseparably and forever blended with his. At present, however, and onwards to that grand turning point in her fortunes, what once happened to her Head on earth, is in substance now happening to all her members in their due order and measure. His bitter cup is passing in succession into each of their hands— his bloody baptism is in turn passing over them all; “the sufferings now”— the glory will follow, but like his own it will be in another economy, when he and they shall meet again, not in meanness but in majesty, not in dishonor but in glory— dominant, not depressed. Nothing but mourning— nothing but fasting for the Bride, so long as the Bridegroom is away. Matthew 9:14-15. The cross is never to be taken from her back, till he who bore it first come back again to put the crown upon her head. It is the time of the world's joy at present—poor joy at the best, and brief its period, ending in a sorrow terrible as hell and lasting as eternity. And the period of the world's joy is that of the Church's sorrow. But let her heart be strong; her agony may be awful, but it will soon be all past; joy is coming the highest that hearts can feel— the most lasting too: “Ye now therefore, have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.”
Besides the general purpose which this tract is designed to serve, and which will be afterwards brought out, it may be turned to good account in the following way:
It is always of advantage to correct an error, whatever that may be, and of special advantage if that error lies in our religious opinions. In the present case, for instance, there is reason to fear that the religious condition of many is injured by lending an easy ear to the flattering accounts which are too often given of what has been, and of what is to be, under the present economy, as if a second Paradise were in the act of returning to the earth. Such accounts, as remote from fact as from Scripture, have a very injurious effect upon all who listen to them; especially in the way of unhinging their confidence in the strict and stern veracity of Scripture. Whereas, were the sober scriptural account of things adopted, it would have the very reverse effect. Corresponding as it does with all that is past, and all that we see around us, it would greatly strengthen our confidence in the literal exactness of all the statements which are found in the Word of God, and would breed the persuasion in our hearts, that a Book, which records in such sober, or rather sable colors, the future fortunes of its Author's cause, is a true book, filled not with fables but with verities.
To keep such an account of the state of things constantly before us, would help us to count the cost; and so doing, either not to make a profession of a religion, whose treatments and fortunes in this present world are so gloomy, or, having done so, to go steadily onwards, in spite of everything we may encounter, to the end. It is good to lure no soldiers to the Cross of Christ by any false or flattering prospects. They should know what lies before them,— such treatment as their Master met with,— and be willing to meet it. How different Christians would be,— how resolute— unflinching— heroic, if all entered the service of the great Captain of our Salvation, with the distinct foreknowledge that all through the wilderness they were to fare just as he did; and that, with heaven in their eye, and it may be also in their heart, the Cross was to be ever on their back, and all their way on earth was to be “the dolorous way” leading to Calvary, and only through Calvary to the crown and kingdom. If there is no Cross there is no Crown.
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