16.—“And they gave Glory to the Deity of the Heaven”
This was the last demonstration of “the Earth” in its extraordinary agitations. In the prophecy four things are particularly noted as characteristic of the Great Earthquake which consummated the Sixth Trumpet, or Second Woe, namely:
1. The Fall of the Tenth of the City;
2. The putting to death of Seven Thousand Names of Men;
3. The affrighting of the Rest; and
4. The Ascription of Glory to the Deity of the Heaven.
These four characteristics have met in no other revolution of past ages than in that of the French Epoch from A. D. 1789 to A. D. 1794. It was the earnest of what is yet to come on a grander scale when the whole of the spiritual Sodom and Egypt, that is, of the Great Papal City with all its kingdoms, or Tenths, and all its clerical and aristocratic orders, Romish, Protestant, and Greek, shall be destroyed; not by “the Earth,” however, but by the Cloud-Invested Angel of the Bow. There will be this difference in the executing of the judgment by the saints. Their judgment will be more sanguinary and terrific; but in executing it, they will be guiltless of personal crimes. They will execute judgment in righteousness. This was not the judgment executed by Marat, Fouquier, p. 712 Tinville, Collot d’Herbois, Robespierre, and the like. These were bloodthirsty villains, who, in blindly punishing the blasphemous worshippers of saint-ghosts, relics, and images, aristocratic, clerical, and plebeian, accumulated upon their own heads heaps of trespasses, that could only be cancelled by the blood of the transgressors. They were thieves, adulterers, whoremongers, murderers, hypocrites, and atheists. These were the characters that flourished in the work of French regeneration as they styled it; and were always babbling about virtue, integrity, fraternity, justice, and so forth; to all of which, in a scriptural sense, they were utter strangers. Nevertheless, they were not worse than the creatures they put to death. They were the mire and dirt of society which is itself infected and foul; and when stirred up from its lowest depths, throws upon its surface its putrefactions. In the reign of death, these were swept into the common sewer of headless humanity. The guillotine, which they termed “holy,” was just and impartial in its vengeance; so that those who worked at it with revolutionary fury, were themselves at length compelled to pay justice with their lives.
As we have seen, in the total abolition of the names of men, the CATHOLIC NAME was abolished also. The destruction of this name in France was, in effect, to the glory of God; although its ruin was by the agency of a set of dissolute, fanatical, atheists. But these creatures marred the good work by decreeing likewise, that there was no Supreme Being, who was before all things, who made all things, and by whose power all things are sustained. “The fool has said in his heart, There is no God.” The denial of Deity, and the deification of Reason, was, therefore, the work of fools. The prime movers of this blasphemy, however, were soon afterwards sent to the guillotine, which silenced their folly for ever.
The proclamation of the Parisian authorities denying the existence of Deity was exceedingly offensive to the deists of the Committee of Public Welfare and the Convention. The former had paid homage to moral ideas by making “integrity, justice, and all the virtues, the order of the day;” it could not, therefore, tolerate the atheistic deification of reason, which made such order impossible. “They beheld anarchy,” says M. Thiers, “rejecting all belief in God, effeminacy and corruption rejecting all idea of order, mental delirium rejecting all idea of morals. They then conceived the republic as virtue assailed by all the bad passions at once. The word virtue was everywhere: they placed justice and integrity upon the order of the day. It yet remained for them to proclaim the belief in p. 713 God, the Immortality of the Soul, all the moral creeds; it yet remained for them to make a solemn declaration, to declare, in short, the Religion of the State. They resolved, therefore, to pass a decree upon the subject. In this manner they should oppose order to the anarchists, faith in God to the Atheists, and morals to the dissolute. Their system of virtue would be complete. The deistical committee made it above all a particular point to remove from the republic the stigma of impiety with which it was branded throughout all Europe. They resolved to say what is always said to priests who accuse you of impiety because you do not believe in their dogmas—WE BELIEVE IN GOD.”
The deistical dictators “had other motives for adopting a grand measure in regard to religion. The ceremonies of the new worship of reason had been abolished; festivals were required for the Decades or Tenth Days; and it was deemed of importance, when attending to the moral and religious wants of the people, to think of their wants of the imagination, and to furnish them with subjects of public meetings. Besides, the favorable condition of public affairs caused them to deem the moment most favorable for prostrating the republic at the feet of the Almighty. The occasion was grand and touching for those who believed. It was seasonable for those who merely complied with political ideas.”
“Let us remark,” continues M. Thiers, “one singular circumstance. Sectaries, for whom there existed no human convention that was respectable (so he designates the political witnesses of Jesus; and truly affirms, that for the witnesses of both classes, there doth exist no human convention that is respectable) who, from the extraordinary contempt in which they held all other nations and the esteem with which they were filled for themselves, dreaded no opinion, and were not afraid of wounding that of all the world; who, in matters of government had reduced everything to just what was absolutely necessary; who had admitted no other authority but that of a few citizens temporarily elected; who had not hesitated to abolish the most ancient and most stubborn of all religions—the Romish; such sectaries paused before two ideas, morality and faith in God. After rejecting all those ideas from which they deemed it possible to release man, they remained under the sway of the two last, and sacrificed a party to each idea. If some of them did not believe, they nevertheless all felt a want of order among men, and for the support of this human order, the necessity of acknowledging in the universe a general, and intelligent order. This is the first time in the history of the world that the dissolution of p. 714 all the authorities left society a prey to the government of purely systematic minds, and those minds which had outstripped all the received ideas adopted, retained, the ideas of morality and faith in God. This example is unparalleled in the history of the world: it is singular, it is grand, it is beautiful: history cannot help pausing to remark it.”
M. Thiers did not know that he was pausing to remark upon an event that had been predicted eighteen centuries before by the Exile of Patmos—by that beloved companion of Jesus, who had distinctly spoken of these so-called “sectaries;” and expressly declared that they should do that “singular, grand, and beautiful” thing, of pausing before the idea of faith in God, in “giving glory to the God of the heaven” in the throes of a grand convulsion, that should abolish monarchy, the names of men, and “the most stubborn of all religions.” It was an event which no historian of repute could venture to ignore.
Robespierre was reporter on this interesting occasion. He was the head of the Committee of Public Welfare, was consulted on all matters, and spoke only on important occasions. “For him,” says M. Thiers, “were reserved the high moral and political questions, as more worthy of his talents and his virtue. The duty of reporter on the question belonged to him of right. None had spoken out more decidedly against atheism, none was so venerated, none had so high a reputation for purity and virtue, none, in short, was so well qualified by his ascendancy and his dogmatism for this sort of pontificate.
“On May 7, 1794, about ten weeks before he lost his head, he addressed the National Convention upon the subject of ‘giving glory to the God of the heaven.’ He was listened to with profonnd attention. He justly observed, that it was not as the authors of systems that the representatives of the nation ought to discourage atheism and to proclaim DEISM, but as legislators seeking what principles are most suitable to man in a state of society. In the eyes of the legislator, all that is beneficial to the world and good in practice, is truth. The idea of the Supreme Being and of the immortality of the soul is a continual recall to justice; it is therefore social and republican.”
In his address he strove to counteract the idea that, in proclaiming the worship of the Supreme Being, the government was laboring for the benefit of the priests. “What is there in common,” said he, “between the priests and God? The priests are to morality what quacks are to medicine. How different is the God of Nature p. 715 from the God of the priests! I know nothing that so nearly resembles atheism as the religions which they have framed. By grossly misrepresenting the Supreme Being, they have annihilated belief in him as far as lay in their power. The priests have created a God after their own image: they have made him jealous, capricious, greedy, cruel, and implacable: they have confined him in heaven as in a palace, and have called him to earth only to demand of him, for their own interest, tithes, wealth, honors, pleasures, and power. The real temple of the Supreme Being is the universe; his worship, virtue; his festivals, the joy of a great nation, assembled in his presence to knit closer the bonds of universal fraternity, and to pay him the homage of intelligent and pure hearts.”
He finished his report amidst the warmest applause, and proposed the following decree, which was adopted by acclamation:
“Art. 1. The French people acknowledges the existence of the Supreme Being and the Immortality of the Soul.
“Art. 2. It acknowledges that the worship most worthy of the Supreme Being is the practice of the duties of man.”
A solemn festival was ordered for June 8. The decree was read at a meeting of the Jacobins, who caused an address to be drawn up, and presented to the Convention by a deputation of their body. Their address concluded thus: “The Jacobins come this day to thank you for the solemn decree that you have just issued; they will come and join you in the celebration of that great day on which the festival of the Supreme Being shall assemble the virtuous citizens throughout all France to sing the hymn of virtue.” To this the president replied: “It is worthy of a society which fills the world with its renown, which enjoys so great an influence upon public opinion, which has associated at all times with all the most courageous of the defenders of the rights of man, to come to the temple of the laws to pay homage to the Supreme Being.”
A member of the Committee, named Couthon, then made a violent speech against atheists and corrupt men; and concluded by proposing on that solemn day of joy and gratitude to declare that, ever since the commencement of the Revolution, the Jacobins had not ceased to deserve well of the country. This suggestion was adopted amidst thunders of applause. The Convention broke up in transports of joy, nay, indeed, in a sort of intoxication.
Congratulatory addresses to the Convention for proclaiming belief in the Supreme Being were very numerous. “The contagion of ideas and words,” says M. Thiers, “spread with extraordinary rapidity among the French. Among a prompt and communicative p. 716 people the idea that engages some few minds soon engages the attention of the public generally; the word that is in some mouths is soon in all. Addresses poured in from all parts, congratulating the Convention on its sublime decree, thanking it for having established virtue, proclaiming the worship of the Supreme Being, and restored hope to man. The section of Marat of Paris, appearing at the bar, addressed the assembly, saying: ‘O beneficent Mountain! protecting Science! accept also our expressions of gratitude and congratulation for all the sublime decrees which thou art daily issuing for the happiness of mankind. From thy boiling bosom darted the salutary thunderbolt, which, in crushing atheism, gives us genuine republicans the consolatory idea of living free, in the sight of the Supreme Being, and in expectation of the immortality of the soul.’
“From that day, the words virtue and Supreme Being were in every mouth. Instead of the inscription, To REASON, placed on the fronts of the temples, there was now inscribed, To THE SUPREME BEING.”
The day fixed for the festival in honor of the Supreme Being at length arrived. The principal part in the performance was unanimously assigned to Robespierre, whom his colleagues strove to flatter and to soothe by dint of honors. Vast preparations had been made, and the festival was to be magnificent. The multitude had collected, and after a considerable time, Robespierre appeared in the midst of the Convention. He was dressed with extraordinary care. His head was covered with feathers, and in his hand he held, like all the representatives, a bunch of flowers, fruit, and ears of corn. In his countenance, usually so gloomy, beamed a cheerfulness that was uncommon to him. An amphitheatre was erected in the centre of the garden of the Tuileries. This was occupied by the Convention; and on either side were several groups of boys, men, aged persons, and females. The boys wore wreaths of violets, the youths of myrtle, the men of oak, the aged people of ivy and olive. The men held their daughters by the hand, and carried baskets of flowers. Opposite to the amphitheatre were figures representing Atheism, Discord, Selfishness. These were destined to be burned. As soon as the Convention had taken its place, the ceremony was opened with music. The president then delivered a first discourse on the object of the Festival. “Republican Frenchmen!” said he, “the ever fortunate day which the French people dedicated to the Supreme Being is at length arrived. Never did the world which p. 717 he created, exhibit a spectacle so worthy of His attention. He has beheld tyranny, crime, and imposture reigning on earth. He beholds at this moment a whole nation assailed by all the oppressors of mankind, suspending the course of its heroic labors, to lift its thoughts and its prayers towards the Supreme Being, who gave it the mission to undertake and the courage to execute them.”
After proceeding in this manner for a few minutes, he descended from the amphitheatre, and seizing a torch, set fire to the figures of Atheism, Discord, and Selfishness. From amidst their ashes arose the statue of Wisdom, blackened by the flames from which it issued. Robespierre returned to his place, and delivered a second speech on the extirpation of the vices leagued against the Republic. After this first ceremony, the Assembly set out in procession for the Field of Mars. The pride of Robespierre seemed redoubled, and he affected to walk very far before his colleagues. But some indignantly approached, and lavished upon him the keenest sarcasms. Some laughed at the new pontiff, and said, in relation to his smoky statue of Wisdom, that his wisdom was darkened. Others uttered the word “tyrant,” and exclaimed that there were still Brutuses. A deputy addressed to him the prophetic words: “The Tarpeian rock is close to the Capitol.”
The procession at length reached the Champs de Mars. There arose a lofty mount, on the summit of which was a tree, beneath whose boughs the Convention seated itself. On each side of the mount the different groups of boys, old men, and women, took their places. A symphony commenced; the groups then sang stanzas, alternately answering one another; at length, on a given signal, the youths drew their swords, and swore to the elders to defend their country; the mothers lifted their infants in their arms; all present raised their hands towards heaven, and the oath to conquer was mingled with the homage paid to the Supreme Being. They then returned to the garden of the Tuileries, and the Festival concluded with public diversions.
Such was the famous festival in which “they gave glory to the Deity of the Heaven”—a glory or homage based on the abolition of the Catholic worship of the Roman God, “the deity of the earth,” before whom they had stood witnessing in sackcloth over twelve centuries. The “they” who gave the glory were the constituted authorities in the republican heaven, and who had been unwittingly invited up thither by the royal edict, and had ascended to their sovereign position “in the cloud.” They were as impious, sanguinary and cruel as “Yahweh’s Anointed Shepherd,” Cyrus, p. 718 and “his sanctified ones,” the Medes and Persians, who ravished wives, spoiled houses, had no pity on the fruit of the womb, dashed children to pieces, and destroyed adults without mercy. This was the spirit that inspired Robespierre and his colleagues of the Convention and its committees, who all figured in this festival. On the days preceding and following that on which they were giving glory to the Supreme power of the heaven, they sent forty-three victims to the guillotine. Some of his colleagues did not like the festival. They said it had alienated many minds, and that those ideas of the Supreme Being, of the Immortality of the Soul, and those pompous ceremonies, looked like a return to the superstition of former times, and were likely to give a retrograde impulse to the Revolution. Robespierre was irritated by these remarks, and insisted that he never meant to make the revolution retrograde, but had done everything to accelerate its course; in proof of which he had drafted a law to make the Revolutionary tribunal still more sanguinary. The law was passed, and in the forty-nine days succeeding the festival, 1386 victims lost their heads on no other ground than suspicion. We are not, therefore, to suppose that the glory given commended the actors in the festival to Deity. John merely predicted it as an event that would obtain in the great earthquake, and as a sign by which that revolutionary crisis might be known to be the epoch of the ascent of the TERRIBLE WITNESSES against the Romish Idolatry to power.
The Third Woe
“The Second Woe has passed away; behold, the Third Woe comes immediately.”
The fifth trumpet, which summoned the Saracens against the Greek division of the Catholic Apostasy, was the first woe, and the sixth trumpet, which sounded forth the four angel-powers to put to death the Greek Catholic dominion, was the second woe. This was not only to extinguish this dominion, but to torment with a terrible testimony the world rulers and spirituals of the European Commonwealth in church and state, symbolized in the prophecy by “the beast with seven heads and ten horns.” Hence, the judgments of the Second Woe were widely diffused over the whole of the Great City from the Euphrates to the Danube, the Rhine, and the ocean. They began their desolating career A. D. 1062, and continued in their work of death upon the worshippers of the Demonials and Catholic Idols, until the demonial worship was destroyed in France, p. 719 and its national homage transferred from the Roman “God of the earth” to “the Deity of the heaven,” A. D. 1794, a calamitous period of 732 years. The ascription of glory to the Supreme Being was the remarkable act by which the second woe was consummated.
But, notwithstanding all the judgments that had fallen upon the Catholic World, it continued unrepentant of its idolatry, of its murders, its sorceries, its fornication, and its thefts. They had been terribly chastised in France. The blood they had shed there was avenged twofold; their spiritual sorceries had been abolished; the priests had been compelled to marry; and the wealth they had acquired by theft and fraud, they had been forced to disgorge. About two thousand priests had died by the executioner; many abjured their religion; and thousands had been expelled from the bloodstained country they had plundered and ruined. Still the Catholic world clung to its delusions, and repented not of its deeds. The Second Woe had exhausted itself upon “the Tenth of the City.” The Reign of Terror ended with the execution of Robespierre and his colaborers. Forty-nine days after the Festival their heads rolled into the basket of the guillotine. Applause accompanied every descent of the fatal blade; and joy prevailed on every side, and the system of terror was overthrown. The woe had “passed away,” and the time had come for republicanized France to become an angel-power of destruction against the worshippers of the beast in the other Tenths of the Great City.
“The third woe comes immediately” after the termination of the second. Between the predicted events of the first and second woes, that is, from the end of the first to the beginning of the second woe, there was an interval of about 130 years. But between the end of the second and the beginning of the third, there was no appreciable interval. It may therefore be considered as beginning in the year of the Festival, A. D. 1794. This third woe is, of course, the Seventh and Last Trumpet—the Seventh Trumpet Division of the Seventh Seal, and summarized in the following words:
“And the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in the heaven, saying, The kingdoms of the world have become our Lord’s and his Christ’s, and he shall reign for the aions of the aions.”
This is the grand result of the sounding—a consummation to be perfected as the result of the sounding of the seventh trumpet. This third woe trumpet has been sounding during the past seventy-one years. These are so many of “the days of the voice of the seventh angel” as have hitherto elapsed. But they are not all “the p. 720 days of the voice.” They have brought us to the terminal epoch of the Holy City’s “forty and two months;” and I believe that there are yet forty more “days,” or years, to fill up all “the days of the voice of the seventh angel.” The fall of the Tenth of the City happened in a day, but it did not become the Lord’s. All the tenths are to fall likewise by violence, to which they will be forced to yield, and to become the property of Him who overturns them. This overthrow will be the work of the “Hour of Judgment,” which does not begin till after the advent of Christ, and the giving of judgment to the Saints; and consequently, after their resurrection and ascension to power in the heaven, as prefigured in the resurrection and ascension of the political witnesses “in the cloud.” The judgments of the second woe terminated in the Reign of Terror, the most awful and terrible epoch ever yet experienced by a nation. It was emphatically the Reign of Death, oftentimes in its most appalling forms. But the consummation of the seventh trumpet will woefully surpass the Reign of Terror. This was limited to a single nation, of which the mighty were hurled from their seats into the lowest depths, and the rest sent empty away. But the terminal epoch of the seventh trumpet now upon us, will make the ears to tingle only to hear the report of its terrors. Daniel was informed that it would be “a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation to that same time”—ch. xii. 1. “The time of the end” of the third woe trumpet is a time of unsurpassed calamity, and will extend to all nations in all parts of the earth. Their trade and commerce will be ruinously perturbed; their countries devastated by war; their hundreds of thousands prostrated by famine, pestilence and sword; their armies scattered like chaff before the wind; their “religions” abolished as “abominations” and blasphemies; their priests, clergies and ministers punished as sorcerers, murderers, impostors, hypocrites, and plunderers of the poor; and their kings, nobles and gentry destroyed as “the destroyers of the earth.”
The Spirit of the Eternal in Jesus and his Brethren is “the Lord and his Christ,” by whom this world-wide revolution will be developed and directed. The political witnesses of Jesus developed and directed the great French Revolution. Theirs was a great and mighty, as well as a terrible work; but it is the witnesses of the Holy City, the One Body, who will constitute the Revolutionary Government, and to whom the higher and nobler, mightier and more terrible mission is assigned, of breaking in pieces the political fabric p. 721 of the world; of emancipating the nations from the reign of ignorance and strong delusion, and of blessing them in Abraham and his Seed. This is the work that is before them, and which, when accomplished, will introduce them to the reign of the aions of the aions, or THE THOUSAND YEARS.
And when this Millennial Sabbatism shall be duly established by the Eternal Spirit, the One Body, in glorious manifestation, and symbolized by the Four and Twenty Elders before the Deity, and “on their thrones,” “fall upon their faces and do homage to the Deity, saying, We give thanks to thee, O Lord, the Almighty Deity, who is, and who was, and who art the Coming One, because thou hast assumed thy great power, and reignest.”
But this is all in the future. It is the grand apocalyptic consummation of the gospel of the kingdom. It is the Divine purpose of the seventh trumpet first stated, but the last accomplished. The Spirit’s Body cannot be the Who is, and the Who was, and the Coming One reigning, so long as the saints are sleeping in the dust, and those who corrupt the earth are undestroyed. The resurrection of the holy generation is therefore indispensable to the denouement of the plot. The resurrection first comes in a time of trouble—a trouble which has doubtless begun, and which will not diminish, but increase, until there be great wrath among the nations. And so it is written in the eighteenth verse of this chapter, saying:
“And the nations were made angry, and thy wrath came; and the time of the dead to be judged; and to give the reward to thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, even to those who fear thy name, to the small and to the great; and to destroy those who corrupt the earth.”
The nations of this prophecy are those of “the earth and of the whole habitable”—Apoc. xvi. 14. They are “made angry” through the operation of the Frog Power, which is the Imperial Democratic Power of France, the policy of which acting upon the governments of Constantinople, Vienna and Rome, causes these powers in their political antagonisms to become threatening and warlike. Thus the nations they govern are “made angry,” and the world is again the theatre of war.
While they are in this international belligerency, developing their wrath upon each other, the wrath of Deity is manifested—“and thy wrath came.” But before this wrath can be manifested, He that is to execute the vengeance must have first come; and those who shall have the honor of coöperating with Him in judgment, must be raised from among the dead, and have been themselves examined before his tribunal, accepted and quickened with incorruptible p. 722 life. When the Divine wrath comes upon these nations, the revolutionary executors and directors of the indignation will be the Lord Jesus and his Brethren—the Saints. The work preparing for them by the Imperial Democratic Power, which is the political witnessing power of “THE MOUNTAIN” imperialized, will be assumed and consummated by the Saints, who are “the Kings from a Sun’s risings.” The Mountain, whose representatives are the members of the Napoleon Dynasty, could not with all the power at its command, do the work of wrath assigned to these kings. The nations have felt the power and wrath of “the Terrible Mountain,” when, under the generalship of the first Buonaparte, it inflicted “a noisome and grievous sore upon the men who had the mark of the beast, and worshipped the “Papal Image,” when it “gave them blood to drink” in the plains and valleys of Italy; “scorched with fire” the unrepentant blasphemers of Southern Germany; hurled the Roman God from his throne into captivity; filled his kingdom with darkness; caused his blaspheming priests and worshippers to “gnaw their tongues for pain.” In short, the Imperialized Mountain had executed the wrath of the first, third, fourth and fifth vials of the Revolutionary Hour; and having regained its position in the heaven, from which it was expelled at the fall of Napoleon, &c., into which it originally “ascended in the cloud,” it is blindly preparing a situation for the manifestation of the almighty and terrible power of the witnesses of the Holy City. The Mountain, though terrible and powerful, is not almighty; but the Holy City, when the forty-two months of its subjection shall have fully passed, shall be more terrible, and absolutely omnipotent in the execution of its mission. What “the Mountain” could not do, “the Stone” will fully accomplish, when it will “become A GREAT MOUNTAIN, and fill the whole earth.”
“The wrath is come.” The coming of this wrath is marked by the commencement of the Seventh Vial, which is poured out upon “THE AIR”—the political aerial in which the kingdoms of the κοσμος, or fourth-beast constitution of things, shine in all their glory. The wrath falls upon the Governments to their destruction. The Imperial Mountain overturned the Papal Throne; but after the fall of its Emperor, it was reëstablished, as were also other thrones. But the Mountain having recovered its position, has the papal throne again in its powerful grasp. It will not be able finally to abolish it. This is not its mission. It is only the Holy City, the One Almighty Body, that can overthrow all thrones in its wrath, and prevent them from being again established. The One Almighty p. 723 Body by Seventh-Vial wrath is to possess itself of the kingdoms of the Unmeasured Court of the Gentiles. The corruptors of the earth will then have been destroyed, and the coming wrath of the Deity exhausted.
1.—“The Time of the Dead”
“The time of the Dead” is at “the Time of the End”—at the expiration of Daniel’s 1335 days. This appears from the words, “Blessed he that waiteth, and cometh to the 1335 days. But go thou till the end; and thou shalt rest, and arise to thine inheritance at the end of the days”—ch. xii. 12, 13. To wait and come to these days, is to wait during their course, and to come to their end. Daniel has been thus waiting, but has not yet come to their end. During the time he has been waiting he has been resting, or “sleeping in the dust of the earth”—verse 2. So long as he is there he knows nothing, and can inherit nothing; for “the dead know not anything,” and can therefore be neither happy nor miserable. He expected nothing until he should “awake for a living one of the Olahm.” He was told that this should be at the end of the 1335 days, in the words, “thou shalt arise to thine inheritance at the end of the days.” These can only be the 1335 days whose end terminates Daniel’s rest in the dust of the earth. He is to arise to his inheritance, because the inheritance promised is neither in the dust, nor in the sky, but a land from which he was expelled by the Chaldeans, and to which he never returned. He will arise from the dust of Persia, where he has been resting since “the third year of Cyrus,” B. C. 540; and appearing before “Messiah the Prince,” of whom he wrote, and being approved, as doubtless he will be, he will be strengthened, and henceforth be prepared to “speak with the enemy in the gate,” who at present occupies the land.
“The time of the dead,” then, is at the epoch which terminates the 1335 years. This being so, there will, of course, be no more trampling of the Holy City by the Gentiles after their expiration. But the Saints were to be prevailed against “for a time, times, and the dividing of a time,” or 1260 years; and the Holy City was to be trampled “forty and two months,” which are also 1260 years. This is true; and therefore it is evident that these two differently expressed, but identical, periods both terminate synchronously with the 1335. The end of these brings us to “the end”—the end of p. 724 “the time, times, and dividing of a time;” the end of the forty and two months; the end of the 1335 years; and to the beginning of “the time of the end,” which continues to the end of Micah’s forty years.
The beginning of “the Time of the End” is “the time of the dead.” The work of this time will take time; but how much time it will consume the testimony does not reveal. The Lord Jesus Christ who is “the resurrection and the life,” as well as “the truth and the way,” descends to Mount Sinai while the present Sixth Vial is continuing to pour out. “Behold!” says he, “I come as a thief.” He comes before “the kings of the earth and of the whole habitable” are gathered into the region termed “in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.” How long before is not revealed; but between his thief like advent and the Armageddon-gathering is “the time of the dead;” and when his work is finished with his dead ones, “He gathers the kings together”—he operates upon a situation already created by the Frog Power; and brings on the catastrophy, which that power is not capable of accomplishing.
But, how many months or years the work of setting in order his own Melchizedec Household will consume I know not. It will take time. The Lord is never in a hurry. He is always deliberate and dignified. If he pleased, he could flash everything into order; and all his enemies into destruction. But he has not acted in this way in the past; and it is clear from the word that he does not intend to act flashingly in the future. There is no question about his ability so to do. He can do what he wills; and he has revealed his will, and from that revelation, it is evident that he will be deliberate in all his movements.
In the work of “the time of the dead” every individual saint who has died since Abel in all countries of the earth, has first to be awoke from his sleep of death, and made to stand bodily upon his feet. After this, they are to be gathered together from all parts to the general convention, which brings them into the presence of Christ. In this gathering, the few living saints that may remain have to be visited by his messengers, and to be caused to report themselves to the King; for one who well knew what he spoke, says, “we must all appear before the tribunal of Christ.” Now to accomplish all this will consume time; but it will, doubtless, consume more time in disposing of the business of the Court. For every one gathered to that grand assize will be called upon to give an account of himself. Of this there can be no doubt, for Paul says again, “everyone of us (saints) shall give account of himself to the Deity.”
p. 725 This relation of experiences will consume time; and one would conclude no little time. Some will doubtless be very brief, having little to say; while others will be even “speechless;” but some will have a longer account to give, as in the case of Paul and others like him. Then there will be the verdicts with all their attendant circumstances; for after the accounts given, come the personal recompenses; for they appear at the tribunal that they may “receive in body the things according to that they have done whether good or bad.” For what a man sows in body he must reap in body—“he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” Saints who have sown to the flesh, and there have been many such, will, in this “time of the dead,” be left in the body recently created from the dust; and of that body they will reap corruption that will utterly and finally destroy it. “This is the Second Death.” But Saints, who have sown to the Spirit, in “denying themselves of all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and in living soberly, righteously, and godly in the world,” will also in this “time of the dead” not be left in the body recently elaborated from the dust. That body will reap of the Spirit incorruptibility in being quickened in the twinkling of an eye, by which it will become Spirit-body, and so conformed to the body of Jesus Christ. This is what Daniel terms “strengthening.”
Thus, in “the time of the dead,” there will be a judicial separation of just saints from unjust saints. A sinner becomes a saint by believing and obeying the truth; and he continues a just saint if he continue in well-doing; but, he becomes an unjust saint, if he do not so continue. Now, the appearing at the tribunal of Christ by all the saints of these two classes is, that the just may be separated from the unjust; and that the unjust may be driven from the presence of judicial majesty into the darkness of the outer world, where they may ignominiously partake in the vengeance which is to “devour the adversaries.” This explains the phrase in that text “the time of the dead to be judged.” The judicial separation completed on this basis, and the unworthy expelled from the Royal Presence, those who remain are “the called, and chosen, and faithful”—ch. xvii. 14. They are the 144,000, having the Lamb’s Father’s name indelibly written in their foreheads; they are “the redeemed from the earth;” the undefiled virgins; the First-fruits unto the Deity, and to the Lamb; the guiltless and faultless before the throne—ch. xiv. 1-5. These are the saints, who have the honor of executing the judgment written against the kings, priests, and aristocrats of the Great City. They are all like to Jesus, who is their Head; p. 726 and “equal to the angels.” They constitute the Household, of which He is the High Priest, or Pontiff-King, after the order of Melchizedec. To manifest this household, or Divine Family, with all the attributes of Deity, is the great and interesting preliminary work for which “the time of the dead” affords sufficient scope.—The house being thus put in order and strengthened, the constituent members thereof are prepared to “follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth;” which is equivalent to the phrase “whithersoever the Spirit was to go, they went”—Ezek. i. 20. They go with Him in all his warlike expeditions, and royal progresses and visitations. They are one and indivisible, and inseparably knit together in all the bonds of love, power, and devotion; being “members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones”—Eph. v. 30.
2.—“The Reward”
“The time of the dead” was, not only for the judicial separation and exclusion of the unworthy, and the strengthening, or quickening, of the approved; but for the giving of “the reward to the servants the prophets, and to the saints, even to those who fear the name of the Deity, to the small and to the great.” This testimony shows, that whatever “the reward” may consist in, the righteous do not obtain it until after their resurrection and strengthening. Christ himself, in the days of his weakness and suffering, plainly taught this. “Thou shalt be recompensed,” said he, “at the resurrection of the just”—Luke xiv. 14. And again, he said: “The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and THEN he shall reward every man according to his works”—Matt. xvi. 27. This is the teaching which belongs to “the simplicity which is in Christ.” Nothing can be more plain and easy to understand. The resurrection has not yet transpired, because “the time of the dead to be judged” is yet future; and because the Son of Man, who is the resurrection and the life, has not yet come with his angels in his Father’s glory. The resurrection being future, then, none of the righteous have yet received “the reward.” Enoch, Elijah, Moses, and the few who came out of their graves after the resurrection of Jesus, have been “strengthened;” but even they have not received “the reward;” for this is only to be obtained upon the earth.
Now, reader, mark and inwardly digest what follows. All Greek, Latin, and Mohammedan “priests,” all Protestant “clergy,” and all
p. 727 Nonconformist, Dissenting, and Sectarian “ministers,” of all the so-called “Names and Denominations of Christendom,” teach the direct opposite to the doctrine of Jesus. In effect, this generation of hypocrites and serpents tells the Lord Jesus that he is either an ignoramus or a wilful deceiver of the people. It might refuse to say in so many words that he is a liar; because these priests, clergy, and ministers, all, save the Moslems, pretend to be called and sent of him, as his ambassadors to the world, to preach his doctrine; and it would be too gross plainly to declare that he is a liar and deceiver. There are, however, other ways of saying the same thing; and the most effectual with the least danger to their craft, is to teach in his name exactly the reverse of his teaching. This they do with the most unblushing effrontery. They tell their dupes, that man shall not be recompensed at the resurrection of the just; and that they have not to wait till the Son of Man comes with his angels, in declaring, that men are recompensed as soon as the breath leaves the body in death. Thus, like the generation of vipers and hypocrites, who appeared to men to be righteous, with whom Jesus had personally to contend, by their tradition they make void his word. They convert it by their sorcery into a falsehood, as the old Serpent, their father, did before them in Eden. I testify against them as hypocrites in the classical sense of the word. A hypocrite is one who plays a part on a stage. A priest, clergyman, or minister, is exactly this. He plays a part on the ecclesiastical stage of the world; and a part, too, that is not his real character. He is, therefore, a professional hypocrite—a hypocrite by profession. He professes to be Christ’s ambassador, and when his credentials are demanded, he has none to show. If I present myself at Washington, and claim to be an ambassador from the court of St. James, and I have no credentials to establish my claim, however sincerely I might believe, in my ignorance, that I was an ambassador of Britain, I should be attempting to play a part that was not my true character. I should therefore be, not only a hypocrite, but an impostor, and worthy of all contempt. Only think, reader, of an ambassador falsifying the instructions of the power by whom he is sent! What confusion this would produce in the counsels of the powers! An ambassador upon whose words no reliance could be placed! And here are spiritual ambassadors, Greek, Romish, Prottestant, and Sectarian, all claiming to be sent from one and the same Divine Power, all of them differing and contradicting in a multitude of important particulars, but all agreeing to suppress the teaching delivered by Eternal Wisdom, and to substitute a falsehood p. 728 of their own! What do you think, reader, of such “ambassadors of Jesus Christ” so-called; of such “ministers of the gospel;” and what think you of professed believers of the truth, who would forbid that these hypocrites, impostors, and wolves in sheep’s clothing, should be proved to be such, and being proved, should be so styled? An intelligent and sincere believer is not afraid to strip off the wool, and expose the naked wolf to the public gaze; his rule is to call things by their right names; and if a man be a quack, not to call him a physician, in order to make things pleasant all round. This course is necessary for the defence of the flock from these ravenous wolves. Spirituals are known to be wolves in sheep’s clothing “by their fruits.” Their teaching is one of their fruits. They teach contrary to Christ and his apostles, and so injure the reputation of their doctrine. This is defaming, reviling, calumniating, blaspheming, the truth. They are therefore blasphemers; and the Names and Denominations, of which they are the spirituals, are “Names of Blasphemy,” of which the scarlet-colored beast is full—Apoc. xvii. 3.
But these priestly, clerical, and ministerial teachers of blasphemy not only contradict Christ and his apostles as to the time when men shall be rewarded according to their works; but as to the place where. Eternal Wisdom has decreed that men shall be rewarded in the earth—in the arena of their contention and suffering for the truth. “The righteous shall be recompensed IN THE EARTH; much more the wicked and the sinner.” “No, no!” say the blasphemers; “no such thing! The righteous shall be recompensed at death, beyond the skiey realms of time and space; and the wicked and the sinner in the hell-flames of eternal torture, where they shall be tormented day and night by the Devil and his angels!” I do not know how it is with you, my reader, but I feel, with such contradictory propositions before me, that I am reduced to the necessary alternative of turning my back upon one or other of these parties. I find it utterly impossible to believe with Eternal Wisdom and with the so-called “ambassadors of Jesus Christ.” One or the other must be trying to impose upon me; for it is logically impossible that both parties can be right. The reader can make his own election. I believe the teaching of Eternal Wisdom; and, therefore, repudiate the dogmata of blaspheming hypocrites with indignation and contempt; and, at the same time, burn incense of thanksgiving from the golden altar to his name, for his goodness in preserving me, by the enlightening influence of the engrafted word, from the evil machinations of impostors, who would have practised their p. 729 sorceries upon me, and have made me twofold more a son of hell than themselves!
The time when, then, and the place where, the just and the unjust are to be rewarded, is in the earth at the resurrection. This is the fiat of Eternal Wisdom, which cannot be reversed. But what is the promised reward the righteous shall enjoy? “Of the Lord,” said Paul to the saints at Colosse, “ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance.” In writing to the saints in Galatia, he says, “The Deity gave the Inheritance to Abraham by promise.” By these testimonies we are taught that the subject-matter of the reward is an inheritance, or an estate to be possessed, when the time for the fulfillment of the promise shall arrive; and that this estate was given to Abraham, not actually donated and received before he died, but promised to him as an estate to be possessed when he should rise from the dead. “He died in faith,” says Paul, “not having received the promises, but saw them afar off, and was persuaded of them and embraced them.” And he tells us why he did not obtain immediate possession of the reward: it was because “the Deity has provided some better thing for us, that without us he might not be made perfect.”
There is no difficulty in learning what the estate is, and where it is situated, if we attend to what has been revealed in the word. Moses tells us that it was promised to Abraham that he should possess the country in which he was then living, the land of Canaan, in a certain far off age. That he should possess it for ever; and that his seed should be numberless as the stars; that he should be the father of many nations, which should be blessed in him and his Seed. Paul tells us, that these promises were made to Abraham and the Christ who was to descend from him; and that they were consequently to be “THE HEIRS OF THE WORLD.” Thus, the possession of the world was annexed to the possession of the land of Canaan; so that he who could prove that he was the divinely constituted heir of the one, proved also that he had a right to the other.
The Holy Land and the World of Nations were promised to Abraham and Christ; and people of all nations were invited by the gospel preached to become heirs with them of the same promise; on condition of believing the promises, the Christship of Jesus, and the things concerning his name; and of being immersed into Christ, and thenceforth patiently continuing in well-doing. In this way they become Christ’s; and, says Paul, “if ye be Christ’s then are ye Abraham’s Seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
But, the apostle also saith, the reason why Abraham did not receive p. 730 the Land and World at the time the promise was made, was because the Deity had predetermined “some better thing for us.” This “better thing” is all that constitutes the world more desirable in the nineteenth century after Christ, than it was over nineteen hundred years before. It had not then been sufficiently subdued, improved, and replenished. There was too much unhewn forest; too many wild races of untamed humanity; too few of the conveniences and elegances of life; and the existing civilization itself was too barbarous to constitute a gift worthy of Deity to his saints. He therefore deferred the fulfillment of his promises until he had developed a world of kingdoms and nations of a higher order of civilization—such, in short, as now occupies the globe. This is the “better thing provided,” the preparation of which has hitherto delayed the perfection of Abraham. When “the time of the dead” arrives, he, and all the prophets and postpentecostian believers, will stand upon their feet again, and be “made perfect;” and, when perfected in putting on incorruptibility, will receive the Holy Land and Modern World of kingdoms and nations for their reward.
This is “the reward” to be given in “the time of the dead.” In writing to the saints in Corinth, Paul says: “The world and all things are yours,” and “all things are for your sakes;” and, in arguing that the World was promised to Abraham, and that they who are Christ’s are Abraham’s Seed, he testifies that the World annexed to the Holy Land was promised to the saints. The prophets, Jesus, and the apostles, all taught this doctrine; for the Eternal Spirit spoke by them all, and therefore their teaching was a unit. Hence, by David the prophet, he taught that “those who wait upon Yahweh shall inherit the earth;” and again, “The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein forever.” Jesus also says: “Blessed are the poor in the spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens. Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth.” And James says: “The Deity hath chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, as heirs of that kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him.” From all these testimonies, then, it is evident that “the reward” to be given to the immortalized saints is the Holy Land, occupied by Abraham’s descendants, constituting a kingdom, with dominion, absolute and uncontrolled, over all the kingdoms of the world, annexed thereto. This is the kingdom and glory to which men are invited in “the gospel of the kingdom.” The events of the “Hour of Judgment” are for the purpose of wresting this world-wide dominion from those who now possess it; and of transferring it to “the Saints of the Most High, who shall take p. 731 the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for the Olahm, even for the Olahm, and beyond” the thousand years.
But here come in the modern scribes, pharisees, and hypocrites, with their blasphemous and word-nullifying traditions, and make all this teaching of none effect. “Yes,” say they, “the meek shall inherit the earth;” they do now inherit the earth in the farms they possess, which is as much of the earth as is good for them; but, as to the earth itself, it is not to abide for ever, but to be burned up in “the wreck of nature and the crash of worlds.” And as to the Holy Land, called also “the Promised Land,” they say: “True; Abraham did not possess it before he died; nor was it ever intended that he, Isaac, and Jacob, should. They were to possess it in the sense of their posterity possessing it under the Mosaic Law; for the Land of Canaan lying between the Euphrates and the Great Sea, was only typical of that ‘heavenly country,’ the true Canaan and happy land beyond the Jordan of Death, where souls immortal bathe in seas of endless bliss! This celestial country was the land promised to Abraham, to which he soared away upon the wings of angels, when his precious immortal soul was released from its ‘mortal coil’ in the article of death.”
Reader, one’s powerlessness alone restrains one’s indignation. No wonder Deity gave these hypocrites “blood to drink,” and caused them to “gnaw their tongues for pain,” in the great earthquake. It is because of their blasphemies vengeance has fallen upon this “MODEL REPUBLIC,” and will, ere long, descend in an avalanche of wrath upon “the kingdoms of the world.” The blasphemies of the clergy are enough to wreck any nation that upholds them. Even now, where they have the most power and influence, society is most rotten, most ignorant, and most miserable: what, then, will be the fate of all peoples, when “the time of the dead” arrives, to “execute the judgment written,” and to “destroy these corrupters of the earth?”
“The Reward,” in relation to its several elements, is exhibited apocalyptically under a diversity of symbols. These have been considered at large in the first volume of this work. To be strengthened with incorruptible life in the time of the dead, is “to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of the Deity”—ch. ii. 7. To be an immortal king, is to receive “the crown of life”—ver. 10. To be approved, and acquitted of all guile and fault before the throne, and to be physically like Jesus Christ, is to eat of the hidden manna, to receive a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, and known only to the receiver—ver. 17. To operate with the p. 732 Lamb in the setting up of the promised kingdom, is to receive power over the nations, to rule them with a rod of iron, and to shiver their image to pieces as a potter’s vessel—ver. 26, 27. To be endued with a clean and incorruptible nature, and to be divinely honored, is to be clothed in white raiment, and to be confessed before the Father and his angels—ch. iii. 5. To become Deity manifested in glorified nature, and a constituent of the New Jerusalem, is to be made a permanent pillar in the Nave or Most Holy of Deity, with the Name of Deity, and the name of the city of Deity, the new name written upon him—ver. 12. And to reign with Christ, is to sit with him in his throne—ver. 21. Such is “the reward to be given to the prophets, to the saints, to them that venerate the Name of Deity, small and great;” so that, “even the least in the kingdom of the heavens,” though a star of the smallest magnitude and glory, will be greater than the greatest of all the prophets in the mortal state—Luke vii. 28; “the reward” offered to all who believe the glad tidings of this glorious and powerful kingdom, and are immersed into its Almighty King, and thenceforth seek for its glory, honor, incorruptibility, and life, by a patient continuance in well-doing—Rom. ii. 7; the reward to be received in “the time of the dead,” and not before.
3.—“The Nave of Deity Opened”
“And the Nave of the Deity was opened in the heaven, and the Ark of his Covenant was seen in his Nave.”
This nineteenth verse is parallel with ch. iv. 1, in which John says, “a door had been opened in the heaven;” and looking through the door, he saw “a throne and one sitting upon it.” This throne and its glorious occupant is identical with the Ark of the Covenant. In the typical Mosaic Tabernacle, the Ark stood in the Nave, or Most Holy Place. It was Yahweh’s throne in Israel, on which he was said to sit between the Cherubim. From thence proceeded all his decrees for peace or war issued through the Prince of the host, the High Priest of Israel. It was a symbol of great significance in its appointed place. Had it been placed in the Holy place, and the Golden Altar in the Most Holy, that expressive significance would have been wholly destroyed. This transposition would have represented the Lord Jesus Christ as personally and visibly resident among the saints in all the past eighteen hundred years; and that p. 733 when “the time of the dead” arrived, he would take his departure, and leave them to burn incense to his name in prayer and praise, as they do now. This would have been an entire reversal of the Divine Order of Manifestation.
The Nave and the Ark were beyond the Veil, which represents the flesh—Heb. x. 20. The opening of the nave is therefore equivalent to that which constitutes the nave, being no longer simply holy in the flesh, but most holy in spirit-nature, having passed from flesh to spirit. The opening of the nave is a wonderful manifestation of power. It implies the descent of him, who is the resurrection and the life; the reorganization of the ashes of the saints, and the restoration to each of them of their identity; and their subsequent transformation into spirit-bodies by the instantaneous operation of the Spirit. And when this process is complete, to, give them a commanding position “in the heaven,” that, as the Ark of the Covenant, they may be the depository of almighty power, and prepared for the work of ruling in righteousness all the kingdoms, or heavens, of the world, and retaining undisturbed possession of them for a thousand years.
Thus, the Ark of the Covenant seen in the opened nave, is the Deity in most holy manifestation—manifested by spirit in Jesus and his Brethren “glorified together.” Collectively they form the Ark and Cherubim, the Spirit answering to the manna, the budding almond-rod, and the testimony. This is evident from the discourses of Jesus as recorded by John. The anointing Spirit, or Christ-Spirit, speaking by Jesus, declared, that he is the bread of life, or true manna; the resurrection, or budding rod; and the covenanted truth, or testimony. The container of such a power is the chest, or ark thereof; and therefore styled the Ark of the Covenant—of the New Covenant, the Abrahamic; with a blood-sprinkled propitiatory or mercy seat, even Jesus; and all in him who worshipped in the altar. This is the throne, the Eternal Spirit’s throne, to be established as such in Jerusalem, the Mother City of the Kingdom of the Ancient of Days.
In the fourth chapter, the Ark of the Covenant is distributed. The mercy seat and ark of which it is the coverlid, are exhibited there as the throne encircled with the rainbow of covenant-testimony; and the cherubim full of eyes, are taken down and placed about the throne, surrounded with a circle of representative royal presbyters. This, distribution, when synthesized, or put together, constitutes the apocalyptic Ark. The time of the fourth chapter p. 734 symbols is synchronous with “the time of the dead,” when the judgment of the House of Deity shall have been completed; and the saints shall be ready, by their immortalization, to execute the judgment written against the world without.
“And there were lightnings and voices and thunders, and an earthquake, and great hail.”
These are the same that burst forth out of the throne, as represented in ch. iv. 5; and are the consummation of the wrath of the Eternal Omnipotence upon the objects of apocalyptic vengeance. These lightnings, voices, thunderings, earthquake, and great hail, of the fourth and eleventh chapters, are symbolical of the judgments of the Seventh Vial; which is the consummation of the judgments of the Seventh Trumpet, and of the Seventh Seal. “No one can enter into the nave until the seven plagues of the seven angels be finished”—ch. xv. 8. This entering into the nave, is in the sense of entering into the kingdom, consisting of “the kingdoms of the world;” for it will require all the judgments of the Seventh Vial to complete the transfer of those kingdoms from the grasp of the wicked, or, “the Devil and his Angels,” who now hold them, to the Saints who are to possess them for a thousand years. In all the period of the Seventh Vial “the Nave is filled with smoke from the glory of the Deity.” The nave then exists, as constituted of glorified Christadelphians, or Brethren of Christ; but they smoke with burning and consuming indignation against the governments of the world and their armies; and until that smoke has passed away in victory, by which their wrath is assuaged, the Nave, in the sense of the most holy and blessed constitution of the thousand years, can be entered upon by none.
The thunderings are the Seven Thunders of the last vial. They burst forth against the powers of the aerial in which they roll. They are accompanied with an earthquake, whose shocks surpass every thing of the kind experienced by men since they began to dwell upon the earth. It is described as “a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great”—ch. xvi. 18. As the result of it, the cities or states, of the nations, are overturned; and great dismay pervades all classes. Besides this, a great hail falls upon the people, whose wickedness is great. It falls upon them “out of the heaven.” It descends upon them from the Nave, “every hailstone about the weight of a talent.” A talent is figurative of an individual. When he descends as a hailstone, he falls from the heaven of power p. 735 upon the enemy to be judged. A multitude of such descending upon their enemies, becomes to them as a storm of hail. They constitute a mighty and strong power, “which, as a tempest of hail, and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand”—Isa. xxviii. 2. With such a hail will men be plagued; but instead of repenting of their iniquity, transgression, and sin, they will “blaspheme the Deity; for the plague of the hail will be exceeding great”—ch. xvi. 21.
We have now arrived at the conclusion of the eleventh chapter of that admirable symbolic representation of the things concerning the kingdom of men, in its antagonism to the kingdom of Deity, the Name of Jesus Christ, and to them who are “the called according to His purpose.” There still remain eleven chapters to be expounded. These will constitute the subject-matter of the Third Volume of Eureka. This second volume has brought us down to the appearing of THE ANCIENT OF DAYS in the midst of THE MANIFESTED SONS OF DEITY, in judicial and belligerent activity against the Four Mediterranean Dominions, symbolized by the Beasts, which Daniel saw coming up out of its tempestuous waters—Dan. vii. 2, 3. This is the wonderful denouement of the tragic drama of the Apocalypse. There is another grand development a thousand years afterwards. This is vastly important and intensely interesting to all the sons of men; for it reveals nothing short of the CESSATION OF EVERY CURSE by which humanity has been continuously afflicted since its primeval transgression of the divine law—Apoc. xxii. 3. But, of these two developments, the former is the most interesting at this crisis to the Brethren of Jesus Christ; for to them, the coming of the Ancient of Days is their speedy deliverance from “all the ills that flesh is heir to.” In relation to them, Mortality and Death will be swallowed up of life and victory—1 Cor. xv. 54; 2 Cor. iv. 4; and the curses, which now cleave to flesh and blood with leprous inveteracy, shall afflict them no more. They shall be “like Jesus” and “equal to the angels”—1 John iii. 2; Luke xx. 36. This is a consummation, not only to be devoutly wished and prayed for, but to be earnestly sought for, and labored for, “by a patient continuance in well-doing”—which is the only effectual seeking that will be wreathed with that which fadeth not away.
The end of this chapter conducts the faithful to this glorious consummation, in which, being immortalized, “judgment will be given to them”—Dan. vii. 22,26. The “lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and earthquake, and great hail,” burst forth from them p. 736 in occupancy of the throne conjointly with the Ancient of Days. These are their judicial outpourings of wrath upon the “POWERS THAT BE.” The whole of the Seventh Vial, as well as the closing scenes of the Sixth, are assigned to them. We are now contemporary with the development of the preadventual FROG-SIGN in the third and last stage of its operation. Before this is completely finished, “the Ancient of Days comes as a thief;” so that Apoc. xvi. 15 and xi. 17-19, are identical crises. This is the crisis now upon the world. The first throes of the parturient mountain which are to evolve THE STONE (Dan. ii. 34, 35, 44, 45) are being felt in all the Habitable of the two hemispheres. “No man is master of the situation.” This has been well said by an Austrian Journal. The Deity alone holds the key of the position. His servants know what that is; for to them He has made known his secret—Ps. xxv. 14; Prov. iii. 32; Amos iii. 7; and by its signs they are forewarned. That key is upon His shoulder, who opens and none shuts; and shuts and none opens: even upon His, who shall be for a glorious throne to THE HOUSE OF DAVID—Isa. xxii. 20-25; Apoc. iii. 7. He will “open a door in the heaven,” and lead “His sanctified ones” into the royal palace of Babylon the Great; where all the might of the power, and the honor of the majesty of the kingdom of men, is temporally and provisionally enthroned. While the governments of the nations are unconsciously contributing to the formation of a situation to be signalized by their irretrievable and final overthrow, the Master of that situation proclaims to His Brethren, “Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.” May we, my reader, be of that happy number, who shall be found of Him watching, and duly and fitly clothed.