THE personal advent of the Messiah has been the hope of the Church from the beginning. It is the “one hope” of the Gospel. The apostle Paul gives thanks to God in behalf of the Colossian saints,—“Having heard of their faith in Christ, and of the love they, have toward all the saints, because of the hope which is laid up for them in heaven.” (Col. i, 4, 5.)*

It is not our entrance into the invisible world, in spirit, of which the Scriptures speak as the hope of the Gospel. This is not the period of anticipated blessedness reserved for the saints. However much we may rejoice, in view of our release from the toils and temptations of this present life, and our entrance into the intermediate state, it is never called the hope of the Gospel; though its condition is “far better” than the present one, and sufficient to awaken “a desire to depart” in order to enter into it. The Church at Corinth was “waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. ” ( I Cor. i, 7.) Paul speaks of the Thessalonians as of those “who waited for his son from heaven. ” (I Thess. i, to.), He also says that, “When Christ, our life, shall be manifested, then will ye also be manifested with him in glory. ” (Col. iii, 4.) To appear with him in glory is consequent upon the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Of the Philippians, he says, “Our citizenship is in heaven; from whence we also look for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Phil. iii, 20.) And in his letter to Titus he says, “Looking for the blissful hope and appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.” (Tit. ii, 13.) Paul speaks of the coming of our Lord as the time of the resurrection of our bodies, and of “victory” for the righteous dead and the living saints. (Cor [sic]. xv, 52–57.) He counted all things but loss, and of no value, “if, by any means, he might attain to the resurrection from the dead. ” (Phil. iii, 11.) He knew that, in common with all the race, he would rise from the dead ; and yet he suffered the loss of all things that he might attain to it. There must have been something in Paul's [248] resurrection which would distinguish it from the general resurrection. He hoped for a resurrection out from among the dead—an eclectic resurrection. He aspired to the enjoyment of the blessedness of those who shall “have part in the first resurrection.” (Rev. xx, 6.)

Not the saints on earth only, but the spirits of the just, look forward to this day with hope and exultant joy. And when he opened the fifth sea], John “saw under the altar the souls of those slain on account of the word of God, and on account of the testimony which they had. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O faster, the holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell upon the earth? And a white robe was given to each one of them; and it was said to them that they should rest yet a little time, until their fellow-servants and their brethren, who are about to be killed as they were, should be fully numbered. ” (Rev. vi, 9–11.) Thus “the souls” of those who had been slain for the word of God, were seen under the altar by John; and they were waiting for the day when their blood should be avenged on them that dwell on the earth, and until their fellow-servants and their brethren should be killed as they had been, and their number should be completed. To pacify them, and as an earnest of their reward, a white robe was given to each of them. This was a most tender and touching act of sympathy and kindness shown them on the part of the Savior. These heroic witnesses, who had been slain for the word of God, lay beneath the altar, unfleshed and unrobed, restless and anxious for the day of the expectant reward at “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ” The time seemed long to these captives in the unseen, as they remembered what they had suffered on the earth for Christ and his word; and what awaited them—at the revelation of Jesus Christ. With what intensity of feeling and turbulence of hope; with what vehemence did these mercurial spirits cry out, “How long, O Lord ? ” We seem to hear their cry. It tingles sharply on our ears. The wail of these fiery martyrs has come down the ages. It could not, would not be allayed, until some fresh and sensible token was given them of the avenging of their blood upon the earth. “And a white robe was given to each one of them ; and it was said to them, that they should rest yet a little season.” The [249] word of promise which Christ gave them, and the white robe, as the pledge of future blessedness, were enough! Glorious company of martys! [sic] Ye mighty spirits of the past, you are not forgotten! We are your brethren, if we suffer for the Christ, and with him. We also partake of your longing desires, your irrepressible hopes. We look for no satisfied and eternal verities until the King shall come to avenge the blood of his slain, and the time of his recomªpense shall appear. No day of triumph and peace has yet come upon the earth. No millennial glory will dawn upon our race in the absence of the glorified person of our great Deliverer. “How long!” has been the cry of the oppressed and the suffering for ages past. It comes with a deeper undertone as the night of the apostasy settles down upon the nations of the earth; and a divided Protestantism cuts off all hope of a return to the freshness and dew of the early age of the Christian faith. Surely, the world is not doomed, with its unsaved millions, to the hopelessless and helplessness of an apostate Christianity.

Is there any hope from the Papacy? any from ecclesiasticism among Protestant sects ? any for a return to the good old paths of the apostolic age? We see none, absolutely none, on a scale commensurate with the wants of the world. Is there any hope or grounds of belief in a union on the one foundation among “the sects? ” We see none, except in sentiment and feeling, and in platform addresses. Each party remains intact; and the more influential and numerous the sect, the more tenacious of the ground they occupy. Even the Baptists and the Disciples can not coalesce. No union among them can be formed without a compromise. Only as two parties can they come together, retaining what is peculiar to each. The spirit of sect is too strong for the spirit of union. The walls of separation are too earthly and secular to be beaten down by the celestial machinery of “the truth as it is in Jesus. ”

It will be observed that “the souls of those under the altar” were to rest until the full complement of their “fellow-servants and brethren” who were found on the earth should be numbered, or until the day of the threatened retribution. To the same effect are the following words: “And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldst give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the [250] saints, and those who fear thy name both small and great; and shouldst destroy them that destroy the earth.” (Rev. xi, 18.)

Up to this day of reward for the righteous, “the nations are angry,” and consequently no era of blessedness, and no universal triumph of the Gospel on the earth. The time of this reward is the time when “the wrath is come” upon the world of the ungodly, and when those should be destroyed who had destroyed the earth. This time would also be the “time of the dead” (saints), the, time of their resurrection.

The same glorious period is referred to by John in the following passage: “And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open its seals: for thou wast slain, and hast reªdeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue and people, and nation; and hast made us to our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.” (Rev. v, 9, 10.)

Those who sung this song were then before the lamb that was slain, and who had been redeemed by his blood out of the earth. They had been made kings and priests, but had not entered upon their reign. The territorial portion over which they should enjoy their priestly reign was “the earth. ”

A question very naturally occurs here, If the saints are to reign on the earth, who shall be their subjects? Not certainly over brute matter; nor yet over angels; nor over one another. If kings, who are their loyal subjects? and if priests, who will enjoy their ministrations? They were to reign over the nations of the earth, or men in the flesh. But why these longing desires, these anxious expectations? Are they not already with the slain lamb? Is not their work done? We answer that they have not as yet received their full reward. They have not received all that has been promised them. They had been heirs according to the hope of eternal life ; but that hope had not been, up to this time, realized. The “purchased possession” was not in their hands. They were still “waiting for the adoption; to wit, the redemption of their bodies. ”

“Wherefore, ” says Peter, “gird up the loins of your mind, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." (I Peter i, 13.) The Church is to fix her hope, then, upon this one thing the coming of her Lord; or, in other words, the revelation of Jesus Christ is his appearing after he had for a long time been hid from [251] the eyes of men; the Scriptures speak in this wise: “Waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Cor. i, 7.) “That thou keep the commandment without spot, blameless, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Tim. vi, I4.) “I charge thee before God, and Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and kingdom.” (2 Tim. iv, I.) These and similar passages evidently refer to the second advent of the Savior. There is, then, a “grace”; or favor, to be brought to us at that time. It will be the time of reward. It will be the era of the “restitution.” It will be the ushering in of “the new heavens and new earth,” and the coming “redemption, ” for which “the whole creation groaneth and travaileth together in pain until now. ” It will be the jubilee of the ransomed—the day of release of the captives, ushered in with the sound of the resurrection trumpet, and accompanied with the songs of the redeemed. No day like this has ever dawned upon our sin-cursed earth. It will be a day of restoration of our lost inheritances; of reward of prophets and apostles, of martyrs, and of all the saintly dead and righteous living. How little do our schemes of life and enjoyments, our party strife and ambitions for pre-eminence, our spiritual milleniums [sic], our revivals and “outpourings” for the conversion of sinners, our denominational unions, appear, in comparison with that great day of the Lord! And how utterly impotent all known agencies, past or present, to usher it in, and to give it birth! There is an imperial grandeur in the potencies connected with the advent, and what shall follow, that forbid all our hopes of a regenerate world until the King in person shall come!

The coming of the Lord will not be to annihilate the earth, or to depopulate it, but to restore its pristine beauty and order; to make the wilderness and the solitary places glad; to bless and renew it; to judge the nations, and to bring them under his government. He will come to break down all rule and authority that exalt themselves against God; to destroy all bad governments, and scatter them as the dust of the Summer's threshing-floor; to burn up and destroy all the great centers of outrage and wrong-doing, of usurpation and wickedness; and to shake the earth terribly for its sins, and to subdue it to his own personal rule and authority. He will come to restore to the Jewish race (loved for the fathers' sakes), Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to the land, which has so long lain, desolate; and when [252] they shall look upon him whom they had slain, and cry out for joy: “This our Lord, we have waited for him. Blessed be he that comes in the name of the Lord! ” He will come to make Mount Zion the seat of his exalted kingdom, and, with the glorified saints associated with him, to reign over the house of Jacob, and over the nations, for the period of “a thousand years. ” During this time, all those splendid predictions of the prophets, and in the Psalms, and in the writings of the apostles, will meet with their full and perfect accomplishment: The curse will be abolished. Death will be swallowed up in victory. The earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord. All nations will be blessed, and will call him blessed who has brought this great deliverance. Satan will be bound, and the earth shall enjoy its long ªexpected Sabbath. The golden age of the prophets and of the poets will have come, in which the “restitution” of all things to order and beauty will be accomplished.

We must be approaching this great consummation. At least, we are much nearer to it than in the days of the apostles. The very first rays of its light and glory on the rugged cliffs and mountain peaks filled them, and the Churches they planted, with “joy unspeakable, ” and with a hope that was full of glory. How ought our hearts to be affected with the signs of its rosy dawn! Surely, we are nearer than when they believed! Have we not lost sight of this great hope? Has not the vision of the holy mount which almost dazed Peter, James, and John, and which was but a faint scenic representation of the coming hope, faded from our eyes ? O, it is all a figure! It can't be literal! The Scriptures are full of metaphors and symbols! Ay, surely; but they have their meaning. They rest upon a basis of truth. They refer to things real and veritable. They are not the rhetoric of the schools. They had such power on prophets and apostles as to make them tremble, and to fall as dead men to the ground. In the darkest days, both of the Jewish and Christian Churches, as the clouds that hung over them grew deeper, their eyes were gladdened by that sun behind them, though distant far, which skirted them with gold.

The days which are to precede this happy period were “to be perilous days, ” full of lawlessness and wickedness—not days of peace and purity. The period nearest to the, coming of the Lord will be as the days of Noah before the Flood, of wars and rumors of wars, [253] of coldness in the Churches, of the form of godliness without its power, of iniquity and general immorality, and of great tribulation; an era of “signs and wonders, ” or pretended miracles; an age when the foolish virgins will equal in number the wise; of servants in the Church smiting their fellows, and saying, “My Lord delayeth his coming. ”

The man of sin, the son of perdition, will exist up to the period of Epiphany. Like a dark cloud, it will rest over the nations till Jesus comes. No spiritual millennium, certainly, here; no room for it as long as the apostasy is among us. A spiritual reign before the King comes, is the dream of enthusiasts. It is but an “old wives' fable.” It is the outgrowth of a supposed “outpouring” connected with revivalism. It is the faith in human progress and of better days, and not a faith in God's Word. It is science run mad, philosophy turned prophet, and human reason as the regenerator of the world. It is as baseless as a dream. It has neither experience, observation, nor revelation to rest upon. The days that followed those of the apostles knew nothing of it. The testimony of the primitive Church, from John in the island of Patmos to Barnabas, Clement, Papias, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Cyprian,—all, with one voice, speak of the coming of Christ as pre-millennial. Origen, in the third century, was the first to disturb the orthodox faith of which we speak. Gibbon says: “The ancient and popular doctrine of the millennium was intimately connected with the second coming of Christ. The assurance of such a millennium was carefully inculcated by a succession of fathers, from Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, who conversed with the immediate disciples of the apostles, down to Lactantius, who was preceptor to the son of Constantine. It appears to have been the reigning sentiment of the orthodox believers. ” The celebrated Chillingworth says that “the doctrine of the millennium and Christ's personal reign on earth was, by the Church of the next age after the apostles, held true and catholic. ” He says, “It was the catholic doctrine of those times. ” Mosheim says, “The prevailing opinion that Christ was to come and reign a thousand years among men before the final dissolution of the world, had met with no opposition previous to the time of Origen. ”

A spiritual millennium before the coming of Christ, is a modern [254] system of prophetic interpretation and owes its existence, since the Lutheran Reformation, chiefly to the labors of Dr. Whitby. It has had able and learned supporters; but so has the opposite side of this great question. To the law and the testimony, however, is our appeal. Doubtless the subject has been greatly abused by such men as the good but enthusiastic Miller, of '43 memory, and by many adventists of the materialistic school, and of Sabbatarian tendencies; but we should remember that every truth has had its counterpart, and every good its evil. “When the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, Satan also came among them.” The apostles had a Judas, the Church its apostasy. Error always hangs upon the heels of truth; and the greater the truth, the more fatal the error. Let us not rob ourselves of the hope of the Gospel because men have abused it. What has not been done with the Gospel and the Church, and all its institutions? “The wood, the hay, and the stubble” have all been incorporated with the building of the temple of God.

It is no easy matter to harmonize the prophetic Scriptures, and give in detail the events which stand in connection with the Advent. I will briefly state a few of them:

1. That Jesus, in his glorified person, will return to this earth in like manner as he ascended on high. (Acts i, II ; Acts iii, 20, 2I.)

2. That at this time he will raise the righteous dead, translate the living who are looking for him, and receive them into his glorious kingdom. (I Thess. iv, 16, 17; v, 2, 3, 23; Rev. xx, 5, 6; Isa. xxvi, 19, 20, 2I.)

3. His feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives, and the mount shall cleave asunder in the midst thereof. (Zech. xiv, 3, 4, 9.)

4. The Jews shall look upon him whom they have pierced. (Zech. xii, I0; Rev. i, 7.)

5. “All Israel shall be saved, ” when the Redeemer shall come out of Zion, and turn away ungodliness from Jacob. (Romans xi, 26; Luke i, 32, 33.)

6. The conversion of the world and the ultimate fulfillment of the prophetic Scriptures in regard to the latter-day glory. (Ps. ii, 6–8; xxii, 27, 28; PS. lxxii; Dan. vii, 15, 17, 26, 27; Isa. lxvi, 15, 18.) Thus the heathen will be given to Christ, and the uttermost parts of the earth for a possession; but this will be after God has set him [255] as King upon his holy hill in Zion. It also stands connected with the judgment that shall fall upon the nations. “He will break them to pieces as a potter's vessel.”

7. God “will gather all nations and tongues, and they shall see his glory. ” But this will be when “the Lord will come with fire and with his chariots, like a whirlwind, to render his anger with. fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire." (Isa. lxvi, 1–16.)

And so, after the Son of man is seen coming in the clouds of heaven, “there was given him dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him.” (Dan. vii, 13, 14.) It is then that he shall be Governor of the nations. This will be the glorious character of the kingdom of God, which now exists in its gracious and suffering form.

Let us study the prophetic Scriptures in relation to this grand and sublime subject; and get our hearts filled with its immortal hopes, its transcendent glory. Amidst the misrule and irreligion of the present day, it will fill us with courage and boldness, with patience and hope. We need it to awake the sleeping virgins, and to kindle anew our zeal in behalf of the apostolic Gospel, for the conversion of sinners. It is the great motive power in their return to God.

Never was our plea so mighty and successful as when we kept this great hope constantly before the people. Let us try it again, not as a theory, a speculation, but as a part of the “living Word.” In connection with the Gospel restored and revived; it will yet prove mighty through God in pulling down the strongholds of error, and in turning sinners to God, “to wait for his Son from heaven,” who bought them with his blood. What we have done in the restoration of the faith that was once delivered to the saints, let us also do for the “one hope” to be realized at the appearing and kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“Surely, I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. ”

Notes:
* The American Bible Union