Appendix

1.-The present evil age is, say we, the time of the absence of the Lord, and that is, at all events, true as to us. But when, precisely, did this age begin? Perhaps at the deluge. It is, then, on this account that the times of our Lord, and of His apostles, are called "the last times, or the last days" (Heb. 1:1).
They would have been, indeed, the last times, or days, of the evil age, if Jesus had been received, since his glorious reign would then have introduced the age to come. [Are the ages, and all time, COUNTED as to earth? The Church is heavenly.-Ed.]
But, enough; if the precise moment of the beginning of this age is not clearly seen, its characteristic traits to us are most definite. It is an " evil age " from which the Christian is delivered (Gal. 1:4); an age of darkness, the prince and god of which is the devil (Eph. 6.12; 2 Cor. 4.4); the children of which are opposed to the children of light (Luke 16.8). Those who love this age abandon God and His children (2 Tim. 4.10); also, we must not be conformed to it (Rom. 12:2).
The age to come evidently begins at the coming of the Lord, and corresponds to the time of His reigning. It is a desirable and a glorious age, since those who will be counted worthy to have part in it, and in the resurrection from among the dead, cannot die any more (Luke 20.35, 36). It is the age of recompence (Mark 10.30); Luke 14.14). It is the age of resurrection, of life, and of glory.
The world and the age have oft been confounded together, which is a great error. The world, or earth, κοσμος, or οικουμενη is the earth on which we dwell. The age, αιων, is a time appointed for the duration of the world, or a dispensation of God as to the world and its inhabitants; one of those dispensations which he made by the Son (Heb. 1.2). They are as two parallel lines, often even cut at equal distances, by the same events, but always distinct.
If the present age began at the deluge, it corresponds, as to its duration, with that which may be called the present world, in contrast with the old world, or world before the deluge.
The age to come, which is introduced by the coming of the Lord, corresponds also to the world to come, or the habitable earth to come (Psa. 8; Heb. 2:5). That is to say, to the world restored by the Lord, and in which all creatures will be subject to Him.
There is also correspondence between the traits of this world and those of the present age. if this age is evil, the world also lies in the wicked one, and all that is in the world: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And, therefore, as we may not love the present age, nor conform ourselves to it, neither may we love the world, nor the things that are in the world (1 John 2:15-17; 5:19; James 4:4). If the devil is called the ruler of the darkness of this age (Eph. 2.2; 6:11, 12), he is also called the prince of this world (John 12.31; 14:30; 16:11). To walk according to the age of this world (lit.) is to walk according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience (Eph. 2:2); also, now the kingdom of Jesus is neither of this world, nor of this age (John 18.36). That it is not of this age, the word now proves; that it is not of this world, is proved by the words -from hence; but it will be displayed in the age to come, upon an earth renewed.
Notwithstanding these connections, the world and the age are not the same thing, and must not be confounded together. Matt. 13:39, 40, 49, and 24:3, should be translated " end of the age," and not " end of the world"; end of the world leads the mind to the question of the destruction of the heavens and the earth, and to the judgment which will then take place (Rev. 20); whereas, in these passages, and Matt. 25 (which is but a development of it), the question is not about the end of the world, but about the end of the present evil age, and of the judgment then executed by the Lord, as introductory to the age to come.
2.- This interruption in the ways of God, with regard to His earthly people, agrees with the mystery of the Church, and is as a key to the understanding of prophecy. It quite accounts for the silence of prophecy as to the destiny of the nations of Christendom since the rejection of Israel. Israel being the center of the places of God for the earth, God gives prophecies concerning nations, only according to their connection, or not, with Israel. Now Israel existing not as His people for eighteen hundred years, prophecy is silent also about the nations during all that time. It does not again speak of them until the moment when the nations again gather themselves together around Jerusalem; that is, at the moment when God again turns toward Israel, to purge it by judgment, and then to re-establish it in its glorious privileges.
If this had been apprehended, men would not have searched in Daniel, and the prophets generally, for the Pope, Mahomet, the Goths, the Saracens, Attila, Charlemagne, Napoleon, all the kings, and all the revolutions of modern history. Search for the year of the return of the Lord would not have been made. Nor, lastly, should we have seen all these systems, which, falsified so many times, by passing events, afford the infidel an occasion for mockery, and disincline even pious persons from the study of prophecy.