16 — Millennial Reign

Chapter 16 THE GLORY OF CHRIST’S MILLENNIAL REIGN

There is a class of minds, which the concealment of the future does but incite to ascertain what it will disclose. Give them but the clue to it, and though their inquiries be of doubtful success, they prosecute them with ardor; though their excursions be across seas and deserts, and through deep caverns and intricate labyrinths, they shrink not from the toil, or the peril of the pursuit. Nor is there anything in the spirit of piety to repress, or rebuke this research, but rather not a little to encourage and give it right direction. The Christian is the only genuine philosopher; the lover of God is the only true lover of nature and science, the only wise and profited inquirer into the history of the past, or the prospects of the coming times.

How trivial the consequences which flow from the greatest achievements of men, their most important discoveries and their most agitating revolutions, compared with those which may naturally be supposed to follow from the setting up of that kingdom of which Jesus Christ is the Head, and which is fitted in its noiseless, pathless course, to transform chaos into order and beauty, and create all things new!

When, six thousand years ago, the thought was uttered that the Seed of the Woman should bruise the head of the serpent, there were wrapped up in this announcement some of the greatest thoughts ever intimated to men. Here was the love of God to this guilty world. Here was the Father of Eternity giving his Eternal Son to die, and here the stipulated reward of that mighty Sufferer, and the joy that was set " before him, when he endured the cross, despising the shame." And here was the bright harvest of the omnipotent and ever-blessed Spirit, who, though Paul plant, and Apollos water, himself gives the increase. The mighty mind of the Deity has formed purposes without number that are expressive of goodness and wisdom; but they are all subordinate to this, and minister to its fulfillment. Without it, there had been a vacuum in the universe, the sun had never shone in the heavens, nor the moon walked in her brightness. This earth had not been this earth. Man had not been man. Seraphim had not covered their faces with their wings, nor had they ever have been heard to say, " Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory." When Rome inscribed in three different languages, that inscription on the cross, " Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews," there was an invisible hand which was preparing the announcement, " At the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth; and every tongue shall confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father." We have in the preceding chapter, endeavored to show in what this predicted age of millennial glory does not consist, and have expressed some of the reasons of our dissent from the opinion that Jesus Christ will then reign in Person upon our earth. We are, in some sort, under obligation, therefore, to show wherein consists the glory of that predicted day. This we do by the induction of the following particulars. That coming day will, in the first place, he introduced by remarkable judgments inflicted on anti-christian nations and wicked men. It would seem, from many intimations in the Scriptures, that the church of God, just before the brighter dawnings of that day, will be involved in no small perplexity from the hostility of her enemies. It has been the method of divine providence to allow his people to be reduced to some extremity of depression before God himself interposes for their deliverance and enlargement. To such an extent has this been the fact in past ages, that good men have been taught the lesson that at the period when their enemies began to triumph, they themselves may begin to hope. The representations given of the Millennium in the Apocalypse are preceded by the representations of most exemplary and fearful judgments inflicted upon wicked men, and upon the powers of Antichrist in every form. Without attempting to specify the events in the past or the future history of the world, which correspond with the pouring out of the seven phials, containing the seven last plagues, it is enough for us here to say that they are all emblematic of the judgments that are to descend upon the earth, in order to prepare the way for the reign of Jesus Christ among men. And they are to be continued down to the period when John "saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand," to bind " that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan," a thousand years. The evidence preponderates in favor of the conclusion that the sixth phial is now being poured upon the earth, and has been descending for many years that are past, and will yet descend for years to come. The " Holy City," the true church of God, is still "trodden under foot of the Gentiles," infested by enemies and false friends, and in the old world especially the witnesses for the truth are " prophesying in sackcloth." For a series of years events have been taking place which indicate the overthrow both of the imperial and the ecclesiastical Beast, or, in other words, the Beast and the False Prophet; and by which the sources of all anti-christian powers have been and are gradually drying up, like the drying of a mighty river, which for so many ages has been overflowing all its banks. How long before the seventh and last phial will begin to be poured out, we are not warranted in determining any farther than to say that this last series of judgments is yet to visit the earth. There is little doubt that the spirit of wickedness is yet to become rampant in all its forms of arbitrary power, vile hypocrisy, giddy worldliness, bold infidelity, and filthy crime. Nor is there any doubt that they will combine their counsels and their power against the Son of God and his struggling church, and that in this last battle, which is to precede the Millennium, the kingdom of darkness will be made to tremble " From turret to foundation stone."

These judgments upon anti-christian nations will neither be few nor light. Revolution will succeed revolution both in the political and moral world; convulsion will come upon the back of convulsion, and God will pour upon the nations " his indignation, even all his fierce anger." The scenes shall be realized of which it is written, "And there were voices and thunders and lightnings and a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake and so great." The " cities of the nations shall fall;" and "great Babylon shall come into remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath." The nations who have spilled the blood of his saints shall drink blood because they are worthy. The cry of the souls from under the altar shall be heard in heaven and answered, " How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth!" The " day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up, and he shall be brought low;" and upon " every high tower and every fenced wall," and God will " cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible." So far from being subdued and humbled by these judgments, the hostile nations shall throw their armor about them, and, exasperated with rage, shall contend with God as in the day of battle. With the sword and with fire and with famine God shall contend with them until they are swept from the earth. "They shall pass through it hardly bestead and hungry; and it shall come to pass that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God and look upward. And they shall look unto the earth and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish, and they shall be driven into darkness." This last conflict under the seventh and last phial is described in the Apocalypse by the most fearful metaphors and symbols which human language can utter. " I, John, saw the Beast and the kings of the earth, and their armies gathered together to the battle of that great day of God Almighty, to make war against him who sat upon the horse and against his army." "And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men both small and great."

Judgments, of which such things as these are the symbols, are yet to take place in our world, and to prepare the way for the glory of Christ in his millennial reign. There will be no refuge from this desolating march of death. The work will go on until the enemies of the Son of Man are destroyed by the breath of his mouth and the brightness of his coming.

Throughout all this period, God’s designs are represented as rapidly coming to maturity for the introduction of this predicted day of his great power and glory. The assembly of the first-born, we are told by the same symbolical writer, will give glory to God both for these judgments and for the dawning of millennial glory as simultaneous events. Immediately as this ascription of glory to God is being given, the angel who interpreted the vision to John is heard saying " Write, blessed are they who are called to the marriage-supper of the Lamb." Then it was that the song of triumph began. " And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready!" Then the devil will be chained, and the Millennium will advance by progressive and rapid steps. It will be like " life from the dead," and well nigh as rapid as a general resurrection. The perfect day will not shine at once; but the dawn will shine brightly.

We are looking for that day. Heaven is looking for it. Angels and the spirits of the just made perfect are looking for it. Its fainter lights even now begin to transpire through the veiled windows of time, and seem struggling to break through and illumine this dark world. Even " the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for this manifestation of the sons of God." The One so long despised and rejected of men, shall come " like rain upon the mown grass, and like showers that water the earth. All kings shall bow down before him, and all nations shall call him blessed."

Thus introduced by judgments, this reign of mercy will commence; and our next remark concerning it is, that it will be distinguished by the multitudes who enjoy its sacred influence. It will be the glory of Christ’s millennial reign that " he shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth." Nor will the inhabitants of the earth then be few, notwithstanding the desolations that have been made by the sweeping judgments that preceded his gracious empire. Everything will combine from the very dawn of that blissful period to augment the population of our globe; so that at the close of a single century of the thousand years, more human beings will be found upon the face of it than ever existed at any former period. The predictions which relate to the increase of the Jew alone are of a very marked character. " The mountains of Israel shall shoot forth their branches;" and God "will multiply men upon them, and do better to them than at their beginnings." Men shall no more say, that " the land devours men, and has bereaved its nations." As the "holy flock, the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men." The same causes which contribute to this augmented population of the Jews, are adverted to in the Scriptures as having the same effect upon the Gentile nations. There shall be " an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains: the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon; and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth." The " abundance of the seas," and the " forces of the Gentiles," the multitude of the beasts of the earth, and the glory of its forests shall unite in beautifying the place of God’s sanctuary, and making the place of his feet glorious. This earth is now believed to contain eight hundred millions of inhabitants. Yet what vast portions of it remain uninhabited; and what a multitude, both of remote and proximate causes, retard the increase of the human family; or cut off its population in its bud, and flower, and fruitfulness; or diminish and reduce those honored years, in which " the almond-tree flourishes!" The social relations form no small part of that wise and benevolent arrangement of divine providence by which the institutions of religion, and true religion itself are perpetuated from parents to their children, and the honor of the Redeemer becomes refulgent in the earth. They are dishonored now; but they will not be dishonored in that coming day, when " a little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation." Few, if any, will then be found who, from a dis-social spirit, from avarice, or licentiousness; from the dread of toil, or the fears of responsibility; from indifference to the wise arrangements of the Author of their living, or from any other selfish consideration; will countervail that great law by which these relations are rendered perpetual and pure. The world will be exclusively a world of families; or if here and there a solitary straggler is found beyond the bright zone that thus belts the earth, he will be pitied and wondered at as a wandering star. The science of Political Economy about which so much has been written to little purpose, will then be understood, and its true principles will be found in the nice adaptations of that moral code which not only prescribes the conduct of man toward his fellows, but the intercourse of nations. The crowded and suffocated portions of the earth, where human labor finds little encouragement, and there is a scanty supply for human wants, will migrate to broader lands, and where the earth is enriched by the quiet of centuries. Avarice will give way to contentment; the spirit of speculation will be superseded by cheerful diligence and moderate gain; and land and ocean yield their increase, because " His way is known upon earth, and his saving health among all nations."

It was the promise of God to his people, that if they would hearken to his voice, "he would take away sickness from the midst of them." It is a remarkable declaration of the prophet Isaiah, concerning the Millennium, that the "inhabitant shall not say, I am sick." The germs of disease will no longer be found in human vices; men will die only by the gradual decays of nature; and " there shall be no more an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days." Famine and plague shall no more desolate the earth; war, that scourge of humanity, shall cease, and the resources it has diminished, and the energies it has wasted, shall be employed only in the diffusion of blessing. Those fountains of human infirmity and sorrow, — intemperance, licentiousness, and luxury — in whose deceitful and rushing maelstrom so many generations have found a premature grave, shall be dried up; and in its place the waters of the sanctuary shall flow, and " everything shall live whither the river cometh." Could we stand in the midst of those coming days, and view the population of this globe, we should see what has never yet been seen. Not a continent nor island, not mountain nor valley; not river’s bank nor iron-bound shore, not a sandy desert nor a bold promontory, but will teem with the habitations of men. Successive generations, no longer traversing the earth in solitary streams or broad rivers, shall flow on in one vast, swelling ocean, everywhere multiplied as the sands on the shore. To an extent hitherto unknown, the age of which we speak, will also, in the next place, he one of light and knowledge. It is the device of the Adversary, to shroud the world in darkness; he holds his throne most firmly in "the dark places of the earth." He who is the light of the world never made a more exulting avowal than that at the bar of Pilate, when he said, " To this end was I born, and for this end came I into the world, that I might bear witness to the truth.’’’’ He is the King of truth; light and truth are the great elements of his empire, and the only means of its advancement and triumph. It is a remarkable prediction, that " knowledge with the strength of salvation shall be the stability" of the best days of the Christian church. And it is a remarkable fact, that since the commencement of the Christian era, save the arts of divination, which still linger in Pagan lands as their forlorn hope, the lights of science have been waning throughout the Pagan world. Even in the darkest of the " Dark Ages," almost every department of useful knowledge, repudiated everywhere else, found a refuge in the monasteries of a corrupted Christianity. Facts and principles multiplied without limit, do indeed show that a spiritual religion does not necessarily stand abreast with the progress of science and the arts; while they also show that all advances of true religion carry along with them a proportioned intellectual advancement. Bright will be the glory of that age of which it may be said that piety is the adornment of its learning, and learning is the adornment of its piety. This shall be eminently one of the glories of Christ’s millennial reign. Institutions of learning shall be multiplied, and they shall be under a Christian influence. The press shall no longer teem with error, but become the vehicle of truth; important truth, truth that interests and pleases, because it instructs and elevates. Most of all shall religious knowledge, the knowledge of God and his Son, have access to the human mind. The world shall no longer groan under the bondage of ignorance and superstition. The Prince of darkness shall be expelled from this his usurped dominion, and be chained a thousand years. " The eyes of them that see shall not be dim; and the ears of them that hear shall hearken. The heart of the rash also shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall speak plainly. Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of Hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously." The imagery by which this increase of knowledge is illustrated is beautiful and significant beyond comparison. Nor is the sober fact less significant, or beautiful. God’s word, never bound, shall then break over the limits of tribe, nation, and language, and have " free course and be glorified." " This gospel of, the kingdom shall be preached to all nations." The rising generation shall be a generation religiously instructed; and the Bible shall become a text-book in every school and university throughout the earth. Everywhere shall it have access to the human mind; kings shall honor it upon their thrones; courtiers shall honor it in their councils; and the common people shall honor it. Untold myriads shall be sanctified through the truth. An intelligent and holy ministry, and an intelligent and holy church shall be found in every clime. Heavenly truth shall be diffused through all nations; the institutions of heavenly love and wisdom shall flourish under genial skies; returning Sabbaths shall everywhere revisit the earth; churches of a pure faith shall be erected in every district, and stand as beacon lights on every shore. God shall "destroy the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil spread over all nations." Amid the multiplied facilities for human intercourse, many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." " The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days," and the " knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea."

It will also in the next place be an age which is emphatically the dispensation of the Spirit. It will differ from former ages, in no one particular more than this. The third Person in the adorable and ever-blessed Trinity will then be universally acknowledged as the appointed and honored Dispenser of the blessings of that New Covenant of which the Son of God is the Mediator. In consequence of this, the reign of Christ on the earth will be the reign of holiness. There shall be few unconverted and unholy men. We dare not say that all the inhabitants of the earth will then be converted to God, because the Scriptures intimate that there will still be a leaven of wickedness, and miry places of the earth that " are given to salt," and where the waters that" issued from the Sanctuary do not come. The final struggle between the righteous and the wicked, and the great battle of Gog and Magog which is just antecedent to the final judgment, and during which Satan shall be again let loose for a little season, cannot well be accounted for without the fact, that notwithstanding the multitudes of good men, there will be a remnant that will still cleave to their sins, and their lusts, remain rebels among the rebellious, and adhere to the last, to the accursed Father of rebellion. These constitute " the rest," the remnant of which the Apocalypse speaks, that lost their power during the Millennium, and "lived not again until the thousand years were completed." This one thing is clearly revealed, that the inhabitants of this world, as a mass, will then be holy. " The gathering of the people’’ shall then be unto the predicted Shiloh. " A nation shall be born in a day." The " daughter of Zion shall rejoice, because many nations shall be joined unto the Lord in that day, and shall be his people." " From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, his name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place, incense shall be offered to his name, and a pure offering, and his name shall be great among the heathen." The Jews also will be restored from their long exile, and form one community with the Christian church; the veil that is upon their hearts shall be taken away, and from " all places whither they have been scattered," they shall return, and come into the fold of the Great Shepherd. The Root of Jesse shall " stand for an ensign to the people, to which the outcasts of Israel shall assemble, and the dispersed of Judah shall gather from the four corners of the earth." The effect of their conversion upon the Gentile nations may well be supposed to be bordering almost upon the miraculous; " for if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?" Not only will there be more good men, but good men themselves will be more conformed to God. They shall walk in God’s statutes and keep his judgments as previous generations have not done. They will still be imperfect men; but they will be eminently adorned with the beauties of holiness. " They shall not speak lies, neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth." In that day "there shall be upon the bells of the horses, Holiness unto the Lord!" This reign of Christ by his Spirit is his true reign upon the earth; and glorious will it be for the splendor of his power, and the triumphs of his redemption, beyond what eye has seen or ear has heard. Men shall be blessed in him, all nations shall call him blessed. "The idols he shall utterly abolish." The great obstructions to the prevalence and growth of piety in the earth will then be taken out of the way. The various forms of Paganism will die; atheism and infidelity and the Mohammedan imposture will wake no more; and every form of hierarchy will have slept its sleep. False religions that are baptized with the Christian name will no longer exert their neutralizing and corrupting influence; their teachers and their disciples will have passed away; no hand shall garnish the sepulcher where they lie, and none shall be found to shed a tear upon their grave. It will be a time of great engagedness among the people of God; Christian churches will be Christian in character as well as in name. It will be an age of prayer and one of great anxiety, and still greater hope and expectation for the souls of men. The ministers of the gospel will be eminent for their self-denial, toil, and fidelity, and will preach as they never preached before. The Spirit of God will be upon preachers and upon hearers; and instead of here and there a passing cloud, the heavens shall pour down righteousness, and the earth shall open and bring forth salvation. The New Jerusalem shall come down from God out of heaven; God himself shall dwell with men and be their God. The Millennium will be heaven begun on earth, and heaven will be the millennium of earth consummated in holiness and joy.

We remark again, it will also be a period when it will be distinctly seen that all things are directed by Providence in subserviency to the kingdom of Christ. All things ever have been thus directed; but this subserviency has, to the eye of sense, and even to the eye of faith, been sometimes so obscurely made known that it has scarcely been perceived, much less always gratefully acknowledged. If we look over the earth on which we dwell, we see so many events, agencies, and influences that countervail the great objects which Christ has in view, that we see not how they will ever contribute to his advancement and honor. We see wrong and injury in every form; human rights trampled on, and human obligations unenforced and trifled with. On the side of the oppressors is power, and the oppressed have no comforter. But in that age of millennial glory, human authority and power will be in the hands of good men. As the vast majority of the human race will then be holy, such will be their influence that human governments will be in their hands, and the places of power and trust will be at their disposal. " The kingdom and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven will be given to the saints of the most high God." The people will be righteous, and therefore the rulers will be good men. The people will rule, and a glorious and Christian democracy will it be when righteous nations demand righteous rulers, and rulers and ruled come bending unto the Son of God! " All kings shall bow down before him, and all nations shall serve him." Oppression shall cease, and every yoke of bondage shall be broken. Kings shall be nursing fathers, and queens nursing mothers to the church of Christ. Great voices in heaven shall announce that " the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ. He will be exalted, and all the powers of earth shall be subservient to his dominion. He Will reign over the earth, in his people and with his people, and they " shall live and reign with him." His influence will be extended to all the forms of power and to all the departments of government, everywhere vindicating the rights, and at the same time enforcing the responsibilities of men. Legislators will be wise and good men; that great engine of security and happiness, or of insecurity and misery, human law, no longer subject to the arts of professional adroitness, will be submitted to upright and impartial expositors and judges, and be a terror only to the evil, and a praise to them that do well; while in the execution of law " its officers shall be peace and its exactions righteousness."

There are great elements of nature also which have just begun to be subjected to the power of man. Others there are which as yet remain locked up in her own bosom, because the time is not come, when " the Lord hath need of them." The magnetic power, and the power of steam are destined to work wonders for the kingdom of Christ. The resources of the physical creation will not probably be known until they are rendered more subservient to the moral and spiritual creation. Problems are waiting for their solution, only until they shall be made to speak for Jesus Christ, bear testimony to his truth, and extend his kingdom among men. The heavens and the earth, land and ocean, men and nations, the inspection of the present and the researches of the past wait his bidding, " by whom are all things, and for whom are all things." The light and the darkness, the atmosphere above us, and the fossils and minerals and more precious metals beneath us, every element, and combination of elements shall be conducive to his praise. And will it not be the jubilee of the material creation, when its clouds and its sunshine, its mines of gold, its honors, its pursuits and its enjoyments all do honor to the Redeeming Saviour? The arts and sciences shall also be under the influence of Christian principles, and receive a benevolent direction. No longer will they be employed in works of impiety and unrighteousness, or for the mere gratification of selfishness and gain, or for the construction of ingenious instruments of death. Instead of being embarrassed and kept back as they have been in past ages, because they multiply the agencies of evil, they shall disclose new inventions and be crowned with new successes, because men have learned to employ them wisely. This whole material creation, made by Christ, and for Christ, shall no longer be diverted from the design of honoring him, and wickedly made the unhallowed means of obstructing the progress of his kingdom. For ages past, this has been a polluted earth and still " groans" under its pollution. Every created thing in it has been prostituted to the vile purpose of dishonoring the Son of God. It has been thus " subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. There is hope even for the earth which is now under the curse for man’s sake. The day will dawn when it will be rescued from this " bondage of corruption," and made subservient to " the manifestation of the Son of God." " Let the sea roar and the fulness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills be joyful together before the Lord; for he "Cometh to judge the earth; with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity. Sing O ye heavens, for the Lord hath done it; shout ye lower parts of the earth; break forth into singing, ye mountains, and forests, and every tree therein; for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel!"

It will also be a day, in the next place, when the glory of Christ shall he wonderfully manifested to the children of men. Here lies the true glory of that coming day. God himself is the true glory of all his works. In past ages he has done much to bring himself to the view of creatures; but they have been comparatively ages of darkness. He is known now by " the judgments which he executeth," and by the dark cloud in which he dwells, and whence the voice goes forth to agitate, convulse, and overturn. Yet these are but parts of his ways. There are other glories of his nature to be unfolded; other impressions of his excellence to be produced on the minds of men; other honors which he is to receive, ere the last ingathering of this world’s harvest. Some of these manifestations have already been made; and if it is a view unutterably grand and beautiful thus to " stand still and see the salvation of God," what will it be when that salvation is consummated, and its splendid glories burst upon the earth, and the tongue of the dumb is unloosed, and millions in every land exclaim, "Behold, what hath God wrought!" They are these strong and vivid impressions of the Deity made upon the minds of men, which is one great object he has in view in the arrangements of his providence and in the dispensations of his grace. We turn aside to see this great sight, as Moses did, to look on the burning bush in Horeb, and take the shoes from off our feet. Or like Jacob, in the open field, we catch a glimpse of the heavenly vision, and with him exclaim, " Verily, the Lord is in this place!" He speaks to us as he did to Elijah on the mount, or to Job out of the whirlwind, and we bow at his footstool. Wondrous day will that be when the nations shall acknowledge his supremacy, and feel the weight of his great and amiable character. " Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty; for the lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of man shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day!" Wondrous day, when " all kings shall bow before him, and all nations shall call him blessed!" No marvel that ancient prophets " searched what, or what manner of time" it would be. Delightful, yet awful day! desirable, yet fearful age! to his friends desirable, fearful only to his foes! And they shall go " into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth."

It is a great thought when we speak of Christs millennial glory. The time is coming when it will be written in broad and legible characters on the azure sky, and stand out in strong and bold relief when the sun is turned into darkness, and the moon into blood. It will blaze forth as the recognized standard of that " kingdom which cannot be moved," and as the well-known insignia of its royalty and splendor, when the kingdoms of this world shall have "passed away, as the chaff of the summer threshing-floor." It is the ineffable glory of his divine nature in all the combination and infinitude of his perfections. It is the glory that is consequent on his sufferings who is " God manifest in the flesh!" It is glory that shall be worthy of him, worthy of his greatest purpose, and his greatest work, worthy of his work of degradation and suffering, when he traveled in the " greatness of his strength." It is glory which is his fitting reward, and with which he is satisfied when he looks back upon the travail of his soul, and contemplates his completed work. The existence of this earth would be a dark problem, and the method of redemption would seem to be a failure, if we could contemplate only the past and the present. There are scenes unspeakably more glorious than these. It is not the present glory of his church glorious as she is, nor his present glory, exalted as he is at the right hand of majesty in the heavens, which the revealing Spirit unfolds. It is the glory that shall be when the triumphs of Christianity are consummated on the earth, and the Sufferer of Calvary shall rejoice " over his redeemed with joy, shall joy over them with singing, and rest in his love." It is the glory that shall be when the ages so anxiously looked for and intensely enjoyed, shall have come and gone; when the light and love of a progressively holy world shall find a mirror in every bosom; when all that faith believed, and hope anticipated, and a sanctified imagination had tried to picture, shall be realized in its growing knowledge, holiness, and joy. Nay, it is the glory that shall be, when things seen and temporal shall be lost sight of in those that are unseen and eternal, and when redeemed men shall press forward to their equality with angels. It is the embryo being and the embryo glory now; for now the God of Israel is a God " that hideth himself." What has been, what is, may well be lost in the prospect of what will be. This leads to our last remark, which is, that Christ in his millennial glory will reign during a sufficiently long period to secure the great objects both of his humiliation and his exaltation. We do not feel warranted in speaking, with anything like precision, if the time during which the Millennium will continue. It is one of the mysteries of the divine government, that the great objects of Christ’s Redemption have not been more extensively attained, and are even now being accomplished so tardily. The greatness of the design may not be estimated by the extent to which it has already been accomplished. " God is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness." The reason why, after so long time, it has not been more fully accomplished, is found in the very magnitude of the design itself. It cannot be accomplished in a century. Eighteen centuries have passed away, and it is still a progressive work. Its peculiar glory is that every part of it is so arranged as to express the augmented and progressive glories of its great Author. " God hath made all things for himself." His great object is to show forth the undiscovered and unsearchable glories of his nature by such means, and in such progressive manifestations, as shall be most clearly seen, most deeply felt, and most admired and adored. No sudden effulgence can effect this: he has resources which cannot be thus exhausted. It were a low and unreasonable conception of the Deity, to suppose that all the features of any one of his designs are fully made known.

We know not how many years will pass away before the day of millennial glory will begin. Sir Isaac Newton well remarks, that " prophecy was not designed to make men prophets." We have no desire to commit, or even trust ourselves with any numerical calculations on a subject where so many minds have been at fault, and where enthusiasm, or despondency have so much to do with forming the opinions of men. The four thousand years that were preparatory to the Saviour’s incarnation, were but the morning of a bright and prolonged day. God’s moral arrangements, like everything else which he does, contemplate events in their order. " The kingdom of heaven is like seed cast into the ground; first "Cometh up the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear." The fairest portions of Christendom have scarcely seen the "corn in the ear;" by far the larger portions of the earth remain as yet fallow ground, which is yet to be broken up. The Millennium will no doubt come on gradually, though rapidly. Preparations are now being made for it; but the scene has not yet begun to open. Curtain after curtain is yet to be withdrawn, ere the world obtains a glimpse of the dawning glory. It is a mistaken notion that it is to be introduced and sustained by miracle except so far as the work of the Holy Spirit is supernatural. It is the work of faith and the " labor of love;" a faith that is human, and a power that is divine; a faith that gathers strength and expectation from every instance of success and every new attainment, and a power that neither intermits nor relaxes its energy until " the zeal of the Lord of hosts" shall have accomplished its gracious purpose. When we look at the prevalence of false religions, and more especially those systems of error that prevail throughout the oriental nations, and that are so venerable for age, so encrusted by the accumulations of centuries, and so deeply embedded in the science, the morals, and social institutions of millions; it would seem to border on the expectations of romance to look for the time when these vast mountains of ignorance and wickedness shall melt away. There are not many visible indications of decay in any of the great anti-christian powers or systems; nor is the sanctuary itself yet cleansed. We may not look for the dawn of the latter-day glory until there are some more significant indications of these great changes. There will be, as we have seen, days of great darkness and suffering and bloody persecution in reserve for the church of God, before Satan shall be bound; yet in a little time " he that shall come will come, and will not tarry." Christ will prove himself the triumphant conqueror. He will " bruise the head of the serpent," and crush his power. It is not the majority of our race over whom the devil will triumph, and whom he will drag down to perdition, but a meager minority. As a section of the divine empire, this world belongs to Christ; in defiance of the past and present dominion of the adversary, he will reign over it. He will take his own time to make the conquest; nor is there any reason to doubt that his millennial reign will include prolonged ages of his power. The Scriptures speak of a thousand years during which Satan shall be chained; but they do not intimate whether these thousand years include only the meridian glory of that age of mercy, or whether they include its gradual dawn and close. They simply instruct us that his power shall be crippled for a thousand years. Whether this period be literally a thousand years, or whether a round number of years is thus designed to indicate an indefinite and long period; or whether, counting a day for a year, which is revealed as the prophetic counting, it comprises three hundred and sixty thousand years; are questions on which great and good men have entertained different views. The most welcome conclusion certainly is the last; but we can only say that in a book so symbolical and figurative as the Apocalypse, it is not probable that the " thousand years" are to be understood literally. We can affirm with certainty that there will be a sufficiently long period, during which Christianity will have a free and unobstructed course in the world; and men and nations, unembarrassed by the deceptions of the adversary, and uncontrolled by his power, will flock to the universally-erected standard of the cross. The work to be accomplished is no small work, and the happy period allotted to it is no short and transient age. It is no vain hope that generations shall yet exist, which, in long and unbroken series, shall see the Son of Man thus come in his glory. And when these have traveled on and traveled far, subsequent generations, in a more distant and brighter stage of this the world’s spiritual progress, shall behold still brighter glories, till their progress verges toward the hemisphere where the sun never goes down. Their days shall be as the days of heaven upon the earth. It is the great -glory of God’s eternal Son, illuminating all, encompassing all, the atmosphere in which all live and move and have their being.