The first of a series of discourses on Prophetic Times and Seasons was delivered by Pastor C T Russell yesterday afternoon in Carnegie hall, Allegheny. The special topic for the occasion was "Earth's Great Jubilee." These meetings are in response to requests made at the close of the "Eaton-Russell Debates" in November. The requests, accompanied by unsolicited checks, more than meeting the expenses of the hall were interpreted as a providential guidance. Addressing a comfortably filled house the speaker said:
To those who have followed our presentations in the recent debates on millennial subjects, it is scarcely necessary to say that our expectation of a speedy introduction of the millennium is not based upon the usual theory-that it will come about through the conversion of the world of mankind to a voluntary service of the Lord and of righteousness. On the contrary, we see that even in the so-called converted countries-the countries in which Christianity has produced the highest forms of civilization-the masses are far from being saints. So that if the whole world were converted, after the ordinary application of that term, it would still be far from the glorious condition intimated by our Lord's prayer, which instructs us to pray for and to expect that God's kingdom will be established and his will be done in the earth as it is done in heaven.
As for the conversion of heathendom, statistics contradict the thought. No sane, reasonable mind can look the facts squarely in the face and any longer delude himself with the supposition that the millennium can ever be introduced by the conversion of heathendom under present human limitations and without divine interference. Let me give you a few of the facts, briefly stated:
The world's population is officially rated at 1,600,000,000. Of these count the entire populations of America and Europe as Christians-reckon a total of 400,000,000 Christians of every shade, "white, black, ring-streaked and spreckled" as Bishop Foster describes them. This leaves at least 1,200,000,000 heathens living today. The United States census reports show that the present rate of population increase is eight-tenths of one per cent per year. This means that there were 9,600,000 heathens born last year! Far, far more than the converts of today, representing the laborers of the entire preceding century. What sane man will dispute these figures? And, with these facts before him, what sane man can hope that with missionary efforts multiplied ten fold we could ever bring about the millennium by such processes! And if the wildest hopes along this line were realized, would the results be those we long have prayed for- "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth even as it is done in heaven?" Far from it! Even in quiet, religious Allegheny true Christians are a small minority. We are not deprecating good endeavors to assist the heathen, but merely showing that millennial hopes do not lie in that direction.
Our millennial hopes are based upon the grace of God, manifested in the great redemptive work accomplished by our Lord Jesus at Calvary, and resting upon the firm foundation of the divine promises, given originally with the divine oath to Father Abraham, and reiterated, amplified and explained through the prophets of old and through the apostles of our Lord Jesus. To our understanding this foundation is much more reliable than any that could be produced from any other quarter.
God not only promised Abraham that his "seed," the Christ, should "bless all the families of the earth," but in [HGL189] order that we might have strong consolation the apostle says he made oath to this declaration; that by two immutable things-the divine word and the divine oath-the faith of God's people might be fixed as an "anchor to our souls, sure and steadfast, entering into that within the veil, whither the forerunner is for us entered." -Heb. 6:19
A great mistake has been made by many of our dear friends who see with us to some extent on this subject. They have followed the thought of the Jews, that the kingdom of God when established will be a fleshly, earthly kingdom. This mistaken view has not only done injury to their own conceptions of the kingdom, and thwarted their desire for a clearer understanding respecting it, but additionally this earthly, fleshly view of the matter has driven away from the kingdom hopes many of the brightest minds amongst the Lord's people.
The consistent objection of the latter class is that the Lord's dealings with the church have been on a spiritual plane, and her begetting has been to a spirit nature and heavenly hopes under earthly conditions is an absurdity and a retrograde movement. To this we largely agree. Our understanding of the teachings of God's word is that the kingdom class-the elect of this gospel age-will be "changed" from human nature to spiritual conditions in the first resurrection, which the apostle explains in 1 Cor. 15:42-44. His words are, "So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power; it is sown a natural (animal) body; it is raised a spiritual (spirit) body. There is an animal body and there is a spirit body."
It is not supposable that our Lord, who left the spirit condition and became a man, simply and solely for the suffering of death and not with any intention of remaining a man, should be still considered as a man in heaven. On the contrary, the scriptures everywhere assure us, that he is now a quickening, life-giving spirit, and that "though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him so no more." (2 Cor. 5:16) They assure us that he has not suffered by his obedience to the Father by becoming our redemption price. That on the contrary, "Him hath God highly exalted, and given him a name above every name." It is because our Lord Jesus is thus so highly exalted and changed back again from human to spirit nature, that we have confidence and rejoicing in the apostle's words when he assures us that we shall be "changed" -be made like our Lord and see Him as He is (not as he was) and share His glory. -1 Cor. 15:51; 1 John 3:2
There is nothing mysterious or inconsistent in the thought of this spiritual kingdom ruling over and blessing earthly subjects. Such was the character of God's original dominion instituted in Eden-man, an earthly being, subject to and under the laws and direction of the heavenly empire. Such also is the character of the kingdom in the present time as respects the church. Our Lord is now the king of those who yield their hearts to Him and seek to render obedience to His will. He is invisible to the eyes of the flesh, but nevertheless our minds are conscious of Him, and we can apprehend our Lord and king with the eyes of our understanding, and in our hearts render as good or better obedience and homage than if He were in the flesh, an earthly king. Why shall we not conclude that the world during the coming millennial age will be more greatly blessed by realizing their obligation to a spiritual king and kingdom than merely to an earthly one.
True, the Scriptures do speak of earthly representatives of the heavenly kingdom- "Ye shall see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom." When the spiritual kingdom is set up amongst them it will have for its earthly representatives these ancient worthies, perfected as men. Although the kingdom class, the Lord and his elect church in glory, will be invisible to men, they will be fully represented through these faithful and competent representatives.
The whole world will then realize what it is to have every word and thought and act of life discerned by their spirit rulers. Thank God, they can rest assured that the judgment of their words and thoughts will be with reasonable, proper leniency-with sympathy-since all of those who will be their judges in the kingdom will have themselves passed through experiences in many respects similar, and will be able to sympathize with those over whom they will be judges, as it is written, "Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?"
Our topic for today relates to the great blessings of the world's Judgement Day. Instead of calling it "doomsday," the Scriptures represent it as the great "Jubilee" period. For long centuries, in every land in every part of the earth, Satan has been seeking to misrepresent the divine character and plan, in order to drive men further and further away from their great Creator-in order to hinder them from hearing and appreciating his "wonderful words of life" "speaking peace through Jesus Christ our Lord." The great adversary has totally misrepresented the coming day of judgment. It is to be a day of judgment in the sense of rewards and punishments to the church for the deeds of the present life; but not to the world.
The church, having been freed from the original condemnation through faith in Christ, "justified by faith," and having made consecration to the Lord, is now upon trial; and the Apostle assures us that each one in the church shall, at the conclusion of this age, at the dawning of the millennial age, "receive according to the things done in the body" -as members of the body of Christ. Some of these "overcomers" will be the joint heirs with the Lord in the kingdom, while others of these consecrated ones will fall short of this high attainment and will be of the great company mentioned in Rev. 7:9-15. They will not get into the throne with the bride class, but will be blessed with the great privileges of serving before the throne during the millennial age; they will not get the crowns, but they will get palm branches-because they were not sufficiently loyal to the Lord and to the principles which he enunciated and to the terms of their covenant. They get their white robes of justification sullied, spotted and wrinkled, and fail to properly care for it and have the spots and wrinkles removed through the precious blood, and therefore they [HGL190] must "wash their robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb" -in great tribulations. Still others who have been of the church, the Scriptures clearly indicate, will be judged worthy of the second death.
But as for the world, its judgment waits until the millennial age. Those who do not hear the gospel invitation of the present time will miss all opportunity of a change of nature from human to spiritual. The grand opportunity to be offered to them will be an opportunity for return to perfect human conditions, moral, physical, whose home will be the rejuvenated earth- "Paradise restored." The world will be then on trial, not for the sins of Adam, neither for the weaknesses inherited through him, for which they already are condemned and dying.
That judgment is passed; it is fixed irrevocably in the divine sentence upon father Adam after his disobedience, -which sentence has extended to every member of his family- "dying, thou shalt die." But the redemption price of Christ redeemed the whole world from that sentence and granted the whole world of mankind a fresh trial for life-a fresh opportunity to come to a knowledge of God and the terms to which eternal life may be granted, to see whether or not they will stand that trial or testing and be obedient to those terms.
So far as the world is concerned, this knowledge has never yet reached it-it has never yet had a trial of judgment under the terms of the new covenant. The promise of God's word is that the whole world shall have such an opportunity and trial. "God hath appointed a day ( the millennial age) in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath afore ordained" -the Christ. This gospel age has been used of the Lord as the time in which to develop the Christ, head and body-the royal priesthood which is to reign over and judge and bless the world of mankind with an opportunity for return to divine favor and to human perfection, if they will, during the millennial age. And all who will not thus return under such favorable conditions will be cut off in the second death. -Acts 3:23.
The Apostle clearly indicates that everything pertaining to the law covenant which God made with the Israelites was typical, illustrative. This truth is generally recognized by Bible students as respects the sacrifices of the law, but very few indeed have seen to how large an extent all the affairs of fleshly Israel were typical of matters and incidents pertaining to spiritual Israel. We shall see more on this subject when considering the Jewish and gospel parallels in a coming discourse. Now we remind you of the Apostle's words, "The law was a shadow of good things to come." -Heb. 10:1
One of the shadows of the law is found in the admirable arrangement which God provided for Israel in what is known as the jubilee year. As some are not familiar with the matter, I will give details. The Lord gave the Jews a number of Sabbaths, and not merely the one seventh-day Sabbath with which we are familiar. The seventh day was the rest day which, in Hebrews 4, the Apostle explains typified the present rest of faith of the people of God, and in the still larger sense it typifies the rest that remaineth for the people of God which they will enter into on the millennial morning-on the seventh day, in the large sense of the word the seventh thousand year period.
It is not so generally known that the law prescribed a seventh-year Sabbath in which the Israelites were to allow the land to rest without cropping it. A cycle of these sevens, seven times seven years, was followed by a still higher and still grander Sabbath year-the fiftieth year.
In a general sense the word jubilee meant to the Jews joy and rejoicing-a release from difficulties. In this respect it typified the millennial age which now is near at hand, in which there will be a release from all of earth's woes and difficulties under the heavenly kingdom's administration of earth's affairs.
The jubilee arrangement was a very beneficial one as respected the earthly affairs of the Jews-aside from its typical significance. Its arrangement was that the land should be recognized as belonging to the Lord, and as being divided amongst the tribes of Israel in family allotments. These allotments were not transferable by sale and could not be divested on account of debts. Any sale which might take place could affect the land only up to the fiftieth year; so that when, through adversity or bad management, a family became poor and its members went into servitude and the homestead passed to another, this could only affect matters until the jubilee year, in which every individual would go free and every homestead be released.
For instance, if the next year after a jubilee a man got into difficulty, and the homestead were parted with, and himself and family obliged to go into servitude to others, his distress and the distress of his family in this matter could last not more than the forty-nine years ensuing-until the next jubilee year. And if he got into financial straits and debts forty years after the jubilee, the difficulties of his position could last no longer than ten years, or up to the next jubilee; and if he got into difficulty one year before the jubilee year, the difficulty could continue only up to the jubilee year. In the jubilee year all debts were cancelled and all estates reverted to previous owners. We cannot wonder that the jubilee year was greatly appreciated, especially by the poorer classes of Israel-and not much appreciated by the more wealthy.
What a beautiful picture God has thus given us of His own gracious intention toward the world of mankind, which he has in his gracious plan arranged, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, for the setting at liberty of all the slaves of sin and death, and for the restoration to mankind in general of the original homestead, the earth. Already the church can realize by faith the redemption and deliverance from the power of the adversary, but it is only by faith.
The world is still under the power of sin and death-still under the sentence, "Dying, thou shalt die." The time for the jubilee to actually set in has not yet come, but it is now even at the door. Christ has died for our sins. During this gospel age He has accepted some of the redeemed as members of His body and has permitted them to suffer with [HGL191] him, to lay down their lives- "To fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ." Col. 1:24.
Soon the entire Christ, head and body, will have suffered in the flesh; soon the sacrificing time will all be ended; then the glory shall follow, when those who sacrificed will reign, not to the injury of those who crucified them and spoke all manner of evil against them falsely, but to their blessing, to their uplifting, to their salvation from sin and from the power of death and from the power of Satan. It is this great deliverance which is pictured in Israel's jubilee. God Himself is the one to whom the whole world is indebted. "Sold under sin," God Himself has provided the arrangement by which this debt is to be fully set aside with the close of this gospel age, because paid by the dear Redeemer. God Himself has provided that man's original possession, the earth, forfeited through sin, shall return to his possession and control under better and more favorable conditions which will be fully attained by the close of the millennial reign.
When the year of jubilee arrived it was the duty of the priests to blow on the silver trumpets throughout all the land of Israel, that every individual might know of his liberty and avail himself of the opportunities thus granted. What does this mean in the antitype? We answer that the silver trumpet symbolized the message of the truth, which, very early in the morning of the millennial age, will be caused to sound throughout the whole world, that every creature, male and female, bond and free, barbarian and civilized, may come to know of the redemption that is in Christ Jesus and of the mercy of God extended to him through the precious blood-even the forgiveness of sins, and the release from the bondage of Satan and sin into all the liberties of the sons of God. It is of this coming release that the Apostle Paul writes so forcefully. After declaring that the "whole creation groans and travails in pain together," under this bondage of sin and death under Satan, he declares that the "creature itself shall be delivered (set free) from the bondage of corruption (the bondage of sin and death) into the glorious liberties of the sons of God."
But he also shows in the same connection that the creature must wait for this deliverance until God's appointed time-until the church shall have first been glorified. He declares that the whole groaning creation is "waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God" -Christ, the Lord, the chief, and the church, his brethren. These must first be exalted to the spiritual plane and kingdom power before the groaning creation can be lifted up and blessed. That glorious time will certainly be earth's great jubilee!
We wait for it with longing anticipation, confident that its coming will rectify all the difficulties now experienced both by the saints and by the world-every injustice, every unrighteousness. The apostle in view of this says, "Be patient, therefore, brethren; the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." And the second coming of the Lord means the coming of the kingdom, with its great power to control and its great glory to bless the world, the groaning creation.
The silver trumpets will be kept sounding all through the year of jubilee, that every individual of the human family may come to know fully his privileges and opportunities, and, if he will, to avail himself of them and to attain harmony with God, eternal life through faith and obedience to the great Life-giver, our Lord Jesus. They are already sounding. We are sounding this silver trumpet today in your ears, declaring from the Word of God that restitution times are at hand, that the jubilee period is about to begin.
Blessed are the ears that hear and the hearts that appreciate the joyful sound of these jubilee trumpets of this jubilee message. As for those whose ears cannot hear the sound now, we have reason to rejoice that the time is coming when all the blind eyes shall be opened and all the deaf ears shall be unstopped. But they miss a great blessing in the present time who cannot hear and understand the glorious features of blessing which God has provided for the world; they miss much joy in the Lord and in the Word of His grace; they miss much of the "comfort of the Scriptures." (Rom. 15:4).
This much of the scriptures can be grasped by all who have the anointed vision, and those of the Lord's people who can see the matter but dimly we exhort to make close scrutiny, to ascertain whether or not houses or lands or dollars are so close to them as to hinder a proper view of this great event.
This may at first seem startling, and to some it may seem unreasonable until they have further reflected. Some will say, where is the restitution, and would it be possible that the "times of restitution" could begin while matters appear to go along nearly in the same manner as they have done in previous times? We answer that a right look at the matter from the right standpoint will convince any one that during the last 39 years an appropriate work of the jubilee times has been in operation.
If we will fancy ourselves back in Jewish times, when the jubilees were kept, we will readily see that the exact beginning of the year of jubilee would not probably be known to the masses at that time. They had no calendars such as are so common with us today, they had no daily papers, they were dependent upon the message from the priests to inform them of the due time by the blowing of the silver trumpets. We can imagine, too, that all of the priests would not begin to blow their trumpets at the same moment of time. We can imagine that, even if the trumpet tones were heard, the transition from slavery to freedom would not be the work of a moment but of hours or of days.
Some would perhaps endeavor to hold on to the possessions which had come under their control through the adversities of their neighbors, the spirit of selfishness would certainly lead to more or less difficulty at the dawn of the jubilee year. And we find today in our midst what corresponds precisely to this condition of things. [HGL192]
We may well suppose that when the jubilee year was due that not only the priests, whose duty it was to announce the jubilee year, would blow upon their trumpets, but we can well imagine the tooting there would be from all kinds of ram's horns and every other kind of horn that would make proclamation of the liberty so longed for. We can imagine that among the Jews there was a regular din of trumpets and horns, somewhat resembling the commotion which we have today with the introduction of the new year.
The fact is that God has arranged that the jubilee shall be properly announced by those whom He will specially qualify for the announcement; but it is likewise true that others also will blow upon various trumpets, giving various sounds, all seeking to proclaim the great truth; but many discerning it mistakenly will proclaim it unwisely or untruthfully. This is just what we see today. The present message has been promulgated throughout the world since 1875, declaring that we are in the beginning of the jubilee times, and that the restitution of all things is surely to take place, and all the families of the earth are thus to be blessed by the Lord's anointed king.
But year after year has witnessed the blowing of all kinds of trumpets respecting the day in which we live. The anarchists are blowing trumpets and giving full evidence of the fact that many have not the slightest conception of how to properly use liberty, the socialists are blowing their trumpet, and while announcing some truths are, we believe, announcing many fallacies wholly impractical. Their great error is that they do not realize that it is not the work of men to introduce the jubilee.
The jubilee is provided by the Lord, and He will introduce it in His own way at His own time. There are many liberty-loving organizations trumpeting loudly for rights, liberties and privileges-many of which must be conceded to be properly theirs, though some of them are unjust-unreasonable in the extreme.
These false conceptions of liberty, and the impetuosity displayed in desiring to grasp it, will bring about a great deal of trouble, which the scriptures clearly indicate in many places will constitute so prominent a feature in the establishment of the kingdom and in the jubilee. Many of the princes of the world, political, financial and ecclesiastical, see the restless spirit of the times in which we are living, hear the blowing of the trumpets, recognize that many of them are unreasonable and that many others of them are both reasonable, necessary and righteous. These princes would be disposed to arrange for the setting at liberty of mankind so far as is in their control, but they are in the minority and can do comparatively nothing.
The majority of the princes, political, financial, social, are actuated merely by selfishness and are determined that by force they will hinder the jubilee from taking place; they will prove to these trumpeters that neither noise nor numbers will count, but merely brains and money. They propose to prevent the jubilee arrangements from taking effect. They will not be able to do this, because the Lord's time has come. The jubilee is here, and it is only a question of method and time until present institutions will be wholly transformed and the new reign of righteousness and universal blessing will take its place.
Let us see what the type has to say to us respecting the time of its fulfillment-the time when earth's great jubilee of jubilees, the anti-type of the Jewish jubilee year, should begin. We notice that the multiple system prevails in connection with the Sabbath types. For instance, the seventh day multiplied by itself (7 X 7 = 49) constitutes a cycle, which leads us to the fiftieth day, and the fiftieth day was the jubilee day and its anti-type was Pentecost. There the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the church, and the effect was the heart rest which the Lord's people may now enjoy every day and every hour-the true Sabbath of the people of God.
Likewise the seventh year multiplied by itself (7 X 7 = 49) leads to the fiftieth, or jubilee year. This system seems to imply that its continuance would reach to an indicated time of the anti-typical jubilee, the great jubilee. And so it does. We continue the same principle of multiples with the thought that 50 times 50 years should reach to the jubilee of jubilees. 50 X 50 = 2,500 years.
We have found the measure now: How can we apply it? Where should this measure begin? If we can ascertain the exact time where it should begin we can very soon tell where the measure will end-where the anti-typical or great jubilee will begin.
Looking back in the scripture narrative we find that the jubilee begins to count when the children of Israel entered into the land of Canaan. The Lord's word to Israel before they came into the land of Canaan was, "Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you then shall the land keep a Sabbath (begin the observance of a Sabbath system) unto the Lord," etc. Leviticus 25:2-28
The cycle of 50 times 50 years, reaching to the great jubilee of jubilees, would not begin to count until the typical cycles came to an end, and there is nothing in the scriptures to say how many of the typical jubilees were kept by Israel. One thing we do know, however, and that is that they must be in their own land in order to fulfill this type. We know, therefore, that the typical system must have terminated at the time of the Babylonish captivity, because the land lay desolate seventy years, and thus we are assured that the typical system must have ended with the jubilee year which preceded that captivity.
We can locate that jubilee in this way: Bible chronology indicates the time of the Babylonish captivity to have been 969 years after Israel entered into the land of Canaan. They were six years dividing the land; 450 years under judges; 513 years under kings, and it was in the days of the last of these kings of Judah, Zedekiah, that Nebuchadnezzar's army overwhelmed and carried away captive the king and the people living in the land desolated for 70 years.
If we divide 969 years by 50 it will show us the number of jubilees which Israel kept up to that time, namely, 19, and the remainder of 19 would indicate that the last of the [HGL193] typical jubilees occurred 19 years before the 70 years captivity.
We are on the right track now. We know that the great cycle of 50 times 50 years, equaling 2,500, must have begun to count at the very time when the last typical jubilee ended. We know this assuredly, because our Lord declared that not one jot or tittle of the law could in any wise fail until all should be fulfilled. We know that the jubilee system of Sabbaths was much more than a jot or tittle in the Jewish arrangement, and we are sure that its antitype has never been fulfilled either to that nation or to the world whom they typify. We are sure, therefore, that the cycle must have kept on counting even when men were not aware of the fact, so that when the due time would be reached the antitypical jubilee would begin.
I call your attention to the chart again. Here we have set forth the various periods of time reaching from that last typical jubilee, 19 years before the desolation of the land by Nebuchadnezzar, down to 1874. The periods are, 19 years until the desolation; 70 years of desolation; 536 years from the close of the desolation, and the return of Israel to their own land in the first year of King Cyrus and under his decree down to our year A D l. Add to this 1,875 years of our A D and we have a total of 2,500 years-the great jubilee cycle.
We see, then, that whether anything occurred in 1875 or not, the typical jubilee great cycle pointed to that year as the beginning of "the times of restitution" -the dawning of earth's great jubilee. Not that 1875 was the jubilee year, but that with that year began the antitype of the jubilee year, and the anti-type must be much larger than the type. We are not looking for a year of restitution, but for 1,000 years, the glorious Millennial time, the antitype of the blessing which God represented in Israel's jubilee year.
Hence we should expect that the dawning of this jubilee period, the Millennial age, began in 1875, and that the dawning would be getting brighter and brighter, and the blowing on the trumpets by the priests and all manner of horns by all manner of people would be increasing the din continually since 1875. And this is just what we see; the whole world is getting awake to the fact that the great jubilee is due, that liberty is to be proclaimed throughout all the earth, that human rights are to return to humanity, etc.
We have no sympathy, no wish to give any encouragement to fantastic views of liberty, anarchistical views. Our thoughts are the very reverse of this namely, that the people who introduce such unbalanced views of liberty are the ones who are not prepared to use the liberty, and whose use of it will bring danger and injury and suffering to themselves as well as others. But however we may deplore the fact that evil men and unbalanced minds will misconstrue liberty and misuse it, this cannot alter the fact that the time has come in the Lord's great plan for the full liberation of humanity from bondage to sin and death-the time for Immanuel to take control of earthly affairs.
Happy are the people who have already put their cause into the hands of the Redeemer, and who have Him for their friend and counselor and king. Happy would it be for the whole world if they could recognize the fact that the kingdom time has come, and gladly and willingly submit their hearts and wills to the domination of Him who loved us and bought us with His own precious blood.
But nothing is plainer to our judgments than that the masses of the world do nothing of the kind. The rich, who hold the chief levers of power, see not the facts of the case-see not that the Lord has come to take control. They hear not His voice through His word, although many of them are in some measure His followers. They are not in sufficiently close touch with Him to be made acquainted with present truth.
They will feel and do increasingly feel, but erroneously so, that they are made the custodians of the world's peace and welfare, and that they must hold the lever and resist present tendencies toward liberty on the part of the people, and they will do so until the result shall be what the scriptures have clearly foreshown and what we will more particularly present in a later discourse, namely they will bring upon themselves and the whole world a "time of trouble such as was not since there was a nation." (Dan. 12:1) A time of trouble which the Apostle James mentions as being specially severe upon the rich, the wealthy. His words are, "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for the miseries that shall come upon you." Jas. 5:1
The poor and middle classes do not realize the true situation either. They do not realize that "restitution times" are at hand for the lifting up and blessing of all the families of the earth with blessings of every kind. On the contrary, they see nothing but a dark cloud and not the silver lining; to them it appears that liberty and manhood are in danger by the growth of capitalism, and in consequence of their fear they are striking out wildly in various directions, making some very absurd claims, and in many respects ignoring the golden rule quite as much as the wealthy.
We cannot blame either of these classes, for both are doing exactly what seems to them to be the only reasonable things under the circumstances. But the Lord's people, if they will draw near to the Lord at heart, will be instructed through His word respecting His glorious plans, and will see that there is no need of fear-that the Lord is at the helm. They will see that the jubilee time having come, all the blessings that the Lord our God has promised and has prepared for through the death of His Son are now ready to be presented to the world of mankind.
Those who thus see will have their minds cooled and their judgments clarified, so that they can look sympathetically on both sides of the coming conflict and yet participate with neither side, realizing that there are rights and wrongs on both sides of the great question and that nothing but Divine power can bring order out of the great confusion. Trusting to the Lord, they can sound forth the clear notes of the silver trumpets, declaring true liberty as the gospel declares it-liberty from Satan, sin and death-the lesser liberties, also, in respect to personal rights, privileges, etc. [HGL194]
We have examined our subject only from the standpoint of the law; but the law and the prophets are in accord, and we find another strong line of testimony in full accord with the foregoing. We have it here outlined upon the chart, and many of you have doubtless perceived that the outlines here presented are identical with the outline given in the second volume of "Millennial Dawn Series," entitled "The Time Is at Hand."
It must strike us all as remarkable-evidently intended of the Lord-that the prophetic corroboration which we now proceed to consider lay in its own simplicity until its application in the jubilee type gave it signification. The seventy years usually referred to is the seventy years desolation of the land. As a matter of fact, some of the people of Israel were taken into captivity eighteen years previous to the desolation of the land, and some of the ten tribes long before that. It was not the captivity that the Lord referred to in giving the number seventy, but the year in which the land would be desolate and all the inhabitants gone from it. The Prophet Jeremiah made prediction on the subject thus:
"And the whole land shall be a desolation. . . shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years." (Jer. 25:11)
"Thus saith the Lord, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you, and perform My good word toward you in causing you to return to this land." (Jer. 29:10.)
In 2 Chron. 36:17-21, the fulfillment of this prophecy is recorded, and the reason why it was just seventy years, and why the land of Israel was made completely desolate, is stated thus, "He brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, Nebuchadnezzer, king of Babylon. . . and them that escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon, where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the king of Persia; to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths, for so long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath to fulfill three score years and ten (seventy) years."
From this we perceive that God was not satisfied with the way the typical jubilees had been kept. Very evidently the prosperous and wealthy classes were indisposed to yield up the advantages they had gained over their less fortunate brethren when the jubilee years came around. Hence, finding fault with these improperly kept celebrations, the Lord ended them entirely and gave the land the full number of her Sabbaths at once, while her inhabitants were in a foreign land. The value of this point will be clearly seen. It shows us what the full number of jubilee cycles would be, namely, seventy-nineteen of the seventy improperly kept in the past, and fifty-one given in advance without waiting for the improper observances.
Look at the chart again and note the delineation, and how this agrees absolutely with the statement of the same matter from the law standpoint as already examined. The difference between the two methods of calculation is that the law sets forth the matter as it should have taken place, namely, that cycles of forty-nine years followed by jubilees should have followed right along, while the prophecies show the matter as it did take place, namely, nineteen cycles with their jubilees improperly observed, and fifty-one cycles following one another, but without jubilee years. The result is the same-both showing that the year 1875 marked the exact period at which the great jubilee was due to have commenced.
Some may be inclined to say, What great events occurred in 1875 or have been occurring since which would justify the belief that the great jubilee time has come? We answer, those who are expecting the restitution work to be accomplished in a moment of time must necessarily be disappointed, until they learn more respecting the divine methods, which are gradual-first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear, as the apostle suggests. When we perceive the Lord's gradual methods we find just what we should reasonably expect. We are looking for "times of restitution," and what would properly be the first evidence or indication of such times?
Suppose that the necessary laws had been passed for the erection of a new city hall in Allegheny; suppose that the date fixed for its commencement was January 1. Would any sane man expect that on January 1 he would see the new building rising? No! What would he expect? He would properly expect to find on examination evidences that the demolishing of the old structure was in progress. He might see little or nothing on the outside, but going inside he would find doors and old fixtures being removed and the work of demolishing progressing.
We should expect to see just what we do see, namely, a gradual disintegration of the affairs of this world-political unrest, social unrest, religious unrest-a spirit of revolution, a spirit of discontent, malice, hatred, strife. Not that we commend such things, God forbid! We inculcate the very reverse, but show merely from the prophetic standpoint that the great kingdom of God will be established on the ruins of present empires, which the children of this world will wreck for themselves, by going to mad extremes. We see that the Lord will permit "the wrath of men to praise him," and to thus bring about the humbling of the world's pride, and thus prepare mankind with the plowshare of sorrow and trouble, driven deep by the selfishness of both poor and rich, to prepare them for the blessings of the jubilee time which he is meantime bringing forward. After the old structure falls the new will be erected along the grandest lines of love and justice and righteousness possible to be conceived by the human mind. Immanuel shall lay justice to the line and righteousness to the plummet, and bless all the families of the earth.
The Lord's lesson, the Lord's message through us to His people, is only for "Him that hath an ear to hear, -let him hear." Such may well rejoice in the glorious prospect, not only for themselves, but for all the world of mankind. Such can have patience to wait for the Lord's work to be accomplished. Such will not fret themselves in any wise to do evil, but will wait patiently for the king of kings and lord of lords to establish His righteousness and to confer His blessings. Such can have their hearts lifted above the cares and turmoils and worries of "this present evil world," and can [HGL195] center them upon the higher things which God has promised to them that love Him-love Him more than father or mother or children or houses or lands or self.
Let us, dear friends, be of this class; and then, more and more as we see the wonderful harmony and beauties of the divine plan, our hearts will rest in the Lord and we will be sanctified by the truth; as it is written, "He that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure."
Our topic for next Lord's day afternoon will be: "The Times of the Gentiles."