One of the most remarkable and effective outreaches of Pastor Charles Taze Russell in his endeavor to place the message of Scriptural truth before the world was his use of the public press. At the height of his ministry over 800 newspapers in the United States and Canada and another 400 in the British Isles regularly published his syndicated sermons. Along with the extensive use of colporteurs and the dramatic presentation of "The Photodrama of Creation," the daily and weekly newspapers were instrumental in making his name a household word and in giving the widest possible exposure to his controversial teachings. The sermons that have been collated in this volume of "Harvest Gleanings" do not claim to be exhaustive, but are highly representative. This particular volume covers the sermons from 1901 to 1910. It is our hope to publish an additional collection for the years of 1911 to 1916 in the future. Much of the original material from which this book has been taken is weathered with age and illegible because of fading or gaps. These have been filled in as accurately as possible. Punctuation, capitalization, and spelling are from the original newspapers and reflect somewhat of a lack of continuity because of the number of papers involved. It is with the hope that the material in these sermons may prove as inspirational to readers today as they did in the early 1900's that the publishers put forth this volume.
Sincerely in Christ,
CHICAGO BIBLE STUDENTS BOOK REPUBLISHING COMMITTEE
Bible House chapel, in Allegheny, Pa., was crowded when Pastor C. T. Russell spoke on Christ's resurrection. The text and discourse follow: Dear friends, it is appropriate that we notice that the most important steps in the divine plan for the recovery of man from sin and its penalty are three in number. The first of these was our Lord's death as the redemption price of Adam and his race from the wages of sin – death. This we celebrated on its anniversary during the week just past. I am confident that I reflect the sentiments of all who participated on that occasion that it was a most blessed and refreshing season, and that our hearts took fresh courage as we considered the love of God manifested in the gift of His Son, who died for our sins. The second of these important steps in the plan of salvation was our Lord's resurrection from the dead; for be it noted that the redemption could have profited us nothing whatever had the Redeemer Himself remained under "the curse" – the death penalty – which He bore for us. Had our Lord Jesus remained under the power of death He could never have saved us; for the salvation promised us is a resurrection from the dead, and a dead savior would be no savior at all – Himself under the power of death how could He have released Adam or any of his family' The third important step in the divine plan of salvation is the second coming of Christ, to actually bestow upon the faithful ones of His church the blessings promised to them, and to actually proffer to the world in general opportunities for reconciliation to the Father secured by the redemption sacrifice. Our topic for today is the second of these important items our Lord's resurrection from the dead, and we choose as our text the words of the apostle: "Now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first-fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as all in Adam die, even so all in Christ shall be made alive; but every man in his own order." 1 Cor. 15:20-23
It is unfortunate that a false theory respecting the penalty of sin (death) has so engrafted itself upon the minds of Christian people as to distort their views and really make meaningless much that the Scriptures state respecting the resurrection of the dead. From the ordinary standpoint it would matter little to us whether our Lord Jesus arose from the dead or not – it would matter little whether anyone ever rose from the dead or not. The usual thought respecting resurrection is that it relates merely to the body and not to the soul. The theory is that the soul, so far from dying with the body, really becomes more alive without the body, and hence some speak of getting "free" from the body – being "liberated from [NS2] the prison house of clay."
To such as have been misled by such false conceptions of the facts as are implied in this language, the resurrection must mean to a greater or less degree a reimprisonment, a restraint of liberties, a limitation of powers and attributes. Such persons in reading the Scriptures must feel more or less confused when they come across statements by the Lord and by the apostles and the prophets implying a great necessity for a resurrection an absolute necessity – implying the utter nothingness of the person in death if there be no resurrection for him. In the preceding context the apostle has been discussing this very subject with some who, apparently, had come under the teaching of Greek philosophies, called Platonic philosophy – the same error which so generally prevails among Christian people today. Note the apostle's words, "If Christ be preached that He rose from the dead, how say some amongst you that there is no resurrection of the dead'" or as some now would perhaps state it, there is no necessity for a resurrection from the dead. The apostle could not agree with any such suggestion. In his theology, as in that which prevails throughout the Scriptures every hope of future life hinges upon a resurrection from the dead. The apostle states this in so many words: "If there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen [if a resurrection of the dead is an impossibility, it must have been an impossibility in our Lord's case, is the argument], and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ; whom He raised not up if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is Christ not raised; and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished." Verses 12-18
What strong language the apostle uses! He lays the whole stress of future salvation upon a future resurrection of the dead, and he unites the resurrection hope of mankind with the resurrection of our Lord. If Christ did not rise from the dead, no one will rise from the dead; if Christ did rise from the dead, it proves the possibility of a fulfillment of God's promise – the hope of a resurrection for every member of Adam's race sentenced because of Adam's sin and redeemed by our Lord's sacrifice. All Christian faith is vain if there is no resurrection, all Christian preaching is vain, and all those who have gone down into death have perished are without hope of any future life anywhere or of any kind – if there be no resurrection of the dead. Read these words of the apostle over to yourself quietly at home, ponder their meaning, and you will agree with me that our Lord's resurrection was a most momentous event. The scriptural presentation of this subject is that God's penalty for sin includes the soul as well as the body the intelligent and mental and moral qualities as well as the physical. From the scriptural standpoint Adam's soul was sentenced to death, "The soul that sinneth it shall die."
It was necessary therefore, in order to Adam's redemption, that whoever would pay his ransomed price to justice must die, not only physically, but in every sense of the word – must fill the conditions of the penalty. In Adam's case this penalty was represented in our Lord's words, "Thou shalt surely die," addressing the intelligence of Adam, and not merely saying, Thy body shall die and leave thee more alive than ever. The scriptural presentation of the sentence upon Adam is, "Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return."
We have already seen on a previous occasion that the human soul or intelligence or existence is the result of a combination of life force ("spirit of life") with physical organism, and that the death of the man is the death of the soul, resulting from the separation of the spirit or vital spark of life from the organism or body. This penalty which came upon Adam has been transmitted in a natural way to all humanity as his children, as the text declares all who were in Adam at the time of his fall have inherited the dying qualities implied in his sentence. The Scriptures represent that the whole world of mankind, thus dying, go into oblivion, into unconsciousness, into dissolution. Thus we see that the death penalty upon man took from him all the rights and privileges which had belonged to him as a creature of higher intelligence, endowed with the moral likeness of his Creator – the privilege or boon of everlasting life. This special provision of God for man above the provision for the lower animals having been lost by disobedience, man really was, therefore, on the same plane as the brute creation – without any right in God's promise or any character of his own which could call to justice for everlasting life. Whatever, therefore, God shall at any time proffer to man in the nature of a hope or prospect for eternal life must be wholly as a free gift on God's part, entirely independent of any rights or privileges with which mankind was endowed at the time of his creation – for all these were "lost."
But our Lord Jesus explains to us the object of His first coming, saying, "The son of man [NS3] is come to seek and save that which was lost."
Men by disobedience had "lost" the right to eternal life, and all the privileges and blessings and opportunities attaching to that great boon. It was this life-right that man needed and that Christ came to give back to him. The Lord explains this in so many words, saying, I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly." (John 10:10)
He tells us again that he came not to destroy men's lives but to save them – to save them from the death sentence, the death penalty under which the race had then been for more than 6,000 years. Luke 9:56
Our Lord explained further how He intended to give the world life, saying, "The son of man came not to be served unto, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." (Matt. 20:28)
From this standpoint our Lord's life was laid down in death in exactly the same manner in which Adam's life was laid down, and for the very purpose of securing to Adam (and to the race in him when he was condemned) a release from the original sentence – a release from the death penalty. In view of this, dear friends, what should we expect to find the Scriptures to teach respecting the character of our Lord's death' Do they teach, as is generally believed, that our Lord only appeared to die, but that in reality He did not die, and merely allowed His body to die on the cross' Not so; the Scriptures teach very explicitly that "He made His soul an offering for sin" (Isa. 53:10).
Again they tell us that "He poured out His soul unto death" (Isa. 53:12).
They tell us further that eventually "He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied" (Isa. 53:11).
It is evident, then, from these Scriptures that our Lord's "soul" died and thus fully met the penalty against sinners "the soul that sinneth it shall die."
Whoever sees this clearly and distinctly sees that justice has been fully met, and that God, having thus laid upon His Son the penalty of Adam, can now be just in setting at liberty from death the soul of Adam and the souls of all of Adam's posterity, all of whom came under this death sentence through his disobedience, as the apostle most explicitly states the matter. Rom. 5:12
Not only have we this evidence that Christ poured out His "soul" unto death and made His "soul" an offering for sin for our sins but additionally we have the Scriptural testimony that His "soul" was delivered from death in His resurrection – thus proving beyond peradventure that he did pay mankind's penalty, that He did pay the "wages of sin' the soul that sinneth it shall die. The prophet David, speaking of our Lord, distinctly tells us that His "soul" was not left in sheol the grave, the death state. Psa. 16:10
Let us notice the Apostle Peter's testimony on this subject, as recorded in Acts 2:24-34. He is discussing our Lord's resurrection, in full harmony with the words of the Apostle Paul in our text. Does not the frequency of the Scriptural references to the resurrection of the dead and the infrequent mention of it in the pulpits of our day attest clearly what we have already been showing, namely, that a great and serious error has crept into the Christian faith which bears upon this subject, and which tends to make the word of God of none effect to them that are beclouded with the error' It surely does. It must surely strike Christian people in general as remarkable that so much emphasis is laid upon the absolute necessity of the resurrection of Christ and of the church and of the world in the Bible mention of these matters, while the majority of Christian people have perhaps never heard the subject of the resurrection preached upon a single time in all their lives. Why' Because of the erroneous thought that men who have died know more than they knew before they died. It all comes from the ignoring of the Scriptural testimony on this subject, to wit, that "the dead know not anything – so that their sons come to honor and they know it not, or to dishonor and they perceive it not of them. For there is neither work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest." Job 14:21; Eccl. 9:10
The apostle Peter's argument is quite to the point. He was preaching on the day of Pentecost; he was charging home to his hearers the fact that they have crucified Jesus, and then in offset declares that God raised Him up from the dead – that it was not possible that He should be holden of death. It was the Father's promise that our Lord's faithful sacrifice of His life as the man Christ Jesus should not signify to Him an utter blotting out of His existence. It would indeed mean the termination, the complete blotting out of Him as a man – His human existence, which He had assumed in exchange for a previous spirit existence, being given up as a "ransom" price for Father Adam and thus for all who were involved in Father Adam's disobedience. He could not rise from the dead as a man, as a human being, as flesh – his flesh being given once and for all and forever for the life of the world, for Adam and his race. Heb. 2:9; Matt. 20:28; 1 Tim. 2:6 [NS4] But nothing in this arrangement for the complete laying down of His life as "the man Christ Jesus" interfered with another arrangement which the Father provided, namely, that at the time of His consecration when 30 years of age, He should be "begotten again" of the Holy Spirit to a new nature – a spiritual nature, higher than human. This spiritual nature developed as the earthly nature of our Lord was sacrificed day by day in obedience to the Father's plan. The new nature, however, was merely the new will, the spirit-begotten mind of our Lord, and was entirely (dependent upon His physical organization; and when, therefore, He was crucified, when He died, the new mind as well as the fleshly body was involved. With Him, as with all others, there was neither wisdom nor knowledge nor device in sheol. Our Lord's resurrection, therefore, was not as a man, hut as a spirit being – such as He was before He undertook the work of man's redemption and left the glory which He had with the Father before the world was only that now His exalted position is still a superior one to that which He previously enjoyed. (Philip. 2:9)
This is the teaching of the apostle when he says: He was put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the spirit."
Speaking of our Lord's faithfulness unto death and the glorious exaltation to which it led, he says: He left the glory of the Father and took a bondsman's form and was made flesh for the suffering of death – that He, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man. And, being found in fashion a man, He humbled Himself even unto death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God hath highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess to the glory of God the Father. Philip. 2:7-11; Heb. 2:9 St. Peter, after declaring our Lord's resurrection from the dead, makes various quotations from the Prophet David, showing that our Lord's resurrection an( l future glory were foretold. Then, proving that David was not speaking these things respecting Himself, but respecting Christ, he says: "Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the Patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried and his sepulcher is with us unto this day."
The fact of his burial proved that David's flesh did see corruption, that God did not deliver him from the power of death, and his sepulcher was a standing memorial, not of his resurrection but of his death and corruption and hope of a future resurrection through Christ. The apostle, in the words of our text, proceeds to show that David, as a prophet, foretold the resurrection of Christ from the dead, to be the heir of the throne of Israel and the world, as God has declared to David, and as He had previously declared to Abraham. 'This Jesus bath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses," said St. Peter; and then he referred to the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit displayed in the eleven apostles as proofs that Jesus not only had arisen from the condition of death, but that He had ascended up on high to the Father and had sent forth the Holy Spirit, whose manifestations were generally perceived. As though to clinch his argument, and to prove that David was speaking of our Lord and not of himself, the Apostle adds in verse 34, "For David is not ascended into the heaven" – his prophetic reference therefore was to Jesus the one whom he represented in type and prophetically.
As the fact of Christ's death attests His love and devotion to us and that the penalty for the sins of the whole world has been fully paid, so His resurrection from the dead on the third day assures us that the Father was pleased with the sacrifice, that justice accepted it, and that therefore it will be possible to justly exonerate the whole world of mankind from the Adamic sin and all the penalties and consequences, depravities and hereditary weaknesses which have come down to us through that original sin. Cod can be just and yet justify all mankind from all things – from all the sins that are the result of our original impairment as a race, mental, moral, and physical degeneracy. The resurrection of Christ assures us further that God, who changes not, is carrying out the stupendous plan of salvation which He at first arranged, concerning which the Apostle prayed that the early church might more and more have the eyes of their understanding opened, that they might be able to comprehend with all saints the lengths and breadths and heights and depths of the love of God, which passeth all understanding. This great, wide and deep and high plan of God relates to and has blessing for every member of our fallen race. As all who are in Adam shared his penalty, so all who shall come into obedient relation with Christ will in Him share the life which He has secured for the race. As yet only the church, only the "little flock have had the eyes of their understanding and the ears of appreciation opened to grasp the situation and to appreciate the love of God which passeth all understanding. This 'little flock – as we shall see, the Lord willing, next Sunday – is to have a special resurrection to spiritual favors and blessings and position, and from that standpoint in association with the Lord shall dispense blessings to the whole world of mankind in due time. [NS5] The due time for the world to have its resurrection privileges will be the next age, but this also we leave for consideration next Lord's day. Today we are dealing with the fundamental fact that our dear Redeemer died for our sins, and, as the apostle expresses it, "rose again on the third day from the dead for our justification."
Blessed are our eyes and our ears which see and hear now of the grace of God! A special blessing comes to all of us who thus learn in advance of the world of the precious boon secured by the dead Redeemer's death and which He loves to bestow. The bestowment of this blessing upon the world waits for the election of the church, the bride class, to be joint-heirs with Jesus in His heavenly kingdom. In view of this wonderful outcome – in view of how much was dependent upon the Lord's death, and then dependent upon His resurrection and is still dependent upon His coming in the power of His kingdom to pour out the blessings secured by His death – how much may we rejoice today and give glory to God that the grave no longer holds our Master. We rejoice that the bars of the prison house of death have been broken so far as the church, His consort, is concerned, and that the hour is coming in which all that are in their graves shall come forth – shall be released or have the opportunity of being released, from the bonds of death, as well as the bonds of sin, shall have the privilege of being delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. We do not wonder that farther along in the same chapter in which our text is found, the apostle – still discussing this momentous question of the resurrection of our Lord and its import of resurrection to the church and to the world – pointing down into the future accomplishment of divine promises, breaks out into the exclamation, "Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. O, death! Where is thy sting' O, grave, where is thy victory' Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" – victory over sin, victory over death! Our Lord's last great message to His people refers to the same victory, triumphantly saying: "I am He that was dead [not merely apparently dead, but really so] and, behold, I am alive forever more, and have the keys [the authority, the power over] death and hades [the grave or death state]." Rev. 1:18
We See That the Blessing That Will Come to the World Will Be the Trial or Judgment of That Millennial Day
Jan. 25 – Pastor C. T. Russell spoke to a large and attentive audience in Allegheny Carnegie hall yesterday afternoon. His text was "Things which must shortly come to pass." (Rev. 1:1)
Pastor Russell said: These words, true when our Lord uttered them, are no less true now, 1,800 years later. We are sure that the wonderful events with which this age is to close and the Millennial age is to open are now nigh, even at the door. There are some, however, who argue that the Lord and the Apostles must have been mistaken when they used such language; for say they, 1,800 years are not shortly."
We reply that all depends upon the standpoint. From the human standpoint 1,800 years is a dreadfully long period, but not so from the divine. The prophet intimates this saying, "A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday."
Yes, responded the Apostle Peter, "Be not ignorant brethren of one thing, that a day with the Lord is as a thousand years."
From the divine standpoint, therefore, the 6,000 years since Adam's creation are but six days of a great week of which the Millennial age is the great Sabbath. Suppose now that the mechanic or the housewife had in mind a week of toil beginning with Monday morning and closing with Saturday night, and suppose that Friday morning had arrived – would anyone say nothing that the truth was being stretched if it were said "The week is far spent," the work – time now is short; the rest that is promised will "shortly come to pass'" Surely these would be usual and proper statements. And so it is with the words of our Lord and His apostles. They were living in the beginning of the fifth thousand year day, and properly the holy Spirit in them recognized the promised blessings as nigh. [NS6]
Possibly it has seemed peculiar to those who have attended these studies of time prophecy, that in the various prophetic measures thus far examined none have been referred to as marking the second coming of our Lord. This is the more unusual because our Second Adventist friends, who generally monopolize prophetic interpretation, bend all of their energies toward proving the time of the advent. To our understanding a misconception on their part, both of the object and manner of the second coming, has confused them. Holding as they do that Christ's second coming will be in a body of flesh and visible to mankind, and holding also as they mostly do that the object of His coming will be to gather His saints to Himself and to utterly destroy the remainder of mankind and the world itself with fire, they have been led to pull and twist the various prophetic time prophecies so as to have them all end at the same moment of the one day in which they expect Christ to appear, the judgment of the world to take place, and the burning to begin. Delivered from both of these errors, we are prepared to apply the various prophecies just as they were intended, some expiring at one date and others at another date, and to draw from them their intended lessons. First of all, our eyes have been opened to a realization of the fact that the judgment of the world means its trial for life everlasting, and not its condemnation to the second death. We see that the world was condemned as a race because of original sin, that the whole world has been under this curse or sentence of death for now 6,000 years. We see that in much mercy God redeemed us from that curse or sentence of eternal death by the death of His Son, our Lord. We see that the only ones who are even reckonedly escaped from that death sentence are the few who have been blessed with hearing ears and understanding hearts. As the apostle declares of these, "We have escaped the condemnation which is upon the world."
The great mass of mankind outside the Household of Faith are still under the original sentence – eternal death. We see that God's object in giving some now a knowledge whereby they may escape this sentence, and reach life everlasting in Christ, is to the intent that He may gather out a "little flock" to be joint-heirs with His Son in the glorious Millennial kingdom.
We see that Christ and His overcoming church, His bride, constitute the seed of Abraham (Gal. 3:29) which is to bless all the families of the earth during the Millennial age. We see that the blessing that will come to the world will be the trial or judgment of that blessed millennial day, and that the knowledge of the Lord and full opportunity are promised as incidental to the world's trial for life everlasting. This saves us from the thought that the church, the little flock, of Christ, alone have a part in the blessings secured from the atonement. It saves us too from the error of supposing that the second coming of Christ is the end of all hope, mercy and probation. It shows us, on the contrary, that so far as the generality of our race is concerned, that event is but the beginning of divine mercy and opportunity and trial for life eternal to the world. A careful examination of the Father's word has assured us fully that our Lord Jesus left the glory and dignity and honor of His spiritual condition when He became a man, not that He might remain a man to all eternity, but that as a man He might give the ransom price for Adam and all his race. We see that He did this, and we have the clear scriptural testimony that the Father was pleased to honor Him, not merely with the same honor that He had before, but He was pleased to exalt Him far above angels, principalities and powers, and every name that is named. We perceive the clear scriptural testimony that He was "put to death in the flesh, but was quickened in the spirit," and we perceive that after His resurrection, though still in the world for 40 days. He was but rarely with His disciples and but for a few moments on the seven occasions, and then in different forms, as proving to them and to us that, although He was the same Jesus, He was now "changed" and no longer human and subject to human conditions. To demonstrate this He appeared in the room with His disciples while "the doors were shut," and, departing, "vanished out of their sight."
He appeared in flesh and garments as suited the convenience of the occasions, and thus manifested the same powers that He and associated holy angels had manifested in previous times; as, for instance, when the Lord and three angels appeared to Abraham and took dinner with him and talked with him and afterward went down and delivered Lot out of Sodom.
We thus realize that our Lord Jesus is no longer a man, but, as the apostle declares, "The Lord is that Spirit," and "though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now, henceforth, we know Him so no more. We, therefore, are no longer expecting as do others that He will come a second time in the flesh. On the contrary, our expectations are, like those of the apostles, that we may be "changed" and made as He is, in order that we may see Him as He is – not as He was at the first advent. 1 John 3:2 [NS7] "Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but My Father only."
It is not our intention to offer any evidences respecting the day and hour in the future in which our Lord will come; but we do wish to call your attention to this text, that all may know that it is frequently misapplied. It does not say that of that day and hour no man shall ever know. At the time of its utterance neither men nor angels nor the Lord Jesus Himself knew the time of His second coming; but when the second coming takes place the Lord undoubtedly will be aware of it before the time, and so also the holy angels who will be His escort; and there would be nothing inconsistent with the statement if some of the Lord's consecrated people might have intimations respecting the event. Other Scriptures speak of "the day of the Lord," signifying a period in which He will be manifested. For instance, the apostle tells us that "The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night; and when they [the world] shall say peace and safety, then cometh sudden destruction upon them, as travail upon a woman with a child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief." (1 Thess. 5:2, 3)
Note how explicit is this declaration, and how clearly it divides between the church and the world – between the class who will know in advance respecting the day of the Lord and the class that will not know until the great trouble of the "day of wrath" is upon them.
The Scriptures (Greek) use both of these words in referring to the second coming of Christ; but neither of them signify the same as our English word coming, viz., approach. We would like to make very clear the Scriptures' teaching – that in the end of this Gospel age our Lord, at His second advent, will for a time be present but invisible, and that subsequently His presence will be revealed or made known. None will know of His presence until after He is here, only the thoroughly consecrated, Israelites, indeed, will know of the matter at all until the outward manifestation will be in the day of trouble – judgments coming upon present institutions. The early part of the Lord's presence will be devoted to His church, as His words specifically inform us. In giving the great prophecy of Matt. 25, the Lord tells us that in the time of His second presence He will gird Himself (that is, take the position of a servant,) and come forth and serve His people with "things new and old," "meat in due season for the Household of Faith."
This service will be rendered at a time when the world will not know of His presence, but will be saying that all things continue as they were from the foundation of the world. Another of our Lord's parables represents that at His second advent He will call His own servants and reckon with them and reward them; he that has received the two talents and used them wisely will be rewarded; he who received the five talents and used them wisely and profitably will be rewarded. Their rewards are stated: Some shall be made rulers over five cities, others over ten cities – in the kingdom, shortly after it has been established. Evidently this testing of the church and determining its rewards will be before there is any manifestation to the world to the presence of the Son of man at His second advent. Afterward, when ready to begin dealing with the world, judging the institutions of the present time, the presence of the Son of man will be revealed "in flaming fire" – judgments.
Allow me to call your attention to Matt. 24:37. Here a statement concerning our Lord's second advent is distinctly made by Himself. It reads thus: "As the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be."
This is evidently intended to be an illustration, but there is an incongruity in comparing the days of Noah and the coming of the Son of man. The difficulty is made clear when we find that the word here rendered coming is parousia, and does not mean coming, but means presence, as every Greek scholar knows. Now let us read the verse and see how plain it becomes, "As were the days of Noah, so shall also the presence of the Son of man be."
Ah, that is different; it is plain now. The days of the presence of the Son of man will in some respects resemble the days of Noah, preceding the flood. Now we turn to Luke's account of the same discourse and read (Luke 17:26), "As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man."
Now the two statements are in harmony, and we know to look for some correspondence as between Noah's days and the days of the presence of Christ in the end of this age. Is there anything to indicate what the correspondencies will be' Yes; it is specifically stated thus: "For as in those days which were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered into the Ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them away; so shall also the coming [parousia, presence] of the Son of man be."
Let us not lose the point of the illustration: the Lord was not intimating that eating and drinking, planting and building, marrying and giving in marriage were wicked things in the days of Noah, which would be duplicated in the days of the presence [NS8] of the Son of man. The thought is that as the people of Noah's day knew not of the coming flood, but were going about their ordinary business, so also in the end of this age, in the time of the presence of the Son of man, the world will be going about its ordinary business, its eating and drinking, planting and building and marrying, totally unaware, unconscious of the time in which they are living – that it is the closing time of the gospel dispensation and the opening time of the great Millennial age, to be ushered in with a great time of trouble such as never was before. This, it will be perceived, is in strict harmony with what the apostle said, namely, that the day of the Lord would come as a thief and a snare upon the whole world, and that they would not escape, but, in harmony with the apostle's suggestion that "ye, brethren," would not be left in "darkness," should not we, dear brethren, be on the lookout to see by what means the Lord will inform us respecting the harvest time of this Gospel age, respecting the presence of the Son of man, and respecting the work that will be done in the time of His presence, and before His revealing to the world, before His epiphania in the time of trouble'
We will surprise many of you by what we are about to say on this subject of the time of the Lord's presence. What we say will not cause fear and trepidation to the hearts of any who are walking faithfully in the Lord's footsteps; and if our remarks shall serve to startle and awaken to a closer investigation of these matters any who have been more or less stupefied by the spirit of the world, the spirit of pleasure, the spirit of greed, the spirit of selfishness, we shall rejoice in their awakening, and they also will have cause to glorify God on this behalf. We wish to point out to you, dear friends, that the Scripture prophecies which we examined on the three preceding Sundays, and others which we wish we had time to examine today, clearly teach that we are now living in "the days of the Son of Man" – in the parousia, in the time of the Lord's presence. Now, let none of us be alarmed, for we are not pointing you to a future date, but pointing back to the fall of 1874, and none of you – neither myself nor anyone else – had the slightest knowledge of the facts of the case when it occured. Our Lord said, "Behold, I come as a thief" – quietly, secretly, unknown, and so it has been; He came without your knowing it and without my knowing it. It is since His presence that the light has shone particularly upon His word. He has indeed girded Himself and come forth to serve His people. I have been the recipient of His favors of His grace, of His truth, as respects things new and old. You also have been similarly favored, and it is our understanding of the teachings of the Word that, during this harvest time and before the great time of anarchy and trouble shall burst upon the world and smite present institutions, that all the Lord's true people, all who are Israelites indeed, in whom there is no guile, will be brought to a knowledge of the Lord and of the truth, a knowledge of the divine plan of the ages and of the presence of the Chief Reaper in the harvest of this age. It need not surprise us that all of the Lord's people do not receive the meat in due season at the same moment. It must be passed from one to another, for so illustrations in the Scripture intimate. I am today seeking to pass it to some of you, and you in turn will serve it to others, until all "the wise shall understand."
But the Scriptures are equally explicit in the statement that "none of the wicked shall understand."
Those who are of a rebellious attitude of mind and heart, who, even if God's true children, are cultivating in their hearts envy, malice, hatred, strife and other works of the flesh and of the devil are not in a condition to hear the voice of the Son of Man. His is the still small voice intended only for those who have an ear to hear, and this hearing is granted only to those who have hearts in accord with the Lord's spirit.
Now, look with me at the chart and see how the various time prophecies, although making no mention of the second coming of Christ, clearly indicate and imply that His parousia, His presence, would begin in October, 1874. First, we call to mind the jubilee type, examined three Sundays ago. We remember how explicitly it indicated that the "times of restitution of things" – earth's great jubilee – were due to begin in October 1874. We remember the two lines of testimony on the subject – the law and the prophets – and how they both pointed to the same time. We remember that we looked about us to see evidences of any restitution work, and concluded that the appropriate thing to be sought would be the pulling by the people, the appeal for their rights, the claiming of inheritances, etc. And so we find that since 1874 this very work of blowing the trumpets, demanding rights and privileges and asserting claims and rights have been the order of the day. Now let us notice the words of the Apostle Peter, uttered eighteen centuries ago. He said: 'Times of refreshing shall come out of the face of Jehovah, and He shall send Jesus Christ, whom the heavens must receive [retain] until the times of restitution of all things." (Acts 3:19-21)
Note these words particularly [NS9] the heavens were to receive our Redeemer, to retain Him, until the restitution times. The lesson clearly would be that if restitution times chronologically began in October, 1874, the heavens no longer retain our Lord. This is an indirect way that the Scriptures teach that the Lord became present in 1874, yet your speaker was utterly unaware of the matter for nearly two years after the event, and then learned it, not from visions or dreams or other manifestations, but from the testimonies of the prophets as you are hearing them today.
We particularly wish that we had time to call to your attention what the Prophet Daniel calls the "days of waiting."
In prophecy he foretold of the rise of Papacy, and, as we have already seen, foretold the length of its dominion to be 1,260 prophetic days, literally years – exactly the same that is stated three times in the book of Revelations as measuring the prosperity of the great system which "wore out the saints of the Most High God" for 1,260 days, literal years. We would have liked to have time to show that the 1,260 years of papal dominion lasted from the year 539 to the year 1799 A. D. – from the time papacy was set up in power, until the time when its power was broken by Napoleon Bonaparte, who carried the pope a prisoner to France, and in so doing showed the whole world that the claims of the man who sat upon the papal throne that he was "another God on earth" and had power in heaven, earth and purgatory, were bombastic claims, unsupported by any real evidence of power. We would have liked to have shown that the next period of 1,290 days, years, ended in 1829 with the beginning of the second advent movement of that period, and the great influence which it had upon its time. We would like to have shown that the 1,335 prophetic days, years, of the same prophecy reached to October, 1874 – ending exactly at the same place, at the time indicated by the jubilee. We call your attention to the words of the Prophet Daniel in connection with these 1,335 days. He said, "O the blessedness of him that waiteth and cometh unto the one thousand three hundred and five and thirty days."
What shall we say, dear brethren' Is it not so that those who have lived and patiently waited for the fulfillment of the Lord's gracious promises have received a special blessing in this harvest time' – a blessing which began with and dated from the fall of 1874. Surely this is true – surely every step of our progress in the knowledge of the divine plan is a fresh cause for rejoicing. "He hath put a new song in my mouth, even the loving kindness of our God."
Now notice the other prophecy respecting Israel's seven times of chastisement under the nations – 2,520 years from the time the crown was removed from the head of their last king, Zedekiah, and down to the present time, and beyond to the year 1915. This prophecy indicates, if you please, the further end of the time of trouble in which we are living – between October, 1874 and 1915. A period of 40 years is thus appropriated, first to the gathering of the harvest of the Gospel age – the resurrection of the sleeping saints and the testing and proving and gathering to the Lord of the living members of the body, and finally the great time of trouble which will make ready for the full ushering in of the kingdom of glory and peace and blessing. The time appears long enough, yet not too long. Already the work of gathering the saints is well under way, and every year adds to the momentum of the truth, as well as to the opposition of the error. Eleven years or so remain, and as we look out we perceive that the whole world is getting awake. Look at the church and see how infidelity under the name of higher criticism is invading the nominal sanctuary – how few are clean and free from the contamination. It is bound to make a division but, alas, so few will be found faithful to the Lord and to His word that the great majority, losing their faith, will have so much company in the matter that they will not realize for some time their fall from divine favor and grace. It will not take many years to accomplish this separation. Look at the world, and see how the love of money has bewitched all, so that little else than money or pleasure are ever thought of in civilized lands. See how this spirit of selfishness is working amongst the masses and the classes of the world in general, how these are being bound in bundles – into organizations, combinations and unions, and how the capitalistic class is being bound also into other unions, confederations, combinations, and trusts, and note that the same spirit is infecting churchianity and for the same reasons – for self-protection, for self-aggrandizement, for power. Think how far along these organizations are at the present times, and what the struggle will be when they are all thoroughly organized and the tug of war shall come. The Scriptures tell us distinctly how the battle will result, that Babylon the Great will fall, and that with her in the battle will go down the kings and princes and mighty ones of earth, and that a terrible time of anarchy will prevail, and the only bright spot in the future lies beyond in the gracious promises of the God of Heaven, that on the ruins of present institutions He will establish His kingdom. [NS10]
Now, look again, dear friends, at the subject discussed last Lord's day, the parallels of the Jewish and gospel dispensations. Note how all of these prophecies are harmonized and unified in this teaching of the parallels between the two Israels, the house of servants and the house of sons – the one under Moses, the mediator of the law covenant; the other under Christ, the mediator of the new covenant – the one founded to Jacob with his twelve sons, natural Israel; the other founded by Christ, the true Israel of God, with His twelve apostles. The house of servants, we have seen, began with the death of Jacob and lasted 1,811 years, until the first advent movement at the time of our Lord's birth, when all men were in expectation of Him, and when wise men from the East sought for Him. And likewise from the death of Christ, where this Gospel age began, 1,811 years reached to the second advent movement, which occurred in 1844. We are not Second Adventists, nor would those people in any sense or degree recognize us or our teachings, but we do believe that the movement which culminated in 1844 was in some measure instigated by the Almighty, and that it had a powerful influence favorable to the truth. There the virgins, as foretold in Matthew 25, went forth to meet the bridegroom and he tarried, and they all afterward slumbered and slept until the morning, until the announcement, "Behold the bridegroom's presence."
Thirty years after the advent movement at Bethlehem there was another advent movement at Jordan, when John proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah, and when our Lord really entered upon His work. And similarly in the end of this age, as you will notice from the chart, 30 years from 1844 brings us to 1874, where the jubilee testimony proclaims to us the Lord's presence. Forty years from the time Jesus was baptized by John at Jordan, the Jewish nation was utterly overthrown in the greatest time of trouble that troubled people had ever known – their city was utterly destroyed. So likewise 40 years from 1874 reached to 1915, where the antitype of Israel, namely, Christendom, will have its utter overthrow in a time of trouble such as was not since there was a nation.
Are these things accidental, dear friends' We think not; they are all based upon the Scriptures, they are all simple and easy of demonstration, and yet they were all hidden by the method of their statement or by facts related to their interpretation, so that they could not be understood until now in God's due time, when He lifts the veil. Thus the Lord said to Daniel the Prophet, in respect to his inquiry of those times and seasons, "Go thy way, Daniel for the thing is closed and sealed until the time of the end."
We understand, dear friends, that the time of the end began in 1799, more than a century ago, and that we have been in the time of the end ever since, and that the time of the end is another name for what another prophet calls "the day of his preparation."
Since 1799 we have been in the time of the Lord's preparation for the Millennial kingdom. He has lifted the curtain, and light has shone in upon the world from every quarter, on mechanics, on chemistry, on every science and on every art.
All of these things have served to make the day in which we live the grandest that the world has ever known; and yet these grand privileges and blessings are about to work out for our present civilization the great catastrophe of anarchy to which we have just alluded. The law of selfishness rules in the hearts of all classes, and causes envy, hatred, malice, strife, and, eventually, through socialism, will lead up to anarchy and wreck the entire social fabric. All this is noted by the prophet, for he gives us in the same connection, after being told that the prophecy was "sealed until the time of the end," a description of this time of the end – a description which fits so marvelously that it will surprise everyone who will examine it. Mark the words: "In the time of the end many shall run to and fro, knowledge shall be increased, and the wise shall understand, and there shall be a time of trouble such as was not since there was a nation." Dan. 12:1, 4, 10
Note the four items. First, the running to and fro. What a marvelous fulfillment we see before our eyes – steamboats, railroads, bicycles, every contrivance for locomotion, and with ever-increasing speed and ever-increasing numbers. The whole world is running to and fro, just as the Lord indicated through the prophets would be the case in this time of the end. Could we hope to ever have a more particular fulfillment of any prophecy than this is' Surely not. Note the second point: Knowledge shall be increased. Not only is scientific knowledge increased, but the thought appears to be rather knowledge shall be generally disseminated. And it is all over Christendom, which is the world in prophecy. Education is progressing in a wonderful manner; children of 10 years are studying subjects which their great-grandfathers never thought of studying. In every land knowledge has been increased, and here is another remarkable fulfillment of prophecy. Could it [NS11] be plainer' Mark the third point: The wise shall understand – understand the vision which Daniel could not understand, which Daniel was not permitted to understand, which Daniel was not intended to understand. We are not, dear friends, posing as worldly wise. On the contrary, we are seeking the wisdom which cometh from above, the light which shines forth from the lamp which God has given us, His Word, and all who follow its leadings from the divine standpoint are the truly wise. This class may now understand; but as the context declares, "The wicked shall do wickedly; but none of the wicked shall understand."
They will take their own course, and the plan of God and the Word of God will daily come to appear to them more and more foolish as their scientific minds grapple with their evolution theories and their higher critical difficulties. Is this part of the prophecy being fulfilled' Is the word and plan of God opening before His consecrated people as never before' It most assuredly is so! Note the fourth point: "There shall be a time of trouble such as was not since there was a nation."
The outlook from any standpoint, but particularly from the standpoint of those who are looking from God's standpoint, is that the time of trouble is nearing.
We see that the prosperity of this time of the end is not conducive to happiness and peace; we see the whole world growing more and more discontented, although enjoying more of the blessings and favors of the Lord in temporal matters than ever before. We see that the secret of this discontent is knowledge. Knowledge is power – power for good or for evil, according to the sentiments of the heart. We must expect that only those hearts which are consecrated to the Lord and dominated by His spirit will receive this power of knowledge in such a manner as to profit themselves and their fellows; and since these are the small minority of the civilized world, we are not to be surprised that the knowledge and the power are about to wreck the present order of things. God will thus cause the wrath of man to praise Him, for, looking back, man will discover from the millennial standpoint what were the wickedness and errors of the present time as they cannot see them now, because they are so close to them and so vitally interested. They will see that selfishness lay at the foundation of present institutions in every sense of the word; even the benevolences of the present time are to some extent handicapped by selfishness. God wishes the whole world to have a terrible lesson on the result of selfishness in the cataclysm of trouble and disintegration which it will effect; He wishes all to learn that His way is not only the right of way, but the only way in which knowledge and liberty and power may be used to blessing and to profit.
Do these things appeal to you as both scriptural and rational – as being in accord with the word of God and the exercising of our senses, as they do to me' If so, I am sure that your hearts are leaping with joy at the thought that the dark night of earth's sin and suffering will soon be at an end and the glorious morning of the kingdom soon be ushered in. And you will be solicitous respecting the things which must shortly come to pass – the things which are coming to pass day be day in the midst of which we are living, if this prophetic testimony and outward corroborations are trustworthy in any degree. What must we expect in the church' some one may ask.
I answer that much depends upon what church we refer to. There are many churches of men, but only one church of the loving God whose names are written in heaven. The Scriptures everywhere show that the churches of men are more or less built upon error and are fencing in their various folds not only the Lord's sheep, but the worldly goats – not only the Lord's wheat, but the world's tares. We do not understand the Scriptures to teach that the goats and tares are all coarse, rude and villainous and disreputable, any more than the sheep and wheat are all wealthy and polished gentlemen and ladies. The tests are along different lines, and we read, "The Lord knoweth them that are His" – regardless of outward garb, education, appearance or wealth. We further read that "the Lord looketh upon the heart," and, again, that not many great, not many learned, hath God chosen, but chiefly the poor of this world, rich in faith, to be heirs of the kingdom. These then, the Lord's poor, we are to expect to find in all the various wheat fields, behind all the various creed fences, intermingling with all the various bands of tares. The harvest work, so far as the wheat is concerned, will be the gathering out of these. The Lord speaks of Christendom or churchianity as a whole under the name of Babylon – the name which originally applied to the mother of harlots, but which has become appropriate to all her daughter systems as well. These are addressed by the Lord in His last message, saying: "Babylon is fallen, is fallen. Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins and receive not of her plagues." Rev. 18:2-4
Our thought is, dear friends, that the Lord is sending forth present truth as a sickle to gather the true wheat from every part of the wheat fields not by [NS12] gathering them into another denomination or sect or party or name, but simply to gather them to the Lord – to fellowship with Him and to fellowship with others of like precious faith. We are in no sense attempting to organize a sect or party. We are sick of churchianity, but thoroughly in love with the great Christianity which Jesus and the apostles founded, under the terms and conditions of which all of the Lord's people are brought into heart-to-heart fellowship, and need not the bands of sects and confessions to fasten them together. Having one spirit, the spirit of truth, they are one body, as the apostle has expressed it. 1 Cor. 12:12-13, 27
The fields are white for the harvest, and every day is making a cleavage between the nominal Christianity and the true Christianity, and the more apparent it becomes that the nominal systems are growing more and more worldly. The colleges and seminaries of every denominational shade have for years been turning out polished infidels, who no more believe in the inspiration of God's Word than they believe in the inspiration of Shakespeare or Dickens, and they are not slow to say this amongst themselves, though craftily, many of them disguise their infidelity before such members of their flocks as they fear would be shocked if they knew the truth; but as their numbers increase, their courage increases to boldness, and in their own circles they do not hesitate to speak of those who accept the Bible as foolish, and old fogies. Let us be glad to be counted fools for Christ's sake. Let us note, too, that the line of division is turning here on the same issue as at the first advent. At the first advent the question turned on the necessity for Christ's death as the sin offering, and so today it is turning on the same problem. Is Christ our Redeemer or merely a great teacher' All these "higher critics" claim the latter, that Jesus was a Great Teacher, but not a redeemer, and that no redemption was necessary. They hold the evolution theory that man, instead of falling from the image of God into savagery and depravity, has been falling upward, as they express it – coming from brute conditions up to the present status. This is the line of battle, let no one be deceived on the subject.
We are living today, dear friends, in the time referred to by the apostle when he said, "Take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand in the evil day, and having done all to stand."
We are in the evil day – the day of trial, the day of testing, the day referred to by the prophet when he declared: "A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand."
These thousands are already falling under the shafts of skepticism, higher criticism, evolution, etc., but the battle has already begun. There is still time for those who are the Lord's true people to hear the jubilee trumpet, to recognize the situation, and to put on the whole armor of God, that they may be able to stand in the evil day, and that they may help others to stand. With this discourse this series of meetings comes to an end, but it is our earnest hope that amongst these interested faces and attentive ears there are a goodly number who will heed the apostle's words and put on the whole armor of God and be saved from falling with the great nominal church, Babylon, into infidelity, which has a form of godliness but denies its power. We hope to be permitted to serve you further, and assure you that it will afford us great pleasure so to do. The message that we give from the Lord's word belongs to you and to all who are truly His. We are glad to lend helping hands to all who will avail themselves of our offer. May the love of God, the grace of our Lord Jesus, and the fellowship and communion of the Holy Spirit guide us and all who are truly the Lord's consecrated sheep, in the right paths, to the Lord's glory and for our present and everlasting blessing. Amen.
TO grasp the two-edged sword, and forward rush upon the foe, To hear the Captain's cry, to see the flash of answering eyes, To feel the throbbing hearts of battling comrades in the ranks, – That rapturous inspiration know, of warring for the Right, The holy joy of following Him who points and leads the way!
Stamford, Conn., Sept. 20, 1903 – Pastor C. T. Russell, of Pittsburgh, Pa., delivered two addresses to large and interested congregations here today, many coming from neighboring parts. We report one of his discourses, the text of which was, "Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought His judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness; it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger." Zeph. 2:3.
He said: Nearer and yet nearer yearly, daily, hourly comes that great event noted in both the Old and New Testaments and in our text styled, "The day of the Lord's anger."
Elsewhere it is called the "day of vengeance and of recompense," "the day of wrath, in which the Lord will do His work, His strange work, and bring to pass His act, His peculiar act."
It is described as a "cruel day" and symbolically pictured as a furnace of fire which will become so hot that figuratively the elements of society will melt, disintegrate, consume. The prophet describes it as a "time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation."
Our Lord quoted this prophecy, gave it the stamp of His approval and assured His disciples that the like would never be heard of afterward. Awful as these descriptions of the future are we may thank God that we and others were incorrect in applying them to an everlasting future just beyond the portals of death. Thanks be to God that as the eyes of our understanding open to a proper interpretation of God's word we see the consistency of His teachings that the dead world is really dead, unconscious, until the resurrection and not suffering purgatorial torments nor eternal, hopeless torments. Thank God that the day of wrath is to be an earthly experience, short, sharp and terrible, which will bring a lasting blessing to mankind, humble pride, rebuke selfishness and generally prepare mankind for the glorious epoch of equity under Emanuel's kingdom – the Millennial Kingdom of the Christ.
Many will be inclined to say, thinking of God, why should we have even temporarily and in the present life such a visitation of the divine wrath as some of these Scriptures describe' Is God implacable, fierce, wrathful – after the fashion of weak, vicious fallen humanity' We answer, No. God is Love. "The wrath of Almighty God" and the "wrath of the Lamb" are only the terms in which to express the condition of things as they would be because human imperfection and unsound judgment and imperfect language have no terms in which to express the true thought of God's just indignation against sin, and loving determination that it shall be allowed in the end of this age to bring disaster upon itself. God is the very personification of love, but His wisdom foresees the necessity of teaching a great and lasting lesson to humanity along the lines of justice and humility. Divine love will now permit human pride and selfishness to wreck our present high civilization because divine wisdom and love stand ready now in the "due time" to take advantage of the wreck and the lessons it will teach by establishing upon the ruins of present institutions the kingdom of God's dear Son, for which the Lord's people have been praying for nearly 2,000 years, 'Thy kingdom come, they will be done on earth as it is done in heaven."
For centuries our fallen race has been permitted to measurably take its own course – only in certain extreme conditions to hinder utter corruption has divine justice and love interposed – as, for instance, at the time of the flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, etc. The apostle describing God's attitude toward sin and sinners says, "The time of such ignorance God winked at." (Acts 17:30)
He did not interfere, did not chide, but proceeded with His own work of preparation for better things. After 4,000 years He sent His Son to be man's redeemer and deliverer from sin and death conditions. When the divine program was thus far under way, the Gospel message was launched, inviting a "little flock" to evidence their loyalty to the Heavenly King in a narrow way in the midst of a crooked and perverse humanity. This calling out of the elect and preparing of them for a share in the heavenly kingdom through trials and disciplines has progressed for more than eighteen centuries, and is now nearly completed. Meantime the Lord informs us that the world in general has neither [NS14] the eye of faith to perceive His goodness and gracious promises nor the ear of faith to believe the Gospel message; and hence such are entirely outside of His present provision, but fully provided for in the ultimates of His glorious plan. He assures us also, however, that some, especially in civilized lands, still maintain a partial ear and partial appreciation of righteousness, though they have not the full hearing of faith and such a disposition as would lead them to "Follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth."
To these God sends a message assuring them that their original condemnation to death, extinction, has been set aside by the redemption provided in our Lord Jesus' death, and hence that there is to be an opportunity for return to divine favor granted to all mankind – to the "little flock" of the elect now in the present life, to the remainder of mankind in the future. Because of this God commands all men everywhere to repent of sin, to turn from it, and in the language of our text to "seek righteousness and meekness."
Whatever progress any may make in the development of these divine standards in their hearts and lives will be that much of gain to them in the future when during the Millennial Age they shall be on trial, on test, to demonstrate their willingness or unwillingness to come back into full harmony with God in righteousness and perfection under the blessings of the Millennial Age. Every downward step avoided and every upward step that may be taken is that much of assistance to the one making the endeavor as respects his eternal future and his reaching the more quickly and more surely the blessings of the life eternal and his avoidance of the "second death" and "everlasting extinction." Acts 5:23
About a century ago we reached what the Lord and prophets described as the "time of the end," the particular outward indications of which were very particularly delineated, and these we see are being fulfilled all about us today. Thus we have an outward demonstration that we are in the "time of the end" – not the end of the world by burning or other destruction, but the end of the present age or epoch, the time for the ushering in of the new epoch, the new dispensation, the reign of Christ. The description of this time of the end is so simple that even a child can discern its fulfillment today. The prophet says that "In the time of the end
(1) many shall run to and fro,
(2) knowledge shall be increased,
(3) the wise shall understand,
(4) there shall be a time of trouble such as never was." Dan. 12.
The wonderful traveling of our day and its insistent compulsory education are most accurately described by the first two points of the prophecy. The third tells how those of the Lord's people who are rightly in harmony with Him will not be in darkness at that time, that that day shall not overtake them as a thief, but wise with the wisdom from above they will understand the times and seasons in which they are living. The fourth point of prophecy is still future. In some respects it has already come; in others it will not have its culmination and awful finish for several years. A century ago Divine Providence began to lift the veil of ignorance and superstition from mankind. The result has been a most wonderful awakening and progress in every direction. Arts, science, inventions have enlightened the world, and a better understanding of the Bible has come to the remarkably few who are seeking for it in the right attitude of heart and in the divinely appointed manner. The blessings of science have made the world incredibly, wonderfully rich in a remarkably short time, but instead of these divine favors properly affecting the minds and hearts of mankind and drawing out their gratitude toward the eternal parent and leading them to a greater sympathy toward one another the reverse has been true.
The majority of mankind do not note the divine declaration that these wonderful blessings of our day are but a prelude to the great millennial blessings near at hand. They hearken not to the divine message that the century past is "the day of His preparation" for the kingdom of His dear Son. Instead of faith, love and obedience, infidelity has come in under the name of higher criticism and evolution theories, and the higher critics have accounted for all of this progress by claiming that it is another step in an evolution process with which God has nothing whatever to do. Indeed, the advanced thinkers are disposed to entirely discredit the thought of a personal Creator, and to claim that Nature is God, and things have come to pass under the laws of Nature. The wonderful blessings now enjoyed by the world, instead of producing love, joy, peace, contentment, are producing the very reverse of these, anger, hatred, strife, disappointment, because of the perversity of the fallen mind, its selfishness, its greed. It is this very condition of the human heart, its misapplication of divine favors, which is about to bring upon mankind the awful cataclysm of trouble referred to in the text as the "day of the Lord's anger."
In one sense of the word it will be the day of human passion inspired by human selfishness and greed which will wreck the present institutions in anarchy, according to the portrayal of the Scriptures. It is properly called, however, the "day of the Lord" because up to that time God had been [NS15] holding in check human passion and avarice and the influence of the fallen angels, the demon of the New Testament, and because at the appropriate time the four angels that hold the four winds, and have preserved the world from itself, from its own passions, ignorance and selfishness will be withdrawn. In this sense of the word it is the "day of the Lord's anger," in which He will bring to pass His act, His strange act, and will permit to come upon mankind strong delusions that the falsehoods which have been preferred to the divine truth may be manifested and a great lesson be learned by angels and men.
Our text pointing down thus to our time, our day, seems to be an exhortation, not to the Church, but to a class in the world favorable to righteousness and meekness. The Church, of course, is assumed to be in this attitude – already loving righteousness and ready to lay down life itself in the defense of righteousness, in the service of righteousness, and the Church is supposed also to be cultivating all the graces of the holy spirit, of which meekness is one. When, therefore, our text exhorts, "Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth," which have been working in harmony with divine justice, it implies that the class addressed has not yet sought the Lord. We all, perhaps, can recognize the class addressed.
Some of them are inside and some outside of nominal church membership – honorable people, upright in word and in deed, and withal meek, humble-minded, not boastful, not proud. This class of noble people ought to belong to the true Church of Christ – ought to be, we should think, of such an attitude of heart as would make the Gospel of Jesus specially attractive to them, but, as we all know, some of this class are to be found outside as well as inside of the true Church of Christ. Let us remember the Apostle's exclamation that the Gospel call at the present time is heard and appreciated by not many great, wise, rich or noble, but that God's call is responded to chiefly by the ignorant. The reason for this is not far to seek; the more degraded realizing their greater needs of an uplift are the more ready to seek divine mercy and favor, and to hearken to the invitation to surrender their all and to become followers of the Redeemer in the narrow way. The noble amongst mankind realize that naturally they are better than some who have accepted Christ and entered into covenant relationship with Him. They say to themselves: Those more degraded ones need a Savior, and it is well that something takes hold of them and assists them, but we do not feel so much our need – and hence they hesitate about accepting Christ as their Savior, their Justifier. Failure to take this step hinders them from seeing and appreciating the next step; namely, a full consecration to the Lord and begetting by His holy spirit and introduction thereby into the school of Christ and to joint heirship into the exceeding great and precious promises and to a share with Christ in His nature and kingdom and glory. The class addressed in our text, the meek, who love righteousness, justice, are becoming more and more awake to the fact that a great crisis upon Christendom is at hand. They perceive that pride, boastfulness, selfishness and inequity have gotten hold of nearly all the influences which control the world at the present time – both amongst the rich and amongst the poor – the principles are the same though the powers and opportunities vary. This class perceive that the hour of retribution is nearing when society in general will seek a readjustment itself.
These hope that the readjustment will come in peaceably, perhaps along the lines of Christian Socialism or what not. On the other hand, however, they perceive that the influences operating in Socialism, while well-intentioned, well impulsed, are really selfish and that one social revolution would be required to follow another continually, because of the innate pride and selfishness of the human heart. Hence we address the open ears and open eyes of the small but noble, respectable class of humanity and urge them in the words of our text that even though they should not go so far as to make a full consecration to the Lord, they should at least seek knowledge as to His divine plan in respect to the relief which all may recognize to be so greatly needed at the present juncture. We assure these that their convictions are right, when they conclude that the power of wealth as it is entrenched today in the world of unionism amongst men as we see it today is also exceeding great and that the struggle which we see impending will have mighty giants and all that that the Scriptures portray in the words, "Time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation" is impending.
This exhortation comes at a time when worldly wisdom is advising the very reverse. Worldly wisdom has concluded that the weak man has no show and that to follow the injunctions of our text would make one a fool. Worldly wisdom perceives that however much the meek shall inherit the earth by and by they inherit very little of it in the present time. It therefore cries to all its votaries that the course of wisdom is to lift the head high and to pretend to be far more than one is and to make great boasts and to remember that nearly all the success of the world today has been [NS16] attained along these lines and therefore none should be backward about coming forward and making a bluff with the rest. We live in a day when all classes think that it is quite the proper thing to keep up an outward appearance of justice, but to see to it that no such fanatical view of justice be taken as would in anywise hinder the grasping of at least their share, or a little more of the world's riches and benefits. In taking our stand with the Bible and its exhortation to meekness and justice we are risking the good opinion of all of our worldly wise friends and neighbors who have already marked such a course as "out of date."
Nevertheless, we are of the Lord's people, and we believe that there are all over the world some who belong to the class addressed by the Lord and the prophets. To these and for their sakes we read out the message of our Lord's text: Seek righteousness – continue to seek it, to follow its way; seek meekness – continue to seek it, to follow it, to follow along in that way. What will be the reward of such if they will thereby lose in the present strife for wealth and position to the proud, the arrogant and the unjust – what reward will they have for taking the proper course' One reward is specified in our text and another we know of through other Scriptures. Our text declares: "It may be that ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger."
This word "hid" signifies protected, covered, shielded. It does not of necessity signify that God will specially shield and protect such, for if that were the intention we believe that it would be stated in positive terms without the may be."
The thought we gather is that comparatively few have in the past and shall in the future follow the paths of justice and equity, righteousness, so far as possible in all the dealings of life, and avoid pride, ostentation and boastfulness and cultivate a meek and quiet spirit – these, of course, would naturally in the course of human events be shielded, protected from much of the strife and venomous murder spirit of that time, of which the Scriptures declare, "There shall be no more peace to him that goeth out or him that cometh in, for every man's hand shall be against his neighbor."
The proud, the boastful, the overreaching and unscrupulous may prosper for a time, but in so doing they will attract attention to themselves, from the effects of which they will subsequently suffer, when the restraints of the present time shall give place to the lawlessness which the Scriptures portray. The reward which will come to this class of humbleminded, equitably disposed people will be theirs after the new dispensation shall have been inaugurated, respecting which He that sat upon the throne said: "Behold, I make all things new."
In this new dispensation the proud, the haughty, the unjust will be much discredited. As we read, "The proud and all who do wickedly shall be as stubble in that day; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that is shall leave them neither root nor branch ."(Mal. 4:1)
Not only will they suffer specially in the time of trouble, but the fire of divine anger in opposition to unrighteousness and pride will follow into the future against some so that they shall have tribulations to overcome their deeply seated injustice and self-conceit and boastfulness. On the other hand, under the new order of things, when 'justice will be laid to the line and righteousness to the plummet," those who have now come into heart harmony with these principles will be greatly advantaged, will find the highway of holiness, will find a way of joy, as they shall go upward to greater and greater heights of character until they shall reach the full perfection of human nature from which Adam fell and to which he and all his posterity, if they will, may return through the merit of Christ's sacrifice.
Turning to the Church we are not surprised to find that these two qualities, justice and humility, are set forth in the Scriptures as essential to the development of the proper character on the part of God's very elect. How often do we read to the effect that "God resists the proud and shows His favor the humble."
And do we not remember the words of the Apostle on this subject, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time."
How evident it is to know in the Scripture set before us that the downfall of Satan was through his pride and disloyal ambition. His fall from being Lucifer, the bright and glorious angel of the Lord, to be Satan, the adversary or opponent of the Lord, was a terrible one, and all brought about through his permission of a spirit of pride to enter into his heart, as the Scriptures explain it. Undoubtedly it is very unbecoming for any creature to be either proud or boastful, seeing that all that we have, all that we are and all that we hope ever to be are of God's grace, love, will. We cannot urge too strongly upon those who have taken up the cross to follow the Master's footsteps. Let them follow His example in humility and remember Him who was rich and for our sakes became poor. "Christ also hath suffered for sins, the just for the unjust."
And the Apostle exhorts, "Let this same mind be in us which was also in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Many Christian people seem to but imperfectly appreciate the quality of justice, either in God or in humanity. In so doing they are making a great [NS17] mistake. Justice is the foundation of His throne, is declared by the Almighty. Every act, every dealing, every promise of God we may be sure is fully squared with justice. Although God is love, that love cannot be exercised on our behalf except along the lines of justice; and hence we read that the love of God was manifested through an exhibition of justice. "Herein was manifested the love of God that He gave His only begotten Son" that we might have eternal life – He gave Him as a ransom for our sins through the merit of which "God can be just and yet the justifier" of those who believe in Jesus. Our Lord Jesus, the express image of the Father, must have had His full likeness in respect to justice, and the divine command to all of the elect church is that if they would make their calling and election sure they must be conformed to the image of God's Son. By reason of original sin and the degradation of 6,000 years under the reign of sin and death our race has suffered an unbalance of mind as well as of the entire physique, and hence we all more or less need readjusting along every line, and especially along the lines of justice and love, because the quality of selfishness so strongly developed by the fall over-balances both justice and love in its endeavors to rule our hearts and lives. The Church, God's new creation, is undergoing process of gradual transformation, not in the shape of the head, but in the sentiments of the heart. In the Apostle's words, we are thus "being transformed by the renewing of our minds," and again, "we are being changed from glory to glory."
The glorious justice which belongs to the Almighty, and which at first belonged to our human nature when it was in the image of God, but which was lost through sin and the fall, must be regained by the heirs of the kingdom. This is a part of the test that is upon them in accordance with which they are exhorted to overcome the world and its spirit of lovelessness and injustice. Thank God it is not demanded of these that they must get the victory to so full an extent that they will never make a mistake or transgress these principles of the flesh. On the contrary, as the Apostle says, "We have this treasure of the new mind in earthen vessels."
We thank God that His arrangement for the Church is that here love and justice will be adjudged of the Lord not according to the letter, but according to the spirit – according to the mind, the will, the intentions, as the new mind shall endeavor to exercise itself through the imperfect medium of the fallen flesh. This new mind of justice, love, humility being in you, rejoice exceedingly and count that its development is of priceless value, and be willing to undergo all lessons of the Father's provision arranged for when you entered the School of Christ.
"He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before His angels." Rev. 3:5.
WASHINGTON, D. C. Nov. 29 – Pastor C. T. Russell of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract society, Allegheny City, delivered two discourses to large audiences in the Columbia theater today. At 2:30 p.m. Pastor Russell's topic was "The Narrow Way – and Other Ways," and at 7:30 p.m., "The Great Consummation."
The text for the afternoon was from Matt. 7:14: "Narrow is the way that leadeth unto life and few there be that find it."
Pastor Russell said: Our study of the chart of the ages on last Sunday, we trust, assists us in "rightly dividing the Word of Truth" so as to apply this text in its proper place. Our Lord uttered these words at the first advent, hence just at the close of the Jewish age and at the opening of the gospel age (pointing to the chart). We are not to expect that this narrow way will continue in the future indefinitely during the millennial age, etc. The way of righteousness is narrow at the present time because this gospel age is a part of "this present evil world," or dispensation, during which Satan is the prince or ruler. The millennial age belongs to the new [NS18] dispensation after the establishment of Christ's kingdom and the binding of Satan and the annulling of his blinding influence. In that glorious day the way of righteousness will not be narrow and difficult, but easy, and the way of unrighteousness will be hard, a difficult way; because all the influences then will be favorable to righteousness and contrary to sin, whereas now the general influences are favorable to sin and unfavorable to righteousness. It is this that makes the Christian way a narrow and difficult one.
Looking back we perceive that this narrow way to life did not exist in the Jewish age and previous ages. It may be a surprise even to Bible students to notice that there was no way of life at all previous to the coming of our Lord to be the redeemer and life-giver. To this thought agree the words of the apostle that "Christ brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." (2 Tim. 1:10)
That is to say, that although God had implicitly promised a future life in the promise made to Abraham and in the various promises of restitution "spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets," nevertheless, he had not shown how it would be accomplished and by whom it would be accomplished. But when the Lord Jesus died for the sins of the whole world it manifested the divine love and sympathy for the world; it showed how God could be just and yet be the justifier of all who would believe in Jesus and obey Him; it brought to light Jesus as the great seed of Abraham and God's gift of immortality to him and to the overcoming church, His bride; and it brought to light the future everlasting life opportunities to be granted to the world through the glorified church during the millennial age. Since this subject is clearly seen but by few, let us pause to examine the testimony of scripture respecting any offer of life everlasting, either by a narrow way or by any other way, prior to our Lord's advent and his proclamation of the gospel. Previously God's dealings had only been with Abraham and his seed, the Israelite. All others, as the apostle declares, were without God in the world – alien, strangers, foreigners from the commonwealth of Israel. (Eph. 2:12)
Evidently then there was no way of life open to the world prior to the redemptive work of Christ. The law given to Israel did indeed give that nation a different path or course from the remainder of the world. It was a narrow way and they thought it to be a way of life, but, as the apostle explains, they found it to be a way of death. (Rom. 7:10)
The apostle most distinctly declares that the law covenant justified none of them – conducted none of them to life everlasting. Hear Him, "The law made nothing perfect." (Heb. 7:19); "By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in God's sight (Rom. 3:20), combating the Jewish notion that somehow or other the giving of the law to their nation justified them.
The apostle points out that not he that receiveth a copy of the law nor he who hears the law is justified by it, but only he who obeys it – he who doeth the things required by the law. (Rom. 2:13)
The apostle points out again that the difficulty lay not in the law given to Israel which was "just, holy, and good" (Rom. 7:12)
the difficulty lay in the Jews themselves; they were like all other people of the world, fallen – sinners. Our Lord corroborated the apostle's statement that none of the Jews were justified by the law saying, "Did not Moses give you the law and yet none of you kept the law'" (John 7:19)
The apostle Paul again declares, "A man is not justified by the works of the law for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified," (Gal. 2:16)
And again He says, "that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident." (Gal. 3:11)
The sum of the whole matter is that while the Jews had a blessing in the way of divine instruction through the law, yet because unable to keep its requirements, they were specially condemned by it, and this special condemnation that was on the Jews more than on the other nations of the world is in the scriptures called the curse of the law."
Our Lord's redemptive work was not only necessary to relieve the world of mankind from the incubus of original sin entailed through Adam, but additionally upon the nation of Israel for the cancellation of the special curse or sentence upon that nation through its failure to comply with the terms of the law covenant. Hence the apostle says of Christ, "He was made a curse for us" – the Jews. (Gal. 3:13)
The apostle explains that the giving to Israel of the law covenant with it typical sacrifices, "which could never take away sin," was merely a foreshadowing of the better hopes built upon the better sacrifices of this gospel age. (Heb. 10:1)
We trust that all present discern clearly, then, that the narrow way belongs exclusively to this gospel age, and not to any time previous nor to any time future. It began with our Lord Himself, who was the forerunner in this way, and who has invited the gospel church to walk in His steps – His steps of self-denial, of self-sacrifice.
As already intimated, this way is a sacrificial way, a narrow way, because of the evil and fallen conditions everywhere abounding. To walk with the Lord in holiness of will and so far as possible in holiness of life [NS19] means to be so different from humanity in general as to be thought peculiar, to be more or less shunned by the children of this world. It means more than negative opposition to the world, too; it means to take a positive stand for the Lord, for the truth of His word, for righteousness in general. The whole world has been begotten once to life as children of Adam, but Adamic life having been corrupted and forfeited at its very fountain, the result is that the world is a dying world, physically, mentally and morally – all the natural tendencies being toward sin and death. This way or tendency of the world our Lord described as the broad road which leads to destruction – unless they are rescued from it by Him the result would eventually be destruction for all – not eternal torment, but destruction, as our Lord declared. The way of the Lord in this present time is made narrow and difficult and hard to find because the Lord seeks only a very choice class at the present time – the little flock to whom it is the Father's good pleasure to give the kingdom. The self-sacrificing, nevertheless, in the present time, not only appeals to a small proportion of those who enter it and who would run with patience in the race set before them in the gospel. It serves to develop in them faith, obedience, gentleness, love, and thus to "make them meet (fit) for the inheritance of the saints in light" – the kingdom inheritance – as joint heirs with Christ to bless the world of mankind. Col 1:12 There is no other way of life open at the present time than this narrow one, hence it behooves all who name the name of Christ and affect to become members of His consecrated band to sit down and count the cost before making the consecration so that there may be no looking back after once they have put their hand to the plow. These are said to be begotten again – begotten not of the will of the flesh, not of man, but begotten of truth. (John 1:13; Jas. 1:18).
These who walk in the narrow way are scripturally called "new creatures in Christ Jesus." (2 Cor. 5:17)
For them is provided in God's plan a total change of nature, so that in the resurrection, instead of returning to their former estate or being perfected as human beings, they will be perfected as new creatures, as spirit beings. The resurrection of the overcomers of the church is described in 1 Cor. 15:42, 44. He declares respecting their death that they are sown animal bodies and respecting the resurrection that they are raised spiritual bodies; sown in weakness, raised in power; sown in corruption, raised in incorruption; sown in dishonor, raised in glory. It will thus be seen that the narrow way of this gospel age has attached to it exceeding great and precious promises that by these we might become partakers of the divine nature – spiritual nature. As already intimated the very fact that the millennial age is provided in the divine plan – the very fact that Christ and his church associated with him as the seed of Abraham are to bless the world all the families of the earth during the millennium – the very fact that all this will be after Satan shall have been bound – implies that the way of life in the future will not be so narrow, so steep, so rugged, so difficult to find and so difficult to walk in as is the narrow way of this gospel age. Respecting the way of life in the future – during the millennial age – the prophet expressly declares that it shall be a broad highway instead of a narrow way or a by-path. Instead of being full of stumbling stones and difficulties and trials he declares that all the stumbling stones shall be gathered out, instead of having besetments from the adversary who goeth about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour and from many ravenous beasts in human form. He declares that no lion shall be there or any ravenous beasts, and that nothing shall injure those who seek to go upon that highway of holiness. Let us quote His words from that chapter which so graphically describes the blessings of the millennial age and which opens with the declaration: "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose."
The quotation reads, "And a highway shall be there, and a way, it shall be called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it: but it shall be for those; the wayfaring men though unwise, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there; and the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Isa. 35:8-10 All who in the narrow way have learned what it means to "fight the good fight" against the world, the flesh and the devil under present conditions and who additionally have attained a reasonable measure of growth in the knowledge and grace of the Lord, will be glad indeed to know that in the divine plan the world of mankind when called to human perfection – to "restitution of all things spoken by all the holy [NS20] prophets" – will find the way an easier one than do we who now are pressing along for the heavenly prize. The way in which the world will be invited to walk toward God and toward holiness, the "highway" of holiness leading up to perfection of character, will be in many respects similar to the highway of holiness that was open to Adam and Eve before they sinned. Although they were perfect so far as organization was concerned and therefore perfect in good character so far as character is a matter of creation, nevertheless it was necessary that they should pass through trials and testings that would develop and prove their obedience to God and loyalty to principle. It was in this very testing that they failed and came under the sentence of death, and God's provision through Christ is that they and all their children (except the elect) should have the opportunity of returning to full perfection of human nature and along a very similar path to that on which they originally fell. The divine arrangement for our first parents in Eden was not a narrow way of sacrifice and painful dealings with the world, flesh and devil, but quite to the contrary. They were perfect and surrounded by everything necessary to their comfort and prosperity, and the whole test, therefore, was respecting their loyalty and obedience to God and His regulations. The world similarly, during the millennial age, will be freed from battlings with the adversary – who will be bound, restrained – and freed from the besetments of the world now prevailing. They will still have the weaknesses of the flesh to contend with and to overcome and to get rid of, but they will have compensations along this line through the grace of Christ, the great Redeemer and Mediator whose grace will be sufficient for them.
What joy it brings to our hearts to think of the wonderful provisions of the millennial kingdom, and the highway that shall be there for the return of all the redeemed of earth from the broad road in which they were going down to destruction, to the highway opened up through the merit of Him who so loved the world as to give Himself a ransom for all. But now returning to the narrow way of this present time. It is this way that most interests all of the Lord's people here present. It is not for us to decide whether we would prefer human restitution with the world, requiring a period of one thousand years for perfecting, or whether we would choose to be begotten of the Spirit and have a shorter trial in the present life and experience the change in the resurrection. God has given us no choice in the matter during this age, only one class is called and that is the church, as the apostle, says, "Ye are all called in the one hope of your calling."
It is for us to appreciate this calling, to see how great it is, that no other invitation that God has ever given or ever could give would be so great, so grand, so wonderful as this call to be heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ our Lord as the bride, the Lamb's wife. We exhort you then, dear brethren, that in the language of the apostle we all lay aside every weight and every easily besetting sin and that we run with patience the race set before us – our heavenly race, the race for the spiritual prize of joint-heirship in the kingdom. So doing let us make our calling and election sure and realize that God is giving us now a knowledge of his future blessings for the world of mankind so that our hearts may rest the more confidently upon Him, that we may appreciate His character the better and love Him and serve Him the more fervently.
Pastor Russell's evening discourse upon "The Great Consummation" was based upon this text: "Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord God of Hosts a consummation, even determined upon the whole earth." Isa. 28:22 He said: By this time my audience is fully aware that contrary to Second Adventists' views and the views of Christians in general, I am not expecting that the end or consummation of the present dispensation will be in a literal fire that will reduce our earth to a cinder. On the contrary my hearers have noted our expectations and the scriptures on which we base them, that the end or harvest of the present gospel age will be a time for the reaping of the fruitage of this age – the gathering of the ripe wheat, the saints, into the garner, into the kingdom of glory and the symbolic burning of the symbolic tares and stubble preparatory to the ploughing and reaping of another age which will follow this one – the millennial age. When, therefore, we announce that according to our understanding of the teachings of the scriptures we are now living in the harvest time of the gospel age – in the great consummation mentioned in our text – the statement is not an absurd scarecrow to alarm the ignorant and the wicked, for we are fully persuaded of the truthfulness of the scriptural declaration, "None of the wicked shall understand." (Dan. 12:10)
The announcement that we are now living in the end or harvest time of the gospel age is, however, a message full of importance to the Lord's people – to all who profess to be members of spiritual Zion. To these it means that a crucial test is upon the church which will [NS21] fully separate the merely nominal Christians, the tare class from the genuine Christians, the wheat class of our Lord's parable. Matt. 13:24-30
Our Lord's first advent was in the harvest time of the Jewish age more than 1,800 years ago. Then His message and that of His apostles served as a sickle of truth and as threshing instruments to separate in that professedly holy nation the Israelites indeed from others. In that harvest time our Lord represented Himself as the chief reaper, and the winnowing of the threshed wheat to separate it from the chaff of that nation was a part of the ministry of the Truth at that time. The result was the gathering of the Jewish wheat to a higher plane – from the house of servants into the house of sons. (John 1:12-13)
Subsequently the chaff of that nation was burned, that is fiery trouble came upon them, which the apostle declares was "wrath to the uttermost upon this people." (1 Thess. 2:16)
The fire of trouble destroyed the national existence of the Jews, though it did not destroy them as a people. The last of the prophets, John the Baptist, referring to Christ's work as a reaper of that age said, "His fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge His threshing floor; He will gather His wheat into the garner [gospel favor], but burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire" [the time of trouble which consumed the Jews nationally]. (Matt. 3:12)
He referred to the same thing when he said at another time respecting the work and results of our Lord's ministry, "He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." (Matt. 3:11)
The Holy Spirit baptism came upon the Israelites indeed, the baptism of fire, of trouble, came upon the others – wrath to the uttermost."
Of that trouble the Apostle Paul speaks saying, "What if God willing to show His wrath endured the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction." (Rom. 9:22)
Our Lord speaks of the same saying of the coming trouble: "These be the days of vengeance that all things which are written may be fulfilled for there shall be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people." Luke 21:22, 23
In our published writings, familiar to many of you, we have not only set forth the prophetic teachings, which to us clearly indicate that we are now living in the harvest time of the gospel age, but, additionally, we have shown that the Jewish age was a prototype of the gospel age. Hence the harvest of the Jewish age gives us clear conceptions of what may be expected in the harvest time of the gospel age. Here as there we must expect the gathering of the wheat into the garner; we must expect the burning of the tares, as in the end of the Jewish age there was a burning of the chaff, for thus the Lord's parable relating to the present age explains the matter. But we are today on a higher plane – on the plane of the spirit instead of on the plane of the flesh, on the plane of sons instead of on the plane of servants, on the plane of spiritual Israelites instead of on the plane of natural Israelites: hence we must expect the gathering into the barn due at the end of this age to signify the gathering of the elect church to the Lord at his second advent in power and great glory – the consummation of the long-promised first resurrection to glory, honor and immortality – the divine nature. As the wheat and the tares represent only those who profess to be God's people, God's church, this parable does not relate to the world in general, and consequently the burning of the tares pictures rather the troubles and fiery trials coming upon professed but not real Christians rather than troubles coming upon the heathen world. For instance, it is not the field (the "world") that is to be burned, but the tares. Nevertheless, nominal Christendom of today occupies so prominent a place in the forefront of the world that the great disturbances coming upon it must of necessity have world wide influence. Moreover, as the chart of the ages illustrates, the harvest of this age and the end of this evil world or dispensation terminate together. This implies that there is to be at the present time not merely a reckoning with spiritual Israel, as there was a reckoning with natural Israel eighteen hundred years ago, but that at the same time that the reckoning shall come with spiritual Israel the consummation or reckoning time will come with the whole world of mankind. Here evil in every form is to be overthrown; the great adversary, Satan, is to be bound that he shall deceive the nations no more, that the light of the truth may in due time shine into the whole world and scatter its darkness and give a correct knowledge of the divine character and plan.
The Scriptures intimate that the prince of this world will not suffer his house or institutions to be broken up without a contest. One of our Lord's parables thus illustrates the matter, that if the master of the present dispensation knew at what hour he would come as a thief unknown to the world to overthrow present institutions built upon selfishness – financial, ecclesiastical and social the prince of this world would resist and seek to maintain control and possession. (Matt. 22:43)
This is not to be understood to signify that Satan could really resist the Almighty power when the due time shall have come for his overthrow and [NS22] binding, when Emanuel shall "take unto Himself his great power and reign" as the representative of Jehovah. (Rev. 11:17)
Rather, it gives us the suggestion, elsewhere set forth, that God's plan in dealing with Satan and present evil institutions is not so much to overpower them and crush them as to permit their selfishness to wreck them. On every hand we see these disintegrating forces at work. We see labor controlled by the spirit of selfishness, bent upon obtaining a larger share of this world's goods and growing daily more impatient of delay. We see capital selfishly entrenching itself in huge combinations behind laws which were doubtless equitable enough in their day, but which do not meet all the new conditions of the wonderful period in which we are living, which in the Scriptures is called "the time of the end" and the "day of God's preparations" – making ready for millennium. (Dan. 12:4,9; Na 2:3)
We see selfishness in business, tariff wars which bid fair to lead to bloody wars in various directions. We see the real and nominal Christians, wheat and tares, are more or less involved on both sides of this question of selfishness and strife; we see that all these things are rapidly tending toward the great time of trouble with which this age and this present evil dispensation shall end – the close of the night of weeping preparatory to the millennial morning of joy. We note through all the prophecies ominous words respecting the great time of trouble this will be when the Lord shall call for judgment, for justice to be meted out, when the hour of His judgment shall come, and when the various forces, already well prepared, shall clash in selfish fury.
The prophet Daniel describes this time and marks its date at the standing up of the great prince. He declares that it shall be a "time of trouble such as was not since there was a nation."
The trouble with which the Jewish age closed was an awful trouble, a foreshadowing of the coming trouble but not so great, neither so widely extended. The trouble of the Reign of Terror in the French revolution was an awful one, but not so great as this time of trouble that is coming, respecting which one of the prophets declares there shall be no peace to him that goeth out nor to him that cometh in, to him that buyeth nor to him that selleth, because every man's hand is against his neighbor's. (Eze. 8:10)
The strife of nations and of parties, of unions and of combinations, will extend to the individuals of the world and produce an individual conflict and strife. Our Lord Jesus the great Prophet quoted approvingly Daniel's prophecy about this great time of trouble such as was not since there was a nation, and our Lord adds the consoling words, "Nor ever shall be." (Matt. 24:21)
We are glad that this time of trouble will practically end the trouble of this world; that there never will be such again; that on the ashes of present institutions the Lord Himself will rear a kingdom of righteousness which shall establish justice throughout the world on a basis not of selfishness, but of love and justice. We are aware that our words seem like idle tales to many especially to the worldly wise, the higher critics and evolutionists. The apostle Peter more than eighteen centuries ago declared the scoffing unbelief that might be expected at this present time. Speaking of those who should be interested in the second coming of the Lord and the consummation of this age, he declares that, instead of following the Scriptures and the Scriptural hopes, they will be following the ungodly, higher critical desires of their own worldly minds, and he represents them as saying, "Where is the promise of His presence'" and declares that from their standpoint all things continue as they were from the beginning of the world – that they see no reason for expecting a harvest and a change of dispensation. (2 Pet. 2:4)
It is not our province, dear friends, to give ears or eyes to any; we merely call to the attention of those who have the hearing ear and the understanding heart the things which the word of God clearly sets forth as being now due of accomplishment.
Our text implies that many who hear the present message will be inclined to disregard it, and the prophet warns such, saying: "Be ye not mockers;" do not scoff at this matter, lest your bands be made strong; lest the blindness and ignorance and misunderstanding of the divine plan, so general in the world today, shall bind you hand and foot and hinder you from entering into the joys of the Lord, from the understanding of His plan, and hinder you also from making the preparation of heart necessary to secure to you a place in the kingdom. In the context the prophet points out the lessons of husbandry that there is one preparation of the soil for one kind of grain, another preparation for another kind of grain, and that there is one way of reaping and threshing one kind of grain and another way of handling another kind; and furthermore he points out that the husbandman does not spend all of his time in one part of the great work, but step by step the matter proceeds to the completion – the gathering of the crop. Thus the Lord gives a lesson to His people. We are to expect in the operations of grace plowing, harrowing, seed-sowing, watering and weeding, [NS23] ripening and harvesting. And we are to expect different crops – as, for instance, there was one crop dealt with during the Jewish age and a harvest in the end of that age, and another crop has been dealt with and will be dealt with during this gospel age and will be harvested in the end of this age, and still a different crop during the millennial age and harvested at its close. He who has plain lessons from nature and forgets to apply them under the Lord's direction in studying the operations of the divine arrangements will remain in measurable ignorance of the divine plan. Who can intelligently study the Scriptural record of God's dealings with the nation of Israel and to perceive the deep plowing of that people in their Egyptian bondage, the harrowing of that people in their wilderness experiences, the sowing among them of the law, the weeding and culture given them as a people throughout their age and the harvesting that came in the end of that age. And what Israelite, indeed does not know something of the plowshare of sorrow and of trouble in his own heart experiences which first prepared him to become a true disciple of the Lord'
Surely all Israelites, indeed, can recognize the harrowing experiences which tended to make their hearts ready for the truth; which cannot see when and where the word of Truth was planted in their minds, their hearts; which cannot see how it was first the shoot, then the stalk, then the ripened grain; which cannot realize that trying experiences were necessary to take away the weeds which would have choked them as the Lord's true wheat and made them unfaithful' Which of the true Israelites does not long for the harvesting time, when all the true wheat shall be gathered to the plane of spiritual perfection and glory – when they shall be forever with the Lord and co-laborers with Him in the glory time that shall follow. The great time of trouble with which this present evil dispensation closes is the plowshare of trouble which God will use in breaking up the fallow ground of the whole world to prepare it for the great planting of the restitution times, when the whole world of mankind shall have the care of the great superintendent, who, we are assured, will yet see of the fruits of the travail of His soul and be abundantly satisfied. This thought that the coming trouble will bring righteousness to the world is abundantly borne out by the statement of the Scripture that "when the judgments of the Lord are abroad the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness" (Isa. 26:9)
Now, dear friends, if such a harvesting as we have noted is progressing, how does it find you and me' Does it find us thoroughly loyal to the Lord and to the principles of righteousness which represent His government, or does it find us living in a cold or lukewarm condition, striving to walk with the Lord and to walk with the world at the same time, striving to serve God and to serve Mammon at the same time' We are not to expect that that gathering of the parable of the wheat will mean that at the present time the Lord will take hold forcibly upon those who are his and compel them to enter the garner; rather we are to expect here a procedure somewhat similar to that which took place at the first advent. We are to expect, then, that the gospel of the kingdom will be announced, and that all the Israelites indeed will be glad to hear the joyful news. We are to expect that it will be an attraction for such, that it will attract them away from the errors and falsehoods which to a greater or lesser degree have been blinding all, not only during the dark ages, but since. We expect that it would attract all of this class from every denomination not to a new denomination, but to a closer heart-fellowship with the Lord Himself – that their union should not be a sectarian one, but a heart-union with the Lord and with all of like precious faith in Him and in His Word.
The scriptures represent that in the end of the age the three will be so abundant as to practically overwhelm the wheat and obscure it; and this whole class, wheat and tares, throughout the whole spiritual world called Christendom and divided into hundreds of sects and parties, teaching more or less of divine truth and more or less of human tradition, is now to be dealt with Babylon. The Lord applies to the whole mass the name Babylon. The name has a double significance: primarily it means the gate of god – the gateway by which the world of mankind might pass from the world and sin to God and to righteousness and eventually have a share in the Lord's resurrection; but through the operation of Satan and inherent selfishness much of the good of Babylon became beclouded and much of it became replaced with error, so that today the name Babylon as applied to Christian people means not a gateway to God, but a gateway to confusion, mixture. We have not the time, and this is not the place, to enter into an elaborate discussion of this subject, and to set before you the scriptural evidences that we have reached the place where the Lord declares Babylon's day of favor ended and her day of retribution began. Looking back to the Jewish age and its harvest we can know the particular moment when the Lord said to nominal Israel, "Your house is left unto you desolate," and so we can trace to the year 1878 the parallel of this – the Lord's rejection of [NS24] Babylon and the declaration that Christendom as a whole is rejected from any longer being recognized as His. Do you ask, then, what the Lord would expect His true people to do today' We answer that for our day there is a particular message of the Lord, and that in the same breath that it declares that Babylon is fallen, is fallen; from divine favor, rejected as fleshly Israel was rejected and for similar reasons, there comes additionally the message, "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues." (Rev.18:3)
Let it be distinctly noticed that these words recognize that the Lord's people have been in Babylon, and that they were not considered blameworthy for being there until the appointed time – until her rejection, until their eyes being opened they perceived wherein she had erred and misled them away from the Lord and the beauty of His word and plan into doctrines of devils, which wholly misrepresent the divine character and plan. These words apply not to those who see nothing of what we see, who have no ears to hear the present message. They apply not to those who consider the doctrines of the nominal churches thoroughly satisfactory and scriptural. They apply merely to those who have the hearing ear and the discerning heart to know the difference between the voice of the true shepherd and the voice of strangers, to know the difference between the true gospel of God's dear Son, redemption through His blood, from the gospel of higher criticism and evolution; they are for those who can discern to some extent at least between the doctrines of devils, which misrepresent the divine plan, and the doctrine of redemption, ransom and restitution, which the word of God sets forth, He that hath an ear let him hear. He that hath not an ear for the truth, and no eye to discern the beauty of the divine plan in contrast with the horrible confusion of sectarianism, is not addressed by these words, but should stay in Babylon and be bound more and more tightly into her various bundles for the great day of trouble which is rapidly approaching. As the Lord left a period of time in the end of the Jewish age between the utter rejection of that people and the culmination of the time of trouble and wrath upon them, so here He has left a space of time in which His people are to come out of her before she shall be utterly swallowed up as a great millstone cast into the sea. Those who are truly the Lord's people, yet refuse to abandon the false systems and their false teachings, make themselves proper subjects for a share in the plagues that are coming upon Babylon, because knowing her errors and blasphemies against the divine character they become participants in those blasphemies to a larger extent even than do many of the tares who constitute Babylon, and who might be said to know no better because they do not truly know the Lord.
Pastor Charles T. Russell gave his second chart talk in the Allegheny Carnegie Music hall yesterday afternoon. His theme was "The Times of the Gentiles Nearly Run Out," in which he took up prophetic testimonies to show that the millennium is near. About 800 persons heard Mr. Russell's discourse, which was as follows: I take for my text our Lord's words: 'Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled." (Luke 21:24)
These words were a part of our Lord's great prophecy to His apostles, covering the period from His death to His second advent. He had just declared to them the coming trouble upon the Jewish nation, [NS25] which would result in its complete overthrow, and in the words of our text He intimated that the nation, the Holy Land its capital, Jerusalem, would be under the dominion of others for a considerable period of time until a certain period of Gentile domination which had been foretold should be accomplished or fulfilled. Before our Lord's death, before the rejection of Israel from being the Lord's peculiar people, before the breaking down of the "middle wall of partition" (Eph. 2:14), the whole world was divided into two classes, namely, Israelites, or God's covenanted people, and Gentiles, or those who were not in covenant relationship with God. Thus the term Gentile included not only barbarians, but also the most civilized peoples of the world outside of Israel. With the beginning of the gospel dispensation another class was introduced, namely, spiritual Israelites – God's people under the new covenant arrangement.
Now, therefore, the world may be divided into these three classes first, the Jews (or such of them as maintain their original covenant relationship with God and have not departed into unbelief, and for whom there is still reserved a share in the Lord's provision for the future) (Rom. 11:26-29); second, spiritual Israelites (not all who are called Christians, but all true believers in the Lord, who have entered into covenant relationship with Him through Christ the consecrated, "Israelites, indeed") third, the remainder of mankind, whatever their nationality, station, color or sex, are all, from the divine standpoint, "Gentiles – outside of the special covenants and promise of the Lord which pertain to the present time; but not outside of the blessings which the Lord designs to shower upon the world during the millennial reign of Christ, during the "times of restitution of all things" which He has spoken. It is well that we get this glorious view of the matter well before our minds, because otherwise we are apt to become confused as we attempt to study His Word, which clearly distinguishes the consecrated believers, both Jews and Christians, from the remainder of the world, however educated, talented, gentle or benevolent some of the latter may be. They are still "Gentiles" if they have not positively and thoroughly united with the Lord Jesus as members of His consecrated church, "His body."
It will be seen from this definition that the common terms Christendom, Christian nations, etc., are misnomers, calculated to mislead the mind, because really the majority of people in all these so-called Christian nations are "Gentiles" according to this, the divine, standpoint – because not as yet vitally related to the Lord. According to this standard, it will be perceived that quite a large proportion of the membership of the various sects of Christendom are really "Gentiles," since only a small proportion of them make any pretense to a full consecration to the Lord and vital union with Him.
Noticing carefully the wording of our text, we find that the Lord does not say that the Jews were about to come under Gentile dominion; to have so declared would not have been the truth. As a matter of fact, the Jews had no positive government of their own for centuries before the Lord's advent. They lost their national independence when Nebuchadnezzar, the world's first conqueror, overthrew their government, subjected them and took them prisoners into Chaldea. Later, when the kingdom of Medo-Persia succeeded to universal empire, and King Cyrus under divine direction permitted the return of the Jewish people to their own land, he did not restore to them their national liberty or self-control. They became a subject nation, and so continued. When Alexander the Great, as the representative of the Grecian empire, became the world's emperor, he succeeded to the power of the Medes and Persians, and the land of Israel became vassal to him. And so, in turn, when the Romans became the rulers of the world, Greece and all its possessions passed under Roman control, and in no sense regained the national liberty taken from them by Nebuchadnezzar. So, then, in our Lord's day Israel was dominated by the Romans. We remember the record in Luke 2:1, that it was about the time of our Lord's birth that Caesar Augustus sent forth a decree that the whole world should be taxed. Israel as one of the subject nations of Rome, was under this tax. In view of these facts of history, our Lord's words are seen to signify that this condition of things would continue for a time – that Israel would continue to be subject to the Gentile kingdoms. His disciples, in harmony with his teachings, had been expecting the establishment of the kingdom of God. Not understanding, they had anticipated that the kingdom world probably be established in their day and asked our Lord, "Wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel'" (Acts 1:6)
The reply was, "It is not for you to know the times and seasons which the Father hath put in His own power."
It was best that they should not clearly, distinctly know the particulars respecting the future, yet in this prophecy our Lord, for their benefit but especially for our benefit, because we are living in the close of this gospel age has given a hint or suggestion in our text which is interesting to us, and was intended so to be. His words not only show that the [NS26] Gentiles would continue to hold sway for a time, but clearly show also that the time of their domination of the land of Israel is limited, fixed in the divine arrangement, and the statement "until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled" gives a clear intimation that these times or years of Gentile rule were foretold.
We must assume that the prophecies written aforetime for our admonition are to be understood as they become due – though it evidently was not the Lord's intention that they should be understood much before the time of their fulfillment. It was so at the Lord's first advent. Respecting the second advent and the events of the world connected therewith, there is a great deal said in the Scriptures – in both the Old and New Testaments; and the apostle intimates that when the due time shall come for understanding the matter, the Lord's faithful, earnest, devoted, truth-seeking people will be rewarded – that they will not be left in darkness. The apostle, in speaking of the great time of trouble which will introduce the millennial kingdom, declares that it will come "upon the whole world as a thief and as a snare;" but, addressing the church, the consecrated, the spiritual Israelites, he says, "But ye, brethren, are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all children of the light, and children of the day." 1 Thess. 5:4,5
The dawn of the new day – the dawn of the millennium is now breaking over the world. The majority of men are so engrossed with earthly things – financial matters, sectarian matters, worldly philosophies, etc., and so choked either with the superstitions of the dark ages or with pride of their own attainments in the present, that they are giving no attention to the clear evidences that a new epoch is dawning upon the world. The laboring classes, however, are waking up, and having little of wealth or luxury or science or religion to interest them, they are speculating respecting the morning that they perceive is coming. Some of them are awe-stricken and fear-stricken; others are wild in their speculations respecting the prospects and possibilities of the future. They need trained minds and benevolent hearts to direct them and prepare them for the glorious prosperity of the new era. But those who they most respect and trust, and who are in the places of authority, are blind to the changing situation and engrossed selfishly in cornering the advantages falling within their reach at this time. Misled, some by the superstitions of the past and others by the philosophies of this world, these teachers, leaders of the world, neglect entirely the divine revelation and see not the divine purposes connected with this new epoch that is dawning. Only the "Israelites indeed" are to clearly see and to understand the situation – nor is it possible for them to make these things known except to such as are "Israelites indeed," and who, therefore, having the hearing ears.
As children of the light, as the Lord's consecrated people, let us not look to philosophies of the present day but to the Lord for wisdom respecting the new epoch. Neither let us look to the creeds and teachers of the dark ages. Let us look to the Lord. Let us look into His word for an explanation of the wonderful changes which we perceive all about us today – the explanation of the social, political, financial and religious unrest which bespeaks the coming of what the Scriptures term a "time of trouble such as was not since there was a nation."
Let us use the key which our Lord gave us in our text. Let us seek to know what he meant by the "times of the Gentiles" and when they will be "fulfilled."
If the due time for these matters to be understood has not yet come, we will at least be manifesting to our heavenly Father our interest in the great plan which he is working out, and will be none the worse for the time spent in seeking an understanding of His word. If the due time for understanding has come, our search will be rewarded – we will not be any longer in darkness, but will know whatever is now due to be understood respecting the divine times and seasons, as they relate to the kingdoms of this world and the establishment on their ruins of the kingdom of God's dear Son, which shall rule and bless all the families of the earth. We turn to the Old Testament Scriptures to which our Lord referred. In the book of Daniel we find recorded dream pictures of the course of this world's history. The first of these is recorded in Dan. 2:28-45. This is Daniel's narration to King Nebuchadnezzar of the latter's dream and of the divinely inspired interpretation of its meaning. In introducing the matter Daniel says: "There is a God in heaven that reveals secrets, and who hath made known to the King Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days."
Daniel then rehearsed what the king had previously dreamed and forgotten, the vision of a great image whose head was gold, whose breast and arms were silver, his belly was of brass, his legs were of iron and his feet were of iron and clay mixed. In the vision the king had seen this great image and then had witnessed its destruction, for a stone came out of the mountains without human cutting and smote the image upon the feet, as a result of which smiting the entire image became as chaff, which the wind blew away. [NS27]
Daniel proceeded to give the king the interpretation of this dream which the Lord had provided; namely, that Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom was represented in the head of gold of the image. It was the first universal empire of earth. The breast and arms of silver represented the kingdom of the Medes and Persians, which succeeded that of Nebuchadnezzar; the brass belly represented the kingdom of Grecia, which overthrew and succeeded the Medo-Persian empire; the legs of iron represented the Roman empire, which overthrew the Grecians; and the feet and 10 toes, which mingled the iron and the clay, represented the extension of the Roman empire to our day – the iron still representing the civil government of the Roman type, and the clay representing the pseudo-religious element of present-day government, in which civil and religious power mingled and combined. The stone taken from the mountain without human hands represents the true church of Christ, of which the clay in the feet of the image is but an imitation, having the form and color of stone, but not its power and strength. The church has been God's kingdom ever since its establishment at Pentecost, and has been in process of development, but it has been in the embryo condition, separated distinctly from earthly government and power and authority – "a subject to the powers that be."
But the vision shows that the time is coming when this kingdom of God will smite the earthly kingdom – secular and pseudo-religious. The result will be the utter destruction of these earthly governments. Let not this suggest for a moment that we are preaching anarchy, or endeavoring to induce the Lord's consecrated people to attempt the overthrow of the kingdom of this world. To our understanding the kingdom which is to do the smiting is the spiritual kingdom – beyond the veil, the Lord of glory and His resurrected church with Him and like Him. The consecrated ones on this side the veil may see in advance of others what is coming, because of the enlightenment through the word, but they have no commission and no desire of heart to battle with carnal weapons, to assume to take possession of earthly governments. On the contrary, they are all children of peace – peaceable and peacemakers – gentle, kind, merciful, loving, "doing good unto all men as they have opportunity, especially unto the household of faith."
The prophecy pictures, nevertheless, what will actually transpire. The Lord Jesus at the appropriate time will take unto Himself His great power and begin His reign – a reign of righteousness which the world will not see, neither comprehend, until it shall have broken in pieces the kingdoms of this world as a potter's vessel under the rule of the "iron rod" of Justice. (Rev. 2:27)
While it is now the mission of the Lord's people in the flesh to make known the good tidings of the Lord's truth and grace, and as ambassadors of God to urge upon all the acceptance of these, it is now the due time also for them to announce what would not have been true at an earlier time, namely, "The day of vengeance of our Lord, the day of recompense."
This time of trouble coming upon the world, which will apparently and actually come through the breaking loose of human passions, will be fully under the control of the spiritual invisible kingdom forces, which have now assumed control of the affairs of this world. To the worldly things may appear to continue as they have been from the foundation of the world (Second Peter 3:4), but it is in appearance only. Actually the change of dispensation is due, the divine forces are in control and it is a part of the divine program to permit the wrath of man to work out a share in the judgments of the "day of wrath."
Thank God! this day of wrath is not a time of future roastings in eternal torment, but it will be found bad enough a present time of trouble in the close of this age, in which there will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth a time of trouble referred to by the apostle when he says, "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for the mercies that shall come upon you. But look again at the prophetic dream and its prophetic interpretation; and see a more glorious condition to follow. The stone which smote the image became exceeding great and filled the whole earth. This signifies that God's kingdom shall become worldwide. It means the fulfillment of that part of the Lord's prayer which says, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven" – it means the establishment of the millennial kingdom and the blessing of all the families of the earth.
In the picture already considered, earthly dominions are represented from the standpoint – as great, grand, colossal, but when God would give a picture of the same Gentile kingdoms of His servant Daniel, he pictured them differently – namely as terrible, ye terrible, beastly governments, killing and devouring one another. Just so it is today. Some read with wonder and admiration the history of the doings of Alexander the Great, his armies, his battles, the number of killed and wounded and prisoners; they read of the wars connected with the Roman conquest [NS28] of the world, and of Napoleon and his ambitious attempt to establish the fifth monarchy in the world, contrary to the prophetic picture of the divine arrangement. Another reads these same bloodcurdling stories with horror, thinking of the wounds, the sufferings, the destruction of life, and the breaking of the hearts of the dear ones who loved them. This picture given to Daniel is recorded in Daniel, seventh chapter. Here the same Gentile kingdoms are illustrated by beasts instead of by metals; Babylon is symbolized by a lion, Medo-Persia by a bear, Greece by a leopard and Rome by a great and terrible beast – stronger and more ferocious than any in nature of which Daniel had knowledge. This we have illustrated in the chart. This last beast in the vision was peculiar in every respect, and in various ways it corresponds to the beast which the Apostle John saw centuries later, as recorded in the book of Revelation, having seven heads and 10 horns. The 10 horns represented 10 powers or 10 divisions of the beast's power, and are recognizable in the divisions of the Roman empire as they exist and have existed in Europe for centuries. The 10 horns on this last beast, we notice, correspond exactly with the 10 toes of the image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream. The prophet's attention was drawn especially to this last beasts which represents the Roman empires more powerful than any of its predecessors; and he noted several of its peculiarities among the horns, one of which he declared had a mouth and eyes, and looked more stout than his fellows, three of whom were plucked up in his interest.
So far as we are aware, all Protestants and commentators from Luther down interpret this beast to be the Roman empire, and this particular horn to mean the papal hierarchy. The eyes represent the wisdom of papacy, the crowns represent the widespread authority exercised by it – widespread today, but still more widespread proportionately during the dark ages. In the dream the prophet saw that this particular horn had a mouth which "spake great things," and that this horn "made war with the saints and prevailed against them until the ancient of days interposed his judgment."
To our understanding this judgment of the ancient of days upon that horn or papal power was expressed through Napoleon Bonaparte, who broke the spell of papal influence over Europe, and, fearlessly taking the pope a prisoner to France, showed that the great boastings of power in heaven, on earth and in purgatory were merely bombast. Nevertheless, the prophet declares that even after the judgment had set he heard the voice of great words which the horn spake. And so we find that it was as late as the year 1870 that the boastful words of papal infallability were pronounced by the head of this horn, shorn, however, of its power to persecute those who differed. The prophet says that he watched still further the proceedings and beheld until the beast was slain and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame. (Verses 9, 12).
The fulfillment of this last part is still future, but we believe very near. The Roman beast still lives, the papal horn with the other horns or divisions of the power still have influence and control in the world, but the remainder of the prophecy will be fulfilled as surely as the previous parts were. The other beasts lost their dominion, but prolonged their lives, but this beast will not only lose his dominion, but at the same time will lose his life; for the Roman power will not be transferred but destroyed. This picture of the destruction of the last of the great beast governments of the earth is about to be fulfilled, and the burning flame with which it will be destroyed fitly symbolizes the great time of trouble with which this present age is to end, according to all the statements of scripture.
Now for the more glorious vision: What is to supersede these beast governments' The prophet answers in accord with all the testimonies of scripture, saying, "I saw in the night visions, and beheld one like the son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before Him. And there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom which shall not be destroyed."
This is Messiah's kingdom, for which God's people have been praying these many centuries, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. His dominion of the world will not be of the beastly kind, but will be as much higher than this as man is higher than the brute beasts. It will be the kingdom of God's dear Son, the kingdom which is to rule the world, not for the purpose of destruction (vs. 14), nor for personal aggrandizement, but for the specific purpose of uplifting the entire human family, which this same one, as the man Christ Jesus, purchased with His own precious blood. Continuing his description of the kingdom of God (vs. 27), Daniel says, "And the kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most high. His kingdom is an everlasting [NS29] kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him."
What a glorious prospect is here held before us! Is it any wonder that all the prophets and the apostles looked forward to this glorious kingdom, of which our Lord also spoke repeatedly, not only in His parables but also after His resurrection and ascension, when speaking to His people through his servant John in the symbols of Revelations. "Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me."
"To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I overcame and am set down with my father in his throne."
In the last quotations from the prophet Daniel he mentions particularly the church as associated with Christ in the kingdom under the whole heaven given, to the people of saints of the most high.
Now, dear friends, we have had the prophetic picture of the Gentile kingdoms, and history corroborates this picture down to the present time. These are the Gentile kingdoms whose times God has before indicated: so to speak a lease of power had been granted them, and God's kingdom could not come until these kingdoms should have run their courses – until their lease of power expires. It is not yet expired, evidently, for this last beast has still its influence and still speaks great swelling words, although unable to persecute the saints since its "judgment" in 1799, when its persecuting power was taken away. This fourth beast of Daniel all Protestant expositors agree is the same symbolized in Revelations. There in chapter 11, the power of the peculiar or papal horn is shown to be 3½ times or years – 1,260 days, 42 months. This time has been fulfilled as symbolic time, each day a year. Papacy as one of the Gentile powers ruled the world for 1,260 years from 538 A. D. to 1799 A. D. This fulfillment of three and a half times clearly shows that the full seven times of the Gentiles will be 2,520 years. Let me call your attention to the fact that there was a particular time at which God recognized these Gentile governments, and a particular time when His recognition of them as lessons of the dominion of the world will expire. This is shown in both the visions referred to. Both visions show the beginning of Gentile times and lease of power in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, and both show the termination of this power down here somewhere, a little ahead of our day. Now in proportion as we are interested in the heavenly father's plan, and in these details of it which he has furnished us, we will be anxious to know all that He is willing to let us know respecting these matters. We will state what we shall endeavor to prove, so that you may follow each step of the argument and demonstration. We expect to show that the "Gentile times" referred to by our Lord in our text are seven times, or seven years, not literal years of course – symbolic years. A symbolic year in scripture usage consists of 360 days and each symbolic day represents one year in actual time – "a day for a year."
Thus each "time" or year represents 360 years, and seven times would represent 360 x 7 – namely, 2,520 years. This period we understand to be the full measure of the permission of Gentile nations to rule over the Jews and the world in general. We expect to show just where those 2,520 years began, and just where they will end, namely, A..D. 1915.
By that time we believe that the great time of trouble will have crushed the life out of the present representatives of Roman power, political and ecclesiastical, as represented in the fourth beast and his horn, including the peculiar horn that spoke the great, swelling words. Or, as represented in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, by that time the force of the spiritual kingdom of God will have been exercised upon the feet representatives of the great image of Gentile power, and the whole fabric will have crumbled to pieces. By that time, therefore, we hope that the spiritual kingdom will have been fully inaugurated, and that very shortly after that great trouble that people of the earth – humbled to the dust by the failure of the grandest attainments of civilization under the law of selfishness – will be glad to hearken to him who speaketh from heaven. The scriptures show that the blessings of the millennial kingdom after the time of trouble will be first manifested toward the Jews who will be responsive, and who at the time will recognize the hand of the Lord in the world's affairs. The prophet represents them as mourning for the Lord Jesus as for an only son, and declares that at that time "the Lord will pour upon them the spirit of prayer and of supplication, and they shall look upon Him whom they have pierced."
After Israel's acceptance of the kingdom, and the beginning of blessings to them through it, the prophet tells us that "Many peoples will go and say, Let us go to the mountain of the Lord's house; He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths. For the law shall go forth from Mount Zion (the glorified spiritual church, The Christ), and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem (the earthly representatives of the heavenly kingdom.)" – Isa. 2:8 Now follow me carefully, gaining all the assistance you can from the chart. You can review what I am now saying at your leisure at your homes, for many of you [NS30] have the second volume of Millennial Dawn in which these matters are presented. Isa. 2:3
Nebuchadnezzar's government was in existence a considerable time before this lease of universal power came to it. Israel was recognized of the Lord as His kingdom – typical of the coming kingdom – so that of David it was said that he sat upon the throne of the Lord, and of Solomon it was said that he sat upon the throne of the kingdom of the Lord in the room of his father David, and the descendants of David continued on the throne at Jerusalem until the days of Zedekiah, their last king. It was in Zedekiah's day that Nebuchadnezzar came with his army and took him and his nobles and princes, etc., into captivity. There the earthly kingdom of God, the typical kingdom, ceased forever, as is clearly shown by the words of the prophet to Zedekiah, as follows: "O, thou profane and wicked prince, whose time is come that iniquity should have an ends remove the diadem, take off the crown. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it – until He come whose right it is, and I will give it unto Him." (Eze. 21:25-27)
It is this interregnum – this period between the taking off the diadem of the typical king and the establishing of Messiah's kingdom – that is given to the Gentiles. During this period one people after another, with one government after another, and one religion after another, have tried what they could do in the way of bringing rule and order to the world. Not in every respect have these earthly governments been worthy of condemnation; but, taken as a whole, none of the Lord's people would be satisfied with any of them as they appear to us, and as they appeared as a whole to Daniel – more or less ferocious and beastly – surely far from what we are hoping God's kingdom will prove to be when it shall be established. The Lord has thus been giving the world during the seven times of the Gentiles an opportunity to see what men can do for themselves, and when the end of the highest attainment shall be demonstrated to be trouble, confusion and anarchy, the world will become heartsick with its own failure, and, as the prophet has declared, the Lord's kingdom shall be hailed as the "desire of all nations." (Hag 2:7)
We might assume the Gentile times to be seven times. When we find that they would fit so well to all the circumstances and conditions, we might feel tolerably sure that this complete number had been applied in the divine arrangement. But we are not left to guesswork; the times are finitely stated in two ways: First, Nebuchadnezzar had another dream, in which he saw a great tree and heard a proclamation made against it that it should be cut down, yet that the root should be preserved. Daniel interpreted this dream to represent the overthrow of King Nebuchadnezzar himself, and that the declaration that seven times should pass over him signified that he should dwell as a beast of the earth for seven years. The record of the prophet is that the matter was so fulfilled. But at the end of the seven years Nebuchadnezzar's reason returned to him, as we read, "At the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and my understanding returned unto me, and I praised the Most High and honored Him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom from generation to generation." (Dan. 4:34)
Here we believe was the picture or type of man's experience during the period of the great image of which man was the head. And we rejoice to think that at the conclusion of the symbolic "seven times" (A.D. 1915) mankind will return to a reasonable and proper view of the Almighty and of their responsibility to Him, as did Nebuchadnezzar, the representative, in his experiences. It will be noticed from our text that Israel was particularly identified with these times of the Gentiles – trodden down by them for these seven times. Turning to Leviticus, we find recorded blessings and cursings of an earthly temporal character. If Israel would obey God faithfully, they would be blessed above other nations; if not, certain evils would befall them. The conclusion is stated thus: "And I will walk among you and be your God, and ye shall be My people . . . but if ye will not hearken unto Me, and will not do all these commandments... I will set My face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies; they that hate you shall reign over you . . . And ye shall sow your seed in vain; for your enemies shall eat it .. . and if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, than I will punish you seven times more (further, or additional to their previous chastisements) for your sins." (Leviticus 26:17, 18, 24, 28)
This threat of "seven times" of punishment is mentioned three times. The various punishments previously mentioned evidently referred to the several captivities of the Israelites to the Assyrians, the Moabites, the Midianites, the Philistines, etc. During all of these God's care continued over them, and when they cried unto Him, He heard them and answered and delivered them from their enemies. (Jud 3:9-15)
These chastisements having failed, He applied the threatened "seven times."
Removing the crown permanently, Israel as well as the world was subject to [NS31] beastly powers for the seven times of the Gentiles. Thus it befell them, according to God's warning, "If ye will not for all this (previous chastisement) hearken unto Me, then I will punish you seven times."
We find, then, that the seven times of Israel's punishment and the seven times of Gentile dominion are the same; that they began with the captivity of Zedekiah, and, as will be seen from the chart, they terminate with the year 1915. According to the best obtainable evidences on the subject, synchronized with the Scriptural testimony, Zedekiah's captivity took place in October, 6051/4 years before A. D. 1. If we will add to this 19143/4 years, we will have the year, October, 1915, as the date for the end of Gentile supremacy in the world – the end of their lease of 2,520 years, which will not be renewed. Instead, He whose right the kingdom is shall take possession of it. This, therefore, marks the date when the Lord Himself shall assume control of the world's affairs, to end its reign of sin and death, and to bring in the true light of the knowledge of God and the wholesome restraints that will be profitable to the fallen world, and the encouragements and assistances and every good thing helpful to man – to the end that the times of restitution of all things spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets shall bring blessing to as many as are willing to receive the divine favor of life everlasting upon the terms of obedience to the divine arrangement. Our interest in these matters is profound. They not only indicate that we may lift up our heads and rejoice, knowing that the church's redemption draweth nigh; but we may also rejoice with the world that the blessed morning of the millennial kingdom is at hand, even though we must weep with them also in the dark hour of trouble which will precede the sunburst of the millennial kingdom. The lesson to us, dear friends, as to those who are seeking to be heirs of the kingdom, joint-heirs with Jesus Christ our Lord, is that we shall set our affections on things above, and seek to conform our lives to the divine requirements, that we may be counted meet, fit, for the kingdom to be prepared, that we may be used of the Lord in connection with that kingdom for the blessing of the world. And how much of preparation we all need to fit and prepare us to be the future judges and blessers of the world in association with our dear Lord and Redeemer! "He that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure. Our next discourse will be on Jewish and gospel parallels – type and antitype – in this room at 3 p.m. next Sunday. The grace of the Lord be with us all, preparing us for a share with our Lord in the grand fifth universal kingdom which is to bless the world gloriously, according to all the gracious promises of the word.
Jan. 25 – Pastor C. T. Russell spoke to a large and attentive audience in Allegheny Carnegie hall yesterday afternoon. His text was "Things which must shortly come to pass." (Rev. 1:1)
Pastor Russell said: These words, true when our Lord uttered them, are no less true now, 1,800 years later. We are sure that the wonderful events with which this age is to close and the Millennial age is to open are now nigh, even at the door. There are some, however, who argue that the Lord and the apostles must have been mistaken when they used such language; for say they, 1,800 years are not "shortly."
We reply that all depends upon the standpoint. From the human standpoint 1,800 years is a dreadfully long period, but not so from the divine. The prophet intimates this saying, "A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday."
Yes, responded the Apostle Peter, "Be not ignorant brethren of one thing, that a day with the Lord is as a thousand years. From the divine standpoint, therefore, the 6,000 years since Adam's creation are but six days of a great week of which the Millennial age is the great Sabbath. Suppose now that the mechanic or the house – wife had in mind a week of toil beginning with Monday morning and closing with Saturday night, and suppose that Friday morning had arrived – would anyone say nothing that the truth was being stretched if it were said 'The week is far spent," the work – time now is short; the rest that is promised will "shortly come to pass'" Surely these would be usual and proper [NS32] statements. And so it is with the words of our Lord and His apostles. They were living in the beginning of the fifth thousand year day, and properly the holy spirit in them recognized the promised blessings as nigh.
Possibly it has seemed peculiar to those who have attended these studies of time prophecy, that in the various prophetic measures thus far examined none have been referred to as marking the second coming of our Lord. This is the more unusual because our Second Adventist friends, who generally monopolize prophetic interpretation, bend all of their energies toward proving the time of the advent. To our understanding a misconception on their part, both of the object and manner of the second coming, has confused them. Holding as they do that Christ's second coming will be in a body of flesh and visible to mankind, and holding also as they mostly do that the object of His coming will be to gather His saints to Himself and to utterly destroy the remainder of mankind and the world itself with fire, they have been led to pull and twist the various prophetic time prophecies so as to have them all end at the same moment of the one day in which they expect Christ to appear, the judgment of the world to take place, and the burning to begin. Delivered from both of these errors, we are prepared to apply the various prophecies just as they were intended, some expiring at one date and others at another date, and to draw from them their intended lessons. First of all, our eyes have been opened to a realization of the fact that the judgment of the world means its trial for life everlasting, and not its condemnation to the second death. We see that the world was condemned as a race because of original sin, that the whole world has been under this curse or sentence of death for now 6,000 years. We see that in much mercy God redeemed us from that curse or sentence of eternal death by the death of His Son, our Lord. We see that the only ones who are even reckonedly escaped from that death sentence are the few who have been blessed with hearing ears and understanding hearts. As the apostle declares of these, "We have escaped the condemnation which is upon the world."
The great mass of mankind outside the Household of Faith are still under the original sentence – eternal death. We see that God's object in giving some now a knowledge whereby they may escape this sentence, and reach life everlasting in Christ, is to the intent that He may gather out a "little flock" to be joint-heirs with His Son in the glorious Millennial kingdom.
We see that Christ and His overcoming church, His bride, constitute the seed of Abraham (Gal. 3:29)
which is to bless all the families of the earth during the Millennial age. We see that the blessing that will come to the world will be the trial or judgment of that blessed millennial day, and that the knowledge of the Lord and full opportunity are promised as incidental to the world's trial for life everlasting. This saves us from the thought that the church, the little flock, of Christ, alone have a part in the blessing secured from the atonement. It saves us too from the error of supposing that the second coming of Christ is the end of all hope, mercy and probation. It shows us, on the contrary, that so far as the generality of our race is concerned, that event is but the beginning of divine mercy and opportunity and trial for life eternal to the world. A careful examination of the Father's word has assured us fully that our Lord Jesus left the glory and dignity and honor of His spiritual condition when He became a man, not that He might remain a man to all eternity, but that as a man He might give the ransom price for Adam and all his race. We see that He did this, and we have the clear scriptural testimony that the Father was pleased to honor Him, not merely with the same honor that He had before, but He was pleased to exalt Him far above angels, principalities and powers, and every name that is named. We perceive the clear scriptural testimony that He was "put to death in the flesh, but was quickened in the spirit," and we perceive that after His resurrection, though still in the world for 40 days. He was but rarely with His disciples and but for a few moments on the seven occasions, and then in different forms, as proving to them and to us that, although He was the same Jesus, He was now "changed" and no longer human and subject to human conditions. To demonstrate this He appeared in the room with His disciples while "the doors were shut," and, departing, "vanished out of their sight."
He appeared in flesh and garments as suited the convenience of the occasions, and thus manifested the same powers that He and associated holy angels had manifested in previous times; as, for instance, when the Lord and three angels appeared to Abraham and took dinner with him and talked with him and afterward went down and delivered Lot out of Sodom.
We thus realize that our Lord Jesus is no longer a man, but, as the apostle declares, "The Lord is that Spirit," and "though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now, henceforth, we know Him so no more. [NS33] We, therefore, are no longer expecting as do others that He will come a second time in the flesh. On the contrary, our expectations are, like those of the apostles, that we may be "changed" and made as He is, in order that we may see Him as He is – not as He was at the first advent. 1 John 3:2 "Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but My Father only."
It is not our intention to offer any evidences respecting the day and hour in the future in which our Lord will come; but we do wish to call your attention to this text, that all may know that it is frequently misapplied. It does not say that of that day and hour no man shall ever know. At the time of its utterance neither men nor angels nor the Lord Jesus Himself knew the time of His second coming; but when the second coming takes place the Lord undoubtedly will be aware of it before the time, and so also the holy angels who will be His escort; and there would be nothing inconsistent with the statement if some of the Lord's consecrated people might have intimations respecting the event. Other Scriptures speak of "the day of the Lord," signifying a period in which He will be manifested. For instance, the apostle tells us that "The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night; and when they (the world) shall say peace and safety, then cometh sudden destruction upon them, as travail upon a woman with a child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief." (1 Thess. 5:2, 3)
Note how explicit is this declaration, and how clearly it divides between the church and the world – between the class who will know in advance respecting the day of the Lord and the class that will not know until the great trouble of the "day of wrath" is upon them.
The Scriptures (Greek) use both of these words in referring to the second coming of Christ; but neither of them signify the same as our English word coming, viz., approach. We would like to make very clear the Scriptures' teaching – that in the end of this Gospel age our Lord, at His second advent, will for a time be present but invisible, and that subsequently His presence will be revealed or made known. None will know of His presence until after He is here, and only the thoroughly consecrated, Israelites, indeed, will know of the matter at all until the outward manifestation will be in the day of trouble – judgments coming upon present institutions. The early part of the Lord's presence will be devoted to His church, as His words specifically inform us. In giving the great prophecy of Matthew 24, the Lord tells us that in the time of His second presence He will gird Himself (that is, take the position of a servant,) and come forth and serve His people with "things new and old," "meat in due season for the Household of Faith."
This service will be rendered at a time when the world will not know of His presence, but will be saying that all things continue as they were from the foundation of the world. Another of our Lord's parables represents that at His second advent He will call His own servants and reckon with them and reward them; he that has received the two talents and used them wisely will be rewarded; he who received the five talents and used them wisely and profitably will be rewarded. Their rewards are stated: Some shall be made rulers over five cities, others over ten cities – in the kingdom, shortly after it has been established. Evidently this testing of the church and determining its rewards will be before there is any manifestation to the world of the presence of the Son of man at His second advent. Afterward, when ready to begin dealing with the world, judging the institutions of the present time, the presence of the Son of man will be revealed "in flaming fire" – judgments.
Allow me to call your attention to Matt. 24:37. Here a statement concerning our Lord's second advent is distinctly made by Himself. It reads thus: "As the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be."
This is evidently intended to be an illustration, but there is an incongruity in comparing the days of Noah and the coming of the Son of man. The difficulty is made clear when we find that the word here rendered coming is parousia, and does not mean coming, but means presence, as every Greek scholar knows. Now let us read the verse and see how plain it becomes, "As were the days of Noah, so shall also the presence of the Son of man be."
Ah, that is different; it is plain now. The days of the presence of the Son of man will in some respects resemble the days of Noah, preceding the flood. Now we turn to Luke's account of the same discourse and read (Luke 17:26), "As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. "Now the two statements are in harmony, and we know to look for some correspondence as between Noah's days and the days of the presence of Christ in the end of this age. Is there anything to indicate what the correspondencies will be' Yes; it is specifically stated thus: "For as in those days which were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered into the Ark, and knew not until the flood came and [NS34] took them away; so shall also the coming (parousia, presence) of the Son of man be."
Let us not lose the point of the illustration: the Lord was not intimating that eating and drinking, planting and building, marrying and giving in marriage were wicked things in the days of Noah, which would be duplicated in the days of the presence of the Son of man. The thought is that as the people of Noah's day knew not of the coming flood, but were going about their ordinary business, so also in the end of this age, in the time of the presence of the Son of man, the world will be going about its ordinary business, its eating and drinking, planting and building and marrying, totally unaware, unconscious of the time in which they are living – that it is the closing time of the gospel dispensation and the opening time of the great Millennial age, to be ushered in with a great time of trouble such as never was before. This, it will be perceived, is in strict harmony with what the apostle said, namely, that the day of the Lord would come as a thief and a snare upon the whole world, and that they would not escape, but, in harmony with the apostle's suggestion that "ye, brethren," would not be left in "darkness," should not we, dear brethren, be on the lookout to see by what means the Lord will inform us respecting the harvest time of this Gospel age, respecting the presence of the Son of man, and respecting the work that will be done in the time of His presence, and before His revealing to the world, before His epiphania in the time of trouble.
We will surprise many of you by what we are about to say on this subject of the time of the Lord's presence. What we say will not cause fear and trepidation to the hearts of any who are walking faithfully in the Lord's footsteps; and if our remarks shall serve to startle and awaken to a closer investigation of these matters any who have been more or less stupefied by the spirit of the world, the spirit of pleasure, the spirit of greed, the spirit of selfishness, we shall rejoice in their awakening, and they also will have cause to glorify God on this behalf. We wish to point out to you, dear friends, that the Scripture prophecies which we examined on the three preceding Sundays, and others which we wish we had time to examine today, clearly teach that we are now living in "the days of the Son of Man" – in the parousia, in the time of the Lord's presence. Now, let none of us be alarmed, for we are not pointing you to a future date, but pointing back to the fall of 1874, and none of you – neither myself nor anyone else – had the slightest knowledge of the facts of the case when it occurred. Our Lord said, "Behold, I come as a thief' – quietly, secretly, unknown, and so it has been; He came without your knowing it and without my knowing it. It is since His presence that the light has shone particularly upon His word. He has indeed girded Himself and come forth to serve His people. I have been the recipient of His favors of His grace, of His truth, as respects things new and old. You also have been similarly favored, and it is our understanding of the teachings of the Word that, during this harvest time and before the great time of anarchy and trouble shall burst upon the world and smite present institutions, that all the Lord's true people, all who are Israelites indeed, in whom there is no guile, will be brought to a knowledge of the Lord and of the truth, a knowledge of the divine plan of the ages and of the presence of the Chief Reaper in the harvest of this age. It need not surprise us that all of the Lord's people do not receive the meat in due season at the same moment. It must be passed from one to another, for so illustrations in the Scripture intimate. I am today seeking to pass it to some of you, and you in turn will serve it to others, until all "the wise shall understand."
But the Scriptures are equally explicit in the statement that "none of the wicked shall understand."
Those who are of a rebellious attitude of mind and heart, who, even if God's true children, are cultivating in their hearts envy, malice, hatred, strife and other works of the flesh and of the devil are not in a condition to hear the voice of the Son of Man. His is the still small voice intended only for those who have an ear to hear, and this hearing is granted only to those who have hearts in accord with the Lord's spirit.
Now, look with me at the chart and see how the various time prophecies, although making no mention of the second coming of Christ, clearly indicate and imply that His parousia, His presence, would begin in October, 1874. First, we call to mind the jubilee type examined three Sundays ago. We remember how explicitly it indicated that the "times of restitution of all things" – earth's great jubilee – were due to begin in October, 1874. We remember the two lines of testimony on the subject – the law and the prophets – and how they both pointed to the same time. We remember that we looked about us to see evidence of any restitution work, and concluded that the appropriate thing to be sought would be the pulling down, overturning, of present institutions to make way for the glorious things promised. We saw that in the dawn of the typical jubilee year in Israel there would be commotion, blowing of trumpets, the arousing of [NS35] the people, the appeal for their rights, the claiming of inheritances, etc. And so we find that since 1874 this very work of blowing the trumpets, demanding rights and privileges and asserting claims and rights have been the order of the day. Now let us notice the words of the Apostle Peter, uttered eighteen centuries ago. He said: "Times of refreshing shall come from the presence of Jehovah, and He shall send Jesus Christ, whom the heavens must receive [retain] until the times of restitution of all things." (Acts 3:19-21)
Note these words particularly – the heavens were to receive our Redeemer, to retain Him, until the restitution times. The lesson clearly would be that if restitution times chronologically began in October, 1874, the heavens no longer retain our Lord. This is an indirect way the Scriptures teach that the Lord became present in 1874, yet your speaker was utterly unaware of the matter for nearly two years after the event, and then learned it, not from vision or dreams or other manifestations, but from the testimonies of the prophets as you are hearing them today.
We particularly wish that we had time to call to your attention what the Prophet Daniel calls the "days of waiting."
In prophecy he foretold of the rise of Papacy, and, as we have already seen, foretold the length of its dominion to be 1,260 prophetic days, literally years – exactly the same that is stated three times in the book of Revelations as measuring the prosperity of the great system which "wore out the saints of the Most High God" for 1,260 days, literal years. We would have liked to have time to show that the 1,260 years of Papal dominion lasted from the year 539 to the year 1799 A. D. – from the time Papacy was set up in power, until the time when its power was broken by Napoleon Bonaparte, who carried the pope a prisoner to France, and in so doing showed the whole world that the claims of the man who sat upon the papal throne that he was "another God on earth" and had power in heaven, earth and purgatory, were bombastic claims, unsupported by any real evidence of power. We would have liked to have shown that the next period of 1,290 days, years, ended in 1829 with the beginning of the second advent movement of that period, and the great influence which it had upon its time. We would like to have shown that the 1,335 prophetic days, years, of the same prophecy reached to October, 1874 – ending exactly at the same place, at the time indicated by the jubilee. We call your attention to the words of the Prophet Daniel in connection with these 1,335 days. He said, "O the blessedness of him that waiteth and cometh unto the one thousand three hundred and five and thirty days."
What shall we say, dear brethren' Is it not so that those who have lived and patiently waited for the fulfillment of the Lord's gracious promises have received a special blessing in this harvest time' – a blessing which began with and dated from the fall of 1874. Surely this is true – surely every step of our progress in the knowledge of the divine plan is a fresh cause for rejoicing. "He hath put a new song in my mouth, even the loving kindness of our God."
Now notice the other prophecy respecting Israel's seven times of chastisement under the nations – 2,520 years from the time the crown was removed from the head of their last king, Zedekiah, and down to the present time, and beyond to the year 1915. This prophecy indicates, if you please, the further end of the time of trouble in which we are living – between October, 1874 and 1915. A period of 40 years is thus appropriated, first to the gathering of the harvest of the Gospel age – the resurrection of the sleeping saints and the testing and proving and gathering to the Lord of the living members of the body, and finally the great time of trouble which will make ready for the full ushering in of the kingdom of glory and peace and blessing. The time appears long enough, yet not too long. Already the work of gathering the saints is well under way, and every year adds to the momentum of the truth, as well as to the opposition of the error. Eleven years or so remain, and as we look out we perceive that the whole world is getting awake. Look at the church and see how infidelity under the name of higher criticism is invading the nominal sanctuary – how few are clean and free from the contamination. It is bound to make a division but, alas, so few will be found faithful to the Lord and to His word that the great majority, losing their faith, will have so much company in the matter that they will not realize for some time their fall from divine favor and grace. It will not take many years to accomplish this separation. Look at the world, and see how the love of money has bewitched all, so that little else than money or pleasure are ever thought of in civilized lands. See how this spirit of selfishness is working amongst the masses and the classes of the world in general, how these are being bound in bundles – into organizations, combinations and unions, and how the capitalistic class is being bound also into other unions, confederations, combinations, and trusts, and note that the same spirit is infecting churchianity and for the same reasons – for self-protection, for self aggrandizement, for power. Think how far along these [NS36] organizations are at the present time, and what the struggle will be when they are all thoroughly organized and the tug of war shall come. The Scriptures tell us distinctly how the battle will result, that Babylon the Great will fall, and that with her in the battle will go down the kings and princes and mighty ones of earth, and that a terrible time of anarchy will prevail, and the only bright spot in the future lies beyond in the gracious promises of the God of Heaven, that on the ruins of present institutions He will establish His kingdom.
Now, look again, dear friends, at the subject discussed last Lord's day, the parallels of the Jewish and gospel dispensations. Note how all of these prophecies are harmonized and unified in this teaching of the parallels between the two Israels, the house of servants and the house of sons – the one under Moses, the mediator of the law covenant; the other under Christ, the mediator of the new covenant – the one founded to Jacob with his twelve sons, natural Israel; the other founded by Christ, the true Israel of God, with His twelve apostles. The house of servants, we have seen began with the death of Jacob and lasted 1,811 years, until the first advent movement at the time of our Lord's birth when all men were in expectation of Him, and when wise men from the East sought for Him. And likewise from the death of Christ, where this Gospel age began, 1,811 years reached to the second advent movement, which occurred in 1844. We are not Second Adventists, nor would those people in any sense or degree recognize us or our teachings, but we do believe that the movement which culminated in 1844 was in some measure instigated by the Almighty, and that it had a powerful influence favorable to the truth. There are virgins, as foretold in Matthew 25, went forth to meet the bridegroom and he tarried, and they all afterward slumbered and slept until the morning, until the announcement, "Behold the bridegroom's presence."
Thirty years after the advent movement at Bethlehem there was another advent movement at Jordan, when John proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah, and when our Lord really entered upon His work. And similarly in the end of this age, as you will notice from the chart, 30 years from 1844 brings us to 1874, where the jubilee testimony proclaims to us the Lord's presence. Forty years from the time Jesus was baptized by John at Jordan, the Jewish nation was utterly overthrown in the greatest time of trouble people had ever known – their city was utterly destroyed. So likewise 40 years from 1874 reached to 1915, where the antitype of Israel, namely, Christendom, will have its utter overthrow in a time of trouble such as was not since there was a nation.
Are these things accidental, dear friends' We think not; they are all based upon the Scriptures, they are all simple and easy of demonstration, and yet they were all hidden by the method of their statement or by facts related to their interpretation, so that they could not be understood until now in God's due time, when He lifts the veil. Thus the Lord said to Daniel the Prophet, in respect to his inquiry of those times and seasons, "Go thy way, Daniel for the thing is closed and sealed until the time of the end."
We understand, dear friends, that the time of the end began in 1799, more than a century ago, and that we have been in the time of the end ever since, and that the time of the end is another name for what another prophet calls "the day of his preparation."
Since 1799 we have been in the time of the Lord's preparation for the Millennial kingdom. He has lifted the curtain, and light has shone in upon the world from every quarter, on mechanics, on chemistry, on every science and on every art.
All of these things have served to make the day in which we live the grandest that the world has ever known; and yet these grand privileges and blessings are about to work out for our present civilization the great catastrophe of anarchy to which we have just alluded. The law of selfishness rules in the hearts of all classes, and causes envy, hatred, malice, strife and, eventually, through socialism, will lead up to anarchy and wreck the entire social fabric. All this is noted by the prophet, for he gives us in the same connection after being told that the prophecy was "sealed until the time of the end," a description of this time of the end – a description which fits so marvelously that it will surprise everyone who will examine it. Mark the words: "In the time of the end many shall run to and fro, knowledge shall be increased, and the wise shall understand, and there shall be a time of trouble such as was not since there was a nation." Dan. 12:1, 4, 10 Note the four items. First, the running to and fro. What a marvelous fulfillment we see before our eyes – steamboats, railroads, bicycles, every contrivance for locomotion, and with ever-increasing speed and ever-increasing numbers. The whole world is running to and fro just as the Lord indicated through the prophets would be the case in this time of the end. Could we hope to ever have a more particular fulfillment of any prophecy than this is' Surely not. Note the second point: Knowledge shall be increased. Not only is scientific knowledge increased, but the thought appears to be rather knowledge be generally [NS37] disseminated. And so it is all over Christendom, which is the world in prophecy. Education is progressing in a wonderful manner; children of 10 years are studying subjects which their great-grandfather never thought of studying. In every land knowledge has been increased, and here is another remarkable fulfillment of prophecy. Could it be plainer' Mark the third point: The wise shall understand – understand the vision which Daniel could not understand, which Daniel was not permitted to understand, which Daniel was not intended to understand. We are not, dear friends, posing as worldly wise. On the contrary, we are seeking the wisdom which cometh from above, the light which shines forth from the lamp which God has given us, His Word, and all who follow its leadings from the divine standpoint are the truly wise. This class may now understand; but as the context declares, "The wicked shall do wickedly; but none of the wicked shall understand."
They will take their own course, and the plan of God and the Word of God will daily come to appear to them more and more foolish as their scientific minds grapple with their evolution theories and their higher critical difficulties. Is this part of the prophecy being fulfilled' Is the word and plan of God opening before His consecrated people as never before' It most assuredly is so. Note the fourth point: "There shall be a time of trouble such as was not since there was a nation."
The outlook from any standpoint, but particularly from the standpoint of those who are looking from God's standpoint, is that the time of trouble is nearing.
We see that the prosperity of this time of the end is not conducive to happiness and peace; we see the whole world growing more and more discontented, although enjoying more of the blessings and favors of the Lord in temporal matters than ever before. We see that the secret of this discontent is knowledge. Knowledge is power – power for good or for evil, according to the sentiments of the heart. We must expect that only those hearts which are consecrated to the Lord and dominated by His spirit will receive this power of knowledge in such a manner as to profit themselves and their fellows; and since these are the small minority of the civilized world, we are not to be surprised that the knowledge and the power are about to wreck the present order of things. God will thus cause the wrath of man to praise Him, for, looking back, man will discover from the millennial standpoint what were the wickedness and errors of the present time as they cannot see them now, because they are so close to them and so vitally interested. They will see that selfishness lay at the foundation of present institutions in every sense of the word; even the benevolences of the present time are to some extent handicapped by selfishness. God wishes the whole world to have a terrible lesson on the result of selfishness in the cataclysm of trouble and disintegration which it will effect; He wishes all to learn that His way is not only the right of way, but the only way in which knowledge and liberty and power may be used to blessing and to profit. Do these things appeal to you as both scriptural and rational – as being in accord with the word of God and the evidences of our senses, as they do to me' If so, I am sure that your hearts are leaping with joy at the thought that the dark night of earth's sin and suffering will soon be at an end and the glorious morning of the kingdom soon be ushered in. And you will be solicitous respecting the things which must shortly come to pass – the things which are coming to pass day by day in the midst of which we are living, if this prophetic testimony and outward corroborations are trustworthy in any degree. What must we expect in the church' some one may ask. I answer that much depends upon what church we refer to. There are many churches of men, but only one church of the living God whose names are written in heaven. The Scriptures everywhere show that the churches of men are more or less built upon error and are fencing in their various folds not only the Lord's sheep, but the worldly goats – not only the Lord's wheat, but the world's tares. We do not understand the Scriptures to teach that the goats and tares are all coarse, rude and villainous and disreputable, any more than the sheep and wheat are all wealthy and polished gentlemen and ladies. The tests are along different lines, and we read, "The Lord knoweth them that are His" – regardless of outward garb, education, appearance or wealth. We further read that "the Lord looketh upon the heart," and, again, that not many great, not many learned, hath God chosen, but chiefly the poor of this world, rich in faith, to be heirs of the kingdom. These then, the Lord's poor, we are to expect to find in all the various wheat fields, behind all the various creed fences, intermingling with all the various bands of tares. The harvest work, so far as the wheat is concerned, will be the gathering out of these. The Lord speaks of Christendom or churchianity as a whole under the name of Babylon – the name which originally applied to the mother of harlots, but which has become appropriate to all her daughter systems as well. These are addressed by the Lord in His last message, saying: "Babylon is fallen, is fallen. Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins and receive not of her plagues." Rev. 18:2-4 [NS38]
Our thought is, dear friends, that the Lord is sending forth present truth as a sickle to gather the true wheat from every part of the wheat fields not by gathering them into another denomination or sect or party or name, but simply to gather them to the Lord – to fellowship with Him and to fellowship with others of like precious faith. We are in no sense attempting to organize a sect or party. We are sick of churchianity, but thoroughly in love with the great Christianity which Jesus and the apostles founded, under the terms and conditions of which all of the Lord's people are brought into heart-to-heart fellowship, and need not the bands of sects and confessions to fasten them together. Having one spirit, the spirit of truth, they are one body, as the apostle has expressed it. 1 Cor. 12:12, 13-27. The fields are white for the harvest, and every day is making a cleavage between the nominal Christianity and the true Christianity and the more apparent it becomes that the nominal systems are growing more and more worldly. The colleges and seminaries of every denominational shade have for years been turning out polished infidels, who no more believe in the inspiration of God's Word than they believe in the inspiration of Shakespeare or Dickens, and they are not slow to say this amongst themselves, though craftily, many of them disguise their infidelity before such members of their flocks as they fear would be shocked if they knew the truth; but as their numbers increase, their courage increases to boldness, and in their own circles they do not hesitate to speak of those who accept the Bible as foolish, and old fogies. Let us be glad to be counted fools for Christ's sake. Let us note, too, that the line of division is turning here on the same issue as at the first advent. At the first advent the question turned on the necessity for Christ's death as the sin offering, and so today it is turning on the same problem. Is Christ our Redeemer or merely a great teacher' All these "higher critics" claim the latter, that Jesus was a Great Teacher, but not a redeemer, and that no redemption was necessary. They hold the evolution theory that man, instead of falling from the image of God into savagery and depravity, has been falling upward, as they express it – coming from brute conditions up to the present status. This is the line of battle, let no one be deceived on the subject.
We are living today, dear friends, in the time referred to by the apostle when he said, "Take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand in the evil day, and having done all to stand."
We are in the evil day – the day of trial, the day of testing, the day referred to by the prophet when he declared: "A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand."
These thousands are already falling under the shafts of skepticism, higher criticism, evolution, etc., but the battle has already begun. There is still time for those who are the Lord's true people to hear the jubilee trumpet, to recognize the situation, and to put on the whole armor of God, that they may be able to stand in the evil day, and that they may help others to stand. With this discourse this series of meetings comes to an end, but it is our earnest hope that amongst these interested faces and attentive ears there are a goodly number who will heed the apostle's words and put on the whole armor of God and be saved from falling with the great nominal church, Babylon, into infidelity, which has a form of godliness but denies its power. We hope to be permitted to serve you further, and assure you that it will afford us great pleasure so to do. The message that we give from the Lord's word belongs to you and to all who are truly His. We are glad to lend helping hands to all who will avail themselves of our offer. May the love of God, the grace of our Lord Jesus, and the fellowship and communion of the holy Spirit, guide us and all who are truly the Lord's consecrated sheep, in the right paths, to the Lord's glory and for our present and everlasting blessing. Amen.
A LITTLE while, our warfare shall be over;
A little while, our tears be wiped away;
A little while, the power of Jehovah
Shall turn our darkness into gladsome day.