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Title: The Government of God

Author: John Taylor

Release date: February 17, 2014 [eBook #44941]

Language: English

Credits: Produced by the Mormon Texts Project. Email
        tomnysetvold@gmail.com with corrections or to participate
        in proofreading of similar early Mormon texts.


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD ***




Produced by the Mormon Texts Project. Email
tomnysetvold@gmail.com with corrections or to participate
in proofreading of similar early Mormon texts.






The Government of God.
======================

By John Taylor,

One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints.

    "O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge
    the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth."--Psalm
    lxvii. 4.

Liverpool: Published by S. W. Richards, 15, Wilton Street.

London: Sold at the Latter-Day Saints' Book Depot, 35, Jewin Street;
and by all booksellers.

MDCCCLII.

London: Printed by W. Bowden 5, Bedford Street, Holborn.


Contents.
------------------

Preface

Chapter I. The Wisdom, Order, and Harmony of the Government of God.

Chapter II. The Government of Man.

Chapter III. On the Incompetency of the Means Made Use of by Man to
Regenerate the World.

Chapter IV. What Is Man? What Is His Destiny and Relationship to God?

Chapter V. The Object of Man's Existence on the Earth; and His
Relationship Thereto.

Chapter VI. Man's Accountability to God.

Chapter VII. The Lord's Course in the Moral Government of the World.

Chapter VIII. Whose Right Is It to Govern the World? Who Has Governed
It?

Chapter IX. Will Man Always Be Permitted to Usurp Authority Over Men,
and Over the Works of God? Will the World Remain for ever Under a
Curse, and God's Designs Be Frustrated?

Chapter X. Will God's Kingdom Be a Literal or a Spiritual Kingdom?

Chapter XI. The Establishment of the Kingdom of God upon the Earth

Chapter XII. The Effects of the Establishment of Christ's Kingdom, or
the Reign of God upon the Earth.



Preface
------------------

It was Elder Taylor's intention to superintend the publishing of _The
Government of God_ in person, previous to his departure for Great Salt
Lake City last spring; but the numerous cares attending the French and
German Missions, of which he was President; the translation of the Book
of Mormon into the French and German languages; the establishment of
_L'Etoile du Deseret_ at Paris, and _Zions Panier_ at Hamburg; together
with a multitude of other business connected with the welfare of the
Kingdom of God, rendered it impossible.

The manuscript was therefore handed to me by Elder Taylor, with a
request to superintend the printing of the work, which I have done to
the best of my ability.

Considering the disadvantages arising from the Author's absence during
the reading of the proofs, I believe it is as correctly rendered, as
was possible from a manuscript copy.

The Work is now before the Public, and from one portion at least it
will meet with a cordial reception, treating as it does upon the theme
most dear to their hearts--the Reign of Righteousness and Peace.

From other portions it will meet with varied reception, but will
nevertheless lead the minds of all to contemplate the glory of that
time when the Messiah, even Jesus, shall come with all his holy angels,
and sit upon the throne of his glory, and govern all nations upon earth.

James Linforth.
Liverpool,
August, 1852.



Chapter I.
------------------

The Wisdom, Order, and Harmony of the Government of God.

The Kingdom of God is the government of God, on the earth, or in the
heavens. The earth, and all the planetary systems, are governed by
the Lord; they are upheld by his power, and are sustained, directed,
and controlled by his will. We are told, that "by him were all things
created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and
invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or
powers; all things were created by him, and for him: and he is before
all things, and by him all things consist."[A] Collos. i. 16, 17. If all
things, visible and invisible, are made by and for him, he governs and
sustains all worlds to us known, together with the earth on which we
live. If he governs them, they are under his dominion, subject to his
laws, and controlled by his will and power.

[Footnote A: I wish here to be understood, that at present I am writing
to believers in the Bible. I may hereafter give my reasons for this
faith; at the present I refer to the Scriptures without this.]

If the planets move beautifully, and harmoniously in their several
spheres, that beauty and harmony are the result of the intelligence and
wisdom that exist in his mind. If on this earth we have day and night,
summer and winter, seed time and harvest, with the various changes
of the seasons; this regularity, beauty, order, and harmony, are the
effects of the wisdom of God.

There are two kinds of rule on the earth; one with which man has
nothing directly to do, another in which he is intimately concerned.
The first of these applies to the works of God alone, and His
government and control of those works; the second, to the moral
government, wherein man is made an agent. There is a very striking
difference between the two, and the comparison is certainly not
creditable to man; and however he may feel disposed to vaunt himself of
his intelligence, when he reflects he will feel like Job did when he
said, (xlii. 6.) "I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."

In God's government there is perfect order, harmony, beauty,
magnificence, and grandeur; in the government of man, confusion,
disorder, instability, misery, discord, and death. In the first,
the most consummate wisdom and power are manifested; in the second,
ignorance, imbecility, and weakness. The first displays the
comprehension, light, glory, beneficence, and intelligence of God; the
second, the folly, littleness, darkness, and incompetency of man. The
contemplation of the first elevates the mind, expands the capacity,
produces grateful reflections, and fills the mind with wonder,
admiration, and enlivening hopes; the contemplation of the second
produces doubt, distrust, and uncertainty, and fills the mind with
gloomy apprehensions. In a word, the one is the work of God, and the
other that of man.

In order to present the subject in a clear light, I shall briefly point
out some of the leading features of the two governments.

The first, then, is that over which God has the sole control, such as
the heavens and the earth, for "He governs in the heavens above, and
in the earth beneath." It may be well here to say a few words on His
moral government, in the heavens. All we can learn of that is very
imperfectly set forth in the Scriptures. It would seem, however, that
all was perfect order, for "He spake, and said, Let there be light,
and there was light; and He divided the light from the darkness."
"He spake, and the waters were gathered together, and the dry land
appeared." And in the creation of the fish, the fowls, the beasts, the
creeping things, and man, it was done in the councils of God. The word
was, Let us do this, and it was done. It would seem, then, that that
government is perfect in its operations, for all the mandates of God
are carried out with the greatest exactitude and perfection. God spake,
chaos heard, and the world was formed.

We find also that transgression is punished; when Satan rebelled he was
cast out of heaven, and with him those who sinned.

Here, then, in these things consummate wisdom was manifested, and power
to carry it out.

The plan of redemption was also made thousands of years ago. Jesus is
spoken of by the prophets as being "The Lamb slain from before the
creation of the world." The future destiny of this earth is also spoken
of by prophecy; the binding of Satan; the destruction, and redemption
of the world; its celestial destiny; its becoming as a sea of glass;
the descent of the new Jerusalem from heaven; the destruction of
iniquity by a power exercised in the heavens, associated with one on
the earth; and a time is spoken of where John says--"Every creature
which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as
are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and
honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne,
and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." Rev. v. 13. But I shall let this
pass for the present, and content myself with saying on this subject,
that in the councils of God, in the eternal world, all these things
were understood: for if He gave prophets wisdom to testify of these
things, they obtained their knowledge from Him, and He could not impart
what He did not know; but "known unto God are all his works, from the
beginning of the world." Acts xv. 18. God, then, has a moral government
in the heavens, and it is the development of that government that is
manifested in the works of creation; as Paul says, "The invisible
things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being
understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and
Godhead." Romans i. 20.

But when we speak of the heavens, we mean also the planetary system;
for the world, and other worlds are governed by principles independent
of man. The power that causes this earth to roll on its axis, and
regulates the planets in their diurnal and annual motions, is beyond
man's control. Their revolutions and spheres are fixed by nature's
God, and they are so beautifully arranged, and nicely balanced, that
an astronomer can calculate the return of a planet scores of years
beforehand, with the greatest precision and accuracy. And who can
contemplate, without admiration, those stupendous worlds, rolling
through the immensity of space at such an amazing velocity, moving
regularly in their given spheres without coming into collision, and
reflect that they have done so for thousands of years. Our earth has
its day and night, summer and winter, and seed time and harvest. Well
may the poet say that they--

    "Proclaim for ever, as they shine,
    The hand that made us is divine."

And here let me remark how different is this to the works of man.
We see, then, the power of God manifested in their preservation
and guidance; but when we reflect a little further, that while our
planetary system rolls in perfect order round the sun, there are other
systems which perform their revolutions round their suns; and the whole
of these, our system with its centre, and other systems with their
centres, roll round another grand centre: and the whole of those, and
innumerable others, equally as great, stupendous, and magnificent, roll
round another more great, glorious, and resplendent, till numbers,
magnificence, and glory, drown the thought, we are led to exclaim
with the prophet, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and
knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgements, and His ways
past finding out!" Romans xi. 33. Without referring again to the
motions of our earth, and the beautiful regularity and precision of the
whole of this elegant machinery, we will turn our attention a little to
the works of creation as found on the earth. The make, construction,
and adaptation of each for its proper sphere, are the work of God; and
they are all controlled by His wisdom and power, independent of man. In
the conformation of the birds, the beasts, the fishes, the reptiles,
the grains, herbs, plants, and trees, we see a striking exemplification
of this fact. No matter which way we turn our attention, the same
order and intelligence are displayed. The fish in their organization
are peculiarly adapted to their proper element; the birds and beasts
to theirs; the amphibious animals to theirs. The nicely organized
machinery of their bodies; their bones, muscles, skins, feathers,
scales, or hair; the formation of their bodies, their manner of living,
together with the nature of their food, and their particular adaptation
to the various elements and climates which they occupy, are all so many
marked evidences of skill, forethought, intelligence and power. We will
here notice a few examples. Plunge bird, beast, or man, into the water,
and let them remain there, and they will soon die; take a fish out of
the water, and death ensues; yet all are happy, and move with perfect
enjoyment in their proper spheres. Elevate a man, beast, or fish, into
the air, and let them fall, and they will be bruised to death; but the
bird, with its wings, light bones, and fragile body, is peculiarly
adapted to the aerial element in which it moves, and is perfectly at
home; while the brute creation and men feel as much so on the earth.
Again, their habits, food, coatings, or coverings, digestive powers,
and the organization of their systems, are all peculiarly adapted to
their several situations. The same principle is developed in their
arrangement and position on the earth. Those that inhabit a southern
climate are peculiarly adapted to that situation; while those that
inhabit a northern are equally fitted for theirs.

Take the reindeer and polar bear to the torrid zone, and they would
be out of their proper latitude, and would probably die. Remove the
elephant, lion, or tiger, to Iceland or Greenland, and leave them to
their own resources, and they would inevitably perish.

We will notice for a moment the construction of their systems. Each
one is possessed with muscular strength, or agility, according to
its position, wants, or dangers, and there is a beauty, a symmetry,
and a perfection about all God's works, which baffle and defy human
intelligence to copy. An artist is considered talented if he can make,
after years of toil, a striking likeness of any of those things,
either on canvas, or in marble. But when he has done, it is only a
dead outline; remove a little paint, or tear the canvas, and its
beauty is destroyed; break the arm of a statue, and we see nothing
but a mutilated stone. But take a man, for example, and remove the
skin, there is still order and beauty; remove the flesh, there is
still workmanship and skill, and the bones, the flesh, the muscles,
the arteries and veins, and the nerves, and the lungs, not to forget
the exquisite fineness of the sensitive organs, manifesting a skill, a
forethought, a wisdom, and a power, as much above that of man as the
heavens are above the earth.

We see the power, wisdom, and government of God, displayed in the
amazing strength of some of the largest of the brute creation; as
also in the fineness and delicacy, of the arrangement of the smaller.
And while we admire the stupendous power of the elephant, we are
equally struck with the fineness, delicacy, and beauty of some of the
smaller insects. The prescience, and intelligence of God, are as much
manifested in arranging the bones, muscles, arteries, and digestive
organs of the smallest animaculae, as in the construction of the horse,
rhinoceros, elephant, or whale. I might touch upon the organization of
plants, herbs, trees, and fruits; their various compositions, modes
of nourishment, manner of propagating their kind, &c. but enough
has already been said upon this subject. It is one that no one will
dispute upon; Jew and Gentile, black and white, Christian and Heathen,
philosopher and fool, all have one faith on this subject.

I have briefly touched upon it for the purpose of presenting in a
clear light the imbecility and weakness of man; for wherever we turn
our attention, we see power, wisdom, prescience, order, forethought,
beauty, grandeur and magnificence.

These are the works of God, and shew His skill, workmanship, glory, and
intelligence. They reflect His divine power, and shew in unmistakeable
characters the wisdom of his government, and the order that prevails in
that part of creation over which He has the sole and unlimited control.

We can perceive very clearly that what God has done, is rightly done.
It is not governed by instability and disorder, but continues from
eternity to eternity to bear the impress of Jehovah.



Chapter II.
------------------

The Government of Man.

We will now turn our attention a little to the government of man, and
see how that will compare with the foregoing, for man stands at the
head of this beautiful creation; he is endued with intelligence and
capacity for improvement; he is placed as a moral agent, and has the
materials put into his hands to work with, the works of his Father
as a pattern, the conduct of many of the inferior creation as an
example--and might make the earth a garden, a paradise, a place of
uninterrupted happiness and felicity, a heaven below. And if God had
not delegated this moral agency and power to man, and thus given him
the privilege, in part, of being the arbiter of his own destiny, such
it would have been to this day, like the Eden from which he was ejected
because of his transgression. For he had everything placed within his
power, and was made lord of the creation. The beasts, birds, fish,
and fowl, were placed under his control; the earth yielded plenty for
his wants, and abounded in fruits, grain, herbs, flowers and trees,
both to satisfy his hunger, and to please the sight, taste, and smell.
The fields waved with plenty, and produced a perennial harvest. The
fruits teemed forth in all their luscious varieties to satisfy his
most capacious desires. The flowers, in all their gaiety, beauty,
and richness, delighted the eye; while their rich fragrance filled
the air with odoriferous perfumes. The feathered tribes, with all
their gorgeous plumage and variety of song, both pleased the eye, and
enchanted and charmed the ear. The horse, the cow, and other animals,
were there to promote his happiness, supply his wants, and make him
comfortable and happy. All were under his control, to contribute to his
happiness and comfort, supply his most extended desires, and to add to
his enjoyment; but with all these privileges what is his situation?

With celestial blessings within his reach, he has plunged down to the
very verge of hell, and is found in a state of poverty, confusion, and
distress. He found the earth an Eden--a paradise; he has filled it with
misery and woe, and has made it comparatively a howling wilderness. And
let us not blame Adam alone for this state of things; for after his
ejection from Paradise, the earth was sufficiently fertile to satisfy
all the desires of man with moderate industry, and is at the present
day, if it were not for the confusion that exists, and if men were
properly situated, and its resources developd. But more of this anon.

At present we will examine some of these evils, and then point out
their cause, and the remedy.

We find the world split up and divided into different nations, having
different interests, and different objects; with their religious and
political views as dissimilar as light and darkness, all the time
jealous of each other, and watching each other as so many thieves;
and that man at the present day (and it has been the case for ages),
is considered the greatest statesman, who, with legislation or
diplomacy, can make the most advantageous arrangement with, or coerce
by circumstances, other nations into measures that would be for the
benefit of the nation with which he is associated. No matter how
injurious it might be to the nation or nations concerned, the measure
that would yield his nation an advantage, might plunge another in
irremediable misery, while there is no one to act as father and parent
of the whole, and God is lost sight of. What is it that the private
ambition of man has not done to satisfy his craving desires for the
acquisition of territory and wealth, and what is falsely called _honor_
and _fame_?

Those private, jarring interests have kept the world in one continual
ferment and commotion from the commencement until the present time;
and the history of the world is a history of the rise and fall of
nations--of wars, commotions, and bloodshed--of nations depopulated,
and cities laid waste. Carnage, destruction, and death, have stalked
through the earth, exhibiting their horrible forms in all their
cadaverous shapes, as though they were the only rightful possessors.
Deadly jealousy, fiendish hate, mortal combat, and dying groans, have
filled the earth, and our bulwarks, our chronicles, our histories,
all bear testimony to this; and even our most splendid paintings,
engravings, and statuary, are living memorials of bloodshed, carnage,
and destruction. Instead of men being honoured who have sought to
promote the happiness, peace, and wellbeing of the human family, and
greatness concentrating in that, those have been generally esteemed
the most who produced the most misery and distress, and were wholesale
robbers, ravagers, and murderers.

And from whence come these things? Let the apostle James answer: "From
whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even
of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not--ye
kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye
have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask
amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." James iv. 1-3. Here is
evidently a lack of that consummate wisdom, that moral and physical
control, that parental power which balances the universe, and directs
the various planets. For let the same recklessness, selfishness,
individuality, and nationality there be manifested, and we should see
the wildest confusion.

Man has come in contact with man, morally, physically, religiously,
and nationally, from the foundation of the earth. If God's works had
done so, what tumult and ruin there would have been in the immensity
of space! Instead of the order that now prevails, man would have
been sometimes frozen to death, and at other times burned up; one
or two seasons of irregularity, even in climate, would depopulate
the earth. But what if the planets, irrespective of the power by
which they are controlled, were to rush wildly through space, and,
with their mighty impetus dash against each other? "What fearful
consequences would ensue." There would be "system on system wrecked,
and world on world." What terrible destruction and ruin! We have read
of earthquakes destroying countries, of wars depopulating nations--of
volcanoes overwhelming cities, and of empires in ruin; but what would
the yawning earthquake, the bellowing volcano, the clang of arms, or
a nation's distress, be in comparison to a scene like this? System
would be shattered with system; planet madly rush on planet; worlds,
with their inhabitants, would be destroyed, and creations crumble into
ruins. There would be truly a war of planets, "a wreck of matter and
a crash of worlds." These, indeed, would be fearful results, and shew
plainly the distinction between the beautiful order of God's work,
and the confusion and disorder of man's. God's work is perfect--man's
imperfect. The one is the government of God, and the other that of man.

We notice the same mismanagement in the arrangement of cities and
nations. We have large cities containing immense numbers of human
beings, pent up, as it were in one great prison-house, inhaling a
foetid, unwholesome atmosphere, impregnated with a thousand deadly
poisons; millions of whom, in damp cellars, lonely garrets, and pent up
corners, drag out a miserable existence, and their wan faces, haggard
countenances, and looks tell but too plainly the tale of their misery
and wretchedness. A degenerate, sickly, puny race tread in their steps,
inheriting their fathers' misery and distress.

If we notice the situation of the nations of Europe at the present
time, we see the land burthened with an overplus population, and
groaning beneath its inhabitants, while the greatest industry,
perseverance, economy, and care, do not suffice to provide for the
craving wants of nature. And so fearfully does this prevail in many
parts, that parents are afraid to fulfil the first great law of
God, "Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth;" and by
desperate circumstances are almost forced to the unnatural wish of
not propagating their species; while, corrupted with a correspondent
depravity with that which reigns among nations, they are found using
suicidal measures to prevent an otherwise numerous progeny from
increasing their father's misery, and inheriting his misfortunes. And
yet, while this is the case, there are immense districts of rich soil,
covering millions of square miles, inhabited only by a few untutored
savages, or the wild beast of the forest; and such is the infatuation
of man that in many districts of country, which were once the seats
of the most powerful empires, and where flourished the mightiest
nations, there is nothing but desolation and wildness. Such are Nineveh
and Babylon, on the Asiatic Continent; and Otolum, and many others
discovered by Stephens and Catherwood, in Central America; and recently
discovered ruins--unequalled in the old world--a little above the head
of the California Gulf. Not only their cities, but their lands are
desolate, deserted, and forsaken, and the same evils that once existed
there are transferred to another soil, all bespeaking plainly that we
want a great, governing, ruling principle to regulate the affairs of
the world, and assist poor, feeble, erring humanity.

Again, if we examine some of the details of these evils, we shall
see more clearly the importance and necessity of a change. Nearly
one-third, speaking in general terms, of the inhabitants of the earth
are engaged in a calling that would be entirely useless if the world
were set right.

If men and nations, instead of being governed by their unruly passions,
covetous desires, and ambitious motives, were governed by the pure
principles of philanthropy, virtue, purity, justice, and honor, and
were under the guidance of a fatherly and intelligent head, directed
by that wisdom which governs the universe, and regulates the motions
of the planetary systems, there would be no need of so many armies,
navies, and police regulations, which are now necessary for the
protection of those several nations from the aggressions of each other,
and internal factions. Let any one examine the position of Europe
alone, and he will find this statement abundantly verified. Look at the
armies and navies of France and England; and the confusion of Germany,
also of Austria, Turkey, Russia and Spain, not to mention many of the
smaller nations, and let their armies, their navies, and police be
gathered together, and what an abundant host of persons there would
be. They would be sufficient to make one of the largest nations in
the world! And what are they doing? To use the mildest term, watching
each other, as a person would watch a thief for fear of being imposed
upon, and robbed, or killed; but generally strolling around as the
world's banditti, robbing, plundering, and committing aggressions upon
each other; and if they have peace, acquiring it by the sword; and if
prevented from aggression and war, it is generally, not that they are
governed by just, or virtuous principles, but because they are afraid
that aggression might lead to combinations against them which would
result in their overthrow and ruin.

In the city of Paris alone, at the present time, and its immediate
environs, there are one hundred thousand soldiers, besides police to
a very great number, not to mention the vast number of custom-house
officers and others. Suppose we add to these their families, where
they have any, and where they have not, notice the vast amount of
prostitution, misery, degradation, and infamy, that such an unnatural
state of things produces. I give the above as an example of the whole,
but here the navies are not included. I say again, What are these all
doing? They do not raise corn to supply the wants of men, nor are they
occupied in any useful avocation; but they _must_ live, and their
wants must be supplied by the products of the labour of others. There
has to be an immense amount of legislation for the accomplishment of
this thing, and instead of having one government of righteousness and
the world obeying, we have scores of governments, all having to be
sustained in regal pomp, to be equal to their neighbouring nations;
and all this magnificence and national pride having to be supported
by the labour of the people. Again, all these legislatures have to
provide immense hosts of men, in the shape of custom-house, excise, and
police officers, to carry out their designs, all of whom, and their
families, help to increase the burden, till it becomes insupportable.
That, together with the unnatural state of society, before referred
to, in regard to the situation of the inhabitants of cities and the
nations, plunges millions of the human family into a state of hopeless
destitution, misery, and ruin, for they are groaning under all these
hopeless burdens without having sufficient land to till to meet their
demands, and as natural means fail they are obliged to have recourse
to those that are unnatural. Hence, in England a great majority of
the inhabitants are made slaves of, virtually to supply the wants of
the greatest part of the world, and are forced to be their labourers.
Thousands of them are immured in immense factories, little less than
prisons, groaning under a wearisome, sickening, unhealthy labour;
deprived of free, wholesome air; weak and emaciated, not having a
sufficiency of the necessaries of life. Thousands more from morning
till night are immured in pits, shut out from the light of day,
the carol of the birds, and the beauty of nature, sickly and weak,
in many instances for want of food; and yet, in the midst of their
wretchedness, gloom, and misery, you will sometimes hear them trying to
sing in their dungeons and prison-houses, in broken, dying accents,

"Britons never shall be slaves."

I will here give, as one example, an iron works that I visited lately
in Wales. One of the proprietors informed me that they employed fifteen
thousand persons, and paid them L5,000 per week. Most of these people
laboured under ground, in the pits, digging for iron ore and coal; the
remainder were employed principally about the furnaces, in rolling
the iron, &c., at heavy, laborious, fatiguing work. And who were they
toiling for? Principally for the Americans and Russians, at that
time, to furnish them with railroad iron. And what did they get for
their labour? The riches of those countries? No. L5,000 a week among
about fifteen thousand persons. I suppose, however, a number of these
were boys and girls. The average wages of men was from ten to twelve
shillings per week. And this is their pay for that labour; and yet the
masters are not to be blamed, that I can learn, for they are forced by
competition to this state of things, and by the unnatural, artificial
state of society. If they did not do this their workmen must be out
of employ, and ten times worse off, if that were possible, than they
are now. In the State of Pennsylvania, in America, where the railroads
run through coal and iron mines both, they leave them untouched, and
come to England for iron to make the rails of, that they cannot afford
to make at home, because of higher wages, and an _outlet_ to society,
which prevents them from being coerced into bondage. If the world was
right, the labour would be done there, and not here, and the labour of
carriage saved.

The situation of the peasantry and workmen in France, Germany, Prussia,
Austria, and Russia, and in fact I may say of Europe generally, is
worse even than that of the same class in England; and wherever we
turn our attention, we see nothing but poverty, distress, misery, and
confusion; for if men do not copy after the good and virtuous, they
generally do after the evil. When nations and rulers set the pattern,
they generally find plenty to follow their example; hence covetousness,
fraud, rapine, bloodshed, and murder, prevail to an alarming extent.
If a nation is covetous, an individual thinks he may be also; if a
nation commits a fraud, it sanctions his acts in a small way; and if
a nation engages in wholesale robbery, an individual does not see
the impropriety of doing it in retail; if a strong nation oppresses
a weak one, he does not see why he may not have the same privilege;
corruption follows corruption, and fraud treads on the heels of fraud,
and all those noble, honourable, virtuous, principles that ought to
govern men are lost sight of, and chicanery and deception ride rampant
through the world. The welfare, happiness, exaltation, and glory of
man, are sacrificed at the shrine of ambition, pride, covetousness
and lasciviousness. By these means nations are overthrown, kingdoms
destroyed, communities broken up, families rendered miserable, and
individuals ruined. I might enter into a detail of the crimes,
abominations, lusts, and corruptions that exist in many of our large
cities, but I shall leave this subject, and conclude with the remarks
of the prophet Isaiah, who gazed in prophetic vision on this scene:
"Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste,
and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants
thereof... The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof,
because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinances, and
broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the
earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate." Isaiah xxiv. 1, 5 and
6.

Iniquity of every description goes hand in hand; vice, in all its
sickening and disgusting forms, revels in the palace, in the city,
in the cottage; depravity, corruption, debauchery, and abominations
abound, and man, that once stood proudly erect in the image of his
Maker, pure, virtuous, holy, and noble, is vitiated, weak, immoral,
and degraded; and the earth, which was once a garden, not only brings
forth briars and thorns, but is actually "defiled under the inhabitants
thereof."

Those great national evils of which I have spoken are things which at
present seem to be out of the reach of human agency, legislation, or
control. They are diseases that have been generating for centuries;
that have entered into the vitals of all institutions, religious and
political; that have prostrated the powers and energies of all bodies
politic, and left the world to groan under them, for they are evils
that exist in church and state, at home and abroad; among Jew and
Gentile, Christian, Pagan, and Mahomedan; king, prince, courtier, and
peasant; like the deadly simoon, they have paralyzed the energies,
broken the spirits, damped the enterprize, corrupted the morals, and
crushed the hopes of the world.

Thousands of men would desire to do good, if they only knew how;
but they see not the foundation and extent of the evil, and
long-established opinions, customs and doctrines, blind their eyes,
and damp their energies. And if a few should see the evil, and try a
remedy, what are a few in opposition to the views, power, influence,
and corruption of the world?

No power on this side of heaven can correct the evil. It is a world
that is degenerated, and it requires a God to put it right.



Chapter III.
------------------

On the Incompetency of the Means Made Use of by Man to Regenerate the
World.

I purpose in this Chapter to shew the incompetency of the means made
use of by man for the accomplishment of the purposes of God--the
establishment of His Kingdom, or Millennial reign.

Now, if it is the kingdom of God, that is to be established, it must be
introduced by God. He must not only be the originator of it, but the
controller also, and any means short of these must fail of the object
designed.

The great evils that now exist in the world are the consequences of
man's departure from God. This has introduced this degeneracy and
imbecility, and nothing but a retracing of his steps, and a return to
God can bring about a restitution.

God gave to man a moral agency, as head of the world, under himself.
Man has usurped the sole authority, and taken upon himself to reign
and rule without God. The natural consequence is, that we have
inherited all the evils of which I have spoken, and nothing but
the wisdom, goodness, power, and compassion of God, can deliver us
therefrom, restore the earth to its pristine excellence, and put man
again in possession of those blessings which he has forfeited by
his transgression. Emperors, kings, princes, potentates, statesmen,
philosophers, and churches, have tried for ages to bring this state of
things about; but they have all signally failed, not having derived
their wisdom from the proper source. And all human means made use of at
the present time to ameliorate the condition of the world must fail, as
all human means have always done.

There are some who suppose that the influence of Christianity, as it is
now preached and administered, will bring about a Millennial reign of
peace. We will briefly examine the subject.

First, we will take the Greek and Catholic Churches as they have
existed for ages--without an examination of their doctrines, whether
right or wrong--for they form two of the largest branches of the
Christian Church. They have, more or less, governed a great portion of
Europe at different times; and what is the situation of the people and
nations where they have held sway? We have noticed the effects, and
already briefly touched upon the evils that prevail in those countries;
and if Greece and Russia, or any other country where the Greek Church
has held sway, be a fair specimen of the influence of that church, we
have very little prospect, if that religion were more widely diffused
or extended, that the results would be more beneficial, for if it
has failed in a few nations to ameliorate their condition, it would
necessarily fail to benefit the earth if extended over it. Nor do we
turn with any better prospect to the Catholic religion. Of what benefit
has it been to nations where it has prevailed the most? Has there been
less war, less animosity, less butchery, less evil of any kind under
its empire? It cannot be said that it has been crippled in its progress
or its operations. It has held full sway in Spain, Rome, and a great
portion of Italy, in France and Mexico for generations, not to mention
many smaller states. Has it augmented the happiness of those nations
of the world? I need not here refer to the history of the Waldenses,
and Albigenses, and Huguenots, to that of the Crusades, wherein so many
Christian kings engaged; nor to the unhappy differences, the wars and
commotions, the bloodshed and carnage, that have existed among these
people, for their history is well known. And the present position
of both the Greek and Roman churches, presents a spectacle that is
anything but encouraging to lead us to hope, that if the world were
under their influence, a Millennial reign of peace and righteousness
would ensue.

And let not any one say that these churches have not had a fair
opportunity to develop themselves, for their religion prevailed and was
cherished in those nations. They have held universal sway, at different
times, for generations. The kings, councils and legislatures, have
been Catholic or Greek. In Rome, the Pope has ruled supreme, and also
for some time in Lombardy, Ravenna, and other States. In Greece, the
Patriarch of Constantinople, and in Russia, the Emperor, is head of the
church.

But, methinks I hear the Protestants say, we fully accord with you thus
far, but we have placed Christianity on another footing. Let us examine
this subject for a moment.

The question would naturally follow, What have the reformations of
Calvin, Luther, and other reformers, done for the world? We may notice
that Denmark, Sweden, Prussia, with a great part of Germany, Holland,
and Switzerland, as also England and the United States, are Protestant.
What can we say of them? That they are a part of the disorganized
world, and have manifested the same unhappy dispositions as other
portions. Reform has not altered their dispositions or circumstances.
We see among them the same ambitious, grasping, reckless disposition
manifested, and consequently the same wars, bloodshed, poverty, misery,
and distress; and millions of human beings have been sacrificed to
their pride, ambition, and avarice, and thirst for national fame and
glory.

The Reformation of the Church of England is anything but creditable to
that church. I refer to Henry VIII., and the vacillating course taken
by some of its early reformers; and its persecution of those who were
opposed to it in religious faith.

I might here refer to the religious intolerance of Calvin of Geneva,
and Knox of Scotland, and other reformers; but, as these are mere
individual affairs, I pass over them. If we look at Christian nations
as a whole, we see a picture that is truly lamentable, a miserable
portrait of poor, degenerated, fallen humanity. We see Christian
nations arrayed against Christian nations in battle, with the Christian
ministers of each Christian nation calling upon the Christian's God
to give them each the victory over their enemies! Christians! and
worshippers of the same God!!

Hence, Christian England has been arrayed against Christian France;
Christian Russia against Christian Prussia; Christian Spain against
Christian Holland; Christian Austria against Christian Hungary;
Christian England against Christian United States; and Christian
United States against Christian Mexico. Not to mention the innumerable
aggressions and conquests of some of the larger nations, not only upon
their Christian brethren, but against other nations of the earth.

Before those several nations have engaged in their wars, their
ministers have presented their several prayers before the same God; and
if He had been as infatuated as they, and listened to their prayers,
they would long ago have been destroyed, and the Christian world
depopulated. After their prayers they have met in deadly strife; foe
has rushed against foe with mortal energy, and the clarion of war,
the clang of arms, and the cannon's roar have been followed by dying
groans, shattered limbs, carnage, blood, and death; and unutterable
misery and distress, desolate hearths, lonely widows, and fatherless
children. And yet these are all Christian nations, Christian brethren,
worshippers of the same God. Christianity has prevailed more or less
for eighteen hundred years. If it should still continue and overspread
the world in its present form, what would it accomplish? The world's
redemption and regeneration? No, verily. Its most staunch supporters,
and most strenuous advocates would say, _No_. For like causes always
produce like effects: and if it has failed to regenerate the nations
where it has had full sway for generations, it must necessarily fail
to regenerate the world. If it has failed in a small thing, how can it
accomplish a large one?

There are some of the Evangelical Churches, and modern reformers who
will tell me that the above is not Christianity; only a form, not
the spirit and life. But it is national Christianity; and it is the
nations--the world and its redemption--that we are speaking of. But,
lest they should think me unfair in making this application, I will
briefly examine their position. Which of the sects or parties is it
that is good, evangelical, and pure? The Church of England, Methodists,
Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, Universalists, or which of the
hundreds of sects that flood Christendom? For they do not agree; there
exists as much unhappy difference among them as there does among the
nations. They have not power, of course, to act nationally; but, as
individual sects, there is as much virulence, discord, division, and
strife among them as among any other people. There is sect against
sect; party against party; polemical essay against polemical essay;
discussion after discussion; and hard words, bitter feelings, angry
disputes, wrangling, hatred, and malice, prevail to an alarming extent:
and it is enough, in many instances, for a member even of a family to
be of a different religious persuasion, no matter how honest, to cause
his expulsion from the family.

In fact, if we look at Christianity, as exhibited among the evangelical
societies of England, and the United States, where Protestantism
bears rule unchecked, what do we see? Nothing but a game at hazard,
where a thousand opinions distract the people, each clamoring for his
own peculiar form of worship, and, like the Athenians, clinging with
tenacity to their own favorite god, no matter how absurd or ridiculous
his pretensions. I would remark, however, both to Catholic and
Protestant, that there is much good associated with both their systems,
in the teaching of morality, virtue, faith in God, and our Lord Jesus
Christ; that there are thousands of sincere, honest, good, and virtuous
people among them, as also among the nations; that these evils have
been the growth of ages. "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the
children's teeth have been set on edge."

It is unnecessary here to say anything of missionary societies, tract
societies, and evangelical societies; for if the fountain is impure,
the stream must be impure; if the tree is bad, the fruit will be bad
also. It is certainly a praiseworthy object to spread the Bible, and
all useful information, and to do good as far as we can; but to talk of
this evangelizing the world, is folly.

We will now turn our attention for a short time to another society,
which has been formed lately in Europe, called a "Peace Society,"
and which has lately held several congresses in London, Berlin, and
elsewhere, with representatives from many of the European nations, and
the United States. Their object is, to ameliorate the condition of the
world, and bring about universal peace; but, with all deference to
their feelings, and fervent desires that such a happy event might be
consummated, I must beg leave to differ from them in their views. Peace
is a desirable thing; it is the gift of God, and the greatest gift
that God can bestow upon mortals. What is more desirable than peace?
Peace in nations, peace in cities, peace in families. Like the soft
murmuring zephyr, its soothing influence calms the brow of care, dries
the eye of sorrow, and chases trouble from the bosom; and let it be
universally experienced, and it would drive sorrow from the world, and
make this earth a paradise. But peace is the gift of God. Jesus said to
his disciples, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you, not
as the world giveth give I unto you." John xiv. 27. Moral suasion is
always good, and the most happy that man can employ; but without the
interposition of God, it will be useless.

The nations of the world have corrupted themselves before God, and
we are not in a position to be governed by those principles without
regeneration. If they were pure, and living in the fear of God, it
would be another thing; but the world at the present time is not made
of the proper materials to submit to a congressional interposition,
of a kind similar to the one now established. The materials will not
combine, and no power, short of the power of God, can accomplish it. We
have got into the feet and toes of Daniel's national image; they are
composed of iron and clay, which will not mix; there is no chemical
affinity between the bodies. As it has been in generations past, the
strong nations feel independent, and capable of taking care of their
own affairs; and if the weak unite, it is to protect themselves against
the strong. The principles of aggression and protection still rule as
strong in the human bosom as ever they did. The world is as belligerent
now as it ever was, and as full of commotion and uncertainty.

The dispositions of the nations, of kings, rulers, and people, are
the same. The late revolutions in Europe, and present uncertain state
of political affairs, are an evident proof of this. The political
atmosphere of the European nations is full of combustion, and only
needs igniting to set the whole in one common blaze. Talk of peace!
there is war in the councils and cabinets, uncertainty and distrust
with emperors, kings, presidents, and princes; war in the churches,
clubs, cabals, and parties that now distract the world. It is whispered
in the midnight caucus, and proclaimed in open day. The same spirit
enters into the social circle, and breaks up families: father is
arrayed against son, and son against father; mother against daughter,
and daughter against mother; and brother against brother: it presides
triumphant at the assemblies of the "Peace Society," and spreads
confusion, discord, and division there. A moral, deadly, evil has
infused itself throughout the world, and it needs a more powerful
restorative than the one proposed to ameliorate its condition. If the
root of the evil be not eradicated, in vain we regulate the branches;
if the fountain be impure, in vain we strive to purify the streams. The
means used are not adequate to the end designed, and in spite of all
those weak, puny efforts, the world will continue in its present sickly
state, unless a more powerful antidote be applied.

Another principle has many advocates on the Continent of Europe at the
present time; a principle of Socialism. Like everything else, it is
possessed of different phases, and has been advocated in its various
branches by Fourier, Robert Owen, Cabet, Pierre Leroux, and Proudhon,
in Europe, and Fanny Wright in America. The leading object of many of
these people is to have a community of goods and property. Some of them
discard Christianity altogether, and others leave every one to do as
they please; others attach a little importance to it. I would briefly
remark on the first of those, that if scepticism is to be the basis
of the happiness of man, we shall be in a poor situation to improve
the world. It is practical infidelity that has placed the world in its
present position; how far the unblushing profession of it will lead
to restoration and happiness, I must leave my readers to judge. It is
our departure from God, that has brought upon us all our misery. It
is not a very reasonable way to alleviate it by confirming mankind in
scepticism. I am aware that there is much in the world to induce doubt,
and uncertainty on religious affairs, and religious professors have
much to answer for; but there is a very material difference between
the religion of God, and our Lord Jesus Christ, and that of those who
profess His name.

As regards Communism, in the abstract, or on the voluntary principle,
we will examine that briefly. Pick out a number of men in Paris,
London, Berlin, or any other city, associated with all the evils and
corruptions of those cities, and organize them into a community. Will
the mere removal of them from one place to another make them better?
Certainly not. If they were corrupt before, they will be after their
removal; and if they were unhappy before, they will be after. This
temporary change will not make a difference; for men in possession
of different religious, and political, and moral views, never can
be united in harmony. The difficulties that exist in the world on a
large scale, would exist there in miniature; and though prudence,
forbearance, and policy, in smaller circles, might operate for a time,
the evils would still exist; and though they might smoulder and be pent
up, like a volcano, they would only rage with greater fury when they
did burst out.

I have conversed with some who seem to think that all that is necessary
to promote the happiness of man, is, that he have sufficient to eat and
drink, and that through this means it would be obtained. I grant that
the comforts and happiness of men are in a great measure augmented by
these things; but to place them as the root and foundation, is wrong.
In the present situation of Europe, where so much squalid poverty,
wretchedness, and distress abound, it is not to be wondered at that
such feelings should obtain. But, if we cast our eyes abroad in the
world, we shall find that unhappiness is not always associated with
the poor: it revels in the church and state; among kings, potentates,
princes, and rulers: it follows the haunts of the libertine and
profligate, and gnaws in many instances the conscience of the minister:
it rides with lords and ladies in their carriages and chariots, and
revels in splendid saloons and in banquet halls. Many a pleasant
countenance covers an aching heart, and many a gorgeous costume hides
the deadly worm; jealousy, disappointed ambition, blasted hopes, cold
neglect, and conjugal infidelity, produce many a miserable heart; and
rage, envy, malice, and murder, lurk in many instances under the cover
of pomp, splendor, competency, or magnificence; not to mention the
care, anxiety, and trouble of officers of state in these troublous
times. If the poor knew the situation of many of those in different
circumstances, they would not envy their situations.

Again, if we notice the position of some of the southern and western
States of America. They have abundance to eat and to drink, their lands
bring forth bountifully. But does this make them happy? Verily, no. The
same false state of society exists there; men are awfully under the
influence of their depraved passions; men are frequently put to death
by what is called "Lynch law," without judge or jury. The pistol, the
bowie knife, the rifle, and the dirk, are in frequent requisition, and
misery and unhappiness prevail.

In Mexico, where they possess one of the richest countries in the
world, a salubrious climate, a rich soil, abounding also with the most
valuable mineral resources, yet the people are unhappy. Guerillas
plunder the traveller, their streets are crowded with beggars; its men
are without courage or energy, and the country is left a prey to any
nation, who has covetousness or power to oppress it. The Scriptures
say, that "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that
proceedeth from the mouth of God;" and as they do not exist in this
way, another Scripture tells the story in plain terms, for it says,
"Where there is no vision the people perish." Proverbs xxix. 18.

There is also another political party, who desire, through the
influence of legislation and coercion, to level the world. To say the
least, it is a species of robbery; to some it may appear an honorable
one, but, nevertheless, it is robbery. What right has any private man
to take by force the property of another? The laws of all nations would
punish such a man as a thief. Would thousands of men engaged in the
same business make it more honorable? Certainly not. And if a nation
were to do it, would a nation's act sanctify a wrong deed? No; the
Algerine pirates, or Arabian hordes, were never considered honorable,
on account of their numbers; and a nation, or nations, engaging in
this would only augment the banditti, but could never sanctify the
deed. I shall not, here, enter into the various manners of obtaining
wealth; but would merely state, that any unjust acquisition of it
ought to be punished by law. Wealth is generally the representation of
labour, industry, and talent. If one man is industrious, enterprising,
diligent, careful, and saves property, and his children follow in his
steps, and accumulate wealth; and another man is careless, prodigal,
and lazy, and his children inherit his poverty, I cannot conceive upon
what principles of justice, the children of the idle and profligate
have a right to put their hands into the pockets of those who are
diligent and careful, and rob them of their purse. Let this principle
exist, and all energy and enterprise would be crushed. Men would
be afraid of again accumulating, lest they should again be robbed.
Industry and talent would have no stimulant, and confusion and ruin
would inevitably follow. Again, if you took men's property without
their consent, the natural consequence would be that they would seek to
retake it the first opportunity; and this state of things would only
deluge the world in blood. So that let any of these measures be carried
out, even according to the most sanguine hopes of the parties, they
would not only bring distress upon others, but also upon themselves;
certainly they would not bring about the peace of the world.

One thing more upon this subject, and I have done. In Europe, there
has been of late years a great mania for revolutions--a strong desire
to establish republican governments; but let me remark here, that the
form of government will not materially affect the position of the
people, nor add to the resources of a country. If a country is rich and
prosperous under a monarchy, it will be so under a republic, and _vice
versa_. If poor under one, it will be under another. If nations think
proper to change their form of government, they of course have a right
to do so; but to think that this will ameliorate their condition, and
produce happiness, is altogether a mistake. Happiness and peace are
the gifts of God, and come from Him. Every kind of government has its
good and evil properties. Rome was unhappy under a kingly government,
and also under a republican form. Carthage as a republic was no more
happy than many of its monarchial contemporaries; nor was Corinth,
Holland, or Venice; and republican Genoa has not manifested anything
very much in favor of these principles. France was unhappy under her
emperor, she was unhappy under her kings, and is unhappy as a republic.
America is perhaps some little exception to this; but the difference
lies not so much in her government, as in the extent of her country,
the richness of her soil, and abundance of her resources; for, as I
have already mentioned, "Lynch law" prevails to an alarming extent in
the south and west. In the state of New York, in the east, there are
mobs painted as Indians resisting the officers of the law, and doing it
with impunity; and it is a matter of doubt whether persons having paid
for property, shall own it, or be dispossessed by their tenants, not in
law, for the constitution and laws are good, but in practice defective,
through popular clamor and violence. I refer to the estates of Van
Ranseller and others; and, in the west, to Joseph and Hyrum Smith, who
were murdered in Carthage jail, without any redress, although their
murderers were known to the officers of state; and to the inhabitants
of a city, ten thousand in number, together with twenty thousand
others, principally farmers, labourers, and mechanics, occupying a
country about ten miles wide, and thirty long, most of which was
well cultivated and owned by the occupants,--who were all forced by
continual harassing by lawless mobs, to leave a country in which they
could not be protected, and seek an asylum in a far off desert home,
there being no power in the government to give redress.

It is altogether an infatuation to think that a change in government
will mend the circumstances, or increase the resources, when the whole
world is groaning under corruption. If there are twenty men who have
twenty pounds of bread to divide amongst them, it matters but little
whether it is divided by three, ten, or the whole, it will not increase
the amount. I grant, however, that there are flagrant abuses, of which
we have mentioned some, associated with all kinds of governments,
and many things to be complained of justly; but they arise from the
wickedness of man, and the corrupt and artificial state of society. Do
away with one set of rulers, and you have only the same materials to
make another of; and if ever so honestly disposed, they are surrounded
with such a train of circumstances, over which they have no control,
that they cannot mend them.

There is frequently much excitement on this subject; and many people
ignorant of these things, are led to suppose that their resources will
be increased, and their circumstances bettered; but when they find,
after much contention, struggling, and bloodshed, that it does not rain
bread, cheese, and clothing; that it is only a change of men, papers,
and parchment, chagrin and disappointment naturally follow. There is
much that is good, and much that is bad in all governments; and I am
not seeking here to portray a perfect government, but to show some of
the evils associated with them, and the utter incompetency of all the
plans of men to restore a perfect government; and as all their plans
have failed, so they will fail, for it is the work of God, and not of
man. The moral agency of man without God, has had its full development;
his weakness, wickedness, and corruption, have placed the world where
it is: he can see as in a glass his incompetency, and folly, and
nothing but the power of God can restore it.

It is not to be wondered at, that those various plans should exist, for
the world is in a horrible situation. Jesus prophesied of it, and said,
there should be upon the earth "distress of nations, perplexity, men's
hearts failing them, for fear, and for looking after those things which
are coming upon the earth," Luke xxi. 25, 26. Men see these things,
and their hearts fear; confusion, disorder, misery, blood, and ruin,
seem to stare them in the face; and in the absence of something great,
noble, and magnificent, suited to the exigency of the case, they try
the foregoing remedies, as a sailor, in the absence of a boat, would
cling with tenacity to any floating piece of wreck, to save him from a
watery grave.

Neither can men be blamed for trying to do good; it is certainly a
laudable object; and with all the selfishness, ambition, and pride,
associated with the foregoing, it must be admitted that there is much
uprightness, sincerity, and honest zeal.

There are very many philanthropists who would gladly ameliorate the
condition of men, and of the world, if they knew how. But the means
employed are not commensurate with the end; every grade of society is
vitiated and corrupt. "The whole head is sick, and the whole heart
faint." Our systems, our policy, our legislation, our education, and
philosophy, are all wrong, neither can we be particularly blamed, for
these evils have been the growth of ages. Our fathers have left God,
his guidance, control, and support, and we have been left to ourselves;
and our present position is a manifest proof of our incompetency to
govern; and our past failures make it evident, that any future effort,
with the same means, would be as useless. The world is diseased, and it
requires a world's remedy.



Chapter IV.
------------------

What Is Man? What Is His Destiny and Relationship to God?

Having shewn in the foregoing chapters, that the rule of God is perfect
where he governs alone, that the rule of man is imperfect, and has
introduced confusion and misery, and that the plans of men are not
competent to restore the world to happiness, and the fulfilment of the
object for which it was created; it now devolves upon us to investigate
the way that this thing can, and will be accomplished; for there is
a time spoken of in the Scriptures, when there will be a reign of
righteousness.

First, then, we will enquire who and what is man? and what is his
destiny, and what his relationship to God? For before we can define
government correctly, it will be necessary to find out the nature of
the being that has to be governed.

What, then, is man? Is he a being temporal and earthly alone, and
when he dies, does he sink into forgetfulness? Is he annihilated? or
has he a spirit as well as a body? If the first be the case, he alone
has a right to regulate his own affairs, to frame his own government,
and to pursue that course which to him seems good; if not, the case
is different. I do not here wish to enter into a philosophical
disquisition on the subject, but, as I am writing at present to
believers in the Bible, I shall confine myself more to that. I will
state, that man is an eternal being, composed of body and spirit: his
spirit existed before he came here; his body exists with the spirit
in time, and after death the spirit exists without the body. In the
resurrection, both body and spirit will finally be reunited; and it
requires both body and spirit to make a perfect man, whether in time,
or eternity.

I know there are those who suppose that the spirit of man comes into
existence with his body, and that intelligence and spirit are organized
with the body; but we read, that when God made man, he made him of the
dust of the earth; he made him in his own likeness. Man was then a
lifeless body; He afterwards "breathed into him the breath of life, and
man became a living soul."

Before that spirit was given, he was dead, lifeless; and when that
spirit is taken away, he is again lifeless; and let not any one say
that the body is perfect without the spirit; for the moment the spirit
leaves the body, no matter how perfect its organization may be, the man
is inanimate, and destitute of intelligence and feeling: "it is the
spirit that gives life." Hence we find that when Jarius's daughter was
dead, his servant came and told him, saying, "Thy daughter is dead,
trouble not the master;" but when she was restored, it is said "her
spirit _came again_, and she arose straightway." Luke viii. 55. When
her spirit was absent, the body was dead; when it returned, the body
lived. "Moses spake unto the Lord, and said, let the Lord, the God of
_the spirits of all flesh_, set a man over the congregation." Num.
xxvii. 16. Again, the Lord in speaking to Jeremiah, said, "Before I
formed thee in the belly, I knew thee," i. 5. I would ask, What part
of Jeremiah did he know? It could not be his body, for it was not
in existence; but he knew his spirit, for "he was the father of his
spirit." The Lord speaks to Job and says, "Where wast thou when I laid
the foundations of the earth? declare if thou hast understanding, who
hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched
the line upon it. Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened?
or who laid the corner stone thereof? when the morning stars sung
together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" xxxviii. 4, 6.
Again, John says, "They that dwell on the earth, shall wonder, whose
names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the
world." Rev. xvii. 8.

This spirit proceeds forth from God, and is eternal; hence Solomon
says, in speaking of death, "Then shall the dust return to the earth as
it was, and the spirit unto God who gave it." Eccles. xii. 7. That the
spirit is eternal, is very evident, from the Scriptures; Jesus prayed
to his father, and said, "O Father, glorify thou me, with thine own
self, with the glory which I had with thee _before the world was_."
John xvii. 5. Here Jesus speaks of an existence before he came here,
of a glory he had with his Father before the world was. Christ, then,
existed before he came here and took a body. Again Jesus says, "I have
manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world:
thine they were, and thou gavest them me." John xvii. 6.

Let us see what the Apostle Paul says on the subject: "Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings, in heavenly places, in Christ; according as he
hath chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world." Ephes. i,
3, 4. Christ, then, existed with his Father before the world was, and
the Saints existed in, or with him. What part? their bodies? no, their
spirits. Again, man exists after he leaves here. It is unnecessary to
say anything about the life of the spirit, after the death of the body,
or of the resurrection, as the subjects are so generally known and
believed. Paul says, "If in this life only, we have hope in Christ, we
are of all men most miserable. But 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. ... The trumpet
shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall
be changed; for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this
mortal must put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the
saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." 1 Cor. xv.
19-21, 52-54.

If man, then, is an eternal being, came from God, exists here for a
short time, and will return, it is necessary that he know something
about God, and his government. For he has to do with him not only in
time, but in eternity, and whatever man may be disposed to do, or
however he may vaunt himself of his own abilities, there are some
things he has no control over. He came into the world without his
agency, he will have to leave it, whether he desires it or not; and
he will also have to appear in another world. He is destined, if he
improves his opportunities, to higher and greater blessings and glory
than are associated with this earth in its present state: and hence
the necessity of the guidance of a superior power, and intelligence,
that he may not act the part of a fool here, and jeopardize his
eternal interests; but that his intelligence may be commensurate
with his position; that his actions here may have a bearing upon his
future destiny; that he may not sink into the slough of iniquity and
degradation, and contaminate himself with corruption; that he may
stand pure, virtuous, intelligent, and honourable, as a son of God,
and seek for, and be guided and governed by his Father's counsels.
Having said so much on this subject, we will continue our investigation
still further, and enquire next, What is our relationship to God? In
answering this, I would briefly remark, that the position that we stand
in to him, is that of a son. Adam is the father of our bodies, and God
is the father of our spirits. I know that some are in the habit of
looking upon God, as a monster only to be dreaded, known only in the
earthquake, the tempest, the thunder, and the storm, and that there
is something gloomy and dismal attached to his service. If there is,
it is the appendage of man, and not of God. Is there anything gloomy
in the works that God has made? Turn where we will, we see harmony,
loveliness, cheerfulness, and beauty.

The blessings of providence were made for man, and his enjoyment;
he is placed as head of creation. For him the earth teems with the
richest profusion; the golden grain, the luscious fruit, the choicest
vines; for him, the herbs, and flowers, bedeck the earth, shed their
odoriferous perfumes, and display their gorgeous beauty; for him, the
proud horse yields his back, the cow gives her milk, and the bee its
honey; for him, the sheep yields its fleece, the cotton-tree its down,
and the worm its silk. For him, the shrub and vine bloom and blossom,
and nature clothes herself in her richest attire; the rippling stream,
the pure fountain, the crystal river flow for him, all nature spreads
her richest charms, and invites him to partake of her joyousness,
beauty, and innocence, and to worship her God.

Talk about melancholy, in the fear of God, and in his service! It
is the corruption of the world, that has made men unhappy; and the
corruption of religion that has made it gloomy: these are the miseries
entailed by men, not the blessings of God. Talk about gloom! is there
gloom in the warbling of the birds, in the prancing of the horse, in
the playfulness of the lamb, or kid; in the beauty of flowers, in any
of Nature's gifts, or rich attire, or in God, that made them, or in his
service?

There are others, again, who would place the Lord at an immense
distance, and render our approach to him almost impossible; but this
is a superstitious idea, for our Father listens to the cries of his
children, numbers the hairs of their heads; and the Scriptures say,
"a sparrow cannot fall to the ground, without his notice." He speaks
to his elect, and says, "He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of
his eye." Zech. ii. 8. He is our Father; and hence the Scriptures tell
us to pray, "Our Father, who art in heaven." Paul says, "We have had
fathers of our flesh, which corrected us, and we gave them reverence;
shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits,
and live?" Heb. xii. 9. We have, then, both a temporal and a spiritual
Father; and hence his solicitude for our welfare, and his desire for
our happiness. Says Jesus, "If a son ask bread, will he for bread give
him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent. If ye,
then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how
much more shall your Father which is in heaven, give good things to
them that ask him."

What a delightful reflection for his servants, to draw nigh to their
Father, as to an endearing parent, and ask for blessings, as a son
would ask for bread, and be confident of receiving. Hence the faithful
in the Apostles' days received a spirit, whereby they could say, "Abba,
Father," or Father, Father. What an endearing relationship! and if the
world could comprehend, how gladly would they throw themselves upon
his guardianship, seek his wisdom and government, and claim a father's
benediction; but Satan has blinded the eyes of the world, and they know
not the things which make for their peace.



Chapter V.
------------------

The Object of Man's Existence on the Earth; and His Relationship
Thereto.

We next enquire, What is the object and design of man's existence
on the earth; and what is his relationship thereto? for all this
magnificent world, with its creation, life, beauty, symmetry, order,
and grandeur, could not be without design; and as God existed before
man, there must have been some object in man's creation, and in his
appearance on the earth. As I have before stated, man existed before
he came here, in a spiritual substance, but had not a body; when I
speak of a body, I mean an earthly one, for I consider the spirit is
substance, but more elastic, subtle, and refined than the fleshy body;
that in the union of the spirit and flesh, there is more perfection
than in the spirit alone. The body is not perfect without the spirit,
nor the spirit without the body; it takes the two to make a perfect
man, for the spirit requires a tabernacle, to give it power to develop
itself and to exalt it in the scale of intelligence, both in time
and eternity. One of the greatest curses inflicted on Satan and his
followers, when they were cast out of heaven, was, that they should
have no body. Hence, when he appeared before the Lord, and was asked
from whence he came, he answered, "From going to and fro in the
earth, and from walking up and down in it." Job i. 7, and ii. 2. For
this reason he is denominated "The Prince of the power of the air,
the Spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." Ephes.
ii. 2. Hence he exerts an invisible agency over the spirits of men,
darkens their minds, and uses his infernal power to confound, corrupt,
destroy and envelope the world in confusion, misery, and distress;
and, although deprived personally of operating with a body, he uses
his influence over the spirits of those who have bodies, to resist
goodness, virtue, purity, intelligence, and the fear of God; and
consequently, the happiness of man; and poor erring humanity is made
the dupe of his wiles. The Apostle says, "The God of this world hath
blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the
glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God, should shine unto
them." 2 Cor. iv. 4. But not content with the ravages he has made, the
spoliation, misery, and distress, not having a tabernacle of his own,
he has frequently sought to occupy that of man, in order that he might
yet possess greater power, and more fully accomplish the devastation.
We read, that in our Saviour's days, there were persons possessed
with devils, who were tormented by them; and Jesus and his disciples
cast them out. Mary Magdalene was dispossessed of seven. A legion had
entered one man, and when commanded to leave, rather than have no
bodies, they desired permission to enter those of swine, which they
did, and the swine were destroyed. Man's body to him, then, is of great
importance, and if he only knew and appreciated his privileges, he
might live above the temptation of Satan, the influence of corruption,
subdue his lusts, overcome the world, and triumph, and enjoy the
blessings of God, in time and in eternity.

The object of man's taking a body is, that through the redemption of
Jesus Christ, both soul and body may be exalted in the eternal world,
when the earth shall be celestial, and to obtain a higher exaltation
than he would be capable of doing without a body. For when man was
first made, he was made "a little lower than the angels," Heb. ii.
7; but through the atonement and resurrection of Jesus Christ, he
is placed in a position to obtain an exaltation higher than that of
angels. Says the Apostle, "Know ye not that we shall judge angels?" 1
Cor. vi. 3. "Jesus descended below all things, that he might be raised
above all things." He took upon him a body, that he might die as a man,
and "that through death, he might destroy him that had the power of
death, that is, the Devil." Heb. ii. 14. Having conquered Death, then,
in his own dominions, burst the barriers of the tomb, and ascended with
his body triumphant to the right hand of God, he has accomplished a
purpose which God had decreed from before the foundation of the world,
"and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers." Hence man, through
obedience to the Gospel, is placed in a position to be an adopted son
of God, and have a legitimate right to his Father's blessings, and to
possess the gift of the Holy Ghost. And the Apostle says, that "If
the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead, dwell in you,
he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal
bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." Rom. viii. 11. Thus, as
Jesus vanquished death, so may we; as he overcame, so may we; and, if
faithful, sit with him upon his throne, as he has overcome, and sat
down upon his Father's throne. Rev. iii. 21. Thus, man will not only
be raised from degradation, but will also be exalted to a seat among
the intelligences which surround the throne of God. This is one great
object of our coming here and taking bodies.

Another object that we came here for, and took bodies, was to propagate
our species. For if it is for our benefit to come here, it is also for
the benefit of others. Hence the first commandment given to man was,
"Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it."
Gen. i. 28. And as man is an eternal being, and all his actions have a
relevancy to eternity, it is necessary that he understand his position
well, and thus fulfil the measure of his creation. For as he, and his
offspring are destined to live eternally, he is not only responsible
for his own acts, but in a great measure for those of his children, in
framing their minds, regulating their morals, setting them a correct
example, and teaching them correct principles; but more especially
in preserving the _purity_ of his own body. And why? Because, if he
abuses his body, and corrupts himself, he not only injures himself, but
his partner and associates, and entails misery incalculable upon his
posterity, who are doomed to inherit the father's misery; and this is
not only associated with time, but with eternity. Hence the Lord has
given laws regulating marriage and chastity of the strictest kind, and
entailed the severest punishment upon those, who, in different ages
have abused this sacred ordinance. For example, the curse of Sodom and
Gomorrah: and the terrible judgements pronounced against those who
should corrupt and defile their bodies, let any one read Deut. xxii.
13-30. And Paul says, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and
that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple
of God, him shall God destroy." 1 Cor. iii. 16, 17. Whoremongers and
adulterers shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 1 Cor. vi. 9,
10; and Heb. xiii. 4. And why? Because man being made a free agent over
his own body, that he might exalt himself and posterity, both in time
and in eternity, if he abuses that power, he not only affects himself,
but unborn bodies and spirits, corrupting the world, and opening the
flood gates of vice, immorality, and estrangement from God. Hence the
children of Israel were told not to marry with the surrounding nations,
lest their seed should be corrupted, and the people turned to idolatry,
which would lead to the forgetfulness of God, to an ignorance of his
purposes and designs, and cause them to lose sight of the object of
their creation, and corrupt themselves; and to the introduction of
every other evil, as a natural consequence. But where the order of God
is carried out, it places things in a lovely position.

What is more amiable and pleasant than those pure, innocent, endearing
affections which God has placed in the hearts of the man and woman, who
are united together in lawful matrimony? With a love and confidence
pure as the love of God, because it springs from him, and is his gift;
with bodies chaste, and virtuous; and an offspring, lovely, healthy,
innocent, and uncontaminated; confiding in each other, they live
together in the fear of God, enjoying nature's gifts uncorrupted and
undefiled as the driven snow, or the crystal stream. But how would this
enjoyment be enhanced, if they understood their destiny; could unravel
the designs of God, and contemplate an eternal union, in another state
of existence; a connexion with their offspring, commenced here to
endure for ever, and all their ties, relationships, and affections
strengthened! A mother feels great delight in beholding her child,
and gazing on its lovely infant form. How would her bosom swell with
ecstacy at the contemplation of that child being with her for ever!
And if we only understood our position, this was the object for which
we came into the world. And the object of the kingdom of God is, to
re-establish all those holy principles.

Chastity and purity are things of the greatest importance to the
world. Hence the Prophet says, "Because the Lord hath been witness
between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt
treacherously; yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.
And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the Spirit. And
wherefore one? that he might _seek a godly seed_. Therefore take heed
to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his
youth." Mal. ii. 14, 15. Here, then, the object of purity is pointed
out clearly; and what is it? that God might preserve a godly seed. St.
Paul says, "What? know ye not that he who is joined to an harlot is
one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.... Flee fornication.
Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth
fornication, sinneth against his own body. What? know ye not that your
body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have
of God, and ye are not your own." 1 Cor. vi. 16-20. And in the next
chapter he speaks of the same things which Malachi does concerning a
pure seed. "For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife,
and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband, else were your
children unclean; _but now are they holy_."

The legislators of all civilized nations have seen the necessity of
sustaining these things, and consequently have passed, generally,
very rigid laws for the protection of female virtue, and the support
of the marriage contract. Hence Acts have been passed and enforced,
disinheriting those who were not born in wedlock. This, in some
instances, has produced a salutary effect. Ministers of the various
churches have also used their influence, in a great measure, in support
of virtuous principles. These have had their effect in assisting to
stem the torrent of iniquity. But as the nations themselves have
forsaken God, how can they expect to stop this crying evil; for the
very legislators who pass these laws are in many instances guilty
themselves; and when kings, princes, and rulers, corrupt themselves,
how can they expect the people to be pure? for no matter how rigid
law may be, corrupt persons will always find means to evade it. And,
indeed, so far have these abominations gone, that it seems to be an
admitted fact, that these things cannot be controlled; and, although
there are laws relative to matrimonial alliances, yet there are some
nations, called Christian, who actually give licence for prostitution,
and all the degradation and misery associated with it. Nor are these
things connected with the lower ranks of life only; wantonness and
voluptuousness go hand in hand, and revel unchecked in courts, among
the nobles and kings of the earth. The statesman, the politician,
and the merchant, the mechanic and the labourer, have all corrupted
themselves. The world is full of adultery, intrigues, fornication,
and abominations. Let any one go to the masked balls in the principal
theatres in Paris, and he will see thousands of people of both sexes,
impudently, shamelessly, and unblushingly, manifesting their lewd
dispositions. Indeed, debauch and wantonness bear full sway, not
to speak of the dens of abomination that exist elsewhere. London
abounds with unfortunate beings, led on by example, seduction, and
misery, to their fallen, degraded condition. The same thing exists
throughout England, France, the United States, and all nations. Hence
millions of youth corrupt themselves, engender the most loathsome
diseases, and curse their posterity with their sin, who, in their
turn, rise up and tread in the corrupt steps of their fathers. Not
to say anything of the thousands of lovely beings whom God designed
for companions of man in time and in eternity, and for raising up
a pure offspring, who are corrupted, degraded, polluted, fallen,
poor, miserable wretches; outcasts of society, insulted, oppressed,
despised, and abused; dragging out a miserable existence; led on from
one degree of degradation to another, till death, as a friend, closes
their wretched career, and yet without hope. Thus, man that was made
pure, in the image of his Maker, that could stand proudly erect as the
representative of God, pure, and uncontaminated, is debased, fallen,
corrupt, diseased, and sunk below the brute creation; a creature of
lust and passion, and a slave to his unbridled appetites. I write
plainly on this subject; and I do it because it is a curse to the
world, and God will have a reckoning with the nations for these
things. In vain, then, men legislate on these matters: the nations
have corrupted themselves, and these things are beyond their control.
Men must be governed by higher, and purer motives than merely human
enactments. If the world understood its true position, and the eternal
consequences to them and their seed, they would feel different. They
would feel that they were eternal beings; that they were responsible
to God, both for their bodies and spirits. Nothing but a knowledge of
man's fall and true position, and the development of the kingdom of
God, can restore him to his proper state, restore the order and economy
of God, and place man again in his natural position on the earth.

Having spoken of man as an eternal being, we will now examine what
relation he has to this earth; for it is the government of God that we
wish to keep our minds upon. This earth is man's eternal inheritance,
where he will exist after the resurrection, for it is destined to be
purified and become celestial. I know that this position is considered
strange by many, because it is generally supposed that we are going to
heaven; that heaven is the final destination of the righteous; and that
when we leave this world, we never return. Hence Wesley says--

    "Beyond the bounds of time and space,
    Look forward to that heavenly place,
    The Saints' secure abode;"

and this is an opinion generally believed by the Christian world.

We shall therefore commence by enquiring, Where is heaven? Can any one
point out its location? I would remark, that it is a word of almost
unlimited signification; nevertheless we will investigate the matter
a little. We read, that in the beginning "God created the heavens and
the earth;" and furthermore, that he called the "firmament heaven."
From the above we learn, that the heavens were created by the Lord,
and that the heavens were created at, or about the same time as the
earth, and that the firmament is called heaven. We are further told
concerning the firmament, that "God separated the waters that were
below the firmament, from those that were above the firmament." Hence,
when God destroyed the world with a flood, "He opened the windows of
heaven;" when the rain ceased, he "shut the windows of heaven." Now,
a word on this firmament; Where is it? "And God said, Let the waters
bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl
that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven." We find
out, then, from the foregoing, that the firmament is called heaven,
viz., the heaven associated with this earth; and that the firmament is
the place where the birds fly, and the rain falls from heaven; and the
scriptures say, that Jesus will come in the clouds of heaven. Matt.
xxiv. 30. Mark xiii. 26. But there are other heavens: for God created
this heaven, and this earth; and his throne existed before this world
rolled into existence, or the morning stars sang together for joy; for
"Heaven is God's throne, and the earth is his footstool." Solomon says,
"The heaven of heavens cannot contain thee." This heaven is veiled from
mortal vision; spirits abound, but we cannot see them; and angels hover
there, but to us are invisible, and can only be known or seen by the
revelation of God. Hence Paul says, he "was caught up into the _third_
heaven." Stephen "saw the heavens opened, and Jesus sitting on the
right hand of God." Where this revelation exists, there exists without
the removal of the body a perfect knowledge of things as they are known
to God, so far as they are revealed. Thus, when John was on the Isle
of Patmos, he says, "I was in the spirit on the Lord's day, and heard
behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, Saying, I am Alpha and Omega,
the first and the last, and What thou seest write in a book." Rev.
i. 10, 11. Then commenced the revelation. It was the same also with
Stephen. From this we gather, that there is a veil that obscures the
heavens from our sight; but when that veil is removed, and our vision
is enlightened by the spirit of God, then we can gaze upon the glories
of the eternal world, and heaven is opened for our view.

When persons are taken from the earth, and hid from our view, it is
said they are gone to heaven. Hence it is said, that Elijah went by a
whirlwind into heaven, 2 Kings ii. 11. And it is also said of Jesus
that "while he blessed them he was parted from them, and carried up
into heaven." Luke xxiv. 51. But it is the destination of the Saints
that we have to do with; and on this I would remark, that there are
many glories, and man will be judged according to his deeds. "There is
one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory
of the stars; for as one star differeth from another star in glory, so
also is the resurrection." 2 Cor. xv. 41, 42.

It would not comport with my object at the present time to enter into
the whole of the details of this subject. I would briefly remark,
however, inasmuch as I am now talking of man's body, that there is a
place called "Paradise," to which the spirits of the dead go, awaiting
the resurrection, and their reunion with the body. This was an old
doctrine of the Jews. Paul, too, "was caught up into paradise and heard
unspeakable words." 2 Cor. xii. 4. John says, "to him that overcometh
will I grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the
paradise of God." Rev. ii. 7. This Paradise, however, is not the place
for resurrected bodies, but for departed spirits: for Jesus said to the
thief on the cross, "To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." Luke
xxiii. 43. Two days after this, and after the resurrection of his body,
Mary was looking for the Lord, and he appeared to her: he said to her
"Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my
brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father;
and to my God, and your God." John xx. 17. We learn here, then, that
Jesus went to Paradise, with the thief on the cross, in spirit; but
that he had not been with his body to his Father.

We will now speak of heaven, as a place of reward for the righteous.
Daniel, in speaking of the resurrection, says, "Many of them that sleep
in the dust of the earth shall awake; some to everlasting life, and
some to shame and everlasting contempt." Dan. xii. 2. Jesus says, those
who have forsaken all and followed him, "shall inherit everlasting
life" Matt. xix. 29.

There is also a Book of Life spoken of. Paul speaks of some whose
names were written therein. Phil. iv. 3. John also refers to the same
things: he says "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."
Rev. iii. 5. Again, John, in speaking of the New Jerusalem, says, There
shall not enter into it anything that worketh abomination, or maketh a
lie; but they which are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Rev. xxi.
27. From this it would appear, that those who obey all the commandments
of God, and have their names written in the Lamb's Book of Life, shall
finally enter into the New Jerusalem. Jesus again says, "To him that
overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also
overcame, and am sat down with my Father in his throne." Rev. iii. 21.
This, then, is the heaven, as far as I can conceive, that people expect
to go to.

We will now try to find out its location. Above we have noticed that
the saints are to have everlasting life, that they are to be with
Jesus, and also in the New Jerusalem. We have now to enquire, Where
Jesus's kingdom will be, and Where will be the place of the New
Jerusalem. Daniel says, "I saw in the night visions, and behold 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 people, nations,
and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting
dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall
not be destroyed." Dan. vii. 13, 14. Here, then, we find Jesus coming
to establish a kingdom. Where is that kingdom? The Scriptures say, that
all nations, languages, and tongues shall serve and obey him. Where
do those nations, languages, and tongues exist? The answer is, on the
earth. We will next enquire, Where the saints will be. Daniel says,
in the 27th verse, "And the kingdom, and dominion, and the greatness
of the kingdom under the _whole heaven_ shall be given to the people
of the saints of the Most High." Here, then, we find Jesus reigning
under the whole heaven with his saints, and all nations, dominions, and
powers, serving him. I noticed above, that those who overcame would be
with Jesus, and with him have everlasting life. Zechariah speaks of a
time when there will be a great assemblage of people against Jerusalem;
after God's ancient people, the Jews, shall have been gathered there,
and the Lord himself shall come forth to their defence. He says, "Then
shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he
fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon
the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east; and the
Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof, toward the east and
toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of
the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the
south. And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley
of the mountains shall reach unto Azal; yea, ye shall flee, like as ye
fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah:
and the Lord my God shall come and all the saints with thee. And the
Lord shall be king _over all the earth_: in that day there shall be one
Lord, and his name one." xiv. 3, 4, 5, 9. Here we find that Jesus is to
come, and _all his saints_ are to come with him. And that the Lord is
to be King over _all the earth_. The question again arises, Where will
Jesus reign with his saints? the answer is, _upon the earth_. Again,
we will refer to the revelations of John. He says, "I saw the souls of
them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word of
God .... and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years," Rev.
xx. 4. And if we wish to know Where they will reign, we will again let
John speak: "For thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy
blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. And
hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign _on
the earth_." Rev. v. 9, 10. It is not necessary to quote more on this
subject; it is so plain that he that runs may read. I know that there
are those who will tell us that this is not the final destination of
the saints. I would here remark, that a great many events will take
place in regard to the renovation of the earth, which it would be
foreign to my subject at the present time to detail. I would state,
however, that when the earth shall have become pure, if people suppose
that they will then inhabit a heaven, not on the earth, they are
mistaken; for if we have the good fortune to have our names written in
the Lamb's Book of Life, and to enter into the New Jerusalem, we shall
in that very New Jerusalem have to descend to the earth. Methinks I
hear persons saying, What! shall we not, then, stay in heaven? Yes--in
heaven; but that heaven will be on the earth; for John says, "And I saw
a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth
were past away (purified by fire and become celestial), and there was
no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down
from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold the tabernacle
of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his
people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more
death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more
pain; for the former things are passed away." Rev. xxi. 1-4. Here,
then, we find man's final dwelling place is the earth; and for this
purpose it was first created, and it never will fulfil the measure of
its creation until this shall take place. Nor will man ever attain to
the end for which he was created, till his spirit and his body are
purified, and he takes his proper position on the earth.

The prophets of God, in every age, have looked forward to this time;
and while many considered them to be fools, they were laying for
themselves an eternal foundation: they looked with scorn upon the gaudy
baubles that fascinated foolish and corrupt man: they could not yield
to his chicanery and deception; but with the fear of God before their
eyes, and a knowledge of the future, they stood proudly erect, in a
consciousness of their innocence and integrity; despised alike the
praise and powers of men, endured afflictions, privations, and death;
wandered in sheep skins and goat skins, destitute, tormented, and
afflicted, for "they looked for a city which hath foundations, whose
builder and maker is God." Heb. xi. 10. Hence Job says, "I know that
my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day _upon
the earth_; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in
my flesh shall I see God." xix, 25, 26. Man naturally clings to this
earth; there seems to be something inherent in his nature that draws
and binds his affections to the earth; hence he strives all that lays
in his power to possess as much land as he can reasonably obtain; and
not always honestly, but wars have been waged for the acquisition of
territory, and the possessions of the earth. But what avails it all
without God! So far from benefiting man, it is an injury, if obtained
by fraud; for he has got to pass that test which none can avoid. And
if circumstances here give him the power over his brother, when he
leaves this world and appears before God, he goes to be judged for that
very act of oppression; and the thing that he so anxiously desired to
obtain in this world is his curse in the next. An honourable desire for
property is not wrong; but no man can have a lasting claim unless it is
given him of God. Lands, properties, possessions, and the blessings of
this life, are of use only as they are sanctified, and have a bearing
on the world to come. There have been hereditary laws established in
England, and I believe in other countries, securing landed possessions
to the eldest son, or heir. This has originated from the above feeling;
and partly from the customs of the ancient Israelites, as recorded in
the Scriptures; and families through this means seek to perpetuate
their names. They may do this for a season; but if man rightly
understood his true position, he would have a brighter object in view.
The Scriptures tell us, "that every good and perfect gift comes from
God;" that a man can receive nothing but what is given him from above.
Men have conquered, and taken, bought and sold, the earth without God.
But their possessions will perish with them; they may perpetuate them
by law for a season to their descendants, but the Saints of God will
finally inherit the earth for ever, in time, and in eternity. Abraham
held his possessions on a very different footing from the above. The
Lord appeared unto him, and made a covenant with him, and said, "And
I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein
thou art a stranger. All the land of Canaan for an _everlasting
possession_." Gen. xvii. 8. This covenant was an eternal one; yet
Abraham did not possess the land, for Stephen says, "he gave him none
inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on." Acts vii.
5. And Paul says, "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into
a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and
he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the
land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with
Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he looked
for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."
Heb. xi. 8-10. Here, then, we find land given to Abraham by promise,
a land that he did not possess; but he will do so, "for he looked for
a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." He
looked forward to the redemption of his seed, the establishment of the
kingdom of God, and the inheritance of those blessings eternally. If
any one doubts this, let them read the xxxi. chapter of Jeremiah, and
the xxxvi. to xxxix. chapters of Ezekiel; wherein it is stated that
Israel is to be gathered to their own land, that it is to become as
the Garden of Eden, and to be no more desolate. Ezekiel speaks of the
resurrection of the dead, and the coming together of the bones, flesh,
sinews, and skin, of a living army; of the uniting of the nations of
Judah, and Israel, in one; and in consequence of the great development
of the powers of God, the heathen would be filled with astonishment;
and finally, that God's tabernacle should be planted in their midst
for evermore. Then let them read from the xlvii. to the last chapter
of Ezekiel; and they will find an account, not only of the restoration
of the Jews, and ten tribes, but that the land is actually divided
to them by inheritance, in their different tribes, according to the
promise made thousands of years before to Abraham. In the 13th and 14th
verses of the xlvii. chapter, he refers to this, and says, "Thus saith
the Lord God, This shall be the border whereby ye shall inherit the
land according to the twelve tribes of Israel: Joseph shall have two
portions. And ye shall inherit it, one as well as another; concerning
the which _I lifted up mine hand to give it unto your fathers_; and
this land shall fall unto you for an inheritance." Thus we find that
the promise unto Abraham concerning territory will be literally
fulfilled. Again, I would refer my readers to the fourteenth chapter
of Zechariah. I would then turn their attention to the sealing of the
twelve tribes mentioned in the seventh chapter of Revelations, where
there are twelve thousand out of every tribe sealed; and then ask,
Where are these to reign? The answer is, _on the earth_; together with
those who have "washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of
the Lamb, out of every nation, and kindred, and people, and tongue."
Jesus says, "Abraham saw my day and was glad." What! was he glad to
see his people scattered, dispersed, and peeled; Jerusalem trodden
under foot, the Jewish nation, temple, and polity destroyed, and his
seed cursed upon the face of the earth; or was it the second coming
of Jesus, when they would be restored, Satan bound, the promises made
to him, and to his seed fulfilled, and misery and sorrow done away;
for according to the testimony of Paul, "all Israel shall be saved."
Abraham's views concerning land and possessions were not the same as
those entertained by men in our day; they were not only temporal, but
eternal; and if the world was under the guidance of the same God as
Abraham, they would be governed by the same principle; and anything
short of this is transient, temporary, short lived, and does not
accomplish the purpose of man's creation.

I cannot conclude this subject better than by giving a quotation from
P. P. Pratt's "Voice of Warning." "By this time we begin to understand
the words of the Saviour, 'Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit
the earth.' And also the song which John heard in heaven, which ended
thus: 'We shall reign on the Earth.' Reader, do not be startled:
suppose you were to be caught up into heaven, there to stand with the
redeemed of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, and join them
in singing, and to your astonishment, all heaven is filled with joy,
while they tune the immortal lyre, in joyful anticipation of one day
reigning on the earth; a planet now under the dominion of Satan, the
abode of wretchedness and misery, from which your glad spirit had taken
its flight, and as you supposed, an everlasting farewell. You might
perhaps be startled for a moment, and enquire within yourself, Why
have I never heard this theme sung among the churches on earth? Well,
my friend, the answer would be, because you lived in a day when people
did not understand the Scriptures. Abraham would tell you--you should
have read the promise of God to him, Gen. xvii. 8, where God not only
promised the land of Canaan to his seed for an everlasting possession,
but also to him. Then you should have read the testimony of Stephen,
Acts vii. 5, by which you would have ascertained that Abraham never had
inherited the things promised, but was still expecting to rise from
the dead, and be brought into the land of Canaan to inherit them. Yes,
says Ezekiel, if you had read the xxxvii. chapter of my Prophecies,
you would have found a positive promise that God would open the graves
of the whole house of Israel, who were dead, and gather up their dry
bones, and put them together, each to its own proper place, and even
clothe them again with flesh, sinews, and skin, and put his spirit in
them, and they should live; and then, instead of being caught up to
heaven, they should be brought into the land of Canaan, which the Lord
gave them, and they should inherit it. But, still astonished, you might
turn to Job; and he, surprised to find one unacquainted with so plain
a subject, would exclaim, did you never read my xix. chapter, from the
23rd to the 27th verses, where I declare, I wish my words were printed
in a book, saying, that my Redeemer would stand on the earth in the
latter day, and that I should see him in the flesh, for myself, and not
another; though worms should destroy this body! Even David, the sweet
singer of Israel, would call to your mind his xxxvii. Psalm, where he
repeatedly declares that the meek shall inherit the earth for ever,
after the wicked are cut off from the face thereof. And last of all, to
set the matter for ever at rest, the voice of the Saviour would mildly
fall upon your ear in his Sermon on the Mount, declaring emphatically,
'Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.' To these
things you would answer, I have read these passages, to be sure; but
was always taught to believe that they did not mean so, therefore I
never understood them until now. Let me go and tell the people what
wonders have opened to my view, since my arrival in heaven, merely
from having heard one short song. It is true, I have heard much of the
glories of heaven described, while on earth, but never once thought of
their rejoicing in anticipation of returning to the earth. Says the
Saviour, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; if they will not believe
them, neither would they believe, although one should rise from the
dead.'"[A]

[Footnote A: Pp. 48-50. Seventh Edition; Liverpool: F. D. Richards.
This is an excellent work, and well worthy of any one's perusal.--J. T.]



Chapter VI.
------------------

Man's Accountability to God.

This is a subject which it may be necessary for us to inquire into, in
order that we may find out how far man is responsible. For if man be
not a moral agent, he cannot be responsible for the present position of
the world; and it would be unjust in God to punish him for acts that
were not his, and for circumstances over which he had no control.

By a careful examination of the Scriptures, we shall find that man has
had certain powers vested in his hands, which he holds subject to the
control and guidance of the Lord; and that if he has acted without
the counsel, guidance, or instruction of God, he has gone beyond the
limits assigned him by the Lord, and is as much culpable as a minister
plenipotentiary of any nation would be who should exceed the limits of
his instructions; or a man holding a farm, or vineyard, by a certain
lease, if he should disregard the conditions of that lease, and destroy
the farm, or vineyard; for the earth is the Lord's, and man was put
on it by the Lord. It is not man's possession, only as he holds it
from God. Man's body was given him by God, and also his spirit, for
the purpose heretofore mentioned. God had his object in view in the
creation of the world and of man (which it is not necessary here to
investigate); and if man is placed as an agent to act for the Lord, and
also for himself, and then should neglect the Lord, he would certainly
be held responsible to his Creator. That God had an object in view in
regard to the creation of the world, is evident. Or, why was there a
consultation in heaven about it? Why the beautiful regulation of sun,
moon, and stars? Why the provision made for the redemption of man
before he came here? For Christ was "the Lamb slain from before the
foundation of the world." Why the arrangement of the resurrection?
the New Jerusalem, and the reign of Jesus on the earth? Will any one
say that all these things were done, and all nature organized in its
present beauty, and order, without a design? It would be preposterous.
If God has a design in those things, and man by his wilfulness,
wickedness, corruption, and rebellion, should thwart the design of God,
and yield himself to another influence, even that of Satan, will he not
be held responsible? And whether God has a particular design or not,
does not affect the question particularly; for the earth is the Lord's,
and man also, and God has a perfect right to dictate what laws he
pleases. That the Lord looks upon the world in this manner is evident
from the words of our Saviour. "There was a certain householder which
planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a wine-press
in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into
a far country. And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his
servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it.
And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another,
and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first;
and they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto them his
son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw
the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us
kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and
cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. When the Lord, therefore,
of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? They say
unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out
his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits
in their seasons. Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the
Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become
the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous
in our eyes? Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be
taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits
thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken; but
on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder." Matt. xxi.
33-44. Here, then, the thing is clearly developd: man's agency; the
abuse of that agency; the punishment inflicted for that abuse, together
with the awful consequences of resistance to the proper authority. "On
whomsoever it shall fall, it shall grind him to powder." God never
gave man unlimited control of the affairs of this world; but always
speaks of man as being under his guidance, inhabiting his territory,
and responsible to him for his acts. The world is His vineyard, and
man is the agent. Hence, when God made man, "God blessed him, and God
said unto him, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and
subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the
fowl of the air, and every living thing that moveth upon the earth."
This, then, was man's dominion, _given him by the Lord_. And the word
continues: "_And God gave them_ every herb bearing seed, and every tree
in which is the fruit of a tree." These things were given by God; but
to show his power, and his right to be obeyed, and in order to test
man, he forbid his eating of a certain tree; and when he did eat of it,
and thus broke the commandment of God, he thrust him out of the garden,
and decreed that he "should eat his bread by the sweat of his brow."

Again, God demanded worship and sacrifices, and when Cain and Abel
offered them, he received one and rejected the other; and further, when
Cain was wroth on account of his sacrifice not being accepted, the Lord
said to him, "Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not
well, sin lieth at the door." Gen. iv. 5-7. After the destruction of
the world, which was in consequence of the people sinning against God,
he blessed Noah, and spake to him, and gave him the same dominion
which had been given before to Adam; and Noah offered sacrifices to
him. The same recognition of the Almighty's power and authority was
manifested by Abraham, Moses, the Children of Israel, and the Prophets;
by Jesus also, and the primitive Christians. Man was left as a free
agent with power to act, and vested with certain powers by his Father,
and responsible to him for his acts, as a son, servant, or agent
would be to his father, master, or employer. Perhaps it would be more
correctly conveyed thus:--a man lets or rents a vineyard or farm, the
man occupying it has a certain agency and discretionary power vested
in his hands, but always subject to certain conditions imposed by the
owner of the property. Hence God made a covenant with Noah, Abraham,
the Children of Israel, and the primitive saints. The making of a
covenant naturally implies two parties: in such cases, God is one,
the people the other. If the people fulfil their covenant, the Lord
is bound to fulfil his; but if man transgresses then the Lord is not
bound to fulfil his engagement. For instance, in speaking to ancient
Israel, he said, "And it shall come to pass if thou shalt hearken
diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all
the commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God
will set thee on high above all nations of the earth." Deut. xxviii.
1. He then describes what those blessings are; and further states,
that if they do not observe his statutes they shall be cursed. The
Lord set before them blessings and cursings; blessings if they obeyed,
but cursings if they disobeyed. Man, then, acts as a moral agent, to
improve upon the blessings which God puts within his power, or not, as
he pleases; and it is the abuse of this moral agency, which has filled
the world with misery and distress.[A]

[Footnote A: This part of the subject is fully explained in the remarks
on the Government of Man, chap. ii.]

Man has lost sight of the object of his creation, and his future
destiny; and losing sight of his origin, his relationship to God,
and his future destiny, he has fallen into the mazes of ignorance,
superstition, and iniquity, and is groping in the dark, and knows
not how to conduct himself in this world, or how to prepare for the
world to come. For, instead of being governed by the Spirit, Wisdom,
and Revelations of God, he is governed by the spirit of the Evil One,
"the god of this world, who rules in the hearts of the children of
disobedience." They have left God, and submitted themselves to his evil
sway, and used that agency which God has given to them, not only in
rejecting God, but in obeying Satan; and furthering his designs, which
are in opposition to those of God, the happiness of mankind, and the
salvation of the world. I know there are many who will ridicule this
idea but it is a thing which is plain in the Scriptures. The Apostle
Paul says, "The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which
believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is
the image of God, should shine unto them." 2 Cor. iv. 4. And if any man
thinks he is wise, he has his moral agency and the world before him;
and if he can improve the situation of the world without God, he has
ample opportunity to display his intelligence.

I would remark, further, that so far from Satan not exercising this
power over man, he exercises it to such an extent, and he possesses
such an unbounded influence over the human family, that God's purposes
relative to man, and the earth, never can be carried out until Satan
is bound, and cast into the bottomless pit. John says, "And I saw an
angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and
a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the Dragon, that old
serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal
upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand
years should be fulfilled." Rev. xx. 1-3. Here, then, he is described
as _deceiving the nations_, and his power is curtailed for a season,
that he shall not possess it. It is a difficult thing to persuade men
that they are deceived; because that very power that deceives them,
inflates the mind with self-sufficiency and assurance: but who, that
looks abroad in the world, and sees the confusion, distress, and misery
that abound, will say that man has acted wisely?

Man, then, is a moral agent, possessing the power to do good or to do
evil; if he does well, he fulfils the measure of his creation, and
secures his happiness in time and in eternity. If he does not well,
and is involved in difficulties and misery, it is his own fault, and
he may blame himself. There are many circumstances over which man
individually has no control; but I am speaking more particularly of
nations and the world, and man's moral agency associated with them:
concerning individuals, the Lord will make his own arrangements.
The Jews are cursed nationally, on account of their fathers'
transgression, and cannot remove that curse, as a nation, until the
time come. As individuals they can receive the Gospel as well as
others. Their fathers committed grievous national offences against
God for some length of time, and finally filled up the measure of
their iniquity, in rejecting, and crucifying the Son of God. If
they killed the prophets, and stoned those whom God sent, how could
he treat with them? He could act no other way consistently than to
"destroy those husbandmen, and give the vineyard to others." For if
God be the proprietor of the vineyard, and has a right to confer
national blessings for obedience, he has also a right to visit them
with national curses for disobedience. A nation rejecting God and
his ordinances, and killing his prophets, and still professing to
be his people, act hypocritically, and impose a great curse upon
posterity. And if men will not acknowledge God, how can they expect
him to acknowledge and bless them? Again. There are heathen nations
enveloped in idolatry; and if millions of people came into the world
in those places surrounded with idolatry and superstition, it would
be unjust for them to be punished for what they did not know. Hence,
if they have no law, they will be judged without law; and God in his
own wisdom will regulate their affairs, for it is their misfortune,
not their individual offence, that has placed them in their present
position. If, however, we could trace their history, we should find,
as with the Israelites, so with them. Their present darkness and
misery originated in a departure from God; and as their fathers did
not desire to retain God in their knowledge, he gave them up to their
present darkness, confusion, and wretchedness. See Paul's remarks on
this subject, Rom. i. 21-25, 28. For nationally, the conduct of fathers
has a great influence over their children, as well as in a family
capacity. Hence the Jews will be blessed as a nation, in consequence
of the promises made to Abraham, for as I have said before, these
are eternal principles; man is an eternal being, and all his actions
have a relevancy to eternity. The actions of fathers have a bearing
and influence on their children, both as families and nations, in
time and in eternity. And those great principles that God has his eye
upon in relation to the nations, and to the world, will certainly be
accomplished. Hence the stimulus to excite men to tread in the steps
of Abraham, that like him they may obtain blessings for themselves
and their posterity. And hence the choice of Abraham by the Lord.
The Lord said, "I know him that he will command his children and his
household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord." Gen.
xviii. 19. And why did the Lord feel anxious about this? Because of
his own purposes in relation to the earth, and because of his parental
care of the bodies and spirits of man. For there are matters of great
importance associated with these things, as before referred to; and the
Lord has felt very anxious, for the perpetuation of correct principles.
So strong were his feelings in relation to this matter, that he gave
the following law to the children of Israel: "If thy brother, the son
of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom,
or thy friend which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying,
Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor
thy fathers; namely, of the gods of the people which are round about
you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee; from the one end of the
earth even unto the other end of the earth; thou shalt not consent unto
him, nor hearken unto him; neither shalt thine eye pity him, neither
shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him; but thou shalt surely
kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him, to put him to death, and
afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him with
stones, that he die, because he hath sought to thrust thee away from
the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from
the house of bondage." Deut. xiii. 6-10. Here, then, it is stated,
that if brother, son, wife, or any one, wish to lead thee from God,
thou shalt destroy them; and why? Because in forsaking God, they lose
sight of their eternal existence, corrupt themselves, and entail misery
on their posterity. Hence it was better to destroy a few individuals,
than to entail misery on many. And hence the inhabitants of the old
world and of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, because
it was better for them to die, and thus be deprived of their agency,
which they abused, than entail so much misery on their posterity, and
bring ruin upon millions of unborn persons. And having thus deprived
them of their agency to act upon the earth, and punished them for their
transgressions, Jesus went "and preached unto the spirits in prison;
which sometime were disobedient, when once the long suffering of God
waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing." 1 Peter
iii. 19, 20.

It is upon this principle that the world will be punished in the last
days for their transgressions, because they have abused their agency,
and broken the covenant that God made with them. They have yielded to
the influence of Satan, perverted the designs of Jehovah, and brought
upon themselves and posterity a curse, misery, and ruin. If any thing
further is desired upon this subject, Isaiah has described it plainly,
and has shewn the awful effects of an abuse of this moral agency and
departure from God, and the breaking of this covenant. To him I refer
the reader as a conclusion on this subject. "Behold, the Lord maketh
the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and
scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. And it shall be, as with the
people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master;
as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the
seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of
usury, so with the giver of usury to him. The land shall be utterly
emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word. The
earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away,
the haughty people of the earth do languish. The earth also is defiled
under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws,
changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath
the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate:
therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left."
xxiv. 1-6.



Chapter VII.
------------------

The Lord's Course in the Moral Government of the World.

We will now enquire, What part the Lord has ever taken in the moral
government of the world. In the last chapter I shewed that man has a
moral agency; acting under the Lord, and is, consequently, responsible
to him for his acts, as a moral agent. But does he leave him alone and
unassisted to carry out his designs? No. Looking upon man as his son,
he has from time to time offered his services and instructions, as a
father. He has given revelations, instructing and warning his people.
He has given promises to the obedient, and threatened the disobedient.
He has instructed kings, rulers, and prophets. He has also protected
the righteous, and punished, by judgments, the wicked. He has promised
to Abraham and others lands and possessions. He has held out promises
of eternal life to the faithful; but has never coerced or forced the
human mind. He destroyed the inhabitants of the old world because they
had corrupted themselves. He did not govern their minds; they might
forget God, "and every thought of their hearts be only evil, and that
continually;" but the earth was the Lord's, and he was the Father of
our spirits; and although man had an agency to propagate his species,
it was given him by God; and if he was so blind as to corrupt himself,
and entail misery upon millions of unborn beings, the God of the
universe, "the Father of Spirits," had a right to prevent him. And if
he was prostituting the use of those faculties given him by God, to
the service of Satan, and abusing the liberty which his Creator had so
liberally given, although the Lord could not control the free action
of his will, he could destroy his body, and thus prevent him from
cursing posterity. Hence, if a man transgresses the laws of the land,
he is considered a bad member of society, and is punished accordingly;
sometimes imprisoned; sometimes banished; and sometimes put to death.
Legislators assign as a reason for these things, that such persons are
injurious to society; that if crime was not punished, the virtuous and
good would be abused; the wicked would triumph; character, life, and
property would be insecure; and anarchy, confusion, and desolation
would inevitably ensue.

I would here ask, If man acts upon this principle, has not God a right
to do so with the affairs of his government? Or should we arrogate
to ourselves privileges that we will not allow the Lord to possess?
Upon this principle the Devil and his angels were cast out of heaven.
The devil having his agency, as well as man, came here, and sought
to destroy the works of God; and succeeded so far as to obtain an
influence over man's spirit, and bring his body into subjection to
his agency; and if man was so ungrateful and corrupt as to yield to
his influence, and obey his agency, God had as much right to punish
him as he had the Devil; and as he cast the Devil and his angels out
of heaven, he also cut man off from the earth, and thus punished
the "spirits that were disobedient in the days of Noah." Satan, in
heaven, had no power over those spirits; but when they came to earth,
he gained an ascendency over them, and not having a body himself,
made use of their bodies to corrupt the world, and thus thwart the
designs of Jehovah; they must therefore bear the consequences of
their disobedience. And if I am asked by a sceptic why God destroyed
so many human beings, I answer, this was God's government, they had
transgressed his laws, were traitors to him, and he had a right to
punish them, as I before stated, to prevent them from bringing ruin
upon others, and perpetuating this misery of the human family, in time,
and in eternity.

The Lord has given laws, and although he has not forced man to keep
them, nor coerced his will, yet he has punished him for disobedience,
as a father would a son. A father of a child can teach that child
correct principles; but unless he controls or confines the body,
he cannot force that child to observe them; he can punish him for
disobedience, however, and thus exert a moral or physical influence
over him. Our Father does the same. He punished the inhabitants of
Sodom and Gomorrah, Babylon, Ninevah, Jerusalem, and many other cities,
and will punish the world on the same principle.

Again: he has offered rewards, and given them to the faithful, such as
Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; he protected the Children of Israel,
and blessed them with temporal and national prosperity, when they
served him, and punished their enemies; and he would have extended his
blessings to the world, if they would have been obedient to him. The
Lord has used these influences; but never coerced the will. Hence Jesus
said to the Jews, "How often _would I_ have gathered you together as a
hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and _ye would_ not." God
would have benefitted them, but they would not be benefited. Again,
the Prophet says, "Because _I have called_, and ye _refused_, I have
stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought
all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your
calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh." Prov. i. 24-26. These
things clearly prove that man is a free, moral agent, and that God
never has controlled the human mind, and that, consequently, if man is
found in a state of wretchedness, degradation, and ruin, he has himself
to blame for it, and not the Lord. The Lord would have given him his
counsel if he had sought it; for he _did_ instruct men of God formerly,
and gave them laws, and ordinances; and he told his people that if
they called upon him "in the day of trouble, he would hear them;" and
James says, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth
to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him."
i. 5. When the Children of Israel served God and obeyed him, they
acknowledged his authority, and said, "The Lord is our judge; the Lord
is our lawgiver; the Lord is our king; he will save us." Isaiah xxxiii.
22. If the Children of Israel had been obedient, and this principle
had extended over the earth, we should have had the Kingdom of God
established on the earth, and universal peace and happiness would have
prevailed. But man's corruption and degeneracy have destroyed the
world, and nothing but the wisdom, power, and blessings of God can
restore it.



Chapter VIII.
------------------

Whose Right Is It to Govern the World? Who Has Governed It?

Having traced out in the preceding chapters the nature of man, his
destiny and parentage, spiritual and temporal; what his object is in
being here; what his relation to this earth is; his moral agency; and
shown that God has never controlled his actions; we will next enquire
a little about the earth; whose right it is to govern it; and who has
governed it.

It will not be necessary to say a great deal here about the earth,
and its organization, for we have touched on this subject before, and
it is one about which there should be no dispute among believers in
the Bible. I will briefly state, that Paul says, "For by him were all
things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and
invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or
powers: all things were created by him and for him." Colos. i. 16. This
being the case, without further investigation, we will examine whose
right it is to govern it. If the world be the Lord's, he certainly
has a right to govern it; for we have already stated that man has
no authority, except that which is delegated to him. He possesses a
moral power to govern his actions, subject at all times to the law of
God; but never is authorized to act independent of God; much less is
he authorised to rule on the earth without the call and direction of
the Lord; therefore, any rule or dominion over the earth, which is
not given by the Lord, is surreptitiously obtained, and never will be
sanctioned by him. I am aware that kings and queens are anointed and
set apart by their different ministers, according to the different
forms and creeds of the several countries over which they reign. There
are two things necessary, however, to make their authority legal, and
to authorize them to act as God's representatives on the earth. The
first is, that they should be called of God; and the second, that
the persons by whom they are anointed are duly authorised to anoint
them. First, then, it may be necessary to observe, that, if kings
and queens are of God's selection, and are his representatives, they
must themselves be appointed by him; for if not so, how can they be
considered his representatives? The prophet Hosea complains, that "they
have set up kings, but not by me; they have made princes, and I knew
it not." viii. 4. If they are sent by him, they must understand their
office and calling, and the designs of the Lord concerning the people
whom they govern, the same as a governor of a province, or a minister
plenipotentiary, receives his credentials from the prince or court
whom he serves. If, then, we examine the position of kings, and their
relationship to their divine Sovereign, we shall find that there are
only two ways for this calling to be legal. It must have been given,
either by God, through revelation to the ancestors of the reigning
kings, and handed down in an unbroken descent to the present time;
or, otherwise, given by direct revelation, and they set apart by a
prophet of the Lord God. But no nation, kingdom, or king in existence
will acknowledge either of these ways. All the kingdoms that are now
in existence were founded by the sword, without any respect to God. In
relation to their anointing, the question would naturally arise, Who
authorised the ministers to anoint those kings and queens? For if the
persons officiating have not the authority thus to anoint, and set them
apart, to execute God's law and reign over the nations, their anointing
will avail them little: it will be merely the anointing of man without
the direction and sanction of God.

Authority to anoint kings and queens, in order that they may be the
anointed of the Lord, must be given in one of three ways. It must
first, have been given by revelation to the primitive Christian Church,
authorising them to administer in this ordinance, and empowering their
successors to do it; secondly, by direct revelation; or, otherwise,
it must have been transmitted from the ancient Jews, through a lineal
descent. In regard to the first, we find no such record in the New
Testament; neither Jesus, nor his Apostles, nor any of the seventies,
nor elders, ever administered in this ordinance, or spoke of it as
being associated with the powers of their ministry. Consequently, no
power can come from there.[A]

[Footnote A: I am aware that the Roman Catholic ministry will tell
us, that they have traditionary authority to anoint kings, and to
perform many ordinances that are not contained in the Scriptures.
Without, however, arguing the point of their authority here, I would
briefly remark, that in order for the administration to be legal, it is
necessary that the kings themselves be called of God; that this call is
requisite, as well as the anointing; and that, if they possessed all
the power they claim, they have no more right to anoint a man to be
king, who is not called by God, in one of the two mentioned ways, than
any officer of state would be authorised to confer an office of trust
or honor on any individual, the gift of which was vested in the king
alone, if the king had never appointed the individual. All intelligent
persons must see that either appointment is illegal, and consequently
null and void. The following from a French History, is interesting, and
needs no comment: it shows clearly the design of its usage first in
France:--

"La ceremonie du sacre etait-elle connue en France avant l'inauguration
de Pepin?

"R. Non; elle n'avait jamais ete employee: mais Pepin se servit de
cette ceremonie empruntee des Juifs, inconnue jusqu' alors, pour
imprimer a la royaute un caractere plus auguste; cette coutume s'est
perpetuee depuis pour tous les Rois de France. II commenca a regner,
752, A.D.

_Nouvelle Histoire de France, par Louis Ardent, p. 47. Paris: chez
Corbet, Libraire Quai des Augustins._]

In regard to the second position, all Christendom deny present
revelation; and thus from their own confession they have not obtained
their authority from that source; and in regard to the third, if
there was authority associated with the Jews to ordain kings, the
Christians certainly could not claim a Jewish rite; for the Jewish
nation and authority were all destroyed: "they were broken off because
of unbelief." Rom. xi. 17, 19, 20. The Christians obtained all their
authority to officiate from Jesus Christ, and not from the Jews.
Whichever way you look at it, there is no foundation for any such
authority, and consequently the anointing is all a farce, for it does
not originate with God.

But here let us enquire a little further, Does God set up Christian
kings to fight against Christian kings? and Christian subjects to
destroy Christian subjects? I know they call upon God; but what to
do? In their wars they ask him to destroy one another. This patchwork
dominion, and mongrel Christianity, although they may be quite feasible
in the dark, yet they present a curious spectacle when brought into the
light of Truth.

It may be asked, Has not the Lord given authority to kings to reign?
Yes; he has, to two kinds: to one, to accomplish certain purposes that
he had in view relative to the nations; to the other, to rule over his
people--these were legally called and anointed by him. Of the first
kind, was Nebuchadnezzar; he had a kingdom and dominion given to him,
so say the Scriptures, but certainly not to govern God's people, for
he made, and caused to be worshipped, a large golden Image; and put
Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego into a furnace for not doing so. What,
then, was his calling? First, it was to govern a wicked and idolatrous
people; and secondly, to fulfil the will of God, in the punishment
of his people. As the people over whom he ruled had given themselves
up to idolatry, they had an idolatrous king given to them for their
ruler, for the Lord, never having given up his right to govern the
world, gives the people kings according to their deserts; and although
he may not give them _legal authority as His representatives_, yet
by his overruling Providence, he places wicked men in a position
that they may have power over a wicked nation, both to trouble that
nation and themselves. Such was the case with Pharaoh, king of Egypt;
and also with Salmanaser, king of Assyria, when he defied the God of
Israel. Such was the case with some of the kings of Israel, in the
rebellions of that people; and with Belshazzar, king of Babylon, who
was eating and drinking with his wives and concubines in the palace
at Babylon, when the handwriting was seen on the walls, "God hath
numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. Thou art weighed in the balances
and art found wanting." Dan. v. 26, 27. Babylon was destroyed; and
so fully have the purposes of God been accomplished in relation to
that magnificent city, that the place where it then stood is now a
desert. And such also will be the case with the nations and kings of
the earth, in the last day, as spoken of by Zechariah. "Behold, the
day of the Lord cometh . . . . . For I will gather all nations against
Jerusalem to battle . . . . . then shall the Lord go forth and fight
against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle." xiv.
1-3: also read the 39th chapter of Ezekiel. Here, then, is a slaughter
the most terrible that could be conceived: the armies actually cover
the land, and so dreadful is the slaughter, that they cannot bury the
dead, so that their stench shall stop the noses of the passers by. The
fowls of the air are commanded also to assemble, that they may eat the
flesh of kings, captains, and mighty men; and yet those kings, princes,
and rulers will, by the providence of God, be given to the people as a
chastisement, that the Lord may punish both kings and people on account
of their iniquities. Daniel clearly exemplifies this subject in the
following words, in speaking of the judgements that should come upon
Nebuchadnezzar. He states, that these judgements were "to the intent
that the living may know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of
men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the
basest of men." iv. 17. Another duty that wicked kings have to perform
on the earth is, that of being used by the Almighty as a scourge or
rod to punish nations that are corrupt. Hence when Israel had sinned
against God, and the Lord determined to chastise them, he told them,
through his prophets, that he would punish them by Nebuchadnezzar, King
of Babylon. Accordingly, Nebuchadnezzar came against Jerusalem, and
took the Children of Israel captive to Babylon, with the vessels of
silver and gold belonging to the Temple. And God afterwards punished
Babylon for its transgressions; Cyrus, king of Persia was raised up by
the Lord to chastise it.

But did either of these kings govern God's people? or were they
ordained by the Lord? No, only as his sword to execute his judgements
on the nations. Such, also, were Alexander, Caesar, and others; and
hence Paul tells the Christians in his day to submit themselves to
kings and rulers. And why? These men were ordained for a certain
purpose, and it was not for the Christians to set in order the affairs
of God's kingdom, nor to regulate the world. The Lord would do that
in his own time and way; it was for them to wait for the time "of the
restitution of all things."

Another order of kings were those that were anointed to reign over
God's people, the children of Israel. Such was Saul, who was anointed
by Samuel; such also were David and Solomon, and many of the kings
of Israel. Those kings that were anointed and acknowledged of the
Lord were not only kings but priests. Hence, Saul, when he had sinned
against God, and the Spirit of the Lord was withdrawn, "enquired of the
Lord, and the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim,
nor by prophets." 1 Sam. xxviii. 6. David also acted as a priest, and
could obtain knowledge or revelation from God also, for when Saul was
rejected, and sought David's life, David called for the ephod, used
by the priests: see Exodus xxviii. "And David said to Abiathar the
priest, bring hither the ephod. Then said David, O Lord God of Israel,
thy servant hath certainly heard that Saul seeketh to come to Keilah
to destroy the city for my sake. Will the men of Keilah deliver me up
into his hand? Will Saul come down, as thy servant hath heard, O Lord
God of Israel? I beseech thee tell thy servant. And the Lord said, He
will come down. Then said David, Will the men of Keilah deliver me and
my men up into the hand of Saul? And the Lord said, They will deliver
thee up." 1 Sam. xxiii. 9-12. Here we find David actually enquiring of
God for direction, and obtaining information. The Lord had forsaken
Saul, and would not answer him; but he would and did answer David: see
also the xxiii. 2; and xxx. 8; and 2 Sam. ii. 1; v. 19-25; xxi. 1; 1
Chron. xiv. 10-14. From the whole of the above we learn, that David
took no step without enquiring of the Lord. Solomon also, acted as a
priest as well as a king; and it is said of him, that Solomon loved
the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father. And the Lord
gave him wisdom, and instructed him in the affairs of his kingdom. When
he prayed unto the Lord, and asked of him wisdom, God granted him the
desire of his heart, and gave him with wisdom, riches and honor. "And
Judah and Israel dwelt in safety, every man under his vine and fig
tree, from Dan to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon;" and when he had
finished the temple, he offered his sacrifices, and acknowledged the
God of Israel; and he prayed for the nation over which he ruled, not by
proxy, but himself. "And Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in
the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his
hands towards heaven;" and then he uttered a prayer for himself, his
people, and nation: see 1 Kings viii. 22. And we read that afterwards
the Lord appeared to him, and said unto him, "I have heard thy prayer
and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed
this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and
mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually. And if thou wilt
walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and
in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and
wilt keep my statutes and my judgements: then I will establish the
throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for ever, as I promised to David
thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne
of Israel. But if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your
children, and will not keep my commandments and my statutes which I
have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them:
then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them;
and this house, which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of
my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people:
and at this house, which is high, every one that passeth by it shall be
astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why hath the Lord done
thus unto this land, and to this house? And they shall answer, Because
they forsook the Lord their God, who brought forth their fathers out
of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have
worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath the Lord brought upon
them all this evil." 1 Kings ix. 3-9.

Thus, then, these men, delegated and appointed of God, acted as his
representatives on the earth. They received their kingdoms from him.
They were anointed by prophets of God, who received the word of the
Lord concerning them, as in the case of Saul and David; and if they
departed from God, he chastised, or removed them, as in the case of
Saul and David, and of which the history of the Kings of Israel is a
striking example, and faithful commentary. Those that were faithful
among them sought to know the mind of God, and to carry out his
designs. The greatest, most powerful, and prosperous rule that ever
existed among them, as a nation, was that of Solomon, who asked, and
obtained wisdom from God; and that wisdom as a necessary consequence
brought honour, happiness, security, riches, magnificence, and power.
Thus those kings that were righteous, who received their kingdoms from
the Lord, went to war, or proclaimed peace by his directions; they
were his representatives on the earth, and governed his people as the
Lord's anointed. Yet even the monarchy of the House of Israel was
not in strict accordance with the will of God; but originated in the
rebellion and pride of the children of Israel, who, wishing to be like
the nations around them, being dissatisfied with their judges, desired
of the Lord a king. The following are their words, and the Lord's
answer: "Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together,
and came to Samuel unto Ramah, and said unto him, Behold thou art old,
and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like
all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give
us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. And the Lord
said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that
they say unto thee; for they have not rejected thee, but they have
rejected me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the
works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of
Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served
other gods, so do they also unto thee. Now therefore hearken unto their
voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner
of the king that shall reign over them. And Samuel told all the words
of the Lord unto the people that asked of him a king. And he said,
this will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: he will
take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to
be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots. And he will
appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and
will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make
his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. And he will
take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be
bakers. And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your
oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. And
he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to
his officers, and to his servants. And he will take your menservants,
and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses,
and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your sheep; and
ye shall be his servants. And ye shall cry out in that day because of
your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear
you in that day. Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of
Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us; that we
also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and
go out before us, and fight our battles. And Samuel heard all the words
of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of the Lord. And the
Lord said to Samuel, Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king.
And Samuel said unto the men of Israel, Go ye every man unto his city."
1 Sam. viii. 4-22.

We find that this thing was displeasing to the Lord; they resisted the
counsel of God; but as they were the Lord's people, he listened to
their requests, and gave according to their desires; he felt bound to
fulfil his engagements, and, if they would not walk fully by the rule
that he required, to give a government of their own asking, which, if
not so good as the one he proposed, was nevertheless sanctioned by him;
and that order once established, those kings set apart, and anointed by
him, had a perfect right to look to him for his guidance, which they
did, and inasmuch as they performed his will, as his representatives,
were blessed of him. For kings could not be blamed for the order that
existed, they did not originate the government; it was the people, all
they could do was to rule according to the direction of the Lord. But
this was not a perfect government. The Lord had his eye on something
yet more glorious, something in which the salvation, and happiness of
the world were concerned; a rule of righteousness, when, not only one
nation, but the kingdoms and dominions of the whole earth, should be
given to the Son of God; and when all nations, kindreds, people, and
tongues should serve and obey him; and as the earth belonged to him,
and the people also, that he should govern them. Such will be the case
as we shall hereafter show, and a system be introduced that will not
only benefit one nation, but that will govern all nations, bless the
whole of the human family, and exalt and happify the world. All these
things that have existed, are merely temporary arrangements, adapted
to the weakness, ignorance, and wickedness of the human family, in
the times of darkness, and power of Satan. If the above is the case,
in regard to the best of these governments, even that of the House of
Israel, what is the situation of those who are governing, without even
any pretensions to have received their government and authority from
God! It may be asked, What is to be done in this state of things? how
are they to be regulated? This is worthy of our attention, but as we
shall devote some time to this hereafter, we will content ourselves
with saying, this is God's work, and not man's. He has these things in
his hands, and he must arrange them; confusion, revolt, rebellion, is
not the way to bring these things about; for if the world is already
evil, this will only make it worse. Besides, the kings and rulers of
the present day are no more responsible than others; they did not make
the nations as they are, they found them so; neither are they appointed
to govern the world, nor do any of them profess it. According to their
most extended calculation, their power would be confined to their own
nations. Some of the kings and queens of the earth seem to be actuated
by a desire to promote the happiness of the nations with which they
are associated, and over which they rule. The Queen of England is
almost universally beloved by her subjects, and that deservedly; she
has been mild and pacific in her course, and her rule and dominion
have been as near right as it is possible for a government to be under
existing circumstances. If there are evils, she did not originate
them, she found them so. She has kept her covenant that she made with
the nation, and sought the welfare of her subjects, and they owe her
fealty, and ought to render to her obedience. And as she, nor no
monarch, is set to build up the kingdom of God, or establish universal
rule, as a monarchy without authority from God, it is perhaps as good
a form as could exist. The Emperor of Russia, with all his faults of
government, nevertheless possesses many good traits; at any rate he
seems to reverence the Lord. Some time ago, when the cholera broke out
in St. Petersburgh, the inhabitants supposed that their wells had been
poisoned; a large number of people assembled for the purpose, as they
thought, of finding out, and punishing the aggressors. The excitement
was very great. The Emperor, hearing of the tumult, rushed into their
midst and said, "My children, you are mistaken in supposing that the
wells have been poisoned, and this is the cause of our affliction, this
is a judgement that has come from God, let us fall down before him,
and ask him to remove his scourge from our midst;" whereupon he fell
upon his knees in the midst of the people, and prayed to the Lord to
remove the plague from among them. He has a strong impression that God
has a work for him to do on the earth; and in this he may be right.
Although he is not delegated to establish the kingdom of God, he may
nevertheless be appointed as Caesar, Nebuchadnezzar, and others, as a
scourge to the nations, and so fulfil his destiny, for as we are on
the eve of great events, and a fearful doom awaits the nations, some
powerful means must be made use of, in this as well as in other ages,
to bring these things about.

Some may remark on the foregoing, Does not Paul say, that "the powers
that be, are ordained of God?" Yes, and so say I; but all powers
that are ordained of God, do not rule for his glory, nor are they
all associated with his government and kingdom. Nebuchadnezzar and
Belshazzar were ordained of God, but they were both idolaters. Cyrus
was ordained of God; but he was an heathen. God regulates his own
affairs; and while the world is in a state of idolatry, apostacy, and
rebellion, he, by his providence, overrules the affairs of the nation,
as Daniel says, "to the intent that the living may know that the Most
High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will,
and setteth up over it the basest of men." Dan. iv. 17. But others will
say that Paul tells us "to be subject to the powers that be." So say I.
God will establish his own government: the cavillings, rebellions, and
contentions of men will not do it; and it is proper for well disposed
persons to wait the Lord's time, to be peaceable and quiet, and to pray
for kings, governors, and authorities. This was what Jeremiah taught
the children of Israel to do, "And seek the peace of the city wherein I
have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for
it, for in the peace thereof shall you have peace." xxix. 7. It is very
evident, from what has been shown, that there is no proper government
nor rule upon the face of the earth; that there are no kings who are
anointed, or legally appointed of God; and that, however much disposed
any of them may feel to benefit the world, it is out of their power, it
exceeds the limits of their jurisdiction, it requires a power, spirit,
and intelligence, which they do not possess. We see, moreover, that
tumults, commotions, rebellions, and resistance are not the way to do
it. It requires more wisdom than that which emperors, kings, princes,
or the wisest of men possess, to bring out of the wild chaos, the
misery, and desolation that have overspread the world, that beautiful
order, peace, and happiness portrayed by the prophets as the reign of
the kingdom of God.



Chapter IX.
------------------

Will Man Always Be Permitted to Usurp Authority Over Men, and Over the
Works of God? Will the World Remain for ever Under a Curse, and God's
Designs Be Frustrated?

The above are grave questions, and will necessarily require
examination, for they concern the earth and its inhabitants. Their true
solution will affect man in time and in eternity. The world cannot
remain as it is, for the following reasons:--

First. It would be unreasonable.

Secondly. It would be unjust.

Thirdly. It would be unscriptural.

Fourthly. It would frustrate the designs of God, in regard to the
spirits of the righteous; the dead; the progression of the world, and
its final exaltation; and also the exaltation of man.

First.--It would be unreasonable for man to continue his usurped
authority. If God is interested in the welfare of his creatures, he
certainly never would permit, without some just cause, the destruction
of his works, and the misery of his creatures; and we have fully
demonstrated, that the world is full of abominations, and evils, and
that those evils can only be removed by the interposition of the Lord;
that the assumed authority of men, and the Devil, can only be checked
by a superior power. God holds that power in his hands; he holds the
life of the human family in his hands; and the world, notwithstanding
its rebellion and iniquity, has to be sustained by him from day to
day. Let him but withdraw his governing and controlling power from the
earth, and it would wander wildly through space, unblest by the genial
influences of the sun, or clash against some other system, involving
all creation in ruin: let some slight variation take place in its
diurnal motion, and the sea would leave its proper bounds, overflow the
earth, and millions of the human family would perish. Let even some
slight variation take place in the atmosphere, and the Lord withdraw
the sanitory influences that preserve the earth in its present healthy
state, and the murky atmosphere would contain contagion, and disease;
the pestiferous air would spread desolation, and death; plague and
pestilence would fill the earth; and millions of foetid loathsome
beings would be living, and dying examples, of man's impotency and
weakness. Even a small insect sent to destroy the grain, accompanied
with the blight of the potatoes, such as has already been witnessed,
would produce incalculable evil; let these things become more
universal, and the death of the human family must ensue. Even so slight
a thing as too much, or too little rain would produce uncalculated
misery.

When we contemplate man as he is, a poor worm dependent upon God for
his daily bread, and upon how many slight contingencies the brittle
thread of life is continued, and that the least variation in the
economy of God might, in numberless ways, involve the human family in
ruin, and then notice his arrogance, pride, conceit, and rebellion; it
seems to us mysterious that the mercy of God should be so long extended
to him; and we can only account for it upon this principle, that God is
too great, wise, powerful, and magnanimous to be moved to anger by the
impotent ravings, the empty pride, the little meanness, the swelling
pusillanimity, and the utter helplessness, of the erratic, puerile,
insignificant creature, man. He lets him wallow in his corruptions,
gloat in his misery, and permits him to become a prey to Satan, for
a season, that he may feel the greatness of his fall, the extent of
his degeneracy, and the utter ruin that his own course, instigated
by the powers of the adversary, has brought upon him; that he may
afterwards learn to appreciate the mercies of God, see and understand
the delusion, and be enabled eternally to appreciate the mercies and
government of God, after having first atoned for his own acts and
transgressions. For like a wayward and disobedient child, he will be
glad to return to his father's house and friendship; and when the
vision of his mind shall be opened, which, if not done in this world,
will be in the world to come, he will be thoroughly disgusted with
himself and his acts, and will be glad on any conditions to find an
asylum with his Father.

This state of things, then, is merely permitted for a season, to
develop the designs and influences of Satan, and their effects; to
develop the weakness of man, and his incompetency to rule and govern
himself without God; to manifest the mercy of God, in bearing with
man, in the midst of his rebellion; to show man his ingratitude, and
the depth of his depravity, in order that he may appreciate more fully
the mercy and long-suffering of God, and the purity and holiness
that reign in the eternal world. Man has tasted the misery of sin
and rebellion, and drunk of the cup of sorrow, in order that he may
appreciate more fully the joy and happiness that spring from obedience
to God, and his laws. But to think for a moment that man here will
always be permitted to subvert the designs of God, and the world be
for ever under the dominion of Satan, is the height of folly, and
only develops more fully the pride, littleness, and emptiness of man.
For notwithstanding man is a weak creature, in comparison to God, yet
he has within him the germs of greatness and immortality. God is his
Father, and though now wandering in darkness, sunk, degraded, and
fallen, he is destined, in the purposes of God, to be great, dignified,
and exalted; to occupy a glorious position in the eternal world, and
to fulfil the object of his creation. Will this design be frustrated
by the powers of darkness, or the influence of wicked and ungodly men?
Verily, no. To suppose such a thing, manifests the greatest absurdity,
which can only be equalled by the weakness and ignorance from whence
it springs. What! God, the author of the universe, and of all created
good, suffer his plans to be frustrated by the powers of the Devil?
Shall this beautiful world, and all its inhabitants, become a prey to
Satan and his influences, and those celestial, pure, principles that
exist in the eternal world, be for ever banished? Shall the earth still
be defiled under the inhabitants thereof, when God is our Father? Shall
iniquity, corruption, and depravity always spread their contaminating
influences, and this earth, that ought to have been a paradise, be a
desolate miserable wreck? Shall tyranny, oppression, and iniquity for
ever rule? Shall the neck of the righteous always be under the feet of
the ungodly? No, says every principle of reason, for the Almighty God
is its maker. No, echoes the voice of all the prophets, there shall
be a restitution of all things. No, say the Scriptures of all truth,
"The earth shall become as the Garden of Eden," the wicked shall be
rooted out of it; the time shall come when the Saints shall possess
the kingdom, and the earth shall become as the garden of the Lord.
No, responds the voice of all the dead Saints, we died in the hope of
better things, etc. No! say our later revelations--

"The Lord hath brought again Zion;

"The Lord hath redeemed his people, Israel,

"According to the election of grace,

"Which was brought to pass by the faith

"And covenants of their Fathers.

"The Lord hath redeemed his people,

"And Satan is bound, and time is no longer:

"The Lord hath gathered all things in one;

"The Lord hath brought down Zion from above;

"The Lord hath brought up Zion from beneath;

"The Earth hath travailed and brought forth her strength;

"And truth is established in her bowels:

"And the heavens have smiled upon her;

"And she is clothed with the glory of her God;

"For he stands in the midst of his people,

"Glory, and honor, and power, and might,

"Be ascribed to our God, for he is full of mercy,

"Justice, grace, and truth, and peace,

"For ever, and ever. Amen."[A]

[Footnote A: Doctrine and Covenants, Section 84: 99-102.]

It is therefore contrary to every principle of reason and intelligence
to suppose such a thing.

Secondly.--It would be unjust: and "shall not the Judge of all the
earth do right?" But what right would there be in thus permitting
Satan to usurp the dominion for ever? It would be giving in the first
place to Satan that which belongs to God. This earth is not Satan's
inheritance; it is the Lord Jesus Christ's, he is the rightful owner
and proprietor. If Satan be indeed the God of this world, and rules in
the hearts of the children of disobedience, he is only an usurper. It
is not his rightful dominion, for all things were created by Christ,
and for Christ, whether they be principalities, or powers, or thrones,
or dominions, all these were created by him, and for him, and he only
has a right to rule; but Satan has subverted the ways of God, deceived
the human family, introduced misery, and confusion, and blighted
this beautiful creation with his contaminating curse. As an usurper,
it would be unjust to permit him to rule; it would be unjust to the
government of God, for, if God has a right to rule, no other power can
have that right, unless it is delegated, and if delegated, still the
right is vested in the power that delegates.

It is therefore derogatory to God, for the world to be yielding
obedience to another power. For while God, not the Devil, provides
for, feeds, sustains, and beautifies the Universe, and nourishes the
millions of people who inhabit the earth, with his beneficent hand and
fatherly care;--for him to be neglected and despised, or forgotten, is
the height of injustice, and the very climax of perverse ingratitude.
But again, it would be unjust to the good and virtuous; this earth is
properly the dwelling place, and rightful inheritance of the Saints.
Inasmuch as it belongs to Jesus Christ, it also belongs to his servants
and followers, for we are told, "The earth is the Lord's and the
fulness thereof," and that, when things are in their proper place,
"the Saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the
kingdom, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall
be given to the saints of the Most High." Dan. vii. 18 and 27. It is
therefore their righful inheritance, and the usurpation before referred
to, while it is unjust to God, is also as unjust to his Saints. Who
can contemplate the position of the world, as it has existed, without
being struck with this fact, Where has God ever had a people but they
have been persecuted? The testimony of God has always been rejected,
and his people trodden under foot. Paul tells us that they "were
tempted, tried, sawn asunder, that they wandered about in sheep skins,
and goat skins, being destitute, afflicted, and tormented." Heb. xi.
37. And to such an extent had this prevailed among the ancient Jews,
that Stephen gravely asks the question, "Which of the prophets have
not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them, which shewed
before, of the coming of the Just One, of whom ye have been now the
betrayers and murderers." Acts vii. 52. What did they do with Jesus!
and what with his followers! We may here ask, Is it right, is it
proper, is it just, for this state of things to continue? It is true
that the saints have had a hope of joys to come, and this state of
trial has been permitted for their ultimate good; but although this
is the case, it does not make the thing the more just. "It must needs
be," says Jesus, "that offences come, but woe to that man by whom the
offence cometh. It were better for him that a millstone were hanged
about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea," than
that he should offend one of those little ones. Matt, xviii. "They
that touch you, touch the apple of mine eye." He has cried all along,
"Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm." The saints
have suffered and endured, but they have done it in the hopes of a
better resurrection; and as they have always looked upon this earth as
their inheritance, to deprive them of this, would be to falsify the
promises of God unto them, disappoint all their hopes, render inutile
their sufferings and fidelity on the earth; and be to them an act,
not only of temporary, but also of eternal injustice. For men of God
in former days were just as much actuated by the prospect of a reward
as a merchant, a warrior, a statesman, or any other person in search
of wealth, honor, or fame. The only difference is, the one sought it
in this life, the other in the life to come; the one looked for his
reward here, the other expected it hereafter; the one had no hope
concerning the future, the other had; the one was blinded by the God of
this world, and knew not his position, or possessed not a nobility of
soul sufficient to make him brook the world, and the scorn of men, in
search of a better inheritance; the other understood by revelation his
relationship to God, the position of the world, and his high calling,
and glorious hope; he sought the nearest way to eternal life, scorned
to be captivated by the world's tinsel show, despised the short-lived
pleasures offered by the god of this world, and possessed magnanimity
of soul sufficient to lead him to acknowledge the God of the Universe,
and to brook the scorn of empty fools, and ephemeral philosophers.
If persecution's deadly shafts, and superstition's craven hate, were
levelled against him, he dared to brook death in all its horrid forms,
and live and die an honourable man, a true philosopher, a servant of
God, and endure as seeing him who is invisible, in the hopes of a
better resurrection. Deprive him of this hope, and you rob the just of
his reward, dishonour God, and perpetuate misery and corruption in the
world.

Thirdly.--As it would be unjust, so also it would be unscriptural. The
Scriptures are full and clear on this subject; they represent Christ as
being the rightful heir, and inheritor of this world; they represent
him as having come once to atone for the sins of the world; but that
he will afterwards come as its ruler, judge, and king; they represent
him as the "Lord of the vineyard, the rightful heir" to the earth, and
as having hitherto been dispossessed; but they again represent him
as coming to claim his rights, to dispossess the usurpers; to take
the authority, to rule, and reign, and to possess his own dominions.
They represent the earth as labouring under a curse; but speak also
of its deliverance therefrom; of its being blighted because of the
transgression of man; but that it shall again yield its increase and
become as the Garden of Eden. They represent the whole creation as
groaning and travailing in pain, but that the creature also shall be
delivered. That the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon all flesh; that
the wolf shall lie down with the lamb, the lion eat straw with the ox,
and finally, every creature that is in the heavens, on the earth, or
under the earth, shall be heard to say, glory and honor, and power,
etc. That the law shall go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord
from Jerusalem. That Jerusalem shall become the throne of the Lord,
and that the dead saints shall live, and reign with Christ, no longer
deprived of their rightful inheritance; but as Jesus said when here,
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."

If, then, the Scriptures are not idle phantoms, if their visions, and
prophecies were not mere phantasies, and written to deceive, we have as
much right to look for these things as we have to believe in any event
that has taken place; but lest any of my readers should be ignorant of
the Scriptures relative to these subjects, I will give a few passages
which are in themselves as clear and pointed, as any other portion of
the word of God.

Concerning Christ being the rightful heir, it is written, "All things
were created by him, and for him, and without him was not anything made
that is made." He is the "Mighty God, the everlasting Father," &c. "For
of him, and from him, and to him are all things." "Thou sayest that I
am a king, for this end was I born, etc." "Then the Lord shall be king
over all the earth."

The Jews made a great mistake concerning the coming of Christ before;
the Gentiles have made as great a mistake in regard to his second
coming. The Jews expected him to come as a temporal deliverer alone,
and overlooked his sufferings, trials, persecution, and death; the
Gentiles having believed in his sufferings, have lost sight of his
second coming; the promises of God made to the fathers; the redemption
of the earth, and the kingdom of God. Both are wrong; both believed in
part; neither in the whole. The Jews, in consequence of their unbelief,
were cut off; but when Christ comes again, he will come in the way that
their fathers looked for him, as a King, with power, and authority.
The Gentiles having fallen into darkness, have lost sight of the great
purposes of God, in regard to the redemption of man, and of the world;
the restitution of all things, and the coming of Christ to reign. They
have so far forgotten themselves, that they are actually fulfilling
the prophecy of Peter: "There shall come in the last days scoffers,
walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his
coming?" 2 iii. 4. But to return: the Scriptures represent Christ as
the lord of the vineyard, as the "heir" that was killed; as the "sower
of the seed" in the world; as the "destroyer of the wicked husbandmen;"
as coming to "rule the nations with a rod of iron," etc.; and to take
possession of the kingdom. Daniel says, "I saw in the night visions,
and behold, 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 people, nations, and languages, should serve him; his dominion is
an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom
that which shall not be destroyed." Dan. vii. 13, 14. Zechariah says,
"And his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which
is before Jerusalem on the East; and the Mount of Olives shall cleave
in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there
shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove
toward the north, and half of it toward the south. And ye shall flee
to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall
reach unto Azal; yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the
earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah: and the Lord my God
shall come, and all the saints with thee." . . . . "And the Lord shall
be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and
his name one." xiv. 4, 5, 9. These and many other things must be
fulfilled if the Scriptures be true. These designs of God, which were
the hope of the ancient Saints, and of which poets sung, and prophets
wrote, were the consolation of all the faithful Saints, Prophets, and
Patriarchs,--Jews and Christians. Take these away, and the world, to
the Saints, is a miserable blank; the hope of the righteous futile, and
the Word of God a farce.

Fourthly.--It would frustrate the designs of God, in regard to the
spirits of the righteous, the dead, the progression of the world, and
its final exaltation; and also the exaltation of man.

When the Lord created this world, as we have already stated, he had
an object in view, not only in regard to the world, and its future
destiny, but also as it regards the spirits which were then in
existence. Those great and eternal purposes which our heavenly Father,
in his consummate wisdom, had in view, when he issued his Divine
Mandate, and this world was created, cannot be frustrated unless he
cease to be God. And those enlivening hopes which cheered his sons;
those spirits that lived with him, when they saw this beautiful orb
fashioned, this earth made as the place for their habitation, as
their possession, as the place where they should take bodies, where
they should live, rule, and reign, not only in time, but in eternity,
must not, cannot be destroyed. And yet what avails it all to them, if
Satan triumph, the wicked rule, and God's kingdom be not established!
They could not "have shouted for joy" at the prospect of this world
continuing under the dominion of Satan; at the blight, degradation,
misery, and ruin that have overspread it. But if we trace the matter
still further, and look at the righteous dead, their position would
be any thing but enviable under those circumstances. It was the
hopes of the resurrection that made them endure, and it was God that
implanted them in their bosoms; but if they are not raised, and if
Christ's kingdom is not established, and they do not reign with him,
their hopes are vain, their sufferings useless, and the purposes of
God are frustrated. In vain did they bear a faithful testimony in
opposition to a depraved world; in vain they endured, as seeing him
that is invisible; in vain they wandered about in sheep skins, and in
goat skins; in vain they looked for a city which hath foundations, as
a recompense of reward; and false and deceptive are the testimonies of
all the prophets who have testified of the restitution of all things,
from the foundation of the world. Take away this, and our highest, and
most exalted hopes are blighted; we live like fools, and die like dogs.
If the world is always suffered to continue as it is, then is the hope
of the righteous vain, the promises of God fail, Satan triumphs, and
God's purposes are frustrated.

All the designs of God concerning this world and the work of creation,
were perfected in his mind before this world rolled into existence, or
"e'er the morning stars sang together for joy." When this world was
formed, God intended it as the final dwelling place of those bodies
which should inhabit it. And when "the sons of God shouted for joy,"
it was at the prospect of that exaltation, that they would be capable
of obtaining, in consequence of this creation, which they then saw
come into existence. And if, as Jesus, they had to descend below all
things, in order that they might be raised above all things; still
this was the medium, or channel, through which they were to obtain
their ultimate exaltation, and glorification. It was by the union
of their spirits, which came forth from the Father as the "Father
of Spirits," with earthly bodies, that perfect beings were formed,
capable of continued increase and eternal exaltation; that the spirit,
quick, subtle, refined, lively, animate, energetic, and eternal, might
have a body through which to operate, that might be compared to the
steam, to an engine; the electric fluid to the telegraphic wire; for,
notwithstanding that spirit, steam, or electricity are the powerful,
quickening, energetic principles, employed; yet without the engine,
the telegraphic wire, or the matter, they would be comparatively
useless; these elements might wander in empty space; spend their force
at random, or remain dormant, or useless, without those more tangible,
material objects, through which to exercise their force. When steam
was first applied to practical purposes; when the operation of the
magnetic needle, and the mode of communication through the electric
telegraph, were discovered; when railroads and steam boats were first
invented, something of importance was discovered, and of great value to
the human family. The men who made these discoveries and applications
are deservedly looked upon at the present time as men of great genius,
and as the benefactors of the world; but what was it they did? They
did not create the elements, those already existed: steam, magnetism,
electricity, iron, coals, water, existed before, and had existed from
the beginning of creation. What was it these geniuses discovered? It
was simply a method of organizing this matter, the making use of gross
inanimate materials to confine the more subtle, refined, elastic,
energetic, and powerful, that their combined power and energy might
be brought into effect; and that through the union of two powerful
agencies, which had lain dormant, their forces might be united, and be
brought into active and powerful operation. Thus, then, was the body
formed as an agent for the spirit. It was made of grosser materials
than the spirit, which proceeded from God, but was necessary as an
habitation for it that, it might be clothed with a body, perfect in
its organization, beautiful in its structure, symmetrical in its
proportions, and in every way fit for an eternal intelligent being;
that through it, it might speak, act, enjoy, and develop its power,
its intelligence, and perpetuate its species. Hence as the discoveries
of those geniuses already referred to, were hailed with pleasure by
the inhabitants of the world, on account of the benefits conferred
upon men, so when God created this earth, and organized men upon it,
"the morning stars sung together for joy;" they looked upon it as God
looked upon it, as a work perfect, magnificent, and glorious, through
which they saw their way to exaltation, glory, thrones, principalities,
powers, dominions, and eternal felicity. They had the intelligence
before, but now they saw a way through which to develop it. Through the
world's great Architect, their Father, they discovered a plan fraught
with intelligence and wisdom, reaching from eternity to eternity,
pointing out a means whereby, through obedience to celestial laws, they
might obtain the same power that he had. And if, in fallen humanity,
they might have to suffer for a while, they saw a way back to God, to
eternal exaltations, and to the multiplied, and eternally increasing
happiness of innumerable millions of beings. And if, as Jesus, they had
to descend below all things, it was that they might be raised above all
things, and take their position as sons of God, in the eternal world;
that overcoming the world they might sit down with Christ upon his
throne, as he overcame and sat down upon the Father's throne. Rev. iii.
21.

But again; this creation is unlike the works of man, which, however
excellent, and useful, all bear the marks of humanity, all are more
or less imperfect in their structure, and liable to a thousand
contingences, are more or less clumsy, cumbrous, and unwieldy, and must
be governed by numerous very limited laws; as for instance, you can
convey intelligence, but it must be exactly on the line of the electric
wire, you cannot go beyond its limits; you can make an engine work,
but it must be stationary; or if moving, must be confined to rails,
depth of water, and a thousand other contingences. None of these things
possess intelligence, nor the principles of life within themselves,
neither can they impart, nor perpetuate it to others, they are merely
machines, to be acted upon by man, and without man they cease to exist;
when one is worn out, or broken, another must be made at the same
toil and labour; possessing not the principles of life, they cannot
impart their likeness; whereas man, beasts, fish, fowl, and all the
animate works of God can. Man's works in comparison with God's, are
like comparing a child's wooden horse to the beautiful creature God has
made, or rather his penny whistle to the music of heaven, or the larger
boy's billiards to the motions of the planetary system. They possess no
intelligence, no powers, no reflection, no agency. The works of man are
merely made to be acted upon; are short lived, temporary, perishable
things. Man, however, bears the impress of Jehovah, is made after his
image, in his likeness, and possesses the principles of intelligence
within himself, and the medium of conveying it to others. He possesses
also, power to perpetuate his species, as also to communicate his
thoughts, his intelligence, genius, and power to others, that are
formed like him. He received his intelligence, his spirit, from God, he
is a part of himself,

    A spark of Deity
    Struck from the fire of his eternal blaze;

he came from God as his son, he bears the impress of Jehovah, even
in his fallen degenerate corrupted state. His powerful intellect,
his stately genius, his grasping ambition, his soaring, and in many
instances, exalted hopes, display, though he be fallen, the mark of
greatness; he bears the impress of Deity and shows that he is of divine
origin.

Unlike the works of man, the work of God in relation to this earth was
destined to be eternal, not subject to be controlled by any little
contingences; nor was it dependent upon fluctuation, or change. Man's
works might fluctuate, change, or be destroyed, but not so with God's,
they were, and are eternal; eternal mind, and eternal matter; organized
and created according to the unsearchable intelligence of that eternal
unfathomable mind; that fountain of intelligence, forethought, wisdom,
and energy, that dwells with God. And this earth, and man in their
destination, and all the works of this creation, are as unchangeable
as the sun, moon, or stars, and as unalterable as the throne of God.
Satan may deceive men, for a season; their minds may be blinded by the
god of this world, but God's purposes will be unchanged. Who is Satan?
A being powerful, energetic, deceptive, insinuating; and yet necessary
to develop the evil, as there are bitters, to make us appreciate the
sweet; darkness, to make us appreciate light; evil and its sorrows,
that we may appreciate the good; error that we may be enabled to
appreciate truth; misery, in order that we may appreciate happiness.
And as there are in the works of creation opposing, mineralogical
substances which in chemical processes are necessary to develop certain
properties of matter, and produce certain effects; as fire is necessary
to purify silver, gold, and the precious metals, so it is necessary to
instruct, and prepare man for his ultimate destiny--to test his virtue,
develop his folly, exhibit his weakness and prove his incompetency
without God to rule himself or the earth; or to make himself happy or
exalt himself in time, or in eternity. But again, who is Satan? He is a
being of God's own make, under his control, subject to his will, cast
out of Heaven for rebellion; and when his services can be dispensed
with, an angel will cast him into the bottomless pit. Can he fight
against and overcome God? Verily, No! Can he alter the designs of God?
Verily, No! Satan may rage; but the Lord can confine him within proper
limits. He may instigate rebellion against God, but the Lord can bind
him in chains.

Shall the purposes of the Lord be frustrated? Verily, No! The nations
of the earth may be drunken, and rush against each other like
inebriates; but the Lord's purposes are unchanged. Thrones may be cast
down, kingdoms depopulated; and blood, sword, and famine may prevail,
yet the Lord lives, and will accomplish his own designs. Man may
forget God, but God does not forget man: man may be ignorant of his
calling, but not so with God. Man may not reflect upon the designs of
God, in relation to this earth, but God must and does; and if in man's
madness, his infidelity, his hypocrisy, or his ignorance, he cannot
find time here to reflect upon these things, he will find ample leisure
hereafter, and the purposes of God will roll on; and perhaps when he
shall be preached to, as the rebellious Antediluvians, after receiving
the punishment of his deeds, he may know something more of the power,
justice, and purposes of God, and be glad to hear the Gospel in prison
which he rejected on this earth. But to suppose that the purposes of
God will be frustrated in relation to his designs in the formation of
this earth, is altogether folly. They will roll on as steadily as the
sun or moon in their courses. And as surely as we look in the east for
the rising of the sun in the morning to display his gorgeous glory,
light up the beauties of creation, and waken sleepy man; so surely
will "the sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings," so
surely will the sleeping dead burst from their tombs, and the glorified
bodies with their spirits re-unite, so surely will a reign of justice,
truth, equity, and happiness--the reign of God, supersede the barbarous
oppression, and corrupt governments of this world, so surely will that
long night of darkness, ignorance, crime, and error be superseded
by the glorious day of righteousness; and so surely will this earth
become as the Garden of the Lord, the kingdom and reign of God be
established, and the Saints of the Most High take the kingdom and
possess it for ever and ever. The time of the restitution of all things
will be ushered in; the earth resume its paradisiacal glory, and the
dead and the living Saints possess the full fruition of those things
for which they lived, and suffered, and died. These are the hopes that
the ancient Saints enjoyed; they possessed hopes that bloomed with
immortality and eternal life; hopes planted there by the Spirit of
God, and conferred by the ministering of Angels, the visions of the
Almighty, the opening of the Heavens, and the promises of God. They
lived and died in hopes of a better resurrection. How different to the
narrow, conceited, grovelling views of would-be philosophers, of sickly
religionists, and dreaming philanthropists!

Therefore, as we have said, anything short of this would render inutile
the hopes of the Saints; would fail to accomplish the expectation of
millions of spirits; and cause Satan to triumph, and frustrate the
designs of God. This earth, after wading through all the corruptions
of men, being cursed for his sake, and not permitted to shed forth
its full lustre and glory, must yet take its proper place in God's
creations; be purified from that corruption under which it has groaned
for ages, and become a fit place for redeemed men, angels, and God to
dwell upon. The Lord Jesus will come and dispossess the usurper; take
possession of his own kingdom; introduce a rule of righteousness; and
reign there with his Saints, who, together with him, are the rightful
proprietors.



Chapter X.
------------------

Will God's Kingdom Be a Literal or a Spiritual Kingdom?

It would be almost unnecessary to answer such a question as the
above, were it not for the opinions that are entertained in the world
concerning a purely spiritual kingdom, particularly as in a preceding
chapter I have clearly pointed out a literal kingdom, rule, and reign.
But I have introduced this merely to meet some questions that exist
in the minds of many, relative to a spiritual kingdom, arising from
certain remarks of our Saviour's, where he says, "My kingdom is not of
this world;" and again, the "kingdom of heaven is not meat and drink,
but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost;" and again,
"the kingdom of God is within (or among) you."

The kingdom of God, as I have already stated, is the government of
God, whether in the heavens, or on the earth. Hence Jesus taught his
disciples to pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as
it is done in heaven." And when the kingdom of God is established on
the earth, and prevails universally, then will the will of God be done
on earth, and not till then; then will the reign of God exist on the
earth, as it now does in heaven. It is this reign we are speaking of,
a reign of righteousness. But whenever God's laws are established,
or his kingdom is organized, and officers selected, and men yield
obedience to the laws of the kingdom of God; to such an extent does
God's kingdom prevail. John preached the kingdom of God, or, heaven
nigh at hand. Jesus said, the kingdom of heaven is within you. Jesus
compared the kingdom of heaven to a husbandman who sowed wheat, and
when he went to his field, he found tares also. Matt. xiii. Now what
was this field? The field was the world, or in other words, God's
rightful possession, where he ought to govern; the good seed are the
children of the kingdom, or those who receive and obey the laws of the
kingdom of heaven. The tares are the children of the wicked one; or
those who rebel against God and his laws. The tares are to be gathered
out of his kingdom, and burned; and then are the righteous to shine as
the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Again, the kingdom of Heaven
is likened unto a treasure that a man found in a field, and sold all
his possessions, in order that he might possess himself of that field
and treasure; and a pearl of great price, for which a man did likewise;
thus Abraham, Noah, Lot, Moses, and many of the Prophets purchased this
treasure at the sacrifice of all things. And why? They discovered the
pearl, the treasure, and had respect unto the recompense of reward;
enduring as seeing him who is invisible. And what was it all for? For
the purpose of obtaining present blessings, earthly enjoyments, the
pleasures of sense? No! they all died in faith _not having_ received
the promises; but having seen them afar off; they knew of the treasure,
and sold all for it; they "looked for a city which hath foundations,
whose builder and maker is God." Wherefore it is said, God is not
ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city.
They looked for a reign of righteousness--the government of God--they
were inspired with the same hope as that of all the Prophets who had
prophesied since the world begun, viz., the hope of the restitution
of all things. John the Baptist, and Jesus would have introduced the
kingdom; but the people would not have it; still, as the apostle John
says, to as many as did believe, "to them gave he power to become the
Sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." John i. 12. They
became sons of God. Yes, say some spiritually, and I say literally
too. They made a literal covenant with God to keep his laws; they were
administered to literally by officers of the kingdom of God; they
believed literally; were baptised literally, and received the gift of
the Holy Ghost literally; and became literally the servants or sons of
God. But what was their hope? Was it in this world? Yes, but not at the
present. They expected the promise of Jesus to be fulfilled to them:
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." And they
looked, with Peter, and all the ancient Saints, for a new Heaven and a
new Earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. They looked with Paul, and
the Saints to whom he wrote, for a kingdom, not ariel or visionary, but
one "which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."

The world, as we have before stated, although it belongs to God, has
never been under his control. His vineyard has brought forth briars
and thorns; tares have been sown in his field; but there has been some
wheat, and that wheat represents the children of the kingdom, who
have kept his laws and observed his ordinances; and wheresoever the
laws of his kingdom have been observed, in the same proportion has
his kingdom prevailed. Christ, therefore, organized his kingdom with
Apostles, Prophets, Pastors, Teachers, Evangelists, etc.; officers and
administrators of his laws, which laws were given by the Lord; they
baptized for the remission of sins, laid on hands for the gift of the
Holy Ghost, and introduced members into the kingdom of God on earth,
and as they were empowered to bind on earth, and in heaven, to seal on
earth, and in heaven, these persons, not only became members of the
Church here, but also of the kingdom of heaven, and participators in
all its blessings here and hereafter. They were now Sons of God; but
it did not fully appear yet what they should be, only they should be
like him. If he conquered death, so should they; if he overcame, so
should they; if he sat down upon his Father's throne, he would give to
them that overcame, power to sit down upon his throne, as he overcame
and sat down upon his Father's throne. And if Jesus comes to reign on
the earth, he will also bring his Saints with him, and they shall live
and reign with him. These things are spiritual, but they are literal;
they are temporal, but they are also spiritual and eternal. Hence with
God all things are temporal; all things are spiritual; and all things
are eternal. These are only our phrases to specify certain ideas,
which ideas in themselves are very often incorrect: we have bodies and
spirits, but it takes both to be a perfect man. We talk about time and
eternity,--what is time? A portion of eternity; eternity was, before
time was, and will continue to exist when time shall be no more.
Spiritual and temporal things are only so, as we form ideas of them.
What is our body?--temporal, material? Yes, matter; but the matter of
which it is made is eternal, and it will yet be spiritual like unto
Christ's glorious body. What is our spirit?--material, spiritual and
eternal also? But more subtle and elastic than our corporeal bodies.

Having said so much on this subject, we now come to some of our
questions. "The kingdom of Heaven is not meat and drink, but
righteousness, and peace, and joy, in the Holy Ghost." What are
we to understand by this? that righteousness composes a kingdom?
Righteousness is an attribute, a principle, a state of being, not a
government; peace and joy are the result of this attribute. God is
righteous, and consequently righteousness flows from him. There may
be also a righteous man; but we do not say that God is a kingdom,
or that a righteous man is a kingdom, but that the kingdom of God
is a righteous kingdom. You can say a righteous kingdom, a kingdom
of righteousness; but you cannot say righteousness is a kingdom. A
kingdom may be governed by righteous laws; its laws may be righteous,
its administrators righteous, its people righteous; but to say
righteousness is a kingdom, is nonsense. The kingdom of God is a
righteous kingdom; it is made up of higher enjoyments than eating
and drinking; it is more refined and elevated; it is a kingdom of
holiness, virtue, purity; of "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the
Holy Ghost,"--principles that exist in part now, as far as the kingdom
extends. When the kingdom of God is universal, it will, like the
kingdom in the heavens, be all "righteousness, peace, and joy in the
Holy Ghost;" yet, it will have its laws, officers, and administrators,
and will be a literal, tangible thing. The Spirit of the Lord shall be
poured upon all flesh; the will of God will be done on earth as it is
in heaven, and the joy and peace which result from righteousness, will
be experienced by all the world. What did Jesus mean, then, when he
said, "The kingdom of Heaven is within you," or "among you" (marginal
reading.) Luke xvii. 20, 21. There certainly must be some mistake
here, for Jesus was speaking to Pharisees, whom he had denounced as
corrupt men, hypocrites, whited walls, painted sepulchres, etc. Now,
who will say they had the kingdom of God within them? The kingdom of
God was among them. And it did not come with observation, nor with
ostentation or pomp; they might have seen it, but their eyes were
blinded, that they could not see; their ears were stopped that they
could not hear. Many of us suppose that if we had lived in their day,
we should have recognized it among the miracles, signs, and powers that
were manifested by him. But Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice, and
know me, and follow me, but others do not." If any man do his will,
says Jesus, "he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God, or
whether I speak of myself." John vii. 17. But if they do not, what
then? They have eyes, but see not; ears, but hear not. The God of this
world blinds their eyes, lest the light of the gospel should shine in
upon them. Jesus says, "Except a man be born again; he cannot see the
kingdom of God." And "except he is born of water and the spirit, he
cannot enter into it." John iii. 3 and 5. It therefore cometh not with
observation; the Scriptures are clear on the point, and show to the
last that when God's kingdom shall be more fully established on the
earth, the inhabitants of the earth will be as ignorant of it as the
Jews were, that Jesus was the Messiah; for the nations of the earth,
with their kings, will yet be gathered together against the people of
the Lord, to battle, when the Lord himself will go and fight against
them, and there will be one of the most terrible slaughters that ever
took place on the earth. It cometh _not with observation_. It is a
righteous kingdom, and righteous men can see it, and appreciate it, and
those only.

I have demonstrated, in a preceding chapter, to which I refer my
readers, more fully on this subject, that the kingdom of God would be
literally established on the earth; it will not be an ariel phantom,
according to some visionaries, but a substantial reality. It will be
established, as before said, on a literal earth, and will be composed
of literal men, women, and children; of living saints who keep the
commandments of God, and of resurrected bodies who shall actually come
out of their graves, and live on the earth. The Lord will be king over
all the earth, and all mankind literally under his sovereignty, and
every nation under the heavens will have to acknowledge his authority,
and bow to his sceptre. Those who serve him in righteousness will have
communications with God, and with Jesus; will have the ministering of
Angels, and will know the past, the present, and the future; and other
people, who may not yield full obedience to his laws, nor be fully
instructed in his covenants, will, nevertheless, have to yield full
obedience to his government. For it will be the reign of God upon the
earth, and he will enforce his laws, and command that obedience from
the nations of the world which is legitimately his right. Satan will
not then be permitted to control its inhabitants, for the Lord God
will be king over all the earth, and the kingdom and greatness of the
kingdom under the whole heaven will be given to the saints. This may
properly be called the day of reckoning, the time when the world's
accounts will be settled; when things that have been going wrong for
ages, will be put right; when injustice and misrule will no more be
permitted; when the usurper shall be cast out; when the rightful heir
shall possess the kingdom; when unrighteousness will be banished, and
justice and judgement bear sway; when the wicked shall be rooted out
of the earth, and the saints possess it; when God's designs shall be
accomplished on the earth, and men resume their proper position. It
is the fulfilment of the promises of the Lord to his people, or in
scriptural words, "The dispensation of the fulness of times, when God
will gather together all things in one." Satan has had his dominion,
and has deceived, corrupted, and cursed the human family; but then his
dominion will be destroyed, and he will be cast into the bottomless
pit; men will no longer be under the influence of his spirit, be
decoyed by his wiles, or imposed upon by his deceptions. Religion, and
the fear of God, will no longer be painted in dismal colours, or be
dressed in the sable drapery of sanctimonious priests, or sacerdotal
gloom; nor yet in the forbidding costumes of hermits, monks, and
nuns. But, stript of all this religious masquerade, and superstitious
mummery, the fear of God, and the observance of his laws, will be
looked upon in their proper light. God will be seen, feared, and
worshipped as our Father, Friend, and Benefactor; his laws will be kept
as being those framed by infinite wisdom, and the most conducive to
the happiness of the human family. Virtue, truth, and righteousness,
will appear in their native loveliness, beauty, simplicity, glory, and
magnificence, for God alone will be exalted in that day.



Chapter XI.
------------------

The Establishment of the Kingdom of God upon the Earth.

How will the kingdom of God be established? We have already shown
very clearly, that none of the means which are now used among men are
commensurate with the object designed, and that all the combined wisdom
of man must, and will fail, in the accomplishment of this object; that
the present forms of political and religious rule cannot effect it;
that philosophy is quite as impotent; and that as these have all failed
for ages, as a natural consequence they must continue to fail. We have
portrayed the world broken, corrupted, fallen, degraded and ruined; and
shown that nothing but a world's God can put it right.

The question is, what course will God take for the accomplishment of
this thing? and as this is a matter that requires more than human
reason, and as we are left entirely to Revelation, either past,
present, or to come, it is to this only that we can apply. We will
enquire, therefore, what the Scriptures say on this subject. It is
called the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of heaven. If, therefore, it
is the kingdom of heaven, it must receive its _laws, organization,_
and _government,_ from heaven; for if they were earthly, then would
they be like those on the earth. The kingdom of heaven must therefore
be the government, and laws of heaven, on the earth. If the government
and laws of heaven are known and observed on the earth, they must be
communicated, or revealed from the heavens to the earth. These things
are plain and evident, if we are to have any kingdom of heaven, for
it is very clear, that if it is not God's rule, it cannot be his
_government,_ and it is as evident that if it is not revealed from
heaven it cannot be the _kingdom of heaven_. That such a kingdom will
be set up is evident from the following, "And in the days of these
kings shall the God of Heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be
destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people." Dan. ii.
44; and again, "I saw in the night visions, and behold 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 people, nations, and languages,
should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall
not pass away; and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed."
Dan. vii 13, 14. From the above we learn two things: First--that God
will set up a kingdom which shall be universal; and, that that kingdom
shall not be given into the hands of other people; and secondly--that
the Saints of God shall take possession of that kingdom. The Angel
which announced to Mary the birth of Jesus said, "He shall be great,
and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give
unto him the throne of his Father David; and he shall reign over the
house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end."
Luke i. 32, 33.

It may not be improper here to notice an opinion that has very
generally prevailed throughout the Christian world, that Christ's
kingdom was a spiritual kingdom; that it was set up at the time our
Saviour was upon the earth; and that Christianity as it now exists,
is that kingdom. After what I have already written on the subject of
a literal reign and kingdom, this would seem superfluous; but as this
opinion is almost universal in the Christian world, my readers must
excuse me, if, in this instance, I digress a little. Several writers in
the Catholic church, as well as the Rev. David Simpson, M. A., Bishop
Burnett, the Rev. John Wesley, and many others among the Protestants,
have advocated the above opinion. The substance of their ideas is as
follows: that Daniel, by the figure of an image of gold, silver, brass,
iron, clay, in chap. ii.--and by the figures of the four beasts, in
chap, vii., represented a spiritual kingdom; that this kingdom was set
up in the days of the Saviour, and his disciples; that Christianity, as
it now exists, is that kingdom, and that it will become universal over
all the earth. They state that the four great empires, the Babylonian,
Persian, Grecian, and Roman, are represented by the head, breast,
belly, and legs of the Image, and by the four Beasts, in chapter vii;
and that the kingdom of God was to be set up under the dominion of the
fourth, which, as they correctly state, was the Roman. They state,
moreover, that the declaration and prophecy of the Angel to Mary,
above quoted, were also fulfilled in the first coming of the Messiah;
in his preaching, in his gospel, and in the organizing of the church,
etc. Many other passages are made to bear the same signification,
which it would be foreign from my present purpose to notice. I have
referred to the above, as some of the most prominent. Now, with all
deference to the gentlemen who have written on this subject (and
education, respectability, and talent, entitle their opinions to some
respect) I must beg leave to differ from them, and consider, that in
trying to support a favorite dogma, they have been led into error;
for it seems to me that nothing can be more foreign to the meaning
of these scriptures than the above interpretation. Now concerning
the four great monarchies being represented as above, I consider it
is perfectly correct; but to state that the kingdom was to be set up
under the fourth monarchy, or under the dominion of the fourth beast,
is stretching the thing too far; and putting a construction upon it
which it evidently will not bear. The text reads, "in the days of those
kings shall the God of Heaven set up a kingdom." The question is, What
kings? I am answered, during the reign of one of the four; and that
as Christ came during the reign, and dominion of the Roman empire, it
evidently refers to that. But let me again ask a question, Under the
reign of what kings was this kingdom to be set up? Under the reign of
the fourth? Verily, No. Let Daniel speak for himself. After describing
the fourth kingdom, which was the Roman, which is compared to iron,
and which in the Image was represented by the legs, he then refers to
other kingdoms and powers, as being compared to iron and clay. There
were also feet and toes, as well as a _body_, which were compared to
powers or kings. This is clearly exemplified in the seventh chapter of
Daniel, for after speaking of the four kings, he describes ten horns,
of which the ten toes in the Image above referred to, are typical.
Those ten horns, he says, are ten kings. It was, then, in the days of
those kings, or while those kingdoms should be in existence, that the
God of Heaven should set up a kingdom; and not during the power of the
fourth kingdom; to which, with any degree of truthfulness, the figure
could not apply in either case. But again, it could not apply to the
first coming of our Saviour for the following reasons:--

First.--The stone hewn out of the mountain without hands was to smite
the Image on the toes; whereas, according to the interpretation of the
divines before referred to, the toes were not yet in existence, for
they state that this kingdom was set up during the fourth monarchy,
which was the Roman, and which is represented in the legs of the Image.
Now, as the powers composing the feet and toes were not yet formed,
how could the little stone smite that which was not in existence? For
it will be observed that after the whole Image was made, the stone was
hewn out of the mountains without hands which smote it.

Secondly.--When this kingdom is set up, it is stated "it _shall not be
left to other people;_" but we are told in Dan. vii. chap., that after
the fourth monarchy which was the time, according to the aforesaid
interpretation, for the setting up of the kingdom of God, a certain
"horn," or king, should make war with the Saints, and prevail against
them; and that "he should think to change times and laws--and that
they should be _given into his hand_." Nothing can be more obvious than
this; for this power, after the first coming of the Messiah, not only
thinks to change times and laws, but "they" are actually "given into
his hand," which will not be the case, when the kingdom above referred
to is set up.

Thirdly.--When the kingdom of God was to be set up, it was to be
"given to the Saints of the Most High;" and all nations, kindreds,
people, and tongues, were to obey the Lord, which has not taken place,
and never can under the present state of things.

Fourthly.--There is no more similarity between Christianity, as it now
exists, with all its superstitions, corruptions, jargons, contentions,
divisions, weakness, and imbecility, and this KINGDOM OF GOD, as spoken
of in the Scriptures, than there is between light and darkness; and it
would no more compare with things to come, than an orange would compare
with the earth, or a taper with the glorious luminary of day.

Fifthly.--The kingdom of God, as spoken of by Daniel, was to become
universal, which Christianity has not, and cannot, as it now exists.

Sixthly.--The Angel's testimony to Mary has not yet been fulfilled. It
is stated, that "The Lord shall give unto him the throne of his father
David, and he shall reign over the House of Jacob for ever, and of his
kingdom there shall be no end;" whereas he did not sit upon David's
throne, nor does he now; he did not reign over the house of Jacob, nor
does he now, for the ten tribes are yet outcasts; "the house of Judah
is scattered and without a king," and Jesus himself, when asked to
divide an inheritance, demanded, "Who made me a ruler or king." He,
indeed was a king; "but in his humiliation his judgement was taken
away."

From the whole of the above it is very evident that the kingdom, of
which these divines speak, was not, and could not be the one referred
to by Daniel, or by the angel to Mary; as we have before stated, it was
a literal kingdom, and not a spiritual one only. I would further remark
here, that a certain power was to "make war with the Saints, and to
prevail against them until the Ancient of Days came;" and then, and not
till then, was "judgement given to the Saints of the Most High."

We will now return from our digression, and after stating that the
kingdom of God is a literal kingdom; that it will be great, powerful,
glorious, and universal, and that it will extend from sea to sea, and
from the rivers unto the ends of the earth; that all kingdoms will
be in subjection to it, and all powers obey it, we will proceed to
examine how it will be established. It is compared to a small stone
"hewn out of the mountain without hands," and yet the God of Heaven
is to set up this kingdom. Isaiah, in his eleventh chapter, to which
I refer my readers, in speaking of the establishment of this kingdom,
says, "In that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand
for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek, and his
rest shall be glorious. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the
Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant
of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and
from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from
Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign
for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather
together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth."
10-12. From the above it would seem, that an ensign or standard is to
be raised to the nations; that the Gentiles shall seek to it; and that
the ten tribes return, as well as the Jews to their land; that the
dispersed of Judah, and the outcasts of Israel are to return. Now, a
standard, or ensign, is a nation's colours, flag, or rallying point;
it is one of those appendages to a kingdom that is always respected by
its inhabitants. It is used in a variety of ways, and for different
purposes; sometimes by the emperor, king, governor, or general, to
signify his presence; sometimes by vessels to specify their nation;
and sometimes by estates, cities, corporations, or clubs: and always
by armies and navies, to represent whom they belong to. If a king had
a proclamation to make, and wished to rally his subjects, or try their
fidelity, he might send a flag, or standard, and all that rallied to it
would be considered his liege subjects.

But here the God of Heaven sets up a standard. The world, as we have
before stated, is his; it is his right to possess it. Satan has held
the dominion for some time, and the Lord now comes to dispossess
him, to take possession of his rightful inheritance, and to rule
his own kingdom. In order to do this, he issues his mandate, makes
a proclamation, lifts up a standard, and invites all to join it.
Those who do may be considered as his servants, as the citizens of
his kingdom; those who do not, as being in opposition to him, his
government, and laws. As the Father of the human family, as the prince
and king, he lifts up an ensign, and calls the world's attention. Now
the only rational way for the Lord to accomplish this, is to form a
communication with man, and to make him acquainted with his laws. We
cannot conceive of him thundering from the heavens and terrifying the
inhabitants of the earth, nor yet sending angels with flaming swords
to coerce obedience. This would be using physical power to control the
mind; but as man is a free agent, he uses other means to act upon his
mind, his judgement, and his will; and by the beauty and loveliness
of virtue, purity, holiness, and the fear of God, to captivate his
feelings, control his judgement, and influence him to render that
obedience to God which is justly his due; not until these means fail,
will others be exercised.

As the world are ignorant of God and his laws, not having had any
communication with him for eighteen hundred years; and as all those
great and important events must transpire, and as the Lord says he
will "do nothing but what he reveals to his servants the Prophets,"
it follows, that there must be revelations made from God; and if
so, as a necessary consequence, there must be prophets to reveal
them to. How did God ever reveal his will, and purposes to Enoch,
Noah, Abraham, Moses, the Prophets, Jesus, and his Disciples, and
they to the people? God's messengers made known his will, and the
people obeyed, or rejected it. If they were punished by floods, fire,
plagues, pestilence, dispersions, death, etc., it was in consequence
of their disobedience. As God has dealt in former times, so will he
in the latter, with this difference, that he will accomplish his
purposes in the last days; he will set up his kingdom; he will protect
the righteous, _destroy_ Satan, and his works, purge the earth from
wickedness, and bring in the restitution of all things. The above,
while it is the only rational way, is evidently the only just, and
scriptural way. Some people talk about the world being burned up, about
plagues, pestilence, famine, sword, and ruin, and all these things
being instantaneous. Now it would not be just for the Lord to punish
the inhabitants of the earth without warning. For if the world are
ignorant of God, they cannot altogether be blamed for it; if they are
made the dupes of false systems, and false principles, they cannot
help it; many of them are doing as well as they can while, as we have
before stated, it would be unjust for the world to continue as it is.
It would at the same time be as unjust to punish the inhabitants of
the world for things that they are ignorant of, or for things over
which they have no control. Before the Lord destroyed the inhabitants
of the old world, he sent Enoch and Noah to warn them. Before the Lord
destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, he sent Lot into their midst. Before
the Children of Israel were carried captive to Babylon, they were
warned of it by the Prophets; and before Jerusalem was destroyed,
the inhabitants had the testimony of our Lord, and his Disciples.
And so will it be in the last days; and as it is the world that is
concerned, the world will have to be warned. We will therefore proceed
to examine the scriptural testimony on this subject. John says in the
Revelations, "And I saw another angel fly in the midst of Heaven,
having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them, that dwell on the
earth; and to every nation, and kindred, tongue, and people, saying
with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him, for the hour of
his judgement is come, and worship him that made heaven and earth, the
sea, and the fountains of waters. And there followed another angel,
saying, Bahylon the great is fallen." xiv. 6-8. Here, then, a light
bursts forth from the heavens; a celestial messenger is deputed to
convey to men tidings of salvation; the everlasting gospel is again
to be proclaimed to the children of men; The proclamation is to be
made to "every nation, kindred, people, and tongue." Associated with
this, was to be another declaration, "Fear God, and give glory to him,
for the hour of his judgement is come." Thus, all were to have a fair
warning, and afterwards Babylon falls--not before. From the above it is
evident, that the everlasting gospel will be restored, accompanied with
a warning to the world. Now, if the everlasting gospel is restored,
there must be the same principles, laws, officers, or administrators,
and ordinances. If, before, they had Apostles, they will again have
them; the same laws and ordinances will be introduced, and the same
method for receiving members into the kingdom. They will also have
Prophets, Pastors, Teachers, and Evangelists. If they baptised by
immersion for the remission of sins, and laid on hands for the gift of
the Holy Ghost, they will again do the same things. If the gift of the
Holy Ghost formerly brought things past to the saints' remembrance, led
them into all truth, and showed them things to come, it will do the
same again, for it is the everlasting gospel. If formerly it caused
men to dream dreams, and to see visions, it will do the same again; if
to one was given the gift of tongues, to another the gift of healing,
to another power to work miracles, to another the gift of wisdom, the
same will exist in latter days, for it is the everlasting gospel which
is to be restored. If it put men in possession of a knowledge of God,
and of his purposes, and brought life and immortality to light in
former days, it will do the same again. If it dispelled the clouds of
darkness, unveiled the heavens, put men in possession of certainty, and
gave them a hope that bloomed with immortality and eternal life, it
will do the same again. If it caused men to know the object of their
creation, their relationship to God, their position on the earth, and
their final exaltation and glory, it will do the same again, for it
is the everlasting Gospel. In short, it is the will of God to man,
the government of God among men, and a portion of that light, glory
and intelligence, which exist with God and angels, communicated to
mortals, and obtained through obedience to his laws and ordinances. If
the Gospel formerly was to be proclaimed to all nations, so it is now,
with this difference associated with it, there is to be a cry, "Fear
God, and give glory to him, for the hour of His judgement is come."
From this, then, we may expect a proclamation to be made to all people;
messengers to go forth to every nation, and the same principles which
once existed to be again restored in all their fulness, power, glory,
and blessings. The above is the way pointed out in the Scriptures, and
is the only just and rational way to deal with rational, intelligent
beings; for intelligence must be appealed to by intelligence, and it
would be unjust to punish the world indiscriminately, without first
appealing to their reason, judgement, and intelligence. But not only
will the everlasting Gospel be again restored, and be preached in
its fulness as formerly, and go as a messenger to all the world; not
only will there be a spiritual kingdom and organization; but there
will also be a literal kingdom, a nation, or nations, a Zion, and the
people will gather to that. We will here insert a prophecy of David
on this subject: "But thou, O Lord, shalt endure for ever; and thy
remembrance unto all generations. Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon
Zion: for the time to favor her, yea, the set time, is come. For thy
servants take pleasure in her stones, and favor the dust thereof. So
the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the
earth thy glory. When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in
his glory. He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise
their prayer. This shall be written for the generation to come: and
the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord. For he hath
looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the Lord
behold the earth; to hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those
that are appointed to death; to declare the name of the Lord in Zion,
and his praise in Jerusalem; when the people are gathered together, and
the kingdoms to serve the Lord." Psalm cii. 12-22. Here we find, First,
that a literal Zion is to be built up; Secondly, that when that Zion
is built up, the Lord will come--will appear in his glory; Thirdly,
that it is something which concerns the nations of the earth, and the
whole world, for there shall the people be gathered together, and the
kingdoms to serve the Lord.

It may be proper here to remark, that there will be two places of
gathering, or Zions; the one in Jerusalem, the other in another place;
the one is a place where the Jews will gather to, and the other a mixed
multitude of all nations. Concerning the house of Israel, Jeremiah
says, "Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall
no more be said, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of
Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, the Lord liveth, that brought up
the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the
lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into
their land that I gave unto their fathers," xvi. 14, 15. According to
this passage, and many others, there will evidently be a great display
of the power of God manifested towards the house of Israel in their
restitution to their former habitations. Another Scripture says, that
"Jerusalem shall be inhabited in her own place, even in Jerusalem."
Here I would remark, that there was a Zion formerly in Jerusalem;
but there is also another spoken of in the Scriptures. Hence, in
the passage which we quoted from the Psalms, the Kingdoms are to be
gathered together in Zion, and the people to serve the Lord; and not
only the Jews, but the Heathens are to fear the name of the Lord, and
all the kings of the earth his glory. The law is to issue from Zion,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Again--"The Lord God that
gathereth the outcasts of Israel, says, yet will I gather others unto
me besides these." It is very evident from these passages that there
are two places of gathering, as well as from many others that might
be quoted. For example, Joel, in speaking of the troubles of the last
days, says, There shall in the last days be deliverance in Mount Zion,
and in Jerusalem. Now, he never could say with propriety in Mount Zion,
and in Jerusalem, if these were not two places. The ancient Zion was
in Jerusalem. It would not be proper to say in London, and in London;
but you could say in London and in Edinburgh, in New York and in
Philadelphia, in Frankfort and in Brussels; and so you can say in Zion
and in Jerusalem. But again, the Jews are to be gathered to Jerusalem
in unbelief, as spoken of in Zechariah; and when the Messiah appears
among them, being ignorant of Jesus, they shall ask, "What are these
wounds in thy hands?" Then he shall answer, "Those with which I was
wounded in the house of my friends." xiii. 6. And then a fountain shall
be opened for the house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and
they will enter into the covenant by baptism, xiii. 1. But the people
of Zion the Lord will take them one of a city, and two of a family,
and bring them there, and give them pastors after his own heart, that
shall feed them with knowledge and understanding. Jer. iii. 14, 15.
The people there are to be all righteous. It is the last Zion that we
wish more particularly to speak of at present, as associated with the
kingdom of God; and, as we are now searching out the manner in which
the kingdom of God will be established, it is to us a matter of great
importance. There are very great judgements spoken of in the last days,
as the consequence of man's departure from God; these we have already
referred to in part; but as we have mentioned, the Gospel must again
be preached as a warning unto all nations, and accompanied with it is
to be a proclamation, "Fear God, and give glory to him, for the hour
of his judgement is come." Rev. xiv. 7. But the people would very
reasonably be heard to enquire, what can we do? What hope have we?
If war comes, we cannot either prevent or avoid it. If plague stalks
through the earth, what guarantee have we of deliverance. You say you
have come as messengers of mercy to us, and as the messengers of the
nations. What shall we do? Let Isaiah answer: he has told the tale of
war, and defined the remedy. This shall be the answer of the messenger
of the nations, that "the Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of his
people shall trust in it." xiv. 32. Yes, says Joel, when this great and
terrible day of the Lord comes, there shall be deliverance in Mount
Zion, and in Jerusalem, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom
the Lord shall call. ii. 32. Yes, says Jeremiah, He will take them
one of a city, and two of a family, and bring them to Zion, and give
them pastors after his own heart, that shall feed them with knowledge
and understanding, iii. 14, 15. The proclamation to the world will be
the means of establishing this Zion, by gathering together multitudes
of people from among all nations. For there are multitudes among all
nations who are sincerely desirous to do the will of God, when they
are made acquainted with it; but having been cajoled with priestcraft
and abominations so long, they know not which course to steer, and are
jealous of almost everything. As it was formerly, so will it be in the
latter times. Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice, and know me, and
follow me, and a stranger they will not follow, for they know not the
voice of strangers." Those who love truth, and desire to be governed by
it, will embrace it, and enter into the covenant which the Lord will
make with his people in the last days, and be gathered with them; they
will be taught of the Lord in Zion, will form his kingdom on the earth,
and will be prepared for the Lord when he comes to take possession of
his kingdom. For "when the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear
in his glory," and not before. But if Zion is never built up, the Lord
never will come, for he must have a people, and a place to come to. The
prophets hailed this day with pleasure, as the ushering in of those
glorious times, which were to follow. Micah says, "But in the last days
it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall
be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted
above the hills; and people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall
come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and
to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and
we will walk in his paths; for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the
word of the Lord from Jerusalem." iv. 1, 2. Isaiah with rapture gazed
upon the scene, and in ecstacy cried out, "Who are these that fly as a
cloud, and as the doves to their windows? Surely the isles shall wait
for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from afar,
their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the Lord thy
God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee. And
the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall
minister unto thee." lx. 8-10. You will find by reading the 14th verse,
that this place is to be called "The City of the Lord; the Zion of the
Holy One of Israel." Here then we find, that the Lord will have a house
built; that it shall be upon the tops of the mountains, and be exalted
above the hills; that many nations shall go there, to learn the will of
the Lord, and that the law shall go forth from Zion. That the people
shall come as clouds to it; that they shall take their silver and gold
with them. That God's worship will be known, and the religion of the
Lord will lose its forbidding aspect. And God, and his religion, be
popular among the nations of the earth.

This brings us to another means that will be made use of, for the
establishment of the kingdom of God; for, before this, he will rebuke
strong nations that are _afar off. And before they "beat their swords
into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, and nations
shall have war no more._"[A] there will be a time of terrible trouble,
and distress, of war and calamity, such as never has been before on
the earth. Having noticed in the above that a standard will be raised
to the nations, that the Gospel will be preached again to all people
and a proclamation be made to all nations; that a literal Zion will be
built; that the righteous will flock to that Zion, and be taught of
the Lord, and be prepared for his coming; that great multitudes will
flow to Zion, and the blessing of God dwell there; we now come to point
out another way that the kingdom of God will be established, viz.,
by judgements, that the nations may be purified and prepared for an
universal reign.

[Footnote A: If any one wish further information on this subject, I
refer them to O. Pratt's "New Jerusalem."--Liverpool: S. W. Richards.]

Before the Lord destroyed the old world, he directed Noah to prepare an
ark; before the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, he told
Lot to "flee to the mountains;" before Jerusalem was destroyed, Jesus
gave his disciples warning, and told them to "flee out of it;" and
before the destruction of the world, a message is sent; after this, the
nations will be judged, for God is now preparing his own kingdom for
his own reign, and will not be thwarted by any conflicting influence,
or opposing power. The testimony of God is first to be made known, the
standard is to be raised; the Gospel of the kingdom is to be preached
to all nations, the world is to be warned, and then come the troubles.
The whole world is in confusion, morally, politically, and religiously;
but a voice was to be heard, "Come out of her, my people, that you
partake not of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." John
saw an angel having the everlasting Gospel to preach to every nation,
kindred, people, and tongue. And afterwards there was another cried,
"Babylon is fallen." Isaiah, after describing some of the most terrible
calamities that should overtake that people, says, "The noise of a
multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous
noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together: the Lord of hosts
mustereth the host of the battle .... Pangs shall take hold of them,
and they shall be in pain, as a woman that travaileth." That "the day
of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the
land desolate, and shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it; for the
stars of heaven, and the constellations thereof, shall not give their
light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth; and the moon shall
not cause her light to shine. And I will punish the world for their
evil, and the wicked for their iniquity, and I will cause the arrogancy
of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the
terrible. I will make a man more precious than fine gold." xiii. 4-12.
After enumerating many other things concerning Babylon and Assyria,
as types of things to come, he says, "This is the purpose that is
purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched
out upon all the nations." xiv. 26. He says again, "Behold the Lord
maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside
down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. And it shall be,
as with the people so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his
master.... The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for
the Lord hath spoken this word... The earth also is defiled under the
inhabitants thereof, because they have transgressed the laws, changed
the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant." xxiv. 1-5. From the
above, it would seem that terrible judgements await the inhabitants of
the world; that there will be a general destruction; the world will be
full of war, and confusion, the nations of the earth will be convulsed,
and the wicked hurled out of it. Jesus said, when on the earth, "For
nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and
there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in divers
places; men's hearts shall fail them for fear of those things that are
coming on the earth." Jesus came first as the babe of Bethlehem; he
will come again, "and rule nations with a rod of iron, and dash them in
pieces like a potter's vessel." Isaiah says, "There shall come forth
a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his
roots. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of
wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit
of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; and shall make him of quick
understanding in the fear of the Lord; and he shall not judge after the
sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears; but
with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for
the meek of the earth; and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his
mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked, and
righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the
girdle of his reins." xi. 1-5. The first of this was fulfilled when our
Saviour came on this earth before; the second will be when he comes
again, "he will smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the
breath of his lips will he slay the wicked." The spirit of the Lord
will be withdrawn from the nations, and after rejecting the truth, they
will be left in darkness, to grope their way, and being full of the
spirit of wickedness, they will rage and war against each other, and
finally, after dreadful struggles, plagues, pestilence, famine, etc.,
instigated by the powers of darkness, there will be a great gathering
of the nations against Jerusalem, for they will be infuriated against
its inhabitants, and mighty hosts will assemble, so that they will be
like a cloud to cover the land, and the Lord will appear himself to the
deliverance of his people and the destruction of the wicked. Zech xiv.
Let any one compare this chapter with Ezekiel xxxviii. and xxxix., and
he will find one of the most terrible destructions described, that is
possible to conceive of; and then turn to the second Psalm, where David
describes the kings of the earth taking counsel against the Lord, and
against his anointed. He says, He that sitteth in the heavens shall
laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision.... That he will set his
king upon his holy hill in Zion, that he will give him the heathen
for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his
possession.... That he will break them with a rod of iron, and dash
them in pieces like a potter's vessel; and then he concludes by saying,
Be wise, therefore, O ye kings; be instructed, ye judges of the earth,
serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling; kiss the son,
lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled
but a little.

In making a brief summary of what we have said before in relation to
the means to be employed for the establishment of the Kingdom of God,
we find the following:--

1st.--That it will be not only a spiritual kingdom, but a temporal and
literal one also.

2nd.--That if it is the Kingdom of Heaven, it must be revealed from the
heavens.

3rd.--That a standard is to be lifted up, by the Lord, to the nations.

4th.--That an Angel is to come with the everlasting Gospel, which is
to be proclaimed to every nation, kindred, people, and tongue; that
it is to be the same as the ancient one, and that the same powers and
blessings will attend it.

5th.--That not only will the Ancient Gospel be preached, but there will
accompany it a declaration of judgement to the nations.

6th.--That there will be a literal Zion, or gathering of the Saints to
Zion, as well as a gathering of the Jews to Jerusalem.

7th.--That when this has taken place, the Spirit of God will be
withdrawn from the nations, and they will war with and destroy each
other.

8th.--That judgements will also overtake them, from the Lord, plague,
pestilence, famine, etc.

9th.--That the nations, having lost the Spirit of God, will assemble
to fight against the Lord's people, being full of the spirit of
unrighteousness, and opposed to the rule and government of God.

10th.--That when they do, the Lord will come and fight against them
himself; overthrow their armies, assert his own right, rule the
nations with a rod of iron, root the wicked out of the earth, and take
possession of his own kingdom. I might here further state, that when
the Lord does come to exercise judgement upon the ungodly, to make an
end of sin, and bring in everlasting righteousness, he will establish
his own laws, demand universal obedience, and cause wickedness and
misrule to cease. He will issue his commands, and they must be obeyed;
and if the nations of the earth observe not his laws, "they will have
no rain." And they will be taught by more forcible means than moral
suasion, that they are dependant upon God; for the Lord will demand
obedience, and the Scriptures say, time and again, that the wicked
shall be rooted out of the land, and the righteous and the meek shall
inherit the earth. The Lord, after trying man's rule for thousands of
years, now takes the reins of government into his own hands, and makes
use of the only possible means of asserting his rights. For if the
wicked never were cut off, the righteous never could rule; and if the
Devil was still suffered to bear rule, God could not, at the same time;
consequently after long delay, he whose right it is, takes possession
of the kingdom; and the kingdom, and the greatness of the kingdom under
the whole heavens, shall be given to the Saints of the Most High God;
and the world will assume that position for which it was made. A King
shall rule in righteousness, and Princes shall decree judgement. The
knowledge of the Lord will spread, and extend under the auspices of
this government. Guided by his counsels, and under his direction, all
those, purposes designed of Him, from the commencement, in relation to
both living and dead, will be in a fair way for their accomplishment.



Chapter XII.
------------------

The Effects of the Establishment of Christ's Kingdom, or the Reign of
God upon the Earth.

Having said so much pertaining to the Kingdom, we come to our last
proposition, and enquire, What will be the effects of the establishment
of Christ's kingdom, or the reign of God on the earth?

This is, indeed, a grand and important question, and requires our
most serious and calm deliberation. If, after all this distress,
tribulation, war, bloodshed, and sacrifice of human life, the condition
of the world is no better, man is certainly in a most unhappy, hopeless
situation. If it is nothing more than some of the changes contemplated
by man, from one species of government to another, and we must still
have war, bloodshed, and disorder, and be subject to the caprices of
tyrants, or the anarchy of mobs, our prospects are indeed gloomy, and
our hopes vain; we may as well "eat and drink, for tomorrow we die;"
for, as we have already proven, under the most improved state of human
governments we should still be subject to all the ills which flesh
is heir to, without any redeeming hope. But this is not a transient,
short-lived change; it is something decreed by God in relation to
the earth and man, from before the commencement of the world; even
the dispossessing of Satan, the destruction of the ungodly, and the
reign of God; or in other words, putting the moral world in the same
position in which the physical world is--under the direction of the
Almighty. It is the doing away with war, bloodshed, misery, disease,
and sin, and the ushering in of a kingdom of peace, righteousness,
justice, happiness, and prosperity. It is the restoration of the earth
and man to their primeval glory, and pristine excellence; in fact, the
"restitution of all things spoken of by all the prophets since the
world began."

Now, restoration signifies a bringing back, and must refer to something
which existed before; for if it did not exist before, it could not
be restored. I cannot describe this better than Parley P. Pratt has
done in his "Voice of Warning," and shall therefore make the following
extract:--

"This is one of the most important subjects upon which the human mind
can contemplate; and one perhaps as little understood, in the present
age, as any other now lying over the face of prophecy. But however
neglected at the present time, it was once the ground-work of the
faith, hope, and joy of the Saints. It was a correct understanding
of this subject, and firm belief in it, that influenced all their
movements. Their minds once fastening upon it, they could not be shaken
from their purposes; their faith was firm, their joy constant, and
their hope like an anchor to the soul, both sure and stedfast, reaching
to that within the veil. It was this that enabled them to rejoice in
the midst of tribulation, persecution, sword, and flame; and in view
of this, they took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, and gladly
wandered as strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they sought a
country, a city, and an inheritance, that none but a Saint ever thought
of, understood, or even hoped for.

"Now, we can never understand precisely what is meant by restoration,
unless we understand what is lost or taken away; for instance, when we
offer to restore any thing to a man, it is as much as to say he once
possessed it, but had lost it, and we propose to replace or put him
in possession of that which he once had; therefore, when a prophet
speaks of the restoration of all things, he means that all things have
undergone a change, and are to be again restored to their primitive
order, even as they first existed.

"First, then, it becomes necessary for us to take a view of creation,
as it rolled in purity from the hand of its Creator; and if we can
discover the true state in which it then existed, and understand
the changes that have taken place since, then we shall be able to
understand what is to be restored; and thus our minds being prepared,
we shall be looking for the very things which will come, and shall
be in no danger of lifting our puny arm, in ignorance, to oppose the
things of God.

"First, then, we will take a view of the earth, as to its surface,
local situation, and productions.

"When God had created the heavens and the earth, and separated the
light from the darkness, his next great command was to the waters,
Gen. i. 9,--'And God said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered
together into _one place_, and let the dry land appear: and it was
so.' From this we learn a marvellous fact, which very few have ever
realized or believed in this benighted age; we learn that the waters,
which are now divided into oceans, seas, and lakes, were then all
gathered together, into _one_ vast ocean; and, consequently, that
the land, which is now torn asunder, and divided into continents and
islands, almost innumerable, was then _one_ vast continent or body, not
separated as it is now.

"Second, we hear the Lord God pronounce the earth, as well as every
thing else, very good. From this we learn that there were neither
deserts, barren places, stagnant swamps, rough, broken, rugged hills,
nor vast mountains covered with eternal snow; and no part of it was
located in the frigid zone, so as to render its climate dreary and
unproductive, subject to eternal frost, or everlasting chains of ice,--

    Where no sweet flowers the dreary landscape cheer,
    Nor plenteous harvests crown the passing year;

but the whole earth was probably one vast plain, or interspersed
with gently rising hills, and sloping vales, well calculated for
cultivation; while its climate was delightfully varied, with the
moderate changes of heat and cold, of wet and dry, which only tended
to crown the varied year, with the greater variety of productions,
all for the good of man, animal, fowl, or creeping thing; while from
the flowery plain, or spicy grove, sweet odours were wafted on every
breeze; and all the vast creation of animated being breathed nought but
health, and peace, and joy.

"Next, we learn from Gen. i. 29, 30,--'And God said, Behold, I have
given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the
earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree, yielding seed;
to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to
every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth,
wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it
was so.' From these verses we learn, that the earth yielded neither
nauseous weeds nor poisonous plants, nor useless thorns and thistles;
indeed, every thing that grew was just calculated for the food of man,
beast, fowl, and creeping thing; and their food was all vegetable;
flesh and blood were never sacrificed to glut their souls, or gratify
their appetites; the beasts of the earth were all in perfect harmony
with each other; the lion ate straw like the ox--the wolf dwelt with
the lamb--the leopard lay down with the kid--the cow and bear fed
together, in the same pasture, while their young ones reposed, in
perfect security, under the shade of the same trees; all was peace and
harmony, and nothing to hurt nor disturb, in all the holy mountain.

"And to crown the whole, we behold man created in the image of God,
and exalted in dignity and power, having dominion over all the vast
creation of animated beings, which swarmed through the earth, while,
at the same time, he inhabits a beautiful and well-watered garden, in
the midst of which stood the tree of life, to which he had free access;
while he stood in the presence of his Maker, conversed with him face
to face, and gazed upon his glory, without a dimming veil between. O
reader, contemplate, for a moment, this beautiful creation, clothed
with peace and plenty; the earth teeming, with harmless animals,
rejoicing over all the plain; the air swarming with delightful birds,
whose never ceasing notes filled the air with varied melody; and all in
subjection to their rightful sovereign who rejoiced over them; while,
in a delightful garden--the capitol of creation,--man was seated on the
throne of his vast empire, swaying his sceptre over all the earth, with
undisputed right; while legions of angels encamped round about him, and
joined their glad voices, in grateful songs of praise, and shouts of
joy; neither a sigh nor groan was heard, throughout the vast expanse;
neither was there sorrow, tears, pain, weeping, sickness, nor death;
neither contentions, wars, nor bloodshed; but peace crowned the seasons
as they rolled, and life, joy, and love, reigned over all his works.
But, O! how changed the scene.

"It now becomes my painful duty, to trace some of the important
changes, which have taken place, and the causes which have conspired to
reduce the earth and its inhabitants to their present state.

"First, man fell from his standing before God, by giving heed to
temptation; and this fall affected the whole creation, as well as
man, and caused various changes to take place; he was banished from
the presence of his Creator, and a veil was drawn between them, and
he was driven from the garden of Eden, to till the earth, which was
then cursed for man's sake, and should begin to bring forth thorns and
thistles: and with the sweat of his face he should earn his bread, and
in sorrow eat of it, all the days of his life, and finally return to
dust. But as to Eve, her curse was a great multiplicity of sorrow and
conception; and between her seed, and the seed of the serpent, there
was to be a constant enmity; it should bruise the serpent's head, and
the serpent should bruise his heel.

"Now, reader, contemplate the change. This scene, which was so
beautiful a little before, had now become the abode of sorrow and
toil, of death and mourning: the earth groaning with its production
of accursed thorns and thistles; man and beast at enmity; the serpent
slily creeping away, fearing lest his head should got the deadly
bruise; and man startling amid the thorny path, in fear, lest the
serpent's fangs should pierce his heel; while the lamb yields his blood
upon the smoking altar. Soon man begins to persecute, hate, and murder
his fellow; until at length the earth is filled with violence; all
flesh becomes corrupt, the powers of darkness prevail; and it repented
Noah that God had made man, and it grieved him at his heart, because
the Lord should come out in vengeance, and cleanse the earth by water.

"How far the flood may have contributed, to produce the various
changes, as to the division of the earth into broken fragments, islands
and continents, mountains and valleys, we have not been informed; the
change must have been considerable. But after the flood, in the days of
Peleg, the earth was divided.--See Gen. x. 25,--a short history, to be
sure, of so great an event; but still it will account for the mighty
revolution, which rolled the sea from its own place in the north, and
brought it to interpose between different portions of the earth, which
were thus parted asunder, and moved into something near their present
form; this, together with the earthquakes, revolutions, and commotions
which have since taken place, have all contributed to reduce the face
of the earth to its present state; while the great curses which have
fallen upon different portions, because of the wickedness of men, will
account for the stagnant swamps, the sunken lakes, the dead seas, and
great deserts.

"Witness, for instance, the denunciations of the prophets upon
Babylon, how it was to become perpetual desolations, a den of wild
beasts, a dwelling of unclean and hateful birds, a place for owls; and
should never be inhabited, but should lie desolate from generation
to generation. Witness also the plains of Sodom, filled with towns,
cities, and flourishing gardens, well watered: but O, how changed! a
vast sea of stagnant water alone marks the place. Witness the land
of Palestine; in the days of Solomon it was capable of sustaining
millions of people, besides a surplus of wheat, and other productions,
which were exchanged with the neighbouring nations; whereas, now it is
desolate, and hardly capable of sustaining a few miserable inhabitants.
And when I cast mine eyes over our own land, and see the numerous
swamps, lakes, and ponds of stagnant waters, together with the vast
mountains and innumerable rough places; rocks having been rent, and
torn asunder, from centre to circumference; I exclaim, Whence all this?

"When I read the Book of Mormon, it informs me, that while Christ was
crucified among the Jews, this whole American continent was shaken
to its foundation, that many cities were sunk, and waters came up in
their places; that the rocks were all rent in twain; that mountains
were thrown up to an exceeding height; and other mountains became
vallies: the level roads spoiled; and the whole face of the land
changed.--I then exclaim, These things are no longer a mystery; I have
now learned to account for the many wonders, which I everywhere behold,
throughout our whole country; when I am passing a ledge of rocks, and
see they have all been rent and torn asunder, while some huge fragments
are found deeply imbedded in the earth, some rods from whence they
were torn, I exclaim, with astonishment, These were the groans! the
convulsive throes of agonizing nature! while the Son of God suffered
upon the cross!

"But men have degenerated, and greatly changed, as well as the earth.
The sins, the abominations, and the many evil habits of the latter
ages, have added to the miseries, toils, and sufferings of human life.
The idleness, extravagance, pride, covetousness, drunkenness, and other
abominations, which are characteristics of the latter times, have
all combined to sink mankind to the lowest state of wretchedness and
degradation; while priestcraft and false doctrines, have greatly tended
to lull mankind to sleep, and caused them to rest, infinitely short of
the powers and attainments which the ancients did enjoy, and which are
alone calculated to exalt the intellectual powers of the human mind,
to establish noble and generous sentiments, to enlarge the heart, and
to expand the soul to the utmost extent of its capacity. Witness the
ancients, conversing with the Great Jehovah, learning lessons from
the angels, and receiving instruction by the Holy Ghost, in dreams by
night, and visions by day, until at length the veil is taken off, and
they permitted to gaze, with wonder and admiration, upon all things
past and future; yea, even to soar aloft amid unnumbered worlds;
while the vast expanse of eternity stands open before them, and they
contemplate the mighty works of the Great I AM, until they know as they
are known, and see as they are seen.

"Compare this intelligence, with the low smatterings of education
and worldly wisdom, which seem to satisfy the narrow mind of man in
our generation; yea, behold the narrow-minded, calculating, trading,
overreaching, penurious sycophant, of the nineteenth century, who
dreams of nothing here, but how to increase his goods, or take
advantage of his neighbour; and whose only religious exercises or
duties consist of going to meeting, paying the priest his hire,
or praying to his God, without expecting to be heard or answered,
supposing that God has been deaf and dumb for many centuries, or
altogether stupid and indifferent like himself. And having seen the two
contrasted, you will be able to form some idea of the vast elevation
from which man has fallen; you will also learn, how infinitely beneath
his former glory and dignity, he is now living, and your heart will
mourn, and be exceedingly sorrowful, when you contemplate him in his
low estate--and then think he is your brother; and you will be ready
to exclaim, with wonder and astonishment, O man! how art thou fallen!
once thou wast the favourite of Heaven; thy Maker delighted to converse
with thee, and angels and the spirits of just men made perfect were
thy companions; but now thou art degraded, and brought down on a level
with the beasts; yea, far beneath them, for they look with horror and
affright at your vain amusements, your sports and your drunkenness,
and thus often set an example worthy of your imitation. Well did the
apostle Peter say of you, that you know nothing, only what you know
naturally as brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed. And thus you
perish, from generation to generation. While all creation groans under
its pollution; and sorrow and death, mourning and weeping, fill up the
measure of the days of man. But O my soul, dwell no longer on this
awful scene: let it suffice, to have discovered in some degree, what is
lost. Let us turn our attention to what the Prophets have said should
be restored.

"The Apostle Peter, while preaching to the Jews, says, 'And he shall
send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, whom the
heavens must receive, until the times of restitution (restoration)
of all things which God hath spoken, by the mouth of all the holy
prophets, since the world began.' It appears from the above, that all
the holy prophets from Adam, and those that follow after, have had
their eyes upon a certain time, when all things should be restored to
their primitive beauty and excellence. We also learn, that the time of
restitution was to be at or near the time of Christ's second coming;
for the heavens are to receive him, until the times of restitution, and
then the Father shall send him again to the earth.

"We will now proceed to notice Isaiah xl. 1-5. 'Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and
cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is
pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord's hand, double for all her
sins. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the
way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be
made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places
plain: and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall
see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.'

"From these verses we learn, first, that the voice of one shall be
heard in the wilderness, to prepare the way of the Lord, just at the
time when Jerusalem has been trodden down of the Gentiles long enough
to have received, at the Lord's hand, double for all her sins, yea,
when the warfare of Jerusalem is accomplished, and her iniquities
pardoned; then shall this proclamation be made as it was before by
John, yea, a second proclamation, to prepare the way of the Lord, for
his second coming; and about that time every valley shall be exalted,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be
made straight, and rough places plain, and then the glory of the Lord
shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth
of the Lord hath spoken it.

"Thus you see, every mountain being laid low, and every valley exalted,
and the rough places being made plain, and the crooked places straight,
that these mighty revolutions will begin to restore the face of the
earth to its former beauty. But all this done, we have not yet gone
through our restoration; there are many more great things to be done,
in order to restore all things.

"Our next is Isaiah 35th chapter, where we again read of the Lord's
second coming, and of the mighty works which attend it. The barren
desert should abound with pools and springs of living water, and should
produce grass, with flowers blooming and blossoming as the rose, and
that, too, about the time of the coming of their God, with vengeance
and recompense, which must allude to his second coming; and Israel is
to come at the same time to Zion, with songs of everlasting joy, and
sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Here, then, we have the curse taken
off from the deserts, and they become a fruitful, well-watered country.

"We will now inquire whether the islands return again to the
continents, from which they were once separated. For this subject
we refer you to Revelation vi. 14,--'And every mountain and island
were moved out of their places.' From this we learn that they moved
somewhere; and as it is the time of restoring what had been lost, they
accordingly return and join themselves to the land whence they came.

"Our next is Isaiah xiii. 13, 14, where 'The earth shall move out of
her place, and be like a chased roe which no man taketh up.' Also,
Isaiah lxii. 4, 'Thou shalt no more be termed forsaken; neither
shall thy land any more be termed desolate; but thou shalt be called
Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the Lord delighteth in thee, and
thy land shall be married.'

"In the first instance, we have the earth on a move like a chased roe;
and in the second place, we have it married. And from the whole, and
various Scriptures, we learn, that the continents and islands shall be
united in one, as they were on the morn of creation, and the sea shall
retire and assemble in its own place, where it was before; and all
these scenes shall take place during the mighty convulsion of nature,
about the time of the coming of the Lord.

    "Behold! the Mount of Olives rend in twain;
    While on its top he sets his feet again,
    The islands at his word, obedient, flee;
    While to the north, he rolls the mighty sea;
    Restores the earth in one, as at the first,
    With all its blessings, and removes the curse.

"Having restored the earth to the same glorious state in which it first
existed; levelling the mountains, exalting the valleys, smoothing
the rough places, making the deserts fruitful, and bringing all
the continents and islands together, causing the curse to be taken
off, that it shall no longer produce noxious weeds, and thorns, and
thistles; the next thing is to regulate and restore the brute creation
to their former state of peace and glory, causing all enmity to cease
from off the earth. But this will never be done until there is a
general destruction poured out upon man, which will entirely cleanse
the earth, and sweep all wickedness from its face. This will be done
by the rod of his mouth, and by the breath of his lips; or, in other
words, by fire as universal as the flood. Isaiah xi. 4, 6-9, 'But with
righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for
the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of
his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie
down with the kid; and the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling
together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the
bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the
lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play
on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on
the cockatrice's den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy
mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as
the waters cover the sea.'

"Thus, having cleansed the earth, and glorified it with the knowledge
of God, as the waters cover the sea, and having poured out his Spirit
upon all flesh, both man and beast becoming perfectly harmless, as
they were in the beginning, and feeding on vegetable food only, while
nothing is left to hurt or destroy in all the vast creation, the
prophets then proceed to give us many glorious descriptions of the
enjoyments of its inhabitants. 'They shall build houses and inhabit
them; they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine of them; they
shall plant gardens and eat the fruit of them; they shall not build
and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for as the
days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long
enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labour in vain, nor bring
forth in trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and
their offspring with them; and it shall come to pass, that before they
call I will answer, and while they are yet speaking I will hear.' In
this happy state of existence it seems that all people will live to the
full age of a tree, and this too without pain or sorrow, and whatsoever
they ask will be immediately answered, and even all their wants will be
anticipated. Of course, then, none of them will sleep in the dust, for
they will prefer to be translated; that is, changed in the twinkling
of an eye, from mortal to immortal; after which they will continue to
reign with Jesus on the earth." Pp. 110-122.

A great council will then be held to adjust the affairs of the world,
from the commencement, over which Father Adam will preside as head
and representative of the human family. There have been, in different
ages of the world, communications opened between the heavens and the
earth. Those powers have been separated, and have acted in different
spheres, until the present. The kingdom of God on the earth has been
small, weak, unpopular, trampled under foot of men, and none but men
of noble minds, firm hopes, and daring resolution, have advocated its
principles. These men, being possessed of intelligence from the heavens
by the ministering of angels, the communications of the spirits of the
just, and the manifestation of eternal things, knew of the approaching
day of glory, the reign of God on the earth; they understood their
destiny, and lived, and died, in the hopes of inheriting these things.
Those communications from the heavens developd the purposes of God to
them; and in all their moves, they were regulated by the prospect of
the future. In the Mosaic Dispensation they had to make earthly things
according to the pattern of heavenly. Hence it was said to Moses, "See
that thou make all things according to the pattern shewn thee in the
Mount." The ark was made, therefore, after a heavenly pattern, and so
was the Temple of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was a figure of the heavenly.
The sacrifices of the Aaronic Priesthood referred to the expiation of
Christ, who appears as the earthly High Priest of the Jews, and as our
eternal High Priest and Intercessor in the heavens. His Priesthood
was an eternal one, and is after the order of Melchisedek, and
Melchisedek's was after his order, and they both were after the order
that exists in the heavens. This priesthood with the Gospel, brought
life and immortality to light, put men in possession of certainty, and
unveiled the future; they knew the divine laws and ordinances, and
acted with a reference to them; and being commissioned of God, they had
power to bind and loose, etc.

Then they will assemble to regulate all these affairs, and all that
held keys of authority to administer, will then represent their earthly
course. And, as this authority has been handed down from one to another
in different ages, and in different dispensations, a full reckoning
will have to be made by all. All who have held keys of Priesthood,
will then have to give an account to those from whom they received
them. Those that were in the heavens, have been assisting those that
were upon the earth; but then, they will unite together in a general
council to give an account of their stewardships, and as in the
various ages men have received their power to administer, from those
who had previously held the keys thereof, there will be a general
account. Those, under the authorities of the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints, have to give an account of their transactions
to those who direct them in the Priesthood; hence the Elders give an
account to Presidents of Conferences; and Presidents of Conferences
to Presidents of Nations. Those Presidents and the Seventies give an
account to the Twelve Apostles; the Twelve to the First Presidency;
and they to Joseph, from whom they, and the Twelve, received
their Priesthood. This will include the arrangements of the last
dispensation. Joseph delivers his authority to Peter, who held the keys
before him, and delivered them to him; and Peter to Moses and Elias,
who endued him with this authority on the Mount; and they to those from
whom they received them. And thus the world's affairs will be regulated
and put right, the restitution of all things be accomplished, and the
Kingdom of God be ushered in. The earth will be delivered from under
the curse, resume its paradisiacal glory, and all things pertaining to
its restoration be fulfilled.

Not only will the earth be restored, but also man; and those promises
which, long ago, were the hope of the saints, will be realised. The
faithful servants of God who have lived in every age, will then come
forth and experience the full fruition of that joy, for which they
lived, and hoped, and suffered, and died. The tombs will deliver up
their captives, and re-united with the spirits which once animated,
vivified, cheered, and sustained them while in this vale of tears,
these bodies will be like unto Christ's glorious body. They will then
rejoice in that resurrection for which they lived, while they sojourned
below. Adam, Seth, Enoch, and the faithful who lived before the flood,
will possess their proper inheritance. Noah and Melchisedek will stand
in their proper places. Abraham, with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him
of the same promise, will come forward at the head of innumerable
multitudes, and possess that land which God gave unto them for an
everlasting inheritance. The faithful, on the continent of America,
will also stand in their proper place; but, as this will be the time
of the restitution of all things, and all things will not be fully
restored at once; there will be a distinction between the resurrected
bodies, and those that have not been resurrected; and as the Scriptures
say that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither
doth corruption inherit incorruption; and although the world will
enjoy just laws--an equitable administration, and universal peace and
happiness prevail as the result of this righteousness; yet, there will
be a peculiar habitation for the resurrected bodies. This habitation
may be compared to Paradise, from whence man, in the beginning, was
driven.

When Adam was driven from the Garden, an angel was placed with a
naming sword to guard the way of the tree of life, lest man should
eat of it, and become immortal in his degenerate state, and thus be
incapable of obtaining that exaltation, which he would be capable of
enjoying through the redemption of Jesus Christ, and the power of the
resurrection, with his renewed and glorified body. Having tasted of the
nature of the fall, and having grappled with sin and misery, knowing
like the gods both good and evil, having like Jesus overcome the evil,
and through the power of the atonement, having conquered death, hell,
and the grave, he regains that Paradise, from which he was banished,
not in the capacity of ignorant man, unacquinted with evil, but like
unto a god. He can now stretch forth, and partake of the tree of life,
and eat of its fruits, and live and flourish eternally in possession of
that immortality which Jesus long ago promised to the faithful: "To him
that overcomes, will I grant to sit with me in my throne; and eat of
the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God."


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