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 The coming One, 
 
 3 1924 014 011 997 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924014011997 
 
THE 
 
 COMING ONE 
 
 BY -^V ^f '' 
 
 REV. A. B. SIMPSON 
 
 Christian Alliance Pub. Co. 
 
 692 Eighth Ave. 
 
 New York 
 
COPYRIGHTfiD 
 
 igi2 
 A. B. Simpson 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter I. 
 
 FACE 
 
 The Point of View 7 
 
 Chapter II. 
 The Christian Age 23 
 
 Chapter III. 
 The World Powers 39 
 
 Chapter IV. 
 God's Plan for Israel 56 
 
 Chapter V. 
 The Great Apostasy ^^ 
 
 Chapter VI. 
 The False Prophet 102 
 
 Chapter VII. 
 The Last Development of Antichrist no 
 
 Chapter VIII. 
 The Great Tribulation 119 
 
 Chapter IX. 
 The Parousia 133 
 
 Chapter X. 
 The Judgment of the Saints 144 
 
 Chapter XI. 
 The Epiphany and Millennial Reign 151 
 
 Chapter XII. 
 The New Heavens and Earth 166 
 
 Chapter XIII. 
 'Signs and Times of the End 181 
 
 Chapter XIV. 
 The Practical Influence of the Blessed Hope 201 
 
 Chapter XV. 
 The Lord's Coming and Missions 212 
 
Chapter I. 
 
 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 "Grace be unto you and peace from Him which is, 
 which was, and which is to come" ("the coming One"). — 
 Rev. i. 4. 
 
 OID the Lord Jesus Christ complete His 
 work on earth during His first advent 
 and leave to secondary agents and spiritual in- 
 fluences the finishing of His great plan of redemp- 
 tion ; or did He simply accomplish the first stage 
 of that great work and is He coming back again 
 in person some day to this old earth to complete 
 that glorious plan? This, in a word, is a state- 
 ment of the question that has passed into theo- 
 logical discussion as the pre-millennial and post- 
 millennial coming of the Lord. 
 
 I. THE POINT OF VIEW, THE OBJECTIONS. 
 
 In the first place let us look at the objections 
 which are made by many to the doctrine of the 
 pre-millennial coming of the Lord Jesus, and then 
 turn to the positive side. 
 
 NOT DEATH. 
 
 There are some who believe that the promises 
 of Christ's Coming are all fulfilled in the death of 
 
8 THE COMING ONE 
 
 His saints ; that at death the coming of the Lord 
 is practically realized by -each one of us individ- 
 ually. It is enough to say that there is the widest 
 contrast between death and the Lord's Coming 
 rightly understood. Death separates us from our 
 friends; the Lord's Coming re-unites us to our 
 friends. Death brings us to be with the Lord; 
 the Lord's Coming brings the Lord to be with us. 
 Death is the curse of sin ; the Lord's Coming can- 
 cels the curse forevermore. Perhaps a single pas- 
 sage in the New Testament is a sufificient inspired 
 proof that in the mind of Christ and the Holy 
 Spirit these are wholly diverse and the one can- 
 not be the fulfilment of the other. In speaking 
 to Peter and John before His ascension the Lord 
 told Peter by what death he should die. The 
 evangelist interprets His words to Peter as "sig- 
 nifying by what death he should glorify God," 
 Immediately afterwards He said about John, "If 
 I will that he ta,rry till I come, what is that to 
 thee? Then went abroad this saying among the 
 disciples that he should not die," clearly showing 
 that the coming of Christ was the very opposite 
 of dying. "Tarry till I come," implied that per- 
 haps he should not die at all. The idea of Com- 
 paring death with the Lord's Coming is wholly 
 
THE POINT OF VIEW 9 
 
 contrary to the thought that was in the mind of 
 the Lord. 
 
 In speaking to the Tfiessalonians about their 
 friends who had passed on, the apostle does not 
 comfort them by saying, "You ought to be very 
 glad because the Lord has come for them." On 
 the contrary, he says, "You ought to be com- 
 forted because some day the Lord is coming 
 for them." Surely, this is scarcely worth an argu- 
 ment. The Lord means something very much 
 more than death when He speaks of His return. 
 
 NOT THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM. 
 
 Some apply it to the destruction of Jerusalem 
 which occurred in the year 70, shortly after the 
 Lord's ascension. Now, it would seem very 
 strange to a patriotic Jew to be told that the 
 thing that was to him the brightest and sweet- 
 est hope of his holy faith simply meant a tragedy 
 of fire and blood that was to destroy the city 
 and the temple that he loved, and plunge mil- 
 lions of his race in temporal and eternal ruin. 
 To call that the Coming of the Lord, and thri 
 fulfilment of the blessed Hope surely would be a 
 travesty on all consistent thought and all com- 
 mon sense. If no other reason were available, it 
 
10 THE COMING O^^E 
 
 is enough to say that the destruction of Jerusa- 
 lem occurred a quarter of a century before the 
 book of Revelation was written, and the one 
 theme of that book from first to last is, "Behold, 
 I come." 
 
 NOT A SPIRITUAL INDWELLING. 
 
 There are many who apply the Lord's Coming 
 
 to His personal visitation to the hearts of His 
 
 people. "I will not leave you orphans. I will 
 
 come to you." "My Father will come to him, 
 
 and We will make Our abode with him." We 
 
 have heard people say, "Oh, it is all v._ry well for 
 
 you to talk about the Lord's Coming, but He has 
 
 come to us and we are satisfied." We wonder if 
 
 He came to these people any more intimately 
 
 than He came to John ! We wonder if John the 
 
 beloved did not have the Lord in his heart as 
 
 deeply and delightfully as the most advanced 
 
 modern saints ! Yet it was John who said, "We 
 
 shall be like Him when we shall see Him as He 
 
 is. And every man that hath this hope in him 
 
 purifieth himself even as He is pure." Have these 
 
 advanced saints got closer to Christ than Paul? 
 
 Yet it was Paul who said, "We shall be caught 
 
 up to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we 
 
THE POINT OP VIEW ii 
 
 ever Be with the Lord." The truth is the more 
 intimately we have Christ in our hearts the more 
 ardently will we long for His personal and visi- 
 ble return, for Christ in us is "the Hope of 
 glory." 
 
 NOT A SPIRITUAL {MILLENNIUM. 
 
 Others apply the promise of the Lord's Coming 
 to the spread of the Gospel and the influence of 
 the truth through the Church in all the world, 
 bringing about a millennium of principles and 
 spiritual progress. And this, they tell us, is the 
 true millennium and the real Coming of the Lord, 
 and some of them think that through the progress 
 of modern civilization it is already nearly here, 
 if it has not already come. Surely, that is not the 
 Lord's idea. He tells us that when He comes, 
 instead of men and women longing to welcome 
 Him and bow at His feet in worship and service, 
 there shall scarcely be "faith on the earth," and 
 "As it was in the days of Noah so shall it be when 
 the Son of man shall be revealed." They shall 
 be busy about everything else but Him. They 
 shall be finding their delight in everything else 
 but in the prospect of His coming and His reign. 
 
 We have not space to trace the vision of the 
 
12 THE COMING ONE 
 
 Master as He tells us what the 'future of tHe 
 Church is to be before His return. But certainly 
 it is anything but a millennium, nor do we find 
 much sign of a ftiillennium even in our best 
 Christian lands. The reports of the progress of 
 Christianity tell of declining membership, declin- 
 ing contributions for missions, and the decline of 
 faith on the part of the Church. The world will 
 not be watching for Him, but "as a snare will it 
 come upon all that dwell upon the earth." It 
 will not be the climax of human progress, but it 
 will be the catastrophe of all earthly pride. 
 
 FALSE SPIRITUALIZING. 
 
 There are many who tell us that the prophecies 
 of the Old Testament have a special spiritual 
 meaning, and that they refer to His inward reign 
 in the hearts of Christians and through the prin- 
 ciples of the Gospel in human society. There is 
 a spiritualizing tendency which would blot out 
 the literal Israel from the future history of the 
 world, and appropriate all the promises Christ 
 gave to them for ourselves. Do not wonder, 
 therefore, that Israel has turned the tables upon 
 us and has spiritualized all that the Old Testa- 
 ment prophets said about the first coming of 
 
THE POINT OF VIEW 13 
 
 Christ. A section of the Church is spiritualizing 
 all the Old Testament said about the Coming 
 King and Israel is spiritualizing all the Bible has 
 said about the Lamb of God. They take the 
 fifty-tHird chapter of Isaiah to mean the suffer- 
 ing nation of Israel and they are just as much 
 justified in this as modern theological teachers 
 are when they explain away the promises of 
 Christ's glorious reign as mere spiritual imagery. 
 
 GOD HAS NOT FAILED. 
 
 Again they tell us it would be a great dishonor 
 to the Holy Ghost to say that He was not ade- 
 quate for the complete regeneration of human 
 society; that if God does not through the pres- 
 ent agencies in tEe Church and the world com- 
 pletely defeat the power of evil and make all 
 things new, the Holy Ghost has failed and God 
 has not been equal to the task of saving tnen. 
 Perhaps that is the strongest argument that the 
 post-millennialists use. No, they say, we believe 
 God is equal to the task and before the Gospel 
 has finished its work it is going to close every 
 fealoon, save every sinner, and make every desert 
 to blossom as the rose. There is a good deal in 
 this that is plausible at first sight, but if you 
 
14 THE COMING ONE 
 
 think a moment you will agree that if that was 
 God's plan, if it was God's intention to take all 
 evil out of the world in the present age, if it was 
 God's intention to make everything pure, good 
 and holy now, He has made an awful failure of it. 
 We should be ashamed of the Gospel if that is the 
 best that it can do. The awful conditions of 
 human society to-day would be a frightful trav- 
 esty of divine power and grace if that was all 
 God meant to do. Therefore our answer is, God 
 never meant to do this and never said He would. 
 God said He was going to gather put of the na- 
 tions "a people for His name," and the world 
 would go on as it had gone on, and "the wicked 
 would still do wickedly and none of the wicked 
 wotild understand." When we thus understand 
 His plan we shall not be discouraged, but we are 
 in utter despair if we do not so understand it. Dr. 
 Kellogg said that the first years of his life in 
 India would have broken his heart because of 
 the awful sway of heathenism and wickedness, 
 and the scant rays of Gospel light after all that 
 had been done, were it not for the Hope of His 
 Coming. Thank God, He has not failed, and 
 some glorious day we shall fully understand. 
 
THE POINT OF VIEW 15 
 
 DIVINE REALITIES. 
 
 They tell us that this doctrine of the Lord's Re- 
 turn and the setting up of a glorious terrestrial 
 millennium is too material, earthly and sensu- 
 ous for spiritual minds. All these things are fig- 
 ures, and God is lifting our hearts and hopes to 
 something more spiritual and less earthly. We 
 are dealing with the physical and visible in this 
 childhood age. But we are going to pass on to 
 a higher realm where all will be purely spiritual. 
 
 That is the greatest heresy of the present day. 
 It began with spiritualizing the story of creation 
 and the result was the modern doctrine of Dar- 
 winian Evolution. The idea that Genesis is but 
 an allegory was the beginning, and Christian 
 ■Science is the climax, with its basic principle that 
 there never was anything created, and everything 
 there is is unreal. That is where false spiritual- 
 izing brings you. 
 
 The Liberal Theology goes further and says 
 that Jesus was an idea, and there was no histor- 
 ical Qirist, no cross, no resurrection; it was all 
 an idea in the minds of mystics; if He did ever 
 live and die His dust is still sleeping under the 
 Syrian stars. That is what spiritualizing does. 
 
i6 THE COMING ONE 
 
 It takes out of God's Book all reality and makea 
 everything merely a dream as vague as the fool- 
 ieries of Christian Science. Thank God He is 
 real and we are real and Christ is real and the 
 coming glory is real, and "This same Jesus shall 
 so come again in like manner as ye have seen 
 Him go into heaven." 
 
 II. THE PRE-MILLENNIAL POINT OF VIEW, 
 
 Is there positive proof that we may look for the 
 Pre-millennial Coming of the Lord ? 
 
 CHRIST HAS ALREADY COME. 
 
 The Lord has been here already, the Lord Jesus 
 lived on this globe of ours literally, actually tread- 
 ing its material surface with His holy feet, and 
 saturating its soil with His precious blood. He 
 has been a citizen of this earth; why should it 
 be thought a thing incredible that He should 
 come back again to His old home? If He actual- 
 ly lived here once, why should He not actually 
 come here again? 
 
 How simple that is! Here once He initiated 
 His work. Why should He not come back and 
 finish it? Here once He fought the battle. Wh> 
 should He not come back and wear the crown 
 of victory and see of the travail of His soul and 
 
THE POINT OF VIEW 17 
 
 be satisfied ? Here once He paid the fearfu. price. 
 Why should He not come back to win the great 
 reward? That is what He Himself says. He is 
 "like a nobleman going to a far country to receive 
 for Himself a kingdom, and return." There is 
 nothing transcendent or novel about the glorious 
 Son of God becoming a citizen of earth. He is 
 a citizen of earth forevermore and has already 
 lived among us here like other men. 
 
 HIS HUlfANITY IS ETERNAL. 
 
 He did not merely in a transitory way touch 
 the human family, but He became forever identi- 
 fied with the race of Adam, and He never can 
 get away from His humanity. All that concerns 
 our race concerns Him. He is a man to-day and 
 He will be a man forever, and wherever man is 
 to be, the Son of man will be also. So that Christ's 
 relation to this old earth is a permanent relation 
 and His kingdom is to be consummated here 
 where it was first begun. 
 
 UNFULFILLED PROPHECIES. 
 
 Let us note that the promises and prophecies 
 of the Old Testament have not been satisfied and 
 
i8 THE COMING ONE 
 
 fulfilled. There is a double thread running 
 through the warp and woof of ancient prophecy. 
 There is the crimson line of the cross, but there 
 is the golden thread of the coming glory. The 
 Jews saw only the prophecies of the glory, and 
 therefore when He appeared among them they 
 were not prepared to recognize the lowly Naza- 
 rene, that rejected Man, as. the fulfilment of the 
 splendid ideal. They had good cause for it, to a 
 certain extent, at least. The only trouble with 
 them was that they were out of date. They had 
 mixed the chronology. He was the King, but 
 He was not yet enthroned. It was first the cross 
 and then the crown; the Lamb of Calvary first 
 and then the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Unless 
 He comes again part of the prophetic Scriptures 
 will be unrealized. It was necessary that He 
 should fulfil the vision of the cross and it is just 
 as necessary that He shall fulfil the vision of the 
 King. 
 
 Christ's own testimony. 
 
 The Lord Jesus Himself when He was on earth 
 always left the impression that He was coming 
 back again, actually, visibly, personally to His 
 people. He repeatedly told them also that when 
 
THE POINT OF VIEW 19 
 
 the Son of man should come He should sit on the 
 throne of His glory and they should sit on thrones 
 and receive rewards for their earthly sacrifice and 
 sufferings. One particular event in the very mid- 
 dle of His career, the Transfiguration on the 
 Mount, was an object lesson, a demonstration of 
 this very thing, foreshadowing the fact that He 
 who seemed so obscure was really to be unveiled 
 some day in the great Apocalypse of the Advent 
 and appear in glory. The risen dead were repre- 
 sented by Moses and the transfigured living by 
 EHas. In Matthew xxiv. we have a detailed 
 prophecy of the Lord's return. We have also the 
 parables of the Talents, and the Pounds, the Mar- 
 riage of the King's Son, the Ten Virgins, the 
 Sheep and the Goats. These have no meaning 
 unless the Lord is coming back again. All His 
 teachings crystallized around two focal points, 
 His cross and His advent. 
 
 HIS LAST MESSAGE. 
 
 In the next place, His very last message was 
 on this specific subject. As He hovered in mid- 
 air between earth and heaven, His parting word 
 was sent back by two messengers, perhaps two 
 glorified men, who stood by them and said, "Why 
 
20 THE COMING ONE 
 
 stand yc gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus 
 shall so come again in like manner as ye have 
 seen Him go up into heaven." _ Put these three 
 S's together— Same— So— Seen, and you have a 
 trinity of infallible proof. "This same Jesus shall 
 so come as ye have seen Him go." He is the same 
 and He will be the same then, and you will see 
 Him and you will know He is the same. That 
 is Christ's farewell message, and we know He 
 means what He says. 
 
 TESTIMONY OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 The apostolic testimony was always the same. 
 Peter said at the very beginning of the Acts, 
 "Whom the heavens must receive till the times of 
 the restitution of all things." Therefore, when 
 that is accomplished the heavens will not hold 
 Him any more. 
 
 Paul proclaimed Him as the Cne who would 
 be "the Judge of the living and the dead." In 
 Romans he gives three chapters to the dispensa- 
 tional questions leading up to the day when a 
 Deliverer shall come to Zion and turn away un- 
 godliness from Jacob. The First Epistle to the 
 Corinthians reaches its climax in the magnifi- 
 cent fifteenth chapter, and the realities of that 
 
THE POINT OF VIEW 21 
 
 glorious appearing. Second Corinthians tells us 
 how "we must all appear before the judgment 
 seat of Christ." Colossians tells us that "when 
 He shall appear we shall appear with Him in 
 glory." Thessalonians crystallizes around the 
 doctrine of the Lord's Coming. Every chapter 
 and every important paragraph finds its keynote 
 in this blessed Hope. In Timothy Paul declares 
 that this is his own personal hope, that he shall 
 receive "the crown of righteousness" which the 
 Lord is keeping not only for him but "for all that 
 love His appearing." James bids us "Be patient 
 * * * unto the coming of the Lord." Peter 
 tells us it was the very meaning of the Trans- 
 figuration when they "were with Him in the 
 holy mount." John in his epistles and the Apoca- 
 lypse repeats the message of His glorious Advent 
 and the importance of our constant preparation 
 for it. 
 
 THE APOCALYPSE. 
 
 But the supreme and crowning evidence of the 
 Lord's pre-millennial coming is the glorious book 
 of Revelation. Two generations after Christ 
 had ascended, after thousands of saints had been 
 gathered home, after hundreds of churches had 
 
22 THE COMING ONE 
 
 been established on earth, after the spiritual facts 
 and experiences of Christianity had been illus- 
 trated to the fullest extent, the Lord Himself 
 came down as the last Messenger of inspired 
 truth, and to John on Patmos He gave a glorious 
 message of which the keynote and finale is this — 
 "I am coming again." The first announcement 
 in that Apocalypse is "Behold, He cometh with 
 clouds," and the last farewell is, "Behold, I come 
 quickly." 
 
 Shall we answer, "Even so, come Lord Jesus 
 come quickly"? 
 
Chapter II. 
 THE CHRISTIAN AGE. 
 
 "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith 
 unto the churches" (Rev. iii. 22). 
 
 iir^HAT is the prophetic pre-view of the pres- 
 VL/ ent age from the resurrection of Christ 
 down to His second advent? This inquiry will 
 throw much light upon many of the points which 
 we have already touched and make more clear, 
 we trust, the utter unscripturalness of the post- 
 millennial theory, or the prospect of a millen- 
 nium without Christ. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 TKe Church belongs to the Christian age. It 
 must be distinguished from Israel, God's Old 
 Testament people. The Church is the Body of 
 Christ, of which He is the Head, and the Build- 
 ing of which He is the Cornerstone. Therefore 
 the Church could not exist before Christ's finished 
 work and resurrection. "On this Rock (Him- 
 self)," He says, "will I build My Church." The 
 ChurcH is "built on the foundation of the apostles 
 
24 THE COMING ONE 
 
 and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the 
 chief cornerstone." The real Church or Body of 
 Christ is an invisible society, consisting of all who 
 are born again and united to the Lord Jesus by 
 the Holy Spirit and thus become partakers of His 
 redemption and His life. The visible Church is 
 the organized body of "those who profess and call 
 themselves Christians." It is recognized in the 
 New Testament as a divine organization, and yet, 
 like every organization of imperfect human be- 
 ings, it is also subject to imperfection and does 
 not always correspond with the real spiritual 
 body, truly united to Him. The Church therefore 
 has its heresies, apostasies and unfaithful mem- 
 bers, as well as its true followers of the Lord 
 Jesus. With various forms of government and 
 standards of doctrine it has existed throughout 
 the Christian centuries and will exist until the 
 Lord shall come. It is the representative of the 
 Lord on earth and His witness to the world, and 
 notwithstanding its imperfection it enjoys the 
 presence of the Master and the gifts and graces of 
 the Pentecostal Spirit. And the Lord is gather- 
 ing one by one, through it, the members of His 
 body from every land in every generation. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN AGE «s 
 
 HER CALLING. 
 
 The witnessing of the Gospel to all nations is 
 the business of the Church in the present age. 
 "Ye shall receive power after that the Holy 
 Ghost is come upon you and ye shall be witnesses 
 unto Me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Sam- 
 aria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." 
 "And that repentance and remission of sins should 
 be preached among all nations, beginning at Je- 
 rusalem, and ye are witnesses of these things." 
 "This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached 
 in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and 
 then shall the end come." And again, "God at 
 first did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a 
 people for His name." These passages give a 
 very explicit view of the special work of the Holy 
 Ghost and the Church of Christ during the pres- 
 ent age. We are to be witnesses of Christ among 
 all nations, first to the Jew and then to the Gen- 
 tile. We are to preach the Gospel among all 
 nations, not with the expectation that all will be 
 converted, but as a witness and an opportunity of 
 salvation for every sinful man. Through us God 
 is visiting the Gentiles, not to continue their day 
 of opportunity without limit, but for a special time 
 and purpose, that is, "to take out of them a peo- 
 
26 THE COMING ONE 
 
 pie for His name." He is sampling the families 
 of men. He is gathering a kind of "first-fruits of 
 His creatures" from every tribe and tongue. In a 
 word. He is constituting the Bride of the Lamb 
 of all the races and kindreds and tongues of 
 earth. And when the glorious day of His Parou- 
 sia shall come, there shall be "a great multitude of 
 every kindred and nation and people and tongue 
 before the throne and before the Lamb." 
 
 FAILURE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 The Cliristian Age is not represented in the 
 prophetic glimpses given by Christ and His apos- 
 tles as an age of ideal moral or spiritual perfec- 
 tion. On the contrary, there are-early intimations 
 of error, declension and apostasy. We find these 
 things beginning even in the apostolic age, and 
 looking down to later times the Lord Jesus tells 
 us, "Many shall be offended and shall betray one 
 another and shall hate one another, and many 
 false prophets shall arise and shall deceive many ; 
 and because iniquity shall abound, the love of 
 many shall wax cold." Even the ministers of 
 Christ shall be like the evil servant who "shall 
 say in his Heart, My lord delayeth his coming; 
 and shall begin to smite his fellow servants and 
 
THE CHRISTIAN AGE 27 
 
 to eat and drink with the drunken." "As it was in 
 the days of Noah and of Lot, so shall it be in that 
 day," "Eating and drinking, marrying and giv- 
 ing in marriage," and wholly absorbed in the 
 world's pleasures and cares. 
 
 More explicitly does the apostl0 Paul in his 
 letters to Timothy foretell the coming apostasy. 
 "This know, that in the last days perilous times 
 shall come. Men shall be lovers of their own 
 selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, 
 disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, with- 
 out natural affections, trucebreakers, false ac- 
 cusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that 
 are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of 
 pleasure more than lovers of God ; having a form 
 of godliness, but denying the power thereof." 
 And again, still more emphactically he tells us, 
 "The Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter 
 times some shall depart from the faith, giving 
 heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils ; 
 speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their con- 
 science seared with a hot iron ; forbidding to mar- 
 ry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which 
 God hath created to be received with thanks- 
 giving of them which believe and know the 
 truth." 
 
28 THE COMING ONE 
 
 Peter also in his second epistle forewarns us of 
 the same conditions. "But there were false proph- 
 ets also among the people, even as there shall be 
 false teachers among you, who privily shall bring 
 in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that 
 bought them, and bring upon themselves swift 
 destruction. And many shall follow their perni- 
 cious ways ; by reason of whom the way of truth 
 shall be evil spoken of. And through covetous- 
 ness shall they with feigned words make mer- 
 chandise of you : whose judgment now of a long 
 time Hngereth not, and their damnation slumber- 
 eth not" (II. Peter ii. 1-3). "Knowing this first, 
 that there shall come in the last days scoffers, 
 .walking after their own lusts, and saying. Where 
 is the promise of His coming? For since the 
 fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they 
 were from the beginning of the creation" (II, 
 Peter iii. 3, 4), 
 
 Jude also forecasts the same. "But, beloved, 
 remember ye the words which were spoken be- 
 fore of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ : how 
 that they told you there should be mockers in the 
 last time, who should walk after their own ungod- 
 ly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, 
 sensual, having not the Spirit" (Jude 17-19). 
 
THE CHRISTIAN AGE 29 
 
 Already the fulfilment of these ominous fore- 
 warnings is manifest on every hand. The Church 
 of the Apostles became the apostasy of Rome, and 
 the Church of the Reformation appears in even 
 greater danger of developing into the Laodicea 
 of the Apocalypse, if not the Babylon of God's 
 last and most terrible judgment. 
 
 PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM. 
 
 But the Lord Jesus has not left us mere frag- 
 ments of prophetic foreshadowing, but has given 
 us in the seven Parables of the Kingdom in the 
 thirteenth chapter of Matthew a very distinct 
 unfolding of the progress of Christianity from the 
 Ascension to the Advent. 
 
 The disciples were looking for prosperity and 
 popularity. They were delighted with the suc- 
 cess of their Master, with His victory over dis- 
 ease, Satan, death and sin. What power could 
 resist Him? They saw themselves already sit- 
 ting with Him on the thrones of David's restored 
 kingdom. The Lord knew better. He saw the 
 dark scenes that were just before them and the 
 centuries of suffering and seeming failure for the 
 cause which He was establishing at such awful 
 cost. It was necessary that they should un- 
 
30 THE COMING ONE 
 
 derstand it, should be disillusionized and should 
 be sent forth as ministers of the New Testament 
 with their eyes fully opened. It is a very dread- 
 ful thing to-day for the minister of the Gospel to 
 go forth expecting a brilliant future, expecting the 
 acclamations of the crowd, expecting the people 
 to applaud him because he is true to Jesus Christ. 
 It is necessary that the worker should under- 
 stand that the kingdom of heaven always means 
 the cross, the judgment hall, the minority with 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, our rejected Master. This 
 was what He taught them in this series of para- 
 bles. 
 
 The parable of the Sower represents the plant- 
 ing of Christianity. Three parts of the seed are 
 lost, but one-fourth is productive, and the in- 
 crease is thirty, sixty, and one hundred fold. 
 
 They had to learn that most of their words 
 seemed to fail, and there would be no response 
 from the multitudes of hearts. From others the 
 fruit would be transient and soon forgotten. 
 From other it would be lost in the temptations of 
 the world. Only part of it would come to perfec- 
 tion. That is the first lesson the worker has to 
 learn. 
 
 The parable of the Tares represents the plant- 
 ing of error in the Church, the heresies, corrup- 
 
THE CHRISTIAN AGE 31 
 
 tions and intertninglings of evil men in the early 
 Church as well as later times. Even the little 
 that grew got mixed with Satan's seed. The dis- 
 ciples thought they could pull up the tares, but 
 He said that in pulling up the tares they would 
 pull up the wheat also. The people that are in 
 the business of judging are not in the Lord's 
 employ. "Let both grow together till harvest." 
 Olir dreams of a perfect Church are doomed to be 
 disappointed. The devil worked while the Church 
 was asleep, a work, alas, which we can ill eradi- 
 cate by our discipline or denunciation, but must 
 wait for much of it to be burned out at the great 
 harvest time. Henceforth, the visible Church is 
 a mixture of truth and error, good and evil. 
 
 Next, in the Mustard Seed we see the rapid 
 growth of this mingled system covering the earth 
 with its extensive shade, and lodging the fowls of 
 heaven. Is not this most promising? Let us not 
 be too sure. The fowls of the air who lodge in 
 the branches have already a bad reputation from 
 the first parable, as the destructive and mischiev- 
 ous intruders who picked up the good seed, and 
 they would seem to be here the same ill brood of 
 evil emissaries who find shelter in the great, 
 proud, worldly and unhallowed Church of the age 
 of Constantine and to-day. 
 
3,2 THE COMING ONE 
 
 This is made much more plain when we come 
 to the fourth parable, the Leaven, which is God's 
 uniform -symbol of corruption; and when the 
 woman is added to the picture it becomes a sig- 
 nificant and unmistakable emblem of the great 
 apostasy which sprang up in the sixth and seventh 
 centuries and speedily permeated the whole 
 Church with the leaven of the Papacy and all its 
 kindred corruptions. 
 
 But was there no residuum of good left of all 
 the apostolic sowing? Yes, the Hid Treasure and 
 the Pearl represent the two sides of the elements 
 of good in contrast with the two symbols of evil. 
 The Treasure represents the pure and Scriptural 
 elements surviving in the Church in the individ- 
 uals — the many; the Pearl in their unity, as the 
 one small, yet pure and heavenly jewel of the Lord 
 amid the encompassing corruption. Both ifind 
 their historical fulfilment in the faithful few who 
 have ever existed in even the darkest ages of 
 medieval corruption; the Albigenses and Paulic- 
 ians, the Hussites and Moravians, the Waldenses 
 and Vaudois, the Wycliffites and Huguenots, the 
 Reformers and Covenanters, and the pure and 
 true ones who have before and since dared to be 
 faithful to God and His holy "Word. There has 
 
THE CHRISTIAN AGE 33 
 
 ever been a little flock, of which He says : "They 
 shall be mine in the day when I make up My 
 jewels." There are some who identify the Treas- 
 ure with Israel, and the Pearl with the Church, 
 the Bride of the Lamb. But this does not affect 
 the dispensational bearing of the parables. 
 
 Thus have we seen the two sowings, the 
 growth of the evil, the hidden remnant of the 
 good ; and we ask, perhaps, are they always to be 
 thus confounded? 
 
 No, the parable of the Draw Net reveals to us 
 the final separation. Angel hands will make it 
 with impartial and unerring exactness, and they 
 shall be consigned to their eternal states and 
 places, the righteous to "shine forth as the sun 
 in the kingdom. of their Father," the wicked to 
 "the furnace of fire." 
 
 THE SEVEN CHURCHiES. 
 
 Once more in the Seven Epistles fb the 
 churches of Asia, our Lord's last word to the pres- 
 ent age, we have what appears to the most 
 tHougKtJul expositors an historical panorama of 
 the successive stages of visible Christianity from 
 the vision of Patmos to the end of time. 
 
 THe seven churches correspond to the seven 
 
34 THE COMING ONE 
 
 parables of the thirteenth chapter of Matthew. 
 They teach the same lessons and unfold the same 
 panorama and we may well meet the solemn con- 
 clusion which the Master does after He had de- 
 livered them, "He that hath an ear let him hear 
 what the Spirit saith unto the churches," for that 
 is the last message of the Holy Ghost to the mod- 
 ern church. It is not the ancient church, not the 
 apostolic church; it is the church that was on 
 earth two generations after the death of Jesus. 
 Thousands had gone to heaven. Thousands of 
 churches had been organized. And now at last the 
 Lord comes down to earth again for a second visi- 
 ation in person, and on the isle of Patmos He 
 gives John a last revelation, a last outlook of the 
 churches of the present age. The wisest exposi- 
 tors have almost uniformly united in recogniz- 
 ing in these seven epistles a panorama stretching 
 down from the days of John to the last time, each 
 of these churches representing a different age, 
 and yet each of them continuing in spirit to the 
 end and adding a new coloring to the whole pic- 
 ture. They seem to meet like a great stream 
 flowing dov»n through church history. It begins 
 in the church at Ephesus. Then we see another 
 tributary running into it, the church of Smyrna. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN AGE 35 
 
 Then come Pergamos and Thyatira. Still later 
 Sardis pours its dark waters. Then follows the 
 bright crystal river of Philadelphia, and at last it 
 ends in a great sluggish swamp, Laodicea, which 
 lies hard by the cities of the plain, Sodom and 
 Gomorrah, and the gates of hell. 
 
 The church in Ephesus, orthodox, active, con- 
 servative and growing cold, represents the sec- 
 ond generation of primitive Christians, already 
 so far losing their first love that Paul and John 
 both speak of this same Ephesian church as turn- 
 ing away from them. 
 
 The church in Smyrna is a suffering church, go- 
 ing through its ten days of tribulation and pur- 
 chasing by blood and shame the martyr's crown. 
 This corresponds to the age of persecution that 
 came in the second and third centuries to recall 
 the cold and formal Ephesus to her first love, 
 during which a series of ten distinct persecutions 
 swept the whole line with fire and blood, and 
 carried countless martyrs into heaven. 
 
 The church in Pergamos is a different type. It 
 dwells at Satan's seat, the dominion of the world. 
 It is assailed by Balaam's wiles, the allurements 
 of the world. It is the church of Constantine and 
 the converted empire, the church suddenly exalt" 
 
36 THE COMING ONE 
 
 ed to imperial favor, wealth and power and cor- 
 rupted by the world from its faithfulness and pur- 
 ity; until the smile of an emperor, the seat of 
 honor at a banquet, the grand cathedral, the 
 proud bishopric or patriarchate took the place of 
 ancient simplicity and fidelity, and prepared the 
 way for the next and deeper plunge. 
 
 Then comes Thyatira, "that woman Jezebel," 
 the "depths of Satan," a true and vivid picture of 
 the rise of Romanism and all its deep and devil- 
 ish wiles and widespread domination over the 
 Church of God from the sixth to the sixteenth 
 century, 
 
 Sardis represents a yet darker eclipse, "a name 
 to live, and thou art dead." It is the Dark Ages, 
 the putrid corpse of Medieval Romanism. 
 
 And yet in both these churches there are a 
 few exceptions; there is a holy seed; there are 
 those in Thyatira that "have not known this doc- 
 trine," and there are "a few names even in Sardis 
 that have not defiled their garments." These are 
 the refugees of medieval times, the martyrs of 
 Romanism, the witnesses for God before the Ref- 
 ormation, who suffered and died for the testi- 
 mony of Jesus, to the number of countless mil- 
 lions. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN AGE 37 
 
 Like a burst of sunrise conies the church in 
 Philadelphia. It has "a little strength," but it is 
 true. Especially does it honor God's "Word" 
 and hold up Christ's "name." Can we mistake it? 
 It is the Church of the Reformation, and its hon- 
 ored names shall forever be as pillars in the Tem- 
 ple of God, and share the glories of the New Jeru- 
 salem. 
 
 But there is one chapter more (would that we 
 had not to write it). It is Laodicea, the church 
 of wealth and pride, but so languid and lukewarm 
 that the impatient Master is about to reject it as 
 a nauseous offence. It is our modern Protestant- 
 ism, boasting of its numbers, its works, its re- 
 sources, while 149 out of every 150 of the human 
 race are yet unsaved, while heathenism is increas- 
 ing at the rate of two millions a year, and one 
 sixtieth of one per cent, of our wealth is given for 
 the Gospel, and one third is paid for whiskey and 
 tobacco alone ; while luxury, avarice and pleasure 
 are sapping the springs of piety and morality, and 
 culture leading thousands into scepticism ; and the 
 Master, in anger and concern, alternately pleads 
 and warns, begs her to open the door and let Him 
 in, threatens with rebukes and chastenings, and, 
 with His hand on the very latch of Time, is about 
 
38 THE COMING ONE 
 
 to enter once more His temple and His world, and 
 make His last awful Inquisition. And yet He 
 pauses, and pointing to the Millennial Throne 
 on which He is just about to sit down, He offers 
 this glorious reward: "To him that overcometh 
 will I grant to sit down with Me on My throne, 
 even as I also overcame, and am set down with 
 My Father upon His throne." 
 
 Such is the picture of the Church through the 
 Christian age. "Have we understood all these 
 things?" Have we seen any family photographs? 
 Are we ready for the inspection of Him who 
 walks amid the Seven Golden Lamps, and looks 
 with eyes that are as a flame of fire? Are we in 
 Ephesus, Laodicea or Pergamos, or worse, in 
 Thyatira or Sardis? Or are we in suffering 
 Smyrna, or humble, faithful Philadelphia? Thank 
 God, the Seven Churches are not merely for brief 
 and transient periods, but the spirit of each con- 
 tinues to the end. So there is a holy Philadelphia 
 even amid an insipid Laodicea. May He find us 
 with the little flock to whom it is the Father's 
 good pleasure to g^ve the kingdom I 
 
Chapter III. 
 THE WORLD POWERS, 
 
 "When the Most High divided to the nations their in- 
 heritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set 
 the bounds of the people according to the number of the 
 children of Israel" (Deut. xxxii. 8). 
 
 "These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, 
 which shall arise out of the earth: But the saints of the 
 Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the king- 
 dom forever, even forever and ever. . . . 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, whose kingdom is an ever- 
 lasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey 
 Him" (Dan. vii. 17, 18, 27). 
 
 ^^^ HE plan of God embraces the political con- 
 ^^y ditions of human history. "When the Most 
 High divided the nations their inheritance, when 
 He separated the saints of Adam, He set the 
 bounds of the people according to the number of 
 the children of Israel" (Deut. xxxii. 8). The 
 Prophetic Scriptures contain a clear and distinct 
 picture of national conditions throughout the 
 ages and until the ushering in of the everlasting 
 kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 Soon after the deluge, human ambition made its 
 
40 THE COMING ONE 
 
 first attempt to concentrate the race round one 
 great metropolis of power and pride. The scene 
 of this first attempt ait imperial despotism after- 
 wards became the seat of the world's first univer- 
 sal empire, namely, Babylon. But the tower of 
 Babel was stricken by divine judgment and the 
 nations scattered, and it was fifteen centuries be- 
 fore any one of them succeeded in attaining uni- 
 versal empire. The prophetic Scriptures really 
 begin, so far as the nations are concerned, with 
 the rise of this first great world power, Babylon. 
 There are a number of important points which 
 we should clearly understand in order to follow 
 intelligently these prophetic Scriptures. 
 
 PROPHETIC TIMES. 
 
 The first is the distinction between the times of 
 the Gentiles and the times of the chosen people. In 
 his solemn words of warning in the twenty-sixth 
 chapter of Leviticus, Moses tells the people that 
 if they disobey the Lord and walk contrary to 
 Him, He will punish them "seven times" for their 
 disobedience. This expression is repeated several 
 times, until it is impossible to resist the conviction 
 that it means much more than seven judgments, 
 but must embrace a particular period of trial and 
 
THE WORLD POWERS 41 
 
 punishment whose duration is purposely ex- 
 pressed by this striking and significant phrase. 
 
 If this were the only place where the expression 
 "seven times" is used, the above conclusion would 
 not be so unavoidable, but we find the word 
 "time" or "times" to be a standard measure of 
 prophetic time, and in other prophecies we read 
 again and again of a time, times, half a time, and 
 even of seven times. A large and important class 
 of prophetic interpreters has therefore come to 
 the conclusion that a time is a fixed period and 
 really means a year of three hundred and sixty 
 days, according to the solar calendar; "tinies" 
 mean two years of three hundred and sixty days, 
 and seven times mean seven years of three hun- 
 dred and sixty days, or 2,520 days altogether. 
 The same interpreters have concluded on many 
 satisfactory grounds that in this estimate of pro- 
 phetic time a day is counted for a year, so that 
 2,520 days mean the same number of years. This 
 is known as the Year Dlay theory of prophetic 
 interpretation. 
 
 The fundamental argument for it is that in Dan- 
 iel's prophecy in the ninth chapter of his book 
 concerning the seventy Weeks that should elapse 
 until Messiah, we have four hundred and ninety 
 
421 ftim COMING ONE 
 
 days, and if these days are to be interpreted as 
 literal days, the whole prophecy becomes impos- 
 sible and absurd. But if thfey are year days, and 
 the time covers four hundred and ninety years, 
 this exactly corresponds to the period that elapsed 
 from Daniel's point of beginning to the coming of 
 Christ. The evidence of thig is so positive and 
 unanswerable that without the strongest reason 
 to the contrary it creates a precedent by which 
 all other such prophetic measurements should be 
 determined, unless there be in any particular caSe 
 unquestionable proof that literal days are meant. 
 
 TIMES OF ISSAEU 
 
 Without entering further into this argument, 
 we will assume that the seven times of judgment 
 that Moses was foreshadowing for Israel em- 
 braced a period of 2,520 years. We would natur- 
 ally look for the beginning of that period in con- 
 nection with the fall of the Jewish monarchy and 
 the destruction of Jerusalem in the time of Nebu- 
 chadnezzar when Israel's independence as a na- 
 tion virtually ceased and the chosen people went 
 down for ages under the dominion of the Gentile 
 nations. From that day the Jew has been down 
 and the Gentile in the ascendency and Jerusalem 
 
THE WORLD POWEKS 43 
 
 has been trodden down by the Gentiles until this 
 day. 
 
 TIMES OF THE GENTILES. 
 
 The Lord Jesus describes this period of Israel's 
 down-treading as the "times of the Gentiles." The 
 apostle Paul in Romans xi. 25 uses the same ex- 
 pression in the same connection. "I would not 
 have you ignorant," he says, "lest ye be wise in 
 your own conceits, that blindness in part hath 
 happened to Israel until the times of the Gentiles 
 be come in." He implies what the Lord Jesus had 
 also expressed in the passage quoted above, that 
 when the times of the Gentiles shall have been 
 fulfilled, then Israel's times will be resumed. 
 Therefore he adds, "And so all Israel shall be 
 saved, for there shall come out of Zion a Deliv- 
 erer, who shall turn away ungodliness from 
 Jacob." 
 
 But there is another passage which has special 
 reference to the times of the Gentiles and which 
 gives their duration. And strangely enough, it is 
 the same duration as the times of judgment pro- 
 nounced against Israel. In other words, Israel 
 is to have seven times of judgment and cor- 
 responding with these the Gentile nations are to 
 
44 THE COMING ONiB 
 
 have seven times of dominion. When Israel is 
 under the divine judgment the star of the Gentiles 
 is in the ascendent; when the times of the Gen- 
 tiles end then Israel's calling returns once more. 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar's vision. 
 
 This prophetic picture is given in the fourth 
 chapter of Daniel in another vision of Nebuchad- 
 nezzar's in which he saw the period of Gentile do- 
 minion represented under the figure of a tree, 
 over which seven times or periods were to pass. 
 This was interpreted by Daniel to mean primarily 
 a season of madness in his own life, which was to 
 continue for seven times or periods, during which 
 he was to be degraded like the beasts of the field, 
 and at the end of which he was to be restored to 
 his reason and take his place again, not as a proud 
 and vainglorious king, but as an humble worship- 
 per of the great God, and recognize His dominion 
 over all kings and kingdoms. Inasmuch, how- 
 ever, as Nebuchadnezzar was himself but a type 
 of his kingdom, and the head of the kingdoms that 
 were to follow, the ultimate fulfilment of this vis- 
 ion must be found in the whole history of the 
 Gentile kingdoms. The bestial madness of Nebu- 
 chadnezzar represents just what Daniel's vision 
 
THE WORLD POWERS 45 
 
 of the four wild beasts represented — the cruel, 
 selfish, brutal and earthly governments of the 
 Gentile world, ruling over earth with a sort of 
 madness, pot as beneficent sovereigns, but as fe- 
 rocious wild beasts, and destined in the purpose 
 of God to continue their terrible control and their 
 earthly character during seven great times or pro- 
 phetic ages, 2,520 years, or seven times of 360 
 years each, and at the close of that great period 
 to be restored from their gross and earthly mad- 
 ness by the coming of Christ, and to recognize 
 Him as "King of kings and Lord of lords." 
 
 We now come to the prophetic picture of the 
 times of the Gentiles in detail. This is given by 
 the prophet Daniel in three remarkable visions, 
 in the second, seventh and eighth chapters. So 
 remarkable are the details that it reads more like 
 history than prophecy and its fulfilment is one 
 of the strongest evidences of inspiration of the 
 Bible, so that even secular writers have acknowl- 
 edged the wonderful correspondence between the 
 visions of Daniel and the facts of history. 
 
 THE IMAGE OF GENTILE POWER. 
 
 In the second chapter of his writings we find 
 the first complete chart of the world's political 
 
46 THE COMING ONE 
 
 future, until the close of the present dispensation. 
 It was given first to Nebuchadnezzar in a forgot- 
 ten dream of his troubled sleep; then afterward 
 revealed to Daniel and interpreted by him in the 
 presence of the king. Under the figure of a great 
 image in the form of a man, with head of gold, 
 arms and breast of silver, loins of brass, legs of 
 iron, and feet and toes of iron and clay, he be- 
 held the symbols of the four great empires which 
 in succession were to rule the world until the 
 end, and the broken kingdoms to the number of 
 ten which were to rise out of the last of the four 
 empires and close the drama of the Gentile na- 
 tions. The head of gold was declared to repre- 
 sent the splendid empire of which Nebuchadnez- 
 zar was himself the living head; the breast and 
 arms of silver foreshadowed the Medo-Persian 
 Empire, which was to conquer and subdue Baby- 
 lon ; the loins of brass prefigured the strong em- 
 pire of Alexander and his successors ; the legs of 
 iron were the fitting type of the Roman power, 
 with its all-subduing might ; and the feet and toes 
 of iron and clay represented the smaller kingdoms 
 which were to rise out of the ruins ol the Roman 
 Empire and close the history of earth's govern- 
 ments. 
 
THE WORLD POWERS 47 
 
 The audacity of a captive daring to tell a des- 
 pot like Nebuchadnezzar in the meridian of his 
 glory, that his kingdom could ever fall, is the 
 strongest evidence of the divinity of the mes- 
 sage. The picture is marvelously true to the 
 facts of history. Babylon was actually the first 
 head of universal monarchy, having conquered 
 Nineveh in the year (fyj B.C., and holding the 
 scepter of the world until her own fall before the 
 Medo-Persians in 538. This second empire in 
 turn swayed a still larger circle of dominion, 
 until it was superseded by the Macedonian in 
 332, under Alexander, It in turn gradually fell 
 before the Roman power, which had begun its 
 career in the year 753 B.C., and absorbed all other 
 nations, until at length the last independent rem- 
 nant of the Macedonian Empire fell before it a lit- 
 tle before the Christian era. Rome in turn di- 
 vided into the Eastern and Western Empires, 
 which successively fell before other invaders ; the 
 one in 476 A.D., the other in 1453 ; and was suc- 
 ceeded by a cluster of smaller kingdoms, which 
 at all times since the fall of Rome, and especially 
 at the present time, could truthfully be enumera- 
 ted as ten, and singularly correspond to the toes 
 upon the feet of the image. Great Britain, France, 
 
^ THE COMINQ ONE 
 
 iGermany, Austria, Spain and Portugal, Scandina- 
 via, the Netherlands, Turkey, Russia, Italy, these 
 ten kingdoms constitute what is left oi the old 
 Roman Empire. 
 
 Then moreover, we observe the materials com- 
 posing the image in its several parts are singular- 
 ly suggestive of these successive empires. Gold 
 was the correct emblem of the magnificence of 
 Babylon ; silver of the luxurious elegance of Per- 
 sia ; brass, of the tremendous vigor of Macedonia ; 
 iron, of the colossal power of Rome, and clay of 
 the brittle, fragile and heterogeneous and chang- 
 ing character of the later kingdoms. Moreover, 
 we see a constant tendency to degeneration from 
 Babylon downwards. This is especially marked 
 in the matter of national unity. Babylon was a 
 single power ; Persia a double power ; Macedonia 
 divided into four kingdoms, and Rome terminated 
 in ten, as we shall see from later prophetic visions. 
 Even these ten seem to jend at last in universal 
 democracy. 
 
 THE STONE. 
 
 One more feature appears, and is tKe most 
 strongly marked of all in this first vision : namely, 
 a stone cut out without hands, which falls upon 
 
THE iWORJLD POWERS 49 
 
 the image, smiting it upon the toes, crushing them 
 to powder and scattering them like chaff before 
 the winds, while the stone becomes a great and 
 permanent kingdom, filling all the earth and su- 
 perseding all other forms of human government. 
 This stone is distinctly declared to represent the 
 Kingdom of Christ. Had it come in a different 
 form, to blend with the materials of the image, or 
 incorporate them into its substance; or had it 
 even fallen upon the legs of iron, it might havg 
 been interpreted to mean the first coming of 
 Christ, the Gospel Dispensation and the conver- 
 sion of the world. But it comes in the very last 
 stage of earth's nations, smiting the toes; and it 
 comes not to coalesce, but to destroy; it must 
 therefore mean the second advent of the Son of 
 God at the close of time, and is a rtvelation of 
 judgment and destruction towards the enemies of 
 the Gospel; coming not to convert and purify, 
 but to supersede the governments of earth, and 
 to be a kingdom more enduring than all the kingr 
 doms of the past. 
 
 THE WILD BEAST POWERS OF DANIEL VII. 
 
 But tHis is not the only vision wEicK Daniel 
 saw of earth's political future. Ti second series 
 
50 imii COMING 0NIE3 
 
 of symbolic visions of the same great empires 
 was given to him at a later period of his writings. 
 In the former vision the powers of earth were 
 represented from Nebuchadnezzar's standpoint as 
 objects of magnificence, and under the symbols 
 of earth's most precious and valued metals: but 
 in the later visions, in the seventh chapter, which 
 was Daniel's vision, not Nebuchadnezzar's, 
 heaven beholds these forms of earthly power and 
 pride under the repulsive images of terrible wild 
 beasts. The first, representing the supremacy, 
 majesty and rapid conquests of Babylon, is a 
 winged lion, which, indeed, we find among the 
 ruins of Babylon as one of the national em- 
 blems. The second, a ferocious bear, with three 
 ribs in his teeth, represents the savage cruelty of 
 Persia, that nation which could produce a Ha- 
 man, and decree the massacre of the whole Jew- 
 ish population in a single hour, and cast even 
 Daniel to the den of lions, and which did de- 
 vour and destroy three kingdoms as it rose to its 
 pre-eminence. The third is a winged leopard, 
 with four heads, representing the swiftness of 
 Alexander's conquests, and the four kingdoms 
 which succeeded him. The fourth is a 
 monster of indescribable form and terror, witK 
 
THE WORLD I^OWERS 51 
 
 teeth of iron, and heels that stamped in fury all 
 other powers beneath its feet, representing the 
 iourth great power, namely, the Roman, which 
 crushed the world beneath its feet, which stamped 
 out the independence of Judea and other nations, 
 which crucified the Son of God, which captured 
 and crushed Jerusalem, and which murdered in 
 the first three centuries tens of millions of Christian 
 martyrs. Then, corresponding to the ten toes in 
 the former vision, there are also ten horns, rising 
 out of the fourth beast, which undoubtedly repre- 
 sent the same ten kingdoms which we have al- 
 ready defined, and which succeeded after the fall 
 of imperial Rome, 
 
 THE VISION OF DANIEL VIII. 
 
 In the eighth chapter of Daniel we liavei a thir3 
 vision of two of the powers already described. 
 The two empires thus portrayed are Persia and 
 Macedonia. The first is represented by a ram, 
 and the second by a he-goat, characterized by the 
 notable horn between his eyes, representing Al- 
 exander the Great; this horn at length was 
 broken and followed by the growth of four lesser 
 horns, which represent the four kingdoms into 
 which Alexander's empire divided. In the pro- 
 
■&2 THE COMING ONE 
 
 phetic vision the ram and he-goat meet in terrific 
 and decisive conflict. The former is speedily 
 worsted and stamped out of existence, and the 
 second succeeds to the sway of his universal em- 
 pire. This, of course, describes the fall of Persia 
 before the Grecian conqueror. But the emphatic 
 feature of the vision is the importance attached to 
 one of these four horns and a Little Horn which 
 grows out of it, and which in later days becomes 
 a proud, presumptuous and oppressive power, es- 
 pecially in the eastern and southern portions of 
 the world, as the Little Horn of the seventh chap- 
 ter had been in the western and Roman world. 
 
 THE VISIONS OF THE APOCALYPSE. 
 
 In the book of Revelation we have a remarkable 
 series of visions respecting the world powers in 
 connection with the coming of Christ. These are 
 found especially in chapters thirteen, seventeen 
 and eighteen. In the thirteenth chapter of Rev- 
 elation the beloved John beholds a vision strange- 
 ly similar to Daniel's. It is the vision of the last 
 of Daniel's beasts, with the addition, besides the 
 ten horns, of seven terrific heads, and the further 
 addition of the dragon in the background, as the 
 real master and moving spirit of the whole pro- 
 
THE WORLD POWERS 53 
 
 cession of earth's powers and governments. The 
 beast which John beheld was the same which 
 Daniel had prefigured. Its seven heads were the 
 seven successive forms of Roman government, 
 and its last head the same apostasy which Daniel 
 saw as a little horn, and which succeeded to the 
 power of imperial Rome after the fall of the 
 Western Empire. John beholds the same ten 
 kingdoms, growing out of the Roman Beast. 
 
 LAST DAY DEMOCRACIES. 
 
 There are some peculiar features, however, in 
 this and his subsequent visions which deserve to 
 be noted. One of these is that in his first view of 
 the horns there are crowns upon all their heads. 
 In his later visions they are seen without their 
 crowns. This, coupled with other expressions, 
 such as "many waters," etc., seem to indicate that 
 in the last days the governments of earth shall 
 be democratic, and probably even anarchical and 
 lawless, and that the world is rapidly rushing to 
 an age of license, whose first symptoms are al- 
 ready only too apparent in the popular and So- 
 cialistic movements both of Europe and America. 
 
54 THE COMING ONE 
 
 ROME AND THE NATIONS. 
 
 Another feature in the visions of the Apoca- 
 lypse is the relation of the nations to the great 
 apostasy of Rome. They are represented in the 
 first period of her career as sustaining this eccle- 
 siastical system represented by the Woman on 
 the scarlet colored beast, and united with her in 
 unholy alliance; but later we see them hating 
 her, ravaging her and resenting fiercely her long 
 and arrogant dominancy over them. This also 
 has been strangely ti-ue during the past ten cen- 
 turies, and is being literally fulfilled in Europe 
 to-day in such Roman Catholic countries as Italy, 
 France and Portugal. 
 
 One more important feature of the national his- 
 tory of the future is very distinctly portrayed in 
 the Apocalypse; namely, the relation of the na- 
 tion to Christ and His cause, and the last great 
 struggle between good and evil toward the close 
 of the present age. The spirit of evil that rules in 
 the powers of earth is to send forth a deluge of 
 unhallowed influences, represented in the Apoca- 
 Ijrpse by three unclean spirits like frogs, which 
 shall go forth to possess the minds and hearts d 
 the kings and peoples of earth, with bitter and 
 
THE WORLD POWERS 55 
 
 wicked hatred of God, and to gather them togeth- 
 er for the last great conflict against Christ and 
 His cause. This is described as the war of Arma- 
 geddon (Rev. xvi. 13 to 16). Here the proud 
 and godless hosts of earth shall make their flnal 
 stand against Christ and His people. It will be 
 much more than a moral and spiritual struggle; 
 it will be a literal battle against the Jewish na- 
 tion and the Lamb of God. The result cannot 
 be doubtful. The glorious appearing of the Son 
 of God will end the conflict, and before His tri- 
 bunal shall be gathered all nations for the judg- 
 ment which is to determine their place of destiny 
 during the Millennial age. 
 
Chapter IV. 
 GOD'S PLAN FOR ISRAEL. 
 
 "When the Most High divided the nations their inheri- 
 tance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the 
 bounds of the people according to the number of the chil- 
 dren of Israel. For the Lord's portion is His people; 
 Jacob is the lot of His inheritance" (Deut. xxxii. 8). 
 
 "The people shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned 
 among the nations" (Num. xxxiii. 9). 
 
 ^^^HE existence and history of the Jewish na- 
 ^^ tion is a stupendous monument of the truth 
 of the Bible. The seed of Abraham is God's mira- 
 cle in history. They dwell among the nations, 
 "alone," among, but not of them ; like oil in water, 
 distinct and yet above the surface of the many 
 peoples where they have been scattered. 
 
 I, THE CALLING AND MISSION OF ISRAEL. 
 
 We Bnd a sketch of God's plan for Israel in 
 the 9th, loth, and nth chapters of Romans. Paul 
 pauses in his great treatise to give us three chap- 
 ters of dispensational truth in which the Jew 
 looms large in God's eternal plan. He says in 
 the fourth verse of the ninth chapter, "To whom 
 pertaineth the adoption, the sonship?" They are 
 
GOD'S PLAN FOR ISRAEL 57 
 
 the only nation that was ever called the sons of 
 God. Socialism talks about the fatherhood of 
 God and the brotherhood of man. Christ tells us 
 we are children of the devil until we are born 
 from above. The Jews were as a nation, the sons 
 of God. Israel was the first born to whom per- 
 tained the sonship and the glory which He gave 
 to them under David and Solomon, and which He 
 is going to give to them again. All the promises 
 of God came through them. All our ethical stand- 
 ards come to us from them. "To whom pertain- 
 eth the adoption, and the glory, and the cove- 
 nants, and the giving of the law, and the service 
 of God, and the promises ; whose are the fathers, 
 and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, 
 who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen" 
 (Rom. ix. 4, s). 
 
 This, then, was the calling of the Jew. This 
 was the high place God intended for them. First, 
 they were to be the depositories of divine truth, 
 to receive and distribute to the world the light 
 of heaven. In the next place Israel was to be a 
 witness for God among the nations and an object 
 lesson showing God's relations with men, for 
 through His dealing with them God has unfolded 
 His principles of government over all nations. 
 They were separated from association with the 
 
58 THB COMING OHm 
 
 ungodly world. They received the covenants. 
 They gave us Jesus Christ, "of whom as con- 
 cerning the flesh Christ came." All this we owe 
 to Israel, a debt we never can repay. If it had not 
 been for the Jew we would have had no Bible, no 
 Christ, no covenants of promise. 
 
 The nation was called in the loins of Abraham, 
 and was given to him in covenant as a literal pos- 
 terity as numerous as the sand upon the seashore, 
 accompanied by the promise of the land for "an 
 everlasting possession." Abraham has a spiritual 
 seed too, "as the stars of heaven." But God is not 
 going to let them steal their brethren's earthly in- 
 heritance. We are the spiritual seed of Abraham, 
 as believers in Christ, for Abraham is "the father 
 of all them who believe." But in receiving our 
 ispiritual privileges let us not push out the Jew 
 from his earthly inheritance. While ours is as- 
 sured by the covenants of God, for him the same 
 covenants are "without repentance" and cannot be 
 abrogated. 
 
 God renewed His covenant with Jacob, Moses, 
 Samuel, D'avid, and Solomon, in whom the king- 
 dom rose to its highest earthly glory. We read 
 in David's last words in II. Samuel xxiii. 5, "Al- 
 though my house be not so with God; yet He 
 
GOD'S PLAN FOR ISRAEL 59 
 
 hath made me an everlasting covenant, ordered 
 in all things and sure." In the 89th Psalm this 
 covenant is renewed and confirmed forever. "If 
 his children forsake my law, and walk not in my 
 judgments, if they break my statutes and keep 
 not my commandments; then will I visit their 
 transgression with a rod, and their iniquity with 
 stripes. Nevertheless, my loving kindness will I 
 not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithful- 
 ness to fail. My covenant will I not break nor 
 alter the thing that has gone out of my lips. Once 
 have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie 
 unto David. His seed shall endure forever and 
 his throne as the sand before me." 
 
 We are taught very clearly in the Epistle to 
 the Romans that God is not going to change this 
 covenant, and even Israel's ill conduct has not 
 dissolved it. They are being punished, but God 
 will be true to His oath. So we read, "For this is 
 my covenant unto them, when I shall take away 
 their sins. . . . For the gifts and calling of 
 God are without repentance." "And so all Is- 
 rael shall be saved, as it is written; there shall 
 come out of Zion the Deliverer and shall turn 
 away ungodliness from Jacob" (Rom. xi. 26-29). 
 
6o THE COMING ONiE 
 
 II. THE FAILtTRE AND REJECTION OF ISRAEL, 
 
 We find even Moses looking forward to this in his 
 last warnings to them. For forty years they had to 
 wander in the wilderness, and later for four hun- 
 dred years after Joshua, they had again to be dis- 
 ciplined and punished. They had had a greater 
 blessing and therefore they had a greater fall. 
 Samuel was called to restore them in the great 
 Reformation which he brought about. And Da- 
 vid became their divinely appointed king and vic- 
 torious leader in acquiring the promised kingdom. 
 He extended his scepter over a vast area and the 
 kingdom of Judah and Israel was not only the 
 most powerful on earth, but worthy to be com- 
 pared with any modern nation. Solomon suc- 
 ceeded to it, and for a time was worthy of his 
 glorious throne, but Solomon's heart became cor- 
 rupted by luxury and the influence of ungodly 
 associates, and God had to send the severest judg- 
 ments upon His people. After Solomon's death 
 the division of the people by the rebellion of Jer- 
 oboam resulted in Solomon's son inheriting only 
 two tribes, and the other ten became a separate 
 monarchy under the northern kings with their 
 capital at Samaria. These two kingdoms moved 
 on side by side for several centuries, both sinking 
 
GOD'S PLAN FOR ISRAEL 6i 
 
 deeper into idolatry, until at last the northern 
 kingdom became so utterly apostate that God 
 had to send upon it a terrific judgment that lit- 
 erally wiped it from the face of the earth. He sent 
 the Assyrian to capture Samaria, and the land 
 was given up tcx alien races, and from that day 
 the world has been wondering what has become 
 of the ten tribes of Israel. Apparently they have 
 been utterly blotted from the pages of history. 
 
 For a few centuries longer the southern king- 
 dom lingered with its story of sinning and repent- 
 ing. A few kings tried to lift it back to the plane 
 where David and Solomon had left it ; but at last 
 they all failed. Then came another blow — the 
 Babylonian captivity. God s^nt Nebuchadnezzar 
 against Jerusalem and after a succession of calam- 
 ities lasting nearly twenty years, the city was cap- 
 tured, the temple burned, and the people led away 
 captive for seventy years. 
 
 God in his infinite mercy and faithfulness gave 
 them another chance. Under Joshua, Ezra and 
 Nehemiah they were restored to their land. Un- 
 der the Maccabbees they fought for their inde- 
 pendence and flung off the yoke of their oppres- 
 sor for a time; and when Jesus came there still 
 was the form of a kingdom though the sovereign 
 
62 THB COMING ONK 
 
 was a dependent of Rome ; but the scepter had not 
 wholly "departed from Judah." 
 
 Then they rejected and crucified the Messiah. 
 His tears and warnings were unavailing as He 
 told them their house was "left unto them deso- 
 late," that the enemy should encamp about them, 
 and capture their fair city, and that "Jerusalem 
 should be trodden down" for centuries and Israel 
 scattered among the nations. 
 
 Israel's punishment. 
 
 Full soon the judgment fell. He gave them a 
 short probation during the first few years of the 
 apostles' ministry. 'He even sent Paul to them 
 for a final appeal, and they rejected him, and at 
 last he said, "We turn to the Gentiles ; your blood 
 be upon your own heads." Then tbe Roman 
 eagles began to gather about the doomed city. It 
 was besieged for two dreadful years, and at last 
 fell after many preternatural signs of which Jose- 
 phus, their own historian, has told us. The city 
 was sacked and burned and ploughed over that 
 the temple site might be obliterated. We can still see 
 the inscription on the Arch of Titus, showing 
 the Roman soldiers carrying the golden candle- 
 stick as a trophy of their triumph. 
 
GOD'S PLAN FOR ZSRABi; 63 
 
 Forty years later another Jewish rebellion arose 
 and they tried to throw off the Roman yoke; but 
 they were not only subdued, but utterly crushed, 
 and the Jew forbidden ever to look toward Jeru- 
 salem on penalty of death. Half a million were 
 butchered by Trajan and Hadrian, and then their 
 night of sorrow dragged its slow length through 
 Mediaeval centuries. 
 
 MEDIEVAL CRUELTIES. 
 
 After Constantine's conversion and the estab- 
 lishment of Christianity through the empire, the 
 Jew became the object of aversion and oppres- 
 sion. He was regarded as the murderer of Christ 
 and treated as a criminal and outlaw. Eventually 
 the Saracens joined the Christians in this common 
 hatred to the poor Hebrew. In the eleventh cen- 
 tury they were banished from England. In the 
 same century began the crusade of the Holy War 
 against the Jews, compelling them to be baptized 
 or slain, and multitudes of Jews were murdered all 
 over Germany. In the twelfth century they were 
 banished from France and all their property con- 
 fiscated. Under the reigns of Henry the Second, 
 and Richard the First, in England, they suffered 
 every kind of extortion and barbarity, and in th© 
 
Bf THE COMING ONS 
 
 reign of Edward the First they were again ban- 
 ished. King John and many of his successors tor- 
 tured them until they confessed and yielded up 
 their treasures. In the year of the discovery of 
 America 800,000 Jews were driven from Spain 
 amid every kind of privation and distress, not 
 even knowing whither to turn their weary feet. 
 Multitudes slew their own children to save them 
 from horrors which were worse than death. In 
 iS45i 5»ooo Jews with all their effects and syna- 
 gogues, were burned at Salonica. In Constanti- 
 nople the Jews' quarter was burned, 3,000 houses 
 destroyed, and $60,000,000 of their property plun- 
 dered. And so the sad and sickening story goes 
 on. We cannot better sum it up than in these 
 words. 
 
 THEIR OWN CONFESSION. 
 
 "K Jewish calendar, with a chronological table, 
 forming 'a summary of Jewish history from the 
 flood to the year i860,' lies before us. We run 
 the eye questioningly over its pages, and what do 
 we find as we review the incidents of this second 
 section of Jewish history there recorded? An un- 
 conscious acknowledgment from Jewish pens that 
 every threat of judgment denounced against Is- 
 
GOD'S PLAN FOR ISRAEL 65 
 
 rael in case of continued rebellion and idolatry by 
 Moses and the prophets has been fulfilled. An 
 acknowledgment that ever since their fall before 
 the power of Babylon, in the sixth century B.C., 
 they have been in subjection to Gentile rulers; 
 and that since A.D. 135 they have been dispersed 
 among the nations ; that their history has consist- 
 ed of one long chain of great and sore calamity, 
 interrupted only with brief gleams of passing 
 prosperity. They have been exposed to innumer- 
 able evils of every kind ; to famines and plagues ; 
 captivities and banishments without number, to 
 social distress and degradation, to outlawry and 
 the hatred of their Gentile neighbors, to false ac- 
 cusations and frequent massacres, to exactions 
 and imposts almost exceeding belief, to 
 pillage and torture, to the most painful forms of 
 social ostracism and injustice; in a word, 
 they have been so relentlessly crushed down by 
 their Gentile masters that existence itself would 
 have been crushed out of them long since but for 
 the strange indestructibility with which, in the 
 providence of God their race is endowed." Truly 
 has it been said :^ 
 
 "The wild bird hath her nest, the fox his cave, 
 Mankind a country, Israel— but the grave." 
 
66 THE COMING ONE 
 
 THE OUTCAST NATION. 
 
 It is only within about one hundred years that 
 the Jew has been allowed any sort of citizenship 
 in any nation under heaven. The light is begin- 
 ning at last to dawn, but oh, how little they real- 
 ized what they meant when they said on that aw- 
 ful day, "His blood be upon us and upon our chil- 
 dren." Let Moses tell the prophetic story. "And 
 the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from 
 the one end of the earth even unto the other ; and 
 there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither 
 thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and 
 stone. And among these nations shalt thou find 
 no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have 
 rest; but the Lord shall give thee there a trem- 
 bling heart, and failing of eyes and sorrow of 
 mind, and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee, 
 and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have 
 none assurance of thy life; in the morning thou 
 shalt say. Would God it were even ! And at even 
 thou shalt say. Would God it were morning ! For 
 the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear 
 and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt 
 see." 
 
 That is all true of the Jew in Russia to-day, 
 [Five millions of them in that empire are confined 
 
GOD'S PLAN FOR ISRAEL 67 
 
 in a little section called the Pale. They dare not 
 move out of their territory, except by special li- 
 cense, and that is only given occasionally to rich 
 men. They are liable to assassination and out- 
 rage at any time. The past decade has given us 
 the horrors of Kisheneff and similar records of 
 oppression and wrong cover their history for 
 nearly twenty centuries. 
 
 The only light in this sad picture is suggested 
 by the story of two rabbis who were watching the 
 ruins of Jerusalem one day as the foxes were run- 
 ning over the walls. The one wept and the other 
 smiled. "Brother, why dost thou weep?" asked 
 the smiling one. "I weep because I see the foxes 
 running over the walls of the city of my fathers. 
 Why dost thou smile?" "I smile because this is 
 what God said should come to pass, and the word 
 of promise is as true as the word of judgment, 
 for He has also said, 'Jerusalem shall yet be the 
 joy of the whole earth.' " 
 
 111. THEIR PRESERVATION AND RESTORATION. 
 
 A REMNANT. 
 
 God has said that though they te scattered like 
 corn among all nations, yet shall not one grain be 
 lost. Again He says that during this present age 
 
68 THE COMING ONE 
 
 a remnant shall be saved. While the nation has 
 rejected Christ, yet there are some that believe in 
 Him. "Though the number of the children of 
 Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall 
 be saved" (Rom. ix. 27). "Even so then at this 
 present time also there is a remnant according to 
 the election of grace" (Rom. xi. 5). A few have 
 been accepting Christ all through the centuries. 
 We are told by Jewish mission workers that there 
 are at least fifty thousand Jewish converts to-day 
 in the churches of Europe. That is very encour- 
 aging. Some of the most gifted Bible scholars, 
 teachers and defenders of the Christian faith are 
 Hebrews. Some of the most earnest and eloquent 
 ministers of the Gospel of JesuF Christ are of the 
 Jewish race and of the Christian faith. Jewish 
 mission work is not the principal work of the 
 Church", but it is one of its commissions. "To the 
 Jew first and also to the Greek." We must not 
 let this work monopolize us. If we do we shall be 
 disappointed. If we push the Jew beyond his 
 true dispensational place, his head will get too 
 big and he will spoil our work. We must remem- 
 ber that the spiritual Israel is "a remnant." This 
 is not Israel's day, but God is saving some even 
 
GOD'S PLAN FOR ISRAEL 6^ 
 
 to-day, and we ought to be doing all we can to 
 give them the Gospel. 
 
 THEIR RESTORATION. 
 
 Then there is the promise of their restoration. 
 This is to be in two stages, first, national, and 
 then spiritual. These two stages are represented 
 by Ezekiel in the vision of the Dry Bones. "He 
 caused me to pass by them round about : and, be- 
 hold, there were very many in the open valley: 
 and, lo, they were very dry. And He said unto 
 me. Son of man, can these bones live ?" "Then He 
 said unto me. Son of man, these bones are the 
 whole house of Israel. Behold they say, Our 
 bones are dry, and our hope is lost : we are cut off 
 for our parts." 
 
 But God promises to revive the nation and to 
 bring them to the land of their fathers. "Thus 
 saith the Lord God: Behold, O My people, I 
 will open your graves, and cause you to come up 
 out of your graves, and bring you into the land of 
 Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, 
 when I have opened your graves, O My people, 
 and brought you up out of your graves." 
 
 But that is all physical — there is no breath in 
 them. "Then He said unto me. Prophesy unto 
 these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones. 
 
•JO THE COMING ONE 
 
 hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord 
 God unto these bones : Behold, I will cause breath 
 
 to enter into you and ye shall live 
 
 Ther said He unto me, Prophesy unto the wind ; 
 prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus 
 saith the Lord God, Come from the four winds, 
 O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they 
 may live. So I prophesied as He commanded me, 
 and the breath came into them, and they lived and 
 stood up upon their feet an exceeding great 
 army." This is the second stage of Israel's restor- 
 ation, their restoration not only to their land, but 
 to their Messiah. "And I shall put My Spirit in 
 you and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your 
 own land : then shall ye know that I the Lord have 
 spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord." 
 
 DELIVERANCE BEGtJN. 
 
 God has Hegun these two stages of His wort in 
 the restoration of Israel. During the past two 
 centuries every country in Europe has adopted' 
 measures leading to the enfranchisement of the 
 Jew, except Russia and Turkey. In 1844 the 
 Turkish empire was compelled to sign a decree 
 giving permission for Jews and Christians and 
 all others to enjoy religious liberty, and a little 
 
GOD'S PLAN FOR ISRAEL jr^ 
 
 later the right to own property in their land. This 
 was just 2,300 years after the decree of Artaxerxes 
 in 457 B.C., the initial point of Daniel's prophecy, 
 and tHus a marked fulfilment of that prophecy. 
 In i860 a Hebrew alliance was formed witK 
 some three thousand branches throughout the 
 whole world for the purpose of uniting the Jews 
 in demanding their civic and other social privi- 
 leges. That to-day is one of the most powerful 
 influences for the protection of the Jew. They 
 did not yet dream of returning to their own land, 
 
 ZIONISM. 
 
 But in 1897 a most extraordinary movement 
 was launched — ^Zionism — and ever since that so- 
 ciety has been growing in numbers and influence. 
 Max Nordau in addressing the delegates of the 
 congress where Zionism was formed, said, "It 
 seemed as if we were witnessing a miracle." The 
 most extraordinary thing about this great event 
 was that it corresponded exactly with another of 
 Daniel's prophecies. God had said in Daniel xii. 
 8, the scattering of the Jewish people should 
 cease after 1,260 years. Then they were to be- 
 gin to unite and gather home. In the year 637 
 A.p., Pmar, the victorious general of Moham- 
 
7^ THE COMINQ ONE 
 
 med, captured tKe city of Jerusalem. From that 
 time the Turk has been in dominion. As he en- 
 tered the city the old Bishop Sophronius with tears 
 and sobs, cried, "The abomination of desolation, 
 spoken of by Daniel the prophet, is set up." And 
 sure enough it was. On the site of the temple of 
 Solomon a mosque was reared for Mohammedan 
 worship. Ever since Jerusalem has been trodden 
 down by the Moslem and the holy people scat- 
 tered and crushed under his iron heel. From 637, 
 1,260 years (Daniel's time, times, and half a time) 
 reach the year 1897. And that was the year when 
 the Zionist conference founded the great society 
 whose watchword ever since has been, The Jew 
 must be restored and Israel must again become a 
 nation. 
 
 There is no need for comment on such a record. 
 How long it will take Him to finish the restora- 
 tion of Israel we cannot tell. But it has begun, 
 that is the political resoration. The dry bones 
 are coming together, but there is yet no breath. 
 It is a political society without God, 
 
 THE COMING DELIVERER. 
 
 The Jews are going back, going back in unbe- 
 lief, going back in national pride, but "they shall 
 
GOD'S PLAN FOR ISRAEL 73 
 
 look on Him whom they have pierced and shall 
 mourn because of Him." "And in that day shall 
 a fountain be opened to the house of Israel and 
 the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and unclean- 
 ness." "And there shall come out of Zion a De- 
 liverer, and He shall turn away ungodliness from 
 Jacob." The unbelieving Jews will behold Hinn 
 when He comes to gather out His Church and 
 Bride, and they shall catch a passing glimpse of 
 the glory of His train, and they shall say. This 
 is our Messiah, we have rejected Him, we have 
 lost Him. And they shall mourn because of Him. 
 And in the Tribulation which is to follow, two- 
 thirds shall be destroyed, but one-third shall sur- 
 vive and shall come out on the other side in the 
 Millennial morning and be the beginning of a new 
 Jewish nation which is to last throughout the 
 coming age of glory. 
 
 THE FINAL CONFLICT. 
 
 The last chapters of Zechariah and Daniel de- 
 scribe the awful conflict which is to come to them 
 in the last hour of their sorrow, "The time of 
 Jacob's trouble." The Son of God shall appear 
 with His feet on Mount Olivet to deliver them 
 from their adversaries and to set up a throne of 
 
74 THE COMING ONE 
 
 David again on the Millennial earth. The fol- 
 lowing eloquent passage may help us to realize 
 the picture of that future age. 
 
 ISRAEL IN THE MILLENNIAL AGE. 
 
 "Beyond the immediate pfospects in relation to 
 the Jew and Palestine rises the glowing and glo- 
 rious picture of the future of that people and land, 
 as portrayed in Scripture and illuminated by a 
 study of the physical Conditions, and ethnograph- 
 ical surroundings involved. Placed at the junc- 
 tion of three continents, and at the gateway of 
 commerce between the West and the East; pos- 
 sessed of tropical valleys, and snow-clad moun- 
 tains, the land of the palm and the cedar, of the 
 olive and the vine, holds forth its hands of prom- 
 ise to the wandering, exiled Jews. Carmel and 
 Sharon covered in Spring with their roses, the 
 fields of Bethlehem, and hills of Nazareth with 
 their anemones, the plain of Esdraelon with its 
 corn-fields, the Jordan valley with its luxuriant 
 foliage, the wilds of Bashan with their pastures, 
 all wait for the Jewish hands and homes which 
 are yet to cultivate and occupy them. The long 
 neglected Gulf of Akaba with its noble headlands 
 projecting into the Red Sea, shall yet become a 
 
GOD'S PLAN FOR ISRAEIJ 75 
 
 highway of commerce to Southern Palestine. 
 Ezion-geber, at the head of that gulf, will be con- 
 nected by railway with the Dead Sea, the Jordan 
 valley, and the Lake of Gennesareth. The wa- 
 ters of Merom, and sources of the Jordan shall be 
 linked with the crowded streets of Damascus, and 
 the snow-clad steeps of Hermon. The slopes of 
 Lebanon will be populated, and the city of An- 
 tioch revived. Beyrout, already connected with 
 the ports of the Mediterranean and with Damas- 
 cus, shall be the gate of the highroad through the 
 Euphrates valley to the Persian Gulf, India, and 
 the East. Africa traversed with railways shall lie 
 at the feet of Palestine, and Europe with its 
 wealth of civilization shall flourish at its side. 
 
 "The Jews restored from all countries, and 
 speaking all languages, shall be fitted for the work 
 of evangelizing the world. Their marvelous com- 
 mercial, political, and literary gifts shall come into 
 fullest play. No more shall they be a despised 
 and outcast people. The natural brethren, the 
 blood relations of the King of Glory, shall take a 
 foremost place among the nations. The sign of 
 sorrow, the wail of grief shall be turned to the 
 song of gladness, and the shout of praise. The 
 voice of redeeming love and mercy shall swell 
 
;6 THE COMING ONE 
 
 from innumerable multitudes. Jerusalem shall 
 vibrate with its music, Carmel prolong its ca- 
 dence and Lebanon echo back its strains. The 
 song of angels shall awake again aboye the fields 
 of Bethlehem; and heaven and earth unite their 
 voices as never before in the anthem which shall 
 celebrate the triumph of redeeming grace and 
 mercy." 
 
Chapter V. 
 
 THE GREAT APOSTASY, 
 
 XN the vision of the seventh chapter of Dan- 
 iel, the figure that most impressed the mind 
 of the prophet and held his spell-bound gaze, even 
 after the other images had passed out of view, 
 was not the winged lion, the devouring bear, the 
 four-headed leopard, or even the strange and ter- 
 rific monster with teeth of iron; nor was it the 
 ten horns that grew out of its mighty head ; but 
 it was that other horn, the Little Horn that "came 
 up and before whom three fell, even of that horn 
 which had eyes, and a mouth that spake very 
 great things, whose look was more stout than his 
 fellows, which made war with the saints, and pre- 
 vailed against them," and "he shall be diverse 
 from the first and shall subdue three kings, and 
 he shall speak great words against the Most High 
 and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, 
 and they shall be given into his hands until a time 
 and times, and the dividing of time ; but the judg- 
 ment shall sit and they shall take away his do- 
 minion to consume and destroy it unto the end." 
 
78 THE COMING ONE 
 
 If we have been right in our interpretation of 
 the fourth beast and the horns as denoting Rome 
 and the divided kingdoms that grew out of it, 
 then it is evident that this other horn, which is 
 thus prominently described, must be some power 
 that arose simultaneously with the fall of Rome 
 and the rise of these ten kingdoms; a power in 
 some important sense diverse from them, and yet 
 like them; a power that subverted three of the 
 contemporary kingdoms; a power that became 
 the persecutor of the saints of God ; a power that 
 was to last for 1,260 years; and a power that 
 God was at the end to sit in judgment upon and 
 gradually consume and destroy. 
 
 Is there anything in history that corresponds to 
 this description? Rather, is there any possibility 
 of mistaking the identity of the only figure that 
 corresponds to this vivid prophetic-historical pic- 
 ture ? Is this not a living photograph of the ori- 
 gin and progress of the Papal power as it has filled 
 up the last thirteen centuries and made itself, as 
 it was in Daniel's vision, the most marked and 
 striking picture of mediaeval and modern history? 
 
 Let us notice in detail the points of identity as 
 given in Daniel's vision, and afterwards in the vis- 
 ions of Paul and John. 
 
THH GREAT APOSTASY 79 
 
 I. Daniel's PICTURE. 
 
 1. It was to be a horn out of the fourth beast. 
 Now the Papacy sprang out of Rome. Its very 
 roots are fastened in the seven hills. Its very cor- 
 nerstone IS Peter's ministry and primacy in Rome. 
 The empire of the Popes succeeded to the empire 
 of the Caesars, and saved the city from obscurity 
 and desolation. It could not arise in all its su- 
 premacy till Rome fell; and when the Western 
 Empire w£f§ shattered the Popes inherited its au- 
 thority and power over the Roman States. 
 
 2. It was to be an actual horn, a real State, a 
 political power. And so the Papacy has been for 
 more than twelve centuries. It has had a two- 
 fold form as distinct as the offices of Moses and 
 Aaron. It has been a tempoial kingdom and an 
 ecclesiastical body, priesthood and church. It is 
 in the first of these aspects that Daniel views it, 
 as a political power, an actual horn. It is only 
 since 1870 that this form of its existence has 
 passed away. 
 
 3. It was to be "diverse" from the other horns. 
 It is not necessary to show how distinctively 
 Rome has differed from all other States in its pe- 
 culiar character and claims; professing to be a 
 
8o THE COMING ONE 
 
 divine government, combining both the civil and 
 sacerdotal functions and assumptions. No other 
 such government has ever existed, or ever wield- 
 ed such tremendous power, 
 
 4. It was to arise after the other horns. And 
 so the temporal power of the Papacy slowly took 
 shape after the fall of Rome and the division of 
 the Western Empire. And although it began 
 about the sixth century, yet.it was not fully con- 
 solidated until the time of Pepin, in the eighth 
 century. 
 
 5. It was to subdue three kings. And so the 
 Papacy literally did absorb and supersede succes- 
 sively, first Odoacer and the HeruH, secondly, the 
 Ostrogoths, and thirdly, the Lombards. 
 
 6. It was to be a little horn. And accordingly 
 the Paper States have ever been territorially small 
 and limited in population : less, at the highest fig- 
 ure, than any of the kingdoms of Europe. In its 
 palmiest days the territory of the Papal States 
 did not exceed 16,000 square miles, and the popu- 
 lation, 3,125,000. In 1865, a little before its fall, 
 its population had been reduced to 700,000. 
 
 7. It was, however, to be a very powerful horn, 
 "whose look was to be more stout than his fel- 
 lows." Netd we say that the Papacy has been at 
 
THE GREAT APOSTASY 8i 
 
 times the most powerful government in Europe, 
 and not only in assumption, but in reality has con- 
 trolled the governments of the whole world? 
 
 8. It was to be an arrogant and pretentious 
 horn, to have "a mouth speaking great things." 
 The Papacy has surely fulfilled all this. It has 
 ever claimed the right to rule the kingdoms and 
 consciences of men. It made the mightiest poten- 
 tates of Europe bow to its will and beg for its 
 mercy. It forced the proudest emperor of Ger- 
 many to do penance at its gates barefoot on the 
 icy ground for three days at Canossa. There is 
 not a nation within the limits of the Roman Em- 
 pire that has not been humbled at its feet, and 
 there is not a claim of arrogance and intoler- 
 ance which it has not made. Its last assumption 
 of infallibility has been the fitting crown of all 
 preceding pretensions. 
 
 9. It was to be a blasphemous and impious 
 power, "He shall speak great words against the 
 Most High," Dr. Young translates it: "And 
 words, as an adversary of the Most High it doth 
 speak." Surely the Papacy has been the great 
 adversary of the Most High. Surely its words 
 have been Satan's most hostile and effectual 
 
82 THE COMING ONE 
 
 weapons for the perversion of truth ana the sub- 
 version of souls. 
 
 10. It was to be a persecuting power ; "it made 
 war with the saints and prevailed against them." 
 He "shall wear out the saints of the Most High, 
 and they shall be given into his hand." Papal 
 Rome has butchered at least fifty millions of the 
 •saints of God, tortured and tormented millions 
 more, and "worn out" the people of God through 
 all the long and weary centuries. 
 
 11. It was to "think to change times and laws." 
 The Papacy has dictated the policy of European 
 States, has been the great mistress of diplomacy 
 and political intrigue, and has changed times by 
 its great feasts and saints' days, and the famous 
 Gregorian calendar, which we owe to one of the 
 Popes. 
 
 12. It was to last "a time, times, and the divid- 
 ing of time"; that is, three years and a half of 
 days, or 1,260 years. 
 
 From the various points from which the rise 
 of the Papacy may be lawfully measured, a period 
 of 1,260 years, brings us to the most significant 
 dates in the progress of its 'downfall. From the 
 year 533, when Justinian established the supre- 
 macy of the Pope over the churches of the world. 
 
THE GBEAT APOSTASY 83 
 
 1,260 solar years bring us to 1793, and the horrors 
 of the French Revolution, which for a time shat- 
 tered and almost annihilated the Papal power as 
 well as the governments of Europe. 
 
 From the years 607-10, when the Emperor 
 Phocas finally confirmed the supremacy of the 
 Popes, 1,260 years bring us to the last stage in 
 the fall of the temporal powers, — 1867-70, when, 
 after his last infatuated claim of infallibility, the 
 Pope fell forever from his throne, and the Httlei 
 horn, as a political system, ceased to exist. At 
 high noon on that eventful day His Holiness 
 had arranged to read the Decree of Infallibility 
 amid brilliant mirrors, arranged to reflect the 
 splendor of his person from every side of the 
 gorgeous chamber. But when the hour came the 
 heavens were rent with thunder and tempest, 
 and the sky overcast with clouds and storms. And 
 ere the day had closed his fate was sealed, the 
 fatal war between France and Germany was 
 declared, and the course of events had begun 
 which left him a prisoner in his palace, and a fal- 
 len King of Pride. 
 
 13. The destruction of this horn was not to be 
 immediate, but gradual. First, the Ancient of 
 Days, the Father, in His providential govern- 
 
B4 fmm coMiNQ one: 
 
 ment, was to come and sit in judgment upon it. 
 Next, as describing a progressive picture, Daniel 
 says: "I beheld — even till the beast was slain 
 and its body given to the burning flame," or, as 
 Dr. Young translates it, "I was seeing till that 
 the beast is slain, and his body hath been de- 
 stroyed and given to the burning fire." And again, 
 in the twenty-sixth verse, the picture is still more 
 vivid: "The judgment shall sit, and they shall 
 take away his dominion to consume and destroy 
 it unto the end." These are all successive steps. 
 Dr. Young's literal translation brings out this fea- 
 ture yet more vividly : "And the Judge is seated, 
 and his dominion they cause to pass away — ^to 
 cut off and destroy — unto the end." It would 
 seem that even after the dominion passes away 
 Ifrom this horn, as it has now done, the process of 
 cutting off and destroying must still go on to the 
 full consummation, as it is even now doing. Rome 
 did not rise in a moment, and it does not fall in 
 an hour. Its first deathblow was the Reforma- 
 tion, its second the French Revolution, its third 
 the fall of the temporal power in 1870. It is go* 
 ing on to the end, and soon its still deeper and 
 more persistent spiritual life will be smitten "by 
 
THE GREAT APOSTASY 85 
 
 the spirit of His mouth and destroyed by the 
 brightness of His coming." 
 
 II. Paul's picture. 
 In the second chapter of Second Thessalonians 
 the apostle Paul has also given us an inspired 
 picture of this same system of evil, under the 
 name of "The Apostasy": "That day shall not 
 come except there come the falling away first, 
 and the man of sin be revealed, and the son of 
 destruction who is opposing and raising himself 
 up above all called God or worshipped, so that 
 he in the sanctuary of God as God hath sat down, 
 showing himself off that he is God. And now 
 what is keeping down ye know for his being re- 
 vealed in his own time. For the mystery of law- 
 lessness doth already work, only he who is keep- 
 ing down will hinder till he may be out of the 
 way, and then shall be revealed the Lawless One, 
 whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of 
 His mouth and shall destroy with the manifes- 
 tation of His coming, even him whose coming is 
 according to the working of the Adversary in all 
 power of signs, and lying wonders, and in all de- 
 ceitfulness of the unrighteousness in those per- 
 ishing, because they did not receive the love of 
 the truth that they might be saved." 
 
86 THE COMING ONE 
 
 Here we are taught several additional facts 
 concerning this same system of evil. 
 
 I. It was to be an Apostasy, "a falling away." 
 It was not to be a system of infidelity, paganism, 
 or open devilishness ; but was to come out of the 
 very bosom of Christianity, and was to be an 
 Apostate Church. This is surely true of Roman- 
 ism, which was once the pure Church of Justin 
 and Jerome and Clement and Augustine. 
 
 3. It was to be hindered in its development 
 for a while by some other power, but was even in 
 the Apostles' day working in the Church, and 
 was to break out without restraint when the hin- 
 dering influence was removed. 
 
 Now the spirit of Romanism — that is ambition 
 and ecclesiastical pride — was really working in 
 the Apostolic Church. Paul had to rebuke it at 
 Corinth, and John found it so bitter and strong 
 at Ephesus that he was even debarred from his 
 own church by Diotrephes, "who loved the pre- 
 eminence." 
 
 But it could never ripen into a Papacy so long 
 as an emperor sat on Caesar's throne. A Pope 
 and a Caesar could not reign together. And there- 
 fore until Rome fell in 476 A.D. there was one 
 "keeping down." But with the fall of Rome he 
 
THE GREAT APOSTASY 8;] 
 
 was taken out of the way. And very soon the 
 patriarchal government of the Popes was recog- 
 nized as the new sovereignty of Italy, and the 
 way was prepared for the political supremacy of 
 the Papacy. 
 
 3. It is described as a "mystery of iniquity," 
 and a "lawless one." 
 
 Romanism is a system of mysteries. She has 
 seven sacraments and secrets innumerable. Her 
 confessional, her Jesuitical societies, her secret 
 convocations and councils, her policy of intrigue 
 and diplomacy, all justify this name given her in 
 Revelation, "Mystery Babylon." And just as 
 truly may she be called a system of lawlessness. 
 Rome recognizes no authority above her. She 
 claims supremacy to human laws and lawgivers, 
 and the right to make the laws and control the 
 law-makers. There is not a government on earth 
 but has felt and resented this spirit, and this is 
 the reason why her priests and people have been 
 driven out of China, Corea, Japan, and other 
 countries ; they were regarded as enemies of the 
 State and emissaries of sedition. There is no di- 
 vine law which Papal indulgences and absolu- 
 tions have not often put aside, and there is no 
 form of iniquity which it has not harbored or con- 
 
88 THE COMING ONE 
 
 cealed. The wickedness, falsehood, duplicity, li- 
 centiousness, and corruption of the Papacy dur- 
 ing the Middle Ages cannot easily be exagger- 
 ated. The Augustan age of Italian art was the 
 age of most horrible priestly corruption, when 
 the Italian Borgia rivalled the Roman Nero. The 
 Protestant Reformation grew out of the abomina- 
 tions of Papal indulgences, which were simply 
 a selling of purity and righteousness for priestly 
 and Papal gain. The grosser revelations of the 
 sins of the social and conventual S3rstem we do 
 not enter upon, although this alone would suffi- 
 ciently illustrate the fitness of the title "Man of 
 Sin." Enough to know that the life, spirit, and 
 tendency of Romanism is unholy and iniquitous, 
 and that the races and countries where she has 
 had her sway have become the most corrupt and 
 immoral of all peoples. 
 
 4. It was to claim divine honors, "sitting in 
 the sanctuary of God, showing himself off that 
 he is God." The homage paid to the Pope is 
 idolatrous and divine. The names he uses in 
 his decrees are blasphemous. The usual formu- 
 la once was, "our Lord God the Pope." The 
 very character he assumes is that of the vicar 
 or actual representative of Christ, clothed with 
 
THE GREAT APOSTASY 89 
 
 all His powers and dignities ; and the last exhibi- 
 tion of his pretensions, the proclamation of his 
 own infallibility amid gorgeous ceremonies, was 
 indeed a literal "showing himself off that he is 
 God." There is not one expression here too 
 strong for the naked and repeated facts of eccle- 
 siastical story. 
 
 5. His coming is declared to be "iafter the 
 working of Satan, with all power and signs and 
 lying wonders, and all deceivableness of un- 
 righteousness." If ever the Devil had a master- 
 piece, it is the Papacy. His one desire ever has 
 been to mimic God, and here He has had a splen- 
 did counterfeit. Nor have there been lacking the 
 greatest power and the most signal and wonder- 
 ful signs of superhuman origin. The miracles 
 of the Papacy have been of two classes. Some of 
 them are of "lying wonders," mere skillful pre- 
 tensions. But some have been the results of real 
 Satanic power and actual signs of superhuman 
 working, as much as the predicted miracles of 
 spiritualism. And then there is also "all deceiv- 
 ableness of unrighteousness," — the evil that is 
 made to look like good, the lie that is justified in 
 the interests of the Church, the perversion of 
 Scripture, the duplicity of Jesuitism, and the false 
 
90 THE COMING ONE 
 
 principles that underlie the whole life it teaches. 
 
 6. Its judgment is to come from two sources. 
 The first is "the spirit of His mouth." Surely 
 this denotes the Word of God, and truly this is 
 the weapon with which he has been destroying 
 Rome since the disenthralment of the Bible by 
 Wickli£fe five hundred years ago. There is a 
 fine old cartoon in one of Wickliflfe's Bibles. A 
 little fire has broken out in the midst of a com- 
 pany of cardinals and priests. It is burning in- 
 side the covers of a Bible. It is spreading rap- 
 idly. They all gather round it and try to blow it 
 out. There is His Holiness blowing till his 
 cheeks are bursting, and scores of puffing priests 
 and bishops. But the more they blow the more it 
 burns, until at last they are compelled to fly to 
 escape its consuming flame. So has the Bible 
 been consuming Rome, and with a true instinct 
 Rbme has dreaded and suppressed the Bible. 
 
 7. But the final blow is to come from the 
 "brightness of His coming," which shall con- 
 sume and finally extinguisfi this mystery of sin. 
 For that we wait. The first process has been long 
 in progress, the last is near. 
 
THE GREAT APOSTASY 91 
 
 III. JOHN'S PICTURE. 
 
 This is chiefly contained in the 13th, lytfi, and 
 i8th chapters of Revelation. 
 
 I. It is described as "a wild beast, whose dead- 
 ly wound was healed." The 13th chapter of Rev- 
 elation begins with a picture of the same wild 
 beast that Daniel saw in his fourth vision, the 
 Roman beast with its ten horns. Only here it is 
 seen with seven heads, and the seventh of these is 
 the Papacy, the same power which in Daniel's 
 vision was seen as a little horn, but really exercis- 
 ing all the power of the beast itself, and called 
 the beast in the nth verse of chapter vii. Here 
 it is called a head, one of the seven heads of this 
 monstrous beast. Six other heads had preceded 
 it. These were the six different forms of gov- 
 ernment under which Rome has existed. These 
 were: Kings, Consuls, Dictators, Decemvirs, 
 Tribunes, Emperors. Five of these heads had 
 fallen, the angel declares to St. John, and one, the 
 Empire, was in existence at the time of the vis- 
 ion. The seventh had not yet come, and when it 
 did it must continue for a little time, that is a con- 
 siderable time. That was tantamount to saying, 
 "It will last awhile when it comes" (xvii. 10). 
 
92 THE COMING ONE 
 
 Now John says that he saw one of these heads 
 wounded to death. That refers to the fall of the 
 empire under Romulus Augustulus, in the year 
 476. Then, indeed, it seemed as if the beast had 
 received its deathblow. But "his deadly wound 
 was healed." He had vitality enough in him to 
 put forth another head, and it gave to the whole 
 body a life and power which it never had pos- 
 sessed before. 
 
 How wonderfully this describes the rise of the 
 Papacy out of the ruins of imperial Rome, and 
 the revival it brought to the city that was about 
 to sink to obscurity and ruins. Even Gibbon, the 
 profane and infidel historian, describes this event 
 almost like an interpreter of prophecy : 
 
 "Like Thebes, or Babylon, or Carthage, the 
 name of Rome might have been erased from the 
 earth, if the city had not been animated by a vital 
 principle which again restored her to honor and 
 dominion. 
 
 "The empire having been overthrown, unless 
 God had raised up the Pontificate, Rome, resusci- 
 tated and restored by none, would have become 
 uninhabitable, and been a most foul habitation 
 thenceforward of cattle ; but in the Pontificate it 
 revived as with a second birth." 
 
THB GKBAT AX10&TASY 93 
 
 And so once more the wild beast revived in an- 
 other form. Rome became once more for twelve 
 centuries the centre and metropolis of the world, 
 and "all the world wondered after the Beast." 
 
 2. It is described later in the same chapter, un- 
 der a second image, as "another beast with two 
 horns as a lamb, but it spake as a dragon." This 
 denotes another side of the Papacy, viz., its ec- 
 cleiastical and spiritual organization. The first 
 beast represents its political and temporal power, 
 the second its ecclesiastical. It is really two sys- 
 tems. It is both a Church and State, or rather 
 was until 1870. It had a political existence as 
 real as France or Germany, and much more pre- 
 tentious. And it had an ecclesiastical system 
 quite independent of its political government, and 
 able to go on even if that were suspended, as in- 
 deed it has been going on since 1870. Now this 
 is the system represented by the two-horned 
 lamb, with the dragon tongue, innocent looking 
 as a lamb, but speaking the devil's words, in its 
 bulls and decretals, its indulgences, interdicts and 
 anathemas. 
 
 3. These two phases and aspects of this sys- 
 tem are combined in the picture of the 17th chap- 
 ter, in which the spiritual and ecclesiastical as- 
 
94 THE COMING ONE 
 
 pect of the Papacy is represented as an abandoned 
 woman, while the temporal power is denoted by 
 the Beast on which she rides. This is the Apos- 
 tate Church, supported by the arm and sword of 
 earthly power, trampling down the consciences 
 and rights and lives of all who oppose her des- 
 potic will. 
 
 A woman is many times used in tne Scriptures 
 as a type of evil. The prototype of this same evil 
 power was the ancient Jezebel of Samaria. In 
 Zechariah the emblem of corruption is a woman, 
 sitting in an ephah and carried forth to Babylon 
 (vss. 7, ii). In the parable of the leaven it is a 
 woman who prefigures the spirit of corruption 
 there symbolized. John wonders at this woman 
 because he had seen the Church just before (ch. 
 xii.) as a woman clothed with the sun. Alas I 
 that so soon the Bride of Christ should seem like 
 an harlot ! 
 
 4. Once more in the same chapter, and more 
 fully in the i8th, the same system of evil is de- 
 scribed by yet another name — ^viz., Babylon, or 
 Mystery of Babylon — that is, not the real, but 
 the mystical Babylon, corresponding in spirit and 
 destiny, in pride, profligacy and destiny, to the 
 ancient Queen of Empires. This name may refer 
 
THE GREAT APOSTASY gs 
 
 specially to the city of Rome as much as to the 
 system of Romanism. We know this name was 
 given by the early fathers to it, and even Peter 
 is thought by many, in writing his epistle "from 
 Babylon," to have really meant Rome. The fall 
 of Babylon, in the i8th chapter, involves proba- 
 bly the destruction of the city of Rome. 
 
 5. The next feature of this system of evil is 
 universal dominion. "Power was given him over 
 all kindreds and tongues and nations," During 
 the Middle Ages the power of Rome was univer- 
 sal, so far at least as the world was under the 
 sway of any European State. 
 
 6. It was to be a blasphemous power. We 
 cannot better interpret this than by quoting the 
 following reference to the names and claims of 
 the Roman Pontiff at various periods in the past : 
 
 "He claims a homage which even rivals that of 
 Jehovah. Some of the titles which have been 
 given to him are truly awful. Christopher Mar- 
 cellus, in the fourth session of the fifth Lateran 
 'Council, called Pope Julius II. another God upon 
 earth. In the sixth session of the same council, 
 Leo. X. was called by Simon Bengnius the Sav- 
 iour that was to come; and the same Pope, in the 
 
gS THE COMING ONE 
 
 next session of that council, was called King of 
 kings. 
 
 7. It was to be worshipped. The word wor- 
 ship here applied both to the Beast and the Dra- 
 gon. This worship oJ the Beast was really a wor- 
 ship of the Dtagon. Papal worship is thwefore 
 devil worship. The word worshipped here means 
 literally "kissed." The method of Papal worship 
 is to kiss the great toe. And in St. Peter's the 
 bronze statue said to represent St. Peter has had 
 more than half of its toe literally kissed away. To 
 make the description still more literal^ it is said 
 that this statue is not St. Peter at all, but just an 
 old heathen Jupiter found at Rome, and dedica- 
 ted to the great Apostle. If this be so, then their 
 worship is truly to the Dragon, for all the gods of 
 Greece and Rome were literally symbols of de- 
 mon powers. 
 
 8. He was to do great wonders, and deceive 
 them that dwelt on earth by those miracles that 
 he should have power to do. This describes the 
 miraculous claims of Romanism, and the false, 
 deceptive character of some, as well as the un- 
 doubted supernatural reality of others. 
 
 9. He was to call fire down from heaven. This 
 might well describe the anathemas of the Popes 
 
THE GREAT APOSTASY 97 
 
 wHIcK call fire 3own irom fieavign qn all who prp- 
 voEe iKem. 
 
 10. He was to control the very buying and 
 selling of all who refused his authority. How 
 exactly this describes a Papal interdict, which the 
 Pontiffs sometimes passed on refractory subjects, 
 completely cutting them off from all human 'fel-; 
 lowship, and forbidding all persons tq transact 
 business witK them, 
 
 11. The Beast is denoted by a numerical name 
 •—viz., Six Hundred and Sixty-six. While there 
 have been innumerable guesses at the meaning 
 of this mystical number, no interpretation seems 
 more reasonable than that of Irenseus, the Chris- 
 tian Father, that the word "Lateinos," by adding 
 up the numerical value of each letter, spells the 
 number 6^. The word means "Latin," and it is 
 specially applicable to Romanism, which is called 
 Latin Christianity, and which since the year 663 
 has made the. Latin language the vehicle of its 
 teaching. 
 
 12. The Papal woman is clothed in scarlet, and 
 the Beast she rides is also scarlet. We need not 
 say that this is the chosen color of Rome, the Pon^ 
 tiffs' and the Bishops' robes, and all the great 
 proce.ssions and fetes, making this the distinctr 
 
98 THE COMING ONE 
 
 ively Papal color. It would seem as if the Lord 
 had ordered that Rome should establish her own 
 identity by her very face. 
 
 13. She was "decked with precious stones." 
 Who has not wondered at the countless treasures 
 of Roman altars? Let any one go through the 
 famous St. Paul's of Rome, beyond the walls, and 
 look at the altars presented by various European 
 sovereigns, flashing with the splendors of jasper 
 and sardonyx, and it will be strange if he does 
 not leave with a sense of worldly show such as 
 the most extravagant earthly entertainment could 
 not rival, and with the thought of how much bet- 
 ter these things could serve the Master if con- 
 verted into Bibles and scattered through the 
 world. 
 
 14. She was represented as a harlot commit- 
 ting fornication with the kings of the earth. The 
 idea is, of course, the unholy union of the Papal 
 Church and the governments of earth. This has 
 been the story of European politics for twelve 
 centuries. The Papacy has always leaned upon 
 the sword. Her first decrees of universal supre' 
 macy she obtained from Roman emperors; her 
 grants of territory came from Pepin and Charle- 
 magne and the Princess Matilda; her butcheries 
 
THE GREAT ABD'STASY 99 
 
 of Protestants were carried on by the hands of 
 the Duke of Alva and the Catholic powers of Eu- 
 rope. Her last years were upheld by the bayo- 
 nets of France and Austria, and her present at- 
 tempt IS to get control of the democracies of 
 Europe and America. 
 
 15. She is represented as holding in her Hand 
 a golden cup full of abominations. The very seal 
 of Rome is a woman holding in her hand a golden 
 cup with the inscription — "Sedet super uni- 
 versam." 
 
 16. She is to be first supporte'd by the kings of 
 earth and then despoiled by them. "They shall 
 hate the harlot and make Her desolate and naked, 
 and shall eat her flesK and burn her with fire." 
 This is one of the most remarkable fulfillments of 
 prophecy. The world Has witnessed just this 
 spectacle for nearly one Hundred years. France, 
 the eldest son of the Papacy, was the first to turn 
 upon her. The FrencH Kevolutibn struck her 
 the first terrible blow, an3 tfien Napoleon finished 
 it, capturing and deposing tfie Pope himself. Then 
 Italy finished what France began. Portugal has 
 since followed suit. And to-day Cardinal Man- 
 ning truly says, there is not a nation to stand Up 
 for the rights of the Church. 
 
lOQ THE COMING ONE 
 
 17. TKe same picture as Daniel gave marks 
 her as a persecuting power. She is "drunk with 
 the blood of the saints and the martyrs of Jesus." 
 
 18. And the same duration is also assigned, as 
 given by Daniel, "Power was given to continue 
 forty and two months" ; that is, 1,260 years, 
 
 19. The fall of Rome is described in the eigh- 
 teenth chapter. This has not yet come. It would 
 seem to indicate some sudden and terrific catas- 
 trophe coming "in one hour," and engulfing the 
 City of Ages in a ruin like Sodom and Gomorrah". 
 Ever since the days of the fathers it has been sup- 
 posed that this will come through some great 
 natural convulsion, and that Rome will go to its 
 doom amid earthquake shock and fearful erup- 
 tions of fire and brimstone. 
 
 20. But before this comes it may yet Have 
 much to develop. Dut of its mouth", along with 
 the Dragon and False Prophet, are to go, and 
 are going, "the unclean spirits, like frogs, which 
 are the spirits of devils working miracles," which' 
 are to gather the kings of the earth to the last bat- 
 tle of the present age, the day of Armageddon. 
 
 It is to grow more distinctly and manifestly evil 
 lo the close. 'And its last head will be the devil 
 himself, (When Romanism falls then Satan in 
 
THE GREAT APOSTASY loi 
 
 person is to be the head of the old Roman beast, 
 and lead the powers of earth once more against 
 the Lamb. "The beast that was and is not, even 
 he is the eighth, and is of the seven and goeth into 
 perdition." 
 
 This, then, is the Divine picture of the great 
 Apostasy. To-day she is making her last desper- 
 ate struggle. Let us not be deceived. Her king- 
 dom is gone, but her life is not dead. Innumer- 
 able facts show her vitality. She is not going to 
 be converted, but consumed. But there is a rem- 
 nant in her -bosom that God is calling forth. And 
 our ministry preparatory to the end is to send 
 forth the heralds of the Gospel among all her be- 
 nighted votaries, and cry: "Come out of her, 
 my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, 
 and that ye receive not of her plagues." 
 
Chapter VI. 
 
 THE FALSE PROPHET. 
 
 "And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which 
 waxed exceeding great, toward the South, and toward the 
 East and toward the pleasant land. And it waxed great 
 even to the host of heaven, and it cast down some of the 
 host and of the stars to the ground and stamped upon 
 them. . . . And by him the daily sacrifice was taken 
 away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down. And 
 an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason 
 of transgressions, and it cast down the truth to the ground, 
 and it practised and prospered" (Daniel viii. 9-12). 
 
 iw^E have seen that the seventh chapter of 
 vlx Daniel describes a little horn which was to 
 rise in the West and become the most prominent 
 figure in the last ages of Christendom. 
 
 In the very next chapter, however, he describes 
 another little horn which was to rise in the East, 
 out of the subdivisions of the Greek Empire, and 
 become the most prominent figure in the subse- 
 quent history of the Jewish people. It is to this 
 we turn our attention at this time. 
 
 It is noteworthy that the preceding chapters of 
 Daniel, from the second to the seventh, are writ- 
 ten in Chaldee ; the picture of the world is written 
 
THE FALSE PROPHET 103 
 
 in tn€ world's language. But from the eighth 
 chapter, where the powers that were to deal with 
 the Jew are brought before us, the Hebrew lan- 
 guage is employed. 
 
 This vision describes the fall of the Persian 
 before the Macedonian Empire, the breaking 
 asunder of Alexander himself, and the rise of four 
 horns to succeed him. These are the four sec- 
 tions in which Alexander's empire was divided. 
 
 These were Central Asia, Greece, Egypt, and 
 SjTia. Out of one of these the little horn was 
 to arise. That one was Syria. Its ancient kings, 
 especially Antiochus Epiphanes, fulfilled in the 
 most literal manner, as prototypes, all that is here 
 predicted about the little horn, so far as he could 
 in that early day. But we are distinctly told in 
 the close of the vision, that it is, "for many days," 
 and reaches out even to "twenty-three hundred 
 years." Therefore, it could not have been ful- 
 filled by Antiochus, except in anticipation, just 
 as the destruction of Jerusalem was a fore-shad- 
 owing of the second coming of Christ. 
 
 Its complete fulfilment, we believe, is to be 
 found only in the rise and progress of that wide- 
 spread and long-continued system of iniquity and 
 Satanic policy which has overspread the Eastern 
 
I04 th;b coming one 
 
 world for centuries, just as Romanism has the 
 West. .We mean Mohammedanism. Shall we 
 look at the points of resemblance as in the case 
 of the other horn? 
 
 THE MOSLEM POWER — ITS RISE. 
 
 I. It was to rise out of one of the horns of Al- 
 exander's divided kingdom. In one sense Mo- 
 hammedanism sways the whole region which 
 came out of Alexander's empire. Greece, Egypt, 
 Syria, and Central Asia have all been held by its 
 despotic hand for many centuries, and its capi- 
 tal, Constantinople, was the last seat of the Greek 
 Empire. But it seems more natural to think of 
 it as the successor of the ancient Syrian kings, in 
 the sovereignty of Syria and Palestine. One of 
 the very first conquests of the Moslems was Da- 
 mascus, and they may be more truly called the 
 successors of the Syrian kings and the Greek 
 Empire than any power on earth to-day. 
 
 A LITTLE HORN. 
 
 2. It was to be a little horn. Mohammedan- 
 ism originated in Arabia. And when Mohammed 
 bejran his career, that was the last land on earth 
 
THE FALSE PROPHET 105, 
 
 to seem likely to subdue one-half the world. 
 There was scarcely a single independent prince in 
 all the land. And even yet Arabia is a thinly 
 populated and unimportant country, quite as 
 much a little horn as the Papal States of Italy. 
 
 AN ElASTEEN POWER. 
 
 3. It was to wax exceeding great "towards the 
 south and the east and the pleasant land." And 
 these were exactly the directions of Moslem ag- 
 gression. First it conquered Arabia, then it 
 spread east towards Central Asia, subjugating 
 Persia, Assyria, Babylonia, and Syria, and after- 
 wards Palestine and Egypt. As centuries rolled 
 on, its vast dominion became much wider, reach- 
 ing over Northern Africa, Southern Europe, In- 
 dia, and much of Southern and Eastern Asia. It 
 was indeed "exceeding great," and so terrific was 
 its power and prestige that only the hand of God 
 and the courage of Charles Martel saved the 
 whole of Europe from being overrun. 
 
 CRUEL. 
 
 4. Its spirit is represented un3er the figure of 
 "a king of fierce countenance." And so Moham- 
 medanism ever has been cruel as the grave. Its 
 conquests were inexorable, and its awful alter- 
 
io6 THE COMING ONE 
 
 native the Koran or the sword. Its soldiers have 
 been called, 
 
 "That cruel, murderous crew. 
 
 To carnage and the Koran given; 
 
 Who think through unbelievers' blood 
 Lies the securest path to heaven," 
 
 CRAFTY. 
 
 5. Special emphasis is given to its policy and 
 craft. It does not need to be said that the Turk 
 is a master of falsehood and deceit. He does not 
 know how to keep treaties or good faith. His 
 one weapon of statecraft is deceit. 
 
 HOSTILE TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 6. It was to attack Christianity, to magnify 
 itself against the host of heaven, and to cast 
 some of the stars down to the ground. This was 
 terribly fulfilled in the first conquests of the Mos- 
 lems. Their opponents were chiefly the Eastern 
 Christians and the armies of the Greek Empire. 
 Their victims received no quarter except by em- 
 bracing the Koran, and multitudes of people and 
 pastors perished in the awful tempest. When we 
 remember that Syria, Palestine, Persia, Asia Mi- 
 nor, and North Africa were the very seats of 
 
THE FALSE PROPHET 107 
 
 Eastern Christianity, and that it was in a gen- 
 eration almost wholly obliterated from all these 
 regions, and we only find to-day a few scattered 
 Nestorians, Armenians, and Copts, who have al- 
 most forgotten the very elements of Apostolic 
 Christianity, we can realize how complete has 
 been the desolation of this Oriental scourge. 
 
 7. It was to be "because of transgression" that 
 God would thus suffer His cause and people to 
 be spoiled and scourged. Oriental Christianity 
 had become as thoroughly corrupt as the Roman 
 Papacy. Image worship filled all the Greek 
 churches, and Mohammed considered himself a 
 real purifier of religion and destroyer of idola- 
 try. And the latter he surely was, although he 
 brought in a more terrible substitute. 
 
 THE OPPRESSOR OF ISRAEL. 
 
 8. It was especially to desolate the Holy Land 
 — take away "the daily sacrifice and tread down 
 the place of the sanctuary," and set up "the abom- 
 ination of desolation." The word "sacrifice" does 
 not occur in the Hebrew. It is simply "the daily" 
 or "continual," and it may refer to worship as 
 much as sacrifice. We know that in the year 
 637 Omar captured Jerusalem and immediately; 
 
io8 THE COMING ONE 
 
 set up the Mosque of Omar on the site of Solo- 
 mon's Temple. The place of the sanctuary; was 
 indeed cast down, and the old Bishop went out of 
 the city crying, "The abomination of desolation 
 is set up." Since that time, for twelve hundred 
 years, the Turk has been the desolator of Jerusa- 
 lem and Judea. It was to recover the city of 
 Jerusalem from this humiliation that the Cru- 
 sades were undertaken. But the Turk still treads 
 down the ancient land, and will till the seed of 
 'Abraham inherit it again. 
 
 ITS FALL. 
 
 9. This power was to "be broken without 
 hand." And so the, Moslem power has been break- 
 ing for two hundred years by the unseen hand of 
 God, and all the fostering care of Europe cannot 
 much longer keep the Turk alive. 
 
 ITS DURATION. 
 
 10. The time that should elapse from the ini- 
 tial date until the end of its oppression and the 
 restoration of Jerusalem was to be 2,300 years. 
 
 The natural starting point of this date is the 
 Decree of Artaxerxes "to restore and rebuild 
 Jerusalem," the same point as the seventy weeks 
 
THE FALSE PROPHET 109 
 
 are dated from. They are said to be "cut off" 
 from the larger period of 2,300 years. That was 
 457 B.C. From this point 2,300 years bring us 
 to 1844, the very date, when after more than a 
 century of humiliation and disaster Turkey was 
 compelled to pass the great Edict of Toleration, 
 revoking the law which prohibited a Turkish sub- 
 ject from embracing Christianity under pain of 
 death. It was the most marked stage in the de- 
 struction of the Desolator, and has been followed 
 ever since by successive blows and judgments 
 clearly foreshadowing the end of its power. 
 
 ITS SPIRITUAL STRENGTH. 
 
 The fall of Turkey does not involve the de- 
 struction of Mohammedanism any more than the 
 fall of the temporal power has killed Roman- 
 ism. Mohammedanism as a system is still in- 
 tensely alive. From its great University in Cairo 
 ten thousand students are ever going out as evan- 
 gelists of Islam. It holds 175,000,000 of the hu- 
 man race yet under its thrall, and they are almost 
 inaccessible to the light. Its followers are rap- 
 idly increasing every year. It will not be fully 
 ■-'cstroyed until His coming. Then the Beast and 
 I'le False Prophet shall both be cast into the lake 
 of fire. 
 
Chapter WI. 
 
 THE LAST DEVELOPMENT OF 
 ANTICHRIST. 
 
 XS there to be in the closing stages of human 
 history the appearance of a personal Anti- 
 christ, or are all the predictions of Scripture ful- 
 filled in the great apostasies which we have al- 
 ready so fully described? 
 
 Too much has been made of the personal de- 
 scription of the Man of Sin and it is too hastily 
 assumed from this description that he must be 
 an individual man. The argument is not as for- 
 cible as it seems. In the vision of Nebuchadnez- 
 zar Daniel declares in interpreting it to him: 
 "Thou art this head of gold." A literal interpre- 
 tation would require that the vision must be ful- 
 filled in the personal history of the king himself. 
 We know, however, that it was fulfilled in the 
 kinj;dom of Babylon, of which he was the head 
 and representative. The individual ever passes; 
 the office remains. Theoretically the king never 
 dies, though the individual kings are constantly 
 changing. In this sense then the Man of Sin 
 
ANTICHRIST in 
 
 may well represent a great system of evil, the 
 same system which is described in the same pas- 
 sage as "the Mystery of Iniquity." 
 
 And yet there is nothing to forbid a double in- 
 terpretation of these prophecies, first in a system 
 of evil lasting through long centuries, and then in 
 one great leader in whom the whole system and 
 perhaps all other systems of evil shall be headed 
 up for the final conflict. 
 
 This is strongly suggested, if not distinctly 
 taught in the remarkable passage in the sixteenth 
 chapter of the Book of Revelation, where, "three 
 unclean spirits like frogs" are represented as go- 
 ing forth from the three great leaders of the 
 forces of evil, the Dragon, the Beast and the False 
 Prophet, to gather the world of the ungodly for 
 the last great conflict with Christ. Here it is evi- 
 dent that more than one system of evil is repre- 
 sented. Indeed, it is certain from the context 
 that this is a combination of all the forms of ex- 
 isting evil, a great confederacy of opposition to 
 the Lord and His servants. For such a combi- 
 nation there must certainly be a common leader, 
 and a leader of uncommon brilliancy and capac- 
 ity. This will require the supreme genius of hu- 
 man history, the great Super-man of whom all the 
 
112 THE COMING ONE 
 
 Pharaohs, 'Caesars, Alexanders, and Napoleons 
 have been the prototypes. 
 
 The various prophecies in Daniel, Thessalo- 
 nians and Revelation throw some extraordinary 
 flashlights upon the genius and ability of this 
 personality. Indeed, it is difficult to believe that 
 any mere human being can wholly fulfil the de- 
 scription. He is to be at once a great politician, 
 a despotic ruler, and a supreme religious leader, 
 combining the diplomacy, intellectual culture, ec- 
 clesiastical authority and military genius of the 
 race. It would seem from the description given 
 in the thirteenth chapter of Revelation that he is 
 also to be the head of all industrial and commer- 
 cial corporations and combinations, and that all 
 business is to be carried on under direct license 
 from him and all religious worship absolutely un- 
 der his control and actually offered personally to 
 himself. 
 
 We are not left without a very clear intimation 
 of who this awful and mysterious personality will 
 really be. In the seventeenth chapter of Revela- 
 tion, from the 8th to the nth verses, we have a 
 remarkable description of the great system of evil 
 which through the ages has cursed the world, 
 d®wn to its very latest development. It is a Wild 
 
ANTICHRIST 113 
 
 Beast with seven heads and ten horns. We have 
 already seen in the previous visions these seven 
 heads. The latest of them was shown to be that 
 great system of iniquity which formed the subject 
 of our last chapter. But here an eighth head is 
 introduced which we have not seen before. It 
 would appear, therefore, that after the seventh 
 wicked head has accomplished its evil work, and 
 just before its final destruction, this eighth head 
 is to appear and become the leader of all the 
 forces of evil which are now culminating in the 
 last hours of time. 
 
 Furthermore, this last head is described as "Of 
 the seven." That is, he has been intimately iden- 
 tified with each of the previous heads, although 
 hitherto out of sight and working as a silent part- 
 ner through his visible earthly representatives. 
 Now, however, he openly assumes the leadership 
 of his forces and gathers up in this final combina- 
 tion, which we have already described, all the ele- 
 ments of lawlessness and antagonism to God 
 which had been his own subtle and devilish work 
 throughout the ages. In short, this last leader is 
 no other than Satan himself, who now appears 
 upon the scene openly and visibly as the last 
 Antichrist. His identification is perfectly certain 
 
114 THE COMING ONE 
 
 from the description given of him here: "He as- 
 cendeth out of the bottomless pit and goeth into 
 perdition." There is only one who answers to 
 this description. It is that one who is described 
 repeatedly as the Dragon and that old Serpent, 
 the Devil, Men may laugh at the idea of a per- 
 sonal devil as much as they like, and the very 
 fact that they do laugh so loud is the best evi- 
 dence of his skill and success, for his strategy is 
 to hide his personality and persuade men that 
 either there never was a devil or that the devil is 
 dead, but some day they will be disillusioned. He 
 will throw off his disguise and probably in hu- 
 man form will appear in his true colors and defy 
 the Almighty Himself. 
 
 The great ambition of the Evil O'ne has always 
 been to mimic God and pose as the object of hu- 
 man homage, worship and obedience. There is 
 nothing incredible in the idea that he should seek 
 to copy the Lord Jesus Christ, even in His In- 
 carnation. It would indeed be a piece of splendid 
 strategy for him to manifest himself in the flesh 
 even as the Lord Jesus has been manifest and to 
 play the part of the Counterfeit and Rival of the 
 Lamb of God to the very end of the chapter. 
 Doubtless he will still seek to hide his Satanic 
 
ANTICHRIST 115 
 
 character and will seem to men to be the most 
 wonderful and brilliant human genius that has 
 ever represented the race of Adam, but behind 
 him will be the super-resources of the great Arch- 
 angel of the Underworld, that mighty being 
 whom the Scriptures uniformly describe as only 
 less than God Himself. 
 
 What an hour of darkness and crisis that last 
 hour of the present dispensation will indeed be. 
 The conflict is described in Revelation xvii. 13^ 
 14. "These have one mind and shall give their 
 power and strength unto the Beast; these shall 
 make war with the Lamb and the Lamb shall 
 overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King 
 of kings." The nineteenth chapter of Revelation 
 continues this dramatic and awful picture : "And 
 I saw the Beast and the kings of the earth and 
 their armies gathered together to make war 
 against him that sat on the horse and against his 
 army. And the Beast was taken and witK him 
 the False Prophet that had wrought miracles be- 
 fore him, with which he deceived them that had 
 received the mark of the Beast and them that wor- 
 shipped his image. These were both taken alive 
 and cast into a lake of fire, burning with brim- 
 stone. And I saw an angel come down from 
 
m TI£E COMING ONE 
 
 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 
 shut him up and put a seal upon him, that he 
 should deceive the nations no more until the 
 thousand years should be fulfilled, and after that 
 he must be loosed a little season." 
 
 Thus shall end, for a thousand years at least, 
 the tragedy of time. How solemnly things are 
 heading up for these final developments and this 
 great consummation. 
 
 !A' volume has recently been published in Eng- 
 land and America by Mr, Philip Mauro with the 
 Striking title, "The Number of Man." In this 
 work the author develops with great ingenuity 
 and intelligence the theory that all the political, 
 social, religious, economic and intellectual con- 
 ditions of our day are converging to one great 
 final Combination or Corporation, which will 
 control the politics, the business and the religion 
 of the world at no distant date and fulfil literally 
 the picture given in the thirteenth chapter of 
 Revelation. 
 
 The author forcibly points out that this is tHe 
 age of combinations and that everything is mov- 
 
ANTICHRIST 117 
 
 ing towards vast consolidations of capital, labor, 
 and even religious work. Moreover, these vari- 
 ous individual combinations are moving closer 
 together towards a general corporation of cor- 
 porations, the great Trust of Trusts. He shows 
 forcibly and truly how Socialism is aiming to de- 
 velop a religious element and is proclaiming the 
 Religion of Humanity. In line with this the New 
 Theologies of Mr. Campbell in England, and 
 Newman Smythe and Dr. Gordon in America, 
 are claiming kinship with Socialism and offering 
 to it a new Theological Creed upon which all who 
 believe in the religion of humanity can join. He 
 shows how this movement has sprung up in Ro- 
 man Catholic countries under the name of Mod- 
 ernism which is essentially one with the Social- 
 istic and Liberal Movement in the churches. All 
 these movements unite in demanding that busi- 
 ness shall be under the control of the State and 
 that the State shall have a religious basis on the 
 broad lines already indicated. 
 
 Furthermore, it is easy to see that the religious 
 trend to-day is steadily toward Liberalism, Com- 
 promise, Union, Fraternity, Universalism, the 
 putting down of all the bars and the setting up 
 of a platform so wide that the Protestant, the Ro- 
 
Ii8 THE COMING ONE 
 
 ■man Catholic, the Jew and the Buddhist sKall feel 
 equally at home, provided they; are only sincere 
 in what they believe. 
 
 Surely the great ArcH-leaHer has his organiza- 
 tion almost ready for his personal advent. The 
 great spectacle of the "solidarity of man" will 
 soon be followed by the advent of the Super-Man. 
 And when we remember that he is to be no less 
 than Satan himself the program is complete and 
 the world's mp@t stupendous hour is at hand. 
 
Chapter VIIIj 
 THE GREAT TRIBULATION. 
 
 "Because thou hast kept the word of My patience, I 
 also will keep thee from the hour of tribulation, which 
 shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon 
 the earth. Behold, I come quickly. Hold fast that which 
 thou hast that no man take thy crown" (Rev. iii. lo, ii). 
 
 "Watch ye therefore and pray always that ye may be 
 counted worthy to escape all these things that shall come 
 to pass and to stand before the Son of man" (Luke xxi. 
 36). 
 
 ^^^HERE looms large and dark in the vista of 
 ^^/ prophecy a dreadful cloud upon the future 
 of this world. 
 
 "Earth, what a sorrow lies before thee 
 
 None like it in the shadowy past. 
 The sharpest throes that ever toretHee 
 E'en tho' the briefest and the last." 
 
 ^saiah asked the watchman, "What of the 
 night?" and the answer came, "The morning com- 
 eth and also the night." The last shadows blot 
 out the dawn. Jeremiah cries, "Alas, alas, for the 
 day is great ; it is even the day of Jacobs trouble." 
 And Jesus Christ tells us in His Olivet discourses 
 
120 THE COMING ONE 
 
 (Matt. xxiv. 21) : "There shall be great tribula- 
 tion such as was not since the beginning of the 
 world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And 
 except those days shall be shortened there should 
 be no flesh saved, but for the elect's sake they 
 shall be shortened." 
 
 ISRAEX'S DAY OF TROUBLE. 
 
 This dreadful hour of sorrow is to be specially 
 severe upon Israel. We have already quoted Jer- 
 emiah's prophecy of Jacob's trouble, but he adds, 
 "He shall be delivered out of it." Daniel in his 
 last chapter reaches this closing vision of th© 
 Christian age (Dan. xii. i) : "There shall be a 
 time of trouble such as never was since there was 
 a nation, even to that same time. And at that 
 time thy people shall be delivered, every one that 
 shall be found written in the book." That this 
 time is the distant future is revealed by the next 
 verse, "Many that are asleep in the dust shall 
 awake." Zechariah more fully pictures this ca- 
 tastrophe, this furnace worse than the Egyptian 
 bondage. "And it shall come to pass that in all 
 the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall 
 be cut off and die; but the third shall be left 
 therein. And I will bring the third part through 
 
THE GREAT TRIBULATION 121 
 
 the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, 
 and will try them as gold is tried ; they shall call 
 on My name, and I will hear them : I will say, It 
 is My people ; and they shall say, The Lord is my 
 God" (Zech. xiii. 8). "I will gather all nations 
 against Jerusalem to battle ; and the city shall be 
 taken, and the houses rifled, and the women rav- 
 ished ; and half of the city shall go forth into cap- 
 tivity, and the residue of the people shall not be 
 cut off from the city. 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" 
 (Zech. xiv, 2, 3)'. 
 
 DISTRESS OF NATIONS. 
 
 But it shall not only be a day of trouble for 
 Israel, but also for all the nations. In Luke's re- 
 port of the Olivet address, we have this full ac- 
 count of the Tribulation. "There shall be upon 
 the earth distress of nations" (Luke xxi. 25). 
 This is an extremely intense word. It is more 
 than distress. It is desperate distress, unparal- 
 leled distress, distress which leaves men at their 
 wit's end, so that as John tells us in the vision of 
 the Apocalypse, "In that day men shall desire 
 
122 THE COMING ONE 
 
 death and sHall not find it." "Distress of nations 
 with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring, 
 men's hearts failing them for fear and for looking 
 after those things which are coming upon the 
 earth, for the powers of heaven shall be shaken." 
 We hear the mutterings already, the volcanic 
 forces that are underlying our social, industrial 
 and political life, and which might easily break 
 forth at any moment but for the restraining prov- 
 idences which shall be removed in that tribular 
 tion time. 
 
 Let us look for a little at some of the causes of 
 this dread condition of things that is coming 
 upon the earth. 
 
 THE VINTAGE 6F THE EARTH, 
 
 I. It will be the natural ripening of sin. It will 
 be the human heart in its corruption and deprav- 
 ity and with all the added forces of modern de- 
 velopment and culture reaching the highest pos- 
 sibilities of wickedness and misery. We have just 
 such a picture as this in Revelation xiv. i8, this 
 ripening of the vine of earth. "Thrust in thy 
 sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine 
 of the earth ; for her grapes are fully ripe." We 
 have a little account of the ripening of man'^ 
 
THE GREAT TRIBULATION 123 
 
 unrestrained physical life in the early chapters of 
 the Bible. We read in the beginning of Gene- 
 sis that "there were giants in those days," that 
 men developed the species by high breeding until 
 through physical development, such as the scien- 
 tists are telling you about to-day, they reached 
 a condition of the very highest physical perfec- 
 tion. The women we are told, were beautiful 
 women. The believers of that day, the descen- 
 dants of the godly Seth, regardless of God's sep- 
 arating line, mingled with the world and "took 
 them wives of all they chose." They married as 
 they wanted to. They married without any 
 thought of what God wanted, and thus mingled 
 the seed contrary to God's prohibition. They de- 
 veloped a wonderful race of physical perfection, 
 the highest types perhaps that humanity had de- 
 veloped even in that age when human life was 
 still long and when the seeds of death had not 
 fully wrought their fruit of mortality. 
 
 But what was the result? A race so corrupt 
 morally that the earth was filled with violence 
 and God had to send a deluge to wash away the 
 pollution of their sins and crimes. A little later 
 human wickedness developed into the fearful and 
 unnatural vices of the Cities of the Plain, and God 
 
124 THE COMING ONE 
 
 had once more to burn out the stench of human 
 wickedness, this time by a rain of fire. 
 
 AS THE DAYS OF NOAH. 
 
 The Lord Jesus has told us that moral condi- 
 tions on earth at the time of His coming will be 
 as in the days of Noah and Lot. Human nature 
 will have reached not only its perfect physical 
 development, but its highest intellectual and so- 
 cial culture, and man's capacity for wickedness 
 will be at its maximum. The two special features 
 suggested by the days of Noah and the days of 
 Lot in the moral picture are violence and lust. 
 We can already see the beginnings of these last 
 developments in the lawlessness of our own age 
 and the breaking away of modem society from all 
 restraint in self-indulgence. We need only imag- 
 ine these conditions at their height and earth 
 would be again an Inferno like the scene which 
 the angels met that awful night when they came 
 down to the house of Lot to investigate the wick- 
 edness of Sodom. 
 
 SATANIC POWER. 
 
 2. It will be the result of Satanic power. The 
 tribulation time will be Satan's "hour and power 
 
THE GREAT TRIBULATION X23 
 
 of aarkness." "And I saw three unclean spirits! 
 like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon 
 and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the 
 mouth of the false prophet, for they are the spir- 
 its of devils working miracles which go forth 
 unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world 
 to gather them to the battle of that great day of 
 SGod Almighty" (Rev. xvl. 13, 14)'. The frogr 
 suggests the night, and this will be the Night of 
 the Ages. The frog suggests the pestilential 
 swamp, and earth will be one deadly quagmire of 
 moral putridity. The frog speaks with a dismal 
 croak and the note of infidelity, materialism, spir-- 
 itualism and atheism is one of gloom, depres- 
 sion and despair. 
 
 These three spirits are already beginning their 
 idire work. The unclean spirit from the mouth 
 of the dragon may well be recognized in the 
 croakings of spiritualism, the frog from the mouth 
 of the beast is busy in the swamp oT socialism 
 and anarchy, and the emissary of the false prophet 
 is abroad in the varied forms of present fanati- 
 cism, materialism. Christian Science, Theosophy 
 and even Religious Liberalism. Let all these 
 things have unrestricted sway and we shall al- 
 ready be in the Great Tribulation. 
 
126 THE COMING ONE 
 
 OPPRESSION, 
 
 3. For the tribulation time will be the time 
 when Antichrist shall reign and all the world 
 shall be under the arbitrary and cruel sway of 
 the last and worst form of human government 
 represented by the Beast. Think for a moment 
 of the condition of the Jews to-day in Russia un- 
 der that oppressive government. Make it univer- 
 sal and earth would be a hell. Think of the ex- 
 cesses of socialism, the dynamiter, and the anar- 
 chist, and what more would be needed to consti- 
 tute the Great Tribulation? Think of a world 
 where no man could buy or sell or transact any 
 kind of business without a license from this Su- 
 per-man, as will be the case when the prophecy 
 of Revelation xiii. 15-17 is fulfilled, and who 
 would wish to live on earth in sucH an evil time? 
 
 DIVINE JXnJGMENT, 
 
 4, The Tribulation will be the time of God's 
 peculiar judgments upon this wicked world. 
 Many believe that the trumpet woes of Revela- 
 tion viii. II belong to this period. Certainly the 
 awful picture of Revelation xiv. 9, 20, belongs to 
 that time. "And the angel thrust in his sickle 
 
THE GREAT TRIBULATION 127 
 
 into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth 
 and thrust it into the great winepress of the 
 wrath of God and the winepress was trodden 
 without the city and blood came out of the wine- 
 press even unto the horses' bridles by the space 
 of a thousand and six hundred furlongs." At last 
 will come the final conflict, "And he gathered 
 them together into a place called in the Hebrew 
 tongue Armageddon, and I saw the beast, the 
 kings of the earth and their armies gathered to- 
 giether to make war against him that sat on the 
 horse and against his army, and the beast was 
 taken aiid with liim the false prophet that 
 wrought miracles before him. These both were 
 cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brim- 
 stone" (Rev. xvi. 16, xix. 20)'. 
 
 THE CHURCH REMOVED. 
 
 5. Kgain, the tribulation will be a time when 
 the restraints of religion will be withdrawn from 
 the world, the Church caught up to meet the Lord 
 in the air, and human society without the pres- 
 ence and restraining influence of tHe followers of 
 Christ. What a dreadful world this will be when 
 the atmosphere of faith and love and prayer are 
 at last withdrawn and the awful shadow of the 
 
128 THE COMING ONE 
 
 dragon's wing rests like a pall of despair upon 
 (every human heart. God grant that we may es- 
 cape that dreadful day. 
 
 AFTER THE tAROUSIA. 
 
 The period of tHe great tribulation appears to 
 be fixed by the words of Christ (Matt. xxiv. 29)' 
 "Immediately after the tribulation of those days 
 shall the sun be darkened and the moon shall not 
 give her light and the stars shall fall from heav- 
 en and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken, 
 !And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man 
 In heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the 
 earth mourn and they shall see the Son of man 
 coming .... with power and great glory." It 
 will, therefore, precede the public manifestation 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ in His glorious Epi- 
 phany, and follow the Parousia of the Son of man 
 when His Church shall be withdrawn to meet 
 Him in the air and the holy dead shall be united 
 with therm in the first resurrection. 
 
 HOW SHALL WE ESCAPE? 
 
 Finally, how shall we escape this awful day? 
 We cannot do better than read the Lord's last 
 message in the third chapter of Revelation. "Be- 
 
THE GREAT TRIBULATION 129 
 
 cause thou Hast Kepi tKe word of my patience, I 
 also will keep thee from tKe hour of temptation 
 which shall come upon all the world to try them 
 that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quick- 
 ly: hold fast that which thou hast, that no man 
 take thy crown" (Rev. iii. 10, 11). Those, there- 
 fore, that keep the word of His patience, that be- 
 lieve His word and live it, shall be numbered with 
 His waiting Bride and shall be saved from this 
 awful catastrophe. "What are these which are 
 arrayed in white robes7 and whence came they? 
 and I said unto Him, Sir, Thou knowest. And 
 He said to me. These are they which came out 
 of great tribulation, and have washed their 
 robes, and made them white in the blood 
 of the Lamb" (Rev. vii. 14, 15). In the Greek 
 there is a definite article : "These are they which 
 came out of the great tribulation." They escape 
 it, they are caught up in His first coming and 
 are before the throne and before the Lamb with 
 white robes and palms in their hands. Israel 
 must go through it because Israel did not know 
 the Lord and will not know Him till He comes 
 for His saints. Like Noah Israel will have to 
 go through the deluge, but like Enoch, the saints 
 
130 THE COMING ONE 
 
 of God win be caught up before to meet Him in 
 the air. 
 
 Another passage should be interpreted in the 
 light of this truth, "The Lord knoweth how to 
 deliver the godly out of temptation, and to re- 
 serve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be 
 punished" (II. Peter ii. 9). The godly will be 
 taken out of the tribulation, but the unjust will 
 be reserved to go through it. 
 
 The passage in Luke xxi. 28 suggests that we 
 may hope to escape from this time of trouble, 
 "And when these things begin to come to pass, 
 then look up, lift up your heads; for your re- 
 demption draweth nigh" (Luke xxi. 28). What 
 things does He refer to? Distress of nations 
 with perplexity, the tribulation terrors. Dr. 
 Young translates this phrase, "Lift up your 
 heads," "Bend yourselves back." Get ready for as- 
 cension, take the attitude of translation; you are 
 going up before the storm comes down. "Lift 
 up your heads, bend yourselves back, for your re- 
 demption draweth nigh." And then He adds, 
 "Take heed to yourselves lest at any time your 
 hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunk- 
 enness, and cares of this life, and so that day come 
 upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come 
 
THE GREAT TRIBULATION I131 
 
 upon all them that dwell on the face of the whole 
 earth. Watch ye, therefore, that ye may be ac- 
 counted worthy to escape all these things that 
 shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son 
 of man" (Luke xxi. 34-36). That is, your place 
 is up there with Him in the clouds, not down 
 here in this earthly hell. Pray for that. Watch 
 for that. Live for that, — "That ye may escape 
 these things which shall come to pass and stand 
 before the Son of man." 
 
 TAKE NO CHANCES. 
 
 How shall we prepare, therefore, to escape? 
 Take no chances. We read of five foolish vir- 
 gins. They were virgins, and they were look- 
 ing for the Bridegroom, but they did not enter in. 
 What became of them? Were they lost? Im- 
 possible. But they had to stay in the outer dark- 
 ness of the tribulation night. They did not go 
 in to the marriage of the Lamb. Doubtless, 
 later, they had their place, but it was a second 
 place. Therefore, He says, "Watch, lor in such 
 an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh." 
 
 Someone asked Dr. A. J. Gordon if all believ- 
 ers should go up with the Lord when He came, 
 or if only those that are walking with Him in 
 
132 THE COMING ONE 
 
 holiness and separation, and they quoted that 
 passage in Revelation about the first fruits unto 
 God and the Lamb, the holy ones in whose 
 "mouth was found no guile, and they follow the 
 Lamb whithersoever He goeth." He was asked 
 if only those will be caught up when He comes, 
 and the others would wait, or should all the peo- 
 ple of God be resurrected or translated. Dr. 
 Gordon shook his head with a solemn, modest 
 expression, and said, "I have not light enough to 
 answer, but I would rather take no chances." 
 
 "I see that last red bloody sunset, 
 I see the dread Avenger's form, 
 I see the Armageddon onset, 
 But I shall be above the storm. 
 
 "There comes a moaning and a sighing, 
 There comes the tear-drop's heavy fall. 
 The thousand agonies of dying, 
 But I shall be beyond them all." 
 
Chapter IX. 
 THE PAROUSIA. 
 
 "Behold I come as a thief, blessed is he that watcheth 
 and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they 
 see his shame" (Rev. xvi. 15). 
 
 ^^^HE two principal Greek words used to de- 
 ^^ scribe the second coming of the Lord 
 Jesus are Parousia, and Epiphania. The first 
 literally means presence, and the second appear- 
 ing or manifestation. They have come to be 
 recognized as describing the two aspects of the 
 Lord's return, the first, at the beginning of the 
 Tribulation, the second at its close, and at the 
 commencement of His Millennial reign, The 
 Parousia will be for His saints. It is the former 
 we are to consider at this time. 
 
 Our text represents this coming as secret. 
 "Behold I come as a thief." The thief comes not 
 to steal the house, and everything in it, but only 
 to take away the treasures from it ; and so the 
 Lord's coming will not bring the dissolution of 
 this world, or the removal of its inhabitants, but 
 only the withdrawal of the little flock who shall 
 
134 THE COMING ONE 
 
 be found waiting for their Bridegroom,' Fur- 
 thermore, the thief does not send out a" public' 
 announcement of his coming, nor allow the neigh- 
 borhood to know about it, but the first public 
 evidence of his visit is seen after he has gone. 
 So the world will not know that the Lord has 
 come until it wakes some morning to find that 
 all the best people have disappeared. It is of 
 this that the Master says, "One shall be taken and 
 the other left." 
 
 There are several important transactions that 
 will be connected with the Parousia of the Son 
 of man 
 
 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 The principle of the resurrection is engraven 
 upon the whole system of nature, The bulb of 
 Spring, the dying and germinating seed, the evo- 
 lution of the chrysalis and the butterfly all tell 
 of life out of death. Chemistry continually illus- 
 trates the dissolution and reorganization of mat- 
 ter. Faraday drops a little silver vase in the 
 presence of his audience into a basin. Immedi- 
 ately it is dissolved by the acid in the bowl, and 
 he pours out the fluid to show that every frag- 
 ment of the silver has disappeared. Then he 
 
THE PAROUSIA 135 
 
 'drops into that bowl another chemical ; in a mo- 
 ment the silver crystallizes at the bottom, and is 
 put in a crucible, melted, and poured into a 
 mould, and in a few minutes he holds up before 
 his audience the silver vase reconstructed, and 
 shining in brilliant whiteness. It has passed 
 through the laboratory of science and the process 
 of resurrection. Well might Faraday, the Chris- 
 tian lecturer, ask, "Why should it be thought a 
 thing incredible with you that God should raise 
 the dead?" 
 
 PAUL'S TESTIMONY. 
 
 In the isth chapter of I. Corinthians, Paul 
 gives us his sublime argument for the resurrec- 
 tion. 
 
 First, he tells us that it will be a spiritual 
 body. While the same essentially as the mortal 
 ■form we laid in the dust, it will be incompara- 
 bly more glorious. It will bear the same relation 
 to our present body that the harvest field bears 
 to the seed corn planted in it, or that the orange 
 tree all glorious with fruit and flowers bears to 
 the orange seed from which it sprang. To quote 
 from another passage from the apostle Paul, the 
 one is "the body of our humiliation," the other 
 *the bodx of His glory." 
 
aaS THE COMING ONE 
 
 Kgain the apostle tells us that there is a 'fixed 
 ipr'der in the resurrection. "But every man in his 
 own order," literally, his own rank. This refers 
 to the question of precedence at a social proces- 
 sion. In this grandest of all processions every 
 man wiU have his own proper rank, "Christ the 
 Erst-fruits, afterward they that are Christ's at 
 His coming. Then cometh the end." In the front 
 rank of the resurrection Christ Himself walks 
 alone. In the second rank, they that are Christ's 
 at His coming, follow. In the third company, like 
 a Hand of captives bringing up the rear, "All the 
 dead, small and great, shall stand before God." 
 This latter company shall not arise until after a 
 thousand years of Christ's Millennial reign. 
 
 Speaking of this first resurrection, the Lord 
 Jesus uses the expression, "They that shall be 
 accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the 
 out-resurrection irom among the dead." The 
 Apostle Paul, in the third chapter of Philippians, 
 also speaks of his great ambition, "If by any 
 means I might attain unto the out-resurrection 
 from among the dead." In the familiar passage 
 in his Epistle to the Thessalonians, the apostle 
 again tells us, "When the Lord shall descend from 
 heaven with a shout,— the dead in Christ 
 
THE PAROUSIA 13^ 
 
 shall rise first." There is no reference to the 
 wicked here, and there is no note of terror and 
 judgment in all this comforting scene. It is a 
 family gathering of the followers of the Lamb. 
 
 REVELATION XX. 
 
 But the most explicit passage relating to the 
 resurrection i3 found in Revelation xx. 4-6. "And 
 I saw thrones and they sat upon them, and judg- 
 ment was given unto them, and I saw the souls 
 of them that were beheaded, for the testimony 
 of Jesus and for the Word of God, and such as 
 worshipped not the beast, neither his image, and 
 they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand 
 years ; but the rest of the dead lived not until the 
 thousand years were finished. This is the first 
 resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath 
 part in the first resurrection. Over these the 
 second death hath no power, but they shall be 
 priests unto God, and Christ shall reign with 
 Him a thousand years." 
 
 There has been much discussion of this pas- 
 sage, and many attempts have been made to set 
 aside its simple and literal force. We cannot 
 find clearer or stronger language by which to 
 express its force and vindicate its application to 
 
138 THE COMING ONE 
 
 the resurrection of the saints at the coming of 
 Christ than the following quotation from Dean 
 Alford. "I cannot consent to distort words from 
 their plain sense and chronological place in the 
 prophecy on account of any considerations of 
 difficulty or any risk of abuses in connection with 
 the doctrine of the Millennium. Those who lived 
 nearest the apostles, and the whole Church for 
 three hundred years, understood them in the 
 plain, literal sense; and it is a strange sight in 
 these days to see expositors who are among the 
 first in reverence of antiquity casting aside the 
 most cogent instance of consensus which the his* 
 tory of antiquity presents. As regards the text 
 itself, no legitimate treatment of it will extort 
 what is known as the spiritual interpretation 
 now in fashion. If, in a passage where two resur- 
 rections are mentioned, where certain of the dead 
 lived again at the first, and the rest of the dead 
 lived again only at the end of a specified period 
 after the first — if in such a passage the first res- 
 urrection may be understood to mean spiritual 
 rising with Christ, while the second means literal 
 rising from the grave, then there is an end of all 
 significance in language, and Scripture is wiped 
 out as a definite testimony to anything. If the 
 
THE PAROUSIA 139 
 
 first resurrection is spiritual, then so is the sec- 
 ond — ^which I suppose, none will be hardy enough 
 to maintain— but if the second is literal, then so 
 is the first, which, in common with the whole 
 primitive Church and many of the best modern 
 expositors, I do maintain and receive as an 
 article of faith and hope." 
 
 The Prophet Daniel appears to refer to these 
 two resurrections in the 12th chapter and the 
 second verse where he says, as translated by 
 Tragelles, "Many of them that sleep in the dust 
 of the earth, shall awake ; these (who awake) to 
 everlasting life, and those (who do not awake) 
 to shame and everlasting contempt." 
 
 The resurrection of the wicked dead comes at 
 the close of Christ's Millennial reign. Then shall 
 come what the Lord Jesus called "the resurrec- 
 tion of condemnation" when all the dead shall 
 stand before God. John tells us further, "And 
 the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and 
 death and Hades delivered up the dead which 
 were in them, and they were judged every man 
 according to his works" (Rev. xx. 13). 
 
 THE TRANSLATION OF THE SAINTS. 
 
 Immediately following the resurrection of the 
 
140 THE COMING ONE 
 
 dead in CKrist shall follow what is known as "the 
 rapture of the Saints." The apostle Paul de- 
 scribes it in I. Thessalonians iv. 15 and 17. *'We 
 which are alive and remain unto the coming of 
 the Lord shall not precede them that are asleep, 
 for the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven 
 with a shout and with the voice of the archangel 
 and the trump of God, and the dead in Christ 
 shall rise first; then we which are alive and re- 
 main shall be caught up together with them in 
 the clouds (or in clouds) to meet the Lord in the 
 air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord." 
 
 THE HUMAN TOUCH. 
 
 How comforting to know that parted friends 
 who separated at the grave-side ages before, will 
 meet at His coming, and then shall go on to- 
 gether in loving recognition and glorious fellow- 
 ship in the chariots of ascension, with ample time 
 to renew the broken intimacies of the past as they 
 ascend the skies, until at length the Master's 
 presence shall burst upon their vision and they 
 shall "be forever with the Lord." 
 
 TAKEN AND LEFT. 
 
 Enocfi and Elijah represent tfiese translated 
 
THE PAROUSIA 141 
 
 ones. ^'Born out of due time" as foretypes of 
 their future followers, they lead the glorious pro- 
 cession. A great multitude which no man can 
 number will be waiting for that whispered sum- 
 mons that shall reach every longitude of the 
 earth's surface at the same blissful moment. In 
 one place it shall be midnight and two shall be 
 sleeping together. "The one shall be taken and 
 the other left." In another place farther East, 
 it will be dawn, and two women in some Oriental 
 village will be "grinding at the mill," and prepar- 
 ing their morning breakfast, and again "the one 
 shall be taken and the other left." Still farther 
 East, perhaps on the wheat fields of Russia, or 
 the rice fields of Japan, "two men shall be in the 
 field." Suddenly, the one shall have disappeared 
 and upon the other will burst the fearful truth, 
 the Cord has come and I am left behind. 
 
 THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB. 
 
 TKe parousia of Christ shall be followed by 
 §ome Beatific joy which the Lord Himself de- 
 Scrib'eH^ as the Marriage of the King's Son. 
 Tfirougfiout the Bible, the marriage bond runs 
 like a golden thread, linking the scenes of the 
 first Paradise with the glories of Paradise Re- 
 
142 THE COMING 0NE5 
 
 stored. While the figure has not always been 
 worthy of its highest meaning because of the 
 imperfection of human love, yet as little bits 
 of broken glass can each reflect a whole sun, so 
 our poor, imperfect earthly unions have in them 
 the promise and prophecy of heaven. 
 
 We trace this golden thread through the story 
 of Rebecah's wooing, the forty-fifth Psalm, and 
 the Song of Solomon, as well as Paul's fine image 
 of the Church as the Bride of Christ. But in the 
 Book of Revelation this figure is clothed with 
 still higher majesty and glory. There we see the 
 Bride "arrayed in fine linen, clean and white," 
 and the heavenly procession as it follows the 
 glorious Leader. There we see the home to 
 which He brings her in the New Jerusalem. And 
 there we see her beauty transcending all the 
 gems of earth. 
 
 TWO CLASSES. 
 
 The Parable of the Ten Virgins in the 25th 
 chapter of Matthew gives us a far-off vision of 
 the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, and suggests 
 with solemn warning the danger that some may 
 miss their place in that blessed company. Surely 
 there must be a difference between the saintly 
 
THE PAROUSIA 143 
 
 souls that have been "washed and made white 
 and tried," and the men and women who have 
 found their happiness in the things of the world, 
 and would not understand the Rapture of the 
 Bridegroom's love. Are these earth-stained 
 souls, even if saved at last, to have the same 
 place as John of Patmos, and Bernard of Cluny, 
 with Monica and Mary of Bethany? Surely, the 
 question is enough to make us pause and ask 
 our hearts if it is worth while to run the risk. 
 
 What would an earthly marriage he without 
 love? Then what will heaven mean if we do not 
 already know the betrothal of the heart to our 
 Heavenly Bridegroom and the rapture of His 
 love? 
 
 Have we seen Him in His beauty? Have we 
 hearkened to His call? Have we been won by; 
 His love? And have we learned, 
 
 "For O the Master is so fair, 
 
 His smile so sweet to banished men, 
 That they who meet Him anywhere. 
 Can never rest on earth again. 
 
 "And they who see Him risen afar. 
 
 At God's right hand for sinful men. 
 Forgetful stand, of home and land, 
 Remembering fair Jerusalem." 
 
EJhafter 'X. 
 
 THE JUDGMENT OF THE SAINTS. 
 
 ^^^HERE are three judgments distinguished in 
 ^^/ the New Testament: 
 
 The judgment ef the saints at the Lord's com- 
 ing. 
 
 The judgment of tKe nations at the commence- 
 ment of the Millennium (Matt. xxv.). 
 
 The judgment of the wicked at the close of the 
 Millennium. 
 
 It is the first of these we are to consider now, 
 
 NOT CONDEMNATION. 
 
 It will not lie a judgment of conHemnation. 
 They who are to late part in it have been al- 
 ready justified, and God has said: "Who is he 
 that condemneth? it is Christ that died, yea, rath- 
 er that is risen again." "He that heareth My, 
 Word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath 
 everlasting life, and shall never come into con- 
 demnation '(or judgment), but is passed out of 
 death into life." 
 
JUDGMENT OF THE SAINTS 145 
 
 It will not be a Judgment to decide the future 
 destiny of the saints. That is decided by their 
 sonship and saintship. The moment the believer 
 passes from the earth he is with his Lord in rest 
 and glory. 
 
 INSPECTION AND REWARD. 
 
 It will be a Judgment only of reward an'd in- 
 spection. 
 
 It will be a vindication of tfiem before all men 
 against all charges and misunderstandings. 
 "Therefore Judge nothing before the time till the 
 Lord come, who both will bring to light the hid • 
 den things of darkness and will make manifest the 
 counsels of the heart, and then shall every man 
 have praise of God." This is very gracious. God 
 will come to search out and bring to light the se- 
 cret motives, the love that the world knew noth- 
 ing of, and forgetting and hiding His children's 
 faults, see and show only what He can praise. 
 
 It will be a Judgment of inspection. Only that 
 will stand which was put there by the Holy 
 Ghost, which was the spirit and life of Jesus. All 
 else will be dropped out, and that remain alone. 
 The wood, hay, and stubble will burn up in the 
 testing fire, and the gold and silver and precious 
 
146 THE COMING ONE 
 
 stones of God's own faitK and lovf an3 hoIineTss 
 be left with intenser brightness. 
 
 It will bring to each one his and her jusf re- 
 ward for service, according to the principles of 
 righteousness and the measure and quality; of 
 service;. 
 
 It will determine the future place an3 iservlciei 
 of the saints in the Millennial kingdom. THey 
 are to be the rulers of the future age, and each 
 one's position will be determined by his special 
 character and adaptation. 
 
 In the great Empire of China ievery govern-; 
 ment post is filled not by political preferment, 
 but as the result of competitive examinations. 
 Education, therefore, can raise the poorest and 
 humblest man to the highest office in the land. 
 [According to the standing of the students at the 
 close of their annual competitive examinations, 
 they are promoted to all grades, from a mayor to 
 a mandarin. So, in the far higher application of 
 this principle, the thrones and principalities of 
 the Millennial age will be filled as the result of 
 this inspection; and Christ will return to this 
 earth" with all His officers of state selected from 
 the experience of a lifetime already spent amid 
 the discipline of earth. 
 
JUDGMENT OF THE SAINTS 1471 
 
 GRACE AND REWARD. 
 
 The principles on which the judgment will be 
 based and made plain. 
 
 First note the distinction between salvation and 
 reward. Salvation is altogether Jree, reward is 
 bestowed for service rendered. Just as in a col- 
 lege course there are subjects which all must take, 
 and honor classes which are entered only by, 
 those who specially compete for prizes ; so in the 
 kingdom of God all must repent, believe, and 
 be born again, but all may not be heroes of faith', 
 or service, or sacrifice, and all shall not wear 
 garlands and crowns of glory. The laborers in 
 the vineyard may represent the principle of the 
 common salvation, the Parables of the Talents 
 and Pounds the principle of rewards at the 
 Lord's coming. Christ's words to the woman of 
 Samaria, "If thou knewest the gift of God," de- 
 scribe the former ; his words just afterwards to the 
 disciples refer to the reward: "He that reapeth 
 receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto life eter- 
 nal, that both he that soweth and he that reap- 
 eth may rejoice together." Here is the double re- 
 ward for service, addressed to them, the serv- 
 ants, viz., wages, paid as they do the work, and 
 a share in the fruit at harvest time. Again, the 
 
Et48 frWB COMING ONH 
 
 striking passage in I. Corinthians ix. 24: "TKey 
 that run in a race run all, but one receiveth the 
 prize. I therefore run not uncertainly; so fight 
 I, not as one that beateth the air : but I keep un- 
 der my body, and bring it into subjection, lest af- 
 ter I have preached the Gospel to others, I my- 
 self should be a castaway" ; or, more correctly, "a 
 disapproved competitor." It literally means one 
 rejected at the end of the race as regards the 
 prize — not finally lost, for such a thought never 
 entered Paul's mind. 
 
 ACCORDING TO WORKS. 
 
 Again the reward is according to service ren- 
 dered. It is in exact proportion not to the quan- 
 tity always, but to the spirit and value. How 
 finely this is brought out in the Parable of the 
 Pounds. Five pounds multiplied bring five cities, 
 and ten pounds improved bring ten cities. The 
 doubling of one talent is as much rewarded as the 
 doubling of five. The humblest worker, if fully 
 faithful, is recompensed as fully as the most il- 
 lustrious. "He that shall receive a prophet in 
 the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's 
 reward, and he that shall receive a righteous man 
 in the name of a righteous man shall receive a 
 righteous man's reward." The service that wai 
 
JUDGMENT OF THE SAINTS 149 
 
 in the heart to do, but for which we had no op- 
 portunity, will be rewarded, "according tg what 
 a man hath, and not what he hath not." Many a 
 quiet heart will be brought out into the light of 
 heaven as the true instrument of a blessing in 
 which others, perhaps, had a more public part. 
 
 Some of the special recompenses are definitely 
 described. There are wages and fruit for the 
 reaper in life's harvest, and glories like the eter- 
 nal stars for those that turn many to righteous- 
 ness. There is "a crown of glory that fadeth not 
 away" for the faithful minister. There is a crown 
 of life for the man that bravely and truly stands 
 in the battlefield of the life and endures the ordeal 
 of temptation. These bitter strokes are fashion- 
 ing our diadem for by-and-by. Then the suffer- 
 ing martyr shall find his blood drops crystallized 
 into the rubies of a "crown of life." Then they 
 who simply overcome shall receive a royal heri- 
 tage with Christ Himself. And even they who 
 could do little else than live and look for His 
 appearing shall be recompensed with ^'a crown 
 of righteousness." The one that has faithfully 
 used his natural talents sirall receive in propor- 
 tion to his improvemeflt of them (Matt, xxv.), 
 and he who has multiplied and rightly employed 
 
ISO THE COMING ONE 
 
 his spiritual privileges and enduements will be 
 made a ruler over as many cities as the pounds 
 he gained. The faithful and wise steward who 
 took good care of his Lord's household here, and 
 gave to his children a portion'in season, will be 
 made "ruler over all that he hath." And they 
 who left all and followed Christ shall be recom- 
 pensed a hundredfold more in that time in the 
 things they sacrificed for Christ. Even the secret 
 thought of service that never was expressed will 
 be recognized and recompensed, and "every man 
 have praise of God." Nor will our gifts to His 
 treasury be lost. The generous millionaire and 
 the self-denying widow will find all their gifts 
 on deposit, at compound interest, and they will 
 stand astonished at their colossal fortunes. Like 
 the crowns of the Restoration time, forged out of 
 the golden gifts of the captives in Babylon, their 
 gold will be found hanging in diadems above their 
 heads on heaven's pillars, inscribed with their 
 names inwrought with His. Oh, then, no sacri- 
 fice will seem to have been too great, no gift too 
 large, no love too warm, no enthusiasm too in- 
 tense. Life's full significance will be unrolled, 
 and our only regret will be tKat we cannot live it 
 over again. 
 
Chapter XI. 
 
 THE EPIPHANY AND MILLENNIAU 
 REJGN. 
 
 "And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judg- 
 ment was given unto them. . . . And they lived and 
 reigned with Christ a thousand years" (Rev. xx. 4), 
 
 ^^!^HE coming of the Lord with His saints 
 ^^^ will follow the Tribulation and usher in 
 the Millennium. 
 
 This was the earliest prophecy of the Advent. 
 "Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of 
 His saints, to execute judgment upon all." 
 
 This is the obvious order of the twentieth chap- 
 ter of Revelation, where the thousand years fol- 
 low the destruction of Antichrist, the binding 
 of Satan and the first resurrection. 
 
 His Epiphany, unlilce His Parousia, will be 
 public and visible to all the world. This is what 
 John saw when he cried, "Behold, He cornetK 
 with clouds, and every eye shall see Him." This 
 is what the Master meant when He testified, 
 "Then shall they see the Son of man coming in 
 tfee clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 
 
152 THE COMING ONE 
 
 and tKen sHall all kindreds of the earth mourn," 
 and again, "When the Son of man shall come in 
 the glory of His Father, then shall He sit upon 
 the throne of His glory, and Tiefore Him shall be 
 gathered all nations." 
 
 Let us look at some of the events which will 
 follow His glorious appearing. 
 
 Poets have seen the Golden Age afar as the 
 mirage is seen upon the desert sky, Ancient seers 
 have painted its glowing outlines in words and 
 images they could not themselves understand; 
 and living and dying patriarchs and saints have 
 looked forward to it, with great desire, as to "a 
 city that Hath foundations, whose Builder and 
 Maker is God," and to "a better country, that is 
 an heavenly." 
 
 Man has tried to make his own Millennium. 
 Poetry has dreamed of it, and degraded it into a 
 sensuous paradise. Patriots and optimists have 
 drawn the vision of a golden age of liberty, equal- 
 ity, peace, and plenty, and seen only anarchy, li- 
 cense and misery arise at the touch' of their de- 
 ceptive wand. Moralists have toiled for pur- 
 ity, temperance, and virtue, and dreamed of a day 
 when social reform will have blotted out the 
 last plague spot from our cities, only to see wick- 
 
MILLENNIAL REIGN 153 
 
 edness, crime and the curse of alcohol and wom- 
 an's shame increase with increasing civilization. 
 And Christian reformers have expected a spirit- 
 ual Millennium, in which the Gospel shall cover 
 the myriad populations of earth, and make every 
 land a holy, happy paradise of love and purity; 
 but, alas! the lands that are most evangelized 
 are sometimes the farthest from Millennial piety 
 or purity; and were all the world to reach to- 
 morrow the condition to which Christian lands 
 have attained ijn the three centuries since the 
 Reformation, eart"h would still be a sight to break 
 the heart of Him who died for us. 
 
 Nay, God has something better for His weary, 
 hungry children than any of man's counterfeit 
 Millenniums. 
 
 "There is a fount about to stream, 
 There is an age about to beam. 
 There is a midnight darkness turning into grey. 
 Men of faith and men of action, clear the way." 
 
 A WORID WITHOUT SATAN, 
 
 This will be the first feature of the picture— a 
 world without the devil ; without his instigations, 
 temptations, deceptions, and destructive activi- 
 
354 THE COMING ONE 
 
 ties. At the very beginning he shall be bound by 
 a strong angel, and shut up in the bottomless pit 
 for a thousand years, that he may deceive the na- 
 tions no more until the thousand years are fin- 
 ished. No doubt Satan has got credit for much 
 evil that man only is to blame for. But after all 
 allowances are made, the vast aggregate of hu- 
 man sin and misery is due to his terrific power 
 and the influence of the countless myrmidons of 
 his kingdom who shall be cast out with him. Think 
 of his awful delusions, his desperate possession 
 of oppressed spirits, his wild and fearful ravages 
 over the minds of the insane, his monstrous 
 crimes, lusts, cruelties and deceptions, and then 
 realize that all this shall be absent from that 
 happy age, and you will begin to comprehend 
 what a tangible reality the Millennium is to be. 
 
 AN AGE WITHOUT EVIL SYSTEMS. 
 
 Not only will Satan be cast out, but the great 
 systems of evil through which he has governed 
 men. These include first, the forms of human gov- 
 ernment which have oppressed the world since 
 the days of Egypt; second, the forms of false 
 religion that have worshipped Satan in the name 
 of God, and sanctioned every enormity and evil 
 
MILLENNIAl!, REIGN 155 
 
 under the guise of good. Three especially of 
 these have been the curse of the ages, viz.: Ro- 
 manism, Mohammedanism, and Paganism. These 
 shall be cast out. The first two shall be hurled 
 into the abyss with Satan, the last shall be sub- 
 dued by the diffusion of the Gospel in the Mil- 
 lennial age. What an incalculable sum of misery 
 and sin has come into the world through false 
 governments and false religions. What a brood 
 of vices and curses has sprung from the corrupt 
 Papacy and the vile Moslem. But these fountains 
 shall no more defile the world. The worship 
 of saints and martyrs, the mysteries of the con- 
 fessional and the conventual life, the sealed Bible 
 and the superstitious ritual of ten thousand altars 
 shall no more insult heaven or deceive mankind. 
 The sensual excesses, the despotic tyranny, the 
 desolating cruelty, and the deadly nightshade of 
 Mohammedanism will be lifted from earth's fair- 
 est region^, and the early home of the human 
 family will become a second Eden. And over all 
 the vaster iSelds of heathendom there shall as- 
 cend no more the smoke of cruel and unholy sac- 
 rifices, or be heard the cries of suffering and 
 -wrong, and the death-gasp of despair. 
 
15(5 THf2 COMING ONB 
 
 WICKEDNESS AND WAR ABOLISHED. 
 
 Not only will Satan and his chosen instruments 
 be abolished, but the wickedness of the wicked 
 shall come to an end, and the earth will be filled 
 with righteousness and peace. "In His days shall 
 the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace so 
 long as the moon endureth." "They shall not 
 hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the 
 knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as 
 the waters cover the sea." "Nation shall not lift 
 up sword. against nation, neither shall they learn 
 war any more." "And many people shall go and 
 say, Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of 
 the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, for 
 He will teach us His ways and we will walk in 
 His paths, for out of Zion shall go forth the law 
 and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." We 
 do not say that there shall be no sin left in hu- 
 man hearts during the Millennial age, but that 
 open wickedness shall be suppressed and re- 
 strained under the holy and universal sway of 
 Christ and His saints. The world will be evangel- 
 ized and brought into subjugation to Christ, and, 
 ostensibly at least, shall be righteous and obedi- 
 ent. Thrice happy day of peace and righteous-; 
 
MILLENNIAL REIGN 157 
 
 ness ; hasten thine appearing and bring the vision 
 of waiting ages to this broken-hearted world. 
 
 "Down the dark future, through long generations, 
 
 The echoing sounds grow fainter, and then cease; 
 And like a bell with solemn loud vibrations, 
 
 I hear the voice of Christ again say, Peace, 
 Peace, and no longer from its brazen portals 
 
 The voice of War's loud thunder shakes the skies ; 
 But beautiful as songs of the immortals, 
 
 The holy melodies of love arise." 
 
 THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD JESUS. 
 
 It shall, above all other glories, enjoy the per- 
 sonal, visible, and continual presence of Christ 
 Himself, its glorious King. "The Lord shall be 
 King over all the earth." "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 the fear of 
 the Lord, And with righteousness shall He 
 judge the poor and reprove with equity for the 
 meek of the earth. And righteousness shall be 
 the girdle of his loins and faithfulness the gir- 
 dle of his reins." "Sing and rejoice, O daugh- 
 ter of Zion, for lo! I come, and I will dwell in 
 
158 THE COMING ONE 
 
 the midst of thee, saith the Lord." "Son of man, 
 the place of My throne, and the place of the soles 
 of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of 
 the children of Israel forever." "And the name 
 of the city from that day shall be The Lord is 
 there." "The kingdoms of the world have be- 
 come the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ." 
 These two facts alone are enough to make a 
 heaven: Satan absent, the Lord Jesus present. 
 Earth will be again His residence. He shall be 
 its benignant and glorious King. He shall be, no 
 doubt, accessible and visible to His subjects, as 
 Solomon of old. Once a year, Zechariah tells us, 
 the nations shall come up to Jerusalem to wor- 
 ship and to see His blessed and glorious face. 
 He shall be especially the friend of the lowly and 
 the poor. "He shall judge the poor of the peo- 
 ple. He shall save the children of the needy, and 
 shall break in pieces the oppressor. He shall 
 come down like rain upon the mown grass, as 
 showers that water the earth. In His days shall 
 the righteous flourish and abundance of peace so 
 long as the moon endureth. He shall spare the 
 poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the 
 needy." To His risen and translated saints He 
 shall be especially near. "They shall see His 
 
MILLENNIAL REIGN 159 
 
 face, and His name shall be in their foreheads." 
 "The Lamb that is in the midst of the throne shall 
 feed them and lead them to living fountains of 
 waters." His majesty and glory will shed di- 
 vine effulgence over all the earth. Brighter than 
 the glory of the sunlight shall be the splendor 
 of His presence. "The city had no need of the 
 sun, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb 
 are the light thereof." Then shall be fulfilled 
 His dying prayer for us : "Father, I will that they 
 whom Thou hast given Me may be with Me 
 where I am, that they may behold My glory 
 which Thou hast given me, for TKou lovedst 
 me from before the foundation of the world." 
 
 Some sweet day we'll see His face. 
 
 And we shall be satisfied; 
 Some sweet day in His embrace 
 
 We ^hall evermore abide. 
 
 GLORTFIED WITH HIM AND LIKE HIM. 
 
 Not only will we Have the presence of the Lord 
 JeSus, but our own state will be as glorious as 
 His. We shall be like Him, and He shall say of 
 us, "The glory which Thou hast given Me I have 
 given them, that they may be one, ieven as Wei 
 
l6o THE COMING ONS 
 
 are." .We shall bear the image of His resurrec- 
 tion Body. We shall have His marvelous beauty, 
 and His mighty powers. Clothed in immortal 
 youth and Divine energy, we shall know no pain 
 or weakness ; we shall feel our beings thrill with 
 the pulses of His glorious life and the rapture and 
 ecstasy of eternal health and strength. We shall 
 rise superior to distance and matter, traversing 
 £pace with the celerity of an angel's wing, and 
 perhaps controlling matter with the resistless 
 hand of His own power, and permitted to share 
 His own creative might and authority. But, 
 more glorious still, our spiritual and intellectual 
 nature shall be conformed to His likeness. We 
 shall be holy as He is holy. We shall reflect His 
 very face and beauty. We shall "shine forth as 
 the Sun in the Kingdom of cur Father." We 
 shall know even as also we are known." We 
 shall see all things with His eyes. We shall love 
 as the flaming seraphim, and rejoice with all the 
 transports of heayenlj^ blessedness. 
 
 All that He has shall be mine, 
 
 All that He is I shall be. 
 Robed in His glory divine, 
 
 I shall be even as He. 
 
MILLENNIAL REIGN i6i 
 
 The home of tKe glorifieS saints during the 
 Millennial age shall be the New Jerusalem, As 
 nearly as we can judge from the later descrip- 
 tion of the New Jerusalem after the; Millennium, 
 in would seem to be a city in the skies, of exceed- 
 ing glory, just above the earth and in constant 
 communion with it. 
 
 In this higher region, the children of the res- 
 urrection shall dwell with Christ, their Lord and 
 King, and thence shall go forth to administer the 
 government of the world below them. Their 
 life shall thus be different from the nations o£ 
 the human family who shall still succeed each 
 ether during all this age. There will thus be 
 two races, viz., the Immortal ones who are reign- 
 ing with Christ in the heavenly city, and the Chil- 
 dren of Mortality, who still remain in their suc- 
 cessive generations upon the earth. The state of 
 the former shall be immeasurably superior. The 
 latter may, perhaps, be translated one by one and 
 exalted to it, like Enoch, as they faithfully finisK 
 their course from generation to generation. 
 
 EXALTED SERVICE. 
 
 But we sHall have not only a glorious place and 
 character^ but a most exalted service. We shall 
 
i62 THE COMING ONE 
 
 reign with Christ on the earth. That is, we shall 
 administer, with Him and with His enduementg 
 of wisdom and power, the government of earth. 
 To each will He give two cities or ten, as we 
 have been qualified by the discipline and service 
 of life. Some will be sent forth to take direction 
 of the material improvement of earth's barren 
 wastes; some to build the cities of those busy 
 years; some to organize society amongst the 
 masses of the converted nations; some to in- 
 spire and direct the spiritual activities of that 
 age. David shall once more reorganize the 
 throne of Judah and rule with his greater Son over 
 his ancient house, while, perhaps, Solomon, Je- 
 hosaphat, Hezekiah, and Isaiah may be his illus' 
 trious court. Paul will no doubt muster the roll 
 of the Gentile nations and rejoice at the comple- 
 tion and fruition of his apostolate. Luther may 
 be a prince again where he was a prisoner. Liv 
 ingstone may be permitted to lift up 'Africa at 
 last and see it rise from Table Mountain to At- 
 las snows into a Paradise of beauty and blessing. 
 
 WE ARE FORGING OUR CROWNS. 
 
 But we bid speculation be hushed, and rest in 
 knowing this, that to each of us will be given 
 
MILLENNIAL REIGN 163 
 
 the honor an3 the work for which our experience, 
 our service, our sacrifices here have prepared 
 and entitled us. To sit on My right hand and 
 rny left, says Christ, "is not Mine to give except 
 to them for whom it is prepared of My Father." 
 And then lie proceeds to ask them: "Can ye 
 idrink of My cup? Can ye be baptized with My 
 baptism ?" He adds elsewhere : "Ye which have 
 followed Me — in the Palingenesis when the Son 
 of man shall sit upon the throne of His glory, ye 
 also shall sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes 
 of Israel." 
 
 I 
 
 OUR LOVED ONES. 
 
 The Millennium will bring us our departed 
 friends. We shall see again the unforgotten faces 
 and clasp the deathless hands. We shall won- 
 der at their beauty and glory, and sliall under- 
 stand all the mystery of the parting, and like the 
 meeting of Joseph and his brethren, see with 
 amazement how the goodness of God has made 
 all things work together for good. All tears 
 shall be wiped away, and all hearts swell with 
 rapture to know that we can never weep or part 
 again. 
 
i64 THE COMING ONE 
 
 EARTH RESTORED. 
 
 But the Millenmum shall also bring the restor- 
 ation and evangelization of earth. Not all the 
 glory of those years shall center in the resplen- 
 dent palacej. of the New Jerusalem. But this ter- 
 restrial scene "shall also be glad and rejoice 
 for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blos- 
 som as the rose." Two races shall occupy the 
 Millennial earth. First the Jewish nation, al- 
 ready previously restored to their own land, shall 
 be the Queen of Nations, and from Jerusalem 
 shall once more re-establish her sway to the Ut- 
 most confines of its ancient boundaries. 
 
 But the Gentile peoples shall also be left on 
 earth, in all their myriad populations, and shall 
 at the very earliest period of the Millennial reign 
 be converted to Christ and raised to all the im- 
 munities, privileges, and blessings of the highest 
 Christian civilization. In this great missionary 
 movement the Jews are to be largely instrumen- 
 tal, and under the fostering government of Christ 
 Himself, the King of kings, and the wisest men of 
 all the past, they are to advance to a pros- 
 perity and happiness never imagined in the wild- 
 iest Utopian dreams of poets or statesmen. Phys- 
 
MILLENNIAL REIGN 165 
 
 ically the earth will no doubt be considerably al- 
 tered, and its geographical and climatic conditions 
 rendered more favorable and delightful. We know- 
 that a glorious river is going to spring from the 
 rocks underneath the sanctuary and flow eastward 
 and westward in fertilizing beauty to the Dead 
 and Mediterranean seas. Other lands may be 
 similarly changed. The highest intellectual and 
 spiritual culture and the supernatural wisdom 
 and power of God will soon transform the most 
 rugged deserts of earth into an Eden of beauty 
 and joy. Socially and politically all shall be pure, 
 just, and happy. Misgovernment and corruption 
 cannot enter there. The world will reach its 
 highest development, and God will show what 
 Eden might have been but for sin, or rather how 
 where "sin abounded, grace did much more 
 abound." 
 
Chapter XII. 
 THE NEW HEAVENS AND EARTH. 
 
 "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first 
 heaven and the first earth were passed away" (Rev. 
 xxi. i). 
 
 H THOUSAND years of Millennial blessed- 
 ness have quickly passed. The happy years 
 have flown, and the earth has grown not older, 
 but younger, and long ago robed herself with 
 the beauty and gladness of Paradise restored. 
 The teeming nations have multiplied to billions, 
 and the generations that have been born have 
 not even had the memory of a time when life 
 was not a blessing and a joy. Righteousness has 
 seemed so blessed and so easy that sin has not 
 had power to tempt, and virtue has perhaps grown 
 to be a habit rather than a principle. 
 
 HUMAN NATURE ANY BETTER? 
 
 Outwardly the world has been conformed to 
 the will and government of Christ, but inwardly 
 it is to be feared that multitudes have not been 
 really converted, and it might easily be demon- 
 
NEW HEAVENS AND EARTH i6; 
 
 strated that human nature is not inherently any; 
 better if really tested, and that if the favorable 
 circumstances were withdrawn, the old wicked- 
 ness might not burst forth like a volcano, with un- 
 diminished furjr and malignity. 
 
 THE TEST CX)MES. 
 
 It is not long until the opportunity is given. 
 At the end ol the thousand years Satan is loosed 
 out of his prison, and permitted once more to 
 visit the world. Perhaps it is designed to be 
 
 A TEST EVEN TO THE DEVIL'. 
 
 WHy should we wonder if God should be will- 
 ing even to give Satan a second chance to show 
 if there is any improvement in him? After a 
 thousand years in his gloomy penitentiary, he is 
 permitted once more to leave his prison and see 
 for himself the grace and loveliness of Christ and 
 the blessedness of His benignant reign. Over 
 all the happy regions of earth he beholds the 
 fruits of righteousness and the blessings of re- 
 ligion compared with the six thousand years of 
 his own destructive rule. Does he appreciate 
 the difference? Does he recognize the beauty 
 and blessedness of obedience and submission to 
 
ii68 THE COMING ONE 
 
 a goo'd and righteous God? Does Ke conclude 
 to let these happy tribes' alone in the peaceful 
 jenjoyment of their Creator's love? Does he man- 
 ifest the least desire to amend his course and to 
 share the blessings of the scene that he beholds? 
 Not for a moment! 
 
 INCORRIGIBLY BAD, 
 
 It must be ishown to the universe ere he is 
 lianished forever to his dismal dungeon, that he 
 is utterly, incorrigibly, hopelessly wicked, and 
 that for the sake of the universe he must be eter- 
 nally destroyed, and restrained from further 
 harm. And so for a moment longer he is left to 
 his own wicked will. He is not slow to take ad- 
 vantage of it. Burning with fury at the happi- 
 ness of his victims and the ruin of all his ages of 
 work, he swoops upon his prey with all his an- 
 cient cunning. Aided, perhaps, by his countless 
 myrmidons, he whispers in the hearts of men the 
 wild thought of a great rebellion, and a free and 
 Independent government unfettered by the des- 
 potic will of yonder King. 
 
 A GREAT REVOLT. 
 
 It IS easy to paint the glories of the great Re- 
 
NEW HEAVENS AND EARTM 169 
 
 public. It is easy to magnify the hardships of 
 obedience. It is easy for men who never saw 
 the ages of sin to forget the fruits of disobedi- 
 ence. It is easy for proud human nature to per- 
 vert its prosperity and blessings and use them as 
 instruments of aggrandizement and evil. How 
 vast their resources must seem, how reasonable 
 their demand of independence, how brilliant the 
 picture of the Serpent's Dream. It is the story of 
 Eden again. Humanity falls once more. Like 
 wildfire the infatuation sweeps over the nations. 
 
 AN INCARNATE DEVIL. 
 
 Perhaps himself incarnate, as a brilliant and 
 magnetic leader, a Napoleon and 3\pollyon of 
 policy and genius, he gathers and holds men to 
 him in the spell of his influence, until a host, 
 gathered from earth's remotest nations, and lim- 
 itless as the sands of the sea, are marching behind 
 his banner and even investing the very seat of 
 Divine Government and the walls of the Holy 
 City. 
 
 HIS FOLLOWERS. 
 
 The races that shall chiefly follow him are 
 strangely growing into prominence to-day as at' 
 
170 THE3 COMING ONE 
 
 once the revolutionary and also the imperial ele-i 
 ments of our age. Russia is the expression of 
 despotic tryranny, and Russia is also the hotbed 
 of anarchy, lawlessness and revolution. It is 
 from this people that the final Gog and Magog are 
 to come. Ezekiel describes a terrible invasion of 
 the same warlike races, but it seems to be an ear- 
 lier stage, and probably precedes the .MiHen-t 
 nium. 
 
 FIRE FROM HEAVEN. 
 
 The conflict is not long. Not now, as in for- 
 mer ages, is he to gain a foothold and prolong 
 the conflict of good and evil. One little hour is 
 given to show his worst and let the world see 
 what sinners can be even after a thousand years of 
 love. And then, by one fiery wave, he and his 
 followers are swept from the scene forever, and 
 he is buried under chains and flames beyond the 
 possibility of release or return. 
 
 THE FINAL CATASTROPHE. 
 
 And then there bursts upon the universe the 
 great, the dread, the final catastrophe. The last 
 act of sin is over; its awful course finished; the 
 universe must be purged of its longest and latest 
 
NEW HEAVENS AND EARTO0B 171 
 
 stEiin. All that it has touched must be purified in 
 God's cleansing fire, and a new universe emerge 
 without a shadow of the evil past. 
 
 THE DEAD ARE RAISED. 
 
 First comes the resurrection of the dead of all 
 past ages. "I saw the dead, small and great, 
 stand before God, and the sea gave up the dead 
 which were in it, and Death and Hades delivered 
 up the dead which were in them." The myriad 
 dead who had fallen through the ages and slum- 
 bered on through the First Resurrection and the 
 Millennial Age are rudely awakened to behold a 
 world in flames and the majestic terrors of the 
 Great White Throne. Not one of them shall be 
 lost sight of. Bearing the traces of their sinful 
 lives and the marks of their inward character, 
 they shall stand before the Judge. It will be a 
 sight of unutterable sorrow, and the vision of it 
 looming from afar has brought the tears to 
 Mercy's weeping eyes, and led her to reach out 
 her hands to reckless men in imploring love, and 
 cry, "Flee from the wrath to come." 
 
 THE JUDGMENT. 
 
 They Have come for judgment. Mercy is not 
 
172 THE COMING ONE 
 
 there. She has folded her brood, long €rig tETs, 
 beneath her tender wing, and stands alar off, 
 turning her face away from this sad an3 dreay- 
 'ful sight. The righteous are not there. Their, 
 judgment is long since past. They Have no place' 
 here, except perhaps as judges by the side of the 
 great Arbitrer of destiny. Beloved, keep out bS 
 this judgment. Keep out of this place. It is too 
 late for mercy here. "He that heareth My word, 
 and believeth on Him that sent Me, shall not 
 come into the judgment, but is passed out of 
 death into life." 
 
 It is a judgment according to works. There 
 are several books. There is the book of evidence 
 or facts. Perhaps nature has folded away like 
 the wax pages of tKe phonograph all the scenes 
 and sounds of the past, and shall unroll them in 
 that day before the eyes of all men. Perhaps 
 memory is a volume of finest tissue pages whose 
 filmy leaves shall some day open, and in the 
 fiery breath of that hour become vivid and plain. 
 No one will dispute the records, and no one will 
 answer back. Time will be given for every ex- 
 cuse, every ameliorating circumstance, every 
 question and excuse. There will Be no hurry, 
 and there will be no capricious fury. 'A patient, 
 
NEW HEAVENS AND EARTH 173 
 
 long-suHering and righteous God, who knows 
 full well How hard the easiest sentence Is, will 
 not be swift to destroy the last hope of those 
 poor, Tielpless souls. But there will be strict 
 justice and fidelity to the statute book of the uni- 
 verse. This will be the second book, God's 
 Word; and there will also be the book of con- 
 science. Those who had no Bible will be judged 
 by the inner law, "The will of God written on 
 iHelr heart; tKeir thoughts meanwhile accusing 
 or else excusing one another, in the day when 
 IGod shall judge the secrets of men." 
 
 There will be yet another book, the Book of 
 Life — ^thal is the record of the redeemed. To 
 be recorded there answers all others charges. 
 Through His blood all claims are settled, and 
 we Have life everlasting. And all whose names 
 are not found written in the Book of Life are cast 
 into the Lake of Fire. 
 
 THE NEW HEAVENS AND EARTH. 
 
 TKen will cdm€ a mighty conflagration. A 
 cyclone of flame shall sweep over the universe 
 and cfiange its character and appearance as com- 
 pletely perhaps as when from the chaotic wreck 
 of the first creation the present earth emerged. 
 
174 THE COMING ONE 
 
 And wfien the fire has done its work', the new 
 creation will come forth in Edenic and eternal 
 loveliness and purity, never to be sullied again, 
 never to echo a sigh of pain or cry of hate, never 
 to be stained with human blood again, never to 
 bear thorns and nourish serpents again, but to 
 be the eternal home of peace and purity and 
 love, and the scene where through "the ages 
 TO COME, God shall show the exceeding riches of 
 His grace in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus." 
 
 THE NEW JERUSALEM. 
 
 "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth : for 
 the first heaven and the first earth were passed 
 away; and there was no more sea. 
 
 "And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusa- 
 lem, coming down from God out of heaven, pre- 
 pared 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 
 
NEW HEAVENS AND EARTH 175 
 
 more pain: for the former things are passed 
 away. 
 
 "And He that sat upon the throne said. Behold 
 I make all things new. And He said unto me, 
 Write: for these words are true and faithful. 
 
 "And He said unto me. It is done. I am Alpha 
 and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will 
 give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of 
 the water of life freely. 
 
 "He that overcometh shall inherit all things; 
 and I will be his God, and he shall be My son. 
 "But the fearful and unbelieving, and the abom- 
 inable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and 
 sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have 
 their part in the lake which burneth with fire and 
 brimstone: which is the second death. 
 
 "And the twelve gates were twelve pearls ; every 
 several gate was of one pearl: and the street of 
 the city was pure gold, as it were transparent 
 glass. 
 
 "And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord 
 God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. 
 
 "And the city had no need of the sun, neither 
 of the moon, to shine in it : for the glory of God 
 did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. 
 
 "And the nations of them which are saved shall 
 
176 THE COMING ONE 
 
 walk in the light of it : and the kings of the eartS 
 do bring their glory and honor into it, 
 
 "And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by 
 day: for there shall be no night there. 
 
 "And they shall bring the glory and honor of the 
 nations into it. 
 
 "And there shall in no wise enter into it any- 
 thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh 
 abomination, or maketh a lie : but they which are 
 written in the Lamb's book of life. 
 
 THE RIVER AND TREE OF LIFE. 
 
 "And He sfiewed me a pure river of water of 
 life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne 
 of God and of the Lamb. 
 
 "In the midst of the street of it, and on either 
 side of the river, was there the tree of life, which 
 bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her 
 fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree 
 were for the healing of the nations. 
 
 "And there shall be no more curse: but the 
 throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it ; and 
 His servants shall serve him: and they shall see 
 His face; and His name shall be in their fore- 
 heads. 
 
 "And there shall be no night there; and thej^ 
 
NEW HEAVENS AND EARTH 177 
 
 ineed no candle, neither light of the sun; for the 
 J^ord God giveth them light : and they shall reign 
 lor ever and ever." 
 
 A RECONSTRUCTED UNIVERSE. 
 
 There will be new heavens and there will be 
 a new earth, and the characteristic of both will 
 be "wherein dwelleth righteousness." Perhaps 
 even the very heavens, too, have been made un- 
 clean and need the touch of fire. There are traces 
 of great convulsions in yonder worlds. Has there 
 been sin there, too? We cannot tell. But there 
 will be sin no more in the ages to come. Earth 
 and heaven will be more closely linked, perhaps, 
 than now. The earth shall still be the habitation 
 of the human race. Successive generations shall 
 still people it, and the nations of the saved shall 
 still multiply upon It. How else can God fulfil His 
 promises to His ancient people, so often given 
 and declared to last through "a thousand genera- 
 tions"? How else could we read in Revelation 
 xxi. oif the New Jerusalem that after the new 
 heavens and the new earth shall have come, "the 
 nations of them that are saved shall walk in the 
 light of it, and they shall bring the glory and 
 honor of the nations into it." Perhaps this earth 
 
178 THE COMING ONE 
 
 •will be too small for all these multiplied races. 
 Perhaps that is the reason why the new Heavens 
 are to be prepared. Perhaps they shall be thq 
 colonies of the earth and the redeemed confedera- 
 cies of the skies. Perhaps the true and tried serv- 
 ants of the Lord shall be made the princes and 
 the rulers of yonder stars of light, with a whole 
 world of beings to love and bless. And perhaps 
 from one to another, we shall pass on wings of 
 swiftness and power, traversing the universe of 
 (God as inimitably as our thoughts can sweep 
 over it now, .and knowing all the heights and 
 depths of His unfathomable wisdom, power, and 
 love, who makes us partakers of His nature and 
 Kis tHrone. 
 
 OUR ETERNAt HOME, 
 
 The New Jerusalem shall be the Home ol th^ 
 glorified saints and the seat of tKe Throne of God 
 and the Lamb. Earth shall become the metropo- 
 lis of immensity. "The tabernacle of God shall 
 be with men, and God shall dwell with them, and 
 they shall be His people and He shall be their 
 God." It will not be literally a city on the earth, 
 but a suspended city in the clouds. John saw it 
 descending from God out of heaven, bright and 
 
NEW HEAVENS AND EARTH 179 
 
 beautiful as a mountain of pearls and precious 
 stones, flashing with all the colors of the rainbow 
 and shining with the glory of God Himself, more 
 marvelous than all His works. 
 
 Its dimensions are given, showing clearly that 
 it is a separate, material substance above, not 
 on the earth. It is a solid cube, its length, breadtH 
 and height equal. Its streets will not only run 
 hither and thither, but up and down. There will 
 be no law of gravitation there, for it will be it- 
 self the center of all power and motion. Its im- 
 mense dimensions will be 376 miles each way. A 
 grand and glorious city indeed I Royal mother 
 and majestic home of all the great and good of 
 earth and heaven ! Need we wonder that, as its 
 glories have sometimes broken through the mists 
 of time, the home-sick hearts of God's dear saints 
 have sighed and sung like this? 
 
 "For thee, O dear, dear country! mine eyes their vigils 
 
 keep, 
 For very love beholding thy happy name, they weep; 
 The mention of thy glory is unction to the breast, 
 And medicine in sickness, and love and life and rest. 
 
 "O one, O only mansion! O Paradise of joy! 
 Where tears are ever banished and smiles have no alloy, 
 The Lamb is all thy splendor, the Crucified thy praise; 
 His laud and benediction thy ransomed people raise. 
 
tcSo THB COMING ONE 
 
 "Jerusalem the golden, with milk and honey blest. 
 Beneath thy contemplation sink heart and voice opprest. 
 I know not, oh, I know not, what holy joys are there, 
 iWhat jadiancy of glory, what bliss beyond compare. 
 
 "They stand, those halls of Zion, all jubilant with song, 
 And bright with many an angel, and all the martyr throng. 
 There is the throne of David, and there from toil released, 
 The shoiit of them that triumph, the song of them that 
 feast. 
 
 "And they who with their leader have conquered in the 
 
 fight. 
 For ever and for ever are clad in robes of white. 
 Oh, land that seest no sorrow! oh, state that fear'st no 
 
 strife ! 
 Oh, royal land of flowers ! oh, realm and home of life ! 
 
 "O sweet and blessed country, the home of Giod's elect! 
 O sweet and blessed country, that eager hearts expect! 
 Jesus, in mercy bring us to that dear land of rest, 
 Who art, with God the Father, and Spirit, ever blest." 
 
Chapter XIII. 
 SIGNS AND TIMES OF THE END' 
 
 XS it possible for humble and intelligent faith 
 to forecast at least approximately the time 
 of our Lord's return ? 
 
 Of course this does not mean that the Scrip- 
 tures give any warrant for reckless prophesying 
 on the part of fallible men or the making of 
 schedules for the Divine program. Our business 
 is not to foretell the future, but to study the word 
 of prophecy which God Himself has given in the 
 light of history and providence, God's own inter- 
 preters of His Word. 
 
 The Book of Revelation encourages by a dis- 
 tinct benediction a careful study of the prophetic 
 word, especially this particular prophetic book. 
 !After one of the most mysterious predictions, the 
 inspired writer adds : "Here is wisdom. Let him 
 who readeth understand." The writer of this 
 book was commanded not to seal the word of his 
 prophecy, for the time was at hand. Daniel, on 
 the contrary, was told to seal his prophecy, and 
 he adds pathetically, "I heard, but I understood 
 
i82 THE COMING ONE 
 
 not." The light that is falling upon the prophetic 
 page tErougH wise and modest interpretation is 
 one of the most remarkable signs that we are in 
 the time of the end. 
 
 Writing to .the Thessalonjan .Christians, the 
 apostle Paul assures them : "Ye are not in dark- 
 ness, that that day should overtake you a.s a 
 thief. Therefore, let us not sleep as do others, 
 but let us watch and be sober." The Lord Jesus 
 told His disciples that His coming should fall 
 "as, a snare on all them that dwell on the face o£ 
 the whole earth." But they, were not to be surr 
 prised, but to be watching and ready so that the)^ 
 should escape the calamities whicH wi^re to fall 
 upon the world. 
 
 When a distinguished visitor arrives upon our 
 shores, the announcement of his coming reaches 
 the public at the time of his arrival, usually. But 
 to his intimate friends his coming is known long 
 before, and they are waiting to receive him. When 
 the happy hour of her wedding is fixed, long be- 
 fore the public are aware, the bride herself knows 
 just when it is to take place, and indeed she has 
 most to say in fixing the date. It would be 
 strange if the Bride of the Lamb of God should 
 not know at least enough of the approach of her 
 
SIGNS AND TIMES OF THE END 183 
 
 Bridegroom to be robed and waiting. Indeed iU 
 is in a measure true that the Lord's people have 
 quite as much to do with hastening His coming 
 as the Lord Himself, by fulfilling the conditions 
 and completing the preparations which He Him- 
 self has prescribed. 
 
 There is a most important principle which we 
 must bear in mind in dealing with this question 
 of the times and seasons. God does not measure 
 time according to our calendars and chronologies 
 in every instance. With Him "a thousand years 
 are as one day, and one day as a thousand years." 
 A single day is sometimes fraught with issues as 
 momentous as a whole century at other times. 
 Spiritual conditions rather than mathematical 
 figures measure God's great epochs. In a very 
 important passage which is repeated in substance 
 several times, it is declared that God will "shorten 
 the days" for "a shortened work will the Lord 
 make on the earth." That is to say, that just as 
 a train sometimes accelerates its speed at the end 
 of the schedule and makes up for lost time, so 
 the Lord's coming shall be marked by a quick-s 
 ened movement in the end of the age. May this 
 perhaps be the meaning of the revised transla- 
 tion which some scholars have given of the Lord's 
 
i84 THE COMING ONE 
 
 last promise: "Behold I come quickly/* and 
 make it to mean, "Behold I come swiftly"! 
 
 Let us with great deference and humility at- 
 tempt to trace from the Scripture itself some of 
 the approximate signs that the Lord's coming 
 is near at hand. 
 
 PRETERNATURAL SIGNS. 
 
 The Lord Jesus intimated repeatedly that there 
 would be stupendous convulsions in the natural 
 world preceding Hi§ coming, and that earth and 
 heaven would shake with the tread of His advent 
 march: "There shall be earthquakes in divers 
 places * * * and the powers of heaven shall 
 be shaken." Such things have frequently oc- 
 curred at all times in human history, but there 
 is no doubt that they have been of singular vast- 
 ness and frequency of late. The decade that has 
 recently closed has shaken this old earth as never 
 before, and in three successive years it was liter- 
 ally true that stupendous earthquakes followed 
 pne another in every part of the world. A mo- 
 ment's reflection will recall the catastrophies that 
 yisited the Island of Martinique, Southern Italy 
 and Sicily, California, Valparaiso, Northern Iiidia, 
 Central Asia and Japan. Truly, there were earth- 
 
SIGNS AND TIMES OF THE END 165 
 
 quakes "itt divers places." The heavens also have 
 not been silent in their testimony to the march 
 of God, and there seldom has been such a time of 
 plague, famine and distress on earth. 
 
 POLITICAL SIGNS. 
 
 The Prophet Daniel gave to its, as we have 
 seen, a program of the political history of the na- 
 tions down to the end. We have also seen that 
 most of this has been actually fulfilled in the suc- 
 cessive breaking up of the world's great empires 
 and the succession of smaller kingdoms which to- 
 day divide the old Roman Empire. So far as this 
 vision is concerned there appears to be little wait- 
 ing to be fulfilled. More particularly our Lord 
 announced that the end should be marked by 
 terrific wars, military armaments and great dis- 
 tress in the social and political world: "There 
 shall be on earth distress of nations with perplex- 
 ity, the sea and the waves roaring, the men's 
 hearts failing them for fear, looking after the 
 things that shall happen on the earth, for the pow- 
 ers of heaven shall be shaken." We are surely in 
 the midst of these convulsions. The great powers 
 of the earth are facing each other with unprece- 
 dented armaments. Recent wars have been of 
 
i86 THE COMING ONE 
 
 unusual magnitude and horror, and the future 
 possibilities of war may well be compared as a 
 great soldier has already compared them to 
 "hell." Below the surface of modern society there 
 are volcanic forces in the suppressed movements 
 of Socialism and Anarchy, which may at any mo- 
 ment overwhelm organized society and govern- 
 ment as in the days of the French Revolution. 
 In the commercial world the conflict between la- 
 bor and capital, and in the social world the gulf 
 between the masses and the classes, threaten the 
 greatest calamities. These are ominous signs 
 which may at any moment become a tragedy. 
 
 COMMERCIAL SIGNS. 
 
 The Prophet Daniel asked some particular indi- 
 cation of the time of the end, and this was the 
 angel's reply: "Many shall run to and fro, and 
 knowledge shall be increased." Was there ever 
 such a time of running to and fro, not only on 
 land and sea, but in the very air itself? Surely 
 we are in the age of the steam engine, the electric 
 motor the wireless telegraph, the automobile, the 
 aeroplane; the age of rush. And knowledge is 
 increased: the school, the newspaper, the public 
 library, the printing press, are scattering their 
 
SIGNS AND TIMES OF THE END 187 
 
 leaves like the forest in autumn; higher educa- 
 tion is widening its circle, every branch of human 
 knowledge is specialized, and man is trying his 
 best to build a tower of Babel to reach to heaven 
 and to fulfil the Adversary's first promise, "Ye 
 shall be as gods." A great writer has said that 
 the Nineteenth Century advanced human prog- 
 ress more than all the centuries before, and that 
 the first decade of the Twentieth Century has 
 surpassed the whole of the Nineteenth Century. 
 
 God is giving us the earnest of the Coming Age 
 in the wondrous days in which we live. The prog- 
 ress of science may be but an introductory chap- 
 ter in the advent of the Millennium, an anticipa- 
 tion of the wider knowledge and the larger eman- 
 cipation of all the powers of nature in the age to 
 come. 
 
 Within our own time the lightning has ceased 
 to be destructive, and has become the mightiest 
 force in our constructive and industrial life. 
 Every year is adding to the extraofdinary dis- 
 coveries of human knowledge, and the forces that 
 are being made tributary to the mind of man and 
 the progress of civilization. These are but fore- 
 gleams of the day when the Lord shall come in 
 person and place all tfiese mighty agencies di- 
 
i88 THE COMING ONE 
 
 rectly in tKe hands of H,is glorified children, giv- 
 ing to them a sweep of knowledge and an endue- 
 ment of physical capacity which will enable them 
 rightly to utilize these mighty forces for the high 
 purposes of His kingdom. 
 
 MORAL SIGNS. 
 
 This is Go'd's table of contents for the last page 
 of human history: "The wicked shall do wicked- 
 ly and none of the wicked shall understand"; 
 "Evil men shall wax worse and worse." We have 
 only to look at the headlines of the modern news- 
 paper to see how perfectly our age is working out 
 this table of contents. In the United States a dis- 
 tinguished Senator recently "stated that 8,975 
 'deaths from murderous assault had occurred in 
 one year, and that capital punishment had been 
 meted out to only one hundred of these. The sta- 
 tistics of divorce reveal the fact that one marriage 
 out of every twelve in the United States ends in a 
 family tragedy. The judges of the night courts 
 of Chicago and New York have lately revealed 
 an epidemic of vice and moral corruption among 
 thousands of children in the public and even pri- 
 vate schools between the ages of seven and 
 twelve, that rivals Sodom and Gomorrah. Cou' 
 
SIGNS AND TIMES OF THE END 189 
 
 ditions in England may not yet be quite so grave, 
 but they are sufficiently alarming. France is 
 known to be more and more given up to utter 
 hostility to the Christian religion. Germany is 
 rapidly coming under the influence of Socialism, 
 and Rationalism has long undermined all the 
 forces of spiritual and practical Christianity. Our 
 age is developing original and unique types of 
 violence and crime, and we are not far from the 
 picture of the Master, "As it was in the days of 
 Noah so shall it be in the day when the Son of 
 man shall be revealed." 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL SIGNS. 
 
 These include not only the development of the 
 great Apostasies which we have already de- 
 scribed, but of conditions of declension in the 
 Christian Church, which the Lord said should 
 mark the time of the end. What do we see to- 
 day, both in the pulpit and the pew ? The loss of 
 the old faith, the rejection of the Bible and the 
 Cross; the blotting out of the line of separation 
 between the Church and the world ; the spirit of 
 liberalism in the pulpit and the professor's chair, 
 and the spirit of worldliness and self-indulgence 
 in the membership of most of our churches; the 
 
190 THE COMING ONE 
 
 declining membership of the Protestant churches 
 of Great Britain, and the stationary, or almosl 
 stationary condition in most of the churches of 
 America ; the growth of the liquor traffic in spite 
 of the mtodern temperance crusade, to the awful 
 extent of an increase of five gallons per head to 
 every man, woman and child in the United States 
 in the past five years. These are but some of thei 
 emphatic lines which church history is writing 
 to-day in fulfilment of the Master's solemn warn- 
 ing : "When the Son of man cometh shall He find 
 faith on the earth?" 
 
 SPIRITUAL SIGNS. 
 
 The Prophet Daniel also gave to its some 
 marked spiritual indications of the last times: 
 "Many shall be purified and made white and tried, 
 but the wicked shall do wickedly." Side by Side 
 with the dark shadows would He tKe increasing 
 light of faith and holiness. And so we find it true 
 that this age of unparalleled wickedness is also 
 an age of unequalled godliness, faith, prayer and 
 the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon those who 
 are willing to walk with God in holy obedience. 
 Daniel's picture indicates two stages of spiritual 
 experience. "Many shall be purified," indicate3 
 
SIGNS AND TIMES OF Tim END 191 
 
 what miglit be be called tKe experience of per- 
 sonal holiness, which to-day is one of the marked 
 phases of Christian life and work. The next ex- 
 pression, "made white," denotes a deeper purity. 
 The word "white" literally means bright. It is 
 the expression used in describing the Lord's trans- 
 figured glory. This denotes the special work of 
 the Holy Spirit in preparing the Lord's hidden 
 one for the "Marriage of the Lamb"; it is the 
 wedding garment of the Bride ; it comes through 
 trial and temptation victoriously overcome. 
 Therefore it is added, "made white and tried." 
 God help us all to be thus robed and ready for the 
 coming of the Lord. 
 
 JEWISH SIGNS, 
 
 We Have referred in the former chapter to tHes 
 remarkable providential movements of our time in 
 connection with Israel, and the distinct fulfilment 
 of Ezekiel's vision of the Dry Bones, intimating 
 first the political, and later the spiritual restoration 
 |of God's chosen people. The remarkable awakening 
 in connection with Zionism is surely a sign of the 
 times and of the end. Only less extraordinary is 
 the evidence of a spiritual awakening among the 
 JewisK people and the revived interest in conncc- 
 
Ig2 THB COMING ONE 
 
 tion with Jewish missicMis and the circulation 
 of the New Testament in Hebrew among the 
 Jews in all countries. The attitude also of for- 
 eign governnients toward Israel is a fulfilment of 
 ancient prophecy. God said He would send 
 "many hunters" and "many fishers" in the last 
 days, to co-operate in bringing about their return. 
 Surely the Russian oppression of our time is ful- 
 filling the former figure. They are being hunted 
 from their places of exile in these unfriendly 
 lands, while on the other hand the appeal of Zion- 
 ism to the national spirit suggests the fisherman 
 drawing them bade in ever increasing numbers to 
 the land of their fathers. Israel is going home and 
 Christ is coming bacK again. 
 
 MISSIONARY SIGNS. 
 
 Perhaps the most significant evidence of the 
 soon ending of the present age is the intense mis- 
 sionary movement that is stirring the heart of 
 every earnest section of the Church to-day. We 
 are in the midst of a Missionary Revival. An3 it 
 is a new revival. Within a single generation the 
 great missionary enterprise has been reborn and 
 rebaptized. All classes are being caught by this 
 new spirit; the women, the laymen, the business 
 
SIGNS AND TIMES OF THE END 193 
 
 men, the young people and even some of those 
 whom God has made stewards of great wealth for 
 His cause. A new watchword has been pro- 
 claimed, the evangelization of the world in the 
 present generation. There is a quick march to- 
 day to carry the standard of the Cross against the 
 last line of the works of the Enemy and plant 
 that standard on the strategic points of all the un- 
 occupied fields of the world. Surely, faith can 
 hear the undertone: "This Gospel of the King- 
 dom shall be preached in all the world for a wit- 
 ness unto all nations and then shall the end 
 come." 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL SIGNS. 
 
 We Have already referred to some prophetic 
 dates in connection with the development of the 
 nations and the great systems of evil which have 
 been discussed in former chapters. It is proper 
 that we should sum up the signs of His coming 
 by a general and fuller reference to the whole sub- 
 ject of prophetic times. 
 
 We have already called attention to the Year 
 Day theory of prophetic time, and noted that this 
 was the principle involved in Daniel's announce- 
 taent of the Seventy Weeks that should elapse un- 
 
194 THE COMING ONE 
 
 til the coining of Messiah. This is not the only 
 Scriptural evidence of the use of a day for a year 
 in Divine measurements of time. Away back in 
 the Pentateuch we find God announcing that the 
 period of Israel's wandering in the wilderness 
 should be forty years, corresponding to the forty 
 days during which the unbelieving spies had ex- 
 plored the land, a day for a year. Again, the 
 Prophet Ezekiel was commanded to lie upon his 
 right side and upon his left a certain number of 
 days respectively, pre-figuring the years of judg- 
 ment that should come upon his people, again a 
 day for a year. Unless we have the strongest 
 reason for a contrary interpretation in any par- 
 ticular passage, we are justified in adopting this 
 standard of prophetic time. 
 
 In his scholarly volumes on Prophetic Interpre- 
 tation, The Approaching End of the Age, Light 
 for the Last Days, Creation Centered in Christ, 
 etc., the late Dr. Guinness has elaborated this 
 principle with great fulness, and worked out a de- 
 tailed calendar of prophetic fulfilment from the 
 rise of the Babylonian Empire down to the pres- 
 ent day, in which there are many striking corres- 
 pondences. He has also shown by a great induc- 
 tion of facts and authorities how these chrono- 
 
SIGNS AND TIMES OF THE END 195 
 
 logical periods run parallel with great astronom- 
 ical cycles. Without entering into many details, 
 it will be sufficient here to show the fulfilment of 
 prophetic time in connection with the various 
 lines of prophecy embraced in the Scriptures. 
 
 THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES. 
 
 We have already seen that this period was to 
 cover seven times, or twenty-five hundred and 
 twenty years. The question is: when did this 
 period begin? We must bear in mind at this 
 point that God's great movements are gradual, 
 both in their commencement and their .consum- 
 mation. The subjugation of Israel and the su- 
 premacy of the Gentile Powers did not come 
 about in a moment of time, but through forces 
 slowly operating during many years. We may 
 therefore expect that the end of Gentile rule and 
 the restoration of Israel will come about in the 
 same way by gradual processes. We may, there- 
 fore, expect to find several successive points of 
 departure in our measurement and several points 
 of arrival corresponding. The whole process re- 
 sembles a ribbon cut diagonally at both ends so 
 that a number of lines carried horizontally from 
 any one end to the other would be of equal 
 
igS THE COMING ONE 
 
 length. A simple diagram will illustrate this. 
 
 The earliest date of Gentile supremacy would 
 be the era of Nabonassar, 747 B.C. Twenty-five 
 hundred and twenty years from this date would 
 bring us to the opening stages of the French Rev- 
 olution, when the governments of the world re- 
 ceived their most terrific shock and the beginning 
 of the end was distinctly foreshadowed. The lat- 
 est period from which to begin the subjugation 
 of Israel and the domination of the Gentiles is 
 587 B.C., the date of the fall of Jerusalem. Our 
 measuring line from this point would bring us to 
 the year 1934, not now far distant. Between 
 these two periods of about a century and a half 
 God has certainly been working with a mighty 
 hand in bringing about the dissolution of the 
 great world powers which Daniel described and 
 before it shall have expired may we not humbly 
 expect some glorious consummation? 
 
SIGNS AND TIMES OF THE END 197 
 
 JEWISH TIMES. 
 
 There are two measuring lines in connection 
 with Israel's future. The first is twenty-three hun- 
 dred years, the date given to Daniel in the tenth 
 chapter,measuring the oppression of his people by 
 the Eastern Little Horn representing the Moham- 
 medan power. We have already seen that the 
 starting point of this period in all probability was 
 the decree of Artaxerxes for the restoring of Je- 
 rusalem 457 B.C. From this date twenty-three 
 hundred years would bring us to 1884, when the 
 Turkish Government was compelled by the Pow- 
 ers of Europe to issue a decree of toleration both 
 for Jews and Christians. This was the beginning 
 of a period of gradual and increasing liberty on 
 the part of victims of the Turkish oppression and 
 the corresponding breaking down of the Turkish 
 power. 
 
 There is another Hate, however, given in the 
 last chapter of Daniel, a shorter measuring line 
 of a time, times, and half a time, or twelve hun- 
 dred and sixty years. This period, the prophet 
 was told, was to measure the scattering of the 
 holy people. Measuring from the year 637 A.D., 
 when Jerusalem was captured by the army of 
 
ig8 THE COMING ONE 
 
 Mohammey.twelve hundred and sixty years brings 
 us to 1897, wlien Zionism was organized and new 
 forces set in motion for the final restoration of 
 Israel, which are steadily working toward that 
 end. At the same time God has been moving in 
 other providential lines through constant revolu- 
 tions in Turkey itself and the steady weakening 
 of its power, which are co-operating by a mani- 
 fest destiny to the fulfilment of His prophetic 
 Word. 
 
 In the last chapter of Daniel we have already 
 seen that an extension of seventy-five years was 
 to be added to the period already named, making 
 in all thirteen hundred and thirty-five years. This 
 extension would seem to embrace all the details 
 and stages of God's final working, and bring us 
 to the end of the prophetic cycle and the glorious 
 day of which the Divine messenger declares: 
 "Blessed is he who cometh to the thousand three 
 hundred and thirty-five days." 
 
 TIMES OP THE PAPACY. 
 
 Again and again, both in Daniel and in Revela- 
 tion, tfie duration of the persecuting power of 
 the great Apostasy is given as twelve hundred 
 and sixty years. Beginning our measurement 
 
SIGNS AND TIMES OF THE END 199 
 
 with the year 533 A.D. when the Emperor Justin- 
 ian gave to the Pope the decree establishing hi£ 
 supremacy, our measuring line would bring uS 
 exactly to 1793, the Reign of Terror and the 
 French Revolution. This was the period when 
 the Papacy received its first most dreadful Tslow, 
 resulting in a little while through the wars of Na- 
 poleon in the capture of the Pope himself as a 
 prisoner of war. The next initial point from 
 which we might measure the increasing dominion 
 of Rome is the year 607. This was marked by 
 the Decree of Phocas confirming the former de- 
 cree of Justinian. Again our measuring line 
 brings us to a still more impressive era, namely, 
 the issuing of the Decree of Infallibility by the 
 Pope, followed immediately by the French and 
 Italian wars, which ended in the final loss of the 
 Temporal Power, and the end of the Papacy as 
 a World Power. Since that date it has simply 
 been an ecclesiastical system and never again can 
 it claim its place among the nations. There is a 
 further date, the Decree of Vitallian, 663 A.D. 
 Our measuring line will bring us to a date still 
 future. God has yet much to accomplish in His 
 final dealings with this evil system. But His faith- 
 fulness in the past to the "sure word of prophecy" 
 
200 THE COMING ONE 
 
 encourages us to know and believe that His com- 
 ing "is near, even at the doors." 
 
 When we speak of the coming of our Lord as 
 immiment, we do not mean the fulfilment of all 
 the successive prophecies which reach on to His 
 glorious Epiphany. There may be much to be 
 accomplished before that day shall arrive, but 
 there is another coming for which His saints are 
 waiting, His gracious Parousia. It is of this He 
 is saying in whispered tones of warning to all 
 His waiting ones: "Behold I come as a thief; 
 blessed is he that keepeth his garments." 
 
 "I know not if He come at. eve, 
 
 Or night, or morn, or noon; 
 I know the breeze of twilight gray 
 That fans the cheeks of dying day 
 
 Doth ever whisper, "Soon." 
 
 "I know not if His chariot wheels 
 
 Yet near or distant are; 
 I only know each thunder roll 
 Doth wake an echo in my soul 
 That saith, "Not very far." 
 
 '^I know not if we long must wait 
 
 The summer of His smile; 
 I only know that hope doth sweep 
 With thrilling touch my heart strings deep. 
 
 And sings, 'A little while.' " 
 
Chapter XIVL 
 
 THE PRACTICAL INFLUENCE OF 
 THE BLESSED HOPE. 
 
 "And every man that fiath this hope in him purifieth 
 himself, even as He is pure" (I. John iii. 3). 
 
 iw^HAT is the practical value of the blessed 
 vX/ Hope? Is it a speculation in theology, or 
 is it a living and blessed hope and inspiration, 
 linked in the Scriptures with almost every aspect 
 of Christian life? 
 
 AN INCENTIVE TO THE UNSAVED. 
 
 The apostles used it as an appeal to the care- 
 less and indifferent to urge them to decision for 
 Christ. "Repent, and be converted, that your sins 
 may be blotted out, when the times oi refreshing 
 shall come from the presence of the Lord, and He 
 shall send the Lord Jesus which before was 
 preached unto you, whom the heavens must re- 
 ceive until the times of restitution of all things." 
 !A.nd again Paul speaks of the Thessalonians as 
 having "turned from idols to serve the living and 
 true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, 
 
202 THE COMING ONE 
 
 even Jesus, which saved us from the wrath to 
 come." 
 
 It must therefore have been presented to them 
 as a practical incentive and message of warning. 
 It is a message of awakening and conviction 
 which we should use more freely and effectually 
 than we do. It was the message of God's coming 
 judgment which led to Nineveh's repentance, and 
 the proclamation of Christ's coming to the heath-! 
 en has brought many to bow a,t the feet of Jesus. 
 
 A MOTIVE TO PERSONAL HOUNESS. 
 
 So the apostle teaches in his letter to Titus. 
 "The grace of God which bringeth salvation hath' 
 appeared to all men ; teaching us that denying un- 
 godliness and worldly lusts we should live sober- 
 ly, righteously and godly in this present evil 
 world, looking for that blessed Hope, and the 
 glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us that He 
 might redeem us from all iniquity and purify 
 unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good 
 works." So again in writing to the Thessalonians 
 he presents the coming of the Lord as the great 
 goal of holy aspiration. "The very God of peace 
 sanctify you through and through, and I pray 
 
THE BLESSED HOPE 203 
 
 God your whole spirit and soul and body be pre- 
 served blameless unto the coming of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ." 
 
 The beloved John likewise links this hope with 
 the practice of holiness. "When He shall appear 
 we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He 
 is ; and every man that hath this hope in him puri- 
 fieth himself even as He is pure." Because we 
 are going to be like Him then we wear His image 
 now. We anticipate our coming glory, and like 
 the Lord Himself, who began to wear the gar- 
 ments of His Incarnation long before He came 
 to earth, so we try on even here the robes of our 
 approaching coronation. The glory of the Holi- 
 est shone through the curtains, and so the glory 
 of our future state should cover us even here. 
 
 This is our peculiar preparation for His com- 
 ing, and such a preparation on the part of His 
 Church is the most marked sign of His Advent, 
 When you see the bride arrayed in her wedding 
 robes, you know the Bridegroom must be near. 
 And could we see the Church of Christ robed in 
 the beauty of holiness, and putting on her wed- 
 ding garments, we would know that day was 
 near, and that the angel voices were about to 
 proclaim, "The marriage of the Lamb has comei 
 
204 THE COMING ONE 
 
 and His wife hath made herself ready." 
 
 AN INCENTIVE TO HEAVENLY MINDEDNESS. 
 
 Mrs. Stowe has pictured in her wonderful little 
 tract, "He is coming to-morrow," the consterna- 
 tion of a millionaire, and the consolation of a poor 
 suffering child of God at the announcement that 
 had just been made to the waiting ones, "He is 
 coming to-morrow." 
 
 This was what Paul meant when he said to the 
 Philippians (iv. 20)', "Our conversation (our citi- 
 zenship) is in heaven, from whence also we look 
 for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall 
 change the body of our humiliation that it may be 
 fashioned like unto the body of His glory." 
 
 There is nothing except the love of Jesus that 
 can so separate us from the world as the hope of 
 Christ's coming. Dr. Chalmers describes the in- 
 habitants of a pestilential marsh, who had again 
 and again been urged to emigrate, but they could 
 not be induced to leave a certain for an uncertain 
 good. At last one day they saw approaching and 
 slowly passing by a beauteous isle clothed with 
 a verdure and loveliness they had never seen be- 
 fore, and breathing the balmy air of its glad and 
 ietemal spring over all their unhealthy plains. 
 
THE BLESSED HOPE 205 
 
 Then they began to eagerly enquire if they might 
 enter its blessed harbor. They sent out their 
 boats across the sea, they entreated permission to 
 land upon its shores, and they gladly let go their 
 old cabins and treasures, and hastened to the 
 happy shores of this bright and holy Paradise. 
 So is the vision of His coming. It falls like a 
 withering spell on earthly ambition and avarice, 
 and makes us cry: 
 
 "My hopes are passing upward, onward, 
 And with my hopes my heart is gone ; 
 My eyes are turning sk3rward, sunward, 
 Where glory brightens round yon throne." 
 
 IT KEEPS us CLOSE TO HIM. 
 
 "And now, little children, abide in Him, that 
 when He shall appear we may have confidence, 
 and not be ashamed before Him at His coming." 
 
 When Elisha knew that Elijah's translation was 
 near, he kept very close to his side. To every sug- 
 gestion that he should leave his side, he answered, 
 "As the Lord thy God liveth, and as thy soul liv- 
 fetK, I will not leave thee." So, if we are waiting 
 and watching for His coming, we will not let a 
 inomen? separate us from Him. It was but one 
 
2o6 THE COMING ONE 
 
 evening that Thomas was absent, but that very 
 evening Jesus came. 
 
 AN INCENTIVE TO BROTHERLY LOVE. 
 
 "The Lord make you to increase and abound in 
 love one toward another, and toward all men, 
 even as we do toward you, to the end He may es- 
 tablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before 
 God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ with all His saints." 
 
 How embarrassing it would be for you and 
 your brother to meet to-morrow at His right 
 hand, and, looking in His face, to say, "Lord, I 
 do not speak to him." There is a day coming 
 when we shall all clasp hands and look into each 
 other's eyes, and say, "Wdl, we did not under- 
 stand each other, but it is all right at last/' Why 
 not assume that we may be mistaken, and love 
 even His erring children for His sake? 
 
 A CALL TO VIGILANCE. 
 
 "Watch ye therefore, for ye Know neither the 
 day nor the hour when the Son of man cometh." 
 
 "Let your loins be girded about and your lights 
 burning, and ye yourselves like unto men who 
 watch for their Lord when He will return from 
 
THE 5J.ESSED HOPE 207 
 
 the wedding, that when He cometh and knock- 
 eth, they may open to Him immediately. Blessed 
 are those servants whom the Lord when He com- 
 eth shall find watching. Of a truth I say unto 
 you that He shall gird Himself, and make them 
 sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve 
 them. And if He shall come in the second watch 
 or come in the third watch, and find them so, 
 blessed are those servants. 
 
 "And this know, that if the good man of the 
 house had known what hour the thief would 
 come, he would have watched, and would not 
 have suffered his house to be broken through. 
 Be ye therefore ready also, for the Son of man 
 cometh at an hour when ye think not." 
 
 Here are two ways of receiving the Master. 
 One is to "open to Him immediately." The other 
 is to "leave his house to be broken through." 
 Which will we have? Purposely the time 
 is unknown, that we may be ever rea3y, but we 
 know enough to know that it is near. 
 
 The late Dr. A. J. Gordon once sent word to 
 his family in the country that he was coming to 
 them some day the following week. Every eve- 
 ning his little children washed, dressed, and went 
 down to the one suburban train that came to the 
 
2o8 THE COMING ONE 
 
 village, to meet him. He did not come till Sat- 
 urday, but his wife told him that the hope of his 
 coming had kept them in garments clean the 
 whole week. So may this blessed Hope purify 
 us "even as He is pure." 
 
 PATIENCE IN VIEW OF HIS COMING. 
 
 "Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the 
 coming of the Lord. Behold the husbandman 
 waiteth for the precious fruits of the earth till he 
 receive the early and the latter i ain. Be ye also 
 patient, stablish your hearts, for the coming of 
 the Lord draweth nigh." 
 
 "Let your moderation be known unto all men. 
 The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing," 
 He whose hopes are above the world is not great- 
 ly tried by its passing clouds. Oh, how easy it 
 will make our little worries, frets and conflicts 
 to truly realize 
 
 "A few more struggles here, 
 A few more partings o'er, 
 A few more toils, a few more tears, 
 And we shall weep no more." 
 
 AN ENCOURAGEMENT TO STEADFASTNESS. 
 
 "Be ye therefore steadfast, immovaljle, always 
 
THE BLESSED HOPE 2og 
 
 abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much 
 as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the 
 Lord." "Cast not away therefore your confi- 
 idence, which hath great recompense of rfeward, 
 for yet a little while and He that shall come will 
 come and will not tarry." Hold on, the end is 
 near, the reward is great. Too much has been 
 already suffered to lose the victory now; "Hold 
 fast that thou hast, that no man take thy crown." 
 Standing on yonder battlements He holds the 
 crown in view. You can almost hear the plaud- 
 its and the shouts. Shall you falter now? 
 
 AN INSPIRATION IN OUR WORK. 
 
 "Behold I come quickly, and My rewar3 is 
 with Me, even to give every man according as his 
 work shall be." And so to the Humble reaper, to 
 the faithful pastor, to the soul winning evangel- 
 its the New Testament holds out evermore this 
 great Hope as his inspiration and recompense. 
 How ashamed some of us would feel if we re- 
 ceived a crown ! We would almost walk through 
 the palaces of glory as if we had stolen it I Not 
 so Paul. He will know the name of every jewel 
 In his diadem. There is Eydia. There Is Timo- 
 thy. There is the jailor. There is Sosthenes, 
 
2IO THE COMING ONE 
 
 who attacked him at Corinth and was saved in 
 glorious revenge. There is the soldier that was 
 chained to his side. Are you forging your crown 
 and gathering its jewels, or shall you be, 
 "ashamed before Him at His coming"i 
 
 A COKSOLATION IN SORROW. 
 
 "I would not have you ignorant concerning 
 them that are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as 
 others that have no hope. For the Lord Himself 
 shall descend from heaven with a shout, and with 
 the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, 
 and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we 
 which are alive and remain unto the coming of 
 the Lord shall be caught up together with them 
 in clouds to meet the Lord in the air: and sO 
 shall we be forever with the Lord. Wherefore 
 comfort one another with these words." This 
 doctrine is the balm of sorrow and the consola- 
 tion of bereavement. It gives us back our lost 
 in immortal beauty and everlasting love, and it 
 wipes every tear away. "Therefore, be ye stead- 
 fast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of 
 the Lord, for as much as ye know that your labor 
 is not in vain in the Lord." 
 
THE BLESSED HOPE an 
 
 llhere shall be no more crying. 
 
 There shall be no more pain. 
 There shall be no more dying. 
 
 There shall be no more stain. 
 
 Hearts that by death were riven 
 
 Meet in eternal love; 
 Lives on the altargiven 
 
 Rise to their crowns above. 
 
 Jesus is coming surely, 
 Jesus is coming soon; 
 
 Oh, let us walk so purely. 
 Oh, let us keep our crown! 
 
THE LORD'S toMIN<S SNQ MISSIONS, 
 
 "This gospel o! the kingdom shall be preached in all 
 the world for a, witness to all nations, and then shall 
 the end come" (Matt. xxiv. 14). 
 
 "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, and 
 tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice. Fear God 
 and give glory to Him for the hour of His judgment is 
 come" (Rev. xjv. 6, 7X. 
 
 ^^!^HE coming of Christ js the great end of ere- 
 ^^ ation and redemption. This is the day foe 
 which all other days were made, the one event 
 to which all other things are tending. 
 
 Even nature itself foreshadows the New Crea- 
 tion, This fallen world, witH its minor Key of 
 sadness, iechoes in every' tone the cry for some- 
 thing better than nature knows. "The whol^ 
 creation groaneth and travaileth together in pain, 
 waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption! 
 of the body." Every radiant morn, every return- 
 ing Spring, every bursting bud and breathing 
 blossonij and gvefy humming insect, emerging 
 from its winfry Jomb and opening ichrysalis, ig 
 
LORD'S COMING AND MISSIONS 213 
 
 but the prophecy of the resurrection and our 
 Palingenesis, when He that sitteth upon the 
 throne shall say, "Behold I make all things new." 
 Man's highest philanthrophy aims to develop 
 and improve the conditions of this old earth 
 of ours so that some day it shall fulfil the dreams 
 of that golden age of which poets havfe sung. 
 
 SOMETHING BETTER THAN THIS WORLD. 
 
 But it were a poor reflection upon God if this 
 old world at its best were the best that His power 
 and goodness have for the human race. When 
 we think of the ravages of sickness, sin, and sor- 
 row ; when we realize the malign elements in the 
 earthquake, the tempest and the devouring sea, 
 ^nd when we look at the mouldering dust and the 
 hopelessness and agony of death, and remember 
 that after all the fairest scenes of earth are b'.lt 
 cemeteries and the spots that tell of broken 
 hearts and blighted hopes, well may we say, 
 
 'Were this poor world our only rest. 
 Living or dying, none were blessed." 
 
 Or, as the apostle has expressed it, "If in this 
 life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all 
 men most miserable." 
 
 No, God's wisdom and love have something 
 
214 THE COMING ONE 
 
 better for our race than civilization, reformation, 
 social reform and scientific progress; something 
 better even than a spiritual millennium and the 
 worldwide triumpK of the iGospel and the grace 
 of God, 
 
 Just as lor tHd individual God's highest thought 
 is not self-improvement, nor the best possible re- 
 sult out of natural character and human culture, 
 but a new creation, a regeneration so completei 
 that old things pass away and all things are made 
 new; so for the world itself God's plan is the 
 same. The mark of the cross must pass upon 
 the earth itself and through death and resurrec- 
 tion it must come forth a new earth to take its 
 place with God's new heavens in the coming age. 
 The City of God does not spring up from the 
 earth, but, as the New Jerusalem, it comes down 
 from heaven. Jesus Christ is the "Nobleman who 
 went into a far country to receive for Himself a 
 kingdom" and return^ Ages have passed since 
 He went away, and He has been from generation 
 to generation gathering the stones for that glori- 
 ous city which in a little while will burst from 
 the heavens upon an astonished world and take 
 the place of all our puny structures and all our 
 petty plans. 
 
LORD'S COMING AND MISSIONS 215 
 
 This was the vision of the ancient prophets; 
 this was the promise of the departing Lord, and 
 this is the great perspective that climaxes the 
 vision of faith and hope throughput the whole 
 New Testament. 
 
 SOMETHING BETTER THAN AN EARTHLY MILLEN- 
 NIUM. 
 
 Too long the Church of God Has closed the vis' 
 ion with the establishment of the Church and 
 the conversion of the world as the real end for 
 which the Spirit is working in this age. But if 
 we look at the inspired record we find that there 
 is yet another scene in the picture that lifts our 
 thoughts to a higher plane and a more distant 
 horizon. It begins in the tenth verse of the first 
 chapter of Acts, where two men stood by them 
 in white apparel, saying, "Ye men of Galilee, why 
 stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same 
 Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, 
 shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him 
 go into heaven." 
 
 Ah, this was needed to complete the perspect- 
 ive. Away beyond the Church, the mission field, 
 the present age, stretched the vista of millennial 
 years with the glorious light of the Lord's return 
 
2i6 THE COMING ONE 
 
 as the real goal toward which redemption is ever 
 moving forward, and the Holy Ghost, is ever 
 leading on. Until we get this fully in view we 
 have not grasped God*s great plan, we have not 
 got our eye upon the true goal and our course 
 will be unsteady and our work unbalanced. 
 
 THE HOPE OF THE EARLY CHURCH. 
 
 It was for this the Apostolic Church was ever 
 watching, praying, working, and waiting. This 
 was the message which the apostle preached to 
 the Thessalonians and which made them Hurn 
 from idols to serve the living and true God and 
 to wait for His Son from heaven." This was the 
 comfort he held out to the bereaved and sorrow- 
 ing saints as they bade farewell to the martyred 
 forms of their beloved ones, that Christ was com- 
 ing soon, and they should be "Caught up together 
 with them to meet the Lord in the air." This 
 was the joy and crown of His own intense minis- 
 try, that he might present his people to the heav- 
 enly Bridegroom in the day of His coming, as 
 his "crown of rejoicing in the presence of Christ 
 at His coming." And this was his own inspiring 
 hope as he was about to lay down his ministry 
 and meet his Lord, "Henceforth there is laid up 
 
LORD'S COMING AND MISSIONS 217 
 
 for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, 
 the righteous Judge, will give me in that day." 
 
 THE PLAN OP GOD. 
 
 When the apostles were starting out to the 
 great task of the world's evangelization, a great 
 council was held in Jerusalem to settle certain 
 principles fqr the guidance of the Church of the 
 present age. And to that council the Holy Ghost 
 revealed through its leader, the Apostle James, 
 as he quoted from the ancient Prophet Amos, 
 the divine order of events in the program of the 
 Lord. The first of these steps was stated thus, 
 "At the first God did visit the Gentiles to take 
 out of them a people for His name." The second 
 stage was as definitely stated in the next sen- 
 tence, "After this I will return and build again 
 the tabernacle of David that is fallen down." 
 Here we find the Lord's coming presented as the 
 sequel of their immediate ministry, the great 
 event for which they were gathering out a peo- 
 ple from the Gentile nations. 
 
 If the Church had ever kept this in vi*w she 
 would have saved herself the waste of much vain 
 (effort and bitter disappointment in her attempts 
 to build up a permanent earthly institution and 
 
2i8 THE COMING ONE 
 
 create on earth a kingdom without the King. 
 
 For the Church itself has been as much at fault 
 in her objects and ambitions as the world in its 
 mere human policy. 
 
 Men have tried to found their kingdoms and 
 cities as if they should reign forever, and make 
 this earth a paradise of pleasure without the 
 Lord. And sin has cursed all their ambitions and 
 policies, and turned the vision of earthly pride 
 and power into that fearful menagerie of wild 
 beasts which Daniel saw when he looked at the 
 governments of earth as they appeared in the 
 light of heaven. But just as foolish and short- 
 sighted is the policy of the Christian worker who 
 aims to establish even through the Church an 
 iearthly millennium. 
 
 THE CITY YONDER. 
 
 Earth offers no foundation stable enough for 
 the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusa- 
 lem. Our business is to gather stones, timbers, 
 and jewels for that glorious edifice and pass them 
 on to the great Architect that is building over 
 yonder "the city that hath foundations" and the 
 "kingdom that cannot be moved." 
 
 We are just like Hiram's carpenters and Solo- 
 
LORD'S COMING AND MISSIONS 2ig 
 
 mon's stone cutters, working in the mountains of 
 Lebanon and the quarries of Judah, and passing 
 the cedar and the granite to its future site. One 
 by one we are gathering the souls which He is 
 fitting into the living temple, and in a little while 
 the vision of its glory will burst upon our view 
 and admiring angels will say, "Come and see the 
 bride, the Lamb's wife." And we shall behold 
 that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending 
 out of heaven from God, having the glory of God 
 and her light like a stone most precious, even 
 like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. "And the 
 twelve gates were twelve pearls, and the street 
 of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent 
 glass. * * * And the city had no need of the 
 sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the 
 glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is tHe 
 light thereof. And the nations of them that were 
 saved shall walk in the light of it : and the kings 
 of the earth do bring their glory and honor into 
 it." 
 
 THE TRUE GOAL. 
 
 This is the glorious goal. This is the future 
 toward which the cross of Calvary and the Holy 
 Ghost are leading the generations on. This is 
 the true end for which it is worth our while to 
 
220 THE COMING ONE 
 
 work and pray. This is the transcendant outlook of 
 faith and hope and love. This is the kingdom 
 that Daniel saw, superseding the pride and power 
 of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, when "the 
 kingdom and the greatness of the kingdom under 
 the whole heaven shall be given to the people 
 of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom 
 is an everlasting kingdom and whose dominion 
 shall never pass away." This is the glorious con- 
 summation which the voices of heaven celebrate 
 in the eleventh chapter of Revelation when they 
 cry, "The kingdoms of this world have become 
 the kingdom of the Lord and of His Christ, and 
 He shall reign forever and ever. We give Thee 
 thanks, Lord God Almighty, which art and wast, 
 because Thou hast taken to Thee Thy great pow- 
 er and hast reigned." This is what the Master 
 meant when He said, "When these things begin 
 to come to pass, then look up and bend yourselves 
 back, for the hour of your redemption draweth 
 nigh." 
 
 THE GOSPEL OF THE KINCa>)M. 
 
 The work of missions is the great means of 
 hastening that end. The work of the Holy Ghost 
 through the Church was chiefly intended to gath- 
 
LORD'S COMING AND MISSIONS 221 
 
 er out from all nations a people for His name, 
 a bride for the Lamb^ It is not God's purpose 
 at the present time by any stronger compulsion 
 than the persuasion of the Gospel and the influ- 
 ence of the Holy Spirit to bring men to the accept- 
 ance of Christ as their Saviour and King. In the 
 next age every knee shall bow and every tongue ~ 
 confess that He is Lord ; but at the present time 
 the Gospel is preached to men as a witness, the 
 opportunity is given to every one, and then it is 
 left to their voluntary choice. "He that believ- 
 eth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that be- 
 iieveth not shall be damned." 
 
 The purpose of the present dispensation is to 
 give this universal probation for a brief time to 
 all the races of mankind, and, after the opportuni- 
 ty has been given and all that are willing to come 
 to Him have accepted the gracious invitation, to 
 close the day of grace and bring the nations be- 
 fore Him in judgment and then (establish a visi- 
 ble kingdom on earth which shall compel the sub- 
 jection of all mankind and bring earth's millions 
 without exception to bow to His scepter. 
 
 To-day it is the few that He is calling; not the 
 subjects, but the rulers of the coming age. Just 
 as David called out the heroes that followed him 
 
222 THE COMING ONE 
 
 in the days of his exile and afterwards made them 
 the princes of his kingdom ; so the Lord Jesus to- 
 day is training the men and women who will 
 share with Him the government of the age to 
 come. 
 
 This is our high honor and privilege, to be 
 kings and priests unto God, and to reign with 
 Him upon the earth. 
 
 HIS COMING DELAYED. 
 
 Until the whole number of His elect shall have 
 thus been called and gathered home. His coming 
 would seem to be delayed. This elect company 
 is universal in its scope, while limited in its 
 numbers. It embraces the people of every land, 
 tribe and tongue. The angel of the Apocalypse 
 had the everlasting Gospel to preacH "unto every 
 nation and kindred and tribe and tongue." There- 
 fore to-day the work of missions must be world- 
 wide. It is not enough for us to be zealous in 
 gathering a large number of converts among a fa- 
 vored people in Christian lands. God wants us to 
 bring the representatives of earthly tongues, and 
 when this shall have been done, then. He tells us, 
 the end shall come. The Bride of the Lamb, like 
 the Son of man, must represent humanity as a 
 
LORD'S COMING AND MISSIONS 223 
 
 whole. The Lord Jesus is not a Jew, an Anglo- 
 Saxon or a Greek; but He is the Son of man, the 
 representative of every race, universal man. So 
 His Bride must be the daughter of humanity, 
 the composite photograph, embracing every fea- 
 ture, every color and every kindred of the hu- 
 man family. 
 
 THE lamb's bride. 
 
 It is said that when a great artist was asked to 
 paint the Empress of Russia, he travelled all over 
 the country and sought opportunity to see every 
 beautiful woman of the land, and then in his 
 painting he combined the most beautiful feature 
 or expression in each of these faces in one com- 
 posite picture, taking care, of course, to make 
 the countenance of the Empress the most dis' 
 tinctive of all, .and then he presented it to her 
 with incomparable flattery as her portrait. The 
 heavenly Artist is not painting, but creating, a 
 Bride characterized by all that is most distinctive 
 of every type of redeemed humanity, and all to- 
 gether reflecting the matchless glorjr and beauty 
 of the Lord Jesus Himself. 
 
 ALL NATIONS. 
 
 Therefore the work of missions must be uni- 
 
224 THE5 COMING ONE 
 
 versal. Thank God that the great ideal is being 
 rapidly fulfilled. Already more than four hun- 
 dred of the languages of earth have repeated the 
 story of the Saviour's love, and all the forces of 
 Divine Providence and Grace are workigg as 
 never before to prepare the world for the entrance 
 of the Gospel and "gather out of the nations a 
 people for His name." 
 
 How manifestly His arm has been made bare 
 in the breaking down of the Roman Catholic and 
 Moslem barriers, and Turkey, France, Italy, 
 Spain, the Philippines, the West Indies, and the 
 South American republics. How He has used 
 the ambitions of European colonizing govern- 
 ments to open the interior of Africa and sent 
 the explorer and protnoter to lead the way of thei 
 missionary. How the steamship, the railroad, 
 the postal union, and the foreign Consul in 
 China, India, and Africa, have become the hand- 
 maids of the Gospel. What a romance of mis- 
 sions the story of the Progress of Japan, Siam, 
 China, and Korea, have been for a quarter of a 
 century. How fully God has answered the prayers 
 of His people a generation ago, and opened all 
 the doors of long closed lands. And how mar- 
 velously the Holy Ghost has been seconding the 
 
LORD'S COMING AND MISSIONS 225 
 
 Providence of God and pouring out a great mis- 
 sionary Spirit in almost every heathen land. 
 
 Truly, one is reminded of the message that 
 came to a Christian worker recently in a dream, 
 ile saw a great battlefield, and thousands of 
 horses all caparisoned and ready to charge. But 
 there were no riders, and when he asked one 
 standing by for an explanation, this was the an- 
 swer, "These horses are God's Great Missionary 
 Opportunities to-day." But where are the riders? 
 Where are the men to enter God's open doors? 
 Where? 
 
 Surely the message that came to David at Baal 
 Perazim may well ring in our ears to-day, "And 
 it should be when thou shalt hear a sound of going 
 in the tops of the mulberry trees that then thou 
 shalt go out to battle ; for God is gone before thee 
 to smite the host of the Philistines." 
 
 There's a sound of a going in the air 
 That is more than the whispering Zephyr's sigh; 
 
 There's a sound in the tops of the mulberry trees 
 That tells us the hosts of the Lord are nigh. 
 
 For the Ancient of Days is on His way, 
 And the hour of His judgment is at hand, 
 
 And the shaking of heaven and earth today 
 Is troubling every wondering land. 
 
226 THE COMING ONE 
 
 We are going forth to a strenuous fight, 
 To a sword of fire and a field of blood. 
 
 To the slums of sin and the lands of night, 
 And the last stern battle of the Lord. 
 
 Let us gird ourselves for the glorious fray. 
 Let us stir ourselves till the fight be won, 
 
 For the Son of God is on His way. 
 And the Lord of Hosts is leading on. 
 
 How vain and fruitless all our efforts to help 
 humanity and reform society short of God's plan ! 
 Are we wasting our strength in second class phil- 
 anthropies and enterprises? They are not worth 
 the cost. The time is too short, the crisis is too 
 near, the conditions are too hard. Nothing else 
 will help our ruined world but Christ, His cross 
 and His coming. Do not sink your money in the 
 sands of time, but put all the strength of your 
 life into the best things, the one thing, the only 
 thing that God has given us as the remedy for 
 sin and the business of life. 
 
 How unsatisfactory are many of the religious 
 methods and movements of our time! How 
 poorly spent the money that you put into the 
 churcli choir, a splendid organ, a church spire 
 and an institutional church which is little be<-t€r 
 than a Sunday club and a place of more respect* 
 
LORD'S COMING AND MISSIONS 227 
 
 able amusement for so called Christians. How 
 needless even costly missionary institutions for 
 a world that soon will hear the thunders of His 
 voice. More simply, more swiftly let us fly, like 
 the angel of the Apocalypse, with the everlasting 
 Gospel to preach to every kindred, tribe, and 
 tongue. 
 
 Let us be wise to understand our Master's 
 plan! Let us be swift to hear His voice and 
 obey His command! Let us make sure of that 
 glorious reward. "They that turn many to right- 
 eousness shall shine as the stars forever and 
 ever." Let every one have some part in this mag- 
 nificent crusade. If you cannot go, you can send. 
 Your prayers can be eloquent, your gifts and sac- 
 rifices can give you a substitute and an equal place 
 in the army roll and the glorious recompense. 
 
 Come from the vain and perishing things of 
 time, from the mistaken, though well-meant en- 
 terprises of humanitarian zeal and from the self- 
 ishness and sin of a fruitless and wasted Chris- 
 tian life, and invest the strength of your being 
 in the greatest work in the world, "the city which 
 hath foundations, whose builder and maker is 
 God," and "the kingdom which cannot be moved." 
 
228 THE COMING ONE 
 
 The Master's coining draweth near, 
 The Son of man will soon appear. 
 
 His kingdom is at hand. 
 But ere that glorious day can be. 
 This Gospel of the Kingdom we 
 
 Must preach in every land. 
 
 Oh, let us then His coming haste. 
 Oh, let us end this awful waste 
 
 Of souls that never die. 
 A thousand millions still are lost, 
 A Saviour's blood has paid the cost. 
 
 Oh, hear their dying cry! 
 
 They're passing, passing fast away, 
 A hundred thousand souls a day, 
 
 In Christless guilt and gloom. 
 Oh, Church of Christ, what wilt thou say 
 When in the awful judgment day 
 
 They charge thee with their doom?