iSODLv • ,' ' .rj £ s> ,K ' ^ u r^s r^yDOOK ISA LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. dljap.. dcpjrijli l^c. Shelf JfiElSO'l rJj- UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. V 'X THE DOOR OPENED GIVING A COMPREHENSIVE VIEW OF THE END FROM THE BEGINNING OF SPIRIT LIFE, OR A REVELATION OF THE WAY AND DESTINY OF MAN. BY LYMAN M. DENNIS. ^ ">Qn W. B. DUCHEMIN, Printer and Stereotyper, Cincinnati, Ohio. IS93. iv?*7-y i* ?H y PREFACE. The Bible comes to us as a jewel set in the great cycles of Time, overlaid with the beauties of Eternity, and re- flecting the image of the One Altogether Lovely. It has truth for its matter, God for its author, and salvation for its theme. Its pictures have exhausted the beautiful; its descriptions have unfolded the roll of all wisdom, dis- covered the hidden treasures of the Earth, set before us the patterns of all things to come, taught all arts, indus- tries and sciences ; given the experience of the ages to all moral philosophies ; set thrones, established govern- ments, systematized thought, and adorned all eloquence ; harmonized all the ornamentation of the earth, taught men how to live, and pillowed the head in the hours of death. It takes hold of the hand for protection, and leads to Eternal Life in the presence of Christ. Its rays of Divine Light cover the whole earth, illumines the dark vaults of the prison, penetrates the hovels of vice, and shines on the throne of Empires. Its truths are from everlasting to everlasting, and its blessings to the ends of the Infinite and Eternal. Its knowledge is too vast for one mind to receive it all, yet set apart, to all men, in sentences so complete and harmonious, that salvation is drawn in one breath, and the wayfarring man, though a fool, need not err therein. In giving this work to the public for consideration, I have tried to call attention to the Jewels of Truth, in the hope that I might interest and instruct those who have neither time or inclination to draw the water of life from so deep a well, or drink the elements of eternal joy, in salvation from sin, to the Glory of God. L. M. D. CONTENTS. _, ( The Development oe the Divine 1st Chapter, j m THE HlJMAN . The Breath of God — The Creator magnified — Personali- ty of God — Gravitation at work — Human and Divine In- telligence — Infinitude of God's Dominion — The Human and Divine Trinities — Absorbing Divine Life — Fruits after their kind — Elements of Divinity in Man — Equality before God — Spiritual Affinity — Conception of God — Mind De- velopment — Fear as a Religious Factor — Life of Christ a Revelation — The Light of the Dark Ages — Superstition operative — Principles of Liberty — Public Schools — Church Leadership — New Birth defined — Progression in Eternity — Our Common Enemy at work — Hereditary Character — Sus- tentation of the Spiritual — Phrenology — Origin of the Social Scale — lhe Dewdrop revealing God — Source of Power — Free Agency— The Soul, what is it ? — Immortality — A Mother's Influence — Victory over Satan — Fallen Angels — Prayer Defined— Joy in Christ. 26. Chapter, . . . '.. . , Revelation. The Office of the Scriptures — Nature a Divine Teacher — Truth established — The Voice from Eden to Calvary — A Beginning proven — Discovery of the Attributes of God — Adam looking for Christ — The first Conversion — Piety of Abel — Enoch's Translation — State of Societjr in Noah's time — The effects of his Preaching — The Rain-bow coven- ant — The call to Abram — The promised Seed — Melchesi- dec's Banquet to Abraham — God speaks with a voice — Words which Abraham heard— Angels visit Lot — Abraham's death — Jacob in Bethel — The Promise renewed — Idolatry in Jacob's family — God revealed in dreams — Character of Joseph— Pharoah's Dream interpreted — Moses in God's stead— Crossing the Red Sea— Mt. Sinia— The Rock smit- ten in Rephidim — Priesthood established — The Wages of Sin — The intercession of Moses — In the cleft of the rock — The will of God subjected to the will of men. VI CONTENTS. 3d Chapter, ... In the Promised I^and. Israel makes friends of the Idolaters — Judges ruling Israel — Backsliding — Elijah's word from God — The wicked Queen — First type of the Resurrection — Elijah's victory over Idolatry — The Voice in Horeb — Elijah taken up — Elisha's call and God's answer — Schools of the Prophets — - The 7,000 that remained — False Ideas accepted for Truth — Truth and Falsehood personified — Proof that God does not afflict man — God's Government of Israel — A sample of Satan at work — Dedication of Solomon's Temple — Fore- sight of Isaiah — Birth of Christ — His humiliation, death and resurrection — His transfiguration — The Holy Ghost prom- ised — Trinity — The burden of sin — Christ's Kingdom — Looking backward — The Lamb of God — God seeking the sinner — The plan of Salvation formulated — War in Heaven — Satan cast out. 4th Chapter, . .. . . Satan at Work. The god of this world — The war in the flesh — Control- ling Spirits — The Angels in their field of action — Relative positions of the two armies — Satan entering Eden — His first victory — The Curse in Nature — God cutting off sin in the flesh — Satan establishing his kingdom — Worshipped in Images — Ceremonial mysteries — The decendants of Ham — The Magi of Egypt — Satan directing the schools of Greece — The revenues of Egypt — Israel afflicted — Satan's reward for service — Satan defeated — Eli's wicked Sons — Satan leads Israel out to battle — God's authority over Satan — David kills a giant — Satan in the home — Spirits that peep and mutter — Valley of Hinom — Daniel in the lions den — God's victory over Satan in Babylon — Satan op- posing God in Jerusalem — Slaughter of the Innocents — Temptation of Jesus — Christ casting out Devils — Cruci- fixion of Christ — Fulfillment of the First Promise. 5th Chapter, . . The Kingdom Established. A woman clothed with the Sun — The twelve Stars — The two Witnesses — The open door — Revivals — Government of Rome — Selfishness of the Jews — Death of Steven — Conver- sion of Saul — Paul at Autioch — His Ancestry, Education and Character — John, his Prophecies — The Seven Seals — Satan worshipped in Pergamos— Jerusalem destroyed — The seven Churches of Asia — Inspiration of John the Evan- gelist—Origin of the Sacred Number — Periods of Prophe- cy — The U. S. A* in Phrorjhecy — Conflagration of Rome- Nero's cruelty — Purity of the early Christians — Papacy — The Dark Ages — The Pilgrim Fathers — The Reformation of Luther — Overthrow of Papacy in Rome — The seven Trumpets — The seven last Plagues — To the End — The Coming of Christ. CONTENTS. Vil 6th Chapter, From Death to- the Resurrection. 7th Chapter, . New Heavens and a New Earth. 8th Chapter, . The Work of a Thousand Years. ■-®X<^(f>®X9- CHAPTER I. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE DIVINE IN THE HUMAN. God formed man of trie dust of the ground, and breathed into his notrils the breath of Life, and man became a living soul. We are taught in the Scriptures, also, that God created man in His own image and likeness. If we presume to study the character of the Supreme Being, in order that we may more fully understand our relation and obligation to the Creator, that Being will be magnified by an intelligent conception of the One universal Father of all animated Being. Without stopping to consider the character- istics of man, that are like those of his Maker, it is sufficient to say that mind, as it reaches out into the Infinite, is dazed and bewildered, as it enters the unknown beyond our conception. We are fully persuaded of the personality of the Supreme Being. We can conceive of no intelli- gence, unless we find mind encased in form, or body, and even then we only find intelligence in certain kinds of bodies. It is necessary for us to consider this subject with a great deal of deliberation, because we find that many bodies have no thought at all. The earth, once, was without form and void, and darkness reigned IO THE DOOR OPENED. upon the face of the deep ; and again when God applied the Law of Gravitation it became a body of Earth composed of many elementary princi- ples, and yet in all these elements there is not found, that which constitutes mind, as distinct from matter. The tree has roots, body, branches, leaves and fruit, and yet no thought ; so we find in the animal creation bodies of bone and flesh and blood, not unlike our own bodies, in these respects, and the}' have brains also, the habita- tion of mind, so that they are possessed of the powers of obedience, imitation and communica- tion of their desires, and yet we can not say that they have intelligence ; but when we look at man, we find a higher order of Being, because God breathed into his nostrils the Breath of Life. What a vast difference there is between mind and matter, when we compare man with the animal creation, and yet how infinitely more must be the difference between Life as it exists in man, and Life as embodied in that Being whose breath could give us an intelligent exist- ence, which no wreck of misfortune in time or eternity could extinguish. The poet has said : " Eternity, thou pleasing, dreadful thought ; through what untried changes must we pass?" And so, as we look through our own light-house, out over the great deep of Divine Life, we are but approaching the thres- hold of Him who filleth all in all. The pro- THE DIVINE IN THE HUMAN. II creation of the human family is to man, as deep a mystery as the triple unity of the God-head. If we analyze a sunbeam, we find it composed of seven primary colors, and as we study the absorb- ing qualities of the objects of nature, we learn that combinations of light in various degrees, gives an unlimited number of tints and shades of the original, which array themselves before the eye in such agreeable contrast, that at every turn we have new creations of beauty; nor is there permancy even in these ; the bright green of vernal foliage, is changed into yellow, and red and violet in autumn. The lily and the rose are clothed in such resplendant dyes that many devote their lives to doting on their beauty. We find Divine Life more or less absorbed by all human beings. In nature, like species, produce the same. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Cultivation often improves the original, where things exist below a degree of perfection ; so that by the application of study, care and labor, we may be able to produce a lar- ger variety, and a more perfect fruit, with a greater yielding capacity. It is even so, also, with Divine Life. The promises of God were to Abraham, and his children after him, forever, so I am led to believe, that Heaven will be peopled with the descendants of the Christian parents, who in their turn, must be responsible for those who come after them. I can conceive 12 THE DOOR OPENED. no departure from this order of things upon the hypothesis, that all human lives have in their Being the elementary principles of Divinity. An imperfect link in the chain of spirit life would be disastrous to the plan of the Great Divine power, so to my mind every human Being must be capable of attaining unto Eternal Life, in the presence and favor of God. In the vegetable kingdom, botanists tell us, the fruit bearing condition depends upon a cer- tain affinity plants and trees have for each other ; so it is with Divine Life. No man hath seen God at any time ; the relation of the human to the Divine is such, that we can not see Him in Person and live. The refulgence of his Glory would radiate through the corruption of the flesh, 'till our house of clay fall down beneath its load of sin, and with the crumbled clods make up that dust from whence it came. But, that the breath of life immortal does exist in every human form, there can be no question. Thus, while we are not permitted to see God, in per- son, we are enabled to recognize his essential attributes, or elementary principles, which go to make up, by their combination, that Perfect Being. As a Creator, He maketh all things by the word of His power ; as a Ruler, He exercises dominion over the works of His hands ; as a Father, He makes provision for, and maintains THE DIVINE IN THE HUMAN. 1 3 His creation. His wisdom is too great for human understanding, and 3-et Ave have intelligence, and our minds are capable of great development. With each convulation of the brain we are cap- able of developing wonderful profundities of knowledge ; this is why the human family differ. Every one may not become an expert in every branch of learning, but many men, who have dug for the precious pearl of great price, have found it ; so on every side we are compelled to acknowledge a superior. But intelligence is an attribute of God, so if we would look for Divine Life of a high order in men, we must look for intelligence. Before the Christian era, Religion consisted largely of obedience through fear. At the time when Christ was upon earth, and throughout the first century, when men were greatly enlight- ened, by association with, and memory of, the Good the Saviour came to bring ; the conception those had of God who knew Christ personally, having committed their knowledge to writing for the use of future generations, these have been, and are, as they ever shall be, a great power in developing the Divine principle in the lives of men. Following the first century, and down to the time of the Reformation, and even down to the present century, the mind of man was steped in ignorance and vice, till there ex- isted scarcely any intelligent conception of God 14 THE DOOR OPENED. at all, Hence it was that idolatry, superstition, and astrology held such universal sway over the minds and actions of men. When the Declaration of Independence was framed, so as to give life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, mind was given free speech, thought and action ; when Yale College was founded, in it was laid a bed rock of Divine Life on this American Garden of God. The leaders of the world in mind development instituted our God given system of Free Schools. If we but look at things, as they exist to-day, in the development of spirit life, through mind, as this Christian civilization progresses under the leadership of a church, which first educates, and then christianizes, we will find that import- ant institution revealing God in man. It seems to me, that no matter by what vari- ous means we may attempt to describe the New Birth, to be a Christian unto Eternal Life, we must have an intelligent conception of God. Blind devotion will never magnify or praise the bountiful Giver of life, or render acceptable ser- vice to Him who knows our thoughts, before we give expression to our souls. Under the different degrees of light, spirit life in the world beyond will exist under many tints and shades of glory and perfection, still capable of endless improvement. However, it is impossible for us to ever gain equality with our THE DIVINE IN THE HUMAN. 1 5 Creator ; but one thing is sure, we will, in the endless cycles of Eternity, surpass in ourselves, our present conception of God. The especial object of considering this subject, is to to learn, if possible, by what means spirit reception may take place, and to follow the development of Divine power in this life of ours. It seems that after the first faint spark of spirit life is im- planted in our Being, an enemy has also come in, if possible, to destroy the germ of life. If we but stop to consider, we will see, that many children enter upon life with very little prospect of developing the higher elements of Being. Following out the idea, that like begets like, we find the soul oppressed with hereditary charac- ter. Habit is a great factor in the development of the soul ; vice in every form intermingles to vitiate the nobler qualities of life. As the flesh depends upon the things that support the natural man, for reconstruction as well as sustentation, so the soul depends largely upon its own inate tendencies of mind for its existence and develop- ment. The science of Phrenology investigates the faculties of the mind, and reveals the truth that" those faculties have different degrees of power, as well as various degrees of development to begin with, so that it is not difficult, for one acquainted with this science, to foresee the prob- able future character of the individual examined. The natural tendencies of mind depend largely 1 6 THE DOOR OPENED. upon the influence one faculty has over another, and as there are many faculties brought into activity, as various subjects present themselves to the mind for consideration, the results are as various in different individuals. So we have the old time saying: "many men, of many minds." The mind is a law of justice unto itself, which is universal in action, so that minds are classi- fied, and we distinguish them as men of good judgment, while others are not possessed of this useful and happy combination of faculties. In the square forehead we see great reason- ing ability ; in the long forehead we recognize the generous mind ; in the lofty crown we dis- tinguish the devotional tendency of soul ; while the broad crown indicates a large development of the moral faculties, and the head which is all behind the ears will be all animal, while on the other hand the head that is all in front of the ears will have no common sense at all ; thus, while we admire the intellectual, we must not expect the Law of Justice, which sets equity between the faculties, to stand aside, lest men be alltogether out of balance. If the head be too thick between the ears, the man will be too sav- age for good society, and if too thin, he will be without the courage of his convictions, and so we conclude that justice demands that develop- ment be general in the faculties which best be- fits men to occupy the various positions and cir- THE DIVINE IN THE HUMAN. 1 7 cumstances of life, in complacency and peace, both for themselves and those with whom they come in contact in business, the Church and society. There is no doubt, however, that some indi- viduals have a better chance in the world than others, to grow up into that which constitutes the truly noble Being. It is but natural then to suppose, that the children with intelligent parentage will have minds of keener perception, and so also, will children of devotional or moral parentage have like faculties developed in them. The individual possessed of these noble qualities of mind must evidently rise above his less for- tunate acquaintances ; such a one will find beauty in color, and pleasure in looking at every- thing in nature. As he studies the dewdrop, its crystaline globule will reflect upon his mind a world of tranquility and purity ; association of thought will reveal the character of God, and his soul, inspired with rapturous delight, feels the tingling thrust of joy ascending up in praise to Him who gave us Being. God in man has been the mystery of ages. I may not know by what process the flower ab- sorbs the sunlight, but I readily see the beauty of the flower. Neither can I understand the ex- act way by which God develops in the human ; but this I do know, that we are so constituted, that if we seek wisdom and purity, we shall have 1 8 THE DOOR OPENED. it. Spirit stops at no unopen door or walls of flesh. Spirit gravitation draws the sonl toward its Maker at all times, and down through that same chain of love God pours the life-giving principle of soul power, enlarging, developing, purifying, and sanctifying our spirits, which are His in time and eternity. What refreshing draughts of spirit power come through prayer. The communion of the soul with its Maker so strengthens the real char- acter, that the evil tendencies of our nature are broken down and overcome, 'till in reality the predominating power of our Being is God ; as He says in His words: "I will dwell in them, and walk in them ; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." A great many people seem to think that the evils of this world are of no use whatever in accomplishing the purposes of God in the life of man ; but that is a great error. We are creatures of liberty, creatures of choice. The various phases of vice present themselves to our minds with all their miserable consequences, in such a way, that their crushing terrors drive us by force to seek a Father's pro- tection and love. What horrid forms can sin assume, 'Till we detest, despise and hate, The very thought that makes our tomb, And settles man in sin's estate. THE DIVINE IN THE HUMAN. 1 9 Refines our souls with holy love, While spirits blest, may join their power, Companions here, of God above, And blessings fall, a constant shower. Around thy form, unfelt, unseen, He clasps His tender, loving arm, Ten thousand snares, he stands between, To keep the soul through ev'ry storm. Then why not lift your eyes above The low'ring clouds of sin and shame? There reigns in Heav'n a God of love, Whose love will always be the same. Along thy pathway, treach'rous sands, Alike unknown to thee are strewn, O'er these He holds you in His hands, All unnoticed and unknown. In heav'nly garb of lustrous light, Effulgent beams of love Divine Break through the folds of deepest night, And o'er your sorrows sweetly shine. Much has been said about the Soul. What is it? " God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living Soul." I do not believe that that soul, or any other, of the human family, existed prior to that time. The breath, however, is neither the life, or the soul, but is the agency of God, to start into ac- tion those functions which sustain life. The blood is not the life, but without it we can not exist ; neither is the heart the tabernacle of God, as it is often spoken of, to conform with that prevail- ing idea which men have of the indwelling place of God. Human action can not take place in- 20 THE DOOR OPENED. voluntarily, but requires the will power trans- mitted to the parts by the nerves of the body ; but the nerves are not the Soul. What, then, is it ? If I can find words with which to clothe my ideas, I will at least make it plain to my own mind, with the hope that it may also be plain to the mind of the reader. The life of God, or power of self-sustenta- tion, entered into the body of clay through the medium of the breath, being the very life itself ; transformed the body of clay into the various functions which are necessary to sustain life in the flesh, and put those functions into operation, directing and disposing those operations, and opposing all other obstructing or destructive influences. This supreme principle in man is the Soul, which we sometimes signify by the words Life, Heart, Mind. Therefore, the mind, which is the soul, complete in all its parts, is that which has an eternal existence. The heart is more than the hand, but nothing more than the pumping engine of the body. When that pump misses a few strokes, the life of the body ceases, but the mind goes on forever in evolutions both wondrous aud sublime. If then the mind, by its inate power, is en- abled to reconstruct and enlarge or develop itself into a state of higher existence, continually reaching outward and upward, toward the per- THE DIVINE IN THE HUMAN. 21 fection and power of its Creator, what a glorious destiny must greet its eternal existence. The avenues by which God enters the life of man will need some description here. We are sur- rounded by circumstances of various degrees of light or shade, which is thrown upon these spiritual highways. When mother taught me how to pray, There opened out for God a way, Within my life to find a place, Where he could dwell in love's embrace. And when He found my heart of stone, He built himself a royal throne ; The whole dominion, his control, A King of Love, within the Soul. So it is, that the omnipresent God will give direction to the operation of mind approving the right thought, by making us happ}^, and con- demning the wrong, which brings us to grief. I do not believe, that Satan can ever overcome the influence of a Christian mother, who trains up her child in the love and fear of God. There is no irresistable temptation comes to such a child, for it has learned to say no ! My God says no ! ! I can not do it ! ! ! Prompt, energetic, de- termined, the soul has conquered the foe. Each victory gives new strength to character. The child grows up in a few short years, but the soul develops through along and tedious process. Experience in the battle of life gives a fixed 22 THE DOOR OPENED. sphere of action, and the pnrsnits in which we are engaged, and the circumstances by which we are surrounded, and the social scale in which we move, helps to give decision to character; mak- ing an impression here and there, tends to change our habits, and ofttimes to bring us into posi- tions of doubt and perplexity with regard to right or wrong, until we fail to either listen to, or hear, the faithful monitor of God in the soul. The people who live in large cities, or their sub- urbs, become so familiar with crime, Sabbath desecration, and vice in all its forms, that even a funeral train can make no lasting impression on them ; but the spirit of Christ stirs the soul in the hour of solitude and silent thought. What strides we take as our vision goes out in the shades of night, and over the dark valley, and up to the open door which John saw. "Be- hold ! I have set before you an open door, and no man can shut it." What a comfort to the soul is that, as it thinks of temptation, and evil in- fluences and companions that pull at and hinder our progress in the right. The spirit of Fallen Angels crowd our way, blinding our eyes, and attracting our attention to get us to listen to them, and believe what they say. Creeds and ceremonials often help us to lose sight of the Truth, and often to forget God ; for how often do men get to quarreling about this, or that, to the great satisfaction of Satan, who THE DIVINE IN THE HUMAN. 23 is always delighted at dissentions in the Church. Pilgrims' marsh is a dirty place to get into, and a hard place to get out of. Bunyan's picture is the experience of many a one, and if we will just stop to think, we will realize at once that the only way to be happy is to seek the true, the pure, the good of the Fountain of Life. To sit in silent thought, to wonder, love and praise, with holy theme, must give the soul a peace which nothing else affords. To see in God per- fection, power and majesty, inspires the soul, and draws around us all the hallow of His pres- ence, and the nobler elements of Being leap for joy. As water in a body is composed of many separate drops that move, the one within the other, in and out, and round and through ; so the spirit of God assimilates with our spirit, until it can be said that God is in us. That the spirit of God does open the door of our lives, and walk in, can not be denied, and He will not leave us if we let him control our Being ; but He says, in His word : " A house divided against itself, will fall." And again: "What communion hath light with darkness?" By this we understand that spirits, to be able to dwell together, must be of the same nature. If God is the chief object of our affection, we will endeavor to reform our lives to conform with that perfect life of God, which was shown us in Jesus Christ ; a life which was given a 24 THE DOOR OPENED. sphere of habitation, with a name to live, and a death to die, that we might know one perfect humanity, whose end is unto life everlasting, in the presence and communion of the Author of All Being. To the one who delights in the study and practice of higher life, the rivers of God's love flow in and, out and round and through, refresh- ing, purifying and beautifying both the life and the soul. What majesty of thought, what sublimity of action, and what ecstacy of soul have they "whose mind is stayed on Thee." To do His will is their delight, nor ever thought a painful duty. To labor comes a just reward; to pray for this, or that, the soul has need of, is to want. " He satisfieth the desire of every liv- ing thing," and of his Angels, he says, " are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister unto them who shall be the heirs of salvation? " Let us seek that wisdom which is from above, that we may know Him, who, to know, is life everlasting. It is very strange, indeed, that the spirit of God can enter into the soul of man. Being born of the Spirit is the act of Divinity ascending the throne of the soul, as law giver and judge. These bodies of ours are but the receptacle of the Spirit ; the heart pulsates to maintain ani- mal life, but behind all this is the impelling power of the human soul. Death is a legal divorce THE DIVINE IN THE HUMAN. 25 of the soul from the body. What does the soul care for this tenement of clay, only just so far as it answers the purpose to carry out the various enterprises and pursuits that engage the atten- tion of men. We take no note of the constant change going on in our physical constitution ; but to see, to hear, to feel, are the open doors through which knowledge and wisdom, joy and peace, harmony and holiness enter the soul. To overcome the spirit of evil, we need only close the door when Satan seeks to enter. There are many means by which the true life enters. It is possible to keep the doorway so crowded with spiritual supplies, so as to give no opportunity for evil to get in. The church, the school, and the home are producers of good, with no admixture of evil, and I am sure the spirit of life exists abundantly upon these three highways of holiness. Did we but understand the receptive ability of the soul, we would, no doubt, undertake to supply our spirit life with all its needs ; if we have no feeling, no perception, no harmony in our Being, we may rest assured we are not feeding the name of life. There are a great many people who seem to have very little light, very little strength, and no hope at all ; this is why Paul spoke of the one star exceeding another star in brightness. It is plain to be seen that the development of Divine life requires constant watching and con- 26 THE DOOR OPENED. stant toil. Christ said : " Go ye unto the vine- yard, and work." If we wish a life alive with Divinity, we must cultivate the mind in such a way, that nothing will hinder its growth ; to do this, it is necessary that we be faithful in watch- ing, lest an enemy enter into our house and spoil our goods. The power of Satan and the power of Christ antagonize each other all times wherever man is found. Both these are contin- ually battling to get possession of our souls, in order that our bodies may minister to their wants, or do their bidding. If we give the field to Satan, we will go down in the final ruin and be condemned forever ; but if we yield to Christ, our way will be lighted with a lamp that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. If we are led by the Spirit, the sun of righteousness will shine upon the way before us. Picture to yourself a highway of holiness reaching from earth to heaven, and you ascend- ing the long, high hill, step by step. To a stranger the way might seem lonely, but it is not, for we are not alone. We are the children of God, and these bodies are the tabernacle of God ; God in man, walking, talking to men, saying I will never leave thee or forsake thee. Alive with Christ, with Christ alive in us, we walk as sons of God. The power within, en- chanted with the theme of sins forgiven, goes on rejoicing ; nature's volume opens wide her boun- THE DIVINE IN THE HUMAN. 27 teous store, and all we see or seek to know is God. At every step new beanties rise ; each, day onr joy with glory shines, 'till, looking up, we see reflected back upon our souls the perfect image of our God. CHAPTER II. SUBJECT : REVELATION. It must be clear to the mind of every one, that the mission of the Scriptures is to reveal God to man. Man is a religious Being by nature. There is something Avithin him that makes him feel the need of support from some source out- side of and beyond the circumference of the sphere of human activity. Man's conception of power that is above his own, associates with that conception ; the idea of form, activity, intelli- gence, majesty, and life. The reason for this is plain, because he has his place as a link in the chain of Being, and, looking backward from his plane, he finds retrogradation, step by step, until he arrives at the lowest order of animal life. He stands not in the middle of the chain, but near one end. It is perfectly natural then for him to understand that if one direction is downward, the other must be upward. So man reaches out into the dark be}^ond for something like him- self, } T et of a higher grade of intelligence and perfection. If he looks at nature in its marvel- ous beauty and grandeur, he is enabled to feel the assurance that there is a Supreme First Cause that is superior to himself. So there he REVELATION. 29 stands at the gateway between time and eternity to get a glimpse of the Infinite ; round and round, in one continuous whirl of deep and dark confusion, but for that gateway in which he stands. That gateway between death and life is the Revelation of God to man by His own Holy Word. It were not possible to question the mission of that Book, when its first declaration forever silences the philosophy of man. " In the Be- ginning God created the heavens and the earth ;" a declaration which no process of reason- ing could have unfolded. Here is living, eternal light from God to man. That word has no need of defenders to attest its Divine Truth ; there is no where for man to go, there is no where that men do go, but to the word of God for instruc- tion. God's word is revelation; revelation is God's word, whether seen or heard. The blue dome of heav'ns arching canopy speaks in thun- der tones ; the trembling earth breaks forth in echoes from within ; the mountain heights point out a throne, while whole niagaras of praise roll down their rugged sides. What mind, convulsed amid creation's grand- eur, could not find a higher life, a nobler Being than himself to honor and adore. Within the fountains of his Truth, what forms of beauty can be found, what types of life, what shades of sadness, clouds with silver lining, what streams 30 THE DOOR OPENED. of joy, what songs of gladness, and what wails of woe; what light, clear, radient, beaming. Well may we pause to wonder while we hurry through the hallowing scenes that meet our anxious view. A ray of light sent down to earth from One, an only Son of Righteousness, will focus in the camera of the soul, a shape and shade, perfected form of spirit life we call a God. Just turn that instrument around to righteous Abel, and take a picture of his altar of devotion ; a lamb upon that altar, bleeding, will show that injured innocence must repay the justice of a broken law. A voice still crying through the ages speaks from heaven: "This is my beloved Son." Between the first man (Adam), and the second (Christ), 4000 years have intervened. Through all these years mankind have lived and died, each filling his appointed place and time, e'er crumbling into dust. What each one felt, or saw, or knew, is sealed within the silence of the past, except enough to draw a line from Eden up to Calvary's brow. I stop in wonder here to take a look upon the portrait of mankind. I can not tell where the world would be to-day, had there never been a Bible. Types and forms of all we need is there contained, and its value can not be overestimated. It is a part of God's revelation. After its first declaration that "in the Beginning God created the heavens and the earth," it would be folly to suppose that man REVELATION. 3 1 could have no accurate knowledge of his Creator. If we were to forget the story of Eden, we might still get some idea of God and His government. There is nothing which we see or think about but that points back to a time when such a thing had a beginning, and to a time before it had a beginning. The life of a plant or a tree may come within the short space that is allotted to man to live, so that he may remember the time when a particular object had no existence, but he knew its origin. We have no difficulty in tracing the human family back to a time when it had a beginning, but beyond that time we can not conceive, unless we conclude that many worlds beside our own afford a home for the creatures of creation. It may be their inhabit- able period antidates our own, and, for my part, I think it not improbable. But what the scale of Being is, mankind can never know. We can not soar away while we are in the clay ; we can not imagine a scale of being higher than our own; we do not believe there is a lower, who dwell in the tenements of clay. A life to live, a death to die, a mind to think, a soul to save, is all our thoughts engage. All that man can do is found in the fact that he had a beginning, but how or when, he could not know. Adam never saw the first sentence of our Bible, he never heard those words. I said forget the story of Eden, which says " God walked and 32 THE DOOR OPENED. talked with. Adam." Had such a thing never occurred or been recorded, our first parents, and we too, must have known the law of God. Adam must have known there is a God, what- ever else he might have called that Being who gave to man existence. He doubtless thought he had an earthly father, but looking round he found himself alone, the sole existence of his kind, and, looking at himself, he knew full well, did not exist by chance, for all around were signs of other life, controlled harmonious to his will, all suggestive of a higher power still than he. From morning dawn 'till close of day he could but look, and think, and wonder, 'till he knew and felt within himself the presence of another Life. He felt its power, and must have owned a Universal King. The good and evil side by side, on every hand, he saw, he knew. The Rose, that beautiful and sweet unfolding, hung upon a thorny stem, would teach him what to let alone ; a choice to make between the things that came to hand. The bitter and the sweet, of things repulsive or desirable, he knew enough to choose. A right and wrong on every hand, within him- self he felt ; our common sins were all unknown to him ; he knew no temptations like our own, except to bate authority that ruled against his will ; a little sin, we count at this late day, where everything we do is under law. He was head over all things but God, and knew his place full REVELATION. 33 well, but rather chose himself to rule, defying all authority; hence, his sad end. And yet a noble man, whose folly brought on us the cold embrace of death. His lips that sipped the cup of joy, were made to curse his God. His help- meet seemed another self he loved too well to love another more, and doubtless helped him to conclude himself the monarch of the earth. His independence felt no want 'till nature, drooping, died, and made of him a son of toil. This taught the man a lesson that 'twas better to obey, so turning round, he taught his sons to pray. In all these experiences he was shown at least three things concerning God : first, that God is good; second, that God is just; and third, that God is merciful ; for he received the promise, that in a later da} r , a day appointed, God would give to earth another copy of Him- self, who would not sin, but by his life undo the evils of mankind. Adam's first-born was like himself, a son of sin. This taught the man his true condition, and I think this brought him to repentance. I think it safe to say that it took Adam twenty- five years to learn his real position toward his Maker. He had two sons, but only one that served the Lord, and that was righteous Abel. Adam did not know that any considerable num- ber of people would live upon the earth. I do not think he understood the purpose of our 34 THE DOOR OPENED. Lord with regard to his descendants. He believ- ed that the seed of a woman shonld bruise the serpent's head, as God had told him; because when a son was born to our first parents, he said " we have gotten a man from the Lord." Doubt- less he regarded him as the one who should bruise the serpent's head, but a } T ear later, when Cain's brother was born, Adam thought he was mistaken about the promised son, so he looked forward for the fulfilment of God's first promise. He was now a fallen creature, and therefore, he could not talk with his Creator as he could be- fore he disobeyed. He must now learn as God is pleased to reveal Himself to him. He remem- bers his own happy condition before the fall, and fully realizes his present misery. He knows that he can not disobey and be happy. He is now experiencing the effect of his disobedience. No man can be happy except his life harmonize with the law of his Creator. These two sons are to be his object lessons; he has had two kinds of experience, and knows very well which of these two are the most desirable, so he in- structs his sons out of the book of his remem- brance. Cain and Abel grow up to manhood. The one is a man of honest purpose, a man that feels the need of the blessing of God ; tender in feel- ing toward the flock that he tended. The inno- cent look of the lamb reflected upon his mind a REVELATION. 35 picture of true virtue ; he could not swear or fret or growl, because he knew a better way. But Cain, a tiller of the ground, had all his thoughts looking downward, and when they brought before the Lord an offering seeming mete, the Lord was pleased with only one ; the free will offering God received, the other He cast aside. It were folly not to suppose that Adam knew which of these two boys were most obedient to his God. The flocks of the one in- creased without number; the ground did not yield its increase to the other; success attended the one, and failure the other. Their father re- members the Garden with sadness. I do not know which one of these two boys have done the world the most good ; the purpose of God is accomplished in both; the one seems as neces- sary as the other. The Lord brings good out of evil. The more we think of our sins, the more we learn of God's mercy and love. With evil around us on every side, we seek to avoid it ; but often an evil ap- pears to be good ; we take it, to try it, to know for ourselves. I think the fact that Cain was very low and mean, had much to do with Abel's better nature. The world divided in two classes, the righteous and the wicked, seems to be a means, unto an end, God's purpose to fulfill. Cain was a murderer, and all his ways were in the serpent's trail ; Abel was the victim of his 36 THE DOOR OPENED. villain}' . Cain found a wife in the land of Nod. If we suppose him to have been driven from the presence of the Lord by his sins when he was a young man, perhaps of twenty years of age, then going into a far country, and living perhaps twenty-five or thirty years without returning to visit his kinsmen, many of whom he had never seen or heard of, having followed, unbeknown to him, into the land eastward of Eden, no doubt a large community was formed who were all strangers to him. There is no doubt but that he selected a wife from among these. We must not forget that one hundred and twenty-eight years elapsed between the birth of Abel and the birth of Seth, no mention of which is made in the Scriptures, except the general statement that Adam begat sons and daughters, and that Cain went into the land of Nod, where he knew his wife. There was no marriage law at this time, except that a man should choose a wife. We have no further mention of Cain in the Scriptures, except an occasional mention of his wicked ways. This is enough, I am sure, to ex- plain who his wife was, without attempting to call her by name. It may have been Evaline as well as any other name, for names were scarce in that early day. One hundred and thirty years passed by when Seth was born into the family of Adam. The time has come when men begin to call upon REVELATION. 37 the name of the Lord. True worship has begun. How much men knew of God, the record does not say, but I suppose they learned whatever Adam knew. The race is now divided, and the lines are drawn distinctly. In the land of Nod, where all are wicked, the sons of Seth could never go. As time drew on, the race brought forth a man whose name was Enoch, who walked with God, and was not, for God took him. The former revelations were all concerning God, but now mankind are taught that man may live some other where beside on earth. We do not know who witnessed his translation, or how it came about, or where ; but by it man has learned of life this earth is not the end. How much of sadness at the tomb, were this our final rest. How much mankind divined of heaven we do not know; but Enoch walked with God on earth, and then went into heaven. Nine hundred and eighty-seven years are passed from the beginning of time. In the year ten hundred and fifty-six Noah, the son of Lamech, was born, and he became a man of God who found grace in the sight of the Lord. In his six hundredth year, and in the sixteen hund- red and fifty-sixth year (1656), when men had become so very wicked, God sent a flood upon the earth. The waters covered the deep, and all the hills were hid, and Noah's family of crea- 38 THE DOOR OPENED. tion only, of all that drew the breath, remained alive. God walked and talked with the first man on earth, bnt not again 'till Noah's time. When Adam was six hnndred and twenty- two, Bnoch was born. Adam lived 930 years, while Enoch only lived 365 years, having departed this life in the year of the world 987. God's revelation to man in all the years seems to have been in the hands and hearts of these two men. Following this time for a period of 451 years, God seems to have had no advocate on the earth, and man had become so degraded, sensnal and devilish, that God purposed to destroy them with a flood. Now this act of mercy on the part of God seems hard to us, but when we re- member that thousands upon thousands of child- ren were growing up only to follow the way of the world, when we know these all to be brought to eternal youth and life in the presence of God, His goodness and mercy is very apparent. And beside this, He called Noah to be a preacher of righteousness for 120 years. Men were so hardened to sin and its consequences, that they gave little heed to his warning voice. The in- fluence of Noah did not reach outside of his own little family of eight persons, except those who were given a less miserable end before the waters came. We can not imagine the perils and suf- fering of those around whom the waters rose higher and higher, what hunger and want and REVELATION. 39 fear must have attended their last days. Those who escaped this dreadful death were given a more happy end. How much God expected of those who lived before the flood would be hard to imagine by one living in this age of enlightened reason. It seems to me that these people who knew, ap- parently, so little of God, will not have to ren- der a very strict account ; but when we remem- ber their great age, compared with our brief allotment of time, it may be that they knew as much of God as we do, and if this were true, we stand upon the same plane of accountability. If there be seven heavens, each to suit a differ- ent age of the world, I believe the Antediluvians to be fitted for the first heaven, and yet not all, but only those who tried to live a Godly life. The rain from heaven has descended upon the evil and the good alike. The Lord sought to win men to obedience by punishment it seems, but they would not yield. The fear of God will make some men better. Later on He began to show his mercy by sending blessing upon bless- ing to the unworthy children of men, in order that through these deeds of love He might be- get in man a love for his Creator. 365 years after this, God spoke to Abram, the son of Terah and uncle of Lot, in Ur. of the Chaldees, saying : " Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto 40 THE DOOR OPENED. a land that I will shew thee." So Abram de- parted according to God's direction, and Lot went with him into the land of Canaan. God told Abram that he shonld become a great Na- tion ; that the blessing of God shonld be npon all those who blessed him, and the cnrse of God npon all that cnrse him ; that in him shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. In the plain of Moreh, beyond Sichem, he bnilt an altar, and the Lord appeared nnto him again and said : " To thee, and thy seed, do I give this land." The time came when the land where Lot and Abram dwelt wonld not snstain all the cattle of these two men, so Lot went East, to the plains of Jordan, a beantifnl valley with running streams of water. Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the Jor- dan, and pitched his tent toward Sodom, whose men were very wicked. The kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, with several other kings of this valley, engaged in a war which seems to have been very general. At this time Lot lived in Sodom. When the city was taken, Lot, with all his goods, was carried away a prisoner. Abram was apprised of Lot's nnhappy situation, and went to his relief. He armed his servants (about seventy men), and pursued the captors, and overtaking them near Damascus, he got Lot, the women and all the goods, and returned by the way of Jerusalem, where Abram was well REVELATION 4 1 known. Upon his arrival here, Melchisedek, king of Salem ( Jerusalem), brought forth bread and wine. He was the priest of the most High God, and he blessed Abram. Then came the king of Sodom, and wanted Abram to give him the persons and keep the goods himself, but Abram refused to take anything, because he had lifted his hand to the most High God. Then God appeared to him in a vision, saying : "Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward." Abram was now liv- ing in Hebron. Then he had no children, but the Lord took him out to look at the stars, say- ing: " If thou be able to number them, so shall thy seed be." And he believed the Lord, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Then the Lord said: "I am the Lord that brought thee out of the Ur. of the Chaldees to give thee this land to inherit it." Abram wanted to know how he should know that he inherited it. Abram prepared a sacrifice, as God directed, and at evening, when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on him ; then God said : " Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not their's, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years ; that nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and afterward they shall come out with great substance, and thou shalt go to thy fathers, and be buried in a good old age ; but in the 42 THE DOOR OPENED. fourth, generation they shall come hither again." Abram awoke in the darkness, and saw a smoking furnace and a burning lamp pass bet- ween the pieces of his sacrifice, for he had divided it in two pieces. This same day God made a covenant with Abram, saying: "Unto thy seed have I given this land from the Nile to the great river Euphrates. Ten years later God made another covenant with Abram. God spoke to him, saying : "I am the Almighty God ! walk before me, and be thou perfect." Abram fell on his face, while God talked to him, say- ing : " M} r covenant is with thee ; henceforth thy name shall be Abraham; I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee in their generations, for an everlasting covenant ; to be a God unto thee, and thy seed after thee." So after all the conditions of this agreement were fully understood, the Lord went up from Abraham. In the course of time three angels appeared at the tent door, and the Lord spoke to Abraham about the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah ; then they went toward Sodom. The Lord said if there were ten righteous in the city he w T ould not destroy it ; but two of the angels came to Sodom at even, and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. Lot invited them into his house to stay over night. They appeared like good men, and he extended his hospitality to them, made them REVELATION. 43 a feast, and they stayed with him. A mob sur- rounded the house, and raised such a disturbance that Lot went out, and when he had shut the door, entreated them to go away ; but they were not satisfied. They wanted to see the strangers, and were about to break the door down, when the angels reached out their hands and pulled Lot in ; at the same time they smote those out- side with blindness, so that they could'nt find the door. The angels asked Lot if there was any in the family beside those present. God had sent them to destroy the city, and they wanted him and all his family to get out of it. So Lot went to his sons-in-law to tell them, but they made light of his entreaty, and would not go with him to his home. In the morning, early, they arose, and took Lot, his wife, and his two daughters, and hastened them out of the city. God rained fire from heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah, and destroyed them both with all their inhabitants. Lot was slow about starting; but his wife looked around (with Eve's curiosity) to see if it were really true that God would destroy the city. For her lack of faith she turned to a pillar of salt. By this time Lot was ready to do whatever the angels commanded. When Abraham was a hundred years old, God's promise of a son was fulfilled to Sarah in her old age. In the course of time the Lord re- quired Abraham to go to one of the mountain 44 THE DOOR OPENED. heights of Moriah, and offer his only son Isaac as a sacrifice unto God. You will remember how that God provided a sacrifice when Abraham's faith had been fully tested. As he lifted the knife to slay his son, an angel caught his arm. No wonder his faith was counted to him for righteousness. It is needless to say that God's revelations to Abraham pointed him to his whole duty. I think that he fully understood the character of his Creator, after all the visitations of angels, and the promise of a son to their old age, which came in due time, and then the pur- pose of this trying injunction must indeed have made a deep and lasting impression on the mind of Abraham. He halted not to obey, even though his heart were breaking. To us this sacrifice of an only son might ap- pear as a shadow of the sacrifice offered once for all on Calvary's mountain. Whether Abraham viewed it in this light, or not, I can not say, but I am sure he felt his nearness to his God. At forty years of age, Isaac married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Nahor, the brother of Abraham. Their first children were twin boys, Jacob and Esau. As the Lord re- vealed Himself to Abraham and Isaac, so did He to Jacob ; for he saw Heaven opened, and a ladder reaching from earth up to the opened, door, with angels descending and ascending, and wrestled with the angel there 'till the breaking REVELATION. 45 of the day, and would not let him go until a blessing was bestowed upon him. Abraham died in the year of the world 2123, being 175 years old. Isaac lived 180 years. He had been married twenty years, and was 60 years of age when Jacob and Esau were born ; so these boys were 15 when their grandfather died, and 120 years when their father died. Here were three generations living at one time upon whom God successively bestowed His blessings, and to each of whom he gave the same promises. God spoke to them continuously, saying: " In thee 'shall all the families of the earth be blessed." God appeared to Jacob in Bethel ; here he re- newed his promise of the land of Canaan to him and his children after him. Here Jacob's name was changed to Israel. Here, in Bethel, we record the birth of Joseph, the twelfth son of Jacob, and the death of Jacob's wife, Rachel, in the 1 20th y ear of her age. This historical reference may seem to have no place in this exposition of revelation, but I think it proper to note these facts while we pass along the times and places when and where God spoke to his representatives on the earth, for by their testimony we received the promises of God which were made to Abraham, and his children after him, in their generations. It may be well to note that all the true followers of Christ are heirs to these same promises. The Christian 46 THE DOOR OPENED. Church to-day consists of all God's people, to- gether with their children. It is a matter of deep significance, therefore, to us who have a hope in our high calling in Christ Jesus. Jacob seems to have been under the direct control of God. In his dream, where he saw the ladder with angels ascending and descending from earth to Heaven, with God standing in the open door at the top of the ladder, he heard a voice from thence, saying: " I am the Lord, God of Abraham, thy father (spiritually), and the God of Isaac ; the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it ; I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither-so-ever thou goest." I don't think it any wonder that a man who received such promises should make it his chief aim in life to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Jacob was a true worshipper of the true God. In this dream, or I would better sa} r in this God- wrought mental activity, he saw and felt the presence of the Lord; his startled ear attentive heard the very voice of God ; he saw the way from earth to Heaven ; the means b} T which we may ascend ; he saw the celestial city, he viewed the passers-by in robes of spotless white. This dream taught him that there is an- other life, the immortality of the soul, and that man's place is in the presence of his God. He built an alter here, where he slept, and said: "This is the house of the Lord, and the very REVELATION. 47 gate of Heaven." This place is called Bethel. This last promise, which I have mentioned, was perhaps the first promise of God to Jacob, and was made seven or eight years before he was married to Rachel, who died here in Bethel. I have preferred to separate the spiritnal from the natural as far as possible, hence this apparent disorder of the narrative. Lest the reader should think I have forgotten part of my story, I will say that the peculiar circumstances of the birth of Jacob and Esau were such, that Isaac regarded Esau as the one upon whom the blessing of God should come ; but Rebekah re- garded Jacob as the first-born, so that, as we say, Jacob was his mother's boy, while Isaac favored Esau. The mother was right, however, as the history shows, and, although Isaac was much de- ceived in bestowing his blessing upon Jacob, whom he was made to think was his very son Esau, a God works in a mysterious way his won- ders to perform." Between these two sons we have a parallel not alltogether unlike that of Cain and Abel. Esau sold his birth-right for a mess of potage, which shows that he thought more of his stomach than the blessing of God. Jacob, after he received his father's blessing, just be- fore Isaac died, was compelled to flee for his life, as Esau had threatened to kill him ; so he went down into Syria. When he came to the place where he had laid down to sleep the first night 48 THE DOOR OPENED. (Bethel), God appeared to him, as recorded be- fore, and spoke such encouraging words to him, that he at once resolved to follow all His lead- ing. Just think of him fleeing for his life, be- coming exhausted, falls asleep on the ground, dreams, sees, hears: " The land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it ; I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither-so-ever thou goest." Is it a wonder that he was ever after a man of God ? He went down into Syria to his relatives to get a wife, in obedience to his father's wishes that he should not take a wife from the land of Canaan. He served Laban seven } T ears for Rachel, but Laban deceived him in giving Leah instead. Then he went on and served seven years more for Rachel, but during these seven }~ears he had two wives, for the simple ceremony of marriage took place twice in one week. The Lord gave Laban prosperity on ac- count of Jacob, but after Laban failed to keep his promise the first time, all his prosperity fell to Jacob, because the Lord was with him. They arranged a scale of wages that Jacob was to have for his services. Certain kinds or colors of the flocks were to be for Jacob as pay. After that agreement was made, all the increase of the flocks were of those particular colors, which, of course, was not very satisfactory to Laban. So God spoke to Jacob again, and told him to take all that he had and go back to Canaan, and REVELATION. 49 added: "I will be with thee." By this revela- tion he learned that God would take care of and provide for his true followers. He left the place at once with all that he had, and came and pitched his tent before the city of Shalem. Here he bought a field and erected an altar. Here God spoke to him again, and directed him to go to Bethel and build an altar to the God that appeared to him there when he fled from Esau. He got into trouble in Shalem, becanse when he came ont from Laban's honse, his wife took her father's images along with her. These images were kept in the family, and brought him to grief, although Jacob knew nothing about their being in the family until after he began to look about for the cause of his trouble. So he commanded: " Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments, and let us go up to Bethel." A daughter's honor lost seems to be the price of broken law, and though no commandment had been given (for this was before the Law), Jacob had written on his heart with the finger of God : "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Here God changed Jacob's name to Israel. Here in Bethel, at this time, Rachel died, and the same year Isaac, his father, died also in the year of the world 2228. Jacob was born in 2108, and was therefore 1 20 years of age when Rachel died. Rachel's first-born, Joseph, the twelfth 4 50 THE DOOR OPENED. son of Jacob, never felt a mother's tender care; but Jacob had a cop}' of the first he loved so well, deceived, he served so long to gain, to this sad end, where death so oft doth forge the strongest chains that bind us to the Promised Land. Here is an instance of prayer with the answer deferred throughout ten } T ears, constant, pleading, persistent; to what end but an ex- change of a life for a life on earth God's purpose to fulfil. Seventeen }^ears of time roll by. We see no mention of dreams as a revelation before Jacob's time, but for some time afterward God revealed himself to men in this way. When Joseph was seventeen 3-ears old he dreamed that he and his brothers were binding sheaves in the field, and his sheaf stood up and his brothers' sheaves made obeisance to his sheaf. This he told the boys, and it taught them that he should reign over them. He dreamed again that the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars made obeisance to him. He told his father and brothers this dream also, and the}^ understood by it that the whole family were to be under his authority. So the boys made up their minds to get rid of him. Little did they think that they were the instru- ments of God in carrying out His purpose con- cerning them ; but their father pondered it in his heart. Here was the beginning of the chain of events in connection with the children REVELATION. 51 of Abraham serving in a strange land. "And they shall afflict them four hundred YEARS."'' Joseph was sold into Egypt; bnt God was with and so prospered him, that he became rnler over all that Pharoah had. Joseph's father sup- posed that he had been killed, and mourned him as dead. A famine came in the land of Canaan, so they went down into Egypt to buy corn, which they had gotten without money, as they found when they returned, that their money with which they had paid for the corn was put in the sacks along with the corn. This they had received from him whom they had treated so cruelly; but in a year or so they went back again, those eleven boys, with their father and mother, and were given presents and pasture lands for their flocks, and fields for cultivation, and were well supplied with everything they needed to make them comfortable and happy. From all that I can learn of Joseph, he was a man of deep conviction, and an instrument in the hands of God. In him I see the first per- sonal .type of Christ the world had ever known. The offering of Isaac by Abraham which the angel prevented taking place, may have been a NOTE. — This affliction did not begin for thirty years after they went into Egypt, and ended when they came out, 430 years after they went down there to live ; in the fourth generation, meaning the great grandchildren of the twelve sons of Israel, shall come out. 52 THE DOOR OPENED. shadow of the sacrifice on the cross ; but here is a stonger type, a living individual sent of God to save his people from an awful death. It is very natural to suppose that Jacob knew that the descendants of Abraham were to serve an- other nation for a period of four hundred years, but human nature always places unpleasant ex- periences as far in the future as possible ; so Jacob doubtless did not see anything that led him to believe that he might expect to share in in that destiny. The revelations of God are not always seen in their true light. Sin so often obscures the vision, that it is impossible to see the purpose of the Lord. Had Jacob known that Joseph was alive, and that he had gone down into Egypt and into the position which he occupied subsequently in the house of Pharoah, he could have divined the true interpretation of the dream ; but his other sons had deceived him (which was very easy to do in his old age) about what had become of Joseph, so he did not see any revelation, but waited for new developments, which, however, came very soon. It was about fifteen years after Joseph went into Egypt that the famine became distressing in the land of Canaan. There was nothing left for the people to do but to go down into Egypt or starve to death. Jacob saw this distress all around them, and when he went down into Egypt to live, and found his long lost son, whom REVELATION. 53 he supposed to have been dead, great joy crowned his declining years. He died in his 147th year, having lived 17 years in Egypt. During his last days and hours he prophesied, telling his sons what should be the course and character of each in their generations ; but upon the sons of Joseph he left the promises and blessings which God gave unto Abraham and unto Isaac, his father. Here we find two prophecies concerning Christ: "The scepter shall not depart out of Judah until Shiloh come." "Joseph is a fruit- ful bough ; from thence is the Shepherd, the stone of Israel." The prophecies foretold the position one tribe should occupy toward another, the general character of each, and their destiny. That God revealed this to Jacob, there can be no doubt, for his delineations of cast, character and life did not have reference to anything that should transpire during their sojourn in the land of Egypt. Joseph was thirty years of age when he was made Governor of Egypt. The circumstances which led to his exaltation were peculiar. After first ' serving Potiphor, of the royal household, with great ability and success, he was unjustly charged with a crime which was revolting to his sense of youthful purity, and although he was as innocent as a child of that with which he was charged, yet he was cast into prison where he 54 THE DOOR OPENED. was kept two full years. Here God gave him renewed power in the interpretation of dreams. As I have before stated, God made Himself known to man in visions of the night. Joseph was in the prison with two others who dreamed, and he gave the interpretation that one of the men should be restored to his former position in the house of Pharoah, but the other was to be hanged. In a few days these things came to pass according to his words. By and by Pharoah dreamed that, as he stood by the river, seven fatfleshed kine came up out of the river, and after them seven lean and illfavored kine came up out of the river, and the lean and illfavored kine ate up the first seven that came up. He told his dream to Joseph, who, as soon as he heard it, said the seven fatfleshed kine are seven years of plenty, and the seven leanfleshed are seven years of famine which were to follow the seven years of plenty. The astrologers could not interpret this dream. God chose to place Joseph in a position where he might help his people in a strange land. The children of Israel were all provided for 'till after Joseph's death; but when another Pharoah went on the throne, who did not know Joseph, the Israelites were servants indeed, until they went out of the land. The birth and bringing up of Moses seems to show that God was preparing him for a spe- cific work. In Mount Horeb an angel appeared REVELATION 55 to Moses in a name of fire ont of the midst of a burning bush. The bush burned, but was not consumed, and Moses stopped to look at this ex- traordinary sight. God spake to him out of the midst of the bush, and said: " Moses, Moses! take off thy shoes ; the place whereon thou standest is Holy ground." Then He told him of the affliction of His people, and gave him full direction how to bring them out of the land. He showed him signs to do before Pharoah, to show him that he was sent of God to bring his brethren out of the land. Moses did not think that he would be equal to this great task, and tried to get out of going by making excuses ; but God told him to take his brother Aaron with him to be his spokesman, and go to Pharoah and ask him " to let My people go." " I will be with thee ; Aaron shall be to thee as a Prophet, and thou shalt be to him, instead of God." Were I writing a history of Moses, I would say that he was in God's stead to His people ; a saviour and mediator. We can not comprehend the depths of his knowledge and foresight when he was imbued with the power of the I Am, which sent him to lead God's people out. Nine plagues were not enough to make Pharoah repent of his sins to the God of Heaven, but when the death angel passed over the land, he was willing to do anything God wanted him to, so he hasted the people out of 56 THE DOOR OPENED. land. Pharoah had seen his own people suffer, while God took care of the Israelites, and he knew their God to be greater than am 7 god of the Egyptians ; but after they had gone, with all their possessions and the golden ornaments which they had borrowed from the Egyptians, Pharoah pursued them down through the land lying between the two arms of the Red Sea, expecting to overtake and destroy them. This called for the interposition of the Mighty God. When Aaron's rod came down on the sea, the waters stood upright as a heap, while 600,000 men, beside women and children, passed through between the walls, on dr}^ land ; but when Pha- roah and his hosts were in the way, the sea swallowed them, the waters covered them, every one. The Pillar of cloud by day, and the Pillar of fire by night, was over the Israelites, for a guide to them. By it God led them in all their journey, a shade from the torrid sun by day, and light for defense by night. When the cloud moved in any direction, the people followed it; when it stood still they pitched their tents. When the people complained of Moses for bringing them out, as the} 7 said, " to die in the wilderness," because the Egyptians' chariots of Avar were in pursuit, Moses said: "The chariots and horsemen ye see to-day, ye shall see no more forever; wait, and see the salvation of God, for He will fight for us." (This was before REVELATION. 57 they passed through the sea.) Then Moses called on God, forgetful of his own God-given authority and power. For this the Lord rebuked, him, saying: " Speak ye to the people, that they go forward, and when ye come to the sea, stretch out thy rod over it, and divide the waters, that the people may go through the sea on dry land." This time the cloud went and stood behind them. It was night when they began the march to the sea. The cloud was thick darkness to Pharoah's army, that they could not see the Israelites going away; but on the other side, the cloud was a great light for God's people. Well, truly, might Pharoah have said : He hideth himself in a pa- villion of darkness, while to his own people He led in a chariot of fire. Once again out of the sea, Moses and his people looked back, only to see the Eg3 r ptians coming through the same passage. What fear they felt, I leave for your imagination to surmise, but God said to Moses : " stretch again thy rod over the sea." The watery Avails gave way, and covered them ; not one escaped to the shore alive. God takes care of his own people, and none shall hinder. Although he stayed the proud waves, " thus far shalt thou go, but no farther;" his object to deliver his people affected, "I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy," he removed his special hand ; to the waves he said, " pursue thy way, roll on." A people fighting against God in the wrong. 58 THE DOOR OPENED. The sea covered them in following its own conrse to the south. God had no part in their destruc- tion. They did not think of God or ask pro- tection. Had they stopped -to consider a long journey between two walls of water, they should have known the sudden destruction that awaited them when once the waves were stayed no longer. On the sands of the beach their bones bleached in the torrid sun. As Israel viewed the dead where the sea cast them out, great fear came up- on them. From that time on the Israelites knew that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the true God, and beside Him there is no other. They believed Him and Moses, His ser- vant. They were happy because God had de- livered them out of their bondage and out of the hand of Pharoah, so they sang the song of Moses, which you will find recorded in the book of Exodus, 15th chapter. That so vast a multitude should start out in a country generally regarded barren, is to my mind an exhibition of faith that has no parallel in human history. Three or four millions fol- lowing the Shechina that led them, without a thought of what should become of them, except depending on God for sustenance. What city in the United States could supply their daily needs ? New York, Cincinnati and Chicago, all- together, could not house them, and yet they journeyed on in the trackless desert — in a land REVELATION. 59 where there were no cities, no farms, no pro- visions. They journeyed three days in the wilder- ness ; not one of them knew their course, not one of them knew their destiny. What hopes, what fears, what woes, what tears, is not given us to know; yet we may surmise that they thought, sooner or later, to reach the land of promise. That they did not eat during these three days, I would not say. It seems probable that their flocks went with them out of Egypt, that they would be provided with meat and per- haps milk, but people can not subsist on these alone. They became thirsty, and complained to Moses. They came to a well called Marah (meaning bitterness). They could not drink the water until Moses sweetened it with the branch of a tree, which he threw into it. Do we not mark here the revelation of the fatherhood of the Great God, who daily loadeth us with benefits? What unspeakable joy must have thrilled their hearts as they slaked their thirst in a dreary land; what mighty chorus broke forth in song of praise; what shouts of joy rang 'out from happy hearts, we can not know, we can not hear ; what love for God was born anew, we wait the Resurrection morn to tell. On this eventful occasion their leader assured them, that if they would hearken diligently un- to the voice of the Lord, and do what is right in His sight, and keep His statutes, and give 60 THE DOOR OPENED. ear to His commandments, none of the afflictions which came npon the "Egyptians shonld come up- on them. They came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees. From this place they took their jonrney to the wilder- ness of Sin, which is between the valley of fountains (where they had been) and Sinia, on the fifteenth day of the second month from the time they went out of Egypt. Just two months had gone by, and they were tired of living on flesh. They complained to Moses, who took the matter to God. The Lord heard their cry, and gave them Manna from heaven. It fell in the morning with the dew, and covered the ground in such abundance as to be sufficient for all. It was white, like frost, and in round grains about the size of the Coriander seed. It answered them for bread. At evening, quails came and fell, stunned, around the camp in great numbers ; so that bread came in the morning, and flesh in the evening. They were given direction by the Lord, through Moses, for gathering the Manna. Moses said: " Six days shall ye gather it, and on the sixth day ye shall gather enough for two days, for none shall fall on the seventh day." Some gathered more than they needed, but Moses said, "let no one keep it 'till morning." Some kept it, however, but it had worms in it and stank. When they baked on the sixth day, they left part of the Manna for the Sabbath, REVELATION. 6 1 and it kept good. Some went ont on the Sab- bath to gather it, which displeased God, so he commanded that every man shonld stay in his place on the seventh day. The children of Israel did eat Manna for forty years, nntil they came to a land inhabited ; nntil they came to the bor- ders of the land of Canaan. What record of time the world had before the Lord made known the days of the week, I do not know ; bnt in this bread from heaven we have the record of God that the time is fixed, and the day on which no Manna fell is the Sab- bath of the Lord, from the creation of man, which He had sanctified to Himself, saying: "In it ye shall do no work." I snppose this day, on which no Manna fell thronghont the forty years of their sojonrn, to have so impressed mankind with the fact, that the seventh day is a day for rest, a day of service to God, as to for- ever fix in the calender of nations the nnmber, of the days of the week; for, I believe, that in recording time, it has been demonstrated thronghont the centuries, in the annals of all nations, that there can be no disagreement about which is the seventh day. That God has fully persuaded mankind of His ability to supply all the wants of this life, there can be no doubt. The people at this time felt the vast difference between them and their God. They did not know enough about the 62 THE DOOR OPENED. Divine Character to make any comparison bet- ween His natnre and that of mankind. There evidently was no trne sense of the Divine love and compassion for the people. The fact that Moses was instead of God to them, wonld natur- ally have a tendency to make them love, fear and believe him as God, even to the extent of forgetfulness of the true God. That the}^ looked to Moses instead of God for the supply of all their wants, is self-evident upon the face of their history. It does not seem apparent that they had any comprehensive view of God's disposi- tion to forgive individual sin. They knew their shortcomings, perhaps, as well as the people of to-day do, but they could not go to Him indi- vidually, as we can ; yet every Age has its con- ditions of approaching God. The Israelites knew the Law, pure and fundamental, and had only to obey those few, which were given them to obey, that they might receive a full reward. They must have felt themselves especially blessed to have a leader who could enter into the very store- house of God, in order to supply their needs. I think they realized the fact that God is unap- proachable to fallen humanity, except through the mediation of One, chosen for that particular purpose. Moses was instead of God to them. Now the people took their journey and pitched their tents in Rephidim. There was no water there. This was near Mount Sinia. They REVELATION. 63 got uneasy and chided Moses, and said: " Is the Lord with ns, or not?" Moses smote the rock, where God had promised to meet him, and water came out for all the people, the cattle and the nocks. Water came from the rock which Moses smote with his Rod, to prove to the people the power and presence of God. What unseen fountains burst when God is nigh, to slake our thirst. In a dreary land, amid burning sand; when the people cry, the Lord is nigh. This pent up river of cool water never flowed out of the rock at this place before, and nothing short of the " mystery of Godli- ness" can explain how Moses was led to this very place. God takes hold of the hand of His people and leads to the fountain of life. While they were at Rephidim, the Amalekites came out and fought with them. Moses set Joshua over his chosen men to fight with Amelek, saying: " To-morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the Rod of God in my hand." On the morrow, Moses, Aaron and Hur went up to the top of- the hill, and it came to pass, as the two armies fought, that when Moses held up his hand Israel prevailed, and when he let down his hand Amelek prevailed. When his hands were tired, Aaron and Hur stood, one on either side of him, and held up his hands 'till the going down of the sun ; so Joshua won the victory. Then God spoke to Moses, saying: " Write this 64 THE DOOR OPENKD. in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua, for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amelek from under heaven." Then they moved and pitched their tents before Mount Sinia. Moses went up, and God called to him out of the mountain, saying: " Thus shalt thou speak to the house of Jacob and to the people of Israel : Ye have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings and brought you unto myself; now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of Priests, and a Holy Nation." So Moses came and laid this before the Elders, and told them all the words of the Lord. Then God said to Moses: u Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak to thee, that they may believe thee, forever. Thou go to the people and sanctify them, and wash their clothes, and be ready against the third day, for I will come down in the sight of all the people ; but set bound for the people, that they touch not the mountain, and when the trumpet sound- eth long, then come up to the mountain to meet God." It came to pass on the third day, in the morning, as they stood before the Mount, that all over its surface came up smoke, and the mountain trembled greatly ; so when the people saw the lightnings, and heard the thunders from REVELATION. 65 the cloud upon the mountain, and the trumpet sounded loud and louder, that the people in the camp trembled, Moses spake and God answered him with a voice, and the Lord came down on the top of the Mount, and called Moses to come up to him. So MoSes went up. Then God sent him down to charge the people not to touch the mountain, lest they perish, and let the Priests also, which come near unto the Lord, sanctify themselves, lest the Lord break forth upon them. Then Moses said unto the Lord, " the people can not come unto Sinia, for we have set bounds "; but the Lord said: " Away ! get thee down, and thou shalt come up again, and bring Aaron with thee." So he went down and spoke to the people and God gave them the Law; but the people, when they saw the smoke and lightning, and heard the thunders and the Trumpet of God sounding, greatly feared and stood afar off. After God had spoken all the words of the Law, concerning everything which the people should follow, and Moses wrote all the words and cov- enants' of God, then he rose early in the morning and built an Altar with twelve pillars, and as the people prepared their sacrifices, Moses took half of the blood and sprinkled the Altar, and with the other half he sprinkled the people, saying: "This is the blood of the Covenant," and he read the book of the covenant to the people, and they said, "all that the Lord hath 5 66 THE DOOR OPENED. said we will do and we will obey." Then went np Moses and Aaron and Abihu and seventy of the Elders of Israel and they saw God. I take it that this presence was Michael dis- playing the glory of God. The Son of God glorified with the glory which he had before the world was, came from the throne in his Father's kingdom to show the world the Glory of God. The presence of glory was the person of Christ. No man can see the supernal glory of God and live this life. They saw God and he stood as it were upon a pavement of sapphire stone, clear as crystal, and they did eat and drink before the Lord. Then God called Moses up to get the Tables of the Law, which God had written, that Moses might teach them to the people ; so he went up in the Mount, but left the Elders and Aaron and Hur to attend to the people. The cloud covered the mountain six days, and on the seventh, God called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud, and the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the Mount of the Lord in the sight of all the people. Moses remained in the presence of God this time forty days and forty nights, and the Lord gave him instruction for the people, and statutes to follow, and things to do throughout their generations; the estab- lishment of Aaron and his sons in the Priest- hood before him, their purification, and all the ceremony. He was directed to make an ark of REVELATION. 67 the Covenant (a chest abont two by four feet), with handles and a crown of gold, wreathed around the top, with two Cherubs, one on either end facing each other, to overshaddow the mercy seat. Here on this mercy seat under the Cheru- bims, God dwelt to give blessing and pardon to all who came to him through the interposition of the Priests of Israel. The purification of Aaron and his sons, for this sacred office and the sanctifying of the place and the purposes of the Ark and the Tabernacle produced a profound rev- erence in all the people for God and the place of His abode. This profound reverence for the places made holy by the sanctifying influence of the presence of God has accompanied his people in all ages of the world. The dedication of a church by the ordinance of God is a sanctifying of the place for His worship. The place is made holy by His presence displayed in His manifold blessings upon the people. The church is estab- lished under the Divine Covenant, that " where two or three are gathered together in my name, there will I be in the midst of them, and that to bless." God's house is no place for anything that is not conducive to the glory of the king- dom of Christ. The Tabernacle in the wilderness was a beau- tiful structure designed by the Lord, which de- sign God gave to Moses in Mount Sinia. This place of worship was the first of its kind. The 68 THE DOOR OPENED. rough stones of the valley marked the places where God met Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but their children were destined to behold a grander form of the presence of God, before beginning to build him a house in the Zion of the Promised Land. The sacrifices, they offered for sin, were a type of the shedding of blood by the Son of God. Whatever else they knew of the pardon of sin, they also knew that there could be no remission without the shedding of blood. This great multitude of people was one body r each one surrounded by the same influences, each one subject to the same temptation, and each one responsible to the same God. There was only one way to receive pardon or blessing, and that was in the established ordinance. The people were one common people, suffering afflic- tion for the sin of a few or receiving blessing for the righteousness of many. Thus it be- hooved them to follow the directions of Moses, that all might receive alike the dispensations of a benevolent Heaven. The course they chose to take and the consequent affliction they had to undergo, left its lesson on the pages of history for all the generations of the earth to witness. That many of their number laid down the tene- ment of clay, to put on spirituality in the city of God, we know full well, but that only two should live to enter the Canaan of Promise, is a revelation beyond our conception. REVELATION. 69 That near three millions should die of one people, in the course of their short pilgrimage of forty years, seems to re-utter the awful warning, " The wages of sin is death" The forty days and nights which Moses stayed in the Mount were ended, for the Lord sent him down to correct the people, who in their lack of faith had given him up for lost, and had made a golden calf to represent God. When Moses came back into camp and saw what they were doing, he threw down the tables of the Law which God had written and given him for the people to live by, and brake them in pieces. In his indignation he called, saying: " Who is on the Lord's side, come unto me ; " then all the sons of Levi came to him and he sent them through the camp, with their swords, and there fell that day about three thousand men. They were told to slay every man, his son, or brother, or neighbor, and they did so. Moses spoke to the people saying, " consecrate yourselves this day to the Lord, that he may bestow a blessing upon you." Then he returned to the Lord to confess the sins of the people, and to plead for their forgiveness. As he pleaded for pardon, he said: "If thou will't not forgive their sin, then blot me, I pray thee, out of the book which thou hast written." And the Lord said: "Whoso- ever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out out of my book; therefore, go now, lead the 70 THE DOOR OPENED. people into the place I have spoken of nnto thee, and I will send my angel before thee." God was displeased with this stiff-necked people, and wonld not go in the midst of them bnt sent his angel. Moses moved the Tabernacle ontside of the camp and called it the Tabernacle of the Congregation, so that every one that sought the Lord might come out there. When Moses went out, the people stood in their tent door and watched him. He went in the Tabernacle and the cloud came down and stood at the door, and the Lord talked, speaking in the cloud, to Moses. Then all the people that stood in their tent door, rose up and worshipped. " The Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh to his friend." — Exodus 2, 3-1 1. Then Moses said to the Lord, "Show me the way, and who shall go with me." He answered, "My Presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest." Moses said, "Show me thy glory." God told him that he could not see his face and live ; but He said, "There is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock. While my glory passes by, I will put thee in the cleft of the rock, and I will cover thee with my hand, while I pass by, and I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my hinder parts, but my face shall not be seen." So in the morning Moses went up on Alt. Sinia and the glory of the Lord came about him, and on the two tables of stone which he had prepared, God REVELATION. 7 1 wrote the ten commandments and gave them for the people ; and Moses came again to the camp, and the skin of his face shone, that the people feared ; then he declared the zvhole counsel of God which the Lord commanded him to write in a book. At this time the people worshiped the God of Heaven. The Tabernacle, the tent of the con- gregation, the table for the show bread, the Ark of the Covenant and all the vessels of the sanctuary, the Priesthood established, the Cloud over the Tabernacle by day and his Glory lighted it by night ; so all things that the Lord had commanded were made, and all ordinances established, and all the words of God recorded. Then the Cloud of God stood over them, and when it moved they followed it, and when it stood they pitched their tents ; so God led them in all their journey. Moses returned to the Lord in Mt. Sinia and stayed their forty days and forty nights, and God taught him the whole history, and so impressed it upon his memory that he was enabled to commit that whole word to writing at the Divine Command. The ten commandments God wrote again, with his own finger, which two tables of stone, written on both sides in the languages of the Israelites, Moses brought and put in the Ark of testimony which they carried with them into the land of Canaan. This peculiar people so vexed Moses with their idolatry and transgressions of law 72 THE DOOR OPENED. that his burden was heavier than one should bear, so he cried to God for help. No matter what we may believe about the unchangeable decrees of God, his independence and ability to enforce obedience, it is plain to us as we study the revelation of God, that the Divine Purposes are subject to the will of men. As we look at God's dealing with this stiff-necked people, and see how entirely God gave up to Moses the right of judgment, we can not but say that the honest purpose to do that which shall exalt his God, is capable of staying the visitation of His right- eous wrath on those who do evil. It seems to me, that these two talked together as friend to friend, each counselling for the good of man and the glory of God. No man has ever stood where Moses stood, none knew His will so well. We have so much recorded that shows how God bends His will to the desires of those who love Him, that he seems to be humanly divine in all His sympathetic nature. We can but adore His infinite great- ness, goodness and mercy. To relieve Moses of this great burden, he called seventy Elders from among his people, and transmitted to them a part of the spirit of power which was upon Moses, that they might be counsellors for the people, and when the Elders were not able to settle matters with the people, then they brought the matter to Moses. On these seventy, God REVELATION. 73 poured out the spirit of Prophecy, and it came to pass, as they journeyed from Sinia, that they got into trouble all the way. At one time they were bitten by serpents, and every one that was bitten, died, 'till Moses made a brazen serpent, and set it up on a pole for the people to look at. This was a time of great distress to Moses, be- cause he felt that God had sent the serpents among them because of their sins. When Moses divided his responsibility with the Elders, he also divided his insight to the pur- poses of God, because he divided the power of his spirit between seventy men, and he became weak spiritually. He was mistaken in his judg- ment this time because God did not send the ser- pents to the Isaelites, but the Israelites zvent to the the place where the serpents were, in their own place, and many were bitten and died. What was to be done to save the people from death must be done quickly. As God would separate the guilty from the innocent, as many as looked upon the brazen serpent which Moses lifted up lived. This object lesson in faith tested their loyalty to God, for Moses said, "If ye will look at this serpent, then ye shall live," and when the peo- ple looked, they lived, but those that were bitten and would not look, died. This present salva- tion, when God gave life, for a look, was his victory over Satan, for by sin once in the ser- pent came death to every man by the disobedi- 74 THE DOOR OPENED. ence of one. So here, by maity serpents man}^ were mortally wounded but not for sin, not at the hand of God, but for glory to satan by the hand of the serpent ; but God to bring deliver- ance at this time from temporal death, lifted up the brazen serpent ; that by one look at this particular thing, the}^ should once obey and be- lieve God that He might give them life. This act of lifting up the serpent, signified the death of the serpent in the world, and also that God could provide a means by which the people might be saved from the consequences of disobedience to His law. This great affliction came upon the people in the fortieth } T ear of their pilgrimage, just before entering the land of Promise east of the Jordan in Idumae, about 145 1 years B. C. This same year Moses appointed Joshua to lead the people into their inheritance. After rehears- ing the Law and the Covenant he warned them against taking up the customs of the idolatrous people of the land before them, pronounced the blessing of God upon them, and then died. In a few days the people passed over Jordan into the Promised Land. Of those that came out of Egypt, only two, Caleb and Joshua, went into the land which the Lord promised to Abra- ham so long ago, saying: " Unto thy seed will I give this land." The seventy of Jacob's family that went into Egypt became near three millions when Moses led them out, now near four millions REVELATION. 75 when Joshua led them to the land flowing with milk and honey. Through the lapse of twenty-five centuries we have marked the foot-prints of God. We have seen the form of Jehovah. As we look back over this flight of the ages, we contemplate with wonder the infinite love of the Infinite God. Under the cloud of His mercy we stand, to call upon God, that on us may descend the dew of His mercy from Heaven. As we stand on the shores of time, we look over the river of Life. Into this stream have been poured the elements of Eternal Life. Out of this stream we may draw life clear as crystal. I look, and lo, upon this mirrored sapphire sea is reflected the image of the One Alltogether Lovely. In its crystal depths we behold the Pearl of great price. We hear in the voice of its many cata- racts the song of the Ransomed at home. The Lord, our God and King, the Lamb, speaks over this silvery sea, " Come unto me, come unto me." CHAPTER III. IN THE PROMISED LAND. The people go into the Land led by the angel of God, which gave them victory over all the people against whom they went up to battle. After the death of Joshua they took up the customs of the idolatrous people of Canaan, till God withdrew his presence from among them. They followed their own inclinations, inter- mingled their family relations, became an idola- trous multitude, and all suffered alike the un- happy consequences of their evil doings. The sword of slaughter followed all their way, and the earth drank in the life blood of millions. Instead of leaders who governed according to law, they were given judges who had very little of the spirit of God and the people found no peace. From the blood stained pages of the history of the children of Israel, we must learn that there can be no peace to those who rebel against God. What mighty conflicts, what slaughter of women and children, what flames of destruction have marked the way of the wicked. There was no longer an open vision of God. No light shining in the dark places ; there was none upon whom the spirit of power fell to 76 REVELATION. 77 any great degree through all these years, yet the Lord has never ceased to hear the cry of his people when they pray for deliverance. When Ahab was king, the sun had gone down on the days of five hundred years, since Israel entered the land. Ahab was a worshiper of Baal, and had 450 Prophets. The worshipers of the true God were only seven thousand of all the people of Canaan, when by the mouth of Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhab- itants of Gilead, God proclaimed a famine, saying: "There shall be no dew, nor rain, these years, but according to my word." At this time God directed Elijah to go and hide himself by the brook Cherith (near Jericho) saying: "It shall come to pass that thou shalt drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there." He did according to all the word of the Lord, and the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening, and he drank of the brook that is before Jordan. It came to pass after awhile that the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Is seems that Jezebel, Ahab's wife, occupied her time trying to establish the worship of Baal in Samaria. Her father was the king of Tyre and Sidon. She maintained four hundred priests of Astarte, and did all she could to exterminate the worship of the true God. But now, that 78 THE DOOR OPENED. Elijah could not live here by the brook any longer, he was directed to go up to Zarephath, and there a widow woman sustained him about three years, for God supplied them meal and oil. While he was here the widow's son died and Elijah prayed to God that his life might return, so the Lord did according to the word of Elijah. In the third year the word of the Lord came to Elijah, saying, "Go show thyself to Ahab and I will send rain upon the earth," for there was a great famine in the land. Ahab, the sixth King of Israel had sent men to all the fountains everywhere to find grass to save the life of his domestic animals. Obadiah had hid- den one-hundred of the prophets of the Lord in two caves, fifty in each, when Jezebel was killing the prophets, and he was feeding these with bread and water. As he went through the land, he met Elijah and spoke to him, so Elijah promised to see Ahab that day and kept his word. When Ahab wanted to know if it were he, Elijah, that brought the trouble on Israel, Elijah told him that it was because of his idolatry. He told Ahab to bring the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 priests which Jezebel had, to Mt. Carmel, so Ahab sent and gathered them together, and Elijah said, "How long halt ye between two opinions, if the Lord be God, follow him, but if Baal, then followhim ;" but they made no reply, then he said, " I even I only, REVELATION. 79 remain, a prophet of the Lord, but the prophets of Baal are 450 men. Let them give us two bullocks, and let them choose one for them, and let them cut it to pieces and lay on the wood, but put no fire under it, and I will dress the other bullock and lay it on the wood and put no fire under it ; and call ye, upon the name of y our gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord, and the God that answereth by fire let him be God." To this all the people agreed; so the prophets of Baal called upon their god till noon, but he did not hear, and Elijah mocked them while they called upon their gods. In the after- noon, about three o'clock, they were still crying and cutting themselves with knives, but their gods could not answer; then Elijah took twelve stones and made an Altar, and digged a ditch around it, and put twelve barrels of water in the trench and on the wood and on the Altar ; then he called on the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to answer by fire, that the people might know that the Lord is God, and that they might know that God had sent him ; then the fire came down and consumed the sacrifice and the stones and licked up the water ; and the people said : "The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God;" so the people killed all the prophets of Baal. Now this man of God told Ahab, that there was a sound of abundance of rain. The same day the wind blew, and the clouds covered the 80 THE DOOR OPENED. sky and their was a great rain. Jezebel songht to take Elijah's life but lie fled to Beersheba in Ju- da, where he left his servant, and went on alone a day's journey into the wilderness where he prayed God to take his life. He felt that he had finished his work on earth and was now ready to die, but when he laid down much fatigued with his long journey, and the anxious fear of his situation, he fell asleep, and while he slept an angel touched him and said, " arise and eat," and when he had eaten and drank he laid down again. The angel had a cake on the coals, and a cruse of water, so he said to Elijah the second time, " Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for thee." And he went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb, the Mount of God (Sinia). Here the Word of the Lord came to him, saying : " What doest thou here Elijah?" (Note here that God knows the name of his servant.) The scenes that met the view of the children of Israel when Moses was in the Mount, were in a measure reenacted ; fire, wind, quaking, and a still, small voice spoke, saying, " Go, return by the way to the wilderness of Damascus, and anoint Hazael, to be king over Syria, and Elisha, the son of Shaphat to be a prophet in thy stead, and Jehu shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel." So he came and found Elisha plough- ing Avith twelve yoke of oxen, and Elijah passed REVELATION. 8 1 by him, and cast his mantle upon him. So after he had killed a yoke of oxen and broiled them and given to the people, he followed Elijah and ministered unto him, and when the Lord would have Elijah taken up to his reward, they were in Gilgal. Then they went down to Bethel, for Elisha persisted in going down with him, and the sons of the prophet came out to Elisha and said to him, "knowest thou that the Lord will take thy master away to-day?" and he said, "yea, I know it." Elijah said to Elisha, " Tarry here, I pray thee, for the Lord hath sent me to Jer- icho," and he said, " as the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee." So they came to Jericho. Here the sons of the prophet that were at Jericho, asked Elisha if he knew that his master was to be taken away to-day, and he answered, "yea, I know it; hold your peace." Then they went to Jordan and fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and standing afar off, watched them, and they too stood by Jordan. Elijah, took his mantle and smote the water and they were divided and they went over on dry ground. When they were on the other side Elijah asked Elisha what he should do for him, and he answered, " let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me." Elijah told him that if he should see him when he was taken up it should be so, but, if not, then it should not be so, and they went on and talked ; and behold ! there ap- 6 82 THE DOOR OPENED. peared a chariot of fire and horses of fire and parted thern asnnder and Elijah went np by a whirlwind into heaven ; and when Elisha saw it he cried, " My Father! My Father! the char- iots of Israel and the horsemen thereof!" and he saw him no more ; then he rent his own clothes in two. He took up the mantle that fell from Elijah and came to Jorhan and smote the waters saying, " Where is the Lord God of Eli- jah?" and the waters divided and he went over on dry ground ; and when the sons of the proph- ets which watched them, saw him come, they said, the spirit of Elijah doth rest on him, and they bowed themselves to him. It is well worth our time to take a glance at this illustrious man as we go along that we may consider the purpose of God as revealed in the life of Elijah. We notice here that God has not, at any time in the past, left himself without a witness in the earth. By some overpowering, superhuman influence God puts it into the minds and hearts of some men to feel the necessity of looking into the secret chamber of an overruling Providence. It has been the experience of men in all ages that when they seek after God they are led to success, as he says in his word, "I will be found of them that seek after me." I need not say anything to convince my reader that it is true ; so these good men, led by the spirit of God, have sought after a more perfect knowl- REVELATION 83 edge of God. They knew by the history, they knew by what they had heard, that the Supreme Ruler of all things holds the destiny of nations as well as individuals in his hands, that he de- mands obedience to his laws and that disobedi- ence brings upon man the evil consequences of violated law. They recognize the fact that righ- teousness brings prosperity to nations and vice versa, so they are moved out of a sense of the goodness of God to lift their voice for the good of mankind. It was this divine impulse that led men, who sought to find out the will of God, to establish schools for the study of the Word. In Jericho, Bethel, Gibeah, Naioth and Gilgal these schools were established about 900 years B. C. They were a people led to seek after this knowl- edge, and accordingly as their desire increased in intensity to glorify God, He gave them a spirit of understanding of things not generally known to men. They became known as men of piety and great learning, counselors sent of God to man. The purpose of their knowledge was to lead men to do the right, instead of doing things that did not please God. When it is un- derstood that one course of action would give the people peace and prosperity, while the other course would certainly bring them to grief and defeat, it will be seen at once how urgent were the demands upon these wise men. The people had been wasted in flood, famine, fire and blood, 84 THK DOOR OPENED. and they cried to God for help. These prophets told them what this or that enterprise wonld lead them to. The prophets were sent to them in order that God might restrain them from their evil way. The chief pnrsnit of the people of this age was war with the nations aronnd them. It is also apparent that all the people, with few exceptions, were engaged in the worship of gods that gave them no peace or satisfaction. They worshiped Baal and trusted in the work of their own hands to give them prosperity instead of depending upon the God of their fathers, al- though they knew that they should not bow down to any image of anything in the earth be- neath or in the heavens above. Yet Satan con- vinced them that by seeing the object of their worship through something made to represent God, they could more effectually approach Him and thereby become better acquainted with his will. They did not see the diabolical plan of Satan to bring upon themselves the evil conse- quences of violated law because he knew very well that the veneration paid to any object, being, or god would make the people more and more like unto the object of their devotion, and if the object of their worship was beneath themselves in intelligence they would at once become more ignorant, superstitious and devilish ; hence his his object in setting before them idols made with hands was to get for himself that worship which, REVELATION. 85 instead of exalting mankind, wonld bring them in the end below the level of the brnte. God was not in all their thoughts in spite of the warning voice of history by which they learned of the wonderful dealings of God in Egypt and in their own land, for the great wall of Jericho still lay a heap of ruins, a perpetual witness of the power of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel. At this time when only 7,000 people re- mained that were true to the Lord, He raised up Elijah to overthrow their altars and destroy the idols out of the land. A man that stood where Moses stood in the Mount of God, a man so pure yet so powerful, accomplished that purpose for which God rewarded him, with a life so lost in the spirit of the Infinite that a chariot of fire came down to bear him to the skies. A life of which we know so little before he did these things with its glorious end on earth has stamped itself on our memory never to be forgotten. This revelation imparted to us in the life of Elijah has given to man the assurance of the unchangeable nature of God in his purpose to do good to the children of men. It is not the purpose of this work to relate the history of mankind or the history of nations, but to mark those periods and people by which we are led into an understanding of what is in store for us who live in this age of the world, and what is in store for those who in their turn shall follow 86 THE DOOR OPENED. us. The book of Revelation is bound and sealed with seven seals. The world behind us has been opening the seals one by one ; of those that are past we may judge, but of those that follow we may learn, and as the prophets of old unfolded the unwritten roll of the ages, let us seek to fol- low on, filled with the spirit of God. We have gone through about thirty-five centuries of the world without looking at the cause of all the afflictions of mankind. We have regarded them as afflictions sent from God to puriish man for disobedience. I need not say that this view of the matter is very common among the Chris- tians of to-day, for it stands for a very generally accepted fact, but I think it not improbable that people may believe some things that are not true and I cite this as one of those false ideas which are generally accepted as Truth. As it is the object of Revelation to disclose a knowledge of the spiritual government of this world, I will try to lay before your mind's eye what I believe to be true concerning that which I have just asserted, as being a false idea among the Christian believers of this age. It is a well known fact that God's government admits of no failure. It is also a well-known fact that there are two opposite contending spiritual forces at work in the world, the good and the evil. The actuating spirit of these forces originate in False- hood and Truth. Their co-existence antidates REVELATION. 87 the creation of man. These two Spiritual Be- ings have come to the Earth to claim dominion over man in the ages of time. What is man to do ? he must yield to the one or the other ; so the human family is divided into two classes, the one, led by the spirit of Falsehood ; the other, by the Spirit of Truth. These two spirits each hold out to men the inducement of happiness as a reward for their service, Satan offers worldly prosperity which shall come by envy, strife, theft and murder, for the gain of one man depends so very often on the loss of another; so the spirit of ambition, pride, selfishness and deceit is en- grafted into the character of those who follow the god of this world. They are mean, sensual, devilish, having been born unto him who is a liar and a murderer from the Beginning These superior spirits of power rally around their standards all those who are willing to follow them. Their disciples feed upon their spirits till they become like unto them in all their character. The growth and sustenance of the mortal requires the things of earth that sustain the natural man, but the soul, the immortal, must take in the spirit in order to its develop- ment and sustenance. As the man takes the spirit into his Being he becomes a child of the same, as fruits that follow their kind. The evils of this world find their source in the spirit of evil; on the other hand the spirit of Truth will lead 88 THE DOOR OPENED. to the fountains of living waters. God is good and only good ; good in all His possessions and in all that he bestows. The Truth shall make you free. The light discloses the way ; the evil is avoided ; man is exalted ; he becomes a child of God, a son of the Highest, an heir of Eternal life and an image of the Most Holy, the glor} r of God. Though he suffer much at the hand of the enemy of his soul in this life, he will be brought out as Gold from the fire of the refiner and as clean as the dew of the morning. Let us not say any more that God punishes man ; let us not charge him with evil whose nature it is to do right. His goodness is upon them that seek Him and His blessings unto the end of His Being. As for man his days are few in the earth and the afflictions of Satan are many, but in God an Eternity of joy awaits the faithful and true. We have watched the conflicts of ages and counted the slain as the sand of the sea whose blood was shed for the cause they loved. The children of Israel were a people God had chosen to be a peculiar treasure unto Himself because through them He chose to give the world a knowledge of Himself. He dealt with them as a nation ; he offered them rewards ; in obedience they were prospered, but in disobedi- ence they were abased and their wickedness brought upon them the evil consequences of their degradation according to the law of cause REVELATION. 89 and effect. God demanded that they live moral lives ; that they be kind to one another and to refrain from the worship of idols. He governed them just as a good father should govern his children, but they were hard to control. At times their afflictions humiliated them and they returned to obedience for fear of more severe afflictions, because they had been taught that God punished them for their disobedience, whereas they only came under the conditions of their own unrighteous doings. God made the law to be kept and they were able to keep it, too, if they were so inclined, and law kept un- broken exalts any people ; but I fail to see the hand of God applying the rod when they were afflicted because " The wages of sin is death" and death by sin which as fruits after their kind are scattered along through the years of the sojourner on earth. But the All-wise God has changed the bane to a blessing in that our natural fear of death because of that which must follow, leads men to heed its warning voice which ever speaks the awful words, " Prepare to meet thy God!" So its voice has been one of correction with hopes of a happier future, but men naturally cling to life and no matter how well prepared one may be, because of the change we shrink from it, but we can not stay the hand of the destroyer. The government of God in this world is exhibited to men throngh the five 90 THE DOOR OPENED. senses and are presented to ns in the light of onr understanding rather than as they actually exist. Obedience to the law of the true God will bring happiness to the soul in this life and also in the life which is to come. This happi- ness is partly expresssd in the use of our word joy, but more fully by the word satisfaction, while disobedience will bring us to grief; and yet there is a kind of pleasure which gratifies our senses even in disobedience, but it does not give satisfaction. God is represented to us as the source of evil as well as good ; curses as well as blessings ; but when we recognize the existence of two Snperior Beings dealing with mankind, the one good and the other evil, we must look to the one as the author of good alone and to the other as the author of evil alone. So I think that while we have God represented to us in our Scriptures as the source of punish- ment, we must in the light of Revelation read out of His Gospel of his great goodness and love, that we have not understood the meaning to be that God sent the destroying angel to punish mankind or that he sent him even at all, but that he hath established righteousness that men might be happy by obedience to his Law and suffer evil as a consequence of disobedience. Shall Ave say that God created angels of every kind ? yes, but some of them fell from their po- sition of favor in the presence of God and are REVELATION. 9 1 known to be in conflict with God. Satan is their captain. Yes, God created angels to ad- minister His government in the universe. If you can think of all the evil and all the good things of this world you can number the angels that attend to the wants of men. Angels of death, angels of light, guardian angels, mes- sengers ; an innumerable cqmpany. Angels that speak, angels that lead, angels that watch, good angels, angels that sing, evil angels. Can we separate them or tell them apart; can we tell those that are sent from those that fell? They mingle among the throng; the one enters this door, the other enters that, they draw and coax and win. The battle for life rages in many a soul ; who shall control, Satan or Christ ? Un- seen, unfelt, unknown, in and out, round and through, up and down they go. We can not feel and neither can we hear, We may not yield to them we do not fear. Could we lift the veil of mortality Or in the realm of the spirit look through Such wonderful scenes at once to behold, And glide over the sea of reality 'Mid visions of beauty all wondrous and new, Or bathe in the depths of glories untold, How soon we could learn the truth to believe, That all mankind these messengers receive The evil or the good as. each may choose? But this is too much for us to think of; only let us believe that the disposition of evil angels has been to afflict mankind and that God has 92 THE DOOR OPENED. permitted them to do so for the good of man. As we look over the empires that have fallen in time and those that have come rip we are re- minded of constant change in our Being. The light of Heaven has flashed on the path of humanity as it rolls away in the past over the river of death. One by one the silent spir- its flits to the life beyond ; a few have come back, but we could not speak to them ; our tongue cleaves to the roof of our mouth. Elisha the prophet restored the Shunamite's son, but he spake no word that we know of and when Elisha was resting in the narrow house of death, they revived another who was let down and touched him in his resting-place, but the man gave us no word ; but in this we are taught the great fact of the Resurrection. When God spake to man by the mouth of his servants the prophets, He revealed to us many things that we are glad to believe. The glorious transfiguration of Enoch and Elijah alone would tell us of a life beyond ; but the sound of the chariots that put the Syrians to flight established forever the fact that the king- dom of God is above and beyond the sphere of human activity. In the experience of Job we find recorded the wonderful dealings of God with man. Here in one man is presented the extremes to which this life may lead us ; a won- derful picture to look upon. A young father REVELATION. 93 with his children playing abont his knee, sur- rounded with prosperity on every side, the pride of his friends, the joy of the poor, the counsellor of neighbors, a perfect man. In the course of time Satan afflicts him, he is robbed of his pros- perity, his children grown and prosperous in their own homes and occupations, his body is racked with pain, he is cast out from his friends, his wife turns against him, his friends deride him, yet he never forsook his God even when God appeared to have forsaken him ; and when Satan could do no more to wreck his life, family, and fortune, God restored to him double of all that he had before possessed in family and pros- perity and friends. His declining years were peaceful and happy. To my mind no picture of human experience has been more accurately outlined or more beau- tifully colored than that which we have in the experience of Job, whom God was pleased to make for us an example of Satan's work to turn a soul away from God. And here too, in this revelation we see that Satan must render an account unto God, who in the end will consign him to a life vexed with all the combined horrors that he on man inflicted. How terrible are the judg- ments of God in the end when at last he will consign the rebellious creatures of his hand to their own savage revelry that they may 94 TH3 DOOR OPENED. forever continue in that they love best. As the sowing is so shall the reaping be, some a hun- dred fold. It is altogether probable that Job lived in the time of the patriarchs as one of his friends was the son of Esau. I think he was Jobab, the son of Zerah of Bozrah, the second Icing of Edom, the great-grandson of Esau. The glory of God's earthly kingdom was dis- played in the reign of Solomon, the son of Da- vid, who built the house of the Lord in Jerusa- lem and dedicated it B. C. 1005. From the time of his death B. C. 976, to the carrying away into Babylon and the burning of the Temple in the year 588 B. C., the people did very little but worship idols, and consequently the Jews did not honor the God of their Father's. Isaiah prophesied through a period of sixty years. He was the voice of God to Hezekiah, the good king ; his foresight was for all time. By the word of Isaiah is revealed the kingdom of the Holy one of Israel, the branch of Jesse, saying, " A virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son and they shall call His name Imman- uel. The government shall be upon his shoul- ders ; He shall be called our Righteousness, the Wonderful Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Prince of Peace; yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him ; He hath laid on Him the iniq- uity of us all." It pleased the Lord to sacri- fice His only son that He, in His death, might REVELATION. 95 justify many ; and to His Kingdom there shall be no end. When the fullness of time was come that He should be born, they wrapped him in swad- dling clothes and laid him in a manger in Beth- lehem of Judea. His birth was heralded in song by the angels of God singing in the night, " Glory to God in the Highest ; peace upon earth and good will to men." The wise men saw His star in the East and followed it till it came and stood where the Savior was lain, and the shepherds came and worshiped at His feet. This is He that was born King of the Jews. This is the seed of a woman that should bruise the Serpent's head and in the end should make His grave with the wicked and be numbered with the transgressors. An angel appeared unto Joseph, the espoused of Mary, to announce the birth of a son, saying, " Thou shalt call His name Jesus." I need not offer my reader any other proof that this was He of whom the Prophets had spoken. All the conditions had been fulfilled and the time was at hand when God should be tabernacled in the flesh and blood, God with us. The Holy One of Israel, the Everlasting God, the I Am, the First and the Last by whom and for whom the heavens and the earth were cre- ated, the Word, the Truth, the Life, the Breath 96 THE DOOR OPENED. of God, the King of Kings and Lord of All, who formed ns and gave ns Being, to earth con- signed, reviled, rejected of men, cast ont, forsaken on earth, robbed of home for worms of the dnst, for clods of the valley, for men depraved and low, that he might take away the sting of death and rob the grave of victory, come down to drink the cnp of woe, to bear every burden of sin, to cleanse the sons of men, for men to die, that man might live and run his course of be- ing ; the Revelation of God clothed with hu- manity that men might learn the way of life. His life left no room for doubt ; His race in time was finished, His righteousness asserted his Divinity, His work confirmed his claim that He was more than man. His death proclaims to all the world a sacrifice complete. Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Alary, having finished his work on earth was lifted up that he might draw all men with the chords of his love. " As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whoso- ever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." His disciples who wit- nessed his translation saw Moses and Elijah to- gether with Christ clad in the robes of Immor- tality. He arose from the grave the first fruits of the resurrection ; He walked the earth for forty da} T s after He arose from the tomb to con- vince the world of the reality of another life, REVELATION. 97 and then ascended to Heaven where he sitteth npon the throne to jndge the quick and the dead. By Him and in Him and to Him are all things in the earth beneath and in the Heaven above, and He shall reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. His human nature was perfect in the sight of friends and foes, of all those who watched his daily life. To my mind there can be no stronger proof of his Divinity. His human sympathy caused him to Aveep with those who wept and give a helping hand to every one he met who needed any relief. "He went about doing good." The lame, the blind, the deaf, the living and the dead assert his won- drous love. The ills of 'men in his day he took away that they might know in whom was life and light and joy and peace. He had power to heal the body and also to restore the soul. The soul has all the five senses and sin can paralize the organs of them all ; but Christ has power to bring them back to life by breathing into the soul the breath of his own spirit. When he was about to leave this world he promised his disciples that he would send them another Comforter that he may abide with them forever ; even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world can not receive because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him ; but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be in yon. "I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go I will come 7 9^ THE DOOR OPENED. again and receive }^ou unto myself, that where I am there ye ma}- be also. In my Father's house are many mansions." His life on earth was given to teach us the nature and character of God and to saA*e us from our sins. The Kingdom which he hath estab- lished on earth is not of this earth ; it is the kingdom of Heaven ; Christ is the King. Jesus was his earthly name, but Christ his Divine name. The kingdom of Christ is a spiritual kingdom and those who enter it nrrst be born of the spirit, which signifies the reception of the Holy spirit into the temple of the living God. '" I will send you the spirit of Truth which shall be with you and dwell in you." When Christ ascended into Heaven to give an account unto God of his stewardship, having satisfied the ends of justice to God's holy Law by paying the price for man's redemption, hav- ing offered that infinite possession, even the blood of the Son of God, He made it possible that the cleansing of the tabernacle might be complete hy the Righteousness of Christ unto the sanctification of the vessels of wrath for the dwelling place of the Hoi} 7 Ghost. " In my Father's House are many mansions. Know ye not that }~e are the temple of the living God ? Behold ! the tabernacle of God is with men and I will dwell in them and I will walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be REVELATION. 99 my people." The kingdom of Christ in the heart of man. The King on the throne of the sonl crying, " Come tin to me and be ye saved all ye ends of the earth." Messengers of God, the living Word known and read of all men. These parting words which Jesus spake to his disciples were very comforting and instruc- tive. They set before us the Holy Spirit, mak- ing a sure foundation for the doctrine of the Trinity, the three-fold characteristic of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one, individual living God, one spirit which is omnipresent with man. God in us, sanctifying and purifying, leading the soul out of darkness into his marvelous Light, transforming us from the likeness of the earthly into the image of the Heavenly. This spirit of Truth which dwelleth in man has all the attri- butes of God, and is God in the fullest sense of the term. There is no blessing which men en- joy that is not provided by and through the op- eration of this spirit. As a provider for all the necesssities of our Being He is our Father ; in the operation of regeneration He is the source of Life, which life is Eternal and implies son- ship and gives favor with God and joy evermore. He it is that leads the soul to the fountains of Eternal Life that we may drink of the spirit which sustains and develops the soul, giving strength, courage, wisdom and power. The IOO THE DOOR OPENED. spirit of God shall put you in remembrance of all things and lead }^ou into all Truth, and the Truth shall make you free from the bondage of sin, the weight that holds you down, the load that prevents your progress. Ye shall be free indeed; which means that this corruption of earth, this vile worm of the dust, this house of flesh and blood shall open its prison-doors of clay and let the prisoner out to rise on wings of light from Earth to Heaven — To rest from care and sadness To live in joy and gladness To be at home with God forever. God with us is the Revelation of the parting words of Jesus. What comfort, what blessedness ; joy to earth come down, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Christ made possible in every human heart. The Apostles went to work to establish the outward form of that inward Holiness. When they were come together with one accord in Jerusalem, the Holy Ghost descended and en- tered into the hearts of many to begin the work of God on earth. A nation was born in a day, and Christ is the king of saints ; he shall reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. His kingdom is recognized everywhere in the world to-day. The nations of the Earth count time from A. D. ; would-be unbelievers, infidels of every class in all civilization, write over their REVELATION. IOI letters 1893, thus acknowledging the birth of Christ. The Lord has administered his government of man under different forms at different times. The Patriarchal worship was a very simple form of religion. God was recognized as the Creator and Ruler of all things who demanded that men should honor and obey his Law spoken by the voice of the conscience. It was their custom to pray and when He made known his will to them by some unusual manifestation of his presence and favor, they took stones and made an Altar to mark the place where God was pleased to re- veal himself to them. They took offerings for sin and uncleanness and sacrificed them on these rough stone Altars, believing that the savor of them would reach unto Heaven and be recog- nized of God. Now, it was so that when they showed their dependence on Him, and Him alone, that he blessed them. After this it pleased God to use the human voice, speaking out of some form of light, to impart his will to men. Then He sent Angels and visions of the night so that men had knowledge enough to do that which was pleasing to God, but not enough to teach anything of his spiritual nature. He allowed his power over natural things to be compared with that of the Necromancers and Wizards of Egypt in order to show his super- 102 THE DOOR OPENED. iority to them. Pharoah Had to be convinced that the Lord alone was the trne God. The Egyptians worshiped the things of na- ture and these mediums were used to speak the will of their gods to the King ; but God gave Moses to be in his stead and Aaron to speak for him ; so they entered the contest to see which was the true God. These slight-of-hand performers were able to de almost any thing ; but God chose to show his control over all the gods of the Egyptians. They worshiped the sun, moon and stars, the rivers, air, etc. ; so God turned the rivers to blood, the sun to darkness, the hail to fire, the air brought forth lice, convincing the king that there was only one true God. After this the Priesthood was established through whom the transgressions of the people were pardoned. At this time all the temporal needs of the people were miraculously supplied, but they were not thankful and became very wicked in worshiping idols instead of God. So he gave them up to be ruled by Judges after Moses and Joshua died, but the Judges had very little of God's spirit in them and the people were scattered. Then God gave them good kings that brought them back to the worship of the true God. Again, after these were dead, other kings ruled over them and they did evil in the sight of the REVELATION. IO3 Lord continuously, so God raised up his voice of warning b}^ the mouth of the Prophets, but they gave no heed to these and killed them. " Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the Prophets and stoneth them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy chil- dren together as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, but ye would not." So after this it pleased God to administer his government at the hands of his Son, Jesus Christ, the King of Kings. As the sacrifice of the Jewish ritual required the shedding of blood for the remission of sins, when Jesus of Naz- areth was proclaimed by the voice of John the Baptist, saying, " Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world," it very nat- urally taught the people that he should be slain, and however they may have refrained from tak- ing the life of man, or from the shedding of in- nocent blood, the Purpose of God in Christ could not be changed, all the means were at hand to bring about the offering up of the Just for the unjust, the Only Son, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. As the people were led to take the life of Jesus (the very Devils are at God's command) so this same spirit sealed the fate of many of his disciples. The Martyrs that gave up their lives for the testimony of Jesus were but step- ping-stones to seal the condemnation of the 104 THE DOOR OPENED. wicked. I would not have you understand that the greater part of the human family are eter- nally lost, however true it is that all have been desperately wicked. We are not the judges of men, because just judgment is beyond our abil- ity. The Bible teaches that there is none good, no, not one ; but it also teaches that God is mer- ciful. When we read the history of man we are compelled to acknowledge that his whole history is one of rebellion against God, and }^et many of these rebellious people at some time in their life are led to see the folly of their way, and when they do, they turn to God who is not slack con- cerning his promises. The least sigh for relief, the least desire to do right, is regarded by God according to the measure of his manifold mercy. There is no testimony anywhere in the dark his- tory of sinful man where God has refused to for- give ; on the other hand, at any stage of human action, the loving kindness of the infinite God has gone out to watch, to listen, to feed the flick- ering flame of the sinful soul. As long as the warm breath of love can fan the flame of mor- tality it is not withheld ; as long as a spark of life remains in man the spirit of God kindles the fire ; as long as we have a breath God pours into our Being the light of his countenance ; but each Age is responsible to God according to the light given to the people of that Age. This is a great problem for us to solve, for REVELATION. 105 the Revelation of God has not come alike to all people at the same time. Thus the Antideluvi- ans had everything to turn them away from God, while the descendants of Noah were be- gotten in iniquity and the Nations of the Earth in the time of Abraham was so steeped in crime that the whole race were led by the god of this world. Out of the wreck God gathered him a peo- ple, but they were a crooked and perverse gen- eration and there was no way to prevent the awful consequences of sin but the infinite mercy of God in dealing with the infinite sins of man, so that God was compelled from a sense of his great love for man to make provision to over- come the evil of the world. No man compelled him, no man desired him, none knew him, yet freely of himself and for his own glory, he coun- seled with himself for the deliverance of man. To accomplish his purpose it was necessary that he be long-suffering, tender and kind ; his mercy must be extended to all throughout their whole life, and must cover the sins that men do not see because of their lack of knowledge. Then too, his gift of pardon must be ready for each one of every Age of man ; his love must be upon all the children of men alike, for God is no respector of persons ; all this he could do, and would be glad to do. Then I fancy I see the great, loving Father bowed down with grief, 106 THE DOOR OPENED. the throne of the Universe trembling, and harps of Heaven still; then I hear a voice say- ing, "I WILL GO DOWN TO EARTH, PUT ON HUMANITY, BE NUMBERED WITH THE TRANS- GRESSORS AND BE OFFERED UP, A RANSOM FOR MANY, AND I WILL BE UNTO MYSELF A SON, BORN OF A WOMAN, THE ONLY BEGOTTEN OF God." Think of it reader, think of the infinite love. The provisions of this redemption is suf- ficient for the salvation of all the children of men. " Whosoever will may come and drink of the water of life freely." It is the gift of God. It can not be gotten for gold, for the purchasing price of man's redemption outweighs the uni- verse of God. He spake to his disciples saying, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." When the / Will of God was ut- tered in Heaven, the second person of the Trin- ity sat on his Father's Throne in the Kingdom above. The Power and the Glory of the Great God were upon the Son, and the Glory of the Father became so ineffable that none but the Angels could look upon him and live. These all fall down before him as he stands on the sea of glass, casting their crowns at his feet crying, " Honor and blessing and glory and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb forever and ever." These scenes transpired long before the ere- REVELATION. IO7 ation of man 011 the Earth. God's foreknowl- edge comprehends the End from the Beginning. So he saw our needs and made a plan to rescue us from Hell. Through Him and by Him and for Him are all things. The first declaration of the Bible reads, " In the Beginning God cre- ated the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep." Here the statement ends. It doesn't read in the beginning God made man, for man has only been on the earth about 6,000 years, where- as the heavens and the earth were created in the Beginning of God, who is without beginning and without end, for in snch words we express the Eternity of God's existence. Then again, in the first chapter of John's Gospel we read, " In the Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God, the same was in the Beginning with God, all things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life and the life was the light of men and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only be- gotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." Truly might Christ say, "Before the world was, I Am." Sin had its origin in Heaven. Before the Earth was fitted up to be the abode of man, God 108 THE DOOR OPENED. created angels to do his service and pay their homage at his feet. They are a very superior order of beings, having intelligence, with liberty of thought and action, having emotional natures like our own, proud, ambitious, hopeful, joyous, powerful, winging their way to the utmost bounds of creation by the power of their omni- presence. The Son of God, the only son, Light of Earth and Heaven, stood up while saints and an- gels, kings and priests, seraphim and cherubim cast their crowns before him, and a voice from under the Throne cried out, " The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ." When the first fiat of cre- ation went forth, man stood up in the image of God, the glory of the earth, a perfect Being, intel- ligent, happy and free, Satan wanted to be his king and revolted against the authority of God who had given this world to Christ. The angels took sides, the Heavenly host was divided. Sa- tan's position in Heaven (Eze. xxviii, 14, 15,) was so near that of Christ that he presumptu- ously expected the Lord to annoint him king of the earth. In this he was disappointed and his fury knew no bounds. "There was war in Heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and the dragon fought and his angels and pre- vailed not, neither was their place found any more in Heaven, and the great Dragon was cast REVELATION. IO9 out, that old Serpent called the Devil and Satan which deceiveth the whole world. He was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him." We have traced the work of God on the peo- ple of earth from the creation of man during a period of 4,000 years to the beginning of the last kingdom on the earth, the kingdom of Christ, to whose dominion there shall be no end. This new kingdom established nearly nineteen centuries ago is still increasing in power and so must continue till the last life of humanity goes out. As yet we have only mentioned the establishment of the kingdom of Chrst in Je- rusalem by his disciples on the day of Pentecost. CHAPTER IV. SATAN AT WORK. Since we have spoken of the existence of that Being who wanted to be the king of this Earth, the god of this world, and since the god of this world has exerted so much influence over the minds and lives of men, I think it comes within the province of this work to present the reader with the working of Satan from the time of his entrance into this world down to the time when Christ established his Kingdom, and from that time on I shall endeavor to give an account both of Satan and of Christ in the spiritual gov- ernment of man. The adversary of the kingdom of Christ is known under several different names. These two contestants operate in the souls of men, which they enter through the five senses into the mind, by means of which they control the actions of men, so that the spirits war against each other in the flesh and often, under certain conditions, they war against the same body which they inhabit. Spirit life, which is the source of all created existences, have the power within themselves of entering into and operating in and no SATAN AT WORK. 1 1 I through whatever life they choose to use for the accomplishment of their purpose. This spirit once having effected an entrance controls the life in the disposition of all its activities, ener- gies and impulses. Thus when an evil spirit enters the mind of man, that mind is used in exerting an evil influence. The body is operated at the command of the will through the medi- ation of the nerves, and all the energy of the man is brought into action to carry out the works necessary to bring about the desired re- sult. The relation of the supreme spirit to the spirit of the individual operated in and through becomes that of father and child. It is a well- known principle that like begets like. This law which so naturally applies itself to all the things of Earth also controls all spirit life. There are good angels and evil angels, so that there are many phases of spirit life and power. The angels of God are messengers sent to the Earth to minister to those who shall be the heirs of salvation ; so the angels that sinned and fell from Heaven to Earth go about oper- ating to overthrow the work of God in the lives of the children of men. It is through these spir- itual agencies that spirit life has given energy and individuality to every man, to each that which makes one, different from all others. Under a certain condition the individual oper- ated in and through becomes so obedient to the 112 THE DOOR OPENED. will of the controlling spirit that they are the offspring of the spirit which enters their Being. The body of man is a dwelling-place for spirit life and power. There are many expressions in the Scriptures that are easily understood when interpreted in this light. Christ says, " Behold ! I stand at the door and knock; if any man will open the door I will come into him and sup with him and he with me," (the door is opened from the inside by those within.) " In my Father's house are many mansions," (the house is the world, the mansion is the body.) " When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man he walketh through dry places seeking rest and finding none ; then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out ; then he goeth and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself and they enter in and dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first. This last passage declares that the same in- dividual may furnish a dwelling-place for many spirits at the same time. These spirits each have a specific work to do, or they may all be engaged in different parts of the same work. They may all alike be engaged in the works of evil, or some may be workers of evil, while others are workers of good ; or they may be all good spirits at work for the Master's kingdom. When this is the case we recognize the fact that the unclean spirits SATAN AT WORK 113 "have been cast out. But they are cast out not by the individual, not by anything within, that is of, the individual, but by the ministering spirits of God that are within, but which do not become the individual in any of its composition until God has through these spirits utterly over- thrown and cast out from the temple, all that is unclean within. This is the New Birth ; this is the overthrow of Satan and the victory of Christ. Then, the good spirits enter upon their minis- try to guard, guide and strengthen the individ- ual to enable him to resist the Devil, to shut the door against evil spirits and keep them out. There are three parts to our make up — the Nat- ural, the New and the Divine — but the Natural man is a servant of the New man under the au- thority of the Divine, the authority of God in the soul ; but the servant is sometimes unfaith- ful and breaks away under satanic influence to do evil. Temptation is not Sin, but yielding to temptation is sin and leads to its commission more and more ; therefore, we sin continually throughout this whole life. " Let us, therefore, give more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest at any time we may let them slip. ' ' The spirit (of God) warreth against the flesh (the spirit of Satan.) Paul says, " Therefore, let us put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand in the evil day, and having done all to stand." 114 THE DOOR OPENED. With our first parents in Eden, the conflict between Satan and Christ began in the life of man. Satan entered the Garden in search of the man God had made. Here his deceptive nature began its cunning work. He knew his foe full well, for God walked around through the Gar- den, and angels guarded its entrance, if possible, to keep out this Arch-fiend and foe of God and man. It were possible for him to enter the gar- den only in the form of some of the creatures of this earth ; so he devised a plan and executed it before we would have time to think. He en- tered a serpent, and gliding noislessly along the ground to where Eve, with wondering sight looked on the plenteous yielding garden foliage, and with uplifted form, with flashing eye and head erect, enticed her eager ear t d listen while he spake about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He knew what God had told them about this fruit. " Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it ; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Eve's curiosity had been aroused. She had said, "I'll go out and take a good look at this tree, so I shall make no mistake in taking of the fruit of this tree, lest I lose my life." She met Satan, who had been watching her as she s^ood looking at this particular tree and won- SATAN AT WORK. 115 dering why she should not eat of the fruit, and he told her that she should not surely die, but that they would become as gods knowing good and evil. The voice that Eve heard argued after the foregoing manner until her curiosity to see had turned to a desire to taste (experience) the knowledge of good and evil. She had deliber- ately determined to disobey God, for surely she did not know in her new and strange existence and surroundings but that this voice was another god, for she did not know that there is One only true God. These foolish thoughts, this act of the Will, was the sin which brought down on man the first results of sin, the death of the soul or the enmity of the soul against God, which in time worketh out the life of the body through the effects of sin unto death. As by one man's disobedience death came upon all men, so by the obedience of One many shall be brought to life. Eve was not satisfied until Adam was made a partaker of her disobodience. It were not possi- ble for man to have a knowledge of evil and not do evil, but he had had no experience in the world, and so he yielded to the first temptation. I think that when our first parents were told that they should earn their bread by the sw r eat of their brow they felt pretty bad. The ground was cursed for their sake ; that is, when sin en- tered the world it not only affected man, but it affected the earth also. The whole creation Il6 THE DOOR OPENED. groaned when natnre died, and every plant and shrub and tree aborted frnitage bore. The effects of man's fall was far-reaching ; nevertheless God told them to pnt forth their hands and take also of the tree of life. Side by- side the two forces of earth, or air or sky, be- gan their work. Adam saw the frnit of his doings when Cain murdered his brother Abel. Then we notice that Cain goes off and all we hear of him is evil and only evil continually. In due time Seth is born, a good boy, and when he grows up, follows after the True God, but the great mass of mankind continue to do evil. There is no known crime in the catalogue of sin that they were not guilly of. God was ashamed of men, so in order to put a check to the work of darkness he brought a flood upon the earth. After this, the sons of men go out, each fol- lowing the propensities of his own evil nature, till Satan almost had possession of men. There was no way for God to do, but to let them destroy each other. They felt themselves to be chief. Satan thought they should worship him and set about to establish his kingdom. Satan knew nothing about worship except what he learned in Heaven of the worship of God ; but he knew that the worship in Heaven would not do for men, neither would it do to have a ceremony just like the people had ; so he concluded that if SATAN AT WORK. I I 7 he made just a little difference in it people would think that it was the same worship, but be de- ceived in the end ; no matter, his purpose would be accomplished, and that was all he wanted. He reasoned on this wise with the people : You can not see God and you can not tell whether he is pleased with your service or not, so very little is known about God ; the air may be God, or the sun or the host of heaven may be God. So with this idea in mind he concluded that certain influences came from one source and others from some other source, but as God was in all these, if men should worship these, they would be wor- shiping God, and then as the people knew very little of God, Satan knew that they would more readily adopt his plans. If they should make images to represent the different gods that would give form to their God, which the}^ could see, and a reasonable ceremony, his plans of worship would please the people and they would readily adopt it. By this means he could get them to break the foundation of all the laws of God. Satan knew that the more mystery there was about the ceremony the better. If we start out to trace the worship of the god of this world, we must remember that the worship of the true God before the flood was very little known, or at least, very little prac- ticed. There does not seem to have been any congregational worship nor any famity worship Il8 THE DOOR OPENED. participated in by others than the head of the family ; neither does the worship of Satan seem to have taken any particular form till after the Flood. So if we undertake to follow the course of Satan in his diabolical work we will have to follow the repopulation of the Earth in the de- scendants of Noah. The worship of the true God has been preserved by the descendants of Shem, the eldest son of Noah. By him are the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in their gen- erations up to Christ. Ham was the father of the Canaanites, Arabians, Egyptians, Ethiop- ians and Africans. Japheth was father to the Grecians and Romans. Mysticism, an important part of Satanic wor- ship (as before stated), had its origin with the Arabians. Superstition, ignorance and crime seem to be the greater part of total depravity. Divination, charms and fortune-telling, sooth- saying, etc., were practiced long before the time in which Israel was ruled by kings. The inves- tigation of Nature to discover the original rul- ing principle seems to have been started in Greece. The study of astronomy was pursued in order to discover Deity, and as a result their investigation became interwoven with Astrol- ogy ; Philosophy entered in and went to finish up the sum total of confusion. The sad story of a good beginning with a bad end which gave the world neither knowledge or wisdom. In SATAN AT WORK. 119 Egypt we find the descendants of Ham worshiping Idols when Joseph went into that country. The prophets of Satan were called Magicians. The first kings of which history makes mention bore the name of Pharoah. They also had priests. Joseph's wife was Asenath, the daughter of Pot- iphera, the priest of On. How long idol wor- ship had been going on history does not dis- close ; but as I said before, Satan concluded that he could accomplish his purpose best through images. The people were led to believe that they were worshiping the true God, and I don't think that they ever found out any difference until Jo- seph interpreted Pharoah's dream ; but it was not for Joseph to put a stop to idolatry. The Egyptians worshiped the host of heaven ; the Planets were so many gods, and to each were attributed certain powers. They worshiped the river Nile and thought the Crocodile to be a sacred thing ; the women threw their infants in the river to be devoured by them, which they fancied would appease the wrath of their god. This you will readily recognize as the work of Satan. The animosities of mankind, envy, strife, malice, hatred and jealousy are promul- gated only by Satanic influences. Seven thou- sand Romans were slaughtered at one time be- cause of the accidental killing of a cat, one of the animals which were sacred in Egypt. All attention of a devotional nature given to ani- 120 THE DOOR OPENED. mals, images or any of the things of Nature were alike offensive to the Lord. The worship of Sa- tan was complete and well established in Egypt as will plainly be seen when we look at the ef- fect it had upon the people. It had no tendency to elevate man. In the first place the king gov- erned the people only as so many beasts of bur- den. Any one who is familiar with the public works of this nation, with no system of reve- nue except the labor of slaves, will not look to the grand sepulchers of kings, the Obelisks or Pyramids of her great cities with any degree of pleasure, when they remember the cost to have been the life-blood of millions only for the agran- dizement of Kings. Their chief aim was to be powerful, to get wealth and to bleed the sur- rounding nations. Jacobs family of seventy souls were well cared for only until the power of God was removed by the death of Joseph. These people during 400 years of their sojourn were subjected to the most inhuman cruelties until God himself would permit it no longer, and brought them out by the hand of his servant Moses. The descendants of Jacob were very familiar with the worship of Sa- tan and were participants in that worship. The fact is clearly evidenced by their actions after they came out of Egypt. When Aaron made them a golden calf at the feet of Sinia, the}^ seemed only to want to worship something that SATAN AT WORK. 121 they could see. This calf, they called God, was made of the jewelry they had borrowed of the Egyptians. They were not used to having a good time ; they scarcely knew how to laugh ; they had very low, mean dispositions, w T ith no respect for God nor man. They rebelled and complained all the way from Goshen of Egypt, to the Jordan of the Land of Promise, ever urg- ing their leader to take them back to the condi- tions of bondage from whence they came. The worship of Satan is very enticing be- cause it encourages the gratification of the pas- sions, while on the other hand, the elevating influ- ences of the worship of God, only promise re- ward in a life which is to come. I think when the Lord came dowm on Sinia in cloud and fire and thunder, perhaps these people realized that the God of Moses and Aaron was a divine re- ality, but they were still not willing to forget the serpent, as evidenced by this people preserv- ing the brazen serpent which Moses made. It was long after the life-saving look of faith that this serpent was destroyed. The children of this people worshiped this Serpent long after they came into the Land of Promise. It is strange how Satan is able to turn aside the people of God from following in the ways of righteousness. Before the times of the kings of Israel, Eli was the Priest of the Lord in Shiloh, B. C. 1116. 122 THE DOOR OPENED. The Ark and Tabernacle had been here abont 325 years. Once a year the people carne np here to worship. The sons of Eli took this oc- casion to defile the daughters of Israel, The sons of Eli were sons of Belial, and Eli knew what evil the}^ did, but instead of having them stoned to death for their abominations, he sup- ported them, and thereby honored them more than he did his God. At this time Israel went out to battle against the Philistines, and the two sons of Eli were with the Ark, for Israel carried the Ark with them. The Philistines were afraid and said, " God is come into the camp, woe unto us, who shall de- liver us out of the hands of these Mighty Gods; these are the gods that smote the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness?" But Is- rael was smitten ; 30,000 of Israel were smitten and among them the two sons of Eli. The Phi- listines took the Ark also. Now, a man came to Eli and told him what had happened to the peo- ple, his sons and the Ark of the Lord. Eli was ninety-eight years old and he fell off his seat and broke his neck. Satan influenced him so that he rendered unto Satan the service that belonged to God. When it was known by the mouth of Sam- uel what should befall Eli, Satan stirred up the evil nature of the people to go out against the Philistines to battle, and he knew, too, that God SATAN AT WORK. I 23. W ould not be with them, and so they would be defeated and thus a great many of the true peo- ple would be killed. This was just what he wanted, because when all the people of God were out of the way he would be lord himself. The first time Israel went out at Ebenezer, only four thousand were killed, but when the idolatrous sons of Eli took the Ark of the Covenant out with them as if God were under the leadership of Satan, the Lord withheld his power while 30,000 footmen of Israel were slain. This must have greatly grieved the Lord. If God's wrath ever came upon men, it is no where recorded that he destroyed those that were true to him ; but his wrath did visit the Philis- tines immediately after this. They took the Ark to Ashdod and set it in the Temple beside Da- gon, their god. The first night Dagon fell over on his face ; the next morning when the priests came in they set Dagon up again in his place and on the following morning, when the priests went up to the Temple, Dagon was down again with his head off, his hands off and all the upper part of his body broken off. This god w^as man-like above the belt and the rest was like the latter part of a fish. None of the priests or the people would go in there any more for fear of the Lord. The Ark was taken from place to place for seven months, and wherever it went many died and all the men that did not die 124 TH £ DOOR OPENED. were smitten with Hemorrhoids, and the cry went np to Heaven. The Philistines called for the priests and the diviners (prophets of Satan) saying, "What shall we do with the Ark of the Lord?" They said: " Send not the Ark away empty, but send an offering with it." Then they made five Emorods of Gold and five golden mice and pnt them in a cart with the Ark and hitched to it two fresh milk cows that had never a yoke on their neck before and they started them np the road and they went straight to Bethshemesh, and the five lords of the Philis- tines followed them. They, of Bethshemesh, were reaping their wheat-harvest in the valley, and when they saw the Ark they rejoiced, and the cart came into the field of Joshna, a Bethshemite, where there was a great stone, and they clave the cart and offered the kine, a bnrnt offering unto the Lord. The Levites took down the Ark of the Lord and the coffer that was with it, wherein were the jewels of gold and put them on the great stone, and the men of Bethshemesh offered burnt offering and sacrificed sacrifices this same day unto God. The people came out there and looked at the Ark, and the Lord smote 50,070, so they sent messengers up to Kirjath Jearim, saying, " Come down and take up the Ark;" so they came and look it up and set it in the house of Abinadab and sanctified his son Eleazer to keep the Ark SATAN AT WORK. 1 25 of the Lord and it was here twenty years be- fore the children of Israel left off worshiping Baalim and Ashtaroth. This last slaughter of more than 50,000 people was on account of the people putting the images of the Philistines, the Emorods and mice of gold on the altar where they burnt sacrifices unto God, for the Lord will not have that which is the work of another god. It will be seen at once that any worship, to be acceptable unto God, must be perfectly pure ; but Satan can accomplish his purpose better by the people who think they are worshiping the Lord than in any other way because the worship is not acceptable, and at the same time the peo- ple lose their lives. Thus Satan who is deceitful above all things, leads people who are inclined to worship into practicing things that keep them from pleas- ing God. It is elsewhere stated in this work that God does not take the life of people. There was a time and a people who thought God to be the author of death, and they have so stated it in the sacred record, but they did not know of another god whose chief aim was to destroy men, both soul and bod}^. The wages of sin is death , and while God has permitted this work to go on, it is not in his all-wise counsel to take the power of choice out of the hands of men, lest He make of them slaves to a law which would take away the power to become like him in whose 126 THE door opened. image they were created, when they come to be with him where he is. God permits the destroy- ing messengers of Satan to go about their work of destruction. All the evils that befall man- kind are brought upon us by the evil spirits which were cast out from Heaven or by their evil in- fluences ; but a time comes when the cry goes up to Heaven where God hears and sees and feels the pangs of human woe and reaches out his powerful hand to stop their further ravages. There are some evils that help to carry out the purposes of God, and I think it very probable that all these evils are a means unto an end. If we will look for results I think we shall find that the greater affliction will work out the con- dition of soul necessary to the greatest reward. •Christ was made perfect through suffering in that he tasted death for every man to justify all who by faith lay hold on Eternal Life. When the Lord permitted Satan to try Job, although he was greatly afflicted, yet he was per- fected in patience and faith. The Lord saw Sa- tan going up with men to worship and it appears from the conversation that took place between God and the great adversary of man, that even Satan is at God's command for the accomplish- ment of his purpose to do good to man. We know that God is able to do whatever he desires with Satan, putting him in chains at will. We are led to believe that God is able and has de- SATAN AT WORK. I 27 vised a way, even through this arch-fiend and foe of God and man, to bring about the Glory of God and the eternal salvation of sinners from the power of endless death to give unto them the power and peace and joy of an endless Life. It does not seem probable that the vast mass of hu- manity is destined to eternal death. If more than half the human family should in the end be consigned to realms of woe the power of God unto salvation would be a failure. I am bold to say that a work which belongs to God can not fail. Though many, through unbelief, will take unto themselves freely, the consequences of their guilt and sin in the torments of a flame as un- quenchable and eternal as the flame of God's undying love, yet Christ will be victorious. Of this victory of Christ we are confident, not that a time will come while time on earth shall last, that every knee on earth will bow, but that a time will come in the Eternal years when every knee on Earth and Heaven and Hell will bend to own that Christ is King. At this time of the world through which we are passing in our nar- rative (time of Samuel) it would seem that Satan had usurped the Throne. The presence of God was withdrawn from his people to a great extent when Samuel judged Israel. The surrounding people were at war with them on every hand, and a time had come when a change of govern- ment was really necessary. The people wanted 128 THE DOOR OPENED. to be ruled by a king ; their oppressors were ruled by kings and seemed to be more success- ful, so trie people determined to have a king over them. Samuel anointed Saul, the son of Kish of the tribe of Benjamin, their first king, B. C.j iooi. For the last twenty-five years previous the worship of the true God had been neglected and the worship of Satan engaged in by the people of Israel worshiping the gods of the country around them. This spiritual war between God and Satan had been fierce, almost to the destruction of the worship of the true God. If I were describing this fierce contest I should say that God's people were few }^et powerful, able to conquer without regard to numbers, while on the other hand Sa- tan's hosts were powerful only by their great number ; they are both in the field, both armies proud, determined, brave, ready for anything and afraid of nothing First, with glittering swords uplifted, they rush to slaughter amid the clash of spears, the one repulsed and then the other, one rank depleted then another, till night should put an end to the busy tramp of feet over the thousands of the slain. Such scenes were common when men learned war in Palestine. This outward form of war was the battle of the gods made visible. At this time God was not with his people in power be- cause they had surrendered and were in the SATAN AT WORK. I 29 camp of Satan worshiping the gods of those people with whom they were associated. They felt that they were sinners, outcasts, rebels against the God of their Fathers. The war be- tween conflicting principles often goes on with- out any outward display of animosity. The in- fluences that trouble mankind are often given no particular attention. It seems that with this new government there came a change in the af- fairs of this people. They put away their idols and worshiped the true God. In the course of time the son of Jesse came into the ranks of the army of Saul who were fighting the Philistines. The giant Goliath came out front every day from the Philistian ranks to challenge any man in Saul's army to fight with him. So David came into the camp of Israel, and although he had been at home at- tending the flocks, and besides, only a boy of eighteen years, he went down in the valley to fight the giant who was nine and a half feet tall. When the giant saw him coming, he said that he would give David to the fowls of the air for food ; but David told him he came in the name of the Lord and would take away his head, and so he did, too. David carried the giant's head into Jerusalem and the people praised him more than they did Saul. An evil spirit entered into Saul and he tried to kill David under the pre- tense that it was accidental, but afterward he 9 130 THK DOOR OPKNKD. gave him his daughter for a wife, provided he should kill one hundred Philistines. Glad of the opportunity to become famous in winning a wife, he did this at once. Saul's purpose was not to give his daughter in marriage to David, but to get him killed and out of his way ; so Saul hated him because the power of God was with him in everything he did. Saul fouud out that David sought the Lord through the Priests, so he sent and slew eighty-five of them, besides many women and children in the land of Nob where the Priests dwelt, but one escaped who came to David to tell -him all that Saul had done. Saul was king over Israel forty years, but David was secretly anointed king over Judah about five years before the tragical death of Saul, at which time he went up to Jerusalem and dispossessed the Jesubites of their city, for the Lord was with him and all Israel came to him. Then Satan came to him and provoked him to number the people. This proud king with his 1,500,000 soldiers went into the ways of evil on account of his great power. His enemy worked on him through his pride and the result of the evil was complete when the pestilence wrought by the hand of the destroying angel left 70,000 people in the cold embrace of death. The angel which David saw with drawn sword was over the city to destroy it, and David re- pented and turned to the Lord. SATAN AT WORK. Ill carrying out his obligation to the God of Heaven he established the service of the Lord according to all the law of Moses, the servant of God. The next king, David's son Solomon, reigned in his stead and built the Temple in Je- rusalem. These eighty years of David and Sol- omon were times of refreshing, abundance and prosperity ; so much so that they stand like an Oasis in a desert of rebellion and sin. All the kings that followed them down to Hezekiah led the people by the hand of evil an- gels to destroy the knowledge of God in the earth. Four hundred years of infamy and crime and debauchery in which Satan delights his soul, brings us in sight of the wicked Jezebel, wife of King Ahab. She had 450 prophets of Baal and as many priests to minister. Her work was that of establishing Idolatry in Samaria and de- stroying the Prophets of the Lord. Elijah came to their rescue with a trial on Mt. Carmel to see whether the Lord or Baal be God ; for he said, " If the Lord be God, follow him ; but if Baal be God, then follow him, and the God that an- swereth by fire, let him be God." At this time the king took the prophets of Baal and slew r them. It is strange to us as we look at this history, the Lord on the one hand has the schools of the Prophets, and Satan has his, each destroying the other. This strife between these two opposing 132 THE DOOR OPENED. spirits has come before us so plainly at different times that we are able to see which of them has. gained a victory. When Nebuchadnezar came up against Jeru- salem and burned the city and carried the vessels of the house of the Lord to Babylon, and slew the people, except a few which he took prisoners, it would seem like an unequal struggle. At one time Solomon was the king of all men, but now the power is in the hand of the king of Babylon. Daniel said to Nebuchadnezar " Thou art that head of gold." Satan delights in destroying God's people, not alone to destroy the good they do, but to destroy every individual, soul and body ; every evil influence that the angels of Satan have at their command are set to work upon every highway of the soul. The angels of Satan are exhibited as a host of pernicious in- dividuals known to God's people as the children of the Devil. They begin their work on the lit- tle children by teaching the child that it is free to do as it pleases, stirring the feeling that it is a detestable thing to be controlled or ruled by the parent or any one else. You will see Satan's influence in the child that is disobedient ; then again when obedience is demanded and enforced they fret under the yoke of parental authority. Another evil angel shows itself in what we call temper, develops more and more continually, until hatred and fierce anger stirs up the senti- SATAN AT WORK 1 33 ment of resentment and cruelty. The child is now ready to fight. Following this comes an- other evil angel teaching the child to be deceit- ful and untruthful. Then another evil spirit called pride comes in to assert the independence of the individual, which develops into a kind of contorted self-respect which adds dignity to the actions of the soul until it feels able to take care of itself. Then the sentiment of self-gratifica- tion comes up and proposes to supply the indi- vidual with all its wants. This is a hard thing to do at all times since these wants generally imply the cost of more or less labor on the part of the individual. Then this labor is more or less distasteful and indolence cuts off the supply of the things necessary for the gratification of the evil propensities. Then the evil spirit sug- gests the idea of getting what we want without price from those who have them ; but in order to do this it is necessary to get them without their knowledge, that is, by theft. Any inter- ference of others to prevent this is not pleasant, but there must be a way which seems to be right to get these things without its being considered theft. So the individual becomes a speculator in a business where the amount of profit may not be known and where deception, advantage and robbery take the name of business tact. This business tact takes to itself the glory of helping others. While it helps the speculator a 134 THE DOOR OPENED. great deal, it helps the needy a little, possibly, or perhaps not any, and the speculator puts the whole profit in his own pocket, betraying those who confided in his honesty by telling them that his speculation turned against him and therefore he is at a great loss. There is no law that reaches this kind of robbery, except the man becomes a common thief like men who place mortgages on household goods of widows, until they have their very life blood drawn out drop by drop. This is the exact course of soul development when the evil agencies lead the way, but it is not often the case that they have complete con- trol, for God has set his oivn sentinel in every soul to speak out his condemnation as often as violated law demands, but very often so very many evil influences are brought to bear upon the formation of character that they lead thesoul in the paths of evil more and more. Christ comes to the rescue of many souls by casting out Dev- ils, and that soul walks evermore in the highway of holiness led by the spirit of God. This road of which I speak is the journey of life from the cradle to the grave. At the foot of the road on both sides the light of Heaven penetrates the surrounding gloom into which we can not enter without endangering our soul, but along the phantom shades of this dark for- est the spirits peep and mutter. Some are more SATAN AT WORK. 1 35 bold than others and are called " familiar spir- its, witches, magicians and astrologers." They are all prepared to lead yon into the mysteries of the unknown world. They tell you that it is not dark back in the woods when you leave the streak of light, and there are many beauti- ful shades behind the curtain of the night. Be- tween the highway and the forest along the way, there are pictures of things of earth and Heaven. Then in front of these on both sides, are many enticements to evil. The saloon is one place that skirts the highway of nearly every life and there is no safety to the one who stops to admire the form of the fallen angels. The struggle of life goes on between Christ and Satan, and the spirit of God draws right on, up to the prize at the end of the way, so that if the soul is loosed from God for one moment the evil spirits draw him back and show him all the sights along the way, and unless some strong angel takes hold on the individual and keep him in the way, he will go in the dark and explore the unknown after he is given the key by the astrologers and be lost forever. The wise king, Solomon, went out in the woods and built temples for the worship of the Idols of the nations around Jerusalem. Solo- mon, the wise king, turned to listen to the voice of evil angels which enticed him away from the service of the true God. He loved many strange 136 THE DOOR OPENED. women, together with, the daughter of Pharoah, women of the Moabites, Edomites, Zidonites and Hittites, 700 wives in all, and 300 concubines. These enticed him when he was an old man to go aside and worship Ash tore th, the goddess of the Zidonians, and Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. Then he built a high place, Chemosh, the abomination of Moab in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Moloch in the valley of Hinom. He and his strange wives burned incense and sacrificed unto these Idols. The result of Solomon's wickedness was far- reaching and disastrous to himself and those about him, for Jerusalem was as a Bride adorned with fine jewels without any virtue and without any shame. Jeremiah, the Prophet, says, "The Lion is come up out of his thicket and the de- stroyer of the Gentiles is on his way, he is gone forth from his place to make thy land desolate, and thy cities shall be laid waste, without an in- habitant ; the Prophets prophesy falsely and the Priests bear rule by their means. As a fountain casteth out her waters, so she casteth out her wickedness; violence and spoil is heard in her, for from the least of them even to the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness, and from the Prophet even unto the Priest, every one dealeth falsely." A condition like this in which depravity was so complete and outbroken furnished a feast for SATAN AT WORK. 1 37 the god of tli is world. The valley of Hinom resounded with the echoes of Hell when Moloch embraced the innocent babes, for his arms were a cradle of fire. The valley of Hinom became in time a city of the dead until there was no more room to bury there. The destroying agen- cies at last took hold on death and gave their houses to the flames. It will be seen from the foregoing that all people of whatever name or nation they might be were a religious people. The king, priest and prophet were in every land and there was no ne- cessity for any one to say , " Come let us go up to the house of the Lord," because in every nation the people depended on the gods for suscess and prosperity. If they succeeded in any enterprise of business or war the}' gave thanks to their gods because they believed that when they were suc- cessful the} T had his favor, while, on the other hand, if they suffered defeat, it was attributed to their wickedness. Thus they became their own accusers, not being under any other law than the law which experience teaches ; they became a law unto themselves. But with Israel this was not so, for whereas they knew the law of the Living God, their disobedience to that law rendered unto themselves a just recompense. iVs the Jews looked back over the abomina- tions that were practiced in Jerusalem, as they looked back on their own follies, when they saw 138 THE DOOR OPENED. the former glory of the House of God polluted with unholy things and their city given to de- struction, u then they wept when they remem- bered Zion." It was justice executed when they became captives in a strange land. They were like seed carried on the wings of the wind to a far country. From a spiritual point of view Sa- tan had taken them to his own home where they might rest secure from the ravages of war ; but it were impossible that God would suffer his holy ones to see affliction beyond what they might endure. The Psalmist says, " Whither shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence ; if I ascend into Heaven thou art there, if I make my bed in Hell, be- hold ! thou art there." In Babylon's fiery furnace cast, three chil- dren walked amidst the fiery flames unhurt. They sang their praises unto God, but they were not alone, for when the king looked in, he saw one like the Son of God. He called them out ; their garments did not even smell of smoke. Then Daniel prayed three times a day, against the king's decree. For this they cast him in the lion's den expecting him to be their food, but Daniel's God had stopped the lion's mouth so that his life was safe. This Babylon, where people worshiped every- thing but God was Satan's very throne. But after this trying ordeal was over Daniel took SATAN AT WORK. 1 39 command and was the means of his people being sent away to build Jerusalem again. The priests of Bel were slain with all their wives and chil- dren. Everything the)' worshiped was destroyed, and King Darius made a decree and wrote to all people, nations and languages that dwell in all the Earth, " that men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the Living God and steadfast forever, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed and his dominion shall be even unto the end" The king of Persia gave the Jews their lib- erty and an abundance of gold and all the vessels of the house of the Lord which Nebuchadnezer, king of Babylon, had carried away from the house of God. He also levied a tax for the sup- port of the sacrifices and other expenses for the worship of God in Jerusalem. It is my purpose to show as we go along, the manner of Satan's work, and I do not see any- where a more exact description of his w 7 ork than that exhibited when the Jews undertook to re- build their city and the house of the Lord. Zecariah, the Prophet, saw in a vision Joshua, the High Priest, standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him (the Lord.) The Priesthood had been polluted in the worship of idols. The an- gel of the Lord said to those that stood before him, " Take away the filthy garments from him, 140 THE DOOR OPENED. behold ! I will clothe thee with a change of rai- ment. I have cansed thine iniquit}^ to pass from thee, behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua, npon one stone shall be seven eyes." This stone is Christ, and the seven eyes are the seven churches of Asia which were afterward es- tablished by Paul. Another figure used to rep- resent Christ and his peeple ; as a golden candle- stick, with a bowl upon the top of it and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps which are on the top thereof, and the two Olive trees by it, the one on the right hand and the other on the left. These two Olive trees supply the oil for the lamps. Two annointed ones, two witnesses — THE WORD OF GOD AND THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. About the time that the Jews were going up to build Jerusalem, the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin came up and said, " let us build with you for Ave seek your God as ye do." The Jews told them that they should have nothing to do with the house of our God; so they troubled them in building and hired counselors against them to frustrate their purposes all the time Cyrus was king of Persia, and sent letters to Ar- taxerzes, the king, saying, " the Jews that came SATAN AT WORK. 141 up from thee to us are come unto Jerusalem building the rebellious and bad city and have set the walls thereof and joined the foundations. Be it known now unto the king, that if the city be builded and the walls set up again, then will they not pay toll, tribute and custom, and so thou shalt endanger the revenue of the king, now because we have maintenance from the king's palace and it is not meet for us to see the king dishonored, therefore we have certified the king that a search may be made in the book of the records of thy fathers, so shalt thou find in the book of the records and know that this is a rebellious city and hurtful unto kings and provinces and that they have moved sedition within the same of old time. We certify the king that if this city be builded again, and the walls thereof set up, by this means thou shalt have no portion on this side of the river." The king answered his officers in Samaria and com- manded them to stop the work till they should get another commandment. It was several years before everything was completed, but the king of Persia and Babylon both protected them by a decree " that none should hinder them under the penalty of being hung." In the twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerzes, son of Cyrus, king of Persia, Nehe- miah, a cup-bearer unto the king, was made gov- ernor in Judea, and received permission to build 142 THE DOOR OPENED. the gates and finish the wall of Jerusalem. Their enemies from Samaria again came np against them, and they built the wall in troublous times. Every man worked under guards, and they on the Avail with a sword at each one's side in one hand and a trowel in the other hand. Here begins the famous seventy weeks till the passion of Mesiah spoken by Daniel the Prophet. The seventy weeks, or four hundred and ninety years that follow, bring us to the establishment of the kingdom of Christ, where we closed the preceding chapter. During these seventy weeks of Daniel's vis- ion the four winds of heaven have strewn upon the great sea of (humanity) Greece, Rome, Egypt and Western Asia have been rocked in the cradle of the deep. Thrones have crumbled into dust ; Babylon has fallen and become the haunt of the fowls of heaven. The Jewish dis- pensation has only a reflected light of the Son of Righteousness, " the sun with the moon under her feet." The fourth beast of Daniel has passed through and overthrown and trodden down the Empires of the earth, and the king of the North hath planted his tabernacle between the seas in his glorious, holy mountain and Rome rules the world. Such was the situation when the angels sang their song to the shepherds in the night. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in SATAN AT WORK. 1 43 the days of Herod, the king, behold ! there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem, saying, " Where is he that is born king of the Jews, for we have seen his star in the East and are come to worship him." At this Herod was greatly troubled, so he called all the chief Priests and Scribes to him to inquire where Christ should be born. They told him in Bethlehem of Judea. Then Herod called the wise men and said to them, "go and seek the young child, and when ye have found him, come again and tell me, that I may go and worship him also." . Joseph being warned in a dream that Herod sought the young child's life, rose up and took the child and Mary, its mother, and went into Egypt where he remained until after the death of that king. When Herod saw that those he sent to find Jesus did not return, he was angry and sent forth and slew all the children in his kingdom from two years old and under in order that he might kill Christ. Herod was king in Judea, which at that time was a part of the Roman Empire, and Herod was a Roman. His Satanic designs toward Christ were frustrated however, and the life of the Holy One of God was safe until his work on Earth were done. John, the Revelator, in the twelfth chapter, says : " And there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun (Christ) and the moon (Jews) under her 144 THE DOOR OPENED. feet and upon her head a crown of twelve stars (apostles.) And there appeared another wonder in heaven, and behold ! a great, red Dragon hav- ing seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns upon his head. The Dragon persecuted the woman that brought forth the man-child, and she fled from the face of the serpent into the wilderness (Egypt), where she remained three years and six months, " and the Dragon made war with the remnant of her seed which have the testimony of Jesus Christ." This means the infants which Herod slaughtered. In the same chapter the Dragon is called the Devil and Sa- tan, which was cast out of Heaven when all his angels were cast out with him. Satan had great wrath when God was revealed in the flesh be- cause he felt the throne of his empire trem- bling in the mighty conflict between himself and Christ. His angels were gathered from the four corners of the earth to overthrow the power of Heaven. These entered into every man in Judea and Jerusalem who might be of any aid in deciding the greatest battle of the Ages : King, Priest, Sanhedrin,* Soldier, Pharisee and Saducee. His fierce anger burned the flesh of the Leper, convulsed the Epileptic and chained the Maniac in the dwellings of the dead. Satan boldly approached the Son of God to ask him to surrender. His conditions of peace were like the following: " The domin- SATAN AT WORK. 1 45 ion of this world is in my hand, I have the treasures of the earth at my command ; I offer men the gratification of all hnman desires, I give them all the pleasures of this world, I enable them to possess to the fullest extent of their wish the good that others enjoy. If you will fall down and worship me I will bestow all these upon thee." Then Jesus said, " Get thee behind me, Satan, it is written thou shalt worship the Lord, thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." But Satan knew that Jesus had taken no food for forty days, so he said, " If thou be the Son of God command that these stones be made bread ;" Jesus said, " It is writ- ten that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God." Then he took Jesus to a high part of the wall, which inclosed the Tem- ple, saying, " Cast thyself down, for it is written ' He hath given his angels charge over thee, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone/ " Jesus re- plied, " Thou shalt not tempt the Lord, thy God." Satan left him here, and went away very much disappointed in Jesus. After this he w^ent about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he might devour. John the Baptist was cast into prison for re- proving Herod, the Tetrarch of Gallilee, for his evil ways ; and Jesus went into his own native Nazareth and preached in the synagogue, but the evil spirits drove him out of the place ; then 10 246 THE DOOR OPENED. he came to Capernaum. Now there was a man in the synagogue having the spirit of an unclean devil, and he cried with a loud voice, saying, " Let us alone thou Jesus of Nazareth, I know thee, who thou art, the Holy One of God ;" but Jesus rebuked him, saying, " Hold thy peace and come out of him, and when the Devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him. The testimony before us says, the Devil came out of many, saying, " Thou art the Son of God." At another time there was a maniac in the tombs which cried with the voice of many Devils, saying, " Our name is Legion " and beg- ging him not to destroy them, but to let them depart and enter into a herd of swine which were feeding on the hill, and so he let them go into the swine and they ran down a steep place and perished in the sea. The Devils then found some other receptacle, but I cite this circum- stance to show that when Christ so chose, the Devils obeyed. (It is not even in the power of God to annihilate an evil angel). When the wrath of Satan had stirred up the people, the time came that Satan entered into Judas and he came out to the place where Jesus was praying in the Mount of Olives and kissed Jesus, so that the mob with swords and staves would take him to give him a mock trial, which they did. They took him to Pontius Pilate, but he said to the Priests and the people, " I find no SATAN AT WORK. 1 47 fault in him," and sent Him to Herod the Tet- rarch of Galilee (who was in Jerusalem at this time.) At once the chief Priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused him, and Herod and his men of war set him at naught and mocked him and arrayed him in a gorgeous wrobe and sent him to Pilate again, who tried to pacify the people ; but it was useless for him to oppose them, so he let them have their way and they took him and crucified him ; but he arose from the dead, and appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven Devils. The work of Satan thus exhibited in human form has left the world a history of his diaboli- cal work, nature and disposition. The mean, sensual, devilish contortions of mind and mat- ter have brought to pass the promise of God to Adam in Eden : " The seed of a woman shall bruise the Serpent's head and the Serpent shall bruise His heel." CHAPTER V. THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. The threshing-floor of Oman, the Jesubite, prefigures the history of mankind from one end to the other, Time and Eternity, life and death, peace and war, wheat and chaff, sin and righteousness, Hell and Heaven, God and Satan, penitance and praise. This floor is the stage of human existence. Here the powers of Earth and Heaven flail out the life time of man. Here the four winds of heaven separate the reighteous from the wicked ; here the perfume of praise goes up to God ; here the fire comes down from Heaven in sight of men, and the angel of death stands over it with drawn sword, with feet spanning Time and Eternity, proclaiming the redemption of man from the flames of Eternal torment, whose smoke goes up forever and ever. The grain of corn shall shake the mountains and the son of righteousness shall give light to the city. From the house-tops of her holy moun- tain the sounding trump shall speak in thunder tones from Heaven till earth's remotest nations hear the mighty word of God. Beside her stand 148 THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 1 49 the two olive trees which feed the flame of Di- vine life ; before her stand the two witnesses of God to tell the wondrous story of his undying love ; around her walls the seven spirits sing sal- vation full and free. Behold ! the King cometh with ten thousand of his saints and the white horse of Heaven runs over the way of the wicked and grindeth them to powder, while the East wind carries them out of sight ; by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed till the place that knew them once shall know them no more forever. Behold! he cometh, and they cast their crowns before him, for the bells on the horses are holiness unto the Lord, and he is clothed in a vesture dipped in blood and on his vesture and on his thigh a new name written, " King of Kings and Lord of Lords ;" and his name shall be called "The Word of God, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and to whose dominion there shall be no end." John, the Revelator, says: "And there ap- peared a great wonder in heaven ; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars." The woman is the visible church of Christ; Her clothing is Light: "Ye are the light of the world." Christ is the sun of righteousness; the visible church is the embodiment of the Living Christ (the spirit which dwelleth in 150 THE DOOR OPENED. them.) The twelve stars are the twelve Apos- tles, whose mission it was to revolve around the Snn (of Righteousness) to reflect his light to every nation of the Earth. This is a beauti- ful figure ; if we look at the natural heavens when the sun is set and night comes on, we can not see the sun, and the darkness would be total were it not for the moon and the stars, which are in such a position to the sun that he shines upon them, and makes of them smaller suns, which give us light in the night, so that we can find our way. When Christ was upon the earth there was in- tense light, but when he left the earth, instead of leaving men to grope around in the dark, he set his stars in the heavens (kingdom of Heaven) (the Apostles) to give light unto mankind. The moon under her feet represents the Mosaic dis- pensation, which did not give a clear light of it- self because it was not accompanied by the Word of God, bearing the glad tidings of salvation. This figure which is like the natural heavens has also another meaning. On moonlight nights it is much lighter than it is at other times, so that we have every degree of light from star- light to full moon ; so God has ordered for beauty and refreshing seasons of greater light as if to give us a foretaste of Heaven. This greater light shines at all times, but while its light is increasing in one place it is decreasing THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 151 in another place, for the heart of man is not in a condition to endure this light at all times. God's government proceeds regularly, according as he hath decreed, and with regard to what we call a spirit of revival ; these come at their proper time, God's time, a time appointed. We are told to pray without ceasing, but to " wait on the Lord," earnestly desiring, persevering, continuing steadfast, hoping, looking for the promise, for " in due time we shall reap if we faint not." These visitations of great light come regularly so that there is no chance about it. The natural heavens are a pattern of these things. "The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork, day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge," but sin obscures our vis- ion ; at times our eyes are blinded so that we do not see and our ears are closed so that we will not hear. The Jews would not listen to the Prophets, so we, stop our ears with iniquity so that we do not understand the voice of the spirit under these circumstances. These great lights come and go and we know it not. The Christian who never sees these rays of light is in a very dark condition, and the church that does not have these seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord is certainly in a very sad plight. They are like the foolish virgins who had no oil in 152 THE DOOR OPENED. their lamps when the bridegroom came. The two olive trees (the word and the spirit) stand before the whole earth to feed the flame of the light of the world, bnt if the light is gone out there is no way left but to fill the lamp from the tree of life (Christ) which fills his two golden bowls with the oil of Divine grace. The word of God and the spirit of God stand side by side and witness in all the earth that " in Him is light and in Him no darkness at all." When your lamps are full the fire will come down from heaven and give you light that you may shine in a dark place. The kingdom of Heaven is the kingdom of Christ on earth which began in Je- rusalem when the Holy Ghost stood on every man in cloven tongues of living light, as a crown of fire coming out of the heads of men. The Apostles were commanded to u go into all the w T orld and preach the gospel to every crea- ture." Christ gave us a good many likenesses of the kingdom of Heaven in parables, because it was necessary to compare spiritual things with natural things in order that we might be given a knowledge of things necessary unto Eternal life. We will review these here so that we may learn the difference between Heaven and the kingdom of Heaven. I have been taught in the schools of the prophets all my life, but the teach- ers seem to have forgotten the weightier things THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 1 53 of the law. To remedy this defect as far as possible, let us examine the Scriptures and see if we can find out the object, working and result of the administration of the kingdom of Grace. In those days came John the Baptist, saying, " Repent ye, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Then came Jesus, and spake: " Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his reighteous- ness ;" " Enter ye in at the straignt gate" and " beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are raven- ing wolves." " By their fruits ye shall know them. A good tree can not bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." But the people did not understand what the kingdom of Heaven was like, so he spoke in a parable, saying, " Behold a sower went forth to sow, and when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside and the fowls came and devoured them up. Some fell upon stony places where there was not much earth and forthwith they sprang up because they had no deepness of earth, and when the sun was up they were scorched and because they had no root they withered away ; and some fell among thorns and the thorns sprung up and choked them ; but others fell in- to good ground and brought forth fruit, some a hundred, some sixty and some thirty-fold. When the word of the Lord is spoken to people who do not understand, they are not thoroughly con- 154 THE DOOR OPENED. vinced of its truth and trie evil influences of the world devours it, and it does them no good. Then there are people that are physically incapable of deep conviction. They like to hear, but are not influenced by what they hear. Then there is another class that would receive the word, but they have done evil so long that their evil natures are hard to overcome. And, again, there are people that hear the word, obey its commands and yield fruit as they have oppor- tunity. The first duty then of those that enter the kingdom of Christ is to sow the seed, preach the gospel to every creature, and when they do this the kingdom is like a net that is cast into the sea, which, when it was full, they drew it to shore and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away, so shall it be in the end of the world, the angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from the just. Then, again, the the kingdom of heaven is like a certain man that planted a vineyard and let it forth to hus- bandmen and went into a far country for a long time. And again the kingdom of heaven is like ten virgins, and five were wise and five were foolish, and at midnight there was a cry, " Be- hold, the Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him !" but the foolish virgins had no oil in their lamps, so when they went to buy, the Bridegroom came, and they that were ready went in with him THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 155. and the door was shut , so shall it be in the end of the world ; two shall be grinding at the mill, the- one shall be taken and the other left. *' Watch ye, therefore, and pray that ye may be able to stand when the Son of Man cometh " Jerusalem is located very near the center of the population of the globe. The borders of the Mediterranean Sea have been peopled from the remotest time. Within a radius of three hundred miles all the great empires of the Eastern Continent have existed. Europe, Asia and Africa enclose the Great Sea ; on its eastern bank is the memorable land which God gave by promise to the children of Abraham in their generations ; on the north the mountain of Italy reaches its arm far out into the sea ; above the Holy Land and east of Rome is Antioch, where the disciples of Christ were first called Chris- tians. It is no wonder then that Jerusalem is called the city of the King. On this sacred, height the New Jerusalem let down from Heaven will rest by and by. The kingdom of Heaven was set up here at a time when the Roman Em- pire held dominion over nearly all the people of the Earth. The government of the world was ruled by Caesar. The Empire was divided into ten kingdoms, but was ruled by only seven kings, for that little horn that Daniel mentions had plucked up three of the kingdoms. This was the condition of things described by John. I56 THE DOOR OPENED. the Apostle, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Jndea. The Roman Government from its earliest history has been a government administered through the voice of the Priesthood. It maybe that they patterned after the Jewish nation, but of this I am not sure. The Jewish people were governed by priests and the Sanhedrim (seventy Elders.) The law of Moses seems to have made a foundation of law for the government of all nations. The early church of Rome was a mix- ture of all religions and creeds. The govern- ment, while recognizing Jesus as a great Prophet, did not object to the worship of any god that had been invented by men. Great liberty was given to the subjects of Rome until the time came when they desired a universal religious service. This does not seem to have affected any but the Jews, who were greatly persecuted 150 years B. C. ; but at the time of Christ, aside from the local disturbance occasioned by his birth, the Empire gave very little heed to this new sect. The Jews went into possession of their land by the slaughter of millions, and conse- quently they were hated alike by all the Gen- tile world. For their backsliding they were given in bondage to the nations around them time and again. They had rebuilt Jerusalem under cover of arms and were a people who be- lieved that only a few of the inhabitants of the THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 1 57 Earth had the favor of God, and that they were that particular few, so that they were persecuted and hated by all the people around them. As subjects of the Roman Empire they were dealt with as a nation within an Empire. While all the other religious sects were ruled alike and all allowed to worship as they pleased as long as they paid tribute to Caesar. The Jews refused to pay this tribute and consequently were finally ruined. The Jews in consequence of all their af- flictions expected Christ to be their king and at their head go out in mighty conflict against their enemies, and once again restore the nation to its former glory and power, the terror of all the earth. They read the Prophets in this light until their selfishness and inborn cruelty became so great that Christ likened them to " whitened sepulchers, full of dead men's bones and all un- cleanness. They didn't seem to rise to the Rev- elation of the Age where God would reveal him- self by the gift of his Son to shed his blood for the sin of many. The people, or nation, or indi- vidual, that is not willing to share their bless- ings with others are not worthy to receive any good from the hand of a kind Heavenly Father. They had Priests that were self-constituted, and yet of the order of the sons of Levi and the house of David, so that they knew exactly all the minute circumstances of the birth, character and mission of Christ and his forerunner John I58 THE DOOR OPENED. the Baptist, so that when Herod called the chief Priests and the Elders, they told him that the king of the Jews was to be born in Bethlehem of Jndea. I don't know whether they told him any of their private views or not, bnt at any rate they satisfied him that this new king of the Jews wonld take his kingdom from him, because immediately after his conference with them his cruel nature suggested the idea of slaying all the children in his kingdom in order to defeat the power that in the end should overthrow his kingdom. Christ came not as a temporal, but as a spir- itual king, to exercise dominion in the hearts of men, and instead of having great wealth and power and pride, he was just the reverse. He came not to bring peace, but a sword ; which meant the conflict of principles between the powers of light and the powers of darkness, be- tween Christ and Satan. The burnished pride and hypocrisy of the Pharisees was brought low by the sword of his words of condemnation. They wanted him out of the way, but didn't want to violate one of the laws of Moses, so they pretended to be friends of Rome by saying, when asked if Christ were the king of the Jews, " We know no king but Caesar." They were al- lowed to have Christ crucified according to their wish. The powers of Hell were let loose to carry out the plan necessary for the salvation of THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 1 59 men out of every tribe and tongue and nation and people. Such, was the situation of things and such was the state of men's minds when the kingdom of Heaven began its struggle against the powers of darkness. You will say at once that this time was one that certainly could not be considered as a time fully ripe for such a movement, or that the w r orld demanded a change in religious affairs ; but to ease the mind of the reader on the subject, Christ said, " My kingdom is not of this world." The voice that spake from Heaven at the baptism in Jordan, said : " This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased ;" and John the Baptist, said: " Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world." This was all the introduction Jesus needed to recommend him to the sinner. His ministry and his authority and power place before the world the evidence of his Divinity. His Apos- tles were given power over the world, the flesh and the Devil, so that even unclean spirits were obedient unto them. The power of God was theirs to use in the interest of the kingdom of Heaven. This kingdom received into its com- munion more than twenty thousand souls within a few days of their first meeting. Then, the Holy Ghost came down on about three thousand and filled their souls with joy and peace in be- lieving that Jesus Christ came to save sinners. There were gathered together on that memor- l6o THE DOOR OPENED. able occasion people out of every tribe and na- tion and tongue. We can never overestimate the power of Pentecost when we remember that each one born into the kingdom of grace would carry the tid- ings home of Jesus and his love. The people sold their possessions and had all things in com- mon, which was distributed to every one as each had need. Things were strange and new to them and they were so happy they may perhaps have nearly forgotten the injunction of their Master. " Go ye into all the world and preach the Gos- to every creature/' until fear of their personal safety compelled them to seek quarters more re- mote from Jerusalem. Here Satan stirred up the wicked Jews to put a stop to the preaching that Christ died to save sinners and rose again for their justification. Although the Jews were instrumental in bringing about the death of Je- sus, they didn't like to hear Peter say, " that they had taken and with cruel hands had slain Jesus," for they said, "we must stop these men for they have filled all Jerusalem with their doc- trine and intend to bring this man's blood upon us." So they scourged them and commanded them not to teach any more in this name; but when they put some of the disciples in prison and an angel let them out and commanded them to go stand in the Temple and speak all the words of this life, they were bold to preach THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. l6l Christ and him crucified, and gloried in the privilege of being scourged and cast into prison for the sake of Christ. When Stephen preached his greatest and last sermon, giving a complete history of how the Jews had treated God and rebelled against him while they were given charge of the Law and were led by the ministration of angels and how they killed the Prophets and slew the Son of God who rose again to their condemnation, but for the justification of many, they stoned Stephen till he gave up the ghost. When he was unable to stand up any longer he saw Heaven and cried, " I see Heaven opened and Christ sitting at the right hand of God on the throne of Heaven," and he died commending the blessing of God on them, and praying " Lay not this sin to their charge." The Saducees did this because he preached the doctrine of the Resurrection which they did not believe in, but Stephen's dying testimony to them and to us is that " He ever liveth to make intercession for us, and that he is set down on the throne of the Majesty on high." This death of the first Chris- tian martyr was sufficient to scatter the disci- ples (except the Apostles) to all the regions round about and they went everywhere preach- ing the word. Satan stirred up great persecution against the disciples, and Saul went from house to house ii 1 62 THE DOOR OPENED. dragging men and women to prison. Then he went to the High Priest and desired of him let- ters to the officers of the synagogue of Damas- cus, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, that he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. As he came near Da- mascus, suddenly there shone round about him a light from Heaven, and he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him, " Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" and he said, " Who art thou, Lord?" and the voice replied, " I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest !" Then he, trembling and astonished, said : " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" and the Lord said : " Arise and go into the city, and it will be told thee what thou must do." The men that were with him heard the voice and stood speechless. When Saul arose from the ground he was blind and the men that were with him led him, and he was in Damascus three days without sight, neither did he eat nor drink. Then Ananias, a disciple who was at Damascus, had a vision in which the Lord told him to go to the house of Judas, in the street that is called Straight, and inquire for one called Saul of Tarsus, " for behold he pray- eth, and hath seen in a vision a man named An- anias, coming in and putting his hands on him that he might receive his sight. Ananias, put- ting his hands on him, said: " Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 1 63 way as thou earnest, hath sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost. Then the scales fell off his eyes and he was baptized, and when he received meat and was strengthened he went into the syna- gogue and preached that Christ is the Son of God. The Jews at Damascus knew all about how Saul had persecuted the believers, so when they learned that Christ had met him in the way and cast the Devils out of him to make him a chosen vessel to carry the glad tidings of salvation to the Gentiles, they made up their minds to kill kill him. Saul — Paul realized the danger and didn't attempt to go out of the gates of the city, for they watched for him day and night to kill him, so the disciples took him by night and let him down over the wall in a basket and he came to Jerusalem and joined the Apostles and spake boldly against the Grecians till they sought to kill him ; so the Apostles brought him down to Cesarea and sent him forth to Tarsus. Saul had a curious experience ; he made havoc in the church at Jerusalem and then went to the out- skirts of the land, breathing out threatenings and slaughter. He was full of the Devil or he would have let other people's affairs alone ; but a time came when God took him in hand and put a stop to his mad career to let him know that hereafter his actions must be of a 164 the: door opened. very different character. Now, when the disci- ples were scattered abont on account of the death of Stephen, they went as far as Antioch preaching Christ to the Grecians, and great numbers believed. When the tidings came to the church at Jerusalem they sent Barnabas to see about it, because the Apostles didn't think that Christ came to save anybody but the Jews. When Barnabas, who was a Christian, came to Antioch, he was glad and went to work to help them, and many people believed; so instead of going back to Jerusalem, he went to Tarsus to get Paul, and they came back to Antioch and they labored there for a whole year and taught many people. During that year some prophets came to Antioch and prophesied a famine. Then the people took up a collection and all the dis- ciples gave according to their ability, and they sent it by Paul and Barnabas to the church at Jerusalem. About this time Herod stretched forth his hand to vex certain of the Church and killed James, the brother of John, wkh the sword ; then he proceded to take Peter also, and he had put him in prison and set soldiers to watch, intending to bring him forth to the peo- ple after Easter. But the Church was praying for him all the time and the Lord sent an angel and took him out of prison and he came again to his friends, and they had great joy because God had answered their prayer to save Peter's life. THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 1 65 Peter went down to Cesarea and took up his abode there. About this time the people of Tyre and Si- don came up to make peace with Herod, for he was much displeased with them. When he stood up to speak to them, they all cried with one ac- cord, "It is the voice of God." Herod gloried in the saying instead of giving the glory to God, so an angel smote him for this and he was eaten of worms and died. Paul, Barnabas and Mark went back to An- tioch to the Church. This church was a work- ing Church. Here the disciples were first called Christians. The first missionary journey of Paul, Barnabas and John, whose surname was Mark, began at Antioch. Paul was an Apostle to the Gentiles. His Epistles to the dif- ferent churches which are included in the New Testament scriptures offers us an idea of the magnitude of his work. His style is argumentative, logical and convincing. Paul was of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew edu- cated in his own city (Tarsus), a place greatly renowned for its schools of learning. He fin- ished his education at Jerusalem, a pupil of Gamaliel, a Doctor of the Law, was well versed in the Old Testament Scriptures, and was a man of great energy and deep conviction ; just such a character as was fit to combat all the false relig- ion, superstitions and philosophies of a heathen 1 66 THE DOOR OPENED. world. On him God wrote a new name, and sent him ont to preach Christ in all the borders of the Great Sea. His ministry continued from A. D. 36 to 63, when he became a prisoner of Rome, where he suffered martyrdom, but his words to-day are in the mouths of millions, who, like him can say, " I am not ashamed of the Gos- pel of Christ, for I am persuaded that it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." Beginning with the Christian era the Rev- elation was given for the rest of time to John, in the Isle of Patmos, A. D. 95. He says that the rest of the history of the world is contained in a book sealed with seven seals, and that Christ will open the seals one by one ; and he saw, when the Lamb had opened one of the seals, a white horse came forth and He that sat on him had a bow, and he went forth conquering and to conquer. " The horse is used figuratively to represent the flight of the Ages. Elisha who witnessed the ascension of the Prophet Elijah, saw a char- iot of fire, and he cried, " My Father ! My Father ! the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof." At the time of which Daniel speaks, saying, " He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week (seven years), but in the midst of the week shall Mesiah be cut off (cru- THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 1 67 cined.)" "The bells of the horses were holiness unto the Lord." The natural manner of travel- ing for man is upon horseback or in some wheeled vehicle drawn by the horse. The ar- mies of the Nations have found the use of the horse indispensable. The horse will be a com- panion of man for all time, so this figure will be understood by the people of every age in the cycles of time. White is the emblem of purity. The white wrobe is the righteousness of saints. The white horse upon which Christ went forth con- quering and to conquer is representative of the faith and purity of the life and character of the believers of the Apostolic times. There is no doubt that at least thirty per cent of the popu- lation of the then known world were believers in Christ. The Christian religion went into all the cities near the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, not excepting Egypt, France, Italy and Greece. History records the fact that the church of Antioch embraced more than a hun- dred thousand Christians. The population of the city at that time is placed at 200,000. In those early times when the head of a family ac- cepted Christ, the whole family believed also and were baptised. The church of Antioch took care of 3,000 widows and orphans. This church became a benevolent institution upon its organ- ization, for they sent aid to the church at Jeru- 168 THE DOOR OPENED. salem the first year of its existence when Paul preached for them. There was- a famine in the land at this time. The city of Rome opened her gates to Christianity ; people out of every na- tion went in and out continually, for her com- merce extended to all the world at this time. There were 7,000 Christians in Rome when the first knowledge of them and their Christ became known to the head authorities of the Empire which does not seem incredible among a popu- lation of 2,000,000. Babylon on the Euphrates, was once the re- ligious center of the world. Revelation de- scribes the historical condition of two cities whose relation to the world with regard to wealth, commerce and religion are just alike, and must come ineritably to the same end. The religious power of these two cities are of the same origin and must suffer the same revolution. The symbol of spirit power as used in the Scriptures represents the same power as it per- meates the minds of men at different periods of the world's history, so that while that power is still in existence, history repeats itself over and over again. Take Jerusalem for example ; the mountain where God chose to place his Name. There is no city in the long catalogue of hu- man congregations that has maintained a name throughout the generations amid such a variety of changing scenes of different degrees of afHic- THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 1 69 tion or prosperity. The place is co-eternal with Deity, and the spot where the Lord met David and where Solomon bnilt the Temple was over the threshing-floor of Oman, the Jesubite. Other cities bnild up, flourish, die out and are forgotten ; not so with the cities where the spir- itual powers of Light or Darkness have written their name. Spirit w r arfare can not annihilate spirit life, but they will be driven from one field to another till Satan is finally consigned to his eternal destiny. The fourth beast of Daniel's vision practiced and prospered in Babylon till the full- ness of time when Cyrus conquered the Chal- dean Empire. Then followed a revolution which utterly destroyed the seat of the beast, till it became the haunt of every wild beast, a place for bats and a place of thick darkness forever. When Satan was driven out of the country, Je- rusalem was rebuilt and prospered until the be- ginning of the Christian dispensation. Satan took up his abode in Pergamos of Lydda, a province of Asia Minor. In this wicked city the people worshiped a living serpent. From this throne Satan exerted his influence on the people of the surrounding nations. He sent his evil angels to Rome, and thence by Priests and Kings to operate on and in and by the people. You are reminded of Herod in Palestine who butchered the infants, his wife Marianne, with I70 THE DOOR OPENED. her two sons, Alexander and Aristobulus, and his mother. His son Antipaterwas pnt to death for conspiring to poison him, B. C. 4. A. D. 2 Herod died, having reigned thirty-seven years. Yon are also reminded that Herod Antipas caused John the Baptist to be beheaded. Herod Agrippa persecuted the Christians. After all the Apostles had suffered martyrdom but John, the beloved disciple, the same spirit entered into the authorities of Rome and destroyed Jerusalem A. D. 70. The Christians were given time to escape out of the city by the hand of the angel of God, but the awful slaughter that followed almost put an end to the rebellious Jews. The Jewish war began A. D. 66. The next year St. Peter and St. Paul were put to death. In 68 Nero was killed and in the year 70 Vespatian destroyed Jerusalem, Saturday, September 8th. In this war 1,100,000 Jews perished by famine and the sword and many were sold into slavery. Twenty-five years later John writes to the seven churches which are in Asia. He has a vision of the seven spirits of God in the earth. Whatever History may say of the work of individuals or people or churches, the seven churches of Asia stand be- fore God and are made the ministers of the Christian dispensation to all the Ages of the world. " What thou seest write in a book and send THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 171 it unto the seven churches — unto Ephesus and. unto Smyrna and unto Pergarnos and unt o Thy- atira and unto Sardis and unto Philadelphia and unto Laodicea." " And I turned to see the voice that spake with me, and being turned I saw seven golden candlesticks and in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks one like unto the Son of Man. His voice was as the sound of many waters (people) and out of his mouth came a two edged sword and in his right hand seven stars, and he spake and said : ■ I am He that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive forever more.' " The kingdom of Heaven is thus reviewed as it existed near the end of the first century, under the opening of the first seal, when the great army of Christ rode on the white horse of virgin purity. The time had come when God had fulfilled his promise to Abraham, saying, " Thy children shall be as the sands upon the sea-shore;" and Christ was alive in the hearts of " a great multitude which no man could number," and they spake with the voice of many waters, saying, " Honor and glory and power be unto the Lamb which sitteth upon the Throne for- ever and ever." I shall not attempt to disclose the history of these churches, for it is not necessary to the purpose of this work, which is intended to show the more important conflicts between Satan and 172 THE DOOR OPENED. Christ in the lives of men. The seven chnrches in Asia may, or may not have received the words of John's Revelation, bnt I think it very likely that they did. According to Milton, he wrote his Gospel in the year A. D. 97, while he appears to have written Revelation when he was an ex- ile in Patmos, A. D. 95 — Rev. i, 9. He is the most snblime of all the Evangelists and wrote in the spirit of prophecy. The exceedingly spiritual import of his Gospel bears as distinct marks of Inspiration as the language of Isaiah, where he delineates the life, character and influ- ence of the Lamb of God. The great school of Philo, in Egypt, the Philosophy of Greece and the Paganism of Rome were unable to compre- hend the unity of the Godhead. The combined Logic of eight centuries could not conceive of the word being made flesh. The first few verses of John's Gospel pulled the veil off the hu- manity of Jesus and revealed the second and the third persons of the adorable Trinity in distinct form of Divine Life. John's insight, under the impulse of Divinity, gave the world a knowl- edge of facts which the combined unsanctified Reason of Ages did not unfold. This grand source of divine authority sinks into insignificance when viewed in the Light of Revelation ; but when we look at the Age in which the example presents itself we re- member that there must be a great difference be- THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 1 73 tween unsanctified Reason and the Light of the Nineteenth Century. Whenever man is able to distinguish be- tween mind and spirit, we may be able to affirm with truth that Reason is a source of Divine authority. At present we must content ourselves to approach God in thehumau trinity of Church, Reason and Revelation. If the Jews could ap- proach God through the Law and the Priest- hood, it becomes our duty, living as we do in the sunlight of divine knowledge, to approach God in the lively habilaments of the whole ar- mor of God. We shall then be able to know for ourselves what is in store for God's Elect. To my mind the condition which John ascribes to the seven churches of Asia is intended to repre- sent the spiritual condition of the church of Christ throughout the Christian dispensation. The figure seven is a sacred number which had its origin in the division of the week into days and represents completeness. The bonds of Time are committed to seven or some multiple of seven. The sacred use of the figure is to de- note the beginning and the end of periods of time. As God began the work of creation on the first day and rested on the seventh day, we have the institution of the Sabbath. The sev- enth year has been set apart in husbandry as a. year of rest for the land. Seven times seven years brought around the year of Jubilee to the 174 THE DOOR OPENED. Jews. They believed that all time was divided into seven periods. The thousand years of Christ's reign on the Earth has been regarded by some as the seventh period of the division of Time, and that it would be the grand rest Sab- bath and Jubilee of the Ages. Hence the gen- eral idea of the Millenium. (Reader ! let me remind you that God fin- ished his work on the sixth day, also that there is no such thing in time as a Millenium, it be- longs in Eternity.) I have prefered to interpret Revelation in the light of the sacred number be- cause all the prophecies which have already been fulfilled as recorded by sacred, and profane His- tory as well, have divided time by the figure seven. I need offer no evidences to substantiate this fact to the enlightened mind of this Age. The seven churches then can have no reference to the Millenium, because the Christian dispen- sation will have ended when that happy state is ushered in by the purifying fire at the end of Time. There is recorded enough to satisfy us that the order in which the churches are named correspond with the seven divisions of Time. The Church of Ephesus is told that there will be those claiming to be Apostles which are not. This is evidence enough to convince us that the church of Ephesus represents the Apostolic Age under the opening of the first seal. It is not possible for us to tell when these periods of THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 1 75 different spiritual conditions begin or end, but there are some indications of the different peri- ods of time. In the year 330, Constantine re- moved the seat of his government frcm Rome to Constantinople, and thus the Empire of Rome stood upon the two legs of Nebuchadnezer's great Image. The legs were both of Iron. The Chris- tian religion was the religion of the whole Em- pire, but Rome was given up to the Bishop of Rome who became the corrector of Heretics in the year 538 by the work of Justinian, the rul- ing Emperor of the Romans. Thus Rome be- came the seat of Papacy, which held dominion 1,260 years to its overthrow in 1798, when the French army under Berthier abolished Papacy in Rome. The Jewish year contained only 360 days, five and one quarter days shorter than our year, which makes the time much shorter than we are liable to suppose in which Prophec} T is to be ful- filled. Our year is undoubtedly three years behind from the birth of Christ. The difference in the reckoning, according to our estimate, is twenty- five years which brings the fulfillment of Dan- iel's 1,260 years back to A. D. 1776, or to the Dec- laration of Independence of the U. S. A., the time when Papacy had its downfall begun, although the Beast was not wounded to the death till the longer number of years, counted by adding the five and one-quarter days to each Prophetic year 176 THE DOOR OPENED. (that is, 365^ days instead of. 360.) This Na- tion (U. S. A.) is the last Nation of Prophecy npon whose free soil will be repeated the experi- ences of the Old World, till the chronometer of Time rnns down and all the Earth behold her glorions King. It seems strange that persecution has had snch a wonderful influence in purifying the lives of Christians. Under the opening of the first seal we have wondered at the beauty of holiness in the Christians of the first three centuries, but when we remember the martyrdom of hundreds, we are compelled to notice the opening of the second seal, only seven years from the first, by the sword of the cruel Nero. During his reign Peter and Paul were put to death. Pagan Rome tried to exterminate the Christians and they were compelled to hide themselves in the caves of the Earth to preserve their lives. The con- flagration of Rome in the tenth year of Nero's reign was a signal of his cruel nature to offer the slaughter of the Christians to satisfy the clamor of the enraged populace. Some were nailed to crosses, others were sown up in the skins of wild beasts and exposed to the fury of savage dogs , others again, after being smeared over with combustible materials were tied to poles and set up and used as torches to illumin- ate the darkness of the night. These inhuman spectacles took place in Nero's garden. THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 1 77 The Romans didn't allow secret meetings of any kind, bnt persecution united the Chris- tians more closely to each other. Every one who could or would act as an informer, became a public benefactor, and every effort was used to find some imaginary charge to bring against them. At a time like this when every informer gained so much favor from the government, it was not difficult to convict on any kind of a charge. The Christians were given opportunity to burn incense to the gods of Rome, which they invariably refused to do, convicting themselves as being rebels against Rome. The immediate successors of Nero were very little better than himself. A great many Chris- tians were put in the mines and leading men were put to death in order to exterminate the sect ; but throughout the first three centuries of the Christian dispensation no torture could subdue and no temptation could seduce from virtue's narrow path, the followers of the Sa- vior. The red horse of the second seal has been an instrument in the hand of God by which he brings good out of evil, and I suppose the six- teenth century was a witness of more bloody scenes than those enacted in the second and third. I do not understand that the opening of one seal puts an end to what comes out of the one before it, nor that time of action or influence has anything to do with the seven divisions of 12 178 THE DOOR OPENED. the Christian dispensation, but rather that the seven seals contain the contents of the cup of human experience. The opening of the third seal under the figure of a black horse represents that long reign of darkness and despotism when the abomination that maketh desolate was set up in the dominion of Papacy from A. D. 538 to the Reformation of Luther. Through these ten centuries -ignorance, superstition and idolatry held universal sway over the minds of men. With the worship to saints in the sixth cen- tury and the worship of anything from a dead bone to a living beast upon a throne, no use- ful art or knowledge came to bless mankind w T ith its benefactions. The sublime Evangelist John has most accurately portrayed the Dark Ages through which the Nations of the earth has passed as a long night from sunlight to day- break again, the time for light, the time for knowledge coming when the fourth seal was opened under the symbol of a pale horse. The pale horse represents death (of the Papacy), fear of conflict, day dawn of Reformation. At this time there were very few who enjoyed the poAver and pride of intellectual manhood. The dangers and slaughter that preceeded the flight of the Christians to the shores of America will need more careful attention than I can give them here at this time to show that the pale horse represents the great fear felt at the THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 1 79 time of those persecutions in which the red sword of the second seal laid thousands on the shore of the confines of death. The opening of the fifth seal includes a period of Prophecy reaching from the time when it was determined to throw off the British yoke and be Free America to the overthrow of Roman Power in 1799. Then follows forty-five hopeful, prayerful years to a state of blessedness when the knowl- edge (of God) was greatly increased — 1844. Eefore entering upon the scenes which issue out of the sixth seal we will go back and renew the several spiritual conditions of mankind which the different churches represent. The time of the opening of the seals does not mark the beginning nor the end of the different grades of spiritual purity and power. The second seal was opened for the purpose of distributing the disciples to the different cities of the Roman world. When Stephen was stoned to death the disciples left Jerusalem and virtually secreted themselves from their enemies, and the effect, was the preaching of the gospel to the people and nations and tongues. The Apostles themselves were hidebound to the extent that they believed in common with the Jews that the gift of God was to the Jews only, when the facts are that salvation is to the ends of the earth. Paul was an Apostle to the Gentiles, the first missionary sent out from the l8o THE DOOR OPENED. church at Antioch, but the fear of death was the cause of the effect which it produced. Again, in the opening of the fourth seal, the persecution which came to Luther and his followers in the Reformation had the effect of carrying the Gos- pel to America. When Columbus talked about the possibility of the ocean having a shore on the other side, the sages of the Old World laughed him to scorn, but in the course of time America became an Asylum for men where they might serve God according to the dictates of their own conscience. The persecutors would not follow them over the vast unknown sea, and there they were safe from the destroyer. If we remember that there was no communi- cation between the Eastern and Western Hem- ispheres we will know that there was perfect safety in flight. I have made this seal operative till the time when the people of America con- cluded to assert their independence which they did in 1776. The church could not have been any purer at the end of the first century than it was when Paul went to prison the last time. His Epistles to the different churches which he had organized indicate that a change was begin- ning to take place in them, because we see him reproving some of them. He says : " Oh foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you," etc., Gal. iii. Divisions came in some of the churches — THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. l8l coldness, envy, strife, false teachers, animosities. When John was too old to stand np and speak long he would often say, " My little children love one another." After the death of John, about the close of the first century, the course of spiritual life was downward. The first church (of Revelation) could not have covered a period later than the death of Peter and Paul, A. D. 68, and the second would not continue beyond the second century and the third would not reach beyond the conversion of Constantine. Here the Christian religion enters upon another plane of existence. Never before had it been the Na- tional religion. Constantine made Christian missionaries out of all his representatives and even the soldiers enlisted under the banner of the Cross. As the Angel of the Lord went be- fore Joshua into the victorious possession of the Promised Land of Canaan, so the cross of Christ went before the first Christian Emperor. The power of the Empire was due to the zeal of a blind faith that the cross was the source of vic- tory. Idolatry was cast aside to a great measure and the predominating influence of the Christian religion insured the personal safety of the Be- lievers of the fourth century. The wealth of the Empire was at the disposal of the church of Christ. It appears that Constantine did not embrace Christianity for his own personal bene- fit, for he was not baptized till shortly before 1 82 THK DOOR OPENED. his death, but he had had a vision of a cross and on it was written, u by this ye shall conquer.'' So with this assurance he determined to gratify his ambition to rule the world ; he reformed the customs of the nations and gave his subjects the right to follow to a great extent their own relig- ious inclinations. I do not think that he had a clear view of the salvation of men, but he was led by the spirit to place Christianity in a posi- tion of great influence upon the nations of the Earth; although the people were free in this matter, liberty, however, invariably drifts into slavery as soon as we do away with the demands of obedience to Law. When Constantine di- vided the influence of the Empire by moving the seat of the government from Rome to Con- stantinople, very naturally the influence of Christianity was withdrawn from Rome and the western part of the Empire was left in the hands of the Bishop of Rome, and the power of Pagan- ism eventually asserted itself and became the re- ligion of the Empire. When the influence of the Constantion government died out with his de- scendants the tide turned to Romanism. Edu- cational institutions of different kinds became a thing of the past. Divine power was vested in personality, and Papacy was the result, in the year 538. Here ends the religious experiences of the first four religious conditions represented by the names Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos and THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 1 83 Thyatira. Here opens the third seal, the black horse of the Dark Ages, and the condition which John describes as having " A name that thon livest and art dead. The fifth spiritual condi- tion of the church is called Sardis. In the be- ginning of the fifth century the churches had been torn down, the disciples were without gov- ernment having no anchor to hold them fast, and errors had crept in and the simple worship of the Apostolic age was almost unknown. The religious faith was one chaotic mass of confu- sion that yielded none of the fruits of the Gos- pel. The leading minds of the age occupied their time in discussion about the nature of Christ and his mother — whether Christ had two natures, two wills, two souls, etc., whether his birth was natural, whether he was born of a vir- gin or came to earth a full grown man at the time of the baptism in Jordan. These discus- sions engendered bitter animosities as quarreling over creeds invariably do. This spiritual war was given the visible form of actual slaughter and continued more than two hundred years. The work of extirpating the opposing factions was zealously prosecuted until the slain were counted by the millions. Justinian became the corrector of heretics after this slaughter had been going on for one hundred and twenty-five years and set the blood-hound of Papacy on every one who did not coincide with the edicts 184 THE DOOR OPENED. of Rome. Conscience had no right to an exist- ence in the sixth and succeeding centuries and those who had different opinions were con- demned to death. It is strange that while a belief in Christ was so universal, his loving character and example were so utterly laid aside as unworthy of imita- tion ; instead of thirsting for righteousness they thirsted for human gore. If this Age had a name to live they had also a death to die, and the most of them had nothing to do with the disposition of their remains. Their name and their works had girdled the earth with a band of blood that will never be overlooked nor forgotten : " A name that thou livest and art dead." Hu- man language constructed by Divine power alone could portray such a condition to future generations ; a state of existence so void of hu- man sympathy and love — so full of hatred and cruelty is scarce deserving of a name when men become more savage than the beasts. The races of men had entered the shades of death and they were slaves who thought what they were told to think or else did not think at all. The baser passions yielded to the impulse of the hour, and souls concentered with the clay or made a league with hell to populate the confines of despair. The generations that follow those who in their turn are numbered with the dead, are THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 1 85 sprung like thorns out of the parent stem to tear and scratch the forms and features of man- kind — the light of mind eclipsed and lofty thought unknown till shriveled brains enclose the senses of the soul and men were like the beast. The training-school is abandoned and the field of knowledge unexplored and all the world is dark. The world behind this Age Had caught the echoes of the tomb, And harmonized the vibrant air On strings of sweetest sound, And wafted on the softest breeze The melodies of Heaven. But now harsh thunders waked The terrors of the night, That played along the ground On livid strings of frightful fire To terrify the trembling Earth, Who, with her deep sepulchral wave, Must rock the cradle of the tomb, Or issue forth 'mid billowy flame, With cloud of incense guild the sky, To throw a light from Heaven to Earth And give mankind a view of God. " Be watchful and strengthen the things that remain that are ready to die." " Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white." The chord of Divine Life reaches from the even- ing through the night to the dawning of the Reformation and the light of a new creation breaks upon the Christian dispensation and the 1 86 THE DOOR OPENED. morning star has arisen in the person of Martin Lnther to beautify the morn of the day spring from on high. " And the fourth beast was like a flying eagle." The four beasts of Revelation, iv, 7, represent four spiritual powers, or condi- tions of spirit life existing in the time of the Christian dispensation. "And the first beast was like a lion and the second was like a Calf and the third beast had a Face as a Man and the fourth beast was like a flying Eagle." The first is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The Christian religion offers salvation to the world — liberty from sin. " Behold! I have set before you an open door and no man can shut it." Perfect liberty al- lows conscience to guide and admits of action of soul for the development of mind and the gen- eral education of mankind. The second beast represents the Paganism of the fourth and fifth centuries. The third beast represents Papacy and the fourth beast, the flying Eagle, is the emblem of liberty, which characterizes the spirit of the Reformation and flees to the shores of the New world. Thus eighteen centuries stand be- fore God. " And the beasts were full of eyes within." The Eyes, represent the light of Rev- elation through the working of these four pow- ers, giving wisdom and knowledge to future Ages, for knowledge must come from experi- ence. Line upon line and precept upon pre- THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 1 87 cept has been given that men may draw a jnst conclnsion from the deep well of the past. One common feature of the four powers is that they all speak in tones that can not be silenced, and they all cry with one voice, saying, " Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty." We infer from this common characteristic of the powers that cry with one voice that all the powers of Earth and Heaven and Hell combined give glory to our king. But all are not saved, for " not every one that saith, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in Heaven." " Many will say in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name cast out Devils and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them: I never knew you, depart from me ye that work iniquity." " Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock, and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not for it was founded upon a Rock." Such was the foundation upon which the Pilgrim Fathers laid the frame work of the Constitution of the United States. The American Eagle is the glory of kingdoms and all nations shall lay their trophies at her feet. 1 88 THE DOOR OPENED. The British Lion and the American Eagle have one spirit, and will some day nnite their power and stand against the world. The United States is represented in another Scripture as a Lamb, and I call the coming years to witness the marriage of the Lion and the Lamb. " The Lion and the Lamb shall lie down together." The church of Philadelphia follows Sardis, in the order named by the sacred writer, and has an existence during the time of the opening of the sixth seal. It is a spiritual condition embraced in the definition of the name. It means love, joy, peace. We are now living in that time, and since the year 1844 there has been a decided change in religious worship ; instead of merci- less judgment and Hell-fire, the ministers have heen delivering messages of Love. Men are no longer taught to fear, but to love God. The burden of the message is, " Love one another." God is no longer regarded as demanding an im- possible, perfect obedience, but we have presented the promise of God, with a rainbow round about the throne, the emblem of peace. Christ comes to us as an elder brother, a faithful friend, a lov- ing companion, saying, " I will never leave nor forsake you." We are no longer strangers nor friends of God, but we are sons and daughters, joint heirs with Christ to the abundance of the treasure of God in his kingdom of love. Such is the sixth spiritual dispensation of the king- THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 1 89 dom of Christ, but there will be a change, and evil men will wax worse and worse and many- will yield to the great temptations which have already come upon the world, and " the end shall not come unless there be a falling away," which is characteristic of the last days of man on the Earth in the annals of time. Peter says, 2 Epis- tle iii, 3 : " Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, where is the prom- ise of His coming, for since the Fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation?" " For this they are willingly ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the world that then was, being over- flowed with water perished ; but the heavens and the Earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of Judgment of ungodly men. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also and the works (of man) that are therein shall be burned up. Never- theless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness." We are living in the last days. The ends of the earth are in the hands of the 190 THK DOOR OPKNKD. four Angels (Beasts, Powers), holding the cor- ners. These four angels are the spirits of the four elements of mankind. The spiritual sheet is stretched and the spirits stand and wait while the angels of God seal his servants in their forehead (that is give them an intelligent con- ception of God.) This sealing began possibly in 1844 after the fulfillment of Daniel's 1,335 years, which was made up of three divisions of time; viz., 1260, 30, and 45 years. There were sealed of the Jews 144,000, and beside them a great multitude which no man could number (Gentiles) of all nations and kindreds and peo- ples and tongues, and they stood before the Throne and the Lamb, clothed with white wrobes and palms in their hands. This was the condition of things when he had opened the seventh seal, and " there was silence in Heaven about the space of half an hour, and I saw the seven Angels (churches) which stood before God and to them were given seven Trumpets, and another angel came and stood at the Altar having a golden censer, and there was given him much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden Altar which was before the throne, and the smoke of the incense which came with the prayers of the saints ascended up before God out of the An- gel's hand, and the Angel took the censer and filled it with fire of the Altar and cast it into THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 191 the earth, and there were voices and thnnderings and lightnings and an earthquake, and the seven Angels which had the seven Trumpets prepared themselves to sound, and when all of these have sounded the mystery of God will be finished and Time will be no more. The silence in Heaven for the space of thirty minutes, represents a space of time equal to one of our weeks or seven days. There is no night in Heaven. This time was occupied in offering up the prayers of saints which pass in review before God for the glory of his holy name, that he may be pleased to grant Salvation to all those who call upon him in Faith. This is the great offering once, for all, by our High Priest, who ever liveth to make interces- sion for us. The worship of angels stand aside and all the harps of Heaven are still while the incense of prayers goes up, a sweet-smelling savor unto God. The Trumpet sounding is the signal of war. At the sounding of the Trumpet the people were summoned at Sinia. The mountain of God quaked and fierce lightnings flashed. The moun- tains smoked and harsh thunders uttered their voices to teach mankind that God had come near them in Judgment. When Joshua compassed Jericho, sounding on the Trumpets seven days, once each day for six days, and seven times on the seventh day, when the Trumpets sounded long the walls of the city fell, and every man 192 THE DOOR OPENED. went into the city over the place against which they stood and possessed the city. " The seven Trumpets in the hands of the angels of the seven churches, when they begin to sound, ye may know that Nation shall rise up against Nation and the slain of the earth will be many, and when the seventh angel soundeth and the cry of the saints goes up to Heaven, then shall all the earth behold their King. For behold ! he cometh, and all his holy angels with him, and they shall gather his elect from the four corners of the earth and his elect that are alive and remain shall be caught up to meet him in the air, for they shall all be changed in the twinkling of an eye, when the last Trumpet shall sound ; for this corruption must put on incorruption and this mortality must put on immortality; then will come to pass the saying: oh death, where is thy sting ; oh grave, where is thy vic- tory ? Thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. We are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses, held aloft to view the closing scenes of earth, for the ele- ments shall melt with fervent heat, "And all the proud, yea all that do wickedly shall be stub- ble," and the day cometh that shall burn them up. " For the heavens, which were of old, and the earth and all the works of man, are reserved unto fire against the day of Judgment of ungodly the kingdom established. 193 The flying roll which Zechariah saw in a vision was the Law given to the children of Is- rael in Mt. Sinia, and the wicked were cut off from among men according to the things which were written in the Law. They bleached their bones in the desert sands for sin and unclean- ness. Again God judged the world according to the righteousness of Christ, that as many as be- lieved might stand in the favor of God through all Eternity. As many as died under the law were judged by the law, as many as lived with- out law were a law unto themselves, and were judged by their own law ; but when Christ came to judge the earth and the world, they were judged by the law of Grace. " For every one must give an account of the deeds of the flesh, whether they be good or whether they be evil." " Unto whom much is given of him will much be required." For the kingdom of Heaven is as a man going into a far country, who called his own servants and delivered unto them his goods, and unto one he gave five talents, to an- other two and to another one. Therefore, when the time comes Christ will descend with a shout, and the judgment of the wicked then living upon the Earth, will be brought down and they shall be cut off and all the works of man on the whole earth will be given to the flames. So will the end of time be to those who arc still in the flesh, and the wicked shall be turned into hell 13 194 TH £ DOOR OPKNKD. with all the nations that forget God. Then Sa- tan will be bonnd for a thonsand }'ears. Satan had long ago been cast ont of Heaven nnto the Earth, and ever afterward went abont like a roar- ing lion seeking whom he might devonr. Bnt now that the end is come and the cleansing of this earthly sanctnary is complete, there is noth- ing left for him to do but to reflect upon the ruin he has wrought. It seems to me that the angels, coming to take Lot out of Sodom before it was destroyed by fire, is a good picture of Christ coming to take the Elect out of this life on the Earth in the day of Judgment of ungodly men. The enemy of God and man, when he left the Savior in the days of his temptation, must have looked forward to his final overthrow in the earthly kingdom of Christ with great wrath. We have noticed what havoc he made with the church at Jerusalem, and what slaughter he in- flicted upon the Christians of the first few cen- turies until he seemed to have almost conquered the world, for, following this for 1,260 years, in which his wrath knew no bounds, it is estimated that 50,000,000 of people lost their lives in the ravages of war and persecution which Satan demanded for his own satisfaction. He is not satisfied for men to live and spend their days in peace, for his first stroke on the human fam- ily in Eden caused the death of all men. All these are his own ; in the spirit of the dead he THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 1 95 could hope for nothing more, but in the spirit of the living, the spirit of those he had yet to conquer, whose life he could not control, he sought to establish his kingdom, and what they were called to undergo, who would not yield to his Satanic majesty, has filled the world of hu- man kind with painful toil and tortuous grief. The very afflictions good men have had to en- dure, and their untimely death are the strongest proofs that their lives were hid with Christ in God. Throughout the twelve centuries of the night of Papacy, The Two Witnesses prophe- sied, clothed in sackcloth. These two witnesses are the Word and the Spirit. The golden chord of divine life between the Apostolic Age and the Reformation of Luther, yielded perpetual dis- cord between God and men on account of sin ; when the spirit revived again the red river of blood that ran over the earth which gave the saints the victory. It is not necessary for me to write the history of these dreadful calamities which Satan has been permitted to inflict upon the human family, nor to complain against God for not putting an end to them, because we do not deserve any better treatment, even at the hand of God, for w T e have all rebelled against him and are all together unworthy of the least of his benefits, with which he daily loadeth us ; there- fore, do we consider his great mercy toward us, and wonder at His infinite love for the children I96 THE DOOR OPENED. of men. Although we see many things to come, which apparently are already past, we are per- suaded that in the Last Days of time many things of History will be repeated, so that parts of Scripture which have been fulfilled in the years gone by, as the shadow of things to come, we are led to believe the same experiences will ac- company the human family in the Last Days. Although the world was destroyed by a Flood because of the sins of the people of old, Christ said to his disciples when he spoke of the des- truction of Jerusalem (which occurred A. D. 70), "The blood of all my prophets will I require of this generation." No calamity ever befell man- kind like this one, in which 1,100,000 people perished by the sword and famine and pestilence and fire, as if to pour out in one great sacrifice the blood of all the earth. The work of Christ and the work of Satan have been traced through the Christian dispen- sation down to the year 1844. No one can be accurate in giving dates for times that certain things take place, but it is generally conceded that the opening of the seventh seal took place in the time of the End. The time of the End is a time just prior to the End under the opening of the seventh seal and may be a long time dur- ing which the Seven Trumpets sound. " The first angel sounded and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the Earth and the third part of trees THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 1 97 were burned up and all green grass was burned up." As before stated, the Trumpet is the sig- nal of war. This figure of hail and fire min- gled with blood, indicates that this battle will be fought or has been (at this date as the case may be) by soldiers on foot, with rifles and gun- powder and bullets, and that the attacking army will come from the North. The time of year the figure describes is summer. The green grass burned up indicates a time of drouth throughout the whole country in which the battle takes place. One third of the trees burned up would indicate that they were used in con- nection with the war and were burned ; that is, for camp fires, fortresses, bridges, etc., and that they were all burned, as contributing to the vic- tory by one of both armies. War forms a part of the experience of nations. The Trumpet sounding calls to arms. The seven Trumpets may sound in quick succession or there may be a long time between them. I hope I may make it plain that the seven Trumpets will sound in the Last Days or after the year 1844. "The second angel sounded, and, as it were, a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea, and the third part of the sea became blood and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea and had life died and the third part of the ships were destroyed." This figure describes a Naval attack against a country long I98 THE DOOR OPENKD. and high, standing in the sea (like Italy) and a large city in flames wonld make it appear like a mountain of fire. The burning of ships would complete the scene the figure describes, and the soldiers of the ships would die either by fire or drowning. The blood signifies loss of life. " The third angel sounded and there fell a great star from heaven and the name of the star is Wormwood, and the third part of the waters be- came bitter." The waters are people ; after this war had proceeded through two battles, one- third of the people of the whole country would be aroused and many people would be killed. When any of the Governments of the old world get into trouble, the whole continent seems to rise to arms to protect its own interests. These eruptions will be continued at intervals in the future till the fullness of time, and then there will be war such as never was before, and it will continue to the end of Time. THE SCENE CHANGES TO AMERICA. "And the fourth angel sounded and the third part of the sun was smitten and the third part of the stars, so as the third part of them was darkened and the day shone not for the third part of it and the night likewise." Rev. viii, 12. The sun is used by the Evangelist to represent a Christian Government The moon represents that which is behind it or that which precedes THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 1 99 it, and has no light of itself. The stars repre- sent the different parts of ihe Government or States. The light of the snn and stars are na- tive to them, but the moon light has no Ulster. This figure is evidently used to represent the United States of America. The sun light rep- resents the Christian principles of the Constitu- tion. The stars represent our public instruc- tions and laws. Through all these the light of the sun of Righteousness shines, and we are a Christian Nation by the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States. The moon repre- sents Papacy, out of which our forefathers came, to form a Government in which they might serve God according to the dictates of their own con- sciences. The blighting influences of foreign customs will darken the day of our national ex- istence. " That it shine not for a third part of it and the night likewise." Therefore, we under- stand that the first third of our day will be light, the second third of it shine not — dark, and the last third of it moonlight. We are the last nation that comes up on the Earth of which mention is made in Prophecy. " Surely he will do nothing except it be revealed to his servants, the Prophets." The first third of our history finds us a Christian Nation. The second third part will be a time of conflict to maintain our National character, our Christian principles and our personal liberties, our insti- 200 THE DOOR OPENED. tutions and our homes. The last third part of our day will not be a government of the people, by the people, for the people, but a government of the people by the Pope through his image in the United States of America. With our his- tory, past and future, the Christian dispensation closes and the last darkness will be forever ob- literated in the day dawn of. the Eternal splen- dor of a never ending day. " And I beheld an- other beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and he spake as a dragon." This is our complete history in a very few words : The lamb is the same as the sun used in the other figure, pure, young, innocent (sacrifice.) The horns represent two spiritual powers operating in the one Government of equal power. Then there comes a time when he (the lamb) speaks as a dragon. This is the voice of Papacy. This power will make our laws and administer the government over our heads. " And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him (the Pope) and causeth the earth, and them which dwell therein, to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed, saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an Image to the beast which had the wound by the sword and did live." This wounding refers to the overthrow of the Papal government of Rome, A. D. 1797. " And he had power to give life unto the Image of the THE kingdom established. 201 beast that the Image of the beast should both speak (as a dragon) and cause that as many as would not worship the Image of the beast should be killed, and he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads, and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark of the beast, or the number of his name, for it is the num- ber of a man, and his number is 666." The representative of the Pope of Rome in this country will be that Image, but he will not have power to kill those who refuse to wor- ship him until this government is administered by the church. The time will come when all the subjects of Rome will have a mark, and the American Popes will be numbered, but by what system, I can not say. American martyrs will be counted by the thousands when those perilous times come upon us. There will be a division of the human family all over the world before the scene closes ; all true Christians will be on one side and all the ungodly on the other. Then Christ will come to conquer Satan and de- stroy the wicked and all the works of man upon the face of the whole earth. Rev. 9th — " And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth, and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit and he opened the bottomless pit." Jesus 202 THE DOOR OPENED. said to his disciples : "I beheld Satan as a star fall from Heaven." The bottomless pit is the interior of the Earth, which is a lake of fire. The depths of hell is the liquid fire. Hell is the interior of the Earth. It is in this sense that the word is used in the Bible, meaning the region of the dead or the grave. David says prophetically, concerning Jesns Christ and his Resurrection, " Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell, neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption." In Rev. xx, 13, 14, we read, " And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hell delivered up the dead which were in them and they were judged, every man according to their works, and death and Hell were cast (thrown) into the lake of fire; this is the second death r The spirits of the lost are confined in the regions of the dead to witness their own cor- ruption, until the general Resurrection. The bodies of the Just remain in the region of the dead until the time of the first Resurrection, which will occur simultaneously with the second coming of Christ. The spirits of the Just go directly to Heaven at their death and live in the presence of Christ. This state, viz., the hab- itation of the soul, between the time of its de- parture from earth and the Resurrection of the Just, is called Paradise. THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 203 The angel that came down from Heaven (Satan) " opened the bottomless pit, and there came ont on the earth smoke, that darkens the air." Fallen angels, or spirits of Devils, come ont of the bottomless pit. These spirits are the spirits of the wicked dead that come ont of the pit at the command of Satan, under the leadership of the angels of Satan, which were cast out of Heaven ; they enter the minds of men in the flesh, on the Earth, and nse those minds and bodies to carry on the works of Sa- tan in the world. " And there came out of the smoke Locusts upon the earth, and unto them was given power as the scorpions of the Earth have power." Their work is to torment the wicked for (five months) 150 years. This is not an army arrayed in battle for they are com- manded not to kill, but to torment men. They are not to hurt the grass or any green thing, neither any tree, but only those men which have not the seal of God in their forehead. This lan- guage describes a combination of evil influences which is called the first woe. There are yet be- side this, two woes more to befall mankind. The plagues of the past have been terrible, the wars of nations have been desolating and disastrous, both to life and property, but the woes of the Latter Days will be more calamitous and dreadful, because they strike at the soul and cast it into the depths of Hell; the 204 THE DOOR OPENED. world's curse, more dreadful than any agency of the past, is INTEMPERANCE. " Look not upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its color to the cup, for at last it biteth like a Serpent and stingeth like an Adder." The Scorpions, of Rev. 9th, have a king over them, which is the angel of the bot- tomless pit. The color of the Scorpion is all the shades from yellow to red according to their age. They sting with their tails (at last), but the sting is not fatal, unless repeated many times ; it pro- duces great pain and inflammation. It has a vic- ious nature and long, many jointed claws, by which it fastens itself to any object. It can roll itself up so as to hide its sting. When rolled up it has the appearance of a red stone, shaped like an Qgg. If it is touched, it can sting you before 3^ou know it ; its nature is to kill its own kind and they will eat their own young ; the young ones will kill the parent, and when the creature is subjected to adverse circumstances, it will sting itself to death. The character of the Scor- pion certainly furnishes us an accurate descrip- tion of the effects of intoxicants upon the peo- ple of the world. The Scorpion does not fly, but its character is given to Locusts which fly like a vast cloud over the face of the whole earth. The overspreading of intemperance is brought about by the commerce of nations and THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 205 by the intercourse of the people. The Locusts may sweep down and destroy the crops in one district, then rise up and fly to another section or country. Foreign emigrants are the Scorpi- ons that fly like Locusts from Europe to Amer- ica to devour our country and our prospects of future good. They have brought intemperance, the saloon, the wine-house and all their associ- ations with them to cover us up in one vast wave of iniquity, overflowing and devastating our fair land. " They are like horses prepared for bat- tle," resisting our laws, poluting society and trampling underfoot our public institutions, our liberty and our homes. They are like scorpions hiding under every stone and in every crevice ; go where we w T ill we see them undermining the foundations of our institutions and entering our governmental structure through every opening. Woe to American Government. Woe to American Society. Woe to American Liberty. u They have a king over them which is the angel of the bottomless pit." With them and in them and by them have come upon us the World's Curse— INTEMPERANCE. " And they have on their heads a crown of Gold." This crown is the money the govern- ment receives from the revenue levied upon in- toxicating liquors. The cost of the annual con- sumption of intoxicants in the United States is 200 THE DOOR OPENED. seven hundred millions ($700,000,000) dollars. Against these vast millions the United States spends for clergyman's salaries twelve million dollars, and for public education ninety-six mil- lion dollars; yet in the face of this enormous expenditure of money, England consumes nearly three times the amount of intoxicants that the United States does. It is estimated that for each missionary sent to Africa, there is sevent}^- five thousand gallons of liquor sent to that •country. These statistics are taken from Bible Readings for the Home Circle. The awful sweep of this destructive flame consumes, till it may be said to man, " Hell from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee at thy coming." " No drunkard shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven." " Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink" Rev. ix, 13 — The Eastern Question. " And the sixth angel sounded and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden Altar, which is before God, saying to the sixth angel which had the Trumpet, " Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates." I have placed the time of the sounding of the seven Trumpets in the time of the End, which I suppose to have begun, A. D. 1844, under the opening of the seventh seal ; therefore, I con- clude that the time in which the fulfillment of this prophecy must take place began with that year. The prophetic period of this event, al- THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 207 lowing for the difference between the prophetic year and onr year of 5 % days will bring the ful- fillment of this Prophecy to the year 2231. The four angels which are bound in the great river o o Euphrates represent the spiritual powers which actuate the people who inhabit the country trav- ersed by those four rivers, which are bound in one stream 120 miles above the entrance into the Persian Gulf. The Turkish Empire is one of the oldest governments in the world and has been myster- iously preserved to come to its end, amid the most deadly conflict the world has ever wit- nessed. The war which this prophecy describes will have its beginning in an uprising of the Turkish Empire, very likely against Russia, who wants an outlet to the West and South, via the Black Sea and Bosphorus to the Mediterranean. Constantinople, on the west bank of the strait, is the capitol, and any attempt on the part of Russia to pass this boundary line, would open the conflict and might fulfill the prophecy re- lated in connection with the sounding of the second Trumpet, "A great mountain, burning, was cast into the sea;" an experience which the same city had, A. D. 1453, when the Ottoman Sultan conquered the eastern part of the Ro- man Empire, and burned one-third of the ships of the Greek and Roman fleets. Mahomet, the founder of the religion of the Turks and Per- 208 THE DOOR OPENED. sians, took up his residence in Constantinople. The Mahomedans of the East at the present time number 173,000,000, which constitutes a power requiring the combined strength of the Eastern world to overcome ; yet " they will come to their end." The horses with heads like Lions, used in this prophecy, are the key to the mystery. The Horse and the Lion are both na- tive to Arabia ; this locates the spirit of the con- flict. The horsemen engaged in this great army on both sides will number 200,000,000, which are used in cavalry and artillery both. There is no mention of infantry in the description. The slain of this great war will be the one-third of men, by which I understand that one-third of the population of the Old' World will lose their life. The Eastern Question is one of the living issues of the day, and must, inevitably, — Mingle with the destinies of Empires, The blood of the slain, In a land whose waters flow With the warm, red current of millions, Who drank the last, and bitter cup of woe, To slake the thirst, insatiate fury held aloft, To crown the victor's brow. Through hours and days and months and years, The dying groans of men will rise, Amid the din of tramping feet, Or hushed beneath the roar of musketry, Or canon-rolling thunder, In the cold embrace of death, lie still, And mingle with the dust, while, Onward rush the ranks of war To victory or death. THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 209 This name of war will burn its way, gather- ing fuel through the years, till it, blazing in a sea of flame, consumes the Empires of the East. This is the Second Woe. " The seventh angel sounded — " In speaking of things to come, men very naturally express their thoughts by the use of words indicative of the future. Time is either past, present or future, the three com- prising all time ; but prophetic language stands in an enduring present, speaking of things to come as if already past, as in the above quo- tation. The Trumpet sounding is the declaration of that which follows immediately ; it is the Divine Decree unuttered. The Trumpet of God has no sound that the human ear responds to, but when we remember that we are but dust, we will not wonder that our sense of hearing does not respond to the vibrations of the atmosphere which surrounds the Spirit Land. The dispen- sations of the seventh seal are given out or come to pass in their order at the sounding of the Trumpets; however, one thing may require a hundred years for its accomplishment, while an- another may only require ten, and yet the ten come after the beginning of the hundred period, or after its close ; thus when the ten follows the hundred at its beginning, it comes after it, and yet in that, that the hundred continue after the 2IO THE DOOR OPENED. ten, the hundred comes after the ten, at least the greater part of it ; but what the result is of this combination of agencies, we can not tell, that is we can not tell what the result may be at any given point, in its unwritten history, but we are assured of what the result will be in the end. With seven Trumpets sounding under the opening of the seventh seal, we have a com- bination of circumstances which may be illus- trated by the painters' art of mixing colors. In following the course of the Christian dispensa- tion down through the ages, it may be as well to put in the spiritual colors as we go along. You remember the white horse, the red, the black, and the pale or dun colored beast of Prophecy. Thus we begin mixing: with one hundred parts of white we add five parts of car- mine, ten parts of black, and when we have cut the colors we will have a pale, sickly gray ; then fifty parts of black and we have a color that is very like the color of putrefying flesh. If we continue adding different colors we must expect a color that it may be hard to describe. Thus it is difficult to describe the changes brought about by the mixture of spiritual agencies in the last cup of the Christian dispensation. Under these circumstances I proceed to describe what is yet to come in the last days of men on earth. Under the sounding of the last Trumpet THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 211 Angel, we have "seven angels coming out of the Temple of the Tabernacle of Testimony in Heaven." The testimony of human knowledge and experience is that God is just and holy, that his Law is holy and just and that human experience acknowledges a just condemnation, for God, having washed his hands in the blood of sacrifice, has done all things possible to alleviate a suffering humanity, and to turn the tide of the law of cause and effect, by turning the waters of Life against the tide of iniquity till earth and heaven and hell unite their voice in one cry, saying: "Thou art holy, Lord God Almighty, which am, and was, and ever shall be, who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is; just and perfect are thy ways, thou king of Saints." Therefore, oh man, thou art inexcusable, and thy condemnation is the work of thy own hands, in that ye will not hear and repent that ye might have life. "And the first angel (that came out of the temple) poured out his vial of wrath upon the earth, and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the Beast, and upon them which worshiped his Image." This is the Image which was made to the Beast which had the wound by the sword, and did live. This is the Image which com- manded men to worship the Beast, and that put a mark upon the men who worship the Beast, THE DOOR OPENED. and that causeth those who will not, to be killed. The plague which comes upon men when the first angel pours out his vial of wrath upon the earth, will come only upon those men who have the mark of the Beast and worship his Image. This plague will come upon men everywhere who have the mark, but more especially upon those who worship his image on the Western Continent. It will be a noisome and grievous sore, probably a species of Lepra, effecting the joints especially, cracking and bleeding, and very offensive. This plague evidently will be either Black Leprosy or Black Smallpox, either of which would not remove the Mark of the Beast while the unfortunate individual remained alive. This will be a judgment sent from God, there- fore it will not be contagious ; hence I conclude that it will be Leprosy, which in time will des- troy the body. " And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea, and it became as the blood of a dead man, and every living soul died in the sea." The object of this plague in the first place is to take away from men one great blessing — the fish of the sea. It may be that we do not realize the fact that we are very ungrateful creatures, not deeming it necessary to remember that when God made man, that he also provided for all his needs. The cattle on a thousand hills, and all the fish that swim the sea, with every fowl THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 213 that flieth in the air, were given nnto men for meat ; and they brought forth abundantly, that none should lack or be compelled to buy. All over the broad earth, in the sea and bays and streams, they may be taken in a net until there be no more want. If we were acquainted with the habits of the finny tribes we might watch them as they move like a vast army through the waters of the deep ; an inexhaustible supply in the great store-house of God. Rev. Herbert W. Morris, in "Science and the Bible," says: "Water is pre-eminently the seat of life. No part of the surface of the earth is more fully peopled or inhabited by greater numbers and diversities of beautiful or strange or monstrous forms than the waters, whether those of the sea, the fresh lakes, the sparkling streams, or the stagnant pools ; in every climate from the Northern to the Southern Pole, water abounds with its living tenants, and from the floor of the ocean, where its depth exceeds the heighth of our loftiest mountains, up to its ruffled surface, every successive stratum of its waters is crowded with its own order of life. There is not a sound or a bay, not a stream or a lake, in which God has not stored a great abund- ance of the creatures of the deep. The Whale, Dolphin and Porpoise are the most remarkable and stupendous creatures of creation, forming a connecting link between the animals of the land 214 THE DOOR OPENED. and the fish of the sea. While their whole in- ternal economy closely resembles that of the beast, they, like fish, live wholly in the ocean. The Sperm Whale often attains the great length of sixty or seventy feet, while the common Whale has been fonnd over a hundred feet long and of a weight of two hundred and fifty tons; when confined in the shallows it will sometimes leap out of the water and come down with a force that churns it into foam ; in the deep seas, when alarmed or wounded, it has been known to assume a perpendicular position, with its head downward and rearing aloft its tremen- dous tail, lash the waters with great violence, then with one spring descend to a depth of four or five thousand feet. The Tempest in the hour of its wildest uproar is its pastime ; it plays with the storm-vexed ocean, ascends the crested sum- mit of its mountain waves, then "like a cradled creature," lies amid their deep and dismal fur- rows, as if sporting with their rage." The fish of the sea are of several thousand different species ; from the white Shark, weigh- ing ten thousand pounds, to the little minnow. From the shape of fish we have learned the art of ship building, because here we recognize the Divine hand designing their shape so as to meet with the least possible resistance while passing through the waters. Their numbers are incal- culable, more numerous than the sands along THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 215 the shore. If we endeavor to form a conception of their bulk, we must compare their shoals to great rivers running through the coarse of their migrations. Kirby says, " their shoals are many leagues in w T idth, many fathoms in depth, and so dense that the fish touch each other ; and this stream continues to move at a rapid rate past any particular point nearly all summer." If this be true of one species, what must be the enormous bulk of all those species which have the same habits of life? The Mackerel, Her- ring, Salmon and Codfish are a few that are taken as a drop out of the river from this great store-house. The Oyster, Lobster, etc., also yield us a large suppty of delicious nutriment without any other cost than the taking. The Pearl Oyster of the Persian Gulf is a vast store of wealth, utility and beauty. When we con- template the wonders of the sea, by which God has so wonderfully provided for our wants, our sustenance and our tastes, are we not led to be- lieve that we are altogether ungrateful crea- tures ? The words of the Prophet are that "every living soul died in the sea." Very naturally the fish which were in the habit of going out into the rivers w T ould do so, but even if this were done it would not defeat the purpose of God to take this great blessing away from man. Per- haps you may imagine that we can get along 2l6 THE DOOR OPENED. without fish ; admit it, and yet think of the thousands engaged in the fisheries whose occu- pation would be gone ; neither is that the end of the matter, the stench which would follow the death of the creatures of the sea would make it impossible to navigate the ocean. The com- merce between the Eastern and Western Conti- nents will be cut off. The millions who go down in ships and do business on the great waters will be held back from the seashore by the hand of the Infinite Ruler of all things. There is no mention of ships after this in the Scriptures, neither is there any indication that the waters will afterward be changed. The pro- cess of evaporation might purify them and carry them out over the continents to descend in showers upon the dry and thirsty land, to flow down the streams from hill and mountain, and thence return, till all become pure again, but it would take months and years perhaps for nature to deliver herself from this great corruption. What pestilence and death would be carried to the cities of the plain, on the chariots of the air, we can not tell ; neither will we be able to stay the destroying breath, nor refuse to inhale the fumes of death. It will not be an unkind act in God to cut off life in the sea in this man- ner, for all things have their time to live, as well a time to die, and be returned to "mix for- ever with the elements," from whence they came. THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 21 7 But man, oh, man, thou spark of immortality, in thy last hours, what sighs or groans, what cries or prayers attend thy cortege to the grave, as dust to dust returns, or if on wings of faith thy soul ascends celestial to the skies, what songs triumphant greet the waiting throng, or harp of Heaven to soothe thy sens'tive ear, when winged flight its weary pinions fold to rest, within the sight of those we love. These scenes await the weary soul which longs to meet its God, and yet we fear and tremble at the thought of crossing o'er the deep and dark do- main of death. When ocean waves at last stand still, a bloody curdled sea of death that chills around the globe will no doubt teach us how to pray "Thy will, not mine, be done." Tis not enough that these should die, but coming fast, another angel turns the waters of the land to blood, and every fount and stream and river runs its gory journey through. " And the angel of the waters said, Thou art righteous, oh Lord, because thou hast judged thus, for they have shed the blood of Saints and Prophets, and Thou hast given them blood to drink, for they are worthy." This plague is just like the one which Moses brought upon the Egyptians when Pharoah re- fused to let Israel go. They dug wells by the river to get water to drink. The Egyptians 2l8 THE DOOR OPENED. worshiped the Nile, and it was necessary for God to show His power over their gods, in order to convince them and make them fear the God of Heaven, and repent, believe and serve Him. We have the same thing repeated, no donbt, for the same purpose, and no donbt many people will tnrn to God and cry for mercy in this time of awful torment. The drunkards of the earth, it may be, will find something else to drink, but they will come to their end ; their last cup will not suffice to slake their thirst in the regions of the grave. The plagues in Egypt lasted seven days. The great and terrible judgments which are recorded in history have come because of great iniquity and rebellion against God. Tyre and Sidon became the very seat of Satan, and the time came when God sent fire from heaven and destroyed them. We will not be at the end of Time yet when this plague falls upon the waters, for it is only one of the means by which God will call men to repentance. He is long suffering, kind and merciful, and wills not that any should perish, but that all might come unto Him and live. When the waters of the rivers become pure again, men will have learned that He who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, demands obedience from the things which He has made, who in turn acknowledge the sov- ereignty of Law. He setteth the bounds of the THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 219 sea, saying: " Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther." To the waters His law commands, unite your diminutive spheres and form the seas, and to the round drops of the waves, roll down, roll down to the depths of the valley beneath, pursue thy way and flow on, no rest for thy sphere till thy crystaline beauty distills in the sky or sleeps in the bed of the rose ; a world of beauty, round and shining as the sunlight, or borne aloft on frigid airs, fall down in octe- hedral stars; ten thousand crystal shapes re- vealed, with threads of glass, thy law, to hold thy form of crystal praise, whose eyes, with con- trite tears, run down thy cold and icy cheeks, while lips may part and heart may break, thy soul disolve, as incense to the Throne, celestial wing thy way to reach thy home on high, where every form of life must own and praise the uni- versal God. Thus all the law of nature holds communion with her Maker, and dares not go beyond their sphere in conflict with creation, for all things else, but man, remains as they were made at first, to praise and magnify the Lord. "And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun, and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire, and men were scorched with great heat and blasphemed the name of God, which had power over these plagues, and they repented not to give him glory." The plagues of turning the sea, the rivers and the 220 THE DOOR OPENED. fountains of water into blood, will be far-reaching in their consequences. Although we recognize the Divine hand at work for the accomplishment of His righteous will, we are persuaded to be- lieve that the laws of nature will distribute the curse so as to alleviate the suffering of mankind according to the law of cause and effect ; thus while God w T ill be the author of the curse, its effects will be left to the laws of nature. The curse which the first angel poured out, fell only on those individuals who worship the Beast. While all men must suffer alike, perhaps, under the second and third curses, yet it is possible, and also very probable, that the children of God will be preserved from the ravages of the pesti- lence which accompanies the general condition of the atmosphere; because we remember that when the plagues fell upon the land of Egypt, and in the dwellings of the people, from the king on the throne to the slave in the prison, not a family of all the Egyptians escaped the ravages of the plagues. Yet from the first to the last, through all these, not a soul, nor a beast, nor a field of the children of Israel suffered on account of anything which came upon the Egyptians ; therefore, it is not improbable that the Divine Guide of wind and wave will say to his own: " Thou shalt not be afraid of the ter- ror by night, nor for the arrow that nieth by day, nor for the pestilence that walketh in dark- THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 22 1 ness, nor for the destruction that wasteth at noon-day ; a thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee, only with thine eye shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked, because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation. There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling, for He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways." But when the rain falls not, nor the cool breezes fan the earth, and the noon-day sun burns with intense heat, it seems that it will be impossible for any agency, either human or Divine, to stay the stings of death. "Then will men hide themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains, and say to the moun- tains and rocks, fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him who sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of His wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?" "And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the Beast, and his kingdom was full of darkness, and they gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of Heaven, because of their pains and sores, and repented not for their deeds." The seat of the Beast is the City of Rome, and we have no intimation that it will ever be moved. It was taken from 222 THE DOOR OPENED. Babylon to Rome, when Darins made his decree and wrote nnto all people, nations and languages that dwell in all the earth, saying: "That in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel ; for He is the living God, and steadfast forever, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and His dominion shall be even unto the End" At this time there was no place for Satan on the throne of the Empire, whose king declared by a decree to all his people, acknowledging the su- premacy of God and destroying all the idols which the people used in the worship of the god of this world. The Roman Empire developed in the meantime, and soon became the ruler of the world. In Rome a form of worship was de- veloped in which " that man of sin was revealed, the son of Perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped as God, sitteth in the Temple of God, showing himself that he is God." "Now 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 hypocricy ; having their con- sciences seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meat, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the Truth." This kingdom is the same as the THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 223 one upon which the grievious sore fell: "And his kingdom was full of darkness." We have two symbols in the Scriptures ex- pressing opposition : Light, Intelligence, Right- eousness — Darkness, Ignorance, Sin. These things go hand in hand. In the Dark Ages the corruptions of man- kind darkened their understandings, clouded their perception ; the darkness became thick to make a hiding place for sin. This sin rises, like a vast cloud between earth and heaven, be- tween God and man. The knowledge of God which is cut off from those who do not read the Scriptures for themselves will leave them in that darkness whose end is death. "And they blasphemed the God of Heaven." What greater blasphemy could men utter before God and the world u than to profess to be able to forgive sins or deliver a soul from Hell ; and yet we are liv- ing to-day in the sight of a power that professes to do this very thing. The last blasphemy is greater than the first, because if such a thing were possible, it were not profitable for Christ to die, and yet when we remember the' deceitful nature of Satan and sin, if it were possible to deceive the very Elect, he would rejoice in his mighty power and roll himself in a blaze of glory. But if God spared not the angel that sinned, but cast them down to Hell, of how much sorer punishment will they be deemed 224 TH 3 DOOR OPENED, worthy who lead men into sin, teaching lies in hypocricy, having their consciences seared with a hot iron. Raging waves of iniqnity foaming ont of their own shame bnt under the tongues which blaspheme God, a canker will come 'till they gnaw their tongue because of pain. After the communication between the old world and the new has been cut off by the sec- ond and third curses, the western continent will have nearly run its course. It is safe to say that the people will have altogether abandoned the worship of the true God and come down to the end more like devils than human beings and perhaps may end themselves by their own slaughter, and the last man die of a deadly wound ; but in the old world the end will come amid more savage war. "And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates and the waters were dried up that the way of the kings of the East might be prepared." The Mohamedans in possession of Constan- tinople, from Etheopia, Arabia, Turkey, Afghan- istan and Persia by this time are conquered and come to their end, so far as the Turkish Empire is concerned. The Russians and Poles, "The king of the North," have pushed at him. The way for British India is prepared and the Brah- mans of South Asia and China are aroused to THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 225 war, "The king of the South," hosts from Africa, from southern Europe, and from western Europe, all aroused. Wars and rumors of war, nation rising up against nation in a series of conflicts, marching, marching, clothed in armor, horse and rider, gatling gun and metrelleus, canon and sabre, roll and clash and thunder to the busy tramp of war. Muffled drums may beat To the tramp of weary feet. What mighty onslaught forges on to meet the foes' enfolding fire and smoke, where guns may hurl the hail of death, for the evil spirits have come out of the mouth of the Dragon going forth to the kings of the earth to gather them together to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. And he gathered them together to a place called Armageddon. " BEHOLD! I come as a thief." " Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame." " And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air, and there were voices and thunders and lightnings and a great earthquake such as was not since men were upon the earth, and the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and their fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a Talent." (114 lbs. Troy.) 15 226 THE DOOR OPENED. This Plague will destroy men in great num- bers who blaspheme God, and the great city of Babylon (Rome) came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath, and I heard a voice from heaven, saying : Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her Plagues for her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquties. Reward her even as she rewarded you and double unto her double according to- her works ; in the cup which she hath filled, fill to her double; how much she hath glorified her- self and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her, for she saith in her heart, I sit no widow, I sit a queen and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow; she decketh herself with gold and precious stones and pearls ; and I saw her drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus; there- fore her plagues shall come upon her in one day, death and mourning and famine, and she shall be utterly burned with fire. For behold, the day is at hand that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea all that do wickedly, shall be burned up. " And I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, come, gather yourselves together to the supper of the THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 227 Great God, that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men both free and bond, both small and great." When, Lo ! through all the earth the cry resound, 'tis done! Awake ye righteous of the tomb, Arise to meet the Lord, Celestial in the air, For every eye shall see him When his Glory shines around. The arching dome of heaven's etherial blue, From north to south, from east to west, Is failed with angel forms of love On wings that ride above the tempest's track, They circle round in ever varying flight Our Lord of Lords, and King of Kings. The angel bands the earth survey, Through every age of time, On every shore, in every clime They cry, arise and shine Ye ransomed of the Lord — and they cry as the mighty chorus breaks, /* "Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." This is the First Resurrection, and all the Saints of all ages are caught up to the marriage supper of the Lamb. The brightness of His coming fills the earth, the air, the sky, for the Bride hath made herself ready, and the redeemed of all Ages join their voices to praise His holy name. No language of earth can describe this scene, for the children of God that are alive at the coining of Christ will ascend to meet Him in the air. The sea and the grave will give up 228 THE DOOR OPENED. the righteous of all ages ; they too will be caught up to meet the Lord. This feast of coming to- gether is described as the marriage of Christ to his Church TRIUMPHANT, and they will form a united and happy family, through all Eternity. The brightness of His coming will destroy all the wicked of the earth. The figurative language of the great supper indicates that the birds may fly above the oven that burns up the works of man. Then Christ creates a new Heaven and a new Earth ; that is he speaks the word, and it is done, and Christ and his translated Saints, and his resurrected Saints, come down and in the holy city take up their abode, where they remain for a thousand years. The brightness of His coining in great glory and power drives Satan and his angels into the bottomless pit where they are kept obedient to command of the King of kings. Satan can do nothing except by permission of God. Christ promised his disciples that he would return to the earth and remain with all his people for- ever. Now that He is here, the New Jerusalem cometh down out of Heaven from God, and they enter in and dwell there. Christ's entry into Jerusalem, near 18 centuries ago, was a shaddow of this glorious, triumphant entry with his Saints, which is to come. John says of the city which was revealed to THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 229 him: "Her light was as a stone most precious, even like a Jasper stone, clear as crystal, and had a wall great and high, with twelve gates and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the Children of Israel. The names of the gates are, viz : Reuben, Simon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Joseph, Benjamin, Naphitali, Gad, Asher. On the East three gates, on the South three gates, on the West three gates, and on the North three gates. The city will be a perfect square, and, the walls of the city had twelve founda- tions, and in them the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb. The wall of the city was of Jasper, clear as crystal, and the founda- tions of the wall were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was Jasper, the second Sapphire, the third a Chal- cedony, the fourth an Emerald, the fifth a Sar- donyx, the sixth Sardius, the seventh Chryso- lite, the eighth Beryl, the ninth a Topaz, the tenth Chrysoprasus, the eleventh a Jacinth, and the twelfth an Amethyst ; and the twelve gates were twelve Pearls, and every several gate was of one Pearl, and the street of the city was pure Gold, as it were transparent glass." This New Jerusalem is the Temple of God and the Lamb on the New Earth which Christ 23O THE DOOR OPENED. will have just created. This Temple in which the great congregation of Heaven shall gather together, the redeemed of all Ages, was meas- ured, in the vision of John, as twelve thousand furlongs according to the measure of the angel. If this measure represents the Roman Stadium, which is one-eighth of a mile, the city would contain fifteen hundred cubic miles of area, for the length and the breadth and the heighth of it are equal (if the cubic measure does not apply to our city areas, we must remember that spirits are not stuck to the clay.) 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 walk in the light of it, and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it. The gates of it shall not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no night there, and there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie ; but they which are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. A pure river of water, Life, clear as crystal, proceedeth out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb ; in the midst of the street of it, on either side of the river, was there a Tree of Life, which bare twelve manner of fruits and yielded her fruit every month, and the leaves of the Tree were THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 23 1 for the healing of the nations ; and there shall be no more curse, but the Throne of God and the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve Him, and they shall reign for ever and ever. These sayings are faithful and true, and the Lord God of the Holy Prophets sent his angel to show unto his servants the things which must shortly be done. "Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book, for the day is at hand, I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify unto you these things in the Churches." These things are wonderful to contemplate, and yet they are sure to come, and we are ex- pected to study the words of the prophecy until we understand what is before us. It is foolish for us to sit down in unbelief and ignorance of the experiences through which we must pass, when by the exercise of faith and prayer the Holy Spirit will lead us into all Truth which has been revealed by the Prophets, and the wise shall understand. These things were not shown to the Patriarchs, nor to the Jewish Prophets, but. to us, by the loving Apostle John, who entered into the secret chamber of the Most High, that he might show unto us who stand in the Latter Days the glory of kingdoms. The High Priest entered into the Holy of Holies. The head over all things to bring us into the glory of His presence by an everlasting coven- 232 THE DOOR OPENED. ant of universal brotherhood, to the inheritance of the Saints made perfect through the price of the purchased possession, even to the land shad- dowing with wings in the Temple of the Living God, which shall open her pearly gates to the ransomed of the Ages. Behold ! they come, the conquerors of death arise on wings of immortality, from every glen, from every hill, they rise triumphant o'er the grave, from sea and land they come in throngs innumerable, in forms of perfect beauty, hands uplifted, gazing up to Heaven, their spirits see, enclosed in living light, resplendant spirits out of Heaven coming to enter in the resurrected forms they once came out in death to live with God till He should come to be glorified in the Saints. From North, from South they come, they come from West and East, from Heaven and Earth, in one, united in the marriage of the Lamb. The gates ajar swing open wide, for be- hold, He cometh to Jerusalem, sitting on a cloud of light, " sweeping through the gates of the New Jerusalem. On every side, through every gate ; tribes of Israel throng the gates ; on the East three gates by the Garden of Gethsemane, on the North three gates by Mt. Calvary, on the South three gates by the Valley of Humility, and on the West three gates in the glow of the setting sun. Hosts innumerable, sands of the sea, great multitudes, clouds of witnesses, the con- THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED. 233 gregation of the righteous, the assembly of the First Born, singing, marching, harp and psaltry, palm leaves waving, crowns of victory, attending angels, doxologies ringing from the 144,000 voices singing hallelujahs, echo and re-echo from Earth to Heaven, from Heaven to Earth, resounding praises, coronations ringing, Christ enthroned. Shecina of glory, incense of praise, clouds of witnesses, the Arc of the Covenant and Cheru- bim covering the Mercy Seat. Out of the throne of His Light the fountain of love, the river of life flows refreshing. On either side of the Throne are the two Olive trees, the Word and the Spirit, and they are fed with the Manna of Heaven and drink of the water of Life. "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, for God himself shall feed them and lead them to the fountains of living water." The dedication of the Temple is finished — the home of the Saints. The price has been paid and the burden rolled away, and God shall keep those whom Christ has redeemed, and they are blessed and happy and holy now and forever. So have they been given an abundant entrance into the home of the soul, the glorified kingdom of Christ, according to Christ's first promise. " The meek shall inherit the earth." Since the home of the soul in its final rest will be up- on the earth, we are constrained to ask: "How can these things be?" The changes through 234 THK DOOR OPENED. which we have passed have awakened in our minds an eagerness to learn more about many things which are suggested by these changing scenes than it has been possible for us to con- ceive from their imperfect description, which of necessity must be imperfect when they are not the central idea intended to be elucidated; therefore, we will endeavor to present these things in their order, if possible, more distinctly. CHAPTER VI. FROM DEATH TO THE RESURRECTION. This question suggests three things or con- ditions through which we are destined to pass. We have three natures, viz : Physical, Intel- lectual and Spiritual, which form a human trinity; two of which are essential to the life of the body, and two of which are essential to the life of the soul. Thus the body becomes only a vehicle or receptacle of the spirit. The lunatic lives while the soul remains in the body, although the mind is entirely gone out of reasonable ex- istence. The intellect gives the soul a reason- able existence with all the power of a spiritual Being, existing under spiritual conditions, and is able to exercise all the functions of Being in a spiritual life, just as the living body can exer- cise the functions of life in the sphere of human activity. By the sin of our first parents, sin came upon all men to condemnation, to the corruption of the flesh, which in the natural life destroys the body and puts an end to its existence, being no longer of any profit to the soul ; the time come that the spirit leaves its tenement of clay. This parting is called Death. 235 236 THE DOOR OPENED. The functions of the body have been under the dominion of sin, operating not only to its own destruction, but to the destruction of the soul also. In this life we are exposed to two opposing spiritual influences, and our bodies are used to carry out the actions of life at the direc- tion of these two Powers. Thus we are given examples in society of every grade of spiritual rectitude or of spiritual corruption ; these actions are a part of the individual life, and take differ- ent forms in different individuals. These outward forms of action give to the functions of the body a distinct character, because they are the mirror of the soul that forms an image, by which we are enabled to distinguish one from another. The images that our mind views through the intellectual vision, forms the man. The body of a man is of no consequence in the world except as it is used as an instrument in carrying out the desires of the soul. The image reflected is the image of the soul which will ap- pear different at different times, as it is in- fluenced differently by the varied power of these two controlling spiritual agencies. We are born into the world innocent in the sight of the Law of God, not having exercised the intellectual judgment of choosing between the good and the evil ; but our bodies have come under the power of death on account of our first parents. Yet if we live to years of accounta- FROM DEATH TO THE RESURRECTION. 237 bility, we are held amenable to the law of right- eousness, which, if we choose to follow, the sacred influences of the Holy Spirit will direct our course in the development of the soul, to the deliverance of the soul from death ; or if we yield to the influence of the evil spirit, we will have our course directed away from God into the regions of death. But if we should become persuaded that the present corruption or the future ignominy is not desirable, we may avail ourselves of the provisions of Redemption which Christ has purchased by the atonement which He hath made for sin by freely offering Himself an infinite sacrifice for the sin of as many, as choose, by Faith unto Salvation. So it is as we approach the limit of our years, that we are either given to the kingdom of Christ, or the kingdom of Satan, who will control our lives throughout all the years of our eternal existence. We come down to the narrow house, the com- mon lot of all mankind, and our bodies return to the elements of the earth, but the spirit goes to its Maker. I here call your attention to the fact that the soul has been being made through all the years between the birth and the death. Adam did not become a living soul until God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and here I am constrained to say that if the soul departs from its tenement of clay before the mind 238 THE DOOR OPENED. (which, is the judge) arrives to the years of ac- countability, a stage of intelligence which en- ables the child to make a choice or determine whether the good or evil is desirable, that soul will go to God ; but the soul that departs this life after that age, will go to the Spiritual Father which controlled that life while in the body. The soul that has been developed by the power of the Holy Spirit will go into the presence of God to await the redemption of the body, but the soul that has been led by Satan will go into the habitation of the damned to await the death of the resurrected spiritual bod}^, in the great day of Judgment. This is the second death. The wicked soul remains in the dominion of Satan in the region of the dead. The kingdom of Satan extends from the center of the earth to its circumference. Satan and his angels go about the earth, entering into natural existences at will, and also enter into the minds of men. The earthly is used in the Scricptures to repre- sent the Satanic elements, and the spiritual to represent the Heavenly Powers. The god of this world was ejected from the presence of God because of his pride and his ambition to be greater than the Son of God. Relatively speaking of heavenly things, these twain were the Cherubim covering the Ark of Testimony, the one on the right hand and the other on the left, on the Throne in FROM DEATH TO THE RESURRECTION. 239 Heaven. These two anointed Cherubs covered the Mercy Seat. When they came to the earth their names were changed. Michael is called Christ, and Lucifer is called Satan. In Ezekiel, xxviii,-i3-i4-i5, we find written of Satan: "Thou hast been in Eden, the gar- den of God ; every precious stone was thy cov- ering: the Sardius, Topaz and the Diamond, the Beryl, the Onyx and the Jasper, the Sap- phire, the Emerald and the Carbuncle and Gold ; the workmanship of thy Tabrets and of thy Pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth, and I have set thee so ; thou wast upon the Holy Mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire ; thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee ; by the multitude of thy mer- chandise, they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned ; therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the Mountain of God, and I will destry thee, oh covering Cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire." From this description of the origin, charac- ter and history of Satan it becomes plain that his kingdom belongs to the earth, and that his riches and honor and glory are laid up in the everlasting hills. The earth has been his covering; the garments of his praise have 240 THE DOOR OPENED. been hid in the depths of the earth. The en- ticements of this world have always glittered with Satanic glory ; the precious stones that sit enthroned in golden bands npon the hands, or sparkling, dangle from the ear, have claimed the love, the admiration and the praise of souls who seek and pray and toil to gain the mammon of unrighteousness. When Israel sinned in Horeb's mount, and gathered round the golden calf, they did no more than worship that, their won ten eyesight longed to see in form of fire inanimate. These stones of fire have ever led the minds of men to sin in seeking gain of gold. If to love, to laud, to seek, to want, make up the sum of earthly praise and glory, surely Satan has enough to claim the empire all his own. No wonder then that God should give him every glittering gem for a garment of praise, and in his eternal habi- tation a covering of fire. As we pursue the course of the spiritual be- tween death and the resurrection, we are com- pelled to follow the course of the natural world to describe the course the spirit takes in the spiritual world ; therefore, as the soul is given a choice between the good and the evil, in the springtime of its existence perhaps, the com- pany of mankind take up their spiritual develop- ment by two roads that lead in opposite direc- tions. The development of the soul, which FROM DEATH TO THE RESURRECTION. 24 1 began in the valley of decision, goes on in the same direction in its eternal existence nntil it arrives at the final perfection of its kind, and as the idea of perfection is developed, that which seemed to be the heigh th of excellence is also developed into an infinitude of more infinite perfection; however, the relation existing be- tween the spirit and its Maker in this life, of necessity places the Creator above the works of his hand. So in the eternal life that same re- lation of superiority will be maintained ; thus, while progressing development continues to un- fold the mysteries of intellectual profundities in the spiritual eternity of the life of the soul, the the same endless development of intellectual power and excellence which is natural to the spirit, becomes the supernatural attribute of the spiritual Father; therefore the relation between the parent and the offspring are the same — yes- terday, to-day and forever. This difference be- tween them gives to the superior the unchange- able attribute of the character by which we are led to understand the character of their dispo- sition toward us. The things that God has in store for his children are not more excellent in their nature of producing happiness, than the things which Satan has in store for his children in producing misery; thus, while the soul that is born of the spirit of God develops toward the perfect image 16 242 THE DOOR OPENED. of the intellectual spiritual excellence of Jeho- vah, the unsanctified spirit of the damned de- velops toward the image of the satanic, the hellish, the infernal. But as the region of the dead envelops the body of the natural man in the corruption of decay, with what body do they come to the Resurrection? The body of Christ, in which he was crucified, was the same body with which he came back to his natural life,, for Thomas would not believe that Christ arose from the tomb un- til he thrust his hand in the wounded side wherein he was pierced, or saw the print of the nails in his hands. The only son of the widow of Nain was restored to his natural life in order that he might continue to be the support of his mother. And likewise Lazarus, when he had been dead four days, was restored to life for the comfort and support of his sisters, Mary and Martha. But while these all prove conclusively to us that the body will be raised to an eternal existence by the power of God, whose power is sufficient to give life, form and activity to the dust of the earth, they do not teach us that the soul and body will be united in an eternal mar- riage and have one form, except under the con- ditions laid down in the law of the tomb of Christ. If we have been baptized into His death, we shall be raised by Him in the Resurrection of the Just ; but if we are not partakers of His FROM DEATH TO THE RESURRECTION. 243 Salvation, we shall be raised by Him in the Resurrection of Condemnation; so that, if in this life, we have been made partakers of eternal life with Christ, we shall be raised in glory. This earthly tenement of clay, which is cor- ruptible, in death is given to corruption ; so, as it was sown a natural body, it will be raised a spiritual body ; and as the natural body, which was made in the image of the Creator, by sin became corrupt and was given to decay, so the natural body crucified together with Christ by the power of the regeneration by the Holy Ghost, having endured the thorns of Satan in the flesh, is given to decay, in the purifying of the flesh unto the sanctification of the spiritual body in the perfection of the image of Christ, our Lord and Redeemer, in the day when He comes to be glorified in his Saints at the mar- riage supper of the Lamb. When He cometh with clouds, in his great power and glory, the bodies of the Just will be united in an ever- lasting bond of union with the soul of the body to which it belongs. That is to say, that the spiritual body of those who have lived godly in the earth will be raised out of the regions of the dead to meet its own spirit coming with Christ out of Heaven, and the body being caught up, will meet the spirit with Christ in the air. The spirit of Abraham will enter the glorified body of Abraham, the spirit of David enter the 244 THE DOOR OPENED. glorified body of David; each spirit entering into its own body, and then altogether, the alto- gether perfected humanity made divine in glory will come down to earth and join the march triumphal of Christ, entering the New Jerusa- lem, the heavenly temple of God on earth; the house which hath foundations whose maker and builder is God. We very naturally inquire, what is the body like in which we enter the gates of praise? The parable of the sower will explain this for us. The grains of wheat are sown, some falling among thorns, some in stony places, and some in good ground ; the grains that fall into good ground spring up (a type of the Resurrection) and bear fruit, some a hundred fold, some sixty fold, and some thirty fold of the same grain as that which was sown in the field. We can not tell the difference between the different grains in a handfull of wheat, except that some are larger than others. Each grain is perfect after its kind. The Lord made man in the image of God, a perfect man before he fell, subsisting upon the word of God and the things that support the natural man. As by the first, Adam, all must die, so by the second, which is a quickening spirit, we shall come in the likeness of Him who hath begotten us again from the dead. Like as the first, bore the image of the earthly, so we shall bear the image of the FROM DEATH TO THE RESURRECTION. 245 Heavenly. It will not make any difference if we shall have been maimed or halt or blind, or otherwise deformed, in this life, we will come in the Resurrection with a body which has all the perfections of the human body, except so far as our bodies are the creation of our own corrup- tion, which have developed to satisfy the needs of our sinful nature. We will also have all the developments of the spiritual, which will be necessitated by the conditions of the spiritual economy. "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." As we know each other in society on earth, so will we know each other in the spirit world. If we were not to walk the golden street, I would say that we should have no feet nor limbs ; if w^e were not to clap our hands for joy, I would say that we should have no hands nor arms. If we sing praises, if we love, if we eat the spiritual meat which Elijah went in for forty days, from the desert of sin to the city of Damascus, what shall we say then ; but that as the natural, so is the spiritual, only that it is glorified, some a hundred fold, some sixty fold, some thirty fold. If we have any power of emotion, energy or in- telligence, they shall increase, some thirty, some sixty and some a hundred fold, and they that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars, for ever and ever. When Elisha came over Jordan from the translation of Elijah, his 246 THE DOOR OPENED. face shone as a mirror ; Avhen Moses came down out of Sinia at the end of forty days from the presence of God, his face shone as the face of an angel. But if they shine with light on such oc- casions, with what glory must they shine when they come in their own bodies at the Resurrec- tion of the Just? With the ungodly it is not so. The resur- rection of the unsaved does not take place until one thousand years after the resurrection of the justified. The reason for this will be given in a chapter by itself, in an account of "The Work of a Thousand Years," covering the great day of Judgment. The Resurrection, like death, is the common lot of all men. It is an experience that comes to the body only, but to the bodies of all men alike. But the bodies of all men are not alike in their resurrection. When the wicked are raised, their bodies come with the same perfec- tions as the first man, Adam; their spirits come out of Perdition together with Satan, their king, and the fallen angels come with them, very like the manner described as at the coming of Christ with all his holy angels, except that they enter their bodies in the regions of the dead, while the bodies of the Elect are caught up to meet the Lord in the air. These lost spirits in prison go into their own bodies and come up out of the earth and out of the sea from the four quarters FROM DEATH TO THE RESURRECTION. 247 of the earth, wherever their natural bodies had returned to the elements. The infernal hier- archy circling round wherever man is found to gather them together to battle. The children of Satan are delighted with their new bodies, because they are so much better than the old ones. These bodies are not like the bodies of of the Elect, but actual human bodies, made perfect after the pattern of the first man, Adam, having all the functions of the human anatomy just the same as any good specimen of physical manhood which we see in the world to-day. But what will they look like when they come? If you will go with me in your mind's eye and stand on the mount of the Celestial City and look at them through the glorified vision of the celestial eye, you will see their dark, swarthy features, the most terrific and savage, the most unholy visage, even more so than human eye- sight has ever been compelled to witness; de- pravity complete, which to behold, you never could forget. Pope says: "Vice is a monster of so frightful a mein, That to be hated, needs but to be seen." These wicked men who once practiced sin and gloried in their own shame on the earth, have come to life again, with souls intensified with intellectual power in devising mischief, inventing sin and engendering the savage im- pulses of their diabolical natures. 248 THE DOOR OPENED. The earth that was once the scene of pros- perity and industry, commercial wealth, and the home of the good, the noble and the true, had been devastated by war and famine, and flood and fire, to appease the wrath of their angry god who stirreth them up to war. But now these works of the wicked are a thing of the past. " For the former things have passed away, and all things have become new." When Satan and his angels have stirred up the satanic impulses of men in their second life upon earth, until they become a raging wave of foam like on a maddened sea, he gathers them together and devises a plan to lay siege against the Holy City. His army are a host innumer- able as the sands upon the sea-shore. Satan's rage knew no bounds, he having been committed to the bottomless pit during a thousand years in which there was not left one man upon the earth for him to lead away from God. He fancied that he had conquered the world in bringing death upon all men ; now he realizes that Christ had conquered death by being obedient unto death himself, in that he afterward arose and with the power of the Resurrection brought mortality to life, for death was swallowed up in victory and Christ was King of kings. Satan knew that his time on earth was short, and yet desired to try once more to grasp the crown by over- coming Christ and destroying the beloved city. FROM DEATH TO THE RESURRECTION. 249 The battle once begun in Heaven, was raging still in the bosoms of the brave; he felt the power of his great foe, and yet he thought to lay a plan by which it seemed not impossible he might become the conqueror. This gained, his dominion in the earth would be a better place than that from which he just came out. But if he was to be the god of this new world, he must set up his kingdom now and be prepared for war. When the children of Satan found them- selves living as men upon earth again, they wondered if it were not the purpose of God to place them on probation again, to see if He could not persuade them to believe and follow the Saviour, and thereby gain eternal life with Him in the Celestial City. They remember how that they had closed their ears against the prayers and entreaties of friends, and would not hear the word of God or believe the teacher who said that after death there was to be a Judg- ment in which the wicked would be condemned and banished from the presence of God. They had been taught to believe that God is merciful and good, and that Christ died for sinners, and therefore the ungodly would fare as well as those who did so much praying. Then they thought that if death came to all men, that because Christ arose from the dead, certainly all men would live again, and at least be as happy as they were while they were living. They knew 250 THE DOOR OPENED. that the Christians were taught not to lie nor swear nor steal, but they thought that every man had a right to do what he liked best, there- fore, if the Christians were not fools, they would mind their own business and let them alone. However, the Christians had a right to follow their superstitions and enjoy themselves the best they knew how. They had no objection to the church buildings on the corners, because they were an ornament to the city, and gave the com- munity the appearance of respectability, but the. poor deluded fanatics who went there were blind to the interests of the community, and the prop- erty yielded no income to the public treasury, while on the other hand it was a burden on the people, and the Church did not approve of any way of getting money except to work for it, when the facts of the case are that the world owes every man a living and lots of fun, and every man has a right to get it the best way he can. On the other hand, the saloon was a thing that all the people wanted, and beside, it gave the people a chance to be sociable, and once in a while, when they get a little blue, there is noth- ing in the world that will drown sorrow and make men feel rich and happy like a little wine, and of course its no difference whether a man drinks water, beer, whisky or champagne, be- cause men have to drink something, and if they don't drink one thing, they will another, and FROM DEATH TO THE RESURRECTION. 25 r the temperance people all have a jug in the cel- lar, and only stay out of the grog shop to make people think they are good. Then they said that everybody knew that a man could do just as he pleased, and if men wanted to make the most of life and have a good time in their own way, they thought as long as they did what they thought was right, they stood as good a chance to get to Heaven as anybody else. Now the poor fools, alive again, begin to reason in this wise : We are here again, our life is perfect, and we have been given a new life, and although our course did not seem to be right according to some people's crazy way of thinking, here we are again, alive forever, and I don't see why we might not just as well go on and have a good time just as we did before. Then a rich man stood up who had lived in Jerusalem near the Temple, and he said that when he lived there he had plenty of money and a good, comfortable home which he had bought with his own money, and he then thought the enjoyment he had was at least a great deal better than that the people had who went to Church to get happy and shout and sing; but his wine cellar was full of great delight, and he preferred to read his paper, to see who was in the city to buy real estate, as he had a hole in a corner, and if he could soak someone in a real estate trade it would make him feel good, because a fool and his 252 THE DOOR OPENED. money were soon parted, so lie enjoyed life as He went along. Bnt one day lie took sick, and be- cause he had never gone to Church, nor was ac- quainted with any of the Christians, he did'nt like to let them know that he was afraid to die. He felt very bad because he saw it was getting dark, and he knew that he was dying, and he did'nt know where he was going, and he was troubled about his wealth and property which he liad to leave behind. He knew that some time he would really have to meet the grim monster, death, and he remembered how tbe Jews had killed a man who claimed to be the Saviour of the world, and that had been made a king in Heaven, who was to condemn all the people who did not believe what he said, and it was a hor- rible thing to have to be called into account of liow he got his wealth. But it got darker all the time and he suffered terribly, when all at once he opened his eyes in a place where there were thousands of people who were profane and filthy and savage, and they all wore a look of dreadful fear and rage in their faces, and they were cruel and quarrelsome and savage, and they put in their whole time fighting and cutting each other with stones and crying; having a savage feast a thousand times grander than any they had ever had on the earth. Just outside of the place in which they were confined there was a deep, dark ditch that they could not get over, FROM DEATH TO THE RESURRECTION. 253 because if they went over on the other side, the light was so strong they could not endure it, and there was no way for them to get out of the horrible pit, and if it were possible for them to get out, their life would certainly be worse than it was in there. To be sure it was not very pleasant to hear the ones who got hurt all the time always gnashing their teeth and weeping, but certainly they had all come in there as a matter of their own choice. However all the spirits confined in that place could come to the sides of the pit and look out, if they were not revelling in a grand debauchery or quarreling in the lower regions of Hell. Of course we all chose our society in that place, and if one wants to be a little moderate he does'nt need to go into those great fights and savage feasts. So I went up to the impassible gulf one day, and looking out beyond, I saw a man whom I recognized as the blind beggar Lazarus, who a long time ago lay at my gate in Jerusalem full of sores. The sight of him was dreadful to me, because that man in Jerusalem was a common beggar, and one day he wanted me to give him the crumbs that fell from my table, and I thought that if he were starved to death he would not disgrace my property with his presence any more, and every body around there would be glad if he were out of the way, so I thought, just to be charitable to my neighbors on a grand scale once in my life, ^54 ?HE DOOR OPENED. I would refuse to give him anything to eat and thereby do the community a great favor, one that everybody would appreciate. "The poor man died." But when I looked into the place where he was, it was nicer and richer and grander than anything I ever saw before, and he had everything he wanted, and I heard the sweetest music that I ever heard, and that blind beggar Lazarus was clad in white and his face beamed with joy and his eyes sparkled with de- light. He was sitting on a throne in a position of great honor. He looked like a priest in his long white robe. I called to him and he heard me and looked and listened. I was so thirsty, and I had no water or wine like I used to have, my throat burned and my tongue was parched, and I was tormented with intense thirst. I asked if he would not give me just a drop of cold water to cool my parched tongue, for I saw in there a pure river of water of life, but he said, " between us and thee there is a great gulf fixed that we can not pass over." Then I asked him if he would not send some one to my five brothers in Jerusalem and tell them that they come not to this place of torment ; but he said, "They have the Law and the Prophets, if they will not hear them, they would not believe, though one rose from the dead." Then I re- membered a saying that I once heard like this : "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with FROM DEATH TO THE RESURRECTION. 255 thy might; for there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave, whither thon goest." Bnt now that that dreadful pun- ishment is past, and we are here again, we may as well make the best of our lives, for I don't suppose that we will ever die again, and if we do it will be our own fault. So far as I am con- cerned, I know that others were a great deal more miserable than I was, and I think it best to profit by past experience; we will get along better if we are moderate in our way of living. He became silent, and Herod the king of Palestine, stood up and told how he conquered his family, and cut off the generation of Jesus, who he thought wanted to take his kingdom ; and he said that he was famous for slaughtering the innocents, because if Christ had all those little boys and girls on his side when they were grown up to mature years, they would have been able to take his crown. He said, my family, too, seemed to be scheming to defeat my plans, but I beat them all by chopping their heads off, and I am very proud of my achievements ; but those boys, Pilate and Agrippa, that I left, did the same way, only that they were too weak and timid. However, Christ and John the Baptist were gotten rid of. But in that place where we have just come out of, they have tried to kill me for their mother and brothers' sake, which I slew. In that place they sought revenge and 256 THE DOOR OPENED. were fighting me all the time, wounding me, and my pains were terrible all the time, but the wounds closed up at once, and I think I am proof against anything; so if anybody has a quarrel with me we will settle the matter now. He was foolish enough to think that his new body was like his spirit, impervious to the the thrusts of death. Then he became quiet, and Satan and his angels, who had by this time infused the people's minds with a savage thirst for war, spake on this wise: " Kings, priests, potentates, powers, I am your god and king; if you will obey me, be- cause I am greater than you all, in that I have ever led mankind to follow my instructions everywhere, from Adam down to the last man upon the earth, who laid aside his garb of flesh in my last great battle, Armagedden, with God Almighty, and thereby brought you thence from Hell, by my great power and might, and have given you this resurrection of a more perfect body. If you will still follow me, I will show you what great things I have in store for all my children. When I have given you my law, and divided the dominion, I will set my chiefs upon thrones, each one to be a king. I will set apart the priesthood that my ministers may stand in the presence of the king to minister unto my children that they be kept faithful in their work, FROM DEATH TO THE RESURRECTION. 257 and I will give unto the priests for prophets each one a company of my angels, that the priests may be filled with the spirit of their great father and their god. We are here upon our new stage of life, and we shall work in the various stations that our minds may be strengthened and devel- oped toward the perfections of your allwise God. When we were on the earth before, our bodies were so frail that as soon as we began to have a feast of revely, or a great slaughter in the com- bats of the arena of the circus, our bodies opened up to the edge of the sword and our blood ran out till we became weak and fell down and died. But now that we have been in Hell, where we fought continually without coming to our end, because we had no blood to spill, but were filled with the spirit of my great power, we have come to a more perfect existence, and will be able to carry on more wonderful exploits. " This is the Law which I give you that you, by keeping it, may become great and strong : The Devil's Commandments. First. Thou shalt not mention the name of Christ, nor let his word come into 3^our heart, nor into your mouth. Second. Thou shalt trouble those who trouble you, render ye to every man the same things which they render unto you ; an eye for an eye, a wound for a wound, that ye may be 17 258 THE DOOR OPENED. avenged upon all your enemies. Third. Thou shalt hate one another with all malice, envy and deceipt. Fourth. Thou shalt deceive one another with all cunning deA^ices and lying and taking away of their strength, their inventions and their in- trigues, that ye may become famous in taking peace from the mind and heart of many. Fifth. Thou shalt not on any occasion speak truthfully about anything, because in so doing thou wilt take away the glory and power of the the spirit which gives thee strength to do won- ders in your feasts of slaughter. Sixth. Thou shalt desire thy neighbor's wife and his property, or anything that he has, which will make thee great. Seventh. Thou shalt in no wise wear a sor- rowful look or be down-cast when ye are over- come in war, but thou shalt carry thy head with pride and great pomp; for the weak cry out when they are wounded, and they gnash their teeth when the} T feel any pain; but ye shall shout when ye are thrust through with the sword, and swear great words of damnation, curs- ing with anger, and hateful and spiteful and filthy names. Eighth. After this manner shall ye pray: Oh, Satan, thou great father and spirit of the damned in Hell, thy habitation, and on earth thy kingdom. Give us thy spirit and thy power FROM DEATH TO THE RESURRECTION. 259 that we may delight ourselves in slaughter; fill us with wrath and envy and strife, and send thy angels into our minds to teach us how to con- quer our enemies ; fill us with all subtil ty that we may deceive our foes, and at last give us a place of great honor in thy kingdom. Ninth. When thou shalt find any that sit still and do nothing in my kingdom, or are fear- ful in war, thou shalt bind them in chains and put them in a place where they can not see our great works, nor have a part in the feasts of war until they are filled with wrath, and are willing to come out and fight like a man. Tenth. If thou shalt find anything in the earth which Jesus Christ or the Christians have done, or if ye find a Christian anywhere, thou shalt command him to come with thee, and if he refuse to do it, thou shalt strike him with thy sword and burn him with fire in the presence of all my priests and kings and angels. "This is my Law and my Commandments, which, if ye will keep, ye shall sit with me on my throne of fire, when ye come to the great feasts of waves in the throne of my glory. " Cain shall be king over the people who lived before the flood ; Ham over the inhabitants of Arabia and Africa; Pharoah over Egypt; Ahab over Samaria; in Judah there shall be two kings, the Lords of Tyre and Sidon ; in Baby- lon the Lord of Sodom and Gamorreh; around 260 THE door opened. the Great Sea I have set Herod the Great to be king, because he is very famous in slaughter; Julian shall be king of kings over all the great empire, and shall go with me as a great consel- lor in giving strength and wisdom to all my kings. When ye go to your own places in this third stage of our existence, ye shall choose the next in power, below the great ones which I have set over you for kings, to be your priests. Ye shall choose those who have been most obe- dient to my law, and they shall teach you all things that you shall do. "Now I must leave you for awhile, go your way and prepare yourselves for war, and I will come again to see how you are getting along. And when I come again, we will gather ourselves together in the great feast of the gods, for we are allwise, and if ye keep my law till I come again, I will take you with me, that where I am there shall ye be also." CHAPTER VII. THE NEW HEAVENS AND THE NEW EARTH. The closing scenes of the inhabitable period of the earth have broken the mountains in pieces, overthrown the cities, and utterly des- troyed the face of nature. The intense heat of the lower atmosphere, which the Prophet Malachi calls an oven, burns up all the works of man everywhere. The trees, all vegetation, and everything that once adorned the earth, together with all seeds of every kind, are burned and come to their end, for the time has come when there shall be no more curse. The earth has been purified, but is without form, and void, ac- cording to another Prophet ; that is to say, that it is in much the same condition it was before the six days work of Creation, after the time when the waters that were under the firmament were separated from the waters which were above the firmament, when the dry land appeared and the sun became visible, had there been anyone to see it, which was not so when the clouds of vapor were thick and close to the surface of the earth. There was no man upon the face of the whole earth, and all was desolate and drear. 261 262 THE DOOR OPENED. The heat, it may be, will have been sufficient to burn the stones of large buildings into lime, but the picture in Revelation of the fowls of heaven gathering themselves together to the supper of the Great God, would indicate that the bodies of men and horses and cattle will not be literally burned into ashes, and yet their com- plete extinction is described, being as ashes under the feet of the righteous ; that is, if the righteous were to come at this juncture of the wasting destruction of man, beast, cities and vegetation, they would walk in the ashes of the wicked. But at this time the righteous are caught up in the air with Christ, their own souls coming out of Heaven, and all the holy angels with them; so we mark the point in these changing scenes where the Scriptures say, "And there was no man." There can be no doubt but that the destiny of the earth, our world, is the common destiny of all inhabitable spheres when they have run their allotted course. Then, if it be true that each sphere of the universe experiences periods of constant change, passing from one condition to another, it is also true that these changes are brought about in a manner that can in no way interfere with the great natural laws by which God maintains the perpetual motion of the works of His hands. The perfection of natural law comprehends the effectual working of all the conditions to which these spheres are sub- jected, to bring about the changed condition which is necessitated by the changed condition of the inhabitants, for whose needs and happi- ness they were created. God satisfieth the de- sire of every living thing ; so if the earth is to be the eternal home of the Elect, the changes to be made will fit up the New Earth to satisfy the needs of all those who are to dwell in it. These changes will take place according to natural law, so far as the universe is concerned, at the disposition of God's hand, but the out- ward form, dress and adornment of the earth will necessitate a new, and it may be, an instan- taneous creation, which is not impossible with God, who by the word of His power hath called into existence all things, both animate and in- animate. I can conceive that if the sun were turned back so many degrees, or made to stand still as it appeared, as recorded in Scripture, that it would be brought about by stopping the diurnal revolution of the earth upon its axis for a time, which would in no way effect any of the other spheres. So I am led to believe that this will be the way in which the earth will experi- ence an Eternal Day. But, as according to natural law, only half of the earth is lighted by the sun at one time, while the other side is left in darkness, in order to maintain perpetual day on one side and perpetual night on the other, the 264 THE DOOR OPENED. earth, instead of making a dinrnal will make an anual revolution upon its axis, by which, the same side will always enjoy the sunlight. It is possible that the action of the elements in the destruction of the earth, in which the islands fled away and the mountains were not found, may so change the surface of the earth as to cause the seas to run down to their place on the other side, and the dry land appear on the side upon which the sun will shine in Eternal Day. The diurnal motion of the earth could be changed suddenly, in which case the waters would rush over the continents and sweep them clean, leveling the mountains, filling the valleys and cleansing the elevated sections; the velocity of the revolutions could be retarded gradually. There could be no difference in the result. Then again, the heavens are to be rolled up as a scroll, which will literally come to pass, in that they can not be seen. We can not see the stars, and the moon does not shine in a natural day, but the day that is contemplated in the eternity of this world is to be very different from our natural day. Although John says: ''They have no need of the sun," in the New Jerusalem, he does not say that it will not shine on this side of the earth ; and while I can be- lieve that Christ will lighten the city with His glory so inemble that the sun can not be seen by those who remain in the New Jerusalem, I THE NEW HEAVENS AND THE NEW EARTH. 265 believe that the people of Heaven will be per- mitted to go out of the city to the utmost con- fines of day, and here they will have need of the light of the sun, and they may see his face ; and so I believe the glory of Christ will ever outshine the splendor of the eternal day, and that glory can be seen afar, that all the host of Heaven may distinguish their glorious King where\ T er He goes in nature's boundless realm. After the destruction of the works of man, and the dust and smoke and clouds have been carried away, the atmosphere will be very differ- ent. The Tropical region under the present conditions experiences perpetual summer, and as warmth is conducive to health and happiness, we conclude that the dr} r land upon which the day shines will be within the Temperate and Tropical Zones, or, to speak more definitely, the heat of the Tropics and the cold of the Polar regions will be so assimulated as to produce an eternal Spring over one-half of the earth's surface. The origin of heat is found partly in the sun, partly in the friction of the rays of light passing through the air, and partly by the velocity of the earth's surface coming in con- tact with the air in its diurnal rotation upon its axis. The air is in a state of rest as regards the surface of the earth in the rotary motion. While the earth moves in its orbit at the rate of 68,000 266 THE DOOR OPENED. miles an hour, the atmosphere is carried along- with it, and is therefore in a state of rest ; but the earth revolves under the atmosphere as a wheel within a wheel, and while the earth has a velocity of 1042 miles an hour at the Equator, at the points known as the Poles it has no motion at all; thus while the Tropics receive the direct rays of the sun throughout the whole year, they also have the heat produced by the friction of the earth upon the air, which de- creases toward the Poles both by the slant of the sun's rays and the distance the surface travels as we approach the Poles. The different temperatures of the air in different regions give the atmosphere a motion within and of itself apart from that which the motion of the earth upon its axis gives it. The heat of commerce and manufacturies furnish no little assistance to these motions, so also the inclinations of the Poles have much to do with the temperature of the air. This also has much to do with the movements of the air around the earth, and in and through itself. When the impurities of the atmosphere are cleared away in the changed condition of the New Earth, the conditions which produce im- purity in the air having become a thing of the past, the sun's rays not meeting with the same impediments in passing through the air, will lose much of their heat, while the power of the THE NEW HEAVENS AND THE NEW EARTH. 267 light will be more effectual ; also, when the di- urnal revolution of the earth is changed into an anual motion, the heat from this source will be cut off. When all these important factors of motion cease to operate upon the earth, the mo- tions of the air will be almost impreceptible and yet be sufficient to produce the necessary con- dition of an Eternal Spring. The Word says: u And there was no more sea." It is not necessary for the fulfillment of this prophecy that the waters of the sea should be literally dried up for the establishment of the truth of the statement. The statement that on the fourth day God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night, does not imply that He created out of nothing the sun, moon and stars on the fourth day after he created the earth ; but it does teach us that if we could have been stand- ing on the earth at the beginning of the six days of creation, on the fourth day, when the clouds were carried away, we could have seen the sun, moon and stars just as they appear to men to-day. So far as Ave should have been able to conceive at that time, God revealed the greater and lesser lights. We should not then have been prepared to understand that the greater light was the cen- tral and controlling power of that system of worlds of which ours is but a little part. The 268 THE DOOR OPENED. revelation was made according to our powers of conception then, and not according to the actual facts, and while the revelation was all true, we could not have been prepared to receive the whole truth, yet what was revealed was revealed in the only way that we could understand. As things existed differently then from what they appear- ed, very likely the description we have of the earth after it is fitted up for the eternal abode of the elect of God, will not correspond with our present conception of it ; and yet by our endeavors to learn more of God and of what we shall be in his presence and what we shall enjoy, we may be led to improve our minds and our souls for the experiences in which we are to find eternal joy and eternal life. The statement then, that the seas under the new conditions may run down to the shades of endless night on the other side of the earth, would in no way interfere with its equilibrium and would establish the truth of the statement, " And there was no more sea," because the twi- light, between the confines of day and the realms of night, covering a space of sixty miles, wrap- ping the sea in garments of thick darkness, which no vision of the children of light could penetrate, would take away from their knowl- edge forever the idea of the existence of a sea; therefore, the statement is true and the saying THE NEW HEAVENS AND THE NEW EARTH. 269 faithful in that we are told " And there was no more sea." The bare earth could not be beautiful with- out its carpet of green, neither would it be fra- grant without flowers. The beautiful sunsets will be impossible to an eternal day, and the blue dome of the arching canopy above us now will be obliterated in the infinitude of the spirit- ual vision. The cloud in the lower heavens could have no place where the conditions of life made no demands upon them, as there will be no rain in a spiritualized material world. If the surface of the earth were covered with a carpet of bright green, variegated with flowers of every imaginable variety and shade of the seven pri- mary colors, mingled into innumerable tints springing from a back ground of bright green, the immortal being with delicate yet acute per- ception could never weary in contemplation of the earth adorned by the taste, the perfection and the beauty with which the Divine Hand had so wondrously wrought to animate an Eternal Spring. No thorn, shall spring with the rose, Nor weed, from the carpet of green. Yet with all this beauty spread over the ground, the even landscape would not show its perfec- tion, for the variety of light and shade creates new wonders for display. The valley, the hill and the plain will still remain where the hand 270 THE DOOR OPENED. •of God Has placed them to break up the echoes, resounding from " Heaven's melodious choir" for, u the lofty arch will gather and roll back the sound of anthems" to Heaven's remotest bound and every listening ear will catch the cycling forms of harmony and love which roll from throne to throne of mountain altar glorious. Though hill and mountain, valley, plain and woodland deck the earth with bursting bud and springing flower, with fragrant air around, the sparkling stream and mountain rill, the gently flowing crystal river which even glides where waves of discord never rise, would add new beaut} T to the scene, and I confess I must believe a thing made possible by none with les- ser power than He who gave us being in our eternal home. It is a well known fact that the Jordan river has its source in a series of lakes fed from springs from the foothills of Mount Lebanus. There are many channels carved out through the rocks under the surface of the ground form- ing water courses wide and deep and long as a river by which we are assured that God could maintain a system of rivers without the assist- ance of either rain or snow. The atmosphere around the earth is one of the means by which nourishment is given to vegitation. The air and the soil have in them the elements that sustain vegetable life. I think THE NEW HEAVENS AND THE NEW EARTH. 27 I it possible that the sustaining qualities of the atmosphere of the new earth will be of such a character as to sustain the life of our glorified bodies without the assistance of the products of the soil and the things which we now require that subsist upon those products. We are told that we shall eat fruit and drink water, and how- ever prone we are to suppose that these words are used figuratively, they are no less true, for what pleasure would we be deprived of should we neither eat nor drink. We are also told that we shall never thirst, and we shall hunger no more, but however this may be, I am satisfied that we shall both eat and drink. The atmosphere will supply the necessities of the spiritual body, while eating and drinking will be luxuries that we will be permitted to enjoy to gratify our sense of taste, for drinking will only be an abundance of the same water of life which our new bodies may take in with the breath — with the air or drink from the clear rivers of water of life. The fruit that we may gather from the trees which yield their fruit every month will be of such a character as to have all the peculiar natural flavor of its kind, yet in its chemical and structural formation there will be nothing but that which our new bodies can dispose of by the same process by which our bodies will take in nutriment from the air. The outward form and construction of our glorified bodies 272 THE door opened. will be apparently the same as they are now. We will have all the senses and emotions in a perfected state. We will have lnngs to breathe with, or- gans of speech, minds to will, nerves to com- municate, and muscles to perform whatever movements we desire. We will have no blood like in our natural bodies, neither any of our present economy by which our sustention is pro- vided for, as we shall be sustained by the air we breathe. What apparel we shall have need of, God can supply of linen pure and clean. I know that we shall have no shame, for we shall have no cause to be ashamed, and none of the condi- tions or temptations which bring us to shame, and yet I believe that we shall be clad in white wrobes which shall be kept pure and white by the power of God. These interpretations of Scripture may be shocking to our too would-be spiritual ideas, but when we remember the double meaning which so many Scriptures have, I don't think a little material will be out of place along with our spiritual existence in the glorified state where all is material except our spirits. For the meek shall inherit the earth ; Christ says so in his ser- mon on the Mount. And again that he creates a new Heaven and a new Earth ; also, he prom- ised his disciples to come again. I might be- lieve different things about Heaven than these, but as I have applied the safe guide by inter- THE NEW HEAVENS AND THE NEW EARTH. 273 preting the Scriptures by the Scriptures ■, led by the Spirit which it is promised will lead us into all Truth ; as I believe in Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, with the same Faith I be- lieve I am telling at least a part of the Truth. The finite can not enter the Infinite, but the Infinite can enter the finite, and use the finite to speak the Truth. The ungodly can not know, but " the wise shall understand. " I do not think that any of the conditions that cause decay will enter into the New Heavens and the New Earth ; neither do I think that anything will have an existence ex- cept what is conducive to the most perfect peace and happiness. There will be no more sorrow, neither sighing or tears while the streams of joy will flow on forever and ever and we shall have rest from sin and Satan for Christ will be all in all. Another matter of interest in connection with the New Earth is the weight of bodies. Weight is the force with which anything is drawn to the earth. Thus if it were not for the attraction of gravitation, the earth could not be held together, while the objects on its surface would fly off into space at a right angle to a line drawn from the center of the earth to the point where the object rests on its surface. The force of gravitation is applied to matter to prevent this, so that the object acted upon need not be 18 274 THE DOOR OPENED. conscious of the existence of the law to retain its position. This force acts upon the particles of matter, therefore the weight of any body depends upon the number of the particles of matter contained in that body; so that just as proportionately the number of particles are in- creased or decreased, so will its weight be. The revolution of the earth upon its axis necessi- tates gravitation, hence if the velocity of the earth's surface be increased, so must the attrac- tion of gravitation be increased, or vice-versa. If a body weighs 365 lbs. when the earth rotates upon its axis once every twenty-four hours, then it will only need to weigh one pound when the earth completes one revolution in 365 days. The centrifugal and the centripetal forces must be equal in order to leave any object in a state of rest. These changes being affected in the New Earth, if the number of particles of which the earth is composed, and I see no reason why they should be, the number of particles of mat- ter in the spiritual body will have to be decreas- ed in the ratio of 365 to 1 in order to leave it in a state of rest (that is to say unconscious of weight), hence the weight of the Spiritual Body will be decreased so that the man who now weighs 150 lbs. will then weigh only 1M of one pound, and yet maintain his natural size. In view of the changes made to harmonize the natural forces, we are not astonished that the THE NEW HEAVENS AND THE NEW EARTH. 275 weight of the spiritual body should be so little. Only the material parts of the spiritual body have any weights at all, for the natural can not at- tract the spiritual. It is so here also. The soul has no weight. The fine, tenacious material strengthened with divinity will give form and power ; such power so far exceeding our present natural forces, rendering fatigue impossible Our spiritual bodies can be seen, felt or handled not alone by the inhabitants of the New Earth, but also by man with the present natural facili- ties of perception. I need not remind you that those men in bright apparel were so, which stood with the disciples at the ascension of Christ ; or Moses and Elias, which stood with Him in the Mount of Transfiguration ; or to go back to the time when the men (angels) came to lead Lot out of Sodom. They took hold of his hand and hasted him out of the city. Lot felt the power of more than human force drawing him along. But not wishing to extenuate in this matter, we will take a glance at the powers of locomo- tion or other motions desirable in our spiritual existence, and go on to the Work of a Thousand Years, in which we live and reign with Christ. However, as concerns the intellectual power with which the spiritual body is endowed, we remem- ber how Jesus confounded the Doctors of the Law in the Temple at Jerusalem, when His natural body was only twelve years of age. 276 THE DOOR OPENED. I have before mentioned, that when the Son was with the Father in Heaven he was Michael the Archangel, so I venture the statement here, that when the circumstances attending His life in the Flesh demanded Divine power, His mind was endued with the power of His heavenly wis- dom ; but I only mention this circumstance to account for His wisdom on this special occasion, for I believe at other times He was was perfectly human, as in His power to save He is perfectly divine. Concerning our powers of locomotion, certainly we will be able to perform all the movements which are natural to this present life; but as we are led to believe, the enjoy- ments and the employments of Heaven will necessitate our presence everywhere in the wide domain, then by what means shall we be carried in our travels ? Angels have been pictured by our artists having wings, but Angels are not fowls of the air, neither do they have wings to fly withall, nor will humanity immortalized ever be an Angel; but they shall be as Angels, hav- ing the power within themselves to go about wherever their desires may call them. This power comes to our mind in the con- ception of flight, but even though we fly, as it were, we shall have no need of wings. When Jesus was transfigured in the presence of Peter, James, and John his brother, though Christ and Moses and Elias, rose up from the earth before THE NEW HEAVENS AND THE NEW EARTH. 277 them, and his face shone as the sun and his rai- ment became as white as the light, there is no men- tion that he was otherwise changed. His body, of light and power was a prefiguration of what we shall be when we shall come to be with him for- ever, and if this were possible to His natural body, it will not be impossible to our glorified bodies, because he is our elder brother in the flesh, as also we, of the spirit are sons and daughters together with him of God, the Father, who hath also made us joint heirs with him to the inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled and that fadeth not away, reserved in Heaven for us who are saved by His blood, risen with Him from the dead, ascended with Him to the Father in Heaven, and sanctified with Him in the inheritance of the purchased possession, which is life everlasting and fullness of joy. As the electric current is instant at all places wherever the wires lead it, so we, of ourselves will be instant at all places whithersoever we determine to be. CHAPTER VIII. THE WORK OF A THOUSAND YEARS. In the General Assembly of the First Born in the New Jerusalem which cometh down from God, out of Heaven, we shall be called together to hear the testimony of the ages for the justifi- cation of the Law of God, and the final con- demnation of sinners in the day of judgment of the children of wrath when Satan and his hosts shall be driven from the presence of God forever, and the resurrected bodies of the wicked be burned up in the fire which cometh down from God out of Heaven. When the Son of Man shall give his final word, "Depart from me, I never knew ye." This is the secoiid death. Thus as you see, in these few short sentences, we have the Alpha and Omega, the beginning, and the end, of the work of a thousand years, which are set apart from the rest of the eternal ages for a specific work, and that work is to establish the fact, that God has not only been just in the condemnation of the finally impeni- tent, but that his justice has been so tempered with mercy and love, as to show forth his good- ness to those upon whom his final condemnation shall come. So that not only the Elect shall 278 THE WORK OF A THOUSAND YEARS. 279 magnify his holy name, but the condemned also will cry, Holy, Holy, Holy, art thon, Lord God Almighty; just and perfect are thy ways thou king of saints; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. There are a great many different opinions concerning the thousand years mentioned in Rev. xx — 4, "and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. " That Christ will come again according to his promise to the disciples when he was upon the earth, is generally accepted as true, but how could he come again and not be upon the earth ; as there are those who believe that he will come and take his saints with him again, to the place where he is, in the presence of God ; when we remember that God is everywhere there is no doubt of the truth of this belief, although there is no definite place of abode fixed, and therefore it is of little difference where or what we are, so that we are free from sin in the presence of God. So long as we can form no adequate con- ception of where or what w T e shall be, we do not give eternal life the proper share of our thoughts ; if there is nothing before us in eternity beyond a conception of joy, even though it be forever, how shall we be prepared to glorify God or to exalt him when we think only of ourselves as being happy in Heaven? This is selfishness complete and unbecoming in those who are the 280 THE DOOR OPENED. heirs of salvation. We have dwelt too long on onr own joy and have forgotten to glorify God who has connted ns worthy to stand before him in glory. When we read in the Scripture that they serve Him day and night in His temple, I don't think we ought to waste so much time preparing for a long rest. I have taken up this subject, in order to show what we shall be and what we shall do in the eternal life, that we may at least spend a part of our time here in getting ready to glorify God in the life which is to come ; but before we go into these things, I wish to set this matter be- fore our minds in some tangible form — in some definite place, which, when we have done we will be able to conceive of the realities of the life beyond. There are others who believe that the Gospel will finally be the means of convert- ing all men eveywhere from sin unto Salvation. That sin, like everything else, will have its day, and finally become extinct so that men will do right in the absence of temptation to sin. Then we hear them quoting Scripture like this : Men shall learn war no more — the lion and the lamb shall lie down together — they shall beat their plowshares into pruning hooks, etc. But when ? Surely not is this world, for Christ saith, there shall be wars and rumors of wars ; as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be when the Son of Man cometh. Then again, speaking on this THE WORK OF A THOUSAND YEARS. 28 1 same subject, when he spoke of his coming again to his disciples, they said to him, " tell us, when shall these things be and what shall be the sign of thy coming"; and he spake again: " When the fig tree putteth forth her leaves ye know that summer is nigh ; therefore, when ye see these things, watch lest ye be not able to stand." Then again the parable of the tares and the wheat growing together to the time of the harvest, shows us plainly that the world will be no better in the future than it is now, for Peter says the end shall not come till the son of Perditions be revealed. Now if this is under- stood to be the same as Christ was revealed in the flesh, then Satan will live on the earth in the flesh the same as Christ did (that is as a man), only that his work will be of its own kind; and again when we read of the day that shall burn as an oven in which the elements shall melt with fervent heat and the wicked shall be burned up, we conclude that while seed-time and hasvest remains, so will the tares and the wheat remain in the field; therefore, while we may sincerely desire that all men should come to a knowledge of the truth, and though w r e hope and give and pray and labor to this end, though many be purified and made white, the time will never come when all that tread the earth will walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. Heathens are born into the world faster than 282 THE DOOR OPENED. souls are born into the kingdom of Christ ; so it can not be that the coming of Christ will find no sin on the earth. If Christians are becoming more numerous day by day, so are the ungodly, more so ; if the periods of great revival shall be long, the period of great falling away shall be short, for Christ will come in answer to prayer, to cut off sin in the flesh by the destruction of the eart'h, and all the works of man in a fire, that shall leave them neither root nor branch. And so shall the end come to the inhabitable period of this earth. This book is not written to tickle the ears of mankind, but that they may know the truth, that the truth may make them free. The com- ing of Christ then, to this earth, will take place when the cup of indignation is filled up and the time come when the business affairs of this world will come to their end. The brightness, of his coming will destroy the wicked, and all Christ's people will be gathered together in the temple of the great congregation, which is the New Jerusalem, which will be built without hands in His holy mountain of the precious stones mentioned in the Sacred narrative of John the Evangelist, and will be simply a temple without cover, except the azure. blue of heaven's arching canopy, no floor but the Jasper stone, clear as crystal, glittering in the golden splen- dor of the twelve precious colors of the walk THK WORK OF A THOUSAND YEARS. 283. The gates of pearl will be the only opening in the temple, and the heaven above will be the one great memorial window of God, and the glory of Christ will lighten the temple. This city, we may say then, is simply a great wall with the first foundation underlying the whole, which is the golden street. This temple of the great assembly will be large enough to seat the redeemed of all ages at one time, and because we have perhaps not thought of this house as adequate to such a com- pany, it has been called a city in order to be understood as if to assert that the lack of knowledge would give men the idea that few would be saved, and that a large city would hold them all at once ; and so it is that God has been wisdom for us to the end that he might help us, who are weak. That this city will be a material literal city or temple built without hands, or human skill, built of God, Eternal, incorruptible and that fadeth not away, I have do doubt what- ever, and I say unto you now, Blessed are they who shall enter its pearly gates, singing the praises of Christ, our king. This city, then, will stand where Jerusalem stands to-day. This brings to mind the prevailing idea that the Jews will come again to Jerusalem and build a city where they niay live in peace the rest of their days ; but I am pursuaded that even if this were so, the time would come when it would. 284 THE DOOR OPENED. again be destroyed, perhaps before trie end. There are those who talk about what they will do first, and who they will see first, and have an idea that as they go along they will have doubts removed, questions answered, curiosity satisfied, and so on, one thing after another, but after that is beyond conception. Some have express- ed themselves as being glad to have been counted worthy to enter the city at all, some want to embrace Christ, others want to see their children and be united in one happy family again, to be separated no more forever. Some have felt sat- isfied to rest in the assurance that they shall be free from pain and sorrow, and have all their wants supplied. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, and sickness and suf- fering will flee away. Others are waiting to get their account of good and bad deeds out of the book of remembrance, to see if the accounts balance, or if they have been credited with more than their debt, and to see if their names have been written in the Lamb's Book of Life, not thinking that God saw the end from the begin- ning, or could not possibly have made a mistake, or perhaps waited to see the outcome of the judgment day to see whether their names should then be written in the Lamb's Book of Life, and they be counted worthy to enter the city. And so we grope on in the darkness, dishonoring God in unbelief, because we have not taken Him at THE WORK OF A THOUSAND YEARS. 285 his word, or believed the report of those whom He hath sent; not remembering His words when he said, "he that believeth on the Son hath life, and he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed." Not be- cause we are worthy, not because we have been good, not because we have paid more than we owed, but, he that believeth hath life (now), not hereafter, but now and hereafter, because he be- lieved. And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. They reigned with Christ. This implies that there shall be a kingdom, the kingdom of Christ, in which a court of justice will be established, a seat of authority, with Christ seated as the King of kings, judging the nations of them which are saved, and also the nations of them which are lost. "Therefore, judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the heart ; and then shall every man have praise of God." — ist Cor., 4-5. By this we see that our present knowledge is not sufficient to tell who will be saved and who will be lost, and yet men judge in this man- ner, which is not wise. "Before the Lord; for he cometh to judge the earth ; with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity. "— Ps. xcviii-9. :286 THK DOOR OPENED. "The heaven, even the heavens are the Lord's, bnt the earth hath he given to the child- ren of men." — Ps. cxv-16. The kingdom of Christ began in Jerusalem, when he established it by forgiving sins, per- forming miracles, casting ont devils, organized the Church, and sent the Holy Ghost, which stood in tongues of fire upon the heads of his people in the day of Pentecost, and will end in the great judgment day of the wicked at the end of the thousand years. During all these years, covering about thirty-three centuries, he is judging the world in righteousness by his pure life in the flesh, by his word, the Scriptures, by his Spirit, and by the testimony of his Saints, in the Temple of God in the New Earth during the last ten centuries before the final condemna- tion of the ungodly. But his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and to his dominion there shall be no end; that is, his rule will be for all time, King of kings, in the ages of time, judge of the earth during the thousand years on the seat of his power, and after this Lord of Lords through all Eternity, so that to his dominion there shall be no end. "The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice, for behold he cometh, and his reward is in his hand to give beauty for ashes, and a cup of joy for the spirit of heaviness." A great deal has been said and written about THE WORK OF A THOUSAND YEARS. 287 Heaven and the relations of Christ to God, the Father, about whom we shall see and worship, etc. I will give my views of these things so that the reader, if possible, may catch my idea to a more perfect understanding of the subject under consideration in this chapter. God, the Father of all things has created and maintained the universe, and has set them eternal in the heavens. These were all made by the power of his word, out of nothing, in the beginning, a time of which we can form no adequate conception. These each have their formative period, which progresses regular^ according to natural law. They, or such as God hath chosen to be the habitation of men, have their inhabitable period. I will not go into a discussion of what the conditions of life, body or character of these people are which live in the different worlds, but, as I have before stated in a preceding chapter, I can conceive of no lower grade of human life than ours, neither do I believe there is any higher grade existing during the time of their inhabitable period. I do not believe that God made any mistake in the creation of man, neither do I believe that He has been disappointed in the inhabitants of the earth, as many seem to think. God not only proposes but he disposes all things, and the means are unto the end of His great glory. If God, willing to suffer the fall here, for the 288 THE DOOR OPENED. eternal life and joy of man, through faith unto salvation, by the gift of his Son, Jesus Christ, who will save all men from sin who come unto him to the praise of the justice of God, I can not see why he should have a different plan for another world, for every world must have a Savior unto life eternal. If it were possible for those who live in the flesh to abstain from sin, sin had never entered heaven whereby Satan and his angels were cast out, hence I conclude that all people of all worlds are sinners, some saved by grace. There is, therefore, one great Heaven of Heavens in which God sits upon the throne of his glory. This is the Father's house unto which Jesus went when he was taken up to give an account of his stewardship, and to be a per- petual propitiation for sin and uncleanness, and so must all souls of men everywhere depart, the redeemed to be with Christ in the presence of God, and the rest of mankind into the pres- ence and kingdom of the god of this world (Satan). God has given the earth to Jesus Christ for an everlasting inheritance, and at the end of time he shall come with his redeemed a^d enter the temple, saying: "Lift up your heads, O ye gates ; and be ye lifted up, ye ever- lasting doors; and the king of glory shall come in." Who is this king of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the king of glory. David says, " One thing have I desired of the THE WORK OF A THOUSAND YEARS. 289 Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord, all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavillion ; in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up, upon a rock. And now shall mine head be lifted up, above mine enemies round about me; therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea I will sing praises unto the Lord." There is no doubt, then, that when we enter the gates of the Temple, with praises unto the Lord, that the first thing will be to engage in the worship of God in the great congregation of the redeemed. David says, he will set me upon a rock, and I will sing praises. If you will imagine a picture of the founda- tions of the wall of the city, you will see the stepping stones of the foundation, which are for seats; you will understand that the great company are seated all around the w r all which lieth four square, eleven seats high, receding one above the other, so that all can see and hear alike. Imagine, if you can, your high priest (Christ) standing in the midst of the general assembly of the First Born, with hands uplifted over the great company for the blessing of God saying: " Father, the hour is come, glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee. 19 290 THE DOOR OPENED. As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent ; I have glorified Thee on the earth ; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world ; thine they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee, for I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me, and the}^ have received them, and have known surely that 1 came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them; that they may be one even as we are one ; I, in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one. O, righteous Father, the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hath sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it ; that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them." Then in answer to this the great congrega- tion break forth in the voice of many waters, THF, WORK OF A THOUSAND YEARS. 29 1 singing the grand old doxology : " Praise God from whom all blessings flow ; Praise him all creatures here below ; Praise him above ye heavenly host, Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost." Then I fancy I see David, the great chorister, standing before Christ with the great choir of 144,000 voices, and they sing the new song be- fore the throne, and no man conld learn that song bnt the 144,000 which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which follow the Lamb withersoever he goeth, being the first fruits nnto God and the Lamb. Rev. xiv. — "And I looked, and lo, a Lamb stood on the Mount Zion, and with him a hundred and forty- four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads, and I heard a voice from heaven as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder ; and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps, and they sung a new song," What is more fitting than for David to lead heaven's great choir, who has led the praise of the whole earth for the last twenty-nine centuries and more. Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things. And when they were through, the Lion of the tribe of Judah and the offspring of David stood up to deliver his Sermon on the Mount, saying : " Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for 292 THE DOOR OPENED. you from the foundation of the world. * * * n Then the four and twenty Elders fell on their faces and worshipped, saying: "We give thee thanks, O, Lord, God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come, because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. " And they sung the song of Moses, the servant of God and of the Lamb. In the church tri- umphant Christ is the High Priest whom we are to worship as God the Lord and Redeemer. The twenty-four Elders are priests of God and of the Lamb, and they shall reign with Christ on the earth. John says, " I saw thrones and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them, and I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God ; and the books were opened, and another book was opened which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books accord- ing to their works." Therefore, you see, that every one must give an account unto God. These books are not paper books, nor books like anything which we have. The great Savior of men calleth his own by name, and they know his voice and they follow him. In the Lamb's Book of Life, on the tablets of his great heart of love, their names are written in crimson lines that never fade away ; therefore, are they with him in his Temple, forever and forevermore ; but the divine law of their divine stations sets them THE WORK OF A THOUSAND YEARS. 293 so as every one must take his place in the sphere to which he belongs, according to the deeds done in the body ; as one star exceedeth another star in brightness, so shall it be that those who turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars, forever and ever. Some who have been given ten talents will gain two talents, and some who have been given two talents will gain ten talents, and they all shall be given a place in glory, as one star exceedeth another star in brightness. Thus the Lord giveth to every man according to his work, but we can not know here how these things will be, for we do not all have the same opportunity to do good, which depends so much upon the circumstances with which we are surrounded, else we might think that God had put less difference between individuals in Heaven than the church of the earth had; for all men here are considered equal before God, whether they occupy the pulpit or the pew, for while they are judged according to their works, that judgment is rendered according to their oppor- tunities, so that the widow's mite will out-weigh the gifts of the rich who give a little of their abundance, while she gave all that she had, and so it will be that those who labor in the word here will receive in part here of their reward, while those that give for their support will give a part here that they may receive again, some thirty, some sixty and some a hundred fold. 294 TH ^ DOOR OPENED. Then again we have different gifts of God b}^ natnre ; some speak with tongues, some sing- ing praises unto salvation, while others listen, to gain the same end ; some in public and some in the family, some by the wayside and some in the field, some by kindness and others by law ; that all things may work together for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. The Elect of God will all be kings and priests unto God and the Lamb, for those who have been partakers with Christ in his humiliation, shall also be exalted together with him in glory; for the}^ are no longer strangers and aliens to God, but are come unto the possession of the saints with Him who was made to be sin for us that we might be free from the law, and dwell with him who is our Elder Brother, our Lord and Redeemer, that we may be in him and he in us, for we sit together drinking the same cup of joy and eat- ing the same bread of Heaven, to the glory of God the Father. Ambition to gain high seats of position and authority will have no place in the eternal city, for he that exalteth himself shall be ashamed, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted; thus as we are drawn more and more unto the image of the Heavenly, we shall have joy un- speakable, and full of glory. Wandering away into sin will have become a thing of the past, for sin being bound in death is condemned THE WORK OF A THOUSAND YEARS. 295 together in chains of darkness with those fallen angels who kept not their first estate, and were cast ont from the presence of God forever, be- cause we who have suffered with Christ in the flesh shall rest from sin forever, with him in glory. The flaming cherubim on either side of the gates of pearl will keep the way of the Tree of Life; on either side three gates, for the city lieth four square, and the twelve gates. On each of the gates shall one sit to guard the entrance of eternal life. Those who watch in the tabernacle of joy to keep the way of the Tree of Life, are the four and twenty Elders wdio go about among the redeemed to teach them how to serve God acceptably and to lead them in their devotions; for it can not be that all people will meet together in worship, except once a month. Thus we form an idea that the Heavenly hosts will be composed of twenty-four congregations, each elder being a priest unto them, and they shall each gather together to worship in their own place at their own time, and the ministrations of the High Priest shall be through the elder in their congregation, who shall lead them to living fountains of waters, and God himself shall be their God, and they shall be his people, and they shall serve him night and day in his Temple. But as it is here with us who work in the vineyard of the Lord, 296 THE DOOR OPENED. there being a work which is not a service of joy in the temple, bnt in the field, sowing the seed among thorns and in stony places, by the way- side, or in good ground, year by year gathering the clusters of grapes, reaping the harvests of souls, or " coming in rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves." So shall it be in Heaven, that we shall labor and serve and watch and teach, that we may give strength to weakness, rejoicing to gladness, and praise unspeakable to those who have never learned to sing the praises of our God. For some went into the vineyard early in the morning of life, while others went in at the eleventh hour, and though all have gained eternal joy, they exceed one another in the knowledge of God as one star exceedeth another in glory. Thus as we contemplate God and try to portray his infinite wisdom, mercy and love, we stand entranced amid transcendent splendors of glorified glory dazzling the sunlight, loosing its ray, and covering all crystalized forms in garments of night as we shout : Glory to God in the Highest, Glory to God the Father, Glory to God and the Lamb. We have been given patterns of things to come by the visible things of earth, that we may conceive of what shall be in the life to come. Zechariah, xiii-8, says: "And it shall be in that day that living waters shall go out from THE WORK OF A THOUSAND YEARS. 297 Jerusalem ; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea; in summer and in winter shall it be. And the Lord shall be king over all the earth; in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name One." So it seems to me, that we of the Christian dispensation will worship God through our High Priest of Calvary, while they of the for- mer times will worship God through the High Priest after the order of Melchisedec — (Hebrews vii, 1) — who is one Lord over the whole earth and one High Priest unto all the children of men. Therefore shall twelve elders be unto the twelve tribes of the children of Israel, and twelve unto the twelve Apostles of the Lamb, the former and the hinder seas, for the taber- nacle of the wilderness shall be for the twenty- four congregations in their daily service; but the Temple of God shall be for the general assembly of the First Born when the Tree of Life shall yield its fruits once a month. As the ministers of God labor in the Word here, so shall the Elders speak all the words of this life in the celestial home of the ransomed. Where, then, shall we put Paul, who is still preaching this word to the millions of all these ages who read or hear from his sacred pages ; or Moses the great lawgiver to all nations in the cycles of time ; or Abraham whose children they are, who inhabit the realms 298 THE DOOR OPENED. of Glory? Where shall we put Daniel, who shall stand in the end with his feet pressing the shining shore ; or Isaiah who told of the Babe in Bethlehem old, and uttered the cry of the cross which shall be unto all people the song of Salvation ; or where shall we place the wisest of kings who built the first house of the Lord? Where, oh where, shall we place the loving Apostle, the sublime Evangelist, the most divine Prophet, who stood in Patmos to look within the jasper walls? Where shall we look for Luther and Wesley, and Calvin, the immortal divines ; or Moody, Spurgeon, Beecher and Talmage ; or West, Bunyan and Moris, together with hosts from every age, from every clime? who shall inherit the realms of light and sit on the thrones of his love, for they shall all, all be priests and kings unto God and the Lamb forever and forever; but how shall we know, for the least may be greatest in the kingdom of love, and the little child may instruct the aged, and the young may lead the old, for what Heaven would be like home, when the little ones all were gone; but we know that of such is the kingdom of Heaven, because Jesus has told us so. Therefore, make your calling and election sure that ye may have a right to the Tree of Life, and enter with us the City of God, for none .but the pure may enter there ; for as many as believe shall be saved when He shall reward THE WORK OF A THOUSAND YEARS. 299 his servants. And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given unto them, and the books were opened. The ark of testi- mony was opened in Heaven and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books of remembrance to the praise of the justice of God, who by his law of love will con- demn the ungodly according to the deeds done in the body. As God hath judged the earth by the righteousness of his Son, Jesus Christ, so will Christ judge the dead in sin by his twenty- four Elders, which John saw upon thrones, to whom judgment was given. To this Paul testifies (ist Cor. vi-3) "Know ye not that we shall judge Angels? " How much more things that pertain to this life. The great court of Christ is divided in the work between the twenty-four judges of men and angels, who hear the testimony of all the witnesses of all the generations of men who give in their testi- mony one at a time, till all the witnesses are examined and the verdict rendered for the con- demnation of the wricked. If each of the twelve ages before our era, and each of the twelve ages of our era were all given at one time, the work would be completed in the shortest possible time, for I understand that all the generations of men will be divided into twenty-four equal parts. Let us treat this matter rationally, for the great judgment day of a thousand years is 300 THE DOOR OPENED. a reality. I have made it the subject of this chapter, and we have already passed the long roll of those whose names are written in the hook of life, which were already entered npon their reward, upon whom the sacred death hath no power, for the second death comes after the judgment is all made up at the end of a thous- and years. These twenty-four long dockets will he cleared, beginning with the first and contin- uing till every case is tried and the verdict recorded. At first thought 3 T ou may think that a thousand years is a pretty long judgment da}^, but if you will look at the twenty-four dockets with their long list of cases to be tried, with all the testimony of the witnesses in each case, you will conclude that the time is not too long which God has set apart for this work. Twenty- four individuals being tried at one time, till all the nations of those that are lost shall have had their trial, and the testimony given by which they are condemned. The prisoners are not per- mittted to enter this court or hear the testimony of the Saints, but every one by their names, w r hich are written in the books of remembrance, for every one must render an account unto God for their ungodly deeds which they have done in the body. The devotions of the Saints are not set aside for the trials of the wicked, as we might suppose, but become a part of their ser- vice in contemplating the goodness and wisdom TH£ work of a thousand years. 301 of God in dealing with sinners. It is_ perfectly natural for us to hear the first case on the long docket called for; the first sinner who did not repent is Cain, charged with the murder of his brother Abel. I don't think there will be a recital of the things they did do, but rather the things they did not do, and lest we should cast a cloud over the joy of Heaven, we must under- stand that when we are changed to this new life, with Christ in glory, we shall be of one mind and will hate sin, but love sinners; and though we may pity them, the exercise of that friendly passion will in no way detract from our joy in Christ. Tears and sin belong to this life, for Jesus wept over Jerusalem which he could not save, because of their unbelief; but now both He and us are glorified together in God ; there- fore, His will is our will, His love our love, His law our law; and we are ready to condemn sin and sinners who would not come unto Him that they might have life. And so the family circles of earth, and all the bonds of time are broken in death, that they may all be united in one grand and happy family of the redeemed, so that we shall feel no pang of pain and drop no tear of grief. It seems to me that after singing praises to God, one should stand up and repeat a passage of Scripture. Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. 302 THK DOOR OPENED. Then I hear one saying: " I, even I, that walked in Eden with God, and his angels ; I that sinned and was saved by the Tree of Life, I ever tanght my sons to pray. I told them of sin and the fall ; I told them of death, hell, and the grave; I pointed them to the Lord and Redeemer, bnt one went away from home and was lest in the allurements of sin, bnt the one whom he slew, was carried away to his home in the skies." As a tree falleth, so shall it lie, and they all say Amen, Amen, Alleluia. And they sing " Palms of vic- tory, palms of victory; crowns of glory I shall wear." And they all cry with one voice, saying, " Honor and blessing, dominion and might, be unto God and the Lamb, forever and ever, Amen!" Will a man rob God? Yet Jezebel, the wife of king Ahab, had four hundred priests of Baal, and Ahab did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him. And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal and worshipped him, and he reared up an altar for Baal, in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And Ahab made a grove ; and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger, than all the kings of Israel that were before him. Elijah, the Tishbite, read from the Law, " Thou shalt have no other gods before THE WORK OF A THOUSAND YEARS. 303 me; thou shalt not make unto thee aii3 T graven im- age, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth ; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them ; for I, the Lord, thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me ; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. " Zechariah then charges the jury, saying: "This is the law, for every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side, according to it; and every one that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side, according to it. I will bring it forth, saith the Lord of Hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name; and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timbers thereof, and the stone thereof; therefore, because thou hast robbed me of many of my prophets, and hast given thy w T ealth and my people unto Satan, to follow the god of the earth, and to worship him, and to go after him in your feasts, and desirest him before me, and hast robbed me of my glory, even the praise of thousands of those whom thou didst lead away to worship in the house of Baal, and as this has been thy desire and thy work and thy prayer; for I have promised, 304 THE DOOR OPENED. saying, I will satisfy the desire of every living thing ; thus, because thou hast loved Satan and hast desired to be with him in his temple of fire, so be it, according to thy desire ; for thou hast no part in the Tree of Life. Then it seems to me I hear a voice, as the voice of many waters, saying: " The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty." And thus I might go on, if I so desired, giving testimony and rendering ver- dicts, in many cases of which there is no doubt as to their condemnation. Herod, the great, for instance, whose name the whole earth repeats with tones of condemnation of his cruelty and cursed death at the hands of worms, which gnawed the flesh from his bones, until he died as he had lived, a murderer from the beginning, and though I can not report every case, neither do I desire to continue what to us seems terrible, but nevertheless true; for the testimony of every prayer of all men is, Thou hast not rewarded us according to our sins, lest we had been cut off ere this ; but we rejoice that His mercy endureth forever. Paul remembers with shame, after his con- version, how that he went from one house to an- other, persecuting the people of God, and, had THK WORK OF A THOUSAND YEARS. 305 he served God through as many years as he did convincing many of sin, of righteousness and of a judgment to come; if all that are saved, who believed his word and come unto salvation from sin to the glory of God ; if all these, on his ac- count, were in Heaven, and himself cast out, yet would he praise God for his justice and good- ness and mercy. And though he warned men to flee from the wrath to come, yet was he con- fessedly the chief of sinners. But because of God's great mercy, forgiving iniquity, trans- gression and sin, he was able, with confidence in God, to press' on for the prize set before him, and he exultantly exclaims : " Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which Christ, the righteous judge, w T ill give me in that day, and not to me only, but to all those who love his appearing. " The last one to be judged is Satan, for Christ must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. Let us fear God and keep his com- mandments, for He is come nigh us in judg- ment ; for the people at Sinia could not bear to hear the words of God. And Moses saith : ".I exceedingly fear and quake." (Hebrews xii, 22.) But ye are come to Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusa- lem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly of the First Born, which are written in Heaven, and to God, the judge 20 306 THK DOOR OPENED. of all, and to the spirits of just men made per- fect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new cov- enant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh; for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from Heaven ; whose voice then shook the earth, but now He hath promised, saying, yet once more. I shake, not the earth only, but also Heaven. And this word, yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which can not be shaken may remain" Wherefore, we, receiving a kingdom which can not be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and Godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire. The thousand years are ended, and we come to the Little Season in which Satan is loosed. We have described the resurrection of the wicked in another chapter, speaking of Satan claiming to be their god, and to have brought them up out of Perdition and given them life in their new bodies upon the new earth. Now, lest you should get the impression that it has been a thousand years since their resurrection, I will say that their resurrection does not take place till the close of the thousand THE WORK OF A THOUSAND YEARS. 307 years. The first resurrection (the resurrection of the Just) takes place at the coming of Christ, when the state of the new heavens and the new earth begins. In the destruction of the wicked, the old earth's surface is burned up and it is left desolate. During the thousand years of judg- ment the saints were in the New Jerusalem, and know nothing about the beauties of the new earth. Then Satan establishes his kingdom and prepares to make war with the saints. They see the new heavens, the eternal day, and the new earth carpeted with georgeous dyes of green, set with flowers. They give all the glory to Satan, and acknowledge him their god and king. The new temple which came down from God out of Heaven, which Christ, the saints and the angels went into at the coming of Christ, is lighted with the glory of God, and the saints suppose that it is dark outside the gates. But they are so engaged in the work of a thousand years that they know nothing about anything else. But the wicked, who come up with Satan, see the eternal day, and the beautiful earth, and they are delighted. Satan is still deceiving them, for they know nothing of the saints or the New Jerusalem, until they compass the camp of the saints about. Satan, determined to ruin the temple, to rob Christ of his glory, and the saints of their great rest, lays seige to the city. The twelve gates of pearl are open, and the o8 THE DOOR OPENED. wicked look inside over the street of gold, desiring to have those things which are not theirs, because they would not believe; but now their disappointment knows no bounds. The}' see the Savior whom they had pierced. The one who had given his life that they might come unto eternal life with him in glory. They weep when it is too late for tears to avail, and they plead with Christ to take them in, saying: "Lord, Lord, have we not prophecied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name have done many wonderful works? " But he says unto them: "I never knew you. Depart, from me, ye that work iniquity." There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth when they see that they are shut out ; they become angry at Satan, and hate him more than they ever loved him before ; and yet they are jealous of the Saints, and hate the Saviour as much, if not more, than they do Satan. So in making their last choice between Satan and Christ, as to whom they should love, they hate God because they are shut out, and they obey Satan from fear of worse punishment, for they recognize the fact that their doom is sealed, and Satan shall be their god. They have all sworn to obey his commands. They charge the city, but ere they reach the gates fire comes down out of Heaven and destroys them. Their new bodies are burned without the gates, and their THE WORK OF A THOUSAND YEARS. 309 souls are turned again with Satan and his angels into the depths of Hell. This is the Second Death, I suppose their resurrection to have taken place in the first of the week, and the sentence which destroys their bodies, on the sixth day, so that they would in no way profane the most sacred of all institutions, the Sabbath, which from the beginning is commanded to be kept holy ; for, as the Lord made Heaven, the earth, and all things therein, and rested on the seventh day, so shall it be, that those who serve Him in His Temple of Glory, must keep his Sabbath to the Lord with services of praise. Here Christ says, " Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth ; the former things are passed away; the last enemy is destroyed, and there shall be no more curse, neither sickness nor death, neither sorrow nor tears. ' Ye shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more." Come and see, for all things are yours ; go ye out over this promised land whither ye will, in this second Garden of God, which He hath given to us for an everlasting possession. That in Him we may have the fullest of joy, for in the beautiful there is nothing more wondrous than this which the Lord hath made, and as ye pon- der the things before you, and breathe in the fragrance of flowers, ye must sing the praise of the goodness of God, who has said the meek 3io THE DOOR OPENED. shall inherit the earth, and Him shall ye serve in His Temple, where all His Sabbaths prove a feast of joy and sacred love. THE END.