2 Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.

What nation is this? There is no room for doubt. Jesus told the Pharisees in his day -speaking in the very same locality where this song is to be sung -

"The Kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof."

Speaking to the disciples as constituents of this nation, he said to them,

"Fear not, little flock; it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom."

And afterwards, Peter addressing other members of the same body, said,

"Ye are a holy nation, a peculiar people."

The connection between this nation and "the Truth" is also equally manifest. Jesus said,

"I am the Truth," and also, "everyone that is of the Truth heareth my voice;" and also John, "The Truth dwelleth in us, and shall be with us for ever."

The community to be glorified with Christ at his coming, being a "righteous nation that keepeth the Truth," it follows that we cannot hope to be among them if we follow unrighteousness or if we are destitute of "the Truth;" for no one can "keep the Truth" who has it not.

This is worth the attention, in passing, of those who either "hold the Truth in unrighteousness" or who trust for salvation to their own righteousness apart from the Truth. By our profession as brethren, and by our assembly this morning at the breaking of bread in remembrance of Christ as appointed, we belong to neither one class nor the other We belong rather to those who are seeking admission into the ranks of the righteous nation that keepeth the Truth. As such, we may dwell with consolation on the picture before us.

To have and to keep the Truth is not only accounted a very small thing just now; it is worse than small in the estimation of this enlightened generation. It is derogatory to manhood and culture and good sense. It is a disqualification for every kind of worldly advancement. Well, this is no accident. It is appointed. It is part of the "light affliction which is but for a moment" and which, as Paul says "worketh out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."

Consider what a change it will be when the righteous keeping of the Truth will be the only passport to power, respectability and life. The gates of honour and distinction are all shut now to those who keep the Truth - who are considered a species of monomaniacs by those who love the present world. But the cry will go abroad yet, "open ye the gates! open ye the gates!" "Bow the knee! bow the knee!" The time has come for the exaltation of the Lord's faithful people.

"This is the day which Yahweh hath made. We will be glad and rejoice in it."

"Lo, this is our Elohim! We have waited for Him: we shall be glad and rejoice in His salvation."

Seasons 2.41

3 Thou wilt [future immortal state] keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee [present mortal state].

Lo, this is our Elohim! We have waited for Him

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee."

When the singers sing these words, they have in view the peace that has come to them, and that lies before them in the happy day commenced for Jerusalem. This peace is promised.

"Great shall be the peace of thy children" (Isa 54:13), and again,

"Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream" (Isa. 66:12).

We are asked to pray for it. –Pray for the peace of Jerusalem." It is a peace not reached till the Prince of Peace –speaks peace to the heathen."

There is a peace that comes now to those who trust in God, but this is not the "perfect peace" which the song celebrates. Often the reverse of perfect peace is the lot of those who do the will of God. Jesus and Paul may be taken as examples.

Jesus, the "man of sorrows;" Paul, "distressed, perplexed, persecuted, cast down," did not experience the "perfect peace" which will belong to the righteous nation that keepeth the Truth in the day of this song in the land of Judah.

But this peace awaits them, even on the very occasion depicted in this joyful chapter. There never has been an occasion on earth in which the human mind will be so much stayed on God as the mind of that exultant assembly will be stayed on Him; never such powerful trust as will be reposed by them.

We, too, naturally assume that the need for trust and mental stay on God will have passed when the day of triumph has come. The reverse state of facts will be found to be true when that happy day arrives. Mortal men cannot in the nature of things stay on God and trust in Him as those will stay and trust, whose iron heart will have been opened to God with the change from the earth-cleaving nature of present experience to a nature instinct with divine sympathies and affinities. Those who experience this change will be able to apostrophize each other in the exultant adjuration of this song:

"Trust ye in Yahweh for ever; for in the Lord Yahweh is everlasting strength"

They will be able to feel the reality of God with a strength and ardor impossible in the mere day of faith. They will be able to realise practically their dependence upon His everlasting strength.

Now, it is a matter of faith merely; then it will be self-manifest knowledge and experience. Now, the acknowledgement is liable to die on the lips of weary faith, or degenerate to cant through human weakness; then, it will be a vivid sensation whose fervent expression will be highest satisfaction.

Seasons 2.41

4 Trust ye in Yahweh for ever: for in Yah Yahweh is everlasting [ Olamin] strength [Tzur]:

There never has been an occasion on earth in which the human mind will be so much stayed on God as the mind of that exultant assembly will be stayed on Him: never such powerful trust as will be reposed by them. We, too, naturally assume that the need for trust and mental stay on God will have passed when the day of triumph has come. The reverse state of facts will be found to be true when that happy day arrives.

Mortal men cannot in the nature of things stay on God and trust in Him as those will stay and trust, whose iron heart will have been opened to God with the change from the earth-cleaving nature of present experience to a nature instinct with divine sympathies and affinities. Those who experience this change will be able to apostrophise each other in the exultant adjuration of this song:

"Trust ye in the Lord for ever; for in the Lord Yahweh is everlasting strength."

They will be able to feel the reality of God with a strength and ardour impossible in the mere day of faith. They will be able to realise practically their dependence upon His everlasting strength. Now, it is a matter of faith merely: then it will be self-manifest knowledge and experience. Now, the acknowledgment is liable to die on the lips of weary faith, or degenerate to cant through human weakness: then, it will be a vivid sensation whose fervent expression will be the highest satisfaction.

Sunday Morning 170

Tzur - The Rock

The rock, then, we are led to understand, is a symbol, representative of the One who is the only enduring foundation—the only source of everlasting strength and power—the place of refuge, of shelter, and of safety.

Sis Lasius - Yahweh Elohim

8 Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O Yahweh, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.

Wait for him

Waiting for God does not consist merely in lasting out the time of the tarrying. Millions will be alive at the Lord's coming who will "wait" in this way, but who will no more belong to the waiting class than the horses in the field.

The nature and manner of the waiting attitude is beautifully defined in the song to be sung in the land of Judah.—(Isaiah 26.)

"In the way of Thy judgments have we waited for thee."

"Judgments" is here equivalent to commandments and ordinances. The idea is that those who will rejoice in that day, saying,

"Lo, this is our God: we have waited for him,"

are those who now "wait" in the patient performance of what God has appointed.

... Waiting for God is to wait the blessing He has promised and not seek to secure it for ourselves. Thus we wait for Him in "giving place unto wrath, not avenging ourselves." because He has said "I will repay."

We wait for Him in not prosecuting at law, in not mixing in the world's politics, in not taking up the sword in obedience to the conscription laws that may come along, because he has commanded us to submit to evil, to take not the sword, to accept the place of strangers and pilgrims in an evil world, against the time when He will break in pieces the oppressor, place the sword of judgment in the hands of the saints, and give them the earth to inherit.

There are some other things in which we wait for Him. We wait for Him in using what we have for His sake instead of hoarding it, as the fearful and the unbelieving do. We wait for Him in seeking not our own. We wait for Him in giving to the poor. We wait for Him in labouring not to be rich. We wait for Him in ministering the gift as every man has received, instead of bestowing it on our own exclusive comfort and good.

We wait for Him in these things, because He has required them at our hands in test of our obedience, under promise of the day when He will transfer the wealth of the sinner to the just, and feed the hungry with good things when the rich are sent empty away.

Sunday Morning 69

The Christadelphian, Sept 1875

9 With my soul [nefesh] have I desired thee in the night [lailah]; yea, with my spirit [ruach] within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments [mishpatim] are in the earth, the inhabitants [ha'aretz] of the world will learn righteousness [tevel will learn tzede].

"Early" is suggestive of morning. The morning has come when the song is sung: but the seeking for God has not ceased. Only now it is a seeking with a finding, which differs from the seeking of these days of darkness. The sons of God will always seek God. They will never forget Him or tire in their love. They will always feel what David says: "Thy love is better than life."

Sunday Morning 171

Perhaps we can do no better ... than resume the consideration of the song to be sung in the land of Judah at the crisis of the day of salvation. The day of salvation is a long and cloudless one. The song belongs to the beginning of the day - when as yet its full glory has not been manifested.

The Lord has come and expelled the Russian invader from the Holy Land, but the whole earth beyond Judah's frontiers is in arms, and, under "the Beast and the false prophet," will put forth a gigantic effort to crush the newly manifested Israelitish power. A recognition of this is necessary to discern the bearing of some parts of the song.

The righteous, in one body, look back from the song point of view, upon the night from which they have just emerged. They rejoicingly declare the fact which is now sweet to them in retrospect...

...It was sweet to them at the time, but sweet to bitterness, for the desire for God in a day when He is not to be found, is not a refreshing experience but the reverse. It is as David expresses it:

"As the hart panteth after the water brooks,"

which is not an enjoying state.

But now, when the day of song for the righteous has come, it will be pleasant to look back and think that while the night prevailed upon the earth, their eyes were in strong desire towards God, and that God has openly acknowledged their love by manifesting Himself to them in the sending of Christ.

"Early" is suggestive of morning. The morning has come when the song is sung, but the seeking for God has not ceased. Only now it is a seeking with a finding, which differs from the seeking of these days of darkness. The sons of God will always seek God. They will never forget Him or tire in their love...

'the inhabitants of the world'

They have not learnt righteousness at the day of the song. They are about to do so by the judgments about to be manifested in the terrible war of the great day of God Almighty; and it is meet that those by whom those judgments are to be inflicted should have their eyes especially on God. How incongruous it would be that those who are about to bring the world to God should for a moment lose sight of Him. They are for the time being in the position that Christ occupies in the interval between his rejection by Israel and his coming.

10 Let favour [ grace] be shewed to the wicked [rasha], yet will he not learn righteousness [tzedek]: in the land of uprightness [Eretz Nekhochot (Land of Straightforwardness)] he [will] deal unjustly, and will not behold [regard] the majesty [ge'ut (majesty, exaltedness)] of Yahweh.

The judgment to be inflicted upon the world is not in wantonness or superfluity. It is a necessity: it cannot be dispensed with. The righteous, rejoicing together, recognise it.

... The history of the world is the proof of this. God's favour has been shewn to the race of Adam since the day the first sinner was driven out of Eden; and the result is before our eyes in a world lying in wickedness.

The wickedness differs in form, complexion and intensity: but in its most cultured forms, it is wickedness still—the rejection of the law God has given; the refusal of his rights and honour: the assertion of man's right to what he enjoys by favour: the appropriation of earth's goodness to human service and glory.

Favour does not teach mankind righteousness—judgment will

The Christadelphian, Sept 1886

The judgment to be inflicted upon the world is not in wantonness or superfluity. It is a necessity: it cannot be dispensed with. The righteous, rejoicing together, recognize it.

"Let favour be shown to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness. In the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of Yahweh."

The history of the world is the proof of this. Gods favour has been shown to the race of Adam since the day the first sinner was driven out of Eden; and the result is before our eyes in a world lying in wickedness. The wickedness differs in form, complexion, and intensity, but in its most cultured forms, it is wickedness still, the rejection of the law God has given; the refusal of His rights and honour, the assertion of mans right to what he enjoys by favour; the appropriation of earths goodness to human service and glory.

Favour does not teach mankind righteousness - judgment will, and in the song under consideration, the righteous contemplate the prospect with satisfaction. It is a divine purpose much spoken of throughout the Scriptures.

"For a long time I have holden my peace; I have been still and refrained myself. Now will I cry like a travailing woman. I will destroy and devour at once" (Isa. 42:14).

"The needy shall not always be forgotten; the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever... The Lord trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence His soul hateth. Upon the wicked He shall rain snares, fire, and brimstone, and an horrible tempest; this shall be the portion of their cup" (Psa. 9:18; 11:5-6).

"The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance. He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous; verily [their are Elohim ruling in the earth - Bro Thomas] (Psa. 58:1041).

"They shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in that day that I shall do this" (Mal. 4:3).

"For my determination is to gather the nations... to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger; for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of My jealousy" (Zeph. 3:8).

At first, the uplifted hand of God is not recognised.

"Yahweh, when Thy hand is lifted up, they will not see."

It is probable that for a good while, men all over the earth will refuse to recognize anything divine in the events that will have expelled the Russian army from the Holy Land, and checked the British advance in the South West and in the Mediterranean.

In the pride and wilfulness of their "manly" hearts, they will attribute them to a natural origin. Have they forgotten the destruction of Lisbon by earthquake, and repulsion and appalling re-rush of the Tagus? Has not all the world heard of the volcanic submergence of Pompeii and Herculaneum?

With these occurrences of nature, they will try to class the earthquake that divides the Mount of Olives and the bituminous rain that decimates the Gogian hosts, and for a while they will calm themselves with this view, in which they will doubtless be fortified by the arguments and opinions of scientific experts at the various continental capitals. But the delusion will vanish at last. The song proceeds:

"But they SHALL see and be ashamed of their envy toward Thy people. The fire of (prepared for) their enemies shall devour them".

If nothing succeeded the Gogian catastrophe - if affairs in the Holy Land quieted down and events resumed their wonted channel, as in the case of all natural calamities, their theory might last and quell their fears. But great and equally appalling events ensue. The nations re-organize and rally. Masses of troops are thrown forward to retrieve the day. Conflict ensues with the Holy Land Power that only heaps disasters upon disaster.

Rome is sent crashing into the abyss. The forces of the European muster are repulsed. Supernatural visitations of fire - a la Sodom and Gomorrha - spread terrors in the countries of the enemy - especially among them "that dwell carelessly in the isles" (Eze. 39:6).

Repeated efforts to continue the war only entail repeated disaster and overthrow. Vast multitudes are slain in all the earth (Isa. 66:16; Jer. 25:35). Now the conviction steals over the population that the hand of God is in the situation, and that the demands addressed to the courts are not those of fanaticism, but of Omnipotence incarnate in Jesus and his brethren.

At last they "see" and are ashamed, and surrender, and wait for the law that will come to them from Zion, in compliance with which, they will everywhere bend themselves willingly to the work of Jewish restoration.

"Yahweh, thou wilt ordain peace for us, for Thou also hast wrought all our works for us."

This is the natural sequel. "Peace upon Israel" is the motto of Gods dealing with men upon earth, and will now receive political illustration in all the earth. The saints who sing this song are the inner kernel of the commonwealth of Israel. From them, peace will extend to every part thereof, and finally to the Gentiles at large.

The dreadful Gentile down treading ages of the past will then be a subject of contemplative retrospect. .

"Yahweh our Elohim, other lords besides Thee have had dominion over us, but by Thee only will we make mention of Thy name. They are dead: they shall not live. They are deceased, they shall not rise. Therefore hast Thou visited them and destroyed them and made all their memory to perish."

When this can be proclaimed as a matter of accomplished fact, there will be such peace and joy as neither Israel nor mankind have ever known. The scattered, reduced, and stinted nation of Abrahams race will revive.

Israel will bud and blossom and fill the world with fruit.

"Thou hast increased the nation, Yahweh thou hast increased the nation. Thou art glorified. Thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth."

Yes, Thou hadst removed it, but it had been written, and at this crisis is now fulfilled:

"He that scattereth Israel will gather him and keep him as a shepherd doth his flock."

So that, as it is again written,

"Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale. But when he seeth his children the work of Mine hands in the midst of him, they shall sanctify My name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel. They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine" (Isa. 29:22-24).

Seasons 2.42

11 Yahweh, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see: but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them.

They will not see

It is probable that for a good while, men all over the earth will refuse to recognise anything divine in the events that will have expelled the Russian army from the Holy Land, and checked the British advance in the South West and in the Mediterranean.

In the pride and wilfulness of their "manly" hearts, they will attribute them to a natural origin. Have they not heard of volcanic convulsions in Java that have sunk whole districts in the ocean, and upheaved the bottom of the sea so as to become dry land?

Have they not heard of terrific phenomena in New Zealand causing quiet hills to roar and flame for four hours at a time, lighting up the darkness of night with fearful glare and covering the adjacent country with blue mud ten feet deep?

Have they forgotten the destruction of Lisbon by earthquake, and repulsion and appalling re-rush of the Tagus! Has not all the world heard of the volcanic submergence of Pompeii and Herculaneum?

With these occurrences of nature, they will try to class the earthquake that divides the Mount of Olives and the bituminous rain that decimates the Gogian hosts: and for a while they will calm themselves with this view, in which they will doubtless be fortified by the arguments and opinions of scientific experts at the various continental capitals.

But they shall see

But the delusion will vanish at last.

...Repeated efforts to continue the war only entail repeated disaster and overthrow. Vast multitudes are slain in all the earth (Is. 66:16, Jer. 25:33). Now, the conviction steals over the population that the hand of God is in the situation, and that the demands addressed to the courts are not those of fanaticism, but of Omnipotence incarnate in Jesus and his brethren.

At last they "see" and are ashamed, and surrender, and wait for the law that will come to them from Zion, in compliance with which, they will everywhere bend themselves willingly to the work of Jewish restoration.

The Christadelphian, Sept 1886

18 We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.

We have been in pain

The faithful in Israel, national or spiritual, are powerless to change the situation by any effort or combination in the absence of God's interposition. ...

But all this is changed now. God has arisen to judgment; and the reigning governments of the Gentiles in every land and tongue will have to come down and stoop low at Israel's feet. Here the song ends: and God, by the prophet, responds. His words indicate the means by which the great salvation is to be wrought:

"Thy dead shall live,"

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, and all of their type and family in all their generations.

"Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake" (Dan. 12:2).

"Awake, and sing, ye that dwell in dust."

Receiving this summons, "the earth shall cast out the dead." The dead, reorganised where the preserved nuclei of their remains repose, being fully reformed, will be projected to the surface to resume those relations of life that were interrupted by the occurrence of death.

They find themselves in new circumstances and a new time. After the judgment preliminaries of the era, they are summoned into retirement for protection from the fearful visitation about to burst forth in all the earth, in "the time of trouble such as never was."

"Come my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain."

...This slaying of the political dragon that swims in the sea of peoples will involve the suppression of the governments, the punishment of the population, and the transfer of all power to Yahweh's anointed and his multitudinous consort—"the Bride, the Lamb's wife," consisting of the justified and glorified brethren of the Lord, manifested by resurrection, as a new, practical, living reality in earth's affairs, with blessed consequence to all lands and peoples. All will at last say with them:

"We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation."

...We have waited long. We shall not have to wait always. The hour will come when we shall unite in the rapturous words: "Lo this is our God: we have waited for Him, and He will save us. This is Yahweh: we have waited for Him. We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation."—Editor.

The Christadelphian, Sept 1886

19 Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.

Identity in the Resurrection

The identity of a man does not depend upon the particular atoms of substance of which he is made. This is shown by the fact that he is the same man at 60 that he was at 20, though having entirely changed his substance during the interval.

The thing that perpetuates his identity from the one time to the other during the change, is the sum total of those electrical impressions that have been made on and embedded in his brain by the action of the senses through the nerves: which constitute what we call memory.

What these electrical impressions are, no man can tell, but their existence is as unquestionable as the existence of light, which is equally incomprehensible. Now, in the resurrection, all that is necessary is for God to reproduce in a new body the memories of our previous lives. He does not require to use the identical substance that once belonged to us. How could he?

We use a mountain of substance during our lifetime. Consider what a pile the breakfasts and dinners of a lifetime would make. No: a handful of any dust will be sufficient to enable Omnipotence to reproduce the man that lived before, however far squandered the stuff may be that he went into the grave with.

The identity of the man will lie in those memories that God will know how to write on the new brain.

"Is anything too hard for the Lord?"

The man who believes in God can never be troubled with practical difficulties on this head.

The Christadelphian, July 1898

20 Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.

...the resurrection of the saints, their judgment, and consequent recompense, are set forth.

These, in their spiritual relations, constitute "the Nave," or the Most Holy Heavenly, within the veil; no longer flesh and blood, but spirit, as Jesus now is; for they are to be "like Him" (1 John iii. 2). Being thus identified with him, and "glorified together," and in the free reception of all things with him (Rom. viii. 17,52) only not equal to him in rank (Eph. i. 22; Col. i. 18) the saints are also

"the ark of the covenant in the nave."

This being all developed in the hidden chambers (Isa. xxvi. 20) into which the outer world has no admission, the doors being shut against it, they are apocalyptically "in the heaven," though standing upon the globe. In this secret place of the Highest, they are in preparation, or being prepared for manifestation -- for the epiphaneia and apokalupsis, epiphany and apocalypse, of Rom. viii. 19, and 2 Thess. ii. 8.

When thus prepared in the chamber under all the circumstances indicated in the phrase,

"Behold I come as a thief" (xvi. 15),

they stand forth in manifestation as the

"powerful angel descended out of the heaven, clothed with a cloud; a rainbow upon the head; his face as the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire."

This is the Strong Man of Psa. xix. 5; in other words, "the Spirit and the Bride" of Apoc. xxii. 17, who in this glorious manifestation are "one," as the head, and the body, and the life, are one. As a bridegroom, he will have come out of his chamber; and as a strong man he will rejoice for the race he has to run.

Eureka 10.

21 For, behold, Yahweh cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.

It must be obvious, then, that before this judgment period commences, the saints will be removed from the spheres which they occupy in the world; otherwise they would not be with Christ, and would be involved in the general troubles

...The mode of this "entering into the chamber, and shutting the door" to hide, is made apparent in the New Testament; first, by reference to Matt. 25:10, where we read

"They that were ready went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut":

and second, by reference to Rev. 19:7, 8, where we find that this marriage is the reunion between Christ and his people at his coming. This is further manifest from the teaching of Paul in I Thess. 4:16–17:-

"The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then, WE WHICH ARE ALIVE AND REMAIN, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; AND SO SHALL WE EVER BE WITH THE LORD."

This is referred to in II Thess. 2:1, as

"the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him."

The first event that takes place, then, after the return of the Lord from heaven, is the "gathering together" of all His saints to him, including the dead of past ages, who shall have been raised for the purpose. This gathering together is to judgment. Paul says:

"We (brethren) must all appear before the judgment–seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad" (II Cor. 5:10);

and the parables which Christ spake on earth, illustrative of his then approaching departure to heaven, and his subsequent return, have this characteristic:

"And it came to pass that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants TO BE CALLED UNTO HIM, to whom he had given the money." (Luke 19:15).

From all this, it appears, that on his return, his dead servants will be raised, and his living servants gathered with them from every part of the earth where they may be scattered, to be arraigned before him, that he may "take account of them" (Matt. 18:23).

He will approve of some, and reject others: the latter will be sentenced to share in the judgments which will descend upon the apocalyptic "beast and his armies," or sin, as politically and ecclesiastically incorporate in the powers that will "make war with the Lamb" and his army; the former will be admitted to the marriage ceremony, in which they will be confessed, "before the Father and all the holy angels" (Matt. 10:32; Rev. 3:5), and will thenceforward "follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth" (Rev. 14:4), and co–operate with him in the infliction upon the nations of that "judgment written" which was treated of in the earlier part of the lecture.

All this takes place before divine judgments commence, but not before that "distress of nations with perplexity," which is the preliminary symptom of the approaching "time of trouble, such as never was."

That state of political embarrassment will, probably, prevail for a considerable time before the saints are called away to the reckoning, and men will only consider it a repetition of commotions that have many times recurred in the course of history. They will only look to its proximate cause. They will never suspect that a divine hand is guiding the development of events, or that "the judge is nigh, even at the door."

They will never dream that the world is on the verge of the most awful crisis that has ever occurred in its history--that divine indignation, long restrained, is about to visit the world in destroying judgments that will break up the entire system of human society, as politically, ecclesiastically, and socially organised.

But like the little hand–cloud presaging the coming storm, the saints will be removed at a particular juncture of affairs without previous intimation. In all probability, the event will be so inconspicuous as to attract little attention. All that the world in general will know of it will be that a few obscure individuals, holding "fanatical" doctrines, have mysteriously disappeared; few will ever seriously suppose that there is anything supernatural in the occurrence.

Theories of the phenomenon will be ready to hand, and the incident will be forgotten-at least by the majority. Some who happened to know that this expected removal was part of the doctrine of these fanatical people, may be unable to quell a certain feeling of uneasiness which will trouble their breasts; but the world at large will be unaffected, and will move on to the destruction that awaits it at the revelation of Jesus with all his saints.

Christendom Astray Lecture 15

THEIR INIQUITY

The natural man, looking out upon British and American society, cannot see how the description applies. He thinks the world respectable and moral. Let him learn what true righteousness is, and his difficulty will be at an end.

The first principle of acceptable righteousness is the giving to God of that which we owe to Him. The first principle of natural-man morality is the giving of that which we owe to ourselves. Herein is the difference.

Judge the world by this principle, and you will come to a very different conclusion as to its state from that to which the natural man alias the carnal mind comes to. The world proceeds on the assumption that it exists for its own gratification and behoof; it ignores the fact that all things were made for the divine pleasure first.

The world experiences no inconvenience from this, and therefore it perseveres. The sun shines, and the seasons come and go with their laden goodness; all things go steadily forward in an even course of prosperity for such as labour to do well for themselves; therefore their hearts are hardened in evil.

"Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the hearts of the sons of men are fully set in them to do evil."

But, as saith the same solemn voice,

"Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God ... for God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil" (Eccl. 8:11; 12:14).

The difference between the children of God and the children of the devil is, that the children of God recognize that they are not their own, but the property of God, through Christ; and therefore live not for themselves, but for the honour of God and for the comfort of all His suffering friends around; while the children of the devil regard themselves as their own, and live for no higher end than the comfort of their own souls in all the honours and luxuries which their efforts can command; for the acquisition of which no labour is considered too great, no expense too lavish, and no occupation of time too excessive.

Seasons 2.42