2 For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.

Do we ever think it can be literally true that every thing we say or do now,‭ ‬can be actually brought to our mind,‭ ‬reproduced on that great day of judgment.‭ ‬The unkind word or the evil deed can be treasured up,‭ ‬and therefore‭ "‬firm remain‭" ‬in the resurrected man—the‭ ‬very tone and word can be reproduced—denial thus impossible.‭

‭"‬By thy words thou shalt be condemned.‭"

What an awful thought‭! ‬But there is another side.‭ ‬That kindly word,‭ ‬that little help,‭ ‬that self-sacrifice,‭ ‬that cup of cold water,‭ ‬that duty done under difficulties,‭ ‬those surmounted trials and troubles,‭ ‬those endurings of false accusations,‭ ‬that hoping of all things,‭ ‬those prayings for revilers and foes of Deity—all shown up,‭ ‬reproduced,‭ ‬in rapid succession,‭ ‬at the great day of settlement—all shown to be necessary for the perfection of the character that‭ ‬then‭ "‬firm remains.‭"

‭"‬By thy words‭ (‬and thoughts‭) ‬thou shalt be justified.‭"

What exultation to have on the top of all this,‭ ‬the cheering words from the immortal lips of the king of the whole earth,

‭ "‬Well done,‭ ‬good and faithful servants.‭"

‭TC 10/1899.

8 Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God:

"whosoever shall confess in me before men, in HIM will I also confess before my Father who is in heaven;" and "whosoever shall confess in me before men, the Son of Man also will confess in him before the angels of the Deity." (Eureka 3.1.5)

...if all men speak well of us, -- if we are on cozy terms with the world right and left, it is a proof either that we are not godly, or that the godly savour of our life is not manifest. Our light is hidden in some way. Men do not know that we belong to Christ -- exclusively animated by the principles incarnate in him. If they did, their feelings would not be those of friendship. This ignorance on their part could only come of our not confessing Christ before men.

...It is evidently a thing of fervour amounting to devotedness, and of courage amounting to heroism, of conviction amounting to an all-suffusing faith inspired by knowledge amounting to illumination. Only such a pronounced and consecrated type of discipleship could be worthy of what he promises:

"I will confess him before my Father who is in heaven."

With what pleasure or propriety could Christ acknowledge in the Father's presence men who are disciples only in name, whose faith is ready to die, and whose hearts are in the present evil world, which is God's enemy?

He has told us how he feels towards these lukewarm, self-satisfactionists:

"Because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth" (Rev. iii. 16).

Nazareth Revisited Ch 23

14 And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?

Christ will yet settle all disputes, great and small -- both by influence, and power; for it is written, "He shall execute justice and judgment in the earth," and "He shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, nor reprove after the hearing of his ears."

But the time had not come for him to act this part. He had no command from the Father and no authority from man to interpose judicially in temporal affairs in his character as "the Lamb of God," manifested to "take away the sins of the world." He, therefore, could have no other answer than the one he gave:

Nazareth Revisited Ch 45

15 And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.

Some of the Sons of God can "make to themselves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness," by their righteous use in the service of God, as Jesus himself in another place exhorted, and as exemplified in cases of Zaccheus, Joseph of Arimathea, Chusa, and many others in the apostolic age; and in the times of the prophets, Ezra, Josiah, Hezekiah, Solomon, David, and further back, Moses, Joseph, Abraham, and others.

But, as regards the average run of men, there can be no doubt that the possession of wealth tends to generate a frame of mind inconsistent with the modesty and purity that are acceptable to God. It tends to pride and indulgence and barrenness of spiritual fruit. Therefore the operations of the gospel are divinely directed towards the poor. "To the poor the gospel is preached." "Hath not God chosen the poor of this world?"

There is an object in this. It is not that the poor as such are sought after, but that the poor offer a better soil for spiritual tillage. They are, as a class, humbler and more reasonably-minded where light comes, and more appreciative of the goodness of God than those who have "more than heart could wish." Where they are not in this sense "rich in faith," their poverty is no recommendation. A poor man who is poor in faith is an uninteresting object indeed, both to God and man. There are millions of them upon the earth who grow and perish like "the grass of the field." But such as are enlightened and believing and obedient, are precious in the sight of God.

Nazareth Revisited Ch 45

21 So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

It is to illustrate the ultimate folly of making self-provision the engrossing rule of life, as it is with the common run of men. The occasion of its introduction gives even greater piquancy to the lesson. We are informed that "One of the company" on a certain occasion, "said unto Jesus, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me." This was invoking Christ's authority in a case of disputed title to property. Such an appeal is generally considered important and respectable.

In the present circumstances of human life (in which men to whom God has spoken are on probation as to the question of doing the will of God), Jesus could not look on questions of human property as men generally look upon them. First, he denied jurisdiction in such matters in the present state of affairs, though he will have jurisdiction enough when he comes to exercise judgment and justice. "Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?"

Next, most men would reckon he goes out of his way to have a needless fling at covetousness which more or less animates most men in their dealings. "Take heed and beware of covetousness; for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of things which he possesseth."

The man who asked him to interfere must have felt this as an unkind rebuff, and the majority of people in our day would sympathise with him. He would feel he was only wanting "his own," and that if he asked Christ to help him, it was because the influence of a just man would be powerful. Yes, but there was another side to the question to which most men are blind. The lust of possession is a snare. It catches the heart and deadens it to other and higher considerations which ought to be supreme.

Hence Jesus says "Beware," and speaks of "the deceitfulness of riches;" their tendency to cheat the heart out of wisdom. He, therefore, advises men to turn "the mammon of unrighteousness," when it comes their way, into a friend, by its use for God in a good stewardship of which He alone, and not man, is judge. Universal experience shows the necessity for his exhortation. Nothing is more common than for men of enlarging wealth to make use of it for still greater enlargement in self-provision and self-ministration to themselves and families. And nothing seems more ghastly and sterile in the day of death than munificent and skilful arrangements in this direction to the neglect of what God requires at a man's hand in the way of faithful stewardship.

Nothing will emancipate a man so thoroughly and wholesomely from the bondage of riches as the use of them in the various duties which God has attached to this probationary state. This is what Jesus calls "being rich towards God" in contrast to a man "laying up treasure for himself."

Being rich towards God may not seem much of an acquisition in the day of health and liberty, but the matter wears a different aspect when that day sets in clouds and darkness, as it inevitably does sooner or later. When the dead rise, and the Lord sets up His throne in judgment, the reality of treasure laid up in heaven will be manifest in the eyes of men and angels.

Nazareth Revisited Ch 30.

22 And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on.

He discouraged the anxiety that is common to men on the subject of temporal affairs; that is, to men who have not faith in God... That this means more than belief that God exists, and that He will perform His promises -- that it means trust in Him for care in temporal things, is manifest from what he said on this occasion.

... They were to look at God's provision for the ravens and the herbs of the field, and to consider that they themselves were of more value in God's estimation than these.

...It is evident that these precepts pre-suppose "Faith in God." They test the existence of that faith. They excite no response where it does not exist. But they are not intended to lead to presumption. There is a palpable difference between faith and presumption. Jesus barred the way to a presumptuous application of the promises by his response to the Tempter's suggestion, that he should cast himself from the pinnacle of the temple on the strength of the assurance he had received that the angels would bear him free from harm.

"Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."

If he recognised this rule in his own case, he did not mean his disciples to ignore it in theirs. That he did not mean them to neglect their part in the provision of promised daily bread is evident from other sayings of his, and notably from those which he spoke by the mouth of his apostles after his departure from the earth, such as "If any will not work, neither shall he eat" (2 Thes. iii. 10); and again, "If any provide not for his own, especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel" (1 Tim. v. 8).

It is evident that the design of the remarks under consideration was to encourage a tranquil spirit of faith and hope in the occupations of life, and not to inculcate idleness or neglect. Christ would place God and the hope of His kingdom and the obtaining of an entrance therein, first in the aims of a man's life. Therefore, he would have temporalities, which with the world occupy the first place, put in the second, on the ground that God, who has made us, and will bestow the kingdom that is coming, is not indifferent to the conditions that affect us now while we are in probation for His use. In this there is perfect reasonableness.

But it affords no countenance to the extremes to which many in past ages, and some in the present, have carried it. It tells us not to make life a slavery to the mere material means of its sustenance, since God has promised what we need (of which He alone is judge). It tells us to bend mortal strength and anxiety to the attainment of God's approbation, that we may enter at last upon the fulness of well-being and joy which He purposes to bestow at the right and ripe hour, in His kingdom upon earth. It does not tell us to neglect this world's affairs, or to put forth none of the exertions which in the wisdom of God are necessary for the maintenance of life in its present state.

Christ went further than to inculcate a cheerful faith and a non-anxious providing. He advised giving to others as the best method of saving -- not as some ancient philosophers have recommended: by having our time of need met by the gratitude of those whom we may succour in the day of our ability; but that by giving alms we may lay up "a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth."

... Christ gives us God's recognition and memory as our incentive in doing good to men. This is all-powerful where there is "faith in God."

Nazareth Revisited Ch 45

29 And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind.

It is as if Jesus had said: "Beware of whatever steals the heart. If you pile up wealth, you create a magnet that will act drawingly on the heart, and if your heart is under bondage to earthly things, where then will you be when the Son of Man comes? Can you be among those who will open to him immediately?"

There is great force in this way of putting it. It is a matter of common experience that opulence indisposes the heart to godliness. A man who is full of what consolations the present life can afford is liable to have but a feeble sense of dependence upon God, and but little ardour of desire for the coming of Christ. He naturally lapses into the condition described by a modern preacher as that of being in no danger of bursting the boilers in getting saved.

Nazareth Revisited Ch 45

31 But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.

We must look beyond the examples found in Messrs. Campbell and Wallis, for those who have "crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." Enjoying the fat things of the present evil world, and as much of its honours and wealth as they can grasp, they are the last men who should taunt me with neglect of this Christian duty. They have been laboring for years for what this world affords, and they have obtained it.

They are rich in this world's stuff. They can count up their thousands of mammon; their flocks and herds; their broad acres and coal fields; endowments and houses, and fashionable goods. But of all these things "the unfortunate man" they revile and speak evil of falsely is almost as destitute of as the Great Founder of Christianity himself.

I have not labored for these things, and therefore have not acquired them. While they have been covering themselves with fatness, I have been laboring without hire, and trusting to Providence for supplies, in the work of opening the blind eyes, and of turning men from Gentilism to the intelligent belief of the knowledge of God as revealed in the old and new Scriptures.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, Jan 1854

"Be steadfast and unmovable," says Paul, "always abounding in the work of the Lord." That is the motto, the policy, the spirit, the principle of the apostolic system. "always abounding." It is the great idea animating all who are truly obedient to the gospel. These are not those who get hold of the truth, and put it in their pockets, as it were, as their religion; and then start out to do just as they were doing before. There are numerous striking examples of that kind in the world around.

There are people making a profession of religion whom, from their ways of life, you would never know to be religious at all; they are entirely devoted to the schemes which recommend themselves to the natural mind. Those schemes, in their several departments, are what are considered creditable and excellent by the world. It is considered a very praise-worthy thing for a man to be industrious in the accumulation of money for himself, that his own position may be secure in this evil world. It is considered a legitimate object of life for a man to labour diligently to be rich now in this present time, that he may have a fine house to live in, and an honourable position in society.

Men shew amazing diligence, actually night and day depriving themselves ofttimes of rest and leisure, in developing business interests. A great deal of genius and a great deal of energy are expended in the promotion of purely temporal concerns. It is a kind of enthusiasm which, if attended with success, encourages its votary to wider and wider efforts.

The tendency of the world is to absorb the mind more and more. If a man once yield to the service of himself in this way, it is like getting into the suction of a mælstrom. It is a dangerous thing to put Christ out of account for a moment. The disposition to serve ourselves is intuitive to the animal man; it is one of the primitive instincts implanted for our self-preservation.

Regulated by divine law, it has its place, but if this instinct is allowed to be the lord of our life, we get into an evil bondage from which it is difficult to deliver ourselves, and which will assuredly alienate from us the regard of Christ.

It is a foolish policy. The crisis will come at last, and it may come any moment. The slave of instinct has to give it up and everything. He has to lie down and die; he has to take time to do that, though he could spare so little for Christ; and then where are the wealth and the honour, and all the fine things that he has set his heart upon? All goes; nothing left behind—absolutely nothing! He goes to corruption; he descends to the grave without a hope.

Having laid up no treasure in heaven, he is buried a spiritual bankrupt, for whom there is no prospect but tribulation and wrath and anguish! That is a fine harvest for a man to reap! That is a fine result for a man to work so hard, and so diligently, and so skilfully for! Dangerous! dangerous! dangerous! to put off Christ with the idea that we are going to do different by-and-bye. We don't know whether we will have a "by-and-bye" to do different in.

The only time we can reckon upon is the present; and that time is not our own at all if we are Christ's. If we are as the worms, we are, of course, at liberty to spend our time as the worms, burrowing and burrowing in the earth. No one thinks a worm acts foolishly. It fulfils the law of its being and ends in nothing. So it will be with the human worms, with this distinction, that such as have known the way of life, and treat God with this contempt, it would be better they had never been born.

In how different a case stand those who are truly Christ's! They work as well as the business-worm, but their labour tends to higher ends. The result of their work is not so immediately apparent, but, ultimately, it is more real and lasting. The sinner has not brains sufficient to see that although the man of Christ has scattered his seed now, it will return to him a hundred-fold when the sinner's little handful has gone for ever. The man of Christ will secure all that the sinner aims to have, and more.

The sinner loses life; Christ's servant will have it without end, whereas the sinner can only get a little bit. Energy of body and mind! The sinner, in his healthiest moments, never dreamt of the power that will mantle the glorified saint, who will be made incorruptible. The sinner has a hankering for beauty, but will, at last, embrace rottenness and corruption, while the saint is resplendent with a comeliness never approached by the fairest of earth's cosmetiqued daughters.

In fact, they will possess everything, because their Captain is the proprietor of the whole earth; to him it belongs. God made it not in vain, but for a noble purpose which concentres in one man, the son of His love, whom He has constituted "heir of all things." When his glory shall be evealed, the time will have come for the saint to reap his harvest, sown now in weakness and tears.

To be "glorified together with him" means more than heart can now conceive.

The Christadelphian, Feb 1872.

32 Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

"Verily, I say unto you, that ye who have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit an the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel." On a later occasion, Jesus plainly stated when this "sitting on the throne of his glory" should be an actual fact: "When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory" (Matt. xxv. 31).

In view of this, there is no room for doubt as to the meaning of Christ's words. They amount to an assurance that at his return from heaven, to which he departed 40 days after his resurrection, he will associate the 12 apostles with himself in the kingly work that will be his to do at the regeneration -- "the restitution of all things" spoken of by the prophets (Acts iii. 20) -- the restoration of the kingdom again to Israel (Acts i. 6) -- when sitting on the throne of David, "he will rein over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end" (Luke i. 32).

Popular theology provides no place for this divinely promised element of the great salvation. Though in this particular form the promise is limited to the apostles, it indicates the nature of the kingdom to be possessed by all the saints; for the salvation to be given to them is styled a "common salvation" (Jude 3) -- a salvation common to them all, differing only in position and degree.

All "reign with Christ" (Rev. xx 4); but some reign near him, as in the case of the apostles and the fathers; and some hold jurisdiction over ten cities, while some have authority over five. They all inherit one kingdom (Matt. xxv. 24; Luke xii. 32), but occupy positions differing in glory -- "every man according to his works" (Rev. ii. 23; xxii. 12).

It is the kingdom of Israel reestablished with the Holy Land (Zech. ii. 12), as the centre of that new system of things (Jer. iii. 17; Isaiah lxv. 18), which will diffuse the promised universal blessedness among men -- all nations blessed in Abraham and his seed (Gen. xii. 2, 3); "the glory of God filling the earth as the waters cover the sea" (Num. xiv. 21; Hah. ii. 14) -- the God of heaven having set up his kingdom, which shall break in pieces and consume all other kingdoms, and itself shall stand for ever (Dan. ii. 44).

Nazareth Revisited Ch 43

42 And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season?

"The Gospel Advocate calls me a restless, ambitious individual. I am restless, and shall so continue to be until I enter that rest which remains for the people of God. I am ambitious, and my ambition will be satisfied with nothing short of incorruptibility, and a portion in the undefiled and undecaying inheritance, in which I hope eternally to dwell.

Shall I rest, surrounded as I am by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, both in the church and in the world? Shall I cease to aim at the disenthralment of the human mind from the traditions both of Romish and Protestant 'Divines?' Shall I cease to plead for what I honestly believe to be the truth of Holy Scripture, because men, as liable to err as myself, are pleased to call it speculative and untaught? I am ambitious to benefit mankind...'

Dr Thomas life and works

44 Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath.

"Blessed," says Jesus, "is he that watcheth."

Now no one can watch without light. If the heavens be dark, the watchman must be provided with a light, or he cannot watch. By gazing at the natural luminaries as some professors are accustomed to do, no light can be derived, nor signs observed premonitory of the coming of the Lord. This is "the way of the heathen," and "a custom which is vain."

The natural heavens are impenetrably dark in relation to his appearing. The believer, or spiritual watchman, must take "the sure word of prophecy," which is the only "light" capable of enlightening him in the surrounding gloom. This world is "a dark place" and its cosmopolites who understand not the word mere embodiments of fog.

If we understand "the word of the kingdom" we shall "shine as lights in the world," and be enabled to rejoice in the approach of "the day of Christ." By the "shining light of prophecy" we shall be able to interpret the signs which God has revealed as appearing in the political heavens and earth. Events among the nations of the Roman habitable, and not atmospheric phenomena, are the signs of the coming of the Lord as a thief; whose nature, whether signs or not, can only be determined by "the testimony of God."

From the whole, then, there can be no doubt in the mind of a true believer. He discerns the sign given under the sixth vial as manifestly, and believes as assuredly that the Lord is at hand, as they who observed the sun setting in Syrian splendor knew that the coming day would be glorious.

Be not deceived, then, by the syren-voices of the peace-prophets. Ere long the last and most terrible of wars will break out. The beast and the false prophet will be destroyed, and the Lord will come as a thief in the night. Let this conviction work out its intended results. The blessing is not simply to him that watcheth; but to him that

"watcheth and keepeth his garments."

Simply to believe that the Lord is near, and to be able to discern the signs of the times, will not entitle a man to the blessing. He must

"buy gold tried in the fire; and white raiment, that he may be clothed, and that the shame of his nakedness do not appear; and anoint his eyes with eye-salve, that he may see."

In other words, he must believe "the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ;" follow the example of the Samaritans and be baptized into the name of the Holy Ones; and thenceforth perfect his faith by his works, as Abraham did.

He will then be a lamp, well oiled and trimmed, and fit to shine forth as a glorious light at the marriage of the Lamb. A community of such persons in a city, constitutes the Lamb's wife there, prepared for the coming of the Lord. He is arrayed in

"fine linen, clean and white; for the fine linen represents the righteousness of the saints;" who have "washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."

Therefore they will be

"before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple (or kingdom:) and he that sitteth upon the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, May 1851

46 The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.

A man dismissed from the judgment seat first suffers the agony of having his shame "seen" (Rev. xvi. 15). He is publicly condemned in the presence of fellow, servants and a multitude of the angelic host (Rev. iii. 5-9; Luke xii. 8) Next, he departs not whither he wills. He might choose to bury himself in the forests or wander wide o'er earth or ocean, or find refuge in death. The sentence orders his expulsion to the "outer darkness" which still reigns in the world for a while after Christ's return.

In this outer darkness, the world of the ungodly, organised as "the devil and his angels," alias "the beast and the kings of the earth and their army" (Rev. xix. 19), is marshalling its forces for "the war of the great day of God Almighty," in which they "make war with the Lamb, but the Lamb shall overcome them." Fierce judgment impends at that moment, of which the world is unconscious. Christ, of whose presence they are not aware, is about to be manifested "in flaming fire taking vengeance" (2 Thess. i. 7, 8).

...Mortal as they are, it is no stretch of the imagination to realise the suffering of body, the anguish of mind incidental to such a fearful situation -- without home or friends or acquaintances or means of living, wandering as vagabonds like Cain till the maturing judgment of God culminates in the terrible outbreak of destruction and desolation long foretold.

This "hour of judgment" will take time to run. The "few stripes" will probably be exemplified in the shortening of the term of suffering. Such will die before the worst comes. "Many stripes" will be seen in the case of those wretched children of disobedience who will be preserved through all the terrors of "the time of trouble such as never was," and survive to be engulfed in the finishing strokes of judgment by which wickedness will be finally overthrown, and the way cleared for the Kingdom of God.

This is what Jesus describes as being "appointed a portion with the unbelievers." It is the most terrible calamity possible to man. "A portion with the unbelievers" just now means a share in the honours and advantages of the present evil world, which is made up of unbelievers. A portion with them now means a portion with them then, and what a portion then!

Nazareth Revisited Ch 45