PSALM 148

TEHILLIM 148

13 Let them praise the name of Yahweh: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven.

The reign of Christ is in fact, a period of transition: it is a transition from the government of animal men to the government of God. The Old Man has governed the world for nearly 6000 years, and everything has become worse and worse unto this day.

After the Millennial Reign, a new system will arise, in which God shall be all and in all; and then everything will be perfect, as well as everlasting.

But in the interval between the two, the reign of Christ comes in, which is a period of transition, and therefore combines some of the imperfections of the former state with the perfections of the latter state; and partakes partly of the nature of things purely human, and partly of that of the kingdom of God: the imperfections, we need scarcely say, being in the persons governed, not in the Governor himself.

For this reason the Millennial Reign is not assigned to the supremacy of mere man, nor administered by God only, but as a transition state, it is bestowed on one who is the divine fulness bodily manifested—the Man Jesus the anointed. The twofold nature of the Sovereign corresponding to the twofold character of the period itself.

The fitness or propriety of this divine conception is easily discovered. Were the world to pass abruptly from the government of the Old Adam, to the immediate government of God, the change would be too great to be sustained. Men would be overwhelmed and stunned by the awful presence of the Divine Majesty revealed without one interposing cloud.

The terrors of the godhead would overpower the exercise of free will, and there could be no moral principle displayed where fear alone would predominate above every other passion. But the Son of Man unites the form and the feeling of man with the omnipotence of God.

"As God of the whole earth," he can do what he will; but his relationship to man lays a restraint upon His power.

It is a principle of law, that every man must be tried by his peers. Were a man to be tried by one infinitely different from himself, this maxim would be violated. But when he is placed under the government, and when he is brought before the judgment seat of Christ, the principles of equity are maintained.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, Aug 1856.