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CHAPTER XI.

 

CONCLUSION. THE MILLENNIAL STATE OF THE CHURCH.

 

In the foregoing pages we have glanced at the state of the Christian church from its commencement to the present time; and we have seen the imperfections and corruptions which, in its best condition, have hitherto weakened its strength, impaired its beauty, limited its extent, and hindered its usefulness. An interesting inquiry now presents itself, "Will it be always thus, till it is swallowed up of life, glory, and immortality? Is there no hope that it will arise from the earth, shake off the dust, put on its beautiful garments, and array itself as a bride adorned for her husband ?" It were a melancholy thing, both for herself and the world, if there were no such expectation. It were a painful thing to look down the vale of time, and see the same divisions, errors, worldliness, and feebleness, ever within the church; the same Paganism, Mohammedanism, Judaism, and Popery, around it; and no visions of better things advancing to supplant these scenes of the moral world. If what we have seen, or read, is all that Christianity is to do for our race - if the world is never to be converted to Christ, nor the church to be brought into a nearer conformity to the New Testament - then would infidelity triumph, and exultingly affirm that the Son of God had not destroyed the works of the devil - that the gospel had been partially, and to a great extent, a failure, and therefore was a fable. We have no apprehension that such a ground of triumph will ever be given to the enemies of our faith. A brighter era is destined to arrive; a golden age is to dawn upon us, when the predictions of prophets, and the descriptions of apostles, are all to be fulfilled, and the earth be full of the knowledge of the Lord.

 

If, as some eminent commentators suppose, the last two chapters of the book of the Revelation are descriptive of some happy state of the church of Christ on earth, and not of its celestial state, what a scene opens through the vista of time to the eye of faith; what a landscape of surpassing glory, for our dark, disordered world, expands upon the Christian, as from the mount of promise he surveys the promised land! What a state will the church attain to, when "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; and the gates shall not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no night there; and they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it!" Amidst what united joys of angels and of men will "the holy city, new Jerusalem, be seen coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband!" How welcome will be the great voice out of heaven, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God!"

 

Yes, glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God, which, like Moses, we may now behold in the distance:-

 

First of all, there is preservation. Hear, 0 Zion, the word of thy God, and rejoice for thy consolation: "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment shalt thou condemn. The Lord thy God, in the midst of thee, is mighty; He shall be a wall of fire round about thee, and the glory in the midst of thee." Yes, the church is safe, though nothing else is. Human systems of religion, of government, of philosophy, that are opposed to the principles of revelation, like the billows which roll with ocean's force against a rock, shall successively dash and utterly dissolve. So it ever has been; so it ever will be; till the last foe shall be vanquished. Let infidelity utter its blasphemies, and false philosophy its sophistries, and popery its anathemas - we exultingly repeat, "The church is safe.." Amidst the wreck of empires, and the subversion of thrones, she rises fresh in beauty and in might, with celestial glory beaming around her, and her enemies fleeing before her. Let no man's heart tremble for fear; no man's brow gather gloom; no man's tongue utter despondency. The celestial bark may be amidst the billows, while the tempest sweeps along the deep, but Jehovah Jesus is on board, and she cannot be lost unless the pilot perish. But we have nothing to fear. Jesus lives forevermore, and is Head over all things to his church. In its lowest state, he has never forsaken her. He never will. His honor is identified with her final triumph. Every harp should therefore be snatched from the willows - new joys should be felt, and new anthems sung, by all the assemblies of the saints; and amidst the convulsions of every age, be this the song of the universal church: "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled; though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved. God shall help her, and that right early."

 

But blessed as it is to know that immutable truth and omnipotent power guarantee the continuance of the church, this is the least and lowest of her hopes. Improvement in her spiritual condition is another thing which the church is authorized to expect. The earnestness now desiderated will be given to her. Even before she shall assume her celestial form, and be presented a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, her spots will not be so dark, nor her wrinkles so deep, nor her blemishes so obvious, as they now are. She will appear, even upon earth invested with something of celestial radiance and beauty. It is impossible even superficially to study the New Testament, and also the pages of ecclesiastical history, and not be entirely convinced that Christianity has never yet been fully developed as it might be expected would be done upon earth, in the character and conduct of the church. There surely must be an age and a state of her history, when this shall be done, and when she shall not only be, but shall appear  to be, cast in the very mold of the inspired volume - when the Sermon on the Mount, the twelfth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, and the thirteenth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, and the more eminently devout parts of all the other epistles, shall not only be the law, but also the practice, of Christians, and the Bible and the church shall exactly agree - when every professor of religion shall be a living exhibition of faith, hope, love, in all their power and beauty - when, in short, the spiritual shall so far predominate over the carnal, the divine over the human, the heavenly over the earthly, and the eternal over the temporal, that the communion of the faithful shall appear like a bride adorned for her husband, and just ready for the celebration of the nuptial ceremonies. Practical Christianity will not then appear, as it now too often does, as a feeble exotic withering in an uncongenial clime, but as a plant of paradise, exhibiting something of its native beauty, and shedding, though not wasting, its fragrance even on this desert air. All the fruits of the Spirit will be seen in rich abundance and full maturity. The workmanship of the Holy Ghost will be manifested, not only in the outline of the renewed mind, but in all the minute and delicate touches of Christian character. The image of God will be impressed upon the outer and visible man, while the mind of Christ will fill the inner and hidden man of the heart. Such is to be the church of the latter day; when the wintry season shall pass off, and be followed by a scene which shall exhibit, combined in one, the appropriate beauties of each season, - all the energies of spring, the glow of summer, and the luxuriance of autumn.

 

Union, love, and harmony shall then characterize the New Jerusalem, the city of the living God. The prayer of the divine Redeemer, that his people may be one, even as he and the Father are one, shall be answered - the exhortations of the apostle, to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, shall be complied with - the object, so long lost, so ardently desired, so mistakenly sought after, shall be restored, and the divided church become one again. The din of controversy shall cease with the din of arms - the peace that shall prevail in the world shall be but an emblem of the tranquility which pervades the church - and the pen of the polemic shall be laid up in the museum of the antiquarian, with the sword of war. The spirit of division will be healed, not by legal restraints or angry controversy; nor will an angel descend to give a sanatory virtue to the troubled waters of strife; but this disease will be cured by a copious effusion of the Spirit of God upon the hostile parties - by the diffusion of a larger degree of vital religion - by drawing men from human systems to the fountain of Scripture, there to purify their much abused vision from the scales of error and prejudice - by causing them not only to profess, but to feel, that love is the essence of Christianity, and all beside but "the earthly attire which she will throw off as she steps across the threshold of eternity, to enter the temple of God." Illustrious era! How many hearts, saddened by the divisions of the visible church, are sighing for thine advent, and how many sons of peace are lifting up their aspirations to Him that ordereth the times and the seasons, saying, "Come quickly!" Thine it is to heal the matricidal wounds inflicted by her own children on the peace of Zion. Thine, not only to repress the bitter words, and still more bitter feelings, and to expel the envies and the jealousies occasioned by the barriers of sectarian zeal, but to remove the very barriers themselves, and bring into one fold, under one shepherd, that precious flock of Christ, which during the dark and cloudy day that has come upon us, has been scattered upon the mountains and upon every high hill. Thine it is to close the long reign of malice and hate, to which our earth has been subjected ever since the hour of the fall, and to give to it the nearest resemblance to heaven it ever can have below, in the universal dominion of love! Hasten, O Saviour, this thy brightest triumph! All creatures groan for thy coming, while thy church cries, "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly!"

 

But even this is not all that awaits the church on earth, for she is assured of increase, triumph, and universal dominion. She is not always to be shut up within her present narrow limits, a little band, scorned by pride, oppressed by power; the circumference of the globe is to be the circle of her domain, and all nations are to be her subjects. The Lord shall arise upon thee, "O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted." "The Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory. Lift up thine eyes round about, and see; all they gather themselves together, they come to thee; thy sons shall come from afar, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side. Then thou shalt see and flow together, and thy heart shall fear, and be enlarged, because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee." A thousand such promises as these, though partially fulfilled by the incarnation of the Son of God, and the setting up of his kingdom in the world, - await their consummation in the latter day glory. Then shall God utterly abolish the idols of every land. "I have sworn by myself," says He, "the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return; that unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear." Thus the oath of God is pledged to the subversion of everything that opposeth itself to him. Paganism, that blood-stained, hydra-headed monster of impiety, cruelty, and lust, shall be slain to rise no more. Mohammedanism, that audacious lie, propagated by the scimitar, and kept up only by the means that established it in the earth, shall be exterminated - and the Koran be destroyed by the Bible, and the crescent disappear forever in the blaze of the Sun of Righteousness. Then shall the vail fall from the heart of the Jew, the blindness which hath happened unto Israel be done away, and the outcasts of Judea, still beloved for their fathers' sake, shall "come in with the fullness of the Gentiles." The man of sin shall be cut off; the mighty angel shall take the mill-stone, and dashing it into the sea, shall utter the shout, "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen;" while the loud voice of much people shall reply, "Alleluia; salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, unto the Lord our God; for true and righteous are his judgments; for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand." The sabbath of our world shall have arrived. The worship of Jehovah shall be universal. The Name which is above every name shall be heard on every plain, and echoed from every mountain. The Bible shall be in every hand, a house of prayer in every village, and an altar for God in every habitation. The groans of creation shall be lost amidst the songs of salvation, and this vale of tears, even  to its darkest nook and deepest recess, be irradiated with the sunshine of joy and praise. The throne of tyranny, cemented by blood, and occupied by oppression, shall be overturned, and the vine and fir tree overshadow the seat, and yield the fruit, of liberty, planted in its place. Slavery, that veriest type of selfishness, cruelty, and lawless power, shall be abolished, as one of the greatest crimes and direst curses of humanity. The Prince of Peace, whose throne is forever and ever, "shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn the art of war any more." Commerce shall be purified from its cupidity - legislation from its injustice - literature from its pride - and philosophy from its skepticism. The principles of Christianity shall permeate everything, and leaven the whole mass of society with the spirit of that kingdom, "which is righteousness, peace, and joy, in the Holy Ghost." Then will be realized all the glowing descriptions contained in the chapters of Revelation, to which we have already alluded, and men, and angels, and God himself, rejoice over "the new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."

 

How many centuries shall roll before this blessed era of harmonized, sanctified humanity shall arrive - how much more of its history our world is to spend in sin and rebellion, and in groans and tears, it is not for any of us to say. Some imagine they hear the clocks of prophecy and providence both set in harmony to the divine decree, striking the eleventh hour. I am not so skilled in prophetical arithmetic, or mystic symbols; "it is not for me to know the times and the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power;" and I am content with the promise and the hope, that the time is coming, when "the kingdoms of the world shall become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ."

 

What vials of wrath have yet to be exhausted upon the world, or through what tribulations the church has yet to pass on her way to her millennial, and to her triumphal state, it is not for us even to conjecture. Perhaps there are conflicts for her to endure, of which she is now happily ignorant, but for which, however severe, the grace that cometh from above will prepare her. Still, she must be victorious, for hers is the cause of God. Yes, Christians, the days roll on, when "the shout of the isles shall swell the thunder of the continent; when the Thames and the Danube, when the Tiber and the Rhine, shall call upon the Euphrates, the Ganges, and the Nile; and the loud concert shall be joined by the Hudson, the Mississippi, and the Amazon, singing with one heart and one voice, ' Alleluia! Salvation! The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth!' "

 

Followers of the Lamb, professors of Christianity, friends of your species - survey that wondrous scene, gaze upon that enchanting panorama, no mere picture of a fervid imagination, but sketched by the pencil of a divine hand, as of something which the resources and honor of God are pledged to render a glorious reality! Look at it, I say - a world converted from every error that blinds the judgment - every passion that corrupts the heart - every vice that degrades the character - and every curse that damns the sou1 - to everything that purifies, exalts, and saves its miserable inhabitants; and that by a power which subdues their understanding to truth - their habits to rectitude - and their hearts to happiness. If any dark ground be needed to draw out into more impressive and attractive beauty this age of the future - if anything more than the contemplation of it, apart and by itself, be requisite to fix your attention, kindle your enthusiasm, and engage your exertions - compare it with the world's past history, and its present aspect - "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools; and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves; who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. And as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful." This is the most awful, deeply shaded moral picture ever drawn by an inspired or uninspired pen, and it is affecting to consider that the apostle is not writing the annals of hell, and the biography of devils, but of our earth, and our species.

 

 Such was this world in the apostle's days, as the history of even classic Greece and Rome clearly attests - as the disclosures of Herculaneum and Pompeii can corroborate. Such is the world in our days, as observation and report demonstrate. Such is God's world, such is our world - thus lying in the wicked one, clasped firmly in his arms, polluted by his embrace, and ruined by his arts. O Christians, can ye bear to look at it, rendered a thousand times more loathsome, hideous, and revolting, by the light of millennial glory, which from the preceding pages is poured over it to reveal more impressively its frightful apostasy from God! Sink not into despair. It is not always to be thus. In the midst of those deep sorrows which you feel, or ought to feel, over this dark and dreadful scene, turn to the other side of the contrast, and rejoice in prospect of the millennial glory. By whom is the reign of truth, holiness, and happiness, to be brought on? Who will be the direct and chief instruments of accomplishing this greatest of all happy revolutions - this wondrous spiritual renovation? Not the mighty ones of the earth - not monarchs, nobles, and statesmen - not warriors and heroes - not philosophers and scholars - not poets and artists - as such - but the ministers of religion, and the members of our churches - the men of faith, of prayer, and of zeal - the men who have fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ - the men who are despised as enthusiasts, or hated as fanatics - yes, these are the men to whom the world will stand indebted for its restoration to God, to happiness, and immortality. What an inducement, and what an obligation to more intense devotedness, are here! To bring on this stupendous and auspicious change is your work - and O, what work ought it to be to accomplish such an end! See here the object, the result, and the reward, of your labor. You cannot labor in vain - not a moment of time - not a farthing of property - not a fragment of activity - not a prayer of faith, can be lost. Borrow inspiration to your zeal from the prospect of the latter day glory, which you are to be the means of producing. Let the groans of an unregenerated world melt and move you to the most intense pity; and let the anticipated shouts of a redeemed one awaken all the energies of zeal and hope. What is wanted - and all that is wanted, under God's blessing, for the world's conversion to Christ, is - an earnest Ministry, and an earnest Church.

 

May they both and all awake to a deep sense of their duty, and a holy ambition to perform it, combined at the same time with a believing confidence in the truth of the Divine promise, and the all-sufficiency of the Holy Spirit.