The Messiah's Kingdom-Daniel 7:13-14
By
Joseph A. Seiss
“I saw in the night visions,
and behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to
the Ancient of days, and they, brought him near before him. And there was given
him dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations and languages
should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass
away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed” (Daniel
7:13-14).
That
this vision contains a prophecy concerning "the
last times" will not be denied.
That the "one like the Son of man"
is Jesus Christ, in His glorified human nature, is admitted on all hands. That His "coming
with the clouds of heaven" refers to His final advent in this world
is also the common belief of interpreters.
His being led to the Ancient of days to receive dominion plainly denotes
His investiture with rulership, and His inauguration into the august office of
the almighty Sovereign of the nations.
This dominion is something more than His present spiritual reign in
men's hearts; for He does not enter upon it until He comes in the clouds. It is also a kingdom the affairs of which are
to be administered by Christ in person, or by those under His immediate control
and direction., for it is given to Him as the Son of
man, and His personal descent at the time of receiving it is explicitly
affirmed. It must also be a visible and
terrestrial kingdom, for the "nations"
are mentioned as its subjects.
The
doctrine which I accordingly deduce from this text, and which I shall aim to
set forth in this discourse, is: That the Lord Jesus Christ will return
again to this world, and here set up a visible Christocracy,
or empire of His own, and personally reign over the nations in the bliss and
glory of a universal and eternal kingdom. There are many good people
who believe no such thing. My main
object will therefore be to prove it by solid Scriptural arguments. And if I can show that it has a firm
foundation in the word of God, I certainly have a right to claim for it the
respect due to a doctrine of inspiration.
Let us then approach the subject with humble reverence, sincerely
desirous to learn the truth, and earnestly praying that God may give us a
proper insight to this wonderful mystery.
The Predictions Of The Old Testament
I
remark then, in the first place, that the prophecies of the Old Testament, when
taken in their plain and natural sense, certainly predict the Messiah as a
great prince who shall reign in this world.
To establish this remark is no difficult task. The very first words that ever were uttered
concerning Christ already imply it. When
God reckoned with Adam, though He excluded him from
The
next distinct allusion to this "seed"
is in God's covenant with Abraham, where it is said that he shall "possess
the gate of his enemies and all nations of the earth be blessed in him" (Genesis
22:17-18). Paul tells us that this promise did not belong to Abraham's
posterity at large, but only to "one, which is
Christ." To possess an enemy's gate is to conquer that enemy - to take his
last defence. And when it is said of Christ, that He shall possess the gates of
His enemies, and bless all nations, we have before us the idea of a great,
victorious and universal prince, making himself the master and the benefactor
of the world.
Another
reference to the same thing we find in Hannah's song, where it is said, "The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth, and He shall give
strength to His King, and exalt the horn of His anointed" (1 Samuel 2: 10). Here too we have the princedom of
the Messiah in this world, and His universal sovereignty, pointedly asserted.
In
God's promises to David, we have the matter still more particularly
amplified. God says to the monarch of
David
himself certainly so understood the promise, and by divine inspiration so
prophesied of it in the Psalms. As he
had his court in
Turn
now to Isaiah, the great evangelical prophet, and see how he describes the
Messiah. "Unto
us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and His name shall be called,
Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The Father of
the everlasting age, The Prince of peace" (Isa. 9: 6). Nobody misunderstands this. All take the words just as they are written,
without looking after some mystical or allegorical meaning. By what authority then shall we reject the
literal acceptation of what fellows? “And the government shall be upon His shoulder. Of the
increase of His government and peace there shall he no end, UPON THE
THRONE OF DAVID AND UPON HIS KINGDOM, to
order IT, and to establish IT with judgment and with justice from
henceforth even forever" (9: 7). What could more unequivocally describe the
Messiah as a great prince, reigning in David's place in this world?
If
we turn to Jeremiah, we find the Saviour spoken of in the same manner. "Behold, the days
come, says the Lord, that I will raise UNTO DAVID a righteous
Branch, and a KING shall reign and prosper, and shall execute justice
and judgment IN THE EARTH. In His days
These
are very plain and positive predictions. Others of like import might be presented. Here and elsewhere, the Messiah is again and
again called a king. He
is to possess and occupy David's throne. He is to be a conqueror of His enemies and the
possessor of their cities. He is to reign over the nations. He is to be the commander around whose banner
the Gentiles shall be gathered. His
kingdom is to be in a sense the
The Expectation of A Great Prince
It
is also true, in the second place, that when the Saviour came into the world,
as the Son of Mary, He was expected as a great prince who should set up a
literal empire in this world. This is a
point so notorious, and so much dwelt upon by theologians and preachers that it
is hardly necessary to do more than state it. And so uniform is the testimony on this point,
that it is unnecessary to argue it.
When
Herod inquired of the chief priests and scribes where Christ should be born,
"they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judea; for
thus it is written by the prophet, And you Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are
not the least among the princes of Judah; for out of you shall come A
GOVERNOR that shall rule my people Israel"
(Matthew 2:5-6; Micah 52). This shows how the Jews understood the ancient
prophets and what were their expectations at the time. Herod certainly acted
the apprehension that the coming Christ was to be a great prince when he gave
orders "and slew all the children that were in
We
read that even from far beyond the limits of
That extravagant and unfounded notions were entertained by many, I have
no doubt. Some looked for Christ only as
a military hero and conceived of His reign too much after the style of
ambitious tyranny. They sometimes spoke
of Him as a conquering leader, whereas He is at the same time a divine
spiritual Saviour. They surrounded Him
too much with their own carnal and resentful feelings, and overlooked that
meekness and holiness of spirit that is indispensable to a blissful
participation in His princely ministrations. They failed to apprehend that great
foundation-fact, that He was first to suffer before He
should reign, and bear the cross before reaching the crown.
But,
with all their narrow bigotries and carnal hopes, they did not misconceive this
one prominent feature of the matter - that the
promised Messiah was to be a great prince, who should reign upon the throne of
David His father and extend His royal dominion over all the earth. So the prophets had spoken, and so they
understood what the prophets said.
The New Testament's Picture of
Expectancy
I
proceed, then, to a third remark: That the New Testament nowhere contradicts what
was thus expected of the Messiah. There
are, indeed, a few passages which seem to conflict with these expectations, but
when attentively considered, and their real meaning ascertained, they will be
found entirely accordant with the doctrine which I am endeavouring to set
forth.
That
Christianity is an eminently spiritual religion, all who
understand it must admit. The
fundamental principle of the Messiah's kingdom is His reign over the heart,
bringing all its affections and impulses into subjection to the will of God. This is the germ on which everything else
depends. He who is not spiritually
renewed, and morally assimilated to Christ, has neither part nor lot in
Christ's kingdom, whatever may be his birth, blood, or external relations. "However different
the extent and outward form of the kingdom," says a distinguished
author, "however great its ultimate triumph and
glories, this is still its peculiar feature and character - God, the Saviour,
reigning supreme in the heart of the once-alienated and rebellious sinner, and
all dispensations are but hastening on this great result the more fully over
all the earth." We would
ignore the most glorious and most distinguished feature of Christianity, if we
were for a moment to think differently.
It
is therefore to he presumed that the Saviour and His inspired servants should
set forth this point with marked perspicuity. And we would especially expect them to express
themselves strongly on this feature of the kingdom, as there were many of their
hearers who had quite lost sight of it. It
was the most serious mistake of the Jews, not that they expected Christ as a
triumphing Lord, but that they did not comprehend how He was, at the same time,
to be a spiritual Redeemer, and that the blessings of His glorious reign were
to extend only to those who should be inwardly subjected to His holy will. They thought their lineal descent from
Abraham, and their formal submission to the Mosaic ritual, presented all that
was needful to secure for them the full benefit of the sublime achievements of
their expected King. This was a disease
needing to be cauterised.
When
the Pharisees asked Jesus "when the
It
is to the same point that Paul speaks, when he says, "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness,
peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost" (Romans
14:17). The antithesis which he
presents is not between a visible personal reign of Christ, and a mere reign by
His Spirit and grace, but between the true prerequisite spiritual submission to
Christ and that mere ceremonial righteousness upon which the Jews so much
boasted and relied.
But
the fact that a man's heart must be renewed and purified as a condition of
participation in the blessings of the mediatorial
kingdom by no means proves that that kingdom is not hereafter to take form and
be outwardly manifested in a triumphant personal reign of the Saviour in this
world. For if we interpret these words
so as to confine the divine kingdom to the heart, and to righteousness, peace,
and joy in the Holy Ghost, we necessarily exclude from it the outward church,
the sacraments, and a future home in heaven. Yet, if we dare extend the limits of the
divine kingdom beyond the mere inward experiences of the soul, there is nothing
to prevent us from extending it so as to embrace also the future personal reign
of the Messiah upon earth. For if the present existence of the kingdom in men's hearts is
reconcilable with the hope of a more glorious form of the kingdom in the
heavenly world, it is equally reconcilable, and on the same grounds, with the
doctrine of the future princely reign of Christ over the nations.
Another
passage often misquoted on this subject is that where Christ says, "My kingdom is not (ek) FROM this world" (John 18:36).
When He uttered these words, He was on
trial before Pilate. He had been accused
of treasonable purposes. Pilate,
therefore, asked Him whether He was a king. He boldly affirmed that He was a king. But to
quiet their apprehensions that He was about to undertake to subvert the
existing authorities by carnal violence, He qualified His avowal; and these
words contain the qualification. He does
not say that His kingdom is not to be located upon earth, for it is located
here. His church and all its ordinances
are on earth. The children of the
kingdom live and operate in this world.
He
only says His kingdom is not from this world, that it is of heavenly origin,
and that it is to be set up by supernatural means and not by human prowess or
the might of earthly arms. That this is
what He means, and all that He means, is evident from all the circumstances of
the case and is made abundantly clear from the additional words: "Else would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered
to the Jews" (18:36).
Why did He not allow His servants to
fight? Because His
kingdom was not to be built up in that style. He is to enter upon His throne by a different
process. He is to receive His dominion
from above and not from beneath. The
Lord will give it to Him. It will not come out of this
world.
I
may therefore say, with perfect safety, that there is nothing in the New
Testament to contradict the cherished expectations that the Messiah is to reign
as a great prince on David's throne in this world.
The New Testament's Confirmation
Of Christ's Kingship
I
will go still further and say that there is much in the New Testament tending
directly to confirm and deepen these prevailing expectations. Look for a moment at what the angel said to
Mary when he came to announce to her the birth of the expected Christ. Gabriel
there says to the Virgin, "You shall conceive in
your womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name JESUS. He shall
be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest" (Luke 1:31-32). These are plain words. All understand them just as they stand. And what follows is equally plain, and by all
sound principles of interpretation must be taken as equally literal. "The Lord
shall give Him the THRONE OF HIS FATHER
DAVID. AND HE SHALL REIGN OVER THE HOUSE OF JACOB FOREVER; and of His
kingdom there shall be no end" (1:32-33).
Now
what effect could such an announcement have upon those who were looking for the
Christ as a great reigning prince, but to establish and fix all their prepossessions
concerning Him in that respect? And when
His virgin mother first brought Him as a babe to the temple, Simeon and Anna,
by direct divine inspiration, spoke of Him as the consolation for which
When
Nathanael first recognised the Saviour's Messiah-ship,
and addressed him as "Rabbi, the Son of God, the
King of
When
He made His triumphal entry into
Again,
when the mother of Zebedee's children asked Him that
her two sons might sit, as ministers of state, the one on His right hand and
the other on His left in His kingdom, she doubtless
conceived of that kingdom as a princely reign in this world. Her request is amply indicative of this. But if she was wrong, the Saviour's answer
certainly went much further to confirm her views than to undeceive her. True, He did not agree to grant her desire;
but He left her under the belief that there are such places to he filled in His
empire, and that they are reserved for those for whom the Father has prepared
them. Are we to suppose the holy Jesus
capable of encouraging delusion? He knew
what sort of views that woman had of His kingdom; and if it were not in His
purpose to establish that kingdom as she apprehended that He would, His conduct
and answer are quite inexplicable.
The
prayer of the penitent thief on the cross presents a similar case. That heartbroken sufferer besought the Saviour
to remember him when He came in His kingdom. His ideas of that kingdom were
doubtless, in the main at least, just what were generally entertained. And the Saviour answered him without
intimating that he was at all mistaken, and left him to die under the
impression with which he uttered the prayer.
See,
also, with what firmness the Saviour expressed himself when before Pilate. He was there charged with conspiracy and
treason. The question of Pilate was
addressed directly to His political pretensions. His accusers were standing by, eagerly
watching for the smallest intimations on which they might secure His
condemnation. But His great spirit did
not quail. Rising up in the sublime
dignity that belonged to His high nature, He boldly affirmed His claim to royal
appointment and power.
Then,
at the last, having spent 40 days with His disciples after His resurrection
from the dead, "speaking of the things pertaining
to the kingdom of God," how impressive is the sanction which He
gave to the fond expectations concerning His earthly princedom! Certainly, all these special instructions to
His disciples upon this particular subject left them no room for any further
misunderstanding. Yet, at the last hour
of His stay on earth, we find them still identifying the Messiah's reign with
the restoration of the Jewish throne, and Christ himself still replying to them
in a way which could only deepen and strengthen their ideas of the matter. If there were nothing else upon the subject in
the New Testament but this account of Christ's last interview with His
disciples, it would be enough upon which to base the belief, that it is His
purpose, at the appointed time, to revive the throne of David and to reign
personally upon earth. They expected Him
to "restore the kingdom to
There
is also another class of New Testament passages, equally, if not still more
strongly, corroborative of the common expectations of the Messianic reign. When the disciples asked the Saviour what they
should have in return for their sacrifices in His cause, He replied, “When the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory, you
also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of
He
here appropriates to himself a future kingdom. He says that it is to be set up
at the expiration of the Gentile dominance, and while the Jews still continue
as a distinct race. He says that the apostles are to share in the
administrations of that kingdom, as judges of the twelve tribes of
The Scriptural Testimony to the
Again
I remark that the Scriptures explicitly speak of the setting up of a kingdom in
connection with the Saviour's final advent, which answers exactly to the
literal predictions of the ancient prophets which I have quoted, and to the
expectations of the Jews and His first disciples. Upon this point the text itself is conclusive.
All agree that it refers to the
Saviour's coming in glory to judge the world - to His personal coming at the
end of the present dispensation. And it is here affirmed, with an explicitness
which cannot be evaded, that at the period of His coming there is to be "given Him dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all people, NATIONS, and languages SHOULD SERVE HIM. His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed"
(Daniel 7:14).
That
there might be no misunderstanding or mistake about the matter, an angel explains
the vision and says that the blasphemous and persecuting power denoted by the
little horn is to prevail against the saints until "The judgment
shall sit, " and THEN "the kingdom, and dominion, and
the greatness of the kingdom UNDER THE WHOLE HEAVEN, shall be given to
the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom, and ALL DOMINIONS SHALL SERVE AND OBEY HIM" (Daniel 7:27).
These
words describe a literal kingdom. a universal kingdom,
a kingdom under the heavens, over the nations and tribes
of this world, and which is only to be set up at the session of the judgment
and the coming of the Son of man in the clouds.
Look
also at the vision of the great golden-headed image, and the stone cut from the
mountains without hands, which smote the great image, broke it, and filled all
the earth. We have there an epitome of
this world's history. First, the four great monarchies beginning with Babylon
and extending down to the sovereignties which now occupy the territory of the
ancient Roman empire. Second the utter
extinction of these monster powers during the regency of the ten kingdoms into
which the
Daniel
thus interprets the vision: "In the days of
these kings" -
that is, in the days of the kingdoms denoted by the ten toes of
the great image, during the existence of the Roman empire in its last form of
ten kindred regencies - "shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never
be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall
break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever
" (2:44).
The
stone-kingdom that God is to set up, and which is to consume and destroy all
other kingdoms and stand forever, is a literal, real, outward, terrestrial
empire. The time when that kingdom is to
be set up is the time when the last forms of usurped dominion, denoted by the
ten toes of the great image, are to be broken in pieces. The ten toes of that image are acknowledged on
all hands to be the same as the ten-horned wild beast of John's Apocalypse. The ten-horned wild beast is only to be taken
and destroyed when the heavens shall open and the Son of God come
forth to tread the winepress of God's wrath and give judgment to the martyrs
and saints. Therefore the coming
of Christ is to be attended with the setting up of a visible, outward,
universal, divine, and eternal empire, such as the Jews
associated with the Messianic reign.
The
Saviour himself has spoken of the matter to the same effect. Hear His words:
"WHEN the Son of man SHALL COME
IN HIS GLORY, and all the holy angels with
Him, THEN SHALL HE SIT UPON THE THRONE OF HIS GLORY; and before Him shall
be gathered all nations, and He shall separate THEM (THE
NATIONS) one from another, as a shepherd divides
his sheep from the goats., and He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but
the goats on the left. THEN shall THE KING say to them on
his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, INHERIT THE KINGDOM prepared
for you from the foundation of the world" (Matthew
25:31-34). In the same strain, He
elsewhere says, “They shall see the Son of man
coming in a cloud, with power and great glory ... WHEN you see these things come to pass, know that THE
KINGDOM OF GOD IS NIGH AT HAND" (Luke
21: 27-28).
Paul
also says to Timothy: “I charge you therefore before
God, even the Lord Jesus Christ. who shall judge the
quick and, dead AT HIS APPEARING AND KINGDOM" (2 Timothy 4: 1). All these passages unequivocally connect the
setting up of the glorious Messianic kingdom with the Saviour's final coming.
Elsewhere
Paul connects the final advent with the sounding of "the last trump," and when we turn to John's
vision of what attends the sounding of the seventh or last trumpet, we read,
"There were great voices in heaven, saying, THE
KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD ARE BECOME THE KINGDOMS OF OUR LORD AND OF HIS CHRIST; AND
HE SHALL REIGN FOREVER AND EVER" (Revelation 11:15). And that there might be no misapprehension of the
time to which this vision relates, the four-and-twenty elders
respond with thanksgiving that it is "the
time of the dead that they should be judged" - the
time of giving reward to the servants of God, the prophets, saints and all that
fear Him - the time that Christ shall "destroy
them that corrupt the earth" (11: 16-18).
Paul
also connects the resurrection of the saints with Christ's final coming: "The Lord himself shall descend from heaven, and the dead in
Christ shall rise first" (1
Thessalonians 4:16). In this he
agrees exactly with John's vision of "the first
resurrection." But in that
vision John saw thrones, and the martyrs, the blessed and holy,
seated on them; and they were made kings and priests of God, "and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years"
(Revelation 20:4).
In
all these passages, we have a literal, universal, and abiding kingdom ascribed
to Christ in connection with His second coming. It is not a kingdom far off in the remoteness
of unknown space, but here in this world. It is to be "Under
heaven." It
is to embrace "the kingdoms of the world."
Its subjects are to be "people, nations, and languages." To take possession of it, Christ is said to
"descend from heaven," "come," "appear,"
and stand again upon the earth. It is
then of necessity just such a kingdom as the prophets foretold, and as the Jews
and apostles expected. It is to be
outward, literal, universal, glorious, and eternal.
It
is not "from”
or “out of
this world," just as John's baptism was not "from” or “out of this world." It comes from God. It originates from above, not from beneath. It is not set up by earthly means, but by
divine power. But as John baptised on
earth, although his baptism was not "from this
world," and as the church is located on earth, although not of the
earth, so Christ will reign in this world in the sublimities
of visible empire. We never read of His
return to heaven after He once comes to this world a second lime. He remains here. His tabernacle is then to be "with men, and He will DWELL among them,
and they shall be His people, and God
himself shall be with them" (Revelation 21:3).
This
reign of Christ, then, is also to be a personal reign. He was "made
in the likeness of men." He
must therefore have a local dwelling place. As the Son of man, He is now in heaven. And when it is said that He will come again to
earth, and dwell with men, we must believe that this world
will be His home. He cannot dwell and
reign on earth as the son of David and not be personally present on the earth.
Every
point, then, at which the Scriptures touch upon this subject
furnishes something to corroborate and strengthen our doctrine that the Lord
Jesus Christ will return again to this world, and here set up a literal empire
or Christocracy and personally reign over the nations
in the bliss and glory of a universal and eternal kingdom. The prophecies of the Old Testament, taken in
their plain natural sense, teach it. When
Christ was on earth, both Jews and Christians held it. The New Testament nowhere condemns it as an
error, but in many places refers to it as a matter well and correctly
understood.
In
the Old Testament and the New, we find many passages which cannot be
consistently interpreted without admitting it as a true doctrine of God. We cannot, therefore, escape from the
conclusion that the blessed and adorable Son of the Virgin is yet to reign in
this world as a great and glorious divine prince, whom all the nations shall
obey and the world hail as its only King. All the Scriptures proclaim it; the whole
creation groans and longs for it, and I cannot but believe it. Next to the doctrine of atonement for the
world's guilt, it is the dearest of all the revelations of God.
To
this hour, the greatest desideratum of our race is good government - government
freed from the frailties and unrighteousness which have ever adhered to that
department of human interest. The
church, too, is crippled, torn, and disordered, for want of some present divine
umpire to judge between its contending sects, purge out its ambitious
disturbers, and quell its feverish perturbations. All nature seems to have heard the promise
concerning the seed of the woman and His restorative empire and has stood in
anxious expectancy ever since. All the world, in all its departments, has been longing and
prophesying for ages for a divine Deliverer and the age of gold which His
administrations are to bring with them. And
yet he has not come.
I
do not, indeed, deny that Christ now reigns in the hearts of His children, or
that He exercises a providential control over the affairs of the world. I know and rejoice that there is a sense in
which He is present now, even where but two or three are assembled in His name;
and that wherever a sinner turns to God, there something of His regal authority
and power are felt. But I also know
that, with all His spiritual and providential presence and rule, as now in the
world, everything is imperfect as compared with the
promises of what is to be hereafter.
Satan,
for the most part, is yet the king and master of this world, and not the
illustrious Son of David. Everything in
church and state, public and private, is more or less disjointed, weak, sickly,
and failing of what we most desire. Remedies only multiply wants and defects. "That which is
crooked cannot be made straight; and that which is wanting cannot be numbered."
The best-planned institutions and the
wisest laws are constantly disappointing us. The holy law itself was "weak through the flesh;" and the same is to be
said of all that we now have. No one
adequately fulfils or can fulfil his relations. The consciences even of the best Christians,
if properly enlightened, continually reproach them. Everything seems to feel the absence of its
redeeming Lord.
He
does not yet reign as it is necessary for us that He should reign.
"We
see not Yet
all things put under Him" (Hebrews
1: 8). Matters now are only in a
stage preparatory to something still beyond us. The throne of David is yet less than a cipher.
The promised Son has not yet lifted it
out of its degradation.
Ignorance,
fanaticism, and infidelity still stalk abroad, even through the church. The man of sin, who opposes and exalts himself
above all that is called God, still sits in the
Oh,
do not tell me that this is the glorious reign of Messiah! Tell me not that these are the scenes to which
the saints of old looked with so much joy! I will not so disgrace my Saviour or His word
as to allow for a moment that this dispensation is the sublime Messianic
kingdom. No, no, no; Christ does not yet
reign in the kingdom which He has promised and for which He has taught us to
pray.
Isaiah
and Gabriel have said that He should occupy the throne of His father David and
reign over the house of Jacob, and establish His government in eternal peace
and righteousness. But David's sceptre
He has never held; over Jacob's house He has never ruled; and the whole world
is yet full of iniquity and woe. The
Psalmist has taught us that "all nations shall
serve Him, the Gentiles be His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the
earth His possession" (2: 8);
but there is not a nation in all this wide world that
is thoroughly Christian and not a people who unanimously acknowledge that
Christ is Lord.
Of
the ten hundred millions of souls that now constitute the family of man, not two-fifths
are even professedly Christian! Take
from the most Christian community all who are not of the household of faith,
and what a scanty population would remain! Take the most enlightened and cultivated of
the nations, containing the most churches and the greatest number of devout
people; examine the structure of its government; test the operations of its
laws; sift the character of its inhabitants; weigh it in the balances of
Scripture truth and divine requirements; aggregate its good and its evil; strike
the balance between righteousness and iniquity, and them tell me whether there
is a nation on all the globe that does not gravitate towards hell rather than
towards heaven!
The
church itself, enclosing within its pale all the purest and holiest specimens
of humanity, after the toils and prayers of 18 centuries, is still a feeble
craft, working against wind and tide! Where,
then, is that universal righteousness, peace, and glory which gave inspiration
to the songs of the prophets and hope to the souls of the dying saints of old?
The
reign of Messiah is to be a reign of glory, power, and triumph, where vice is
unknown and iniquity at an end - here the branch from the root of Jesse is to
strike all enemies dead and the Sun of righteousness disperse all darkness
forever - ere all nations shall serve, worship, and obey the King of Israel,
and the earth shout the alleluia of her ultimate redemption. It is worse than useless to try to persuade
ourselves that such a condition of things belongs to this dispensation.
Nor
is there anything by way of inference from the past, or from indications of the
present, or even in the sublime promises of the word of God, by which to assure
ourselves that such a condition of things ever will be realised until the
personal return of the blessed Christ for whom we wait. It is only when He shall come that He will sit upon the throne of His
glory. Antichrist will not die till
then. The world will not be fully
redeemed till then. The glorious kingdom
will not come till then. That is the
grand climax of our faith, that is the sublime
ultimatum of all our hopes.
Long,
long has this great consummation been delayed - so long that even pious men
begin to doubt whether it ever shall come. But the word of Jehovah is out; He cannot
recall it; He must fulfil it. Soon it
will be here. Soon shall Messiah come in
His glory and set this imprisoned and down-trodden world at liberty. Soon shall the Son of Mary stand upon the
Men
may scoff and say that we are degrading the blessed Saviour to a level with
earthly monarchs and surrounding Him with the miserable trappings of their foul
courts. They may ridicule us and say
that we are dragging down the throne of Heaven's King to place it amid graves,
almshouses, hospitals, penitentiaries, labour-prisons, sickly cities, and
worn-out states. But they forget that
the promise is that Christ shall "MAKE ALL
THINGS NEW" and banish forever all these evidences and emblems
of depravity and sin. They forget that
death is to be swallowed up of life and the whole sentence of the world's curse
forever rescinded. They forget that all
tears are to be dried, and that there is to be no more death, nor sorrow, nor
crying, nor tears, nor any more pain, nor any more sin within all the domain of
Messiah's eternal dominion.
Oh,
that Christians did but look at these things as God has presented them and lay
hold of the promises that He has given to encourage us. Then would they go forth to duty with greater
earnestness and joy. Then would they
pray, with fond hope, "Your Kingdom come!"* and ever and always
respond, "AMEN, EVEN SO COME, LORD JESUS!"
- Joseph A. Seiss.
--------
From The Last
Times And The Great Consummation. As far as we aware, this book is presently out of print.
As found in "The Coming Day" - a
publication by:
SEARCHLIGHT
Tel/Fax: +44 (0)1636 821322
E-mail: searchlight@onet.co.uk.