HERALD
OF THE
KINGDOM AND AGE TO COME.
“And in their days, even of those kings, the God of heaven shall set up A KINGDOM which shall never perish, and A DOMINION that shall not be left to another people. It shall grind to powder and bring to an end all these kingdoms, and itself shall stand for ever.”-DANIEL.
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JOHN THOMAS, Editor. RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, February, 1852-
Volume 2-No. 2
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THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM.
Mr. Editor:
I desire above all things to understand you on the subject of “the Gospel of the Kingdom.” I think sometimes I understand you. But I live close by one who says, he cannot understand, and I then conclude, “may be I do not.” But from what you say about “Elpis Israel,” I live in hopes of seeing it, and of learning all that is necessary for me to know in order to salvation.
I know you have no time to trifle away, else I would ask you to write a few lines to me on the subject, stating the facts of the gospel as you would if presenting to a congregation in order to faith.
N. ANTHONY.
Tennessee, 1851.
THE GREAT SALVATION.
“How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which assumed a beginning to be spoken by the Lord? -Paul
The Anglo-Saxon word GOSPEL is euanghelion in the Greek. This is a word compounded of eu, an adverb of quality signifying good; and anghelia, a message delivered in the name of any one: eu-anghelion, therefore, signifies a good message, which becomes good news to those previously unacquainted with it. It is styled “the gospel of God”-Romans 1: 1 because it is a good message emanating from Him. It is also called “the glorious gospel of the blessed God”-1 Timothy 1: 11, because it is a good message of future glory on account of which all that partake in it will call him blessed. It announces a good time coming, when “the knowledge of the glory of the Lord shall fill the earth as the waters cover the sea”-Habakkuk 2: 14: for Jehovah sware to Moses, saying, “As truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord”-Numbers 14: 21. This is glorious good news from God to every one that believes it.
God’s gospel is styled “the gospel of the kingdom”-Matthew 4: 23; 24: 14; Mark 1: 14-15; Luke 8: 1-because he purposes to manifest his glory and blessedness through a kingdom he declares He will set up in the land lying between the Euphrates, Mediterranean, and Nile.
The gospel of the kingdom, and the “great salvation spoken of by the Lord,” are the same thing. This is evident from the fact, that the Lord Jesus when he began to preach did not make two separate proclamations. Throughout his ministry he preached but one thing, which is variously expressed in the history of his career. Sometimes it is simply styled “the gospel;”-Mark 1: 15; 8: 35; 13: 10; Luke 4: 18-at others, “the kingdom of God”-Luke 4: 43; 9: 2, 6: and Peter in recalling the recollection of it to Cornelius’ mind, says,
“That Word ye know, which was published throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached.”-Acts 10: 37.
In the previous verse, he reminded him who began to preach this word from Galilee, and speaks of it as a message. His words are,
“The Word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all; that word, I say, ye know.”
When we turn to the history “of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,” we find that when he began to speak the great salvation he commenced preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God in Galilee. The following is the testimony-
“Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee. From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent; for the kingdom of the heavens is at hand. And he went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness”-Matthew 4: 12, 17, 23.
The word sent, the gospel of the kingdom, and the great salvation, it is clear, all began to be preached by Jesus at the same time, and in the same region of country; they must therefore, and can only be, the same thing under different modes of speech. A word sent is a message; that word sent by Jesus Christ constitutes him THE MESSENGER-Malachi 3: 1: a messenger sent of God with good news to the children of Israel about a kingdom, which they did not then possess, preaches that kingdom to them as a matter of promise, and therefore of hope; so that the gospel of the kingdom is also styled “THE HOPE OF ISRAEL,” for which Paul said he was “bound with a chain”-Acts 28: 20.
The kingdom of God is the great salvation, because through that kingdom the blessedness preached to Abraham as the gospel-Galatians 3: 8-is to come upon all the nations of the earth, and by which they are to be saved from the power of those who destroy them, and to be placed under a righteous administration of divine law. God’s kingdom is to save them; for it is to “grind to powder and bring to an end all kingdoms,” to fill the whole earth as a great mountain, and itself to stand for ever-Daniel 2: 35, 44. This kingdom can only be set up by overthrowing “the powers that be;” and as there can be no peace and blessedness for the nations until they are broken, the operation which abolishes them establishes the destroying Stone-power, and saves the world with a great and glorious salvation. Who can doubt it when the scriptures say, referring to that era,
“The king’s son, O God, shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment; he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor. In his days shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace as long as the sun endureth. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the land. They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before Him, and his enemies shall lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish and of the Isles (the British) shall bring presents; the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him (being subdued:) all nations shall serve him. His name shall be continued as long as the sun: and they shall be blessed in him-all nations shall call him blessed. Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. Blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory”-Psalm 72.
The kingdom of God founded by Jehovah and his Christ is to establish this great salvation in the earth-a thorough and complete social regeneration of the world. The kingdom is the cause, the great salvation the result of its institution in the land promised to the fathers. But the greatness of the salvation is not restricted to the future generations of the nations only; it comprehends in the magnitude of the deliverance it vouchsafes, the generations of the righteous among the dead from Abel to the coming of Israel’s king in the clouds of heaven in power and great glory. It saves the cloud of witnesses of whom the world was never worthy with an everlasting salvation in the kingdom; and saves the nations from their temporal miseries and degradation with a joyous and glorious redemption of a thousand years. “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation” as this? Impossible; escape there is for none who are not included in it.
Now, the Bible reveals no other salvation than this-a deliverance of the righteous from “the pit in which there is no water” by a resurrection from the dead; a transformation of the living saints who may be contemporary with the second advent; a restoration of the kingdom again to Israel under the New Covenant; and a redemption of the nations from the social, civil, and spiritual evils which now press so heavily upon them. This is the only salvation of which the gospel treats. It meets the necessities of the world. Humanity needs no other, and therefore none else has been provided. When the salvation has triumphed, it will be the accomplished fact of a thousand years, during which-
“The ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord; and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Him. For the kingdom is the Lord’s; and he the Governor among the nations”-Psalm 22: 27-28.
When Jesus stood at Caesar’s bar Pilate asked him, “Art thou the King of the Jews?” He answered,
“My kingdom is not of this world; if it were, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but my kingdom is not from hence now.”
Pilate therefore said to him,
“Art thou a king then?”
Jesus answered,
“I was born for this, (eis touto,) and for this I came into the world, that I might witness to the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears my voice.”
Pilate said unto him, “What is truth?”-John 18: 37. Ah, Pilate, thou, like myriads beside thee, knewest not that voice though it was witnessed in thy presence! The truth was confessed- (1 Timothy 6: 13)-before thee, but thou didst not understand it, because thou wast not of the truth. Let the reader hear the voice of the king,
“I came into the world that I might witness to the truth.”
Now hear what he saith in another place,
“I am sent to preach the kingdom of God”-Luke 4: 43.
He did so. He preached it through the length and breadth of Judea, announcing to the people the kingdom of God, and that he was the king thereof. He filled the land with the sound of his claims to the throne of David as the “born King of the Jews”-Matthew 2: 2. The people heard him gladly; and, admitting his pretensions to be just, were ready for revolt against Caesar, and to make him king-John 6: 15. The chief priests became alarmed at the current of the popular mind, and apprehended the interference of the Romans-John 11: 48. They procured his apprehension at length, and accused him before Pilate of perverting the nation from its allegiance to Caesar-Luke 23: 2, and affirming that he was “King of the Jews”-John 19: 21. By the passage above quoted, we find Pilate endeavouring to elicit from him the truth of the matter. As if he had said, “They charge you with saying that you are an Anointed One, a king, even the King of the Jews; is this the truth?” Jesus confessed, and denied not; although it was hazardous at the bar of Caesar, the de facto king of the Jews-John 19: 15, to aver that he was himself king by right. His life had been jeopardised thirty-five years and three months before by the inquiry “Where is he that is born King of the Jews?” Herod, the reigning king of the Jews, who knew that the nation was expecting the birth of a Son of David who was to reign over them for ever, was alarmed at the intimation that He was actually born. He saw that the right of David’s Son and the interests of the Herodian dynasty, were inimical. He therefore determined to destroy him, and so secure the kingdom to his own family by the Christ, or Anointed One’s destruction. The same policy was at work at the condemnation of Jesus. Pilate was not only the representative of the Roman Majesty which had superseded the Herodian in Judea; but the conservator of the rights of the reigning Caesar as King of the Jews. Satisfied that it was mere envy that moved the chief priests to accuse Jesus of treason against the Roman power, his policy was to release him, and to appease their clamor. But the policy of the priests and elders was opposed to this. They saw clearly that if Jesus ascended the throne of David he would permit them to have no share in the honours and emoluments of the State. Hence it was with them, as with Herod, all important to prevent him getting possession of the throne. They saw Pontius Pilate’s unwillingness to condemn him, and concluded that the only way they could succeed in overcoming it would be to treat him hypothetically as a partaker in the Nazarene treason, and consequently a traitor to Caesar’s rights which it was his business to conserve. This was their policy. Hence, said they to the Procurator,
“If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar’s friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar.”
This settled the question in Pilate’s mind. Though convinced of the innocence of Jesus, and of their malignity, self-preservation was a stronger law of his nature than justice. He concluded that it was better for Jesus to suffer death, though unworthy of it, than that he should lose his procuratorship, and perhaps his life, for misprision of treason. Had Jesus not confessed the truth, but repudiated all pretensions to the throne of Israel, Pilate could not have condemned him; nay, would not, for there would have existed no ground upon which the priests and elders could have predicated his want of friendship or loyalty to Caesar. It is true, they said-
“We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.”
They regarded this as blasphemy; but the Roman law took no cognisance of questions in Jewish theology. It had ceased to be lawful for the Jews to put any man to death-John 18: 31; so that however guilty he might have been of blasphemy in saying that he was the Son of God, neither the Jews not the Roman law could have taken his life on that account. The good confession, therefore, he made before Pilate-“the truth” to which he testified in his presence and for which he was condemned and executed, was not that he was the Son of God. Though true, it was not the truth-it was not the ground of his sentence unto death.
“Art thou the King of the Jews?” Had Jesus replied, “I am the Son of God,” it would have been an evasion of the question, as every one not judicially blinded must see. If one were to ask another, “Are you a physician?”-would it be answering the question to say “I am the son of my father?” King of the Jews is an official dignity; Son of God personal nativity. Who is the King of the Jews? He that says he is the Son of God, or some other person? To assert that he was God’s Son did not bring Jesus into collision with Caesar’s rights; but to affirm that he was Christ a king, that is, the Anointed King of the Jews, constituted him at once Caesar’s rival in Judea.
Though so dangerous a question Jesus did not equivocate, or seek to evade the hazard it involved. When Pilate said “Art thou the King of the Jews?”-he met his question by referring boldly and immediately to the truth about his kingdom He had been proclaiming this truth from Galilee throughout all Judea to Jerusalem, where he then stood-he had heralded it forth from one end of the land to the other for three years and a half in fulfilment of his mission; for he came into the world to witness to the truth concerning the kingdom of God of which he was the christened or anointed king-and he was then prepared with the full assurance that it would cost him his life, to confess before Pilate that he was the King of the Jews. Pilate so understood him when he said in answer to his question “My kingdom.” Jesus was a Jew, and a Jew could have no claim to any kingdom but that of his own nation. King of the Jewish Nation. Thus Pilate, the Roman soldiers, and the Chief Priests and Scribes-Mark 15: 31-32; John 19: 3, 19-22, understood him to confess; and therefore the reason of his condemnation to death-the title he assumed-was labelled to his cross in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, “Jesus of Nazareth THE KING OF THE JEWS.”
In suffering death because of his claim to the throne of Israel, Jesus, the Son of God and Son of David, sealed “the gospel of the kingdom,” and the Covenant of that kingdom, with his blood. He was born to be King of Israel, and he suffered death because he maintained his right to the royalty. He was anointed to be king, and as a prophet to preach the gospel, or glad tidings of his reign over the Twelve Tribes of Israel, and the obedient nations of the earth for a thousand years. With him and his apostles, to “preach the kingdom of God” was to “preach the gospel.” There could be no gospel without the kingdom-even this same particular kingdom, this Jewish kingdom in Palestine, than which the living God has caused to be evangelised no other. A gospel of a kingdom or kingdoms beyond the skies-of an everlasting kingdom there for disembodied ghosts, and a present church-kingdom of grace among carnal, scoffing, faithless, professors here-we deliberately, and under pain of eternal damnation if in error, we boldly, conscientiously, and confidently, affirm, that there is no such a gospel to be found in the oracles of God. Such a gospel as this-the popular gospel of the age-was never preached to Jew or Gentile by John, Jesus, or the apostles. The Lord of Israel bore witness to no such gospel before Pilate. He did not testify that he was a king of a sky-kingdom; but king of the Jewish nation upon earth, where alone it exists, or ever will exist. His is the royalty of this nation taking its root in the Covenant made with David, which is everlasting, and can never be annulled; for Jehovah hath declared,
“Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His Seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before me”-Psalm 89: 35-36.
For three years and a half Jesus fulfilled his mission as prophet to Israel in preaching the gospel of the kingdom. He began, as we have seen, in Galilee soon after his being anointed of God with the Holy Spirit and power-Acts 10: 38. He visited the synagogues, and among them that at Nazareth. Being there on a certain occasion, he read from the sixty-first of Isaiah the words recorded in the fourth of Luke. Alluding to his anointing he read,
“The Spirit of Jehovah is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor-to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”
Jehovah’s anointing him to preach the gospel is equivalent to saying, Jehovah sent him to preach. There is no necessity to prove this. It is obvious. In sending him then to preach the gospel, what was he sent to preach as the basis of the good news to the poor? This question is answered in two places in this chapter; he was sent to preach the acceptable year of the Lord; or, which is the same thing, he was “sent to preach the kingdom of God”-verse 43. Peter told Cornelius that he was sent to preach this word to the children of Israel. Hence it is styled “the Word of the Kingdom”-Matthew 13: 19-upon the understanding of which men’s salvation is predicated-Mark 16: 15-16. But, why is the gospel of the Kingdom and acceptable year of the Lord, or Age to Come, preached to the poor, rather than to the rich? The reason is, because-
“God hath chosen the poor of this world, RICH IN FAITH, to be the Heirs of that Kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him.”-
“He fills the hungry with good things; and the rich he sends empty away;”-because the present life is the season of their enjoyment-James 2: 5; Luke 1: 53; 16: 25.
When Paul was writing about “the great salvation which began to be spoken by the Lord”-Hebrews 2: 1-5, he says he was speaking about “the future habitable” (oikoumeneen teen mellousan) which is to be subjected to the Son, and not to angels as it is at present. Speaking of the present habitable, or “civilised” part of the earthy, he says,
“But now we see not yet all things put under him.”
No; if we did, we should see him King over the whole earth-Zechariah 14: 9. All the kingdoms of the world would be his, and “all nations would serve him”-Revelation 11: 15. The future habitable subjected to the Son, is the dominion of the acceptable year of the Lord; when the kingdom shall be existent in the plenitude of its glory, ruling over all. Jesus and his brethren, all Sons of God and the Seed of David by adoption through Jesus, though recipients of evil things in their primary existence, will possess the dominion of the future habitable “under the whole heaven,” not above it “beyond the skies.” This is good news to the poor-the gospel Jesus was anointed to preach; the great salvation confirmed by the apostles who heard it preached; and attested of God by signs, wonders, divers miracles, and distributions of the Holy Spirit, manifested through them.
The context of the testimony from which Jesus selected the reading in the synagogue at Nazareth exhibits the glad tidings or gospel of the kingdom he preached to the meek of the children of Israel. It promises them “beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called Trees of Righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.” This series of beautiful antitheses present to us in contrast the present and future states of the poor who receive the gospel of the kingdom. Now, but mourning, heavy-hearted, dust and ashes, in the Age to Come they shall be beauteous and joyous, giving praise and glory to the Lord as immortals only can bestow it. Then with respect to their nation, for the word was primarily sent to Israel, -
“They shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations. And foreigners shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your ploughmen, and your vinedressers. But ye shall be named the priests of the Lord; men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves.”
Let the inquirer read from the twentieth verse of the fifty-ninth of Isaiah to the end of the sixty-second chapter and he will read the good things promised to Israel, and evangelised in the Word sent to them of God by Jesus Christ. They are but a sample of the good things in store for their nation, which in its future glory is the Sarah, the princess of nations, the married wife, of its Creator. Then-
“Jehovah will make an everlasting covenant with them. And their Seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offering among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed.”
This joy and blessedness of the nations is inseparable from the glory of their king. To him under Jehovah they will owe all the peace and happiness they enjoy. The rejoicing will be mutual. The nation will rejoice in its king, and “as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall He rejoice over Jerusalem,” the Holy City of his realm. In view of the great deliverance Jehovah bestows upon his king, he that was anointed to preach the gospel to Israel saith,
“I will greatly rejoice in Jehovah, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all nations,”-when the righteous dead shall bud and spring forth of the earth to praise and glorify his name.
The Word of the Truth of the Gospel of the Kingdom, though a long title to the message borne by Jesus to the children of Israel, will be easily understood by the inquirer from what has gone before. It imports, the Law and the Testimony that sets forth the Promises which make the message relating to the kingdom good news. Paul says, that “the Hope laid up in heaven” is reported of in the word of the truth of the gospel; and therefore he styles it “the Hope of the Gospel;” and as there is but one true gospel, though many false ones, there is but one true hope, which he terms, “one hope of the calling”-Colossians 1: 5, 23; Ephesians 4: 4. A hope is something in the future, promised but not possessed. The calling is a particular invitation; and the one hope of the calling, the promised thing to the possession of which you are especially invited. This being the meaning of the phrase, and seeing that the hope belongs to the gospel, it follows that the gospel contains an invitation or call to the possession of some particular thing. The one hope of the calling of the gospel-what is it? Paul says,
“God hath called you to his kingdom and glory”-1 Thessalonians 2: 12.
Then the kingdom and glory are the hope of the called, that is, of those who accept the invitation. The kingdom and glory are the one hope of their calling. The word which God sent to the children of Israel by Jesus Christ was an invitation to them to possess his kingdom and glory, of which he had said so much in the prophets, upon certain conditions. Jehovah’s kingdom and glory under Messiah’s administration was the great hope of the nation. It was the Hope of Israel, and of Israel alone. No other nation shared with them in this hope. It was the Hope of the Restoration of the Kingdom again to Israel-Acts 1: 6-under a New and Better Covenant than the Mosaic-the hope of the restitution of all things spoken by the prophets-Acts 3: 21. This is the hope promised to the fathers, and evangelised in the word of the kingdom, and therefore the Gospel’s Hope by which we are saved-Romans 8: 24. Expunge this hope from the gospel and it ceases to be gospel; for it is the hope that makes the tidings glad, and the news good; in short, there would be no tidings to report if the hope of the kingdom and glory was suppressed.
Jehovah is the accepted king of Israel-1 Samuel 12: 12; Isaiah 43: 15, and Israel therefore his nation-Exodus 19: 6; Isaiah 51: 4. He formed it for himself, that through it he might show forth his praise-Isaiah 42: 21. The prophet saith of Israel,
“We are thine, O Lord; thou never barest rule over our adversaries; they were not called by thy name.”
It is therefore A JEWISH KINGDOM. Jehovah never owned any other kingdom upon earth. He acquired the Jewish kingdom by creation; and purposes to obtain possession of all other kingdoms by conquest, because they are mere usurpations, and adversaries of his nation. He intends his kingdom to be ruled by a Vicegerent in his name, whom he styles “My king”-Psalm 2: 6, and by him to subdue the world, so that all thrones and dominions, principalities and powers, may become his. This being accomplished the Twelve Tribes of Israel will constitute “the first dominion” in actual organised possession of their own country-the kingdom proper. This kingdom will rule over all other nations, which in the aggregate will form the secondary dominion, or empire. Thus a family of nations will be created of which Abraham, then risen from the dead, will be the federal father, and Israel, the First Born-Exodus 4: 22.
This kingdom and dominion which Jehovah and his king are to set up are to exist unchanged for a thousand years, at the end of which things will occur which do not pertain to the gospel of the kingdom, though they affect the kingdom itself. The kingdom is imperishable, and non-transferable from one set of rulers to another-“it shall not be left to another people.” This is an important feature in the gospel. If it could be transferred from hand to hand, then flesh and blood might inherit it; but it cannot be transferred, therefore “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” They who are promoted to the possession of the kingdom at its establishment are to retain its honours, glory, power, and emoluments the whole thousand years, and as long afterwards as it exists, which will be for ever. Can flesh and blood that dies and turns to dust after three-score years and ten possess such a kingdom? Impossible. What then is indispensable to the inheritance of this kingdom? That the Heirs whom God has chosen to possess it be made immortal. This necessity God has promised to fulfil in promising to give them “the kingdom under the whole heaven for ever, even for ever and ever.” Hence the gospel call to the kingdom and its glory is equally a call to eternal life; and the hope of the kingdom consequently the hope of eternal life and glory, which are all comprehended in “the Hope of the gospel,” which is said to be “laid up in heaven,” and “reserved in heaven,” because He who is to convert the hope into a received gift, is there.
“Our life,” says Paul, “is hid with Christ in God. And when Christ our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory”-
The life, the glory, and the kingdom, are all bestowed at once:
“Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ”-
1 Peter 1: 13.
“SALVATION IS OF THE JEWS”-John 4: 22; and this salvation which is very great, is announced through the gospel of God’s Jewish kingdom. The salvation is national or kosmical rather; and individual. The salvation of the world of nations through the kingdom is social, civil, and ecclesiastical or spiritual; and is best perceived by those who comprehend the work of setting up the kingdom. The obstacles to the world’s regeneration must first be removed. These obstacles are “the powers that be.” Israel and the Saints under the Captain of salvation, will abolish them. Their removal being effected, “He will speak peace to the nations,” which they will joyfully accept, and submitting to his terms, will henceforth “rejoice with his people, Israel”-Deuteronomy 32: 43.
All that Jehovah proposes to bestow on men he intends to impart through this kingdom alone. Hence, if a man obtain the kingdom he obtains every thing; but if he be counted unworthy of it, he gets nothing. Doth he desire eternal life, eternal honour, eternal glory, equality with the angels, wisdom, knowledge, riches, power, and dominion? Let him “seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto him.” What said Jesus to his apostles when Peter asked him what recompense of reward they should have, who had forsaken all and followed him? Did he tell them that when they died their disembodied spirits should be borne aloft on angel’s wings to mansions in the skies? Did he tell them they should meet their friends and children there, and feast, and dance, and sing, enraptured in eternal ecstasy! He abused their reason with no such pagan foolishness as this; but said,
“Verily I say to you, that ye who have followed me, shall, in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory, also sit upon twelve thrones, judging the Twelve Tribes of Israel”-Matthew 19: 28.
He promised them a joint rulership with himself in a kingdom, and that kingdom God’s kingdom of the Jews.
“Ye are they,” said he, “who have continued with me in my trials. And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the Twelve Tribes of Israel”-Luke 22: 28-30.
This was to be their reward in the Age to Come, (en to Aioni to Erchomeno,) with Eternal Life-Mark 10: 30. The kingdom therefore was every thing to them. Jesus taught them to pray to the Father, saying,
“Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven; deliver us from evil, because the kingdom is thine, the power and the glory for ever.”
He instructed them in the mysteries or hidden things of the kingdom-Matthew 13: 11; and after he rose from the dead, having opened their understanding that they might understand the scriptures, he conversed with them during the forty days preceding his ascension “on the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” Under the influence of this divine teaching they became full of the matter. “The Gospel” and “the kingdom” were with them convertible terms. They knew of no gospel without it. The resurrection was the door of entrance into the kingdom. They desired to rise from the dead that they might possess it; for they knew that if they did not “inherit the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world”-Matthew 25: 34, there would be for them neither glory, honour, nor eternal life in the Age to Come. It is therefore not to be wondered at that the last question they should put to the resurrected king of the Jews before his departure from the earth should be to know when He would restore again the kingdom to Israel-Acts 1: 3, 6. That it would be restored there was no question; for “the Regeneration,” or “Restitution of all things,” was a first principle of Christ’s teaching, and of their own faith and preaching afterwards. What they wanted to know was the time when the restitution of all things belonging to the kingdom of Israel should be accomplished.
“Wilt thou not at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?”
They doubtless thought that the time to favour Zion had certainly then come. They knew that Jesus had been put to death for maintaining that he was “the king of the Jews;” and they saw that God approved his claim to David’s throne in delivering him from the death he had incurred by confessing his rightful claim to the kingdom. Could any time be more opportune than the then present to call to his aid those “twelve legions of angels,” which he said the Father would give him, and at their head to expel the Romans from Judea, and re-establish Israel’s kingdom under his own rule as the hereditary representative of the House of David, and “King of the Jews?” They were right in expecting the restoration, but they erred in looking for it at that time. All things were not ready. The king was provided, but where was his Household? -where were his body-guards-where were they who were to cooperate with him in the administration of the kingdom, and government of the world? Some say, “they were in their graves, to wit, the fathers or saints who had died under the Law.” “These might have been raised from the dead and associated with Jesus in the kingdom.” But, it was written in the word,
“Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth”-Psalm 45: 16.
This is said to the Messiah in a psalm which Paul applies to Jesus. Hence, whatever place his fathers may occupy in the kingdom, they will not be its “princes,” or chiefs, ruling with Jesus as “Prince of princes,” over the nations of the world; besides that, we apprehend, there will not be a sufficient number saved from the generations of Israel previous to the resurrection of the king of the Jews to supply the administrative demands of the kingdom under its new constitution, or covenant. That all things were not ready is represented in the parable of a certain man who made a great supper, and bade many. His object was to have his house filled that his supper might be eaten. He sent invitations to various classes; but though the supper was ready to be partaken of when the first class were invited, the eating of it was deferred until the seats provided were all occupied by guests procured by several subsequent endeavours to obtain them-Luke 14: 15-24.
The union of the King of the Jews with the kingdom is the marriage of the king’s son; and the sitting at table in the kingdom-the possession of it-is the eating of the marriage supper in the certain man’s house. The kingdom is Jehovah’s house into which he invites guests, that they may partake of the good things therein provided. He wills that His house shall be filled by the assembling of all the guests before the supper be eaten. Israel were bidden, being politically “the children of the kingdom.” Jehovah called them by his prophets to the life and glory of his kingdom; but they would not hearken-Jeremiah 7: 13; he invited them by John, but they made light of it; he sent them a message by Jesus, but they killed him; and lastly, he urged the invitation upon them by the apostles and a great company, but “they entreated them spitefully and slew them.” Thus, with comparatively few exceptions, Israel treated Jehovah’s call to his kingdom and glory. His feast of fat things, and wines on the lees well refined, were amply provided, but still there were not sufficient of Israel to occupy the seats. There was still room. The kingdom could not beset up until occupants were provided for the empty places. Seeing therefore that Israel turned a deaf ear to the invitation, the apostles were ordered to go and call the Gentiles that dwelt in the streets and lanes of the City, and even the highways and hedges of the nations, that the house of the kingdom might be filled with as many as the nature of the case required.
Though the materials of the House were all ready at the resurrection of the King of the Jews, it will be perceived from what hath gone before, that the Household had still to be formed. Till this had been formed and reconciled the kingdom could not be established. It was the work of the apostles and others to collect this household together-to call out from Israel and the nations a people numerous enough to fill all the official places of a kingdom that is to rule all the nations, languages, and tribes of the earth. The time was not yet come, then, to “restore the kingdom again to Israel” before the ascension. A long time was to elapse before the restitution to afford scope for the work of separating the Heirs of the Kingdom from the undistinguished multitude of the world. The King of Israel directed the attention of his ambassadors to this work instead of gratifying their curiosity about the time of the restoration, which the Father had not thought proper to reveal to them, He told them “they should be witnesses for him.” They should receive power after that the Holy Spirit had come upon them. Thus qualified, they would have to demonstrate that God had raised him from the dead; that He was the man ordained of Jehovah to rule the world in righteousness, as the prophets had of old declared-Jeremiah 23: 5-8; Psalm 96: 13; Daniel 7: 13-14; Zechariah 14: 9: and to proclaim the conditions upon which both Jews and Gentiles might inherit with him the kingdom and eternal glory.
What we have said may be regarded as an outline of the great salvation as exhibited in the gospel of the kingdom of God. It can hardly be regarded as anything more, seeing that the Bible as a whole is the Book of the Kingdom, and therefore an exhibition of the gospel in detail. The details of the gospel are set forth under certain heads, summarily styled “the things of the kingdom”-Acts 8: 12. The country where the kingdom is to be established occupies a distinguished place among “the things.” A great deal is said about it of a highly important and interesting character. Indeed, the testimony concerning the territory and throne of the kingdom are so intimately connected with the gospel, that a person cannot believe the gospel and be ignorant of it; for the territory and throne are principal subjects of the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the covenant made with David. These are “the covenants of promise” which the ignorant, and consequently unbelieving, are “strangers from”-Ephesians 2: 12. It is useless to talk about believing the gospel, and at the same time to be ignorant of these and of their true import; for they contain the gospel as we have shown abundantly in Elpis Israel. They define not only the locality and throne of the kingdom, but its subjects, the line of its king’s descent, his humiliation and exaltation, &c., the duration of the kingdom, the contemporary blessedness of all nations, and so forth. But we cannot particularise every thing here. He that studies the word will find the things of the kingdom shining forth from the writings of all the prophets and apostles. The more he understands the more he will see. We will only add here at present that they teach that the territory of the kingdom of the heavens is the land in which Abraham dwelt with Isaac and Jacob, and tended his flocks and herds; the subjects of the kingdom, Abraham’s descendants in the line of Isaac and Jacob; the King, one of his seed, the antitype of Isaac when he died and rose again “in a figure”-Hebrews 11: 12; the throne, David’s in Zion and Jerusalem; the empire, all the nations of the earth in a state of blessedness; the duration of the kingdom, like its king “for ever.”
The heaven that the gospel proclaims is a heavenly kingdom upon the earth. The kingdom is heavenly, because it is created and established by the God of heaven, and ruled by a King from heaven, and destined to rule by a King from heaven, and destined to rule “the heavens,” or kingdoms of the world. Because it is God’s kingdom it is sometimes styled a Theocracy-a government under the immediate direction of God. The kingdom of Israel was a theocracy, and the gospel kingdom is that theocracy restored under a constitution so amended as to be styled “a new and better covenant.” Under the old theocracy the rulers and the ruled were all flesh and blood, and therefore mortal; but under the RESTORED THEOCRACY the members of the government and the peers of the realm, with the King, will be immortal, while the people both of Israel and the Nations will be subject to death until death shall be abolished at the end of the thousand years.
It is to be hoped that the reader hath now a distinct conception of the future constitution of the world exhibited in the gospel of the kingdom. “The world to come” of which it treats is that system or arrangement of things upon the earth which subsists uninterruptedly for a thousand years after the restoration of the kingdom and throne of David. The gospel of the kingdom relates not to the constitution of things which shall obtain upon the earth after the thousand years have passed away. That is another world-a post-millennial kosmos, or arrangement of things, to be treated of in that Word yet to go forth from Jerusalem, when the Law shall proceed from Zion at the commencement of the thousand years-Isaiah 2: 3. The Millennial Kingdom is the gospel kingdom, and the gospel hope; that which follows after pertains to the faithful who shall be born in the Age to Come.
Having premised then so much as this, we come now to consider
THE CONDITIONS OR MYSTERY OF THE GOSPEL.
“Pray for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the Mystery of the Gospel for which I am an ambassador in bonds. -Paul to the Ephesians.
If a man believe that in the Age to Come “a kingdom and dominion,” such as the gospel exhibits, will exist upon the earth, and that men to whom it has been preached in ages previous to its establishment, will rise from the dead to possess it, or to be judged with due severity for refusing to believe what God has revealed concerning it-he will spontaneously inquire, “What must I do that I may inherit glory, honour, and eternal life in the kingdom of God?” This question is equivalent to saying “What must I do to be saved? -for, if a man possess these things in that kingdom, that is “inherit the kingdom, he is saved from sin, corruptibility, and death, in short from all evil from which he needs to be delivered. The answer to this question so transcendently important to all is exhibited in “the Mystery of the Gospel,” which may therefore be said to contain the conditions of salvation.
The gospel of the kingdom then hath a Mystery connected with it. By a mystery is meant a thing kept secret and hid from mankind until revealed. The gospel was preached to Abraham; but its Mystery was not preached until the day of Pentecost. The revelation made through Peter on that day was “the revelation of the Mystery which,” says Paul, “was kept secret since the world began”-Romans 16: 25. The apostolic preaching of Jesus Christ was the revelation of the mystery; the Old Testament exhibition of the truth was “the gospel of God promised afore by the prophets in the Holy Scriptures”-Romans 1: 1-2. The gospel is revealed there without mystery. The things of the kingdom and the sufferings and resurrection of its king are plainly revealed; but the use to be made of those sufferings in their precise and especial adaptation to the consciences of gospel believers in giving them the answer of a good conscience towards God, was “the hidden wisdom of God in a mystery”-it was not revealed. It was “the salvation of souls.” The initiative of that salvation which ends in the participation of the joy and glory of the Lord-“a salvation of which the prophets enquired and searched diligently, searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them who have preached the gospel unto you * * which things the angels desire to look into”-1 Peter 1: 10-12. But the prophets and angels could not succeed in discovering the secret. It was impenetrable. With all the aids at their command they could not find it out; for it was “a mystery hidden from the ages and the generations,” and intended to be concealed until the time appointed for its manifestation to the saints by the preaching of the apostles-Colossians 1: 26.
But, though the Mystery of the Gospel ceased to be a secret after the day of Pentecost, it still continued to be called the Mystery. This we apprehend was to keep before the believer’s mind the remembrance of the nature of the things specially pertaining to Jesus, and to his conscience before God, which had been directly revealed to him through the apostles. As if one should say to another, “I will tell you a secret.” He tells it, and in referring to it at some future time, he says, “You remember the secret on account of which I have suffered greatly.” Here the thing would be called a secret although it ceased to be such as soon as told.
The Mystery is based upon a few fulfilled gospel predictions. It was foretold by the prophets, that the King of the Jews who should reign over them and all the nations for ever, “should pour out his soul unto death” as “an offering for sin,” as the result of his being wounded and bruised for the transgressions and iniquities of God’s people; that though numbered with transgressors in coming to his death, in the rich man’s sepulchre should be his tomb-Isaiah 53; and that he should wake early-Psalm 57: 3, 8-in the morning from the sleep of death without seeing corruption, to the enjoyment of life and pleasures for evermore-Psalm 16: 10-11. These testimonies predicted the death, burial, and resurrection of the King of the Jews, or the Christ, which is the same thing. In the fulness of time Jesus came; and, having established his right to the throne of David, died, was buried, and rose again. The things concentred in these facts being accomplished, this partial fulfilment leaves all the rest of the gospel still a matter of promise. This unfulfilled portion of the gospel is its hope; which, with the facts and mystery based upon them, is the subject matter of “the faith” which justifies.
“The Mystery of the seven stars, and the seven golden lamps. The seven stars are the messengers of the seven churches; and the seven lamps are the seven churches.”
We quote this text to show the use of the word, mystery. It is evidently employed here for meaning; the hidden meaning of the seven stars is the messengers of the seven churches-the seven lamps mean or signify the seven churches. The mystery of the gospel is the meaning or signification of its accomplished facts as interpreted by Jehovah; and by his authority concentrated in an institution, through which the benefits of those facts may be imparted to those who believe the gospel of the kingdom, and its mystery.
The Mystery revealed through the apostles, though unknown to the prophets and angels, was then, as it is now, still an element of the gospel of the kingdom. It was there when preached to Abraham, but hidden; it is there yet, only revealed. The gospel of the kingdom is the major term; the Mystery, the lesser. The gospel of the kingdom contains the Mystery; but the Mystery does not contain the gospel of the kingdom. Hence, Jesus did not say, “Go into all the world, and preach the Mystery of the gospel; he that believes the Mystery and is baptised shall be saved;” but “Go and preach the gospel;” for he that believed this apostolically ministered would believe the gospel of the kingdom, its facts and mystery.
"Seek ye first the kingdom of God," said Jesus. To seek a certain thing first implies that there is something else to be sought afterwards; we may then enquire, "What next shall we seek?" To this the Great Teacher replies, “And God’s righteousness.” What is this? It is that “robe of righteousness” he hath provided for the covering of those who have sought the kingdom, and have found it—Isaiah 61: 10. It is God’s sin-covering—Psalm 32: 1-2—the robe made white in the blood of the Lamb—Revelation 7: 14; 19: 8: —the righteousness of God witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, through belief of Jesus Christ for all and upon all believing the gospel—Romans 3: 21-22; 1: 15-16. The righteousness of God is “the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” which he hath appointed for those who believe the gospel of the kingdom. He hath set him forth as a blood-sprinkled mercy-seat, through faith in which they may have remission of past sins, and be thus invested with the wedding garment—Matthew 22: 11-14. Those who are not covered with the robe of righteousness which God has constructed; or being cured do not “keep their garments,” that is, preserve their robes from defilement, are said in scripture to “walk naked”—Revelation 16: 15; 3: 17-18. Believers and unbelievers, who have not put on the robe of God’s righteousness are clothed in filthy rags of scarlet or crimson dye, and may say with Israel as at present circumstanced,
“We are all unclean, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.”
They are uncovered with the garments of salvation, and having no clothing but things of their own invention, are naked before God, and certain if they remain so to be put to shame at the coming of his King.
Jesus the Christ, or Anointed King of Israel, is the righteousness of those who, believing the gospel of the kingdom and its mystery, put him on—Galatians 3: 27; hence, in regard to them, he is styled “THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS”—Jeremiah 23: 6. When a believer puts him on he is said to be “in him,” and when in him, to be “constituted the righteousness of God in him”—2 Corinthians 5: 21. Seek then, in the first place, to understand the Word of the Kingdom—Matthew 13: 23, 13-15; and after accomplishing that, seek to be constituted the righteousness of God in its King; and all things shall be added to you. This is the order laid down by Jesus—an order which cannot be improved.
All the sufferings of the apostles inflicted by their own countrymen, were on account of the Mystery of the gospel. Israel, like the angels and prophets, were ignorant of this hidden element of their hope; and when it was demonstrated by the apostles they would not receive it. The Mystery was as much a part of the Hope of Israel as the kingdom. It was the Mystery of the Gospel; for before Christ came the gospel was all a matter of hope, so that the mystery was hidden in the hope of the nation as the greater includes the less. This identity of “the mystery of Christ” with the Hope of Israel is apparent from the reason assigned by the apostle for his loss of liberty. In writing to the Ephesians Paul says,
“For the Mystery of the Gospel I am an ambassador in bonds;”—Ephesians 6: 19.
To the Colossians also he says,
“For the mystery of Christ I am in bonds;”—Colossians 4: 3.
And to the elders of the synagogue at Rome he said,
“For the Hope of Israel am I bound with this chain.” —Acts 28: 20.
Now the apostle was not an ambassador in chains for three different things, but for one thing, even for “the hope and resurrection of the dead.”
“I stand,” said he “and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers: unto which our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope’s sake I am accused of the Jews”—Acts 26: 6-7; 23: 6.
This hope of the Twelve Tribes, or hope of Israel, proclaimed in the name of Jesus as king of the Jews, was the sole ground of the apostle’s tribulation. He suffered for nothing else; it is therefore clear that the mystery of the gospel, “the mysteries of the kingdom,” and the mystery of Christ, are but different forms of speech expressive of the same thing.
The mystery then is the meaning of the gospel facts concentrated into a focus of power, which is THE NAME OF JESUS, “than which there is none other under heaven given among men whereby they can be saved.” His name comprehends every thing that can be scripturally affirmed of him. It is a part of his name that he is that Son of David who was to be also Son of God, and King of the Jews on David’s throne for ever. This is tantamount to saying that Jesus is the Christ. This truth is the foundation corner stone—Ephesians 2: 20—of the mystery. It is also part of his name that “His blood cleanses from all sin” through his resurrection from the dead, those who believe the gospel; for—
“He was delivered for their offences, and raised again for their justification”—Romans 4: 25.
The believer of the gospel of the kingdom, then, who with an honest and good heart believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God; that a fountain was opened in his blood for sin and for uncleanliness—Zechariah 13: 1—when he suffered death upon the accursed tree; that he was buried; and that he rose again upon the third day according to the scriptures for the justification of the faithful unto eternal life—such an one believes the gospel in its hope, facts, and mystery, and is prepared to become “the righteousness of God” by putting on the Name of Jesus. A believer who is constituted the righteousness of God in Jesus is one to whom repentance and the remission of sins has been granted in his name. The institution of the name is the sin-cleansing mystery of the gospel of the kingdom. Such a thing had never been heard of before in Israel. They had heard of John’s baptism—“the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins;” but of repentance and baptism in the name of Jesus Christ for remission of sins, this was a secret which prophet nor angel had ever heard till the Holy Spirit revealed it on Pentecost by the mouth of Peter—Acts 2: 38.
But how doth a sinner become the subject of repentance and the remission of sins in the name of Jesus—How doth he put on the name? There is but one way of accomplishing this indispensable and essential necessity, or condition of salvation. He must first become a believer of the hope, facts, and mystery of the gospel; for without faith, a faith that works by love and purifies the heart, it is impossible to please God—Hebrews 11: 6; Acts 15: 9; Galatians 5: 6: being thus prepared, he may then be immersed into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. This act unites the believer of the true gospel to the Name; so that in being united his faith and childlike disposition are counted to him for repentance and remission of sins, and he becomes an heir of the kingdom and glory of God which are promised to him for ever. Thus, —
“He that believes the gospel and is baptised shall be saved; and he that believeth not shall be condemned.”
In conclusion then, the great salvation exhibited in the gospel of the kingdom is national and individual. As a national salvation it delivers the nations from those that oppress them; suppresses vice, superstition, and crime; restrains evil; abolishes war; establishes justice and righteousness in the earth; and consummates a social regeneration of the world which shall be—
“Glory in the highest heavens to God, on earth peace, and good will among men.”
As an individual salvation it saves believers of the gospel-promises, facts, and mystery, from sin, sins, and the wages of sin, which is death. It saves them from sins which are past when they become the subject of repentance and remission in the name of Jesus; and it saves them from sin in the flesh, and the consequences of it, when they arise from the death-state to possess the kingdom of God. This is a great and wonderful deliverance—a salvation from all the ills of flesh, personal and relative. What possibility is there of escape if this be neglected? We know of none. The Bible reveals none; and a salvation-doctrine not inscribed in light upon its sacred page is unworthy of a wise man’s consideration.
We trust we have made this great subject plain to our correspondent’s mind, as well as to the minds of all our readers. He asks for “a few lines stating the facts of the gospel.” The gospel cannot be stated in this way. The facts are few, as we have seen; the promises great and many. The gospel is more a matter of promise and doctrine than a matter of fact. A man may believe all its facts, and still be very far from believing the gospel. Leave out the hope, and the mystery, and the gospel is destroyed. There is a statement of the gospel preached as “the Ancient Gospel,” which makes it to consist of “facts to be believed, commands to be obeyed, and promises to be enjoyed”—the facts, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ; the commands, repent and be baptised; and the promises, remission of sins, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and eternal life. This is the latest edition of error. The statement should be promises, facts, and doctrine to be believed, and obedience of faith to be rendered, for repentance and justification unto life in the kingdom of God. He that is the subject of this, and walks worthy of his high angelic destiny—Luke 20: 36—cannot fail of obtaining an illustrious position in the Age to Come.
EDITOR
* * *
THE FROGS AGAIN;
OR, THE LATE MILITARY USURPATION OF NAPOLEON INTERPRETED.
VERIFICATION OF OUR EXPOSITION OF THE FROGS—PROPHESYINGS OF THE NEW YORK TRIBUNE—WAR NECESSARY TO THE MIXING OF THE IRON AND THE CLAY—THE NATURE OF FRENCH MILITARY DESPOTISM—ITS MISSION—THE TRUE ISSUE—LOUIS NAPOLEON AMBITIOUS OF THE CROWNS OF FRANCE AND ITALY—NAPOLEON’S AMBITION A GROUND OF HOPE TO THE DEMOCRACY—THE FALL OF NAPOLEON THE RESTORATION OF THE BOURBONS IMPERIALLY SUBJECT TO THE CZAR—CAUSES OF THE LATE REVOLUTION—RECENT EVENTS PRELIMINARY TO A GREAT CONVULSION.
In the 4th and 5th numbers of the 1st volume of this work we published a unique interpretation of the prophecy of the “Three Unclean Spirits like Frogs,” with wood cut engravings, demonstrating that the Frogs were the arms of France before the Lily was adopted as the heraldic device of the reigning dynasty. From the evidence adduced to prove this we stated our conviction that “the Frogs in the prophecy are the symbol of the French Democratic power;” and that “the President of the French Republic is the incarnation of that power, having been elected as chief of the nation by six millions of votes.”
A few weeks ago we were talking with a friend about the extraordinary furore which had seized upon the popular mind in New York in relation to Kossuth. We regarded him as a part of that agency being employed by Providence for the waking up of the nations for the war of the latter days. We observed that we did not believe that his mission extended to the Continent of Europe, but to the constitutionalists of extra Continental countries, such as to England and America: but that with all his endeavours Hungary would not be the first to move; because it was not to Hungary, but to France we were to look as the centre from which the movement was to proceed by which Europe would be aroused to new efforts against Absolutism. We spoke with full assurance of faith upon this subject founded upon the conviction we entertained respecting the Frogs and their mission. It is the Frogs who are to create the situation from which the governments of Europe cannot hope to extricate themselves without an appeal to arms. John saith—
“I saw three unclean spirits out of the mouth of the Dragon, the Beast, and the False Prophet.”
What were they like? They were, says he, “like to Frogs”—they were not Frogs, but Frog-like spirits. Why were these spirits like to Frogs? Because you can see in the working of their policy that it has been originated and is continued by the doings of the Frog-power; which is the motive power among “the Powers,” embroiling them and causing them by its movements to enter upon a war that will astonish the world by its results. After this conversation with our friend, we expounded in the meeting held at his house, the third chapter of Joel, in which exposition we said much more to the same effect, showing from the prophets what kind of agency was to be observed at work among the nations preparatory to and inceptive of the gathering which is to terminate in the encampment of their hosts under the Assyrian’s standard before the walls of Jerusalem, when Jehovah’s mighty ones will descend and scatter them with sword, pestilence, and death, like chaff before the wind.
It is truly gratifying, and yields a pleasure which none can appreciate but those who experience it, for a student of the prophets to find his interpretations of them verified by current events. It proves to him that he is of that class referred to in Daniel of which it is said “the wise shall understand;” and encourages him to hope that he may enjoy the promise made to them, that “they shall shine as the brightness of the firmament:” and “as the sun in the kingdom of their Father”—Daniel 12: 10, 3; Matthew 13: 43. Be we, however, esteemed wise or foolish by our contemporaries, the fact is indisputable, that the day after our exposition of the necessity of a revolution in France previous to any further outbreak in Europe, on Monday, December 22nd, the news arrived in this city that the French President, the Frog-power incarnate, had become omnipotent in France.
What then is the prophetic or scriptural interpretation of this event? The New York Tribune, which is overflowing with wrath against “the perjured villain,” “the knave,” “the wretch,” “this flagitious traitor to his oath,” “the bayonet-girdled usurper,” &c., as it styles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, terms the event “the first blow of a struggle, which, whatever may be its immediate aspects and incidents, is destined to close only with the overthrow of Despotism throughout civilised Europe.” It also says, that “the present state of things will be of brief duration, and when the next downfall occurs in France, all the governments of Germany and Italy will go with it.” This is the prophecy of Horace Greely, but assuredly not of the prophets Daniel, Ezekiel, and John. We do not know what Mr. Tribune means by “brief duration,” but there is a sense in which there is more truth than fiction in his saying, that when that duration is ended, and the next downfall occurs in France, which will be the downfall of French military despotism, “all the governments of Germany and Italy will go with it.” Yes, they will “go with it;” but they will not go whither the Tribune and Kossuthism would send them. These well-meaning prophets predict “the overthrow of Despotism throughout civilised Europe” as the closing up of the struggle between Democracy and the Governments; consequently they predict that all the governments of Germany and Italy are to go with Napoleonism to perdition; and that Democratic Republicanism, which is righteousness and peace, and prosperity, will be the “order” of the day throughout Europe! All the governments will indeed go to perdition, and so will Democratic Republicanism, moderate and extreme; but before they vanish from the earth to appear no more forever, the French, German, and Italian governments will go into the shadow of the Czar, who will unite in his dominion all their power and glory. This is the conclusion of the struggle about to commence. Despotism will triumph throughout Europe, and Democracy will go to the wall.
But before this situation comes over Europe a sanguinary war must be waged between Democracy and Absolutism. This is inevitable. Self-preservation on the part of Governments, and hatred of them on the part of the peoples, will not permit things to remain quiescent. Without exception the governments seem disposed for peace among themselves. Peace also with foreign powers was the policy of the majority of the French Assembly; for their sympathies were pontifical and absolute. “Order,” “Family, Property and Religion,” were the passwords of their policy; because rulers, priests, nobles, and the rich, together with their dependents, all of whose sympathies are for each other, their antipathies, fears, and propitiatory charities, being for the poor, —they know that they have nothing to gain, but every thing to lose by revolution and reform. But a continuance of peace is incompatible with the formation of the Feet of Nebuchadnezzar’s Image. The Clay and the Iron cannot be mixed so long as peace is maintained. What then is to be done; if the governments are indisposed to make war upon one another, how shall the peace be broken? By suppressing the Legislative Assembly of France whose stronger party was intriguing to restore monarchy and priestism of the old Bourbon type. A military despotism is better than sacerdotal monarchy, and precisely adapted to the necessity of the case to be established. A military despotism is not a peaceable institution; therefore it is exactly the thing the situation of affairs demands. Let us glance at the history of the one just formed in Paris that we may acquire a right apprehension of its nature.
Napoleon the First was one of the people; a lieutenant of artillery, and once both poor and needy. After God had punished the priests and higher orders of the French nation, and those that adhered to them, by the Terrorists, the time had arrived to make use of the French Democracy to punish the governments and their armies belonging to other nations. The situation by which they invoked this upon themselves was created by the refugee adherents of the dethroned and hated Bourbons, stirring them up to war against the Democratic Despotism of France; which was in turn provoked to proclaim war against all priests, aristocrats, and kings, in the interest of all the oppressed peoples of Europe. Civil directors of military operations residing at a distance from the seat of war, inexperienced in the art, and divided by jealousy and faction, are ill adapted to carry on vigorous operations against an enemy whose will is the supreme law of civil and military affairs. The work to be accomplished demanded a military rather than a purely civil despotism. The latter did very well for the punishment of the power that murdered the Huguenots by thousands; but it required a strong military despotism, animated by the will of one tyrant only, to consume and lay waste “the Holy Roman Empire” with fire and sword—a dominion dyed scarlet in the blood of the saints, and the support of the vilest hypocrisy, and blasphemy against God and men.
The earliest internal struggles of the French Democracy against the royalists prepared a man to take the command of them when the time should arrive to smite Italy, Rome, and the German empire. That man was Napoleon 1. He was a man of destiny. A man prepared of God to inflict vengeance on the Papacy. A man of the required genius; an iron man—a remorseless slayer of humanity; a prince of tyrants; but the only man of his age fit for the work to be performed. He was, too, the idol of a vain, intoxicated people; haters of kings and priests, but lovers of glory which glorified themselves. Hence they regarded the successful man, who led them on to slay and be slain, as their best friend; for he was but the head of the phantom, the national glory which they adored.
Such was the military despotism of “my uncle,” and such also its mission. It was necessary. It did its work superbly, showing that the hand of God was in it. It slew the Beast with fearful carnage, in extinguishing the German empire by 1806. But after it had done all, the work to be done is only partially accomplished. The odious Papacy still exists, and the governments yet delight to do it honour; and governments that look with complacency upon Romanism, patronise its priests, lend their power to the support of such a creation as the Pope, proscribe the Bible, and practise every abomination, are foredoomed to trouble without reprieve. The issue is not God and the People versus Absolutism. The people are no more God’s friend than their oppressors; God however loves the world though it hates him. His cause is not identified with theirs. His way is not their way; yet He will save them in spite of themselves, and by means which they dislike. The issue is GOD AND HIS SAINTS versus THE NATIONS AND THEIR RULERS; and before the Almighty can gain his cause upon the principles he has laid down, he must make use of the democracy and the governments to chastise and weaken one another, and then step in and conquer them both. This is the situation of things; and as the first Democratic Military Despotism fulfilled its mission without finishing the work, the time has at length arrived for the consolidation of a second, that the work may be advanced another stage towards its entire accomplishment.
The military despotism of Napoleon I was an armed imperial democracy; that of Napoleon II is a revival of it. The last is the elect of the people by universal suffrage, and will doubtless be sustained by them on the same principle. He is therefore the Head of the Democracy. The army has also added its suffrages to the people’s; he is consequently head of the army and the people, or Chief of the Armed Democracy. Now this is just what the European Democracy needed. Hitherto they were peoples without an army, all the armies being on the side of their enemies: but by the recent revolution in France God appears to have given them an army and a chief whose name is a tower of strength against Austria and the Pope. As to the man himself God knows more about him than we do. He has had no opportunity of showing what he is capable of in the field. At all events he has shown himself to be a good general, or at any rate a better general than his opponents though numbering many generals among them, for he has brilliantly out-generaled them all. It is mind, not mere brute force, that gains a victory. The probability is that with a devoted army he would not only outmanoeuvre, but vanquish the unwilling hosts of Austria in the field; and by a powerful diversion in Italy enable Hungary to rise and cooperate in the overthrow of Hapsburg-Loraine.
Louis Napoleon’s tendencies have ever been imperial. His unsuccessful attempt a few years ago in that direction by which he became a prisoner in Ham, proves this. He is no respecter of the principle of legitimacy, nor of socialism; for they are two extremes equidistant from his personal ambition. He is doubtless a tyrant. If he were not, he would not be fit for the chief of an Armed Democracy. Foreign despots may tolerate him for a time, but they can neither love nor trust him; for their principle is legitimacy; his is revolution. In relation to the Constitution, the Legislative Assembly and he are equally violators; they had both abolished universal suffrage, and the Assembly would have arrested and imprisoned him, if he had not extinguished it. Justice and righteousness, integrity and principle, are not to be named in such a crowd. Morality there is a mere negation—a mere question of which thief is not more thievish than the rest of the Forty Thieves. A dishonest set pretending solicitude for the Constitution so far as convenient, and ready at any time to tear it into shreds if deemed necessary to the accomplishment of their intrigues. We conclude therefore that France is a gainer by the exchange of seven hundred and fifty wranglers for only one tyrant who will rule it more after its own taste. This taste is imperial; and Louis Napoleon is a man of strong predilections for the iron and golden crowns of France and Italy, and it is probable that before his career is closed he will attempt to seize upon them both; for that of France alone is not imperial.
Assuming, then, that the Imperial Democratic Military Despotism of Napoleon II is established, what would seem to be its mission? We reply, sooner or later, to combat with the Beast and False Prophet, that is, with Austria and the defenders of the Pope. These were his uncle’s old enemies, and are likely to prove his. He has not yet had time to develop his foreign policy, but peace will be no more his forte than his uncle’s. We apprehend that his troubles will begin in dynastic reminiscences. The victory of Waterloo, the occupation of Paris by foreign troops, the fall and imprisonment of Napoleon, are neither forgotten nor forgiven by Buonapartists and the French. Louis Napoleon in succeeding his uncle doubtless inherits his antipathy to England. And for the present it may suit Russia and Austria to foment a quarrel between them. There are Rome and Italy too, who may come in as complications of “the situation.” Louis Napoleon knows that the occupation of that city in support of the Pope is unpopular with the French; he may therefore without withdrawing the troops from Rome pursue a more liberal policy, which may make their continuance there insufferable to His pseudo-Holiness, who would seek the intervention of Austria in order to abate the nuisance. Austria, backed by Russia, finding it expedient to withdraw their countenance, might assume such an attitude towards Napoleon in behalf of the Pope as to make it “a point of honour,” with Louis, to resist, and declare war in behalf of French interests in Italy, to look after which was the principal reason of a French army being sent to Rome under General Oudinot. Such a declaration would be a resurrection trumpet to the oppressed nations of the Continent. The war-loving democracy would flock to the standard of Napoleon, and crowd his armies, panting, if their courage be equal to their words, for a hand to hand combat with the troops of their oppressors. The democratic armies would rejoice in victory after victory, until the tide of war would turn against them. If not abolished, Austria and the Papacy would at least be ready to give up the ghost. The Pope will continue to exist as the Roman Prophet, but without dominion, till the resurrection of the dead; but the House of Hapsburg, if continued, would only be a sort of viceroy to the Czar, dividing with him nominally the majesty of the Roman world. The Napoleon despotism would have done its work. Its conquests would be wrested from it, until repelled on every side it would be reduced to contend for the possession of France itself. At length, as Republicanism or Democracy in any shape cannot prevail in this country, it being one of the ten Toe-kingdoms which all exist as such at the end, France would be lost, and replaced under the Bourbons, no longer independent sovereigns of the country, but as provincial kings of the imperial European dominion of the Czar.
Thus would the Democracy have done their work. They would have done their best for “liberty, fraternity, and equality,” and have proved for a second and last time, upon a grand scale, their utter incompetence for the work of curing society of the evils which afflict it. In their mad, but necessary, career, they would have been the cause of the conquest of Turkey by the Autocrat, and the subjection of Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, Sardinia, Naples, Greece, Bavaria, Lombardy, and Hungary—the ten kingdoms of the Iron Monarchy, thereunto united by “the miry clay” of the Russian Autocracy. Thus, Absolutism would have completely triumphed; and the curtain have fallen upon the third act of the extraordinary tragedy enacting before all nations from 1789 to the setting up of a kingdom and dominion by the God of heaven in the land promised to the fathers of Israel and their seed for ever.
The ways of God are admirable. We see his hand in the working of things very notably since 1848. Had the National Convention done its work wisely Napoleon’s usurpation would never have occurred. It erred in permitting the Bonaparte family’s return to France. This was the first error. The next was in not permitting the re-election of the President for another succeeding term. A third error was embodied in the 31st, 45th, and 46th articles of the Constitution, which provided that the power of the Assembly and President should expire at the same moment, the President on the 10th and the Assembly on the 18th of May 1852; and their successors to be elected between April 29 and May 10. Those acquainted with the state of parties in France can easily imagine the anarchy that would have resulted from such an arrangement. Constitutionally Napoleon had no hope for four years, and it is contrary to the nature and creed of a Bonaparte to surrender power if he can keep it. These “singular and clumsy oversights,” as they have been termed, created a situation of despair for the Imperialists, hope for the old Monarchists, and fear for the friends of tranquillity and moderate republicanism. The resolution of the crisis was doubtful to all; but Providence had prepared it, and had provided a man to cut the knot which could not be untied. The anti-constitutional treason of the Monarchists and enmity to Napoleon, together with his self-preservation and despair, have developed the revolution which has sorely disappointed the republican-gospellers, but has placed things more in harmony with the necessities of the future which will soon become manifest. The Frog-power hath again uttered its voice; now, therefore, look out for the “thunders and lightnings, and a great earthquake,” or revolution, “such as has not been since men were upon the earth, an earthquake so mighty and so great.”
December 31st., 1851. EDITOR.
OUR VISIT TO BRITAIN.
VISIT TO FERGUSLIE—DESCEND THE SHAFT OF A COAL MINE—VISIT TO A THREAD FACTORY—SOIREE AT GLASGOW—ORIGIN OF ELPIS ISRAEL.
While at Paisley we were very hospitably entertained at the mansion of Mr. Coats, called Ferguslie House, beautifully situated in the midst of grounds very tastefully laid out, opposite the Braes of Glennifer, and commanding in the rear an extensive view over the valley of the Clyde. Mr Coats’ name is well known in this country to all who use cotton sewing thread. He has a princely residence, and a palatial factory in which he employs about 400 hands. His residence is fitted up in the most costly, convenient, and elegant style; and the furniture of the richest and newest fashion. We were not Yankee enough to inquire if the tea and dinner service of plate were gold or silver gilt; but we learned from another source that he had purchased it of a French nobleman, probably an exile in England, whose necessities compelled him to sell. Whether gold or gilt it had a very brilliant appearance, and was in keeping with all other objects in the field of vision. Comfort indeed, or rather luxurious ease, would be supposed to reign in undisturbed repose; and that none could enter there but Fashion’s votaries or the gay—the children of pride, of manners soft, and blood the gentlest of mankind. But he who should judge thus would do injustice to Thomas Coats, Junior, Esq. Though “Hard Times,” who visits many people in Paisley and elsewhere, may be supposed never to show his haggard visage within the precincts of Ferguslie House, yet doth its wealthy proprietor oftentimes make himself a guest in the dwellings of the poor with that unwelcome visitor. Though rich, he is highly commended by the poor for his open-handed liberality, and generous sympathy with them in their necessities. He has opened a reading room which he keeps supplied with useful publications for their especial benefit; and in fuel and other domestic necessaries bestows upon them some three thousand dollars a year. This of course gives him great influence over them for good or evil as he may feel disposed. From what we saw of him at our first, and second visits he seemed to be thinking in the right direction. Being a member of the Paisley church, he could have refused us admittance, and his refusal would not have been contravened however much it might have been regretted. Alexander “the great” * had spoken there, and had left behind him his proscriptive spirit which had entered into an influential senior of Mr. Coats’ family. During and previous to our first visit no incident had evoked its manifestation. We were invited and cordially welcomed. We were listened to “with great satisfaction,” and made a welcome visitor at Ferguslie House, and elsewhere in the family, and among the members. Nothing could be more kind or flattering than the attentions we received. A day was set apart for a special visit to Mr. Coats’ mines some few miles from Paisley, after which we were to partake of the good cheer provided at Ferguslie. We descended into Avernus, and found when all was ready the descent as easy as Virgil says. It was a holiday with the colliers on account of the burial of one of their number who had been burned the day before by an explosion of gas in the pit. Mr. Coats having ordered the engine to be fired up, we invested ourselves in the meanwhile with rough garments and tarpauling hats to suit.
* The Ecclesiastic Reformer, speaking of our friend’s preaching at the Kentucky Campbellite Convention, says, Bro. Campbell, ever great, has won new laurels by this visit, &c.!”
The band being adjusted on the periphery of the wheel, we all got into the bucket and were lowered a thousand feet into the earth. We traversed the mine up hill and down hill about the third of a mile. In some parts of the way we could walk upright; but in others, where “troubles” would occur, or an inclined plain was formed for rail boxes, it was necessary to form our bodies into two sides of a square. The mining operations were explained to us by the overseer who accompanied us. The darkness made visible by our flickering lamps was intense, yet though so deep below the surface and the level of all its graves, we were not in “the lowest sheol;” for we were still to be found in a living organised condition; if Jonah however, when in the great fish, were in “the belly of hell,” as he said, we were unquestionably there. His no doubt was a warmer place than ours, but darker it was impossible to be. Our exploration occupied about two hours, when we re-entered the bucket, and ascended to the light of day.
Having returned from the mines Mr. Coats showed us over his sewing thread factory. The rooms where the thread is wound on the bobbins would be a surprising exhibition of industry and art to the first father of mankind. The bobbin-making department is also very interesting because of the ingenious machinery by which the bobbins are formed. But what a monotonous existence to those who are employed in such establishments as these! Highly interesting to visitors viewing for an occasion the combined operations of the vast concern; but to be tending day after day for a life-time the winding of a set of bobbins, or the unvarying action of a piece of machinery, O we had rather not be than live to be an automaton such as this! But what are men to do? The bondage of a stern necessity compels them to labour hard, tediously, and monotonously for the bread that perishes; and a hopeless, cheerless, labour it is when unsolaced by the hope of glory. Ah, it is the poor that must needs rejoice in the gospel of the kingdom. They have no luxuries nor elegancies in their dwellings; nay, can scarce get the needful to keep their soul in life. When the kingdom comes—
“He will fill the hungry with good things; and the rich he will send empty away.”
Blessed epoch, glorious era for the poor! The King shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper. He shall spare them, and save them, and redeem them from deceit and violence, and their ungentle blood shall be precious in his sight. Factories, we opine, if allowed to exist at all, will not then be penitentiaries for unfortunates whose poverty is their only crime.
We may remark here, as we shall not return to Paisley again, that on our third visit we found a change had come over the spirits of some who had made us welcome there before. Elpis Israel was now in the hands of over seventy persons there. The things it contained had called into activity the spirit of Campbellism latent in the heart of the gentleman referred to. Our friend of Ferguslie was rusticating at Dunoon; but they whom we found in Paisley rejoicing in his name were by no means gratified at seeing us again. Had we been a Campbellite we should have been welcome to their pulpit on Lord’s day as before. But the doctrine we taught was found to have no affinity with the theology of the “Evergreat;” so that, although the church is a Scotch Baptist church, and refuses to be identified with the “Reformation churches” of Britain, we were given to understand by a friend, that the Campbellite spirit in one or two rich men was so excited, that if the house were applied for to be used by us on Lord’s day, it would not be granted; but no objection would be made to our having it in the week. As our object was not to create unnecessary difficulty, we acquiesced in our friend’s advice; being desirous also, if trouble did arise, the question should be “what is the gospel?” and not, “shall the author of Elpis Israel speak in our pulpit on Lord’s day, or not?”
On Friday night, October 12th, 1848, “the Grand Soiree,” as it was advertised, was held in commemoration of our visit to Glasgow. Mr. Turner, one of the city magistrates, was in the chair. This gentleman is an octogenarian of the radical, and Cameronian, schools. He was incarcerated in “good old Tory times,” as some call them, for permitting a meeting for “Radical Reform” to be held on the lawn before his house. He was just the right sort of a man to preside at a soiree “in honour of” Ishmael among the parsons! Though so advanced in years, he seemed as lively and vigorous as a man in the middle of life. May he live long, and witness the triumph of the saints in the kingdom of God, when the seed of his old enemies shall be put to shame.
The Rev’d Mr. Anderson, relief minister, was invited to attend and make a speech on the occasion, which he did, and a very excellent one it was. He is a man of learning, and high standing in Glasgow; although by pietists of mystical opinions, accounted “daft.” But that matters not; it is their way of olden time to impute idiocy or insanity to those who have more discernment, honesty of purpose, and scriptural information than themselves. Mr. Anderson told the meeting that he was once as blind and ignorant as they, knowing nothing of the prophets though professedly a teacher of the truth. He was indebted to the late Mr. Cunningham, a notable writer on prophecy, for a knowledge of his ignorance which was the first step to his comprehension of the truth. Mr. C. made him ashamed of himself; so little did he know of the great things God had revealed in his word. This he determined to study, and to blot out his reproach in the understanding of the matter. His investigation of the prophetic writings had led him to see that the purpose of God was to establish a kingdom in the land of Israel under Jesus Christ which should have rule over the whole earth. He then traced the idea of Theocracy from Eden through subsequent developments of the divine will; and concluded by a glance at what God had promised should come to pass hereafter. Mr. Anderson seems to have been the only preacher in Glasgow that believed that Jesus Christ would reign upon David’s throne a thousand years over the nations of the earth, and that feared not to avow his faith. It was no small encouragement therefore to him, for us to visit the city, and boldly to publish the doctrine with such cheering effect.
J. B. Rollo, Esq., also addressed the meeting on the subject before it. We had likewise as a matter of course to make a speech, which on such an occasion we find much more difficult than to expound the sounding of the Seventh Apocalyptic Trumpet. The meeting, which consisted of some 250 persons, was edified and strengthened in its good purposes by the late Mr. Richardson, the Scotch Baptist church’s preacher at Paisley. Altogether, what with the addresses, the music, singing, and good cheer, the evening, till 11 P.M., was spent in a very agreeable manner. At this hour the soiree was pronounced at an end; but before they arose to depart, a gentleman remarked that “he did not think that Dr. Thomas had treated, or rather was about to treat, them well. He had announced that he was to leave Glasgow in the morning, and that it was uncertain if he should ever visit them again. Now what he thought the Doctor’s friends had a right to complain of was, that he had come among them and roused their minds to an interest in subjects of more magnitude and importance than all others, and was now about to leave them with no other memorials than treacherous and fading memory could afford. Was it not possible for him to defer his return to America, and to publish the matter of his lectures in a book, that his friends and the public might possess it in a tangible and permanent form? He hoped he would find it possible, and give them a favourable reply.” This seemed to be responded to by many present. Though not famed for what pious sinners call “charity,” our phrenology, say cranioscopists, is illustrated by “Benevolence, 6 on a scale of 7.” We thought it a pity to leave the demand for knowledge of the truth unsatisfied, seeing that a craving after it by men and women is so rare a thing. We replied therefore to the meeting that “when we left the United States our intention was to return in the autumn. We had made no provision for a longer stay, and the probability was that our affairs woul