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.

JOHN THOMAS, Editor. NEW YORK, February, 1853—

Volume 3—No. 2

JEWISH OBJECTIONS TO JESUS.

Mr. Benjamin Dias, the Jewish unbeliever in Jesus referred to in a former article, in his sixth letter published in the Occident, says:

“The Old Testament being, without dispute, the only Scripture both of Jews and Christians, from that alone are we to judge of the office and character of the Messiah; and for this purpose it will be proper to extract a few of the many prophecies concerning the Messiah, his Kingdom, and the events to happen in his time, the better to compare them with what is related of Jesus in the New Testament, in which they are said to be fulfilled.

1. “In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the North to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers”—Jeremiah 3: 18.
2. “Thus saith the Lord God, Behold I will take the children of Israel from among the nations whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land, and will make them one nation in the land, upon the mountains of Israel; and one King shall be king to them all, and they shall no more be two nations: neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all: neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will save them out of all their dwelling places wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them, so shall they be my people, and I will be their God. And David my servant shall be king over them, and they shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. And they shall dwell in the land which I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt, and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children, for ever. Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant, and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle, also, shall be with them, yea I will be their God, and they shall be my people; and the nations shall know that I, the Lord, do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore”—Ezekiel 37: 21-36.
3. “And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. And I will set up shepherds over them who shall feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed; neither shall they be lacking, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a Righteous Branch, and a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his day Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely, and this is the name whereby he shall be called, Yehowah Tzidkainu—JEHOVAH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. Therefore, behold the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but the Lord liveth who brought up and who led the seed of the house of Israel out of the North country, and from all countries wherein I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land”—Jeremiah 23: 3-8.
4. “And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign (nais ammim, an ensign or leader of the peoples—Editor Herald) of the people; to it shall the nations seek: and His rest shall be glorious. And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord (Adonai) shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. And they shall fly (not “fly,” but ahphu, from the Syriac ahphah, they shall flourish—Ed. Her.) upon the shoulders of the Philistines westward; they shall spoil the children of the east entirely; Edom and Moab the putting out of their hand; and the children of Ammon their obedience”—Isaiah 11: 10-14.
5. “Therefore thus saith the Lord God, now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name; after that they have borne their shame and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when they dwelt safely in their land and none made them afraid. When I have brought them again from the peoples, and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and I ma sanctified in them in the sight of many nations; then shall they know that I am Jehovah their God, who caused them to be led into captivity among the nations; but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there, neither will I hide my face any more from them, for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith Adony Yehowah—the Lord Jehovah”—Ezekiel 39: 25-29.
6. “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall beat off from the channel of the river (Euphrates) unto the stream of Egypt (the Nile), and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount of Jerusalem”—Isaiah 27: 12-13.
7. “Therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between cattle and cattle. And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David (i.e., Beloved—Ed. Herald) he shall feed them, and he shall be shepherd. And I the Lord will be their God (Waani Yehowah ehyeh lahlem lailohim, and I Jehovah will be to them for Elohim—Ed. Herald), and my servant David a prince among them; I the Lord have spoken it. And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land, and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods. And I will make them, and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in its season; there shall be showers of blessing. And the tree of the field shall yield its fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those that served themselves of them. And they shall no more be a prey to the nations, neither shall the beasts of the land devour them; they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid. And I will raise up for them A PLANT OF RENOWN, and they shall no more be consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the nations any more”—Ezekiel 34: 22-29.
8. “And there shall be no more a pricking briar unto the house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn of all that are round about them that despised them; and they shall know that I am the Lord God. Thus saith the Lord God: When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the nations, there shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob. And they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses, and plant vineyards; yea, they shall dwell with confidence, when I have executed judgments upon all those that despise them round about them; and they shall know that I am Adony Yehowah—Lord Jehovah”—Ezekiel 28: 24-26.
9. “As I live, saith Lord Jehovah, surely with a mighty hand, and with an out-stretched arm; and with fury poured out, will I rule over you. And I will bring you out from the peoples, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there will I plead with you face to face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith Lord Jehovah”—Ezekiel 20: 33-36.
10. “I will accept you with your sweet savour, when I bring you out from the peoples, and gather you out of the countries wherein you have been scattered, and I will be sanctified in you before the nations”—Ezekiel 20: 41.
11. “Hear the word of Jehovah, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him as a shepherd doth his flock. For Jehovah hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he”—Jeremiah 31: 10-11.
12. “Fear not, for I am with thee; I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back; bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; even every one that is called by my name; for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him”—Isaiah 43: 5-7.

After adducing these testimonies, parts of which we have italicised, and inserted here and there a parenthesis, Mr. Dias proceeds to remark, “It is needless to transcribe more passages declarative of these great events of which the prophetic writings are full. From these, and many other prophecies of a like nature, we may collect the office and character of Messiah. But, before we proceed, it is certainly necessary to explain the meaning of the word Messiah. Messiah, or Mashiah, as pronounced in Hebrew, signifies Anointed, or THE ANOINTED ONE. It is applied to kings, priests, and prophets, as they were anointed to their office. Jews, therefore, by way of eminence and emphasis, called, and continue to call, that person whom God should raise up, and make the instrument for the accomplishment of such prophecies, as particularly describe and foretell the deliverance and glory of the nation, by this name. Now, if Christians will prove that Jesus fulfilled these prophecies, they will convert the Jews, for they require nothing else.”

Upon this the editor of the Occident remarks, “With due deference to the author, we wish to observe that only the mission of Jesus as the Messiah would thereby be proved, but not the character which Christians (Catholics and Protestants he means) assume for him; since the one whom we expect is to be a man acting under the power and guidance of the Lord, but not a part of the divinity. Such a being is contrary to Scripture, and is not the Christ whom we expect.”

In a note appended to Mr. Dias’ letter by Mr. Isaac Leeser, the editor of the Occident remarks, “The above letter is, according to our own view, the most important of the series thus far. It states truly that in arguing with Christians, we need not prove as a preliminary the truth of the books of the Covenant, for these are emphatically as requisite to them as to us. Mr. Dias is, therefore, perfectly correct to step forward at once to the character of the Messiah, as laid down in Scripture. And this, we think, far more important than his preceding discussion concerning the authenticity of the gospels, acts, and epistles; for our religion is true, not because the grounds of Christianity are not proven, but because it is a system, one and entire in itself, and was instituted by God, and sprung from Him long before the followers of the self-styled Messiah of Nazareth was in existence. The prophets speak of a Messiah, or, if you prefer the word, a Christ, who is to accomplish all that has been predicted of Him. Now, precisely such a one and no other can be received as the fulfiller of Scriptural prediction; but if he omit any of these, he is not the one whom we expect: —though he accomplish all the gospels say of him, though by his agency, the blind see, the deaf hear, the sick are made whole, and the dead are called to life. Such acts are not his mission; for this is the redemption of Israel and the world; and unless this have been, or be accomplished, the personage under question cannot be the King of the Jews.”

We shall reserve our comments upon the premises now before us until another issue. In the meantime, the reader will please to make himself familiar with the passages quoted by Mr. Dias from Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. They have, indeed, never been fulfilled as yet; this admission, however, is no objection to Jesus; it only argues their future accomplishment—but by whom? The Jews cannot answer the question. They think it will not be by Jesus: —we have the full assurance of hope and faith that it will.

EDITOR.

* * *

EXPECTATION PRECEDED THE ADVENT.

At the time of the coming of Christ there was a general expectation; among our nation, it was universal. Pious Simeon and Hannah, and many other devout persons, waited for the Consolation of Israel. The Pharisees sent priests and Levites to ask John the Baptist whether he was the Christ. The common people exclaimed, “If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly!” Hence they were ready to receive any one who pretended to be the Messiah. And it is worthy of observation, that many false Christs came after Jesus, but none before. The Samaritans, likewise, had the knowledge of a Saviour, and expected his coming, as is evident from the conversation of the woman of Samaria at Jacob’s well—John 4.

But it is still more remarkable, the Romans themselves had the same expectations; and not only they, but all the eastern part of the world, which may well include all that was then known. Thus says Suetonius, (Vit. Vesp. 4,) “that an ancient and constant tradition had obtained throughout all the East, that in the fates it was decreed, that, about that time, some who should come from Judea should obtain the dominion, or government, i.e., of the world, which the Romans then possessed.” And Cornelius Tacitus (Hist. L. 5, c. 13) speaks almost in the same words: telling of the great prodigies which preceded the destruction of Jerusalem, he says: “that many understood them as the forerunners of that extraordinary person who, the ancient books of the priests did foretell should come about that time from Judea, and obtain the dominion.” Virgil, in his famous fourth Eclogue, written about the beginning of the reign of Herod the Great, compliments the consul, Pollio, with this prophecy, by supposing it might refer to his son, Saloninus, then born. But the words are too great to be verified of any mere mortal man; and he speaks of such a golden age, and such a renovation of all things as cannot be fulfilled in the reign of any ordinary king. And Virgil expresses it almost in the words of the Holy Scriptures—Isaiah 65: 17, wherein they tell of the glorious age of Messiah; of a new heavens and earth then to begin, and to be finally completed at the end thereof.

“The last age decreed by fate is come,

And a new frame of all things doth begin;

The Holy Progeny from heaven descends.

Auspicious be his birth, which puts an end

To th’ iron age, and from whence shall rise

A golden state far glorious through the earth.”

Thus the poet depicts in glowing colours, and makes a paraphrase of Isaiah’s prediction. The prophet says: “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw as the bullock; and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord.” The poet, after this—

“Nor shall the flocks fierce lions fear;

No serpent shall be there, or herb of pois’nous juice.”

Nay, the very atonement for sins, which Daniel attributed to Messiah—Daniel 9: 24, “to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity,” is thus expressed in this eclogue: —

“By thee, what footsteps of our sins remain

Are blotted out, and the whole world set free

From her perpetual bondage and her fear.”

And the very words of Haggai 2: 6 seem to be literally translated by Virgil. Thus saith the prophet of the coming of the Messiah: “Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come.” And thus the poet: —

“Enter on thy honour, now’s the time,

Offspring of God, O thou great gift of Jove!

Behold, the world, heaven, earth, and seas do shake;

Behold, how all rejoice to greet that glorious age.”

And as if Virgil had been learned in the doctrine of Christ, he tells that these glorious times should not begin immediately upon the birth of that wonderful person then expected to come into the world, but that wickedness should still keep its ground in several places.

“Yet some remains shall still be left

Of ancient fraud, and war shall still go on.”

Now, how the old pagan poet applied all this, is not the question, whether in part to Augustus Caesar, or partly to the consul Pollio, and partly to his son Saloninus, then newly born; but it shows the expectation there was at that time, of the birth of a very extraordinary person, who should introduce a new and golden age, and both reform and govern the whole world.”—FREY.

* * *

AN INTERPRETATION DISPUTED.

Dear Brother: —I have to thank you for your attention to my inquiry concerning the predictions of our Lord recorded in Matthew 24. I had long before concluded that you had wholly forgotten it, and so was agreeably undeceived. Nevertheless, admitting your interpretation to be correct, you have, for me, reencompassed the subject with difficulties which the view of it I presented to you seemed to obviate. Allow me briefly to state these. —If the tribulation ended A. D. 71; if the “luminaries” of verse 29 were “Hebrew,” and were then “eclipsed,” how are we to harmonise the prophecy with the facts in the case? For, after declaring that “the powers of the heavens shall be shaken,” our Lord continues, “and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with great power and glory.” That the events predicted in verse 29 and 30 are represented as immediately consecutive, cannot, I think, be denied without forcing the words from their natural and obvious meaning. To suppose that 1800 years were intended to elapse between the shaking of the political heaven referred to and the “then” of verse 30, is to violate the simple unconstrained sense of the passage. Then in regard to the “generation” intended. “Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass till all these things (doubtless those He had enumerated) shall be fulfilled.” According to Luke, our Lord continues: “When these things begin to come to pass then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh,” and illustrating his injunction by the parable of the fig tree, adds, “so likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.” Here the fulfilment of “these things” is connected with the advent of the kingdom as an earnest of its nearness. How unmeaning if they were fulfilled in the first century! “Verily,” he goes on to say, “This generation (could it be the one he was addressing?) shall not pass away till all be fulfilled.” Is it not evident that the coming of the kingdom is included in the “all?” And this was still unmanifested when the last of that “generation” lay down to sleep in the dust.

These difficulties attending your theory, dear brother, are to me at present inseparable. In the one I reported to you, they were annihilated by simply supposing the “tribulation” co-extensive with “the times of the Gentiles,” and the “generation” that which should witness the “signs” coming immediately after. I see nothing in Luke’s testimony to refute such a supposition. These, “he writes,” are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. This is making the days of vengeance terminate only with the woes of Israel. But you say that verses 16, 20, and 21 of Matthew 24, show that the tribulation must be confined to the “those days indicated.” They show certainly that it would be great, excessive then, but they scarcely prove that it must terminate with them. Those days of terror and distress were “shortened for the elect’s sake,” but we know that Palestine has been prostrate under the sway of Gentile oppression ever since, whilst her children have been wanderers, persecuted and tyrannised over by their Gentile rulers. Israel did not drink to the dregs the cup of God’s vengeance, Isaiah 51: 17, in A.D. 71. Jerusalem’s “warfare” or “appointed time” was not then “accomplished.”— Isaiah 40: 2. Her “tribulation,” what has it been but her subjection to Gentile tyrants, and this can only end when her own King shall return to reign in the midst of her. You say the “signs” must not be looked for in the natural heavens. I do not expect them there. But I think they are as characteristic of the time when “the thrones shall be cast down,”—Daniel 7: 9, as of that to which you apply them. When the “Beast” is “slain” and “destroyed” and the “dominion taken” from the “little Horn” the Imperial Sun of Europe will be extinguished, and the misleading light of the Papal Moon quenched in darkness. Then when these are “destroyed in the brightness of his coming,” the Son of Man shall be seen “in power and great glory.”

I must apologise for the length of these remarks. They have extended farther than I purposed. I shall be obliged if you will consider them at your leisure; and if you can dissipate the difficulties that appear to me to attach to your interpretation of these deeply interesting predictions, I shall be very willing to accept it. Meanwhile believe me, dear brother,

In faith and hope affectionately,

PERSIS.

October 26^th, 1852.

* * *

THE PROPHECY OF MOUNT OLIVET.

“The Tribulation of those days”—“The End—“Your Redemption draweth nigh”—“The Kingdom of God nigh at hand”—“Then,” explained.

The difficulty of our correspondent, “Perside la bien-aime’e” in relation to “the tribulation of those days,” consisting in the destruction of the city, the sanctuary—Daniel 9: 26, and the mighty and holy people—Daniel 8: 24, by the Prince’s people, seems to rest on the import of the word “then,” which is assumed to be immediate consecutiveness. That is, that the appearance of the sign of the Son of Man in heaven is immediately to follow the tribulation and the eclipse of the luminaries, which Persis does not regard as the sun, moon, stars, and powers of the heavens of the Hebrew Zion; nor indeed of the “natural heavens;” but of the heavens of the Roman system of nations existing at the end of “the times of the Gentiles.”

What I have said on page 27 of our last volume (September 1852) in reply to Persis need not be repeated here. The reader can refer to it and study it at his leisure. In the letter before us, Persis cannot see how the eclipsed luminaries can be Hebrew, because the Son of Man’s sign, &c., and the advent of the kingdom, said to be nigh at hand, did not then appear. The interpretation of the prophecy of Mount Olivet, evidently to my mind, perplexes Persis for the same reason that all other interpreters have failed to give a consistent and intelligible exegesis to it—they fail to perceive that it is a prophecy of things pertaining exclusively to Israel’s commonwealth. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, behold your house shall be left with you desolate. For I say unto you, ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of Jehovah.” In this the epochs, beginning and ending the prophecy which followed, are indicated—first, the desolation of Jerusalem’s house; and lastly, the pronouncing of Jesus blessed by the Hebrew nation at his appearing. “Ye shall say;” that is, Israel shall say, Blessed be Jesus of Nazareth. “Jesus spake to the multitude and to his disciples,” concerning those who sat in Moses’ seat, or throne. In speaking to them, he denounced the government of the Gentiles in Israel, but the Scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites, so far as they had to do with public affairs. The twenty-third of Matthew sufficiently establishes this point.

In the next chapter he confirms his discourse to two disciples who came to him “privately,” and sought to know more particularly concerning the things he had been previously treating of before the multitude. “Tell us,” said they, “when shall these things be? And what the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” The “sayings” which followed were addressed to them for their especial benefit. “Take heed,” said Jesus, “that no man deceive you.” “Ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars; see that ye be not troubled.” Having spoken of international wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes, he told them that these were the beginning of sorrows; and that then, or afterwards, “they,” the Scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites, should deliver them up to be afflicted and killed. Take the cases of James and Paul by way of illustration. “When, therefore,” continued the Lord, “ye shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the Prophet Daniel, stand in the holy place, then let them which be in Judea flee to the mountains: . . . but pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day; for THEN shall be great tribulation such as was not from the beginning of the world (kosmou a thing constituted; it may therefore be rendered of the State or Commonwealth) to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh, (of the carcase spoken of in verse 28) be saved. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. Behold I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold He (the Son of Man) is in the desert, believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall the suddenness of the coming of the Son of Man be. For wheresoever the carcase is (that is, Judah) there will the eagles (the Prince’s army of Romans) be gathered together.”

Now, it is clear from all this, that “those days” referred to in verse 22, were days contemporary with the life-time of the persons whom Jesus was addressing, and not of us or of our successors; and that during their currency there was to be a “tribulation,” or “distress in the land,” unequalled in Israel’s history before, or by anything to happen to them after. There is, indeed, “a time of trouble” yet to come, which will transcend anything that has befallen mankind since the Flood; but that is to affect the Gentiles—Daniel 12: 1—by the sword of Israel and the plagues of God. Israel will not then be destroyed as they were in the day of their “great tribulation;” but they will be delivered. It will, doubtless be “the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he will be saved out of it”—Jeremiah 30: 7—a characteristic which distinguishes the two troubles of Israel; for in the last the yoke of oppression is to be broken from off Israel’s neck, “and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him.”

One thing, I suspect, that has misled Persis in regard to the time of the tribulation, is the phrase, “the end of the world,” in the third verse. There is a sense in which the tribulation was to continue to the end of the world, but not in the Gentile sense of the phrase. The Greek is; ti to seemeion tees synteleias tou aioonos? That is, “what the sign of the conclusion of the age?” Paul says, “Now once in the end of the world hath Christ appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself”—Hebrews 9: 26. In the same verse he speaks of “the foundation of the world;” but he uses a different word for “world.” He says not apo kataboles aioonos, but kosmou. If he had spoken of Christ’s suffering often from the foundation of the age, he would have said ap’ aioonos; but he went further back, and supposed him suffering often from the time of the institution of sacrifice, when the Kosmos was arranged, and Adam’s sin was covered, if he had entered the divine presence with the blood of others, as Aaron and his successors did. The disciples did not inquire what was the sign of the end of the Kosmos, but of the end of that Age constituted by the law. The great tribulation was to continue to the end of the Aioon—of the Mosaic world, consisting of the Jewish Heavens and Earth, or Commonwealth of Israel.

The apostle Peter writing to his fellow-countrymen says, “THE END of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer”—1 Peter 4: 7. He was one to whom the sayings of Jesus were addressed. The Lord had given him a sign of “the end.” It was this. “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world (oikoumenee, the territory inhabited by the Roman system of nations) for a testimony to all the nations, and then shall come THE END.” Paul writing to the Colossians tells us that this sign had been accomplished in his time. “The hope laid up in the heavens, and contained in the word of the truth of the gospel,” says he, “is come in all the world” (kosmos), or as he expresses it elsewhere, “was preached to every creature under the heaven”—Colossians 1: 6, 23. All the apostles knew this; for they had been ordered to “go and preach the gospel to every creature,” and they had done it. Therefore James exhorts his countrymen and brethren in the faith, saying, “Be patient unto the coming of the Lord . . . stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh”—James 5: 7-8. They all knew that it could not be far off; because the gospel of the kingdom had been preached to every creature under the Roman heaven, or government.

The “all things” whose “end” was “at hand,” were the things “made” or constituted by the Mosaic law, and which, having “waxed old,” were “ready to vanish away.” They were the things to be removed by shaking the heaven and the earth, that the unshakable things might remain—Hebrews 12: 26-27. They were the elements or rudiments of the world, “the weak and beggarly elements” to which the Galatians, Jews in Christ, desired again to be in bondage. The end of these was at hand; but in order to abolish them, it was necessary to break up the commonwealth of Israel, to accomplish which the “great tribulation” was indispensable.

But James says, “the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” He did not say “the appearing of the Lord,” but only that the coming of the Son of Man, the sign of which and the end of the age, was the gathering of the Eagles—Deuteronomy 28: 49—to prey upon Israel’s carcase—Deuteronomy 28: 26. Jesus told the apostles that they “should not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of Man be come”—Matthew 10: 33; not with power and great glory, but with his Roman Eagles—Matthew 22: 7—to “baptise” their adversaries and his “with fire”—even with the fire of Gehenna, or of Hinnom’s vale. The apostles did not know when the “appearing” would be, its “times and seasons” being hid in God: but of the coming to destroy Jerusalem and her house, they could tell of its near approach.

Having ascertained that the great tribulation, or “distress in the land, and wrath upon Israel,” was concurrent with the lifetime of the disciples who were taught by the Lord himself, we are obliged to fix the eclipse and fall of the political luminaries at that crisis; for it was to be “immediately after the tribulation of those days.” The eclipse and fall were the result of the tribulation which shook “the powers of the heavens,” civil and ecclesiastical. The desolating abomination spoken of by Daniel the prophet, was the agency employed by the Son of Man, the Prince of Israel, in afflicting them and shaking their polity to pieces. Alluding to these calamities, Isaiah apostrophises Jerusalem in words of consolation divinely expressed, saying, “They that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee the City of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel. Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through thee—I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations. Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting or destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise. Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself; for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. Thy people also shall be all righteous; they shall inherit the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified”—Isaiah 9: 14, 33.

But Persis thinks that the eclipse and fall cannot have taken place immediately after the destruction of Jerusalem’s house, because it cannot be truly said that the disciples’ redemption, and the kingdom of God were nigh at hand. With all deference, however, I think it may. The redemption was that of the disciples addressed. Some of them were to be killed, others imprisoned, and all to be persecuted in different ways by the Jews and their rulers. These could not put to death and imprison Gentile believers, because they had no power or authority over them. The Gentile governments persecuted Gentile Christians: and the Jewish rulers those of their own nation. Hence Paul says to the Gentile portion of the church at Thessalonica, “Ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus; for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, as they have of the Jews: who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins always: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost”—1 Thessalonians 2: 14-16. This was the “wrath to come,” referred to by John the baptiser, which was to break the power of the Jewish persecutor, and so redeem the churches in Judea from his oppression and misrule. When the disciples in these churches saw the fall of Jerusalem approaching (indicated by the things predicted “beginning to come to pass”) they looked up, and exalted their heads, as men do when they see deliverance coming from any great embarrassment or distress.

As to the kingdom of God being nigh at hand when the disciples saw the things predicted, this is my interpretation. The more condensed narrative of Matthew from the twenty-first to the twenty-fifth chapter inclusive, and especially his twenty-fourth, is scattered over Luke’s account from chapter seventeen to the twenty-second inclusive. He begins his reference to the Mount Olivet prophecy in the twentieth verse of the seventeenth chapter, telling us that when the Pharisees demanded of Jesus “when the kingdom of God should come?”—he replied that “the kingdom of God cometh not with observation,” so as to attract every one’s attention. Then in the next verse, Luke records Christ’s words found in Matthew 24: 23. “If any man shall say unto you Lo, here is the Christ, or there; believe it not.” He does not, however, insert the words “the Christ;” but says simply and negatively, “Neither shall they say, Lo, here! or lo there.” Lo here, or lo there, what? It might be asked. The answer would be, “Lo here the Christ, or the kingdom of God,” which are different forms of expressing the same thing. But why should people on the land not run hither and thither after the Christ or the kingdom? “Because,” said Jesus, “the kingdom of God, O Pharisees, is among you,” (entos hymoon,) for there is no kingdom in the absence of God’s Christ; Christ and his dominion being inseparable. He is among you without ostentation, and you receive him not. Then turning to his disciples in continuance of the subject, he said to them, “The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it.” You will desire to see him appear; but he will not come “before you have gone over the cities of Israel” in that way. But men knowing this your desire “shall say unto you, ‘See here, or see there,’” he is: “go not after, nor follow them: for as the lightning that lighteneth out of one part under heaven; so shall also the Son of Man be in his day”—in one of his days: in one of them he will come with his eagles with the suddenness of the lightning’s flash; in another, he will appear in the brightness of its glory: so that you will need no “here,” or “there,” to find him.

When the son of man came with his Eagles, “the kingdom of God was nigh at hand;” but when he appears “in power and great glory,” the kingdom of God will be apparent also—its advent will be an accomplished fact. The kingdom nigh, and the kingdom come, do not signify the same thing. The kingdom was nigh in the sense in which James said, the Lord’s coming was nigh; but not in that of his “coming in his kingdom,” mentioned by the thief on the cross; or of “his appearing and kingdom,” referred to by Paul. King and kingdom are often used interchangeably in the scriptures. For instance, Luke says, that “when Jesus was come nigh to Jerusalem riding on the ass’s colt, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice, saying, “Blessed be the king that cometh in Jehovah’s name;” while Mark in narrating the same event, says that they cried saying, “Blessed be the kingdom of our father David that cometh in the name of Jehovah.” I conclude then, that “the kingdom of God was nigh at hand,” when “the king,” though invisible, was supervising the operations of the siege of his rebellious capital.

As to the word “then,” tote, I do not see that it presents any difficulty in the case; or that it necessitates immediate consecutiveness, or contemporaneousness. We may say with perfect correctness, General Washington was elected President, then General Jackson, then Mr. Polk, and then General Pierce, without its being supposed that they were immediately following one another with no President between. The “thens” would be generally understood as indicative of indefinite succession, and leaving the precise time of their several reigns undetermined. This is the fact in relation to Matthew’s, or rather Christ’s use of the “thens” in chapter 24: 30. The eclipse and fall of the sun, moon and stars, and the shaking of the powers of Judah’s heavens, or polity, were “immediately after the tribulation of those days” of “distress in the land; and then,” or afterwards, “the sign of the Son of Man shall appear in the heaven; and then,” or after that appearance of the sign, “the tribes of the land (hai phylai tees gees) shall mourn in his presence; and they,” the tribes, “shall see the Son of Man coming upon the clouds of the heaven with power and great glory.” This is the order of events in relation to the Jewish nation. Between the overthrow of its polity and the appearing of the sign of the Son of Man, it would be favoured with no visible manifestation of Jehovah, as in the days of old. The interval was to be occupied by “the times of the Gentiles,” during which Jerusalem, the great king’s city, was to be trodden under foot until the time came to recompense them as they had meted out to Israel and the Saints. Between the events of the 29^th and 30^th verses, 1800 years have nearly elapsed. The interval will soon be filled up, as we believe. We await with Israel “the sign,” whose signification will work commotion in the Jewish mind, that in rejecting Jesus of Nazareth as king of the Jews, they have put from them Jehovah’s Christ. Then looking upon Him whom they have pierced, will Israel mourn and be in bitterness for him as the first-born of God and his nation—Zechariah 12: 10; Revelation 1: 7. The Son of Man then acknowledged as their king, will enter on the work of building again the dwelling-place of Davis now in ruins, and setting it up, as in the days of old—Amos 9: 11; Acts 15: 16. He will then gather the still dispersed from all the nations; and if any of them have been driven to the utmost parts of the heaven, he will send his angels (or messengers) with a great sound of a trumpet (making loud and general proclamation) and they shall gather his elect (people even all Israel) from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other, and “bring them into the land which their fathers possessed, and they shall possess it,” as the Lord has said by his servant Moses—Compare Matthew 24: 31 with Deuteronomy 30: 1-5.

All the things predicted as pertaining to the days of vengeance were fulfilled in the tribulation of those days. Judah’s troubles since the overthrow of the Hebrew polity, have been no greater than those of the saints at the hand of the Little Horn, which is “the Devil and Satan” to them both. Eighteen hundred years is too extended a period to be styled “days of vengeance.” Eleven hundred thousand Jews perished in the siege of Jerusalem, and ninety thousand were sold for slaves. This was emphatically vengeance which before or since Judah never experienced so terribly, nor ever will again. But here I must conclude, hoping that the difficulties of Persis have been met, and effectually removed.

EDITOR.

* * *

OUR VISIT TO BRITAIN.

The Editor at Aberdeen—Invited to Dundee by the Campbellites—Visits Dr. Dick—The Kingdom’s Gospel announced—War declared against it—A “bishop” deposed—Campbellism shattered into fragments—descends into the streets and erects barricades—Teetotalism and the Gospel—A new church formed—Cupar uneasy—Opinions of Elpis Israel.

The writing of Elpis Israel being accomplished, I set out on my second tour through Britain. It will be unnecessary to enter into the details of this, inasmuch as it was pretty much a repetition of the first. I revisited all the places I had been to before, with the addition of Dundee, and Aberdeen. I came to visit the latter city in consequence of a friend being there, with whom I was intimate, a resident of Northern Illinois. Through him I became acquainted with several members of the Campbellite church of liberal and candid minds, who, though not believing, or rather not clearly understanding what I contend for, desired to hear and judge for themselves whether I said aught else than what the Scriptures revealed. My visit there resulted in some submitting themselves to the “obedience of the faith,” and the subscription of several to the forthcoming book.

The reader will not have entirely forgotten the tumultuous Campbellite convention at Glasgow in 1848, and that among the delegates there were certain very zealous opponents to myself. Belonging to this party were representatives from the Campbellite church in Dundee, meeting at Hammerman Hall in that town. They had observed my progress, and the interest created by my lectures in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and elsewhere, and concluded that it was possible I might be heard in Dundee without danger to what they considered “the faith once delivered to the saints.” They determined, therefore, to invite me; and, supposing I was still in Edinburgh, though, in fact, in Aberdeen, they sent the following invitation, which was forwarded to me from thence.

John Thomas, M. D., Edinburgh.

13, Nelson Street, Dundee;

26^th July, 1849.

Dear Sir. —Being informed that you are to visit Aberdeen, we beg to say that a number of friends here are desirous to see you, and have a conversation with you over a cup of tea. If you could find it convenient to come this way, on your return, please say on receipt of this, and at what time. You will have a friendly reception, and your expenses will be paid.

Yours truly,

James Ainslie,

J. G. Ainslie,

John Watson,

Allan Fordyce.

I received this note a day or so before my departure from Aberdeen. I concluded, therefore, to change my route; and instead of making my way through Aberdeen to Perth, and thence to Paisley, to take the steamer, and landing at Arbroath, proceed by rail to Dundee. This accomplished, I was welcomed to Dundee by two of the friends who met me at the station, and conducted me to 13 Nelson St., the residence of one of the signers, who had been Cicerone to my friend, President Campbell, during his sojourn there. Soon after my arrival tea was introduced, and disposed of, without anything unusual. A walk into the town was then proposed and accepted. It terminated at the coffee-house where the President had resided, and which was to become my domicil also for the time. About nine o’clock the coffee-room was occupied by a considerable company who had convened as the “friends desirous to see and converse with me.” Cakes, coffee, and tea were served up by Mr. Lamb, whose guest I was to become. After a sufficient interval, conversation turned from generals to particulars, and I was asked for an outline of the things I generally laid before the public in my lectures. Having given this, the question was mooted among them whether I should be invited to lecture in Dundee. I suggested the propriety of my withdrawal from their company while they should discuss that, supposing that there might be some opposed to it, who would feel more at liberty in their opposition in my absence. It was not thought necessary; but I preferred it should be so, and withdrew. On being recalled I was informed that it was their wish that I should come and lecture in Dundee. But I could not then say, as I had sent an appointment to Liverpool, where I proposed to be after finishing at Paisley. I arranged, however, that I would return to Dundee from Paisley, if I could get released from Liverpool, which I managed to do as the appointments there had not as yet been made. The friends in Liverpool wrote to me at Paisley, and to them at Dundee, by the same mail, of which I obtained information as agreed upon by the following note:

13 Nelson St., Dundee;

10^th August, 1849.

Dear Sir—As all arrangements for your lectures on Sabbath and the following days, have been advertised by bills, and in the newspapers, we shall look for you by the evening train tomorrow, by the Perth and Dundee Central Railway. The mail train arrives here about 7 o’clock in the evening.

I am, dear sir, yours affectionately,

James Ainslie.

On the morrow, accordingly, I went and delivered, I think, some seven lectures while I remained. During my stay there I was well cared for, and kindly treated. President Campbell’s Cicerone was my guide in visiting around. He accompanied me on a visit to Dr. Dick, the celebrated author of the “Christian Philosopher,” and other popular works. The doctor received us politely, being free in conversation, and obliging in showing us his telescopes, through one of which he gave us a view of St. Andrews, from his observatory, some six miles in the distance, on the other side of the Tay. He accompanied us from his house on the way to the station, which afforded a brief opportunity to exchange a few words on the appearing of Christ and the Millennial Reign. He asked my views on these subjects, which I gave him as concisely as possible. “I suppose,” said he, “you allow others to differ from you?” “Certainly,” I replied, “I have no alternative, were I ever so disposed to be arbitrary; which I am not:” upon which he gave me to understand that he looked for a millennium, and a gospel reign, the result of a universal diffusion of science and philosophy, which would pave the way for a general reception of the gospel! Living four miles from Dundee, he did not attend my lectures there; though I have since learned he expressed regret to a mutual friend in Edinburgh that he had been unable to do so.

Affairs progressed very smoothly in Dundee until my last lecture, which treated of “the gospel of the kingdom.” This, though a Scriptural statement of the subject-matter preached as gospel to Abraham, the contemporaries of Moses, and to those also of John the Baptiser, Jesus and his Apostles, without any allusion to sects or persons, kindled a flame among the Campbellites which had not ceased to burn in Dundee when I left Britain. One of the Campbellite bishopric “became obedient to the faith.” This turned everything upside down. My “affectionate” guide to Dr. Dick’s, being “a bishop,” if I mistake not, was greatly frustrated; and all his affection evaporated into alienation and opposition to the kingdom’s gospel. “Persecution,” writes one, has now assumed a very formidable appearance against us in Dundee. The first step was the deposition of him you baptised from what they term “the bishop’s office:” and strange to tell, this has been done while as yet he had not opened his mouth upon any subject in the meeting since you were here. James Ainslie and company have become determined to check “the new light” in the bud; but contrary to their expectation the blade has made its appearance, and a stalk of no inconsiderable size has already sprung up. Since I last wrote five have been baptised. Two of these have delivered addresses to the brethren upon the subjects of the “new light” which have thrown the people into a complete consternation. On Sunday week the deposed bishop is advertised to give a trial discourse before the church, on the “new doctrines” before he can be again elevated to the bishopric; which he says he will do in earnest.

At the meeting of their office bearers, held on September 3, the following questions were proposed to him to answer impromptu, upon which the questions and answers were recorded in the church book.

1. Would you have fellowship with a paidobaptist church?

Answer. “No.”

2. Have you not virtually cut us off by rejecting our baptism without precedent in the New Testament, or being authorised by the Apostles?

Answer. “No.”

3. If yours be the only scriptural baptism, why fellowship us who are unscripturally baptised according to your notions of it?

Answer. “I never stated anything connected with your baptism. I say ‘without faith it is impossible to please God.’ If you had faith according to your own showing you were baptised. If you had not faith you deceived me, and ‘to your own master you stand or fall.’”

4. Why are there two baptisms practised in the church?

Answer. “I am not aware of two.”

5. Have you not been twice baptised?

Answer. “No.”

6. Have you not stated that we were introduced into the kingdom?

Answer. “I have not taught the brethren any other thing even yet.”

7. Say six month ago. Did you consider yourself baptised?

Answer. “I now consider myself as having been deceived.”

8. What is faith?

Answer. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

After all this questioning they declared themselves as ignorant of his views as ever, and said, “we do not really know what to think of him, or what to do with him.” Upon which he was deposed until they should think over the matter. They concluded that his deposition should be permanent after his discourse, because the things believed “are subversive of the foundation of the Reformation.” It was alleged that the doctrine I had taught “had seriously damaged the cause in Dundee, and cast a stumbling block before the weaker brethren and the world.” Yet I had said no more than what every one may read for himself in the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles. A correspondent writing from Dundee says, “If I were to examine into this allegation, and inquire who seemed most to stumble, or be afraid of this stumbling block, I should find that they are not those who think themselves the weaker brethren. And were I to give judgment in the case, it would not be unlike that of the sailor who, on being reminded that his wife was the weaker vessel, smartly replied, ‘Then she should carry less sail.’ The weak should not be stubborn. And yet when we inquire if you taught anything they did not know before? ‘O no,’ says one, ‘we knew it all our days;’ ‘we knew it these twenty years,’ says another; ‘I got nothing from Dr. Thomas,’ says a third; and so on to the end. These are the sayings of those who are offended at, and afraid of the doctrine you teach.”

The same writer continues, “On the evening of the Sundays that have intervened between your visit and the present time, the topic of conversation at our meetings at the Hall, has been ‘the kingdom.’ Old fancies stand firm in the minds of some, but others are abandoning the fabrication of men, although they are not as yet appreciating the truth in full. Some light broke in upon them last Sunday, and a storm of wrath has been raised about my head. I spoke too strongly. They see the gospel is held by me to be somewhat different from their gospel; and they who advocated and defended a fanciful kingdom, seem to have abandoned, or at least temporarily left that position, and come forward with their full strength to the menaced point. None will venture to establish an inquisition on my account; but I should not wonder if an ‘act of conformity’ were not sought to be passed for speakers, or something else of like potency to prevent ‘the same words being again spoken to them.’ I wish they may not; but I cannot help consequences. Honeyed words will not do with some.”

In December following, it was proposed to prohibit members from speaking the “new doctrines, under pain of being compelled to withdraw from their fellowship.” It was, however, moved and seconded, that the question be not entertained. Twenty-two said do not entertain the motion, and twelve said “do.” My “affectionate” cicerone, who by inviting me introduced the “new doctrines,” voted their suppression, and so lost his vote. But our friend did not rest here. After about six months agitation the majority changed sides. One of the most active speakers was voted out. This proved their numerical superiority, and emboldened our redoubtable friend to a renewed effort for the exclusion of heretics. It was no longer loss of Campbellite fellowship if they spoke out their convictions; but the absolute expulsion of “all who had been baptised in such doctrines.” This was Mr. James Ainslie’s proposition. The effort was opposed by the persons aimed at, but unsuccessfully. A resolution was carried by the majority that “we separate and appoint arbiters to arrange the secular matters.” Arbiters were accordingly appointed, and on the first Thursday evening this convener reported, that by a majority they had decided, that those who disapproved, or had voted against a separation, should in the meantime have the use of the Hall. This was objected to, and a counter resolution was proposed. A couple of hours was consumed in stormy debate, at the expiration of which the meeting broke up without any formal decision being arrived at. But after thunder comes the hail. The Campbellites finding they could not resolve things to suit them, determined to “descend into the streets,” as the phrase is, and throw up barricades against the advocates of the kingdom. This was the fashion of that epoch in the old world. Republican barricades were everywhere thrown up by the rebellious against monarchy, and the Dundee Campbellites formed no exception to the rule. They would have none of the kingdom, nor would they tolerate any of its adherents. If they could not vote them out of their territories, they were determined to expel them by force from their citadel. Sometime in March, 1850, about seven months after my visit, the crisis came. The believers in the kingdom’s gospel suspecting nothing, went as usual to Hammerman’s Hall; but to their great surprise they found it locked against them, although one of their number, the deposed bishop I think, was responsible to the owner for the rent. On examining the outworks they discovered an undefended window, out of which the last of the evacuant garrison had retreated. Through this opening one of the excluded passed into the Hall, where he found the doors barricaded with forms and tables, and the windows made secure. The locking and barring out was twice repeated. On this first occasion, the barricades were overturned, and the battle-field with forms and tables, the trophies of the fight, remained for one day in the hands of the anti-hammer-men; and those who thought to pound their fellows in a fool’s mortar, exposed themselves to the contempt that ever attends the rage of imbecility.

This defeat of the enemies of the gospel of the kingdom could not supersede a regular and formal settlement of affairs. The anti-tyrannists, though one in opposition to our “affectionate” friend of Nelson Street and Arthur Lee, his valiant Sancho’s barricade theology, were not united on the truth, nor on their views of how their victory should be improved. Many a brave and noble cause has been lost for want of wisdom and singleness of heart. One of their number informed me, that some of them wished to form from the victors, what he terms “a motley association something like David’s army at Adullam”—1 Samuel 22: 2. That is to organise a new congregation out of the old materials on the basis of simple opposition to Campbellistic proscriptiveness. This would have created a church of some forty members, of which about half a dozen only would have been “obedient to the faith;” the others being but friends to the proscribed from distaste of proscription, and not from fellowship with them in the faith of the kingdom’s gospel. But such an association as this, having a name to live, but really unbegotten of the word of life, was demurred to by brother George Schleselman, late secretary to the Glasgow Campbellite Convention, and others. They thought that now, if at any time, was the crisis for the formation of a society at Dundee, all of whose members should have been baptised upon a confession of faith in “the things of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ”—Acts 8: 12. They considered that “without faith it is impossible to please God;” and that that faith which is alone pleasing to him is “the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things unseen”—Hebrews 11: 1, “which are eternal”—2 Corinthians 4: 18. They applied this principle to churches as well as to individuals, considering that God could be no better pleased with a misbelieving church, than with a misbelieving person. They would not give in, therefore, to the work of founding and building up a new Babel of iron and clay, destined to fall to pieces when the excitement which gave it birth should have passed away. They wanted to guard against the repetition of the late displays of ignorance, arbitrariness, and unbelief, and the only way to fulfil this indication was to begin in the truth and in the love of it, and all other good things would follow of necessity. “It was contended,” in the words of one of them writing to me, “that human traditions and practices should receive no quarters; that human praise and popular plans should be treated as dangerous; and that instead of conformity to the world, we should strive to conform to the doctrine of Christ, and the simplicity of conduct that almost (if not altogether) of necessity follows. You know we disapprove of all clericals of whatever name or degree, and discountenance the assumptions of all hierarchs from Christ’s pretended Vicar on earth, to Baptist pastors; and their mimic ‘presidents.’ We know the public has no true faith, therefore, we do not countenance it in its idea of offering acceptable worship to Israel’s God; but repudiate the confection Christianity of our day, moulded and sweetened as it is to please the depraved taste of a world lying under sin.” No objection could be urged against this but expediency. Its scripturality was admitted, but some did not think it expedient to be too rigid, or rather so rigid; and therefore withheld their cooperation, preferring to invite the others to join them in establishing a more popular and liberal institution. But they declined, and each pursued the course best suited to their own view of things.

On my second and last visit to Dundee, in 1850, I was sorry to find a want of union, confidence, and cooperation among all who had yielded obedience to the gospel of the kingdom. Roots of bitterness existed, connected with total abstinence and what was supposed to be a tendency to episcopal ambition, or leadership. Alas, when will they who would be greatest learn to become the servants of the least of Christ’s flock? I judge not in the case before us, because I am not sufficiently informed of its real demerits; but I do most sincerely tender to all the friends of the kingdom’s gospel the advice which I aim to practise myself, and that is, have patience till the kingdom comes, and seek no lordship until then. If we are found worthy of that kingdom, we shall share with Christ in his absolute and divine lordship over Israel and the nations. Surely this will be honour and distinction enough for the most ambitious. Till then, let us despise the microscopism of a little powerless and brief authority in the household of faith. A man of knowledge and wisdom, will have more authority and power thrust upon him by his fellows, than he will care to exercise, if his mind be rightly chastened by the truth. Let each esteem other better than himself, and all will be well. Men are sometimes made usurpers by the suspicious insinuations of others, and their intrigues to prevent usurpation. Let us beware of this; and let all things be done with love as unto God and not to men, and then harmony will be undisturbed.

Temperance is a virtue against which there is no law. Jesus Christ, our sovereign lord and king, was temperate in all things, and so are all the members of his royal household. He and they are temperate as a fruit of the Spirit—a virtue resulting from the truth believed. He was not a total abstinent. This is a fact. Neither were Paul nor Timothy; nor can Christ’s members be who drink of the new covenant cup. Total abstinence was never made a test of christian fellowship by the apostles, though temperance was; for it is written, “no drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of God.” Drunkenness is disorderly conduct; and from every brother that walks disorderly, we are commanded to withdraw ourselves. The saints have no right to impose tests of fellowship upon one another which the spirit of God has not imposed. The world, whose standard of morals is not God’s standard, can impose what it pleases upon “its own;” but it has no right to dictate to Christ’s household, who are its master’s elect; nor should Christ’s brethren permit it. They should be careful, too, not to drink into its spirit, nor to cooperate with it in carrying out its crotchets. If every earth-born were a total abstinent, the world would be as far from the kingdom’s gospel as if every man, woman and child were drunken with the fumes of alcohol. The soberest of the world’s people have been made drunk with the wine of the great harlot’s adultery—Revelation 17: 2. This intoxication continues, and will obfuscate their intellects until the Lord comes to sober them—Isaiah 25: 7. Offer the kingdom’s gospel to the most pious of the world’s total abstinents, and they will reject it with contempt, and perhaps with rage; or if they profess to believe it, how few of them are sober-minded enough to obey it. Let not the saints misspend their efforts, and waste their energies. If they be zealous for total abstinence, let it be for a total abstinence from all sins. The gospel needs, and commands their whole soul. Let the world attend to the liquor, to tobacco, and to the emancipation of “its own” from political and social duress imposed upon them by sin, whom they serve; be it ours, the “heirs of the kingdom,” and the future enlighteners and regenerators of mankind, cooperators with Christ in the deliverance of the world, to mind our own business, which is to open the blind eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of the adversary to God, that they may receive remission of sins, and inheritance among them that are sanctified by the faith which is in Jesus—Acts 26: 18. It is well for the world’s sinners to bind themselves by oath to one another totally to abstain from all intoxicating drinks; for this is the highest obligation they can attain to. Total abstinence will improve their social condition, and mitigate the ills inseparable from it. It is doubtless attended by many temporal advantages, and highly to be commended in the man whose purpose is infirm. This being freely admitted, I still contend that none have any right to turn Christ’s church into a total abstinence society, and to brand with reproach the man in Christ, who, like his Lord chooses to exercise his liberty in the temperate or moderate use of wine. “The Son of man came eating and drinking; and they said, Behold a gluttonous man, and a wine-bibber, and friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of all her children.” John the Baptiser totally abstained, and they said, “He hath a devil.” To abstain for the purpose of “doing good” is fallacious. John’s total abstinence did not save him from “decrease;” and our Lord’s “increase” was not obstructed by the formation and use of wine. Believe and obey the kingdom’s gospel, shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life; advocate it with whole-souled energy, and leave the world to its crotchets, and the saints will do all the good that is possible in this crooked and conceited generation, and all that God demands.

Our Dundee friends of the one part were zealous for “teetotalism,” as well as for the gospel, and in so far, embarrassed its relations. The others were for keeping these two things distinct, which was not interpreted by that charity which “thinketh no evil.” I pretend not to judge between them. “We considered,” said one, “that our righteousness should not be less, at all events, than that of the scribes and Pharisees of the day; and accordingly, for preventing danger, preventing or stilling the whispers of slander and their influence, it was deemed proper to express our sentiments, especially on the present damnable drinking customs, and the practice of countenancing drinkeries. Other points are not overlooked, but as the apostle directed letters to the churches, warning them of the dangers that surrounded them, so it was deemed that this gigantic evil should be particularly avoided, and testified against, and that on no account should we drink of the Abana and Pharpar of Hell. We saw that night-shade was poisonous; so, instead of cultivating and pruning it, we resolved to hew it down and cast it into the bottomless pit, so far as we were concerned. Popular precedent might be found for a mixed race of tipplers and ‘avoiders of evil,’ but in view of public opinion, and of God, and regarding, too, the necessity of purity in the primary advocates of any doctrine, we concluded without hesitation, that on this, as well as on every other evil, our position and practice should be such as we could always honestly pray, ‘Lead us not into temptation.’ If any person advocated the hope of God’s promises as incomparable incentives to morality, it would be very damaging that any one should be able to say at the conclusion, ‘Oh, he takes a dram!’”

Upon the compound principle, then, of teetotalism and the gospel, a few associated themselves to the exclusion of others, who had obeyed, but refused to pledge themselves to total abstinence. If the sobriety of any of them were doubted, they should have been received upon gospel principles, and dealt with accordingly, when they were proved to have infringed culpably the example and precepts of Christ and his apostles. This would have vindicated their zeal for christian morality far more conspicuously than by barring the door of their association with total abstinence. It is strange that believers cannot be content with what satisfied Christ and his apostles. They were as much troubled with “tipplers,” and probably more so in the wine-growing country of Palestine, than we can possibly be in these climes; yet they were contented to “purify men’s hearts by faith,” and forbore to “tempt God to put a yoke on the neck of the disciples.” But we are more sensitive to “public opinion;” that is, the opinion of a vain, foolish, and evil world, than they; therefore, we must fence ourselves in with barriers to fellowship, such as pious, but misbelieving sinners approve!

When I visited Dundee in 1850, I found a church of about fourteen members, with whom I assembled early in the afternoon. Every thing was conducted decently and in order, and harmony seemed to prevail among them. On inquiring after my “affectionate” friend and his companions in the sky-kingdom fancy, I was told that the scattered fragments of the old body had been regathered under his sceptre, and continued to meet, a cold and lifeless skeleton, on the arena of their defeat, which had been handed over to them in default of union among the proscribed, and upon their agreeing to pay the rent.

Events in Dundee disturbed the peace of “the covenanters” in the “kingdom of Fife,” whose head quarters are in Auchtermuchty. A member of the Campbellite church in Cupar, wrote to a friend, saying, “the doctor’s sentiments on the kingdom have been very freely discussed here by Dowie and others. Dowie occupied an afternoon on the subject a few weeks ago; and as he was at Auchtermuchty that same week, he came home full of the views of Campbell and Dron, and expounded them to his audience in all their aerial splendour. It was a thing of air, something which they can never comprehend, far less expound. He received great commendation from the magnates of the place, and conquered for himself the reputation of the great champion of the Master Builder of Castles in the Air. Thus, he took the liberty of going in direct opposition to the word by saying, that ‘it would be derogatory to the interests of God, for us to suppose or desire that Christ should appear again, and sit on a throne among the nations of this earth.’ I leave you to draw your own conclusions. He spoke of the kingdom of Heaven being with us as much as it ever would be, and of its having been set up on the Day of Pentecost, and told us that Christ would not come until the final winding up of all earthly things; when He will come to judge his people in righteousness. This he said was the faith of the Christian, with a great deal more of like speculation, which tickled the ear, but added nothing to the understanding or the heart.”

Such is as correct a narrative of the introduction of the kingdom’s gospel into Dundee as I am able to give from the testimony of all concerned. A goodly number of Elpis Israels, and pamphlets on the “Wisdom of the Clergy proved to be Folly,” has been put into circulation among the people, which, I doubt not, will some day or other open the eyes of many blind. On reading the book, the opinions expressed of Elpis and its author’s motives and sentiments, were both exceedingly diverse and amusing. Some “admired it.” Others “never saw nor read anything like it before.” Some desired to know “when he is coming back? Is he to set up a kirk?” For said they, “we could sit under him with much pleasure.” Dissentients objected that “the author was a Baptist.” Others that he was “something similar in sentiment to a Mormon.” “The principal thing,” said one, “I don’t like him for is, that he makes every body out wrong, but himself.” “He seems to be clever,” said others, “but then the wisest of man may err.” Speaking of the sky-kingdomers a friend says, “they are more bitter, more devilish, in their opposition to Elpis Israel. Everything that is good is attributed to evil; and what is true is insinuated as being only there for the purpose of deceiving, and getting people to believe what is false.”

My intercourse with Dundee was brought to a close by a soiree at which I had the pleasure of meeting many persons who professed to be interested in the things of the kingdom of God. After tea and coffee were removed, questions and explanations became the order of the evening until a late hour. It was then I bid farewell to Dundee, and not long after to Britain itself. What has been the condition of affairs since that time I have received no information. No news is said to be good news. Therefore, in hope that increase in faith; and improvement in practice, have been characteristic of the times, we draw the curtain upon Dundee, and turn to scenes beyond the British Tiber and camp of Mars.

PAUL’S WISH.

In Romans 9: 3, Paul says, “I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites.” This is one of the most difficult passages in the New Testament, as it now stands in the English version. In the preceding chapter he had asked, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay,” says he, “I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Should all these things fail to make him accursed, and should the anxiety he felt for the salvation of his persecuting countrymen even hypothetically prevail? This cannot be. His wish to be accursed, or separated from the love of God to be manifested in full through Christ Jesus, must have some other import than this.

Mr. Frey, an Israelite who admits the claims of Jesus to Messiahship, has proposed the following solution of the difficulty: Read the second and third verses, omitting the words, “I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ;” then, afterwards replace them where they belong, and read them as in a parenthesis, with “I did wish” instead of “I could wish.” Thus, “I have a great heaviness, and continued sorrow in my heart * * * for my brethren, my kinsmen according to flesh, who are Israelites:” then, “I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart (for I did myself wish to be accursed from Christ) for my brethren, my kinsmen according to flesh, who are Israelites.” This exhibits the mind of the apostle very clearly. He had great heaviness and sorrow for Israel, because they were while he was dictating his letter, as he was before his conversion. He had doubtless wished himself accursed from Jesus; and was probably an individual of the crowd which cried out “His blood be on us, and on our children!” After Paul was enlightened, and came to measure his position at that crisis of Christ’s affliction, he beheld it in all its hideousness, so as to create in him a poignant sympathy for his kinsmen, who still remained under that self imprecated curse.

Euchomeen, the original word, translated “could wish” in the common version, is the imperfect middle, and is rendered by “I was wishing,” “I wished,” or “I did wish.” This accords with what we have said above. He imprecated a curse upon himself—a past action—while he was in an unconverted state—another thing in the past: but when enlightened, neither all Israelites, “nor any other created thing,” could induce him to wish himself accursed again. This part of Paul’s experience well fitted him for sympathy with his unbelieving countrymen. Mr. Frey has well said, “He who has just been rescued from a dangerous fit of sickness, feels more for a sick person, than he who never knew what sickness means. Hence, even the Son of God himself needed to be tempted and tried, that he might be able to succour them that are tempted.”

EDITOR.

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PREVALENCE OF TRUTH.

“The little horn of the goat cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised and prospered.”—“And the little horn of the fourth beast, having eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things against the Most High, made war with the Saints, and prevailed against them, until the Ancient of Days came.”—DANIEL.

Yea, verily, “truth is mighty, and will prevail;” but its prevalence awaits the Ancient of Days. Its advocacy is committed to the saints, who are styled “the wise.” The fortunes of the truth, and of those who witness for it, are identical and inseparable. The truth cannot prevail until the saints get the victory over “the powers that be,” by whom falsehood is tricked out in scarlet and fine linen, invested with honour and “respectability,” and sustained in the world for the idolatry of the people. That power among the nations which episcopises them, and speaks very great things, whose look is more audacious than its associate powers, makes war with the saints, and prevails against them until the Ancient of Days comes, when judgment is given to them, and they possess the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, forever—Daniel 7: 20-22, 27. The truth will then be no longer scoffed at, trampled under foot, and despised. Mean men with great names and high sounding titles, will then be stripped of their finery, and be seen shivering in the chilling blast of divine indignation. Spoiled of all their bravery, they shall walk naked, and men shall see their shame—Revelation 16: 15. But before this triumph can be proclaimed, the Lord, who is the strength of his people, must appear. “Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord, Jesus Christ.” The truth is mighty through his cooperation, as evinced in apostolic times; but in his absence, Satan is too strong both for the saints and the truth committed to their defence. The time has come that men have no ear for the truth—that is, for the gospel of the kingdom. It is “new doctrine” to them, and needs to be reattested as the truth of God. A few will receive it, and but a few, compared with the multitudes that are ever ready to embrace the shallow and flimsy traditions of men. This has ever been the case; but it is pre-eminently so now, as Paul declared it would be when “the fulness of the Gentiles” should have come in. That “fulness,” if it have not reached the brim, needs, it is probable, but few more drops to fill up the appointed measure. The time of “the fulness” is indicated by the disregard of the gentiles to the goodness of God, which alone leads men to repentance unto life. That goodness is exhibited in the Gospel of the Kingdom, which John the baptiser, Jesus, and the apostles both before and after Pentecost, preached as the motive principle of repentance towards God. But this goodness in his gospel is neither understood nor believed by the Gentiles. They have not therefore “continued in his goodness;” but continue in traditions which have made the testimony concerning it of none effect upon their minds. And should Judah be broken off for this offence, and the Gentiles continue unpunished? If God spared not Judah for her unbelief, will he spare the nations? No, saith Paul, he will cut them off from access to the kingdom, and graft Israel in again—Romans 11. The impotency of the Gospel of the Kingdom upon the public mind and the hearts of individuals, is a great sign of the times;