PARTVIIThe Ideal of the KingdomPARTVIIThe Ideal of the KingdomBythese long steps has the holy apostle brought us, through this wonderful record of perils, conflicts, defeats, victories, judgments, and blessings, to the conclusion toward which he has from the commencement been tending; and in the two chapters which close the book he depicts the ideal and perfect kingdom of Christ as it appeared in his conception of it. As Ezekiel in his lonely captivity by the Chebar was comforted with anticipations of a new Canaan and a new temple, wherein Israel, purified by its sufferings and cleansed from idolatry, should enjoy renewed and uninterrupted communion with Jehovah, so was the exiled apostle of Patmos gladdened with a prophetic foresight of new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness shall dwell, not as a wayfarer or one that tarrieth for a night, but as a permanent and eternal inhabitant. For the instruction of all the generations to follow John presents his inspired conception of what the kingdom of Christ in its purest and final formis, whether it be conceived as existing in the heart of an individual believer, or as synonymous with the Church, the body of believers.We are certainly not compelled, and it may seriously be questioned whether we are allowed, to interpret the concluding chapters of the Apocalypse as a vision of the future heaven which awaits the just, of the glorified and celestial state of believers who have passed through the trials of earth and have entered into their final reward. The probabilities are very strong that it is rather the vision of a redeemed and purified earth, the victory which shall result here from the complete ascendancy of Christ, which is presented to our faith and hope. This interpretation of the vision would give consistency and unity to the book. It would account for the discrimination which is certainly made between the “city” and the nations which “walk in the light thereof,” and also for the statement that the leaves of the tree of life are “for the healing of the nations;” and it is confirmed by the fact that in his first epistle, which was probably written subsequently to the Apocalypse, John declared that it had not been revealedor made manifest to him at that time what we shall be when Christ shall be manifested to us in his heavenly glory (1 Johniii, 2)—a statement hardly to be reconciled with truth if the vision of the Apocalypse is to be taken as a revelation of the heavenly state.The careful student will not fail to observe that upon all questions relating to the life beyond the grave the Bible preserves a marked reticence; nor is there any more impressive evidence of its divinity than this. To gratify a curiosity which might easily become morbid is no part of its object and might defeat its more practical purpose. While, therefore, it shows us the rent veil and opens the curtain sufficiently to reveal to us a world lying beyond, it does not allow us to penetrate further or uncover to us the mysteries hidden therein. It is enough for us to know that a way leads from the holy place to the holy of holies, and that Christ is that way, the life of the world beyond as he is of this, and the truth and reality of both alike. It is not certain that a revelation to us of the glories of the celestial state would realize to us the satisfaction we anticipated. Even were a revelationmade to us in terms which we were able to grasp and comprehend, that which would be blissful to our glorified and transformed faculties might not seem so to our earthly ones, and the revelation might become rather a stumbling-block than a stimulus. We know that the prophecies concerning the Messiah in the Old Testament were not only obscure, but even seemed to involve contradictions, which, however, his advent in the flesh explained and reconciled. This may be the case also in regard to the future state of the blessed. And God is no less merciful, doubtless, in what he withholds than in what he imparts.It is the ideal kingdom of Christ here in its perfect and completed form, and not the glorified realm above, which John so exquisitely describes. The imagery he uses to adumbrate it may be glowing, but it is not beyond what may be gathered, though in less poetic dress, from other parts of the Scriptures. Even should it be conceded that the picture is simply an ideal one, a dream of beauty not meant to be realized, in fact, something the attainment of which lies beyond the possibilities of this mortal life, still the presentation to us of the perfectstate can not be without its uses of help and comfort.But it was not the cast of John’s mind to be pleased with imagined fancies. It has been well said (inGuesses at Truth) that “in character, in affection, the ideal is the only real.” It is not without reason that John has so elaborately described the agencies with which Christ has so amply endowed his Church and his disciples, and which are sufficient, if rightly used, to reduce to actual experience all that is portrayed as ideal.In one of those graphic sketches which connect the Apocalypse so closely with the gospels John convinces us that it is fact, and not fancy, which has been engaging his pen. At the beginning of his ministry upon earth Christ, we are told, was taken to “an exceeding high mountain,” whence “all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them,” were shown him; and Satan said to him, “All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.” From this temptation the Master recoiled with indignant rebuke. Instead thereof, he chose deliberately the path of suffering and privation, the path that led to the garden and the cross, to Gethsemaneand Calvary. With full appreciation of all it involved, he took the cup put into his hands by the Father. In the closing scenes of the Apocalypse the battle is supposed to have been fought, the conflict has ceased, and now John himself stands, as Christ had stood, upon “a great and high mountain;” and, behold, there was shown him “that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.” The cross has conquered, and the kingdoms of the earth have become the possession of our Lord and of his Christ. And he who himself overcame the world has given assurance to all his followers, however humble, that they, too, may be victors.Theories of the Church and kingdom of Christ, definitions of their nature and mission, abound. Many have taken on them to specify the notes or characteristic marks by which the true Church may be identified. It cannot, therefore, fail of interest or profit to learn what the holySt.John, the inspired apostle who leaned on the bosom of Jesus, has to say of the tests by which we may try the spirits to see whether they are of God. Under the veil of figure and metaphor, we have the profound andlong-studied conviction of one who was competent to decide, and to whom the wisest of mankind may look up with reverence for instruction. Nor need anyone have difficulty in determining for himself whether the kingdom of Christ finds its realization in his own soul, or long hesitate in identifying the true Church of Christ, which is simply the kingdom of Christ ruling in society.1.The Distinctive Features of the Kingdom.—The first mark of the kingdom upon which John lays stress is that it is supernatural in its origin. The holy city that he saw descended “out of heaven from God.” It came “down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” It is not the resultant of any process of development or growth from a prior state. Whatever preparation may precede and make ready a basis for its reception, the kingdom itself is inaugurated by the direct and personal agency of the Holy Spirit. Whatever instrumentalities the Holy Ghost may use as his media, his is the undivided quickening power. In this declaration the writer of the Apocalypse and the author of the fourth gospel are in agreement. It ishe who records the words of the Lord Jesus, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (Johniii, 5).Another feature of this kingdom is that its mission lies specifically in the realm of divine things. It has “the glory of God.” The name of the city is, “The Lord is there” (Ezekielxlviii, 35). Its God is its glory. It is God’s witness in nature and to men of a power above and beyond nature and man. There are natural means and agencies endowed by the Creator to carry forward earthly work; but he has planted the kingdom in the midst of mankind, and its one great business is to testify of him. For the doing of this work the Church is accountable. In whatever other tasks the Church may engage or whatever methods it may employ in fulfilling its mission, its one supreme office and distinct characteristic is to bear witness to a divine presence and a divine power in the world. “In his temple doth everyone speak of his glory.” All art, ritual, discipline, philanthropy, and economies that do not directly lead to God, and have not for their purpose to emphasize the need, the presence,and the inward experience of the supernatural, are aside from the purpose of the kingdom and below its ideal.A third mark of the kingdom is that it has to do primarily with the religious faculties. As the distinction between nature and the supernatural is permanent and ineffaceable, so the Church and the world can never be made to coincide, however widely the Church may be extended or however thoroughly the world may be permeated by the spirit of the Church. “The nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light” of the new Jerusalem, “the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it;” but the distinction between it and them exists and abides. It will be as true in the last days as when our Lord first spoke the words, “My kingdom is not of this world.” However omnipotent and omnipresent God may be in nature and the universe, he can never be made identical with them; and, however thoroughly they may be penetrated by his Spirit and come to perfect accord with him, they can never be so lifted up as to rival or supersede his supremacy. And, although common life and work may be sanctified by being donein the spirit of Christ, and religious life may flow out from the central source through all the ordinary and natural channels of our being, the religious and the secular can never be made one. “Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem;” but the discharge of earthly duties and the reformation of earthly conditions can never exhaust the obligations of man. There will still remain those relations to the supernatural of whose existence and sovereignty it is the preëminent mission of the Church to testify. The kingdom of God is “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.”2.The Central Principle of the Kingdom.—The central figure in this kingdom is Christ crucified. It is the Lamb around whom all the imagery of the apostle’s description gathers. The light—luminary, rather—of the kingdom was “like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.” That this refers to Christ seems probable from Revelationiv, 3, where it is said that he that sat upon the throne “was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone,” and is further confirmed by Revelationxxi, 23, where the Lamb is said tobe “the light” of the city. Moreover, it is said, “The first foundation was jasper,” which is but confirmatory of what Peter had said in the presence of John to the “rulers, and elders, and scribes:” “This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other.” (Actsiv, 11, 12.)Still further, “The building of the wall of it was of jasper.” Christ crucified is the defense and the bulwark of the kingdom. The atonement of Christ is the most powerful argument the Church can use and constitutes its strongest claim upon the reason and heart of men. It is “the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” It is Christ crucified that makes the separation between the kingdom and the circumjacent world. It is not in its ethics that the distinguishing peculiarity of Christianity lies, but in the preaching of the cross. In the opinion of John any other definition of Christianity throws down Christianity’s only wall of safety and separation.Yet there is no exclusiveness about the kingdom. The city has three gates on each of its four sides, facing the four quartersof the globe, that all men may find ready access. “Every several gate is of one pearl”—that pearl of great price which Christ said a man should be willing to sell all that he has to buy, becoming eternally rich by the exchange.Nor is there any narrowness. Its length and breadth and height exceed even those large measurements which Ezekiel thought to be ample enough for the ideal temple he saw. “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise”—all these things belong legitimately to the kingdom. The kings of the earth may “bring their glory and honor into it;” only that which “defileth” or “worketh abomination” or “maketh a lie” is excluded. When once a man in the center of his being is rightly adjusted to the Lamb of God, the center of all being, he may unfold all his powers and give exercise to every faculty of his renewed nature safely, wisely, completely, without fear of infringement upon any other being or of going astray from his Creator.3.Negative Characteristics.—Not less remarkable is the negative side of the kingdom, the absence from it of many things with which we are familiar. When an ideal has been attained much that was necessary in the process of attainment falls away as obsolete; the scaffolding which is used in the erection of a building is removed when the building is completed.There is a noticeable avoidance in the closing chapters of the Apocalypse of any reference to the sacraments, to ritual, or to such like means of grace. John saw “no temple therein; for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.” “When that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.” When the consummation of the kingdom has been reached the relation of the soul to its Creator shall not be through intermediate agencies, but direct and intuitive.There is no mention made of any special priestly class, for the promise shall have its complete fulfillment to all, “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood;” and all life shall be a priestly work and service.Nor is there any allusion to the propheticoffice as a separate function. “They need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light.” “The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you” (1 Johnii, 27). The prediction of Jeremiah (Jeremiahxxxi, 34) has reached its time of fulfillment: “They shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord.”Yet upon this point, more almost than upon any other, it is of the utmost importance that we shall “distinguish the times.” We must not assume, because these aids and appliances are not needful in the perfected state of the kingdom, that they are not essential in the formative period, and thus, at great risk and with imminent peril, neglect or depreciate those means of grace which the Creator has deemed necessary for our present condition.4.The Fruits and Results of the Kingdom.—They in whom the kingdom rules shall have access to the tree of life, that heavenly wisdom of which Solomon says, “She is atree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is everyone that retaineth her” (Proverbsiii, 18). “This is life eternal,” One greater than Solomon says, “that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (Johnxvii, 3). Their lives shall abound in fruitfulness. Their ministry shall be, like the Lord’s, “for the healing of the nations,” a remedy for all the spiritual and earthly maladies of mankind.The curse of sin shall be destroyed, “and there shall be no more curse.” “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us” (Galatiansiii, 13). “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 Johni, 7). And walking “in the light, as he is in the light,” and being “pure in heart,” his followers shall “see God.” “They shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.”Thus with this sublime vision closes this marvelous book. There is no truth revealed elsewhere in the sacred Scriptures that may not be found in its pages. So complete is it, indeed, that “if any manshall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.” Nor is there any truth revealed in this book which may not be found elsewhere in the Scriptures, so perfectly does it harmonize with all divinely inspired truth. Therefore, “if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”The Apocalypse ofSt.John fitly closes the sacred canon; for, drawing so much, as it does, from all the rest of God’s wonderful book, it holds the truths derived therefrom in a coherent union never to be dissolved or broken.
PARTVII
The Ideal of the Kingdom
Bythese long steps has the holy apostle brought us, through this wonderful record of perils, conflicts, defeats, victories, judgments, and blessings, to the conclusion toward which he has from the commencement been tending; and in the two chapters which close the book he depicts the ideal and perfect kingdom of Christ as it appeared in his conception of it. As Ezekiel in his lonely captivity by the Chebar was comforted with anticipations of a new Canaan and a new temple, wherein Israel, purified by its sufferings and cleansed from idolatry, should enjoy renewed and uninterrupted communion with Jehovah, so was the exiled apostle of Patmos gladdened with a prophetic foresight of new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness shall dwell, not as a wayfarer or one that tarrieth for a night, but as a permanent and eternal inhabitant. For the instruction of all the generations to follow John presents his inspired conception of what the kingdom of Christ in its purest and final formis, whether it be conceived as existing in the heart of an individual believer, or as synonymous with the Church, the body of believers.
We are certainly not compelled, and it may seriously be questioned whether we are allowed, to interpret the concluding chapters of the Apocalypse as a vision of the future heaven which awaits the just, of the glorified and celestial state of believers who have passed through the trials of earth and have entered into their final reward. The probabilities are very strong that it is rather the vision of a redeemed and purified earth, the victory which shall result here from the complete ascendancy of Christ, which is presented to our faith and hope. This interpretation of the vision would give consistency and unity to the book. It would account for the discrimination which is certainly made between the “city” and the nations which “walk in the light thereof,” and also for the statement that the leaves of the tree of life are “for the healing of the nations;” and it is confirmed by the fact that in his first epistle, which was probably written subsequently to the Apocalypse, John declared that it had not been revealedor made manifest to him at that time what we shall be when Christ shall be manifested to us in his heavenly glory (1 Johniii, 2)—a statement hardly to be reconciled with truth if the vision of the Apocalypse is to be taken as a revelation of the heavenly state.
The careful student will not fail to observe that upon all questions relating to the life beyond the grave the Bible preserves a marked reticence; nor is there any more impressive evidence of its divinity than this. To gratify a curiosity which might easily become morbid is no part of its object and might defeat its more practical purpose. While, therefore, it shows us the rent veil and opens the curtain sufficiently to reveal to us a world lying beyond, it does not allow us to penetrate further or uncover to us the mysteries hidden therein. It is enough for us to know that a way leads from the holy place to the holy of holies, and that Christ is that way, the life of the world beyond as he is of this, and the truth and reality of both alike. It is not certain that a revelation to us of the glories of the celestial state would realize to us the satisfaction we anticipated. Even were a revelationmade to us in terms which we were able to grasp and comprehend, that which would be blissful to our glorified and transformed faculties might not seem so to our earthly ones, and the revelation might become rather a stumbling-block than a stimulus. We know that the prophecies concerning the Messiah in the Old Testament were not only obscure, but even seemed to involve contradictions, which, however, his advent in the flesh explained and reconciled. This may be the case also in regard to the future state of the blessed. And God is no less merciful, doubtless, in what he withholds than in what he imparts.
It is the ideal kingdom of Christ here in its perfect and completed form, and not the glorified realm above, which John so exquisitely describes. The imagery he uses to adumbrate it may be glowing, but it is not beyond what may be gathered, though in less poetic dress, from other parts of the Scriptures. Even should it be conceded that the picture is simply an ideal one, a dream of beauty not meant to be realized, in fact, something the attainment of which lies beyond the possibilities of this mortal life, still the presentation to us of the perfectstate can not be without its uses of help and comfort.
But it was not the cast of John’s mind to be pleased with imagined fancies. It has been well said (inGuesses at Truth) that “in character, in affection, the ideal is the only real.” It is not without reason that John has so elaborately described the agencies with which Christ has so amply endowed his Church and his disciples, and which are sufficient, if rightly used, to reduce to actual experience all that is portrayed as ideal.
In one of those graphic sketches which connect the Apocalypse so closely with the gospels John convinces us that it is fact, and not fancy, which has been engaging his pen. At the beginning of his ministry upon earth Christ, we are told, was taken to “an exceeding high mountain,” whence “all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them,” were shown him; and Satan said to him, “All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.” From this temptation the Master recoiled with indignant rebuke. Instead thereof, he chose deliberately the path of suffering and privation, the path that led to the garden and the cross, to Gethsemaneand Calvary. With full appreciation of all it involved, he took the cup put into his hands by the Father. In the closing scenes of the Apocalypse the battle is supposed to have been fought, the conflict has ceased, and now John himself stands, as Christ had stood, upon “a great and high mountain;” and, behold, there was shown him “that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.” The cross has conquered, and the kingdoms of the earth have become the possession of our Lord and of his Christ. And he who himself overcame the world has given assurance to all his followers, however humble, that they, too, may be victors.
Theories of the Church and kingdom of Christ, definitions of their nature and mission, abound. Many have taken on them to specify the notes or characteristic marks by which the true Church may be identified. It cannot, therefore, fail of interest or profit to learn what the holySt.John, the inspired apostle who leaned on the bosom of Jesus, has to say of the tests by which we may try the spirits to see whether they are of God. Under the veil of figure and metaphor, we have the profound andlong-studied conviction of one who was competent to decide, and to whom the wisest of mankind may look up with reverence for instruction. Nor need anyone have difficulty in determining for himself whether the kingdom of Christ finds its realization in his own soul, or long hesitate in identifying the true Church of Christ, which is simply the kingdom of Christ ruling in society.
1.The Distinctive Features of the Kingdom.—The first mark of the kingdom upon which John lays stress is that it is supernatural in its origin. The holy city that he saw descended “out of heaven from God.” It came “down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” It is not the resultant of any process of development or growth from a prior state. Whatever preparation may precede and make ready a basis for its reception, the kingdom itself is inaugurated by the direct and personal agency of the Holy Spirit. Whatever instrumentalities the Holy Ghost may use as his media, his is the undivided quickening power. In this declaration the writer of the Apocalypse and the author of the fourth gospel are in agreement. It ishe who records the words of the Lord Jesus, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (Johniii, 5).
Another feature of this kingdom is that its mission lies specifically in the realm of divine things. It has “the glory of God.” The name of the city is, “The Lord is there” (Ezekielxlviii, 35). Its God is its glory. It is God’s witness in nature and to men of a power above and beyond nature and man. There are natural means and agencies endowed by the Creator to carry forward earthly work; but he has planted the kingdom in the midst of mankind, and its one great business is to testify of him. For the doing of this work the Church is accountable. In whatever other tasks the Church may engage or whatever methods it may employ in fulfilling its mission, its one supreme office and distinct characteristic is to bear witness to a divine presence and a divine power in the world. “In his temple doth everyone speak of his glory.” All art, ritual, discipline, philanthropy, and economies that do not directly lead to God, and have not for their purpose to emphasize the need, the presence,and the inward experience of the supernatural, are aside from the purpose of the kingdom and below its ideal.
A third mark of the kingdom is that it has to do primarily with the religious faculties. As the distinction between nature and the supernatural is permanent and ineffaceable, so the Church and the world can never be made to coincide, however widely the Church may be extended or however thoroughly the world may be permeated by the spirit of the Church. “The nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light” of the new Jerusalem, “the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it;” but the distinction between it and them exists and abides. It will be as true in the last days as when our Lord first spoke the words, “My kingdom is not of this world.” However omnipotent and omnipresent God may be in nature and the universe, he can never be made identical with them; and, however thoroughly they may be penetrated by his Spirit and come to perfect accord with him, they can never be so lifted up as to rival or supersede his supremacy. And, although common life and work may be sanctified by being donein the spirit of Christ, and religious life may flow out from the central source through all the ordinary and natural channels of our being, the religious and the secular can never be made one. “Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem;” but the discharge of earthly duties and the reformation of earthly conditions can never exhaust the obligations of man. There will still remain those relations to the supernatural of whose existence and sovereignty it is the preëminent mission of the Church to testify. The kingdom of God is “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.”
2.The Central Principle of the Kingdom.—The central figure in this kingdom is Christ crucified. It is the Lamb around whom all the imagery of the apostle’s description gathers. The light—luminary, rather—of the kingdom was “like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.” That this refers to Christ seems probable from Revelationiv, 3, where it is said that he that sat upon the throne “was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone,” and is further confirmed by Revelationxxi, 23, where the Lamb is said tobe “the light” of the city. Moreover, it is said, “The first foundation was jasper,” which is but confirmatory of what Peter had said in the presence of John to the “rulers, and elders, and scribes:” “This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other.” (Actsiv, 11, 12.)
Still further, “The building of the wall of it was of jasper.” Christ crucified is the defense and the bulwark of the kingdom. The atonement of Christ is the most powerful argument the Church can use and constitutes its strongest claim upon the reason and heart of men. It is “the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” It is Christ crucified that makes the separation between the kingdom and the circumjacent world. It is not in its ethics that the distinguishing peculiarity of Christianity lies, but in the preaching of the cross. In the opinion of John any other definition of Christianity throws down Christianity’s only wall of safety and separation.
Yet there is no exclusiveness about the kingdom. The city has three gates on each of its four sides, facing the four quartersof the globe, that all men may find ready access. “Every several gate is of one pearl”—that pearl of great price which Christ said a man should be willing to sell all that he has to buy, becoming eternally rich by the exchange.
Nor is there any narrowness. Its length and breadth and height exceed even those large measurements which Ezekiel thought to be ample enough for the ideal temple he saw. “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise”—all these things belong legitimately to the kingdom. The kings of the earth may “bring their glory and honor into it;” only that which “defileth” or “worketh abomination” or “maketh a lie” is excluded. When once a man in the center of his being is rightly adjusted to the Lamb of God, the center of all being, he may unfold all his powers and give exercise to every faculty of his renewed nature safely, wisely, completely, without fear of infringement upon any other being or of going astray from his Creator.
3.Negative Characteristics.—Not less remarkable is the negative side of the kingdom, the absence from it of many things with which we are familiar. When an ideal has been attained much that was necessary in the process of attainment falls away as obsolete; the scaffolding which is used in the erection of a building is removed when the building is completed.
There is a noticeable avoidance in the closing chapters of the Apocalypse of any reference to the sacraments, to ritual, or to such like means of grace. John saw “no temple therein; for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.” “When that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.” When the consummation of the kingdom has been reached the relation of the soul to its Creator shall not be through intermediate agencies, but direct and intuitive.
There is no mention made of any special priestly class, for the promise shall have its complete fulfillment to all, “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood;” and all life shall be a priestly work and service.
Nor is there any allusion to the propheticoffice as a separate function. “They need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light.” “The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you” (1 Johnii, 27). The prediction of Jeremiah (Jeremiahxxxi, 34) has reached its time of fulfillment: “They shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord.”
Yet upon this point, more almost than upon any other, it is of the utmost importance that we shall “distinguish the times.” We must not assume, because these aids and appliances are not needful in the perfected state of the kingdom, that they are not essential in the formative period, and thus, at great risk and with imminent peril, neglect or depreciate those means of grace which the Creator has deemed necessary for our present condition.
4.The Fruits and Results of the Kingdom.—They in whom the kingdom rules shall have access to the tree of life, that heavenly wisdom of which Solomon says, “She is atree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is everyone that retaineth her” (Proverbsiii, 18). “This is life eternal,” One greater than Solomon says, “that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (Johnxvii, 3). Their lives shall abound in fruitfulness. Their ministry shall be, like the Lord’s, “for the healing of the nations,” a remedy for all the spiritual and earthly maladies of mankind.
The curse of sin shall be destroyed, “and there shall be no more curse.” “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us” (Galatiansiii, 13). “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 Johni, 7). And walking “in the light, as he is in the light,” and being “pure in heart,” his followers shall “see God.” “They shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.”
Thus with this sublime vision closes this marvelous book. There is no truth revealed elsewhere in the sacred Scriptures that may not be found in its pages. So complete is it, indeed, that “if any manshall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.” Nor is there any truth revealed in this book which may not be found elsewhere in the Scriptures, so perfectly does it harmonize with all divinely inspired truth. Therefore, “if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”
The Apocalypse ofSt.John fitly closes the sacred canon; for, drawing so much, as it does, from all the rest of God’s wonderful book, it holds the truths derived therefrom in a coherent union never to be dissolved or broken.
IndexAlbigenses,137.Apocalypse. SeeRevelation.Apostolic and present age,resemblance between,198.Asceticism and worldliness contrasted,148–150.Asceticism,prevalence and danger of,138,139.Atonement,all-sufficiency of,164,165.Babylon,destruction of,199;relation of Church and State in,179–181.Balaam,147,148.Barbarism,characteristics of,244–247;possibility of reversion to,74,75,243.Beast,scarlet colored,186–188.Bible,reticence of,263.Christ crucified,the central figure of Revelation,270,♦271.♦“171” replaced with “271”Christian liberty,272.Christianity,antithesis between true and false,184,185.Church and State,interdependence of,110,249,250.Church,conquering weapons of the,110,155,202;the ideal,266,ff.;notes of the true,266,ff.;separable from world,269,270;supernatural origin of the,267;a witness to God,268.Church unity,228,ff.;an apostolic hope,230,231;how attained,236,237;importance of,232.Daniel,prophecy of four beasts in,115.David,duration of dynasty of,209.Dragon, the;divine protection from,108;hostility of, to the church,107.Dry bones.SeeEzekiel, vision of dry bones.Emblem,of seal,39–41;of trumpet,56,57.Epistles to seven churches of Asia,their lesson to us,34.Euphrates,reference to, in sixth trumpet,72,73.Ezekiel,prophecy of,163,164,205,ff.;vision of dry bones,207,208.False prophet,marks of,133.False prophetism,second wild beast a symbol of,126.Fifth trumpet.SeeTrumpet fifth.First trumpet.SeeTrumpet first.Forty-two,symbolism of,19.Fourth trumpet.SeeTrumpet fourth.Gentilism,mission of,234.Gnosticism perilous to Christianity,136.God, knowledge of;how obtained,59–61.Gog and Magog,209,240–243,252,253.Harvest scene,meaning of,157–159.Holy Spirit,his work preceded by that of Christ,141,142.Individuality an outgrowth of Christianity,134,135.Inspiration and human genius,84.Interpretation,principles of,10;reference to Old Testament necessary in,13–16;structure of book a guide to,11–13.Jewish ritual a key to emblems and symbols,16.Joel,prophecy of,155–157.Judaism,its office in the plan of redemption,233.Knowledge of God through his works and word,59–61.Lamb’s book of life,254,ff.Lukewarmness,evils of,69,70.Man and the earth,close connection between,63,64.Manichæism,137.Mediatorial sovereignty,45,46,214.Michael the archangel,109.Millennium,211,212,217,218.Mohammedanism illustrative of fifth trumpet,70,71.♦Nicolaitans,136.♦“Nicolaitanes” replaced with “Nicolaitans”Nineveh,special characteristics of,178,179.Numbers,importance of,17.Old Testament,its relation to the New,93–95;reference to it necessary in interpretation,13–16.Palestine,geographical seclusion of,108,109.Paulicianism,137.Peculiarities distinguishing the Revelation,9.Plagues, the,170.Prophetical books,importance of study of,14.Purpose of the Revelation,9.Resurrection,spiritual,224,225.Revelation,general purpose of the,9;limitations of the,81,82;theme of the,23;unity of the,22.Roman Empire,policy of administration,117,118.Rome,Church of,192,193.Sacraments,absence of allusion to,273.Satan,his power restrained,219;loosing of,238.Sea,emblem of secular world,113.Seal,emblematic meaning of,39–41;loosing of,44.Sealed book,meaning of,41,42.Sealed elect,50–52.Second trumpet.SeeTrumpet second.Second wild beast,number of,142–148.Seven churches of Asia,spiritual condition of,30.Seven seals,opening of,46.Seven,symbolism of,18.Seventh trumpet.SeeTrumpet seventh.Simon Magus,136.Six,symbolism of,19.Sixth trumpet.SeeTrumpet sixth.Theme of the Revelation,23.Third trumpet.SeeTrumpet third.Three and a half,symbolism of,19–22.Tree of life,274,275.True prophet,marks of,129–131.Trumpet,emblematic meaning of,56,57;fifth, explanation of,67–71;first, explanation of,65;fourth, explanation of,66;second, explanation of,65;seventh, explanation of,97;sixth, explanation of,72–76;third, explanation of,66.Twelve,symbolism of,18.Twelve hundred and sixty,symbolism of,19,88,109.Two witnesses,interpretation of,79.Tyre,deleterious influence upon religion,182,183;emblem of commerce,181,182,195,196.Unity of the church.SeeChurch unity.Vials,vision of,169.Victory,anticipation of,150.Vintage scene,meaning of,159–165.Witnesses, the two;fulfilled in Law and Prophets,87–92.Woes,the three,76.World empires,189;recurrence of, impossible,191.World religions,agreement of moral codes,256,257.Worldliness and asceticism contrasted,148–150.Worldliness,blasphemy of,123,124;definition of,120;first wild beast, a symbol of,112;recuperative power of,122.
♦“171” replaced with “271”
♦“171” replaced with “271”
♦“171” replaced with “271”
♦“Nicolaitanes” replaced with “Nicolaitans”
♦“Nicolaitanes” replaced with “Nicolaitans”
♦“Nicolaitanes” replaced with “Nicolaitans”