God, will he not make her an eternal excellency? If God create new heavens and a new earth, shall not God's saints "be glad and rejoice forever in that which he creates ?" If the "righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father," will not the tares be first gathered in bundles and cast into "the furnace of fire?" So of the whole Scripture. The old earth must be dissolved ere the new one can appear -Satan must be dethroned ere Christ can reign, and death must be swallowed up in victory ere the saints can sing the victor's song.

Towards those scenes we hasten. The coming of the Lord draweth nigh. The rest is before us, and the toil is very brief. But alas for the world. Woe to an earth that will not repent. The Deluge and the Dead Sea tell us what God has done. The Scriptures tell us what he will do. The Sword shall not always sleep in the scabbard-even now it is about to be unsheathed. Watchman, set the trumpet to thy lips! Sound in the ears of the world the dread alarm— "But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come and take away any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood WILL I REQUIRE AT THE WATCHMAN'S HAND !"

Peace Dale, R. I., April, 1855.

H. L. H.

INTRODUCTORY SYNOPSIS.

ANTIQUITY OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE PERSONAL ADVENT AND REIGN OF CHRIST ON EARTH.

"Behold a king shall reign in righteousness and princes shall rule in judgment."—ISAIAH.

Says Rev. H. H. Milman, "The future dominion of some great king to descend from the line of David, to triumph over all his enemies, and to establish a universal kingdom of peace and happiness, was probably an authorized opinion long before the advent." And on the part of the heathen world, Plato exclaims, "It is necessary that a lawgiver be sent from heaven to instruct us. I desire to see that man, and who he is. than man.

O how greatly do He must be more

"There

Rev. Edward Bickersteth has well remarked, have been from age to age those who have held the personal coming of Christ before the millennium, but where is the voice of the Church as to a spiritual millennium, uncommenced, and to last 1000 years before His real coming? The idea of a spiritual millennium, which is not yet begun, before our Lord's return, is sometimes called the old way, the old paths; but is it not an entire novelty of modern times? Has it any plea of general antiquity whatever to urge in its behalf? I believe not. Bishop Hall in his list of varied opinions on this subject gives no intimation of it. I have not been able to trace it higher than Dr. Whitby, who speaks of it as a new hypothesis' at the beginning of the eighteenth century."

"In later ages," says Dr. Burnet, "they seemed to have dropped one-half, namely, the renovation of nature, which Irenæus, Justin Martyr, and the ancients, join inseparably with the millennium: and by this omission, the doctrine hath been made less intelligible, and one part of it inconsistent with another." "We are well aware," says Professor Bush, "of the imposing array of venerable names by which it is surrounded, as if it were the bed of Solomon guarded by three score valiant men of Israel, all holding swords, and expert in war.”

In the language of Rev. J. W. Brooks, "It is still further encouraging to find the number daily increasing of able and pious ministers who are becoming sensible of the duty of investigating this important branch of Scripture, and are beginning to be persuaded of the premillennial advent of our Lord."

The Rev. W. Burgh in one of his sermons relates the following conversation between a Christian minister and a Jew. "Taking a New Testament and opening it at Luke i: 32, the Jew asked, 'Do you believe that what is here written shall be literally accomplished-the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David; and he shall 'I do not,' answerreign over the house of Jacob forever?" ed the clergyman, but rather take it to be figurative language, descriptive of Christ's spiritual reign over the church." Then,' replied the Jew, 'neither do I believe literally the words preceding, which say that this Son of David should be born of a virgin; but take them to be merely a figurative manner of describing the remarkable character for purity of him who is the subject of the prophecy.' 'But why,' continued the Jew, 'do you refuse to believe literally verses 32 and 33, while you believe implicitly the far more incredible statement of verse 31 ?' I believe it,' replied the clergy'because it is a fact." "Ah!' exclaimed the Jew, with man,

an inexpressible air of scorn and triumph, you believe

INTRODUCTORY SYNOPSIS.

3

Scripture because it is a fact; I believe it because it is the Word of God.""

THE NEW HEAVENS AND THE NEW EARTH.

Calvin in his notes on Isa. xi: 6-8, remarks, "He asserts here the change of the nature of wild beasts, and the restitution of the creation as at first." On Isa. xxiv: 23, "Christ shall hereafter establish his Church on earth in a most glorious estate. At length God shall enjoy his own right among us, and have his due honor, when all his creatures being gathered into order, he alone is resplendent in our eyes."

Says Matthew Henry, "Christ's second coming will be a regeneration (Matt. 19: 28,) when there shall be new heavens. and a new earth, and a restitution of all things."

In his Commentary on 2 Peter 3, Dr. A. Clarke writes as follows: "All these things will be dissolved, separated, be decomposed; but none of them will be destroyed. And as they are the original matter out of which God formed the terraqueous globe; consequently they may enter again into the composition of a new system; and therefore the apostle says, 'We look for a new heaven and a new earth;' the others being decomposed, a new system is to be formed out of their materials."

"I do not believe," says William Anderson, "that the earth shall be annihilated, but that rectified, and beautified, it shall last forever as the happy abode of the saints."

THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

Says Dr. J. Pye Smith, "The prophecies respecting the kingdom of Messiah, its extent and duration, and the happiness of his innumerable subjects are in a much greater pro portion than those which describe his humiliation to suffer ings and his dreadful death."

In the language of Dr. Stephen Tyng, "The covenant made by God to Abraham remains to this day utterly unful

filled. The fifth universal monarchy remains to be established upon the earth. The king that is to rule is the Son of Man, who will make a personal manifestation of himself."

In view of these facts, well may we exclaim, in the words of Dr. William Channing, "O come, thou kingdom of heaven for which we daily pray. Come, ye predicted ages of righteousness and love for which the faithful have so long yearned !"

THE JUDGMENT DAY.

Milton's faith." He believes," says Dr. Channing, "that Christ is to appear visibly for the judgment of the world, and that he will reign a thousand years on earth, at the end of which period Satan will assail the Church with an innumerable confederacy, and be overwhelmed with everlastiug ruin. He speaks of the judgment as beginning with Christ's second advent, and as comprehending his whole government through the millennium as well as the closing scene, when sentence will be pronounced on evil angels and on the whole human race," That Christ will come to earth again is certain, and in the language of Charles Beecher, "Earth needs but one such man to dwell therein to produce a day of judgment."

In view of that solemn day, how appropriate the language of Jerome, "Whether I eat or drink, or in whatever other action or employment I am engaged, that solemn voice always seems to sound in my ears, 'Arise ye dead and come to judgment!' As often as I think of the day of judgment, my heart quakes, and my whole frame trembles. If I am to indulge in any of the pleasures of this present life, I am resolved to do it in such a way that the solemn realities of the future judgment may never be banished from my recollection."

THE AGE'S CRISIS.

Says Sir Robert Peel, "Every aspect of the present times