church) heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is: who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. For of a truth, against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done."

This conspiracy against God and his anointed was first manifested against the infant Jesus, as narrated in the second chapter of Matthew. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men under the guidance of God came from the east to worship him saying, "Where is he that is born king of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him." When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him, and after Herod was frustrated in his evil purposes, he sent and slew all the children in Bethlehem, and all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under. Why did he do this? Manifestly because he wanted no rival to his throne and kingdom over the Jews, but he was foiled in his wicked purpose, for the angel of God warned Joseph, and he took the young child and his mother by night, and fled into Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod. This was the first attempt to put the heir of David's throne and power out of the way, but it failed, and the second attempt has proved a worse failure than the first; for although they did succeed in putting Christ to death, in the second attempt upon his life, saying, "Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us," as is testified of them (Ps. 2:3), yet hear what is said of him who looked on, and carefully observed all these things. "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision."

And why, we inquire, did he that sat in the heavens laugh at those Jewish and Gentile conspirators against the life of his king? Did they not put him to death, as has so often been done in human history to do away with rivals to throne and kingdoms? Certainly they did, but they knew not the Scripture, nor the oath of God to David that he would raise up Christ- his seed according to the flesh from the dead to sit on his throne. God maketh the wrath of men to praise him, and the remainder of wrath he restrains. They did what he predetermined before should be done. Therefore he that sitteth in the heavens says, "Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion." That is, notwithstanding they put Christ to death, God raised him from the dead to reign on David's throne, and exalted him to his right hand in heaven, from whence he will send him in the time known to himself, to reign in Mount Zion over Israel and the nations. And the time that he will reign there Paul calls a day, which we are informed in the Revelation, is a period of a thousand years.

Paul stood upon Mars Hill and said to the superstitious Athenians (Acts 17), "The times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent, because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained,

whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead." But we might inquire, How does Christ's resurrection from the dead constitute an assurance to all men that he will judge the world in righteousness during the day that Paul speaks of? We answer, that the assurance consists in this important fact, that God raised him from the dead according to the Scriptures that were given by inspiration of God before Christ was born, that he should die for the sins of the people, and that by the hands of wicked men, but that God would raise him from the dead on the third day. They thought when they had crucified him that they had effectually extinguished his claims to be the king of the Jews; but alas for the folly of vain and presumptuous men when they contend with the Almighty! They knew not the voices of the prophets; they were ignorant of God's decree as it is written in the second Psalm, where it is said, "I will declare the decree," and what is that? "The Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee." As this is God's decree, what does it signify? what is the meaning of this all important oracle? This we need not be ignorant of, for Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles has interpreted it, and made known the meaning thereof in his speech at Antioch, in the synagogue, as recorded in Acts 13. He says, "We declare unto you glad tidings how that the promise which was made unto the fathers God has fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again, as it is written in the second Psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee." He was begotten when he was born of the Virgin Mary to be the Son of God, in weakness, but when he was born of the Spirit by resurrection from the dead, he was, as Paul says in the preface to his letter to the Romans, "declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead." Now after God says, "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee," which we see means his resurrection, after his resurrection, then his Father says to him, "Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." But this is not done until the Ancient of days comes, as Daniel says (7:13-14)," I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, and nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not pass away."

Now when God the Father gives all these nations to Christ, nations which until that time are under the veil that is spread over all nations, idolatrous and wicked nations which know not God, proud and haughty nations on whose foreheads are written the names of blasphemy, what will the Son do with them? The Father himself commands him saying, "Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." Therefore he warns these nations and says, "Be wise now therefore, O ye kings; be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they who put their trust in him."

The Lord made all these nations; it is written, "He made all things for himself, yea even the wicked for the day of evil" (Prov. 16: 4). He can withdraw their breath at any time, for their spirit and breath are his, as it is written. "If he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again to dust" (Job 34: 14-15). These things argue that the nations have very little to glory in; they are not by any means as important as they assume to be, for what does their Maker say of them (Isa. 40: 15-17)? "Behold the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance (verse 17). All nations are before him as nothing; and they are accounted to him less than nothing, and vanity."

When Paul preached in the cities of Lyconia, he said that in times past God suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. Again at Athens, when he saw their superstitions, he said to them, "The times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent." But this command was not heeded by the nations as nations, only a few, comparatively, gave heed to this command; but times change and men change with them; when the Law goes forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, he will then judge among the nations, and rebuke many people, or as Micah says, "He shall rebuke strong nations afar off." And at his rebuke in that day the rebellious will be cast into a dead sleep, the silent sleep of death (Ps. 76:6), for it is written in Isaiah (60: 12), “The nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea those nations shall be utterly wasted."

The nations will be required also to send up their deputations yearly with their tributes and offerings, as the Prophet Zechariah testifies (14:16-19), "And it shall come to pass that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem, shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain; and if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain, there shall be the plague wherewith the Lord shall smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles." Famine and pestilence will be two important means of punishment, whereby rebellious nations in that day shall be taught obedience; as in Egypt there is no rain, but the land is watered chiefly from the Nile, the pestilence will be the punishment to bring them to repentance; but nations which depend upon the rains of heaven to give them the precious fruits of the earth in their season, if they disregard the command of the King, the Lord of hosts (who is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ), famine will be visited upon them, by restraining the rains of heaven. This is a practical way in which the Lord will punish wickedness in the future; famine is one of the agents to be employed in the latter days to punish wicked nations that may refuse to conform to the law which will go forth from Mount Zion, and the word of the Lord which shall go forth from Jerusalem.

WILL THE WORLD LITERALLY COME TO AN END BY FIRE?

But before proceeding further with this subject, we must consider more fully what the Scriptures testify concerning the latter days, as we have already said many things touching the reign of Christ on the earth with his brethren, and what will be the conditions of the nations at that time, and after Christ comes to reign, and how probation continues among these mortal nations after the second coming of Christ, and especially as these things are entirely contrary to the views generally entertained by the great body of religious people in the world, who we allow, have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. They, in opposition to many of the views. herein before expressed, hold, on the contrary, that Christ comes in the end of the world, in the general and full sense of that term, and that the earth is then to be destroyed by fire; that the natural and physical heavens are to pass away with a great noise, and the elements are to melt with fervent heat, and the physical earth and all the works that are therein, are to be burned up.

Moreover, the words of the Apostle Peter are cited especially to sustain this theory, and it must be admitted that if the popular view of this subject is correct, then we have greatly erred in the things that we have presented, concerning what is to transpire in those times. But we propose to show a better way, for the Scriptures do not contradict themselves. Christ said, "Search the Scriptures." This does not mean a superficial reading of them, but a careful and close investigation, comparing spiritual things with spiritual as Paul directs, that is, one Scripture with another, for the Scriptures are the spiritual things of God referred to; Christ said (John 6:63), "The words. that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." The apostle says (Heb. 10: 14-15), "Christ, by one offering, hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Spirit also is a witness to us," and the witness that he furnishes, he quotes from the words of the Old Testament, which says (Heb. 8:8-12 and Jer. 31:1-34), "And their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.' This Paul calls a witness of the spirit (Heb. 10: 14-18) to the truth of the doctrines which he teaches. The oracles of God, therefore, are witnesses of the spirit to the truthfulness of what they affirm. With these considerations we will now proceed to interpret Peter's words, and to show that there is no contradiction between him and the prophets, but that the apparent discrepancy is in the minds of superficial readers, who take the apparent surface meaning, instead of digging deeper for the true and hidden meaning contained therein.

PETER'S WORDS

Peter in his second epistle charges those of like precious faith with himself, to whom this letter is addressed, to be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, saying (II Pet. 3: 5-8), "By the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: but the heavens and earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." Again he adds further (verses 10, 12, and 13), "The day of

the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up." And again, “Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." In these remarkable words, Peter has followed the injunction that he lays upon his brethren, to be mindful of the words spoken before by the holy prophets, and has closely copied their language when they spoke of the things that will transpire in the day of the Lord.

But hearken to this, ye who think that this prophecy of Peter is so easily understood and explained that a little child might successfully undertake the task. Peter gives some very significant advice to all such, and says afterwards in the same connection (verses 15 and 16), "Account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction." Now from the fact that Paul wrote upon the same things, that he himself did, as above quoted, and that the things that Paul wrote were hard to be understood, the conclusion is irresistible that Peter meant them to understand that what he had written was equally hard to be understood, and could only be done by comparing his words with Paul's, and both of theirs with the prophets, and that the unlearned in the Holy Scriptures would be just as likely to wrest his words to their own destruction, as they were to wrest Paul's, and also the words of the prophets. Taking Peter's advice therefore, we will consider some of the words of the prophets, as bearing upon this question.

HEAVENS AND EARTH AS FIGURATIVE TERMS

Moses wrote the account of the creation, and upon the fourth day he tells us that God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: and God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness" (Gen. 1: 14-18).

Now let it be understood that one principal purpose that God had in view in creating those lights and placing them in the firmament of heaven, was that they might be used as signs, as well as for seasons, days, and years. Consequently throughout the Holy Scriptures, the heavens, the firmament, the clouds of heaven, and especially the sun, moon and stars, are employed for that purpose, and he who is ignorant of this important use to which these things are put, and the constant employment that is made of them as signs and symbols by which the prophets, Christ, and his apostles have illustrated and enforced their teachings and doctrines, will constantly stumble and wrest