Then Christ's own, blind Israel or the Jews, with others led from the prison of Hades, shall be raised at the close of the third, and last day; which is the commencement of a new period in the order of events, called the "Dispensation of the fulness of times," when all the times spoken of in "the dark sayings" of the prophets, and the aions or ages of the Dispensations, shall be consummated by the Jews, or blinded Israel being brought in, from Hades, the second death, with (consentaneously) the fulness of the Gentiles:

Thus, the dead are raised-but those, that, in contradistinction to the dead, are designated as those that sleep in Jesus, are those that, in the peculiar sense of ekastos, are the every one of the order that, having part in the first resurrection, and not being held a moment in the power of the second death, are raised separately, to their heavenly mansions to be with Jesus the King—and the third class in the order, whose transformation from the earthly to the heavenly image, as the first gathering from the earth, at the Parousia, are those that are alive, and remain. And their transformation, their change, from the dust of the earthly Adam, to the heavenly image, is immediately, in the twinkling of an eye, followed by the resurrection of the dead-emphatically, the resurrection of the dead-then Blind Israel are brought in, with the fulness of the Gentiles, and the Father is all in all.

Death, which includes in its prophetic imagery, Hades, and all the pomp and parade of error, the Beasts, in whom error hath been personified, together with the fire, the brimstone, the lake, etc., symbolical of all the false theology of paganism; and which, in prophetic language, are described as the cause of torment to those who worship the Beast, or his image, (the second beast with two horns,) all are destroyed, by the "destruction of Death, and him that had the power of Death, the Devil," (Sin personified, see Heb. ii. 14, 15.) Then, the kingdom is given or surrendered to the Father, God, who is Love; and the law of Love, will be the only law in the domin ions of our FATHER.

Reader, this glorious consummation will be signalized by the bowing of every knee-the oath of allegiance of every tongue-God's righteousness alone acknowledg ed-the Beast and his image, and all error, and death annihilated—and the triumphant song "O death, (Oávare,)

where is thy sting? O Hades, (ain,) where is thy victory?" close the grand drama of kosmon's redemption from Sin, Death, and Hades, the grave! AMEN.

NOTE. The reader is informed, that, for two reasons, I have closed this Sermon on the resurrection of the dead, without fully considering all the minutia of detail, etc. Viz: First, its great length. Second, my next Sermon, already alluded to; also, the second in order from the present, which I now mention, viz: entitled "The Gospel Paradox," will, necessarily, include all that I have omitted. Therefore, to them, I refer the reader, for a more full and complete illustration of this most momentous subject.

VOL. II.-18

SERMON VII.

FUTURE RECOMPENSE AND PUNISHMENT.

"And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day." 2 THESS. i. 7-10.

I CONSIDER it my duty to commence the discussion of this momentous subject, by removing a stumblingblock, that has been for ages in the way of a correct understanding of the subject before us. I have remarked on former occasions, that the Scriptures are the best interpreters of Scripture; and I will now add, that, correctly understood, by the aid and agency of the key of knowledge, the Scriptures are the only interpreters of the Scriptures.* The best Lexicons in existence, although they may be invaluable as adjuncts in teaching the correct significa

* Solomon says of man (Prov. xxiii. 7,) "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he." Paul, on arriving at Rome, (Acts xxviii. 22,) called the chief of the Jews together, and when Paul had signified to them the cause of his coming, etc., they said, "We desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest; for as concerning this sect, we know that every where it is spoken against." Reader, it has been my object, end and aim, to promulgate to my brethren of the great Human Family, what I think, on the subject of Christ's Gospel; for I, like Paul, am numbered with a sect that every where is spoken against. Therefore, in my efforts to promulgate and publish that which I think, to the Public, I am desirous that my readers shall, on reading my thoughts, be set to thinking likewise! In a word, I am striving to cause the Public to think for themselves; instead of paying fees to orthodox clergymen to do their thinking for them.

If Solomon be correct, that portion of the Public that think but little, themselves, of theology, etc., and employ clergymen to do this work of thinking for them, as a consequence, have but very little to think about. For the obvious reason, that a man's mind, on any subject, must be measured by, and graduated on, the scale of his thoughts.

Reader-Go To WORK-think with all your might-remember, that in the grave, hades, "there is neither work nor device, wisdom nor knowledge."

tions of terms, according to their derivations, etc., and enable the learner to advance beyond the rudiments of learning, in his exploration in the fields of science, the arcana of human wisdom, and the study of the useful arts; are powerless in directing the inquirer for Gospel Truth, beyond the line where human wisdom and knowledge ends, and the knowledge from Above begins its communications, in opposition to human science, by the "dark sayings" of prophecy, that for an entire dispensation or aionos, were sealed to human vision; and when revealed to the chosen vessels by the Great Teacher Jesus Christ, were communicated in the metonymical form of a Divine parabola.

In the prosecution of this inquiry, I will develope an important fact, which leads to a regular solution of the difficulty. The Lord Jesus Christ, although he permitted his disciples to remain in ignorance of the "glory of his power,' "and the true spirituality of His mission and Gospel, until after his resurrection from Hades, (the grave,) and deferred a full developement of the glorious truth he came to announce to man, until a period posterior to his ascension to Heaven; He was careful to affirm, in his answers to the interrogatories of his disciples, the truth, in terms that would be understood by them, when he should enlighten them by the Pneuma from above, after his ascension to Heaven.

I will now illustrate and prove this fact, which is a key to the stumblingblock in question. It is well known to all persons that are conversant with the Scriptures, that after the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave, his disciples confessed their ignorance to Him, as follows: Jesus appeared to two of them, on their way to a village called Emmaus, but in a guise, that they should not be able to identify his person. He conversed with them as a stranger, and they asked him, "Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? And Jesus said unto them, What things?" They replied-" Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people; and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. But we trusted [this was the whole amount of their knowledge and consequent faith in Jesus;] that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel; [from the Roman yoke ;] and besides

all this, to-day is the third day since these things were done." And this is not all-They acknowledged that certain women of their company had made them astonished, by information of the disappearance of the body of Jesus. And after Jesus reproved them for their blindness, and communicated to them the truth, etc., and left them, for that time, the word was, "The Lord is risen indeed!" (Luke xxiv.) Mark also testifies, that Jesus upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart. (xvi. 14.) And Matthew testifies, that Peter went so far as to rebuke Jesus, when he spoke of going to Jerusalem, to be put to death, and to rise again the third day. (xvi. 21-23.) The fact is, that Christ's disciples expected a temporal kingdom and power, etc., and not one of them either expected or believed that Jesus would rise, literally, from the dead. They even went so far, as to dispute among themselves, "who should be the greatest," in the temporal kingdom they expected that Jesus would establish, &c. (See Mark ix. 33, 34; Luke ix. 43-48.)

Under these circumstances of darkness of mind, of gross mistake, in their expectations of the consummation of Jesus Christ's predictions, and declarations contained in his parables, eventuating in his establishing a temporal kingdom, or sovereignty at Jerusalem, his disciples, (Matt. xxiv. 3,) asked him, saying, "Tell us, when shall these things be? and what the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?"

Reader, does it not strike you, as the greatest, the most monstrous of all possible absurdities, the opinion abroad in the religious world at the present day, that the disciples of Jesus, asked him when this world should end, and he appear personally, at a very remote period, to establish a temporal kingdom at Jerusalem, which they, in their ignorance, imagined he would shortly do? They, that is, Christ's disciples, with all their blindness as respects the spirituality of their Lord's kingdom, understood him correctly, in making the end of that aivos (aionos,) age, or dispensation, the precise time when that which they expected should happen, should actually be all accomplished. Therefore, they wanted to know when that aionos, age, etc., should end, as on the termination of that aionos, (rendered world,) they expected the things specified would take place.

Christ's disciples, true to their mistake, their eyes fixed