Restitution of all things...

Front matter

•SfiJtjStnXX l* HlVU II II 111 II II I ilk 1 m Jim fjnp^,

RESTITUTION OF ALL THINGS.

RESTITUTION OF

Preface

JJZE read in Isaiah these words : " The people that * * walked in darkness have seen a great light ; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shifted." *

This is a prediction of the introduction of the Gospel of the Son of God among the Gentiles, and alludes to our Saviour leaving Nazareth and dwelling in Capernaum, " which is upon the sea-coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nepthalim : that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nepthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles ; the people which sal in darkness saw great light, and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up." f

So that our Lord's residence, chiefly in Capernaum and its vicinity, during the period of his ministry, had reference to his mission to the Gentiles, as well as the Jews, inasmuch as it was on the outermost borders of the land of Israel. The

* Isaiah ix. 2. t Matthnv iv. , rj-16.

- viii Preface.

" great light" could the more easily penetrate into the region " beyond the Jordan" and the fame of his mighty works which he didi?i Capernaum and the adjacent cities send it's loud report into " the region and shadow of death." Such was, indeed, the fact ; and many from u Galilee of the Gentiles " came to Jesus to hear and to be cured.

Thus, also, on that eve?itful day " whe?i the pare?its brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law" * Simeon, " to whom it was revealed by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ" f being led by the Spirit, " came into the temple, and taking him up i?i his arms, blessed God, aiid said : Lord, ?iow lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, accordi?ig to thy word ; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before all people ; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people, Israel? 'J

Speaking thus by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, Simeon did but repeat what all the holy prophets had foretold from the beginni/ig, — that " the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising." § The wonder is that, written in characters of light clear as the sun, the Jews did not see this. Thei'e is but o?ie explanation to be given. It is this. " Who is blind but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent ? Who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the Lord's servant? " ||

To this effect speaks St. Paul: " Their minds were blinded; for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament, which vail is done away in Christ." fl

This u great light " shining upon the Gentiles, illuminating " the land of the shadow of death" accords with what we

* Luke ii. 27. t Luke ii. 2b. 1 Luke ii., 28-32. % Isaiah l.v. 3.

|| Isaiah xlii. 19. H //. Corifithians Hi. 14

Preface. ix

read elsewhere — with the declaration of God to the children of Israel, through his servant Moses, at the commencement of their wonderful career as a nation : " But as truly as 1 live, all the earth shall be. filled with the glory of the Lord" *

Also with what we read in the prophecy of Isaiah, along with the announcement of 'John the Baptist as the forerunner of the Messiah : " And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord had spoken it" f

Also, as iv e read in the prophecy of Habakkuk : " For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." %

Last of all, Ma lac hi closes a record so replete with the promises of God respecting the future of our earth : " From the rising of the su?i even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles, and in every place incense shall be offered unto ?ny name, and a pure offering ; for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts." §

Associated with declarations so full of promise and so re-assuring to the heart of man under the dark cloud of time, is an event so great in itself, so big with momentous results, as to awaken the deepest interest, joined with the tctmost solicitude, and in comparison with which all else that may transpire in the ordinary course of human affairs is sjnall, trifli?ig and insignificant. We speoJz, of course, of the second coming of Christ to our world, to which reference is thus made : u And as it is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment, so Christ was once offei'ed io bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." ||

* Numbers .vlv. 21. \ Isaiah xl. J. X Habakkttk ii. 14. § Malachi i. II.

j| Hebrews ix., 27, 28.

x Preface.

Allied with all our hopes, basal 071 the word of God, is the great fact, " the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christy* For the present, temporarily, he is in heaven, agreeably to the words of the apostle Peter, spoken, if not on, soon after, the great day of Pentecost, and deriving their authority from the gift of the Holy Ghost, received, according to the promise of the Father, on that ever memorable day. These are the words : " And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you : whom the heaven must receive until the time of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.' 11 f

Jt is on the strength of these words and what they imply that this work has been written. Hoping it may draiu attention to so great a subject — the importance of which is perhaps not sufficiently recog?iized — and put hope where there may have bee?i but little before, the writer commits his work, with no small degree of solicitude, to the public at large.

* Titus ii. ij. f A cts Hi. , 20, 21.

Chapter II

The Power of God as Displayed in the Judgments which, in the Future as in the Past, he will send upon the " Inhabiters of the Earth " for their Iniquity 149 xiv Contents.

chapter in. Page.

The Final Conflagration as a Preparation for the Renewed Earth, wherein dwelleth Righteousness 166

CHAPTER I. Faith

THE grand principle of the Bible, its all-pervading force and life, that which gives it its chief characteristic teature, which distinguishes it from all other books and makes it what it pre-eminently is —The Book — is faith in God. This is the foundation on which we are to build; and it must be a faith simple, implicit, strong, and which, like that of the Israelites as they compassed the city of Jericho, caused the walls thereof to fall to the ground, without a single weapon of war having been lifted up against them. No battering-rams were there, nothing of human strength, save a shout and a sound of trumpets ; but faith was in strong and vigorous exercise, and action within a prescribed range, in conformity with the command of the invisible leader of the hosts of Israel ; and the walls of Jericho parted asunder and fell, crumbling and broken, to the ground. Forty years of rigid training in the wilderness of a new generation, under the immediate inspection

4 The Throne of David, and

of the Almighty, through his servants Moses and Aaron, under difficulties and through manifold trials and temptations, led to this first successful essay in arms of the hosts of Israel. A faith like this is the work of years ; it is not a harvest that can be gathered in a day. Many a hard battle must first be fought with blind unbelief. The whole tendency of the soul, by its natural gravitation, is in a contrary direction, and we must work against this, by the power which God gives us, as for dear life. The faith of the army of Israel at this time was wonderful ; such as had never been seen before, and has not been seen since, and will not again be witnessed until literal redeemed Israel shall have avouched faith in the Messiah ; and, under this banner, shall march forth to the conquest of the world.

This notable instance, on a large and conspicuous scale, may serve somewhat as an exemplification of the nature, power and results of a true, living and perfect faith in God. It takes you out of the realm of ordinary realities and every-day, commonplace events, and transports you into another sphere, like it did the Israelites in the wilderness ; and leads you to see and acknowledge the hand of God in the midst of the manna that strewed and Whitened the sterile ground with every returning morning, and the water that flowed so copiously from the flinty rock, both for man and beast, when struck by the more than magic wand of Moses; amid the light that glittered in the night season, throwing its bright radiance around the entire encampment, covering, as it must necessarily have done, so large a space of ground, and the overshadowing cloud that in the daytime spread itself over an equally large space and attempered the hot rays of the burning sun to the oftfainting crowd, weary and footsore as many a time they

The Restitution of All Tilings. 5

w ere ; crying for water and pining for the cooling dainties they had left behind in the land of their languishing servitude. It is, indeed, by the exercise of such a living, o'ermastering faith as this, that you are, as it were, transported into a different world, live a new and different life, and draw your daily supplies from the hand of the living God. This is what it would be in reality, if our circumstances were like those of the Israelites in the wilderness to call it forth, and we had been led like them into a barren land by the express command and under the immediate guidance of the Almighty; and this is, in all soberness and truth, what a true, living and perfect faith is, in its very essence, at all times and under all circumstances, in every variety and condition of life.

It is such a faith as this — all realizing and vitalizing — that is imperatively required in dealing with a subject so deep, so dark, so mysterious, so sacred as forms the subject of this work. It does not question God, wishing to know the reason why, or the ground for, when he leads or commands, any more than Abraham did when called upon to offer Isaac upon the altar of burnt-offering; or Paul, when called from on high by the voice of Jesus, whom he had persecuted, but, laying down at once the weapons of his rebellion, he was " not disobedient to the heavenly vision."

It is of a faith like this — so victorious — that our Lord saith " nothing is impossible to it," there is nothing that it cannot accomplish. These are his words : " If ye have faith as a grain of mustard-seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove; and nothing shall be i?npossible unto you." * The same thing is expressed in fuller form and with still stronger emphasis, falling from the same sacred lips, in the fol-

* Matthew xvii 20.

lowing carefully measured words : " Verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them." *

We perceive, therefore, from the above, however incredible it may appear to a low and sensual mind, and derogatory even to God, that the Lord Almighty puts himself, so to speak, his infinite power, glory and majesty, into the hands of weak, dependent man. And this is illustrated and God magnified by the acts, as we read in the Old Testament, of such men as Moses and Elijah; and, in the New Testament, of such men as Peter and John, apostles of the Lord Jesus, in whom was revived the faith that divided the Red Sea, brought down fire from heaven, and raised the dead to life again.

This wonder-working power, this faith in God, possessed of which we are told " nothing shall be impossible unto us," — is built upon the declaration of Christ Jesus the Lord to his disciples, after his resurrection from the dead, when he appeared unto them on a mountain in Galilee, to "above five hundred brethren at once " ; f the greater part believing in him, " but some doubted." % " And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth" §

It is such a faith, built on such a foundation, which, while it honors God, proclaims aloud and ratifies such words as these, from the lips of the Lord Jesus : " Ye believe in God, believe also in me." \\

* Mark xi. 23, 24. 1 1. Corinthians xv. 6. { Matthew xxviii. 17. § Matthew xxviii. 18. || John xiv. 1.

CHAPTER II. The Throne of David

THERE is this striking peculiarity about the throne of David, and Christ Jesus the Lord seated thereon, that while in reality he is " over all, God blessed forever," " the same yesterday, and to-day and forever," * yet he comes among us the second time as the Son of David, as the heir of a royal line ; as the same Jesus of whom the angel Gabriel said to the virgin mother : " The Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end." t

There can be no Soubt as to his appearing among us as in the days of his flesh, when incarnated among us. Hardly had our Lord been taken up into heaven, disappearing from sight, when "two men stood by the disciples in white apparel, which also said, 'Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven ? This

* Romans ix. 5; Hebrews xiii. 8. t Luke i., 32, 33. 7

8 The Throne of David, a?id

same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.' " *

In the opening of the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ we also read: "Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him : and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen." f

In Zechariah we find words to the same purport. He is speaking of " that day" when " the Lord will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplication ; " and in conjunction with this outpouring of the Holy Spirit we find "the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem" "looking upon him who?n they have pierced" the wound in his pierced side visible, even as doubting Thomas saw and felt it, and was convinced thereby that it was the self-same Jesus who had risen from the dead, " answering and saying, My Lord and My God." |

So, also, Jesus, when interrogated in the most solemn manner by the high-priest, after this wise : "I adjure thee, by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God ? Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said : nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." §

When, therefore, our blessed Lord shall come again with great power and glory, to "judge the world with righteousness and the people with his truth," || he " will come in like manner as his disciples saw him go into heaven." He will appear among us as he appeared to his

* Acts i., 10, ii. t Revelation i. 7. \ Zechariah xii. 10; John xx., 27, 28, 29.

§ Matthew xxvi., 63, 64. || Psalm xcvi. 13.

disciples after his resurrection from the dead, with the marks in his hands and the hole made by the spear which pierced his side ; not as yet having reached that point of time — "the end, when as God, even the Father, the kingdom shall be delivered up to him, and he " (Jesus), "the Lord of all," "shall have" (of himself) "put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet." *

It is, then, as the Son of David, the Son of Man, the Son of God, — as "he took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men," t it is in his human guise, but perhaps with a heavenly radiance somewhat like that which was seen when transfigured on the holy mount, that " he shall sit on the throne of his father David; reign over the house of Jacob forever; while of his kingdom there shall be no end."

As to this there cannot be a shadow of doubt. It rests on a basis indestructible, immovable. God does not take into account men's humors, or views, or prejudices. His word is the first and the last resort. It was on the day of Pentecost when, in answer to their united and believing prayer, the disciples received " the promise of the Father," "the gift of the Holy Ghost," without measure or stint, that the apostle Peter, speaking of the resurrection of Christ from the dead, assured the Jews that the patriarch David was not speaking of his own resurrection, but that of Jesus Christ the Lord, when he said, " Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption."! Then he adds these most remarkable words : " Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him 'that of the fruit of his loins, according to the

* I. Corinthians xv. 24. f Philemon ii. 7. \ Psalm xvi. 10.

ro The Thro?ie of David, and

lesh, he would raise up Christ, to sit on his throne ' ; he, seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption." *

We have, in a passage of another prophetic psalm, the same absolute assurance that Christ would sit on the throne of David, an additional confirmation of what the angel Gabriel said to Mary. " The Lord hath sworn the truth unto David; he will not turn from it; of the fruit of thy body will I set upon the throne." f

In the second psalm, truly a messianic psalm, made perfectly plain and clear by the exposition of St. Paul, we have the same great truth, the same wonderful event, formally stated and corroborated. The entire psalm is devoted to the kingdom of Christ; proclaims its king; shows the foundation on which his claim rests ; and, as an irrefragable proof or test of its validity, " gives him the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession." J The foundation — broad, deep, high — on which this magnificent structure, this glorious, everlasting kingdom is built, is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It is thus set forth : " While vainly the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing, setting themselves in array against the Lord, and against his anointed, He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision, saying : Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my son; this day have I begotten thee." § Upon this St. Paul thus comments, and settles the exact meaning of this peculiar phraseology. After rehearsing in brief the history of Israel to the time of David the son of Jesse, and showing that from " this man's seed hath God, according

* Acts ii., 30, 31. t Psalm cxxxii. 11. % Psalm ii. 8. § Psalm ii., 6, 7.

tc his promise, raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus," he goes over the record of his death and burial; "but," he adds, " God raised him from the dead, and he was seen many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses to the people." *

He then proceeds to say — and it is this inspired commentary which gives us the true interpretation of these most remarkable words — "and we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again ; as it is also written in the second Psalm, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David." f

Thus far we find, on a subject so vital, so intimately connected, so inseparably conjoined with the ultimate restitution of all things, the most perfect agreement between the apostle Peter, the Psalms and Isaiah; and it is here to be noted in the outset that this grand and allabsorbing theme, the restitution of all things, of " which the Lord hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began," has its source, life and power, its end and aim, in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The coming of Christ, his resurrection from the dead to sit on the throne of David, and the restitution spoken of, are all parts of one great whole, and belong to that new and more blissful order of things of which God speaks when he says : " Behold, I make all things new." |

The great fact that God had sworn with an oath to David, that of the fruit of his loins according to the flesh he would raise up Christ from the dead to sit on his

* Acts xiii., 30, 31. f Acts xiii. , 32-34. X Revelation xxi. 5.

12 The Throiie of David, and

throne, is thus alluded to by Jeremiah ; " Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David (that is, from the dead) a righteous branch, and a king . shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely : and this is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness."*

In another part of the prophecy,! we find nearly a repetition of the above words, with this additional assurance from the Lord, through the mouth of his servant Jeremiah, that " David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel; neither shall his priests the Levites want a man before me to offer burnt-offerings, and to kindle meat-offerings, and to do sacrifice continually." %

There can be no mistake as to the " man who is to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel." This is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness. We need not go far back to find his genealogy, to trace his record. It has not been lost or swallowed up in the long lapse of years. This name belongs to none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, concerning whom St. Paul says : " Which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." §

In another passage of this prophecy it is made, if possible, still more evident who the man is that is "to sit on the throne of the house of Israel." Jeremiah, speaking of a time of great trouble that awaits Israel and Judah, and their deliverance out of it, " their yoke taken from off their neck, freed from their bonds, and strangers

* Jeremiah xxiii. , 5, 6. t Jeremiah xxxiii. , 14, 15, 16.

% Jeremiah xxxiii., 17, 18. § Romans i., 3, 4.

no more serving themselves of him," says, in this the day of their deliverance, " They shall serve the Lord their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up (evidently referring to the resurrection from the dead) unto them." *

The absolute certainty that " David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel," that this man is "The Lord our Righteousness," that he "was made of the seed of David according to the flesh," and raised accordingly from the dead for this purpose, and to prove to a demonstration the oath and truth of God, is clearly evident from " the word of the Lord which came unto Jeremiah, saying : If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth, then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David my servant, that David my servant should not have a son to reign upon his throne ; that I will not have any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob : for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them." f

This, then, is the broad, "high and lifted up," and immutable basis on which the throne of David rests, now, perhaps, in the near future — the exact time who can tell? — even the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And in connection with this marvelous event, on which, indeed, the whole structure of revelation rests, we can hardly fail to notice how indissolubly joined it is with the return of the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to their own land, the mercy of God that will be extended to them, and their safety and soft and sweet repose under the sheltering wing of the Almighty. " For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord; because they called thee an Outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after." %

* Jeremiah xxx. 9. t Jeremiah xxxiii., 25, 26. J Jeremiah xxx. 17.

Chapter III

The Coming of Christ Jesus the Lord to sit on the Throne of David Contemporaneous with the Beginning of the Times of the Restitution of All Things.

THIS is clearly stated in the address of Peter, an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, on the day of Pentecost. Though it had been the subject of prophecy since the world began, yet not until John the Baptist did it begin to take head and form and give due token of the coming day. Isaiah had foretold it as, moved by the Holy Ghost, he announced the herald of Christ as the voice of one crying in the wilderness, " Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God." * He who made the world having come to it with the express purpose of ultimately replacing it " in a holy and happy state," we read : " The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." t

John the Baptist having fulfilled his mission and sealed his testimony with his blood, the disciples asked our Lord how it was that the scribes said Elijah must first come.

* Isaiah xl. 3. t Isaiah xl. 5. 14

To this our Lord replied, " ' Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. But I say unto you, that Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they liked. Likewise shall also the Son of Man suffer of them.' Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist. " *