WHAT will be the condition of things upon the earth at the appearing of our Lord? The world will be groaning under the most awful despotism it has ever known; for the removal of the Church will have issued in the triumph of Gentile power centred in the antichrist, who shall exercise unparalleled rule over the nations, and who will then be at the zenith of his fame. Half-way through Daniel's missing week of years the man of sin will break his covenant with the unbelieving Jews, gathered in Jerusalem, who will become a persecuted, oppressed, and despised people. During this period, too, there is to be terrible martyrdom of those who, through the stress of the times, yield to the claims of Christ, as presented by His remaining witnesses. All the latest discoveries of science and the developments of earthly progress, so-called, will be pressed into the service of antichrist. Some of us have read certain books, the titles of which I cannot recall for the moment, in which the authors have allowed their fancy loose rein with regard to coming wars. I believe that in a popular periodical a story of this kind has been running, the writer working out in a speculative way what is likely to be the ultimate issue of the present arming of the nations and the endeavor to find new and improved methods for the expeditious slaughter of men. Think of the high efficiency attained upon the great continent of Europe in warlike machinery! In the writings referred to, there is, unconsciously it may be, an element of truth. The lawless one will avail himself of all the results of scientific research and invention, and Christ shall return with His saints to find the peoples of the earth crushed under the iron heel of an oppression far more terrible than all the previous experience can furnish, and exceeding the wildest flights of imagination.

In this connection we may refer again to the Scripture quoted in a former section of these studies- 2 Thess. ii. 7, 8:

"For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work; only there is one that restraineth now, until He be taken out of the way. And then shell be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus shall day with the breath of His mouth, and bring to nought by the manifestation of His coming."

That is to say, by the epiphany of His Parousia, or the brightness of His presence. It is not that such destruction comes by Christ's Parousia, ae the appearing to His people is called, but by that stage of His coming elsewhere spoken of as His Apocalypse or Manifestation. Among the old prophetical writings, Zech. xiv. 1-5 exactly foretells the same event.

"Behold, a day of the Lord cometh, when thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle ; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle. And His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. And ye shall flee by the valley of my mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azel: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the holy ones with thee."

That is an Old Testament prophecy of this Apocalypse of the Lord with His holy ones; and now we may turn to a New Testament prediction, part of which has several times engaged our attention.

Rev. xix.11-xx.4: "And I saw the haven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He that sat thereon, called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. And His eyes are as flame of fire, and upon His head are many diadems; and He hath a name written, which no one knoweth but He Himself, And He is arrayed in a garment sprinkled with blood : and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and pure. And out of His mouth proceedeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations: and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness as of the wrath of Almighty God. And He hath on His garment and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS."

"And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in mid heaven, Come and be gathered together unto the great supper of God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and of them that sit thereon, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, and small and great."

"And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him that sat upon the horse, and against His army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought the signs in his sight, wherewith he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image: they twain were cast alive into the lake of fire that burneth with brimstone: and the rest were killed with the sword of Him that sat upon the horse, even the sword which came forth out of His mouth: and all the birds were filled with their flesh."

"And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, the old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan"-the name is repeated and given in varied form that there may be no mistake-"and bound him for a thousand years, and cast him into the abyss, and shut it, and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years should be finished: after this he must be loosed for a little time."

“And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as worshipped not the beast, neither his image, and received not the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand; and they lived, and-reigned with Christ a thousand years."

I have quoted that long passage of Scripture because I believe the Word of God, if we will but read it with simplicity, is more clear and powerful than anything that can be said about it. In the zenith of the power of antichrist, Jesus will be revealed from heaven with the whole company of His saints, coming to set up His own blessed reign upon the earth. His appearing will be the destruction of the man of sin, and the confusion of the confederacy of the nations against God and His Christ. He will scatter before His coming the evil which has been brought to so prominent a head during the period of that missing " week. "That will be the day of Christ's vindication before all the earth, when "every eye shall see Him, and they which pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over Him" (Rev. i.7). The Master has been hidden now for nineteen hundred years; and the scoffing world says, "Where is the promise of His coming?" Men are asking us if we really still believe in Christ as we used to do. Alas! That the infidelity of the ungodly should have crept into the very Church itself; so that there are not wanting those who have tried to undermine our holy faith, by seeking to rob it of everything that is supernatural and beyond explanation by laws which men think they understand. But as surely as God is upon His throne, Jesus, this same Jesus," the Man of Nazareth and Capernaum, the Man of the city and of the village, He Whom crowded heard speak in the olden days, is coming back to our earth, accompanied by His saints. Christ's people also shall be vindicated when it is seen that the foolish things, the weak things, and the things which are not," in the estimation of earth to-day, will prove to be things of wisdom, things of strength, and things that are. Then, too, shall the earth have its opportunity as never before.

May I warn you against spiritualizing this truth? Christ will indeed be the King of kings upon this earth. He will be as directly and positively a Ruler as any monarch whose name is upon our lips to-day; but His sway will be more absolute and powerful. With all my heart and soul I believe that the only effective rule for humanity is an absolute monarchy; but the trouble is, that we have never yet found the monarch. For a little while the heavens have received Christ, the only One worthy of unlimited rule; but the King of me is coming back, in infinite compassion for the world which drove Him out. For His coming, not only the Church, but the whole creation waits. The Revised Version gives a far wider meaning and greater force than does the Authorized to Paul's words in Born. viii. 19, "The earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing [the Apocalypse or revelation] of the sons of God." To-day the sons of God, as such, are unknown, or despised and persecuted; but when the Master comes, they will be revealed with Him-and it is for this consummation that the earth is waiting. When He comes to set up His Kingdom and to judge, not with the hearing of the ear or the seeing of the eye, but with righteous judgment, then what solution of problems, what healing of wounds, what blessing for poor, oppressed humanity!

Following upon the end of Gentile power and policy, in the destruction of the man of sin, and the sweeping away of all war by the great battle of Armageddon, comes the restoration of God's ancient people of Israel to their true position among the nations. I do not say the restoration of the Jew-that is not comprehensive enough; but of the whole Israel of God. The ten tribes, lost for centuries, shall be found and restored to their land, for the fulfillment of God's purposes for Israel, and through Israel, for the race. I know that some doubt this truth, and say that Israel as a nation has been finally cast off. Can God desert those to whom He has made oath? Absolutely impossible! Can He be defeated? Never! God's purposes may be thwarted and hindered; but, despite all human failure and folly, they must eventually be realized. The prophecies of the Old Testament concerning God's ancient people have never been wholly fulfilled; and it cannot be that the inspired Word of the living God should prove a failure.

Deut. vi. 4, 6 has a direct bearing on this subject.

“Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord: and thou ahalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy and, and with all thy might.”

That is the Divine purpose for Israel. The unity of God is a great abiding fact, there coupled with heart and soul love for Him on the part of the nation. Connect with that passage Isa. xliii. 12, 13:

"I have declared, and I have saved, and I have showed, and there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord, and I am God. Yea, since the day wee I am He; and there in none that can deliver out of My hand: I will work, and who shall let it?"

Israel is God's chosen nation for manifesting Him to the world, and that revelation is to be made by their own loyalty to Him, and by their absolute freedom from the corrupting practices which have obtained among other people. Such an ideal has never yet been fully carried into practical effect; but because it is Divine, it has yet to be realized.

Before suggesting to you a few principles of interpretation for distinguishing the Bible prophecies concerning Israel which have not yet been realized, I ask, Are such predictions to be fulfilled? If not, we are driven into one of two positions. Either they are not inspired, or, being inspired, God has made a mistake. I decline to adopt either alternative. I have given up reading any book outside the Bible for proof of its inspiration. This blessed Book is gripping my inner consciousness more and more, and is compelling my obeisance to what must indeed be (and not merely contain) the very Word of God. The second alternative being obviously untenable, it follows that the prophecies are intended to be fulfilled. The distinguishing principles suggested, then, are as follows:-

i. Prophecies speaking of God's Israel as a whole, in fullness of blessing, are yet future. All the glorious predictions concerning the triumph and magnificence of Israel, are unfulfilled. They must and will be realized to the letter.

ii. References not merely to the restoration of the nation, but to its conversion, are to a state of things not yet realized, because God's ancient people are not yet regenerate in heart and life. They will be when they acknowledge Him as Saviour and as King, Whom to-day they are rejecting.

iii. When the prophecy speaks of Israel as restored to wander no more, it refers to the future.

iv. Descriptions of the utter and final overthrow of Israel's enemies are unfulfilled.

v. When the coming of Messiah is connected with national deliverance, the prophecy is unfulfilled. To some of us it is remarkable that the nation did not understand its own prophets. How did a devout Jew of the olden times read Isa. liii., with its picture of the suffering One? Well, he passed it over because he did not understand it, after the manner of many Christians in our own day, in regard to other matters in the Book, touching Israel's future glory and government. Part of Jewish prophecy has been fulfilled in the coming of the rejected One; but all predictions which connect His coming with national deliverance are still unfulfilled.

vi. When it is declared that Israel, as a whole, shall be a channel of blessing to all other nations, the prophecy is unfulfilled.

vii. When the prophecy was uttered after the return from Babylon, it remains to be fulfilled.

Take two instances in illustration. First, the beautiful passage in Isa. xlix. 18-22. "Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. Be I live, saith the Lord, thon shalt surely clothe thee with them all as with an ornament, and gird thyself with them, like a bride. For, as for thy waste and thy desolate places and thy land that hath been destroyed, surely now shalt thou be too strait for the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away. The children of thy bereavement [the lost tribes] shall yet say in thine ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell. Then shalt thou say in thine hart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have been bereaved of my children, and am solitary, an exile, and wandering to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I Was left alone; them, where were they?" [Mark that question.] "Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up Mine hand to the nations, and set up My ensigns to the peoples: and they shall bring thy sons in their bosom, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.”

While I am not able positively to deny that we, as a nation, are identical with the lost ten tribes, I am by no means satisfied of it; but I have no quarrel with those who hold that view. At all events, God knows where they are; and back to the old land for which He has declared His love, shall come the scattered earthly people- not the two tribes, not Judah alone, but all the Israel of God.

The second example is Zech. viii. 7, 8:

"Thus with the Lord of Hosts: Behold, I will save My people from the met country, and from the west country: and I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness."

That is a prophecy never yet fulfilled; and I believe one of the very first things after the Apocalypse of Jesus with His saints, and when the man of sin has been destroyed, will be the gathering of God's ancient people to their own city. The consideration of God's purpose therein must be reserved for future study; but I may say here that the gathered ones will become the greatest missionaries the world has ever had. They will preach the everlasting gospel, and be God's messengers to other peoples, carrying all the truth of the Kingdom which they rejected when Christ came of old.

Rev. xx. 2, 3, shows that when the King comes and has destroyed the very incarnation of earthly evil, an angel from heaven will lay hold upon Satan and bind him for a thousand years, so that his deceiving of the nations shall cease during that period. Passing by, for the present, his subsequent loosing for a little season, it is one of the most glad and blessed prospects, that Christ is to inaugurate His reign upon the earth, by locking away from the nations the arch-enemy of the human race. Let me repeat that this coming of its King is earth's greatest hope. I have every confidence in the victory of righteousness, not on account of the organizations of the present day, but because I have faith in God and in the consummation of His purposes, by this coming of Christ to set up His reign among men.

Surely He cometh, and a thoneand voices
Call to the saints, and, to the deaf, are dumb;
Surely He cometh, end the earth rejoices,
Glad in His coming, Who hath sworn,"I come."
This hath He done, and shall we not adore Him?
This shall He do, and shall we yet despair?
Come, let no quickly fling ourselves before Him;
Cast at His feet the burden of our care.