believing reception of the gospel, has become a christian, prophetic truth has a most solemn claim on his attention. Conversion itself, in fact, is but half accomplished, until the great, central truth unfolded in prophecy, has its place in the soul. In describing the conversion of the Thessalonian believers, the apostle not only tells us what they were converted from, but what they were converted to: they were turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven." And even as to the details of prophecy, which furnish beforehand to faith, the testimony of God's judgments on the whole scene around us, and in the midst of which we are called to 66 serve the true and living God," how can we intelligently serve him, if this instruction be overlooked or despised? While then, we cheerfully concede the first and foremost place to "the gospel," by which souls are "turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God," we maintain that without prophetic truth, the gospel itself is but partially understood. We may know what we are delivered from; but without prophecy, we are ignorant of that to which we are called: while, as to all that concerns the developement of divine life, the formation of christian character, and the maintenance by the Holy Ghost, of intelligent communion with God, the instruction vouchsafed to us in prophecy, is beyond all price. It is indeed a "light that shineth in a dark place.”

God

To answer objections to the outline of prophetic truth, which has been under review, and to meet the difficulties of inquirers, is all that remains of the present work. grant us to prove all things, and hold fast that which is good; and in all our inquiries may we have no object but his glory, no motive but his love, no trust but in the teaching of his Spirit, and no rule but his own blessed word!

LONDON: PARTRIDGE AND OAKEY, Paternoster-Row.
DUBLIN: ROBERTSON, Grafton-Street.

(Price One Penny.)

No. 23.] Plain Papers on Prophetic [Nov. 1854.

and other Subjects.

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.

one may

To the outline of prophetic truth presented in our last, it is often objected, "that while our Lord and his apostles do indeed lay great stress on the subject of his coming, the death of each individual is virtually the Lord's coming to him; and that therefore, the passages which treat of the with equal advantage be understood of the other." By some this objection may perhaps be regarded as obsolete; and it has undoubtedly been relinquished by some of our post-millennial brethren: but there are numbers by whom it is still urged; and for the sake of numbers more on whose minds it may have influence, as one of the oldest and commonest objections to prophetic truth, we would not pass it by unanswered.

Answer 1. There is no instance in the New Testament in which death is spoken of as "the coming of Christ," or, "the coming of the Lord." If there be such passages let them be produced. 2. Instead of identifying these two subjects, scripture pointedly distinguishes between them. True, that as death is the limit of an individual's continuance here, the Lord's coming will be the terminus to all those who are alive and remain to his coming: but with this single exception, the two events have nothing in common. At death the believer departs, to be with Christ. When the Lord comes, he brings the departed with him. By death, the believer is separated from his fellow christians on earth; at the coming of Christ, all believers are gathered together to him above. However the sting of death may be withdrawn, and however complete may be the saint's triumph over death, it is, nevertheless, that to which our bodies have become subject by reason of sin; the coming

A a

of Christ, on the contrary, is that in which his perfect triumph over sin will be displayed, in the resurrection of the body. 3. So entirely contrasted are "death" and "the Lord's coming" in scripture, that when our Lord said of the beloved disciple, "If I will that he tarry till I come" &c. the disciples, losing sight of the "if," and understanding their Master to say absolutely that this was his will, immediately concluded that "that disciple should not die." They knew quite well, that for a disciple to tarry till Christ comes is to be exempted from death. 4. The apostle Paul, in a passage in which he treats of both subjects, declares, that however blessed it may be to be "absent from the body, and present with the Lord," what he and his fellow christians desired and groaned for, was, "not to be unclothed," or disembodied, "but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life." 2 Cor. v, 4. This will surely not be till the Saviour, for whom we look, shall appear, and change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his own glorious body. Thus evidently are death, and the coming of Christ, not only distinguished, but contrasted, in the word of God.

Nor is it to be regarded as a matter of indifference whether the actual future of our hopes be the same as that which God holds out to us in his word. People may say, "if we are only ready for death, we shall be ready for Christ's coming also ;" but in what sense do those who use this language speak of being ready for either? Are not their thoughts limited to the single point of their own personal safety? No doubt that which constitutes our readiness to stand before God, whether now, or at death, or at Christ's coming, is the one accomplished work of Christ, the whole efficacy of which is God's gift to every poor sinner, who through grace believes in Jesus. But is our individual safety the only, or even the chief end of God's wondrous grace, and of the precious sacrifice of Christ? Have we no thought beyond that of personal security? Has the grace manifested towards us in the gift and in the sacrifice of Christ, established no relations between that' blessed One and ourselves? Are there no affections flowing from such relations? When the hope is set before us of beholding him who became man, and died on the cross, to accomplish our redemption; when he who is not ashamed to call us "brethren"-nay, more, who owns us as his bride, "members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones"-when he says, Surely, I come

quickly"-is no response elicited but such as is expressed in the remark, "that if we are ready for death we are also ready for Christ's coming?" The readiness for which he looks, is the readiness of true and single-hearted affection, and of diligent, devoted service: a readiness, to which the hope of his appearing directly ministers: a readiness moreover, which is greatly hindered, by such low apprehensions of his love, as would make us satisfied with merely knowing that we are safe. The true readiness is that of the wise virgins, who, with oil in their vessels, with lighted and well-trimmed lamps, and with girded loins, went forth to meet the Bridegroom.

Obj. 2. "Admitting that the Lord's coming is the true. hope of the church-that for which she is left to wait and watch and long-is it not quite possible for her to do this, though certain all the while that events of great importance and a period of long duration intervene ? In a word, may we not be longing and watching for our Lord, although we know from scripture that the whole millennium must pass, ere the moment of his return arives?"

Ans. This is an objection urged by some who do now concede to pre-millennialists, that the coming of Christ is the proper hope of the church, and that good service has been rendered, in calling attention to the prominent place which this doctrine holds in the word of God. Some who take this ground, go so far as to dwell on the desolate condition of the church during the absence of her Lord ; affirming it to be her place to "refuse to be comforted" with anything short of his personal return. "But then," say they, "may not all this comport with the knowledge of intervening events and a long intervening period?" Their theory is, "that the heart alternates between two different and apparently opposite views of the interval between its own day and the day of Christ's appearing. Now," they say, "it seems long, and anon it seems short. To faith and hope it seems near, even at the doors; to love and longing desire it seems far, far away to the one it is but a day, and then he will be here; to the other it is a thousand years-dreary period!"

The best reply to this objection, and to the theory on which it is founded, is furnished by facts. The supporters of this theory urge that their view admits of an unfettered and unmodified use of scripture language on the subject of Christ's coming but that is not the question. The question is, Whether scripture language on that subject would

ever have suggested such an interpretation as the one before us? Who can be unaware, that until the recent revival of prophetic truth, within the memory of the present generation, the coming of the Lord as the hope of the church was an almost unheard-of doctrine? while its collateral doctrines, of the distinct resurrection of the saints, and the change to pass on such as are alive, were equally neglected and forgotten. That which has in some measure recalled the attention of christians to these confessedly important subjects, is the doctrine of Christ's coming, not at the close of the millennium, but at its commencement-not with the certain intervention of more than a thousand years, but as an event which may be regarded with habitual expectancy. Facts testify, that as christians imbibe the thought of the certain intervention of a thousand years, they lose sight of Christ's coming as an object of present expectation and hope and, further, that where in any measure this attitude of soul with regard to Christ's coming is regained, it is by the perception that no such events or periods necessarily intervene, as had been supposed to do so. The admissions of those who urge the objection under review abundantly establish this conclusion.

How could it, indeed, be otherwise? We are asked if it be not possible to look and watch and long for our Lord's appearing, well knowing that the millennium must necessarily intervene? Unhesitatingly we answer, No. Had it pleased God thus to order events, and to make this order known to us, we might have understood that Christ would come, that at his coming such and such things would be accomplished, and that both his coming and these attendant events were of great importance. His coming might thus have been the ultimate object of our hope; its prorimate object it never could have been. We should have known as certainly, that we should die and be in our graves for centuries, as, that after the lapse of these centuries, Christ would come. We should necessarily in that case have looked for death as the end of our individual course; and for the occurrence of the predicted intervening events while our bodies slumbered in the grave, and our souls were present with the Lord. Nay more, if God had revealed that Christ would not come for more than a thousand years of blessedness on earth, it would be wrong for us to be expecting his coming until these years had rolled away. Whatever faith and hope might have to say in such a case, they would not and could not contradict God's word,