guage could teach more plainly than this does, that the resurrection of the righteous dead will be preparatory to the reign of Christ. I am aware, that, to avoid our conclusion, this has been called a spiritual resurrection. To say nothing of the absurdity of such a view, let me inquire where the consistency is, in our opponents' explaining this language to mean a spiritual resurrection, and that used in the same chapter respecting the judgment, to mean a literal judgment? Why not both spiritual, if either? But we regard both as literal, and so, with great unanimity, have the whole church.

The last event to be considered, as preparatory to the expected reign, is the renewal of the earth and heavens. This clearly follows from previous positions. It is an event that is associated with the coming of Christ, and clearly implied in the resurrection. But positive proof is at hand. In connection with a description of the promised reign, and as preparatory to it, it is declared by Isaiah,—"The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it: and it shall fall and not rise again." Isa. xxiv. 19, 20. For, behold, I create new heavens, and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind." Isa. lv.

17. The apostle Peter, as we have seen in another place, fixes the period of the fulfilment of this promise at the coming of Christ, and after the conflagration of the present heavens and earth. 2 Peter iii. 10—13. As his reign does not begin till his coming, it must be a preparatory event to it. And the Saviour has instructed us about the state and place of his reign, in Matt. xix. 28. "And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." His reign, then, is to be in the regeneration, or new earth. That promised earth is subjected to him. Heb. ii. 5. In it. with all the redeemed, will he reign forever and ever..

These are the more important events that are to precede, and prepare for, that reign. And are they not now upon us?

IV. THE PRIVILEGES AND

THAT REIGN.

ENJOYMENTS OF

As to these, who can adequately speakwho can properly conceive? It is much easier to tell what will not be there, than what will. So the Bible shows. Its descriptions of that state are mostly negative. When it touches positives, it has to be general. Little, then, can I say about its privileges and enjoyments. Only faint ideas can

be had. And I wish first to observe, that, to have any idea of that state, approaching to correctness, the hearer should associate with it, in his mind, all that he has ever conceived that was beautiful, lovely, blissful, and glorious in the heavenly state. That will be the saints' heaven! All the beauty, glory, and joy, you ever thought of in connection with heaven, and much more, will centre there. The new earth will bloom with far more than its original freshness and loveliness. It will rise, purged and refined, from the conflagrant mass. It will be a world of immortality. The ills of a mortal sinful state shall be unknown there. All its inhabitants shall be like the angels, being children of the resurrection. "But they that shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world (the new earth) and the resurrection from the dead, neither inarry, nor are given in marriage: neither can they die any more; for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection." Luke xx. 35, 36. Death shall have no place there -disease shall not riot there—pain shall not afflict there separation shall not be known there—nor sorrow felt there. No tears shall fall there—no wants pinch there no trials annoy there. In that world, there shall be no Satan to tempt—no wicked to molest—no fallen flesh to seduce. There, friends shall greet each other there, the saints of all ages and climes, shall be brought

into holy familiarity and perfect communion. There shall be the New Jerusalem, shining in its refulgent glory, and there the throne of God and the Lamb. And there shall be the river of life—the tree of life, with its monthly fruits, to heal the nations. There, in short, WILL BE HEAVEN!

"Behold the measure of the promise filled;

See Salem built, the labor of a God!

Bright as a sun the sacred city shines.

All kingdoms, and all princes of the earth

Flock to that light; the glory of all lands

Flows into her; unbounded is her joy,

And endless her increase

Praise is in all her gates. Upon her walls,
And in her streets, and in her spacious courts,
Is heard salvation. ⁕ ⁕ ⁕

⁕ ⁕ ⁕ Her report has travelled forth ̈ ́
Into all lands. From every clime they come
To see thy beauty, and to share thy joy,

Oh Zion! An assembly such as earth

Saw never, such as heaven stoops down to see!"

V. The evidences that that reign is about to begin.

We now come to the feature of the system the most serious and difficult, the feature the most opposed. It may justly be called the offensive point. For our views of time, though candidly and honestly cherished, and, in most cases, modestly put forth, we have suffered all kinds of reproach, and have been most unscrupulously traduced and misrepresented. All sorts of objections are made to them. Our attention is frequently turned, by

our opposers, to the fearful results and trémendous evils of the system, if it shall, as they are confident it will, prove untrue. We are everywhere, and by almost all, assured, that the certain result will be a great increase of ungodliness, and a vast multiplication of sceptics. So common is the charge that we are making infidels, that it has come to be regarded as so evident as to need no proof. The charge comes from the pulpit, the press,from the professor's chair, the clerical council, the church-member,—from the pious and profane. All have heard it, all repeat it. It is the short argument, the all-powerful weapon against the system. It is deemed sufficient to set aside all reasoning, however clear, logical or cogent; to disprove all proofs, however direct or demonstrative; to annihilate all facts, however generally acknowledged or well attested; and to strip the most remarkable and ominous signs now developing, of all their significance and import. We may cite, in proof of our views, and in justification of our hopes, the prophets of the Old and New Testaments; the fathers of the church and of the Reformation; the Protestant expositors of the Old and New World; and the extraordinary signs that mark and identify the present period—but to no purpose. "It will make infidels," is the ready and sufficient answer. Assuming that the system is false, and that consequently it will fail; and assuming that its failure will greatly