If the culmination of felicity for the righteous required the resurrection of the body, the end of those that had done evil would not be reached till the bodies which had been the instruments of evil and partners in guilt should be raised and united to the unregenerate spirit, then the flow of generations was to cease; the company of the saved would be complete, the redeemed from among men would be equal to the sinless angels, in that they would be the children of God, looking up to Him as their Father, direct and immediate.

The gathered armies, instigated by Satan, came up and compassed the camp of the saints "fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them." But it was still further said, "death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them; and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire." Rev. xx: 9, 13, 14. Death delivered up the body-and Hades delivered up the spirit. In order to a judgment period so long protracted, reaching its terminus only at the end. of the millennial age, there must needs be within the same parenthesis the subjects of judgment. Popular theology did not teach this but the Scriptures did.

Bible statements that set forth this period described two aspects; Messiah dashing the kingdoms as a potter's vessel, and creating Jerusalem a rejoicing and her people a joy; shaming iniquities to their hiding places, and causing righteousness to spring forth before all the nations. Business was to go right on, family experiences were to keep their steady on flow, but social tribute and supreme place was no longer accorded to the prince of darkness.

"There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die a hundred years old; but the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed. And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat; for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them." Isa. lxv: 20-23.

Signal prosperity must needs be anticipated by a painstaking and

thorough preparation. What is to abide, must be fortunate enough to have tested and durable foundations.

"The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His. And, Let every one that nameth the

name of Christ depart from iniquity." II Tim. ii: 19.

General Barnard built a new light house at Minot's Ledge, Massachusetts. The old one had been swept away, and all the keepers at the time lost their lives. It was a tough place to master. The general looked the problem squarely in the face and said he must have a strong tower that would be chief among the great sea rock lighthouses of the world. He laid the courses so that no rock could be removed without disturbing all the rest; every rock of an upper course he doweled into a lower, and dovetailed it to all about it, and made it impossible for a drop of sea water to ever think of an entrance. The surf and spray might go entirely over the eighty-nine feet lifted in air, but it would have to go over in harmless rage.

Now the foundations of Messiah's reign in the millennium are imbedded in Jehovah's primal rock. But as the work of redemption rears itself above all the impotent malice of Satan and his hosts, aloft and steadily burning on in the cresset, a soft, full, lambent light floods the spaces and makes known to principalities and powers in heavenly places the manifold wisdom of God.

CHAPTER IX.

THE HOLY SPIRIT OUTPOURED.

HE Holy Spirit's outpouring was to be an experience during the same period in which judgment would be visited. To some minds this method of fulfilling the promise seemed incredible because the issues were apparently so incongruous; and, therefore, another interpretation was sought and readily welcomed. Between results diametrically antagonistic, many would not wait for an explanation of reconcilement, and refused to consider the absurd claim of any close natural harmony. It should, however, have needed no more than the statement that what was to be harmonized was not the coalescence of moral opposites, so as that the qualities should be indistinguishable, but that the events pivoted on contradictory moral qualities should occur simultaneously. Such phases of warring belonged to the same sphere and each phase supplemented the other. The evil must needs be removed. The good was to be conserved. Both processes could

co-operate naturally and beautifully. When what was intolerable and remediless had been destroyed and the debris removed, then "a large room" was in readiness for the inbringing of the Master's finished and praiseworthy workmanship. When space had been cleared, He would make the place of His feet glorious.

The fiery ordeal which Peter foretold overtook the earth and the works therein. The consuming flames did not destroy one thing worth saving. The same planet that had been swept by a deluge awaited the fiery trial for which it had been reserved and which it would survive. It would undergo loss, but beyond all the appalling loss which would accrue the dreaded flames would purify it unto God. What did the Apostle Peter say?" But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." II Pet.

iii: 10.

The word "elements," in this quotation, is a derviative. from a verb which signifies to marshal in military order. This army array suggests the original idea in Gen. ii: 1, "The heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them." In the light of what is here traceable a double mention, inclusive both of the heavens and of the earth, by Peter, seems appropriate; of the heavens and the host of them, of the earth and the works therein. The worlds on worlds that crowd the infinite spaces, and constitute the glory of the stellar universe were included in the primal creation.

Their grandeur however was somehow early transferred to what was lower and nearer, and "the heavens" came to be spoken of when only that was meant which was universally visible on the social heights, and which dominated the individual and the home and the nation. Let the language of Isaiah be recalled. "For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and His fury upon all their armies * * * * * And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll, and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree. For my sword shall be bathed in heaven; behold, it shall come down upon Idumea and upon the people of my curse, to judgment." Isa. xxxiv: 2, 4, 5.

There was to come a time in which the heavens should be dissolved and their hosts should melt with fervent heat. Mede called attention to the likelihood that a metaphor was here employed taken from the refining of metals. Was he not right? Is not this manifestly the imagery? For, as he contended, metals which by fire are dissolved are so purified, and to say that the heavens, being on fire, are dissolved, is to affirm that the heavens being held together shall stand.

The fire solidifies what passing every test is to abide. The fire melts together what is to stay together and stay forever. Peter taught that the testings of that day in the measure in which they would move out of the way what had been offensive to the eye of God, would move up into the center of admiration what the holy could not but hail with delight.

The time was predicted, when Jesus would "come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe." II Thess. i: 10. Pious hope had been held to the unveiled vision of a day

when Jesus would be seen reflected from the faces of the saved; and when, enthroned in their hearts, He would gleam and shine through their perfected natures as through so many prisms.

During my pastorate in Piqua, O., I learned to know a Mrs. Gordon, whom I frequently saw in my congregation, although she was a member of the Episcopal church. Among those who knew her best she was esteemed one of the Lord's select, but so much of an invalid that she did not mingle in society extensively. Her health grew more insecure, till she was reported in a decided decline, and I found myself one day at her door. I was most cordially welcomed and in the course of my visit she said, "Don't you remember the sermon you preached about silver?"-referring to a discourse in which I described the process of refining silver, and quoted Malachi, iii: 3, "And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver." "Yes," I replied, you present?" "Yes, I was there; I've thought a good many times since about what you said, and I've wondered as I've lain here on this bed whether the Lord can see His face in me." The truth with which I tried to help her, took on an added emphasis in her sick room, and her ministration to me outweighed by far my own previous estimate of its pertinency and quality of comfort. That pale face, those white lips, and that sweet submissive spirit have been whispering to me, in all varied trials since, to lie still; in the Master's hottest fires to lie still, content if at last the Refiner shall see His face in me and say, "It is enough."

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All the
To

Successful continued opposition to the Holy Spirit is impossible. The attempt has always, sooner or later, ended in self ruin. forces of the universe are enlisted on the side of the Holy Spirit. oppose it is to fight against God.

In the measure in which this controversy is more or less clearly understood by the creature, will the wreck which must result be more or less signal. When Ananias and Sapphira knowingly lied to the Holy Ghost they fell dead. When Elymas, the sorcerer, withstood Paul in the presence of the Roman governor a mist of darkness fell on him and he groped his way and piteously held out his hand to be led.

Postponement of the final smiting, if for wise reasons the blow be long withheld, only makes the judgment when it does descend all the more awful. The same fire removes the dross and reveals the real silver.