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out, so long will its real riches be most certainly overlooked. To the vigilant, accurate eye, that can arrange as well as appreciate its stores, it will appear bright with an endless yet well-ordered variety. Viewed thus, it spreads out before us like a broad well-watered plain, various yet regular, profusely wild it may be, yet not disorderly in its beauty. Viewed in the drowsy fashion we have referred to, it stretches out into a vast sandy wilderness, or into a mere chaos of verdure. Not more diverse do the heavens appear to the practised eye of the astronomer and to the ignorant gaze of the peasant, than does the starry firmament of prophecy with which Jehovah has overcanopied his Church in this dark midnight of the world, appear to the thoughtful classifying expositor, and to the indolent glance of the prejudiced or the careless reader. midnight arch of heaven appears to the ignorant gazer nothing but an azure roof inlaid with stars of various lustre, a wilderness of bright disorder,-a chaos of orbs flung together by chance, and coursing to and fro without path or law; while to the skilful eye of science it stands forth as a fair array of God's well-marshalled hosts, each star poised upon its own centre, pursuing its own orbit, and fulfilling its appointed times. So is it with prophecy. To that class of hasty, superficial readers to whom we have been referring, there

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appears much that is beautiful in records of futurity, but that is all. this they think not of searching. reflection from its surface is all that with it they are contented. To those, on the other hand, who, believing that such a method of reading prophecy is irreverence and presumption, have sought to bestow upon it, as upon all parts of God's Word, no less care and thought than upon the most condensed, geometrical demonstration or the most intricate algebraical process,-to them the page of prophecy unfolds itself into a series of minute but most orderly details, and presents a surface infinitely diversified, yet bearing everywhere the marks of perfect regularity and exact design.

CHAPTER V.

THE INTERVAL.

HAVING spoken of the two centres, the question naturally occurs, What is written concerning the interval between? And as it is in this period of interval that we are liying, the inquiry touches on our deepest interests.

This interval is called in Scripture the "last time," or, the "last days." It began with the first coming of the Lord, as is evident from the words of Peter in the day of Pentecost, when he quotes Joel's prophecy concerning the last days, and applies it to his own time; and as is also evident from the words of the Apostle John, "Little children, it is the last time." From these two apostles, then, we learn its commencement. I do not mean as to precise date of day or year, but in a wider, though still definite sense. We can at least say this, the last days had begun in the time of the apostles.

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But when do they end? Here also we have inspired testimony. The Apostle Peter, in the

third chapter of his Second Epistle, points out their termination. They end in the second coming of the Lord. I need not cite the verses at length. The perusal of that chapter will satisfy any reader as to this statement. And here

again let me remark, that I fix no date. Not that I object to fixing them when Scripture is plain; but I do not need their help in this argument, and I wish to place the truth upon its broadest basis, unincumbered with disputable matter. It is enough, then, that we learn from the apostle that the last days end with the coming of the Lord.

Thus, then, we have discovered both the beginning and the end of the interval,-an interval often alluded to by the apostles. We see that the period called the last days begins with the First and ends with the Second Advent. How far on the Church may be in this period,—how near the close of the interval, is not the object of our inquiry. A most interesting one it is, no doubt,— no mere curious question, but an intensely solemnizing one,—yet it is not ours at present; so we pass it by, remarking merely that it is the longest period of the kind that the Church has yet enjoyed, and, with eighteen centuries behind us, we may be looking out for some signs of its close.

But what is the nature of this interval? What

purpose is it designed to serve? It is called "the acceptable year of the Lord;" and this is sufficient to point out its nature. It is "the accepted time," the time in which God is sending forth his messages of peace, making known the method of a free acceptance. It is "the day of salvation," the day in which God is presenting salvation to the sinner through Him who came to seek and save that which is lost. It is the era of God is now bearing testimony to his own gracious character, that men, believing that testimony, may turn to him and live. It is his "abundant mercy," the "exceeding riches of his grace," that he is proclaiming aloud to the children of men, sending everywhere abroad his winged words of love, to a wretched, dying world. Yet in spite of the gracious nature and design of this period, still "there are few that be saved."

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Many are called, but few are chosen." The world is not converted: nor does God ever speak of its being converted before the coming of his Son from heaven, at the "times of the restitution of all things." The dispensation is, then, emphatically one of election,-a "choosing of men out of the world,”—a 66 taking out of the Gentiles a people for his name." And the eighteen centuries that have gone by have borne decided enough witness to this solemn truth. They have

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