SUNDAY READING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6302, 28 January 1882, Page 3

SUNDAY READING.

PROPHETIC TRUTH. 11JsA-BlrV, from want of space, to insert maTS J than a brief notice of the lecture upon Prophetic Trnth, in reference to the dose of the Present Bispensarion and ihe Pre-Slillennial A dvent of the Son of Man, delivered! by Mr. W. R. Vines, on the evening of ths 20th instant, in St. Sepulchre's school-rooi», we have been requested to give to our reaifers the following synopsis of that gentleman's address :— Man, created originally in the image of i God, fell through transgression and lost that image; yet there remained to him an inner and ineradicable sense of dependence upon a power beyond and superior to himself. This Power, or imrevealed Deity, he imaged forth in the similitudes of " four-footed beasts and creeping things and fowls of the air." Then he personified the lusts and passions of his own fallen nature, systematised a mythology, and offered sacrifices, built temples, instituted a priesthood, legalised and endowed with land and revenues the worship and ritual of idolatry. M»n has pver had a religion, whether the grosser forms of paganism, or the purer forms instituted by Zoroaster, Buddha, Brahmi, Confucius, and others. Hence it has been rightly said that " Man is a religious animal." He shrinks from absolute independence of the spiritual and supernatural, because he feels his need of sustainment and help. But m the midst of all his progressive and ever-developing civilisation, he has not been able by his own unassisted effort,'even in the classic era of Grecian literature and philosophy, to arrive at the knowledge of the one only and true God. Without revelation, man has to this day groped in darkness, vainly endeavouring to draw aside tho veil, peneti'a'e the future, and solve the mystery of the spiritworld. The necessity for the existence of a Supreme Being for Divine incarnation, in order to propitiation h3' sacrifice (forfeited life) has ever been indolibly stamped' down deep in the very instincts of man's nature, throughout all generations. Man is, and ever has been, a worshipper. Alas ! that it should have been reserved for the nineteenth century of the Christian era to- see boldfronted, unveiled, materialistic atheism, the negation of faith and trust, stalking forth in the midst of our civilization and scientific attainment. It is difficult how "to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the holy ones," for the transcendentalisms of rationalists and of ritualists, though antagonistic to each other, are equally hostile to evangelical truth as unfolded in the revelations of Holy Writ. There can exist but one Supreme Originator and Creator of the all things, whether " in the heavens, upon the earth, or under the earth," who was_ before all things, and in whom the all things subsist or hold together, and He is the Triune Elohim of Revelation, Father, Son, Spirit. The world through its wisdom knew not, knows not, and never will know this God. Unsanctified intellectualism does but lead away from God, and terminates in uncertainty, doubt, negation, leaving man's spirit oppressed, inert, dead. As there is but one God, so is there but one true religion, the expression of the believer's union with, obe- . dicnce to, aud dependence upon the Father, ■. the Son, the Spirit. "God is a Spirit, and . they that worship Him must worship Him ' in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh ( such to worship Him," was the dictum of j Him who emphasised Himself as " the Way, , the Truth, the Life," to and for man in his j darkness and ruin. Impossible is it for man's intellect to grasp the Infinite. The | creature ever attempts it and ever fails. He ( comes with plummet, line, and measure in * hand, taking for his scale the term of his j own incipient existence, three score years and ten, or the space called time, whether historic or prehistoric, and with these he calculates, theorises, whether his method be by analysis or synthesis, draws his conclusions, and fails. The secret is, faith must come in where reason fails, hence the necessity for a Divine revelation upon which faith can re3t, and the peace of God rule in the heart as the result. ' It will help much in our apprehension of the "Scriptures of truth," if the fact be ever present to our minds, that with God there is neither past nor future. The High and Lofty One inhabits eternity—infinite duration—whether to finite mortals past or future. Tho present of the God of the Bible is infinite duration, " from everlasting to everlasting." This is the open, one page, in which He reads, is cognisant of, understands, orders, guides, overrules all that concerns His domain, whether spiritual, intellectual, or physical. Hence He can, and He alone, "call things that aro not as though they were." Hence t Infinite Omniscience, there being no future, there can be no prophecy. That which is prophecy to'time-creatures is contemporaneous, present, to the Divine mind, whether foretelling events about to occur in the near future or those that shall come to pass in the remoter ages of our planet's history. If, thus prepared, we come to the study of Scripture history and prophecy, we shall soon realise how it assists us in arriving at the "Mind of the Spirit" as unfolded in its sacred volume. When the "Sons of God" gazed out upon primeval creation in all its" pristine glory and beauty, we read that tUr-y -shouted for joy, and the "morning stars" sang together, giving vocal expression to their sympathy with the Father of the everlasting age—the "I am" inhabiting eternity—as He surveyed the perfection of His own creation, and pronounced all that He had made very good. No finite intelligence, not even the most profound and philosophic intellect born of woman, could then have foreseen the fall and the consequent clouding in of sin, of ruin, of misery, and of death. When, therefore, the shock of transgression, the sinbliglit of that creation, had penetrated to tho heavenly hosts, they must have Telt confused and doubtful, and have waited in tho suspense of silent expectation to discover how the God of their hosts would meet this income of evil, and obliterate the trail of the serpent. So far as we can gather from Holy Writ, the mystery of redemption, by the incarnation of the Logos—"the Word made flesh"—in order to his vicarious death, was still, as it had ever been, a mystery, deep-hidden in the recesses of the Eternal Omniscience. Strange must it have sounded in the ears of these exalted, unfallen spirits, to wliem the knowledge of evil had never reached, when love and mercy, gleaming foith from justice and judgment, pronounced the sentence upon the liar and deceiver, "Tho seed of tho woman shall bruise thy head." Onward thence through the procession of ages and dispensations, until the "fulness of time came," did these mighty ones, excelling in strength, hearkening to the voice of Jehovah's word, doing His commandments, patiently minister and wait, believe and hope, on down through four thousand years of man's deepening corruption, idolatry, and rebellion, until, at length, o'er Bethlehem s plains, in manifested glory, they could chant in full-toned harmony, "Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, goodwill towards men." For there had been born of Mary, the most highlyfavoured among women, as announced by Gabriel, the Heaven-sent messenger, "A Saviour, Christ the Lord." What scientific reasoner of the ninth decade of the nineteenth century, accompanying the shepherds to Bethlehem, and looking upon the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger, would have owned that.babe as Gocl incarnate—" God manifest in flesh ?" And, yet, the Logos, equal with God, who was God, emptied himself, became flesh, took upon him the form of a servant (bondman), humbled Himself to death, the shameful malefactor slave's death of the cross. And why ? Because from before the "times of the ages," ere yet "the mountains were settled,", or' the hills brought forth, or earth's foundations laid, the delights of the Logos were with the sons of men, and every proccssive acting of the Triune Elohim, whether in grace or in judgment, during time's- evolution of its ages and dispensations, had for its object the unfolding of the mystery "of His will "according to His good pleasure, which He had purposed in Himself," that tho Word should assume flesh, in the body prepared for Him in the Womb of the virgin, and dwell among us full of grace and truth. : " He was in the world, and the world was made by Him,' and the world knew Him' not."' "He came unto His own, but His own received Him not." His brethren, according to the fleßh, despised and rejected Him, cast Him out as a deceiver, guilty of blasphemy ;' imprecated His blood upon themselves and upon their children, and demanded His crucifixion. The Scriptures testify that, being delivered by the determinate counsel aud fore-know-ledge of God, they took Him, and by lawless hands they slew Him, hanging Him upon a tree. They denied the Holy Ono and Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto them, and killed the Prince ot Life. : Taking upon Himself the load, of man's trespasses and sins, presenting Himself the sin-offering to God, He made propitiation for sin, and,

• through this voluntary sacrifice of Himself, J He put avfsjr sin, and became the author "of eternal salvation to those' obeying Hilft. A corpse, loving hands swathed Etiin in fine j, linen, .with myrrh and aloct, and laid JHim in Joseph's tomb. He rested there daring that great Sabbath in the silence of death. 1 Eu/t ages before had He given prophctic utterance to His trustfnl repose in the faith* fulcrass of His God and JFather in ths words, "Thou l will not leave My soul in Sheol or Hades r Thou wilt not suffer Thine Hoyy One to see corruption." His last cry, a» the sin-bearing: victim, was, " Fbther, into Thy hands I costmend My spirit." And on the fSnt day of the week, very early, as it began So dawn, the father, in loving faithfulness, fallowed unto Him "the path of life," ancT declared (determined) Him the Sot of God lb power according, to the spirit or holiness (the Holy Spirit}'' by the resurrection from among, or out of, She dead. Havinjyraised Him, victor over death and hades; the Father seated Him in His own right hand in the heavenlies, crowned Him with glory and honour, subjected' unto Him the acgcls and authorities and powers, and said ufito Him, "Sit Thau in my rig&t hand until I mate all Thine enemies Thy footstool." And thus; in the unfolding of the my3tery of rcdemi> tion, the Logos, through incarnation, suffering, and death, became tho author of eternal salvation unto all who should obey Him, called of God, a high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. As in the heavens, raised and glorified, all things have been put under the feet of Jesus, the Nazareue, once the "man of sorrow and acquainted with grief," and God His Father hath given Him to be " Head over all, to the Church, His body, the fulness of Him, who filleth all in all." During the time of His rejection by the world, absent from those believing-in Him and loving Him, what object of hope and ' consolation did He put before' them? Heaven through death ? Nay, but Sis own return ! When about to go away ffom the little company of His disciples, gathered in that upper chamber in Jerusalem, to eat with them His last passover, He said,® "Let uot your hearts be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's | house are many mansions, if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again and will receive you unto Myself, that where I am ye may be also." When gone, they had nothing-to look for, no ground of hope, but simply-and only,. "I come again, and will receive you unto Myself." And again, as the disciples Btood upon the mount of His ascension, and looked steadfastly into heaven, a cloud having just received their loved One out of their sight, what object of hope, what anticipation did the two angel-men who stood by them in white apparel put before these sorrowing ones as- their comfort and stay ? Death 1 rest! heaven ! Nay, verily, listen to their utterance : " Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing into the heaven ? This Jesus who was received up from you into the heaven shall so come in like manner as ye beheld Him going into heaven." Nothing to look for, : to hope for, to expect, to anticipate, to long j for, but "This Jesus shall so come in like manner." This is the believer's "Blessed Hope." (Titus i. 13.) , Every Epistle in the New Testament refers distinctly to the personal return of the , Lord Jesus as the believer's joy and hope, ■ amid the darkness and antagonism of a 1 "world lying in the wicked one." Texts , could be cited and "multiplied, but time 1 forbids us to dwell. In one address, the ( subject which fills Scripture ("The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy"), which points on to tho consummation of believers blessedness, as well as to the consummation of the Triune Elohim's purposes, whether of grace or of judgment, can only be approached, its foundation on truth ex- ( plored, and the way cleared for subsequent investigation. My object this evening is to evoke serious thought, for the devout meditatiou of God's word leads on to prayer, supplication and thanksgiving, that is, to worship and communion with "The Father of mercies and the God of all comfort." The return, or pre-millennial advent of the Lord Jesus presents its two aspects to the • eye of faith. He comes primarily and speci- ■ ally for His saints, His holy ones, whether j quick or dead ; alive and remaining in the - body, or dead and, thorefore, absent from the body. Having received them unto Himself in resurrection, holiness, and glory, they are presented '' Without spot and blameless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy." Seeing the result of the travail of soul, when working out their ( redemption, He joyfully declares the name of His Father to tliem, and, " in the midst , of the Cnurch" doth He lead forth the chorus ! of redemption's triumph. All heaven's host, the "ten thousand times ten thousand and the thousands of thousands," in one mighty acclaim, "as the voice of many waters, of mighty thunderines, shout in the transport of their joy, Hallelujah ! for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad, and givo honour to Him; for the marriage of tho Lamb has come, and His wife hath made herself ready." After the nuptials the scene changes, the Bridegroom and the Bride become warriors, with swords girded upon their thighs, riding upon white horses, going forth in "The day of the Lord.," conquering and to conquer. He comes to earth in the manifested glory of Himself, of tho Father, and of the holy angels, with all His saints. The Farousia is the personal coming of the Lord for His saints; the Epiphaneia, or Apocalypse, is His effulgent revelation in the clovulr of heaven, when he comes with all Hie saints to yield vengeance, Lord of the lords, and King of the kings, to put down utterly all opposing "rule and authority and power," to put all enemies under His feet. Note the following Scriptures in connection with tho coming of the Lord to raise and change believers ; turn to Philippians iii., 20, 21: "For our commonwealth, citizenship, is in the heavens, out of which we earnestly expect the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, conformed unto the body of His glory, according to the energy or working whereby He is able even to subdue, to subject, or to order, the all things under Himself." Now, turn to 1 Cor., xv., 50-54, and note that this passage is exclusively the inspired unfolding of the mystery, " We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed," and has reference to believers only. Pass on to the next epistle, and open at 2 Cor., iv., 14-18, and v., 1-10, aud remark that the longing desire of the groaning believer, burdened in this body-tabernacle, is not to slough the mortal coil, to die, to become a disembodied spirit, but to be "clothed upon, that mortality may be swallowed up of life." Then pass onto 1 Thess., iv., 13-18. The Thessa* lonian believers were strong and vivid in faith, .they had "turned unto God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait earnestly for His son out of the heavens." They thought that the personal return of their Lord was imminent. Some of their brethren had been put to death, and they mournfully feared that those deceased would not share in the glory of that parousia. To correct this misapprehension, and to comfort them, the Apostle Paul emphasises that which he is about to unfold with "I am not willing that you should be ignorant, brethrenand also with "This we say unto you in the word of the Lord," impressing thereby the all-importance of the two great facts, "The dead in Christ shall rise first; then the living, and remaining unto the parousia of the Lord, shall be caught up together with them in clouds, unto meeting the Lord in tho air." Note the contrast, "The Lord Jesus and His faithful ones personally separated and absent from each other in this life; He comes forth out of the heavens for them, to receive them unto Himself, then, and for ever thereafter, perfectly ' conformed to His image,' for ever with the Lord." Once more open the New Testament at 2 Timothy, iv., 0, the aged Paul is now a prisoner at Rome, "ready to be offered," '' The timeof my departure (dissolution) is near at hand." In this solemn consciousness, upon what does the vision of his fai,th rest? What buoys him up, and gladdens his spirit? It is not death—"absent from the body, present with the Lord"—but it is "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, .will give me at tho I day j and not to me only, but unto all thoso having loved His appearing." One more passage will close this individually most interesting aspect of the Lord's coining. Read 1 John iii. "Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it hath not yet been manifested what we shall be, but we know, that when He hath been manifested, we shall be like to Him, for we shall see Him as Ho is." The believer's hope, object of desire and expectation, can therefore, be nothing else than the return of tlte Absent One, " whom not having seen, he loves, and in whom trusting, ho rejoices with a joy full of glory and immortality." . . ■ Before entering upon the consideration of the second or world's aspect of the manifestation of the Son of Man, His coming in the

clouds' of heaven *itli power an.*i great glory, ft will be necessary to collate those scnpture3 wL'ich testify of the state of the < civilised world at the epMjh of that revel.v tion. We shall find that it' is impossible; consistently with their testimony, to interpose a millennium of uui versa! evangelization, peace and blessing, before thsif event. We : shall find that this ilispensatJMi will close in; seenlar worldlineas, social nsd . political dislocation, disbelief, avowed ntfioism, and open' rebellion. But, if opportunity present, we Will pursue the subject on sonur future occasion ; meanwhile, like the Bereans- of old, inquiring after trntli in revelation,-may we receive the word with all readiness-of mind, ami search the Scriptures disily whether these things arc so. Acts xvii., 111."COMMJT THY WAY UxVTO THK LORD." 'Slid th'e'&eat of trial to-diy. Lord'! I ! come to Thee, and Lav All the bitYden of the way A\ Tlrr feet in prayer. All the trorAries that have been. All tbc.cross Thine eyes have seen. Take thfcm, Lord ' on Thee I lean, lies ting on Tliy care. Let mc nothing, sothfni? hide ; Let me in Thy lore abide: Let me in Thy sCttmgih confide ; Roll my \ffay on Thee. Once upon the rueing fioo-1, King of glory! T!i©« haat trod ; Through the tetopest, oh my God, Thou canst sticcsar mc. Let me never liffc'again, With an anxlons liftntfaad vain, This, the burden of'ikiy pain, On Jehovali eastBid the weary doiibiiag-caase, [ Grant from every fear-'releneo, | Let Thy suppliant go'in peace, ; All the fretting?past'. i Father—God ! on Tiicfe I wait; Nought I know of chance orfoie ; Though the way seem""desolate; I can trust my King. I can bear a song away' To the task ordaiued to-day— "Blessed all who trust and pray.'Neath Jehovah's icing. —31. S. M.