ably diminished by the propagation of the religion of Jesus; and that this sword, in spite of produced slaughter and divisions, has been and still is a golden sceptre, beneath which the tribes of our race have found a rest which heathenism knew only in its poetry; a freedom, and a security, and a greatness, which philosophy reached only in its dreams."* Christianity is emphatically peace, but it is easy to account for its being turned into a sword. It inculcates all that is amiable, lovely, and excellent; its direct tendency is to elevate both the mental and moral character of its votaries, and nothing more is necessary to secure the universal happiness of the human race but its cordial reception; and were all men governed by its precepts, the nations of the earth would be virtually a family of affectionate brethren. But in man there is that which is contrary to the spirit of the Gospel; and when a person becomes a genuine votary of Christianity, at all times and under all circumstances regulating his conduct by its precepts, he is marked off from his fellows. The separation between him and them is a separation of principles, and his conduct unavoidably reproves that of those he has left; and he who knows anything of the workings of the human heart must perceive that enmity must ensue, which, when it exits, is certain in some way or other to show itself in open demonstration, and thus it is that Christianity is turned into a sword. And so long as there is enmity in the heart of man to the holiness of the Gospel of Christ, there remains a moral impossibility against the unbroken peace of a family, a community, or a nation composed of those who are influenced by principles at war with each other. The two parties possess different natures, they serve under the banners of different masters, who are intent upon the destruction the one of the other. In the very nature of things there must be war between the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness, and that war cannot end until all moral evil is expelled from the human family. When that great achievement is effected, then there will be peace. And this being the aim and tendency of Christianity, with the greatest propriety it is called the Gospel of Peace, and its author the Prince of Peace, whose final victory was predicted by all the seers of Israel. The nature and tendency of Christianity, therefore, is in exact accordance with the predictions, of the prophets, and the fulfillment of that saying of its author, "I came not to send peace but a sword," demonstrates that he was the Son of God, the true Messiah. Many other prophecies were delivered by Jesus Christ, which hav * Mellvill's Sermons, vol. i. pp. 24, 25. ing found an exact accomplishment, confirm his claims as the true Messiah. He foretold the destruction of Jerusalem, and of its celebrated temple, with all its preceding signs, and concomitant and subsequent circumstances, which in the minutest details found an exact accomplishment. He predicted that he would have a church and people down to the remotest generations of mankind; and thus far in the history of the human race his prophecy has been accomplished. But on these subjects we must not dwell, but refer the reader to the many excellent works of pious and learned men, who wrote at large upon the prophecies and their fulfillment. But before we close we must notice the objection urged by the Jews and Infidel, that the kingdom of Messiah was not to be established during the existence of the fourth monarchy, when Jesus Christ appeared, but while those kingdoms existed which sprung up out of the ruins of the Roman empire. We have already seen, that the prophets did predict that Messiah would come while the fourth monarchy was in existence, and that the same prophet (Daniel) who foretold "In the days of these last kings (the present existing kingdoms) the God of heaven shall set up another kingdom which shall never be removed," also predicted that from the going forth of the commandment to build and restore Jerusalem, unto Messiah, should be four hundred and eighty-three years, which found an exact accomplishment in Jesus Christ. And so far from the claims of Jesus coming in collision with the annunciation concerning the kingdom which is to be set up in the latter days, he attests the truthfulness of the prophet by predicting the same event, and at the time specified by Daniel; for when replying to the question of his disciples, when they said, "Tell us, what shall be the sign of thy coming?" after announcing the great tribulation which is to befall mankind in the latter days, he says: "Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." He also says: "When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats; and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on Matthew xxiv. 30, 31. the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." * Something of the nature of that kingdom may be learned from what he elsewhere says to his disciples. "Jesus said unto them, Verily, I say unto you, that ye who have followed me—in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of his glory-ye also shall set upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." To that coming and kingdom Jesus referred in the last words uttered by him at the close of his public ministry, "Ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." As already stated, this passage was taken from a psalm which the Jews themselves held to be a prophecy of Messiah; and the words evidently imply a prediction by Christ, that the Jewish nation would again see him, but not till prepared to give him their allegiance, so that while announcing the misery they were bringing upon themselves, and the protracted infidelity to which they would be consigned, Christ also announced that a time would come, when they, as a nation, would delightedly receive the very person they were then about to crucify. This prediction is in accordance with his prophecy concerning his second coming, in Luke Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, UNTIL the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. In the first mentioned prediction, Christ announced to the Jews, that their house should be left unto them desolate until the time should come when they would " "say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." So in this he announces that Jerusalem should be trodden down of the Gentiles, not for ever, but, "until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." So that in these prophecies Jesus Christ announces that a time will come when Israel will be no more cast off; when Jerusalem shall no more sit desolate, mourning her banished ones, and trodden down of the Gentiles. Are these annunciations in opposition to those of the Old Testament prophets? Nay, rather are they not in perfect accordance with them? for has not Isaiah said: "The great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of. Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy Mount at Jerusalem? Has not the same prophet said of Jerusalem, "The sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee; for in my wrath I smote thee, but in my favor have I had mercy on thee?" * Matthew xxiv. 31-34. † Ibid. xix. 28. The apostle John, by the spirit of prophecy, announces the second coming of Messiah, and he describes the kingdom which in the latter days shall be established upon the earth: "And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True; and in righteousness he doth judge and make war: His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written that no man knew but he himself: And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron and he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture, and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast and them that worshiped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. : And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection." * These prophecies of the second coming and kingdom of Christ, so far from being in opposition to the declarations of the prophets of the Old Testament, evidently refer to the same events, and are in perfect accordance with their annunciations. Isaiah describes the future condition of Jerusalem in the following language: "Awake, put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean." And the same prophet says, "Keep not silence, and give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth." The coming of Messiah, the design of it, and the enemies to be encountered, are all announced by the prophet Zechariah; and it is most manifest that his prophecy and that of the apostle John point out the same events. "I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against these nations. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east: and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof, towards the east and towards the west. And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one." ‡ When Jesus Christ had closed his divine mission he ascended from the mount of Olives. And whilst the apostles "looked stedfastly towards heaven, as he went up," there stood by them two men in white apparel, who told them that "this same Jesus, who is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." In this passage there is a clear prophecy that Jesus Christ shall return personally to the earth, and that, too, in like manner as he departed, and the words imply that his return shall be as predicted by Zechariah. Thus it appears that a comparison of the annunciations of the prophets of the Old Testament concerning that kingdom which is to be established by Messiah upon the earth in the latter days, with those of the New Testament relative to the second coming of Christ, and the kingdom he will then set * Revelation xix. from verse 11 to verse 5 of ch. xx. †Isaiah lii. 1. |