Here it may be well to pause for a moment and notice the order in which the important events of this period occur. We have seen the saints caught up to meet the Lord according to His own promise in John 14. They pass into heaven, and, all things being ready, the marriage of the Lamb takes place according to the vision of St. John. (Rev. 19.) "The marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready." He presents her to Himself a glorious church, holy and without blemish. What a day that will be! What a day even for heaven, so long accustomed to glory. But this will be a new glory, the bridal glory of the Lamb! As the bride ranks with her Bridegroom, and the wife with her husband, so will the church rank with Christ on that day of wondrous, transcendent glory! The marriage scene and the marriage supper being over, the blessed Lord, or the last Adam, with His beloved Eve, the glorified saints, and the angelic hosts prepare for His appearing in glory, and to take possession of the earth. But during the interval between the coming" and the "appearing" God's love has been active in gathering out His own, and the earth has been ripening for judgment. When the true church has left the scene of testimony, and the merely nominal part has been rejected for ever, the Spirit of God begins to work in the Jewish remnant; and they, as the missionaries of the new testimony, preach "the everlasting gospel to them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people." The judgment of the living nations in Matthew 25 discriminates as to the results of this mission. And Revelation 7 shows us the saved multitudes of both Jews and Gentiles by means of "the everlasting gospel," as preached by the Jewish "brethren" of the blessed Lord. But while the love of God is thus active, and the power of the Spirit thus manifested, Satan is exerting all his power, and bringing up all his forces, to corrupt the whole earth, and dispute its possession with the Lord's Anointed. But the hour of their judgment is come. "And I saw heaven opened," says the apostle, "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." (Rev. 19) The Lord is coming; He is on His way. Heaven is open; but he comes not alone; the armies of heaven follow Him. He comes to take vengeance on them that know not God, and them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. "He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked." Apostate Christendom, and the Jews who have returned to their own land in unbelief, and formed an alliance with Antichrist, will be the special objects of judgment, but a remnant of Israel shall be saved. The heavenlies cleared of Satan and his angels; the earth cleared of its wicked kings; the beast and the false prophet cast into the lake of fire, and Satan bound in the bottomless pit; the whole scene being thus cleared by judgment, and victory complete, the blessed Lord takes the kingdom. "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever." (Rev. 11: 15.) The spared remnant of Israel and their offspring, and the remnant of Gentiles which survive the awful judgments, with their posterity, will form the population of the earth during the millennium, while the church reigns with Christ. her Head and Bridegroom in heavenly glory. "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years." Revelation 20: 4-6. THE PAST AND PRESENT STATE OF THE PROFESSING CHURCH. It would be impossible to estimate the real service which the Brethren have rendered to the church at large by giving such prominence in their teaching to the Lord's second coming. it has been a central doctrine in all their teaching from the first — always, of course, in connection with accomplished redemption, with Christ on the Father's throne, and with the Holy Ghost sent down, consequent upon Christ sitting there as man. If this truth be overlooked or deliberately rejected, only a very small portion of the word of God can be properly understood. The first resurrection, for example, and the millennial reign of Christ with His glorified saints, with other collateral truths, must be entirely lost sight of. The thought, before the days of Brethren, that the coming of Christ was at the close, not at the commencement, of the millennium was almost universal. The idea was, and still is, to a great extent, that the world, or Gentiles, will be converted by means of societies and missionaries; after that, "all Israel shall be saved." Then intervenes a spiritual millennium before the Lord comes. Hence the cry has been, especially on the Exeter Hall platform, "Give us more men, more money, and we will carry the gospel into all lands, and kings shall become the nursing fathers and queens the nursing mothers of the church." But in all this the purpose of God concerning the church is overlooked, which is an out-calling from Jews and Gentiles. We cannot be too zealous as to the spread of the truth, the commission being, "Preach the gospel to every creature." But each conversion is an addition to the church, which will be translated to heaven before the millennium. The doctrine of a spiritual reign is generally held by the opponents of Brethren: but numbers, even amongst the ranks of such, have, of late years, been led to see its great inconsistency, though they may not have fully received the truth. If, as commentators say, Christ will not come till after a thousand years of blessedness on the earth; what has the believer to look for now? Necessarily for death as the end of his course, and for the fulfillment of the predicted events, while his body lies slumbering in the grave during earth's great jubilee. What a prospect for the true spouse, the beloved bride of the heavenly Bridegroom! True, the souls of believers would be with Christ,, but their bodies would be in the silent grave, while all earth was rejoicing under His so-called spiritual sceptre. The feeblest believer, the least instructed child among Brethren, would, we verily believe, reject this theory as utterly opposed to all scripture. In place of looking for death and a thousand intervening years before his Lord comes, he is looking for Him as the sustaining, consoling, comforting hope of his daily life. The true effect of conversion — unless the convert is blinded by false teaching — is to wait for his Saviour from heaven. When the Lord comes, as we have seen over and over again, the church meets Him in the air. She is ushered into heavenly bridal joys, and into the endless blessedness of the Father's house. Then will follow — when judgment shall have cleared the scene — the peaceful glories of the kingdom. All that psalmists have sung, and prophets predicted of the blessedness of the earth during that joyous period shall be fully accomplished. Satan and his hosts, the evil angels banished from the heavens and the abodes of men, Christ reigning, and His risen saints associated with Him on the throne of His heavenly and earthly glory, must essentially distinguish the millennial period from all preceding dispensations. Then shall come creation's day of boundless exultation and universal gladness in the Lord's presence, so constantly spoken of in the Old Testament. "The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad. The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together before the Lord; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity." Psalms 97, 98. Beautiful beyond all description are the holy strains of triumphant joy which flow from the lips of Old Testament seers in anticipation of this day of gladness. All nature is called upon to swell the chorus of universal joy. The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose; the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water. The mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk and honey. The wild beasts of the field — shorn of their ferocity — shall become gentle and harmless as the lamb, and warfare and strife shall cease from amongst the children of men. Thus will God reverse the history of man; He will heal his sorrow, relieve his misery; crown him with health, peace, and plenty, and spread joy throughout the restored creation, according to His estimate of the cross of His beloved Son. In that day it will be seen and acknowledged that the cross of the Lord Jesus is the foundation of the widespread scene of millennial glory and blessing.* Colossians 1: 20; Isaiah 11; Psalm 72. (*Plain Papers on Prophetic Subjects, by W. Trotter. See also, Eight Lectures on Prophecy, by Trotter and Smith.) "Kings shall fall down before Him, And gold and incense bring; All nations shall adore Him, His praise all people sing. Outstretched His wide dominion, O'er river, sea, and shore; Far as the eagle's pinion, Or dove's light wing can soar." THE GREAT WHITE THRONE. Nothing can be more humiliating to man than what we find at the end of the millennium. God will then show that a thousand years of manifested glory will not convert the human heart without His saving grace. The moment Satan is again free, and exercises his power, the unconverted portion of the Gentile nations is deceived by him. He gathers them together in rebellion; but fire comes down from God out of heaven and devours them utterly. And this brings us to the last and closing scene in the history of man — the eternal judgment. "And I saw," says John, "a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the heavens and the earth fled away; and there was found no place for them." There need be no difficulty on the reader's part in distinguishing between this last sessional judgment, and the judgment of the living nations. (Matt. 25.) When the Lord comes at the beginning of the millennium, the earth, as we have seen, is universally blessed under His reign for a thousand years. But such is not the case here. There is no earth, to bless now. It is the resurrection and judgment of the wicked dead at the close of the millennium. The general notion — entertained by nearly all the Brethren's critics — that Christ will not leave the heavens till the end of the millennium, when there will be one general resurrection and one general judgment of the righteous and the wicked, is utterly without the least foundation in scripture; and not only so, but is directly opposed to the very nature of Christianity and the purposes of God in Christ Jesus. At the commencement of the millennium, the risen saints are seen sitting upon thrones in association with Christ. "They lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." (Rev. 20: 4.) This was their time of public reward for service or for suffering with Christ during His absence. The time is come, says the seer, "that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear thy name, small and great." (Rev. 11: 18.) But on the great white throne Christ is seen alone. While it was a question of governing the millennial earth, the saints governed with Him. Now it is a question of eternal judgment, and He acts alone. Nevertheless they will he with Him, according to that all-precious word — "For ever with the Lord." The lost and the saved shall then stand face to face — the righteous with the Lord, the wicked standing before Him. What a sight! What a moment! What a difference now between the two companies! Stripped of every false covering — no purple, no mitre, no crosier, no mantle of mere profession to screen their guilt now — each one is seen in his real character, and with all his sins; not one has been blotted out — all must be there. "And the sea gave up the dead which were in it: and death and bell delivered up the dead which were in them; and they were judged every man according to his works." The depths, the unseen world, are forced to deliver up their miserable prisoners, that they may hear from the lips of the once-rejected Jesus their final sentence. All are now gathered, and time is no longer. The created heavens and earth are fled away; nothing is now to be seen but the great white throne of dazzling brightness, and the glorious Majesty of the Son of man with His glorified saints around Him. The awful sentence, uttered amidst the dreadful silence of that solemn scene sends back the wicked into the depths of hopeless woe. But the glory and beauty of the Saviour Jesus, whom they despised in time, and the myriads of happy saints who surround Him, can never, no, never be forgotten. Thus closes the history of man and the events of time. Eternity begins — the wicked judged, the righteous blessed, and all the ways of God for ever vindicated. "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him [the once lowly Jesus], and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." (Phil. 2: 9-11.) This done, love creates new heavens and a new earth, as the future dwelling place of the redeemed; and God comes down to dwell among them. "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell among them; and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God." Revelation 21: 1-7. REFLECTIONS ON THE TESTIMONY OF BRETHREN. No intelligent unprejudiced Christian, who has examined the testimony of Brethren, could, for a moment, we think, question its source. It is most surely of God by His Holy Spirit. Fruits prove this. Separation from the world, holiness of life, occupation with the truth in service to Christ, and the expectation of His return from heaven, have characterized them. When we say this, we do not mean that they are in themselves better than other Christians; they have to mourn over infirmities, failures, and short-comings, and judge themselves for many things that are unlike Christ; but we speak of what has constituted and characterized their mission and testimony. It has been perfectly distinct and widely apart from every section of Christians throughout the whole of Christendom. Since the days of the apostles, we find no such movement in the history of the church. We have no doubt that the whole thing is of God, however much His chosen instruments may have failed in carrying out His mind. The recovery of long-lost truths, so deeply precious both personally and ecclesiastically, manifestly proves this. If, then, this be the source and character of the testimony, it becomes a very solemn matter to traduce and oppose its messengers. Is it not fighting against God Himself and depreciating a restored Christianity? The solemn words of the Lord are not inapplicable in such a case — "Verily, I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." But the Brethren have not been satisfied merely to live, enjoy, and teach the truth; they have boldly testified against the prevailing evils of their time. Who has raised so distinct and scriptural a protest against Rationalism, Ritualism, Romanism, infidelity, and the worldliness of the whole professing church? Let the many public lectures which Brethren have given on these subjects, and the pamphlets which they have published, bear witness. "It is written by divine inspiration — 'When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.' (Isa. 59: 19.) Of late years the enemy has been coming in like a flood, and where is there anything in these lands that can be called the lifting up of a standard against him, except it be the intensely spiritual movement, and thoroughly biblical writings, of the Brethren? For, drawing only from the holy scriptures, have they not displayed a banner because of the truth against every great evil that has come in for the past forty years? Are they not the present-day standard bearers of a recovered Christianity?" (Literature and Mission of the so-called Plymouth Brethren; by W. Reid. Nisbet & Co., Berners Street, London.) But while the elder Brethren are thus engaged in detecting and exposing the inroads of the enemy, and "establishing the souls of the disciples," many of the younger Brethren are happily engaged in writing for the unconverted and for the "sheep and lambs of the flock." They send out from their publishers in London for the first of every month, eleven magazines, embracing various lines of divine truth. Several of them have a circulation of about forty and fifty thousand monthly, which shows how far beyond the limits of Brethren they are read; they find their way everywhere. Notwithstanding the bad name which has been given to Brethren by the various denominations, and the strong opposition which has been raised against them, they have been marvellously blessed of God in spreading the pure truth of His word far and wide. And our hearts do most unfeignedly praise Him for raising up a testimony for His beloved Son in almost every part of the world where Christianity has been introduced. He is worthy to have a light to shine and a testimony to go forth wherever there are souls to be saved. In the United States, in spite of Dr. Dabney's mistaken efforts to write them down, ninety-one meetings have sprung up of late years, besides Brethren in places where are no meetings. In Canada, there are a hundred and one meetings. In Holland, thirty-nine: in Germany, a hundred and eighty-nine; in France, a hundred and forty-six; in Switzerland, seventy-two; in the United Kingdom, including the Channel Islands, about seven hundred and fifty; besides twenty-two other countries, where the meetings vary from one to thirteen. Depots for the sale of Brethren's books have been opened in most places where the Brethren have become numerous; but large quantities are sent out monthly to private addresses in nearly all parts of Christendom. It may also be added here that, besides the going out of Brethren from this country to distant parts to preach the gospel, the Lord has raised up and qualified many in these different lands to maintain His testimony as to the unity of the church, and to preach the gospel of salvation to lost souls. In Canada and the United States numbers have been brought to know the Lord, and not a few in New Zealand and Australia. CONCLUSION. From whatever point of view we contemplate the history of the Brethren, we are increasingly persuaded of the divine character of their mission. To them, and to them only, it has been given of God to unfold from His precious word the grand doctrines of the church as the body of Christ; and of His place as Man on the Father's throne; the presence and action of the Holy Ghost in the individual believer, and in the assembly while He sits there; the proper hope of the church — the coming of the Bridegroom — as distinct from the destiny of Israel and the earth. At the same time, fresh light has been shed on the elementary doctrines of the gospel, such as pardon, justification, eternal life, and acceptance; and they have been preached with a clearness, fullness, and power, unknown since apostolic times. Their testimony, we have no doubt, will be maintained, through grace, until the Lord's return, and that amidst the general defection and corruption of the professing church. But what the Brethren have chiefly to watch and pray against is the world. It is difficult, we know, to maintain a steady walk in the path of rejection outside the world, but this is the only consistent path for Brethren. That measure of conformity to the world, which the denominations not only practice but advocate as a means of improving it, and as lawful, reasonable, and innocent, would be a grievous sin on the part of Brethren. From an early period of their history they have taught separation from the world on the principle of John 17. "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." Death, resurrection, and ascension, separate Christ from the world; this is the believer's measure, and the believer's responsibility. And it is this that we are apt to forget, and to lose sight of in the innumerable details of daily life. But the believer is one with Christ, united to Him in heavenly glory, though still here, and ought to be diligent and attentive to all his duties, for the Lord's sake. But thus to live here while we cherish the spirit of our heavenly citizenship, requires watching and prayer in communion with the Lord. There is comparatively little fear of Brethren being drawn aside by any of the popular religious movements of the day; they are too well versed in the realities of the word of God; but the trial and the difficulty will be, in maintaining that place of separation and rejection which the blessed Lord so plainly marks out for them in His prayer to His Father. But if He gives them His place of rejection on earth, He at the same time gives them His own place of acceptance in heaven. When we enjoy the latter, it is not difficult to accept the former. Having spoken thus plainly, we can retire into the sanctuary, and pray for all who love the Lord, by whatever name they are called, and most heartily for those who have in ignorance spoken against His chosen servants. And, looking at the place of responsibility which the Lord has given them as witnesses for Him in the present day, we feel as if we must say, Be united; abound in prayer, in united prayer, and in the full confidence of brotherly love. We would only further add — and that from the depths of our hearts — in the earnest entreating language of the apostle, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service; and be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." Romans 12: 1, 2. |