plished we cannot well imagine. We can leaving his wife for a long season, and left with think of no other means than the actual com- her many promises and signs to betoken the ing of Christ, which shall also be sudden, "even time of his future return; if she were a faithful as the lightning coming out of the east, and spouse, and loved her husband, she would love going even to the west." In the state of to peruse the promises, and if the signs and things at the present day, it does not seem as tokens appeared, she would be calculating with if we shall have to wait long for the overthrow interest, and eagerly watching about the time of the Pope. By the same analogy of reasoning, of his expected return. Thus Christ left his it would appear that the coming of the Lord church. Are we thus eagerly watching, as a draweth nigh. Therefore be ye also ready, faithful, loving spouse would do? dear reader, for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh.

R.K.

THE POWERS OF THE WORLD TO

COME.

In presenting these two great and notable signs and tokens, we could have filled pages of illustrations. But this is not our object. We would not take up too much room in THE term "world," in the Scriptures, someyour useful publication, but invite others to times signifies this present order of natural furnish their thoughts. And again, we wish things; sometimes the unregenerate human only to awaken thought and inquiry, and care- race; and sometimes this present age or disful, prayerful examination of the question. If pensation, in contrast with that to come. It is sober, intelligent men would only do this, we in this last sense that the word is used in Heb. think they would not long remain skeptical in 2:5 and 6:5. Among those to whom this regard to the evidence in favor of a personal epistle was addressed, this phrase, “world to and speedy advent, previous to the millennium. come," was a common one, and denoted the We regard it not only as a serious but an im- future kingdom of the Messiah. Into the glory portant inquiry, and would venture to suggest of that kingdom the crucified Jesus had now it as a test of our love to the Saviour. The entered, all things being put under him. Apostle Paul does this. The crown of righteous- From the earliest times, the people of God ness of which he was confident, he said would were taught to look and hope for a time of resbe given not only to him, "but unto all them titution, when the evil which now defiles and also that love his appearing." Can we be said curses the world of nature shall be purged out, to love Christ, and love his appearing, if we take no note of his numerous hints and warnings in regard to his coming again? Paul in numerous instances, too numerous to quote, makes use of this as a description of Christian character.

when sin shall be banished and death swallowed up in victory. In the faith and hope of this "world to come," the ancient worthies lived and died.

In the views of most modern Christians, these descriptions are so spiritualized as to be We have other signs to advance, but in the almost meaningless. But, by what authority? meantime, we can scarcely restrain our wonder, Did our Saviour thus make void these prowhy so many Christians are so indifferent about mises? Certainly not. On the other hand, this subject. We can see nothing attractive in he constantly discoursed of a kingdom of the spirit of the world in these days, nor any heaven to come. To his disciples he disthing very cheering in the aspects of the tinctly promised a "regeneration," which he, Church, to make us content with things as they as the Son of God, was to effect, and in which are; and if there is anything in Scripture, or they should sit upon twelve thrones, judging in the signs of the times, to indicate the near- the twelve tribes of Israel. ness of Christ's coming to make things better, it might be thought we would eagerly grasp at them. If a husband had important reasons for

In like manner, the apostles, in their preaching of the Gospel, asserted that the first coming of Christ had not realized these ancient pro

would be fulfilled.

mises, and that they were not discarded by the Especially does this false spirituality fritter new faith. On the other hand, they seized away "the powers of the world to come," as a upon them, and exulted in the hope of their means of influencing the minds and hearts of speedy fulfilment in the reign of the crucified men. The ancient faith brought the "world Jesus, whom God had raised from the dead to to come" near, and made it to bear upon this accomplish that restitution of all things of present evil world. The powers of this and of which he had spoken by the mouth of all his that, it brought into close combat. A reward holy prophets since the world began. Nothing was presented to the Christian which he could is more evident than that the hope of the New understand and appreciate. The riches, the Testament Church was constantly directed to honors, the pleasures of this world were made a Second Coming of Christ, when he should to stand a comparison with those of another manifest his kingdom, and these promises kingdom as real and tangible as they; and their power to influence and control men was "The world to come," then, was, to the early proportionally lessened. Men will not be much Christians, a real and tangible object of desire. influenced by that which is beyond the range But how is it in these last times? We of their appreciation and experience. Hence, charge that in the minds of most Christians, alas, we have so much compromising of the nowadays, it has been thinned down into a service of God with that of Mammon. The mere spiritualistic dream. For it, there has true and essential antagonism between the probeen substituted a vague, ethereal notion of fession of Christianity and the service of this heaven. And in place of this great crisis of world is not understood and not realized, bethe future the revelation of this divine king- cause the nature of that to which Christians dom-is substituted the hour of death. are called is not rightly conceived. Scarcely The Day of Judgment is anticipated only so any one rises now to a true and full conception far as to make it a mere repetition of events of the nature and extent of that choice and settled long before. Even the great doctrine struggle to which Christ invited us in enlisting of the resurrection of the body is felt to be an under his banner. Scarcely any one feels the almost useless appendage to the faith of which power of future things so coming into the it was once a most prominent characteristic. sphere of his earthly life as to uproot the affecThe promise that the saints are to be kings tions and boasts of his natural manhood, and and priests unto God, and to reign with Christ to renew him for that faith-battle which alone upon the earth, is stripped of its force. The overcometh the world.

saint's inheritance is fixed in an ideal, imagi- If our modern Christianity presented the nary region, inhabited by people with wings, whole truth as to this point, many things and filled with psalms and music, and things which are deemed not only compatible with a divorced and so far removed from this world Christian profession but praiseworthy, would and the sphere of our past or present con- be viewed in a very different light. sciousness and experience as to have no power to impress or attract.

To illustrate let us suppose the case of a Christian entering the arena of strife for office, Now what is this but a virtual denial of the tempted by the honors of public station. The faith once delivered to the saints? And it is vague promise of a crown and a harp in some most pernicious. In former times, the Great dim and incomprehensible heaven on high may Adversary assailed the Church through formal- not be sufficient to wean him from the enchantism. But it may well be doubted whether he ments of worldly ambition. The reward is so has not wrought as great damage, in these out of the line of all his present interests and days, by these subtle spiritualizations of Bible experiences as to make no definite impression statements, forcing even professed Christians on his heart. He does not see it aright, and into the company of those who scoff "the pro- its power over him is greatly weakened. But mise of his coming." go to him and say, "My Christian brother, you

are very anxious for office and honor in the come a real power, felt at the heart of his world. Do you not know that your time has temptation and vanquishing it.

not yet come? Be patient, and you shall have Moreover, this false spiritualizing of the all the honor and power in the earth you can world to come also tends to substitute a hudesire. Know you not that you are an heir manitarianism for the power of Christ. It of the world; that Christ is to transfer the do- founds its hope of the coming restitution in the minion of it into the hands of his friends, and improvements of which this world is suscepthat hereafter, under him, you shall judge tible. It asserts the perfectibility of human angels and judge the world?" and you meet nature and estate by present means and agenhis temptation at a new point and put it to a cies, and thus allies Christianity with the god disadvantage, by presenting a promise in the of this world, in his endeavor to emasculate line of his desires, vastly greater in degree the Church's hope of a world to come by the than that which this world can offer, and puri- promise of the dominion of that which now is, fied from all that is low in the pursuit or sinful and palms off a Christendom which has well in the enjoyment. He begins to reflect whether nigh disowned Christ in the stead of the glorious he can afford, for these poor and often sinful kingdom to come. What room is there in such honors that come from men, to weaken his title an apprehension of things for those powers of to those that God has in store in the world to the world to come which told so mightily on the come. His imagination kindles at the prospect hearts and lives of the saints of old? Alas! of something that he can understand. His what have we not lost by abandoning the ancient hopes are no longer vague anticipations of landmarks ? something foreign to his experience, but be

L. C. B.

Selections.

THE SEVEN DISPENSATIONS.

BY JOHN CUMMING, D. D.*

logy that students of prophecy have argued that the six days consumed in the arrangement of DURING the last six thousand years-nearly the world are the types of the six thousand exhausted—of the history of our globe, there years that mete out the time during which this have been at least six distinct and independent economy is to last, and that the seventh day in dispensations, to be succeeded by a seventh, which the six of creation culminated is the type the glory and the perfection of all that have of the thousand years commonly known by the passed away. Just as there seem to have been name of the rest that remaineth for the people six days spent in the creation of the globe, or of God, or the millennial age, which ends and crowns the world that now is. rather in the arrangement of it, crowned by a seventh, its coronal and its glory; so there Let us enumerate these six different dispenseem to have been six successive dispensations sations, each ending in specific judgments. or economies, each closing with judgment, and First, there was the Adamitic age, the age of each giving birth to another, a brighter and a Adam and Eve in Paradise, in which God's better. It is according to the very same anavoice was heard at early morn and at dewy eve, and his footprints were visible upon every portion of the garden of Eden; all flowers beauty, all sounds music, all air perfume, and all sensations bliss; the two hearts that beat there happy beyond the reach of all disturbing or in

or,

Great Consummation. The Millennial Rest; the World as It Will Be. By the Rev. John. Cumming, D. D. First Series. New York: Carleton, publisher.

trusive element. Adam and Eve sinned, and the sky, while on the Holy Land the Druse, then the age ended in retribution. They were and the Moslem, and the monk leave their expelled from Paradise, and the fiery cherubim desolating footprints; from its shores the peoguarded the gates of glory, lest the unfit cri- ple that have a right to it are exiles, until God minals and exiles should seek to enter again lifts the standard in the sky, and bids Israel into that holy and happy abode. come forth, and return, and again dwell in

Secondly, we have the antediluvian, patri- Palestine. archal age, marked by the martyrdom of Abel, After this dispensation comes the sixth, in the crimes of Cain, and terminating also in which we now live; a dispensation beginning judgment, when God opened the fountains of with God manifest in the flesh, seen of angels, the great deep, withdrew their shutters from justified in the Spirit, believed on in the world, the windows of heaven, and let forth a depopu- received up into glory; a dispensation whose lating and dismantling flood that baptized the characteristic feature is not the conversion of earth with its judicial waters, and left eight per- the whole world, which will not be accomsons only to go down from Ararat to look forth plished in it, but the election and conversion of upon a world dismantled and depopulated, and a people out of the world, to be presented unto to begin the long and the weary march of life him a glorious church, without spot, or blemish, in an economy greatly deteriorated. or any such thing. Whilst it is our most sacred

Thirdly, we have the Noachian dispensation, and our most instant duty to carry the Gospel starting from the ark and the mountains of to every creature upon earth, and the shorter Ararat, under the beautiful symbol and shadow the time that remains the more instant and of the rainbow, light and darkness; the age too urgent ought our efforts to be; yet it is evident strongly branded by unbelief and impiety and that the Gospel of the kingdom preached in this idolatry, till at last this age also ended in the economy will not issue in the conversion of all burning of Sodom and Gomorrah, the cities of the inhabitants of the earth. We are expressly the plain, and the institution of another and a told: "This Gospel of the kingdom shall be new covenant, which took place as preached among all nations for a witness, and

One of the marked

The Fourth dispensation. This we may call then shall the end come;" and we read that the Abrahamic dispensation, when God ap- when our Lord comes, instead of all being peared to the father of the faithful, teaching, righteous, there shall be great sin and great covenanting, and making bright promises; an wickedness in the world. See St. Paul's chaage intensely interesting in its story, like life's racteristics of the last times. April day, full of sunshine and of showers, of and expressive signs of the approach of that lights and of shadows. But it also ended in age is the fulfilment of the second chapter of judgments upon Egypt, and the overthrow of Joel. That chapter is probably now being Pharaoh in the Red Sea, and the exodus of partially fulfilled. The day of Pentecost, that the Israelites toward the promised and the bet- passed away 1800 years ago, was the first ter land. sprinkling drops of the shower. But God is Fifthly, we have the Mosaic economy, begin- now pouring out his Spirit upon all flesh in ning at the Red Sea, constituted and conse- greater abundance. And as if to show that we crated again by the appearance of Deity; cha- occupy the evening hours of this last sixth disracterized by the weary march through the pensation, let us notice at this moment the indesert, by the possession of the promised land, stancy, and the urgency, and the frequency and pledged to them as long as they were faithful the force with which the Gospel is being preachto their covenant; ending at last in the over-ed; in theatres, in halls, at prayer-meetings throw of that beautiful city Jerusalem, the held in barns, and in drawing-rooms, by men beauty and the joy of the whole earth; in which who have great talent, with great roughness, God dwelt between the cherubim; in which but real piety, calling men with a voice of thunnow the Mosque of Omar raises its crescent to der to prepare to meet God, and provoking

echoes in the most obdurate hearts. These ing and praying, "even so come, Lord Jesus." things must strike the most thoughtless and the While the latter day "scoffers" in derision are

most unreflecting, indicating as they do the era in the age, the sixth age or dispensation, in which it is our lot now to live.

saying, "Where is the promise of his coming?" Thousands are deceiving and being deceived by the delusive dream that the millennial day is The seventh age or dispensation comes, call- softly stealing upon our world, and there shall ed the millennial rest. In this millennial day be the much talked of golden age. Alas! for all shall be righteous; every tear shall be wiped such! Between our time and that future glory from every eye; God alone shall be exalted; of Messiah's reign there lies a region as dark Jerusalem shall be lifted up to the top of the as midnight, strewed with such ruined hopes mountains, and all nations shall come to it; and blasting terrors as this world has never Satan shall be bound for a thousand years; the known,—such a time of plagues and tribulawolf shall lie down with the lamb, and the little tion as never was, when all hopes based on child shall lead them. But this dispensation, finite good shall utterly perish, with all those so marvellous, like the preceding six is to end who have deceived themselves thereby. in judgment; for we read that at the close of There is a most manifest blind, persistent the millennial economy, after the thousand rejection of the glorious truth, that the next years have been finished, Satan is to be let loose great event which will mark the history of our for a little. But we read that he is taken, and world, make an end of Satan's usurpation, and cast into the lake that burneth with fire, and bring in everlasting righteousness, is the apdeath and hell are cast into it too; and the pearing of our Lord Jesus Christ to establish millennial age melts into the heavenly, as the his kingdom, in answer to that prayer he himsweet dawn melts into the noonday sunshine, self indited: "Thy kingdom come," the very never to be clouded nor to be interrupted for- kingdom, ascribed to him, "for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever. Amen."

ever.

No person who may be favored with grace OUR TIMES AND HOPES. enough to disarm himself of prejudice, and sit NEARLY two thousand years have elapsed down as an humble learner at the feet of Christ since the ascension of our Lord, and we have and his Apostles, and receive their exposition positively reached the time spoken of by Daniel, of the Prophets, can resist the fact that the the prophet, thus: "Many shall run to and fro, hope of the primitive Church was, and the and knowledge shall be increased." Who can true hope of the Church now is, "the glorious doubt? "He that runnteh may read" this. appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Still another fact is not less obvious. It is Jesus Christ." (Titus 2:13.) Not until then that so clearly predicted by our Saviour thus: will the Church be disenthralled and saved "And because iniquity shall abound, the love from all her enemies, coming out of the wilderof many shall wax cold." The bands that ness, "fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and bound society together, civil, social, and reli- terrible as an army with banners." Not until gious, all seem to be giving way: the time of then will God's incorrigible enemies bow and trouble spoken of by both Daniel and our Sa- confess, under the heavy pressure of his righviour is actually upon us. "Like the troubled teous judgments, and be removed as tares and sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up cumberers of the ground. Verily, there is no mire and dirt," so is it now with the troubled other legitimate Bible hope for the people of masses. "There is no peace, saith my God, to God in its trying hour. If other hopes are enthe wicked." This is now the moral phase of tertained, they are of human origin, and never society, and precisely our prophetic where- to be realized. They are but "the light of the abouts of the Church, our nation, and the fire, and the sparks of their own kindling." world at large. "The bride" is in exile, weep- 'With all deference to the opinions of others,