66 16. But it is not all sunshine that has | himself," and is looking for other tests to fallen on our path. A writer in the North decide the question. "Confusion" there certainly is, in making a divine of our own city point out with certainty the Beast and the mark," and yet to represent him as so ́ uncertain” that he is awaiting further tests to settle the point. The "confusion," however, exists in some region other than Dr. Seiss' article. American and United States Gazette of this city, pressed for an article to fill out his engagements, devoted a full column of that large sheet (April 21) to a review of the remarks on Napoleon and the predicted Antichrist which were given in our issue for February. He commences his assault by saying that many great historical characters have at various times been referred to as likely to play the dreaded part of the Autichrist, but that “it has been reserved for a divine of our own city to point out with certainty the Beast and his mark." From this our readers will see at once that this paragraphist either very carelessly read Dr. Seiss' article, or intentionally misrepresents. Dr. Seiss expressly affirms, at the beginning and end of the article, that he is only giving the arguments advanced by others on the subject, and concludes by saying that he DOES NOT undertake to decide positively that Louis Napoleon is the personal Antichrist of the Last Days. The writer referred to then proceeds to copy Dr. Seiss' summary of the considerations urged to support the idea of the identity of Napoleon III. with the Antichrist, interspersing them with bad puns and low sneers, which sneers and puns have doubtless been well appreciated, as they cast a flood of light upon 66 Mr. American regrets that the astute Frenchman is not able to peruse all the important things that are written of him ;" but, as he has at one dash corrected Dr. Seiss' theology, why not also give the appropriate direction to the Emperor's reading while he has his pen in hand? Doubtless Dr. Seiss will be obliged for the special commendation of "The Last Times" to his Majesty Napoleon III. through the medium of the "North American and United States Gazette ;" and of course the grateful Emperor will not fail to give special marks of his favor to his friend, the writer of "Louis Napoleon in a New Character," for doing him the "good" of snatching him from the perils of inadvertently stumbling upon the terrible doom of the Antichrist of the last days. Perhaps some of our readers would accord with the sentiment that it would be well for this critic to adopt the liturgy of Robert Burns to which he refers, and fervently to join in the prayer (the spelling of which does not seem to be very familiar to him):— "O wad some Power the giftie gie us To see oursels as others see us! It wad frae monie a blunder free us An' foolish notion; What airs in dress an' gait would lea'e us, 17. The Press, April 27, has also paid its snubbing compliments to us, in part, as follows: the meaning of the inspired predictions. Our friends will, perhaps, be pleased with a morsel or two of this writer's learning. He says that "In Latin each letter in the word Ludovicus was used by the Romans as a numeral." He is clearly an original, and a deep investigator, for he has for the first time given the world to know that O and S are Latin numerals! He admits, however, that Ludovicus does contain the number 666, and that Narоλcovтi also contains it, but thinks that "some will perhaps object to accepting the dative case" in the latter; though the name of the French Emperor, in simple Greek,-Λοις Ναπολεον,—without variation of the proper nominative, also contains the same characteristic number. He thinks there is "confusion somewhere," that "the learned divine seems to be a little uncertain with." "Here in Philadelphia has lately been established a monthly serial, to be devoted to the exposition and inculcation of the doctrine of the speedy coming and reign of the Lord Jesus Christ and related subjects. Of course, if these or any lennium is at hand, they have full right to publish other clergymen, or laymen, think that the Miltheir opinions. It is their own look-out that they are not laughed at instead of being sympathized By explicitly (p. 302), "I have been unable to fix upon any precise time for Christ's coming. Some profess to know it; I do not." Also, on p. 269, "Having looked somewhat into these chronological matters, I am satisfied that it would be wrong to rely with too much confidence upon either of these or any other like reckonings." That with which he expresses himself "willing to abide" (p. 362) is the Hebrew text of the ancient Scriptures,— not "that the great Millennial sabbath is to set in in 1869 or '70." We are sorry thus to spoil this critic's fun. But for the ill he does himself, he might "laugh Till his face be like a wet cloak ill laid up." "LAUGHED AT "!—A conclusive argument, | by this writer, respecting dates, are so bald as surely! WHO "LAUGHED AT"? Conscientious hardly to merit rectification. The doctor says, ministers of Jesus Christ,-men of the highest position and reputation in the Churches,-religious guides, chosen and sustained as such by the most intelligent and virtuous portions of the communities in which they live,-the "Rev. Drs. Seiss, Newton, Duffield," Forsyth, Tyng, Lord, Lilly, Krebs, Breckenridge, Sunderland, Sirr, McAll, McNeile, Bonar, Auberlen, Cumming, Elliott, and others of like stamp,-pastors of some of the first congregations in our cities, presidents of colleges, professors in theological seminaries, and men of acknowledged ability, piety, learning, and worth. "LAUGHED AT"! BY WHOM? anonymous news-mongers, employees of the secular daily press! "LAUGHED AT"! As if that were the thing above all to be dreaded by a faithful expositor of the revelation of 18. Certain New York secular dailies, we God. "LAUGHED AT"! And what else would are told, have also delivered themselves of be expected in an age so degenerate as this? varied sarcasm and ridicule directed against Was not Noah laughed at, and Christ pro- our enterprise and the doctrines we mainnounced a demoniac, and Paul declared be- tain. Well, the great Master says, "Blessed side himself? Does not inspiration say, "the time will come when they will not endure of some account, too, that the religious press, are ye when men shall revile you." It is sound doctrine," and that "there shall come conducted by theologians, and men of Chrisin the last days scoffers ["with such a zeal-tian culture and competency to appreciate ous laughter so profound,"] saying, Where such matters, even when differing from us, is the promise of his coming?" And, with these forewarnings, "shall quips, and sentences, and these paper bullets of the brain [especially such small ones], awe a man from the career of his" sworn fidelity? “LAUGHED AT"! A full Pandemonium of such laughers may “strain their cheeks" to the remotest period to which they fondly postpone the day of doom, and it will be but "idle merriment" as respects our modification of one iota of what we find written in the holy evangely of Almighty God. We would advise these laughers to look at Acts xiii. 40, 41, and to lay to heart the apostolic words, Beware lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets: behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish; for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you." 66 The misrepresentations made of Dr. Seiss has uniformly treated our efforts with respect and referred to our serial as worthy of attention; and that it has been the penny-aliners of the secular issues only who have detected the utter unscripturalness, ridiculousness, and folly of what the students of the sacred predictions are everywhere so solemnly propounding. But these are the days in which the pew, of course, knows better than the pulpit, and the pupil is master of the teacher, and the gibes and sneers of unknown newspaper paragraphists are the ministers of God who are so silly as to behappy correctives of the credulity of those lieve that the Bible is a divine revelation, and that the import of its communications is not to be settled a priori by the grimaces and antics of the mountebanks of ephemeral literature. "Behold, they have their re ward." The Prophetic Times. Vol. I. JULY, 1863. Special Contributions. THE FUTURE DISPENSATION. THE MYSTERY OF THE FULNESS OF TIMES. BY REV. D. G. MALLERY. "Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself; that in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him.”—EPHES. i. 9, 10. THE doctrine of these verses is, that there is to be a time or period in the history of the human race, called the "dispensation of the fulness of times," in which all things are to be gathered under one head, and that head is Christ. The apostle introduces this statement by saying, “Having made known unto us the mystery of his will." He calls this doctrine of the union of all things in Christ in the dispensation of the fulness of times—a mystery. It is a favorite word with the Apostles Paul and John, when writing to those Christians who had been heathen and who were familiar with heathen mysteries. In the Epistle to the Hebrews, although it is one of the longest of the letters written by St. Paul, the word is not once used; though in that letter he speaks of those very things which elsewhere he calls mysteries. It would seem, then, to imply that there was something in the condition and circumstances of the Gentile Christians that made that term peculiarly appropriate. St. Paul's reason for using this word is found in the fact that those Gentile Christians to whom he wrote No. 7. were familiar with the heathen mysteries,with those secret services of the heathen gods which went by that name. In writing to those cities where most attention was paid to the heathen mysteries, he speaks oftenest of Christian mysteries; and in this Epistle to Ephesus-a city celebrated for its devotion to these secret fellowships-he uses the word oftener than in any other letter. The use of the word "mystery," as denoting some of the Christian doctrines, does not imply any thing mysterious or unexplainable, but simply such things as could not be ascertained by human reason, and were therefore made known only by God,—things which were secret until revealed by him. Paul calls the whole gospel scheme a mystery in this sense, because not discovered by man, but revealed by God, and taught by Christ and his apostles. “We speak," he 66 says, 'wisdom among those who are perfect;" those who have been initiated into the Christian fellowships,-as the masters of heathen fellowships speak their wisdom to the initiated,—not, however, the wisdom of this world nor of the chiefs of this world, which comes to naught,—not such secrets as they profess to reveal; but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world. So the resurrection is called a mystery; the restoration of the Jews is called a mystery; the fact that such of the saints as are alive on the earth when Christ comes, shall not die, but be changed, is called a mystery. The heathen mysteries, or rather the fellowships of the mysteries, were secret societies, into which persons were initiated by certain ceremonies, and in which they were | Lord shall be king over all the earth; and taught the religion of heathenism. In these fellowships there were two, or, as some say, three, degrees, styled the lesser mysteries, the greater mysteries, and the intuitive mysteries. The lesser mysteries were intended for the common people, to whom was explained the religious system practised by them. Persons of better education and of higher grades in society were admitted to the higher degrees, in which they were taught, under a vow of secrecy, the doctrines of a better theology, and in the highest were admitted to the shining image of the one God, where the initiated were instructed in the falsity of the system of idolatry which was thought best for the common people, and in the true doctrine of the Supreme Creator of the universe, who pervades all things by his power and governs all by his providence, and is one, having neither equal nor second. These mysteries were held in the highest estimation by the Ephesians; and therefore St. Paul accommodates his language to that in common use among them, and sometimes directly, and at others indirectly and tacitly, contrasts the doctrines revealed by Christ with those revealed by the hierophants of the Grecian fellowships, declaring the immeasurable superiority of the former. As the societies of the mysteries were called fellowships, so Paul calls churches fellowships of the Christian mysteries; as the hierophants were the masters or princes or chiefs of the heathen fellowships, so he represents the apostles and Jesus Christ as the chiefs or heads of the Christian fellowships; and in our text he tells us that it is God's purpose to unite under one head or Grand Master all things in heaven and on earth, and that that head is Christ. It is, then, one of the sublime truths, one of the mysteries taught by our religion, that a period is coming in the history of the human race, when, under one head, even Jesus Christ, God will gather together all things in heaven and earth,-a period worthy of being called the dispensation of the fulness of times,—a period of which Zechariah prophesies when he says, "In that day the there shall be one Lord, and his name one." This glorious age of the world is revealed not merely in the text, nor yet only in the prophecy quoted from Zechariah; for St. Peter declares that all the prophets havẹ foretold it. He says, "Times of renewal shall come from the presence of the Lord, and he shall send Jesus Christ, who before was preached unto you, whom the heavens must receive until the times of the restitution of all things, spoken of by all the holy prophets since the world began." Parallel with the text is that passage in Colossians where it is said, “It hath pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; and, having made peace by the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself, whether they be things on earth or things in heaven." And we find in Philippians that "for this purpose the Father hath set him over the works of his hands, and hath given him all power in heaven and on earth,”-a power "by which he is able to subdue all things unto himself." And this we are assured must be done; for the promise is that all shall be subdued unto him. "All shall be put under his feet. For in that he hath put all things in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him." And the only exception to this universal subjection is the Father himself, who put all things under him. "The Father alone is greater than the Son; and hath set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but in that which is to come, and hath put all things under his feet; and hath given him a name that is above every name, the Father only excepted; that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow of those in heaven, and those on earth, and those under the earth, and that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Hence we learn that to Christ all must be subdued. When God created the first Adam, he gave him dominion over all things on earth, "Having made known unto us the mystery whether of the human race, or the animal of his will, according to his good pleasure creation, or inanimate things. By disobedience Adam fell from this high position, lost his dominion, and degraded those things over which his dominion had extended. Satan, his tempter, usurped the throne of the world, and has been ever since the prince of this world. But the promise was that the seed of the woman, Jesus Christ, should crush the head of the serpent and destroy the power of Satan. Jesus Christ, the second Adam, is to repair the damage of the fall, and as the Son of man, the representative of perfect human nature, to take again the dominion which Adam lost, and restore creation to the happy condition in which Adam found it. Hence that future day of the Messiah's glory is spoken of as a renewal of all things, —as a restitution or restoration of all things, —as a regeneration of all things. Hence the whole creation is spoken of as anxiously expecting that day of restoration, groaning and travailing in pain together, waiting for the adoption-to wit, the redemption of our bodies; since the redemption of our bodies, in our resurrection, is to occur at the same time with the renewal of creation and the establishment of the new heavens and earth. which he purposed beforehand in himself; that in the dispensation of the fulness of times he would unite under one head all things in Christ." Oh, glorious mystery, revealed fully in these last times unto us,-while the very last phase of the world's kingdoms exists, in which that kingdom shall be set up which shall never end. Oh, mystery far surpassing all that heathen sages revealed to the initiated in the secret places of their fellowships! mystery revealed to us among the special blessings of the heavenly places of the Christian fellowships! mystery revealed to us, whom God has elected to be holy, that we may become royal priests in that coming kingdom! mystery revealed to us who have been predestinated unto sonship, that we may, by the obedience of children, make sure our adoption, and find a place on the thrones and at the altars of the speedily coming kingdom! Oh, who of us would be willing to barter away our right to a place among the royal family of that everlasting empire, for the sake of a few years of worldly pleasure or honor or profit? Who of us will willingly neglect to make our calling and election sure, and so fail of having an entrance ministered unto us abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and take our place instead among the outcasts from the heavenly kingdom, punished as rebels against its king, banished from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power, shut up in the prisonhouse of the irreclaimably wicked? This union of all things in Christ, and this renewal of all things, are plainly connected in prophecy with that kingdom of Christ which shall hereafter be set up, when Christ himself shall come and raise the dead saints, and change the living saints, and set up his throne on earth, and rule this earth, and its nations and people and tribes and tongues, by means of those royal priests to whom he The time is speedily coming when God has promised seats with him on his throne, shall set up his everlasting kingdom; when as he now has a seat on his Father's throne; the number of his chosen ones shall be acthat is, all things shall be subdued unto complished; when Jesus Christ shall take Christ in that kingdom, when Christ reigns to himself his great power and reign; when King of kings and Lord of lords, and his he shall reign king of nations as well as of saints shall reign with him. saints; when the present probation will end, and no more can be added to the kings and priests of that kingdom, for the conditions of a past probation can never be restored. "Be ye therefore ready.” Without following out this subject further at this time, I would remark that the establishment and success of this kingdom of the Messiah is that which St. Paul, in our text, calls the mystery of God's will, saying, When the Lord shall come, the world shall |