the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. For whom, my brethren, do we look ?— is it not for the Saviour who bore our sins upon his own body on the tree? For whom do we wait? is it not for the same Jesus, who died for our sins and rose again for our justification? and who, being taken up into heaven in triumph, shall so come in like manner?* * "Thousand thousands shall minister unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand shall stand before him."+ The hosts of heaven shall inquire, "Who is this king of glory?" and the triumphant Church shall respond, "The Lord strong and mighty; the Lord mighty in battle; the Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory.”‡ Neither does the expectation of the Advent and kingdom of Christ interfere with the true views of the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of God's people. We not only believe in "the coming of the Holy Ghost," but we hold that the Saviour's promise of another Comforter has been fulfilled and is being fulfilled in the present day. This is the dispensation of the Spirit. He dwells in the Church with vivifying power. "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. § And our † Dan. vii. 10. § Rom. xiv. 17. * Acts i. 11. continual prayer for the professed followers of Christ is, "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Ghost."* It is a confusion of terms (to say the least), to assert that the Church is waiting for the spiritual kingdom, how can we wait for what has already taken place? how can we pray for the kingdom to come, which, blessed be God, is already the possession of God's dear children? We wait for what we have not; we hope for what we see not; we have the Saviour's gifts, but we have not the Saviour himself, in the fulness of his personal presence. We have the tokens and pledges of his love, but we do not see the King eye to eye. And I wot that they speak very unguardedly, and in language they would not use to a beloved earthly friend, when they say, "If we have the graces of the Spirit, and the peace of God within, we are not so anxious about the personal coming of the Lord." Oh! my brethren, let no such unmeaning or ungrateful language escape your lips. What are all the gifts of Christ without Christ himself? What the token of his love, but as they lead us to the very Fountain-head? What weight of glory could be reserved for the Church, if you abstract from it the very presence Rom. xv. 13. of the Lamb of God? What kingdom of perfection, without the throne and sceptre, and countenance of the King of saints? In a word, then, we cleave to the cross of atonement. We actually possess the first-fruits of the Spirit; but we look for the coming of the day of God. We are stretching forth the vision of expectation to the time when "the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord."* And we conclude this part of our subject by re-asserting, that all just interpretation of Scripture, all the analogy of faith, and all consistency of exposition, demand of us to receive the language of the text, and all similar expressions, as testimonies to the Lord's personal coming, when the glorious things spoken of the city of God shall be fulfilled-"when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and before his ancients, gloriously." + II. What great events shall synchronize with the Lord's appearance in glory? In examining + Is. xxiv. 23. * 1 Thess. iv. 16-18, this question, I must bear in mind that my subject is part of a Course of Lectures on the Scriptural Claims of the People of Israel, and therefore I must not allow myself to range amongst the many deeply-interesting and collateral subjects which bear on the advent of Messiah, except as they are connected with the prospects of the ancient people of God. Indeed, time would not allow me to dwell on such topics as the latter day judgments,-the renovation of the earth, the blessedness of the converted heathen, and the glory of the New Jerusalem. If, therefore, I pass these by, or slightly touch on them, it is not from any doubt of their reality or importance, but only because they would lead me away from the original design of these lectures. Indeed, in drawing your attention to the connexion there exists between the prospects of Israel and the day of the Lord, I feel that I must take the great leading features of the prophetic vision, and not dwell on the more minute parts of it, in the short space of time that yet remains for me to discourse. The difficulty in a subject like this, is not the lack of Scripture testimony, but the extent of selection, that we may be explicit without being tedious, and succinct without being ambiguous. First, Jerusalam shall be rebuilt, and the land of Israel shall be restored to more than its former glory in the day of Christ's coming. So my text declares, "When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory," and so with equal plainness do other portions of the Word speak. Thus Isaiah, "Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities; thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken; but mark, that this state of things is still further brightened with the promise, "Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty." "For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king."+ The same prophet announces, "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 favour have I had mercy on thee. The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious. The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee, The city of the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One + Ibid 17. 22. * Isa. xxxiii. 20. |