testifies, saying (26:9), "When thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness." But, says the same prophet, and in the same place, “Let favor be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness (verse 10). Nothing but the righteous judgments of God will establish truth, peace, and the fear of God in the earth. In view of these facts, the Lord continues, speaking by the hand of Ezekiel concerning the overthrow of Gog, saying (39: 1-6). "Therefore thou son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and I will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and I will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel, and I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand. Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee. And I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured; thou shalt fall upon the open field, for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God."

FIRE SENT ON MAGOG AND THE ISLES

After Gog and his multitudes fall upon the open field, the Lord says, "And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly (that is, confidently, or securely) in the Isles" (Ezek. 39:6).

It is said that the sons of Japheth were Gomer, and Magog, and Medai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras; and the sons of Gomer, Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah; and the sons of Javan, Elishah, and Tarshash, Kittim, and Dodanim. By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations. The descendants, therefore, of Japheth settled to the west upon the shores and bays of the Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea, and other seas to the west, and are therefore called the Isles of the Gentiles, or countries bordering largely upon great bodies of water, such as Austria, Italy, Germany, France, Spain, the British Isles, Russia, and many of the smaller European countries. These are the peoples, and nations, that the Lord refers to when he says, "And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the Isles, and they shall know that I am the Lord." It is said of Christ when he comes to reign, that "he shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth, and the isles shall wait for his laws" (Isa. 42:4). Again it is said, "Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the Lord thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee. And the sons of strangers shall minister unto thee, for in my wrath I smote thee, but in my favor have I had mercy on thee. Therefore thy gates shall be open continually, they shall not be shut day nor night, that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles (wealth, margin); for the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall utterly perish, yea those nations shall be utterly wasted" (Isa. 60:9-12).

This is the reason why a fire is sent upon those nations, that they may be brought into subjection to the nation of Israel. And the nation that will

not submit, will be utterly destroyed. Therefore the Lord says again touching the isles of the Gentiles, "According to their deeds he will repay fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompense." And as these islands lay to the west of Jerusalem, it is added, "So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun" (Isa. 59: 18-19).

Thus after Gog is destroyed, and a fire has been sent on Magog and among the isles to the west to subdue them, then the Lord speaks and says (Ezek. 39:7-8), "So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel, and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more. And the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel; behold it is come and it is done, saith the Lord God, this is the day whereof I have spoken."

THE IMPLEMENTS OF WARFARE

"And they that dwell in the cities of Israel (the remnant that is left) shall go forth and set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, and the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years, so that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forest, for they shall burn the weapons with fire, and they shall spoil those that spoiled them, and rob those that robbed them saith the Lord God (Ezek. 39:9-10).

THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD

'And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea, and it shall stop the noses of the passengers; and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude, and they shall call it the valley of Hamon-gog (that is the multitude of Gog). And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land; yea, all the people of the land shall bury them. And it shall be to them a renown, the day that I shall be glorified, saith the Lord God. And they shall sever out men of continual employment passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it. After the end of seven months shall they search, and the passengers that pass through the land, when any seeth a man's bone, then shall he set up a sign by it till the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamon-gog. And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah (that is, the multitude). Thus shall they cleanse the land." The time that is required to bury the dead, and the number of the years that the implements of warfare suffice for fuel to the remnant of Israel and those who dwell in the land, is a clear indication of the vastness of the armies that will invade Israel's land in that day.

FRUITS OF THE VICTORY FOR THE REMNANT OF ISRAEL

We next call attention to what the Lord says of Gog, and to what his vast forces will fall a prey, saying (Ezek. 39:4), “Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee.' And here observe what further the Lord says of them, "I will give thee unto

the ravenous birds of every sort (or wing) and to the beasts of the field to be devoured"; and observe further that when these great forces of the enemy have been overthrown and destroyed, then the Lord calls the birds of prey and the beasts of the field to the sacrifice that he has prepared for them, saying (verse 17), "And thou son of man, thus saith the Lord God, Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Assemble and come, gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice, that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood. Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan. Ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood. till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. Thus shall ye be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord God."

Now this that the Lord says to the ravenous birds and to the beasts of the earth, must not by any means be understood as referring literally to the fowls of heaven and the beasts of the field, any more than when the Lord says to these fowls and beasts that they are to eat the flesh of rams, and lambs, and goats, and bullocks, that they are literal beasts. On the contrary, they are people,- Gog and all his army that he figuratively calls beasts. And so of these fowls and beasts that are to consume this great sacrifice; they also are people, referred to in verses 9-10,- they that dwell in the cities of Israel, the remnant that is left, those whom the Lord had hid and spared in the day of his anger, and of whom much is said in different places. For instance, the Lord speaks of them as follows, in the prophecy of Ezekiel; in speaking of the judgments upon Jerusalem he says, "Yet, behold therein shall be left a remnant that shall be brought forth, both sons and daughters. Behold they shall come forth unto you, and ye shall see their way and their doings, and ye shall be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought upon it. And they shall comfort you when ye see their ways and their doings, and ye shall know that I have not done without cause, all that I have done in it, saith the Lord God" (Ezek. 14:22-23).

Also concerning this remnant the prophet Zephaniah saith (3:12-13), I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord. The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies, neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth, for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid." And we may also point out that these are the very people that are known in the Revelation as "the one hundred and forty and four thousand," that “ follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men (the men of Israel), being the first-fruits unto God and the Lamb."

These people form the beginning of that new age which is inaugurated after the judgment is over; they have come through the fires and will have been tried as gold and silver is tried in the furnace. Moreover it is added. of them, as is said of them by Zephaniah, "And in their mouth was found no guile, for they are without fault before the throne of God" (Rev. 14:1-5). It is this same remnant, therefore, of whom the Lord says (Ezek. 39: 10),

"They shall spoil those that spoiled them and robbed them, saith the Lord God." All the wealth that is left of this great army is theirs, their gold and silver and apparel, even as Zechariah, speaking of this same thing, says (14:14), “And Judah also (that is, the remnant of Judah) shall fight at Jerusalem (or against Jerusalem,' [margin]), and the wealth of all the heathen shall be gathered together, gold and silver and apparel in great abundance."

Now we have already shown that Gog and the beast of the Revelation are one and the same thing, and therefore what is said of the one must needs be true also of the other. And so we find it; the great sacrifice that the Lord sacrifices for the fowls and beasts (the remnant of Israel), and the great table that he provides for them, are spoken of in the Book of the Revelation as a great supper; and so it is written (Rev. 19:17), “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 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, free and bond, both small and great."

"" 'THE MARRIAGE SUPPER OF THE LAMB "

This supper is also called "The Marriage Supper of the Lamb." Now who is the bridegroom? Who is the bride? Who are the guests that are invited to the marriage? And of what do they partake? As this is called the marriage supper of the Lamb, therefore the bridegroom is Christ, and the bride of Christ is the church of Christ, made perfect by resurrection from the dead. But who are the guests that are invited to this great marriage supper of the Lamb of God? for the guests can be neither the bride, nor the bridegroom. We answer, The guests are the remnant of Israel, of whom the angel said to John, "Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb." And those who are called to this supper are spoken of figuratively as "fowl that fly in the midst of heaven," for John says, “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 marriage supper of the great God." Therefore the people symbolized as the fowls of heaven are the invited guests, and the ones that the angel pronounced blessed.

Now as the Book of the Revelation is called "the testimony of Jesus," and as that is explained to be "the spirit of prophecy," it follows that in the prophets we are to look for the meaning of these figurative expressions, and so in Ezekiel's prophecy of these same things we are shown plainly who these fowls represent (Ezek. 39:1-22). They are the people who dwell in the cities of Israel after the judgment is over, after Gog, the spoiler, is spoiled. The fowls, therefore, are those who spoil those that spoiled them, and rob those that robbed them, the remnant of Israel, the hundred and forty-four thousand who are men in the flesh, mortal men.

The supper that the great God provides for these fowls, the remnant of

Israel, consists of Gog and all his multitude, or the Assyrian and all his people, or the Beast and the kings of the earth, and their armies. Concerning the Beast, John says, 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 worshipped his image; these were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone." This is the same lake of fire and brimstone that we have already described, showing in plain language what these elements of destruction are that will be employed to destroy the heathen nations after their work is done.

But Ezekiel testifies that after Gog falls upon the open field, the Lord says (39:6), " And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles; and they shall know that I am the Lord." And so also John says of these same people (Rev. 9:21), “And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword (the word of command) proceeded out of his mouth; and all the fowls were filled with their flesh." This accords also with what Daniel says about these same people (7:11-12) where he says of the fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, with ten horns and the little blasphemous horn, "I beheld until the beast was slain, and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame" (that is, was cast into a lake of fire burning with brimstone). Then Daniel adds, "As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time" (or as the margin reads, "A prolonging life was given them "). Therefore Daniel, Ezekiel, and John, all three, speak of judgments that are to be executed upon the nations that are left after Gog and his multitudes fall upon the mountains of Israel to destroy the rebellious people. So also the Lord will send the remnant against the nations to destroy nations and kingdoms, for the Lord says of the remnant who are the true Jacob and who constitute the foundation of the new nation (Jer. 51:20), "Thou art my battle ax and weapons of war, for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms."

Now as an example of the course that the Lord will pursue in carrying out this remarkable prophecy, we shall call attention to what he will do with some of the smaller nations that border upon Israel's inheritance. We call attention to the twenty-fifth chapter of Ezekiel (verses 12-14) where among the things stated the Lord says of Edom, "Thus saith the Lord, Because that Edom hath dealt against the house of Judah, by taking vengeance, and hath greatly offended and revenged himself upon them, therefore thus saith the Lord God, I will also stretch out mine hand upon Edom, and I will cut off man and beast from it, and I will make it desolate from Teman, and they of Dedan shall fall by the sword, and I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel, and they shall do in Edom according to mine anger and according to my fury, and they shall know my vengeance. saith the Lord God." This is a practical illustration of the manner in which the Lord will deal with the nations of the earth in that day. Moreover, the king of the house of David that will be the chief among the remnant is called