ARTICLE VI. THE MILLENNIUM OF THE BIBLE.

[BY REV. HEMAN LINCOLN, PROVIDENCE, R. I.]

TRADITIONS have been handed down among many pagan nations, of a golden age in the distant past, when the gods had intercourse with men, and the earth was pure and happy. These traditions have found fit utterance by great poets, who have sung not only of a golden age in the past, but of a golden age in the future, when the face of the earth is to be renewed, and suffering and vice will be unknown. It is a curious fact in human history, that such ideas have entered into the religious systems of races among whom the Bible has been unknown. It indicates the existence of deep yearnings in the heart of man, sometimes vague and inarticulate, sometimes taking shape in song or prophecy, but all finding the dim ideal realized in the Paradise of Genesis, and the Millennium of the Apocalypse.

The expectation of a glorious era in the future was common to the Jews. They looked forward to it with eager hope in their national reverses, as a period whose glory and happiness would more than compensate for all their trials and captivities. Then the Messiah was to sit upon the throne of Israel, and reign with equity and peace over all the earth. The wolf also was to dwell with the lamb, and the leopard to lie down with the kid; the calf and the young lion, and the fatling together; and a little child to lead them. (Is. xi: 6.)

The belief in a Millennium, closely resembling the Messianic kingdom of the Jew, took root in the Christian Church at its very birth. We find it prominent in the writings of the fathers, who immediately succeeded the apostles, and generally associated with a belief in the immediate second coming of Christ, and his personal reign on earth. Papias, Justin Martyr, Irenæus, and Tertullian paint glowing pictures of a

period of perfect happiness and holiness near at hand, as a support to Christians in the trials of persecution, and to martyrs in the agony of death. The Jew under the old economy anticipated the speedy coming of the Messiah to establish his kingdom on earth. The Christians of the first age, with an equal confidence, looked for his speedy second coming, and. his universal reign.

The question naturally suggests itself to every reflecting mind, if the Jew, from his study of the prophetic Scriptures, failed to apprehend both the nature and circumstances of Christ's first coming, is it not possible that the early Christians may have fallen into similar errors respecting his second coming? So Origen thought, and endeavored to correct the opinions prevalent in his time. He believed neither in the personal reign of Christ, nor in the sensuous enjoyments so vividly sketched by other Christian teachers. He gave a spiritual interpretation to the Scripture predictions of the Millennium, but many of his views are wholly fanciful, and conformed to the allegorical tendencies of the Alexandrian School. Augustine agreed with Origen in his spiritual views, though differing widely from his allegorical mysticism. He taught that the new life given to man by the establishment of Christianity on earth, was the first resurrection spoken of in the xxth chapter of Revelation, and that Christ, by his death and resurrection, bound the dragon, and took away his power to deceive and destroy. The views of Origen and Augustine gradually supplanted in the church the grosser forms of Chiliasm, and the idea of a personal reign of Christ before the final judgment has found little favor, until revived in our century. In its place a belief has obtained, often vague and shadowy, and held without definite Scripture authority, that the knowledge of the gospel, and its regenerating power in the heart, are to spread, by the divine purpose, through the whole earth.

In the present article, we do not propose to examine the predictions of the Old Testament. They are numerous and complicated, and demand a special treatment. We refer only to a few, as presenting graphic pictures of the happiness to

prevail on earth, when a pure religion shall spread among all

men.

"The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." Hab. ii: 14.

"He shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth." Ps. lxxii: 8.

"And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations an languages should serve him." Dan. vii: 14.

"And the Lord shall be king over all the earth; in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one." Zechariah Xiv: 9.

"Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth even forever." Isa. ix: 7.

"From the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles, and in every place incense shall be offered to my name and a pure offering." Mal. i: 11.

These are strong passages, and their combined evidence is of great moment. They predict, beyond reasonable question, the restoration of Paradise to earth; when the tabernacle of God shall be with men, and peace and holiness shall prevail everywhere. But they give no indication of the time when this kingdom is to be set up, whether before or after the judgment. Nor do they shed any light on the inquiry whether the inhabitants of the world during this period will be true Christiaus, or only nominally such. Nor is their teaching decisive of the precise duration of this period, though the natural force of some expressions implies that it will not be subject to change or interruption, but will continue forever.

Our inquiry at the present time will have reference to the teaching of the New Testament. Are its declarations more definite and intelligible?

1.-The New Testament refers to the second advent of Christ as a certain event in the future, and one to be eagerly expected by his people.

When the disciples were despondent at the Last Supper, because Jesus had told them of the coming separation, He comforted them with the assurance that the parting would only be temporary. "I will come again, and receive you unto myself." The reference may not have been directly to his coming to judgment, but they seem to have so understood it, for after his resurrection they inquired eagerly, "Wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" Acts i: 6. Alford says on this passage: "The coming again of the Lord is not one single act, as his resurrection, or the descent of the Spirit, or his second personal advent, or the final coming to judgment; but the great complex of all these, the result of which shall be his taking his people to himself to be where he is."

The angels who appeared to the weeping disciples after the ascension, repeated similar words of comfort: "This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come [δὕτως ἐλεύσεταί ὃν τρόπον] in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." Acts i: 11. This can hardly mean less than that Jesus will come again in his ascension body, and visibly to lookers on, and in a cloud. Bengel thinks it worthy of special notice here that the angels do not say the disciples will witness the second advent, as an event soon to be expected, but simply that he will come again in the same visible form in which he ascended.

"Our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for (àлexdexóμeva) the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ." Phil. iii: 20. ἀπεκδεχόμεθα has a stronger force than in the English version, implying we wait with longing, with an eager desire.

"Waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." I. Cor. i: 7. The participle is from the same verb as in the last passage, and has the same force.

"To wait for his Son from heaven." (avaμévsev) I. Thess. i: 10. The expectation of the coming of Christ is alluded to here by the apostle as one of the powerful motives which induced the Thessalonians to turn from idol-worship.

"To the end He may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming (

zapovoia, the same word used in Matt. xxiv. to denote Christ's coming to the destruction of Jerusalem) of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints" (Tv åriwv, saints or angels). I. Thess. iii: 13. Looking for (προσδεχόμενοί, looking forward to with eagerness) that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." Titus ii 13. The construction here is peculiar. рoodεxоμεvo προσδεχόμενοι τὴν μακαρίαν ἐλπίδα καὶ ἐπιφάνειαν τῆς δόξης του μεγάλου Θεοῦ καί σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. The best critics and expositors agree that both μv and μɛzlov should be construed as qualifying cou and σwrypos, and that the passage should be rendered, "Looking forward eagerly to that blessed hope, even the glorious appearing of the great Being, who is our God and Saviour." In support of this rendering it is well said that the Scriptures nowhere speak of the appearance of God as a part of the great pageant with which this economy is to close. They declare, on the other hand, that "no man hath seen him, or can see him.”

"Unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time, without sin unto salvation;" Heb. ix: 28, i. e., Christ, at his second coming, will make no expiation for sin, but will give eternal happiness to all his people, who look for him.

These and other passages make it evident that the Saviour's second advent was an event eagerly expected in the apostolic age, and regarded as significant of the greatest blessings to the church. It was to be not a gradual and continuous event, but startling from its suddenness, as the lightning shines from the east to the west. It was also to involve destruction to the wicked. "Whom the Lord shall consume with the breath of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming." II. Thess. ii: 8.

II.-The New Testament leaves no place for a Millennium between the second advent of Christ and the final judgment.

One theory of the pre-millennial reign of Christ, as held in our day, we believe to be as follows: The present economy is nearly completed. The Saviour will soon descend from heaven in the same glorified body in which he ascended from Olivet. He will call the righteous dead from their graves,