Part 5 (1/2)

CHRIST'S SECOND COMING TO GATHER HIS PEOPLE.

According to the Scriptures, G.o.d will deliver his people out of the time of trouble that is now flying from the coasts of the earth, and to all appearances forming a junction in this retributive land of blood and slavery; by his VOICE _from heaven_, when he has sealed them, and Christ has made the atonement and fitted the mansions in the New Jerusalem, then they will be his chosen ones to execute the ”judgment written.” After this, in the order of events, the Lord Jesus ”will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of G.o.d,”

&c. When G.o.d speaks from Jerusalem, then, I believe the ”wise will understand” how long it will be before Jesus comes. ”The times and seasons are with the Father.” I believe that the Scriptures most clearly teach Christ's second coming at the feast of Tabernacles, and no where else; and that our history, in the fulfillment of prophecy, has been imperceptibly tending us there. Here is the chain in the types: ”THREE _times a year shall_ ALL _thy males appear before the Lord thy G.o.d_.” These three feasts are typical of three of the most important events since the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, and every advent believer should have a clear understanding of them. 1st, The feast of the Pa.s.sover; 2d, Feast of Weeks; 3d, Feast of Tabernacles.

_First feast_ was the crucifixion of our Lord at the Pa.s.sover, on the 14th day of the first month, at 3 o'clock P. M.; the very day and hour the lamb was offered in the type for sixteen hundred and seventy years.

_Second feast_-the day of Pentecost, 1670 years from the time that the commandments were uttered by the voice of G.o.d, in the morning.-Exo. xix: 16; see Acts ii: 15, undoubtedly at the same hour. Now as these two feasts are perfectly fulfilled, we have nothing further to do with them here; only to say, that G.o.d never taught any other way to find the fulfillment of these two most important events, than by their typical observance.

_Third feast_-on the 15th of the seventh month; the feast of the Tabernacles. This undoubtedly represents the gathering of all Israel at the coming of Christ; the ingathering of the harvest; the end of the 6000 years: the end of the world. I see no other point of time for Christ to come than at the feast; see Deut. xvi: 1-16: Lev. xxiii; Num. xxviii, and xxix. It cannot be possible that G.o.d has been so exact in the fulfillment of the first two, to the very hour of the day, and then left the other without _order or time_! No, no! Here is the gathering of all Israel; see Lev. xxiii: 39-44. Now, this being true, all of the other events which precede this in this chapter, must, to harmonize with the types, be fulfilled first. Now there are three types in this feast; their harmony and order are as follows: First,-24th verse is the memorial of trumpets.

This is the type of the sounding of the seventh trumpet; there is nothing else for an anti-type-try and see. Than it is fulfilled, by Rev. x: 7-”In the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the Mystery of G.o.d should be finished.” &c. This then, we have shown, sounded on the first day of the seventh month, 1844. Here the virgins were divided, and the wise ones got ready for the coming of the Bridegroom to the marriage. See _Way Marks_, 35 to 37th pages.

_Second type_-27th verse-”Also on the 10th day of the seventh month, there shall be a day of atonement,-ye shall afflict your souls, for whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people.” This, of course, was artificial; but it was a type to represent the tried state which the virgins in the parable entered into on the tenth day of this seventh month, 1844, when they see their Lord did not come. Here is where the atonement commenced with the affliction, and as they ended together in the type, so we believe they will in the anti-type, when G.o.d speaks from Zion.-Joel iii: 16, 17; see _Way Marks_, pp. 58, 59. Now it is certainly evident that G.o.d's people are in this very state. This, then, according to the type, proves the Bridegroom as High Priest, officiating in the Sanctuary, making the atonement for this same people.

_The third type_ in order, and the last in this feast, is the feast of Tabernacles, 34-39-44th verses. This is yet to come-the true point of our deliverance. What a harmonious perfect chain is here. Just see first day of seventh month, 1844; the seventh trumpet sounds, and the Mystery of G.o.d is finished; third wo come; virgins divide; on the tenth day of the same month, Bridegroom comes to the wedding; marriage takes place; door shut; Jubilee trumpet sounds to prepare for the Jubilee and Supper in the kingdom of heaven; cleansing of the Sanctuary commenced; the virgins on their trial; the appointed time, the 2300 days ended, and a cry at midnight, with all its messages. If the seventh trumpet has began to sound, then the rest have followed. If the saints are now in their trial, then, the seventh trumpet must have sounded first, or confusion would follow in the types. Destroy one link, and the chain is broke. Take it in all its parts, it is perfect, harmonious, and complete. Here, too, I understand, ends all the days of Daniel. The chart is perfect, and has answered its end. The world here also received their last warning. The Gospel age ends; the message is, ”comfort ye, comfort ye _my_ people.” If this was not all done before Christ should come, the scriptures would be broken. It is perfect nonsense to talk of having these things done at his coming, or after he comes. Tell me, if you can, how Christ can atone for his people in the Holiest of Holies, at his coming? And then tell me where the saints are to be on their trial, if they wait his coming first? Tell me, if you can, where you will place the third wo, which brings in the time of trouble, of which the saints are to be delivered? Tell me, if you can, how, and for what purpose the seventh messenger will begin to sound his trumpet, while Jesus is sounding the trump of G.o.d, and shouting for his saints to leave the earth in a moment? And as the seventh messenger is some of the living saints, tell me, if you can, how they will have time even to turn and say the Mystery of G.o.d is finished? Tell me, if you can, why G.o.d is going to have every thing in confusion at that day, when he has always had perfect order in heaven and earth, ever since the creation? Two things to be kept in remembrance:

FIRST-The 11th chapter of Revelations does not teach the coming of Christ in the spring, nor at any other point.

SECOND-The ingathering of _all_ Israel _after the Voice of G.o.d_ is most clearly taught to be at the feast of Tabernacles, the last type in the feast, yet unfulfilled. All the others that have been, and are _now_ fulfilling in these feasts of the Lord, have been tested to the day, and even to the hour of the day.

A CORRECTION.

I perceive that I have made a mis-statement, on page 56, 13th line; also page 59, sixth line from the top, in calling the 15th day of the first month, a holy convocation day, instead of the 14th, which always commenced at the beginning of the 14th day and ended where the 21st began.-Exo. xii: 18. The wafe sheaf also, was to be waved on Sunday morning, the morrow after the Lord's Sabbath-Lev. xxiii: 3, 11-all which makes the resurrection on the third day as clear as light-two nights and three days.

SEVENTH & FOURTEENTH OF REVELATIONS.

A further History of the Second Advent Doctrine, from its commencement to the treading of the Wine Press, &c.

With The One Hundred And Forty-Four Thousand Living Saints, Which Are To Be Gathered At The Second Coming Of Jesus, From Every Nation, Kindred, Tongue, And People; Especially Those That Are Now Occupying The Position Referred To In The Twelfth And Thirteenth Verses Of The Fourteenth Chapter.

Second Advent History.

In the fourteenth chapter of Revelations, John gives a most graphic delineation of the Second Advent movement, from its rise in about 1840, to a glorious state of immortality. He begins to describe from this never-to-be-over-looked, wonderful picture of the last days, forming, and changing in quick succession, under the deep impressions made on the heart, by the heavenly flying messengers, saying with loud voices-the hour of his judgment is come; and reminds one in some of its features, in the changing of positions, of that last dreadful conflict of nations, on the plains of Waterloo, which decided the fate of Europe. So here, in this last great conflict of contending armies, John, in his vision, hears a glorious voice, [see i: 15 and xix: 6.] and harpers harping with their harps. His eye is turned to the point from whence came the heavenly music, and he beholds a glorified company, with their INVINCIBLE Commander, standing away up on the Mount Zion, that had followed him through his fiery trying conflict, and he had brought them off victorious, and clothed them with immortality and everlasting life; and the Father had stamped ”his name in their foreheads,” and they numbered 144,000, redeemed from the earth; all the living saints that are saved out of the mighty host of nations. Now read the first five verses of this chapter and methinks you will agree with me, that John is here describing the character of the 144,000 as he had seen them sealed, as stated in the seventh chapter; where he closes their history with the 8th verse, to describe the dead saints, and seven angels with their trumpets, and the effect produced by them, from the 7th chapter, 9th verse to the 12th chapter. Then in the 12th and 13th chapters, the dragon, the beast and his image, &c., &c. And then he takes up the history of this same 144,000, from where he had seen them sealed in the 7th chapter, 4-8 verses; and begins by describing them sealed and redeemed from the earth, in company with the Lamb-the Lord Jesus. From the 6th to the 14th verse, he gives the outline of what they had been pa.s.sing through, and the mighty host with whom they had been engaged. It will here be remembered that this message, or proclamation of ”the hour of his judgment,” has gone to every nation and tongue, and people; therefore as Jesus has stated that his elect are to be gathered from the four winds, or from one end of heaven to the other, then his 144,000 will be composed of all nations, particularly the poor ignorant, but honest hearted Slaves of this doomed country. But more especially those described in the 12th verse, walking out in their faith of all the living _present truth_.

An objection may arise with some; still, supposing that the 144,000, because they are named after the tribes of Jacob in the 7th chapter, they cannot mean the Israel of these last days. Micah, speaking of Jesus, says, ”He is _to be_ the ruler in Israel.”-v: 1-2. Gabriel said he would ”reign over the house of Jacob _forever_.”-Luke i: 33. Paul says ”they are not _all_ Israel that are of Israel;” ”If ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.” When John was afterwards giving a description of the holy city, he even saw the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel inscribed on the twelve gates. This agrees with the description in the 7th chapter, and makes a perfect harmony when we understand that this vision was sixty years after the introduction of the gospel, when the church was the whole Israel of G.o.d. The other view would give the literal seed of Jacob full possession of the city; the gates being theirs by the t.i.tles on them. This would make a division wall there, and G.o.d would be a respecter of persons. The gentiles could have no claim there; thus their joint heirs.h.i.+p with Christ would fail and so would this Revelation; for John was directed to ”show (us) things which would shortly come to pa.s.s.”-i: 1; and to ”write the things which thou _hast seen_, and the things which are, and the things which _shall be hereafter_” in the churches, in the future.-xxii: 16. So we see this vision was all of the present and future; besides the tribes of _literal_ Israel had before this been rejected and were to ”be trodden down until the times of the gentiles were fulfilled.”

To make the 14th chapter more plain, in respect to the 144,000, we will try to give an exposition of the 7th. ”And after these things, I saw four Angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the _earth_, nor on the _sea_, nor on any _tree_. And I saw another angel ascending from the east having the seal of the living G.o.d; and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the _earth_, and the _sea_; saying hurt not the _earth_, neither the _sea_, nor the _trees_ till we have sealed the servants of our G.o.d in their foreheads.”-1-3. I believe the general view of these four angels being the four leading governments [see 9th chapter 14, 15 verses,] is correct with the exceptions of Prussia or Rome, because neither of those nations have any maritime force on the sea. Great Britain, France, Russia, and the United States of North America, possess this power over all seas, and the most part of Christendom. Our not being a party in the great christian alliance at the downfall of Napoleon Bonaparte, in 1815, neither in 1840, at the fall of the Ottoman Empire, will not, I think, effect this point; but being one of these four messengers, will make it clear, at least so far as relates to the flying messengers and their work, and our power on the sea. Who does this sealing angel ascending from the east represent? Answer-I think some of the very same flying messengers brought to view in xiv: 6, 7, and x and xviii chapters. If messengers in the form, and fas.h.i.+on of men, symbolically represented as flying through the midst of heaven, preaching the gospel to men, and ”being clothed with clouds,” rainbows and pillars of fire, lighting up the earth with their glory; standing upon the sea, and land, crying as when a lion roareth, that time should be no longer; are called angels, I see not, nor know of any other exposition of this second verse. If it is contended that an invisible angel is here described, then, according to the 9th chapter, 4th verse, it was done in like manner to individuals in the thirteenth century.

ASCENDING from the east, or sun's rising. I think this does not mean _rise up_ out of, &c., as in chapter 13th, or _ascending_ in a similar manner, as in chapter xvii: 8, but rather the following, for instance: these northern and middle States, and the Canadas, are now and have been the location of almost all the flying messengers, and the burden of their messages, as represented in the 14th chapter. William Miller began to proclaim the message from the west, (Low Hampton.) And now to reverse it, the sealing messenger is seen ascending from the eastern, the Atlantic States, bounded by the broad ocean, of nearly three thousand miles, which, when looking to the east, as John did at sun rising, would give the appearance of the sun's rising out of the water but a few miles off. Owing to the round surface of our globe, every 15, or nine hundred miles that we sail from hence to the east, the sun appears _ascending_ from his ocean bed one hour earlier in the morning. This is familiar to the mariner; as also when they discover another s.h.i.+p, they cry, ”sail ho!” Why? Because the top of her sails are only seen, but as they approach each other, _ascending_ up, as it were, out of the ocean bed, the lower sails, and then the hull, and soon after the men are distinctly seen upon her decks.

If we look farther east for this sealing angel or messenger, even to Great Britain, or still onward to the northern coast of China, we shall find none that have been so much engaged in the work of G.o.d as those above described. But if it is still insisted upon, that this sealing angel is invisible, then we shall fail to know when we are sealed. But I think that it is a work to be done here, and the saints will understand when they are sealed or marked as readily as they did when they were rejoicing because they had got the victory over the beast and his image, on the sea of gla.s.s (or more sure word of prophecy.) Rev. xv: 2. This was their sectarian profession that bound them in Babylon; and now their second advent profession, as in Rev. xiv: 12, if adhered to, will bind them to Jesus and seal, or mark, them for the city; see xxii: 14. Ezekiel had a prefiguration of this, in his vision of the man clothed in linen with a writer's inkhorn by his side, pa.s.sing through the city, marking G.o.d groaning, sorrowing children, (ix: 2, 4, 11,) preparatory to the awful slaughter that was immediately to follow; with the strict charge not to touch them that had the mark (or seal) in their foreheads;-just as it will be in the last days, when the 144,000, all of the _living_ children, are sealed with the seal of the _living_ G.o.d in their foreheads, having been marked or sealed in a similar manner, and by the remnant of the messengers that four years ago were writing, lecturing and exhorting the people of G.o.d to get clear of the mark of the beast by coming out of Babylon, because she had fallen; developing their true profession, or christian character, even then, by the help of the marking iron, (the steel pen and stamping type,) with the ink from the writer's _ink horn_; with this difference, that this simultaneous sealing of the 144,000 will show such a clear development of christian character in their lives and s.h.i.+ning foreheads (or faces,) that it will be clearly understood that Jesus has redeemed them from _all_ iniquity, by purifying ”unto himself a _peculiar people_, ZEALOUS OF GOOD WORKS.” [These good works, methinks, will be something more than simply saying we believe the Lord is coming.] Yes, says Malachi, when by his prophetic spirit, he saw Jesus ”making up his jewels,” at this point of time, ”_then_ shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth G.o.d and him that serveth him not.” ”In the latter (or last) days ye shall consider it perfectly.”-Jer. Then ”he that is unjust, let him be so, and he that is righteous, let him be so still, and behold I come quickly, &c.”-Rev. xxii: 11, 12.

This sealing process, then, I understand to be going on with the little flock, progressing in accordance with the last eight years' peculiar labor in their experience, and will be completed and approbated by G.o.d in the agonizing time of Daniel's and Jacob's trouble, and proclaimed to the world by G.o.d's roaring out of Zion, and uttering his voice from Jerusalem; then he will be the hope of his people; (see Joel iii.) then their atonement will be finished, the Sanctuary cleansed,-16th and 17th verses; ”Zion's captivity turned;” ”their mouths filled with laughter;” ”the jewels made up,” and the wise will understand the time of their coming deliverer.(3)

_The four Angels._-How does the sealing angel, or messenger, ascending from the east, cry with a loud voice to these four angels or governments of messengers, to ”hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees,”

&c. In the first place, I understand that symbolic prophecies have literal statements interspersed, which serve as a key for the rest: i. e. they have a mixed character; for instance, earth and sea here, literal; _trees_, symbolical; meaning those that are _marked_, or _sealed_; the professed people of G.o.d-followers of Jesus. See the clear proof under the sounding of the fifth trumpet by the Turks, in ch. ix: 4th verse: ”they were not to hurt any tree, but only those MEN which have _not_ the _seal_ of G.o.d _in their foreheads_.” This proves the trees to symbolize the followers of G.o.d; see also Hosea xiv: 8. Again, it is said that these four messengers were to ”hold the wind from blowing on the _earth_, _sea_, or any _tree_.” By the _wind_, I understand as Paul teaches the Eph. iv: 14, ”every wind of doctrine and cunning craftiness, and slight of men to deceive, and lead nations into carnage, war and bloodshed;” see also ii: 2, ”being led by the Prince of the power of the _air_, working in men disobedience, according to the course of this world.” After the last great battle of nations at Waterloo, in 1815, then these blood-thirsty, conquering crowned heads, formed themselves into what they called a christian alliance, showing that there was now peace with all the world; since which time they and our own government have been pet.i.tioned or prayed to by those who professed to be the followers of the Prince of Peace, to abolish the wicked practice with themselves, and thereby restrain all other nations. Now let us learn the difference between the trees, (professors or followers of the Prince of Peace,) and _servants of G.o.d_ which are now to be sealed, viz. the 144,000. Thousands on thousands of these professors or trees since this work began, have died, and probably one hundred times that number have turned traitors, by deserting their leader and commander, while the great ma.s.s of advent believers, which stamped this truth upon them, (the nominal church) in Oct. 1844, have since that time, also turned into the enemy's ranks, leaving the remnant to finish up the work. The great majority of these professors were once under the right banner, but the winnowing fan of their great leader has left them with the chaff, so that the voice of the remaining messengers, some of whom were sending these pet.i.tions to the four governments, and their prayers to G.o.d to restrain these wicked practices, have become so feeble and disregarded by their former a.s.sociates, that the Devil, seeing his time is short, is now hard at work marshalling his united forces throughout the world, for a mighty victory; and these four messengers are his principle dependence to ”gather the whole world to the battle of that great day of G.o.d Almighty,” but it will not become general until the 144,000 saints are sealed.

Here, then, I understand, that the professed followers of the Prince of Peace, (symbolized as trees,) have been crying with a loud voice by their pet.i.tions, which is the symbol for prayer, see xiv: 15, 18, and Matt.