"When we look up from amid the present confusion and wreck to GOD-the living God, let us remember, that He who set up at Pentecost, a new arena, in which He proposed to man to have Himself as the One who should reign and rule, is the same God, who is leading on believers now home to the scene where all rule flows from the throne of GOD and the Lamb. If the kingdom has failed in its subjects-if in their corporate standing they have not owned Him alone, and have owned another (and He therefore has ceased to own them in that position), still to faith there is but one GOD and one Lord, even as there is but one Spirit; and the kingdom, set up at Pentecost, which failed in the subject, stands in the Head, and in the end will be displayed before all among the faithful. For when we come to the new Jerusalem, the throne is the throne of GOD and the Lamb: and faith owns it to be so wow."
THE WARNING.
Speak not of "The good time coming;"
Say not, "Happy times draw nigh."
Lo! The clouds with terror looming,
Darken o'er the future sky!
Undeceive thyself, O mortal!
To the winds such dreaming give!
Think upon the fearful purging
That the earth must first receive!
Rather tell of wrath and vengeance,
Pending o'er this guilty race;
In its shame still glorying—boasting;
Deaf to all the calls of grace -
God forgetting—God dishonoring -
Guilty world, thy doom is nigh!
Fear unknown will seize upon thee,
When He shakes the earth and sky!
Luke 14:16-2416Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: 17And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. 18And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. 19And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. 20And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. 21So that servant came, and showed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. 22And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. 23And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. 24For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper. (Luke 14:16‑24).
Rom. 3:10-2310As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 13Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 14Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 15Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17And the way of peace have they not known: 18There is no fear of God before their eyes. 19Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 21But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:10‑23).
Sodom's fall but faintly pictures,
What thy awful lot will be;
It had not so many warnings,
As the Lord hath sent to thee.
Grace refus'd, makes judgment sorer -
O what grace has thou refused!
Guilty world, they judgments hover,
All escape for thee is closed!
Yet, as in the case of Sodom,
Lot departed ere it fell;
So, the Lord will come from heaven,
Take His church with Him to dwell,
Ere destruction's work commences,
On this Sodom's guilty ones:
They, the salt, alone preserve it -
They removed—the judgment comes.
To the Ark and from destruction
All who'd be preserved, then, haste!
Christ's alone the Ark of safety -
Come—and full salvation taste:
Tarry not for reformation -
(Sinners—Jesus died to save),
Art thou lost? He came to find thee;
Thou, believing, life shalt have.
Then, amid the coming glory,
Which the Church with Christ shall share;
Thou shalt have they happy portion,
Bride of His—His image bear -
Then, His earthly people gathered,
Earth made clean, and Satan bound;
Thou shalt, with thy Savior, reigning
O'er a happy world be found!
Ezek. 37:24-2824And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. 25And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever. 26Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. 27My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 28And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore. (Ezekiel 37:24‑28).
A. M.