HE whom Yahweh hath made both Lord and Anointed, or Christ, when executing the work of preaching the "gospel of the kingdom to the poor," upbraided the clergy of his day for their stupidity in not being able to discern "THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES." They desired him that he would show them a sign from heaven ; upon which he exclaimed, "Oh! ye hypocrites, ye know how to discern the face of the heaven, but the signs of the times ye are not able!" Like the Pagans they sought an omen in the sky-an eclipse, a shooting star, a darkening, or something of the sort. They demanded this upon the principle that Yahweh's signs were in the Constellations of the physical universe. True, it is written that God had said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to divide, between the day and between the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and for years." Every astronomer and navigator, agriculturist, and business man, knows practically the meaning of this. The use of them for these purposes of life, however, never suggests to them anything connected with the things of the kingdom of God, and of the name of Jesus Christ. They who are instructed in these things would as soon look for their signs (and they have their signs) in a coal pit, where darkness may be felt, as expect to find them in the firmament or atmosphere that surrounds our globe. The signs of the Son of Man are not there; and as Jesus told the clerical hypocrites of his day, they who look for them in that direction are "a wicked and adulterous generation," of whose doctrinal leaven men should diligently beware. The heathen, and all whose principles are heathenish, look for signs in the sky as indications of the coming of the Son of Man, of an approaching conflagration of the earth, and of a destruction of the world of nations! Christian philosophers (!) are deeply imbued with this folly so that a comet of unusual length and brilliancy of tail will set them all agog, for a collision, a shivering of the earth to fragments, and a fiery combustion of the rubbish! And if the seducing spirits or demoniacs, as Paul appropriately styles teachers of this class, who profess and are generally accounted to be wise, have such notions, what marvel that the people who have blindly surrendered themselves to their direction, should abandon themselves to the same foolishness. Children are imbeciles, where men are fools; and they are fools, says Jesus, "who believe not ALL that the prophets have spoken " for they have uttered the words of God.
Now concerning signs in the sky, Yahweh hath commanded His people not to trouble themselves about them. In Jer. 10:2, "Thus saith Yahweh, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of the heavens; for the heathen are dismayed at them; for the customs of the people are vain." An eclipse was enough to postpone an expedition, and to throw an army of veteran idolators into a panic. We would commend the words of the prophet to the heathen of Yankeedom, who pretended to see in the alleged darkness of the New England sky, in 1780, the signs of the coming of the Son of Man to Mount Olivet, on the east of Jerusalem, in 1843-4 and all the several terms they have appointed since. When the children of anti-Christ go star-gazing for the signs of God, it is proof positive to all enlightened in the Scriptures, that they are ignorant of the principles of the oracles of the truth. No one "taught of God " looks for His signs among the Pleiades, Orion, Arcturus, and his bands. It is not the signs and constellations of the universe, but in the sun, moon, and stars of the heavens politic, that He has placed His signs.
And this is both rational and scriptural. It is rational that the sins of a great political revolution should be manifested in the political heavens. The coming of the Son of Man is a great political event, and the necessary occasion of a complete overthrow of the existing constitution of the world. If he were merely coming to lead forth his chosen from their graves, and to fly away with them to a transkyanian country, no disturbance of things political need ensue; and no signs political would be seen. But the resurrection of the saints is only an incident, though an indispensable incident, indeed, of the situation formed. The Son of Man comes to settle the celebrated "EASTERN QUESTION," which becomes a knot too difficult for the horns of the Gentiles to untie, and which their swords are not sharp enough to sever. He comes to overturn the empire of Constantinople, that it may no longer lord it over Jerusalem and the Holy Land ; he comes, in other words, to checkmate the policy of Great Britain, in destroying the integrity and independence of that dominion. He comes to expel the Gentiles out of the country covenanted to Abraham and his seed ; and to set up there a kingdom, that in the hands of its rulers, shall subdue Italy, France, Spain, Belgium, Germany; in short, all the kingdoms and empires, republics, and principalities of the habitable; and overrule them in all the departments of their affairs, to the glory of the God of heaven, and the benefit of the world. Such an Apocalypse or revelation of the Son of Man, is, therefore, a grand political phenomenon; and as its manifestation is made consequent upon the formation of a special and well-defined situation of the political heavens and earth, the signs given of the times of this notable crisis are not in Ursa Major or Orion's Belt, or over the land of Puritan fanaticism, but in the POLITICAL AERIAL of the European world-a world that has its sun, moon, stars, air, earth, mountains, hills, fountains, rivers, sea; with thunders, lightnings, earthquakes, hailstorms, and tempests, trees, grass, vines, wild beasts, and so forth.
The sun, moon and stars of the aerial, or political expanse, are aggregately styled by Paul, the heavenlies, whose orbitular revolutions constitute what he also terms ho aion tou kosmou touton, in the English version rendered "the course of this world;" and as the motive power in these heavenlies is SIN, "the spirit working in the children of disobedience," it is styled Archon tes exouias tou Aeros, "the PRINCE OF THE DOMINION OF THE AIR." Against this Prince of sin's flesh, invested with political authority, the apostle contended in the manner exhibited in Luke's account of the warfare in the Acts. The dealings of the magistrates and rulers before whom he appeared, he styles "the wiles of THE DEVIL;" that is of the Prince of the Aerial, which reigns in the hearts of the rebellious. When Paul pleaded before the chief priests and their council, before the governors Felix and Porcius Festus, King Agrippa and the Emperor Caesar, "he wrestled" as he tells us, "against the principalities," against the authorities, against the world-rulers of the darkness of this aion (or course of things) against the spirituals of the wickedness in the heavenlies." The words "principalities," "authorities," "word-rulers," and "spirituals" are all in opposition, and are expressive of the different orders of men, which constituted then, as they do now, the "things in the heavens." It was to those the apostles and the one body of Christ, composed of obedient believers of the gospel of the kingdom, were divinely appointed "to make known the manifold wisdom of God." "Unto me," says Paul, "who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should evanglise among the nations the unsearchable riches of the Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which [mystery] has been hid from the aions (ages of the law) in God, who created all things on account of Jesus Christ; that now might be made known the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies through the ecclesia (commonly termed 'church') the manifold wisdom of God, according to a pre-arrangement of the aions, which he made with reference to our Lord Jesus Christ."
What Paul terms "the darkness of this aion," was the effete Judaism of the synagogue and the Paganism of the idol temples. There was no light in them, though both forms recognized immortal-soulism and elysian skyanity. Caesar and his pro-consuls, procurators, governors, prefects, and such like, were the kosmocratores, or world-rulers of the darkness peculiar in the Greco-Roman or Fourth Beast Habitable, styled by the apostle "this aion." Mankind living under that dominion were regarded by God as having their eyes closed, and, consequently, in darkness; and as darkness or ignorance of God's truth is the power of Satan or the adversary, by which the Prince of the air, spirit inherent in and peculiar to human nature, reigns in the hearts of the disobedient, men are regarded in Scripture as under the power of Satan and the devil. Opposed to all this is the light, the gospel of the kingdom, and styled by Paul the power of God for salvation, or deliverance from the darkness or power of the adversary. If this be understood, the beautiful significance of the saying of the Lord Jesus will be appreciated when he said to Paul. "I now send thee unto the nations to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness into light, and from the dominion of the Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and inheritance among them that have been sanctified by faith which (leads) unto me."
This mission was truly militant. Paul might well call it "the fight of faith," for it brought him into life or death conflict with the civil and ecclesiastical authorities of the Jewish and Pagan kosmoi, or constitution of things, commonly termed worlds. But the most dangerous and perverse of the incarnate wickedness of the heavenlies, were what he styles ta pneumatika, THE SPIRITUALS. He says he "wrestled against the spirituals of the wickedness in the heavenlies." These were the Jewish priests, rabbinical clergy, and idolatrous sacerdotals of the temples. His divine mission was to emancipate the minds of men from what the spirituals or ecclesiastics called "wisdom," but which Paul termed "foolishness" and "fables;" and James, "earthly, soulish, demoniacals" (daimoniades.) He sought to turn the people from the clergy; to destroy the influence of these blind guides; to get the people to forsake the synagogues and temples, and to become the illuminati of God, the faithful and obedient believers of his promises in Christ. As the spirituals could not maintain their positions by force of argument, and they perceived their congregations sensibly diminishing, and the offerings of the people diverted from their treasuries, they stirred up the world-rulers, the Emperor and his satellites, to persecute him, and all such to bonds, imprisonment, and death.
The fact that the making known of the manifold wisdom of God to the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies was committed to the one body of Christ, is demonstration that those heavenlies were political and pertaining to earth. If they had been things among the stars or beyond them, how could the church have made known God's wisdom to them? Indeed, the wisdom is itself "from above" to the church which had the honour assigned it of communicating all that was knowable to the nations and their ungodly and ignorant "spiritual and temporal" rulers. These civil and ecclesiastical orders, then, were "the things in the heavens," which were then visible, and which have, in their representatives, coeval with the end, to be reconciled to God.
But "the things in the heavens, whether thrones or lordships, or principalities, or authorities" which were "visible" in Paul's day have been superseded by similar institutions which were "invisible" then. The visible "heaven departed as a scroll being rolled up; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places."--(Rev. 6:14). New mountains and islands, thrones and principalities, however appeared; nevertheless, these heavenly things continued to be manifested as sin's flesh invested with civil and ecclesiastical authority. The power of the chief priests and their council had been broken by the Greco-Roman army sent against Jerusalem; and in its turn this Pagan imperiality had been abolished by the Catholics of the fourth century, who now by the patronage of the state became "the spirituals of the wickedness in the heavenlies," instead of the image-worshipping sarcedotals, who had preceded them. Since this notable revolution in the Greco-Roman habitable, still newer "things in the heavens," have appeared; nevertheless, rigidly adherent to the wickedness of their predecessors. By the close of the seventh century, the Ten Horns and the Little Horn of the West, constituting the imperial body politic of Western Europe, were fully developed, and, with varied fortune, have continued to the present time. These powers, with their emperors, kings, princes, nobles, ecclesiastics, and so forth, forming the orders and degrees of men in spiritual and civil authority, are the "things in the heavens," invisible to Paul, but "visible" to us. These are the all things in the heavens which he says Jesus is to reconcile to God.--(Col. 1:20). He will reconcile them to God by hurling the mighty from their thrones, emptying the rich of all their good things, and, having subdued the nations, giving them laws and institutions in harmony with his will. "The spirituals of wickedness in the heavenlies visible to us, are the priests, clergy, pastors, ministers, and preachers of the Greek, Latin, and hundred-headed Protestantism of what is absurdly enough termed "Christendom." These are the teachers, advocates, and expositors of the apostasy and all its abominations. The world-rulers of the darkness of this modern aion of ours are all members of the churches of the spirituals. Queen Victoria is the head and defendress of the faith, which rejoices in "Charles the Martyr," whom the Independents beheaded for tyranny and Popish tendencies; in those pious knaves, Henry VIII. and James I. We need not write a history of Church of Englandism to prove to the children of the two thousand Non-conformist parsons that it is an element of "the wickedness of the heavenlies." Then there is Louis Napoleon, who, by his assassin, St. Arnaud, slew his hundreds in the streets, exiled his thousands, sent one woman and her children adrift that he might win another, and has extinguished all public speech but that which echoes his own craftiness, high in favour at St. James', and with the spirituals of Gaul and Rome. But it is needless to particularize; for whether we turn to St. Petersburgh, to Madrid, to Brussels, to Naples, to Vienna, to Washington, or to any other corner of the heavens, we find the world-rulers in high favour with the spirituals, who are ever ready, for a consideration, in any aveilable form, to give them "the consolations of religion" on their dying beds! Truly, the apostle might well lump the whole batch of Popes, Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, Deacons, Rectors, Canons, Vicars, Curates, and all reverences of whatever sect or degree, together, as "the spirituals of the wickedness in the heavenlies;" for the Prince of the Dominion of the Aerial, which is the spirit that works in the sons of disobedience, is sovereign of them all.
But though "wickedness" now reigns "in the heavenlies," its ascendancy there is only temporary. "The things which are seen are temporary," says Paul, "but these that are not seen are aionian." These unseen things pertain to the next aion, and are the object of the faith of those who are enlightened in the manifold wisdom of God. They are things which pertain to righteousness; so that the thrones, dominions, principalities, and authorities of the next aion will be the world-rulers of the light and the spirituals of the righteousness in the heavenlies. It is to these heavens Peter alludes in saying, "We look for a new heaven and a new earth in which dwells righteousness." The change in the constitution of the political aerial will be so thorough and complete as to give them an entirely new aspect. The kingdoms of this world will have "become the kingdoms of Yahweh and his anointed;" so that sin's flesh will have been stripped of all political authority, and the Prince of the Dominion of the Air, the spirit of disobedience; consequently precipitated like lightning to the lowest abyss of society.
An association of true believers is termed in Scripture "a heavenly;" and as the Lord Jesus, their Elder Brother and High Priest, is composed of the believers of the manifold wisdom of God of all past and present ages and generations, where He is now a "heavenly," in relation to the said association. These two heavenlies stand related to one another as the Holy and the Most Holy of the Temple, divided the one from the other by the veil of the covering, or the flesh. When the veil is abolished with regard to the true believers which will be at the appearing of the High Priest, they will be like him, and in the angelic nature, will constitute the Most Holy or second heavenly. Alluding to these two heavenlies, the apostle says to the saints in Ephesus, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ" (chap 1:3); and, speaking of the exaltation of the Son, he says "Having raised him from the dead, the Father set him on His right hand in the heavenlies, far above all principality and authority, and power, and lordship, and every dignity that is name, not only in this aion, but in the future; and put all things under his feet; and appointed him Head over all things to the ecclesia, which is his Body, the fullness of Him that perfecteth all things in all."--(Eph 1:20)
In this testimony the reader will remark that there are qualifying words which distinguish these heavenlies from those in which the "spirituals of the wickedness" flourish. They are designated by the apostles as the "heavenlies in Christ." The other heavenlies, in which Queen Victoria, Louis Napoleon, the Pope, and stars of that order, shed their rays, are the heaven-lies in Anti-Christ, which are blessed with no spiritual blessings, unless it be a blessing to make merchandise of for their glorification and profit.
But in "the heavenlies in Christ," the spiritual blessings are notable and well-defined. Jews and Gentiles have introduction into the heavenlies by believing "the manifold wisdom of God," and by being thereupon immersed. Consequent upon this, they enjoy the spiritual blessings of justification from all past sins, of being "free indeed" from bondage to "the spirituals of wickedness in the (Gentile) heavenlies," with all their traditions, schemes, and gospel-nullifying impositions; of having free access to the Father, to whom they are privileged to offer up the spiritual sacrifice of prayer, praise and thanksgiving, which is acceptable to Him, through Jesus Christ, in the most holy heavenly, within the veil; of being honoured to "shew forth" the excellencies of Him who hath called them out of the darkness (of the spirituals or clergy) into His wonderful light;" and of having a right to the kingdom of the coming aion, with its glory, honour, incorruptibility, life, power, riches, and delights, the full appreciation of which can only be realized in their manifestation.
We perceive, then, that there are "heavenly things," even now upon the earth. An obedient believer of the manifold wisdom of God, styled by Paul, a "new creation," or "a new man" is a heavenly thing. He is a creation which the truth of God alone can form. All the spirituals of wickedness combined in one general camp meeting, or revival, could not develop one such. They can make Papists and Protestants sectarians of all "the names and denominations" of blasphemy in anti-Christendom, by thousands; but one enlightened new creature, "rich in faith and heir of the kingdom of God," they cannot develop; for he is created by exact knowledge after the image of God; and of that knowledge they are ignorant as Brigham Young, or his Oriental prototype, the camel-driver of Mecca.
"The heavenly things themselves are purified," says Paul, with better sacrifices than the Mosaic victims of whose blood the patterns of those things were consecrated. This is his teaching in Heb. 9. He tells us that the better sacrifice was "the once offering of Christ to bear the sins of many." Whatever, therefore, is sanctified by his blood, as the blood of the covenant, is a heavenly thing IN CHRIST. Upon this principle, the covenants made with Abraham and David, and the throne and kingdom hereafter to be established in Jerusalem and the Holy Land, are heavenly things. The gospel of the kingdom is a heavenly thing, and styled by Paul "the heavenly calling." The Holy Land also is termed "a heavenly country," because it is the subject-matter of a divine covenant confirmed by the blood of its mediator; and, lastly, the one body of Christ, immortalized and glorified, is called "the heavenly Jerusalem."
For the sake, then, of distinctness, we state that there are in contemporaneous existence:--
1.--Gentile heavenly places; and
2.--Heavenly places in Christ.
3.--That the Gentile heavenlies constitute the political serial, the locality of the sun, moon, and stars political.
4.--That the sovereign power of the political air is SIN, "the Prince of the Dominion of the Air."
5.--That this, in relation to the saints, the gospel of the kingdom, and God is the SATAN and the DEVIL, politically developed.
6.--That the orders and degrees of men, styled "world-rulers of the darkness,"and "spirituals of the wickedness," through which SIN governs the nations, are the "ANGELS OF THE DEVIL."
7.--That the ecclesia which is Christ's body, is the holy heavenly in Christ, in which burns the Word-Lamp, the light of truth, where the bread of the Presence is eaten; and
8.--That the ecclesia manifested in glory is the most holy heavenly state, in which Jesus now is, then visible upon the earth--"heaven opened."
Thus we see that while godliness hath its mystery, which is revealed in the preaching of the apostles, so has iniquity. These two mysteries stand arrayed against each other; the one, the great MYSTERY OF GODLINESS; the other, the MYSTERY OF INIQUITY, or sin manifested in flesh. The reason why the devil, in the singular number, does not once occur, and the same word in the plural, only four times (and then put for idols) in the Old Testament, and yet in the New Testament occurs about forty in the Greek, is because the apostolic writings are a revelation of the mystery of godliness; both of which were "hid form the ages and generations" under the law.
SIN manifested in flesh is the basis of the times of the Gentiles; and OBEDIENCE manifested in flesh, that of the one body and the millennial of the Messiah. Whatever is not of obedience is unrighteousness, and "all un-righteousness is sin." Hence sin has its spirituals as righteousness. The sin-spirituals, as we have seen, are all who dabble in religion, being ignorant of the word of the kingdom; and will always be found to be the apologists for ignorance and disobedience on the ground of sincerity, which, with them, sanctifies all kinds of absurdity and unbelief. They talk much about the Spirit, and are very apt at interlarding their discourse with pious words and phrases; and at delivering it with a holy tone and sanctimonious grimace. But this is all the pietism of their flesh and blood phrenology, the organs of which have all their appropriate pantomime; and their spirit the electro-vital exhalation from their secerning membrane, which courses through and over their nervous system--the electro magnetism of flesh, which when operating upon their brains, is manifested as the spirit of disobedience, SIN'S SPIRIT, as opposed to the Holy and Eternal Spirit of Yahweh. Sin's spirit is the overmuch righteousness and superstition of ancient and modern pharisaism, which delights in obscurity, and bears on its forehead "MYSTERY," being averse to any investigation tending to test its validity by the Word. "The Spirit which is the truth" is the very contrary to all this. It rejoices in a REVEALED MYSTERY, and encourages a close scrutiny of all that God has spoken by the prophets and apostles. Its language is, "Prove all things and hold fast that which is good;" "Search the Scriptures," and so forth. It is a free spirit, gendering to liberty of thought and action, ever eschewing licentiousness, and always in harmony with God.
Now these two systems--the one under the captain-general-ship of THE LAWLESS ONE; and the other under that of him "who was obedient unto death," are destined of God to meet in a conflict, the result of which shall be the triumph of the truth, and the expulsion of the world-rulers and the spirituals from the heaven-lies. This determination of God is expressed in these words: "The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel (the Michael of Dan 12:1) and with the trumpet of God;" "The apocalypse of the Lord Jesus from heaven, with angels of his power, with fire of flame, inflicting vengeance on those who know no God, and who hearken not to the glad tidings of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with aion destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his might; consuming with the spirit of his mouth, and destroying with the brightness of his presence, the Lawless One; when he comes to be glorified with his saints, and to be admired in that day by all that believe." This conflict will be terrible; but the issue will not be doubtful. The world-rulers and the spirituals, the ministers of Satan, will contend to desperation, risking everything in their struggle to retain their accustomed position in the heavenlies, but all to no purpose; for, as the Satan, they must fall into the bottomless abyss.
Now, we have been particular in the development of these things, that the reader may be able the more readily to discern in what direction he must look for the signs of the times when these things are about to come to pass. If he understand our premisses, he will certainly not be peering into the meteorology of Yankeedom in 1780, or among the signs of the Zodiac, in search of Yahweh's signs. These belong to the political astronomy of the universe of mankind. He has declared that there shall be signs in the heavens; in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; for the powers of the heavens shall be shaken; and that afterwards they shall see the Son of Man coming in a cloud (of warriors) with power and great glory. We are told that this manifestation of judgment shall be in "THE TIME OF THE END," and that they are blessed who watch the signs, and are prepared for the apocalypse; for "Behold" saith the Lord, "as a thief I come!"
But how can a man watch the signs unless he know them? And how can he know them if the sure word of prophecy have no place in his understanding? It is impossible. Therefore, the apostle Peter exhorts us, saying, "Ye do well that ye take heed to the sure word of prophecy, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until THE DAY dawn, and the Day Star arise in your hearts." And the reason is this, that Yahweh has therein informed us of certain things that are to exist in the time of the end; and which when being, are the signs that the great consummation we have been contemplating is at hand. The word of prophecy is light. It is the light God has given us to see by, and which He expects us to use, when He exhorts us to watch. It is the oil He has furnished us with which to trim our lamps. He that is ignorant of the prophetic word has no oil in his vessel, and his light has gone out. Dress your lamps, then, beloved friends, that when the shout of the archangel echoes throughout the world, ye may not be taken unawares.
Well, Yahweh has told us certain signs characteristic of the end. Not to keep you in suspense, we will present them at once in the following summary:--
1. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
2. Darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people.
3. At the time of the end there shall exist a King of the South, or Egypt, and the land be remembered.
4. The political Euphrates drying up.
5. A Frog Power in existence contemporary with a Dragon Power, a Beast Power, and a False Prophet Power.
6. The nations enraged and in perplexity.
7. Preparation of the bride.
These are signs of the time which with the exception of the last two, are fully developed. Any one can see them if he look into the present condition of the old world by the light of prophecy and the Revealed Mystery.
The increase of knowledge is a noteable characteristic of our times. Steam power, railroads, telegraphs and such like, are the evidences thereof patent to all. But while science and the arts have wonderfully progressed, mankind in general has make no advance in the knowledge of God, and of Jesus Christ whom He sent to Israel. Darkness covers Israel and gross darkness the nations. Isaiah long since predicted, that when the Redeemer should come to Zion, to deliver her from the oppression of the Gentiles, profound darkness would preveil throughout the earth. We see this on every side; nevertheless, the spirituals of wickedness in the heavenlies protest that their generation is the most enlightened that has ever yet existed upon the earth! They call their day "the glorious and enlightened 19th century!" They say that they are living in a blaze of gospel light; and so satisfied are they that they "are rich and increased in goods, and have need of nothing," that they are sending off their spiritual superfluity to the heathen at a vast expenditure of zeal and the gold which perishes. "Give us money enough," say they, "and we will convert the world!" But they know not, "miserable sinners" that they are, that they themselves are unconvertible, and wretched, and poor, and blind, and naked; and that it is the two-edged sword of the Spirit, wielded by the saints, and not money-inspired spirituals, that is to convert the world to God.
Paul shews very evidently, in Romans 11 that the proximate cause of the cutting off of the Gentiles from any further invitation to the honour, rights, dominion and life of God's kingdom and glory, is because of their unbelief. True, the world is full of "sincere faith," perfect, as it is said, in kind, but at the same time, infinitely contemptible in degree; for while men sincerely believe what God has not promised, and very readily do what He has not commanded, they are utterly infidel of the glad tidings of the kingdom, of the revealed mystery, and so forth; and can only cry out with the devils, that they believe that Jesus is the Son of God. This is a sign of the time of the end. Their inebriation and perversion of mind are too inveterate to be overcome by the testimony of God and reason; so that the one body has almost attained to its fullness. Peter began the work of bringing the Gentiles into the body of Christ when God visited them at the house of Cornelius; the work has been going on from that time to present; and we may hope that there are yet some more who will believe the manifold wisdom of God, and become obedient to the faith, before the King of Israel is revealed. When the last man anterior to that event shall have obeyed the truth, "the fullness of the Gentile" will have "come in." There will then be nothing to detain the High Priest within the veil; for there will be not more brethren for him to reconcile before the mercy seat; and the time, yea, the set time, to favour Zion, and to redeem Israel will have arrived. "Because of unbelief, they were broken off; and if thou, O Gentile, continue not in the goodness of God, thou shalt also be cut off, and Israel likewise, if they abide not in unbelief, shall be grafted in; for God is able to graft them in again."
Gross darkness then in regard to the gospel concurrent with considerable scientific and mechanical improvement, is a sign of the end approaching. Who cannot see that this exists? Look at the nations of old Europe; in science and art they are unsurpassed; but in things spiritual, the Sodom and Egypt of antiquity were not more corrupt and blind. Even Britain, which is a sort of oasis in the desert, though not so brutally debased as the worshippers of the Virgin's ghost or the disciple of Mohammed, are, nevertheless, as truly ignorant of the manifold wisdom of God as the rest. And when we look home here, we find no exception to the universal plight. The shallowness of a rippling brook characterizes all clerical thinking pertaining to the wisdom of God. What we see then in relation to all the world, harmonizes with Isaiah's prediction of the evil to be corrected at the crisis of the Lord's apocalypse. He tells us that when "Yahweh of armies shall make for all peoples a feast of fat things," He will find a something to be destroyed. He also informs us that this is a covering spread over all nations; a veil that is styled by Paul "strong delusion, causing to believe a lie;" the people' minds are darkened by this delusion which hallucinates their understandings, and converts them into lunatics, fanatics and fools. John of Patmos says that the inhabitants are all drunk, and that they have become so by drinking of the cup filled with the sorceries in the hand of the spirituals of the apostasy. Signs Nos.1 and 2 then may be considered established.
The third sign is the existence of the Egyptian power. It is written in Dan 11:40, that "at the time of the end THE KING OF THE SOUTH shall push at the power exercising sovereignty over the Holy Land. When Daniel wrote this, he was residing in Babylon, which was situated one degree and twenty minutes, or 83 miles, north of Jerusalem. The kingdom south of these cities was that of Egypt. For several hundred years previous to 1820, when "that determined" began to be "poured out upon the Desolator" of the Holy Land, Egypt had ceased to be a kingdom. But not long after the Russian War in 1829, Mehemet Ali rebelled against the Sultan of Turkey, and succeeded in establishing himself as King of Egypt, or of the South, including Palestine and Arabia. He conquered Syria, and was, for a time, lord paramount of the East. This exaltation from a Turkish Pasha to the sovereignty of Egypt, opened new prospects to his ambition, and he aspired to the throne of Constantinople. The "time of the end" was just at hand, there being but a small part of the period of Dan. 8:24 to expire. In 1838, Mehemet Ali, King of the South, "pushed at" the Sultan. Hitherto he had confined his operations to Egypt and Syria, but now at the close of the war, he pushed for Constantinople, and advanced as far as Smyrna; and but for the interference of the "Great Powers" unconsciously "to establish the vision," he would, doubtless, have dethroned him. Wearied of this state of affairs which endangered the balance of power, England, Russia, Austria, and Prussia, undertook to establish peace and to place things on a permanent footing. They ordered the King of the South to surrender Syria, including Palestine; and to restore the Turkish fleet, which had revolted from the Sultan during the war. Mehemet Ali refused to do either, contending that Syria was his as a part of his kingdom for ever by right of conquest, and the fleet as the spoils of war. These great powers, however, were not to be trifled with. They were willing that the throne of Egypt should be hereditary in his family, but determined that he should only be Pasha of Syria for life. But Mehemet could not yield, and the result was that the allied fleet bombarded the cities of the Syrian seaboard and took possession of St. Jean de Acre. They again offered him "all that part of Syria extending from the Gulf of Suez to the Lake of Tiberias, together with the provinces of Acre for life," if he would restore the Turkish fleet. But he still refused, and in the Autumn of 1840 they compelled the Egyptian forces to evacuate the country, and determined that he should not have it all, and threatened that if he did not restore the fleet within ten days, they would bombard him in Alexandria. Prudence, which is said to be the better part of valor, at length overcame the obstinacy of Mehemet--he, therefore, yielded and surrendered the ships within the time. Thus, the Land of israel was restored to the Sultan of Constantinople, and Mehemet was restricted to the kingdom of Egypt.
Such was one of the important events which mark the arrival of the time of the end, and stands out as a sign that "the time of the end" is the time in which we are now living. The incidents narrated are also evidential of the time having arrived to which Yahweh refers in Lev. 26:42, saying, "I will remember my covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will remember the land." The King of the South claimed the land as his for ever; but Yahweh hath said, "the land shall not be sold for ever, for THE LAND IS MINE."--(Lev. 25:23) If Yahweh would not permit the Israelites to alienate it from one to another for ever, he would be far from permitting Mehemet to posses it or the Allies to grant it to him for ever. "The land is mine, saith Yahweh;" so that no Gentile power can by andy possibility retain more than a temporary dominion over it. The hand of God may be clearly discerned in the events of this epoch. He hardened the King of Egypt's heart not to accept the land upon andy other terms than his own, which were certain not to be granted. If they had yielded to his demand, "the Eastern Question" would have been diplomatically settled, and the course of events regarding Israel turned into a different and perhaps opposite channel; but as the belligerence of 1840 has left the country, the policy or fate of the Sultan will affect the current and future fortunes of the land.
The fourth sign of the time of the end is the evaporation of the political Euphrates. This sign is recorded in Rev. 16:12, and with the fifth, is given as that which immediately precedes the appearing of the Son of Man in power and great glory. The political Euphrates is to the political Babylon, what the literal, physical or material Euphrates was to the literal Babylon where Belshazzar reigned. It is the many water lying between Jerusalem and Rome to be dried up before the latter city is captured and destroyed by Yahweh's Anointed, in the time of the end.
The literal Euphrates rises in the mountains of Armenia, and from its source to its mingling with the waters of the Persian Gulf, flows through the Turkish territory. Being exclusively a Turkish river, it cannot possibly represent any other than the Ottoman or Turkish power. Now to dry up the water of a symbolical river, is a symbolical phenomenon, and represents the drying-up, evaporation or extinction of the power it represents. Well, here is a testimony before us that teaches the existence of a Euphratean power in the time of the end; in some year of which Yahweh's anointed is to be found present in the world, as a thief is discovered to be in a house; and that before this grand burglary is committed, the said Euphratean power would be observed to be wasting away as "A SICK MAN," and ready to die. And furthermore the record teaches us, that when this power should be dried up, that period manifestation, termed in symbolic speech, "the sixth vial," under which and before its judgments are exhausted, Christ appears. "And the sixth messenger poured out his bowl upon the great river Euphrates, and its waters were dried up that the way of THE KINGS, which (are) from risings of A SUN, might be prepared." These "Kings" are the saints; "the risings" their individual resurrections; and "the Sun," the Sun of Righteousness that arises with healing in his beams.--(Mal. 4:2) So that, reader, you are taught that the evaporation of the Euphratean power is preparatory of the way of God's kings and priests, who are to rise from among the dead: are you prepared for that event?
Such is the predicted sigh; but does the thing signified really exist? If it does not, then we are not contemporary with the outpouring of the sixth bowl; and the appearing of Yahweh's anointed, and the resurrection of the believers of the manifold wisdom of God, is not so near as some suppose. But we affirm most earnestly and gravely that the thing signified by the sign does exist. There is no intelligent man instructed in the past and current history of the Ottoman Empire, who will not readily admit that its power is wasting, and that it continues to exist only through the mutual jealousies and forbearance of the Great Powers. It is in effect the van of the British Empire in the East, and England would imperil her own existence, rather than permit Turkey to be occupied by Russia, Austria, or France. This is the strength of Turkey that remains--national jealousies and British interests. Left to their own resources in a war with any foreign power, or in a conflict with at non-Mohammedan population of their own provinces, the dominion of the once terrible Osmanlis would vanish, and its former channel become as the burning sands of the torrid zone.