_first_, on the Father’s promise to the Son, made on the express
condition of his pouring out his soul unto death. “I the Lord have
called thee in righteousness, and will hold thy hand, and will keep thee,
and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles,
to open the blind eyes, to bring forth the prisoners from the prison, and
them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house.” Christ’s universal
dominion is the promised reward of his sufferings, and the Father speaks
as if he intended to raise his wages. “Thus saith the Lord; It is a
light thing that thou shouldst be my servant, to raise up the tribes of
Jacob, and restore the preserved of Israel; I will also give thee for a
light of the gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the ends of
the earth.” “Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.”
Such is the promise. All nations shall come and worship before him. All
that the Father hath given shall come unto him, and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against them.
The certainty of Messiah’s universal dominion is founded, _secondly_, on
his perfect qualification to accomplish the work which the Father hath
given him to do. “No one knoweth the Father,” in all the perfection of
his nature, all the wisdom of his counsels, and all the immutability of
his purposes, “but the Son; and no one knoweth the Son, but the Father,”
as he alone is of the same essence, and exhibits the same attributes.
Christ is “God manifest in the flesh;” “the brightness of the Father’s
glory, and the express image of his person.” None but a divine person
could give, and none but a divine person could receive, such a privilege
as is here promised. None but a divine person could be competent to the
eternal redemption of countless millions of the human race. Christ “is
the true God, and Eternal Life”—“the Faithful Witness, the First Begotten
from the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth”—“the Alpha and
Omega, the Beginning and the Ending, the First and the Last”—“the Root
and the Offspring of David, and the Bright and Morning Star”—“Over all,
God, blessed for ever.” These are Messiah’s titles, which evince his
equality to the work which he has undertaken—the salvation of the world,
and the subjugation of all things unto himself. He is able, not only to
set up his kingdom, but also to establish it for ever. It shall never be
destroyed, nor left to other people; but shall break in pieces and
destroy all other kingdoms, and the kingdoms of this world shall become
the kingdom of our God and of his Christ.
Take courage, ye fearful saints! Your king is the Almighty God. He
shall conquer all your enemies. The victory of Calvary is the pledge and
earnest of his universal dominion. You shall soon be more than
conquerors, through him that hath loved you, and given himself for you.
He is able to protect you against the combined powers of earth and hell.
Omniscient, he is well acquainted with all the plots of his enemies;
Almighty, he can at any moment frustrate them. The prince of darkness,
with all his hosts, cannot impede the progress of his kingdom. In all
their councils, he is present, hearing their deliberations and
discovering their malice. He overturns their schemes, or employs them
for the accomplishment of his own gracious purposes. “His counsel shall
stand, and he will do all his pleasure.” Too wise to err, and too
powerful to be overcome, he marches in the van of battle, and will never
forsake his soldiers. The very sight of his helmet and his plume is
victory to his followers, and death to his foes.
Courage, ye friends of Zion! “Lift up your hearts and rejoice, for your
redemption draweth nigh.” Take the whole armor of God; quit you like
men; be strong; for the decisive conflict is at hand. Behold your
General, clothed with a garment white as snow, girt about the loins with
a golden girdle, his feet as fine brass burning in a furnace, his
countenance as the sun shining in his strength, his eyes as a flame of
fire, his voice as the sound of many waters, a sharp two-edged sword
proceeding out of his mouth, seven stars in his right hand, and at his
girdle the keys of death and hell. This is the Captain of your
salvation, of whom the Evangelical Prophet inquires—“Who is this that
cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious
in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength?” This is
Emmanuel; mighty to conquer, and mighty to save. Who can stand before
the glory of his power? Who can hinder the universal triumph of his
cause? The government shall be upon his shoulder, and he shall reign for
ever and ever.
What has been said is deemed sufficient to show the certainty of
Messiah’s universal empire. The promises of the Father to the Son are so
many drafts of immense amount, upon the bank of heaven, which will be
paid without discount at the appointed time; and the character of Christ
is a sufficient guarantee that he will carry forward to its completion
the work which he has begun. Having secured a title to the kingdom by
his sufferings, he shall certainly come, and take possession, and reign
for ever. The gospel is a lever, whose fulcrum is the Rock of Ages, and
it shall yet lift our fallen world to heaven. Balaam knew that his
curses could not injure Israel, whom Jehovah had blessed. The kingdom of
Messiah is mightier than Moab. The people beloved of the Lord shall
prosper in spite of their enemies—as gardens by the rivers, and willows
by the water-courses. “There shall be a handful of corn,” not a sackful,
only so much as the sower may hold in his hand—not on the bank of the
Nile, nor in the valley of the Jordan, but “on the top of the
mountain”—the wild, high, rocky, uncultivated mountain; “the fruit
thereof shall shake like Lebanon,” and the wind shall carry the seed to
the uttermost parts of the earth, and young Lebanons shall grow up
everywhere, and even the barren rocks and sands of Arabia shall become as
the garden of God. It was but a handful of the seed of the kingdom,
which Peter cast abroad on the day of Pentecost; it was but a handful he
sowed in the house of Cornelius, the captain of the Italian band; but it
soon spread throughout Judea, and even to the isles of the sea, so that
nothing was more manifest or more abundant than its fruit. But the
prevalence of Christ’s millennial kingdom shall be still more rapid and
glorious; and “from the rising to the setting of the sun, his name shall
be great among the Gentiles.”
Already the church is singing—“Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O thou Most
Mighty; and in thy majesty, ride prosperously, because of truth, and
meekness, and righteousness. Thine arrows are sharp in the hearts of the
king’s enemies, whereby the people fall under thee.” The song has
reached the ear of the Prince of Darkness, and he “hath come in great
wrath” to the battle, “for he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” He
knows that “the Desire of nations” is come; and that his kingdom, already
begun, shall be established for ever, and extend from sea to sea, till
the knowledge of his glory and the victories of his grace shall cover the
earth. He sees the Stone rolling against the idols of India, and Africa,
and the islands of the sea, and feels his kingdom shake beneath its
progress. He sees the Bramins, the Karens, the worshippers of Juggernaut
and the Ganges, plucked as brands out of the burning. He trembles to
anticipate the announcement—“The kingdoms of this world are become the
kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ!” He beholds the mighty angel,
with the keys of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand,
descending from heaven, to bind him in his prison. He hates the church,
with her various benevolent enterprises; for he sees in them the
artillery of Heaven, playing upon his fortresses of infidelity, and
idolatry, and vice—the enginery of God, setting up a kingdom which shall
consume all others, and stand for ever. “The dream is certain, and the
interpretation thereof is sure.”
II. We call your attention to the glory of Messiah’s universal reign.
It includes three things; the victory obtained, the blessings bestowed,
and the duration of the kingdom. Let us consider them distinctly.
_First_. The victory obtained. Here we behold the “stone cut out of the
mountain,” rolling down the steep, rushing and leaping toward the great
image, and smiting and breaking its feet of iron and clay, so that it
falls like Dagon before the ark. And still the Stone, instinct with the
power of God, and increasing in size and velocity, keeps rolling to and
fro, bounding and rebounding, till it grinds the fallen image to powder,
and scatters it as the dust of the summer thrashing-floor. It is endued
with perpetual motion; keeping up a constant action and reaction,
crushing whatever opposes its progress, and growing to such a magnitude
as shall shortly fill the whole earth. This is the salt of Galilee,
seasoning the nations—the leaven of Jerusalem, spreading through the
world. This is the victorious reign of Christ, from the Tiber to the
Thames, from the Euphrates to the Ganges, from Britain to Japan, from sea
to sea, and from pole to pole. This glorious conquest is to be obtained
by “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;” in connection
with the vast machinery of Divine Providence, all the wheels of which are
under the direction of Jesus the Christ. It is a victory over Satan, by
bruising his head; a victory over sin, by destroying its power; a victory
over death, by swallowing it up for ever. Emmanuel has already
successfully engaged all these foes; and having routed them on Calvary
eighteen hundred years ago, he still pursues their flight; and shall not
turn again, till he has trampled “the last enemy” under his feet.
Satan is the prince and the god of this world. In the management of his
affairs, he employs a policy similar to that of the Sultan of
Constantinople, who sets up many pashas or governors under him, as the
Pasha of Egypt, the Pasha of Aleppo, the Pasha of Damascus, all
possessing the same despotic spirit, and carrying out the same tyrannical
measures. The devil has established a great number of pashas throughout
his dominion. Three of them are described by the Revelator, as unclean
spirits, like frogs; one of them issuing from the mouth of Satan himself,
representing undisguised Paganism; another from the mouth of the Beast,
representing a persecuting civil power; the third from the mouth of the
False Prophet, representing abominable and damnable heresies. But these
shall all be conquered; these, and every other enemy of Messiah upon
earth. Jewish impenitence and unbelief, which, for a period of eighteen
centuries, has ruled with an absolute sceptre the lineal descendants of
Abraham, shall be overcome. Mohammedism, the “king of fierce
countenance, understanding dark sentences,” that has reigned over so
large a portion of the world, practicing and prospering, deceiving
millions of souls, and destroying the holy people, shall be broken
without hand, and his kingdom shall come to naught. The drunken harlot
of Rome, riding on her scarlet beast, that is, a cruel and persecuting
civil government, and making all nations drink of the wine of her
fornication, shall be obliged to drink the wine of the wrath of Almighty
God; and all the saints shall clap their hands at her overthrow, and
shout hallelujah to the Captain of their salvation. And all those
Protestant pashas of Satan, who would undermine the gospel by denying its
peculiar and fundamental doctrines—such as the Divinity of Christ, the
merit of his sacrifice, the excellency of his offices, the personality
and work of the Holy Spirit—and even the existence of his own infernal
majesty, shall be destroyed by the brightness of Emmanuel’s coming, when
he shall appear in the glory of his millennial kingdom. Then shall the
song of the heavenly host break once more upon the ear of Zion—“Arise,
shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon
thee!” And “the Gentiles shall come to her light, and kings to the
brightness of her rising.” “Her sons shall come from far, and her
daughters shall be nursed at her side.” “The glory of the Lord shall be
displayed, and all flesh shall see it together.”
_Secondly_. The blessings bestowed. Christ “hath ascended on high, and
received gifts for men; yea for the rebellious also, that God may dwell
among them.” The celestial reservoir is full; and the golden pipes are
laid, for conveying the waters of life to every soul of man; and the time
shall yet come, when all shall know the Lord, from the least to the
greatest. The gospel salvation shall be an ocean, spreading over the
whole earth; and there shall be no more ebbing and flowing of the waters,
but a continual full tide from shore to shore. The Chinese, the
Hottentot, and the American Indian, shall be as thoroughly instructed in
Divine things as the Welshman; and the Welshman shall be seven times more
intelligent than now. And this universally prevalent knowledge of Christ
shall be, not merely nominal and theoretical, but experimental and
practical. It shall be a “faith unfeigned,” “of the operation of God,”
“working by love, and purifying the heart.” The light of the gospel
shall be “as the sun shining in his strength,” scattering all clouds from
the face of the world, and the moon and the stars shall be lost in its
effulgence. Living waters shall flow out from the spiritual Jerusalem in
summer and winter; neither frozen by the cold, nor evaporated by the
heat. Like the deluge of Noah, they shall cover the mountains; but they
shall save, and not destroy, all whom they shall overwhelm. “In that
day, there shall be one Lord, and his name shall be one;” and he “shall
be king over all the earth.” The cause of Christ shall be pre-eminent in
the estimation of mankind. The duties and interests of Christianity
shall constitute no secondary concern. “The mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established in the tops of the mountains, and exalted above the
hills, and all nations shall flow unto it.”
Among the blessings of this happy period, shall be that of a universal
and everlasting peace. There shall be no more contention and bloodshed
upon earth. “Nation shall no more lift up sword against nation, neither
shall they learn war any more.” The arsenals shall empty their contents
into the foundries and blacksmith-shops, and the weapons of war shall be
converted into scythes and plowshares. O, glorious day! when heaven
shall be seen upon earth, and earth itself shall seem like heaven!
Behold the ferocious wolf dwelling with the gentle lamb; the furious
leopard lying down with the innocent kid; the cow and the bear feeding in
the same pasture; the infant leading the lion by the mane, and playing
upon the den of the adder and the asp; and no disposition to hurt or
destroy. These are the scriptural emblems of that blessed peace.
Holiness and happiness, more united than David and Jonathan, more
inseparable than Ruth and Naomi, hand in hand, two heavenly twins, shall
go singing over the world. All envy and jealousy and hostility, whether
of nations, of churches, or of individuals, shall perish before Messiah’s
kingdom, as perished the image in the vision before that wondrous stone.
_Thirdly_. The duration of the kingdom. This is the crowning
circumstance of its glory. It “shall not be destroyed, nor left to other
people.” Its enemies, however numerous and mighty, cannot overthrow it;
and it “shall stand for ever.” Where now are the illustrious empires of
Babylon, and Persia, and Greece, and Rome? Where are the Pharaohs, the
Ptolemies, the Alexanders, the Cæsars, the Napoleons, whose voice
terrified nations, and whose tread shook the world? Where—with all their
power and splendor, their iron sceptres and golden crowns? Gone;
mouldering in the dust; and their magnificence nourishes the worm. They
are utterly demolished, and shall rise no more. But the King of Zion
liveth through all time, and is himself “the Father of Eternity,” “the
Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the Ending, the First and the Last.”
“His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and of his dominion there shall
be no end.”
III. Let us consider the nearness of its approach. The language of
prophecy, viewed in connection with the signs of the times, will lead us
to the conclusion that it is nigh at hand, even at the door.
Many learned divines are of opinion that Popery and Mohammedism, the
Antichrists of the east and the west, must fall about the year 1866.
This notion is founded on the following words: “From the time that the
daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh
desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and threescore
days—Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred
and five and thirty days.” {148} Different writers on the prophecies,
however, differ in opinion concerning the times of their fulfilment. All
these speculations are very uncertain, if not utterly unprofitable. What
matters it, if our watches do not exactly agree? We all know that the
night is far spent, and the day is at hand, and the magnitude and
importance of our duty requires prompt and earnest attention.
Five men were determined to rise early in the morning, to engage in a
great work, upon which depended their future fortunes. The first was up
before the morning star; and though uncertain as to the hour, immediately
prepared for business. The second, when he rose, saw the star just above
the horizon, and hastened to his work with animation and joy. The third
slept a little too long, and awoke in great confusion and alarm; but
hurrying through the day as well as he could, though with a heavy heart
and many a blunder, he made out partially to redeem his delinquency. The
fourth heard the cock crowing, but thought there was no need of being in
a hurry, and composed himself to sleep again; and when his neighbors
called him, turned in his bed, and answered—“A little more slumber;” and
awaking about nine of the clock, found the day too far advanced, and
abandoned his purpose in despair. The fifth, disturbed by the bustle of
the others before daylight, got up and looked out of the window; and
finding it as dark as it was at midnight, was very angry, called his
neighbors a set of fools, and declared he would have nothing to do with
the enterprise; and while all the others made themselves rich, he lived
and died in deserved poverty; and some pitied him for his misfortune, and
others ridiculed him for his folly. Mark the wise man, and follow his
example.
The kingdom of Antichrist has of late been greatly weakened in many parts
of the world. Providence is pouring the vials of wrath upon the Beast
and the False Prophet. The idols and altars of Paganism fall before the
advancing ark of God. The church, with its train of benevolent
institutions—like the bride, with her attendant virgins, going forth to
meet the royal bridegroom—proclaims the coming of the Prince of Peace.
The Bible, Missionary, Sabbath-school, and Tract societies, are four
heralds, running before Messiah’s chariot; rather, the four wheels of
that chariot in which he rides victoriously.
The rise and progress of the British and Foreign Bible Society remind me
of the stream in Ezekiel’s vision. This great river had its source in
one of the mountains of Wales. In the year 1802, the Rev. Mr. Charles of
Bala, an ordained minister of the established church, officiating in
connection with the Calvinistic Methodists, deeply impressed with the
preciousness of the Bible, and aware of the scarcity of copies throughout
the principality, felt that some measures ought to be adopted to furnish
it at a reduced price, and circulate it gratuitously among the poor. He
wrote concerning it to his countryman, the Rev. Mr. Owen, an Episcopal
clergyman in London. The subject was subsequently introduced to a circle
of Christian gentlemen, who had met to transact other business. It
elicited much conversation, and excited a lively interest. The Rev.
Joseph Hughes, a Welshman, and Baptist minister at Battersea, near
London, suggested that Wales was not the only part of the world that felt
a want of the Bread of Life; and that it was desirable to awaken, if
possible, a more extensive interest on the subject among Christians of
every name; and stir them up to the adoption of some measure, which might
lead to a general circulation of the Scriptures. The suggestion was
heartily entertained, and warmly supported by the rest of the company;
and its discussion led to those incipient efforts, which, in 1804, issued
in the organization of the British and Foreign Bible Society. The little
spring of Bala soon became a stream large enough for a man to swim in;
and now it widens and deepens into a great river, on which float the
merchandise of Zion, and the navies of God.
Welshmen! it is your privilege and honor, as well as your duty, to
sustain this excellent institution. It is a native of Wales, born in
your northern mountains. It is your own child, and you are bound to
protect and support it to the extent of your ability. I call upon you as
Welshmen, to aid an institution originating in Welsh philanthropy. I
call upon you as Welsh Baptists, to help forward an enterprise which
sprang from the heart of a Welsh Baptist minister. I appeal to you in
the language of another:—
“The cause in which we are engaged is the cause of God, and must succeed.
Divine goodness has inspired, divine wisdom and power will sustain it.
The Bible will be carried throughout the habitable globe. Nor
deserts—nor oceans—nor Alpine solitudes—nor Himalayan heights, will
obstruct its progress. It will go through polar ice and equatorial fire,
wherever a soul may possibly be saved. It will go on victorious, like
the sword of the Lord and of Gideon, carrying every thing before it.
Error and delusion must vanish as the mists of the morning before the
rising splendor of the sun. The powers of darkness must recede like
spectres before the bursting of the day-spring from on high. False gods
and their altars must fall together in the dust. The followers of
Confucius and Zoroaster will take up their cross and follow Christ. The
wandering Arab will sit and sing at Messiah’s feet; and the deluded
disciples of Mohammed, instead of going in painful pilgrimage to Mecca,
will turn their penitent eyes to Calvary. The dark places of the earth
will be enlightened, and the habitations of cruelty will become the
abodes of love. Rivers will no longer roll with human blood, nor
sacrificial fires be fed with human victims. Mothers will no longer
destroy their innocent children, nor aged parents be immolated by their
inhuman offspring. Marriage will be instituted in places where it is now
unknown, and savage practices be supplanted by the virtuous institutions
of the gospel. The Cannibal of New Zealand will be humanized, and the
Caffre and the Hottentot clothed and in their right minds. The
descendants of Abraham must be gathered from the four quarters of the
earth; Jerusalem arise and shine; and the dejected Jordan roll his
streams with joy. Barren climes will teem with life—dreary deserts
blossom as the rose. Rivers of salvation will run down the hills, and
fertilize the plains. The Saviour will ride forth in the chariot of the
everlasting gospel, conquering and to conquer. Nations will fall down
before him, and mountains melt at his approach. And thus nation after
nation will be converted, and empire upon empire will be conquered; and
Christianity will spread from clime to clime, and from pole to pole;
until the final arrival of the blessed day, when the knowledge of the
Lord shall literally cover the earth as the waters cover the deep—when
there shall be but one people and one God—when the millennial day shall
burst upon the earth, like a flood of glory from on high—when the trump
of Jubilee shall sound, and countless millions of the redeemed shall
sing, Hallelujah! the Lord God omnipotent reigneth!”