It is interesting too, to look over the history of the creation and see how the work of each day seems to harmonize with the history and developments of its corresponding thousand years. Every day presents to our view new accessions to the great work, and every thousand years presents us with clearer revelations of the Divine purpose, and with more obvious tendencies in every thing to some great and final consummation. The first view which the inspired historian gives us at the creation, is the darkness that was upon the face of the deep; and the first page of human history records the gloomy fall of man from his state of primeval innocence. The next step in the work of creation was the production of light, and the next page in the history of man dates the commencement of prophecy. The next day of creation the Lord divided the waters, and the second thousand years brought with it the general deluge. And so on, as the fourth day gave a sun, moon, and stars to the infant world, so the fourth thousand years of its history was the time when the Hebrew prophets flourished, and its close gave to benighted man a great spiritual teacher in the person of Jesus Christ. As the fifth and sixth days furnished the world with the nobler and higher orders of the creatures which inhabit it, and completed the whole by the creation of lordly man; so the fifth and sixth thousand years have thus far exhibited the development of the higher intellectual and moral faculties of man, and the signs of the times. plainly indicate his rapid approximation to the fulness of worldly perfection. And as all the hours of the seventh day were sanctified, and in them God rested in the complacent review of his goodly work; so we believe the coming seventh thousand years of the world's history-that glorious thousand of which the prophecies speak-is the rest that is promised to the people of God.

This also the nature of the promise when first made with Abraham, seems very clearly to prove. "And the Lord said unto Abraham, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed after thee." (Gen. xiii. 14, 15, also xvii. S.) The same promise was also repeated to Isaac. "Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee; and I will bless thee for unto thee, and unto thy seed will I give all these countries." (Gen. xxvi. 3.) To Jacob also he said "I am the

Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed." (Gen. xxviii. 13.) Two things here are evident. 1st. That the land of promise and rest, has an earthly locality. It was the land which Abraham saw-in which Isaac sojourned—and upon whose soil Jacob lay and slept. 2nd. That Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob themselves were to inherit and dwell in it. The Lord had said to each of them concerning it, "I will give it thee." They were personally to enter and enjoy it, as well as their seed after them. Bearing in mind these two features of the promise or covenant, we find nothing in the history of the past to show that it has ever been fulfilled, and nothing in the prophecies of the future respecting its accomplishment, but what refers to the glorious millenium, when Israel shall be gathered in from the four corners of the earth, and those who died in faith shall be raised from the dead, and all together enter upon the peaceable possession of the land "from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates," to celebrate the Sabbath of the world. It certainly was not more than typically fulfilled by the entrance of the ransomed Hebrews into Canaan, for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were not with them. The apostle argues that Joshua did not give this rest, or else David would not and could not have spoken of it as yet future. In another place he affirms of the patriarchs and fathers" these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off." And in his defense before Agriphe uses this very fact as an argument in favor of the resurrec"And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our Fathers; unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come, for which hope's sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews-why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?" Steven also declares, that though God did promise to give the land to Abraham for a possession, and to his seed after him, yet that he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on." Thus plainly showing, that the promise was not fulfilled unto the ancient Hebrews, but that it still stands to be accomplished in the future. Nor is the promise to find its fulfillment in the final entrance of the redeemed into the full fruition of glory; because the promise as we have seen refers to an earthly possession. Consequently our only alternative is, to look to the last seven thous

pa,

tion.

and years of this world, and to the triumphs and glories of that jubiletic period, as constituting the rest that is promised to the people of God.

The obvious spirit of the prophecies, gives additional weight to this interpretation. All the passages bearing upon it fully collected and considered, would fill a volume, and cannot be attempted here. Those however, who have read the prophetic portions of the Bible with any degree of attention, will know, that there is a time of universal peace spoken of, and a day of triumph and glory for the church in this world alluded to, such as has never heretofore been witnessed. That blissful era, when "the people shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks,"when "nation shall no more lift up sword against nation, neither learn war any more," when the "Prince of Peace, of the increase of whose government and peace there shall be no end," shall sit "upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice," has not yet dawned upon our bleeding world. That auspicious day, in which "the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, and assemble the outcasts of Israel and the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth," "to plant vines in the mountains of Samaria, and to sing in the heights of Zion," has not yet come. And so far as I have been able to catch the whole drift and tenor of these promises, they all point to the last thousand years of this world as the allotted time of their fulfillment, and are given merely as commentaries on God's ancient covenant with his people respecting the last, prolonged, and universal sabbatism.

Looking upon this promised rest then as identical with the millenium, I may remark with more particular reference to its character, that it will be a rest from the trials and anxieties of our probation. The Scriptures generally speak of it as a time of reward. Every one is then to receive according as his work hath been. The wicked are then to be overtaken by tribulation and anguish such as never has been, nor will ever be thereafter. All the faithful are then to receive crowns of life; (Rev. ii. 10,) all that love his appearing, wear a crown of righteousness; (2 Tim. iv. 8,) the elders who were examples to the flock, shall "receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away;" (1 Peter v. 4,) " and they that be wise, shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to right

eousness, as the stars for ever and ever." (Dan. xii. S.) And many other passages which might be referred to, very plainly teach, that the commencement of that blessed era contemplates and pre-supposes the end of our probation, and the entrance of the faithful upon an inheritance of reward. "He that entereth into his rest ceaseth from his own works as God did from his." Our temptations and mental struggles will then cease for ever. The christian will then

lay down his armor to take it up no more. The weary soldier will then come home in final triumph over every foe. The bark which was so long tossed upon the stormy seas will then be moored into the haven of undisturbed repose. And just as the worn laborer as the Sabbath approaches returns with gladness from his toils to the bosom of his quiet home, so will the ransomed of the Lord then "come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away."

It will be a rest of the church from the conquest of the world. The church from its nature is aggressive. It breaks in upon all the errors-prejudices-and false religions of depraved humanity. Some of the conflicts through which it must pass are furious and trying in the extreme. But whatever opposition may be brought against it, the Lord has said-it shall succeed. The time is coming, when the whole "earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea," when "every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord,"-yea, "all the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto him, and all the kindreds of the nations will worship before him." That mystic stone of prophecy cut from the mountain without hands, which has these 1800 years been moving among the nations, is destined to roll on with increasing acceleration through isles and continents, smiting idol shrines and altars, bursting the chains of ignorance that fetter the heaven-born spirit, crushing the thrones and dominions of wickedness, and, with Satan and his vicegerencies fleeing before it, to swell and enlarge as it rolls, until like the Andes of the south, it is seen from every quarter with the light of an unsetting sun resting upon its summit, and the ransomed Israel of God reclining around its base! That leaven of regeneration which the Savior planted in the world, which has for so long been working upon the depraved multitudes of man, is yet to go on in the exercise of its transform

ing energies, until the earth shall finally be mantled in the beauties of heaven-when even the trees shall wave with gladness-the floods clap their hands-and all nature exult and rejoice in universal jubilee! Oh, the blissfulness of that rest, when the church, so often depressed and dismayed, so often hung with mourning and sackcloth for the slaughter of her children, shall come back from her six thousand years war laden with the fadeless gems and laurels of victory, and the shout of triumph ringing throughout her whole extent " Alleluia! For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth!"

And as that is to be a period of triumph for the church and christianity, so it must also be characterized by eminent holiness. The prophet declares-" In that day there shall be upon the bells of the horses, Holiness unto the Lord; and the pots in the Lord's house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts." Vice and impurity, if not entirely banished from the earth, will be entirely unknown within the limits of the land of promise. For "there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie." Wars and strifes and consequently all misery will be utterly unknown there. As it was before the fountains of nature were tainted by sin, so then "the wolf shall lie down with the lamb, and the leopard with the kid ;" and men of all dispositions-temperaments-and constitutional peculiarities shall be so deeply pervaded with the principles of holiness, as to dwell together in sweetest communion. The savage, ferocious, and cruel, will then become tame, harmless, and fraternal. "Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree." "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low❞— "the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain," "for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."

And as the principles of holiness are then to be universally dif fused, understood, and practiced; so must it also be a time of great happiness and glory. What we now see and feel of the tendencies of the religion of Jesus, much as it is abused and misapplied, leaves no room for us to expect less from its universal prevalence, than the communication of a tinge of glory to all the concerns of man, and the impartation to every soul of a joy which is "unspeakable and full of glory." Fancy to yourselves a family, in numbers vast as