to a destruction of the globe, but only to its external organization. Besides, he says, "according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth." Now, the only special promise upon this subject, was given by Isaiah, and he locates them upon the present globe. It therefore follows, that when Christ said, "the heaven and earth shall pass away," he referred to the present heaven and earth, erected upon the globe, and not the globe itself.

4. The reason for the passing away of the heaven and earth. There is good sense in every act of God, and hence there is a good common sense reason for the destruction of the present heaven and earth, and that reason is as obvious as it is sensible: it is to restore the world to its pristine glory. The war which God declared in the beginning, was for the conquest of the world; to restore man upon earth to subjection to his government. Now, the curse upon the ground was a great act of war, to aid in the subjugation of the race; and the curse on the earth was a double one; the first at the fall, and the second by the flood. After the conquest of man, this curse would, according to the promise at the beginning, be removed; and this removal would require as great a change in the heaven and earth, at such renewal, as took place when they were changed at the fall and the flood: that is, to remove the curse, the heaven and earth would need to be removed or changed. The promise of the final removal of the curse, on all things, was made at the first, and repeated in all subsequent ages. The removal of the curse of death implies a resurrection; and the removal of the curse on the heavens and earth, implies their removal, and the erection of a heaven and earth without imperfection, and not the annihilation of the globe, which would be the severest curse e." flicted on it.

5. The annihilation of the globe implies that God entertains spite against inanimate matter, which is most absurd to suppose.

6. God has engaged in war for six thousand years, to establish his kingdom on the globe. Now, what good sense is there in fighting for ages, through the most awful scenes of affliction, to regain a revolted province, on purpose to annihilate it as soon as it is possessed? Tell us, ye wise! say, is there reason in the baseless assumption you make?

God swore to Moses that the whole earth should be full of his glory; and the prophets say that it shall then endure forever. Does this look like annihilation of the globe? Does it not look like its regeneration at the final "restitution of all things?"

7. John says, that after the old heaven and earth were gone, that the new Jerusalem descended to the new earth, and to the region where the curse had prevailed. The words, "there shall be no more death, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away," are applicable to a world where these things had prevailed, and from which they were banished, and not to a world where they had never been known. "Behold, I make all things new," can not refer to the third heaven, but only to a world where every thing needed reorganization. "There shall be no more curse," applies only to a world where the curse had prevailed. But, again; all these things were prophecies, to be fulfilled after the days of John, and they must refer to this globe, and not to the third heaven, which existed before John's day. Besides this, the new Jerusalem came down from God, out of heaven, to men, and men did not go up to which shows, again, that this globe was to be the

it;

ན་་

throne of God and the Lamb. Daniel, and Isaiah, and all the prophets, make the world redeemed to abide forever; and after the Millennium is ended, and the judg ment is past, John shows the state of the world in the full blaze of celestial glory. Whoever heard of Christ's returning from the earth after his second advent to it? And who has not read that the tabernacle of God shall be with men after the new Jerusalem descends, and that they shall reign with God and the Lamb forever and ever, in the new Jerusalem, and in the heavens and earth, from which the curse had been removed?

The truth is, the regenerated globe is to be the battlemonument of eternity; the seat of government of Jesus, head over all things; the holy of holies of the universe. As the believers shall come from the dust, where the curse had laid them, and shall wear the image of Jesus, and shall be adorned with all the glory which infinite skill can compass, or Omnipotence create, so also shall their residence, freed from the curse, appear in all the splendor commensurate with its citizens and King. As the throne of the Son of Mary will shine with all the splendors of the Deity; as it will be the supreme expression of all the concentrated excellence with which matter can be clothed by Jehovah's limitless resources and power, so this poor blood-stained globe will shine, wrapped in the uncreated blaze of God's robe of royalty; so it will be filled with eternal music and delight; so it will be holy, holy, holy to the Lord God of hosts; so it will be an eternal honor to the Captain of our salvation. When the serpent's head is bruised, when the curse shall fly from earth, and hover forever over the lost, in the night of their woe, may you and I, dear reader, have a shelter beneath the jasper skies and trees of life, beside the

living streams o. joy. Then from our central home, upon Jehovah's wing, O be it ours to visit every home of angels, and know, in person, every creature of his love, in every world of his own universe, and pass eternity delightfully! This regeneration of the globe completes the victory foretold to the serpent; it is the "kingdom come on earth, as it is in heaven."

PART SECOND.

THE DISCOVERY-COMPLETED JANUARY, 1852.

A VEIL is on the prophets, and clouds are on the page of unquestioned revelation; the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness comprehends it not; symbols glow on the doors of the temple, but the language of divinity is a mystery to the cherubim; prophecy is a dream, and realization a conjecture; the world waits impatient for the breaking seals, and longs with eagerness to behold the shadows of mountains condense into sublime reality, and conjecture to the truth of God. Since the fall of Judea not a prediction is, with certainty, known to be either interpreted or fulfilled; all theories of that era are false, in the main, and only "darken counsel by words. without knowledge." Yet an age of knowledge was to break from the dungeon of doubt; a day was to dawn when the book was to open, the seals be disclosed, and the words of the Lord be made known by his ways. The sublime work, now undertaken, is to point out his footprints, and by their light interpret the ancient words of Omniscence. An achievement so stupendous, so honorable if successful, might challenge the effort as impious, were not the risk of infamy so great in case of defeat; or that a blessing is pledged to him who hears, and reads, and keeps the awful oracle. Let us proceed promptly to our work. We propose to give a key to all the mysterious prophecies of the past, and open up some relating to the future. The last vision of Daniel, or that portion stretching from the "desolation" to the resurrection, is a key to all others covering the same field: its sealing

413