will enter upon the enjoyment of the blessings promised to them at His second appearing?

3. Did Peter, in the passage before us, speak in appropriate terms of these promised blessings, to be enjoyed when Christ shall come?

1. The following Scriptures will be a sufficient answer to the first question:

"But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heavens, but my Father only." Matt. xxiv. 37. "And he said unto them, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power." Acts i. 7. "But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape." 1 Thess. v. 2, 3.

2. The Scriptures uniformly teach that the righteous will enter upon the possession of the promised inheritance at the appearing of our Saviour Jesus, when their bodies shall be raised up.

It is considered proper to call attention, in this connexion, to the fact that the sacred writers very seldom refer to a state of conscious blessedness between death and the second coming of Christ. Those, however, who deny such a state do greatly err, for there are passages in the Bible which do unmistakably affirm, that when believers leave the body they are "present with the Lord," and that death to them is gain. But in recent times we have greatly departed from the custom of prophets and apostles, who uniformly encouraged their own hearts, and the hearts of their fellowChristians, by presenting before their minds, that when arising from the dead to meet their Lord at his appearing, they would enjoy unending bliss. Job declares his hope in the following emphatic terms: "For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me." Job xix. 25–27.

The Psalmist also looked for the blessedness of the saints at the resurrection. "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in thy likeness." Psalm xvii. 15.

The apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, gives the hope which sustained the ancient saints in the midst of the most cruel persecution. "Women received their dead raised to life again; and others were tortured not accepting deliverance, that they might receive a better remuneration." Heb. xi. 35.

Our Saviour also refers his disciples to the same period, as the time when devotion to himself would receive its reward. "But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind, for thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just." Luke xiv. 13, 14. The following passages of the word of God teach the same great fact: "For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now; and not only they, but ourselves also, which have received the first fruits of the Spirit; even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our bodies." Rom. viii. 21, 22. "For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight; I have finished my course. I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but to all them also that love his appearing." 2 Tim. iv. 6–8.

"Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." Col. iii. 2-4.

With such passages the New Testament abounds-passages which present the hopes of the Christian as overlooking all that intervenes, and resting in the "times of refreshing" of the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour. This state of mind was not occasional, but constant; not of a few, but of all.

3. The blessing promised to the penitent, in the passage nder discussion, is the blotting out of sins "when the time.

of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord, and when he shall send Jesus Christ." It will not be doubted that, as the blotting out of transgression is an element so essential to future blessedness, that without it happiness must be exchanged for unutterable torment, it might with propriety be put as a part for the whole in an impassioned discourse. Nor do we deem it necessary to refer to particular passages to prove that it was common with Christ and his apostles to speak of the blessings secured to those who believed, by affirming that their sins are forgiven.

But it may be objected that forgiveness of sin is a present blessing, which the penitent immediately receives, and that to interpret the apostle's language, so as to defer the blotting out of sins until the coming of Christ, would involve it in inexplicable obscurity. It is believed that this objection arises from the prevailing indifference respecting the Scripture doctrine of the coming of Christ and the first resurrection. The sacred writers abundantly teach that there is nothing perfected in respect to the saints until the resurrection. What is enjoyed in this world, and even what is enjoyed by departed saints, is but an earnest, a foretaste, in consideration of the certainty of the future possession of the redemption of the body. The final act of blotting out of sins will be at the judgment. Hence the apostle Paul says, "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." 1 Cor. xv. 26. The meaning is, the salvation of the people of God is not complete until the body is ransomed from the power of the grave, where it is now held, according to the original decree against sin. When that shall have been accomplished, the triumphal song will be sung, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law; but thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

From this passage, also, we learn that the power of sin is not wholly removed until the resurrection of the body. Finally, we are positively taught that the blotting out of sin by a formal act or decree will be done when Christ shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing, and his kingdom; when he "shall say to those on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom pre

pared for you from the foundation of the world." Matt. XXV. 39.

These passages will suffice to show that the blotting out of sins, as a formal, judicial act, will be at the judgment, when Christ shall commence his glorious reign. Accordingly, the language of the apostle corresponds in this particular with the teachings of other parts of the Bible on this subject.

In conclusion, we would say, that we think we have shown that the rendering of ws av, "when," is sustained by the usage of the Greek language, and that such a rendering is favored by the context; whereas the rendering so that involves the interpretation of the passage in inexplicable difficulties. And if these suggestions are according to truth, it would seem to follow that, so far as the translation of this passage gives any instruction on the subject, our common English version of the Bible is better authority respecting the meaning of the original than the exegetical remarks or criticisms of many of the most learned philologists.

ART. V.-THE BENEFITS OF A KNOWLEDGE OF THE PURPOSES GOD HAS REVEALED IN RESPECT TO HIS KINGDOM.

Μακάριος ὁ ἀναγινώσκων, καὶ οἱ ἀκούοντες τους λόγους της προφητείας, καὶ τηροῦντες τὰ ἐν αὐτῇ γεγραμμένα· ὁ γὰρ καιρὸς ἐγγύς.

"HAPPY he who reads and they who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep (preserve, cherish) the things written in it, for the time is near." Rev. i. 3.

The blessing here assured to those who read, hear, and cherish what is written in the Revelation, is not a special benediction from God, expressive of his approbation, but benefits that arise to them from the knowledge, belief, and expectation of the futurities he has foreshown, in respect to the world and church. It is a prediction that, to those who receive, and live in the faith of the great things he has revealed in the words and symbols of the book, they will

prove the means of signal benefits, a true happiness, by the knowledge of his ways which they impart, the supports they yield to faith, the views they present of the future redemption of the world, and the thoughts and hopes they inspire of the glory and bliss of immortal life in his everlasting kingdom. The prediction implies, accordingly, that the prophecy is intelligible; that those who take proper measures will obtain a knowledge of what it teaches, and will gain it from the words of the prophecy itself, not from foreign sources, and that that knowledge will be eminently conducive to their well being; and that implies that it is essential to their true peace and happiness, that without it they will fail of a just comprehension of his providence, the great ends he is pursuing, and the issue he is soon to reach; and will be left to darkness, discouragement, and perhaps despair. We propose to point out some of the things revealed in the Apocalypse, that are thus adapted to inspire confidence in God, submission under the great trials to which he subjects his people, and serenity and joy in the prospect of the redemption in which the conflicts that are so long to agitate and darken the world, are finally to termi

nate.

1. Among them is the fact, that the revelations of the prophecy in respect to the administration God is now exercising, and is hereafter to exercise over the earth, were not confined to men, but were made known also to the intelligences that dwell in all his other worlds. The disclosures of the Apocalypse to John were also made at the same time to the angelic orders, and drew from them expressions of their sense of the righteousness, wisdom, and graciousness of God's ways, that show that they had an intimate knowledge of all that concerns the character and condition of mankind, and the work which Christ has wrought for their redemption. The angels that were present in the visions, the prophet states, were in the narrowest sense the terms can bear, between four and five hundred millions. They may have been, and probably were, many times that number; thousands, perhaps myriads of millions; as myriads of myriads, the numbers used by the prophet, instead of being merely two myriads multiplied by two myriads, may have been tens, hundreds, or thousands of myriads,