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At the close of
the thousand years, Christ again returns to the earth. He is
accompanied by the host of the redeemed and attended by a retinue of
angels. As He descends in terrific majesty He bids the wicked dead
arise to receive their doom. They come forth, a mighty host,
numberless as the sands of the sea. What a contrast to those who
were raised at the first resurrection! The righteous were clothed
with immortal youth and beauty. The wicked bear the traces of
disease and death.
Every eye in that vast multitude is
turned to behold the glory of the Son of God. With one voice the wicked
hosts exclaim: "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord!" It
is not love to Jesus that inspires this utterance. The force of truth
urges the words from unwilling lips. As the wicked went into their
graves, so they come forth with the same enmity to Christ and the same
spirit of rebellion. They are to have no new probation in which to
remedy the defects of their past lives. Nothing would be gained by this.
A lifetime of transgression has not softened their hearts. A second
probation, were it given them, would be occupied as was the first in
evading the requirements of God and exciting rebellion against Him.
Christ descends upon the Mount of
Olives, whence, after His resurrection, He ascended, and where angels
repeated the promise of His return. Says the prophet: "The Lord my God
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shall come, and all the saints with
Thee." "And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives,
which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall
cleave in the midst thereof, . . . and there shall be a very great
valley." "And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day
shall there be one Lord, and His name one." Zechariah 14:5, 4, 9. As the
New Jerusalem, in its dazzling splendor, comes down out of heaven, it
rests upon the place purified and made ready to receive it, and Christ,
with His people and the angels, enters the Holy City.
Now Satan prepares for a last mighty
struggle for the supremacy. While deprived of his power and cut off from
his work of deception, the prince of evil was miserable and dejected;
but as the wicked dead are raised and he sees the vast multitudes upon
his side, his hopes revive, and he determines not to yield the great
controversy. He will marshal all the armies of the lost under his banner
and through them endeavor to execute his plans. The wicked are Satan's
captives. In rejecting Christ they have accepted the rule of the rebel
leader. They are ready to receive his suggestions and to do his bidding.
Yet, true to his early cunning, he does not acknowledge himself to be
Satan. He claims to be the prince who is the rightful owner of the world
and whose inheritance has been unlawfully wrested from him. He
represents himself to his deluded subjects as a redeemer, assuring them
that his power has brought them forth from their graves and that he is
about to rescue them from the most cruel tyranny. The presence of Christ
having been removed, Satan works wonders to support his claims. He makes
the weak strong and inspires all with his own spirit and energy. He
proposes to lead them against the camp of the saints and to take
possession of the City of God. With fiendish exultation he points to the
unnumbered millions who have been raised from the dead and declares that
as their leader he is well able to overthrow the city and regain his
throne and his kingdom.
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In that vast throng are multitudes of
the long-lived race that existed before the Flood; men of lofty stature
and giant intellect, who, yielding to the control of fallen angels,
devoted all their skill and knowledge to the exaltation of themselves;
men whose wonderful works of art led the world to idolize their genius,
but whose cruelty and evil inventions, defiling the earth and defacing
the image of God, caused Him to blot them from the face of His creation.
There are kings and generals who conquered nations, valiant men who
never lost a battle, proud, ambitious warriors whose approach made
kingdoms tremble. In death these experienced no change. As they come up
from the grave, they resume the current of their thoughts just where it
ceased. They are actuated by the same desire to conquer that ruled them
when they fell.
Satan consults with his angels, and
then with these kings and conquerors and mighty men. They look upon the
strength and numbers on their side, and declare that the army within the
city is small in comparison with theirs, and that it can be overcome.
They lay their plans to take possession of the riches and glory of the
New Jerusalem. All immediately begin to prepare for battle. Skillful
artisans construct implements of war. Military leaders, famed for their
success, marshal the throngs of warlike men into companies and
divisions.
At last the order to advance is given,
and the countless host moves on--an army such as was never summoned by
earthly conquerors, such as the combined forces of all ages since war
began on earth could never equal. Satan, the mightiest of warriors,
leads the van, and his angels unite their forces for this final
struggle. Kings and warriors are in his train, and the multitudes follow
in vast companies, each under its appointed leader. With military
precision the serried ranks advance over the earth's broken and uneven
surface to the City of God. By command of Jesus, the gates of the New
Jerusalem are closed, and the armies of Satan surround the city and make
ready for the onset.
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Now Christ again appears to the view
of His enemies. Far above the city, upon a foundation of burnished gold,
is a throne, high and lifted up. Upon this throne sits the Son of God,
and around Him are the subjects of His kingdom. The power and majesty of
Christ no language can describe, no pen portray. The glory of the
Eternal Father is enshrouding His Son. The brightness of His presence
fills the City of God, and flows out beyond the gates, flooding the
whole earth with its radiance.
Nearest the throne are those who were
once zealous in the cause of Satan, but who, plucked as brands from the
burning, have followed their Saviour with deep, intense devotion. Next
are those who perfected Christian characters in the midst of falsehood
and infidelity, those who honored the law of God when the Christian
world declared it void, and the millions, of all ages, who were martyred
for their faith. And beyond is the "great multitude, which no man could
number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, . . .
before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and
palms in their hands." Revelation 7:9. Their warfare is ended, their
victory won. They have run the race and reached the prize. The palm
branch in their hands is a symbol of their triumph, the white robe an
emblem of the spotless righteousness of Christ which now is theirs.
The redeemed raise a song of praise
that echoes and re-echoes through the vaults of heaven: "Salvation to
our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb." Verse 10. And
angel and seraph unite their voices in adoration. As the redeemed have
beheld the power and malignity of Satan, they have seen, as never
before, that no power but that of Christ could have made them
conquerors. In all that shining throng there are none to ascribe
salvation to themselves, as if they had prevailed by their own power and
goodness. Nothing is said of what they have done or suffered; but the
burden of every song, the keynote of every anthem, is: Salvation to our
God and unto the Lamb.
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In the presence of the assembled
inhabitants of earth and heaven the final coronation of the Son of God
takes place. And now, invested with supreme majesty and power, the King
of kings pronounces sentence upon the rebels against His government and
executes justice upon those who have transgressed His law and oppressed
His people. Says the prophet of God: "I saw a great white throne, and
Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away;
and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and
great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was
opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those
things which were written in the books, according to their works."
Revelation 20:11, 12.
As soon as the books of record are
opened, and the eye of Jesus looks upon the wicked, they are conscious
of every sin which they have ever committed. They see just where their
feet diverged from the path of purity and holiness, just how far pride
and rebellion have carried them in the violation of the law of God. The
seductive temptations which they encouraged by indulgence in sin, the
blessings perverted, the messengers of God despised, the warnings
rejected, the waves of mercy beaten back by the stubborn, unrepentant
heart--all appear as if written in letters of fire.
Above the throne is revealed the
cross; and like a panoramic view appear the scenes of Adam's temptation
and fall, and the successive steps in the great plan of redemption. The
Saviour's lowly birth; His early life of simplicity and obedience; His
baptism in Jordan; the fast and temptation in the wilderness; His public
ministry, unfolding to men heaven's most precious blessings; the days
crowded with deeds of love and mercy, the nights of prayer and watching
in the solitude of the mountains; the plottings of envy, hate, and
malice which repaid His benefits; the awful, mysterious agony in
Gethsemane beneath the crushing weight of the sins of the whole world;
His betrayal into the hands of the murderous
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mob; the fearful events of that night of
horror--the unresisting prisoner, forsaken by His best-loved disciples,
rudely hurried through the streets of Jerusalem; the Son of God
exultingly displayed before Annas, arraigned in the high priest's
palace, in the judgment hall of Pilate, before the cowardly and cruel
Herod, mocked, insulted, tortured, and condemned to die--all are vividly
portrayed.
And now before the swaying multitude
are revealed the final scenes--the patient Sufferer treading the path to
Calvary; the Prince of heaven hanging upon the cross; the haughty
priests and the jeering rabble deriding His expiring agony; the
supernatural darkness; the heaving earth, the rent rocks, the open
graves, marking the moment when the world's Redeemer yielded up His
life.
The awful spectacle appears just as it
was. Satan, his angels, and his subjects have no power to turn from the
picture of their own work. Each actor recalls the part which he
performed. Herod, who slew the innocent children of Bethlehem that he
might destroy the King of Israel; the base Herodias, upon whose guilty
soul rests the blood of John the Baptist; the weak, timeserving Pilate;
the mocking soldiers; the priests and rulers and the maddened throng who
cried, "His blood be on us, and on our children!"--all behold the
enormity of their guilt. They vainly seek to hide from the divine
majesty of His countenance, outshining the glory of the sun, while the
redeemed cast their crowns at the Saviour's feet, exclaiming: "He died
for me!"
Amid the ransomed throng are the
apostles of Christ, the heroic Paul, the ardent Peter, the loved and
loving John, and their truehearted brethren, and with them the vast host
of martyrs; while outside the walls, with every vile and abominable
thing, are those by whom they were persecuted, imprisoned, and slain.
There is Nero, that monster of cruelty and vice, beholding the joy and
exaltation of those whom he once tortured, and in whose extremest
anguish he found satanic delight. His mother is there to witness the
result of
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her own work; to see how the evil stamp
of character transmitted to her son, the passions encouraged and
developed by her influence and example, have borne fruit in crimes that
caused the world to shudder.
There are papist priests and prelates,
who claimed to be Christ's ambassadors, yet employed the rack, the
dungeon, and the stake to control the consciences of His people. There
are the proud pontiffs who exalted themselves above God and presumed to
change the law of the Most High. Those pretended fathers of the church
have an account to render to God from which they would fain be excused.
Too late they are made to see that the Omniscient One is jealous of His
law and that He will in no wise clear the guilty. They learn now that
Christ identifies His interest with that of His suffering people; and
they feel the force of His own words: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto
one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me." Matthew
25:40.
The whole wicked world stand arraigned
at the bar of God on the charge of high treason against the government
of heaven. They have none to plead their cause; they are without excuse;
and the sentence of eternal death is pronounced against them.
It is now evident to all that the
wages of sin is not noble independence and eternal life, but slavery,
ruin, and death. The wicked see what they have forfeited by their life
of rebellion. The far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory was
despised when offered them; but how desirable it now appears. "All
this," cries the lost soul, "I might have had; but I chose to put these
things far from me. Oh, strange infatuation! I have exchanged peace,
happiness, and honor for wretchedness, infamy, and despair." All see
that their exclusion from heaven is just. By their lives they have
declared: "We will not have this Man [Jesus] to reign over us."
As if entranced, the wicked have
looked upon the coronation of the Son of God. They see in His hands the
tables of the divine law, the statutes which they have despised and
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transgressed. They witness the outburst
of wonder, rapture, and adoration from the saved; and as the wave of
melody sweeps over the multitudes without the city, all with one voice
exclaim, "Great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and
true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints" (Revelation 15:3); and, falling
prostrate, they worship the Prince of life.
Satan seems paralyzed as he beholds
the glory and majesty of Christ. He who was once a covering cherub
remembers whence he has fallen. A shining seraph, "son of the morning;"
how changed, how degraded! From the council where once he was honored,
he is forever excluded. He sees another now standing near to the Father,
veiling His glory. He has seen the crown placed upon the head of Christ
by an angel of lofty stature and majestic presence, and he knows that
the exalted position of this angel might have been his.
Memory recalls the home of his
innocence and purity, the peace and content that were his until he
indulged in murmuring against God, and envy of Christ. His accusations,
his rebellion, his deceptions to gain the sympathy and support of the
angels, his stubborn persistence in making no effort for self-recovery
when God would have granted him forgiveness --all come vividly before
him. He reviews his work among men and its results--the enmity of man
toward his fellow man, the terrible destruction of life, the rise and
fall of kingdoms, the overturning of thrones, the long succession of
tumults, conflicts, and revolutions. He recalls his constant efforts to
oppose the work of Christ and to sink man lower and lower. He sees that
his hellish plots have been powerless to destroy those who have put
their trust in Jesus. As Satan looks upon his kingdom, the fruit of his
toil, he sees only failure and ruin. He has led the multitudes to
believe that the City of God would be an easy prey; but he knows that
this is false. Again and again, in the progress of the great
controversy, he has been defeated and compelled to yield. He knows too
well the power and majesty of the Eternal.
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The aim of the great rebel has ever
been to justify himself and to prove the divine government responsible
for the rebellion. To this end he has bent all the power of his giant
intellect. He has worked deliberately and systematically, and with
marvelous success, leading vast multitudes to accept his version of the
great controversy which has been so long in progress. For thousands of
years this chief of conspiracy has palmed off falsehood for truth. But
the time has now come when the rebellion is to be finally defeated and
the history and character of Satan disclosed. In his last great effort
to dethrone Christ, destroy His people, and take possession of the City
of God, the archdeceiver has been fully unmasked. Those who have united
with him see the total failure of his cause. Christ's followers and the
loyal angels behold the full extent of his machinations against the
government of God. He is the object of universal abhorrence.
Satan sees that his voluntary
rebellion has unfitted him for heaven. He has trained his powers to war
against God; the purity, peace, and harmony of heaven would be to him
supreme torture. His accusations against the mercy and justice of God
are now silenced. The reproach which he has endeavored to cast upon
Jehovah rests wholly upon himself. And now Satan bows down and confesses
the justice of his sentence.
"Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and
glorify Thy name? for Thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and
worship before Thee; for Thy judgments are made manifest." Verse 4.
Every question of truth and error in the long-standing controversy has
now been made plain. The results of rebellion, the fruits of setting
aside the divine statutes, have been laid open to the view of all
created intelligences. The working out of Satan's rule in contrast with
the government of God has been presented to the whole universe. Satan's
own works have condemned him. God's wisdom, His justice, and His
goodness stand fully vindicated. It is seen that all His dealings in the
great controversy have been conducted
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with respect to the eternal good of His
people and the good of all the worlds that He has created. "All Thy
works shall praise Thee, O Lord; and Thy saints shall bless Thee." Psalm
145:10. The history of sin will stand to all eternity as a witness that
with the existence of God's law is bound up the happiness of all the
beings He has created. With all the facts of the great controversy in
view, the whole universe, both loyal and rebellious, with one accord
declare: "Just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints."
Before the universe has been clearly
presented the great sacrifice made by the Father and the Son in man's
behalf. The hour has come when Christ occupies His rightful position and
is glorified above principalities and powers and every name that is
named. It was for the joy that was set before Him--that He might bring
many sons unto glory--that He endured the cross and despised the shame.
And inconceivably great as was the sorrow and the shame, yet greater is
the joy and the glory. He looks upon the redeemed, renewed in His own
image, every heart bearing the perfect impress of the divine, every face
reflecting the likeness of their King. He beholds in them the result of
the travail of His soul, and He is satisfied. Then, in a voice that
reaches the assembled multitudes of the righteous and the wicked, He
declares: "Behold the purchase of My blood! For these I suffered, for
these I died, that they might dwell in My presence throughout eternal
ages." And the song of praise ascends from the white-robed ones about
the throne: "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and
riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing."
Revelation 5:12.
Notwithstanding that Satan has been
constrained to acknowledge God's justice and to bow to the supremacy of
Christ, his character remains unchanged. The spirit of rebellion, like a
mighty torrent, again bursts forth. Filled with frenzy, he determines
not to yield the great controversy. The time has come for a last
desperate struggle against the King
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of heaven. He rushes into the midst of
his subjects and endeavors to inspire them with his own fury and arouse
them to instant battle. But of all the countless millions whom he has
allured into rebellion, there are none now to acknowledge his supremacy.
His power is at an end. The wicked are filled with the same hatred of
God that inspires Satan; but they see that their case is hopeless, that
they cannot prevail against Jehovah. Their rage is kindled against Satan
and those who have been his agents in deception, and with the fury of
demons they turn upon them.
Saith the Lord: "Because thou hast set
thine heart as the heart of God; behold, therefore I will bring
strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations: and they shall draw
their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy
brightness. They shall bring thee down to the pit." "I will destroy
thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. . . . I
will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they
may behold thee. . . . I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the
sight of all them that behold thee. . . . Thou shalt be a terror, and
never shalt thou be any more." Ezekiel 28:6-8, 16-19.
"Every battle of the warrior is with
confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with
burning and fuel of fire." "The indignation of the Lord is upon all
nations, and His fury upon all their armies: He hath utterly destroyed
them, He hath delivered them to the slaughter." "Upon the wicked He
shall rain quick burning coals, fire and brimstone and an horrible
tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup." Isaiah 9:5; 34:2;
Psalm 11:6, margin. Fire comes down from God out of heaven. The earth is
broken up. The weapons concealed in its depths are drawn forth.
Devouring flames burst from every yawning chasm. The very rocks are on
fire. The day has come that shall burn as an oven. The elements melt
with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein are
burned up. Malachi 4:1; 2 Peter 3:10. The earth's surface seems one
molten mass--a vast, seething
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lake of fire. It is the time of the
judgment and perdition of ungodly men--"the day of the Lord's vengeance,
and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion." Isaiah 34:8.
The wicked receive their recompense in
the earth. Proverbs 11:31. They "shall be stubble: and the day that
cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts." Malachi 4:1. Some
are destroyed as in a moment, while others suffer many days. All are
punished "according to their deeds." The sins of the righteous having
been transferred to Satan, he is made to suffer not only for his own
rebellion, but for all the sins which he has caused God's people to
commit. His punishment is to be far greater than that of those whom he
has deceived. After all have perished who fell by his deceptions, he is
still to live and suffer on. In the cleansing flames the wicked are at
last destroyed, root and branch--Satan the root, his followers the
branches. The full penalty of the law has been visited; the demands of
justice have been met; and heaven and earth, beholding, declare the
righteousness of Jehovah.
Satan's work of ruin is forever ended.
For six thousand years he has wrought his will, filling the earth with
woe and causing grief throughout the universe. The whole creation has
groaned and travailed together in pain. Now God's creatures are forever
delivered from his presence and temptations. "The whole earth is at
rest, and is quiet: they [the righteous] break forth into singing."
Isaiah 14:7. And a shout of praise and triumph ascends from the whole
loyal universe. "The voice of a great multitude," "as the voice of many
waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings," is heard, saying:
"Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." Revelation 19:6.
While the earth was wrapped in the
fire of destruction, the righteous abode safely in the Holy City. Upon
those that had part in the first resurrection, the second death has no
power. While God is to the wicked a consuming fire, He is to His people
both a sun and a shield. Revelation 20:6; Psalm 84:11.
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"I saw a new heaven and a new earth:
for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away." Revelation
21:1. The fire that consumes the wicked purifies the earth. Every trace
of the curse is swept away. No eternally burning hell will keep before
the ransomed the fearful consequences of sin.
One reminder alone remains: Our
Redeemer will ever bear the marks of His crucifixion. Upon His wounded
head, upon His side, His hands and feet, are the only traces of the
cruel work that sin has wrought. Says the prophet, beholding Christ in
His glory: "He had bright beams coming out of His side: and there was
the hiding of His power." Habakkuk 3:4, margin. That pierced side whence
flowed the crimson stream that reconciled man to God--there is the
Saviour's glory, there "the hiding of His power." "Mighty to save,"
through the sacrifice of redemption, He was therefore strong to execute
justice upon them that despised God's mercy. And the tokens of His
humiliation are His highest honor; through the eternal ages the wounds
of Calvary will show forth His praise and declare His power.
"O Tower of the flock, the stronghold
of the daughter of Zion, unto Thee shall it come, even the first
dominion." Micah 4:8. The time has come to which holy men have looked
with longing since the flaming sword barred the first pair from Eden,
the time for "the redemption of the purchased possession." Ephesians
1:14. The earth originally given to man as his kingdom, betrayed by him
into the hands of Satan, and so long held by the mighty foe, has been
brought back by the great plan of redemption. All that was lost by sin
has been restored. "Thus saith the Lord . . . that formed the earth and
made it; He hath established it, He created it not in vain, He formed it
to be inhabited." Isaiah 45:18. God's original purpose in the creation
of the earth is fulfilled as it is made the eternal abode of the
redeemed. "The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein
forever." Psalm 37:29.
A fear of making the future
inheritance seem too material
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has led many to spiritualize away the
very truths which lead us to look upon it as our home. Christ assured
His disciples that He went to prepare mansions for them in the Father's
house. Those who accept the teachings of God's word will not be wholly
ignorant concerning the heavenly abode. And yet, "eye hath not seen, nor
ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which
God hath prepared for them that love Him." 1 Corinthians 2:9. Human
language is inadequate to describe the reward of the righteous. It will
be known only to those who behold it. No finite mind can comprehend the
glory of the Paradise of God.
In the Bible the inheritance of the
saved is called "a country." Hebrews 11:14-16. There the heavenly
Shepherd leads His flock to fountains of living waters. The tree of life
yields its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree are for the
service of the nations. There are ever-flowing streams, clear as
crystal, and beside them waving trees cast their shadows upon the paths
prepared for the ransomed of the Lord. There the wide-spreading plains
swell into hills of beauty, and the mountains of God rear their lofty
summits. On those peaceful plains, beside those living streams, God's
people, so long pilgrims and wanderers, shall find a home.
"My people shall dwell in a peaceable
habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places."
"Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction
within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy
gates Praise." "They shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they
shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build,
and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: . . . Mine
elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands." Isaiah 32:18; 60:18;
65:21, 22.
There, "the wilderness and the
solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and
blossom as the rose." "Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree,
and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree." "The wolf also
shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall
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lie down with the kid; . . . and a little
child shall lead them." "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy
mountain," saith the Lord. Isaiah 35:1; 55:13; 11:6, 9.
Pain cannot exist in the atmosphere of
heaven. There will be no more tears, no funeral trains, no badges of
mourning. "There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying: . .
. for the former things are passed away." "The inhabitant shall not say,
I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their
iniquity." Revelation 21:4; Isaiah 33:24.
There is the New Jerusalem, the
metropolis of the glorified new earth, "a crown of glory in the hand of
the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God." "Her light was
like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as
crystal." "The nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light
of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into
it." Saith the Lord: "I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My
people." "The tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with
them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them,
and be their God." Isaiah 62:3; Revelation 21:11, 24; Isaiah 65:19;
Revelation 21:3.
In the City of God "there shall be no
night." None will need or desire repose. There will be no weariness in
doing the will of God and offering praise to His name. We shall ever
feel the freshness of the morning and shall ever be far from its close.
"And they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God
giveth them light." Revelation 22:5. The light of the sun will be
superseded by a radiance which is not painfully dazzling, yet which
immeasurably surpasses the brightness of our noontide. The glory of God
and the Lamb floods the Holy City with unfading light. The redeemed walk
in the sunless glory of perpetual day.
"I saw no temple therein: for the Lord
God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it." Revelation 21:22. The
people of God are privileged to hold open communion with the Father and
the Son. "Now we see through a glass, darkly." .PG 677
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1 Corinthians 13:12. We behold the image
of God reflected, as in a mirror, in the works of nature and in His
dealings with men; but then we shall see Him face to face, without a
dimming veil between. We shall stand in His presence and behold the
glory of His countenance.
There the redeemed shall know, even as
also they are known. The loves and sympathies which God Himself has
planted in the soul shall there find truest and sweetest exercise. The
pure communion with holy beings, the harmonious social life with the
blessed angels and with the faithful ones of all ages who have washed
their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, the sacred
ties that bind together "the whole family in heaven and earth"
(Ephesians 3:15)--these help to constitute the happiness of the
redeemed.
There, immortal minds will contemplate
with never-failing delight the wonders of creative power, the mysteries
of redeeming love. There will be no cruel, deceiving foe to tempt to
forgetfulness of God. Every faculty will be developed, every capacity
increased. The acquirement of knowledge will not weary the mind or
exhaust the energies. There the grandest enterprises may be carried
forward, the loftiest aspirations reached, the highest ambitions
realized; and still there will arise new heights to surmount, new
wonders to admire, new truths to comprehend, fresh objects to call forth
the powers of mind and soul and body.
All the treasures of the universe will
be open to the study of God's redeemed. Unfettered by mortality, they
wing their tireless flight to worlds afar--worlds that thrilled with
sorrow at the spectacle of human woe and rang with songs of gladness at
the tidings of a ransomed soul. With unutterable delight the children of
earth enter into the joy and the wisdom of unfallen beings. They share
the treasures of knowledge and understanding gained through ages upon
ages in contemplation of God's handiwork. With undimmed vision they gaze
upon the glory of creation--suns and stars and systems, all in their
appointed order circling the throne
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of Deity. Upon all things, from the least
to the greatest, the Creator's name is written, and in all are the
riches of His power displayed.
And the years of eternity, as they
roll, will bring richer and still more glorious revelations of God and
of Christ. As knowledge is progressive, so will love, reverence, and
happiness increase. The more men learn of God, the greater will be their
admiration of His character. As Jesus opens before them the riches of
redemption and the amazing achievements in the great controversy with
Satan, the hearts of the ransomed thrill with more fervent devotion, and
with more rapturous joy they sweep the harps of gold; and ten thousand
times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of voices unite to swell
the mighty chorus of praise.
"And every creature which is in
heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the
sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and
glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the
Lamb for ever and ever." Revelation 5:13.
The great controversy is ended. Sin
and sinners are no more. The entire universe is clean. One pulse of
harmony and gladness beats through the vast creation. From Him who
created all, flow life and light and gladness, throughout the realms of
illimitable space. From the minutest atom to the greatest world, all
things, animate and inanimate, in their unshadowed beauty and perfect
joy, declare that God is love.
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