PAGE 16

From this testimony we learn that "the wicked" are a larger class than is generally supposed. They are not restricted to murderers, drunkards, thieves, and the licentious. The wicked are to a great extent very pious and religious people. They have "a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge." Being ignorant of God's righteousness, they go about with great diligence and at enormous cost, to establish their own righteousness, not having submitted to God's. They compass sea and land to make proselytes; they make long prayers; sing with sweetest music the praises of him they profess to worship. The world is full of their piety; for it is fashionable to be religious, or rather to "profess religion"; so that Christianity is thought to be habited in "fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet"; to walk in silver sandals; and to be "adorned with pearls and precious stones" (Apoc. 18:12.) But, be this as it may, there is a characteristic of wickedness which no sect, party, name, or denomination, regarded as "orthodox," can repudiate as inapplicable to itself. That characteristic is, "THOU CASTEST MY WORDS BEHIND THEE," saith God. No man, sect, or party, can offer a greater insult to Jehovah [Yahweh] than this; for it is testified, that He hath magnified His word above all the attributes of His name; (Psal. 138:2-4); and it was foretold in commendation of Messiah, that when he should be revealed, he would "magnify the law and make it honourable" (Isa. 42:21). "I came not," said he, "to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil; for the heaven and earth may pass away, but not one jot or tittle shall pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." He continually impressed upon his hearers the necessity of believing the words of God, and of doing his commands: and never ceased to make the "obedience of faith" the test of man's devotion and affection for him. "If ye love me," saith he, "keep my commandments"; and "ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you for "love is the fulfilling of the law."

Now these are principles which no sophistry or reasoning can set aside. They are as true to-day as when they fell from the lips of him who gave utterance to the words of God. "My words," saith he, "are

PAGE 17

spirit and life"; and Moses has testified, saying, that whosoever would not hearken unto Jehovah's [Yahweh's] words which he should speak in his name, He would require it of him (Deut. 18:15-19). The reader may profess to believe that Jesus of Nazareth is he to whom Moses referred; for, Jesus said, "He wrote concerning me." But does the reader know what the Father commanded the prophet like unto Moses to speak in his name? If he know it, does he believe it? And if he believe the things spoken, has he obeyed them? To believe and do is the only evidence a man can give that he does not cast Jehovah's [Yahweh's] words behind him. "Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" Hear this, ye bishops, priests, and ministers! Hear this, all ye eloquent "divines," and leaders of the people! All ye scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites, whose garb, grimace, and tone, are the counterfeit of wool to disguise the ravening wolf! Hear this, all ye zealots of the world religious; this question is for you who call Jesus, Lord, and do not the things which he says! Deny not the truth of the indictment; for your "names and denominations," in their creeds, institutions, and practices, are standing memorials of your guilt. Do ye know what the glad tidings were Jesus was anointed to preach to the poor? Do ye know what that kingdom was whose gospel he announced? What was that acceptable year of Jehovah [Yahweh] he proclaimed? Can ye define that righteousness of God attested by the law and the prophets, he exhorted men to seek with the kingdom? Do ye consent to his words, appointing men to believe the gospel he preached, and to be immersed, that they may be saved? Do ye not rather make void all this by your traditions, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men? To believe and do, ye practically repudiate, in affirming the salvation of those who neither know, believe, nor obey. Now He whom ye call Lord, testifies against you, saying, "He that receiveth not my words, the word that I have spoken, the same shall condemn him in the last day." "The gospel of the kingdom" is "the word of the kingdom," which he sowed in his field. By faith in this word men will be justified; without it, they will be condemned; for the words of Jesus are, "He that believeth not shall be condemned."

Now, it is notorious, O ye clergy of all orders and degrees, that ye do not consent to "the truth as it is in Jesus"; but that ye substitute all sorts of foolishness in its place. Ye blaspheme "the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," by invoking it in the sprinkling of babes, who, you teach, are by that absurdity engrafted into the body of Christ. This is taking the name, "the Glorious and Fearful Name," Jehovah-Elohim [Yahweh-Elohim], in vain. That name is holy and reverend; and He hath commanded, saying, "Thou shalt not take the name of

PAGE 18

Jehovah [Yahweh] thine Elohim in vain; for Jehovah [Yahweh] will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain" (Exod. 20:7). And surely it is an egregious vanity, in view of the testimony, "that without faith it is impossible to please God; for he that cometh to him, must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him" -- to bring a puling babe to a pint basin, incapable of faith, ignorant of any thing called God, and a diligent seeker only of its mother's breast! And this ye do, and many other abominations too, O ye Destroyers of the people. Hear then, what Paul, whom ye style "the Great Apostle to the Gentiles," hath declared to your confusion. In 1 Tim. 6:3, he says, "If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the teaching which is according to godliness; he is puffed up, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself."

It is manifest, then, from these premises, that the pious zealots of the names and denominations of Gentile Christianity, together with their professional guides, are all of the same category. Though very respectable and orderly members of society, they are besmoked knownothings, and wicked, not consenting to the words of Jesus, but casting his words behind them, and denouncing them as "heresy." The revelation before us, "which the Deity gave to him," was not for them. It was for "his servants"; and the "spiritual guides" of the people are not His servants. This is the reason why there is no interpretation of THE APOCALYPSE extant, written by "a theologian" or "divine," that has any claim to consideration or respect as a scriptural exegesis of the book. Though learned in mythology and the dead languages, in history ancient and modern, in general literature and science, they are not learned in Moses and the Prophets, and the teaching of Jesus and the Apostles. The fear of Jehovah [Yahweh], "as taught by these," is the beginning of wisdom; and this commencement they have not made. No man can interpret the Apocalypse in harmony with the prophetic writings, who believes that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David, are now inheriting the promises covenanted to them; or that the inheritance covenanted is beyond the skies. An occupant of an episcopal throne in the State Church of any Nation, cannot interpret the book, not being able to see that his own church is one of the daughters of the Mother of Harlots; and that he himself is one of "the merchants of the earth," whose merchandise is of tithes, bodies, and the souls of men. He that denies the personal reappearance of Jesus Christ upon Mount Olivet; who affirms that he is now sitting upon the throne of David; and that consequently

PAGE 19

there will be no rebuilding of David's tabernacle, or re-establishment of his throne in Zion: he that denies the restoration of the twelve tribes of Israel to their native land; maintains that they are for ever outcasts; and that no kingdom will be restored to them -- cannot "read the book, nor see it." Believers in a "past millennium" are thus shut up and sealed, and totally destitute of all spiritual perception. In short, the grand prerequisite for an expositor of this wonderful little book is, that he understand the gospel of the kingdom as exhibited in the prophets; the preaching of Jesus as the Christ; and the revelation of the mystery as set forth by the apostles. He must have a comprehensive understanding of the Scriptures from Genesis to Jude; for the light shining from all these testimonies converges upon the apocalyptic page, whose crises, as a mirror, reflect the kingdom promised to the saints.

"The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ" is then for the servants of God: -- for those who believe the Gospel of the Kingdom it exhibits; and have been "washed from their sins in his blood," in being baptized into his name.

"Know ye not," says Paul, "that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of SIN unto death, or of OBEDIENCE unto righteousness?" Here are two masters; the first, the lord of the world; the last, the ruling principle of Jehovah's [Yahweh's] people. "Sin is the transgression of law"; and because this is the natural tendency of our nature, "sin" is sometimes used for "the flesh." He, therefore, that serves his own lusts, "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life," which not only constitute the man, but the world, or aggregate of such, is Sin's servant or slave. Such a man, be he "priest...... clergyman," "minister," or "layman," serves sin unto death. Being of the world he speaks of the world, and the world hears him (1 John 4:5). He is essentially a man-pleaser, who holds men's persons in admiration for the sake of advantage; and therefore cannot be the servant of Christ (Gal. 1:10; Jude 16).

The thinking that characterizes such is termed "the thinking of the flesh." What they think and give expression to is palatable to those who do not know the Scriptures, which lack of knowledge is a great cause of error in the world. Their thoughts and reasonings are at issue with the thoughts and ways of God; and therefore, the thinking of the flesh is said to be at enmity with God, not subject to His law, neither indeed can be (Rom. 8:7). When a clergyman or layman thinks on God and His purposes; on what would be pleasing to Him; on his own destiny or that of nations and the earth; and judges of these, not according to what is written in the Bible, but according to what appears to him to be "the fitness of things," and according to the institutes of theological schools and seminaries; such thinking and judgment is the thinking of Sin, and inevitably at variance with the mind of

PAGE 20

Christ. Sin reigns in his thoughts, in his flesh, and in his ways. He is Sin's servant, and though a slave, being free from righteousness, he serves him with delight.

Paul reminds the Saints in Rome that they were all the servants of sin once; but thanks God in their behalf, that they had been freed from sin, and were now the servants of righteousness, "having obeyed from the heart A FORM OF TEACHING, (!greek!) tupon didaches, into which they were delivered" (Rom. 6:17). They obeyed a form of teaching which emancipated, liberated, or set them free, from the lordship of Sin. This was Paul's mission -- to invite men to a change of masters. He addressed himself to free men and slaves, all of whom, whatever their political or social position, were in bondage to the devil or sin. He did not invite slaves to abscond from their fleshly owners: on the contrary, he told men to remain in the several callings of life in which they were when they first heard the truth. "Let every man," says he, "abide in the same calling wherein he was called. Art thou called, being a slave? Care not for it; but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather." As if he had said, 'Social or political liberty is a small matter in view of what men are called, or invited to, by the gospel of the kingdom. My mission is to "open men's eyes, to turn them from darkness [of mind] to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among the sanctified by faith [which leads] into Jesus"' (Acts 26:18). He invited Sin's servants to become Jehovah's [Yahweh's] servants upon the principle of purchase; so that, in addressing those who had abandoned the synagogue and temple for the house of Christ, he says to them, "Ye are bought with a price." They were "not their own," being bought bodily and spiritually; "therefore," said he, "glorify God with your body and with your spirit, which are God's" (1 Cor. 7:23; 6:19,20). When a man's body and spirit become another's property, all property in himself is surrendered to the purchaser. All that he used to call his before he was sold, is transferred to his owner; and, if allowed to retain it, he must use it as the steward of his lord.

Redemption is release for a ransom. All who become God's servants are therefore released from a former lord by purchase. The purchaser is Jehovah [Yahweh]; and the price, or ransom, paid, the precious blood of the flesh through which the Anointing Spirit was manifested. It is therefore styled, "the precious blood of Christ": as it is written in the words of Peter to his brethren, saying, "Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conduct paternally delivered; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without spot and without blemish" (1 Pet. 1:18.) If this Christ-Lamb had

PAGE 21

not been slain, the "New Song" of Apoc. 5:9,10, could never have been sung; the 144,000 could never have been sealed, the robes of the saints, the palm-bearers of vii. 9-14, could never have been washed white in blood; there would have been no Altar, no worshippers thereat, nor souls underneath it in death (ch. 11:1; 6:9); and there would have been no "fine linen, clean and white," to clothe the bodyguards of "the King of kings" (19:8,14). All these parts of the Apocalypse are based on the slaying of the Christ-Lamb as the redemption price of the servants of God.

SATAN took the price of release. In the day of his power he valued the blood at thirty pieces of silver. In this was fulfilled the saying of the prophet, "They weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver: and cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prized at of them" (Zech. 11:12, 13). The life being purchased for this amount of blood-money, Satan nailed the Christ-Lamb to the tree; and poured out his life with a spear. Jesus entered no protest against the arrangement. On the contrary, he lovingly laid down his life for the sake of those who had died under the law of Moses, walking in the steps of Abraham's faith; and for them also, who should afterwards become Abraham's children by adoption through himself. With the first class, as a man, he had no personal acquaintance; with the last, comprehending multitudes of his contemporaries, his acquaintance cost him his life. Unknown by the one, and condemned and persecuted by the other, he nevertheless laid down his life to purchase their release from the bondage of Sin and Death. "I am," said he, "the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep; and I lay down my life for them of myself. No man taketh it from me. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again" (John 10). He regarded this as the greatest evidence of love; for, as Paul reasons, "Scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet perhaps for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Well, therefore, may it be said, "Unto him that loved us, to him be glory and dominion for the Aions of the Aions" (Apoc. 1:5, 6).

The "servants of God, sealed in their foreheads," are represented by the square of 12; so that their measurement is 144 cubits, and their numerical representation 144,000 (Apoc. 7:3, 4; 14:1; 21:17). This square is the sum of all released from bondage to Satan, consequent upon their "obeying the form of teaching delivered unto them." The releasing them, of course, is an affair of the ages, seeing that the redeemed do not belong to one and the same nation and generation.

PAGE 22

Jesus died and rose again for the release of these -- his sheep scattered among the nations and generations of centuries. In the providence of God, "the Form of Teaching" is brought before them; and being of his sheep, they discern in the teaching the Great Shepherd's voice, and follow it (John 10:26, 27) and as he said to Paul at Corinth, "Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace; for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city" (Acts 28:10). After this encouraging admonition, Paul continued speaking in Corinth a year and six months, for the manifestation of this people. They heard; they believed; and they were baptized. They believed "the teaching," and "obeyed the form." The teaching was the Gospel of the Apocalypse of the Lord Jesus Christ. He tells us that "Christ sent him to preach the Gospel; which is the power of God for salvation to every one believing; for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith" (1 Cor. 1:17; Rom. 1:16,17). In preaching this, he says, "I came declaring the testimony of God"; and "speaking the hidden wisdom of God in a mystery, which had been hid from the Aions and the Generations, but NOW is made manifest to his Saints: to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (1 Cor. 2:1,7; Col. 1:26,27).

In the teaching, he taught them "the things concerning the Kingdom of God, and the Name of Jesus Christ"; so that, as the result of his instruction, they came to be "washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of God" (1 Cor. 6:11) and to wait for his Apocalypse (ch. 1:7). Here was a form of teaching or doctrine presented to them in the formula of the name. He told them about the kingdom and glory to be apocalypsed when the hour should arrive for Jesus Christ to hurl Satan, their master, like lightning from the heaven. His testimony to this effect was confirmed among them by "the demonstration of Spirit and power, that their faith might stand in the power of God" (1 Cor. 1:6; 2:4,5). Having convinced them of this, he invited them to a cooperation with Jesus in the overthrow of Satan, and in the government of the nations when Satan should be cast into the abyss, and shut up, and sealed, so that he could deceive them no more (Apoc. 20:2,3). But, at the same time, he taught them that that government which was to succeed Satan's, was to be a pure, indestructible, divine, and righteous dominion; and that consequently, flesh and blood, or mortals, and the unrighteous, could not possibly have any share in it (1 Cor. 6:9; 15:50). This declaration, attested by the Spirit, brought up the inquiry, What does God require

PAGE 23

a believer of his promises to do that he may become righteous, and capable of inheriting them? In other words, What must he do to become the subject of the righteousness of God? Of that righteousness, which Paul says is "witnessed by the law and the prophets"? The answer to all who believe the promises, and that Jesus is the Anointed Son of Jehovah [Yahweh], in whose crucified flesh sin was condemned; and that he rose from the dead for the justification of all given to him for brethren by the Father: the answer to such is, Do what Peter commanded the same class to do in Acts 2:38. Do what is prescribed in Acts 3:19. Do what the Samaritans did in Acts 8:12,16. Do what the Cushite officer did in Acts 8:38,39. Do what Paul himself did in Acts 9:18; 22:16. Do what Peter commanded the devout Gentiles to do in Acts 10:48. Do what was prescribed to the Philippian household in Acts 16:33. Do what the Corinthians did in Acts 18:8: -- for they all did the same thing. They believed the same teaching, and "obeyed the" same "form," in conformity with the command to"be baptized in the name of Jehovah [Yahweh]."

In becoming thus enlightened and obedient they became "the servants of God," purchased from Satan at the price of blood sold to him for thirty pieces of silver. By right of purchase, God calls upon all the purchased in Satan's household to leave his service, and come over to Him. "The Lord knoweth them that are his." This is the seal of His foundation (2 Tim. 2:19) and He sent out His trumpeters to make proclamation, and to invite His own to present heirship of the kingdom and eternal glory, for which He has purchased them of the enemy (1 Thess. 2:12; 2 Thess. 1:5; James 2:5). "He that receiveth the testimony of Jesus hath set to his seal that God is true" (John 3:33). He endorses understandingly all that God hath done. He rejoices in the purchase of redemption, refuses any longer to serve sin, and sings, "Unto him that loved us, and redeemed us to God by his blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and washed us therein from our sins, and hath made us kings and priests for God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for the Aions of the Aions" (Apoc. 1:5, 6; 5:9).

These immersed believers of the exceeding great and precious promises covenanted to the fathers, and confirmed in Jesus, the Minister of the Circumcision (Rom. 15:8), by obeying the form of teaching were, brought into a patient waiting for what they believed in and hoped for. In writing to some of them at Corinth, Paul says, that they came behind in no gift, "waiting for the coming of the Lord, the Anointed Jesus" (1 Cor. 1:7). Thus it reads in the English Version; but in the original "the coming" is expressed by tin apokalupsin; THE APOCALYPSE.

PAGE 24

They waited for the Apocalypse of Jehovah [Yahweh], the Anointed Jesus. For the information of the mere English reader we may remark that apokalupsis is derived from a verb which signifies "to uncover, bring to light what was hidden." The noun, therefore, signifies a disclosure, a revelation. The subject of the disclosure may be ideas, persons, or events. In the sense of new ideas being put into the mind with enlightening effect, apokalupsis is used in Luke 2:32, where Simeon, speaking by the Holy Spirit of the future of the child Jesus he then held in his arms, styled him "A light for an apocalypse of nations, and a glory of Jehovah's [Yahweh's] people Israel." In this text, it clearly signifies illumination. That is, that at some period of the history of the nations, Jesus would be, at one and the same time, a light and a glory to them and Israel. Moses says by the Spirit harninu, goyim, ammo, "Rejoice, ye nations, his people," but Paul, quoting from the Septuagint says, "with his people". Either way answers to the truth; for when the nations are caused to rejoice, they will have previously become Jehovah's [Yahweh's] people (Zech. 2:11) and will also rejoice with Israel and the Saints. Now, when this shall be the order of the day, the nations will have been apocalypsed by him who will be "the glory of Israel." He will be a light in Zion in the midst of the nations, confounding the moon, and putting the sun of the former heavens to shame.

He will be "a light for an apocalypse of nations." The nature of this apocalypse may be discerned from a few testimonies of the prophets. "In Zion," says Isaiah, "shall Jehovah [Yahweh] of armies make unto all people a feast. And in this mountain he will destroy the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory; and Jehovah [Yahweh] Elohim will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for Jehovah [Yahweh] hath spoken it" (25:6). The veil or covering the prophet speaks of here, is that "strong delusion" to which Paul alludes in 2 Thes. 2:11, where he predicted the present moral condition of the nations under the Man of Sin, or Satan of the Apocalypse (12:20). The nations of "Christendom" are all under the veil. God sent the truth among them; but Paul says, "they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause," he continues, "God shall send them STRONG DELUSION, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be condemned who believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness." Here is their sin and punishment. They corrupted the truth, and the corruption waxed strong in them; and deluded them into the belief of A LIE, or system of falsehood. By this the nations of "Christendom" are overspread as by a covering.

PAGE 25

No nation is exempt from the delusion. The most enlightened believe "the Lie" in common with the least. Greekism, Romanism, and Protestantism, in all their "NAMES AND DENOMINATIONS," are elements of the Strong Delusion. They all pretend to be Christianity; while in reality they are only abominable, and badly executed counterfeits.

Delusion and delirium have a near and intimate relationship; and the stronger the delusion the more intense the delirium. In the Apocalypse, therefore, when the "strong delusion," in its effect upon the nations of "Christendom," comes to be "signified" or represented, they are described as having been "made drunk," and as being drunk. "The inhabitants of the earth," said the Angel to John, "have been made drunk with the wine of the Great Harlot's fornication" (Apoc. 17:2; 18:3). The last text declares that "all nations" are intoxicated. The drunkenness is, therefore, not restricted to the Greek and Latin communions; but comprehends all Protestant nations as well. They are all deceived by Satan, by whose energy, and deceivableness of unrighteousness, the soul-merchants of the earth have been able to establish themselves as the spiritual guides of the people. Blind, intensely blind and intoxicated, they are leading the blind and reeling multitudes into an unfathomable abyss; and they themselves are rapidly approaching that universal bankruptcy, when their commerce in souls will be extinguished, "and no man will buy their merchandise any more." The days of the schools, colleges, seminaries, and ecclesiastical establishments of the nations are numbered; and the end of their theological craft decreed. They are weighed in the balances and found wanting -- wanting in the knowledge of "the truth as it is in Jesus." Though they boast of the light and glory of our century; and are upon such admirable terms with themselves as the people of the Lord, basking in the sunshine of His favour and delight; the Scriptures denounce their pretensions, and resolve them into the grossest darkness, sensuality, and wickedness. And this is unquestionably true. No other conclusion can be come to in view of what the Spirit saith. Speaking by Isaiah He declares that if any one do not speak according to Moses and the Prophets he is a dark body (8:20). "There is no light in him." Now it is notorious, that the professors of the theological institutions of all sects, and the clerical, or ministerial, orders of all denominations, are grossly ignorant of the Old Testament writings. In presuming, therefore, to preach from, or to explain the New, it is utterly impossible for them to speak according to Moses and the Prophets. A man cannot speak in accordance with what he knows little or nothing about. The testimony, therefore, convicts them of utter incompetency. It declares them to be utterly without light: which is equivalent to saying that they

PAGE 26

are in gross darkness. And, this being the condition of the ecclesiastics, how awfully dark must the people they call the "laity" be! "Like priest, like people," -- darkness added to darkness until it becomes Egyptian, or darkness to be felt.

If the nations were enlightened the Apocalypse of the Anointed Jesus would be unnecessary. He comes because of the darkness of the world. He comes as a light, as the Day Star, to illuminate the nations. He does not come because they are enlightened. If his coming be postponed to this, he never will come; for instead of a knowledge of the truth increasing among them, the darkness is intensifying day by day.

Now that the Lord comes while darkness reigns, is manifest from the following testimony. Isaiah informs us, that "the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob"; and that then she shall "arise and shine; because her Light is come, and the glory of Jehovah [Yahweh] is risen upon her." He then tells us the reason why Jehovah [Yahweh], or the Anointed One, comes to shine upon her; and the following is the reason: "Because darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people." This is the mental, or intellectual and moral, condition of clergy and people, Gentiles and Jews, at the epoch when Christ comes as "A Light for their apocalypse."

Such is, and such will continue to be, the spiritual condition of the world until then. But when they have been apocalypsed, or illuminated, the change will be glorious. "The earth" will then "be full of the knowledge of Jehovah [Yahweh] as the waters cover the sea," even as God had sworn to Moses (Num. 14:21; Isai. 11:9; Hab. 2:14). Then "Many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain (or kingdom) of Jehovah [Yahweh], and to the house of the God of Jacob: and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah [Yahweh] from Jerusalem. And he shall rule among the nations, and he shall punish many peoples; and", in consequence of that rebuke, "they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

Having spoken peace to the nations, and being established in his glory, the day of Jehovah's [Yahweh's] exaltation will have been apocalypsed, or revealed - that day in which, it is testified, "Jehovah [Yahweh] alone shall be exalted" (Isai. 2:10,11,16,17). "At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah [Yahweh]; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to THE NAME OF JEHOVAH [Yahweh], to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart" (Jer. 3:I7). This is a very plain testimony. Jerusalem is to become the throne of a government

PAGE 27

which is to have universal dominion; and that when it exists, the nations will have abandoned the strong delusion, or "imagination," by which they are now deceived. The occupation of the "Reverend Divines" of "Christendom" will then be gone. All names and denominations of blasphemy ending in ism will then be abolished; and they will be all as clean swept away as was the old world by the flood. What a glorious riddance for the world! The "seducing spirits...... the demons...... the captivators of silly women laden with sins," the "transformed ministers of Satan," teachers heaped up to themselves after their own lusts to tickle their itching ears: men of corrupt minds, who speak lies in hypocrisy; unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness - these, with all their old wives' fables and traditions, will all have been precipitated as Satan, with lightning velocity from the heavens, into the promiscuous confusion of the bottomless abyss. No clergyman will then venture to lift up his voice to sermonize the people; for "It shall come to pass that when any shall yet prophesy (or preach), then his father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live; for thou speakest lies in the name of Jehovah [Yahweh]: and they shall thrust him through when he prophesieth. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the prophets (or preachers) shall be ashamed every one of his vision when he hath prophesied; neither shall they wear hair garments to deceive" (Zech. 13:3,4). If the ecclesiastics were to be dealt with upon this principle at the present time, not a soul of them would escape death upon the spot; for it is their craft to "speak lies in the name of Jehovah [Yahweh]," and to wear peculiar garments for professional deceit. The world that now fawns upon and flatters their vanity, and glorifies their foolishness, will then curse their memorial. In that day of affliction to the Apostasy, it is testified, that "the Gentiles shall come unto Jehovah [Yahweh] from the ends of the earth, and shall say: Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit" (Jer. 16:19). This is what they will say of Episcopalianism, Presbyterianism, Lutheranism, Methodism, Congregationalism, Universalism, Mormonism, Millerism, Campbellism, Romanism, Greekism, etc. - - all false, vain, and unprofitable. This is their true character; for they make up the ecclesiasticism of the nations; and how is it possible for drunken nations, overspread with strong delusion as a thick veil, to hew out for themselves cisterns capable of holding water from the fountain of life?