Description of the Kingdom

"OH! the transporting, rapturous scene

That rises to my sight!

Sweet fields arrayed in living green,

And rivers of delight."

Human language is hardly adequate to the task of setting forth the glories of the better land; for, as St. Paul says, "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. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit." 1Co 2:9-10. While here, our view of future things is "through a glass darkly, but then, face to face." As a person looking through a darkened glass at the broad sun may get a correct outline of its disc, and yet not behold its resplendent glory, so we, by giving heed to those things which God has "revealed by his Spirit," may get a view of that glorious kingdom, and yet have but little actual conception of that glory which can be better felt than told.

St. Peter says, "We, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth." 2 Peter 3:13. From this promise recorded by Isaiah, the apostle reasons that the present heavens and earth are to be melted, and the works which are therein (the dross-sin) to be burned up. The psalmist David probably referred to the same when he said, "Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed." Ps. 102:26.

In his discourse on the day of Pentecost, St. Peter speaks of Christ's second coming as, "The times of restitution of all things." St. John, while in vision, on the isle of Patmos, heard a voice from him which sat upon the throne, which said, "Behold, I make all things new." David doubtless had a view of the same when he spake of the Lord's "renewing the face of the earth. "

We will notice the testimony of Isaiah, from which St. Peter has drawn his conclusions: "For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind." Isa 65:17. Here is the very promise to which St. Peter calls our attention. We are interested in the description this ancient prophet gives of the new earth. "I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying." Isa 65:19. This agrees with St. John's view of the matter, "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." As expressed by the poet,

"His own soft hand shall wipe the tears

From every weeping eye."

When this is accomplished, the people will not still be left with sadness in their hearts. Nay, verily, for "What God doeth, he doeth it forever." The Lord wipes away tears by removing forever from among his people every cause of grief. When our Saviour tells us that God shall wipe away all tears, he immediately assigns the reason, "And there shall be no more death, neither shall there be any more pain." Yes,

"Pains, and groans, and griefs, and fears,

And death itself shall die."

But Isaiah continues his description, "There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed." Isa 65:20. "No more thence," from the time the new earth state is brought in, "an infant of days" [a short lived child], or an old man who hath not filled his days [premature old age]. The latter clause speaks of death, and cannot therefore apply in the new earth, for St. John says of that state, "There shall be no more death." The death, then, must apply to what transpires just as that state is being ushered in. The fire that purifies the earth is called by St. Peter, "The perdition of ungodly men." It is the sinners that then die the second death. His age will not save him. Being an hundred years old he shall nevertheless be accursed.

In those early ages of our world, when men attained to eight and nine hundred years, one who lived to be one hundred years old, was, comparatively speaking, only a child. Such an one, dying in sin, raised from the dead at the end of the thousand years, shares equally the fate of the hundred-year old sinner of later ages; they both die the second death. The righteous only remain and enter upon the new-earth state, in which there is no death, but eternal youth, so that indeed in that state there can "be no more thence an infant of days, or an old man that hath not filled his days."

"And 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." Isa 65:21-22. Some object, saying, Can it be that the saints will build and plant in the new earth? It says so. Where will you apply the testimony, if you attempt to refer it to the present state? Where is the man of whom it can be said that he shall not build, and another inhabit? Men here spend their whole lives fitting up an inheritance to their taste, and just as they pronounce it fitted to their mind, they find themselves old men, die, and leave it to others

"For as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands." Isa 65:22. As the days of what tree? I reply, The tree of life. If that be the tree referred to, then they will live forever; for God drove Adam out of the garden, lest he should put forth his hand and eat of the tree of life and live forever. In another testimony the Lord says, "With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation." Ps. 91:16. How long a life would it require to satisfy a man? If his body was racked with disease, and his life made bitter by disappointment and sorrow, he might perhaps come to a point where he could say, I have lived long enough, I want to die; but if he was surrounded (as the saints will be) with everything that tended to his comfort and happiness, in a state where there was no death, no sorrow, no pain, no tears, would he be satisfied with anything short of eternal life? I think not.

In the testimony of verses 23 and 24, the prophet shows God's willingness to answer and to do for his people, and that in that time the labor of their hands shall prosper and not be brought forth for trouble. In the next verse the prophet speaks of the animals in that state, "The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock, and dust shall be the serpent's meat." Isa. 65:25. This can only apply in a state where the ferocious dispositions of the wolf and lion have been changed. But, you ask, can the above apply in the kingdom of God? Are the saints to eat there? Yes. Christ ate after his resurrection. If Christ ate, why may not the saints? They are to be like him.

Angels appeared to Lot, and ate of the food he prepared. David says of the Israelites, "Man did eat angel's food." Gen. 19:3. The resurrected saints are to be as angels. But our Lord has declared that the saints will eat in the kingdom. "And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Luke 22:29-30. Again, "Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them." Luke 12:37. But, you may say, I did not think there were to be beasts in the kingdom of God. If the kingdom of God is to be a restitution to the primeval state, there will be beasts there. In Eden, the Lord gave man "dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." Gen 1:26. And Micah testifies concerning Christ, "And thou, O tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion." Mic 4:8. If the first dominion is given to the saints, then they will have dominion over beasts as well as the earth. That the dominion to be given to Christ, is the dominion of the earth, is confirmed by the testimony of David, "He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth." Ps. 72:8. His testimony shows that there will be beasts in that renewed state. After speaking of beasts, etc., he says, "Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth." Ps. 104:29-30. The prophet Isaiah, in the eleventh chapter of his prophecy, speaks from verses 1-5 of the "rod of the stem of Jesse," in such a manner as to show that he does not refer to any earthly monarch, for they have no way of judging, but "after the sight of the eyes," nor to reprove, except "after the hearing of the ears."

This personage is also the one who is to slay the wicked with his breath. What follows in verses 6-9, is after he has thus slain the wicked, and refers to Christ's kingdom, "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' [margin, adders] den." Isa 11:6-8.

Here, again, we have a description of a state when the evil dispositions of the beasts are taken away, when the mode of their living even is changed; "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain." This is after Christ comes and subdues all his foes.

"Then bears and wolves, no longer wild,

Obey the leading child;

The lions with the oxen eat,

And dust shall be the serpent's meat."