in this, as in common warfare, that they who fight endanger their lives ; and they who stay at home consult their safety : on the contrary, they who fight shall both conquer and live for ever; but they who decline the combat shall assuredly and eternally perish.]
Though Christ's advent, in this view of it, appears formidable, we shall rejoice in it, if we consider,
II. The blessedness arising from it —
To all who view it aright, shall this blessedness be sooner or later vouchsafed. For,
1. The whole Gentile world shall in due time be subdued before him —
[" To him shall the Gentiles seek." Thousands and millions were converted to him in the apostolic age. The whole Roman empire was, within the space of a few years, filled with those who had flocked to his standard. And still is his kingdom advancing in the world. In the very place where we are, I trust, there are not a few whom " God has brought from the kingdom of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of his dear Son." But the time is near at hand when " all kings shall fall down before our Lord, and all nations shall serve him ;" yes, " all the kingdoms of the world will be subdued to him," and become a part of his universal empire. Now there are kings many and lords many: but " in that day there shall be but one Lord to all the earth, and his name One."
Only then contemplate the change which has taken place in any one regenerate soul, and then say, whether this reign of Christ over the whole race of man be not an event greatly to be desired ]
2. " His rest" after all these conflicts shall be
'' glorious" —
[Here is no change of metaphor, as a superficial observer would imagine. When this Mighty Warrior went to deliver his people from their captivity in Egypt, he " brought them forth with a mighty hand and a stretched-out arm." And, when he subdued their enemies in Canaan, he abode by the ark (the symbol of his presence) even for five hundred years, " between curtains" in the tabernacle, moving about from place to place. But David then prepared for him a settled habitation on Mount Zion, and said, in reference to it, " Arise, O Lord, into thy rest, thou and the ark of thy strength. For the Lord, having chosen Zion, and desired it for his habitation, hath said, that is 7ni/ rest for ever : here will I dwell ; for I have desired it*^." Such was
^ Ps. cxxxii. 8, 13, 14.