V. THE CIIUROH WILL DERIVE CONTINUAL COMFORT FROM HER LORD. "I will uot leo.ve you comfortless," so.id the blessed Jesus; "I will come to you" (John xiv. 18). In o.11 their difficulties, in all their troubles, Christ comforts hid people-comforts them with bis Word of truth, comforts them with his gracious promises, comforts them with his presence in their hearts o.nd souls. He comes to them, and makes his abode with them, o.nd is II. continual inward sustaining power, raising them above the cares and . troubles and vexations of the world, inspiring in their hearts love and joy and peace . Vere. 15-17.-The purging of the e.a;rth 'by the destruction of the wicked. The king- dom of Christ cannot be fully set up in all its blessedness until the earth is prepared for its reception; and the main preparation required is the elimination from it of those wicked persons who, while they remain, must always constitute a disturbing element, inimical to the earth's peace and a hindrance to the Church's happiness. The teaching of Scripture is that, before the Church is finally established in the blissful position which it is intended to occupy, the removal of this element will have taken place. Partly by wars and tumults, by their swords being turned against each other, but still more completely by some miraculous outpouring of God's wrath, typified under the figure of fire, the wicked will be cleared out from all parts of the earth's surface, and only the godly will remain. The description of the day of vengeance is given, with the greatest fulness, in the Revelation of St. John (xix. 11-21), where, however, it is difficult to determine how much is imagery, how much literal description. "I saw heaven opened," says the beloved apostle, "and behold a white horse; and be that sat upon him was called Faithful and True [comp. eh. iii. 14:], and in righteousness does he judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on bis head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture <lipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it be should 8mite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of .Almighty God [comp. eh. I.xiii. 1-6]. And he bath on his vesture and on his thigh a uame written, King of kings, and Lord of lords. And I saw au angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the l,orse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, . . . these both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of hie mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh."
Vers. 22-24.-Eternal suffering and eternal glQJ'y. Holy Scripture sets before us, as Moses set before the people of Israel in the wildernestt, a tremendous alternative- " life and death;" one the eternal foil and counterpart of the other, with the exhorta- tion a thousand times repeated in a thousand different forms-" Choose life" (Deut. xxx. 19). Man's desire is to separate what God has inseparably connected, and to retain "everlasting life," "eternal glory," "endless bliss," but to get rid altogether of their counterparts-" eternal suffering," "everlasting contempt," "endless death." Ilut man cannot alter the system of God's universe, nor, could he do so, is it to be supposed that he would find himself able to improve it. Deep down in the nature of things lies the eternal antagonism between good and evil-an ant~gonisru which would seem to be necessary to the very existence of good in created beings; and the teaching of Scripture clearly is that this antagonism continues for ever (see Dan. xii. 2; Matt. xxv. 46; Mark ix. 44; John v. 29; Rev, xx. 10, 16; xxi. 8; xxii. 11, 15). Uf the nature of the eternal glory and the eternal suffering reserved for souls in the world to come, it is impossible for us iu this life to have anything more than a dim and faint conception, But some points may be laid dowu negatively, 492 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. [on. LXVI. 1-2~