The Two Centres
It is in Christ, as we have already said, that Jehovah’s purpose of self-manifestation centres, Its origin, its progress, its consummation, are all directly linked with Him. “He is the brightness of the glory of Jehovah, and the express image of his person.” He is the Word — the utterance of Jehovah’s mind, the witness of His character, the exponent of His purposes. Godhead is in Him represented and revealed.
It is, however, round two great centres that this manifestation is made to revolve. The two Advents of Christ are the two periods, or events, or stages, in which the Divine purpose is specially displayed. And it will be found that as all historic truth bears in some way or measure upon the First Advent, so all prophetic truth is connected with the Second. The thoughts of God gather themselves round these. For these thoughts, like the orbs which He has lighted up and hung in the firmament, have their centres and their orbits, their revolutions and their periods. Or rather, we should say, that the outer and visible world, with all its movements, and with all the laws which regulate these movements, is but the image of an inner and invisible world; even as the earthly tabernacle was formed after the pattern of heavenly things, which the Lord shewed to Moses in the Mount.
These two Advents, then, are the two foci of that vast ellipse round which all things are revolving. To the Church of Christ at first, these two events seemed but as one undivided event; for she stood at the extreme end of the axis, looking along the line. But as she advanced onwards, a distinction became more visible. At length she reached the first of them, and then, beyond it, she saw the second, quite separate from the first; but how far, she could not say. Many events seemed to cluster round; but the order in which they were to occur was somewhat uncertain. But as she travelled onward, and as century after century elapsed, events began to spread themselves out, and to marshal themselves more exactly than before. And as we near the consummation, we may expect yet clearer light, and more accurate insight into the order, as well as the nature, of those mighty events that are coining on the earth, and for which, whatever may be the slumber or intoxication of the world, it becomes the Church of Christ to be fully prepared, lest the “hour of temptation” overtake her unawares.
The events for which the Church is called upon to look are many. The Advent of her Lord towers pre-eminently above all the rest; yet still, in connexion with it, there are other events not a few. There is the resurrection of the just. There are the rise and fall of Antichrist. There are the sore judgments and fierce wrath which are to overtake the world. There are the restoration and salvation of Israel. There is the conversion of all kindreds and nations. There is the glory of the millennial state. These are some of the events which cluster round the Second Advent: and just as His first coming was specially self-manifestation in grace, so His second coming is self-manifestation in glory. Both grace and glory are in each of these coinings; but in the former grace predominates, in the latter, glory.
Most of the prophecies touch, however briefly, the whole history of the Church. Their chief burden may be some particular part of that history; but they seldom stop there. They generally take in the whole, though giving but a glance at events or objects not directly included in their theme. More or less, we find all the prominent parts of God’s purpose referred to in every prediction, and the two centres invariably come up to view, whatever be the burden of the prophet. To the second of these two centres we find the greatest prominence given; and all predictions run on to it as to their common terminus. “It is spoken of by all the holy prophets since the world began.” Not that there is vain repetition anywhere; but each seer utters his vision, and closes it with some word or figure, as a link to fasten it on to the consummation, or coming of the Lord. It is no minute Church-history of the future that he is commissioned to deliver, but simply a chapter, a section; oftentimes a mere fragment; yet, however small, it contains something which, while it shews us that the whole was present to his view, makes known the true place of the particular vision in the series, and reveals its relation to the final crisis towards which everything from the beginning has been pointing, and into which all events are to flow, as the river, with its hundred tributaries, pours itself into the ocean.
Nor is there aught of imperfection about this mode of utterance. It is, in truth, both natural and artistic perfection. Any other method would have rendered these prophetic sketches like Chinese pictures, without perspective and without proportion. But this is according to the exact laws of art, which, in so far as they are true, are copies of nature. Each prophet paints a particular scene or fragment of the mighty landscape. His foreground is always the spot on which he stands, — it may be the wulderness, it may be Babylon, it may be Lebanon, it may be Jerusalem. Then the particular scene he wishes to depict is drawn with minuteness and fulness. Then, in the far background, we have — dim, perhaps, and apparently insignificant, but necessary to the completeness of the scene — the distant hills which circle in the whole prophetic field, on whose well-known summits there rests the calm brightness of that boundless day, on which, when these intermediate scenes of change and storm are past, the Church is to enter, with her Lord, as her inheritance of rest and joy.
The first promise given, ere Adam left Eden, is the briefest, but most comprehensive history of the Church to be found in the whole Bible. The two centres are there; the one predicted as the bruising of Messiah’s heel, the other as the bruising of Satan’s head. This promise was, as it were, the fixing of the two centres, round which all after-events were to revolve. It was marking out the two chief eminences from which the history of the world and of the Church might be best surveyed. The second promise, I mean that of Enoch, is exclusive in its reference to the second centre. It takes for granted, of course, a long previous state of wickedness on the earth. It assumes, also, the redemption of a remnant, “ten thousand of His saints,” or, more literally, “His holy myriads;” but still, the vision is not of the First Advent at all, but of the Second alone. Even when proyhesying long before either the first or second comino-s, and looking alone; the line, it is rather the terrible glory of the Second Advent that fixes his eye, than the grace of the First.
It would be interesting to note each successive prophecy, as, age after age, it came forth to man; and to mark at what point the seer stood, and which of these two centres is most prominently brought out to view; but this is impossible here. Only a few specimens can be given. Take “the last words of David:” — *
“David the son of Jesse said,
Even the man who was raised up, said,
Concerning the Messiah of the God of Jacob,
The sweet burden of the Psalms of Israel:
The Spirit of Jehovah spake by me,
And His word was on my tongue.
Spake the God of Israel to me,
Spake the rock of Israel!
There shall rule over men a Just One,
* 2 Samuel xxiii. 1.
He shall rule in the fear of God.
And as the light of morning shall He arise,
The sun of an unclouded morning,
Shining after rain upon the tender grass of the earth.
Though my house be not perfect with God,
Yet an everlasting covenant has He made with me,
Ordered for all time and sure.
Surely it is all my salvation and all my desire!
But the sons of Belial shall not grow,
As thorns to be cast out are they all;
Though not by the hand shall they be taken,
But the man touching them shall be wounded as with iron and
the shaft of a spear, And with fire shall they be utterly consumed upon the spot.”
This is a vision of the Second Advent, yet commencing with, though touching slightly upon, the First, when referring to the “Anointed of the God of Jacob.” Then the Righteous Kino: is set before us, with all the blessings of His beneficent reign — a reign established upon the destruction of Antichrist and his hosts.
Or take a Psalm, the sixty-seventh, the prayer of the Jewish Church, the same as that of the Bride, “Make haste, my beloved:” —
“God be merciful to us and bless us,
Cause his face shine on us.”
And what shall be the effect of such blessings to Israel? It shall be knowledge and salvation to the Gentiles; “for Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit:” —
“That thy way may be known upon the earth,
Thy saving health among all nations.”
The prayer then proceeds with still greater enlargement and fervent urgency: — “Let the people praise thee, 0 God;
Let all the people praise thee;
0 let the nations be glad and sing for joy.”
Why all this gladness and exultation throughout the earth? Because now misgovernment and oppression are at an end. The Righteous King has come, the true Melchizedek, and all the earth rejoices under His just and peaceful sway: —
“For thou shalt judge the people righteously, And govern the nations upon the earth.”
Again the prayer ascends; or rather, I should say, there is heard a loud summoning of the nations to lift up the voice of praise: —
“Let the people praise thee, 0 God;
Let all the people praise thee.’’
And why this redoubled call for gladness? Why this loud summons to the nations to unite in praise? Because all things have been made new. The curse has been removed and fertility restored: —
“The earth shall yield her increase,
God, our own God, shall bless us;
God shall bless us,
And all the ends of the earth shall fear him.”
In all this it is more especially the second coming of the Lord on which the Church has her eye fixed. It is round the second of the two centres that she sees these glorious events revolving.
Or let us take the eighty-second Psalm, a psalm which singles out a particular scene or class of objects and dwells on them. The objects are not in themselves directly connected with either of the Advents; but the seer, in his closing words, links them on to the Second, and there the curtain falls. It is the misgovernment of the earth during the absence of its true King that is the psalmist’s theme. They who have been intrusted with kingly power are seen utterly perverting it, and employing it only for oppression and selfishness. God interposes. He summons the potentates of the earth, who are here called by the name of “the mighty,” and “gods:” —
“God standeth in the assembly of the mighty, He judgeth among the gods.”
Princes are here called “gods,” especially the Jewish rulers, on whom God bestowed the name, as one of peculiar honour. And when they are thus gathered round Him, He expostulates: —
“How long will ye judge unjustly
And accept the persons of the wicked?
Defend the poor and fatherless,
Do justice to the afflicted and needy.
Deliver the poor and needy,
Eid them out of the hand of the wicked.”
But expostulation is vain. They refuse to hear the voice of God. They persist in their tyranny and wickedness: —
“They know not, neither will they understand, They walk on in darkness.”
And what are the effects of this mismanagement and injustice? Just what might have been expected. Disorder fills the earth. Everything is shaken and uptorn: —
“All the foundations of the earth are out of course.”
Nothing remains, then, but that God should interpose. He must judge and avenge the cause of the oppressed. He must cast down and sweep away those whom He had raised up and honoured: —
“I have said,, Ye are gods,
And all of you children of the Most High;
But ye shall die like men,
And fall like one of the princes.”
Though He himself dignified them with such a title, giving them His own name, yet He would not spare them. They shall die the common death of men, and fall like any of the princes of the heathen to whom no such name of honour had been given. Having pronounced their sentence, there is a pause. God stands silent. The whole assembly is dumb. Then the voice of His saints is heard appealing to Himself, calling upon Him to take to Himself His great power and reign: —
“Arise, 0 God, judge (or, rule over) the earth, For thou shalt inherit all nations.”
And thus the closing words connect the scene with the second coming of the Lord, shewing how all present misgovernment is to end in that day when God shall cast down the wicked from their throne, and Himself assume the seat of royal power.
It is to be feared that prophecy has too often not been studied with reference to these centres. Yet they are God’s centres. They are the two leading points to which the Lord directed the eye of His disciples when He said, ‘-’Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?’“’ and in which the Apostle Peter sums up all prophecj-, “The sufferings of Christ and the glory which should follow,” And our right understanding of the prophetic Word will be in proportion as we keep these in view, and arrange events according to their connexion with the one or the other. Neglect of this has led to much confusion; and there has been sad entanglement of passages and predictions, as well as dislocation of scenes and misarrangement of times. Associations have been formed which are not easily undone; ideas have been connected with words and figures, which are not to be corrected in a day; the past and the future have been carelessly mixed up together. This want of classification and system has been a grievous hindrance, a hindrance which only of late years has been begun to be recognised and provided against. While science was classifying and arranging its facts, making thereby prodigious strides, Biblical study has overlooked this secret of true progress and solid exposition. The treasures of gold and gems which cover the prophetic page have been allowed to remain in bright disorder; admired, but not arranged; examined, but imperfectly classified So long as prophecy is perused in this spirit of incurious indolence; so long as it is looked upon as a field of nearly uniform sameness throughout, so long will its real riches remain unknown. To the vigilant, accurate eye, that can arrange as well as appreciate its stores, it will appear bright with an endless yet well-ordered variety. Viewed thus, it spreads out before us, like a broad, well- watered plain, various yet regular, profusely wild, it may be, yet not disorderly in its beauty. Viewed in the drowsy fashion we have referred to, it stretches out into an untamed wilderness — a mere chaos of verdure. Not more diverse do the heavens appear to the practised eye of the astronomer and to the ignorant gaze of the peasant, than does the starry firmament of projihecy, with which Jehovah has overcanopied His Church in this dark midnight of the world, appear to the thoughtful, classifying expositor, and to the indolent glance of the prejudiced or the careless reader. The midnight arch of heaven appears to the ignorant gazer nothing but an azure roof inlaid with stars of various lustre — a wilderness of bright disorder — a chaos of orbs flung together by chance, and coursing to and fro without path or law; while to the skilful eye of science it stands forth as a fair array of God’s well-marshalled hosts, each star poised upon its own centre, pursuing its own orbit, and fulfilling its appointed times. So is it with prophecy. To hasty, superficial readers, there appears much that is beautiful in the inspired records of futurity, but that is all. For more than this they think not of searching. The general reflection from its surface is all that they see, and with it they are contented. To those, on the other hand, who, believing that such a method of reading prophecy is irreverence and presumption, have sought to bestow upon it, as upon all parts of God’s Word, no less care and thought than upon the most condensed geometrical demonstration, or the most
D intricate algebraical process — to them the page of prophecy unfolds itself into a series of minute but most orderly details, and presents a surface infinitely diversified, yet bearing every where the marks of perfect regularity and exact design.