not forget the fact that this is not an astronomical treatise upon these things, nor an astronomical view of the luminaries of the heavens as they stand related to the earth. These things, on the contrary, are presented before us as they appear to a beholder standing upon the face of the earth. This is clearly apparent from this fact, that while the sun is continually spoken of throughout the Scriptures as rising and setting, as it is said, "The sun ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to the place where he arose," yet astronomically the very reverse is the case; the sun stands comparatively still, and the day and night is produced by the revolution of the earth upon its own axis. Therefore we conclude that the creation of the sun, moon, and stars at the time that our earth was remodeled was only apparent, not real, that in reality these luminaries of the heavens had shone from time immemorial, just the same before the creation of our world as they have done ever since and will no doubt continue to do after the earth has fulfilled her course and been reduced to chaos as at the first, and darkness again covers the face of the deep; that their apparent creation was done by the Spirit of God so operating upon the dense masses of clouds that lay upon the face of the waters which covered the earth that light enough was admitted on the first day to produce day and night, and on the second day there was a firmament made in the midst of the waters, and the waters beneath the firmament were separated from the waters which were above the firmament, and on the fourth day the great ocean of clouds and vapors above the firmament by the spirit of God were made transparent so that the light of the sun, moon, and stars shone through without obstruction, as they do now when the heavens are clear. Thus they would appear to a spectator standing upon the earth as though they had just been brought into existence, and as though they then came fresh from the hand of their creator.

When the creation is thus considered and viewed, it is in harmony with what we see and know to exist. For instance, by the aid of astronomical research we know that the sun is the centre of a planetary system composed of a group of globes, of which our earth is one of the number. These are all similar in form and governed by similar laws of gravity; they revolve around the sun at very unequal distances from it, and are all illuminated by the same sun. They revolve also upon their own axes in the light of the sun, which causes their day and night, as ours is caused. They are also opaque bodies and cast their shadows on their sides opposite the sun, which is proved by eclipses, when one of these bodies falls behind, and into the shadow of another. Some of them are smaller than the earth and revolve around the sun at shorter distances from it; others are larger (some notably so, Jupiter exceeding the earth by at least three hundred times), and they revolve around the sun at immensely greater distances from it, requiring many of our years to perform a single circuit. The sun itself, the great centre of these orbs, is much greater than them all put together, the diameter of the earth being about eight thousand miles, while that of the sun is about 860,000 miles. Besides all this, the fixed stars are each of them believed to be suns to other systems of worlds similar to our own, and they appear smaller to us because of their immense distances from us. Moreover, by the aid of telescopes, millions

upon millions of stars are discerned that were never seen, and that never would be seen by the naked eye.

Now to suppose that this vast celestial machinery, these innumerable ponderous bodies that roll in the deep blue and fathomless heavens above, below, and all around us, compared with which our earth is but a speck,— I say to suppose that all these things had no existence until our earth was remodeled and fitted up for the abode of man, and that they were all brought into existence exclusively for the benefit of this earth, insomuch that when it comes to an end, all these things are to be blotted out of existence again, does not appear reasonable or probable; and, astronomically considered, such a theory is too absurd to be entertained for a moment. Therefore scientists, as they are called, would manifest less ignorance and more true science in religious and Scripture matters if they would diligently search the Scriptures so as to find out the true and scientific meaning thereof for themselves, instead of drawing their conclusions from the extravagant and erroneous views that sectarian teachers have in their blindness set forth as being the doctrines taught in the Scriptures; for these teachers belong to that class which Jesus encountered in the days of his ministry, and of whom he says, "They strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel," for men who can believe and teach the things which they profess to believe, can believe any thing no matter how unnatural nor how ridiculous.

THE "END OF THE WORLD"

Those authors who tell us that in the beginning God created all things out of nothing, err as widely in interpreting the words of Peter touching the end of the world as they do in the attempt to interpret the words of Moses concerning the beginning. Peter's words are construed by them to mean that the natural heavens and earth, and all their hosts, which were created at the beginning, are to be consumed with fire, and the whole machinery of creation, including the sun, moon, and fixed stars, is to be melted down together like lead in a furnace. Now we propose briefly to show that Peter's words have no reference whatever to the destruction of the natural heavens and earth, but that these people wrest Peter's words, as they do also the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

First we will point out a very significant fact concerning these erring teachers. It will be observed that after Peter had dwelt quite at length in his second epistle upon the destruction of the heavens and earth by fire, afterwards in the same connection he particularly calls the attention of his readers to the fact that Paul also, "according to the wisdom given unto him, in all his epistles" had spoken of these same things; and while he does not say directly that what he himself had just written was hard to understand, yet indirectly he does say so when he says that what Paul had written upon these same matters contained things hard to be understood, and which unlearned and unstable people were in danger of wresting, as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction.

Now what we wish to point out is this, that these wise men of the sects, when they wish to show how the world is to be destroyed, immediately cite

Peter's words to prove their doctrine. Now as Peter himself says that his beloved brother Paul also had written about these things in all his epistles, how does it come that they always refer to Peter's writings and never attempt to prove the same things from the letters of Paul? For instance, what is there in Paul's letters to the Corinthians that is hard to understand, and that proves their theory? Paul also wrote a long letter to the Romans; what does he say in that that can be quoted to prove their doctrine? In his letter to the Hebrews, he does say something that looks a little more like it, but Peter says that he speaks of these things in all his epistles. Take his letter to the Galatians; who ever heard a sectarian clergyman quote from that letter to show that the natural world is to be burned up at the last day with literal fire? And yet Peter's words, when understood, correspond exactly with Paul's, for the same elements that Peter mentions twice in his letter saying, "the elements shall melt with fervent heat," Paul also speaks of twice in his letter to the Galatians, saying (4:3), "When we were children, we were in bondage, under the elements of the world"; again (4:9), “How turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?" The original word rendered elements in all these four instances is the same and refers to the same things. Again in Paul's letter to the Colossians the same word is employed, and is translated rudiments, saying (2:8), "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments (elements) of the world, and not after Christ"; and again (2:20), "Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments (elements) of the world, are ye subject to ordinances?"

Now who are so blinded by the errors of the wicked as not to be able to see that the elements of the world and the ordinances referred to, are none other than the elements and ordinances of the Mosaic or Hebrew world, the elements of the law of Moses. Peter was speaking of the same things, and not of the natural heavens and earth at all. Therefore it turns out that what Peter said about these things is indeed hard to understand and explain; and the meaning which appears to be upon the surface of his words, and which the erring teachers catch at, is not the meaning at all, and therefore they wrest Peter's words to their own destruction.

If, therefore, any person of common sense would first reflect upon what Peter says about the old world, it should put him in the way to understand what he says about the Mosaic heavens and earth. For he says of the scoffers who say all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation, "for this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God, the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water perished, but the heavens and earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. Now consider this: the creation of the natural world, consisting of the heavens and earth with all their hosts, was completed and finished in six days, and God rested on the seventh day from all his works. Then God began to create another world upon the earth and under the natural heavens of a very different nature from the world that he made in six days. The

foundations of this second world were laid in Eden, when God planted a garden there, and "made to grow in it every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil; . . . and the Lord God took the man whom he had formed and put him in the garden of Eden, to dress it and to keep it; and the Lord God commanded the man saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest of it, thou shalt surely die." The serpent beguiled Eve and she did eat; Eve gave also to her husband with her, and he did eat, and the eyes of them both were opened, and God then pronounced sentence first, upon the serpent, second, upon the woman, and third, upon the man. The oracles contained in these sentences constitute not only the foundation of the world that terminated at the flood, but also the foundation of what is known as the old heavens and earth which were laid under the old covenant at Mount Sinai, and also of the new heavens and new earth which are to arise out of the new covenant at Mount Zion in the latter days. Therefore Peter says (II Pet. 3:5), "By the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water"; that is, by the word of God as contained in the statutes and judgments set forth in the Eden law (for Paul calls it "the law," saying, "Woman must be in subjection, as also saith the law," the law that he refers to being contained in the sentence pronounced upon the woman). The heavens and earth constituting the antediluvian world were founded by the word of God as pronounced in Eden. After this sentence was uttered, the Lord said to the others that were with him, “Behold the man is become as one of us to know good and evil, and now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat and live forever; therefore the Lord God sent him forth to till the ground from which he was taken. So he drove out the man, and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden, cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." Adam, therefore, and his posterity, would now have to seek for life and immortality, not through the eating of the tree of life which grew in the garden of Eden, but through the seed of the woman, the second Adam, that "as by the disobedience of one, many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one many might be made righteous." Their salvation must now come through Christ. Adam's expulsion, therefore, finished the foundations of the heavens and earth which constituted the world which continued for about 1650 years. Now from these facts we learn that aside and apart from the natural heavens and earth, and all things contained therein, God created another world in Eden, that ran its course and ended in the flood.

Now we inquire and call special attention to these considerations: when the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished, we demand to know of this multitude of modern sectarian religious teachers and writers, What were the things which perished in the flood? for be it understood that whatever they were, they formed a world which had heavens and earth. Were the sun, moon and stars at all affected by the flood? No! Was the firmament injured by the flood? No! Was the earth itself damaged by the flood? No! When the waters were dried, there were the same sun,

moon, and stars that shone in the heavens dividing the light from the darkness as before. The firmament dividing the waters from the waters was there also, the same solid ground upon which Noah built his ark remained there still when the waters were dried, and the ark descended and rested upon the same earth that had been submerged and had passed through the flood.

Here then was a world that came to an end in that day that did not comprehend the original creation at all, but consisted entirely of what perished in the mighty waters, and what was that? It was man. It was the sons of God, called also "the angels that sinned," "" that kept not their first estate," but mingled with the vagabond posterity of Cain, and intermarried with them. It was the works and institutions of men, their wealth and whatever they had of flocks of sheep, or herds of cattle. It consisted of every living thing that was in the earth.

Therefore when Peter afterwards speaks and says, But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word, are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men," Peter in these words has no more reference to the original, natural creation than he did when he spoke of the heavens and earth which perished in the flood, and they who apply these words of Peter to the natural heavens and earth, and construe them literally, are the very persons that the apostle refers to, who, he says, wrested Paul's words and the other Scriptures to their own destruction.

Peter here is treating of the world established by the word of God at Mount Sinai, which word is called the fiery law; and the wrath of God that is to burn against the rebellious house of Israel who broke that law, is called fire. The Mosaic world, with all things contained in it, is to be burned up, including the heavens of Israel, with their kings, priests, and prophets, called in figurative language sun, moon, and stars, and with the inhabitants, called earth, together with all the institutions set up by the law; and all the ordinances and elements of that world under the old covenant are to pass away with war, and garments rolled in blood, and by the sword, by famine, and pestilence, and so be burned up in the fire of God's wrath. A good illustration of this is found in the words of Ezekiel as follows (22: 17-21): "The word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross; all they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are even as the dross of silver. Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Because ye are all become dross, behold, therefore, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem, as they gather silver, and brass, and lead, and tin into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you in my fury, and I will leave you there, and melt you. Yea I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof, as silver is melted in the midst thereof, and ye shall know that I the Lord have poured out my fury upon you."

This is the world, and these are the heavens and the earth that are to be burned up, and these are the elements that are to melt in fervent heat. This, moreover, is the place where they are to be melted, for the Lord says else where, that his fire is in Zion and his furnace is in Jerusalem. There, in the land of Israel, the institutions set up and established by the law of Moses