diction be also of a figurative character; it is still manifest how the Spirit of Christ in the prophets associated the thought of resurrection with the expectation of Messiah's kingdom. It is only as proofs of this that we refer to the passages we have quoted. We do not adduce them as establishing the doctrine of "the first resurrection," but only as shewing that when the Spirit of prophecy looked onwards to the millennial period, the thought of resurrection was in some way associated therewith. Full, clear light as to the nature of the connection between the two, is not to be looked for in these earlier revelations. It is in the New Testament we find this. It is surely enough, if in the Old Testament it be apparent, that the resurrection and Messiah's kingdom are so associated in the mind of the Spirit, that almost any prediction of the latter ensures some allusion, more or less distinct, to the former. In some instances the allusion cannot denote less than the actual hope of the resurrection of the bodies of God's people; in others the idea is more vaguely introduced; but the connexion between the resurrection and the kingdom of Messiah is established by all.

We would now, dear christian reader, invite your attention to another point of no small importance to the subject that this resurrection, whether literal or figurative, is premillennial; it takes place at about the same general epoch as the other events predicted in the passage and enumerated above. Some, perceiving how this, if the resurrection be literal, would demonstrate a premillennial resurrection, very earnestly press as a counter argument, that if from this passage we expect a premillennial resurrection of the righteous, we are bound by its terms to expect that some of the wicked will also rise before the millennium. But this is by no means so certain as they represent. The most competent scholars, and some who could not be suspected of any doctrinal bias in the case, Jewish rabbis, for instance, maintain, that the Hebrew words rendered "some". some to everlasting life, and some to shame" &c. more strictly imply these and those; and that their use here does not denote a distinction between some and other some of the raised ones, but between the whole of them that are raised, and the whole of those who remain in the grave. "Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; these (that is, the raised or waking ones) to everlasting life, those (who do not awake or arise) to shame and everlasting contempt." It is but right to place before the reader this solution of a difficulty which is often urged. We do not,

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however, press the passage as an argument for a premillennial literal resurrection. Some whose judgment is of weight, and who fully believe in a literal premillennial resurrection of the righteous, do not see in this passage more than the revival of the righteous part of the Jewish race under the figure of a resurrection. We leave both thoughts with the reader for his prayerful consideration.

under consideration. In the Old Testament we read of the reign of the saints, as well as of Messiah's reign, while in the New we have repeated assurances, that the saints are to reign with Christ. "But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever." Dan. vii, 18. "Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom." ver. 22. "In the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Matt. xix, 28. "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord." ch. xxv, 21, also 23; and in Luke xix, 17, "have thou authority over ten (or “five," ver. 19) cities." "And if children, then heirs: heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." Rom. viii, 17. "Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? know ye not that we shall judge angels?" I Cor. vi, 2, 3. "And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body." Eph. i, 22, 23. "It is a faithful saying...if we suffer, we shall also reign with him." 2 Tim. ii, 11, 12. "And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations...even as I received of my Father." Rev. ii, 26, 27. "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." iii, 21. "Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood...and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth." v, 9, 10. "And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." xx, 4. It is in this last passage that we find the expression "the first resurrection.'

It is not

for this reason however we now quote it, but as one of the closing testimonies to the truth, that the saints are to reign with Christ. It is a truth, as we have seen, not altogether unrevealed even in the Old Testament, but one which really pervades the New.

At what time then, dear christian reader, and in what sense does this joint reign of the saints with Christ take place? If, as we have seen, the Old Testament is filled with prophetic anticipations of a kingdom to be established,

as all must confess, on the earth; if these anticipations be connected as we have seen, with glimpses of resurrectionblessedness and glory; if in the New Testament the resurrection at Christ's coming be the great event held out as the proximate hope of the saints, with such oft-repeated assurances, moreover, of their suffering with him here being rewarded by their reigning with him hereafter; if these things be so, when and how are these prospects to be consummated-these promises to be fulfilled? IN THE FIRST RESURRECTION. Hear the description of it in the words of inspiration, and say, if in the prophetic vision thus unfolded and thus explained, there be not a futurity presented to us, harmonizing with every prophetic anticipation of the Old Testament, and realizing to the full all the hopes and aspirations of New Testament saints, whether directed to resurrection on the one hand, or participation in Christ's glorious reign on the other? And if it be so, can there be a stronger presumption in favour of the natural, unforced sense of the passage being received as the only true one, than that it does thus combine in one harmonious whole, and crown with pure and unfading lustre the testimonies of the Old Testament to the earthly, and of the New Testament to the heavenly glories of the kingdom of Christ? Let us read the passage, as given us in Rev. xx, 1-6.

:

"And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years."

This is

Let it be supposed by the reader that these words had now for the first time passed under his eye-that ignorant of the existence of such a passage, and therefore entirely free from bias towards this or that theory of interpreting it, he had now read it for the first time in his life-what impression would it naturally make upon his mind? Could any one thus reading it, question for a moment, that it predicts an actual resurrection of saints and martyrs, and that these risen ones as priests and kings are to reign with Christ for a thousand years, the rest of the dead remaining in their graves till the thousand years have expired? We are persuaded that such is, beyond doubt, the sense in which any intelligent person, unacquainted with systems and theories of prophetic interpretation, and therefore necessarily unbiassed by them, would, on a first perusal, understand the passage. It was thus understood by the universal church for almost the whole of the first three centuries; and it was not until christians began to mistake the world's patronage of a corrupted christianity for the commencement of the millennium, that they adopted those spiritualizing theories of interpretation, by which such a passage could be adapted to such views.

The questions which we would now, however, press on the reader's attention are- -If this be not the kingdom of Messiah predicted throughout the Old Testament, and if this be not the reign of the saints with Christ promised throughout the New, how are the predictions of the one and the promises of the other to be fulfilled? If it be not in his kingdom that we are to reign with Christ, when are we to reign with him? We are not forgetting that in Rev. xxii, 5, it is said of the saints "and they shall reign for ever and ever." But if it be so easy to spiritualize and explain away the prophecies of our reigning with Christ for a thousand years, what security have we against the application of the same principles to such a passage as the one last quoted? We are told moreover in scripture (whatever may be the meaning of the words) that at the end, Christ will deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father; and it would be extraordinary indeed if the reign of the saints with Christ did not commence till Christ had delivered up the kingdom to God. His reign continues till then. "For he must reign TILL he hath put all enemies under his feet.........And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may

be all in all." ."* 1 Cor. xv, 24-28. Clearly then, the reign of the saints with Christ, must be while his reign continues— in other words, it must be before instead of after "the end” when Christ delivers up his kingdom. Most of the passages, moreover, which foretell the reign of the saints with Christ, are manifestly inapplicable to the everlasting state, which succeeds this final act of Christ. The kingdom "taken" and "possessed" by the saints of the Most High, or of the high places, in Dan. vii, is that which immediately succeeds the downfall of the fourth Gentile monarchy: that is to say, it is identical with the millennial reign of Rev. xx. The sitting of the apostles on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel, may find its place in the scene unfolded to us here, and of which it is said, "This is the first resurrection ;" but what place has it in the everlasting state? "Power over the nations," promised in the address to Thyatira to those who overcome, is seen here in actual exercise- 66 they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." But will there be earthly "nations" in the everlasting state, subjected to the "power" of these overcomers? Then finally, the reign anticipated by the redeemed in Rev. v. is expressly said to have the earth for its sphere"and we shall reign on (or over) the earth." Let the reader judge, whether it be in "the first resurrection," in which the saints live and reign with Christ a thousand years, that these anticipations of reigning over the earth are fulfilled, or in the everlasting state, when "the earth and the heaven" shall have "fled away," and no place shall be found for them!”

Many, indeed interpret "the first resurrection" and thousand years reign of the risen ones with Christ, as implying nothing more than a state of unexampled religious prosperity. They hold that during this season of the prosperity of religion on the earth, Christ is seated as at present at the right hand of God, the saints of all former generations being, as to their bodies, in the grave, and as to their souls, present with the Lord, and waiting, even as now, for the moment of their resurrection. It is contended by those

* We surely need not remind our readers that the divine dominion of the Son, in the unity of the Godhead, is unaffected by this economic change, mighty and all-comprehensive as this change may be. The "kingdom" which Christ delivers up, is a kingdom which has been given to him, and he delivers it up, and is subject to him that put all things under him, that God-Father, Son, and Holy Ghost-may be all in all.