a little season. ." Rev. xx. 1-3. This chaining and ́imprisoning of Satan during a thousand years, whether they be literal years, or prophetical years of days, and every day a year, is most mercifully not revealed to us, as the most encouraging support under the trials that precede it. Christ will then have taken to him his great power, and will reign, not as a preached but as a present Saviour and King. No longer shall the perfidious enemy snatch away the seed of divine truth from the human heart, as now he does: (Matt. xiii. 19) no longer shall he prevail to sow his worthless tares among the true wheat of the Church; (verse 39;) his hateful presence will no longer vex, nor his malignant power oppress the world. Violence shall cease: They shall not hurt nor destroy, in all my holy mountain ;" (Isaiah xi. 11;) ignorance, superstition, and unbelief shall vanish: "The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." The creatures of Jehovah shall no longer be beguiled into tempting and dishonouring their Creator, by following after false gods, or setting up stumblingblocks of rebellious iniquity in their hearts, for "The Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day, there shall be one Lord, and his name One.” Zech. xiv. 9. It is impossible to conceive the amount of happiness to be derived from the mere absence of Satan, even were no positive blessing to accompany the negative good: bui since his capture and committal will be the result of His coming again into the kingdom whose right . is, we may well be glad, and rejoice in the prospect, and comfort one another with these words. This, however, is not a final casting out of our restless enemy: sufficient evil will yet lurk in some parts of the renewed earth for him to practise his old craft upon; and he will have liberty so to do. "When the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle." Rev. xx. 7, 8. Who these nations are, or under what circumstances they will at that period be placed, we cannot possibly say. It is idle, and worse than idle, for men to guess, to predicate, to dogmatize, on matters where the most learned has no other data to guide him, than is vouchsafed to any babe in a Sunday school. We know that the Lord hath spoken it; therefore we know that it shall come to pass. Satan's prison door shall be opened, his chain removed, and immediately he will return to his ancient work of deceiving men. It is appalling to observe with what fierce earnestness he is bent on this detestable employment. His hatred of man is ever breaking out; and what must they expect to endure, who, through their rejection of Christ's Gospel, doom themselves to be his companions and slaves for ever! Hell, as a place of flames and torments, "where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched," is invested with mystery that shrouds its terrors, and leads bold unbelievers to scoff at what they cannot comprehend; but hell, as manifested in the character and actings of Satan, is a comprehensi and a fearful reality! To be condemned, even for a short time, to the exclusive society, and subjected to the despotic will of a person who utterly hates us, and by all means seeks our hurt, is an infliction that few would like to brave: but this is a helpless bondage forever and ever, to and with one who, as a powerful angel, must always be stronger than we; and whose torments, while we partook of them, would perpetually incite him to ten-fold ferocity against us, as a means of their great aggravation. Satan will succeed in his last expedition, so far as the deceiving, and consequent destroying of these nations is concerned; whose number, we are told, is as the sands of the sea. "And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city; and fire came down from God, out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night, forever and ever." Rev. xx. 9, 10. Beyond this the word of God does not lead us: the secrets of that burning pit are not revealed to man. The terribleness of divine wrath, in its unmitigated inflictions, no heart can conceive, neither may tongue essay to describe it. Some have spoken of the state of the lost, as though it was one where rage and blasphemy continually poured forth their despairing defiance of the Most High. It may be so, as regards the evil spirits, but Scripture leads to no such supposition respecting the ruined souls of men. Anguish most bitter, weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth: a full appreciation of what has been rejected, and an agonizing consciousness of what is incurred-the tota absence of hope, the blackness of darkness, to be know and felt forever and ever-these are a part of what w are told will be the portion of those who believe not: the doom of such as will not obey. Let this awful glimpse of unspeakable and everlasting wo suffice; and may the blood of Him who, through the Eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot for sins, be so applied to the soul of her who writes, and of every individual who reads these pages, that they may never know, by experience, the terrific reality of what, by faith, they are assured, is reserved for the enemies of the Gospel of Christ. |