"prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: and also upon the "servants and upon the handmaids in those days "will I pour out my Spirit*." These words were declared by the Apostle to be applicable to the season of Pentecost; but they will have a still more extensive and complete fulfilment during the period of the millennial glory. The Prophet Isaiah has also asserted, that when the Spirit shall be "poured upon us from on high, judgment shall dwell in the "wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful "field. And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness, "and assurance for ever." Let this suffice to demonstrate the abundant effusion of the Holy Spirit during the millennial reign of Christ; for the time would fail me were I to attempt to adduce to my reader's notice the numerous passages which ascribe the glory of the last days of the Church to the operations and influences of this Divine Agent. Thirdly, during the period of the millennium, knowledge will be most abundantly diffused.-This will unquestionably be the case with respect to all knowledge and science conducive to the welfare and happiness of man. Every kind of useful knowledge will undoubtedly be retained, cultivated, and increased, in proportion to its real value and utility. Whatever improves or adorns the human character, whatever tends to lessen or facilitate labour, whatever heightens or protracts temporal comfort, whatever serves to enlarge the faculties of the mind, and to aid its operations in the pursuit of beneficial science, will be highly estimated and carefully attained. Men, from right principles and conscientious motives, will be inclined to cultivate their talents in the highest degree; and as their moral Isa. xxxii. 16, 17. * See Joel, ii. 28, 29. and religious principles will lead them to pursue those employments and occupations which are best suited to their talents and abilities, this circumstance will surprisingly tend to the acquisition of useful knowledge. In fact, every man will then be found in his proper place, and fill the situation for which he is best fitted.-But the knowledge more particularly referred to is divine knowledge. "The earth shall be full of the knowledge of THE "LORD as the waters cover the sea." The human race will then be well acquainted with the most important objects of knowledge. They will know more of God as he is revealed in his character, his attributes, and his works. The objects of sacred knowledge, as revealed in the word of God, will not only be much better understood, but practically sanctified, to produce the most holy and beneficial effects on the mind. Not only will the doctrines of the Bible be more clearly and fully comprehended; but the various duties of the Christian life will be more clearly seen and more fully practised. The knowledge of religion will be better understood as the knowledge of the way of holiness in which the redeemed of the Lord are to walk.-In short, now will the prophecies of God's word on this subject be amply and gloriously fulfilled." And they shall no "more teach every man his neighbour, and every man "his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall "all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord."-" Moreover the "light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, "and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the Flight of seven days."-" The sun shall be no more "thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be "unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down; neither "shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall 66 "be thine everlasting light; and the days of thy "mourning shall be ended*.' 99 Fourthly, while the millennium lasts, the Church will be favoured with the most eminent degrees of holiness.-True holiness implies a conformity to the moral perfections of God. It will manifest itself in obedience to the will of God, in supreme love to him, and in cordial and sincere charity to mankind. In short, it will effectually influence its possessors to "live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present "world." But, during the millennium, the sacred principle of holiness will universally pervade the whole Christian church. The knowledge spoken of before, with which the Church will then be blessed, will not be a mere speculative principle; but it will be accompanied with high degrees of sanctification. Christians will then possess the spirit and temper of apostles and martyrs. They will be eminent for the same attachment to Christ and his cause, the same devotional spirit, the same mortification to the world, the same active benevolence which actuated the most pious and holy Christians in the primitive days of the Church. Love to God will be manifested in spirituality of mind in all the exercises of religion, and in all the common affairs of life. "In that day shall there be upon the bells of “ the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the pots "in the Lord's house shall be like the bowls before "the altar."-Love to man will be displayed by kindness, benevolence, and the discharge of every relative and social duty. The relations of husband and wife, parent and child, master and servant; the connexion subsisting between friends, acquaintances, and neighbours, together with every other social bond, will be filled up in a manner agreeable to the word and will of God. The unholy dispositions and tempers of the mind, as well as the works of the * Jer. xxxi. 34. Isa. xxx. 26; lx, 19, 20. 4 ↑ Zech. xiv. 20. flesh, will be superseded by the fruits of the Spirit, "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." This holiness, in respect to its extent, the Scripture assures us shall be universal; for the "people shall be all righteous, all the ends of the world shall remem"ber and turn unto the Lord, and all dominions "shall serve and obey him *." Fifthly, from the diminution of natural and moral evil, and from the universal prevalence of holiness, the human race will be blessed with superior degrees of prosperity and felicity.-As far as true piety prevails, moral evil will necessarily be greatly diminished. In fact, the perfect prevalence of holiness will produce the complete annihilation of moral evil. But if moral evil be annihilated, or nearly annihilated, natural evil will be immensely diminished. When men become true Christians, and are influenced by the principles of faith and holiness, a great variety of diseases and other grievous calamities will necessarily cease. The universal prevalence of the religion of Christ will terminate all the evils of public and private contention; and hence, national, domestic, relative, and social felicity will be exceedingly augmented. No man will add to the sorrows of another; but every one will endeavour to alleviate the afflictions of all around him. The hope of glory, the prospect of a happy meeting in heaven, and the abundant consolations of the Holy Spirit, will render sickness, death, and the loss of beloved friends, far more easy than at present. The absence of every thing like persecution or opposition to religion, and the general love and unity of Christians, will greatly enhance the prosperity and felicity of the Church †. Industry, frugality, and temperance, will prevent that poverty and distress which now render great * Isa. Ix. 21. Ps. xxii. 27. Dan. vii. 27. сс multitudes wretched. A more abundant communication of the blessings of Providence may be expected from a greater fertility of the earth, according to the former fruitfulness of Canaan, contrasted with its present sterility. "And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop "down wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, " and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with water; "and the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and "the treader of grapes him that soweth seed:—in "that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures. "The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender, which has been "winnowed with the shovel and with the fan*." It appears evidently from these Scriptures that the blessing of God, in increasing the fertility of the earth, will occasion a very high degree of external prosperity. But the greatest happiness of mankind, during this blessed epoch of the world, will arise from their holiness. The generality, at least, of the human race, will be real Christians, living under the power and influence of vital godliness. The Scriptures will become the rule of men's conduct, and therefore their relations and connexions, their employments, studies, and meditations, and more especially their exercises of religion, will afford them constant sources of felicity. Being of one heart and one mind in respect to the great concern of religion, communion with God and communion with his saints will afford them perpetual consolation and joy, inferior only to the happiness of heaven, because it will be less perfect.-It may be here remarked, that this prosperity and felicity of the Church and the world (for the Church and the world will now be one), in connexion with the diminution of moral and natural evil, will tend greatly to increase the human species. God's ordinance of mar * See Amos, ix. 13; Joel, iii. 18; Isa. xxx. 23—25. |