As our Lord arose to speak, all heads were deeply bowed for a
few moments and then most earnest attention was given. We all hung on His
words as when He spoke the sermon on the mount on earth. The theme was:
"The coming dispensation, now about to be ushered in, when He shall once more
descend to the earth taking with Him all this mighty host of saints and angels,
when will occur the resurrection of the bodies of all His saints."
The great host listened with profound attention and received
the word with great gladness, for everyone was deeply interested personally in
the matter. Thousands of saints shouted aloud with joy at the thought that
so soon would occur the "redemption of the purchased possession."
The angels themselves were dancing for joy, for our Lord had
said that they should take a most prominent part in the great event. Very
many, indeed, of the unnumbered and countless host had been waiting for this
even for thousands of years, and waiting for their spiritual bodies which we
knew would be given us at that time. Then we should be equal to the angels
themselves, which the elders now are, and are preferred before them, for the
place of the elders indicated this, being near the throne.
The pathos and feeling which our Lord manifested during this
sermon was beyond anything we were accustomed to on earth. We were melted
into deep emotion. He enlarged at great length on the ideas which Paul had
advanced so long ago while writing under divine inspiration when he said:
"having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good
pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself: That in the dispensation of the
fullness of time, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both
which are in heaven and which are on earth even in Himself." He called attention
to the superior advantage the elders now have on account of their
resurrection. He described to the mighty host the order of events in
connection with the closing history of His spiritual reign on earth, the events
of the last times, the great political changes, and devastating wars of the
closing period. He declared also that in the last times great effort would
be made among the leading civilized nations to bring about a peaceful settlement
of national troubles. That much had been done and much remained to be
done.
How quickly I thought of the words of the prophets when he
wrote concerning this same theme: "They shall beat their swords into plow shares
and their spears into pruning hooks." (Isaiah 2:4)
He went on to speak of the worldly character of many of the
churches on earth, their loss of spiritual power, and the very great slowness of
making disciples of all nations, many of the churches having almost forgotten
their real mission in bringing the world back to God, as He repeated again some
of His words uttered so long ago: "The church is the salt of the earth; but if
the salt hath lost its savor wherewith shall it be salted?" (Matthew 5:13) As He
spoke upon this point a holy fervor and deep pathos clothed His words until the
mighty throng most solemnly bowed their heads with the very impressive thought
that His words had a deep meaning suited to many thousands of us only a little
while ago.
Oh, how many of us whispered to ourselves and to those about
us, "If I only could go back even for a brief time, how differently I would live
and labor for the great end for which our Lord suffered and died."
He spoke also of the fearful formalities in so many of the
Protestant and Catholic churches, of the corruptions and whoredoms so extant
throughout the world. As He was speaking of the degeneracy of His church
on earth, I most deeply felt the force of His words uttered nearly two thousand
years ago, "When the son of man shall come, will He find faith on the earth?"
(Luke 18:8)
"But," said He, "there is a very great throng of blood-washed souls
who are looking for His return and faithfully toiling while waiting for their
adoption into this mighty host above." He hinted again that the time was drawing
near when He, with all this great host, with millions in paradise and all parts
of the celestial city, should again go back to celebrate the earth’s great
Sabbath.
Mighty angels with their trumpet voices should lead the hosts
until the thousands of thousands of chariots should slacken their speed and slow
to a halt in the regions of a terrestrial world. Then the great trump of
God should be sounded, of which the blast of Sinai was but a little hint, and
awaken all the dead saints who should instantly rise with spiritual bodies and
each soul of us should have our own.
When He had thus spoken, all this mighty host led by the
angels, shouted, "Hallelujah! the Lord omnipotent reigneth!" "And
further," He said, "the living saints who have never died will never die.
Death shall have no dominion over them, but from thenceforth is destroyed
forever, and with them we shall be joined in one great united church, world
without end." Again the great host said, "Hallelujah!"
But the most solemn and pathetic of all His
utterances from
the throne before the great assembly was His reference to a present
condition of
the church on earth. He referred to a new and most cunning device of
Satan, the old enemy of man, to introduce into the church of all
Christendom a
most destructive criticism of the Holy Scriptures. "This," He declared,
"is a revelation of the man of sin — the son of perdition, only in a
new form in
the last days. The mystery of iniquity was at work in the early days of
the church in the various forms of the spirit of anti-Christ, but it was
withheld until the Gentile world should have their opportunity of
salvation.
But now that wicked one is being revealed whose coming is after the working of Satan and with all deceivableness in them that perish because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. So they are denying much of the Holy Scriptures of God, nearly all the Old Testament saints and all that is miraculous, even assailing His own divine origin, miracles and atonement. And so God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie. (II Thessalonians 2:11) "Oh, Satan," he cried, "thy doom will soon be sealed in the vortex of hell."
But now that wicked one is being revealed whose coming is after the working of Satan and with all deceivableness in them that perish because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. So they are denying much of the Holy Scriptures of God, nearly all the Old Testament saints and all that is miraculous, even assailing His own divine origin, miracles and atonement. And so God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie. (II Thessalonians 2:11) "Oh, Satan," he cried, "thy doom will soon be sealed in the vortex of hell."
I can only repeat a tithe of His sermon. When He
closed, a number of the elders followed Him with brief expositions of truth
along some lines on which He had touched.
Many, like ourselves thought how clearly the blessed Book of
God on earth has told us many of these things, and what comfort, as well as
sorrow, to the saints to know the great things which are yet before us!
Far in the distance as our eyes could reach we saw the seats
glittering like the purest gold, raised amphitheater like, to a great elevation
which entirely encircled the majestic throne.
Many responsive hymns were sung, those in the distance
responding with choruses, which seemed like great waves of the sea that rolled
in splendor over the great throngs of the redeemed. At last, the great
convocation was drawing toward its close. Our Lord now arose and with a
voice distinctly heard to the utmost bounds of the throne, invited us to a royal
banquet given by Himself in honor of the last arrivals. The doxology of
heaven was sung by the great host. Our Lord’s benediction and dismissal
followed.
We all repaired to a great pleasure ground adjoining the throne on the east. Many hundreds of rows of tables, more than twenty-four furlongs in length, were spread before us. These were loaded with the richest viands that paradise ever knew. A hundred varieties of the tree of life grow everywhere in the city, but especially in the valleys and upon the hillside of paradise. Twelve kinds of fruit grow on each tree. From these the tables were most gorgeously furnished. The angels were waiters at the tables and surely we lacked for nothing. (...)
Extract from: "Paradise, the Holy City and the Glory of the Throne", chapter 33.
by Rev. Elwood Scott
We all repaired to a great pleasure ground adjoining the throne on the east. Many hundreds of rows of tables, more than twenty-four furlongs in length, were spread before us. These were loaded with the richest viands that paradise ever knew. A hundred varieties of the tree of life grow everywhere in the city, but especially in the valleys and upon the hillside of paradise. Twelve kinds of fruit grow on each tree. From these the tables were most gorgeously furnished. The angels were waiters at the tables and surely we lacked for nothing. (...)
Extract from: "Paradise, the Holy City and the Glory of the Throne", chapter 33.
by Rev. Elwood Scott