Ptolַemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt; but they understand them no better than he. They "err not knowing the Scriptures," as the old Sadducees did. How can they understand them, judicially blinded as they are by the "strong delusion?" Would it be reasonable to put a book of any kind into the hand of a confirmed sot, trembling with delirium in his cups, and to expect him to read and expound it? The Scriptures testify that all the inhabitants of the apocalyptic earth "have been made drunk with the wine of the fornication," of what the people themselves style, "the Mother of all Churches," as drunken as they (Rev. xvii. 2, 6; xviii. 3). Their blind and misleading clergy are more studious of Shakespeare, and of the dark-minded poets of Greece and Rome, than of the oracles of the Deity; so that their sayings and doings are more suggestive of the heathen sentiments of Plato and Horace, than of the prophets and apostles of the Lamb. And, if the national and dissenting clergies, who have so much time for the study of the Word, fall so miserably short of comprehending it, what can be expected of their strongly deluded followers, all of whose labour is for the bread which perisheth? The Bible is a sealed book to them all. Then, of what use is it in the matter of salvation? In the hands of "faithful men able to teach others," it is primarily and principally the Father's instrumentality, whereby, in "the times of the Gentiles," He "draws" from among them as many of them as He has given to His Son for eternal life; and secondarily, it is a moralizer of society: and so it is written, "they shall be all taught of the Deity. Every man, therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of the Father, cometh," saith Jesus, "unto me" (Jno. vi. 45; xvii. 2).
But, in conclusion of this important subject, what may be said of "the time of the dead" that they should be judged, and that the reward should be given to the servants of Deity, the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear His name, small and great? Of that time, when a wonder shall he done to the dead; and the healed among them shall praise Him? (Ps. lxxxviii. 10).[1] In answer to this enquiry, the approaching fall of the Papal Throne[2] admonishes us that it is very near. The Papal power is that element of the
- ↑ In this verse of the English version the word dead occurs twice; but, in the original, it is not one and the same word. In the first instance, it is טתים, maithim, dead ones, without distinction of class; in the second, it is רפאַים, rephaim, healed ones, or the just who are "clothed upon with the house from heaven."
- ↑ The Papal throne has since fallen; Anastasis was written in 1866.
