The Xenia sentinel. [volume] (Xenia [Ohio]) 1863-186?, 1864-04-26
End Of the World.

Since the creation of Adam, there have
been vast and innumerable physical
I changes In the condition Of the earth,
and in its relation to the heavenly bodies.
The scuffers in the time of Peter, like the
scofFers of our day, dei6ed law, and be-
lieved in an impersonal God, They ar
gued from the uniformity Of the opera
/ tions Of the laws of nature that matter
must be eternal, and the world perpetual.
The apostle replied that there had been
great phy.iO changes, and there was yet
to be another aud a greater; and he ar
gued, IN TeOyer, tAat all hese physical
changes we're part of the methods by
which the Almighty Sovereign was un-
folding the principles of His moral ad-
minis tratiOn, and vindicating his justice
and holiness. And in like manner, we
argue now, that as God bath worked hith-
ertO, so He works also now. We study
our dry sciences and speeui ia;e abOuteount-
less themes; bat Revelation tells US that
He who ma the world, rules it still.
The earthquake sho K, the volcano fame,
and watery deluge, and lightning bolt, and
all the innumerable agencies Of nature,
whether fierce or gentle, fulfil His word,
and carry forward His grand. designs 20.
ward the period, when the Arehangels
trump shall sound, and the dead awake
and the dust yield its long treasured spoils,
and the sea give up its ganered trophies
and the tribes and k'ndreds Ofthe arth
shal hear the dismay that "time shal! be
no longer"
There is not hardihoOd enough in any
IF the sciences to enter a protest against
the possibility Of this ,limax 10
human affairs. Astronomy tells US that
there have been worlds which have chang
ed their places, or have ceased to shine.
Chemistry declares that a slight mOdi6-
cation in the composition of our ttmOs-
phere would plunge the world into an in
stantaneous cOnhagr4tion; and geology,
Watching every foot print in the sands of
time, prOclams it to be likely that again
the mountains will grir We with resounding
means, and the valleys be tossed about once
more in the wild commUtiOn Of disturbed
powers, and that the sea will forsake its
bed; and rush into terror before the fury
of fiery tempest, that shall submerge the
world in ruin.
I say science can not protest, on the
contrary it intimates- these things; but It
has been reserved for Revelation to make
the disclosure sure, in language to shake
the soul. Seeing then, that all these
things shall bedissolved. what manner Of
persO Ons ought ye to be in all holy cOnver-
sation and gOdliness, for and hasting unto
the coming of the day Of God, wherein
the heavens being on fire, shall be dissolv-
ed, and the elements shall melt with fer
vent heath Nevertheless we according to
His promise, look for a new earth, where
IN dwelleth righteousness.
To this conclusion all the dispenSatiOns |
have been conYerging We live in the
least dispensatiOn Of grace. How long
it may continue we can not tell But We
know that amid wars and tumults, turnings
and Overturniugs, He is coming whose
right it is to rule. And when his final
RUE shall be established, there vii be an
earth resplendent with beauty, and a sky l.
Illuminated by the light of the Divine
Rev. E. s. Porter, D. D.
in National Preacher.