Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1867-09-10
For the Spectator.
Our Lords Coming?


pent, which is the devil, and Satan, and bound
him thousand years and cast him into the bot
tomless pit, and shut him up, and set seal upon
him. that he should deceive the nations no more,
till the thousand years should be fulfilled and
after that he must be loosed little season.
REVELATION, Xxx: 2-3."
All believe God to be in possession of great
secret We speak not of mysteries /; for of such
secrecies He has many, some that we cannot
comprehend at present, and He has others,
again, that as finite beings, we shall never be
allowed to peruse or understand. But thls is,
so to speak, a reUeated secret-as secret 1t is
revealed to be some time made known, even
from one end of the heavens to the other. The
shining angels who are continually about the
Fathers throne waiting to bear messages of
comfort to the children of men, and who are
ever encamping about His people, guarding
them till that hour come, and busy too are they
In whispering words of cheer into ear and heart,
and coloring enchanting visions of it to our
longing eyes-never answer the question
this great secret alone within the Father breast
shall be made known for they cannot, but cry
they-'How long, o Lord, how long?'
Daniel who was ordered to seal the book;
and John, who was told to leave it open-were
not allowed the reading Of it; the same who
was taught ''the number of the beasts" or
counted the thousand two hundred and ninety
days, understood no more of the wonderful
arithmetic than the hundreds who have since
been so earnestly, but vainly, seeking for the
KEY. Is it for us to set the time or the date?
Jesus did not know, when He prophesied on
earth, this great secret; alone knoweth the
Father the day and hour of His own returning.
Will the Lord, before His appearing, make
known to US this long locked-up secret, that we
may date without so much uncertainty the year
To me the testimony of our guide appears to be
against this expectation.
[ do not mean to say that there is any harm
in guessing, for surely some one will be right
sometime but as the Father, the Secret-keep-
er, is not heard to answer-''yes, or mo, to
His inouiring children, is it not to be feared
that some may believe, or lead others to believe
as facts the coinings of their own mind, and
suffer the consequences of deluslon In a matter
so deep and of such vital moment? | think
the entire book of Revelation declares that the
secret shall be kept to the very last moment of
the end. eff the good man of the house had
known at what hour the thief would come, he
would have watched" but OF the hour, the
Word does not inform us-at even-at midnight
at cock Growing first watch, or the Sec
ond Had the time of our Lord S coming been
revealed. the world, we think, would have been
differently engaged but Jesus knows too well
the hearts of the children of men our watching
would then have been to an end, but it is Sc
cret, and we are told to watch ',at an
hour that ye think not of-the Son of Man
cometh," and, "blessed are those servants,
whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find
watching"
Jewish and christian writer's, for two thou
sand years, have believed that the earth was to
last in its present form 5000 years, and that the
seventh thousand year would usher in the mil
lennium 10y W. 7. P, Spectator, July Goth. I"
We have it in the issue referred to, all reckon
ed up; and, unless there is flaw somewhere,
many of us will live to see the eventful time i'll
question But, where, pray, do we see the def
mite period of the age to which the earth is to
attain? Is it fact ofrevelation, or the thoughts
for fact? Says Watson-''A millennium, or a
future paradisiacal state of the earth, is viewed
by some as a doctrine, not Of christian, but OF
Jewish origin The tradition which fixes the
duration of the world, in its present imperfect
state, to six thousand years, and announces the
approach of a Sabbath of one thousand years Of
universal peace and plenty, to be ushered in by