The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1869-12-05
"a New Heaven and New EARTH"

and Senator Mccormick, for Washington.
"A New Heaven and New Earth"
]. And saw a new heaven and new earth; for
the nrst heaven and the first earth were passed
2. And l, John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem,
coming down from God out OF heaven. prepared as
bride adorned for her husband.
So says St. John, the divine, in his wonder
iul book of Revelations To what does he
referp There were no steam engines, steam
boats, steamships or railroads in his day; no
electric telegraphs, no newspapers, and OF
many others Of our modern discoveries and
inventions he was as ignorant as Nebuchad-
nezzar. To what, then, does the prophet
refer in our text2 The subject naturally
divides itself into four heads First, the new
heaven and the new earth. Secondly, the
first heaven and the first earth. Thirdly, the
disappearance of the sea. And, fourthly, the
holy city, the New Jerusalem.
The prophet saw the new heaven and the
new earth. How? In vision. What was
it? In our opinion it was the new heaven and
the earth which will be the fruition of all the
glories of the new age upon which we
have entered, we of this blessed nine
teenth century. 1t is the new heaven
which the development and expansion Of the
liberal, catholic and benefcent ideas of the
age will open to the hope and the faith of man
kind. We do not expect it from the Puritan
schools of New England, nor from the High
Church, Low Church or DissentsEs q Old
England; nor are we very sanguine that 1t
will come even from the Ecumenical Council;
bat it is coming. Yea, brethren, its coming
may be seen without the aid of the telescope,
or even of pair of specs. And the grand
and potential agencies that are bringing 1t
with the rush and the roar of the tidal wave
of an earthquake are the locomotive, the
steamship, the lightning telegraph and the
newspaper Father Hyacinthe has given US
some glorious gmpses of the new heaven that
is thus approaching, when one faith, one
| Church and one destiny shall fuse into a uni
versal brotherhood all the nations and tribes
of the earth, ''without distinction of race OF
COLOR
Secondly, the new heaven and the new earth
will come together as the first heaven and the
first earth pass away. We shall have then
the new earth in the fulness of time,
when the Suez and Darien canals, and con-
tinental railroads and land and ocean cables
steamships and newspapers, shall have
blended into one mighty and homogeneous
confederation all the nations, races and tribes
of the globe. And then there will be no more
wars, for the worlds congress will settle all
provincial disputes, and the affairs Of every
corner of the globe will be reported at head
quarters every morning. There will be no
more standing armies or fleets of war ships
eating out the substance of the people no
feudal aristocracies, no more destructive
famines, because the telegraph and the steam
engine and the newspaper will serve to
equalize, from season to season. the products
and the comforts Of the various sections of
both hemispheres. This, we think, is the new
earth foreshadowed by the prophet, with the
new heaven which he saw.
Thirdly, he says, ''And there was no moro
sea-" By this Oriental figure he means that
such will be the union Of the whole family Of
mankind, in the full development Of the con-
Meeting agencies Of steam and electricity, that
|
nations. As the sea between Europe and
America Is abolished by the Atlantic cables, 80
there will be, In the fulHlment Of the Scripture,
mo more sea" to divide any one corner Of the
earth from any other. 1t will be brdged by
steamships and undertake by cables in every
direction.
Fourthly and lastly, we are called to consider
the new city, the New Jerusalem, which St.
John says he saw coming down from God out
Of heaven. This sublime vision, we think,
may be explained as meaning that the new
Jerusalem will be as new in its moral aspects
as if descended directly from heaven. What
city will it be? We do not think it will be the
old Jerusalem, for that's played out nor Con-
stantinople, nor Rome nor Paris, nor London,
nor Great Salt Lake City, the new Jerusalem
of the Latter Day Saints but we think 1t will
be New York. And why2 Because, after
the opening Of the interoceanic highway Of
the Darien Canal, New York will become the
great commercial, political, intellectual and
religious centre of the globe. We grant that q
mighty publication will be needed to make
New York the holy city, the New Jerusalem
foreshadowed by st. John; but in the good
time coming we shall have something better to
reign over US than the rings Of Tammany
Hall, and something better for our instruction
than the moral teachings Of Beecher.
Such, we submit to our mighty congrega-
ton of readers, is our understanding of the
glorious text we have been considering. Let
him who can give us better Interpretation.
Amen.