Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1881-01-11
Lss L

The first straight line represents the
history Of Israel mp to the time of Christ.
The first perpendicular line following
the ascension of Christ into heaven the
second the pouring out of the Holy
Ghost on the day Of Pentecost and the
Inauguration of the Christian age. The
first square &c d) is the Christian dis
pensation, "the acceptable year of the
Lord" the age in which we live, dur.
ing which Israel, though preserved as q
nation is set aside of God, and Jerusalem
'trodden down of the Gentiles until the
[theseJ times of the Gentiles be fulfill
ed" When this divine economy is
broughtto close land it has already
extended through a longer period by
several centuries than any previous dis
pensation) Christ will descend from
| heaven, resurrect his sleeping saints and
| translate the living ones; then twill
many seek to enter in and shall not be
able when once the Master of the House
shall rise up and shut the door" TThis
| is the event looked for by some this
year.] The horizontal line next follow
ing denotes "the day of vengeance of
our God," during which iniquity will
abound, and famines, pestilences, wars
and rumOrs of wars will become uni
versal, while vials of wrath will be pour
ed out from an outraged heaven. At
this period the Jews are supposed to be
in their own land, when the minute de-
scription in the oath and 25th chapters
of Matthew and various places in the
Old Testament of Israels time of trou-
BILE and the tribulations upon the world
in general will be fulfilled. When "the
mystery of iniquity" shall be fully ripe
and at the darkest hour of Israel's his
tory shall their previously rejected Mes
siah appear in the glory and heavenly
retinue, with those resurrected and
translated at His first coming, and fight
against the nations which will then be
arrayed against jerusalem ;" the world
will then be purged of all iniquity, and
the Messianic reign inaugurated. The
second square (m) represents the Nit
lennium-that glorious age sighed for by
prophets and pOets-when 1.-THE word o1
the Lord shall cover the earth as the
waters cover the sea "when men "shal
beat their swords into plough shares and
their spears into pruning hooks" anG
"Iearn war no more;n ~ the duration O
human life will then be as long as tha
: of the antediluvians. Isaiah lxv.)-
When the thousand years are finished
we are tolu IeCN. AL lhoo bOaiaA VII
be loosed from his prison for little sea-
son represented by the short line fol
lowing the secoud square) and the eartt
will once more become corrupt, which
will be terminated by the destruction o
all the ungodIy hosts and followed by
the general judgment in which the sea
gives up its dead and the great white
throne appears. The brace or character
OF tho and Of the diaoram Indicates eter
nity, when the new heavens and earth
appear and the New Jerusalem will
come down from God, as described ir
the latter part of the book OF Revelation
Of course only an outline of tn
theories advanced has been attempted
in the foregoing, sthere are scores 0
prophecies in the scriptures, too mum
erous to mention, which will be fulfilled
, it is supposed, during theyarioys epoch
which it is believed will folldwthis.
| r