The true northerner., 1898-05-18

stearns.
copyright. 1895 by ID NJ stearns.l
81. when the Son of Man shall come
In His glory and all the holy angels with
Him, then shall He sit upon the throne Of
His glory. Concerning the coming of
the Son of Man in glory see also Math.
xvi, 81: xiv, 80 and compare Zech. xiv,
D, 8, Jude xiv, 10. We must keep in mind
that up to this time in our Lords min
istry there was no command TO go TO every
creature, but only TO Israel, and that the
beginning and end of the story of the
church, which is His body, is found chiefly
in the Acts the epistles and Revelation.
The church, or called out company from
all nations, being His body, we would ex-
pect TO find Him in His body when He sits
upon His throne. and these are the assur
ances given us In Col. iii, 4, and Rev. Iii,
81 where we are told that when Christ
our life shall appear we shall appear with
Him in glory and sit with Him on His
throne. We are also told in | Cor. vi, 2,
that we shall Judge the world, and this Is
in accord with Ps. cxlix, SO That the
Son of Man shall come in glory is as GER
tain as that He once came in humiliation.
32. "And before Him shall be gathered
al nations, and He shall separate them
one from another, as shepherd divideth
sheep from the goats. In the context OF
the passages quoted concerning His com
ing in glory we cannot but notice that the
Spirit always speaks of deliverance for
Israel and Judgment upon her enemies
and blessing for her friends, and that is
just the story here, in perfect accord with
the testimony of the prophets Surely
the Lord God will do nothing, but He re-
vealeth His secret unto His servants, the
prophets Amos iii, y. Therefore if
we would know His purposes we must go
TO those TO whom He has told them. We
therefore inquire, "HaVe the prophets said
anything about His judging the nations
or about sheep and goatsY As we cannot
understand the first verse in the New Tes-
lament without a considerable knowledge
of the Old, so there are many other things
in the New Testament which require the
light Of the Old Testament, and this Judg
ment of the nations is one Of them. Any
one familiar with Joel iii, Ieph. iii and
Eek. xxxiv will feel almost at home in
our lesson and will not confOund this
Judgment of living nations either with the
judgment seat of Christ or that of the
great white throne (Rom. xiv, 10; III Cor.
v, 10; Rev. Xxx, 12), the former for beiev
dead, who take no part in the first resur
rection, at the end of the thousand years.
33, "a. Come We blessed of My Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from
the foundation of the world - 1t seems
to me that our Lord must have had the
words in Ezok. xxxiv in His mind. for
there we read of sheep and goats, and of
the i'll treatment of the diseased and the
sick and of blessing that shall come to
other nations through Israel because they
were Israels friends The blessings of the
church i'm her oneness with Christ are
spoken of as prepared Before the founda
tion of the world (John xvii, "a; | Pet !,
90; Eph. i. -, while the blessings of other
nations through Israel seem 20 be From
the foundation of the world REV. xiii
s; xvii, s. But without pressing this
only ask that you distinguish between the
millennal kingdom of blessing to nations
through Israel and the kingdom of God
the Father 10 follow it.
35, 30 These are good works prepared
for all believers at all times, and there are
always plenty of opportunities for such as
are ready. Even Job testified that he de
livered the poor and the fatherless and
such as had none 20 help
37-3a. We do not need TO keep count of
all the things we do for Him. We only
need to hold ourselves ready for any man
ner of service wholly at His command
ment and just do rs occasion serve us, as
the moments come and go, believing that
He prepares every occasion and notices
whether we are watching His way and
ready for His every call.
40. And the King shall answer and say
unto them, Verify | say unto you, Inas
much rs ye have done it unto one of the
least of these, My brethren, ye have done
ii unto Me Some of us think that we
would have been very glad TO have minis
tered unto Him personally if we had lived
when He was on the earth We would
have followed Him like the true disciples
and have hung upon His words. We
would have ministered unto Him like
those women. and kept open house for
Him, like Martha and Mary Let Us learn
from His own lips in the words of this
verse that whatever is done TO one of His
for loves sake is the same as if done TO
Himself.
Al. "Then shall He say also unto them
on the left hand Depart from Me, ye
cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for
the devil and his angels. He tells what
He Himself will say, for He is the King
and there can be DO mistake about it, and
whosoever would teach that there is no
devil and no everlasting fire is in partner.
ship with the father of lies himself, for nc
Is liar and the father of it (.Iohn viii
44). and began his work by questioning
the word OF God and making God a liar
Notice that this awful place was not pre-
pared for man, but for the devil for God
willeth not the death of "A sinner.
4245 "Inasmuch as ye did it not to
one of the least Of these, ye did it not to
Me. While we are reading, as we believe,
of a judgment of living nations with ref
erence TO their good or bad treatment of
Israel, yet there are principles here which
are always the same At all times il is
true that whatever is done or not done 20
a child of God is looked upon as done or
not done TO Christ Himself The only
way to show love to God is to show love
to preople for Christs sake The only way
10 prove our submission TO God Is by sub
mission TO circumstances and TO people
not only TO the good and gentle, but also
70 the forward Q Pet ii, 49,
46. And these shall go away into ever
lasting punishment, but the righteous into
life eternal The words eternal and ever